For What It’s Worth

For What It's Worth is the title of a Buffalo Springfield song that begins, “There’s something happening here, But what it is ain’t exactly clear.”  The refrain then states, “It’s time we stop, Hey, what’s that sound?  Everybody look, what’s going down.”

Buffalo Springfield from 1968

Perhaps now is the time for everyone to look at what’s going down.  Conservatives who will whip out a copy of the Second Amendment faster than Marshall Dillon could clear his holster, want to skip right over the First Amendment.  They will cherry-pick parts from the First that suit them but ignore the rest.  They will support free speech if it is their speech.  They love a free press if it is in line with conservative thinking.  The right of the people to peaceably assemble will be restricted to just white people assembling for conservative causes and the peaceful aspect of it be damned if they feel that violence is warranted.

Matt Dillon (James Arness) from the television show Gunsmoke

The part that they mostly ignore, skip over, and regularly try to regurgitate as something never intended by the writers of that Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  This has uniformly been interpreted to mean that the federal government is prevented from establishing an official religion.  The government may respect religion but not establish a religion.  It has been long accepted that this Establishment Clause bars any government support that would tend to establish any religion.  This would mean that the government is prohibited from sponsoring, providing financial support for, or active involvement in, religious activities.

Religious neutrality is at the core of the First Amendment and protects both believers and non-believers.  This would be inconvenient to those who would like to establish Christianity as the formal national religion.  In this regard, the First Amendment is “inconvenient” to those who advocate the governmental adoption of Jesus Christ as the spiritual leader of our country.  To “reinterpret” the meaning of the First Amendment, conservatives want to do an end-run around that pesky obstacle.  Their actions have sometimes been subtle but recently, they have become more forthright with their goals.

They want to control all three branches of government.  They denied President Obama his appointment to a vacancy on the Supreme Court claiming that one year was “too close” to a new election to even consider the matter.  They cited the “Thurmond Myth” like it was an official rule.  This allowed Donald Trump to later appoint three conservative Supreme Court justices; Jackson, Barrett, and Kavanaugh.  All three were supportive of some of the more extreme conservative religious values.  Despite denials to the contrary, once on the bench, they would use religion to influence decisions.

For abortion rights, the appointment of those three judges meant iacta alea estdie, the dice had been cast.  Those newly minted conservative appointees tipped the scales favoring Christian morality and Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were both overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  This was done, not with some new legal insight but by twisting the law in favor of a powerful minority.  I say minority because, while the numbers may vary a bit between polls, somewhere around 85% of Americans think abortion should not be made illegal in all circumstances.  50% think it should be legal in certain circumstances and 35% believe it should be legal in all circumstances.  But, like gun control, policymakers will contradict the will of the majority to placate a vocal and tenacious minority.

The conservatives are also using the education system to promote Christian values in our schools.  We have seen certain books banned that didn’t meet Christian standards.  We have also seen a starving of public-school funding through the diversion of tax dollars to private charter schools and some schools of parochial sponsorship.  Once underfunded public schools begin to falter, better-funded private charter schools can take their place.  Private and parochial schools won’t be so bothered with a pesky First Amendment when it comes to promoting Christianity.  This also allows them to “reinvent” history by only approving those books that make White people feel more comfortable when talking about topics like slavery, Jim Crow laws, and our past oppression of people of color.

Thomas Jefferson; the third president of the US; drafted the Declaration
of Independence; spent $15 on Lousianna Purchase

Thomas Jefferson stated that the First Amendment created “a wall of separation between church and State.”  This was from a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Assn. on Jan 1, 1802.  This statement was quoted in 1947 in Everson v. Board of Education where the SCOTUS said that this wall “must be kept high and impregnable.”  It went on to state that neither the Federal Government nor the state can set up a church, or pass laws that aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another.  They confirmed that “no tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions.

Sherlock Holmes

It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to see how this ruling is being regularly violated by the newly emboldened White Christian nationalists and their elected stooges.  Using campaign donations and the voter support of their parishioners as a giant carrot, legislators will twist the First Amendment into a pretzel.  They will do this to satisfy the desire to impose Christian morality on all within our borders.

In their zeal to impose this Christian will, they will ignore the sins of their puppets.  By no stretch of anyone’s imagination is Donald Trump a religious man.  He is immoral, untrustworthy, and as un-Christian a person as you might ever meet, yet he will sing whatever tune the choir puts before him to achieve his own goals.  More dangerous still is Ron DeSantis, arguably the next presidential hopeful from the GOP camp.  He is imposing Christian morality on the citizens of Florida.  With teacher salaries just two up from the bottom, charter schools are his solution.

The White Christian nationalists use fear of reprisal to control the non-believers.  To get back to our musical lyrics, “Paranoia strikes deep, Into your life it will creep, It starts when you’re always afraid, Step out of line, the men come and take you away.”

Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Trump, Lessons Learned

California has its San Andreas fault and is prone to earthquakes and the occasional plate shaker.  Kansas is in tornado alley and once a year around holiday time Dorthy is blown away to Oz.  South Florida hangs beckoningly into the Atlantic and dares hurricanes to test their strength.  My first home in Florida was built right after WWII and was of traditional CBS or concrete block and stucco construction.  The roof trusses were built on-site by carpenters who knew how to use a framing square to calculate roof pitch.  The trusses were topped with tongue-in-groove planks nailed to those trusses and topped with tar paper and heavy cement tiles.  Our second home built in 1959 used pre-fab trusses that used gang nails at joints and these were topped with plywood and the usual tarpaper and cement tiles.  

My current home was built by an old-school builder who followed the same roof techniques that we saw back in 1959 albeit with an asphalt shingle top.  The development right next door to mine was not built the same way.  The "builder" had no license but "rented" one from a business in the Bahamas that got a license for Florida.  Their construction was shoddy, they used substandard materials, and they didn't follow code.  Inspectors were either blind or paid to be myopic.

Hurricane Andrew in blue/orange
Hurricane Trump in red
TBD which disaster did the most damage.

South Florida has some of the most stringent building codes in America. They are sometimes used as a model for other states with coastal exposure to hurricanes. Those strict codes were in place in August of 1992 when hurricane Andrew violated all the normal “rules” that previous hurricanes had followed. Hurricane Andrew came in from the east, was a mostly dry hurricane with less than 14 inches of rain, had gusts recorded up to 177mph, killed 44 people in Florida, and left behind a record $25 billion in damage.  My home suffered comparatively minor damage while the previously mentioned nearby development had major failures.

Damage from 1992 Hurricane Andrew
Building codes were not enforced and were inadequate.

Those “stringent” building codes were put to the test and they were found wanting. The codes of 1992 weren’t strong enough to protect South Floridians from Hurricane Andrew. It was also found that many builders and developers didn’t comply with the codes as they were written. Some cut corners to save money and inspectors were lax with their enforcement. The population explosion of the 70s and 80s brought shortcuts in construction. The community of Country Walk had been built with cheap wafer plywood where roofing was held on with staples instead of nails. That development was destroyed while others survived.

Within two years of Hurricane Andrew, the South Florida Building Code was updated to focus on wind resistance and roof integrity. The revised building code was now strictly enforced. Floridians had learned a hard lesson and responded accordingly.

In 2016, America suffered from another foul wind in the form of Donald J. Trump. He blew in from New York as a massive low-pressure system filled with hot air and won the presidency. Like his predecessor Hurricane Andrew, he did not “play by the rules,” he also didn’t follow established principles of decorum, if policies or laws were unwritten, they didn’t exist, and those laws that did exist were mere suggestions because he was president and king of all that he surveyed. This country had never seen the likes of Donald J Trump.

Before Hurricane Donald, people assumed that all persons occupying the Oval Office would be reasonably intelligent humans who would continue with the traditions and the playbook that had been “written” over our 200+ years of existence as a beacon of democracy. But to Hurricane Donald, laws, rules, and traditions were of no consequence as he bragged on January 23, 2016, that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not "lose any voters." He was above the law.

Above the law

Not since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg has our national security been so damaged as it has been under Hurricane Trump. We will never know why this president wanted to steal classified documents we just know that he never does anything unless there is a profit in the foreseeable future. He was famous for never reading anything longer than a tweet, so those classified documents weren’t for his own edification. Trump regularly made unsecured phone calls that compromised national security. He called his US ambassador to the EU in Kyiv to discuss his desire to move forward with investigations into Joe Biden. Others in the restaurant heard both ends of the conversation and you must imagine Russia was on that party line.

What's his name with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Trump regularly confided in foreign “strong men” leaders as he did in 2017 when he passed highly classified intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. That conversation jeopardized a human intelligence source. Trump also used security clearances as either gifts or punishment. Son-in-law Kushner got a top-secret clearance against the advice of his security office, and he took away the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan as punishment for his critical remarks.

Image of documents recovered from Mar a Lago
Trump had stolen public records and government property.
There were Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (need to know)
 documents that are not to be used outside special facilities.

Hurricane Trump has further damaged national security by politicizing the declassification of documents. He ordered the declassification of all documents relating to the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. This would include interviews with sources and the text messages of his perceived personal enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

Trump’s personal lawyer and former cybersecurity advisor was none other than the infamous Rudy Giuliani. It was Rudy G. in his capacity as Trump's personal envoy who often butt-dialed reporters and left revealing voice messages. Trump also violated security protocols by tweeting, and thereby instantly declassifying, high-resolution imagery of an Iranian space facility damaged in an “accident.”

