The danger of Trump and magical thinking
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Truth Crusaders, and Freedom Fighters!
I hope you all are doing well...me, I'm still digging out from the tech support ransomware scam incident and the three converging deadlines from hell at work. And, of course, Blogger is having its own fiendish field day with me by randomizing my formatting as I go, despite what I tell it to do.
Ugh.
But here I am.
Todaze gripe?
There are two: the very real danger that we could have a president Trump and the very real magical thinking that could put him there.
Here's the problem.
The Republican party is authoritarian by mindset. This means that, even if they are holding their noses and gritting their teeth, they will all fall in line behind Trump and salute him as their party's nominee, accepting (even if it has to be grudgingly) that he is the one they will have to trust to fix all their problems.
We also know that Trump's supporters are V-E-R-Y A-N-G-R-Y...V-E-R-Y A-N-G-R-Y...[with apologies to Marvin the Martian]...so we know that, barring some catastrophe, they and the rest of the Republicans will show up to the polls as a "referendum" on O'Bama's Blackness and Hillary's being a woman...by which I mean a woman who is intelligent and experienced and who isn't an ignorant, inarticulate, hypocritical
All, that is, except perhaps for a handful of moderate male Republicans still in control of a modicum of brain cells and a smidgen of integrity...and some number--we know not how many--of Republican women (how deliberately self-sabotaging can you be?) who can't stand Trump and who will vote against him...no matter what they tell their husbands.
Still...against Hillary Clinton, and even with Republican #nevertrump'ers, we're talking one hella formidable voting bloc.
And then...there are the Democrats.
Democrats resist authoritarian thinking and are about as hard to herd as wayward cats. Getting Democrats to march in lock-step over anything is nearly impossible. How many Bernie-or-bust'ers are there in the party? How many Dems hate Hillary on general principle, based on perceptions that she is dishonest, that she takes her base for granted, and that she sides with the rich, the powerful, and the corporations over the people, like the center-right old-school-Republican she is? How many Dems count as #neverhillary types? Will they stay home on election day? Will they pencil in Bernie? Will they hand the White House and SCOTUS to a man who is both smarter and more hateful than the anathema that was Chimpie McCodpiece? If they do, there will be hell toupee.
Or will the Hillary supporters and #nevertrump'ers on the Democratic side come out in sufficient force to beat The Donald, making him admit that this was all a colossal waste of his time and money--the inevitable conclusion he recently said he'd draw if he loses? Are there enough #nevertrump women, Blacks, Latinos, and Muslims in this country to hand Hillary the victory and to save SCOTUS from being handed over to right-wingers whose only qualifications are bigotry and hate?
In short, this election is between the sanity and reality that Hillary represents (such as she is) and the insanity and fantasy-land that Trump represents. It really does come down to that.
So, then, the question is why. Why does this election come down to a vote for sanity, reason, and reality over lunacy, blind faith, and fantasy? And the answer is...because of magical thinking.
Republicans by and large are Christian (e.g., ~70% of evangelicals are Republican, according to a recent Pew poll), meaning that they believe without evidence in things that are not evidently true or that are evidently untrue. They daily sabotage their critical thinking skills in order to maintain their faith in these things, and they praise that faith as a virtue in themselves and others. These are people who honestly believe that reality is not objective...they honestly believe that reality is not universally observable or describable by natural laws. No--they believe that reality is subject to both their opinions and their will. They honestly believe that, if they don't believe global warming is real, then it isn't. They honestly believe that they can cure their own or their loved ones' ailments, like cancer, simply by wishing it away. They are as unreasoning as they are unreasonable.
Democrats, on the other hand, are typically more educated and thus less religious (yes, there is causality, not just correlation). This means that Democrats more often value evidence over blind faith, and they understand that reality is objective and that we can't change it by disbelieving it or wishing it away, even if it holds some inconvenient truths.
But how many of each side will attempt to vote? How many Democratic votes will Republicans block by intimidation, gerrymandering, and their usual election-tampering tactics? How many of our votes will count?
The only thing I know for sure is that we need a landslide just to ensure a victory...which means that this election is going to be one nail-biter to watch.
Do I sound scared?
Well, I AM.
And you should be, too.
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Democracy Now!
Conservatives are Destroying our Future
Conservative Clown Car
Americans Against the Republican Party
Americans Against the Tea Party
...And, whatever you do,
VOTE BERNIE!!!!!
