America is Destroying its Democracy -The Experts Agree

 

The first site I came upon was one that we would not see if not for the administration of Donald Trump. As you read this post you must do it with the understanding that, although former president Barack Obama left the country in reasonably good shape at the end of his presidency, there had been an undercurrent for his eight years to thwart everything he did. This included the Democratic agenda in general. The major culprit was and still is Moscow Mitch McConnell.

Additions to this unconscionable less than a human being is Kevin McCarthy, who has been actively working to replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in a wishful Republican takeover of the House. And then there are state governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis, Texas' Greg Abbott and So. Dakota's Kristi Noem who have given dictatorship a new meaning. They are running their states in such a Hitleresque manner it is a wonder the constituencies don't revolt.

And that, folks, is where our democracy has gone. And why the media is covering it like the following...

The Washington Post says, "Democracy is on the brink of disaster. For voters, it’s politics as usual." Sam Rosenfeld recognizes the fact that the American public has decided to let politicians run away with their country, and do absolutely nothing about it. Apathetics, I call them. And maybe Trump isn't all to blame as Rosenfeld reports...

"Worries about the state of American democracy didn’t begin when Trump rejected the election’s results — indeed, they predate his entrance into politics. For the last two decades, analysts have connected dysfunction in governance to deepening party polarization, marked by an asymmetrical Republican shift toward procedural hardball and extremism."

READ MORE... 

Canadian author Stephen Marche opens his new book, "The Next Civil War:

Dispatches from the American Future." with "The United States is coming to an end. The question is how." And with the natural reaction from Americans when an outsider criticizes us, he or she is just a U.S. hater. Not so says the author, Dean Obeidallah, who explains...

"In fact, as Marche explained on my SiriusXM radio show last week, it's the opposite: Marche wrote his book because he "loves" the US after working and living within its borders off and on for years. His hope, he says, is to warn Americans of where the nation is going before it's too late."

It seems that everyone but Republicans have discovered the fact that our country is on the verge of losing its democracy and wants to help...

Marche isn't the only Canadian worried about their southern neighbor's future. Just days before Marche's book released, political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon -- the executive director of the Cascade Institute, which focuses on ways to address threats to society -- penned a powerful op-ed in Canada's "Globe and Mail" that begins with a similar warning. "By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence," Homer-Dixon writes. "By 2030, if not sooner," he adds, "the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship."

READ MORE... 

In a New York Times opinion piece, David Brooks says, "America Is Falling Apart at the Seams," a statement highly appropriate in the sense that the wheels seem to be coming off from the states to the federal government. Brooks found that driving in the U.S was down during the coronavirus pandemic but the number of traffic deaths rose 7 percent. Two numbers that don't make sense until you take into consideration the pandemic has raised the stress level to the breaking point...

"While gloomy numbers like these were rattling around in my brain, a Substack article from Matthew Yglesias hit my inbox this week. It was titled, “All Kinds of Bad Behavior Is on the Rise.” Not only is reckless driving on the rise, Yglesias pointed out, but the number of altercations on airplanes has exploded, the murder rate is surging in cities, drug overdoses are increasing, Americans are drinking more, nurses say patients are getting more abusive, and so on and so on.

From airplanes to school rooms there are outbursts like we have never seen before. This article is so all-inclusive on America's fight for democracy that I strongly recommend reading it all. 

More on America's destruction of democracy later.

The Agony of the Outrageous

Donald Trump falsely claimed that Democratic politicians say that "babies can be killed even after birth." This was in Arizona, folks, so anything goes. The double-digit Republicans here will believe anything the former White House maniac says. After all, we have an ex-ice cream salesman for governor and a former Fox News purveyor of misinformation running for governor to replace Ducey.

 This is a comment from Trump in Florence, a suburb of Phoenix...

"We're done taking lectures on science from a party that tells us men and women, women are men, and the babies… and this is a fact, the babies can be killed even after birth."

 The Insider reports...

"Trump was likely referring to disproved allegations that then-Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam promoted infanticide in an interview in 2019."

Doctors say a Tik Tok trend of cooking chicken in cold medicine is dangerous.

On the outset any person with any brains at all would know not to do this. But apparently Tik Tok does not attract rocket scientists, rather a group of young people who will attempt just about anything suggested by their peers. Here's the scenario...

