How Would we Fight a Modern Civil War in the U.S.?

 

In the Civil War of 1861, there was a clear distinction between opponents; north of the Mason Dixon Line and south of the Mason Dixon Line. The north, of course, were the federal forces being opposed by the Confederate Army in the south. Eleven southern states left the Union in 1860 and 1861 because of the long-standing disagreement over the institution of slavery...

Although the North did want to block slavery, they were also concerned that an extra slave state would give the South a political advantage.

As you can see, there is no doubt why they were fighting this war, and also no question who the players were. So, now to the question, 'How would you separate this country in a civil conflict of today?' As an example, on my street in a Phoenix suburb, I know of at least one other liberal family, but for the most part, the rest are conservatives, one known Trump supporter. We are right next door to each other so do you see the problem of opposite sides doing battle?

Of course, we don't yet know what kind of clash it would turn out to be; a violent one or a war of ideologies addressed through social media and the press. Or, a combination of both, possibly somewhere in between. This is perhaps one of the biggest unknowns that has ever faced this country. Marc Fisher's perspective in the Washington Post is...

"It’s easy and logical to conclude that the United States today stands as close to the edge of civil war as it has since 1861."

 'The Next Civil War' Looks At Our Current Divided Area And What's Ahead...

There seems to be no doubt of the imminence, but no one appears to be sure of the shape it will take. The experts surmise why...

"They point to evidence that can seem persuasive: a blizzard of threats against FBI agents, judges, elected officials, school board members and elections supervisors; training camps where heavily armed radicals practice to confront their own government; and polls showing that many Americans expect violent conflict."

What bothers me most is "that many Americans expect violent conflict." To substantiate that Science.org says...

"Firearm deaths in the United States grew by nearly 43% between 2010 and 2020, and gun sales surged during the coronavirus pandemic."

Despite all the propaganda from NRA head, Wayne LaPierre and his Republican minions, we know what more guns on the street means; more shooting violence and more innocent deaths. But not so fast says Marc Fisher, with all the violent rhetoric there may be another expectation. There are, indeed, plenty of threats...

"But the Anti-Defamation League and other watchdog groups are not seeing the kind of specific planning by private militias and online assemblages of radicals that was evident before last year’s Jan. 6 insurrection and the white-supremacist march in Charlottesville in 2017." 

There is more from the ADL...

“We are living in a country where disinformation, conspiracy thinking and lies have resulted in deadly attacks,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “It’s not exactly kumbaya in this society. But we have been going through this for a long time now, and I don’t see people coming together in the more coherent organizing we saw prior to Jan. 6.”

But Robert Reich says, "The second American civil war is already happening." He thinks America is becoming "two versions of itself and wonders "how will the two be civil toward each other?" This article, although over 3 months old, still hits the mark in this issue. Reich explains it this way...

"The second American civil war is already occurring, but it is less of a war than a kind of benign separation analogous to unhappily married people who don’t want to go through the trauma of a formal divorce.

"One America is largely urban, racially and ethnically diverse, and young. The other is largely rural or exurban, white and older."

As conservative writer Kurt Schlichter said in his book, We'll Be Back: The Fall and Rise of America, "It's nice to hold cities, but if you do not also hold all the rural territory between the cities, as well as the routes to the places where you are getting your food and fuel, you have a real problem." So what's the answer? Americans are flocking together based on ideologies with animosity toward those in the opposing party higher than at any time in living memory.

Then, Marc Fisher points out there are two sets of analysts...

"those who say we’re heading toward civil strife and those who say the threat matrix is largely limited to lone rangers and small, disorganized groups whose dangerous but scattered acts don’t constitute a civil war — agree there is little chance of an organized, violent attack on the government, or of local or state authorities taking up arms against their federal counterparts. But there remains a sharp divide over whether a mounting series of individual and small-group attacks could add up to a warlike conflict that destabilizes the country."

Don't know which is worse. In one case there would be a defining difference in warring factions but near impossible to separate the two as in the Civil War of 1861. But in the second, it could be literally neighbor fighting neighbor. It would give a new name to block parties and can you even comprehend being shot at by the folks next door? There are so many issues from abortions to racism and it doesn't look like there is a peaceful way to settle this.

All I wanted is to live but...

