Tag: Political Attitudes

Ukraine: Answers Not Given

This is a post that few will care about or will give a lot of unrelated answers….but what the Hell.

Questions?

When I was in school a teacher gave me some good advice.

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions. “

It is the answers, not the questions, that are embarrassing…..and I ask embarrassing questions and get few substantive answers….but I will continue to ask.
 
It is what I do.
 
Since the war began a year ago I have been asking questions….some hard questions….and so far the answer I get are boiler plate responses….by boiler plate I mean the rubbish the media throws out with little facts behind the garbage they spread.
 
Recently I posted on the debate around this conflict….
 
 
The media has not always been so gung-ho in Ukraine’s corner….

The other day I stumbled across a 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian titled “It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war” by Seumas Milne, who the following year would go on to become the Labour Party’s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications under Jeremy Corbyn.

I bring this up because the perspectives you’ll find in that article are jarring in how severely they deviate from anything you’ll see published in the mainstream press about Ukraine in 2023. It places the brunt of the blame for the violence and tensions in that nation at that time squarely at Washington’s feet, opening with a warning that the “threat of war in Ukraine is growing” and saying there’s an “unelected government in Kiev,” and it only gets naughtier from there.

I strongly recommend reading the article in full if you want some perspective in just how dramatically the mass media has clamped down on dissenting ideas about Ukraine and Russia, beginning with the frenzied stoking of Russia hysteria in 2016 and exploding exponentially with the Russian invasion last year. I doubt there’s a single paragraph which could get published in any mainstream outlet in the media environment of today.

Milne writes about how “the Ukrainian president was replaced by a US-selected administration, in an entirely unconstitutional takeover,” and about “the role of the fascistic right on the streets and in the new Ukrainian regime.” He says that “Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to join Russia,” and that “you don’t hear much about the Ukrainian government’s veneration of wartime Nazi collaborators and pogromists, or the arson attacks on the homes and offices of elected communist leaders, or the integration of the extreme Right Sector into the national guard, while the anti-semitism and white supremacism of the government’s ultra-nationalists is assiduously played down.” He says that “after two decades of eastward Nato expansion, this crisis was triggered by the west’s attempt to pull Ukraine decisively into its orbit and defence structure.”

 
It is fascinating but that would be for those that are interested and from what I have read few are that interested in what has been written and only embrace the manure spread by the MSM.
 
Then I read about a ignored settlement of this situation….and from an Israeli….
 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in an interview posted to his YouTube channel on Saturday that the US and its Western allies “blocked” his efforts of mediating between Russia and Ukraine to bring an end to the war in its early days.

On March 4, 2022, Bennett traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin. In the interview, he detailed his mediation at the time between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said he coordinated with the US, France, Germany, and the UK.

Bennett said that both sides agreed to major concessions during his mediation effort. For the Russian side, he said they dropped “denazification” as a requirement for a ceasefire. Bennett defined “denazification” as the removal of Zelensky. During his meeting in Moscow with Putin, Bennett said the Russian leader guaranteed that he wouldn’t try to kill Zelensky.

The other concession Russia made, according to Bennett, is that it wouldn’t seek the disarmament of Ukraine. For the Ukrainian side, Zelensky “renounced” that he would seek NATO membership, which Bennett said was the “reason” for Russia’s invasion.

(antiwar.com)

Appears no one wants this conflict to end…..maybe there is too much cash to effectively find a solution.
 
Like I said….hard questions.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Chasing Shiny New Keys

The American people need something to put the sparkle in their eyes….kinda like a baby and the rattling of shiny keys.

All this began with that looming ‘Chinese’ balloon trans versing the US and the US shot it down for our protection.

Then the food gates were opened….

The Pentagon shot down an unknown “high-altitude” object flying in US airspace off the coast of Alaska on Friday, White House officials said. The object was flying at about 40,000 feet and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman. Kirby said President Biden ordered the military to down the object, which he described as roughly the size of a small car—much smaller than the infamous Chinese balloon, per the Washington Post. No other details about what it was were immediately provided.

