!!!!***!!! “Trump transforms Ja.6 narrative” [D.Barry, A.Feuer; 1/6/25; New York Times]: “Violent, unprecedented assault on American democracy has become what president-elect calls a “day of love”…he and his loyalists have laundered the history of Jan.6..as his allies in Congress and the media play down the attack and redirected blame to left-wing plants, Democrats and even the government..violent rioters..somehow became martyrs…What happened and why seemed beyond debate..Tens of thousands of hours of video footage. thousands of seized cellphones..the largest digital crime in history…But sand was already being thrown in the eyers of history.”
*** “ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why would we let them have ideas.”
{ Soviet Russia dictator. Joseph Stalin }
1] “Reminders of Jan. 6 attack fading” [Mary Clare Jalonick; Assoc. Press]: “..many Republicans try to downplay it, echoing..Trump’s claims that the carnage of that day is overblown and that the rioters are victims. In some ways, it’s like the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, that shook the foundations of American democracy never happened.”
“Congress passed a law in March 2022 to require “an honorific plaque listing the names of all officers of the United States Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and protective entities who responded to the violence that occurred at the United states Capitol on January 6, 2021….But almost three years later, there is no plaque.” [***and no explanations!!!]
“In the days after the siege of the Capitol, Republican condemnation was near-universal…Then-House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy..said a week later that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack. But McCarthy soon made amends, traveling within weeks to Florida to meet Trump..a fateful decision, kicking off Trump’s return to power.”
*** “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” [Adolf Hitler]
2] YOU can review all reports of January 6, 2021 – LIVE, that 300 million Americans saw with their own eyes LIVE on January 6, 2021. YOU can listen to reports made LIVE by police who were attacked, injured. But, YOU can’t listen to some police reports – because they DIED, in the line of duty, defending YOUR national Capitol. In those LIVE recordings, YOU can observe some rioters carrying CONFEDERATE flags – an apt symbol for the treason that occurred.
YOU can search out some of the hundreds of confessions by now shamed rioters, some possibly in YOUR area. YOU can search court proceedings from all over America leading to 1,250 convictions – and what they were convicted for.
***. “Truth is the most precious thing. That’s why we should ration it.” [Soviet Russia leader. Lenin]
3] For perspective: “Erasing History..How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future” [Jason Stanley, 2024]: “Democracy requires a common understanding of reality, a shared view of what HAS happened, that informs ordinary citizens’ decisions about what SHOULD happen, now and in the future. Authoritarians target this shared understanding and leave us unmoored, resentful, and confused. By setting us against each other, authoritarians present themselves as the sole solution.”
*** “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” [George Orwell]
4] YOU can research recent attempts to rewrite American history, rewrite science, for political and ideological gains, for economic gains. THE greatest, BIGGEST LIE, in human history is climate change denial – in spite of the fact OUR world is changing – for worse – right in front of YOUR eyes.
Rewriting American history is done to maintain control for certain groups – by telling YOUR children what happened in the Americas, 1492 forward, didn’t happen or didn’t happen the way that’s inconvenient for certain people. Or, in 1981-2025 America, that things the FAR RIGHT finds “bad” or inconvenient are “fake news.”
Examples abound, especially in states controlled by Republicans. Attempts have been made to say American slavery “wasn’t that bad,” that Blacks actually had “a good deal,” that their owners [!!!] treated them with great “loving” care, etc.
YOUR children should NOT know about religion-justified “Jim Crow” segregation, 1865-1970s. YOUR children should NOT know the second most victimized group in 1619-19xx South was “poor white trash,’ many of whom died in the 1861-65 Civil War protecting the top 1% slave owners. YOUR children should NOT learn the slave-owning South [up to 2025] has historically been THE most poor, least democratic section.
YOUR children should NOT be taught about genocide conducted against native Americans from 1620 forward – the murders, massacres, broken treaties, government Indian boarding schools young native Americans were forced to attend – to WIPE OUT THEIR CULTURE, land theft, “The Trail of Tears,” the “reservations” they were forcibly confined to – the poverty, alcoholism, unemployment, female abuse, etc. that resulted.
For some, it will be inconvenient to teach YOUR children about the WW II Navajo “Code Talkers” who helped win the Pacific war, taking part in every assault the Marines conducted, sending messages in their language the Japanese couldn’t translate. [“Navajo Weapon,” S. McClain; “Yankee Samurai,” Joseph Harrington]
YOUR children might also NOT learn about Japanese-American Nisei who “helped shorten the Pacific War by at least two years, saving over 1 million lives.” Nisei linguists participated in EVERY battle from the Aleutians to Okinawa – translating, communicating, in intelligence. This in spite of 120,000 fellow Japanese-Americans locked up in concentration camps. [“Honor by Fire…Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific”, Lyn Crost]
YOUR children might also NOT learn about the extent of misogyny, persecution, restraints and limitations employed against American females, 1620-2025. NOT discuss “barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.’ NOT discuss the Salem Witchcraft Trials [all but one prosecutor a minister]. NOT discuss WHY American women couldn’t vote until 1920. NOT discuss “the glass ceiling” and wage differentials; and MUCH, much more…..
*** “Anybody who doesn’t take the truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
[Albert Einstein}
YOUR children might NOT discuss the war against American workers, 1865-2025. NOT learn about workers being persecuted, fired, jailed, murdered, for trying to form unions. They might NOY learn about WHY “American” companies, 1970s-2025, have either threatened to move factories, or DID move factories out of America to avoid paying living wages, avoid taxes, avoid regulations; bring in foreign workers at lower wages.
YOUR children might NOT learn that in 2025 America, billionaire owners refuse to negotiate with unions; that billionaire/millionaire capitalists, including manufacturing, have greatly inflated the ratio of employee-owner income in THEIR favor [ like from 30-40-50 to 1 to current levels of 200-250-300 to 1]. That at the height of American dominance, America had 1 billionaire [maybe] in 1956, and NOW there are over 750, not to ignore centi-millionaires
YOUR children might NOT learn that America was NEVER a “Christian Nation.” That there are MANY quotes from the Founding Fathers [!!! no “Founding Mothers”!!!!] in ABSOLUTE OPPOSITION to the idea of ANY kind of theocracy. Indeed, one of the Founders’ 4 primary fears was the misuse of religion. Start with “The Establishment Clause” [Leonard Levy, 1986]. Research Baptist Isaac Backus and Baptist John Leland; Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson; the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.
Research 1775-1800 state constitutions on religion [“Faith of the Founders,” Edwin S. Gaustad; 1987-1993-2011] – especially 1776 North Carolina, Articles XXXIV. 8 states BANNED an active minister from their government!!! 4 states banned a “religious oath of office” [Article VI !!!]. 10 states prohibited an “established church” [Bill of Rights !!!].
***!!!***!!! 1640s forward – “separation of church and state” is OLDER THAN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION !!!!!!!!!!
*** “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
[ Soren Kirkegaard ]
5]. And. THEN !!! – there is the daily rewriting of history, science, and much else – by the reactionary billionaire-funded RIGHT WING FAKE NEWS EMPIRE of radio, TV, internet, books, magazines, “studiers,” “commentators. A MAJOR reason WHY Americans are divided and confused is the BIG LIES emitted EVERY day by the FAR RIGHT communications NETWORK to brainwash good Americans. They have succeeded
The goal: a PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. They’ve succeeded in moving America to “conservative” [actually REACTIONARY] positions on many things, and now, we’ve elected THE most unprincipled, amoral, greedy, liar, in presidential history to a second term. He will be surrounded by oligarchs enacting “PROJECT 2025” goals.
Whatever the Trump administration does, it will be “justified” by rewriting history, science, laws, the Constitution, American traditions, American culture. It is KNOWN – Trump’s tariffs, taxes, deportation scheme – DON’T ADD. UP. Farmers, business people, economists, tax experts have all testified against them. Because THEY WILL INCREASE YOUR COSTS!!! Trump already reneged [Nov. 25, 2024] on YOUR grocery bills being lower!!!!!
*** “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of men who can fabricate it.” [Hannah Arendt]
Tag: politics
Disgrace – & – Vigilance – in the age of Trump
We are disgraced. Once our president – Washington – was renowned for his character and judgment. WE have elected a “man” renowned for his lack of character and judgment. Washington prevented a revolt by military officers, “our” recently elected president ENCOURAGED & STARTED A REVOLT against the U.S. government; still lies about it.
Once our president – Lincoln – said “With malice toward none, with charity for all..” WE have elected a “man” renowned for his lack of charity, and above all – for his malice toward many.
Once ur president – FDR – was called a “traitor to his class,” the wealthy, because he REALLY tried to help “the forgotten man.” WE have elected a “man” renowned for his TALK about helping ordinary people – like YOU, but his POLICIES favor the rich and connected
Once our president – Eisenhower – said “May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. WE have elected a “man” who tolerates NO dissent from his “wisdom” and who demands loyalty to himself above all.
Once our president – Republican Hoover – said “The trouble with capitalism is capitalists. they’re too damn greedy.” WE have elected a “man” who said “You can’t be too greedy.” And LIVES that creed.
