A Message Of Hope For A Post-Democracy America

Well, I thought I was going to take a break from blogging, but...

Democracy has always had one, glaring flaw: that people have the power to vote for its own destruction. Last Tuesday, that's precisely what happened.

It's not Kamala's fault. Don't blame her. Sure, she had some missteps, mostly in not distancing herself from Biden enough and not speaking out enough for Gaza. But she ran a flawless campaign otherwise. As I've said before, in a sane world, she wins in a landslide. Trump, on the other hand, ran a reckless campaign, made one gaff after another, had one October surprise after another go against him, played to his twisted base instead of to the rational center, and somehow won anyway. No, this is not Kamala's fault. 

It wasn't "the economy, stupid." Not with inflation down to 2.1%, record job growth, and grocery prices slowly coming down. If Trump had presided over these economic numbers, he and all his followers would be bragging loud enough to rattle everyone's windows! Biden somehow gets zero credit.

No, the real problem, as I've been saying for years, is the Right-Wing Media Machine giving the illusion of legitimacy to utter falsehoods.

Two words: institutionalized disinformation. That's what did us in.

On the surface, the election seemed to have an air of democracy to it. The flawed Electoral College actually agreed with the popular vote totals for once (something we haven't seen for the Republican side since 1988). But here's the thing: There can be no true democratic choice if voters are being systematically and maliciously misled.

As I pointed out earlier, propaganda disguised as news IS election interference.

And that leads into a thorny question for political scientists everywhere: If the general public is fooled into thinking that day is night, up is down, back is front, and demented criminal rapists/racists somehow make good candidates, can there truly be a democratic choice? Or does institutionalized disinformation render the democratic process impossible?

I would argue it does. We just saw proof.

For a long time, we have been less a democracy and more an oligarchy. We have now, officially, slipped down to 100% oligarchy. Our votes were bought, because our news media was bought. And now we face the likelihood of becoming an outright dictatorship. Because roughly half of us were duped into thinking that was actually a good idea.

Because institutionalized disinformation, bought and paid for by the ultra-rich, drove us utterly insane.

So what do we do now? Cry in our beer? Wallow in depression? Wait for the Technological Singularity to come and save us? Flee to some other country while we still can?

No! HELL, no!

I will NOT give up! 

And most importantly, I will not SHUT up!

I intend to be at the vanguard of the last guardrail keeping Trump in check. I will endeavor to be a policy maker within the Democratic Party, seeing as how the current leadership is obviously too incompetent to target the primary problem. I will undermine Trump and the Right-Wing Media Machine in every way I can.

And I ask that you join me.

So my message of hope is simply this: It's never truly over if we decide it isn't over.

One way or another, we will find a way to bitch-slap this mass delusion called Trumpism into the dustbin of history. Where it belongs.

Truth! Above! All!

(But I'll also have a go-bag packed, just in case.)

Eric

**

The Truth About Voter Fraud

Here's the truth about voter fraud:

It happens.

In every election which has ever been done in the history of democracy, there has always been a small percentage of error, and a few bad actors who try gaming the system. Because, whenever you get tens of millions of people doing the same thing all at once, there's going to be some screw-ups, as well as some who try to cut corners.

No problem if there's a clear winner. But when the election is close, it can cause massive problems.

But here's the part we all need to remember: Comparatively speaking, 2020 had some of the lowest rates of error or malfeasance in the measurable (and measured) history of elections.

Yet many people came to the conclusion that the 2020 election had the most fraud out of any recent presidential election. Why the disparity? Because in 2020 the entire electoral process had a proverbial proctological scope jammed up its ass! People were constantly looking for any little thing that might be wrong, and every little thing that was inevitably found, legitimate or not (more often not), got immediately reported before any fact-checking was done, and blown way, WAY out of proportion.

The same thing is undoubtedly about to happen again. Especially with the Right-Wing Media Machine being stronger than ever. You have been warned.

That means two things:

1) Trumpists are going to again lose their shit over every little complaint.

2) There will likely be even less error and fraud in this election than there was in 2020 as a direct result.

