Friday, August 18, 2023

What a Putz

AbsurdTimes

Aug 18

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THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: Donald's Devoted exercising "Freedom of Speech"

What's at Stake

Czar Donic

Well, here we are – in the midst of the madness that covers the consciousness and drives out the clear thinking. It is an opportunity for laughter, or is it a sign of impending doom? The font of fascism haunts the masses, but most do not pay attention and are busy with baseball and other diversions, not quite like seeing the lions eat the Christians, but serving the same purpose. One of the candidates against Trump Is a Christian minister, Ryan Binkly, who quoted a passage from Christ's Sermon on the Mount and was told by a Maga supporter, and I quote the minister as closely as I can, "That don't work no more. It's too weak". One could draw many conclusions from this, but I'll simply leave it at that. I mean, even Elmer Gantry said that Jesus could play quarterback.

It is very difficult to take Mike Pence seriously, but Trump makes him seem sane. It is clear that he had no leeway in counting those electoral votes, and ever Dan Quale told him so. Quale was a Vice President for popa Bush and toured Lating America. Many applauded him and he said that the people were so nice that he wished he had studied Latin "better" in High School. The last remark made by Pence that showed any imagination was during law school when he thought of a magazine called Torts Illustrated. The kind words he received were "I'm glad they didn't hang you" and the general opinion was that he "lacked balls".

Most of the other contenders have no idea as to what this primary is about. They really think it has to do with policy and specific issues and that the more cruel and vindictive they are the more they will appeal for the electorate. The frigid one from Florida, for example, has no idea of how the present himself to a mass. He will try to keep on script, but he does not connect at all. For a while, his main chant or slogan was "Florida – where woke comes to die"! What the hell does that mean?

The only figure with a chance and the ability to go up against this performer is Chris Christie. He never caught on in the Donald administration, probably because when he was Attorney General of New Jersey he prosecuted Jerrod's father and sent him off to be locked up. Lots of Oedipal forces at work in that party.

These days, only Republicans of the Trump tribe use the term and they have mainly abandoned it. For a while, many even blamed banks' failures on the grounds that the bank was "woke". They are really hard to take seriously. The only problem is that what we see as crazy has a chance to seize our government and install an authoritarian regime instead. Trump feels quite at home with many of these types of leaders and quite uncomfortable around them from a Parliamentary or "democratic" system.

So, what, according to Reich, are the attributes of Fascism? I use his categories as I've notice these phenomena, but am not sure as to whether they constitute Fascism. Still, the characteristics are worth considering.

LEADER. This is by far the most significant aspect of what is going on. All fascist leaders were populists, including Mussolini. Hitler, Hirohito, and so on. They appealed to a justifiably aggrieved mass of the people who were mainly cast off from significance, put themselves in the same category, and posed as their liberator. Was Hitler ever in a similar situation? Yes, copies of a crawing he did for admission to a School of Architecture look fairly impressive, but he was rejected. No other details are available. I imagine other figures will exhibit similar situations.

In Trump's case, the positions are not overriding, although the huge tax cuts given to the corporate world (totaling over three Trillion dollars) is among the ones he thinks are worthwhile. On abortion he could not care less: he avoided the position, eventually, by saying he would appoint the Supreme Court Judges and that would take care of the issue. Right to life? You are kidding, right? His is the only life that matters.

The preparation is what is important here. Almost all of our Politicians were trained and also practiced as Attorneys. The Donald's main qualification and training for the position is so-called "Reality TV". His style and approach is similar to that of Mr. Pillow. He is at home in front of cameras and talking extemporaneously and usually contradicts himself but still maintains the facade of sincerity. People wonder why he pardoned Rod Blagoyovitch, the Illinois Governor that set an Illinois record for corruption and is thus worthy of attention. Well, yes, and he was a valuable ratings asset for his television show. Those are values he prizes. None of the other Republican candidates have a clue about this and the only one capable of running well against him is Chris Christie.

