Slavery was the cause of the Civil War, and Nikki Haley knows it

 Nikki Haley tried to dodge a question as to whether slavery was the cause of the Civil War?  Why? She knows history, but the base voters of the Republican Party don’t want to hear it. The Confederate South did all it could to change the history of the Civil War, their reason for seceding, and the reason for their losing. But the cause of the Civil War was and still is just one thing - slavery, the attempt to expand slavery, and the racist justification of slavery. Want proof?

“ The vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, was quite clear about the cause of the Civil War. Stephens explicitly rejected the idea embraced by U.S. politicians from the revolutionary period onward that human enslavement was “wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically.” Instead, he declared: “Our new government is founded upon…the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.” 

That principle - “…subordination to a superior race…” is central to Evangelical and Catholic White Nationalism today, was central to the horrors of Jim Crow, and is central to the vaunted MAGA Base that has turned its back on democracy and taken over the Republican Party, the Supreme Court, and are trying to take over American Politics,  American Rule of Law, American Education, American Media, American Military, American law enforcement, American Foreign Policy, America itself. 

White Supremacists vote for white supremacists.  Anti-democracy extremists vote for anti-democracy extremists. It’s not just the mentally ill Former Guy, it is the entire revolutionary cult of threatening and violent followers, enablers, strategizers, promoters, opportunists, and charlatans. 

America is under chaotic but planned and organized attack.  But I firmly believe the true American Spirit and Soul will emerge stronger and better as a result. 

These people may be violent and threatening, but they are extraordinarily repulsive. They are going to lose more than they win. 

The Holocaust vs Netanyahu

 Older generations like myself see Israel as a wonderful and needed country for Jews, to be safe after the unimaginable horror of WWII and the holocaust. And we are stunned by the raging antisemitism in this country, and in the world after the attack in October  

Younger generations have no real memory or reality of WWII or the Holocaust. All they have seen of Israel is the rule of the right wing extremist, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right wing extremists treating 6 million Palestinians in their small country the way American racists treated blacks in the Jim Crow era.

The generation between us saw an Israel with a conflict between right wing extremists and left wing peacekeepers. They saw legitimate efforts by Israelis to come up with a two state solution that long ago disappeared with Netanyahu and Palestinian refusals  

The savagery of Hamas was incomprehensible. And the heartless slaughter of Palestinian civilians, frankly, seems too terrible to endure.

How do you make peace with people whose only goal is to kill you?

The only future that does not include heartless slaughter is a two state solution.  That has never changed  

But when both sides think only of coming up with the best reason to kill the other side, the obvious peaceful solution never comes  

It looks to me like Israel is doing a better job of destroying itself than it is of destroying Hamas - just horrible to watch this happening .

Is Pax-Americana being destroyed?

 One much wiser than I says we’re in a time of destruction. What is being destroyed?

Once ocean sailing ships were produced, the white European races conquered the world. The Spanish and some Portuguese conquered South America, Central America, and Mexico. English and some French conquered the north Americas. The European nations conquered and carved up Africa. Only Asia was unconquered although severely wounded. 

Britain won World War II but lost its empire. The European colonialists lost their colonies.

Perhaps, just as the British empire was lost after World War II, the American Pax-Americana Empire is being lost after winning the Cold War. The Trump wrecking Ball has destroyed the Republican Party, and Trump and his Theocratic and Oligarchic authoritarian extremist movement is in the process of destroying America and American supremacy and protection in the world - much to the delight of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Middle Eastern and all autocratic tyrannical regimes. 

And white Europe and white America are in a panic, doing all they can to close their borders and keep out brown and black refugees who are fleeing intolerable homelands. It is white supremacy on its ugly display. Trump's America doesn’t give two shits about the rest of the world, and white national Europeans agree. The autocratic tyrannies are emboldened.

So, the Pax-Americana world, which stopped the Soviet Empire and created an environment of relative peace, created after WWII, is being destroyed. Not just by Trump, but by right wing extremist forces throughout America and the world.

I hate these destructions, but what do I think should be destroyed?

What actually needs to be destroyed? Fossil fuel driven and industrial agricultural driven global warming. There is room in the word for fossil fuels and continual movement to green energies as well.  What else? White supremacy, bigotry and racism of all types.  What else?  Denigration and attack on women's freedoms, denigration and attack on gays' freedoms, denigration and attack on all who are unlike those in the MAGA and authoritarian cults.  

At this point it is easier for me to see the destruction of those things I want to cherish happening than it is easy for me to see how the things that need to end be destroyed. But the wrecking balls are loose in the world.

