On the Perils of the Trult - Part III of III

by Steven B. Orkin

Welcome back to the final installment of this post.

While we’re here, let’s have a side-talk about immigration, because this issue is rampantly abused by the Trult for various evil purposes. They routinely and vehemently exclaim there is “a crisis at the border!”, usually as a deflection from other issues they don’t want to talk about, e.g., “Mr. Cruz, why don’t you support a woman’s right to choose?” “Because there’s a crisis at the border that Joe Biden has NOT taken care of!” They declare with righteous indignation that “Democrats want open borders!” and that there’s a ‘Replacement Theory’ conspiracy underway in which the Democrats are “trying to get more immigrants to become citizens to they can increase their voter rolls and steal elections!”

Are you fucking kidding me?!

Let’s break it down.

• Absolutely no question there are legitimate issues at the border. Illegal immigration is a BIG problem requiring a multifaceted approach that we're still struggling to create. The reason why we’re struggling to create it is because it’s an immensely complex issue with no easy solution. There are a lot of people in this country illegally and there should be some level of accountability for that (conversely, there also needs to be a more achievable path to citizenship). Though illegal immigrants do provide certain benefits to our society, they likewise drain a lot of financial and social resources that could and should be used for actual citizens.
  

Note that this is NOT to say that “Illegal immigrants are stealing American jobs!”, another ‘old reliable’ phrase with no foundation in reality that the Trult likes to throw around to whip their ignorant base into a frenzy (demonizing ‘The Other’ is right out of the Fascist Playbook). There are two things “stealing American jobs”:

 

1.     Robotics.

2.     Outsourcing. 

Both of them are 100% homegrown problems the Trult doesn’t want to talk about because they cast a negative light on their good pal, Corporate America.To be fair, the hard truth is there’s very little we can do about robotics. Technology marches on. As it continues to become more and more sophisticated, particularly as it more closely integrates with AI tech, a large percentage of blue-collar jobs and certain types of white-collar jobs will eventually be eliminated. We have barely begun to have a national conversation regarding what we’re going to do about that, but it will have to involve something called UBI (Universal Basic Income). That’s a conversation for another day.

 

Outsourcing? 100% fixable with one simple technique: Penalize corporations who do it. “Oh, you’re moving your Customer Service Call Center to India? No problem. Just be aware that all those nice, shiny tax breaks we’ve been giving you up to now will end the second someone in that building picks up the fucking phone. Have a nice day.”

‘Saving American jobs’ and addressing illegal immigration are two entirely separate issues. The realities of robotics and outsourcing don’t preclude the fact that we’ve got an illegal immigration problem (and let me be very, very clear: Immigration is NOT a problem. Illegal immigration IS a problem. This distinction is of course, completely lost on the Trult. Remember: Different is inferior. Different is wrong.). We need a firm, sophisticated, compassionate, broad-ranging strategy to address this issue, one that utilizes a wide array of techniques. ‘Building a wall’ is not even on the list of those techniques, let alone a solution in and of itself (though there are measures we need to employ to physically secure the border more effectively and consistently). The notion that a big wall would ‘prevent illegal immigration’ is infantile, the equivalent of trying to restore the Sistine Chapel with latex paint and brushes from Lowe’s (When you think about it, MAGA itself is conceptually infantile. What does ‘Make America Great Again’ actually mean? Nothing. It’s a vacuous marketing slogan with no substance whatsoever.).

Further inflaming the situation is the Trult’s hysterical (and delusional) assessment that “murderers, pedophiles, and other criminals are POURING across the border every day, FLOODING our nation with drugs, destroying our way of life, and infecting everyone around them with COVID!! (which really isn’t a big deal when it inconveniences them) Are there murderers, pedophiles, other criminals, and drugs entering this country illegally? Yes, there absolutely are. Is it a problem? Yes, it absolutely is. Do the “murderers, pedophiles, and other criminals” constitute 90% of the illegal immigrants entering this country, as the Trult would have you believe? No, they absolutely do not.   

