A Time For Silence

The most obnoxious conservative demagogues, including cult master Trump himself, have spent the weekend at CPAC sniping at and denigrating the president, his administration, and anyone else who doesn't agree with them, reading from the same tired old script and spinning the same old lies. 

I've never known a group of people with less imagination and invention. They can't even make up new untruths.

When he was President Obama's point guard, then-Vice President Biden sparred and traded political jabs with true heavyweights around the world. The small voices at CPAC are like so many gnats.

President Biden should do what he does best: stay cool, focus on genuinely serious matters, and remain calm. He absolutely should not engage that batch of fools.

Trump and his ilk live for attention. Like teenage girls, the worst thing they can suffer is indifference and inattention. Mr. Biden and his staff should provide lots and lots of silence.

--- Diogenes, 2/28/21

 

 

The 24-Karat Turd

Totally bonkers, barking mad, deranged, off their rocker, screwy, batty, nuts, daft, cracked, crazy, unhinged--whatever term you care to use for insanity, it's the new conservative. Or maybe it's just Trumpism, which has redefined madness.

A booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando is featuring a larger-than-life gold statue of Donald Trump. 

It's not gold, of course. Like all things Trump, including his presidency, it's a cheap and tawdry simulacrum of the real thing. The material is fiberglass covered in gold-tinted chrome. It is dressed in a suit coat, tie, shorts, and flip-flops, and carries a "fairy princess" magic wand. Were it not for the fact that the artist seems to be a Trump fan, it could taken as contemptuous.

Media platforms have been full of the thing and not a few people have cited biblical passages. The Second Commandment has been popular, but I think Exodus 32:20 is more fitting. After talking God out of destroying the Israelites for disobedience, Moses descends from Mount Sinai. Seeing the people worshiping and cavorting around a golden calf, " . . . he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it." 

The point of making the Israelites consume the ground calf was to convert it into human excrement, demonstrating the nature and ultimate fate of false gods. I've been having dreams of all the Republican movers and shakers eating ground up chrome-plated fiberglass and shitting out little Trump-shaped turds.

I apologize for the grossness, but their behavior has gone so far beyond reason that I'm sometimes at a loss how to deal with it civilly.

Is there anyone, finally, who can't see the phenomenon for what it is? Trump is a cult leader and his followers are cultists. Not "cult-like" or "quasi-cult" or "resembling a cult," as some apologists have tried to make it. The Trump movement is a full-blown, active cult that is inimical to America's democratic values. The violence of January 6 should be seen as just a precursor for probable future uprisings. 

Major Republican donors are sucking up to Trump this weekend, and they have a lot, make that a LOT, of money. And regardless of where his personal future is headed, he has supporters who will fight for him. We've seen it. Does anyone think January 6 was all they had? A one-shot, flash-in-the-pan kind of misfire? Not at all. Quite a few right-wing militant groups wisely stayed on the sidelines on 6 January. When they decide which battles to fight it will be a new ball game.

And let's not forget the numerous Trump supporters on active military duty. Whether they rise up during or after their service, they will be formidable.

We are still in danger and there does remain the possibility that the Trump faction could capture Congress and even the White House in two or four brief years. We have to remain solid, vigilant, active, and perhaps armed. 

The threat has abated, but it has not been defused.

Wachet auf!

 

--- Diogenes, 2/27/21

 

Cities Of The Dead

Consider three North American cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Matamoros, Mexico. I invite you to look up one or more of them on Google Earth or whatever viewing or mapping program you use. Study the demographics, take a virtual tour, find out how many museums each has, how many churches, how many restaurants, how many theatres--whatever attracts you to cities, and visualize the local population carrying out their lives.

Then imagine them empty: devoid of life and motion, no sound of traffic or bells or whistles or sirens, no children playing, no concerts, no couples laughing, no sports events, no people. Visualize each as a ghost town.

Each of these cities has a population of approximately 500,000--the number of Americans who have now died of COVID-19. That's what we as a nation have lost: the population of a good-sized city. 

