The Roberts KKK Supreme Court finishes the job

 Chief Justice Roberts rose to Republican fame by fighting the 1965 Voting Rights Law which was passed after the bloody and deadly fights of blacks and Civil Rights demonstrators and lawyers put it into law and which finally, finally gave blacks the right to vote. And vote they did. And the KKK swore to overturn that law. And Roberts along with his fellow KKK subservient justices have torn that law down piece by piece, and have now ended it - 6-3 by saying that districts protecting black voters can be overturned, and the overturning these districts aren’t racist, no no, it’s partisan, and this stinking Supreme Court says partisan gerrymandering is just fine. What?

This is shameful. And this project to overthrow the law is an American disgrace. 

Christians say that the biggest lie that the devil tells is “There is no devil”. 

Well, the biggest lie that the KKK and Republican racists tell is “There is no racism, it’s all in the past.”  Bullshit. 

Alexander Stephens, VP of the Confederacy cheers.  He wrote “ Our new government is founded upon…the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man”

Edward Pollard wrote in “The Lost Cause” ..” the Southern people will still cling to, and assert them in their rights and views...The question was no longer slavery, but white supremacy, which Pollard described as the "true cause of the war" and the "true hope of the South”

Well, Stephens and Pollard can celebrate today, their crusading successors have triumphed. The Voting Rights Law has been neutered. 

The Soul and Spirit of America weeps. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the founding dream of America, that all men (people) are created equal, weeps. 

But how about this becomes a pyrrhic victory? How about this creates a highly motivated voter turnout of blacks?  To take away a freedom?  Of an entire American race?  Same as they are taking away the literal freedom of browns, via ICE detentions. Same as they are firing and demoting women and non-whites in the military?

MAGA Republicans are screaming at the top of their lungs with triumphant pride exactly who they are. 

Big mistake. Who they are is ugly, ugly, and an offense to America’s founding goodness. 

Trump fails “The Art of War”

 I just finished watching The Great Courses broadcast of a course by Dr. Andrew R Wilson, who teaches at the Naval War College, on Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War”. So how does Trump measure up to the teachings of this classic text?  No surprise, he fails. Here are a couple of key quotes that Trump violates. 

“If it does not bring profit do not use troops. A ruler should not raise an army because of anger, nor should a general fight because they have been insulted. Anger and insult are temporary, death is permanent.”

What does this mean?  The Sun Tsu authors wrote a revolutionary book that said only wage war if it benefits the country, not for personal reasons of the ruler. The practice had been rulers would lead the battles in chariots for glory or to prove their manhood, or to get revenge, or for small personal reasons. Sun Tsu said don’t be stupid.  Only fight for the benefit of the country. 

But, didn’t Trump say the war was about…?? … Capturing nuclear material? … wiping out their missiles?  … killing their leaders? … opening the Strait of Hormuz? … er, ah, something?

No.  Pretty clearly the Pedo in Chief just wanted to “ride his chariot into battle” by attacking and killing the leader so he could grab big headlines, thump his chest, and ride off in glory.  No such luck. He’s stuck.

So what is Iran doing?  Looks like they saw The Sopranos…. Tony Soprano in the HBO Series said, after killing a problem Capo, “If your enemy is choleric, irritate him”.  So Tony goaded his enemy into anger and stupidity - and killed him. Iran is mocking and irritating our confused and sleepy Don. 

And the world suffers as a result of this grandiose ego stupidity. 

The Iranian theocratic zealots are cruel tyrants who have killed many thousands of civilians. It’s terrible news that the surviving rulers are in place, and people are saying they are even harsher than those already killed. And I don’t see them losing power. I am sorry for the Iranians who are hoping for liberation. The U.S. has no plans nor systems for assisting liberation. This was just an ego impulse for Trumpian glory. Egged on by Netanyahu who understandably tried to get all previous U.S. presidents to attack Iran, all of whom declined because of the Strait of Hormuz, and lucked out enticing the glory hungry Trump into doing Netanyahu’s heavy lifting. 

It is not going well for either of them. 

I would say a lesson for Netanyahu, and other leaders in the future, don’t expect someone dumb enough to be used by you not to be dumb enough to totally screw it up.  

And I would say the lesson for America is to stop voting for dumbass glory hungry mentally ill psychopaths plunging into senility. 

Is it worth it?

 I think the only time a president, or a Congress, can ethically go to war is if they know that they can walk up to a mother of a fallen soldier and truthfully say "I know you are experiencing a pain beyond anything you have ever imagined, but at least we both know that this terrible loss was worth the price".  

And if you can't say that and know that both you and the mother can accept that sad truth and that terrible pain of loss - DON'T GO TO WAR!!!!

Trump's ego drive for glory and legacy in Iran does not qualify.  

I guess the last war that you could say that about was WWII - defeat the Nazis and respond to a direct attack.  Vietnam certainly did not meet that criteria.  Did Iraq? Afghanistan?  Sadly, no.

War is disgusting and it takes a very high bar to be able to have that conversation with the mothers of lost children.

