As Google goes along with the GOTP to switch the names of places on maps, it’s important to remember not to get caught up in the wash. What Google is doing is enabling and aiding Trump by encouraging him but also by trying to distract us, the Constitutional opposition.
Trump and his Project 2025 cohorts are blitzing the federal government and U.S. Constitution. They are working hard to dismember and rewrite hundreds of years of history. Our system of checks and balances, already debilitated by the GOP’s craven lust to remain in power, are under attack through a barrage of illegal activities.
Not surprising. If there’s one thing that Trump understands through his years of cheating others to make money and advance himself, it’s how to work the legal system.
He knows now, yes, legal counters will steadily amass about what he’s doing. But just like the deny and delay tactics employed by insurance companies, Trump and the GOTP will deny and delay, willfully tearing down our society and government in the name of power and greed. Sure, it will be challenged in court, and will ssslllooowwwllly work its way to the Roberts Supreme Court. What will happen there? Pretty unpredictable. Roberts worries more about his legacy than anything else. There’s a strong chance that he’ll convince himself that democracy in the United States has gone to shit — thanks to several previous rulings made by his court, BTW. Once he decides that, he’ll cynically conclude, it’s the ones in power will write his legacy, and will back the GOTP’s bullshit moves.
That’s the Trump administration. That’s the GOP, now fully transformed into the Grand Old Trump Party, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, supported by MAGAs.
George Conway recently said it well: “Because they are evil, we must stand up to them. But because they are also stupid, we needn’t be afraid to.”
So stand up. Fight. Don’t let them overwhelm you. Resist. Persist.
It’s a gloooommmy glooommmy day here. All rain and descending swirling fog. We’re getting less of it up by my home but the weather down toward the valley floor is icky yuck wet, as a meteorologist would say.
Daily Kos delivered a bright ray through the gloom.Furious Democratic Rep COMPLETELY NUKES Trump’s “Modern McCarthyism” They’re talking about Rep. Melanie Stansbury, NM-D, and her magnificent comments about JD Vance’s bill. As Rep. Stansbury highlights, the bill essentially creates a blacklist of who can’t work for the Federal government, based on their perceived loyalty to PINO-elect Trump.
“Welcome to the new House Committee on Un-American Affairs and the new McCarthyism,” she said. “We have arrived here today with this bill.”
The bill has the support of the Heritage Foundation — the conservative think tank behind the notorious Project 2025 policy plan — which issued a letter of support, Stansbury noted.
Led by Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation, supported by Trump and his MAGA base, the United States is goose-stepping back into less free, less democratic times. We’ve been led down this path before. The attached video (same one from Daily Kos) has part of Edward R. Murrow’s editorial about McCarthyism in it.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
We can substitute Trump or MAGA or Project 2025 or the Heritage Foundation or the GOP for ‘Senator McCarthy’. The policies they pursue and the campaigns they use fit McCarthy’s brand of divisiveness, political repression, and fear-mongering.
Good to know that individuals like Rep. Stansbury has our backs.
“I’m a technologist, I know a lot about computers,” Musk told the crowd during the event. “And I’m like, the last thing I would do is trust a computer program, because it’s just too easy to hack.”
This was during his ‘town hall’ meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
Of course, he was referring to debunked information. Didn’t matter to the sheeple he addressed.
Wonder what his company, Tesla thought about it? Aren’t they the ones pushing driverless cars which basically use computers and sensors to safely traverse road and highways? Hell, if the company’s CEO doesn’t trust a computer program, WTF should we?
There’s so much here to unpack about Musk’s state of mind, thinking skills, and choices, not to mention the sheeple out there applauding him. They’re all untethered from reality, as others were quick to note.
In a statement released following Musk’s comment this week, Dominion pointed out the inaccuracies in Musk’s comments, including the fact they don’t operate in Philadelphia and that most jurisdictions do use paper ballots.
“Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts,” a Dominion spokesperson said.
On the website of Maricopa County, officials also stated that voting machines in the 2020 election were accurate, writing that a hand count after the election “found zero variances between hand count results and the Dominion tabulation equipment.”
The increasing craziness on the right is deeply unsettling. I don’t think it’ll end with the next election, either. It’s going to take a long time for that lack of thinking to fade away, especially as people like the Heritage Foundation and much of the GOP are working hard to keep it going.
Autumn covered us this morning with a familiar old comforter. Sunshine on changing leaves, cloudy, hazy blue sky, crisp weather ranging from the upper forties (Fahrenheit) at night to today’s high in the low to mid 70s.
Today is Sunday, September 29, 2024.
It’s National Coffee Day in the United States! Like many holidays, its provenance is a little iffy. Coffee is a staple in the United States. Lot of coffee drinkers like me swear by a daily brew or two. The only thing I drink more than coffee is water, and the only drink I enjoy more than coffee is beer. But coffee has less calories and is fat free! Woo hoo! While it has some potential benefits, it comes with potential risks. IMO, the coffee person relationship is more individualized. Either your body works well with coffee or it doesn’t. Think I’ll celebrate as I do every other day, with a cuppa coffee.