I am choosing to think these massive changes are going to end up creating a new world that is needed to be created in order to go forward.  It seems very dark to me, but I am hoping for real and positive changes.

Most of all, disregarding the specifics of this or that political reality, I hope that what happens is that people open their hearts to each other.  That we abandon force, and threats, and violence, and move into a world of honesty, integrity, respect, and acceptance.  People are so lost, so alone, so isolated.  We need a world where people are connected and accepting of each other.  And caring.

I don't know how this happens.  

The time of destruction has a lot to do. And it seems to be doing it. I just wish it weren’t so painful. 

Highly classified intelligence secrets ten inch binder was “missing” from Trump’s White House

 Donald Trump is dangerous to America and the world. An extremely highly sensitive intelligence briefing ten inch binder is “missing” from the White House. 

“ A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.”

“The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe.“

…raw intelligence on Russia was among its most sensitive classified materials, and top Trump administration officials repeatedly tried to block the former president from releasing the documents…. an unredacted version of the binder containing the classified raw intelligence went missing amid the chaotic final hours of the Trump White House

How many clandestine intelligence operations have been destroyed?  Have undercover intelligence agents been blown? Killed? Will other countries stop sharing sensitive intelligence with America?

This mentally ill, avaricious, childish menace should never again be allowed near classified intelligence. Good grief. 

Accuse Biden the same as Trump was accused

We keep getting educated in the strategies of authoritarian extremist overthrows of Democracy.  Today, the Republican extremist House of Representatives, at the command of their authoritarian leader, the Former Guy, have formally approved an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Why? Because the twice impeached Former Guy told them to.  Why did he tell them to?  So that he could claim a parallel - he was impeached and so was Biden.  

This is a false parallel, of course.  False parallels are the basic tools of deception. 

The Former Guy was impeached for trying to overthrow the elected president, Biden.  The Former Guy was impeached for blackmailing Ukraine to force them to tell lies about investigating the then Vice President, Biden.  The Former Guy was impeached for impeachable offenses. 

And it is to the never-ending shame of the Republican Senators that they were too cowardly to convict him and remove him permanently from any government office.  Why? Because they were afraid of him.  They still are.  That is how authoritarian extremists operate - threats, punishments, fear, fear, fear, fear...

So, now, the Former Guy gets to con his cult into thinking it is all the same, Biden will be impeached just like he was, so there!  (By the way, there is no evidence of a Biden crime.  I don't think there is even a charge of a specific crime.  The extremist Republicans will throw up a big smoke screen and will be unlikely to find anything of substance.)

I actually think that even though it now seems too likely that the Former Guy, and the authoritarian, well financed, highly educated, meticulously planned extremist supporters will seize the government and rule with a cruel theocratic and oligarchic fist, the truth is the American people will say no, and will defeat them soundly in 2024.  And this will just be another, eventually forgotten attempt of fascists trying to seize the country, just as they failed in the '30s to establish Nazi terror in the U.S.

I just hope that real Republicans, real conservatives, have the integrity to just turn away from this revolutionary takeover of the Republican Party and this precious democracy of America.  

Just vote no.  Please.

Tuberville preserves a Trump takeover of the Military

The good news is that there was a long overdue high pressure bi-partisan pressure on the Republican Senator from Arkansas to finally release his hold on the promotion of hundreds of military personnel.  He released the hold on 425 of them and they were immediately confirmed.  

BUT, per historian Heather Cox Richardson:

"Liz Cheney wondered: “Why is Tommy Tuberville doing that? Is he holding those positions open so that Donald Trump can fill them?”

Still, Tuberville retained holds on 11 officers of the most senior rank. According to congressional reporter for Punchbowl News Andrew Desiderio, the positions left vacant are 

• commander of Pacific Air Forces, 
• commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, 
• Air Component Command for the United States Indo-Pacific Command, 
• commander for Air Combat Command, 
• the head of the Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program, 
• the head of Northern Command (which defends the United States and coordinates defenses with Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas), 
• the head of the U.S. Cyber Command, 
• vice chief of staff of the Army, 
• vice chief of staff of the Air Force, 
• vice chief of Space Operations, and 
• vice chief of Naval Operations. 

It is clear to me that Tuberville is obeying his master - the Orange Dictator in Waiting (who is Trump obeying?)  Trump has clearly stated that he will immediately use, on the first day, the U.S. military to "put down" any citizen protests against his presidency (if he wins or seizes the White House).