...Again?...

 Trump created the Make America Great AGAIN Party, which replaced the Republican Party.  Sad.  But let's take a look at that word AGAIN.

The two main AGAINs that first come to mind are White Christian Theocratic racist domination, and Fossil Fuel domination of power and transportation.

The Fossil Fuel Industry owns Donald Trump and MAGA and whatever is left of the Republican Party.  Make America drive fossil fuel cars AGAIN.  Say no to Electric Vehicles.  Make America power plants burn fossil fuels AGAIN.  Say no to wind turbines.  Say no to solar power.  Say no to geothermal.  Say no to all research into green energies.

I believe it was Thomas Friedman who wrote a few months back that it used to be when people from overseas wanted to see the future for their countries to emulate they came the U.S.  But no more.  Now they go to China.  Because China is the future and the U.S. is stuck in AGAIN - fossil fuels for example.  China leads in Electric Vehicles; leads in energy storage batteries, leads in wind - leads in the future.  

Is there a need for fossil fuels still? Of course.  As fossil fuels are obsoleted they remain the backbone of power and transportation.  But they are becoming a transition technology, no longer the future.  The U.S., which is dedicated to AGAIN, does all it can to destroy all sorts of scientific research in the leading universities, and does all it can to cancel wind and solar projects and research, the U.S. is doing all it can to stop the clock - not stop the clock to 2024, it's turning the clock back to 1954.  

The second AGAIN of MAGA is the theocracy of the Old Bible Belt - Make America Jim Crow AGAIN.  I grew up on the Mason Dixon line in the '50s and '60s.  Believe me, we are much happier living in a non Jim Crow world of its multiple bigotries - against blacks, against browns, against reds, against yellows, against women, against science, against caring compassion empathy, against the FUTURE. 

MAGA are frightened people scared of the FUTURE, clinging to AGAIN.  Because, I guess, AGAIN feels safe to them. AGAIN is not safe. AGAIN is a trap. AGAIN is a failure.  AGAIN is .... the PAST.

The MAGA War Party

 The MAGA Republican Party officially proclaimed themselves to be the MAGA War Party by blocking the attempt to limit the White House's war in Iran. They refused to enforce the War Powers Resolution.  It is the law, passed in 1973 War Powers Resolution, requiring Congressional Approval for war beyond 60 days.  Screw that, says the MAGA War Party. They will do whatever “El Duce” tells them to do. 

Now MAGA cannot say that this is all on the madman in the White House.  Now, this is on MAGA.  MAGA is the war party.  MAGA is for an endless war in the Middle East.  

Why?  No reasons given, really.  Open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before we attacked?  Free the Iranian people?  How? Clearly, the theocratic fanatics in charge of Iran have been planning for this war for decades, and losing the top layer of theocratic monsters only replaces them with the next layers of theocratic authoritarian zealots.  The U.S. has no plans or ability to do that, just the whim of a Madman who wanted a headline and praise for being a tough, tough, tough, manly manly “man”.

As we all know, this idiotic war loses us of allies, will increase the cost of transportation, power, fertilizer thus the cost of food, and who knows what all terrible cascading effects.

Dumbass.  

Fully supported by an entire party of dumbasses (or are they just lickspittle subservient toadies?)

So, the world suffers and MAGA claims clarifying ownership.  

Vote.

How a narcissist thinks

 This is from a short video I saw on Facebook that beautifully explains the mind of a narcissist, and since we are all suffering from the mind of the Narcissist in Chief, here is what she said...

• That didn't happen, but if it did...
• It wasn't that bad, but if it was...
• It's not a big deal, but if it is...
• It's not my fault, but if it is...
• I didn't mean it, but if I did...
• You made me do it.

This applies to more than the Narcissist in Chief, of course and is a good metric to make us aware of any unfortunate relationships we may have with narcissists.  

The young lady who made the video is named Kristen Ppucci, and it seems to be aimed at women in relationships, but I thought it shows us a lot more as well. 

Orban defeated in Hungary

Victor Orban, right wing extremist autocrat, was defeated in Hungary.  This may be the first of the autocrat dominoes to fall.  Next up? Putin? Netanyahu? Venezuela lady? Trump - Trump - Trump?

Orban fell despite his years long rigging of the media and electoral systems to stay in power.  If Hungary can do it, so can we. 

Who's going to stop you?

 "Who's going to stop you?" Trump asked Georgia House Speaker Ralston when he was trying to get him to overturn the election results in his loss to Biden in 2020.

This is the Trump's only question he ever asks himself once he figures he can "do whatever the hell he wants."

The corruption and depravity of this overgrown child is hard to fathom.

War criminal in the White House, and the Defense Department

 Seems to me that Donald J Trump is already a war criminal by threatening to attack civilians in Iran.  Here is Trump's deranged, sick, and criminal threat over the Easter weekend to Iran.  Trump is nuts as well as stupid and cruel:

b  

Pete Hegseth, drunken Evangelical Christian fanatic Secretary of Defense, is also a war criminal. There is reporting that the four-star Army Chief of Staff, Randy George, was asked to resign because he refused Hegseth and Trump's order to commit war crimes in Iran.  Good for General George.  Plus, there have been a number of high-level military resignations in response to illegal orders to commit illegal acts of war.

