Autocracy Inc. is on a mission to destroy our democracy

 Anne Applebaum has a 30 minute article, "The Bad Guys are Winning", that is worth the time to read.  The short version is that autocrats are destroying democracy around the world, and in America as well - expertly.  Some key quotes:

 

In Belarus, the vicious authoritarian, Lukashenko, was struggling to deal with an uprising of the people.... "At first, Lukashenko seemed to have no plan either. But his neighbors did. On August 18, a plane belonging to the FSB, the Russian security services, flew from Moscow to Minsk. Soon after that, Lukashenko’s tactics underwent a dramatic change... to “more sophisticated, more controlled ways to repress the population.” Belarus became a textbook example of what the journalist William J. Dobson has called “the dictator’s learning curve”: Techniques that had been used successfully in the past to repress crowds in Russia were seamlessly transferred to Belarus, along with personnel who understood how to deploy them. Russian television journalists arrived to replace the Belarusian journalists who had gone on strike, and immediately stepped up the campaign to portray the demonstrations as the work of Americans and other foreign “enemies.” Russian police appear to have supplemented their Belarusian colleagues, or at least given them advice, and a policy of selective arrests began. 

 

As Vladimir Putin figured out a long time ago, mass arrests are unnecessary if you can jail, torture, or possibly murder just a few key people. The rest will be frightened into staying home. Eventually they will become apathetic, because they believe nothing can change...

 

Lukashenko began to act, in other words, as if he were untouchable, both at home and abroad. He began breaking not only the laws and customs of his own country, but also the laws and customs of other countries, and of the international community... 

 

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.

 

But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services (military, police, paramilitary groups, surveillance), and professional propagandists.  The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another—and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America...Nor does the new autocratic alliance have a unifying ideology. Among modern autocrats are people who call themselves communists, nationalists, and theocrats. 

 

No one country leads this group...the members of this group don’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies—call it Autocracy Inc. Their links are cemented not by ideals but by deals... 

 

"And how different are we? We Americans? We Europeans? Are we so sure that our institutions, our political parties, our media could never be manipulated in the same way?...in 2016..."Russian trolls operating from St. Petersburg sought to shift the outcome of an American election in much the same way they had done in Central Europe, using fake Facebook pages (sometimes impersonating anti-immigration groups, sometimes impersonating Black activists), fake Twitter accounts, and attempts to infiltrate groups like the National Rifle Association, as well as weaponizing hacked material from the Democratic National Committee. 

 

Some Americans actively welcomed this intervention, and even sought to take advantage of what they imagined might be broader Russian technical capabilities. “If it’s what you say I love it,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote to an intermediary for a Russian lawyer who he believed had access to damaging information about Hillary Clinton. In 2008, Trump Jr. had told a business conference that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets,” and in 2016, Russia’s long-term investment in the Trump business empire paid off. In the Trump family, the Kremlin had something better than spies: cynical, nihilistic, indebted, long-term allies."...

 

We need, in other words, to make changes to our own system, and that may require overcoming fierce domestic resistance from the business groups that benefit from it. We need to shut down tax havens, enforce money-laundering laws, stop selling security and surveillance technology to autocracies, and divest from the most vicious regimes altogether. “We” here will need to include Europe, especially the U.K., as well as partners elsewhere—and that will require a lot of vigorous diplomacy. (Please note that Trump likely has a long history of laundering money for the Russians, Saudi Arabians too?)...

 

Autocracy, Inc. includes the countries such as Russia, Belarus, China, Venezuela, Myanmar, Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the American MAGA Cult is ready and willing in the wings, plus of course multiple sources of greed, avarice, and violence.

It's not any political ideology. Thoughts that this is limited to Communist Autocracies or Fascist Autocracies are obsolete.  It's just MONEY AND POWER, MONEY AND POWER, MONEY AND POWER.  And democracy gets killed off, and people are deeply harmed as governments are stripped of any power to stop the autocrats.  

 

Remember the most famous line from Reagan? "Government isn't the solution - government is the problem."  I used to believe that, but not any longer.  Democracy needs to win over autocracy.  Fortunately we have a president who knows that.  Unfortunately, we have a former president and his Cult that did and will fight to establish Autocratic rule in America.  Why?  Not for political purposes or political programs, but just MONEY AND POWER.

 

But we in America can win this essential battle.  We can stop it here, and that victory can travel. We are not alone.  We can't stop this domination and autocracy by pretending it doesn't exist. We need to shine a light, and see what is trying to happen, and stop it. 

