I have lived my allotted "three score and ten" and I have seen and heard my share of outrages in

[Atticus]

those 70 years. But, lately, things seem to have shifted into an almost surreal new "reality" that makes me feel like an alien in my own country.

I never thought I'd live long enough to see my country, my government, separate children---some of them INFANTS---from their parents and warehouse them in wire cages.

I never thought I'd live to see my country, my government, try to ban an entire religion from immigrating to America.

I never thought I'd live to hear an American "president" call white supremacist thugs "fine people".

I never thought I'd live to witness mindless racists intentionally whipped into howling lynch-mobs by a sociopathic "POTUS" at a supposed "campaign rally".

I never imagined that I would live to see an ex-KGB agent select our "president" and have that "president's" political party totally not give a damn.

I never ever dreamed that my country---my beloved United States of America---would permit ignorance, racism, fear and greed combine to place the most incompetent, amoral, arrogant dictator-wannabe into the Oval Office.

Unless my ticket is about to be punched, I believe I will live long enough to see Democratic politicians shot at and their supporters attacked on the streets.

I hope I at least live to see Trump's mug shot.

[FakeNoose]

1. The stupidity and arrogance are staggering

[gordianot]

18. That hat is their armband. N/T

[rzemanfl]

2. I'm older than you are and want to live long enough

to piss on Drumpf's grave (or wring out a Depends over it if necessary).

[TxVietVet]

3. Me too!

tRump is

[bluestarone]

16. ME 3

Life would be so worth it on that great day!

[rurallib]

4. I am about to enter that group. One thing I surely never thought I would see:

Government officials openly obstructing justice and receiving "emoluments."
They (particularly Trump and Barr) are literally flaunting it.

And to see some - much - of the media doing nothing or defending it.

[Caliman73]

5. I understand what you are saying but ... really?

You don't remember Bull Connor putting dogs and fire hoses on people? You don't remember George Wallace blocking the entrance to schools? Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever?

You don't remember Reagan sending Elliot Abrams to Central America to train death squads to kill thousands of Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans?

You don't remember the CIA infiltrating leftist civil rights groups like the Black Panthers? Allowing the introduction of crack cocaine into Black and Brown inner cities?

You don't remember Nixon undermining the peace talks in Vietnam to win in 68? Stretching the War out another 5 years killing thousands of US soldiers and Vietnamese.

You don't remember Reagan, playing with the lives of the hostages in Iran to win the election in 80? Selling weapons to Iran illegally and funneling money to those right wing death squads in Central America?

Trump seems unprecedented, but American history is not the shiny city on the hill that we think until Trump came and messed it up.

I mean shit, we haven't ever even processed the issue of slavery in any meaningful way.

[Atticus]

6. We have had embarrassing assholes in the White House before, to be sure.

But, we have never had an out-and-out traitorous monster as POTUS before. I do remember all those wrongs, but they are weak beer compared to the knife Trump has to our throats.

[Scarsdale]

30. All of them

REPUBLICANS. Every last one of them. Now they have the "cream of the crop" in the WH, so they are complacent. Let any democratic president try the emoluments stuff, and they will scream bloody murder. Let any democratic president put their criminal "kids" in high office, see what happens.

[cadaverdog]

7. Point well taken, Caliman

[RVN VET71]

20. I don't disagree with your account of history

America has had a long history of darkness, of nasty, racist, downright ugly things -- shoot, just look at the "journals" from Columbus's crew members and Columbus himself. It's been a history tainted by darkness, by evil, since the very beginning.

But I don't see in Atticus's comment any exculpation of our past, any praise of a lost city on the hill. Atticus is saying, and I agree with him totally, that we have reached the bottom of a deep, deep moral hole with Trump and are still digging.

Take all the condemnable and contemptible events and movements in America's history and look at Individual-1 as the sad culmination. I think that was Atticus' point. At least that's what I understood reading the post.

[Caliman73]

27. I see it more as a relapse.

Our country grew out of the destruction of native people. It's economic prosperity out of the slave labor of African brought here and bred like captive animals. We slowly improved in some ways and did some very good things for humanity as well. Now we are sliding back into the darker periods of our past.

I don't have a major problem with Atticus' post at all. I think that we need to be honest about where we came from, where we were, and where we are heading. I don't see it as new territory is all.

[RVN VET71]

34. Actually if deriving our economic prosperity

out of the slave labor of Africans were the only evil underscoring that "prosperity" it would at least have the saving grace of being a single problem on which to focus our attention. But this country's prosperity was dependent on the exploitation of not just African slaves but of every working family, every white, black, asian, male, female citizen and visitor.

The ideal of capitalism is benign. Its reality, when and wherever it has gotten free rein, is cruel, evil, and callous -- the three main traits of the GOP and not a few Democrats.

I'm not a socialist -- and neither, I hasten to add, are any of the women Trump maligned in his most recent racist tweets -- because history has shown what happens when the means of production and distribution are handed over to a central authority, the state. But I despise any who claim to be "pure" capitalists because the evidence abounds as to its inevitable consolidation of monopolistic power, its cruelty and greed, and its ultimately self-consuming nature.

