republicans

The Other

What the advisor understood was that there needed to be an ‘other’.  There  always needed to be an ‘other’.  And if there wasn’t an ‘other’ one needed to be invented.  Law, he understood, would be accepted by their followers and would control those that weren’t.  At the end of the day it was all pomp and circumstance but it worked.

“Remember the motto: guns, god, and greed.” The Assistant had reminded everyone at the daily meeting that morning. “Those are the things that sell!  Those are the things that our people want!”

The advisor knew he was right and at the same time knew because he was right he needed to be watched.  But this was a different thought altogether and so he neatly filed it in the back of his mind.

“If you sell those things you can own the fucking world!”  The Advisor had chimed in.  The assistant smiled silently.

Guns, God, and Greed: From Chp. 2: God’s Children

The Leader sat and listened to religious and voting statistics, how the religious of the country needed a strong-man leader, how the government had stood in the way of God’s work, of the FOF, and how, if he followed their plan, he could bring about a new world order, one not tainted by heathen-ideas or ‘progressive’ thought.  He sat and for once he listened.  While the delegates from the FOF rambled he thought about God.  He didn’t understand there God.  He was their god, if they knew it or not.

Like guns, god is the ultimate fear and the answer, the salve to the fact of life that most do not want to face: we die.  But god is more than that.  Much like a gun, god mirrors that arrogance of mankind; god is an excuse and a hiding place; god is the ultimate ideal and as such an answer to all things.

God is not only the best of mankind but the ideal of all ideals, both virtuous and despicable.  God is an old idea created by even older sages and philosophers.  God is set and defined in thousands of ways, each according to the inventor.  God ‘wants’, god ‘demands’, god ‘will punish’.  God can do many things but one thing in particular that god lacks is empathy.  You cannot have empathy with a gun in your hand.  But you can feign empathy with god.

We can create a god and god is the best we can do.  It is not wonder that we spend the greater part of our time killing one another and even the planet we live on.  God is indeed the best that mankind is capable of and we are proud of our God.

In one sense these people were no different than him.  It seemed to him that they wanted the same thing: to get rich.  On the other hand, he didn’t hide it and they did.  All of their talk about “God and Jesus” was, to him, just a ruse to justify their greed.  The only difference was that he didn’t lie about it.  In fact, he had four of the richest men in the world in his cabinet.

Guns, God, and Greed: From Chp. 2: The Plan

The Leader opened the large black, plastic binder and flipped through page after page of print.

“We know it’s a lot and so we also have a synopsis.”

The man nodded and one his assistants handed The Leader a small, white book.  The Leader put the burdensome binder down and opened the book.  On the first page was the title “DAY 1” and under the title were bullet-pointed orders.

“This synopsis has a one year, day by day, plan that if implemented can bring this country back to its original glory and greatness.  Sir, this country has a manifest destiny to be the great country that it once was but we must act swiftly and succinctly in order to undermine the powers that have been working tirelessly against our destiny; your destiny, sir.”

The room was silent and the leader lay the book in his lap.  He looked around at the faces staring at him.

“Well…” he began.

No one said anything.

“I know what’s in it for you.  But…” he paused, “what’s in it for me?

Guns, God, Greed: From Chapter 2: God’s Plan

He hated sitting through the meetings with these bible-thumpers, not because they didn’t adore him, they did.  He had bought some of their adoration.  But because he couldn’t trust them.  He couldn’t trust them because these people really believed what they said.  For this reason they were dangerous to him as The Leader.  He accepted them out of necessity.  They were a business deal.  They didn’t seem to understand that he didn’t answer to them, but he did.  It was this that bothered him so much.  And so, as they rambled on he acted interested.

“Sir.  It is truly a sign that the end-times are here, and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.  Sir you are in the service of God and Jesus Christ himself.  We have worked hard in a world which is dead-set against the Lord’s followers.  And now it will all change.  The wicked shall weep, sir, and the Lord’s children will reap their righteous place in heaven.  All because of you, sir, all because of you…”

The Leader sat soaking in the diatribes against modern society.  He heard them but he didn’t listen to them.  He found them pathetic and they didn’t seem to notice.  This irritated him further.  One after another leader spoke.  The Catholics were worried about the abortion issue.  The protestants were angry at the secularization of society.  The Foundation for Our Father leaders, though, they had a plan.  He was interested.

“Sir.  We are from The Foundation for Our Father or ‘FOF’ for short.”  The well-dressed, oddly calm man handed The Leader a large folder.  It was very neat and organized.

“We at FOF have watched as this country has been overrun with secular ideologies and…let’s say ‘those without Christ’.  And we have watched as our founding father’s intentions have been infested with so-called progressive thought that has no other intention but to undermine this country’s founding religion, Christianity.  Sir, this country is sliding into an immoral, pluralistic ethic that has been weakening the very pillars of our democracy. Sir, what I’m trying to say is, that we have a plan that we have spent the past nine years working on and we believe we can win our country back.  But we need your help.”

A Grinding Start

This is the start of writing about the future while watching the present roll to a grinding start. Over the horizon there are the hoards and behind them walking away is their leader. He, and they, will never be mine. The future is binary now. Stay here and fight or move away and be forced to watch. Actions cease to have impact.

We have landed where we land; it is what we do.

And while life will go on those majority will be forced (have forced themselves) to accept the unadulterated humanity that will now stand erect with pride; a pride that stems from rank ignorance and arrogance of being so.