We keep getting educated about how fascism takes over a country

• Seize the Military
• Seize the Congress
• Seize the Courts (Supreme Court, Appeals Courts, and down the line)
• Seize the News Media
• Attack and imprison all who tried to hold you accountable for your multiple offenses
• Former Staff 
• Judges
• Prosecutors
• Witnesses
• Legitimate News organizations reporting your crimes
• Former President, Biden
• etc
• etc
• etc
• etc
• etc 
• etc

Trump is not a smart man, but Trump has 70 plus years of practice forcing people to submit to his toxic will.  And Trump has smart people who want fascism in America:

• White Christian Nationalists who want a theocracy, 
• Super rich oligarchs who want unfettered pollution for their monopolies, 
• racist white supremacists who want to Make American Jim Crow again, 
• corrupt opportunists who want free corrupt reign,
• The Federalist Society
• The Heritage Foundation
• Hillsdale College
• Claremont Institute
• Political operatives who want to destroy the government - Roger Stone, Kash Patel, Steven Miller, Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Fox News, OAN, Breitbart News, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc

So, just because Trump is stupid doesn't mean his fascist supporters are stupid. They are smart, have given up on democracy to give them what they demand, and have been working for decades to end democracy in America. 

There is only one issue on the ballot in 2024 - democracy or fascism.  I try to remember that there are more of us than there are of them, and that Goodness Truth and Beauty are more powerful that domination, threats, and violence.

This ugly chapter of America is hard to live through, but I have hope and faith that the good will prevail and the Soul and Spirit of America will prevail.  This will not become a fascist tyranny.

Firehosing the country

One of the terrible things I have learned from Donald Trump is the firehose strategy.  Just turn on the firehose and blast out a jet stream of:

• lie after, after lie, after lie, after lie, after lie, after lie, after lie, after lie, etc
• and crime, after crime, after crime, after crime, after crime, after crime, etc
• and stupidity, after stupidity, after stupidity, after stupidity, after stupidity, etc
• and ignorance, after ignorance, after ignorance, after ignorance ,etc
• and cruelty, after cruelty, after cruelty, after cruelty, after cruelty, etc.
• and threat, after threat, after threat, after threat, after threat, after threat, etc.
• and hatred, after hatred, after hatred, after hatred, after hatred, etc.
• and bigotry, after bigotry, after bigotry, after bigotry, after bigotry, etc.
• and outrage, after outrage, after outrage, after outrage, after outrage, etc.

So what happens is that it becomes impossible for people to focus on one deplorable outrage because another even worse deplorable outrage just happened, and tomorrow another even worse will happen, and tomorrow another even worse will happen - and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow - so, what was it we were so alarmed about a couple of weeks ago?

Fortunately, we now have four of his most egregious crimes in focus in the ongoing trials against this pathetic but dangerous little criminal - 

• Jack Smith's indictment for his attempt to overthrow the U.S. government on January 6, 2021 and times leading up to that violence - trial coming.
• Fani Willis's indictment for his attempt to fraudulently change the vote count in Georgia - trial coming.  
• Jack Smith's indictment for his stealing (and possibly selling?) U.S. secrets after leaving the White House - trial coming, even though the Trump influenced judge is trying to push it out past the election.
• Letticia James indictment for his decades long bank fraud and tax evasion in New York, trial happening now, already found guilty, and all this is left is the determination the final amount of the fine, the selling off of properties - and the ending of his ability to do business in New York.

And, by the way, a number of states are claiming that because he led and insurrection against the duly elected government he is disqualified to run for office because he violated the 14th amendment.  Seems like a slam dunk disqualification to me.  The country never passed a subsequent Constitutional Amendment cancelling the 14th Amendment.

The Firehose Guy continues to blast out outrage after outrage into our collective minds in hopes of distracting the country from his actual trials holding him accountable for specific crimes.  But, as the great boxer, Joe Lewis, once said - "He can run but he can't hide."

Destroy his Fraudulent businesses - and put him into prison please.

Old bigotries never die - we just hope they infest fewer minds

 It is so discouraging to see the old bigotries come roaring back into America.  

The antisemitism was just waiting in the wings for an excuse to come back full toxin. 

Well, you say, what about the terrible civilian casualties in Gaza?  Well, I say, did you have the same outrage against Syrians as they slaughtered hundreds of thousands?  Was there similar outrage against the slaughter of Somalis up to half a million?  Was there really equal outrage against Hamas as they deliberately targeted civilian men, women, children, and babies? as opposed to Israeli killing civilians in an effort to get to Hamas, who are dedicated to the total elimination (killing) of all Jews in Israel?  

Believe me, I have long despised Netanyahu and his extremists who are now in charge of Israel, and I note with no sense of satisfaction that their extremist stupidity has reaped the whirlwind. But hating the Netanyahu government is not the same as hating Jews.

