Category Archives: Politics

Accusation of Elitism

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California is on fire again. So, what else is new?

The 4000-acre Franklin fire in Malibu, CA, is forcing thousands out of their homes. Cher and Dick Van Dyke had to flee from their homes. Physical reality has come a-callin’ to the world of celebrity.

The other news today is the letter signed by 77 Nobel prize laureates urging the senate not to approve the appointment of RFK, Jr, to head the HHS. The presidential transition team reportedly groused that they weren’t about to take any advice from a bunch of elites who were trying to tell Americans “What to do and how to do it” regarding health care.

We have elite service men and women and elite police officers. Sports has its elite athletes. This is all positive and in common usage. But MAGA GOPers use the word ‘elite’ like a switchblade against liberals and the highly credentialed. To presume that you know a thing or two and have some credentials to back it up is considered a form of public indecency to the GOP Know-Nothings.

The accusation of elitism is ironic coming from Trump’s band of sh*tbirds on the transition team. You don’t think they’re a gaggle of elites?

There has always been a genuine reverence out there for people who are ‘down to earth’. It is part of the inherent goodness-of-the-poor trope where simple folk are praised for their perceived moral purity which is unfettered by the temptations of the world at large. Simple, good and decent folk of modest means who go to church and take care of themselves and their neighbors. You know, the rabble. The privileged sometimes feign noblesse oblige, especially if others are watching. There has always been the poor and the hapless people of the world. But given actual opportunity to improve and enrich themselves, many if not most will take it. Being poor all by itself is an exhausting, soul-sucking life.

I’ve known city people and farm people. The Harvard educated and the 8th grade country school graduates and the many in between. I’ve lived in a very large city and a small Iowa farm. In medium cities and small towns. Everywhere you look you’ll find a statistical distribution of saints and sinners. But among them you’ll also find many of those who are bitterly resentful of another’s success or just disappointed in their lot in life. They slave away at go-nowhere jobs all day and then return home to see television programs packed with beautiful and successful people. Or while shopping they will see products that are wildly out of their price range but nonetheless in common usage. The period of life that they could have gotten an education or training and the resulting opportunities are long gone. They’re stuck. If they had a chance at a better life, it has likely passed.

Then along comes a charismatic character who speaks to you. He is a successful billionaire, businessman and reality TV star who speaks of a mismanaged world where the economically oppressed can stick it to the ‘elites’ in Washington who are keeping them down. The reasoning goes like this: If he is a billionaire, real estate mogul and TV star, he must also be able to apply his business skills to govern the US. Success in business is an all-around qualification for government, right? His language is salty and his accusations are often libelous. Conservative evangelical protestant churches all over the country have come out in favor of the guy. Some are convinced he is heaven sent to trigger the second coming of Christ. If pastors are saying it, it must be true, right?

So, the guy gets elected as chief executive of the US government. Then he is selected as Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’. If you recall, the designation isn’t always a valentine to the person and their impressive deeds. Rather, it is a marker representing the large-scale influence the awardee has had. Just like numbers on the number line, influence can have a positive or a negative sign depending on which direction they’ve taken. Despicable characters like Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942), Adolph Hitler (1938), Ruhollah Khomeini (1979) and Vladimir Putin (2007) have been selected for this award along with many decent people. That Trump and his flock of sheep will take it as a powerful endorsement should not be a surprise.

The accusation of the ‘elite’ status of an educated person is an attempt to slander a person. It is an ad hominem attack. Rhetorically, it is meant to deflect attention from a person’s argument and instead attempt to disqualify the person themselves. At least since Reagan, GOP has long been fond of attacking academics or other recognized experts in a field because they are able to use established facts and logic to back their arguments. To a populist, this is a type of power that academics ‘elites’ can uniquely wave around that must be overcome. So, when up against facts that argue against the populist, they get dirty. This is Courtroom Drama 101, straight out of law school. You try to destroy the credibility of the contradicting expert, or in this case the elite person or their entire field.

Colleges and universities award diplomas to graduates as only a token of achievement. It is an official endorsement of a person’s education and intellectual growth by their institution. It certifies that the graduate has met a list of standards in their field of education. It is not a certification in all around knowledge. A degree is a union card that helps, but does not guarantee, a person gain entry-level admission into their chosen field.

