The South Carolina primary victory of Darline Graham is the definition of MAGA politics in the United States. It’s no wonder the rest of the world has given up on the USA. Electing know-nothing empty dresses to the most powerful offices in the country is a self-defeating exercise in stupidity. Caligula had so much contempt for the Roman senate he nominated his horse as senator.

Same fucking thing.

It can easily be argued that all Republican senators are empty suits. House members, as well. They are sent to Washington D.C. to provide checks and balances on the other branches of government. Currently, they are doing nothing of the sort, though they are still drawing a paycheck. We feed these horses oats by the barrel and all they do is shit all over us while eating more and more. From a golden trough.

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Darline is a special kind of MAGA dumb. She isn’t even pretending she knows anything about the job she’s currently inherited from Lindsey. Her main talking point is she’s not qualified. Her supporters are boasting that she’s an average every day American who has gone to a grocery store and knows the price of hamburger. That’s more than Trump who invented the word “grocery,” but has never seen one. South Carolina deserves so much more, but if it votes to move Darline from the checkout line to the Senate, it gets what it deserves.

With the exception of the corruption emanating from Washington, all of America’s current problems can be directly linked to incompetence. The Trump administration is good at stealing, but governing eludes MAGA. It can’t govern because it hates government.

The laws, the regulations, the expectations of marginally decent people working for the people, at least who support the Constitution, are antithetical to the leaders of MAGA. The Constitution is a suggestion that suckers adhere to in this new age of criminally syndicated government. If you’re not in the “family” the Don won’t allow you to kiss his ring.

The Republicans in the House and Senate have enabled him. There will be special pages in future history books for this spineless group of Republicans. Their submission to Dear Leader will get them nothing but fired. They believe they are working for Trump. They work for the American people. The people are pissed off.

There are many instances of Republican senators acting as sycophants for Trump, but the accusations about the navy’s treatment of active duty sailors are one glaring example of reprehensible hypocrisy. By refusing to perform oversight on the Department of WAR! these useless pieces of shit in the Republican Party have allowed the Trump administration to destroy the military.

It has fired, or refused to promote, senior officers for being female or black. It has fired Generals who refuse to follow orders that might be construed to violate the Constitution, or differ from Pipsqueak Pete’s testosterone fueled bloodlust. Admirals have resigned rather than blow fishermen out of the water in the Caribbean. Enlisted men want to resign to avoid violating international law for the exact same crime.

The Pentagon has sent our sailors to sea (not “see” for the MAGA readers) for record numbers of days without supply lines to equip them. One sailor, only 19-years old, attempted suicide by jumping over the side of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Instead of offering him the psychological health care he needs, the Pentagon has charged him with various crimes including AWOL.

Congress is not even convening investigatory committees and…you’re fucking kidding me, right? Aren’t Republican congress members the unfaltering stalwart supporters of the military? Does supporting the troops mean anything? Congress doesn’t fucking care about this kid, or any kid in the military, or otherwise.

Trump doesn’t give a shit about those sailors because his only guiding principle is political power. MAGAs could give a fuck because they have no principles besides owning the libs. No one really supports the troops. Saying you do is a psychological ploy to make you feel good about not serving.

So go on, South Carolina, elect the know-nothing empty dress. She can draw a paycheck with the rest of the brown-nosing cucks saluting smartly, and writing checks, to the military/industrial complex. Hug, kiss and hump the flag. Show your respect to the symbols of democracy and ignore the actual document that gives you these freedoms –– the Constitution.

But for God’s sake, keep the troops out of your hypocritical mouths. These men and women are not pawns for political advantage. Just shut the fuck up. Hypocrites.

Even one Republican elected to kiss Trump’s ass is one too many not performing checks and balances. The American government should be a serious matter. America is not a serious country.

Caligula’s horse could govern better.

Tip Jar

When I was in school I was taught that American freedom had been won with the blood of heroes. I was taught that freedom isn’t free. We fought the Nazis of Germany and the fascists of Italy and prevailed, bringing freedom to Europe and anyone else who wanted to join the promise of democracy.

We were taught that Americans are the good guys. The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was underhanded, but the forces of good fought back and defeated the imperialistic Japanese onslaught. America was a shining city on a hill. A beacon of hope. We were the good guys.

Now America is becoming the enemy of the free world.

The Prime Minister of Canada stated that the Trump administration “attacked” Canada. The official attack hasn’t been publicly released but the word is Trump demanded that Canada repudiate all trade agreements it has ever made with other countries and outlaw the use of the French language.

That’s a shit ton of hubris. Trump’s reply to Canada’s rejection on his tweet little toy phone was something about the 51st state. It’s obvious that he has designs on Canada’s resources. Greenland isn’t far behind. Any move America makes on these two pieces of land will mean war with allies that America armed to the teeth. America, under Trump, can’t defeat a fourth-rate power in the Middle East. What would happen if NATO had to defend NATO territory from the leader of NATO?

It’s all so absurd.

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This timeline is askew and no one has a way out of it. The world is silently thanking Iran for slowing Trump down. Had he overthrown the regime in a matter of days he would’ve been emboldened even more than his Venezuela gambit that he still boasts about. We could easily be in the Third World War with the US playing Germany this time. If we aren’t already. Who can tell?

In Trump’s inauguration speech he mentions “expansion of territory” in one of his lines. It was kind of a throwaway remark, but it I think it needs to be retrieved from the trash. He has hemispheric domination on his mind, with his so-called “Donroe Doctrine” and losing in Iran hasn’t deterred him. America is very weak militarily at the moment, everyone knows it, and yet he continues to bluster. I wonder if it hurts to be that stupid. I’m sure we’ll find out.

He even said we could use the military to attack the bond market that is about to turn him into Herbert Hoover. We might have enough missiles for that as long as the market doesn’t fight back. Madness.

Most people in the world thought Trump was good entertainment. People have told me they think he’s funny. Like most Americans, the people of the world try to ignore politics until it bites them in the ass. But Trump did something to garner the attention of billions of people who weren’t paying attention. He tried to rig the World Cup by using his power to override a red card.

Soccer, or football, is the world’s number one sport. People don’t care for cheaters. They don’t like FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and they hate Trump for cheating. He’s now on the radar of everyone in the world. Trump likes the fame but this infamy may be his undoing.

No one is afraid of America. Its superpowers have been dipped in kryptonite and stripped. The military under Trump fired every missile in its inventory at Iran in an attempt to shock and awe the country into submission. Iran yawned, then blew up the military bases in the Middle East cutting off supply routes to the region. Resupply ships have to come from far-flung Asian ports to stock the aircraft carriers and destroyers with ammunition and, of course, food. How’s that going?

America removed its only aircraft carrier operating in the Asian/Pacific theater and now China has a shot at invading Taiwan if it decides to take it. North Korea, whose tinpot dictator Trump praised this week while throwing our ally South Korea under the bus, might decide to reunite Korea. It’s unlikely either will do such a thing as they watch America drown. However, they may stick a hose in the country’s mouth to help things along.

What is very likely is the Muslim world reuniting to form the second Ottoman Empire. It’s already underway as several countries seek a defense pact that excludes the United States. If they all reunite, it will be Biden’s fault for sure. However, it’s the law of unintended consequences following the short-sighted Trump administration around. Many more consequences are on the way, so batten the hatches.

Sneak attacking the leadership of Iran during a peace negotiation will go down in history alongside Pearl Harbor. Complaining that the new government that took the place of the old government of Iran is full of lunatics is a lesson in a lack of self-awareness. Pot meet kettle.

Either way, I really don’t like to think of my country as the bad guy in the world. Something has to be done. Are we going to run roughshod through the world attacking all who don’t bend a knee? Is starting a trade war with our best friend because we want its resources a good idea? Is a potential war with our NATO allies over a block of ice that America already has access to a brilliant strategy? Will presidential cheating be allowed at all sporting events? Even boxing? What happened to the shining city on a hill?

I wonder what American children will be taught in 20 years. Will we be examined like the German people supporting the rise of the Third Reich and becoming the enemy of the free world? I suppose it depends on who is writing the history.

If it’s Trump, you can bet it will all be Biden’s fault.

Gold Purchase

My very dear Clara,

The rain continues to cascade across the jungle and indications are that it will continue until I drown in its monotonous patter. My time here is short for I must soon take my leave of this island for travel. Herein, I will attempt to inform you of my well-being here in Asia in the wettest of seasons.

The rains are constant and the air can be cut with a knife. As I write, I have to wipe the sweat that drips off my knuckles from the keyboard with a damp cloth. (Nothing dries here.) Yesterday I found mold in my navel. It might have spread to more serious areas so I have taken the precaution of vinegar baths twice daily. It’s a little nuts, but it won’t spread there if you catch my meaning.

It’s little wonder, my dear Clara, that I discovered the fungus for navel gazing is the extent of life on the island. It is devoid of visitors that make it a vibrant destination in the high and dry time of year. Today there are less than 400 hearty souls surviving this confounded wet season. There are no raging parties, blaring techno, or scooters careening dangerously on the roadways. It is solitude on an epic scale. I fear I may become addicted and resentful when the high and dry season returns with its accompanying hordes.

I suppose that is selfish and I ask that you excuse me for my self-indulgent and sinful thoughts to hoard the island for myself.

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The waves crash in a never-ending cacophony of sound. Here, on the lonely reaches of the beach, I am pleased to say the swimming remains remarkable despite the increased surf. The beach has restored itself with two meters of replenishing sand arriving with the storms. This development quashed my fears of beach erosion and I am in awe of this miraculous act of restorative nature. Clara, we are all truly blessed.