• Would you like to know how many people in this country actually believe we should have ‘open borders’, in which anyone from anywhere can come and go through our country however and whenever they want? Seven. Seven people believe that ‘open borders’ is a great idea. Of those seven, four of them have a grandma in Mexico they just want to see more often without the hassle of border crossings

• ‘Replacement Theory’ is a hardcore, top-shelf, grade A, QAnon-consistent, extremist, Trult conspiracy theory that has no foundation in reality. Further, it begs the question, “Why would immigrants be so susceptible to Democrat ideology, they would automatically vote for them?” Could it be because a massive percentage of American citizens of color, let alone immigrants, are completely disenfranchised from Trult ideology because they feel excluded, even persecuted by it? I think we all know the answer to that question. Replacement Theory reflects typical Trult paranoia and fear. What have we learned about ‘The Other’ from the Trult? Different is inferior. Different is wrong.

Hang on a sec. I have to stop at Lowe’s to pick up some paint and brushes so I can effectively describe the Trult’s current, juvenile, tantrum-like technique of ‘voicing their immigration concerns’.

Ah. There we go.

Trultist ‘leaders’ like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have taken to misleading innocent people into boarding buses and planes, and then shipping them to cities they (the Trult) don’t like to ‘prove a point’. It’s soulless political grandstanding, completely devoid of humanity, decency, and compassion.

I understand that some of those people are in this country illegally and that, again, illegal immigration is a big problem. But putting people on a plane and shipping them to Martha’s Vineyard isn't about immigration. It’s about humanity.

Ron DeSantis lied to those people. He made a conscious decision to put them on that plane and ship them to a place where their presence would create chaos and where they would not have a significant opportunity to succeed. Had it not been for the kindness of the people of Martha's Vineyard, they would have suffered terribly. He sent those people there for the sole purpose of aggravating everyone who doesn't agree with him. He did not take one single moment to consider the welfare or dignity of the people on that plane as fellow human beings. He disposed of them the same way he'd toss a soda can in the trash. He did it to make a political point. If that's not sociopathy, I don't know what is.

What’s more, it is NOT the answer to this problem! It's only making it worse! DeSantis should be ashamed of himself, and if he's not ashamed of himself, he should be even MORE ashamed of himself! Through his actions and behavior, he has amply demonstrated on multiple occasions that he has nothing but a sinkhole for a soul. He's actually much more dangerous than Donald Trump because he's intelligent enough to know better. In fact, he DOES know better. He just doesn't care. He's content to be a hardcore, stone-cold fascist. He represents a clear and active danger to the welfare of this country. God help us if he ever somehow becomes President.

Naturally, the Trult handily deflected culpability for this disgusting stunt by attempting to discredit Barack Obama, e.g., “He’s got a nice big house there! Why didn’t he take care of all those people?!”

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that they were strangely quiet a few weeks later during Hurricane Ian, which displaced tens of thousands of Floridians. Donald Trump doesn’t just have a “big house” there. He has a sprawling luxury resort that he had ample opportunity to open to his fellow Floridians in need. Did he do that? Of course not! I guess all those stolen documents are still taking up too much room to fit a bunch of ‘lowlife’ storm victims. What he did do was, well… nothing. Not one goddamn thing. Didn’t offer to help. Didn’t so much as post a weblink to enable others to help.

Oh, I’m sorry. I misspoke. He actually did do something during the storm. While his fellow locals were being flooded out of their homes and in some cases, fighting for their lives, Donald Trump was begging for ‘campaign donations’ which is now a euphemism for ‘money to pay the gargantuan legal fees I’m generating as I fight off multiple lawsuits’. You know, the ones that will, God willing, put him in jail where he belongs, or at the very least, prevent him from ever holding a political office again.

The Trult are extremists, maybe even terrorists. I did another websearch to define a term. Here’s what came up.

 

Like a parasitic tapeworm, the Trult has insinuated itself into what used to be the GOP, destroying its credibility and endangering the citizens of this country, including the people who are supposed to be their constituents. They seek a totalitarian government in which they hold all the cards and make all the rules. They intend to undermine the Constitution and eliminate democracy in this country. As previously noted, they have already made excellent progress in this regard and they’re not even fully in power, yet. There is now very little distinction between conservative thought and Trult thought. That’s a BIG problem. An existential crisis-level problem.

