There is an alleged Chinese curse that goes, “May you live in interesting times.”
Yeah, we are living in those times right now and… it is strange with all the weird things going on in the Nation and the World.
One of the more unsettling things that’s grabbing headlines is the war in Ukraine. The conflict is a naked territorial grab by Russia that should be offensive to everyone, particularly the folks that like to think of themselves as “patriots”. Does anyone remember the Nazis and how they gobbled up large swaths of Europe while cowardly politicians hemmed and hawed, expressing the hope that Hitler would stop once he got some elbowroom?
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is doing the same thing right now. Amazingly, we see politicians in this country making excuses for him as big, bully Russia rains down ordinance on innocent Ukrainian civilians. Disgraced Fox News talking heads seem to be fully supportive of Putin’s bloodlust, as do many prominent members of the M.A.G.A.-compromised Republican Party. They should be ashamed, but don’t grasp the concept of shame.
The U.S. economy is struggling right now, seemingly on the verge of a significant recession. I think the hammer is about to fall on commercial and residential real estate, while the auto industry is already in a bad spot. Banks and institutional lenders are holding a lot of “bad paper” (loans about to be defaulted, zero interest bonds, etc.), so we can expect more bank failures like the SVP debacle in Silicon Valley. Inflation is still high, despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest hikes. I’m guessing that this situation will get progressively worse through Summer into the Fall.
Despite the continuing epidemic of mass shootings in the U.S., typically involving military-grade weapons in the hands of young people and mentally-deranged wingnuts, Congress refuses to take any action whatsoever except to offer up “thoughts and prayers” whenever some asshole shoots up an elementary school, a place of worship, or special event. It is amazing to me how the National Rifle Association has a firm grip on legislators’ testicles to the extent that our elected officials won’t even discuss the ongoing national tragedy. How many more dead innocents will it take for Congress do its job?
Speaking of violence upon human beings, showboating Governor Greg Abbott, who considers himself a “rule of law” and “law and order” disciple, announced recently that he intends to pardon a policeman one day after said cop was convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester. Abbott is a great believer in the 1st and 2nd Amendments (free speech and the right to bear arms), or so he says. The murdered guy was exercising his right to assemble and protest and was also carrying, but not threatening anyone with, an AK-47, which is legal to carry in Texas. The slain man’s “crime” was his skin color and his audacity in “Constitutionally carrying” a weapons in public, a state law that Abbott strongly defends.
Many states, particularly in the South/Bible Belt, are passing laws to allow citizens the right, without a permit, to carry a gun or rifle in public. The absurdity of this is obvious: minor altercations between neighbors and routine interactions with the police get immediately ramped-up when one of the participants is obviously armed with a deadly weapon. Some of the same states, like Florida, have also instituted “stand your ground” laws which provide cover for aggressive gun owners “having to defend themselves” with deadly force because “they feared for their life”. All of these laws are a thin excuse to allow citizens to become unauthorized/untrained/amateur law enforcement personnel who are entitled to execute people they don’t like because of their nationality, skin color, religion or politics.
This trend is not going to end well.
The political fallout from the supposed, but never proven, “stolen election” of 2020 continues to wreak havoc on America. Not one scintilla of evidence has ever been produced by the complainants (Donald Trump, his attorneys, his lackeys in the Republican Party, or his squad of televangelist Born Again Christians, who claimed that God “guaranteed his victory) to justify the uproar over that election. There is no evidence of wrongdoing, other than the hundreds of millions of dollars that Trump has scammed from his cult following to “fight this injustice” (that money went into the billionaire hustler’s pocket).
One of the big “gotcha” events in this fiasco has been the $1.6 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for continuously libeling/defaming the voting machine manufacturer after the supposed “rigged election”. Fox News talking heads and their guests (in the period after the 2020 election and before enraged Trump followers broke into and trashed the Capitol Building) accused Dominion of massive vote fraud through their equipment. In pretrial disclosure, Dominion (and the general public) has learned that Fox News on-air talent and Fox executives, knew that the whole “stolen election” outcry was bogus but allowed the network to air segments touting the Trump’s Big Lie. The Fox News organization’s only defense appears to be that the First Amendment provides it the right to lie to the public and libel individuals and corporations because… such lying is newsworthy and their viewing audience expects it. Journalistic icons Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite are probably turning over in their graves, ashamed of this modern day depravity.
The harm this has caused to the Dominion Voting Systems business and the electoral system in general is obvious when one considers the recent actions of several counties in the U.S. who have moved away from Dominion equipment in favor of hand-counting paper ballots… because of never-proved election security issues. These moves by elected officials who are “loyal” to the Trump cult actually assist Dominion in its case against Fox News, the biased broadcasting bullhorn that helped get Trump elected in 2016.
“Fake news” indeed.
