Why are we stuck with the toxic Electoral College?

 Thomas Edsel in the New York Times presents the most concise explanation of how we got the anti-democracy Electoral College by quoting sociologist Douglas Massey:

“ The biggest threat to democracy stems from the fact that we have a constitution written by slaveholders who wanted to make it difficult if not impossible for slavery ever to be ended by constitutional means, so they gave tremendous powers to a minority of states and voters to block progressive change, which is why we have the Electoral College.”

And so, today, right wing extremists, often overtly white supremacist, are over-represented in the Senate and in presidential elections.  

I favor ending the Electoral College in presidential elections, and combining the Senate and House of Representatives into one Congressional body, with the number of elected Congresspeople in each state proportional to the population count. 

Time to destroy the toxic grip of white supremacy on America. 

America's dumbest "businessman"

Donald Trump is not a good businessman, he is only a greedy, bullying conman. His businesses go bankrupt over and over again. And now, this nitwit has managed to nearly bankrupt HIMSELF with about a half a BILLION dollars in legal losses. So far. (But the year is young)

 Donald Trump already has to pay E. Jean Carroll a total of $5 million for defamation and slander after sexually assaulting her and then calling her a liar after he was found guilty of his crime.  And he is about to lose another $10 million, and it looks like he is on his way to even more as he continues to think that the way out for him is to keep defaming and slandering her.  He doesn't seem to understand that he has already been found guilty of sexual assault and defamation, so he just keeps defaming and defaming and defaming...  But, some children just never learn and they think that temper tantrums will get them what they want.  Oh well.

 And he must give the New York Times about $400,000 for stupidly attacking them for a brilliant set of articles showing that his real money came from daddy Trump, while his own businesses often struggled and failed. 

 And, of course, he will have to pay the state of New York about $370 million for his decades of bank and tax fraud, as well as lose his license to do business in New York state. But he screams and threatens and intimidates and thinks New York city will crumble from his whining and complaining. 

 And I am guessing he owes about $50 million in legal fees for his various court battles and cases. Who knows what he will actually pay since he has a long history of not paying lawyers, which is why he has no top drawer lawyers who will work for him, and he goes to central casting and gets a woman who looks like Melania and tells her what stupid things to say, and she does, on TV and - stupidly - in the courtroom.

 That’s nearly half a billion dollars, and we’re only a couple weeks into the new year.

So, what's a conman to do?  Con con con con con con con.  

Of course he has millions of obedient believers in his Trump Cult who just keep saying "Please Sir, Give me more of the Kool-Aid" - i.e. "Let me send you my rent money, please sir, can you hit me up for money again? and again? and again?"

The MAGA Cult kills the Republican Party in Iowa

 The authoritarian, bigoted Trump won the Iowa Caucus in a landslide.  The race for the Republican nomination for president is over.  This is frightening, of course, because this mentally ill, below average intelligence, vengeful and cruel overgrown child is going to have a real chance to destroy American democracy and establish himself as the next King George III, which is exactly what the Founding Fathers fought and died for to free America from the original King George III, and tried to make sure we never got another king nor a new Caesar.

But...

The MAGA Cult wants a cruel king (who poops his pants, by the way).  They mistakenly confuse cruelty with strength.

In 2022 during the Primary Season, Trumpist Election Denying candidate after Trumpist Election Denying candidate won Republican primary elections. MAGA was ecstatic and triumphant!  And guess what?  Most of them lost.

 

So, maybe we can actually celebrate that the disgusting leader of the MAGA Cult will be the nominee and will lose, just like his MAGA proxies lost in 2022.  A big problem with all of them is that they are deeply unpleasant people in addition to being extremist fanatics.

Trump, of course, will claim, as he always claims, that his loss was "rigged" and will try to lead a violent overthrow of the election. So, that is a real danger, but our country has beaten down right wing extremists before - the NAZI "America Firsters" in the '30s - the Jim Crow KKK led racists in the South for nearly a century after they lost the Civil War until the Civil Rights Movement stirred the conscience of the nation in the '60s.  

Right wing extremists keep thinking that force of will and violence will put them on the top of the heap, but they lose, because what they actually end up doing is awaken the conscience of a decent American nation.

I choose to believe that the goodness of America is stronger than the fears and violence of our white supremacist, theocratic and Oligarchic neighbors.  I just hope they don't do too much damage this time around.

Call to violence if convicted

 Trump is running a “political ad” that I believe is it fact a call out to his rabid Evangelical Christian base to violence if he is convicted and punished in one or all of his four (soon to be five) trials. The ad itself is horrific and is called “God Made Trump”. Now, I know preachers have been preaching this to their flocks for years, but the outright preposterous lies and nearly biblical imagery in the ad are literally god-awful. 

I don’t think Trump is appealing to Evangelical voters to vote for him, they already belong to him, I believe he is using them as a threat against the prosecutors, judges, witnesses, and juries in his trials. The message is if you convict me you are a godless sinner violating the plan of God - and my slavish cult will come after you.  Death threats are already common weapons being used at his urgings.

He is desperate because he knows that he is losing his fortune, his fame, and his freedom. Threats and violence are all that he knows. 

He keeps finding ways to crawl lower and lower.  And we are splattered with his slime and his stench.

I deeply hope that this is repulsive to actual conservative Republicans and they continue to turn away from this dangerous mentally ill child.