America's Democracy is Failing... Why We Can't Afford to Look Away!

Guest Post by Michael James:

OK, HELLO WORLD...

 

For most of my adult life, I worked as a journalist in this country and credibly, factually, told the public thousands of stories at the Detroit News, New York Daily News and as head writer for a TV show on ESPN. None of the stories I have ever written is more important than the one I am writing now.

 

If you will indulge me a lack of brevity this one time, I will explain.

 

It begins with the three times I realized that the safety and security we so prize here in the United States of America is an illusion. It's not and never was true. It doesn't exist. We only believed it did.

 

The first time I realized it was in the aftermath of 9/11. After I witnessed the World Trade Center towers crumble before my eyes little more than a mile from my New York City apartment, authorities posted police with automatic weapons and huge American flags at the entrance to every bridge and tunnel in the city.

 

We felt safe seeing those images, but each time I ventured through those tunnels and over those bridges, I had a question:

 

"What's stopping that truck in front of me from being laden down with fertilizer and explosives? Who knows what's in the trunk of every car in front and back of me?"

 

We weren't safe at all. Terrorists just didn't decide to blow us all to hell.

 

The second time I realized there is no such thing as safety and security came when Donald Trump promised building a wall at the Southern border to keep illegals out.

 

I thought, "Mexicans are renowned for building tunnels from Mexico directly to homes on the U.S. side in Texas and California to smuggle in people and drugs. How can a wall prevent that?"

 

A wall could not make us safe at all. We only believed it could.

 

The third time I realized safety and security is an illusion was on January 6th, 2021, when Donald Trump's MAGA supporters overran the United States Capitol - the seat of power of the US government - injuring law enforcement officers and defacing the offices of cowering, terrified duly elected lawmakers.

 

The ease with which they penetrated our most sacred symbols of the rule of law and order in America showed me that if this could be done by only a few thousand mostly-unarmed citizens, there really is no such thing as safety and security in this country.

 

We only believed there was.

 

The final time I realized there is no safety and security in the United States of America has come in the last three weeks, or rather, since Donald Trump returned to The White House.

 

Under the guise of weeding out corruption and with South African-born Elon Musk as the tip of the spear, Donald Trump and his Republican confederates have turned every facet of American government upside down, installed inexperienced and unqualified loyalists in positions of power in every sector of government and thrown thousands of hard-working Americans - many of whom voted for him - out into the streets.

 

While stunned, outnumbered Democrats were frozen to inaction, Trump, through executive order, made laws, changed laws and ignored orders from courts to stop in his tracks.

 

While those of us who opposed him screamed that his actions and those of Elon Musk were tantamount to creating a fascist government and a dictatorship, we were only partially right.

 

See, people, Trump's dictatorship has already begun. It is HERE. It is NOW.

 

For those who don't believe this is true, what we all missed while focusing on the flood of executive orders and bizarre musings of taking over the Gaza Strip, annexing Canada as the 51st state against their will, purchasing Greenland to rename it Red, White and Blueland and taking over the Panama Canal is this:

 

Trump was merely testing the waters to see how much power and authority he truly had. The final step in his plan will be to ignore any and all court challenges aimed at stopping him.

 

What should be clear to you now is that there was really only one barrier to Donald Trump taking over this country and remaking it in his image:

 

The fact that the only thing that has kept our democracy in place since it was written in 1787 is a piece of paper called the U.S. constitution.

 

That constitution only works if our politicians RESPECT the power within, the rule of law.

 

Donald Trump clearly does not respect the constitution - in contrast to all the other United States presidents before him.

 

Worse, without respect for the constitution and our laws, THERE IS NO AUTHORITY LEFT TO STOP HIM.

 

There is no police force who can reign Trump in.

 

There is no military to reign Trump in.

 

There are no lawmakers or judges to reign Trump in.

 

And soon, as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer declared recently during a speech at Miami Dade College, Donald Trump will refuse to comply with all orders of the court - and his takeover will be complete - for there is no authority remaining to police him.

 

Like Sotomayer, the American Bar Association just released a statement declaring that, “Trump is not following the rule of law.”

 

Now, the reason why the ABA sounds like a kid screaming, “Charlie hit me!” is because they’ve reached the conclusion that there is nothing they can do about Trump not following the rule of law. This has never happened before in the history of this country, but it IS happening now.

 

Hey, America, hey World, you can call it a monarchy, or fascism or a totalitarian government or a dictatorship, but whatever you call it, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the law of the land now.

 

Don't believe me?

 

The 1,500 January 6th rioters who were tried and convicted in federal courts?

 

Trump freed them. On Day 1.

