Then – the “greatest generation” endured 16 years of Great Depression and World War II.
Now – the “wimpiest generation” rebels at enduring 16 months of masks and vaccines.

Then – Americans stormed Normandy and Iwo Jima beaches fighting fascism.
Now – the wimpiest generation storms stores and school board meetings fighting democracy.

Then – White and Black Americans demonstrated in streets in favor of civil rights for all.
Now – racists punch out “Chinese” and demonstrate against civil rights for all.

Then – Mount Rushmore built to honor America’s greatest presidents.
Now – one of America’s worst presidents is “honored” by continuing “The Great Lie.”

Then – Teddy Roosevelt’s Rushmore plaque” “We, here in America, hold in our hands the hopes of men..and shame and disgrace will be ours..if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men.”
Now – American democracy is sinking in world rankings; friends world-wide fear what has become of the once great light…..as we…”..trail in the dust the golden hopes of men.”

Then – August 28, 1963, over 200,000 Americans gather peacefully in Washington to hear the “I Have A Dream” speech.
Now – January 6, 2021, several thousand “patriotic tourists” gather at their leader’s call to overturn a presidential election, trash the Capitol building, injure 150 law enforcement officers.

The – Social Security, labor rights laws, feeding the hungry, G.I. Bill, Eisenhower’s freeway system, Medicare passed, honoring the Constitution’s “promote the general Welfare.”
Now – reverse Robin Hood l980s, 2000s, 2017 tax cuts for wealthy and corporations; voter suppression bills sabotage the promotion of the general Welfare.

Then – ordinary people, working in a grocery store, earned enough money for private college tuition.
Now – ordinary people can’t earn enough money for state college tuition, graduate with big debts.

Then – after “the Peace of Detroit,” labor and management agreed to share America’s wealth, leading to the world’s first mass middle class prosperity – the envy of the world.
Now – the top 1% rebelled against the very idea of sharing America’s wealth, leading to one of the world’s greatest economic inequalities.

Then – we once walked and biked everywhere without fear; fights were fistfights.
Now – nowhere in America is safe, guns outnumber people – the result of libertarian laws and court decisions.

Then – American society and economy were built on “stakeholder rights” – citizens, workers, consumers, management had EQUAL rights
Now – American economy [thus society] built on primacy of “shareholder rights” – stock holders, hedge funds, Wall Street – come first. Main street gets the leftovers.

Then – “health care’ was your family doctor; hospitals run by communities and churches as a service; first “health insurance” designed to NOT make money.
Now – “medicine” has been “financialized”; your “benefits” determined by “your” health insurance company; health care is on Wall Street; bankruptcy by health care bills is #1.

Then – sports stadiums of all kinds named after WW I vets [Memorial Stadium], local leaders, team owners [real people!]
Now – sports stadiums of all kinds named after corporations [part of their ubiquitous P.R. campaigns]

Then – because of mass prosperity, America was home to the world’s happiest people, envied world-wide.
Now – the “Happiest People on Earth’ live in Scandinavian social democracies; Americans are some of the world’s most unhappy and stressed-out people

Then – America and Allies won World War II in part because America was home to “the Arsenal of Democracy”; fascist powers were buried under a flood of American products
Now – after “outsourcing” millions of ‘American’ jobs and relocating ‘American” industries [in search of ever greater “shareholder value”], America is at the mercy of the new Nazi Germany at the end of a long “supply chain”

Then – the top 1% used to sit among us, in “box seats,’ waited in food lines with us.
Now – the top 1% has luxury boxes built in to multi-billion dollar “entertainment venues,’ with their own food, lavs, parking areas. They can separate themselves from us both psychologically and physically.

Then – the “Progressive Era” and “New Deal” era [1933-65] deliberately created an America that honored “..all Men are created equal..with certain unalienable Rights..Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Now – since 1970, deliberate efforts to sabotage this, to restrict freedom and prosperity to only a select few [top 1%] have successfully destroyed the American arc [1789-1970] toward equal rights and prosperity for ALL.

Then – a deliberate effort to create a society based on “the rule of law [for all]”; an ever increasing effort to create a society of fairness and equal opportunity – by rules,
Now – a deliberate effort, 1970-202X to. CHANGE. THE. RULES. Rules have been changed by legislatures and courts. Money rules America, made possible by Supreme Court decisions, capped by infamous “Citizens United” [enabling money laundering] – through “free speech,” billionaires BUY more “free speech” than YOU.
The end result – two “countries” – the rich who’ve bought theirs, the lower 90-95% who live in the “country” the rich think You “deserve>”. Two systems of “justice;” of jobs-income-wealth-status; of living standards; two educational systems [elite private education for them]; two medical systems [world’s finest for them; two “nations” of dignity and hope.

THINK!!! Follow the money. WHY is it, with ordinary workers getting raises – they’re still falling behind in “inflation”??? WHO. is getting the money? WHO. is fighting the existence of worker unions? WHY. did ordinary people do best in the 1950s – at the height of labor unions??? WHY. is it, that as labor union membership has dropped – SO HAS THE ORDINARY WORKER”S “buying power”???
See for yourself – find unpsun IRS income data from 1945-1979, then find unspun IRS data from l980-2022. IT will show you [Mother Jones, March/April, 2011] the top 1% is ROBBING YOU of about $10-11,000 every year.
We can have democracy, or we can have rule by billionaires. But – we can’t have both at the same time. Wake up. “Follow the money” – Watergate’s “Deep Throat.” True then. True now.

With between 1/4 and 1/2 American “adults” saying January 6, 2021, events – that millions watched live, the Pentagon said was “insurrection,” that injured 150 police, that trashed the Capitol – did NOT really happen as portrayed by world wide mainstream media – we’re at the point whether “the United States” will remain “united.”

Kurt Andersen’s “Fantasyland”: “We have passed through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. America has mutated into Fantasyland>” Kakutani’s “The Death of Truth”: “We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted..” People are reading and rereading Orwell and Arendt; “What Orwell Didn’t Know,” “Twilight of Democracy,” “Surviving Autocracy,” “Authoritarian Nightmare,” books on fascism and tyranny.

The Founders believed freedom of speech and press enabled Americans to discuss. They didn’t consider there’d be more than one definition of “truth,” or the “alternative facts” rabbit hole. Without belief in unspun truth – as in “smoking gun” [unedited] videos – it might be over forAmerica.
In 1974, an American president resigned when confronted by members of his party with “smoking gun” evidence. In 2021-202X American Fantasyland, “smoking gun”evidence – in many forms – is no longer enough. If some “believe” their “trusted sources” say a “witch hunt” by demonic “enemies of freedom” – then what the rest of the world sees/believes is not valid. They “know” the “real truth.”

In 1787 Philadelphia, at the Constitutional Convention’s end, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic, or a monarchy?” Franklin’s response: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
THE 2022 question: do enough Americans WANT. to keep it?????

In “A Republic, If You Can Keep IT,” former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren: “It seems clear to me..democratic rights, privileges, freedoms..-can survive only as long as those who exercise them do so in an informed and conscientious manner. History offers many examples of experiments in democracy that perished when the people. because of the kind of ignorance that encourages indifference, neglected the obligations of citizenship.”
The number one “obligation” is finding real, unspun, truth. President Gerald Ford: “Truth is the glue that holds government together.” Lenin: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” Hitler: Belief is harder to shake than knowledge.”
Propaganda master, Joseph Goebbels, if he is able, must be excited by the 2021 “Reichstag Fire” in Washington. Goebbels” masterpieces didn’t have to fight video evidence>. The 1/6/21 BIG LIE surpasses anything he tried.

IF the members and supporters of one political party continue insisting 1/6/21 was “just a tourist’s misadventure” – it might be over. No democracy [America?] can survive 1/4 to 1/2 its “adults” accepting and promoting such Orwellian tale, despite overwhelming evidence.
This same party passed undemocratic voter restriction laws “ensuring election integrity” [Orwell!], enabling its politicians to negate votes [Stalin: counting votes!], is becoming MORE fascist [14 characteristics!]; insists loss by 7 million votes constitutes a “stolen election” [without proof!]. Are. YOU. concerned? If not, it IS over.

In his 2007, “Broken Government,” John Dean ended with a quote from “a lifelong Republican” who twice voted for Bush & Cheney, because he knew them personally: “Just tell your readers..you have a source who knows a lot about the Republican Party from long experience..knows all the key movers and shakers..has a bit of advice: People should not vote for ANY Republican, because they’re dangerous, dishonest, and self-serving.. I have come to realize the Democrats really do care about people who most need help from government; Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help. The government truly is broken..another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years, under Republicans and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.” Those words were confirmed, 2017-2021.

Several other former Republican operatives have written things like this: “The current Republican Party should be burned to the ground>”. A 25-year key elections operative wrote his expose on the Republican Party thus: “It Was All A Lie.”

In the last 20 years, we’ve had Lifton’s “Losing Reality”; MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains [The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan For America]”: Stanley’s “How Fascism Works [The Politics of US and Them]”: Levitsky & Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die”: Yang’s “The War on Normal People”: Frances’ “twilight of american sanity”; Stewart’s “The Power Worshippers’: Mayer’s “Dark Money [The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right]”; double Pulitzer winners Bartlett & Steele’s “The Betrayal of the American Dream”: Pulitzer winner Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”: Frank’s “The Wrecking Crew [How Conservatives Rule]”; Anderson’s “One Person, No Vote [How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy]”; Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution [How Corporations Are Remaking America One State At A Time]”; Andersen’s “Evil Geniuses [The Unmaking of America]”.

These books are “the tip of the iceberg.” There are monthly magazines like “Mother Jones” and “The Atlantic” that discuss the last 40 years’ BIG LIES. A MUST read”Barton Gellman’s “January 6 Was Practice” article in Jan/Feb, 2022 The Atlantic. It contains SPECIFIC documentation on what the Trump team is planning for 2021-2024: the hollowing out of the ENTIRE American electoral system – using the outdated Electoral College weaknesses, replacing ANY honest elections officials, allowing state legislatures to throw out valid votes, etc. This is a. MUST Read, if you care.

