Miscellany101's Weblog

How the Founding Fathers dealt with the issue of owning human has a lot to do with the politics of the Country since its founding to the modern era.

This WaPo article on the attempts of a living African-American to discover his family history is the bridge between American paternalism past and present. William England discovered his great grandmother was conceived by a slave who was impregnated by her owner, an Alabaman legislator who figured prominently in the antebellum South’s history. Ella Clay, England’s great grandmother was just another slave to her white father as far as the man who conceived her was concerned. England seemed to want to attribute some humanity to the father of his great grandmother by saying he allowed her to have her wedding in his house. Of course she went on to live a life of slavery and slavish subservience to white paternalism. Rape of enslaved women by white masters was common during the years of slavery. It was a way to staff the work force and increase the wealth of the rapist because the product of such violence was always deemed a slave and slaves were by far the biggest asset of plantation owners.

Nineteeenth century American white male paternalism resembles present day Right male paternalism in the way men of today interact with women and the human beings that interaction creates. The anti-abortion movement says women have no recourse, legal or otherwise in what happens to their bodies, regardless whether it is through rape or incest or physical threats to womens’ bodies while men who rape and ravish them go on living lives full of choices. These men have a choice whether to be responsible for their children or their sexual partners or completely abandon them a la Herschel Walker et co. and continue the commercialization of women’s bodies. Whereas genteel Southern men could copulate with women of color indiscriminately and dehumanize and enslave children from such a union 21st century Right males use women’s bodies for sexual pleasure and can absolve themselves of any responsibility to raise children, completely abandoning them to their sexual partners, the family of their partners or the State. These same Right males who bemoan the intrusion of the State in THEIR affairs don’t mind that the same state should take care of the human beings they leave behind. The right to rape women seems to be a common thread that runs in paternalism of the 19th through 21st century and women and the children they are forced to bear are the ones who suffer.

Finally this parting shot at southern culture and the myth of it being a righteous movement designed to advance a distinct, positive way of life of American life. Antebellum southern America resembles its MAGA successor in another key point and that is its adherence to myth and lies.  From the above mentioned article is this tidbit

Long after the war, the Clay family perpetuated a myth about life on Southern plantations. Virginia Clay — rumored to have had a long affair with Jefferson Davis — became a leader in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that erected Confederate monuments across the South and idealized “The Lost Cause” in the early 20th century. Virginia’s memoir, “A Belle of the Fifties,” described the glittering social life she enjoyed before the end of slavery. The UDC promoted Virginia’s book across the country, helping create the perception that led to “Gone with the Wind” and generations of rosy pictures of a bygone Dixie.

The reliance on a lie and the immoral behavior of those who advance that lie seem to be another common data aspect antebellum southern white paternal America shares with MAGA Republican paternal of today’s America. Before, during and after American slavery the history of the country was steeped in death, the enslavement and disenfranchisement of people of color. Today’s right MAGA inspired movement seems to share similar goals of returning American culture to an antebellum paternalism.

When you hear the gun crowd say, ‘guns don’t kill people, people do’, kick them to the curb. Such bumper sloganeering has no place in a developed, mature democracy like America unless you want to bury your head in the sand and let the pandemic of mass murder continue. What took place in Raleigh, North Carolina where a 15 year old went on a rampage in his community and killed 5 people including his older brother may be new to Raleigh but it’s happened before and that’s the problem.

Back in 1998 two boys down in Arkansa killed five people in their school when those two were 11 & 13 years old. Yeah….an eleven year old child along with his thirteen year old buddy killed four students and a teacher. Their names were Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden. They had nine firearms and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Luckily none of their weapons were semi automatic rifles. Imagine the death toll they could’ve inflicted as they lay in ambush as students and staff filed out into the open. Remember this; they were just 11 & 13 years old. Let that sink in for a minute………………….In the state where they lived, they were tried as juveniles and released when they reached 21 years old. Moving on to the present where,

in Raleigh, Austin Thompson 15 years old walked around his neighborhood for several hours killing people at random. He was described by eyewitnesses as between 13-16 years of age, small, very young. One has to wonder whether his victims who when they first laid eyes on him saw the same small statured boy described by 911 callers whose appearance made them stifle their flight response to danger just long enough for him to kill them. Torres, one of the shooter’s victims, was a police officer on his way to work. Eventually the boy was taken into custody and whisked to the hospital with bullet wounds to the head and body. It’s unclear whether he attempted to kill himself or was shot by police.

There’s no mention in published reports about the boy’s parents who rightfully deserve attention if for no other reason than whether there were firearms in the home. It’s also unclear what type and how many weapons the boy used in his murder spree but I certainly hope a 15 year old boy living a suburban life with parents couldn’t go out and get weapons from the streets. Maybe that IS possible but for now the parents have a responsibility to monitor, influence and correct the behavior of their children for it’s the parent people usually go to to inform and ask about why children behave the way they do. Unfortunately it’s too late for corrective action on the part of the parent. That now is the responsibility of the State. So, that said, Mr. and Mrs Thompson why did your boy have access to guns and go out and kill five people including your other son? It’s a reasonable two part question to ask parents of juvenile murderers. What was going on with your child emotionally, mentally, psychologically and where and how did they get hold of firearms.