When I do something stupid, my spouse likes to wave the irony flag with great amusement to contrast my chemistry PhD education with my stupid move. I have to point out that the degree is only for a tiny sliver of a very large and esoteric field, mostly meaningless in daily village life. Actually, the degree is less than meaningless overall, given the amount of time (June 1980 to June 1992) spent on a chemical education versus investing in real estate, contributing to a retirement fund, finance, auto mechanics, carpentry, landscaping and many other useful skills. It’s a big trade-off that I took willingly.

There is a very positive side to elitism. In addition to the negatives like cliquishness and snobbery, people who might be called elite have gone beyond the extra mile to acquire expertise in a particular area which has been endorsed by accredited educational institutions. These people get hired by organizations because their expertise is valuable. People who become immunologists and virologists, for instance, are hired and put to work in public health. These people are highly educated and their opinions should be taken seriously. They are not extruded out of a political party apparatus and placed in health agencies with a political agenda. Ideologs think this way because it validates their half-assed arguments. Of course people will evolve political leanings over time, but doesn’t everybody? Why replace people based on educational merit regardless of their politics with people based primarily on their loyalty? This is how fascism soaks into a society.

Good Question Regarding Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

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Somebody asked this question on social media-

“In order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, which member of your family should take a cut in Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security?

Pick one whose benefits you can chisel down or who could move in with you for 24/7 care. You’ll need to stock up on Depends disposables and grab bars in the bathroom. Should we have a louder voice in this or do we leave it to a pack of red-state Bible-belt slicksters? Looks we just blew our chance.

Abstract ideas about tax cutting for large companies and claw back of benefits all need to be personalized. Who exactly are the princely congressional GOP elites trying to impress by their talk of cutting or eliminating the social safety net? Each other? The mandarins at the various conservative think tanks? The talking heads at Fox News? The MAGA-folk just getting by? It would appear that the House and the Senate are just runways for the preening members to catwalk for validation.

Why, yes. I am indeed being snarky. And why not?

China Bans the Export of Materials Key to Electronic Devices

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Guess what? In response to the Biden’s administration’s efforts to restrict US companies from doing business with 140 Chinese companies, severe export license controls have been put in place. China has responded by banning export of materials critical to the production of semiconductors and other electronic-related articles. This includes gallium, germanium, graphite and antimony- materials required to practice much of our electronics technology. The ban includes diamonds and super-hard synthetic materials (abrasives?). Tungsten, magnesium and aluminum may be next.

The US has previously “restricted advanced semiconductor technology to companies in other countries, though it excluded companies in key allies like Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands that are thought to have adequate export controls of their own” according to Elaine Kurtenbach writing for Manufacturing.Net.

Not helping is Trump’s loud and repeated yammering about import duties. Is he unaware of China’s considerable ability to strike back? Or can’t he be bothered with details like this during his nationalistic diatribes?

Maybe the Biden/Trump Whitehouse is not aware or troubled by the extent to which China has been blessed with most of the world’s supply of many critical elements. The materials subject to Chinese export controls are included in the 50 critical minerals as identified by the US Geological Survey. Key among them are gallium and germanium. Neither of them have been exported to the US by China for a long time. Antimony shipments to the US have plunged as well.

Germanium comes from zinc refining and the US gov’t has a large stockpile. Gallium is a byproduct from bauxite in aluminum production. Antimony is often isolated as a side stream in silver, copper and lead production. Antimony is alloyed at 0.5 to 1.5 % with lead electrodes in lead-acid batteries to harden them. Antimony can be recovered from the lead.

And then there are the rare earth elements (REE). China has the largest deposits and has become unwilling to export unprocessed REEs, instead preferring to sell up the value chain. It is the business savvy way to do it, after all.

American Experiment Goes Rogue, Updated

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I posted this essay December 19, 2016, and am reposting it with some editing today, November 22, 2024.

Much as I would like to indulge in witty and ironic commentary about the results of the 2016 general election, it would be yet another steaming load of pathetic word paste gumming up the internet. There are no words or sentences you could construct that would make a meaningful difference in the direction our wobbling American culture seems headed for.

