The Republican National Convention

I have truly spent little time watching the Republican National Convention. It's like a train wreck though, you have to see a bit of it to understand what is happening. I can only handle so much of the hatred and fearmongering that seems to be the new Republican platform. Since they don’t really seem to have a platform of ideology, a few tried and true platitudes will have to do. Gone are the days of the Republican conservative ideals that I consider to be of genuine merit and which should not be dismissed out-of-hand. We do need to manage our financial house. Welfare needs to be smartly administered to those most in need and provided where it does the most good. We must better manage our immigration process along all of our borders and points of entry. The old Republican Party would have been promoting those ideals and pointing out where they have made progress since they gained control of the White House.

What I now hear from the remains of the once-respected opposition party, are the spewing of hatred and the unwarranted warnings of Armageddon if this authoritarian is not reelected. Claims of rapists running amok and attacking your womenfolk or, the horror of horrors, your menfolk too, are being chanted with alarm. They are breaking out their tried and true classics like, the “libs” are coming for your guns, and brown people are bringing crime and drugs and taking away your jobs. I don’t think either Dwight D. Eisenhower or Ronald Reagan would recognize the remnants of the once-proud party of Lincoln.

I guess that, with our economy in tatters (please ignore the stock market) and unemployment at record highs, there is little to brag about. Attack and blame the opposition for your ills. After three and a half years of control, I find it almost laughable that they are still blaming all of their problems on the Obama administration. They have squeezed all that they can out of that first envelope if you know the old joke. In that classic story, an outgoing administrator tells the newly appointed replacement that he has left three envelopes in the desk drawer with advice for troubled times. When the first envelope was opened it read, “Blame your predecessor.” When the second envelope was opened it read, “Reorganize.” Then when problems again arose, the third envelope was opened which read, “Prepare three envelopes.” I think this administration has gotten as much mileage as they can with the first envelope and they are in a constant state of reorganization between indictments and firings.

In times of trouble, open one envelope

I doubt that this president will be preparing three envelopes between November 3rd and January 20th. He is just not that sort of person. There would be nothing in it for him. I do have respect for those Republicans who have seen the chaos and destruction that has been brought down on their former party and have had the courage to denounce this heretic for the charlatan that he is. The ads from the Lincoln Project are among my favorites. While I have no respect for Kellyanne Conway, I do see that she has watched the waters rising and has followed others who have abandoned ship. I likewise have little respect for Jeff Sessions but I do give him credit for having had enough character to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation. Kellyanne and Jim join the human flotsam left in the wake of the floundering and rudderless Trumptanic. Indictments, incarceration, ignominy, and tell-all book deals seem to be their destiny.

We Americans are at our best when we can have opposing viewpoints, sanely discuss our feelings and ideas, and come to some compromise for the future. We are not at that point today and I fear we may never recover from the division being promoted at the RNC. That division existed before Trump took office, but it has been exacerbated into the ever-widening chasm that we are witnessing from this administration.

The Excited Trump Crowd

I will leave you with a few reasons to vote for Donald Trump.

[warning, may contain sarcasm]

1. I don’t believe in climate change. Scientists tell us that manmade pollution is killing our planet, sea levels are rising, and the ice caps are melting. I’ll believe that when I see a polar bear strolling down Collins Avenue on Miami Beach. I think the politicians know more than scientists do.

2. I believe environmental regulations are unnecessary. Who cares if a few national parks have oil rigs dotting the landscape or a pipeline crossing my picture? That’s what Photoshop was designed to fix. Why should I care about future generations? This is my time.

3. I believe this pandemic is all a hoax and that whatever this is will just go away. Donald Trump knows more than these so-called doctors and scientists. The coronavirus is nothing that a little bleach or eating a Tide-pod can’t cure. [to the Facebook censors who claimed I was promoting a fake cure for Covid-19, the preceding is known as sarcasm]

4. I believe that the Trump Royal Family should dominate our politics for generations to come and that we don’t really need elections when we have such a religious and truthful person running things. Elections are all rigged anyway, except of course the 2016 election that brought us our savior.

5. I believe that Donald Trump is a religious man. I saw a picture of him holding up a Bible in front of a church and know that he had to tear gas and bludgeon a few folks in order to get that opportunity. That, my friend, is religious dedication. He supports family values and keeping families together unless you are an illegal immigrant. Donald Trump believes in marriage. Hell, he’s been married three times.