For perspective: check unspun IRS income data, 1947-79 – versus – l980-2022 [consensus: the top 1% has STOLEN about $10,000 EVERY year from the bottom 90%]. The U.S. national debt, 1789-1980, was less than $1 trillion on January 1 1981. Reagan, Bush II, Trump reverse Robin Hood tax cuts blew up the debt – every one of them a BIG LIE. Check buying power for the “average” worker: DOWN since 1973. Check WHO moved “American” jobs “south,” first to “right to work’ [for less!] states, then to Mexico, then to anywhere on earth to escape taxes, regulations, fair wages.

The 2016-202X BIG LIES are only the latest in a 40-year string. BUT – the 1/6/21 BIG LIE is special. This is THE TEST. Believe this fairy tale – it is over. This one is different, it struck at the very heart of any democracy: an election. It was/is special because: the overt part happened live; special because confessions of WHY they were there, guilty pleas; because 150 police were injured trying to protect American democracy; because, for the first time in America, the loser [by 7 million votes!] instigated a COUP attempt – a coup attempt still being fleshed out with more evidence.

For additional perspective, read two articles. Lynn Schmidt’s “Yes, Jan. 6 really was a big deal” [1/6/2022; St. Louis Post-Dispatch]. Pay attention to what Republicans are trying to do at local and state levels. “It’s the counting stupid.” Soviet dictator Stalin: “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.”!!!!!
Read Trudy Rubin’s “Foreign friends and adversaries believe U.S. power is in decline” [1/6/22; Philadelphia Inquirer]: “..has shaken our allies’ faith in America’s future…’Trump has handed authoritarians such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping a huge gift: a United States divided, internally preoccupied, and contradicting its own democratic ideals’..”

In the last 40 years a huge alternative network and universe has been created on the political-economic-social-religious right. Their stated goal: create a plutocratic theocracy. They have unlimited financial resources. Former employees of a reactionary billionaire said his goal was to crush the one thing that could control him: the federal government. One leading fundamentalist “Christian” wanted a strict Calvinist system in which the death penalty applied to adultery, blasphemy, astrology, homosexuality, striking a parent, women not virgins at marriage.

January 6, 2021, was “a big deal” for actions, but more so, for what the end goal was: to acquire the power to radically change America – to a plutocratic theocracy. The plans for this have been confessed, often in print. People behind this have been working “the long game” for 50 years. A major goal: rewriting the rules – legal, economic, political>. As YOU. read this – it is going on RIGHT NOW, maybe in the state where YOU. live.

Yes – all this sounds like fiction. Remember, the German Jews in the early 1930s said, no, it can’t happen here, Germany is too civilized. Then remember this: the first top 1%/corporate coup against a Democratic president happened in 1933 [Feb. 15, 1935 McCormack-Dickstein Committee report]. Remember “American” corporations supported the Nazis before and DURING WW II [Higham]. Remember an “American” corporation’s technology was used by the Nazis to run their empire – that company received payoffs DURING WW II [Black]. Remember “American” companies did NOT pull out of Hong Kong after China violated a treaty.

How this infamous episode ends is up to. YOU, dear friends. If. YOU don’t care enough to keep the American democratic republic experiment going – IT. WON’T. Accept these BIG LIES. means YOU. don’t care.
The perps behind the plan to steal. YOUR. country. are betting you’ll be too confused [the Fox propaganda network]; too apathetic to stop them. Are they right?

“..the consummate..most characteristic feature of..the Nazi art of language..the real achievement – and here Goebels is the undisputed master – …lies in the most abruptly antithetical leaps from a learned tone to a proletarian one, from sobriety to the tone of the preacher, from icy rationalism to the sentimentality of a manfully repressed tear, from Fontane’s simplicity, and Berlin gruffness, to the pathos of the evangelist and prophet…- like an alternating cold and hot showers…Goebels’ listeners [Goebels’ audience always comprises listeners] never comes to rest..there is no time for critical reasoning..” [Klemperer – “The Language of the Third Reich”]

“..one of the enduring paradoxes of Trump’s presidency has been the upsetting and contradictory nature of his language..language in the era of Donald Trump seems less about describing reality than about thick-fingered manipulation..Language has been repeatedly enlisted tp produce and fortify Trump’s reality…Donald trump is somehow using language – from word choice to less obvious interactional oscillations – to enlist members of the public in his distortions..” [ McIntosh & Mendoza-Denton: “Language in the Trump Era” ]

“Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in shapes of your own choosing.” [George Orwell – “1984” ]

“In post-truth politics, the factual accuracy of words..weigh less than the ability of words to animate voters…The acceptability of political arguments comes down to who makes the argument [which group do they belong to?] rather than..strength of facts, evidence, and reasoning that support the argument [the merits of their policies]. The demagogue presents “our” situation as dire and the truth as simple to grasp, while emphasizing the threats that “we” [the ordinary people] face at the hands of the out-groups…’I alone can fix it.'” [Hodges: “When Words Trump Politics” ]

“Be alert to the use of the words of extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.” [Timothy Snyder: “On Tyranny,” chapter 17}

Jonathan Glover, in his “Humanity a moral history of the 20th century,” discusses some of that era’s authoritarian regimes and concepts. Among them: “Tribalism, The Tribal Trap”; “Belief and Terror: Stalin and His Heirs,” “Belief: Ends and Means,: “The Working of the Belief System”; “The Will to Create Mankind Anew: The Nazi Experiment,” “Obedience and Conformity,” “The Willingness to Believe.” We see some of the terror, of the “thought reform” these “utopias” forced on their populations. The use of language. The “weaponizing of words.”

“..Nazism permeated the flesh and blood of the people through single words, idioms and sentence structures..imposed on them in a million repetitions…Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic..swallowed unnoticed..and then..the toxic reaction sets in..” [Klemperer} Words – like tiny doses of arsenic….the “weaponizing of words.”

“..the sheer repetition of Trump’s lies might give him a certain cognitive sway over those who listen faithfully..Trump’s repetition of lies, or even mocking aliases..circulated continuously on social media and some press outlets, can literally change how his followers view the social world..George Orwell predicted that authoritarian lies can stick for a different reason: They simply wear you down.” [McIntosh & Mendoza-Denton]. Weaponizing words.

Andrew Sullivan’s “The Conservative Soul” quotes Bruce Bawer on fundamentalism: “There’s no more gray. You’re separated from this world and at the same time inhabiting an unseen world, in which you’re fighting an unseen battle against an unseen Enemy. That’s what fundamentalism is all about: the Enemy.” NO. MORE. GRAY.

the ENEMY. Authoritarian movements MUST have an Enemy. The Enemy may be described in different terms, but it is made very clear WHO he is. There were at least six badges in Nazi concentration camps: “criminals,” “politicals.” homosexuals, “anti-socials,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews. Stalinism and Maoism murdered at least 20 million “disloyal” people each

The Nazis “wanted not only to segregate the Jews, but also to “defame’ [diffamieren]” them. One method..was use of jargon..a distortion of the German language and to sound coarse and ugly…it is rare to come across the word ‘Jew’ from either Hitler or Goebels without its being accompanied by such adjectives as gerissen [cunning], listig [wily], betrugerisch [deceitful], feige [cowardly]..krumnasig [hook-nosed]…parasitar [parasitic]..” [Klemperer]

“Trump’s hateful speech parallels the propaganda of some of the most reviled 20th and 21st century fascists…With the backing of his base, Trump feels emboldened to describe certain non-White social groups as if they are less than human. Mexicans are ‘rapists’..Muslims are ‘terrorists’..African immigrants come from ‘shitholes’…”
We also suggest it is instructive to compare DT’s anti-immigrant discourse to Hitler’s discourse demonizing his Jewish compatriots. In the 1930s, the Nazis fabricated a myth that played to the fears of the majority. They scapegoated Jews, blaming them for all the nation’s problems and calling them “a dangerous bacillus” [germs] or “rats” whose very nature is “shrewd’ and ‘criminal”…” [McIntosh & Mendoza-Denton]

“In a 1922 speech..Benito Mussolini declared: “We have created our myth..it is not necessary for it to be a reality..our myth is the greatness of the nation!.” “With the creation of a mythic past, fascist politics creates a link between nostalgia and the realization of fascist ideals…The leading Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg..writes in 1924, “the understanding of and the respect for our own mythological past and our own history will form the first condition for more firmly anchoring the coming generation in the soil of Europe’s original homeland.” The fascist mythic past exists to aid in changing the present.” [Stanley: “How Fascism Works”]

The Trump mythic past: “Make. America. Great. Again”

“The patriarchal family is one ideal..fascist politicians intend to create in society..the leader of the nation is analogous to the father in the traditional patriarchal family…Gregor Strasser..Reich propaganda chief in the 1920s..”for a man, military service is the most profound and valuable form of participation – for woman it is motherhood..” [Stanley]
A major theme of Republican ideology is women as mothers, which means outlawing contraceptives and abortions; saying sex is primarily for creating children. This also produces persecution of homosexuals and transgender people.

“Fascist movements have been “draining swamps” for generations. Publicizing false charges of corruption while engaging in corrupt practices is typical ..Fascist politicians characteristically decry corruption in the state they seek to take over…The undemocratic intent behind fascist propaganda is key. Fascist states focus on dismantling the rule of law, with the goal of replacing it with the dictates of individual rulers or party bosses. It is standard in fascist politics for harsh criticisms of an independent judiciary to occur in the form of accusations of bias..critiques..then used to replace independent judges with ones who will cynically employ the law as a means to protect the interests of the ruling party.” [Stanley]

WOW!!! Where to start here. The above is what the Republican Party has DONE, 1980-202X. This above paragraph is seen in newspaper headlines, 1980-202X!!!!! Mobs threaten local officials and elections judges. Laws passed to put partisan [Republican] “poll watchers” in action. State governments rigged to make permanent Republican corruptions. The rigging of state and federal judiciaries is HAPPENING IN YOUR FACE!!!! Two Supreme Court seats are STOLEN – and reported in media!!!!! Appointing unqualified “partisan hacks.” Gerrymandering to lock in Republican “majorities” with a minority of votes. All this [and much more] is termed “law and order,” “strict constitutionalism,” “electoral integrity,” “preventing [non-existent] fraud,” etc. The. BIG LIES. – through. weaponized words.

