The Truth Shall Set You Free
It is time to talk about the one single thing the Democrats need to do, to wipe the evil that is the Republican party off the face of the earth, once and for all. I have believed this since the time of Reagan, and nothing that has happened since has done a thing except convince me of it; and here it is:
Tell the truth, guys. Tell the God damned truth every single chance you get, and go on telling it until it sinks in.
Instead, Democrats have given in at every step of the way, to Republican bullying and threats, and just swallowed the facts and tried to move on; and here we are, one step away from letting a polluted electorate put a racist would-be dictator in the White House.
At this point it is going to take years of repeating what we all know to be true before it even begins to sink in, but if we do not start, we will never get there- to a society where people do not step into the voting booth without having some minimal familiarity with reality, and some minimal acceptance of the idea that greed and hatred are not good ways to choose our leaders.
So, I want to start with a very partial list of the truths that Democrats have just abandoned in the last few decades. We must stand by these truths until they are accepted, however long it takes; otherwise, our fate will be for decent people to waste a good part of their lives and resources, fighting against the plot to force one Trumpian fascist after another on us, one more Juan Peron, one more Mussolini, until they succeed in crushing us. Here we go, and I am sure that every single one of you would have more to add to this shameful list.
Ronald Reagan was a traitor who used a treasonous deal with the Iranians to hold on to American hostages to criminally win the White House, and then paid them back by illegally supplying the Iranian Mullahs with arms.
Reagan's signature effort- to deregulate corporations and their rich owners, was never about anything but stripping away the protections that every non-rich American had, against the hyper rich puppet masters that put him in power. It resulted in the real estate collapse of the late eighties, and the one of 2007, which precipitated the Republican near depression of 2008. It also allowed virtually the entire mainstream press to fall into the hands of six corporations, the privatization and near destruction of the American health care system, and a nearly similar fate for the cornerstone of a free society, a quality public education system.
The appointment by Republican Presidents of corporate-owned Supreme Court justices resulted in a sleeper cell that produced, among other things, the two most corrupt Supreme Court decisions in the history of the country; the placement of George W. Bush in the White House, and the decision to "legalize" the purchase of politicians by the rich.
The Clintons are not murderers, Muslims, drug dealers, sexual perverts, Communists or Satanists. They are decent, well-intentioned public servants who, in an age when nobody can be elected to national office without massive amounts of money, are the best we can get.
The war in Iraq was a criminal aggression based on lies, in which a million Iraqi civilians were murdered. Those responsible belong in prison for life or in front of a firing squad; instead Republican bullying has prevented any open discussion of their monstrous crimes, or any consequences whatsoever for these malignant monsters.
"Supply side economics" is a ludicrous lie, which is patently nonsensical on its face, and which has failed miserably every time it was ever tried, most notably in having caused the 2008 economic collapse. In fact, it is nothing but a fantasy invented to justify the plundering of the world by the rich. The times of maximum prosperity in our country have coincided with times that taxes on the rich were the highest; conversely, slashing taxes, whether nationally or in States like Kansas or Wisconsin, or in other countries, has resulted in nothing but economic disaster.
Dick Cheney, in particular, is a monstrous criminal who used the Vice Presidential office he seized, to personally enrich himself by at leas $40 million dollars.
The only reason why the 1929 depression was worse than 2008, is that in 1929, the nation had to wait over three years for a Democrat to take over and start fixing things, whereas in 2008, thanks to relatively good electoral timing, a Democrat entered the White House within three months. If Republicans had continued in power this time, the inevitable result would have been a worldwide depression, possibly worse than that of the thirties; as it is, they did everything they could to see to it that the Democrats were hamstrung in their assigned task of fixing things that the Republicans had broken.
Republican oppositionalism, as it has existed since 2008, is sedition bordering on treason, and occasionally crossing that line. Republicans in Congress who persist in this behavior need to be treated like any other open enemies of our country.
Racism is not dead in this country; it burns in the hearts of large numbers of white Americans who would like nothing on this earth more than a chance to violently repress the nonwhite people who live among them. And as a corollary, many of the most staunch defenders of guns (those not solely motivated by the gun industry's hunger for profits at the expense of life) seethe inside with a desire to kill, and a willingness to demonize large parts of the population as so subhuman that exterminating them is just fine.
The number one threat to the survival of mankind is climate change; those who deny it are paid liars or stupid, hate-filled people, who are risking us all. The paid liars need to be treated as enemies of humanity; the others simply ignored.
The United States is on a path right now to have the most unequal distribution of wealth in the known history of civilization, by the year 2030. Nothing like this has ever occurred in world history without provoking violent chaos and revolution, unless the rich are forced to give up a large part of their money. As it is, by 2050, the vast bulk of our nation's wealth is going to be in the hands of a few hundred families, with that wealth obtained by inheritance only. Anyone who cares whether our country survives had better deal with that.