6. I believe that Qanon is the only thing standing between us and baby-eating pedophiles who operate out of pizza parlors where "deep dish" is a cover for the Deep State conspiracy. Don't ask for extra toppings and don't get me started on their "secret sauce."

Get your Q-pizza fresh from the oven

If you believe all of the above, make sure you vote for Donald Trump on November 4th. Don’t trust those mail-in ballots, just show up at the polls the first Wednesday in November.

Slavery 2.0 - The American Caste System

 

In America, the outright buying and selling of humans into slavery have evolved into a varied plethora of schemes to exploit people for financial gain.  A new form of indentured servitude has arisen from the ashes of the slave markets.  These are not formal contracts for indentured servitude common early in the 17th century where individuals paid back the expense of their passage to the New World.  Those contracts were finite and included the expense of their lodging, board, and freedom dues, by working for the contract holder.  Under such contracts, the servant worked from four to seven years and could, at the end of their contracts, receive, along with their freedom, 25 acres of land, some corn, a cow, new clothes, and a gun.

Indentured Servants

No, today in what I am calling the New Slavery or Slavery 2.0, a caste system has evolved whereby people are held in a vicious cycle of poverty that is enforced by poor educational opportunities, low wages, nutritional insecurity, and limited access to healthcare.  People are sometimes tied to jobs as the only assurance of healthcare for themselves and their families.  Even those who manage a college education are often burdened with a crushing debt that again relegates them to a permanent association in some lower caste.

Crushing Student Loan Debt

Early in the evolution of the American caste system, we found the “Company Store” that provided a monopolistic source of essentials to company workers where their wages were recycled back to the company.  The workers were paid, sometimes in company script, and they were held in perpetual debt peonage.  In the song made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford titled Sixteen Tons, he laments, “I owe my soul to the Company Store.” 

The Company Store

Today we have large corporations that pay below subsistence wages to their employees thus guaranteeing huge profits for their owners and shareholders.  Their employees are then forced to draw on public assistance for rent, food, and other essentials.  Such companies are thus benefiting at taxpayer expense.  Since many of these corporations pay little or no taxes, the situation is even more egregious.

Are there solutions to this problem?  Yes, but it is not as simple as raising the minimum wage as some might suggest.  An improvement in minimum wage disparity would go a long way to address the issue but overall it is a bit more complicated.  We need to address the disparity in educational opportunities.  We need to address the healthcare issue and break its tie to employment.  We need to tax all wealthy individuals and large businesses and corporations through at least some minimum tax.  Perhaps we could allow companies like Walmart to pay a below subsistence wage but tax them in such a way as to make that financially ill-advised.  We need to break the profit incentive of mass incarceration by eliminating the private prison system.  We need to revisit the crime and punishment portion of our society whereby we have become the world leader in the incarceration of our citizens. We need to assure that all individuals have access to a sound nutritional diet beyond what food stamps and similar programs provide.

Pays below subsistence wages; employees supported by taxpayers

If we break the cycle of poverty and allow more people access to the realization of the American Dream, we will have come a long way to solving many of our other problems.  We need the American Dream, not the American Nightmare.  If we truly “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” then we need to make some wholesale changes in the structure of this democracy.

Religious Beliefs and the New World Under Trump

In a recent Facebook posting of a meme (shown below) the question was asked about Evangelical support for Donald Trump.

My reply was, "Well, after you get by a man living inside a whale and all the animals in the world sharing a single boat, having a

leading the country isn't much of a stretch."

Shortly after this exchange, I was made aware of another in the twisted thought processes of the religious right.  This one quoted Scripture in what I assumed was the support of Donald Trump.  I present this post below.

The writer of this believes that Trump's support of their anti-abortion campaign outweighs his "shedding of innocent blood" in the other areas of his administration.  The destruction of families of innocent immigrants is OK.  His putting "kids in cages" is fine.  Don't terminate the unwanted pregnancies, but after they are born they need to survive without a safety net of healthcare, without access to a quality education, without having nutritional security and don't count on a system to support you when you are old and infirm. The thousands who have needlessly died from the current pandemic in our nation due to the political needs of a fanatic is "God's will."  Trump's enabling of the torture killing of Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi embassy and his exoneration of the Saudi prince responsible for the killing is necessary for the support of their anti-abortion message.  I say hypocrisy.

