American Politics

I must confess to being shaken after reading the summary of Project 2025.  While I knew the GOP had fallen really low since Trump took over the reins, I guess I did not really understand just how low. And also, that Project 2025 speaks to maybe something different.  I mean, when we say that the GOP has fallen to a new low under Trump, a) we are blaming it on Trump, and b) we are saying that we are seeing more of the standard Trump crap—illogical, corrupt, amoral, unethical.

But maybe we are looking at something different altogether.  As I was reading an analysis of the SCOTUS Trump v. America decision regarding January 6^th, I began thinking that maybe something else was going on.  SCOTUS basically laid the groundwork for an entity formerly known as “kings”, or a President who could basically do no wrong.  Now that would make Donald Trump very happy. But it might also make a lot of his immensely rich supporters even happier.  See, they could keep Trump in power in order to get the kind of “hands-off” Executive Branch they want and claim they need. They want no controls over their activities, ergo, Project 2025. 2025 is basically a design for an absolute monarchy, one controlled by the uber-rich. It might return America to those good-old-days of maybe the 16^th century when the uber-rich controlled everything, including your life and mine.

And then, last night, at a Trump rally, someone supposedly took a shot at Trump. Now, we are told that someone wielding a rifle, fired from a rooftop outside his immediate rally area. Trump wound up with some slight bleeding, although from what we do not know. A close bullet?? Some sharp object near him?? We have no solid or reliable answer. They did take Trump away and he was bleeding ever so slightly.

Now, was this a bullet aimed at Trump, just missing his forehead? Maybe  . . . The shooter was shot and killed by Security officials, and one bystander was killed and two others wounded. And now the games begin. Who was this shooter and what was he about?  We are told he was a republican, but also that he had donated to Democrats.  Questions, questions.

Given the extreme nature of the language spewing forth among and between the parties in this bizarre presidential race, perhaps an assassination attempt might not be surprising. I know, I know, everyone on both sides has properly decried this shooting. But, given the escalating rhetoric, maybe such a violent event was predictable.

And now Trump has begun drawing some pity cards. And his stature has enlarged a bit, with a sympathy vote. Now, to be fair, that last debate performance produced a hard knock into Biden’s reputation. Even more than the usual serious “old-people” discussions are being heard.

I assume an assassination attempt would be highly likely to produce serious sympathy for the intended “Victim”, i.e., Trump.

And, then, maybe because I am really wearing out from the force of right-wing rhetoric, and the absurdity of Trump himself, I began wondering . . . could this be a fake assassination, staged by the rich powers behind the GOP (you know, the ones who now seem to own this monarchist political entity)?? I know, I know . . . how absurd, right?? But that is how affected I have become by the absurdity of this whole political entity, that such a fake attempt no longer seems absurd.  Note, please, I have been paying attention to political affairs at least since the days of FDR. I have voted in every election since 1952. I long for the days when republicans were people like Dwight Eisenhower. Now??? Donald Trump??? Surely you jest.

Now to be fair, a fake assassination is pretty far out. But then, I thought, Project 2025. That is so absurd that anything now seems at least plausible.  Now what makes it a bit less plausible is that security officials shot and killed the bad guy. If it was a planned fake assassination, wouldn’t he have planned it with his own escape? Yeah, probably, but does that make it totally implausible?  Well no.

And so I am left to wonder about the state of American politics today. The uber-rich seem to have no ethics at all, and therefore republicans no longer have any ethics. How low have the mighty fallen America? And what does this say about the outcome of the next election? Can you imagine what we might see should the American people decide to vote for the Democrat (Biden??)? The 2025 Gang have already decided on a post-election conflict (Civil War II?) stage. Won’t that be fun?

Oh and you thinking folks . . . you might want to speed up the process of getting your passports and visas ready (Canada??? New Zealand???) Welcome to the brand new, exciting world of uber-rich corruption.

Thinking and Rethinking About Stuff

So, the candidates are dropping like flies. Getting so, we will need a program to tell us who’s left and who's next to go. I wonder what’s going on? It would seem that, just as a candidate wannabe get’s rolling, someone out there snarls and the candidate drops out, generally whining about how they are doing it for “family reasons.”  Can’t help noticing that they never drop out of Fox News for “family reasons.”

Pretty soon, we’ll be left with a lapsed Catholic who serially cheats on his various wives, a Mormon who thought it was principled for people in his home state to have health care, but socialism if the broader American public is to have health care, and that crazy lady from Minnesota. One assumes that Sarah Barbie is simply making too much money on the lecture circuit (soon she’ll be making as much as our failed President Shrub). The Republican convention promised to be a lot more entertaining a few months ago. This is going to make comedians all over the country have to work a lot harder over the coming months.  Well, so long as the Newtster is in the ring, we will have high comedy all the time.

But on another less comedic front, a recent article by Noam Chomsky on the assassination of Usama bin Laden caused me to rethink my sheer glee at his death. Chomsky is not opposed to bin Laden being brought to justice, but he argues strongly that neither bin Laden nor we got justice. Instead, we got an assassination.  Given our past stance on war criminals, i.e., the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after “the last good war” our current rush to judgment seems at best at odds with our own history.  Like many, I applauded the attack on Pakistan, and the killing. Now, Chomsky makes me doubt the wisdom of such an approach.  It does in fact resemble the George Bush cowboy approach to international diplomacy—“shoot first and ask questions later.”

I’m still glad that bin Laden is dead, much as I was glad that Hitler was dead. Still, we need to be mindful in such matters, that we haven’t become the very people we despise.