 

Goodness and Truth are alive in America and in the world, and those who can see the darkness can insist on the Light, and push the darkness back under fetid little rocks where it belongs - prisons, for example.

The MAGA Cult had stored weapons for an escalation of violence on January 6

There is evidence that the Former Guy's MAGA Cult had a phase two planned for the violent coup attempt on January 6, 2021.  They had stored weapons and ammunition close to the Capitol waiting to deploy them in their military style assault on the Capitol.

 

"According to court documents, at least seven Oath Keepers involved in the events of January 6 stockpiled firearms in a northern Virginia hotel for potential use by a “quick reaction force” on behalf of Trump inside DC. Three others discussed participating in that effort, court filings show." 

More and more evidence is coming out about how very close we came to losing our democracy on January 6.  The coup attempt continues today as the Former Guy continues to falsely claim that the election was stolen, and his Cult move to institute election fraud using the false excuse of voter fraud.  Voter fraud is individuals voting illegally - very few instances, proven over a over again by investigation after investigation.  Election fraud is reducing the number of polling places in Democratic districts, placing "Stop the Steal" fanatics in charge of elections, and establishing powers in Republican dominated states to simply throw out the actual vote count and declare victory for the Republican.

 

Fortunately, he was stopped in 2020 and many of the criminals involved in the attempted coup are arrested and convictions are coming.  As time passes and the foundations are being laid with earlier investigations, those higher up in the planning and execution are likely to be deposed and I hope charged and imprisoned.  

 

Coups are not allowed in America.

Republicans kill the Voting Rights bills

 Republicans killed the Voting Rights bills, of course. They did it by pretending to protect the honor and integrity of the Senate by preserving the unconstitutional filibuster. They know they can’t win elections so they came across a brilliant plan and just keep brown and black and yellow and red people from voting, and viola! they get to keep having White Supremacists “win” elections.  And cut taxes for the rich, and....er, ah, cut taxes for the very rich, and...um, cut taxes for Bezos and Musk, and... oh yes, I forgot cut benefits for the poor, and... cut benefits for the middle class, and... let me see, what else are they for?  

Oh yes, how could I forget? Make America Great AGAIN!  Again like it was in the ‘50s, and ‘30s, and you know, back when blacks knew their place, and browns knew their place, and yellows knew their place, and reds knew their place, and women knew their place, and gays knew their place —— their proper places beneath their superiors, White Men, those most noble and revered of Men, the rightful masters of all those inferior races and sexes.  You know, Real Men who have lots of guns, and camouflage clothes, and body armor, and can scare people and threaten people and, er, um, you know, be really SCARY. top of the heap, kings of the hill, ready to kill.  

Yup.

Really disgusts me.

Democrats should now break up the voting rights into separate, individual bills and force every Senator to vote on each.  Because each has majority support amongst us, the voters. Let’s get this done. 

If Russia invades Ukraine, will China use the distraction to invade Taiwan?

There has long been a danger that the United States could have an armed conflict with either Russia or China.  And the potential for catastrophic escalation would be very real with all sides being nuclear powers.  

 

Russia is making all kinds of false pretenses for invading Ukraine pretending that it is defending itself against a dangerous and aggressive military force of NATO.  Of course NATO was always about defending against Soviet and now Russian invasion, not about invading Russia.  But Putin and his oligarchs are trying to re-establish the Balkan states as part of Russian dominance, just as they were part of the defunct Soviet Union.

 

I have every hope that Russia will see that an invasion would be too costly and turn away, but counting on Putin to soften or act wisely is not a safe bet.

 

But, if Russia invades, will China see that as a sufficient distraction to finally invade and crush Taiwan and officially make it part of China?  Russia has always seen Ukraine as part of Russia and China has always seen Taiwan as part of China.  As I recall, way back in 1960 Kennedy and Nixon debated what to do about defending Formosa (now Taiwan) against Communist Chinese attack.  

 

We have enough on our hands with an uncooperative public about protecting us against COVID and the MAGA cult of violent extremists.  And both Russia and China may be seeing this as an opportune time to take over a neighboring country by force.

 

I hope and pray that they do not try that.

The battle for the Soul of the Nation

Thank you, Mr. President, for your clear and determined speech on this terrible anniversary of the attempted violent overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.  The president made it very clear that the lie that the election was stolen started long before election day (because the Former Guy already knew he would likely lose and the only thing he ever does is make excuses and blame others) and that the lie that the election was stolen continues today. The astonishing thing is that his Cult believes the lie, or at least pretends that they believe the lie.