Please send him a buck o' five--when people vote, Bernie wins; when Bernie wins, we win. Let's win in California! PLEASE!!!!!
Thanks for reading, thanks for being you, and thanks, I hope, for having a better past few daze than I have. I promise to put together a checklist of what we did once we realized we were in trouble with the ransomware so y'all can save it somewhere. But...as for me...as soon as I'm done here, methinks it's Fireball time...whiskey, that is!
Cheers!
- Dot Calm's shadow
Blogger disclaimer: please ignore all weird, wonky, and stoopit Blogger formatting, random font colors, random numbers of line spaces, etc. Sometimes, the idiots who program Blogger give it a mindless of its own, and it resists all attempts at sensible formatting. Grrr!
Disclaimer:
Not responsible for keys getting in the
way when headed to the right ones.
Not responsible for misspellings. Too lazy
to look up the right spelling.
Not responsible for initial caps. You know
where they belong...put them in.
Not responsible for punctuation or grammar;
consider poetic license being in effect.
Drive a HYBRID.
Leave a lighter footprint on the planet.
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ATTENTION, REPUBLICANS!
The Kenyan Muslim
liberal fascist
weak dictator
Obama is coming
for your guns 'n' Bibles
November 8, 2016.
DO NOT
LEAVE YOUR HOUSE
THAT DAY
FOR ANY REASON!
The rights you save
may be your own!
Obama is coming
for your guns 'n' Bibles
November 8, 2016.
DO NOT
LEAVE YOUR HOUSE
THAT DAY
FOR ANY REASON!
The rights you save
may be your own!
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From the Mailbag From NRCAT--stop the CIA torture cover-up!
Earlier today Yahoo News reported that the CIA's Office of Inspector General has destroyed its copy of the full Torture Report (https://www.yahoo.com/news/
Please write to Attorney General Loretta Lynch! You can do so at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/
Absurdly, despite his strong public statements against torture, President Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) has instructed federal agencies not to open, let alone read, their copies of the final Torture Report. Further, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the ACLU, the DOJ told federal courts that no copies of the report would be destroyed until the lawsuit was resolved. This latest action, by the CIA's Office of Inspector General (a position which, coincidentally, has been left vacant since the last Inspector General dared to criticize the CIA's attempts to spy on Senate Intelligence Committee staff), shows that the DOJ misled the courts.
Please write to Attorney General Lynch and tell her that this is unacceptable. Tell her that not only should the DOJ open and read the Report, and advise other agencies to do likewise, but it should also drop its efforts to prevent the Report from becoming public, explain why it ended the criminal investigation into CIA torture (including in instances where detainees were killed by torture), and, if appropriate, reopen the criminal investigation into torture.
Though Congress permanently banned torture by passing the bipartisan McCain-Feinstein amendment into law in late 2015, preserving the full Torture Report is critical to ensuring that we can learn from the lessons of history. As you write to Attorney General Lynch, please also write to your Members of Congress and ask them to prevent the CIA cover-up of its torture program.
Please write now. This cover-up cannot be ignored.
Matt Hawthorne
Policy Director
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From ColorOfChange
Zimmerman is selling the gun he used to murder Trayvon
Tell Gov. Nixon: NO MORE ZIMMERMANS! Veto ‘Stand Your Ground'.
Take Action |
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From Amy Goodman--urgent!
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Right now in Virginia, 400,000 people are being denied access to quality, affordable health care. Why? For years, Republican legislators in our Commonwealth have refused to even consider expanding Medicaid. As a doctor, Ralph knows Medicaid expansion can’t wait, and he won’t stop fighting until it’s a reality. But A.J., he can’t do it alone.  It’s the right thing to do for everyone. That’s why it’s so shameful that a group of politicians would rather put their partisan agenda before the needs of the people. So we need take action and fight for better health care in Virginia. Will you sign your name and call on Virginia to expand Medicaid? http://act.ralphnortham.com/ Thanks, Team Northam |
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Just wanted to make sure you saw
Rep. Schakowsky’s email. Thousands of progressive activists just like
you have signed on to protect and expand Social Security.
