All posts by Jim Daniel

One Know Trump

General, ,
George C. Scott as the Film-Flam Man
George C. Scott as the Mordecai Jones (The Flim-Flam Man)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been following a fair number of discussions on why the Republican Party has not done an ‘autopsy’ on why they lost in 2020. In most of these discussions the continued faithful loyalty of the GOP rank and file is almost always touch upon. What is often totally ignored is just why the rank and file of the GOP are still loyal to Donald J. Trump. There are, undoubtedly many reasons for this but I would like to just touch on one that seems to being ignored.

What I will be talking about is the known reluctance of a Con-Artist victim to actually admit to the con. This phenomenon is well know to all those in law enforcement who’s job it is to track down and lock up the Con-artist. The reasons for their behavior is legion and I will not attempt to go into it here. What is important is the attitude of the victims that keeps them from admitting, even to themselves, that they have been conned. All that is important here is the phenomenon itself.

This disinclination to admit to being conned by Donald Trump is the starting point to understanding why so many GOP Rank and File are staying loyal to him. At some level they know that if they start looking for some other leader than Trump they will be starting down the road to admitting that they were conned by Trump and they are not yet ready for that. It is just too painful. It is also to shameful. We all know the old saying “You can not Cheat an honest man.” And, fundamentally, a con is offering the mark a way of cheating. In the case we are addressing here we are looking at getting something you have not really a right to.

There is no nice way to say this, it is not just possible. Donald J. Trump has offered the GOP something for nothing. The problem is TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) and at some level we all know this. The genius of Donald J. Trump is he offered something different to all the segments of the GOP. Each and every faction was offered what they most wanted, without having to pay for it. The White Supremists were told they could, no matter what the law said, do as they wish on all non-whites. He offered some the ability to take from the public coffers all they could manage. This list is both long and well known so I shan’t go on here. I will close with the most fundamental thing Trump gave the GOP rank and file the confirmation that “You are in the right! No matter what anyone else says.” He gave them the freedom from self doubt and questioning. He gave them permission to say “it is self evident that I’m right so I don’t have to explain.”

And there is the rub, eventually it will all come out. Eventually you will have to explain yourself. You will have to admit you were conned and admit you were being dishonest. Some people will not be able to do this, ever. Some will, but it will take time. What we, who recognized Donald J. Trump for what he is, have to do now is wait. Stand our ground. Be understanding of the MAGA but not give one inch in holding them responsible for what both Donald J. Trump did and what they did even though he told them they could. Eventually the lunch is paid for. We just need to be sure that it is paid for by those who eat it and not by us.

The Myth of the Lost Cause AKA The Stolen Election- 2020

Philosophy, Politics, ,
The Stainless Banner

As those of you who know me, I am quite a lover/student of history. I read as much as I can about the American Civil War (ACW). Both the Military and Political histories, a lot. One of the newest things in ACW history studies is the critical look at what is called the “Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History”. I’ll just call it MLC for short. That is why I have the last of the Confederate States of America’s National Flag. For me, it represents the start of the creation of the MLC. Not that the idealizing the cause by the side that lost is anything new. It is not. But it is one of the first such myths in the modern age. Another such myth, one with much more dire results for the world was the “Stabbed in the Back” myth of Imperial Germanys loss in World War One. An it is this kind of dire effects of Lost Side Myths I wish to talk about here.

In the past few weeks since the election on Nov 3rd the myth of the “Stolen Election” has arisen among the MAGA supporters of Donald J Trump. Like the myth of the “Stab in the Back”, this new myth is the deliberate creation of just a few people being foisted off on unsuspecting people. It is meant only to let the leaders of MAGA keep the power they crave. It is to keep their followers from putting the responsibility of the loss where it belongs. On the leaders themselves. On the action these leaders not only let happen but actively encouraged. They are doing this out of fear of their own base and the anger this base feels.

