America's "National IQ" in Trumpian Freefall

America's "national IQ" in freefall—rejecting history, reason, freedom for all rather than the few & democracy by re-electing convicted felon Donald Trump who undermines institutions, foments chaos, & pardoned violent insurrectionists and sides with our international autocratic enemies like war criminal Vladimir Putin. 

A nation embracing autocracy is a nation in decline. 

If we were to imagine a "national IQ" as a metaphor for collective reasoning, decision-making, and long-term planning, the trajectory of the U.S. would suggest a severe decline in critical thinking and civic responsibility under the scenario you describe.

After the Obama and Biden administrations—both of which emphasized democratic norms, institutional stability, and a return to global alliances—the re-election of a convicted felon with autocratic tendencies and a history of undermining democratic institutions would indicate a failure of national judgment. It would suggest that a significant portion of the electorate is either unable or unwilling to recognize the dangers of authoritarianism, misinformation, and corruption, despite the clear historical warnings.

The pardoning of convicted violent criminals from the January 6 insurrection would further signal a breakdown in the rule of law and an embrace of political violence as an acceptable tool of governance. This would mark a shift from a nation that values democratic principles to one that tolerates or even encourages lawlessness when it serves the interests of those in power.

If a nation’s IQ were measured in its ability to uphold democratic values, sustain rational governance, and protect its institutions from internal sabotage, then under these conditions, the U.S. would be in intellectual and moral freefall. It would indicate not just ignorance, but an active rejection of wisdom, history, and accountability—factors that typically lead civilizations into decline.

The terms disease and malady are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings and connotations:

1. Disease – A specific pathological condition with identifiable signs, symptoms, and causes, often related to infections, genetic disorders, or environmental factors. It typically implies a medical diagnosis.

   • Example: Diabetes, tuberculosis, and cancer are diseases.

2. Malady – A broader term that can refer to any kind of disorder, affliction, or condition affecting health, including physical, mental, or societal issues. It has a more general and sometimes metaphorical use.

   • Example: Anxiety, corruption, or social unrest can be called maladies.

Key Differences:

• Medical specificity: "Disease" is more medically precise, while "malady" is more general.
• Formality: "Disease" is the preferred term in medical and scientific contexts; "malady" is often used in literature or philosophy.
• Scope: "Malady" can refer to non-medical afflictions (e.g., "the malady of greed"), whereas "disease" does not.

People susceptible to authoritarian or extremist ideologies, including MaGA’s more extreme elements (or perhaps any element), often share specific psychological traits and cognitive tendencies. While not all supporters fit this mold, those who become deeply entrenched in authoritarian thinking or conspiratorial beliefs tend to exhibit some of the following characteristics:

Psychological Traits Susceptible to "Mind Worms" Like Authoritarianism

1. High Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) – Prone to submission to perceived authority, aggression toward outsiders, and conventionalism.
2. Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) – Preference for hierarchy and dominance over perceived lower-status groups.
3. Low Cognitive Reflection – Quick to accept intuitive (but often incorrect) answers instead of engaging in deeper analysis.
4. Need for Cognitive Closure – Discomfort with uncertainty, leading to a preference for black-and-white thinking.
5. Fear-Based Thinking – Higher susceptibility to fear messaging, often linked to personal or societal insecurity.
6. Low Openness to Experience – Resistance to new ideas, cultures, or perspectives, preferring familiar and traditional norms.
7. High Conspiratorial Thinking – Tendency to believe in grand conspiracies that explain complex realities in simple terms.
8. Collectivist vs. Individualist Loyalty – Often prioritizes group identity (e.g., party, nation, race) over independent moral reasoning.

Why "Mind Worms" Work on This Personality Type

• Repetition & Echo Chambers – The more a claim is repeated, the more it feels true (illusory truth effect).
• Identity-Driven Politics – When ideology is tied to personal identity, questioning it feels like an attack on the self.
• Emotional Manipulation – Fear, anger, and grievance are powerful motivators, often overriding logic.
• Us vs. Them Mentality – Encourages tribalism and distrust of "outsiders" or "elites."

