I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE BAD BUT HONESTLY ITS ACTUALLY WORSE THEN EVEN I EXPECTED, AND NOW THE TRUMPETERS ARE SIGNALING WAR(S)!  

Oh, about that Yemen debacle, seems their excuses for it are making me think Donald's Congressional hearings are gonna make Hillary's Benghazi 'trials' seem like a walk in the park.  

WASN'T IT JUST WEEKS AGO when living in America felt well kind of wonderful? Even with all its faults and all of the bad things that have recently occurred, even with all the scares that the talking heads keep trying to put into our heads, the feeling of being American, of living my life as a citizen of these United States has always made me feel special. I've never shied away from placing my hand over my heart when we pledged allegiance to the flag. I can't sing to save my life, but when our National Anthem starts playing my insecurities about the quality of my vocal abilities go out the window, and the pride in me can be heard throughout my off key vocals. Knowing how lucky I was to be born here with all those rights has always made me proud. Even with one political party trying to remove practically all of the reasons that our country was great in the first place. That was until our most recent election, when Hillary didn't win and the bottom dropped out from under me and seemingly reality.

Before that unbelievably traumatic day, I honestly hadn't felt this good about our nation since the very early days of the George Walker Bush tenure. Right before that fateful day when the fresh faced President came out and lied to the nation about WMDs and took us into this current never ending war era. Being attacked on 9/11 was one of our nations worst days in its history, right up their with Pearl harbor, but like that hot June day in 1941, when Japan got us to war the nation rallied. Even those who backed Vice President Al Gore felt that patriotism when the worst President our nation has ever seen came out and had the greatest moment of his presidency. Yes worst, its too soon to give that title to DJT, since his actions haven't done any real damage yet, except of course his recent Immigration ban, thats hurt people. And of course the two Americans who died in Yemen, but more about that later. 

Even those who hate the man have to admit what George Walker Bush did will be tough to top. Our little Trumpster hadn't lied us into war, we were attacked and entered it. In the case of 9/11 we all know that GWB lied and pushed us into war, with the wrong nation! Its amazing that even with that, my love of country never faded. It seems many have forgotten what our world was like before GWB, took us into war, how great everything was, even after he became President. Look what President Bill Clinton had accomplished, righting the wrongs that the previous Bush had done and setting on a course for a great future. 

But all that said, throughout the George Walker Bush years, I still had pride in my country, even after Vice President Al Gore's presidency was stolen by the Supreme Court and that fellow named Chad, ruined what could have continued the ride that President Bill Clinton had taken us on. Even then I never had fear for our futures. I never actually believed the person running our nation might is seriously insane as I do now. Whats happening now is something completely different then has ever occurred in our nations history and where that takes us is no place I'd ever want to be. It appears we are being led by a pack of war mongers who want to take us to wars with friends and enemies alike. A group of Muslim haters who want to cram down our throats the worst traits of humanity that one could possibly conceive. Donald is not only packing his cabinet and most trusted advisers with a basket filled with anti-Semitic deplorable bigots, they all simply make up 'alternate' facts to cover up their mistakes, while trying to deflect their latest move to take away peoples rights and tear apart anything else they can think of. Each day another Executive Action is announced, and each day a new protest erupts. Besides taking us into war, at least so far in words, threats and accusations, DJT has seriously been playing Russian Roulette with our nation's future. 

After we survived President George Walker Bush's tenure and as we've lived through the presidency of Barack Obama, that love of country grew even stronger in me, as I watched him do the great things that he did with grace, class and intelligence, seemed to make my love of country grow even more. Watching our nation, overcome the Bush years, and seemingly thrive made me smile whenever I looked at our flag. I noticed when I sang our national anthem, and pledged allegiance to our flag, I've never said it or placed my hand over my heart and recited it with more pride in my life. After 9/11, after the war years began, as our nation seemingly teetered on the age of destruction, my love of country never faltered, not once. But now all of that seemingly is being washed away with a vengeance like we've never seen before.  

Right now one of the only things that are keeping that flame alive for me at the moment are the thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children, of all sizes, shapes, colors and religions, and all sexual orientations, who keep rising up and protesting in numbers which are seriously unprecedented. Each time the Trumpet does his latest outlandish unprecedented action or insults another world leader, or causes an international incident which could eventually lead to a world war I can actually sense a disturbance in the force. I seriously have a bad feeling about this. As every day Donald breaks the rules with his potential earnings since taking over the Oval office, now estimated at a billion dollars, and I can't believe that any of it is being allowed! Especially after the witch hunt they pulled with Hillary Clinton. We watch disbelievingly as the Republicans sit back quietly or worse relish in Donny's insanity while they get seemingly everything they've ever dreamed of. Some come out and act disturbed or even upset, but when it counts they all fall in line and fall all over themselves as they go about destroying pretty much everything about our world that has evolved over the last hundred years. I mean look at Trump's nominee's and they still are all voting them in one by one, except sometimes one or two. 

