The Trump presidency finally and for all time pulled the mask off their “we oppose big government” lie - there is no conceivable way a government could be “bigger“ than for it to establish martial law
That was like drinking from a firehose. Each sentence in today’s blog is a bumper-sticker slogan for November, and an entire subject of research unto itself. Sit up and pay attention. The good citizens need to shift to a war mood and fight back against ubiquitous lies, using truth, not guns, as their weapon, if they expect democracy to survive. It is time to think like Ukrainians.
Republican big government has been America’s number-one problem all along, not big government per se, which naturally must expand to match an expanding population. Not only are Republicans (and word-salad trolls exhaling logical fallacies with every breath) arguing the opposite — that it’s the DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATS (always) — their entire premise that the size of government, rather than the purpose, is the fundamental problem society faces is false and duplicitous and laughable on every level.
Fascists (Let’s use Woody Guthrie’s word.) have only changed the name of their party over the centuries. Their arrogant, self-righteous, selfish attitudes, which they cannot hide, remain the same. In fact, one could reasonably extrapolate that lusting after wealth and power while stripping innocent workers, families, and children of their wealth and health, indeed their lives, has been the world’s number-one problem from the inception of the “thinking ape” with a dick for a brain and two hands that can’t find his ass but can wield a weapon just fine.
Evolution stopped long ago for fascists. Everything else is just a sorry excuse.
"Truth, not guns." Darlin', you are such a romantic! I guess there was the Ghandi thing, but, you know, it doesn't end well, because you are so right about evolution stopping. Even though I escaped (????) I have no doubt that my mother's family were DNA hardwired authoritarians. "Truth" is irrelevant to man's inhumanity to man. I am pretty sure that the inhumanity is the (DNA) norm.
Observing our history and the world today, it would sure seem so. Technologically, the human race has evolved, psychologically, not so much -- evidenced by the fact that even our technological "advances" are literally killing us and the rest of life on a hyper-polluted planet. Cause and effect (karma is a bitch) -- reading the tea leaves in the news today predicts a bleak future indeed. Change is possible but is more of a remote possibility with each moment of inaction slipping into history, opportunities irretrievably lost forever. We're pushing the odds against survival to an inevitability.
That the traitorous seditionists are not in front of a grand jury answering questions is flat out stupid. We are in uncharted territory, and Garland seems to think this is 1972. Trump is a mafia don for all intents and purposes. The crime family known as Republicans gaslight the public trying to make them think that their crimes are really not crimes at all. But we are living in a country where I saw yard signs like this in a Florida yard, “Vote Republican. We may not be perfect, but the other side is insane,” “Please put your Biden signs up in your own yard, so the government will know which houses don’t have guns.” My personal favorite on the lovely wrought iron gate “Beware of crazy woman with guns and dogs!”
So, how is it that Trump and insurection supporting Republicans are not in court and charged with sedition? Where is the DOJ and Attorney General Garland? Congress is lame. I have a serious case of outrage fatigue, it seems everyone is shouting about this and nothing happens.
When these Republicans say they want to "own the libs", we can take them at their word. They have decided to own our vote, our bodies, and our ability to get the truth out there.
It is rich that they have convinced their minions that it is Democratic strategy to poison their children's minds, when they don't care if the kids are literally poisoned through unregulated products and environmental damage.
The Democrats did a stellar job on both impeachments of Trump, and I think they will do the same with the insurrection. The fact that Trump was not removed is on the Republicans. He is a stain on them, that is their history and may very well be their destiny. That's who owns them, and they will NEVER own the libs. We have and will progress without them. Period. We don't need no stinking, lying, thieving, ruthless authoritarian to lead us.
The bifurcation of information is so advanced, and so strongly barricaded by prejudice against any disapproved input, that I don't know what to tellya. You sort of have to picture a Sci-Fi/horror scenario of theatres full of people shackled to their seats with their eyes mechanically held open....Ironically, the more a certain group holler about being "free," the more likely they have placed themselves in information/cognitive straightjackets. With rational election access, at least the un-fooled majority could keep a lid on religio-fascist oppression. But Manchin and Sinema aren't going to let fair voting happen, so fasten your seatbelt.