Once our president – Republican Ford – said “Truth is the glue that holds government together.” WE have elected a “man” who said over 30,000 documented lies as “our” president; whose entire public life has been built on DOCUMENTED falsehoods; who for the last decade has won or been a top candidate for the Politifact “Big Lie of the Year; who objected to to his 2024 campaign speeches being fact-checked.
Once our president – Republican Coolidge – said. “The governments of the past could fairly be characterized as devices for maintaining in perpetuity the place and position of certain privileged classes, without any ultimate protections for the rights of the people. The Government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.” WE have elected a “man” who is building a government of billionaires; ho has selected two of them to create “government efficiency – who’ve said they’ll cut $2 trillion fromYOUR government’s budget [which cannot be done without cutting things like Social Security &Medicare]; a president whose $1 domestic “achievement” was an immoral, anti-democratic 2017 tax cut for the rich which he wants to renew in spite of its responsibility for 25% of national debt, trillions more if extended.
Once our president – Republican Theodore Roosevelt – said “No people is wholly civilized where s distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse>”. WE have elected a “man” who ORCHESTRATED a plot to steal the 2020 election, then told THE BIG LIE that it wasn’t he – who lost by 7 million votes!!! – but his opponents who’d stolen the election. The Capitol was trashed, police were killed & injured, hundreds convicted of rioting said they’d “been called” by this “man’ to “stop the steal.” !!!
Once our president Cleveland – said “Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil.” WE have just elected a “man” who talks about “the deep state,” who’s vowed to fire government officials who dare discipline him and his businesses, who nominated a “loyalist” to run America’s to law enforcement agency [and that man vowed to clean house of disloyal people]; who put far right zealots on a severely corrupted “supreme court” who have undermined American democracy with lying decisions.
II. We are disgraced – because we are damaging and killing our own children. We tolerate four plagues that have damaged children here and around the world: climate crisis denial; social media poisoning their minds; gun violence; censorship.
Read the New York Times Magazine for November 10, 2024 for young people’s stories from Peru, Bangladesh, Tanzania; Greece; Alberta; Nigeria; New Zealand on the impact of climate crisis NOW and for their entire lives.
Read “After Babel..How Social Media Dissolved The Mortar of Society And Made America Stupid” [Jonathan Haidt; May, 2022; The Atlantic. Read “The Dumbest Generation..How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future” [English professor Mark Bauerlein]
Watch the DVD “Cyberbully” [ABC Family]; then research the number of children committing suicide and going to doctors for mental health help; spending 4-6-8 hours daily on social media because they’ve BECOME ADDICTED.
December 18, 2024, Washington Post: more than 31,000 K-12 students experienced a 2024 school shooting; 426 school shootings since 2/20/99 Columbine High. December 17, 2024, New York Times: guns are the leading cause of deaths of children in 2020 and 2021
An elementary teacher reports these children’s questions about an active shooter: “If I was in the bathroom, should I jump out the window?; “How will we get to our homes if we don’t know how to cross the street yet?; “What if I can’t find my teacher and all the classroom doors are locked?”; “If the shooter came into the room and killed people, would you have to go home by yourself?” What “civilized” society FORCES its children to HAVE to ask such questions ?????
Read “Book Bans Harm Kids” [ Editors; December, 2024; Scientific American ]: “Censoring what children read deprives them of reality and the chance to feed their curiosity and develop empathy…Under the guise of protecting children from harm, they vow to defund public libraries and alter school curricula. But its the book bans themselves that cause the most harm, robbing youngsters of opportunities to think critically, explore ideas and learn about experiences different from their own. The people responsible for moving books from classrooms and libraries are trying to limit the flow of information. Their efforts aim to undermine democracy..create..young people who will not question authority..”
A “Our Children Are Drowning” letter [Minnesota Star Tribune; 12/21/24]: “Our children are drowning – emotionally, socially, and mentally – and we’re standing on the shore, reacting only when they go under…We must face a difficult reality; Our children are not learning what it means to connect, to belong, to feel seen and supported…We need to rethink how we raise, teach, and nurture our children.”
***Our children are drowning because this “society” has STOLEN THEIR CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE.
III. VIGILANCE
*** “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” [Wendell Phillips]
*** “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a low extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.” [Robert W. Hutchins]
*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. but we cannot have both.” [Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis]
!!!!! Educate YOURSELF !!!!!
1}. Research pre and post-1980 American income, wealth, tax statistics. Much happens because of dramatic post-1980 changes – CORRUPTIONS -actually. From 1947-73, America – by DESIGN – had balance in those statistics. We had rich people, what we DIDN’T have, was obscene greed, allowed by law. The lower 90% struggles – BY DESIGN – because the top 1% – about 3.5 million – live in previously unimagined luxury [accept for the Gilded Age of 1865-1900 – which they’re trying to recreate] . A totally CORRUPT “supreme court” has facilitated this with immoral decisions like “Citizens United.” As long as we have current “campaign finance” existing – NOTHING will improve for the lower 90%.
2]. “Democracy in Chains” [Nancy MacLean, 2017]: ‘..the single most powerful and least understood threat to democracy today: the attempt by the billionaire-backed radical right to undo democratic governance…a stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America, at both state and national levels, back to the political economy and oligarchic governance of midcentury Virginia…”
3] “Dark Money…The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” [Jane Mayer, 2016 – or – see “Dark Money DVD, directed by Kimberly Reed.
4]. “Evil Geniuses”. [Kurt Andersen, 2020]: ‘…the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in the early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled. the clock was turned back on a century of economic progress, making greed good, workers powerless, and the market all powerful while weaponizing nostalgia, lifting up an oligarchy..”
5]. “Perfectly Legal”. [d.C. Johnston, 2003]: “The tax system is becoming a tool to turn the American dream..into an impossible goal for tens of millions of Americans…used to create a nation where fewer stable jobs and less secure retirement income…used by the rich..to shift risks off themselves and unto everyone else…perhaps worst of all, our tax system now forces most Americans to subsidize the lifestyles of the very rich..”
6] “Erasing History..How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future”. [Jason Stanley, 2024}. – just like the fictitious “Big Brother,’ and sending “bad” history “down the memory hole”!!!!! – explains how much of the FAR RIGHT’s war on education, their censoring “bad’ books and “bad” information – so THEY can LIE to YOU and YOUR children.
7]. “How Democracies Die” [S. Levitsky 7 D. Ziblatt, 2018]: “The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. the bad news is that , b y electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.”
8] “The Death of Truth..Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump” [M. Kakutani, 2018 – Pulitzer Prize winning literary critic]: “truth decay” – the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life, fake science, fake history, fake Americans on Facebook, fake followers; much more fakery. – outside of crooks – most of it by the FAR RIGHT
*** Mr. and Mrs. lower 90%: DO SOMETHING!…..SPEAK UP!…REFUTE LIES!…VOTE! WHY? The war, identified by billionaire Warren Buffett – is directed at YOU, YOUR CHILDREN, YOUR GRANDCHILDREN, it is an ORGANIZED THEFT of the 1947-73 golden American middle class prosperity: shipping jobs overseas, virulent hostility toward ANY labor union, BUYING LEGISLATION in states and Washington. As Nobel Prize in economic winner Joe Stiglitz said – the post-1980 inequality DIDN’T JUST HAPPEN, it was DELIBERATELY planned and executed. Do REAL research – mostly off the I-net: the Reagan, Bush II, Trump regimes have permanently damaged American democracy – BY DESIGN. Speak up, act – or it WILL get worse… for YOUR children and grandchildren…….time is running out on YOU
Trumpism – and “Justice”? – Revenge – “The Rule of Law???”
*** “Never let yourself be persuaded that any one great man, any one leader, is necessary o the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 155 million followers, it will no longer be America.”
[ Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower ]
1] “Trump gives ‘Person of the Year’ interview to Time magazine” [Meryl Kornfield; 12/13/24; Washington Post]: “Trump hedges on food price promise”. YOU might want to consider: Previous Time “Person of the Year” persons included Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin [2!!!], Adolf Hitler.
***”The best index to a person’s character is [a] how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and [b] how he treats people who can’t fight back.” [ Abigail Van Buren, “Dear Abby ]
2]. “Justice” – “Justice delayed is justice denied.” {William E. Gladstone}
A] Questions??? How much money, and from whom???, has Donald J. Trump spent trying to delay [ EVADE] justice – the accountability for his violations of SEVERAL U.S. laws, in several courts ?????
B]. A long-standing law: documents involving ANY president during his term ARE NOT his personal property. Pence, Biden, Trump were all discovered to have violated this – Pence and Biden returned materials – TRUMP REFUSED.
C] Trump was RECORDED making phone calls [a]. to Ukraine asking for “dirt” on the Bidens, [b] to Georgia asking for 12,000 more votes. In what world are these “legitimate presidential Constitutional functions ?????
D] “Material fro Russia probe went missing” {M.Haberman, J.Barnes; l1/16/23; New York Times]: “Disappearance of highly classified intel was during Trumps last days in office.”
***. “There can be no equal justice when the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.”
[ Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black ]
3] Pardons – mercy, or, ?????
A] “Trump Pardoned Them: Now They’re Helping Him” [B.Reinhard, M.Roig-Franzia, C.Morse; 12/3/23; Washington Post}: “Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency power to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts.”
