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Trump’s (And Putin’s) Goal Is To Destroy The Federal Government

Nov14

Trump selects Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead HHS, top US health agency

Trump appears ready to select Robert F. Kennedy Jr to head HHS. Nothing in your grocery stores can ever be trusted to be safe ever again.

I’ve been thinking so bear with me here. I said years ago (2015, when Trump first ran) that he was Putin’s man and that Putin was trying to engineer the same strategy against the US that the US had engineered against the USSR – support dissatisfied factions within the US, fund them, arm them if need be (easy in the US), and try to shatter the country into independent states (Balkanize it).

The goal, in my opinion, is to remove the United States as a nuclear threat on the world stage without an open war. The weapons lesson from the USSR is that the rest of the world will pressure small independent states to give up any nukes on their soil. That’s what happened to former states of the USSR.

Why does that come into play right now? Trump is nominating absolute morons to head government departments, plus Musk is leading a group whose goal is to cut 2/3rds of the government’s work force.

What does that mean? It means that the federal government will ultimately be viewed as incompetent and untrustworthy at anything. And what does that accomplish? Blue states, like California or New York will likely respond with their own agencies for environmental, food safety, labor, and other issues. But if the blue states do that, where will they get the money? They’ll threaten to stop sending federal taxes to Washington. And if they do that, then the “United” part of the United States is effectively over.

From there, it’s a short step to declaring outright independence because those states won’t need Washington anymore. In fact, if I were Putin and California declared its independence, I’d be among the first to recognize it. And then I’d whisper in Donny Numbnuts ear to “let them go” and “rule over the part that loves you”. California might even play the China card, forming a defense pact with China against Washington.

And from there, you slowly but surely end up with a denuclearized, Balkanized North America. Nobody would want a nuclear armed Wyoming. Nobody in their right mind would want a nuclear armed Missouri or Arkansas. And even as right wing as it is, Texas might see this as their shot at getting out from under Washington once and for all. The northeast would likely secede and form immediate ties to Europe and Canada.

We already know Michael Flynn plans to get rid of all but one of the 17 US Intelligence agencies. The United States will be effectively blind in terms of intelligence even if Trump does leave office in four years. And remember, Trump has already, since being elected, questioned whether the 22nd amendment even applies to himself.

In 2016, I said you were watching the death of America. Now we’re watching the corpse being eaten by maggots. Stop thinking this can be saved. It can’t. The future is going to lie in the blue independent states of North America, and most of the red states are going to be third world hellholes.

So, Trans Leftists, Does that Green Party Ticket Look So Cozy Now?

Nov3

I’m sitting here amused, terribly amused. I’ve had multiple laughs at all the transgender ideological purists who insisted that voting for Stein and Ware was the only moral choice. However, not only did Green Party candidate Butch Ware throw trans people under the bus, but Stein isn’t contradicting him, which makes her complicit. And then, he talks about limiting access to abortion at 16 weeks. What a winner. Such a champion of women and trans people. Note that while Stein says she supports reproductive freedom, she’s said nothing about Ware’s comments. That silence is deafening this close to election day.

Plus. you have to be daft if you add in the realities of American politics – no 3rd party candidate matters. If you vote third party, you’ve wasted your vote. I don’t like this but it will take constitutional amendments to remove the winner-take-all system that sits in place now, and constitutional amendments to take much of the procedure for voting out of the hands of the states before we can move beyond two parties.

Anyway, you do have that right to waste your vote, and most of my friends are white and cishet, so they have all that privilege too. But let’s examine the reality.

1. A vote for any third party candidate ensures that the killing in Gaza continues. That’s a fact. Don’t tell me you “care” about Palestinians if you voted third party. The only thing that third party voting does is to salve your own conscience, so don’t come at me with how much you care about ANY marginalized group. If you cared, you’d take a path that could create a change.

2. A vote for Trump is already predetermined because Trump has publicly said he wants Netanyahu to “finish the job” and he thinks that land would make great condos not far from the beach. Again, don’t tell me you care about Palestinians if you voted for Trump.

3. That leaves a vote for Harris, which has a possible range of impacts. Most likely in the short term, the killing in Gaza continues. In the longer term, however, Kamala Harris might be convinced to force Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire. This is the only path that has that possibility. Yes, it’s not even the most likely outcome but it IS a possibility.

Ergo, the only vote that really cares for the Palestinian people is a vote for Harris-Waltz. Of course then we have to work on Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and Democratic Senators and Congresspersons, but at least it’s possible. Any other vote is a guarantee for the genocide to continue without end or get even worse.