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was brought up on corruption charges after a decade-long investigation?

 

He cozied up to Trump, who order his Department of Justice to drop the charges.

 

If that's not enough, I think Donald Trump has one more trick up his sleeve, as I predict he is being lobbied at this very moment to grant clemency to an old friend who has been accused of pedophilia, drugging and raping male and female victims, physically assaulting others and possibly sanctioning numerous murders over the past 30 years.

 

So what, pray tell, will you say when Donald Trump pardons Sean Diddy Combs?

 

The lyrics to that song you sang in grade school has changed, folks:

 

This land is NOT your land.

This land is NOT my land.

NOT from California.

NOT to the New York Islands.

NOT from the Redwood Forest

NOR to the Gulf of America waters

This land belongs to Trump and E.

 

In less than a month back in office, all of the checks and balances have been removed. Republicans control the house and the senate. Every cabinet pick Trump proposes will be confirmed. No decision he makes, whether it's instructing the Treasury Department to stop making the penny or bringing back the plastic straw, is being denied.

 

While his supporters cheer his every move, they have yet to see the cost cuts Elon Musk and his team of hackers make under cover of darkness are hurting American farmers, American workers and those in the poorest red states in the country who voted for him.

 

For them, and us, it's already too late to realize it's too late.

 

If you saw Musk recently in the oval office with his young son holding court while Trump sat idly by, you should have realized the richest man in the world controls the supposed most powerful man in the world.

 

Only Elon Musk is holding Elon Musk accountable and Trump - who is likely paying Musk back for whatever he did to help him take the 2024 election - is allowing it to happen.

 

As you read these words, it is likely that Elon Musk has already had his hackers place back doors into every major computer system across the US government, which gives him the power to shut down any program he chooses at any time on an app while sitting in the driver's seat of his Tesla.

 

For those in the back or in the nosebleed section or under a rock, let me say it again:

 

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are the law of the land. Today. Right now.

 

The United States of America is no longer a democracy. We are now a dictatorship.

 

In closing, let me say that I don't believe in presenting problems without offering solutions. There IS something we can do to fight this takeover and resist this bloodless coup that has stripped away the sense of freedom we have known all of our lives - but it will require of us a resolve and action most of us have never known or shown.

 

It will require us to unite, fight, stand up, risk our lives and our liberty - because one thing dictators have never fully understood is that THE PEOPLE truly are the power.

 

Think of it this way: if we don't want the price of an automobile in America to be $50,000, well, if nobody buys those cars, there won't be a $50,000 car in America.

 

With that in mind, should Elon Musk and Donald Trump try to dump hundreds of thousands of federal employees out into the streets, simply refuse to leave. If forced from your offices, show up to work en masse the next day - and every day after - and make sure NOBODY goes into those offices.

 

If Trump's new Department of Defense head Pete Hegseth makes a demand of the 3.5 million workers he now oversees, what can he possibly do if they disobey in the name of American democracy?

 

The same goes for new national security director Tulsi Gabbard, who has never worked in security or run a department of ANY kind. The same goes for new secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - or any other Trump appointee.

 

None of these figureheads - not even Trump himself - can do anything without our complicity.

 

Lastly, this battle is only just beginning. You must protect your physical and mental well-being.

 

You don't have the time or energy to fight meaningless squabbles on social media against Trump's MAGA sycophants who believe every narrative they sell.

 

No matter if they are friends or family or casual acquaintances on social media, SILENCE THEIR VOICES and influence. Block, snooze, delete or ignore them.

 

For me, the purge begins TODAY! I’d love to tell the people going away that it isn’t personal, but their blind belief system is a direct threat to me, my friends, family, neighbors, fellow Americans, Canadians, Palestinians, and, well, you get the picture.

 

Trust what your eyes and ears are telling you. Hope that they will catch up and join our fight against this power virus threatening our country and the world.

 

Lastly, remember the words of philosopher Bertrand Russell, who said roughly this of how fascism begins:

 

"First they fascinate the fools. Then they muzzle the intelligent."

 

If you've gotten this far, it's because you're not a fool.

 

We got here because all of our lives we believed in that concept devised by our founding fathers of "We The People."

 

Well, the only way out from under the megalomania of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their collaborators is to make every day January 6th.

 

If you feel so moved, please share my post. If not, please act in some way. We need all hands on deck.

 

If we want our democracy back, starting today, starting now, we must "BE THE PEOPLE."

Move to Canada!

 We had a reader send in this question for the answer man:

Would you move to Canada from the United States?

AN American curmudgeon answered:

If not for my wife adamantly refusing to go? I’d have left for Canada no later than November 2016!  (Trump!)

