Trump's Judicial Appointments

 My idea about what to do about Trump's destructive influence on American judiciary for decades to come.

Whereas, it has been proven with certainty, by the Mueller report and other credible sources, that Donald Trump solicited assistance from Russia for his presidential election campaign and cooperated and coordinated with Russian entities during his campaign, and

Whereas, it has been shown that Donald Trump benefited from long-standing financial ties with a variety of Russian individuals and businesses, and

 Whereas, since his inauguration, Donald Trump has appointed more than 200 judges at all levels of the federal judiciary, including three Supreme Court judges, and

 Whereas, these judges, many of whom were rated as Not Qualified by the American Bar Association, will influence America’s laws and policies for decades to come, and

 Whereas, given all the existing evidence, there is no doubt that Donald Trump operated during his presidency as the agent of a foreign power, namely Russia,

 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THAT:

 All federal judgeship appointments made during the Trump administration were made unlawfully and unconstitutionally, and all such individuals shall be removed from those positions immediately and new qualified individuals appointed and confirmed as mandated by law.

DECREED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

It's the Economy Stupid

The only thing Trump has to offer non-racist Americans is his claim that the economy was so strong pre-covid. But that is not even close to the truth. After Republicans wrecked our economy, and the world's, in 2007-08, Obama got it back on track. Trump was handed a growing economy that was humming along nicely. So, naturally Trump did what Republicans do: give a huge tax break to the rich which doubled the budget deficit. 

At the time of covid, our economy was running a huge deficit, middle class wages were stagnant, working class families were having to hold down two or three jobs and still couldn't afford decent housing, and income inequality was at an historic level. The deficit caused by the tax cut means that we don't have the borrowing capacity to carry the economy until the pandemic eases, so what would have been a recession will probably now be a depression.   

For a century now, we have been in a cycle where Republicans wreck our economy and Democrats have to rebuild it. Imagine where we would be if Democrats could spend their time in office moving the country ahead, instead of repairing the damage done by Republicans. It would be nice to think we can break that cycle at some point, but for now it will continue, although this time the damage done by Republicans may be permanent. 

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

What Republicans Are

 

For decades now, the leadership of the Republican party has been dedicated to one thing: transferring as much wealth as possible from 99% of the country to the richest 1%, and they have been remarkably effective at it. Every thought they think, every comment they make, every action they take, every policy they create, has that one goal in mind.

They couldn't succeed, though, without the cooperation of a large percentage of the 99% electing them to office and keeping them in power. As of now, in order to get the votes of racists, they will pretend to be white supremacists. But they take that stance only to keep the money flowing. They would be ardent advocates of Black Lives Matter if that would increase the flow of money from the poor and middle class to them.

 The sensible among us can only look and shake our heads in dismay while those who are losing everything support and vote for those who are taking everything from them.

This principle applies to the pandemic. Those of us who are not Republican leaders look at the situation and say: How can we most safely get back to normal? They say: How can we keep the most money flowing to us? 

Therefore, their stance is to get the 99% back to work, while they quarantine and test and keep themselves safe so they can enjoy their riches. And, all the while, their supporters and voters sacrifice themselves in order to enrich them. Unfortunately, those of us who would rather live than be part of the Republican death cult, are finding it hard to save ourselves. 

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

A College Sports Fan

The reason we won't have a college football season and may not have basketball either, is because of the American dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks right wing and our even dumber than that president. To summarize:

• Yes, coronavirus started in China, but, according to experts on viruses (and, no, right wingers, listening to talk radio does not make you an expert) it was not released from a laboratory.
• Yes, China covered up and lied about the seriousness of the coronavirus, because that is how authoritarian governments react to any occurrence that makes them look bad. Which explains why Trump reacted the same way once it reached America.
• No, the fact that the Chinese government lied about the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic in their country, does not excuse Trump's lies about the seriousness of it in our country.
• Yes, we could have had college sports, and other normal activities of a normal country, if we had an effective early lockdown like in other countries, which halted the spread of the virus.
• No, we didn't have that, because the right wing in this country cannot control their dumbness long enough to shut up and put on a mask.
• Yes, the coronavirus is going to rampage through this country for years after it has been tamped down in other countries because they don't have to contend with the American right wing which has embraced dumbness as a virtue.
• No, there is no hope for us, because the only principle the American right wing knows is to wait for the left wing to take a stand, then to take the opposite one. Unfortunately, that means when the left creates a strategy to save our country from the pandemic, the right will fight like hell to destroy it, and be proud as hell of themselves while they do it.

And no, left wing doesn't mean socialist. The right wing in this country has moved so far to the right they believe only in prosperity for the wealthiest, while the rest of us go begging. Left wing in this country at this time means people who believe in the old-fashioned notion there should still be a middle class and a working class and upward mobility should still be possible with hard work. Out-dated notions, I know.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Drink the Kool-Aid

After hearing and reading about Trump's suggestions to fight coronavirus by drinking disinfectant, my first thought was to recommend that if his supplicants were inclined to follow his prescription, it might be more palatable if it were mixed with Kool-Aid. I then read that there is actually a group of his supporters that advocate drinking bleach to kill the virus.

