Hands off! Huge protests

Over 5 million people! 5.2 is highest I’ve seen.

Massive turnout in NYC and in many cities around the USA to protest harm. Hands off!

Evolving analysis

 

The shock doctrine is the idea that throwing the USA into turmoil will benefit the hyper rich, and make the workers more willing to be exploited. 

The Atlantic has an article about how people try to ideologically justify this turmoil. 

People balk at giving Trump sophisticated ideas, he's a dolt, a dummy. He's a toddler trapped in the genital phase. 

One thing I've noticed, his autocratic style, he doesn't feel like explaining, justifying or even persuading the people, he just wants to do what he wants to do. His anti-social ways are about cutting corners and not following the rules. He's not excited unless he's getting away with something. He's still angry at his father. 

It's really hard for me to read about all the business that are being ruined, lives, and when the economy goes down, aside from ruining things, 

Protests all over the USA are voicing the urge not to just do things for the oligarchy. 

Mayoral race NYC

Working Families endorsed 4 candidates (Gothamist): Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani and Zellnor Myrie.

Zohran Mamdani (33) was born in Uganda, to Indian parents. Move to Cape Town when he was 5. His mother is a filmmaker (1991 film Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe) and his father is an academic at Columbia, who studies colonialism, was expelled from Uganda under the dictator Idi Amin. He's from Queens, he's in the State Assembly. Moved to NYC when he was 7. Went to Bronx Science, then Bowdoin College in Maine with a bachelors in African studies. Mamdani worked as a prevention counselor and cricketer, and attempted a career in hip hop (video). He worked on a few political campaigns and then ran himself. His district includes Astoria and Long Island City. 

Quoting articles:

Mother Jones Article (3/27/25): He's fundraising well so far. Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political strategist based in New York City, had a simple explanation for Mamdani’s emergence as the leading progressive contender: “He’s not boring! He’s handsome, articulate, and his ideas are very romantic and interesting.” 

The city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter has added 1,500 members—about a quarter increase—since last October, when it endorsed Mamdani. “We’re not only winning elections with downwardly mobile college-educated people,” said Grace Mausser, co-chair of the local chapter. “We’re becoming more diverse.” 

His theory is that the saliency of universal services will win over working-class voters, particularly those who have become disillusioned by the Democratic party. Whether or not he succeeds, Mamdani’s candidacy is a test of the widespread appeal of a left-wing economic populist platform, at a time when Democrats desperately need to find a better message. 

He has steadfastly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza, even as pro-Israel PACs have spent millions to sink progressive candidates nationwide. Mamdani likes to joke that, as a Muslim and a socialist, he is “no stranger to bad PR.”

Mamdani brought that penchant for showmanship to the state Assembly after being elected in 2020, ousting a popular incumbent. As a legislator, Mamdani was skilled at winning over powerful allies. In 2021, he helped the taxi drivers’ union win debt relief, with the backing of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. When union members went on a hunger strike to try to force a deal, Mamdani fasted alongside them all 15 days.

...a recent poll shows Mamdani 10 points ahead of the next progressive candidate, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Politico (3/22/25): ...some recent polling even has him in second place in the crowded field of 11-plus candidates — behind only former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a dynastic politician who is the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic primary in June.

Bernie Sanders playbook: Pick a handful of straightforward economic proposals that would impact the daily lives of regular people and repeat, repeat, repeat. Attendees of a Bernie rally are primed to chant Medicare for All before they even get there. Now, thanks to his social-media savvy outreach, Mamdani draws crowds ready to sing along to his own greatest hits.

Thoughts: The idea that he can't win is based in a kind of assumption about how left a candidate can win. I don't actually know, and nobody really knows, how left a candidate can win. When he doesn't win, they'll say I told you so, but is it really true that there's a too left candidate that can't win, or they just don't communicate well in the campaign, or money overwhelms them from the other side, which has a moneyed interest in them not winning. I'm not convinced in the too left to win argument. Obviously I'm too left myself.

Regarding Cuomo who is leading: He wouldn't make my top 5. The reason he resigned is the reason he shouldn't run again. People can change, but they don't have the right to run for government. His name recognition gives him a huge advantage. I basically don't think he deserves to win because of name recognition, but it's a real factor in reality, but not why I would vote for him. (NPR article on resignation.)

Same with Eric Adams. He's running as an independent because the Democratic party doesn't want him to run under their ticket. I guess he doesn't have enough power in the party to over-ride them. I like that. I would never vote for him. He didn't make my top 5 last time. He's too corrupt, should be in jail, it's only sucking up to Trump that got him off the hook--another element of his corruption. 

Probably it will be a fight between Adams and Cuomo and the Republican, maybe Curtis Sliwa. Adams wasn't on my top 5 and he won, so thinking my opposite instincts will be right. 

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Adrienne Adams is a 64 year old Speaker of the New York City Council. Her district includes the Queens borough neighborhoods of Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park. I'm sure she would be fine. She seems like the uninteresting type of person we need to just get things done. I'll probably include her in my 5 for the democratic primary. 

My 9 year old daughter wants to vote for Jessica Ramos based on looks and gender. She also liked Adrienne Adams. She favors women. Ramos is a 38 year old state senator who represents Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights. She was born at Elmhurst Hospital and grew up in Astoria. She has Colombian heritage. She quit Hofstra to work for New York City Council Member Hiram Monserrate. I'm not sure why she didn't get the Working Families endorsement. She's had high level communications jobs, and is journalists go to hispanic politician. 

Brad Lander is the 55 year old Comptroller for NYC.  He grew up in St. Louis in a Jewish family. He got a masters degree in anthropology in London, and urban planning from Pratt. He is described as a progressive. He's been on the city council. Seems like a competent government worker, he's probably going to make my top 5 for the democratic primary.

Zellnor Myrie is a 38 year old state senator representing Brooklyn. He was born in Brooklyn to parents who were born in Costa Rica. He went to Fordham and got a masters in urban studies. He went to Cornell Law School. Myrie proposed to increase housing supply in New York City by 700,000 homes by allowing more housing in neighborhoods with stringent zoning rules, in order to alleviate the housing shortage in the city. He's another candidate to consider for top 5. 

My 5: Zohran Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, Jessica Ramos, Brad Lander, Zellnor Myrie

So I wrote this above summary on 4/3/25, and thought I would follow these people in the news to see how things go and add in information. The election is on November 4, 2025, but the primary is more interesting to me on June 24, 2025, that's less than 3 months to pay attention.