All that said, the pride I feel with each new protest gives me hope, that something great can come out something so dreadful. That what seemed lost, actually might be the beginning of the next stage in our nations future and not the last days of life on planet Earth, which is how I've been feeling lately. The other day on Facebook I actually wrote that I was ashamed of America. I was embarrassed that this man was our President. Of what we did to our selves. After I wrote the words it felt like I had been punched in the gut, and then the bomb dropped and what has been a really bad month, turned into something that I still can't believe. Seems out left field we just might have a crisis brewing that isn't located in Washington, but could be a result of all the crazy speak by Trump. Like maybe we're just gonna "steal" Iraq's oil like we should've the last time we had the chance to. Well maybe its just a coincidence or bad timing, but now Iran is playing games and has been put "on notice" by Donald. for their surprise missile test a few days back. To add fuel to the fire, during a conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Donald threatened to send American troops into Mexican to clean up all the "bad hombres" in their country. No really. Plus on a separate phone call, Trumpet insulted Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister of Australia possibly destroying the special relationship that our nations have shared for decades.

They say it doesn't really matter who sits in that powerful chair. Really? Well when a President tells the Republican congress to take the nuclear option, if the Democrats try to filibuster his Supreme Court Nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and then the Majority, led by Orrin Hatch, actually used the nuclear option on a number of Trump cabinet nominees including Steve Mnuchin and Tom Price, playing games, and the Republicans all voted them in. I understand that most politicians vote down their party line, I get that. But come on, look at the nominees, can I get a WTF! Which of course means that from now till DJT leaves the White House for the last time, or if the Democrats take back the majority in the House and Senate, the Republicans will jam every bill they allow to be voted on. Every time the Democrats try to put a bill up to stop anything the majority Republicans shut them down. I mean what does Trump have to do to be taken down? This could get very scary. I see many years of legal battles to come with many of DJT's Executive actions and well as the bills they get jammed through.

The other day I was speaking to a friend who while not a fan of Donald Trump didn't think Hillary Clinton should be President either. This friend throughout the campaign tried to wake me up to the reality of what he saw out there, how I was the one in the bubble of disbelief of this Donald Trump phenomenon, and he predicted that DJT was gonna win. Well, while we were 'hanging' he took out a list that the papers showcased of the Executive Actions that the President has done in his brief time in office, and explained why the majority of the items were actually a good thing. He described each action in terms that made them sound good. Making me sit back and take a different look at what I consider the beginnings of the of our democracy. I tried to argue back about the consequences of his actions, that if he really looked at the whole story behind each one, not just the talking point. But he pushed back and explained that if you looked at the actions with the eye of a businessman, DJT's decisions have actually been a positive. I must admit, that sometimes when I listen to the Trumpeters logic, it does make sense, sometimes at first. Once in a while I go, hm, but usually when or if it make you go, well that actually makes sense, eventually or almost immediately you realize that it's just another bold faced lie told straight to our faces. 

When you listen to the talking heads argue their alternative facts, the maddening thing about them is, no matter what you throw at them, no matter the facts, the proof, the video, they always come up with something that works their narrative. Some talking point that defeats reality or at least makes his followers drool at their latest savior sent down by the big guy in t he sky or on that Cross. Kellyanne Conway's outrageous lie about the Bowling Massacre, imagine creating a terrorist attack out of her ass to deflect a story, or better yet her greatest blunder, those pesky 'Alternative Facts' that has become the tagline of Trumps entire political career. These liars will say anything to brush back against their most egregious actions. The highlight of the week for me with Kellyanne was when the Trumpeters tried to book her on CNN, to help defuse her alternative lie, and CNN said no. Yes! I mean after what he's pulled during the campaign, and especially at Trump's first Press conference, when he went off on CNN as "fake News". I so wish Jim Acosta of CNN had stood up and made some kind of statement, or simply walked out right then and there, instead of practically begging for a chance at the party. But at least its a start. Another little something that gives me hope that this cloud will be lifted, and believe me, right now I'll take anything, no matter how small it is. 

In a strange twist, it feels a little like we are living in the latest season of The Walking Dead. I know, huh? What I mean, and sorry if I spoil it to those out there who haven't been keeping up with the few remaining members of society who seem to have humanity left in them. Well the main characters have been going through Hell, much as our nation has. In a lot of ways I feel we as a country have been the victim of Negan's favorite weapon of choice, Lucille his trusty barbed wired baseball bat. Without giving anything else away, at the climax of the first half, hope appears to be on the horizon. That even with all the bad that has recently occurred, there's a probability that Rick and his fellow survivors will prevail.

Now about Yemen, it appears the Yemen military action could be the thing that finally gets the world to say enough is enough. I know I keep writing that here, one can hope right? It appears that the botched military strike, which killed two Americans, including an eight-year-old girl, might've been done for personal financial gain. And to top it off as proof that the mission was a success, they put out a video showcasing it. But as usual with the Trumpeters, theirs a major screw-up, as the video they released was already available on YouTube and was actually from an incident ten years a go. When that revelation came out, the excuse was well that that didn't matter, the same people were involved so what if the video showcased an entirely different incident. What? Talking about killing my buzz! Talk about this era's version of WMDs. As this theory suggested, the plan was to clean up the area, so that Yemen would succumb to Donald's whims, cause you see Donald has lots of plans to build lots of expensive skyscrapers in Yemen. Which means Trump will make even more money from the businesses that he isn't supposed to have anything to do with, or profit from, or anything. The sad fact, that this farfetched theory with everything we've seen so far, seems more probable then Donald's winning the Presidency. But with every thing with DJT I'll believe nothing till the man's actually gonna face the music. But I think this time, after what we've all been though, this time, the people will stop it, peacefully or forcefully. Wouldn't that be something, a coup, the people rising up and removing the monster in the Capital. Oh well, that fairy tale is really for another day. 

Just one man's opinion

© Neil Feigeles, Neilizms, Monday, February 6, 2017