Category Archives: Religion

Kakistocracy? Idiocracy? Kleptocracy? Oligarchy? Theocracy? Or Autocracy?

Posted on by

I admit to being flummoxed by how best to describe our current regime, er, administration. A government of the worst and most unscrupulous blowhards? A government by self-serving and unqualified incompetents? A government designed to fill its leaders’ bank accounts with taxpayer money? A government run by democracy-hating billionaires? A government based on ethically and morally challenged evangelic Christianity. Or a banana republic-like dictatorship?

In truth, I believe it’s an amalgamation of them all.

Consider that it is being led by Felon-in-Chief Donald J. Trump, the 34-count convicted felon, adjudicated sexual assaulter, three-time adulterer, insurrection-leading conman, and former best pal of Jeffrey Epstein who spends most of his time golfing and rage posting on social media. His greatest accomplishments are hiding his alleged sex abuse of 13-year-old girls, regrowing his ear following an alleged assassination attempt, demolishing the East Wing of the White House, starting an economy-crushing unnecessary war, plastering his name and face all over government buildings, building monuments to himself, and using his office to fill the Trump family coffers with $4 billion during his first year in office.

Second in command is Vice-President James Donald Bowman, aka James David Humel, aka J.D. Vance, a deceitful author turned politician who was financed by the anti-democratic billionaire and government contractor, Peter Thiel. Among the most devoted of Trump bootlickers, the Veep’s greatest achievement is his ability to so frequently fit his size 11 shoe in his mouth. In a display of supreme hubris, the recent convert even lectured the Pope on the finer points of Catholicism.

There’s Acting Attorney General (emphasis on acting) Todd Blanche who has continued his role as Trump’s personal attorney to file Trumped-up charges against the Felon-in-Chief’s perceived enemies. Of course, he follows the more famous, more combative and more hateful Pam Bondi who was apparently brushed aside for releasing the Epstein files without clearly exonerating Dear Leader.

In charge of our nation’s health is HHS Secretary RFK Jr., the vaccine denier with a brain worm whose accomplishments include dining on roadkill and stopping his car to cut the penis off a dead racoon as his wife and children watched. He has singlehandedly brought measles back from eradication and is ambitiously cueing up the next pandemic.

The “Director of War” is Pete Hegseth, a hard-drinking, Bible-thumping Christian Nationalist and racist who has blown through the world’s largest military budget in record time while decapitating the top leadership of our military and publicly advocating war crimes.

At the helm of DHS is Markwayne Mullin, the three-win MMA fighter turned politician who notoriously physically threatened his Senate colleagues. It remains to be seen if he can be as successful as his predecessor, ICE Barbie, in advocating brutality while cheating taxpayers out of hundreds of millions for luxury jets and self-aggrandizing TV commercials.

The rest of this Cabinet of clowns and misfits are relatively silent partners in the regime doing the Felon’s bidding but escaping public attention. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is the primary proponent of inflation-inducing illegal tariffs and infamous guest of Jeffrey Epstein’s magical island of sex trafficking and abuse. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has given us the Felon’s signature on our currency and the creation of a Trump coin. The queen of pro wrestling, Linda McMahon, seems to have but one assignment – the demolition of public education. Similarly, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, seem to have been given the task of destroying our nation’s wildlands and poisoning our air and water.

And don’t forget Secretary of State Marco Rubio who seems to ideally fit the description jack of all trades and master of none. What he is good at is making things disappear. If there’s a task the Felon wants everyone to forget about, he simply piles it on Magic Marco’s desk and voila, you never hear about it again.

Finally, we must acknowledge the a**holes behind the scenes: Stephen Miller and Russell Vought. Miller acts as a Mafia-like caporegime for the Felon to initiate and oversee the regime’s most racist and cruel policies. While Director of Management and Budget Russell Vought acts as a reverse Robin Hood, taking money from the poor to give to the rich. He is also lead author of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s agenda intended to transform the American Dream into the American Nightmare. One in which the Executive Branch controls all the levers of power without restraint.

It’s as if our nation’s largest rival and global threat, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, handpicked our government leaders to dismantle NATO, weaken our military, accelerate climate change, impoverish tens of millions, and destroy the world’s greatest democracy.

And it’s not as if we had no warning of what might happen in the Felon’s second term. All you had to do was read the Muller Report, the court reports, and watch the videos from January 6.

The Oppressed Become The Oppressors.

Posted on by

The bullied become the bullies.

