Asleep at the Wheel

 Ever had a toddler who anticipates their big birthday party, and all the pre-birthday excitement becomes too much, causing them to crash during the party?  Perhaps they fall asleep during the special movie they've wanted to see for so long.

Well, we have a President who has been napping in the middle of events more and more often. It's all become a bit too much for our 79-year-old leader.  

I guess the military parade was not what he imagined in his head.  Crowds were sparse, performances were lackluster; even those government officials who felt their attendance was mandatory seemed bored and disinterested.  This was just something they had to get through to please the boss.

His behavior since the parade has been atrocious.  He refused to call Governor Tim Walz to offer condolences for the targeted assassination there of Democratic Minnesota legislators, and made clear his partisan disdain for Walz.  His brief day at the G7 summit was filled with ridiculous misinformation, and most of the other leaders treated him as senile Grandpa at the Senior Home.  

He left the G7 summit that evening, claiming he had to get back to do something in connection with the Israel-Iran situation. Many thought that this meant America was about to enter the conflict, and some vital decisions had to be made.  It turns out that it was just an excuse to leave the conference early. 

He announced via social media that he planned to target Democratic cities for ICE, the National Guard, and the military to harass.  It's hard to say what the point is.  Does he think he can topple, coup-like, Democratic voting results?  Or is this just nasty, authoritarian-style revenge?  

It's hard to say what the orange conman really intends with Iran.  Are we only supplying weapons?  Will service members get involved?  Air Force?  Drones? Ground troops? Israel and the US are playing a dangerous game, one that could easily lead to WW3.

The President is unraveling, and we still have three and a half more years to go.

There is no easy way through this.  If TACO were gone (out of office, for whatever reason), there would be no prizes in the Crackerjack box.  The uncharismatic JD Vance is nothing more than a vessel for the billionaire tech bros, especially Vance's mentor, Peter Thiel. Trump only believes in himself, the billionaire bros actively hate democracy, and want to lead us into a place of technoauthoritarianism, a pseudo-libertarianism that primarily benefits the super-wealthy class.  Next in line is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a devout Christian Nationalist who would replace democracy with theocracy.

Our only hope is that the midterms are honestly conducted, and that the opposition wins a majority in the House and the Senate. That's no guarantee of stopping a fascist lunatic who doesn't listen to any power source except his own executive actions, but it's a start.

But we have so much time for things to go terribly wrong.  Every day, the world becomes more unravelled.

Trump's strength comes from his voting base.  That strain of right-wing nuttery that's always been a part of politics, but hasn't always been our dominant thread. Until that hold breaks, we are in for a very rocky ride.

Help me feel better about America.  If you voted for Trump, particularly in 2024, and you have finally seen the light, please let me know.  Give me some hope in this frightening alternate reality we've stumbled into.

Don't stay asleep at the wheel.  Wake up and help us bring an end to this nightmare.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Sorry, MAGA! Everything You Thought Was Wrong

 

You thought you were electing Donald Trump President of the United States.

Surprise!

Instead, you got a foreign-born billionaire, one whose very citizenship is questionable, controlling what gets funded and what doesn't, using a small squad of barely adult hackers to break into secure systems and pillage all our data. And you were worried about unelected bureaucrats? HA!

Nothing he is doing is to combat fraud and abuse. Like  Trump, all Musk is doing is petty grievances. FAA had fined Space X for safety violations! FIRE HIM! Fire all those in aviation safety!  Offer buyouts to stressed, overworked air traffic controllers. If planes collide and go down, who cares.

USAID dared to investigate some of his StarLink sales to Russia?  Destroy their agency!  If people in other countries starve because of it, or farmers lose some $2 billion in sales, so what?  LET THEM STARVE!

You thought Trump was going to root out corruption.

In addition to the actions of President Musk, Trump has eliminated all the inspector generals who monitor such things, leaving us more open to government corruption.  He's fired other government-efficiency people. He is determined to weed out people from the Federal government not to save money but to replace them with people loyal to him over the Constitution.

Private corruption will soar now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our only protection against bank and corporate overcharges, has been dismantled and kneecapped. Executive orders have eliminated many climate change regulations and others designed to protect us from corporate greed.  

Think that's a good thing?  You may be less enthused when you get tainted meat, when you find your workplace unsafe (they want to eliminate OSHA), when you find there is an outbreak you can't get information about because the CDC and NIH have been censored and we have left the WHO, when you no longer get weather notification because the National Weather Service and NOAA have been destroyed.