Now, I don't know if they influenced him, or he influenced them. I suspect like most right-wing insanity, it is a reinforcement loop of craziness, with all parties refining and adding to the lunacy of all the others.

Regardless, I would hate to make that recommendation and then find out that one of his cult members actually did drink a cocktail of bleach and Kool-Aid. Not that I think this blog could ever influence anyone to do anything, but if I did make such a suggestion and then discovered someone actually did it, I would feel guilty, even knowing I had nothing to do with it. 

So, I definitely do not want anyone, even Trumpsters, to drink bleach or a mixture of bleach and anything else.  That's the way normal people think and feel, unlike members of the Trump cult, who have made it clear they couldn't care less what happens to anyone who isn't a member.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Israel

You have to be a member of the boomer generation to remember when email, instead of Twitter or whatever has now taken the place of Twitter, was the preferred method of social communication. Every extended family group had an older, Republican, always a Republican, relative who served as the self-appointed information administrator and would distribute emails containing right-wing generated lies and talking points that always purported to reveal the nefarious goings-on of Democrats. And no matter how ludicrous were the claims, they were accepted as fact by Republicans.

For many years the collector and distributor of internet knowledge for my own large extended family was an older cousin who was a dentist and, evidently, believed that acquisition of such an impressive level of achievement gave him unequaled insight into the workings of the universe. I would, mostly,  open his emails since they occasionally contained news about family members I seldom got to see, but this was rare, and I never bothered to respond to them, or to the emails he forwarded that were authored by right-wing operatives and conspiracy theorists. It was easy to discredit the wild claims about Democrats simply by going to any of the various websites that tracked and disproved them, but, evidently, not one Republican in existence has ever done this.

There was one time, though, that one of the forwarded emails struck a nerve. It claimed Democrats did not support American troops fighting in Iraq because they did not support the Iraq war. This time I responded to my cousin, saying that like millions of Americans I did not support Bush and Cheney's war, but I certainly did support our troops. And, the fact that I was a veteran and he was not, made my opinion worth at least as much as his. He replied with an typically weak Republican attempt at sarcasm, apologizing for confusing my thinking. I replied that he hadn't in the least.

Since the days of the Iraq war, Republicans have increasingly used this tactic of equating criticism of them, their allies, and their policies with criticism of better people and higher principles: criticizing Trump is criticizing America; criticizing police officers who kill black Americans is criticizing law enforcement; criticizing the abundance of guns is criticizing the constitution; criticizing economic policies that further enrich the already rich is criticizing capitalism.

A more recent manifestation of this tactic is to claim that criticism of Israeli policy relating to Palestinians is the same as being anti-Semitic. Israel is certainly special in that it serves as the sanctuary for a people who have endured extreme and enduring persecution, but it is also a sovereign, independent country subject to the same international laws, rules, and relationships that all other nations must deal with.  Israel's biggest problem is its right wing leader, Netanyahu, who like all other right-wing leaders is corrupt and incompetent. Like all the others, he is incapable of formulating and implementing a coherent public policy of any kind except for those that enrich him, and keep him in power.

Instead of deciding what Israel is, what it should be, and creating a rational strategy to get there, Netanyahu and his party want everything. They want all the land now occupied by Palestinians for themselves, and then for all the Palestinians to magically disappear.  In order to make their dream come true, their only strategy is to cozy up to American conservatives and hope they can generate enough political pressure so America will be forced to help them muscle their way to their fantasy future. In so doing, both Israel and America will continue to be portrayed as enemies of Muslims and will continue to be targets of extremist attacks. Which will be just fine with the Israeli right, because it ensures that Israel and America will be joined in a partnership against the rest of the world.

As far as long term strategy, though, there can't be anything dumber than Israel getting in bed with the American right: home to neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and evangelical Christians. While the American liberal left may criticize Israeli's self serving, self-destructive foreign policy, there is no doubt it will come to Israel's defense if it is attacked. The American right on the other hand, may or may not, depending on the same calculation it makes about everything: will it enrich them and help keep them in power.

I have to shake my head in wonderment at the strangeness of the world when I see Netanyahu cozying up to the most conservative of American evangelical Christian leaders.  As of now, they are supporters of Israel, but only because the existence of an independent Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital is part of a narrative they interpret as leading to them being world rulers imposing a Christian theocracy on humanity.  Definitely, no Jews will be allowed in that future, and in the present, all it will take for the evangelical world to turn against Israel is for one influential leader to express his belief that Jews have done their part and now it's time to go back to viewing them as killers of Christ and the right would abandon Israel in an instant.

