Politics

As I entered the cafe a cat, completely camouflaged crossed my path, calico of course. Speechless, I went inside, got in line where it was impossible to not overhear a conversation well underway. “…it’s a campaign of grievance driven by brainwashing and sleepwalking… how is it not mass psychosis, Nazi Germany in the thirties?”  

I couldn’t tell if the two were a couple or some configuration less tested, but the man spoke with a heft of tone that said, “I know I’ve beaten this drum before.” His partner was sort of drifting off too, looking at me for rescue or corroboration, I couldn’t tell which.

The federal government budget runs out of money January 19th for some programs but the Speaker has not scheduled another meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives until Jan. 16th. https://live.house.gov/ The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on January 16, 2024. The first deadline at midnight on January 19, 2024 includes the following four appropriations areas: Agriculture, Rural Development, etc., … There are rumblings about removing the Republican Speaker if he caves to Democrats.

For a person to propose they are above the law is presumption on a scale that is an affront to all life.  The very notion that any and all acts are beyond recrimination, and perforce exemptible, is a form of hubris that even Greek myths condemn.

Icarus, Narcissus, Sisyphus, the message is the same, think too highly of yourself, pay the price.  But now we’re confronted by a modern configuration so corrupt and decadent that such arrogance might be permitted.

Ours is a culture accustomed to getting away with things.. And not just little slights and nominally exacted tributes; enslavement, forced relocation, ecological devastation, extinctions-there’s barely the nod towards reparation.

House

435 members

Base pay = $174,000 + benefits

Let’s call it $200,000 each including benefits;  Speaker, majority and minority leaders make more.

435 x $200,000 = 87 million

The American legal and political systems are under siege by a large group of people who have created their own world in which lies are accepted as truth. These people have lost any semblance of moral and ethical justice and are acting as would a gang of four year olds in a sandbox battle.

The leader of the sandbox brigade is Donald Trump and his followers, as far as I can tell, have lost the ability to think for themselves and have let a deranged megalomaniac control their lives. I try every day to understand how these people can be considered members of the human community and I am unable to come to any conclusions about what makes them believe that Trump’s lies are the truth.

Then there are the Republicans in Washington who publicly state that Trump did nothing wrong and that all of the indictments are nothing more than a political witch hunt. Many of these people are lawyers and fairly smart individuals but they have abandoned the truth in order to embrace and utilize the power of the Trump base.

I have been trying to understand why so many people seem to believe all of the lies and inaccurate statements that surround Trump and his loyal band of criminals. The only conclusion I could come to is that I don’t have an explanation for this kind of thinking and that it is impossible to explain this mindset in rational terms.

But I have not been satisfied with my conclusions, so I tried to approach this bizarre situation from a different angle. I am now starting to realize that we may be experiencing the largest wave of mental illness that has ever developed in this country.

Hello to everyone out there in Selectboard Land, and a big thank you to everyone supporting my electoral efforts. Thanks in particular to those of you who wrote letters on my behalf, and also to everyone for all the positive comments about my signs. People seem to like them a lot.

One thing I think I should perhaps clarify is that I’m running on my own behalf, not for or against any other individuals. You may have seen my name mentioned as part of a team of candidates, but please be assured that I’m running as an individual and I will maintain my individuality if I am elected. I have no agenda to oust anyone or take over the functioning of the board. I’ll consider items one at a time, on their merits, and I look forward to working with whomever else is elected.