They do not understand that it is they that cause history to repeat itself. And if they did they would call it progress. Now we must live in a world where we don’t belong. We have to watch as we sink back into the muck of evil and greed while the dazed and confused watch monkeys dance on the fire of their own destruction.

And So It Begins

Where is the hope in this? it is nothing new; it is no surprise, except one: that the past disappears so readily; that history is forgotten so happily. Sometimes it is as if our words do nothing but dissipate into space, bouncing off asteroids and nothing else.

The cycle of evil starts (yet again) with hope and hope is brought down like a giraffe by invading marauders. Then there will be a tiredness and those that can will ask the same question: “Why can’t we do better than this?!”

And then, they too begin to forget who we are at our core, and plans are made. Plans are made and belief is born, and evil is forgotten, and days are sunny. And so it begins: guns, god, and greed reborn, rise up wanting more and hopes are dashed by gluttony with a smile on its face.

The world has time but we don’t. And the world has time but we don’t.

This is a place…

This is the country I live in. A place where the majority of people want Donald Trump as president. A place of fear, stupidity, and arrogance. A place where the semblance of civilization is about to disappear. This is a place where the government will be torn down with cheers from the self-righteously stupid.

This is a place where with a resounding hurrah progress has been stomped out and the old wheeze out a smile as they watch their children’s future burn in a blaze of sorrow and disbelief. This is a place where even some young people misled and sometimes simply mean-spirited, jump into the fire willingly.

This is a place where hope is replaced with spite, revenge and greed. This is a place where understanding is killed and a statue of ignorance is adored. This is a place of god and religion, and empty-eyed adherence to even emptier ideologies. This is a place where the bible will replace science and art, and progress and logic, reason and rationality. This place is a theocratic corporation because this is who this country is.

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: The Few, The Proud

The term, military-industrial complex, was made famous by Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech..[i]  Since then Eisenhower’s fears have become a reality in more ways than one.  First, the sheer amount of money spent on military undermines government’s stated purpose of taking care of its citizens.[ii]  Furthermore, the military is now a tool used to indoctrinate and capture America’s delusionally religious and its poor.  Since the fifties, the religious and nationalistic rhetoric used by the conservative movement has been used to create and stoke a tribalistic corporate war machine.

While flags wave in the front yards of the working class, opportunities that would have otherwise actually helped economically are pulled out from under them while the industries that support and supply the military continue to get richer.  Visit any impoverished area and what becomes apparent is the presence of military enlistment programs and churches, the two often working together.  The poor have become nothing more than indoctrinated, cheap labor for the endless wars created and waged by the corporate complex itself.[iii]. This is not a governmental problem, as Trump and the Republicans claim, it is a corporate/autocratic problem led primarily by Trump and the Republicans.  

The only difference between Eisenhower and the Republicans now led by the Trump administration is that Trump simply accepts as a good Eisenhower’s fears.  Eisenhower’s worries concerning a growing military-industrial complex has now mutated into an industrial-military complex.  The marine motto: the few, the proud… still rings true, but the few and the proud are now the richest in 1%.

[i] https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/military-industrial-complex

[ii] https://borgenproject.org/the-relationship-between-the-military-and-global-poverty/

[iii] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2021/ProfitsOfWar

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Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: Civility and Courage

The new conservative movement, led for four years by the Trump administration, has made a mockery of social norms that have held this country together, that have made it possible for us as a nation to work together despite differences.  These attacks on social norms are often dismissed as unimportant, but the fact of the matter is, is that social norms such as consideration and courtesy make up the foundation of civilization.

But the apathy towards the unraveling of common courtesy and consideration for others is perhaps more dangerous than the unravelling itself.  As the world has watched the political discourse of America devolve into personal attacks, blatant lies, alternative “facts”, and even criminal slander, Trump has done nothing other than fan the flames of tribalism and nationalism and his own psychopathic agenda.  Worse, this reinvention of politics into a team sports, primarily bolstered by the conservative movement since Eisenhower, adds fuel to the already out of control fire of lies that continue to undermine the concept of a common good.

If there is a solution to the mess that Trump and the conservative movement continue to create it will have to include civil, political discourse and the acceptance of an objective reality (i.e. alternative “facts” are simply delusional lies at best).  But it must not include bowing down to the lies, the greed, and the stupidity that have come to define the Republican party, Donald Trump and his followers.  Courtesy does not mean kowtowing and consideration does not imply acceptance and tolerance at any and all costs.

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: A Fascist is a Fascist

Since Trump’s taking office in 2016 there has been a slide into fear and loathing by rational, thinking people.  This fear and loathing is not unwarranted, as any thinking person can realize that his taking office signifies a dangerous trend in this country.  It is fair to say that the Trump administration has fascist tendencies if the traditional definition of fascism is used. 

The use of and belief in certain ideologies, especially political and religious, is the cornerstone of what was once considered radical conservative thinking but is now the norm for the conservative movement.  Unfortunately, the conservative movement is based upon a platform which empowers ignorance, creates fear, and will most likely, if left unchecked, lead to a corporate-fascist government if all is taken into consideration.

Trump has shown that he is more than willing to resort to more than just the symbols of violence, invoking violence against political rivals, the news media, his implied and direct support of white-supremist groups, and invoking the military against legal protesters.  

The goals of the conservative movement seem clear.  First, to dismantle the system of government as put forth by the constitution and replace it with a corporatocracy, and secondly, to destroy any opposition to the first goal.  If Grover Norquist’s claim to want to drown the government in the bathtub is true[i], then his attitude begs the question: what will the government of the United States be replaced with if not with fascism?  If fascism is the future of the United States, let’s at least call it what it is.

 

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