You thought he would mass deport all those undocumented aliens you rail against.

So far, even with all the noise and thunder, the rate of actual deportations is not much different from what it was under Biden.

But have no fear!  He still may pull ahead.  Of course, the economic consequences of this will be catastrophic.  But do not despair!  Those jobs may be replaced by PRISON LABOR.  Some may come from the undocumented held in concentration camps.

Isn't that a pretty picture for the United States?

You thought he was going to lower prices, specifically mentioning eggs and gas.

Psych!

Fooled you, didn't he?

You can't entirely blame the President.  Economic events are not always under their control.   I mean,  you sure cut Biden some slack for the Pandemic-caused global inflation that he got under control quicker than virtually every other country on Earth, didn't you?  No, things weren't perfect. However, the fact remains that Biden generated the best economy in decades.

Trump promised he would lower prices from day one.  When he was elected, he immediately switched course and said that would be hard for him to do.

Of course, he may still impose more tariffs, but only those who have never studied economic history would believe that this is a good thing.

You thought he was going to get rid of DEI and we would return to a merit-based system.

Yeah, he's succeeded in dismantling DEI (including a lot of cooperation from a pathetically weak business community), but he is galloping as far away from merit-based as you can get.  Think Not?  Look at the qualifications of his cabinet nominees compared to those in the past. 

This cartoon sums up best what DEI is really all about -

DEI means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Anti-DEI means Discrimination, Exclusion, and Intolerance.

I know what side I'm on.  How about you?

You thought he would end our endless wars and bring our troops home. No more foreign adventures for us!

This may be the thing you were most wrong about.

One of the ways we knew Hitler was such a danger was when he wanted to invade and annex his neighbors. Whether it was an excuse or not, he tried to bring any nation with any German population back into the fold of the Germanic Empire.  Putin wants to do something similar to restore the Soviet Union.

What Trump wants to do is worse. He makes no pretense of wanting to reunite with countries that have roots in us. He doesn't want to improve the lives of those places' citizens, and he doesn't even really care about the benefits to the American people.

He wants to exploit and consume their resources, and he wants himself and his billionaire buddies to profit big time.

He wants the Panama Canal back so he can control the shipping lane and profit from the traffic that passes through it.

He wants Greenland and Canada because he knows GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, and underneath the ice, tons of natural resources, fuels, and rare earth minerals await.

He wants Gaza because he wants to turn it into a real estate development, Trump Hotels, and a place for the ultra-rich to party.  The Palestinians?  He doesn't give one whit about them as long as they are GONE.

Even in Ukraine, he's dangling the carrot of getting the rights to the country's rare earth minerals to provide them any aid whatsoever.

I have no qualms about my next statement - everything he does is monstrous.  Everything he is doing is unrepentantly evil. Many will die. Many will suffer.

Yes, MAGA. You've been had. Everything you thought was wrong.

And we will suffer for many years because of it.  

The least you can do is admit your error and join us in resisting it.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Welcome to the New Year

 

Welcome to the New Year.

Do I have resolutions?

Not many. Love my family. Love being a Christian Progressive. Embrace and support those who are daring to stand up to the political morass we have descended into, and defend those who are going to be prosecuted by the Christian Reich who are in control.

Strive to prioritize my health so that I can stay active and contribute.

Make this the year that I am a published author. Yes, I have some self-published books and this blog, but nothing where someone has paid me for a story or book.  

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He's not President yet, and it's already horrifying. Much worse than I even imagined, and that's hard to do, believe me.

He's told you he was lying about lowering grocery prices. He likes the type of visa that brings foreigners over to do skilled jobs, such as computer programming, and do it at lower pay than Americans. He is not going to stop the desire of Republicans to slash and even eliminate Social Security. Medicare and other programs to help the indigent and working poor. 

He's mouthing off about taking over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even Canada. He's mumbled about a "soft invasion" of Mexico. And all of y'all Orangeteers are okay with that?  

You know who else started his leadership with talks of taking over neighboring countries? Hitler. I don't give a damn whether you think the comparison is offensive or not. If the jackboots fit...

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It's getting harder and harder to find social media (and mainstream media) that hasn't been subsumed by billionaire supporters of the Orange conman. Twitter/X has been taken over by an egomaniac who is walking proof of why wealth consolidation is evil. Jeff Bezos is ruining Amazon and The Washington Post trying to make come to life the Post's slogan - Democracy Dies in Darkness - as he slowly turns out the lights. Mark Zuckerberg is eliminating fact checkers, ready to let the MAGATs run roughshod over Facebook, Threads, and Instagram. TikTok is set to be shuttered in about 10 days unless it is saved by being purchased by yet another Trump-loving billionaire.

