The Beginning of the End???

I guess I really don’t understand. I am so tired of seeing articles, or social media postings about total idiots like Herschel Walker or Marjorie Taylor Greene, or some other fool the republicans are thrusting into our midst via our government.  I mean, I knew such fools existed. Every country has idiots in its midst. I don’t know, what’s your guess . . . the world’s population is made up of 20-25% subhuman idiots, who, in addition to having few active brain cells, are thoroughly nasty, corrupt, dishonest, and even murderous at heart.  Look at Russia, led by that murderous thug, Vladimir Putin.  And Brazil, with their Jair Bolsonaro who seems bent on destroying the entire Amazon Rain Forest.

But, until recently, I thought America was actually different. I know, I know, we had people like Nixon, Shrub, and Reagan, destroyers all. But somehow, they never destroyed our entire society. Nobody spoke of “are we going to have another Civil War” when those dudes were in charge.  It was as though we knew somehow we had made a mistake in electing them and we changed course and then moved on.  But even though we might have disagreed with one another, we never decided to just destroy everything our Nation stands for.

But now, all of a sudden, not only do we seem to disagree among ourselves,  but we have grown to actively hate one another. And, at least republicans, we are now nominating complete idiots to run our government. Why would we do that? Because we hate government??? So, you hate government and then, because of that, you decide you will try to elect the worst people in our Land to run the government you say you hate???? And that would be wise because??

So you want our Congress filled with idiots the like of Herschel Walker, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Marco Rubio, and the gang supervised by Donald J Trump?? And that will make our lives happier and more productive?? Really? Or maybe that would just manage to piss off all the Libtards in our country. Well, yes, it would doubtless do exactly that.  And then what?

Well, then we have to contend with at least four years of a fearsome, completely incompetent government. During the Reagan years, an attempt was made to implement “Supply-Side” economics, by reducing taxation in the hopes of spurring economic development. According to one report,

“The triumph of politics and what (David) Stockman called the “fiscal error” that went with it spawned a new monster which would come to occupy center stage in policy debate: the deficit and the Federal debt. Between the beginning and the end of the Reagan presidency, the annual deficit almost tripled.  So did the Gross National Debt—from $995 billion or $2.9 Trillion. Or, as Reagan and Bush administration official Richard Darman put it, “in the Reagan years, more Federal debt was added than in the entire prior history of the United States.” (Reaganomics: excerpt from Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 1998 ed., pp. 341-342.

Whatever side you come down on regarding the Reagan experiment with Supply-Side Economics and the “Laffer Curve”, we must at least acknowledge that Reagan was attempting to implement policies he believed would benefit the country, even if in fact they failed at that goal. Whereas today, no such claim can be made for the likes of Donald Trump. And with people like Herschel Walker attempting to gain that center stage, we cannot even be clear regarding anything like “policies” because such people seem to barely speak our language.  Now, when Greene argues that Jewish Space lasers are responsible for our Western forest fires, we are unsure whether she is attempting humor, or she is simply that stupid. And similar, perhaps worse attempts at communicating with us in absurdist language continue to emanate from Walker.

But given someone’s absurd background, like Walker, will the republican voters actually show up to vote for him? He paid for at least several abortions, so will the Evangel anti-abortion crew actually show up to vote for him? Well, the answer seems to be YES, they will. But how can that be??

Well, apparently republican voters have changed over the last several years. They used to have standards of ethics and morality. They used to at least pretend to follow facts and The Truth. Now, somehow, that is all gone. If someone is running on a republican ticket, the voters no longer care about reality. They will vote YES for that person. I am now beginning to sense what 1936 Germany must have been like. Because, whether we are engaged at the beginning of an actual second Civil War or not, we are certainly in the early stages of an effort to destroy our Nation’s entire system of governance.  We may be moving into a Nation like Iran, with an autocratic leader and a thoroughly corrupt religious order that will govern us.