In Germany, we had “alien,” “untermensch,” ‘racial defilement,” and later “taken into safe keeping” “force into line,” ‘Nordified.” “gone away,” “collected,” then “liquidated,” “arbeit macht frei,” and “the final solution.”
In America: “fake news,” “witch hunt,” “crooked Hilary,” “get ’em out,” “shithole,” disgusting animals,” “whataboutism,” “drain the swamp.,” “alternative facts,” “fine people on many sides,” “trust me,” “The Big Beautiful Wall,” “I alone,” “some people are saying,” and many more.

“Proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing..It starts with your sitting silent while he lies..making you complicit…In meetings with him, is assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged…Mr Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts..I have felt it – this president building with his words a web of alternative reality…Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.” [James Comey; 5/1/19; New York Times – McIntosh & Mendoza-Denton]

“building with his words a web of alternative reality.” Weaponizing words. “Words..like tiny doses of arsenic..”

“Mr. Trump eats YOUR SOUL in small bites.”

Adolf Hitler: “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”

Kevin McCarthy, Republican House leader [11/18/21]: Joe Biden is responsible for America’s failure to conquer COVIDA-19!!!! There’ve been many GOP whoppers, but if America accepts THIS, McCarthy proved Hitler correct. The overwhelming, public, evidence of 2020-202X: Republican politicians and voters are GUILTY. Numerous Republicans obstructed medical science in every way possible. In mid-September, 2021, 90% of adult Democrats were vaccinated, 58% of Republicans. American hospitals are RATIONING HEALTH CARE – unvaccinated Republicans are filling ALL hospital beds. People have DIED because unvaccinated Republicans filled beds. Doctors and nurses – who’ve PLEADED with Republicans to get vaccinated – are burned out, have quit, committed suicide. A generation of K-college is traumatized, their lives and educations badly disrupted. For this, America will pay dearly.

Exxon-Mobil [and others] have known since at least 1977, burning fossil fuels created global warming. Fossil fuel producers are big “campaign contributors” for Republicans [& a few “conservative” Dems]. THE. BIGGEST. CRIME. in world history is climate change denial. All evidence says without major corrections, humans will. DESTROY. the earth. World-wide, fossil fuel producers sabotage efforts to stop ecological suicide. Republicans claim “we’re not scientists” when asked questions about damaging the earth. Pre-1980 radicalization, Republicans led on some conservation measures [Nixon’s Clean Air Act, Environmental Protection Agency]. The Reagan, Bush II, Trump administrations are. GUILTY of sabotaging American efforts to stop destroying the earth.

The January 6, 2021 “insurrection was a Republican created and led effort to overthrow 2020 presidential election results. Mountains of evidence [growing], including films and e-mails, leads to people around the losing candidate, Trump. The first BIG LIE was it wasn’t right-wing people, but left-wing thugs who did it!!! That proved false by films and confessions. People friendly to Trump financed and created mobs. The Trump organization has done everything possible to obstruct investigation of the attempted COUP. Congressional Republicans, with very few exceptions, aided the coverup. Republican voters, ignoring ALL evidence, accept the BIG LIE.

The BIG LIE Trump was cheated by “election fraud” in an election he lost by 7 million votes is accepted by Republican voters. this, in spite of denials by all 50 state elections officials, adamantly stating NO, NONE, ZERO, fraud occurred. Republican politicians conducted special “inquiries”/”audits” [some illegally] to find evidence – they haven’t. Numerous courts [even GOP-controlled!!!] turned “fraud” claims down
What this BIG LIE proves: the “Electoral College” is obsolete, should be ended. This is the basis of the Trump BIG LIE. Several states were “close.” Trump tried to get elections officials to “find” votes for him – they refused.
America’s major enemies – Russia and China – are having a field day. Their propaganda says: look, America is so corrupt, they can’t run a fair election. One more Trump gift to autocrats; one more undermining of democracy.

No honest governmental or elections analyst will state “gerrymandering” is a “democratic” method of creating electoral districts. Criticism of this practice goes back to 1812. Both parties have done it. Minority party voters are grouped or spread out in ways favoring the party in power. The U.S. Supreme Court had a chance recently to make a judgment about gerrymandering CORRUPTION – they refused it. Currently, this favors the Republican Party because they control more states. Increasing evidence showsRepublican determination to RIG future elections.
For both parties, gerrymandering radically increases partisanship and refusal to compromise – which creates gridlock.

For Second Amendment enthusiasts, the BIG LIE is the Founders intended civilians freely carrying guns, especially military-style weapons, on American streets.
For what Founders REALLY said, look it up: Articles of Confederation, Article VI [“..every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia..”]; Madison’s original draft {‘..but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to RENDER MILITARY SERVICE.”]; U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 8 {‘..calling forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections..”]; Article III, Section 2 [“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia..”]; 1792 Militia Act [requiring every free able-bodied white male, 18-45, to enroll in the militia; military ranks & colors; provide for wounded and disabled at public expense].
“Wild West” towns required cowboys to check guns at town limits with the sheriff; multiple Supreme Court decisions, 1791-1939, ending in “Miller,” which found the Second Amendment did NOT protect guns not used for “military purposes.”
A March, 2021, Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: restrictions on carrying guns in public except for hunting did NOT violate the Second Amendment. Judge Jay Bybee [Bush II appointee] wrote “A review of more than 700 years of American and English law showed government has long had the power to regulate arms in public spaces. WE have NEVER assumed..individuals have..unfettered right to carry weapons in public spaces.”

For “pro-life” zealots, the BIG LIE is freedom to use contraceptives and make one’s own reproductive choices – is somehow “wrong” and must be outlawed. They claim “Roe v Wade” was a radical departure of American law. WRONG!
The Founding Generation were VERY clear, in 1776-1800 state constitutions [look them up!!!]. Four banned a “religious test for office” [Article VI!]. 8 banned ministers serving in government. 8 prohibited “establishment of any one religious sect in preference to another’ [ First Amendment!!!!!]. 8 had specific language prohibiting making people support a church they aDIDN’T attend [Amendment One!!!]. 7 said “religious rights” were personal and could NOT be used to hurt others [Amendment One!!!!!].
Supreme Court Justice Harlan, “Katz”: the key issue was whether the government had violated a person’s “reasonable expectations of privacy.” In 1923’s “Meyer”” “liberty..denotes..the right of an individual..to marry, establish a home and bring up children..and generally enjoy those privileges long recognized..as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.” In 1961’s “Poe”, Justice Harlan” a law making it criminal for married couples to use contraceptives is “an intolerable and unjustifiable invasion of privacy in the conduct of the most intimate concerns of an individual’s personal life. The Constitution protects not only rights expressly specified..but all rights which are fundamental..” In 1972’s “Baird”, Justice Brennan: “if the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of an individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision to bear or begat a child.” 1965’s “Griswold”: Connecticut had illegally invaded “the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees.”
Restrictions on contraceptives and banning abortion are RELIGIOUS DOGMA, of a few fundamentalist churches seeking to impose THEIR beliefs on ALL Americans – clearly un-Constitutional. “Roe” stands at the END of a chain of American rights stretching back to the Founders [see 1776 North Carolina state constitution, and others!!!!!]

The Big Business, top 1% BIG LIE, pushed since 1980: deregulation, tax cuts for the rich & corporations, privatization, outsourcing anti-union laws, etc. bring “morning in America.” In REALITY – they’ve brought MOURNING!!!!! – and are a statistical JOKE. At least the lower 50% have seen purchasing power reduced, jobs ‘outsourced,’ wages lowered. Any society and economy that makes it difficult for people with “only” a high school degree is IMMORAL.
State and federal governments, with aid from the most “business-friendly” Supreme Court since World War ii, have neglected and weakened restraints on top 1%/corporate greed and power. Much of America’s economy is dominated by 2-3-4 corporations in every industry. The 2008 Crash symbolizes all that has gone wrong, more undemocratic, more cruel. Another symbol is American “health care” – double every other “advanced” nation’s” cost
The 2021-2022 “supply chain crisis” is another symbol – caused by outsourcing American jobs to China [top 1%/corp. greed]. If Joe Sixpack worked 18-68, made $50,000 every year, his total LIFETIME earnings: $2.5 million. If Suzie Sorority worked 22-68, made $100,000 every year, her total LIFETIME earnings: $4.6 million. Numerous people in the OBSCENELY overpaid top 1% make this in ONE year, others routinely $10-20-30 million EVERY year>

Perhaps the BIGGEST LIE is Republicans appoint only judges who are “strict constructionists,” “originalists.” “textualist,” and “don’t legislate from the bench.” By major decisions alone, this is a MAJOR. BIG. LIE.
We have clear evidence what the Founders intended, in broad principles, in specific words. Their top four fears: corruption, slavery, religion, mobs. In 1980-202X, their worst fears have been realized – in some cases, exacerbated by Supreme Court decisions. Major evidence against “originalism;” the “Dred Scott” decision [read Taney’s justification!!!].
Post-1980 Republican Justices HAVE been “legislating from the bench.” Numerous Rehnquist-Roberts Court major decisions show disrespect, even hostility, toward Congress, and – in some cases – disrespect for judicial precedent going back 100-200 years. Decisions like “Heller,” “Citizens United,” “Shelby County,” “Espinoza” will not stand the tests of time or American history.
In 3 current cases, the Roberts Court is considering: a New York state law from 1913 – which a previous Court refused to consider [new Justices!!!]; a Maine case from an atypical American school district – that could be used to force ALL American taxpayers to subsidize religious schools [see Amendment One, etc.]; a religious dogma anti-abortion case – that violates basic American principles and freedoms from 1789 forward.
It is things like this that have “some people saying” that the current Supreme Court consists of “partisan political hacks.” Judge for yourself, by answering a simple question: does the 2005-202X PATTERN. of Roberts Court decisions uphold the Preamble’s requirement: “to promote the general Welfare.” Do these 16 years of decisions make America a better, more just nation – for all 331 million people?
For perspective, consider: the universal “worst” Supreme Court decisions, pre-2000, were all racial injustice. The most destructive Supreme Court decisions since are ALL political. In one, the Court’s major decision was a “one time only,” in another a state Chief Justice said the Court violated corporate law, in another displayed willful ignorance of what existed in real life – maintaining that “things had changed,” in another, analysts said they legalized money laundering; in another – ignored 200 years of legal and historical precedence; in another a Justice maintained the word “any” was discriminatory.
So – as a “reasonable, informed [factually!] American – what does this PATTERN suggest?

