Musk is dangerous

 Trump is stupid, mentally ill, deluded and dangerous. Musk is smart, mentally odd, and dangerous. Seems to me he is aiming to take over the authoritarian, fascist MAGA revolution. Here he is upstaging the rambling orange, declining candidate:

 

From FDR decades ago, per Consevative icon, William Krystal:

I should have remembered the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt in his acceptance speech at the 1936 Democratic convention: “It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself.”

Watch out.

Why fascism?

 I think that people who feel powerless want to feel powerful so what they do as they look for someone who looks powerful to them, that is to say look for someone who scares people and they align themselves with that person. I think that explains Mussolini and Hitler and Franco. And I think it explains Orban and Le Pen and Trump today. 

Why? It’s fear. Fear of Other. Fear of different. Things seem out of control. They want to beat things back into orderly control. Is this correct? No - things are just different. And different scares them. 

So you get the rise of “Strong Men”. They support those that threaten and do violence. It makes those who feel powerless feel protected and feel safe. 

It’s a false belief. The “Strong Men” are all the same character - it’s all about me me me me me me me me.  And $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. And power domination domination domination.  

It has nothing to do with the country they dominate, or the people who worship them, or who fight them, or who fear them… the people and the country are just supporting players to the authoritarian’s bottomless need for obedience and submission. 

They are sick puppies.  They are very needy little people. We see in The Former Guy how much he craves and needs adulation. Because he has no internal pillars of self esteem. So they remove the Rule of Law, and remove democracy, and all constraints on their bottomless needs. Of course. It’s who they are. 

And the frightened follow them down the autocratic rabbit hole. 

Prison please…

 How the authoritarian sitting president criminally tried to overturn the 2020 election.  Prosecutor Jack Smith lays out the evidence.  From the AP:  

1.  “Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,” Smith’s team wrote, adding, “When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office.”....

 2.  Trump “laid the groundwork” for rejecting the election results before the contest was over, telling advisers that in the event he held an early lead he would “declare victory before the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.”....

3.   Immediately after the even ection, prosecutors say, his advisers sought to sow chaos in the counting of votes....

4.   Prosecutors also argue Trump used his Twitter account to further his illegal scheme by spreading false claims of election fraud, attacking “those speaking the truth” about his election loss and exhorting his supporters to travel to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, certification. 

5.   They intend to use “forensic evidence” from Trump’s iPhone to provide insight into Trump’s actions after the mob of his supporters began to attack the Capitol....

6.   That “steady stream of disinformation” in the weeks after the election culminated in his speech at the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump “used these lies to inflame and motivate the large and angry crowd of his supporters to march to the Capitol and disrupt the certification proceeding,” prosecutors wrote. His “personal desperation was at its zenith” that morning as he was “only hours from the certification proceeding that spelled the end,” prosecutors wrote."

There will be a lot more evidence to come, of corse.  I hope they include evidence that armed extremists were in nearby hotels ready for a second assault wave.  Some of those are in prison now, I believe.

By the way, he is doing exactly the same thing again now in 2024.  Another attempted coup after he loses another election.  It’s being planned and organized.  Too much of the country has given up on democracy  

Prison please.

Tennessee MAGA lies about Biden response to hurricane Helene

 One of the most horrific disasters in U.S recent history is the massive hurricane Helene that savaged the south. So far over 100 deaths are reported with hundreds more missing. This is bad enough, but MAGA Republicans have managed to make it into a political accusation of Biden. Tennessee MAGA tells this despicable lie:

“Late Friday night, Tennessee House Republican Caucus chair Jeremy Faison posted “President Biden has finally approved [Tennessee governor Bill Lee’s] state of emergency request,” making it sound as if the delay in federal support for the state during the devastation of Hurricane Helene was Biden’s fault. In fact, while Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina all declared emergencies and requested and received federal approval of those declarations before the hurricane hit, Governor Lee did not. 

Instead, in keeping with an April joint resolution from the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting to “seek God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee,” Lee proclaimed September 27 “a voluntary Day of Prayer & Fasting.”

Lee did not declare a state of emergency until late on September 27, after flash flooding had already created havoc. President Biden approved it immediately.  

Immediately!  Of course. That is because President Biden is the president of the United  States. 

