Since Mainstream Media is clearly afraid to tell America about White Christian Nationalism, here’s an update on the Seven Mountains Dominion Mandate and Project 2025

 

Before I begin, I need to correct something I’ve repeatedly said about these and related topics: The Dominionists and Christian Nationalists working to turn America into an Autocratic Theocracy are not operating in the shadows. They are all out in the open front and center. They are telling their audiences what their intentions are and have for decades.

The loudest people promoting the NAR and Project 2025 agendas are charismatic personalities, celebrities and politicians. Not in secret meetings but in front of audiences. They want everyone to know what they have in store for America so that later you can’t say you didn’t know.

I left this out of the post I made about Corporate Media the other day but the Dominionists are taking advantage of the fact historically, the media has long gone out of its way to avoid even sounding critical of any religion–especially a Christian-based faith–for fear of being accused of violating the target’s Freedom of Religion.

This is one of the big reasons organizations like The Heritage Foundation and The Family have made it a point to register themselves as a “Church” organization to shield themselves from media, government and even public scrutiny. This in turn allows them to operate openly while keeping their agendas a closely guarded secret. It also allows them to endlessly fundraise openly and more so since they have tax-exempt status.

It’s an abuse of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation but I’ll get to that a bit later in this blog post.

 

In recent weeks, Project 2025 (or Projecr ’25 for short) has been all over social media. The media referring to it as “Trump’s vision for America” is laughable given it’s not Trump’s idea. This is a plan that’s been almost 70 years in the making. It’s also not accurate to call it a “Far Right Conspiracy” because it’s only being co-opted by the GOP.

Go to their website and see for yourself. Project 2025 is basically the endgame plan Dominionists have for the American Democracy once they are able to get a Republican president aligned with their interests in the White House. Trump is the Republican nominee and is a useful idiot. He already gave them the Supreme Court and Mike Johnson, who is an unapologetic Dominionist himself is the current Speaker of the House. They have one and a half branches of the federal government under their control and they are going all in to take the White House this Fall.

Here’s a short list of what Project 2025 plans to take away or resrict at the national level should Trump (or another Republican) get in the White House:

 

• Abortion (currently outlawed in almost half the country)
• Women’s Reproductive Healthcare (currently restricted in states where Abortion is outlawed)
• Contraceptives
• IVF (See the previous blog post!)
• Gestational Surrogacy
• LGBTQ+ Rights (Overturning Obergafel v. Hodges is a top priority)
• Government Assistance Programs (SNAP/Food Stamps, SSI/SSDI, WIC, etc.)
• The Affordable Care Act (What’s left of it anyway)
• Freedom of Religion (They want to make Christianity the State Religion)
• Freedom of Speech

 

That’s just a short list and again, they are being open about this from now. See and listen to what they are telling everyone yourself. Again: They are playing for keeps.

With Trump’s campaign clearly imploding, it’s obvious they are working on some contingency plans of their own that will either help get Trump back in the White House or in the words of Mike Flynn, ensure there isn’t an election in November.

The third party candidates Trump was riding on taking away enough votes from Biden for him to win by default have so far proven to be unviable. There is ongoing litigation from the last time Trump’s campaign tried to use fake electors so that’s clearly not a viable plan this time.

That brings me to THE option Project 2025 would happily capitalize on should it happen: Armed conflict. I’ll get into that at the end of this article but what I will say for now–and I’ll say again later–is people should probably start stocking up from now. We did it when the Pandemic broke out so…yeah.

 

 

Now here’s an update on the NAR’s Seven Mountains mandate. I’m not going to do these in the same order shown in the image above but I will cover all of them.

Before I forget, the name and theme of the Seven Mountains Mandate comes from Dominionists’ twisted interpretations of a few Bible verses:

• Daniel 2:44: It’s actually the end of a very long explaination about the four empires that directly impacted ancient Israel (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome). This is referenced again in Revealation. Dominionists have cut out this verse by itself and use it to mean a Christian America will stand forever.
• Revealation 17:9: It’s actually the beginning of a long description of what the First Beast Power is and its characteristics (Rome and the present day Roman Catholic Church). Dominionists have cut out this verse by itself and interpret it this way: The woman is America and the Seven Mountains are Seven Mountains of American Culture.
• Mark 11:23: Dominionists use this verse to reinforce the Seven Mountains Mandate.
• Isaiah 45:2: Dominionists use this verse to reinforce the Seven Mountains Mandate.

 

The first two being twisted and repurposed by the NAR is easy to see through for anyone who knows their Bible. Not the ones who only open it in church but those who take the time to read through the Bible. Sadly, it IS a fact most Christians don’t know the Bible as well as they think they do. This is a fact ALL Charismatic Evangelists–most of whom support Project 2025 and the Seven Mountains Mandate–are aware of. Naturally, they also know how to rile up their audiences as well.

I know those last two verses might not seem like much but in the context of Dominionism, they matter. Project 2025 is their endgame plan for after they have conquered the government on that note. Remember: In their minds, they are doing God’s will. Emphasis on “In THEIR minds”.

Ok here we go. As a reminder, keep ALL of the following in mind:

 

1. The root causes of the societal and cultural problems in America are as the Dominionists see it because “America has turned its back on God” and “lacks strong Christian leaders”. By that they mean they want elected officials who are willing to be partial to their religious beliefs even when it means disenfranchising others.
2. The “solutions” Dominionists have come up with and plan to implement are largely either based on their own interpretation of certain Biblical passages–often intentionally misconstrued or out of context–OR to disenfranchise certain populations. Or a combination of both. Basically, it’s the typical “Only our solutions matter” so prevalent in Autocracies and Dictatorships.
3. ALL of these seemingly unrelated “mountains” are part of the much larger plans that they have in store for America. We should never EVER forget the Dominionists played the long game with Roe v. Wade.
4. The Dominionists are working in tandem with White Nationalist Militia and Foreign enemies (Russia, China, etc.). They all have the same core desire: Ending the American Democracy. Period. That’s what unites these three factions.
5. Even the GOP is WELL aware that it’s a Federal offense to have a second but separate Federal government running at the same time. It would automatically be considered treason. It’s why they and Dominionists are very careful in their public statements in making sure their talk of turning America into a Theocratic Autocracy is “future tense”. Make no mistake they have already built the infrastructure and personnel to “flip the switch” should Trump or another Republican willing to work with them gets in the White House.

 

Now that you understand a bit about what’s driving the Dominionists, let’s get to those Seven Mountains.

 

Family

 

No area have the Dominionists given such a focus than the family. I’m sure most of you remember 20 years ago Evangelists started harping and crowing about “Traditional Marriage” being “under attack” by Same Sex Relationships, a rising interest in the occult, women’s reproductive rights and…contraceptives. Yes, really.

The centerpiece of the Dominionists’ plans largely involvesl legally making women second-class citizens and the property of their husband. In other words, just how it currently is in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Womens’ Sufferage was sparked in the UK 100 years ago and it has since become an integral part of all Democratic societies.

It’s interesting to note the Bible points out in various places–and is often intentionally ignored–God created Man and Woman equally. Men and Women have their distinct reproductive functions obviously but they were always intended to treat each other equally.

Not to the Dominionists. They think a man’s wives are or should legally be the property of their husbands for life. They believe husbands can and should be able to physically, emotionally and sexually abuse their wives as much as they want without legal repurcussions. The problem is that’s anathema to the teachings of the Bible on how married couples should treat each other.

What about Divorce? Only if the husband wants it. In fact, you can’t get divorced in some states without the husband’s signature. No exceptions for documented cases of domestic violence or domestic abuse either. I’ve talked to a lot of people in recent years who fled abusive relationships but found someone else. Since they’re still legally married ot their abuser, they can’t get married again and the new relationship becomes a common law marriage.

The Bible gives two allowed grounds for divorce which Jesus himself clarifies. The first is if there is an affair. The offended partner can elect to forgive the affair but if not, they are allowed to get a divorce. The other is if two unbelievers get married, one of them converts and the other doesn’t want to convert. In that case, divorce is allowed.

Everyone 35 and older might remember that time in the early 2000s when Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake got married…and divorced within 2 hours of each other. They were both drunk and got married in Las Vegas. It was after they sobered up and realized what they did that they immediately got divorced. The incident made national headlines and pissed off conservatives nationwide. I don’t don’t fault them for realizing they made a mistake when they were intoxicated personally.

That aside. The rise in domestic abuse–between heterosexual married couples to be clear–since the late 1970s has made it necessary for laws on divorce to be relaxed in some U.S. states to make it easier for predominantly wives to get away from their abusers. I’m sure everyone’s at least heard of some local stories involving husbands murdering their wives or at least trying to without a second thought.

I have met women who came out of abusive relationships missing fingers or often wear dark glasses to hide the black eye(s) their abuser gave them. They literally had to flee for their lives, often with their children. In some cases, their abuser is arrested or imprisoned–as they should be–but more often than not they simply find another woman and repeat the cycle.

If the Dominionists get their way, all of the nonprofit safety nets created to help women trying to escape their abusers would likely be shut down overnight. This is to say nothing of contraceptives and abortion both being banned nationwide. It’s all about basicallt turning all women/wives into Broodmares. For those who are not familiar with that term, it’s a female horse used for breeding. If that reminds you of A Handmaid’s Tale, it should.

 

Business

Here we have one of the areas that attracted the Dominionists to Trump. To be clear, it’s not that they thought Trump was a good businessman. I’m pretty sure they knew his history as a conman, a cheat and a swindler. What attracted the Dominionists to Trump in 2016 was the public perception he built via his celebrity status that he was a wealthy businessman. He fit the criteria they were looking for in a presidential candidate.

Anyone who’s ever visited or attended a church that’s being led by a wealthy pastor probably already knows this but they amassed their wealth by scamming their congregations. Only a very small fraction of the “donations” they collect every week actually goes to community outreach and missionary work. The majority of it goes right into the pastor’s pockets with kickbacks to church members who are in on it. They do set aside just enough money to keep the church open though.

It’s a blatant abuse of the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status places of worship and religious organizations enjoy. More problematic than that is even when the fraud is exposed, more often than not the offender just moves somewhere else and starts over.

This brings me to why Dominionists have such a vested interest in this “mountain”: Money. They want the legal right to defraud people without pentality. In the aftermath of Shinzo Abe’s assassination, Japan started passing legislation aimed at stopping the Unification Church–in reality, it’s the Moon Cult–from blantantly scamming unsuspecting Japanese citizens.

Basically, the Moon Cult used spiritual blackmail to get mostly elderly Japanese citizens to give them the equivalent of thousands of money. The former Prime Minster was assassinated by a man who thought Abe was affiliated with the Moon Cult. The assassin’s mother had been scammed and he thought Abe was connected to them in some way. It turns out Abe’s mother once worked with the Moon Cult when he was a child but not Abe himself.

All that said. Dominionists are all for deregulating everything as long as they get kickbacks. It would basically be a combination of the Properity Doctrine and Trickle-down Economics but scaled up. The Prosperity Doctrine means “God wants you to be Financially wealthy” and “Rich people were blessed by God”. Trickle-down Economics–also known as Reaganomics means all the wealth is concentrated to a small handful with the hope some of it will “trickle down” to everyone else. Ronald Reagan championed it in the 1980s.

If you think poverty in America is bad now, just look at countries like Haiti, Nigeria and The Philippines where 70% to 85% of the population lives in extreme poverty. A little known fact about The Philippines is it’s one of the top five countries in Southeast Asia where many people sell their organs to the Black Market. Yes, really.

THAT’S how bad and depserate things could get in America overnight should the Dominionists seize control of the government. What about Unions? They hate Unions. Don’t even get me started on Unemployment and Severance Pay either. They will get rid of all of those.

“Those who don’t work, don’t eat” as far as they’re concerned. What’s that? You can’t work because you’re hurt, sick, pregnant or have a preexisting condition? “Suck it up get lost” as far as they’re concerned.

 

Education

This is one “mountain” the public knows more about than they realize largely thanks to Republicans’ overt efforts to gradually kill Public Education in recent decades.

Why do Republicans hate the idea of “education for all” so much? Wanting a population dumb enough to control is just a part of it. The bigger reason is they feel they have a political mandate to reintroduce segregation in schools based on race and religion. They already succeeded in killing a major part of Affirmative Action several years back.

As for why Dominionists have a vested interest in education, having taxpayer-funded Christian Schools and reintroducing Bible Study in Public Schools are only two parts of it. The rest we’ve started to see in the experiment phase in Texas and Florida in particular. I’m talking about the book bans at not just school libraries but public libraries too.

To understand why the Dominionists are lockstep with the GOP on Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional Control–yes, I just referenced The BITE Model there–all you need to do is turn back the clock to The Dark Ages. For nearly 1,400 years, The Roman Catholic Church essentially ruled Europe with an iron fist. Whatever the Vatican didn’t approve of or understand was dismissed and branded as heresy or witchcraft. Anyone who dared to challenge The Vatican’s power and authority head-on was branded as a heretic and had the full weight of the government they had influence over brought down on them.