The object fell onto frozen US waters. The development comes after the US shot down a suspected spy balloon from China on Saturday. Officials are still recovering debris from that object, shot down off the coast of South Carolina. A fighter jet assigned to the US Northern Command conducted Friday’s mission, per Axios. It was not immediately clear who owned the object, which did not appear to be able to maneuver as well as the balloon, said Kirby. The US expected to be able to retrieve the debris.

The New York Times reports the object was flying over the Arctic Ocean, near the northeast border of Alaska and Canada, when it was shot down. Pilots confirmed it was unmanned before firing, said Kirby. The object previously had been flying over land. A US official describes the development as “fast-moving” to the Times. The official added that it’s possible the object had no military purpose and was a wayward commercial or scientific object.

Then the game continued…..

A US F-22 shot down an unidentified object flying at a high altitude over the Yukon territory on Saturday at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request. Trudeau tweeted that he’d discussed the matter with President Biden and that Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled after the object was spotted, the Washington Post reports. No one provided any details about the object, though NORAD released a statement earlier in the day saying it had been positively identified. The command guards skies over North America and includes US and Canadian officials.

Trudeau said Canadian personnel will lead the effort to recover and analyze the wreckage debris, per the CBC. Defense Minister Anita Anand tweeted that she had discussed the matter with her US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and that they “reaffirmed that we’ll always defend our sovereignty together,” per CNN.

Apparently Canada does not have the capabilities of handling this situation for themselves.

And the hits just keep coming…..

For the fourth time in less than two weeks, the US has shot down an unidentified object flying over North American airspace. A Michigan congresswoman tweeted that it happened over Lake Huron on Sunday. “The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin posted, per the AP. Rep. Jack Bergman’s office reported that the craft was over US airspace at the time, per the Detroit News. American officials said that the craft went down in the lake and that it will be recovered. There was no sign that the shootdown caused any damage, they said, per NBC News. Airspace over the lake had been restricted earlier in the day by US and Canadian officials while planes were sent to identify the object.

Earlier Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer said that the objects shot down over Canada on Saturday and Alaska on Friday were—like the one the Air Force brought down earlier over the Atlantic near South Carolina—balloons. The majority leader told ABC’s This Week that he was briefed by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan after the US shot down an object flying over Canada. A Pentagon spokesperson didn’t quite confirm that the targets were all balloons, per Politico, saying they “were objects and did not closely resemble” the balloon China sent over the US. More will be known when the debris is recovered, Sabrina Singh said.

Either way, Schumer said, “the bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn’t know of these balloons.” per ABC News. Schumer praised the military and intelligence work against the balloons but asked, “why as far back as the Trump administration did no one know about this?” Officials said they believe the object shot down Sunday is the same one that was being tracked over Montana beginning on Saturday night.

I have called all this as ‘chasing shiny keys’…..but to summarize this……

Comparisons: The US is pretty sure the Chinese balloon was used for spying, though Beijing denies it, but much less is known about the objects shot down over Alaska and Canada. US officials are using a vehicle comparison: The latter two objects are about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, reports the Washington Post, while the Chinese balloon was the size of three buses, per NPR.