This isn’t exclusive to MAGA—historically, all forms of authoritarianism (left or right) thrive on these traits. But MAGA’s blend of nationalism, grievance politics, and anti-institutional rhetoric makes it particularly effective at exploiting these vulnerabilities.

If the U.S. were in full democratic crisis (as it is nnow)—facing an autocrat in power, the erosion of institutions, replacing agency and department heads with sycophants loyal to Pres. Trump and not the US Constitution or the People, in the pardoning of insurrectionists to send the message, "Break the law for ME and you'll be protected"—the emergency path to restoration would require immediate and decisive action. 

Here’s what should happen right now:

1. Mass Mobilization & Public Pressure

• Organize nationwide peaceful protests and strikes to demand accountability.
• Pressure Congress, state legislatures, and courts to act swiftly against authoritarian moves.
• Mobilize civil society groups to coordinate resistance against anti-democratic actions.

2. Legal & Congressional Action

• Invoke the 14th Amendment, Section 3 to bar insurrectionists from holding office.
• Fast-track impeachment or constitutional remedies if abuse of power escalates.
• State attorneys general must challenge unconstitutional actions through lawsuits and injunctions.

3. Protect Elections & Voting Rights

• Secure upcoming elections by fighting voter suppression laws and ensuring election oversight.
• Fund and mobilize voter turnout at unprecedented levels.
• Challenge any fraudulent election interference in courts immediately.

4. Federal & State Resistance

• Governors and state officials must refuse to enforce unlawful federal orders that undermine democracy.
• States can pass emergency laws protecting election officials, judges, and prosecutors from political interference.

5. Whistleblower & Insider Resistance

• Federal and state employees must document and expose illegal or unconstitutional directives.
• The judiciary and military must uphold the Constitution over any authoritarian commands.

6. International Pressure & Sanctions

• Allies must be engaged to condemn anti-democratic moves and threaten economic/political consequences.
• The UN, EU, and other democratic nations must apply diplomatic pressure and sanctions if necessary.

7. General Strike as Last Resort

• If democracy is being actively dismantled, a coordinated nationwide general strike could cripple the economy and force change.

This is not a time for passive hope—it’s a time for organized, legal, and relentless action to defend democracy before it's too late.

Compiled with aid of ChatGPT

The New American Imperial President Model

This is long, but it is enlightening. I've been pro Obama since the beginning and anti Bush since his beginning. But if you are pro Obama, you really need to read this. We have some very questionable (bad) things going on now. I still like Obama. But we have some directions in this country that have got to be changed back. ASAP. Sooner. Before it's too late, if it's not already.

John Cusack Interviews Law Professor Jonathan Turley About Obama Administration’s War On the Constitution

I've always liked John Cusak going back to his first films back in the 1980s. I like his choices in films, I like his acting. I think he's talented and intelligent. His sister on Showtime's "Shameless" is as funny as she has always been. So obviously it runs in the family. "Gross Pointe Blank" is one of my all time favorite films on several levels and I as well liked his latest film, "The Numbers Station".

The American Administrations these past ten years have been doing what many of us have been doing, what I've been doing in my own mind. Thinking that the end of our efforts in using the Constitution is what is important. Where in reality it is the end in the meaning of the Constitution that is most important.

I think we've had the right intentions, but have become deluded through fear and intimidation, and that has got to stop. Not the fear and intimidation so much as our reaction to it. At some point you simply have to stand your ground and face the bad guys down and just say, No. If you get killed doing it, well that is Courage and if enough of us say No, it will change things. But if we are all afraid to stand and live (or die) for our belief in our country's foundations, in our Constitution, then how we will win out in the end?

We are too into never making a mistake, never losing ground, never having to wait or sacrifice for our ethics; and so in some ways we are losing. Losing our identity as a nation and as perceived by the world, and losing our credibility. We are losing our freedoms and our protections by and from, our own government. If, you really look around, there are some very scary things happening to our nation. But it's easier and less scary, to simply ignore... all of it. Just wonder for a moment, in twenty years time what will this country look like if we stay on this track?

