Geez, I am tired of the idiocy. Far too many in this country equate success, usually in business, with greatness. Imo, the overwhelmingly vast majority of successful businesspeople are NOT great. Success in business, which is always due to more than just the “entrepreneur”, does not equate to having an automatic understanding of other issues. I once heard someone on a board say that Bill Gates was “well-read” as though that meant intensive study in a field. I consider myself well-read relatively speaking and I know I am no expert.

Enough with worship of “entrepreneurs (read: salesmen)” when it comes to things outside of their company.

Parke Godwin wrote in Waiting for The Galactic Bus that America is as susceptible to charlatans as a dog is to fleas.

Never underestimate two things:

The stupidity of the American people

The impact of shifting demographics

These two things, along with others like a hatred for intelligence, lead inevitably to yearning for authoritarian strongmen who claim to be the best and able to do everything. The counterbalance to swing the pendulum back is desperately needed. That as many Americans as believe the lunatic ravings of a madman like Trump should be not simply taken note of but viewed with alarm.

that guy in AZ Wrote:

Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.

On April 2, 1992, John Gotti was found guilty on all counts and on June 23 was sentenced to multiple life terms without the possibility of parole. While still imprisoned, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.

Sound familiar?

Trump has been involved in over 3500 suits in his long and unsavory career.

Sometime he wins.

Sometimes he loses.

He is the only president in the history of the United States that was impeached twice. Despite his obvious guilty, he was not convicted either time.

During his presidential campaign, the "Access Hollywood" tape was released, and many people believed his campaign was doomed.

By an amazing coincidence, a day later, information that had been stolen from the Clinton campaign was released by Wikileaks, who conveniently did not reveal the fact that Russia helped him get the information.

When the election was held, he lost BIGLY (by 3,000,000 votes) but managed to get sworn into office because he managed to eke out enough electoral college votes to get in.

In 2020, he lost even more BIGLY (by 7,000,000 votes) , but Joe Biden got EXACTLY the same number of electoral college votes that Trump did in 2016, and all of us sighed in relief - until January 6.

The Trump campaign filed 60 lawsuits challenging the results of the election, and lost 59 of them.

For some reason, Trump himself, and nearly 50% Republican voters, still think that Trump won.

Arizona has already had 2 audits of the ballots, and concluded that Joe Biden DEFINITELY won Arizona.

Karen Fann, the senate president, was still not convinced, so she hired a firm that had NO prior experience in conducting audits to conduct ANOTHER audit. In addition to examining ballots with blue lights, and looking for watermarks and bamboo in the ballots, they barred almost all observers from the coliseum where the "audit" is being conducted.

The last paragraph explains why the Department of Justice recently send a "what the fuck?" letter to Ms. Fann.

The paragraph below explains one of the concerns of the Department of Justice:

The Arizona Senate is dropping, for now, a controversial plan to go door-to-door to ask local residents about their voting history as part of its audit of Maricopa County's election.

The decision, which Senate President Karen Fann included in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, comes after federal officials raised concerns that the canvassing could violate civil rights laws aimed to prevent voter intimidation.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/05/07/arizona-audit-plan-visit-voters-homes-dropped-fann-tells-doj/4996668001/

Do remember when John Gotti's supporters stormed the building?

Trump's supporters are just as crazy.

Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered Arizona Department of Public Safety protection for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and her family after she received death threats related to the Senate contractor's ongoing audit of the November presidential election in Maricopa County.

C.J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for Ducey's office, on Friday confirmed that Ducey ordered the protection.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2021/05/07/arizona-audit-secretary-state-katie-hobbs-dps-protection-death-threats/4994172001/

Trevor Noah had a few comments about the "audit" last night:

"Now, you might think it's crazy to have election conspiracy theorists in charge of an election audit," Noah said. "But to me, this makes perfect sense. Because don't forget, this is the third audit they've done in Arizona. At this point, you aren't going through the effort of counting again unless you know the guys you're hiring are going to give you the result you want. This is just smart."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2021/05/07/arizona-election-audit-daily-show/4990159001/

Not long after Trump got elected, news broke that he had had sex with Stormy Daniels, and adult porn star, when his son Barron was less than a year old. He instructed his long-time attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to Daniels so that she would not reveal the affair. Eventually, she received $130,000, which many people thought was a clear violation of election laws.