And this fear they feel is quite justified. It is real and they know it is real. They know this because they have been stoking this anger for over twenty years. They are now faced with giving the base someone or something to blame for the backlash of the voters at Donald J. Trump in 2020. And what is good about the myth of the “Stolen Election” is no actual proof is needed other than the loss. All they need do is spin conspiracy theories and when nothing is found say “See, that is just how nefarious the ‘liberals/socialists’ really are”. I can hear you saying “But that is not ‘Logical/Reasonable.’” Your right it is neither reasonable nor logical, but it is the way think.

On Wednesday, 6 January 2021, in the Nation’s capital we saw just how far the leadership and would-be leadership of the Republican are willing to go. Not only did they attempt to challenge the electoral collage votes of two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania, they did this second ((challenge)), Pennsylvania, after an Insurrectionist Mob was sent by President Trump to take and hold the nation’s capital. After the mob broke into both the House and Senate chambers howling for blood. After the mob attempted to take both V.P. and the Speaker prisoners while calling for the hanging of the V.P. They, the Republicans still objected to the Pennsylvanian E.C. Votes. What has been for over a hundred years a boring pro forma action of the Congress was turn into a horrible moment of American history.

We must remember that Donald John Trump is just a symptom of the what is wrong in this country. Getting rid of him must just be the start. We must dig deep and identify what is wrong and we must develop ways to clean up the mess. We must take a long hard look at ‘Social Media’ and figure out just what went wrong and why. We must look at our police and discover just what is going on and what to do about. We must have a thorough house cleaning of our political system to rein in all of the uncontrolled use of false facts and then call them ‘Alt-True’. True/False is a binary state and facts can only be True, False or Un-proven. We must be ready willing and able to recognize and call out willful false states as lies. Only in this can we stop the Myth of the Stolen Election. Only this way can we save out Democracy.

The Death-throws of the Republican Party

Philosophy, Politics, ,
Dead GOP
The Dead Elephant

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there will not be a political party known as the Republicans. Not at all. What I’m saying is the political party we know as the Republican Party will be no more. It will go the way of the Federalists, the Wigs, and the Know Nothings to name just a few. What do these all have in common? They all have gone the way for good.

No to say the political ideals the stood for, an fought for have all gone away. In some cases, like the Federalists, many of their ideal the stood for have become totally institutionalized in the American political landscape. Something every American takes as a given and is proud of. In other cases like the Know Nothings, while their ideals also became a part of the American Political landscape they are not something we can take pride in. But in all cases’ the political movements these parties represented have faded away in history. And this is what is facing the Republican Party from Lincoln to Eisenhower.

From the late 1960’s the the Republican Party has been an ill advised wedding of the Economic Conservatives and the Social Conservatives. On the surface it would look like a match made in heaven. But it was not. All too often Social Conservatives were not Economic Conservative votives and Economic Conservative were not Social Conservatives. All they agreed upon was their knee jerk reaction to the label ‘Liberal’. They were told by their leaders that “liberals’ were a monolithic block. If you were ‘liberal’ on economics you had to be ‘liberal’ on social issues too. An for many years this worked. Thru the Regan/Bush administrations the Economic Conservatives could depend on the whole ‘conservative’ base to vote Republican. An this base grew.

But not only did it grow, it ossified. At the turn of the century the base became more and more under the control of the leaders of the Social Conservatives. They gave bear the to the ‘Religious Right’. People who said ’No need to think or examine critically, just ‘Believe’ us and you will be in the right. When the leaders of the Republicans saw how well this worked with the ‘Religious Right’ they took it one step further and told all their followers “Accept what we tell you. The ‘Liberals’ are lying to you. Don’t accept all that scientific mumbo-jumbo they spout, it will just confuse you”. An when they did, the base did exactly what it’s leaders wanted. It ossified into a sold base that would do what the leaders wanted, in mass. Unfortunately it had one or two faults.

The first fault to be seen was that it was unruly. It wanted to think it was choosing it’s leaders. An so the “Tea Party” movement was born. Followed quickly by the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives. The next fault happened in the Republican leadership. They became committed to “winning”. They accepted the old half-time idea that “Wining isn’t everything. It is the only Thing!” That power, and the un-restrained use of power became their only political principle. This meant that if the leaders wanted to keep their power they had to lead where ever the monolithic base decided to go.