Here is something to consider along this track, on what is or is not, torture:

Watch Christopher Hitchens Get Waterboarded (VANITY FAIR)

For anyone who thinks that "enhanced interrogation", that "waterboarding" is not torture, please drop by and I'll change your mind.

I'm going to post an interview shortly (below) that was put our by John Cusak that he posted back in September 2012. But first I want to set the tone for what the Bush and Obama Administrations have done to remove our criminality in changing the topic from "torture" to pretty much anything else, like "waterboarding", like "enhanced interrogation".

We have gone from "gutting" Nuremburg now ("you can't charge them as war criminals, they were just following orders"), to actually killing American citizens. It's mission creep and as the butler at Highclaire Castle said in a recent documentary on that famous house used in Downton Abbey, "Once standards go away, they don't come back."

This is rather ironic:

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson.

We seem to agree with just about anything lately.

Yes these "enhanced interrogations" work to break down resistance, but at some point we have to ask ourselves, who are we? Cowards afraid of anything? Or people of principle who the world looks up to, even when it hurts?

What is water boarding like? See this 3 minute and twenty-second video with a volunteer.

Getting Waterboarded: Vanguard

From now on whenever you hear "enhanced interrogation" or "waterboarding", think in your mind, "Torture" with a capital "T". Because those are keywords hiding reality. The users of these words are doing the same thing people have done in saying they haven't had sex with someone because it wasn't intercourse, or they didn't love the person. So why should their spouse be upset? Or someone who says calories don't count because they ate some off of someone else's plate. It's simply ludicrous, it's twisting reality and that is something we cannot have in our leaders when it comes to abusing and killing people, especially American citizens; but that cannot be the only gauge of who we kill. In killing foreign enemies, terrorists, in killing them using indirect means such as drones, we are creating "collateral damage" in neutral foreign citizens, in innocents, even in children. We are also fostering new angers, new enemies.

Yes, I think drones are a useful tool, but perhaps we use them too much. And what will be the new awareness in this technology with other nations who are starting to use them? There are currently fifty other nations getting into the drone technology for Reconnaissance (defense) and attack (offense). In our abuses, others will us us as their model to get away with the same, or worse. Or use them against us. We need to sponsor new international laws on these devices, just like we did with other easily abused actions and technologies since the First Geneva Convention governing sick and wounded members of armed forces, signed in 1864.

Here are a few snippets from this rather long but fascinating interview. These are several pieces put together from different sections of the interview:

CUSACK: I hate to speak too much to motivation, but why do you think MSNBC and other so-called centrist or left outlets won't bring up any of these things? These issues were broadcast and reported on nightly when John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez and Bush were in office.

TURLEY: Well, there is no question that some at MSNBC have backed away from these issues, although occasionally you'll see people talk about –

CUSACK: I think that's being kind, don't you? More like "abandoned."

TURLEY: Yeah. The civil liberties perspective is rarely given more than a passing reference while national security concerns are explored in depth. Fox is viewed as protective of Bush while MSNBC is viewed as protective of Obama. But both presidents are guilty of the same violations. There are relatively few journalists willing to pursue these questions aggressively and objectively, particularly on television. And so the result is that the public is hearing a script written by the government that downplays these principles. They don't hear the word "torture."

They hear "enhanced interrogation." They don't hear much about the treaties. They don't hear about the international condemnation of the United States. Most Americans are unaware of how far we have moved away from Nuremberg and core principles of international law.

TURLEY: We appear to be in a sort of a free-fall. We have what used to be called an "imperial presidency."

CUSACK: Obama is far more of an imperial president than Bush in many ways, wouldn't you say?

TURLEY: Oh, President Obama has created an imperial presidency that would have made Richard Nixon blush. It is unbelievable.
---
CUSACK: And to say these things, most of the liberal community or the progressive community would say, "Turley and Cusack have lost their minds. What do they want? They want Mitt Romney to come in?"

