My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… Jul 3, 2023, Monday
Weather for the day…56 degrees at beginning of walk, 67 at end
Since today is Independence Day eve, I thought this was an appropriate podcast leading into the Fourth of July… Podcast for the day, The Rachel Maddow Show's, Monday weekly podcast episode of "Deja News" and as it’s a holiday weekend, so Rachel put up a bonus episode to her excellent and (both...any?) should be required listening podcast, Bag Man.
As Rachel‘s podcast exemplifies, what’s been going on today with Donald Trump, MAGA, and conservatives in the Republican Party at large, we’ve all seen this before. As an example, outside of what Rachel’s been working on in our own US history, this past week or two I’ve been watching the "Narcos" series/franchise on Netflix. That began (my watching the show) as my trying to look into Pedro Pascal‘s comment from an interview recently, when he said he owed a lot to having been on "Narcos" when it started. So I watched it. I realized that season three really did boost him up to kinda superstar status. I continued on to "Narcos Mexico" where I’m currently on season three, a show he's not on. The massive unbelievable corruption over the decades in the Mexican government, oddly and more slightly mirrors what’s been going on in our conservative politics via one criminal and autocratic cretin, Donald Trump. It’s eerie to watch how clearly the Mexican government was corrupt and how can we not see how corrupt our own government is in certain areas? Mostly, almost completely, on the side of the Republican Party where the infection has taken them over these past few years (decades).
About my long Covid and... alcohol. Yesterday, in part to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend, I was binging "Narcos Mexico", and had lunch with some leftover steak I grilled the other day and a healthier kind of frozen Mexican TV dinner along with two glasses of wine. The wine, alcohol, has been problematic for me with long covid. But I felt great and had a good time. I took a couple hits off my vape pen, laying dormant during long Covid these past few years, but as it doesn’t affect my blood sugar as alcohol does, maybe it should be my main relaxant and entertainment option. But I've not much used it during long covid. I had a good day after lunch (the alcohol making that unsure). I know it can cause me issues at bedtime. But I wasn’t feeling anything from it which typically shows up in relation to my blood pressure. But my sleep wasn't coming and it was getting late, but had some interesting dreams. Eventually I took half of a melatonin and then I slept through the night. So no alcohol today. It’s definitely showing a form of progress however.
Rachel’s podcast got interesting very quickly at about 12 or 13 minutes in, about when those young prosecutors who had wanted to indict Richard Nixon’s vice president for his obvious crimes, which they could prove, had to argue that with the Attorney General and, lost their argument. They were finally convinced by AG Elliot Richardson who said that at that time, that even inditing the vice president could be dangerous for them, even more so than for him. And for America and our government.
With all the slamming conservatives and their version of the Republican Party that I’ve done, who certainly deserve it, MAGA really is the party of crime and a criminal populist autocratic leader. What's so sad there is that so many of those people cannot, and will not... refuse, to see Any of that. But when you support a criminal in public office, that does kind of make you culpable. Being delusional does not absolve you from the fact that you’re supporting a horrible fucking person, a criminal with indictments on record, and with more to come. Not to mention being an obvious and admitted sexual predator.
All this talk about a president or vice president being indicted, tried, sentenced and imprisoned is ridiculous. I’ve always been against capital punishment. I’ve always been against any citizen losing their right to vote be they a criminal or not, unless... they’ve been convicted of treason. Maybe sedition. Maybe. But once a VP or POTUS is convicted of a crime while in office or after that, Secret Service protection or anything else other than them being a stripped down, ordinary citizen, should simply be tossed out the window. It should be a non-issue. And if that legally isn't possible, then we need an amendment or something to make it so. There is a wide area before you get there as POTUS/VPOTUS, these are people given great preference. So for them to get to that point, really means they have achieved a criminal status, they have earned it, they have earned being branded as such, stripped of all their special benefits. The fear in that is what if they are assassinated, or murdered, or harmed? Then America should have elected a person or persons of better quality. That is not an excuse. Not in today's world.