Wednesday

The principle Trump doesn’t understand is that fascism isn’t good for business. Enough people understand that and are educating others.

Crashing the economy through layoffs, tariffs wars, tourism is crashing, Tesla is crashing, education is suffering because of Trump’s attacks. 

The people who voted for Trump because they wanted to wreck things up, don’t hold life dear can watch the kakocracy as RFK does the opposite of what would be helpful and good information. The greed of lying that pays. RFK gets kickbacks from a lawfirm that sues based on the misinformation he peddles. And on and on.

Gross incompetence isn't quite as bad as disappearing people off the streets and sending them out of the country, without due process because if there was a process, they wouldn't be sent out of the country. Trump is punishing people for protesting against Israel. He likes strongmen doing horrible things like him, he's using it as a pretext to be a bully, sew fear in the air. His multi-pronged attacks on the economy, freedoms of the citizens and guests, and threats to overstay his constitutional welcome with another term, are egregious. Ignoring the court, the cowardly legislature is dominated by republicans, and are complicit in his crimes. 

Lying fucks say there’s no difference from Obama. That’s the most offensive rancid lie. You can not like government but it’s murderous. So killing others through deny, depose and defend is insurance murder. Cacking up government kills people.

Cory Booker stepped forward to do something to resist. He stood up and put on the record the big bowl of wrong that is happening.

This Saturday there are protests nationwide.

Tuesday's thoughts

Past republican criticism isn’t sincere, mostly just hate for progressive ideas and government redressing the excesses of capitalism, they like the hard realities of no interventions, the death that ensues, and while they can be quite nice individuals in person, kind and caring to people they meet face to face, they don't trust the government. They have been disappointed, there are examples where they wanted action and none was done, or not the way they wanted it done, and so better not to have any government, throw the baby out with the bathwater. For the life of me I can't understand the perspective, but I am selfish, even though I'm trying to curb that, so I do act in ways that are ancillary to the conservative vision. Ways of drawing out the conservative vision is that people need to be maximally selfish and not taxed, every grubbing cent to the person who has it. OK, maybe roads, but nothing else. Oh well, they do currency and defense. Well, nothing else. Well it turns out that when the conservative whoop up alternatives to the liberal vision, the progressive vision, the leftist vision, democratic vision, they spend money. They preach fiscal responsibility but driving up the debt means democrats can't ramp up entitlements right away. They have ruthlessly gamed the situation, with voter suppression, killing education which leads to greater votes for the left, and outside influence--Russia and China want conservative government because they can then do more grimmey stuff in general and to America. Recently the tech bros have bought the government that is for sale, shitting if you don't give us money. 

So when people say, "I guess the emails didn't matter," referring to Hillary's emails, what they're pointing to is the lack of consistency from the conservatives based on the progressive bias, and that's just not something they're concerned about and most left criticism don't impact the psyche of conservatives, because they want what they want the way they want it, and it doesn't have to make sense to a different political perspective. 

They really didn't care about national security, the alcoholic accidentally text military plans to a journalist. Not a big deal. Progressives notice they would have howled if a democrat did that. 

They didn't care about law and order, that was just a tactic. They didn't really hate Russia, they're just projecting their totalitarian fantasies onto the opposition, and Russia was communist for a time, but more importantly they're totalitarian, which is fine with them, because that's what they want. 

Trump has filled his cabinet with incompetent hucksters like himself, with the intention of wrecking up the place, not governing. Lefties shout, having grown up with republicans obsessed with security their whole lives, suddenly blase about the kakocracy that is acceptable because they hate government anyway. That progressives are upset is a bonus. 

Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser except the banality of evil isn't fun or interesting, it's just evil wrecking up the place. Not patriotic, and not good.

Trump's vision is that everything is for sale, and he shucks cars when the seig heiling businessman's company starts to fail because he gave him a lot of money, bought him essentially. Both drunk on power and money, with no internal integrity or virtue. 

Due process is only for those who chooses, the constitution is for sale too, what do you want in it, and how much will you pay? 

Heather Cox Richardson's account

Naked

The grift is creating chaos, like a toddler knocking over the sand castle after adults have meticulously created it. Give me what I want or I'm going to wreck up the place. Chaos is the threat, and Trump is following through on his rage filled revenge tour, which 4 million voters withdrew their votes for a black woman instead of a white man. It's insane making to try and rhyme out the reason for such a colossal mistake. The American voters identify with the toddler more than the architects of order and justice. 

The toddler anger is conservative. They hate the progressive imagination. They hate power to destroy being curbed. The toddler prevented from smashing the sand castle wriggles in anger, fights against it. There’s no adult stopping this toddler.

From the economy to history to public health to foreign relations. From science to tourism. From veterans to truth. The Kennedy Center. Maximum jerk, every nook and cranny. Due process, freedom of speech, the constitution. The richest man takes food from the mouth of the poorest and his empire crumbles, people are disgusted, stop using his businesses. His angry messages and true followers are not enough. They can’t destroy education fast enough. 

No David! The pigeon can’t drive the bus. He thinks he’s Don Corleone at a wedding but he looks in the mirror and he has no clothes. It’s those two weird middle aged people holding guns awkwardly, as the mob passes them by. It’s bad plastic surgery gone wrong. It’s seeing Darth Vader’s true face. 

It’s the morality police wrestling, trying to make the head covering just right, and ending with a woman naked except underwear standing in protest:

It’s Texas mortality rates moving in Afghanistan’s direction.

I think it’s tempting to blame democrats, and I've seen a lot of it. They failed to win and now we have this. The money and conservatives were behind Trump, and maybe some cheating. Four million people voted for Biden and somehow couldn't transfer that to a black woman. 

I want to get out of this chaos, then steady democrats pattern, I want the democrats to shake up things from the left. 

Should democrats lie? Express more hate?

People vote for democrats out of vision, kindness, a critique of capitalism, a sense of justice.

People vote for Republicans out of the hope for lower taxes (false), smaller government (false, just different) and the sense that those lies are the right vision. They are highly sensitive to Democrat lies, which as someone with a left bias, I don’t see.