I have taken up the quaint activity of body boarding. The wind-whipped waves harbor an exquisite off-shore break that even a novice such as I can ride for 100 meters. Besides hiking, bicycling, surfing, and navel gazing I have little entertainment to fill my days.

My nights are as devoid of entertainment as well. Midnight last week I descended to the beach to watch the alleged meteor shower. Not many shooting stars careened through the sky but the Milky Way was close enough to touch. And, Clara, the sea was full of glowing plankton! I was out until the wee hours but retreated before the it rained stars. I saw two. Ho hum.

Please, Clara, do not despair for I am muddling through.

Food is spotty on the island with only 10 restaurants to choose from. Mostly local cuisine but I scrounged around and sprang for a pizza last night. It is tragic that the other 40 restaurants are closed, yet I scrape by on Penang Curry, Massaman, and the occasional chicken satay. These meager rations keep me sated and, unfortunately, my girth maintains itself.

It’s a strange culture, indeed. People here toil tirelessly in the high and dry season, make what they need for the year, and then wrap their businesses in netting to protect them from the rains and take six months off. This lack of desire to capitalize year-round confuses my western mind. It’s as if money isn’t as important as quality of life. Strange thinking.

The rain has ceased and I must cross the island in search of massage. It is one of the sacrifices I make every few days to assure that the little shops have customers. I’m so glad some professionals work year-round and my sacrifice to support their ambitions is the least I can do.

Clara, my pet, I miss you dearly, but I may never return to your arms. I watch the happenings in the United States and feel for the people there. I fear my return would contribute one more body to the problem. With truly altruistic motives I choose to wait until the situation improves or requires a helping hand in the future. The reconstruction may need me, but the destruction I will wait out. Be strong, Clara.

Please, my dear, until that time comes, keep me in your heart and don’t ruminate on these hardships I have detailed. As I have laid out, the rainy season can be withstood with determination, Massaman, and vinegar.

And massage.

Forever yours,

John

Massage Funding

From the moment he snubbed thousands of his supporters who had traveled to Washington D.C. to give him the biggest crowd in inauguration history, Donald Trump telegraphed his intention for his second coming. Using the excuse that it was “too cold” outside to speak to the MAGA supporters who had spent their hard-earned dollars to see him, and make him happy to be among his legions of fantatics.

The MAGA believers outside had fulfilled their end of the bargain by voting for him and, being of no further use to him, he immediately tossed them under the bus and addressed the plutocrats he would soon govern in favor of.

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Slinking out of Türkiye by hiding in a food truck reeking of the Filet o’ Fish it had just stocked Air Force One with is another fine example of his ruthless disregard for anyone but himself. Retaining the call sign “Air Force One” on the decoy plane when it should have been transferred to the plane the president was traveling on was a cynical act. The people onboard were told to lower their shades so they couldn’t see him cowering in the cart.

This was a conscious decision to offer up a planeload of people as sacrificial lambs. He was probably testing to see if Iran would blow the plane out of the sky. Had they done it he would have a reason to launch a nuclear rebuke. He needs a way out of the war he has lost and, attack on him or not, he’s looking for a reason to nuke Iran.

It’s important to note that Marco Rubio was informed that Trump was bailing out due to a threat. If so, it was brave of the Secretary of State to offer up his own martyrdom so America can finally win in Iran. The question is whether Little Marco was informed the call sign wasn’t going to be transferred off the jet. Someone ought to ask him.

On the bright side, he also offered up Stephen Miller.

But I digress. When it comes to the average American it is evident we are in danger from his disregard for us as well. We are useful only in what he can get from us. Vote for him or you won’t have a country anymore. Well, that’s a little fucking late, don’t you think? Don’t vote for him and he’ll send a hunter-killer drone after your lunatic, radical, fascist, socialist vermin ass. (Not yet, but it’s coming.)

Anyone can be targeted by his private office of prosecutors and be accused of anything he wants to accuse that person of. The Department of Justice is a nuclear weapon if it is turned on you. It may not get a conviction, but it will destroy you, and that cruelty is the point. That must give Trump the only hard-on he can enjoy.

Most recently, he sent his prosecutorial goons after Olympic champion David Hearn for “vandalizing” the shit job that he had done on his pond scum vanity project. Davey Hearn is a scapegoat to cover for his own incompetence. It is never Trump’s fault. He won’t let it go, either. On his word the DOJ is poised to go after Hearn again after admitting in writing it was a “botched” job. There’s a poetic irony in Trump’s version of Narcissus admiring himself in his reflecting pool with the scum staring back at him. Zeus has a fine sense of humor.

The other two people whose lives he is about to destroy over his pond scum weren’t Olympic champions so they remain unknown victims of a powerful vindictive government. Nameless, faceless but swept up in a madman’s desire to deflect his inadequacies. Americans shrug because it’s happening to someone else. Instead of demanding this bullshit end now, Americans simply await their turn. Like lambs to the slaughter.

I watched the congressional testimony of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss after Rudy Giuliani and Trump himself accused the poll workers of passing flash drives to rig the Georgia vote. Two finer ladies couldn’t be found in the entire United States. Women who love their country enough to volunteer as election workers. To support their democracy. True patriots.

The president of the United States singled them out by name. No regard for the facts. No evidence. Just two American women that he considered expendable. They endured death threats from his idiotic base, the women were afraid to go to the market, they lost respect in the community because the president, the most powerful man in the world, used his bully pulpit to lay blame at their feet for his own shortcomings. Scapegoats to blame for being such a horrible president in his first term that he lost a reliably red state like Georgia. If he’ll do it to those women, he’ll do it to you. Trump should’ve been the one who lost respect. Yet here we are in this fucked up timeline where bullying is rewarded.

No one is safe from his psychotic whims. He doesn’t care that there is no evidence. He doesn’t care about the lives he destroys. He is amoral beyond comprehension. Cruel to a fault. He actually should be taken out of office and studied by experts to understand how a human baby can grow up to become such an empty vessel.

The episode in Ankara should be the straw that breaks the facade of this poor excuse of a man. It should be the last time he ever posts his head on Rambo’s body. Patton, MacArthur, and Trump my ass. Trump couldn’t wipe their asses. No more images of him riding a lion unless it’s The Cowardly Lion. Judge him by his actions, not by his childishly crafted image of himself.

If the shit hits the fan, he’ll run away if he can and just proved it. He’ll hide and he just proved that. As a matter of protocol, the call sign “Air Force One” should have been removed from the plane the president was not flying on. He didn’t. He used the plane as bait. He hid behind a human shield of unsuspecting people, knowing they would take the hit to save his worthless hide, to preserve a presidency that is slowly being destroyed by Iran.

He’ll blame someone else. He always does. Probably the Secret Service.

Exactly what a coward would do.

Tip Jar

A reader of my last rant admonished me for presumably encouraging people not to vote in the mid-terms. The reader understood me to say that because Trump will never accept the results, and use every underhanded authoritarian method in the book to block any results he deems dangerous to his reign, that it is fruitless to vote. Nothing could be further from my intent.

While I do encourage all MAGAts to listen to their orange Jesus that the election is rigged and, therefore, fruitless to participate in, I do encourage everyone else to vote like your life depends on it. Because it truly does. This will be the most important mid-term election in history. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it is true.

What little of American power and respect in the world that still remains has to be salvaged in order to rebuild America. Americans need to vote in numbers too big to rig or it will all disappear.

I have been baffled by the indifference of Americans to the loss of so many American institutions that made America the leader of the free world. I have come to the conclusion that, despite the positive aspects of the American system of governance, the negatives outweigh it and it has become necessary to destroy the entire thing and start over. Indifference is endemic simply because Americans want the system to die.

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Trump will definitely go down as the most consequential president in history, but perhaps not for what he would care to read in 100 years. (If he could read:) He is the final symptom of a disease running rampant in America’s body politic. The destruction he has wrought and his plans to wreak in the next few years will usher in a new age in America. His cancerous presence will ensure that the America we have known our entire lives will be declared dead. RIP. Hope everyone’s happy. It will be a brand new day.

The transition into the a new American system isn’t going to be pretty if the checks and balances to control Trump aren’t put into place quickly (yesterday). Saving parts of the old American system now will serve as a foundation to build the new. Not everything about American government needs change, but there are important issues to address. Conserving essential government functions will be impossible if an opposition Congress isn’t seated to check and balance his wrecking ball.

That’s why plain speaking, intelligent, preferably younger candidates should have your attention. People that don’t think the internet is a series of tubes. Someone with a grasp of AI and all of its unchecked dangers. Someone that recognizes the sun is a power source, that windmills don’t cause cancer, and that the climate is about to kill us. A person whose prescription for an ailing economy does not include lowering taxes on the wealthy. Someone who isn’t kissing the orange tyrant’s ass. And, most importantly, a candidate that recognizes that money in politics is legalized bribery.

America must wrest control of the country away from the wealthy who own the government. For you see, and even if you don’t, the wealthy are the enemy of the people. It is not class warfare to say so, because the wealthy have waged it on the people since the invention of wealth. Quietly. Now that it’s out in the open it needs to be discussed in the light of day. They will scream that they are being singled out as the bad guys. Let them scream at cats. They are the bad guys.

A billionaire who purchased a president is now the world’s first human trillionaire. The investment obviously paid off. That shit has to be stopped. The oil companies who donated a billion dollars each to his reelection are posting multi-billion dollar record profits while the people of the country, the people who really own these resources, go broke buying their own oil. The ability to buy political favors, tax cuts, and access to the treasury belongs to a very small club. When the country burns to the ground it will be important to recognize this club when it begins forming again.