I’m left with the conclusion that only civil disobedience can disrupt the unholy congress of corporate media, banking, energy and the foetid red-light district of governmental-industrial conjugation. After all, aren’t the B-school gurus always going on about disruption? It’s good, right?

Could it be that donors and lobbyists amount to a 3rd house of Congress?

Enormous corporations, it seems, no longer have need of our democratic republic. Fortunes are stashed abroad, sheltered in tax havens lest a slice finds its way into public kitty. Corporations benefit from the use of American infrastructure- you know, public education, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, FBI, FDA, NIH, NASA, NSF, public highways, airways, NOAA, etc., etc. Deregulation is creeping forward. We live in a period of reconstruction. Neoliberal doctrines are taking hold in state and federal government.

America has become a big barrel of fish, stunned by the high voltage of short life-cycle consumer goods and ever spiraling planned obsolescence. Neoliberalism seeks to help businesses harvest these fish. We relent and become increasingly compliant with the tightening harness of ever advancing complexity and the cloying whispers of big data and AI.

Neoliberalism has hoped for this moment for decades when a character like Trump and both houses of congress filled with MAGA Republicans take control the government. Project 2025 is a grocery list of desired policy reforms the bastards have been wanting forever. Like the quivering desire of a lusty 18-year-old, capitalism knows only one thing- that it wants more. Always more and in bigger gulps. The acceleration of dollars over time squared must be greater than zero in perpetuity. Our brains soon grow tired of static luxury and comfort. Satisfaction is only transient.

The invisible hand of the market, we’re told, will surely trickle down a baptism of unexpected benefits to the masses, if only the rotten buggers would let the acquisitive 1 % have their way. After all, if your taxes are lower, the first thing a business owner will do is to add hirelings. Right? Wrong. The extra profits will be socked away. Why hire people if demand is level but taxes drop? This libertarian dream was fomented in the early Reagan years as supply-side economics postulated by economist Arthur Laffer and his famous curve.

In the inflationary period we are just coming out of, why not raise your prices 25 % even though your costs have only risen 10 %? If other companies are raising their prices, raise yours by a like percentage to match. Your price increase may be taken by customers as part of the wide-spread inflation. After all, price is what the customer is willing to pay, right? If they are accustomed to inflation elsewhere, maybe they will just pay your new price, bogus as it may be.

The gospel of laissez-faire is practically physics if you listen to the economists and B-school graduates. A force of nature both inevitable and irreducible. Capitalism is fine if you have capital to use. If your capital is your own stoop labor or assembly work, then maybe it isn’t such a great thing.

Taking to the streets is a form of persuasion that has rewarded many movements here and abroad. In thermodynamics, power is the rate at which work is done through the transfer of energy. Anthropological power lies in the ability to allocate and focus resources on a need or desire. Money is power because for a price, you can persuade someone to get most anything done. There is no shortage of those who would step up to the challenge or sell their souls or accept any spiritual disfigurement for the hefty jingle of lucre in their pockets.

If the tin ears of corporate media are deaf to the reasoned voices of those who don’t buy advertising, then what is left for us to do? In this general election cycle a species of disrupter was reelected president. This charismatic fellow can work a crowd like Castro or Hugo Chavez or Mussolini or (add your own dictator)? A large crowd in the spell of a colorful and grandiose orator seeking high office meets the show business (i.e., news) definition of “compelling.” If the event results in fisticuffs or tempers flaring like Roman candles, so much the better. Media is hyper-focused on “compelling”. Either as a savior or a freak show, Trump attracts the eyeballs and pumps up the ratings. He has been on television every day somewhere for over 8 years.

Electronic news broadcasting is to a large extent a freak show. The whole news industry exists because of our irresistible primate compulsion to stand and stare. A key element of a good story is conflict. Look at any movie. The writers take a sympathetic character and do terrible things to them. There is a chase, violence, intrigue and reconciliation with a twisty ending in three acts. Sound familiar? TV is constructed to do this and they are good at it. And it sells. Watch Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent.