Two people said to me they don’t see a difference between how Obama was enriched than the way Trump was enriched, between the grifts of Biden and the grifts of Trump. The immigrants who play soccer in the park like Trump. The AA people in one of the meetings I went to thought Trump followed through on, don’t see his promises to build a wall or lower egg prices as tricks and lies. The Polish-American mother in the park said to ignore the sieg heils. The Albanian born mother, to justify wearing no masks, said that we are allowed to have guns in America. A Ukrainian born mother says that most immigrants just don't know what's going on in America. She's not persuaded by democratic rhetoric, doesn't seem to be outraged by what's going on. Another Polish born mother canceled her trip to Poland because of the problem with air safety going on.

My Afghan born friend monitors Muslim topics, feels for the Palestinians, showed me a video about how it's just about erasing Gaza. I agreed. Israel would rather look bad to the world, than be bombed within their own country. He thinks this will last forever, but I told him things died down in Ireland. It's possible to mature past constant waring. 

Most people are non-political. Most people don’t lean do more or do less, the just want what is obviously right, though articulation is wanting. A Venezuelan born mother feels they wrecked her country, but that health insurance is a basic right, and that wouldn't wreck up the country. 

The will of the people is inchoate. But mistakes and problems and waste are obviously not good. Of course when you do things, there are always mistakes. A democrat accepts mistakes, and a republican says, "see, there, you shouldn't do anything." It's the classic it do something or don't do something. 

The republicans are men of action, and it's weird they're so allergic to governmental action. They prefer the law of the jungle. 

I don’t think Democrats should lie, because their vision is integrity and justice. Democrats should include conservatives in their administration like Lincoln had a team of rivals. 

Many democrats are howling at the betrayal of the working class. It's true, I think Clinton could have been a republican, and Schumer seems to have turned to the dark side. Both New York senators voted for the corrupt slush fund, so Trump can steal more, and not be bound by past legislative mandates. AOC is the best voice, Sanders is great too, but he's old and Jewish and AOC is a hispanic woman, so neither are going to sweep the nation. Mark Kelly is heroic, white and male. There are others. This may be cynical, but I'd prefer a centrist man to a far right wing man. Vance has no popularity and Trump is a rare phenomenon, and his popularity doesn't transfer to his children or anyone else.

Criticizing democrats from the left is useless. Most political commentary is useless, except where it creates understanding, and not just wish statements. I wish all day things were different, hasn't done me much good, mostly makes me upset. I'm not going to turn off, I'm going to keep hanging in there.

My biggest question is why, since a conservative doesn't like the federal level, that they are tolerating a bully at the federal level?

Ides of March 2025

It's taken me a while to figure out how Trump is conservative. Sending the autistically bold and ketamine addicted Musk to cut everything, and see what screams the most to be hired back, is a technique to see what is really important. 

The judge has said all the firings were illegal. Of course the US government isn't a corporation you can just buy and then ruin the way he did Twitter or Tesla. The legislature allocates money. This current spending bill, and the traitorous voting for it of Schumer allows for things to be more of a slush fund, but previously those things were voted for, and paid for by the legislature. 

The irony is the national parks make a lot of money, in business terms, they have incredible profit. To cut their budget is the height of folly, but they're just wrecking up the place, they aren't businessmen. 

Trump has 6 bankruptcies. He paid $85 million to E. Jean Carroll because he couldn't stop talk shit about her, after he had to pay $5 million for talking shit about her. He is a felon, but grab him by the money, and he'll just keep talking and paying out like some amazing slot machine. He's not a good businessman. 

What it does do is create doubt, and wrestles the security in the minds of people that the government is there to support citizens in our society. To try to enforce justice, and curb some of the downfalls of poverty and a million other things we're learning. The lessons learned by this destruction will depend on your political bias, and your epistemic character. 

I've been thinking about the Thatcher revolution of privativing thing. Fire all the air traffic controllers and hire a subcontractor, one Musk happens to own. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. They get too bold it seems. It's a quite stressful job. The whole operation is basic pillaging and graft. Musk bought Trump and now he gets to deliver his paybacks. Musk is the biggest welfare queen in the world and he's trying to get more, because there's never enough. 

I've searched for a historical figure who might lend articulation to fascism times. I thought maybe Rafael Alberti might be able to articulate it, he had to leave Spain, and then later Argentina because of fascism. I struggle to find it articulate in his wonderful poetry, but I need to read some more. Mayakovsky was an articulate voice during the Russian revolution, that I want to learn more about. I wonder who will emerge as the articulate voice in America for this time. Paul Beatty has an amazing voice, but it doesn't actually capture this moment yet, he's better at lambasting the role of African Americans in America over the past years. Kendrick Lamar had a shot at breaking through, but most people didn't understand him. Jasmine Crockett can speak truth to power but she's a black woman, and we already voted Harris down. 

There's a upending revolution attempt going on in America. Wall Street has turned against Trump and Musk, and Musk's fortune is being ruined by his insistence that Hitler didn't actually kill all those people, he's doubling down on his sieg heil gesture with more Nazism. The Polish-American woman in the park who said ignore the sieg heil part, I just can't sorry. That's sort of the Polish attitude depicted in Ida (2013) but time has a way of reflecting back on past occurrences, that mean you can't just ignore the sieg heils. 

Even if you don't like some of the situations, the direction and essence, who doesn't want smaller government and less taxes? Trump and Musk are jerks enough to try and push it as far as it will go, no matter how many people die. It takes a rapist narcissist and an autistic narcissist to do this sort of thing to America. Musk's repudiation of empathy is the opposite mirror of his autistic twin Greta Thunberg, who insists on empathy and the not ignoring what is going on, in its fullness. 

What is cover for what grift? The shifting sands of the gish gallop, the rope a dope, is cover for the government for sale, which goes counter the constitution and the founders intentions. The bringing it into the daylight and saying it's not bad, is quite amazing. The level of outrage they produce in reasonable aware people, outrage turns out not to change much, it's just private suffering in the end. 

There's a building storm coming. The guillotine memes are prevalent. Luigi Mangione started it, who's going to keep it going? The way John Brown stood up to slavery, and the millions of people who died in the Civil War. I saw a movie about a Civil War in America last year, and it felt really far fetched, but also horrifying. That scene with Jesse Plemons and his red sunglasses. 

Trump doesn't care because public opinion doesn't matter to him any more. There's no more elections. He's won his last election. He can go on his private yet government funded revenge tour, and be whatever kind of monster he wants to be. 

It's up to the courts and legislature and the press to contain him, and he's not one to be contained by a no, he grabs the pussy, even if they're married. It turns out the press has shown it's true colors, and the legislature and supreme court are right wing, so the checks are really only small little rebukes so far, or not at all. 