An that leaders us to the age of Donald John Trump. A man who had spent his entire adult life selling the same people who made up the Republican Base and many of the Republican Leadership ‘Snake-Oil’. In 2015/16 he saw that the Democratic Party was going to make one of the biggest mistakes in it’s long history. Maybe as big, if not bigger, as the mistake(s) it made in 1860. They were going to nominate someone who was either personally distrusted or not like by lots of the electorate and someone who could and would motivate many of the undecided away from the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton. In 2016 there were very few people who had not heard of her and did not have an opinion of her. It was the perfect time for someone who had great name recognition but almost no-one really knew. So Donald J. Trump jumped in and won.

He not only won the nomination, he, against everything, won the election. Not that he really either want’ed the job or knew what to do with it once he had it. An along the way he convinced the Republican Base that they were no longer the Republican Base, they were the Trump Base. That only he knew, truly, what they wanted. That only he knew how to get it for them. That anyone, anywhere, who attacked him was attacking them. He started with the ‘Deplorables’ and moved on from there. An the Republican leadership quaked in their boots every time he roared and his crowds roared back.

An so here we are, 2020. They year that everything started to come apart. The election is over and it is looking more and more likely that Joe Biden has won. But while it is totally understandable that Pres. Trump can not bring himself to accept the lost, it it not so understandable why the Republican leadership is following his lead. We will have to wait and see after the Senate run-offs in Georgia to see if they will follow Donald J. Trump down the rabbit hole. Only time will tell us that.

Go an Vote

Politics,
Some Good Advice

Well it is that time once more, tomorrow, Nov 3rd, is Election Day. I hope that like me you have already voted but if you haven’t….Please go and Vote tomorrow.

While in this election I can not say I don’t care who you vote for, I do, I feel it is even more important that everyone who can, goes and vote. This is because I feel this is the most important election I’ve ever participated in. This election, more than any other, is for the good of the nation. It is for the Soul of the nation. It is about just what kind of Nation we will be in times to come.

There are a great many forces out there that are doing their best to destroy everything this Nation aspires to be. I don’t need to tell you who these forces are, we have been seeing them at work for the last four years. They want you to think your vote doesn’t mater. That even if you do vote it won’t be counted. That even if it is counted it will be ignored. They LIE.

Yes, there will be some places and people that are doing their upmost to keep people from voting. To keep votes from being counted or hundreds of other things to put a wrench in the process’ of democracy. So VOTE. An more than that watch what happens in the days and week to come. To quote an early American Patriot “Now is the time for all good men to come to the ad of their Country!”

The Un-American President

Politics, Rants, ,

The Great Dictator in Waiting

This Week Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he will only support a peaceful transition of power if he wins. This is so wrong on so many levels I’m not sure I can cover them all. First and foremost for a candidate, much less the sitting President, to say he will not support the Peaceful Transfer of Power has never in our history happened. The closest we ever have gotten to this was in 1860 and we all know what happen then. Four years of war and hundreds of thousands of American dead. We are still recovering from all the damage that irresponsible and unpatriotic action to this day.

Just think about it. In over 240 years of our history only once before did a group of people say they would not accept the results of the election and once more we are there. And just what kind of people are we talking about? We are talking about people who can only accept a total win. Give them 90% of what they want and they cry “I was robbed”. Disagree with them and they are being unjustly attacked. These are people who have never, ever, done anything wrong. Not once. And when they are caught out cheating they say the other guy was cheating first. These are the people who make up the MAGA core support for Donald J Trump. These are people who have seized control of the “Grand Old Party” and are turning into the “Trump’s Owned Party”.

So what can be done. Basically two things. First the defeat of Donald J. Trump must be so overwhelming that no cry of “I was Cheated” can be taken seriously by any sane person. Second, and equally important, every member of the House of Representatives who does not denounce Trump’s call to not accept results of the election peacefully should be voted out of office. This goes for every Senator, too. This is no longer a issue of party partisanship. This is a mater of Loyalty to the Constitution of the United States of America. Now is the time for every member of the Republican Party to be asked “Where are the Americans Here?”

