Understanding MAGA

I endlessly try to find ways to understand the Republican Party.  I used to be Republican but the Tea Party (Freedom Caucus) drove me out because it seemed to me they were dedicated to destroying needed government services, regulations, standards, and expertise.  Then came the Former Guy and he developed the MAGA following which drove me into the Democratic Party.  

But who are MAGA?  Why do the so unquestioningly follow such a man?  David French, Christian conservative and former Republican gives some remarkable insight.  I quote most of his recent article here:

What outsiders often can’t see about the appeal of Trumpism

By David French

I’ve shared this fact with readers before: I live in Tennessee outside Nashville, a very deep-red part of America....This is the world of my friends, my neighbors and many members of my family. ...

It’s hard to encapsulate a culture in 22 seconds, but this July 4 video tweet from Representative Andy Ogles accomplishes the nearly impossible.... the tweet features Ogles, a cheerful freshman Republican from Tennessee, wishing his followers a happy Fourth of July. The text of the greeting is remarkable only if you don’t live in MAGA-land:

Hey guys, Congressman Andy Ogles here, wishing you a happy and blessed Fourth of July. Hey, remember our Founding Fathers. It’s we the people that are in charge of this country, not a leftist minority. Look, the left is trying to destroy our country and our family, and they’re coming after you.

....It’s no coincidence that one of the most enduring cultural symbols of Trump’s 2020 campaign was the boat parade. To form battle lines behind Trump, the one man they believe can save America from total destruction, thousands of supporters in several states got in their MasterCrafts and had giant open-air water parties.

Or take the Trump rally, the signature event of this political era. ... you see the anger, but you miss the fun. ... the Trump superfans who follow Trump from rally to rally the way some people used to follow the Grateful Dead....They are major life events: festive opportunities to get together with like-minded folks

... The consistent message from Trumpland of all ages is something like this: “They’re the worst, and we’re awesome. Let’s party, and let’s fight.”

Why do none of your arguments against Trump penetrate this mind-set? The Trumpists have an easy answer: You’re horrible, and no one should listen to horrible people. ... they know that you’re horrible and that horrible people are capable of anything, including stealing an election.

At the same time, their own joy and camaraderie insulates them against external critiques that focus on their anger and cruelty. Such charges ring hollow to Trump supporters, who can see firsthand the internal friendliness and good cheer that they experience when they get together with one another. They don’t feel angry — at least not most of the time. They are good, likable people who’ve just been provoked by a distant and alien “left” that many of them have never meaningfully encountered firsthand.

Trump’s opponents miss the joy because they experience only the rage. I’m a member of a multiethnic church in Nashville. It’s a refuge from the MAGA Christianity that’s all too present where I live, ... “If you ain’t ready for death threats, don’t live in Franklin,” he said.

Trump’s fans, by contrast, don’t understand the effects of that fury because they mainly experience the joy. For them, the MAGA community is kind and welcoming. For them, supporting Trump is fun. Moreover, the MAGA movement is heavily clustered in the South, and Southerners see themselves as the nicest people in America. It feels false to them to be called “mean” or “cruel.” Cruel? No chance. In their minds, they’re the same people they’ve always been — it’s just that they finally understand how bad you are. And by “you,” again, they often mean the caricatures of people they’ve never met.

... Many of them will never know that their progressive neighbors have faced threats and intimidation. And even when they do see the movement at its worst, they can’t quite believe it. So Jan. 6 was a false flag. ...” It couldn’t have really been a violent attempt to overthrow the elected government, because they know these people, or people like them, and they’re mostly good folks. ... The real crime was the stolen election.

It’s the combination of anger and joy that makes the MAGA enthusiasm so hard to break but also limits its breadth....It’s one part Battle for the Future of Civilization and one part booze cruise.

The battle and the booze cruise both give MAGA devotees a sense of belonging. They see a country that’s changing around them and they are uncertain about their place in it.... they know they have a place at a Trump rally, surrounded by others — overwhelmingly white, many evangelical — who feel the same way they do.

Evangelicals are a particularly illustrative case.... it’s hard to feel a true sense of belonging unless you’re ideologically united with the people in the pews around you.

.... You can’t replace something with nothing. And until we fully understand what that “something” is — and that it includes not only passionate anger but also very real joy and a deep sense of belonging — then our efforts to persuade are doomed to fail. I have long believed that the glue that holds MAGA together is a need to belong felt by people who feel left out in today's America.  I never saw the FUN and PARTYING involved in this belonging.   Logic and facts have very little role to play in trying to convince our MAGA neighbors to let go of the Former Guy.  They cannot see us or hear us.  But... I believe the bubble will eventually burst. I don't know what it will take to dissolve the veils or delusion, but I have a deep hope and faith in the truth, the rule of law, and a persistent attempt to reach out to all Americans ...  ...and maybe most of all, if they can see the goodness in those of us they have been told to fear and hate....

