Advisor of Death

We're trying to lie back and relax this week before Christmas, but there's just so much idiocy and evil continuing to flow out of the Trump administration it's impossible to ignore. 

So, by way of a compromise, we'll be posting links to information that needs to be widely known.

The link below goes to a just-released memo from the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. It details some alarming suggestions about how to deal with the virus, such as infecting as many low-risk people as possible to initiate herd immunity. There is also a glimpse into to the crass cynicism of the administration, with HHS Senior Advisor Paul Alexander repeating the phrase "who cares?" regarding the public health impact.

These people should be arrested now, before they can disappear. 

https://coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-clyburn-releases-memo-new-evidence-political-interference-pandemic

--- Diogenes, 12/19/2020

The Trump Cult: Treason and Sedition

We are in the midst of a coup attempt. 

Over the course of his presidency lame-duck Trump has been steadily building a cult of personality, a classic and proven way to overthrow government.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on the nature and history of such cults, which I recommend to you. Here is its opening sentence:

"A cult of personality, or cult of the leader, arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise."¹

If that sounds familiar it's because we've been watching that exact thing unfold over the past four years. Trump's platform of racism, bigotry, paranoia, and xenophobia appealed to the darker instincts of a shockingly large number of Americans. Although he lost the popular race by some 3 million votes, he accrued sufficient electoral votes to win the presidency.

He offered no coherent plans or policies. His "America First" doctrine, repeated ad nauseam, was a litany of the wrongs suffered by America at the hands of international cartels, i.e. treaty organizations and such, and of the injuries done to loyal Americans by foreigners, immigrants, and nonwhite races.

"America First" is code for "whites only."

The only foreign policy the Xenophobe-in-Charge pursued was to remove the United States from as many international treaty and aid organizations as possible and to isolate us from the rest of the world.

His wish to be an autocrat became clear when he made at least two attempts to have the Supreme Court remove Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. When those attempts failed he attempted to assert control over the Supreme Court by stuffing it with a conservative super majority.

He has attempted to use the armed forces as his personal security force to put down civil unrest and has praised vigilantes as heroes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began he paid little attention to it, its rapid spread, or the alarming numbers of victims who were falling ill and dying. Throughout 2020 his focus was on one thing and one thing only: his re-election bid.

In the midst of the pandemic, seeking to silence true information about COVID-19, he gutted the CDC.

Because the pandemic was likely to persuade a lot of people to vote by mail, he attempted to dismantle the Postal Service.

With the election over he and his apparatchiks have inappropriately and unsuccessfully flooded courts at all levels with requests to overturn the election. His attempts to subvert the electoral process, one of the cornerstones of our government, clearly amounts to sedition, if not treason.

Donald Trump has created a cult of personality: the first step in creating an autocratic regime. He has incited his followers to intimidate voters, disrupt the electoral process, and threaten voting officials who were simply doing their jobs. He and his followers are consciously and systematically attempting to subvert the will of the American people by trying to reverse the presidential election results.

If you're still not convinced that this is a cult, consider this: The Arizona State Republican Party in a recent series of tweets essentially asked its members if they were willing to die in the effort to overthrow the vote.²

The list of personality cults that have grown into tyrannical autocracies is long. In the modern world it includes Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Idi Amin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Jong-un. Will Trump be added to that list?

No cult of personality has yet confronted the Constitution of the United States. Trump has mounted a number of attacks on the Constitution, to no avail. He has attempted to suborn the Supreme Court, the chief guardian of the Constitution, with no success. 

People like Trump are the reason that all federal elected officials except the president swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Trump is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, even though he also swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend it.

For now the Supreme Court is the last governmental bastion between democracy and the lying, seditious, hypocritical, treasonous creep that is the president. 

There are ways to remove him from office, and even now someone should do it. He and his rabid followers can do a lot of damage in the next 39 days.

La lutte continue!

--- Diogenes, 12/12/2020

 

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

² The Arizona Republic, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/08/arizona-republican-party-asks-if-followers-die-election-president-donald-trump/6488952002/

Immunity, Shmimunity

This started out as a brief statement that became something else. So I'm going to state the gist of it and let it go.

The president is not immune from criminal prosecution, either constitutionally or legally. Immunity is a fiction that Congress and the Executive Branch have been living behind since the Nixon years. The truth is that any prosecutor with a case and jurisdiction could indict the president now. Right now. And someone damn well should.

I urge you to contact your state's attorney general and suggest she take action while we still have a country. A lot of damage can be done in 41 days.

If you disagree with me about this let me know and I'll cite the details.

--- Diogenes, 12/11/2020

Concerning Sedition

On his Youtube show of December 1, David Pakman made the excellent point that Lame Duck Trump, grasping at the smallest imaginable straws in an insane attempt to overturn the presidential election, repeatedly commits sedition.

Because that's not a word most of us use frequently, here's the Merriam-Webster definition: "incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority." Yes, that sounds like what Trump does when he tries to rally his army of gun-totin' knuckle draggers. So why hasn't he been called out on it?

Because, dear readers, except for a few months at the end of WWI, we haven't had a law against sedition since 1801. That law was the first real test of the First Amendment right to free speech, and the amendment won. The Sedition Act of 1798 was on the books only about three years.

Laws against sedition are fairly common around the world. They are most commonly found in less-than-democratic nations as you might expect, but they also show up in otherwise freedom-loving European monarchies, where badmouthing the royal family is a crime.

Here in the good old U.S. of A. we fiercely defend our right to speak freely, and defend even the right to say things we abhor. As Voltaire allegedly said, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Few of us who are not military would readily contemplate that kind of sacrifice. But there are some things being said by the Litigant-in-Chief that seem to many of us to to require a strong response.

Can we do anything about it? Well, maybe. Tucked away in Title 18 of the U. S. Code is 18 USC § 2385, which provides penalties including up to 20 years in prison for advocating overthrow of the government. Here is part of it: 

"Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, . . . Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction."¹

This is a de facto sedition act. I think there is evidence that Trump has, by attempting to subvert this country's electoral process, by attempting to dismantle the postal service, by attempting to end Congress' oversight of the Executive Branch, and by inciting violence against state governments, has violated the act.

At this point I doubt anyone with the power would charge him, although his threat to withdraw funding from the military is surely a grave threat to national security. He may be found immune to the charge now, but maybe the FBI will add it to the list of his offenses and swoop in to gather him up after the Biden inauguration.

I can dream, can't I?

--- Diogenes, 12/5/2020

¹ Legal Information Institute, Cornell University: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2385

National Review Sees The Light

When we relaunched Vox Populi last winter I commented that we were not a breaking news outlet, but a small voice in a big wilderness speaking out against Trump and his administration.

Still, I've consistently seen major news outlets say the same things I've been saying, although with a bit more restraint. Not that they heard it from me; I'm not prone to hubris. But it's nice to have one's voice reinforced.

Latest to join the chorus denouncing Trump has been the National Review. This is, as far as I know, unprecedented. The journal was founded by arch-conservative William F. Buckley, and it has been the source of many a Republican wet dream. 

Having temporarily slipped into the Trump cesspool a while back, the editors have recovered sufficiently to actually speak the truth. The article says in part, "make no mistake: The chief driver of the post-election contention of the past several weeks is the petulant refusal of one man to accept the verdict of the American people. The Trump team (and much of the GOP) is working backwards, desperately trying to find something, anything to support the president’s aggrieved feelings, rather than objectively considering the evidence and reacting as warranted."¹

Wow! You have to understand that this biweekly journal is probably the most ultra-conservative publication in English. It no longer has the erudition and intellectual potency of Buckley at the helm, but it is probably the most important source of conservative opinion for right-wingers who don't get all their news from Facebook or Twitter.

