Tag: Posted

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Schwarzenegger

I watched the highly discussed Schwarzenegger message to Russians (and the world) about Ukraine. The intent, I gather, was to penetrate the newly descended iron curtain that now shrouds the Russian people, courtesy of dictator Putin; to go beyond the Russian propaganda machine; to convince average Russian citizens who are — apparently — Schwarzenegger fans by and large. Even though Schwarzenegger is a RepubliKKKlan, he is at least one of a few RepubliKKKlans I hate least since I hate all RepubliKKKlans without exception. Notwithstanding his political proclivities, the message was compelling — for Americans and those in other democratic countries, not for Russians.

His message reminded me of a firm belief I hold. I call it the First Axiom of Government: People deserve and, indeed, get the government they desire or at least tolerate. It is an extremely cynical view of people’s expression of governance, but it is true. Look, f***tards. If the axiom did not hold, then there would be daily revolutions in countries worldwide as people rise up against governments they do not favor. Clearly, that is not the case. Thus, people live under governments they deserve and desire. Perhaps desire is too strong a word, but at the very least, people live under a government they tolerate to an extent they are willing to be implicit participants; people have to live, and they have to live under some form of governance. Schwarzenegger’s message reminded me of this First Axiom because I don’t think it will penetrate. It will not convince anyone outside the free world of a truth other than what people elsewhere — Russia — want to believe otherwise. F***! There is probably a good 40 percent within America who probably think Schwarzenegger‘s message is propaganda from Democrats. So, he gets an “A” for effort, but in the end, I think Russians are fairly content under the Putin regime. Oh, well.

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They’re Dying, Just Not Enough

Weekly Excess Death Rate (per 100 000) in Selected States, 2021.

In an article from The Journal of the American Medical Association, “In the past decade, the growing polarization of ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states has further widened the divide on policies ranging from Medicaid expansion and abortion to education, immigration, redistricting, unions, and criminal justice. Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (eg, indoor smoking bans). States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (eg, menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations. The COVID-19 pandemic removed any doubt that state policies can affect health outcomes. East Coast states (eg, New York, New Jersey) that responded to the first wave of the pandemic in the spring of 2020 with strict protective measures achieved relatively quick control of community spread within as much as 8 weeks, and they blunted subsequent surges by reinstating those policies. In contrast, states that had spent decades opposing public health provisions were among the most resistant to COVID-19 guidelines and took active measures to resist restrictions. Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.”

In short and not surprising in the least, red states are killing their citizens, and even less incredible is that these red-state residents really don’t care. By almost every conceivable measure related to health, wealth, freedom, equality, and so forth, blue states are better for their citizenry than red states. Still, RepubliKKKlans, MAGA morons, evil evangelicals, and QAnon kooks don’t care because of FREEDOM! I could not agree more; they should have the FREEDOM! to die quickly and often. The only problem is they are not dying in sufficiently large numbers to impact elections. RepubliKKKlans seem to be surviving enough to out-vote Democrats. Welcome to stupid America!

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Frontline

Everyone should watch the Frontline show “Putin’s Road to War.” It was a timely video primer of Putin’s two decades in power. It was also a reminder of how the West has enabled Putin at every turn. To be honest, I think I was more livid at what past American and European leaders failed to do in response to every Putin action. I forgot some of the things Frontline detailed. Still, it was overwhelmingly obvious that the Putin character we see today and the actions he has taken in Ukraine were all wholly expected. Putin laid out his grievances before the entire world for all to hear and see nearly from the beginning of his presidency, namely, he lamented the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the rise of America and democracy. In response, the West ignored him and allowed him to threaten, bomb, poison, assassinate, and wage war without consequence long before he invaded Ukraine. No wonder Putin felt like Ukraine would be just one more consequence-free endeavor because the world singled to him for nearly two decades that it would be, just like every other time. Putin himself certainly paved the road to war, but the West installed and controlled the traffic lights, which have constantly been flashing green! I was reminded all over again of why I fear the West, in the final analysis, may not be up to the task to rid the world of Putin. The West fears him and more grievously the West fears standing up for democracy. I’m sorry to have to remind people, but democracy does not come without struggle. In fact, sometimes democracies need to go on the offensive — first.

