Let History Be Our Guide

It is becoming increasingly CLEAR… the longer we wait, the more this becomes permanent. The larger the SCAR will become. And on DAY ONE, the Senate Majority Leader sent the United States Senate HOME FOR THE WEEKEND, knowing the spread of the virus was exponential. DAYS. Lost.

In order to SAVE LIVES, the doctors and scientists of the United States tell us we must STAY HOME. We are doing as required by science and by LAW… and the Senate Majority Leader tells the States, if they can’t cut it they should just file for BANKRUPTCY.

The leadership of the Senate GOP wishes to revert to the Articles of Confederation, a system we rejected over 200 years ago! The majority of the Republican Party currently advocates for political de-evolution.

… let them.

If they choose to fight for a lost cause, let history inform them as to their Party’s fate; cast aside and forgotten along with their political predecessors… Our sight is FUTURE FOCUSED. Let history be our GUIDE.

The NOISE… in this moment, the noise becomes deafening. Deflect and distract, not to our benefit, but to our detriment. It’s hard to find a TRUE bearing within all this chaos. The polarity shift within our political spheres has pushed this nation to its extremes. Divided us on things as basic as TRUTH and FACTS… at a time when we should be UNITED.

LIVES are in the balance, yet elected officials in the Senate unite behind a President, asking in GOOD FAITH, if we should investigate using cleaning supplies as a treatment for COVID-19.

Hey! You know… if it had never been investigated before NOW, in all those years of use on kitchen countertops and in toilet bowls… he might have a strong point.

With every passing day, with every insanity uttered. With every life LOST, the agenda of the Senate Majority Leader is laid BARE before his constituents and the American People. Continuing his lust for political power and electoral supremacy in this moment transforms his actions; from something simply unseemly or distasteful, into something historically adjudicated as being complicit.

But these agendas are NOT OURS. These agendas and ill-informed opinions are not those held by the MAJORITY. And, once again… this fall the people must choose the lesser of two evils:

**Damned if you DO or Damned if you DON’T.**

It’s time for the SYSTEM to change… it’s time for the system to represent the PEOPLE from whom it receives its POWER.

The vaccine is in human trials. May they proceed safely… then let us be on our way. This quarantine cannot end until either TESTING for the virus and it’s antibodies is widespread, OR a vaccine is mass-produced. Until then, we must proceed with CAUTION. The choice is CLEAR when cast in this light, yet the Governor of Georgia wants everybody in his State to go out and get a HAIRCUT… while the infection rate continues to GROW.

“Georgia starts to reopen but nervous mayors warn that coronavirus crisis isn’t over.” CNN.com (04/25/2020)

It is not a failure of science. It is not a failure of the PEOPLE. In fact… it’s not a failure of the system. The system has been designed to work this way. It is a government empowered by the people who put those elected officials into office… THE DONORS.

“Bush signs bank bailout, Oct. 3, 2008.” Politico.com (10/03/2013)

“McConnell signals interest in protecting employers from coronavirus litigation.” Market Watch (04/24/2020)

We have the ability to SAVE LIVES, simply by STAYING HOME. The only reason people want to go back to work, is because the United States Government has FAILED to take care of the PEOPLE first… the CORE of our economic engine. Instead of ensuring FOOD and SHELTER for EVERY AMERICAN until this pandemic is over, The United States Senate has focused on business owners… hoping their kindness and generosity would trickle down.

**To that I say, let HISTORY be their guide.**

…

Once again, every American Citizen knows better than Donald J. Trump what the best course of action is to SAVE LIVES… yet he does not act. He goes to great lengths to do the opposite of what is necessary. Just like his businesses, all the risk is on someone ELSE. When things go south… he’ll just WALK AWAY.

Our laws have been set up to enable people like him to be successful. Donald Trump is the shining example of what the GOP wants this nation to BE… and to that end is how they LEGISLATE.

To my ears, a call for a return to normal just rings hollow. I would not send my children to school next week… or next month. I would not go and get a haircut right now. I fear putting the life of my stylist in jeopardy more than anything else… because he is a black man. Even though I have Type 1 diabetes and am at higher risk, I know I have better health insurance than he does.

How would I justify a decision like that to his FAMILY?

“African Americans struggle with disproportionate COVID death toll.” National Geographic (04/24/2020)

…

When faced with a CHOICE, the Senate Majority Leader chose INACTION and IGNORANCE, over PREPAREDNESS and SCIENCE. Briefed in NOVEMBER by the United States Military, on the potential threat posed to U.S. Forces in Asia, the Gang of Eight could have started preparing THEN.

“Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November.” ABCNews.com (04/08/2020)

NOVEMBER 2019.

4 DEMOCRATS and 4 REPUBLICANS.

Who has acted in the interest of THE PEOPLE?

