LieGate - 2

Welcome to It Can Happen Here

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Another danger is lurking besides the current viral pandemic case load increases, and it is directly related to it.

The danger is that millions of people may not be able to vote because they will be homeless and/or out of work.

They may become so stressed that voting will be the last thing on their mind:

20 Million Renters Are at Risk of Eviction; Policymakers Must Act Now to Mitigate Widespread Hardship

"Across the country, renters and tenants advocates are sounding the alarm about the coming eviction crisis, referring to it as an avalanche or tsunami. Over the past five months, more than 44 million Americans have filed for unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As the recession continues, economic stimulus payments are spent, and expanded Unemployment Insurance expires, many of these displaced workers will be unable to make housing payments.

Mass evictions would be a disaster. For both individuals and families, evictions result in severe harm; when they become widespread, there are also significant consequences for entire communities and even the speed of economic recovery. Policymakers are actively seeking solutions, but it is difficult to prepare without knowing the size of the problem.

The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project (CEDP) was formed to solve that problem. It is a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts who developed a model to estimate eviction risk nationally and at the state level. The disturbing result: 19 to 23 million, or one in five of the 110 million Americans who live in renter households, are at risk of eviction by September 30, 2020."

(The Aspen Institute). It may be bad for homeowners too in the sense of foreclosures, depending on the governments' (federal and state) response.

The greatest threat to avoiding this potential catastrophe is the despotic minority (How To Identify The Despotic Minority, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

They are cruel enough to lock up children and rip them from the arms of their parents, cruel enough to weakly respond to the Covid-19 crisis, and cruel enough to encourage stress syndrome conditions then suppress the vote.

It can happen here, so beware because forewarned can be forearmed.

The previous post in this series is here.

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How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 13

Back in the USSR

I. Background

This Dredd Blog series has been pointing out the history of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority that has brought down over twenty civilizations down through time.

The information comes from Encyclopedia Britannica and historian Arnold Toynbee (How To Identify The Despotic Minority, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

One factor that has been focused on is "tyranny" which is another word for "cruelty."

As it turns out, perhaps one of the least expected sources of cruelty being revealed is a "religious" source not at all associated with terrorism (Atlantic, RawStory).

In today's post I want to point out that the American government as set up by the U.S. Constitution is not fail safe, because it has some serious undemocratic aspects to it that at this point in our nation's history is unlikely to be remedied.

II. A Predicament

According the the last census of 2010, the 22 "Red States" that are home to a lot of current right wing religion and politics, as shown by the table below, make up only 31.42% of the population of the 50 states.

Yet they are given two senators each, totaling 44% of the U.S. Senate:

Red States	Population Rank	Population Census 2010	Population Percent	Senate Percent
Wyoming	50	0.563626 mil	0.17	2
Alaska	48	0.710231 mil	0.39	4
North Dakota	47	0.672591 mil	0.62	6
South Dakota	46	0.81418 mil	0.89	8
Montana	43	0.989415 mil	1.21%	10%
Idaho	39	1.56758 mil	1.74	12
West Virginia	38	1.85299 mil	2.29	14
Nebraska	37	1.82634 mil	2.87	16
Kansas	35	2.85312 mil	3.75	18
Mississippi	34	2.9673 mil	4.65%	20%
Arkansas	33	2.91592 mil	5.56	22
Utah	30	2.76389 mil	6.52	24
Oklahoma	28	3.75135 mil	7.71	26
Kentucky	26	4.33937 mil	9.06	28
Louisiana	25	4.53337 mil	10.47%	30%
Alabama	24	4.77974 mil	11.95	32
South Carolina	23	4.62536 mil	13.49	34
Missouri	18	5.98893 mil	15.34	36
Tennessee	16	6.3461 mil	17.39	38
Arizona	14	6.39202 mil	19.56%	40%
Georgia	8	9.68765 mil	22.74	42
Texas	2	25.1456 mil	31.42%	44%
Total		96.0866 mil

III. Another Predicament

Now, let's look at the whole population, all states, and the entire population so as to see that a remedy is not within our grasp at this time.

