Shipwrecked & Comatose

Two years ago I wrote a post on this blog titled What If He Goes Down .  It speculated about the dangerous place this country would become if Trump were removed from office, or not reelected, or imprisoned for treason.  His supporters are militant and don't hesitate to tell the rest of us they are armed. I wondered if there is a risk of armed rebellion if Trump had to leave office. He survived the many investigations, and even an impeachment trial, and now the country faces his possible reelection.  Today I'm not certain the country won’t be in more danger if Trump wins the election than he will be if he loses it. I have plenty of things to fear if he is reelected.  I fear his economy will continue to favor his wealthiest supporters and push more Americans at the bottom into poverty wages with no health insurance.  I fear his constant diplomatic missteps.  I fear his mental instability.  I fear he will trash the planet.  I don't want him reelected for many reasons, but

Have you heard the one about how much liberals hate the police?  Liberals hate the police.  Depending on whom you speak to, liberals want to abolish the police and give hugs and therapy to all criminals.  Then there are also the liberals who are terrorist thugs who want to destroy law and order with their own arsenal of bombs and guns. This is why being a liberal sometimes gives me an identity crisis. In the din of angry voices we hear liberals trying to speak up.  "I respect law enforcement," they say.  "Police are heroes.  A few bad apples don't spoil the whole bushel.  I have friends who are police officers.  I have close family members who are police officers.  They are good people.  They only want to serve and protect their communities.  They aren't racists." Their social media feeds are filled with photos of police officers helping others and receiving hugs from civilians. Not every liberal feels this way and that scares many conservatives (and I

"I don't know what to believe anymore" - Various friends on Facebook The First Amendment comes first in the Bill of Rights for good reason.  The free exchange of ideas is one of the most important ways we preserve our democracy.  We take our free press for granted.  It is how we stay informed and keep the government accountable.  Without a free press, it would be easy for the government to manipulate us.  We can't all attend the speeches.  We can't all be in the war rooms and board rooms.  We can't all be on the battlefields.  We can't all be in the Capitol watching sessions of Congress.  We rely on the press to do these things for us and honestly report what it sees so we know what's going on. Imagine the United States without our free press.  Imagine if the information presented to us was censored by the government to make the itself look good.  Imagine if we had no press at all.  Think of Congress passing bills and creating laws that we never k

It's time to impeach Donald Trump. A regular reader of this blog might be wondering why I said that.  Last year I made a post saying it would be impossible to remove Donald Trump from office because he is too skilled in gaming the system.  I also said it would be better to keep him in office because the right is already too angry and violent in this country and there could be violent repurcussions and even at risk of civil war ( or perhaps we already are ) if their hero is taken down. I know all of this, but I still believe the House needs to draw up the articles of impeachment and Trump needs to stand trial.  This isn't about removing him from office - although it would be magnificent if that happened.  This is about the law and the Constitution.  This is about making sure not only Trump, but every other president in the future, understands that being president does not put anyone above the law. What are Trump's crimes?  I shouldn't have to say what they are, bu

As I write this, the fight in Congress with the White House Tonsil-Stone-In-Chief drags on.  Trump wants a wall along the entire Mexican border, no matter how impractical and expensive, no matter how many years and lawsuits it will take, and no matter how much impact it will have both on the environment and the human residents of the surrounding communities. We can try to talk with some degree of reason to the issue. We can state the fact that most illegal immigration comes from people entering the country legally and overstaying their visas. We can point out that illegal border crossings have decreased in the past ten years and deportations were on the rise before Trump even took office (Obama was brutal in his immigration policies no matter how much Republicans want to believe otherwise.) We can remind ourselves that most illegal drugs cross into the US via legal points of entry. Also, immigrants are paying taxes. None of this is going to sway Trump and his followers.  Il

I believe that once the investigations are over, the indictments are handed down, and the smoke clears, Trump will come out of this victorious. I don't believe he is innocent.  The man is a corrupt grifter drunk on his own power (or his perceptions of his own power). I am sure he is guilty of everything he is accused of and more.  I am saying I am a realist.  Trump has been playing the game for decades.  He knows how to evade the law, which he has always believed himself to be above.  He won't suffer the consequences of his political actions any more than he will suffer the consequences of his bad business practices.  I also believe he has what it takes to fix the elections in 2020. I fear the consequences of what will happen if he remains in office.  I don't know if he will lead us into war, or bankrupt the economy, or disenfranchise more voters, or ruin the environment.  Nothing good will come of a continued Trump presidency. I am more afraid of what will happen if

This post contains spoilers I read The Handmaid's Tale sometime back in the early 1990s.  From what I have read regarding Margaret Atwood's reason for writing the book, she was inspired by Iran.  She wanted to imagine how a secular country could adopt theocratic policies and how that would play out.  The fact that she set the book in the United States rather than her native Canada speaks volumes about how outsiders view the US as a place where such a government could take power. When I read the book, the Religious Right had completed its stranglehold on the US government.  Ralph Reed had a visible hand in politics and  Congress was touting its racist and Christian-biased Contract with America .  Reading The Handmaid's Tale sent chills down my spine.  I could see such a tragedy happening here.  A religious group had fulfilled its goal of taking over a major US political party and who knew where its agenda would lead? Most conservative critique I now read about the bo

Today is the Fourth of July, otherwise known as Independence Day.  It is a day we celebrate America's freedom, or so I'm told. One phrase I see often on this day, and other patriotic holidays, is this one: Freedom isn't free I never gave much thought to that phrase, but I'm starting to think about it now.  What does it mean?  Is it really true? Sadly, it is true.  Freedom isn't free.  It is being held captive by regressives.  People who call themselves conservatives have hijacked freedom and put it in chains.  They are hoarding it and slowly perverting it for their own ends.  They want freedom to be only what they want it to be. What freedoms are imprisoned by the Right? Freedom of Speech - It's okay to say, " Fuck your feelings ," and be politically incorrect if they are the ones saying it.  If you dare speak out and criticize them or their Dear Leader, the White House Orangutan, you will be called mean and uncivil.  Your good name will

So you voted for Trump and you still want to defend your choice? Somehow you still want to defend the indefensible.  You made your choice, but you think you are innocent of the consequences of your actions. "Stop calling me a racist.  I'm not a racist because I voted for Trump." Sorry.  You can come up with as many excuses as you want, but if you support and defend a racist, you're not off the hook. You say you're not a racist because you think the KKK is bad, or because you refuse to use the N-word.  You would never support the reinstatement of Jim Crow laws.  You couldn't possibly be a racist.  You love minorities. You have minority friends. This is what most white people don't understand (or want to understand) about racism.  Just because you're not burning crosses or segregating bathrooms doesn't mean you don't practice elements of racism in your daily life.  Racism isn't black or white.  It's a continuum.  There are many ty