Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Are you not entertained?

“Are you not entertained?” said Russell Crowe more than 20 years ago as Maximus Decimus Meridius in “Gladiator.”

His statement was one of sarcasm and disgust for the bloodthirsty crowds that cheered him as he dispatched his opponent in the ring.

He tossed his sword down in disgust and walked out of the arena.

I don’t know why this scene sprang to mind when watching gangs of traitorous domestic terrorists charge upon our nation’s capital on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

I was initially disgusted, and then slowly, but surely, I began to realize that the past four years in this country needed to be shown the violent, deplorable results of a political leader’s dismantling of our national morality.

And we all saw it coming. As I watched the former President, his family, and his lawyer poke and prod an eager and wildly misinformed crowd into a frenzy, I saw it coming.

As he urged them to fight and march on the Capital Building where congress was set to certify the election results that undisputedly selected Joe Biden as our next president, I knew what came next.

As 13 senators plotted and pleaded to object to certifying election results in Arizona, the hapless mob reached the gates to do battle with an even more hapless Capital Police squad.

There was pushing, shoving, swinging, swearing, screaming, blood, fire, batons, tear gas, gunshots, baton swings, pepper spray and mace. Windows were shattered, AMERICAN FLAGS were torn down and replaced with Trump flags likely imported from China.

Men who had never accomplished a single honorable thing in their miserable lives broke into the offices of human beings so vastly more accomplished and honorable than themselves and plopped down in their seats, sat at their desks.

The despicable criminals mindlessly celebrated their crimes with a selfie, complete with (expletive) eating grins, and box store purchased hunting camo that ever-so nicely framed their expanding midsection.

America’s worst representatives stood on the floor of the house and the senate and took photos, livestreamed themselves parading about while committing a federal offense.

As dirty and shameful as it was. We needed this to happen. It is the medicine we all needed.

In a four-year period, we saw the American public repeatedly draw lines in the sand only to see the commander in chief repeatedly bound over those small barriers on his way to total ethical destruction of the office he part-time resided within.

He continued to backhand us across the face with lies and misinformation, violent verbal attacks on our media, on his opponents, on doctors, on scientists, on science itself, on women, and on each and every one of us.

And we took it.

We picked ourselves up and drew another line and hoped he wouldn’t cross it until we could find a way to get him out of office.

Of course, there were millions of others that fed off his vile behavior. They laid back and swallowed a constant stream of lies and wild conspiracies that they believed would make them powerful, influential, important, and intelligent.

They were the ones in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. They were the ones that jumped over that last line in the sand we had drawn for him.

In pure fascist dictator fashion, he convinced his lemmings to leap for him, after promising to be there with them.

And while they did so, he ran back to his bunker to cower.

From there, he said nothing as federal criminals attacked our highest chambers of law and order. He did nothing to help federal workers putting their lives on the line to protect our most important institutions.

When it was all said and done and the scattering of maced faces and shocked minions were discussing how they suffered abuses at the hands of the police while they were committing federal crimes, the president addressed the nation by opening with another election-related lie before telling his criminal conspirators he loved them.

“Are you not entertained?”

And then nothing.

Well, unless you count the same (albeit fewer) seditious senators attempting to lie their way through an electoral college results objection after just hours earlier cowering in fear for their lives from the trespassers.

Oh, the seditious six that remained.

Yes, they doubled down on their baseless claims, lies, and misrepresentations.

The next day, likely fearing investigations for instigation from federal law enforcement, an ambling, unsteady con artist took the camera again.

This time he sounded somber, likely chemically sedated, and read a half-hearted, disrespectful attempt at a concession.

And while I watched, for a half-second, I was taken aback. Shocked at what I was seeing. I took a deep breath.

And I caught myself and remembered another movie quote, this time from “300.” As his lips moved, I whispered to myself, “May you live forever.”

I want them to suffer for what they forced upon our lands. I want them to pay for what they’ve done to our families, our neighbors, our friends. The poison they distributed and the doomful path they’ve led them down.

Lastly, I thought of the incoming administration and whispered encouragement, “Give them nothing, but take from them … everything!”

Thank you, Maximus and Leonidas, it’s time to finish this once and for all.

Jeff Pack

 

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