Trump's ego was more important than national security.
This hi resolution image from Iran gave up valuable data
and taunted the Iranians.

 

Trump and his family regularly used personal cell phones and email accounts to communicate with government officials. Hurricane Trump has been an intelligence bonanza for foreign intelligence agents as he treats our top secrets as casually as a plate of ketchup-topped French fries delivered air mail to the nearest wall.

Bill of Rights, have some Freedom Fries with ketchup!

Hurricane Andrew started out as a tropical depression off the coast of Africa. Hurricane Trump started out as an abomination in the City of New York before blowing through Washington DC and later moving on to Palm Beach, Florida. Hurricane Andrew caused catastrophic damage across the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Hurricane Trump caused devastating damage across the entire nation and much of the world.

Just as South Florida revised and began strict enforcement of its building code, perhaps it is time to re-think the laws and powers of the presidency. We should learn from the recent blunders, mistakes, and outright violations of our existing laws and realize that we need to reign in or at least better define what it means to be a proper president in the United States. We can no longer trust that traditions, protocols, and laws that are either vaguely defined or have been left unenforceable, will keep another careless authoritarian from playing fast and loose with our national security and our democracy.

----------------------------

Postscript 1:  Hurricane Andrew was the only hurricane since the 40s I did not witness firsthand as I was out of town on business in Texas.  In what I assumed would be a normal check-in phone call home, Sue told me she was amazed the phones were still working as she was hunkered down in her walk-in closet with four others.  I had not even heard about this hurricane.  Before I was able to leave Texas I called to see what, if anything, they needed.  Everyone was in desperate need of generators and chainsaws.

I made a trip to the local hardware store and bought a small portable generator and a chainsaw.  I was able to check the generator as baggage and the chainsaw was my carry-on.  Yes, pre-911 I was able to walk onto a flight carrying a chainsaw.  Both the generator and the chainsaw were used around my neighborhood which was now barely recognizable.  Much the same as our country is today.

Postscript 2:  I have held federal, state, and local jobs in the government.  All government employees know that the removal or destruction of ANY government property can get you in serious trouble.  It is a simple rule that is easy to understand.  I held a Secret clearance in the Navy that required a simple background check by the FBI and they visited a few neighbors to vouch for my character.  I would venture a guess that there are elected officials who, if it weren't for their elected status, would not pass a background check.  I would include former President Donald Trump in that group.

The FUD Factor and The Domestic Terrorism of 2020-2021

It should now be clear to all who have been paying attention, Donald J. Trump was the Osama bin Laden of the domestic terror attack of January 6, 2021.  Much like bin Laden, Trump’s efforts didn’t begin and end in a single day.  It took months of planning.  While the events of September 11, 2001, were the culmination of months of preparation by a group of international terrorists, January 6, 2021, was the culmination of a multi-phase plan executed by a group of domestic terrorists.  What makes this latter act so vile is that it was led by the president of the United States.

Domestic Terrorist                     International Terrorist

The groundwork for January 6, 2021, was laid well before the November elections of 2020.  Back then, Trump was already claiming, before any votes had been cast, that if he lost, it was proof the election was fraudulent.  By inference, if he won, it was the will of the people in a completely fair election.  In his mind, Win=Fair, Lose=Fraud.

While bin Laden planned and directed the September 11^th attacks using others as pawns, Donald Trump committed grave atrocities using gullible people in a like fashion.  It would seem that the main difference between the two is that Trump wanted to march with his rioters and was only stopped by his Secret Service staff.  While such ambition is not in keeping with this draft-dodging couch-potato with heel spurs, we may never know if his faux courage was something new.  The Secret Service deemed the events of this day unworthy of saving for posterity.  They willingly deleted all phone data for the day.  We will never know what might have happened if he had been allowed to go to the Capitol with his bodyguards to bravely go where no president had gone before.  He would have been the first president to lead an attack on his own country.

Trump hired and fired advisors and lawyers to get just the right mix of sycophants who shared his vision of win-at-all-costs.  Should that cost include breaking the law, setting aside morality, and ignoring the Constitution, they were ready.  He needed people to look at our laws as mere suggestions to be interpreted in any way necessary to allow him to retain power in the absence of enough votes to win fairly.  In this group of ne'er-do-wells, we find a pillow vendor, a disbarred drunk lawyer, conspiracy theorists, several “flexible” lawyers, a retired military colonel/convicted felon, and an online overstock furniture guy.  Trump always hired the finest.

Trump's Dream Team of Sycophants

This was not one seditious act but a multi-part plan with tentacles that slithered in many directions.  The whole thing was an attempt to create enough chaos to confuse people so that they would believe that Donald Trump won the election, or to at least throw the results into question.  The idea was to use the tried-and-true marketing FUD method to win the presidential election. 

