Mark Gowan's Blog, page 6

Vote Above Your IQ

The choice is not difficult. The choice should be clear. If it is not, then the issue lies within you and cannot be repaired with a vote, a choice. To choose based upon your own selfish nature is not a choice. We do this naturally. To vote based on your own desires and nothing else is not a choice. We do this naturally.

Put aside your blind ideologies, go beyond your nature; see beyond your personal desires. Think. Think about what we vote for. It is not for ourselves, but for a country that we all live in. We ALL live in. We are all tired of being lied to; there is nothing new there. But we must change that and in order to do so, we give the country that we live in a chance.

Free yourself from those determined thoughts, that anger that drives you. Use your intellect. History speaks for itself and Donald Trump and the Republicans have spoken loud and clear in the last eight years. Democracy is not perfect and there is work for us all to do. But to dismiss the obvious choice at this point is nothing more than a death knell.

Do us all a favor: vote, but vote above your IQ.

Republican Pieces of…Poor Politicians

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/19/lindsey-graham-electoral-vote-change-nebraska

Republicans are (again) trying to overturn the public desire for progress in many areas by playing a dirty game.  Lindsay Graham among others is playing fast and loose with the concept of the electoral college, this time in Nebraska.

As it becomes obvious that Kamala Harris is on a political roll on all fronts, a sign that the public endorses her as the next leader of this country, Republicans dismiss this and other signs and move forward with legal moves to change the way our political leaders are chosen, and often take away the chance for people to have their votes count in that process.

While this cannot be surprising, it cannot be dismissed.  Republicans have gone above and beyond in showing their willingness to cheat using law.  They continue to warrant their heinous and unjust acts by leaning on the law.  This move, successful or not, is just another example.

Donald Trump is losing but we must remember that this does not mean that Kamala Harris will take the presidency or that the US political system is out of the woods.  Trump has shown his willingness to overthrow and to thwart public desires for the direction that this country will go in.  He knows he has a chance because he is working within a corrupt system.

To dislodge the dirt that has come to clog up American politics we must do all that we can to limit Republican control in Congress.  This starts with disallowing Trump into the Whitehouse.  While the presidency may or may not simply be a figurehead, it is an important figurehead.

Do not let pathetic politicians such as Lindsay Graham and many others disavow their promise to do what is right for this country.  We the people must force them to do what is right for this country.

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/19/lindsey-graham-electoral-vote-change-nebraska

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: The Pathetic and Proudly Stupid

Americans come from a long line of fearful, foreboding theocrats that probably make up a majority of the population.  And that is a problem. they demand that everyone bow down to their particular form of idiotic beliefs and that more so, these beliefs become the law of the land.  Trump and the Republican party have worked hard to make sure their wishes come true, and have had only one thing to say: yes.

The probability that Trump himself is even remotely religious is small and if he is, he is at best the cafeteria-style believer if he thinks of it at all.  It would seem that Trump and his followers would have to face the actual truth of the matter at some point, but Trump and his cohorts don’t worry about that because they can simply create “alternative-facts” and sell them with a little Jesus juice on the side. 

This is all to say that the Republican-Christian-nationalistic machine is in full force.  It eats the gullible and pisses out rightwing fanatics with a love of guns, god and greed. 

There’s a rumbling in the background and if we put down our phones we can almost hear the chanting. 

“Give up critical thinking for Christ!” is the mantra that they yell and that din that is getting louder and louder them on their way to the Whitehouse.

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: The Destruction of Oversight

So what is the goal of the Republican party, coupled with corporations and religion?  Plain and simply put: the destruction of any and all oversight and the implementation of a plutocratic government, with autocratic tendencies.  In essence, the destruction of the American federal government.[i]

The volatile mixture of planned and orchestrated confusion, religious belief and the traditional viewpoint of American individuality amounts to a hatred of any oversight by any government.  This, in essence, is the argument made by corporations. 

With legal loopholes that allowed unregulated lobbying and Citizens United which allowed unlimited monies to buy governmental policies corporations no longer must adhere to the law.  Having the same rights as individuals corporations can, in essence “run for office” and they have as Donald Trump.  Now instead of having to adhere to law, the have the power to make law.  It is this power that destroys the government.