So you never convinced me that voting for Stein was really about caring for the Palestinian people. You just screamed “genocide” irrationally as if that would change my mind. But if we do look at this rationally, we discover that the only vote that possibly could help the Palestinian people is the vote for Harris.

And now… now we have Butch Ware throwing trans people under the bus and Jill Stein refusing to discuss it, which makes her complicit. And Ware then throws women under the bus saying he supports restrictions on abortion. He’s either a wanna be Republican or incredibly incompetent and I’m not sure which is funnier, sadder, and more frightening.

As it turns out, your “purity politics” vote turned out to be rotten clear to its core. And I could have told you that before you wasted your vote. In point of fact, I did tell you that. I told you repeatedly Stein was a “professional candidate” and she runs for president periodically to raise campaign funds to live off during non-campaign years. I’ve pointed out that she’s close to Putin, who is killing Ukrainians, about whom you don’t seem to give a damn.

Consequently, I am greatly amused at your choice and the fallout from your choice to support the Green Party because they’re not “genocidal”. Well, guess what? They side with the GOP in hating trans people. Good move, huh? And Stein hasn’t directly contradicted Ware on women’s reproductive rights either, has she? So the Green Party is no friend to women either.

I’d ask if some of you felt the least bit of shame for supporting Stein, but your egos are too big for that. Too “ideologically pure” despite what Ware and Stein just did to trans people and to women. Too full of hate for any result except instant perfect justice which never happens in the real world. Real justice gets messy, takes time, and is uncomfortable.

Was Harris a perfect candidate? Hardly, and I freely admit that. But she’s miles better than Trump will ever be, and, she’s open to change. Further, as Black women have repeatedly taught me, it’s important to minimize harm even if we can’t stop all harm. And a vote for Harris is the vote that minimizes harm for the most number of other marginalized groups, both here and abroad.

But I think we’ve now established that voting for Stein is a shitty vote. And now it’s your shitty vote that you have to live with. You can ignore me. I wonder if you can silence your own conscience over what your precious “Green” Party thinks of trans people and of women. Oh, by the way, this same criticism and analysis applies to those of you that didn’t vote “because of Gaza”. You may never be able to vote again.

At his point, I’m confident in concluding that voting for the Green Party or not voting at all was pretty fucking stupid.

https://www.advocate.com/election/jill-stein-running-mate-transphobia

Twilight’s End

Oct6

The United States has been falling into an authoritarian twilight for years now, decades, since Nixon and Kevin Phillips created the Southern Strategy to appeal to white racist southern voters. The election of Trump is not the beginning of the end but it is the end of the beginning of the rise of something terrible and cruel in North America.

I’ve said since the night of the 2016 presidential election that the US died that night, and what we’ve been watching since is the maggots feeding on the corpse. But maggots can only go so far.

Soon, something truly evil will arise in place of what once was the United States. It will carry the same name, but it will look and behave nothing like the America into which I was born.

With the elevation of the highly partisan and screaming-shouting-crying man-baby, Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court, the right wing now sits poised to gut the Voting Rights Act completely, to uphold voter suppression laws, and to ultimately attack the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This became apparent clear back in 2015 when a GOP pastor, when pressed about an equal rights ordinance in Texas to which she objected because it protected transgender people, also admitted that she believes she has the right to discriminate against Jews, Blacks, anyone, so long as it is “religiously motivated”.

Here is the video of that.  She has to be pressed but finally admits that, yes, discriminating against Jews should be allowed for “sincerely held religious beliefs”. If that doesn’t terrify you, then you’re not thinking clearly or you’re one of those who want to persecute minorities. This is the end game of the “religious freedom” lie – where they carve out “sincerely held religious belief” exemptions to federal laws across the board.

So this is a long running right wing agenda. They tried to vilify gays and failed. But now they have vilified trans people, all trans people, to create a fear based wedge issue to drive ignorant voters to the polls, to give them the power they seek. Their first step will not to be attack protected classes under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Instead, they will attack trans people as the “wedge” issue. Once they win against trans people (and they will win with Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh), that becomes precedent about “religious freedom”.

Next, they will circle back to gays, because gays are not covered either. That will give them the precedent reinforced by a second case. After that, they’ll start coming after protected classes named in law. My bet is the first class will be religion, but they’ll hide that as an attack against Muslims, again, because of “sincerely held religious beliefs”. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will be the most likely authors of the majority opinion then. They will make spurious claims about America being a “Christian” nation, about the founders “not intending” to protect religions other than Christianity. They will do whatever pretzel logic they need to get that critical break into the 1964 Civil Rights Act wall of protection. That’s why I believe Muslims will be targeted first, because of the fear that right wingers can generate about Muslims.