People with guns kill people and as the lethality and rapidity of firearms becomes more potent who has access to these weapons of death should become a priority of the State. Yes, it must be regulated by the State because as much as 2nd Amendment people want to complain about infringement and regulation it is also the responsibility of lawmakers to insure the safety of the citizens of the state. Common sense gun legislation is the key . Parents with juvenile children in the house should not have firearms within the reach of immature children and when those children get ahold of their parents’ weapons and commit acts of violence parents should pay the price for their parental neglect. As of this writing there are over 500 acts of mass shootings commited by people with firearms in America. If that doesn’t bother you perhaps you don’t belong in a structured lawful society.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact he sits on the right hand of a benefactor who’s determined to see him take a job he’s not even remotely qualified for. It might have something to do with the fact Walker so closely mirrors the foibles, mistakes, the criminal behavior and incessant lying of Trump. That must be the only reason he still has viability as a senatorial candidate. Usually, people don’t get away with the things Walker has done like assaulting women, lying about his resume, or even worse lying about children he has fathered or ignored and all on a public stage but certainly not black men. Yet there are people in authority who consider him legitimate and a viable candidate for the job of US Senate.

For the entirety of his public life, Walker has been a tool used by rich powerful men and institutions for purposes that solely benefited them. He has been given opportunities that most never have. That fact doesn’t bother those who’ve used him; they are perfectly fine with that. In fact, they line up to use him for their own purposes when their predecessors are finished with him. So after being used by the University of Georgia, he was picked up by a nascent football league commandeered by Donald Trump to compete with the NFL. Now, he’s being used by Trump again who once owned the team Walker played for to disrupt the Republican Party to fashion it in his, Trump’s, image.

Walker’s professional life may have been marked with some successes but his personal, private life is a hot mess. He’s assaulted multiple women, including his ex-wife and lied about his paternity of children, now up to four from four different women. He’s lied about his career resume, saying at one time he got his degree from UGA to managing hospitals, all proven lies. Yet he still is in the running against Raphael Warnock and there’s really only one reason why. He is a tool for the only president in American history to be twice impeached and who is currently under investigation for a host of crimes.

Walker is being used by Trump, for the moment to redesign, reshape the Republican Party in his image to become the party of American fascism. There are all sorts of groups that will fall under that umbrella, from the virulently racists KKK, to the corporate elites who see America as a limitless supply of cheap labor class who will struggle to buy whatever consumer goods branded with enticing names. (Remember Trump steaks?) All this is being driven by a man with an ego the size of America who is presently being investigated for crimes ranging from tax evasion up to possible espionage and who has never been held accountable for what he’s done in his past.

Trump has enlisted the right man for the job of further lowering American standards and degrading the electoral process. Walker is uneducated in general and uninitiated in the political sabotage that’s swirling around him at the moment. He’s too stupid to see that whether he succeeds or fails is entirely irrelevant. For now he’s a political balloon being floated before the American electorate to see America’s tolerance for corruption. It appears the tolerance level for it is quite high. Trump’s candidacy proved America will tolerate criminal behavior if it comes from a perspective that scratches the nativist white itch of the country. Walker however is different than Trump because he’s a scary black man with imagery that instinctively frightens white America. He’s fathered (raped) children with white women and not taken care of them (The women and his children have said this) and he’s seeking to gain admission into a club, the halls of power, that he’s not at all qualified for. That these were once excuses to deny African-Americans access to jobs and privileges in America is being totally ignored by white Republicans who insist the only thing that matters is reaching a “number” in the Senate that can give them power. Even the idea that Walker be that number reminds one of a time when white people detested the idea that the work force reflect a certain “number” of candidates. However all the objections of the past about African-American perceived behavior are thrown out the window with Walker.

Lindsay Graham back during the 2016 campaign season said if the Republican party embraced Trump it would be the end of the party. The GOP has seen a steady decline in the relevancy it might have once held in American politics because of Trump. His promoting Walker’s imploding campaign is one more nail in the GOP’s coffin . Walker has led a life that is inconsistent with the pro-life and being connected to family “values” of the Party. The same could be said about Donald Trump but Walker cannot get away with the deception of Trump because Walker is black. The real issue is, however, no matter how glaring his sins are he should not get away with them because they are wrong and inconsistent with the tenets of a decent society that’s based on equitably applied standards. Walker still remains a candidate for Senate and will likely get a substantial number of votes. The fact that he is still in the race and still has the support of powerful white people is proof positive he is not your typical black man living in America.

….because in today’s America they lead to bigger and worse things, bordering on sedition and insurrection.

America was groomed to accept the big lie with Trump’s candidacy.  Even before he announced it he lied about his wealth, his business acumen, his charity, his affection for America and her institutions.  At that time we were delicate with him and either overlooked his “misstatements” or “hyperbole” or excused it as something akin to “locker room talk”.  After all we all have told a ‘white lie’ or two to get ahead in one way or another.

Unfortunately, left unchecked locker room talk ballooned into something that threatened our democracy such that by the time Trump left office the number of white lies, political misstatements and hyperbole was an astronomical thirty thousand plus. Maybe one of the reasons they were so large in number is because America equivocated.  We were timid in calling Trump out for his lies.  Most if not all of them could’ve been easily fleshed out, discovered to be lies, exposed.  At one point during the Trump administration fact checking became a thing because he told lies so frequently it left people scratching their heads wondering where were they all coming from.  Some of them were comical, like the one where he said his inauguration was the largest with the most people attending of any other presidential inauguration. One look at that day would have you asking what alternate universe Trump lived in that made him say the things he said. I mean really?  The largest attendance of any inauguration? Really?

Trump arrives in his limousine to the inaugural parade reviewing stand.

There were other lies Trump told that were designed to inflame public passion such as his statement offered by him and others in the GOP that terrorists from the Middle East, i.e. Muslims infiltrated America via the ‘southern border’.  This lie was addressed by Trump’s own State Department which concluded  ” there’s no credible evidence of terrorists entering the United States through the Mexican border”.  This was not difficult to discern yet Trump asserted it eight different times during his presidency and each time people believed it while those who didn’t rarely if ever called him out for it.

