Oh I Get It, the President is a Pervert as Well as a Rapist

As we all know, Global Wahrman is censored by some right wing internet keeper of morality.  Can you imagine how its little algorithmic mind will explode with the next little tidbit of a post?

Because  the evidence is clear.  The rapist pig who is the president also associated with a known pedophile and there is reasonable evidence that he is a pedophile himself.   America will always live with this shame.  This is what the conservatives & republicans have done to our Republic.

Trump the pedophile.

Special Thanks to my Fellow Americans

Exactly as predicted, Trump and friends are attempting to destroy American democracy and doing a good job of it.  Apparently all that self-serving rot about checks & balances was all "just kidding". In the history of the world, short of a major war, there has rarely been a national decline so precipitous and self-inflicted.  

We can be proud of failing better than anyone else.  But we could not have done it without the people who voted that idiot into office. 

The Moron King, Trump and the Republicans, were completely clear that they planned to destroy voting rights, betray our allies, destroy the world order created after WW2,  destroy the economy,  condemn millions of people to death and disease, oppress women, and turn America into a white theocracy.  You would either have to be stupid not to have known this or, alternatively, wanted it because you thought it was neat.

Winning a tiny share of the popular vote is not the same as a mandate and furthermore, even if it was, the President took an oath of office and is expected to obey the law and support the constitution.

America will have been diminished thanks to you wankers.  

Good job!

Let Us Embrace National Decline

The failure of democracy and speedy national decline of the American republic is a useful and perhaps necessary counter to the astonishing hubris and self congratulatory nature of our various elites.  It could not have happened without the arrogance and stupidity of so many people here from the rather blatant self-interest and treason of the Republicans to the weakness of the Democrats and their unwillingness to stand on principle to the obvious corruption of the judiciary (looking at you Justice Cannon, Alito & Roberts).

On the bright side, we should applaud the tremendous and world historical rate of decline of a formerly great country now destroyed.  Lets embrace our failure and look forward to the day when we can benefit from the tourists coming to witness the ruins.  Americans will rise to this challenge and be sure to greet these onlookers with souvenirs made in China.

As America Declines into Self-Parody (10/26/2022)

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As the American Empire or Republic or Whatever-It-Is continues to self-destruct before entering its full-fascist period, we are required to watch one ridiculous self own after another.  Its sad to see a formerly great nation, perhaps, or at least one with some self-respect collapse into farce but here we are. Please forgive this brief narration as frankly I find the whole situation tiresome and there are others out there perfectly capable of writing about the situation, and a few of them do.  I write this post more as a form of diary.  These are the events that pollute my life and humiliate my country before the world.  

 

First, at a time when the Supreme Court is making itself illegitimate, we have our old buddy Clarence Thomas give Sen Lindsey Graham a pass.  Lindsey doesnt have to face a grand jury to testify and no doubt perjure himself because Clarence gives him a pass until after the midterms, at least.  This is the same Clarence Thomas who should recuse himself from anything related to the attempts to overthrow the US Government, an activity that his wife is well known to have participated in.  Now tell me the Supreme Court has any legitimacy, I dare you.  Their illegitimacy is so flagrant as to be insulting.

 

This on top of the Trump loose-Cannon and her "special master" makes the whole justice system seem a joke.  [As some wit put it, if you want to use the term "special master" it should be at a BDSM party.]  If you want us, or some of us, to respect the judiciary and its decisions then you have to do something to mitigate the damage that Cannon and Thomas and Alito and Gorsuch and Barret and Kavanaugh do in plain sight.  Tell us your plan.  Oh, you dont have one.  I see, thats clear. 

 

As we blunder into the midterms where is the DOJ in the effort to make the midterms a legitimate exercise in democracy, the free exercise of the franchise?  Nowhere to be found.  Vigilantes in Arizona and Republicans in state after state are working to restrict the vote and intimidate voters.  Many of those to-be-elected are so insane as to believe that their leader, the traitor who stole classified documents and got caught at it, was elected in 2020.  Guess what, he wasnt.  

 

Where are we in getting rid of the Electoral College, that fatal compromise from 250 years ago?  Our leaders are nowhere to be found. Nowhere.  Nothing.  Here we have an unstable situation where a minority can seize the presidency against the will of the people again, and force someone, maybe even Trump, on a defeated former Democracy, if that is what we were, and there is no serious effort to fix it.

 

And while the DOJ fiddles, they manage to arrest some Chinese spies, which is nice, I guess, but how about putting Trump and his minions in jail.  Nope, nothing.  

 

Totally impotent.  A complete failure.

 

This country is pathetic.