EVs need infrastructure

 To combat global warming and climate change the auto industry is moving toward Electric Vehicles. EVs emit no pollutants from the vehicles, but of course, they have to be charged with electricity that comes from power plants.  As I understand it, that reduces CO2 emissions by about two thirds.  This is very welcome.

The fly in the ointment is there is not enough power generation available in the nationwide grid today to charge all the EVs that are coming down the road.  It is not just Tesla, but Ford, Nissan, Volvo etc. are making big commitments to produce EVs.

The main reason I don't have an EV is what seems to me to be the unreliability and accessibility of charging stations for longer trips.  A problem being worked on, I am sure.

The hope is that green sources of energy will skyrocket, and I hope that as well.  But at this time the vast majority of power is generated by natural gas, coal, and nuclear, with only about 11% generated from wind, solar, and geothermal as of 2020 per the EPA.  

These numbers have likely grown a bit but natural gas, nuclear, and coal remain the primary sources of power, and it takes time to build power generating sources.  Will power generation keep up with a big spike in demand that is coming from EVs?

I think the transition is not going to be smooth.  However, I am sure that the smartest kids at MIT, Stanford, England, India and around the world are dreaming of coming up with green energy breakthroughs rather than more efficient fossil fuels fuel plants.  

Energy storage?  I believe China is developing rechargeable Sodium batteries rather than the environmentally damaging Lithium batteries.  

Nuclear power?  My dream has been modular nuclear fusion plants scattered around the country where the power is needed locally.  The big tokamak research plants look like they are too expensive and will take too long to build.  I believe other forms of plasma generation are being explored and I have hopes for these.

Geothermal power?  Currently, I believe most of the available geothermal sites are already generating power in the U.S., New Zealand, and around the world.  However, I have read that there is a "cold geothermal" power being developed by deep drilling to hot rock far below the current hot geo near the surface.  It boils CO2 not H2O.  If that proves out, geothermal power plants can be built anywhere, near the need for power and not just where steam comes out of the ground already.

Plus, what unimaginable to me today power sources are being explored and yet to be imagined?

The political power of the fossil fuel industry is enormous, of course, and they will do all they can to keep their grip on power generation.  But even at the heart of the fossil fuel industry in America, Texas, the power demands of this latest month long triple digit heat dome, which overwhelmed the grid, was rescued by wind and solar power generation to keep the lights, and air conditioners on.

New power is coming.  Old power will still be needed.  All hands on deck.  Global Warming and Climate Change are real and disastrous to human and all life on our beautiful planet.  

As a parenthetical thought, I have long wanted Hydrogen powered transportation and power generation.  Maybe that is a parallel path?

Faster please.

The snowball of bigotry only gets bigger if you let it roll downhill

 Today the White Christian Nationslist Supreme Court has sanctioned homophobic bigotry in the name of “religious freedom” by granting a person not to make a website for a gay marriage since since they see gay marriage as opposed by their religion. Really?

Golly, what else is opposed by their White Christian Nationalist religion.?  Jewish bar mitzvahs?  Birthdays of Down Syndrome children?  Serving “inferior” races?

Is it against their White Christian Nationalist religion to serve black and brown people?  We know that these types of “Christians” used the Bible to justify their slavery, didn’t they?  And I have no doubt they used their twist of the Bible to justify the Jim Crow laws of the south prior to being forced to end them by the Voting Rights laws and other laws of the Civil Rights Movement. Well, they ended the Jim Crow laws but it seems they have not abandoned them. Those laws are alive and ill in the hearts of White Christian Nationalists today, and they are charging full speed ahead to establish Jim Crow America.

Here is a helpful sign from the past to help us see the future they are aiming for:

Civilized people need to stop this snowball of bigotry now, because if we let it roll downhill it will only get bigger, and then bigger, and then bigger. All in the name of “Religious Freedom”, in the name of purifying and cleansing the country of the many “filths” they see from their pulpits and pews. First - reproductive freedom of women and couples - now gay marriage - next…..

We need to stop this. We can see where it’s going. 