 

...my forever family didn't want me anymore. Did you know that 47% of dogs and 42% of cats are abandoned by owners each year? The no-kill shelters try to save as many as possible--they strive for 9 out of 10--but approximately 1.5 million animals are euthanized annually. Broken down this is about 670,000 dogs and 860,000 cats. And do you really know what happens when you take your pet to a kill shelter?...

Typically, the holding period before euthanasia runs from five to seven days. However, it can be as short as 48 to 72 hours in some cases.

The answer is a combination of education, feral animal catch and neuter/spay, and supporting your local rescues and shelters so they can provide quality care for more animals. Think twice before abandoning a pet that is like another child to the family. Just imagine how they feel being dumped after believing they had their forever home.

Steve Jobs/Apple Responsible for High E-book prices

 

Remember when you could get a newly released E-book for as little as $3.95 in the early days of the electronic revolution? David Baldacci is a best-selling author of thrillers with an amazing track record selling over 100 million books worldwide. His latest, The 6:20 Man, is number 45 on Amazon books. The hardcover sells on Amazon for $15.39, the Kindle edition for $14.99. That is only a 40 cents difference. Amazon thinks that pricing is an essential factor. 

Michael Kozlowski in Good E Reader says, digital books on the Kindle, Nook or Kobo are way more expensive now than ever before and it is the fault of major publishers who control the prices. Remember now the earlier Kindle price of $3,95.  Here's the scenario...

"All good things come to an end. When Apple launched their iBooks Store, Steve jobs met with the heads of all of major publishers. He wanted them to gain more control over the digital publishing business and create a uniform pricing structure. This was known as a cartel, which is illegal."

Steve Jobs' Role in the E-Book Pricing Conspiracy...

Amazon pioneered the concept of paying $9.99 for a new E-book from a major publisher the day it was released. E-books were cheaper than paperbacks and significantly cheaper than a hardcover which could sell for over $25,00. Experts say Amazon was losing money on Kindle books but it was well worth it to promote their product, the Kindle Reader. I am on my second and have always looked for books by price.

However, I must admit having an ardent interest in some classics that can be found as low as that old $3.95 price. I shy away from best-sellers unless it is what I call a necessary read hoping the Kindle price will eventually go down. It never does. My gut tells me this new "cartel" of publishers is not letting that happen. The U.S. Justice Department got involved in what I call price-fixing in a case against Apple and all of the publishers.

After a few years...

"the five publishers settled for $166m (£120m), while Apple lost at trial and was ordered to pay out $450m in 2016, after a lengthy legal process that ended when the US supreme court declined to hear the company’s challenge."

 

Kozlowski says...

"It is very rare that publishers ever reduce the price of an E-book. When a new title is released and the publisher sets the price, they hardly ever discount the E-book at a future date."

I still think this is a matter of price-fixing but with a conservative Supreme Court today, you'd never get them to agree. Now don't get me wrong, the Kindle is a    great tool for the avid reader and with Amazon Prime you have a multitude of choices for reduced price, even free books, including those on audio. So, although we can thank the Apple folks for setting up this "price-fixing" arrangement, it would appear digital books are here to stay.

Radical Information Can Destroy a Democracy...Here's how

 

Over thirty-five years in the junk mail industry, information was my crown jewel. Information about mailing lists, information about people (demographics); information about geography (demography). Without all this I could never have progressed as a data broker. It was plentiful and it was expensive but cost even more when collected and refined, then sold to a client for their mailings. I do not know the number of peoples' names I sold but it was in the multi-millions.

This was several years ago and the business has changed significantly since then. What hasn't changed is still the fact that nothing moves without information. In Salon recently, Chauncey Devega spoke with Stephanie Foggett, who is director of global communications at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consulting firm. Foggett specializes in monitoring white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups.

With the Covid pandemic in a slight decline, we now have monkeypox to deal with. And there is a constant reminder from Bernie Sanders and other Progressives that inequality is still raging in this country. Devega reminds us...

"Here in the U.S., Donald Trump's political cult and a Republican Party dominated by fascists are attempting to end multiracial democracy. This is a revolutionary struggle whose goal is to create a new American society, that in practical terms will be an apartheid Christian fascist plutocracy ruled without challenge or accountability by a small number of rich white men."

 The Pro-Putin Wing Of The GOP Echoes Kremlin Disinformation...