For the overwhelming majority of Americans who don’t know the history of European Politics from the early rise of the Roman Catholic Church to The Enlightenment in the late 18th Century, it’s this: For almost 1,400 years the Roman Catholic Church literally and metaphorically held the keys of life and death for generations of people in Europe. Free thought was discouraged while superstition abounded among the common people. The rich and privelaged who could get a formal education helped reinforce the class system of “Commoners” and “The Noble Class” of people.

One of the reasons Education is held in such high regard in Europe now is because they know their history. For centuries, economic disparaties barred most of the population from even learning how to read and write their own language. This is to say nothing of the Roman Catholic Church barring the Bible from being printed in any language except Latin (“Who but The Church  and clergy could read and understand The Scriptures?”).

Education is the way to combat ignorance and superstition. Dominionists are well aware of this and it’s why they’ve spent decades working to weaken and dismantle Public Education in the U.S. In addition to this they have joined forces with the purveyors of conspiracy theories in attacking and discrediting experts, historians and scholars.

In order to get as many people as possible to buy into the worldview they have to offer, they attack all other views or ideas as “misinformed”, “deceptive”, “evil”, “worldly”, “woke”, “demonic”, Satanic” and so on. In order to be able to brainwash and indoctrinate people en masse, Public Education and the profession as a whole needs to be dismantled and ultimately be replaced with “Christian” Education.

I’ll get into this in a separate post but as a former Educator, I have become very concerned by the fairly recent–I mean with the last 10 years–propaganda campaign from not just Dominionists but mainline Protestant denominations pushing families to pull their kids out of Public Education and home school their children if they can’t afford to send them to a Christian School.

The four biggest reasons they push for this are as follows:

1. To teach your childen “Biblical Values”
2. To shield your children from “Mainstream Propaganda”
3. To be “free” of Vaccine Mandates
4. To not have your children exposed to “Mainstream Propaganda”

 

The first one is the big thing Dominionists feel they have the political capital to pull off with little resistance especially from older Americans who remember when Bible Study was still in Public Schools. Before Roe v. Wade in 1973, there was Schempp v. Abington in 1963. The Schempps were Unitarians who sued the district saying requiring all students to read 10 Bible passages every morning and to recite The Lord’s Prayer violated their First Amendment Freedom of Religion. Their case was escalated to the Supreme Court which ruled 8-1 in their favor.

The Schempp ruling actually came down a year after the Supreme court ruled in a similar case. The Engel v. Vitale ruling in 1962 brought an end to school school-led prayers. The Engels, who were Jewish sued the district saying the mandated schoolwide prayer violated their religious views. The SJC ruled in their favor 6-1. The Schempp case happened the following year in 1963.

Combined, both cases were supposed to have ended the practice of Bible reading and prayer in public schools. Notice I said “supposed to have ended” there. Anyone who lives in a conservative community knows that these ruling are ignored and in many cases are not stopped in such places until they’re sued. usually by or with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). A ruling in 2000 was supposed to have banned school-led prayer at high school football games but it’s a fact that it is still openly practiced in many places.

The Dominionists and their allies in the current SJC will move to throw out those two rulings at the Federal level like they did Roe v. Wade. They’ll then mandate Bible reading and prayer in schools which sounds really nice to well-meaning Christians who’ve said for decades “everything was better when Bible study and prayer was still in Public Schools. At least kids learned morality and the fear of God”. Last I checked, the Bible makes it clear that’s the PARENTS’ first and foremost. Not their teachers’ job and certainly not the government’s job for that matter.

 

Moving on. By “Mainstream Propaganda” they largely mean the influences of the LGBTQ+ community. Those are the three big reasons they push and the intention is largely to have a generation of children who are indoctrinated to only have one worldview. THAT is what the Dominionists want for ALL of America.

There’s also what I mentioned earlier about Education being a privilage for children of the rich and well connected for centuries. These decades-long efforts from the GOP to defund and dismantle public education are entirely toward that end goal. More so after openly attacking the Desegregating of Public Schools became politically toxic by the mid-1970s.

Before I forget. These efforts to whitewash U.S. history by the GOP–literally and figuratively–plays into narratives pushed largely by white nationalists and their allies in the GOP. They allege efforts being made to teach grade school kids America’s WHOLE history–including the lows such as The Trail of Tears, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, Jim Crow and the bombing of Black Wall Street–is “reverse racism” or “teaching (white) kids to hate America”.

As a former educator, I am personally offended by those assertions that have since been championed by the likes of Ron DeSantis. To an extent, these assertions have also been co-opted by many Black Republicans in recent years who present themselves as outspoken proof “America is not a racist country (anymore)”. The problem is the facts say otherwise and they know it but I’ll get into the topic of Black Republicans in a separate post.

 

Arts & Entertainment

We saw a pretty good preview of what would happen here when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan a few years ago: Freedom of Expression, Free Thought and Creativity died immediately. People rushed to paint over murals in public displays and remove advertising displays they knew the Taliban would have deemed offenses punishable by death. In Iran and other Islamic Theocraric governments, non-Islamic books are required by law to have a sticker indicating they do not promote Islamic values.

In China, the government reviews all foreign movies and TV shows for content they either disagree with, is critical of their values as a country or makes portrays the country in a negative light. American movie studios and American companies going out of their way to not piss off the Chinese government has become a big topic of conversation in the entertainment industry and pro sports over the last 10 years.

In Russia, you can be arrested or worse for saying anything critical of Vladomir Putin or government policies even if it’s said during a comedy show or in a satire. Yes, really. During Trump’s presidency, Alec Baldwin played Trump in Saturday Night Live. Baldwin got weekly death threats from Trump supporters because of it. Then the Rust shooting incident happened. Many Trump supporters saw the legal trouble Baldwin was in as payback for his work playing Trump on SNL. While the incident was clearly nothing more than a tragic accident, that hasn’t stopped some Republican politicians from pressuring New Mexico investigators to take prosecute Baldwin largely to “punish” him for his SNL work.

Creative Expression has actually been under attack from Conservatives since at least the mid-1970s. Coincidentally, that was also when the modern rise of Liberalism in the U.S. really began. In the backdrop of the U.S.’ messy exit from Vietnam, the end of the miltary draft, the end of Jim Crow and the massive popularity of Rock & Roll young adults felt empowered to step out of their parents’ shadow and live for themselves.

The older generations didn’t take what they viewed as “counter-culture” among young people very well to say the least. In the minds of Dominionists and Christian Fundamentalist groups, anything that prevented them from controlling or  manipulating others was “evil” or “Satanic”. That’s basically anything other than what they want people to focus on.

The irony is the Bible promotes free thought and the freedom to choose for or against its teachings. I won’t digress further though.

 

Media

Like I said in a recent post, the Fourth Estate (The Media) has fallen. It corrupted itself after Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine and let media outlets start cannibalizing each other. We got a pretty good look at how the Dominionists plan to weaponize the media during Trump’s term.

It was no accident or coincidence Fox “News” was a part of the Trump Administration’s Media kit. His relationship with Fox “News” soured when they preemptively but correctly called Arizona for Biden during the 20202 election. Trump went to OAN and Newsmax for a bit and Rupert Murdoch finally had woke up to the fact Trump was insane.

The only reason Fox “News” as well as Mainstream Media outlets are still doing everything they can to prop up Trump as a “legitimate candidate” to the public–behind closed doors, they know he willl not win in November–is entirely self-serving: For ratings and ad revenue.

Contrary to popular belief–and I haven’t outright said this on this blog until now actually–both the mainstream media outlets AND the Right Wing media outlets in the U.S. are NOT owned or controlled by the U.S. government. They are all 100% privately owned, operated and financed.

The mainstream outlets are subservient to special interests and sponsors while the Right Wing Media caters exclusively to people who identify as largely Conservative and/or Evangelical. While it is true that until very recently CNN and MSNBC largely catered to people who identify as Liberal and/or Progressive, they’ve both started catering heavily to those who traditionally watch Fox “News” since mid-2021.

Some of you may remember shortly after the Pandemic shut the world down ads by Franklyn Graham and other Evangelicals suddenly started airing daily on all the cable news media outlets. That was no coincidence. Neither are those “Jesus Gets Us” Ads that have been airing on occaision during sports games broadcast on TV. Dominionists are behind it and they are setting the stage for what’s to come once they are in power.

Why build a new media ecosystem when you can simply take over and repurpose that one that already exists? Basically, we’ll have what Putin has in Russia: Propaganda and ONLY propaganda 24/7. Any journalist who dares to speak the truth in Russia is declared an enemy of the state. We saw this in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One journalist was charged for holding up a message critical of the Russian government but she managed to flee the country.

Even more terrifying than that would be the media being weaponized by Dominionists like it was in Rwanda 30 years ago. In fact, we already know the seeds are being planted in the Right Wing Media ecosystem in terms of a nationwide propaganda machine categorizing and dehumanizing minority populations (Immigrants, LGBTQ+, Democrats, Atheists, etc.).

The genocide museum in Rwanda stresses this point: People didn’t just wake up one day and decided to start butchering their friends and neighbors out of the blue. That happened after years of propaganda from political figureheads who one day said “The time has come, start killing the people from this tribe and any who aids them”.

When the Rwandan Genocide finally ended, it wasn’t just the survivors of the extermination campaign who were traumatized but the ordinary people who participated in the killings. They had been told they “had a duty to cleanse the nation of filth” and show no mercy to the other side. I recently talked to people whose parents, aunts or uncles participated in the massacres. Their relatives told them it couldn’t control themselves but they knew what they were doing.

The Far Right in the U.S. been ramping up their genocidal rhetoric in recent months and it has crossed into the mainstream media outlets. Dominionists would likely just use the media to tell people–especially their base–that they have the legal right to discriminate against people who are not like them.

 

Religion

I almost made this the last one but changed my mind.

This is the one “mountain” that may actually be the Dominionists’ downfall and more so when there is serious infighting which is pretty likely. The reason is simple: There are many different Christian denomimations. There are at least a few dozen in the U.S. alone.

The Dominionists and their allies in the GOP underestimate how strongly Christian faith leaders across all denominations who oppose their plans will mobilize their congregations to resist them for as much as possible and for as long as possible. I’m seeing signs on Xitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms right now that tells me a growing number of faith leaders are starting to speak out very forcefully against Christian Nationalism. Not just in the U.S. but especially in the U.S.

Why? Because REAL Christians not only know and understand Jesus himself opposed the idea of forced conversion but they recognize the damage these anarchists using Christian vernacular have caused for decades. The advent of the internet and social media have made it far easier for Christian Fundamentalists and Charismatic faith leaders to indoctrinate millions a day for free.

Honestly, I’ve become VERY concerned with the political apathy that has set in among Christians in America over the last few decades. I know most of the talking points like to focus on Trump in 2016 to now but the modern Christian Fundamentalist movement goes back decades. They were simply waiting for the right people to come along and help them advance their agendas. They got it in 2016 with Trump but clearly they are looking to get rid of him at the earliest convenience at this point but I’ll get into that in separate post.

All that said. It’s not hard to see the Christian Nationalists will silence and imprison dissidents as soon as they seize power. I’m not speculating or being hyperbolic. They’ll simply say any Christian denomination that doesn’t pledge support of them is apostate or heretics. Not just people or churches but whole denominations. It will be about asserting power and dominance over any who might challenge their authority.

They’ll also have the backing of a very powerful ally in Europe: The Vatican.

It is conspiracy fact that The Vatican has wanted nothing more than to have political influence within the most powerful country in the history of the world for over 200 years. Should America become a Theocracy, watch how quick The Christian Nationalists become The Vatican’s lapdogs. How so?

Simple: “One God. One Faith. One Nation. One Church.”

Suddenly, it won’t just be non-Christians anymore but Christian denominations such as the Seventh Day Adventist Church that will be aggressively persecuted by the Theocratic America.  They’ll be jailed and worse for refusing to compromise their beliefs for the sake of “unity”.

I’ve been open about this on this blog but I was raised as an Adventist so I can speak a lot to this particular topic. One of the core things Adventists are taught and made to understand has to do with a certain prophecy highlighted in Daniel and Revealation. Basically, there will come a time when Church and State become one in America and certain religious mandates will be imposed on Americans.

The idea of America becoming a Theocracy was laughable let alone unthinkable just 20 years ago. Not anymore.

Adventists are often accused of Legalism for observing the original Sabbath known today as Saturday. Most of the Christian world observes Sunday despite the fact there is no Bible passage the explicitly notes a change. This is to say nothing of a passage that notes “some will think to change times and laws”. Coincidentally, only one of the (original) Ten Commandments is both a time and a law: The Fourth Commandment and it is not only the longest but begins with the word “Remember”. I won’t digress further on that point.

Do I think that will come if the Dominionsts seize power later this year? No and more so given the massive resistance they will face for just trying. I’ll get into this in the next and final section but the Dominionists’ hostile takeover will not be taken lightly or quietly as they’re hoping.

 

Government

In order for the Christian America House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to see to rise, the existing government must fall.

Remember the imfamous admission at CPAC a few weeks ago: They want to end the American Democracy.