Autocracies' fatal flaw - fear

 Fear is autocracies' fatal flaw.  They come to power and hold power through fear, force, domination, threats, lies, imprisonment, and killing.  So, they think that terrorizing and instilling suffocating fear is their greatest strength.  And it is up to a point.

But where causing fear becomes their fatal flaw is when people are too afraid to tell their fearsome leaders the truth.  Nobody could tell Putin that his army was weak.  Nobody could tell Putin Ukraine was strong.  Nobody could tell Putin that America would lead Europe and other parts of the free world to help Ukraine humiliate him.  They were afraid.  And Putin is likely to lose Russia as a result.  The fear that he saturates his country with will likely kill him.

Nobody could tell Hitler he was stupid to open a second front against Russia in WWII. They were afraid.  And he ended up hiding in a bomb-proof bunker and killing himself.

Nobody could tell Mussolini that he was stupid to try to be a second Caeser.  And he was hung from a lamp post and beaten to death.

Nobody can tell Xi in China what he doesn't want to hear?  I don't know but that seems likely to me.  I hope he doesn't invade Taiwan.

Nobody could tell Trump that he lost the 2020 election (in his trusted inner circle) and he will end up being indicted and likely in prison. 

Fear keeps the leaders from knowing what is going on underneath them. Nobody can tell them what they don't want to hear.  No one can tell them that they are fallible, human, vulnerable, wrong, dumb, and just like everybody else.  They "shoot the messengers".  And remain ignorant, willfully ignorant, and eventually topple like the Great Osymandius of Shelly's poem - once mighty and long gone and long forgotten.

So, autocracies' ignorance fed mistakes are fatal flaws which lead to their collapse.  Tragically, they cause enormous terror, hardship, and suffering over the course of their terrifying, dominating rules. 

Democracies are clumsy, slow, inefficient, pulled in many directions - but stronger than autocracies, dictatorships, and fascist regimes.  They have a much better chance of having leaders seeing and knowing things they don't want to see or hear.  If we are lucky they modify their actions as a result.

Ignorance is fatal.  Knowledge is painful but can be decisive and allow a sustaining governance.

Just an overgrown baby? Or is it much worse?

 People are treating the gathering, stealing, hiding, and refusing to give back top military and intelligence secrets by The Former Guy as if he is just some kind of overgrown baby who wants to keep important things so he can look important to his sycophants.  

What?

I don’t assume that at all. Of course he is a ridiculously childish big baby.  But I think he plotted to take, and took, and hid documents that would benefit him “bigly”.  How could anyone think otherwise?  

These secrets are worth scores of millions of dollars to America’s enemies. American Intelligence and American Military have got to be working, right now, as if our worst enemies have seen these.  We have to be dismantling covert systems that have taken decades to build. 

We have to be trying to save those who have been exposed. We may have had key people already captured, tortured, imprisoned, or killed. 

These are not the actions of a whimsical, greedy little child. These are the actions of a greedy, corrupt, traitor selling to our enemies. 

It is hard for me to imagine a worse crime by a president or former president than selling secrets that protect American intelligence people, military people, and every American person. (Of course, if Republicans are stupid enough, corrupt enough, foolish enough to manage to get him into the White House again we and the world will have to watch as he discovers even more terrible crimes against America and against humanity he will come up with)

The Department of Justice may never prove that this creature sold these secrets, but American Intelligence and American military have to operate as if these secrets have been exposed.

Prison please.

Failed coup?

 Yevgeniy Prigozhin led an aborted military coup against Putin this weekend, got his mercenary army close to Moscow, turned around, and was assured safe passage to Belarus. Really?

What does this show?  Putin’s weakness?  Prigozhin’s miscalculation?  Lack of support for Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine?  

My hope is this topples Putin and Russia leaves Ukraine. But Prigozhin is not some kind of force for peace and democracy. He is a brutal barbarian whose job in life is brutal slaughter of human beings. 

Hoping for the best. 

Breakers of the Democracy Machine

The Republican Party has given up on Democracy, it seems to me.  They know there are too many instances where they can't persuade and win.  So, they have gone full autocratic/authoritarian/fascist.  The Supreme Court is on a mission to turn America into a combination White Supremacist Christian Theocracy (no abortion, no birth control, no independent powerful women, no gay sex or gay marriage, no teaching about slavery or the Jim Crow south, etc.) - and a billionaire-controlled Plutocracy (no regulations, no tax audits, no pollution controls, not much in the way of taxes on the billionaires, etc.)

The only way they can get what they demand is to end voting. The only way to do that is to destroy the "democracy machine" - the institutions of democracy - from voting systems, to a free press, to non-gerrymandered states, etc.  