The writer further believes Trump to be pro-Israel.  Granted, Trump will express his support for Isreal as it is politically expedient to gain support for his other aspirations.  But where are his true feelings?  Does his support of the American Nazi contingent of his followers bode well for the Jewish people?  Trump's statements like,  "Black guys counting my money!  I hate it.  The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day."  Perhaps more telling of his Jewish sentiment was his attack on Hillary Clinton that used a graphic of a Star of David over a pile of cash.  Donald Trump's regular support of the White Nationalist agenda is in direct conflict with any support for a Jewish state in Israel.

In the third quote from the Scriptures above, the writer falsely claims that Donald Trump is pro-debt reduction.  Under Trump, the national debt has grown by roughly 15% in three years so far, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that it could swell by 43% in the next four years at current spending levels.

The "pro-work" quotation opens up a real can of worms.  It is purported to be from 2 Thessalonians.  The more expanded view has ties at the root of many Evangelicals and their support for Trump.  The author, presumed to be Paul, of 2 Thessalonians, argues that the end is not, in fact, coming right away. Certain things have to happen first. There will be some kind of political or religious uprising and rebellion, and an Antichrist-like figure (Trump?) will appear who will take his seat in the Temple of Jerusalem (White House?) and declare himself to be God (that really sounds like our boy Donald).  Only then will the "Lord Jesus" come to "destroy him with the breath of his mouth."  As a further warning to Trump fans, the author goes on to say, "keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us... do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother"  Getting away from the biblical specifics but to the suggestion that Trump is pro-work my reply would be to question the writer of the list to reveal the names of the coal miners and steelworkers who have found new riches in the Trump promised revitalization of those industries.  Secondly, stating that anyone who does not work deserves to starve, doesn't sound to be in keeping with the true meaning of Christianity.  The quote cited actually reads,  "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."  It is of note that this passage was adopted by Vladamir Lenin as an adage in support of communism and the Soviet Union.

Here is where the real yucks begin.  Donald Trump being pro-marriage.  I have to give you that one as Donald Trump has been married three times and has cheated on each of them numerous times.  He loves being married.  As a world-class philanderer, Donald Trump holds his own.  My challenge here would be to find the specific reference in Genesis that mentions its support for marriage, cheating, divorce, marriage again, cheating again, divorce again, marriage again, and even more cheating.  For someone who brags about his attractiveness to women, I find it interesting that he has to pay for sex with Playboy bunnies and porn stars.  Donald Trump, pro-marriage, give me a break.

Women who accuse Trump of sexual assault

Women who don't accuse Trump of assault because they got paid.

The next reason given for not voting Democratic alludes to the government's role in rewarding good and punishing evil.  If by that you mean rewarding the wealthy with tax cuts and granting pardons to your cronies who run afoul of the law, I'm not sure you get the true meaning of good and evil.  Romans 13 is much broader and covers admonishments for not committing adultery and not stealing.  Well, we all know Trump's record of committing adultery.  He has also been found guilty of stealing from poor students of his failed Trump University and he can no longer be associated with running a charitable foundation because he stole from his own charity.

The last in the list of statements for not voting Democratic states that the writer wants to follow God's Word.  I will take that to mean that this person will not vote for Donald Trump but plans to write in a more suitable candidate.  I wholly support this philosophy for all on the religious right who want to follow their faith.  If they are true believers in the ideals of the Christian faith, they cannot by any stretch of their faith support this earthly embodiment of the Anti-Christ.

I do not purport to be a religious scholar by any means but I did suffer five years of strict Catholic school training and believe I have at least a cursory understanding of what Christians say they are about.  I find that many quote scriptures as some sort of a priori knowledge to be used in the interpretation of current events.  Such knowledge is not to be questioned because to do so would be a challenge to their faith and core beliefs.  I generally find that these "biblical scholars" are taking difficult to understand topics that have been translated from ancient texts and languages and the meaning of which is regularly debated by scholars, and they use their own interpretation to support whatever claim suits their purpose.  I know many people of strong faith, some of whom are declared Evangelicals, who do not support Donald Trump and they see the hypocrisy in his actions versus what he claims to be fact.

I say it is fine to have faith and follow the religion of your choice but don't come to me with statements that have no foundation beyond some guidance from above.  You can't point to Trump, quote some cryptic Scriptual message, and tell me not to believe my lying eyes.