The problem is beliefs. Belief born of observation does not breed identification. There is a great deal of basis for belief that gravity will keep us safely on Earth and that, barring a celestial accident that will end us all, the Sun will rise in the east. Also the belief that the function of society (especially the Republican side of functioning) will inevitably leave casualties in its wake, and it is the responsibility of society as a whole to care for those casualties; also the belief that education and knowledge are their own rewards. But Republican beliefs all seem to come from deep fear, hatred, jealousy, rage, greed, etc. - all brain stem emotions, the lizard brain. There is nothing to uphold those beliefs, and so they become that with which they identify, who they believe themselves to be. And it is a brutal truth that those beliefs, those with the least basis, are the most violently defended. Loss of those beliefs is an existential threat.
I submit that it is an addictive cycle. Referencing Thom on "Neoliberalism," lately, we have so many "regular" white folks hurtin', and the magic of giving them false scapegoats so they don't look behind the (Wizard of Oz) curtain, and yes, there is a critical mass threshold approaching where they are going to be (horrors!) in the minority. And it just feels so good when Trump nails somebody with a nasty nickname (spurt of vicarious dopamine) and then MTG comes along and feeds that need, and the creeping desentisiszation, so maybe you have an outburst against somebody, and that felt good, and if MTG is "crazy-making" that gets bonus points over and above just being nasty. Next thing you know, you look at your gun and get that little rush of the dopamine.....
I was commenting on Goldwater today. I remember when the USA invaded Vietnam to keep Vietnam from ending commercial opium growing - the same reason we invaded Afghanistan 100 days after the Taliban ended commercial opium growing, and of course we all remember CheneyBush telling us we "had to immediately restore opium growing to fund the Northern Alliance", which was actually the truth.
Anyway, Goldwater wanted to drop nuclear bombs on Vietnam until they surrendered. I remember reading about his monstrous, murderous, horrific brutal plans for the quiet citizens of a gentle Buddhist country, and thinking "THE REPUBLICANS ARE MONSTERS". It made me ashamed to be American.
Well, no sooner did I fully understand where monstrous Goldwater stood, than Goldwater himself told the world that (perhaps paraphrasing a bit) "a large percentage of the Republican Party consists of insanely radical people and if they ever take over, they will attack the very existence of our democracy and our free market economy".
Goldwater's worst fears came to fruition with today's NaziRepublican Party, but I still maintain that the "less radicalized" NaziRepublicans are still horrific monsters.
Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have been on an endless historical path to make our federal government very, very BIG. As the US population has grown and its composition changed due, in part, to the emphasis of our immigration policies, as well as employer unwillingness to be loyal to their hard-working employees legislators from both parties have, since the collapse of the economy a hundred years ago, in the 1930 era, been forced to set up umbrella programs to provide coverage for everything from pensions, health, accidental injuries, food regulations, environmental regulations etc. As well as provide for a Pentagon budget to conduct endless wars everywhere else in order to protect our oil & gas industries.
President Clinton and the Democratic Party abolished all the common sense regulations that had kept Wall Street and the Media properly for decades and they are, thus, directly responsible for the BIG GOVERNMENT AND BIG CORPORATE CARTELS that are leveraging their influence through access to both direct lobbying and 'dark' funded influencing Anno 2020-22. Democratic Senators Durbin and Murray are, for example, currently carrying the 'water' for the pharmaceutical industry by trying to force the Alternative Health providers to register 41,000 natural remedies secretly onto the re-authorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act that must pass by the end of September.
We, the voters, do, perhaps, need to reconsider the benefits of making our federal government so big, in so many ways, that irresponsible and powerful legislators, from both parties, can use it against all of us without recourse to any protection at all. The Scandinavian countries have gone down this path and tax rates are, effectively, over 50%. And, they also need a lot of anti-depression medication https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8101117/chart-scandinavians-take-a-lot-of-antidepressants-that-might-be-a.