I've always seen Trump as the emperor with no clothes, he struts about thinking he's looking good when he really doesn't, he's naked and obese, revolting. There are varying degrees of approval. Wall Street has turned. That's always going to be a percentage thing, rarely is life black and white. Not sure who's voice Trump will actually listen to be a reasonable check. They want destruction and strife, and people begging to work 120 hours a week.

America has traditionally aligned along the attempts by government to fix things verses don't fix anything axis. The right has been good at cultivating resentment for taxes even among the poor, who benefit from taxation. The betrayal of the working class towards itself is a modern feat of pretzel logic. All the programs that cushion the blows of capitalism and try to right the wrongs of gross systematic inequality, not the natural inequality, and not the natural rising and lowering, which is lost in all this going on now. Doesn't seem natural to me. It's natural to curb some of the unnatural excesses of unchecked capitalism.

So many horrible things for sensitive left wing folk to see. Fire the black and woman generals in the military so it's all white men. That's not repudiating DEI with a natural meritocracy, that's white supremacy, reinstating the glass ceiling. 

What little gains that have been brought to over qualified minorities are stripped again, and the fragile flowers of justice have been smashed under foot by the inchoate rage of white supremacy. 

Right wing people who are tired of always being called racists, to the point of it being meaningless, hopefully can turn their awareness back on and see it now, right?

I have a hope that the Bernie Sanders of the world will rise up. He's drawing huge crowds, but more than likely there's a glass ceiling to American leftism. Bernie is too old, and Jewish, and AOC is too woman and ethnic to go very far. 

People are calling for Tim Wahl and Mark Kelly. Decent white men centrists. The groundbreaking women and minority politicians are going to be right wing and centrist, not left wing. The farthest left we're going to go in this racist and misogynistic country will be with a white man. There's a real undertow towards left ideas, America would like to just get away from this far left. 

Reagan was pretty far right, but Trump beats him with this term, with this budgetary violence.

Gavin Newsom ruined things by entertaining Steve Bannon. When Harris entertained Cheney, many were upset, but I think playing in the center is an important things for democrats. If Trump has taught us anything, is you have to give people a shred to believe in, if they want to go that way, even if you want to ultimately dupe them. 

The woman who he promised free IVF treatments feels betrayed. I'm not into the shaddenfreud of all his voters being fired and deported, too much death and murder for me to find any solace.

The murder by "cost cutting" is highlighted by Luigi Mangione's bullets saying deny, defend, depose, and the murder by Musk and Trump and his enablers, including Schumer who's going to be hearing it on his ill planned book tour. I'm sure he's going to avoid the public and take a loss. The coward won't appear in public now even to shill his book, after his profit ruining vote. Musk's fortunes can collapse, and he's still got enough money even with all the leins on his property by baby's mommas for child support. Bill Burr pointed out if Musk came to his neighborhood in Boston, he wouldn't be so bold.

When I told a friend I was thinking of taking a spray can to the Teslas in my neighborhood owned by Jewish people, and writing "sieg heil" on them, he said make sure you wear a mask. 

I can't even spit on them, I can only spit towards them. I respect property and propriety too much, but it's definitely been eroded lately.

Things are getting dicey

I'm getting paranoid, I hesitate to articulate this because I feel like the forces of distraction read the opposition and utilize their insights. I can console myself with the fact that few people reads this blog. 

The war is epistemology now. They can send up incomplete information on a side you agree with, and undermine your confidence in a narrative. Trump has threatened to do a lot of things and mostly he doesn't follow through, though he does follow through too. Say 3 true obvious things and then one false thing is a kind of pattern, and overwhelming are the tactics. We need to remain laser focused in this moment.

He floats the idea that he's powerful enough to rig the election, that Elon was. Creating suspicion about the American democracy. It's not untouchable, but is there any evidence? 

Did he stages a weirdly bogus assassination attempt where a few people die, including the Trump supporting kid, who got cut from the shooting team because he was a bad shot, a weird way to find out there are high school shooting teams in PA. Incompetent worshipers is his pattern. 

Who is this Palestinian with a green card who's been detained for expressions about Palestine in America? Mahmoud Khalil (two, wikipedia): His American wife is 8 months pregnant and he has a green card which can't be revoked without due process. He vigorously promotes Palestinian causes in America. He went to Columbia for a masters degree. I'm not sure whether he is worth defending, but on the face of it, it seems kind of spooky that he's been detained with no charges. Why would a professor who wrote 5 books do a masters degree? I know professors are always educating themselves, that's not a problem. We need freedom of expression in America. Not just right wing fascism on X and the information you like. There are limits. Harmful expressions shouldn't happen, and you can't cry fire in a crowded theater. In my opinion, far right wing expression is often harmful, lying and needs to be curbed. Musk ruined twitter, and I'm on Bluesky now, and it's pretty cool, but of this world and not perfect, and I'm drawing my ideas from there.

Are bots and trolls and half truthers cutting into Reddit and Bluesky? I've seen a huge uptick in people complaining about Reddit, swearing it off, etc. I look at the post history and they look like real people. I never really figured out why people would denounce a platform on the platform. Just walk away. Illogical doesn't mean someone is a bot.

Not everyone has stocks and it's an imprecise measure of the economy, and there's pump and dumping going on. Still...

There are narratives I can't support:

AI is somehow dangerous. It could be of course, but you have to understand science fiction, it's out to warn and it could be a problem, but we're not there yet.. AI is advanced enough to actually be useful? I like it when they underline misspelled words. I learned how to spell with that direct feedback. 

The democrats could never in a million years predicted the election results and whatever nit picking you do about the democrats undermines the fact that Harris would be totally different than Trump, in a good way. The Palestinian woman who campaigned against Harris is weird to me, but just because she's against Harris isn't a problem, and Palestinian and Muslim isn't a problem to me. Of course people are not beyond criticism, but you have to examine the critiques critically. The right would really attack Harris as president, and could maybe create the idea that she's bad, like they did with Carter, but honestly. Like Biden and gas prices, that's gone away. Trump was going to lower egg prices but he hasn't, and that's only a problem on the left, the right doesn't actually care. I want boring, sane government, not wildly radical right wing experimentation, massive cuts to government, to give the rich tax breaks. You're messing with the fabric of society.

Calling Trump gay for Putin might play well in some circles, but I'm not down with calling people gay as an insult. 