The FUD Factor

For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with FUD, it stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.  I bet you thought it had something to do with Elmer but Elmer Fudd is spelled with two d’s and even Elmer couldn't have screwed things up this badly.  It is a common marketing strategy used by a dominant or privileged organization to restrain competition by introducing suspicion and uncertainty into the marketplace to the detriment of other competitors.  FUD is also a propaganda tactic used in public relations, politics, polling, and cults.  It is a strategy developed to influence perception by spreading negative, dubious, or false information to instill fear.

Trump started with lawsuits challenging the vote counts.  He hired his own experts to find anything he could use to challenge the election results.  They gained access to voting machines.  They watched surveillance videos of precinct counts and drew phony conclusions as to what they saw.  They conspired to appoint boards of fake electors to go to Washington to challenge the actual electors.  They tried to coerce governors and election supervisors.  Trump wanted to direct the military to seize state-owned voting machines.  They tried to threaten and intimidate election workers.  They used social media and compliant news sources to spread rumors, stories, falsehoods, half-truths, and outright fabrications to muddy the waters.

Cyber Ninja Examining Ballots for Fraud
They Found None, Repeat..., No Fraud

The claims went from bizarre to ridiculous.  Strange satellites were beaming signals to change election results.  The dead Hugo Chavez used secret information to magically flip votes from Trump to Biden.  Storage bins normally used to carry ballots were described as mysterious suitcases or boxes that contained fraudulent Biden votes. 

A GOP mega-donor from Texas, Steven Hotze, was charged with unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an air conditioning repairman was run off the road and held at gunpoint.  One of Hotze’s hired posse of private investigators mistakenly thought the repairman’s van held 750,000 fraudulent mail-in ballots.  Then there is The Sixth Sense version of voter fraud, “I see dead people.”  Claims of widespread fraud by people using the IDs of dead voters are broad and almost always unfounded.

I see dead voters in every state Trump lost.

Their Machiavellian plot had all the essential ingredients.  They had the fake slate of electors standing by, they had 147 Republicans who would vote to object to the certification of the electoral votes, and Trump had intimidated and threatened his vice president to get him to either refuse to certify the results or overturn the election results.  Trump's ace-in-the-hole was his rally mob which would storm the Capitol, stop the certification, and if Mike Pence met his maker hanging from the available gallows, it would just be icing on the presidential cake.

The period between September 11, 2001, and January 6, 2021, is 19 years, 3 months, and 26 days.  That’s the time between the bin Laden attack with his group of international terrorists and the Donald Trump attack with his band of domestic terrorists.  It remains to be seen which terrorist did more damage to this country.  At least we know where Donald is hiding so he won’t be so hard to find.  We all know who is in Jeopardy.  I’ll take Domestic Terrorism for $1,000 Alex.

From 18 USC § 2331(5)

Domestic terrorism:

(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that— (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

In an example given under the legal expansions created under Section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, they use the case of protestors who trespassed on a Vieques Island military installation to protest military exercises.  Their conduct fit the definition of domestic terrorism because the protesters broke federal law by unlawfully entering the airbase and their acts were for the purpose of influencing a government policy by intimidation or coercion. 

The language in the law is broad enough to authorize the government to seize the assets of any individuals involved in domestic terrorism.  Is anyone interested in a home with a golf course in Palm Beach?   I’ll start the bidding at $5.00.

For Sale, Government Auction

DeSantis v Newsom; Let’s Get Ready to Rumble-2024

I restrict my gambling to driving in Miami.  Still, if I did venture into political wagering, I might give good odds that the 2024 presidential race will be between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom.  I must not be alone as pollsters are beginning to test the waters of both political candidates.  I use the term candidate loosely as neither has declared they are even running.

DeSantis                                    Newsom

Governor Ron is still in the fading shadow of the party leader, Donald Trump and Governor Gavin is still waiting on President Biden to decide.  Others have decided to act now on behalf of both “candidates.”  The oil and gas industry (Western States Petroleum Association) took out a full-page ad in Florida newspapers to decry Newsom’s policies in California that hit their bottom line and tax California residents at the pump.  Newsom on the other hand has taken out broadcast ads attacking Republican leaders (DeSantis) on abortion, voting rights, and free speech.

Why Florida?  With a close to even divide between Democrats and Republicans in Florida, the Sunshine State has been a major factor in several recent national elections.  For Gavin Newsom, Florida is also home to his most potent rival who is not Trump.  Nationally, Republicans are at least vaguely familiar with DeSantis and many already prefer him to Trump.  Newsom is a lesser-known Democrat on the national scene.