And as a matter of fact Muslims are not Hamas but anti-Muslim bigotry thinks there is now permission for those hatreds.

And, of course, it looks like the entire Republican Party is dedicated to continuing its crusade to overturn all of The Voting Rights Act - and thus go back to the nauseating Jim Crow days of the South to disenfranchise black and brown people - and put White Christian Men in charge of all of our lives.

Let's not forget the assault on gay men and women - as the Republican extremists do all they can to make their lives miserable and outlaw gay marriage, gay love, gay public existence.

And how can we ignore the dedicated Supreme Court assault on women and women's right to choose their own reproductive destinies?  

Coming soon to a country you live in - trying to outlaw all forms of birth control and contraception - what a horror it must have been for these "good Christians" to see America allow, nay encourage, women's empowerment to create lives of their own choosing, skills, talents, and ambitions as opposed to White Christian Men's insistence that they stay home, raise lots and lots of children, and cook for and screw their masters.

All the old bigotries are trying so hard to take over our country.  

Thank God - literally Thank God - they are going to fail.  They are not the only people in this country, and the rest of us are noticing these assaults on human freedoms and have something to say about it.

I beseech those who I know who have been Republicans to realize that the Grand Old Party is no longer the Republican Party, indeed it has been taken over by the extremist revolutionaries whose visions and goals come from centuries ago in times of oppression and darkness.

Elon Musk, like Henry Ford - dangerous bigots

Elon Musk continues to show his extremist, antisemitic, right wing autocratic self.  He has just recently praised a vile Jew hating tweet.

"An X post Wednesday afternoon said: “Jewish communities (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also referenced “hordes of minorities” flooding Western countries, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory.

In response, Musk said: “You have said the actual truth.”

As I wrote a year ago, Elon Musk is like Henry Ford, a Jew hating bigot who did as much as he possibly could to inspire the Nazi holocaust:

Automaker genius

 Once upon a time there was a genius automaker who’s car revolutionized the world. 

His entrepreneurial success convinced him that his genius was needed to run the world during a chaotic time. So he set about communicating his genius to the world so as to save it from dark forces. 

His name was Henry Ford. He was a vicious bigot. He discovered and published the vile, antisemitic false and dangerous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” which falsely accused Jews of heinous crimes and behavior. Because is his wealth and reputation as a genius the Protocols was published in many languages. One of those languages was German. Slaughter ensued. 

Oh, did you think the automotive genius that decided that his genius was needed to run the world was Elon Musk?  A different right-wing fanatic?  Well, you may have been right. 

Nice cars. Dangerous right wingers with more influence than justified. 

Believe the fascist’s promises

 The history of authoritarian/Fascist/dictators is that they are never taken seriously in the beginning. They seem ridiculous to normal people. And then it’s too late.

 Turns out what they were promising was not just political theater nor just blowing off steam. They were promising to do exactly what they said they would do.  So normal people who have become used to normal political parties and normal political intercourse can’t really take the promises seriously until it is too late.  Normal people are shocked when the country becomes a cesspool of violence and vengeance.  They are surprised.

But there is another group of people who do take them very seriously want and expect the threats to be carried out, and they want to be the ones who carry out those threats. Hitler did not personally murder 6 million Jews, Nazis did. Nazis loved doing it. Nazis wanted to do those things that Hitler promised.  They can’t believe their luck that they get to be violent and vengeful. They are joyful.

Our country has had two times in the past that are very much like today. The America First movement in the 1930s was infiltrated by and run by Nazi sympathizers and Nazis themselves. Today’s Republican Party is filled with Russian sympathizers and perhaps Russian agents. 

Secondly, in the 1950s the McCarthy “Red Scare”  hunted down liberals calling them communists and ruined many lives.  Today liberals are being wrongly accused of being socialists and communists. It can happen here. It is happening here.

The historian, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who specializes in the study of authoritarians, teaches that there are two stages of rhetoric used by fascist autocrats.  First they normalize violence.  They call for violence so that people get used to accepting violent speech - “punch a protester in the face”, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”, “ you'll never take back our country with weakness”, etc. etc. etc. etc….

The second stage of rhetoric is to dehumanize those who oppose them - “ root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, …”

I believe Donald Trump will do exactly what he promises to do if he is put back into the White House. He has plans which he is announcing. And he has his enablers who know how to carry out those plans. 

I believe if he loses he will refuse to acknowledge that he lost, and he will call upon his fascist well armed cult to install him by force. (If he loses the Republican nomination he will attack the Republican Convention)  

By the way, those who think they can use the fascist authoritarian find out they can’t.  German industrial giants could not contain Hitler, and American oligarchs would have the same fate - and, if Christo-fascists think he gives a crap about their religious fantasies they could be in for a very rude awakening.  