… who has NOT.

They knew in November. Now 50,000 Americans have died. And that number will only continue to rise. Plans EXIST… plans have been implemented across the GLOBE, successfully, and countries have started their RECOVERY…

INACTION in the UNITED STATES SENATE

“McConnell slams brakes on next round of coronavirus aid.” Politico.com (04/21/2020)

Tests were available IN JANUARY. South Korea was testing hundreds of thousands every day at the peak of their crisis.

Millions of Americans remain in the dark.

Eddie Glaude Jr. said it best this week: “This is an invitation to the grave.” If not for ourselves, then for those around us who are more susceptible, more vulnerable… for those who are less fortunate than ME.

Because any success we realize by surviving this crisis would not be as sweet, if there was something we could have done… if only we had known.

“In New York Nursing Homes, Death Comes to Facilities With More People of Color.” NPR (04/22/2020)

They’ve known since November. It didn’t have to be like this.

Let us ensure it can never happen again.

End the Electoral College.

-JC

The Case Against the President, Part 7: The Great and Powerful Oz

SPOILER ALERT!! Once you know the magic behind the show…
You may not want to buy a ticket for the SECOND ACT!
STAND UP for the Rule of Law!
#EndTheElectoralCollege

…

OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN VIDEO for the political organization
“Jack Charbonneau 2020: Political Revolution”

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“Indelible in the Hippocampus…”

The Scouts of Boy Scout Troop #86 had, for many months as their leader, an older Scout who was a bit of a hard nose. He was a drum major for the Olathe South Marching Falcons, and he led our Troop with an emphasis on structure and discipline, with rigidity and order…

Needless to say, 50 or 60 high school kids on a Monday night weren’t exactly stoked to comply with his sanctimonious leadership style.

As his 18th birthday approached, we began considering who we wanted to be his replacement. It was more or less assumed that our new leader would be one of the older Scouts that had been with the Troop for a longer period of time. More than likely, our new Senior Patrol Leader would be one of the Scouts that were in his Patrol, the term for a group of Scouts within the Troop itself.

The Senior Patrol Leader is the Scout who decides where the Troop will go for the monthly camping trips. One weekend a month, every month, the Troop spends a weekend learning important skills at various locations throughout the Kansas City area. Some locations are near facilities that can help Scouts earn Merit Badges that they wouldn’t normally be able to earn.

One weekend we camped at a park located near an airport, operated by the University of Missouri, where we spent the weekend earning our Aviation Merit Badge. Another weekend, we camped near the depot of an old railroad that once served the States of Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas (KTA) in the 19th century. We helped their museum change railroad ties on the still-operating line, and in the process we earned our Railroading Merit Badge.

But those trips had happened under previous leadership, and we wanted our new Senior Patrol Leader to plan future trips to places like those, to the places that we wanted to go. I guess that sounds about right for a bunch of adolescent teenagers. (NOTE: Back in MY day… teenagers were rebellious and self-centered. FYI)

At some point before the election, proposed as more of a joke than anything else, the name of one of the younger Scouts was recommended. He wasn’t part of the youngest group of Scouts who had just recently joined the Troop, he joined with the group before that. He had been with the Troop no more than nine months.

The argument was made that as a younger Scout, it would be easy to convince him to see things our way. In essence, we believed he would do as we said because he would be a “pushover”. A young Scout, wanting to fit in with the older Scouts…? Every camping trip would be where we told him we wanted to go.

No one in the Troop was excited to vote for any of the candidates… so the majority of the Troop voted for the “pushover”. One month later, our new Senior Patrol Leader subjected the younger Scouts to an “underware check”. It was the first camping trip with him as our new leader.

We enabled that to happen by electing someone we wouldn’t have chosen under different circumstances.

The Catholic Church.

The Boy Scouts of America.

The United States Military…

The United States Supreme Court.

The Movie Industry.

The Music Industry.

The Hotel and Service Industry.

The Fast-Food Industry.

Even in small businesses. “Ma and Pa” shops that only employ a handful of people…

Like the United States Senate.

…

Once the light pierces the darkness, it’s hard to go BACK to the way things were before. To do so would mean ignoring what has been seen, forgetting what has become KNOWN.

That is why the DARK AGES are part of our PAST… our HISTORY. Not our future.

wyco_lake — Wyandotte County Lake under quarantine- 03/27/2020

At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure THEY have a better shot at making it. That they start out with more opportunities than I had. By working to make sure their future is successful… MY future will be as well.

What will we leave behind when we go? In this moment, I’m thinking not so much as will I be remembered… but will anyone be around to do any remembering? Will they have the luxury of leisure, to sit and contemplate the past; or will they be so busy just trying to SURVIVE in the moment, that they’ll be unable to take the time to expand their horizons?