The table below (per 2010 Census) shows that 1.08% of the population elects 10% of the senate, 2.82% of the population elects 20% of the senate, 5.54% of the population elects 30% of the senate, 10.1% of the population elects 40% of the senate, 15.95% of the population elects 50% of the senate, 23.8% of the population elects 60% of the senate, and 33.31% of the population elects 70% of the senate (and so forth):

State (R=Red State)	Population Rank	Population Census 2010	Population Percent	Senate Percent
Wyoming (R)	50	0.563626 mil	0.17	2
Vermont	49	0.625741 mil	0.36	4
Alaska (R)	48	0.710231 mil	0.58	6
North Dakota (R)	47	0.672591 mil	0.81	8
South Dakota (R)	46	0.81418 mil	1.08%	10%
Delaware	45	0.897934 mil	1.37	12
Rhode Island	44	1.05257 mil	1.69	14
Montana (R)	43	0.989415 mil	2.01	16
Maine	42	1.32836 mil	2.41	18
New Hampshire	41	1.31647 mil	2.82%	20%
Hawaii	40	1.3603 mil	3.25	22
Idaho (R)	39	1.56758 mil	3.78	24
West Virginia (R)	38	1.85299 mil	4.33	26
Nebraska (R)	37	1.82634 mil	4.91	28
New Mexico	36	2.05918 mil	5.54%	30%
Kansas (R)	35	2.85312 mil	6.42	32
Mississippi (R)	34	2.9673 mil	7.32	34
Arkansas (R)	33	2.91592 mil	8.23	36
Nevada	32	2.70055 mil	9.15	38
Iowa	31	3.04636 mil	10.1%	40%
Utah (R)	30	2.76389 mil	11.06	42
Connecticut	29	3.5741 mil	12.14	44
Oklahoma (R)	28	3.75135 mil	13.33	46
Oregon	27	3.83107 mil	14.6	48
Kentucky (R)	26	4.33937 mil	15.95%	50%
Louisiana (R)	25	4.53337 mil	17.36	52
Alabama (R)	24	4.77974 mil	18.84	54
South Carolina (R)	23	4.62536 mil	20.38	56
Minnesota	22	5.30392 mil	22.08	58
Colorado	21	5.0292 mil	23.8%	60%
Wisconsin	20	5.68699 mil	25.56	62
Maryland	19	5.77355 mil	27.39	64
Missouri (R)	18	5.98893 mil	29.24	66
Indiana	17	6.4838 mil	31.26	68
Tennessee (R)	16	6.3461 mil	33.31%	70%
Massachusetts	15	6.54763 mil	35.4	72
Arizona (R)	14	6.39202 mil	37.57	74
Washington	13	6.72454 mil	39.85	76
Virginia	12	8.00102 mil	42.43	78
New Jersey	11	8.79189 mil	45.12%	80%
Michigan	10	9.88364 mil	48.14	82
North Carolina	9	9.53548 mil	51.28	84
Georgia (R)	8	9.68765 mil	54.46	86
Ohio	7	11.5365 mil	57.99	88
Illinois	6	12.8306 mil	61.84%	90%
Pennsylvania	5	12.7024 mil	65.71	92
New York	4	19.3781 mil	71.62	94
Florida	3	18.8013 mil	78.06	96
Texas (R)	2	25.1456 mil	86.74	98
California	1	37.2545 mil	98.7%	100%
USA		308.144 mil

IV. Population Estimates For 2018

The table below (population estimates for 2018) shows that 1.09766% of the population elects 10% of the senate, 2.86874% of the population elects 20% of the senate, 5.62715% of the population elects 30% of the senate, 10.2532% of the population elects 40% of the senate, 16.176% of the population elects 50% of the senate, 24.1214% of the population elects 60% of the senate, and 33.7532% of the population elects 70% of the senate (and so forth):

