[Rob Wright]

It astonishes me that the press continues to refer to these people as "conservatives." That word, as I've always understood it, describes someone who wishes to preserve the established order not pull it down or destroy it. These people are radicals, pure and simple. As for being "Christian" they are using the devil's own playbook of sewing dissension and hatred and championing the idea that wealth equals virtue and the poor should be demonized, and the greatest aspiration it to have the most money, things, and power over others. It's not only sickening, it's heartbreaking.

[Jim Moonan]

.
The Fourth Turning
.

[Jim Moonan]

.
What effect can we have on tides?

I'm weary and find some respite in fatalistic thinking. What will be will be. On a personal level I am innately optimistic. But when I look at the wider world I feel dread. This morning I stepped outside in the wilting heat and humidity to care for my geraniums and was astonished by their deep green leaves and ruby red florets. It never fails to amaze me.

I went to the No Kings rally in my town and was impressed with the numbers. Then I realized there were nearly no young people protesting. My thoughts turned from hopeful to hopeless. (Btw, "No Kings" is a poor rallying cry for what is actually happening. It homogenizes /understates the evil that is happening). There comes a time when nothing short of a revolution of some sort can break the fever.


No truer words have ever been spoken to reflect our current state of disrepair than these in Yeats' Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.



I'm no scholar. I'm not a historian. But it seems to me that evil has the propensity for destroying itself (after wrecking havoc). I look forward to the First Turn arriving. The bad news is: evil is a zombie. Tides turn.

But thinking on a rational level, our focus should be on 2026 midterms. The far right extremists know the clock is ticking. Also ahead is the eventual exit of the cult leader in 2028 — the head of the snake. Then we shall see...

One more thing: where is Kamala Harris? Imo, we need a woman to lead the fight. Women, much more so than any other minority, have suffered at the hands of the bigot Christian zealots, the wolves of wall street and maga cultists. Women are the achilles heel of the maga mega-cult. We need a nation-wide-all-fifty-states tidal wave women's movement. And where is Barak Obama? Michele Obama? I'm grasping at straws, I know.

.

[John Riley]

What Rob said