At the risk of being labeled antisemitic (I most certainly am not!!!), I believe it’s time to hold the Israeli Zionist leadership accountable for its role in the ongoing violence and hatred in the Middle East. To begin, we must recognize that Israel has a right to exist. But we also must understand that Americans have been fed a one-sided account of the situation by religious institutions, the government, and Israeli lobbyists, as well as the media and entertainment industries.

To understand the current situation, a little history is in order.

The problems began in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the founding of the World Zionist Organization and the resettlement into Palestine of tens of thousands of Jews escaping persecution in Europe and Russia. (I think we can all agree that all humans have a right to live in peace free from persecution, including Jews and Palestinians.)

When, following WWI, the League of Nations authored the British Mandate recognizing British rule over Palestine and Transjordan, hundreds of thousands more Jews arrived in the area. At first, they purchased land and lived in concert with ethnic Palestinians who had occupied the area for generations. But, as millions more Jews immigrated during the build-up to WWII, conflicts began. In response, the British attempted to limit further immigration and recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Palestinians and Jews, be established within 10 years.

After the horrors of the Holocaust (the Nazi genocide of European Jews and other ethnic groups), illegal immigration into Palestine soared, resulting in Jews comprising 33 percent of the population. When Britain asked the United Nations for help, the UN recommended that the land be divided into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, and that Jerusalem be placed under an international trusteeship.

When the British Mandate was terminated in 1948, Britain withdrew from the area, and a civil war broke out as Jews tried to claim more land. When Jews declared independence and created the nation of Israel, the war expanded into a regional conflict with war crimes committed by both sides and ending in the Nakba with Jews taking 55 percent of the land and violently displacing more than 700,000 Palestinian residents who were forced into refugee camps in Gaza and Jordan.

Not surprisingly, that spawned an enduring hatred amongst the Palestinians who were determined to return to their homes. Those who continued to fight were, of course, labeled terrorists (a convenient label that can be applied by those on either side of a fight). The war also angered Israel’s Arab neighbors who were forced to accept Palestinian refugees. Then, in 1967, Israel initiated a pre-emptive strike against its Arab neighbors, capturing the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

In reality, the wars have never ended.

Israel has controlled all movement in and out of Palestinian lands for decades limiting weapons, even food and medical supplies. When frustrated Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, the soldiers were ordered to shoot at their legs. In addition, Israel began imprisoning Palestinians indefinitely without charges and without trial. (3,329 by the end of 2025.)

More violent Palestinian attacks on Israel have been met with mass killings and destruction, the latest following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 Israelis. In response, Israel committed what Amnesty International, and others have called a genocide and on-going humanitarian crisis by turning most of Gaza into rubble. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, wounding an additional 171,000 and displacing more than 75,000. Since then, the IDF have also killed more than 560 humanitarian aid workers, along with more than 1,700 healthcare workers, and roughly 300 journalists. During the obliteration of Gaza, medical volunteers from the U.S. also reported dozens of cases of young children, including toddlers, being shot in the head by Israeli snipers.

Palestinian blood scarcely had time to dry in Gaza before Israel turned its attention to the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers continue to brutally attack and kill Palestinians at will. They have razed Palestinian homes and olive groves in clear attempts to ethnically cleanse the land.

In Lebanon, the goal seems the same. Israel has set about creating a “buffer zone” for Israeli safety. That’s code for carpet bombing a swath of Lebanon, including Beirut, killing any Lebanese civilians who either refuse or are unable to leave. Those attacks have resulted in many thousands of Lebanese killed or wounded.

And to eliminate the threat of Iran as a regional power, Israel’s war criminal Netanyahu talked our own war criminal in the White House into launching a pre-emptive war on Iran. So far, that has led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader, in addition to the bombing of government buildings, military sites, at least one elementary school, universities, and residential buildings. In all, the U.S. has claimed to have flown more than 12,000 combat sorties over Iran and fired more than 850 Tomahawk missiles. And, within the first three weeks of the war, Israel had dropped more than 12,000 bombs – more than 3,600 on the city of Tehran. All to prevent potential Iranian-sponsored attacks from Hezbollah.

Is it any wonder that Israel has asked American taxpayers to pay for tens of billions in more weaponry?

Certainly, terrorist groups from Iran, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern nations have sporadically attacked Israelis since the 1948 Nakba resulting in more than 5,000 Israeli deaths. But over that same time span, Israel has killed more than 130,000 Palestinians – mostly civilians. Indeed, the stated belief of at least one Israeli military leader is that for each Israeli death, 50 Palestinians must die.