State	Population Rank	Population 2018 Est.	Percent of Population	Percent of Senate
Wyoming	50	0.577737 mil	0.176968%	2%
Vermont	49	0.626299 mil	0.368811%	4%
Alaska	48	0.737438 mil	0.594697%	6%
North Dakota	47	0.760077 mil	0.827517%	8%
South Dakota	46	0.882235 mil	1.09776%	10%
Delaware	45	0.967171 mil	1.39401%	12%
Rhode Island	44	1.05732 mil	1.71788%	14%
Montana	43	1.06231 mil	2.04328%	16%
Maine	42	1.3384 mil	2.45324%	18%
New Hampshire	41	1.35646 mil	2.86874%	20%
Hawaii	40	1.42049 mil	3.30386%	22%
Idaho	39	1.75421 mil	3.84119%	24%
West Virginia	38	1.80583 mil	4.39434%	26%
Nebraska	37	1.92927 mil	4.98529%	28%
New Mexico	36	2.09543 mil	5.62715%	30%
Kansas	35	2.91151 mil	6.51898%	32%
Mississippi	34	2.98653 mil	7.43379%	34%
Arkansas	33	3.01383 mil	8.35695%	36%
Nevada	32	3.03439 mil	9.28642%	38%
Iowa	31	3.15614 mil	10.2532%	40%
Utah	30	3.16111 mil	11.2215%	42%
Connecticut	29	3.57267 mil	12.3158%	44%
Oklahoma	28	3.94308 mil	13.5236%	46%
Oregon	27	4.19071 mil	14.8073%	48%
Kentucky	26	4.4684 mil	16.176%	50%
Louisiana	25	4.65998 mil	17.6034%	52%
Alabama	24	4.88787 mil	19.1006%	54%
South Carolina	23	5.08413 mil	20.658%	56%
Minnesota	22	5.61118 mil	22.3767%	58%
Colorado	21	5.69556 mil	24.1214%	60%
Wisconsin	20	5.81357 mil	25.9021%	62%
Maryland	19	6.04272 mil	27.7531%	64%
Missouri	18	6.12645 mil	29.6297%	66%
Indiana	17	6.69188 mil	31.6795%	68%
Tennessee	16	6.77001 mil	33.7532%	70%
Massachusetts	15	6.90215 mil	35.8674%	72%
Arizona	14	7.17165 mil	38.0642%	74%
Washington	13	7.53559 mil	40.3724%	76%
Virginia	12	8.51769 mil	42.9815%	78%
New Jersey	11	8.90852 mil	45.7103%	80%
Michigan	10	9.99592 mil	48.7721%	82%
North Carolina	9	10.3836 mil	51.9527%	84%
Georgia	8	10.5195 mil	55.175%	86%
Ohio	7	11.6894 mil	58.7556%	88%
Illinois	6	12.7411 mil	62.6583%	90%
Pennsylvania	5	12.8071 mil	66.5813%	92%
New York	4	19.5422 mil	72.5673%	94%
Florida	3	21.2993 mil	79.0915%	96%
Texas	2	28.7018 mil	87.8832%	98%
California	1	39.557 mil	100%	100%
USA		326,465,000

Of course that assumes that every one of those members of the population votes (see how optimistic I am sometimes).

The point I am making is that this is not the definition of a democracy in the pure, functional sense: "government by the people; especially : rule of the majority" (Dictionary).

The population in a state with 500,000 people gets the same number of senators as a state with ~40,000,000 people.

This means that the low population states can more easily control the senate, and thus the cabinets and the courts (Here Come De Conservative Judges, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

And as goes the Supremes, so goes the nation ("the constitution says what the Supreme Court says it says" - paraphrase, see Harvard Law Review).

The Senate decides who can go on the Supreme Court, and who cannot.

See the problem?!

V. Closing Comments

The tyranny of the despotic minority is here, and the odds are that it is here to stay?

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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Ode to The Rus People:

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The Shape Shifters Of Bullshitistan - 20

Applying For Membership

The book features the emblematic persona Quichotte  who travels far and wide to join The Shape Shifters of Bullshitistan (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19).

Quichotte is a member of the "Q" who wants to elevate himself way, way up into a better trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

To do so he must please The Chosen One, the “wholly imaginary chief executive who was obsessed by cable news, who pandered to a white supremacist base” and then he must find his mystical mate (hiding somewhere inside Shape Shifter member The ConWay).