Mr. Hartman's historical citations are generally correct:
• When their donors from the fossil fuel and chemical industries wanted to keep pumping poisons into our air and water rather than pay to dispose of them properly, Republicans claimed shrinking the role of government through pollution deregulation was the solution.
• When their donors in the lumber industry wanted to continue to rip out old-growth forests and achieve maximum profits by clear-cutting everything else, “limiting government overreach” became a useful canard.
• When their donors in the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital industries wanted to use their power of life-or-death over Americans to extract maximum prices and profits, “Keep your government hands off my healthcare!” became the GOP mantra.
• When their donors in the banking and finance industry wanted to use depositors’ money to gamble with stocks and mortgages, “ending oppressive big government regulations” that were “suppressing innovation” was the Republican rallying cry.
• When their billionaire friends wanted to monopolize media and put over 1500 rightwing radio stations on the air to flip the politics of an entire generation toward tax cuts for the morbidly rich, “ending limits on free speech” through the Fairness Doctrine and media ownership rules was going to “restore fairness.”
• When Big Airlines, Big Ag, Big Pharma, and dozens of other giant industries wanted to either buy out or crush their smaller competitors, Republicans stepped up to the plate to end enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust and other anti-monopoly laws in 1983, leaving the rest of us with the bill.
Let's do a quick, back-of-the-napkin analysis: Republican big government that consolidates wealth and power in the hands of the few does not equal Democratic big government that spreads wealth and power to the many. Why are they not equal? Morality.
"We all do better when we all do better." - Paul Wellstone
That was like drinking from a firehose. Each sentence in today’s blog is a bumper-sticker slogan for November, and an entire subject of research unto itself. Sit up and pay attention. The good citizens need to shift to a war mood and fight back against ubiquitous lies, using truth, not guns, as their weapon, if they expect democracy to survive. It is time to think like Ukrainians.
Republican big government has been America’s number-one problem all along, not big government per se, which naturally must expand to match an expanding population. Not only are Republicans (and word-salad trolls exhaling logical fallacies with every breath) arguing the opposite — that it’s the DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATS (always) — their entire premise that the size of government, rather than the purpose, is the fundamental problem society faces is false and duplicitous and laughable on every level.
Fascists (Let’s use Woody Guthrie’s word.) have only changed the name of their party over the centuries. Their arrogant, self-righteous, selfish attitudes, which they cannot hide, remain the same. In fact, one could reasonably extrapolate that lusting after wealth and power while stripping innocent workers, families, and children of their wealth and health, indeed their lives, has been the world’s number-one problem from the inception of the “thinking ape” with a dick for a brain and two hands that can’t find his ass but can wield a weapon just fine.
Evolution stopped long ago for fascists. Everything else is just a sorry excuse.
"Truth, not guns." Darlin', you are such a romantic! I guess there was the Ghandi thing, but, you know, it doesn't end well, because you are so right about evolution stopping. Even though I escaped (????) I have no doubt that my mother's family were DNA hardwired authoritarians. "Truth" is irrelevant to man's inhumanity to man. I am pretty sure that the inhumanity is the (DNA) norm.
Observing our history and the world today, it would sure seem so. Technologically, the human race has evolved, psychologically, not so much -- evidenced by the fact that even our technological "advances" are literally killing us and the rest of life on a hyper-polluted planet. Cause and effect (karma is a bitch) -- reading the tea leaves in the news today predicts a bleak future indeed. Change is possible but is more of a remote possibility with each moment of inaction slipping into history, opportunities irretrievably lost forever. We're pushing the odds against survival to an inevitability.
