Houston - The Wild West

Click here for an article at Esquire by Charlie Pierce entitled "We're Nowhere Near Prepared for the Ecological Disaster That Harvey Is Becoming." He lays the blame for the Harvey disaster on the Reagan doctrine: "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

The spell, of course, in this case, was cast 30 years ago, when it became political death to increase anybody's taxes who had any political influence at all. It was cast 30 years ago, when conservative movement politics pitched deregulation as a panacea. It was cast 30 years ago when the fiction of a "business-friendly" environment overcame Republican governors, and more than a few Democrats as well. It was cast 30 years ago when conservative movement politics declared that important decisions on things like the environment and public health were better left to the states, despite the fact that many states, like Texas, were unable or unwilling to pay to do these jobs properly. It was cast 30 years ago when conservative movement politics consciously moved away from empirical research and science, beginning the long march that has ended with a Republican party committed root and branch to all of these fanciful propositions, and to climate denial. It has filtered down through all the levels of politics, from the White House and the Congress, to the state houses and the local zoning boards.

Once, long ago, the conservative activist Grover Norquist famously said that he wanted to shrink "government" to a size at which it could be drowned in the bathtub. Well, people actually are drowning in Houston now, and so is the political philosophy that reached its height when Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural that government wasn't the solution, but the problem itself. We all moved onto a political flood plain then, and we're being swept away.

Has Trump Adopted An Ideology To Call His Own?

Click here for an article at Esquire by Charlie Pierce, entitled "Trump Finally Has an Ideology, and It Will Lead Us to Serious Trouble."

The premise of his story -- and I feel pretty much the same way -- is that he found comfort in Trump's seeming lack of ideology. He thought, as did I, that Trump's only concern was for his image as a celebrity, and his wallet. At least he wasn't a far-right wingnut like Cruz.

Pierce worries that someone -- Steve Bannon? Stephen Miller? -- has persuaded Trump that he needs to adopt some kind of ideology, at least for appearance's sake, to counter those who say he's a windsock, devoid of principle, adopting whatever course is expedient at the time (he can always change back again next week). And the ideology he seems to have adopted is pretty scary.

He's made common cause with the alt-right, giving tacit approval to the KKK and neo-Nazis, championing the cause of Confederate (racist) glorification. He pardoned fellow birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio because he holds the same bigoted, racist views. He's endorsed the new book of law-and-order freak Sheriff David Clarke. And he's lifted Obama's restrictions on military equipment -- tanks and other armored vehicles, grenade launchers, body armor, semi-automatic large-clip rifles -- to local police forces.

And he's supported to the hilt by his racist, bring-back-the-'50s buddy, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. He quotes CNN:

President Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2015 prohibiting the transfer of a host of equipment, including armored vehicles, grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons and camouflage uniforms following controversy over the "militarization" of the police response to unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. "We've seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there's an occupying force as opposed to a force that's part of the community that's protecting them and serving them," Obama said at the time. "It can alienate and intimidate local residents and send the wrong message." President Donald Trump will sign a new executive order Monday rescinding Obama's directive and Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed the policy change during a speech at the annual conference of the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Tennessee, where he received multiple standing ovations and appeared touched by the warm welcome.

And again:

"(W)e are fighting a multi-front battle: an increase in violent crime, a rise in vicious gangs, an opioid epidemic, threats from terrorism, combined with a culture in which family and discipline seem to be eroding further and a disturbing disrespect for the rule of law," Sessions said, as he walked the audience of mostly law enforcement officials through a broad tour of his policy changes at the Justice Department over the past several months. "The executive order the President will sign today will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence and lawlessness to become a new normal," Sessions added.

Trump has adopted enthusiastically the ideology of the "constitutional sheriffs" movement:

This is a profoundly disturbed vision of democracy whereby the local sheriff is presumed to be the highest legal authority within a jurisdiction. Therefore, they are empowered to interfere with even the lawful authority of state and federal officials. (The actions of the Bundy bunch, recently acquitted in federal court, were based in this theory.) Both Joe Arpaio and David Clarke are adherents of this movement and, with a hurricane bearing down on Houston, the president* found time to pardon Arpaio and to plug Clarke's new book-like product on the electric Twitter machine.

America won't begin to recover until the election of a Democratic president, Senate, and House -- something Trump may bring about with his protectionist views on trade and his plummeting popularity. All we need now is a good solid economic downturn (scrap NAFTA!).

Survey Of Trump Supporters -- The Horror, The Horror ...

Click here for an article by Mark Sumner at Daily Kos entitled "Trump supporters fall below 'deplorable' as they express for racism, treason, and slavery."

… Trump voters say they would rather have Jefferson Davis as President than Barack Obama 45/20. Obama wins that question 56/21 with the overall electorate.

That's Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. Is this not evidence of severe Obama-hatred? Here's a relevant quotation:

We recognize the negro as God and God's Book and God's Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him. Our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude.—Jefferson Davis, 1861

Here's the response to another survey question:

Asked what racial group they think faces the most discrimination in America, 45% of Trump voters say it's white people ...

And another:

Asked what religious group they think faces the most discrimination in America, 54% of Trump voters says it's Christians ...

Here's a conclusion drawn by the pollsters:

PPP's newest national poll finds that Donald Trump's approval rating is pretty steady in the wake of the Charlottesville attack, probably because his supporters think that whites and Christians are the most oppressed groups of people in the country.

Here's another of the survey findings:

Overall 39% say they support monuments honoring the Confederacy… Trump voters support them by a 71/10 spread- to put those numbers into perspective only 65% of Trump voters oppose Obamacare, so this is a greater unifier for the Trump base.

