THIS Is America's Problem - Or "Y'all Have Red Hands Now"

This is pretty much why we are at this point in history right now.

Racism.

I'll say it again: racism.

Some people were more put off by the thought of voting for an intelligent, competent black woman for president than for a would-be dictator who previously tried to hijack his own country at the end of his first term - no matter what Project 2025 (which had been public for several years by that point) said he was going to do in his second term, and which minority groups and other countries would be negatively affected by their decision.

They decided to put their votes behind a man with a history of financial grift, a string bankruptcies, abusive behavior towards women, actual rape and human trafficking - and as it happens, turned out to be a pedophile and defender and enabler of pedophiles. The fact that he's also a pathological liar, a narcissist and flagrant warmonger lighting wildfires wherever his gaze falls, seems to have come as a complete surprise to most of them.

Imagine being an American voter confronted with a choice between two candidates - one who can debate eloquently and coherently, who can answer all questions put to her with reasonable answers, with a sterling history of public service behind her - and a buffoon who blurts out word-salad, mocks disabled people, and on January 6, 2020 tried to steal an election - and a second term with it.

Tell me again how the neo-Nazis concerns are all about "protecting women and children". From what? Who will protect us from YOU?

It wasn't about the "groceries" or the "egg prices" - it was the fact that Trump was white - well, orange - but mostly white underneath, probably - and Kamala Harris wasn't - and that resonated with their lingering "Obama Derangement Syndrome" (to give the thorn stuck in the rabid lion's paw a twist). They were still reeling from the sanity and respectability and humanity of Obama's two terms, and sashayed off to the deep end - like a couple of short-sighted teens struck by temporary insanity, rushing off to Vegas to be married by an Elvis impersonator - just to show their families the consequences of standing in their way - or to frame this little example, to show the rest of America the consequences for forcing a black president on them.

To be blunt, they didn't give a fuck about human rights or equality - they only cared about what they wanted for themselves. To watch other people they despised get screwed over by their kitsch white supremacist idol. Now that many of them, particularly the poorer of Americans, are tasting the bitter fruit of that foolish choice, now they want to protest "that's not what I voted for!"? But it is. You just didn't expect to be in his target sight instead of by his side.

Trump once boasted that he'd be able to shoot a man in the street and nobody would lift a finger to stop him. Back then, it seemed like a joke. Looking back in 2026, that seems far more ominously like a prediction of how things have changed. Take the brutal public murder of Nicole Good by a member of Trump's ICE gestapo last week for example - the PR machinery of state is covering up her murder and calling it "justified", protecting and lauding the murderer and labelling the victim, a mother of three who has no criminal history or ties to any activist organization, a "domestic terrorist" and "professional protestor". Right wing professional liars (i.e. propagandists) are spreading the lie and inciting support among the ignorant rabble that lap up every word that falls from their lips for state violence, police brutality, and the notion that dissent or opposition to Trump merits being executed on the street.

Trump might not have pulled the trigger in this case, but the murder of Nicole Good - and every other similar unwarranted illicit murder at the hands of his agents - is as much his direct fault as it is everybody's who voted for him in 2024. There's blood on your hands.

Y'all have red hands now.

You may not all have voted for him, you may not all have supported him - but you're putting up with him - and forcing the rest of the world to as well.

What I find really astonishing about Americans nowadays, is that they're a nation of gun nuts obsessed with the second amendment, that have been sanctimoniously promoting gun ownership as a sacred right. A right more important than the lives of their own children who never know if they're going to live to see the end of the next school day - a right touted as a necessity to counteract government over-reach or infringement of their other rights... "Don't tread on me" - right? For years we've seen cartoons and parodies of the homesteaders and survivalists hoarding as many guns and ammo in their basement bunkers as they can - just in case "big government" decides one day to come and take them away. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? So therefore, we live in a time where the USA has what is arguably the most well-armed (and probably most insane) civilian population on the planet.

But wait, as they say - there's more.

Here's the part that really blows my mind: when their government eventually lives up to those fears, silencing them, trampling on the first amendment, arresting peaceful protestors, stripping them of social guarantees, justice and due process, making them poorer, and sending thugs in uniform wearing masks to black bag and shoot innocent people in the streets, they gather outside ICE HQ in their masses to throw snowballs at Trump's thugs and goons. SNOWBALLS.

You have the 2nd amendment. What use is it if it only benefits the people who want to squeeze off a few rounds at the range on weekends - or the domestic terrorists shooting up schools and killing your kids every week all year round, or gestapo thugs? Isn't THIS situation you're living in right now what it was created for?

The disjointedness - the insanity of it all - makes my head hurt.

I find, living a few thousand kilometers away from where this is all happening, in South Africa - that's right, the place where Trump claims "terrible things are happening" while not seeing the irony - that these days the first two things I do at my PC every morning is 1) what insane, horrific thing that bloated orange martinet has done in the meantime, and 2) the Big Beautiful Obituary.

But as usual, I digress.

The bottom line here is, that the USA is the schizophrenic mess it is today because of its thinly-veiled, excused and traditionally tolerated historical racism and white supremacy problem - and its culture of no accountability - and unfortunately, it is dragging the rest of the world into this maelstrom with it. Until the USA finally confronts its own racism - together with its own racist history and failures to address that racism in the past, to hold racists accountable for their racism, and to educate younger generations about racism to ensure a better, safer future for all - nothing is ever going to improve. But sure, while y'all're stuck in that hole, keep on diggin'. For now though, while Trump continues to weakly thump the sagging flesh on his hollow chest as dementia closes in around him, the American Empire continues to decay - which for the rest of the world, is a good thing. We await the collapse with great anticipation.

The world may, one day, when all the dust has settled, forgive the United States of America (or whatever emerges in its place) for creating Donald Trump and giving him the unrestricted power to run over their own constitution rough-shod, to shit on human rights, destroy global relations and trade - start wars, unironically demand peace prizes and recognition from his would-be victims and praise from his audiences - and instead of ripping him down like any unhinged power-mad evil dictator should be, kept him there while he ran amok and set fire to the world.

But I won't.