The ability of conservatives of all nationalities and religions to view the world as they want it to be, instead of the way it is, is an unending wonder.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.











 

The Truth of It

I just have to laugh, albeit ruefully, at the liberal press when they exhibit such incredulity that Trump's supporters continue to support him when they are the group hurt most by his policies. "Surely, this time they will turn against him," they say, while donning their safari gear and preparing to head into the wilds of middle America.

The latest targets in their quest to find Trump supporters who have turned on him are farmers hurt badly by his trade wars with America's largest agricultural trading partners.

I don't pretend to have heard all the interviews with farmers. I'm sure there are a few individuals whose opinion of him has changed. All of the ones I've heard, though, have expressed unenthusiastic, but steadfast support, with the justification that other countries have been pushing us around for years now, and, finally, someone is standing up to them. So, if they must suffer in order to stand with Trump against the international bullies, then so be it. They are his loyal foot soldiers, prepared to sacrifice themselves if called upon to do so.

Exactly how the world has been pushing us around is never explained, but it is incontrovertible conservative doctrine that during the Obama presidency he went around the world apologizing for America's greatness to everyone he could find, while allowing America to be disrespected and bullied. That this has no basis in reality matters not at all. It's true in conservative world, just as it's true that white men are persecuted and discriminated against more than any other group.  These things are true in conservative world, and to conservatives, that's true enough.

I wish I could meet just one of these liberal media members conducting these interviews, grab them by the shoulders and just shake the shit out of them. Then once I've got their attention, I would yell: "Get it through your head. Forty percent of Americans are Trumpsters! Forty fucking percent! And in rural America, eighty fucking percent! Eighty fucking percent! And they will never be anything else! They will never stop being Trumpsters! No matter what! If they lose their businesses and their homes! If they can't afford an education for their children! If they can't afford healthcare for their families! If their livestock die from the heat and rivers flow through their living rooms! They will still be Trumpsters! And no, I can't explain it to you! And no, it doesn't matter if you understand it! Just accept it! Just Fucking Accept It!"

At least then I would feel better, although our world would still be doomed.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Apologies

Note to Neil deGrasse Tyson and anyone else who has, or is thinking about, apologizing for anything on any social media forum.

If your apology ends with the phrase, "If you are one of those people, I apologize," then you haven't apologized.

If you are apologizing online and find yourself typing the words, "If you are one of those people," be honest enough to end with, "fuck you."

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

The Reason Why

Republicans love to pretend that they have no idea why this country has so much more gun violence than the rest of the world. Of course they know, they just don't want to admit it. To simplify it so there is no misunderstanding, I've put it in the form of a simple formula:


GOP LETS ANYONE BUY AN ASSAULT WEAPON WHO WANTS ONE + ALL THE LETHAL AMMUNITION THEY CAN CARRY + GOP ENCOURAGES THESE PEOPLE TO HATE OTHER AMERICANS = CARNAGE 

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

The Trump Type

I always get a kick out of articles that speculate on Trump's mental state. Is he a madman? Insane? Unhinged? An evil genius? In the final stage of terminal syphilis? Okay, I made that last one up. I'm amused at these articles, because evidently, his type of human being is completely outside the daily experience of the authors, so, they assume he must be a person of unique, beyond-the-pale attributes.

As for me, someone who lives and works in the middle of Trump country, the only way I can imagine not having met someone like him is if you spend every waking hour engaged in some combination of working from home; working for a liberal newspaper; working for a liberal magazine; or drinking expensive coffee drinks in a cafe in an upscale urban neighborhood. Because if you've ever worked in a normal public or private sector job, or played on a recreational-league softball team, or been to any sporting event, or if you have family, or if you have friends, then you have to have met some Trump types at some point.

They typically are men, white, Republican, have some college, and work at jobs that require talent in being both a salesman and a con man: fields such as insurance, real estate, financial investments.  Now these are legal professions to be sure, but the most successful practitioners often seem to be those who blur the boundaries between lawful practice and scams. And, sometimes, the most successful are individuals who cross the line completely into illegality but are clever enough not to get caught, or if they do get caught, are able to escape punishment.

These individuals, like Trump, tend to provide well for their families, even though the ability to do so primarily comes at the expense of victims of their cons. And, also, like Trump, their success and ability to sell themselves can result in a large contingent of friends and acquaintances hanging around them, usually including some who have been conned by them, but value being part of the group too much to leave.

Based upon my observations from the heart of Trumpland, if any one of these numerous Trump-type individuals were to be elected president, we would have much the same administration as we have now. There would be the same ignorance of anything outside the president's area of expertise - namely selling and conning; the same lack of principles, ethics, and anything resembling a coherent world view or personal philosophy; the same lack of empathy for anyone other than family members; the same disdain for anyone who doesn't contribute to the president's personal wealth; the same willingness to lie, cheat, and steal from anyone and everyone; and the same lack of self awareness that there is anything wrong with any of this behavior.

