The dangerous game, and innocents are pawns--

So, it's Sunday, and I'm trying to hold onto my Lenten promises. Then, I read Heather Cox Richardson's post from last night, the one that connects all the very dangerous dots about Paul Manafort, the Russian plan to overthrow Ukraine's government, destabilize NATO and Europe, and the proposed involvement (and achieved objectives) of the 2016 Trump campaign under Manafort's stewardship. In short, the U.S. has blood on its hands because of machinations done in his name and with his knowledge, and with the current MAGA refusal, again at Trump's insistence, to further fund Ukraine, they are starting to lose ground. 

I have a former student who volunteered to go and fight for Ukraine; he is still there. He went to fight because of injustice. There are so many people fighting for their very lives. Without further help, not only will Ukraine be compromised, but the forcible reunification of the Soviet bloc will be quite likely. Or another World War. And this, all because one very weak man's ego can be, and is, manipulated to bolster the fever dreams of a very sick and twisted man in Russia. And money. It's always about ego and money. 

And innocent people, good people, are dying. Children are dying. 

The same game is being played out in other parts of the world as well, places like Gaza and Somalia. Maybe soon in Nicaragua. Brazil has its own issues. These are all areas of the world, and there are others, that are under the murderous sway of dictators. 

I don't want my country to be next. 

People tell me I'm a doom-scroller, that I worry about these things foolishly. that things will settle down, because they always do. But do they? Or does that malignancy just fester while good folks go about their lives, thinking that rational humans don't do these awful things, that it is always someone else's issue, another country, something in a history text or a movie. 

But here we are. The front runner for the GOP was propped up by evil men, who owed other evil men allegiance and millions of dollars. Selling out one's country for personal gain is supposed to be called treason, not political gamesmanship.

Please read Richardson's essay. It's enough to make you cry. You can find her on Facebook, or look for Letters from an American online.

C