Trump did not Win, Hillary Lost.

Politics, ,
What? Me Worry?

With 56 days till Election Day I thought it would be good to share some positive thoughts. That is why I have Alfred E. Newman on this post. It is also why I’m going to talk about the 2016 election and not the 2020 election in this post. I think we need to remind ourselves just where we are coming from.

First off I want to remind everyone out there that Donald Trump did not win in 2016, Hillary Clinton lost. And in looking back on that she lost should not be much of a surprise to anyone. But that is the problem. Most of the scholars and pundits of Political Science (or just plan Politics) are pretty much at a loss on why or how Donald Trump won. The problem is that they are asking the wrong question. What they need to ask is how did Hillary Clinton lose?

It is not all that hard to understand when looked at in the correct way. We need to remember that Clinton was and still is, one of the most divisive people in our body politic. Almost no one doesn’t have an opinion about her. Starting there, let’s take a look at the campaign of 2016 as if it was a long long foot race.

At the start of the race, Hillary gets off to a good start as all of the Republican contenders keep getting in each other’s way. Until, lo and behold, the one contender everyone thought of as a joke ends up the only one still in the race with all of the others falling down in the dust. And now the fun starts as the clown knows how to keep all the attention on him.

So, now almost no one sees and even few comment on all of the interference that was thrown in Hillary’s way. It’s like no one cares that people in the stands are throwing things onto the track that the leaders have to deal with, which slows her down and lets the challenger creep up. Here I’m talking about the slow drip drip from WikiLeaks and the Russians. Then the way some of the officials acted, by letting the challenger get extra boost by acting totally unfairly in the debates. Several times in all the debates Trump acted in such a way that in any other debate setting he would have been called out. But not in the Presidential Debates of 2016. I’m particularly thinking of the time(s) Trump left his podium to walk around the stage. In any other debate the moderator would have interrupted and directed him to return to his place. Think of this as disruptive as a runner cutting across lanes on the track.

Finally we have the most telling blow. The absolutely wrong action of the FBI in the final weeks of the election and the problem with “Hillary’s e-mails”. Think of this as a track official stepping out onto the track, in the runner’s lane just as the runner is going into their final kick, to warn the spectators not to step out on the track. Then the final point, calling the race for the Trump winner runner because he breaks the tape even though Hillary’s foot crossed the finish line first. When looked at it this way, it is no wonder she lost.

In fact I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict in 20 or 30 years the scholars will be all talking with amazement that Hillary Clinton came so close to winning with everything stacked against her. And that brings me to the positive point I want to leave you with. This is 2020, not 2016. We know what happened back then and we, the American Electorate, are on the lookout for all the dirty tricks that were played and who played them.

We are fortunate that WikiLeaks is no more. Even if we have Q-Anon we know it for what it is. And yes, the Russians are playing the same game as before, but again, we know what to look for. Even the attempt to paint Joe Biden with a broad brush of scandals backfired. It got Donald Trump in the history books as only the third president to be impeached and showed up the Republicans in the Senate to be the spineless lickspittles they are.

The Over Use of a Classical Logical Fallacy.

Philosophy, Politics
Orange Koolaid

Now that both the DNC and RNC are over and Labor Day is upon us we are now in the true presidential campaign season. We can now expect to see all of the classic logical fallacies, both formal and informal to be in full use. An unlike many past elections we can expect to see one party to use those logical fallacies more than the other. This is because one party, the Republican Party, has become totally addicted to them. Indeed we were not even to Labor Day and the GOP has used one of my favorite fallacies already.

I’m speaking, of course, of the fallacy known as the “False Equivalency”. This maybe the oldest of the informal logical fallacies known to man. It is certainly one we all learn to use at a very early age. It is often found keeping company with the logical impossibility of proving a negative as asking the challenger(s) to “prove that the statement is not an equivalent” is made. What needs to be done in all cases is to provide proof that the stated equivalencies does exist.

