My usual Saturday morning involves a cup of coffee or three. A leisurely scan of the Media Info Feeds (MIFs). And some contemplation on the alleged news as I awaken to the chaos. A noticeable lack of integrity in the morning’s observation haunted me as I read several articles. My disappointment with our lack of moral direction has been with me for some time, but today was especially bitter. We’ve crossed the line from unacceptable to “you’ve got to be shitting me!”

Deceit and dishonesty supplant American virtue, erasing the line dividing principle and ambiguity. I wonder, did we stagger into this quagmire alone, or did someone lead us over this cliff? Who’s holding the reigns?

Our moral deficiency is crucial because it impacts everything America espoused, especially our example as a world leader. We effectively transitioned from a symbol of liberty to a shining example of how to ruin a country.

Funny, here’s another misnomer – world leader.

Who’s leading who?

America is playing championship-level; follow the moron, or is it where’s Bungles the Clown.

The absurdity is that we’ve pursued some lunatic notions that money and celebrity make people wise and that education outweighs common sense.

We take our cues from paid political mercenaries with a nationwide partisan party pulpit and a booming voice. Technology that could unify us is used to spread the seeds of sedition and derision – all in the pursuit of power.

Logic and practicality prescribe a prudent course, but silver-tongued carpetbaggers and charlatans lusting for control cajole us away from that judicious course with promises best defined as pipe dreams and outright lies. They promise the liberties and rights we already have and are willing to trade for a better ideology. One that guarantees that we’ll all be equal and that equality will lead to freedom and safety.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.” Franklin’s comment holds true for equality and any other liberties we willingly ignore, bargain away, or customize to recover what we never lost. We still have our rights; we’ve foolishly neglected them or never renewed our ownership.

There is an American idiom – “Freedom is not free.”

I’ll add – Nothing worth having is free. It requires effort before it’s appreciated.

We are laughable buffoons to forget that we already have what these snake-oil peddlers promise. Look at the controversies in the news. Everyone is based on an outright lie or an intentional misinterpretation of fact.

Is that integrity?

Unfortunately, it is what we’ve come to expect.

It’s what we accept as integrity.

Sure we complain loudly. We protest. We tweet, text, and post nascent left-handed threats. We make impotent comments, but nothing ever comes of it. We think that poking the bear is enough. Some even dare to brandish a disapproving bumper sticker. Yet, this country’s owners know that it will go no further.

We’ll talk the talk but never walk the walk.

If you don’t understand, ask a Vietnam Veteran to explain it.

It’s clear we’ve lost our moral compass. You know, the one we used a couple of hundred years ago when we declared our independence and wrote our constitution. The definitive wording of these documents validates the moral character and intent of the authors. They, the authors and manuscripts, entreat us to share their vision for this opportunity for a new country to be better stewards of the freedom they endeavored to secure.

We squandered their gift of liberty.

Everyone asks the same fundamental question.

What’s happened to this country?

I’ve written about this topic so many times I’ve lost count. I’ve approached it from all possible angles, aspects, and directions, hoping to make my point. It didn’t work. My obtuse approach obviously failed to carry the message. So as Mr. Shakespeare said: “Once more unto the breach…”

I had a brief conversation with Friend Bennett this morning about a common issue in our lives. I won’t explain further, but that conversation leads straight to the point of integrity. No, not with Friend Bennett, but regarding this country. Friend Bennett and I are both separately embroiled with Factory Medicine on personal levels.

This piece is about the pervasive corruption problems, not with any specific aspect or agency but with America in general. It would prove impractical to detail such an extensive list. So I’ll deal in generalities for the time being.

Integrity:

1. Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

2. The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the empire’s integrity.

3. A sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship’s hull.

My comments are primarily about the first definition regarding morality, ethics, and honesty.

America lies fractured on the battlefield of fact. Salvos of deceit streak overhead, loaded with half-truths and misrepresentations of events twisted to sell the agenda and reinforce preceding lies. Each side whittles away at the probity and credibility of the other, hoping to deal a critical disabling blow – a blow that will prove their righteousness to the world – even if they have to lie.

The old axiom – “When engaging in a battle of wits, ensure your opponent is armed” applies to all sides. The sheer folly of this exercise demonstrates we haven’t learned anything from the past 250 years of our history. Our tenure as a country is the blink of an eye compared to the world’s roughly 5,000 years of recorded history.

But, there is one certainty.

We haven’t learned anything.

No one engaged in this battle seems aware of the downside. No one will admit there will be no victor, and everyone stands to lose a great deal of credibility and power. But, as in every partisan war, the ultimate losers are the country’s citizens where the battles occur – America, in our case.

A June 2022 study by the Migration Policy Institute indicated that America currently hosts over 11 million unauthorized immigrants from 150 countries. Apparently, as morally bankrupt as America is, we are still far better than the 150 countries that contribute their citizens through America’s “closed” borders.

* FYI – There are only 195 countries on this planet, meaning that 25% of the countries are run well enough that their populations are happy where they are, OR their citizens use legal means to emigrate.

The United Nations named the US – Mexico border the most dangerous in the world.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Are our borders really closed – secured – protected as we’re told?

Honestly, there are technicalities involved here obfuscating the facts. Stating that something exists does not make it so. Saying that the border is closed differs from functionally closing the border, yet that is the formality in play. It involves semantics – of, relating to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols.

Some people call semantics word-play – it’s seriously no game.

During one of my contract engagements, I remarked that I was anti-semantic. A well-meaning cretin reported me to HR for announcing that I hated Jews. I spent hours explaining the nuance and double entendre in this word-play to the highly educated HR representative.

I said semantic, not Semitic. A lengthy explanation ensued.

Dictionary.com lists six definitions for ‘closed’ – each appropriate but different in interpretation. The semantics of ‘closed’ is the legal and linguistic choreography our government uses to avoid blatant lies. It implies that access is regulated even though functionally wide open in reality – there are no impediments or restrictions.

This syntactic dichotomy allows that America’s border is legally closed but wide open for all intents and purposes because they choose not to enforce the law. Think about the powerful messaging sent to the world by our commander-in-chief.

Stay home, but welcome to America.

Situations like this are all too frequent in our antagonistic and semantic country. The old description for this practice was splitting hairs, but we’ve also taken this to a new level.

This single instance in the ocean of hypocrisy has far-reaching implications. Not only is this a violation of our constitution, but it represents a “flying fickle finger of fate” to every citizen in every state along the southern border.

By his command, Bungles the Clown encouraged unfettered access to all of North America through its border with Mexico. Over eleven million undocumented inhabitants already, plus 157,555 through June 2022. The numbers are climbing every month.

It isn’t just the number of illegal crossers; it’s the drugs they bring into the country – the most dangerous of all is Fentanyl manufactured in China, India, and Mexico.

Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than Morphine.

Overdose deaths hit 107,000 in 2021 and are already on track to exceed that number in 2022.

So far, more Fentanyl was seized in the first five months of 2022 than in all of 2021.

In my non-legally trained mind, when Bungles the Clown opened the southern border to the United States, he became responsible for every death that resulted from the drugs and thugs that crossed the border illegally.

That means that Joe Biden, aka Bungles the Clown, is a murderer!

July 14, 2022

~ 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; were 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!

That’s Charlie… a proud, opinionated, and passionate American.