The King's Codpiece

Today, I am not going to comment on anything in specific. There are times when even my brain needs a break, and apparently, other contributors to this blog feel the same way as I have not had any submissions for the day.

So… today, I am going to remind you that we ALL have to vote. If you are telling yourself your vote does not matter, I would remind you that Trump won in every swing state by a small percentage of the number of people who did not vote. Had all eligible voters gone to the polls, there is a very good chance that Trump would have been relegated to the trash heap of history, where he belongs.

All of this starts with ensuring that you are properly registered to vote. If you have not done this already with the primary elections, verify your voter status with your state’s election commission.

Ensure you are actually still registered, especially if you live in a Republican-controlled state. Next, make sure you are properly registered according to your party affiliation. This will not prevent you from voting in a general election, however, as long as you are there, you might as well tend to the details.

Finally, verify the location of your voting precinct. The location of where you vote can change with every election, so it is good to verify this before any election.

If you are not registered to vote, REGISTER. DO IT NOW. Deadlines are coming up in each state.

To make is easier for everyone, here is a link to a website created by ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ that is a clearinghouse of voting information for each state.

http://betterknowaballot.com

Remember: if you don’t vote against Trump, you don’t get to complain about what he does to you. And he will only get worse. In fact, if he gets bad enough, no one will be allowed to complain about him without worrying about arrest.

Attorney General William Barr has stated that prosecutors should charge protesters with sedition. For those that don’t know, sedition is defined as conduct of speech inciting people to rebel against the state or monarch. Proving sedition would be almost impossible, but conviction is not Barr’s intention.

His intention is to put fear into the population. If people are afraid of being federally charged with a felony, they may think twice about protesting in the first place. Barr does not believe in a democracy built on freedom of speech.

Barr has long believed that the President should be a monarch. He has, wrongfully, stated that the founding fathers intended for the President to have almost monarchical powers. This is so far from the truth to be laughable.

Our founding fathers had just fought a war of independence from a tyrannical monarch. The last thing they wanted was to establish another one on our own shores. The Constitution of the United States actually originally set up a far more weakened executive branch than what we are used to in modern times.

Over the decades, Presidents have asserted more and more authority. Congress, and the Supreme Court, has allowed it to happen. Barr would take it further.

The Constitution gives the power of the purse, and the power to wage war, to Congress. The belief is that a deliberative body made up of many minds would give the deep thought required before sending our nations sons, and now daughters, off to fight and die. Our budget is decided by Congress as well. The President is required to ask for what he wants. In William Barr’s America, the President would have the sole right to make all these decisions.

In Barr’s America, as well, there is the belief that antifa is a well-organized plot to overthrow America. This is the basis for his desire to have sedition charges filed against protesters. If antifa is a tight-knit organization, the Trump administration can try to justify the Gestapo tactics used by various local and federal police agencies against demonstrators.

What is scarier still, in Barr’s America, the DOJ’s function is to serve as the personal attorneys and police force of the President. This would include prosecuting (read: persecuting) Trump’s political enemies. Barr is currently trying to have his DOJ take over the defense of Donald Trump in a personal defamation suit filed by an alleged rape victim. Our tax dollars would be paying to defend the President in personal cases.

The GOP-led Senate seems to agree with Attorney General Barr. As we speak, Republicans in Congress are beginning to issue subpoenas to investigate the FBI probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Never mind that the probe has already been cleared of wrong doing.

But, if left unchecked, Trump, and his lickspittle William Barr, would make police protection conditional on the obedience of the local community. Trump, and Barr, would also take federal funds from any state he does not consider respectful to his presidency (read: voted for him).

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Years ago, when I was in my 20’s, I met Bob Woodward. I was living in Washington, DC. And I was riding down a bike path that followed the Potomac River. Mr. Woodward was sitting on a bench. I stopped to rest and just started some small talk with him.

I did not know who he was, but he was kind enough to engage in a few minutes of conversation with me. I introduced myself by my first name and he told me his name was Bob. It was then that I had my first inkling as to who he was. I asked and he just said yes. I thanked him for the courage of his work. We then both went on our individual ways. I was left with the impression that he was not entirely comfortable being thanked for his reporting.

Nowadays, he is both the reporter and the celebrity. His latest book is based on a series of interviews he did with Donald Trump before Covid-19 was officially a pandemic. I do not need to fill in what was said during those interviews. By now, if you do not know, your head is in the sand too deep to hear anyway.

But, one thing Bob Woodward said resonated with me. I have said it, and so have several pundits over the years. Somehow, to hear it repeated from Bob Woodward gives it the gravitas it needs to maybe get some traction with the average American.

Donald Trump lies as a strategy. To him, a lie is just as good as the truth as long as it helps him reach whatever goal he has set. Plus, as we are all aware of by now, if you tell a lie enough times, people will see it as the truth.