In one satirical video in which a man claims he's making a cold remedy for his sick wife, he pours bright green decongestant over the chicken and advises letting it sit there for "5 to 30 minutes" as the medicine marinates in the chicken.

"Make sure you're constantly flipping over the chicken. You don't want to give one side more attention than the other," he tells the camera. "Sometimes the steam really makes you sleepy."

Cheers!  

Ron DeSantis Opens Antibody Centers That Are Useless Against Omicron. In case you are not in the loop, Omicron has surpassed Delta in its transmissibility and its coverage, thus, the virus we are fighting now. But, this is something the demented governor of Florida would do for two reasons...

ONE: His top donor invested millions in the COVID-19 antibody treatment the Florida governor is touting. TWO: DeSantis is so stupid he probably doesn't know what an anti-body is anyway.

 Here's what the Daily Beast says...

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were a responsible leader dedicated to the well-being of his constituents, he would have made clear that the Regeneron monoclonal antibody being administered at his five new treatment sites is all but useless in the current COVID-19 surge.

But DeSantis is DeSantis, and therefore his own top priority. He is happy to offer false hope in the middle of a pandemic—as his state breaks infection records week after week—if he believes it is to his political advantage.

Ron DeSantis obviously cares absolutely nothing for his Florida constituents since he has blatantly allowed 5,289,959 Covid-19 cases and 63,569, many preventable, deaths with his reckless handling of the pandemic.

 Peace!

The Agony of Stupidity...Republicans and the 2020 Election

 

Some wingnut math teacher from Ohio by the name of Douglas Frank, with a Texas flag print bow tie, uses the National Anthem to rev up a crowd of double-digit Republicans to listen to his ridiculous, absurd mathematical equation that he claims proves the 2020 election was stolen. Here's the scenario...

"Just about every county in the country was hacked," Frank told the dozens of Texans huddled in a ballroom at a local country club on Sunday. When he finished speaking more than 90 minutes later, they gave him a standing ovation.

The fact that absolutely no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election has been found. and we know of hundreds of attempts by the GOP to find just the least amount of indication there was tampering. Zip...Nada. But does that satisfy these idiots? No, they are hell-bent on coming up with the answer that Donald Trump did in fact win the election. And this mathematical moron is just another example of how this gang of imbeciles is willing to believe anything that will prove that.

And guess who is backing Frank? None other than Mike Lindell, the My Pillow

CEO, another crackpot spewing misinformation on the election and Donald Trump. Lindell brags "he has already spent $25 million on his efforts to push election fraud claims." Listen to how Frank justifies his crap reported by CNN...

"In an interview, Frank told CNN that he is an "expert witness" for Lindell's attorney, and he is paid for specific projects. He said groups that invite him to speak cover the cost of his travel and lodging. Others donate money to support his efforts. Still, Frank insisted he wasn't motivated by money or his newfound stardom among election deniers."

"My goal is to be able to pay my bills, and it's working," Frank said. "I've been able to do this a year now and my bank balance isn't getting smaller."

I'll bet it isn't. But apparently Frank's use of the "sixth order polynomial" equation is the key to his claimed success. I looked that up and here is the definition...

"In algebra, a sextic (or hexic) polynomial is a polynomial of degree six. A sextic equation is a polynomial equation of degree six—that is, an equation whose left hand side is a sextic polynomial and whose right hand side is zero."

The only thing I get from this is the "right hand side is zero," which would be an indication of the Republican lack of credibility in all this bullshit. Okay, how the hell can you people believe this garbage? I know you are from Texas and anyone who would elect Greg Abbott governor is likely to believe just about anything, but come on folks. Here is CNN's take on Frank's math...

"The equation may be better suited to math wonks, but Frank takes liberties in his presentation with snappy lines that succinctly -- and inaccurately -- describe his findings."

 Here are some comments from Frank...

"America was stolen by an Excel spreadsheet," he told the crowd at a North Carolina event.

In Idaho, he explained his theory on phantom voters: "They are inflating our registration rolls, stuffing phantom ballots and then cleaning it up afterwards. It's that simple."

He has even absurdly claimed his discoveries could land Trump back in the Oval Office.

