August 29, 2018
Fifty
years ago today, the whole world was watching while peaceful demonstrators
protested the Vietnam War and the Democratic National Convention in
Chicago. Chicago mayor Richard Daley decided
to sic his brutal police force on thousands of protestors outside the
convention hall, setting off police riots as the chant, “The whole world is watching,” filled the air.
The perennially hapless Democratic Party, reeling from the assassination
of Robert Kennedy, instead nominated über milquetoast Hubert H. Humphrey, who of course lost to Richard Nixon.
Chicago, USA 1968
A
few months later, Nixon sabotaged the peace talks in Vietnam in order to
bolster his re-election chances. This
move, as evil an endeavor as any in American politics, would be rivaled almost
50 years later by Chrump engaging Russia to sabotage the election in his favor. Allegedly. I suppose Chrump deserves credit for being up
front about it. After all, he very
publicly asked the Russians to go after his opponent. Not allegedly.
At
least when Richard Daley swung the 1960 election in favor of JFK (which may be
more urban legend than actuality), he was conspiring with Americans. At least when Nixon directed his “burglars” to
brake into the Watergate Hotel leading up to the 1972 election, he hired ex-CIA
– Americans. Neither one outsourced
their skullduggery to a hostile adversary.
Neither one said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to
find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
And then have Russia release a plethora of Hillary’s emails the next day. It is almost as though there was some sort of
COLLUSION between Chrump and Russia. Neither
Daley nor Nixon hired Russians to fix elections or steal information from the
Democrats. Although to be fair, as noted
above, Nixon did secretly collaborate with the North Vietnamese to sabotage the
peace talks in order to bolster his election chances in 1968.
The whole world is watching again. Most of the rest of the world is in shock
that America now has a demented, psychotic narcissist, whose entire team is a
bunch of criminals, steering a major superpower into a bottomless pit of disgrace
and global volatility. Unsurprisingly, our
Unindicted*-co-conspirator-in-chief, and one of history’s most tragic and
dangerous figures told a Fux News interviewer that he deserves an A+ for his
amazing presidenting, adding, “I tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I
think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.” I will gladly take my chances. I will bet I am not alone.
It is not just the whole world; some Americans are also watching,
it is just that too many are either too ignorant or too deep in the
Republican’t/Fux News/Chrump Kool Aid Swamp to know what the hell they are
watching. To be fair, it is difficult to
see much when you are staring directly at your own colon…from the inside.
Chicago Transit Authority - Prologue /
Someday August 29, 1968
I. Mangrey remembering.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed. Period.
*As of this
writing.
This song is about the fact that when push comes to shove, the ruling classes will always resort to violent subjugation, and that we ought to think about what that means FOR us and ABOUT them.
ReplyDeleteIf that comes down here in our time, it won't be any different, except perhaps worse, than then...and as the song says, "then you'll know what I mean".