 

[And so, Boingo, if this is what you call hate speech and therefore censor me because I express my opinion, then so be it.  I dont think it is hate speech.  I think it is the honest expression of an informed citizen about the most important events in my lifetime, the collapse of the American Republic.  Golly, I guess you dont approve. ]

The Door to Hell Will be Opened

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They say that anticipation is the very heart of suspense.  First the author signals that something horrible is going to happen but then he or she makes us wait.  Wait until the teenager goes into the basement.  No!  Dont go into the basement!  Wait while the teenager considers the Door to Hell.  Wait while the idiot opens the Door to Hell.  But it is too late, at this point it is foretold, and the door to hell is going to be opened.  You can not stop the door to hell from being opened.   Things have gone too far. 

And so my fellow democrats and so called progressives, I am here to tell you that it is too late, it has been foretold and the time to act has come and gone.  The "50 Year Reich" will now begin.  The door to hell will be opened.  We could have stopped this particular hell, perhaps, if our leaders had led and the people had wanted to take action. But they didnt.    Too much trouble I guess.  Didnt want to be bothered, I guess.  Hail Victory!

It irritates me that time after time over the last 20 years or so, our elites and elected representatives denied reality and refused to do anything about the rather obvious process going on, and recounting all the ways is just too tiresome for me. 

But briefly, and just recounting a few recent events and then looking forward.  The Justice Department has refused to hold Trump and his goons accountable.  The supreme court has destroyed the voting rights act.  Republicans have destroyed fair elections in the states they control.  That means that the Republicans will win the senate and the house back in the midterms no matter how the people vote.  That means that the electoral college, which is dependent on elections in states in a winner-take-all fashion,  will install a Republican as president no matter who actually wins the election.  That means that the supreme court will continue to be twisted by the Republicans.  Repeat.

So its over. 

 

So much for trying to work with the Republicans, eh?

 

 

Indicators of the Inevitable Collapse

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You may wish to read this post about assumptions.  See  http://globalwahrman.blogspot.com/2021/05/assumptions-are-mother-of-all-fuckup.html

In the last 3-6 months I have gone from cautious optimism to genuine pessimism. I needed to see how Biden worked out, and of course that is better than expected. But there are other "indicators" to use a phrase from nuclear deterrence that are really not good. I use "indicator" in the sense of something like "N Korea is attacking us again verbally, but they are not on alert, they are not on maneuvers, and they have not started shelling the DMZ, they are probably not going to attack us this week". 

But the indicators I see are more like this, "The Republicans really do capture about 45 percent of the vote, sometimes more, sometimes less, even without voter suppression. Furthermore, those voters really are 75% or so supportive of Trump which is astonishing and very troubling. And although there are variations in that support and the reasons for it, those reasons include such things as living in a delusional world about very important topics (note, not merely uncaring or indifferent, but genuinely delusional and with strong opinions) and supportive of policies that are really bad, really dangerous, and they dont mind, in fact, they insist on it. "  Another reason why Trump has such strong support is that he is overtly and unambiguously racist and they like that.  A third reason is that most of his supporters are anti-science and are perfectly happy to believe whatever garbage they are fed by the right wing press.  Or for example, "Republicans have no trouble setting up barriers to voting for people of color, and people who are working class, and people who are financially disadvantaged or disabled. In fact, they are determined to do this, period, in any state they control, and that means since the elections are usually close that they will win those elections, continue control of the statehouses, regain control of the houses of congress, and probably elect a president over the will of the people." Or, "Biden has no chance of passing any bill through the senate as long as the filibuster exists. Every bill will be blocked. That is what McConnell says he will do, and that is what they have done and will do. Nothing short of a miracle will change that. If we lose the senate, even nominations for important posts wont be approved." Or "I watched Republican Congressman and Senators violate the law in egregious ways that damaged our national security, and they were not punished. See the incidents involving outing the whistleblowers. This means our government is impotent, and can not even enforce the most important and most serious of laws, and that elected congressmen are willing and determined to damage our country to achieve their goals of power".

If we really controlled the senate, then this would be different, perhaps, but we dont. We will lose the next election because the election will be stolen. Another 4 year period or 2 year period where the Republicans can do what they like will complete the destruction of the country for a minimum of 30 years, or longer.

Assumptions Are the Mother of All Fuckups

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These problems of "decline and fall" are too big to reduce to emails, because a complete discussion of any topic would be exhausting to write and tiresome to read. My doom and gloom has some unstated assumptions that might make the conclusions seem more reasonable or at least understandable.

