This Time the World

“THIS TIME THE WORLD”

January 6, 2021 may seem like a long time ago, but it is very much with us today–only the danger is now far worse. It was America back then, is it now…this time the world?

It’s the big lie that never ends.

It’s the bloated arrogance that knows no bounds.

It’s the greed and grift — sanctioned in institutionalized stealing — by the rich and most powerful at the endless expense of the working class, so pervasive and jaw-dropping that they don’t bother trying to hide their theft and corruption anymore.

It’s the disdainful disregard of our own history littered with costly failures and painful tragedies so many times before, here and abroad, which might teach us a valuable lesson if we’d only try and learn — yet we never, never, never, never do.

It’s the selective enforcement of law and order, wrapped in the flag and bull-horned by verses in the Bible, at the cost of truth, science, morality, common decency, and the desecration of human freedom.

It’s placing public trust in the most untrustworthy of all of our citizens, despite all their proven misdeeds and crimes that we no longer find shocking, but now have come to expect, and many willingly accept.

Yes. All of it.

Venezuela is the latest sequel to all of this. It’s an ugly chapter of distortion and perversion tucked inside an even more horrific book. Venezuela today. Perhaps soon, so too will be Columbia, the Panama Canal, and Cuba, and Greenland, and even Canada. Perhaps sooner, so too will be our own American cities. Oh wait, that’s already started. Men in masks. Camps hidden in swamps. Who knows where the next poisonous misguided arrow of national mass insanity will land on the world map. Maybe in our own backyards and workplaces.

Until this point in time, I have never used nor liked nor endorsed any of the “Trump is Hitler” comparisons. Doing so trivializes history, and cheapens the suffering of millions before us who deserve remembrance under the weight of their own anguish and agony. Trump is no Hitler. But he certainly *is* the grotesque metastasization of the exact same strain of ideological / political / cultural cancer.

On this date, 1-6-26, an anniversary of the closest America has ever come to having its government toppled in a violent insurrection, let’s go back even further, a generation earlier. In the 1960s, when Trump was squandering his first millions and spawning a sordid life to satisfy every whim of his own narcissism and sick perversions, the most (in)famous far-Right figure in America was a man named George Lincoln Rockwell. Yes, he really was the most extreme national voice of unapologetic patriotism, so-called racial purity, displays of force and militarism, and ultimately global conquest. MAGA-crazed megalomaniacs usually don’t become the leaders of countries, and George Lincoln Rockwell never ran for public office, though he did sell a whole lot of books, appeared on television everywhere, and was even portrayed by Marlon Brando on film. He was the true American Nazi Godfather. (Note: Henry Gibson also portrayed George Lincoln Rockwell in The Blues Brothers)

Back in college, I read this book (checked out from a library–I didn’t buy it). Much like Trump himself and the precise same policies he has unleashed upon us, “This Time the World” was a shocking shiny object you couldn’t peel your eyes from. It was so outrageous, so preposterous, so absurd that no one possibly thought those crackpot ideas could ever gain traction anywhere, let alone become THE OFFICIAL UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT POLICY in the year 2026.

Yet, here we are.

Invading countries. Lying about the reasons. Stealing. Imprisoning. Seeking the next border to cross. Waiting for the next fawning press conference and patriotism parade.

Today Venezuela, next time the world? More like, THIS time the world.

I can’t believe half of this country is so sick and stupid that everything that’s come before us is utterly disregarded. Living in the moment comes at a severe cost. The past is snubbed. The future becomes failure and ignorance, recycled.

[My commentary on the Venezuelan crisis will follow soon in another post.]