“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” ~ Romans 12:17-19
“Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.” ~ Deuteronomy 32:35
I don’t usually open articles with biblical quotes. I’ve interspersed them in my writings to make points or to highlight a bit of ancient wisdom, but the idea of retribution struck me as I read the news this morning. This collection of wisdom, we call the Bible, is thousands of years old, but it still speaks volumes to anyone that reads, or even remembers its teachings. When you overlook the misnomer that it’s only about religion, you’ll appreciate the truth of the wisdom. If you believe the myth and the lies attempting to distract you, you miss the sound judgement it’s trying to teach.
A recent commentary was about the ‘status quo’, how things remain the same, even though we believe we’re progressing. Thinking that we’re so sophisticated and socio-politically evolved is a delusion. We haven’t changed in millennia. Sure, our weapons have new names, as do our tactics, but they still fulfill the same base needs and serve the same destructive purposes.
The kerfuffle and falderal in government these past several weeks, is the same old game, the same gambit played by the partisan cults, and mirrored by all the minor aspirants envious of their power.
I’ll throw in a holiday analogy, we celebrated and remembered the Thanksgiving Holiday week. ‘They want to sit at the grown-up table.’ The foundational phrase is ‘they want a seat at the table’, meaning; they want to be included in the discussion and have similar influence, like everyone else. Sitting at the kids table during Thanksgiving dinner is seen as a social-slight, I personally have more fun with the kids… but I digress.
Don’t we all?
Well, most people want power and position…
It isn’t what you imagine… That idea is full of misconceptions and wishful thinking.
I’ve read countless articles and opinions about partisan party-political flip-flops, of how they reinvent and then represent their ideology to attract constituencies during the election cycle. It indicates that mankind’s views and needs never really change, but these partisans adapt, pander to what they believe the people want, all in an effort to gain power through the strength of numbers, by parroting and then professing what they think we want, they proselytize – encourage – defections, or ‘party-switching’. Are they really any different, or is it the same desire for power in a different suit or dress.
Another adage just occurred to me… ‘Putting lipstick on a pig.’ You can change the name or dress it up, but it’s the same as it ever was… it’s still a pig. You can call the quest for power and control anything, dressing it up in all the fanciness available, but it’s still egotism, and probably narcissism.
The simplest way to explain, maybe to quantify their efforts, is to guess-timate the amount spent on this past election. $25B is the number bandied-about by the Corporate Media Complex (CMC). Please note that the final numbers are being compiled, and will likely be concealed to avoid further embarrassment and consternation of the favored partisan liberal party. Losing is never easy because we try to avoid this painful lesson. It points the accusing finger back at us. It’s humbling, exposing our weaknesses and inadequacies. We blame our faults on something or someone else, never admitting or accepting the responsibility for our actions and decisions.
The most convenient scape-goat in any election is the voter… they just didn’t understand what’s at stake, and I could save them.
I believe people tired of the politician’s lies and obvious attempts to hide the facts by the CMC. I’ll return to a quip by Paul Ekman – paraphrased: “You can tell a politician is lying because their lips move.”
An ex-girlfriend used to quip; “I’m not as think as you dumb, I am…” She’s the same person that used the phrase, “used to was…” There’s some significant wisdom in Cajun thinking. It’s a lot like the Bible, you need to look past your prejudices, to see the truth.
One of the tidbits leaked by the CMC, was that the Liberals are over $20M in debt from this election. That’s not much when you recall that the Liberals had over $1.5B for this presidential campaign; they overspent by less than 2%. And from my seat in the financial bleachers, that’s a lot of money, and again, in comparison to the monumental national debt of $36T, or our unfunded liabilities of $221T; it’s a drop in the leaky fiscal bucket.
Then, when you relate this to the median income of $60k for the American family… It’s 333.4 years’ salary for that family.
– “Median” means the middle value in a set of numbers, when you arrange them from smallest to biggest; basically, it’s the “middle point” where half the numbers are higher, and half are lower than it.
How’s that for perspective…
That’s the problem with numbers of this size, we have no frame of reference and certainly no concept of how we’d repay it.
“The Mind Wobbles…” ~ Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy, Married with Children)
The average citizen owes $76K, and has a reserve of $10K on a salary of $60K – these numbers are based on national averages from 2023. I’m trying to offer some additional perspective here.
These partisans, Nationalist American Socialist Party (NASP) overspent 333.34 times the median household income on this election, to convince us to vote for their candidate.
Contemplate the implications of this in household budgetary or personal financial terms.
AND… the fight isn’t over.
The Liberals, the NASP are still fighting to ruin the other party in every way possible. Their next step will be to hinder the approval process for Trumps’ cabinet posts. In 2016, it took over a year to confirm Trumps cabinet. Can we expect the 2024 process to drag along like 2016, or worse?
This exposes that their real intent is not to govern for the people in their party, not to govern in the interests of the republic, but to ensure that they – the NASP, the Liberals, retain control.
The out-going administration is rushing to bury Merka financially with more billions of dollars in additional grants to Ukraine, by giving them Long-Range Ballistic Missiles, and sanctioning the use of Internationally-Banned anti-personal land-mines, goading Russia into WWIII, with Ukraine as the proxy.
Ask yourself, who wins?
It seems illogical to create a bigger mess for the incoming party to clean up, but that’s what politics is all about. And we thought, we were told, this was about strengthening the republic and making life better for all of us…
Funny, I remember a founding premise for this country, and the republic. “Where all men are created equal… with liberty and justice for all…” But… I admit that my mind is not what it ‘used to was’.