Choosing democracy, as these women urge us, is the best possible chance we have for continued survival as a free people. That, I think, is why these 4 women are targeted as enemies of freedom, etc., by Trump and his know-nothing minions.

[TNNurse]

8. I will reach 70 in a few months

I do not expect to see the country repaired to its previous character before I die. There is so much damage. I hope I am wrong.

[llmart]

9. 70 here also and I feel the same way.

My one last hope is that he and the GOP go down in flames in 2020, so that at the very least I can feel good about most of my fellow Americans again.

He is the worst abomination we have ever had and he cares nothing about this country. NOTHING! He is the farthest thing from a patriotic American that one could imagine. I want him gone and take his whole evil, money-grubbing family with him.

[Augiedog]

10. We WILL NOT succumb to this assbag and his sphincter lickers. I also will reach the big 70 shortly.

I fully intend disrespect to the orange anus’ tiny tiny tombstone.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. I turn 71 tomorrow and what upsets me the most is this. I had

two uncle's die, one just over 20 years old, fighting Fascists in Italy and Germany during WWII. I grew up believing we had saved the world and that never again would we allow fascism to rule. And yet, it's here in my own country.

[sprinkleeninow]

12. Birthday wishes!

I'm also in this club and just today it came to me the same thoughts. Is this the reward to a life that has enough disappointments and the biggest one several months ago. My heart is heavy.

[spanone]

13. Happy B'day sinkingfeeling!!!!

[littlemissmartypants]

32. Happy birthday! 🎉🎂🎉

[malaise]

33. Happy Birthday sinkingfeeling

it is hard to process this madness

[bronxiteforever]

14. I think of this quote often nowadays

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

Thanks for posting. I have sense of alienation followed by fear. Not for myself but for others younger than I and the unborn. Last nights Nuremberg rally left me rattled.
Yet as Maya wrote “still I rise” and there are always others to help who are worse off than I.

[BarbD]

15. I'm 81, so have witnessed additional outrages, but Trump is #@*&%!!!

I have told my four children and 10 grandchildren that I am determined to live long enough to vote a solid Democratic ticket in 2020.

[smirkymonkey]

17. I am about 20 years younger than you, but I still hope I live long enough to

see Trump's gravestone. Covered in ______. No, I don't think I should say it, but everyone knows what I mean.

Every day I wake up hoping to read the headline that he has finally passed on. Nothing would make me happier.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

31. My wife's first words...

After she opens her tablet and checks the news...”Not dead yet.” Then the days begins.

[dweller]

19. me

I plan to live long enough to cast a ballot for a Democratic presidential candidate ...
or drag my corpse out of the cold ashen grave to do so if at all possible ...

✌🏼️

[Hortensis]

21. I always realized "it" could happen here, I just never

actually thought it would.

I still don't believe it'll come to violence against liberals/Democrats. We finally have the beginnings of awareness of what's happening on the right, and that knowledge will allow good and/or sensible people to understand the need to stop the extremists.

[Atticus]

23. I sincerely hope you are right about the violence. I would love to be totally wrong. nt

[Lint Head]

22. Right on! I'm right there with you.

[NoMoreRepugs]

24. Donate your money or your time.... there is no excuse.

Your children and grandchildren are at stake.

[pansypoo53219]

26. he needs some heavy 2x4 of karma.

[7wo7rees]

28. You have read Chalmers Johnson.

Feeling just like you so eloquently put into words. Every day. It is unrelenting, overwhelming, frustrating as all hell.

Peace

[wryter2000]

29. I'm also 70

I never thought my country would torture people, but Bush did, and two of Cheney's cronies defended it to the Congress. The evil has been going on for a while.

[KPN]

35. Atticus, I am right behind you in years. You expressed

how I feel about that (my age and the times) perfectly.

I would like to post your OP on my FB page to let those friends and relatives who sadly are tRumpsters know exactly how I feel and what I think of these times. With your permission and no reference to you or DU of course. May I?

I can no longer stay silent with these people ... and your piece says it all so very well.

Oh, and on the bright side, let all of this give you the motivation, attitude and strength to hang around long enough to see all of the wrongs we have witnessed these past few years permanently and in perpetuity righted — which I have faith they ultimately will be. Though that may mean at least another score!

[Atticus]

39. You are welcome to use my post without attribution. Good luck. nt

[Mickju]

36. At 75 I feel exactly the same way.

I can't believe what has happened to my country. It is horrifying!

[ooky]

37. I closing in on my allotted time too, and the thing that floors me the most is the

utter stupidity that has come to define the state of our country.

[Tactical Peek]

38. The worst thing isn't learning what Trump feels.

"The worst thing isn't learning what Trump feels.

The worst thing is learning what our friends and relatives feel."


- somebody on the internets

[The Liberal Lion]

40. Your sentiment is well received at least by me.