But Quichotte will attempt none of it until the current session of the current golden age of the senate expires ("a mythology of a false past, a kind of golden age").

After that, the jig is up because doing nothing for anyone but yourself is facing extinction in the Swamp of swamps, home of The Banners galore.

He is sure that The Don will make him famous as he did "The Mooch," "The Lawgiver I (who lives in the Alabama struck down by Dorian)," and "The Lawtaker Willie Low Bar" who removed law from the Just Us Department.

Avoid the rush, get the book before the election.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 13

A trance auction (they're on sale)

I. Preamble

It is uncanny that billions of people can live on a planet yet not know where they are (You Are Here) and that millions of people can live in a nation and likewise not know were they are. 

The first two posts in this series (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) were received as an anomaly by those who are in the "this country is heaven" trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The third post, however, made the room a bit more quiet (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 3).

Today's post, half a decade later, reminds me of:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

(Gandhi). But there is no winning when a country is in the final throes of the things all great civilizations go through suicidally.

II. Popular Finality

 The final throes can only take place when suicidal practices become heroic by virtue of mass popularity:

And that is the final essence of the despotic minority that forms and destroys the civilization through primitive and pervasive fear:

But always TCS is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority). The essence that finally does the deed is probably "it can't happen here."

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 11). How much more prescient can Dredd Blog posts be than this?

III. "It" Is In The Papers

On TV, in the Social Media, and in your face, we just learned that the President of the nation that claims to be the least racist, least fascist, least warmongering, and the most free ... was condemned for racism:

"The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, joined by four Republicans and an independent, voted Tuesday to condemn President Trump for comments about Democratic congresswomen which the resolution described as 'racist.'

The resolution passed 240-187, with no Democrat voting “nay.” The four Republicans to vote in favor were Reps. Susan Brooks (Ind.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Will Hurd (Texas), and Fred Upton (Mich.), who were joined by Republican-turned-independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.). Six Republicans did not vote.

The resolution 'strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color ...'”

(CNS News, emphasis added). The nation that wrote Slavery into its Constitution, the Nation where an uncanny percent of presidents owned slaves (The Germ Theory - of Government - 7), now has to condemn its president for racism.

Have you "come a long way baby?"

IV. But Racism Is Illegal Isn't It?

The courts make decisions that would certainly lead us to think that racism is illegal in the United States:

"For 150 years, the Supreme Court has applied the 14th Amendment in rulings that have shaped civil rights and liberties in America. Introduced to address the racial discrimination endured by Black people who were recently emancipated from slavery, the amendment confirmed the rights and privileges of citizenship and, for the first time, guaranteed all Americans equal protection under the laws. The 14th Amendment continues to be central to the fight for racial equality and many other social justice movements. Still, much work remains to ensure that its protections are inclusive."

(The Supreme Court and the 14th Amendment). Nevertheless, there seems to be a tyrannical insurrection taking place in the USA by a despotic minority.

Which is what took down 26 civilizations in the course of human history (see Encyclopedia Britannica quote above).

History lusts to repeat itself.

V. Laugh It Off

It is disturbing that a lot of media pundits laugh as they discuss these issues and get paid the big bucks for so doing.

Not a wise thing to do.

The previous post in this series is here.

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Ode to HaHa and the gang:

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How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 12

Slipping Into A Slide Zone

I. The Record

The Trump Administration withdrew from the traditional U.S. involvement in the promulgation of the concept and practice of human rights:

"The strong civil society and democratic institutions of the United States were tested in the first year of the administration of President Donald Trump. Across a range of issues in 2017, the US moved backward on human rights at home and abroad.

Trump has targeted refugees and immigrants, calling them criminals and security threats; emboldened racist politics by equivocating on white nationalism; and consistently championed anti-Muslim ideas and policies. His administration has embraced policies that will roll back access to reproductive health care for women; championed health insurance changes that would leave many more Americans without access to affordable health care; and undermined police accountability for abuse. Trump has also expressed disdain for independent media and for federal courts that have blocked some of his actions. And he has repeatedly coddled autocratic leaders and showed little interest or leadership in pressing for the respect of human rights abroad."