B] “How a Troubling Trump Pardon Hurt a Major Criminal Inquiry” [M.Schmidt, M.Haberman, J.Swan, A.Feuer; 11/26/23; New York Times]: “Nearly three years later, the consequences of Mr. Braun’s commutation are becoming clearer..dealt a substantial blow to an ambitious criminal investigation..”
C]. “Jan. 6 rioters looking forward to ‘coming home’ [M.Kunzelman; 11/8/24; Assoc. Press]: “Rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are celebrating Trump’s victory and hoping he makes good on his campaign trail promise to pardon them..More than 1,000 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted..”
D]. “Biden mulls preemptive pardons” [T.Pager, M.Kornfield; 12/6/24; Washington Post]: Talk focuses on potential political targets of retribution by Trump”
***”Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1%, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important…our democracy is being put at peril.” [Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz, “The Price Of Inequality]
4] Retribution – “Whoever has shown no mercy, he shall have judgment without mercy.” [James 2″ 13]
A]. “Trump’s picks support retribution” [{A.Blake; 12/8/24; Washington Post Weekly]: “At least nine choices for senior posts have made clear they want to get rid or of target opponents.”
B]. “Trump’s Foes Fear His Retribution..Pointing to legal threats, some say efforts for revenge have already begun” [H.Knowles, C.Itkowitz; 12/21/24; Washington Post]: “Trump’s first impulse is to go after people who cross him…that’s what’s going to happen, and what’s happening now..The goal ..is to create a climate of intimidation..”
***. “Indeed, revenge is always the pleasure of a paltry, feeble, tiny mind.” [ Juvenal ]
5] Payback
A] “Trump boosters expect big returns on their investment” [E.Lipton; 11/18/24; New York Times] : “Executives who gave millions stand to profit…limit the reach of federal regulations on A.I….make room for cryptocurrencies to thrive…ease the antitrust crackdown on big tech companies…buy more military drones…don’t raise taxes on billionaires..” [ did I miss it here, or, is aid to Mr. & Mrs. lower 90% NOT under consideration !?!?!?!!!!!!!!???????]
B] “Trump Family Business Is Preparing To Profit. [E. lipton, B.Protess, D.Yaffe-Bellany; 12/6/24; New York Times]: “It looks like Trump is panning to flagrantly violate key anticorruption provisions of the Constitution again, said Zephyr Teachout, ” a Fordham Law School professor.
C] “Trump picks crypto advocate Atkins to run SEC” [M.Goldstein, D.Yaffe-Bellany,; 12/5/24; New York Times]: “Ex-Securities and Exchange Commissioner favors looser regulation of digital assets”
D]. “Tycoons of Tech Steer Transition For Trump Team…Touching Nearly Every Department Despite Little Experience” [T.Schliefer, M.Haberman, J.Swan; l2/8/24; New York Times]]: .”…shaping hiring decisions and even conducting interviews for senior-level jobs..one of the most conflict-ridden presidential transitions in modern history…clashing mightily with the notion that Mr. Trump’s populism is all about helping the working man.”
*** ‘…the single most powerful and least understood threat to democracy today: the attempt by..billionaire-backed radical right to undo democratic governance..a stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America..back to the political economy of oligarchic governance of mid-century Virginia..” [ Nancy MacLean – “Democracy in Chains” ]
6]. ??? Co-President Musk ???
A] Headlines, 12/19-12/21/24: “Shutdown looms as GOP kills bill”. {Washington Post], and, “Scrambling in D.C. to avert shutdown” [Assoc. Press}: “..Musk boasted on X ..after he spent the day blasting the legislation..” [12/19]; “..Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar..” [12/21]
B]. “Will Musk have the guts to take on insurers?” [J.Burcum; 12/21/24; Minn Star Tribune]: “..it’ll be very interesting to see if Musk and the Trump administration have the courage to take on AHIP..Said Richard Kronick..If Republicans are serious about cutting spending, Medicare Advantage is the most fertile ground to be paying attention to because of thr overpayments..”
C]. “Elon Musk blasts SEC probe into Twitter”. [12/14/24; T.Romm, F.Sidddiqui; Washington Post]: “..Musk has reprised many of his public rebukes on the SEC, an agency whose trajectory he may now shape as the leader of the “Department of Government Efficiency..”
***. “In whose delusional mind is democracy made ‘better’ by allowing wealthy people to control more of it.”
Jon Stewart – in “On 1984,” edited by James Daley ]
7] Trump’s Enablers and Accomplices
A] “There’s a Reason Trump Has Friends in High Places” [J.Bouie; 6/16/24; New York Times]: “Capital..tries to have it both ways..freeloads off public power…thirst for profit periodically tempts some fractions..to rebel against public power…these business leaders have come to believe..’the threat to capitalism from the Democrats is more concerning than the threat to democracy from Trump.'”
B] “Trump is Nothing Without Accomplices” { S.Levitsky, D.Ziblatt; 9/10/23; New York Times }: “Individual autocrats..are never enough to wreck a democracy. Democracy’s assassins always have accomplices among mainstream politicians.. ˇhe greatest threat to our democracy comes..from the ordinary politicians..who protect and enable him.”
C]. “The GOP’s war on arithmetic”. [C.Rampell; 12/15/24; Washington Post Weekly]: ‘..[the Republican Party]..is near unanimous frustration with the pesky laws of arithmetic. That cutting taxes would reduce future tax revenue..perpetually aggrieves them..Republicans’ solution: invent a New Math…The CBO’s budget-scoring methods don’t support Crapo’s fiscal fantasies…Trump’s habit of torturing data until it confesses….Peter Navarro, tried to bully career statisticians into changing how they measured deficits…”
D] “Trump loyalists purging voter rolls”. [A.Berzon, N.Corasaniti; 3/14/24; New York Times]: “Activists targeting key states, Times discovered…targeted Democratic areas, relying on novel legal theories ..[with].. no grounding in fact..”
*** “Wherever Law ends Tyranny begins.” [ John Locke ]
8] SAVING AMERICAN. DEMOCRACY – What Barriers to Dictatorship Remain?
A]. “Will the Supreme Court Stand Up to Trump?” [S. Vladeck; 11/17/24; New York Times]: “The problem for the court – and for the republic – is that it’s going to be much harder for the justices to push back this time around, even if they want to..because of the sharp decline in public support..”
B] “What will the military do if Trump gives unconstitutional orders?” [ML Cavanaugh; 12/22/24; L.A. Times]: “Unfortunately, the answers aren’t straightforward.” [What’s “legal” and what’s “illegal”?}
C] “Will the Senate Save America From Trump’s Cabinet?” [J.Conason; 12/15/24; The Progressive Populist]: “If you were seeking to destroy the country, the Gabbard, FGaetz, and RFK Jr. picks were exactly the ones you’d make.”
D]. “GOP bloc curtails power of Trump” [C.Edmondson, A.Duehren; 12/22 24; New York Times]: “Something unusual happened last week after President-elect Donald Trump ordered House Republicans to back legislation raising the debt limit: Dozens refused.”
E] This leaves. YOU!!! Are YOU, fellow Americans, willing to speak out against destructive, anti-democratic. moves by His Excellency, Donald Trump ???
For perspective: less than one month after getting elected on his promise to IMMEDIATELY lower. YOUR grocery costs – he said that would be hard – meaning it. WASN’T GOING. TO. HAPPEN !!! Numerous economists, plus people in farming and business have repeatedly told us. – Trump’s tariffs WILL. RAISE. YOUR. COSTS.
Deporting ANY significant numbers of illegal migrants WILL RAISE YOUR COSTS because they’re NOW doing work Americans havw refused to do for decades. Cutting taxes on the already OBSCENELY RICH – will either/both – cut government services YOU rely upon and/or RAISE YOUR TAXES. – because Trump’s “numbers” DON’T ADD UP..
Economists, many others, tell YOU the Musk-Ramaswamy “government efficiency” fraud of cutting $2 trillion can ONLY be done by cutting things like SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE – unless they adequately fund the IRS so it can save over $1 trillion a year in taxes not paid; unless they reduce the national debt interest payments – so we aren’t WASTING $1.2 trillion a year in interest on that debt [CREATED PRIMARILY BY REPUBLICAN TAX CUTS]
*** “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of a private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in essence, is Fascism: ownership of Government by individual, by a group, or any other controlling private power.” [President Franklin D. Roosevelt]
*** “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” [Abraham Lincoln]”
Age of Trump – The “conservative” FRAUD
In post-1980 America, perhaps. THE foundational Far Right. BIG LIE is that they are “conservative” – in their rhetoric, actions, policies. In REALITY, they’ve shown huge streaks of craziness, cruelty, destructiveness, anti-democratic behavior, hatred, bigotry, and misogyny.
A favorite “explanation” of the Far Right is: “history and tradition.” This would be good – except the Far Right are VERY bad “historians,” are making up “history,” are perpetrating anti-American and anti-democratic BIG. LIES.
The Oxford World Encyclopedia defines “conservatism” thus: “Political philosophy seeking to preserve the continuity of society’s laws, social structure, and institutions.”
The World Book Encyclopedia defines “conservatism” thus: “Conservatives rely on traditional institutions, values, and ideas as a guide to wisdom and goodness. Therefore, they seek progress in line with proven values of the past.