As always, MAGA accuses Democrats of the crimes that MAGA commits. Trump has a history of withholding aid to states that did not vote for him. He has promised to refuse aid to states that do not vote for him if elected. He is incapable of human caring for anyone other than himself. And MAGA worshipfully follows his dark lead. 

….we ran for our lives…

 Jeffrey Katzenberg, former Disney exec tells this from his childhood regarding Germany’s “clown”, Hitler:  

“When I was in high school, we were studying Third Reich Germany and the rise of Hitler, and over the holiday, our teacher suggested to the class that, to the degree which we could,  please go home and talk to your grandparents,” Katzenberg told the poolside Axios gathering tonight on the eve of Milken Institute conference. 

“Ask them, what did they read? “What did they see? What did they hear? What they do?”

“In the case of my family, on my mom’s side, they came from France and on my dad’s side, from Germany and they all said exactly the same thing,” the 73-year-old DreamWorks co-founder said to a group… 

“We read it; we heard it. We literally did not believe it. Thought this guy was a clown, that what he was saying was so incredibly impossible, and unimaginable. 

And then we ran for our lives, quite literally.”

We need to read it, hear it, and unlike our German and European predecessors, we need to believe it and stop it, even though it seems so incredibly impossible and unimaginable. Always believe the threats of fanatical extremists. 

It is not just Trump, it is an entire highly organized and fanaticalnetwork of right wing violent extremists, in America, and around the world. And American Rule of Law, the American Constitution, and our democratically elected Republic is the prime target. They are dedicated to force, and have given up on democracy because they can’t win.  They are just too … ugly, angry, threatening, odd, weird, dangerous,  violent. 

It’s the economy, stupid!

 It's a lot of things, but certainly one of the most important things is the economy.  Trump will destroy the American economy, and in so doing destroy the world economy.  Why? Because he is amazingly stupid and cannnot be taught anything because he thinks he knows more than anyone who ever talks to him. 

How will he destroy the economy?  His astonishingly stupid plan for tariffs.

From historian Heather Cox Richardson:

"...Trump has promised an across-the-board tariff of 10% to 20% that billionaire Mark Cubanon the Fox News Channel called “insane” and Quin Hillyer of the Washington Examiner warned “would almost certainly cause immense price hikes domestically, goad other countries into retaliating, and perhaps set off an international trade war” that could “wreck the economy.” Cuban then told Jake Tapper of CNN that Trump’s promise to impose 10% price controls on credit card interest rates and price caps is “Socialism 101.” 

Trump has had many, many, many smart expert people try to explain to him that foreign countries don't pay tariffs, the increased cost is passed on to the American buyer.  It is a tax.  A huge tax.  Inflation skyrockets.  Domestic competitors are free to raise their prices as well, to just a bit below the imports.  Everyone pays for Trump’s ignorance. 

Trump is ignorant, of course.  We are all ignorant of many things.  But Trump is more than ignorant, he is an ignoramus - my definition of an ignoramus is an ignorant person who is stupid enough, egotistical enough, delusional enough to refuse to learn and stop being ignorant.

Please, my dear Republican friends, i t' s   t h e    e c o n o m y   s t u p i d !

N****r N****r N****r - Sp*k Sp*k Sp*k - Jew Jew Jew

 The Donald Trump campaign is pretty much just one thing - bigotry.  Calling all bigots... 

N****r N****r N****r - Sp*k Sp*k Sp*k - Jew Jew Jew

• FIRST, when Donald Trump was interviewed and said:

"“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"

Get it? she is black black black. Just in case you didn't notice, she is black.  Did he mention that she is black?  You know, black?

And, oh yes, Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH?  He lies lies lies, and his VP Vance lies lies lies, saying that they are eating pets?  Haitian immigrants, black immigrants - they are black black black, remember, thery are black.

• And SECOND, you know the great crisis at the border? Brown people - you know - sp*k sp*k sp*k.  Get it? not good white people from good white countries, sp*ks.  You know, sp*ks, the kind of people who poison the blood -

"Former President Donald Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country,”  - the kind of people coming from shithole countries:

""Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump is reported as saying."  

You know, shithole countries like Haiti - poisoning the blood of America, black immigrants.  Even worse than brown immigrants.