Once this democracy-breaking Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights laws the extremist Republican red states enacted dozens of voter suppression laws.  Plus, giant corporations were given unparalleled influence over elections with massive inputs of money into elections once the democracy-breaking Supreme Court ruled that corporations were persons.

The former Republican president moved heaven and earth to overturn his loss to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.  He has promised, with the full-throated support of his Cult base, to seek revenge on all who oppose his kingly wishes.  And his autocratic media leaders make sure his MAGA Cult base never knows the thousands of truths that destroy his lies.  They lie.  They create the lies. They pound the lies into the cult over and over and over and over....

They know how to do propaganda - they had good teachers - from the Nazis to the Soviets to the Lost Causers to Putin's Russia and dozens of current autocratic nations around the world.  The playbook is out in the open and being followed with devastating effect.

They do this firmly believing that they are the good people, the people who are stopping the slide of America into sin and ruin.  And they think that since they are on the "side of angels" (and the side of prosperity creating unfettered corporations) they have a duty to keep the sinful and profligate masses from destroying their precious Theocratic and Plutocratic Country.  Thus - break democracy.  Destroy the country to save the country.

But...

This is America.  And America is founded on dream that All People are Created Equal, and people's personal freedoms and rights are sacred.  And I believe that dream is more powerful than all the manipulation, and lies, and threats, and corruption, and revenge that the breakers of democracy can manage.

I believe in America.

King Henry VIII - Trump?

 Maybe the deranged historical figure that The Former Guy is most like is King Henry VIII.  An overgrown, uncontrollable child who cannot conceive of being told what he can or cannot do. 

It is tempting to compare him to the ludicrous strutting Mussolini.  Posing in chin jutting postures of braggadocio and domination. 

It is tempting to compare him to Hitler and his bigoted hatred of what he considers races (and genders and sexual orientations) that are “inferior” to the “supreme white man”, himself most of all, of course. 

But maybe it is the actual king that he wishes he was, who destroyed all norms of behavior and all opposition to his depraved whims and passions. 

Enough already. 

Prison please. 

Trump and Trumpy icons are falling

 Donald Trump is being charged with violating espionage laws.  Prison could be his future.

Boris Johnson, the Trump-like politician that rode the idiotic Brexit movement to power has resigned from Parliament.

Berlusconi, the deeply corrupt but charismatic Italian Prime Minister, a pre-Trump Trumplike political and cultural icon, has died.

Pat Robertson, a founder of the toxic White Christian Nationalism, with all of it bigotry and hatred, has died.  

Maybe these are portents of a start of the decline of the MAGA craziness that has captured so many of our neighbors.

The stolen documents show U.S. nuclear programs and military vulnerabilities to hostile military attack - is this not treason?

 I don't see how the Trump theft of defense secrets is anything short of treason.  Here is info from the indictment - from historian Heather Cox Richardson:

"The indictment is, indeed, jaw dropping. 

It alleges that during his time in the White House, Trump stored in cardboard boxes “information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.” The indictment notes that “[t]he unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.” 

"These documents are not all those recovered—some likely are too sensitive to risk making public—but they nonetheless hold some of the nation’s deepest secrets: “military capabilities of a foreign country and the United States,” “military activities and planning of foreign countries,” “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” “military attacks by a foreign country,” “military contingency planning of the United States,” “military options of a foreign country and potential effects on United States interest,” “foreign country support of terrorist acts against United States interests,” “nuclear weaponry of the United States,” “military activity in a foreign country.” 

So it looks like he was collecting them during his presidency with the plan to take them with him if he needed them later.  For what?  Money?  Hundreds of millions of dollars? To blackmail the U.S. to stay out of prison?  To give them to his master, Putin?  

Also, these documents are secret in order to protect people, the men and women who gather this vital information, the men and women in the military who have volunteered to put themselves into harms way.  All of these people are now at risk.  Maybe some are already captured or killed?

Also, why would any of our key and necessary allies share any sensitive intelligence with the United States going forward if nearly half of the American voters voted for him - twice - and may vote for him a third time.  If their secrets are not safe don't they have to keep them from America?  

Putin has done a remarkably effective job of destroying American leadership in the world by doing all he could to get deeply corrupt nitwit elected in 2016.  The Former Guy has done enormous damage to American leadership in the world, and is doing his best to do more.

He took them from the White House, and he hid them, and he refused to return them. Who else has them?

And his terrified MAGA Cult politicians, along with his Kool-Aid drinking MAGA Cult voters, come to his defense.  Depressing to me.