Isn’t that what the 2024 political ads promised? A Better and Stronger Republic… for everyone, not just the partisan cultists. That everyone would benefit? Sadly, the truth is exposed rather abruptly and unceremoniously as the curtain was pulled back and Merka saw the first glimpse of this cabal of bicoastal elites, and the price we paid for the destruction they wrought.
Here’s another question… Who pays for this? Not just financially, but with the very soul of this republic, with all of the things that made America great – once…
If this republic is divided equally, half Liberals and half Conservatives – and the Liberals have their way – they win… does the burden of repayment fall to the Conservatives, or do we all suffer the cost.
If the Conservative movement is successful in resurrecting this republic, do only the Conservative’s reap the rewards, or does everyone.
How can you reconcile promising a better life for everyone, while destroying it for others. Doesn’t this define war?
I recall a 4-year internal conflict that nearly destroyed this country. It was the ‘War of Northern Aggression’; Liberal history labeled it ‘The American Civil War’, but it was not civil, using the benevolent definition of the word, civil; it was horrific, and it irreparably fractured America.
It’s faded from memory for some, but for others it will live for eternity because of what it represents.
It all seems a bit vengeful to me… We didn’t win, so we’ll stop you from doing what’s best for the country, for everyone; even though we benefit, too. We had our chance during the past twenty years, and made a mess of things, so our vengeance will prove that you won’t, can’t do it either. We’ll block your efforts out of spite.
We’ll cut off our noses, to spite our faces.
If we can’t win, then no one can…
Doesn’t this seem petty and immature?
It appears that vengeance inhibits critical thinking, where thought processes are skewed toward the severe, and affirming that the worst possible consequence as acceptable.
It makes ‘bad’, ‘good’!
The country was nearly destroyed by the ‘War of Northern Aggression’, but that’s OK because the North won… The war cost 750K lives, and that’s OK…
There is a policy of total destruction known as ‘Scorched Earth’ – destroy everything so that nothing will grow, nothing will flourish. The term can also be used metaphorically to describe something that is ruthless or directed toward victory at any cost.
Do any recent events come to mind?
If I can’t have it, neither will you! Remember Saddam Hussein in Iraquistan, how he set fire to all the oil wells as he left power? How his army destroyed museums and priceless antiquities to keep others from enjoying them. He couldn’t have it, so no one will.
It sounds quite childish, doesn’t it?
Well, patriots… It is, and that’s what’s happening in the DC Swamp, barnyard, and feedlot.
Now there an analogy for you; Feedlot.
“A feedlot is an area or building where livestock are fattened up for-you guessed it-harvest, which is the kinder word for animal-becomes-meat-in-the-freezer.“
It also defines this country when you realize that we are bred and maintained to financially feed the DC bureaucracy. At the last count, there were 19.58M people employed by the federal government. ~ Statista 2023
“With great power comes great responsibility.” ~ Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
This quote comes from a 1962 comic book character in the Spiderman series, but it’s no less applicable to our current times. The reference is a bit different in the comic book, but the power in that statement should not be undersold. It means: “when someone has a significant ability to influence or affect others, they also have a strong moral obligation to use that power wisely and for the greater good. It implies that power should be used ethically not for personal gain.”
There are a couple words in that statement that are the antithesis of DC politics. Ethics, and morals, which were both expunged, stricken from the partisan political lexicon in the 1960’s to protect our clandestine services, and those who employ them – Congress, the opposite of progress. It’s folly to expect the people that would destroy this republic to control it, to epitomize those characteristics.
AI tells me: “Morals are an individual’s personal beliefs about what is right and wrong, essentially their internal compass guiding behavior, while ethics are a set of rules or standards of conduct established by a community or group, often based on shared values and considered appropriate behavior within that context; in simpler terms, morals are personal, while ethics are societal norms.”
Think about the current administration’s decision to release $6B to Iran, and to allow them to sell oil on the open market. Think about the impact of that decision on the world, the Middle East, and especially on Israel.
Consider the impact of opening America’s borders. Look at the impact on our republic, and the effect on world politics. Imagine the confusion and dichotomy resulting from 25M invaders crossing a “closed and secure border.”
Can we absorb 25M illegal immigrants – invaders?
Where will they live, work, eat, go to school?
Do we have enough multilingual educators that can teach their children when they speak 190 different languages?
How can we recover from the physical, social, and economic damage this causes within what remains of America?
Contemplate the hasty withdrawal from Iraquistan and giving the Taliban, Isis, Hamas $85B in state-of-the-art modern weaponry.
Some states set dollar limits on shoplifting, condoning theft.
Some states installed revolving doors on courtrooms and police departments. No Cash Bail Laws, and soft-on-crime DA’s promote criminal activities…
I think you get the idea. Each of the moronic decisions caused more harm than good because the long-term impact of the choice was never considered, or if it was contemplated, the speculation was immediately rejected, intentionally, to create anarchy in an effort to dismantle this republic from within.
If I can’t have it, neither can you…
I searched for a better word to describe, encapsulate that emotional thought… the top response were vengeance & retaliation… An interesting phrase popped up in this search – collateral damage, ‘unintentional harm or damage that happens to people or things that are not the intended target of an action, unintended side effects.’ But this mitigates the intentional aspect of the action, and foreknowledge of that decision.
I’ll stick with vengeance and retribution.
“Amateurs blame others. Professionals accept responsibility.” ~ Shane Parrish
I can still have things for which I give thanks!
Especially this marvelous republic and my right to use ‘Freedom of Expression’ responsibly…
December 9, 2024
~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.
He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.
Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.
In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!