Tag: Trumpism

Every Day, I Feel More & More Hopeful; Here’s Why…

~ boynhisdog ~ Leave a comment

I’ll own it straight up: between a mood stabilizer & copious amounts of THC (we’re talking “COPIOUS”), I walk around most days in a state of perpetual bliss. But I do not, for two seconds, ever forget that I live in a shithole of a world. I live in the most fucked up times imaginable.

I live during World War Three.

Yeah — WWIII — I have a sneaking suspicion that, once the smoke has cleared, we’ll realize this whole experience has been a cyber war (or an disinformation war — same difference) being waged on us principally by Russia (but with “assists” from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and probably Israel, too).

What we thought was “just how life is” will turn out to be Historic. Historical. History On The Hoof. Lucky us.

But, just as things swing to the negative, they can’t stay there. Everything cycles. Nothing remains stagnant. Not for long in the great scheme of things. The swing back in the other direction is already a happening deal. The intensity of the swing back in our direction will be in direction relation to the swing in that direction.

Caveat — we don’t know yet how massive the swing was in “THAT” direction. We think it was bad. We have no idea how bad. We were swinging wildly toward outright authoritarianism. The Republican party has completely surrendered whatever ideals it had to just plain holding on to power for power’s sake.

Well — no power, no money — I imagine they saw it as a package deal. They weren’t wrong.

But the same reason the Republicans & conservatives felt compelled to cheat & even commit treason to hold onto power is the reason I feel hopeful: Demographics.

Republicans & conservatives fear America’s shifting demographics. While they tell themselves that THEY are American Exceptionalism, they’re dead wrong. America IS exceptional because of its diversity. Such diversity from so many cultures in one place — that never happened before on a grand scale (it did before in places like, say Baghdad from 800 – 1100 when, being an open city, ideas from all over flourished). Rome benefited from getting influences from its far-flung colonies. Growing diversity means extinction to a party of White Christian Men.

If not “extinction” then Zero Political Power. Ah! There’s the rub!

It comes down to political power. Who has it — and who’s acquiring it? The Culture of Old Christian White Men had it — and Everyone Else In America is in the process of acquiring it. That’s what’s happening all around us. Being as women and people of color make up a lot of that “Everyone Else” who’s been out of power, that spells the worst news imaginable for Old Christian White Men.

Trumpism is Republicanism is Conservatism. I’ve said here before and will say again. I KNOW what Progressives want — it’s right in our name: we want PROGRESS. We want people to “progress”. We want the most people to do the best they possibly can — and believe that will bring the most prosperity and happiness to the widest possible part of our population. It won’t be cheap. But investing in people almost always returns handsomely on that investment. It’s greed & conservatism that wants to gaze at the cash in its pocket — and screw the people.

Conservatism — as it’s name says — wants to “conserve”. Not what will be — but WHAT WAS. In the past. When White Christian Men were the alpha dogs and everyone else was their bitch. Conservatives want to conserve THAT. If I’m wrong, please correct me. What ARE conservatives trying to “conserve” if not the past?

The last election wasn’t “The Blue Wave”. It was the Blue Wave’s leading edge. Having tasted political power, more and more women and POC will step forward, run for office or just vote. The more Americans vote, the more progressive we are. Because we’re so diverse.

Even if the republicans “could” stifle the Mueller Report (they can’t), the numbers are completely against them. Women are already outraged at conservatism’s treatment of them. Just wait till the Jeffrey Epstein story really catches fire — and the Big Names he’s been protecting start getting aired.

Wanna see outrage & moral indignation?

I am hopeful BECAUSE so many women are so outraged. I am hopeful BECAUSE of their oral indignation.

I am hopeful because FINALLY America’s women — and our people of color — OUR DIVERSITY — are coming center stage and TAKING the political power they should have been given long, long ago.

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Slavery Sucks. All Forms Of Slavery, That Is — Including The “Subtle” Ones…

~ boynhisdog ~ Leave a comment

Slavery has been a thing homo sapiens do (we don’t know if any other human species did it) since we figured out we could force someone else to work for free. Slavery, in its essence, is stolen labor.

Yes, it’s a stolen life. But, from the point of view of the enslaver, the goal is to steal the labor above all. You can’t steal too much food or sleep — the slave will die. The only other cost basis for a slave is output — work. Take away the raw costs of feeding, clothing and housing the slave, the profit derived from another human (other than their raw materials) is their work. Slavery wants THAT for free.

But there are other forms of slavery where, in essence, a free person gives away their “work” to the person (or organization) who will absolutely enslave them. Employers do it with the contracts they force employees to sign. Credit card companies do it — so do time share companies and gyms. America does it with the way we handle health care (how many people stay in jobs they hate just because they need the employer-provided health care?) Religions do it especially. If you want to belong, you have to surrender your reason and free thinking. Those will only “un-enslave” you from the slaver’s point of view.

About ten seconds of listening to any Trumpanista or republican defend the indefensible tells you — this person is a slave. They have surrendered all freedom of thought to a “thing”. To a person. They are as shackled to their ignorance as any slave ever was.

Except the real slave yearns to be free.

And that’s the difference — between people who’ve been enslaved and people who actually WANT to be slaves.

Ignorance is slavery.

Blind faith is slavery.

Personality of Cult is slavery.

Political indoctrination is slavery.

Trumpism is slavery.

I’ll toss in one more — for the Media’s sake — “Both Sides Do It” is slavery (okay — a lesser variety — but it IS a distinct sub-set of Ignorance). Both Sides Do It is lazy thinking that false equivalences things that do not in fact equal each other (like climate science and climate science denial — two points of view, not at all the same in their truthfullness). “Both Sides Do It” is soft slavery for the Media but hard slavery for the American Public — who continue to be enslaved by the RESULTS of the larger ignorance.