We all have pretty much forgotten about Stormy - until yesterday.

The Federal Election Commission announced Thursday that it won't proceed with a case examining whether former President Trump violated election law with 2016 a hush-money payment made through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen.

https://news.yahoo.com/fec-drops-trump-hush-money-022301454.html

For now, he's still "Teflon Don" , but he's still facing legal challenges from Scotland (money laundering) , New York (tax evasion) and Georgia (violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act) and possibly from members of the Capital police, who were injured during the insurrection of January 6.

How long do you think his luck is going to last?

that guy in AZ Wrote:

Here's ANOTHER story about voter fraud committed by a Republican in Florida:

The Belleville News-Democrat is reporting that a former Georgia sheriff’s deputy who was arrested on multiple gun charges once bragged in text messages that he would charge minorities with felonies to keep them from voting.

Griggers problems are likely to get worse after the FBI revealed what a search of his car found:

“The prosecutors said that on Nov. 19 last year that the FBI searched Griggers’ patrol car and found a machine gun ‘with an obliterated serial number,’ a weapon he was not allowed to have in his patrol car. An unregistered short barrel shotgun was found in his home,’ the statement went on. ‘In all, between the defendant’s residence and duty vehicle, officers found 11 illegal firearms.'”

The FBI has been warning about this problem of white supremacists infiltrating police forces across the country as far back as the mid-2000s.

https://vozwire.com/fbi-georgia-police-officer-bragged-about-charging-minorities-with-bogus-felonies-to-keep-them-from-voting/

I have been thinking long and hard about what we have been seeing for the last 40+ years.

From Reagan and government is the problem to the so-called third way Dems to the so-called culture wars to the fallacy of cancel culture to the Global War on Terror to the rise of MAGA and Trump there seems to be a commonality to all of this.

There is not a clash of civilizations despite the "sky is falling" over radical Middle East religionists. There is not a culture war despite the claims of the RWNJs over Mr. Potato head and Transgender bathroom blather. These things are merely useful tools for deeper purposes.

What are the deeper purposes?

1) Extraction and upward shifting of wealth

2) white noise, bread-and-circuses, dog whistles to keep the masses entertained/content or whipped up to further the upward transfer of wealth...

3) The big one...

The delegitimization of democracy.

The rise of fascism in the 20th century was caused by, among other things, a discontentment with capitalism. It expressed itself in the late 19th century and then early 20th century with the rise of various political ideologies with Communism becoming the bogey-man when it was established in Russia. In Germany and Italy the fascists were also discontent with capitalism but the conservatives, fearful of communism made common cause with the fascists. Of course scapegoats were necessary. In Communism it was the bourgeoise followed (in Russia) by the NEPmen and the Kulaks. As we know it was the Jew in Germany but also elsewhere even where fascism did not take solid enough root.

These last few decades and especially these last few years have seen the rise of rhetoric aimed at the destruction of democratic institutions and the concept of democracy itself. Those who believe that Trump was simply about racism are fooling themselves. Those who think that Trump was about economics are fooling themselves. The proper lenses for viewing the processes that have unfolded over the last 40+ years are the following fields: psychology, sociology, anthropology, communication, economic history, and history. Collection of data, interviews, news clips, tweets, Facebook entries, various algorithms, research into echo chambers and so on offer us mounds of information that point to a pivot point rushing upon us.

Humans aggregate themselves via what I call Groupism. Family, friends, fellow believers in religion, believers in various causes, race, nationality, etc all form groups which someone can belong to and identify with in various ways at various times.