While the ashes are smoldering you can bet these plutocrats will be there to begin the rebuilding. It’s important that they have a seat at the table, but their share can’t be bigger than the plumber, the taxi driver, or the unwed mother in need of help from the future government. Because if the plutocrats have their way, all will die.

America will need truly intelligent people to move on positively. The dark ages Trump’s wrecking ball will soon usher in are going to be shared by the entire planet. We will need our allies, for they too will have to change their systems to survive the new world order. Vote for people who recognize the importance of having friends; not people who have no friends. Serious times call for serious people. Not made-for-reality-TV empty suits with pretty faces.

George Carlin famously said, “It’s a club and you ain’t in it.” It’s time to join. Salvage the pieces of America worth saving. Jettison the rest. Begin by jettisoning the wrecking ball.

Vote!

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The only reason I publish these articles for the three or four people that read them is to make me feel better. Its a cathartic exercise that helps me exhume the detritus that the Trump administration shits on America, and me, daily.

But it’s difficult.

So much bullshit flies at America daily that I write an article and spend a day editing it only to have its topical subject disappear. Flooding the zone works.

Just last week, and it seems like eons ago, the reflecting pool was center stage. Soon-to-be-former attorney for D.C., Judge “Pinot Noir” Pirro, put in writing that the bullshit her boss was spouting was bullshit. She’ll likely be fired for not perpetuating the bullshit and disbarred for attempting to prosecute it. Or maybe not. She may give Trump a blowjob and keep her job. I can’t imagine it, but now that I have, I can’t unsee it. She still should be disbarred.

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Todd Blanche was confirmed as Attorney General. Luckily for him the president plans a blanket pardon for anyone who has ever come within 250 feet of the Oval Office. Blanche is so close to Trump he can change his diaper with his teeth. His confirmation will mean that Trump will basically back a truck up to the treasury and take what little is left. The rule of law in America is not a thing thanks to the leadership of Donald Trump. I predict Todd Blanche will become the first Attorney General in history to be disbarred.

The new TDS. Trump Disbarment Syndrome. Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman. Michael Cohen, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeanine Pirro, and Todd fucking Blanche. Former lawyers and a couple of future former lawyers. Good fucking riddance. Trump casts them all aside in his rancid wake.

Rand Paul, brought Anthony Fauci in to rip him a new asshole over Covid. The Republicans were ruthless. Fauci, who is at least twice as intelligent as everyone in the room combined, wouldn’t answer a single question. Good for him. These sick fucks were trying to entrap him by hoping he would contradict whatever they had in writing in his diary that they stole. An 85 year old who spent 54 years of his life studying and fighting pathogens being entrapped by a pedophile protectorate. Embarrassing.

Fauci is no longer working. Many other professionals aren’t either thanks to Trump. There are only three people in charge of food safety due to DOGE. Shit your brains out, America. Men like Fauci were the difference between America and Third World shitholes Trump complains about. Government works behind the scenes to protect you. Now that it isn’t working, you’ll notice.

The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging. Very good advice for an indifferent nation on the edge of burying itself.

In the meantime, not one of these Republican bitches who grew enough spine to attack a respected public servant, have checked or balanced a president on his way to stealing $9 billion in four years from Americans. Whose bank accounts were closed for money laundering. Not to mention 3.5 million missing files about wealthy pedos using poor people’s sons and daughters as their living sex dolls.

I’m not sure what it is that makes the average person so indifferent. The country is being robbed blind and that means every person in America is paying for it. Market manipulations, insider trading, blatant bribery, and the list goes on. Every dollar Trump steals comes from your IRS bill on April 15. Keep paying your taxes. Trump won’t.

Que sera sera.

Maybe Americans think they can change it around with the mid-term elections. Do you even think for one minute the election results will be honored by this administration? I have no idea what’s up its sleeve, but I can assure you that there is a plan to make sure that a new House of Representatives will not be seated.

If the election doesn’t go to the Republicans, you can bet your ass that every fucking country on earth meddled with it. Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan, not Russia because it loves Trump and he loves it, will have hacked it. National election emergencies will be declared. Election machines will be seized. This will be contested to every hanging chad.

Trump has no plan to answer to the American people by way of an election. Why would he continue fucking America so? I can only guess that it’s because the American people like to get fucked. Bent over, wallet exposed, and no lubrication, fucked.

Anyway, maybe a subject will pop up that I can write about and edit for quality that won’t become obsolete before I post it.

This one obviously isn’t it, but it was cathartic.

America has tried different economic philosophies over the last 50 years under different presidents. America used trickle down economics under Ronald Reagan. The philosophy is to lower taxes on the wealthy and they’ll spend that money to create jobs for the nation. Come to find out they will build rocket ships to shoot their hot girlfriends into space. Expensive way to get laid, but look at the source.

Trickle down has been around forever. In the late 1800s it was known as Horse and Sparrow Economics. The people of that time were a little smarter than people today. They knew a bad idea when they saw it. The way they described it was the horse ate all the grain and the sparrow picked through the shit on the road for any grain that was left behind. Consider the added shit of blowing up the national debt, those olden folks got it right.

Reagan’s economy created millions of jobs and left behind the dangerous philosophy of the Republican party that cutting taxes on the wealthy is an economic panacea. He busted unions, vetoed civil rights legislation, and tripled the national debt. He left office being remembered as a great orator, another good reason why actors should stay out of politics.

Reagan had a partying economy going on but the morning after needed to be cleaned up. An honorable man, George H.W. Bush, came into the White House and promised, “Read my lips! No new taxes!” He then saw the horse shit that was blowing up the national debt and responsibly acted to raise taxes. That earned him no second term and scorn from the right who bitch constantly about the national debt. That is, until they’re in office. Then it magically disappears and they spend like schoolgirls at the mall with Daddy’s credit card.

Oh, the Republicans. The Grand Old Party. I miss them so.

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Along came Clinton who benefited greatly from Bush’s tax increase. He tweaked it a bit and ran one of the fastest growing economies of the century. Clinton had responsible corporate taxes funding the government. He made America solvent. The world invested in America because of it and 22.5 million jobs later he is the top creator of employment in the last 50 years. He’s proof perverts are better at governing than actors. He even ran a surplus that, had it continued another decade or two, might’ve paid off the debt.

But no, along came another lower taxes, and spend like you got it, Republican, George W. Bush. He saw all that money, that should be going to his wealthy friends, was instead increasing the American people’s treasury. He lowered taxes on the wealthy again. Then did what no one with common sense would do –– took the country into war.

War is super expensive and Bush ran the debt to astronomical numbers. He then accidentally broke the economy and, because tax cuts weren’t an option, had no arrows in his Republican quiver to fix it.

Luckily, he was on his way out, anyway. In came Obama who worked diligently to infuse the system with much-needed cash. Despite Republican opposition, Obama took an economy shedding 600,000 jobs per month, turned it around, and created 12.5 million jobs during his two terms. Obamanomics not only saved America, it made it stronger.

Next up was Trump. He inherited Obama’s hard work. The economy was humming and, until he ran up against a health crisis he was clueless to manage, took credit for it. The age-old Republican sabotage of responsible debt management was employed –– lowering taxes on the wealthy. He imposed tariffs on the world, which resulted in a bailout of farmers by the American taxpayer. (Something he must love to do.) Mostly, he watched television and golfed for four years which, with the exception of running the second highest debt of any president in 50 years, didn’t do too much damage. (George W. Bush beat him.) He left office as the only American president in 50 years to have a net job loss. Anyway, after four years of general mayhem, he was denied a second (consecutive) term.

Joe Biden entered and brought a new brand of Obamanomics. He inherited Trump’s Covid mess and, without bitching and moaning about it, set about fixing it. His “build from the Middle Class out” approach worked wonders on the economy. Inflation went from 9% to 2.5% at the end of his term –– the strongest recovery from Covid in the world. However, the severed supply lines caused by the pandemic took time to get back on track, the Russians invaded Ukraine and drove up fuel prices, and the American people blamed it all on Biden when prices remained high. Americans think a president should be able to turn a gigantic lumbering aircraft carrier of an economy around on a dime and what was working slowly, but surely, was sent packing before it played out.

Now we have Trump again. He’s back to spending tons of money (and making a lot for himself). He’s a good reason why even shitty actors should stay out of politics. He has also ruined it for perverts. Not sure how his term will end. General mayhem is a safe bet, though.

Through all 50 years America hasn’t attempted Democratic Socialism. It’s a governing/economic philosophy whose time has come –– again.

The last great Democratic Social programs instituted were Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare/Medicaid. The same arguments conservatives use against anything that benefits the public were used against LBJ. Social programs are feared by Capitalists making money because it takes a source of revenue out of their pockets. In this case older, sick people could get medical care without bankrupting themselves. Luckily, Johnson had majorities in both houses of Congress and it passed. Now it’s the goal of every American to live long enough to enjoy socialized medicine.

Democratic Socialism was instituted after World War II with the GI Bill. This brilliant implementation of socialism handed free educations to millions of returning troops. Those people became the American Middle Class that fueled America’s success from the 1950s on. If any American is intelligent enough to qualify for higher education a lack of funds should never be an impediment. Guaranteed higher education leaves no mind behind. It’s amazing what can happen when you educate poor kids, too.

Prior to that Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the country from the Great Depression by using socialism. He instituted the most popular socialist program in history –– Social Security. He created the FDIC, the SEC, and the National Labor Relations board. All these agencies were created with the idea of regulating the Capitalists that had gotten the country into the Great Depression. Capitalists hated him enough to plot his assassination. It’s always a Capitalist crying that Socialism is dangerous because it truly is dangerous to their bank accounts.

