The Great Forgetting
I predict they all walk free and we never learn anything else about his tax returns.
A nation of sheep will soon have a government of wolves. - Edward R. Murrow
I’m in too good of a headspace to be grouchy but I just feel the need to reiterate a few items that should remain on the country’s agenda no matter how soon things return to ‘normal’, how efficient the current administration continues to be or how many woke articles are written and published in the all the credible news outlets.
The United States government was attacked—from within—on the 6th of January, 2021.
‘Within’ meaning—within our borders, within our population, within our government and—very likely—within the inner circle of the last president’s chamber. For all we know, the plan was coordinated from the Oval Office. Which, of course, means they were planning to overthrow our government using your tax dollars. All in the name of freedom.
If you believe it was really in the name of your freedom and not an extension of the grift we witnessed the previous four years, I have some seaside property to sell you in Nevada.
We have a former president who had more connections to the mafia—Russian or otherwise—than Al Capone. Those connections can’t be written off to ‘ancient’ history, either.
We have a former president who coddled and cozied up to dictators the world over while—at the same time—snubbed and sneered at our longest held allies. His favorite dictator and mafioso, of course, was Russian.
We have a former president who was so great an outlier and an outlaw he was impeached not once, but twice. One for a mafia-flavored quid pro quo and the other for a failed coup.
We have a former president who—more than likely—purposely bungled the response to the greatest emergency we have faced in most of our lifetimes—all in the name of making more money and profiting off the nation’s misery.
We have a former president who—were it not for being banned by social media—would be infinitely more dangerous than he is at the moment.
None of these are small matters. Almost any single one of these transgressions in another era would have sunk and imprisoned the transgressor. My fear is that no one is going to face consequences of any kind for any of this and we are only going to cause the ‘virus’ to mutate and strengthen—just as it did in Germany a hundred years ago.
Allowing the architects of the war in Iraq to escape punishment was a huge mistake.
Allowing those who planned an attack against our own government to escape punishment will be a fatal error.
I’m skeptical though.
I think the chance of anyone with any public stature facing any significant consequences are the same as any of us ever learning who killed JFK.
Too many people with too much money and power are embroiled and implicated. Just like everything from the Jeffery Epstein case will get buried from public view because too many people with too much money and power are involved. The endgame will be a whimper from the media and, if there are any matters to be decided, they will be decided behind closed doors.
If we are lucky there will be enough adults in the room—who place country over all else—to restore sanity and an uneasy sense of order in exchange for a Great Forgetting. The former president and his coterie of ne’erdowells will walk away unscathed in exchange for his never running for office again.
The hope will be his influence will peter out and no one will ever fully know who all the perpetrators were and how close our country came to being sold down the road. The Bill Barrs and the Rex Tillersons and the Betsy DeVoses will be heartened to know they will be forgotten.
If we are unlucky, it will be a repeat of Neville Chamberlain’s infamous appeasement which decided exactly nothing and kept us on the course of a world wide war and a holocaust. In the event this happens, the former president gets a second shot at burning it all down.
Were I not in a good headspace, I’d be pissed about either outcome.
AAR Steve Laboff tells me that the Prime Video series called Solos is excellent. I told him I didn’t see how it couldn’t be considering it has Helen Mirren, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman starring in it. You might want to give it a look-see.
Also, another AAR, Dallas Silva suggested I download the app BBC Sounds and—if you are fan of the BBC—it is a treasure trove of viewing and listening pleasure.
It’s nice to be able to get out and about more. Reconnect and reengage. A year without the usual human contact felt like a lifetime. As the world keeps opening up, use your best judgment. I’ve noticed that—in Washington anyway—stores are no longer requiring masks for those who are vaccinated. The pandemic has faded so far into the background I don’t even know if that’s state policy now or businesses making their own decisions. Oh, well. Stay safe. Be smart. - JLM