I trust I don’t have to explain all that to free people.

Americans Need To Kick Their Addiction to BABY TALK

~ boynhisdog ~ Leave a comment

All over America, talking heads are swooning. Rashida Tlaib — one of the new Democratic Reps — called Donald Trump out for being the mofo he is. You’d think she’d called him a traitor. That would have been a far dirtier word…

Understand — by ‘baby talk’ I do not mean anything remotely ‘gaa-gaa-goo-goo’.  I mean Americans need to speak like grown-ups when speaking about grown-up subjects.  Like Racism.  Or Bigotry.  Or Treason.

But Americans — the talking head class anyway — have a terrible habit of baby-talking everything — of talking down to the audience as if the Cold Hard Facts would be more than our tender snowflakey white sensibilities could handle.  That may be true for the Snowflakes in the audience but the rest of us have a few scars and welts on us — that cured us of any possible baby talk addiction.

Using the word ‘wee-wee’ in place of, say, ‘penis’ is dubious practice with a 5 year old.  Right off the bat it sets certain words apart.  These are dangerous words.  The subtext travels right along with the word as it burrows into our minds.  The culture’s discomfort becomes our discomfort.

Hello, ‘baby talk’.

The epitome is comics having to work ‘clean’ when on broadcast television.  The baby talk gets laughs — uncomfortable laughs — because it sets off all the alarm bells baby talk is meant to set off:  We’re talking about something we shouldn’t… we’re not ‘adult’ enough.

Yeesh!  When someone lies to you — they’re not dissembling or hedging or ‘yes-but-ing’, they’re lying.

Let’s start there.

It is unconscionable that it took so long for a few of the MSM to call Donald Trump out on his lies.  Now — if only they could do it to his face.  Sometimes, just the refusal to say something — to speak the truth (especially to the world’s biggest man-baby of all time) is the baseline equivalent of Baby Talk.

The first time or two, no doubt — Donald Trump will bristle and react like he’s just been zapped in the bloated orange nutsack.  But then he’ll adapt to it.  He’ll say:  “Yeah — I’m lying.  What of it?”  He’ll expect us to shrug and say nothing.

Or — he’ll expect us to baby talk him — as everyone does.

Historically, Trump can’t deal with being opposite smart people.  They make him feel every bit as inadequate as he actually is.  Adult talk is not only anathema to Trump — it’s his kryptonite.  Adult talk – focused Adult talk – is to Donald Trump what salt is to a slug.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s try it out…

Maybe Our Takeaway From Trumpism SHOULD Be: We Didn’t Punish Richard Nixon Nearly Hard Enough

~ boynhisdog ~ Leave a comment

There is a direct link between Richard Nixon and Donald J Trump. Or should I say links… There’s the ‘thematic’  one of course — the ‘Country Club Authoritarianism’ personified by Roger Stone…

…that views American political norms and anyone not in their club with disdain and disgust.  This is the ‘Silent Majority’ part of the link — the soft, (VERY) WHITE underbelly of American Racism.  This part of the link — because it could — initiated and now wages Full Out Culture War on the rest of America.

The other part of the link with our Nixonian Past is POLITICAL.  Roger Stone works that part of the equation too.   But he’s just the tip of a monstrous iceberg.

There is a certain ‘class’ of republicans for whom Authoritarianism has always been an irresistible lure.  The Truth is, they’ve never been that ‘down’ with Democracy.  When White, Christian Male Hegemony is your ‘Bottom Line’ — Democracy can only screw up your deal.

As I said — Roger Stone is a DIRECT LINK to Nixon.  But so is PAUL MANAFORT — who was A BUSINESS PARTNER of Roger Stone’s…

Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Lee Atwate

From the left that’s Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and – bonus – Lee Atwater (yet another ‘partner’ in ‘Crime’).  While it’s not nice to wish people ill, Lee Atwter getting cancer was a literal ‘Dream Come True’ for every American man, woman & child.  The death of American Political Discourse can be laid directly at Lee Atwater’s feet.

Lee Atwater was the Idea Man & Chief Architect of The Right’s ‘Our Way Or Die’ Strategy that found the Great American Talent for Compromise a little too inconvenient. Newt Gingrich was a follower of Lee Atwater’s — and we all know what a fine specimen of Jackal Turd Newt Gingrich is…

And, of course, the whole Nixon Crew were Mega-Fans of Roy Cohn — a nominee for Worst Human Being Ever.

While lots of Nixon’s acolytes did time and were punished (and most of THEM never reared their ugly heads ever again — John Dean being the one ‘exceptional’ exception), a few of the cockroaches got away scott free.

That would be vermin like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Lee Atwater…

They made it safely to the darker nooks and crannies where they hid out and plotted — till now.  And then they threw all their weight — and Nixonian Darkness — behind Donald J Trump.

Makes one wonder if Trump would have risen so easily (accepting that he had lots & lots of help from Russia) without the Nixon Brigade working the equation from the American side — like the Traitors they are.

And THAT makes one think that maybe they SHOULDN’T have been there at all — either because THEY THEMSELVES had been swept up in an expanded dragnet of political corruption… or because the PRICE to Richard Nixon for his attempting to circumvent and undermine the Constitution was seen as UNPARDONABLE.

Nixon had NEVER been pardoned.  If he had been PROSECUTED to the fullest extent of the Law instead and hounded to his grave — it would have been understood that the COST of screwing with American Democracy IS NOT more money, more attention, more adoration by the twisted Right Wing.  It’s PUNISHMENT and NOTHING BUT.

Alas, we did not do that.  We PARDONED Nixon.  We gave him a Second Act and a bit of a Third Act even.  We resuscitated an image that did  not deserve resuscitation.

We’re paying for it NOW…