Well done, NR editors. Welcome to the real world.

--- Diogenes, 12/1/2020

¹ https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/trump-election-fraud-disgraceful-endgame/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Numbers

57 Days until Joe Biden's inauguration;

12,000,000+ Americans afflicted with COVID-19;

250,000+ Americans killed by COVID-19, with an assist by Donald J. Trump--approximately the population of Buffalo, NY, North Las Vegas, NV, or Winston-Salem, NC;

≈1,500 American deaths per day from COVID-19;

60% Of South Dakotans have tested positive for COVID-19 thanks to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem's no mask, no protection policies;

1.6% Of Vermonters have tested positive for COVID-19 thanks to Republican Gov. Phil Scott's rigorous common-sense based policies;

535 Members of Congress + 15 Cabinet members + 1 vice-president = 551 spineless politicians who can't or won't try to summon the will and/or courage to muzzle or sequester Lame Duck Trump;

158 Sovereign nations (out of 196) whose leaders have recognized Joe Biden as president-elect;

15 International treaties, agreements and arms control measures abandoned by Trump--the majority have to do with human rights;

200+ Lawsuits filed by Trump administration attorneys and GOP apparatchiks with the aim of disrupting the election and suppressing votes;

0 Lawsuits with potential effect ruled on--most dismissed or dropped;

50,293 Trump Tweets during presidential term;

≈ 25,000 Trump lies since 2016;

1 Trump presidential term;

0 Future Trump presidential terms.

Your additions welcome.

--- Diogenes, 11/24/20

 

 

 

 

 

Lies, Betrayal, and Le Cirque de Rudy

59 Days and counting, and we can't let our guard down until Joe Biden is inaugurated.

Dirty tricks, obfuscation, wholesale lying, deception, inveigling and skullduggery--all standard Republican tools--are afoot and the republic is still in danger.

Throughout Lame Duck Trump's term we've all said something like, "It surely can't get worse than this," only to find out a few days later that yes, indeed, it can. Trump's "worse than" moments have escalated and multiplied until it truly does seem there could be no more. And yet, especially during this past year, the pace of multiplication has picked up exponentially as the Fool-in-Chief's minions have joined him in making the world a worse place. 

I'm tempted to compare the multiplication of Trump's "worse thans" to the infinitely reproducing Tribbles of Star Trek fame,¹ but there's nothing cute and cuddly about what's coming out of the White House.

The alleged leader of the nation is a pathological liar and malignant narcissist. He is a laughingstock and pariah to other world leaders, a bumbling fool whose grip on reality is steadily loosening. It's all what we've come to expect--and what does that say about us? 

But the Fool-in-Chief has the world's most powerful military at his command. We can only hope that if he decides to throw some bombs--maybe on Tehran, maybe on Portland, Oregon--that those in command will politely but forcibly tell him to go to Hell.

Some of Trump's minions come close to matching the depth of his delusions.

Scott Atlas, who has become Lame Duck Trump's medical mouthpiece, has recently spoken against mask use, size limitations on gatherings, and has urged people in Michigan to "rise up" against Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stringent public health policies and actions. Why Whitmer and not another governor with similar policies, like Ralph Northam? Because Whitmer happens to be LDT's current whipping girl. He's intimidated by women who wield power--and who will outlast him in office.

But back to Atlas. If you go looking for his public health credentials you'll find nothing. Atlas is a neuroradiologist, a specialty that positions its practitioners about as far away from sick people as it's possible to get. Not to trash talk the specialty; it's important to people with certain neurological problems. It's just that one would seldom if ever mention neuroradiologists and public health in the same sentence. And yet this hands-off physician, who sees his patients only in radiology media, is telling us to ignore all the other "expert" doctors with public health cred.

It's hardly surprising; he's Trump's tool, more valuable for being a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a right-wing think tank that provided a number of the unpresident's advisors, than for being a doctor.

Yet he is still a physician who has sworn to uphold the precepts of the Hippocratic Oath. Contrary to popular belief, the Oath does not contain the words "First, do no harm." It does, however, bind medical practitioners to the promise of dedicating their lives to healing the sick. It says, in part, "I will . . . benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. . . . Into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick, . . ."²

Scott Atlas has betrayed any trust the American people might have held him in, and has also betrayed his professional oath. His medical licenses should be rescinded.

Then there's the Rudy Roadshow. Rudy Giuliani, whose grip on reality is no more secure than LTD's, leads a team of boutique litigators and attorneys from small firms (of course; no major firm would touch this nonsense) in a brazen attempt to overthrow the 2020 election result. So far they are batting zero, and getting paid ridiculous sums to do it. Rudy is said to be paid $20,000 a day. Talk about throwing good money after bad.

Once again, here are overpaid professionals, whose job it is to uphold the law, trying to subvert the voice of the people. The lot of them should be disbarred.

Stay alert and watch for tyranny everywhere.

--- Diogenes, 11/22/2020

 

¹ Star Trek, "The Trouble With Tribbles," Season 2, Episode 15.

² National Institutes of Health, "Greek Medicine," https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html.

POTUS MIA

It's Friday the 13th and no one is at the helm of the ship of state.

Unpresident Donald Trump, the nominal leader of the nation, has retreated to his fortress of solitude, licking his wounds and endlessly seeking someone to blame for his downfall. Are there mirrors in that fortress?

His most visible action so far has been to decapitate the Department of Defense, firing Secretary Mark Esper and several other top defense personnel; others have resigned. The reason for this massacre seems to be perceived disloyalty to the Idiot-in-Chief by those who have been removed. They have been replaced by a bevy of Trump loyalists, some of whom have dodgy credentials, such as retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata, a known Islamophobe who has called former President Barack Obama a terrorist.

One can't be sure how concerned to be about those actions. Is it just Trump showing he still has power over a few people, or is he planning to do something tremendously stupid?

It's well known that Trump demands loyalty above all else, as most tyrants do, and Esper had been notably outspoken--especially about sending federal troops into U. S. cities. What is most troubling is the obvious fact that this temporary restructuring of the DoD virtually gives a delusional and frustrated president direct control of the nation's arsenal, including nuclear weapons. Is the Narcissist-in-Chief demented enough to use them, in an "If I can't have this country, nobody can" Armageddon? And does anyone want to find out?

More importantly, if enemies perceive the DoD shakeup as a weakness, they might be prone to strike. Not so much the big guys, who are always under scrutiny, but smaller nations or terror groups, who could slip in under the radar. Let's not forget it was such a group that brought about the most disastrous attack on American soil in history--and that at a time when we had a stable defense structure.

Most of Trump's post-election time seems to have been spent trying to come up with newer and zanier lawsuits. I have to wonder how he can get so many attorneys to work for him, unless he's illegally using DoJ staff. Surely they know they'll have to get into a very long line to get paid. If they're working pro bono, I'm afraid I don't see any "bono" in it.

At this writing most of those suits have been withdrawn or thrown out. The Supreme Court is holding its own counsel, but doesn't seem keen to deal with any more fluff. As a judge once reminded me, "de minimis non curat lex": "The law does not deal with trifles."