Thanks,
Mike Darner
Campaign Manager
Progressive Action PAC
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Please click here to sign this appeal from the United States asking the world to help us resist U.S. crimes:Since the end of the Cold War, the United States of America has systematically violated the prohibition against the threat or use of force contained in the UN Charter and the Kellogg Briand Pact. It has carved out a regime of impunity for its crimes based on its UN Security Council veto, non-recognition of international courts and sophisticated "information warfare" that undermines the rule of law with political justifications for otherwise illegal threats and uses of force.
Former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B. Ferencz has compared current U.S. policy to the illegal German "preemptive first strike" policy for which senior German officials were convicted of aggression at Nuremberg and sentenced to death by hanging.
In 2002, the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy described post-September 11th U.S. doctrine as "a call for 21st century American imperialism that no other nation can or should accept." And yet the U.S. government has succeeded in assembling alliances and ad hoc "coalitions" to support threats and attacks on a series of targeted countries, while other countries have stood by silently or vacillated in their efforts to uphold international law. In effect, the U.S. has pursued a successful diplomatic policy of "divide and conquer" to neutralize global opposition to wars that have killed about 2 million people and plunged country after country into intractable chaos.
As representatives of civil society in the United States, the undersigned U.S. citizens and advocacy groups are sending this emergency appeal to our neighbors in our increasingly interconnected but threatened world. We ask you to stop providing military, diplomatic or political support for U.S. threats or uses of force; and to support new initiatives for multilateral cooperation and leadership, not dominated by the United States, to respond to aggression and settle international disputes peacefully as required by the UN Charter.
We pledge to support and cooperate with international efforts to stand up to and stop our country's systematic aggression and other war crimes. We believe that a world united to uphold the UN Charter, the rule of international law and our common humanity can and must enforce U.S. compliance with the rule of law to bring lasting peace to the world we all share.
This petition will be sent to all the world's national governments.
Click here to sign as an individual.
Click here to sign as an organization that you are authorized to sign on behalf of.
After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.
Share this action on Facebook
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From Common Good VA--Nikki Haley is one to talk
Nikki Haley launched some major attacks against Gov. McAuliffe and the Virginia economy in Richmond yesterday. At an event with local GOP gadfly Ed Gillespie, Haley criticized Gov. McAuliffe’s handling of our state’s economy, falsely accusing Virginia of losing business and not being competitive. She even called Virginia a “non-issue.”
She’s one to talk about how to handle an economy, though, after 5 atrocious years destroying South Carolina’s economy. While Gov. McAuliffe has worked hard to expand economic development and opportunity here in Virginia, Nikki Haley has run South Carolina into the ground.
In fact, the unemployment rate in South Carolina is 5.7%, which is nearly 2 full points higher than Virginia. That’s certainly not something to boast about.Do you stand by Gov. McAuliffe and Virginia? Join us now to stop conservatives like Nikki Haley from ruining our economy too!
Nikki Haley had a lot of nerve. On the very week that Gov. McAuliffe is traveling to promote Virginia business and find new partners for continued economic development here, she came to our capital to impugn us. It would be a wiser use of her time to attempt to fix the broken economy in her own state.
And if Nikki Haley is going to be Ed Gillespie's economic role model, then Virginia could be in some real trouble.Stand strong with Gov. McAuliffe and Democrats today! We can’t afford to have Ed Gillespie turn Virginia into South Carolina.
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From Daily Kos--stop Republicans from tampering with elections! Republicans continue to put in hard work to suppress votes. Publicly they claim to be protecting elections, but privately they celebrate how their efforts reduce voter turnout among low-income people, communities of color, and other groups most likely to vote for Democrats .
Not only are these voter suppression tactics transparent efforts to deter Democratic voters, but each one of them disproportionately impacts people of color.
Add your name now to say you won't stand for voter suppression.
Voter ID laws present a solution to a non-existent voter fraud problem, but Republicans know that low-income folks and people of color are less likely to have current ID. Voters of color have stood in alarmingly long lines because they have fewer polling sites. Republican legislatures are also limiting access to early voting options.
The Republican agenda is clear. They want to win elections by disenfranchising poor people and people of color. This is shameful!
Sign this petition to send a clear message that every voter counts and every vote needs to be counted. End voter suppression now to ensure fair elections in November.
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
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Democracy Now!
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AlterNet
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Lather, Reince, Repeat
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Movies!
I have to run this one again--extractive corporate growth is killing us. Literally.
Personally, I think He forgot to set his alarm clock and overslept--He was due back, like, 2000 years ago!
posted by Dot Calm @ 8:17 PM
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