It's over, unless...

 Joe Biden will not be president in 2025. It’s over. An old, old man struggling to remember a bunch of stuff he had tried to memorize. Scared old man. I could watch only about ten minutes. It was excruciating.

I need to say the obvious - BIden was a good president but a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible campaigner. There is too much at stake to be polite.

Dear Lord, please send Joe wisdom, and courage and to anyone who can tell the president Thank You, and your Time is Up...Please....

I’m 80, but cognitively I’m 20 years younger than dear Joe. All Trump had to do was seem Manly and sound Confident while he spewed the lies of his stump speech.

We need an intervention. Maybe the future of the world is up to Jill.

Time for magic and the Goodness of America to intervene.

What is Project 2025 and Schedule F?

 Trump is just the convenient battering ram for the right wing extremists' plans to completely change America into a nation run by Theocrats and Oligarchs - for  democracy and rule of law to be destroyed.  John Oliver on Last Week Tonight did a brilliant expose of this terrible possible future.  Here are some of my highlights from his talk.

PROJECT 2025; (A 900 page plan to remake America by the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, and about 100 extremist "conservative" organizations)

• Dismantle the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) - because they reveal the science of Global Warming and Climate Change
• Defund the Department of Justice (keep the law off the backs of oligarchs, fraudsters, and racists)
• Dismantle the FBI (same as DOJ)
• Eliminate the Department of Education (mustn't teach our racist history)
• Eliminate Head Start (helping poor, and colored, children)
• Outlaw birth control and all abortion in the country
• Outlaw and imprison pornography and pornographers (an endless fixation of the religious extremists)
• Establish the Unitary Executive Theory of government - (completely ignore Congress, impound money from all government agencies the President doesn't like, do "whatever the hell the president wants")
• Put the Right People into all aspect of the Federal Government - how? Schedule F:

SCHEDULE F: government employees are in two categories - those merit based workers, scientists, medical, engineers, etc. who have Civil Service Protection  - cannot be fired for political reasons (about two million people); and Political Appointees (about 4000 people) who are replaced every new administration

• The extremist MAGAs are reclassifying 50,000 people from protected merit based civil servants, and are advertising for volunteers - what is the first question the applicants are asked?
• Did Joe Biden steal the 2020 election!!!!!!!
• This will cause a massive exodus of expertise from all government agencies as the experts are purged and the remainders are reporting to extremist loyalists who are pretty clearly guaranteed to be incompetent politicos and not expert in the field of their appointments.

So, if you are a multi-billionaire this is what you want - get rid of those pesky laws and lawyers and scientists that keep you from befouling the environment or who keep you from your fraudulent business greed and avarice.

And if you are a White Supremacist Christian Nationalist this is what you want - get rid of those pesky laws and lawyers and teachers and librarians and women and black people and brown people and yellow people and red people who keep you from imposing your own racist and puritanical dogma on the land.

Beyond these horrors, we have the demented ravings of Trump himself, of course:

• Mass deportations of immigrants
• Put the U.S Military at the southern border for Fortress America
• Require local police to stop and frisk
• No funding for schools with mask or vaccine mandates
• 10% tariffs on all imports (tax what you buy)
• Revenge on Trump "enemies"
• Elimination of medical support for trans people

Welcome to the Putinization/Stalinaization/Nazification of America.  

This is not a joke.  And America is much better than these horrors.  All we need to do is see it, pay attention, and keep it from happening.

A life on our planet - David Attenborough

 David Attenborough is an international treasure. In this, which I think was meant to be his summary of seven decades of showing us the natural world, he shows us the beauty and the tragedy of nature. I felt utter  hopelessness, followed by reason to hope. Such an important documentary. 

As he said, the catastrophic changes he has seen in the span of his single life have been enormous. But the changes to come in a lifetime of one born today will make what has happened seem minor in comparison. 

Unless we change. Not because we’re good or wise, but because we must. Our planet will become unlivable unless we perceive it differently: see the wild world as our partner in creating a world that embraces us as we embrace it. 

Worth a rewatch, or a watch if you haven’t already. 

Two Existential fights for America

It seems to me that both the Democrats and Republicans see this 2024 election as an Existential War - if the wrong side wins, the very existence of America will be destroyed.

The MAGAs see this as a battle between a "Godly" and a "Godless" nation.

The Democrats (and many appalled former Republicans") see this as a battle between Democracy and Authoritarian Theocratic despotism.