 

The Biden statement that stands out to me is that he said this is a battle for the Soul of the Nation - whether we are to continue to be a democracy that is run by the rule of law, or an autocracy that is run by the whim of an autocrat.  He campaigned on restoring America's Soul, and that battle continues today as the Former Guy's Cult continues their assault on democracy, assault on decency, and assault on truth.

 

The wonderful historian Jon Meacham wrote an excellent history about the long battle for the Soul of America - "The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels".  A pivotal event was the creation of the myth of the Lost Cause after the Confederate States lost the Civil War.  Edward Pollard wrote a toxic book in 1866 - "The Lost Cause: A New History of the War of the Confederates".  In it he expressed the fundamental cause of the attempted secession - white supremacy.  

 

"The war, he wrote. "did not decide negro equality; it did not decide negro suffrage; it did not decide State Rights...And these things which the war did not decide, the Southern people will still cling to, and assert them in their rights and views...The question was no longer slavery, but white supremacy, which Pollard described as the "true cause of the war" and the "true hope of the South."...An article of faith of the Lost Cause creed was that the North had not outfought or out-generalled the South...rather, because  of the North's overwhelming advantages in manpower and industrial strength...They had resisted Northern forces in battle; now they would defy Northern authority in peace"

 

In other words, like the former president, the ruling whites during the Jim Crow South, and too much of the Republican Party of the South and across the country to this day are entrenched in white supremacy lies - the lie that whites are superior to people of color.  The Lost Cause was and is the Big Lie believed by those who lost the Civil War, and the Stolen Election is the Big Lie believed by those who lost the 2020 presidential election.  

 

The Big Lie Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the votes of people of color, and setting up election officials that can overturn the votes of their states and send electors chosen by them to install a Republican candidate as president.  Completely undemocratic.  Disgusting.

 

Dangerous times, but I believe in the Soul of America.  I believe that truth will prevail in the face of this latest Big Lie by a loser who never takes responsibility but only blames and makes excuses.  I believe that America is better than the authoritarian depravity of the former president and his violent cult.

Biden's outstanding first year economy

 I know that our Republican friends are trying to convince folks that the Biden economy is bad, but it is actually outstanding.

 

Stock market? - The Dow Jones was $31,188.38 on January 20, 2021 when Biden was inaugurated. As of this writing this morning, it is at $36,463.15.  That is a rise of 16.9%.  Spectacular.  Thank you Mr. President.

GDP?  Growth 5.6% adjusted for inflation.  Spectacular.  Thank you Mr. President.

Unemployment?  Down to 4.2%.  Spectacular.  Thank you Mr. President.

Inflation is worrying, but likely mostly due to too much demand for too little goods that have been affected by massive bottlenecks in supply due to the unprecedented world wide pandemic.  Economists are divided, but many think the inflation will subside as the bottlenecks get worked out.  Unfortunately, with the introduction of the latest variant, Omicron, the bottlenecks may persist for some time.  By the way, it seems that oil production seems to be ramping up so oil prices may start to fall, and excessive oil prices are a big part of inflation.

 Bloomberg summed it up, 

 

"America's economy improved more in Joe Biden's first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years."

All of which makes Biden's first year in the White House the standout among the seven previous presidents, based on 10 market and economic indicators given equal weight. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, no one comes close to matching Biden's combination of No. 1 and No. 2 rankings for each of the measures: 

• Gross domestic product (1)
• Profit growth (1) 
• S&P 500 performance (2) 
• Consumer credit (1) 
• Non-farm payrolls (2) 
• Manufacturing jobs (2) 
• Business productivity (2) 
• Dollar appreciation (2) 
• S&P 500 relative performance (2) " 

 Thank you, Mr. President.

 

And, by the way, he also got vaccines into the arms of 60% of Americans.  Tragically, we have a Republican Party who want Biden to fail to defeat COVID so they propagandize against getting vaccinated.  Nauseating.  

 

At any rate, Thank you Mr. President for your stewardship in creating an outstanding economy in your first year of your presidency. 

Cryptocurrency is like a Ponzi Scheme, beware...

I am the victim of a Ponzi Scheme - what looked like a modest conservative investment was a lie, a Ponzi scheme where payout came from money put into the fraudulent company by new investors rather than payout coming from investment returns.  One of the two thieves died and the other is headed to prison.  A long and tedious legal process will return some of my money back, for which I am grateful.

Now I am reading that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are being compared to Ponzi schemes.  They seem to be based on the greater fool principle, get in early and others jump in expecting huge profits because they see earlier folks making huge profits, but the profits are not based on anything other than expectations of more investors (fools).  Like a Ponzi scheme all the money comes from new investors, and  is based on no actual assets. The early ”investors” profit mightily, the rest...well good luck... And if I understand correctly, unlike a Ponzi criminal the cryptocurrency profiteers can’t be tracked down to recover any money. 