Over the last few decades, they’ve made a lot of progress in that endeavor. I went over a lot of the big ones over the last 6 sections. Let’s go over some more, many of which you likely noticed and may have thought to yourself “Is this just politicking or is there more to this than we realize?”

First, let’s review the fact the Dominionists and their allies in Congress are intentionally only allowing short-term spending bills when a Democrat is in the White House. They push a wedge issue such as Immigration, the boarder, crime or some trivial matter to justify holding the country hostage until they get the political win they want.

As for the Supreme Court, its standing as an apolitical branch of the government was shattered when they decided the 2000 presidential election (Bush v. Gore). Well, it turns out Al Gore actually did win that election but by the time that was confirmed it was already too late. The Right turned on the SJC when they ruled in favor of Obergafell in 2012, legalizing Gay Marriage nationwide. Then Trump packed the SJC with three justices whose main job was overturning Roe v. Wade. We all know how that turned out but I won’t digress further.

For the second time in eight years, one of two very unpopular candidates will win the presidential election this fall. One is the former president who’s prepared his base for a repeat of the aftermath of 2020 when he loses again.The other is the current president who has not only been largely uninspiring but has also been taking a lot of heat politically–largely unfairly on that note–over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The media is largely omitting this but so far, voter turnout has been low in the primary elections to date. In 2020, the election was decided by about 150 million votes. This coming November, I’ll be shocked if it’s two thirds that number. As in I am expecting even less people to vote than in 2020. Low voter turnout is exactly what countries that run sham elections like Russia and Venezuela use to justify rigging the system in the autocrat’s favor.

The Dominionists will control who is allowed to be a political candidate at all levels. Whoever they don’t approve of is not only not allowed to run for office but is threatened and pressured–along with their loved ones of course–to withdraw. Political theatre with the illusion of choice won’t be that hard to present since the media has had decades of experience pushing false equivalencies and bothsidesism.

The literal definition of an Autocratic Leader is someone who can’t be voted out of office. We have one political party–the GOP–that is all about installing people who will have their position for life and prettymuch can’t be removed unless they die or resign. I refer to Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges on that note but if they get their way, this will also legally apply to people who occupy the other two branches of government too.

 

…America is in an extremely vulnerable state politically right now to say the least. It’s also the biggest reason why myself and others have been saying on Xitter in recent weeks Political Apathy has set in.

Churchill said this quote in regards to America entering World War II two years after it formally started. America got involved in WWII after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 but the war had actually begun two years earlier.

After WWI, America adopted a strict isolationist policy. This is actually where the phrase Trump coiled “America First”–code for “America Only”–first came from on that note. After WWI, Many Americans believed America had no business getting involved in Europe’s problems militarily. More so when the Great Depression happened. Ironically, it was WWII that helped turn America into the world’s first Super Power. Not just militarily but economically and culturally.

It’s worth noting in the 1930s and even through America’s involvement in WWII, some Americans were smitten with Hitler and Hitlers Xenophobic ideologies. This is also where the idea of the American Nazi Party first came from. It’s since morphed into the Neo Nazi Party, a political movement all White Nationalist groups past and present subscribe to at least partially.

The Dominionists oppose everything America is about including the Constitution and especially the very idea of there being a separation of Church and State. You just finished reading through this entire post which highlights in detail how they plan their plans for a hostile takover of the government and what they have in store for everyone here. This is not conspiracy theory but is conspiracy fact.

With everything going with the U.S. politically and mainstream media largely ignoring these threats in plain sight, it falls to ordinary Americans to educate themselves on what is going on.

On that last point. DON’T assume just because your favorite news media outlet isn’t talking about something that “it’s nothing” or “not something to be concerned about”. Like I said earlier as well as in a recent post, The Fourth Estate (the News Media Industry) has largely fallen. Unfortunately, the only thing the Mainstream News Media industry learned from social media is to lean hard into clickbait headlines and sensationalism but I won’t digress further on that.

Getting back to Churchill’s quote and in closing. All I can really say is times have changed. The social and political apathy in America didn’t just happen overnight. It happened over the course of decades. I’m talking about over half of registered voters in America who will be staying home in November largely in protest of both candidates.

The Dominionsts are WELL aware of this and in their minds, it justifies the Minority Rule that they are all about setting up. They’ve already rationalized it to their base and their allies by basically saying “Divine Right” but with many more words than that. This is exactly why people like that should NEVER be allowed anywhere near the levers of government.

…Unfortunately, the table is being set in plain sight as we speak for their hostile takeover. Trump is less important than the people behind him or no longer see any value in letting him or his base think he can get back in the White House. They know Trump has no real chance of winning the election but letting his supporters continue to think his becoming president again is a foregone conclusion suits their interests for the time being.

…It will make his exit from the stage that much more beneficial to them and I’ll get into that in the very next post.

 

 

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It’s Official: A controversial Alabama Supreme Court decision has ended IVF Treament statewide literally overnight

Just like that, IVF is now effectively illegal in the state of Alabama.

Why?

Because the Alabama Supreme Court ruled 8-1 legally, fertilized eggs are children.

For context, a couple undergoing IVF treatment in the state learned three of their unused embryos were destroyed by mistake. They sued and their case was elevated to the Alabama Supreme Court which ruled Wednesday morning 8-1 frozen embryos are children and are entitled to the same legal protections as live children.

As a reminder, Alabama also outlawed abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. That fact was used to decide this case at the state level. It’s obvious the Dominionists in the Alabama Supreme Court is daring the defendant–an IVF company–to appeal to the SJC knowing they have a 6-3 super majority there.

As many have pointed out online, this ruling is a giant middle finger to who knows how many people in Alabama who were spending thousands of dollars out of pocket on IVF treatment that insurance doesn’t cover to now find out it was a wasted effort if they don’t go out of state. Oh and this outcome was 100% intentional.

Dominonists and Christian Nationalists hate IVF not because as they claim scientists are “playing God” but because in truth, they want to be able to control women’s bodies. The judge who read the ruling cited his religious beliefs as the basis for his decision. We may be in the final year of the American Democracy and that’s becoming more obvious now.

The Dominionists are aggressively working to install their people in the FDA and pharaceutical companies for the sole purpose of banning drugs used for abortion as well as ban contraceptives of all kinds. Yes, really. They’re not hiding their intentions either.

As of now, any state with abortion outlawed could end up like Alabama with IVF services ending without warning or noticed. If you or your partner is currently undergoing IVF treatment in a state with Abortion outlawed, you might want to consider at least temporarily moving to another state for the time being. Either that or give up on having a baby.

Oh and don’t waste time or money looking for a surrogate in a state that has abortion outlawed either since Dominionists want to get rid of that too. They don’t like Gestational Surrogacy in general because they consider it–even when it’s family helping family–to be human trafficking as well as “playing God” because of the IVF components involved. So, your only options would then be to give up on having a baby…or temporarily move to another state.

Pick one.

Women’s Reproductive Rights are under attack by Christian Fundamentalists who are playing for keeps. They won’t stop until America is a Christianized version of Iran and the Taliban-run Afghanistan. Google Project 2025 and see for yourself.

 

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It can no longer be denied: The American News Media Industry is doing everything it can to help domestic chaos agents destroy America

The New York Times dropped this article online and they have rightfully been taking a lot of public backlash over it.

For context, over the weekend Trump publicly said if he becomes president again he will pull the U.S. out of NATO. That’s not even the worst of it. He later doubled down and said Russia should attack NATO countries. Yes, really.

This morning, he said the U.S. shouldn’t “give” money or aid to other countries but should give loans instead. Trump said this in reaction to the backlash the media is largely downplaying over his comments about NATO countries and U.S. allies around the world.

As a reminder, the whole world is and has been following the political situation in the U.S. very closely for some time. Most of the world celebrated Biden’s victory in 2020. Do you know who wasn’t happy to know Biden would be the new president in 2021? Putin, Xi and Kim Jong Un.

Biden made it a point to publicly tell America about a private interaction he had with Xi when they were Vice Presidents of their respective countries several years back. Xi views the American Democracy as the biggest threat to China culturally and politically more than anything else. That’s because people in China want the same freedoms we take for granted in the U.S. and other democracies. This is to say nothing of Russia’s Alexei Navalny.

As for why the media is deadset on pushing the idea “A second Trump presidency might not be so bad” lately, it’s because for all the hate he directed at their industry, he wasn’t “boring” for them to cover. Biden is boring for the news media to cover because unlike Trump, Bush 43 and Clinton, he’s not “exciting” or “edgy” and neither is his cabinet.

Obama was exciting for a while but by 2013, they started their pressure campaign to push Trump run in 2016. Then when they eventually got what they wanted–and regretted it behind closed doors–they dedicated almost all of their airtime to Trump. Despite everything Trump did as president–and especially during his exit–the media STILL wanted him back.

This is also why despite the fact they know Trump’s White House bid is now legit dead–I’ll get to that later–they’re still talking about him as if he still has a viable shot at winning the election. Not just Right Wing Media but most grievously, mainstream media outlets.

The whole news media industry needs to tell people the truth and the WHOLE truth. Decades of clearly biased reporting and spin is why we now have a generation of young people who don’t watch or read the news. They don’t watch or read news media largely because in their minds, what they see shared on Social Media is either more up to date or more likely to be true. I don’t just mean politics but news in general.

 

 

This brings me to Western societies feeling largely overwhelmed by daily headlines saturated with often rapid-fire negative news stories. We’re talking things from Mass shooting events to natural disasters to acts of violence to some conflict-triggered humanitarian crisis somewhere in the world.

Eventually, people get apathetic and numb to what’s going on. That’s exactly what started happening in the U.S. in particular over the last 30 years. People will then naturally look for escapes from reality. Escapes the entertainment and leisure industries in particular were all too happy to provide.

“Live in your world. Play in ours”.

A sad irony is we now have at least three living generations of people Democracies who want someone or something else to do all the thinking and decision-making for them. I mean in general, not just politics. People don’t want to think for themselves. People want to be told what to think and what to believe without having to put in the effort themselves because it’s “easier”.

And the media is explioiting that. Even more so now.

Before I move on, at this point it’s probably fair to say we need to build a new media industry. One built on facts, fact-finding and impartiality. Those who are on the side of common sense and speaking truth to power no longer have a place in Corporate Media. It’s beyond redemption at this point as a whole and especially in the area of politics. Enough’s enough.

No more billionaire-controlled media outlets. We need to go back to the smaller regional media organizations that built their credability and reputation on facts and integrity. More so given too many sold out in the name of money and influence in recent decades.

When it comes to politics AND current events, NONE of the existing media outlets can be trusted at face value. Not CNN, not MSNBC, not the New York Times, Not the Washington Post and certainly not Fox “News”. Social media platforms–especially Xitter–are no exceptions.

 

For the majority who probably don’t know, Right Wing Media predates the rise of Fox “News” in the early 1990s. It predates Rush Limbaugh’s radio show which started in the 1980s.

The concept of a separate news media ecosystem that specifically catered to Conservative Politics came about in the 1970s by those who felt “their” ideologies and values weren’t being represented in news media outlets. More so in the aftermath of the Civil Rights era and Roe v. Wade. So, they spent decades building the Right Wing Media and now Social Media ecosystem we see today.

I’ve said this before and it’s become much more obvious now: There is and never was a Left Wing Equivalent to the Right Wing Media ecosystem.

For almost 30 years Conservatives and Republican talking heads long accused the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times of being “Leftist”. Ironically, now they all look no different from Fox “News” in terms of how they characterize coverage of people from both political parties.

At this point, Corporate Media or Mainstream Media (MSM)–they’re both the same industry–is beyond redemption. What some call Fourth Estate and what others call the unofficial Fourth Branch–in reference to the American media industry–has fallen. It’s more than fair to say that now.

America is heading to a very dark place and the media is not covering it. To be more specific, it’s avoiding talking about it. Why? Because of conflicts of interest first and fear of violent retaliation from the Right second. Don’t take my word for it on that second one. Just ask CNN.

 

All that said.

It is a fact people are being manipulated by the media. I learned about media literacy back when it was still being taught at the high school level about 24 years ago.

Now would be a good time for people to educate themselves on the ways mass media can and does use undue influence, mild hypnotism, redirection techniques and the power of suggestion largely for financial gain. THAT is what makes the news media so powerful…and dangerous when it utilizes everything it has to misrepresent and mischaracterize people they decide they don’t like.

That’s also what makes political Bothsidesism by the news media so dangerous. By pushing a false equivalency to appease one side, the media by extension given itself permission to not talk about the clear, present and active threat White Christian Nationalism is to America right now.

Most sane Americans have NO CLUE–NONE–we may be in the final 9 months of the American democracy. Why? Because the news media collectively decided years ago you don’t need to know what’s coming. I haven’t said this in quite a while but this is conspiracy fact.

Fortunately, there are people who are willing do the media’s job for them. I am one such person. Another is The Young Turks (YouTube). More recently there’s The Lincoln Project and MeidasTouch. Even the Hacktivist group collectively known as Anonymous is on the move. These, other grassroots movements and many people world wide and stepping up to try to give people a chance to prepare for what’s coming later this year.