This Trumpcession isn't natural or growing pains, or something that will be easily reversed. 

Just because Europe is taking greater ownership of defending Ukraine, doesn't mean what Trump did was right about Ukraine, and aligning with Russia is weird. I don't care if Reagan is upset in his grave, he was a monster too. The spin from the 80's isn't solid ground for me. The right wing chooses their own narratives, they don't get it from our critiques. Understand political bias. 

Musk has substance abuse issues and autism. Maybe why he's so willingly able to harm people, but those conditions don't necessarily enable him, his money and our worship of money are enabling him. He has trillions to lose, he doesn't care. 

Vance and Trump haven't given Ukarine anything, indeed side with Russia, so why thank him? And there are videos of him thanking America multiple times, thanking the Americans who supported the defense of democracy over oligarchy and authoritarianism. 

Boycotts, ostracizing, woke and expertise are all capitalism and American. Tolerance has limits, just like free speech. Don't let the trolls get you confused. 

To me the ends never justify the means, the means are the ends. How you do things is really important. Therefore I'm not for the assassination of Trump, or violent protests. Destruction of property isn't that horrible when it's Elon's products, cutting into his profits, but honestly I don't think you have the right to destroy others property. You may feel desperate, that the times justify the means, but I think that's the far right's mistake, and I don't want to repeat that. 

Some hypocrisy is OK, I like to deadname twitter because Musk deadnames his own children. Anyway, it's like using the word kleenex, instead of tissue, the brand became the thing. Or xerox instead of copy. I don't capitalize because it's not a corporate logo, it's the common parlance, which is loose and not exact like print. 

Not a lot of silver linings when people are dying, but clarifying one's values is a silver lining. 

Revolutionary times

The first revolutionary group tends to fail and more realistic people take over.

If Trump wanted to be more successful he would phase things out, instead of creating all these obviously wrong crisis. He likes the lurid attention of being powerful enough to do obviously wrong things. He's impatient, prefers being a jerk to actually enacting policy because the policy is just to create groveling supplicants. He's clearly flagging, he looks exhausted, he knows his time is running out. 

If he had a shred of virtue, and wasn't an abysmal nihilistic monster, he could also pull off what he seems to want to do, but that's not his way of being. Just do what you want to do, with a gangster whiff and a grifter touch. Grab the federal government by the pussy. Break all the norms and rules, the gish gallop of crimes there's no time to enforce. Escalating, relentless, he's intimidated most to not hold him accountable. He's surrounded by ennablers with their own twisted motives, he's a magnet for antisocial types. 

People like burning it down theoretically, they're all for toddler destruction too. To me it seems like he doesn't want to succeed, he wants to be stopped. He has no core about right and wrong, he wants the world to stop him, he wants his daddy's attention, which he can't get because he's dead, so he just spreads the shit, make someone else clean it up. 

He's so twisted from a life not being held accountable, he just wants to touch a core of something that is real, he can't find anything real. He doesn't like his children, he isn't loved by his wife, genital pleasure can't be more than just temporary, as much as it's been his life focus. He's getting old and limp, he's trying not to be, he's trying to show he's virile. He's trying to show America he can get it up and up and up, he's insatiable for offending everyone, and yet some still pretend to love him, the Laura Loomer types. He's hustling, he's selling, he's making his moves. 

Imagine winning a Fulbright, and then Trump cutting off funds while you're over there. That's like one of a thousand douchey things he's done. They're rich because they imagine to steal and steal and steal, and say no no no. It's quite a crude existence. It's American Psycho. 

There's a lot of people who think Trump is more honest than Biden. They're wrong but they exist. They think it's worth it to "cut out government waste", meaning programs that keep people alive, and thriving, they want death and suffering like they feel inside. 

The people who cry to the camera, you've murdered him, you've murdered her, are seen as dramatic and lying, everyone lies, death is inevitable, turn their head, explain it away. 

He's trying to make people more desperate to work. To supplicate ourselves, we think we have to many rights. He wants America to get thirsty, and they're just getting less materialistic and angry, preparing the guillotines and for the upcoming revolution. 

Education

One of the problems in America is that educational districts are political entities within themselves, and create savage inequalities. The federal education department has grants and such to try and equalize things. If your goal is to increase the class differences, you get rid of the federal government department of education. If you're against the education that usually slants people leftward, you get rid of the department of education. 

Of all the dastardly things Trump is doing, this might be in the top ten, but there's lots of competition. Tanking the economy with trade wars, and mass governmental layoffs, to reduce taxes to the rich is pretty terrible. Another act that is designed to increase income disparity.

It's murderous to cut all these program to the poor and tank the economy. 

Education is the hope that we have that people would avoid choosing such a person for president. He sees synergy and wants to destroy it. Disrupting, chaos, it might not all be bad, but it feels bad to me. The department that is doing many of these cuts is so inefficient, corrupt and inept that they regularly make outlandish lies. 

The cultured ideals of liberalism are being demolished. The idea that we can help each other is being demolished. It's quite upsetting. 

Lying is the only way any of this gets done. 

A doorman who lives in my coop says he doesn't see any difference between Trump and Biden. He's the second guy to say that to me. I want to yell at him, he is the problem. But it's larger than that. 

I see a huge difference. 

There was a woman in the park who told me to ignore the seig heil. She feels the country is going in the right direction. She's a homeschooling catholic from Poland. 

James Marriott

“Our society has been peaceful and healthy for so long that for many people serious disaster has become inconceivable,” Marriott writes. “Americans who parade around in amateur militia groups and brandish Nazi symbols do so partly because they are unable to conceive of what life would actually be like in a fascist state.” Those who attack modern medicine cannot really comprehend a society without it. And, Marriott adds, those who are cheering the rise of autocracy in the United States “have no serious understanding of what it means to live under an autocratic government.”

(Heather Cox Richardson's substack.)

Marriott notes that five Texas counties that make up one of the least vaccinated areas in the U.S. are gripped by a measles outbreak that has infected at least 58 people and hospitalized 13. It may be, Marriot writes, that “[t]he paradise of fools is coming to an end.”

Sunday

Trump and Musk want a world where there's no government and you have to beg the oligarchy for any little crumb, and they can spend wildly on whatever they want. Suckers. 

With the states fighting against each other, state attorney generals are suing each other. 

Luckily some got a cease and desist order on Elon Musk. 

