Politics Plus

We voted. We stumped for Kamala Harris. We encouraged everybody we knew to vote. Some of us drove people to the polls. Some of us text or phone banked, some of us knocked on doors, some of us wrote and mailed postcards and/or letters. We hoped, and some of us prayed. But, sadly, the 2024 U.S. Presidential election was a triumph of evil over good. Millions of US voters who think of themselves as patriots betrayed this country by voting for an incompetent jerk who is a convicted felon. Do these people wipe their bottoms with copies of the Constitution?

Rump’s re-election is the worst disaster in US history. Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 attacks, the 2011 tornado super-outbreak – those were scraps in a Kindergarten sand box compared to what awaits us beginning in January. He will not be our 47th President, he will be our first dictator; and in his foul wake comes Christian [sic] Nationalism. The Tangerine Troglodyte probably doesn’t have a Christian bone in his body, but millions of so-called Christians adore him and will gladly destroy everything the United States of America is supposed to represent and pervert this country into a religious dictatorship.

A lot of us, upon hearing the appalling news, thought “Oh noes, the USA is f—-ed!” However, hope is not lost. Plan A didn’t work, so it’s time for Plan B: Resist. Contrary to what the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation say, resistance is not futile. Nor does it have to be violent. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. both demonstrated that passive, non-violent resistance works.

Many are already making plans to flee to Canada, or elsewhere. However, emigration is not nearly as easy as you think. A couple years ago I wrote and published a Sound Off! about how simply leaving this country can be a tall order, as well as expensive. Yes, there are certain segments of the population that will be in dire peril; however, it may be better if we stay and fight back in any way we can.

The Orange Ogre’s return to the oval office will alienate the USA from much of the world. We may face sanctions and embargoes that will cripple our economy. Also, the tariffs he promised will cause a lot of prices to increase sharply, perhaps even skyrocket, which will tick off consumers. People vote their pocketbooks as a rule, and a President who aids and abets inflation will encourage a political bloodbath in the midterms.

The tRump chumps can howl and cackle in their evil delight all they like. They have won a major battle, but not the war. We can make sure their victory is Pyrrhic in the extreme by causing what the late Representative John Lewis called “good trouble.” Besides, let’s see how wide their smirks are when Project 2025 bites them in their bottoms.

Now is the time to support organizations that defend freedom and protect human rights. Now is the time to start vetting candidates for the 2025 and especially the 2026 elections. Don’t give up hope – we may still be able to have elections. And we will, if we put our agony and grief aside and prepare how to counterpunch.

We have a lot of work to do, so get out your marching shoes. We can take this country back and return it to the path of progress. With any luck, we can do so without shedding a drop of blood. Our opponents will react violently, and there will be punched noses and smashed-in heads, so the temptation to bash back will be strong. However, we can still win in the end if we keep our cool. Let us hope that we can still win using peaceful means, just as the Suffragettes and freedom marchers did.

Meanwhile, my X-Wing is on order.

Once again, a school shooting has shocked us all. In Winder, GA, a 14-year-old killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine others. Last Wednesday’s incident was just another one in a long series of mass shootings at U.S. schools. It may not have been a bloodbath like Virginia Tech, Uvalde or Sandy Hook, but it was still a heartbreaker – and a reminder of not just how lax our gun laws are but also how deeply ingrained into our society the gun cult is.

How many more of these tragedies must take place? How many more shootings, how many more deaths, how many more funerals, how many more tears, how many more flowers and candles left as memorials? All of those who died had plans for their lives. All of the students had futures that will never be realized. One of them could have eventually headed a research team that would find a cure for muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or some other currently incurable malady. One of them could have helped develop a vaccine against HIV. One of them could have written the Great American Novel, or composed music that would stand the test of time. One of them could have won a Nobel Prize, or a Pulitzer, or a Hugo, or an Oscar.

