Destruction and Mayhem and Irreparable Harm?

We're witnessing the destruction of a world order. Bound to happen sooner or later ,but I'd rather not have lived to see the US leading it.  Russia leading it? Sure. No brainer there. But the US? Heartbreaking,  wrenching, vomit-inducing. 

Not at the behest of the people of the world, that's for sure. At most, the US is less than 5% of the global population. And less than 30% of the total US electorate voted for the idiot that's leading the charge. I've called him all kinds of names - my faves being Felon47, Tangerine Twit and lately Donzilla, DimDon and Don the Destroyer. That 49% of the voters could vote for this will always enrage me. 

Just read a bit on Axios that describes DimDon the Destroyer of Worlds as a "realist" who sees "hard power" exercised by strong men. Turns my stomach. Headline on BBC was Idiot-in-Chief threatening Zelensky. Way to go, FoolFelon. Don't just kick an ally when it's being invaded and tortured, make it give you everything so you don't join in and steal what they have. That's what physical and moral cowards do, right? Side with the bully and... I can't go on. It's so damned ugly and cruel and vicious. And far too many other cowards and bullies are rooting him on. 

I hate it. I hate that what used to strive to be the House on the Hill, a beacon of liberty and justice (never attained but at least sometimes striven for), a voice for reason and peace... has become this. Stingy, bullying, vicious, malicious, conniving, petty, destructive, intentionally cruel, greedy - January 19, 2025 was our last day as even trying to be humane and caring. With F47, we seem to be embracing barbarism's worst instincts and gleefully oblivious to the misery we're causing around the world. He and his minders are literally taking food away from the hungry, inflicting horrific agony on millions needing food, medicine, care, and depriving thousands of their lawful and productive employment in order to further enrich the hyper-wealthy. 

And the venial Justices do nothing. They slow walk anything that might interfere with the wishes of their masters - Looking right at you Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh and Roberts. You're enabling this destruction, accepting bribes and blithely ignoring the Constitution. Paying back some of those favors for a more luxurious life, even as the rest of us are gasping for air and justice. Even rule of law would be nice. But no, you owe your buddies over at the Heritage Foundation too much. They are worth more than the rule of law, your honor or your souls. They likely own you, so you bow to their wishes and slimy dreams of power. May your god meet you and be sickened. And of course, may you rot in hell.

Over the past 40 years, I've watched and worked and voted for my country to evolve into a just society, where work and merit and justice were hallmarks of a good, caring and generous society. I've cheered when good people helped others devastated by natural or man-made disasters. I've winced when so-called leaders sent thoughts and prayers to victims of violence, injustice, hatred, longing for real leaders to be recognized and offer service to the rest of us. People like Kamala and Joe and Barack and Michelle. I've cringed as our society embraced "reality" entertainment that was openly and cravenly unrealistic.  I've called out the Bread and Circuses, tried to illuminate the workings and mechanics of the oligarchs to render us ignorant. I've cheered when real heroes tried, failed, got up and tried again and again. When real leaders took the hard road because it was the correct and humane one. 

And now I weep as American society stands by and cheers evil, as their sordid heroes cheat and bully and pardon the evils that tear at the social fabric that creates society itself. We've done this to ourselves - we've chosen to cheapen our own lives in the name of ease and entertainment.

May the good out there in our country and elsewhere keep working to fight this evil. May we who value justice, charity, compassion and kindness find the strength to prevail. Slava Ukraine! Free Tibet! Free the United States, and may we deliver ourselves from the greedy grasping fools!

Ducking the Horrors of Trump 2.0

Oddly, while his recent actions horrify me, I'm not totally freaking out. Rather, I have a desire to shout to the heavens "I told you so!!"

I won't of course. But he's actually going slower than I expected. I really did expect him to formally and officially terminate the Constitution by Day 2. And he hasn't. Granted, he's given extraordinary power to Elon, and is doing everything by fiat, but he hasn't formally trashed the Constitution. Given Citizens United, the degradation of the electoral process since Nixon, the end of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1990s, none of this is a big surprise. At least to those who haven't been imbibing in the Republican kool-aid since the 60s. Maybe doing acid and heroin was actually better than the Republican kool-aid in the long term. 

I've been a big fan of Heather Cox Richardson since I found her (only in 2023, far too late). Her analyses are spot on, and so helpful right now. And since I agree with her and she's more articulate and has a far better foundation in US history than I do, I happily defer to her. There's a reason I didn't want to even look at American history past 1947: I simply didn't have the needed objectivity. She does. I knew it infuriated me to discover the malfeasance and misdeeds of this country that I loved, and that I wouldn't be able to be calm and scholarly about it. So I am very grateful to find a scholar of such distinction right now. 

I was a full blown adult in the 1980s, and doing both undergrad and MA work, and thus developing and honing my professional skills. And I was utterly thunderstruck that people actually listened to Reagan and bought his kool-aid. His elections were hard lessons in the gullibility of the American electorate. His campaigns were, to me, so patently & obviously manipulative that I simply gaped that so many chose him.  His second term, with his ever-so-obvious cognitive decline, was another painful lesson and I started to wonder how people could so eagerly overlook the evidence of his... craziness. 