An early response to the Donald's ranting about The Apprentice in the early days of his Misrule came from Arnold Schwartzenegger who the Donald chose as his successor on the show. Arnold offered to change jobs with him as Arnold did have experience in governing as the "Governator" of California and Donald had more of a talent from TV ratings.

ATTACK ELITES. Here it is important to pick your elites, people who are successful, but different from you. The different part is the main component, defining them as elites is fairly easy once that is established. Someone points out in a book that our own "Civil War" is not typical as there is a confederation, uniforms, a centralized government, etc. No, most civil wars come across when a once dominant or ruling population becomes replaced by a once minority population or aggregate population. Demographically, whites, once about 80% of the population have been, or are being, replaced in size by others, including Blacks, Hispanics, and other non-whites. Since we must consider them inferior, they cannot organize a "takeover," but those Jews have always been smart and can organize the takeover. This, essentially is the "Replacement Theory".

Now this works, believe it or not, in the Donald's best interest as the judge in the TRUMP UNIVERSITY case had a Spanish-sounding name, and the current judge causing him problems is not only black but also a woman! Obviously, he is standing in the way of a gigantic conspiracy against good, white, Christians. It is obvious, right?

Since he rules an idiocracy, the Donald can easily claim that he is the only thing standing between THEM and YOU and be believed. He is also their "retribution" Though it isn't clear what they need retribution for – being white and stupid? That seems more of a religious issue than a political one.

NATIONALISM AND SUPERIORITY. Everyone knows that a Christian America is superior to any other country, ever, and Christian Nationalists the bulwark of our freedom. It was not physical weaklings that attacked the capital buildings and, on one of the tapes the call for reinforcements was shouted: "We need more Patriots here!" The call was answered.

EXTOL STRENGTH. I'm not sure what Reich was getting at here, but these obviously were not University types. They are physically strong (I had to deal with their type as an athlete) but incredibly stupid. It took me awhile to realize that such stupidity was even possible, but then I was able to compensate. But I am not writing an autobiography, so enough of that.

DISTAIN FOR WOMEN. I think just about everyone can see this in action. It certainly has a great deal to do with anti-abortion laws. I have difficulty with this one as well. I did like a protest sign that read DEREGULATE MY UTERUS, especially as Republicans have always been against regulations on corporations. I had a great deal of trouble understanding a bunch of pro-Trump women marching along with a t-shirt with a large arrow pointing down to between their legs and the sign said GRAB HERE. I give up.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS. Biden is no great force for good as his main advantage here is that he is not the Donald. Still, we can look at the effects of some of his legislation and see that all of the infrastructure bill and anti-inflation measures provides jobs, contributes to the economy, and so on. Yet when those programs come to Republican districts and states, Republican politicians are there to claim credit. Since most of the people have no idea as to how these changes and improvements came about, they need to be told.

We need a return to practices of the past. Again, I am not trying to write an autobiography here, but I did live through the most successful Democratic administration(s) and know how things work or worked. One could not cross many intersections without seeing a sign that read THIS IS ANOTHER IMPROVEMENT FOR CHICAGO. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. RICHARD J. DALEY, MAYOR. They were everywhere. At times I wanted to exchange the two "I" words, but I knew better.

In many of the current districts, Republican ones, the Congressmen and Representatives are taking credit, but the populace does not realize that these guys voted AGAINST the very project they are taking credit for. They were too chicken and mealy-mouthed to stand up for their own districts. You should know that one Republican who was able to stand up against this crap came from Illinois and will eventually rise again. He was thrown out of the party and has reason to be proud of that. A public relations and propaganda offensive is needed, and fast! Make sure these people know that these infrastructure benefits were done exclusively by Democrats, not MAGATS or cowards.

DANGERS OF DONALD. Many come to mind, but I will only talk about one minor one. He started out with a cabinet of wealthy and greedy corporate functionaries. One of the earliest came with his appointed Secretary of State. As they were leaving some conference involving as a side issue nuclear weapons, the Secretary, well-known in the fossil fuel industry, was heard shouting at him "You're a fucking moron!" He was replaced. Sane people, no matter how greedy, sometimes place other interests above the projects of the Donald and they must go – and they are glad to escape.