So let's all just relax take a deep breath, here! Or count to ten. Or take a Benzo. Or do whatever it takes to calm down.

When the vote totals come in tonight, we all need to remember that we're NOT watching four quarters of a playoff game where two teams are scoring on each other, and if one team makes a sudden, last-minute comeback, it makes the other side feel cheated and start bitching about the officiating. That's NOT what's happening, here! And if you're taking that approach at an election watch party, you have the wrong attitude. The final score has already been made! The game is over, and the winner has already been determined. The only thing that's happening is the final score being tallied and slowly reported as a running total.

So when you see a "blue shift," as absentee and mail-in ballots are counted, don't assume there's some sort of shenanigans going on. This is just how counting works.

And I know counting. I'm an accountant. It's boring work and when you're done, somebody always wants to bitch about the result, no matter how accurate.

So, everybody, chill the fuck out. As Adam Conover recently said, "I'm not worried about the election, because worry is a useless emotion." Instead of worrying, get out there and DO something.

Because your influence doesn't begin and end with a vote.

It begins when you get involved. When you volunteer. When you use your hands. When you use your brain. When you give your heart to the community. When you actively work to make the change you want to see.

Let's do that instead of stressing out.

See you on the other side of the election, folks!

Eric

**

If Trump Wins... (a.k.a. The Final Guardrail)

I'm on record as predicting Kamala Harris will win. The surprise polling in Iowa shows that many assumptions pollsters have been making might well be wrong. There's also the X factors of the secret women's vote, the youth vote (which is almost impossible to poll because young people simply do not talk to pollsters, but remember the "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" gaff?), or the turncoat Republican vote, or the pissed-off Latino vote. We also have heard that many "polls" are garbage, designed to largely paint a rosier picture for Trump. I'm cautiously optimistic. 

Still, even if the polling is wrong, and Harris actually leads by a decent percentage, it remains undeniably (and inexplicably) close in this election. IF Trump wins (perish the thought), what do we do? What's going to happen? I'm going to explore that dark thought in this blog post. I'm sad to say it, but if Trump wins, there is only ONE guardrail remaining which can stop him.

One.

But we'll get to that in a minute.

First, let's have a glimpse into the future which MIGHT be, should Trump actually pull off the improbable tiebreaker. Or worse, succeeds in swindling the election process.

First (and nobody disputes this), he will pardon himself and get rid of any federal cases pending against him.

He will then almost certainly target Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan for retribution regarding his 34 convictions of fraud. He will find a way.

He will then bring manufactured lawsuits for ridiculous charges against any and all Republicans and former members of his staff who turned on him, and do everything in his power to destroy their careers. Or worse.

There will then be legal reprisals upon all sorts of people as Trump turns the Attorney General's office upon any other people he considers his enemies.

He will inevitably hand over much of Ukraine to Russia. Perhaps by declaring all territory Russia has gained so far to be the new Russian border. He will also likely defund all Ukrainian support completely and allow Russia to make a surge into the country afterward to take over the entire country, not entirely unlike Hitler with the Sudatenland and Czechoslovakia.

That will be shocking enough. But there's more. Next will come the shock of betrayal among those who voted for him.

Muslims in Michigan who voted for Trump or stayed home because Harris was too much of a "squish" when it came to opposing the awful ethnic cleansing in Gaza will find themselves shocked and betrayed when, under Trump, Netenyahu begins bombing Gaza even more while settlements are brought back in and bombed-out buildings are transformed by Jared Kushner into prime real estate.

Young black men who voted for Trump because they couldn't bring themselves to trust Harris find themselves shocked and betrayed as racial profiling, "stop and frisk," and marijuana prohibition are reinstated, and many of them get hauled off to jail for minor offenses.

Yes, JAIL! And they voted FOR it!

Young Latino men who voted for Trump because they were convinced Harris was a Castro-like Communist find themselves shocked and betrayed as their green cards get rescinded and they are deported based on their racial identity despite their legal documentation. Yeah, we all saw THAT one coming.

Economy voters who felt Trump would do better with the economy are shocked and betrayed as huge tariffs are levied everywhere, prices skyrocket, manufacturing drops, and Trump resorts to massive deficit spending to try and cover it all up - just like he did last time when his trade war with China failed.