It is a familiarity bias. He says it. Then other members of his administration say it. Soon enough, many Americans hear it and say, “I’ve heard that before somewhere. It must be true.”

The average American is not going to fact check the lie. By the time the press fact checks it, part of it has sunk in. This is especially true when you are prone to want to believe the lie. If the lie is just confirmation bias for you, why even fact check it in the first place?

This takes me back to my post yesterday on Americans being a generally uninformed electorate. Yes, it is work. Yes, sometimes it takes time. However, we will never fix our system if we allow this to continue.

Do not let any politician lie to you, whether it is strategic or just a “campaign promise.”

BAJ

When you were a kid, did you ever stay up past your bedtime?  Eat all your Halloween candy in one night?  Chew gum in class when your teacher wasn’t looking? In high school, did you ever write your name on a desk?  Smoke cigarettes in the boy’s room?  Play hooky just to get out of a quiz? What about college?  Did you hang a poster of Che Guevara in your dorm room?  Smoke a joint at a party?  Go skinny dipping? You knew it was wrong, but it felt so right.  What a rush!  Your parents would never have approved of half the things you did, which is why you never told them. Now, you’re a grown-up yourself, and you understand the need to model good behavior for your own children—and grandchildren.  That’s why you’ve long been a family-values Republican.  Sometimes, though, you miss being a rebel: that feeling of defiance.  Finally, there’s a safe and effective way to regain that feeling—with Joe Biden. Your friends and neighbors are all voting for Trump because they think the Democrats are coming to take away your guns and raise your taxes.  That sounds a lot like how your parents said candy would rot your teeth. They’re voting for Trump because they say protesters are all bad people who want to burn your neighborhood down.  That sounds like the “scared straight” lecture you got during health class. They say the stock market is going to crash if Joe Biden gets elected.  That’s like how they said your music had hidden Satanic messages when you play it backwards.  Don’t you just want to tell them to chill out? Once again, it’s time to rebel. A vote for Joe Biden is a license to sit at the cool kids’ table, wear a leather jacket, drive a hot rod.  And, because it’s a secret ballot, none of those squares will ever know how you voted! Joe Biden—the rebellious choice for conservative adults.

I sometimes try to remind people that Donald Trump is a symptom of a broken system. His end will not, in any way, end the problems we see on a daily basis. Trump is a master manipulator. He understands, probably better than 95% of the population, how to use the system for his own ends. It is how he has survived over an entire, decades long career of corruption.

But, that is business. What about government? People pin the fall of our government into its current abyss to Ronald Reagan. He sped up the process, but he was a symptom every bit as much as much as Trump.

The downfall of our political system, in reality, dates back to the time after WWII when the military industrial complex began taking over the halls of Congress and the Oval Office. We have been fighting, and funding, war in Latin America since the latter half of the 20^th century.

The government has spent billions of dollars propping up often corrupt governments that were considered friendly to American business interests. It is why Iran hates us today. We helped overthrow a democratically-elected government to install a brutal dictator who was friendly to our interests in the middle-east. When his government was overthrown, it cost us dearly.

Of course, our foreign policy has always been myopic, concentrating on the immediate win over any long-term solution. The problem today is that most Americans don’t know about any of this. Why? There are several reasons.

One reason is that we stopped teaching civics in school, replacing it with social studies. Civics is designed to create politically active citizens. It teaches us about how our system of government operates. But, a politically active, educated electorate is a problem for a government corrupted by the military-industrial complex. Our law makers thrive on an electorate that is uneducated enough to believe the pablum and bullshit that is being fed to us.

Another reason is something that many people overlook when it comes to the political landscape today. Watergate helped burn out our political fervor. Watergate is what helped stop us from paying attention to politics, which allowed the government to end civics education and begin the true corruption of the United States government. In fact, many polls since the 80’s have shown that Americans actually expect a certain amount of corruption in their politicians.

How do we fix this…

We have to do the near impossible. We need to fight the massive mental inertia we are currently feeling towards politics. How many times have you, or your friends, said “politics are hard,” or “politics are boring.” Congratulations. Your elected representatives love your type of American.

You have no interest in politics. Thus, you have no interest in watching for, and diminishing, the corruption that has given birth to the greatest transfer of wealth in world history. In fact, the corruption, and our lack of interest, has become so great that politicians no longer feel it necessary to hide their disreputable dealings.

The only way to stop this is to become educated as to the dealings of our elected representatives. We must educate ourselves in the civics of our federal, state, and local, governments. Most of all, we must become politically active enough to bring pressure to bear on those same representatives when we find them acting out of sorts.

It is no longer enough to just vote. We must educate ourselves on the issues and the candidates. In other words, we must do some work and research.