That one of these Trump-types was elected President of the United States says less about Trump than it does about those who voted for him. Just as they voted for Bush Junior because he seemed to be  like them, the kind of guy you could have a beer with, they voted for, and continue to support, Trump because he, too, is like them. Smart people vote for smart candidates. Honest people vote for honest candidates. Compassionate people vote for compassionate candidates. On the other hand, dumb people vote for dumb candidates. Racist people vote for racist candidates. Deplorable people vote for deplorable candidates who take advantage of them more than any other group. Unfortunately, the rest of us must pay for their stupidity right along with them.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.



.

Shutdown

I'm always amazed when Democrats are perceived to have won government shutdown battles of the past. And they've won all of them if my memory is correct, at least in the sense that Republicans have never gotten their way by shutting down the government by refusing to fund its operation.

Of course, no one really wins when the government shuts down. Everyone loses, but primarily federal employees who lose their source of income, which means they lose the ability to feed, clothe and house their families. Other big losers are the millions that directly depend on services provided by the federal government in order to survive, and all the rest of us who depend on the safety of the food we eat, the medicine we take, and the air we breathe.

The problem for Democrats in the shutdown battles is that they care about the suffering of all these people and Republicans don't. A simplistic statement, I know, but true nevertheless. Oh, an individual Republican will care if they know a person who suffers because a federal program ceases to operate, but in addition to not caring about anyone they don't know personally, Republicans possess the ability to rationalize away facts they find unpleasant. So, for them, any suffering endured by them, their friends or family, is the fault of Democrats, even if clearly the fault of Republicans.

Democrats lack this ability to twist reality into the form they wish it to be, and are at an even  greater disadvantage by caring about the millions of fellow Americans who suffer during a shutdown. The primal impulse for Democrats is to alleviate suffering if they can, while Republicans, recognizing and scorning this Democratic characteristic, are only too happy to use it against them.

In a hostage situation, which is how Republicans view shutdowns, the negotiating party at the greatest disadvantage is the one that cares about the hostages the most. Democrats suffer along with the victims; Republicans gloat at their suffering.

Given this Democratic disadvantage, it's a wonder that Republicans don't get their way every time there is a shutdown. The only reason they don't is that their objectives are always odious to a majority of Americans, such as taking away affordable health care, or building a thirty foot wall along the southern border.

It is a measure of just how corrupt and venal the Republican party is that they cannot get their way during shutdowns given the huge negotiating advantage they have. So, while things look bleak, I guess there's that.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

The Problem with Tariffs

Placing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum is just as dumb as all the other Republican ideas, economic and everything else. You'd think they would stumble on a good idea once in awhile by accident, but it never happens.

The way the world grows wealthier through global trade is that poorer countries mine their  natural resources like coal, iron ore, and bauxite, or purchase them from other poor countries, and use their unskilled labor to produce steel and aluminum to sell to richer countries which use their skilled labor and industrial technology to turn the aluminum and steel into value-added products like cars and appliances which they sell to their fellow countrymen and export to the citizens of poor countries which have money to buy the products made in rich countries because they have jobs mining minerals and making steel and aluminum.

So, eventually poor countries become rich and their work force becomes educated and their technology advances, and they begin to make cars and appliances, but because their younger work force will work for cheaper wages, their cars and appliances are cheaper, so the richer countries move on to making even more value-added products like airplanes, spacecraft, robots, electromagnetic trains, and products not yet invented.

This is the way global capitalism works until one of the wealthy countries screws things up the way America is doing now under the leadership of Republicans.

Instead of improving our infrastructure, supporting research that will create technological advances, and investing in workforce training and education, Republicans are siphoning off trillions of national income to make the wealthy wealthier. And to further exacerbate the damage, they have decided to support, by placing tariffs on imports, dangerous, polluting, low- tech,  low-wage jobs in mineral extraction and aluminum and steel making - jobs that the American economy moved on from decades ago. 

It makes no sense until you look at it through the lens of Republican economic policy, which places no value on America moving forward into new realms of high tech, high-wage jobs in new, exciting, clean industries of the future. Instead, old, dirty, dangerous jobs of the past will do just fine, as long as the natural order is preserved and the rich get richer as the poor get poorer.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Republican Tax "Reform" 2018

I put Reform in quotation marks in the title, because that word has a different meaning to Republicans than to the rest of us. To them, tax reform consists of cutting taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. Oh, they will throw in a few minor cuts to the middle class as a bribe, but they evidently think middle class voters can be bought cheaply, since the sources I read reported that approximately 85% of the benefits of the"reform" go to the wealthy, none goes to the poor, and the paltry amount that goes to the middle class disappears in ten years.