Review these definitions carefully, noting “continuity of society..”, “a guide to wisdom and goodness”; “they seek progress in line with proven values..” DOCUMENTED rhetoric, policies, actions of post-1980 Far Right persons shows “wisdom and goodness” to be alien values for the Far Right. This, also assumes the “past values” reflected what ordinary people wanted – or – were imposed by Far Righters in positions of power.
The American experiment in democracy and liberty evolved, 1789-1980. Laws were passed restricting corporate greed and cruelty, initiating a progressive income tax, “giving” women the vote, providing “civil rights” to persecuted people, “giving” people reproductive freedom, “giving” workers rights and union rights, providing for environmental protections, setting up public schools and libraries, protecting the press when it criticized government. Constitutional Amendments separated church and state; “The right of the people to be secure in their persons..”; outlawing slavery. The Constitution was approved ONLY because it was agreed a “bill of rights” would be added.
***** Review this list. Virtually ALL – have been attacked by the Far Right since 1980, these attacks are continuing, even escalating in the age of Trumpism.
***As this is posted, the Far Right, having successfully used numerous BIG LIES in 2016-2024, are now poised, with control of ALL four federal powers – House, Senate, president, a monstrously corrupt “supreme court” – to institute an agenda – “Project 2025” – that its dictatorial leader REPEATEDLY disavowed [hence, no “mandate” to institute it].
A conservative Republican president, Gerald Ford, once said “truth is the glue that holds government together.” Republicans like Ford have been PURGED out of the post-1980 Republican Party. Numerous “Eisenhower Republicans” have testified to this FACT.
So – what ARE people claiming to be “conservatives’??? – They ARE REACTIONARIES – by definition and action.
World Book Encyclopedia defines “reactionaries” thus: “A true conservative should also be distinguished from a reactionary. Reactionaries want to revolutionize existing society according to a model in past history.” [The models “our” Far Right likes are authoritarian and dictatorial]
Random House College Dictionary defines “reaction” thus: “a reverse movement..movement in the direction of extreme political conservatism or rightism.” [“our” Far Right wants to reverse 1789-1980 democratic gains]
In response to post-1980 rhetoric, actions, policies of the “Republican Party”, increasing numbers of works and studies on “fascism,” “authoritarianism,” truth, inequality, tyranny, corruption, and “Hoe Democracies Die”. have been published – including works by authors having worked in authoritarian states, warning what they observed there coming to America.
American society reached its STATISTICAL peak as a mass prosperous middle class society 1947-1973. This was “too good a del” for people like YOU in the eyes of the Far Right. The post-1980 REVOLT by REACTIONARIES is their DOCUMENTED response. GREED is a major factor, but so is “conservative” religion.
This movement has been studied, DOCUMENTED by quotes from the perps themselves. Reagan began it, justified it, with “government is the problem,” “privatization,” “deregulation.” tax cuts for the rich. G.W. Bush and Trump continued it, built on it.
The Far Right goal, which they’ve said themselves, is a PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. YOU can see this for yourself in post-1980 laws and policies – enacted by Republican-controlled states, by Far Right comic book Congressional characters, by a CORRUPT, anti-democratic, un-constitutional “supreme court.”
*** “Fascism should be more properly called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
[Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, 1922-1945]
Post-1980 “Republicans” are virtual TEXTBOOK REACTIONARIES – they want to REVERSE much of the 1789-1980 democratization of America, in order to create their. PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. They’ve said so – bring America back to 1950 Virginia, hinted at 1865-1900 “Gilded Age.”
The easiest way to understand this: review 2005-2024 “supreme court” rulings that favor and enable this: ending gun restrictions, enabling uncontrolled corporate “campaign contributions,” forcing YOU to support a church you DON’T attend, putting certain [“conservative”] religious values into American law over YOU, refusing to oppose gerrymandering [recognized 1800s forward as textbook corruption], allowing return to racial discrimination, giving any president “immunity” [like kings & dictators – the Founders’ #1 fear; corruption!!!], attacking governmental regulatory powers, undermining labor unions, violating church-state separation. – not to mention cruelties like “Ledbetter” and allowing a wrongly condemned man be executed. This is a BLUEPRINT for a PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY.
The incoming Trump dictatorship has already announced it INTENDS to persecute – using federal government power – any/all of its “enemies,” or, “enemies of the people”. [an ironic phrase associated with earlier dictatorships], with the help of a “loyalist” leading the FBI, a “loyalist” running the “justice” department.
The corporate state will be furthered by billionaires running a “department of government efficiency,” billionaires in the cabinet and government. Government institutions like the Post Office [already mismanaged by a previous Trump appointee, short=staffed, ORDERED to delay YOUR mail in order to get Amazon packages out on time!!!] – will be “privatized.” Attacks on public schools and libraries will continue so the Far Right can achieve the stated THEOCRATIC goal of having ALL American schools run by [the correct!] churches.
Taxes on billionaires and centi-millionaires will be cut by renewing provisions of the immoral, corrupt, anti-democratic Trump 2017 tax cut laws [which penalized middle class people like YOU] – in order to pay for these national debt blasting rich tax cuts – cuts in middle class benefits. MUST be made !!!! – a KNOWN math fact. – didn’t take long for America’s most famous BIG LIAR to renege on 2024 campaign promise did it??????
By appointing a large number of totally unqualified “loyalists” to run ANY large organization, the Trump dictatorship will advance the FAR RIGHT goal of destroying YOUR/ OUR American government’s ability to function. – which it will then use as an excuse to “privatize” government functions – profits of which will go to connected billionaires [as Putin’s kleptocracy has already shown how to do!!!]. HEY! – see how the FAR RIGHT plan works??????
***”The best way to take control over people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.” [Adolf Hitler]
Note: for more “food for thought,” see. “Mother Jones,” January-February, 2025 – especially “The Oligarch Election,” &”The Enemy Within”; also on the CORRUPT Roberts “supreme court” – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse”s. “The Scheme,” his DOCUMENTED expose of its 73-0 ideological scorecard in Appendix “A” !!!
Trump – How. To. Evaluate???
To evaluate ANY president – look to the Constitution’s Preamble:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure
domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America.”
ALL actions by a President Trump, or ANY president, must lead to and contribute to “Union..Justice…
Tranquility..provide for the common Defence..promote the general Welfare.”
SO – in Trump’s first term, did putting three rigidly “conservative” zealot “justices” on the already ethically challenged Roberts “court” lead to decisions that, in “justice” Thomas’ words, “follow the traditions and history” of America?
For example – where in 1787-2005 American “traditions and history” is there ANY suggestion the Founding Fathers did, or would have, ever EVEN considered giving any president ‘IMMUNITY’ for any actions he/she took? Why does Article II, Section 4, contain these words: “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States. shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and convicted of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” ???
If. ANY. president could be impeached – then why would the Founding Fathers give him/her ANY form of “immunity”? If they thought a president should be like a king, having immunity protection from his own citizens – then there’d be no impeachment possibility, right?????
How can we have “no man is above the law” – and give any president immunity??? How can we have a “democracy”. where “our” leaders have ANY form of immunity?????
***. “Corruption comes by degrees.” [ Juvenal ]
In his first term, Trump pushed 2017 tax cuts for the rich and corporations – which resulted in a 25% national debt increase. Now Trump wants to renew this obscenely anti-democratic and budget-busting act. Somebody, please, explain to me, how does cutting taxes on the rich and KNOWINGLY increasing the national debt do ANYTHING to “..promote the general Welfare..” ????????
Trump says [November 25th] he’ll pardon people convicted of participating in the l/6/21 attack on the U.S. Capitol “within hours of his inauguration.” Somebody, please, explain to me, how this helps “..establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility..” if people can, at will, invade and trash the U.S. Capitol, injure 140 police and cause police deaths, trying to prevent Congress from doing its duty on the 2020 election. Hundreds of INSURRECTIONISTS. have been convicted by “juries of their peer” all over America. What am I missing here. – what does Donald J. Trump “know” that neither i, nor legal scholars, know of the Constitution and Founding Father intent ???????????
If Trump imposes “sweeping tariffs” on all Canadian products, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government [12/12/24] said it is considering restricting exports of critical minerals, restricting electricity exports to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota – adding this would make electricity unaffordable for Americans. “If you put a 25% tariff on oil from Alberta that increases every gallon of gasoline by one dollar,” Ford said.
So – how does imposing 25% tariff increases on Canada help to “..promote the general Welfare..” by a president who. repeatedly in his 2024 election campaign promised to cut inflation and reduce costs for Americans??? What does Trump “know’ about economics numerous professors and Nobel Prize winners don’t ?????????
Trump has nominated a well known vaccine skeptic to lead thenDepartment of Health and Human Services. What does RFK, Jr. “know” about vaccines General Washington didn’t know when he ordered his Revolutionary War soldiers to be vaccinated against small pox??? What does RFK, Jr. “know” about vaccines research scientist Jonas Salk didn’t when he developed the polio vaccine in 1953, saving the lives and health of millions of American children???????