That the traitorous seditionists are not in front of a grand jury answering questions is flat out stupid. We are in uncharted territory, and Garland seems to think this is 1972. Trump is a mafia don for all intents and purposes. The crime family known as Republicans gaslight the public trying to make them think that their crimes are really not crimes at all. But we are living in a country where I saw yard signs like this in a Florida yard, “Vote Republican. We may not be perfect, but the other side is insane,” “Please put your Biden signs up in your own yard, so the government will know which houses don’t have guns.” My personal favorite on the lovely wrought iron gate “Beware of crazy woman with guns and dogs!”
So much for E Pluribus Unum."
So, how is it that Trump and insurection supporting Republicans are not in court and charged with sedition? Where is the DOJ and Attorney General Garland? Congress is lame. I have a serious case of outrage fatigue, it seems everyone is shouting about this and nothing happens.
When these Republicans say they want to "own the libs", we can take them at their word. They have decided to own our vote, our bodies, and our ability to get the truth out there.
It is rich that they have convinced their minions that it is Democratic strategy to poison their children's minds, when they don't care if the kids are literally poisoned through unregulated products and environmental damage.
The Democrats did a stellar job on both impeachments of Trump, and I think they will do the same with the insurrection. The fact that Trump was not removed is on the Republicans. He is a stain on them, that is their history and may very well be their destiny. That's who owns them, and they will NEVER own the libs. We have and will progress without them. Period. We don't need no stinking, lying, thieving, ruthless authoritarian to lead us.
Anyone can be fooled but at some point you are a fool. How do we get people to wake up and see that they have been being fooled
The bifurcation of information is so advanced, and so strongly barricaded by prejudice against any disapproved input, that I don't know what to tellya. You sort of have to picture a Sci-Fi/horror scenario of theatres full of people shackled to their seats with their eyes mechanically held open....Ironically, the more a certain group holler about being "free," the more likely they have placed themselves in information/cognitive straightjackets. With rational election access, at least the un-fooled majority could keep a lid on religio-fascist oppression. But Manchin and Sinema aren't going to let fair voting happen, so fasten your seatbelt.
The problem is beliefs. Belief born of observation does not breed identification. There is a great deal of basis for belief that gravity will keep us safely on Earth and that, barring a celestial accident that will end us all, the Sun will rise in the east. Also the belief that the function of society (especially the Republican side of functioning) will inevitably leave casualties in its wake, and it is the responsibility of society as a whole to care for those casualties; also the belief that education and knowledge are their own rewards. But Republican beliefs all seem to come from deep fear, hatred, jealousy, rage, greed, etc. - all brain stem emotions, the lizard brain. There is nothing to uphold those beliefs, and so they become that with which they identify, who they believe themselves to be. And it is a brutal truth that those beliefs, those with the least basis, are the most violently defended. Loss of those beliefs is an existential threat.
I submit that it is an addictive cycle. Referencing Thom on "Neoliberalism," lately, we have so many "regular" white folks hurtin', and the magic of giving them false scapegoats so they don't look behind the (Wizard of Oz) curtain, and yes, there is a critical mass threshold approaching where they are going to be (horrors!) in the minority. And it just feels so good when Trump nails somebody with a nasty nickname (spurt of vicarious dopamine) and then MTG comes along and feeds that need, and the creeping desentisiszation, so maybe you have an outburst against somebody, and that felt good, and if MTG is "crazy-making" that gets bonus points over and above just being nasty. Next thing you know, you look at your gun and get that little rush of the dopamine.....
Perhaps I'm just tired, but what does MTG stand for in this context?
Marjorie Taylor Green
They are what they believe till death. What a sad state of being! You want to help... but how?
Exactly! How can one ever be free in the prison of their own mind?
"This 1964 political ad is oddly relevant to Donald Trump":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKe49zNXgls
I think TrumPutin would have left. He was caught flat footed losing an election the FSB had assured him was an easy win.
I think the real goal was provide time to burn papers and wipe drives and pack the last bags of stolen cash in the tankers.