Christians are the only ones who do not feel betrayed -- at first. The final destruction of Church/State separation takes place, forcing institutionalized prayer into public schools and instituting Christianity as the only official religion, while declaring all other creeds illegal. BUT THEN, these Christians wake up and realize they've been utterly betrayed when the inevitable internal fight begins among various Christian factions to determine which form of Christianity is the "true" or "legal" version. Oh, the irony!

And all this is just the beginning of the nightmare.

RFK Jr. becomes Surgeon General? Yeesh!

Elon Musk gets a cabinet post? Ugh!

There will then be an all-out assault on Obamacare. Don't think so? There certainly was one last time. Were it not for John McCain, it would have succeeded!

The U.S. will likely pull out of NATO. Especially if NATO panics over Ukraine being handed over to Putin as an "election gift" in gratitude for Putin's cyber-support of Trump's campaign. Putin will be elated, Western democracies will be horrified, and that's all the excuse Trump will need.

And all that is before the final guardrail comes into play.

And what IS that final guardrail? Wait and see...

With huge tariffs causing economic collapse, and Trump doing massive deficit spending (his one talent) to cover up the entire mess, the dollar collapses. What happens then? Why, Trump turns to crypto-currency in a desperate attempt to re-invent the American monetary system. He has already hinted at doing this, so it should come as a surprise to no one. Naturally, this all devolves into utter chaos.

And at this point, he suspends the Constitution and declares Martial Law.

Here at last, is the final guardrail. In such a scenario, the unwillingness to capitulate, exercised by the freedom-loving public, is the only thing that keeps Trump from stealing it all. And in such a scenario of chaos, many state governments will refuse to bend the knee.

Which ones? Well, Certainly, the Pacific Coast (California, Washington and Oregon) and New England (New York, New Jersey, and almost everything north of Virginia) would refuse to cooperate. Illinois and Minnesota would certainly refuse, and with them would probably go Wisconsin and Michigan. Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania might remain on the fence, but even they know totalitarianism when they see it. Nevada? No way. And so go also New Mexico, Colorado, and maybe, if we're lucky, Arizona. There might even be some surprises among the defectors, such as Iowa or Nebraska.

And then what? Civil war?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. There will certainly be a grab to retain certain military assets within blue states. Such as Annapolis Naval Base in Maryland, Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, the various military stations in California and New Mexico, etc. And Trump will want loyalist Generals and Admirals to take his side.

I dare say most will not. But there are some. This too, is part of the final guardrail.

Canada, Europe, and all freedom loving democracies will side with the blue secessionist states. They will provide financial and, if necessary, military support. Trump will realize this, and even his madness will be given pause. There will also be many within MAGA who will say, "Screw the blue states! Let 'em go!" And that too, is an unintentional final guardrail.

In which case, the Civil War 2.0 will be over without firing a shot.

There is even an outside chance that Texas decides to secede, on the general principle of wanting to determine its own future in the midst of all this chaos.

I really hope none of this happens. But in the event of a Trump victory, I think it's very probable. And in such a scenario, the unwillingness of the American people to capitulate to a dictator is the final guardrail, the ONE thing that could keep our democracy intact. What's left of it, that is.

And bear in mind, if Trump dies in office (and if he wins, he will never leave, meaning he must inevitably die in office) that means someone worse, like J.D. Vance, will take over.

Don't fear the one who thinks he's Moses. Fear the one who thinks he's Joshua. Because Joshua did all the conquering.

I really hope none of this happens. Honestly, it sounds like one of my crazy science fiction plots. But if it does, don't say I didn't warn you.

Eric

**

IF Kamala Loses...

I predict Kamala Harris will win this Tuesday. It may be close, but if the secret wives' vote comes through, she will. Or if the secret Republican vote comes through, she will. Or if the insulted Latino vote comes through, she will. Or if the late-breaking undecideds come through for her (and numbers show they are at roughly 2-to-1 in her favor), she will. I dare say all four of these will factor in to a Harris victory. She may even sweep all the swing states. (I would be pleasantly surprised at that, but it's entirely possible.)