Civil disobedience, as opposed to mere picketing, makes meaty footage because there is the possibility of imminent violent conflict. It is compelling. As an exercise in power, though, immediate resolution rarely happens. The power aspect comes to play when and if establishment politicians are forced to face reelection. Often establishment authority is refractory to public scrutiny. But when voter support disappears, it can fold like a lawn chair.

To overcome Trump we must put together compelling footage for broadcast.

Pride and Shame

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Having been born, educated and now nearing retirement from a scientific career in the USA, there are things about this country I am proud of and things that I’m ashamed of. I take ‘pride’ to mean that ‘I value my association with’. I take ‘shame’ to mean my negative reaction to and regret with certain instances of moral turpitude.

What shame I may have in my country’s actions and policies over time isn’t necessarily due to uniquely American traits. We’re humans after all with all of the pluses and minuses that go with it. However, the pluses and minuses in conjunction with our burgeoning economic power over time and the rich natural resources we hold allow us to impose our will with in-house treasure. Conveniently, we don’t have to invade another country for oil or iron ore to drive our industry. However, our lust for cheap oil & gas has led to considerable trouble.

American Pride

I’m proud of the founders who disconnected from Great Britain despite the sacrifices in blood and treasure during the late 18th century and founded this unique republic. While the founders wisely developed a founding document to avoid the problems of monarchy and establish a functioning republic, there were significant omissions such as banning slavery or establishing equal rights for women.

I’m proud of our steady progress in all of the various technologies that have removed the sharp edges from what nature has historically imposed on us: Disease, predation, high infant mortality, brief lifespans and primitive life. In many ways the march of technological advancement has been a benefit to all of us and the rest of the world as well.

I’m proud of the advancement of women, albeit too slow, in our civilization. The march forward is not nearly finished, but to have advanced women from chattel to some level of equality is a plus.

I’m proud of our country for the advancements made towards global peace and prosperity since WWII. The years of our liberal democracy since then are unmatched in history.

I’m proud of the positive global interventions for peace we’ve made since the start of WWI.

I’m proud that my country has been a prominent global influence for peace and justice.

I’m proud of my country’s positive moral actions toward feeding the hungry and spreading medical care.

I’m proud of our periods of military restraint and our caution with nuclear weapons after having once used them.

I’m proud of America’s role in restraining Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Soviet imperialism.

American Shame

I am ashamed of our part in the worldwide patriarchy and the lethargic progress towards equal rights for women.

I am ashamed of the horrors that befell the Native Americans throughout the American settlement of North America. The murderous expansion by fortune-seekers and land-grabbers across the continent and the penury and ten thousand privations forced on them is inexcusable and remains a bloody disfigurement on the American character.

I am ashamed of our part in the slavery industry in the Americas and the number of people who had to die in a bloody civil war to end it.

I am ashamed of my country’s covert meddling into the affairs of other nations as in Southeast Asia, South and Central America, Cuba and elsewhere.

I am ashamed of the many wars and conflicts we have participated in over absolutist ideologies and the deep senselessness of our political parties.

I am ashamed of our enthusiastic part in the development of nuclear weapons and our perverse cleverness in optimizing their design.

I am ashamed of the influence of capitalism on internal and foreign policy and the greedy idolatry it brings.

I am ashamed of the neoliberal right turn the country is presently taking and the acceptance of autocratic enthusiasm asserted therein.

I am ashamed of America’s reelection of a felonious man of low moral character and proven dishonesty and especially the large-scale support he enjoys among voters.

Decapitation of the American Federal Government is Underway

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Trump and his MAGA followers are now preparing to decapitate the government of the USA. It is outlined in the Project 2025 document put together by the Heritage Foundation. The overall goal is to increase presidential power and set in place an ultra-conservative government. Part of that plan is populating the federal bureaucracy with politically reliable conservatives in addition to appointments. This is a kind of political ballast designed to keep the GOP takeover sailing along in an upright posture.

I say ‘decapitation’ because our present liberal democracy is in danger of disassembly by the wild-eyed MAGA version of the GOP. Below I have copied a definition verbatim from Wikipedia of a description of ‘Liberal Democracy’. The links were left intact for your convenience.

