For those who don't, when the first World Trade Center tower in NYC (WTC1) had a passenger jet horrifically slam into it on September 11, 2001, it at first was taken to be merely a terrible, one-off accident.
But as soon as the VERY SAME THING happened to the other twin tower, WTC2, just minutes later, we all knew this was no accident; and that whatever we knew about the whole damn world up to that point, it would from this point on be quite disquietingly different.
We have since relaxed a little bit on that front, but other nefarious developments have ensued.
A few short weeks ago, as with the attack on WTC1 (in this case, the goal of POTUS being: All Dissent Must Die), Paramount Pictures responded to what essentially amounted to a Cease and Desist order (yet of no greater heft than simply a reading of the tea leaves of the current US executive branch's communications team). It decreed the end of a multi-generational TV franchise known as Late Night, effectively silencing the most potent voice of dissent - that enjoys perhaps the greatest reach - and imbues itself with the most moral, intelligent, US-patriotic heart, Stephen Colbert.
Now, do either Colbert or Kimmel really have the same reach through legacy mass media as their contemporary online "influencers" and other web-based media personalities have with the youth demographic? Or with the people who can move the needle on the raw societal power that dictates whether a regime holds on, or gets toppled? I'm not sure, but I'm thnking that the late Charlie Kirk and his Super PAC Trump fundraising organization certainly did.
I called it over a year ago: American democracy is effectively dead, and a slew of alarmingly dubious subsequent SCOTUS decisions have since supported that hypothesis, sacrificing long-standing and hard-fought principles to the dictates of the current dictator, justice bedamned.
As a Canadian with friends and family tied to both our countries, it makes me very sad to realise this is where the USA is at. I can only presume that we Canadians must work hard and fast to extricate ourselves from this exploding meth lab from hell that is happening on the other side of the border.
Hoping beyond hope that I'm doomsayin' and totally chicken-littlin' and y'all good real American patriots who see the true-true of ths situation are still able to get yinselves outta it. (no disrespect; it's just how my old school-age buddy Doug McClelland - transplanted to Sherbrooke, Quebec in the 1980s from western Pennsylvania - would've said it.)
I hope yins're okay, Doug, wherever you are. Thank you for sharing your beautiful bluegrass Appalachian heritage with me way back when. Would that we could continue to share and prosper and understand each other across this long border with such ease and grace as you and I knew back then.
Peace out.
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