Tag: justice

The Trump Dream

It was a wild night of dreams. The final remembered one was one of those types of dreams where it was like a movie. I was watching and removed, but also knew myself as a character.

In this case, I as Donald J. Trump. Yes, that guy.

Except, I was a little person.

I was Donald J. Trump as a little person, mango hue and all, wearing a poorly fitting blue suit with a long red tie.

To open, there had been murders. The police were questioning me (Donald Trump) and others about the murder. I was the murderer, but I was fooling the detectives. I thought I was getting away with it. So, I turned my back to the investigative scene and smirked with pleasure because I was going free. But I still eavesdropped on what was being said behind me about possible new evidence.

I, Donald J. Trump, murderer, had overlooked some potentially incriminating evidence. But knowing where it was I quickly stole away.

Moving casually but fast, I hustled along the small town’s winding roads until I reached a broad pond with a rocky shore. Three elderly men were in a small rowboat just off shore. They were drinking whiskey from bottles. Further out on an outcrop of rocks was a clear plastic toilet bag. Inside it were some small plastic bottles. I knew my DNA was on that bag. It would link me to one of the murders.

Noises were coming up from behind. A black female detective was striding forward. I called out to the three men in the boat in my Trump voice, “Excuse me, fellows, can you do me a favor? Can you reach over to that rock, get that bag, and toss it back to me?”

Number one, I was wearing white gloves, and pointed at the bag as I spoke. Two, the men were a little inebriated. My request needed to be repeated clarified. Understanding and agreement came. They rowed over and got the toilet bag.

But the detective had come up by now. A look of pure evil overtaking my expression, I called to the men, “Just drop that in the water, okay?”

The detective called out, “That’s evidence in a murder case. Please be careful and bring it to me.”

One of the men was holding the bag aloft. He looked from me (Trump) to the detective and back to me. Then he let go of the bag.

Plop it went into the water. The men chuckled.

Smirking, I said, “Thank you, fellows,” and walked away on my short legs.

I’d gotten away with it.

Dream end.

2

The Full Agenda

Project 2025 has been on display enough that the gist has been assimilated.  Led by wealthy individuals and the Heritage Foundation, they pursue a theocracy dominated by white men. Women’s rights will be diminished, if not outright stripped. Black men will be tolerated as long as they toe the white line. If you think you’re something other than male or female as it says on your paperwork when born, forget about it. Your shall be male or female, as their god intended.

Under Project 2025, remember, too, that work is good. As they sit in homes and offices fantasizing about the American world, they want children back in the factories. Women, however, should be at home, giving birth, sexually gratifying their man, keeping the house clean and cooking and baking up a storm, cuz that’s what Jesus wanted.

Because, besides being about money, power, and their rights, it’s about forwarding their religion, even if they don’t practice it. They’ve gone from practicing what would Jesus do to what would Donald Trump do?

That’s what they pursue if Donald J. Trump is elected as POTUS this year.

What’s interesting about this is the cosmic political background.

On a Quora post, someone answered the question about whether Trump will win by pointing out that the conservative base is elderly, and they’re dying. The conservative base is also rural, and the rural population is shrinking. The young are leaving those small towns and agribusiness zones because the future is less than bright. They want adventure, education, or more meaningful jobs than what’s being offered in those little towns.

Bottom line for the conservatives, i.e., the GOP, that their potential base is getting smaller.

They’ve recognized this. They’ve countered by first, gerrymandering to favor conservative voters. Second, by making it harder to vote. Like Musk and Trump, they push the fallacy that mail-in voting is fraught with fraud. They insist the only safe solution is paper ballots with in-person voting with people presenting their government issued identification.

In doing so, Trump, Musk, and the GOP ignore the facts. That’s nothing new for them. They loathe facts. Facts often show how backward their thinking is.

But going on now, took, are several pincer movements to make Project 2025 feasible. The GOP has been attacking public education for some time. They’ve been doing this mostly through voucher programs but also by making it more difficult for teachers to teach. They challenge them wherever and whenever possible. Back in the early Tea Party days, the GOP went after the history and science textbooks. Advances and positive contributions by anyone but conservative whites, mostly men, was systemically removed from what was being taught.