How doers Trump’s pick for new FBI Director, who has vowed to fire the agency’s leadership and dramatically reshape its mission “..establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility…promote the general Welfare..” ?????? How does virtually destroying one of the world’s top law enforcement agencies accomplish this??? How does this keep the FBI an independent agency, a non-political agency ??? Does putting a Trump “loyalist” in charge of America’s top law enforcement agency make them Trump’s personal secret police [like Russia, China, Iran, etc.]??? Is America going to return to the Nixon era FBI, where the FBI Director destroys incriminating documents, and lawbreakers like a president who broke federal law taking top secret documents to his private mansion [unsecured!] go unpunished???
***. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” [Wendell Phillips}
As far as billionaires cutting $2 trillion from YOUR government’s budget, consider: “The plans for the Department of Government Efficiency laid out by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are so riddled with legal problems hat a law professor in exam season could save a lot of time by using their recent Wall Street Journal op-ed as the fact pattern: All you’d have to do would be to ask students to identify the constitutional flaws.” [Harvard law professor Noah Feldman; l2/8/24; “The Supreme Court won’t save Musk’s DOGE plans”]: “..the piece de resistance is the idea..the president can simply choose not to spend money..Congress has appropriated..This absurd notion violates the basic text of the Constitution…violates a federal statute, the Impoundment Control Act of 1974..violates Supreme Court precedent..”
A “normal,” law-abiding president wouldn’t consider this, BUT – one with “supreme court” blessed “immunity”. [ignoring ordinary people like YOU]. can try this. Especially one who wants to cut taxes on people – like Musk and Ramaswamy and himself, on billionaires who contributed to his election.
*** “WE can either have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” [ Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis ]
Tariffs, like the post-1980 Republican tax cuts for the already obscenely rich, shift the cost of American civilization away from billionaires – to. – ordinary people like YOU; blow up the national debt [ from less than $1 trillion in 1980 to about $35 trillion in 2024] – which then can be used by the rich as an excuse for austerity. The choice should now be clear to YOU. – if America doesn’t tax ALL wealth equitably [see Adam Smith on taxing the rich proportionally!!!] [ then things like Social Security and Medicare will HAVE to be cut.
What am I “missing’ here? – this post says Trump II has the potential to destroy American democracy. – because just these here, let alone all other items in the 900-page FAR RIGHT WISH LIST: “Project 2025”. are intended to FINALIZE America’s transformation into a theocratic plutocracy. [. we are ALREADY several steps into this ]
Fellow Americans. – yxou tell me. – reading again the Constitution’s Preamble. – how much, if ANYTHING, in what Trump has already hinted at, said he’d do. – achieves. “..a more perfect Union, establish{es} Justice. insure[s] domestic Tranquility, provide[s] for the common defence [letting the Russians destroy Ukraine], promote[s] the general Welfare..” ?????
It’s ALREADY starting: Trump is WAFFLING. on his many promises to stop inflation and reduce YOUR grocery bills: “From the day I take the oath of office, we’ll rapidly drive down prices and make America affordable again.” [North Carolina speech]. NOW, after YOU elected him to do this, he says it will be “very hard” to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!
BECAUSE – reducing YOUR grocery bills will hurt the millionaires, monopolies, “margins” of Trump’s secret funders and Wall Street expectations
Brace YOURSELF – YOU’RE going to get another 4 years of this. – UNLESS YOU, YOU !!!!! raise holy hell with Republican Congress members, threaten to vote them out in 2026 – and then. DO. IT !!!
Promises made during elections by presidents with lifetime “immunity” against YOU; especially one with a history of 35,XXX known lies, do not uphold what America’s Constitution says, what our Founding Fathers intended. – NOT if America is to remain a “democracy.”
*** “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” [James Madison, Federalist. #47}
[Trumpism has NOW achieved Madison’s fears – controlling thr House, Senate, president, “supreme court”. – an “immune’ president, a CORRUPT “supreme court” [ perhaps THE most corrupt in American history], hundreds of COMIC BOOK “loyalist” characters in Congress, and appointed into “your” government}
Hatred – in the Trump Era
*** “Anew commandment I give to you, that ou love one another, as I have loved you.” [John 13: 34]
1] “Walmart rolls back DEI initiatives amid backlash”…”as conservative activists threaten boycotts on social media…Walmart will also discontinue DEI training..stop participating in the equality ratings by Human Rights Campaign..put guardrails on which community events, such as drag shows and Pride events, it supports through grants.”
“Walmart’s shift marks the latest win for the anti-DEI movement..gaining traction since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in university admissions…”
“DEI refers to a wide range of practices that seek to increase employment and educational opportunities for historically marginalized groups. But critics contend the programs end up discriminating against non-minorities and say that policies should focus on race neutrality.”
“The conservative backlash grows despite 6 in 10 Americans having said that DEI initiatives are “a good thing,” according to a poll from the Washington Post and Ipsos.” [Julian Mark, Andrew Jeong; 11/28/24; Washgtn Post]
*** “You shall love your neighbor as yourself…The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” [Leviticus. 19: 18, 34]
2] Have YOU ever noticed, people with Down’s syndrome are generally smiling and kind, they appear to hate nobody. They’re considered to be “handicapped” people. Isn’t it strange that people considered “handicapped” appear to hate NOBODY??? While people who DO hate others – are considered “normal”. people???
***. “The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.” [ Eric Hofer, “The True Believer” ]
3] In the last 10-15 years, numerous studies have been conducted on HATE and those that do, here are some:
A] “The Making of an American Nazi” [Luke O’Brien; December, 2017; The Atlantic]: ‘..during Trump’s candidacy suddenly it was OK to talk about banning Muslims or to cast Mexican immigrants as criminals and parasites..”
B]. “Addicted to Hate” [Wes Enzinna; July/August, 2018; Mother Jones]: “Starting at the age of 5, he received 2 hours of daily Bible study from his dad. He was schooled in the doctrine of “Christian identity,” which holds..the enslavement or extermination of all nonwhites will usher in the second coming of Christ.”
C]. “Make America Hate Again..Far Right Extremists Believe Trump’s Victory Has Catapulted Them Into Power..” [Josh Harkinson; January/February, 2017; Mother Jones]: “Thanks to Trump’s demagogic campaign..the alt-right now had an opportunity to inject racism, misogyny, and xenophobia into mainstream American politics…the normalization of the politics of hate.” [***. “..the NORMALIZATION OF THE POLITICS OF HATE.” ***]
*** “He that despises his neighbor sins.” [Proverbs. 14: 21]
4] “FBI says hate crimes in U.S. increased last year..More than 6,100 incidents were reported in 2016.” [Mark Berman; 11/14/17; Washington Post}
– “FBI reports spike in U.S. hate crimes..Total approaches level seen in 2008.” [Michael Balsamo; 11/17/20; Associated Press]: 7314 hate crimes in 2019; 7120 in 2018; 7783 in 2008 – which are UNDER-REPORTED because 2700 city police and county sheriffs DID NOT submit a single hate crime.
*** “Hatreds generally spring from fear or envy.” [ Machiavelli ]
5]. In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center established that there were at least 1,225 hate groups and anti-government groups; at least one in all 50 states.
*** “Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these things are things that I hate, says the Lord.” [ Zechariah. 8: 17 ]
6]. A MAJOR factor in post-1980 political turmoil and hate is perversion of religion. Read:
A] “When Religion Becomes Evil”. [Charles Kimball; 2002]: “The five warning signs of corruption in religion: absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the ‘Ideal Time’, the end justifies any means, declaring holy war.”
B]. “Thy Kingdom Come..How The Religious Right Distorts The Faith And Threatens America”. [Randall Balmer; 2006]: the religious right uses selective literalism “to locate sin outside of evangelical subculture;” designate evil behavior of outsiders.
C] “Preparing For War..The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next” [Bradley Onishi; 2023]: on January 6, 2021 , “..religious symbols were everywhere..White Christian Nationalism was a major unifying phenomenon among the insurrectionists.”
D]. “Church & State”. is a monthly publication dealing with efforts to make America a “Christian Nation;” and reports how ordinary people – like YOU – are victimized by religious zealots. Virtually every issue has several pages of SPECIFIC instances where Americans – like YOU – had their lives turned upside down by religious zealots.
***. “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there were a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. the hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”
[ Reverend Billy Graham ]
7] “Christian Nationalists were very prominent in the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. former Christian Nationalist Bradley Onishi reported “..busloads of White evangelicals were indeed among the rioters..dozens of people from churches in our home region had been there..” [ Church & State; March, 2023 ]
*** “I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me.” [ Republican Senator Barry Goldwater }
8]. “The Creep of Christian Nationalism”. [Elwood Watson; 4/1/24; The Progressive Populist}: “In 2022, a collection of right-wing writers and leaders published a document entitled “Conservatism: A Statement of Principles.” The section on God and public religion stated, “Where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision, which should be honored by the state and other institutions both public and private.”
“this is an alarming and troubling statement, implying non-Christians should have second-class status in our country. That Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and others should be deprived of equality under the law…the antithesis of worship enshrined in the Constitution.” [***!!!*** – And – consider this FACT: the biggest growing American “religious” group is: “the Nones”. – who belong to NO church – currently estimated about 30-34% of ALL American adults!!! – meaning; white Christian Nationalists are distinct MINORITY. – trying to establish THEIR theocracy over YOU. – with much significant help from the CORRUPT. Roberts “supreme court” ]
***. “I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man..being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
[. President George Washington. ]
9] Hatred corrodes the soul. If everybody that disagrees with us is our enemy, then perhaps that is why 198-2024
America has become what it is, and even more, all evidence of 2015-2024 shows. HATE. HAS. corroded the
collective American soul.