There were more seditious lies Trump advanced like the lie the 2020  elections were rigged. He has repeatedly made that lie at least 76 times even though he knows it is not true and he has been told almost as many times that it’s not true. Trump and his allies even went so far as to file dozens of lawsuits in six swing states, but virtually all of his claims were rejected for lack of evidence or standing, often by judges appointed by Trump.  An insurrection was carried out by thousands who believed otherwise.  Unfortunately by that time it was too late to call Trump a liar when we had accepted so many of his lies before.

Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for Posting Coronavirus Misinformation

I wish we had made a good enough example of Trump to make others shy away from using lies for political gain but far too many in the GOP have taken Trump’s path to political ascendancy, like Marjorie Taylor Green.  I remember before even taking her oath for  office and while she waited in her DC area hotel Green was lying about gym facilities being closed.  She attributed that to a bad public health Covid policy regarding social distancing and thus began grievance politics the GOP uses that must always be accompanied with lies.  Everyone must have rolled their eyes reading this up and coming Republican lying about something demonstrably untrue that could be easily verfied as untrue.  In fact, many people who read her tweet in December 2019 made it a point to tell her she was lying as did I, but that didn’t stop her and neither did Twitter’s suspension of her account. 

Fortunately for America, Congress has been in the hands of mature, responsible public servants who quickly removed her from any position in the House. For a brief period she was relegated in Congress to………nothing but the midterms call and Republicans eager to regain control of Congress have resorted to the strategy that gave them results in 2016….fear and lies and people like Green with the proven talent to do both well have been put into service.

Post Trump administration political campaigns have taken on an edge that resembles the vitriol of their namesake, Trump. They are full of arrogance, rebellion, disdain for the American political process and of course more than a healthy dose of lies. After January 6 those lies can and have led to violence and death and Green’s latest lie that Democrats want to kill Republicans is designed to lead to just this inevitability. The basis for her latest lie is easily shown as baseless yet it reveals how Republicans have become dependent on lies they hope will have a large impact on their political plans. Suggesting Democrats are out to kill Republicans is meant to suggest the only response to be made is a response in kind to something that never happened. Therein lies the threat to American democracy a baseless lie designed to prompt civil unrest and possibly civil war, or said another way, a continuation of the Jan6 insurrection, which was also started based on Trump’s election fraud lie. Because Republicans think such tactics increase their chance of taking back power there will be no voices of restraint or condemnation from them. In the absence of being held accountable for their lies by society and because Republicans lack the discipline not to lie one can only expect they will only lie more prolifically and boldly as they try retaking Congress and the executive branch.

The lies told by Republicans are easily proven as lies; they are not part of some esoteric, conspiracy that can only be understood and debunked by a super computer that only governments control. Rather they are very easily and quickly discounted by picking up a newspaper, or going online and reading various sources that report on what government officials say. Americans aren’t willing to do that. Instead we are happy to be spoon fed lies and conspiracies by unscrupulous public servants and such reliance only increases the chances the American experiment will soon be over.

Remember this?

That was back during the FIRST Trump impeachment. Schiff nailed it, prescient like when he said Trump can’t be trusted and if left undisciplined, unscathed, unpunished would resort to scandal again and here we are two years later and the Trump scandal machine rolls inexorably towards causing the demise of America.

I’m willing to bet most people don’t even remember all the havoc Trump caused before his first impeachment. How he gutted DOJ, fired people in the FBI, raked in money through his businesses that left for sale signs out for anyone, including enemies of the State, with something they wanted from him or how he courted American adversaries at the expense of decades long allies and on and on and on. Not many remember how he snatched children from their parents at the southern border and demonized other peoples of color to raucous applause at the many rallies he held. No one is as photogenic as ‘orange jesus’.

That is the chaos of Trump’s term in office. He’s too used to this kind of chaos. He’s lived through and caused it all his life. Imagine that America elected as president a man who almost 49 years ago was sued by the very government he became president of; who has defaulted on bank loans, filed for bankruptcy, yet while running for office managed to convince the world that all his failures were a good thing that made him qualified for office. Everyone should know his record as a candidate for office and as POTUS, right? Anything sterling or meritorious about the job he did?

Now we sit on the edge of our seats at the latest scandal he took classified information, boxes full of it, down to his residence(s) and left it unsecured. Some suggest that information included nuclear secrets of the very limited number of the world’s nuclear powers and he held that information until he was forced to, or rather until it was taken from him after being in his possession for 18 months AND after he failed to honor the negotiations he forced the government he once headed to have with him over it all. Oh, I forgot to mention the insurrection he led back in 2021. Of course I could insert it at a more appropriate point in this piece but I mention it now only because there’s so much going on with this ONE man that sometimes one can’t grasp it all. You are forced to block some things out because the mind can’t conceive an American president would lead a coup against his country or attempt to subvert free and fair elections in order to stay in power or as this latest bit of news suggests use American secrets for nefarious purposes.

While all this has happened we wonder what if anything America’s justice system will do to reign in Trump. How long will the country engage in excuses to delay bringing to justice a man so committed to breaking the law? The latest excuse advanced these days is the investigation into Trump’s pilfering state secrets should be suspended until after the midterm elections….even though Trump is not running for office. We’ve already seen how he was able to get a pliant district court judge he appointed to the bench impede the investigatory process with so many insane legal remedies that might wind up having to be addressed by SCOTUS, present judicial successes notwithstanding, that could take years to untangle.

So, how long America can we take this endless exposure to Trump scandal? They speak to his character. This is his life and this is how he has forced us to live. Schiff two years ago said ‘enough is enough’. Why hasn’t it been?

The dawn of 24 hour newscasts and ‘breaking news’ has birthed a constituency that needs the adrenaline rush of scandal. Who better to supply that drug than an administration that has engaged in activities barely contemplated much less attempted in America’s history and whose titular leader has demonstrably and unabashedly lied more than any other president in American history.