TURLEY: The question is, "What has all of your relativistic voting and support done for you?"
---
CUSACK: But, see, that's a very tough principle to take, because everybody feels so rightfully loathsome about Bin Laden, right? But principles are not meant to be convenient, right? The Constitution is not meant to be convenient. If they can catch Adolf Eichmann and put him on trial, why not bin Laden? The principles are what separate us from the beasts.

I think the best answer I ever heard about this, besides sitting around a kitchen table with you and your father and my father, was I heard somebody, they asked Mario Cuomo, "You don't support the death penalty...? Would you for someone who raped your wife?" And Cuomo blinked, and he looked at him, and he said, "What would I do? Well, I'd take a baseball bat and I'd bash his skull in... But I don't matter. The law is better than me. The law is supposed to be better than me. That's the whole point."

---

Again, you can read the entire interview and I suggest you do, because I only scratche the surface here of the what all they address: John Cusack Interviews Law Professor Jonathan Turley About Obama Administration’s War On the Constitution

Michelle Obama's Oscar Dress was Photoshopped by Iran

Before I get into this I want to say that I've met Iranians socially over past decades and I've always really liked them. Iranians, Iriquis, Qatarians, Saudis, etc. The ones I met were all mostly pleasant, smart, nice people. Not always enamored with their government leaders for the most part. Wishing mostly that they could separate state and religion. But then they were living in America, too.

We have to remember to separate out the People from the Governments around the world. I don't think North Koreans are stupid people, just deluded by their State leaders and brainwashed over decades. Or take America for example. People I know personally, just aren't the self serving politicians I see in our Government. God help us if other countries think Americans are our Government. Anyway--

Michelle Obama's Oscar Dress was Photoshopped by Iranian [State] Media (photo from E). I could almost understand that that, but not really. You don't alter reality, you cover it up, though either way, you're avoiding it. What kind of religion cannot face reality in face of its beliefs? Not a very strong one obviously. A flawed belief system.

How are we supposed to have any respect for a country or a belief system that requires it and it's adherents to patently avoid reality? What kind of God requires that reality be ignored and lies inserted in its place? Christians? Take heed. This includes some of you. Any religion, especially a State religion that requires avoiding reality is a travesty. No news there, really.


Religion should help you face reality, not avoid or hide from it. That is no belief system at all. Religions should help you have the strength, the Faith, to support you through reality. Hiding from it is useless. It's a way to make a system work when it doesn't, to give the impression that it is working, when it isn't. Catholics are good at this too (see, pedophilia, wonder why they are whitewashing things by sending the Pope off to retirement).


Yes I do realize this is more of a political thing, as with the Taliban, a cowardly, fearful institution ("God Fearing" people right? Therefore it would seem, Cowards. From what I can see, we can include the Iranian Government and their Ayatollah. Yes I said cowardly, something rampant in Muslim extremists including terrorism. Yes, suicide bombers are cowards.

Maybe Bill Maher was wrong. How? When you are too fearful to face reality head on, to live in the modern world, think you are an anachronism (you are), then you die to escape reality. Cowardly. Bill was right that it takes guts to fly a plane into a building, but when taken in context of avoiding reality, it really is cowardly. It's the easy way out. Bang, you're dead, really no long term effort.

Consider this. You're sitting in a fox hole or behind a rock wall. The enemy is shooting at you. You go through this day in and day out. There is no escaping it. It's wearing on you. The "good fight" isn't working for you. You are facing overwhelming force. You may be caught, maimed, killed, tortured. God knows? Right? Isn't it just easier to kill yourself? Many "cowards" take this way out in the face of fear, but also in the face of too much effort. Such as conqueror the "West", the "Great Satan", the "Rest of the world other than your small contingent of losers". But is it cowardly to shoot yourself to avoid the real battle before you? Or to fly a plane into a building?