Clever communicators – on radio, TV, internet, public speeches – have POISONED the
minds of vulnerable, ill-informed & often desperate citizens – illustrated by vote
totals of 2010 – 2024.
Hatred conveniently divides and conquers citizens, who are too busy hating the wrong people – ignoring the REAL
villains – those with economic power – some of whom are now poised to inflict further harm in the name of
“reform,” or “government efficiency.”
***. “Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own
freedom of opinion havew always proved themselves intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?” [ General Robert E. Lee]
10] When you hate, you don’t think clearly and rationally. Witness 2024 events.
“One of America’s greatest presidents talked of. “Malice toward none, with charity for all..do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves..”
Little children don’t hate – they’re taught to hate.
Trump’s NON-EXISTENT. “mandate” – 2024 election
November 24th election reports indicated Trump had 49.9% of the popular vote. On December 4th, it was still 49.9%.
Trump does have the leading vote total – BUT – consider several inconvenient facts:
1] In presidential elections, a “landslide” winner has 55% of the vote, which gives them a “mandate.”
2]. The 2020 census said there were 258 million Americans, age 18 & over. The 2024 number will be higher. Only 161 million were 2024 registered voters – Trump got 77,193,117 votes – not even close to 50%.
3]. Before the election, Republicans controlled 55.3% of state legislative seats. November 15th results show Republicans had about 56% of state legislative seats – virtually NO gain.
4]. Republicans did maintain their current slim U.S. House majority.
5]. Republicans did manage to gain control of thr U.S. Senate – at least partially due to the fact Democrats were defending more seats.
6]. The two dominant 2024 issues were: the economy, specifically inflation & voter’s beliefs “it was all Joe Biden’s fault.” And immigration, with people feeling that too many “undeserving’ people were let in – “all Joe Biden’s fault.”
A]. since America is a “capitalist economy – if inflation was “Joe Biden’s fault” – how much of the 25% increase in YOUR food did Joe get? Since Joe has never been in the grocery business – it is ZERO dollars!
The real culprits are millionaires, monopolies, & “margins.” We have DOCUMENTED confessions by corporate CEOs they artificially jacked up their prices to take advantage of the COVID era. Do your own research: most industries in America are controlled by 2-3-4 BIG corporations – they dictate prices to suppliers, often collude to raise prices. Corporations maintain profit “margins” to satisfy Wall Street, make their CEOs obscenely rich – THEY aren’t going to take ANY hits in those “margins.” so YOU take those hits !!!
B] Immigration could’ve been “solved” by a BIPARTISAN congressional bill, drawn up by one of THE MOST CONSERVATIVE Senators – Trump wanted to run on immigration, so he ordered Republicans to kill the bill. This followed a long Republican pattern of sabotaging immigration laws since 2000.
7]. Trump repeatedly disavowed ANY connection to, ANY knowledge of PROJECT 2025 – therefore he has NO “mandate” to install ANY of ‘PROJECT 2025’s”. numerous anti-democratic provisions. He didn’t run. ON. it, he ran. AWAY. from it – therefore he has absolutely. NO. “mandate” to implement any of this FAR RIGHT wish list.
8] For perspective on what Americans DO want – consider the following polling facts:
A]. “Citizens are united in more ways than you might think”. [Steve Corbin; Fulcrum; 9/2/22]: According to the most recent data from Pew Research Center, National Election Studies, Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, & CNN polls…The surprising reality is Democrats, Republicans, & Independents agree on more issues – about 150 – than they disagree..some samples:
– Abortion: 61% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases
– Gender issues: ..71% of Americans support marriage between people of the same sex
– Gun control: Background checks are favored by 89%…Banning assault weapons has 63% support, while 64% want ot ban high-capacity magazines, &. 60% want a nationwide data base to track gun sales
– Immigration: 62% feel immigrants strengthen the country
– Voting: 66% of voters want to prevent state lawmakers from overturning elections, while 60% support universal vote-by-mail, &a majority want to make it easier to vote
– Health care: Providing Medicare for all Americans to ensure everyone has health care coverage garners 69% support
– Racial justice: 86% ..agree..racism is a problem, & 87% believe books that discuss race or slavery should never be banned
– Taxes: 71% of voters support raising taxes on the wealthiest 2%
Other issues in which a majority of Republicans & Democrats agree:
– Social Security: Raising the cap on income subject to the payroll tax to $215,000 or more
– Poverty programs: Increasing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
– Energy & environment: Reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2% a year & providing tax incentives to promote clean energy
– Government reform: Overturning the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision & regulating campaign financing
– International trade: The U.S. should continue participating in the World Trade Organization & rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump abandoned
– Federal budget: Rollback the tax cuts from Trump’s 2017 tax bill, impose a 4% surtax on income over $5 million & add a 1% surtax on corporate income over $100 million.
9]. “On the eve of the 2016 election..the Progressive Change Institute did a nationwide survey of likely voters. The results were stark:
– 84% want government to negotiate drug prices
– 79% support expanding Social Security
– 78% want “fair trade” that ends shipping our jobs overseas
– 77% want to tax corporations that moved jobs oversea
– 74% want all Americans to be able to buy into Medicare-for all
– 71% support massive infrastructure spending program aimed at rebuilding our broken roads & bridges 7 putting people back to work
– 70% want free college at all public universities
– 68% want a guaranteed minimum income
– 67% want government to be the employer of last resort to end unemployment
– 66% want the morbidly rich to pay at least a 50% income tax [ currently the average billionaire pays around 3% ]
– 65%. want big banks broken up & a return to local banking
– 64%. want net neutrality so your billion-dollar corporate internet & email providers can’t monitor everything you do online & sell that information
– 63% want public financing of elections to get billionaire money out of them
-60%. want the Post Office to offer inexpensive public banking.
[ Thom Hartmann; 2/15/24; The Progressive Populist}
A major test for Trump, o any president: do the things they push “..promote the general welfare..” [Constitution’s Preamble} ????? What if a Trump presidency backed all or most of the things American citizens said they wanted, as listed in #8 & #9 above?
How many things Trump & the people around him in Congress & out, are pushing will meet THE test to “..promote the general welfare..”??????? Will ANYTHING Trump & his followers want to do will “..promote the general welfare..”?
No respectable, fact-based, analysis of Trump’s tariffs show ANY positive results. What they do show is likely trade war[s], and that YOU will pay more for much/most of what YOU buy. ALL testimony from farmers involved says if Trump rounds up undocumented farm workers, some industries [dairy] might collapse, and the price of YOUR food WILL go up – not “might,” – WILL. go up.
The claim by Trump, and his followers & enablers, that he has some kind of “mandate” to enact broad changes to American government society is statistically and rhetorically FALSE. He did win the election, but neither 1789-2000 American history, nor having 49.9% of the vote enables a “mandate in any realistic and rational person. The bulk of Trump’s campaign was on two things – cutting YOUR costs and changing immigration policies.
Will Trump confront the REAL culprits for YOUR increased costs??? Maybe [if you’re lucky]. Some are quite likely people who funded his campaign. Will Trump offend billionaires he knows to cut YOUR costs???????
Building expensive “walls” on America’s southern border will NOT, already HAS NOT. worked. What works is more personnel on the ground, more funding for immigration courts, better technology & equipment, more cooperation from Mexico. Also – more drugs like fentanyl are brought into the U.S. by American citizens then smuggled in by foreigners!!!
A major goal of Trump &his corporate friends is cutting THEIR already low taxes by renewing the CORRUPT 2017 Trump tax cuts. Americans have long, consistently, said THEY. DO. NOT. WANT. TAX. CUTS. FOR. THE. RICH. – THEY WANT TAX INCREASES FOR THE RICH [ who, increasingly since 1980 – are NOT paying their fair share.
The great, historic, 1947-1973 mass middle class prosperity occurred during a period when the highest marginal tax rates on the rich AVERAGED 81%. [now it is about 1/3 that; we have record numbers of billionaires]
If Trump cuts taxes further on the obscenely rich – the result will be increased taxes on YOU and/or cuts in popular American programs [SocialSecurity & Medicare] – which is what billionaire Musk wants to do to YOU.
Another result of more Trump tax cuts on the obscenely rich will be an increased U.S. national debt [which IS what happened as a result of his 2017 tax cuts]. – already dangerous & unsustainable – which the FarRight wants to use an an excuse to cut programs that benefit YOU – like Social Security &Medicare.
Donald J. Trump. DOES NOT have a “mandate”. for what he and the FAR RIGHT. REALLY want to do. – and even worse, if Trump & his enablers do what they [now] say they want to do – STATISTICALLY it. CANNOT. –
‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” – because the REAL NUMBERS DON’T add up.