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Indeed, It Is Not Enough

Accounting to the Atlantic Council, “[T]he United States, Europe, and their global partners should add to the impressive array of sanctions against Russia. Their impact thus far, according to the Council’s Brian O’Toole and Daniel Fried, ‘has been to flatten the Russian financial system, crash the ruble, spur a likely sovereign default, and probably move the Russian economy into a depression.’ Yet as Putin’s forces continue their attack, O’Toole and Fried provide a menu (in ascending order of impact) of potential next steps: expanding the sanctions against Putin’s cronies and subordinates; extending sanctions on more banks and key companies (they suggest Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, AlfaBank, Sovcomflot, Russian Railways, and the diamond company Alrosa); and blocking the Russian government by sanctioning all Russia-state-owned companies. And if all else fails, enacting a full financial embargo that would ban all transactions, exports, and imports with Russia. What’s not in doubt is that Putin will continue to escalate if more isn’t done to stop him. … Putin has lost: He will never be able to entirely pacify and occupy Ukraine, and he has done generational damage to the Russia whose power and prestige he was once determined to build. However, his opponents have not won: Saving Ukraine, and sustaining their newfound common cause, is the key to shaping the global future. What has been accomplished against Putin thus far is remarkable, but it is still insufficient [emphasis added].”

To be sure, the West’s response to Putin’s war has surprised everyone — most of all Putin. I, too, had believed that the West was (still is to a degree) too weak to stand up to authoritarian regimes after years of appeasing the aggression of Putin and other dictatorial governments. Even in America, the rise and sustained love-affair with authoritarian rulers — traitor trump — certainly does not assuage my agita that Americans are one election away from reversing everything Biden and the West are achieving to counter Russia in Ukraine. Recall, traitor trump and the RepubliKKKlan are openly hostile to Ukraine. As the Washington Post reported in 2016, “The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington.” Today, this is still part of the official RepubliKKKlan platform: Don’t help Ukraine! Pay no attention to what RepubliKKKlans say or do in their criticism of Biden’s handling of Ukraine. Do not pay attention when RepubliKKKlans vote in favor of aid for Ukraine. They are all hypocrites, and when traitor trump returns to the White House, Ukraine will be readily delivered to Russia with a bow on it while all RepubliKKKlans will sign the “Welcome Back, Russia. We Missed You!” card. Actually, the true state of RepubliKKKlan beliefs regarding Ukraine resides in what Marjorie Taylor Greene says and does; she is the authentic barometer of RepubliKKKlan, MAGA moron, evil evangelical, and QAnon kook sentiment on Ukraine.

All that being said, the West must do more for Ukraine. The authors of the article I quoted above were absolutely correct; although Russia is losing the fight as the situation stands now, it does not mean Ukraine and the West are winning. I hope the West truly understands the gravity of this moment. Not only must they do more to support Ukraine, but they must realize they have to do more to counter the threat of Putin. Forcing a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine is not enough and it absolutely must not be the end game! Hell! F****ing! No! It is only the first step. Unfortunately, this is where the weakness of the West and liberal democracies cripple the world: Democratic nations fail to kick dictators while they’re down. The West should be willing to beat the sh*t out of Putin. Full stop! But, no. I have no doubt that if Putin comes to his senses — however unlikely — and decides to negotiate a peace settlement, then the West will do everything it can to help Putin back up and try to convince him to return to the world order as a “good” global citizen, reflecting, once again, a profound inability of the West to learn from even the most immediate history. Putin must be removed from power. Anything short of that is failing to do enough! Sadly, the West always falls short of doing the right thing — completely!