It is entirely unclear to me how we arrived at this awful juncture.  But here we are.  And the question that remains in my mind is, ”Is there any reasonable solution?”  Well, I always assume that voting is our solution of choice.  But given our choices on the ballot, I begin to wonder. Suppose 1936 Germany had whatever is on your Democratic Ballot, vs. Hitler and his Nazi colleagues. And, I know, I know, all republican candidates are not Nazi’s. But they do seem to have no standards of ethics or morality. I mean, Herschel Walker??? Marjorie Taylor Greene??? Donald Trump??? And republican voters will actually cast their votes for these cretins.  I see no movement within that party to rebel against these terminally awful candidates.  Remember those long-gone days??? Dwight Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.  Sigh . . . Will they ever come again? Or are we headed into an American version of the Ayatollah’s Iran?? We’ll see. The ball is now in your hands American voters.

Crazy America

 I am beginning to run out of words concerning what I see almost daily in our American political system, mainly the weird characters who are running as republicans. I mean, when I was a lot younger, I actually worked for a time in the government under Ronald Reagan. I had begun working for Jimmy Carter, but then he lost and the Reagan thing entered our scene. Not only did he invite an awful cast of characters into his government, but he personally seemed so completely empty-headed. I actually left government after several years under Reagan, because I was afraid I might go brain-dead.

But Ronald Reagan now seems like just a normal American political leader now.  Reagan, Nixon, Shrub, all seemingly awful, now completely normal citizen-politicians.  When I read about Herschel Walker, who seems to lie about everything—really, everything—I wonder about our future. Of course, how could he compete with equating California wildfires with their cause—Jewish Space lasers??? But Walker, not unlike Trump actually, tells lies that can so easily be discovered that one must wonder about either his intellect, or his utter disdain for we the voting public.

And in the case of republican politicians, I now believe that both issues are present. One of the things Donald Trump left behind is his belief that he could tell his believers anything, however mindless, and they could continue to support him. Perhaps his best effort was his voiced belief that he could take a gun, go out on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, shoot someone at random, and his supporters would continue yelling their support.  Now, whatever we think of St. Ronald of Reagan, I cannot even imagine him saying something that terminally stupid.  But, more to the point, Trump, unlike Reagan, was likely correct—his supporters would indeed continue shrieking their support.

And that is what now troubles me beyond belief. Something has happened in America that now foretells a dark future for our formerly great Nation.  That old notion of someone letting all the (choose your awful character-- drunks, racists, crazy people, stupid people) out of their closet, is now happening. 

But why?

Is it Fox News? Well, Maybe?

Perhaps it is happening as many say. That social media and Fox News are together bringing out all the anger in America, and that anger is somehow attracting stupid people to volunteer for service in that government that all the angry people hate.  Now, to be fair, “volunteering for service in the government” is a search for a highly paid job with great public visibility -- $174,000/year at last count. Now most of the crazed people seeking such “service” could not make that much in the private sector. Well, I suppose Herschel Walker makes that and more, but he seeks the job because of the public visibility he will get.

Also, and this is important, Donald Trump raised the hopes of stupid people everywhere. I mean, if he could become president, with all that potential for graft and corruption, then so could anyone.  Still, something else seems to be going on in America.  I am currently reading Andy Borowitz’s book, “Profiles in Ignorance”. In it, he recounts America’s experience with stupid people in our presidency—Reagan, Bush, Trump certainly, and their cast of supporting characters—remember Dan Quayle?? God help us all cried Tiny Tim. It would seem that America specializes in attracting stupid people into our government. And never more so than now, when they are collectively attracted to these high levels by Fox News and Social Media. Why does Fox News attract the stupid people? Well, because Rupert Murdoch seems to think, correctly so it would seem, that stupid/crazy people are more attracted to rich people than smart people.  So, if Rupert and his cadre of highly paid pseudo-Nazi staff can shine lights on the stupid/crazy people, they will attract votes and then they will support tax cuts for the rich, and service cuts for the poor.