• And THIRD, yesterday, just to make sure everyone understands how much he admires and imitates Adolph Hitler he says if he loses it will be the fault of the Jews - you know, target Jews if he loses, you know, things like Krystallnacht in Germany - watch out you Jew bastards, you better vote for me, or...fill in the blank

""If I don't win this election" then "the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss," Trump said"

So there he is - bigoted against blacks, hispanics, and Jews.  In his own words.  I haven't even mentioned Muslims, or women, or Asian Americans.  Anyone who is not a white man is who he is bigoted against. And, by the way, if you are a white man, but not a billionaire, he is bigotted against you as well. And by the way, if you are a billionaire and not named Donald Trump, he is bigoted against you as well. This is a very sick person.

So, there are good people who have voted twice for Trump because - they always vote Republican - they are worried about the border crisis - they want unfettered capitalism - they want to end abortion nationwide,  etc etc etc.  

But Trump has made it more and more obvious that those are just figleaves, or pretenses, or rationalizations.  Trump makes it overwhelmingly clear, to me at least, that bigotry, autocracy, the end of the Rule of Law, the end of democracy itself is actually what he stands for. He has been leading with bigotry ever since he came down his elevator to the applause of hired actors to announce his candidacy nine years ago.  

So my deepest hope that those who have been lifelong Republicans wake up and see that there is no longer a Republican Party, it is now the openly bigoted and anti-democracy party, openly and loudly calling all bigots to take over the country, and if you, a conservative, are repulsed by bigotry, please vote agaisnt this autocratic, authoritarian, bullying, overt bigot.  You are better than him and better than the Republican Party that has been debauched by his bigotry, corruption, and hatred.

Vote, please, against this Hitler/Putin/Maduro/Orban wannabe. 

He is not you. 

“They” are not Democrats

Trump had two assassination attempts, it appears.

The first attempt in Pennsylvania.  Those were real bullets.  A real person died. Two real people were wounded.  A real shooter was killed.  But…

 

Where did the blood on Trump’s face come from?  How did the Secret Service let Trump have the clear space to rise up and raise his fist in defiance for a perfect photo op?  We were told that his ear was grazed and a small chunk was removed. But that is a lie.  His ear is totally intact.  There is no report from the hospital that he went to to repair his ear.  Where did the blood come from?

 The second attempt at his Florida golf course.  About five shots were fired in rapid succession. None from the suspected assassin, all from the Secret Service.  Where did those bullets go?  On the other side of the bushes is a busy city street.  Nobody was hit by the bullets.  Buildings? Cars?  We’re glad, of course.  Did all the bullets just happen to hit a nice wide tree inside the golf course?  A witness very luckily was there to see the fleeing suspect.  He wrote down the license plate.  How lucky.  How long was the witness in that area?  Was he or she just passing by, or were they in the area for hours as well as the accused assassin?  

So now Trump and Vance and MAGA are saying “they” tried to kill Trump. “They” are not Democrats.

 

The first kid was a radicalized right winger who was thinking Trump or Biden, Trump was closer and sooner. Disturbed boy with a semi- automatic rifle. The second was some kind of radical that seemed obsessed with helping Ukraine.  

Extremists with easy access to semi-automatic rifles. Mayhem. 

What about the timings?

The ear wound was right before his convention and he wore a preposterous huge bandage over an ear that was not damaged. And his crowd of worshippers at the convention had makeshift bandages over their ears as well.  But the ear was not damaged.  

 The golf course incident came shortly after he was humiliated on the debate stage by Harris.  He was crushed. But this grabs the headlines.

Vance says “they” tried to kill Trump twice. “They”. “They” are not Democrats. Vance says stop calling for violence. What a joke. Trump has been calling for violence for nine years. Democrats call for votes. 

But Trump pledges to end democracy, so I will continue to write about it.  It is not a call to violence to describe his plans to end the rule of law and to end democracy. It is a call to vote.  

Vote.

Musk calls for the assassination of Harris and Biden

 Yesterday the Secret Service thwarted an assassination attempt on candidate Trump. Thank goodness! I am not making comment about it yet until we find out more about the man. So far it seems that he is a fanatical supporter of Ukraine. But let’s find out more. 