  • Few answers: The US says the objects shot down over Alaska and Canada were flying at about 40,000 feet and thus posed a risk to commercial air traffic, reports CNN. By contrast, the Chinese balloon flew well above such traffic. The hunt for debris continues on all three shootdowns, and those recovery missions could answer a lot of questions about what the devices were doing and where they came from.
  • False alarm? Hours after the US shot down the object over Canada (after coordinating with that government), the FAA temporarily closed some airspace over Montana after a “radar anomaly” was detected by NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. A jet fighter investigated but found nothing, reports the AP. Amid the newly heightened concern, such “false positives” may become more common.
  • Pressure: The incidents already are having an effect on national policy. The Hill reports that Senate Republicans are now pushing to take any defense cuts off the table in negotiations over the debt ceiling. And GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, speaking after the shootdown in the skies above her state, told NBC News that “the first line of defense, again, is Alaska. … We need to send the message and we need to be clear and unequivocable that we don’t tolerate this, period.”
  • It’s classified: The New York Times reports that congressional lawmakers will receive an update on Monday of a classified report looking at more than 140 incidents of “aerial phenomena” between 2004 and 2021. Almost all remain officially unexplained, but they’re largely thought to be either foreign surveillance objects or weather balloons. Shootdowns are rare, but Pentagon spokesman Big. Gen. Patrick Ryder on Friday rejected the idea the administration was growing more aggressive because of political pressure.

Is there something happening or about to happen that the American people need to be fixated on something so it is not important for them?

I think I found the reason for all the faux interest…..

A growing number of Senate Republicans are saying that President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) should take defense spending cuts off the table in their negotiation over the debt ceiling.

The Republicans are digging in their heels after receiving a classified briefing on a Chinese spy balloon that floated over sensitive military installations.

“The entire civilized world should recognize that communist China is probably the greatest threat we’ve ever faced, more severe than Soviet Russia was because of its economic integration into the West,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) after receiving a briefing from senior administration officials on the spy balloon. “We should take every step we can to try to reduce our dependency on China [and] try to build stronger military deterrence against them. 

“I do not think that we should be talking about cutting the defense budget at all right now. If anything, substantial defense increases,” he said.  

Chinese spy balloon has GOP saying no cuts to defense

As usual the American media and public are chasing ‘shiny keys’….and more American cash will be thrown at non-existent problems….well done…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Do Americans Really Know About Politics?

The elections are less than 2 months away and time for us all to think about politics. So the big question is what do Americans really know about politics?

As statewide primaries continue through the summer, many Americans are beginning to think about which candidates they will support in the 2022 general election.

This decision-making process is fraught with difficulties, especially for inexperienced voters.

Voters must navigate angry, emotion-laden conversations about politics when trying to sort out whom to vote for. Americans are more likely than ever to view politics in moral terms, meaning their political conversations sometimes feel like epic battles between good and evil.

But political conversations are also shaped by, obviously, what Americans know – and, less obviously, what they think they know – about politics.

In recent research, I studied how Americans’ perceptions of their own political knowledge shape their political attitudes. My results show that many Americans think they know much more about politics than they really do.

Knowledge deficit, confidence surplus

Over the past five years, I have studied the phenomenon of what I call “political overconfidence.” My work, in tandem with other researchers’ studies, reveals the ways it thwarts democratic politics.

Political overconfidence can make people more defensive of factually wrong beliefs about politics. It also causes Americans to underestimate the political skill of their peers. And those who believe themselves to be political experts often dismiss the guidance of real experts.

Political overconfidence also interacts with political partisanship, making partisans less willing to listen to peers across the aisle.

The result is a breakdown in the ability to learn from one another about political issues and events.

https://theconversation.com/americans-think-they-know-a-lot-about-politics-and-its-bad-for-democracy-that-theyre-so-often-wrong-in-their-confidence-187524

Try carrying on a political conversation and it will turn into a debate…..we all know we are right and refuse to see anything but what we believe is true.

So the next question is will this election be an asterisk election?

This is an opinion from fivethirtyeight.com…..

In 2020, we took pains to emphasize that, although he was a significant underdog in our forecast, then-President Donald Trump could absolutely win reelection. Frankly, I’m not sure we’ve taken the same care this year when it comes to Democrats and the U.S. House. Their chances to hold the House started out in the Trump-in-2020 vicinity when we launched our forecast — 13 percent — and now they’ve risen to 20 percent amidst an improving political environment for Democrats.

It’s still not terribly likely Democrats win control of the House. But it also means that a GOP takeover is far from a foregone conclusion. So, let’s talk about that 20 percent chance.