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Salt Lick Survey

According to The Hill, “Most Americans are opposed to state government laws that prohibit LGBTQ lessons from being taught in elementary schools, according to a new ABC News poll. The latest poll found that 62 percent of those surveyed opposed any type of legislation that prohibits LGBTQ lessons from being taught in schools, while 37 percent of those asked supported a prohibition.” Oh, this type of survey again. This is the good ole “we won’t say outright that we hate the gays, but we don’t care if states pass legislation to delegitimize them” questioning. Look, f***tards! Pollsters can ask these types of questions all day long, but take the results with a huge grain of salt, for only one thing matters: The legislation that passes. Despite most people saying they support LGBTQ causes or individuals, citizens still have no problem voting for RepubliKKKlan governors and legislators that pass laws doing just the opposite. Morons of America should know all too well by now that public sentiment and legislative actions rarely converge because we live in more of an authoritarian nation than a democracy. It is the tyranny of the minority (conservatives) over the majority (progressives). After all, Americans love to say the right things but do (or allow to be done) just the contrary — aka their true feelings. Funny how some of the most populous states in the nation (Texas and Florida) are leading the charge to marginalize and criminalize the LGBTQ community, and the “will of the people” is utterly onboard at worst and apathetic at best. Oh, well! Welcome to stupid America!

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Traitor [T]rump Set to Win Because ‘Merica Stupid

According to The Hill, “The poll found that both Biden and Trump each would get 45 percent support from voters in a theoretical head-to-head in two years. … Fifty-seven percent of voters said in the poll they have an unfavorable view of Biden, while 55 percent said they had an unfavorable view of Trump. … Biden won five key states in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona that decided the race in his favor. If three of those states had flipped, Trump would have won the Electoral College. Biden defeated Trump by a little more than 10,000 votes in both Georgia and Arizona, and 20,000 votes in Wisconsin.”

The only stipulation to this poll is that the election is over two years away, but the mere trace of an indication that Biden and traitor trump are tied is incomprehensible — yet not really. As I have been screaming to all the morons of America, Biden is the intermission to traitor trump returning to office because Americans are just too f***ing G.D. stupid not to vote for traitor trump again. It does not matter that Biden will always win the popular vote — by a lot! The popular vote is not how we elect presidents in stupid America. The Electoral College gives undue influence and power to rural, conservative minority populations. And again, as I have been saying for years now, RepubliKKKlans are not going to allow the same mistakes to happen that cost them the 2020 election. They are fixing all those voting “issues” now. So, it doesn’t matter. RepubliKKKlans will make sure traitor trump steals his way into office the next time, and no one will care as his win would usher in the end of our democracy. I’ve been warning morons out there almost daily about what is happening to America. The stakes are astronomically high for this country’s survival, and people are gravitating back to traitor trump, which will ensure permanent RepubliKKKlan tyranny! Un-f***ing-believable! You people just don’t get it! I’ve tried warning you — abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, other minority rights! Oh, well. Whatever. I expected nothing less from an idiocracy. Welcome to stupid America. Too trump stupid to survive. This level of stupid cannot be undone. Mark my words, f***tards! The end is coming!

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Another Thing I Nailed!

The headline of a Washington Post article reads: “Missouri lawmaker seeks to prohibit residents from obtaining abortions out of state.” The article goes on to say, “The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the GOP-led states poised to enact tighter restrictions if the Supreme Court weakens its landmark precedent upholding abortion rights. … Now, a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws in 2019, believes she has found a solution.” More from Newsweek, “A Missouri state lawmaker has proposed a bill that would allow private citizens to be sued for aiding women who get out-of-state abortions. If it makes its way through the legislative process, the measure, which is currently awaiting debate in the House, could allow any private citizen in Missouri to sue someone who assisted a fellow Missourian in obtaining an abortion in another state. … Coleman’s measure is reportedly piggybacking off of a recent antiabortion law in Texas that prohibits most abortions in that state after the six-week mark of pregnancy. In addition to opening the door for lawsuits for aiding with out-of-state abortions, the Missouri bill would also make it illegal to manufacture or distribute abortion pills in the state.”

