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.
Sometimes it is very difficult to understand how the front runner is chosen prior to November.
So, I sought out some general expertise:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
We all know, more or less, about why people come and go, psychologists come and go, historians come and go, good and bad politicians come and go, but we know less about why civilizations come and go.
Since the lifetime of civilizations tends to be outside our common senses and experiences, the subject of the life and death of civilizations does not tend to occur to us.
Only a few have pondered it like Arnold J. Toynbee has (see photo).
Actually, simply exploring this subject is an exercise that will likely cause us to receive different answers from different people if we ask them what 'civilization' means (What Do You Mean - World Civilization?).
Toynbee wrote volumes about two dozen or so civilizations that we only think about when we are in a history class or a library, however, unlike us he didn't just skim the surface, no, he followed ugly all the way to the bone:
"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). What? Suicide? Murder? ... He was no ordinary historian was he?
That is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as a world famous encyclopedia points out:
"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). Previous posts in this series have zeroed in on the question of what "tyranny" and "despotic minority" meant to him.
III. Siggy's Microscope
Another famous person now practically relegated to the realm of mythology, Sigmund Freud, pointed out the necessity of developing a way of diagnosing the time when a civilization was entering into "suicide" mode:
"If the evolution of civilization has such a far reaching similarity with the development of an individual, and if the same methods are employed in both, would not the diagnosis be justified that many systems of civilization——or epochs of it——possibly even the whole of humanity——have become neurotic under the pressure of the civilizing trends? To analytic dissection of these neuroses, therapeutic recommendations might follow which could claim a great practical interest. I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness. But it behooves us to be very careful, not to forget that after all we are dealing only with analogies, and that it is dangerous, not only with men but also with concepts, to drag them out of the region where they originated and have matured. The diagnosis of collective neuroses, moreover, will be confronted by a special difficulty. In the neurosis of an individual we can use as a starting point the contrast presented to us between the patient and his environment which we assume to be normal. No such background as this would be available for any society similarly affected; it would have to be supplied in some other way. And with regard to any therapeutic application of our knowledge, what would be the use of the most acute analysis of social neuroses, since no one possesses power to compel the community to adopt the therapy?In spite of all these difficulties, we may expect that one day someone will venture upon this research into the pathology of civilized communities. [p. 39]"
...
"Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature
to such a pitch that by using them they could now very easily exterminate one another to the last man. They know this——hence arises a great part of their current unrest, their dejection, their mood of apprehension. [p. 40]"
One way to estimate a civilization's (or empire's) chances of pulling out of 'a' or 'the' nosedive is to identify its momentum:
"... we’ve now reached the point where our chances of ever exiting the nightmare are shrinking. There was a lot of vote-rigging, etc., under ..., but we’re now within striking range of becoming a de facto one-party autocracy — someplace we’ve been heading at least since ..."
In the annals of history and herstory, as the chances of pulling out shrink, the hope-and-don't-worry-be-happy trances increase.
This can be disastrous to personal reputation, country, etc.:
"The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression cost Fisher much of his personal wealth and academic reputation. He [in]famously predicted, nine days before the crash, that stock prices had 'reached what looks like a permanently high plateau'."
That a civilization "does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder" makes civilizations unlike humans, because the vast majority of humans die from natural causes rather than by suicide or murder.
Civilization, then, perhaps is not really human after all (The Machine Religion).
The the next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Did I mention 'Everybody Knows'?
There is at least one thing common to both civilizations and sub-civilizations (they don't see it coming).
A conservative judge is overseeing a conservative senate hearing that has voted not to see or hear evidence (When Every Indictment Is A "Hoax") until they have already voted "up or down."
Way down the rabbit hole from His Majesty (misty don) is the hard headed one.
This is the story of the hurricanePompus Quisling who joined the shape shifters late in the game in order to replace T-Rex.
The state Quisling (Synonyms: apostate, backstabber, betrayer, double-crosser, double-dealer, Judas, recreant, serpent, snake, traitor, turncoat), who is also known as the lameoid, the Pompuseo Quisling who is acutely jealous of the Don Star.
His whining is to no avail, because the Banner and the Banner are in first place for the name "Lucifer II" even though they are stealing it (according to The Bartender).
Even the replacement for christianity churchianity (ghoullianity), has not been able to chug as much Teflon as the teflon don-the-drain.
Long before politicians mewled helplessly about the power of “Big Oil”, carbon-based fuels were shaping our very political, legal, intellectual, and physical structures.
...
For instance, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a pivotal moment in America’s strategic outlook. America, a global hegemon whose empire was weakening, seized the second largest oil deposits in the world as a way of preventing its economic and political decline.
...
The last declining global hegemon, Great Britain, also engaged in a brutal and highly controversial British occupation of Iraq, in the 1920s, pressed aggressively by the well-known British conservative, Winston Churchill.
...
From the moment he arrived at the Admiralty, a young man of destiny, Churchill started to prepare the fleet for the Battle of Armageddon he believed was inevitable.
...
Then, in 1911, the German Kaiser provoked the Agadir crisis ... Churchill went to the Admiralty and his outlook transformed. He was immediately confronted with the decisive question: to convert the navy from coal to oil ... the "fateful plunge" was made ... in April 1912 ... five oil-burning battleships were approved.