Speaking of legal problems, the ex-President has a buttload of them right now. He’s got one case brought by a woman who claimed that Trump raped her years ago and then defamed her when she brought the matter up publicly. In another case, Trump faces charges in relation to “hush money” he paid to an ex-porn star (just before the 2016 election) to keep the matter private. This case is not about infidelity, or paying a woman to keep her mouth shut, however; instead, it concerns the campaign financing and tax reporting laws that were broken when those hush money payments were disguised as “legal fees”.
Another legal matter concerns the attempts that Trump and his lackeys made to change 2016 election results in Georgia. It is a violation of the law to extort public officials, even when you’re President. This is a common practice of the ex-President: does anyone remember him being impeached for attempting to extort the President of Ukraine (during the 2020 campaign) into providing dirt on Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son?
And, last but not least, the ex-President is the target of a special prosecutor investigating his role in exhorting that crowd to swarm the Capitol Building and keep the Legislative Branch from doing its Constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 election. People died that day, many were injured, the Capitol was trashed, and hundreds of the Trump Army have been prosecuted and sentenced to jail. Without Trump’s incitement of that enraged mob, would all of that illegality have happened? Was he acting in a Presidential capacity when he encouraged his followers to un-Constitutionally halt the work of Congress?
Probably every American knows the answers to these critical questions. So, why isn’t Trump in jail already like the foot soldiers that he unleashed that day?
A lot of foolishness has transpired since that “stolen election” back in 2020. Conservative elected officials in many states have declared a war against the “opposition”, which includes minorities, pregnant women, teachers who have the audacity to educate their pupils, and writers who have the nerve to document actual history.
Educators have been fired, school administrators have been unceremoniously shown the door, libraries have been stripped of “controversial” books, all in the effort to deny the legacy of America and stigmatize folks who aren’t White and Christian. “Wokeness”, i.e. the public admission that our Nation has a checkered history on a variety of matters, seems to be extremely unwelcome in the Southern states and Bible belt. Of course, that area has produced a lot of dirty laundry over the centuries, not the least of which was the Civil War. Nowadays, books are more feared in the South than guns.
It appears that those redneck knuckleheads are at it again, wanting to enjoy the benefits of being America without having to act like Americans. Recently, two Black legislators were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives for a gun control protest. They weren’t the only lawmakers who protested that day… but the only ones who were expelled by the conservative Republican majority were Democrats who happened to be Black.
The same politicians who want Americans to remain “un-woke” feel it necessary to do something racist like this that underscores the ugly underbelly of partisan politics. Hey, folks, the Civil War ended 160 years ago… and you lost… so grow up!
Abortion is big in the news lately.
The termination of unwanted pregnancies has been going on in America ever since women came to this country. Teenage carelessness, criminal rape, medical complications, and marital rape occur all of the time, instances when carrying a fetus to term is not in the best interest of the woman carrying the would-be child. That doesn’t seem to matter to some politicians who can’t seem to separate their religious beliefs from their government responsibilities. Aren’t women entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”? Not birthing a child that isn’t wanted should be a right of a woman, and thus abortion has been legal in this country for a very long time.
All of a sudden, religion seems to be driving the train on this issue… ironically, as church attendance has been dropping like a stone in America. Now, conservative politicians have taken the tack that un-born fetuses have the same rights as the woman who is carrying the fetus; i.e. that they are human beings despite never having taken that first breath. “Roe vs. Wade”, the Constitutional law case that gave women the right to abort, has now been undermined by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, which has ruled that States can enact their own laws on this subject.
Not surprisingly, the Bible Belt folks have gone into overdrive, banning abortion in their own States and devising laws to punish women who go outside their State to get an abortion and even punishing people who help them do so. The next item on the agenda for these clergymen posing as politicians is getting a ban on medicinal termination of pregnancy (via a pill), threatening pharmacological companies with criminal charges for selling the medications which are FDA-approved.
So, we have the Bible Belt politicians working with conservative Federal judges to impose the Bible Belt religious views on other States. Once again, those Southern States are trying to impose their values on the other States, just like they did in the Civil War. Slavery was legal in the South but not so in the North. The South couldn’t abide this and the prospect of newly-created States taking an anti-slavery stance. Southerners started the war, lost, and then, afterwards, tried to brainwash the populace and school-age children by stating the war wasn’t about slavery at all but, rather, “States’ rights”. Presumably, this included a State right to enslave people, mistreat them, whip them, and lynch them… because slavery is part of God’s plan. This Old Testament stance is similar to the current States’ rights argument that women shouldn’t have the right to control their own body… this right obviously belongs to male politicians.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the conservative-majority Supreme Court, which includes a lot of Catholics, ends up supporting those States’ rights plaintiffs whose agenda is to impose its brand of religion on every American. The abortion issue will be a key one in the upcoming 2024 elections. Most Americans in most States believe in a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, including whether to abort a fetus or not. The attempt by conservative politicians to cram their views on this subject down the throats of American women could cost the Republican Party a lot of Congressional seats and the Presidency, as well.
