Inaction is NOT an Option

 

In his speech at the Democracy Summit, Biden said, “We should be making it easy for people to vote, not harder.” He went further, “And that’s going to remain a priority for my administration until we get it done. Inaction is not an option.”

There has been a lot of palaver criticizing Biden and the US generally for having the presumed audacity to host a summit on Democracy. The argument supporting this dismissive view runs thusly: The USA has fallen from its perch of moral superiority as a staunch proponent of Democracy in light of the Trump/MAGA-land attempt to negate a free and fair election. The argument normally has included reference to the various Republican-led moves to restrict voting rights and curtail the opportunities to vote by targeted communities. In sum, the US is in no position to lecture the rest of the world on Democracy if they can’t keep their own house in order, as it were.

The purveyors of this silliness ignore the fact that Democracy is always – always – a work in progress. It has always been; as each sub-set of a nation’s population gains recognition and power, that sub-set enters the democratic fray. The more democratic the society, the quicker each sub-set gains the power of its collective voice. That’s how Democracy works. 

The prime model for Democracy, the city state of Athens, did not allow women or slaves, or even the majority of the adult population of the state, to vote.  Nevertheless, Athens is cited as the cradle of Democracy. The USA, as the modern paragon of Democracy, by the aforementioned dismissive argument, did not allow slaves or women to vote until decades after its inception.

The struggle for Democracy is ongoing and perpetual. It is always a work in progress. Unfortunately, there will always some who turn to undemocratic methods, such as fascism, racism ultra-nationalism and autocratic rule to gain power. Those factions must be combated and repressed unceasingly. (Indeed, a great, inherent paradox of Democracy is that such undemocratic sectors must be included in the Democracy.)

They do not have to be tolerated but they must not be repressed, either. Thus, the struggle for maintaining a Democratic state is perpetual. 

Point of opinion; Biden’s duty as a world citizen and his role as President obligated him to call the Democracy Summit to counteract the growing presence and power of undemocratic actors.

“Inaction is not an option.”

 

The Goon Squad

 

                                          The GOP Goon Squad

I have recently written about the dire need to nullify the Insane Right. (i.e. Boebert, MTG, Gosar, Gohmert, Brooks, Cotton, Gaetz, et al.) The way that their narrative of alt-reality is nullified is not by debate. To debate their like is to elevate their nonsense to a legitimate, respectable platform. 

There is no debating psychosis.

There cannot be a rational response to the ravings of a lunatic. One cannot reason with insanity. When Alice entered the Looking Glass, she knew she was entering a world which was not governed by rationality and logic. In the words of Marty Balin of ‘The Jefferson Airplane, logic had ‘fallen sloppy dead’ and was not to be revived by the application of rational thought.

What must take place is not debate. The insane chatter of the Right must be usurped, over-thrown, derided and disposed of. That is done by the clear and repeated statement of the narrative which guides the rest of us to accept scientific findings, to place value in education, to instill a sense of social responsibility and require compliance with beneficial policies.

Moreover, the vapid and befuddling talking points of the Q-pixilated should not be addressed directly, nor quoted for the same reason that debate is discarded; to quote the right is to lend credence to the madness.

To be clear, the madness itself must be addressed. Mental illness must be treated but it must be treated by mental health professionals who can shepherd the addled to a safe haven. There, in professional care, the demented might gain a proper perspective of their own madness. There is little doubt that the members of the MAGA-cult have taken leave of their senses. MTG – perhaps by choice – exhibits symptoms of psychosis. It is a psychosis that is propagated by Donald Trump and his adherents and spread to a segment of the US population.

A delusion shared between partners is called ‘folie a deux’ – the madness of two. What has happened in the American public has been termed ‘folie de millions’ – the madness of millions - by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump".

https://www.salon.com/2020/11/09/psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trumps-election-meltdown-is-most-dangerous-period-of-this-presidency/.

The Insane Right

 

                                                                The Brain Trust

The 'Insane Right', exemplified by MTG, Boebert, Gosar and Gohmert, must be nullified. They are the replicating tumors that have metastasized with the cancerous growth of the MAGA-cult. They and their psychotic, ignorant ilk must not be allowed to take control of the House or the Senate in 2022 or in 2024. This is not simply a matter of loyalty to the Democratic party or the ‘liberal’ agenda.