“Common elements within a liberal democracy are: elections between or among multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property, universal suffrage, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms for all citizens. Substantive democracy refers to substantive rights and substantive laws, which can include substantive equality,[2] the equality of outcome for subgroups in society.[3][4] Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary, and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies.”

What is set to happen to the federal government is something that until now has only been dreamt of by libertarian-minded citizens. To complicate matters, very early in the Reagan administration the Moral Majority took up the cause of libertarian republicanism but added its own flavor of supernatural (read protestant) favoritism. Yes, it seems that the invisible Celestial Being had been watching American politics very closely and became alarmed enough to place Jerry Falwell as his earthly avatar. Now the GOP is backed by Jesus himself. What a credential.

I’ve always felt that Trump was best suited to be an after-dinner speaker, which, I’m sure he has done many times. He is an excellent speaker and carries the gravitas of a billionaire TV star. He was the golden boy of NYC until, well, you had a closer look.

Many are saying now that Trump is pulling his cabinet from his junk drawer of supporters. His latest nomination is former WWE CEO and billionaire donor Linda McMahon for the position of Secretary of Education. If you’re wondering what WWE is, it is World Wrestling Entertainment and it turns out that Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. His history with WWE goes back to WrestleMania IV in 1988. That said, I’m confident that he has never been pinned to the floor while wrestling. Trump comes from the TV entertainment business and well knows the power of celebrity.

McMahon has no evident credentials for any cabinet post in DC, as if that mattered. She’ll just be one of the many lackeys in the obedient wrecking crew in place to decapitate the federal government. She comes from the TV wrestling business which, as we all know, is not so much a sport as a burlesque.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is Trump’s pick to head ___. He seems to be a genuine crackpot with righteous ancestry. During COVID-19 he gained notoriety for his anti-vaccination stance. He was no friend of trump in 2016 either. He was captured on tape saying, while quoting Taibbi’s writing, “‘We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up.” Fleshy dominoes. Love it.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The former surgeon and TV show host got his start appearing with Oprah, eventually peeling off to a show of his own. He comes from the TV entertainment business. His choices and public exposure has led to scandal.

Donald Trump on Monday nominated former MTV “Real World” contestant and current Fox News host Sean Duffy as Transportation Secretary. He comes from the TV entertainment business- Fox News.

Pete Hegseth of Fox News is Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense. Many of us didn’t know that the Secretary of Defense was an entry level position- all these days I’ve been aiming too low. He comes from the TV entertainment business and the House of Representatives.

And perhaps the most ridiculous lackey nomination of all is Matt Gaetz as Trump’s choice for Attorney General, the chief law enforcement official. I can’t bear to think about it. Heavy sigh.

Good news- Gaetz removed himself from consideration for Trump’s AG. He has been replaced with former Florida AG and Trump loyalist Pam Bondi.

Next Up, the New American Idiocracy

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Woke up to the worst news this morning. Trump has been reelected. To the international community I express my sorrow that for the second time, Trump has been elected President of the USA. There is nothing new to say about the guy that hasn’t already been said thousands of times.

But it gets worse. Trump’s Vice President is his ward, the inexperienced JD Vance, soon to be the former 2022 Senator from Ohio. Vance, contradicting his 2016 opposition to the now 78-year-old Trump, is only a few heart beats away from the Presidency. Setting aside for a moment how he might conduct the presidency, he would also be the leader or at least figurehead of the entire GOP political machine. Do we really think that a greenhorn like Vance would actually set the GOP agenda himself?

It is a given that Russia and previously the USSR has been conducting hybrid warfare in the West long before and during this election. Because of the asymmetric power balance between the West and Russia, Putin will be compelled to continue his deliberate corrosion of Western civilization long afterwards.

It is hard not to feel bad for Ukraine. They were watching our election closely. They understand that the election of Trump puts US spending for their defense in serious doubt. Not only could the money and weapons dry up, but Putin will be emboldened to continue his extermination of everything Ukrainian. Trump’s expressed lack of enthusiasm for NATO will certainly weaken its defensive posture in holding Putin east of present borders. Putin wants to take back what territory the collapse of the Soviet Union lost. That includes all of the now independent countries formerly part of the Soviet bloc. He is empire building and his boldness must be met with equal boldness in opposition.