In Devega's exchange with Foggett, she...

"shares her views on how "malign actors" are using this moment of global disruption to expand their power by undermining liberalism and Western-style democracy, both internationally and in the United States."

Of special concern is the use of the Internet and conservative media by "the global far-right and their allies, along with the Republican Party and its agents." Including Fox News and conspiracy cults like QAnon. Foggett even predicts that military conflict between states is now a reality, in keeping with recent forecasts of another Civil War. But, it takes time she says, because more than ever today, we must know why we are doing what we are doing.

It is here where Foggett addresses "How the far right is winning the information war." With Republican disinformation of course, made popular during the Donald Trump administration...

"Every issue is being muddled with disinformation and half-truths and narratives that paralyze action by creating confusion and doubt. This makes it hard to chart a shared path forward."

In this "confusion," it is...

"very difficult to even have discussions about politics and current events when there is less of a shared understanding of reality, the truth and facts. Every issue is being muddled with disinformation and half-truths and narratives that paralyze action by just creating confusion and doubt."

And therein lies the problem. Republican disinformation creating a confusion because the GOP has no agenda other than to block anything the Democrats want to do. It sure isn't the Grand Old Party anymore.

Haven't we done enough to Native Americans?

 

Here we go with Brett Kavanaugh again, but that comes later. The conservative Supreme Court does again what it does best, fuck up the country. The overturning of Roe v. Wade is, perhaps, one of the worst things that has happened to the U.S. in decades. In a 2nd Amendment decision gun rights were expanded in a nation with one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world. And six rightest radicals decide that separating church and state is no longer a good thing.

And now, if they haven't been persecuted enough already, conservative SCOTUS has decided to upend the lives of Native Americans. Here's how Nick Estes of the Guardian begins his article...

‘Kavanaugh’s words could have come from the most ardent anti-Indian racist of a bygone era. Asserting state criminal jurisdiction over Native lands has been a primary tactic of legally eliminating Native people.’

But first, some insight into the culture of America's Native Americans. I live in Arizona where there are 22 American Indian communities which accounts for one-quarter of state land. Their casinos are thriving here, however...

"The San Carlos Reservation is one of the poorest Native American communities in the United States, with an annual median household income of approximately $14,000 in 2000, according to the US Census."

But the San Carlos Reservation has the Apache Gold Casino & Resort on their land so where does that income go?...

"A portion of the gaming revenue gets shared with individuals in tribes where the casinos are located. The money also benefits communities — supporting education, buildings and services. And casinos also provide jobs in the thousands, although exactly how many is not clear." 

And how much is the U.S. tribal casino gaming revenue? A record $34.6 Billion in fiscal-year 2019, but apparently there was a slowdown during the Covid pandemic. Still, am I missing something or are we not getting the right information from the federal government? And what about state and federal taxes...

"Indian casinos do not pay a state tax as such, although the tribes pay the state and local governments a fee based on the casino revenue. Some tribes distribute a portion of the profits, also, in the form of a per capita payment. In those cases, tribal members pay federal taxes on their income."

So, where does all this money go and why is The San Carlos Reservation one of the poorest Native American communities in the United States, with an annual median household income of approximately $14,000 in 2000? That story in a later post because today our concern is what is a conservative SCOTUS going to do to the Native American nation in general? Here's a hint from an 1886 Supreme Court decision in United States v Kagama...

"Paradoxically, the court found that the very nation that waged wars of extermination and invasion against Native people also declared itself their sole guardian, protecting its “wards” from the “local ill feeling” of land-hungry whites flooding Native lands in the western states."

There's more...

"And where the US constitution was lacking in language defining federal authority over Native nations, the court had invented it, for better or for worse."

The Native Americans never had a chance. But the Kagama decision helped...

"That decision and others like it – however imperfect and drenched in conquest they were – supposedly shielded Native people and their reservations from the arbitrary authority of states and hostile white settlers."

And now back to Brett Kavanaugh who said, “A state has jurisdiction over all of its territory, including Indian country,” based on a "false 10th amendment claim, which doesn’t authorize states to intervene in tribal affairs." However, Kavanaugh's decision results in...

"States, according to this [Kavanaugh] extremist – and now dominant – view in the court, possess the authority to abolish and criminalize abortions, potentially curb voting rights and now abrogate treaties and redefine federal relations with Native nations."