FDR outlawed child labor, imposed a minimum wage (that is now a joke thanks to a pro-business Congress), and mandated overtime pay. It’s safe to say that the last time Democratic Socialism was employed to govern the country almost everything it did improved the lives of the ordinary American. These Democratic Social policies are still the most popular government programs today.

It would require a progressive majority in both houses of Congress to institute policies that improve people’s lives, but by 2028 it might be possible. America simply has to field a majority of representative government officials that will work to improve the lives of the American people over the benefit of the wealthy donor class. As Democratic Socialists are elected and prove their style of government works, the idea that using government to help ordinary people is “communism” will reveal that old argument’s absurdity.

Democratic Socialism is an ideology whose time has come again. It actually is the governing/economic philosophy that made America great.

Maybe we can put that on a hat.

Buy me a Beer

From the second your Father’s strongest swimmer enters and fertilizes your Mother’s egg you have entered the Capitalist system. Hopefully, it’s a fantastic orgasm because it’s going to cost your parents hundreds of thousands of dollars. You are now a drop of zygote oil in the engine of Capitalism. Welcome.

The next nine months the Capitalist health care system of the United States of America will begin sucking your parents dry. The entire cost of your first nine months will be close to $20,000, barring complications. Buckle up, buttercup, you’re just starting to feed the beast.

After your glorious entrance, your smack on the butt to initiate you to the loss of security in your Mother’s womb, you’re ready for the cold, cruel world. It will cost your folks around $30,000 to raise you to five-years-old. A lot of that money will go to daycare centers. Your parents have to park you somewhere so they can work all day to afford to keep parking you there. This is Capitalism at its finest. An endless cycle of making money and taking money. Your parents are handcuffed to their employment in order to feed a vicious system that never lets them get ahead.

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Finally, at five-years-old your parents get a break. The government, your parent’s tax dollars, societal planning, call it what you will, but public school is Democratic Socialism. No more paying into the Capitalist system because in the scheme of things the taxes that everyone pays that go into public schools are way lower than the private business of a day care.

The public school system was set up to make sure your parents can still work while you go to school. Government isn’t stupid. It knows parents need a place to continue to park you so they can contribute to society, pay their taxes, and keep the entire system running smoothly. It’s government subsidization of business with the bonus that you might learn something. If you don’t, it moves you through anyway. The world needs ditch diggers, too.

Your folks have 12 years to work, feed you, and hopefully save for your higher education. If they can’t save for your college, it will be up to you to procure a student loan. Luckily, the government will lend you what you need. Unfortunately, it seems to be a little Capitalistic for a government program with interest rates up to 12%. After you leave college you’d better find an awesome job or you’ll be paying student loans for the rest of your life.

Handcuffed again. Capitalism has a way of keeping you paying it.

Sure, there are plenty of success stories. Capitalism does reward people mightily if they can implement a plan and tenaciously follow it to success. If you invent a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door. Zuckerberg, Bezos, and other groundbreaking tech wizards are the exceptions, not the rule.

After you have left home your parents finally get a break from paying for you. Maybe. But you are out on your own working to become Bezos as hard as you can. Because you believe if you work hard and play by the rules you will succeed. The American Dream is yours.

And then you have a fantastic orgasm and the whole Capitalistic system kicks in to suck you dry. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, bucko. A second job isn’t going to kill you.

Then Dad gets sick. Cancer. He hasn’t quite made it to the magic number of 65 yet. He doesn’t have the Democratic Socialism advantage of Medicare. He’s a fighter, though. Responding to treatment. He’ll make it. His entire life savings is being sucked dry by the private health care system. In six months your father has run a bill of $70,000. After Dad beats the disease it’s $8,000 a month for continuing care.

Your parents can’t shell out $100,000 for these costs. Dad will have to spend some time in a nursing home. He needs to start Medicaid for long-term care. Of course, your parent’s assets are considered and, having a modicum of success in life, Dad doesn’t qualify. They hire lawyers to help. More expenses on top of his already expensive nursing facility. He qualifies but the state now has the right to be reimbursed from his estate. Their life savings are going dry.

Finally, your Dad makes it to 65 and it’s like the weight of the world has been lifted. Everyone in America works toward this age when they can finally breathe easier knowing they will be taken care of if they get sick. Americans don’t realize it, but they are striving to get out of the Capitalistic system and enter the Democratic Socialist era of life.

Dad passes away.

The funeral home is next. The last Capitalist to suck your parents dry. They respectfully hand Mom a catalog of funeral services. From cremation and an urn to a hearse and a royal memorial service complete with mourners if you need them. Nothing below $1,000 and from there it can easily go over $10,000 to lay your Dad to rest.

You’d think that would be the end of feeding the beast, but Mom inherited Dad’s medical debt. Even though they still loved each other, your parents should’ve divorced years ago and begun cohabitating. Many people do simply because the legal requirements of marriage means debts must be paid by the surviving spouse.

This scenario isn’t universal. Your mileage may vary depending on the job path you take, or the mouse trap you may invent. However, Capitalism requires that many stay down so a few can rise. Unfortunately, this tale is a common scenario for millions.

In the end, some work their entire lives and give it all back to the system. Sucked dry. Nothing personal; it’s business. Thank you for your contribution to society.

Next.

Tip Jar

The constant stream of cucks in Trumpworld never ends. Last week, Jay Clayton, in his confirmation hearing for Director of National Intelligence would not state that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. This question has become standard for Trump’s nominees so much that the nominees are now calling it “political theatre.”

Actually, it’s a test. Donald Trump believes he won in 2020 and anyone who works for him had better believe it, too. They must prostrate themselves before this falsehood in front of Congress and the American people to appease Trump and submit to the realization that he is cuckolding them. They need to understand that this humiliation can be administered at will as long as they work for him.

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On that answer alone Jay Clayton should not become Director of National Intelligence. He’s a pussy. Which is weird because he’s quite qualified compared to other know-nothing imbeciles in Trump’s cabinet. But the senate will approve him just as they always approve whatever cuckolded cabinet nominee appears before them.

This is because almost all the Republicans in the senate are Trump’s cucks. They can’t uncuck themselves until they decide to retire, or Trump retires them for not being one hundred percent docile cucks. John Cornyn, who will have a vote on Clayton, was defiant enough to only vote with Trump 91% of the time. He might be pissed enough to lower that average because Trump kicked him to the curb by not endorsing him in this primary. Trump was sending a message to rest of his cucks. Unwavering 100% loyalty or else.

The Senate has voted to approve such unqualified cucks as Pete Hegseth. They gave Tulsi Gabbard top secret clearance without bothering to check out her reported membership in a cult. They will likely confirm Todd Blanche who will become known as the most corrupt Attorney General in history. I don’t even have to predict that. He’s already proven it while he’s been in the DOJ.

The Republican Senators are far worse than cucks. They are complicit toadies enabling the destruction of the American government. This is tantamount to treason and should be investigated when Trump leaves office. Make sure the cucks in Congress pay for their collaboration in this travesty. If they like being someone’s bitch so much, send these collaborators to prison. It won’t happen. But it should.

The cuckolding of elected American representatives is a very difficult timeline to watch. Checks and balances were placed into the Constitution to prevent cuckolding. Never in American history have so many weak, pathetic men assembled in one place to engage in relinquishing awesome power and responsibility to one domineering person. The Republican Senators and House members should be forced to wear pink pussy hats. If Trump told them to do it, I’d bet on Kalshi they would.

Yet here we are. The Congress has handed America a government of Beavis and Buttheads that don’t know what they don’t know. The price of the destruction of the American government is already high. The bill for groveling at the Don’s feet is coming due.

The war is ramping up, and gas prices are following it. North America is on fire, the desert southwest is out of water, measles parties are back, screwworms will probably eat a child, and explosive diarrhea is a metaphor for the country. Not to mention blatant corruption on a level never imagined by top mob bosses.

These are problems professionally staffed government agencies were tasked with keeping America free from. These protections made us First World. Competent people worked behind the scenes safeguarding American’s health, environment, and rule of law. Their absence has become too obvious to ignore. These crises won’t be solved by podcasters no matter how “central casting” they look on camera. The cucked up Republican Congress is to blame.

Americans are about to discover that the government they loved to hate was the only thing standing between superpower status and Third World shithole.

Tip Jar

Lindsey Graham has died. Mitch McConnell may be dead. These things always come in threes. No way we have that kind of luck.

My condolences to their families. They spent their lives being divisive right-wing power players. No one wished them any ill, but Americans cursed their existence. After their deaths America will never be the same due to their policies. However, no one will be quoting these assholes as American visionaries of any consequence.

Graham never met a war he didn’t like. Sacrificing the proletariat’s kids to the battlefield was an easy decision for him. Send them in to protect Israel, defeat Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Venezuela, or whatever far-flung geopolitical crisis the government continually manufactures. Graham could always be counted on to cheerlead the death and destruction.

His ability to blow with the political winds was legendary. He derided Trump for years before the Donald became president. Once faced with the fact that Trump was elected, he shape-shifted into a staunch supporter. He conveniently ignored Trump’s remarks that Graham’s best friend in the senate, John McCain, was not a war hero.

To be sure he was a cuck in sea of Republican cucks. But Graham was a cuck of epic proportions.

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Thanks to Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell women’s rights have been stripped away. Roe v. Wade was overturned by their shenanigans in intervening with President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. These men were elected to protect the constitution, not political power.

These days it doesn’t appear that anyone cares about the constitution and the rights it gives Americans so I suppose they were thought leaders at the time.

