Greetings and Salutations.
We are now 4 days from the Inauguration of #45 as President again. The next four years are looking bleaker and bleaker, I am sorry to say. I do not know if it is advancing dementia, or just the wild fantasies of an unrepentant narcissistic, but for the past few weeks he has been pushing an insane plan to grow the size of the United States by acquiring Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and several other countries. The blow-back he is getting for this has caused many Liberals to become far more vocal in their anger towards him and the deluded cultists who put him back into office. This lead to the following, lengthy post in one of the Democracy groups I am a member of on Facebook. Not only is it accurate, it includes links to evidence supporting each comment.

“An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’

THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en mass:

1. That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought “Fine.” (Here is the evidence! )
2. That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay.” (Here is the evidence! )
3. That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem.” (Here is the evidence!)
4. That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.” (Here is the evidence!)
5. That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you exclaimed, “He sure knows me.” (Here is the evidence!)
6. That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, “That’s cool!” (Here is the evidence!)
7. That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (Here is the evidence!)
8. That when you heard him brag that he doesn’t read books, you said, “Well, who has time?” (Here is the evidence!)
9. That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.” (Here is the evidence! {Paywall})
10. That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!” (Here is the evidence!)
11. That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!” (Here is the evidence!)
12. That you have watched the parade of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!”(Here is the evidence!)
13. That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.” (Here is the evidence!)
14. That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!” (Here is the evidence!)
15. That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!” (Here is the evidence!)
16. That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense.” (Here is the evidence! {Paywall})
17. That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!” (Here is the evidence!)
18. That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they’re just “animals” – and you say, “Well, OK then.” (Here is the evidence!)
19. That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGS hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.(Here is the evidence! )

What you don’t get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also…hear me…charitable.

Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

(To all who agree with its content, PLEASE SHARE IT on your own post, and ENCOURAGE OTHERS to do the same.)”

I do not know what the future will bring, alas. I HOPE that my overwhelming sense of foreboding is overblown and the future I see will not happen. I, for one, have no desire to live in a fascist society, whose “leader” apparently wants to use Putin and Russia as his model for growth. If for no other reason, I am likely to be one of the many that are swept up by the storm troopers, and dragged off to one of the “Reeducation Camps”. So…I believe we all must follow the examples set by our history when society has been presented with an autocratic Ruler, who looks upon us as serfs.

We must choose to NOT Obey before we are forced to do so. We must choose to Resist…and Persist in that resistance as long as we can. This will not be easy. It will not be painless. But, if we want Democracy to survive..and return to being “government FOR the people, By the people” it is vital that we stand strong together.

These are some actions I recommend…feel free to suggest others in comments, and integrate them into your rules for life:

• Be politically active. This includes everything from simply getting to the polls and voting for candidates that will preserve democracy, to contributing to those candidates (either time or money), to discussing politics in a mindful way with others – especially with those that do not vote in a majority of elections. This is important to do because it can cause cultists to take a fresh look at their beliefs, and the non-voter to remember WHY it is vital that they cast a vote.
• Vote Smart. Find out what the candidates have done..either inside or outside of politics, before voting for them. This is, of course, important because the better one knows another person, the better one’s judgement about their honor, their truthfulness, and their likely actions will be.
• Stay in contact with your government from the local to the federal levels. Take a few minutes to find out what actions are being taken, and communicate with your elected representatives about them…Remember to send positive affirmations as well as negative criticisms. This is vital because, without feedback, ALL politicians will believe that their actions are ordained by God, and, so are perfect. Without feedback, they will believe that they have 100% support for what they are doing. Elected politicians have a pretty cushy job that gives them a lot of power and the option to make a lot of money. Our vote though can throw them out on the street, to get a real job…and that can be scary.
• Resist any actions that erode the power of the Constitution, the rights it brings to every citizen, and the ability of the people to vote.
• Be mindful. Be aware of what you are saying and doing, continually asking yourself if your actions erode the rights of others; are supporting the best candidate; and are moving society in a positive direction.
• As part of the “mindful” view of reality…question everything. Do not accept what is told you by someone else without asking “what is the evidence that supports what you have told me”. Granted, it is much easier to read a post on social media, and get angry about the issue, than it is to find out if the post is based in truth, or a lie. However, again, if we are going to make good decisions we HAVE to find out the motivations of the poster, and if the post is evidence-based.

If you have any questions about the above suggestions, remember – a good Search Engine (Google, for example) is your friend. You can easily take a few seconds and discover everything you need to know about a given post. The Internet is a vast cyber-ocean that has data about almost anything on it. Just to remind you, though, to be more sure about what you are finding, it is vital to find three, independent sources that confirm the truth of a “fact”.

God help us ALL!

Bee Man Dave