Well I'm sure this isn't something Iranian media does normally. Photoshopping women, that is. The wife of one the leaders of one of the greatest nations in the world. Something that Iranian despots wish they were (but refuse to take steps so that it can actually happen). But they were probably just thinking of proper decorum in dress for a woman, in not showing skin. Because that's the place of men in the world, to be sure women do what is right. Right? I'm sure that's it. They wouldn't do this about something related to one of their own, a Man. They wouldn't alter what an Iranian Man would like, say. Right?

Last year at the Oscar's Iran couldn't handle some words spoken by one of their directors when he received his.

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty--

When Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" won the Oscar for best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards on February 26, he said the following in his acceptance speech, according to Iran’s hard-line Fars news agency:

"I proudly offer this award to the people of my country who, despite all the tensions and hostility of recent months between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program, respect all cultures and civilizations."

In fact, Farhadi never mentioned Iran’s nuclear program in his speech. This is what he actually said:

“At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us, and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award, or a film, or a filmmaker, but because -- at a time of tug of war, intimidation and aggressions exchanged between politicians -- the name of their county, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.

"I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, the people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment. Thank you so much."

Countries and religions like we see in Iran are going to continue to be a laughing stock in the world forum and not be taken seriously, until they clean up their childish foolishness. Get out of the middle ages, Iran. Please note that this goes to the Iranian leaders, not the Iranian people. Like in America, two different groups entirely.

So grow up Iran. No one is going to give you the respect you so badly desire. That's another immature flaw, respect is earned, not scared out of people. Fear only gets you attacked, leading to a war in order to wise you up (remember Iraq?). So get your act together Iran. And not just you. But any nation of buffoons (North Korea). You are quickly becoming an extinct elite of destroyed dictatorships. After all, Iran still has the Ayatollah who is pretty much still running the show, nothing like a dictatorship direct from God, right? How could THAT ever go wrong? Dictators are on the way out. Wise up.

Even if the world doesn't take you out, sooner or later, your own people will. Sleep uneasy in your bed. It's coming. No matter how long or hard you hang onto power with your dying breath, your bleeding finger nails on the throats of your starving people, be it sustenance they desire through food or as members of the world community, your time is coming and then you'll just be a dirty smudge on the history books of a once great nation. It will happen, it's inevitable. But stand up and do the right thing. Let your people go--

Besides, it's just a matter of time.

9/11 Was Not Just A Terrorist Attack - The Return of America the Great

9/11 was not just a terrorist attack. At very least, its effects were much more far reaching.

9/11 was an injection of poison that no one seemed to notice. That was the damage that was done, not just the lives lost. America was poisoned with a shot injected into the largest city of this once great country by those deluded with hate, by those who grew to hate us in part from our own actions over the past hundred years of our paying no attention whatsoever to what our actions were doing to those then third world nations of the world. We were injected with a poison that spread out rapidly, reaching across our country, and then spreading out to the world.

In modern pop culture terms it was like we were bit by a zombie and then we bit others conveying the poison to the world. The infection spread partly from fear of terrorism, but also from our own words and actions. America is rather new to the need to protect our homelands from terrorism and sadly, we reacted to it like children.

Fear is contagious and we helped to spread it. This was what FDR meant when he said, "Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself."

After 9/11 we were turned into a Zombie country. We were infectious, WE then were dangerous. We went to war against the nearest country that fit our need to kill; someone, anyone We did what was right before we were attacked. We should have cleaned up in Iraq in the 80s, not in 2003. We rightly went into Afghanistan in 2002 and attacked our attackers, Al Qaeda and their associates the Taliban. We nearly devastated them and the Taliban. But then we let Bin Laden escape to Pakistan. Why? Because, we weren't through satiating our revenge. You can blame the Bush Administration, they were the head of the pimple at that time that was America.

What other country has two million people in thousands of prisons and jails in its own country? Who had secret prisons around the world? In Romania, in Poland, in Guantanamo? That poison we were injected with on 9/11 made us go crazy. Our own past with nonsense like our "War on Drugs", a war on many of our own citizenry, gave us a mindset that allowed us to be led into a "War on Terror". So we went into the longest war in our history in Afghanistan, a "war" that spread against a rag tag global group of terrorists and wannabees. We found a way to allow ourselves to torture prisoners, to terrorize individuals in a confined setting. We used things like "extraordinary rendition" to kidnap and torture and when that became too difficult to do, we found other countries who had brutal natures and we allowed them to do those things in our name.