And allow myself to quote myself from a post dated May 2021, “Once SCOTUS effectively kills Roe next year, the next goal will be to criminalize women’s movement in states where abortion is illegal to other states to undergo the procedure legally. Mark my words, f***tards. You can take this next step to the bank.” So! I nailed it! I nailed it! I nailed it! You heard it here first — a year ago! Except, I will admit that Missouri is not waiting on SCOTUS; they are taking a page from Texas’ abortion bill, which SCOTUS has provided (not so) tacit approval. And I will grant that this proposal is not law — yet. But the notion is now out there for every other RepubliKKKlan legislature to witness. Look, morons of America. My calling for this next step in the war against women and civil liberties was particularly easy and not all that creative or original. (For the extreme nerd, peruse this legal scholarly article on abortion.)

Look around you, f***tards! America is heading toward a less free country thanks to SCOTUS, RepubliKKKlans, MAGA morons, evil evangelicals, and QAnon kook. The country’s move toward a more restrictive and bigoted nation is also facilitated, in part, by apathetic and moronic voters who are just too f***ing stupid to be bothered with fighting for America’s democracy. And don’t get me started about the inability of dumbass Democrats to mount a ruthless fight to protect our democracy and freedoms! Ukrainians — soldiers, civilians, teenagers, grandmothers — are standing up to Russia and dying to defend their democracy. Yet, Americans are too f***ing G.D. lazy to get informed and vote as if their lives depended on it, which people will start realizing is no longer a cliché. What kind of country will America become wherein a woman can no longer travel outside her state to perform a legal medical procedure? You see what’s happening here, I hope? Women will soon have no freedom of movement. They will be assumed into bodily servitude under the state in which they were born. There is no bottom to conservatives’ desires to control women and minorities through their fundamentalist religiosity.

I could say I hate to boast about being right, but I won’t. Part of the point of this blog is to scream at the world about everything I see happening now and coming in the future that the rest of the country just kinda shrugs off. Whatever! We get the government we deserve, and we’re about to feel the pain of our choices (or indifference) in spectacular fashion, especially for women and minorities. Next is LGBTQ rights, which are already under attack across several states. It is coming! RepubliKKKlans are coming for your rights! Make my words, f***tards. Welcome to stupid America! Always dumber!

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Russian Military Incompetence

Slava Ukraini!

I was reluctant to attribute Russian failures in the first week of the war to their incompetence because I did not — and I still dare not — underestimate Russia’s capacity to be evil, for minimizing the enemy has always been a weakness of the West even as Putin demonstrated his true colors at every moment in history and currently. But now, I can confidently admit that I was wrong: The Russian military and its leadership really are a bunch of incompetent stooges. It does not mean they are no less dangerous. When the Russian military brass becomes frustrated with a losing strategy — as is the case here — they revert to the good old standby plan B: Bomb everything!

I never doubted Ukrainians’ capacity and desire to fend off the Russian invaders. That was never a question for me. I questioned how long it could last; I thought 4-6 weeks, but I think it can be indefinitely! More than anything, what has surprised me is the West’s cohesion and resolve to stand up to Putin. This is a first!

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This Man Has Never Written a Wrong Word

Chauncey DeVega of Salon writes, “Biden’s speech was resolute, sometimes eloquent. But the compromise he imagines is just surrendering to fascism. … My greatest worry about Biden is simple: America needs a fighting champion if its democracy is to be saved. To this point, as this week’s State of the Union address made clear once again, he does not appear to be up to that challenge. … Biden repeatedly spoke of the need to ‘unify’ Democrats and Republicans. That means seeking ‘unity’ with those who actively tried to nullify the 2020 election and supported a violent coup to prevent him from becoming president. Moreover, the Republican fascists have in no way ended their campaign to end American democracy and terminate Biden’s presidency. … But in believing that is still true, Biden has committed a grievous error: Today’s Republican Party and ‘conservative’ movement comprise a revolutionary force, which seeks to destroy American democracy and replace it with fascism or some other form of authoritarianism. When Biden speaks of ‘unity’ or ‘compromise’ with the Republicans he is giving aid and comfort to the neofascist movement — if not surrendering to it altogether.”

I will not criticize a wartime president, but I’ll let DeVega speak for me. This is why I repeatedly say America is doomed! Dumbass Democrats are too weak and clueless to the danger facing America’s democracy. Welcome to stupid America. I’m not wrong about this! Mark my words!