When have we ever seen this country in such a tenuous condition? At different times in past decades, America has been beset with many serious problems but was entirely capable of addressing and solving the majority of them.
But those days are no more. In today’s America, we have a myriad of problems that are not being solved by our totally incompetent, corrupted government; in fact, most of them aren’t even being addressed.
Why is this? The politicians in this Congress now pledge allegiance, not to the Constitution, but to various elements of Corporate America, the NRA, and whoever comes up with the greatest amount of campaign contributions.
So, let’s get right into a discussion of what’s involved with each of these festering problems and how each is affecting this nation.
America, you know, that “exceptional, indispensable nation of the world” has a Congress that has lapsed into a state of dysfunctionality, gridlock, and political paralysis. It might as well go on recess 12 months out of the year.
It can’t get anything done because it continues to allow the archaic filibuster to be the Republicans’ prime obstruction tool.
Democrats can either eliminate or modify it, if they so choose, to get legislation passed But they have that one rogue Senator, Joe Manchin, that refuses to agree to make any change, and thus, he is bringing all the business of the Senate to a standstill.
The deep division between Democrats and Republicans is bad enough but now we are seeing a Democratic Party that also has serious divisions between liberals, progressives, and moderates. They have huge differences relative to very important legislation, in particular about increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Republicans against Democrats, Democrats versus Democrats, what madness. If this nonsense keeps up Biden’s presidency is doomed. By the way, while Biden is doing some good things it appears that he is not pushing hard enough to get important legislation passed.
Pandemic: the biggest problem of all is the Covid-19 virus and the Delta variant that are racing across this country. We have doctors and nurses in hospitals in a growing number of states getting very tired and worn out. In many hospitals, there are little to no ICU beds available.
Why is this situation getting so very bad? Because millions of reckless, shameless Americans are refusing to get vaccinated. How ironic is it when so many of these people become infected with the virus and take up valuable space in hospitals and ICU units? And then they expect these doctors and nurses to take care of them.
They are, in effect, killing themselves and their fellow Americans. When they are encouraged to get a shot many of them say, “Hell No, we have our freedoms to protect.” What to do? I believe we will never solve this problem until most businesses and venues refuse entry to these people; treating them like social rejects.
It was pure stupidity to attack the nation of Afghanistan when 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Why wasn’t Saudi Arabia invaded instead of Afghanistan? Maybe something to do with OIL?
The war mentality, coupled with this nation’s military-industrial complex has resulted in endless war, forever war, or whatever you wish to call it. America has a long history of initiating wars all over the world that have brought great destruction to numerous countries, killed untold numbers of their people, and sent millions into exile.
Massive hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, climate change: America is in the middle of the deadly climate changes that climate scientists have predicted for years and which this country and government have largely ignored.
The big question is: can we as a country finally break the hold that the fossil fuel industry has on this government and institute various new ways to get rid of CO2 and methane emissions and other contaminants? Or will there be no future for our kids and grandkids?
Our democracy is being torn down by Republicans and their leader, Trump, who are in the process of installing numerous methods in various states to suppress voting rights.
Democrats have completely failed to deal with this problem and their voting rights legislation won’t go anywhere because, once more, the filibuster and Joe Manchin/Kristen Sinema, stand in the way. Can some doctor give these two an injection of courage to do what is right?
American violence personified. Question: what other country in the world has more than 400 million guns and other weapons owned by the people of its society, has continuous mass shootings, many in schools, and its government has failed time and again to initiate effective gun controls?
When is the last time that we saw the U.S. Capitol attacked by domestic terrorists? When have we seen groups like QAnon, the Proud Boys, and armed militias become threats to our society? How is America going to stop these terrorist groups that are growing larger all the time?
White supremacists, rampant racism: what an ugly part of America! This problem has always been a part of our country, but in recent years it has reached new heights. We have these radicals that understand that with each passing year, the white population in this country is going down, percentage-wise, while that of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Muslims, and other minorities are rapidly increasing.
They have this massive, increasing concern for their future and it spawns a great deal of fear, hatred, and violence toward other Americans that they consider being a great threat. Who or what in this country is doing anything about it? The Congress?
No one made this country the policeman of the world, we appointed ourselves. It’s painful to read about world polls that indicate that a great many nations of the world consider the U.S. as the greatest threat to peace. That is more than tragic and this condition must be reversed.
The war over abortions. Texas, the land of the control freaks. That’s where those tough Texas guys worked long and hard to do everything they could to destroy Roe v. Wade and prevent abortions. And, the worst part of this is that these misogynists refused to make exceptions for abortions due to rape and incest.
Afghan withdrawal: President Biden is getting a lot of criticism for how he has handled this withdrawal. I would think that bringing an end to a 20 year illegal, immoral, war that never should have started is the right thing to do.
The national media as a whole represent less than objective journalism in this country. A good example is the issue of Trump’s mental condition. The most respected psychiatrists in America have stated that he has very serious mental problems. They, together with their colleague Bandy Lee of Yale University, expressed these great concerns in a book entitled, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”
I hoped we would see some of these psychiatrists given the necessary amount of air time to express these views on news outlets. But, I only saw one of them, Lance Dodes, on the Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC show, a couple of times. This is what I would call a journalistic cover-up.
This media, including left-leaning news outlets, has done a great job of helping Trump to continuously spread his lies about the “stolen election.” Of course, they needed to report what he was saying, but they went way too far, and that has been a great help to this habitual liar. This national media should not act as a mouthpiece for Trump and his lies. Don’t they realize that this is contributing to the erosion of our democracy?
I’m just hearing about a new book, Peril, by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa that tells of the last days of Trump’s presidency when he was doing and saying so many crazy things and making serious threats. General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to take steps behind the scenes to prevent Trump from launching some kind of war, maybe nuclear. We will hear far more in depth in the next few days.
So, with all these problems that are festering and not being solved in America, what is going to happen, what does the future hold for this county? I wish I could be more optimistic but I can’t.
I keep remembering these words about the world’s greatest empires: “All empires end. That is an indisputable fact.” And, “All empires end from within.”
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