Somewhere, buried beneath the chaos, quivering in terror, is the actual GOP. Adam Kinzinger recently stated that he and Liz Cheney aren’t brave. They’re just surrounded by cowards. I think he’s being overly modest regarding himself and Cheney, but he is nevertheless absolutely right: The GOP ARE cowards.

They need to grow a pair and start taking back their party if they ever want to play an active role in government again. Here’s what they need to do to regain at least a shred of integrity:

1. Reject Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Until they completely disassociate themselves from that hate-mongering, corruption-drenched, narcissistic sociopath, they have no credibility as a political party and do not deserve a voice in political discourse any more than the Trult itself does. 
2. Stop allowing the Trult to stomp on the Constitution and democratic principles! Stop them from deviously manipulating conditions to suit their agenda! Stop them from quashing voting rights! Stop them from gerrymandering! Stop them from fabricating voter fraud conspiracies! Stop them from taking rights away from women and the LGBTQ+ community! 
3. Stop consorting with bargain-basement morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Herschel Walker, and Jim Jordan, as well as despicable, spineless, misanthropic weasels like Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul.

As for the rest of us, we need to take this election seriously, get our asses in gear, and vote, vote, VOTE!! Vote in such volume that the inevitable “I lost, so the election must have been rigged!” outcries will be laughed off the airwaves. Vote like our lives and our country depend on it!  

Because they absolutely do.