Because, while America's Founders set up protections against our having a king or a monarchy, where they may have missed things, are in things that people are now finding they can skew to their criminal benefit. I’m sure these Founding Fathers, Framers of our Constitution and country, would agree that this all has got to be rectified. It was a failure not just on their part, but on the part of the lack of quality of citizens who would apply such ploys, at this point in our history, and against US, and our "Great Experiment". It makes sense that someone like Trump and his Republican Party, not even his Republican Party, as this has been going on since the early 90s under the guidance and sad influence of people like low life conservative Newt Gingrich… He realized they could be plying old Soviet KGB tactics against their own citizens here in America to win when they've been losing far too much in their minds. Losing because of bad ideas. Rather than update their attitude and orientation, better to lie, cheat and steal, apparently. Down to the conservative's evolutionary point of no return when we all heard and saw Donald Trump publicly request help from an international enemy of America, and we now know, perpetrators of crimes against humanity and illegal wars, in order to supply Trump with anything to distract voters in his obfuscation of his crimes.
We keep hearing, regarding Donald Trump in his trial(s), how juries always tend to do the "right thing". What does that mean? I was on a jury once a few years ago. It was a cut and dried case, not unlike like Trump's, only at a local level about an obvious and observed assault and battery crime. What was so oddly problematic about it was how clear it was regarding what had happened and how guilty the defendant was. We knew we would have to judge him guilty before the trial ended. We heard the judge's orders to us before we began and after, as we were about to decide the defendant's guilt or innocence. But it wasn’t just about doing what was right. It was also about a juror's fear of the law and for ourselves. It’s true that if you see an injustice you may want to speak up and rectify it. But it’s a hard thing to realize your sadness in setting someone else up to be locked away, to take their freedom away from them, for any length of time. I never found out what the sentence was in that case, as that wasn’t part of our duties and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. We judged him guilty, quickly. I was the one who suggested that we take more than 3 minutes to decide. I said, "I Know, he's so obviously guilty. But considering what our judgement means, I think we should at least take a little time to discuss it, to be sure." Sometimes when something seems to obvious about what to do, one can make a mistake that will later be regretted. They seemed uncomfortable, we all were. The crime was that despicable, we wanted to distance ourselves from it ASAP. But they agreed and we started talking. I expected we'd spend 15 minutes on this. It took an hour and we ended up with the same judgement we had when we'd walked into the jury room. We returned to the courtroom and gave our decision, it was read aloud and the defendants girlfriend, the ONLY witness in the seats that day, began crying. The judge thanked us and excused us. He said we did our job and it was on him to sentence at a later date. That wasn't our concern. I kind of didn’t want to know. But I mention this to point out that when a jury does "what is right", it's not just out of selfless duty, but out of at least some of their own and not merely respect for the law, and also somewhat put of a fear of the law, and of the judge.
One of Nixon's prosecutors in the podcast addressed if Trump would get Secret Service protection in prison. He said, paraphrasing, "Yeah, maybe. But I doubt they’d be allowed in the cell with him. Or in other words, in the cell block with him. But they could hang out at the prison and maybe he can get some gum from them once in a while, or something." Which is pretty humorous. But we’re paying for that bullshit. Trump's a criminal, certainly at that point. And he should not have presidential rights anymore. They should be stripped. One can argue maybe not if it’s a state crime conviction, but definitely if it’s a federal crime conviction. While a former POTUS should be treated no better or worse than any citizen, they also should have lost the privilege of the benefits of having formerly been a POTUS. Just as citizens now can be stripped of their right to vote. Something even Trump shouldn't lose. Unless he's convicted of Treason, or Sedition, or Insurrection.
On the topic of “making an example“ in any court case... I’ve always been against it. Because you’re taking a citizen and leaning hard on them merely as an example, not about them, but for a group, not just about what they did. However, I do see there can be times when it’s reasonable or necessary in today’s world. It can be needed to send a message to citizens, government leaders and maybe even internationally. However, I would also say if that's the case, when someone prejudicially gets a harsher sentence, they should at some point see that rectified in the future. If say, they should get 10 years but get life, when they’re eventually allowed to petition for parole, that situation should be taken into consideration for sentencing to be brought in line with what's standard for the situation. The reason for that, often such cases may well have a need at the time of sentencing, but after time passes that need may have either been worked out or becomes moot, no longer necessary. The moment of its import may have passed. At that point why should that citizen, criminal or not, suffer the full weight of the US government to such a degree merely as an ideal served, rather than an actual citizen's reasonable repercussions?