[for YOU, Mr. and Mrs. lower 90%]
The. DISGRACE. of the era of Trump
People are short and tall, fat and skinny, old and young, sick and healthy, smart and stupid, have brown eyes and blue, blond hair and brown, white-brown-black-red-yellow skin, rich and poor, wise and reckless, good and evil, straight and LGBTQ. They were. ALL. created by the same God-Yaweh-Allah-Great Spirit.The premise of America was they’re ALL. equal; that government would treat them ALL as equals. Christ said as YOU do unto the least, YOU do it onto me.” The miracle of 1775-1791 was that humans built a government unlike any other: “a republic if YOU can keep it.” Lincoln spoke of “a government of the people, by the people, FOR the people.” King said: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.” Teddy R said: “We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world..and shame and disgrace will be ours..if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of man.”
WE ARE disgraced. By our conduct these last 44 years. We HAVE dishonored the sacrifices of the Founding Fathers [AND Founding Mothers!], of Valley Forge, of Gettysburg, of Belleau Wood, of Pearl Harbor-Midway-Normandy, of the Frozen Chosin, of the Nam, of Iraq-Afghanistan; the sacrifices of ALL the men and women who built America.
We ARE disgraced. because hope-love-tolerance have been replaced by greed-hate-intolerance; because we’ve listened to false prophets spouting twisted theories; because we forgot who we’re supposed to be; because we allowed the fear of “the Other” to distract us from our REAL problems – and – the people causing the damage.
We ARE disgraced because. we’ve allowed the progressive 20th century [real] reforms based around the idea that the wealth of America should be shared by ALL – to be replaced with a ‘winner-take-all’ economy in which a small rich and connected minority enjoy truly OBSCENE wealth at the expense of the other 330 million citizens.
We ARE disgraced because. we’ve voted for the increasingly radical, reactionary, greedy charlatans who’ve violated every premise America was built upon. They’ve run up the national [tax cuts for the rich]; they’ve perverted tax laws [numerous loopholes for the rich and connected]; they’ve attacked everything that is “us” – national parks [“privatize” them]; public education [let religion run it]; courts and laws [appointed hundreds of R-w zealots, topped by a CORRUPT Roberts “supreme court”]; the notion of public service [“deep state”]; public infrastructure [underfunded and disintegrating]; the political system [a “fair” election is where they win]; basic scientific knowledge [denial of global warming, demonization of vaccines, denial-demonization of 2 plus 2 equals 4 truths].
We ARE disgraced because. people who supposedly represent us are seriously proposing we kick millions off medical care and retirement benefits so “we’ can give obscenely rich billionaires MORE tax cuts; because various tax law ‘reforms’ are DESIGNED to mainly benefit the obscenely rich; because language itself has been twisted to cover up the 44 years of R-W CORRUPTION.
We ARE disgraced because. we’ve declared war on innocent countries [based on LIES]; we’ve committed war crimes – and are NOW enabling further war crimes; our policies have led to economic repression and depression; we’ve forgotten lessons of the 1920s-1930 – and ARE, right this moment – continuing to forget the lessons of 1936-12/7/41.
We ARE disgraced because. we’re not leaving our children and grandchildren the same America our parents-grandparents [the “Greatest Generation”] trie3d to leave us; some of us arrogantly try to FORCE ALL of us to live by their religious beliefs. Mark Twain said it best: “Why can’t we just leave everybody the hell alone.”
We ARE disgraced because. we not only have “trailed in the dust the hope of the world,” but the hopes of far too many decent Americans – by design, from GREED, by people already well off.
We have a choice. We CAN be the America of “Let them eat cake;” OR, we CAN be the America of “We all do better when we ALL do better.” We CAN be the America that believes 95% of ALL people are good; OR, we can be the America that wants to build walls and believes “the Other” is out to get them. We CAN be the America that. says “Government is the problem;” OR, we CAN be the America that has the faith of our Founding Generations that government exists to provide civilization to us ALL, together. We can be the America that says “freedom” is what I say it is; OR, we CAN be the America that allows others to live their lives, within fair laws, on their own terms.
We still have time. BUT….. the shadows of authoritarian austerity. are closing in on us. “The angels of our better nature” are slowly losing out to the devils of our worst natures. When tested in the past at Valley Forge, during the Civil War, during the 1930s Great Depression, during the dark days of World War II, with positive and democratic leadership – the American people have risen to meet the challenge. Will we NOW – when we have faulty and false leadership? Barbara Streisand said it best: “People who love people are the luckiest people.”
King Donald J. Trump, I. – versus. – The American Revolution
Americans revolted against imperial British control, beginning in the 1760s. The Proclamation of 1763 restricted American’s movements. The 1764 “Sugar Act” was a tax on imported goods. The 1767 Townshend Acts were taxes on imported goods. On March 5, 1770 – British soldiers fired on Americans – the Boston Massacre. The 1773 Tea Act gave preferential treatment to the East India Company. The December 16, 1773 “Boston Tea Party” protested that tax. The 1774 “Intolerable Acts” closed the Boston harbor, restricted Massachusetts legislature activities, and gave added powers to the royal Massachusetts governor. “Those powers in effect made him a dictator.” [World Book Encyclopedia]
These events led to two “Continental Congress[es],” Lexington & Concord, Bunker Hill [“Breed’s Hill], the Declaration of Independence.
The American Revolution was a revolt against 1] a king and his nobility; 2]. an “established” [official state] church;
3] preferential treatment for a corporation.
The Founding Fathers [ there were no “Founding Mothers” – another story !!! ] had four major5 fears: corruption [easily #1 – word “corruption” written n Madison’s notes 54. times ]; slavery [ racism ]; religion; mobs. Events of 1970-2024 have illustrated their reasons why. YOU. have seen ALL these occur. YOU have also witnessed state and federal government engage in 1760s and 1770s laws and policies against YOU.
States have passed laws against American women traveling to obtain medical care. King Donald I has proposed taxes [“tariffs”] on imported goods. King Donald I was prevented from ordering “his” American soldiers to fire on demonstrating American civilians by patriots in his administration. Preferential treatment WILL be given to privileged corporations. [ their lobbyists are working on this NOW !!!] against King Trump’s tariffs. “Red” states have already passed preemptive laws preventing cities in their states giving relief to citizens from oppressive Right-Wing legislative acts. King Donald I has demanded he be given the “right” to appoint his loyalists to government posts without Congressional approval; has demanded the “right” to appoint loyalists to government posts without traditional, long-standing bipartisan practice use of FBI background checks. King Donald I passed a 2017 tax cut that added 25% to the national debt – proposes to renew that anti-democratic tax cut for American nobility [ top 1% ].
King Donald I enters the presidency with a pre-determined 900-page wish list of laws and policies backed by the American nobility, PROJECT 2025. He wants to appoint 2 billionaires to a special “efficiency” committee, outside government [ so they don’t have to be vetted !!!], which proposes to cut $2 trillion from government services – cutting government services to YOU so American nobility [ top 1% ] can pay fewer, if any, taxes.
King Donald I has already, in 2017-2021, appointed “his kind of judges,” some have already issued specific rulings favoring him. His appointees on an ALREADY. CORRUPT Roberts “supreme court”. [ see Soviets, Nazis, Putin, China. for how this works ] have issued an INFAMOUS. 100%. HISTORICAL. LIE. in 2024 granting King Donald I. IMMUNITY. for all “official acts,” apparently including asking Georgia for 12,000 more votes, a “perfect” phone call to Ukraine seeking “dirt” on his political rival, and now – almost. ANYTHING. King Donald I does in 2025-2029.
George Washington was and IS revered for things he did, and, for things he did NOT do. To the incredulity of European leaders and kings, Washington voluntarily gave away the power of an army that had won a war – he simply resigned. During that war, Washington forbade his soldiers plundering goods from ANY population, including Tories – because they were only citizens on temporary duty – and, they weren’t “his” soldiers. Washington, single-handed, put down a possible revolt by leaders of that army – by shaming them. Washington wanted to give up the presidency after one term; was persuaded to stay because “America needed him.” After his second term, Washington refused another – which he easily could have had – and – simply went home.
The vast powers of an American presidency were provided for one reason in 1787-89: they were designed for one man, because of their faith in him: George Washington. Among many positive characteristics, Tom Nichol, in “Washington”s Nightmare Donald Trump is the tyrant the first president feared.” [The Atlantic; November, 2024], “..three of Washington’s most important qualities:…his refusal to use great power for his own ends, his extraordinary self-command, and, most oƒ all, his understanding..national leaders in a democracy are only temporary stewards of a cause far greater than themselves.” King Donald I has NONE of these qualities, N. O. N. E.
King Donald I is THE man the Founders feared. Remember this exchange in Philadelphia, on September 17, 1787, as delegates from the Constitutional Convention left….. a woman asked Benjamin Franklin: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin’s reply: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
THAT, dear friends, is. THE. QUESTION: do. YOU. wish to keep the America of 1789 – 1980. – or. are YOU. going to allow King Donald I and the American nobility to turn the oligarchy they’ve already created into a full monarchy ???
A second follow-up question: given what the American nobility has already done, 1970-2024. [cutting THEIR taxes, increasing THEIR wealth & power], is the enthronement of King Donald I. – THE FINAL ACT ??????
Does this mean the American Revolution has now been repealed ???????????
Trumpism – and a May 21, 2022 letter
My friends, this message is in your hands because – I greatly fear for America. For some of you, this will be a difficult thing to read. I only ask is that you think on what is being said – mostly not by me
Increasingly, people of good intent are saying things we never would have thought: an increasing number of people are expressing doubts about democracy as a concept, about America as a country. Most important here: WHY? are they saying this?