See, the GOP knew their elderly, rural, uneducated base was shrinking. The answer, of course, is to re-establish that base. To do that, they politically divide the country. That’s what keeps Trump propped up in the current movement: he is really good at spewing hate and threatening the Democrats. It’s been taken to the point where MAGAts have been quoted as trusting a Russian more than they trust a Democrat. Shit is made up and thrown on liberals, progressives, and Democrats. If something sticks, than that becomes the attack mode.

We’ve seen this in action before. “Shows us the birth certificate.” “Lock her up.” “Biden is too old and feeble.” Now Trump et al is hunting for the handle to attack Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for POTUS, and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz. They’re trying everything, hoping to find something that sticks.

Meanwhile, the GOP is also working hard to get books removed from schools and libraries, along with any curriculum that teaches anything negative about white people or the history of the United States. Their goal is clear.

When young people currently graduate, they tend to be liberal. So, while the conservative base is declining – death, rural population shrinking, people growing more educated and capable – the liberal base is growing.

Therefore, the GOP must undercut education in order to stop young people from learning. Their goal is to increase young conservative voters, people who will reliably toe the conservative line.

Conservative leadership, abetted by a conservative base, are an insidious group. They do not care about the concept of the United States as a bastion of freedom, justice, and equality. That’s just for the propaganda brochures and videos. They want a power base with themselves in charge, encouraging ‘good old-fashioned hard work’ for slave labor wages while the wealthy grows wealthier. That’s how they see the United States: a grand revenue stream with low taxes for the wealthy.

It’s an old, old story. They’re just adding fiendish twists to it. Just as they knew they couldn’t legitimately overturn Roe v. Wade, with Mitch McConnell’s ‘leadership’, they denied President Obama’s SCOTUS nominees and packed the court with Trump conservative appointees. The greatest issue with that is how those nominees danced around what they would do with Roe v. Wade and then overturned it with the flimsiest possible reasoning as soon as the opportunity arose.

I didn’t provide any links to my claims, but I can find them if needed. Cheers

2

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: Friliberated

Went out doing chores this morning while it was cool and the air was fresh, so I’m late to posting duties. Bac then it, was in the mid to upper sixties. Now we’re at 77 F. It’s sunny, with a few clouds coiling up from the earth to the troposphere’s upper reaches. Today’s high will probably be about 85, 86 degrees F. Depends on where you’re at in Ashlandia. The air is mostly clear of smoke for now. But the smoke is rising. We’re into the moderate zone. Bleah.

Went and saw a great performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show. Forty-five minutes long, the free Green Shows bring in all manner of performers. Last night was a regional favorite, the Rogue Suspects. They put on a superb display of style and ability with their performance of Tina Turner songs. Regaling us with “Private Dancer,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “Missing You,” “Simply the Best,” “Addicted to Love”, “The Bitch is Back,” they finished with an energetic rendition of “Proud Mary”. You ever get the chance to see them, come and do.

Then, my wife and I left the Green Show and headed over to the bandshell in Lithia Park to see the last of the Ashland City Band’s final summer concert. With the air clear and the temperature dipping into the upper seventies, it capped off a terrific evening of music.

Saw that D.J. Trump is asking the courts to postpone sentencing for his conviction until after the elections. Hope that doesn’t happen. Treatment being given to him keeps broadening the idea that he’s part of a class of people above the law, unaccountable for the shit storms they cause, IMO. It’s really screwing up the already strained sense of justice in the United States.

Someone has pointed out that Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation document setting forth the ways conservatives went to twist and malign our nation, wants everyone in a school receiving Federal funding to complete the ASVAB. That’s the test aspect of the military recruiting system. Interesting that public school attendees will be doing that. Easy to paint a scene where students of wealth attending private schools are more and more exempt from military service while impoverished and lower middle-class students enlist and serve. Just part of conservatives pursuing their goals of setting up a nation of have-nots to serve the wealthy and powerful. Meanwhile, the conservatives love pushing the idea that the liberals are the ‘elites’. They are such a duplicitous group these days.

Meanwhile, down in Florida, led by the mini-Trump known as Gov. DeSantis, universities and colleges are removing books and trashing them. Not selling them, donating them, or giving them away; they are sending the books to landfills, throwing them away. What a waste.