There are serious repercussions in front of the free world because of this election. Withdrawal of American influence from any given acre or hectare in the world will create a vacuum soon to be occupied by someone, sometimes enemies of the West, namely China and Russia. They are playing the long game.

It is difficult for the USA to play the long game in international affairs due to the frequent transfers of power in the government. Policies puff up and soon collapse. It is difficult for other nations of the world to synchronize with this. Our frequent changes in administration and policy works against us when more patient but hostile nations encroach. It keeps everyone off-balance.

I think many Americans believe that the USA can continue to ride on past achievements and goodwill and that no one will notice. All free nations have to wake up every day and prove themselves anew.

One of the complaints about liberal democracy is that it lacks order and stability. Both China and Russia have stated this openly. President Viktor Orbán of Hungary is fond of referring to his reforms as part of a greater illiberal democracy. One definition of illiberal democracy is “nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures”. This is just the larval form of authoritarianism.

Of course, liberal democracy is noisy and somewhat disordered. This is the nature of free people. The free exchange of ideas is called brainstorming. At some point time runs out and a consensus is taken and acted upon. Yesterday the national consensus was that Trump/Vance will win the Whitehouse. If the dimmer side of the bell curve votes in larger numbers, then they win. And that is that.

SOS. A Letter to the International Community

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To friends in democratic states around the world. As you watch America’s clumsy slouch into an authoritarian/fascist state in real time, take heed. Level-headed Americans are astonished at the ease with which one insane populist has misled a venerable political party to mutate and turn against the foundational principles of our republic. The US has struggled to conduct a capitalistic democratic republic for 250 years. There have been many rough spots since our founding, some reprehensible. What is happening today is the decapitation of a powerful liberal democracy. The USA has been a prolonged experiment in mostly democratic governance where, in principle at least, today the leadership is elected fairly by all the people, not just property-owning white men.

The USA will be the only nation choosing fascism during a period of economic growth, abundant oil & gas and relative peace. Other nations in the world are battling but the US has no combat troops deployed to fight.

Lest anyone think that the MAGA movement was built from the urging of Trump alone, be aware that there has been a population of angry and disenfranchised white Americans for a very long time. Trump was just the seed crystal around which a concentrated population of teabaggers and other white Americans has crystallized. They have somehow been left behind on the road to a modern, prosperous future. If there was an actual trickle down of wealth that Ronald Reagan promised in the 1980’s, they were left high and dry.

We are witnessing a gradual overthrow by a party led by a man who is well understood to be a serial liar and a shameless, malignant narcissist who, in desperation for power and vengeance, will stop at nothing to take control of the USA. There is a word for what is happening- Lawfare, “the use of law as a means of accomplishing what might otherwise require the application of traditional military force“. This was popularized by Major General Charles Dunlap, USAF.

Trump’s immediate goal is getting even with his enemies. If that weren’t bad enough, he is firmly supported by loyal one third of the electorate. Many other Republicans cannot bring themselves to vote for a democrat for various reasons. The rabid supporters are known as MAGA- Make America Great Again– Republicans. These people see Trump as the key to America’s glorious future, but too intoxicated with revolutionary fervor to see Trump for what he really is- a grasping neofascist.

The 20th century was blighted with fascist dictatorships and even fascist organizations within liberal democracies, particularly in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. A partial list can be found here. For some reason, the USSR has been omitted from this list. Today, the latest Russian dictator stands out in his attempt to resurrect the power and reach of the Soviet Union, and he must be stopped.

The origins of conservative and libertarian outrage against American progressivism traces back more than a century, even before the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the mid 1930s. By the end of the 1800’s, political machines and business monopolies were firmly rooted in the landscape of America. The rising middle class eventually overcame much of this through politics.

Some put the American Progressive Era as between 1896 and 1917. Before this period the US was beset with urban poverty, child labor, Victorian era patriarchy, long working hours and unsafe working conditions. Note to MAGAs, was this when America was great??

The New Deal was a series of public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, aimed at rescuing the U.S. from the Great Depression.

“Major federal programs and agencies, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Source: Wikipedia.