Democrats started out with 222 House seats following the 2020 election, four more than the number required for a majority. According to our model, there’s a 7 percent chance that Democrats wind up with fewer than 222 seats after November but still enough seats to maintain a narrow majority. Meanwhile, there’s a 13 percent chance that they actually gain seats.1 Those numbers combined give them their 20 percent chances.

Time for a quick historical gut check. In 19 midterm elections since World War II, the president’s party lost fewer than five seats in the House once, in 1962. And they gained seats twice, in 1998 and 2002. That means three out of 19 times the president’s party would have a successful enough midterm to keep the House, or 16 percent of the time. That squares pretty well with our model’s 20 percent estimate. Of course, the closer we get to the election, the more we can rely on data specific to this year — but it’s good that we’re somewhere in the ballpark.

Will This Be An Asterisk* Election?

This upcoming election is not one that is easy to analyze…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Raid Makes Him Stronger

Over 300 classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago…..

The latest New York Times story about the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid revolves around a key number: 300. As in, that’s how many classified documents the government has retrieved in total from former President Trump since he left office. The first was a batch of 150 recovered by the National Archives from Trump’s Florida estate early in the year, followed by a second set turned over by Trump aides in June. The number of sensitive documents in play after these first two retrievals “ignited intense concern at the Justice Department” and prompted the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago this month, during which another 11 boxes of classified material was retrieved.

The Times account is the most specific to date on the volume of classified documents Trump took with him from the White House, some of which had the highest level of classification. Trump’s defenders have made the case that he had standing orders to declassify any such documents. The Times story doesn’t have much new on the types of documents retrieved, though previous reports have said agents were particularly concerned about nuclear information. On Monday, Trump’s eldest son joked about that while ridiculing the search itself.

“By the way, for the record, I’d say that if Donald Trump actually still had the nuclear codes, it’d probably be good,” Donald Trump Jr. said at a campaign rally for Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, per HuffPost. “Our enemies might actually be like, ‘OK, maybe let’s not mess with them,’ unlike when they look at Joe Biden and they say, ‘You know what? We should attack now.’”

The documents could signal criminal activity….and that should saw the people to realize what he has done and is possibly doing…..you would think, right?

If so then you are badly mistaken.

By now we all know of the FBI raid on the Trump property in Florida…..you have your opinion and I have mine……all that aside it seems that the raid, just before an election, has done the opposite of what you may think…..Trump has gotten stronger….

After the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the walls may feel like they’re closing in on former President Trump, at least from a legal standpoint. In the court of public opinion with fellow Republicans, however, that search may have helped to give Trump a boost, at least according to one new survey. An NBC News poll released Sunday, which surveyed respondents Aug. 12-16 (i.e., after the FBI visit to Mar-a-Lago), asked GOP voters if they considered themselves more supporters of Trump or of the Republican Party. When the same question was asked back in May, 34% picked Trump over party, with 58% choosing the GOP. This time around, the Trump-leaning figure jumped to 41%, while those picking the Republican Party fell to 50%.

Per Axios, other polls have been showing Trump gaining ground in recent weeks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’d previously been “surging in key states.” A June poll out of the University of New Hampshire, for example, showed the two men statistically tied for the GOP nomination in that state. However, a poll released by New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College last week showed GOP voters preferred Trump over DeSantis 50% to 29%. This is all now leading some “Never Trump” GOP strategists to express concern over how the FBI search might have tipped the scales in Trump’s favor, at least in terms of Republican sentiment. In fact, one source said to be close to Trump tells Axios that fundraising after the Aug. 8 search has been “yuge.”