I have written earlier that I thought Bitcoin and cryptocurrency had three fatal flaws - they devastate the environment because they use astonishing levels of power for their massive computer arrays, and they are favored by criminals who can hide and launder fortunes because of no financial oversight, and financial folks warned that they were like the exotic Credit Default Swaps that collapsed and almost completely destroyed the world wide financial system. Now I add the warning from some that they are like a Ponzi scheme looking for Greater Fools to enrich the early swindlers. 

The United States is no longer a democracy - it is an anocracy

 I have written many times about how the Republican Party has become an authoritarian fascist party.  22 million Republicans have two beliefs - first that Biden stole the election (he didn't) and second that violence is justified to restore Trump to the White House.  

 

Dana Milbank cites the Center for Systemic Peace's ratings of democracies around the world and they show that the U.S. is now an "anocracy", somewhere between a democracy and an autocratic state:

"U.S. democracy had received the Polity index’s top score of 10, or close to it, for much of its history. But in the five years of the Trump era, it tumbled precipitously into the anocracy zone; by the end of his presidency, the U.S. score had fallen to a 5, making the country a partial democracy for the first time since 1800. “We are no longer the world’s oldest continuous democracy,” Walter writes. “That honor is now held by Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, and then Canada. We are no longer a peer to nations like Canada, Costa Rica, and Japan, which are all rated a +10 on the Polity index.”.

 

I believe we need to be aware of and shine a light on what is happening in our beloved country.  Trump has activated and empowered the worst elements of America, but even if and when he leaves the stage, these authoritarian, fascist people will be here.  The first thing I ever wrote about Trump is that he would go away, but the people who support him will be with us anyhow.

 

I have to trust that the institutions of democracy in America can and will prevail to beat back the revolutionary fascist right wing despots bound and determined to take over the country by force.  But, the institutions of democracy are just paper tigers if we the people do not pay attention and empower them by shining a light on the threats of authoritarianism, and demanding that the Rule of Law and the implementation of informed and non-propagandized democratic values prevail.

We are in a real danger, and an informed, aware, and active nation needs to stand up and demand that the United States return to a full +10 democracy and say no to the ever growing attempts to turn us into an autocracy.

Hope of the world

America used to be the hope of the world - a leader in establishing democracy, being a force for human rights, leading the world in science and technology, and clumsily but persistently trying to improve life for all people. 

 

Then Donald Trump activated the darkest, most bigoted, and most violent parts of the country - white supremacists and white christian nationalists. We have had six years of consistent erosion of dignity, honor, and goodness of our nation.  We are being tested; our goodness is being tested; our decency is being tested; our humanity is being tested.

 

So now, in the time of Christmas coming, I am struck by the deepest meaning of Christmas, to me, the birth of Christ is a symbol of bringing the Light of the Divine into the world. I long ago decided that Jesus is not God made man for the purpose of taking on the suffering of the world to forgive our Original Sin, and the sins that we commit every day.  But I do see Jesus as an inspiration of the Christ Spirit in humankind - the spirit of goodness, and truth, and beauty, and decency, and honor, and transcendence.  A symbol of opening to the Divine to be inspired to be better people.

 

Sadly, so much of Christianity, or more specifically so much of white evangelical nationalist Christianity, has turned away from the gentle goodness of Christ himself, and turned toward the brutal "manhoods" of threatening men with guns.  Christ replaced by images of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.  Cowboys who take the law into their own hands and kill people.  Onward Christian Soldiers, with guns and threats and violence, seems to have become the twisted idea of Christianity.  But...

 

But, the birth of Christ is a symbol of the power of the Divine Inspiration available to us all, and I can take that hope and apply it to my hope that America once again becomes a true hope to the world.

He feared for his family’s safety

Another example of Trump Cult fascism is this scene during the violent attempt to overthrow the government by Republicans:

“On the House floor [on Jan. 6], moments before the vote, Meijer approached a member who appeared on the verge of a breakdown. He asked his new colleague if he was okay. The member responded that he was not; that no matter his belief in the legitimacy of the election, he could no longer vote to certify the results, because he feared for his family’s safety. “Remember, this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of,” Meijer says. “If they’re willing to come after you inside the U.S. Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?” 

Violence is the language of fascism. It is being exposed. Where is the Attorney General? Why aren’t these people in prison?  Fascism is here. 