When you must spend every waking moment in a constant struggle to put food on the table, things like education take a back seat. You know… “When I get around to it.”

So much is up in the air right now as our nation stands watching… faced with a choice that is all too clear. There is so much that we must do, and so much of it must be done RIGHT… as we may not have this chance again.

What will our children make of this moment? How will democracy be judged by future generations? The political structure that we grew up with is now gone. It died with the passing of the Republican Party. All that remains is a hollow shell of what once was, held up only by our belief in it… a stiff breeze is now all that’s required.

When you SEE something… SAY something!

Because that’s how things CHANGE.

“Woman broadens claims…” NBC News (04/12/2020)

Right now the men on the ballot this fall are TWO SIDES of the SAME COIN, and I cannot in GOOD CONSCIENCE, vote for either. That worries me…

That should worry EVERY American Citizen.

Shall we RATIFY equality… or must women wait ANOTHER 100 years?

The choice must always be ours!

**“… with Liberty and Justice for ALL.”**

-JC

In Lives and Livelihoods

… November 2019.

“1st known coronavirus case traced back to November…” Livescience.com (03/14/2020)

… and consider how fast this virus travels.

Chinese press reports the emergence of a particularly severe respiratory infection in December. Even though publicly reported information shows President Trump would not be briefed on the subject by our intelligence agencies until late January, it would be wrong to assume that no one in our government knew what could be happening.

Besides, President Trump and President Xi are BEST FRIENDS… they talk on the phone all the time. About TARIFFS and trade, and North Korea.

December 20, 2019:

… don’t forget who’s listening in on those calls.

From October 25, 2018:

…

What SHOULD our government DO?

What should HAVE BEEN DONE to avoid the situation we are now IN?

**We were PREPARED.**

Deliberate actions were then taken…

to ensure we were NOT.

SARS. N1-H1. Swine flu. Ebola. Each and every event, we have learned from that experience and developed strategies to implement, in real-time, to prevent the start of an unmitigated spread across this nation, because the cost of dealing with an event like that would be staggering… both in lives and livelihoods.

It is unsustainable to continuously stock the large volume of equipment necessary to deal with mass casualties from a disaster like this. That is why we were prepared to stop it before it had the chance to take hold. Knowledge and information sharing, mass testing, public awareness, social distancing… all preventative measures, taken to FORTIFY our nation and protect its citizens. To SAVE LIVES…

February 27, 2020:

Starting in DECEMBER, when the Intelligence Community would have briefed the Gang of Eight about the potential disaster being SILENCED by President Xi, the White House Pandemic Coordination Team would have been contacted and preparations would have STARTED IN DECEMBER. Questions would have been asked:

What would we need in a worst case scenario?
What do we have on-hand right NOW?
Who will need to have it first?

Under the leadership of an alternative Administration, preparations would have already been underway to protect American Lives and our interests abroad… MONTHS before President Trump was reportedly first informed.

February 26, 2020:

After it was known that the situation in China was being underreported, travel bans would have taken effect. Mandatory screenings and quarantines of American citizens returning from China, as well as other nations where outbreaks were beginning, would have minimized exposure here, by containing any spread only to known sources, stopping community transmission of the virus within our borders.

February 29, 2020:

In an alternative time line, this story would have ended HERE. Under another Administration, we would have mitigated the spread before the first instance of infection without a known source, and we would have continued to MONITOR. By taking temperatures of EVERYONE entering the United States and continued social distancing measures, as well as continued testing to guarantee our findings were SOUND.

We would then be able to extend a hand, to help the countries from whom we had learned. We could have sent supplies and expertise to China, to help in their battle for containment. We could have reached out to the government of Italy and offered whatever support they needed, to minimize the devastation they are now enduring.

Through our leadership, by taking decisive action immediately, with ONE PURPOSE… leaders of every nation would have LISTENED to what our Commander-in-Chief was saying, LISTENED to where the doctors and scientists of the United States believed the virus was going next, and ACTED to avoid worst case scenarios… and avoided unnecessary loss of LIFE.

Now, leaders of the world have listened to what OUR PRESIDENT has said…

Elected by OUR VOTES.

An embodiment of the WILL of THE PEOPLE of the United States of America.

…

I refuse to be ignorant.

I refuse to play DUMB.

Even IF we practice EVERY prescribed act of social distancing asked of us in this moment, PERFECTLY…

“… if we can hold it down to 100,000 to 200,000 [deaths caused by coronavirus]… we all together, have done a very good job.”

–Donald J. Trump, President of The United States of America (03-29-2020)

Yet we are still not ready to do what is required to meet that expectation.