If we just blindly vote, the corruption remains. We fall into the trap of believing that all of “them” must go, but I will still vote for “my guy.” Well, if everyone feels that way, none of the corruption is eliminated. This is how Mitch McConnell has maintained decades of manipulation and corruption.

It is my opinion that Biden must win the Presidency. No, I do not believe he will bring about any serious change. Biden has one job. That is to bring us back to the broken equilibrium our government is accustomed to. His job is to bring back a level of democracy.

Once that is done, the real work, and the real fight, must begin.

Written by: BAJ

The current President, Donald J Trump, called dead American soldiers “losers,” according to unnamed sources quoted by the Atlantic.  However, when the mainstream media quote anonymous aides critical of Trump, you always immediately discount everything they say because they are “unnamed” and, therefore, unreliable. When Donald Trump claims that mail-in ballots encourage voter fraud... that injecting bleach cures coronavirus... or that there were 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes cast for Hillary, do you ignore everything he says because he’s using “unnamed sources”? No?  Why not?  Does Trump have a solid history of telling the truth?  Is Trump noted for his bipartisanship and lack of political bias?  Do Trump’s statements typically align with what his own experts and agency heads are saying?  Does Trump retract his statements when they are proven false by fact checkers? No, no, no, and no. Even Trump’s supporters admit he is dishonest, but they support him anyway because of his conservative agenda.  If you’re going to support him no matter what, why do you refuse to accept a story that is critical of him?  Back in 2015, you already heard him disparage John McCain, claiming “he’s not a war hero….  I like people who weren’t captured.”  This didn’t come from an “unnamed source”, it came straight out of Trump’s mouth.  You can watch the video on YouTube. You voted for Trump anyway.  So, why do you now refuse to believe that he made other similar comments disparaging fallen soldiers and POW’s?  Would that really be out of character for Trump, who openly disparaged a Gold Star family in 2016?  Again, I’m not quoting “unnamed sources”, I’m quoting Trump’s own Twitter feed. You love Trump for his political incorrectness.  He says things that no one else would dare to say out loud.  Sometimes, he even says things that make his own supporters cringe.  If you’re cringing now, is it because The Atlantic used unreliable sources, or is it because in your heart, you know Trump probably did call dead soldiers “losers”? Is The Atlantic politically biased?  Maybe.  But, consider this: in their 163-year history, they have only endorsed 3 presidential candidates—one Republican and two Democrats.  Those candidates were Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and Hillary Clinton in 2016.  When a magazine is that reluctant to make an endorsement more than once every century, you should listen to them when they do. You didn’t, and you’re already going to vote for Trump again no matter what.  Just come out and admit that The Atlantic was right, that Trump insulted those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and that you simply don’t care.  If you won’t admit it to me, at least admit it to yourself when you look in the mirror.  I’m not trying to change your vote.  I just want you to be honest with yourself about why you are voting for Trump and what threshold of behavior you are willing to tolerate.  Don’t vote with your eyes closed, and don’t tell me a year from now that you had no idea what Trump was capable of.

The election interference continues.

Roger Stone has called for Trump to declare martial law to seize power should he lose the election in November. He has stated that, regardless of the votes, the election will only be legitimate if Trump is declared the winner.

Stone has claimed that there is an ongoing coup against Donald Trump. As well, any mail-in voting would be illegitimate and early voting is already corrupted. Stone has called for federal law enforcement authorities to seize early vote ballots and to prevent certain people (read: Democrats) from voting at all. Following these actions, Stone wants Trump’s political enemies to be arrested, including CEO’s of various social media outlets.

Beyond this, Michael Caputo, the communications director for the Department of Health and Human Services, has called for Trump supporters to arm themselves ahead of the November election. He stated that when Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting should begin. Of course, neither has provided any evidence to back up claims of Democratic coups.

On the contrary, this is a clear cut case of both men calling for armed insurrection against the government of the United States. This is nothing less than a call to arms to overthrow democracy and establish a Fascist government run by Donald Trump, not as President, but as dictator-for-life. Oh, he will still call himself President to give the illusion of what would be our former republic, but the reality would be far different.

Freedom of speech would be a thing of the past. I have no doubt that Trump would still want elections. After all, he needs to feel like he has won something. However, those elections will be fully controlled, and dictated, by his administration of Fascist followers.

As much as I hate to say this, and this is not the first time I have said it, no matter the outcome of the election, there will be bloodshed and, very possibly, civil war.

Most of the time, there is so much going on in the world that I have to think about what I want to write for the day. Today is one of those days. Do I write about something Trump said or did? Do I write about inmate firefighters in California? We are living in a dystopian present, so the fodder is deep and wide.

