Somebody has to care about our neighbouring republic. It is being torn apart by strife and greed and ignorance. The Americans started 2021 by letting the zoo’s inmates attack the nation’s Capitol. The Trump is working from his lair in Florida plotting his return. And the only person we trust to tell us what is going on there is the Toronto Star’s Edward Keenan. The guy has come into his own as Washington Bureau chief for the Toronto newspaper and has been doing a superb job.
It is not as though we do not have family and friends in many parts of the U.S. We can call anytime and ask how things are going. The answer always seems to start with: ‘Oh God.’ And it is the same whether they are democratic supporters or republican or born-again or never-again or from the boonies of the west or the cities of the east. You do know there are people who believe what Donald Trump is telling them? And what he is saying is more than enough to cause concern.
At the moment the strife can be referred to as the ‘phony war.’ Both sides think they are fighting the pandemic. And they are losing that war as well. With over 50 million recorded incidents of the disease already, the country is closing on a million pandemic deaths. The most serious disappointment is that the anti-vaxxers are not the only ones dying from the disease.
Keenan wrote recently about the past year and says that the outlook is not good. He doesn’t go as far as to discuss the potential for civil war. It just seems unreasonable to have all those goddamn guns everywhere and not use them on your fellow Americans.
Keenan describes 2021 in the U.S.A. as the same as being on a year-long bender. Though it is hard to say how much is alcohol. It is hard to understand why Biden is having problems with democratic politicians.
In an honest admission, Keenan reports that 2021 has not been a good year for Joe Biden. And he doesn’t think 2022 is going to be any better.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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