(Human Rights Watch, emphasis added). The Trump Administration is at odds with traditional American values.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security condemned the human rights violations taking place on American soil:

Caged Asylum Seekers

More Caged Asylum Seekers

"During our visits to five Border Patrol facilities and two ports of entry ... we ... observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention of unaccompanied alien children (UACs), families, and single adults that require immediate attention.
...
This management alert addresses overcrowding at four of the five Border Patrol facilities, and prolonged detention at all five facilities, we visited in the Rio Grande Valley.
...
In the Border Patrol facilities we visited, we also observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention among adult detainees. TEDS provides that 'under no circumstances should the maximum [cell] occupancy rate, as set by the fire marshal, be exceeded.' However, at one facility, some single adults were held in standing room only conditions for a week and at another, some single adults were held more than a month in overcrowded cells ..."

(DHS Inspector General Report, PDF). Standing room only for a week, no showers, clean clothes, or hot meals as required by humane standards and policy.

II. The Obvious

In the language of history, this is the tyranny (cruelty) of a despotic minority:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). There has been an about face away from the public's concern for human rights and an acceptance of cruelty (tyranny).

III. The Solution

Listen to those who started us on the liberty voyage in our ship of state:

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

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"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Those truths are well established." - James Madison

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“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

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“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

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"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people." - Thomas Jefferson

(Quotes Page). Those statements made by the original American statesmen are still true today.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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VSS (Very Slippery Slope) ...

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The Rus People

American Rus People by Natasha Mozgovaya

I. Foreward or Backward?

We don't hear much about the history of the Rus people.

They are the ancestors of modern day Russia.

We hear mostly about their current totalitarian leader, who, if he was a democratic type of leader like those in England, Germany, or other such countries, our current wanna-be totalitarian president would not like him (The Shape Shifters Of Bullshitistan - 19).

Our current wanna-be totalitarian president says he loves another totalitarian who just executed his envoy to the US (USA Today), and covers for a 'prince of a man' who caused the death of a U.S. resident journalist (Awe Topsy - 4).

II. Typical "Wee The People" Dynamics

Our forefathers came from the same secular womb that all efforts toward a government by the people emerge from, instead of a government lording it over the people (Wee The People, 2, 3).

The Rus' people have also been through all of that over the centuries:

"The history of Russia begins with that of the East Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The traditional beginning of Russian history is the establishment of Rus' state in the north in 862 ruled by Vikings. Ladoga and Novgorod were the first major cities of the new union of immigrants from Scandinavia with the Slavs and Finno-Ugrians. In 882, Novgorod Prince Oleg seized Kiev, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one power. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Orthodox Slavic culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 1237–1240 along with the resulting deaths of about half the population of Rus'.

After the 13th century, Moscow became a cultural center. By the 18th century, tsar Peter the Great had renamed Moscovian Tsardom to become first the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire, hoping to associate it with historical and cultural achievements of ancient Rus'. The state now extended from the eastern borders of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Pacific Ocean. Peasant revolts were common, and all were fiercely suppressed. Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861, but the peasants fared poorly and often turned to revolutionary pressures. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms, the constitution of 1906, and the State Duma attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the tsars refused to relinquish autocratic rule or share their power.

The Russian Revolution in 1917 was triggered by a combination of economic breakdown, war-weariness, and discontent with the autocratic system of government. It initially brought to power a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the communist Bolsheviks on 25 October. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of Russia is essentially the history of the Soviet Union, effectively an ideologically based state which was roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history, from the mixed economy and diverse society and culture of the 1920s to the command economy and repressions of the Joseph Stalin era to the "era of stagnation" in the 1980s. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918."

(Culture of Ancient Rus).  It is interesting that "The Vikings" also had a part in the formation of the early governments of English speaking peoples:

"For Britain however was reserved the second invading wave. It came from the North. In Scandinavia the Vikings fitted out their long-boats for sea. This double assault by Arab infidels and Nordic pirates distracted the weakened life of Europe for ten generations. It was not until the eleventh century that the steel-clad feudalism of medieval Christendom, itself consisting largely of the converted descendants of the Vikings, assigned limits to the Arab conquests, and established at the side of the Christian Church ample and effective military power."

(Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples, p. 71). All peoples have struggled with oppressive governments and have eventually, in common, failed for the most part:

But always TCS [The Creep State] is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 8). Voting politicians out of office, because they cater to the despotic minority, is not enough.

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority). Like the seemingly endless struggle for a civilized government of, by, and for the people, a seemingly endless emergence of a despotic minority is always at the door.

III. The Common Good

The founders of the United States expressed the desire of people everywhere to have a common chance to go through life without oppression and to experience the common good (The Common Good, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Nothing has changed in that regard, or in the counter struggles to enslave the peoples of the world.

Russia, America, China, Europe, Asia, The North, The South, The East, and The West all have that in common.

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Watch the video on Youtube (Link) ...

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The Shape Shifters Of Bullshitistan - 19

Professor Cruel, Trump University

"The press is the enemy of the people" in North Korea, China, Russia, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and other right-wing authoritarian countries (How To Identify The Despotic Minority, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

The authoritarian right wing president of the USA has the same Orwellian, wrong headed opinion.

He speaks evil of fellow Americans in concert with mass murdering North Korean "ideological lover Kimmy."

His current corrupt leader of the Department of Just Us (DOJ) has evidently cleared the way for Robert Swan Mueller III (RSM III) to speak briefly at the newly evolved Department of Hoaxes (DOH), but to take no questions afterwards, thus, today among other things we will see how much Tweeter has perverted, or not, RSM III.

In other words, we may see whether or not the two years of public criticism, obstruction, and character assassination of the Special Counsel has taken down yet another official.

We already know that it has taken down many American minds who now support Professor Cruel of Trump University (High Percent of GOP Support Trump).

But, has it taken down the authors of The Mueller Report (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan - 18) ?

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AFTER PRESSER

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After careful consideration concerning what  RSM III stated in his presser, and in his report, I conclude that NO they did not pervert him.

That is good for the USA!

So, RSM III said that his report exposed Russian interference in our politics and that it should concern "every American!"

Therefore, I must pose this question to the Senators in the GOP:  

Since RSM III wants you to be concerned Americans will you drop the political idolization of your political Fuhrer and do as RSM III suggested?

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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Bingo

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Stormy Ode: (or Ode to Stormy):

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The news today o-boy

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On The Origin of Tyranny

Children of Despotic Minorities

I. The Foreward

The meaning of "origin" is "the beginning or cause of something" (Cambridge Dictionary, cf Oxford).

Obviously, then, tyranny emerges originally in a nation or civilization that does not yet nor ever did have it.

That is, tyranny does not originally emerge for the first time from itself, so logically it must emerge in a non-tyrannical womb ("the place where something originates and develops").

So, what type of environment, nation, or civilization does tyranny emerge in?

The only answer I can come up with, after reading The Origin of Tyranny (PDF), is:

any environment, nation, or civilization where tyranny does not yet exist.

Thus, the short answer is that tyranny must emerge in an environment, nation, or civilization that is not already tyrannical (e.g. in a democracy).

It would seem, then, that the most vulnerable to it are those environments, nations, or civilizations with the "It can't happen here" mindset (LieGate).

II. The Current Situation

Another historian (besides the one that wrote "The Origin of Tyranny") studied the situation at length in terms of the womb of tyranny, focusing on the tyranny that brought environments, nations, or civilizations down:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(How To Identify The Despotic Minority). In that post I wrote about the womb of tyranny, which is "a despotic minority", but I did not talk at length about the nature of their tyranny itself.

That is because to historians the tyranny itself is naturally associated with the particular characteristics of the particular minority which has become despotic at a given time in history.

It is up to us, then, to identify the characteristics of the particular tyranny of the despotic minority that has or could arise in our country in our lifetime.

The book The Origin of Tyranny, which I mentioned and linked to in Section I above, identifies many possible minorities.

It can be a wealthy minority (e.g. The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy, 2, 3, 4, 8), a disenfranchised minority of most any sort (e.g. Storm The Bastille), or a military minority (e.g. Will The Military Become The Police?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

III. The Tyranny

Remember that the tyranny we are analyzing is "the tyranny of a despotic minority."