One conservative Supreme Court member who doesn’t seem to care what Americans think about him and his supposed impartiality on serious matters before the Court is Justice Clarence Thomas. He, like his brethren on the Court, has a lifetime appointment and, apparently, believes that he has the right to do whatever he wants with impunity.
It has recently been learned that Justice Thomas and his wife Ginni, who is a major conservative Republican activist and fundraiser, have been enjoying lavish treatment from a billionaire conservative Republican benefactor. Ginni was heavily involved in the “Stop the Steal” movement, including helping foster the Dominion Voting Systems libel by Trump agents.
The Thomases have been given very expensive “gifts” by this billionaire fellow, including travel on private jets and yachts, vacations at expensive resorts, and even an all-expense trip to the Orient. Having worked myself in the public sector for decades, I know that accepting “gifts” from public benefactors is strictly verboten, as it gives the impression that the giver will get special treatment. It turns out that the Thomas’ “friend” is a hard-line conservative and even has Hitler memorabilia in his home. One wonders why this type of individual would lavish hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts on a Black man who he didn’t know until the Black man became an influential Federal judge. Thomas claims that other Supreme Court Justices (all conveniently deceased) told him privately that accepting such gift from “friends” was acceptable. Oh, really?
The big problem with all of this is that the Supreme Court, a bunch of un-elected judges with lifetime appointments, has recently become the de-facto legislative branch of the Federal government… because our elected Congressmen and Senators spend all of their time throwing mud at each other while doing zero lawmaking. In the absence, the Supreme Court weighs in with (lately) a very conservative take on the rights of Americans. What could go wrong?
Something amusing has been going on in the midst of all of this foolishness.
Governor Tom DeSantis of Florida has been doing his damnedest to attract attention to his yet-to-be-announced 2024 Presidential candidacy. He has become the face of the Southern “anti-woke” movement, he’s supported new Florida laws to limit the participation of Black voters in the democratic process, he’s fired prosecutors he doesn’t agree with politically, he’s supported the stripping of library shelves of books that don’t support conservative views, he’s mouthed support of the 2020 “stolen election” lie, and has signed legislation which makes it a crime to have an abortion after 6 months from conception. He is trying to make himself the poster child of conservative politics, all the while not to infuriate the vengeful Donald Trump, who has announced his candidacy.
One of the dumbest things that DeSantis has done is attempting to extort the Walt Disney corporation into adopting the Bible Belt attitude toward LGBQT individuals. The “Don’t Say Gay” campaign that DeSantis championed is an effort to marginalize folks that are different from DeSantis W.A.S.P. model. Disney has an “inclusive” attitude about Americans, and smartly so, since the corporation markets its products and theme resorts to all manner of people. DeSantis has taken steps to hamstring Disney in Florida, with regard to their Disney World tourist destination.
Unfortunately for him, Disney’s lawyers are smarter than Harvard-educated lawyer DeSantis, and his efforts thus far to “un-waken” Disney aren’t bearing much fruit. A big problem for DeSantis is that Disney is the single largest employer in the State of Florida: several hundred thousands of Floridians depend on Disney for their livelihood… and they vote. Disney World, on its own, accounts for a sizeable portion of Florida’s gross domestic product, something like $44 billion a year. So, “grand-standing” DeSantis has to be a bit careful how he treats the behemoth: he insults Disney in public but probably sings a more deferential tune in private… knowing that Disney could emasculate him by simply shutting down Disney World for a couple of days.
DeSantis is one of the same publicity-hungry politicians (Texas Governor Abbott is the other) who participated in flying homeless individuals and illegal immigrants one-way to New York and Massachusetts to somehow spite the Liberal politicians up there and embarrass President Joe Biden. I believe that DeSantis is being sued over this publicity stunt, which was designed to make him seem Trump-like to the right-wing electoral base that he will need to win the Republican nomination for President in 2024.
The fact that a wanna-be like DeSantis has to carefully maneuver around the ever-present dark force that is Donald Trump is one of the strangest things of all. The twice-impeached President, a pathological liar and con man, a citizen who is the target of multiple criminal investigations, and an individual who has lost the past two popular elections for President by three million and seven million votes, respectively, remains a darling of a large percentage of Republican voters who would rather follow him into Hell than nominate someone who has an actual chance of being elected.
They must think God has anointed Trump… again… just like in 2020 when their favorite televangelists on TV prophesied that God had guaranteed that Trump would win re-election. It is crazy world we live in where even God can’t predict what is going to happen.
Interesting times, indeed.