Keep voting Republican – you’ll get more of this destruction – justified by BIG LIES. After 40 years of tearing the American dream apart – how much more evidence do YOU need????? Keep listening to the Fox “news” propaganda echo chamber and you’ll continue to be deliberately misinformed [ by people getting paid up to $30 million to lie to you].
25-year Republican operative, Stuart Stevens, confessed much of this – and summarized it all in: “It Was All A Lie.”

Many are claiming “rights.” The. BIG. Question: what protects the rest of us from them? One of the most demoralizing things of 2016-202X America has been the huge amount of disrespect and outright cruelty inflicted upon innocents and people merely doing their jobs. The massive greed of the top 1% and corporations is, of course, a given.
BUT – it has been the cruelties inflicted by “normal” people that has so pierced hearts. Much/most of this has been done in the name of “rights.” What religious/moral code permits cruelties to innocent people???
If we all have “rights” and no RESPONSIBILITIES – what kind of society does/has this created? If we all get to “do our thing,” are “we” degenerating into the jungle? Is “love thy neighbor as thyself” no longer applicable?
AS America slides into libertarian anarchy, consider the following “rights” claims:
– COVID anti-vaxxers claim a “right” to their bodily integrity, to do as they please; to infect YOU and occupy most hospital beds – putting more stress on fatigued/burned out hospital workers, creating more chances for COVID to mutate [note: this “bodily integrity” does NOT apply to females – they have “sacred” duties to the state!!!]
– the “right” of the AMA, hospitals, investors, insurance companies to charge as much as possible is described in ‘Washington Monthly,’ Nov-Dec, 2021 issue’s “The Doctor Will Not See You Now,” Bartlett & Steele”s “Critical Condition,” T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America” – and many other studies [America is #37!!!!!}
– the “right” to be misinformed. Americans so gullible, paranoid, ignorant, believing an overweight demagogue [documented liar of epic dimensions!!!], multiple media MORONS, incompetent INTERNET IDIOTS. Waiting to see those poor souls arguing 2 plus 2 equals 5 – because “trusted sources” told them it did.
– armed vigilantes claim the “right” to walk around imposing ‘justice’ and ‘protection’ of THEIR choosing by displaying military-style weapons on American streets
– corrupt politicians claim the “right” to appoint “pro-life” judges in violation of Article VI of the Constitution [no religious test for office] and Amendment One [no state church]
– criminals, many with long records, claim the “right” to resist arrest [itself a crime], if they get shot while trying to flee [itself a crime], they have a “right’ to blame this on the police
– corporations claim the “right” to ship YOUR job to China; if this builds up the new Nazi Germany [it did], it is irrelevant to their “right” to “maximize shareholder value” [make the top 1% richer]
– religious zealots claim the “right” to impose their “sincerely held religious beliefs” on YOU; denying YOU contraceptives and abortion, demanding YOUR tax dollars fund their religious schools – all. this in clear violation of virtually ALL 1775-1800 Founding documents at state and federal levels [see 1776 North Carolina, Delaware, etc!!!]
– partisan “think tanks” claim the “right’ to create “alternative facts” for American history, politics, Constitutional law, and science; their “free speech rights’ supposedly free them to deny factual events and science
– protestors, some violent, claim “the Constitutional right” to be mean to local school boards, city officials, elections officials, etc. – a Constitutional right” to disrupt, yell and scream – at people doing their job
– the rich and corporations claim the “right” to subvert democracy with millions in “campaign contributions” [to launder money through lobbyists] – a “right” given them by an ethically-challenged “business-friendly” Supreme Court]; the cost of “free speech’ has escalated to where billionaires have more “freedom” than YOU do!!!!!
-“patriotic Americans” claim the “right’ to harass and assault people “who look like they’re not real Americans” or are speaking anything but English [why are “Americans’ speaking English???]
– social media claim the “free speech right” to permit a long list of harmful, anti-democratic, and false “alternative facts” that has undermined America, inflicted serious damage [including suicides] on children, DELIBERATELY misinformed
– the “Constitutional right” to possess ANY kind of gun has now created an atmosphere of fear; NOWHERE in America is safe [except INSIDE the Supreme Court] from gun violence; NO other “advanced” nation has anywhere near America’s 100 gun violence victims EVERY DAY – all this based on fraudulent interpretation of “2nd Amendment rights”
– corrupt politicians claim the “right’ to subvert democracy by “gerrymandering’ legislative districts; this has dramatically increased polarization by electing extremists refusing to compromise
– anti-social crazies claim the “right” to assault airlines and retail personnel if they do their job and make you wear a mask – so that the people around you aren’t infected if you happen to be infected
– the top 1% claims the “right” to evade and/or not pay ANY taxes – since they [through their superior brilliance] have “earned” all their obscene wealth “by themselves, shouldn’t have to share it with “undeserving”lesser beings like YOU
– amoral corporations claim the “right” to sell dangerous, murderous products; even if found guilty, they claim the “right’ to reduce legal penalties by prolonged legal evasions
– vaccine refusniks claim the “right’ to disrespect and harass doctors and nurses because they feel their “rights” to “freedom” have been violated; thus contributing to medical personnel [people keeping us alive] burnout and suicide
– amoral individuals and companies in the financial industry claim the “right” to get rich through virtually ANY scheme, even if it causes crashes and depressions; mass pain and unemployment should be considered “normal”
– the “right” of “patriotic” Americans so paranoid and suspicious [because they’re misinformed] they’re willing to support another 1/6/21 rebellion – this one an armed revolt to overthrow American democracy because “the wrong people” won through “election fraud” and are going to impose “socialism” [ but keep my Social Security check coming]
– corrupt politicians claim the “right’ to suppress voting [by the ‘wrong voters’] in the name of “electoral integrity” and eliminating [non-existent] “fraud”; this has the same validity as “shot while attempting to escape,” “taken into protective custody,” “untermensch,” etc.

One troubling thing for all these “rights” claimants – and also ironic: if we were able to honor all these “rights” claims, it would appear that we no longer support “law and order.” It would also appear that we no longer believe in the Constitution’s requirement that ‘our” government works to “promote the general Welfare. [greatest good for the greatest number]. It would also appear that some consider themselves to be above the law.
It would also appear, that a nation of “adults” making these claims is, in fact, a nation of immature, selfish children.

Ben Franklin, 1787: response to a woman’s question about what the Constitutional Convention has just created: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Volodymyr Zelensky, 2021, discussing the Russian threat to invade Ukraine: “Democracy is not a given. It must be fought for.”

Since 1775, over 1 million American men and women have died defending American democracy. Millions more wounded, some severely disabled.
YOU are not being asked to storm the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima. YOU are not being asked to endure 12 years of the Great Depression

Are. YOU. willing to defend American democracy?

Since 1980, there is a phenomenon which is steadily growing and frightening many: the rise of authoritarianism, largely in one political party, that violates basic Constitutional principles, in the name of “freedom.”

“When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will
not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called of
course, ‘Americanism.'” [Halford E. Luccock]

The most sensational 1980-202X event has been the January 6, 2021, insurrection. A mob mobilized by a demagogue stormed and trashed the U.S. Capitol, proclaiming they were looking for ‘traitors’ to execute.

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and
refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”
[Dwight D. Eisenhower, l944]

The 1/6/21 insurrection is a symbol, a public event, in a much longer chain of events, much hidden. There are “militias” proclaiming willingness to protect their definition of America; often motivated by a certain demagogue
“At a conservative rally in western Idaho last month, a young man [asked] when he could start killing Democrats. “When do we get to use the guns” he said as the audience applauded. “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The local state representative, a Republican, lated called it a “fair” question. [Lerer & Herndon; 11/14/21; N.Y. Times]
“In Ohio, the leading candidate in the GOP primary for Senate blasted out a video urging Republicans to resist the “tyranny” of a federal government that pushed them to wear masks and take vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.” [Lerer & Herndon; 11/14/21, N.Y. Times]

“Freedom exists only where the people take care of the government.” [Woodrow Wilson, 1912]

“Burned-out elections officials retreat from hot seats..Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin..After facing threats and intimidation..county officials who ran elections are quitting or retiring early..thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud that continue to be pushed by many in the Republican Party. [A.Izaguirre; 6/14/21; Assoc. Press]
“Trump allies aim for election posts..Those who rejected the 2020 results are now looking to fill prominent roles in states..to place Trump loyalists in key positions across the administration of U.S. elections..If they succeed, Trump and his allies could pull down some of the guardrails that prevented him from overturning Biden’s win..Jeff Timmer, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party: “The officials who fulfilled their legal duty after the last election are now being replaced by people who are pledging to throw a wrench in the gears of the next election.” [Gardner, Hamburger, Dawsey; 12/5/12; Wash. Post Weekly]. ***re-read, this is what happens in ‘banana republics’ [CORRUPTION]

“The freedom that counts is simply what is in the minds and hearts of millions of free
people.” [Adlai E. Stevenson, 1955]

“report finds U.S. democracy sliding..added to a list of “backsliding democracies.”..by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Association” in a first..”The UnitedStates..fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself..The report’s U.S. assessment centered on developments during former President Donald Trump’s administration. It called Trump’s factually baseless questioning of the legitimacy of the 2020 election results a “historic turning point” that “undermined fundamental trust in the election process” and culminated in the January 6 insurrection..” [Berger; 11/23/21; Wash. Post]

A small sampling of headlines:
-“Sowing Voter Confusion..GOP seeks to reshape the nation’s electoral system, leaving Democrats sidelined” [Corasaniti; 12/5/21; Assoc. Press]
-“Arizona enacts bills making it harder to vote.” [F.Fonseca; 5/12/21]
-“GOP maps lock in legislatures in 4 key states until next census.” [Corasaniti; 11/26/21; Assoc. Press]
-“Wisconsin GOP pushers to take over the vote” [R.Epstein; 11/20/21; N.Y. Times]
-“Gerrymanders Spread, Get Hard To Beat” [M.Wines; 11/21/21; N.Y. Times]
-“GOP again shelves voting rights bill” [C.Hulse; 10/21/21; N.Y. Times]
-“Texas Republicans enact voting restrictions” [N.Corasaniti; 9/8/221; N.Y. Times]

John Dean [Nixon’s Watergate lawyer] and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare” is extremely sobering and frightening. They estimate 36.4 million American adults are “Double Highs” – the most extreme authoritarians – people who want a “strong man” ruler [ i.e, dictator]
The road to 2016-21 was enabled by many prior to Trump: reactionary billionaires wanting reduced government authority [over them] financed it; the “religious right” provides ‘boots on the ground.” Senator Barry Goldwater [1964 Republican presidential candidate] warned: :..Republicans are selling their souls to win elections..If and when these preachers get control of the party..it’s going to be a terrible damn problem.” He was correct.

