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Scary—Whether True or Not

2/28/2025

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I have heard about interviews with Republican members of Congress who were asked why Republicans weren’t standing up to Trump in order to moderate his behavior.
 
The purported response was they and their families are being threatened, I assume with physical harm.
 
Now I have not seen this report, nor have I come across any discussion of it so I can’t verify its veracity.
 
But, if it is true, it is about as scary as it is possible to be and would be direct proof our country is racing into dictatorship.
 
But even if it is not true, it’s incredibly scary.
 
Why? Because I have no difficulty in believing in the possibility of such a situation being set up by those in charge.
 
Do I really think there are thousands of individuals who would have no difficulty in carrying out assassinations if asked to do so?
 
Absolutely. Now I hope I’m correct in assuming the vast majority of Republicans and MAGA Kool Aid drinkers would be repulsed by such actions. If that’s not true, then our country truly is lost.
 
But is it really reasonable to believe, as I do, that there are thousands of nut jobs ready to line up and kill? I claim “yes.” After all, we’ve had plenty of evidence supporting the position.
 
For example, how about vehicle drivers who plow into peacefully protesting demonstrators who are expressing the “wrong” point of view?
 
Or how about the thousands who attacked the capitol on January 6, 2021? The ones pardoned by Donald Trump, automatically creating a fanatical group of loyalists who already have demonstrated no problem violating the law and attacking our democracy. A group many of whom purchased guns on their first day of freedom.
 
Or how about the Neo-Nazis who take over roads and threaten travelers?
 
The list can go on and on.
 
And, unfortunately, it doesn’t take millions of individuals to cause havoc and create enough fear to subdue any desire to protest. Several thousand, not millions, should suffice,
 
It’s not hard to envision a plan where willing assassins are distributed throughout the country, looking to uncover those disloyal. To me the following scenario makes sense. A tip comes about someone daring to challenge the president’s policies. Now imagine some leader of such a unit receiving this information and then assigning a “fixer” who will follow up by taking his gun and initiating a confrontation.
 
As recently as three months ago I would never have dreamed of such a system. Now I realize that it is a definite possibility.
 
And, as I’ve indicated, being able to imagine that is scary indeed.

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Cruelty

2/18/2025

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The words “cruel” and “cruelty” have been passing through my mind with regularity lately. Pretty obvious why, I’m sure.
 
One dictionary definition of cruelty is: “callous indifference to or pleasure in causing pain and suffering.”
 
A second is: “behavior that causes physical or mental pain to others and makes them suffer, especially deliberately.”
 
The result of an act of cruelty can be devastating.
 
Especially to any at whom it has been directed.
 
But what about the person fostering the act? What does that person feel? 
 
I originally thought I could get an idea. Because certainly I have been what I consider cruel at times. I have become unfairly angry because of some minor problem. Perhaps I took my frustration out on an unfortunate representative of a company whose policy annoyed me and for whom the representative had no recourse but to follow the company line. I have become impatient with store clerks who couldn’t help me find the item I desired.
 
So how did it make me feel when I returned to a more rational state?
 
Not good. I recognized my bad behavior had hurt the individual who just happened to be in the way of my ire. I did not think highly of myself. If it was still possible, I apologized. I had been cruel, and it certainly didn’t make me feel good about myself.
 
But had I been cruel? All this remorse I felt seemed to fly in the face of the definitions given above. Where was the “callous indifference,” or “pleasure in causing pain and suffering,” or “makes them suffer, especially deliberately?”
 
Maybe there were better words than cruelty to describe my actions. Perhaps stupidity, selfishness, impatience or several others that seem to work. But, bad as my actions were, there was never any desire to hurt. At least I hope not.
 
I think truer examples of cruelty, examples that satisfy the definitions that include lack of caring about the people inflicted, can be found in our current national leadership. There are new examples emerging every day, coming so fast it’s hard to keep up.
 
Take the entire federal workforce, their retirement and security that had seemed so safe now threatened by fears of being fired.
 
Or the Dreamers who have spent the vast portion of their lives in the United States and are faced with removal to a country they don’t really know and certainly no longer is theirs. To make it worse, in Florida and some other states following the party line, Dreamers who are pursuing higher education have their hopes shattered because, without warning or reason, the state has decided to no longer permit them to pay in-state tuition.
 
Or all the illegal immigrants who face deportation to unsafe countries, perhaps with their children or perhaps not. Agreed, they are not here lawfully and this presents problems that must be solved, but they are humans with fears and aspirations like all of us.
 
All cruel examples, at least as far as the fostering of pain and suffering is concerned.
 
Now the question is, do those creating these and other situations feel any concern for those affected. Do people like Donald Trump or Elon Musk give one second’s thought to the plight of those they are targeting?
 
Or do those Trump has appointed to positions of power. Less clear, but they have already chosen the low road, putting aside any personal inclinations of decency in order to walk in the Master’s trail.
 
I have observed no feelings of concern or remorse from these and so many others.
 
So it turns out we have leaders and followers who are cruel according to the full definition of cruelty.
 
How can they live with themselves?
 
What pitiful beings they are!

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