Our country is better than this. The Justice Department was created in1870 to stop the KKK. It needs to stop today’s versions of the KKK NOW. 

21 million Americans are ready to violently overthrow of the American government

I have been writing for some time that fascist America is here now, not just something that is coming.  Barton Gellman of The Atlantic writes an in-depth study of this - "Trump's Next Coup Has Already Begun" - 12/6/2021. America needs to be very aware of what is happening here.  To read it in full would be good.  This is a longer than normal post, but I feel it is important to document what is happening to our democracy.

 

Some takeaways:

 

• "For more than a year now, with tacit and explicit support from their party’s national leaders, state Republican operatives have been building an apparatus of election theft"
• "Virtually no one a year ago, certainly not I, predicted that Trump could compel the whole party’s genuflection to the Big Lie and the recasting of insurgents as martyrs. Today the few GOP dissenters are being cast out."
• "His deepest source of strength is the bitter grievance of Republican voters that they lost the White House, and are losing their country, to alien forces with no legitimate claim to power."
• He did deep interviews with a man named Patterson - "Does Patterson know that January 6 was among the worst days for law-enforcement casualties since September 11, 2001? That at least 151 officers from the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department suffered injuries, including broken bones, concussions, chemical burns, and a Taser-induced heart attack?  Patterson has not heard these things. Abruptly, he shifts gears. Maybe there was violence, but the patriots were not to blame."
• "His voice rose. “There ain’t no fucking way we are letting go of 3 November 2020,” he said. “That is not going to fucking happen. That’s not happening. This motherfucker was stolen. The world knows this bumbling, senile, career corrupt fuck squatting in our White House did not get 81 million votes.” 
•  ..."a theory called the “Great Replacement.” The term itself has its origins in Europe. But the theory is the latest incarnation of a racist trope that dates back to Reconstruction in the United States. Replacement ideology holds that a hidden hand (often imagined as Jewish) is encouraging the invasion of nonwhite immigrants, and the rise of nonwhite citizens, to take power from white Christian people of European stock. When white supremacists marched with torches in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, they chanted, “Jews will not replace us!” (When I first saw this chant in Charlottesville I was baffled - there are only about 6 million Jews in America, how could they replace these white supremacists?  Naive me.)
• "...Trump had skillfully deployed three classic themes of mobilization to violence, Pape wrote: “The survival of a way of life is at stake. The fate of the nation is being determined now. Only genuine brave patriots can save the country.”
•  January 6, 2020 insurrection - "Yet these insurgents were not, by and large, affiliated with known extremist groups. Several dozen did have connections with the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters militia, but a larger number—six out of every seven who were charged with crimes—had no ties like that at all."
•  “January 6 wasn’t designed as a mass-casualty attack, but rather as a recruitment action” aimed at mobilizing the general population,..."
•  A statistical study to find out who the insurgents were showed a surprising result - Replacement Theory - "Only one meaningful correlation emerged. Other things being equal, insurgents were much more likely to come from a county where the white share of the population was in decline. For every one-point drop in a county’s percentage of non-Hispanic whites from 2015 to 2019, the likelihood of an insurgent hailing from that county increased by 25 percent. This was a strong link, and it held up in every state."  (Replacement Theory is another way of saying Racism) "Trump and some of his most vocal allies, Tucker Carlson of Fox News notably among them, had taught supporters to fear that Black and brown people were coming to replace them."
•  "... just over 8 percent agreed that Biden was illegitimate and that violence was justified to restore Trump to the White House. That corresponds to 21 million American adults. Pape called them “committed insurrectionists."
• "Constitutionally, all the power rests with the people. That’s you and me, bro. And Mao is right that all the power emanates from the barrel of a gun.” (Quote of a Trump Cultist)
  