He voted to allow the NSA to monitor American’s phone calls. He passed laws to make it easier to torture detainees in the Guantanamo Bay penitentiary. Despite his obvious proclivities Lindsey Graham worked hard to define marriage for some and outlaw it for others. He was a Republican that crowed about freedom and worked to yank freedom away from groups his voter base in North Carolina disagreed with. He was a true Animal Farm politician.

He did some good. He served in the military. He worked to protect horses from being slaughtered. He passed a very basic gun control amendment. He was a Republican that believed the climate is changing. His record seemed moderate at times and batshit crazy at other times. He blew with the political winds and survived because of it.

Most of all Lindsey Graham represented what the Republican Party has morphed into. Weak men impotent to use the equal powers of their positions in government to effectively run a democracy. These cuckold men are the great majority in the Republican Party. One vote defying their orange master and they are primaried out of office. They have no allegiance to the country’s people, only to holding on to whatever it is that they think passes for power.

In the end Lindsey Graham should’ve stood up to Trump because he didn’t live to retain his seat. Proof that doing the right thing is a better choice than doing what will only further your ambitions. Life is short and people will remember your actions. A legacy of cowardice in the pursuit of power will become the theme of this era when history is taught in the future. Lindsey Graham will be a case study. On the bright side, he will be remembered forever in a Benedict Arnold sort of footnote.

Lindsey’s corpse isn’t cold and the speculation on who will replace him has already begun. In South Carolina, the Republican governor will appoint a replacement for Graham. There won’t be a Democrat stepping in for the rest of Graham’s term.

In Kentucky, where Mitch McConnell is lying around the hospital making phone calls to everyone but the media, a special election must be called to replace him. But if the senator dies 56 days before the election the seat must remain vacant. So Mitch needs to keep lying around until early August. Obstructing replacements for people who died in offices of important national interest was a hobby of McConnell’s. He’ll be going out in August doing what he loves.

The fear is that a boot-licking sycophant will emerge to carry on being a cuck for the president. It’s inevitable. But these cucks will be remembered not just by history, but by justice. American democracy has proven to be difficult to overturn even as it is chipped away piece by piece. There will, however, come a time when Americans finally figure out what they’re losing.

When that time comes these men will be losing their jobs. Some may even lose their freedom when it’s all said and done. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell have cemented their places in history. They are the lucky ones who won’t have to carry their shame of the actions while still living.

May Lindsey Graham rest in peace in the afterlife he deserves. In August I’ll say the same for McConnell.

Tip Jar

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Declaration of Independence

1776

Happy 250th birthday America! We’ve come a long way from the day our Founding Fathers declared divorce from England and its petty king. On July 4th we celebrate that separation with bombs bursting in air and a lot of red glare. The king was dead to Americans in 1776, and we fought a bloody war on our own soil for these freedoms.

Much of the Declaration of Independence is a list of grievances against the king. It is a bitch fest of epic proportions. However, most people’s knowledge of the document pertain to the quote I copied above. And they are interesting if we break them down a little.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It does go without saying that all men and women of the world are co-equals on this planet and this is self-evident. Common sense says that you are not more important than anyone else in the world. Of course, this is not the way people think.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

George Orwell

Animal Farm

This prescient quote sums up people’s thought processes. Everyone is self-important. The more successful you are on this planet the more importance you place on your existence. It’s a natural human condition. Some people believe that others belong beneath them. The Founding Fathers, despite being wealthy slave owners, were idealists. They likely felt in their guts that their station in life was a sham, so they wrote what they believed even if they didn’t practice it. All men are equal. No one is more important than anyone else.

“…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Life.

The king held little regard for the lives of the colonists. The king’s soldiers killed colonists without remorse. Never fairly tried, or never charged, sit was simply a government-issued license to kill. It was one of the grounds for this divorce decree:

“For protecting them, by a mock trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:”

Alex Pretti and Rene Good’s government killers didn’t get close to a mock trial. Never detained, barely investigated, a simple government-issued license to kill. Americans have the right to life. A government disregarding that foundation of American ideals should be abolished.

Animals that are more equal than other animals tend to eat the lesser animals.

Tangled Pudding

2026

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Liberty.

Liberty is freedom.

In the USA there freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, and the freedom to petition the government. That is only the First Amendment to the Constitution. The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 didn’t forget about freedoms in 1789 when they ratified the Constitution. They had principles, and convictions.

All Americans can agree on this one word. Liberty is an American value that never should be taken for granted.

Which brings me to the “pursuit of happiness.”

What makes you happy? What makes me happy? Whatever it is, it is enshrined in the Declaration and in the Constitution. It’s the freedom to be yourself. The freedom to do what you love to do. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, you should be free to do it.

Unless it’s something some groupthink doesn’t like. Then it’s got to be stopped before it corrupts society. Don’t be gay. Don’t be stoned. Don’t be an atheist. Don’t be trans. Don’t be a socialist. Be what the group wants you to be.

Not understanding that the pursuit of happiness belongs to the individual and not the groupthink doesn’t cross the group’s mind. The pursuit of happiness is dangerous to these people. Maybe they’re not happy and don’t want anyone else to be. Maybe it’s that they, like the people who believe some are more equal than others, suffer from the human condition that they are always right. Maybe they’re just assholes.

Whatever the reason, these people employ demented thinking that should be avoided in a country that values the right to be happy. If what another person is doing doesn’t directly affect your life, let them lead theirs without interference. Mind your own damned business! Give them the liberty to pursue their own happiness.

On this, the 250th birthday of the greatest democracy on the face of the Earth, Americans should read the documents that give them such a country. Instead of blowing out candles and blowing up rockets, they should sit down for a few minutes and contemplate the 250 year history of blood, sacrifice, and toil that got the country this far.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness should never be taken for granted for it can easily be replaced with something far more ominous. It will be difficult, bloodier, and far more sacrifice to get those ideals back than it was to protect them while you still could.

Happy birthday, America! Here’s to 250 more.

Tip Jar

Donald Trump’s new word for Democrats is hilarious. It’s hard to imagine how such a serious and consequential president has the time to be so witty while contributing mightily to the world’s predicaments. I’m going way out on a lim here to say he’s got to be the most brilliant world leader since Josef Stalin.

Dumocrat? What a joker! He says he was watching Hakeem Jeffries and thinking this guy is dum. He thought this Democrat is a dumocrat. All he had to do was replace the “E” in democrat with a “U” and then drop the “B” and he had a new slur for the Democrats.

I have no idea why he had to drop a “B.” We’ve all seen the movie “Dum and Dummer” so, as the president often points out, most Americans know there was never a “B” in dum. Really, most people don’t know that, Trump said it so it must be true. I wouldn’t correct him.

Correcting him would be like if he bought me shoes three sizes too big. I’d salute and say, “Thank you, sir!” and wear them everywhere knowing that someday when I get cankles like my idol they will fit. Always thinking of the future of his fellow Americans, that’s our president.

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From the moment the president awakens and coms his golden locks he has American’s future on his giant brain. His American family is always first and we are all his sons and daughters. America first! He rewards his sons and daughters by making sure that all make more money every day. Americans may be scrambling for breadcrums, but there’s no tax on tips so they can become waiters and blackjack dealers. Huge win!

Trump has pointed out that U.S. spells “us.” That’s such a special thought it almost brings a tear to my eye. It’s simply amazing that he spotted this incredible coincidence that America’s initials spell a word. US are all in this together, except for the radical left lunatic dumocrats and treasonous deranged judges.

With inclusive policies like US I can’t understand the neighsayers who keep screaming criticisms at him until they’re horse in the throat. He has brought drug prices down by 500%, 600%, even 1,000%. I actually wish I needed drugs so I could get some cash back. He has stopped illegal drugs coming into the country by sea. Not by “see.” By sea. Water. The ocean. See? These policies should be met with aplom and not be questioned by fake news reporters that never smile. Quiet, piggy.

He’s spent billions to stop windmills from making bird graveyards and driving the whales crazy. He’s saved animals by deporting people who eat dogs and cats. He got rid of the vaccines with microchips by getting rid of vaccines. And most importantly of all, little boys are no longer going to school and coming home turned into little girls. Huge problems solved!

He recognized that Americans were paying more for another old-fashioned word, “groceries.” He personally brought that old-fashioned word back from the dead. Probably hadn’t been used since the 1700s. Until the dumocrats dreamt up this hoax no one was even talking about groceries or another made-up word, “affordability.”

Trump declares that groceries are more affordable than ever before in America. Food may cost a little more, but he doesn’t care that Americans pay more for food as long as groceries are cheap. Suffice to say that the economy that was caught in mind numing inflation under “Sleepy” Joe Biden is now unleashed into beautiful new Trumpflation that he absolutely loves.

The mutilization of the economy the dumocrats had America succuming to is finished and we’re off to the races to perform the mutilization of everything. Some of US successful American family members are even moving on to greener pastures in Albania because America is now the hottest country in the world! Albania is nice, though.

America has been reborn from the dark catacoms of American carnage the thum sucking dumocrats had the nation entomed in. US is a new force to be reckoned with. America is strong, unnecessarily aggressive, and tireless in its quest to be a lion among lams. Watch out world! Donald Trump is going to take US on an “excursion” even if we don’t want to go. It’s difficult to fathom what the world will become when he is finished with it. But we’re going to fuck around and find out.

This new America was all made possible by our creative, witty, and tireless president and the MAGA movement he continues to excrete on every day. Americans can smell the success and knows it can Depends® on Trump. US is great again! Albania is great! Iran is great again! Soon Cuba, Greenland, and Canada can be great, just maybe not again.

