Opinion

On Tuesday, I went out with a jarring piece that I wish to hell I never had to write, but I reckon needed telling.

In Hell is Here, I told you what you should already know: We are in the middle of a national emergency that is growing more dire by the minute. America, and the roots of her existence are being torn from her moorings by the most callous, lawless uncaring group of miscreants in our nation’s history.

In the latest example of a new cruel streak in modern politics, several politicians are openly calling for blocking aid to California in the wake of the deadly wildfires. It’s wrong for several reasons.

First, Californians contributed to that aid and are among the biggest givers in Federal income taxes. Second, this is being suggested by politicians in states which pay on average far less of the share in income taxes. Third, those suggesting stopping or dangling aid will demand unconditional assistance when they need help, if history is any guide. Finally, it’s hard to find this to be any part of our American or Christian heritage.

By repealing President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 executive order (EO) banning racial discrimination in hiring for the federal government, Donald Trump has proudly proclaimed his intention of Making America White Again, at least with regard to political power and economic opportunity.

Another EO Trump signed this week proclaims that our sex identity begins at “fertilization” when, in fact, sexual development doesn’t begin to start until at least the sixth week after fertilization. In addition to attacking transgender individuals and setting them up for rank persecution (this EO’s main goal), it’s also a way of laying the groundwork for fetal personhood, a doctrine that will ultimately lead to a total ban on abortion and several methods of birth control.

Both Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon took cash bribes while in the White House and before. Agnew’s dated back to shakedowns he did as Maryland governor, while Nixon helped Jimmy Hoffa get out of a prosecution and allegedly ran interference for a group of milk producers.

Since then, bribing politicians has gotten a lot easier thanks to five Republicans on the US Supreme Court. Their Citizens United decision, decided 15 years ago this week, legalized political bribery so long as it is done through campaign, PAC, or SuperPAC funds.

I just want to remind everyone that America elected a demented criminal president and as a consequence, we can no longer assume what we used to assume when it came to matters of law and politics.

I know that sounds like a sweeping generalization, but sometimes you gotta swing hard if you’re going to get people’s attention, and right now, given that liberals and Democrats got their heads in the sand, I think it’s prudent to swing hard, even if I’m proven wrong in the end.

Welcome to your first full week in the new Confederate States of America.

Much like the old CSA, the new CSA (also known as MAGA America) is devoted to:
— Making American as white as possible,
— Stripping women and minorities of political and economic power,
— Gutting workers’ rights,
— Rigging election outcomes,
— Leaders nakedly taking bribes,
— Using a phony veneer of Christianity to justify brutal policies,
— Making queer people invisible,
— Reconfiguring schools for indoctrination,
— Having militias terrorize minorities and their opponents, and,
— Maintaining a government of, by, and for rich, white men.

It is worse than many of us imagined.

Not because we didn't know it would be bad, but because I reckon we practiced self-care by not fixating on it every hour of every terrible day since the horrid election in November.

Attending Trump’s inauguration yesterday were six of the wealthiest and most powerful men in America: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and the respective leaders/owners of TikTok, Google, and ChatGPT.

Want near absolute power in America with the approval of at least half of the American public?

Biden warns of ‘the tech-industrial complex’

There’s no guarantee democracy won’t turn despotic – again.

There’s no compromising with evil, although some Democrats apparently think they can. Evil, by its very nature, will always win in such situations, even when it appears to have compromised or cooperated.

“Evil” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a force that causes bad things to happen.”

At this point, I think it needs to be said that there’s a feeling among liberals and Democrats, and I would suggest especially affluent white liberals and Democrats, that liberal democracy isn’t really dead.

I would say there’s a deep sense of denial among these folks. They tell themselves that the dearly departed is much too dear to be truly departed. I would say there’s also a good deal of magical thinking in this denial, as if the criminals who shot their beloved will come to justice, and once they do, their beloved will rise again, good as new.