Once they reach that point, they’ve now created precedent that allows exemptions to the 1964 Civil Rights Act for reasons of “religious freedom”. Further exemptions, against blacks, women, etc. Remember the “Curse of Ham” biblical teachings that were used by white Christian southerners to justify treating people of color as sub-human? That will be dragged out of the cesspool once again and become a “sincerely held religious belief” because the bible says so, right? Likewise with subordinating women, firing women, refusing them access to birth control of any kind, and taking their other rights away as well.

People point to winning the mid-terms as how to stop this. I ask them “How does that work?” They mumble asinine things about “impeachment”. The House can impeach but if the Senate fails to vote to remove, the impeachment has no effect. Removal from office requires 67 Senate votes. Even if Democrats win every single Senate race in 2018, we still only end up with 53 or so senators. Do any of you seriously believe that 14 Republicans will vote to remove Donald Trump? So Trump is staying, at least to 2020, and probably beyond since Republicans will have two years of the Kavanaugh/Gorsuch court to seal the deal on even more voter suppression laws.

But let’s say Democrats get the mother of all wins in 2020. They get the Senate, the House, the Presidency. What then? Every liberal law they pass will immediately get challenged to the right wing Supreme Court. That court will stand on its head, if need be, to void liberal laws. So Democrats won’t be able to do anything effective. And then when Republicans eventually get power back, and they will, they will continue taking us down the path to the nation of Gilead, as described in The Handmaid’s Tale.

You think I jest? Conservatives at CPAC, one of the largest and most important conservative political conferences, now even have white males argues in favor of slavery again. Men argue women should have never been given the right to vote and those are conservative men making that argument. They belittle sexual assault survivors. Here’s conservative darling, William Bennett, telling women who are sexual assault survivors to “be quiet” and “have you no shame?” as he taunts them.

The religious right wing in America has publicly and clearly stated their agenda, many times. Separation of the races, oppression of women because “the bible says so”, the complete recriminalization of  anything about being LGBT, and driving LGBT out of visible sight in society.  Todd Kincannon, former executive director of the South Carolina GOP, said “There are people who respect transgender rights. And there are people who think you should all be put in a camp. That’s me.” NOTE: Kincannon’s Twitter account was suspended over this so you can’t find the original tweets anymore, although they’ve been capture in screenshots and articles. But guess what? Not one single other Republican called this hateful message out! Not one. Not one single Republican. None of them would say that such a thing was hateful and wrong.  You know that many of them are thinking the same thing when none of them have the courage to say that’s terrible and wrong.

So here we are. Twilight has been coming over America for about 50 years now. With each successive Republican administration, more vile and evil things come to pass. The authoritarian Patriot Act? Republicans overwhelmingly support that every time it comes up. Some Democrats do as well but the majority have not. That should give you a sense of who the real authoritarians are. And now we have Trump, thanks to privileged voters who refused to stand against Trump and who get angry when you call them out for their culpability in this ongoing national disaster. Kids in cages, thousands of lies from Trump, sometimes more than a dozen daily, factually wrong, easily refuted lies. LGBT people’s rights are under assault. Women’s rights to control their own bodies are under assault. Voting rights of minority voters are under assault. The environment is under assault. Middle class wages continue to fall as the ultra rich pocket more and more of the nation’s wealth. And all of that is precisely as Republicans intend it to be.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but even if we win in 2018, all we’ve bought is a small bit of time, nothing more. Twilight is almost done. And someday soon, you will wake up and instead of the twilight, you will have to face the thousand year night.

The Rise of Fascism In America

Jun19

Some of us have been discussing this since Trump was elected. Many of you out there have claimed that we’re reacting too strongly, that we’re not plausible, that we just “don’t like” Trump, and a million other excuses.

TrumpApologists

You can stop trying now. You Trump supporters need to look in the mirror. You are supporting concentration camps on US soil.

Let that sink in. You are supporting fascism in America.  And you are doing it willingly. Your protests at this point ring rather hollow since we told you before that this would happen! And you ignored it.

Warned in advance, you instead bowed down to the right wing talking heads, who lied to you repeatedly, and who even now refuse to stand up against Trump. “Trump’s media allies struggle to mold coherent defense of his immigration policy” reads the headline. And they can’t, really, because there is no coherent defense of actions that are intended to lead to genocide.

I can say that evangelical pastors seem to finally be standing up against Trump, but they were fine with everything else. They were fine with persecuting LGBT people. They were fine with Republicans openly talking about “camps” for Muslims. They were fine with persecuting Hispanics or anyone else with skin darker than their own.