And that’s just fucking great! Isn’t it?

No thanks to the dum-ass dumocrats.

Disclaimer: There is no such thing as a dumocrat. This is a name dreamt up by a person with a fourth grade intellect and, incredibly, is accepted as totally normal adult behavior from that person who is also the sitting president of the United States. Unreality.

Tip Jar

Why do people continue to call Donald Trump’s administration fascist? It seems so unfair and petty if it isn’t true. I wanted to know so I Googled “characteristics of fascism.” This article was printed in 2003, before “fake news” by Lawrence Britt. I didn’t know who that is, so I Googled him, too. Britt wrote an article called “Fascism Anyone,” that his the most pirated article in “Free Inquiry Magazine” history. And I’m continuing that streak. You can read the full descriptions in the article, but here are his condensed descriptions:

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

What should I say? Donald Trump French kisses and humps flags against their will. When you’re a star (and stripe) they let you do it, I guess.

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Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Approving of torture is why the left hated George W. Bush. (At least the left is consistent.) Trump isn’t waterboarding anyone as far as I know. The attacks on small craft in the Caribbean with the only justification being administration’s word that they are carrying drugs is summary execution without trial. Very undemocratic. Criminal, too.

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

The rallying of Americans into a patriotic frenzy never happened except on January 6. A lot of people hate minorities, liberals, and the rest, but an actual frenzy hasn’t been created. Only a minor cult of radicals. After the ICE ICE murdered two American citizens on camera, if anything, the idea of eliminating minorities through mass deportation has lost its popularity. Except on the Supreme Court, which appears to be a fascism enabler.

Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

The Department of War crimes is being funded by over a trillion dollars to fight $20,000 drones. “Thank you for your service” is on the lips of every American who never served. Using the sacrifices of military men and women to further a political agenda is loathsome.

Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

What else is there to say?

Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

I expected this one. CBS has been taken over by the Ellison family. 60 minutes is a shell of the deep-diving journalistic news program it was. Stephen Colbert is gone because the president can’t take a joke. CBS News is now Faux news without the blonde bimbos –– yet. Soon the Ellison’s will control Time Warner. See ya later, Jon Oliver. As for censorship, what the hell is going on in Iran?

Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

I’m not afraid. Fuck Nazis.

Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

Donald Trump doesn’t know enough about Christianity to pull this one off. Literally, he knows nothing. The best he can do is gas a bunch of people in order to hold a Bible upside down for a photo op. He’s more anti-Christ than Christ-like.

Corporate Power is Protected

The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

This one explains why the stock market keeps rising.

Labor Power is Suppressed

Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

I disagree that the “organizing power of labor is the only real threat to fascist government.” There are many other powerful organizations to combat Nazis. Luckily, our checks and balances in the court system have effectively shut down many bad policies. So far, unions haven’t been directly attacked and destroyed. Maybe next week.

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

Maybe next week as well. There’s only so many opponents you can arrest in a short period of time. 8647.

Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

The ICE ICE fit this bill. It has the ability to murder people in the streets and the official government murderers are not held accountable. This may be the most damning example of fascism under Trump yet. But as long as people are willing to “overlook police abuses” fascism wins. Fuck you, people.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Yeah well, if this isn’t true of the Trump crime family, nothing is. The Trumps made $4.5 billion during Donald’s term as of January. At his rate they’ll get back on the Forbes list, which I’m sure will tickle the Donald. Someone, and I’m serious here, should guard the treasury and Fort Knox before he backs a truck up to them.

Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media.Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Anyone want to take this one? Anyone?

***

I’ve made my observations. You decide for yourself if Trump’s administration is a fascist government according to the definitions of it. Then decide if it’s the perfect system for you, or worthy of a new direction. As of now you have the power to change it if you so choose.

Use it.

Buy Me a Damn Beer, Mark!

One of the facets of fascism is government and business operating as a partnership rather than a free-market model. America has enjoyed a Democratic Fascist government since at least 1893 when it sent its military to overthrow the sovereign country of Hawaii.

That year the white American businessmen of the islands decided that the indigenous Hawaiian government did not have their business interests in mind. For some reason Native Hawaiians didn’t want all their land sold off to the haoles to grow pineapples and military bases. American troops arrived and the queen of Hawaii was essentially held prisoner in Maui. Not harmed, but overthrown.

In his book “War is a Racket,” the most revered general of World War I, General Smedley Butler, wrote that he had personally militarily enforced the business interests of United Fruit, Standard Oil and other companies while serving in the armed forces. This is fascism but closely resembles the muscle that the Mafia uses to enforce its business interests. In the 1930s a “racket” referred to racketeers. General Butler pulled no punches.

The use of the American military to further business interests in uncooperative foreign lands is not uncommon. The overthrow of the president of Iran in 1953 is still reverberating. Do you think America went into Kuwait because it loves Middle East kingdoms? This Mafioso fascism has gone on forever in America. Do as we say or we’ll send in the muscle. It’s an ideology that will always be with us and it’s little wonder that it was invented in Italy; the home of the Mafia.

The other facet of fascism is an authoritarian leader. America has only recently arrived at this point. Americans have ignored the country’s military actions of the past, but now that they have become acquainted with a leader that personifies all that American power has perpetrated on the world, fascist doctrine in the US may run into a brick wall. The rise of Democratic Socialists of America is the wall hitting back.

Proper Democratic Socialism became popular under the New Deal of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He, of course, was labeled a communist by the business interests of the time. Wall Street hated his ideas so badly that they approached General Smedley Butler to enlist him in a plot to overthrow FDR. They knew he could rally the war veterans due to his immense popularity. He would raise an army and be installed as dictator. General Butler was an American who loved his country and the Constitution. He blew the whistle on this coup plot in front of congress but, as usual, these wealthy men were not brought in to testify on their sedition, probably because many congressmen were in on the plot. Some things never change.

Despite the fears that government spending money on the people of the nation would result in economic calamity, Roosevelt’s contributions to American Democratic Socialism remain the most popular programs in America. People look forward to receiving Social Security after a lifetime of working. Even after 90 years there is still a hatred by the capitalists for any programs that support the ordinary citizen. The knives are still out to get rid of any social safety systems.

The people that have drilled into your head that socialism is bad government are capitalists protecting their own selfish interests. The needs of the many are not as powerful as the lobbying of the few. Americans have been propagandized their entire lives that Socialism always fails despite dozens of countries where it didn’t.

The happiest nations of the world have the strongest social safety nets. People are much happier if their life savings aren’t threatened by one serious illness. That is security. Education should not be only for the wealthy. There are a lot of stupid kids whose families can afford college who definitely shouldn’t be taking up space in the nation’s colleges. A country is stronger if every mind can access the education that kid deserves.

Democratic Socialism is the reason the fire department doesn’t send a bill for extinguishing you burning house. It is clean drinking water from the city. It is roadways and streetlights. It’s the police if you run that streetlight. It’s everything that society receives as services when it pools its money in the form of taxes and spends it on itself.

Society. The root word of socialism. Societies work better when it works to further everyone’s common interests.

The historical military actions of America illustrates that fascist doctrine can exist in a democracy without a dictator. Vietnam and China prove that communism can complement capitalism. America has always been a Democratic Socialist country. Capitalism and socialism coexist quite nicely.

A wise man once said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”

America has to be exhausted by now.

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The 25 or so people who read these articles probably remember me saying there was no military solution to Donald Trump’s debacle of a war. Iran absorbed all the shock and awe Pistol Pete’s war department could throw at it. 13,000 strikes that destroyed everything militarily except the most powerful weapon Iran could access –– closing the strait of Hormuz.

Iran shrugged off the bombing and waited for the world economy to become unbearable pressure on Trump. It takes time, but gaslighting about American victory will not overcome the reality of gas shortages. The truth always wins.

I would like to congratulate Donald Trump for making the correct decision. The only two options were risking the destruction of every oil field in the Middle East and ushering in the Dark Ages, or surrendering, declaring victory, and moving on to invade Greenland.

I never imagined he would surrender due to his carefully crafted image of a tough guy businessman, but he did. I am very proud of him for swallowing his oversized ego and becoming the first American president to cry uncle. Doing it at Versailles was a historically significant stroke of genius. Maybe Macron was getting back at America for “freedom fries.” The French crack me up.

Maybe Trump has grown as a person. It’s great when he does something I agree with because it’s so rare. He had the world economy in mind. Nice job, Donald!

I’m kidding, of course. As usual he was thinking of himself. He told the press in Switzerland that he didn’t want to be remembered like Herbert Hoover. He mentioned that the world was facing an international depression. Not recession. Depression. His legacy is at stake. Not was, is, because this shit ain’t near over.

The Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, went straight to the infotainment shows and began gaslighting the nation. He said that transits through the Strait were already getting back to normal. Nothing to see here! 57 ships made it through in one day, but the average before the war was 138 per day. You do the math (41%). It’s better than nothing, but it’s not even close to normal.

As long as Iran can close the Strait, it is the master of the world, holding more power than America. This is the result of this illegal war. The most powerful country in the world brought to its knees by a fourth rate power.

Trump, likely furious over the welcome his memorandum got back home, is now blustering again. His bluster is old news that few pay attention to, but to listen to it while J.D. Vance is on the ground holding peace talks is exasperating. What goes on inside Trump’s head? Has he got a brain worm? The way he’s throwing J.D. under the bus it’s gotta be a screwworm.