“The Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those
on board.” [ President Grover Cleveland, 1894]

One of the Founders’ top 4 fears was mobs. Now we have mobs with guns.

“Will guns become a tool of political intimidation? It would change the face of political protest in America…conservatives may decide..carrying. guns – especially military-style rifles – can be used to intimidate both their political opponents and office-holders.” [P.Waldman; 11/18/21; Was. Post Weekly]
“Study, headlines reflect the rise of political violence..”From death threats against previously anonymous bureaucrats and public-health officials to a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor and the 6 January, 2021, attack..acts of political violence have skyrocketed in the last five years’ wrote Rachel Kleinfeld.. “Ideas that were once confined to fringe groups now appear in..mainstream media..” [J.Rash; 11/20/21; Mpls. Trib.]
“Menace As Political Tool..Right-Wing GOP openly threatens violence…among a significant segment of the Republican Party…belief the country is at a crossroads that could require armed confrontation is no longer limited to the fringe…”When you start dehumanizing political opponents, or really anybody, it becomes a lot easier to inflict violence on them…30% of Republicans and 40% of people who “most trust far-right news sources believe that ‘true patriots’ may have to resort to violence to ‘save’ the country.” [Lerer & Herndon; 11/14/21; N.Y. Times]

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction
from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.” [R.M. Hutchins, 1954]

How much European or American history needs to be mentioned here??? What happened in Germany, 1920-45, is well documented. And – “ItDid Happen Here” as well. Freehling’s “The Road to Disunion” discusses the reign of terror in the 1830-60 American South: whites subjected to being tarred & feathered – and run out of town; “some 300′ whites” were lynched. The post-Civil War KKK aimed to ‘save’ the country [of the pre-war South]. That pre-war South also had “the shudder,” as did Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia – self-censorship [and -fear].

“The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man.
The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural
gait is the goosestep.” [H.L. Mencken. 1920]

One major anti-democratic effort is rewriting 1/6/21 events. The official right-wing story: this was only a mass “free speech” event of “concerned patriots.” All the talk of insurrection [what does the Pentagon know?] , etc. are “fake news.”
As usual, Trump is stonewalling everything, in every manner possible, stringing legal actions out, trying to “run the clock out.” He’s getting major help from enablers all over America in state legislatures. Over 400 bills reducing people’s ability to vote have been introduced. In virtually every state they control, Republicans pushing through radical “gerrymandering” plans [enabled by a Repub. dominated Supreme Court], turning themselves from minority to majority party by selecting their voters.
Violent protests across America have worked. Normal, neutral elections officials replaced by Trump loyalists. The very manner in which elections will be decided is bering changed – giving Republicans in positions of power the ability to declare vote results against them null and void. [banana republic style; Putin style]
Read Barton Gellman’s January/February, 2022, The Atlantics’s :”Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun” U.C. Irvine Professor R.I. Hasen: “Wr face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will come to an end in 2024.” Sadly, he isn’t the first to state this
Trump’s 2017-2l tenure was unlike any in American history. The record-setting [“firehose’] of lying; the anti-democratic deeds; the anti-democratic and divisive language; the destruction; the damage to America’s world-wide reputation; the damage in lost faith of our people; the sheer unconcern for trying to help ordinary people [see COVID response] – all UNPRECEDENTED. The enormity of Trump’s quasi-dictatorship almost too much to comprehend.

Look up “the 14 characteristics of fascism.” We have “achieved,” in part for each of 13 of them, fascism. The ONLY one we have NOT achieved – fraudulent elections – is the one Trump and Republicans are working to obtain for 2022 and most definitely, for 2024. What is listed above is only “the tip of the iceberg” of the effortRepublicans are working on.
Over the top? Too much “conspiracy talk’? Ponder this: throughout the 1929-1839 period, many Jews in Nazi Germany refused to believe what they were seeing and hearing was happening. Germany was “too cultured.” Many of them had fought, some with distinction, in World War I.

Multiple reports are building; warnings have been issued. Read Jamelle’s “The Trump Conspiracy is hiding in plain sight” [12/8/21; N.T. Times]; Levitsky & Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die ” [“Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible”]; Stanley’s HowFascism Works”; MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains; Snyder’s “On Tyranny”; Giroux’s “American Nightmare”; Homans” “Penetrating The System” [12/12/21; N.Y. Times].

A number of Republicans have written warnings: Dean’s “Broken Government” [ GOP insider; don’t vote for ANY Republican]; Boot’s “The Corrosion of Conservatism” [GOP needs to be “burned to the ground”}; Sykes’ “How TheRight Lost Its Mind”; Stevens’ “It Was All A Lie”

Trump and Trumpism is THE. man our Founders FEARED. Corruption was their #1 fear. Democracy requires tolerance, forbearance, compromise, limits, respect, love. We survived, barely, 2016-2021. We will NOT survive a second era like that. That, friends, is up to. YOU. Do. YOU. care?????

note: quotes supplied by the Harper Book of American Quotations, and “On 1984”}

Blame it on Mom and Dad, two of “The Greatest Generation.” They had no vices, hated nobody. We went to a mainstream church that practiced what it preached: LOVE. Mom and Dad were intelligent, educated. They talked about, did “the right thing.” You were EXPECTED to do “the right thing,” because it was the right thing. Being humans, we didn’t always do the right thing.

Mom and Dad, like others of “the greatest generation,” were young people in the 1930s “Great Depression” – which was followed by World War II – 16 straight years of being “tested” by forces of nature, by human greed and evil. 16 straight years of thinking about forces greater than themselves. 16 straight years of learning that to survive as individuals, as a nation – people needed to work together, for each other

Mom and Dad, like others of their generation, valued virtually everything they had. There were balls of string, coils of wire, extra glass jars, boxes of spare electrical parts, extra wood boards, metal rods, extra windows, etc. – because “we might need them.” You didn’t throw things away, you tried to fix them. If you couldn’t fix it, there were “fix-it” shops and hardwares that could.

We didn’t appreciate much of this at the time – we were kids. We assume3d what happened was “normal.” Unfortunately it wasn’t – we learned this later too.

We were surrounded by members of the “greatest generation.” They were other kids’ parents, our neighbors, teachers, our parents’ friends, many adults, later – our bosses. We didn’t appreciate how privileged we were to grow up surrounded by this group of adults – we were just kids.

Most of the men had beed World War II veterans. Most of them didn’t talk about what they saw. But – many of them were unable to forget it. Some, like famed writer J.D. Salinger, were extremely affected, even hospitalized. Mom said Dad tossed and turned for months in his sleep after he got back. Dad never said much about what he’d seen. His proudest memory: his gun crew didn’t shoot down any “friendlies” – he had a great “spotter.”

There were three of us, always trying to get “the biggest piece.” Mom was a great cook. Her masterpieces were mouthwatering hand-crafted chocolate cakes. The contest for the “biggest piece” was solved by “Betty’s Rule.”

Betty’s Rule: the kid who cuts the cake gets the last piece.

My brother thought he had THE answer for this problem: he put a ruler on top of one of Mom’s great chocolate cakes. Mom laughed. Points for creativity.

Many of the 1980-202X American problems exist because America doesn’t operate by “Betty’s Rule.” “The kid” who cuts the cake DOESN’T get the last piece. Increasingly, that “kid” gets not only the FIRST piece, but often the second and third as well.

Since 1980, we have increasing “economic inequality” – the top 1% acquires more and more of EVERYTHING. [except taxes]. Increasingly, we have a “Winner Take All” America [Hacker & Pierson]. Perhaps best symbolized by the greedy Wall Street “people” who, without shame, took 2009 bail-out money form the lower 90% [which existed because of the crisis THEIR greed had created] – and gave themselves “bonuses.”
Betty”s Rule is unknown on Wall Street. If it were, they”d laugh at the mere idea.

Numerous analysts have written about the cost and consequences of post-1980 America not living by “Betty”s Rule,” or ANY rule mentioning restraint and moderation, ANY hint of “we’re all in this together,” ANY moral rule indicating there might be some reasonable limit, beyond which, even GREED no longer made sense – except to keep score.

For perspective and knowledge, you can refer to any of the following:_
– Wilkinson & PIckett’s international bestseller, “The Spirit Level” [Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger}
– Joseph Stiglitz’ “The Price of Inequality [How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future]
– Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”
– Double Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Bartlett & James Steele’s “The Betrayal of the American Dream”
– Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston’s “Divided” [The Perils of Our Growing Inequality], or other Johnston books: “Free Lunch” [How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves…] & “Perfectly Legal” [The Covert Campaign to Rig…]
– CharlesFergusons’s Academy Award winning film “Inside Job” or subsequent book “Predator Nation” [Corporate
Criminals and the Hijacking of America]
– study work done by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez
– find unspun IRS, GAO, CBO statistics [example: Mother Jones, March/April, 2011, page 25]
– the Mother Jones, March/April, 2011, issue contains “Your Loss, Their Gain” chart: “How much income have YOU given
up for the top 1%?” If you are in the lower 90%, it averages between $3733-l0,100 [2011 dollars!!!] less EVERY. year, IF.
your income had seen the same growth rates in 1979-2005 “as they did in previous decades” [Hacker & Pierson]
– Mother Jones, March/April, 2011, issues has “Plutonomics” explained by Citigroup’s lead “strategist” for wealthy clients
and this: “Kapur noted that the wealthiest one percent of Americans – whom he called ‘the plutomists” had benefitted
DISPROPORTIONATELY from recent increases in worker productivity, and he happily forecast that ‘global capitalists’
are going to be getting an EVER GREATER share of the wealth pie over the next few years.”