Speaking of which, if the Trifler-in-Chief is going to declare himself hors de combat, he is bound by duty and his by oath to provide a replacement for himself. He can voluntarily invoke the 25th Amendment, put Mike Pence in the Oval Office for a few weeks and go off to sulk.

Or he can put on his big-boy pants and actually act like an adult.

---Diogenes, 11/13/2020

    

Veterans

Today is Veterans Day, or Armistice Day if you're old enough to remember that appellation.

My family tree includes people who have served in every war America has been involved in, from the Revolution to Vietnam.

Some saw battle, some didn't. Some tended to humble jobs in the background like my great-great grandfather, a Civil War wagoner who was nonetheless wounded in battle. Others flew into the thick of things like my uncle, a B-29 flight engineer who flew raids over Germany in WWII.

Those who served did so honorably. I believe that is the case with the great majority of our warriors today. It must be especially difficult in times like these when so many of their senior administrators and commanders, right up to the putative Commander-in-Chief, are corrupt and willing to use them as pawns for their own purposes.

In they next few weeks, when they may be ordered to fight their own people or undertake some other false or unlawful mission at the whim of the president, we can only hope that their innate honor and sense of duty prevails. 

They must understand that the part of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution trumps the part about them obeying the president.

--- Diogenes, 11/11/2020

Reflectiions

I've written elsewhere about thinking I had retired from political dissent until the Orange Obscenity won the presidency. I know I wasn't the only person to be profoundly shocked when the results of the 2016 presidential race were announced. Shock quickly turned to alarm, and finally outrage. 

The very thought of Donald Trump, one of the world's most obnoxious and toxic personalities, in the Oval Office turned my stomach. I'm a retired journalist, but I've not read a newspaper nor watched a TV news program since the 2017 inauguration, because any mention of Trump made me angry and disgusted.

I knew I had to find some way to express my rage, or I would explode. On February 1, 2017 I launched the Trump Alphabet Project on Facebook, inviting everyone to come up with a daily adjective to describe Trump, beginning with A and running through the alphabet. It was a bit lighthearted, but provided an outlet for a surprising number of people. There were some among my "friends" who were already into the Trump Kool-Aid pretty deep, who expressed their displeasure--some with surprising acerbity. I was surprised and a bit saddened, but it was clear that lines were being drawn.

About the time we hit T I was still seething, and knew I had to find another outlet. The world of blogs and blogging was foreign to me, but it seemed a reasonable way to express my anger in essays of some length, so I looked up my old buddy Diogenes, and on February 28, 2017 we inaugurated the Vox Populi blog, of which he has over time become the principal writer.

That run of Vox went through November 3, 2018. It was mostly anti-Trump, but also looked at other subjects, including the unpresident's confrontation with Bashar al-Assad, the policies of the Democratic National Committee, and a four-part piece on the dangers of stored nerve gas.

Following the 2018 election we went dark, feeling that we had finally said all we had to say at the time, although our anger had not entirely subsided. We returned, perhaps fittingly, on April Fools Day of this year when it became clear that Trump and his actions (I can hardly say policies) were becoming increasingly dangerous.

At the time we supported Bernie Sanders for president, believing that his brashness and chutzpah would counter Trump's bluster. When Bernie left the primary race we shifted our allegiance to Joe Biden, not without misgivings. We have said many times that Democrats, and particularly the DNC, play too nice, and need to counter the Republican fire with fire of their own. We thought that Joe Biden was too mild to excite voters.

We were also skeptical of his choice of a woman, regardless of race, as his running mate. We knew that Hillary had won the popular vote in 2016, but we also knew how militant Trump's followers had become, and were afraid the choice of a woman would hurt Biden's chances.

We we wrong on both counts; decency trumped belligerence, and Kamala Harris turned out to be the perfect choice. During the candidates' victory speeches I felt a weight lift off me. I know what a cliche that is, but it's the best metaphor to describe the feeling. I still feel the lightness and excitement that came over me watching the spontaneous celebrations taking place in several cities. America was happy again.

In his victory speech Biden quoted the hymn "On Eagles' Wings." It was a good choice in that context, but the hymn that's been running through my head is "Once To Ev'ry Man and Nation." Here are the lyrics of the first verse: "Once to ev'ry man and nation/Comes the moment to decide,/In the strife of truth and falsehood,/For the good or evil side;/Some great cause, some great decision,/Off'ring each the bloom or blight,/And the choice goes by forever/'Twixt that darkness and that light."

We, the people of the United States of America, have made the choice for light and turned away darkness. I genuinely believe Trump to be an evil force; we've not seen the end of him, but we've removed him from power. As he himself predicted, we've turned a corner.

Going forward I expect we'll be considering the unpresident's actions at least through January 20, but I foresee a lot more time looking at the positive developments of the transition period.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Richard Brown, 11/10/2020 

 

270! Thanks, Pennsylvania!

The Orange Obscenity is now officially irrelevant. He will no doubt spend his Lame Duck period doing as much mischief to the country as he can in his diminished state, but his loss to Biden will almost certainly reduce his power and influence among his former supporters, in Congress and elsewhere. 

Even the Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell is beginning to distance himself. Brown-nosing lickspittles Mike Pence and Lindsay Graham continue to hang on, however, the result of being fully immersed in the Trump Kool-Aid.

We have to remember that it's not over. I have faith that none of Trump's legal stratagems will succeed, but we still have to be aware and ready to support President-elect Biden in any way we can. Dirty tricks know no season, and there's always the danger of a yob pushback.

But for now, light a candle, drink champagne, shoot off firecrackers, give thanks to God. Celebrate and relax.

--- Diogenes, 11/7/2020

E-Day

Here we are, for better or for worse. Election Day this year has been more anticipated than most major holidays combined; its approach has also been filled with trepidation, because whatever the outcome, the United States of America will be forever changed.

There have been other controversial elections throughout the nation's history, but it's questionable if any others since the very earliest ones were so fraught with existential concern for the Constitution, the foundation of our government.

If you're voting today, go early, expect anything, and take your phone with a fully-charged battery with you. Avoid confrontation; if you see someone trying to keep anyone from voting, alert the election officials. If you can't get to them, call 911. If you are confronted, don't be intimidated. Stay calm and keep your place in line. You have every right to cast your ballot. Again, if there is the threat of violence, call 911. 

If there is a problem and you can do so inconspicuously, take photos of troublemakers and their vehicle license plates.

I'll be working as a poll monitor today, and I will definitely be taking my own best advice.

I will offer just one historical fact today: At least since the middle of the 20th century, the majority of election cheats and scandals have been perpetrated by the Republican Party.

Be alert, be aware, and stay safe.

 

--- Diogenes, 11/3/2020

Killing America

November 3 will be a tipping point for the United States. 

If the unspeakable unpresident is re-elected, we are almost certainly doomed to fall into a tyrannical state that none of us will recognize as America. 

If Joe Biden wins he will face the possibility of armed insurrection, the continuing spread of COVID-19, and the need to repair a government in shambles. Above all, he will have to rid the country of the stink of Donald Trump that lies over it like a pernicious pall.

I believe he will accomplish all those things, but it will  be a struggle. It is imperative that he win, because his election will be necessary to save this democracy. 

Trump's ultimate goal, in the unthinkable case he wins a second term and has a friendly Congress, is to dismantle American government.

