A Threat to Democracy
Browsing: Opinions
Florida may be known as the Sunshine State but there’s a cloudy undercurrent in the state’s legal system that most people are unaware of—a loophole in the law that allows one parent to manipulate custody arrangements without facing civil penalties. This gap in the law, which constitutes a “parental manipulation exemption,” has dire consequences for children and custodial parents. It creates a legal environment where the emotional and psychological well-being of children is put at risk, and it’s time for Florida to take decisive action to close this loophole.
“…People know that something’s wrong; Everybody oughta know winter…The truth is there ain’t nobody fighting; Because, well nobody knows what to save, Brother, save your soul; Lord knows it’s winter in America. The Constitution, a noble piece of paper; With free society; Well, they struggled but they died in vain; And now democracy is ragtime on the corners; On the cord, hoping it’d rain…” – Winter In America – Gil Scott-Heron
When conceding the presidential election to Donald Trump, Kamala Harris told supporters gathered at Howard University that they needed to keep up the fight for freedom. She said, “the fight for our freedom will take hard work. But . . . we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work.”
Maybe our national healing can start with our families, around the holiday table.
In The Delusions of Crowds, author William Bernstein comments, “The current polarization of American society cannot be fully understood without a working knowledge of the… dispensationalist [End Times] narrative,” which predicts a period of “Tribulation,” the second coming of Christ and the “Rapture” by which righteous Christians ascend to heaven.
We have just elected a cruel and ruthless monster who represents the worst of humanity and I feel my blood vessels pulsing with rage. I’m boiling with fury at the misguided electorate who were duped into thinking that a billionaire criminal had their interests at heart. Most of them don’t even know what a tariff is (or a fascist).
Donald Trump thinks the world of tariffs. “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” Trump said in September at a town hall event in Michigan. On another occasion he said “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the English language. Hmm. And he really has had a love affair with tariffs. After all, they mark his entry into national politics. Back in the mid-1980s, his one big gripe was the trade deficit with Japan. Then China became the target, and while president, Trump kept raising tariffs with China in the belief China would bend a knee and surrender. It didn’t, and Biden has been stuck in a tariff war ever since.
Sometimes, the major military powers cope with the explosive global situation by making deals with one another―although such deals rarely create the basis for a peaceful world. For example, the August 23, 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (better known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact) provided for détente between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, two highly-militarized nations that had previously been at odds. In this secret protocol, Hitler and Stalin agreed to share Poland and give Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and other East European territory to the Soviet Union. On September 1, Germany invaded western Poland, thereby beginning World War II. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union took action to seize its own share of the spoils. As early as July 1940, however, the German High Command began planning its invasion of the Soviet Union, which occurred the following June, ending this cozy arrangement.
After nearly a decade of growling and bombast, Donald Trump rode a patriarcha-saurus back into the White House. Why that dinosaur wasn’t winded, exhausted, and ultimately defeated will be studied by historians for a long time. Even as we nurse our psychic wounds, the responsibility of redoubling our efforts to hasten the end of patriarchy is still on us. Dinosaurs just aren’t that smart.