Redtree Times

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

–George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Reason in Society (1905)

Yesterday was a rough day for me physically and after reading the bullshit shown at the top here, it became a rough day mentally as well. It was a holiday cocktail of anger mixed with despair with a sidecar of dread for this country and the human race. It was a bitter drink, to say the least. Happy Easter.

I didn’t think it was real at first. After all, it’s hard to tell the difference these days between what is real and what is not. I mean, how could any president, even one as hideous in practically every way as the current one, post this on an Easter Sunday? Or on any day, for that matter. And how could anyone reading it not come to the conclusion that this was the ranting of an absolute mad man?

And how could anyone with any degree of respect for others or themselves for that matter, defend it or try to rationalize its stated intent to commit crimes against humanity?

But i, of course, was all too real.

I read several people who triedto brush it under the rug by saying it was just his way of negotiating, that he is somehow playing 12-dimension chess.

I call bullshit on that claim. This creature is literally the rooster who plays chess with you and loses then proceeds to knock over all the pieces on the board while strutting around crowing about its victory while shitting all over the board.

Or 12 boards, if you think this is 12-dimebnsional playing.

I have no idea why anyone would be playing chess with the rooster in the first place. But then again, I could never grasp the idea that we somehow let someone who is an adjudicated criminal, a well-documented serial liar, and twice-impeached politician back into the seat of power. I am not going to even mention his misogyny, racism, greed, corruption, disdain for the poor, narcissistic personality, nor his propensity for cheating and chiseling in every aspect of his life.

I am pretty sure that is a woefully incomplete list. It would probably make more sense to simply put up the list of the Seven Deadly Sins. This is a creature who was seemingly designed as a display piece for all seven.

But we did allow him back into power. Yesterday, the thing that kept echoing in my mind was that, as our head of state, he was not sole perpetrator of what he was threatening.

He was threatening to commit war crimes in our name. In your name. In my name. In the name of every person who calls this country home.

Like me, you most likely disavow his actions, now and in the near future. They are loathsome abominations.

But that doesn’t matter. We all carry the burden of his actions, now and well into future. When he commits war crimes, we commit war crimes. When he bombs schools and other civilian sites, we are bombing them as well. When he threatens the use of strategic nukes, it is our threat, too.

His actions are our actions, like it or not.

He’s the fuckin’ rooster we put on that goddamn chessboard.

Sorry for the salty language. If you don’t like it, address your complaints to the asshole in charge. My use of foul language (or is it fowl, in this case?) has increased like it was the price of oil in recent times thanks to him.

I really don’t want to spend my time on things like this when I have other fairly serious things going on that need my attention. I certainly didn’t want to put his post at the top of the page. I actually had decided against doing so last night. But I felt this morning that it is too important to ignore, for any of us. Its madness shouldn’t be shrugged off or normalized. His words from yesterday need to be on the front page of every paper and as the main story of every news broadcast. His words should be echoing in every American’s mind today.

They are words of criminality and madness. And unless we acknowledge that and respond accordingly, they are our words.

Our criminality and madness.

Okay, I’ll stop now. Do I feel better for writing this? No. But sometimes doing things that you feel need to be done doesn’t feel good.

Let’s have a song. Since we’re dealing with barnyard animals this morning, let’s hear a song about another one of them. Here’s an interesting version of the Black Sabbath song War Pigs from singer Sarah King. You weren’t expecting a Black Sabbath tune this morning, were you? This is a haunting acoustic take on the song. It seems to fit this morning, at least for me.

Got to go now. That damn rooster is on my painting table now and I will not have that. If you’re leaving, please take him with you…