Thank you for reading.

~~~

 

 

On the Perils of the Trult - Part II of III

by Steven B. Orkin

Welcome to Part II!

Getting back to the MAGA Trult and conservative ideology, there are certain ideas generally associated with ‘Republican’ thought that I agree with. I would love to have the opportunity to vote for a moderate Republican in a race where the Democratic candidate was weak. I can’t and I won’t. Whenever I have voted in the last few years, I have felt compelled to literally check off every Democrat running without even looking at the Republican slate. The reason why is because what used to be the GOP has gone so far off the rails of integrity, decency, and responsibility, due to their continued transformation into the Trult, I cannot in good conscience give them the slightest consideration. They don’t deserve it.

If the Trult represented the majority, I’d be forced to acknowledge that fact, though I’d continue to try to change it, but allow me to convey a hard (for some) truth: Conservatism is a fringe ideology. Let me explain why. If we were to take a poll of every citizen of this country about the major issues of the day, 75% or more would fall along a bell curve. The Trult routinely operates at the extremist bottom of that curve. What this means is that their political ideology and goals do not reflect the actual will of the vast majority of American citizens, including their own constituents.

It also means that given a level playing field, the Trult (and you’ll notice that as this essay progresses, my distinction between ‘the Trult’ and ‘the GOP’ has become negligible), cannot win elections because they don’t have the votes. Therefore, they cheat. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, propaganda, pandering to lowest common denominator fears, misdirection, manipulation, the blame game.

Despite the Trult’s rabid insistence that there is “rampant voter fraud”, that elections have been “stolen” or “rigged”, they have yet to produce any substantive proof that this is actually the case. DOZENS of lawsuits were filed after the 2020 election. Several substantive investigations were conducted. Nothing. No evidence of substantive voter fraud. No evidence of substantive election tampering. No evidence that voting machines suck. No evidence that mail-in voting, early voting, drop-off voting, or any other such process substantively and adversely affects the integrity of elections to any appreciable degree.

What we do have are deadly-serious and substantive allegations about the conduct and behavior of ex-President Gangster and several of his underlings with regard to attempted subversion of the 2020 election process and inciting a riot at the US Capitol to prevent the results of that election from being ratified. We have Fox News being prosecuted for spreading baseless, libelous conspiracy theories about the integrity of a major voting machine company. We have substantive lawsuits against various Trultist political figures for election-related offenses. We have a major investigation in Georgia regarding serious election tampering efforts by various Trult politicians, as well as the gangster-king himself. And if we were to examine 100 cases of documented gerrymandering and voter fraud through the years, we would find that 80%-90% of them have been perpetrated by the GOP. Their machinations have absolutely NOTHING to do with the ‘sanctity of our elections’. Their goal is to make it more difficult for the general population (particularly all those pesky brown people) to vote. It’s about doing everything they can to ensure that they win. They don’t have the votes. Therefore, they cheat.

The Trult is not at all interested in the ‘will of the people’ or ‘what’s best for the country’. They’re interested in winning by any means necessary and they’ve made excellent progress in accomplishing that.

 Here are the essential differences between Conservatism and Progressivism.

Conservatism (especially now) thrives on rigidity. It’s single-minded. Consider how many Congressional votes have come up in recent years in which EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN voted no. Every. Single. One. Outside of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who have both severely damaged, if not sacrificed their political careers to do what’s morally right by serving on the Jan 6 Committee and otherwise turning away from the Trult, the GOP has fallen into lockstep, thanks to the obscene power of near-satanic Mitch McConnell, arguably the most powerful man in this country, and the continued influence of the man Trevor Noah has referred to as ‘Cinnamon Hitler’. At this point, the Trult may as well be goose-stepping and sig-heiling out on the National Mall.

To continue, Conservatism does not employ creativity. It employs brute force. It doesn’t adapt. It doesn’t compromise. It’s intolerant. It does not unify; it divides. If it doesn’t get its way, it strong-arms and/or manipulates everything around it to achieve its ends, regardless of whether those ends are what the country needs or what the people of this country want, or for that matter, whether they have any moral foundation whatsoever. Twisted as it has been by the misanthropic depravity of the Trult, it now follows archetypal, Machiavellian ideology: The ends justify the means. In some cases, employing that philosophy is understandable, though not at all excusable. In the Trult’s case, the ‘end’ is simply to win. Nothing more, nothing less. They have been enabled by their gangster-king to engage in blatant, power-hungry corruption. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s shocking and terrifying, and it’s got to be stopped.

Conservatism is a sledgehammer. It leaves nothing but destruction in its wake. It endeavors to control everyone and everything around it, particularly those it doesn’t agree with.

Progressivism is flexible. It takes in new information from multiple sources, considers it, and employs it moving forward. It adapts. It evolves. It compromises. It endeavors to unify rather than divide. Progressivism utilizes creativity of thought to determine the best path forward. It evaluates conditions and makes decisions based on those conditions.

Progressivism is a Swiss Army Knife. It’s inventive and resourceful. It endeavors to determine the best, broad-based solution and make things better. It invites discussion and provides disparate perspectives with a voice.

Which leads me to another part of the problem I have with the Trult, which is, as noted above, there is a disconnect between what they believe and what a very large percentage their constituents believe. Though there are absolutely extremist adherents to Trult ideology, they do not reflect the majority of American citizens. Consider the following:

·       A large majority (upwards of 70%) of citizens in most any broad-cohort poll taken across the political spectrum believe that abortion should be available to women, at least under certain circumstances. Why is the Trult trying (and succeeding) to ban abortion? Aren’t they supposed to represent the will of the people? Aren’t their constituents supposed to drive their political activities?

·       A large majority of citizens want mail-in and/or early voting options. Why does the Trult want to eliminate mail-in and early voting? Why do they frequently engage in ‘redistricting’ (aka gerrymandering) to maximize the voting power of people they like and minimize the voting power of people they don’t like (usually communities containing a high percentage of people of color)?

• Side note: Though I firmly believe that the volume of voter fraud occurring in this country is close to insignificant, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that all voters have some sort of identification that they are required to show when voting. However, that standard should not and cannot be used as a weapon of persecution to prevent people from voting. There’s no reason to require people to show three forms of ID to vote. A driver’s license or DMV-issued non-driver ID should be sufficient. You can get a standard non-driver ID for about $15.00, which doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.

·       A large majority of citizens are happy with and believe that the Affordable Care Act, while not perfect, works. Why does the Trult want to eliminate it (particularly given that they have no alternative)?

·       A large majority of citizens believe that Social Security should be protected and enhanced for the future. Why does the Trult want to slash Social Security and monetize it for their own purposes?

·       A large majority of citizens believe that corporations should pay their fair share of taxes. Why does the Trult consistently not only refuse to hold them accountable, but continue giving them tax breaks?

·       A large majority of citizens support the basic concept of gay marriage and other rights for the LGBTQ+ community. Why does the Trult want to repeal and restrict LGBTQ+ rights?

Why? POWER & CONTROL. The Trult does not care about the American people or the Unites States of America! As typified by the behavior of their gangster-king, the Trult considers this nation as alternately a treasure chest and toilet bowl, depending on what they want and where they get it. Though Democrats are far from blameless in optimizing the needs of corporate America over the needs of the American people, they don’t engage in this behavior with the same frequency and to the same fanatical degree that the Trult does.

Here’s another thought to consider. Some Democratic initiatives are created and enacted not so much because they’re good policy but because they address the comprehensive wrongness of GOP policy.

The student loan forgiveness program is a perfect example of this. The student loan process is conducted in a predatory, greedy, merciless fashion that has proven devastating to many, many people whose only agenda was wanting to get an education and build a better life for themselves. Student loan companies have been allowed to operate in this fashion for decades because ‘it’s good for business’ and ‘let the buyer beware’. On the other hand, giving multibillion dollar companies tax loopholes and great (or no) interest rates is apparently also ‘good for business’. Why can’t we give college grads the same (or at least similar) terms we give multibillion dollar companies? The answer is, “We can and we should”. Given that tens of thousands of college grads have been financially enslaved by the current merci-LESS system, it’s consequently merci-FUL to help them. In fact, there’s no reason why we can’t offset some of the perks we give to big business to help debt-ridden college grads even more. It would be a drop in the bucket of the money big business makes based on all the perks we give them. And do me a favor. Spare me the “I had to work hard to pay off my student loans! Why are we giving ‘handouts’ to them!?” drivel. If you walked across the street and got hit by a car, do you think everyone around you should get hit by a car because of what you suffered? I don’t think you do. It’s the same thing. The fact that you suffered a wrong doesn’t mean we shouldn’t correct that wrong for those still suffering from that wrong! Is it fair to say that some people who took out student loans have been irresponsible and didn’t really deserve the benefit of having those loans paid off? Yes, you can. But they don’t represent the majority of victims of the predatory student loan industry. From another angle, could you make a case for the idea that people who have already paid off their student loans under the predatory system, people who ended up paying 150 thousand dollars on a 50-thousand-dollar student loan should be compensated? Yes, you absolutely can. Let’s have big business foot that bill, too. They have benefited enormously from all those college grads, many of whom are now working for them. Let them actually invest in the welfare of our nation rather than lining their pockets with their own stock options. Let them make 70 billion dollars a year instead of 100 billion. I’m very confident they’ll do just fine.

Here’s another one: the IRS. The government just expanded the ranks of IRS agents by thousands. In Big Business / GOP Spin-Land, those IRS agents were hired to ‘hunt down decent, hardworking people and take their hard-earned money!’ They were not, by any stretch of the imagination, hired for that purpose. They were hired for one reason only: to mount an offensive against Big Business, which uses all kinds of colorful tax loopholes to effectively steal billions of dollars from the American people every single year. Because they are very creative in how they do this, the IRS did not have the manpower or resources to conduct thorough audit investigations into such practices and make these companies pay their fair share. Now, they have at least a chance of getting some of that money back where it belongs: in the hands of the American people. If we were to collect all the money that Big Business has hidden through ‘creative accounting’, it would quickly amount to TRILLIONS of dollars! That money could substantially improve the quality of life of every single citizen of this country.  

~~~

Thus ends Part II. In Part III, the conclusion of this three-part post, we'll talk about immigration, the hypocrisy of the Trult, what the GOP needs to do to get their party back, and in the meantime, what the rest of us need to do to stop the Trult.

Thank you for reading.

~~~