You wonder how long America can take this hogwash? Apparently as long as this slice of the obtuse political spectrum is at work spreading this kind of fake news and the bigger slice in this country lets them get away with it. We have let this movement get away from us and we will be sorry if it isn't stopped now.

 

42% of Republicans Lie About Fake News

 

There is no doubt when you mention fake news, the first thing that comes to mind is the Fox Network. Blabbermouths like Tucker Carlson who even admitted recently that he lied and spewed misinformation. But Fox isn't the only culprit and Politico proclaims One Group of Americans Who Are Most Likely to Spread Fake News is low-conscientiousness conservatives. The research of two Duke U. professors says we oversimplify blame, generally placing it all on republicans.

In this case Politico is zeroing in on this profile saying...

"it’s not conservatives in general who tend to promote false information, but rather a smaller subset of them who also share two psychological traits: low levels of conscientiousness and an appetite for chaos. Importantly, we found that several other factors we tested for — including support for former President Donald Trump — did not reliably predict an inclination to share misinformation."

If not primarily Donald Trump supporters, who? The piece says "researchers, social media platforms, politicians and members of the media to focus their efforts on low-conscientiousness conservatives (LCCs for short) in particular." On the other hand, you can't beat these conservatives over the head with the fact they are using fake news. And here's why...

"To be clear, existing research has found that conservatives have a greater tendency toward misinformation than liberals do. For example, during the 2016 election, individuals who leaned conservative were more likely to engage with and share disinformation on Twitter and Facebook. Likewise, in the early months of the pandemic, conservatives were more likely to believe Covid-19 was a hoax, and to downplay the virus’" severity.

Nearly Half Of Republicans Admit To Lying About Fake News...

In other words, Republican conservatives are more gullible than liberals, which would indicate to me a higher level if intelligence in the latter. Here's the authors' definition of low-conscientiousness conservatives...

"the tendency to regulate one’s own behavior by being less impulsive and more orderly, diligent and prudent."

What this means to me is that this gang of anti-Americans are able to ignore their principles, that is, if they have any, and discipline themselves to complete a cause, no matter how bizarre or illegal it might be. Highly conscientious conservatives and their liberal counterparts are much less likely to succumb. So what does drive LCCs to spread misinformation? The researchers...

"asked participants to report their leanings on a range of potential influences: level of support for Trump, time spent on social media, distrust of the mainstream media, and endorsement of conservative social and economic values. To our surprise, none of these factors was a reliable predictor of LCCs’ elevated tendency to share false news stories."

Through a statistical analysis it was found that this bunch simply wanted chaos.

That sound familiar from Moscow Mitch McConnell and the fellow GOP not producing any agenda on the right, rather creating discord throughout the country to thwart anything the Democrats do? This is the tragedy of why the United States is in such great trouble with the Covid-19 pandemic, voting rights, racism, inequality and more.

You can blame it on Joe Biden all you want to but this research proves exactly where the buck has stopped.

I urge you to read this article because I have only touched on the surface of low-conscientiousness conservatives.

Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis Destroyed by Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom

 

With Florida's demented governor, Ron DeSantis, spewing bullshit over his new budget and his recent "successes," California governor Gavin Newsom stepped up to the plate and ripped him to pieces...

"They're [DeSantis, Abbott, etc.] performance artists, some of these people,” the governor snapped. “All you have to do is watch Fox and then just decide to plug in. I mean, it's about the easiest thing I've seen in politics. It's just, ‘What's the ticker on Fox primetime?’”

“With respect, we'd have 40,000 more Californians dead if we took [DeSantis's] approach,” Newsom continued.

“I do not look for inspiration to that particular governor … to not only the pandemic, but to other policy, including the absurdity that was his ‘woke’ initiative and the laughability around stopping something that doesn't exist, around critical race theory — just playing in and placating the right-wing punditry. It’s the CPAC primary. It’s rather absurd. And that's why I respectfully submit that so much of this is pure performance.

What is most frightening is the fact that this moron, and I am talking about

DeSantis, wants to run for president. We've just had one Republican imbecile in the White House, and this country cannot stand another one. 'But wait,' as the TV commercial says, there's more. Nikki Fried, who has served as the 12th Florida commissioner of agriculture since 2019, a Democrat, has repeatedly criticized Ron DeSantis comparing him to Adolph Hitler on several occasions.

