Welcome to the sequel of T Unraveling. (The old thread was too long for the website app to support (167 pages) and we are now in a new era anyway.
So what is unraveling? Is it that T person? Or is it democracy?
I feel it is both. Before T is gone, democracy will have become but a shadow of its former self. (But it will still live on and reinvent itself in wonderful ways).
The damage he has done is the catalyst that sparks renewal, the forest fire that creates the nutrients for new life. Out of the ashes of his presidency, a new fighting spirit is rising up. Just as the COVID pandemic is sparking a love of society, of outdoor life, and a gratitude for family.
Going back to the days when many did not appreciate the freedoms we had: In 2005 I was alarmed to learn that 80% of 10th graders did not know the Bill of Rights. I drafted an article for my local paper expressing my alarm because what we take for granted can be taken from us. Meanwhile the Koch brothers had been building a Tea Party movement in America. And the GOP was gradually eroding the Constitution with impunity. Do you remember Bush's aide Karl Rove outed a CIA secret agent to punish her husband for revealing there were no WMD's. Rove was never punished for his crime.
So GOP breaking the rule of law was gradual, like slowly boiling froggie, and most people did not see what was happening to them and our democracy.
Until the orange one came into power.
Thanks to that man, we now know what it means to see democracy slipping away. We will get it back. We will! And we can thank that man for showing us what we are losing and what we need to retrieve.
But it will take time. What has taken the Koch Brothers forty years to achieve cannot be reversed in four years. But we need to remember that Americans have a fighting spirit that cannot be broken.
I saw years back that a calamity in 2020 would cause many to seek refuge in state and local government. That is happening now because of T's destruction and his Administration's unwillingness and inability to save people. He and his enablers will instead use the pandemic to break the rule of law further and make more profit for themselves.
The pandemic will eventually end, and when it does we will look to new heroes and leaders to rebuild. People will become more self reliant.
Years' back I saw this year's collapse coming. In a vision, our economic and emotional infrastructure collapsed although I did not anticipate a pandemic. Afterwards I saw that collectively we went into a chrysalis, a cocoon, where for the next five-seven years we rebuilt ourselves. Inside that cocoon, women were rising. The divine feminine in men were rising. And youth will rise.
Progressives will be rebuilding state and local infrastructure, and state and local governing bodies will be taking on more.
So this thread is a continuation of the Unraveling thread. It is about what is unraveling and what is rising up.
Jean, Do you think that the state and local governments take on a bigger role because they have to fill in the gap while the federal government recreates itself (The Trump administration has gutted the agencies and it's going to take some time to sort out all of the damage)? Or do you think the states take a bigger role because they separate from the federal government?
I agree with you that Trump and those like him (Boris Johnson, Putin, etc.) are facing the end to their unlimited power. For decades, they have lead to the systematic breakdown of our society by feeding the wealthy class's lust for more wealth and power, as well as a system of hatred against others and the government itself (think of Brexit, "building the wall," destroying Obamacare, etc.)
But I am extremely troubled by your timeline. Will it really take 8 years to get things turned around? Because it seems to suggest that Trump will stay as President after 2020. While I do not doubt our country's ability to eventually overcome the coronavirus and economic downturn, I sincerely doubt our ability to survive both of those issues so long as the Republicans and Trump remain in power.
I am honestly frightened right now, because it seems that even if millions of people die and our economy lies in ruins, Trump and the Republicans who support him will still be on top. And the damage that they create is worse than anything that the coronavirus and financial hardship can throw at us as a nation.
Think about this: if a regular person was president, states would not have to "be nice" and kiss up to the President to ask for medical aid. The President would simply send it because that is his job. Remember how Obama helped New Jersey during Super Storm Sandy even thought New Jersey was run by Republicans? Can you imagine if Obama withheld aid like Trump is doing?
My point is this. The coronavirus can kill our bodies. But Trump and the Republicans are killing our souls. Even when people are trying to come together during this time of crisis, Trump and the Republicans are still trying to sow division. Just today, McConnell blamed the Democrats for the coronavirus by suggesting that if the Democrats had not impeached Trump, then the country could have focused on the coronavirus.
So...when the Republicans voted to save Trump on February 3, 2020, what did Trump do for the rest of the month? Four additional weeks where he could have done something instead of saying the coronavirus was a hoax.
Please tell me that the eight years that you see is showing our country making it's slow yet steady rise back to the light and towards a period where people actually follow God's most important commandment (Love thy neighbor as thyself.) Because if Trump and his minions stay past 2020, I don't see how we can possibly survive. We have been exceedingly lucky so far, but only in that the ultrawealthy had helped mask the economy and made it seem that it was better than what it truly was (basically to keep Trump in the White House so they collect more money whilst the normal person works several low paying jobs and struggles to get health care.) But now we know just how fragile the economy is. And I guarantee that we will face more outbreaks in the future. Not just the coronavirus, but other potentially deadlier diseases. Do we really want to risk another four years and hope that Trump doesn't do something that kills us all?
Please tell me that the eight years that you see is showing our country making it's slow yet steady rise back to the light and towards a period where people actually follow God's most important commandment (Love thy neighbor as thyself.) Because if Trump and his minions stay past 2020, I don't see how we can possibly survive.
