Last night I saw the opera Salome by Richard Strauss and could not help thinking how the opera applies to our situation today. The character of Princess Salome would be the mindless sheep that follow the GOP ignoring facts and believing whatever propaganda falls their way.
Salome as near as I can see takes place about 2000 years ago, during the time of Jesus and in relatively the same area, namely somewhere between Egypt, Arab territories, and what is not Israel, then Palestine. Rome comes somewhere in here too. Her love interest is Jokanaan and thanks to Spark Notes, Jokanaan is Wilde’s Saint John the Baptist, is the prophet imprisoned in a tomb-like cistern at the orders of the Tetrarch. “Terrible to look at”, he spends much of the play in his subterranean prison, figuring as a mad, booming voice that prophecies the ruin of the kingdom, curses the royal family, and proclaims the coming of Christ.
Princess Salome initially talks about wanting to kiss Jokanaan because he has such a beautiful voice. Only the voice matters to her. I thought that she was ditzy and ignorant, but we are talking of women portrayed by men 2000 ago, so I gave some leeway. The next thing that I know she wants to have kiss him because of his beautiful black hair and only hair interests her. My thought then is that she is an idiot. I had no issue with her being attracted to the sound of a voice, but in the next breath she was attracted to hair and hair alone. And in this manner the scene progressed. She never did win me back. Jokanaan wanted nothing to do with her instead focusing on Jesus, never named Jesus, always “The Son of Man”.
She left without having Jokanaan kiss her. She was upset. Her father asked her to dance. I think the king was her father. She refused. He offered her “anything” for her to give one dance. She did and her price afterwards was the head of Jokanaan on a silver platter, literally. The king tried to talk her out of it, but she refused, so she got the head of Jokanaan on a silver platter.
She then kissed him and said that she finally gets a kiss. I thought to myself that she is an ignorant shit believing in fantasy. A kiss is only a kiss, when both parties give a kiss. A kiss is in fact an interaction between souls, not a head on a silver platter. With that kiss the executioners came, as she committed murder. The play ends with her being an ignorant idiot never obtaining the kiss that she wanted and forfeiting her life in the process. I was right at the start. She is an idiot.
Fast forward 2017 years to modern times, but not near the Sea of Galilee but rather here in the United States. We have conservatives giving up the phrase: “look at what he does, not what he says” and ignoring the vast number of lies. Huffington Post wrote an article on Trump’s first 100 lies, since taking office.
Virtually all conservatives are enthralled by Trump because he is rich and knows how to run a business. I already wrote an article asking if Trump is really that rich. I should have added in that article that Trump had a money extortion business in that university stealing money from people, and he talks of the Clinton Foundation, where 99% goes to charity, and his several bankrupted businesses, not to mention that all his business steal money from people and uses free labor. That is hardly a role model. If we subtract out that he is rich, then he is definitely not someone to run this country. By the way, running a government is not the same as running a business, so that analogy is false.
His mindless sheep ignore the many facts about Trump and the GOP and continuously shoot themselves in the foot. They gravitate to his hair and then to his orange skin. They gravitate to his being rich and to his helping the rich. They gravitate to his gravitating to the lowest of the low, when he attacks others, of course never himself. He attacks African Americans, Muslims, Jews, and everyone who is less than he is, although truth be told, everyone is pretty much above him. Why? He has the opportunity to influence the world to be better, but rather he uses his notoriety and position with the public to foment hate, violence, illness, death, and misery. That is someone at the bottom, a bottom feeder; scum. My thought every time I see his mindless sheep is that they are an idiot and shooting themselves in the foot.
After his followers have their healthcare taking away, they are smiling and say Trump is our guy and at least I got to kiss him. After their taxes go up, safety net go away, and jobs taken away they will take a Trump doll and kiss his lips uttering at least I got to kiss him. I will then say what I said last night. You all are idiots.
After they decide to dump their health insurance, because Trump removed their health insurance mandate, and they get sick and have to go to the hospital and ask the public to pay for them, I will would like to throw them out in the street, but rather I would say “you are an idiot”.
Everything that Trump and the GOP have done have solidified my belief that they are idiots and shooting themselves, if not directly placing their heads in the shopping block. Not one GOP Senator or House Representative stands up for the truth, not even Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, who is not really moderate, but just another mindless sheep.
I talked to a GOP mindless sheep and I got cited how the deficit under President Obama increased nearly $10 trillion dollars, so we need someone like Trump to save the day on the economy. What a mindless ignorant drone. The national debt increasing nearly $10 trillion dollars happened because of two events, both of which were a direct result of Republican actions, namely the repeal of the Glass Steagall act, which allowed banks in engage in dangerous derivative manipulations triggering the bank collapse of 2008 and the housing bubble collapse, which also happened in that year. When the economy tanked and people wanted money and the lack of money going into federal coffers, the deficit increased.
President Obama, even then continuing something Criminal Bush started, created and passed legislation saving the economy from a Great Depression #2. The fact that the economy improved and improved as rapidly as it did is a testament to the 2-years of leadership he was afforded. The economy counter to Trump’s claims is doing better and crime is lower.
Should I mention that gun violence and murder are the direct result of the GOP being tied at the hip to the NRA and gun lobbyists? I do not want to hear about second amendment and constitution arguments, as Republicans could care less about the constitution and the rule of law. They only care about the law as long as it serves their power interest and short term interests. Even Republicans have to live on this planet and breath air.
Yesterday, Democrat Stephanie Hansen, won the special election for an open Senate seat. Here we have the first sword, if you wish, getting ready to slay the prince, princess.
Sooner or later Justice will get served and heads will roll. I just hope that the right will wake up before it is too late. Being a party of no, obstructing everything, and voting endlessly to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act only digs the U.S. further into a grave. We need a lift before it is too late. Let the United States not be a typical opera.