As I said earlier, the cards were stacked in the favor of the federal government and the states from the beginning, and my guess is this outcome was always anticipated. But I don't want to end this on a putrid note of a radical conservative Supreme Court hell-bent on destroying our democracy and the U.S. in general, and although it will take time to neuter this band of lunatics, I'll end with an amazing story of the Native American participation in WWII.

As Navajo Code Talkers, they participated in all assaults the U.S. Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima. This from the Arizona Republic, the Code Talkers transmitted messages by telephone and radio in their native language. This code was never broken by the Japanese, a miracle considering other means of secret messaging used by the Americans was often deciphered.

An Unbreakable Code...Inspiring description from former Navajo Code Talker...

Some quick facts: The Navajo Code Talkers originally numbered 29 but grew as the need arose; Many were wounded and many died; The Code talkers had the highest level of commitment in their duties, a part of their success; Native Americans serve in the military at five times the national average on a per-capita basis; and, only 3 Navajo Code Talkers remain. They are Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel, Sr., and Thomas H. Begay.

I could never describe the total contribution of the Navajo Code talkers to the Second World War and the United State of America, but if you are interested, there is a great book titled, Code Talker, by Chester Nez, one of the original Code Talkers. It is fascinating and I highly recommend it.

Pets are like humans...Once you're old no one wants you, unless...

 

...you find that forever family that believes, "Love has no age limit." Here is an industry norm...

"The decision to adopt an older animal can also take on lifesaving importance because they are usually the last to be adopted—senior dogs, for example, have a 25% adoption rate, compared to the 60% adoption rate of younger dogs and puppies." 

I am 90-years-old and don't feel neglected or pushed into a corner, and that is because I have a loving family, especially a wife who takes care of me. But there are those in nursing homes with indifferent relatives and/or friends that let them just sit there and deteriorate. Just think of the animals in those same circumstances who are all alone and have no one to fight for them. They spend lonely years in shelters or are euthanized.

Here's a good reason to adopt a senior pet from Lollypop Farms...

"When you adopt a senior pet, you are giving a deserving pet a second chance at a happy life with a loving family. Senior cats and dogs have a lot of love left to give their new family, and will show their gratitude with love and affection."

And don't worry if you are a senior like my wife and I (78 and 90), American-Humane says...

"Choosing to adopt an adult cat or dog is generally a wise choice for seniors. Adult animals have fewer exercise and training demands, making them easier for seniors to keep up with. Additionally, older pets are also less likely to outlive their senior owner."

This Guy Can't Stop Rescuing Senior Dogs...

And if you are still not sure, Pets for the Elderly advises...

"For elderly pet owners, who often live alone or in group facilities, pets can help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, increase social interaction and physical activity and help them learn. Supports health benefits of owning a pet. Pet ownership may be a factor in improved health of the elderly."

The wonderful outcome here is the fact two senior factions win, the senior adopter and the senior animal being adopted. Not to mention the rescues/shelters across the country that are caring for these animals. It's a love, love senior fest. Why don't you try it and see. But you don't have to be a senior to adopt a senior pet; no matter your age, just Google the rescue/shelter closest to you and ask about their seniors.

 

 

 

I do my Best to Love You but...

 

...I didn't think you would do this to me. Do you know that one animal is abused every minute; 10 million animals in the U.S. are abused to death annually; Laboratory testing uses 115 million animals in experiments every year; Dogs comprise 65% of all abused animals. These and more statistics come from Peta, like, 88% of people investigated for child abuse also hurt animals. 100,000 horses die in the US every year due to the demand for horsemeat.

These are all abominable facts and reflects on a society that does not respect life. As proof, 88% of people investigated for child abuse also hurt animals. Less fatal but still frightening...

"250,000 animals are hoarded each year. Cat and dog lovers can take it too far, gathering hundreds of animals in one place without proper care. That’s why many of them experience malnourishment and various medical issues."

The PACT Act (Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture) was signed into law in 2019 making some of the most egregious forms of animal cruelty — specifically crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling or sexual exploitation unlawful, a federal crime. I recommend those interested go to the ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND for laws that protect animals. In the meantime, be on the lookout in your neighborhood and elsewhere for signs of animal abuse and cruelty.