A great deal of the hatred toward the West that exists in the Middle East has nothing to do with "Islamism," but is rather the result of the continuing self-serving exploitation and devastation of the Middle East and North Africa by the West, starting at least as early as the invasion of that area by Napoleon in 1798, and continuing almost unabated by the actions of Britain, France and the United States ever since. We may not be able to deal with religious fanaticism, but we can and must deal with this, which will eventually induce many people to be on our side.
The United States continues to force dictatorship on Latin American countries. It has sponsored two right wing attempts to destroy the economy of Venezuela in recent years, because that country wanted to run its own economy, for the benefit of its own people. A military coup in Honduras a few years ago was supported by the United States (even Hillary was all for that one) based on the pretense that the legally elected, popular President had supposedly violated a minor electoral law. The hands of rich Americans are all over the impeachment of the Brazilian President, who also would not just do what we demanded. On the other hand, no Latin American dictator is too barbarous to lose our support. Without this behavior, intended to benefit no one but American corporations, Latin American countries would likely not be such disasters that their people would not be flocking here en masse to try to take back a tiny trickle of what was stolen from them by the United Fruit Company, Exxon and other American corporations, with the endless collaboration of our government.
Smartphones have convinced all but the most self-deluded that a large part of our police and judicial system is filled with violent, out of control racists. Could it be 20%? Maybe. Could it be 80%? Sadly, it could be. Whatever the number, it is eating away at whatever cohesiveness is left in our country.
_______________________________________________________________________
The day Democrats commit to telling the truth about this, no matter how much bullying they get from the Republicans and the mainstream "press," is the day things start to get better.
Well, as I say, that would be a start. Live with the truth or die with the lies. It's your choice.
Tell the truth, guys. Tell the God damned truth every single chance you get, and go on telling it until it sinks in.
Instead, Democrats have given in at every step of the way, to Republican bullying and threats, and just swallowed the facts and tried to move on; and here we are, one step away from letting a polluted electorate put a racist would-be dictator in the White House.
At this point it is going to take years of repeating what we all know to be true before it even begins to sink in, but if we do not start, we will never get there- to a society where people do not step into the voting booth without having some minimal familiarity with reality, and some minimal acceptance of the idea that greed and hatred are not good ways to choose our leaders.
So, I want to start with a very partial list of the truths that Democrats have just abandoned in the last few decades. We must stand by these truths until they are accepted, however long it takes; otherwise, our fate will be for decent people to waste a good part of their lives and resources, fighting against the plot to force one Trumpian fascist after another on us, one more Juan Peron, one more Mussolini, until they succeed in crushing us. Here we go, and I am sure that every single one of you would have more to add to this shameful list.
Ronald Reagan was a traitor who used a treasonous deal with the Iranians to hold on to American hostages to criminally win the White House, and then paid them back by illegally supplying the Iranian Mullahs with arms.
Reagan's signature effort- to deregulate corporations and their rich owners, was never about anything but stripping away the protections that every non-rich American had, against the hyper rich puppet masters that put him in power. It resulted in the real estate collapse of the late eighties, and the one of 2007, which precipitated the Republican near depression of 2008. It also allowed virtually the entire mainstream press to fall into the hands of six corporations, the privatization and near destruction of the American health care system, and a nearly similar fate for the cornerstone of a free society, a quality public education system.
The appointment by Republican Presidents of corporate-owned Supreme Court justices resulted in a sleeper cell that produced, among other things, the two most corrupt Supreme Court decisions in the history of the country; the placement of George W. Bush in the White House, and the decision to "legalize" the purchase of politicians by the rich.
The Clintons are not murderers, Muslims, drug dealers, sexual perverts, Communists or Satanists. They are decent, well-intentioned public servants who, in an age when nobody can be elected to national office without massive amounts of money, are the best we can get.
The war in Iraq was a criminal aggression based on lies, in which a million Iraqi civilians were murdered. Those responsible belong in prison for life or in front of a firing squad; instead Republican bullying has prevented any open discussion of their monstrous crimes, or any consequences whatsoever for these malignant monsters.
"Supply side economics" is a ludicrous lie, which is patently nonsensical on its face, and which has failed miserably every time it was ever tried, most notably in having caused the 2008 economic collapse. In fact, it is nothing but a fantasy invented to justify the plundering of the world by the rich. The times of maximum prosperity in our country have coincided with times that taxes on the rich were the highest; conversely, slashing taxes, whether nationally or in States like Kansas or Wisconsin, or in other countries, has resulted in nothing but economic disaster.