As long as that mentality exists, the war will never end as each death radicalizes family members and friends.

Perhaps even more worrisome is the belief held by many Zionists that they cannot stop their expansionist wars until the “Promised Land” is reunited – a view shared by Christian evangelicals who believe that will lead to the return of their Messiah and the rapture of all true believers. Of course, that would mean that the state of Israel would include parts of modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Such an expansion would only further broaden the conflict, creating endless deaths and destruction

It’s long past time for this cycle of violence to stop! A good place to start would be ending all arms shipments to the bullies at the center of it.

The Political Division That’s Most Concerning.

Posted on by

It’s not left versus right. It’s left versus left. Those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment versus those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment.

What do I mean by that?

By now it should be abundantly clear that the Felon-in-Chief and his MAGA followers are leading our nation down a path toward oligarchy and dictatorship. They’re succeeding in great part because the resistance has been fragmented and largely rudderless.

For many years, involved and caring voters have been split amongst a wide variety of single-issue organizations focused on guns, homelessness, hunger, wildlife, animal rights, air and water quality, climate change, sustainable energy, racial and gender equity, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, organized labor, religious freedom, Palestinian rights, Ukraine, healthcare, public education, reining in military spending, tax fairness, voting rights, breaking up corporate monopolies, etc., etc.

All of these issues are important, and I have personally supported most of them. But we are now facing an ideological movement that vehemently opposes progress toward each of these goals. Indeed, those in control of MAGA have pushed policies that are directly counter to them. And they now control all three branches of government, as well as much of the media.

If patriotic and caring people are to interrupt our nation’s slide into tyranny, we must set aside any inclination to base our votes on single or self-serving issues. We must come together and focus on what really matters. That doesn’t mean we have to abandon the goals we care about most. It means we have to ensure that we have a government that will allow us to pursue those goals.

There is only one issue that is important now: Saving our democracy. Period.

A Democratic Project 2029.

Posted on by

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 embraced by the Trump regime has made the US virtually unrecognizable by creating an autocratic oligarchy that panders to the wealthy and the powerful and erodes the individual rights guaranteed by our Constitution. And it’s likely to get much worse as Project 2025 is only roughly 50 percent implemented!

When a Democratic president and congressional majority is elected to supplant the MAGA miscreants (assuming we have free and fair elections), we need to be prepared to not only restore our democracy but to improve it with a Project 2029. MAGA has shown us the way to quickly reshape the US according to its ideology. Democrats must not shy away from doing the same. Following are my suggestions:

1 – Immediately nullify all of Trump’s Executive Orders.

2 – Pass legislation to restore all powers to the legislative branch as enumerated in the Constitution.

3 – Order the Attorney General (AG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to begin prosecutions of those who participated in the Trump regime’s many violations of the Constitution.

4 – Pass legislation to eliminate immunity for all federal employees past, present and future.

5 – Order the AG and DOJ to begin prosecutions of all international war crimes, including those committed by the Trump and Netanyahu regimes.

6 – Reduce, restructure or eliminate DHS, ICE and CBP.

7 – Break up corporate monopolies. No company should ever control more than 10% of any industry.

8 – Impeach Justices Thomas and Alito for their inexcusable grift and unethical behavior and replace them with liberal justices. If necessary, increase the size of SCOTUS to 12 with nonpartisan appointments.

9 – Eliminate financial and weapons support for Israel’s Zionist government until such time it demonstrates respect for the human rights of all people under its control.

10 – To prevent corporations and billionaires from further corrupting our elections, pass legislation to repeal the decisions of Citizens United v FEC and Buckley v Valeo. Ban private campaign donations beyond $500 and provide government funding for all legitimate federal candidates so members of Congress can work instead of spending 40 percent of their time fundraising.

11 – Pass legislation to require every high school graduate to pass a thorough civics test.

12 – Pass legislation to eliminate the electoral college and make election day a national holiday. Automatically register all high school graduates and naturalized citizens to vote.

13 – Pass legislation reinstating the Fairness Doctrine to clearly label and separate opinion from news. Revoke the licenses of any media outlet that fails to do so.

14 – Pass legislation to fully restore all civil liberties, including a woman’s right to choose.

15 – Pass legislation to ban any convicted felon from holding public office.

16 – Pass legislation to place strict controls on government surveillance and invasions of privacy.