One has to ask what his motivation to do so could possibly be. Some of you may have better ideas, which I welcome you to share with me, but I can come up with only two possibilities: 

1) He is doing so in collusion with a foreign power, most likely Vladimir Putin, to make the United States a vassal state; or

2) He wants to create a new nation from scratch, in the form of what he believes an ideal state should be. Let's call it Trumptopia.

Everything I know, or think I know, about the Tyrant-in-Chief suggests the latter, because he doesn't like to share. Despite his fame and alleged wealth, Trump has consistently failed upward. The presidency should be his last stop, the culmination of his version of the Peter Principle. But he wants more, as he always has. And more for him would mean a nation reconstructed in his own image.

If you think he couldn't possibly do such a thing, think again. Read this article, titled "How Did Hitler Happen," and consider the parallels: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/how-did-hitler-happen

The transformation has already started. He has tried at least a couple of times to use the Supreme Court to reduce the power and authority of Congress. As screwed up as it is, Congress is an institution we need to protect because it has oversight of presidential powers, and the Bully-in-Chief doesn't like being overseen. 

As we've recently witnessed, one of the roles Congress plays is to vet the president's candidates for the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court. At the present moment that power is largely symbolic, but it still stands as a safeguard against unilateral action by the president to make the federal bench a political tool. I know that sounds naive in the light of today's realpolitik, but if we lose faith in the spirit of the Constitution we have nothing.

That said, it must be pointed out that the tyrant's minions must also be turned out or diminished in their power. If there was true justice in the world, the Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell and his imp, the loathsome Lindsey Graham, would be voted out of office. If that doesn't happen, then we have to trust the voters to give Democrats a solid majority in both houses of Congress in order to keep them caged.

Trumptopia would be an autocracy, with all power vested in Trump alone. In order to make that happen the Constitution would effectively have to disappear. Not the document itself, which resides in the National Archives, but the idea of it and the code of law that is established upon it.

Hitler and other tyrants have arisen by using parts of existing systems that could further their ends and by simply ignoring others. The wannabe autocrat has used the process of nominating justices to the Supreme Court to seat three conservative justices. With an insuperable conservative majority he has effectively guaranteed the rollback of civil and healthcare rights regardless of who wins this election--and several after it.

The Thug-in-Chief has shown that he has no compunction about ignoring laws he doesn't like, and that extends to elements of the Constitution. There is an orderly process to amend the Constitution; the Founders were aware that no system is eternal. But the Idiot Child-in-Chief has no patience with processes. Like Hitler and other dictators, Trump would prefer to rule by fiat: what he says is the law, period. That is the motivation behind all those Executive Orders he issues, that so far have been inconsequential.

With traitors like Graham and McConnell in his pocket, and with a spineless vice-president and Cabinet, Trumptopia could become reality almost overnight.

There are enough books exposing and deriding Trump in print to stock a small library. One that should be given attention is Rick Wilson's Everything Trump Touches Dies. Don't be fooled by Wilson's humor. It doesn't lighten the dire message of the title. We can't let the United States of America be one more corpse that the most corrupt and criminal of presidents leaves shriveled in his wake.

So be alert, be vigilant, and if you haven't done so yet, get out and vote for Joe Biden. Every vote counts and every voice must be heard. We are Americans, not Trumptopians. The monster in the White House must be extirpated.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Diogenes, 11/1/2020  

Keep Fighting

If you watched the debate last night, you probably didn't learn anything new, except that it really is possible for Trump to remain silent for several minutes at a time. The unpresident stuck to the same tired old rhetoric that he's been spewing ad nauseam since February, plus some fake charges that Biden has accepted foreign money.

For his part, Biden displayed the poise I expected, never rising to Trump's bait. He spoke well and with authority, and finally said to Trump's face that he has no business being president.

Biden outlined programs and policies he expects to put in place if elected, while the Idiot Child-in-Chief had only his three I's: insults, indirection, and innuendo.

But no resting on laurels, please. It ain't over 'til it's over, to quote the sainted Yogi. And it's likely not to be over for a while after Nov. 3, depending on how adept this nation's election workers are at counting ballots.

So hang in there for the long term. There are fights yet to be fought. 

And for God's sake, contact your senators and any you might know from other states and tell them in clear language to vote down Amy Coney Barrett. The loathsome Lindsey Graham broke his own rules to get her election pushed forward. We need to push back hard.

--- Diogenes, 10/23/2020

Time For A Break

Thanks to all who expressed concerns about my welfare during my absence. The simple fact is that life intrudes everywhere, even in Parnassus.

I've recently been asked why I continue trashing Trump. It seems a foregone conclusion that he's going to lose the election, I'm told. But ah-ah-ah: remember 2016, and how we all got fooled. 

We must keep the sentiment of "Won't Get Fooled Again," the great protest song by The Who, in front of us, and not let our guard drop for an instant.

But really, my interlocutors continue, why not write something positive about Joe Biden?

Well, really--what else could one write about Joe Biden? He is a good person of sterling character, supremely ethical, a loyal family man and public servant. He served the state of Delaware as a senator for 36 years, sponsoring or co-sponsoring 162 bills, all of which passed into law. He held several important committee positions, including Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that role he oversaw and helped to defeat the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. 

What is Joe Biden not? He is not a tyrannical self-server, nor a bully, nor a foolish buffoon, nor an existential threat to the United States of America. 

Donald Trump is all those things, which is one reason why I will continue speaking against him. The other reason is that I have so much vitriol against him accumulated that I have a strong need to express it. That won't necessarily be here, however.

With this post I am declaring a hiatus for Vox Populi. I've written 173 posts in 2020, and I want to take the next two critical weeks working locally. I may drop in with something from time to time, or repost a piece that seems germane to current circumstances, but my online presence until Election Day will be minimal.

Thanks to all of you for tuning in and sharing your comments. Get out and vote, and keep up the good fight.

La lutte continue!

 

Diogenes --- 10/20/2020

 

Too Stupid To Live (Repost)

I know--we're running past Diogenes posts the way broadcast TV used to do summer reruns. Just hang on a bit longer, please, and enjoy these if you missed them first time.

Today's title is the favorite saying of a former workmate. It's harsh, but there are some cases in which it seems apt.

To wit: People who blindly follow Donald Trump.

Near the top of the long list of things I do not understand is why anyone would follow Trump for any reason. I think they actually don't follow, because he has proven himself not to be a leader. Perhaps a better word would be adherents: they are drawn to him unconsciously, and just sort of clump around him.

Having thought about this for a while I've decided Trump's human conglomeration can be divided into four groups, as follows:

Toadies and minions

These are people who are in some way beholden to the unpresident or feel a strong attraction to him. The group includes his staff, the Cabinet, associate Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and probably most Congressional Republicans.

For many politicians, bureaucrats, and functionaries, D. C. is Nirvana, the Promised Land, and El Dorado. Most of them are power junkies who prize being near the center of power above all. The closer they can bind themselves to the chief executive, the more power adheres to them. Many of this group don't care who the president is. All they want is to keep hanging on to a job that keeps them near the Omphalos of government, and they will do anything the incumbent asks of them to stay in it.

The Party Faithful

There is some overlap between this group and the toadies and minions, but it isn't huge. By and large these people have been staunch Republicans all their lives, and are likely the children of Republicans. A good number of them have been in office far too long. They still wistfully refer to the Grand Old Party, but deep down they know the Republican Party is broken. The president is nominally Republican, but they can't go to him to fix it, because they now know he's the one who broke it. Nonetheless, when November 3 rolls around they will hold their noses and vote for him, because, by God, they're Republicans, and they vote for Republicans, period.