One of the reasons that the fallacy of false equivalence is so popular is that most people are never taught the difference between “equality” and ”equivalent”. This is a very hard concept to get across in programming and even harder in everyday life. Its misuse has lead to many a difficult bug to find because the code reads correctly even though it is not executed correctly. The same is true, in practice, in everyday life. It sounds right, even when it is wrong and it takes careful scrutiny of what one is saying to check it.

In the common usage equal is used to mean a kind of identity, that two things are identical twins. No one would say that twins are the same thing. But for most things saying they are ‘identical’ is ok. But in many things it is not. That is why you have to be clear as to how, when, and where you are saying two thing are identical. That they are equal. That is why we say “All men are equal before the law”; we mean they will be treated the same. And that is why false equivalency is so bad.

When you say two things are equivalent and they aren’t, you will end up in the wrong place in your reasoning. And what is worse, the people who are listening to you will will also end up in the wrong place. When they try and use the equivalencies drawn to deal with an issue they will not get the results they expect. As an example, both methanol and ethanol are alcohol but if you try to make a Hi-Ball with methanol you’ll end up blind or dead instead of just drunk.

So beware when someone says “this is the same as that” in a political speech or debate. Examine what they say carefully and be sure in your own mind that they truly are equivalent in the case given. Beware of wanting to just accept what is said because it agrees with what you think or makes you feel good. Also don’t reject someone when they say “But that is a false equivalence”. Instead of rejecting ask them to explain why they think that. They just might be right.

Covid-19 and the Republican Party

Philosophy, Politics, ,
The GOP elephant is on his deathbed.

After the first full day of the R/TNC (Republican/Trumpian National Convention) I think it is time to talk about the Elephant in the ICU room. The GOP is now on life support caused not only by the Covid-19 Pandemic but also by its pre-existing morbid condition(s), of which selecting Donald J Trump as its “Leader” is just one symptom. And just what symptoms am I talking about? Well let’s just start with the latest and work backwards.

Monday, the first day of the R/TNC, instead of having the Nomination of Trump as their candidate and the ‘roll call of the states’ to elect him, the R/TNC did it in the middle of the day. They also passed what they, the R/TNC called their “platform” which just said “What ever Donald Wants, Donald Gets” (With apologies to “Damn Yankees”) until 2024. To my knowledge this is the first time a major American political party has ever not had a platform. So what does this mean for the “Old” GOP?

Just this, what we saw last night in prime time is what the R/TNC wants every Republican candidate to run on. You get to pick your speech and run on that. You get to run on hate, or you can run on fear, or you can run on “Those Were the Good Old Days” (again with apologies to “Damn Yankees”) or you can run on any combination you wish. You will probably be able to run on anything that comes up for the next three days as long as you throw in “Trump” every now and then. The one thing you will not be able to do is run on anything that used to be core Republican principles. Those are things are of the past and not allowed in the GTP (Grand Trump Party).

There is one other thing you will not be allowed to run on, the new guiding principle of the GTP. You can’t mention that it is all about one thing . “POWER”. Who has it. Who doesn’t have it. Using it as you will, without any restraint. As once was written by George Orwell “The purpose of Power is Power”. An yes I’m talking about “1984” but what most people forget is Orwell was an anti-communist Socialist, as strange as that might seem in this day and age. What most people don’t know is that an unrestrained authoritarian state is the same whether it calls itself “Communist” or “Fascist”. An what MAGA is selling is an authoritarian state dressed up in “Free” enterprise lipstick.

And now here we are on Thursday waiting for the closing act. It is as a shame that the R/TNC doesn’t seem to have a director like Leni Riefenstahl to create a masterful production like “Triumph of the Will“. Instead we have gotten something more like a four day “infomercial”. An once again we see what the dreadful effect of abandoning their principles has had on the Republican Party. I cannot think of any single speaker who was able to sound a hopeful Theme. The GOP media masters seem to not have studied what is considered by those who study propaganda to be one of the greatest works of the art.

So just remember this the current Republican Party has only hate, fear, and loathing to campaign on, not a principle one.