Yes, I see the good change you want. It has already begun. But change happens underneath the surface at first, undetectable, like the way the caterpillar morphs into a butterfly inside the chrysalis. For a long while you don't see what is going on. The change is happening beneath, but then in a short time, there is a critical mass effect and the collective rises up and the more beautiful world we all know is possible has occurred. The pandemic happened over night but it didn't happen over night. This collapse has been in the works for decades and I saw a 2020 collapse back in 2014. It was invisible yet it was coming. And the new world is also coming. It will happen when people stop focusing so much on the toxic ones and begin building their own better worlds at the state and local. But I don't have the plan, @allyn, I don't know every step. Just following a path of light.
You are clearly one of the more powerful light workers, my friend.
@allyn, I am a much slower writer than Jeanne, but I want to mirror her thoughts differently.
It's interesting to note Generation Y came of age during the aftermath of 9/11 and Generation Z is coming of age during and after the Pandemic. It is almost as if a crisis akin to what Hoover faced Trump now faces as well. It could not be the markets, history never repeats exactly, but it sure feels like it's the pandemic.
Both men loathe to do anything, both it turns out preferred trade wars and lacked communication skills, all with a nation suffering.
Why that's relevant is the aforementioned generations are also the ones the American Dream is a facade. Declining standard of living and declining life expectancy are the legacies they've been left. Trump has opened the door, wide, for two generations to take their anger and focus it. Two generations it so happens who have have the tools, purpose-driven and adaptability, to actually achieve what they want an not get sidetracked when rapid change is what's required.
As much as the T presidency is a slow-moving train wreck we can't seem to turn away, instead of waiting for the forest slowly die, I am really seeing T as the fire that causes the rot not to become merely visible, but also to burn itself out. Perhaps a better analogy then, say, draining the swamp - nothing good ever comes of that.
November will merely determine if what comes next is bulbs that are planted in the fall, or seeds started about now. The result is the same, life in spite of, and the hope it brings.
In the grand scheme, the eight years @jeanne-mayell sees is not a long time, there is a lot to put right, there is a lot to catch up for ideas started long before I was born.
just my two cents
@besoulinspired Last night while I was cleaning out half of the old articles I'd written on this website going back to 2011, I found an old draft article I'd started in 2013 entitled, Why People will Be Turning towards State and Local in the future." It was badly written and half finished but it came from my meditations on the future. I'd seen in meditations people walking away, literally migrating away from coastal cities, a return to the county. I'd seen images of rural life, "lazy in the countryside." Looked like scenes from old 1930's movies of people hanging out.
I wondered from these images if people had moved from cities to become more self sufficient. Real estate is cheaper and there is land to keep some livestock and grow some food. I also saw images of a dark cloud around Washington DC, and people saying they weren't listening to them any more. I felt people had become cynical about the feds, that they didn't serve the people, and so they began focusing on building the more beautiful world they know is possible rather than fighting and engaging with powerful elites.
So the people will decide to take care of themselves. And many of us have accountable state and local governments that will help them in their quest to become more self sufficient.
So while for a while most people will continue to live as before with little change, I saw a growing movement of self sufficiency. People learning to live on less so they can have more freedom from control. You know it wasn't that long ago in our history that many people kept some chickens and a cow even while living close to cities.
Some people think that predictions are just a way of spreading rumors. Well not me. I saw this stuff unexpectedly years back and so I'm sharing it. If it comes true, then it comes true. If it doesn't then I was wrong. But it isn't a calamity. It looks okay to me.
I do not see Trump being re-elected, If he even makes it to the election. I see weirdness around the election too. I don't see Biden, if he is elected, being the POTUS for long. I've felt there will be either a VP who takes over for him or a panel of sorts in our future. It's still unclear to me exactly what and how all this shakes out.
I just got off the phone with a gal at another company in Texas because of my job (never spoke to her before) and she freely talked about how much she and her friends in Austin admire Cuomo, Newsome and Wittmer - the 3 dem governors during this crisis. She also admitted she wants Trump gone. Wow....TEXAS and someone I have never spoken to through work!
The changes we need here in government won't just take 4 years, but will be gradual over time - 8 years feels right regardless of the next POTUS. There is light at the end of the tunnel folks!
I agree it will take a long time to rebuild not only our government but the confidence of the people in the government. Luckily we elected a Dem governor last November. He has been on top of this from the start, unlike our wonderful Congressmen, McConnell, Rand Paul and Massie who are total greedy idiots! I believe the way the Orange moron is handling this and especially these ridiculous daily freak shows will do a lot to wake people up as to how bad a leader he is. Iknow he has his "followers" and he always will, but just remember we outnumber them. He tratment of the governors he doesn't like and refusal to tell the truth will be his undoing.
On an upbeat note. There was a post on twitter this morning (I imit myself t one read only) a gentleman posted that his company has started making mask and PPE' they were ready to ship but were told not to because FEMA has to negotiate the price with the medical community. The CEO of the company said "F this we are donating this equipment, ship it direct to the hospitals and they did. I believe we will see more companies run by people with a conscience start to do this. It will take all of the community together to get this done.
@triciact, for the past three days my hubby has been saying "I don't see Biden as President.' He's been seeing more of a blank slate. I have felt that too. Nor have I seen T reelected. And, like you, I still possibly see a "panel of legislators" in the WH. Like you, I see weirdness around the election. Many of us on this site have talked about this before.
This morning I got a flash of T dressed in a bunny suit, basket of eggs in hand, being carted off and transported somewhere. Kind of an Easter surprise -- but perhaps that's wishful thinking on my part. Or maybe it was one of my irreverent guides communicating an eventual truth, but with his wicked sense of humor.