I am feeling a need to avoid politics lately, maybe I need a break from it all. They say it's OK to take breaks, there's a conscious overwhelming policy, that's why there's always blarney most days. If it were not so destructive and evil, I'd say it was creative.

Trump trying to erase slogans like "End Racism" at the Super Bowl, and diversity, equality and inclusion programs really means they work. 

I was trying to think of Trump is more like Darth Vader or Golem, and I remember that economic man, Quentin Compson, the second section in The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner: Drowned in the fading of honeysuckle.

Been feeling anger at all the people apathetic not to vote. Germany and France resoundingly reject far right wing autocrats and wannabe Nazis and America elected one. Just so obvious to me, we've been hoodwinked and people are dying, being deported, fired without cause or legally. It's a huge mess. And why? Greed. 

People just keep posting on social media, how is this happening? In shock. 

no longer authorized to conduct informal activities using government time, resources or facilities.

Protests at City Hall NYC February 2025

There's certainly a lot going on and pretending to be comprehensive isn't going to work. The hacking into payments at the source, even if it's read only, well, we just don't know what's going on, but it's quite possibly quite damaging. Cutting off payments to nursing homes, and all sorts of vital things is going to cause mass chaos and that's what it's about. 

Now Elon is playing the game of avoiding being served for all the lawsuits he's creating with his lawlessness. Just sidestepping the courts, sidestepping the legislature, that is a coup. I don't care if he's been empowered by Trump to hijack the federal government, or that the supreme court and legislature are republican, there is a rule of law, and he's breaking it. The Felon in Chief who isn't so hot on laws either, is cheering him on.

How does it happen that clubs are banned at West Point? Does Trump call up the president, and say well if you don't cancel these diversity affirming clubs I'm going to cut funding, I have Musk on the inside and he'll do it. Or does the president just get the vibes of what's going on and do it? 

Meanwhile shitty Google's links aren't working, you have to scroll down past the sponsored links, which seem to have expanded, and find a working link. 

Headline: West Point Disbands Clubs for Women and Minorities After Trump Orders NYTimes. Why is the president closing clubs? At a military college? Should be the only place he could do such a thing but why would he even care. I certainly care that he's closing them.

The message is both, you're not welcome here, and your experience doesn't matter. Like you can stop the black engineers from gathering together. 

The soccer guys down at the park don't really care, they're all hispanic and like Trump, and prefer to identify with the oppressor, and don't want to be told how to think.

"The memo said the directive canceled all trips, meetings, events and other activities associated with the clubs, which were no longer authorized to conduct informal activities using government time, resources or facilities." NYTimes

I mean it's not to hard to rename the club rock climbing or photography and still meet, except they're being trained to follow orders, and Trump doesn't like the military because it resists being his stooge. This is a revenge tour by a petty small minded harmful president. It's offensive on so many levels, which might be his plan to offend liberal sensibilities, the freedom to be who you are. Now cower to his greed. What does he stand for? He can't say white supremacy out loud, but that's his Hitler type message ultimately. And the mixed race guys playing soccer in the park love him, even though they're less under this system. I can't tell them as a white man who to vote for, that's more oppression, they're already voting for an oppressor without my educating them, thank you. They identify more with the strong man who smashes people, hopefully they're not caught under foot. 

Pretending that racism, sexism, classism doesn't exist, that doesn't erase it. Just compounds the problems that the clubs were working to redress. 

"end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government and supported by federal funds"

Trumps ultimate script flipping then goes on to say, "promising to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”"

This is why lying is so vital to Trump, because doing the opposite of what he says he's doing is the key to the art of the deal. 

Meanwhile the legal system is fighting out diversity programs, as in against affirmative action (NY Times). Total shitshow. I wouldn't be surprised if colored water fountains start showing up in federal buildings. 

All the NASA website posts trumpeting women have to be taken down. (gizmodo).

This is what you jerks voted for. And that is what the cheating felon president is doing.

Many conservatives applaud his works, meanwhile it's going to be too late to stop him later when these self interested types get trampled on in some way.

The Coup

I thought it was dramatic to call it a coup, but I see it now. Musk is circumventing too many rules. Check out HCR's letter to America:

"...the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change. But they are not doing that."

"Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes."

"The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical."

"...permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man."

Nation headline: Who Will Stop Elon Musk’s Coup?

Never forget he did the Nazi salute 2 times recently.

"“What is happening now is predictable,” Die Zeit said in its editorial. “Neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals can interpret the stretched right arm as a gesture of fraternization and empowerment.” NYT

The selling price for American government is 280 million, seems cheap. Wasn't even into Trump's pocket, it was just on his campaign.

Selling fear of chaos, president creates chaos. America have never been in more danger than in this moment.

Many news outlets are calling it a hack. It's a coup. (example, 

Guardian: Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of ‘a plutocratic coup’

I am very angry! Worst threat to American democracy in my lifetime. Today I am calling my legislative representatives, Schumer (202) 224-6542, Gillibrand (202) 224-4451 and Meng (202) 225-2601, to protest the coup. Websites aren't working but I figured it out with non-governmental websites.

All I can say is anytime a conservative starts to talk about security of state secrets, I'm going to ask them if they spoke out about Trump's boxes in his bathroom, and Musk accessing social security numbers even though he was not vetted. They keep crossing off items of their agenda through lack of integrity.

Links:

Atlantic on Archive: Elon Musk’s bureaucratic coup is underway.

Nation: Signs of a New Anti-Trump Opposition Amid Elon Musk’s Coup

Heather Cox Richardson YouTube. She points out the Coup was after 5PM on Friday, avoiding the media coverage. She says people keep their pensions when they resign instead of being fired, that's why people are resigning instead of fighting things more. Musk's philosophy is break everything and then if it was really necessary, they can add it back. He says he's doing things, never really sure if they're really doing things. She says the Republicans in congress can stop this, but not for much longer. Democrats are screaming from the rooftops. Republicans stopped Nixon. Will they stop this time? Stepping past the congress and courts sets up a dictatorship. There's a blizzard of lawsuits. Normally when people are breaking the law, they try to stay within the law, it's harder to understand how to attack back when people completely disregard the law. People don't know how to respond. How do we proceed? This GOP isn't popular, and since then they stay in power by suppressing the vote, gerrymandering, and overspending from corporations, the media follows. That Trump can't really talk isn't being covered the way Biden limped after he broke his foot. We got to the place we are now because Republicans control president, legislature, and supreme court. They don't even have the notes in congress, so they're not going to do it with legislature. They're not acting to stop him. Without laws, we're in authoritarianism. 