First, we are always talking about probabilities not certainties. But that is very important for planning because a 10% chance of destroying the world is something to pay attention to even if it doesnt happen. Second, all models are wrong but some models are useful. Third, the notion of "enlightened self interest" and the "rational actor" theories of economic and political decision making does not have a great track record. Therefore arguments based on these assumptions do not have a lot of credibility with me unless substantiated by other data. Fourth, in the debate between the "conspiracy" vs "screw up" explanations of events its important to remember that the correct answer is usually "both". Fifth, although both people and organizations can change, in general they dont, and past behavior can usefully be used to predict the immediate and distant future of behavior. This can be stated biblically "As it is at the beginning, so it is at the end". Sixth, trust must be earned, and the higher the stakes, the more it must be earned or controlled for. Seventh, I expect to be able to learn from my mistakes. Eighth, with great power comes great responsibility but there is a reason for this, and that is because you really can make things better or worse in many (but not all) cases. Ninth, the past isnt over, it isnt even past yet. Tenth, every great power has declined but stupidity can always make things worse.
 

These assumptions, when applied to the last 20 years, leads to some predictions and they are not good.

The Gun Nuts Shall Prevail, Oh Yes

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I can just hear the morons, the Republicans, say "Now is not the time to discuss gun restrictions" and all the nuts screaming "2nd Amendment!!!" How long will we permit Americans to be murdered by the gun nuts? This is America, a failed state, where democracy is destroyed and where the Republicans advocate the violent overthrow of the government, so we may never have elementary gun laws. Too bad. 

There is No Going Back

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There is no going back. You cant just "fix it". The dead people are dead and the alliances are damaged and we look like fools to the world because we are. And never again do we get to brag about democracy or the american constitution. It failed utterly, publically and completely. The Electoral College, the failure of the Republicans to do their constitutional duty, the institutional racism, the trillion dollar tax cut money giveaway to the rich, the Russian active measures against democracy with Republican support, the packing of our judiciary with right wing nuts. Its a disgrace, its a train wreck, we may be something different, maybe even better, but this is a transformative clusterf*ck and there is no going back although lots of people will stick their head in the sand and say "hey its all fixed now! See! Joe Biden!"

Our Future Civil War with the Right

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Apparently it is commonly believed in right wing circles, or some of them, that a civil war is likely in this country as the "Left" attempts to destroy the Trump presidency.  I know this only because I keep seeing references to this meme when I check out various forums, blogs, news aggregators and because of opinions expressed on Facebook.

What they believe seems to be remarkably uniform given the random-ass nature of my exposure to them.  They all seem to believe that (a) the left is going to become irrational and violent, (b) the poor well meaning right wing is going to have to defend themselves and American values and (c) without doubt the right will crush the violent and irrational left in that war (in other words, the Left will all be shot or beaten to death).

Whether or not you or I believe them is probably not germane, we should certainly take them seriously. We all should know by now that the right wing has been corrupted by false news and bizarre beliefs and they could well act on their beliefs.

So it seems logical to me that we should all learn to use the standard weapons in order to defend ourselves. You know, handguns, rifles, rocket propelled grenades, mortars, radios, armored vehicles, basic small unit tactics in urban settings, stockpile weapons, that sort of thing.

But my friends tell me that this is old fashioned thinking and that none of this will be important in a future civil war, because, well, they are so old fashioned. My friends do agree that the Right is likely to become violent, and that civil war is possible, but that there is nothing to worry about.

I think my friends are too smart for their own good and are somewhat delusional.

In a future post I will describe some things I think we should be doing to prepare for this eventuality, which I think has a non-trivial probability of happening.

Trump Demands Warm UK Welcome

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I find it impossible to work with Trump as president. I can not keep myself from glancing at the world news and everytime I do, I am humiliated and offended. It is beyond my capability to function, to solve the problems of my life while my country goes down the gutter into the sewage of this moron's brain and, let us not forget, his Republican and Democratic enablers.

Even worse, because this stupid moron has “owned” some basic issues, such as anti-globallization that means that not even competent and compasionate politicians who wanted to deal with this issue can not. Of course I am not sure that there are any competent and compassionate politicians but if there were they would not be able to.

But OK, so now what do we have today. Why we have the report that Trump has demanded that Teresa May “fix” any UK visit so that Trump gets a big old hearty we love you welcome or we wont show up. Well, golly, Trump baby, maybe that means you need to stop being such a stupid asshole, what do you think?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/donald-trump-us-president-state-visit-uk-theresa-may-prime-minister-fixes-warm-welcome-a7843391.html

My Response to the Georgia Special Election of June 20, 2017

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The districts we have lost in special elections were always going to be long shots. But I think that the Republicans are correct to feel that they have been somewhat vindicated. Yes, they lost 20 points or so in Georgia and yes that district should not have been even close, but they did win.

Five months into the greatest disaster this country has faced since the War Between the States, and our suburban Southern friends have sent a clear message.

And the message is: racism was OK with them, we need to make sure that local police forces can control minority groups (who arent really Americans anyway), environmental concerns hurt jobs, public schools need to be defunded, the Russians are our friends whose attacks against Hillary was no big deal and gross incompetence at the top is what this country needs.