I believe he will fail.  I believe in people of integrity upholding the Rule of Law. And I hope even his “base” will grow tired of this toxic person  

We are on a dangerous journey, but I believe in America. 

MAGA extremists out to shut down the government and destroy it

 Historian Heather Cox Richrdson has a good summary of the MAGA extremists in Congress who are refusing to fund the government:

"They want to gut the government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights...If they can prevent the government from accomplishing anything, they will have achieved their goal.

I would add that the White Christian Nationalists also want to rule the country by their own distorted authoritarian version of the bible:

"North Dakota state representative Brandon Prichard has previously called for Republican-dominated states to “put into code that Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their state to Him.” 

Our democracy is under attack, and it is not just by the vengeful, frothing at the mouth madman, Trump, who is out to destroy it.  MAGA extremists are about to shut the government down with little hope of the extremists ever letting it be funded.  They think they are being "courageous" or "principled".  But they are just tiny tots holding their breath until they get their way and turn blue in the face - only it's the rest of us who will "turn blue" and reject their insistence that we suffer their cruelty.

And it's not just the current continuing the funding of the government, some other particulars they target is the Farm Bill that will need funding this year (they really hate that SNAP program - Food Stamps - hate feeding poor people)

And let's not forget that they intend to cut funding to Ukraine's fight against Putin's invasion - they are Putin's puppets.  Are they just foolish, or are they being controlled by Russia?

Greed, theocratic fanaticism, white supremacy, domination, alliance with dictators - these are the things that have taken over what used to be the Republican Party.

We are in a crisis in this country and a lot of us know it.  And I firmly believe that the majority of Americans see this and will reject it.  But these extremists are doing as much damage as they can while they can.  

Very, very sad.  America used to be great, before the Former Guy hopped on the forces of American destruction and is trying to ride it into an Oligarchic-Christo-Fascist police state where he gets to be King and the most important person in the history of America - the one who destroyed it.

But I believe in the essential goodness of America to see, be appalled by, and overthrow these terribly misguided forces.  

They are going to lose. And they are angry about it.

Republican Party fundamental belief is that democracy needs to be overthrown

The thing that still calls itself the Republican Party gave up on Democracy a while back, as evidenced by the Republican Supreme Court overturning the Voting Rights laws followed immediately by red states finding many ways to reduce Black and Brown voting, including closing polls, radical gerrymandering, intimidating poll watchers, and making it punishingly hard to vote.  

These make believe Republicans have no choice but to abandon democracy because they know their desires to impose Christo-fascist domination is abhorrent to the majority of voters. They are convinced that the country has literally gone to “the Devil” and the only way to save it is to impose the strictest Old Testament bigotries on us all, thinking that will somehow please the vengeful Old Testament God of Cruelty who will Make America Great Again (Make America Grovel Again?).  

And since voters are not going to vote for the Christo-fascists they have to destroy democracy.

The extremist Rick Santorum spoke their extremist truth after more states voted to make sure women decided their own reproductive lives yesterday when:

“Santorum argued that Ohio was proof that “pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”

I understand that we are a democratically elected Republic, but we also have single issue referendums to thwart unresponsive political machines.  Hurray for Ohio women!

At least he spoke their basic world view. 

Machiavelli and Hamas

 The terrorist Hamas committed nauseating horrors against Israeli Jews on October 7, 2023 and committed these inhumane atrocities joyfully and proudly.  Then they retreated to the shelter of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza strip.  We are witnessing a principle of Machiavelli playing out now. Machiavelli counselled "The Prince" to do all of the terrible things to people on one day, and then do a few good things spaced out over a period of time.  Because people will respond to the terrible things once but respond to the good things often over time.  

Hamas's terrors will never be forgotten by Israeli Jews nor Jews around the world.  And the world was shocked for one day, and a bit longer.  But now we see day after day the Israeli defensive attacks that sadly include innocents in Gaza and respond day after day to their pain, and it is too easy to see the two horrors - civilian deaths - as equivalent.  But one was an attack that targeted civilians, elderly, children, babies - and the other is an attack trying to avoid the innocent but since the terrorists use the innocent as protective shields, the world's natural feelings of compassion can easily turn against the Israeli defensive attacks, and turn against Jews around the world.