17 – Expand IRS, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security regulators to catch fraudsters.

18 – Make the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes by eliminating tax loopholes.

19 – Eliminate all tax shelters, both on and offshore.

20 – Restore funding for the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.

21 – Restore funding for public education and research grants for universities. Pass legislation to ban government funding of private religious schools.

22 – Enforce rules for churches and 501c3s that ban direct political engagement at risk of losing tax-free status.

23 – Pass legislation instituting term limits on Congress – 4 terms for the House, 3 terms for the Senate.

24 – Restore funding for USAID and other international aid groups, including the UN.

25 – Hold the Department of Defense accountable for failing audits and its inability or refusal to account for more than $21 trillion in spending.

26 – Create a humane and practical immigration policy that accepts refugees and asylum-seekers, that provides renewable work permits for necessary workers, and that provides a path to citizenship.

27 – Address homelessness and food insecurity by recognizing that no one who works or has a disability should be unhoused or hungry.

28 – Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and aggressively address climate change.

29 – Move quickly to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels.

30 – Ban drilling and oil exploration on federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

31 – Claw back all emoluments gained by the Trump family and members of the regime. Pass legislation requiring that anyone who uses a public office for financial gain be fired and prosecuted.

32 – Pass legislation to reinforce separation of church and state.

33 – Restore an accurate account of US history, including the genocide of indigenous people, slavery and Jim Crow.

34 – Pass legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act.

35 – Pass legislation creating Medicare for all.

36 – Notify all federal employees that anyone who makes decisions based on politics and religion will be fired.

37 – Rebuild the East Wing of the White House and restore the Kennedy Rose Garden.

38 – Pass legislation reaffirming our commitment to NATO and all long-standing treaties.

39 – Remove the Trump name from every federal building and edifice and make it illegal to display the name on any structure other than portable toilets.

40 – Instead of an eternal flame, equip Trump’s eventual grave with modesty panels and a catchment basin for the legions of people who will want to piss on it.

How Much Worse Can It Get?

Posted on by

In just 10 months, the Trump regime has already implemented 48 percent of the actions outlined in Project 2025. Those changes have almost irreparably dimmed the shining city on the hill, previously known as United States of America. But if MAGA and the Trump regime are successful in implementing the entire plan, the nation will become unrecognizable, and our democracy may cease to exist.

Following are just some of the lowlights of the remaining 52 percent:

DHS & IMMIGRATION

  • End the Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets basic standards of care for immigrant children in custody.
  • Enforce income requirements for immigrants obtaining green cards and certain visas blocking entry for most refugees.
  • Repeal Section 235 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which protects unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum.
  • Eliminate or significantly reduce the number of visas issued to foreign students.
  • End “chain” migration like that of Melania Trump’s parents who followed her to the U.S. as immigrants.
  • Break up the Dept. of Homeland Security or, at least, combine ICE and CBP to form a “Border Security and Immigration Agency”.
  • Block federal grants to sanctuary cities to ensure their cooperation with ICE.
  • Eliminate the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis making us more vulnerable to external threats.
  • Ban mixed-status families (citizens and noncitizens) from living in all federally assisted housing.

ECONOMY AND TREASURY.

  • Enact a two-income tax bracket system that will raise annual taxes by $3,000 for the median family of four.
  • Permanently reduce the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent making it lower than most advanced economies.
  • Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  • Eliminate the Federal Reserve mission of full employment.
  • Abolish the Federal Reserve and move to a “free banking” system.
  • Repeal the Corporate Transparency Act which aims to combat money laundering.
  • Repeal key sections of Dodd-Frank Act that was passed following the Great Recession to make the financial system safer for consumers and taxpayers.
  • Withdraw from OECD, the intergovernmental organization that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people worldwide.
  • Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
  • Limit FHA mortgages to first-time buyers.
  • End cash grants to small businesses (including disaster aid).
  • Allow religious entities to receive Small Business Administration loans.
  • Abolish the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
  • Consider whether the Federal Trade Commission should enforce antitrust laws or even continue to exist.