When Marco Rubio took over the State Department he fired 80 staff members who specialized in Near East affairs. He then eliminated the department that dealt exclusively with Iran and combined it with Iraq. I feel for J.D. taking less than the most experienced negotiators into sensitive talks with a well-prepared adversary. Instead, he’s got two guys salivating to build golf courses. Like taking a knife to a gunfight.

I don’t hold out any hope.

There is a giant hole in the world’s oil supply. The Strait carried 20 million barrels a day. The USA stepped up and added six million to the world supplies. 14 million barrels short for 115 days. That two billion barrel hole in supply isn’t going away. Maybe the oil markets have this figured out, but more likely someone is about to get a huge payday when an actual physical shortage sends oil higher.

I despise it when I think of the American government’s rationale and a potential grift is the top motivation. It is what it is. This is not a financial advice column, but somewhere on Polymarket there’s a bet to be made. You may want to check. Chances are good some members of the administration already are.

The damage from this war has been done. It’s still a slow motion train wreck. The world economy is in for a major disruption. More oil can’t be found. It’s finite. This administration cannot gaslight its way out of acting with competence during a crisis. When the rubber hits the road America will learn the lesson of hiring completely unqualified people to do jobs that require some level of expertise. I hope it will learn, but I won’t hold my breath.

I do hope that Trump will muzzle himself. He needs to focus on fixing the swamp he built in Washington D.C. Not the grifters, the reflecting skyscraper thing. His time is much better used there.

This surrender needs to be negotiated and signed. This war is over and it really and truly needs to be. We’ll live with the fallout. Hopefully, it will be mild.

Nice job, though, Donald!

It appears that the FBI has uncovered a plot by a bunch of crazy young kids to blow up the recent UFC fight at the White House. Actually, the FBI didn’t so much uncover it; one of the kid’s mothers turned him in. This seems to be the preferred method of investigation into domestic terrorism under Kash Patel’s FBI. It was the method used to uncover the (very) alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk after the wrong person of interest was held and questioned while Keystone Kash tweeted about solving it. Oops! If it weren’t for concerned parents, Kash’s FBI would never solve a crime.

Disregarding the sheer incompetence of the director of the FBI and others, why are so many young people deciding that political violence is the answer to whatever the question is?

This country is built on the rule of law, we the people run it for our own benefit, and it bestows freedom upon us.

That sounds awesome. If it were only true.

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All of congress is allowed to trade stocks even as they make the laws affecting the companies they are trading in. Purely corrupt. With enough money no wealthy person accused of a crime ever sees the inside of a courtroom. Delay, delay, delay. A system bought and paid for. The Department of Justice is indicting people for life threatening seashells. It’s investigating politicians and their spouses without a shred of evidence hoping to FIND a crime. When that starts happening, things are going from bad to really fucked up. What if your local DA decides he doesn’t like you?

Luigi Mangione was at his wit’s end. Living with chronic pain and enduring the maddening injustice of an insurance company denying him coverage for health care. Insurance is part of health care. It’s also the primary reason people don’t get any. His murder of United Health Care’s CEO was reprehensible, but not unexpected. It sent messages. The health care system in America is broken, some people are desperate and angry, and CEOs need more bodyguards.

People support Luigi. Not because they agree with his actions, but because they can sympathize with his frustrations. As much as it’s spun that he has liberal support, I’d bet a significant amount of conservatives are with him. The mood of the country is not in support of corporations treading on people’s lives. And even more ironic, he’s likely getting better medical care for his ailments in prison. I hope, for his sake that he is. It’s really sad to say that.

Americans are told the elections are rigged, but only when one side loses. On the same ballot, in the same election, a candidate of the same party as the losing candidate can win, but the losing contender declares the ballot is rigged. Make that make sense. We hated sore losers when we were kids, now we support them in their spoil sport whining.

Our state legislatures are gerrymandering at will to destroy representative democracy. The districts are drawn by political parties to choose the candidate they want and not to allow the voters to choose the candidate that they may prefer. That is rigging an election if there ever was a definition for rigging. Democracy is being co-opted by the people Americans elected to protect it.

Once the crazy young kids figure out that the rule of law applies only to them and not to anyone with any power, they get a little pissed off. Once they figure out their vote is usurped by the very politicians they would like to fire, they get a little pissed off.

The idea that free speech to speak against the government has caused this rise in violence is ludicrous. Whoever is speaking had better be damned convincing for anyone to resort to deadly extremism. No. This kind of violence requires pain. Personal or tribal, these domestic terrorists are feeling it on a deep, emotional level. It is hopelessness in a system that should be hopeful. A powerless vacuum that must be filled.

Actions speak louder than words. Criticizing the government isn’t the catalyst for violence. The actions of the government, the CEOs, and the uber-wealthy criminals that get away with literal murder legally under the guise of business as usual is the catalyst. People can see with their own eyes, feel with their own bank account, and pay by sacrificing their health, the injustices being dealt to them. Everyone is pissed off, a few are prone to revenge.

If this epidemic of political violence is to be curtailed, I would suggest that the government start governing with actions that respect the rule of law, the power of democracy, and the restoration of American freedoms that are natural in a society that purports, but routinely fails to deliver, equal rights.

Otherwise, thoughts and prayers are all I can offer.

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The president tore down the fucking White House! It holds such reverence in America that I capitalize it when I write it, and I don’t know why. It obviously means nothing. It is now a house of gold leaf offices, BBBallrooms, and in all probability, a superfund site due to the asbestos released when it was torn down. What surprises me most is that it doesn’t register with Americans that Trump tore down the fucking White House! The White House!!!!!!

Conditioning works I guess.

Biden didn’t do it, but I’m 98.6% sure he will get blamed for it. Can you imagine if he did? Do you expect the latter?

That’s so sad.

These outrages appear seemingly minor in the list of outrageous shit this administration visits on us each day. “Flood the zone,” Steve Bannon said. That’s working quite well. There’s never a breather from the chaos. We’re now used to it. A quick bout of doomscrolling and everything you suspected is true. You don’t need this shit.

Greenland? WTF? Fucking insanity to threaten Denmark, one of America’s greatest allies, for an island of 56,740 nice people who are now prepared to blow up their airport if the USA invades. Won’t it sell us any resources it has? Is that not capitalism? I mean, really, what the actual fuck? America has to own it? No one needed this shit. Ever.

The Gulf of America? No one needed that. Are we going to turn Mexico into the 52nd state? Is that before or after we conquer Canada? It’s the 51st state. Right? I’m so confused. Venezuela? Iran? Who is it we’re conquering today? How much is their oil worth?

The president has solved another war? One he started? He certainly deserves the FIFA peace prize.

This brain vomit I’m subjecting you to as I write this noticed that I didn’t capitalize the FIFA peace prize. You know why? I hold reverence for institutions. Not anything paying total fidelity in bribes like the FIFA peace prize. The White House was torn down, but the FIFA peace prize has probably been melted down by now. If you think it was great for Trump to receive it, your mind is literal shit. Literally.

It was just another day of zone flooding in the Trump administration.

The conditioning is subtle but relentless. Americans now accept anything. Except high fuel prices. The world oil markets are likely to oblige as reserves run out. Until that time of American citizen revolt, Americans are tested. Early testing shows that the American public’s servility is to the administration’s advantage. It will keep pushing.

The zone will flood forever.

I don’t know what it will take to wake America up to the crisis it faces. Accepting every outrage as normal is insane. Chaos is winning. Americans are more conditioned by the day.

When the time comes that America gets “woke” enough to protest this authoritarian takeover of the country, it will be on the verge of disaster. Too late to invoke democratic responsibility to vote the bastards out. Too late to save itself. Too late to send a message back that gladiator sports on the White House lawn are NOT ACCEPTABLE. For fuck’s sake! USE YOUR DEMOCRACY!

On the bright side, better late than never.

The Democrats handed the president an incredible gift last week when it voted to enact the War Powers Act. This is Trump’s real chance to end his quagmire. The president, of course, hates it. Says it has destroyed his ability to negotiate with the Iranians.

I’d agree with that assessment if I thought for a minute the administration was actually doing any negotiating. Congress wouldn’t need to get involved if there appeared to be any headway towards peace. It is time for some checks and balances before this stupidity can progress into something far worse.

Iran says it isn’t negotiating with anyone. No J.D. Vance. No Jared Kushner. No Steve Witkoff. Secretary of State Rubio doesn’t appear to have any business interests in the Middle East so he isn’t allowed to go. Not one of these three stooges has gone to Pakistan as a negotiator representing the United States of America since Trump declared it too far to fly for nothing. That’s probably for the best considering the immense historical knowledge of previous negotiations with Iran these three lack.

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Iran has time.

It knows this war is unpopular in America. Fuel prices will spike this summer and Americans will threaten their elected officials with a heavy political price in the fall. The complaints are already in the ear of congress. Iran wagers that the legislative branch of government will hear a bunch of pissed-off people and finally do its job. Even if it’s congress’s last choice.

Iran doesn’t care that the USA has blockaded its oil sales. It has lived under sanctions for 47 years. The administration boasts that Iran is losing $500 million per day, strangling its economy. That may be so, but what the yahoos in this administration don’t understand is that Iran isn’t a government that worships money like they do. It will hurt, but it can take the pain. It knows America can’t.

Iran doesn’t give a shit that it has been threatened with total obliteration. Iran has heard all of the tweets before. This daftness is disregarded as the president embarrassing his country on the world stage in the middle of a real war. America is no longer a serious country capable of serious negotiations. America is Trumpian chaos governed by presidential tweet.

Governed by presidential tweet. Just writing those four words side by side makes me grind my teeth.