You people in the lower 90% – THEY’RE. LAUGHING. AT. YOU11111. all the way to the banks. They’re rubbing your noses in it. They’re buying off [mostly Republican] politicians to GUARANTEE this happens.
Some of you were conned by the [maybe] billionaire in 2016. He promised you the moon [another BIG LIE]. His signature domestic “achievement”: the reverse Robin Hood tax cuts that. ONLY permanently last for the top 1% and corporations [check this out: the IRS & CBO numbers are in!!!].

From 1789 – 1980, one signature American economy and society characteristic was: every generation almost always did better than their parents. Since 1980, this is no longer guaranteed. YOUR task: find out Why.
Why are we talking about “economic inequality” now? We didn’t worry about this in the great middle class prosperity of 1947-73. Your task: What. DELIBERATELY. changed?
The top 1% decided they didn’t want to share. So – we have “job outsourcing.” We have “globalism” – the “race to the bottom”; lowest taxes, least regulations, cheapest wages. We have massive [documented] rigging of the tax code. We have obscene wealth of 3 million Americans.

We DON’T. have “Betty’s Rule, or anything like it. “The kid” [top 1%] that cuts the cake doesn’t get the last piece – they get most of the entire cake. And – they’re laughing at you.

Why does a church you DON’T attend have any say in your life?

“Pro-life” citizens have a First Amendment right to speak their views. “Pro-life” political zealots are forbidden by the First Amendment from enacting THEIR religious dogma into American laws.

Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s January 16, 1937, radio speech: he had two future tasks to purify the Third Reich, the elimination of two abominations”: abortion and homosexuality. Abortions were illegal in Nazi Germany; also in several Eastern Europe nations under communism

The Massachusetts 1641 legal code’s top three capital crimes were: idolatry, witchcraft, and blasphemy – based on Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. All but one of the prosecutors for the infamous 1692 Salem “witchcraft” trials were ministers.

Amendment One: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..”
Dictionary definition of “established church”: “a church that is recognized by law, and often financially supported, as the official church of a nation”
Dictionary definition of “no”: “a negative used to express dissent, denial, or refusal, as in response to a question, request, etc….not in any degree, not at all..”

From this a “reasonable person” deduces: no church, can EVER, in America have its dogma put into law. “Pro-life” is religious dogma – putting this into law violates the Constitution. It also violates rights of other religions, and non-religious people to their own “..free exercise thereof..”

The CONTEXT for the Constitution and the 1791 Bill of Rights is found in 1775-1800 state constitutions. The language in them is IN. Amendment One and in Article VI.
Delaware, 1776, article 29: “There shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this State in preference to another;..no clergyman..of any denomination, shall.. [hold] any civil office in this State.” 1791, Article I: “..no man shall..be compelled to attend any religious worship, to contribute to the erection or support of any place of worship, or..maintenance of any ministry, against his own free will and consent..”
North Carolina, 1776, Articles XXXIV: “..no establishment of anyone religious church..in this State, in preference to any other; neither shall any person, ON ANY PRETENSE WHATSOEVER, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith..nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes is right..”

Is there. ANY. doubt what they meant???????????????????

Eight states forbade ministers holding office in their state. Four states prohibited “religious tests” for office. U.S. Constitution, Article VI: “.. no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public trust under the United States.” The pledge, the appointment of “pro-life” judges is un-Constitutional.

Why does a church you DON’T attend have any say in your life?????????

On December 1, 2021, Justice Thomas asked: “If I were to ask you what constitutional rights protects the right to abortion, is it privacy? Is it autonomy? What could it be?”
His answer is in the intent of Amendment Three; and in the specific words of Amendment Four: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons…against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..”
His answer is in Madison’s 1792 essay on “property’: the “larger and juster meaning” of the term. It embraces every thing toi which a man may attach value and have a right”..in the broader sense it meant that “a man has property, in his opinions..property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person..In a word..he may actually said to have property in his rights.”
His answer is in “Meyer”: the Court said liberty must include “the right of the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life..to marry, establish a home and bring up children..to worship to the dictates of his conscience.”
His answer is in “Katz”: Justice Harlan: the key 4th Amendment issue was whether the government had violated a person’s “reasonable expectations of privacy.”
His answer is in”Poe”: Justice Harlan stated a law making it criminal for married couples to use contraceptives is “an intolerable and unjustifiable invasion of privacy in the conduct of the most intimate concerns of an individual’s personal life.” The Constitution protects not only rights expressly specified..but all “rights “which are fundamental; which belong ..to the citizens of all free governments.'”
His answer is found in “Baird”: Justice Brennan said “if the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of an individual, married or single, to be free from the unwarranted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision wether to bear or beget a child,:”

Thomas’ answer is famously, in Justice Brandeis’ “Olmstead” opinion: the most important 4th Amendment point was the spirit behind the Amendment, which was to ensure privacy: “The makers of our Constitution undertook..to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men..The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachments. by men of zeal…”

Thomas’s answer is found in Gary Wills’ “A Necessary Evil”: We interpret the [Constitution] in terms of concepts and words..not i the document. Nowhere does the Constitution mention checks, or balances, or separation of powers, or coequal branches [or even branches] of government, or states’ rights [or any rights in the original unamended document].”
The word “sex” is not in the Constitution. Does this mean sex does not exist; or that humans don’t have a fundamental right to exercise that function?

Thomas’ answer is found inChief Justice Marshall”s “Bank of the U.S.”: “A Constitution, from its nature, deals in generals, not in detail. Its framers cannot perceive minute distinctions which arise in the progress of the nation, and therefore confine it to the establishment of broad and general principles.”

On December 1, 2021, Justice Kavanaugh said: “The Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice on abortion,” adding the court should not “pick sides on the most contentious social debate in American life>”
One might ask: why do we have a Supreme Court? In this case, to not pick sides is to allow Mississippi and Texas law become the law of America – for all 331 million people.
Justice Kavanaugh is. VERY WRONG!!! The Constitution DOES “pick sides.” It has stated a religious dogma-based law such as Mississippi or Texas is un-constitutional

On December 1, 2021, Justice Barrett said pregnant women who do not want to raise a young child can put the baby up for adoption. If so, she said, the lack of access to abortions should not have a great impact on their lives and careers.
This statement has to rank among the most ignorant, obtuse, and CRUEL in Supreme Court history. By Barrett’s “logic” – pregnant women are sentenced to devote 9 months carrying a child they don’t want – making them the possession of the state. To say this required duty would have no great impact on women’s lives flies in the faces of millions of real stories of women forced to carry to term – and the devastating impact it DIDF have on them and society.

These Justices’ statements may delight “pro-life” people, frightful to all others. Question one: is this an example of “wisdom” and “constitutional knowledge” we expect of a Supreme Court Justice??? Question two: is this the public smoke screen for a decision made BEFORE the arguments occurred? Question three: is this why Justice Sotomayor stated: “Will this institution survive the stench this creates in the public perception, that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? Question four: did these three “justices” just disprove what Barrett stated in September; “that we are not just a bunch of partisan hacks’?
We can also suggest Barrett read Justice Brennan’s “Baird: opinion: “..to be free from the unwarranted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”

Everything about abortion and contraceptives boils down to this: Why does a church you. DON’T. attend
have any say in how YOU. run. YOUR. life?????????????

Then there is the Republican/far religious right. DOUBLE. STANDARD. THEY can choose people with pronounced extreme religious views, put them on the Supreme Court [and other courts]. YOU are NOT. allowed to question this – because this “violates the religious rights” of the Justice!!!!!!!!!! YOUR. rights are immaterial. 6 people, all raised in one fundamentalist faith, all screened by reactionary legal and religious groups – have a “right” to decide. YOUR private life, by the tenets of that faith. If YOU. question this – YOU are the bigot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The American “religious right” has fought a 50 year religious war [their own term] to get to this Supreme Court decision. Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country..don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”

What’s. next??? Outlawing masturbation and vasectomies? [one Supreme Court Justice said, if he could, he would criminalize masturbation]. Requiring organized school prayer? Outlawing gay people? Requiring taxpayer subsidies [even more] of religious schools? Outlawing teaching of evolution? Requiring tithing to churches? Outlawing women working? Counting fetuses in the census? Outlawing contraceptives?

Where. does. it. stop? DOES. it stop?

Maybe never. One major “conservative” thinker said: “abortion…is the focal point for liberalism’s simultaneous assault on self-government, morals, and nature. So, challenging the judicially imposed regime of abortion-on-demand is key to a conservative reformation in politics, in morals, in beliefs.”

“A conservative reformation…? People are too weak. people “need” to be made to do things “for their own good.” Another leading “conservative’ thinker: “..the state, should deliberately and publicly identify, encourage, facilitate, and support the truly worthwhile [including moral virtue], should deliberately and publicly identify, discourage, and hinder the harmful and evil…”

WHO. gets to decide what is “good” and “bad”??? Obviously, it would be the far-right “conservatives”. – the rest of us are not “saved,” not worthy.

This is NOT just about abortion. This is about whether some people will “purify” America – whether. YOU. want them to or not.

Why should a church YOU. DON’T. attend have a say in your life??????i

The story of how Russian Bolsheviks sabotaged the 1917 Russian Revolution is well documented. The ongoing story of how Republican Bolsheviks are sabotaging American democracy unfolds before YOUR face.
The January 6, 2021, coup attempt wasn’t the first reactionary attempt. That was the July-November, 1933 top 1%/corporate plot [Feb. 15, 1935 McCormack-Dickstein Committee report]. The plot failed because the attempt to get “Brown Shirt” boots on the ground failed – turned in by double Medal of Honor winner, Major General Smedley Butler.
Excuseniks for 1/6/21 first tried a BIG Lie: it wasn’t right wingers beating up and killing police, trashing the Capitol, etc. – it was violent Left wingers!!! Arrest records of right wingers demolished that.