Dick Cheney, in particular, is a monstrous criminal who used the Vice Presidential office he seized, to personally enrich himself by at leas $40 million dollars.
The only reason why the 1929 depression was worse than 2008, is that in 1929, the nation had to wait over three years for a Democrat to take over and start fixing things, whereas in 2008, thanks to relatively good electoral timing, a Democrat entered the White House within three months. If Republicans had continued in power this time, the inevitable result would have been a worldwide depression, possibly worse than that of the thirties; as it is, they did everything they could to see to it that the Democrats were hamstrung in their assigned task of fixing things that the Republicans had broken.
Republican oppositionalism, as it has existed since 2008, is sedition bordering on treason, and occasionally crossing that line. Republicans in Congress who persist in this behavior need to be treated like any other open enemies of our country.
Racism is not dead in this country; it burns in the hearts of large numbers of white Americans who would like nothing on this earth more than a chance to violently repress the nonwhite people who live among them. And as a corollary, many of the most staunch defenders of guns (those not solely motivated by the gun industry's hunger for profits at the expense of life) seethe inside with a desire to kill, and a willingness to demonize large parts of the population as so subhuman that exterminating them is just fine.
The number one threat to the survival of mankind is climate change; those who deny it are paid liars or stupid, hate-filled people, who are risking us all. The paid liars need to be treated as enemies of humanity; the others simply ignored.
The United States is on a path right now to have the most unequal distribution of wealth in the known history of civilization, by the year 2030. Nothing like this has ever occurred in world history without provoking violent chaos and revolution, unless the rich are forced to give up a large part of their money. As it is, by 2050, the vast bulk of our nation's wealth is going to be in the hands of a few hundred families, with that wealth obtained by inheritance only. Anyone who cares whether our country survives had better deal with that.
A great deal of the hatred toward the West that exists in the Middle East has nothing to do with "Islamism," but is rather the result of the continuing self-serving exploitation and devastation of the Middle East and North Africa by the West, starting at least as early as the invasion of that area by Napoleon in 1798, and continuing almost unabated by the actions of Britain, France and the United States ever since. We may not be able to deal with religious fanaticism, but we can and must deal with this, which will eventually induce many people to be on our side.
The United States continues to force dictatorship on Latin American countries. It has sponsored two right wing attempts to destroy the economy of Venezuela in recent years, because that country wanted to run its own economy, for the benefit of its own people. A military coup in Honduras a few years ago was supported by the United States (even Hillary was all for that one) based on the pretense that the legally elected, popular President had supposedly violated a minor electoral law. The hands of rich Americans are all over the impeachment of the Brazilian President, who also would not just do what we demanded. On the other hand, no Latin American dictator is too barbarous to lose our support. Without this behavior, intended to benefit no one but American corporations, Latin American countries would likely not be such disasters that their people would not be flocking here en masse to try to take back a tiny trickle of what was stolen from them by the United Fruit Company, Exxon and other American corporations, with the endless collaboration of our government.
Smartphones have convinced all but the most self-deluded that a large part of our police and judicial system is filled with violent, out of control racists. Could it be 20%? Maybe. Could it be 80%? Sadly, it could be. Whatever the number, it is eating away at whatever cohesiveness is left in our country.
_______________________________________________________________________
The day Democrats commit to telling the truth about this, no matter how much bullying they get from the Republicans and the mainstream "press," is the day things start to get better.
Well, as I say, that would be a start. Live with the truth or die with the lies. It's your choice.
Comments
http://www.clarionproject.org/factsheets-files/islamic-state-magazine-dabiq-fifteen-breaking-the-cross.pdf
Your list is certainly more than just a start. I would suggest a couple of additions:
The authorization of systematic torture by the Bush administration. This crossed a line which we had tried to publicly maintain was uncrossable by making an example of torturers at the Nuremberg trials. It's known that several people were arrested and tortured who were completely innocent, such as Khalid al-Masri, who merely happened to have a similar name to a wanted terrorist. At least one innocent person died under torture in Afghanistan.
The overthrow of Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953, showing that forcing dictatorship on countries which were ready for democracy was not limited to Latin America. This happened under Eisenhower, who in general was a saint compared to today's Republicans, but the enmity it aroused among Iranians remains a live issue today, even among people who were born decades after the event.
Infidel, of course you are right; the descent into a moral abyss in which torture was justified by the Bush administration absolutely belongs on this list. And may I say, that when I made my brief remarks including our behavior in the Middle East, I almost cited the overthrow of the Mossadegh government as just about the worst American interference in the region, both in its brazen contempt for democratic government and in the consequences we have suffered. I just decided that this post was long enough already, and if I started citing examples for all of this, it would have never ended.
And then, if you are around a hundred years from now, you can make a blog comment wondering why the violence is still going on.