But the ever more dangerous Elon Musk just called for the assassination of Harris and Biden.  What is wrong with this person?

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala 🤔 https://t.co/ANQJj4hNgW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2024”

Eating dogs and cats, right out of the Nazi propaganda “Protocals of the elders of Zion”

 Trump ludicrously claimed that black Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets in small Springfield OH. Obvious nonsense. He was mocked. Laughed at. 

But he doubled down. Insisted on the same lie on following days. His disgusting VP candidate Vance very publicly repeated the lies. What the hell?

Two things. First, as the insightful authority on autocratic regimes, Ann Applebaum, notes, the first step in establishing an autocratic tyranny is to lie, and all of his supplicants must repeat the lie in order to prove their loyalty. Was this lie any stupider than Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election in a landslide?  Of course not.  But virtually all elected Republicans repeat that lie ad nauseam. So too, here. 

Second, and much more terrifying, Trump is copying Hitler and the Nazis by finding someone to dehumanize to the point of murderous rage. The Nazis pointed to the filthy anti-Jewish lies in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” where the ridiculous lie was that Jews were killing babies and drinking their blood. What incendiary rubbish. Now Trump and MAGA are claiming that black immigrants are killing and eating people’s pets. 

Why? To make people afraid, to make people target the innocent, to make people want to be protected from monsters, to make people give all all all their powers to the autocrat who will protect them - from what?  from make believe, non-existent monsters. They aren’t monsters. They are people. 

Anne Applebaum’s Autocracy in America - step two, capture the courts

 Anne Applebaum has a must-listen podcast “Autocracy in America”  the first episode explored step one:force people to accept lies in order to prove their loyalty and to belong.  All of Trump’s ridiculous lies are parroted by elected Republicans and MAGA faithful. Barf. 

The second episode is just out. America is already at the onset the influence of autocratic rule.  In autocracy it becomes Rule By Law rather than Rule Of Law. Rule Of Law is facts - evidence -  juries - verdicts. Rule By Law is where law is a weapon whereby enemies are prosecuted and found guilty, no exceptions. Loyalists are never guilty. The judges are enforcers of the autocratic Rule By Law.

Judge Aileen Cannon is part of Trump’s autocratic rule in the espionage documents case which she refuses to bring to trial. The Trump and Heritage Foundation Supreme Court are enforcers of Rule By Law by declaring Trump to be immune from prosecution if he acts as an official presidential act.  Who decides whether his acts are official presidential acts? He does. If challenged in the courts who decides? Oh right, the autocratic Supreme Court does. The king is never guilty. 

Autocracy in action. It is already taking over America. A Trump victory would be a complete victory of autocratic rule - first by the nitwit Trump, and then by the real autocrats, the theocrats and oligarchs. No more democracy. America becomes Russia, just like Russia has planned all along

Vote. This is our last chance to save democracy. If we lose our democratically elected republic will be lost for at least one generation. . 

Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people…

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that, and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that,” Kamala last night in the debate. 

Kamala Harris won the presidential debate against the old man last night.  He destroyed himself, by doing the only thing he can do, by being himself - hunched over, glowering, snarling, scowling, sweating, grimacing, lying, lying, lying, lying.  She was smart, aggressive, articulate, on point, smiling, and devastatingly effective.  He  was just the delusional and deluding old man that he has been since his crushing loss in 2020.  

I suppose a lot of the MAGA cult will try to say he did fine, but just like Biden collapsed in the first debate, this worn out rerun of utter nonsense failed miserably.  He did terrible. He will lie about. He will claim victory. Just like always. 

I could only watch for the first half hour but I had to turn off the TV.  I just couldn’t stand to listen to his aggressive bombastic hostility.  So I went to a news site that had running commentary alongside soundless video of the broadcast. The visual was astonishing - angry old guy being pummeled next to an expressive competent opponent. Striking. 

Democrats have to treat this as if they are three points behind no matter what the polls say all the way up to the election. The anti-democracy faithful will continue to do all they can to overturn this election. 