I would rather see Donald Trump as the 2024 Republican candidate as I think he would be weaker than DeSantis.  I also find DeSantis more of a threat to the future of American democracy than Trump, so that is saying a great deal.

Why is DeSantis so scary?  He is an autocrat with brains who greatly prioritizes politics over personal freedoms.  Examples?  Sure, I have a few.  My personal physician had her medical license threatened by DeSantis because she required patients and staff to wear protective masks in her office.  She, like many of her patients, is immunocompromised and with South Florida statistically a major Covid infection zone, she used her medical knowledge to reduce the risk of infection.  Governor Ron didn’t hold with her medical decision and wanted to terminate her ability to see patients.  The governor holds no medical degree but wants to make medical decisions that override accepted medical wisdom.

DeSantis also wants to impose his religious morality on everyone.  He is trying to shut down a bar in Miami that allowed an outdoor drag show to be seen by minors because it doesn’t fit within his moral sensibilities.  There were bare buttocks in plain view of impressionable youth.  I hope he never ventures onto any of our beaches, or he will have to pull the plug on our tourism industry.  There are more bare butts on display on virtually any of South Florida’s seaside venues and he would have a heart attack if he ever stumbled onto one of our nude beaches.

DeSantis is also banning books that he or his self-deputized army of morals police deem objectionable. They use vague references to “age appropriate” to define the limits.  The world hasn’t seen the likes of such censorship by a control freak since the rise of the Third Reich.  Florida students are not allowed to learn about the existence of the atrocities of slavery and the struggles of Black Americans during the Jim Crow era calling it a theory, aka Critical Race Theory.  All sexual identity outside his defined norm of heterosexual doesn’t exist for students of any age.

A journalist and elected Democratic National committee member representing Florida, Thomas Kennedy, confronted DeSantis about his Covid policies.  The DeSantis response was to refer Thomas' name to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for criminal investigation and surveillance.  His name, photo, and vehicle information were distributed to other law enforcement agencies.  Thomas was trying to cover a DeSantis speech but was detained for half an hour without explanation and ejected from the area, a block away from the Port of Miami garage where DeSantis was speaking. with a trespass warning.  He was never asked for press credentials and had never entered the "press-only" location.  When the police officer was reminded that the Port of Miami was a public place the officer responded, “not for you,” and a vague reference to "orders" he had.

Snapshot of post from Thomas Kennedy stopped on a public
street and kept away from a press conference at the Port of Miami
because he was "on a list."

You can read more about the Thomas Kennedy detention at this Miami New Times link.

DeSantis regularly censors journalists who may have opposing views.  Ben Frazier, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists was also “on a list” and was asked to leave a DeSantis press conference before it began.  When he refused to leave, he was yanked out of his wheelchair and placed in handcuffs.

Ben Frazier before his arrest

Free speech is under attack in Florida universities with the “Stop Woke Act” that restricts race-based teachings in schools, universities, and workplaces.  The act prohibits any teaching that could make students feel that they bear personal responsibility for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex, or national origin.  It also blocks businesses from conducting diversity training that might make sensitive employees feel guilty.

Yes, DeSantis’ view of freedom is, in his words, “a freedom from having oppressive ideologies imposed on you without your consent.”  What the governor hasn’t figured out is that, by his defining what HE thinks is oppressive, HE is imposing HIS views on others without THEIR consent.

In keeping with his policies and views on the evils of the Covid vaccines, the same vaccines that he has taken and which he made available to his favored constituents on a priority basis early in the pandemic, he supports the actions of Centner Academy.  That is a South Florida private school that not only advised teachers not to get vaccinated but threatened to fire any teacher or staff member who got a Covid vaccine. 

The founders at Centner believe, without evidence or foundation, that vaccinated individuals can transmit from their bodies “something” that can harm others and quite possibly impact their fertility.  One of their key leaders, Alex Serrano, who has no children in public school, also got 2 books on sexual education banned in Miami-Dade County schools that he didn’t like*.  Serrano's children attend Centner Academy but he, along with 278 signers of a petition, got the book banned under the cover of the DeSantis rulings.

This and similar book for high school students had
been banned leaving no sex ed for any students.
[Banning was later reversed in a narrow 5-4 vote]

These topics would be verboten in middle and high 
schools in Miami-Dade County under the new DeSantis
morals police scrutiny.

You can read a pdf of the entire middle school text here.

So, what are Gavin Newsom’s qualifications?  One exceptionally strong point is that he is not Ron DeSantis.  He is also not Donald Trump.  I could rest my case there, but he has also run the state of California without banning books, attacking minorities and the LGBTQ community, nor has he attacked a long list of personal freedoms.  His probable opponents can’t make that claim. 