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

  • Expand energy exploration in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Repeal the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Eliminate carbon capture utilization and storage programs.
  • Restart the coal leasing program.
  • Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
  • Eliminate all considerations of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Ensure liquified natural gas export applications are approved quickly without consideration of climate change.
  • Reverse Biden-era decisions to retire parts of the nuclear arsenal.
  • Reject the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons.
  • Repeal the Antiquities Act of 1906 which gives presidents the power to create national monuments.
  • Repeal the Global Change Research Act of 1990 requiring research of climate change.
  • Eliminate the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education.
  • Eliminate the Office of Children’s Health Protection.
  • Eliminate the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance.
  • Undermine the California waiver which allows the state to enact more stringent pollution reduction from vehicles.
  • Eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP)

FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION

  • Limit campaign finance enforcement.
  • Raise contribution limits for election campaigns.

FEMA

  • Limit FEMA-issued grants to states that “comply with all aspects of federal immigration laws.
  • Shift the majority of FEMA’s preparedness and response costs to states and localities.
  • Privatize the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program.

INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

  • Re-negotiate intelligence sharing protocols with the EU.
  • Prohibit the intelligence community from monitoring domestic disinformation.

LABOR

  • Close the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; treat the participation in any DEI initiative as grounds for termination.
  • Reclassify thousands of federal employees making it easier to fire career civil servants.
  • Reduce federal employees’ pay and benefits.
  • Weaken or ban federal employee unions.
  • Privatize TSA screening.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

  • Fund studies on the risks and complications of abortion.
  • Correct “misinformation” about the comparative health and psychological benefits of childbirth vs abortion.
  • Cut federal funding to states that do not provide detailed abortion reports.
  • Prohibit the use of “aborted fetal cells” in developing vaccines.
  • End taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
  • Withdraw Biden-era guidance that retail pharmacies must dispense abortion medication and contraception.
  • Eliminate the ACA’s requirement to cover the morning after pill.
  • Withdraw HHS funding, including 10% of Medicaid funds, from states that require private health insurance plans to cover abortion.
  • Restore religious and moral exemptions to the ACA’s contraception requirement.
  • Enforce the Comstock Act to prevent the distribution of abortion pills.
  • Reverse FDA approval of the mifepristone abortion pill or ban telehealth prescriptions and mailing of mifepristone.
  • Prevent the VA from covering abortion services even in cases of rape and incest.
  • End or limit fetal stem cell research and use.

USDA

  • Weaken regulations on baby formula.
  • Repeal or, at minimum, reform Dietary Guidelines.
  • Repeal the federal mandate to label genetically engineered food.
  • Prohibit schools from grouping together to utilize the Community Eligibility Provision that enables those in low-income areas to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students.
  • End broad-based eligibility for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

  • Reduce disability ratings for future claims, partially reduce for existing claims.
  • Sunset the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.

How Project 2025 Is Destroying America.

Posted on by

Remember Project 2025? You know, the plan that Trump denied any knowledge of during the campaign despite previously praising its authors by saying, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do…”

Not surprisingly, many of its authors have been awarded key roles within the White House and government agencies. Indeed, Russell Vaught the key architect of the plan is now Washington’s most powerful man as director of the Office of Management and Budget. And, under his guidance, the Trump regime is radically changing (aka destroying) the federal government.

Far from making America great, it’s destroying the very fabric of our nation as surely as Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House. For example, here are some of the things the Trump regime has done by implementing Project 2025:

  • To ferret out alleged “widespread” waste and abuse, the Trump regime created DOGE, an unelected and unvetted group of twenty somethings who broke laws and violated the Constitution by firing government employees, shutting down numerous agencies, and blocking congressionally approved funding. Even more concerning, they allegedly downloaded the personal information of millions of Americans.
  • Church membership has been falling, so it is imposing Christianity into public schools and workplaces.
  • The rate of births among white Americans has dropped, so it calls for banning all abortions and using the Comstock Act to prevent the delivery of abortion drugs to individuals. It also calls for ending ACA funding of contraceptives.
  • Women and minorities have been gaining rights and positions of authority, so it is attacking DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs to keep them in their place. And to keep women in the home, it calls for ending subsidized day care and, instead, funding at-home daycare payments.
  • To push MAGA’s pro-birth ideology, it prohibited USAID from funding “sexual reproductive health and reproductive rights” and “gender equality” programs. As a result, the regime intends to incinerate nearly $10 million worth of taxpayer-purchased contraceptives.
  • Most highly educated voters support Democrats, so it’s attacking public K-12 education and universities. It is also eliminating the Department of Education.
  • Scientists support many Democratic goals like addressing the climate crisis, so it’s attacking science by defunding agencies like the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has also withdrawn from the Paris Accords on Climate Change and canceled at least 130 climate and clean energy contracts.
  • The academic freedom of public and private universities permits professors to teach subject matter that is counter to the MAGA ideology, so it is using government contracts as leverage to eliminate DEI and other “woke” policies.
  • MAGA was furious over vaccine and mask mandates during the pandemic. So, Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization and, following Project 2025, he blocked much of the funding for National Institutes for Health and the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC has been decimated leaving us largely unprepared for the next health crisis.
  • Publicly supported independent media pose a threat to autocracy by presenting the unbiased truth, so it rescinded all federal funding for NPR and PBS.
  • The authors of Project 2025 believe we spend too much on foreign aid. So, it all but eliminated USAID and programs such as international disaster aid, food aid and family planning.
  • The Trump crime family has created its own highly speculative cryptocurrencies, so it has reduced regulations by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
  • Corporations have been restricted and held accountable for environmental abuses, so it calls for repealing many of the regulations and lessening protections for vulnerable species.
  • There has been recent growth in worker wages which has reduced corporate profits, so it is attacking labor unions and increases in minimum wages. It’s also increasing unemployment levels through tariffs and other means.
  • Renewables have been quickly replacing fossil fuels, so it calls for replacing incentives for renewables with even more incentives for oil, gas and (choke) coal.
  • The percentages of black and brown minorities have been increasing, so it has expanded ICE and CBP to detain and deport millions of Latinos and blacks. It has also deployed military to help guard our borders.
  • To ensure future MAGA control, it has encouraged MAGA-controlled states to implement extreme gerrymandering and to rig elections by changing voting laws.
  • Schools, museums and other institutions have increased our citizens’ understanding of the nation’s past excesses, such as ethnic cleansing, slavery, and Jim Crow, so it is banning books and rewriting history.
  • It recognizes that nonpartisan federal employees restrain authoritarian power, so it is firing thousands of government workers and replacing them with MAGA loyalists.
  • Government watchdogs, such as Inspectors General, impose ethical standards that restrain corruption, so they have been fired and replaced with loyalists.
  • Trump was furious at attempts to hold him accountable for crimes. So, longtime employees of the Department of Justice and FBI were fired to better weaponize the system against his investigators, prosecutors and political opponents.
  • An independent Congress and judiciary act as restraints to the executive branch, so the regime has taken control of Congress and SCOTUS to cede power to the executive branch.
  • The Constitution is the last barrier to autocracy, so it is simply ignoring it.

What Is Patriotism?

Posted on by

Today’s conservatives are fond of calling themselves patriots. But is there really a patriot among them? Their support for the Felon-in-Chief and their acceptance of his dismantling of our government would indicate otherwise.

Patriotism is defined as “devotion and vigorous support for one’s country.” How does that square with those who watched, or even applauded, as the Trump regime encouraged and then pardoned insurrectionists who violently tried to overturn an election? How does it fit with those who support a twice-impeached president that has repeatedly violated numerous sections and amendments to the US Constitution? How does it describe those who have chosen Party over country? Who have approvingly watched as Dear Leader uses the justice department to attack his political opponents? Who have silently stood by as the regime builds a 32,000-member version of Hitler’s gestapo that arrests people who are legally in this country, denying both immigrants and citizens due process?

None of that. I repeat, none of that is patriotic. Indeed, it’s very much the opposite!

Far from being patriots, the MAGA cult consists almost entirely of racial and socio-economic bullies. Bullies who believe they are superior by birthright. Bullies who demand that others do as they say. Some strut around with weapons and tactical gear to intimidate political opponents. Others hide their true feelings from the public. But when they are exposed, as were the texts between leaders of Young Republicans, it’s clear that they are antisocial, antidemocratic, anti-Semitic racists and fascists.

To be clear, these Young Republicans aren’t exceptions. They are representative of the entire MAGA cult. They were encouraged and promoted by the likes of Charlie Kirk, vice-president J.D. Vance, speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and the Putinesque fascist who has taken up residence in the Oval Office.

Of course, in public many of the cult members recite passages from the Bible to justify their actions and claim to be Christians while ignoring every aspect of Christ’s teachings. They claim to support “family values” even as they cheer on the ICEstapo as it rips families apart. They take perverse joy in threatening and abusing innocents, especially immigrants. They talk and act tough. But at their core, they are soulless, mindless cowards.

Others of the cult use their wealth and positions within large corporations to manipulate the government and the economy to serve their personal interests, not caring about the effects of their actions on those who cling to lower rungs of the economic ladder.