I am well aware that I’m starting to sound conspiratorial at this point. The problem is unfortunately, failure of imagination is why America is in its current situation. The American traitors working to destroy the country from within are out in the open and they want everyone to know what they’re doing as well as why. They’re openly telling everyone.

If you want an idea of what we are up against, follow Jim Stewartson (@jimstewartson) and Steve Hassan (@CultExpert) on Xitter. Those two would be real good starting points. Dr. Hassan also has a popular podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube called The Influence Continuum on that note. I strongly recommend checking it out.

 

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The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a dire warning to all Democracies sliding into Autocracy

While Ukraine continues to stand alone as the only Democracy willing to fight Russia head on, the only prominent Russian citizen who was willing to face Putin head on has just died in prison.

If you haven’t already, watch the 2022 documentary about him. It is worth noting when Navalny left Russia to get emergency medical treatment for Putin’s first attempted assassination via poisoning in 2019 he vowed to return to his homeland. He knew he would likely be arrested as soon as he got off the plane and that’s exactly what happened.

Prison officials claim he was sick when died while taking a walk but the problem is we have footage from the day before when he was in court. He’s clearly seen smiling and joking with the judge. That actually makes it much more obvious Navalny was likely poisoned.

Reactions from within Russia have largely been a mix of outrage, anger and mourning. In a video clip that’s gone viral on Xitter, an elderly woman said to undercover reporters she too many young Russians are terrified of the government and are afraid to speak out. She said they don’t understand how much power they really have and this is why the overwhelming majority of people who’ve taken to the streets have been elderly or clergy.

The elderly woman went on to say–quite bravely–that Putin is a liar and a murderer who’s responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 Russian soldiers and devastating Ukraine. She said Russia is isolated from the rest of the world because of Putin.

 

That brings me to Navalny’s last message in his documentary to his supporters in Russia:

“Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” – Alexei Navalny

He said it first in English and then repeated it in Russian at his producer’s request.

 

Did you know the Russian government is throwing people in prison for 15 days for daring to publicly mourn Navalny? Yes, really. The day after an orthodox clergy announced he would lead a public vigil for Navalny, Russian cops showed up at his church and arrested him. Even though he had the man killed, Putin is STILL afraid on Navalny. That should tell you how weak Putin really is.

By the way the above picture is the Wall of Grief National Monument in Moscow. Commemorated by Putin, the memorial was made to–wait for it–honor and remember the countless Russians who were persecuted and killed during Stalin’s reign of terror. Now local police are chasing away anyone who dares to linger at the monument to mourn Navalny for more than a few seconds. Likely on Putin’s orders.

You can only suppress a population the size of Russia’s for so long. Obama publicly warned Putin of the high (political) cost he would have to pay for repeatedly silencing the collective voices of the Russian people almost 10 years ago.

This brings me back to why Navalny felt so strongly about returning to Russia despite knowing what would happen to him. He believed real change in Russia must come from the Russian people. Now that he is dead, his widow Yulina and others have vowed to continue the work he started.

 

February 24 will mark the two year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Ukraine. After four months of distraction sparked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Europe and NATO have started to return their full attention to supporting Ukraine. Right now, the only country not afraid to fight Russia head on is clearly Ukraine.

In the absence of military aid from the United States, a growing number of European countries are ramping up the speed and amount of aid they are providing to Ukraine. Despite Russia’s best efforts, Putin has largely failed to break the spirit of the Ukranian people.

The day before Russia announced Navalny’s death Zelensky said if the U.S. sends military aid, over 3 million Ukrainians displaced to other counties by the conflict will return home. That’s a pretty huge tell and by now the world should know he’s not bluffing.

Zelensky wants to retake Crimea which was annexed by Russia in 2014 and the Ukrainian military has already carried out a lot of successful surgical drone strikes on Russian military assets in the region. A MASSIVE military offensive is clearly being planned and momentum is on Ukraine’s side.

What does this have to do with the situation in Russia? It’s simple: When Crimea falls, it will set off a chain reaction within Russia. The fact that a military one fifth the size of Russia’s was able to defeat it will break morale domestically in Russia. More importantly, people will revolt in Russia.

Navalny’s death has started to unleash a lot of pent-up emotion within many in Russia. Most in Russia know by now Ukraine is where young Russians are being sent largely to die. It’s a massively unpopular war in Russia and despite Putin’s best efforts, the anti-war voices refuse to stay silent.

 

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Anti-Immigrant activists arriving at the U.S.-Mexico boarder in Texas are shocked to find nothing awaiting them

 

For decades, the biggest lie the GOP and Right Wing Media outlets knew they could count on for DECADES during election years was the idea America is being “invaded” by immigrants throug the Southern Boarder.

This past weekend, conservative activists and White Christian nationalists from across the country have started to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico boarder. What have they found?

NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

 

No caravans, no trucks packed with “illegals”. No traffickers. NOTHING.

What does this mean for those who for decades were told by Right Wing Media media America was being “invaded” by illegal immigrants? No idea but now that they’re seeing the truth with their own eyes, we’ll see.

I’m not expecting people to change their views overnight or anything like that but hopefully, these people will start thinking for themselves. This is also why I’m not bashing those who took the time to travel to Texas to see what’s going on for themselves. If that’s what it takes for people to understand they’re being deceived, more power to ’em.

 

Anyone who’s lived in New York City or spent time there at night has likely seen these folks in red patrolling the streets. Founded in 1977 by Curtis Silwa, the vigilante group patrols the streets of New York City largely looking out of acts of violence and crime.

They have allegedly intercepted hundreds of attempted muggings and dozens of attempted sexual assaults in just NYC though they’ve expanded to other U.S. cities including Philadelphia, Denver. Chicago and Los Angeles.

I’d heard a lot of positive things about the Guardian Angels until about 16 years ago. I know a lot of people who live and work in New York City. I mean people who’ve had encounters with the Guardian Angels. They’re referred to as a vigilante group and a pack of thugs with good reason. There’s been documented cases of the Guardian Angels taking the law into their own hands–often at Silwa’s urging–and attacking people they suspect of having just committed a crime before they call the police.

The Guardian Angels like to publicly flaunt their friendly relationship with law enforcement but in truth they’ve become a nusiance to NYPD. Silwa had a few failed mayoral bids over the years and many now think he’s taking his political failures out on the people his group targets on a nightly basis. More so given Eric Adams–a former cop–is the current mayor of New York.

Last year, Silwa was recorded shouting anti-immigrant rhetoric outside of a migrant shelter. What made it shocking was the fact he did it while dressed in the Guardian Angels’ signature jumpsuit and some of his people present. To be fair, his group is made up of people from all background male and female but it’s clearly just for sake of appearances. People who’ve known Silwa for decades have long spoken out about his racist ideologies.

That brings me to last week. During Silwa’s interview with Fox “News”, members of his group suddenly turned and tackled a man he claimed was a migrant caught shoplifting live on TV. It was later revealed the man his group assaulted was neither a migrant or a shoplifter but the damage has already been done. The person who was assaulted can and should sue Silwa to say the least.

All that said. This incident is every black and brown person’s worst fear come true: Being targeted by groups like this because you look a certain way. Even worse is the self-justification people like Silwa like to use for arbitrarily doing that to others.

 

That brings me to this past weekend’s shooting incident at prominent Televangelist Joel Olsteen’s mega church in Houston, Texas.

I’ve talked about this a bit on Xitter with a few folks but the more I look at that incident, the more it stinks of setup. It’s nothing more than speculation on my part but circumstances make it hard for me to believe that was a “mentally ill person” who randomly chose that location to target.

For one, it’s well known to people in the area Olsteen’s church has armed security who patrol the halls while it’s open and 24/7 closed circuit security everywhere.

Second, the only person who died was the shooter herself. Not saying she never fired a weapon but it looks like she never actually shot anyone. Her 7 year old son and another bystander were shot–her son critically–in as a law enforcement spokesman said was “an exchange of gunfire”. It’s easy for them to claim that when the suspect was killed on sight and from how it sounds her son may not live very long either.

Third, the “good guys with guns” happened to be nearby when she came in and shot her before she could shoot anyone. Meaning the “good guys with guns” shot her, her son and a bystander. Let that sink in. THAT is the reality those who worship the NRA deem “acceptible collateral damage”.

All that said. What I’m saying–and to be clear, this is nothing more than speculation on my part–is this was a setup. The shooter and her son were Hispanic and they happened to enter just when Spanish worship services were about to began. The incident has already been twisted and repackaged by White Christian Nationalists to claim the shooter was an illegal immigrant which obviously was not true.

That aside, it’s not a secret Olsteen has local law enforcement in his pocket. It would not be hard for him to fabricate a story and distort facts to his liking with the cooperation of local law enforcement. My point is don’t expect the truth to ever be known. Olsteen holds a lot of power and influence in the area as well as in most Evangelical circles not just nationwide but worldwide. It would not be hard for him to fabricate this kind of setup is what I’m saying.

Hours before yesterday’s mass shooting event in Kanasas City happened, I was listening to the latest episode of Joe Trippi’s podcast. In the February 13 episode he had Simon Rosenberg as a guest. Rosenberg made a comment that really stood out to me: Republican voters in red state are really getting left behind.

For the second year in a row, Massachusetts was just named the most educated state in the country and with MassReconnect they might happen a third time next year. By “most educated” we’re not not talking about college or secondary education but primary education (K-12), Preschool/Pre-K (K-0-K2) and access to Museums and public libraries.

I live in Boston but I’ve seen the inside of public libraries in New Bedford, Chelsea, Athol and a few other places in Massachusetts. Despite retail bookstore chains like Barnes and Noble and Boarders going out of business in recent decades, Public Libraries have been and continue to be a constant here.

This is to say nothing of the fact life expectancy is much higher in “Blue” states compared to “Red” states. Yes, nationwide life expectancy is trending in the wrong direction but the reasons and causes for that are largely in Republican policies and ideologies. Even worse is culturally, they’re “proud” of their apparent “race to the bottom”.

This brings me back to the outrage machine that is Republican propaganda going back almost 100 years now. At the beginning, I talked about those who went to see the Southern Boarder in Texas for themselves seeing no sign of an invasion as they’d been told was happening by Right Wing pundits and politicians for decades.

I do think many will now start thinking for themselves and asking the right kinds of questions. It may not be obvious right now but we are seeing the beginning of the end of the current Republican Party. The media is not talking about the growing number of former Republican politicians at all levels who are making plans as we speak to campaign for Biden.

This is to say nothing of former MAGA people like ex-“MAGA Granny” Pam Hemphill who bravely infiltrate Trump rallies to try to talk to people and get them to start thinking for themselves. I’ve said this many times on this blog in 2023 but like it or not, the rest of us need to be willing and able to welcome those who’ve been subjected to in many cases generations of undue influence back into society. True reconciliation can’t happen otherwise.

I want to end with this and it is important. Just like most Democratic voters in Red states who don’t see a reason or need to move just because their political views are different from the majority, the same is also true of Republicans in Blue states. In most cases, they’ve lived in the state they live in all their lives and rightfully shouldn’t have to move just because their political views are different from the majority.

We also NEED Democratic voters living in Red States to stay where they are and not give in to pressure to move to a Blue state. The last thing we want to do is exaserbate the political discord by having a lot of people move en masse to or from states based on their political views. That certainly should be be discouraged to say the least.

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The Lincoln Project’s new Ad “God Made A Dictator” takes aim at Evangelical Christians who support Trump

Here is the ad by Lincoln Project everyone in America needs to see but Corporate Media doesn’t have the guts to air or talk about:

 

The video is a direct response to the video “God Made Trump” which has been flooding the Right Wing Media ecosystem–and Evangelical communities–for months.

Trumpism has infested most of Christianity in America but even before Trump, there were clear signs Christian Fundamentalists and a growing number of Evangelical movements were pushing to make the lie “America is a Christian Nation” a reality. In the case of House Speaker Mike Johnson that means literally.

People need to understand something: The Bible literally warns–I mean repeatedly–of people weaponizing religion or a twisted form of religion to manipulate and control people. It’s true many of the people who first came to North America from Europe sought religion freedom. What’s also true is they brought the same ideologies around pursecuting those who didn’t fall in line with them from Europe.

Don’t take my word for it. Look up the Salem Witch Trials. That incident from the early 1600s is WHY the Rhode Island colony was founded several years later. It was founded by people who felt the Puritains who controlled the Massachusetts Colony was forcing everyone to live under the same kind of theocratic rule they supposedly left Europe to escape from.

The Separation of Church and State was hard baked into the Rhode Island Colony’s constitution and of course when it become a U.S. state. The Puratains’ control of Massachusetts was finally broken several decades after the Salem Witch trials when the people demanded change and refused to be silent any longer.

400 years later, the victims of that dark chapter from Massachusetts’ past are finally getting proper burials and memorials. Was Abigail Williams–the main accuser–or the other three accusers ever held legally responsible for the deaths of almost 40 innocent people? No but there was an investigation. The victims were later formally pardoned and cleared of any wrongdoing though Williams later admitted she lied about being demonically possessed and made everything up out of boredom. Yes, really.