Donald Trump and the Republican movement are almost literally greed incarnate.  While it is not clear why the leader of a union would stand and support the Republican movement, it is clear what the end-goal of Donald Trump and the Republicans who support him is: the annihilation of the American Federal Government.

[i] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-is-how-the-republican-party-plans-to-destroy-the-federal-government/

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: The New Republic of America

Political terminology regarding American political parties has changed over time, but the basic premises of the two remaining party’s arguments never has.  “Democrats” have represented a working federal government while the Republicans have had as their goal, the abolishment of a federal government.  As Grover Norquist so eloquently put it: “to reduce [the government] to the size where [they] can drag it into the bathroom and drown it…”[i]

The Republican ideology does, in fact, support a free market capitalist society, but only for the bottom ninety-five[ii] percentile of the American public.  The top 1% of the country lives by an entirely different set of rules, expecting to be bailed out (by the American public) for being “too big to fail”, enjoying legal tax loopholes that allow for the richest individuals in the United States to pay little and in some cases, no taxes.

In essence, what the Republican’s wet-dream amounts to is shareholder capitalism.  Shareholder capitalism maximizes profits for investors rather than stakeholders.  It does nothing for society, produces no goods and does not add to the community in any way.  Shareholder capitalism is bad for everyone except those investors that have access to the hundreds of millions, sometimes billions, of dollars it takes to play the shareholder game.[iii] 

Shareholder capitalism will be the ruination of the United States, of a civilization and all the while the new republicans led by Trump and bolstered by Christian nationalism eggs on the end of the world for nothing more than profit.

[i] https://theconversation.com/the-shutdown-drowning-government-in-the-bathtub-111333

[ii] More or less.  The number is probably larger given that the top .01% of this country owns all of the large, international corporations.

[iii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2020/01/05/why-stakeholder-capitalism-will-fail/?sh=4006f19c785a

In September 1970 Milton Friedman published an article in The New York Times Magazine, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.”

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0212/027.html?sh=4a381a9d6541

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Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: The Few, The Proud

The term, military-industrial complex, was made famous by Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech..[i]  Since then Eisenhower’s fears have become a reality in more ways than one.  First, the sheer amount of money spent on military undermines government’s stated purpose of taking care of its citizens.[ii]  Furthermore, the military is now a tool used to indoctrinate and capture America’s delusionally religious and its poor.  Since the fifties, the religious and nationalistic rhetoric used by the conservative movement has been used to create and stoke a tribalistic corporate war machine.

While flags wave in the front yards of the working class, opportunities that would have otherwise actually helped economically are pulled out from under them while the industries that support and supply the military continue to get richer.  Visit any impoverished area and what becomes apparent is the presence of military enlistment programs and churches, the two often working together.  The poor have become nothing more than indoctrinated, cheap labor for the endless wars created and waged by the corporate complex itself.[iii]. This is not a governmental problem, as Trump and the Republicans claim, it is a corporate/autocratic problem led primarily by Trump and the Republicans.  

The only difference between Eisenhower and the Republicans now led by the Trump administration is that Trump simply accepts as a good Eisenhower’s fears.  Eisenhower’s worries concerning a growing military-industrial complex has now mutated into an industrial-military complex.  The marine motto: the few, the proud… still rings true, but the few and the proud are now the richest in 1%.

[i] https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/military-industrial-complex

[ii] https://borgenproject.org/the-relationship-between-the-military-and-global-poverty/

[iii] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2021/ProfitsOfWar

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Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: Civility and Courage

The new conservative movement, led for four years by the Trump administration, has made a mockery of social norms that have held this country together, that have made it possible for us as a nation to work together despite differences.  These attacks on social norms are often dismissed as unimportant, but the fact of the matter is, is that social norms such as consideration and courtesy make up the foundation of civilization.

But the apathy towards the unraveling of common courtesy and consideration for others is perhaps more dangerous than the unravelling itself.  As the world has watched the political discourse of America devolve into personal attacks, blatant lies, alternative “facts”, and even criminal slander, Trump has done nothing other than fan the flames of tribalism and nationalism and his own psychopathic agenda.  Worse, this reinvention of politics into a team sports, primarily bolstered by the conservative movement since Eisenhower, adds fuel to the already out of control fire of lies that continue to undermine the concept of a common good.

