MORBID MUCH, AS 2016 STRIKES AGAIN AND OUR HEROES PASS AWAY, JUST WONDERING IF ON INAUGURATION DAY IT BECOMES OFFICIAL ABOUT DEMOCRACY TOO?  

As I still mourn election day, Republicans keep demanding the Democrats accept Donald Trump as our next President. Let's just hope that sentiment dies along with this calendar year

IT WAS BAD ENOUGH when 2016 took Democracy, but now our Princess is gone… man, FU 2016! As this year has unfolded, one-by-one my heroes, the people that influenced me growing up, the talents in literature, films, television and those I've listened to have departed our world I keep saying to myself yet another one. Here's just a partial list, but ones who all had meaning to me.  Prince, Jack Davis, John Glenn, Ron Glass, Florence Henderson, Gwen Ifill, Robert Vaughn, Leonard Cohen, Tammy Grimes, Arnold Palmer, Edward Albee. Seriously read some of these names, Muhammad Ali, Patty Duke, Gene Wilder, George Kennedy, David Bowie, Elie Wiesel, Fritz Weaver, Grant Tinker, Noel Neill, Garry Marshall, Gloria DeHaven, Peter Shaffer, Alan Rickman and yes even Frank Sinatra Jr., look who we lost this year, and scarily its not over yet. My admiration for their talents and gifts will be always treasured by myself and millions of others. I keep saying as they each leave us, what did any of them do to 2016 that made this year so unfeeling to take them away from all of us. Then a day like today occurs, when not one but two of our heroes pass on the same day. Carrie Fisher, the Worlds Princess is now gone, sadly yesterday's news report didn't have a happy ending. And only a few hours later, I heard that the author of Watership Down, Richard Adams had also gone. Both of these passings happened a day after George Michael. All I want to say is, make it stop, please. Thank God we live in an age where these great people's legacies have been captured for posterity. Saved and available for all of us to enjoy from now till our very own passings. But the gifts they still could have given us is are over and makes their loses hurt so much. And this year, with so many punches to the gut, for what reason 2016 feels more like a jolt to the system then most years. As each new name get added to the list, the end of something seems to be in the air. I understand this happens every year, but it feels different this time. Something or someone is trying to tell us something. Without sounding crazy, maybe some one, hint hint,  should investigate if there's a pattern in any of it. I mean, come on, now Carrie Fisher's gone. If there was a time that we ever really needed the Force. Wouldn't you think its that time now?  

It just feels like it keeps getting worse. And what gets me is 2016 began with so much promise. Everything seemed to be going our way. It actually looked like Hillary Clinton was gonna be in the White House, or maybe even Bernie Sanders. Jobs, peace, health care, people's rights, and even the comedy antics of Donald Trump made 2016 a year I thought I was gonna treasure for a long time. But one by one as people passed, as our election seesawed into what it eventually became something began to become apparent. As the reality of what Donald Trump is probably gonna be doing once he gets the keys to the Oval Office sets in, maybe something or someone is trying too give us a heads up. I mean people, somethings gotta be up. What does it have to take to sense a pattern here. Prince, David Bowie and now George Michael all in the same year? I have to say, I find it a little ironic that in a year when Donald Trump is having a hard time finding anyone to perform at his Inauguration many of our favorite talented entertainers won't be able to answer his call. My entire play list of my twenties just waved goodbye. Plus, Carrie Fisher, I had almost gotten over Prince, then Muhammad Ali, Patty Duke, and Gene Wilder, but Carrie Fisher, seriously they all hurt, but its Princess Leia. If there ever was the Force, with what's occurring to our Democracy right in front of our eyes or what could, if the Force actually ever existed, we surely need it now. Cause how do I say this, Donald J. Trump is our very own Death Star, and he and his minions are getting ready to start doing a lot damage, and from the reports in the media, he's already done a little already. So to answer the republicans decisively, about bowing down to his Trumpness, not now, not ever! But I'd gladly accept his resignation, and applaud his incarceration. You had to ask, now about his wife’s papers, ‘his’ pay-to-play scams, his bogus Foundation, his son’s bogus foundation, oh yes, his taxes… So is he still gonna still own the hotel and run the country at the same time, even though that's against the rules? I wrote hold my breath on any of these, and expect that one or more of them might eventually be the reason he is forced out of office. 

Now that I got that out of the way, to actually answer the question, you want me to accept Donald Trump? Easy, clean up your act! End all of the many things that make you unacceptable. Stop lying, stop tweeting and just do the job that a minority of the American people elected you into office to do. Otherwise, all I can do is say, no thanks. I guess I'll become like the sheep were for the last half dozen years or so. I'll throw out insults, argue everything you do is treasonous, and hope you don’t destroy everything along the way. I just wonder, if it comes out that Trump and his Republican menagerie are currently working with the Russians, and that they helped hack the Democrats, that their removal from power comes swifter then this year wants to end. That all, any, or some if really guilty of crimes against the state, that their crimes won't be brushed aside as partisan attacks and actually are treated as the treasonous acts that they are. If Donald's illicit business practises and personal peccadillo's are not, shall we say investigated properly by the media and actually reported correctly by all. If any of its proven criminal, any of it, no matter how small or big, he and they all should get the prison cells they all deserve. And of course If Donald's own pockets are being stuffed with money from lets say the tax payers, congressional actions, or even other nations making international deals which help his corporations. I just hope that if he uses any of his executive power to try to get away with anything, the powers that be slam the book of justice upside Trumps head. 

The one thing nobody discussed before election day was, what if Donald wins? How do we live through four, maybe eight years of not only a Trump presidency, but his surrogates too? The notion of having to listen to any of them continuous for the foreseeable future makes me cringe. The conspiracies, the memorized talking points, the out right lies. All we heard from the media before election day was, that people would go mad because of all the Clinton hearings. The republicans were threatening this as a campaign pitch not to vote for Hillary  As if to save us from that misery, better just to vote for the ass on the right. Save all of us from more of the same. Seriously they argued, how much could we as a nation take? With so many Hillary conspiracies and illegalities, that we all know were true they kept screaming in our ears. The over abundance of them would make people hate politics and destroy their beliefs in Democracy. Funny or is that maddening his issues were never discussed. If they were, nothing seemed to matter to most except for her server and her emails. All that mattered was the bullshit that they had spewed, and nothing that they may or may not have really done. 

Sadly for all the complaining about the troubles that we couldn't stomach anymore, the reality was no one was thinking that he was actually gonna win. It was a forgone conclusion, that our nation was gonna be swamped with Republican obstructionism during Hillary Clinton's tenure so that idea was never discussed. Well all knew that there would be nonstop congressional hearings against Hillary Clinton and anything else that could do to taint her presidency. But no one explained how do would survive his. How many lies would we have to listen to, before the masses stopped believing him at all. Listening to the Trumpeters continue ad nauseam even before Donald's swearing in, as they now demand total obedience, as if they're preparing to take over a Kingdom and their ruler is now the ultimate power. I mean their arrogance during the campaign was pretty obnoxious, but at least they kept their knifes at bay, but now that their king is seemingly days away from his crown, all niceties are off. So as the days count down till this year end, as our heroes seem to be falling like snowflakes in a winter storm, I just hope the storm has passed this year for good. I understand that winter is coming, I've felt it for months. I just wish the harbingers of doom were less unforgiving.

Just one man's opinion

© Neil Feigeles, Neilizms, Tuesday, December 27, 2016