A chance for something better
PLUS: How much blame do Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz deserve for breaking the GOP?
I’ve had a couple of conversations over the last couple of days that I really enjoyed because of their depth and thoughtfulness.
One was with a father who is pushing 40, and is worried that the chaos we see is the precursor to a darkness that may not be stoppable. It was jarring. He was as deeply thoughtful as a person could be, and also honorable, ethical and decent. He was the first person who posited a convincing case that it is already too late to stop the coming catastrophe that has truly rattled me over the last seven years.
This newsletter is called The Warning. Often I write about subjects that have some dissonance from our brand because I don’t want to be a Cassandra in a desperate and angry hour. Last night, when thinking about what to write, I looked back over previous essays and stopped on this one:
I wrote this essay 266 days ago.
The world stands at the edge of fantastical violence between the world’s greatest powers in the world’s most volatile region.
Twenty-first century war between the world’s greatest powers will be fought over long distances and close quarters, and has the potential to kill tens of millions of people.
The American who spoke first on the day that the Japanese Empire formally surrendered wasn’t the President Harry Truman. It was General MacArthur.
I’ve written previously about what he said because they may be some of the most profound words about life, death and war that have ever been spoken. Read them again. What I fear the most is that we have forgotten them, and because we have, we are moving towards an abyss.
Remember, Benjamin Netanyahu is absolutely responsible for the chaos, dysfunction, corruption and extremism that divided Israeli society and lured evil towards them. Hamas attacked Israel because it thought a divided Israel was weak. The result of the terror and murder will be a war aimed at destroying Hamas that could quickly escalate. Chinese, Russian, American and British Naval task forces are all present in the area. Iranian proxy missives are flying overhead. The Middle East is California on a dry and windy day in late autumn. It is ready to burst into flames. When fires burn out of control it is impossible to predict when they will extinguish. Everything is connected. There are always consequences.
The consequences at hand are global rage and instability. The antisemitism at hand is shocking, but not surprising. Like always, millions of Arabs and Palestinians are being stigmatized as terrorists because they simply live, breathe and suffer. At hand is an epic humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a war that cannot be stopped until Hamas is destroyed or neutered for a lifetime. Suffering, cruelty, death and inhumanity are the fruits of war, and the truth is that there has always been war — and there likely always will be. Humans can’t stop killing and hating as much as they can’t stop dreaming and loving. Perhaps the best understanding of this moral conundrum was captured by Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address:
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!’ If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
The conclusion of Lincoln’s speech contains in my view some of the most beautiful spoken words in American history. He did not call for retribution. He did not call for revenge. Instead, he sounded a trumpet for reconciliation and renewal. From death and war came a vision for peace and hope.
With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
The war Israel will fight like all wars will end. When it dies the world must seize the quiet hours for the establishment of an enduring peace where all people in the cradle of civilization can live, worship and pursue happiness in the full sunshine of God’s love. America has a role to play in this that is very important. We must insist when this war ends that the Palestinian people have hope. They must have a homeland that is not a prison imposed by terrorists who seek to destroy Jews rather than build hope, joy and love for their children.
After the horror to come, there will be a chance for something better. It should be seized. It must be.
How much blame do Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz deserve for breaking the GOP?
If you didn’t get a chance to read my essay from yesterday, check out my video commentary:
I'm a paid subscriber and generally appreciate Steve's unflinching take on politics, and the bald-faced evil now catching fire everywhere. But I'm not buying any of this religious claptrap now deployed to obscure our understanding or response to our current state of crisis. There is no God, and in fact "God" is a huge part of the problem. I'm not willing to clench my jaw anymore & just endure this ridiculous superstition anymore just to be polite.
As we have been saying — the signs of this emerging World War are nearly as obvious as a rising sun. There have been too many wannabe strongmen, true dictators and hate mongers sprinkled in positions of power throughout the world. This rancid mix has been brewing the shit storm the world is about to endure for quite a while.
Nearly the entire republican party (90%) in the United States — which culminated in America's own Hitlarian wannabe dictator who has done 4 years of horrific damage to the nation and world, and continues to damage it as he is being kept on the stage and being protected and facilitated by the republican party.
Divisive and horrific "leadership" by the Israeli leader for a very long time; while I support what Israel is doing in defense of itself make no mistake that BiBi should be sharing a prison cell with the American Orange Adolf.
In Iran we went from having an accord to end their nuclear weapon production to Orange Adolf destroying that deal with the help of republicans. If the primary beneficiary of the deal with Iran to NOT build nuclear weapons was the World at large, the direct beneficiary was Israel. Iran would like nothing more than to erase Israel from the map and this deal helped to prevent that. Republicans screaming about support for Israel are duplicitous because they have done more to endanger Israel in recent years than most other political movement in the world. Now, Iran is directly involved as they too were given free reign by Trump and others to do whatever they wanted in preparation for this moment.
In Russia, Putin has been as sick, twisted and demented as Stalin, and just as dangerous. He has begun the process of trying to return the world to Cold War and he has succeeded in making it a hot war with Ukraine. My view is that from 2017 to 2021, Vladimir Putin was the defacto president of the United States and he completely and fully owns and operated at least 80% of the republican party and its elected officials from coast to coast.
In China, Xi has consolidated power and would like nothing more than to take Taiwan out. The only thing stopping him is the threat of direct conflict with the United States. Still, he spent 2017 to 2021 with Orange Adolf's blessing to position himself in his vision for a new world order with Putin.
North Korea — always a problem — has advanced their own weaponization once more due to having 4 years of being given permission by Orange Adolf and republicans. They put South Korea, Japan, and Australia under direct threat every day.
There are things happening in other parts of the world too that are boiling. Republicans want to believe isolationism is somehow going to protect us. It wont because this is not 1789. It doesn't take an enemy of anykind 6 weeks to get here. And the attack does not have to be here to impact every American. Too many American's just don't get that. And there are even too many on the left who think it can all go away with diplomacy. Sometimes, force is needed. Both positions are naive.
The world is nuanced and we need professionals, not amateurs. Donald Trump is not only an amateur but he is also one of them. He and the republican party is aligned with our enemies — make no mistake. This is why electing Democrats is key — why we cannot fall for the divide and conquer and stay home on election day or vote for a third party plant by republicans and Putin like what happened in 2016 (and perhaps even 2000). No — wee have to ask and expect more from ourselves.
The world is on the cusp of something horrible. We alone can fix it — and it starts with our votes.