Today music remains true to the dance theme. While ruminating on the theme, The Neurons fired up Justin Timberlake with “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from 2016 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark rising). Technically, it doesn’t meet the standard of having ‘dance’ in its title, except The Neurons kept insisting to me that the title is “Can’t Stop the Feeling! Dance, Dance, Dance.” I called bullshit on them but the song is about dancing, so I gave them another pass. Part of that is just to appease The Neurons, because they’re prone to sulking and pouting, and then quit responding me, which reduces me to an idiot. I already have enough trouble with looking like an idiot, so I gave in to them.

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue, okay? For extra credit, practice saying, “The first female President of the United States, President Kamala Harris.” Because people need to get used to it.

Coffee is being consumed. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: gagging

Hi everyone, it’s Monday, July 15, 2024, in Ashlandia. It’s 71 F here. We expect a high of 97 F, about five degrees above our average for July. BUT yesterday was exected to top out at 96, 97, and we ended up with 102 at my house.

July 15 happens to be my little sister’s birthday, so happy b’day, little sis. Two years younger than me, she was the family baby until a couple other little sisters showed up six years later. Just found one on the doorstep in Wilkinsburg, PA, one year, and then another followed a few years later. I love all these little sisters. The oldest little sister is now a grandmother and one of her granddaughters is now in her teens. A common story but still freakin’ amazin’ to me, because time, circumstances, change, you know.

I think about her often. She’s Republican and her hubby is deep MAGA. Her boys are deeply progressive. It’s an interesting household.

Yes, I read the news today, oh boy. Judge Cannon took a dump on us. It’s just one GOP dump after another.

In this instance, an ex-prez took docs he wasn’t supposed to take and actively worked to hide them and stop them from being taken away from him. But gosh, that special counsel, Cannon says, not sure that’s legitimate. I feel like I’m listening to the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. Honestly, my faith in that case soured as soon as I learned who the judge was. I figured she’d wait until after the elections to dismiss it. But it’s a July surprise.

Move on, you say, move on. Yes, it’s going to take me a while. Between the Trump-loaded Roberts Court giving Trump cover and now the Trump appointee dismissing the case, my trust in the legal system has crashed through the floor and is mired somewhere in the Earth’s core. Using the Spinal Tap scale of 1 – 11, my confidence level in American justice is at minus 6,232,716.

“Hungry As A Wolf” by Duran Duran is percolating in the morning mental music stream (Trademark shaken). Not much surprise for the 1982 song, as I was hungry for both breakfast and justice. I took care of the former. Still hungering for the latter.

Ah, be strong, right? That’s what I tell myself. And stay positive. And have a sip of coffee, and maybe a longer, deeper swallow. Okay, here we go. Here’s the music. Cheers

4

Tueday’s Theme Music

Mood: Bureausilized (when activities are rendered useless by bureaucracy and become fossilized)

Good morrow, gentle folk and fellow coffee guzzlers. Today is Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

For the record, we’re fully overcast in Penn Hills, PA. It’s comfortable out, 61 F, with rain and thunderstorms chugging our way. They’re scheduled to arrive noonish. Today’s high will stroke out at 72 F.

Trump on Trial (the hush money/business fraud business) holds my family enthralled. Details are reiterated and explored. They’re also enjoying Trump’s latest tax issues, whereby he seems to be on the hook for $100,000,000 in taxes.

But doubt has been expressed that anything significant will emerge from either of these matters. Trump is white, male, and wealth, even if he may not be as wealthy as he claims. He’s also an ex-POTUS and the woeful GOP’s current candidate. Looking at the crime and punishment Venn diagram, significant punishment and karma don’t seem likely. The lesson reinforced for most of us, I think, is that the U.S. has a tiered justice system that mocks ‘and justice for all’.

The Hunt for Mom’s Caregiver goes miserably. All agencies contacted have suggested other agencies to contact. It’s a quagmire of links and promises, but little of substance is ever found. Others have found caregivers, so it is possible. Just need to moving out of expectations that any government agency will be useful.

Likewise, there’s no movement on Mom’s hospital bed request. In his case the road goes through her PCP’s office. Calling it is like shouting into a sewer. There’s not even an echo in response.