Trump has become the archetypal pusher man, drug dealer….arrogant, shameless, hypocritical beyond any measure, willing to embody and act on the ambitions of centuries of American narcissism, racism and unbridled capitalism. He and the Party he represents are the drug. We, the consuming public, can smoke it, snort it, inject it, apply it topically, whatever we need to do to get it in our system. For this Party and this circus barker called Trump, the supply is endless.

Like the drug addict who needs that high to remain barely functional, the American body politic needs Trump’s drug to oil its newsrooms, sharpen its constitutional lawyers to be on the lookout for and prevent future snake oil salesmen like him from succeeding where he didn’t. Law enforcement agencies need the chaos Trumpism brought to develop policies to deal with insurrectionists like those of January 6, and on and on and on. From fake electors to election fraud to federal agencies blatantly disobeying, disregarding policies each scandal has to be bigger and more outrageous than its predecessor in order to fulfill those needs, to keep the body barely alive and functioning.

American media is the drug delivery system. It brings Trump’s scandals to us in every conceievable way. Television, radio (what’s that you ask), internet, cell phones and every other device spew out the latest news about what Trump has said or done or will be done to him and his supporters. We injest that information, sit back and enjoy the rush, high, it gives us. We savory its every ramification….roll it around on our social media and other social outlets like someone who submerses themselves in the drug they’ve just taken before we get up and stumble aimlessly around in our drug induced stupor. Worst of all, like every other drug addict we are neither well nor working and we’re the last to realize that dysfunction exists in us.

The best part is like every other drug addict there is a cure for Trump’s drug. It means going cold turkey……depriving ourselves of Trump nonsense…….shivering through our withdrawal while going through it and forever being vigilante about being intoxicated by it or the likes of it again. The first step lies in putting in motion the principles we often talk about but have neither fully embraced. Let’s start with the one that says no person is above the law. To get there we have to discard our narcissism and work on our collective recovery. Doing so means we admit there is a problem and outline what must be done to collectively solve it. America can do it, can recover. This country has done things no other has done in human history. It has also done things that in our life times were once thought inconceivable. On the other hand the Country has seen things in our lives that have paralleled the worst of American history. We have to choose which direction we’re willing to take. It’s up to you America……what’s it gonna’ be? More drugs or the cure?

It can’t be because three of them are paying $55 million for the luxury of going into outer space to spend ten days on the International Space Station, can it? One might think spending that kind of money should only be done for a necessity, a matter of life or death thing or maybe to improve the condition of a loved one or another member of one’s human family. It’s the luxury of having that kind of cash available to do something one likes that causes them to smile and it’s a good thing to be able to do something you want and like to do.

Let’s be clear however, space travel is a luxury that only a few can afford but is not necessary for life on earth, like good health care or a safe, healthy place to live with a sustainable income. Here’s my cue to be a debbie downer because as much as I like the idea of them enjoying the moment of this accomplishment I also hope that in the case of the American civilian astronaut, Larry Connor, a member of The Connor Group which touts assets of $3.5 billion in 10 states throughout America I hope he’s equally excited about paying his fair share of taxes that allows him such financial security in America’s democracy. Over 50% of America’s wealth is controlled by 1% of the American population and 10 percent own 70 percent of the country’s total wealth, which means 90% of Americans work and produce for America while the upper 10% enjoy the fruits of their labor and get to go on space adventures and have other such luxuries. That is the definition of an oligarchy, not a democracy.

No one wants to ‘redistribute’ Connor’s wealth. He along with all the Americans he employs worked for and possibly earned it. What he must do is pay his share of being an American citizen who enjoys the benefits of an infrastructure that takes people to and from his businesses or supplies them with public utilities. He has to contribute equitably for a health care system that keeps his employees healthy enough to sustain his profits, and an educational system that gives them the skills to run his businesses while he takes his space adventures. I hope he’s willing to sign on to that and will encourage his fellow one percenters to do so as well.

The slap seen at the Oscars is the left’s version of Donald Trump’s entitlement to do whatever one wants without fearing any legal ramifications. Perhaps it’s become an American thing now and it is something we should be really worried about. The longer such entitlement is appeased, the worst the carrier of it becomes. Remember, Trump uttered that line during the 2016 campaign and six years later he’s still involved in criminal behavior that is an existential threat to American democracy. What will happen to us as a collective society if Smith gets away with assault broadcast around the world?

I am glad to see there was some push back which kinda echoes my own feelings about this. Kareem AbdulJabbar made some nuanced, quality points about Smith’s behavior, although I disagree with what he thinks should happen. In one sentence he encapsulated decades worth of arguments surrounding black masculinity and how it’s seen by others

When Will Smith stormed onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock he advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community

Am I the only one who sees the parallels between Smith and supporters of Trump and the GOP both of whom have embraced violence for the smallest of insults if those insults ever existed. Smith slapped one man before a television audience, while Republicans engaged in violence against symbols of American institutions for what they thought was an injustice against them. In the case of the GOP that’s been proven time and again NOT to be the case.

Unlike Republicans Smith comes from an African-American background that stresses in order to succeed black people have to be twice as good as their white counterparts. He does not come from the same space as Republicans who believe in natural entitlement, a birth right which only they have claim for. His being only the 5th black male actor to receive the award he got is proof that patience, endurance and craftmanship at the highest level are necessary to get the best male actor Oscar. How could he quickly forget all that and assault his fellow actor/comedian? (Smith was once a comedian, too)

It’s said he was protecting, defending the honor of his wife but what was he protecting her from? As Kareem points out in his piece, Jada Smith is equally talented, eloquent and capable as her husband and perhaps more prolific. She has her own broadcast medium where she discusses a wide variety of topics including alopecia everyone says was at the butt of Rock’s joke. Her Red Table Talk is the bully pulpit Smith, either of them, could have used to fire back at Rock if words were the weapon they used to do so. I would’ve preferred however, for Smith to fire back during his acceptance speech to talk about the importance his wife has meant to the success of his career and because of her strong character and how much she means to him she will forever be beautiful regardless of her appearance. He could only say that if it was heartfelt or he was thinking clearly. Regrettably neither of them thought words would work against Rock’s words. They chose option #1, the easier option, violence.