So far as possible to remember, only one of his original cabinet members remained and that was Betsy, the wealthy sister of the wealthy Eric Prince, the owner of what was called BLACKWATER, an infamous private army that committed numerous atrocious war crimes in service of the second Bush administration. Most people have forgotten about that, but the army was granted permanent immunity from any and all crimes by one Paul Bremer who was on his way out. [The only reference I make here is a book titled BLACKWATER, BY Jeremy Scahill which is so documented that it is overwhelming.] It was also shown by Julian Assange which explains why our government still pursues him. It still functions under different names and contracts with different governments.

A similar thing happened with the "School of the Americas" where such notables as Noriega were "trained". It is still there, doing the same thing, but under what name? If anyone finds out and makes it public, it will change.

Ok, Betsy. She was named Secretary of Education although she knew very little about the field. One Senator who unmasked her for her ignorance was Al Franken who later became a victim of the #METOO movement, pursued by a blond Democrat woman who was perhaps led to that by corporate pressure. She will never admit anything.

Betsy's main goal was far greater than any of the would-be Trumps such as Ron DeSantis. She wanted to eliminate public education altogether and replace it with private schooling, good ol' American schools. It is worth noting that public education became manditory, at least until the age of about 16. Early on, perhaps a coal miner wanted his son to go to school. The mine foreman would come around and say "You've got a good 9-year-old son there, we want him to work in the mine." If the father refused, he was told that he would lose his job as well if he didn't send his son down into the mine. Now, at least, he was able to say "I'm sorry, but the police would get after me if I kept him out of the mine and didn't send him to the school." That is really how mandatory education started, but naturally corporate interests are still anti-education. Later on, Ronald Reagan would say "We have to get control over who is allowed to go to college."

Betsy agreed. During the Donald's rule, or misrule, a very good television series was started, called Lone Survivor. The premise was that one cabinet member stayed away for the State of the Union speech so that some functionary would be set to become President if some disaster did kill every government official at once. It is a far-fetched possibility, but I always found it disturbing to think that the worst could happen and she became President. The show is now on a streaming service.

One of the last holdovers from the semi-sane was the ex-General who was given the nickname "MAD-DOG" by his soldiers because of his insane bombing and torching of Fallujah during the Iraq occupation. Eventually, things became too insane for MAD-DOG to tolerate.

STOCHASTIC TERRORISM. Tossing out a word such as "Stochastic" is designed to make the speaker sound brilliant, I suppose. It confused me at first as I was used to the term in the field of mathematics. It is simply voicing anger with a target and then leaving it to some fool to go out and commit violence against him. It is NOTHING NEW!!!! Got it? Nothing new. Have you ever heard the phrase used in reference to Thomas Becket, introduced by Shakespeare, and then in A Man for All Seasons? "Will no one rid me of the meddlesome priest?" He did not order the assassination of Beckett directly, but Beckett died. In other words, 21^st Century words, Stochastic Terrorism. Enough.

SUMMARY. Now these are probably the least of the past idiocies of the first Donald administration. His behavior, if he is to be treated like a normal citizen, should already have him in jail for contempt of court. He is not and will not be, but "the land of the brave; the home of the free/Don't wanna be treated like no Bourgeoisie" has some work to do.

JACK SMITH. I am not a fan, but I know he does not back down and does his job. He was enlisted to go after John Edwards in a primary where Obama and Hillary were also contenders. He was the most likely to be elected if nominated, had an excellent pro-consumer record, and so on. Unfortunately, his wife had a debilitating form of cancer, he was slipping off to have affairs, and he was being blackmailed. He bought his way out of it and was charged with some sorts of election violations. Smith lost the case, but it did put Edwards out of the race which seemed to be the goal. Still, he does what his job is and is not intimidated.

I've had enough. Bye.

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