While I think Biden has done an OK job as president, I question that he can get independent voters and fence-sitters to back him again unless his opponent is Trump.  Kamala Harris is a friend of Newsom and, if she ran, he might not.  I like Harris too but I question her for the same reasons I doubt Biden’s future success.  She also has the burden of being a woman, a fact that doesn’t bother me but does bother enough folks for that to be a liability.

Who else might be on a Democratic shortlist for the presidential election in 2024?  Bernie Sanders, I like him, but his age, like Biden’s, would be a factor.  Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer offers a fresh face.  Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Minn. Sen. Amy Klobuchar share the same burden of being former also-rans.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is too far to the left for many and would have difficulty winning over independents and fence-sitters.  Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg is smart, personable, and would be an excellent president, but comes with that one single personal factor that far too many in America find too difficult to comprehend.  They all have that one thing going for them though, they are not Trump or DeSantis.

The shortlist for Republicans is very short, Donald Trump (assuming he avoids legal hurdles) and Ron DeSantis.  The two are tied in many polls but the former president is nationally ahead.  Most in his own party rightfully fear the wrath of The Donald as his disapproval can be career-ending.  There are a few others with aspirations but none have shown support beyond their own home bases.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Goldilocks Principle
Getting it just right.

There are many here that could be fine leaders, but each would face an uphill battle with electability.  Even Gavin Newsom has the burden of being dyslexic.  There are those in America who don’t know what that word even means but might think that the alphabet soup of LGBTQ now has a D in it.  When it comes to electing a president in America, you always must consider the stupidity factor.  These are the same folks you could call homo sapiens and they would want to punch you in the nose fearing some disparagement.  If only we could use the Goldilocks principle to find the perfect candidate.  Not too right, not too left, but just right, or left if you prefer.

* July 29, 2022 update:  The Dade County School Board then reversed their decision and the book is back on the approved list.  No word yet from DeSantis who might challenge their decision.

(White) Christian Nationalism, WCN

The thought that Christians oversee and lead this country and that some form of their white nationalist belief system will forever dominate our politics is not new.  What is new is that the current Republican party believes that Christian Nationalism is something they can sell for profit to the general populace. 

While it is simple to admit that perhaps 65% of Americans identify as Christian, that also means that 35% of the country follows some other path.  I would also challenge that 65% number because they probably include me in their count.  I was born Catholic, attended Catholic schools through the fifth grade, and listed Catholic in my Navy records as “preferred.”  If you eliminate weddings, funerals, and tourism, I haven’t seen the inside of a church in many decades.

A 2020 Gallup poll found that only 47% of Americans regularly went to a church, synagogue, or mosque.  By that measurement, there aren’t that many practicing Christians, and some just use religion or the Bible when they need to make a point.

With all the current emphasis on “originalism” in interpreting the Constitution, it is puzzling that “freedom of religion” now means “Christian.”   Trump’s Christian Nationalism and his America First claims, like most things he came up with, were borrowed from another era, one of white supremacy. 

“America First” was originally used by the Ku Klux Klan at its zenith in the 1920s and then later appropriated by Trump, or more likely Steve Bannon as Trump never studied or understood history.  America First was originally associated with antisemitism and the preservation of the purity of the white race and was an easy sell to the same group of bigots, xenophobes, and racists.

The original adherents were grounded in anti-Semitic and pro-fascist rhetoric.  The term was adopted by Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith, a follower of Huey Long, who was more open with his expressions of racism and white supremacy than Mr. Long.  Smith founded the America First Party in 1943 and had previously started the Christian Nationalist Crusade during the Great Depression.

Within the current disciples of his holiness, Donald Trump, we find the head cheerleader of White Christian Nationalism, Marjorie Taylor Greene.  She is waving her pom poms of religiosity with a renewed fervor in support of the January 6 “patriots.”  While they don’t always use the “White” descriptor when identifying as Christian Nationalists, it is implied.  At the Capitol riot in 2021, mixed in with the regular MAGA cult and paramilitary cosplay boys, were others waving Christian banners with “Jesus Saves” and one group hoisted a large wooden cross.

In her book, Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, covers the last three-quarters of a century of white evangelicalism.  She describes the movement as one which is attempting to masculinize Jesus as a “spiritual badass.”  No “turn the other cheek” for this group, they want Rambo Jesus, not the kind forgiving one of the Bible.  We have all wondered what evangelical Christians saw in a twice-divorced and clearly corrupt racist who defied the very teachings of their proclaimed savior.  They see Trump’s authoritarian values aligned with their own.  They see a symbiotic relationship between his approach to militarism and American masculinity.

Rambo Jesus

There is a belief among adherents of Christian Nationalism that our country was founded as a Christian nation and that the United States is the new promised land.  The Bible, much like our Constitution, is easy to twist and interpret in clever ways to justify almost any position.  Ignored is the fact that among the writers of the Constitution and our many establishing documents were atheists, Unitarians, Deists, liberal Protestants, and several other belief systems.