By resorting to aggressive, profane out of control violence, Smith solidified for a lot of Americans their belief that black men are fearful and violence is an appropriate response to control them and protect the rest of us from them. It was right there in front of everyone’s eyes. It is the image people will use to justify violence against men who use words, as Smith did and it will be the image people use to say they had to stop the kinda of violence they EXPECT all Will Smiths of America WILL use. I have heard a very catchy phrase emerge from this tragic episode in Americana, an expression that black people cannot condemn violence against themselves if they condone violence they perpetuate against themselves. I’m all in on that.

SCOTUS ruled in January, 2021 in an Emoluments Clause against Donald Trump that

wipes away two lower court rulings, but also orders dismissal of the entire dispute — leaving for some other time resolution of the many questions Trump’s conduct raised about the Emoluments Clause

Remember all the fuss about Trump violating the Emoluments clause? The Clause which

prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other thing of value from a foreign state or its rulers, officers, or representatives.

and is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8). SCOTUS decided there was no judicial relief from Trump’s violation that allowed him to profit while serving as POTUS. Since assuming office in 2016, petitions were filed against Trump because he failed to put his businesses in a blind trust that would keep him from selling the influence of the office and knowingly profit. It seems for now another door is closed for prosecuting Trump.

It is because of this history Trump has that makes this article all the more incredulous. Despite the claims in it that

The office had always been thinly staffed and cramped, overseen by an election board comprising citizens who’d answered a county ad for volunteers, filled out a form and might have been assigned to parks but got elections instead. The operation was known for being slow on election nights and at times disorganized, problems that had been a matter of eye-rolling until 2020, when Trump began predicting a rigged election and his followers began seeing every mishap as suspicious.

All of the above has nothing to do with Trump’s claim of voter fraud. He probably has never heard of that office and is probably not aware of the issues mentioned in the Post’s article. My point is this claim of voter fraud is something Trump has made since the very beginning of his involvement in politics and is a thread embedded in Republican politics.

Trump is a narcissist who believes anything he involves himself in equates to immediate success for him or the endeavor with which he is involved. Anything other than success means the results are flawed and invalid. During the 2016 general campaign he questioned

the legitimacy of the election process claiming “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!

and in the waning days of the 2016 campaign held the nation in “suspense” about whether he would recognize the results from an election he claimed would be “rigged” or even “stolen upsetting many in his Party. Obviously he won but he continued to advance the claims of voter fraud even going so far as to establish a commission led by Kris Kobach to investigate something they said they found no evidence existed. One of the members of that Commission went on to say

“It’s calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud. There’s no real evidence of it anywhere.”

We would naturally expect, given this history, that Trump would revisit his claims of voter fraud in the last election in which he took part. True to form it too was baseless and full of lies which begs the question, why does Trump take us and the Country thru such baseless nonsense? It all goes back to the nature of Donald Trump and the party he represents. Trump believes superlatives apply only to himself. He heaps them on himself like two bit fascist autocrats he admires and aspires to be . If he can’t have 90-100% approval for anything then the results are flawed, no good, tainted, spoiled and should not be seen as legitimate.

As the original article above claims, the outcomes for the GOP in making this voter fraud argument are

state’s GOP legislators have introduced 14 bills reorganizing county election boards that oversee election offices. So far, eight bills have been signed into law, resulting in a purge of longtime election board members, an exodus of election staffers and the installation of Republicans who have proposed measures to reduce poll locations and cancel Sunday voting.

The Republican party wants a piece of the voter fraud argument in order to reduce the number of people on voting rolls and to be able to control the outcome of elections in their favor through control of county and state election boards. The more people who vote, the less likely it is they are going to vote for a Republican. The two, Trump and the GOP, go hand and hand. They will forever be a stain on the history of America.

Everyone knows about his attempted extortion of the Ukrainian president hoping to get Zelensky to announce, proclaim a lie so that Trump could use it for his political advantage.  Remember, he only wanted the Ukrainians to say they were opening an investigation into Joe Biden and his family’s relation with the eastern European country and Trump and his minions would take it from there.  The Ukrainians would then secure the weapons they were supposed to receive without any strings attached but quid pro quo is how the Trump administration did business so nothing is given in Trump world without extracting concessions, lies.

Everyone and especially Russia are aware of Trump’s disdain for NATO.  He came into office speaking disparagingly of the organization, was openly scornful of the organization and his body language towards NATO member states’ leaders was one of open contempt. His actions alone were meant to send all the right signals to Russia that America was at best ambiguous about NATO and even desirous of neutering the alliance’s potency.  One former Trump aide said he had to talk Trump out of leaving NATO in 2018 and that same aide has even gone on to suggest had Trump been reelected he would have withdrawn from the group altogether. Thinking about Trump having another four years as President alone is scary but if you are a citizen of Ukraine, it’s now become a matter of life and death.

America suffered through a Trump incited insurrection, a failed coup attempt and emerged on the other side to learn that Trump stole, illegally obtained, as he has done his entire life, top secret and classified documents and took them to his residence in Florida.  There were eventually 15 boxes of documents of a national security origin Trump unlawfully removed from the White House and the nature and substance of those documents is unknown to most of us.  But it is not unreasonable to think that some of them dealt with Russia, and specifically Putin, the NATO alliance and all things Russia.  It’s how he began his administration and was swept into power and one of the reasons he was infamously removed from office.  Knowing all we’ve come to know about Trump and his regards for Putin and Russia it’s not unreasonable to think he would compromise American national security, especially if it doesn’t fit his own world view, with whatever information he has at his disposal.