The 20th century witnessed the United States grappling with a severe depression starting in 1929 which spread worldwide. Later, the US reluctantly engaged in World War II with other allied powers combating Nazi forces in Europe, Africa, and Japanese imperialism in the Pacific. Upon discovering Hitler’s nuclear ambitions, the US, with vital assistance from British and European scientists, developed nuclear weapons using isolated domestic uranium-235 and the synthetic element plutonium-239. Fortunately, the Allied forces managed to defeat the Nazis in Europe in 1945 before the necessity of releasing a nuclear weapon there. By August 9th of that year, Japan was defeated and the war ended. Sadly, it received two atomic blasts.

The US came away from the World War II period full of itself and bursting with optimism. Technologies that were spawned by the war like radar, jet engines, high performance aircraft, industrial production of every kind and a can-do spirit led to a boom in single family homes, babies, and consumerism. By the late 1940’s, television was well along the way and behind it, computers, and new designs in automobiles. Americans were puffed up and excited about modern life while much of Europe and Japan were still cleaning up after the massive devastation caused by the war. The remoteness of North America and its seemingly inexhaustible natural resources left it almost untouched by the war.

Reaganomics. Source: Wikipedia.

By the Reagan years in the early 1980s, religious conservative and libertarian groups were organizing and linking up to form what would become a powerful political machine. This conservative, evangelical Christian Zionist nationalism group has methodically wound itself up and this very day proposes to make the USA into a theocratic state. They have money and fanatical adherents willing to risk a civil war for their faith. They will support the state of Israel to the extent that it makes way for the second coming of Christ. This is the core of Protestant Evangelical Christian eschatology. Like all religious warriers, they believe they are fulfilling God’s very own plan. I think the 21st century is going to be difficult.

Many of us think this would be laughable bullshit if it weren’t so serious. To grease the skids of their feared ‘apocalypse’ involving a final battle in Israel, they see Trump as one who could aid the beginning of this nightmare. To their credit, many confess they will have to hold their noses while voting for him. An apocalypse of sorts may happen, but it is more likely to be of the usual unholy variety.

In eastern Europe, once Trump withdraws US assistance to Ukraine, Putin will do the predictable and step up his plans for the take-down of the Baltic states and Poland as well. Putin is already well underway with his hybrid warfare. His meddling in the US elections is one element of hybrid warfare. The goal is to shake the world’s confidence in liberal democracy.

Once his move has begun, NATO will be obligated to come to their defense. It is hard to predict whether or not the threat of NATO’s backing will fend off a Putin invasion if the US backs out or takes a neutral position to Putin. Putin’s military, already greatly weakened, would be even closer to claiming that the state is in danger of collapse. The collapse of the state is Putin’s criterion for the release of nuclear weapons. NATO will respond in kind to a nuclear threat, and it will likely get out of control.

The US and Russia each have a nuclear triad that requires presidential approval for a strike. Even if the command centers of both countries are in ashes, the ballistic missile submarines will still be mission ready. Imagine, if in a conflict, that the US and NATO will have to rely on Trump and his White House staff to be Commander and Chief of US forces. Trump is a man who, as President, has a long history of ignoring the advice of military specialists preferring to ‘winging’ on his own.

What in Trump’s past behavior and utterances makes anyone confident that he is qualified to make decisions in any other matter of warfare? Should he have access to the nuclear launch codes or to top secret plans?

Of course, there will be military general staff and advisors around him as would be the case if Harris is elected. But Trump was notorious for not reading his daily intelligence reports nor much of anything else. He spent a lot of time on Airforce 1 traveling to play golf at his resorts.

Harris has a disciplined and educated mind as well as the native intelligence and organizational savvy to listen to the experts and make decisions with the best and latest information. Being a district attorney and prosecutor, California Attorney General, California Senator and Vice President, she is well versed in the law at many levels and can be relied upon to follow it.

International friends, protect your liberal democracies from those who would degrade them into autocratic states under the guise of law and order. A democratic republic is messy, noisy and will test your patience. This is not a bug; it is a feature. Rejoice in it.

See that pale blue dot as a single pixel? It is a picture taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 at a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun. A band of idiots living there are about to do something very stupid and self-destructive tomorrow, 5 November 2024. Source: Nasa photograph.