The Bush Administration kept these things going for many of those years. Those secret prisons were shut down in 2006 and in 2009 it became official policy that we do not do that anymore, under a different administration. For years the flag draped coffins at Dover were banned to be photographed when America's children, killed in war, were brought home to their final resting place. The worst thing we can ever do, is to force ourselves away from facing that we are indeed at war. When at war you need it to be painfully obvious. Let that be a lesson to us.

Labeling so many things as "war" allowed us to think as you do in a war. In war we do things that are not normally allowed. Murder, is legal and not even called, "murder". The "Fog of War" includes killing the lame, women, old people, and children. It allows us to kill our own citizens, something that should never happen without due process and judicial interference. And we did that. We killed an American citizen with a missile in another country by first labeling him as traitor. His father even went to court to sue the country to keep it from happening, asking instead that he captured, to bring his son back, give him a trial as he was guaranteed by having been through all his life, a great thing, an American citizen. But in killing him we devalued what we are as Americans.

One of the great things about our Country, about being an American citizen, is the protection of our own country and in having due process, not presidential dictate leading to capital punishment. After we killed that American, we then killed his sixteen year old son, shortly thereafter and in the same manner, using a bomb delivered on the end of a missile.

Is this who we are now?

Is that America? Does that sound like America to you? Is this, what our once "Great Nation" is about now? All this because we were afraid? Because of Fear? When we are afraid does that give us the right to throw our long standing ethical principles, right out the window?

President Obama, as soon as he took office on January 22, 2009, put a stop to our torturing people around the world, on principle. Some people complain a lot about Pres. Obama and what he has done since coming into office. They have various considerations on how we should be rebuilding our economy, treating our citizens, and fighting (or even being in) a war. But the one thing the Obama Administration has been and is doing, is helping our country to heal itself after ten years of our longest war ever (other than our "War" on drugs and the American citizen).

Healing is difficult, it can be painful, but it is necessary.

Look, having a "War" on things is dangerous. That attitude alone is dangerous and we need to stop doing it. Legalizing Marijuana strangely enough, is one way to help end that mindset of having a "war" on something because it means an end to extraordinary actions against something that some only some people don't like. When it leads our own country into rationalizing actions against our own citizens, then we really have gone astray. Whether it is arresting someone in our own country for possessing even small amounts of Cannabis, or in blowing an American up in another country for terrorism and being a traitor, we need to make up our minds who we are and what we are allowed to do, in any circumstance.

As it helped lead us into our, out of context, "War on Terrorism", something that sounds good, feels good but counter-intuitively isn't good, it also led us into something else. Things like the "Tea Party", extremism in our country, the Republican Right taking over to the detriment of our country and even the GOP, their own party. But as things go these types of things tend to be cyclical and the pendulum can only swing so far to one extreme or the other before it either swings back, or simply breaks the mechanism. And we have been far too close to that for far too long now.

Being an American means something. It should mean something, anyway. It should mean something extraordinary and these last ten years and more we have diluted what it means to be an American. We need to stop that. We need to get back on the path and we need to heal. Not only ourselves within our own country, but also in how others view our country and its citizens. We need to get back to the business of being "Great" and not saying it. It's not just about our military power or our economy. It's also about our principles, our existence, our being a leader in doing things around the world, and within our own country. We need to decide what is "right" and stick to it.

Sometimes being that kind of a country is difficult, it can be painful. Lives can be lost over it. But we have in the past been the kind of country that can "take it on the chin" and continue on, even through difficult times, and continue doing what is right.

Which kind of country do you want us to be?

During these past ten years we have at times been, in contemporary parlance a, "chicken shit" country. Literally, we have been scared of our own shadows. Remember the colored, "Shades of Danger" alerts that we stopped using in 2011? As it turned out, we only needed them for feeling all fuzzy safe. The Bush administration had pushed us into an old fashioned Texas style retribution and we all know that revenge destroys both the deserving and the undeserving. It can also make one into the other.

