Magnificent rant from David Rothkopf says it all.
[link:http://
Link to tweet
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It's being a traitor. But it's not just being a traitor. It's the obstruction of justice but its not just the obstruction of justice. It's the attacks on rule of law. But it's not just the attacks on the rule of law. It's the assault on freedom of the press.
But it's not just the assault on freedom of the press. It's the pathological lying. But it's not just the pathological lying. It's the unfitness for office. But it's not just the unfitness for office. It's the incompetence. But it's not just the incompetence.
It's the attacks on our most important allies and alliances. But it's not just the attacks on most important allies and alliances. It's the systematic destruction of our environment. But it's not just the systematic destruction of our environment.
It's the violation of international treaties and agreements. But it is not just the violation of international treaties and agreements. It's the embrace of our enemies. But it is not just the embrace of our enemies.
It's the defense of murdering dictators but it is not just the defense of murdering dictators. It is the serial undermining of our national security. But it is not just the serial undermining of our national security. It is the nepotism. But it's not just the nepotism.
It's the attacks on our federal law enforcement and intelligence communities. But it is not just the attacks on our federal law enforcement and intelligence communities. It's the fiscal recklessness. But it's not just the fiscal recklessness.
It's the degradation of the office and of public discourse in America. But it's not just the degradation of the office and of public discourse in America. It's the support of Nazis and white supremacists. But it's not just the support of Nazis and white supremacists.
It's the dead in Puerto Rico and the at the border. But it's not just the dead in Puerto Rico and at the border. It's turning the US government into a criminal conspiracy to empower and enrich the president and his supporters.
But it's not just the turning the US government into a criminal conspiracy to empower and enrich the president and his supporters. It's weaponization of politics in America to attack the weak. But it's not just the weaponization of American politics to attack the weak.
It's all these things together and the threat of worse to come. It is the damage that can not be undone. It is pathology that has overtaken our politics and our society, the revelation that 40 percent of the population and an entire political party are profoundly immoral.
It is a disease that has infected our system and is killing it. At the moment, we still have the wherewithal to fight back. But even those who recognize the dangers of this litany of crimes are proving too complacent, too inert in the face of this threat.
It is one of those moments in the history of a country when there is a choice to be made, a choice between having a future and not, between growth and decay, between democracy and oligarchy, between what we dreamt of being and what even our founders feared we might become.
The litany of crises and crimes is so long that we are becoming numb. You have heard of the fog of war. This is the fog of Trump. The volume of wrongs becomes its own defense. Is the president accused of being a rapist? Well, then remind them he is a racist and they'll forget.
This is a moment for leaders to step up. To challenge each of these abuses via every legal means available. To organize and draw attention to them. To blow the whistle if you are in government and you are being asked to violate your oath. To resist and refuse to be complicit.
If you can't do those things that make your voice heard and join a movement, support a political candidate, donate money, register voters, fight voter suppression. But whatever you do, resist becoming numb. Resist the temptation to let the recitation of old crimes and new...
...become a deadening drone. Every one matters in times like these. Every one must stand up for what is right. In their homes. In their schools. In the workplace. In their churches and synagogues and mosques.
We are approaching a great national decision about whether the American experiment will succeed or fail, whether this moment does what two world wars, a civil war and countless past misjudgments and missteps could not.
We will make it together, resist, offer a better alternative, embrace that alternative and the best leaders we can find...or succumb, let the inertia of some among us mark the end of what for two and half centuries was an idea so compelling it inspired the world.
= new reply since forum marked as read
… one of many SPOT-ON phrases. 
Apparently his radical ideas about freedom were ok for the Revolution, but not for the subsequent new government.
Paine is a hero of mine. 
and I am grateful that he did. It is so hard to capture the full magnitude of what we are going through. But he did.
That is, the slow but exponentially worsening inequality of income and asset distribution worldwide that allows the wealthiest and most psychopathic individuals to:
* buy control of entire local, state and national governments,
* buy control of a large percentage of news and social media around the globe, and
* buy or control ownership of vast amounts of our planet's land and other fixed assets, and natural resources.
If they did not own or control those things, the items in David's list would never have happened, including the election of tRump.
He's listed effects, not causes. I do credit him for recognizing the fundamental cause in some of his publications.
Further, he fails to mention that this exponentially worsening inequality is happening coincidentally with a second elephant in our room: global climate change.
His writings have exposure to some global elite. Let's see what he does in the future to help correct this extremely serious issue.
KY rant done.....
I feel it's the rate at which inequality is worsening is the most disturbing aspect of this issue. Just how far can it go?
I invite you to watch this one when you can spare an hour or so, particularly if you enjoy history. This story frightens the little bit of cynic in me as we observe the parallels with fragile global economic structures we rely on today:
KY.........
12,000 years of human events.
Thanks so much for the vid!
Btw, the single most important event IMHO that shaped the entire course of history for the modern world occurred at dawn, December 11, 1241 CE, when Ögedei Khan died after a night of insane drinking due to the cumulative effects of alcoholism. If he had not died, and had live another 10 years or so, the Mondols would have (they were on the absolute verge of it) completely conquered all of Europe, and given a few breaks (especially if they went on to have a series of pre-planned orderly Great Khan successions) they probably would have succeed in what was always their goal, that being literally conquering the entire world.
Ögedei Khan's death was like the brain of a giant global robot (stole that from Dan Carlin, lol) shutting down, necessitating the withdrawal of Mongol leaders (and troops) from the outskirts of Vienna and Venice to return for a Kurultai (the grand meeting of Mongol warlords to choose a new Great Khan) in Karakorum (the Mongol capital.)
Imagine if the Mongols had conquered all of Europe and then finished off the rest of Asia and Africa, culminating with going on to North, Central, and South America. They certainly had the structural wherewithal (IF they continued the model set up by Genghis and Ögedei) to maintain control. to manage and maintain it all, again with the major proviso of orderly succession.
I mentioned Dan Carlin, the biggest history podcaster in the world
here are his podcasts on the Bronze Age Collapse and also the Mongol Empire
Hardcore History 9 – Darkness Buries the Bronze Age
https://tvoxy.net/song/76434725/Dan_Carlin_-_Darkness_Buries_the_Bronze_Age/ (listen free)
https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-9-darkness-buries-the-bronze-age/
Hardcore History 43-47 – Wrath of the Khans Series
https://player.fm/series/wrath-of-the-khans-series-dan-carlins-hardcore-history-2420352 (listen free here)
https://www.dancarlin.com/product-category/hardcore-history/classic-hardcore-history/