So, let's begin with "despotic", which stems from "despot", which is:

"a person, especially a ruler, who has unlimited power over other people, and often uses it unfairly and cruelly"

(Cambridge Dictionary).  Dictionaries tell us that "tyranny" is:

"unlimited authority or use of power, or a government which exercises such power without any control or limits" (Cambridge Dictionary)

"oppressive power exerted by government" (Merriam Webster)

"A tyranny is a cruel, harsh, and unfair government in which a person or small group of people have power over everyone else. " (Collins)

A despotic ruler is a minority of one, but the power actually originates in a minority group of people supporting the ruling despot.

There is a lot of enlightenment on the psychology of both the ruler and the followers in a book entitled "The Authoritarians" (How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 3).

IV. The Etiology

The way a despotic minority evolves depends on the culture, however, much of the particular dynamics are universally understandable (Etiology of Social Dementia - 5).

V. The Conclusion

The bottom line is that both the tyranny and the despot are defined by the characteristics of the minority that has become despotic.

That "minority" can be millions of people, can be multiracial, one race, multicultural, one culture, etc. (e.g. election, 2016).

However, the one required characteristic is that such a minority must be despotic.

Finally, the one thing which that despotic minority must espouse is tyranny.

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How To Identify The Despotic Minority

DNA molecule

Let's start off with the main "DNA" marker of the despotic minority that the once-most-often-quoted historian (discussed later in this post) discovered:

"Ipsos poll shows almost a third of the American people agree that the news media is the enemy"

(Americans' Views on the Media). That is to say "almost a third of the American people" are despotic.

That is another way of saying that they are enemies of the U.S. Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

(First Amendment, emphasis added). A despotic minority is an alien ideology within a free constitutional society.

Once that aspect of a culture becomes hooked up with "nationalism" and "militarism" that culture's "goose is cooked" as the saying goes:

History told us this was going to happen:

But always TCS is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 8). Voting politicians out of office, because they cater to the despotic minority, is not enough.

As one blogger puts it:

'The Government Is Not Going to Save Us. WE Are Going to Save Us.'

(Brad Blog). It means staying alert and staying involved in dissolving the despotic minority a little at a time each and every day (support the Constitution).

The press needs to be criticized for its failings (Tools, Not Toys) but not destroyed in contravention of the Constitution.

We the people should also be criticized for our failings:

In the first post of this series, we pointed out that most Americans polled in an annual Gallup Poll think that the military is the most competent institution in America.

In that post we perused Gallup Poll figures from 2009, as shown on the graphic to the left (red lines added).

Today in 2011, the military is still seen as the most competent American institution, according to this year's Gallup Poll, even though the wars they are prosecuting are not at all popular.

(Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids? - 2). But the people should not be destroyed for those failings any more than the press should be.

But if our militarism and nationalism does not subside, then the despotic minority will expand and freedom will cease to exist, according to our forefathers:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(ibid, quoting James Madison). A nation that thinks that professional warriors, whose first order of business is war, is the most competent portion of a free government are just plain doomed in terms of staying a free people (Is War An Art or Is War A Disease?, 2, 3).

The next post in this series is here.

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"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..." - Professor Wilkerson (ret. colonel)

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The Psychology of the Notion of Collective Guilt - 2

Who built this?

I. Background

When is it your fault for what someone else did when they should not have, or did not do something they should have?

Or when is it your fault for what a group you are not a member of did when they should not have, or did not do something they should have?

In the first post of this series I mentioned one of Oil-Qaeda's propaganda streams which blames us for climate change because we bought some of their merchandise:

Oil-Qaeda is also paying media operatives to spread the false notion that all humanity is responsible for addicting civilization to oil, seeking to minimize the greatest crime against humanity in all history (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

It is not too surprising, then, that some still mistakenly think everyone is equally to blame for the current reality that civilization is in deep trouble (Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids?, 2; Stockholm Syndrome vs. The Ecosystem, 2).

