Photo: Trump and Netanyahu
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 12:20 p.m.
Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century naturalist, essayist and poet, wrote that “most men live lives of quiet desperation.” I have always been fascinated with this quote, and as I grow older I fully understand what he meant. We are so careful to keep our emotions bottled up, to create that misconception that we are in charge, to always be the alpha male! And now, when women are finally taking over, as they should, economically, financially (there’s a difference between the 2), and are on par with men in most fields, that quiet desperation grows. Some men keep their cool and unwillingly accept this new reality, while others erupt and become abusive and defensive and defiant and unhinged.
Two men come to mind when I think of that quote these days: Trump and Netanyahu! Neither of them are living quietly, but are announcing their desperation from the rooftops, for everyone to see and hear and feel.
Trump is running for the presidency to stay out of jail, and Netanyahu is committing atrocities against a defenseless people, extending the length of a one-sided war, to stay out of jail. I personally don’t believe that either one will succeed in avoiding jail time, but the havoc they are both wreaking will be consequential and long-lasting and detrimental to both America and Israel.
Trump, the most unqualified man ever to be president of the United States, who made us the laughingstock of the world with his outrageous pronouncements, his inability to tell the truth, his contempt for the military, his hatred for minorities, his admiration of tyrants, his uber narcissistic personality, and his total contempt for law and order, disqualifies himself from ever holding any position again, especially not the presidency. The other night at his fundraiser, he wondered out aloud why we can’t have immigrants from places like Sweden; in other words, white countries, not from those countries whose migrants are poisoning our blood!
He has been often compared to Hitler. I disagree; I think he’s more like Nero, listening to Lee Greenwood’s song, “God Bless the USA”, while America burns, with the flame from the matchstick that he lit. Nero believed that he was a god; Trump believes he’s the messiah, and is encouraged along those lines with the support of so-called evangelicals. They have all abandoned the teachings of the Christ to follow this Pied Piper of illusions and delusions! A man with no [limits of] moral turpitude, no character, unfeeling and unfettered on his journey to Jim Joneshood!
Netanyahu, who encouraged Qatar to keep on funding Hamas; who supported Hamas, in order to deny the Palestinian Authority their right to rule the West Bank and Gaza. Netanyahu, who attempted to change the rules of governing by trying to water down the authority of Israel’s Supreme Court to be the check and balance against his government’s illegal actions! Netanyahu, who failed to protect his people from a band of terrorists who committed unspeakable acts against people in the border areas for 9, 10 hours, without any intervention! Netanyahu, who keeps encroaching on Palestinian lands, who is pulverizing Gaza into an unrecognizable landscape. His is not a life of quiet desperation; maybe, once he’s confined in a padded cell, it will be quieted down.
In spite of all the chaos that they have rained down on this fragile world, we, the people, will survive this abomination, this rough beast that is slouching towards Bethlehem, to quote Yeats. We, the people will stop these wannabe dictators in their tracks, these prophets of doom whose only purpose in life is self-survival, the hell with the rest of us!
Meanwhile, I will continue to live and love my life of quiet desperation, while the women of this country, and the world, step in to save us from ourselves, one more time!
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” — The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.
Glen