But the children! This is where their “pro-life” lies hit the road. They don’t want those kids separated from their parents but they do want them deported, even though seeking asylum is not a crime!

None of those people were “illegal immigrants”. They were asylum seekers. And Jeff Sessions just declared that rampant violence and murder in your home nation are no longer valid reasons to request asylum in the US.

And Ted Cruz? He’s not trying to solve this in a humane manner. His proposal to add hundreds of immigration judges is just an attempt to clear the issue from the campaign trail, so he won’t have to talk about it in a race in Texas where Cruz might lose because of outraged Hispanic voters.

The interesting thing is to note that Trump opposes Cruz’s “solution”. Why would he do that? Because he wants the terror, fear, and confusion that his policy is currently creating. He wants threatened people fearful so they shut up. He wants allies of those threatened to also be afraid, so they might shut up as well. And he wants as many others to be outraged because he mistakes outrage for control.

He’s right, in a sense, because if your outrage does not have you right now questioning the legitimacy of the current US government, then your morality is sadly lacking.

We have Jeff Sessions openly talking about finding a “permanent solution” to the “immigration crisis”. Do you even understand how eerily close to Heinrich Himmler this sounds? I’ll tell you now that soon Trump and his cronies will be talking about how “expensive” holding these kids are, even as Fox News runs photos of immigrant children playing with toy guns and claiming the kids are a “threat” to society. They’re going to guilt white America over higher taxes needed to pay for this terror campaign, and white America will gladly oblige and demand no more spending!

What then? If you can’t provide them shelter, food, clothing, and medical care, what is the alternative? Why, to “dispose” of them, of course. We’ll see what euphemism they choose for this atrocity, but make no mistake, Stephen Miller, a known white supremacist and neo-Nazi is the man in the White House driving this bus. And he’s made it very clear he wants brown people expunged from the US completely, by any means possible.

Yet you, Republican voters, won’t vote for a Democrat because they’re “liberals”, as if that’s some dirty word, even as your own party commits atrocity after atrocity and gets worse with each passing week. You’ll believe that somehow you can change Trump’s direction, but you can’t. And by the time the terror has reached your doorstep, it will be too late, won’t it?

I am reminded of the words of JRR Tolkien, that he wrote for Gandalf the Grey, in The Lord of the Rings, when speaking to Frodo about frightening times in which to live.  “’I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”

And that is what we now face. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’” We must decide, and soon, and once we start down that road, there will be no turning back, because down that road we may face the choice that standing up for what is right, to stand against the persecution and murder of the innocent, could cost us our lives too.

Mass Shootings and Society

Feb16

The shooter wasn’t mentally ill in Florida. florida-shooting-new-gallery1

He was pure rage, uncontrolled.

His primary rage appears directed at his ex-girlfriend, who dumped him. He jumped her new boyfriend and assaulted him which is how he got expelled.

He also had rage against Jewish people who make up almost half the students in that district, a rage fueled by white supremacist groups that are known to be anti-Semitic.

He was not mentally ill. He was angry, to the point of rage. We need to stop confusing rage with mental illness.

We already recognize unbridled rage as bad. We have religions, many of them, that admonish about controlling one’s temper, about the evils of letting rage and emotion control your actions.

Society already knows this is bad. But in a pseudo-scientific way, to make it try to sound scientific, we want to label something that is not mental illness as mental illness, because we do not want to take responsibility for it!

If it’s mental illness, it’s not society’s (white people’s) fault that young white males do this.

Here’s news for 21st century America – yeah, it IS your fault. Part of this is the outgrowth of 400+ years obsession with warfare, violence, misogyny, conquest, and genocide. Part of this is the outgrowth of a few thousand years of patriarchal male dominated ownership of women as sex objects.

But white supremacist patriarchal society does not want to take responsibility for the fruits of 400+ years of colonialism, patriarchy, genocide, and obsession with conquest and warfare. That is the United States, in a nutshell.

To be responsible for those things means society could change those things, might even need to change those things, but if they can instead blame a factor beyond society’s control, then society doesn’t have to change, does it?

But, by laying the problem at the feet of mental illness, white, male controlled society washes its hands of the problem, and then pretends it can go on being patriarchal, genocidal, misogynistic, and obsessed with conquest and warfare.

If these are the fruits of society’s CHOICES, then society could change and alter those fruits. By pushing it off on mental illness, society is trying to pretend that what happens is no one’s fault.

That is what you are seeing happen around you right now.