I have friends who voted for this deeply corrupt, actually mentally ill, fascist wannabe person.  I hope their fantasy views of him are finally exploding.  I hope they can finally see him as the greatest danger to America and U.S. democracy is since Jefferson Davis.

Espionage?

 Trump has finally been indicted. Seven charges. They haven’t been spelled out yet, but they seem to include obstruction, conspiracy, and espionage. 

About time. 

He announced it on his fake Twitter account and let his violent followers know where and when he is to show up at the courthouse. Security is ramping up.  

Let’s see the actual charges, but it was pretty clear to me way back when the story first broke of the FBI search for docs that national security had to be the reason. 

Just tell the truth

 The only way a Republican beats The Former Guy for the nomination is to go after him, attack him, call out all all all all of his lies. How?  Just tell the truth. 

Here is some of what Chris Christie said in his announcement of his presidential run:

“Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost,” 

“ He also has said that Trump “incited” the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol “in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election.”

“He called the former president a "coward" and a "puppet" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.” And the wayTrump would end the war would be to give Ukrainian to Russia.

“The grift from this family is breathtaking,  Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walking out of the WhiteHouse and a month later get two billion dollars from the Saudis? For sitting next to the president for four years doing favors for the Saudis.”

“Let me be clear, in case I have not been already," Christie said after bashing Trump. "The person I am talking about — who is obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault and who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right — is Donald Trump."

“you have to be fearless, because he will come back, and right at you”

I would be happy to see Lynne Cheney also enter the race and tell the same truths. 

You have to take him down. His responses will be disgusting, but that should also simply demonstrate the truth of the truth tellers - this mentally ill lifelong criminal cannot be allowed back in power. 

Just tell the truth. 

Trusting America

 I choose to trust in the basic goodness and Spirit of America.  I choose to trust that America will be run by the Rule of Law rather than the Rule of Autocrat.  

I trust that The Former Guy, and his law-breaking cohorts, will be prosecuted and imprisoned for their violent attempt to overthrow democracy.  And in the case of the lifelong criminal and fraud - The Former Guy - I expect prosecution and punishment for a lifelong pattern of tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering, witness intimidation and tampering, fraudulent fleecing of political donors, etc. etc. etc.  

And I expect The Former Guy to be tried and convicted of espionage for stealing and likely selling top secret military secrets and plans.

America has seen fascists try to overthrow American democracy in the runup to WWII as a very powerful Nazi and fascist movement masqueraded as "America First" people who were actually trying to destroy democracy in America and join with Hitler and Mussolini to create a country based on the Rule of Autocrat and destroy the Rule of Law.

They failed then, and they will fail now. 

America, and the dream and vision of America - where all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights and freedoms - shall prevail. Trump doesn't get to destroy democracy.  DeSantis doesn't get to destroy the personal freedoms of women, couples, people of color, gays and transgenders.

America is going to prevail over the bigotry and hatred being pumped into its people by those who think they can create a Russian/Chinese/Hungarian/Saudi Arabian/Turkish/North Korean autocracy.  The Rule of Law will stand.

Or so I believe.

Would Putin be replaced by someone worse?

 Yevgeniy Prigozhin is warning of a Russian revolution if Putin doesn't get the entire nation fully committed to the obliteration of Ukraine.  Does that mean nukes?

“We must introduce martial law. We unfortunately … must announce new waves of mobilization; we must put everyone who is capable to work on increasing the production of ammunition,” he said. “Russia needs to live like North Korea for a few years, so to say, close the borders … and work hard.”...“This division might end as in 1917, with a revolution — when first the soldiers rise up, and then their loved ones follow.”

I am hoping Putin is overthrown by forces that want to stop the war, but he could be overthrown by forces that want to escalate the war.  Russia has a very long history of dictatorship oppression.  

Extortion is not negotiation

 The "negotiating" advice that the deeply corrupt, lifelong criminal Former Guy is demanding of the Republican Party is not actual negotiating, it is extortion, it is  blackmail. It is how this cheat has cheated in business all of his adult life.  He signs contracts and breaks them and has done so all of his life. He refuses to pay vendors and has done so all of his life.  

He is a man of zero character.  His word is not his bond; his word is his promise that whatever he does it will not be what he says he will do, and will not be according to the contracts he signs.  It will be a promise to break his make believe promise and blackmail and extort and cheat and steal.  

That is who he is, and that is who the MAGA Cult party is becoming.  Because they admire and copy him.  Character is the biggest predictor of behavior and we see his character, and the character (lack of it) in his slavish MAGA Cult.