Why? My list is too long to put here, but I’ll just cite the top five…

Here in the U.S., should I suffer an arrest, I’ve the right to an attorney. If however I suffer a cardiac arrest? I’m financially ruined. Despite having health insurance, the monthly premiums for which exceed my mortgage payment by 35%. My last hospital visit (2021), comprising a four hour ER stay, a few tests, but no admission, generated a bill for $6,200 beyond what my insurance covered. In Canada, meanwhile, my tax dollars would be used toward a national health care system that would’ve greatly reduced if not eliminated that liability. Instead of worrying about particular doctors being on my insurance plan? I could see whomever I chose. I’d not have avoided seeking emergency care for months while my wife begged me to go; and I’m pretty certain I’d have spent less on a trip to the ER than I did my first car.

Here in the U.S., when we err by electing the bad (1976, ‘80, ‘84), the hopeless (2000, ‘04), or even the utterly batshit insane (2016) as a national leader? We’re stuck with them for four years unless someone takes one for the national team and etches their name into infamy by killing them. In Canada, meanwhile, during my lifetime there’ve been 3 instances where an incompetent or unpopular Prime Minister has been shown the door within a year of taking office. There, MP’s are held directly accountable by the electorate, with no seat truly in the stranglehold of one of its six major parties. Here, we literally tailor electoral districts to elect politicians rather than tailor the politicians to the people of the district.

Here in the U.S., there is a very vocal, very xenophobic group of people who if given the means would stand at the Mexican border and shoot dead anyone who dared try to cross it. In Canada, meanwhile, one in five Canadians is an immigrant, and they’re comparatively welcomed with open arms. Being multicultural is a feature, not a bug. Canada gets that.

Here in the U.S., we are paranoid as a society. Crime is allegedly rampant. We’re on the brink of destruction from the Chinese. Your neighbor could be a cross-dressing interracial pedophile. Despite actual crime being about half of what it was fifty years ago and violent crime down two thirds? We see fit to have our police are better armed than most nation’s militaries. In Canada, meanwhile, at least in rural areas house doors tend to remain unlocked. China’s seen in proper context and not some global bogeyman. Police possess common sense. Crime exists, but the people aren’t constantly fearing for their safety. Oh, and… people aren’t massacred in public settings on a regular basis.

Finally… have you ever met a Canadian? Unless you’re disparaging a Labatt or Molson, or claiming hockey’s a sport for wussies? Odds are, you’ll have a nice, civil encounter. By contrast, there are significant swaths of Americans who simply can’t resist injecting their religion, politics, or narcissism into a discussion within 5 minutes of meeting you. Canadians are, by far, better people to be in the presence of.

Had I my life to re-live? I’d have crossed the Peace Bridge at 18, and I’d have stayed there. While I’ve done far better than most Americans, I’d be exponentially better off had I gone to Canada; and if someone came to me with an offer to buy my business and properties at anything close to their fair market value… and I could somehow be assured permanent Canadian residence? Wife or not, anyone searching for me would likely only see a vapor trail heading north instead.

The American Curmudgeon!

THANK YOU AMERICA!

Sitting up here in the "Great White North" I can ruminate about how the United States has been a never-ending source of amusement for the past eight years... and it doesn't show any sign of letting up in the foreseeable future!

This picture is one of the best examples of what we are subjected to for all hours of the night and day!

An even better example is what Robin Williams said about Canada a few years ago! 

"Canada is a nice, warm, cozy and safe apartment that's situated above a METH-LAB!!!!

Saturday Morning Confusion: Why did William Bryan film the killing of Ahmaud Arbery?

Allan: 

When I lived in Georgia, this was the mindset I saw over and over and over and over and over again.

It’s hard for people who live outside the United States to grasp, and to a lesser extent hard for people who live outside the Deep South to grasp, the extent to which many American conservatives live in fear. 

I never really wrapped my head around it until I lived outside of the US.

Many American conservatives, especially in the South, truly, honestly believe—the way normal people believe the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening—they are beset on all sides by the forces of darkness, and it is absolutely inevitable that one day soon they will need to grab their guns to defend their homes and families from rampaging home invaders hell-bent on murdering everything they love.

It’s a bunker mentality you rarely see outside of war zones, yet it’s a pervasive part of American culture, to such a degree Americans are a bit like fish living in water—to the fish, the water is invisible. When you live in that environment, it’s hard to see. You don’t really appreciate how pervasive it is until you spend time living in a place where people don’t think that way.

What’s more, they see themselves as Big Damn Heroes.

The American monomyth is all about the rugged hero taking up arms to defend all that is righteous in a savage blaze of violence.