I offer here some topics for you to think on:
1] Truth – in recent years/decades, the very idea of “truth” has become negotiable. Some insisting there are always, “two sides of the story.” NO, sometimes there aren’t. It is a strategy used by authoritarians: muddy the waters, get people confused. Putin is the master of this. This is “the tobacco defense.” Trump did/does it – the “stolen election” mantra is only what he’d done his entire post-age 10 life.
2] Faith in government – it has been a deliberate strategy for some on the political-economic “right’ to sabotage faith in American government. WHY? Because people of power don’t need government. Former Koch employees have publicly said: Charles Koch wanted to crush government because it was the ONLY thing on earth restraining him. For over 60 years, people like those in the John Birch Society have pushed this. Reagan then made it “respectable” to say government was the problem, not the solution.
3] Changing the rules. This, at bottom, is issue #1. Starting with big corporations around 1970 – the economic right decided they didn’t want to share America’s wealth with their workers. They began to attack and weaken ANY union. They moved jobs to “right to work” states, then Mexico, then S.E. Asia, finally China. Unions lost the ability to strike. The current, greatest force: the CORRUPT McConnell/Roberts “supreme court.” R-W legal groups find ‘perfect test cases,’ then run them up “the conveyor belt” of Mitch McConnell constructed ‘conservative’ courts, to the CORRUPT McConnell/Roberts “supreme court.” Presto! that kangaroo group CHANGES THE RULES.
4] The CORRUPT McConnell/Roberts “court.” If you believe anything other than those 6 “justices” are on that “court” to do anything but CHNAGE THE RULES, you are a lot more trusting, possibly naive, than I think. We have the quotes, confessions, actions, etc. that, since 1968, this IS THE INTENT. Research the major McConnell/Roberts “court’ decisions. the PATTERN is that [before the 3 current religion cases] “religious right” groups have a 90% win rate. The McConnell/Roberts “court” is THE most “business-friendly” “court” since 1945. Roberts came on the “court” with 2 agendas: race and religion. [**** note: this is before Senator Sheldon Whitehouses”s “The Scheme”. about the CORRUPT Roberts “court” was published – it revealed “the Roberts Five” had a 73-0 record on ideological cases!!!]
5]. Economic Inequality – this is a major cancer for America. From 1789-1980, virtually every generation did better than their parents. Since 1970, this has been DELIBERATELY sabotaged. Please read Wilkinson & Pickett”s. “The Spirit Level,” or Joe Stiglitz” “The Price of Inequality” [Nobel Prize winner], or Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston’s “Divided. The Perils of Our Growing Inequality.” OR – you can research pre- and post-1980 [unspun] IRS income stats. ANY economy in which a high school grad can not thrive, support their family, is IMMORAL.
6]. The internet. – If I had my way, humans would NEVER think of this concept. I understand most of you are on it, for “normal” activities, of pleasure and business. YOU are NOT the problem The idealistic goals of internet creators have been shattered by the criminal use of it. The I-net is now used by organized crime gangs, by terrorists, by racists, by scam artists. they are undermining the basic concepts of law and order, of honesty in business, of simple human decency, of democratic government. The I-net is ruled by rumors, deliberate lies, monstrous falsehoods, etc. – all sabotaging human civilization. [*** note; this ignored the use if the I-net for political purposes – mainly the spreading of BIG lies, debunked rumors, etc – the 2024 election was DETERMINED by I-net falsehoods & blatant lies]
7] The South – is and always has been – a cancer on America. It has NEVER outlived the use of slavery, then KKK and Jim Crow, now discrimination. think on this: from 1830-1860, 300 WHITES were lynched in the South, others “run out of town” [literally], tarred & feathered – because – they made the mistake of not supporting slavery. this anti-Black discrimination also covered “poor white trash” and now ALL who live there. the South is THE most backward region – health-wise, education-wise, economically [see “The Spirit Level”]. The South now has outsized influence on ALL American culture and politics – largely negative [see recent Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida laws].
[*** 176 Electoral College votes of Trump’s 300 plus came from the old 1861-65 Confederacy; the South is the center of anti-abortion laws and other “Christian Nationalist” cultural laws***]
8] World War II – and – China. America was on the winning side of WW II because of British courage, 27 million dead Russians, and the American economy buried the Nazis and Japanese on tidal waves of equipment. America won the Cold War because the Russians couldn’t keep up with the American economy. We can’t fight the Chinese – they have our industry. The Chinese broke an international treaty of 50 years in half that time in Hong Kong – the response of American industry was to ignore that – BIG MESSAGE to the world. If then, they had done what they’re doing in Russia, maybe…. But – the GREED of the top 1% owned “American” corporations is such they couldn’t/won’t – too many profits. American jobs are in china so “American” corporations can dodge taxes, regulations, living wages for American workers – we have the quotes, confessions, etc. by the perps.
9]. Housing – is a symbol of what hedge fund-private equity-secret anonymous shell companies have done to ordinary Americans. They are. IMMORAL. They’ll do. ANYTHING. to make a profit – and have done it. Now, multiple stories and sources are reporting on this. The latest is today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune story on real people in Duluth fighting against these funds of “investors’ buying up housing there for “vacation rentals.” A real estate agent told me that in some Minneapolis neighborhoods – 50% – of the housing was owned by these groups. A recent PBS, and also CBS, stories – discussed how “investors” have been buying up housing from Calif – to – the Atlantic in the southern half of the USA – then jacking up the cost of housing. You’ll be reading more stories like this. If. EVERYTHING. is “commodified” – for sale – what of America is left?
10] Guns. Research what the Founders INTENDED: Articles of Confederation, Article VI [“..every state shall always kep a well regulated & disciplined militia..”]; Madison’s original – 3 part – draft for the Second Amendment – pay special attention to the 3rd phrase [..’but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service.”]; the Senate changed Madison’s word order – so “A well-regulated militia..” came FIRST; the 1792 [May 3 & 8] Militia Acts [read it ALL: the DUTY of 18-45 white males, military ranks, care for the wounded & disabled].
The 2nd Amendment, and all others, was passed on December 15, 1791 – the 1791 Militia Acts were passed within 5 months. Do you think, just maybe, these two were connected? Check the rules of grammar – since when does one get the full meaning of a sentence [2nd Amendment] by reading half of it???
There were at least 5 Supreme Court rulings, 1789 – 1939, that the 2nd Amendment was to protect citizens having guns for MILITARY reasons, so the 48 states would have their own military forces – as a political measure.
Most of you are over age 50. You’ve been around enough. America, 2022, is not what America was earlier, especially if you lived 1947-1973. that innocence is gone. That faith in “the system” has been sabotaged. SO – WHO are the winners?
For some of you this will be difficult – for the first time in American 1789 – history, we have a major political party that is – steadily, especially since 1980, sliding towards many un-democratic thoughts and actions. For the first time in American 1789 – history, we have a major political party that is all but owned by two groups: its billionaire donors and its religious voters.
People within this party have publicly confessed: what were formerly “fringe” ideas are now driving this party’s discussions and policies. Research the “14 characteristics of fascism” – how many, honestly, o YOU see as here or beginning to creep into American talks and policies? – Be honest – what do the facts – what exists – tell you?
WHY did some “American” conservatives” recently go to Hungary for their annual convo? WHO else was there? Why have some praised Hungary’s dictator? Why have some praised Putin? Why do some praise Putin a s an example of “Christian faith? [***note: can you conceive of Americans praising Joe Stalin ???]
If you examine laws passed in regressive states – mostly the South – what PATTERNS jump out to you? Who are the “winners” and “losers” of those laws? How do these laws measure up to basic American principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Preamble, let alone things said by the Founders, Lincoln, Supreme Court giants?
There is NO joy in this letter. Recent events have revealed a very dark side of this blessed nation. America is no longer the heirs of the Founders – Scandinavia is, Canada is.
I greatly fear for my children and granddaughters. Please think on what I’ve said; think if it is time for good people like you to act, to speak out.
So – here we are, it is Tuesday, November 26, 2024 – little, if anything worried about or discussed above has changed – in fact, much of it has gotten worse. The 2024 election had much hatred, lies, fear, misinformation, racism, misogyny either blatantly said – or unspoken, but in people’s minds.
Democracy is fragile – we are now, in 2024-2029, about to find out exactly how. We are going to find out if the American people are willing to fight to keep the democratic gains of 1900 forward – or meekly let them be taken away. We are going to find out if “divide and conquer” will work. We are going to find out if America is a “democracy” – or, if the Right Wing goal of a plutocratic theocracy has now been achieved.
We are already disgraced – we have elected THE anti-George Washington president – in spite of his own voters admitting he IS a despicable person, but they think he’ll “make America great again’ – against all evidence from his first term , and his 2021 rhetoric and actions
“Our” government is now in the hands of people who don’t believe in it – indeed, apparently, they intend to weaken or destroy it – if you haven’t, find critical analysis of “PROJECT 2025 – the blueprint of a Right-Wing think tank – on how the new Trump administration can do this, or “as some are saying’ the “Mein Kampf of what the Right Wing wants to do TO America.
Time is getting short. You may want to think if 2024 is the last REAL election.”
With Justice For All 
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