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.
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's that past, present, and future thingy ("Scientists have discovered that 'the present' has always existed, but some of them are not sure about 'the past' and 'the future'." -Dredd).
This scene is part of the "DNA" of civilizations, including our own:
"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." ...
"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."
(How To Identify The Despotic Minority). There is the proverb "where there is no vision the people perish" which addresses the notion of "vision" in the sense of being able to conceive of and "feel" what the future will be by analyzing what is or is not being done in the present (The Thursday Thought).
We don't have to "let it all hang out" because we don't have ultimate "let" power ... if we "wait to see what happens".
We have to know the implications of present actions and know what "knowledge" is composed of if we are to say "we have vision" (The Pillars of Knowledge: Faith and Trust?).
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Ode to the vision of the U.S. gummit (it's their thing) ...
Bull is a TV series that features and focuses on a company which specializes in court trials.
More specifically, Bull focuses in on the social science involved with jury selection.
Typically, law firms hire jury experts to inform them about the type of jurors that would be best suited for them and their client in a jury trial (Trial consulting).
II. Special Mob Bull
What mob boss would not love to be able to hand pick their own jury, a jury like The Donski (a.k.a. the president of the United States of America) has?!
Imagine a mob boss who is going on trial before a true jury of his peers (e.g. same crime family)?
His jury has already been selected (the U.S. Senate) and has already indicated how they will vote.
In a Senate trial it takes 67 votes to convict and remove The Donski from office, following a House impeachment.
The Senate currently has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and 2 Independents who both caucus with the Democrats.
Thus, it would take 20 Republicans voting guilty if all the Democrats and Independents vote guilty to reach the 67 required vote total.
A tough job even for Bull.
III. McTell News Bull
McTell News is all aflutter with hopey changey broadcasts emphasizing the fact that the public majority is in favor of impeachment and removal from office of The Donski:
"Currently, 52% say Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 46% say he should not be. This is roughly the opposite of what Gallup found in June when asked in the context of special counselor Robert Mueller's investigation."
(Gallup Poll). No doubt about the direction this is heading, but heading in a direction is not the same as being there (it's all "are we there yet" at this point).
The McTell News folks under-emphasize the fact that only about six percent of Republicans polled in that Gallup Poll are in favor of impeachment and removal (down from seven percent a while back).
Like I said, a tough job even for Bull.
IV. Closing Comments
It would be malpractice for a lawyer to encourage a client in this situation, as it stands today, to expect a good outcome in that client's favor.
Especially if the client is the prosecutor or the majority in the House of Representatives.
The degree to which a Whistleblower in the U.S. government is mistreated is directly related to the degree of corruption that been established within that government (Quotes).
In the first post of this series the essence of this concept in its original form was pointed out:
On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower protection law, stating “that it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United Statesto give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states.”
"The Limits of Current Federal Employee Whistleblower Protections Most federal employees who are retaliated against for speaking up and blowing the whistle have just a single avenue to find justice. That remedy can be found at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The MSPB, whose three Board members are appointed by the President and confirms by the Senate, reviews the whistleblower cases of federal employees, and makes the final determination. As a result, most federal employees do not have the avenue for redress that some other federal employees, and all private sector workers, have – and that many Americans would assume that federal employees do have. Federal employees cannot currently have their whistleblower cases heard in federal district court. That means that these employees cannot appeal to a court for justice; only a single administrative law judge, or at most the three-person panel of the MSPB, can make a decision on their case. There are no options for federal court access, and certainly no hope of having a jury of their peers."
(National Whistleblower Center, emphasis added). The saying "you've come a long way baby" does not apply in the same way as it was intended, because in terms of Whistleblower rights, we have gone a long way down the wrong way.
This is the direction that Thomas Jefferson indicated all governments travel in, unless among other things, the power originally lodged in Whistleblowers prevents it:
“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.”
At this time a Whistleblower event is the talk of the town in D.C. because it involves high-ups and cover-ups:
"Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of “urgent concern,” a legal threshold that requires notification of congressional oversight committees. But acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to share details about Trump’s alleged transgression with lawmakers, touching off a legal and political dispute that has spilled into public view and prompted speculation that the spy chief is improperly protecting the president."
