Give Them Bread and Circuses and They Will Never Revolt…

The recent Trump trial was quite a circus, I’m thinking. I couldn’t watch it; and it is painful to read the commentaries on both sides.

The crowned clown played the part of the persecuted political opponent. Did this just happen in America? And a jury of his “peers” voted him guilty of those horrible "crimes" – 34 felonies!

His crimes? Did he divert a public record request by keeping his public servant e-mails onto a personal account and away from the public eye?  No? Or maybe he stored presidential records, as a vice-president, in his unsecured, home garage? Not that either? Oh, maybe he bragged at a CFR meeting about withholding aid (one billion dollars!) to Ukraine to Force the firing of the Prosecutor who was investigating Burisma which had a board member earning an insane amount of money who was a crack-head, gun-applying American with no experience in energy or understood the Ukrainian language? Remember that one in 2018? No, not that either?

What were the charges again – playing around with the accounting records over a decade ago to COVER UP HUSH MONEY with Stormy. Sounds like a clear case of lawfare in America.

America, GONE WRONG: The treasured Constitution failed to restrain big government, or We the People Failed to monitor the Constitution and allowed the federal government to grow uncontrollable. Way Too Big. Either way, Americans failed to uphold the Constitution’s ideal of limited government. America is a failed state. Let that sink in. The “Anti-Federalists” did try to warn us through The-Anti-Federalist-Papers. Perhaps we should look to the Anti-Federalists for wisdom out of this mess?

In Satire X written in the early 2nd century A.D. (aka CE), Juvenal wrote “They shed their sense of responsibility Long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob That used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything, Curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only, Bread and circuses.”

Juvenal was born about the same time as the tyrant, Nero, around 38 A.D. [although some say 55-60 A.D.] and he lived in Rome during  the cruel reign of Domitian (81- 96 A.D) and under more humane emperors  Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), and Hadrian (117–138) whom historians called moderate rulers.  Historians say his poet friend, Martial, described him as a poor dependent, living off of rich men.

Around 100 years prior to Juvenal’s birth, historians credit the “progressive activist” Gracchus brothers with the idea of redistributing the wealth, first with the ideas of Tiberius Gracchus, followed by his younger brother, Gaius Gracchus. They fostered the idea to redistribute the wealth to the poor, beginning in 133 B.C. (aka BCE) through the “reforms.” The reforms led to dependency of the poor on the government and contributed to the beginning of the idea to  debase the money supply during the end days of the Republic/early days of the Empire, along with corrupt politicians living the “good life” with uncontrolled immigration and endless warfare. Sound familiar? Creating Dependency on the Government becoming Too Big Will Fail.

It was an age when dictators were transforming the former Roman Republic into a decadent society that mirrors America’s own decadent society today, a society where anything goes – be it rampant crime or corrupt and hypocritical politicians - in the same bubbling cauldron of a social melting pot, just waiting to erupt into madness.

Juvenal wrote, “I now proceed to speak of the nation specially favoured by our wealthy compatriots, one that I shun above all others. I shan’t mince words. My fellow Romans, I cannot put up with a city of Greeks; yet how much of the dregs is truly Achaean? The Syrian Orontes has long been discharging into the Tiber, carrying with it its language and morals and slanting strings, complete with piper, not to speak of its native timbrels.”

Human nature’s desire to be self-serving remains the same in 2024 as in 124 A.D.  No one has figured out how to “cure” avarice or megalomania yet. Sure, there may be a genuine leader and reformer (a philosopher king) along the way (i.e., Marcus Aurelius) but even his presence is rare and unlikely to continue in a succeeding generation, and Marcus Aurelius was not happy with how his son, Commodus,  turned out.

MSNBC recently said,  "But the claims of liberal lawfare are mere GOP gaslighting."  Really? I disagree,  but where is that comment button?

Oh, that’s right. CNN, MSNBC, & other mainstream media outlets got rid of the comment button back in 2014, during the Michael Brown riots.  Digital Fox News capitalized on the comments feature even with headlines like Fox News cherry picks their comments.  Do Not Question the Narrative - “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” At least Fox News still allows comments!

Remember in 2014 when the town of Ferguson posted the transcript that there would be no grand jury indictment of Officer Wilson so we could all read the witness statements that clearly showed that Michael Brown tried to reach for Officer Wilson’s gun?  Meanwhile, police cars were on fire and Ferguson was burning. Even Obama's DOJ exonerated Officer Darren Wilson.

At what do we admit that the Anti-Federalists were right? A republic…if you can keep it? Well, I hate to say can’t but…lawfare is standard game now? So, what’s next?

Must we pat our comrades on the back while we refuse to be arrested for not having signed up for that special certificate (registration) when our [blue] state outlawed owning a particular rifle? “We’ll grandfather you in as long as you sign up for the certificate.” How is that not registration, again? So, that makes a law-abiding, hard-working, self-reliant, taxing paying American become a lawbreaker, something that should never happen in America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. What part of “shall not be infringed” do They not understand? Registration is the next step to confiscation.

“When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?”

It’s time to acknowledge that America is no longer a free state, and she has fallen under tyrannical rule. How many more examples do we need? A media fit for Pravda, Forever Wars started under false pretenses, lawfare and continued persecution of political prisoners, NIH director lying under oath to Congress, but nothing happens to him while Peter Navaro still sits in jail, House Representative Rashida Tlaib speaking on behalf of terrorist organizations or the corrupt, career politician and James Brown look-alike, Maxine Waters, calling for confrontation towards those who disagree with them, the attempted murder of a USSC justice,  FBI/CIA abuse and election interference, spending $$ we do not have to fight for other countries when America’s own border laws are not enforced, the list never ends.

The current Administration advocates Harm to some of our confused minor children – they are being mutilated and chemically castrated by so called doctors and We the People sit by and watch? Surely, we have lost our way.

When does IT end? When We the People have had enough free bread and are tired of the same old circus performance, that is truly tragic at this point? I’m waging a bet that most of the people reading this do not accept free bread. So, we are paying for slackers to eat our hard-earned bread, and then later attempt to carjack our car. When does IT end?

America is a Failed State. Acknowledgement is the first step towards a solution.