But as I've repeatedly said on this blog, IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS CLOSE! In a sane world, this should be a slam-dunk. There shouldn't be any competition between a competent woman, and a 1) convicted criminal, 2) sexual assaulter, 3) demonstrable racist, 4) repeated business failure, and 5) proven charlatan who is 6) clearly starting to lose his mind.

So IF Kamala Harris loses (and that's a big IF), it will be for a whole host of reasons. But it will NOT be for the reasons a lot of news pundits will undoubtedly claim.

It will NOT be because she went with Tim Walz instead of Josh Shapiro as her vice presidential nominee.

It will NOT be because she didn't sufficiently distance herself from Biden when Oprah gave her the softball-question-opportunity to do so.

It will NOT be because she is eloquent within the talking points but less so when handed a question she's unprepared for.

It will NOT be due to her record as Attorney General for California, or the false claim that she was named some sort of "Border Czar."

No. HELL, no! Here are the REAL reasons:

It will be because the Right-Wing Media Machine started to go off the rails under George W. Bush after 9/11, and raged unchecked for decades, until it spiraled so wildly out of control that when it came time to report regarding a race between the worst, most racist, most criminal charlatan that we've ever seen in politics, and (again) a highly competent woman, the machine actually went full-throated in favor of the CRIMINAL!

It will be because nobody heeded MY warnings about this Right-Wing Media Machine/Cult. People failed to heed me when I warned them about it in November of 2010.

And again in February of 2011.

And again in April of 2015.

And again in November of 2016.

And again in October of 2020.

And again in November of 2020.

And again in January of 2022.

(And those are just a small sample of the many warnings I gave.)

No, they would rather have listened to the disgraced likes of Tucker Carlson and Art Jones. (?!?!)

It will be because Barack Obama wasted eight years' worth of opportunity to stop this Right-Wing Media Machine. Oh, yes! I'll call Obama out on this one! He could have restored the Fairness Doctrine and prevented all this crap. In fact, he did the exact opposite! On August 22, 2011, in response to Obama's own executive order directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books" to eliminate unnecessary regulations, the FCC voted to remove the rule that implemented the fairness doctrine, along with more than 80 other rules and regulations, from the Federal Register. Hell, Obama could have simply left the remaining shards of the Fairness Doctrine alone and blunted what was to come! He didn't. Maybe he was trying to throw the right-wing media off of him with that move. If so, not only didn't it work, it ruined us all, too. Yes, hindsight is always 20/20, but I said then, and still say now, that our beloved Barry committed a colossal fuck-up with that one!

It will be because Joe Biden wasted four more years failing to deal with our nation's #1 problem of disinformation, which by this point was beyond obvious. Why did he do nothing? Why does a crooked moron like Lewis DeJoy still have a job as Postmaster General during a time in which mail-in voting is so very crucial? Why did we fuck around?

It will be because four years of Trump seemed to give legitimacy to all the right-wing craziness being bandied about on social media, to say nothing of biased appointment to various offices (some of which still stand!) and hideously biased press briefings by the likes of Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

And we again did nothing afterward.

It will be because social media outlets such as Twitter/X were allowed to be bought out and turned into the equivalent of 4chan or 8kun.

It will be because Russian disinformation campaigns have been allowed to run rampant through American media.

It will be because our news outlets have been bought out by billionaire oligarchs who interfere with the journalistic process to make sure that their biases are endorsed over the truth, as outlets such as the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have their endorsements of Kamala Harris blocked by their interfering owners.

It will be because hedge funds have systematically bought up our nation's newspapers and dismantled them, firing most staff and leaving behind bare-bones operations that barely even cover sports.

It will be because most A.M. news stations and even many local television news programs have been bought out by oligarchic interests.

It will be because too many voters on the political left couldn't bring themselves to hold their nose and vote for Hillary in 2016. In an overreaction to Bernie Sanders not being named the candidate, they preferred to cast a protest vote for Jill Stein instead. (And then actually dared to protest Trump's election afterward!) Thus allowing nearly all of the above items to take place. (That one's on us, folks!)