They want to get rid of federal education. That would get rid of money for disabilities and poor schools. Nursing homes. If you shut down a nursing home, it's really bad news for the people who live there, the people who work there. It's the ultimate destruction of the liberal consensus to use tax dollars to create a structure, a safety net. That's not going to turn out well for America. This isn't a private company like Twitter, this is a country. There's going to be some real problems. The hardships are going to be extraordinary, and it takes down the whole system. They want to destroy everything and helpless, and divided. They'll sell the parts. You voted to take the car to the mechanic, and you come back and it's been stripped and sold, they kept the money and we should thank them for it. 

What to do: Musk is not elected. He threatens to fund opponents in the legislature, and he doesn't need them any more by side stepping them. The republicans need to wake up. 332 million Americans against one. The question isn't whether you're left or right, the question is how do we stop this? Gizmocrats. They can stop any payments they want to from the government. Why would you trust them? It's chaos.

How did America mobilize the people in their own interest without the constitution (which they're sidestepping). Government needs popular buy in. He keeps saying he had a landslide, had a huge inauguration and sidestepped that last time. In this moment our voice needs to be heard.

The switchboards went down in Washington yesterday, so many people were calling.

The democrats are doing the best they can but they're not in power. People yell at the democrats, even Heather Cox Richardson doesn't do anything. Yell at the arsonists setting things on fire, not the firemen. 

You can even go to your bank and ask how you're protecting their information, the treasury has been breached. 

No violence, that always changes the narrative.

Putting money into programs that undercut ISIS, for less than 1% of the budget, is acting in our own best interest. 

Help people see how white people or their tribe is being hurt. They point out one tiny piece of this obscure grant. They're trying to cut nursing homes. Transportation. It's endless, you're about to see what happens with a really terrible run government. 

Throwing up your hands won't do. This is the worst moment in American history in many people's lives. The future is unwritten, we can maybe make this not be so bad.

In other news:

Timeline of crash

January 20: FAA director fired

January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen

January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded

January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees

January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

January 30: Whitehouse addresses the nation. Donald Trump blames DEI, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama for the tragic accident.

Pete Buttigieg: "Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. 

President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

I’ve been thinking that everyone has two people inside them. One is liberal and one is conservative. What our politics is the one we let out. If you let out the liberal, the caring, then you want to try and do things with the government. If you let the conservative out, you don’t want government, you see it’s influence as negative. 

Libertarians can say they’re liberal, like Chomsky, but it’s a fundamental move to hate government from a conservative perspective. 

You can be a liberal and see unintended consequences of government, and missteps. 

You can be a conservative and want roads and garbage taken away, collectively, for the general good.

We are large, we contain the multitudes.

I think about how upset I am during this time, and I’m going to imagine conservatives who feel that way even though we’ve only had centrist democrats. I think Clinton was a DINO. We need left leaning people infiltrate the republicans and then switch sides when they get in office, like the Republicans are doing.

I think things in politics used to be about limiting action versus greater action, but the current regime is all about putting on an elaborate song and dance for the revival and snake oil. America has become a parody of itself. 

Gish gallop

Seems like Trump is cutting off all government money, and whatever he lets come back, they’ll be relieved, when really he’s just an asshole the whole time. 

Meanwhile he’s trying to sneak through a federal abortion ban. It’s a gish gallop. 

Lefties joke about him playing golf, but I’d like him to take days off from this chaos making. He’s got his minions working anyway.

We've progressed even though we’re going through a fucktastrophy

Few steps forward, a few steps back. 

It's 2025, and in 1954, 71 years ago, Betty White's show was canceled for having black people on it (Wikipedia)(Watch segment). We're bound to take steps back, like maybe for the next 4 years. Trump has taken things away, like the Anti-discrimination act of 1965, and such things. We'll see what pops back right away after he's going. He's talking about trying to erase the 2 term limit, but we'll cross that road if it happens. I'm going to have to assume that they can't get that done. I assumed Trump couldn't win, but he did, and maybe it's good not to close your eyes to prepare for reality, but I think I have to just for sanity sake. 

People who performed at the Inauguration in 2025: Carrie Underwood, Snoop Dogg, Jewel. Jewel apologized for playing at an after party for RFK, she said she just wanted to advocate for mental health (VF).

I'm thinking Trump is every asshole rolled up into one. All the negative traits. All the asshole bosses you've ever had. All the rapey guys you've ever met. All the rich assholes you've ever met. Not a sports jerk, not an intellectual jerk though, so maybe not all, just most of them. 

Trump is talking about doing away with FEMA. He dropped the 1965 discrimination act. Seems like he's kind of tinkering with things quite a bit. He's messing with the fabric. The defense cabinet guy is a rapey alcoholic with fascist tattoos, with no experience, sounds about right. I'm counting on the military giving pushback. The footage of ICE raids are chilling. No more warning about bird flu, only farms with ducks on Long Island quietly killing all their birds because of the bird flu. Bezos, Zuck quiety comply, taking down discrimination writing on their websites. Female cleric stands up to him though. Newsom gets his photo op pointing at Trump, telling him what's what. 

When you look at the videos of Musk acting weird, perhaps high, wobbling his eyes around , and then giving a Nazi salute, you think he's taken a page from the Trump playbook where you don't some stupid shit to attract attention to yourself, and even the left wing spreads it about, with disapproval, sure, but still you're everywhere, saturating the imaginations, negatively to the people you don't like, and geeze whiz isn't he a funny one to the people who do like you, which must be shrinking, but some people think money equals good, so he must be the most good. 

Distraction, distraction, distraction. When you don't like government, want smaller government, the style now is to just put on a dope show to distract from the poor governance, and lowering the bar. I see you. People who dislike government feel that way so strongly, they'll take these clowns over what they consider worse, and that's the liberal vision. I can empathise with the conservative vision, I even like it sometimes when it's not enabling clowns. The culture war for me is clowns versus good governance, and that's no disrespect to clowns, who I'm just using as a metaphor, not speaking literally. At least clowns entertain, these guys are the opposite of entertainment. 

Letting the criminal J6 people out might seem trivial, but to me it's horrible, very upsetting. The only principle is loyalty to the Commander in thief. 