It is deeply horrible to watch Gaza be destroyed and civilians being inadvertently killed. I think a smart thing I read was from David French:

"As a former JAG (or Judge Advocate General’s Corps) officer embedded with a combat arms unit in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, I know that you can’t simply merge law and tactics and declare that everything that is legally and tactically sound is also moral, much less wise. We veterans know that the challenge for the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza isn’t simply to win the fight with Hamas within the laws of war. There is a third imperative, one that will define the soldiers who fight and the nation they defend for years to come: Do not destroy your soul.

This is much easier said than done."

Seems to me the only real path forward is to ignore the endless fights about who should be driven from the land, look only to the future rather than the past - and the only future that has ever made sense to me is a two-state solution.  The Islamic extremists have always said NO and there are some Israeli extremists who also say NO. 

 
So, here we are - again.  I pray that all of the Middle East opens their hearts.  

Christian Reconstructionists are worse than I thought possible

Last Thursday I wrote in dismay: "The MAGA Cult white supremacist Christian Nationalism coup attempt continues". And now I am afraid that the capture of the Speaker of the House by Mike Johnson is even worse than I had realized.

Frank Schaeffer reveals Mike Johnson's commitments and beliefs.  Schaeffer is a man who was a prominent leader in the Christian Evangelical movement and split away from them decades ago and is dedicated to warning against them ever since.  I came across this Substack video of his yesterday (It Has to be Said - Substack) and it is deeply alarming.  Unfortunately, it is video only and not a transcript.  About 20 minutes.  He outlines who Mike Johnson, new House Speaker, is.  It is terrible. 

Mike Johnson in not just an Evangelical Christian. He is not just a MAGA Cultist.  He is not just a white supremacist.  He has been indoctrinated into the Christian version of the Islamic Taliban - Christian Reconstructionism. Here are some of his beliefs, which are based on the harshest parts of the Old Testament and apparently ignore Jesus and the New Testament:

• Execute gay men and women
• Execute prostitutes
• Execute adulterers
• Outlaw abortion
• Outlaw the pill
• Outlaw all sex outside of marriage
• Outlaw divorce
• Re-establish slavery
• Whites are superior to all the inferior races of color

These folks have been deeply inculcated in a biblical extremist view that goes back to the horrors of hundreds of years ago. The belief system is Christian Reconstructionism (Theonomy) - a mandate that the country needs to be ruled by Old Testament biblical "law".   A key founder of the cult was Rousas Rushdoony.  

And they are not joking.  It is a deeply believed and fully funded attempt to make white Christian extremist men rule the country and the world according to the most radical Old Testament bigotries.

Schaefer's father was Francis Schaeffer, who was apparently a founder of the Evangelical movement to overtake the U.S. government and rule by the harshest Old Testament interpretations.  His warnings are from inside the movement and show what is underneath the reassuring soft peddling of these radical beliefs by those in office.  

And one of them is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  And, it seems to me, that at least one of the Supreme Court Justices, Amy Coney Barrett is one of them as well.

Now we know.

The Coup attempt continues

 The MAGA Cult white supremacist Christian Nationalism coup attempt continues with the Republican election of MAGA-Mike-Johnson as the House Speaker.  He is an avid election denier.  Does he believe the lie? or is he just spreading the propaganda lie to refuse to certify the next election winner?  And thus, to continue the long planned and well-funded attempt to establish a nationwide Bible Belt Jim Crow extremist America.  

“Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) called the new House speaker “MAGA-Mike-Johnson ” on Wednesday and onlookers suggested the moniker was, unfortunately, a good fit. 
“MAGA is ascendant,” Gaetz told Steve Bannon on the ex-Donald Trump adviser’s podcast.”

Democracy is not just under attack, it is being destroyed by authoritarian cultists.  

But they will not succeed. Especially when the authoritarian cultists are such repulsive personalities like Trump, Gaetz, Bannon, Bobert, Green, Jordan, etc. who are abrasive showboats monetizing TV time to preach hatred, bigotry, and fear.  

I have faith in the strength of American democracy and American Rule of Law. 

What crime wave?

 Is Trump and the Republican extremists right that crime is rising and out of control in America? Well, of course not. They are lying.  It's just campaign disinformation and propaganda.  Here is the actual data from Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist:

"Now, sometimes popular impressions are more or less right. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when Hollywood was producing vigilante thrillers like “Death Wish” and dystopian sagas like “Escape From New York,” violent crime really was surging:

F.B.I., via Jeff Asher

However, violent crime began falling rapidly in the early 1990s, for reasons that remain unclear. Whatever the source of the good news, there were two remarkable things about this decline. First, it was truly epic; as someone who has lived in New York since 2015 but visited it many times over previous decades, I can attest that the city feels infinitely safer than it did in the bad old days. Second, most Americans didn’t notice."