The NBC poll wasn’t all bad news for Dems, especially regarding how they’ve closed the enthusiasm gap: Although 68% of Republicans said they were highly interested in the midterms, Dems came in close behind at 66%, per NBC. Contrast that 2-point gap with the 8-point gap in May, still in the favor of GOP voters, and the even bigger 17-point gap in March. And last week, the Washington Post‘s Philip Bump analyzed a YouGov poll conducted for the Economist that didn’t seem to show a “a virulent pro-Trump surge.” But Axios notes that the NBC poll’s stats on how Republicans feel about Trump after the raid may signify a “Republican mindset of ‘the more “they” hate him, the more I love him’—an effect Trump instinctively recognizes and exploits.”

Although we have NO official statement from the Trump camp on running in 2024….this should give them a bit more confidence in the next general election.

Scared yet?

Any thoughts on this possibility?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is War Coming?

There seems to be a war a week these days…..Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan on and on….but this war that I am referring to is a war within our own society…..a Civil War….yet another civil strife that tears this country apart.

We are told that all this could change if we just get out and vote….I do not believe so….the political divide is getting deeper and deeper…..

Our country is in a crisis. On a near-daily basis, evidence mounts implicating the former president of the United States in a coup attempt against our republic. And in just the past two weeks, a spate of extremist Supreme Court decisions have gotten rid of a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions about her own body, our government’s ability to regulate clean air and water as required by law, and the separation of church and state, all while curbing our ability to regulate deadly weapons.

The legitimacy of a democracy rests on the consent of the governed, on the premise that decisions made by civic institutions reflect the will of the citizens and noncitizens they impact. From the January 6 insurrection to the increase in voter suppression, it has become increasingly clear that our country is in the midst of a legitimacy crisis, with the Supreme Court at the heart of it.

But the court’s recent rulings signify more than just a curtailment of our rights. As an immigrant who has seen countries descend into civil conflict, I recognize a familiar trend here: These are the latest signposts in the frightening backsliding of US democracy into authoritarianism.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democracy-scotus-radical-reform/

Is change coming with the next election?

David Brooks of the NYT has some thoughts on this…..

Look at the conditions all around us:

First, Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the way things are going. Only 13% of voters say the country is on the right track, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll published this week.

Second, Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the leaders of both parties. Joe Biden has a 33% job approval rating among registered voters. About half of Republican voters want to move on from Donald Trump and find a new presidential candidate for 2024.

Third, inflation is soaring. Throughout history, inflationary periods have often been linked to political instability. As economist Lionel Robbins wrote about Weimar Germany, inflation “destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements in German society; and it left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, apt breeding ground for the disasters which have followed.”

Fourth, the generational turnover is coming. The boomer gerontocracy that now dominates power is bound to retire, leaving a vacuum for something new.

Fifth, Americans are detaching from the two political parties. Far more Americans consider themselves independents than consider themselves either Democrats or Republicans, and independents may be growing more distinct. And there’s some research that suggests independents are increasingly not just closeted members of the two main parties but also hold different beliefs, which puts them between parties. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe a third party is needed.

Sixth, disgust with the current system is high. A majority of American voters believe that our system of government does not work, and 58% believe that our democracy needs major reforms or a complete overhaul. Nearly half of young adult voters believe voting does not affect how the government operates

Things are not looking good for this social situation to right itself……so is there another Civil War in our near future?

50% of the Americans polled think that we are headed for another messy and possibly bloody correction in our republic….

A shocking new study has found that half of Americans expect to see a second civil war within years, while nearly a fifth say they would be armed with guns at a political skirmish themselves.

Distressing levels of “alienation,” “mistrust,” and a growing tendency to resort to violence were uncovered by researchers at the University of California, Davis, in their recent survey of 8,620 adults across the US. They found that more than two-thirds of respondents said they perceived a “serious threat to our democracy,” while more than half agreed that “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the US.” Over 40 per cent noted the importance of having a “strong leader” over democracy, while also agreeing that “native-born white people are being replaced by immigrants.”