It seems to me that the MAGA Theocratic extremists are terrified of any sexuality that is not inside a marriage of one man and one woman - homosexuality, transgender, abortion, birth control, pornography, etc.  It must seem to them that "God" will surely Smite the Nation if such debauchery is allowed to persist.  (Sodom and Gamorah don'cha know)

And the Republican Oligarchy has long crusaded for unfettered and unregulated Big Business - pollution, environment be damned - full maximum profits ahead!

To Democrats, it is very clear that Trump is promising to end the Rule of Law, and end Democracy (end the democratically elected Republic).  Why do I think that?  Trump has promised to use "his" Department of Justice to unleash maximum punishment on all those who have offended him - judges, prosecutors, witnesses, juries, news organizations that tell the truth he doesn't want us to hear, former Cabinet Members who have confessed that Trump is Stupid, Ignorant, a Moron, Unfit, etc. etc. etc.  

And Trump is clearly intending to be president beyond the 2024 election.  He has a lot of helpers to show him how to do this, starting with his actual boss, Vladimir Putin and including by a multitude of MAGA extremists.  I take him at his word.

MAGA extremists are very clear that they are fully intending to get rid of Democracy and install a Theocracy - the greatest violation of the First Amendment that I can think of.  Supreme Court Justice Alito - and his rabid wife - have clearly stated that America is going to be either a "godly nation" or a "godless nation".  Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, has promised to end contraception, criminalize gay sex and marriage, end pornography, etc all in accord with his extremist Catholic dogmas.  

To the Christian extremists "Godly" can mean only one thing - Christian - not Muslim, not Jewish, not Morman, not Buddhist, not Hinduism, not Sikhism, not Taoism, not Native American religions, not New Age spiritualities - Christian and only Christian.  (By the way, pretend that they win and establish America as a "Christian Nation", which of the many Christian religions will win out?  Didn't the first arrivals on the shores of America come to flee the persecutions of competing Christian faiths? Might we not reasonably expect violent rages between the various "One True Faiths"?)

Thanks to the extremist anti-democracy Supreme Court of Justice Roberts, we see MAGA fanatics establishing a new "Jim Crow" America where, golly gee, who would have guessed, black folks just seem to have a tougher and tougher ability to vote, just like the Jim Crow South that had no actual democracy for almost a century.  The Jim Crow folks already know how to make sure that only the Right People (white Christian men primarily) actually get to have their votes counted. This disgraceful Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of the Civil Rights Movement, and as fully expected, the former Confederate states have already severely restricted black voting in their ever-racist states. 

By the way, it will not only be blacks and browns and yellows and reds who will find it more and more difficult to vote, WOMEN are big, big, big targets as well for the MAGA fierce desire to control. At the heart of the MAGA movement, I believe, is a fear and hatred of feminine power.  To the Theocrats, women are supposed to be like the Alabama Senator, Katie Britt, an obedient housewife and mother dedicated to spending her life supporting her superior husband and proclaiming to all how blessedly happy they are (nothing wrong with choooooooosing to be a mother and housewife - let women choooooooose - something that terrifies White Supremacist Christian men).

The Constitution is on the side of a democratically elected Republic and a country free from the tyranny of religion.  The Founders wrote it down.  

This should not be hard to figure out.

I believe in the goodness of America.  I believe this sad and dangerous episode of America will be defeated and will fade into one of the dark times of American history - it should never be forgotten, and never be repeated.  But, of course, the history of America has always been about the choice Americans have had to make between "All Men are Created Equal" and "Don't worry, we superior men will take charge, don't worry your pretty little heads, just go smell the roses, we'll take care of everything."

Barf.

Crime is down, bigly!

In case you didn't know, compared to January through March 2023, data from the first quarter of 2024 indicates that reported violent crime decreased by 15.2 percent.

• Murder decreased by more than 26%
• Rape is down 25.7%
• Robbery is down 17.8%
• Aggravated assault reports are down 12.5%
• Property crime is down 15%

This is reported by Newsbreak and includes data from 18,000 city, county, state, tribal, university, and college, and federal law enforcement agencies.   

This will not be shown in the Right Wing Propaganda media, of course. 

Order fighting Chaos vs Personal Freedom fighting Tyranny

 Once upon a time, not that long ago, the political divide in America was Liberal vs Conservative, Socialism vs Capitalism, Big Government vs Limited Government.  Oh, such a golden age of political disagreement - Those quaint divisions have faded into the mists of the memories of old folks still trying to see the world through obsolete perspectives.