Our marshmallow-livered, jelly-spined, chicken-hearted elected leaders could do something. They could do a lot. They should have done something substantial after Columbine, or Luby’s, or the Edmond Post Office, or any other mass shooting. But instead they cravenly kowtow to the gun lobby. The jingle-jingle of the NRA’s blood money rings loudly enough in their ears to drown out the wails of the wounded and the bereaved, and the angry demands of gun control advocates. Funny that Congresspeople fiercely defend the Second Amendment, while violating many of the others.

It is easy to forget that the US Constitution was originally written when most rifles were muzzle-loading muskets, which required a complex procedure to reload; breech-loading firearms were new, and could fire only one shot at a time. The Founding Fathers could never have foreseen modern bullets and guns – science fiction wasn’t a thing back then. Also, gun nuts howl about the “right to keep and bear arms” while entirely forgetting the opening phrase in the Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” OK, what part of “well regulated militia” don’t y’all understand? Goof bags running around with AR-15s and Confederate flags are not well-regulated militias, just well-armed goof bags.

One thing I would like to know is how gun-defenders will feel when their own children become the victims of a school mass shooting. Will they still have JD Vance’s attitude that such massacres are a “fact of life,” or will they start to sing a different tune? People with children attending Columbine, Robb Elementary, West Nickel Mines School, Virginia Tech, Red Lake Senior High, Douglas High School or Apalachee High never thought it would happen to them.

You may have read the fable of the oak and the willow. The oak stood strong against every storm, and mocked the willow for bending. However, eventually a really powerful storm came along and blew the oak down. The willow survived because it was flexible. Someday we will get that storm that is powerful enough, overwhelming enough, to knock over the NRA’s oak. Someday.

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Thanks to new circumstances I hope that I can contribute more Sound Offs, and more often now.

There is a good chance you have heard about Project 2025, the sinister plan to remake the US Government from top to bottom. I have not read the entire document, but one does not have to drink the entire beer to know it has gone skunky. This Project is nothing less – or more – than a blueprint to destroy the United States and what this country is supposed to represent and defend. It would undermine the rule of law and erase the separation of powers. It caters to the darkest and ugliest desires of Christian Nationalists.

Project 2025 is the brainchild of The Heritage Foundation, an infamous right-wing think tank, and has the blessing of dozens of extreme right-wing organizations, including – but, of course, not limited to – the American Family Association, Center for Renewing America, Moms for Liberty, Tea Party Patriots, ALEC, Eagle Forum, the NRA, and Liberty University. It calls for eliminating the Department of Education, NOAA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (funny, I thought right-wingers love that one), and the Department of Commerce, among others. The FCC and FTC would no longer be independent of the Oval Office, but will have to answer directly to it. Environmental protections, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ gains will be rolled back, if not eliminated completely.

Tens of thousands of government workers would become political appointees, meaning that competent people who have worked under multiple administrations could be replaced with cronies and stooges who demonstrate party loyalty rather than the ability to carry out the duties of their positions. History shows that this kind of spoils system very rarely works for the better, and usually for the worse.

The plan will effectively make the POTUS a dictator and the country subject to his whims. Even if tRump keels over of a heart attack between now and the election, a GOP victory still means Project 2025 will be carried out because it is a guidebook for the next right-wing President. One need but look at past dictators to see what devastating affects they had on their countries. There is no question that Donald tRump is a control freak, as well as quite unhinged. Lessee – what other unhinged control freak once ruled a powerful country? What makes it worse is the fact that the USA is, albeit somewhat arguably, the most powerful country on this planet. We definitely have the mightiest military when one takes into account the sum total of ground, naval and air power. Now imagine such power in the hands of a madman.

Yep – yikes.

We need to prevent Project 2025 from ever being launched. Plan A is we prevent tRump from being re-elected. Plan B is to resist it. Right now we need to assemble a coalition of organizations and individuals who will work together to resist the extreme right-wing machinations that aim to destroy democracy, freedom and justice. Fortunately, many institutions and politicians are already making plans to oppose Project 2025.