This picture, of the person turning away from the podium when it was over is a good summary of the night, the one who was trounced is grateful to finally escape the torture…

And Harris showing concern…

An actual human face…

How it looked to me…

 

Fascist Trump threatens Harris campaign donors

 Trump has just descended to a new low, no real surprise, in his panic about losing the election. We now have the presidential candidate of one of the two major political parties promising to imprison those who donate to his political opponent. This is beyond belief.

I hope this is clear evidence to those who try to ignore it that we are dealing with an autocratic, fascist, dictator-in-waiting who will do what dictators do – imprison and destroy all opposition to their tyranny.  This is not some kind of joke, or random blurting of a disturbed person.  It is a real threat.  It is a real promise.  It is deadly. Here is his latest atrocity:

“Donald Trump has warned Kamala Haris’s campaign donors that they will not escape his retribution if they play a role in a 2024 election 'steal'….'Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,' Trump wrote.”

He is doing more than threatening legal persecution, he is sending out a call to violence from his loyal and slavishly obedient cult. 

Remember, Hitler would have been just a nut shouting on a street corner without millions of NAZIs ready to slaughter in the name of their own version of righteousness.  This is too serious to ignore.

Republicans are today’s Whigs

 Just as the Whigs broke in two and disappeared in the mid 1800s, separating onto Slavers and Abolitionists - slavers became Democrats and Abolitionists became the newly formed Republican Party, I believe that the Republican Party is coming to an end, separating into MAGA Cult Trump worshippers and Bulwark Republican traditionalists.

I think the Theocratic-Oligarchic-Trump worshippers have killed the Republican Party and it will just go away. Not sure what rises up, but I can’t see the deeply ugly multiple bigotries currently running things lasting very long. 

They are just too unattractive - no, make that just too repulsive - to last in a democracy. That is why they are trying so desperately, and futilely I hope, to end democracy and create an autocracy. 

I hope there is some healing awakening that can follow what I think will be a precipitous collapse. We need them to return to some sense of sanity and free themselves from the deluded hatreds fed by Limbaugh and Ailes and Murdoch and their successor parrots - and of course being fed by the mentally ill demented orange puff face.  

There are just so many who are so out of balance. We need to find a new center. 

Is a bone spurs moment coming?

 Scaramucci, former briefly a Trump communications guy, suggested that once Trump sees he will lose to Harris he will go full “bone-spurs” - that is, he’ll run, same as he did to avoid Viet Nam. And he’ll negotiate zero prison time and drop out of the race, claiming some medical reason.  Blaming someone else, of course. His only concern is himself. 

Or maybe he just flees to Russia? Or Venezuela?

Why not?  Keeps him out of prison…

Afraid to admit a mistake

 I think former Republican, George Conway, may have identified the biggest threat to American Democracy, to America, and to the world - people just don't want to admit they made a mistake.  

They voted for Trump in 2016 and, and what the heck they just found some policy issue that justified voting for him again in 2020.  So, they just overlooked his mental illness, his cruelty, his stupidity, his willful ignorance, his immorality, his avaricious greed, his astonishing blundering of the COVID pandemic, his attacks on the Rule of Law and on Democracy itself.  

Rationalization is a powerful motivator.

My deep hope is that many will see that he is not who they wanted him to be, or hoped that he would be, or pretended that he would be.  

My deep hope is that they Just Say No in 2024.

The survival of the Democratically elected Republic of America depends on it - the survival of the Rule of Law depends on it - the survival of Ukraine depends on it - the survival of Pax Americana depends on it.  Etc.

I voted for Reagan and did again a second time.  It wasn't until the early '00s that I realized that was a mistake.  I wish I had admitted that in 1984.  I voted for W in 2000 and again in 2004.  I later decided that was a mistake.  I wish I had admitted it before the second election.

It is no small thing to admit a mistake. I know from personal experience.  It's hard to do….

Some of what Project 2025 and Schedule F will do

 The good news is that, temporarily, Kamala Harris has taken a small lead in the polls over Donald Trump.  And she and VP nominee, Tim Walz, are running a hope and optimism-based campaign.  That is probably a much better way to campaign than to run a fear-based campaign.  I leave campaigning to them. 

But I want to shine a light on the plans of Trump, and more importantly, his Theocratic, autocratic, white supremacist, passionately dedicated base has been planning a total takeover of the U.S. government ever since the end of the Civil War, since the end of the Jim Crow South, since the end of the Nazi led America First Movement prior to the Japanese invasion, since the collapse of the fascist Joe McCarthy attempt to capture the country.  These folks have been at it for as long as there has been an America.

