Catastrophe

“-a sense of disbelief, that this just can’t happen here.”

“-there are 21 million Americans who are part of a mass political movement…that is conspiracy minded and supports the use of violence for political ends. We have not been in that place in this country…very likely since about a hundred years ago, which was the rise of the 2nd Klu Klux Klan in the 1920’s.”

“-when you poll the 21 million people who believe in political violence to restore president Trump to the White House…they agree overwhelmingly with the proposition that the rights of people of color are exceeding those of whites; they believe in the great replacement.”

“-to have two thirds of all Republicans who have lost faith completely in our election system is a catastrophe for America…and we have not had that, arguably, ever. I make the point in the article that confederates, at the start of the civil war, did not deny that Abraham Lincoln had won the election; it was because he won the election they wanted to secede. We just haven’t had this kind of mass denial before and it’s very dangerous.”

The red states that certified electors for Biden have replaced or are replacing all those who did not act to overthrow the government for Trump. It is happening. Now.

And nobody is doing a thing about it. The result of the, at this point, almost inevitable overthrow of the government will be civil war…it is so obvious and so completely unbelievable.

Civilization emerged from the industrial revolution with a new world order replacing the old; the classic definition of liberalism which meant that wealth and not aristocracy and the church determined who held power. Money became the god of this world. That Gilded Age led, in a confused fashion, to World War One. After that war came revolution in Russia and a power vacuum in which faith in absolute greed inevitably collapsed the fragile global economy. Authoritarians then stepped onto the stage so the money would continue to flow. And then… World War Two.

In the span of a single human lifetime, since the end of that last global conflict, the population of planet Earth has doubled and almost doubled again. If we are to avoid a dark age and a reduction in the size of the human race beyond our worst nightmares, we had better do something to stop the rising tide of anarchy. Now.

There is a simplified version of the story of the New Deal and it goes like this:

The trade unions and communists went to FDR and told him straight out that if he did not do something then what happened in Russia was going to happen in America. FDR then went to his rich friends and told them straight out to pay a 90 percent tax rate to fund social safety nets or they would be hanging from lamp posts.

If something similar does not happen soon…

Luke 12:47-49

King James Version

47 And that servant, who knew his lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48 But he that knew not and committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

49 “I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?

The Devil Is A Liar

Time to play the Nazi card: Hitler failed the first time but eventually took power. It is the evil genius that might pull Trump’s strings that we have to worry about. The only thing that saved America was Trumpist stupidity. If they get someone with some brains calling the shots then America is over.

I talk to my conservative coworkers and they don’t understand the most basic premise of democracy; that those in authority are elected to serve a nation of individuals who are all equal under the law. This is why the history books use the example of “The World Turned Upside Down” when explaining the American Revolution. I try to get them to think about the opposite of those in authority elected to serve a nation of individuals who are all equal under the law and after decades of Neoliberal programming they are incapable of wrapping their heads around it. The simple reason democracy is under attack is a very few who want all others beneath them and NOT equal under THEIR law. Taxes are “theft” and greed IS “freedom.” Simple and transparent yet it has become the dirty secret few will openly talk about. There are the many who are willing to lie about it though.

They are purging democrats and so of course they are going to try and reject the election results. It is transparent and so obvious.

After Pearl Harbor

https://time.com/6125923/america-wrong-lessons-pearl-harbor/

“On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, we will remember Pearl Harbor, the 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base on Oahu, Hawaii, for the eightieth time.”

“We imagine that everything changed overnight. But, as the historian Richard W. Steele carefully documented, by early 1942, only two months after the attack, members of the Roosevelt Administration were already worrying that the public had lost interest. On February 16, Time ran a story with the headline, “THE PEOPLE: Smug, Slothful, Asleep?” It catalogued a list of warnings expressed by everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to James Landis, the executive head of Civil Defense, to Edward R. Murrow that, as Murrow put it, Americans “do not fully appreciate the need for speed … do not quite understand that if we delay too long in winning the victory we will inherit nothing but a cold, starving embittered world… Already there are signs that we’re coming to accept slavery and suppression as part of the pattern of living in this year of disgrace.”

“1n 1941, organizing chaotic violence and suffering into a story with meaning, propaganda posters soon gave graphic representation to these concepts. Sometimes featuring a fist raised in defiance or a tattered flag, they enjoined the American public to “Avenge Pearl Harbor” by making bullets or ships, buying war bonds, or joining the navy or coast guard “NOW.”

“Relentless calls to “remember” served as a goad to revenge, and the propagandists’ message gave us a vocabulary still in use today for framing American violence.”

“World War II was an aberration in so many ways: the existential threat posed by fascism, the unequivocal necessity of our participation, and the decisiveness of Allied victory are only the most obvious. Betrayed by the last twenty years, we grasp in vain to retrieve an elusive glory. Our tragic postwar mistake was in thinking that the consequences of World War II could be endlessly duplicated. Over the years we have somehow developed a capacity to be surprised when American military might doesn’t establish, as it once helped to do, a new world but instead, after twenty wasteful years of occupation, fitful nation-building, and unfounded confidence, are left right back where we started. There is a cruel and particular irony in the paradox that a country the imagination of which has always been knit so tightly to the future—to the seductive dream of beginning anew—now finds itself in the position of hoping that history will miraculously repeat itself.”

I would disagree with the author concerning our hope for some kind of miracle. We are, instead, those of us with some ability to think critically anyway, terrified of fascism…again. The most terrifying fact of all is that so few Americans believe the lessons of the holocaust and lesser genocides apply to us. That it cannot happen here.