...
Britain was well supplied with coal [but not oil]. It was the Royal Navy which was the impetus for the development of the oil industry in Britain. The problem was supply and the security of that supply. Initially, the British government purchased shares in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, subsequently, British Petroleum [BP].
...
Then, to prevent further disruptions, Britain enmeshed itself ever more deeply in the Middle East, working to install new shahs in Iran and carve Iraq out of the collapsing Ottoman Empire.
Churchill fired the starting gun, but all of the Western powers joined the race to control Middle Eastern oil.
(The Universal Smedley - 2). Strange beliefs mixed with technology and fossil fuels - particularly their location, is part and parcel of the real story.
So is foreign policy inspired by fossil fuels:
John D. Rockefeller, in his 1909 Random Reminiscences of Men and Events, recalled, "One of our greatest helpers has been the State Department. Our ambassadors and ministers and consuls have aided to push our way into new markets in the utmost corners of the world." But he left out a key explanation for the government's interest. Standard Oil was the biggest U.S. company, putting a hundred ships to sea, buying and selling oil in Latin America, Germany, and the Far East. It also operated a global intelligence system. "By 1885," according to one historian, "seventy percent of the Standard's business was overseas and it had its own network of agents through the world, and its own espionage service, to forestall the initiatives of rival companies or governments."
... "The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells or metal mines."
Even before the war, Syria was only a modest producer of oil and gas, averaging 400,000 barrels per day between 2008-2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, most of it exported to Europe and Turkey. Proven reserves stood at 2.5 billion barrels as of January 2013, according to estimates in the Oil & Gas Journal. That’s dwarfed by neighboring Iraq’s 145 billion barrels. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., and Total SA were among companies working in ventures with the state-run Syrian Petroleum Co. before the war. Most of Syria’s major oil assets are located in the Kurdish-controlled northeast. Exploration could also lead to the discovery of off-shore gas reserves given that giant deposits were found in Mediterranean waters further south near Egypt, Israel and Cyprus.
Turkish invasion could also open the door for Russian and Syrian forces to invade SDF territory from the west, or else prompt the SDF to form an alliance with the Assad regime and its allies to protect the mostly Kurdish force from Turkey’s advance. That could increase the influence of Assad’s Russian and Iranian partners in the region and grant them access to north-east Syria’s lucrative oil fields.
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:
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).
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.
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) ...
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Rucho v. Common Cause, No. 18-422 (U.S. Jun. 27, 2019), ruled that federal courts have no jurisdiction to decide gerrymandering issues.
It was a 5-4 decision.
One has to wonder why, after a couple of hundred years, this important issue has not been considered and dealt with by the federal government.
The states do not have final authority on the issue, because the U.S. Constitution has specific language to that effect (more on that later in this post).
In the previous post I wrote:
Why not simply make one or more counties the voting districts, and allow she or he who wins the most counties to become elected?
I say that because counties already hold elections and have the apparatus to do so, in both federal and state elections.
It will save the expense we now have in managing votes in far flung and outlandishly shaped gerrymandered voting districts.
Meanwhile the counties already exist and have the money to conduct elections.
"The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators."
(Article I, Section 4, emphasis added; cf. The Elections Clause). If they passed legislation to require that counties (or the equivalent) or combinations thereof must compose the districts for electing members of the House of Representatives, it would simplify elections.
But here we go again, almost starting over.
The only consolations to the dilemma is that the supreme courts of some states have outlawed partisan gerrymandering, while others have passed laws by referendum of the people to require bipartisan commissions to set the election district boundaries.
We now enter a contentious time due to one of the main practices of our government bodies: "kick the can down the road."
The next post in this series is here, previous post in this series is here.
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.
In this series (began 5/10/10) we (regular readers and I) have been contemplating what some consider to be "over-the-top ideas" or "fringe notions" of past, current, and looming misuses of the military (Will The Military Become The Police?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).
Yet, in the previous post I answered the question this series posits ("Will The Military Become The Police?") as follows:
(Will The Military Become The Police? - 11). I answered "no" in terms of will the military become (future tense) the world police, because they already have (it is historical, not futuristic).
II. "Say It Ain't So"
Furthermore, in a limited sense it has already happened domestically to the degree that the literal military police, in the recent past, have even been used to give traffic tickets (Will The Military Become The Police? - 2).
But there is the larger domestic realm to consider, in terms of sniffing out "why are police forces all across the country being built up, by the Pentagon, with military hardware?"
For those who never "sniff the air" such a concept must be simply "halloweenish."
And it is "halloweenish" in the sense that Halloween keeps coming back every year, like tyranny does (On The Origin of Tyranny).
IV. Tyranny of The Despotic Minority
At a time when Americans are being gunned down and bombed, preznit Donnah Dump is sending in the military to police a place where nothing like that is happening.
The decent majority wonders why the leader of the despotic minority is sending the military to police a band of refugees who have fled authoritarian regimes to answer the call written on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The reason, IMO, is that preznit Donnah Dump, as leader of the despotic minority, needs despotic votes bigly in order to perpetuate the tyranny of his 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."
Concerning those now in the despotic minority who have been voted into power in the DC swamp, only if they are voted out of office by the American Majority will the nation progress as it has under duress in the past.
Make it so.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