The Salem Witch Trials have LONG been used as THE textbook example of why the idea of an American Theocracy is so dangerous to EVERYONE with good reason. All of the victims were devout Christians but that didn’t spare them from being murdered over baseless accusations.

We have been seeing a modern-day version of that era with these baseless accusations of pedophillia being lobbied by Far Right personalities against the Democratic Party. It’s extremely dangerous and will be one of the contributing factors to America being plunged into Civil War. It needs to stop and condemned in the strongest terms possible. More so given how normalized the practice is getting by Far Right personalities and QAnon believers.

All that said and getting back to Trump’s Cult of Personality that has ensnared a large chunk of Evangelicals and Conservatives. Make no mistake the blind devotion comes from a desire by many Evangelicals to have political power and be “THE” ruling class over “others”. They got a small taste of that the last time Trump was in the White House and they want it again.

It’s all about turing America into an Autocratic  Theocracy at the end of the day in their minds. Nothing more or less.

 

The Atlantic’s Peter Wehner recently wrote an article about the darkness that was always lurking beneath the surface within the GOP that Trump unleashed starting in 2016.

It would be more accurate to say Trump started planting the seeds back in 2007. For those who might not be old enough to remember, Trump was the one who amplified, popularized and weaponized the Birther consiracy theory concerning former President Obama. Trump picked up an easily debunked conspiracy theory that asserted Obama was not born a U.S. Citizen. Obama’s father was a Kenyan national. His mother was White.

The governor of Hawaii at the time went of their way to track down and publicly releasea copy of Obama’s birth announcement which had been published in an article. Since that obviously wasn’t enough for the racists who asserted Obama was an illegitimate president on the basis of his name, the White House publicly released a copy of his birth certificate about halfway through 2009. In 2017, Michelle Obama didn’t mince words when she said she’ll never forgive Trump for that more than anything he’s ever done.

Like I said before though, the GOP was already beginning to embrace the maliciousness, xenophobia, inwardness and cruelty it now is long before Trump came along. He simply gave people permission to and encouraged them to be the worst versions of themselves. A common recent example of this is Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis. I’ve got some breaking news on him to cover in a bit so I’ll stop here for now.

All that said. The current Republican Party is beyond redemption. A growing number of lifetime multigenerational Republicans are starting to realize that and are either leaving the party or just not voting anymore. I mentioned this in the previous blog post but out of Iowa’s 756,000 registered Republican voters, only 110,000 actually voted last week. Meaning 746,000 registered Republican voters stayed home.

Of course, the media is not mentioning this critical detail. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the narrative they want to portray that Trump is a serious threat to Biden. Iowa is a state with a population of 3.1 million people. Only 756,000 of them are registered Republican voters. That means the other over 2.4 million registered voters are Democrat, Independent and everything inbetween. Let that sink in.

I said this on Xitter a few times last week but if this trend continues, the upcoming presidential election could easily have the lowest voter turnout in U.S. History. Know what happens when people stop voting? You give people in power and wanna-be dictators who feel they shouldn’t have to go throug the election process every so often justification to rewrite the rules as they see fit.

For those of you who consistently refuse to vote for whatever reason, I have two things to say to you. One is elections have consequences. The other is you forefeit the right to complain about election outcomes later. In recent years the Republican Party has started being more open and honest about the fact most of them have to use voter suppression, voter subversion and voter intimidation to win elections. They do it because they know they can’t win elections otherwise. Most but not all to be clear.

For all the problems the Democratic Party has–and it has a LOT of glaring issues to be clear–at least they are not actively working to suppress and subvert Republican votes. They don’t need to. The problem is unlike Republican voters, the Democratic Party basically has to BEG their base to vote every election. THAT is the reason voter turnout among the Democratic voters has been consistently low and getting worse in recent years.

It’s like I said earlier: All this is doing is giving people like Trump justification to LEGALLY take away the most sacred right in ANY Democracy: The right to vote period. Ask most Black Americans who are 70 and older what life was like before the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They’ll be happy to tell you.

Before I move on to the next topic, I want to mention this because it speaks to how normalized the political dysfunction and malinformation in the U.S. has become lately. I recently went to my Community College to take care of some errands and I happened to overhear a political debate in a hallway. An ardent young Trump supporter was telling his companions–who all supported Biden but sounded worried–“If Biden gets re-elected, all of us are going to be fighting Russia, China or Hamas by next year and that’s not right. If Trump gets back in the White House,  he will keep us out of it.”

I couldn’t help but think of that famous William Wallace speech from Braveheart in that moment. To summarize, Wallace gives the army gathered before him a choice: “You can either fight for liberty knowing you may die or you can go home and live under the yoke of a tyrant who only wants to keep you in line. Which will you choose today?”

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided not to jump in the conversation. I’ll speak more to this later but unlike most of the world, most of the current generation of Americans have NO CLUE what it feels like to lose personal freedoms indefinitely. But we will in the unlikely event Trump becomes president again. Trump becoming president is more hypothetical this time than it was in 2016 for reasons publicly known for some time.

That brings me to a developing story involving Dean Philips. Apparently, Philips is considering switching to the so-called No Labels Party ahead of the Democratic Primary. The media still continues to pretend they don’t know but the No Labels Party is being managed by the same person who manages Trump’s campaign. In other words, it’s a political scheme with the sole purpose of taking votes from Biden to help Trump win by default.

This isn’t the same as 2016. Most of the country understands allowing Trump back in the White House would mean the end of not just our Democracy but the end America period. The only real chance Trump has–and it’s what he and his allies foreign and domestic have been working on since he left the White House in disgrace in 2021–is to siphon as many votes from Biden as possible before the election.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unexpectedly united NATO under Biden’s leadership so Putin turned to Far Right personalities and Right Wing Media outlets in the U.S. to sow malinformation about the nature of the conflict in Ukraine. In exchange, American Far Right media is being aired in Russia.

The latest bit of malinformation from the Kremlin being parroted by their allies in the U.S. alleges Biden and the Pentagon want to go to war with Russia but the only way to avoid it would be for voters to put Trump back in the White House.

Yes, really.

Of course, the truth is the exact opposite. Putin wants to do with Trump what he’s done with Belarus’ Lukashenko: Make Trump his puppet. Putin tells Trump to jump and all Trump will say in return is “how high?” That is what awaits in the near future if Trump gets back in the White House. Trump’s only concern will do everything he can to appease Putin. That includes cutting funding to Ukraine, Israel and likely pulling our military out of Europe.

I’ll say it again: 100 years ago, we tried “America alone”. It didn’t work out for us. Before both WW1 and WWII we said the conflict in Europe “wasn’t our problem or concern”. Until it was. Germany attacking American ocean liners brought the U.S. into WW1 and Japan attacking Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into WWII. No one in America saw either of those moments coming but when they happened, we didn’t sweep them under the rug. We got our pound of flesh plus interest.

Getting back to the anti-Biden coaltion, as of this past weekend it’s safe to say Andrew Yang is now among them. I disagree with a lot of the things former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh says on Xitter but one thing I do agree with him on is the only person who can beat Trump IS Biden. The only serious candidate on the ballot in November will be Biden.

Don’t let the antics of the No Labels Party fool you: It exists for the sole purpose of helping Trump win the election. That’s the outcome No Labels was created to help make happen. They’ve been desperately looking for a candidate to prop up as a “serious” threat to Biden for two years. These new reports Philips is considering running as their candidate don’t surprise me and more so now that Yang is stumping for him.

I’ll be blunt, I’m disgusted by Yang’s social media attacks against Biden. He showed his hand and has revealed himself as being angry and bitter over the fact he was summarily dismissed during his failed presidental run several years back. Yang ran with two signature concepts that have since been adopted by many U.S. States and counties: Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV). The reason Sarah Palin is not a Senator right now is thanks to RCV on that note.

The silver lining is Yang was smart enough to not push a presidential candidate via The Forward Party. He would have torn that party’s credability to shreds since he is going to pay a political price for his antics. It’s obvious with his social media attacks against Biden it’s very personal for him and in his mind, his personal beef with the DNC is more important than ensuring Trump doesn’t get back in the White House.

 

I want to share this quote from January 14 by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before I share the big news:

You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful.

You can be the strongest, most dynamic, successful Republican and conservative in America, but if you don’t kiss that ring, then he’ll try to trash you

~ Ron DeSantis, 1/14/2024

DeSantis said that during some public remarks last Sunday. Literally a week later, DeSantis didn’t just announce he’s dropping out. He also announced that he’s (wait for it) endorsing Trump. Yes, really.

I don’t really need to get into the irony and hypocrisy behind DeSantis endorsing Trump. It goes without saying he’s doing it to avoid being targeted by Trump and his base. Ever since he started getting national attention 6 years ago, DeSantis presented himself as basically Trump without actually being Trump himself. He thought that would have been enough to get enough popular support to be a threat to Trump but his lack of Charisma is why his campaign was doomed to fail from the start.

That said, I do expect Haley to not only drop out sooner than later but to also endorse Trump too. The media recently stopped pretending the race for the Republican Primary could be won by anyone other than Trump. All that the Republican Primary was about–which most people knew from the beginning–was identifying potential VP and cabinet picks for Trump. That’s all it really was.

As for DeSantis, hopefully a potential Democratic challenger in Florida replaces him as Governor in the near future. Florida needs a change in leadership and culture ASAP.

Before I forget. It’s worth noting most of the Evangelical movements who backed Trump in 2016 and 2020 backed DeSantis. They like what he did with Florida–especially his so-called “War on Wokeness”–and were convinced DeSantis was a viable alternative to Trump. The problem is unlike Trump, DeSantis lacks natural charisma first and foremost.

Now that DeSantis has dropped out–and cowardly endorsed Trump at the same time–the big question now is where do all the Evangelical movements who backed DeSantis go from here. Some have already gone back to Trump weeks ago though most are quietly biding their time waiting to see hpw election season plays out.

Real talk: Most Evangelical movements who’ve moved to the sidelines do not want Trump back in the White House. They think he’s insane and their fear of Trump’s base is why they dare not speak out against him publicly. This is also why most of them urged DeSantis to run early on. After all, they had history on their side. The Republican candidate backed by Evangelicals has consistently become the nominee for decades. This is the first time I can remember that not happening.

That brings me back to my earlier question: Where do they go from here?

Like it or not, Evangelical leaders and their various movements hold a lot of influence in American politics. It’s why they’ve largely been lockstep with the Republican Party for decades. Now they’re up against a force of chaos even they don’t know how to deal with.

 

A day before the New Hampshire Primary, things have taken a REAL dangerous turn. We now have the first confirmed case of Artificial Intelligence being used for Voter Suppression and Voter Subversion in a U.S. Election.

There has been a robocall created using Deepfake A.I. impersonating Biden telling New Hampshire voters not to vote in tomorrow’s primary. This is the work of either someone looking to cause chaos or a foreign power. It’s unlikely a campaign would take the risk of such a brazen act being traced back to them.

I’m pretty sure a federal investigation will be opened because of this incident as well. We’ll likely find out who was responsible sooner or later.

I want to end with this because the Iowa Republican Primary reminded me of a problem no one is really talking about: Low Voter Turnout.

The 2020 presidential election was decided by about 155 Million votes. That’s a little less than half the U.S. population. Everyone else stayed home. The GOP is all about minority rule. They are also all about getting and holding on to power by any and all means necessary.

Case example: It’s just been revealed this week that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is now going to do the same thing House Majority Leader Mike Johnson is doing: Shut down the Senate. Why? Because Trump told them to. Yes, the GOP is once again holding Congress–and the country for that matter–because they’re scared of Trump and his allies. That is their primary motivation behind all this. They were willing accomplices who sold their souls for power. They deserve to pay the ultimate political price.

I’ll speak more to this–and how it’s now much more likely there will be acts of domestic terrorism before November–in a separate post.

 

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Iowa Caucus Fallout, Democratic candidate Dean Philips may actually have a chance and The Clock is Ticking

The political eyes of America were on Iowa Monday but already they are shifting to New Hampshire for next week.

Chris Christie dropped out a few days before 110,000 Iowans voted in the GOP Primary–unsurprisingly, Trump won–while two others dropped out after the Iowa Caucus. That leaves Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis left in the running. Of course, Trump will officially become the nominee by March 19.

I want to back up and just make sure people understand something: Iowa is a state with a population of a little more than 3 million people. Of them, only 110,000 of the Iowa’s Republican voters–about 4% of registered voters in the entire state overall–actually voted. Out of that 110,000, 108,000 voted for Trump. For context, Iowa has 752,000 registered Republican voters. As a reminder, there was heavy snowfall the day before and below freezing temperatures the day of. Yet the media and the GOP are separately making it sound like most of those 752,000 registered Republican voters voted which is not true. The little details matter for posterity’s sake.

I said this on Xitter but if that trend continues, the November election will have the lowest voter turnout for a Presidential Election in U.S. History. THAT is what the GOP and Trump are riding on. They are hoping enough people who would not vote for Trump stay home or don’t vote for Biden. It’s their ONLY hope this time actually and after this past October–I refer to the conflict in Israel–it’s a viable strategy.