It will be because of the horrifying Citizens' United SCOTUS ruling in 2010, which wrongly equated money with free speech.

It will be because Bill Clinton allowed oligarchs to take over the news media with his horrible Telecommunications Act of 1996.

It will be because the Supreme Court threw the 2000 election to George W. Bush on a 5 to 4 vote, thus making literally all the above possible.

It will be because Ronald Reagan first dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, creating a watershed effect which we are still reeling from today.

It will be because of all this and more. WE let this happen! WE dropped the ball over, and over, and over again. We let this monster grow and grow until it became an absolute dragon. The death-spiral of our nation's democracy has come down to this: We failed to address the one, biggest threat which has been boiling up for decades upon decades. We failed to require that our news be objective. We failed to address the lies.

And if we win on Tuesday and waste another four years not addressing this #1 concern, then I'll have no choice but to quit the Democratic Party entirely and do something utterly drastic. I'm not sure what, but fuck this shit!

Still, I can afford to be cautiously optimistic. For now.

Eric

**

Jon Stewart Is Just Plain Wrong

I love Jon Stewart.

Over the years on The Daily Show and other projects, his wit and humor have sustained me through some dark times -- when certain people's stubborn adherence to the Right-Wing Media Machine has come close to driving me into deep depression. I'm so very grateful to him, and remain a devoted fan.

But on Monday night, he really stepped in it.

Stewart has returned to The Daily Show as an occasional, usually-once-per-week host. And having him return to his old venue, in this trying time where we are actually on the brink of throwing democracy away permanently, is a breath of fresh air to a drowning man. Still, brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong, and Stewart demonstrated that spectacularly.

How? By actually defending Tony Hinchcliffe!

In his opening monologue, he said of Hinchcliffe's MSG performance, "Now obviously in retrospect, having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before election day and roasting a key voting demographic, probably not the best decision by the campaign politically. But to be fair, the guy’s really just doing what he does."

Yeah. What he does is throw an entire race under the bus.

Understatement much, Jon?

Stewart then proceeded to play some clips of Hinchcliffe roasting other people, like Tom Brady. And those jokes, unsurprisingly, are every bit as tasteless and over-the-line as the ones he gave in New York on Sunday.

"There’s something wrong with me," Stewart admitted. "I find that guy very funny. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you."

Well, I know what to tell you, Mr. Stewart. Stop making excuses for the moron that just handed us the salvation of democracy on a silver platter! What, are you trying to get us all killed?! You idiot!

Now, after I've calmed down a bit and my blood pressure's returned to normal, I do get it, somewhat. Comedians like to defend other comedians, even and especially if they just self-destructed on stage. It's a kind of brotherhood among all those who have bombed at least a few times in their career.

And maybe, just maybe, in certain situations, Hinchcliffe's routine might actually have been objectively funny. Like at a White House Correspondents' Dinner, or maybe an awards show. Or at a "Roast of Puerto Rican Culture" event (as if any such thing could ever exist).

But to ruthlessly roast the next-largest voting block after white people, en masse, during what was ostensibly a campaign rally, in a critically close election? Come on!

There's no excuse for that, no matter what Jon Stewart says. And I think deep down he knows that, which is why he admitted, "There's something wrong with me."

And Stewart rightly points out that Trump's comments at the MSG rally were far worse. But that has never moved people before. Why should it now? You see, Hinchcliffe is NOT Trump, and that's what makes this scandal stick to him. It's not that Trump laughed at the jokes and refused to apologize for them afterward, but that everyone there laughed too (except, I'm sure, the stunned Latino voters) and refused to apologize. Even Hinchcliffe himself doubled down.

It was a huge, undeniably racist shit-show that should give all Latino voters pause. Then shock, anger, realization, fear, and finally, a whole bevy of changed votes against Trump.

Stewart wasn't wrong about one thing: there is something wrong with him. If his first instinct is to find excuses for this, the epitome of the inexcusable political gaff, then maybe he's lost touch and needs to retire from the Daily Show again.

Sorry, Jon. I love ya, but ya done fucked up.

Eric

**

The Defining Pitfall

There are moments in close elections where historians point and say, "Yep, that's where [insert name here] lost the election. That moment. Right there.