“Trump resists nationwide stay-at-home order.” ABC News (04/03/2020)

“Fact Check: Georgia governor says we only just learned…” CNN.com (04/03/2020)

“It’s a shit sandwich.” Politico (04/03/2020)

Our WORDS matter. Our words carry weight that we may not see immediately, but the consequences are real… and they will follow.

I do not blame the governors, they are doing the best they can in this unprecedented situation. I do not blame the hospital workers who are now charged with fighting this fight. I don’t even blame President Xi for our current situation… because I wouldn’t have believed his official numbers actually reflected reality from the outset.

I would have assumed they were intentionally LOWERED for his political gain…

Anything to SAVE FACE.

“… while you still can.” (11/16/2019)

Beware the company YOU KEEP

…

But NOW… what do we do NOW?

The crisis has not been averted. We are awash in the surge of the pandemic, and we have LOST the chance to end this before it began. The only course of action, if we choose to protect LIFE over ALL ELSE, is to STAY INDOORS. By mandate, we must stay home and STOP THE SPREAD. Our own government says so!

And how will Congress help?

$1200. For a family of FOUR… that MIGHT cover food for a MONTH.

What about everything ELSE?

Life savings… spent in a matter of WEEKS. Plans for retirement, now thrown into chaos over the uncertainty projected by our President. But the GOP Leadership is ready to give it ALL AWAY to “small businesses”… while the workforce STARVES.

“McCarthy: Republicans to oppose Democratic coronavirus bill.” Politico (03/12/2020)

“Republicans Are Worried Coronavirus Stimulus Bill is Too Generous…” Vanity Fair (03/25/2020)

These elected officials are representatives of the people who put them into office…

THE DONORS

They make their decisions with their interests in mind, and obviously not the interest of the VOTERS who elected them.

“Sen. Kelly Loeffler sold at least $18 million more…” Vox.com (04/01/2020)

And I know it’s like I’m kicking a dead horse here… the mainstream media will tell you too, the whole Russia thing is FAKE NEWS! But all of this was the exact same strategy employed by Vladimir Putin on the people of Ukraine, in the decade preceding his interference in our elections.

All of the chaos and unrest, led by a sympathetic leader, installed by corruption and political manipulation…

Right down to the man who was tapped to handle the situation in Ukraine.

…

“… politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.”

McConnell says that the Speaker should hold off on any plans for a 4th aid package… the FIRST CHECKS haven’t even arrived, bleeding everyone’s savings, leaving us all on the brink… and we should HOLD OFF?

For the benefit of WHOM? The PEOPLE? Their FAMILIES? The people who have lost ONLY their business… only their home… only a FAMILY MEMBER? Our charity is abundant, but these organizations cannot hold out forever.

“Government needs to step in…” CommonDreams.org (04/02/2020)

We MUST have FOOD and SHELTER NOW.

How can we expect to reignite our economic engine if the CORE has been hollowed out? Not only from the death toll… but from diaspora. Where do you GO when your life is changed forever…

“A Kremlin-linked Firm Invested Millions in Kentucky.” Time (08/13/2019)

We are no longer talking about incompetency, we are no longer refering to party politics. Launching an investigation into wrong doing that will cause loss of life on this scale, is necessary. Speaker Pelosi isn’t launching this investigation to make Donald Trump look bad, sir…

He did that all ON HIS OWN.

…

A lack of TESTING brought us to this point.

The only way out of this situation is MORE SUNLIGHT.

Every citizen must be tested.

BOTH for the virus and the antibodies produced by SURVIVORS of the disease. Once we know who has it, and who HAS had it, we can accurately predict where it will go NEXT. Without this vital information, any strategy we attempt to pursue is just a roll of the dice.

If we don’t know who has it, EVERYONE must believe they do have it and can SPREAD IT. YOU may be a carrier…

STAY HOME. Save a nurse’s LIFE!

…

We did not seek it, but once again… WAR has come to our shores. And once again it strikes the island of Manhattan. TWICE now in TWENTY YEARS.

We have FAILED to secure her as we once promised we would do. 20 years. 2 wars… yet we did not address the underlying CAUSE of the problem. Now we STAND, suspended in our own Temporal Echo… able to SEE what has become, and compare it to what shall BE.

We do not do this for ourselves.

We do this for our CHILDREN, and THEIR children…

We do this to HONOR those who have come BEFORE.

We must remember what it is we are fighting FOR. Do not forget! She STILL STANDS in your harbor today…

Let her LIGHT be your guide.

In this fight we know what must be done. Dutifully we shall RISE and face this moment, and preform with our eyes fixed upon the future.

And as the wave comes crashing ashore, across every state and through every community; we now face the SAME STRUGGLE with you… We are ALL from New York.

May her LIGHT guide us ALL…

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

-JC