I deeply hope that the Republican House does not stick to its extortion, and ends up with a negotiation and continues to pay the country's bills and funds the government.  That they say no to the Former Guy and his cult following.

Trump's enemies are Putin's enemies

In case you were wondering if Putin helped Trump win in 2016, and wonder if Putin's Russia is helping/will help the traitorous Former Guy in the 2024 presidential election, here is your proof.

Putin has published a list of enemies of Putin, and surprise! surprise!  they include "enemies" of the Former Guy:

"Among the 500 people singled out for travel and financial restrictions on Friday were Americans seen as adversaries by Mr. Trump, including Letitia James, the state attorney general of New York who has sued him for alleged fraud, and Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel investigating his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia who rebuffed Mr. Trump’s pressure to “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome of the election, also made the list. So did Lt. Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot the pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021."

Enemies of Putin inside Russia get poisoned or pushed out of windows - dozens of them.  

It is blindingly obvious that Putin wants the dimwitted Former Guy to be president because he is so easily manipulated/bribed/blackmailed/fooled that Putin gets exactly what he wants from this embarrassing excuse of an American.

Clarity, in case any were unclear.

The Right Wing Extremist violators

 Right wing extremists displayed themselves in their full, foul plumage during the CNN Trump "Town Hall" where The Former Guy spewed his fire hose of lies, vitriol, and threats to the applause, laughter, and amusement of the adoring MAGA cult "audience". 

What has happened to the Republican Party that I was once part of?  

• They violate the Constitution by claiming to defend the Constitution - for example:
• This was the only presidency that tried to violently overthrow a presidential election
• The Former Guy stole classified military and espionage secrets with a likely aim of selling them to hostile foreign powers
• They do all they can to limit the voting of blacks, browns, reds, yellows, the young

• They violate Christ's teachings and life by claiming to be Christians - for example:
• They openly and proudly proclaim their bigotries:
• against blacks, browns, yellows, and reds
• against gays and transgenders
• against women's right to empower their own lives with reproductive choices
• By choosing threats, guns, and violence in total repudiation of The Sermon on the Mount

• They violate the law and celebrate the lawless while claiming to be the "Law and Order Party"
• They assaulted the police on January 6, 2020 and praise those violent thugs sent to prison
• They worship the Former Guy and his multiple financial corruptions 
• They worship the Former Guy and his multiple sexual assaults on women
• They send armed, threatening MAGA cultists to voting locations to intimidate liberal voters

• They violate the environment and the balance and health of nature, for example:
• Are dedicated to reducing environmental regulations on manufacturing and mining discharges
• Are dedicated to reducing environmental regulations on air pollution
• Are dedicated to reducing environmental regulations protecting species extinctions
• Are dedicated to promoting fossil fuels and impeding green energies
• Are dedicated to promoting giant chemical farming practices which, when abused, despoil the soil and reduce nutrition and sustainability

• They violate democracy claiming democracy isn't as important as forcing the country to do what they demand.  For example:
• The Former Guy tried to violently overthrow a presidential election
• An Arizona governor candidate still refuses to concede her loss
• Election deniers after election deniers are nominated and sometimes elected by them
• They do all they can to limit the votes of blacks, browns, reds, yellows, and the young

• The violate personal freedoms and claim to be the Party of Freedom
• No freedom for women and couples to control their reproductive lives
• No freedom to live a harassment free life if you are gay
• No freedom to live a harassment free life if you are transexual
• No freedom to read books that the extremist fanatics disapprove of
• No freedom to teach about the history and presence of racism in America
• No freedom to teach about gays
• No freedom to teach about the atrocities of slavery
• No freedom to teach about the atrocities of Jim Crow 
• No freedom to ---- more to come I am sure, just give them more time.

This is just a half hour top of the head listing of the violations of the Right Wing Extremists.

You could say they are hypocritical, but that is too kind.  I think they are just corrupt and righteous tyrants with a good enough propaganda system that they fool enough people so that they can get away with it.  For a short time, anyhow.  

Their time will be over, and goodness truth and beauty will prevail.

This is America, not the Confederacy, not Russia.

The jurors have to hide from MAGA Trump

Trump was tried and found guilty for his sexual assault, and disturbingly, the judge felt he had to warn the jurors to hide from Trump’s violence.  In America.  

“…U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan advised the jurors not to identify themselves—“not now and not for a long time”—out of concerns for their safety. National security analyst Juliette Kayyem reported the judge’s warning and noted that “Trump’s strongest legacy will always be violence…”

The threat of violence from The Former Guy is very real.  He threatens harm overtly and consistently.  