But now we are painfully trying to leave that juvenile opiate of war and the mindset of retribution behind. Shouldn't we now finally go back to being the kind of country we were once again? Shouldn't we allow this healing process that the Obama Administration is trying to help us with, happen? To return to being once again that great nation that we once were?

We have evolved during this process. We are a different country now than we were in 2000. We have entered the 21st Century as a country at war and we need to stop that and become a country that is on the forefront of delivering peace. Of advocating Peace. If we want to be at war then we need to be at war against those who are fighting a war against us. But it is not toward our own citizens. It is not toward those who use recreational drugs. It is not toward terrorists. Terrorists require police actions, intelligence operations, not full scale war actions. Going to war in Iraq when any "war action" was really in Afghanistan, was simply ludicrous.

War against terrorism is a concept that may very will never end. Those wannabees who wish to be terrorists can simply do so. But do they deserve a war? Maybe so, but do WE deserve it? No. Surely we can handle them with smaller, less devastating actions that will not destroy those innocents nearby them as "collateral damage" and create new terrorists in their wake because of our killing their relatives and loved ones, as inadvertently as it may be.

Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's General Counsel, the head Lawyer for the Defense Department, went out this past week for the Obama Administration to say just this. He spoke at Oxford University in Britain and said that wars against something like terrorism can go on forever and we need to find an end to it. He said that we are fighting against a new kind of thing and that at some point we need to call an end to the "war" actions.

"How will this conflict end. It is an unconventional conflict against an unconventional enemy, and will not end in conventional terms." - Jeh Johnson

At some point he said, this will have to be turned over to police and intelligence agencies, and the sooner the better.

America is finally coming back into its own. We are striving to return to being the once great nation we had been and perhaps in the end, we will become an even greater nation than before.

A lot of what I'm talking about here falls under a single word: Honor. War gives a wink and a nod to acting in dishonorable ways, and that has to stop. We have to acknowledge our past actions but then we have to move on to heal from them.

But we have to allow it to happen, we have to let it happen, and we have to support those who are trying to do this hard work. We have to want it and embrace the change as well as a embrace a different, more mature way of being and looking at things. We have to be brave, to persevere through adversity and no matter what, we have to not allow those fear mongers who have spoken out for so long and have led us astray, to influence us, ever again.

In the end, we have to be Honorable. We have to face it, to admit it, that we were not at some points in these past ten years. And then we have to move on to build ourselves a better way of being, under any situation.

This, is America.

Make that mean something once again. Allow America to again come into its own and to remain so from here forward, no matter what.

"YES, Mr. President, what can I do for you. SIR."

Okay, just let me get this straight, let me understand this clearly. From the New York Times:

After his speech, newly re-elected (so kind of Twice a President) Pres. Obama tried to call both Mr. Boehner and the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, but was told they were asleep.
Let me repeat that, he was told they were asleep.

The President, Of the United States of America, newly re-elected President Barack Obama, first African American to be elected President, then to be re-elected President. THE PRESIDENT of the UNITED Damn STATES of AMERICA calls you on the phone, you PUNKS, even at Midnight, or 1AM, 2AM, 3AM, 4AM, 5AM, whatever damn time in the world that it is, it doesn't matter!

You do NOT TELL the President of the United States of America, your boss, that YOU ARE ASLEEP. And everyone, knows you were up watching the election. Why? Because that is their entire career on the line. Trust me, they probably had TROUBLE sleeping that night.

But YOU get on the PHONE!

And you say, "YES, Mr. President, what can I do for you. SIR."

This is what the problem is with our government. Not Pres. Obama. The Republican partisan government members. From them we're supposed to expect compromise. From them now I only expect more stonewalling and placing blame on the President. On OUR President, and that means you whoever you are that don't like him being President. Get over it. Like they told me in the service, if you hate a man, but he is an officer, you still salute him, because you are saluting the office, the rank, the United States.