As pure numbers go, 500,000 isn't particularly huge, compared, e.g., to astronomical distances. We read about 500,000 widgets being shipped somewhere and don't bat an eye. But the 500,000 we're talking about here aren't widgets, and the distance they're traveling isn't finite. 

These are American lives lost, their souls released. Early in the pandemic the American death toll was compared to 9/11. Now our scope has to expand to the point that the number of American COVID-19 deaths approximately equals the number of Americans killed in both world wars, combined.

Out of respect for those deaths President Biden has ordered flags flown at half-staff on federal buildings. Here in my part of Virginia many private organizations, companies, clubs, and individuals have followed suit. 

The stark exception is the group who consider themselves citizens of Trumptopia. They fly the Trump flag high, and like their leader believe the pandemic to be a hoax and President Biden to be a pretender. They may not be traitors, but they are definitely deserters.

Die Fahne hoch . . . ?

Hell, no!

--- Diogenes, 2/26/2021

Slaying The Lemma

I've slain the multilemma I wrote about a few days ago that was causing such angst about the direction this blog should take. 

I accomplished this thanks to a shocking reminder from CNN's Brianna Keilar who, at the end of a piece about Trump's recent letter retaliating for Archdemon Mitch McConnell's "betrayal," said: "Trump is sending [the letter] from the political graveyard right now, but there's no guarantee he doesn't rise from the grave in four years."

I didn't quite scream, but the hair on the back of my neck stood to attention and my heart thumped a few times. Of course there's no guarantee. I'm hoping he lands up in federal prison for at least one of the myriad crimes he's committed. That in itself wouldn't stop him from running, but it would be damned difficult to run a campaign from a prison cell. Now that the whole world knows about his crimes in detail, there's no reason for any prosecutor to hold back.

So despite the position statement in my previous post that "In the end we decided it was better to move forward than to always be looking backward," we're going to be open to all topics that invite comment under our revised motto, "Veritas Super Omnia," Truth Above All, and Trump, his cult, and the Republican congressional leadership, are still fair game.

When Al Capone was finally convicted and imprisoned, it wasn't for any of his violent and highly visible crimes, but for tax evasion. Remember there's always hope.

--- Diogenes, 2/19/2021 

Quo Vadimus?

I've been silent for a couple of weeks because I've been bouncing around on the horns of a trilemma--or maybe a quadrilemma--how many horns can a lemma have, anyway?

The challenge facing us here at Vox Humana is how, or if, to redefine the blog. We started the project in March 2017 as a means of protesting the Trump presidency. Our original mission statement was to expose and comment on "the lies, malfeasance, and crimes of the Trump administration. We use facts to expose Trump for the fraud he is."

Following the Biden inauguration we began considering a new direction. The publication of "Ignorance Is The Curse Of God" on January 26 was intended as our first effort in a more informational, less adversarial, direction. But while Trump is gone, the Trump cult remains active. The antics and pronouncements of Gaetz, Greene, McCarthy, et al. seemed to call for a return to our anti-Trump stance. But we had already set a foundation for a new direction, which we really didn't want to abandon.

Moreover, as Trump fades away in the nation's rear-view mirror, it is apparent that his cult members are losing focus. The more hard core among them will continue to spout Trumpery and QAnonisms for a longer or shorter time, depending 1) on the depth to which they have been brainwashed and 2) the level of control they are willing to grant to the crazies in their constituency.

Enter the trilemma.

The choices we faced were:

• Move forward in the new direction;
• Re-set our sights on Trump cult members, especially those in Congress;
• Return to our original anti-Trump stance;
• Try to tackle all three, perhaps through a second blog.

This was not an easy decision. Trump and the Trump cult remain a clear and present danger to this country. We are especially alarmed by the number of true believers in Congress. In the end we decided it was better to move forward than to always be looking backward. We'll keep an eye on the Great Pretender, and will maintain a close watch for cultic craziness in Congress and elsewhere.

So with apologies for the long hiatus, we'll resume our series on the Constitution with the next post.

Thanks for your patience.

---Diogenes, 2/10/21