Dispatches 2024Kenneth WebbMarch 08, 2024parochialism, 37% US valid passports, 63% US citizens have no valid passort, D24 1, On the Ropes, The Insurrection on Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021, US State Department, America On the Ropes, January 6 2021, Mitch McConnell, Cheltenham Races, The Docks, The Docks Liverpool, 391 million American CitizensComment

Dispatches 2024 No 1 ~ America On the Ropes

Dispatches 2024

No 1

AMERICA ON THE ROPES

Oyh wanna be da fukkin preseedent den oyh can perdon meeeeee fa-ARRRLLL dees fings dey sez oyh dun wch oyh havvunt dun but wich in myh likkle ole art oyh nose oyh AVE dun!

I

The Insurrection on Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 proved to many of the us around the world of the squalid and debased level to which Donald Trump had taken the United States of America.

We also breathed a sigh of relief with a collective well, at least the people will now see how close they came to losing everything.

Senator Mitch McConnell soon disabused us in his rambling speech in opposition to the tabled impeachment of the former 45th president. For millions around the world, 2016-2020 was a nightmare scenario. Then the books started being written. People started coming out of the woodwork, and as we rolled from 2021 into 2022 and 2023 we found ourselves, at times, reading what surely must be total fiction.

In 2024, I still cannot get my head around the fact that a disgraced former president, so disgraced that it takes him to being the worst and most vain-glorious, vicious and foul-minded man to have held that office in America’s very short history since 1776.

II

Earlier this week, this disgraced man, this fallen idol of the illiterate, the man currently indicted on numerous serious crimes, somehow, in a kind of dystopian nightmare, managed to beat the Republican contender Nicola Haley to nomination as the Republican Party’s race to the White House. What is it with 361.9 million American citizens that they do not see what the rest of us see as clear as the light of day?

A little inner voice whispered, lack of perspective. Really? Yeah, you know, when people don’t travel beyond their own backyard but have an opinion on everything. Ah, right. But hang on, this is the U.S.A. we’re talking about. The Leader of the Free World. Another little inner voice was more strident. Forget it. They’ve fucked that to kingdom come! The calmer inner voice suggested to all present to be less restive and look at the facts.

If I do not travel beyond my own house, we don’t have backyards in Europe - I thought of a conversation I had with a lady at the cash till up in Liverpool 13 years back. It was Freshers Week and the city was running riot with students from its three universities all trying to “buy food-n-stuff before mum and dad leave”. The Supermarket did good trade that day. Bagging my purchases, we chatted. You’re not local? Yep. Sure, I am, but I’m from Gloucestershire.

Where’s that?
Down south. Cheltenham Races?
Oh, yeah. You live here now?
Yep. Over on the docks.

A pause. A pregnant pause.

The DOCKS?!? (A look of consternation, disbelief.

Yeah. Waterloo Dock just along from the Liver Building and the Albert Dock…Why?

They’re filthy!

Ha, right! Why do you say that, luv?

They stink! Haven’t seen them in THUUUURRRTEEEEEEE years, like! Never go there. Urgh!. Dems filthy, like.

Ah, right. Yep, back in the eighties.

Yeah, like I says… no need ta go dehr.

And the penny dropped. Living just 3 miles into the city but with no need to visit the docks. But three decades had quietly passed her by without in any way invading the understanding and perception held thirty years earlier.

III

The American nation is not unlike that lady. It is amazing to learn that in 2024 only 37 percent of American citizens hold valid US passports. That means that the majority - 63 percent - are without passports. 38 percent have never held valid passports. These statistics are obtained from the United States State Department. Given that 391 million US citizens are, as usual, misunderstanding their position in world affairs, and their predominance, they clearly have learned nothing.

I’m told that not everyone wants Trump back as president. Sure. I accept that.

But when a supreme court is rigged to guarantee a constant undermining of the American Constitution, when supreme court judges can stare criminality and corruption in the face, they are, in effect, saying “we see no criminality, we see no corruption”, and that means there is enormous danger between now and 20 November 2024.

I’m not concerned with America’s plight. I’m not interested in 391 million people who think they are a gift from god almighty, whoever that god is. I’m not interested in the equivalent of fifty nation states all fighting amongst themselves within their federal border. I’m not interested in that infernal bible belt that has them so firmly gripped in their pants, that they so often shit themselves and cause the conseqent havoc in the clean-up.

What I am interested in is the adverse effect they have upon the lives of people elsewhere in the world, and especially in Europe and the United Kingdom.

IV

The very long dark night fast approaches. It will last a very long time. Many who see its arrival will not live to see the dawn, for that dawn is a very, very long way off and, as yet, not predertinined or guaranteed by the Laws of Nature.

Kenneth Webb

Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.

He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.

Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.

In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.