When Fox News puts out a story, although light handled, about the life and lies of George Santos, you know that it’s somewhat serious.

Why is it that the Republican Party continues to be bamboozled be liars and cheaters.

What compelled Donald to post, “Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” on HIS personal bully pulpit, Truth Social?

Because children dislike rules and when rules are broken, there are consequences.

So what would a child choose to do if he had the opportunity…

LET’S GET RID OF THE RULES!

You gotta pity the guy.

Covid took so much from us, life, liberty, happiness, to name just a few. With vaccines, education and diligence – Covid, in the minds of people is becoming a forgone conclusion.

We are social creatures and all crave the company of others, the feeling of community, the comfort of family – which is what makes the tragedy in Seoul so devastating.

Young people in their quest for normal, unwittingly created a situation that was anything but normal.

As Covid fades into the background, could our new nemesis be ourselves.

I am not a man of god nor do I believe in god, however, the Bible, on the other-hand is chock full of parables from which we can extrapolate and find commonality. One such parable is the story found in Genesis of the encounter with the Serpent.

“The Serpent is portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster, who promotes as good what God had forbidden and shows particular cunning in its deception”

This rings true in our lifetime more than ever. In the past, the Serpent couldn’t reach us as easily due to the lack of technology. Today, with hundreds of access points to our eyes, ears and minds, the Serpent can find an audience on every corner of the globe.

The Serpent is relentless, ruthless and without morals or compassion. His only purpose is to feed in order to increase his need for power and control.

The Serpent is one, but the one has spawned many that do his bidding. They pretend that they are strong by speaking loud, and telling anyone that watches that they are being told of false flags, pizza-gate, government conspiracies, Sandy Hook didn’t happen, ect…and more people than I can imagine, have been hypnotised by their false messages.

Today, one of the Serpent’s minions has been exposed for who and what he is, a nervous, shaking, sweating, bug-eyed shell of a man.…a weak minded little man with fantasies of some day having a seat at the table. But, the Serpent never shares his table…watching with glee in his dining room as the insurrection unfolded …alone.

The story of the Serpent is an important one for this moment in time. Like I said, I am not a man of God nor do I believe in God. However, I sure do hope that I am not the only one that is able to understand what is happening.

The definition of delusion is: “an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.”

Today, after a presidential election, several court cases, official and unofficial audits and the storming of the United States Capitol, the fact is that Joe Biden is the President of the United States.

Then why is it that a large portion of the population of America continues to believe that the election was stolen? My opinion…delusion – a disease that slowly invades the mind and prevents the infected from the ability to make rational, common sense choices.

One of my favorite sayings, comes from former US President, Ronald Reagan; “Trust, but verify.” Maybe, the person, group or populations, ravaged by delusion are incapable of comprehending a statement such as this.

Delusion is insidious…it slowly ravages the mind and waits for a catalyst, not to spread the disease, but to make it normal, essentially enabling others infected by the disease to unify and grow. When a person, group, or population comes together of the same delusion, what comes out of it…nothing good.

One event in history that comes to mind is the Holocost, the mass slaughter of people of the Jewish faith. Given all the factual evidence of this terrible period, there were and still are, people that believe it didn’t happen. The catalyst was Adolph Hitler. He successfully normalized the delusions of a German population, enabling them to grow and transformed them into an army. On September 16, 1919, Hitler defined Jews not as a religion but a race and characterized them as a, “race-tuberculosis of the peoples,” and that the, “ultimate goal must definitely be the removal of the Jews altogether.” With a popular leader that has confirmed the delusions of a population, Hitler was successful in fueling anger and focusing that anger on people of the Jewish faith. The result was the death of approximately 6 million Jews.

The Ku Klux Klan, established back in the time of  Reconstruction and continues today, formed as a means of restoring white supremacy. In a quote from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the KKK’s message of delusion can be summed up as this, 

“In the dark days immediately after the Civil war, Southerners were just beginning to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives when an evil and profit-minded coalition of northern radical republicans, carpet- baggers and Southern scalawags threw out legitimate Southern governments at bayonet point and began installing illiterate blacks in state offices. worse, the conspirators aroused mobs of savage blacks to attack defenceless whites while the South was helpless to do anything about it. the radicals pulling the strings behind the scenes stole Southern state governments.” 

This delusion fuelled anger and violence causing the senseless death of many African Americans and other people of color. The difference with what happened in Hitler’s Germany and the KKK is that The Klan had chapter leaders, but not one catalyst that could bring them all together and command them to act as one army.

Today, with the advent of social media outlets such as YouTube, Twitter, multiplayer games that allow players to communicate with one another and communities of common interests, people have a platform to find commonality and validate their delusions. In addition, a portion of the mainstream news, politicians, teachers, doctors, and religious figures, continue to normalise the delusion by creating labels that don’t state the reality of a person, group or community’s actions – the “Big Lie” doesn’t seem like much of a problem because everyone lies, but when it is tied to a mental disorder, it’s a whole other story.

Being endowed with a delusional nature himself, in addition to a tendency towards narcissistic and sociopathic behaviour, Donald Trump is a natural at feeding into the delusions of populations. Through a perfected technique of passive aggressive behaviour and the power of suggestion, Trump can direct populations supporting the same delusional thought, to attack almost at will. During his time as President, he normalised groups such as QAnon, white supremacists groups, ultra-right militias, as well as populations that have zero trust in government. As a result, these populations were given licence to voice and act upon their delusions. With that power, Trump became the catalyst for everyone with a tendency towards delusional thought, and convinced them all, that if he lost the election it would be because it was rigged. The result was countless ballot recalls and the January 6th insurrection on the United States Capitol.