The Mob

I don't know if The Mob is the largest of these four groups, but they are the ones who are most visible and make the most noise. I equate them with British yobs, who can turn any soccer match into a bar brawl.

They're not political. They come out for the action, to confront protesters and/or cops, to strut around shirtless waving Trump flags, to pointedly defy rules (e.g. wearing masks), and to shout slogans about foreigners and minorities. If they have a goal it is to show the Dumbass-in-Chief that they are men, too, and they identify with his anger and his displeasure with anyone who doesn't agree with him or isn't like him. (I'm sorry for all the masculine pronouns, but this group is testosterone fueled.)

The Fringe

This is the group I was thinking of when I decided on the title. The fringe is the group that gets their news from social media and takes as Gospel anything uttered by their ultra-right authority figure du jour, be it the Idiot Child-in-Chief, Archdemon Mitch McConnell, the faceless Q of Qanon, Sean Hannity, or their foreman at work.

They propagate and embroider conspiracy theories with such outrageous premises that any reasonable (not to say sane) person would reject them out of hand. Yet they hold to these beliefs like religion because someone they believe to be in authority said it was so. It's easy to dismiss them as gullible fools and paranoiacs, but we would do so at our peril.

Because these people so desperately need something to follow or to believe in, they will believe virtually anything. They become easy to manipulate, and the darker corners of the Web where they like to hang out are perfect places to recruit and persuade them to a cause. If all this sounds just too "out there," I recommend this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/ 

Don't read it before bed.


--- Diogenes, 8/13/2020     Reposted 10/14/2020

Please share widely.

 

America v. Америка (Repost)

Diogenes is on his way back. Here's another repost from his greatest hits.

There was a time when "America" was synonymous with strength, justice, freedom, opportunity, enlightenment, peace, cooperation, fairness, and understanding.

Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.

Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.

Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.

This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.

The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.

Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.

He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.

After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.

He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:

• The Paris Climate Agreement
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc
• UNESCO, the UN's culture and education body
• The UN Human Rights Council, responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe
• The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Near East
• The Iran nuclear accord
• The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the U. S. and the Soviet Union to eliminate all nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers
• The Open Skies Treaty allows member nations to overfly other members' territory to collect data on military forces and activities
• and others, including a possible withdrawal from the World Health Organization; he has threatened to withdraw but not carried through

 

Two trends are clear: (1) The Divider-in-Chief is taking the U.S. out of organizations and treaties that involve helping or dealing with ethnicities or races he doesn't like; (2) He is trying to control foreign nuclear weapon expansion while removing hindrances on American weapons development.

The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.

Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹

American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.

That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.

Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.

Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.


--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020   (Reposted 10/11/2020)

Please share widely


¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832

Cowards, Cretins, and Fools (Repost)

Diogenes is on TDY. In his absence we're reposting some of his more popular pieces.

 

435 Representatives
100 Senators
15 Cabinet members
1 Vice-president

And not a scruple of conscience among them. Not a whiff of courage to call out dishonesty and injustice. Not a shred of evidence that each one of them once swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Every day these 551 individuals plus a host of staff watch the alleged leader of the free world lie, scheme, cheat and swindle his bumbling way through life and not one raises their voice to call him out.

Only the press, in their Constitutional position as government watchdog, call him out regularly. The 551 should be listening. There was a time when the editorial boards of major newspapers had the ear of Congress. Now the portion of Congress that isn't deaf listens only to its own voice crying for attention in a masturbatory maelstrom of fear and self-loathing.

Donald John Trump is not special. He is a man, not a superbeing. He is not unstoppable. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. He belches, farts, and picks his nose. He is nobody's Chosen One. He has such little self respect that when he cannot gain praise from others he invents it himself.

His Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, but there is nothing real about him. He is a creature of his own imagining, cobbled together from whole cloth into a simulacrum of a leader, but lacking any knowledge or talent for the role. He is material but lacks substance. He is false from the hair on his head and the complexion of his face to the emptiness of his heart. He is the living embodiment of the emperor's new clothes.

The 551 know this but cannot admit it. They are politicians, hacks, and wonks so entrapped by the system they have built for themselves to ensure a continuing spot at the trough of public money that they can understand nothing else. They are cowards, cretins, and fools who will continue to be accomplices to the crimes and misdeeds of the Poser-in-Chief who squats atop the house of cards they have built. They disagree superficially but know they are totally interdependent, so not one will say "Enough! Stop!" Not one. Not. one. They are beyond shame.

Meanwhile the Traitor-in-Chief who has not betrayed his oath because he never intended to follow it attacks genuine patriots. He defends murderers and domestic terrorists like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the mouth-breathing, tattooed lowlifes who drove into peaceful demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.

Speaking to the National Republican Club in February 1938, Vermont Governor George Aiken said Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today."¹ A plaque with that quote should hang in every Congressional Republican's office to remind them of their responsibility to be a check on executive actions.

Government functionaries don't fear the Bully-in-Chief; they fear the power he wields. That is a small but significant distinction. There is nothing to be feared from Trump the man. He is a small, insignificant entity whose personal power over others is limited to insults and epithets. But he holds the presidency, and with that can cause irreparable damage, if not destruction, of careers. He holds it over his minions like Damocles' sword, threatening them with the worst possible fate: expulsion from a government job and the loss of their place at the trough.

Elected officials are beyond his reach, but cower nonetheless because even after four years he remains a phenomenon foreign to their culture. They fear the unknown and therefore bow before it.

There are 551 of them and not one will stand up. The refusal of every one of them to stand and announce their opposition to the Cretin-in-Chief is disgraceful and cowardly. Bullies respond to being pushed back, but we Americans and our Constitution have no one to push for us.

In a post several weeks ago I said I would not condone assassination as a means of removing Tyrant Trump.

I have reconsidered that position.


--- Diogenes, 9/1/2020    Reposted 10/10/2020


Please share


¹ D. Gregory Sanford, "You Can't Get There From Here: The Presidential Boomlet for Governor George D. Aiken, 1937-1939," Vermont History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fall, 1981), p. 204.


 

Putting The Hate On Trump (Repost)

(Diogenes is temporarily involved in other pursuits. In his absence we will be reposting some of his more popular pieces.) ---RB

 

I hate Donald Trump because he makes me want to do violence.

I have held to a nonviolent philosophy for my entire adult life. I have never aimed a weapon at anything more threatening than a field target; I was last drawn into a fistfight when I was 17; I have no wish to harm anyone.

And I want to punch Trump's lights out.

I have dreams of throttling him, my hands around his neck, beating his head against the wall while he sings The Beatles' song "I'm A Loser." I want to rip that orange obscenity from his head and shred it with my teeth. I want to throw him into a pool full of crocodiles. I want to wash his lying, profane mouth out with lye soap. I want to tie him to a chair, tape his eyes open, and force him to watch a video loop of President Obama scolding, "Donny, you've been a bad boy." I want the Statue of Liberty to spank him, and the ghosts of Lincoln and Jefferson to haunt him forever. I want a personification of the COVID-19 virus to chase him naked through the streets of Manhattan. I want him to know himself for the fraud and freak show he is, no more worthy to sit in the Oval Office than slime mold. I want him reincarnated to a place where he is the only white person and the rulers are violent, misanthropic women. I want him to know the bone-chilling, knee-collapsing, bladder-emptying fear of authority felt by the oppressed, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. I want a hundred afarit to drag him into the earth. I want him to know exactly what Putin, Xi Jinping, and Erdoğan actually say about him. I want him tarred and feathered and ridden out of DC on a rail.  I want to tattoo 666 on his ass. I want him to know his biography is full of blank pages. I want him afflicted with boils and unscratchable itches. I want the unspeakable beasts of Chthulu to find him. I want the Holy Bible to burn his blaspheming hands. I want his libelous tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. I want him placed among the traitors in the mouth of Satan in the deepest pit of Hell. I want him mute. I want his image expunged from every public place and his portrait never placed in the Gallery of Presidents. I want him forgotten. I want his legacy to be shame. I want him to know just how much he is hated. I want him to be bullied and intimidated. I want him ostracized. I want him humiliated. I want him to cry.

