TWILIGHT OF EMPIRE

"I am waiting on an answer, Mister," Judge Gross, a shriveled centenarian seated in chambers in front of a picture of him as a young man in a sailor's uniform, demanded. Lifting his glasses to look down at his papers for my name, Judge Gross asked, "Drake-it is! Why don't you know anything about your client's Misdemeanor conviction for …"

I was never one to parrot prepackaged phrases pleasing to the ear. And I admit I was never one to indulge in popular fantasies. At the moment, I could not think of a bland, non - committal, inoffensive evasion.

I was relieved of the task fortuitously. The insurer's lawyer Rachel Townes, who fit the pit bull image in a short and pudgy figure, chose that moment to interject. In that annoying high pitched harpie voice, Ms Townes rattled on about the insurer's, her client's, rights to know the full details of Dr Abu's misdemeanor conviction rendered in the court across the parking lot in the local court. "Mr Drake's client Mrs Abu was convicted of Medicaid Fraud… Now, she has filed a claim under a private disability policy. I don't see how .."

As Rachel Townes prated away, I stared outside widow of the magnificent glass and steel ex - urban federal building at the ex - urban sprawl - o - polis as the weak mid - autumnal sun illuminated the cookie cutter ex - urban tracts on land dropping away toward the sea.

Power like a sun set fades away in stages. As its twilight approaches, the appearance of solidity is preserved by approaching shadows. As the sun begins the last moments its decent, solidity devolves into semblances and power becomes an illusion, and finally once the sun is gone, only the memory of power remains.

I looked up at the judge's picture in a Naval uniform, proud and standing tall. Old blue cap, I noted, World War II the height of his vim and vigor and ours too. Today it has shriveled and may be blown away.

"Ms Townes," I replied, "had Dr Abu under oath for 6 hours in a pre - trial deposition sparring over the nuances in English words with a foreignor, a well - spoken foreignor but a foreignor nonetheless. Why didn't Ms Townes ask Dr Abu at that time?"

One of the most endearing illusions concerned immigrants. The problem was language. No matter how much I explained to clients, "Before you give testimony make sure you understand the words your examiner is using. Don't try to fence with an attorney on the English language?" Of course, Dr Abu had been skillfully baited into a debate over the shades of meaning of English words.

As Ms Townes went into her tirade, I continued to watch the clouds drift in off the sea to start occluding the sun. In the world of semblances, we live in lies, fictions and clever artifices by which we conceal the truth from ourselves.

"The question," Judge Gross demanded, "of you, Mr Drake, is exactly what was involved in Dr Abu's conviction for Medicaid Fraud? Why don't you know the answer?"

"Because," I responded, "Dr Abu wouldn't tell me."

"But you're her lawyer, a position of unique trust and confidence," argued the judge.

"Why should Dr Abu trust me?" I asked. "In the countries," I looked from Ms Townes to the Judge as I spoke, "where these people come from, police are all crocked as opposed to some or most; lawyers are all informants as opposed to the occasional ones here working off a case and all doctors are all opportunists-no difference there. In a real sense, the issue of her misdemeanor conviction is a non - issue."

"Let me stop you there, counsellor," The Judge shook the legal papers. "I understand Dr Abu is an American citizen."

"Legally, speaking she is not," to the shock of the Judge and Ms Towne, "Indeed there is no such thing as an American citizen. Dr Abu has a piece of paper that makes her a United States Citizen. She is not thereby made an American heir to the Magna Carta."

I might as well have declared that foreignors be marched to that shoreline and ordered to swim home. The two were stunned.

"And you represent her?" the Judge asked.

"Yes to enforce Dr Abu's rights under a written contract," I countered, "which does not disqualify her by reason of a misdemeanor conviction or her citizenship status."

"For Medicaid fraud?" the Judge prodded me.

"Oh," I answered, "Medicaid is a political football. Every once in a while, the state rounds up a half dozen of these quacks for billing errors. They call that fraud. It's all a show to impress conservative republicans like me that something is being done to control these thieving foreignors. Sitting in their chair reading the paper, the Republican will say ` Goll - darn stinking foreignor. Ought to send the real police to break their blanking heads.' "

"I'm without words" declared the Judge.

I sighed. Looking from the judge to Ms Townes, I shook my head. The country is so locked into lies and half - truths that daring to tell the truth brings shock and consternation. Likely someone with nerve to speak candidly will likely be blamed for downward cycle gripping the country from the moment Johnson had Kennedy assassinated. Today we live in the pretenses and illusions of the wreckage of the aftermath.

"Exactly!" I declared, "You're absolutely correct. The problem is the words," I chose the words of my reply carefully, "under the words the insurer used DR Abu is entitled to the benefit promised. That the insurer used poorly conceived words in a badly written contract is no defence."

Finally the rioters got what they were rioting about. The universal magic wand of the sky magician with billions of hands attached, reached into every human being on the earth and pulled out the dark side of humanity and left them with a pure God-like soul with no hatred or aggressive feelings toward anyone.

But now everybody still looked different, so the magic wand waved over them again and made them look exactly the same.