Now, I'm not completely sure these numbers are accurate, but I accept they are, since they conform with my observations of Republican fiscal policy over the years. In fact, transferring as much wealth as possible from 99% of Americans to the top 1%, pretty much sums up Republican public policy in total. Everything else is ancillary to that.

No one should be curious as to why the incoming Bush Jr. administration took no action on the warnings of a major terrorist attack that had been relayed to them by the outgoing Clinton administration. They were concentrating on their policy priority: tax cuts for the wealthy. If you remember, prior to the 2000 election, Bush was trying to buy the election by saying that since the economy was doing so well, the country could afford a tax cut for everyone. Of course, what he really meant was a big tax cut for the wealthy and a much smaller one for the middle class, but, hey, those are just details. We're supposed to hear "tax cut" and leave it at that. But then, when the economy slowed down soon after taking office, the Bush Jr. administration had to switch gears and justify a tax cut for the wealthy which was needed in order to rejuvenate  the economy. Changing gears so quickly regarding such an important issue left no time for such non-revenue-producing matters as national security.

In order to sell tax cuts to those who benefit from them little or not at all, which is 99%of the population, Republicans, over the years, have created myths which they promulgate widely and often. Each of these myths has been shown to be demonstrably false, but Republicans never let an inconsequential thing like the truth stand in the way of getting richer.

Myth 1: Tax Cuts for the Rich Pay for Themselves. It's a lie. Always has been a lie, always will be a lie. But claiming that cutting taxes for the rich actually generates more overall tax revenue is so appealing to Republicans that they can't resist it, so they keep repeating it over and over, evidently with the belief that if they really and truly believe it, someday it will magically come true.

Myth 2: Tax Cuts for the Rich Jumpstart the Economy. The opposite is actually true. Tax cuts for the poor and middle class ignite the economy, because most of it is spent on things they need, and a little on things they want. The rich already have everything they need and most of what they want, so tax cuts for them just make them richer.

Myth 3: Tax Cuts for the Rich Create Jobs.  When Republicans are forced to admit the obvious, that their tax cuts are for the benefit of the rich, they respond by claiming that everyone else benefits because the rich are "job creators". This makes no more sense than any of the other conservative economic principles. Corporations and rich individuals don't create jobs when they are handed more money; jobs are created by demand. When poor and middle class families have money, they buy goods and services. In response, existing businesses expand and new businesses are created.

The reality is that the American economy needed no tax cut stimulus after Trump took office. It was already humming along nicely, thanks to Democratic efforts after the Republicans almost managed to wreck the entire world economy in 2008. Now would have been the time to run a surplus and start to pay down our national debt. But the only reality Republicans recognize is the need for the rich to get richer, even if that means everyone else must get poorer.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

The Obama Portraits

Here is one way to look at the portraits of Barack and Michelle: If you are only familiar with classical music, then jazz is going to sound mighty strange. But if you listen to classical and jazz treatments of the same song, you begin to discern the similarities and the differences, and can appreciate that both are valid interpretations of the same reality.

Let's say that the portrait paintings that most of us have seen in museums, in galleries, in historic homes, in courthouses and state capitols, are classical in nature; that is, to the greatest extent that the artist is capable, they are realistic interpretations of the likeness of the subject of the painting, and their quality is judged on how readily the subject can be identified.

A jazz interpretation, however, while similar in essence, might be very different in execution. When  people say "It doesn't look like Michelle," they are referring to the lack of classical familiarity. What about a jazz interpretation, though, as when a jazz musician riffs on a familiar musical theme? Does this portrait communicate something about its subject on a different level than physical likeness? Can you see a truer likeness of Michelle in this painting than in a portrait that looks like a photograph, in the same way that Van Gogh's self-portrait looked very little like him, and at the same time, very much like him? Does the painting make you say, "Now that is Michelle," even more than a photograph of Michelle would?

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Bill Clinton

In light of recent news about prominent men being accused of sexual assault and abuse, I think back to the Bill Clinton days. Then, as now, Republicans were dishonest and hypocritical. Now, they criticize any man on the left outed as being an abuser and remain silent on the same behavior from the right. When forced to comment on one of their own, they typically choose to withhold judgement until all the facts are in, secure in knowing that there could never be enough facts presented to force them give an honest assessment.

Back then, it was the same. I remember the day I heard the name Monica Lewinski,White House intern, and what Bill was accused of. Even though I was a committed Democrat and a Clinton admirer, my first thought was that he should resign the presidency. And I believe many others who voted for him thought the same.

But over succeeding months, that changed as Republicans used a special prosecutor and an investigation into a real estate deal in Arkansas to move toward impeaching him for lying about his encounters with Ms. Lewinski. If they had been honest, and made the case that his actions with her, and the other women that came forward, disqualified him to lead the nation, I, and a lot of other Democrats would have agreed with them and he might have been forced to leave office. But they weren't honest of course, and they tried to convince the country that they were moral champions of decency and to impeach him for lying about his affair was the righteous thing to do. Only Republicans bought that charade and he remained in office for a full second term.

