TITANIC

 The countdown began the day he took office and imposed his dictatorship on the American people. If he hasn't destroyed democracy in this county, then Donald Trump leaves office in 40 days. Will it rain for 40 days and 40 nights as nonsense gushes from the mouths of Trump and his Republican renegades?

Let's not build another ark. Let's build another Titanic that guarantees a repeat performance. With Trump the featured guest, we will book 5000 of the most right-wing Republicans. The destination will be the Bermuda Triangle. We won't need a iceberg. Just like Trump said that the Coronavirus would miraculously disappear, Trump and his Republican rodents will--poof--miraculously disappear.

And so the charade continues. The Texas attorney general--under investigation himself and banking on a Trump pardon for his work--is demanding that the Supreme Court annul the votes from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin and give Trump another four years. A Texas state rep wants a referendum mandating that Texas secede from the Union. For the Trump fanatics, Fox News has suddenly become too liberal. That's like saying that deep in his heart Hitler really loved Jews.

I'm serious when I say this: I fear for Biden's life. This country is full of Timothy McVeighs, the Oklahoma bomber whose terrorist act cost 168 lives, who fervently believe that our present government is evil. And with Biden--the communist, the socialist, the anarchist--as president, they wouldn't have any second thoughts about dropping a nuclear bomb on Washington D.C.

Even with Trump in office, I have no hate for our government. Our government has served us well. My family and friends have lived a good life because of our government. To hold such animosity toward our government is Unamerican. Of course, government is imperfect because the people who comprise our different political entities are imperfect.

Trump has done everything to turn our nation against the government because government is his enemy. He seeks absolute power and government prevents him from realizing his dastardly intent. Even these brainwashed Republicans will have to lay down their arms if the Supreme Court supports the rule of the people and not the rule of the individual.

Meanwhile, back in Brownsville, the Third World Capital of the United States, we relish our winters. The citrus groves are flourishing, producing some of the sweetest oranges and grapefruits in the world. With local politics on the backburner during the holiday season, we are savoring a well-deserved rest from electing the least of evils in November before we have to repeat the process in May.

Why is Brownsville the Third World Capital of the United States? Experts from various think tanks and media outlets have affirmed that Brownsville, for a city its size, is the most impoverished, uneducated and corrupt municipality in the country. Despite this stark reality, we are an optimistic people. We celebrate our infamous distinction.

To underscore our ignorance, in a town of approximately a quarter million people, we don't have a bookstore. Combine that fact with the libraries being closed to prevent the COVID spread, there are some of us feeling desperate for good literature. While I'm sure I could find something perusing the internet, nothing compares to a good book.

Since my existence tends toward a bohemian bent, I travel light. I don't keep books. Books are meant to breathe, not suffocate from gathering dust in a book case. I had reached a wretched state as I was rereading the few books I owned. Claudia keeps a collection of books and "Delta" Dave Handelman, back with his band on Thursdays at El Hueso de Fraile, has book cases with nothing but the classics in both fiction and history.

I have read several of Isabel Allende's books. Claudia loaned me her copy of Paula. I knocked at Dave's front door and told him to act quickly because I was on an emergency mission. I needed him to pick three books for me. He returned with a biography of Andrew Jackson, Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities and the play Becket. 

I don't need a television because the internet provides all the entertainment I require, but I have to read the best authors in order to keep my chops. When you live alone and the walls are closing in around you, books are indispensable. To allow an author to excite your imagination is the purest form of escape.