Back in June, the brilliant comedian John Oliver laid out the highlights of Project 2025, and notes the critical ingredient to its success – Schedule F.  You can find it on YouTube, I expect.

Project 2025 is about a thousand-page detailed plan to establish a new “Deep State” – a theocratic autocratic state that will move more and more toward the tyrannies of other theocracies like Russia, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.  Prime targets will be controlling women, gays, all sexual expressions that they are afraid of, ending environmental and financial regulations, etc.  

• Dismantle the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) – expert government weather forecasting
• Eliminate Head Start – you know, kids, screw them
• Establish a “Pro-Life” task force – monitor women’s pregnancies, menstrual cycles, out of state travel, imprison doctors
• Defund the Department of Justice – easier for the crooks and fraudsters
• Dismantle the FBI – easier for the crooks and fraudsters, and spies
• Eliminate the Department of Education – establish religious schools
• Outlaw porn and imprison pornographers – really pissed off at Stormy Daniels
• Round up over 10 million “illegal immigrants” (or random brown folks) and put them into concentration camps before putting them in boxcars to send out of the country
• Use the power of Presidential Unitary Executive Theory (unconstitutional but who cares, the Trump Supreme Court has said anything Trump does as an “official presidential act” is immune from prosecution – who decides appeals? the Trump revolutionary Supreme Court
• Impound funds from anything that Trump or the Heritage Foundation or the Theocrats or the Oligarchs want to stop – like regulation of pollution? Regulation of banking? Inspection of safe working conditions?  Inspection of drug purity?  Etc. etc. etc. 

 Schedule F is what makes all of this work.  The government doesn’t run itself.  Schedule F replaces 50,000 merit based appointees in the government agencies with political appointees, as a start – 2 million at risk.  That means that the scientist and administrators leading the weather forecasting, the scientists and administrators protecting our nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons, our administrators and inspectors of transportation, highways, railways, airways, food safety, drug safety – all of these to be replaced by political appointments.  

What would be the qualifications for these political appointees?  There are about 50,000 who are being vetted for political loyalty now.  The first question is – did Joe Biden steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump?  There is only one “correct” answer to qualify.

How bad will this become?  Venezuela has an autocrat running it, Maduro, following up the previous autocrat – Chavez.  They had one industry – oil.  They replaced the scientists, engineers, skilled leaders in their oil industry with political loyalists to the autocratic regime.  Result?  By getting rid of those who know what they were doing and replacing them with political flunkies the oil production fell from 3.8 million barrels per day to less than one billion barrels per day.  Millions have fled the poverty and corruption. Many are at the U.S. Border. And today’s Wannabe Autocrat blames Democrats for the border crisis. Of course he does. “Rapists” donchaknow?

What will happen to a MAGA-politically correct, Trump-subservient, MAGA-manned, theocracy-subservient, oligarchy-obedient merit-based government agencies?  Economic horror – sexual oppression horror – racist and sexist and misogynist horrors. We become a Trump/MAGA police state.

The revolutionaries are very clear that they hate what America is.  They have been at this for as long as there has been an American democracy thwarting their extremist white supremacist theocratic and oligarchic dictates.  

They will not stop.

But they can be stopped.

Vote.

The Prosecutor take the stage

 

Kamala Harris took the stage last night and accepted the Democratic Party president nomination with enthusiasm, hope, intelligence, and power. She is the Prosecutor and her opponent is the convicted felon (who promises many more crimes to come)

Hers is a commitment to personal freedoms in response to the theocratic threats, and existing accomplishments, by Trump’s MAGA zealots. Women’s personal freedoms have been and will continue to be assaulted by Project 2025 and Schedule F.  Blacks’ voting freedoms have been and will continue to be thwarted by the Supreme Court’s permission for racist voter suppression.  Rural America and all America will have health care denied and prohibitively costly by Big Insurance controlled MAGAs.

Hers is a commitment to growing the middle class, which is how the economy actually grows - demand side economics, not the chimera of Reagan’s supply side economics. When the middle and lower classes have money they spend it on food, shelter, clothing, transportation, vacations, savings - and the economy grows. 