•  "In nearly every battle space of the war to control the count of the next election—statehouses, state election authorities, courthouses, Congress, and the Republican Party apparatus—Trump’s position has improved since a year ago."
•  "The strategic objective of nearly every move by the Trump team after the networks called the election for Joe Biden on November 7 was to induce Republican legislatures in states that Biden won to seize control of the results and appoint Trump electors instead. ... Electors are the currency in a presidential contest and, under the Constitution, state legislators control the rules for choosing them. Article II provides that each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.... in Bush v. Gore the Supreme Court affirmed that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.” No court has ever said that a state could do that after its citizens have already voted, but that was the heart of Trump’s plan.”
•  "...the Trump team achieved something crucial and enduring by convincing tens of millions of angry supporters, including a catastrophic 68 percent of all Republicans in a November PRRI poll, that the election had been stolen from Trump. Nothing close to this loss of faith in democracy has happened here before."
• And, of course, January 6 saw a violent effort to overturn the election.  "For a few short weeks, Republicans recoiled at the insurrection and distanced themselves from Trump. That would not last."
• 'With Trump loyalists ascendant, no room is left for dissent in a party now fully devoted to twisting the electoral system for the former president. Anyone who thinks otherwise need only glance toward Wyoming, where Liz Cheney, so recently in the party’s power elite, has been toppled from her leadership post and expelled from the state Republican Party for lèse-majesté."
• "Most of all, there is the roaring tide of revanchist anger among Trump supporters, rising up against anyone who would thwart his will. Scarcely an elected Republican dares resist them, and many surf exultantly in their wake"
• "In at least 15 more states, Republicans have advanced new laws to shift authority over elections from governors and career officials in the executive branch to the legislature. Under the Orwellian banner of “election integrity,” even more have rewritten laws to make it harder for Democrats to vote. Death threats and harassment from Trump supporters have meanwhile driven nonpartisan voting administrators to contemplate retirement."
• "The infinite scroll of right-wing social media is relentlessly bloody-minded. One commentator on Telegram posted on January 7 that “the congress is literally begging the people to hang them.” Another replied, “Anyone who certifies a fraudulent election has commited treason punishable by death.”
• "Republicans are promoting an “independent state legislature” doctrine, which holds that statehouses have “plenary,” or exclusive, control of the rules for choosing presidential electors. Taken to its logical conclusion, it could provide a legal basis for any state legislature to throw out an election result it dislikes and appoint its preferred electors instead...Trump is not relying on the clown-car legal team that lost nearly every court case last time. The independent-state-legislature doctrine has a Federalist Society imprimatur and attorneys from top-tier firms like BakerHostetler."
• "There is a clear and present danger that American democracy will not withstand the destructive forces that are now converging upon it. Our two-party system has only one party left that is willing to lose an election. The other is willing to win at the cost of breaking things that a democracy cannot live without."
• And what has been Biden's response? "So: enforcement of inadequate laws, wishful thinking about new laws, vigilance, voter education, and a friendly request that Republicans stand athwart their own electoral schemes....Conspicuously missing from Biden’s speech was any mention even of filibuster reform, without which voting-rights legislation is doomed. Nor was there any mention of holding Trump and his minions accountable, legally, for plotting a coup. Patterson, the retired firefighter, was right to say that nobody has been charged with insurrection; the question is, why not? The Justice Department and the FBI are chasing down the foot soldiers of January 6, but there is no public sign that they are building cases against the men and women who sent them. Absent consequences, they will certainly try again. An unpunished plot is practice for the next." 
  
•  "Democracy will be on trial in 2024. A strong and clear-eyed president, faced with such a test, would devote his presidency to meeting it. " Biden needs to step up.

 

 We need to remember one thing, the currency of fascism is violence and the threat of violence. Already, elected Republicans are voting against their own principles out of fear for the lives of themselves and their loved ones - real death threats. Does anyone think any of this will diminish in 2024?  Trump, and the most violent Trump Cult, needs to be imprisoned by a Justice Department (which was created, by the way, in 1870 to fight the KKK - the same folks under many different names it needs to fight today)

 

 One of my questions is what happens to this white supremacist authoritarian fascist movement if Trump goes away?  Does it need this famous charismatic leader, or will a smarter but perhaps less charismatic person fill the void and the fascist movement continues forward?  How much does the MAGA movement need the MAGA monster?  Was Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Lenin etc needed for their authoritarian dictatorships?  We cant know about Germany and Italy, but China and Russia went on to very long term despotic terror reigns.  Tucker Carlson of Fox News seems to be setting himself up as the White Supremacist Glorious Leader. (Steve Bannon would like to be that but he is too old, fat, ugly, and creepy)

 

It can happen in America.  It is happening in America.  

 

But we are not helpless.  We can shine a light, expose the stench, and win.  But we have to pay attention.  Things are very serious.

There will be blood

 We live in an age of Republican Party sanctioned and encouraged vigilantism. Kyle Rittenhouse, the murder of Trayvon Martin, “stand your ground “ laws, concealed carry laws, etc are all designed to unleash right wing hyper masculine vigilantes on the nation, targeting black and brown people and black and brown protesters. It’s not just the despicable mentally ill Trump. It’s the white supremacist twisted notion of masculinity - guns, violence, cowboy take the law in your own hands masculinity- John Wayne replaces Jesus “christianity”.  

