The most interesting thing about this past year is watching the slow unfolding of our constitution in a way that, sadly, resembles the first Star Wars (reboot/Anakin arc). This is how our democracy dies. This being the unfettered use of powers and rampant idiocy/transparency of the President.
He already said that he is going to declare a national emergency in order to use money meant for the natural disasters plaguing parts of our nation to build a wall. A wall he knows is going to fail and doesn’t care.
It doesn’t stop there.
He said we are pulling out of Syria which will inevitably lead to a situation where Iran poses a legitimate threat to national interests (read: Israel), which will put us back on a path to war in Iran. In other words, we are pulling a board game move and sacrificing the Syria in order to create the conditions to seek war in and destabilize Iran.
No, this isn’t the president’s doing. He’s not that aware. This is the handful of people at the wheel of that particular initiative. What we’ve discovered above all else is that we have a president who believes he hires the best people and so long as they placate him and treat him with loyalty, they have the run of the place. He is only focused on the things he can tick off as victories or the petty fights that grab his attention.
This is a fundamental problem, because it is also why the senators and congressmen are behind him. They are getting what they want.
Except we aren’t. Not entirely. This shutdown is going to impact at leas 800,000 lives. Those are the people who are not getting paid, many of whom are living paycheck to paycheck and some of whom are being forced to work without pay.
This was a rant. There are a few rants on my mind that I need to just pull out of me and put on paper to feel good about things.