The war in Ukraine has blossomed into another European descent into genocide that has reached across the Atlantic Ocean and called America for help.  We cannot talk about what this war means to the country without acknowledging the last six years of neglect and abuse an American administration showed European allies and the absolute obsequiousness it showed the Russian protagonist and aggressor.

He’s missing because he is an institutionalist who serves a president Joe Biden steeped in the politics of the 20^th century who believes in bipartisanship and consensus with the goal being what’s best for the country.  Garland is cut from that same cloth. Very traditional and intensely aware of the value of America’s institutions and the need to preserve them at all costs.  Why hasn’t Garland gone after such a criminally visible President as Trump?  No American president has been indicted for crimes they committed while in office even after they left office.  The case for doing so with Trump is he could not run for reelection, something he’s said he wants to do.  The Mueller Report left open the possibility Trump could be indicted for obstruction of justice but some would argue the precedent for doing that in the case of Trump who certainly deserves it risk criminalizing politics and entanglements that could weaken the legal fabric of the country.   

The mere act of impeaching Trump for widely demonstrated abuses has brought calls for Biden’s impeachment by Republicans if they take control of Congress while Biden is in office for no other reason than they can and they want to make him look as bad as Trump. Institutionalists would likely argue this kind of tit for tat partisanship would destroy the fabric of the country. An alternative to prosecuting a corrupt President would be to go after the circle of advisors caught in presidential scandal and there’s plenty of fodder for Garland to do that.  The January 6 insurrection has offered up a whole host of criminals the DOJ is pursuing but even that seems to be a halfhearted effort but one the Department can point to as doing its job. However, most likely DOJ also sees as part of its job avoiding the criminal prosecution of Trump as its best course of action in these volatile political times. As for the possibility a criminal such as Trump could run for office again, institutionalists would say if his crimes were widely known by the electorate Trump would be rejected as unfit for office.  However, after four years of widely known abuses of power, Trump got more votes in the 2020 election than he did in 2016 so there doesn’t seem to be much wisdom floating around in the public about Trump’s criminality.

Garland is a member of the Federalist Society and a Republicans who probably believes in the legal philosophies of restraint and adherence to precedent. Since there is no precedent for indicting a criminal former President, Garland seems reluctant to do so and especially a President from his own Party with a considerable national following. However, not prosecuting Trump runs the real risk he could return to office; state legislatures controlled by Republicans have been busy solidifying voter suppression and their hold on elections commissions. In so doing they can affect the outcome of elections and possibly oversee the return of Trump to office.  It is not wise to trust the American electorate during these times of Qanon and a rampantly running alternative facts-based media ecosystem but institutionalists like Garland see that as a more viable alternative than their insertion in the process which would lead to Trump not being able to run for office again.  This is the sad reality America faces at the moment; there is a legal system that has all the tools it needs to keep in check a criminal, potential President but an Attorney General who isn’t inclined to do what’s necessary to keep that candidate out of office despite overwhelming evidence he should be kept out of office.

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Putin said this before beginning his military campaign against Ukraine

……..we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation…..  our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force…..

But this is what he brought to the people of Ukraine and the rest of the world

Sight unseen this is what Trump said about Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine

So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right.

Those are the sights of Donald Trump’s version of peace enforced by armaments of war.

In light of the aggression going on in Ukraine which was initiated solely by Vladmir Putin’s encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty I am reminded of Donald Trump and the admiration he had for the Russian leader who he always chose over American presidents.

If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him…Certainly in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been.

Trump would’ve liked to have the power to bring such scenes to the American landscape. Some would say he was nearly successful. Whatever the case the fact there is an American President who speaks highly of someone who has brought about the devastation now going on in Ukraine and who’s doing so breaking international law and based on lies is all one needs to know about Donald Trump and how important it is he never assume any type of power again.

On the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine comes two current news articles that remind me this is America and this is who we are. Any one who thinks todays Republican party has anything positive to offer American citizens should be ashamed to think that way. There are still too many GOP politicians who say the 2020 elections were stolen and that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump in the 2016 elections despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The fact the Party would actively involve itself in a way that would damage the interests, public health and safety of its constituents and even the national interests of America is some thing many would consider unfathomable.

If you live in the state of Texas that would be an incorrect assumption if not a life threatening one and here’s why

The former head of the Texas power grid on Wednesday testified that he was ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott to keep power prices at the maximum price cap during last winter’s winter storm……Power prices were kept at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour, more than 150 times normal prices, during last winter’s storm.

Such outrageous pricing forced the bankruptcy of the utility  electric co-op Brazos Electric….an unintended consequence but there is little doubt the people of Texas faced a major inconvenience during the winter of 2021. On the heels of that tragedy however comes news of people who wanted to benefit from it and put America in the throes of a race war by attacking power grids throughout the United States. One of the conspirators in this scheme was from Texas and the aim of the three of them charged was to sow chaos by attacking regional electrical substations, expecting “the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest.”

Economic distress for the customers on Texas’ electricity grid was real in the winter of 2021 but luckily for America not yet the civil unrest. That wasn’t for lack of the Abbott administration trying. It later emerged that the utility commission paid little attention to taking measures necessary to prevent disruption of service to Texans and even a year later people in north Texas faced disruption of power as winter storm after winter storm moved through the area. Government must insure people have access to affordable utilities for their residences. Not doing so promotes discontent, dissatisfaction and disaffection with government. People in government and especially Republican government and her big business allies deflect such public outcry by pitting one group of people against another and so the conspirators of the above plot probably realized the potential their plan had in todays America.