According to Florida Politics, Fried believes that Donald Trump is now officially after DeSantis...

"Fried thinks the booster shot back-and-forth is only the beginning of issues between the Governor and his erstwhile political patron. In Jacksonville Thursday for gubernatorial campaign events, Fried predicted the former President would complicate DeSantis’ re-election prospects, potentially trying to “destroy” the Governor."

DeSantis' term as Florida's governor ends this year, meaning, if he at least wants to hang on to the top spot in the sunshine state, he has to run in November. But if he is serious about the presidency, he has to throw his hat in the ring now. Fried says...

“What I think is going to happen is we all know President Trump wants to run for President again, and so does Gov. DeSantis. And so you’re going to have two individuals that are going to hit heads.”

There's more...

“And Trump is not somebody who’s going to sit back. He created DeSantis. And he fundamentally believes that he can destroy DeSantis.”

 Gov. Gavin Newsom Compares CA & FL COVID Response...

But it is entirely possible that someone like Gavin Newsom will do the job before Trump has the chance. While DeSantis talks of putting a band aid on Florida's problems (Florida has had a total of 5,039,887 Covid-19 cases, 63,084 deaths), both 3rd highest in U.S., Newsom shows how it's done in California...

"Making use of a massive budget surplus, Newsom also proposed spending another $2 billion to address his state’s homelessness crisis (on top of the $12 billion in last year’s budget); investing $22.5 billion over the next five years to fight climate change; paying health care expenses for every low-income adult in the state regardless of their immigration status; and devoting $102 billion to help schools deal with the ongoing pandemic and expand early childhood education and child care programs."

With plans like this, people have a tendency to listen to the positive and to success. But California does have its coronavirus problems with 6,635,535 cases of the virus and 77,928 deaths. The huge difference is that Gavin Newsom is using

proven scientific protocol to fight Covid-19, not the fake science used by Ron DeSantis. Florida Politics reports...

Trump has predicted that if he runs for President again, DeSantis will not run. But DeSantis has not promised he will not run for President, apparently irking Trump. Instead, DeSantis has tended to deflect the question.

So when will the showdown occur, and most of all, who will come out on top and who will end up all bloodied? 

Recollections of U.S Racism

 

Today is Martin Luther King Day, the same date in 1968 King was asasinated standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. I lived in Memphis for several years in the 50s and 60s, know where the Lorraine motel is, and know how racism must have been festering in the South on that date. It still is, and isn't just in that part of the country. But now, because Covid-19 origiginated in China, the bigots are afrer Asians. 

It would be nice if we could celebrate some progress today, but, unfortunately, it has gotten much worse, thanks in part to Donald Trump.s four years in the White House. My post of August in 1999 dociments the antics of some of the worst offenders: "Racism at its worst in the U.S.today documented." I called these incidents, "Horrifying examples of racism in the United States." I am appalled at the face of one woman and the finger of the other.

Here's one I posted in 2012, commenting on racism in the state of Mississippi, "At best, Mississippi is an apologetic racist state." I spent time in the state, once lived there, but mostly in the late 50s and 60s in a sales position and remember blatant use of the "N" word. Here's an excerpt from that post...

To say that racism is no longer prevalent in the South is pure bunk. But this problem isn’t confined to the Southeast region. I now live in Arizona and can attest to the fact that this state is one the most racist I have ever been in. The modern take on racism has moved into the 21st Century to include Hispanics, and racial fanatics like former Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce who authored anti-immigration bill SB-1070, signed by his partner in prejudice, Gov. Jan Brewer.

I live in Arizona and can verify regular bigotry still exists here. Just recently the

pro-basketable team Phoenix Suns were accused of racism targering the owner Bob Sarver and his wife. Another 2019 post is a "Welcome to rampant racism for the ages," which covers the global aspects of this discrimination. Here's a passage from that post...

The U.S. doesn't have an exclusive on racism; it is worldwide, says the site Global Issues. It also suggests an interesting concept that racism is a "misunderstanding of Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution." It goes on...

Since the above is pretty lengthy, please read it in the blog. And another on 2017, "Donald Trump-Jeff Sessions share history of racism." I recall here a quote used repeatedly by Trump while still in office, "[I'm] the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered?" You know what happened between Trump and Sessions. And here is another post where I ask, "Is racism still a dirty word, or...just accepted today?" The answer is an unequivocal YES! Hre's how I start the post...