Whether his behavior with Ms. Lewinski or any of the other women could be classified as assault or abuse I don't know, since there wasn't much of an honest investigation by legal authorities or legitimate media into the incidents. But from what I know, Trump's activities with women were a lot more heinous than Bill's. Republicans did then what they're doing now: covering up their own misdeeds and trying to criminalize the same actions by their opponents. I'm not sure if not having the capacity to recognize your own hypocrisy is a prerequisite of becoming a Republican, or if that ability is lost over time, but it is a constant with them.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Tipping Point

I believe in the concept of tipping points: those points on a continuum of change where conditions cease to change gradually and suddenly change dramatically and irrevocably. Like will happen in the not-so-distant future to the climate of the earth when all the ice has melted and the plants and the oceans have ameliorated warming to the maximum extent they can, and the earth's ecosystem gives up and warming ceases to be gradual and the temperature skyrockets and most animal life, including humanity, is baked, drowned, starved, and suffocated into extinction. At least once the tipping point is reached, it will be over quickly. Quick, unfortunately, being relative on this scale. The end will seem agonizingly slow to those unfortunate enough to be alive and forced to suffer the consequences of the incredible stupidity of conservatives.

I've lived among conservatives all my life. They've been my relatives and my friends, both high school and college-educated, white and blue collar. My friendship with them has been the kind borne of participating in shared activities: being on a softball team; part of a regular golf foursome; going on rafting trips. During these times it was relatively easy to deflect their unconscious, unthinking conservatism. I would often say things in response to them like: No, I don't think school was harder when we were kids; or, I don't believe in giving money to lazy people, either, but I do believe in helping people that need it; or, Government isn't a business and can't be run like one; and the old standard, Just because it's cool here doesn't mean it's that way everywhere in the world.

Through the years I watched my conservative friends and relatives grow more extreme in their views to the point they were obviously voting against not only their own self-interest, but against the best interests of their own children. I couldn't comprehend their votes for Bush Junior, but at least he was on the continuum of people who were at least conceivable as president, albeit way over on the extreme end of incompetency. And I could never understand why anyone would want an incompetent president, even one you could enjoy having a beer with.

It was during the Obama years that they began to be intolerable. They somewhat tempered their comments when I was around, but, inevitably, after a few beers, the racist comments and the smart phone apps that transformed Michelle into a monkey came out. It was during this time that I stopped going on golf trips with them, and to the fourth of July party that had been a tradition among us for more than twenty years.

But it was their support and votes for Trump that was the tipping point for me.  Voting for someone for president who was not even on the continuum of eligibility for the office was such an insult to this country that it was unforgivable. To vote for a man who was the opposite of everything that was necessary for a president to be revealed them as not valuing anything that decent people must value.

It's indescribably sad to realize that 63 million Americans voted for Trump. Even sadder to realize that all of them are lost to the fight to make America a more just, equitable, progressive, healthier, sustainable society. It's tempting to believe that some of them can be made to see how wrong they were, but it's wasted effort. Some actions can't be taken back, and some decisions can't be forgiven. Sixty-three million Americans willingly left this country and crossed the border into a land of darkness and ignorance. They will never come back from there, and we can't bring them back.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

A Liberal's Wishes for James Comey

James Comey. What is there to say about the man that hasn’t already been said. I hated him with a white-hot passion after his attention-seeking, self-promoting criticism of Hillary helped Trump become president. I don’t claim that he alone is responsible for her loss, but like in civil trials when percentages of fault are assigned to various parties, he bears, beyond a reasonable doubt, some percentage of the responsibility for Trump. And while there is no way to quantify that number, even if it is small, a small percentage of a tragedy the magnitude of the Trump presidency means Comey is responsible for causing enormous, perhaps fatal, damage to the country that could have led the world out of the journey to destruction that it has now been set upon.

Comey should have been fired for what he did to Hillary and to all of us. But to hear Trump use it, initially at least, as justification for firing him when he appeared to be getting serious about exposing Trump’s indebtedness  to Russia, was doubly galling.

My wish is that Comey loves his country and his family and realizes the enormity of the harm he has caused, and at three in the morning he awakens feeling more than “mildly nauseous” at what he has done, but rather with the same moaning, sweating, despair that so many of us feel at the realization that the hope that our children might have the same quality of life that we had has been swept away.

I remember late on election night saying goodbye to my son who had recently graduated college and who was heading off to the city to his start his adult life, and the panicked look on his face as he said, “She’s going to win isn’t she?” When he was a child, I would have reassured him that everything was going to be all right.  But that night, there was no comfort I could offer. I wish that Comey is haunted by the faces of the billions of children whose lives he has helped destroy. I wish that he has a soul and that it is in torment. It’s not cruelty in my opinion, just justice.

