{"id":599,"date":"2017-12-19T15:31:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T15:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=599"},"modified":"2017-12-19T15:31:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T15:31:53","slug":"its-coming-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/12\/19\/its-coming-on-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Coming on Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Coming on Christmas<\/p>\n

It’s coming on Christmas
\nThey’re cutting down trees
\nThey’re putting up reindeer
\nAnd singing songs of joy and peace
\nOh I wish I had a river
\nI could skate away on<\/em><\/p>\n

River – Joni Mitchell https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GpFudDAYqxY<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a time for sad Christmas songs as we finish \u201cyear one\u201d of the Trump era. It\u2019s hard to get in the Christmas spirit while we watch the nation we love lose the values of charity, tolerance, environmental conservation, and intellectual realism. Hell, our government agencies can\u2019t even say these words: transgender, diversity, fetus, entitlement, vulnerable, evidence-based, science-based (I wish George Carlin could riff on that:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0<\/a>.) Trump has moved to \u201cthought-control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Congress will pass a \u201ctax reform\u201d bill, cutting taxes to the wealthy, and leaving the rest with little relief now, and higher taxes in a few years. We are told that corporations will use their newly gained profits to pay workers, create jobs, and expand markets; but the evidence-based (whoops) result is likely that they will return the profits to share holders and company officers. That\u2019s what happened with the \u201cTARP\u201d money that stemmed the Republican recession of 2008.<\/p>\n

The Republican plans depend on the \u201cgood conscience\u201d of corporate America. And while I am a child of corporate America, and do believe that many of America\u2019s business leaders act in \u201cgood faith,\u201d I also know that the very definition of a successful business executive is one who creates profits. So when we turn over the Internet to the assurances that corporations won\u2019t find a way to monetize their new freedom; it\u2019s like asking dogs not to eat the food on the floor.<\/p>\n

And, on this seventh day before Christmas, we hold our breath, waiting on the next shoe to drop on the Mueller investigation and staring into the chasm of Constitutional crisis. We watch as even those Republicans who seemed to take a more objective view like Senator Burr of North Carolina, fall into Trump\u2019s pattern of distraction by investigating Jill Green\u2019s campaign for President.<\/p>\n

We watch as renewable energy is ignored and protected lands are opened to desecration by industry. Science-based evidence (whoops again) of climate change is denied. We listen to the President demand that we rearm America, his \u201cpeace through strength\u201d doctrine so reminiscent of the Cold War theories of the 1950\u2019s. This time, we may not be so lucky and avoid nuclear devastation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Christmas of 2017, and the realities of Trump are setting in. But Christmas is a season of hope, and there is still hope for change. Many Americans have taken individual responsibility for their government, they\u2019ve voted, they\u2019ve marched, they\u2019ve cried out against the revisionism of their country. While not all of the battles have been won, there is the glimmer of hope in Alabama and Virginia; in many Courts holding fast to the law, and of course, the silent Mr. Mueller.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201ccoming on Christmas\u201d and we\u2019ve been here before. In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, Americans could see the long march ahead, but also see the inevitable victory. In 1933 Americans were in the depths of the Great Depression, but had hope with Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal. In 1943 World War II raged, but the battle in the Pacific had turned. And in 1973 Nixon was still President, but the Courts inexorably moved to reveal his guilt.<\/p>\n

Americans in each of those times looked ahead to a long time of hardship, but found hope for a nation that would emerge more involved and compassionate. Hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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