Yes, Trekkies, it’s a play on a movie title from 1982, ‘The Wrath of Khan‘. It seems appropriate because the movie, like the 119th congress, deals with revenge and the overwhelming motivation for retribution in the acquisition of power. You know –  Polly-tics.

Admittedly, I rarely watch congressional swamp-meets because they are nothing more than reenactments of playground quarrels over a ball, or a space in the sandbox, or a bucket and shovel; all are childish arguments about control, and an object lesson in one-upmanship. The difference here is that congress – the opposite of progress, is populated by self-professed, professional custodians, elected adults – hired by us, to manage the country. These are the people in whom we have placed our trust, to follow our laws and represent us.

These are the administrators of the republic.

As an aside, I’m not at all satisfied with our choices of late. Yet, I’m open-minded, and guardedly optimistic about the future. Then again, I am cynical and possibly misanthropic.

I’m still searching the oath of office for the clause that stipulates ‘must act like F-ing children‘ in front of a camera, or when the world is watching. Incidentally, it is usually watching.

It’s for this very reason that I rarely watch these congressional swamp-meets.

I do firmly believe in debate and adult conversations were people can share their thoughts or opinions in an intelligent way. Discussion provides an opportunity to learn new points of view, and maybe incorporate some of the data, and possibly adapt yours, as a result of the encounter.

Oh, by the way. something wonderful happens when you engage in open dialog; it liberates your mind to examine new concepts and possibilities. This exact thing happens when you read. The idea behind the printed word – was to share information. It’s like talking to someone who’s nowhere near you. Because of the printed word, books, information became available to everyone, not just those who are educated or anointed.

God forbid we should learn something!

We know these things, but forget them in our busy lives, taking them for granted, conveniently avoiding them; frequently ignoring them to protect our strident opinions. We fear change. It terrifies us because it threatens what we believe, often our most intimately and personally held prejudices and preconceptions.

In fairness, most people have a different political bent that suits their needs and wants, stroking their political desires. This plays to the abject power of the Corporate Media Complex (CMC) and other information conglomerates, who profit from telling us what we want to hear, adapting it into what their overlords want us to know.

According to Aristotle, ‘politics is dealing with the structure, organization, and administration of the state.’ My dictionary includes the ‘acquisition of power’ in the definition which seems to be especially true in our republic, but perhaps it’s endemic in every government on this planet. Don’t they all want power, or am I being cynical again?

“Can’t we all get along?” ~ Rodney King – 1991

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is alive and well in our republic!

The congressional hearings for Trump’s nominees, exposes the Deep-State’s hold on this republic. These hearings endanger the cabal’s conspiracies and treachery, underlining its fear. As several of the nominees have stated, they are suffering this public indignation and humiliation, in service to this republic and its citizens. This scares the ever-loving shit out of most of the Deep-State, especially those aligned with the Nationalist American Socialist Party (NASP) – the democrats. Yes, there are few Republirats in that cadre as well, but they are more covert.

It’s difficult not to equate the NASP with a devil, it’s an entity of hatred and evil, but I’ve managed to skirt the analogy so far. My reticence is that I cannot in good conscience condemn all politicians or link them with Satan, but if the shoe fits. and from what I seen for the past weeks of these inquisitions in congress – the opposite of progress, most of these ‘holes of the ass’ are the Devil’s spawn in Beelzebub’s boots.

So far, the missing component in these ‘congressional hearings’ is torture, but then, how many of the insipid allegations and innuendos can any human take? Every inquiry from the Left is crowded with hidden agendas, double meanings, and ‘gotcha-shots’ or ‘booby-traps’, attempts to trick the nominee into divulging some nefarious ulterior motive, or hidden ‘Trumpian – Nazi‘ agenda to remove them all to concentration camps and conquer the world.

I’ve intentionally endured hours of the Senate Confirmation Hearings to understand all the partisan vitriol. I must say that what I see from these ‘representatives’, they’re not doing anything but occupying space, consuming oxygen and other precious resources, intensifying the negativism in this republic, enhancing this republic’s divide and partisan political segregation and isolation.

I’ve ‘italicized‘ representatives because of the things they do well:

Self-aggrandize – exhibit their contortionists ability to pat themselves on the back for the audience, make baseless accusations, lie about everything, and their innate survival instincts. What do they do well for the republic. not too much, but they certainly add to the mind numbing 300,000 laws in this country, and spend enormous amounts of money that we don’t have, in the process of doing it.