Even if we re-elect Biden, even if we have a Blue Wave in November of 2024, we will not be out of the woods. After they lick their wounds, the right-wing bugnuts will regroup and try again. Two words: January 6th. We must remember that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We need to be vigilant against those forces that seek to destroy democracy and freedom, as they will never give up. If Biden wins in 2024, the Hate-ritage Foundation and its allies will come up with Project 2029, 2033, 2037…

And We The People, those of us who know what the US of A is supposed to be and represent and protect, will oppose them.

If you know anything about Project 2025, you should be worried. This vile plan that right-wingers would put into motion if the GOP regains the Oval Office is horror piled upon horror. The more I read about this madness, the more I realize it slithered out of the most sordid depths of the pit of pure evil. This coalition of some 75 partner organizations, led by the ultra-conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, is preparing for the next conservative administration with plans that will totally shred the Constitution, the very heart and soul of this country. They will undo nearly a quarter of a millennium of progress.

The Project involves invoking the Insurrection Act, which would put the Orange Ogre in charge of the military and the police. Since many police departments in this country are already militarized, and since racism and other forms of bigotry run rampant in U.S. constabularies, this will make life a lot worse for many marginalized segments of the population. What’s even worse, the Project doesn’t depend entirely on the Mango Menace – any ol’ Republicanazi will do.

T-Rump claims that he’ll be dictator for only one day. One day my ass. Give him a millimeter, he’ll take an entire kilometer. The Project calls for an executive branch with essentially unlimited power and zero accountability to Congress, or the public. It seeks to ban pornography – and its definition of porn is extremely broad, encompassing ANY discussion of gender, abortion, or sexual identity that is not straight. They want the Executive Branch to dominate without any checks or balances. If that isn’t fascism, what is?

Project 2025 has four goals: 1) Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect children, 2) Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people, 3) Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats, and 4) Secure our god-given individual right to enjoy the “blessings of liberty.” I can here the snickering from here. The only family they acknowledge is the jejune Leave It to Beaver nuclear family in which Dad works and Mom stays home as a “domestic goddess.” Dismantling the “administrative state” means getting rid of numerous necessary regulations and departments that keep our air and water clean, protect consumers from fraud, and ensure the reasonable purity of our food and medicine.

The noted supporters include Donald Devine, best known as Ronald Reagan’s “terrible swift sword” because he was always eager to slash spending (except on defense, of course); Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow and Faux News contributor; and Peter Navarro, one of the few people in tRump’s inner circle who didn’t get fired.

It involves dismantling the FBI and Homeland Security. Funny, seems to me that these reich-wing bugnuts ought to LOVE Homeland Security. It calls for eliminating the Department of Education (Make America Ignorant Again) and the Department of Commerce (put the corporate Fat Cats in charge). It would also put POTUS in direct charge of the Department of Justice, among other departments. How could that NOT be a dick(tator) move? There is a reason why the U.S. Constitution has built-in checks and balances to prevent any one person from gaining too much power.

Women will lose all of the rights they have fought for so fiercely over more than a century. Not only will abortion be totally illegal, womb-bearers will have to report their pregnancies. What happens if a pregnancy ends in a miscarriage or stillbirth? Will the mother be charged with murder? Imagine how swiftly prisons will fill with women who were innocent victims of rotten luck. Imagine what their partners and their children will suffer.

LGBTQ people will have to hide in the closet once more. POCs will have little recourse to fight the inevitable tsunami of racism that the Project will set into motion. Remember what I wrote earlier about the police? When cops and soldiers are practically identical, just imagine what police will do to non-whites whom they arrest, and to non-white neighborhoods. (On the other hand, don’t – it would be serious nightmare fuel.) Hate crimes will be not just legal, but the law.

Hitler is dancing in Hell.

You can read the entirety of Project 2025 here – that is, if you want to. It runs for approximately 950 pages, so unless you are into marathon reading you probably want to read only a segment here and a segment there.

If this doesn’t scare the pants off you, either you’re not paying attention, or you support this insanity.