Various power wielders utilize various methods to achieve various goals. Generally, those goals mean either adherence to power or transference of power in order to impact those in-group and out-group. Since democracy has been decreed to be the sacred method of organization of large groups (nation-states) it is therefore important that the structures on which democracy is founded upon and then built up from are maintained and even given semi-divine status. Danger occurs when this status is paid lip service but not truly preserved. We have been seeing the attack upon this status for the last 40+ years. It is far too easy to slip into authoritarianism, right or left, when democracy is overtly or covertly shown to be flawed. In the case of the U.S. as well as Russia and parts of Europe what has gone on is delegitimization of democracy BY the governing groups or parts of the governing groups. In the U.S. the Republican party is no longer a viable political party. It has become a post-policy party. This is particularly dangerous because it allows free rein to, well, lunacy, for lack of a better term.

Unless the concept of democracy is supported, enhanced and allowed to be viewed as it should be viewed which is the best of a bad lot in terms of political organization and then preserved in actuality as opposed to simply in imagery then I give the country and much of the world 30-50 years, max.

My thoughts on CPAC? I try not to waste brain cells thinking about completely useless shit.

That being said, keeping an eye on fascists of any stripe is a good idea.

that guy in AZ Wrote:

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Sunday ( October 8, 2017) that any of his players who disrespect the flag during the national anthem won't play in games.

Jones is the first NFL owner to publicly make a stand about disciplining players who kneel during the anthem. Jones didn't specify what kind of other demonstration he would consider disrespectful.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/cowboys/2017/10/09/cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-any-player-who-is-disrespectful-to-the-flag-won-t-be-allowed-to-play/

The Frisco-based natural gas producer owned by Dallas billionaire Jerry Jones is cashing in on a surge in prices for the fuel as a brutal freeze grips the central U.S., leaving millions without power.

Comstock Resources Inc. has been able to sell gas from its Haynesville Shale wells in East Texas and northern Louisiana at premium prices since Thursday. As demand jumps amid the cold, gas at some regional hubs has soared past $1,000 per million British thermal units.

Gas from Comstock’s Haynesville wells was sold on the spot market for between $15 and $179 per thousand cubic feet, chief financial officer Roland Burns said Wednesday on an earnings call. That translates to between $15.55 and $186 per million British thermal units.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/17/jerry-jones-natural-gas-company-hits-jackpot-as-texas-freeze-drives-up-prices/

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones appeared to spend the 2020 NFL draft in a comfortable spot: his $250 million super-yacht.

ESPN's Don Van Natta tweeted that the feed from Jones' location was the "Bravo Eugenia," the 357-foot "super-yacht" he bought in 2019.

https://www.insider.com/jerry-jones-super-yacht-nfl-draft-2020-4

Ok.

I will start by saying I agree re: Reagan in terms of his presidency. He was damn near useless. Iirc, Dymtry Orlov said tha Reagan needed Gorbachev much more than Gorbachev needed Reagan. The USSR was bound to collapse. Reagan perhaps hastened it but at tremendous cost.

All of that being said, “it” didn’t start with Reagan. The undercurrents of wealth seeking to minimize the impact of government have been around for centuries. In the 20th century FDR had to deal with them. People like Leo Strauss, Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, utopians masquerading as patriots/“reasonable conservatives” were planting more seeds of the lies that people like Goldwater watered and tended. The rabid, psychotic segregationists were able to wield as much power as they did due to conservatives like Goldwater. While it is likely true that he would not be welcomed into today’s Republican Party with open arms and celebration he still would be welcomed in. Reagan simply tended the growing plants of the mental illness of conservatism while allowing open hatred of government to be acceptable.

From there it is history. I would include in that narrative of the destruction of government the so-called Third Way Democrats. By willingly suckling at the teats of the F.I.R.E. sector they too played a role in chipping away at the most critical support of government: confidence in institutions.

What we are seeing today throughout society both here and elsewhere is the erosion and/or deliberate destruction of confidence. The entire edifice of political economy rests on confidence, the belief in the system. Not arbitrarily that the system cannot be improved but rather the existence of a political economy based on something besides base tribalism.