evil times

"It is hard to think of any president in the past 230 years, including Nixon, who has ever sabotaged the rule of law so flagrantly or so successfully to protect his own hide. And, sadly, it is hard to imagine that anything can be done about it before Nov. 3, 2020. . . . .So for the next 18 months, at a minimum, this nation is at the mercy of a criminal administration. I am in despair as I have never been before about the future of our experiment in self-rule. Before Mueller filed his report, it was possible to imagine the president being brought to justice. That fantasy is no longer tenable. Instead we are left with the dismaying likelihood that the president will now feel emboldened to commit ever greater transgressions to hold onto power — and thus delay a possible post-presidential indictment."

that's max boot, once a stalwart conservative voice — but i think a lot of us feel what he's writing these days — especially since we have some perfectly serviceable articles of impeachment already compiled —

That said Andrew Johnson. President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and proprieties thereof . . . [in order] to excite the odium and resentment of all the good people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and constitutionally enacted . . . [did] openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of the United States convened . . .to meet and receive said Andrew Johnson as the Chef Magistrate of the United States, did . . . on divers other days and times, as well before as afterward, make and deliver with a loud voice certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and within hearing . . .

PITY THE NATION

(After Khalil Gibran)

Pity the nation whose people are sheep

And whose shepherds mislead them

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars

Whose sages are silenced

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerers

And acclaim the bully as hero

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture

Pity the nation that knows

No other language but its own

And no other culture but its own

Pity the nation whose breath is money

And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed

Pity the nation oh pity the people

who allow their rights to  erode

and their freedoms to be washed away

My country, tears of thee

Sweet land of liberty!

ferlinghetti wrote that in 2007

soul-crushing" is an over-used term, but applicable to these times—i am glad for the flowers and the guys to help me sorta keep things in perspective—i miss john a lot

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 1:9