Donald Trump Embraces Non-Violence (Just Kidding)

Trump on the campaign trail:

"Part of the problem is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore."

"In the good old days ... they used to treat them very, very rough."

"Knock the crap out of them ... I promise, I will pay for the legal fees."

He completely poisoned the rhetoric with his dozens of ugly, offensive comments on the campaign trail -- including some direct incitements to violence -- and now he professes to abhor the actions of his supporters? Yeah, right.

Pollyannas, And The Quest For A More Perfect Union

I'm struck by the number of politicians, pundits, and just plain folks who profess their abhorrence of the events at the "Unite the Right" fracas in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. "This is not my America," they wail, or "This is not what America stands for."

Sorry, but it IS America. This is the nation that was designed by those godlike figures revered by one and all, the "Founding Fathers" -- a group that included many slaveholders, who wrote what some call a divinely inspired document -- that was so astonishingly perfect it's only been amended 27 times.

To their credit, in the preamble to the Constitution they referenced their desire to form "a more perfect union" -- in other words, the country will evolve and improve. Those improvements have been steady, but there's still a long way to go -- and moments like the murder of Heather Heyer by a deranged young neo-Nazi take society backwards; some of those hard-fought steps forward will have to be taken again, just to get us back to where we were.

Yes, this IS America; it's what America has been since its inception. Don't deny it, don't hide from it, don't pretend things aren't the way they most assuredly are. Recognize the problem, admit the problem, and start working towards fixing the problem.

Trump: Too Little, Too Late

Trump made a tepid statement on Saturday, August 12, after the "Unite the Right" debacle in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the death of 32-year-old anti-Nazi demonstrator Heather Heyer, condemning violence "on all sides." On Monday, nearly 48 hours later, after tweets and statements by prominent Republicans (and of course many Democrats) criticizing Trump's failure to address the situation adequately, and huge media pressure, Trump finally denounced the KKK and neo-Nazis. Now -- surprise, surprise -- all his bootlickers and sycophants are full-throated in their criticism of the KKK and neo-Nazis!

I saw a TV interview in which Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWitt, responding to a question of whether or not the president had gone far enough, that no one can ever go far enough in denouncing these groups. That's an argument that would have carried a lot more moral weight and authority had he made it on Saturday or Sunday. And I wonder: Had Trump not made the remarks that he did on Monday, would DeWitt have taken that stand on Tuesday? Rhetorical question -- I think I know the answer.

He and the rest of the Trump claque take their direction from the leader. The fact is that there's a moral vacuum at the top, and Trump's spineleless supporters will not do the right thing until he does -- which in many cases is going to be a long time coming.

Anthony (the Mooch) Scaramucci said it, and though he wasn't referring to Trump, it's a great fit: The fish rots from the head down.

David Duke Speaks At White Supremacist Rally

David Duke was in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, for the white-supremacist rally where one person was killed and 19 injured by a car crashing into a crowd of anti-protesters. He gave a sound-bite interview:

Q    What does today represent to you?

A    This represents a turning point for people in this country. We are determined to take our country back. We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That's what we believe in; that's why we voted for Donald Trump. Because he said he's going to take our country back, and that's what we've got to do.

When Trump tweeted:

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

Duke responded:

I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.

  After the election, Duke tweeted that it was “one of the most exciting nights of my life. Make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump.”

RIP Glenn Campbell, Guitar Virtuoso

Here's a quote from Charlie Pierce:

We also lost Glenn Campbell, and I have been amazed by the number of people who didn't know that he was considered by many musicians to be one of the top guitar players of his time, a star among Los Angeles session men and a member of the Wrecking Crew.

And here's the video clip he attaches:

Carl Sagan's Prescience

A quotation from Carl Sagan in 1996, in "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark":

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

Gish Galllop - Trump Trot

I liked this little tidbit from a Mark Sumner article at Daily Kos entitled "Donald Trump makes his money the old-fashioned way -- he launders it":

That’s the nature of a “Gish Gallop,” which by this point should really be relabeled a Trump Trot: never let the paint dry on one disaster before launching another. And another. And another.

Fox & Friends Lie About Trump Stock Market Gains

Click here for an article at Crooks & Liars, by John Amato, entitled "Fox & Friends Lies: Inflates Stock Market Gains Under Trump." The Dow hit a record 22,000 commented on by the curvy-couch folks as follows:

During their opening segment, they turned to the economy and co-host Pete Hegseth said, "Nobody would have thought six months ago the DOW would be at 22K, or potential 22K which it may reach today."

Clayton Morris, sub-host immediately chimed in, "Think about this, 22,000 - when [Trump] took office six months ago, 16,000 was sort of unheard of at that time."

Amato says:

Reality check: On January, 20th 2017, the DOW closed at 19,827.25. Which rounded up would be 20,000.

When Obama took over from W., on the other hand, the economy was losing 750,000 jobs a month and the Dow bottomed out at 6,594.44 on March 5, 2009. From there on, the improvement was steady -- slow at first, but gaining momentum throughout Obama's presidency. Investors were confident that the economy was on sufficiently safe ground that even the election of Trump wouldn't turn it around -- and to be sure, Trump promised a business-friendly administration with lots of regulatory rollback. During the campaign, Trump frequently mocked the 5% unemployment rate as a sham, and once claimed it could be as high as 42%:

"Don’t believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number is probably 28-29 as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently the number may be as high as 42%. If we had 5% unemployment, do you think we’d have gatherings like this?,” Trump said.

Of course, once he was elected, the good unemployment figures were rock-solid truthful. Not hypocritical at all.