Congress’ astonishing level of hatred makes Satan proud.

Doesn’t this hatred oppose progress, and don’t I usually append Congress with the phrase – ‘the opposite of progress’ as Will Rogers suggested?

All the hatred from the NASP stems from fear of losing control of the republic.

We just elected a new president, and the NASP is worried about a minimalist and constitutionally based administration, and what that means to their bloated socialist controls and ideology.

Think about that for a moment.

What’s in it for the republic?

Consider, all of this falderal and kerfuffle and pushback over putting our republic back on the right track is counterproductive, isn’t it?

I can’t help but ponder the progress we could make if this effort, this hateful energy was invested in moving forward rather than insisting on stagnation and the status quo; imagine where we’d be as a republic. Yet we’d rather spend our most precious resource – time – lying and fighting to destroy what we cannot control, or the people who control it, all in an effort to command what’s intractable.

Control is an illusion!

The illusion of control was first described by psychologist Ellen Langer in 1975. Originally, it was thought that the illusion of control is a mechanism for preserving or enhancing self-esteem, allowing people to take credit for successful actions and to deny responsibility for failures, and it is strongest in people most personally involved in the action. Recent studies suggest it is not necessarily a motivated behavior but rather, results from mistaken judgments of probability. In this view it is an illusion of causality – people’s sense of control is misled by their likelihood of acting. An overinflated ego tells us that our actions had a direct impact on the success of this event but prevent us from taking responsibility for failure.

The congressional hearings for Trumps cabinet appointments are a salient example of misdirected partisan political passion, and panic of possibly being outed for the very offense they denounce. It’s their fear of exposure as a hypocrite. The axiom is: ‘People that live in glass houses should always wear clothing.’

The result of all this arm waving and chest pounding is that they expose themselves to those paying attention and open themselves to criticism from those they criticize. No one wins, and the world if it’s paying attention, is a little bit wiser; hopefully. Sadly, those that could profit the most from these lessons are oblivious to the knowledge; that would be the people that cry the loudest.

Shakespeare said it best: “Methinks thou dost protest too much.” essentially saying you seem to be trying too hard to convince us you’re not guilty, which can make the accuser appear insincere or untruthful especially after being found out.

AI tells me that people that accuse others of their own actions can be described in several ways. Commonly: hypocrites, projectionists, and deflectors. I’m sure if you thought for a moment, you could name a few in our gubmint that fit this description. Almost everyone in congress – the opposite of progress, does.

We, the people of these United States pay for every insult, every lie, every twisted intent, every accusation, and every innuendo with our taxes that support these unconscionable attacks on each of us. We selected these people as our representatives to our government, so by extension, there attacks are against us as well. Further, we elected the president, thus we’ve placed our trust in him to lead this republic as he sees fit. We can bitch and moan about his decisions and choices, but he is our leader for the next four years. We owe it to this republic and each other as its citizens to support the administrations’ directions and initiatives.

Isn’t this what democracy is all about: selecting the leadership we believe to be best for the republic? Just in case you’ve forgotten the definition. It is a “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” That means that we choose our leadership by voting, and. that the one with the most votes runs the country.

We seem to conveniently ignore this simple truth; especially when we disagree with the choice ~ Don’t we???

Here’s an important question. Does fighting with each other help anything, or solve anything?

It may clear the air, or release anxiety and stress, but usually makes things worse because of the things we say that cannot be unsaid.

We, the people of this republic, have lost the capacity to debate – that is to discuss an issue as an assembly, inviting opposing viewpoints, and entertaining them in a civil manner. The other concept following debate is deliberation – careful examination, and formal consideration or discussion before a decision. Our view of these swamp-meets is more akin to a feud, than the professional management of our republic. Missing in these swamp-meets is any consideration for the good of the republic; it’s always partisan political pandemonium.

Imagine the corporate boardroom of Walmart, or Apple, or Amazon, or Microsoft, allowing the verbal free-for-alls that ensue in congress – the opposite of progress.

How much would be accomplished and where would these companies be financially?

Can you imagine this type of contentious congressional melee in a corporate setting? Superimpose this vitriol on the board of Apple. Would they remain at the top-grossing company in the world? BTW… they are the top company by market-cap at $3.456 trillion. Most of us understand business and the basic ideas that drive our economy. Fighting never determines anything, but it does vent severe and aggressive animosity, but you can achieve the same releasee from a brisk walk, or a good game of pickle-ball.