And 74 million Republicans voted for this violent person. What has happened to America?

$5,000,000 … sexual abuse … guilty

 The Former Guy was found guilty … “ Donald Trump must pay $5 million in damages for sexually abusing magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by branding her a liar, a jury decided on Tuesday.”

This excuse of a man has a life long history of multiple crimes, and sexual assault is one of them. And a jury convicted him. Today. 

There are two paths forward for America - rule of law or rule of autocrat.  Democrats stand for the rule of law, the MAGA Cult is trying to enforce rule of autocrat. 

Today the rule of law won.

A good day for America. 

Our broken Primaries Election System

Republican politicians have no regard for the desires of the people. Here is an example regarding gun safety:

“A new Fox News poll out yesterday shows that:

• 87% of voters favor background checks for gun purchases, 
• 81% favor making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun, 
• 80% want mental health care checks on all gun buyers, 
• 80% want flags for people who are dangerous to themselves or others, 
• 77% want a 30-day waiting period to buy a gun, and 
• 61% want an assault weapons ban.

And yet, Republican majorities in state legislatures are rapidly rolling back gun laws.”

Why?  Because of our broken primary election system where only the most rabidly political people vote in primaries, and that includes fanatical gun nuts. The 20% who oppose all gun responsibility laws are the ones who elect Republican candidates. 

So children are trained in how to stay alive when killers come for them, and deranged men kill families if five, including a child, when he is asked to stop firing his AR15 in the backyard. 

I do not know how assault weapons manufacturers can live with themselves. Or Republican lawmakers. 

Assault weapons are for war. Not neighborhoods. Obvious. 

And, lest I forget why — 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The Putin Wing of the Republican Party is trying to destroy the American dollar

It is possible to believe that the Republican Party is trying very hard to blackmail the Democratic Administration with a promise to refuse to pay America's debts because they are dedicated to an ideology that says two things - lowering the cost of government spurs the economy, and reducing the dependency of the poor and middle class on government help makes them stronger.  But I don't believe that - anymore.  In my Republican days I did, but it seems nonsense to me now.

Rather, it seems to me, that the blackmail is coming from the Putin Wing of the Republican Party - and the purpose is to destroy the American economy, destroy American credit around the world, and remove the American dollar as the world currency.  

I understand Putin's desire to destroy America, it is what he has been doing all of his life.  

It is harder for me to understand the Putin Wing of the Republican Party. They openly admire the murderous autocrat, they support the Putin invasion of Ukraine, and they seem dedicated to defaulting on American debt - i.e. dedicated to stop paying America's bills.  (Actually, about 25% of the national debt came from Trump's four-year reign of incompetence)  And, of course, the Republicans never threatened default during the presidency of Trump - nor of any Republican president. 

And, of course, they threaten default every year for every Democratic president.  Mostly, in the past, this was simply to do what they love the most to do - cut spending on the middle class, and on poor people (read that as black and brown and red people).

But this year seems different to me.  This year has people in Congress even more extreme than the cut-the-cost-of-caring-about-people-Tea Party.  Congress now has active Putin supporters.  And I am starting to believe they are following orders from Russia.  I don't trust that they are operating in good faith.  I am starting to believe that bribery and/or blackmail is involved.  Or, perhaps, it is simply the admiration of a fellow traveler autocrat by wannabe autocrats.  But my bet is obedience to their master.

The way this year seems different to me is that I don't think it is possible for the Putin controlled House of Representatives to agree on a budget, and I think they will default on the debt - on purpose - and shut the Federal Government down.  They seem to be trying to harm America as part of their plan to establish an authoritarian, autocratic, fascist rule that will or won't be led by Trump.  If not Trump, there are more in the wings of the Republican Party ready to dominate.  

Autocrats of a feather flock together.

But this is still America.  And I refuse to believe that it will fall to fascists.

The lying will continue

 Tucker Carlson was fired from the “Lies-R-Us” Fox News network.  

Fear not MAGA Cult faithful, the lies will continue, just like you want them to.  It’s their business model. As was proven in the discovery phase of the Dominion lawsuit that cost them $787.5 million. 

I think he was fired for workplace and sexual misconduct and finally being sick of having to deal with a jackass asshole.

Breakthrough in nuclear fission power - small modular plants

 As more and more people demand electric vehicles there will be greater and greater demand for power to be supplied to the electric grid.  One solution is breakthroughs in energy storage, and as I wrote yesterday, rechargeable Sodium batteries may be one of those breakthroughs.