The Rittenhouse verdict guarantees that there will be blood. The vigilante laws want blood. It’s all about putting the libs, the blacks, the browns, the reds, the yellows, the gays, the women back in their places doncha know….

When do we get to use the guns?

Two long time conservatives, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg,  have left Fox News in protest against the network’s top commentator, Tucker Carlson’s, dangerous upcoming propaganda “documentary" that will claim that the January 6 attempt to overthrow the election was actually a “false flag” operation conducted by Lefties to discredit Righties.  This is just as preposterously stupid as the claim by Trump, and aided and abetted by the Right, that the election was stolen and the heroic Trump actually won in a landslide.  (the Lefties tried to overthrow an election that they won? With the help of Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bobbert, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and a host of deplorables?? A claim that is just too stupid to comprehend)

This is the stuff of authoritarian fascist calls to violence.  At a Turning Points USA meeting (pro Trump group) a question arose…

“When do we get to use the guns?”

In America. 

In all likelihood the actual motivation of Carlson and the Republican Party with all of this stolen election, false flag nonsense is to justify overturning election results that go against them.  And if a few people kill others along the way, and end up in prison for a few lifetimes, well, you know, that’s just the way it goes when you do revolutions.

By the way, since The Former Guy may well end up in prison by 2024, is Carlson running for Right Wing Authoritarian King?  He is much smarter than The Former Guy, and is pretty famous, which is all that The Former Guy ever was – famous.

And also by the  way, Rittenhouse got to use his gun, didn't he? Protecting property, don't you know.....................................??

Rittenhouse verdict

The jury has spoken and young Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of murder of two men.  I guess they decided it was self defense.  I wasn't at the trial and I suppose that once he was in a violent situation he got scared and killed folks. And that was the defense ... But he put himself there.  

 

I have not been following the trial much at all, other than a few things.  First, the judge seemed to be pretty anti-prosecution lawyers.  So, OK.  I doubt that the trial will be thrown out.  

 

But, what I really noticed were the photos of this white kid with an assault weapon slung over his shoulder and finger on the trigger guard.  In the middle of a chaotic night.  And ignored by the police at the scene.  What?  

 

 As has been said by many others, imagine if this had been a 17 year old black kid who came across state lines walking down a chaotic street with that weapon.  What would have been his chances of surviving the reactions of the police that night?  How about no chance in hell?

 

 

Republican fascist death threats

 We are living in a time of the violent rise of fascism. Republican Liz Cheney has had her life threatened because she voted to impeach the Former Guy. The thirteen Republicans who voted for the needed infrastructure bill have been under death threats. It is a lie to say that there are extremist equivalents on both the Left and the Right. There are extremists who are inflexible and didactic on the left. But They did not violently try to overthrow the government. They do not run the Democratic Party. They are not issuing death threats to centrist Democrats. 

Liz Cheney- “ We now live in a country where members' votes are are affected because they're worried about their security, they're worried about threats on their lives.”

It has been said that if you wonder what you would have done in Germany in the early thirties, you don’t have to wonder. It is what we are doing now. Pretending it’s not so bad? Ignoring as much as you can and just smell the flowers? Hoping it will just go away? Vote for them anyway because you want tax breaks and deregulation? Shine an exposing light on the horrors trying to rally opposition?  Using as much political, spiritual, and metaphysical energy as you can to bring forth the Light to create a decent, inspiring world?  

Fascist threats of violence are here. Now.  This is unAmerican and unacceptable.  Let’s shine a Light and be a Light  

Finally America passes a good infrastructure bill

 Biden did what the Former Guy couldn't get done - passed a significant infrastructure bill.  What's in it?

 

• Roads
• Bridges
• Rail
• Airports and ports
  
• Transmission power grids
• High speed internet (broadband) in rural and poor areas
• Charging stations
• Water quality
• Environmental cleanup
  
• Weatherization 

About time.

Infrastructure spending is not socialism

 Congress finally passed the Infrastructure Bill.  Benefits us all and grows the economy. Bravo!  But is it socialism? Of course not. Here is an essential understanding of history from the historian Heather Cox Richardson. I present her work as written tonight to honor her and try to educate:

“As soon as the Democrats in the House of Representatives, marshaled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), passed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) by a bipartisan vote of 228–206 last night, Republicans began to say that the Democrats were ushering in “socialism.”

When Republicans warn of socialism, they are not talking about actual socialism, which is an economic system in which the means of production, that is, the factories and industries, are owned by the people. In practical terms, that means they are owned by the government.