I was commenting on Goldwater today. I remember when the USA invaded Vietnam to keep Vietnam from ending commercial opium growing - the same reason we invaded Afghanistan 100 days after the Taliban ended commercial opium growing, and of course we all remember CheneyBush telling us we "had to immediately restore opium growing to fund the Northern Alliance", which was actually the truth.
Anyway, Goldwater wanted to drop nuclear bombs on Vietnam until they surrendered. I remember reading about his monstrous, murderous, horrific brutal plans for the quiet citizens of a gentle Buddhist country, and thinking "THE REPUBLICANS ARE MONSTERS". It made me ashamed to be American.
Well, no sooner did I fully understand where monstrous Goldwater stood, than Goldwater himself told the world that (perhaps paraphrasing a bit) "a large percentage of the Republican Party consists of insanely radical people and if they ever take over, they will attack the very existence of our democracy and our free market economy".
Goldwater's worst fears came to fruition with today's NaziRepublican Party, but I still maintain that the "less radicalized" NaziRepublicans are still horrific monsters.
Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have been on an endless historical path to make our federal government very, very BIG. As the US population has grown and its composition changed due, in part, to the emphasis of our immigration policies, as well as employer unwillingness to be loyal to their hard-working employees legislators from both parties have, since the collapse of the economy a hundred years ago, in the 1930 era, been forced to set up umbrella programs to provide coverage for everything from pensions, health, accidental injuries, food regulations, environmental regulations etc. As well as provide for a Pentagon budget to conduct endless wars everywhere else in order to protect our oil & gas industries.
President Clinton and the Democratic Party abolished all the common sense regulations that had kept Wall Street and the Media properly for decades and they are, thus, directly responsible for the BIG GOVERNMENT AND BIG CORPORATE CARTELS that are leveraging their influence through access to both direct lobbying and 'dark' funded influencing Anno 2020-22. Democratic Senators Durbin and Murray are, for example, currently carrying the 'water' for the pharmaceutical industry by trying to force the Alternative Health providers to register 41,000 natural remedies secretly onto the re-authorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act that must pass by the end of September.
We, the voters, do, perhaps, need to reconsider the benefits of making our federal government so big, in so many ways, that irresponsible and powerful legislators, from both parties, can use it against all of us without recourse to any protection at all. The Scandinavian countries have gone down this path and tax rates are, effectively, over 50%. And, they also need a lot of anti-depression medication https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8101117/chart-scandinavians-take-a-lot-of-antidepressants-that-might-be-a.
Mr. Hartman's historical citations are generally correct:
• When their donors from the fossil fuel and chemical industries wanted to keep pumping poisons into our air and water rather than pay to dispose of them properly, Republicans claimed shrinking the role of government through pollution deregulation was the solution.
• When their donors in the lumber industry wanted to continue to rip out old-growth forests and achieve maximum profits by clear-cutting everything else, “limiting government overreach” became a useful canard.
• When their donors in the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital industries wanted to use their power of life-or-death over Americans to extract maximum prices and profits, “Keep your government hands off my healthcare!” became the GOP mantra.
• When their donors in the banking and finance industry wanted to use depositors’ money to gamble with stocks and mortgages, “ending oppressive big government regulations” that were “suppressing innovation” was the Republican rallying cry.
• When their billionaire friends wanted to monopolize media and put over 1500 rightwing radio stations on the air to flip the politics of an entire generation toward tax cuts for the morbidly rich, “ending limits on free speech” through the Fairness Doctrine and media ownership rules was going to “restore fairness.”
• When Big Airlines, Big Ag, Big Pharma, and dozens of other giant industries wanted to either buy out or crush their smaller competitors, Republicans stepped up to the plate to end enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust and other anti-monopoly laws in 1983, leaving the rest of us with the bill.
Let's do a quick, back-of-the-napkin analysis: Republican big government that consolidates wealth and power in the hands of the few does not equal Democratic big government that spreads wealth and power to the many. Why are they not equal? Morality.
"We all do better when we all do better." - Paul Wellstone
Also credited to Jimmy Hightower's Daddy!