No amount of flag waving and Bible thumping can excuse the actions of these people or make them what they claim to be. All of that is mere theater. In fact, the more they wave the flag and the more they proselytize, the more clear it becomes that they are imposters. And that their “patriotism” fails to extend beyond themselves and their self-interests.

Our nation’s Founders went to great lengths to create a constitution that would prevent tyranny. And history provides many examples and warnings of how tyrants rise to power. Yet these so-called patriots have not only ignored those warnings. They have voted a tyrant into office, and many continue to cheer him on as he accumulates power and diminishes our freedoms.

Such people are not patriots. They’re losers and traitors. And they’re as phony as the gilded yard sale trash that’s now tacked all over the walls of the White House.

The Dishonest Reframing Of Operation Arctic Frost.

Posted on by

With Senator Chuck Grassley’s description of an FBI and DOJ investigation targeting rightwing groups code-named “Artic Frost,” it would appear that the Biden administration had politicized and weaponized the government against Republican organizations.

But that narrative doesn’t fit the reality of the time.

Keep in mind that the operation began following a violent attempted coup at the nation’s capital and a coordinated attempt to overturn a free and fair election – all orchestrated by Trump and a variety of rightwing groups, including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Indeed, prior to the insurrection, Kirk posted that Turning Point Action would send more than 80 busloads of Trump supporters to Washington, DC to “fight for the president.”

Other conservative groups conspired to illegally replace legitimate electors as part of the Stop The Steal scheme. And Trump, himself, was recorded demanding the Georgia Secretary of State to illegally “find” the 11,780 votes necessary to hand him the 2020 election.

All of that goes well beyond ordinary politics – well beyond Watergate. It undermines the very foundation of our nation and crosses the line into conspiracy to commit multiple felonies, including sedition.

To further put Operation Arctic Frost into context, the FBI had long ago identified rightwing groups as the most prolific source of domestic terrorism. {Think Timothy McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma City aimed at the FBI, a rightwing militia’s attempt to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan, and the murder of Minnesota Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman.)

In fact, over the past 10 years, rightwing extremists, including those who oppose abortion, immigrants, minorities, government and non-Christian religions have been responsible for 378 murders. These were all acts of terrorism.

That’s not to say that leftwing extremists haven’t committed acts of violence. But despite what Vice-President Vance says, they are comparatively rare.

Nevertheless, you can expect the Trump regime to use the murder of Charlie Kirk and the revelation of Operation Arctic Frost to justify further attacks on their political opponents. The regime has already shown contempt for the Constitution by governing in direct violation of the 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments. And Trump seems determined to seek a third term in violation of the 20th Amendment.

It would not be surprising to see the regime try to arrest and silence opponents. And, given that there were no real consequences for January 6 due to court delays, the SCOTUS immunity ruling and presidential pardons, you can be certain that Trump will further attempt to rig the 2026 election in order to retain his grip on power.

The Divide Between The Left And The Right Is More Than Ideological.

Posted on by

It’s cultural. With the left determined to maintain some degree of decorum along with traditional norms and institutions. And the right determined to exact retribution against its opponents – to own the Libs – and to tear our government apart.

Those differences have never been more apparent than following the recent political assassinations of Minnesota State Legislator, Melissa Hortman, and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk.

After the murder of Hortman and the violent attack on Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman by an apparent white Christian Nationalist, many on the right refused to acknowledge that the attacks were political despite abundant evidence to the contrary. Some falsely attributed the shootings to a “Leftist Marxist.” Others blamed the victims. A few used the attack to make sarcastic remarks aimed at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Further, Trump even refused to call Walz, saying it would be a waste of time.

Contrast that to the response following Kirk’s death: Almost every Democratic politician, political commentator and entertainer have decried the shooting and mourned the state of our political discourse. One glaring exception was MSNBC contributor, Matthew Dowd, a Republican, who was fired by the center-left network for stating the uncomfortable truth that Kirk’s hateful rhetoric likely led to his own death.

Meanwhile, those on the right are calling for vengeance by baselessly blaming the left for Kirk’s death though most political shootings have been committed by MAGA supporters. Trump quickly blamed the shooting on “the radical left.” Fox host, Jesse Waters, claims “we are at war.” MAGA ally Laura Loomer calls for “cracking down on the left with the full force of the government.” And, despite the fact that the vast majority of political violence has been committed by MAGA, Trump advisor Stephen Miller vowed to use the full force of the government to shut down leftist groups (aka MAGA’S political opposition).