According to the study, there is a growing tendency to settle political disagreements with violence. Almost a fifth of respondents told them that it was likely they would be “armed with a gun” at a political flash point in the next couple of years, while four per cent admitted it was likely they would “shoot someone with a gun.”

https://meaww.com/50-per-cent-americans-think-second-civil-war-is-coming-uc-davis-survey

I fear that I may live long enough to see the final disintegration of our republic….it, the republic, is slowly going the way of the dodo.  The slow erosion of civil liberties has been finalized by the Supreme Court.

Is this it for the great American Experiment?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Dawning Of The ‘Age Of Stupidity’

There has got to be a song in there somewhere……

This new ‘Age’ has been a long time coming….although the basics have been rumbling around since about 1980…..and in the last dozen years it has become a full blown epidemic.

The stupidity has invade all aspects of our government and people….but for this post I will basically write on our foreign policy…..

The role of stupidity in determining the course of history is often underestimated by historians. They neglect it as too crude and shallow a factor to be the cause of crucial events, preferring to unearth more sophisticated and intellectually respectable explanations. Calling a leader “a fool” may be pervasive as abuse, but is seldom accepted as the underlying reason for a calamitous decision.

This is surely a mistake. “Never lose your sense of the superficial,” said the newspaper publisher Lord Northcliffe and his advice applies as much to historic trends as it does to daily news. Yet pundits like to feel that they are digging deeper than a personal failing, and seldom focus on plain and simple stupidity as the reason why leaders make unforced errors.

This kind of individual inadequacy is not equally present in all periods and it may be that in some eras the scope for chronic blunderers to do damage is higher than in others. It was certainly high in 1914, for instance, when dim-witted leaders such as Kaiser Wilhelm 11 in Germany, Tsar Nicholas 11 in Russia and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were making the decisive moves leading to a European war that more intelligent leaders might have avoided as being much against their interests and putting at risk the future of their regimes.

The Age of Stupidity: From Johnson and Biden to Putin and Xi Jinping

After all the wars that were a failure….and yet the rhetoric is to prepare for yet another war we will suck at in the future.

Both Russia and the US have poked at each other over time until Ukraine has to pay the price…..now we are poking the Sleeping Dragon that is China….right now it is over Taiwan….

How much longer will this ‘stupidity’ continue?

Well my guess is it will not end any time soon….as linger as the Congress and the White House can be bribed this will continue until this country is completely bankrupt and the people living in squalor so the oligarchs can have their yachts and free money from the government….

I wish I could live long enough to see a government ‘of the people and by the people’…..but that is a lie that will not be achieved in my lifetime.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

American Caesar

No this is not some random review of the book by William Manchester, American Caesar: Life of Douglas MacArthur….rather about what is happening in this country today.

This post is about Trump and his embracing the tenets of authoritarianism…..

Donald Trump was hardly the first U.S. president to voice his support for authoritarians. But while President Richard Nixon saw it as practical to have an alliance with Spain’s dictator Gen. Francisco Franco — arguing that at least El Generalísimo kept Soviet troops out of the streets of Madrid — he never praised Franco as a role model for the United States. Trump and his loyalists, in contrast, have openly praised far-right authoritarians like Hungary’s Victor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

This open admiration for authoritarianism among Trump supporters is the focus of articles by The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes and Vox’s Zack Beauchamp. Sykes, a Never Trump conservative, has stressed that one doesn’t have to be a liberal to believe in liberal democracy — and he warns that democracy is something that the MAGA right is outright contemptuous of.

“Something genuinely odd and disturbing is happening on the right,” Sykes observes in his column. “Ideas that would have been unthinkable just moments ago are now being normalized, and if anything, the drift toward authoritarianism seems to be accelerating. This includes the explicit embrace of the idea of an American dictator — an American Caesar. Literally and seriously.”

Sykes cites some specific examples of Trumpian authoritarianism. In Arizona, State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a far-right MAGA Republican, has advocated imprisoning the “entire Maricopa County Board of Supervisors” over a dispute about the 2020 election. And the pro-Trump publication American Greatness has praised Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/trump-authoritarianism/

These symptoms have been simmering under the society for 40 years and all it took was the right loudmouth bozo to bring the division to a boil.