Full disclosure: I am not a staunch Democrat. I do not adhere blindly to the policies of either major party. True, I have voted Democratic. I have also voted Republican. And I have voted Libertarian, as well. No party has a lock on what is proper, right and ethical. Obama was not perfect. Neither was JFK or FDR for that matter. The less said about Nixon, Reagan and either Bush, the better.

However, when confronted with the sheer lunacy and ignorance of the ‘Alt-right’, considerations of loyalty to a political party must be set aside. There can be no middle ground reached with those who have slipped the bonds of sanity. There can be no compromise with the insane without becoming insane oneself in the process of appeasement.

One cannot accept as fact that ‘up is down’ without losing one’s sense of direction. One cannot give credence to the blather of Marjorie Taylor Greene without tacitly acknowledging ‘Jewish Space Lasers’ as fact or that cancer is contagious or that Dr Anthony Fauci is on par with a monster like Dr Mengele.

While it is most troubling that a substantial number of MAGA-landers have accepted the blithering of Trump, MTG, Gosart, et al. as truth, we must maintain our own, grounded, world view; one which takes medical science seriously and holds the ludicrous nonsense of the MAGA-view (e.g. the Big Lie) as a despicable, woeful departure from reality.

Nullifying the psychotic gibberish of Trump-landers is a step that must be taken. The alternative is unthinkable: the end of the American Experiment.

 

Patience, Hell!

 

There was a cartoon that showed two vultures sitting together. One said ‘Patience, my ass! I’m gonna kill something!’

The perceived slow-walking of the process of bringing January 6 perpetrators to task has got some people ravenous and impatient. Impatient enough to insist on rash behavior. That’s very much what many people seemingly want; rash action regarding the January 6 Special Commission and the DOJ’s handling of the criminal investigations, issuance of subpoenas and indictments.

Just like the vulture in that old meme, many want instant gratification and a quick resolution to very thorny and complicated matters. Like that impatient buzzard, there is nothing to be gained by rashness. Alacrity is demanded, but efficiency and efficacy must stand before speed. The vulture in question was no more able to take direct, forceful action by killing something than Benny Thompson or Merrick Garland is in speeding the wheels of justice along. 

Simply said; that’s not how any of this works. Vultures don’t kill; they scavenge. They leave the killing to others. That’s how they have evolved. That’s how they fit into the grand Circle of Life.

Garland, the DOJ and the Jan 6 Committee must operate within the strictures of the rule of law. There’s no alternative but to go ‘rogue’ and take on the dubious extra-legal attributes of a Banana Republic. Nothing good can come of that. 

Still, there are those vocal souls who clamor for immediate action; those who squawk that Trump and Meadows and Bannon are all getting away with the crimes we all witnessed on video.
(Spoiler alert: they won’t.)

We can and must take heart that the Appellate Court is ruling against Trump’s groundless invocation of executive privilege. Bannon has been indicted and arrested. Alexander Ali is ready to spill the beans. Mark Meadows will testify after all and Jeffrey Clark and all the other nefarious actors who helped perpetrate the attack on the Capitol Building will be dealt with according to the legal processes of the United States. The patience-testing deliberateness of the wheels of justice must be endured and tolerated.

Patience is called for.

The Jan 6 Putsch

 

The Weimar Republic. Ring any bells? It didn’t last long. It’s been reviled as feckless, ineffectual and cowardly. A guy named Adolph ended that republic.

Richard Painter, White House chief ethics counsel under W. Bush calls our attention to the Weimar Republic. He does it as warning; a deja view of a cautionary tale. Mr Painter says that it’s the Weimar Republic all over again. Here. 

There have been ample warnings of the similarities between the USA and Germany between the wars coming from many quarters since the rise of MAGA-dom. Stark warnings have even come from survivors of the Holocaust who fear the another fascist reich.

Caveats will apply, of course. One major caveat to espousing a complete identification with the Weimar Republic is that we have the history of their failure before us to consult. We must do that and not mentally pooh-pooh the parallels.

Everyday, we are inundated by lies; what Kellyanne Conway branded ‘alt/facts. False accounts of everything from COVID-19 to the contents of the Build Back Better Bill pour forth from the GOP, Fox Gnus, NewsMax, OAN, the Orange Mar-A-Lago MAGA-dope and his minions. 

“The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact.” William A. Wallace, FDR’s VP before Truman and former Secretary of Agriculture and former Secretary of Commerce, observed in 1944. (Even in the midst of a World War against fascism, there were, evidently, fascists active in America. 