Today’s theme music veers to remembrance of David Sanborn’s work. The saxophonist died this week, robbing us of another wonderful musical talent. While more talented musicians keep emerging, the ones who marked us with their style should remain recognized and appreciated.

One of the first songs The Neurons pulled up for David Sanborn was David Bowie’s “Young Americans” from 1975. Then, as I read appreciations about him, many more people mentioned this same song. Sanborn’s body of work was much better than that, though.

I like this video which I found to showcase Sanborn. Not the best sound quality, but there’s a lot of talent on display here beyond Bowie and Sanborn. So many of them have passed.

Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and Vote Blue in 2024. Meanwhile, create and adhere to a vision of a better world. We make it happen, yes, we can make it happen.

Coffee is being chugged. Here’s the video. Cheers

0

The Threat

The headlines:

Judge threatens Trump with jail over gag order violations

Judge in hush money trial threatens Trump with jail after holding him in contempt for violating gag order

Judge fines Trump $9,000, threatens jail for contempt in hush money trial

The response:

“Do it! Do it! Lock him up! Lock him up!”

The irony would be delicious.

4

World Poetry Day

Today, UNESCO celebrates The World Poetry Day…

We need to keep looking forward

while still glancing back

as we shouldn’t forget the horror

of all those wars and attacks

something better must be ahead

because look back how it was

it’s a long arc and takes time

but peace and justice for all is our cause

4

Sat-er-day’s Theme Music

Mood: relief balanced with hope

This Saturday, Feb 17, 2024, is meh again. Like a giant gray spaceship is hovering above us, blotting out the natural sky and sunshine. Rain has begun streaking the windows again. The wind’s been gusting all morning, as if a giant wind machine has been turned onto four. There are eleven settings for the machine, of course.

It’s 54 F now. We’re closing on 1 PM. 56 F will be our high. Another late start to posting, caused again by reading (fiction and non-fiction books, along with netnews), and writing my own fiction. Had to read more stories about Trump travails. His rages about (fill in the space). Rage, lying, hating, he’s commendably capable of those three things and demonstrates them often.

Tucker is doing much better today. I reduced his pain med, and he’s adjusting, as they suggested he would. So happy to see that.

Papi is not happy today. After being denied permission to go out from dusk to dawn, I let him out this morning only for him to encounter the wind. When it finally reduced its strength, rain moved in. Papi no like wind and rain.

I’m not crowing about the NY fraud judgement against Trump. From what I read, justice has been served, though I know how malleable justice can be. My wife raged yesterday about Trump’s immunity matter. In her opinion, something like that should’ve been answered post haste. “The Supreme Court should have already said that nobody is above prosecution for crimes.” Slam dunk to her, with no offramp for any reason.

So why haven’t the Supremes acted? Why are they stalling, she demands. Well, we know much about this court by now, and Roberts’s concern about his legacy. And several of the Supremes were plugged into the court as Trump’s choice. What happens if they rule against him? There will probably be death threats against them and even possibly protests at the court or at their homes. My wife and I think they’re very worried about those matters. But to rule that Trump is immune seems hugely unthinkable. Yes, it’s high drama.

Musically, I read that the Beach Boys began recording the song, “Good Vibrations” on this date in 1966. Ten years old, I connected with this song as soon as it came out later that year, so without the need for much comment, I’ll tell you that The Neurons immediately put it on in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). The song’s dramatic shifts in tempo and sound, and the lyrics about vibrations and love and attraction, all captivated me, along with the theremins’ use, and the softly melded piece with an organ that invokes the sense of being in a church. This is a song which I always used to crank up in volume and fall still to appreciate. I often still do, over sixty years later.

I was talking to one of the painters yesterday as they wrapped up. “How long have you been doing this?” I asked. He was so proficient. He ended up telling me he was 51, and he’s been doing this for 30 years. I reflected, I retired from the military twenty-nine years ago, just a year after he began his career.

Stay positive, remain strong, leeeaaannn forward, and vote. Strengthened by the power of coffee, I’ll do the same. Here’s the music. Cheers

1

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Excitgry (excited but hungry)

Light rain and gray clouds sang in Tuesday’s entrance on January 9, 2024. Snow is gone from the valley floor. Fog veils the mountains and ridges so I don’t know what the situation is up there. Gloomy is the word, the word that you heard. It speaks to the day’s general malaise, weather-wise. It is 39 F now, humming along to a 44 F high. My floofs are nestled into comfortable niches where they can sleep in warmth and safety.