I have a similar consideration regarding capital punishment. While overall, I agree it's cruel and unusual punishment, much as our prisons tend to be today overall, in the case of judging someone like Donald Trump as guilty and sentencing him to the death penalty, that seems eminently reasonable. Let him sit on death row and then, at the last moments, considering that could take years, perhaps then commute the death penalty to life in prison. Preferably as in Trump's case, which had acquired multiple life sentences in prison for his crimes, to be served consecutively. It’s only gonna take 10 or 20 years for him to die in prison anyway. I offer the same excuse and reasons and no more, as I do above, regarding any citizen being judged beyond the norm and simply to make a point.
My reason for capital punishment for someone like Donald Trump with his crimes as POTUS, consider how we let Nixon off with a pardon. We can’t do that with Trump. He cannot avoid prison. Yet he needs, has earned, capital punishment. But we could, as we progress in time, do as I said above. Sentence him with capital punishment, then before executed, commute it. That being said, the next time this ever happens, if the country doesn’t fall due to such as him in the future, obviously… then that next person definitely Should receive capital punishment. The problem is since we let Nixon off, we eventually got Donald Trump. And if we let Trump off, are we going to see this happen again? Commute his case and yes, we’ll definitely see this again. If we don’t make a statement NOW to put a stop to that kind of thinking, IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN, more successfully.
As far as indicting or judging Trump guilty, or serving him up to capital punishment, which really needs to be done (I don't know how that isn't clear to all by now), even though we won’t do that, and regarding potentially invoking a Civil War… I would argue if ever is the time it is now. Sooner than later if we're stuck with this crap. If this is going to cause an insurrection, as it did in the one we’re still cleaning up from, or a war, cleanup being part of the solution...if doing what is right will lead into this kind of nonsense to require a Civil War eventually anyway as it had during our actual Civil War. then so be it. But we’re either an America going forward, or we're some kind of bullshit banana republic autocracy with a despotic monarchy ruling us into the ground to become a land of grifters and crime run by Trump, imitating one of his despotic heroes like Putin, only to empty the coffers of America into his and his greedy friend's pockets.
As discussed on the podcast, as to what keeps one up at night… what keeps me up at night is definitely not that Donald Trump exists. Or any of his buddies around the world like Kim Jong-un, or war criminal's like Vladimir Putin, or China’s autocratic president Xi. What keeps me up at night is that anyone ever supported Donald Trump, or certainly, anyone who supported him before and is STILL supporting him now (WTF?), so that there’s any considered potential for him to not just achieve POTUS again, but any public office whatsoever, or even be head of any company in the world. He should also be banned from leading any private company, even one of his own. And serious look needs to be given to his family regarding that. That is, regarding how Trump does business. Regarding Putin, his having had supported Trump. The rule of their day is plain and simple… Chaos. Chaos makes Trump rich. Chaos destabilizes American and western democracies. Chaos keeps Russia under Putin's thumb, along with his disinformation and propaganda.
One of the comments of the Nixon prosecutors on Rachel’s podcast: "When I asked about the danger or necessity of charging Donald Trump, he said, I don’t think American has any choice." That single point of failure is dangerous. It’s been manipulated into this situation. I don’t mean a conspiracy. I mean that’s the functional output of what's been done. So many, especially right wing conservative bullshit conspiracies, are just that. A misinterpretation in hindsight of what actually took place. Of believing one is smarter than history, and that one knows more than those who do know. That all that is read on the Internet that agrees with one, is not suspect. For America’s only choice to be that we have to chance illiberal outrage by an ignorant minority who support an autocrat such as Trump, is ridiculous. We allowed ourselves, through sleeping at the wheel, and not being proactive...for this to happen. In that way, it can happen again.
We have become an autocrat's playground. And that has to stop. Now!