A good rule of thumb is that if Trump said it he just made it up and expects his cult to believe anything he says.

Threatens the life of Leticia James

 Donald Trump just publicly threatened the life of Letitia James, Attorney General prosecuting him in New York. This is not subtle. I want him in prison. 

Former President Donald Trump on Monday shared a link listing the home address of New York Attorney General Letitia James while accusing her of committing a “miscarriage of justice.”

His entire life is dedicated to the idea that he is above the law. And he will kill those who apply the law to him. 

Prison please

Religious fanatics

 I have never focused on the Israeli Palestinian history because I never thought it would be resolved, but would just be a persistent toxin. There are thousands of details I don’t know. But listening and reading about these latest horrors I think there is one overwhelming fact. Religious fanaticism. 

Hamas is an extremist religious fanaticism dedicated to driving all Jews out of all of Palestine (Israel). They are like ISIS who want a fanatic Islamic Caliphate. 

And there are Jewish extremist religious fanatics dedicated to driving all Palestinians out of Israel. 

And the corrupt Netanyahu needed to stay out of prison by becoming Prime Minister so he joined up with the Jewish fanatics who openly claimed their desire to clear Israel of Palestinians. 

And Hamas saw Saudi Arabia on the cusp of making a deal with Israel. 

Boom. 

Seems like whenever there is the threat of the two state solution one of the extremist fanatics destroys it. 

I am so tired of religions. I wish all people would just walk away from all religions. Go out into God’s majestic creation and be touched by the wonder of the moon, the wonder of the stars, the beauty of the flowers and trees and birds.  And ask the Infinite Divine what do I need at this moment to be closer to You?  The true answer will never be Go Kill People of such and such religion. 

But, we have religions. So we get slaughter instead. 

Is it chaos or is it sabotage?

 The House of Representatives is not IN chaos. The Republicans, who are in a slim majority, are CREATING chaos.  Kevin McCarthy sold his dignity to the right wing extremists in order to become speaker and he was voted out by the extremists in less than a year for the sin of  committing a reasonable action. 

Then Steve Scalise, another right wing extremist, was to be the Republican choice but was discarded. Now the repulsive bully, Jim Jordan, seems to be more or less chosen by the Republicans. But, he will never get the needed votes. 

With no Speaker of the House of Representatives there is no House of Representatives. So there will be no aid to Ukraine.  No aid to Israel. No military. No regulation.  No safety net. No government funding for anything. There will be no United States Government. Who does that make happy?

The current explanation is that these extremists are incapable of cooperation and consensus. Authoritarians see anything short of CONQUEST as a failure of  MANHOOD. They Don’t Play Well Together. Maybe that is all there is to it. 

But I wonder. Are some actually doing what they seem to be doing. Are they actually acting to destroy the American government?  Are they actually acting to weakening America?  If so, why?

To me, a real possibility is that America’s enemies are targeting many Americans, including politicians, and are finding ways to control them. We know that Russian intelligence operatives are deeply involved in American politics.  Media too?  We know a little of the way they force people to do their bidding.  Kompromat (compromising proof that can destroy their lives and maybe even send them to life in prison - proof of money laundering? Proof of pedophilia? Proof of gay sex? Proof of any number of crimes?).

 Or they just bribe them to attack their country. Do they find someone who feels they have never been given proper respect? Or money? Or opportunity?  Or maybe they are just simple souls who can be controlled by flattery, or resentment, or celebrity. Easy prey for the Russian SVR.

Russia, or China, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or….?  There are many countries that may want to knock the “king of the hill” off and take the top spot. 

There is a small handful of right wing extremists who “seem” to want to burn down the government and weaken the country. 

Maybe that is exactly what they are deliberately doing, because of deep angers or hatreds, or are easily manipulated, or because they have no other choice.

Maybe one of them is The Former Guy. And of course, the “Freedom Caucus”/the Putin Wing/the Deconstruct the Adminstrative Staters.  

What this is showing is American Democracy’s vulnerability.  We have a handful of Republican extremists holding the government hostage. We have one dimwit Alabama Senator crippling the U.S military.  Our enemies may have found and are exploiting America’s structural flaws.  

I wonder.

How did Iran/Hamas get past the Israeli defenses? What did they know?

 I remember one of the first most shockingly stupid things Trump did in the Oval Office was give Russia Israeli military secrets.  Remember?  Did those secrets get passed along to Iran and thus Hamas? Did this nitwit help Hamas slaughter Israelis?

And, oh yes, what about that copy machine next to top secret files in Trump's Mar a Lago?  Any chance that a number of foreign spies just happened to find secrets there?