So the rioters got their wish; no more police brutality and a harmonious relationship between the races. There were no races anymore anyway, because everybody looked the same.

So now the protesters started getting bored with nothing to riot about, so they started protesting about wanting the races to look different again and humanity to behave differently. So then the magician in the sky had to put back the dark side of man again and alter the appearance of everyone. After repeating the same sequence over and over, the magician started getting tired.

So then he gave up and just told the people to behave like they want to and don't bother him anymore.

In this Society we don't hate the Moose slam. Frankly, I just want them somewhere else and perceive the bad omens on the horizon, when you see a Mooseslam representative taking the oath of office screetching with Anti - Semetic remarks and vowing to "_ _ _ _ Trump." p> The White Liberal here at least doesn't understand that the Mooseslam are not like the people who flooded into the US here when the boundary lines were redrawn in eEurope with the collapse of German and Austrian empires in 1919. The political uncertainty sent waves of unwashed humanity, peasant farmers here who really didn't what they were. In 1930 in the economic upheaval the Democrats marched these people off to the poles to seize power. In the process the melting pot myth was created with some clever semblances and later celebrated in the artificial consensus of the 1950s.

Contemporary Mooseslam are different from the amorphous peasants that washed up on our shores. p>Mouseslam are intelligent with a clear sense of self - identity. They know who they are, a deep understanding of history, and have a very clear idea of what they intend to do.

If Trump goes, the Mooseslam will be in power in six months. The White Liberal will be pushed aside, as each of the illusions they believe will keep them in power fail them in succession.

What will happen to the White Liberal? Well, the white liberal has a lot to think over on that score.

American Dogs, almost the greatest,
smarter than Slovenian dogs,
but stupider than Nigerian dogs,
barking in the English language,
but can bark in Spanish too
with perfect pronunciation,
scratching their fleas with gusto,
sitting up and speaking in a monotone,
wagging their tails like a petrified skunk,
chewing up more expensive stuff
than Mongolian dogs do,
known to be connoisseurs
and only select the finest to chew,
rolling over in an artistic manner,
chasing rabbits better than French dogs,
chasing cars like a gazelle,
biting the mailman with more finesse,
howling at the moon in the right key,
not off key like German dogs do,
leading American dog walkers
down the street
faster than Puerto Rican dogs do,
lifting their hind legs higher than
Indian dogs at the fire hydrant,
and sniffing females with more passion
than Chinese dogs do,
almost as great as the greatest.

Someday if American dogs
keep practicing, they will become the creme de la creme, the numero uno's,
the A number one ones,
the best of the best.
~ Robert L Martin

Trump has disallowed trans-gender people in the American Armed Forces. These people have it difficult in daily life. To be "born in the wrong body" is tough. They have as much right to the "pursuit of life, liberty and happiness" as anybody else.

But, should they be doing that in the Armed Forces? To begin with, there is the stigma of a man, who wants to cross-dress as a woman and the non-acceptance of a woman, who wants to have an artificial penis. The average American is just not ready to accept that and so the Commander-in-Chief is making a move in banning them from the American Armed Forces. Then, there is the issue of homosexuality. Under Clinton, it was, "Don't ask, don't talk", so the toughies beat the living daylights out of anyone, who called them q - - -r and the cissies got de - mobbed (AMER translation: REFRAD). This was definitely deleterious to discipline. You can't have all kinds of ranks brawling.

A lot of homosexuals are attracted to the Army with its all-male ethos. They tend to be super-butch and tough enough to hold their own in any fight. They make good soldiers. A lot of Afro-Americans also enter the Armed Forces. Some of them are gay. The ones, who aren't, you don't mess with. It is not a good idea to mess either with a "q - - -r" or a "n - - - - -" because you get more than you bargained for.

Of course, the right-wing religious groups and indeed all middle America abhors gays. They do not have to fight, however. They marry, raise families, have nice lives and get by. They are shocked by two men doing the same thing (not to mention three men).

Finally, of course, there is the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It actually forms part of the Neo-Platonist movement of the fourth century AD and there is little in the story of the Two Cities of the Plains that really makes much sense today and a lot of obfuscation about what certain words really mean. Of course, if you think that Eve really did eat the apple, then you will no doubt think that the sin of Sodom is abhorrent in the sight of God, but any more liberal interpretation of the Bible will prove otherwise.

Homosexuality is by now deeply engrained in the American Armed Forces, the American Police, the Prison Guards, the Security Service, he Firemen etc. etc. All the "boys", who do not go in for ballet dancers and hairdressers are to be found there. Hollywood is steeped in it. The music branch is full of it. Donald Trump, in my view, is not going to stamp homosexuality out of the American Armed Forces in the way that Bush with his misguided Baptist convictions, was out to. Homosexuality is very rife in New York, which is where Trump is at home. It is notorious in the FBI. I think, on the whole, that Trump was wise in eradicating trans-gender persons from the Armed Forces and, although the Gay Rights Movement will stick up for them, no one else will.

~ Dr. Jeff Wordsmith
English to English translation provided by The RPPS - Big Pond Translation Service