Reagan turned the fire up and each election raised the boiling point a little more….until the full boil came with the election of Donald the Orange.

Why is this happening?

Since aggression provokes fear, and fear promotes aggression, a dangerous feedback loop has been established, dividing the nation to such a degree that something like civil war seems imminent. It may be a “cold civil war,” but there will still be violence, destruction, and death. There will also be more gridlock in Washington, which makes any kind of progress impossible. It is hard to calculate the suffering that could have been avoided with a functional Congress, but we can be sure it is substantial. And if the division gets too severe, which is where we are headed, there will be a point of no return. Social chaos and economic collapse will follow, the United States will lose its status as a superpower, and life as we know it, will cease. If the pandemic showed us anything, it is that despite how advanced we are technologically, we are not protected from disaster, and our way of life can change overnight.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supporters-2654459460/

This nation is at a crossroads and our future depends on which direction we choose….right now the choice is not looking too promising.

Will we survive?

I say we can but it will take some hard decisions and difficult solutions and I do not think we are ready yet to make those choices.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The “Democracy Gap”

First we need to define the term…..

A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation.

More simply….

There are certain points in history when the gap between governments and their people widen. Whether our democracy is receding depends on your point of view. In the midst of increased government surveillance and economic meltdown, there are grass roots citizens’ movements which are reseeding democracy. But if we only measure democracy by the state of our government, then one could easily argue that government of, by, and for the people has taken some giant leaps backwards; from ‘droning’ out democracy, to the overt Patriot Act that we inflicted upon ourselves. Willingly trading “security” for personal freedoms seems counter to what every patriot has stood or died for.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-democracy-gap-recedin_b_3550607

Ralph Nader (not a big fan of him) wrote an op-ed about the ‘gap’ and ‘lag time’…..

Lag time is another phrase for the “democracy gap.” It is the space between what most of the people want and need, and what those same passive people suffer and tolerate.

Kicking life-saving solutions endlessly down the road is the mark of the brutish power of the corporations over the innocents.

Fifty years ago, medical research warned about the overuse of antibiotics creating mutations of resistant bacterium, making these drugs less effective. Dr. Sidney Wolfe warned about this criminal negligence again and again, along with other colleagues. But the drug companies kept over-promoting to get physicians to over-prescribe. Today, antibiotic resistance takes over 100,000 lives a year just in the U.S. Some bacterium are mutating beyond the ability of medical science to catch up with new more powerful antibiotics to curb new antibiotic resistance bacterium.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/07/19/decaying-democracy-and-deadly-lag

For me this ‘lag time’ is yet another symptom of the danger of Centrists…..looking for short term gains and ignoring the long game that would provide more security for the people of this nation.

WE are suffering from society disintegration at this time…..

Social disintegration is the tendency for society to decline or disintegrate over time, perhaps due to the lapse or breakdown of traditional social support systems. In this context, “society” refers to the social orderwhich maintains a society, rather than the political order that defines its boundaries. Society in the sociological sense is not the same as a country.

I do not believe ‘centrism’ is the answer at all….just a cop-out and bowing to the cash from lobbyists….centrism is causing the “gap” and the “disintegration”….if this does not change the nation is looking at end times.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Snowflake Syndrome”

A cutesy name for political hatred.

The “Syndrome” is the lies spread among the GOP voters these days.

The push for voter suppression, the distrust of vaccines and downplaying the insurrection of 06 January…..

A good look at this ‘sickness’ in an op-ed…..