A combination of foreign and domestic threats are working hard to keep Biden from getting a second term. Honestly, people need to start preparing themselves–and I’m being serious when I say this–for the very real liklihood Trump gets back in the White House or worse, Trump is incapacitated before the November election. I’ll speak more to that in a bit though.

 

For those who might not know or remember, Biden does have a Democratic challenger still in the running: Soon to be former Minnesota Congressman Dean Philips. Before launching his presidental bid, Philips announced he will not be running for reelection in Congress. Meaning he is all-in with his presidental campaign.

Philips has been having an even tougher time than Bernie Sanders did near the end of his campaign in 2016. Not only is the DNC blackballing him but a few states have already decided not to have him on the ballot. This is to say nothing of the media basically pretending he’s not still in the running for the Democratic nomination.

I’ll be blunt: The longer Philips stays in, the greater the chances more people notice him and start considering him. Unfortunately for those like myself who would love to vote for someone other than Biden–and obviously not Trump)–Philips is a very flawed candidate. I mean in terms of policy and personality.

He recently agreed to remove all mentions of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) from his campaign’s website in exchange for a $1 Million donation from hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman. On that note. It’s worth noting all the tech bros who were initially backing Vivek Ramaswamy switched to Philips as soon as Ramaswamy dropped out. Ramaswamy himself endorsed Trump after dropping out to the surprise of no one on that note.

On a related note. Philips has also talked about the token support he has been getting from Trump. If this sounds familiar, it was the same with RFK Jr. befeore he quietly dropped out last year (I am aware RFK Jr. is now trying to run as a third party candidate). In other words yes, Philips is yet another Trump surrogate hoping to play spoiler to Biden. The problem is unlike Sanders in 2016, Philips is not a real threat to Biden. And he knows it.

…Or is he?

Andrew Yang, co-founder of the Forward Party seems to think so. Yang recently endorsed Philips and has been working to help Philips get more public exposure. From what I’ve seen, Yang is clearly all-in on Philips and is willing to overlook his flaws. It’s a huge gamble on Yang’s part as although the Foward Party’s influence is rising nationwide, the party announced in advance they will not be fielding any candidates in the 2024 presidential election. It doesn’t mean they can’t back an existing candidate though.

While Yang IS right to say no one wants Biden vs. Trump II, he’s betting on a flawed horse that has no real shot at beating Biden head-on. It won’t even be close. Philips having friendly ties to Trump is what makes him so suspect to me and at the end of the day, I can’t trust Philips.

I can only hope Yang endorsing Philips doesn’t cause lasting damage for the Forward Party when they eventually start fielding candidates at the state and federal levels. At the very least Yang endorsing and stumping for Phillips will for sure hurt him politically.

I am aware Philips is starting to gain momentum with the new TV ads and more openly on social media. That still doesn’t change the fact he’s not a legit threat to Biden like Sanders was to Hillary in 2016. Being anti-incumbent alone is not enough to be taken seriously. It also doesn’t help to not be running a serious, forward-thinking campaign either.

 

To provide a bit of historical context, the Democratic Party’s hatred toward not just third party candidates but Democratic challengers to the incumbent Democratic president can be traced back to Edward Kennedy’s failed presidental bid in 1980. Who was president in 1980? Jimmy Carter, the last Democratic president who failed to get re-elected (Lyndon B. Johnson didn’t seek a second term so he doesn’t count).

By the time Carter got past Ted Kennedy and secured the Democratic nomination, he had been severely weakened politically. Not just from Kennedy but various national and international crisises that were happening at the time. Most imfamously the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis during the election. It was revealed two years ago Republican members of Congress urged Iran not to negotiate with the Carter Administration. Why? To help Ronald Reagan get elected. It worked and was the deciding factor in Carter losing to Reagan.

The Democratic Party blamed Kennedy for Carter losing to Reagan though he knew he could never run for president ever again. Kennedy became a Senator a few years later and served until his death in 2009. The year before he died, Kennedy endorsed the man he likely viewed as his protege: Barack Obama, who would go on to become the 44th President of the United States in 2008.

Unfortunately, the only thing the Democrats seemed to have learned from what happened 44 years ago is “Don’t allow ANYONE from within to challenge the preferred party nominee”. That brings me to 2016 and the reason I am no longer a Democrat myself. The Democratic Party decided backing a politically flawed and politically divisive candidate who had no real shot at beating whoever came out of the Republican Party–I’m referring to Hillary Clinton–was better than endorsing a longtime Independent who not only chose to run for the Democratic nomination–Bernie Sanders–but kept his word and did not run as a third party candidate even though statistically, he actually would have won the White House if he had did so.

It is a fact MANY Republicans and Independents who did not like Trump in 2016 repeatedly told the world in advance they would be willing to vote for Bernie Sanders if he got the Democratic nomination–most potentially voting for a Democrat for the first time in their lives–OR ran as a third party because they believed Sanders could do what they knew neither Hillary or Trump could do and actually unite the country.

What happened instead?

Many of them either voted for Trump, voted for a third party candidate or stayed home largely in protest of the Democratic Party’s insistence on pushing Hillary Clinton and suppressing the majority of voices from within who wanted literally anyone else. Many of Hillary’s supporters to this day continue to insist “Everyone who voted for Trump/Other or didn’t vote for Hillary did it because they’re a mysogynist” and that’s an easy way to convince people to not vote for the next “chosen one”. It also betrays the fact some Dems are not all that different from Trump supporters. It’s why I left the party in 2016 so…yeah.

On that note and before I move on. It is a fact Hillary Clinton was a flawed presidential candidate and her status as a former first lady is only part of the reason why. Right after the 2016 election I said on this blog and another blog that Trump was the president we deserved, not the one we needed. I still feel that way now. Funnily enough, I also predicted in early 2017 Trump would be a 1-term president. I just didn’t know what the breaking point would be at the time.

What no one could have anticipated was Trump’s influence on American society being so strong, it would thoroughly infest the Republican Party by mid-2020. Make no mistake Biden won in 2020 primarily because most of the country wanted change and understood the country would not have been able to handle four more years of Trump. Biden did his job and America a huge favor of ending the pure insanity and disregard for common decency Trump’s presidency had become by mid-2020.

Literally ANYONE could have EASILY beatenTrump in 2020. Probably even Hillary Clinton if she ran that year. Bernie Sanders dropped out early on in 2020 largely because he knew Biden was a more viable candidate to take on Trump. The other reason he dropped out earlier was he wanted to avoid a repeat of what went down in 2016. Sanders would later announce he would not run for president again because of his age, saying in part the old guard needs to make way for younger voices.

 

Then the events of 1/6/2021 happened. It’s one of those instances where two people will see the exact same thing and each person interpret the same event differently. While most of the country saw it as the attack on the heart of Democracy itself it truly was, a third of Americans saw it as trying to “take their country back”.

Let’s be clear about one thing: The only reason the Trump-led coup on 1/6/2021 failed was because people in key positions of power refused to go along with it.

For example. Thanks to the 1/6 Hearings we now know Trump had every intention of joining the mob that sacked the U.S. Capitol. The only reason he didn’t was because his Secret Service security detail forcefully took him back to the White House. This is to say nothing of the Fake Electors Scheme failing because state Republican officials refused to do it.

Times have changed. The GOP has been making adjustments since then to install sycophants at the state level who will simply follow orders when the time comes. This is to say nothing of Far Right personalities having ready lists of people to install should Trump get back in power.

On that note. A lot was made out of Trump dismissing most of his staff in the first year and a half of his presidency. It was explained to the media as Trump being more efficient with less people but the real reason was Trump only wanted people who were loyal to him first and foremost. Everyone else was gradually let go or pushed out. Those preparations are being made in advance as we speak for if Trump gets back in the White House.

 

I actually had to revise the last two sections a few times because mathmatically and politically speaking, Trump does not have the votes to get back in the White House. That is a fact. About 45 Million to 50 Million people will for sure vote for Trump in November. At least 80 Million people will for sure vote for Biden. By default, Biden will win by an even bigger margin than he did in 2020. That is a fact.

Trump is not expected to WIN in 2024 but he was expected to RUN. It’s becoming much clearer the anarchists, White Nationalists and Christian Nationalists working from the shadows are simply using Trump to keep the media distracted. Given Trump’s now showing clear signs of cognitive decline, like I said on Xitter the other day one of the three things will likely happen sooner than later: Trump implodes in front of the media, Trump suffers a medical emergency in front of the media or a combination of both.

The irony shouldn’t be lost on anyone when it happens. Not if but WHEN. It’s not a secret Trump has been out of shape for years, eats poorly and is now clearly showing signs of cognitive decline. Before I continue, NO ONE is joking about that last part. The man seriously needs an intervention. Unfortunately for Trump, no one in his inner circle will dare suggest that to him. It’s as the saying goes, “Pride before the fall.”

I’ll speak more to that last part and how far gone the GOP clearly is in my next post. For the time being, I’ve ended my hiatus for this blog. I did mention a significant development with Trump would be one of the reasons I ended my hiatus. Trump barely gave me 22 days since that last post so you can thank him for this one I guess.

 

 

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Some end of the year political hot takes; New Xitter feeds and Podcasts to come by the end of the month

I’m gonna make this my last post on this blog for 2023.

Barring Breaking News, this will also be the last post until Spring 2024. I originally planned to put this blog on hiatus two months ago but then the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out.

If I do break my planned 4 to 5 month hiatus, it would be for one of the following kinds of breaking news:

• Trump dies
• One of the remaining Republican Presidental Nominees goes on offense against Trump
• Major update with the conflict in Ukraine
• Major update with the Israel-Hamas Conflict
• Major update with the Venezuela-Guyana situation

 

Those would be the big things. Outside of one of these things happening, don’t expect another post after this one until April or May 2024. The main reason for the long hiatus is I have 11 other blogs.

I’ve spent more time writing for this blog than the other 11 blogs combined over the last almost five years. This is the biggest reason I’m putting this blog on hiatus. Another reason is burnout. I need to take a long break especially with all the heavy topics I’ve had to cover in detail. Depending on a variety of factors I may extend my hiatus until the Primaries over the Summer. That would actually be my preference so we’ll see.

I do have two big housekeeping announcements to make. The first is the blog/newsletter Bitter Realities will likely be hosted on Substack, Mastodon or Patreon. Or a combination of all three. We’ll see. Google disabled the Gmail email address I set up for Bitter Realities so instead of fighting that, I’ll just make a new one with Yahoo or Outlook (FKA Hotmail). I am pushing back the setup to the Summer of 2024 though.

The other big housekeeping announcement is most of the Xitter Feeds and Podcasts featured on this blog will be replaced with new Xitter Feeds and Podcasts by the end of this month. The Mea Culpa Podcast recently joined the MediasTouch Network so I’ll need to look into updating the embed link related to that. Mary Trump seems to have discontinued her podcast several months back and switched to a email newsletter so I’m going to take her podcast embed down.

Coming in soon will be the Xitter Feeds for Malcolm Nance, Jim Stewartson and MeidasTouch. I also plan to add the podcast embeds for Joe Trippi and The Lincoln Project. Michael Cohen’s Xitter Feed will remain on that note. So will Stephen A. Smith and Steve Hassan’s respective podcasts and Xitter Feeds. I plan to have all this done by the end of the month. I don’t expect the changeovers to take that long personally.

…Now that all this is done, let’s get to some Political Hot Takes.

Nikki Haley has started to emerge as a legit alternative to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in recent weeks. Republican mega donors are backing her and now Republican politicians such as New Hampshire’s governor Chris Snunu are publicly endorsing her. The bigger question is will her momentum snowball into her openly going at Trump head on. It’s unlikely unless he loses the support of most of his base which also seems unlikely.

One scenario I will not discount personally is the very real possability Haley cuts a deal with Trump: In exchange for dropping out, he names her as his running mate. Let’s not kid ourselves, the mantra for most of the year has been “everyone’s auditioning for second place or a cabinet position”. This is why so far, only Chris Christie has gone on offense against Trump. I wouldn’t put it past Haley basically betraying her sponsors like that personally.

Christie is the only sane one but at this point it’s clear he has no real shot at challenging Trump or Haley. Both he and Ron DeSantis as trying to stay in the running for a long as possible hoping Trump will not still be in the running by June. With the help Trump is getting from Congress, that’s unlikely.

Speaking of.

One Republican member of Congress said the quiet part out loud on an open mic when asked by CBS News when asked the impeachment investigation against Biden is really about: Helping Trump get reelected.

Do they know they don’t have a real legal case against Biden? Of course they know. The intent of this and Hunter Biden’s legal issues are to distract and redirect attention from Trump as much as possible but the media is largely refusing to take the bait.

Speaking of Hunter Biden. The GOP wants to hold a Congressional hearing with him but the weird thing is they want it behind closed doors. The problem with that is the preliminary hearing is supposed to be open to the public and the media.

As a reminder, Hunter Biden is ths son of the current president. The difference is unlike Trump’s children, Hunter Biden is not and never was a part of his father’s cabinet. He does not and never did have access to sensitive or classified information. He just happens to be the son of the current president AND has legal issues they’re looking to exploit. As a reminder, Hunter Biden’s legal issues have absolutely nothing to do with his father and they precede his father running for president.