Terrible trigger discipline here, by the way.

This is how they saw themselves.

This was their moment. This was their time to be heroes. This was what they’d always known would happen: that instant when they would be called upon to become the avatars of John Wayne, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood.

This was their time to shine.

Of course they recorded it. Who wouldn’t want to record the act of heroism that would cement you as one of those men willing to take up arms against the rising tide of lawlessness and chaos? I mean, duh!

This monomyth is so deeply woven into the fabric of American society that from the outside, it can seem not only bizarre but completely alien.

I’ve had conversations with folks in Canada and England who struggle to comprehend something so weird and bizarre, but for Americans? The idea that any minute now, thugs will come crashing through the door, the police will be utterly powerless, and only the manly he-man of manly manliness will be able to save the day is normal.

I’ve known folks in Georgia and Florida who talk about it with a gleam in their eye. Not only do they believe this will happen, they’re looking forward to it..........

What region in Canada is the equivalent of the Southern United States?

 Allan:

There are some micro-parallels between Canada and the US:

Toronto is the closest thing to Canada’s version of New York City. Yonge & Dundas is the closest thing that Canada has to Times Square.

Vancouver is Canada’s version of San Francisco

Calgary is Canada’s version of Houston (or Dallas).

But there is no parallel with the US Deep South. 

There is racism in Canada which is directly proportional to the systemic influence of Christianity in each respective area. It exists yes, but there is an order of magnitude difference in the respective influence on the surrounding cultures.

There has also never been a civil war in Canada…..ultimately for the same reasons. There has never been an organized terrorist entity such as the KKK in Canada. Some might argue there is a parallel with the FLQ, but that was not based on race, and it can be argued the FLQ was a carry-over from hundreds of years of political conflict between the English and French, even though ironically, the one group of people who are more intolerant of the Quebecois today than the English, are the French (of 🇫🇷). Life is stranger than fiction.

The two countries have parallel histories with European settlers displacing native people, and both countries have blood on their hands; however, again there is an order of magnitude difference in the atrocities that were committed.

Slaves fled the US to come to Canada. There is no region of Canada that actually believes visible minorities should be slaves.

Dwight Yokam

With friends like these........

 Donald J. Drumpf is rapidly going down the drain and the logical conclusion for all this bullshit and confusion ends up with 'The Donald" in jail...... AND BROKE!

So far we have compiled a partial list of groups, organizations, corporations and individuals who will no longer contribute, sponsor, advertise with or use the facilities of the Trump Organization:

3M, Air BnB, American Express, A T & T, Bank of America, Blue Cros/Blue Shield, B.P., Coca Cola, Deloitte, Facebook, Ford Motor Co., Hilton, Digital, Citibank, Charles Swab, Comcast, Conoco, Deutschebank, Dow Chemical, Exxon, G.M., Goldman Sachs, H. & R. Block, Hallmark, Intel, J.P. Morgan, Mariotte, Master Card, McDonald's, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Shopify, Visa, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble, P.G.A. of America!

I'm sure there are others..., but this will do for today!

The Way I see it anyway!

How I came to Canada

 This story was told to me by my mother many years after my father had died and it helped me to understand what sort of a man he was.

During WW11 my father was in the Wehrmacht (German Army) and one day the hill he was on was being assaulted by some American troops. The commanding officer ordered his troops to shoot the Americans as they came up the hill but my dad figured this was no more than outright murder so he refused. (He was a telegraph operator and only carried a sidearm... plus he had never shot anyone in his life.)

Dad could have been shot on the spot for this but instead, his commander decided to send him on a suicide mission the next day and let that take care of the problem.

After he was out of sight of his unit he started hiding behind every tree and in every ditch until he made his was to the edge of one of the enemy units which happened to be a Canadian company.

He immediately surrendered!

After a year in a POW camp, dad spent the rest of the war as a driver and translator for one of the officers and when the war was over he immediately applied to emigrate to North America since Germany was in ruins.

The waiting list for the States was too long so he put down our name for Canada and then got us on one of the first immigrant ships coming over here. 

On a side note: He originally wanted to go to the States because he had an uncle in Iowa, but since we went to Canada that was no longer possible.  

All in all, it's a good thing we did go to Canada because if we had ended up being American, I would have been a Canadian by about 1969 anyway! (Vietnam)

The way I see it!

A Sign of the Times!

 

Why is the US-Canada border so strict?

 Allan:

I am a Canadian married to a British citizen. My wife has a UK passport. In 2012 (the last time we visited the USA) we were crossing the border at Niagara Falls into New York. 