If there is a solution to the mess that Trump and the conservative movement continue to create it will have to include civil, political discourse and the acceptance of an objective reality (i.e. alternative “facts” are simply delusional lies at best).  But it must not include bowing down to the lies, the greed, and the stupidity that have come to define the Republican party, Donald Trump and his followers.  Courtesy does not mean kowtowing and consideration does not imply acceptance and tolerance at any and all costs.

Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

There is an anti-intellectual trend in America but the reasons are interesting.  Donald Trump’s first cabinet, while not the cause, certainly sealed the deal.  The turning point was not when it was clear that Donald Trump as a blatant liar, that was expected of most politicians although Trump took this to new and pathetic levels.  The turning point happened with Kelly Ann Conway’s remark.  When pressed during the interview with Chuck Todd to explain why [Sean] Spicer would “utter a provable falsehood”, Conway stated that Spicer was giving “alternative facts”.  

This was the invitation for every rightwing conspiracy and opinion to consider itself on equal grounds with logic, rationally thought-out speech, science, and intellectual expectations.  Every opinion became an “alternative fact”.  In other words, if the facts didn’t fit your ideology, it was the facts that needed to change.  This, of course, opened the door to the religious right as well.

Anti-intellectualism is nothing new in America, being centuries old, but the expectation by Donald Trump and his minions to be respected intellectually as equals no matter what the facts are, is.  They stand toe to toe with Christian nationalism for this reason perhaps?  Donald Trump the Republican party, and its cronies offers simple, ignorant answers to complex problems: “I know best” replaces the more sound “I don’t know”.  And “I am right” trumps objective reality.

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Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: Too Miserable to Laugh

In 2016 Donald Trump became the president of the United States to the dismay of the majority of citizens in his country.  He was supported by the Republican congressmen and women as well as the Republican senators in his nomination as their presidential candidate and continues to be supported by most of them years into his fallacious presidency. 

There were most likely many players in putting Trump in office, but it was not only the minority of citizens who voted for him.  Those who actually put him in office paid for his presidency and they wanted returns on their investment. 

The conservative movement is defined by something that has been referred to as shareholder capitalism, the idea that a corporation is only responsible for increasing shareholder value no matter the cost to society, the environment, the idea of a working democracy, or what they refer to as external costs.

For all intent purposes, the United States is a plutocracy.  Trump and his administration do not stand for or work towards fair job creation for those people that are truly left behind by corporate economic decisions, they are the highway upon which such decisions run their course. They will and are being paved over for profit.  

As the conservative movement continues to dismantle any and all governmental policies directed at protecting the public’s interest, Trump will continue being the clown.  That is what he is paid to do by those who put him in office. But such a game is dangerous and could cost us all a lot more than just a thin profit margin.

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Excerpts from The Trump Diaries: Criminal Use of the Law

When Donald Trump became president many of his previous immoral acts were called into question.  His answer was that he had done nothing illegal, he just knew how to game the system.  Unfortunately, he was correct. The Trump administration is often applauded for its dismissal of political, social, and cultural norms and traditions by his supporters, but this is a dangerous precedence because law is supposed to be based upon and acceptance of political normalcy.

With Trump and other wealthy individuals, law is a weapon wielded to undermine these norms that have been put into place to protect the public in order to open avenues for corporate profits. These profits are nothing more than legal thievery plain and simple; public monies given to corporations through subsidies and even bailouts for corporations that have done nothing but cheat their way to the profligate profits that they pay their executives and their shareholders, and now the politicians that they support.  The reliance upon public funding through subsidies and tax breaks has a long, sordid history and one that has been for the most part, hidden from the public eye but has, over time, been made legal.

The conservative movement, now headed by Donald Trump and his administrative cronies, are much more than a political movement.  They are a plutocratic movement whose sole motivation is authoritarian politics put into place to destroy the very thing that they claim to stand for: a fair free market economic system and the government that was put into place to create laws in order to protect people and not plutocrats. 

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