In the end, I chose to write about Trump. In this case, it is because people need to be reminded that he is a danger to our democracy and the Constitution. Trump is most certainly not the stable genius he claims to be, but he is a very skilled manipulator. A lifetime of practice has taught him how to take advantage of the fears and anger of other people.

As the saying goes, when someone tells you who they are, believe them. Trump has, time and time again, told us who he was. Yet, a good chunk of the nation just doesn’t want to listen.

As long as I can remember during his Presidency, he has made it clear that the Constitution is a barrier to his plans. One of these plans is to stay in the White House for the rest of his life. In fact, if he wants to stay out of jail, he really has no choice.

Trump is the subject of several federal and state investigations. DOJ guidelines don’t allow for a sitting President to be prosecuted while in office. While we claim no one us above the law, this essentially makes the President above the law while he is in office. There is no provision to ‘stop the clock’ on any statutes of limitation for crimes that may have been committed by the President either prior to assuming office or while in office. Yes, there is a provision for impeachment, but we know how that works as long as Congress is willing to cover for the occupant of the Oval Office.

Some say that, should Trump lose the election, he would just resign and let Pence pardon him. There is a flaw to this logic. A Presidential pardon only covers federal charges. Trump would still have to face state charges in New York. The penalties for some of those charges would place Trump in jail for the rest of his natural life. We all know he would not brook this.

We really need to stop treating this next election like it will be normal. Trump is already cheating. He has hobbled the USPS because he assumes that will cut down on Democratic votes. He has spent the entire pandemic calling it a hoax. His base will vote in person no matter what. Trump is betting that, if Dems have to vote in person, it will prevent a lot of people from voting.

He has been regularly exclaiming that, if he loses, the vote is rigged. This is nothing new. This is a play from his 2016 campaign. He couldn’t even accept a victory there because he did not win the popular vote. To him, this is a loss.

Trump expects to lose this election. He is ramping up his base to riot should/when that happens. Whether he wins or loses, this will not end well for the United States. He has pushed past every democratic and Constitutional boundary that he has found in his path. Imagine what he will do when he no longer feels he has to pretend he cares about the country?

When Colin Kaepernick knelt during the National Anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans, the right screamed bloody murder. They claimed that he was disrespecting the military and the flag and that he needed to apologize to the nation. He, rightfully so, refused.

More and more players began to kneel. Donald Trump decided to get involved and called for owners to fire any player that knelt to protest police brutality against African-Americans. The right stepped up their campaign to re-brand the protests as something against the military, and by extension, the flag.

Eventually, the Black Lives Matter movement ramped up these protests against police brutality against African-Americans, and rightfully so. The right began howling that they were not protesting properly. The right said that BLM needed to protest peacefully. They forget that Kaepernick started with a peaceful protest and they condemned it.

In fact, Kaepernick started kneeling at the suggestion of a military veteran. Kneeling is a sign of supplication. Kaepernick was supplicating himself to a nation that just wanted him to go away. He still has yet to be given a chance to return to the NFL because of his protest.

On Sept. 10^Th, the Houston Texans played the Kansas City Chiefs, in Kansas City. To show the right that they were willing to meet them halfway, to assuage their complaints, no one knelt during the anthem. Instead, the players locked arms afterwards for a moment of unity.

They were met with boos from the crowd. The boos continued until the moment of unity ended. At that, the crowd started cheering.

These complaints against the peaceful protests of men and women who have never felt the same love from the country they love, have never been about the military, or the flag. They are about a sense of entitlement felt by people who have benefited from their place in society practically since it began. These are people who expect POC’s to just accept the status quo that is, quite literally, killing them. For the right, these athletes are not allowed a voice in America. They have one job: to “step and fetch it” for the amusement of the crowd.

In other words, it has always been about the racism.

I would admonish those on the right to remember, and heed, the words of President John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

I had other things I wanted to discuss today. I may still do it, but it is 9/11 and this is “topical.”

The US Treasury Dept. has siphoned off (read: stolen) almost $4 million from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program. Reportedly, the stolen money is being used to pay off the Medicare debt of other NYC entities. The debt being paid off starts with fiscal year 2016. That means some people will try and pin this on the Obama administration, however, as we all know, payments from one year are made the next year. So, this would have begun during the Trump administration.

Regardless of what administration is doing this, it is an abomination to those men and women who ran into the danger on that fateful day. I have no doubt that those who blindly follow Trump will find a way to excuse his actions and find a way to blame Obama, claiming that this started at the end of his administration. It didn’t, but these people don’t seem to care about facts. That level of mental gymnastics are all too common to explain away the criminality of Trump’s actions.

Need I remind everyone that Trump bragged about having the tallest building in NYC after the twin Towers fell. This is not a man who cares about anyone but himself. Can someone please call Jon Stewart?