It was pointed out in a CNN documentary that the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli negotiated with Libya by many of the original signers of our Constitution declared, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on Christian religion.”  Ignored also by those claiming that we were founded on the principles of a Christian Bible is the fact that much of our advancement was made at the expense of Black slaves and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples of North America, hardly an espoused Christian value system.

The juxtaposition of evangelical Christians fighting against police officers with spears, clubs, and tear gas and mixing with the rest of the violent mob that fateful day, goes against what I recollect from my days in Catholic schools.  Before becoming a lapsed Catholic, I seem to remember a peaceful Jesus and not a racist thug.

The words of Steve Bannon regarding his conviction for ignoring his subpoena where he threatens to “go medieval” on his perceived enemies, fit with his Old Testament value system.  Or perhaps he sees himself as the Jesus of the Book of Revelation with fiery eyes and a “robe dipped in blood” leading his armies on white (of course they are white) horses in a final battle against the antichrist.

Book of Revelation

The White Christian Nationalist ideology believes it is threatened by misogyny and the mongrelization of the white race to its detriment.  Their new “holy trinity” is freedom, order, and violence where there is freedom for us, order for everyone else, and violence for transgressors.  They envision a nation led by native-born white Christians with all others serving them.  By wrapping themselves in the American flag and using the Bible as a weapon, they claim the moral high ground in all arguments.  Anyone who dares challenge them is not a patriot, not a Christian, or some combination.  They make a priori assumptions based on beliefs that are not founded on reason or knowledge.

This group ignores the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion.  This clause also forbids the government from unduly favoring one religion over another.  Recent encroachments on this assumed prohibition can however be seen at both the state and federal levels of government.  This is where religious ideology is used as a foundation for Supreme Court decisions, state courts promoting Bible studies in public schools, and the posting of “In God We Trust” in public places.

Establishment Clause, First Amendment

There is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge acknowledgment using the term Christian Nationalism as a dog whistle for racist beliefs as the stigma of being openly racist has been a no-no since the Civil Rights Era.  The fact that American Nazis seem to gravitate to this same political group may be an attempt to provide some shade or favor for their more open fascist, anti-Semitic, and racist views.

We should be careful however to not paint all followers of our various religions with the same broad brush.  I have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian with none of the beliefs described above related to WCN.  Most people of faith that I know abhorred much of what has been advanced in the name of religion.  People who are true to their faiths do not abide by racial hatred or religious intolerance.  We are talking about the radical fringe using the cloak of religiosity to achieve their perceived superpower.

What’s That Smell?

In the crowded room of American politics, we must all acknowledge the elephant. After eight public hearings of the House committee investigating the riots of January 6, you don’t have to be sitting near the tail of the pachyderm to smell the stench of sedition and treason.

The Elephant in the Room

We have heard from witnesses via sworn testimony, published tweets, messages, and recorded pronouncements on audio and video. Much of this information came from Republicans, many of whom were dedicated and loyal to Donald J. Trump. In the testimony given by Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s Deputy National Security advisor, you could still hear the excitement in his voice when he mentioned what they accomplished. But then he went on to describe the events of January 6, 2021, when the stench of Trump’s actions became more than he could stand and his conscience forced him to resign.

No matter what position you might hold in the broad political spectrum, you can’t un-see or un-hear the truth. I am also reminded of the Indian folk tale of the six blind men and their understanding of elephants. All had differing opinions based on what they had heard. Even after each touched different parts of the elephant, they still differed in their opinions. Was it a wall, spear, snake, leaf, cow, or rope? It wasn’t until the Rajah told them, “Perhaps if you put the parts together, you will see the truth.”

 

After these hearings, even the blind can see the 9-ton beast in front of them. Like the blind men, our perspectives may differ, but we all have to agree that his presence demands attention.

The Trump circus may have folded its tent in Washington DC but there is still the serious matter of cleaning up the shit he left behind and he didn’t take all his clowns with him either. I’m starting to show signs of coulrophobia. Merrick Garland, there’s a cleanup needed on aisle four, please bring the disinfectant.

Merrick, clean up on aisle 4.

To quote Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ooooh that smell; Can’t you smell that smell?

Where Did the Term “Trumped Up” Come From?

According to Merriam-Webster, the term “trump up” is a transitive verb meaning to concoct, especially with intent to deceive.  The term trumped-up goes back to the early 18^th century and comes from the idiomatic “trump up” as to devise deceitfully or dishonestly.  There is also an association with someone concocting extra details to make something sound more impressive.  Sound familiar?