Lawfare

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There is an interesting substack post by historian and NYU prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat discussing the latest filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith that was just unsealed and released by Judge Tanya Chutkan. The full 165 page document can be found here. Boiled down, the filing makes the case Trump is not immune from prosecution.

Ben-Ghiat summarizes-

”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” the prosecutors’ document reads. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.”

On that basis, the filing argues that Trump is not entitled to the immunity from prosecution granted him by Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and other far-right ideologue-justices of the Supreme Court; that ruling would grant immunity for “official acts” executed as president. 

The article goes on to say that Trump uses a ‘personalist’ model of governance where his personal, legal, political and financial needs take precedence over the party and the nation. And his needs are endless. The GOP is his personal storehouse of resources. His close followers are individuals who are strongly loyal to him and his mystique. He can convince others to conduct unsavory or even criminal acts, and when they fail, he’ll find someone else. This is not without precedent in the history of authoritarians.

The word ‘Lawfare‘ seems appropriate to Trump’s method courtroom delays and litigating to the hilt to sow confusion, expense and delay. it works, but is hugely expensive. Trump has been a wellspring of billable hours for the legal profession.

Imbeciles All

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I just read that conservative influencers and even former president Trump have been referring to VP candidate Walz as ‘Tampon Tim’ over the state law mandating free menstrual supplies be available in grades 4-12 in Minnesota schools. The issue for some is that these supplies be made available to all needing access to the products, including transgender students, in whatever restrooms commonly used by students.

Editorial

I grew up in an America where such juvenile and scurrilous name calling would at least be kept out of the public discourse. It fell under the heading of “Mature and Common Decency” that most adults adhered to. That the insulting appellation “Tampon Tim” is being bandied about by a former US president in a presidential campaign watched by the world and being eagerly repeated by news outlets as infotainment. Even worse is the large population of MAGA citizens who accept and even encourage Trump’s troubling behavior. Trump is riding a wave that was already there waiting for someone like him.

The Minnesota law behind the controversy

HF 2497

Article 1

Section 1. [121A.212] ACCESS TO MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS. A school district or charter school must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district. For purposes of this section, “menstrual products” means pads, tampons, or other similar products used in connection with the menstrual cycle.

The response by the Trump horde has been vigorous and execrable. Even #45 himself is calling Walz ‘Tampon Tim’ in the open.

“As a woman there is no greater threat to a woman’s health than leaders … who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday. [Bold typeface mine] Source: CBS News.

Help me trace cause and effect here. ‘As a woman (ok, gender specific here) there is no greater threat to a woman’s health (a threat that could lead to what exactly?) than leaders … who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools.’

What is the nature of the threat? Is it more threatening than male violence by murder, rape or physical abuse, because murder, rape and physical abuse is pretty bad already, right? How could a ‘tampon threat’ play out? What could men/boys do with a tampon, a wad of compressed fiber on a string, that would rise above an immature prank? A prank that would likely be played on boys by other boys?

Oh, right. Karoline said that the threat was from ‘the leaders … who support …’. So, what kind of harm could women suffer from a leader who makes free feminine hygiene products available in the public schools? Her statement obviously signals ‘danger’ from tolerance for transgenderism. The matter of gender dysphoria is listed in DSM-5-TR as a recognized condition, but not a mental illness. The Journal Psychiatry has a short and readable paper on diagnosing gender dysphoria. From the article, Gender dysphoria is ‘a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics.’

Conservative protestant evangelical leaders and many GOP politicians who rage about the illegitimacy of gender transition have taken the path of idiocy and are happy to be there. Gender dysphoria is a medically recognized condition based on a minimum set of criteria. Those so afflicted often lead lives of misery that frequently ends in suicide.

This sounds like little more than a regression to the Victorian age taboo about discussing the female body and its physical processes. Or the entire subject of sexuality.

In this case I tend to think that being a female making ridiculous claims about an exclusively female topic does not afford refuge from criticism, but only boils down to a person being a dipshit trying to influence others by stoking brainstem-level fear. This is the usual Republican means of grabbing power.