In 2016 the world teetered on a razor-edged tipping point. In one direction was a long uphill slog toward slowing the rate of manmade global warming, reducing income inequality, promoting social justice, and preventing corporations from making debt slaves of our children. In the other direction was a downhill slide into the abyss of moral, social, and, ultimately, physical destruction. Pushing us in this direction were Republicans, and their corporate and media allies with their virtually unlimited wealth. Trying their best to overcome the strength of these powerful forces were people of good will, but limited resources.

Even with such a disadvantage, the battle was, for a time, a stalemate, and it looked as if the forces of greed, ignorance, and bigotry might be overcome, but at the most crucial point, Comey added his weight to the side of the deplorables and the battle was lost. Was he the deciding factor? Impossible to say. But what decent human being would have chosen that side?

Now we hear self-recrimination from the left that the Trumpsters should have been listened to, that their concerns should have been acknowledged, and that they must be brought over to our side before the next election. As someone who lives in Trump country, I’m here to tell you it’s not happening. Not unless we do like Trump and Fox News do, and lie to them continuously, telling them that all their problems are brought on by liberals, minorities, and immigrants; global warming is a hoax; tax cuts for the rich benefit the poor; and when elected we will immediately make all their problems disappear. Of course we can’t do that, and that is the only way to win them over.  

I’m not sure that people living outside Trump country really understand the extent to which the Trumpsters have become citizens of the alternate country of the right, a country that abides by a different set of moral values than we do. Like the Civil War confederates they adore so much, they regard a Federal government controlled by anyone but themselves as illegitimate and to overthrow it by any means as the patriotic thing to do.

Just as the confederates tried to enlist England and France as allies, today’s Trumpsters view accepting Russian assistance to defeat Democrats as a perfectly acceptable strategy. Liberals, minorities, immigrants, these are the real threats to America, and any individual or country willing to fight them is a friend.  The majority of Trumpsters would vote for Putin over a Democrat.  Just as has occurred in many elections around the world, they would vote for someone who would end all elections and replace democracy with dictatorship if convinced the candidate was one of them.

Trumpsters are lost to reason, to rationality. Like cult members, they will willingly sacrifice themselves and their children if told to do so by the cult leader. So the next election will be as close as the last one. We will have to marshal all our forces to defeat them and fight Republican efforts at voter suppression. And still it may not be enough. Again, the winner will be decided by a margin as thin as a razor’s edge.  All we can do is be prepared, tell the truth, expose Republican lies, encourage minorities and young people turn out, and hope no turncoats like Comey defect to the other side.

Trumpsters

I’ve been putting off writing this entry because it makes me sick to think of Donald Trump as President of the United States.  The image of him sitting in the oval office conducting America’s business is more suited to a miserable, fever-induced dream than reality. Then to wake up and have to face that it isn’t a dream after all and the day ahead will be another day of living during the Trump administration is living in a nightmare that refuses to go away with waking.  Another day of knowing that they actually did it.  They voted for Donald Trump for President. 

I was hoping they wouldn’t do it.  I was afraid they would, even halfway expected they would, but deep inside, I held out some small hope they wouldn’t. I should have known better.  You see, I know them: the Trumpsters.  I’ve socialized with them, worked with them, I’m related to many of them. So, knowing them as well as I do, I’m not surprised that sixty-three million of them would vote to destroy the country they so loudly and constantly profess to love by voting for a man so unqualified and so unworthy, so venal and loathsome, so corrupt, ignorant and immoral, that he will sell this country to the highest bidder, pocket the proceeds, and watch his supporters sicken and die without one pang of guilt.

Why would they do that?  Why would so many people who rely on government spending and government programs for jobs, healthcare, childcare and education, vote against their own self-interest, but what’s even worse, vote against what’s best for their own children, to elect a self-centered, self-serving representative of whomever will pay him the most? That is the big question, isn’t it, and I don’t pretend to have the answer. To try to provide some context, if not to actually understand it, I look at the behavior of cult members. 

A cult is governed by a leader who allows no dissenting opinion.  A leader who creates the reality in which the members live.  He (it’s always a he) identifies the powerful and evil external forces that threaten the lives and the souls of the cult members, and he offers the only path to salvation, which always involves complete and unquestioning allegiance to him.

Those of us born without the cult gene can’t understand how cult members would willingly hand over their identities, their freedoms, their fortunes, their lives, even their children, in order to be accepted as members in good standing.  But it’s vital for the rest of us to understand the reality of the phenomenon. Trump didn’t create his cult members; they’ve always been here, waiting in limbo for a cult leader to come along and claim them. They waited until Trump came along to tell them what they wanted to hear: that nothing wrong in their lives is their fault, that everything that is wrong is the fault of immigrants, and minorities, and gays, and liberals.  And he told them that if they trusted him, if they were loyal to him, he would fix it all, never mind the details of how.  And that was what they had been waiting for. 