Such a moment took place last Sunday at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden. The racism exhibited there was rampant, flagrant, and undeniable.

In a way, it reminds me of that defining moment on October 16, 2012, when a video was leaked onto social media showing Mitt Romney insulting lower income Americans (what he called "the lower 47% who pay no taxes") and nakedly placating to the ultra-rich who were attending that particular fundraising dinner. It was a close election, but that particular October surprise did him in, and there was no recovering from it.

Now, we have the Madison Square Garden debacle. Let's run down the list of the impossible-to-excuse occurrences there:

"Comedian" Tony Hinchcliffe torpedoed Trump's campaign with a bevvy of racist "jokes." He started by saying that he currently lives in Texas, a state with a "wide open border." Then he said, "Where are my Latinos here tonight?" (Some cheers from the audience responded to him.) "You guys see what I mean?" he answered. "It's wide open. There's so many of them."

Ouch! Talk about tone deaf!

He didn't even try to walk it back. He went on to say, "Believe it or not, people, I welcome migrants to the United States of America. I welcome them with open arms. And by open arms I mean..." Here, he waves his arms in a gesture that indicates, 'No, no, go back.'

And that wasn't even the worst of it. He then said, "And these Latinos, they love makin' babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There's no pulling out. They come inside. Just like they did to our country."

He tried laughing it off by saying, "Republicans are the party with a great sense of humor."

No, Tony, it obviously really isn't. You're the prime example of that.

It descended from there. "I don't know if you guys know this, but there's an island of garbage out in the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico?"

Wow! Jesus H. Christ!

I'm not sure if any Latino voters walked out just then, but I certainly would have!

Now, some might say, "Oh, those comments don't reflect the attitudes of the Trump campaign. That was just a comedian being a comedian."

Oh yeah? Then why has the story been confirmed that his jokes were vetted beforehand? And that the only joke removed was one where he called Kamala a "cunt?" 

Seriously! That was in there! And at least they cut that one, but the fact that they left the others in is an indication of just how racist the Trump campaign truly is at heart!

And Trump might win Hispanic voters back over if he apologizes. But he won't. Because, as we all know, he doesn't apologize for jack shit, no matter how egregious.

That isn't all. At this rally Dr. Phil (Bwahahahaaaa! Dr. Fucking Phil???!!!) said, “We didn’t choose the name [Diversity Equity Inclusion] for that by random… this country was built on hard work, added value and talent. Not on equal outcome, not on DEI, this country was built on hard work.”

Oh, brother.

And there were other lowlights:

Stephen Miller, in a breathtakingly racist moment, actually dared to say, "America is for Americans and Americans only!"

Hello? 1930's Nazi Germany called. They want their slogan back.

Tucker Carlson (Bwahahahaaa! Tucker Fucking Carlson?!) actually said Kamala Harris was a, "Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor." (Wrong on all counts.) Certainly, Kamala is far smarter than anyone who would say something like that!

Some clown named David Rem actually called Kamala "the Antichrist." (A flip-universe comment if I ever heard one.)

And, of course, because there was no shit-burger these people wouldn't eat, the lie was repeated that Harris has imported criminal migrants from "prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo."

If I'm working for the Harris campaign, I'm replaying those Hinchcliffe insults to Hispanics on every Spanish-language radio station and TV channel I can buy air time on. Trump stuck to them, and now they're going to stick to him. I'm playing it over and over again on a loop!

The Right-Wing Media Machine is going to have one hell of a time overcoming this one. Even with Elon Musk teaming up with Vladimir Putin. (Oh, yeah, that happened too! Elon is now a national security threat!)

This rally has taken the Latino vote, lit it on fire, danced triumphantly around it, and then urinated on the ashes. How can any self-respecting Latino voter approve of this?

Now, I'm not going to say it's over. I've seen this cult of personality bounce back from one scandal after another. But once again, I'm going to insist that it should be. In a sane world, it is.

Let's find out how sane we are, and specifically how sane Latino voters are, on November 5th.

Eric

**

Disguising Propaganda As News IS Election Interference!

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