Witness the despicable actions of Paul Gosar. Or MGT. Boebert. Brooks. Cruz. Graham. Guiliani, Stone. Meadows. We must stop pretending that they can be dealt with as honorable people. They have no honor, no sense of decency or ethics or social responsibility. They want power and if the 'subtle' tactics they’ve employed thus far don't get them what they want, they will resort to more desperate and violent means. Let's call it a 'putsch' rather than an insurrection and see how that plays. 

Keep pretending that 'It Can't Happen Here' and watch it happen here. Let's start calling Jan.6th a 'putsch' rather than an insurrection and see if that gains traction.

 

White Evangelicals?

 

White Evangelicals.

If that shop-worn phrase brings harps and halos to mind, you’ve been brain-washed.

White evangelicals is a euphemism.

It’s a euphemism for theocratic fascists.

Does that seem harsh? It doesn’t sound like Aunt Bessie sewing quilts in the church basement, does it? No. It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t because quilting bees in church basements is a very benign enterprise.

Now, imagine that the quilt that Aunt Bessie and company are making features the face of the Tangerine Beast – TFG – with a banner that reads ‘Stop the Steal’ or ‘Trump Won!’ with the stars and bars as a back-ground. Still benign?

Preachers spewing anti-vax/anti-mask twaddle from their TV studio chapels. Evangelicals hopping up and down in a toddler-like rage that ‘Geezus is my vaccine!’; bloated braggarts of ‘god’ telling their congregations that MEDIA stands for ‘Most Evil Demon in America’! Say fecking what?

This ain’t Aunt Bessie taking cookies to the doddering, widowed pastor. The modern pastor may very well own a sizeable real estate portfolio or even a small fleet of private jets.

Think not?

Consider the mega-churches; temples to the grift that keeps on giving and forgiving. They represent a most substantial outlay of capital. Considerable moolah has been invested in grandiose tabernacles on expansive and luxurious tracts of land.
(Sorry if this disillusions you but that money does not fall from the sky – no matter how righteous you are.)

Investors want return on their investment. ROI. Bilking the gullible is the basic business plan. Wow ‘em with stage-craft and baffle ‘em with bullshit. That’s a proven method of getting a sustainable return on investment, quarter on quarter.

Here’s the pitch:

‘Want to be delivered from perdition? Send a check or money order in an amount that hurts.’ Go without food. Let your dog skip its visit to the vet. Let your husband skip his medication or his chemo. Cut corners anyway you can but send the ‘Good Lord’ your dough. As George Carlin brilliantly observed, "God Loves you... and he needs money."

Harsh, right? Indeed, it is. Conning gullible folks out of their savings is despicable. Promising a pie-in-the-sky happy-ever-after prance in the clouds for eternity - redeemable only after you’re dead - is simply evil.

 

 

 

 

Hair's-breadth Cracks in the Tortoise's Shell

 

Is Mitch McConnell cracking?

After years of being the Grim Reaper and Obstructionist Numero Uno, has Moscow Mitch finally been backed into a corner he can’t escape from? 

It’s only a guess at this time; a conjecture based on scant evidence, but Mitch definitely blinked in the staring contest between the GOP and the Dems. Despite the own-goal assistance of Dem bugaboos, Manchin and Sinema, Mitch has blinked and kicked the Debt Ceiling Can down the road.

In prior years, Mitch would have gone to the mattresses with oleaginous dorks like Rafael Cruz and Rand Paul to force the hand of the Democrats to cave to his chelonian will. This time, however, the Old Turtle seems to have gotten flipped onto his back.

Conjecture is that Mitch is trying to play stall-ball while the Dems steel themselves for a change in the Senate filibuster rule. It has been reported that the Dems were hammering out such a change in the filibuster and were close to making such a play work. It was also intimated that Mitch may have made his can-kicking move because the Dems were about to pull the filibuster rug out from under him.

At the same time, the proverbial rug would also be yanked from under the Bugbear Pair, Manchin and Sinema. Their faithless leverage would all but disappear.

Mitch blinked when he proposed offering a delaying tactic to put off a vote for raising the debt ceiling until December. All that it has done is gain Mitch some time. In that time, it is hoped that the Dems will amend or end the filibuster rule and take rightful control of the Senate, at long last. In that time, the Dems should be able to steel themselves, close ranks and bulldoze through Biden’s agenda.

Mitch blinked and it was quite a ‘blink’. Perhaps Mitch even nodded off briefly. Perhaps that’s hoping for too much.