The same thing is happening on our broadcasters and streamers. One by one, they are showing fealty to the one true moron.  

The biggest lunacy I hear is when my reich-wing friends talk about the liberal media.

HA!

On social media, we are left with Bluesky. On cable, MSNBC has a few liberal hosts, particularly in primetime, but they may soon change. Streamers comprise of Media Touch and a few other smaller organizations.

Liberal media domination, my sweet petunia!

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I hope to post when I can in 2025. Most of my writing efforts will be off-blog as I try to tempt the markets with my incredible prose.

For those who want light and fluffy, who don't want to see political rants - too bad, so sad.  

I have no intent on staying silent in the face of fascism.

Until next time, if I'm permitted to still speak out,

T. M. Strait

Mean Green Republicans: Saturday Political Soap Box 294

 Look, I know that this isn't straight green. The color is actually described as apple green.

The 118th Congress, the least productive Congress in modern times, did not like their original pins. You see, they were navy blue, and by golly, I guess any shade of blue is official property of the Democratic Party. Well, they can't have that! So, the House Republicans dropped another 40K so they could all change over to a different color.

True, even though it's not a lot of money in the scheme of things, it is endemic to the misplaced values of the Crazy Conference.

Every action or proposed action the House Republicans take is about grievance and preserving power for the wealthy, corporations, and Christian Nationalists.

They have little genuine legislative power at the national level, thanks to a Democratic Senate and President. But they can threaten to shut down the government (hurting countless people), stop forward progress on any genuinely beneficial legislation, block support of the Ukrainians in their battle against a Russian dictator (Speaker Mike Johnson is practically handing the keys to Putin and saying, "Here, Puty, take 'er out for a test drive!"), and hold endless hearings about Hunter Biden while Marjorie Taylor Greene holds up dick pics.

Yes, their childish antics can be entertaining. But they're also destroying any ability to get anything done.

Not so in states with Republican Governors and Republican-controlled legislatures. They have run roughshod over voting rights, and the lgbtq+ community, directing tax cuts to the wealthy and increasing the tax burden of the poor and middle class, supporting book bans, undermining public education, blocking Medicaid expansion, and so many other mean and frankly anit-Christian actions.

Currently, some of these Republican states have sounded off about summer feeding programs for children. The Governor of Mississippi wants to discontinue it because it fosters dependence on a "welfare state." This is the same state that has NO state minimum wage, only the federal minimum of $7.25. Guess they don't want to foster dependence on an employer either.

Georgia is in the same boat. Only Governor Kemp tries to hand out cookies to teachers to bribe them to his side. Maybe they won't notice all the stuff he's taking away from them, including support for summer feeding.

Republicans. They just can't help being mean, green, antidemocratic machines.

But, what the hey! They do have spiffy pins!

Going Down With the Trumptanic: Saturday Political Soap Box 293

 

President Biden is on a roll.  Whatever his age, his achievements have been extraordinary.  He led us out of the worst of the Pandemic, even though many were willing to make other people sick by not following basic health protocol, in the name of freedumb.  Given the pits the economy was in, it has come around remarkably under Biden.  The lowest unemployment in several decades, improving stock market and GDP, growth in manufacturing jobs, and inflation whipped faster than any other industrialized country.  He has passed the most comprehensive infrastructure bill in American history, including our most significant effort to deal with climate change.  He has organized an international coalition to help Ukraine fight the invasion of Russia, including the strengthening and expanding of NATO.  This is in the face of bitter Republican opposition and a far-right-extremist Supreme Court.

And yet...

A recent New York Times poll shows Biden and Trump in a dead heat.

Twice-impeached, thrice indicted, two-time popular vote loser, narcissistic misogynist bully racist Donald J. Trump.

It's true.  America has done some shameful things in the past (sorry, DeSantis, that's the hard truth), but this attachment to this foul figure, Trump, is breaking my heart and shattering my faith in many of those around me (I live in a county that voted 87% for Trump - BOTH TIMES).

If you're still sticking with this orange buffoon, maybe this will shake you away...let's look at the two major defenses he's tried for his latest indictment, centered around his efforts to overthrow an election he knew he had lost.