During the Thug-in-Chief's first campaign I sometimes asked rhetorically, "Will someone take this bastard out and shoot him?" I was advised by cooler heads to tone it down, and I did. No more. There are not enough denunciatory, damning, condemnatory, insulting, judgmental, censorious, reproaching, disparaging, derogatory words in all the English language sufficiently to describe him, nor any punishment he does not deserve.

He has defiled, flouted, soiled, profaned, fouled, besmirched, sullied and dishonored the office of President, the laws of this country, the Constitution, the legacy of the Framers, and the idea of democracy itself.

He is a cancer and a plague on freedom and on our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

He must be stopped, deposed, and extirpated.


--- Diogenes, 7/6/2020   Reposted 10/9/2020

 

Knowing

"Know your enemy."

Almost everyone has heard that maxim from Sun-Tzū's The Art Of War. But it's only half the equation. Here's the rest:"“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

For Sun-Tzū self-knowledge was as important as knowing the enemy. You may know down to the last bullet the magnitude of the enemy's arms and the number of his soldiers; but unless you know your own strengths, weaknesses and abilities you will always be at risk of defeat.

So who do we think we are, and who do we think the enemy is? The following unscientific profiles are based on information drawn from several sources and opinions, and refer to "foot soldier" types--not party or government workers or high-level professionals. 

That said, let's consider how both sides might react to certain words and phrases:

(First paragraph is "us," second is "them")

Liberal:

How we define ourselves politically, holding to the classic Liberal tenets: liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. We champion democracy, universal human and civil rights, and equality. We defend the Constitution, believing it has helped America accomplish the Founders' intent "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."

Usually prefaced with "ultra," as if there's no such thing as just a plain liberal, and almost always coupled with "agenda," providing a sinister aspect. Liberals are suspect because they want to change the established order and make everyone serve them. They believe they are better than everyone else. They belong to secret elite societies that shut out common people. Their worldwide conspiracy would do away with religion and gun rights. They believe in birth control, abortion, and human engineering.

Conservative:

People of limited imagination who are stuck in the past. They resist change of any kind, preferring the status quo. Many are hostile to people who are different from them; racism and xenophobia are not uncommon in their ranks. They resist universal rights and equality. They believe the Second Amendment allows universal and untrammeled gun ownership. Their social philosophy tends to be patriarchal with Old Testament overtones. They believe that women should be subordinate to men.

Conservatives believe that change should be evolutionary, developing naturally over a period of time according to what they think of as "the natural order of things." They believe in personal freedom and strict property rights. They would support a confederacy with primary authority resting with individual states. They favor immigration quotas and trade tariffs.

The Constitution:

The founding document and framework of the American system of government.

A set of rules that doesn't allow the president to rule like he should be able to. It says we can speak our minds, attend the church of our choice, and own guns. The rest is just so many words.

Law and Order:

The normal condition of a civil and well governed society. Order occurs naturally when all are equal. A police force should be maintained for community defense and to control those who break the law.

Using all available force to keep troublemakers, i.e. anyone who disagrees with us, in line.

Education:

Most of us have graduated from high school and have one or two years of college. A significant number have graduate degrees. We tend to pursue professional careers.

Trump followers typically have only a high school education and tend to work in "blue collar" jobs. A high percentage are active or ex-military. They believe foreigners have taken all the good jobs.

Science: 

Because we are educated and curious we accept the work of our scientist peers. We acknowledge that scientific research and exploration reveal the truth about our world and the universe. 

Disinformation meant to frighten the population about things like "climate change."

Protest:

Speaking out and demonstrating against the government, exercising our rights to speak openly, assemble peacefully, and seek redress of wrongs.

Using outside groups to incite crowds to demonstrate violently against the government. A criminal act that has to be beaten down by any means necessary.

The president:

A person elected by the people to lead the country for a maximum of two four-year terms.

Donald Trump.

 

--- Diogenes, 10/4/2020

  

Emphasis on Waiting but Not Recanting Yet

I may have to recant a post I published earlier today titled "Watching and Waiting." Now that I've calmed down from the exciting news of Trump having COVID-19 I'm going to say let's watch very closely and wait for proof--preferably a second or third medical opinion.

I would not put it past the Liar-in-Chief to fabricate this story to get out of the second debate and/or to play for sympathy. Or to claim the disease had no effect on him.

Independent opinions are definitely called for. And who and where is Hope Hicks?

--- Diogenes

Watching And Waiting

I'm back, and God forgive me, I'm basking in schadenfreude. 

The news that the unpresident has COVID-19 raised my spirits exponentially. I had hoped for a thunderbolt, but there's no way I'm going to criticize God for the way She decided to smite the unbelieving idiot.

Nor will I apologize for wishing for and reveling in another's misfortune. As a result of his arrogance, ignorance and self importance, 200,000 Americans have died, and 7 million have been sickened. He deserves neither concern nor sympathy.

It is possible that his will be a mild case and that he will recover quickly. If that is the case he will no doubt try to spin it somehow to his advantage, either downplaying the seriousness of the infection or boasting of his "great, terrific, beautiful" vitality, or both.

Whatever he says, he can no longer deny the reality of the pandemic. A lot of the Liar-in-Chief's misdeeds are coming home to roost right now: A slew of books detailing his bad behavior as a person, businessman and president; the release of his tax returns, proving what we all knew, that he is a cheat and a fraud extraordinaire; the exposure of his lack of self control and inability to focus in the first presidential debate; and his recklessness and disdain for others demonstrated by his attendance at campaign events even after he was aware of being infected.

We all can only watch and wait, and hope for him to be laid very low.

--- Diogenes, 10/2/2020

Temporarily Closed

Vox Populi is going dark for a bit to mourn the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 200,000th American victim of COVID-19, Mitt Romney's ethical compass, and the soul of the Supreme Court.

--- Diogenes, 9/23/2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933-2020; RIP

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or RBG as she was known to her fans, may well precipitate the nastiest judicial battle in living memory. 

It shouldn't, if anyone in government had the common decency to honor her final wish that her seat not be filled by a Trump nominee.

Republicans and Conservatives of all stripes can barely hide their glee at her passing. Those are some sick people. The always-disgusting Asshole-in-Chief, rather than posting anything even resembling a eulogy, put out an absurd tweet about Republican power and prestige, saying that the vacancy must be filled "without delay." 

Right. Tell that to Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's proposed replacement for Antonin Scalia, whom Archdemon Mitch McConnell totally ignored for 293 days, and, flaming racist that he is, shamefully disrespected Obama in the process.

The Senate Democrats, in honor of the memory of RBG, and to provide some comeuppance to McConnell on Obama's behalf, must block any and all moves the unpresident makes to fill the vacancy. 