We need to murder poor women, build oil pipelines through wilderness areas (which always leak, but thats OK, I mean who the f*ck cares?), defund solar energy, defund scientists who dont do what we say, impose the harshest penalties on poor people who step out of line, and always give special tax breaks to the rich.

Trump has had significant successes. Who could not but stand up and cheer when the first thing that Gorsuch did on the Supreme Court was to go out of his way and murder a black man? Take out the revolver, put it to that black man's head and say “we don't know if you are guilty or not, but we are going to shoot you here, I am going to shoot you here because you are poor and black and that is what America stands for. “ And then Gorsuch pulled the trigger.

I don't think that they are lying to us. I think that they are sincerely interested in destroying this country. The Republicans can be proud.

The mayor of New Orleans wrote an incredibly stupid piece about the statues of Confederate leaders a month or so ago. He made claims about why destroying history was the right thing to do. It was a very Stalinist claim about who was “on the right side of history”.

So I ask my fellow Democrats, who is on the right side of history today?

The Central Dilemma Theorem

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I am so upset by the recent events in America (Trump, Gorsuch, Russian intelligence operations, the Republican congress that betrays us every day) that I cant even write my blog. Because what I want to write about I am not particularly qualified to write about excepting of course that I am an American citizen. Nevertheless, it is all I want to write about today.

 Never before has my powerlessness in life, my inability to influence my environment,  my complete non-existence to those in power ever been a problem.  But in this current situation here seems to be nothing anyone can do, and the system has clearly failed.

The good news is that it makes it much easier to relate to periods of history that I study (I mean why not, what else do I have to do) and how people must have felt when their nations (and the predecessors to nations) seemed to be coming apart before their eyes.

Like someone in Britain in WW 1, like a Jew in Nazi Germany, or a Russian in 1917, don't people understand what is going on? Why dont they see the terrible cost that their inaction is imposing on us. Some of them are idiots, some of them are selfish, some are self-deluded. They think they can do whatever they want and do not realize that some mistakes can not be recovered from.

Do they think we are just not going to insist on the tax returns being released?  Do they think they can stall us from making them appoint a special prosecutor?  Do they think we will not be able to impeach Gorsuch the way they destroyed the system to "approve" him?  Do they think we will not get to the bottom of the Russian Information Operation?  

Who are these people who call themselves Americans?  

Feminism and the Wonder Woman Armpit Issue

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A great moment in cinematic history and criticism is taking place. This moment demonstrates the stupidity and the shallowness of the American civilization in all its glory.

In the middle of our little consitutional crisis, when the lives of millions, possibly hundreds of millions, of people in the world is at stake, with the end of the American republic all but certain, the failure of our elected representatives and governmental insitutions there for all to see, what do these shallow children worry about? What is at the very top of their list of things to complain about? What could motivate them to outrage?

Is it the destruction of the National Endowment for the Arts? No. Is it that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency has disavowed science? No. Is it the defunding of Planned Parenthood that is likely to result in the death of or the destruction of the life of thousands of poor women? No.

What then?

It is the burning question about whether or not Wonder Woman shaves her armpits in the third trailer for the Wonder Woman movie coming out in a few months. Were her armpits shaved in Photoshop, they wonder.

Perhaps the right is correct and we are raising a generation of stupid and shallow snowflakes after all. No one who lived through the 70s Feminist movement could help but shudder at this throwback to an earlier period of American radicalism.

I only hope that Wonder Woman's girdle squeezes these children until their heads pop with shame.

You may see this trailer here.

For a previous discussion of the Feminist issue of shaving, please see here.

The Day After Disaster

As I madly dress for the San Marcos Women's March, I want to review for you another inaugural address, none other than that most hated liberal elitist of them all, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Oh the flames of protest! Not that horrible person. Yes, that very same horrible person. Rich kid, swore like a sailor, abandoned his men on an island to swim for help (some say). Here is what he said on his inauguration:

Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’ – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Clearly this is inadequate. What would that master of all that is right and decent, Donald Trump, tell us? Well, of course, he would attack his enemies. And he would play to his base.

For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

What is funny about this, from my point of view, is that even when I agree with Donald, I disagree with him. I generally think that some of this is correct.  That Washington did pursue a neoliberal economic policy that hurt millions and millions of Americans whose struggle and complaints were ignored. But that is not what I would put in my inauguration speech. There is a way to say this, even (some of) these exact words, and spin it in a new way forward. This is not a campaign speech, you idiot, I want to say, this is your inauguration speech. You won (well, sortof). Its a speech that is supposed to show us the way forward, the way for all of us forward.

And one more time, Donald, you failed. This is just the beginning of your failures, I think.

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An afterthought. I want to thank all the idiots who disgraced America with this narcissistic swine. Just to let you know how much you are hated. And you are truly hated.