So, is attacking civilians a war crime? Yes. Since when?  Nuremberg.  

The Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946 prosecuted Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes against civilian populations for the first time.  And they firmly established that "following orders" was not a defense from prosecution and punishment.  Then there was a Fourth Geneva Convention in 1949 that encoded the international laws protecting civilians in wartime.  Then the International Criminal Court was established in 1998 and 2002 that provides enforcement.

This is all on MAGA.  The world will not forget Trump.  The world will not forget MAGA.  The world will not forget U.S. war crimes.  In the same way that the world still remembers the German Nazis and their inconceivable crimes, the world will remember Trump and MAGA.  The U.S. no longer has allies.  Trump has destroyed them.  When Trump goes, does the distrust go as well?  No.  Because the world knows that the U.S. put this cruel maniac in office twice, knowing exactly who he was the second time, and said YES that is who WE ARE (who MAGA is).  So, the world sees that Trump is who the U.S. is. 

Sigh...

U.S. fossil fuel industry bets on a stupid horse

 The U.S. fossil fuel industry was likely very pleased with itself for pouring massive amounts of money into the re-election and governance of the Donald Trump. After all, he was following their commands to attack and do all he could to destroy green energy projects like EVs, wind, and solar.  See?  See how smart they are?  See how they are masters of the energy universe?  See how they guarantee that fossil fuels dominate energy forever?

But Donald Trump is stupid.  Donald Trump decided to close the Strait of Hormuz by grabbing headlines showing how very, very, very tough - how manly, manly, manly - Donald Trump is. Bomb bomb bomb.  See how strong Donald Trump is?  See how tough Donald Trump is?  Aren't you impressed by Donald Trump?

Oops.  Iran is going nowhere. Now Iran actively controls the Strait of Hormuz.  Oil and natural gas, and Helium by the way, supplies are dramatically reduced.  The price of oil, and diesel, and jet fuel, and fertilizer, plastics, and computer chips skyrocket.  The U.S. economy is starting to suffer dramatically.  The world economy is starting to suffer dramatically.  

What is the poor attention seeking, headline seeking, stupid president to do?  Attack?  Invade?  Are you nuts?  The mentally unstable Secretary of Defense (War) Hegseth might get all sexually excited by such an attack, and maybe some percentage of Fox News and Southern Evangelicals get all excited too, but... the country does NOT want to go to war for the price of oil, which has been driven up by the stupidity of the MAGA fossil fuel president.

So, the fossil fuel industry was/is too clever by far, and what they considered a grand strategy to kill off green energy will only spur the rest of the world to necessarily boost research and implementation of energy storage, EVs, wind and solar and geothermal - and modular nuclear power sources.  As will the U.S. once the Republican Party will no longer be able to win elections after its total collapse and fall of its stupidest leadership in history - Trump and MAGA.

Greed makes people stupid, in the case of the fossil fuel titans.  And stupid just does stupid things, in the case of the Pedo in Chief.

Tactical successes don't mean strategic victory

 I am an old Boomer.  The disastrous Viet Nam war was on the news every day for years. And every day the news was mostly about wonderful tactical victories our military was winning every day.  Indeed, at least once a week we got the horrendous Body Count, which was usually about 1000 enemy deaths and about 50 to 100 U.S. deaths.  See?  See how successful we are?  See how we are winning?

And then - we lost.  We left.  We ran.  Defeated.  Of course, the president, Richard Nixon, declared VICTORY!  He declared PEACE IN OUR TIME!  And we ran.  And the Communist Viet Cong won.  And took over the country.  And the poor saps in Viet Nam who had fought on our side were overthrown, and many of them and their progeny are now in the U.S., having fled the country, often on small rickety boats braving the oceans to find safety.

The moral?  Tactical successes are nice. Tactical successes meant the military does good work. But they don't mean strategic victories.

Another example is the foundational event, the founding of the United States of America - the Revolutionary War.  George Washington lost a lot of tactical battles, but like the Viet Cong a couple of centuries later, he and his army and his country survived.  And Brittain lost the war. Washington (and France) won the war.  And the U.S. became a country.

None of this penetrates the dim skull of our current below average intelligence Pedo in Chief.  Nor does it occur to the Made-for-Fox-News Secretary of "War" (Defense), Hegseth.  Hegseth and Stephen Miller and Fox News, and I suppose OAN and Brietbart, flood the brain of the Pedo in Chief with U.S. bombs blowing up all kinds of things in Iran.  See?  See?  Aren't we winning?  See?

But.

Tactical successes don't necessarily mean strategic victory.

By the way, Putin is finding out this same lesson in Ukraine.  All the victim of invasions need to do is survive, whereas the invader has to force a surrender and regime change.  

Not happening, oh mighty Pedo in Chief.  

Dumbass.