BTW, since there’s a coffee-inspired holiday, there are coffee-inspired deals available. USA Today provides a list.
Yeah, baby, year, real debate, not vibes. Real debate as Trump and his surrogate, J.D. Vance, spread acknowledged lies about Haitians eating pets in Ohio. Let’s debate that, Roberts.
Will Trump debate the ‘stolen election’ claims he continues to make, even after admitting that he lost the election? The stolen election claims that were thrown out of court over and over again? The efforts to overturn the election that he’s been indicted for?
Let’s have a debate over Trump’s healthcare plan. The one he installed when he was POTUS. *Chortle – yeah, that didn’t happen.* Vaporware has more substance than Trump’s current ‘concept of a plan’.
Let’s debate Trump’s declaration that he’d protect women after the fucking disaster of the Trump-stacked Dobbs decision and its afterbirth on women, their rights, their bodies, and their health. You know, the women who he refers to as ‘bimbos’. The ones he’d grab by the pussy, and Jean Carroll.
Donald Trump: You know and I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach.
Unknown: She used to be great. She’s still very beautiful.
Trump: I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f*** her. She was married.
What respect he shows! Such a protector! (Yes, that last was late-morning, coffee-fueled snark.)
Yes, let’s have a debate between Trump and Vice President Harris, Roberts! Oh, we can’t because Trump refuses to debate Harris again because she trounced him the last time so badly that Trump’s feelings remain hurt.
Moving on.
Today’s music was inspired by another’s blog post. Tom MacInnes mentioned April Wine in his fabulous series about rock music. I’ve only featured April Wine here once, six years ago. But after today’s post, The Neurons were stirred to drop “Roller” from 1979 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark limited). I had a Canadian friend serving in the U.S. Air Force with me on Okinawa. April Wine was one of his basic “we’re going to play their music” groups. If you were at his house listening to music, you would hear April Wine sooner or later.
Funny, but thinking on that, several such connections exist through my years of friendships. With Jeff, it was Culture Club. Randy could be depended on to bring out Van Halen, although Boston also came out at his place. Rich in Germany was a Chris Rea advocate while Bobby was apt to crank up Cream. Gene, being more old school, frequently invoked the Grateful Dead. Robert was always bringing in Rush. Such a group of characters. Of course, I was likely to turn up a piece out of Pink Floyd’s catalog.
Stay positive, test negative, remain strong, and lean forward. While you’re at it, could you also vote blue in 2024.
That’s a basic summary. Further reading of the Wikipedia entry expands on the document and its purpose. However, the video which Scottie shared, that I’m now sharing, includes a two minute chapter by chapter summary of what each chapter outlines as the project’s intention. Easier than reading the entire 940 page document.
This is just one of several reasons why I’m against the election of the lying convicted felon known as Don Old Trump. Kamala Harris for President. Vote Blue in 2024.
So, to recap. Without significant opposition, the GOP decided that Donald Trump is the ideal candidate to be President of the United States — again. He barely won in 2016 and lost the popular vote by millions in 2020.
But he is the GOP nominee again because he is an ultraright tool. The ultraright people propelling him forward is an elite, powerful group called the Heritage Foundation.
A conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation emerged with a manifesto to install many conservative idealists and Trump loyalists in the Federal government. It explicitly defines exactly how ultraright there are. Although not fully marching in time together, they plan to ignore or change laws with a conservative Roberts’ Court help, including such matters of separation of church and state. This is known as Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative.
The document has gained traction on the losing side of Americans’ thinking as they recognize what serious threats to democracy and freedom in the United States the document holds. Recent polls show every group except MAGAs disapprove of it.
That’s the backdrop. As this all unfolded in the public realm, Donald Trump began disavowing any knowledge of the document. He didn’t even know what it was, he claimed. It has nothing to do with us, his campaign declared. That’s because Trump’s handlers he began realizing that most Americans do not like its proposals and there is a strong chance for him to lose votes because of it. “Full reverse, all engines,” they screamed.
Unfortunately for Donald J., there it is, video evidence from April of 2022. Donald J. Trump was out there in front of a crowd, cheerleading the document known as Project 2025.“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” he said.
There it is. Despite his efforts to lie his way out of it, he is a firm player in this document’s efforts to remake the United States into a ‘christian’ nation, undermining our founders’ deliberate efforts to be an open and inviting nation for all faiths.
You know it must be bad when Donald Trump does an about face and runs hard away from it. The guy will put his name on anything from tennis shoes to buildings if he thinks it’ll bring him power, respect, or money. For him to claim, “I know nothing,” means it’s really fucking bad.
Project 2025 is a dangerous and radical vision with a feckless, useful idiot as the face. But mistake it not: it’s a poison pill for liberty, equality, and democracy in America.
Michael Seidel, writer 