1) I have freedom of speech.  I can say whatever I want, even if it is a lie.

Wow.  Think about that one for a minute.  His defense is that lying to you about an election is okay?  Really?  That's what you want?  Someone who has no shame in lying to you?

2) I was following the advice of my lawyers.  It's their fault.

My Grandfather Martin was a bit of a booze hound, probably an alcoholic.  Whenever a doctor told him to live, he had to give up the booze; he simply found another doctor that wouldn't hound him about it.  And when that doctor started in about not drinking, he would find another doctor who wouldn't tell him to stop drinking.  This plan didn't work forever - he eventually died, with liver cirrhosis being a significant cause.

And that's what Trump does.  His lawyer shops until he gets one that tells him what he wants to hear.

And what does that tell you, my Trumpeteer friend, about the judgment of your favorite clown?  He can't distinguish between bad advice and good advice.  He hears whatever he wants to hear.

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I've suffered a lot in the last seven years.  People I care about cling to this idiot, who had no business being a dog catcher, much less President of the United States.  You sold out all your values, including the love of country and democracy, all for this despicable human being who doesn't give a damn about you, especially your so-called Christian values.

Now, I know there are many issues where you and I might not agree - universal health care, Green New Deal, a living wage, free post-secondary education (including community colleges and apprenticeships), supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and more.  But you know what we shouldn't argue over?  Democracy, voting rights, free and fair elections, being kind and supportive to all Americans.

I'm sick of Trump.  I'm sick of those who sell their decency out to support him.  I'm sick of your attachment to him.

He's irredeemable slime.  And he deserves all the indictments he has received.  

And that's just the tip of the Trumpberg.

Please stop shuffling the deck chairs.  Get off the Trumptanic, once and for all.  It's going down, and you don't need to be aboard.

The Bear is Cornered: Saturday Political Soap Box 255

 

We are in perilous times.

Polling indicates that Biden has a very substantial lead, even in important battleground states.

That should ease the minds of the majority of us, who are so anxious to see the end of Trump's presidency.

It does not.

Maybe I've seen too many horror movies where the final twist scares us and makes us realize that not everything ends well.

Maybe we still feel the pain from witnessing Hillary's Clinton clear popular victory win get overturned by an electoral college squeaker.

But a cornered bear, a wounded bear, is by far the most dangerous.

Trump is now flailing wildly, and he doesn't care who he hurts or takes down to get his way.  His interviews are becoming more and more unhinged, demanding the immediate arrest of his political opponents.

He has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of COVID, bragging about his health while providing no details. He promotes REGENERON, a medicine developed from fetal cells obtained from an aborted baby, huckstering it like he was a late-night television barker. Yet he provides no real detail about his health,  And he is ready to endanger thousands again with an early, unwarranted return to White House events and political rallies across the country.

Is he well or in roid rage?  No one knows for sure.  We don't even know when he got it and how long he was contagious.

But he sees that he is sinking in the polls and is coming out full scorched Earth.  

He will offer bribes ($200 drug card to Medicare Seniors).  He will call for the rest of his rivals and call them monsters and communists.  He will destabilize our belief in the election results and energize his base's most radical elements to take violent action.

Think I'm kidding?

Why don't we ask Governor Whitmer of Michigan, where the FBI helped bring to arrest a group of domestic terrorists determined to kidnap the Governor of Michigan and put her on trial?

Why?

For DARING to control the spread of COVID in Michigan, for the affrontery of mask mandates and the temporary closing of some businesses.

In April, many involved in this were part of a group that stormed the Capital, protesting, invading legislative sessions while brandishing military-grade weaponry, blocking the entrance to Sparrow Hospital.  And what was Trump's response to this criminality?

His tweet?

LIBERATE MICHIGAN!!!

His response to the arrests this week?  To continue to blame and denigrate Governor Whitmer!

Sadly, the cornered bear is not just Trump.  It is all the right-wing extremists he has hopped up with his support and his special message to "stand back and stand by."

As it becomes more self-evident that Trump is running way behind, and when he does decisively lose the popular vote, I fear many will not fade into the woodwork.  That the FBI is right - the greatest terrorist threat to the US are right-wing extremists.

Trump is uncorking that evil, and I'm not sure it can be put back.

No, even when Biden wins, this will not go away.  It may become more violent than ever.

We cannot stop being vigilant.

We cannot stop sounding the alarm.

The bear is cornered, but he is not gone.