Getting directly involved with Hunter Biden’s legal issues and the impeachment investigation–by the way they’ve already admitted they have no evidence Biden actually did anything wrong–is part of the GOP’s calculation. They don’t care what the political cost they take is as long as they get what they want.

I said this before several months back but Trump’s GOP allies in Congress want one of two things to happen if they push hard enough. One is they’re hoping if they apply enough pressure, Biden will get directly involved in his son’s legal situation and more so now that they’ve started whispering in the judge’s ear.

Originally, the prosecution and Hunter Biden’s attorney cut a deal to get him a light sentence. GOP Congressmen protested this and a mistrial was declared shortly afterward. Biden’s not getting involved. Period. He likely knew the GOP would pull something like this the moment he ran for president. Most importantly, Hunter Biden probably knew as well. He’s not gonna let the GOP use him a political fodder and has called them out on wanting a closed door Congressional hearing with him.

The other thing the GOP is hoping for–more insidiously–is for Biden to get so stressed from the impeachment investigation that Biden’s health suddenly fails or worse. They’re not afraid of Kamals Harris who would succeed him if Biden becomes incapacitated. Don’t even get me started on the fact current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a Christian Nationalist and wants America to be a Theocracy.

All the said. The GOP knows these effors are fruitless. The intent is for them to be distractions. Unfortunately for them, the media’s largely refusing to bite.

 

This isn’t getting anywhere near as much attention as it should be but the new American Dream now appears to be leaving America. Yes, really and I mean regardless of politics. The two biggest reasons behind this being cited for people leaving the U.S. are the costs of living and the political situation.

I’ve been pretty open on this and two other blogs about wanting to leave the U.S. myself largely for those two reasons. With everything that’s been going on in the U.S. over just the last 10 years, now might be a good time for people with the means who’ve been thinking of leaving the U.S. to consider trying to leave before the 2024 election. The reason is because if a Republican win the 2024 election–especially Trump–it may suddenly be very difficult to get passport and visa applications approved. More so if you didn’t vote for the Republican president.

I can easily see a scenario especially with Trump back in the White House in which you’re required to get permission directly from the government to leave the country. They’ll claim it’s for “national security” or make up some other arbitrary reason. More so if there’s an indefinite nationwide martial law imposed. Hopefully we don’t have to find out in January 2025 but I digress.

Getting back on topic. For those who currently don’t have the means of leaving the country, try to get the means ASAP. Apply for a passport and pay the extra money to expedite your application. For those who don’t know, it currently takes 4 to 6 months for your Passport application to be processed. The reason it takes that long is because of severe staffing shortages in the U.S. State Department. If you pay extra to expedite the process, it will be done in 2 to 3 months though.

Once you’ve decided on what country you want to move to, do as much research as possible on the immigration process. Here’s a few things to consider depending on your reasons for leaving the U.S. behind:

• Extradition Treaty with the U.S.: About half the world’s countries have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Basically, it means if the U.S. puts out a warrant for your arrest and the country you go to has an extradition treaty with the U.S., the other country can arrest and send you back to the U.S. to face those charges. And vice versa. Even if a country doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S., they can still arrest and send you back at their own discretion. More so if the country already has friendly relations with the U.S. and other factors such as having a criminal record in both countries.
• Costs of Living: This is something to take into consideration and more so if you are bringing a family with you. U.S. Currency will still get you a lot in most of the world but careful planning is still important to make sure you can take care of yourself once you’ve made the move. That means being able to generate income, be self-sufficient or both in the country to move to. Like the U.S., most countries will expedite the immigration process for you if you either work in or study in an exceptional field. You want to make sure you’re not relying on wire transfers to survive.
• Building a Social Network: Easily the second most important thing and more so if you’re moving to a country where English is not widely spoken by most. You’ll likely run into a lot of people who are fluent in English but it’s still a good idea to learn the local language to better blend in. Unlike most of the U.S. in recent decades, it’s actually a real good idea to get to know people in the new country especially in the area where you plan to live. More so given most of the world is not as ignorant of what is going on in the U.S. as many Americans think.
• Dual Citizenship: Yes, you can keep your U.S. Citizenship while being a citizen of another country. It’s called having Dual Citizenship. Maintaining your U.S. Citizenship while living abroad allows you to vote in elections and also entitles you to the full services of the U.S. Embassy in the country you live in. While you can live outside the U.S. indefinitely and still keep your U.S. Citizenship, you should still make it a point to return to the U.S. for brief periods of time. More so if you’re living in a country with an unstable political situation is a war zone or is dealing with some kind of nationwide crisis. If you don’t provide the U.S. State Department with regular updates or keep your intent to return up to date, you will be declared as having abandoned your U.S. Citizenship. You will then have a short window with which to appeal that decision if you can provide reason you did not keep in touch with the State Department but I digress.
• Cultural and Political Differences: This is a big one especially if the country you go to has vastly difference cultural beliefs or political differences from the U.S. For example, ancestor worship is a thing culturally in most of Southeast Asia. It’s also still a thing in parts of South and Latin America but not as much due to the blending of Catholicism with Paganistic Beliefs. Some parts of Northern and Eastern Africa are VERY hostile to Westerners in general. I mean so hostile, international aid organizations can’t operate.This is to say nothing of language challenges even if we’re talking about a country where English is widely known or used. For example the UK. Certain words are spelled differently or have different meanings from American English.
• Developed vs. Developing: This probably the biggest factor to consider and more so given America has a consumer-driven economy. Ask anyone who’s spent a week or two in a country like Ghana, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam,  Tanzania, The Philippines or South Africa. Certain things like free Wi-Fi, clean drinking water and paved roads most take for granted in the U.S. are a rarity in those and most other counties. This is to say nothing of food shortages and food scarcity with no social, religious or government safety nets. I haven’t even mentioned the undeveloped or in many cases virtually non-existent healthcare systems in most of the world. That last one’s the biggest reason to hold on to your U.S. Citizenship if you go to a developing country. It would make more sense to return to the U.S. to get  medical treatment if need be. On the other hand if you go to a developed country like the UK, China, Japan, Australia or most of the Middle East it will just be a matter of being as self-sufficient as possible for the most part. Most of the conveniences you enjoy in the U.S. you will find in other developed countries.
• Leaving Family/Friends Behind: This can be pretty difficult and more when your family either views your decision to leave the U.S. as abandoning them or abandoning America. Worse–and more so these days–you may have some try to say you hate America. People don’t need to like or accept your reasons for wanting to leave for another country. I’ll just put it like that.

Those are all the major stuff to be mindful of.

I don’t think it can be denied any longer the new American Dream for new generations has become leaving the U.S. The overwhelming majority of people who are leaving the U.S. are in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

The main reason most people are leaving the is purely U.S. economical. No where in the U.S. can you hold a 1-bedroom apartment on a single entry-level salary. The national average on montly rent is between $1,200 and $2,000 though in places like Boston, San Francisco and New York it’s as high as $3,000 in a growing number of cases.

…Yet some want to downplay the looming homelessness crisis in plain sight.

 

Before the weekend, Vladomir Putin held a primetime town hall-style press conference in Russia. With military aid from the U.S. stalled in Congress and the European Union coming up short in a vote for additional military aid, the timing for Putin publicly celebrating makes sense. More so given his eyes and ears in Western Europe and the U.S. have helped largely ensure World War III happens. Because Putin will not stop with Ukraine. China is going to go after Taiwan Militarily. And who knows what else.

Yet the isolationists in the Republican Party who just want to focus on turning America into an Autocratic Theocracy could care less about what’s going on with Ukraine. This is to say nothing of far right politicians in Europe who are so afraid of WWIII, they don’t want to look like they’re helping Ukraine even indirectly.

Well, WWIII is for sure going to happen if Ukraine falls to Russia. Putin has already repeatedly said he wants to annex the Baltic States since invading Ukraine. Enboldened by the U.S. and NATO letting him take Ukraine, he will go after Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania next. He won’t care about them being NATO countries by that point.

As a reminder, this is exactly how WWII started. Europe let Hitler take Austria but he didn’t stop there. It wasn’t until after Hitler invaded France that the world realized the only way to deal with a warmonger is with force. Putin has been nuclear saber rattling to keep the U.S. and Europe out of Ukraine but all bets are off if Putin goes for the Baltic States after taking Ukraine.

This time, America likely won’t be there to bail out Europe regardless of who the president is after the 2024 election. It won’t matter because whoever the president is after the election will likely be dealing with major problems before, during or right after the election. Or a combination of all three.

Over the weekend, the UK finalized a deal with Rwanda that has rightfully angered Human Rights Organizations and aid groups that adovcate for migrants and refugees. According to this new agreement that has already been challenged in both the UK’s Supreme Court and the United Nations, people seeking assylum in the UK will be sent to Rwanda where if their assylum petition is successful, they will live in Rwanda forever. In exchange, the UK will give Rwanda $5 Billion.

For those who might not know or remember, there was a genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of that. Rwanda is a very small developing nation and is about twice the size of New Jersey. Rwanda became the second country after Mozambique to join the British Commonwealth with no historical ties to the UK in 2009.

It is a fact that Rwanda lacks the infrastructure let alone the resources to take in the tens of thousands if not hundredss of thousands of Refugees the UK (and possibly other European nations) will be sending their way. British burocrats who pushed for and brokered this arrangement insist they will provide Rwanda with the necessary money and resources but let’s be honest, that’s highly unlikely to be sufficient.

There is also no ignoring the overt racist and xenophobic overtones of this arrangement. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of refugees trying to get into Europe are coming from the African continent. The European Union gave Turkey half a billion Euros and overlooks the Turkish government’s human rights violations in exchange for being a “Bulwark” against Refugees trying to get into Europe. Refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

When Turkey closed their northern boarder to refugees, most switched to using makeshift rafts and leaky boats to enter Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea via Greece and Italy. Refugees–those who survive the crossing of course–then head for either Germany or the UK. Germany is still welcoming refugees but the countries surrounding it do not. When the UK still openly accepted refugees France, which has a rail and road tunnel link with the UK did not. This created some political issues as E.U. member nations struggled to figure out how to deal with the influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

During the Pandemic, I watched the 2017 documentary film Human Flow which is on Amazon Prime. I urge everyone who lives in North America and Europe to find a way to watch it and more so now. The documentary film does a masterful job of trying to make this key point: We do have a moral obligation to those who are in need. Especially those who who fleeing war or pursecution in their homeland.

All these efforts by right-wing politicians in the United States and Europe in particular to basically criminalize not just being a refugee but being poor and/or homeless betrays how morally bankrupt they truly are. As the old saying goes, treat people the way you want to be treated. When you treat people like trash, you’re telling others it’s ok for prople to treat you in kind.

More importantly before I move on. Many Op Eds in Europe have been saying in recent years there is a general understanding in Western Europe in particular that they are morally responsible for the refugee crisis they are now facing because of their imperialism from centuries earlier. Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia and China were plundered and exploited by Europe’s empires between the 1500s and mid-1900s.

Globalism and the Internet have shrunk the world in many regards. It’s also made it much harder to not see the plight of people in developing countries in particular.

 

In what should shouldn’t be breaking news but is, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump is disqualified from being on the ballot due to his role in the Capitol attack on 1/6/2021. The Colorado Supreme Court cited the 14th Amendment as its reasoning in a 4-3 decision. Trump’s campaign has promised to appeal the decision with the Supreme Court.

I actually originally planned to add former Republican and former Congressman Joe Walsh’s Xitter Feed and Podcast embed to this blog later this month but after hearing his views on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, I changed my mind. Largely because between him proudly proclaiming he is a Zionist after the events of October 7 in Israel, I no longer felt comfortable giving his Xitter feed and blog that exposure on my blog.

Walsh was exiled from the GOP for speaking out against Trump but outside of that, he’s made it clear to me he still retains a lot of the views that has his former party on its current path. When people show and tell you you who they really are and what they really think, believe them the first time.

I listened to his interview with Michael Cohen on Mea Culpa a few weeks back. At the very end of the interviewed, I got annoyed when Walsh decided to “correct” Cohen and say Merry Christmas in response to Cohen, who is Jewish saying Happy Holidays to him. That came off as not respecting the fact Cohen has different religious beliefs from him and it was hard to miss the intentionality behind it.

That aside and getting back to this ruling out of Colorado. I wasn’t surprised to hear the other GOP candidates blasted this ruling. Some Far Right actors are now saying if the Supreme Court doesn’t overrule Colorado’s ruling, there will be a Civil War. Mind you, other states are also looking into disqualifying Trump based on the 14th Amendment.

Many anti-Trump Republicans–and former Republicans like Joe Walsh–say Trump should be kept on the ballot “to be fair” and taking him off under these circumstances is more political ammo for the GOP and Trump. That’s funny coming from a party that has admitted in recent years they can’t “play fair” because they can’t win elections otherwise.