The election is forty-five days away--a reasonable time for officially mourning a person of RBG's stature. Trump and the Republicans can damn well wait that long. They blocked Garland for the better part of a year. The Idiot Child-in-Chief will then lapse into lame duck status, and no one will pay attention to him and his ridiculous tweets.

I urge you all, if you haven't already, to contact your senators and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic Leader, to express your support for blocking any attempt by Trump to fill RBG's seat. That honor is rightfully the next president's.

It's the Democrats' time to hoist the battle standard of justice and democracy.

 

--- Diogenes, 9/19/2020

 

Is This The End, My Friends?

I've not been writing because I've spent the past couple of days keeping my ear to the ground listening for end-days chatter, and it's not easy to use a keyboard in that position.

But seriously, I'm just waiting for the Armageddon folks to start making noise; they might as well--crazies of every other type are out there.

The Western states continue to burn--the smoke has reached us here in the upper Southeast, making the sky hazy, and there's a slew of hurricanes and storms taking aim at us. Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica are melting away, and COVID-19 is raging in the Plains and popping up again around Europe. And, oh, yeah, the government and Congress are full of demons and imps.

Can you say apocalyptic?

So what say you? Should we be looking for signs in the heavens?

I don't think so. DJTrump is far too incompetent at everything to be the Antichrist. If I had to name a good candidate for that office it would be Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell. But getting right down to it, my personal opinion is that the concurrence of natural disasters, the man-made variety, and the impending collapse of the U. S. government is coincidence.

I'll be listening for sounds of The End a while longer, but will be back with the usual fare shortly.

--- Diogenes, 9/18/2020

Who Should We Fear? Part 2

I put the question: Should we fear those who follow Trump?

Yes and no, I think. We should fear every person who intends to cast a vote for the unpresident and strive to change their minds if possible. Every vote that goes to Trump is one that doesn't go to Biden, and we need to work hard to keep those votes to a minimum.

Apart from their ability to cast dangerous votes, is this entire group fearsome? No. It contains friends and family members, whose choices I respect even though I haven't a clue why they've gone to the dark side. They're intelligent, usually reasonable people, but they've become misguided

Fear is one of Trump's primary weapons. He tries to conjure it out of the air with rumors of war and disease, with pronouncements on the impossibility of casting a secure vote, with predictions that our neighborhoods will soon be overrun with "undesirables" i.e. people who are not like us.

If we begin to believe the baseless and ridiculous threats Trump broadcasts, we will have lost. His strength is in the credulity of his followers. Somehow he finds a way to make the impossible and implausible seem real to them.

To give an example, a colleague was recently informed by a college student that COVID-19 is a hoax. He said this in all seriousness. Imagine a hoax that would involve the public health agencies of virtually every country in the world, millions of healthcare workers, the heads of state of all the major nations, NGOs, international aid agencies, and some 930,000 people worldwide willing to die for the cause. I think I might be frightened that someone could actually believe such a thing.

Some of Trump's followers are loud and boisterous and very visible in the news when there is a rally or a trouble spot somewhere. The crowd wearing the red MAGA shirt has become a "big they." Because they were in Portland doesn't mean they will be in Louisville; the fact that they were in Kenosha doesn't mean they'll be in Topeka. They are mot ubiquitous. Still, a friend of mine said recently that she wouldn't put a Biden sign out because "they" would vandalize it. Fear won that day.

Trump is a terrorist. He rules by spreading fear, rumors and uncertainty. His followers mindlessly spread it further, retweeting or sharing his words and ideas without thinking about them. 

It is the disease of false rumors and lies we must fear, not those who spread them. We must work to keep the truth alive, the lies tamped down, and the rumormongers muzzled.

FDR said it: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

 

--- Diogenes, 9/15/2020 

 

 

Life = Art = Life?

Today I'm wearing my media commentator hat. Don't let that stop you. The post is germane to our topic, I promise.

I'm not a great fan of television, but I do enjoy good acting and effective drama. In those categories the medium has come a long way from the "vast wasteland" that Newton Minow called it.

The debate whether art imitates life or the other way around has entertained philosophers for more than a century. I've been asking the question a lot lately while watching a couple of Netflix political dramas. 

"House of Cards" (2013-2018) stars Kevin Spacey in a brilliant portrayal of Frank Underwood, a narcissistic politician who, when denied a Cabinet post, vows revenge on everyone. With lies, double crosses, and various crimes, he selects and removes his victims one by one, clawing his way to the presidency over their broken careers.

Underwood is aided and abetted by his wife Claire (Robin Wright), who is no less ruthless than he. She uses guile when she can and sex when she must. Her only allegiance is to Frank and their partnership, and even that is tenuous. Claire is hard as granite.

The series is based on a BBC miniseries that debuted shortly after the Thatcher era. It was always intended as a close look at political intrigue and dirty tricks. The advent of the Trump presidency struck the cast and producers as an eerie déjà vu. Several episodes have Trumpesque story lines, and Robin Wright has complained that Trump pre-empted much of their sixth season material. Who's imitating whom?

It's impossible to watch the last two seasons and not be struck by the similarity to reality. It's not that any character resembles a specific person, but the spirit of corruption, vindictiveness, betrayal and disdain for the public that pervades every episode, that brings the series into accord with the World of Trump. 

The final seasons, which include a sabotaged election, should be required viewing material for the Biden-Warren campaign and the Democratic National Committee as a cautionary tale.

I've mentioned "Madam Secretary" (2014-2018) a few times here. Basically a family drama in a political setting, the series follows the life of the Secretary of State, with Téa Leoni in the title role. 

The series wouldn't have held my interest past the second season if not for the election of DJTrump. Starting with season 3 the series began presenting stories that indirectly criticized White House policies, e.g. the plight of immigrant children, climate change denial, and Russian mischief. The series usually pulls its punches, but Season 5 Episode 1 featured Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, and Colin Powell in cameo roles discussing the threat of white nationalists in a clear reference to a part of Trump's base.

There are other similar series. These just happen to be the two I've followed. "House of Cards" is a distinctly noir view of what goes on at the top, but we've seen so many examples of the same kind of behavior actually taking place in the White House that it might provide some insights into the underlying psychology of the Trump administration.

"Madam Secretary" is light by comparison, but it is important for the instructive way it presents and explains legal, constitutional and statecraft processes, including a forced invocation of the 15th Amendment. These are things the public should know.

Newton Minow would be pleased to see the wasteland blooming.

 

--- Diogenes, 9/12/2020

 

 

   

         

Who Should We Fear? Part 1

"It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it."* 

There are times when I'm not sure who frightens me more, DJTrump or those who follow him slavishly.

The above quote is one of the most infamous sound bites from the Vietnam War, and is frequently held up as an ideal example of the absurdity of war and a censure of the "military mind." Laying waste the town of Ben Tre cost the lives of as many as 1,000 civilians and had virtually no effect on the ultimate outcome of the conflict.

I can easily imagine the Destroyer-in-Chief saying something similar about Chicago, or California, or the entire country for that matter. There is only one image in DJTrump's excuse for a mind right now, and it is of him as absolute ruler of this nation, with neither laws nor term limits to restrain him.

I genuinely believe he would start a war if he thought it would be to his advantage, destroying the country even if it would mean presiding over a lawless wasteland. He is that ruthless. It is not hyperbole when I say I have an existential fear of his lust for power, which is driven by his extreme narcissism.