Now, in the final analysis, it still matters that ordinary folks have to cast their ballots for the Herschel Walkers, and Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world. Otherwise, those folks won’t get elected. But one of the problems today is that many of our smarter folks, young people especially, are drifting away from things called elections.  They’re too busy whacking away at each other on social media.  So, how do we get them back, voting? Maybe we need “Get Out the Vote” campaigns and rallies, or door-to-door campaigning. Or maybe the young folks just need to awaken, open their eyes, and read a real newspaper, or watch/listen to some real news (think PBS/NPR). Their only realistic alternative it seems, is a permanent move to, say New Zealand. So, how about it folks? You really need to get out and vote and please, VOTE OUT the STUPID/CRAZY REPUBLICANS. They are trying to destroy America. Don’t let them.

The On-Off Switch

 I wrote a while back about someone throwing on the Climate Change Switch. It seemed as though we no longer got “normal” weather events. Instead, if it turned “warm”, the temperatures hit 95-100 instead of 80 – 85. If it “rained” the heavens opened up and we would get torrential downpours.  And now, we were so fortunate, with Ian barely passing us by, but leaving our area still pretty ok. But think Florida.

And yet, I observe still no concerted plan of action to combat Global Climate Change. It’s as though we know the Nazi’s are coming to invade us by boat, but we’re sitting around drinking our morning coffee, saying, “Oh they won’t be here for quite a long while. We have plenty of time. Have another cup of java.”

Are we really so captured by the fossil fuel rich owners that we have lost all sight of tomorrow? I understood, when the threat was 50-75 years away, that we would put off any immediate plans. But now, we seem not to understand that, not only are we destroying the futures of our grandchildren, but we may actually be destroying our own futures.

I am really old—87 and counting. I have already outlived all of my close relatives—grands, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles. Yeah, yeah, I’m that old. And each day, I look forward to all the little things that our lives offer us.  We sit by our pond with a nice, homemade cappuccino, and we toss some food out to our little Koi family swimming around our pond, Harriet, Nick and Nora. As they nibble away, I think, some day, not too far away, I won’t be here to toss those food pellets. And I won’t see that sun rise each morning, as I take its picture and thank the lovely morning for reappearing.

But I think also, that the sun will still arise each morning. And if the koi kids are lucky enough, someone new will sit on our bench and continue to toss out some food for them.  But then I begin thinking anew about what that changing climate will do to the entire area.  Will this area become too warm for humans to live here?  Or will the storms continue to intensify to the point that the area becomes unsafe?  And could I have a conversation with anyone important enough to actually do something to head off the worst of the possible forecasts? And might they actually take action that might preserve our environment?

And then I thought about that recent NASA program, in which they fired off a missile and caused it to collide with some vague asteroid wandering about up above us. But that was simply a test, wasn’t it?  But suppose there was an actual asteroid up there that was beaming towards us. But it might not strike us for a year. Would we do something to head it off? Well, Yes, we likely would. And why? Well, because the action we would have to take would not require us to change our attitude towards any money-producing entities. See, that’s the clue. If taking action to head off an approaching asteroid might require us to stop producing coal, or to cease production of gas-powered vehicles, then we would likely just open another bottle of nice wine and pretend that the disaster likely will not happen for such a long time, that we need not actually do anything.

See, it’s money that controls everything. Well, money and organized religion.  But in this case, money is the damaging entity.  And when I think about that, I begin to understand that humans are a deeply flawed species.  If there were actually a God up there somewhere, humans would be her biggest mistake. Although humans are full capable of acting to preserve the world around us, we are also so mentally flawed that we are as likely to avoid taking action as to actually do something intelligent. 

Think Vladimir Putin, or Donald Trump, or Adolph Hitler. Think Mitch McConnell, or Amy Coney Barrett, or Ron DeSantis, all deeply flawed humans, fully capable of acting to destroy humankind.  And why are all these deeply flawed, and evil humans in positions that allow them to prevent intelligent preventive actions by less flawed humans? Well, mainly because the not-so-deeply-flawed humans actually asked them to take charge of our world, ignoring their potential for permanent harm. Yep, we put them there folks. And now, we are being forced to sit around like dinosaurs, awaiting that fateful asteroid called Climate Change to bang into our little planet.  We could throw them all aside in that thing called an election. But will we?? Who knows?  Even the Shadow likely doesn’t know. Stay tuned, those election thingies are almost upon us again. We will see how stupid the remaining humans are.