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.