Mark Wignall | Mighty United States messed up horribly

Surely it had to be a novel scripted out of a screaming story about war and guns and bullets and lives being torn apart. Or maybe it was something more terrible than could be thought of.

It was. The president of the United States (US) had directly invoked a bunch of crazy people to march on the Capitol in Washington, DC, and in the end, they thrashed the physical space inside the halls of Congress.

In the lead-up to the official installation of President Joe Biden on January 20, one expects that while there will be those focusing on the huge ceremonial importance of this political matter, at the same time, in the international space and time, those with bad intentions have been active and have been noted.

After the raid last week by homegrown American zealots on the US Capitol, it became clear to many that until that date of January 20 comes around, there can be no guarantee that the great USA Republic will survive.

Pictures taken of the insides of the halls of the US Congress indicate preparation for war. Troops are lying on cold concrete with their loads of arms, ammunition, and other preps, and this is not after a war. Just an election.

JLP MUST DISCONNECT FROM GOP

No one talks much about it, but at this time, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) still had a fraternal attachment to the GOP in the great big USA. Which means that much of what is being attached to the actions of the GOP may eventually find itself attached not just to the JLP, but the governmental administration.

Over many years, the JLP’s basically conservative and business-friendly position has led it to the GOP while the People’s National Party has found comfort with the Democrats. Over many years, things have changed. I would imagine that at this time, the JLP must be damned ashamed to talk openly and spout its association with the party of Donald Trump.

Seriously now, Chairman Montague. What is it about president Trump that you would like to tell us that you have been terribly ashamed of? Why have you been so silent? Is it raw fear of the mob boss in the White House? Or is it simply that you have had ample reason to be quiet? Dead quiet.

TRUMP LAUGHS AT IMPEACHMENT

As much as it is a global embarrassment that the once mighty nation of the USA has fallen in the eyes of all, it is also a troubling truth that a significant percentage of Americans are near-dunce. For that reason it ought not to be any surprise that Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

Now, in 2020, in the hour of his deepest disconnectedness, the members of the GOP are asking the Democrats to set it and forget it. In reality, they are inviting the American people to come to their party, drink a lot, eat up, hop up the stairs later and have a good time. And forget it all.

The sad truth is that Americans are easily fooled. Until they believe that a lot of brown and black people are not being fooled like they are. There is a big reckoning coming for America. It spells China, and I know, it is quite scary for America.

CHURCH AND ABORTION

Recently, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, junior minister in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, ran up her mouth again by saying something that always needs to be said. It was something that many Jamaican women are directly connected with but are afraid of talking openly about it: abortion.

Let me declare my hand. I know more than a few women who have become pregnant and have terminated those pregnancies. The lie has been propagated that most of the women who have terminated their pregnancies have had serious psychological problems in their lives.

Why do I say it’s a lie? I was in my early 20s when she told me she was pregnant. For me. I did the usual and asked her how could she level it down to me. In the end I accepted it and gave the doctor the $150 she requested. That was 1971 abortion prices.

I was, at that time in 1971, totally against abortion. Not in any religious way, but it seemed to me that although there was something I didn’t understand in totality about the issue, I did not like the idea that a woman could be in control. For a brief moment in my life I imagined that I was in love with her. About ten years later, I saw her and could not believe what I saw. She was just finishing law school and had long lost that last veil of seeing her true self as a failure.

The Church has hit out against Mrs Cuthbert-Flynn because of its basic stance on women. After all, to them, it was the woman, Eve, who led the hapless man, Adam, to commit sin. And sin, to the hyper religious, must involve sex, that dirty, awful act.

The Church cannot control its flock until it controls the sex life of the flock. So it tells its women what they must do and must not do. No wonder the husbands flock to the bar to seek solace while their ladies are seeking solutions from those deeply embedded in their problems.

WAR LOOMING ON GANJA

A few weeks ago, a $50 bag of weed was just that. A small plastic wrapped bag. Now that bag is selling for $200.”Two month ago wi used to buy weed fi $7,000 a pound. Now is all $18,000,” the bar owner told me.

“Mr Mark,” the plumber man said. “If you want good weed now go a di weed shop. A di big man gwine control it now. Yu can get $500 weed wid no seed, no stalk and is high grade.”

I don’t know what high grade is from low grade, but it seems that the well-organised weeds shops are about to push out the small man. No surprises there.

- Mark Wignall is a political and public-affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.