I do think when more states start following Colorado’s lead–and this should have started right after Trump entered the 2024 presidential election–it will be much harder to make the arguement there’s some elaborate conspiracy against Trump by the Democrats. More so given most of the states currently looking into taking Trump off the ballot via the 14th Amendment are either purple states like Colorado or Red states like Arizona. Again, this should have started the day after Trump declared last year.

Anywho, if the Supreme Court decides to pick this up they would need to make a decision before the Republican Primary next summer. More so assuming Trump officially becomes the Republican nominee. Joe Walsh and others think this ruling from Colorado is political ammo for Trump but realistically speaking it means by default, Trump can’t get the electoral points from states he is not on the ballot in.

That means other GOP candidates now have a realistic shot at getting the nomination instead of Trump. This is what makes their shared support of Trump on this issue–Chris Christie included–so suspect to me. They know they can’t beat him head-on. Colorado is helping them get the nomination and they refuse to take the hint. I mean I get it, they fear Trump’s base but it still makes no sense for ALL of them the back Trump unless they want Trump backi n the White House.

If the Supreme Court decides not to hear this case, it would open the floodgates to other state Supreme Courts making similar rulings. If the Supreme Court does decide to hear this case–no doubt Trump is telling his three appointees to pressure John Roberts to pick this up ASAP if he hasn’t already–a ruling would have to be announced before the primary because of implications it could have assuming Trump secures the Republican nomination. More so if other states take Trump off the ballot before a ruling on Colorado is announced. By default, Trump would not be able to win the election in November.

Again: It’s funny to hear Republicans rage over Colorado’s Supreme Court “overstepping its bounds” with this decision when they’ve always been the ones to talk about wanting States’ Rights to supercede the Federal government–when a Democrat is in the White House of course–for decades.

As for if the current Supreme Court would help Trump, he will be surprised and disappointed to find out the answer is likely (hell) no. The Christian Nationalist movements that helped him get elected in 2016 no longer need Trump now that they control the Supreme Court. He’s no longer useful to them and they want someone who’s firmly on their side in the White House instead of Trump.Of those remaining, DeSantis makes the most sense despite him being third behind Trump and Haley. Some Evangelical leaders threw their support behind DeSantis early on and that hasn’t changed which tells me they likely have a plan in place to ensure Trump doesn’t get the nomination if need be. Many Republican mega donors have been backing Nikki Haley in recent months which tells me we might indeed see a DeSantis/Haley or Haley/DeSantis Republican ticket.

Everyone should keep this in mind regardless of where they lean politically or who they plan to vote for at the local, state and federal levels: Don’t believe the media’s polls. I mean ANY of them.

Why? Because officially, they mean NOTHING. Even worse is they’ve been consistently proven wrong over the last 20+ years now. Remember that imfamous Red Wave predicted by Republican talking heads and pollsters for months in 2022? It never happened. The GOP did in fact regain control of the House of Representatives as expected but it wasn’t by the super majority polls told them to look forward to for months.

That brings me to the polls on Trump and Biden: Ignore them. They don’t account for a lot of variables. I mean either way.

What the other side is forced to admit is it doesn’t matter if the election was today, next week or next month. It also doesn’t matter that Trump is facing 94 indictments at the Federal and State levels: Barring the unforeseeable, Trump WILL lose to Biden head to head. Full stop.

Notice I said “barring the unforeseeable”. I mentioned earlier GOP policymakers have recently started publicly admitting they have to rig elections and disenfranchise minority voters because they know they can’t win elections fairly otherwise. Not saying all Republican politicians feel that way but many are starting to publicly admit this in Right Wing Media.

When Trump refused to concede after the 2020 election, you couldn’t help but look back to Gore v. Bush. As a reminder, the Supreme Court chose the 43rd president of the United States. Not the American people but the SJC. What if Gore refused to concede despite that which many felt he should have? Even worse is we would find out months later in 2001–several months before the September 11 attacks–after a recount that Gore had indeed won the election after all. Whoops!

Just 20 years, five presidental elections and two presidents later, an incumbent president refused to accept the will of the American people who voted for change. This opened the floodgates to Republican candidates like Kari Lake–who lost her bid to become governor of Arizona last year–telling voters in advance their opponent cheated if they didn’t win the election.

“Trump should be get special treatment despite everything he’s done and everything he’s vowed to do if he gets back in the White House” indeed. The truth is the truth is the truth. It must be proclaimed like it or not. One truth about the 2020 presidential election is only half the country voted. 80 Million people voted for Biden and 70 million voted for Trump. What about the other 150 Million+ eligable voters who chose to stay home?

Honestly, I worry about elections being decided by low voter turnout more than anything. Even more so these days. This is a problem unique to the Democratic Party on that note. Republicans only need to tell voters who to vote for and when. Democrats need to beg voters TO VOTE every single election.

Don’t even get me started on Democratic Voters who’ve already said they’re not voting for Biden for one reason or the other. As long as he’s on the ballot and still alive come Election Day, I am voting for Biden. As much as I would prefer to vote third party, now isn’t the time for that. From what I’ve been hearing, serious third party contender are not planning to enter the race because they know that if they do, they’ll likely end up helping Trump get back in the White House. They want to avoid that at all costs despite how much they’d like to challenge Biden or Trump head-on.

I want to end with this largely because it’s hilarious first and I got recent confirmation yes, they are in fact paid actors.

By now, most of you have at least heard of the political entity or group known as Blacks for Trump. Well, it’s been confirmed–but long presumed–they are in fact paid actors. They are paid by a combination of Trump PACs and his campaign to appear at his events to give the illusion Trump has a large base of Black supporters. As for why Trump is not paying them himself, he is a cheapskate as a reminder.

Oh and similar groups such as Hispanics for Trump and LGBTQA’s for Trump are all paid actors as well. If you ever wonder why you see the same handful of people at every rally and public event, this is why. Mind you, the arrangement is mutually beneficial. They use the publicity to sell T-shirts and other merchandise. I won’t pretend to know if Trump ever gets a cut of their profits but with his mounting legal bills, he might want to ask at this point!

All that said and in closing.

This will be the last article on this blog for at least the next 4 to 5 months, hopefully longer. Honestly, I’m going to work hard to forget about this blog for a while. I want to focus on most of my other blogs next year THAT much. All the updates I said I would do at the beginning will still happen though.

 

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There’s a lot of breakthroughs on addressing concerns about charging Electric Vehicles on at least three continents

The biggest breakthrough on increasing the number of charging locations for electric vehicles happened this year in Detroit, San Francisco, Sweden and Japan. It also happened in a surprisingly simple way: Electrifying existing roads and highway lanes. Even better is construction is relatively cheap AND fast.

How it works is wireless charging pads are installed about a foot under roads and highways. When EVs drive over the road or lane, the Ion Lithium Batteries will automatically begin to be Fast Charged. Companies are working with governments to upscale construction and get as many roads electrified as quickly as possible. Once you do that, the retail costs of EVs will naturally plummet.

What’s that? “What if there’s some kind of natural disaster that knocks out power in an area?” Not a problem since some companies have figured out a way to make solar panels you can drive on. Meaning even if there’s some kind of diseaster or weather situation that knocks out power to an area, you will still be able to charge your car.

 

 

This is to say nothing of ongoing efforts to install charging stations in public and private parking garages and parking lots around the world. America is leading the way in this endeavour. There is increased pressure from car makers like Tesla, GM and Ford in particular to get charging stations in every city, town and rest stop in America as quickly as possible.

Why? Because they’re salivating at the prospect of the biggest economic boom in the history of the industry in 100 years. Germany invented the first automobile in 1985 but the automobile industry was made in America about 100 years ago. The industry as well as fossil fuel companies from around the world are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into installing recharging stations in as many locations as possible.

On that last point. Yes, fossil fuel companies like Exxon-Mobil and Shell have been researching green fuel for at least the last 15 years. They are currently working on developing high-capacity Ion Lithium batteries for cars though I do know both Exxon-Mobil and BP in particular are working on mass producing plant-based diesel fuel. They figured out how to do it so now it’s just about building the necessary facilities to mass produce it.

In the meantime, I do think Fossil Fuel companies should lead the charge in putting that industry out of business. They already know fossil fuel is politically toxic and now that we are entering a new era of renewable energy, they should take point in the changeover. To speed things up, I say loosen the regulations and restrictions currently in place in the U.S. Within a decade, OPEC will be irrelevant.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about another kind of infrastructure that is now an unofficial utility for most of the world: Wireless high-speed Internet.

The Pandemic was a reminder of how dependent most of the world is on having access to high-speed internet. It also forced companies, governments and internet service to take bringing high-speed internet to suburban and rural areas much more seriously.

The biggest thing that’s been holding up those efforts in the U.S. and Europe in particular has been finding property owners willing to let them build Wi-Fi Towers and Wi-Fi Antennas on their buildings/property even with financial incentive offered. Why? Well, they ARE a bit of an eyesore. You have to try to really notice them in urban areas.

I live in Boston. We have something called Free Public Wi-Fi offered by not just the city and internet service providers but businesses, nonprofits, restaurants, hospitals and colleges (as long as you’re on their property in almost all cases). The sane is true for most cities across the world. The Pandemic exposed a lot of gaps in terms of high-speed wireless internet access across the U.S. in particular. Now there are renewed efforts to address that problem where it’s needed.

Not seeing efforts in your area of the U.S.? Contact your elected officials and demand they take action.

 

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34 years later, two black men arrested and accused in the murder of a white pregnant woman receive a formal and public apology

It was the case that damn-near ripped the city of Boston apart back in 1989.

34 years ago, Charles Stewart called 911 saying he and his wife were shot. His wife Carol Stewart, who was 7 months pregnant at the time died from her injuries. When investigators questioned him, he said a black man shot them during an attempted carjacking.

The lives of Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett were changed forever. Both were arrested as suspects for the murder of Carol Stewart. The court of public opinion in Boston was split largely along racial lines. Without evidence and despite alibis that placed both of them elsewhere at the time of the murder, most White locals assumed it was them simply because they were black and they were arrested. Most Black locals were understandably alarmed by the speed and force with which the men were arrested and charged despite airtight alibis that placed each of them elsewhere during the time of the incident.

As a reminder, this happened back in 1989. DNA Forensics wouldn’t start to become what it is now for at least another 5 to 7 years. Thankfully, neither man was convicted for the murder. When investigators realized the injuries Charles Stewart sustained were self-inflicted, he panicked and died by suicide by jumping off the Tobin Bridge. It was later discovered he didn’t want to be a father and she refused to have an abortion.

The bigger issue that was largely swept under the rug is the fact he claimed a black man did it his words were taken at face value. Charges against Swanson and Bennett were quickly dropped but the damage had already been done to both them and their families. The Stewart case was a black eye to the Boston Police Department as it confirmed long suspected racial biases. The timing really sucked because as youth and gang crime waves would grip the city for half of the 1990s. BPD had the difficult task of both dealing with that and rebuilding trust with Boston’s Black Community which is still is trying to do to this day.

“The mayor’s office, city officials and the Boston Police Department took actions that directly harmed these families and continue to impact the larger community, reopening a wound that has gone untended for decades,” Current Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said as part of her remarks. Although she didn’t say his name, she was referring to former mayor Ray Flynn who is still alive right now.

This formal apology should have come from him, not Michelle Wu. Many might say the late Tom Menino–mayor of Boston for 22 years–Marty Walsh or Kim Janey could have done this and you’re right to say that. The thing is, this happened during Ray Flynn’s time as Mayor and he IS still alive. He should have been there to look them and their families in the eye or recorded a video message in advance. The thought alone would’ve meant a lot.

Swanson was present to received the apology in person. Bennett, who still lives in Boston was not present but his family was there on his behalf. His family passed on a message from him to local media: he and Swanson should get financially compensated. Speaking to the media after the ceremony, Swanson said he would also like some kind of financial compensation, adding that he was currently broke. While Wu said she would commit to doing everything she can to help both men and their families, she would not rule in or out financial compensation.

I was 5 years old when that incident happened but there isn’t a single person in Boston who was over the age of four in 1989 who hasn’t at least heard of the Stewart Murder. For Black Bostonians, it was the exclaimation point of a very trying era of racial profiling in the city by BPD that continued for at least another decade and a half.

While everyone recognizes things are much better than they were when the Stewart Murder happened, the wounds that incident inflicted on Boston ran deep and festered for quite some time. More so given there was no acknowledgement from City Hall, BPD or City Officials of the injustice done to Swanson, Bennett and their families for 34 years.

Fortunately, both men were alive to personally receive this LONG overdue public acknowledgement and apology from all three. Their familes also recognize what they went through 34 years deeply impacted not just them but left a festering wound that only now can begin to heal. It starts with acknowledgement.

The Stewart Murder got a lot of media attention 34 years ago and in the three decades since in the form of movies, podcasts, interviews and TV Shows. It has been used in case studies at various Law Schools. The disappearance and murder of Lacey Peterson about 20 years ago brought back memories of that incident due to a few similarities though in that case her husband was charged and convicted.

As for weather or not Swanson and Bennett should be financially compensated, that’s a question for attorneys to look into. I do know all the docudramas and TV Shows about the case do not mention them specifically but their names will forever be linked to that case. It’s something for attorneys to look into like I said though.

 

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