If the political left were MAGA, we would spread disinformation as such, saying if you vote for Donald Trump, even in the primary, his people will get your name and information and you will be charged to support him every month, while some of you will be charged every week and for the entire duration of his next presidency. Then if he loses, he can run again and you will be charged until 2028 and THEN if he wins (if he's still alive or finds a way to pass it on to one of his kids to be elected), then you will be charged monthly. or some of you weekly, filling his coffers for his personal and family’s benefit. THAT is the kind of things to be done if were liberals of a MAGA orientation of operation. To release that information in such a way in that it was from say, a whistleblower in the Trump campaign, or something like that. Or from some senator who is pro-Trump and planned to get a law passed about that or some such nonsensical bullshit that MAGA would suck up like a sweet nitrous oxide delicious milkshake of disinformation and propaganda. And then turn on Donald Trump, MAGA and the once GOP.
I think I already mentioned in a previous blog that we should regulate combustion engines, leaf blowers, and grass trimmers out of existence. But more so when they’re in audible reach of a certain number of other citizens. Another words, you can’t use it in a dense urban neighborhood, but you can use it on a farm. Some of the problems we have in today’s world are from audio pollution. Many articles have been written about this and yes, it is a thing and is important. One of the problems of populated areas and overpopulation is a feeling of isolation within the masses. and of a kind of social claustrophobia. Sound levels, sound pollution, add to that. If you’ve ever lived someplace like New York City/Manhattan, which I have, you can be 10, 20 or 30 floors up or more and still hear so much from street levels, making one wonder at times if you’re much closer to street level. Sirens all the time, horns honking, even in the distance. Not to mention things like gunshots. But if we can decrease that sound level, the quality of life for everyone would increase, exponentially. in such environments.
It’s sad that Donald Trump hast to be indicted under a Democratic administration when it could’ve been and should’ve been done under a Republican one. With the lack of decency and ethics on that side of the aisle, Mitch McConnell really fucked up. When he could have saved America from Trump ever running again by allowing him to be impeached.
We are long past the point that we need to look at a quarter of our country, as I believe it hos now decreased to, with MAGA, with Trump supporters, as they have got to be re-indoctrinated back into America. Free speech, for-profit new,s 24 hour news cycles, and so much of Republican underhanded old KGB tactics have led us here. I’m not sure going by the book is how we get out of this situation. It has to be though, or we become yikes..."them". Or we become the full-blown example of George Orwell's warnings in his book, "1984". Which we're seeing more clearly today in things like, "The Handmaid’s Tale, or from the Republican Party, anymore. We really should have better tuned our attention to those like Orwell, Atwood, and Shirley Jackson. Read, “The Lottery" again sometimes and therein, one can clearly see, MAGA and today's GOP.
You know what, about all this book banning nonsense from conservatives? I had to read Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery", in grade school. It was shocking. It shocked me as a child. I never forgot it. Yes, that was an important lesson to learn. And in protecting our children, such as these Christians, conservatives, Republicans, MAGA are in over-protecting, and "helicopter parenting", and not allowing their kids to get hurt, or fail, or to fall off their bike to learn how life really is, they are many of the ones damaging us. We got ourselves a MAGA in this country leaning into autocrats, threatening to dissolve our democracy and so, destroy our country. Again, WTF?
Sacrifice. I get our more enlightened attitudes today in wanting "to protect". But we seem to have forgotten the second half of that, which is "to serve". Protect and serve. Protect THOSE YOU SERVE, not just protect yourselves. At times you have to sacrifice your safety to protect others. It's part of the job. Part of what we pay our police for. Our soldiers get that. They get the concept and they get the flak and the bullets. Some come home after military service, become police, remember the militant orientation, but forget this s civil, NOT military. Odd you can be safer in war than on our city streets but hey, "2nd Amendment", right? We’ve not seen that so much from our police in recent years, who are so triggered out of fear and self protection (some, not all certainly) that they’ve killed innocent people. Some have not gone in up against active shooters...when they should have. We seem to find that too much anymore. That has to do with our political lives, too. The Republican Party exemplifies this to a staggeringly disgusting degree. Fear of Trump being voted out of office has crippled these people and enabled Trump into the presidency and into crime, and now, potentially into far worse. America needs a stand up, look around, see what the fuck they’re actually doing and, fight for this country. As we all should have less concern in our professional careers for our own ideology or our own personal beliefs, or grievances, and more about what we are actually being paid for and to do in our jobs. sometimes as Liz Cheny and Adam Kinzinger realized, you have to stand and do what is right, and lose your job or career. Heroes, not autocratic minions (morons). Such all as Trump and the Republican Party (MAGA) have weaponized so well against... everyone.
