Republican politicians aren’t the only ones responsible. Everyone shares guilt in the creation of a country coming ever closer to its demise, final and terrible and ruinous to the entire world. Blame goes to those who never voted in 2016. Clinton did win the popular vote. That’s true; but if more voters had turned out in critical districts, she could have won more electoral college votes. Russia shares blame. They officially denied involvement in the election, but there’s no evidence that they didn’t, and every bit of proof that they did. James Comey shares blame. Close to Election Day, he was part of an investigation into Clinton’s emails and whether a housekeeper could have been exposed to classified data. It got out. The outrage produced in America was palpable. Listening to a podcast of the show famed ghost hunter Jason Hawes did after the series “Ghost Hunters” had wrapped, I was a fan until the news of the latest Hillary Clinton investigation got out. He typed in the live chat something about “nobody should have that much power” and I responded with swift and beseeching words: don’t let the Hillary Hunters win. How many times was she investigated only to be found free of any offense?

And of course, Trump bears the largest share of blame because he ignorantly stirred racial tensions and hatred that a corner of society seethed with after eight years of service by a black president. As soon as he saw what it did, he fanned the flames even more. His campaign rallies were outrageous. He told a mother with a crying baby to get out. He encouraged people in the crowd to assault protesters. He had security throw people out without their coats. He mocked a disabled person. He called John McCain a loser because he was a POW.

Every bit of this so damaged the run-up to the election and the Clinton campaign that indeed, people voted for him over her, and some just abstained. These were critical votes.

As soon as Donald Trump was sworn in and gave an inauguration speech so bizarre that George W. Bush called it “bullshit”, the bad things began to happen. We all hoped that the Secret Service would take his personal cell phone, which would have followed protocol and that those incoherent hateful tweets would stop. None of that happened. Everything just got worse.

There was the debacle at the airports. Muslims blocked from entering the country. Huge protests, the birth of The Resistance.

The Resistance died when asshole Michael Moore left protesting to make money. A film project. Talk of a TV series. Still later, Keith Olberman stopped his Resistance videos for Esquire. He declared stupidly that the Resistance had won. He was really just a fucking quitter.

Meanwhile a semi-approval of Trump appeared on NBC News that was so incomplete that it answered no questions about where the rest of the immigrant children are. The article is stupefying in that it makes the point that a “safe place” for children is very close to Mar-a-lago. Between you and me, that’s terrifying. If the fucking reporters who wrote and edited this shit were allowed into such a place with minors then anyone can gain access. We have no assurance that there’s any real safety at all. Stories about kids being transported in the dead of night to places far from the border like Manhattan died a quick death and were never followed up.

Since this article was published, part of a supposed “investigative series”, almost nothing has appeared. I googled “where are” and the Google fill-in showed that people have actually searched for “where are the Ozarks,” then “lungs”, “kidneys”, and the “Outer Banks.” If you don’t see something it likely hasn’t been searched for. I’m sorry. I appear to be the only one searching for the lost children.

For the past three years, Republicans in office have mysteriously enabled, been cowed and bullied by, and finally embraced Trump. Why is a question without any remotely understandable answer. I mean, I was republican in the late 70s and early 80s despite moral reservations. Reagan showed me what true barbarity was. What true dishonesty and clandestine conservative crimes were. I thought he’d be okay because of Nixon’s downfall. He wasn’t.

The George W. Bush presidency made it all worse. Wars we just didn’t need to start. Men, women…and children…died by the numbers. The Middle East was destabilized as I predicted in 2008, but I couldn’t see what was next. And I’m not even going to entertain any stupid conspiracy theory about September 11th. Bush had nothing to do with that and the idea is beyond stupid. But the republican party had changed into something it had never been before the Nixon years. And Bush was fed enough flawed intelligence that Iraq was doomed, along with over 4,000 soldiers.

In addition to soldiers we had lost in every military engagement in United States history, now we had more heroes to mourn. To remember.

There have been more wars for the United States than most people are aware of. Ask most, they’ll cite the two World Wars, Civil War and Vietnam. Most don’t know about the War of 1812, the Texas Revolution, the Korean Conflict, or even the series of wars that comprised a larger conflict. The American Indian Wars were really broken into what was often wars against single Indian nations.

Right or wrong, just or unjust, soldiers fought for their country and gave their lives.

There were always deserters. Always religious objectors. Always, those who just plain ran and hid. But they were never the majority, and no matter what–whether you prefer peace over war, like I do, those fallen heroes made this moment, as you read this, possible. Historians still argue about how close Nazi Germany came to winning the war. But what if they had?

These questions insult the memory of those who fought. Those who died. They never stopped believing they had to win, or that their country would win.

There’s a saying that supposedly came out of the Vietnam War. Helicopters actually served in World War Two and Korea, but Vietnam holds the distinction of being known as “the helicopter war”. Hundreds of UH-1 “Huey” helicopters took infantry and airborne troops to places all over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. They were sometimes restricted from actually landing and idling the engines, meaning the troops jumped a short distance to the ground. This was because even if the ship hadn’t taken fire on approach, the LZ was considered extremely dangerous. To lift back off after landing took longer and more power than if the pilot hovered just off the ground instead. Even the hated Chinooks could do this.

Once on the ground, troops had to cover each other as they advanced to relative safety of cover. That’s if they hadn’t already been dropped straight into a firefight. And the superstition was thus born: you never watch the choppers leave.

It wasn’t merely bad luck; it showed that you weren’t focused on your fellow soldiers, and that’s during critical minutes that can see mortars, RPGs, grenades and AK-47s light up your LZ.

Part of the superstition also held that doing this doomed a soldier never to take that extraction flight back. It was bad luck.

Wars have always given birth to superstition. In the Great War, and the one that followed, tobacco was a staple that helped soldiers cope. But matches often got wet. To save them, a guy who lit a cigarette would stand and light the cigarettes of several buddies too. This gave, at night anyway, enemy snipers and grenadiers ample time to zero in and target them. Hence the expression “never light three cigarettes on one match”. Or just “three on a match”.

Here’s to the memory of all those who fought. They were scared. They were killed doing what their country told them to do. They had honor. They believed in what they were doing, even if they disagreed with certain things about a particular war. In their memory, we have observed this day.

But many are not at rest. Their memory is disrespected by a government void of compassion and civility, which embraces a liar. Embraces corruption and the rotting of the country they loved enough to risk, then give their lives for. They have been betrayed, their graves spat upon. This is nothing like the country they knew. Nothing.

But sometimes maybe you do watch the chopper leave. I look forward to watching the chopper that will carry Donald away from the White House for the last time.

And the Republicans who embraced him who will remain?

If I could, I would slap every one of you in the face. You are traitorous bastards who dishonor all for which we have fought and stood.