A Nightmare for MAGA and Pres. Trump

Politics, Rants, , ,

Another Thought Experiment

Once more we are diving into the dark and murky waters of the coming Presidential Elections. In this one we will be looking at just what might be facing Donald J. Trump once he has lost the election and is out of office. We will not concern ourselves with just how he is removed and just concern ourselves with just what he might be facing.

Postulates:

  • V.P. Biden wins the election decisively in both the popular vote and the electoral collage
  • The GOP is decisively defeated in both the House of Representatives and the Senate (the Democrats do not loose a single seat in the Senate and gain all possible tossup seats)
  • Donald J Trump does everything he can to confuse the election, including getting contested delegations of Electors from several states.
  • All of the ‘criminal’ investigations being conducted are investigating actual activities and actions that have taken place, and have available sufficient evidence to bring charges against Donald J Trump.
  • Trump knows and understands just exactly what the previous postulate means for both him.

The above is not the results of what some may call a “Blue Tsunami” but is still a crushing victory. While the Democrats do hold control of both houses of Congress they do not hold such a large majority as to be able to do what they want without any votes from the GOP. That is, they hold less that 291 seats in the House and less than 67 seats in the Senate. But their control is such that there is very little the GOP can do to stop any investigations into both the activities of the Trump administration or the actions of the Senate while they had control.

What would be facing the former Trump administration is an set of investigations that would make the investigations into the Harding Administration look like a child’s Tea Party. Just to name a few of the possible investigations:

  1. The ICE “Detention” of minor undocumented imagrents
  2. The Actions of the A.G. Barr in regards to investigations into activities of “Friends of Trump”
  3. Was the Roger Stone Pardon given for unlawful reasons?
  4. The actions both on and off the bench of all of the Judges appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate who were rated as “Unqualified” by the ABA

To add a little hate to the game I even tho the Republican defeat was not a “Blue Tsunami” it still would be quite devastating if few non-MAGA members of the party are left. Those GOP office holders would be faced with a very hard Choice in the coming elections. An some of them know enough of their political history to recognize just what may happen. The GOP may go the way of the Federalist Party and the Wig Party. To find this off they will have to take control back from the MAGA GOP and this will not be easy. They will most likely face the same problems the Democrats faced with their Dixiecrats staged their rebellion. An that will mean a very long time in the wildernesses with out any assured victory at the end.

It will also be painful for the Republicans because they are going to have to face a “Paradigm”shift in their thinking. They will have to stop thinking that “Victory isn’t everything, It is the Only Thing” and start thinking “What are our principles?” They are going to have to accept the idea of compromise and stop believing that the only position is “My way or the Highway.” They are going to have to accept the idea (With apologies to Oliver Cromwell:

“Please in the Name of GOD consider the Possibility that you are Mistaken.”

A Would Be Dictator

General

Never in the entire history has a President ever talked in public about postponing an election, much less a “Presidential” election. Not in world wars, not in civil wars, not in great depressions and not in epidemics. Not once, not ever. Till now.

For those who do not know yet President Donald J. Trump has called for “Postponing” the National election this November. To be clear, if he hadn’t already been Impeached by the House of Representatives and given a Free pass by the Senate on strictly partisan vote this would be grounds for impeachment if he does more than just tweet about it.

Fortunately the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader of the Senate and even members of the FEC have told him not only that he can not do it on his own they will not let this happen. No, Nadda, nyet, never!

I see only one bright spot in this debacle, Donald J. Trump has shown his true dictatorial ambition. But sadly it is going to help destroy the once Great Old Party, the Republicans. It is too late for the GOP, they have drunk the poison KoolAid. After the debacle of the impeachment vote in the Senate where they wouldn’t even bother to listen to a single price of evidence or a single witness. Not after did nothing distance themselves from the MAGA madness. All that can be done now is to let the GOP burn itself down and do everything we can to keep the self-immolation of the party not take any thing else with it.

While I have voted for Republicans in the past I shall never be able to vote for anyone with that “R” after their name on a ballot. For the same room I can not vote for a “National Socialist”, or a “Communist”, or a “Dixiecrat”. The beliefs these name stand for are an anathema to anyone who believes in “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”.

VOTE! Nov 3 2020