Excusenik Big Lie #2 is still attempted: what YOU saw on TV didn’t really happen!!! It was “just a bunch of “patriots” exercising “freedom of speech.”
The problem with this BIG LIE: “The Right-wing GOP openly threatens violence” [ll/14/21; Lerer, Herndon; N.Y. Times; “Menace as Political Tool”] “At a conservative r ally in western Idaho last month, a young man stepped up..to ask when he could start killing Democrats. ‘When do we get to use the guns?’ he said as the audience applauded.” “Polling indicates..30% of Republicans and 40% of people who “most trust” far-right news sources believe..”true patriots” may have to resort to violence to “save” the country.”

The 11/20/21 Rah Report [Mpls. Trib.; “Study, headlines reflect the rise of political violence”] quoted Rachel Kleinfeld [“The Rise of Political Violence in the United States”]: The false narrative of a stolen election clearly increased support for political violence,” believers in lies like this “were more likely to endorse coups and armed citizen rebellion.”
Paul Waldman’s 11/28/21 “Will guns become a tool of political intimidation?” [Wash. Post Wkly]: following the Rittenhouse acquital “conservatives may now decide ..carrying guns – especially military-style rifles…can be used to intimidate both their political opponents and officeholders..Carrying guns openly is…meant to communicate a clear message: I may decide to kill you. The intimidation is the point.”
Intimidation is working. Diana Palmer and Timothy Zick [10/27/21 online The Atlantic] report a study of guns on exercising protest rights: “The study found that participants were far less likely to attend a protest, carry a sign, vocalize their views, or bring children to protests if they knew firearms would be present.”

Violent threats also work in other ways. Anthony Izaguirre’s “Burned-out elections officials retreat from hot seats” [6/14/21; Assoc. Press]: “After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early…local election jobs are being vacated as Trump’s false claims of fraud persist within the GOP and provide a platform for his loyalists to launch campaigns to become top election officials in several swing states.”
“Election oversight reshaped by GOP” [11/30/21; Gardner-Hamburger-Dawsey; Wash. Post]: “..Trump allies are..seeking to replace officials across the nation, including volunteer poll watchers, paid precinct judges, elected county clerks and state attorneys general..If they succeed, Trump and his allies could pull down some of the guardrails that prevented him from overturning Biden’s win..”

The Roberts Court had a chance to declare “gerrymanders” unconstitutional. No honest political analyst has EVER called them fair. Now Republican Bolsheviks are rigging American elections, after the Court refused to rule.
“Gerrymanders spread, get hard to beat” [M.Wines; 11/21/21; N.Y. Times]: “More and more states – mostly Republican..are drawing maps that effectively guarantee..the party in power stays in power.” Much of this possible by Roberts Court 2013 and 2018 rulings gutting provisions against vote suppression.
“Redrawn district maps heavily favor GOP” [Epstein, Corasaniti; 11/16/21; N.Y. Times]: “..likely represents an even more extreme warping of American political architecture …is likely to leave the country ever more divided by further eroding competitive elections and making conservatives beholden to their party’s base.”

Republican Bolsheviks have won one presidential election popular vote since 1988. They themselves have said publicly they can’t win without cheating. So – change the rules. Rig the game.

Republican Bolsheviks are good at changing rules. They’ve worked hard to change the federal judiciary since 1968. Successive Republican Bolshevik appointed Supreme Courts have increasingly rigged the game for the top 1% and corporations [Note: corporations owe 100% of their “rights” to the Supreme Court. The Founders didn’t trust them; “corporation” isn’t in the Constitution]
Supreme Courts have twisted “free speech” to allow things favored by the Republican Bolshevik base: overturning 200 years Second Amendment precedence; making it easier for the top 1% and corporations to launder money through “campaign contributions” [Buckley-Valeo; Citizens United]; restricted citizen access to courts to sue corporations; attacked unions [“Janus”]. Only one major gift is left for the 6 “conservatives” – and they have that case.
Republican Bolsheviks have changed state rules for decades. Often done at the request of reactionary billionaires [see Mayer’s “Dark Money”]. One major “business-friendly” organization, A.L.E.C., holds yearly [very secret!!!] meetings to create “model bills” introduced by Bolsheviks at state legislatures. They’ve claimed getting 200 passed every year [lower business taxes, less regulations, etc.]

One arm of the Republican Bolshevik alternative universe is legal. Claiming the American Bar Association was “too liberal,” a “conservative” group was funded by a reactionary billionaire. In addition to vetting federal and state judges, they hold “training sessions” for American judges!!!!! One is “Law and Economics,” a “free-market” approach [trying for give away the farm]. Between 1/4 and 1/2 of ALL federal judges have attended [2013]. Thousands of “Federalist Society” members teach and practice; Republican administrations are full of them.

Another, very consequential rules change is attacking labor unions, begun in 1970s. It involves “outsourcing” jobs to low-wage areas. This sharply reduced the historic 1947-73 middle class golden prosperity age. Republican Bolsheviks passed numerous laws reducing labor union power. Corporations conduct all-out war against unions. Since the presence of successful unions raises all wages, this resulted in the lower 90%’s reduced buying power.

Earlier, i said “in YOUR face.” Notice how much this uses daily newspaper stories. What has happened to the lower 90% and American democracy since 1980 is NOT a mystery. The only mystery; behind-the-scenes plotting.

In his 2006 “The Conservative Soul,” a frustrated conservative Republican, Andrew Sullivan’s book jacket cover: he.. “makes an impassioned call to rescue conservatism from the excesses of the Republican far right, which risks making the GOP the first fundamentally religious party in American history.” Read Sullivan’s Chapter Two: “The Fundamentalist Psyche”
Sullivan, in common with renowned religion expert, Charles Kimball, places America’s far religious right on a continuum with the Taliban; Sullivan adds Nazis and Communists as “fundamentalists.” Sullivan mentions Nazi and Communist purges of people insufficiently “born again.” Republican Bolsheviks have purged “moderates” and “liberals” – their latest “guilt” person is conservative Liz Cheney. Cheney dared tell truth on 1/6/21. Republican Bolsheviks don’t tolerate truth tellers.

In their 2020 book, John Dean and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare,” relying on over 30 years research, estimate 36 million American adults are “Double Highs” – people waiting for the next Hitler or Stalin to follow. Republican Bolsheviks plan to have that person for 2024.

No democracy is guaranteed to survive. TheRepublican Bolshevik plan – documented by many, including Pulitzer Prize winners – is to create an American theocratic plutocracy. Rigging the game, definitely including rigging elections is how they plan to succeed.

So – what is YOUR. plan? Do. YOU. want America to continue as a democracy????? If not, it’s over.

Questions to ask YOURSELF…..
1 a] on paper, communism is the most perfect system invented. In reality, communism produced some of the worst dictatorships in world history.
b]. on paper, Republican Bolsheviks talk much about “freedom” and “personal rights,” and many other great sounding concepts. In reality, the four most criminal presidencies since World War II have been Republican Bolshevik: Nixon [15 prison sentences]; Reagan [8 prison sentences]; Bush II [9 prison sentences]; Trump [6 prison sentences].
2 a] Russian communists talked about a “dictatorship of the proletariat” supposedly providing everybody what they needed; in reality, most ordinary Russians lived austere lives, many in poverty and privation.
b] Republican Bolsheviks talk about wonders of capitalism, how electing them means better lives for all; in reality, the Republican Bolshevik dominated l98l-202X era has – STATISTICALLY – been less than the great 1947-73 middle class great prosperity, created by Democratic policies and values.
3 a] Russian communists had state propagandists lying about how great life was for ordinary people – who knew better
b] Republican Bolsheviks specialize in lying: Nixon WAS a crook; Reagan lied about Iran-Contra [& much else!]; Bush II lied America into an immoral Iraq war [& much else!]; Trump set records for daily lies; Republican Bolsheviks lied about COVID and climate change crisis.
3 a] Russian communists were famous for cruelty – to their own people – secret police and extensive prison gulags; purges and mass killings.
b] Republicans specialize in cruelty – look up Clayton Williams, Todd Akin, Rick Santorum, Richard Mourdock and Lawrence Lockman on rape; Republican Bolsheviks have tried to “privatize” Social Security, cut benefits for vulnerable people, been big on imprisoning [non-rich] people, want to control people’s sex lives, etc., etc…….
5 a] Russian communists, like most fundamentalists, were big on enemies – why they had a secret police and prison gulags – in “the people’s paradise”
b] Republicans are big on enemies – a large list of the “Other” that supposedly threaten “good Americans;” usually done in “code words,” clever innuendo and phrasing.. They “need” enemies to have somebody/thing to “protect you from – which includes the worst: “!!!”socialism”!!! {which definitely does NOT include cutting taxes on the top 1%].
6 a] Russia communists perverted justice with “kangaroo courts,” where “the guilty” often “confessed” before getting their pre-determined penalties.
b] Republican Bolsheviks, since 1968, have “packed” the American judicial system with reactionary judges [many totally unqualified], screened for “the right” ideology. This has become so blatantly obvious that some Supreme Court Justices felt compelled to publicly state they “weren’t political hacks.”

Ask yourself WHY many ex-Republicans have written books about why they became disillusioned with then post-1980 “Republican” Party; WHY many respected analysts have warned about anti-democratic post-1980 Republican activities.
Ask yourself WHY the common conclusion exists: that Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower – the best Republican presidents couldn’t get nominated in the 21st century. Others have questioned whetherReagan could as well.

You should read: Dean [Broken Government], Boot [The Corrosion of Conservatism], Brock [Blinded by then Right]., Sykes [How the Right Lost Its Mind], Lofgren [The party is Over], Stevens [It Was All A Lie], Dean & Altemeyer [Authoritarian Nightmare].