How appropriate is it then that we now have the embodiment of that term in a man whose very name bears witness to those traits?  Yes, the man, the myth, the legend in his own mind, Donald J. Trump.  The king of deceit and the wizard of whoppers now owns the term, trumped up.  It has also become the mantra of an entire political party.

As I write this, Donald Trump’s GOP is stretching the truth like an elephant trying to fit into a girdle.  They have initiated a fundraising campaign promising VIP status for unsuspecting and gullible folks still willing to put their money where their little black hearts tell them.  Yes, you too can become a “Gold Trump Patriot” or receive an Official Trump Platinum Membership by contributing “any amount today.”  One online ad has a countdown timer stating that “after 5 minutes, you’ll NEVER get this chance again.”  You can then click the $5, $10, $15, $20, $1,000, $1,500, or $2,500 button to get your guarantee of VIP status.  If you can’t find your credit card before the timer hits zero, just hit the refresh button to start the timer anew.

Time is running out, maybe

The Guru of Grift has a ready group of gullible glassy-eyed cultists willing to finance his lifestyle with the mere promise of a make-believe title.  There is no government agency to protect the “poorly informed” from political messaging such as this.  You too can become a “Trump Majority Strategist” or a founding member of the “America First Society.”  When it comes to truth in political speech, the speech is protected, the people are not.  Trumped-up titles are but child’s play for politicians and grifters.

As P.T. Barnum never said, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”  Yes, even this famous quote by one of the biggest grifters and conmen of our country was fake.  The real story of this famous quote about the prime targets for lies and misinformation is fascinating.  It involves P.T. Barnum but the real characters were just as interesting.  If you’ve heard of The Cardiff Giant then perhaps you know about one of the biggest hoaxes in America, at least before Trump.

In 1869, a farmer was having a well drilled on his property when workers discovered a giant petrified man.  People came from miles around to Cardiff, a small town south of Syracuse, New York.  Right away the find was given Biblical significance with comparisons to “Goliath who was slain by David.”  Within the first two weeks, over 3,000 people had paid to glimpse the ten feet, four-and-a-half-inch giant under a hastily constructed tent.

A Syracuse pastor questioned how anyone could, “refuse to believe, what is so evidently the fact, that we have here a fossilized human being, perhaps one of the giants mentioned in Scripture?”  Could there be a Biblical connection?  Yes, there was.

It seems that the property owner, William Newell, and a relative, George Hull, had a heated argument with a Methodist preacher who insisted on a literal interpretation of the Bible.  Sort of like our Supreme Court of today and its interpretation of the Constitution.  According to the preacher, Genesis 6:4 stipulated that “there were giants in the earth in those days.”

So, Hull bought a large block of gypsum in Iowa, shipped it to Chicago, and had a German stonecutter carve the “ancient, petrified man.”  He then shipped it by rail to New York and quietly buried it on Newell’s property.  A year later Newell had his laborers “discover” the giant.  This wasn’t a get-rich-quick scheme even if it turned out that way.  Hull, an atheist, wanted to prove a point about people’s gullibility particularly when it came to literal interpretations of the Bible.

Cardiff Giant

When P.T. Barnum offered to buy the “Giant” for $150,000, he was turned down.  So, he did what any good huckster would do, he “trumped up” his own giant.  It wasn’t long before fake giants were popping up all over the world.  One was “found” in Ireland.  Even after the "Cardiff Giant" was exposed by the German sculptor to be a hoax, people still flocked to see it and believe it.  The "Cardiff Giant" was later showcased at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.

So, who coined the phrase, “there’s a sucker born every minute?”  Well, credit is given to a banker named David Hannum who bought the “Cardiff Giant” and exhibited it for even higher fees.  He sued P.T. Barnum claiming Barnum’s was a hoax and said of Barnum’s customers, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”  Since all the so-called giants were fake, we would have to agree that there are more than enough gullible people to go around to be fooled by “trumped up” hoaxes like voter fraud and all the crazy stuff that is fodder for the QAnon crowd.

So, if you don’t want to become a Trump Majority Strategist, or a founding member of the America First Society, or become a Diamond Trump Patriot, own a Trump Platinum Membership, join the Trump NRSC Advisory Board or any of a dozen or more such non-organizations, perhaps I could interest you in a large rock I found in my backyard.  I believe it may be the head of a giant buried vertically.  For a hefty fee, I will let you remove it.  You shouldn’t have to dig too much as, this is Florida, and you will soon find water, hopefully right where I would like my new well.

Footnote:  When the owners of the “real Cardiff Giant” sought an injunction against P.T. Barnum, the judge responded, “Bring your giant here, and if he swears to his own genuineness as a bona fide petrifaction, you shall have the injunction you ask for.”  No trumped-up charges for that judge.  We could use such clear thinking in the jurists who have managed to populate our Supreme Court of today.