(Washington Post). A former acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal, @ Twitter wrote: "This is going to be huge. DOJ& Admin are contorting themselves backwards to try to hide this. Truth will come out. There are probably tapes and transcripts documenting a gross abuse of power by Trump. Gonna be ugly.And enablers should all face consequence."
III. Update
The Ukraine government did an investigation years ago into the issues that "America's Mayor" (Rudy Poot) brought up recently:
"What it does not need is underinformed dinosaurs wading into its sensitive political ecosystem to make points for domestic American consumption. Unfortunately, this is precisely what is now happening — thanks to President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani [Rudy Poot].
The trouble began when right-wing bloggers sought to meld these two points into a single conspiracy in which Joe Biden had the prosecutor sacked to protect his son’s business interests. I may be an outsider to the bewildering mess that is Ukrainian politics, but, on this particular issue, I have a genuine insight into what happened, having written extensively about Hunter Biden’s ex-employer, Mykola Zlochevsky. As a result, when journalists seek the fire behind the smoke in the Biden-Ukraine tale, they often call to ask my opinion. Many are eager to flesh out what seems a satisfyingly simple conspiracy, but I have to tell them: It isn’t true. The timeline doesn’t work. The investigation into Burisma, Hunter Biden’s employer, had ground to a halt long before the prosecutor was sacked. A subsequent probe into the company’s owner was opened because of a request from Ukrainian legislators, not because of prosecutorial initiative. There is, in short, no there there; the bloggers are putting two and two together — and coming up with 22."
Another news source indicates that it is worse than that, it is an attempt to have the state victim fabricate a false story:
"So Trump didn’t press Zelensky to investigate Biden–he used the power of his office to extort the newly elected Ukrainian leader to fabricate a controversy about a domestic political opponent."
(Raw Story, emphasis added). When things get "worst," the degrees of the political evil eventually become irrelevant, so I only mention this source because it nails down the nuances of this wrongdoing to a fine degree.
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.
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.
Ode to The Rus People:
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.
"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.
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 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
"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
“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
“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
"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.
VSS (Very Slippery Slope) ...
The fundamental struggle which "groups" (nations, civilizations) must contend with in order to perpetuate themselves is the tension between the common good and the common bad.
The great historians have identified the issue as an existential one:
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" ...
(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.
(Arrested Development: The Creep State). It seems that just about everyone in the world who is aware of current events knows that the USA is awash in that tentative situation.
Nations who are being overcome by the tyranny of a despotic minority begin to develop various outbreaks of cruelty and dishonesty within.
The majority is taken aback at first, not realizing the gravity of the situation, and therefore they focus on the illusionary, vain words "bipartisanship", "consensus", and the like.
That is, the majority does not realize that the despotic minority is only interested in capitulation from "the other" party, group, race, or religion.
The dynamic to focus on is that those "sins" ("the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority") are infectious and unlikely to be seen as a cultural disease.
They are eventually seen as virtues.
Once the majority realizes the mistake they have made, historically it is too late.
The common bad develops and the civilization commits suicide (fades away as a nation or civilization).
The lowest bar is to call day night, to call love hate, to call left right, to call unAmerican patriotism, and to call lies truth.
Former FBI Director and Special Counsel Mueller pointed out that "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid-2016" (Mueller Report, p. 1; p. 9 PDF).
The record is not foggy on this point as TIME points out in a recent article concerning events beyond trolling and advertisements on social media:
"... that Trump and at least 17 of his campaign officials and advisors had more than 100 contacts between Trump associates and Russians,
"I had nothing to do with
Russia helping me to get elected"
belying the campaign’s November 2016 claim that 'there was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.' According to reporting, many others associated with Trump were told about contacts with Russian-linked individuals. Here is a list of all of the times that Trump associates interacted with Russia from the early days of the 2016 election cycle to Trump’s inauguration ..."
(TIME, "the twittah", emphasis added). Major league interaction between members of a U.S. presidential election campaign ("Tweeter") and a hostile foreign government ("Monkey Man") is in and of itself not a traditional American election practice (e.g. candidate Al Gore's campaign was once confronted that way and immediately informed the FBI).
