Allow me to invoke the title of one of Charles Bukowski’s books of poetry: The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills. Buk was a gritty, chain smoking wino who had his own special take on life and its penchant for bullshit. His writing is an acquired taste. Adult content, for sure. Not for the delicate flowers seeking soothing sonnets to satisfy a need for escape from the daily dulling of the senses here in late 2024.

I am not, gentle reader, using Bukowski as the main subject of this posting. That book’s title up there popped into my head (and its daily dulling) after looking at my digital calendar. A couple of recent writings on this platform used the “countdown” as their titles: Three Weeks, One Day; Two Weeks, Five Days. A countdown to a recent national election. This entry could be titled Seven Weeks, although I did not use that headline (as you might have noticed). Seven weeks is not a very long time. A long time would be from 2015 to right now. About ten years.

Yes, 10 years is much longer a period of time than seven weeks. Any ten year period is longer than a span of seven weeks. However, current events here in late 2024 connote–for many– the past 10 years in a very compelling, confounding, discombobulating way. It was in 2015 that a certain reality television persona decided he wanted to be President. And he became just that. Then he failed to be re-elected, followed by an attempted insurrection. Then another person became President. Then the guy who won, then lost, somehow crazy as it seems, is about to become Commander-in-Chief again. All of that covers the past decade. He will be sworn in as POTUS in exactly seven weeks. Or: 70,560 minutes (or so).

Wow, what a wild decade, huh? And given what the guy who lost, then recently won again, has planned for what follows those 70,560 minutes (see, I’m using that BIG number rather than just one 7 to provide the illusion of there being plenty of time to ruminate, speculate, plan and prepare for what is coming). What is coming? 😲 The loser/winner seems to be planning a demolition of the government he will be–so ironically!–sworn to protect on January 20, 2025. Or 7 weeks. Or 70,560 or now it maybe down to 70,510 minutes, which brings me back to how the days are tunning away like wild horses over the hills. Get it? Like it? Get it but don’t like it? Not one iota? Well, I am only trying to say that there is still time. For…

… for the guy who still is President to stop the demolition job the loser/winner has clearly planned (including seeking retribution for perceived enemies). And at this point, whomever may be reading this posting is saying “that’s not gonna happen”.  Not an unreasonable retort, given the current guy had every reason to ensure the winner/loser couldn’t win again by holding him to account. For starters, the attempted insurrection, caught on live television! And the Internet, for the world to see. The rioters were out for blood, for their loser who kept repeating “stop the steal!” a la Big Lie propaganda 101. How ironic, huh, since a certain Boomer generation can recall another poet, Gil-Scott-Heron, who penned a piece entitled The Revolution Will Not Be Televised back in 1970. Only almost 55 years ago. Indeed, those horses and those hills. But my point is current POTUS chose not to unleash his Justice Department on the man who played a clear part in the attempted overthrow of the government. Indeed, and beyond not holding him to account for that 1-6-2021 violation of the U.S. Constitution, he has been–Twilght Zone alert–let off the hook for almost three dozen felony convictions and a conviction (in civil court) of sexual assault. Yeah, in a mere 7 weeks our System is seemingly committing hari-kari, disemboweling itself rather than simply doing what the Constitution proclaims must be done given the evidence against the guy who wants to shove the Seppuku knife in and twist it. Is there no stopping this insanity? This betrayal of basic norms, of common decency? Of empathy. Absolutely unstoppable?

Literally, yes, there is a way, that being our current POTUS and the power he has, granted recently by the Supreme Court, to take just about any action he pleases, without penalty, as a sitting President. That ruling by the far-Right SCOTUS majority was directed at the loser guy about to be sworn in to enact his far Right wrecking ball agenda. Unwittingly, that ruling also applies to Mr. President the current, meaning he still could, with SCOTUS‘ approval (sweet irony, if he did so…) arrest the guy who wants to take that cleaver to the EPA, the Department of Education, the Energy Department and on and on. And on and on some more. Yes, current POTUS could use current SCOTUS ruling and save the 250 million or so people who did not vote for any of what is about to come. Hell, just today our current POTUS showed he is a man of action by pardoning his own son, also a convicted felon, and thus saving him from prison time. Oh sure, you are saying that is exactly the opposite of him holding that other felon to account. Well, that’s one way of looking at it. But not the only way. There are others who deserves a pardon. Who, you ask? How about those 250,000,000 people who did NOT vote for a political backwards march of time (most all of whom are working class), who enjoy clean air and water, education, healthcare, and the “common good”. They deserve protection from persecution based on race, ethnicity and the paranoid perception of being declared an enemy by the cleaver-wielding threat that looms just days away, days running away like those wild horses over those hills.

Just a thought.