They have taken down the Spanish part of the White House website, and many of the rights pages. They really simplify everything. The government is just about Trump grifting, not serving the people. 

Looks like France might seize Musk's assets, jail him (twitter). Who knows if this is real, I haven't seen it in the press. 

Reddit has many subreddits have banned X links. 

MLK

They were talking about MLK Day in 1968 after he was assassinated, but they didn't get it done until 1986, almost 20 years later. That kind of shows you how slow society changes and getting things done.

I still have a dream. 

We live in a country that seems to be fractured into radical conservative visions and the liberal order that was established. The yin and yang of America is to think about others and make a world of equality with justice, and just dropping all that and, whatever, just dropping that. 

I think I took women's rights to abortion for granted, I thought Roe v Wade enshrined that, but they found a way around it, put it back on the states, and conservative states outlawed abortion. Poor women who wants abortions because they can't really afford a child, don't have the money to travel out of state, so that's a barrier, but that's enough they're talking about setting up checkpoints to make sure pregnant woman are not going to leave the state to get an abortion. It has led to terrible cases where women carried babies to term that they knew were going to die, and a few women have died from this excess of zeal not to have abortions.

Look at the photo of Gerry Santoro who dies from a botched illegal abortion in 1964.

Crime going down was one of the consequences of abortion being legal. Now that's not an argument for it, but you could look at this issue from all the angles and think about. People die in many ways, and if you're really pro-life, and not just pro-birth for poor women, then you'll see it's complicated. 

That's just one right that has eroded over the years, and perhaps it's because a significant segment of the population feels strongly about this issue. My ex-friend who voted for Trump said he just didn't want to pay for it, like you could pick and choose the things you pay for in society.

I had a logic professor that withheld the percentage of his taxes that went to the defense budget because he was pacifist and he didn't want to support war. 

The USA budget expands and contracts with left and right, but the right drives up the debt and the left pays it off, so in the end the right ends up spending money. They don't mind spending money on defense, which is rife with corruption and problems. It's a messy system.

I digress. I was trying to say in America we don't really have that feeling I used to feel when MLK day came around, that I was proud of our nation, this year it feels like we live in a deeply divided nation. The people who profit from dividing our nation have succeeded: Foreign countries, etc. 

Can't believe people make money writing about politics, because mostly people just hate politics, and avoid it. 

Realize this blog is just an expression vehicle because nobody wants to talk politics, and it's actually quite a big part of the problem, and we're about to enter a period where the left wing is going to be howling about all sorts of wrecking up and enshitification by the idiocracy. 

It's quite boring seeing the same memes over and over on Bluesky. Yes, air force one can be renamed con air. You get the sense that Trump does it all for the trappings. Nothing ever works but actually the government plane works for the right wing tinpot authoritarian 

I didn't go to the People's March, and it turned out to be a lucky thing because there was a crisis I was needed for. 

But before then I felt so guilty about not wanting to go alone, and not finding anyone to go with me. 

I also think about French Dispatch (2021), where the student is always protesting part. I love Wes Anderson, and I'm about to have a Wes Anderson marathon.

I took Tik Tok off my phone because it's Chinese, and I love the Chinese people and history, but i don't trust their government. Plus Insta, FB and YouTube have short videos, and I generally don't look at those anyway. My daughter likes it, maybe I should put Rednote on my phone.

Two arguments go in different ways. One says this is cutting off our freedom. Another says we're protecting ourselves from Chinese manipulation, but the China government can manipulate us from the other apps too, I suspect every dastardly country should have a kind of social media spin division. In the end it's protectionism for Zuckerberg, which is funny, he donated all that money to Trump and Trump is saying he's going to executive order it back, somehow, specifics to come later. If Biden signed it into law, it's law. But perhaps he can finesse the legislators to write a new law. Him wanting to do that makes me think China gave him money or will grant him some hotel concession or whatever that can complete the grift, government by highest bidder. I'd love to see an actual bidding war for Trump's policy. 

One thing you can be sure of that the Cacocracy is working it's magic of enshitification. 

AOC voted against it because they didn't make the case, no evidence of the actual problem.

Others are saying it's manufactured, it's banned, and Trump is going to rescue it. 

I love it that China and Russia have a clear favorite candidate for USA and we voted for him.

My pet peeve about my daughter's school is that it's not whole language hippy dippy learn to read when you're ready stuff, it's drill baby drill, North Korea, full on all the time. 

I'm wondering if my Taoism undercurrent, thinking things should be natural, is part of why I hate it, and find it unnatural. They would claim it works on a few kids, so it's worth it, but the consequence to the rest worries me, and the best kids who it works on would figure out how to learn anyway too probably, and can ramp it up later if they want. Not in 3rd grade. 

thoughts today

Three thoughts today and a list.

The first one is that I actually think cults are pretty cool. I’m not saying death cults or exploitation cults but the cult of loving your spiritual tradition, is is kind of devotion to me. Devotion is good so I don’t really I’m not really into Saying that Trump‘s cult has put down

Every little resistance and hatred of the opposition is being filed in my head is something that potentially a conservative or a right wing person would feel when there is a left-wing or in office. I don't think there's an equivalency, Trump is an outlier, I'm thinking Reagan, Bush, Bush, Clinton conservatives, not Trump. 

I’m really tired of “this might” happen. There’s so much sort of culture war trying to create space BS so this might happen that might happen. This might happen, that might happen. I’m getting really sick of it. I just really wanna hear what has been accomplished, blocked, or rammed through despite the people's wishes. How misinformation has been fought.

How the American systems failed us: 

The supreme court overruled Colorado taking Trump off the ballot. States were not allowed to take him off the ballot. Colorado didn't vote for him anyway. Maybe only states that are controlled by Democrats would have taken him off the ballot and he would have remained on the states he won anyway. 

Education: People allowed manipulation of information to take root in their minds. People imagined Trump was worthy of being president, didn't introspect enough to see how they were just bored and wanted to wreck up the place some.

Attorney General: Dropped the ball obviously. Merrick Garland is synonymous with shitty attorney generals who couldn't get it done.

Spiritual communities: We haven't educated our communities enough to avoid this outcome.

Citizenship: People imagined him to be worth voting for, the American people didn't provide the fail safe.

"A federal judge (and Smith) only agreed to dismiss the case because Trump won the election in November and prosecutions against sitting presidents are against long-standing Justice Department policy." Huffpo

Basically he ran to avoid prosecution, and America didn't notice or care enough.