My wife, being British, had to go to the US Immigration hut for processing into the US. 

Whilst sitting in a hot, stuffy (in January, no doubt!) building for a very long time, my wife needed to get some air. She stepped outside the doors and stood there within view of the interior. 

Shortly afterwards, a US Homeland Security goon came up to her from the exterior with his gun in his hand yelling at her to get back inside. 

I suppose there must be a lot of middle-aged female British terrorists just itching to walk into Amurica from Canada by surrendering their passports to US Immigration. 

We decided at that moment we were not going to spend any of our hard-earned money in the US again.

Stu Pidasso

What makes America incompatible with Canada?

 Allan:

Last week you asked if there ever could be  a merger of Canada and the United States.

Even if Canada asked to be annexed and agreed to live under the US Constitution, (?) it wouldn't happen.

Republicans would never allow it!

By allowing that many Canadians to become US citizens, they would be locking themselves out of the presidency in perpetuity. 

Habib Fenny.

What reasons would a Canadian have NOT to move to the USA?

 Allan:

I grew up in the US, but have lived the majority of my adult life in Canada. I would never move back to live. Why?

• Health Care. This is a biggie. I was unexpectedly hospitalized a few years ago. I was joking around with one of my nurses when I was close to being discharged and she told me if I still lived in the US, I would have hit my lifetime million dollar mark on most insurance plans - no more coverage for me! Plus my reconstructive surgeries most likely wouldn’t have been covered. Nor the drugs I needed there and when I left the hospital. I have no interest in sudden bankruptcy over an unexpected illness. You don’t pay deductibles. You don’t pay overages or for things your doctor things you need that a bureaucrat in an insurance office doesn’t agree with. You pay less per capita for everyone here to have insurance than people in the US pay on their taxes just to take care of people on Medicare and Medicaid.
• Freedom. Yep, I feel freer here in Canada. I’m not afraid of people with guns. I’m not afraid of being mugged walking down the street (Granted, I grew up in Chicago which is a more dangerous part of the US). I’ve never had terrible stuff shouted at me while walking down the street, either because of being a female human or being overweight (both of which happened to me often in the US).
• Bootstrapping. This is what I call the attitude in the US of everyone wanting to look out for their own interests instead of one another. Welfare? Equally funded schools? And going back to my first point, health care for everyone? Those are second nature here. People don’t think their neighbors are worth less than them just because they have less money, a different religion or culture, or immigrated from elsewhere.
• Worker’s Rights. You get paid vacation here. You get paid maternity leave here. You get paid sick days here. It doesn’t depend on your employer. You just get it. Worker’s rights are taken much more seriously here than in the US. You don’t have to fight your employer or the government, because you know you’re being looked after. Retail worker being asked to work on a stat holiday? (Oh yeah, those don’t exist in the US either!) You get extra pay! Because here, people look out for each other.
• Prejudice. There’s still prejudice in Canada - don’t get me wrong - especially against our First Nations people. But there is significantly less of it here, and in general, it is expressed with less hatred and violence.
• Crime. Surely you’ve seen the viral story
   about the grocery store in Canada that was accidentally left unlocked on a holiday weekend and nothing was stolen.
• RCMP. They’re really nice. So are city police services. And I’m not just saying that because I have a boatload of white privilege (though I do, and acknowledge that!). I’ve been able to observe them in action with my friends of colour here and in the states and the difference is definitely remarkable.
• Politeness. This is such a cliche, but you know, cliches often have a basis in reality! People are just nicer - kinder - to one another here. I spent some time living in the US south where people are polite on the surface, but there’s an amazing amount of simmering rage beneath. Here, people are polite on the surface, and there’s an amazing amount of simmering kindness underneath. I once spent several minutes at the grocery store saying “You go ahead. No you go ahead” over the small single cart ramp off the curb when a lady was trying to go up to return her cart to the store while I was trying to go down to get to my car with my groceries. We both ended up laughing over it, exchanging names, discovering we had a mutual friend… that’s how things go here.

Katie Kenig

To the Moon Alice, to the Moon!

 

Why isn’t Canada as respected as the USA?

Allan: 

“Why isn’t Canada as respected worldwide as the USA?” Signed: An American in Europe.

Answer:

I think you have your wires crossed on this one Mr. Red White and Blue!

There are plenty of stories of tourists in other countries wearing Canadian flags or maple leafs to avoid being mistaken for Americans. (And that includes Americans wearing Canadian flags!)

Canadians tend to be welcomed more worldwide, while all too many Americans behave badly when visiting other countries. (They didn't come up with the expression "The Ugly American" for no reason kids!)

The way I see it anyway!