Pretty much as expected, Republicans are descending into tit-for-tat politics, talking about trying to remove President Biden from the POTUS ballots in several states, reflecting their deranged approach to politics. “Because you removed Trump!” they whine. “Because look at what Biden is doing to the border,” they declare. “And his birth certificate. I mean, her emails. I mean, Hunter Biden.”

They’re descending into a new low level, setting themselves up as a punch line in history books. “Look at how they used to act,” people will say, discussing the GOP of this era. “How did they become so lost and confused about what was going on? What happened to their principles and leadership?” We in this era reply, they became consumed with desire to be in power. “Power tends to corrupt,” Lord Acton wrote in a previous century, summarizing what others had observed. Power tends to corrupt. That seems to be what we’re seeing in the GOP as they corrupt their values and principles to stay in power, no matter how they malign the ideal the founders established, no matter how far their behavior guides them from the principles they claim to uphold.

Of course, their hold on what is ‘supposed to be’ regarding our founders’ intentions are as nebulous as a kitten’s grip on their own tail. Can you imagine what the founders would be saying to Lauren Boebert after she declared that she was tired of this separation of church and state junk?

I can’t honestly say, though. I only wonder. I don’t know how they, the founders, would say to multiple arguments of this modern era. What would they say to the “Moms of Liberty” for banning ideas and books? How would they respond to Republicans like DeSantis declaring what parts of history should not be taught? And I don’t know how the founders would stand regarding the mass murders with automatic weapons that happen so routinely in the US in this ‘modern age of reason’. I like to think that the founders would be horrified and take action to stop it, but then, I thought the GOP, the ‘pro-life’ party as they call themselves without irony, would be horrified by the murders, deaths, and sorrows, and take some action. I just can’t gauge the depths of the GOP’s corruption, hypocrisy, and cynicism. Each time that I believe they’ve hit bottom, they go lower.

And of course, pundits are wondering, what will happen if Trump runs for POTUS in 2024 and loses? Will the GOP peacefully support the result, accept defeat, and continue with governing? Or will they go full-blown rebellion and insurrection? There is enough darkness glimmering in the MAGA base frothing at Trump’s whiney ‘campaigning’ that there is serious reason to believe they’ll go Jan 6 once again but escalate it to new levels of violence.

Meanwhile, a fragment of them will say the Pledge of Allegiance, loudly enunciating, “Under God”, and then talk about how they hate Democrats, and want to kill them or send them to another country. Do they have any self-awareness?

Beyond all that, The Neurons have the Eagles singing the 1980 song, “I Can’t Tell You Why”, in the morning mental music stream (Trademark separated). The Neurons had caught on with my thinking — they can be sharp at times — about not being able to comprehend and explain things. I can’t tell you why Republicans let Justice Clarence Thomas remain in office as revelations of his relationship with wealthy Republican patrons generate concern about Thomas’s ethics. I can’t tell you why they let Thomas remain involved in cases regarding Trump as POTUS in the face of revelations about his wife’s role. I can’t tell you why they turn a blind eye to Trump’s bullshit. I can declare it’s politics as usual, but it’s not the kind of politics seen in this nation for several decades. I thought, and it seems I was naive, that we as a political body, no matter the party, had evolved past that. Of course, I never foresaw what social media, AI, and web bots would do to our political discourse. I never foresaw people who weren’t being treated for mental issues clinging to insane conspiracy theories, and I can’t tell you why they cling to them. All I can do is make up my own theories.

Ah, well, time to shuffle news and politics aside and rebalance myself. Coffee helps, of course. Stay pos, be strong, and keep leaning forward. Don’t let yourself get too wrapped up in the minutiae of trying to understand and explain why. Keep your eye on our own shared goals of freedom, justice, democracy, and equality, and the idea that we should all enjoy them. I once read that those are pretty good ideals to chase.

Here’s the music. Admire the Eagle’s youth seen in this video, and remember. Cheers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