The real chasm now, it seems to me, is between those, like MAGA "Republicans", who see the world as divided between order fighting against chaos - and they choose order - the strong, patriarchal "strong man" Stern Father Figure - discipline, police, laws that outlaw chaos and especially laws that outlaw what they see as debauchery and licentiousness.  They are terrified of sexuality, the sexual freedoms of the Womens' Movement, the Gay Movement. They can't stand homosexuality, transgender, abortion, birth control, pornography.  And they believe only white Christian men should have votes that count -  and do all they can to limit voting by "inferior" races and "inferior" genders.  They are driven to a form of madness when they see any kind of human being that doesn't fit their image of Real Manhood (John Wayne and Clint Eastwood cowboys, Mafioso Dons, old time football violence, cage fighters, etc...).  To them it is time to put Real Men back in charge of this world, just like it Used To Be (hahahahaha).  They want Authoritarian Control to stamp out personal freedoms that they see as nothing but chaos and sin. That is, undo the last half century of hard-fought personal freedoms. Sigh.

On the opposite side are those like myself who see America as divided between personal freedom fighting against dictatorial control of any lives that are different from some imaginary way of "virtuous" and ”manly” and "biblical" living.  So, any deviation from the top-down domineering white supremacist "Righteous" Christian man, who makes all the rules, and who will use any excuse to crush the personal freedoms of women, of gays, of sexuality, of religious freedoms, of any personal choices that frighten the white male Christian hierarchy.  These freedoms are too precious and fought too hard to abandon.

The Red Tribe wants the authoritarian Strong Daddy iron fisted, punishing rule.  Crush the satanic immorality of the last half century.

The Blue Tribe want the personal freedom to choose the living of the lives of their own choices and decisions - get the damned theocratic government out of our bedrooms and out of our voting booths.

As a sidebar, perhaps just as important, the Blue Tribe is deeply dedicated to meeting the challenges of dealing with Climate Change and Global Warming vs the Red Tribe wanting to pretend that what was OK half a century ago and a century ago is just fine today as well, just let the Real Men do whatever the hell they want.

The world, as Dylan wrote half a century ago, is a changin' and one side is trying to stop it - a doomed attempt, but a dangerous one.

It’s democracy vs MAGA extremists

 This election, from President to Congress to State offices to judgeships, is a contest between Americans vs MAGA extremists. Or better said, between those trying to preserve democracy and the rule of law vs those trying to impose authoritarianism and rule of tyranny.

I know the right-wing extremist media bubble is constantly shouting that they are the Real Americans, the real upholders of the Constitution, the real Enforcers of law. 

But it was Trump and his extremist MAGA base that attacked the Capital on January 6, 2021; it was they who beat the police; it was they who brought weapons and had a strike force with thousands of rounds of ammunition waiting in nearby hotels awaiting the command of their El Duce to attack.  

It was and is the MAGA faithful planning threatening para-military forces to surround the polls in November to intimidate Democratic voters. It is they who have closed multiple polling places in black and brown communities; it is they who want to outlaw early voting and vote by mail - so they can force people to the voting booths on election day which will have intimidating white threatening poll watchers; it is they who are doing their best to turn our country into the second coming of the Jim Crow South.   It is they who support and praise their lifelong corrupt leader who has been caught in multiple frauds, crimes, and thefts. 

My heart hurts for these people who have been so conditioned to think these outrageously anti-democratic acts are actually forms of patriotism and love of country.  Oh my.

And it is the MAGA Despot who already claims the election is being and will be rigged against him. And it is he who will call for and direct violence when he loses. I deeply hope that very, very few will be so deluded as to head his call.

But I believe that enough of America is wise to the sham, the scam, the threats, the emptiness of Trump and of MAGA itself. They have been conditioned to only hate, do violence, make threats, seek revenge - old worn-out Culture War sputtering. I think they are played out. 

I think America will turn away from the ever more deteriorating expressions of The Former Guy.

Accusations that are confessions and promises

 Trump is saying that Biden used the Department of Justice to prosecute Trump.  That is a promise of what he will do to Biden if we are cursed with a Trump White House.

Trump is accusing Biden to be the head of the Biden Crime Family.  That is a confession of Donald being the head of the Trump Crime Family (using the office to be bribed by foreign countries by staying and playing in Trump properties - Son in Law Kushner getting a $2 BILLION "investment" in his "hedge fund" - stealing classified documents and perhaps selling them to Russia? Saudi Arabia? Hamas? China?) 

The accusations are endless and hard to keep track of, but the simple rule of thumb is that whenever Trump accuses others, he is actually confessing to his own crimes.  Or he is promising to commit these crimes if he returns to office.

Disgusting, ugly little man.

America is so much better than this lifelong criminal and his sadly deluded cult.