In truth, the response from the right seems as extreme as its cruel policies.

Let me be clear: All murders, especially political murders, are disgusting and cowardly acts. But these targeted assassinations reveal a new low in the freefall of political discourse in our nation. That said, one must also acknowledge that Kirk was a prominent contributor to that freefall. Kirk not only tested the limits of his right to free speech. He abused that right in his pursuit of power, fortune and fame by promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories.

Moreover, Kirk used his freedom of speech to undermine the very government to which he owed that freedom.

As a white Christian Nationalist, he advocated for an end to separation of church and state. He opposed a woman’s freedom of choice to control her own body. He created a Professor Watchlist to threaten the academic freedom and careers of college professors with whom he disagreed. He promoted the Great Replacement Theory and claimed that the white majority are the actual victims of racism. He was integral to the January 6 insurrection in which many of his followers stormed the Capitol with the intent of hanging the Vice-President and others. And ironically, he thought that the thousands of deaths from gun violence are justified by the need for the Second Amendment.

Yet despite his contributions to help elect a dictatorial and autocratic regime, and despite the pain he inflicted on so many others, Kirk is being feted as a martyr and honored with the Medal of Freedom.

These unwarranted honors are further evidence of the asymmetry with which the two political sides are treated.

Now, as a blogger and a journalist, I’ll admit to resorting to hyperbole in some of my writings that contribute to the coarse tone of our political debate. And I will strive to constrain myself in the future. But I challenge you to compare the rhetoric from the right to that of the left. I think you will find that there is no comparison. The cruel and hateful tone from the right begins in the White House.

Only in the MAGA universe is it acceptable for a President of the United States to refer to immigrants as vermin, to Democrats as Demoncrats and traitors, to the legitimate press as enemies of the people, to women as nasty, filthy, crazy, or ugly, and to every problem as a Democrat hoax. He even suggested that the Second Amendment folks could deal with a rival. That rhetoric is repeated and even exaggerated by the MAGA base.

It’s long past time for reasonable Americans to reject such purveyors of hate and fear no matter which side they’re on. It’s one thing to oppose policies and to voice a differing opinion. It’s quite another to incite violence through words or actions. Indeed, no one should be targeted for expressing their thoughts and opinions.

A sharp criticism or a biting commentary may temporarily hurt. But under no circumstances is a bullet an acceptable retort.

The Most Murderous Regime In U.S. History.

Posted on by

As has been previously discussed, the Trump cult appears to view its leader as the savior of America, a man of God, the second coming of the Messiah. If so, Trump must serve a cruel and loathsome deity, since the Felon-in-Chief is responsible for millions of deaths. And he’s only halfway through the first year of his second term.

Think that statement is hyperbolic? Then consider the following:

A 2020 study in The Lancet led by professors at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Francisco found that the first Trump administration’s health policies led to 461,000 unnecessary U.S. deaths annually, plus 22,000 avoidable deaths annually from its environmental policies. Moreover, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated the death toll from Trump’s failed response to Covid-19 had reached 1,120,000 by January 2023.

In the current Trump regime, cuts to USAID are estimated to result in the unnecessary deaths of 14 million people by 2030, including 4.5 million children. (Thankfully, Congress restored $400 million in cuts to the PEPFAR program in a rare rebuke of Trump. Otherwise, there could have been an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths over the next four years.)

Further, scientists from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania estimate that 42,500 vulnerable Americans may die each year as a result of health care cuts mandated by the Republican’s Big Ugly Bill. They warn that the cuts to hospitals and clinics, especially in rural areas, could be devastating to communities.

The regime’s plans to deport more than a million immigrants a year, the vast majority of which are only guilty of wanting to work hard and improve their families’ lives, is not just a blow to our communities and our industries. It will almost certainly be deadly. How many of our neighbors will die as a result of being forced to return to the nations they fled to escape war, gang violence, poverty and political retribution?

Appallingly, the Trump regime has also turned its back on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. By failing to support relief efforts by the UN and numerous European nations, the regime could be at least partially responsible for more than 500,000 Palestinians dying of starvation. And those who are spared from famine are likely to be displaced once again as Netanyahu and Trump have called for the relocation of 1.2 million Gazans.

Combined, the death toll from the first Trump administration and his current regime’s actions could total more than 16.8 million!!! Moreover, if Trump and his regime continue to deny the climate crisis, the death toll could rise to hundreds of millions more, if not the entire population of the planet.