Trump has no answer to Kamala. Just NxxxxR NxxxxR NxxxxR! And, of course communist! Any Democrat is always labeled a socialist, but Trump, in his crude mind doesn’t deal in half measures, he calls her a communist. Dumb shit. 

Thank you Kamala.  Go get ‘em!

The existential threat to America

 I take the Trump police state threat very, very seriously. Trump is not subtle in his threats.  Quotes from a Thomas Edsel article:

“Trump, who does not speak in metaphors, has made it plain: “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath.” This is a time for imagining the worst. Not a single loyal Republican official has objected to that statement or to similar MAGA warnings about an impending civil war....”

“Trump is in the classic dictatorial position: He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent with democracy.”

Tomorrow Kamala Harris will give her acceptance speech for the presidential run. This is not one political idea against the other. This is a fight for the existence of American democracy, and the rule of law, and the Constitutional itself. The other side is an extremist authoritarian police state. 

Vote. 

Trump = Maduro

In Venezuela, Maduro lost 65% to 31%. He claimed that he won with 51% of the vote. A lie. He has arrested about 2000 pro-democracy protesters. This is how autocracy works. We must not let that happen in America. Trump praises Maduro. Of course he does. 

It’s how police states work.  Elections are meaningless shams.  Maduro, Putin, Xi, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cuba, China, etc.  Run by tyrants, not by the rule of law, not by free elections.  There is no common ideology, only the rule of a tyrant that “does whatever the hell he wants” (to quote America’s autocrat in waiting)

There is only one issue on November’s ballot - democracy and the rule of law. 

What do you want to listen to?

 If you want to listen to someone talking about Trump, tune into any talk given by Trump.

If you want to listen to someone talking about America and the future of personal freedoms in America, tune in to any talk by Harris or Walz. 

Duh  

We’re not going back

 We’re not going back

            Say the women

We’re not going back

            Say the blacks

            Say the elderly on Social Security 

            Say the elderly on Medicare

            Say the low-income on Medicaid

            Say the librarians

            Say the gays

            Say the universities

            Say the newspapers 

            Say the environmentalists 

            Say the judges

            Say the FBI

            Say the teachers

            Say the cybersecurity agencies

            Say the fraud prosecutors 

            Say the protected civil service experts

            Say the poll workers

            Say the National Weather Service scientists 

            Say the green energy industries

We’re not going back

             Say Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

We’re not going back

             Say I 

All of these people are being targeted by Trump, Vance, and the extremist Project 2025 and Schedule F. 

We’re taking our freedoms back… We’re taking our power back… How dare anyone try to control our lives and crush our freedoms…. Vote!

Autocrat - “Just do whatever the hell he wants”

 The brilliant Anne Applebaum has been doing deep studies of authoritarian/autocratic/fascistic tyrannies for a number of years and has written " Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World'".  She reveals that the autocrats are not of any particular ideology, but are of a common nature.  Here is her definition as given on the PBS Newshour Thursday, 8/1/2024:

"The autocrat seeks to rule with no checks and balances, no checks on his authority, no judges, no media.  They want to control everything that happens in the State and make all the decisions."  

Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, are the major autocracies in the world but there are many more.

Add The Former Guy to that list of horribles if he gets reelected.  Or, as he defined it so succinctly by exhorting Putin to "Just do whatever the hell he wants".  That about sums up the "philosophy of the Orange Threat” and all of his kindred autocrats around the world.

She also reveals that the autocrats join together in a supportive network to attack and destroy democracy and the rule of law in democracies, with America being the leading target. Why?  Because if democracy exists in the world, forces for democracy and the rule of law are inspired in their own tyrannical countries and they are threatened.  So, they attack and destroy democracy wherever they can.  

American democracy and the rule of law is under attack - not just by The Former Guy and his MAGA Cult, but by Russia, China, and Iran primarily.  They provide propaganda lies and half truths to destroy our free country by attacking our ability to trust science, the news, the experts, the democratic process itself.  They are sophisticated and practiced and very good at undermining human freedoms, as they have succeeded in their own countries and are targeting the rest of us.

Vote, please, in November while your vote still has a chance of being counted.