If America decides to keep pummeling Iran with more bombs, Iran appears to have the ability to pummel back. Despite the continuing rhetoric that all of Iran’s military has been obliterated, it keeps firing some kind of things that blow up at airports and oil storage facilities. America can’t take the risk that Iran may have the ability to destroy every oil field in all five countries of the Middle East.

That would usher in the second Dark Ages. The end of the world as we know it.

There is no military solution to this conflict short of nuclear war. I would hope no one goes there. Without a coherent conventional war plan the military is rudderless. Without a team of competent negotiators the Iranians have no one to negotiate with. Islamabad is probably too far for them to fly to waste time with the lightweights America sent.

By closing the Strait of Hormuz Iran is winning. It is Iran’s strongest weapon and it won’t give it up. The American government has no answer to the stranglehold Iran has on it. Trump, if he were smart, would grab the low-hanging fruit the Congress’s meddling in his war has given him. It’s the perfect out for him. Couldn’t finish the job because of the dumocrats. Easy, clean, and totally spinnable to the malleable morons in the MAGA base.

Iran, of course, would still have a vote. It may want to punish the USA for the perceived crimes against it. Iran can still make war on America’s economy by keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed to American shipping. Trump might take that deal since he believes that America doesn’t use the Strait of Hormuz. I shudder at the thought, and hope there is still a responsible sycophant in the room that can muster the balls to tell him otherwise.

Trump’s choices are in the same chaotic disarray as his preferred leadership style. It’s always worked for him before, but on the world stage that shit don’t fly. Trump must get the fuck out of the Middle East before this stupidity can progress into something far worse.

His enemies in the Congress have given him succor. They have handed him the escape route he sorely needs to save whatever his legacy is. (Fountains and ballrooms!) He could even thank them by tweeting a few insults at them, maybe call them traitors or something, to make it look like it wasn’t his choice.

Then drop the mic, waddle through the exit, and leave.

When I travel to a country that the United States has bombed I always enter with a niggling sense of trepidation in the back of my mind. Are they mad at Americans? What if America killed someone’s grandma? Will someone call me out? Or worse?

Disregarding the notion that there soon may not be any places to travel that America hasn’t bombed, people here in Southeast Asia seem to be over it. In Vietnam they probably don’t care because they kicked America’s ass. After America lost 58,000 troops stopping communism, Vietnam became the most capitalistic country you will ever visit. Such a waste of blood and treasure.

I landed in Cambodia last week knowing that we dropped millions of tons of bombs on a bunch of simple farmers. Imagine heading straight to the ATM and withdrawing US currency. I knew it was coming, but I was a little surprised to hold $100 bills in my hand. I guess that means everything’s fine in Cambodia.

Cambodia has been a very unlucky country, to say the least. America dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on it. More than were used on the Pacific theater in World War II. Then the Khmer Rouge came along. It emptied about 2 million people out of Phnom Penh in 24 hours by telling the citizens that America was going to bomb the city. Great and very believable excuse given the history. Those people were then subjected to three years of living, and dying, hell.

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Touring the high school that was the torture chamber of the Khmer Rouge was a hard lesson on humanity, or lack thereof. The Cambodian genocide was horrific. However, one interview that came across my museum headphones was with a lady who had moved on. Her point was that dwelling on the past has no positive outcome. It’s fucking over.

Holding onto anger, plotting revenge, or even more war is idiocy. This statement while I was sitting in the middle of a house of horrors was the one bright spot of a three-hour tour of nightmares. It sums up the feelings of the people of Southeast Asia. The past is past and America’s dark past has nothing to do with today.

Unfortunately, the idiocy of holding onto anger is far more common than living for the moment and the future. Such is the case America finds itself in with its current war in Iran. Iran took a bunch of hostages 47 years ago and America has never let it go.

I realize that Iran has perpetrated many crimes on the west in those 47 years. Likewise, the west has perpetrated crimes on Iran. It’s a two-way street of revenge, pain, and propaganda. As a matter of fact, this war has been ongoing for 73 years, not 47 years.

It began when the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected president because he wanted to take control of the nation’s oil. The United States, much like it’s now doing in Venezuela, installed a compliant ruler that would cooperate fully with the oil companies. The Shah killed his political enemies, crushed free speech, and was generally hated by Iranians.

When he was overthrown the people blamed the US for his tyranny, so they took revenge on America by storming the embassy and taking hostages. They didn’t kill the embassy people. They held them hostage and then released them. No harm, some foul.

Since then Iran has been the enemy of the west. It might’ve helped the ayatollahs if they had become compliant and shared their oil. Instead the US commenced with making Iranian’s lives miserable and Iran commenced with making the Middle East miserable. Mainly for Israel.

But hey, the past is the past. Obama set it aside and made a deal with Iran. It was a good deal, signed off on by every major country in the world. It may not have been perfect, but since Obama did it, a certain successor to the office of the president tore it up. Trump’s hatred for anything Obama succeeded in doing has now resulted in the world on the verge of economic disaster.

Well worth it to Trump. As long as Obama gets no credit.

That deal should’ve been made years before. America could’ve made peace with Iran under any of the presidents that followed Reagan. America needs enemies, though. A good enemy is a handy distraction from the fucking America’s political class is giving its citizens. So the USA has been propagandized about the Iranian threat, and Iranians have undoubtedly been fed the same garbage.

And here we are. Totally fucked.

America would do well to take a lesson from countries like Cambodia that have been brutalized beyond imagination. Let it go. Nothing good can come from harboring anger. If a country did something to us years ago we should be big enough to move on. Why can’t we?

Anyway, anyone remember the Bay of Pigs? Some dipshit does, I guarantee it.

The political strategy of the President of the United States makes little sense. It’s as if Trump has no fucks to give on any chances to retain a Republican majority in congress. It would be easy to understand an occasional blunder, but he seems intent on the wholesale destruction of anyone who doesn’t swear complete and total fealty to his rule. Even the slightest sleight is grounds for retribution.

Complete loyalty to every decision, good, bad, or otherwise is not only demanded, it is punishable by shock and awe destruction of political careers. Is this any way to run a democracy? Why doesn’t he care?

He has stated publicly that he doesn’t think about the finances of the average American. This strange remark was spun by Republicans to mean that the American people should be willing to sacrifice everything to keep Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. It was his Churchill moment: “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on…we shall never surrender.” One problem. The Iranians aren’t actively bombing America as the Nazis were in London.

Why would Trump utter such easy sound bites for his opposition to use against him? Can’t he be concerned for Americans struggling to fill their cars while simultaneously denuclearizing the Iranians? You know, walk and chew gum. He could say that but, for some reason, he has no fucks to give.

In Texas Trump has endorsed a candidate who was impeached by his own Republican party. A Republican impeached in Texas! Let that sink in. Trump had a safe Republican incumbent and chose to destroy him with an endorsement of a convicted fraudster. Why? Because the incumbent dared to disagree. Once.

Trump is endorsing weaker MAGA loyalists to quell any independent thinking in government. Toe the leader’s line. Or else. Good luck and God spend (like hell) retaining safe congressional seats in the general election.

If there is a general election.

Maybe Trump knows something America doesn’t. Perhaps there is a plan to end elections. How would he go about it?

One avenue is to come up with a story that the Lego® movie masters in Iran have hacked the entire nation’s voting machines. The administration might be able to sell this one to the gullible masses given Trump’s war. Few understand technology even if it is ruining their lives step by constant step. States would have the ability to confirm or deny such a claim. This would likely fall in the red states versus blue states clash.

Which brings us to the most likely scenario. Civil war.

Trump expressed open admiration when the president of Ukraine told him elections were cancelled because of the war with Russia. Trump asked Zelenskyy, “During the war, you can’t have elections? So let me just see, three and a half years from now, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? That’s good!”

This may be a hard sell in America. Americans aren’t at war. Trump is.

No one is likely to attack America head-on, so a plan needs to be implemented to find a war. This requires an evil genius. Short of that, we have Stephen Miller. His ICE ICE army of masked brown shirts can head out to attack a blue city. Remember, “if we happen to be in a war with “somebody,” no more elections. That’s good!” Somebody? America, welcome to the war.

There are a couple of obstacles to these operations. The ICE ICE forces have been unable, due to local protests from patriotic citizens, to set up detention centers to hold everyone they want to arrest. A lack of gulag space is annoying, but surely the ICE ICE can work around this. Secondly, the peaceful protest tactics used by the brave citizenry of Minneapolis are likely to succeed again. Peaceful resistance confuses those looking for a fight.

Should peaceful protest prove too difficult to overcome, an escalation of tactics by the government is not out of the question. The feds have shown that the ICE ICE is above the law. It has shot a few American citizens, blocked local law enforcement from cooperating in those investigations, and allowed these alleged “agents” to remain in their position inside the ICE ICE. The government of the United States of America has literally given one of its agencies a license to kill its own citizens.

Don’t be surprised this summer when the American government “defends” itself from a crowd of ICE ICE protestors with lethal force. Americans shrugged when the masked secret agents “defended” themselves from American citizens before. Might as well shoot a few more and see how that goes down. Plus, it’s an excellent work around for the detention space problem.

Such an action is not out of the realm of possibility given the events of the past year. Stephen Miller knows his objective. Peaceful protests turned violent because of police escalation is kind of an American tradition. A civil war would begin in one of America’s ICE ICE targeted blue cities and likely expand to others. A war against “somebody.” That’s good!

Trump has no need for a Republican majority. When he says he doesn’t think about average American’s financial situation, he’s telling the truth. He knows that without an election he can remain in Washington until he drains the last dime from the treasury. He does have his priority.

He has never had, and will purposefully continue to never have, any fucks to give.