Other analysts have been caused to express their concerns about Republican Bolshevik anti-democratic tendencies: Mann & Ornstein [Its Even WorseThan It Looks], Overton [Stealing Democracy], Ehrenberg [$ervants of Wealth], Baker [The Conservative Nanny State], Edsall [The Age of Austerity], H.Smith [Who Stole theAmerican Dream?], Ferguson [Predator Nation], Bartlett & Steele [The Betrayal of the American Dream], Frank [The Wrecking Crew], G.Lafer [The One Percent Solution}, K.Andersen [Evil Geniuses], Applebaum [Twilight of Democracy], J.Daley, Ed. {On 1984], T.Snyder [On Tyranny], M.Gessen [Surviving Autocracy], MacLean [Democracy in Chains], Teachout [Corruption in America], Chayes [On Corruption in America], Albright [Fascism], A.Nelson [Shadow Network].

All of the above is a “bare tip of the iceberg” of the MOUNTAINS of evidence in state and federal actions, in state and federal court decisions, in what Republican Bolsheviks are saying. They themselves are admitting ‘the fringe has come to power.” But – they are ‘ridding the tiger”. and dare not get off. Connect the dots. What would a “reasonable person” think; the “man from Mars”?; reasonable people from Western Europe, Canada, Australis, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea? What they have ALREADY said is a matter of record – major concerns.

The authors mentioned above, this blog. – we can only alert YOU. America is. NOT. guaranteed to continue as what “reasonable people”. would call a “democracy.” It. will. NOT. survive. – if. YOU. don’t care.

*** “When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will be not even called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.'” [Halford Luccock]

The following characteristics are the consensus on what fascism is:
1] strong and continuing nationalistic statements
2] disdain for human rights
3] use of enemies and scapegoats
4] militarism and supremacy of the military
5] extensive sexism/misogyny
6] controlled mass media
7] national security obsession
8] religion and ruling classes connected
9] corporations protected
10] labor suppressed
11] suppression of intellectual and the arts
12] obsession with crime and punishment
13] extensive cronyism and corruption
14] fraudulent elections

*** “As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” [Supreme Court Justice W.O. Douglas]

As of November, 2021, America has now at least partially achieved numbers 1-13. Recent false claims have been made – roundly disproved, of ‘fraudulent election – by one of the major proponents of American authoritarianism. Subsequent anti-democratic efforts by his supporters throughout America. This resulted in numerous vote suppressing laws.

*** “The ideal subject to totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” [Hannah Arendt]

Some of the evidence for American 1980-202X fascism:
1] Current right-wing [R-W] nationalism has occurred in various forms, including 1920-41 “isolationism.” Since 1945, more militant nationalism has steadily built. One analyst [Calmes] describes “waves”: 19802 Reaganism; 1990s Gingrichism; 2000s Bush II ism; 2010s Tea Party to Trumpism – each driving the Republican Party ever more radically to the reactionary right.

*** “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” [George Washington]

2] Violations of human rights of the “Other” – is a major driving mechanism of modern R-Ws, carried out by the Republican Party. Legal discrimination is enabled by Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices and at state levels. Street-level discrimination is done by various ‘Brown Shirts’ and individuals

*** “When we begin to build walls of prejudice, hatred, pride, and self-indulgence around ourselves, we are more surely imprisoned than any prisoner behind concrete walls and iron bars.” [Mother Angelica]

3]. Enemies of the R-Ws are many. Communists and “socialism”; all non-white people; Jews by implication and street level action; non-fundamentalist religions and people; gay and trans gender people. Cynical leaders drum up “divide-and-conquer” hysteria by blaming “Others” at opportunistic times.

*** “In Germany, the Nazis came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I was a Protestant and didn’t speak up. then they came for me… by that time there was no one to speak for anyone.” [Martin Niemoller}

4] President Eisenhower warned against the “military-industrial complex.” The “defense” complex has a substantial portion of American government’s budget. America has the world’s biggest ever military empire. Blinded by the “domino theory” America blundered into Vietnam war. Lied into “democratizing” others, America invaded an innocent country in 2003 [ see Poland, 1939]

*** “As long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.” [Aldous Huxley]

5] Much R-W policy concerns suppression of women. The major R-W base is religious fundamentalists, which requires second class female status – best seen in “family values” mantra and vigorous anti-contraceptive and abortion policies and laws. The Nazis were strongly opposed to abortion.

*** “The claim that American women are downtrodden and unfairly treated is the fraud of the century.” [Phylis Schlafly]

6]. All mass media is not controlled by the state. Much is controlled by corporations. The R-W alternative universe has its own controlled media: Fox “News”, various radio talking heads, various internet idiots – all working together with strict discipline, to push the “message of the day” [some local media are given required scripts].

*** “Power in America today is control of the means of communication.” [Theodore White]

7] National security is a major R-W position. The infamous 1940s-50s communist witch hunt was led by Republican Congress Critters. Thousands of innocents had lives and careers ruined. Accusing opponents of being “soft on communism” or of “socialism” is a major R-W strategy.

*** “The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything and then enforce them selectively against your enemies.” [John Lescroart]

8]. “Conservative” religions and R-W have been closely connected since the 1930s opposition to the New Deal. After 1968 this has escalated. It is now commonly stated Republicans are a religious party. The “pro-life” agenda was a major political strategy to attract Catholic voters. Official Republican policy is nominating “pro-life” judges – itself unconstitutional [Article VI]

*** “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.” [Randall Terry]

9] American corporate power has been increasingly protected since 1970. Often the famous “Powell Memorandum” is cited a call to arms. Others suggest just a symptom of what was already happening. Corporate America has an army of “lobbyists” at all levels. Anti-trust and other restraining laws are unenforced. R-Ws bankrolled by rogue anti-democratic billionaires [Mayer: “Dark Money”]. The Roberts Court is THE most “business-friendly” since 1945.

*** “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” [Benito Mussolini]

10] Republicans and R-Ws have attacked labor ferociously since 1933. Before that their goons just shot union people. From 1947’s “Taft-Hartley” forward, Republicans and R-Ws have done everything they could to dismantle unions. Law and Supreme Court decisions [“Janus’]. Simply “outsourcing’ jobs to Southern “right-to-work”[for less!!!] states; Mexico and Latin America; low-wage south Asia; China. In their desire to evade taxes and regulations, pay labor nothing – “American” corporations have financed the new Nazi Germany [just like they did the original – Higham: “Trading With the Enemy”] – Communist China!!! R-Ws bend their ‘rules’ when money calls!!!!!

*** “There’s class warfare, all right, but its my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” [Warren Buffett]

ll] Republicans and R-Ws don’t like intellectuals [real ones] because they poke holes in their “reasoning [often easy to do!!!]. Prime current examples: opposition to medical science on COVID-19 and opposition to any REAL “global warming’ solution [that hurts profits!!!]. To rile up their “base,” Republicans and R-Ws are willing to destroy the earth, allow COVID ravage America and the world. They also “burn books” – local public schools and libraries are attacked by R-W zealots.

*** “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”{Adolf Hitler]

12] Republicans and R-Ws are obsessed with”street crime – which [they say] is mostly done by the “Other” they hate. Republicans and R-Ws are against ANY suppression of the most damaging crime: “suite crime” – which is perpetrated by their billionaire funders. Suite criminals will be honored as”job creators” [rather the job exporters they often are].

*** “It is not unfrequent to hear a man declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty – to oppress without control or restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.” [Sam Adams]

13]. Cronyism and corruption – by the top 1% and corporations they own is a top American characteristic. America has slid from 19th most honest to 24th. The”revolving door” lets corporate ‘public servants’ work government jobs – often creating policies that favor the company they will return to!!!!! Tax policies are often written by corporate lobbyists. Americans pay 250% of world drug prices, go bankrupt WITH medical insurance for one reason: CORRUPTION.

*** “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” [Frederic Bastiat]

14]. Fraud is virtually non-existent in American elections. 2020-202X America observed how an anti-democratic authoritarian operates: as an overwhelming loser, claiming he was “robbed” – urging followers to attempt a coup [while denying he did no such thing!!!], and then to cover up an attempt documented in many ways [see ‘the big lie’ above]. The on-going cover-up and legal battle is used to raise defense and ‘campaign funds’ – sabotaging faith in free elections.

### “The most intelligent of the Nazis..legal theorist Carl Schmitt, explained..the essence of fascist governance. The way to destroy all rules..was to focus on the exception. A Nazi leader outmaneuvers his opponents by manufacturing a general conviction..the present moment is exceptional..then transforming that state of exception into a permanent emergency. Citizens.. trade real freedom for fake security.” [Timothy Snyder,

For those who refuse to believe any of the [tip of the iceberg] points: my challenge to you: go to MAINSTREAM sources [serious sources respected around the world]. Numerous ex-Republicans and R-Ws have published “confessionals” and serious works. Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning authors have documented what has occurred to the bottom 90% of America and to American democracy, 1980-2021. What was once THE example of democracy, 1947-1973 America, has been DELIBERATELY SABOTAGED by Republicans and the Right Wing, corporations, religious zealots.

*** “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercise in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” [John K. Galbraith]

Begin your search for the truth with NUMBERS. Check unspun IRS numbers fro pre and post-1980 incomes. Find the average top marginal tax rate for 1945-1980 [hint roughly 81%!!!]. Check on how much American taxes are/were paid by corporations before post-1980 reverse Robin Hood tax cuts!!! Check on the paper corporate tax rate versus what they actually pay!!! Check on WHY billionaire Warren Buffett says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary!

###”Soft money was..hard-earned dollars..Big Brother has yet to control..I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point..We do want something in return..” [Betsy DeVos]

For perspective: WHY are the “happiest people on earth” consistently residents of northern Europe??? The U.S. Constitution”s Preamble requires American government to “..promote the general Welfare..” Eisenhower’s 1950s Interstate Freeway System meets that test. The 2017 reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for the rich and corporations fail it.

There are reasons why people have written books and studies on fascism, authoritarianism, corruption in recent years – because they don’t like what they see happening to America. The NUMBERS are obvious. the deterioration in American governmental performance is obvious. The reactionary radicalization of one political party is obvious. The realization of the fragility of American democracy had frightened many – some of. whom have witnessed the corruption in foreign countries now see that in America.

There is also a reason in Benjamin Franklin’s famous response to a woman’s question in September, 1787 Philadelphia: “Well, Doctor, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”

SO – dear friends, there is YOUR challenge: Do. YOU. wish to keep the American republic?