0% intelligence combined + 100% fragile pathelogically needy ego = many many deaths around the world.

And people voted for this nitwit.

Slaughter in Israel

 Religious fanatics, Hamas, attacked Israel, killing about 700 and over 2000 injured!  They shocked Israel, but how?  Israel has been protecting against this for many years. But somehow they pulled it off. Israel will respond, and likely “win” militarily. 

Iran is behind Hamas. Russia too?  

I don’t deeply think about Israel and the Palestinians because it has long seemed to me that a two state solution is the only solution but extremist on the Palestinian side want to drive Jews out of Israel and extremist Jews want to drive Palestinians out of Israel, and that seems to be endless. 

And then, the deeply corrupt right wing Netanyahu couldn’t form a government without joining with the extremist right wingers who openly announce their aim to drive the Palestinians out. And he and his right wing fanatics have torn the country apart by gutting the judiciary so they can establish fanatical authoritarian theocratic rule (sound familiar?). 

So, Netenyahu in order to keep from trials that would imprison him, joined forces with the craziest and most dangerous parts of Israel and threw gasoline on the ever smoldering coals of the conflict, and who would have guessed? The fire has exploded. 

Russia invades Ukraine, and now Hamas/Iran invades Israel.  Not a good sign for the world. 

An Insurrectionist to be Republican Speaker of the House?

Jim Jordan was part of the Trump conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election, according to Liz Cheney, former Wyoming conservative (not Trump MAGA nut case) Republican who co-chaired the House investigation into the Trump led attempt to overthrow the 2020 election issues a very urgent warning about Ohio wannabe fascist Jim Jordan's attempt to become the Speaker of the House to replace the deposed Kevin McCarthy.  

“Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for January 6th than any other member of the House of Representatives,” Cheney said. “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.”

While Cheney said she didn’t expect Jordan to win the upcoming contest, she said his potential ascension to the position would send a strong message about where the GOP’s allegiance lies.

“If they were to decide that, there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution,” she said.

Jordan has secured the endorsement of Trump, who continues to exert influence on a big chunk of the Republican caucus.

“He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House,” Trump said of Jordan in a post on his Truth Social platform."

It is up to the Republican Party to announce who they are - conservatives who believe in democracy or Trump Cultists who believe in force rather than the Rule of Law or the Rule of the Constitution.  I don't expect a lot from the House of Representatives, unfortunately.

What do you do when "God" tells you what to do?

 What happens when "God" tells you that you must rule a country, but you don't have the votes to win the elections you need in order to do so?  

This is not hard to figure out, you gerrymander your state so that you "win" more elected seats than you would in a fair election.  And you close down voting spots in areas that vote against you.  And you do all you can to limit voting where they vote against you. And you flood the media zone with a firehose of disinformation, propaganda, and lies about the "godless filth" of those who vote against you.  And you... behave just exactly the way Evangelical Leaders (and plutocratic so-called capitalists) do.  You destroy democracy so that you don't need to win votes.  You cheat.  

And the one that "God" told you is your savior on this earth of today, Trump, is such a good example of cheating, isn't he?  He cheats in counting the votes, cheats in his fraudulent business practices with bank fraud, insurance fraud, tax fraud.  Cheats his vendors by not paying what he owes, cheats his lawyers by not paying what he owes, cheats on his wives by sexually assaulting and raping women while he is married, cheats on his score playing golf, cheats on his commitments made for running his golf courses, cheats on his "charities" and steals from them...  Oh, what a glorious and inspiring cheat he is.  A model for all devoted Evangelical White Christian Nationalists around the country.  

But, how do you know what "God" is telling you to do?  David French points out today that the Evangelical voters are only able to hear one thing - the "prophecies" of the evangelical "prophets", or perhaps the "Holy Spirit" speaks directly to you and tells you to vote for Trump, or whoever follows Trump once he is gone.  From is article:

",...prophecies, like the declarations from Christian “apostles” that Donald Trump is God’s appointed leader, destined to save the nation from destruction. Sometimes there’s no need for a prophet to deliver the message. Instead, Christians will claim that the Holy Spirit spoke to them directly. As one longtime friend told me, “David, I was with you on opposing Trump until the Holy Spirit told me that God had appointed him to lead.”

But, they will not destroy democracy in America and the world.  We can choose a better America than the bible thumping fire and brimstone world of make believe prophets spouting their bigoted hatred from their pulpits.  America has always had those fear based folks and all I can think to do as pray that the real God Goddess All That Is finds a way to soften their hearts and help them just let go, just let it go, you don't need to be afraid of those who are different.  Satan has not captured Democrats.  The world (and Satan) is not out to get you.