But there is some hope:

“This is really crazy-“

What is “crazy” is that these media talking heads don’t seem to understand how extreme and radicalized the right has become. There is no talking to Trumpists and they are looking forward to everything burning to the ground. They actually believe their white grievance fantasies will make America into that reality tv show their hero attempted to replace democracy with. The news commentators do not live with them like I do. I am scared.

No Society, No Truth, No Government, Only Money

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/25/society-thatcher-reagan-covid-pandemic?curator=MediaREDEF

“-something Margaret Thatcher had said in an interview in 1987, in remarks that are often taken as a definition of modern conservatism. “Too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the government’s job to cope with it!’” Thatcher said. “They are casting their problems on society, and who is society? There is no such thing!” 

“-a declaration made by Reagan in his 1981 inaugural address: “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Thatcher and Reagan often conflated the two – to diminish both – but society and government mean different things. Society usually means the private ties of mutual obligation and fellowship that bind together people who have different backgrounds and unequal education, resources and wealth. Government is the public administration of the affairs of people constituted into a body politic as citizens and equals. Society invokes community, government polity.”

“According to the Reagan-Thatcher worldview, there is no such thing as society. There are only families, who look after one another, and individuals, who participate in markets. The idea that government is the solution to people’s problems rests on a mistaken belief in the existence of society. This mistaken belief leads to attempts to solve problems such as ill health with government programmes such as government-funded healthcare, as if these were problems of society, rather than problems of individuals. Government programmes like these will also interfere with the only place where real solutions are to be found, which is the free market.”

Wiki: Jill Lepore has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2005.[15] In the June 23, 2014 issue she criticized the concept of Creative destruction, associated with Austrian-born political economist Joseph Schumpeter.[16] The response of one of those whose work she discusses, fellow Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen, was that her article was “a criminal act of dishonesty—at Harvard, of all places”.[17]

For Neoliberals, “creative destruction” applied to democracy is just another way to worship Mammon. Almost every day we are being warned, crystal clear warnings, that a proto-fascist right is, without a doubt, going to overturn the next election.

Yet nothing is being done about it.

It is said by historians, “we are all children of Rome.” The defining principle of Roman Empire was “divide and conquer.” What is being used to divide and conquer the American people is obvious- it is a FOMO (a variation of the free rider problem)/NIMBY/ Red-baiting-Firehose of Falsehood. A powerful weapon. Just apply these and other big lies over and over until it disconnects the individual from the truth completely. Then you have divided and can conquer.

And it appears we are about to be conquered.

“The left wants to destroy us…they despise America, they hate America.” So transparently terrifying as the definition of Orwellian.

“-Steve Bannon has targeted the top 20 clerks in the 5 states in which president Trump lost-“. So transparently terrifying as it is a clear unashamed plan to overthrow the government.

“-these are people who are on the move because of the information age… there’s just alot of resentment against what’s perceived as the corporate cultural elite.” So transparently terrifying that the 1 percent think this is going to go their way when it will inevitably turn into the same apocalypse that incinerated Europe when the Fascists came to power.

“The argument on the right is “we on the right” don’t control the media, we don’t control the universities, we don’t control the corporations, we only have a shot at controlling the state.” What is terrifying is how the people we listen to all seem to know what the various terms they are using mean while the rest of us are now completely confused about what is liberalism, democracy, conservatism, etc. Most Americans have been dumbed down and then lied to with propaganda to the extent that we have no clear idea of what the different political and ideological systems actually stand for. And that is dangerous, according to Rachel Maddow…and I believe her.

The Oklahoma National Guard is not going to have to get vaccinated?

SecDef says, “-must follow directions-“. This could be the beginning of something very bad. The Covid variants are very worrying…what if the mortality rate goes up?

When you can’t trust doctors or the supreme court then we are in big trouble: It cannot be stated any clearer than this and we will not be able to say we did not know-

The Model Day of the Rope

Americans are all sure nothing like the Rwandan Genocide could happen here.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Shut off power and communications and within a few weeks mass murder of the other becomes the bright new future. Everyone wants to do their part and start over once those enemies of the righteous are exterminated.

But once it starts that minority of staunch conservatives who happen to be the wrong ethnicity or color will find themselves disappeared almost instantly. After that there will be no turning back and the bulldozers will be digging mass graves and dump trucks emptying the bodies into them 24/7.

https://www.salon.com/2021/11/09/historian-nancy-maclean-were-seeing-a-right-wing-plan-built-on-decades-of-disinformation/

“-it really does do alot of damage to people when the right wing content, these conspiracy theories, the crazy stuff, is free to them, but you have to pay to get the truth.”

Which means we have already lost the propaganda war.

DANGER! DANGER!

“-should American democracy prevail in the years of fight that lie ahead between this extremist movement that is gaining in strength, not decreasing in strength.”

And there it is…the Europeans are calling us a backsliding democracy and we are in terrible danger from our own despicable corrupt proto-fascist politicians.

Billionaires

“-government is more powerful than any corporation and the only reason they think it tilts the other way is because we poor public servants are always looking for some fat private sector payoff down the road.”

“Take the iphone, essentially a collection of defense department research and National Science Foundation grant projects packed into one shiny machine.”

What has happened is the corruption of the balancing act between conservatives and progressives in America. We have lost our way and cannot find that place in the middle that used the best of both sides and kept the worst in check. We are self-destructing. There was never a time when we were in danger of becoming a communist regime but wealth inequality and the commiserate greed has now made fascism the greatest danger we have ever faced.

“Fratricides centered around the narcissism of minor difference.” Chris Hedges

https://scheerpost.com/2020/12/21/chris-hedges-the-great-delusion/