The Republican Party at large, the RNC needs to turn on Donald Trump, ASAP. And they can do it in such a way that they protect themselves, believe it or not. It’s all in plausible deniability and surprise. Simply pointing to things and demanding that they're true and being shocked about those things people like Trump have and are doing. Stand for your country, stop standing only for yourself, your party, your ideology because that is being American. Stand for others, not just yourself. Work to make the country work well, rather than work only for your typically anachronistic beliefs.
During the 2016 election, what IF Director of the FBI James Comey had truly been apolitical (or a Democrat) with the FBI and had not put them in the position he put them in by purposely, or inadvertently, helping Donald Trump to win against Hillary Clinton? If many of these Republicans, who have enabled and supported Donald Trump and his illiberal presidency, and inevitably, his crimes, if they had just put their heads down, stopped listening to the noise and merely done their job… that’s all it would’ve taken for us not to be in this position today. If Mitch McConnell had done his job, not as a partisan but as a member of Congress, and as an American, Donald Trump would’ve been impeached and he would not now be running for POTUS again, and maybe not be the nightmare leader of the Republican Party. Which is so much at issue with the quality of candidates now of the GOP which there is no longer anything “grand “ about, in that once great and “grand old party “. Seek your roots. Seek the best you can be and see that what you're currently judging as "best" is the worst you can come up with. See THAT. See reality.
Consider this: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith who indicted Donald Trump now has real and serious armed security surrounding him because of Trump and his supporters. America needs to really think about that and react appropriately to it and so...against it. And Trump. Because that's our only choice now.
Americans, MAGA and otherwise, need to appreciate the fact that all these Trump crimes are not now being just swept under the carpet as they would be in a Republican or Trump administration. And were in the Trump administration. And will be again in another Trump administration. You can see quite clearly the evidence on these crimes is real. And if you cannot “see” that, then you are either stupid or selectively ignorant, which is essentially just being stupid. Don’t be stupid. Be Better: Don’t be a Trump supporter.
We need to start writing PSA‘s now for after the Trump nightmare is over. Show an ad with a MAGA person who looks sad, maybe. Who regrets having been duped by a conman like Trump. Who regrets what happened to their Republican Party. Who regrets and resents being conservative now as their values had been weaponized against America and absconded with, twisted into illiberality. We need to saturate America with reality. We need to do something to neutralize the disinformation. We need to do something to neutralize this no longer dormant thread going through America of bringing on a Christian apocalypse, or whatever nonsense is out there, such as "let's destroy the government and rebuild from scratch and things will be better!" What kind of a fucking moron thinks that’s true? Yes, there's people out there thinking that, actually working toward that. When all it would do is bring on horrors.
Donald Trump and MAGA have praised the idea of bringing politics into the Justice Department and places where it doesn’t belong, where it doesn't belong because of all our citizens, not just the Trump/MAGA/GOP core. We have a secular, blind justice system and government in order to protect ALL citizens. This autocratic notion of rallying people around the concept of not our Constitution, but a minority's ideas, ideals, and ideologies which are anathema to a democracy and will indeed lead to an autocracy. Christians who have brought religion into our government, who want to push the concept of America is only a Christian nation, when in reality we have so many other religions (and atheists and others), all of whom deserve their pursuit of happiness, and do not deserve being pursued by those who are happy to make your life miserable because you see the world differently than them, while you are still clearly patriotic American citizens.
At 3/4 of a mile now left to make up my 5 miles for the day.
I finished Rachel’s podcast and switched over to Marc Maron's WTF podcast.