True socialism has never been popular in America, and virtually no one is talking about it here today. The best it has ever done in a national election was in 1912, when labor organizer Eugene V. Debs, running for president as a Socialist, won a whopping 6% of the vote, coming in behind Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. True socialism isn't a real threat in America.

What politicians mean when they cry “socialism” in America today is something entirely different. It is a product of the years immediately after the Civil War, when Black men first got the right to vote.

Eager to join the free labor system from which they had previously been excluded, these men joined poor white men to vote for leaders who promised to rebuild the South, provide schools and hospitals (as well as desperately needed prosthetics for veterans), and develop the economy with railroads to provide an equal opportunity for all men to work hard and rise.

Former Confederates loathed the idea of Black men voting. But their opposition to Black voting on racial grounds ran headlong into the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which, after it was ratified in 1870, gave the U.S. government the power to make sure that no state denied any man the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” When white former Confederates nonetheless tried to force their Black neighbors from the polls, Congress in 1870 created the Department of Justice, which began to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan members who had been terrorizing the South.

With racial discrimination now prohibited by the federal government, elite white southerners changed their approach. They insisted that they objected to Black voting not on racial grounds, but because Black men were voting for programs that redistributed wealth from hardworking white people to Black people, since hospitals and roads would cost tax dollars and white people were the only ones with taxable property in the Reconstruction South. Poor Black voters were instituting, one popular magazine wrote, "Socialism in South Carolina."

This idea that it was dangerous for poor working men to have a say in the government caught on in the North as immigrants moved into growing cities to work in the new factories. Like their counterparts in the South, they voted for roads and schools, and northern men of wealth too insisted these programs meant a redistribution of wealth through tax dollars.

They got more concerned still when a majority of Americans began to call for regulation to keep businessmen from gouging consumers, polluting the environment, and poisoning the food supply (milk was preserved with formaldehyde, and candy was often painted with lead paint). Wealthy men argued that any attempt to regulate business would impinge on a man's liberty, while an army of bureaucrats to enforce regulations would cost tax dollars and thus would mean a redistribution of wealth from men of means to the poor who would benefit from the regulations.

Long before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia brought the fears of a workers' government to life, Americans who opposed regulation insisted that their economy was under siege by socialists. That conviction did indeed lead to a redistribution of wealth, but as regular Americans were kept from voting, it went dramatically upward, not down.

Regulation of business and promotion of infrastructure is not, in fact, the international socialism today’s Republicans claim. According to Abraham Lincoln, who first articulated the principles of the Republican Party, and under whom the party invented the American income tax, the “legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves---in their separate, and individual capacities.” Those things included, he wrote, “public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.”

Running against the Former Guy only works against the Former Guy

The Democrat, McAuliffe, lost to the Republican, Younkin, in the Virginia Governor's race - 51 -48%.  (Please note that there are no hysterical and ludicrous screams of a "stolen election")

 

Three things that I note.  First, the main focus of the McAuliffe campaign seems to have been to tie Younkin to the Former Guy.  Didn't work.  The Former Guy was and is a hateful, toxic personality, but Republicans like to vote for Republicans, especially if they are not hateful, toxic personalities.  So it is fine to make some mention of the Former Guy, I guess, but you need to have your campaign be about something much more real about yourself and your opponent and your vision of the future.

The second thing is that we live in tribes, centered primarily on personal and tribal identity, and the Reps are enraged by Dems trying to enforce Dem tribal values on them - mandating vaccines and teaching about racism for example.  Terrifyingly, a substantial percentage of Reps are white supremacists, so what to do?  I think the Dems are best campaigning on positive visions that include justice and equality and do their best not to make those who think of themselves as unbiased as being under the accusation of racism.  Deal with racism in policy, not in a campaign.  Campaign on other visions.

 

Push for policies of social justice, but for goodness sake DO NOT RUN ON DE-FUNDING THE POLICE.  Police reform is great, but it should not be about de-funding.  Re-direct funds to specially trained social worker/enforcement officers to deal with the mentally ill of the homeless, deal with social issues of domestic disturbance, etc. - that should be a welcome relief for the police to be able to be rid of dealing with mental issues and deal instead with real crime.  We all know we need the police.  Reps especially seem to be sensitive to the threat of crime.  Don't attack the police in campaigns.  

My big takeaway is Dems need to love their progressive wing, and encourage their ideas, but do not run as a radical lefty unless you are in a 40% safe Dem district.  And then, do not try to take over the Democratic Party once elected - you don't have the votes outside of left wing enclaves.  Take what wins you can and stop trying to force a view that gets votes only in the most left wing districts.