Lying about those contacts and interactions repeatedly was the Trump Campaign's ("Tweeter") response during the campaign (TIME quote above), which is in and of itself either a suspicious wrong or a felony, depending on who is being lied to.
Lying over 10,000 times from that time until now, is grounds for an impeachment inquiry in and of itself in a normal country.
And when an administration's attorney general has the low barr fever, well, it is not normal shall we say.
Many of those lies were by underlings while under oath or talking to federal investigators ("Jan's brother") such that some were indicted for that by grand juries, some were convicted, some served jail time, and some are awaiting sentencing.
That an impeachment inquiry should begin to find out why all that major league lying was done to cover up the interaction with a hostile foreign power is a slam dunk, no-brainer reason for an impeachment inquiry.
On Morning Joe (MSNBC) yesterday Allan Lichtman, the Professor who has accurately predicted every US Presidential election since 1984, indicated that the 2020 presidential election will be lost to democrats if the impeachment inquiry is NOT commenced soon.
We shall see (“I have no final verdict yet because much could change during the next year” - Allan Lichtman).
On another front, if Israel is a normal country then its recent election can be an example of why.
"Tweeter and the Monkey Man
were hard up for [Russian] cash
They stayed up all night selling
[Russian] 'cocaine and hash'
To an 'undercover cop'
who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained
she loved the Monkey Man"
Lyrics here.
One of the "DNA" factors in the despotic minority is denial of global warming and a hatred toward nature.
In the scientific literature this is known as "a heroism that triumphs over nature, perpetuating itself through new immortality ideologies that value material acquisitions and money" which have become a modernistic religion:
"Because there are few cultures remaining that have not been superseded by larger entities, with tribes becoming townships, cities, states, and nations, we no longer have an “integrated world conception into which we fit ourselves with pure belief and trust” (Becker 1975). Although this might open up the possibility of a utopian, egalitarian, and secular society in which the combined gifts of individuals prevail, what we have in the West is a secular inequality devoid of a shared sense of the sacred and a heroism that triumphs over nature, perpetuating itself through new immortality ideologies that value material acquisitions and money. Lacking in heroism, these immortality ideologies come up empty or even inspire guilt. The irony of Western materialism is that wealth beyond the point of basic material comfort does not make people happy (Gilbert 2005)."
...
[That "heroism" is seen as savior that saves humanity from nature, but like other religions, it morphs into a modernistic religion that fractures a society:]
"Traditionally, technology consolidates power within a society and exacerbates inequity. What is interesting about the new information technologies is that they do both: They consolidate power with patents, exclusive intellectual capital, and expensive tools, and they distribute power through open source technologies and open communication networks. As such, they promote material segregation while at the same time providing a relatively open network within which ideological communities can function. Photo galleries, forums, listserves, Google groups, and new social networking tools like MySpace, Facebook, and Second Life present mechanisms for growing online communities. In this new virtual world, frequent interaction is easy to achieve, and the topics around which free choice interaction occurs can be very focused and specific, suggesting that large social networks function like smaller ideological communities once did in the real world."
... "Technocracy itself is an immortality ideology that, although it is coupled with materialism, has as part of its makeup an element of the magical and a belief that new tools and innovations provide solutions to both the small day-to-day problems of life and the larger problems of human happiness and mortality. Technology is entrancing, and, functionally, technologists become creators of magic and the wizards of today, claiming the same authority over technology that doctors claim over human health or shamans over the cursed. This has always been so, going back to ancestral peoples who learned to use fire, tools, wind, and wheels. Even in subsistence societies, technology has a greater impact on a variety of sociological variables than do supernatural or religious beliefs (Nolan and Lenski 1996). ... Even in subsistence societies, technology has a greater impact on a variety of sociological variables than do supernatural orreligious beliefs (Nolan and Lenski 1996)."
(The Machine Religion, quoting Dickinson, J. L., Ecology and Society 14, 2009 , emphasis added). Let me repeat what I said in that post: "These observations explain why a minority of participants in the (it is said) 'greatest, richest, and militarily most powerful nation' of current civilization can take control of power."
II. Despotic Factors
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.