Frankly there are too many criminally insane people who are willing to exploit the tinder box of America’s racial problems. We are lucky the three above weren’t successful but it only takes one person and one event to set America’s racial hotbed off. Timothy McVeigh tried back in the 90s with catastrophic results. Dylann Roof tried in 2015 when he killed nine people in their church because he believed white people are superior and that he had to kill black people in order to agitate race relations. In other words his aim was to start a race war. Six years separate him from his three co-defendants in crime meanwhile America and her politicians continue to provide every opportunity for them to diminish the power and vibrancy of the country with lies and the lack of courage to confront problems with real solutions. When will this stop?

#IStandUnitedWithUkraine

America is going through another one of its periods where its fascist tendencies surpass, overpower its better ambitions of being a democracy. This is the 21st century version, 5.01. What I find laughable are all the pundits who want to imply America is approaching this troubling era by saying how the Nation has embraced a particular fascist trait like book banning but hasn’t quite reached it yet so we’d better stop sliding toward that trend……

I hate to break it to us, America, but book banning like racism is as American as apple pie and titles we so often quote today to underscore where America is were on someone’s list for us not to read in our not too distant past. Americans don’t like dealing with uncomfortable aspects of our past and present and would much rather push them off as far away as possible from society’s radar

since last year, 37 states have introduced or passed legislation that puts constraints on what can be taught about racism, sexism and inequality

When it comes to people of color, American Fascism 5.01 goes hog wild in its attempts at limiting what people say about their experience and their histories in this country. People as innocent as track star Wilma Rudolph who spoke of the racism she faced while growing up had her voice challenged by a school district in of all places Texas because of course we don’t like to be uncomfortable about our past.

So as long as America refuses to deal with its  long standing authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy let’s be clear it is in the updated version, 5.01 of American fascism.

If you want to understand why black people in America are mad and fed up with policing read on. Most likely it’s because of the random, unnecessary nature of police’s interaction with the African-American community. Every day you can find examples of how police without any reason whatsoever interject themselves into the life of America’s black citizens. Even when police are dispatched to look for and apprehend normal, known criminals police will avoid doing that when they come across black citizens and begin a level of interaction that makes it clear to all involved they consider a black skinned individual a criminal who must explain to the satisfaction of the officer standing in front of them why he is occupying a particular space at a particular time. Why they are standing in front of a place or in a store; why they are sitting behind the wheel of a car; why they are walking or running on a particular sidewalk and on and on. Those civilians who are lucky can come away from such encounters unscathed, without being fined, their lives intact so to speak and free to live another day. There are some unlucky ones who when innocently minding their own business when confronted by police die or are killed. In such instances, asking for police reform is the least a society should do in order to ensure police’s contact with citizens doesn’t result in unnecessary death or injury to all parties involved.

Perhaps the first thing that needs to be addressed is the issue of profiling and why police automatically assume black skinned Americans are criminally inclined. This presumption of guilt or that something must be wrong is inbred in policing where there is an us against them mentality taught at the beginning of one’s police experience. That gets elevated when the variable of skin pigmentation is added in the mix between the two parties. No recent example underscores this dynamic of police naturally assuming pigmentation corresponds to guilt or innocence than this example out of Ohio where 60-year-old Eric Lindsay was confronted by police on suspicion of shoplifting.

If you watched the video you might be able to understand his outrage at being approached by the officer. Being black and experienced in how to get around in black skin you probably heard Lindsay refer to seeing the police enter the store BEFORE he did and if they were looking for someone based on a description given to the police BEFORE they entered then it couldn’t possibly be him. You probably saw him look warily at the approaching officer and how he responded to ‘take your hands out of your pockets’. The very command is akin to a threat. No doubt you heard the certainty in his voice when he said he would sue because he knew he did nothing wrong. That was not an empty threat. If you watched the video you probably heard that the description of the shoplifter was that he was young and white. The police had no business approaching Lindsay at all, so why did they?

Who is the greater threat in this encounter? Lindsay has gone on to sue the police department and he should win. Are the citizens of that town helped by the fact that a police department will have to pay a large sum of money to a plaintiff because their officers mistook a black 60 year old man for a white, male 30 something shoplifter? Will they understand the reason for increased taxes because of arcane and illegal policing practices performed by their officers who are sworn to serve and protect?

America is a mature democracy. It’s been around for a long time and with age should come wisdom and responsible practices in how people in society should deal with one another. If one can’t leave their personal prejudices aside during the performance of their duties as a law enforcement officer or find the stress of the job clouds their better judgement, they shouldn’t be police officers. If one is driven by an American age old prejudice to naturally assume people of color need to be reigned in, controlled, monitored, profiled, dispensed with judiciously because of their skin color, then they shouldn’t be police officers. America must do better than this or else more citizens will be brutalized by police and the trust of the community at large towards police will continue to erode into a toxic cauldron of violence and mayhem. That’s really not a choice, so do better America. Reform policing.

Peoople have become tired of Covid-19. I am too. I drive to an establishment, get out of my car and halfway to the door forget to put on my mask and have to run back to get it. Parents are tired of insisting their children wear masks at school, or so they say and are asking school boards to rescind mask mandates. The things Americans put employees who work at places that ask patrons to wear masks through is unconscionable. Our sons and daughters should not have to bear the brunt of uncontrollable and sometimes feigned rage of people who don’t want to wear a mask.

I am writing this on a Thursday in the second week of February when the seven day average for new covid cases is over 225,000 and the day before, yesterday saw 3,570 Americans die from the virus. If those numbers are acceptable to you America, then open up. I am fed up with your reluctance to do what’s right in the face of a raging pandemic.