It was said that Rome burned, while Nero fiddled. I maintain that America’s Republic is on fire while congress – the opposite of progress fiddles around arguing ad infinitum and ad nauseum, and the result is a mushrooming catalog of over 300,000 laws, and the exploding federal debt of $34.5 trillion, and this anger spills over into the republic.

Take a second, look around this country for the negativity and adversity and polarization in every aspect of our lives. It’s everywhere, in almost everyone, and everything we encounter. This contention may not have caused the division of this republic, but I believe it certainly exacerbates the impacts on the citizens of this republic. I don’t fault congress – the opposite of progress for this , but again, if the shoe fits.

I see this playing out daily in our republic. People are more combative, angry, and overtly disrespectful toward any opposing political viewpoint. Look at the statements of the NASP members. Hakeem Jeffries called for loyal NASP members to “Fight this in the streets.”

A call to violence?

It reminds me of Nancy Pelosi’s support for rioters in American cities after the Trump 2016 election, and Kamala Harris’ bail fund for violent offenders and rioters.

The Biden-Harris administrations use of a weaponized DoJ to persecute and prosecute Trump after his announcement to run in the 2024 elections, only illuminates this partisan prejudice and acrimony. Lest we forget the NASP Select Committee on the Jan 6th protests, that selected, implicated, incriminated, indicted, and sentenced over 1,500 people to jail in Nancy Pelosi’s – CBS produced Sham Kangaroo Court: cost to the American Taxpayers – $32.7 million. This introduced and inured the Weaponization of the DoJ in Merka.

NASP operative spent nearly $200 million to get Trump:

– Jack Smith spent $50 million prosecuting Trump

– The DoJ spent $24 million prosecuting Trump

– Fani Willis spent $2.5 million

– Letitia James spent $23 million

– The Fed’s costs to ‘get’ Trump exceeds $100 million

So, after spending nearly $200 million on manufactured and trumped-up charges to disqualify and to keep Trump out of the White House for a second time. The NASP failed. The two campaigns spent about $3.5 billion on this election. With the help of a weaponized DoJ, they succeeded in convicting him of 34 felony counts, but the sentence was unconditionally discharged. All they really wanted was the political moniker of ‘Convicted Fellon’.

What price power?

And look at the cost of this foolish quest to append ‘convicted felon’ to Trump’s name which had no impact at all.

This is the result of NASP misleadership and carrying a grudge and Trump Derangement Syndrome. The public’s trust was the victim and the NASP cult, the loser. Oh, yes, let’s not forget our budget.

All this anger and effort: over $200 million taxpayer’s money, and #45 became #47 anyway in a landslide victory. Yes, this only a drop in the proverbial bucket, but it could have been used more productively, I’m sure.

The takeaway from this???

CON-gress – the opposite of progress has learned nothing. They continue to use the same tired tricks and ploys, attempting to affect changes in the government, and a majority of citizens have had enough of these games, yet congress persists.

There are axioms and sayings aplenty that address this wanton vendetta activity, but I’ll spare you. I’ll simply add this this behavior is like holding a live and pissed-off rattle-snake by the tail. Eventually it will bite you.

Fortunately, we all have a front-row seat to the melodrama. Unfortunately, these are some very expensive seats, but what else would you do with all that tax money.

This is only the first act in a four-year comedy. The DC barnyard is the venue, and this play appears on millions of ‘Alters of Enlightenment’ (portable digital communication devices) throughout this republic, orchestrated by the Partisan Political Parties moderated by the CMC.

What frightens these partisans most is that their nefarious and treacherous acts will be exposed.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” ~ Louis Brandies – Supreme Court Justice

Where this goes from here, is entirely up to the citizens of this republic. We hire the people that manage and administer this republic. They work for us, and they must follow our directions, or face being replaced, as in fired.

Although there is a proviso in the US Constitution that is usually interpreted to allow lying, readers and scholars need to read the entirety of that amendment – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I don’t believe that the framers of this republic envisioned the cavalier adaptation of this amendment to permit this wanton disregard for the moral tenets of this republic and the responsibility of the citizens to act accordingly, including elected and appointed officials.

I do think that a very strong warning to the hate-mongers in the DC Barnyard about their mendacious dialogue to the republic and the harm it’s causing.

In addition: I’d really like to see an investigation, and subsequent prosecutions for breach of oath for everyone in this administration.

Long Live the Republic.

February 6, 2025

~ 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!