Not one Republican did this, but two, which pretty much indicates it isn't the truth, but a lie, and a subterfuge to avoid talking to someone who just beat your candidate and you know what? THAT does not matter. You take the call.

People, THIS is your Republican party. These are your Republican Leaders.
Seriously. THIS is disgraceful.

And I've just lost respect for them, completely.

Boehner and McConnell...Republicans. Your Republican representatives.

I'm seriously disappointed in these men, who represent the GOP, and all Republicans in America. Again, this is your Republican Party, an American political party, representing not just Republicans but Americans. I'm embarrassed by them. And you should be also.

Barack Obama is still President! Thank you!

Yes, Romney has been sent back to the dark recesses of Richie Richland where he crawled out of. Or was more likely driven out by a minority and a woman serving him juice and biscuits.

Thank you America, for slowly and finally waking up and smelling the richness of the coffee over the richness of the faux belief that you too can be as rich as Mitt. Ever.

Also in the State of Washington, Marijuana has been legalized. Same sex marriage, has been legalized. Sadly, it looks like Charter Schools will be ratified. Sad for the poorer people and the school system, but there it is. Lots of rich people in Washington, lots of software tycoons. Ah well, you can't win them all. But two out of three? Not bad, especially, pot and gay marriage. Congrats, kids!

Perhaps now we have a chance on not going to war again in the next four years! Perhaps now we can start putting money into to saving lives and not killing more people (like our kids) in more wars. Perhaps the military industrial complex and the oil industry can lose money and we can put it to something actually useful.

Wouldn't it be nice to spend money on space research, and not war; life and not death? Because being in space is all and only about life. War, pretty much about death.

Cheers!

Heavyweight Republicans Now Endorse Barack Obama

Guess what? Some serious heavyweight Republicans are very Pro President Obama this week and some are decrying Mitt Romney.

A Republican, Colin Powell, a man I respect so much that were he to have said that I should vote for Mitt Romney, I would have had to give serious consideration to changing my opinion, has endorsed President Obama. He endorsed him for the 2008 election but it wasn't going to be that close then, and I think many voted for our current President because either he is obviously educated, and was African American. If he'd been a woman, it might have been the same thing. After all, when the passion is up, how do we pass up doing something so historical when it could have happened, to vote in a first in politics, in America like that?

Now Michael Bloomberg, a one time Republican and now Independent, and Mayor of New York City, who wasn't going to endorse anyone, has now endorsed the President big time and pointed out how Mitt Romney simply will not give us the leadership this country will be needing these next four years.

Republican Governor Chris Christie who had been a banner boy for Mitt Romney up to this point, who was the key note speaker at the Republican convention, is also singing the praises of President Obama, very much to the GOP's consternation.

Essentially what has happened is this: Nature, has taken a very large gun and pointed it right at the heads of the Mayor of New York and the Governor of New Jersey and others, and they finally had to face the fact that President Obama was the only one of our two presidential candidates who has pushed for climate change controls and the need that we have to do something, proactively, about it. Whatever that may be.

And where Governor Romney has made fun of climate change and it's associated dangers which we've seen a stark example of with the superstorm Sandy (do YOU remember ever before hearing about a "SUPER" Storm?), and said that he would see to it that Americans are taken care of, though not the polar icecaps. Insert laugh here and guess what now Mr. Romney? It's really not very funny to an awful lot of America. I certainly don't think it's funny. I have a lot of my own family in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I've sent of my Red Cross donation of money (please see my previous blog post about donating), something far more important than donating food and clothing locally right now.

As we have seen this week, thirty million Americans out of power, many now homeless, many dead, in order for our President to take care of Americans from here on, he will have lead, to deal proactively with these terrifying new climate change issues. Whether that is to be by dealing with carbon emissions, green energy, or fixing our infrastructure, our levies, our protections from the ocean and the elements, Mitt Romney has stated repeatedly that he is not the man for the job.

Just remember that when you vote this year.

Also, remember this weekend to roll back your clocks, but don't roll back this country next week, come election day.