The psychology involved in this has been detailed, and the dynamics of imagined or mythical guilt are well understood:

"... collective guilt is a psychological experience, it need not involve actually being guilty in any sense of the word. This is an important distinction. Indeed, one of the most striking features of collective guilt is that it can be experienced by group members who were not in any way involved in the harm doing ... The essential ingredient of personal responsibility for the harm done can be absent when collective guilt is experienced, although this is an important prerequisite for "being guilty" in the legal sense.

Feeling guilt for events that an individual is not personally responsible for is possible because people can and do categorize themselves as members of a group ... These theories explain how group membership shapes the cognitions, emotions, and behavior of individuals. From a social identity perspective, the actions taken by the ingroup can elicit an emotional response to the extent that the self is linked with the ingroup. Immoral actions and outcomes caused by other ingroup members link the self to the wrongdoing via shared group identity. People "bask in the reflected glory" of their group when other ingroup members are responsible for successes, and they can attempt to "cut off reflected failure" when other group members' actions harm the ingroup's image ... Because part of people's identity is based on their group membership, the desire to feel positive about their group will frequently result in group-serving explanations for ingroup actions. However, when those justifications fail or become impossible to sustain, people may feel collective guilt to the extent that the ingroup's past actions are perceived as violating the current moral standards of the ingroup."

(Collective Guilt: International Perspectives, p. 4, emphasis added). When justice is perverted to place guilt on the guiltless, a grave wrong is done.

(The Psychology of the Notion of Collective Guilt; cf. Victim Blaming: When We Do It and When We Don’t, by Peter Kaufman).

II. The Law of the Case

Well, it is now a matter of law too, rather than it only being a matter of psychology or sociology.

In a federal court ruling yesterday, a federal judge said it is ostensibly your fault and my fault that damage from global warming is taking place (San Francisco Chronicle).

I downloaded a copy of Judge Alsup's decision in PDF format, so I will be quoting from it.

The judge wrote:

"Defendants have allegedly long known the threat fossil fuels pose to the global climate. Nonetheless, they continued to extract and produce them in massive amounts while engaging in widespread advertising and communications campaigns meant to promote the sale of fossil fuels. These campaigns portrayed fossil fuels as environmentally responsible and essential to human well-being and downplayed the risks of global warming by emphasizing the uncertainties of climate science or attacking the credibility of climate scientists." - (Order, p. 5)
...
"The issue is not over science. All parties agree that fossil fuels have led to global warming and ocean rise and will continue to do so, and that eventually the navigable waters of the United States will intrude upon Oakland and San Francisco. The issue is a legal one — whether these producers of fossil fuels should pay for anticipated harm that will eventually flow from arise in sea level." - (Order, p. 6)
...
" ... our industrial revolution and the development of our modern world has literally been fueled by oil and coal. Without those fuels, virtually all of our monumental progress would have been impossible. All of us have benefitted. Having reaped the benefit of that historic progress, would it really be fair to now ignore our own responsibility in the use of fossil fuels and place the blame for global warming on those who supplied what we demanded? Is it really fair, in light of those benefits, to say that the sale of fossil fuels was unreasonable?" - (Order, p. 8)

(Oakland vs. BP, US District Court N. Dist. of CA, Case No. C 17-06011 WHA & No. C 17-06012 WHA, emphasis added). That ruling means that when we are talking about global warming we are talking about a predicament rather than a mere problem.

The judge bought into Oil-Qaeda's public promotion of the notion that "the devil public made Oil-Qaeda do it" because the public needed the gas for their cars, etc. ...  (What Next, Mass Depraved-Heart Murder? - 2)

III. A Brief History of Oil-Qaeda

Dredd Blog has featured many a post on the origin and history of fossil fuel use, pointing out clearly that it started before any of us were born (A History of Oil Addiction, 2, 3, 4, The Universal Smedley - 2, The Peak Of The Oil Wars, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

Pointing the finger at those who had no choice is like blaming the children of Immigrants for crossing the border improperly (like President Trump's mother did).

IV. Conclusion

All of our branches of government (Administrative, Legislative, and Judicial) have been protecting Oil-Qaeda for way too long now (A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Books have even been written about The Harm Oil-Qaeda Has Done.

The previous post in this series is here.