My take is that it is definitely a dirty word, even many racists would agree with that, but it is like one of those rogue genes that are the basis for a particular kind of behavior which allows those who have it to justify what they do. I grew up in the South, fighting with racists all my life, even within my own family, and when I finally left in the 1960s, there were still lynchings of black people, their houses being burned to the ground, all orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan.

As a very young man, I once watched a Klan lynching, hidden behind bushes since I knew I cold be next if they saw me. I was with two other kids my age, friends until I witnessed them chortling to themselves in support of what was going on. It is my feeling that this illegal racist execution is what solidified my hatred of racism. It has never changed. These are a few of my blog posts on racism, but you can see all of them here.

 

 

The Republican Party and its Antics Stink

 

That's right! The Republican Party has a distinctive stench that has been building for the last several years and threatens to develop into a full blown putrid, rancid, rotting cult of denial and incompetence. And they are determined to take democracy down with their ineptitude. CNN says that it is, "The biggest news story of 2021? Our imperiled democracy," with this comment...

"The headlines began in January with the first serious attempted coup in US history and have been running ever since, highlighted by the unceasing machinations by supporters of Donald Trump to either restore him to office or find some extra-legal way to eliminate the possibility he could ever lose if he ran again."

In this piece, Bill Carter, a media analyst for CNN, points out that, even with a raging coronavirus pandemic, "our imperiled democracy is the biggest story of the year." Considering the impact of Covid-19 with 64,789,362 U.S. cases and 868,128 deaths, this statement should scare the hell out of any American that cares about the future of their country. Carter comments further...

"I certainly don't believe I have seen any other news story in my own lifetime, which goes back to the 1950s, that has shaken the nation to its foundations as this one has."

Former President Barack Obama says, "Democracy is at a greater risk today," adding...

“while the broken windows have been repaired and many of the rioters have been brought to justice, the truth is that our democracy is at a greater risk today than it was back then.”

Former Pres. Obama warned about democracy's loss a year ago...

In other words, we, as a nation, learned absolutely nothing from a gang of Trump Republican double-digit hoodlums attacking the U.S. Capitol, doing damage to the premises and making the first real charge on our democracy in years. There are those who support this kind of insurgency, those who don't, and then there are the apathetics. It seems the latter is a growing majority, the ones who stay at home for elections, then bitch and moan when they don't like the results.

Obama puts it all in perspective by chastising the GOP, going all the way down to state legislatures...

“Historically, Americans have been defenders of democracy and freedom around the world — especially when it’s under attack,” he continued. “But we can’t serve the role when leading figures in one of our two major political parties are actively undermining democracy at home. We can’t set an example when our leaders are willing to fabricate lies and cast doubt on the results of free and fair elections.”

CNN's Jake Tapper says, "Americans aren't hearing the 'democracy in danger' alarm," and I believe he would agree that those who have are not doing enough. But the warnings are there...

There is "a dagger at the throat of democracy," President Joe Biden said

 

Thursday.

The country "teeters on the brink of a widening abyss," former President Jimmy Carter.

In her remarks Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris put the January 6 insurrection alongside Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as a wake-up call for Americans.

And here's another important point of view, "Majority of business leaders believe democracy is threatened," a faction that the GOP should be listening to. Karl Evers-Hillstrom of The Hill says...

"Seventy-two percent of business leaders say they are concerned that U.S. democracy is under threat, according to a Morning Consult poll of 400 company executives released on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot."

That is significant and a group that President Biden should tap into to support his voting rights legislation. Here's the scenario...

“This research clearly shows that the leaders in America’s business community view democracy and voting rights as an economic issue,” said Rhett Buttle, founder of Public Private Strategies. “Now, it is important that advocates, policymakers, and leaders in Congress and the administration engage the business community to advance solutions that will stabilize our democracy and protect access to the ballot for every voter.”

Joe Biden's voting rights legislation hangs with barely a thread and it would appear he does not have the votes to save it. When you think of it, the right to vote is so basic under our Constitution...the way in which individuals express their political preferences. Then ask yourself, why do Republicans want to deny the right to vote for a selected few? The answer, of course, is that they lose elections when these select individuals are allowed to vote. Keep this in mind when voting in November.