But what about producing more power?  In addition to wind and solar, I am hopeful that modular nuclear power plants can be a breakthrough in providing non-fossil-fuel-based power.  

There have always been two big problems with nuclear power - disposing of the nuclear waste and the danger of runaway nuclear power plants in case of power plant failure - like the Fukushima power plant in Japan, which had the cooling water pumps incapacitated by a tsunami which allowed the plant to spew radiation uncontrolled.

The runaway plant problem may have been solved by new design small modular nuclear power plants, recently approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  

"Unlike current plants, though, the water used to cool the reactor doesn't rely on a pump, which can fail....Instead, the SMR uses natural convection to keep cold and hot water flowing inside the containment vessel."

These are about 50 MW plants (compared to about 1000 MW old style plants).  They can be built and installed much more quickly and linked together for more power demand.  They could be installed locally near smaller cities and rural areas.  

Disposal of the spent nuclear waste remains a problem but that seems to be more political than technical to me.  If nobody is willing to store it in remote desert areas, maybe the Energy Department puts it on rockets and shoots it up into the sun?

Energy storage is the next giant step to decarbonization - rechargeable sodium batteries?

I have been thinking for some time that the smartest kids in MIT, Stanford, England, China, Japan are dreaming of breakthroughs in green energy.  It is clear that fossil fuels is a major part of Global Warming and Climate Change.  So, what to do?  

Energy storage can be a big step in decarbonizing the world.  Store the energy in the grid when the sun shines and the wind blows and release it into the grid when they don't.  Turns out China is making big strides in that direction already.

"...China is positioning itself to command the next big innovation in rechargeable batteries: replacing lithium with sodium, a far cheaper and more abundant material...They keep almost all of their charge when temperatures fall far below freezing, something lithium batteries typically do not do...The most immediately promising use for sodium batteries is for electric grids, ... Sodium batteries need to be bigger than lithium ones to hold the same electrical charge. That is a problem for cars, which have limited space, but not for electricity grid storage."

The oldest Econ 101 truth is that the demand for buggy whips declined dramatically with the rise of the demand for automobiles.  Well, the demand for fossil fuels could start to decline if we get good energy storage to make solar and wind power available 24/7.  

Go for it.

Republican Party taken over by anti-democracy Christian dogmatists

 I usually read historian Heather Cox Richardson's Substack "Letters from an American" each day.  She gives an excellent historical perspective to today's world.  Her April 1, 2023 missive does a good job of presenting an historical observation of the differences between today's conservatives and today's liberals.

"They (White Christian Nationalist conservatives) argue that the ideas that underpin democracy—

• equality before the law, 
• separation of church and state, 
• academic freedom, a 
• market-driven economy, 
• free speech—

have undermined virtue. These values are “liberal” values because they are based on the idea of the importance of individual freedom from an oppressive government, and they are at the heart of American democracy. But post-liberal thinkers say that liberalism’s defense of individual rights has destroyed 

• the family,
• communities, and even the 
• fundamental differences between men and women, 
• throwing society into chaos. 

They propose to restore the values of traditional Christianity, which would, they believe, restore traditional family structures and supportive communities, and promote the virtue of self-sacrifice as people give up their individualism for their children (their worldview utterly rejects abortion). 

The position of those embracing a post-liberal order is a far cry from the Reagan Republicans’ claim to want small government and free markets. The new ideologues want a strong government to enforce their religious values on American society, and they reject those of both parties who support democratic norms—for it is those very norms they see as destructive. They urge their leaders to “dare to rule.”

Those who call for a new post-liberal order want to “reconquer public institutions all over the United States,” as Christopher Rufo put it after Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed him to the board of New College as part of a mission to turn the progressive school into a right-wing bastion.  ... To spur that process, Republicans have turned to so-called culture wars"

I see this as Christian fanaticism and I see the government imposition of a religion to be a violation of the First Amendment.  But clearly, these Christians think that their interpretation of the Bible supersedes the dictates of the Constitution of the United States of America.  

I believe they are fundamentally anti-American, and I recall that the British who fled to America in the pre-Revolutionary war decades came to America to flee religious persecution in the old country where their brand of Christianity was oppressed and brutalized by more dominant brands of Christianity.  It seems to me that those who claim the mantle of Christian morals to themselves have a long history of oppressing others and forcing conformity to their very limited notion of spirituality.

And they are running the Republican Party.  But I believe the foundations of America rest upon the Constitution rather than on some particular religious dogma.