Covid has become a stick which politicians and others hostile to the interest of the country have used to destroy our social fabric. Take that power from them; remove the government mandates so that folks with ill intent are no longer able to hold the country hostage. However, the federal government must maintain a role in dealing with this pandemic…because it’s still very much a pandemic which is defined by the CDC as a disease that affects the global population and are usually caused by new infectious agents (bacteria or viruses) that spread quickly.

Incentivize government resources to those places like schools, hospitals and businesses that follow CDC guidelines and recommendations. Make testing and vaccinations available for free in those areas that follow them. School systems that institute social distancing regulations in their facilities should be provided with the resources, funding, etc they need to do that. Those school systems that follow said guidelines are controlled by local school boards that initiate those policies not the federal government, thereby giving local control to policy makers which is what parents yell and scream at school board meetings they want.

Barely three weeks ago, hospitals were faced with this

Nationwide, daily COVID-19 hospitalizations are up about 33% this week from the week before and more than 155,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, well above the record set last winter.

Health care systems that set up a triage system that deals as much as humanely possible with the effects the pandemic has on their resources should receive the lion’s share of federal government assistance. That may mean un-vaccinated people, the ones who are clogging up emergency rooms, infecting health care providers which further jams up the system get pushed to the back of the line in terms of treatment but so be it. Perhaps the government can suggest procedures and reward systems that use them and for those who don’t and are inundated in ways that the article above mentions, well….ok…figure it out.

More people in 21st century America have died from covid than died in what I call pre-historic 20th century America during the 1918 pandemic. All the technology and advancement in medicine could not protect us from our stubbornness and the inclination of unscrupulous politicians to fight their opponents through the politicization of a medical pandemic. I’ve come to the conclusion, natural selection is the course to pursue at this stage in the pandemic. Let nature take its course and I say so with a bit of irony. We as a country are too immature to live prudently during times of national emergencies so let’s throw caution to the wind and OPEN UP AMERICA.

It’s hard to admit that a former president of the United States poses an existential threat to American democracy but such is the case with Donald Trump. America has gone well past the days of making excuses for Trump’s behavior such as locker room talk, boys will be boys as the reason for the Access Hollywood comments. America chose to ignore his apparent conflicts of interest, his claims that he wasn’t violating emoluments clauses despite his excessive use paid for by taxpayers of Trump owned facilities . The idea that insulating him with professional bureaucrats who could smooth out his delivery while advancing his policy objectives didn’t work out for America either. Even though some of what Trump and his party wanted was implemented, judges, economic policies, international relations, it was still done with such heavy handedness that Trump was impeached twice, the only American president with that distinction.

The longer he goes untouched by all the institutions available to discipline an errant, abusive, criminal politician….and let’s be clear Trump is all those things, the worse he will become. Don’t believe it? His last rally in Texas is proof. At Texas rally, Trump all but promised a racially charged civil war if he’s indicted …………….is a headline of the Philadelphia Inquirer characterizing his remarks one Saturday night in Texas. In fact what Trump said was so inflammatory that a Georgia prosecutor sought advice, protection from the FBI. Let that sink in a minute. It’s not that she is just a prosecutor, an officer of the Court, sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, the same oath that Trump once took. It’s that she’s a leftist, racist prosecutor, Trump’s words, of the court who’s abusing her power and coming after Trump and his supporters. The unspoken part is she is also black and that part implied before a crowd in a red Southern state was the punch in the gut he wanted to deliver. Trump and the GOP have decided that highly radicalized language designed to pit one distinct group of Americans against another is acceptable. Even more frightening is the expectation that one of those groups will fight the other in support of Trump. Let’s be clear, Trump et co aren’t talking figuratively about engaging in a fight about ideas and policy civilly through the ballot process, they are talking about fighting in the streets in much the same way they did on 01/06/2021. This is the threat he poses; he foments civil unrest at every chance he gets and promises those who heed the call that when restored to power he will abrogate their prosecution. This is why American institutions of government and the judiciary must prosecute Trump to the fullest extent of the law and they must do so expeditiously otherwise America as it has come to be known will cease to exist.

Today, December 24, 2020 is like any other day under the Trump administration. The number of people who died from covid related illness is still over 3,000. December 23 saw 3,411 Americans die from the Trump scourge. Even though pharma companies have responded quickly with providing a vaccine to stop the spread of Covid-19 there’s news that it’s not being implemented as quickly as forecast or should be. While over 9 million doses have been distributed throughout the country, only about a million doses have been administered. The death rate continues to climb…….

Congress has passed a covid relief bill albeit entirely inadequate that Trump has promptly sabotaged leaving millions of Americans without hope of a decent holiday season. By inserting himself so late in the process and claiming he wanted a relief package that included more money than the Congressional bill, Trump has given himself three choices on how this could play out; he could sign the bill against his own desires for a more substantial bill; he could veto the bill outright which would be returned to Congress to override the veto or he could put the bill in his pocket for 10 days unsigned until it is too late for it to be dealt with during the current legislative session which ends on January, 3rd. After that if there is to be any covid relief bill the new Congress would have to start the process all over again. Remember the House passed legislation in May that has only now been written as legislation. To add insult to injury Trump has left town leaving Congress to send him their legislation there and hope for the best. Did I mention that along with the covid relief bill there was a omnibus spending bill attached that Trump is threatening to veto meaning the potential exists for a government shutdown? The irony is had such a prospect been suggested, that government be shutdown to fight the Corona virus, no one in the Administration would have agreed to proceed in the way Trump has now. Whatever the outcome there are too many in Washington who don’t sense the urgency of helping their fellow citizens and are quite comfortable not doing anything for now. Meanwhile people are without food, energy, drowning in financial insecurity.

How many Trump supporters who wanted to take back Christmas from……who or what ever…..could have thought that their President Trump was the one who stole Christmas from millions of Americans and in the process made the lives of an entire country miserable.