On January 6, 2021, Trump stated, “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Did he explicitly state that he wanted the protesters to storm the Capitol to stop the election, no…but was he really hoping that they would…yes. Trump never explicitly states anything…that’s what protects him from blame and prosecution. After his speech, Trump sat in the security of the White House and watched the violence unfold on TV.

Catalyst: “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.”  

I don’t want to sound like an alarmist. However, if we the people don’t call out “The Big Lie,” for what it is…just a Delusion, then we may be in for another era of Hitler. 

This is my opinion and mine alone.

Many moons ago, when I learned that there was no such thing as Race, I knew there was a problem with the label, Racism – a human construct created to keep a certain people in their place. Every time we fight in the name of racism, we accept that we are inferior.

The other problem with the “Racism,” label is that we never get to the bottom of what it is that caused the uneasiness which promoted the use of the dreaded label. If you go back in history and look at when the Spanish invaded the Aztec, or when Columbus invaded Borinquen and America, When the colonists landed in Virginia and what they did to the indigenous people, you see a horror beyond imagination due to the fact that one group, seeing that the other was completely different in language, culture and thought, deemed themselves superior and decided to subjugate the other using violent means.

We are humans…we are different. The main problem is that when confronted with a person, place or thing that is different than who we are, how we think and how we live our lives, we either accept it, reject it or subjugate it.

Take the George Floyd incident – Floyd was killed by another man that put his knee on Floyd’s neck long enough to kill him. George Floyd is black and that man that killed him was white. Right away it became a case of racism, but I see it differently. Given that I believe that we are all one race, this man suffered from what most people suffer from – when confronted with a person, place or thing that is different than who we are, how we think and how we live our lives, we either accept it, reject it or subjugate it…Chauvrin tried to subjugate it. He believed that Floyd was inferior and he wanted Floyd to submit to him, as well as all the onlookers. 

“Racism,” as it is called today, will always remain as a disfunction of our DNA so long as we continue to reducing it to just a label. It’s not just about color, its how we see and judge one another before we have even taken the time to greet one another as equals.

It’s sad, but not surprising that Trump has chosen to remain in the clubhouse even after being voted out…the other members of the club are beside themselves. “What should we do,” they say. They feel sorry for the guy. He’s moping about the White House trying to find away to change the current state of affairs.

Unfortunately, there isn’t.

Trump should not have been elected in the first place and I believe he was exploited for his ignorance. Republicans wanted a high profile person to get them in the White House no matter if that person had no idea of how to run a country…there were people in the White House that would take over the important decision making. Trump would just be the face of the Republican Party…like Trump Steaks and Trump University. It’s not like Trump actually butchered the cow or taught at his university…he was just a face – Like Tillie (we New Jerseyans know who Tillie is).

It’s the end of an error and hopefully it wont be repeated…it’s not a good look when the village votes for the village idiot. Unfortunately, repeat this error we might, we have a habit of not learning from our mistakes. There are still so many Americans that are  willing to vote for Trump, especially Hispanics…this I am both surprised and sadden by. Being Hispanic myself, I could not support a person that called me a rapist and killer, did not support Puerto Rico in time of need, separated Hispanic families and placed their children in cages. Yet, at the same time, Trump wouldn’t think twice in hiring them to work at his casinos,  hotels and build his golf courses…WTF.

Unless there are thousands of Hispanics with 401ks, I can’t fathom any of us voting for Trump, unless there is another reason…because he was the guy in the Apprentice, because they think that Trump will get mad or because Trump is a tragic figure that is worthy of pity or because they are easily manipulated…I’d go with easily manipulated and here’s why.

Many Hispanics from socialist countries have been manipulated into believing that the United States, if voted for Biden, would turn into a Socialist country…PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, this is never going to happen. It never has and never will and yet people are so gullible to believe that it will. The Socialist argument has been used for years and it has never happened.

America is the “land of the free and the home of the brave”…let’s not add “country of the scammed” to the list.

So you feel like a can of chicken noodle soup.

You go into the cupboard and find everything but chicken noodle soup. However, there is a can that just happens to have the label ripped off and you have no idea what it is. You look around the outside of the can for some clue, but to no avail. So you decide to open the can – so you flip up the tab and pull. Once the can is opened, you look inside but you still aren’t certain. You give the contents a sniff but you’re still not certain so you get a small sauce pan and pour the contents into the sauce pan. Looking at the soup you see, carrots, small chunks of chicken and noodles. A smile comes across your face as you fire up the stove.

So, if we can do this for a can of soup, why don’t we do this for a human being.

We live by labels to such a degree that we have diminished ourselves as such…we have lowered ourselves to the level of a can of soup, a box of cereal, a carton of milk.

Left, right – conservative, liberal – democrat, republican – gay, straight – Karen (whatever the hell that means).

We have lost our way.

The reality is that we are an amalgam of all of these descriptions but have become so insensitive or lazy to take the time to learn and understand one another. We’d rather resort to a label because its safe…because its easy.

We are better than that.

Little Donald Trumpet, such a little man,

Toots his little trumpet as loud as he can,

Soon we’ll all stop listening because no one will care,

Thirty minutes after he’s left, we’ll forget he was ever there.