As I and many others have pointed out, the unpresident can't abide the thought of someone being greater than he. When he began hobnobbing with tyrants who rule absolutely he knew he had to join their club. On their part, the tyrants of the world saw him coming a mile away and set their sights on his vanity. He is so delusional he thinks Kim Jong-un, perhaps his equal in megalomania, likes him, when in fact the North Korean leader mocks him, calling him "Excellency."

He makes no secret that he believes he can be elected to more than the two allowed terms. When he first mentioned the idea most commentators agree he was joking; but in 2020 he's turned serious. He believes he is entitled to more than two terms because--are you ready? This is out-of-the-ballpark bonkers--Barack Obama and Joe Biden "spied" on his first term, thereby "robbing" him of quality time he could have spent doing his usual presidential activity, which is to say, nothing.

As ludicrous as the idea is, he seems to have begun to believe it, and given his penchant for magical thinking that means it must be so. The 22nd Amendment sets a strict limit of two terms on the presidency, but the Traitor-in-Chief has repeatedly demonstrated that he holds the Constitution in contempt. Its only use to him is to fire up his trigger happy supporters by mentioning the Second Amendment from time to time.

He has used the courts to make several unsuccessful attempts to override parts of the Constitution, including a multi-pronged attack on Congressional oversight of the executive branch. He has completely disregarded the First Amendment a number of times, most egregiously by unilaterally sending federal troops to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon and other cities. 

Most dastardly, he has blatantly caused the degradation of the Postal Service's capacity to carry and deliver mail in an open attempt to suppress mail-in voting. As a favor to his buddy Vlad he has further quashed reports about Russia's attempts to disrupt our electoral process and begun highlighting the same kinds of attempts by Iran.

Finally, it has recently been disclosed that the Liar-in-Chief knew a great deal about COVID-19 from very early in the pandemic. He claims he downplayed the virus because he didn't want to create a panic. That is precisely the thinking that caused the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 to be so deadly: governments kept the public in the dark rather than informing them about safety procedures, which might have saved thousands of lives. It is more likely Trump held the information close with the thought of somehow turning it to his advantage, perhaps as a bargaining chip.

I don't fear Trump as a man. He is rather a pathetic specimen, after all. I do fear his madness and the power he wields, because the former could cause him to use the latter recklessly. He could blithely unleash nuclear Armageddon without a second thought if he believed it could keep him in power. 

As long as one person follows the Lunatic-in-Chief's orders we are all in danger.

 
--- Diogenes, 9/10/2020


*The statement from an anonymous U.S. Army officer has been misquoted so many times it's unlikely anyone remembers the actual text. It appears here in the most common version. 

We're silent today in respect of 9/11 victims

Seeking Freedom

Way back in my deep history I dabbled in the Dark Arts: sorcery, ceremonial magic, witchcraft, etc. A friend who was having some problems with a would-be stalker once asked me if it might be possible to put a spell on him. Now, this friend happened to be a deeply religious person on the verge of taking Holy Orders, so I asked the obvious question, "Why don't you pray for help?" Her response was, "It doesn't work that way."

I've long since forsworn and renounced the dark world. Now, notwithstanding my friend's disclaimer, I spend a lot of time praying for some kind of supernatural help that would rid us of the Great Pretender.

At first I thought COVID-19 might be our deliverance, and I've not given up on that thought. It has certainly caused indirect damage to his tyrannical agenda and to his re-election campaign. It has come at the cost of 180,000 American lives, which is Biblical in its scope, but strikes me as excessive collateral damage. It is beyond me and my understanding of statistics why he hasn't contracted the plague, given his tendency to eschew medical advice and safe practices.

My prayer requests are generally of the Old Testament variety. I wish for the unpresident to be attacked by swarms of biting insects, covered with boils, caught in a fiery hailstorm, assailed by an army of skeletons, and faced with water that becomes blood. Occasionally I shift into Revelation and call down the Four Horsemen on him.

I know it was presumptuous, but I've even asked the Almighty to appear to him in all His glory and blast DJTrump into tiny bits.

I think I'm in this apocalyptic mood because I've just read Riot Baby* by Tochi Onyebuchi. The book follows the struggles of a Black family--mother, son, and daughter--to survive life in ghettos, through riots, surrounded by gangs, in an America that is steadily becoming a police state where every Black face is perceived as a threat.

Ella, the daughter, has a Power of destruction that rises with her anger--and she has a lot of anger. Her brother Kev is brilliant and hopes for a future in some technical field, but winds up in jail from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their mother, spoken of only as Mama, is one of those indefatigable women whose exceptional strength and strong religious faith keep the family together spiritually, even when they're geographically separated.

This is a gripping book with well-developed characters and a realistic mise en scène. Anyone who seeks to better understand the Black experience in America could profit from reading it.

At the end, when Kev finally says, "I see freedom," Onyebuchi's magic realism lets us see it, too.


--- Diogenes, 9/8/2020


* Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2019.


 

On Hold

Yesterday I spent two hours staring at a blank screen and was able to come up with only a 5th-grade level screed on the Constitution. Maybe I was thinking the Great Pretender could read it.

I finally took the advice of a former mentor: "If you can't write, don't try." It's excellent advice. If it were universally taken the crap on the Internet would probably decrease by about 80%.

I'll be back when my brain decides to work.


--- Diogenes, 9/6/2020

The Bedrock of Democracy

You can tell a lot about a person by the way she speaks of the Constitution. I've noted four general ways that people respond to mention of the document when it comes up in conversation. I refer to them as Affirmative, Objective, Indifferent, and Hostile.

An affirmative response usually comes from a person who has some knowledge of the Constitution and enjoys talking about it.

Objective responders typically have a neutral response. They usually understand the general importance of the Constitution but don't think about it unless some part of it directly affects them.

Those who are indifferent really couldn't care less. Mention the Constitution to them, and their response will likely be something like, "Oh, yeah, that. Whatever."

Then there are those who actively believe the Constitution is a bad thing, usually because it gets in the way of something they want to do, or the way they think things should be. These are people you don't want to know. Police often fall into this group, as do some politicians.

In the present day, the unpresident of the United States and probably most of his Cabinet is firmly in this camp. This is an unprecedented and dangerous situation. The Constitution is the only thing that stands between the ordered society we know and a power-mad would-be tyrant. Or, if you like, between order and chaos.

The first time I visited the Constitution at the National Archives was almost a religious experience for me. It came to me that those few pieces of parchment, faded and wrinkled as they are, represent a pinnacle of accomplishment in humankind's long search for a means of just government.

Since at least the third millennium BC rulers and peoples have sought to establish codes of law that would provide order and protection. Some of them were successful. Others were unbearably severe. Many included practices we consider absurd, and punishments so horrid that we can scarce imagine them. Yet they were all needful experiments leading to the document that gives our society order.

Donald Trump wants to be a supreme autocrat with nothing controlling him but his own whims. He does not want to be limited by a system of laws that will prevent his becoming a dictator. Were it up to him, he would replace the Constitution with the occultist and libertine Aleister Crowley's mantra: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

The Constitution of the United States may not be a perfect document. It may not be the last word in the search for and perfection of a just system of laws. Yet it is our system, bought with the blood and sacrifice of our ancestors. We must defend it against Donald Trump, a thug and a pig of a man who already dismisses and dishonors it, and would destroy it if he could.

Four pages of parchment are the bedrock of our country. They must remain inviolate.


--- Diogenes, 9/3/2020