A recent op-ed piece published by The Washington Post highlights the problem of Snowflake Syndrome among voters who cast ballots for former President Donald Trump. The author, Greg Sargent, notes that the current Republican agenda centers on the following: restricting voting rights, sowing doubt about the COVID-19 vaccine, and downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The problem is that there is no justification or substantial evidence to support any of their arguments regarding these initiatives. In fact, all are connected to false narratives and misinformation that has been, in some way, influenced by Trump. For example, the nationwide push for voting rights restrictions is supposedly an incentive to increase voters’ confidence in the integrity of the United States’ voting systems. But Sargent pushed back against that argument describing it as “bad-faith nonsense.”

“Broadly speaking,” Sargent wrote, “this “confidence” storyline is bad-faith nonsense: It’s being widely abused to keep alive the myth of the stolen election and to justify an unprecedented wave of efforts to disenfranchise the opposition’s voters. It is not designed to build confidence in our elections, but to further undermine it, for illicit purposes.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-voters/

But how can this be?

Lonely people looking for a sense of belonging….

In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative commentator Matt Lewis made a case that Donald Trump’s rise was the inevitable result of a country that has become filled with lonely people who have lost any connection to their community and just want to feel like they belong.

As the conservative columnist notes that, at the heart of “Trumpism,” is an appeal to those suffering from social isolation which, in turn, makes them susceptible to appeals such as “Make America Great Again” as promised by the former president.

Explaining, “lack of communal ties may be killing us at the micro level, on the macro level this phenomenon has contributed to numerous societal ills, including the rise of Trumpism,” Lewis added that the new book by the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender (“Frankly, We Did Win This Election”) makes clear Trump’s early appeal.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-cult-2653974187/

I have read reports that the hatred is waning….I do not believe these at this time.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Could This Happen?

The events of 06 January has been coming since about 1980….it all came to a head with the election of Trump.

But the question remains….Just how could this happen in America?

Wait!

Us no good commies from yesteryear told the nation what was happening within the GOP…and NO one wanting to hear it…..we were chided and belittled….and yet here we are.

That is all the past, right?

But to answer the question….Americans are struggling to make their families a secure and stable unit and instead of looking for leaders that will improve their families and security they instead look for someone to blame for their insecurity….they scapegoat.

The next question asked will be….how long must Americans endure this idiocracy?

Democrats may have a narrow majority in both the House and the Senate for the next two years, but it’s nothing near the margin they hoped for. And the likelihood that Democrats keep both the House and the Senate in 2022 are low, as the president’s party almost always loses seats in the midterm elections.

That means more divided government is probably imminent, and the electoral pattern we’ve become all too familiar with — a pendulum swinging back and forth between unified control of government and divided government — is doomed to repeat, with increasingly dangerous consequences for our democracy.

History holds, at best, a half lesson here. This current period of partisan stalemate stands out in a few respects when we consider America’s long history with partisan conflict. For starters, the period we find ourselves in now is unique in that the national partisan balance of power is extremely close (with control of national government up for grabs in almost every cycle), even as most states and most voters are either solidly Democratic or Republican. What’s more, the national outcome often hinges on just a few swing states and districts. This period is also unique in the extent to which America is divided. Hatred toward the other party drives our politics. This produces a deeply polarizing and highly destructive form of partisan trench warfare that threatens to erode the very legitimacy of American democracy.

How Much Longer Can This Era Of Political Gridlock Last?

Good answer…..

Social media helps play to the ignorance….and yes they call it something else but call a duck a duck….it is ignorance plain and simple….

Kinda makes me think a political philosophy term….Rational Ignorance Effect…..something I have written about in the past…..

Rational Ignorance Effect

Rational Ignorance Effect–Revisited

And the end is NOWHERE in sight.

Polarization will get m ore extreme and the threat of more violence is real and here…..

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/21/after-the-insurrection-americas-far-right-groups-get-more-extreme_partner/

This is not the time to let our guard down…..the extremists are there and reorganizing for the future….

Do not take your eyes off the GOP….members within the party are enabling the fire of hatred (we told you so).

As the legendary Yogi Berra use to say….”It ain’t over until it is over”….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”