A Year of Change

I arrived in Abu Dhabi a year ago yesterday, so in an odd way it was appropriate that I spend the day going out of the country and back. More on that tomorrow.

It’s been a year of ups and downs and great uncertainties. I came here on the promise of being hired locally, which never materialized. Instead I’ve been kind of an indefinite consultant, not really belonging to anyone, but since I’m competent and reliable and continued delivering on assigned tasks they’ve pretty much left me alone to drift along.  My project has been extended, cancelled, reinstated, cancelled again, extended again, etc.  It’s been quite a roller coaster, but I’m still here.  The only thing about it I know with confidence is that I have a ticket home in a few weeks, and I can hardly wait.

The trip hasn’t been without its benefits. Dana was here for the entire month of May, and we were able to spend our first anniversary together in 3 years, and we saw all the big sights! (We may be the only couple in our town to have been to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building!) We were able to all meet in Linz, Austria for Christmas with Shannon and David, and then Dana came back here with me to spend January, which we extended until the end of February!  Those 9 weeks is the longest period we’ve been together in the past 4 years, which is how long I’ve been working abroad.  But she went home week before last, and that’s the latest hard thing to deal with. 

I was devastated that the American electorate was gullible enough to elect a candidate who was a brazenly open serial liar, misogynist, and failed businessman.  Questions of his background and financial interests were swept aside as he spread hate and fear and empty promises, running the Nazi playbook of how to handle an ill-informed people.

Now I am watching in shock, but not disbelief, as day by day more details emerge that he is in place with the help of the Russian government’s active efforts to hack and influence our election, and is currently working much more to their benefit that ours, such as dismantling the US Department of State and undermining US intelligence agencies. And the GOP leadership just happily goes right along with it, dismantling social and environmental and regulatory protections that have taken 50 years to build.

I think if anything is to save our nation and way of life, it will be the free press guaranteed in our Constitution, even though Trump fights against them every day. I highly recommend The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. (BTW, if you don’t like my sources, fine. Please go pick your own independent news source anywhere in the world except for Russia Today, Fox, Breitbart, and other extreme right wing propaganda sites.)  Even Fox News has started turning against Trump and calling out his outrageous statements, behaviors, and practices – if even their blinders are coming off, you know there must be awful truth behind the shutters.

I know many intelligent conservatives who are Trump supporters, for a variety of reasons, all of which are highly personal, or highly partisan, or based on uninformed, blind hatred of the name Clinton. They don’t seem to care in the least what damage Trump does to the nation, as long as he seems to be on the side of their niche issue – just remember, he is an unapologetic liar who will say and promise anything to anyone to get what he wants.

If you are one of those people with very narrow vision, I hope you will try to look at the larger American issue, and get beyond your special interest.  This man and his team are actively working to undermine America’s strength and place in the world. Mr. Trump has already destroyed our position of world leadership.  Take off your blinders of ignorance and look at the facts. Journalism and a free press have been a bedrock of this nation since it was founded. The electoral system built by America’s founding fathers relied on an educated, informed electorate, which we obviously no longer have.

Open your eyes to what is really going on in the White House and the GOP-controlled congress. Be an American, not a Republican, for a change, and see the damage being done to you, me, and everyone.  Notify your GOP representatives that you didn’t hire them to destroy social programs you rely on, even though they told you all along that that was their goal and intention. Tell them you don’t want Trump to destroy our nation and you will hold them accountable at the polls.

These guys wasted years and millions of dollars and tens of thousands of hours investigation Hillary Clinton for rumors that they started, but are now unwilling to investigate Trump’s Russian connections when a fresh, still-smoking gun of evidence shows up every day showing collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence agents. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. If ANY of the recent allegations against Trump had been even suggested about President Obama the impeachment hearings would've been started the next day, with cries of "Treason" resounding in the halls of Congress. Now? Silence. Treasonous silence.

It might not be too late to stop the damage and save the nation, and I hope not, but we must all open our eyes and work together. Please put aside your personal and special interests and join the rest of America. Look beyond the GOP message of fear, mistrust, and devastation and you might see that America has been and is still GREAT! It didn’t need saving or remaking by a liar.

[ADDED 11 March 2017 from Washington Post, a good read if you are interested in preserving American democracy:

How President Trump has already hurt American democracy — in just 50 days

Closing thoughts from some of America’s best:

“If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” - Samuel Adams, revolutionary

“There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents. The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy.” - Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect, and author

“America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

 “The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.” - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President

#DishonestDon  #Resist  #GOPTreason