“A New Day?” (May 18, 2020)

Across the USA our states are re-opening from the Covid-19 virus lockdown. The doors have been flung wide by our respective governors and our so-called President and it is time for the USA to “get back to work!” This is, of course, a serious issue. Families across our nation cannot afford not to work. The amount of savings in many family’s bank account is often less than two weeks of real wages. The economic stimulus given to help was often attached by creditors, or the IRS gave a tax credit for the new year, but no money now. My daughter who is in Australia received a $200 check from her college, even though she graduated almost 4 years ago. I told her we are returning the money. She said she needed it. I said, “Sorry sister. This money belongs to the US government and we will not take a cent of it.”

The amount of incompetence evident in the high places of government has been so exacerbated by this crisis as to be laughable, except it is so sad. Former President Obama highlighted this obvious problem in his speeches to two predominantly black college graduating classes. His comment provoked a firestorm in the Trump administration because his analysis hit so close to the reality of today. The reality of today is that from the beginning, except for the plan to build ventilators, the overall planned response of the Trump administration to the Covid-19 crisis “sucks!” Having never once used this word before in conversation, I do not know in type if it is supposed to be in parentheses or not. I am not the only person to say this.

Today, what caught my attention is the firing of Steve Linick, the State Department’s own inspector general. He is the government watchdog who was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the use of government staff for personal errands, as reported in the US media. He was also scrutinizing how Pompeo bypassed the US Congress to send millions of dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia. The obvious implication is some form of retaliation occurred, for which Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee is opening an investigation. Eliot Engel had requested that Steve Linick investigate Trump’s phony declaration of an emergency so that he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia. Pompeo apparently wanted Steve Linick pushed out before he could complete his investigation. Last month, Trump dismissed Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community. Mr. Atkinson is the same person who first alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment trial. There is a pattern here. Corruption cannot stand the laser of truth. Trump wants no light shed on his illegal activities, those he is doing and those of his partners in crime.

We have a lawless President who makes his own laws and ignores any scrutiny or attempted oversight of Congress. He pardons himself and any who help him in his criminal enterprise!

A lawless President operating in a nation of laws, checks and balances brings an imbalance of the scale of justice by which our democracy functions. In the human body such a cancerous influence would be cut out and its residue irradiated before it could infect the whole body, in order to save the body. The lawlessness of this President and his administration grows and infects every institution of democracy which has chosen to be silent regarding his wickedness and his poisoning effect on our commonwealth. The destruction of this commonwealth is intense. Were it not large, Trump would already have poisoned us all. But there is a residue of hopefulness in the coming election. What now is being described as a “dead heat” between two candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump will hopefully turn into a rout and a true constitutional mandate for the overcomer. If Joe Biden is elected, there is a glimmer of hope for this democracy. If he is defeated, this country’s democratic ideals and the rule of law, seeing justice for all and equality among many will be no more.   Trump will have transformed us into his own narcissistic image and we will all be dead, just like the marrow of Trump’s bones and the blood circulating in his blackened heart. I issue this dire warning because a dire warning is needed in this time.

This is one of the most important election cycles this country has ever known. Our democracy and our future as a nation is hanging in the balance. “Mene’ Mene’ Teckel Upharsin.” God has numbered the days of this kingdom and brought it to an end. This administration has been weighed in God’s balance and found wanting. This kingdom is divided and will be given to another. That very night Belshazzer the Chaldean was killed and Darius the Mede received his kingdom. (Wickipedia) This is an appropriate warning and metaphor for this administration. This administration led by Donald J. Trump has been weighed in God’s balance of justice and history and found wanting! It will soon be no more! “Amen!”

“Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

“Amen! We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!”

Bill Wilson, servant of God, by God’s grace and mercies. “Amen!”