You know, Marc has a good point about radicalization. For years during our stupid war on drugs (which of course, led to an eventual war on terror around the world after 9/11, we do love "warring" on things and people), we heard about Muslims self radicalizing on the Internet. Some of that was true and led to some horrific scenes. Some of that was bullshit and good people got caught up in bad things and prosecuted incorrectly. That led to some federal stings, which were proven entrapment. We need to face the fact that a lot of those terrorist elements that were once international, are now in our nation. We’ve seen Islamic terrorist individuals who domestically self-radicalized on the Internet, but radicalized through international and even domestic websites and social media. We have to recognize that this has been absconded with by white Christian nationalists and white supremacists, and just some moronic MAGA types out there who wanna enjoy their negative feelings, push them out to others and even get away with killing people. We need to educate our citizens to self-actualize and not self-radicalize. We don’t need extremists. Extremism like conservatism is only for dire times, or for times of war. And Conservatism weaponizing itself, stepped into convincing people to get worked up into being in a constant state of war or “war”, basically being anti-democracy/democratic elements or liberal democratic citizens. Remember that we are a liberal democratic republic. As I’ve said before, when you hear a citizen say "we’re not a democracy, but a republic"... there’s your dog whistle call to white nationalism and a criminal mentality and ideologies.These are absolutest statements. It's all certainly more nuanced than just that. But therein lay the core of exactly what is happening.
As Marc is saying, this radicalization typically seems to be based in Christianity. What are Islamic terrorists? Muslim? Where does Christianity and Islam come from? Exactly. These are two religions that came from Judaism. The older of the three major desert religions that have caused trouble around the world, or been focus of trouble for many decades. In some cases for thousands of year, in some cases, as victim (see, Holocaust, See Uyghurs in China, etc.). These religions came out of a harsh environment and in harsh times. One can take any good idea and subvert it. Religion after all requires cherry picking the best of us and when you do the opposite, there's your problem. It’s about ideas, if you’re just cherry picking and being selectively ignorant, yes, you can produce a stupid religion and little cults. Yes, you can weaponize that religion, or sections of a religion and radicalize some to go out and harm others who disagree with the majority. Who even within that same/your own religion, will think you’re/they're nuts. I would say it’s interesting that some still seem to be going around slaughtering people, while a vast minority of Muslims and Christians don't. But then there’s the state of Israel. And all that has entailed.
When your radicalization is based on basic intolerance and bigotry, well… There’s your fucking sign that you've gone the wrong direction, "jumped the shark", "moved to the edge of the cliff"…
Marc had another good point about Christian, Muslims, and Jews. Jews have been through so much for so long that they don’t have the thin skin of the younger religions. And again it’s not just the younger religions but a very small minority within damaged individuals who want to turn that internal pain out against others, or turned against others. Why? Because it’s fun and it feels good? It’s a weird fucking definition of fun and “feel good “, but then... there it is.
Marc is saying righteous intolerance cannot exist in this country because it’s just not good for it. It’s not good for democracy to be sure. He also asked, "What bubble are you in?" I would ask, "How big is your bubble?" I’ve been in multiple bubbles throughout my life, as a trained researcher, that happens. In my job in IT as a technical writer, that happens, it's required, I had to research to find reality, then submit that to people who would judge my work, apply it, and it had better been accurate. Years before that, since high school, before college, before the Air Force, I was applying that in personal research I did with things that later turned out to be pretty accurate. My professional training only helped that up to far better levels of accuracy. And so when this whole Trump nonsense started up and MAGA types would childishly accuse others of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (when they were obviously exhibiting it themselves in blindly believe in a fucking moron, criminal and a traitor)… that never carried much weight with me as my whole life has been based on facts and reality and accuracy.
I have a friend I’ve had for decades, a very smart guy. Big Trump supporter, though. Which saddened and shocked me. At one point after we were having drinks together with another friend and we were about to leave. He stopped me and asked me, "Come on, you don’t think Trump's a really good guy?" I looked at him disappointed, and I said: "Trump's a criminal, and that will be born out. You'll see." That was years ago. And here we are today. Who was more correct? Without being self-serving I have to say, I was correct. And you know what? Those loud mouthed Trump supporters for years... are awfully quiet anymore…
Cheers! Sláinte!
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