Dying Democracy - on the Palindrome 02.02.2020

As the Greeks celebrate International Palindrome Day 02.02.2020, the birthplace of democracy should take note of the dying system of government called democracy - a system that once brought hope, opportunity, equality and the rule of law to millions of people.

Hints and actions to weaken western democracy have increased ever since Donald Trump ascended to the presidency of the United States (US). An isolationist policy by Trump along with squabbles with traditional democratic allies have all constituted a wake for democracy in the modern era. 

An affirmation of dying democracy was confirmed by Trump's republican party co-killers with the Senate of the US when they opted  to block the calling of witnesses based upon their own constructed rules in the impeachment trial of Trump before the Senate, thus setting an easy no-witness acquittal of Trump of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.  

That republicans would forgo the compelling admissions of would-be witnesses as evidence to gross wrong doings by Trump amounts to a nail in the coffin of democracy. Therefore, as long as Trump as President, the US cannot lecture any other nation as to the procedures of government and the rule of law. Trump and the republican majority Senate are co-defendants into the impending death of western democracy.

Elsewhere in the world on this palindrome - 02.02.2020, China wrestles with an evolving epidemic - a Novel Coronavirus, which threatens to become a pandemic that has thus far infected 17, 287 people, but that number could be considerably higher, and causing 361 deaths including the first even recorded death outside of China, in the Philippines. 

China continues to battle the pesky virus with draconian limitations to travel and movement with a country of 1.3 billion people. A new hospital to treat the ill has been erected in 10-days as work continues on another. More than 50 million people continue on lockdown as Beijing vies to sterilize  the outside world from infection. Yet more than 150 cases of the mysterious virus have been reported from the US to Australia.

On another note, the Arab League has unanimously rejected a Trump US and Israeli plan for peace in the Middle East. Citing a below threshold of respect of Palestinian rights, the Arab League has dismissed the so called 'deal of the century'.

And so it has to pass that on this palindrome of 02.02.2020, the world sits in uncertainty and in fear of an uncharted future. Best of Luck to China and best of prosperity to Palestine.