Ultimately, I recognized that the responses to cognitive dissonance are far more powerful than we'd like to think (if that isn't a tautology...).  Lord knows how many studies have looked at this - including my own dissertation and much of my professional research since. Americans are taught from the cradle to embrace magical thinking, to regard evidence as unnecessary and likely false. We're not alone in that, but what continues to bemuse me is our insistence that any evidence we don't like on nearly everything is false and being presented maliciously. We might say we did x, y or z based on solid evidence, but we certainly don't act that way. Woe to those who might question anything that challenges our magical thinking fantasies. 

So I'm oddly calm as my country is destroyed around me. I'm not reading everything I can get my hands on about the travesties of Trump 2.0. Rather, I'm idly wondering who's going to archive the evidence away from the bastards who will 'clean' up our history and disappear the evidence of atrocities we've committed in our history (and present). That they intend to rewrite history is a given - they've said it again and again, and it's been going on forever. So whoever is around 200 years from now will look back at this period, this geographical spot and hopefully find an archive of scholarly work that doesn't argue the ends justify the means. Maybe they'll recognize the kool-aid histories as travesties and wonder how we let that happen. 

Maybe they'll have air to breathe. Trees to sit under. Oceans full of life. I hope so. But if the current path humanity is on continues, I'm sure the USA won't be around. Not as a democracy - more likely another historical example of hubris, arrogance and what happens to a culture raised on bread & circuses.

Political Weirdness

 First, McCarthy's apparent incapacity to do his job, which is to act as LEADER of the House Majority. He's letting the extremists hold the entire government hostage - instead of opening the vote to Democrats. The Guardian says he'd open himself to a challenge to his "leadership," by which they mean his title vs his actions. If he could demonstrate some leadership, we could acknowledge that he is Leader. He isn't demonstrating any kind of leadership and openly acknowledges that the extremists are "willing to burn the place down" - yet he could, singlehandedly get spending bills passed, bills he already agreed to pass. This isn't leadership, this is reckless endangerment. Six people are holding the country hostage, and their so-called leader is more concerned with holding onto his own title than getting on with the business of government. 

Second: The Supreme Court. I used to have the highest regard for that institution and now... well now, I simply cringe as we learn of the blatant corruption so evident in the actions of Justices who consider themselves above the law. Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, I'm pointing at YOU. Both should have recused themselves on issues before the court that they had direct personal ties/links to: recusal is the very least they should have done. If they had any morals they should never have taken the original steps that led to the calls for them to recuse. Above and beyond any personal animosity that I have toward these men, if they cannot recognize a bribe on their own, they have no place on the highest court. Their ideas of what is right and just are skewed by their sense of entitlement that any hope for a disinterested analysis of the facts and law must be abandoned. They have disgraced themselves and brought the institution of the very Court itself into disrepute. That the Chief Justice refuses to rebuke or challenge them is just another horrific weakness revealed. Alito argues that Congress cannot impose an ethical standard on justices, citing both judicial independence and separation of powers. If we buy that argument, then there is  no way to impeach a Justice, so the rest of the country is stuck with a deeply compromised Supreme Court that cannot be challenged. This would make the nomination and confirmation process even more important than ever. That process must be de-politicized completely, although the methods and challenges to that are enormously complex and fraught. It only takes one, such as Trump and/or McConnell, to dismiss long standing traditions to screw it up (as they did with Kavanaugh). We're all stuck with Brett the Brat for a very long time to come.

Third: Menendez. Oh dear lord. How dare anybody suggest that accepting cash and gold in return for skewing legislation/access is not the work of a legislator?! Seriously? That's his defense? I'm pretty sure he took the Oath of Office... but then again, so have others in the various branches of government who accept what any one else would call a bribe. This systemic corruption isn't new, but what seems now both commonplace and completely out of hand has to be stopped. And stopped hard when it is unearthed. We can research and analyze the actions and attitudes that changed our understanding of the responsibilities and obligations of political and business actors - in my lifetime, I see a major turn with the Citizens United case of 2010. But the loss of the Equal Time provision and implementation (it's still on the books but you'd never know it, because... Citizens United) put money above all else. We saw the consequences of all of this money throughout the 20th century. And now well into the 21st. It used to be tobacco and the energy companies, handing out cash like crazy - then Big Pharma jumped into the mud puddle. They weren't just spending lavishly on candidates, but actively purchasing, in cash, access and 'incentives' to legislators - latest example, Menendez. We kind of hoped they weren't doing that with judges... obviously, they were are are continuing to do so, and apparently it's a completely open market. Sure, buy me a car and I'll talk to some people. Open some doors. That's a bribe folks, pure and simple. If you can't resist, don't run for office. You are there to represent the people of your district or state, not Pharma or Russia or Big Oil. Or, in Menendez's case, Egypt.

I'm always struck by the hypocrisy of the Extreme Right, citing the Bible and defying its most basic teachings at the same time. Touting their Christianity while inciting hatred. As some wit noted: let's get the Christ back in Christianity. Let's get past the Old Testament 'shall not' lists, and instead hold up the Beatitudes. Boy, wouldn't that take the steam out of the "Freedom Caucus"!