It’s vital to understand the relationship between Trump and his supporters, for once it’s understood, we can stop the useless exercises of analyzing the election loss and figuring out how to win them back next time.  The only way to win them is to offer them a leader more Trump-like than Trump. That is, more right wing, more simplistic, more dishonest, even more willing than Trump to tell them what they want to hear, knowing that it’s all a lie.  

But we can’t do that, can we, because we’re decent people.  So we have to accept that Trump supporters are lost to us.  There will be another Trump eager to take his place once his indulgent lifestyle claims him. So we have to go on without them. We have to go on trying to save our country and the planet in the face of their active opposition. Not an easy task, probably an impossible one, but what else is there but to try, and to mourn what has been lost.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Deplorables

I disagree with Hillary's statement that half of Trump's supporters are "deplorables", defined as people who are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or some combination of those.  Based on my life experience, 100% of them exhibit these traits in whole, or in part. And you can also throw "dumb as a box of rocks" into the mix.

Harsh? You have to actually live in Trump country and deal with his supporters on a daily basis to know how true it is.   I've interacted with angry white guys all my life, working class and professional, and I don't feel sorry for them a bit. To hell with the lot of them.  Pundits may say their anger is the result of frustration over the loss of the jobs that allowed their fathers to live a middle-class lifestyle without a college degree. And there's truth in that. But instead of blaming the ones responsible for their plight - Republicans - they take the easy way out and blame immigrants and minorities. And Democrats. Instead of embracing their most potent weapon for combating the Republican economic agenda of transferring all remaining wealth to the already rich - collective bargaining - they hoard guns and ammunition and pretend they will have to take on Democrats to preserve a way of life that is being taken away from them. When in reality, Democrats are the ones trying to save it for them.

Trump supporters would rather lose everything they have now, and everything their children might ever have, including a chance to go to college, healthcare, even  a habitable planet, in order not to have to face a reality in which they have common cause with poor and middle-class immigrants, minorities, and LGBT individuals in the fight against Republicans.  The only thing that matters to them is the fantasy that no matter how bad things get for them, they are still superior to those people. Trump encourages them to live in this fantasy world, and like drug addicts, they will destroy themselves and the world around them in order to keep that feeling.

So, racist, ignorant, selfish, delusional, and dumb as a box of rocks.  Eventually, their fantasy world will disintegrate and the ship of delusion they have constructed will capsize, but I'm afraid when that happens the basket of deplorables will be so large that we will all be dragged down with it.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Liberal Test

So what is a liberal?  Once in awhile a situation comes along that allows us to answer that question fairly definitively. Most recently it's the action taken by professional football player Colin Kaepernick, who remained seated during the pre-game playing of the national anthem to protest discrimination and violence against minorities in the US.

So, here's the test: Do you agree or disagree with his action? If you think the question is getting at, Yes, I  Agree = Liberal, or No, I Disagree = Conservative, it isn't that simple.  Here's the answer that defines what a liberal is: It doesn't matter.   As a liberal it doesn't matter if I agree with him or not. He has the right to engage in peaceful protest of a situation he sees as intolerable.  But going even further than recognizing his right to protest in this fashion, a liberal respects him for his action, and the words used to explain his action - respects him for putting his livelihood at risk. For in the macho, conservative world of pro football, his career has surely been jeopardized, regardless of his performance on the field.

I have my own feelings about what he did, and continues to do, but it doesn't matter, I support his right to do it. And that's the essence of being a liberal.  It's what  separates us from conservatives, whose value system is defined by what they believe is good and everything else is bad.  They cannot rise above themselves and their own beliefs in any debate about any issue. And the stronger their opinion, the more wrong is any other opinion. That's why the more they are in charge, the worse this country and the world becomes.

Many years ago I was attempting to have a rational conversation with a conservative coworker.  I knew the odds were against success, and I was right.  We were discussing the ACLU and he was expressing his disapproval by saying, "They do a lot of things I disagree  with." My response was that was the point.  If they weren't doing things we disagreed with, there would be no need for them.  He couldn't comprehend that.  I pointed out their defense of free speech by the Ku Klux Klan and American nazis as actions I disagreed with, but that free speech can't be only speech we agree with. To have a free society, we have to be willing to defend speech we don't agree with. I might as well have been speaking Klingon.

It's not easy being a liberal.  We have to defend not only our own liberty to think, speak, and act freely, but in order for us to be free, we have to defend the liberty of those who would gladly give our freedoms away: conservatives. They appear incapable of recognizing that the American flag means nothing if we aren't allowed to burn it. That the national anthem is just a song if we can't sit through it in protest. The concept of an underlying principal behind a symbol seems foreign to them.  The idea that the right of Muslims to practice their religion must be protected in order for Christians to enjoy the same right is nonsense to conservatives. So, as liberals we fight for ourselves, and for those who despise us and would happily jail us if they could.

That's what a liberal is.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.