Warning! Wall of Text!
This post crossed my screen a couple of weeks ago, and after a bit of research I discovered it’s being shared across multiple channels on Facebook and elsewhere. It’s so outrageous in its content that I couldn’t sleep much last night, so I was compelled in the name of decency to offer a fact-based rebuttal. I won’t name and shame the author, because that’s not my privilege, but it’s out there if you want to search for it. Original text in italics, my responses follow.
𝐼’𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑆𝑜 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐼’𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠.
“Whining” about the Trump administration is, more properly stated, resisting autocracy, oligarchy, and a rising tide of fascism that needs to be fought at every turn. Consider these points:
- 𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 (𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑗𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓) 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑. 𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒.
Donald Trump has absolutely no mandate, given that 75,019,230 Americans voted for reason, sanity, and compassion instead of madness and oligarchy. Trump’s 77,303,568 votes constitute a razor-thin margin of 1.48%, or 2,284,338 people – less than the population of Houston, Texas.¹
In our nation, Republican-leaning states take more in federal dollars than they contribute, where Democratic-leaning states provide more tax revenue to the nation than they get back, so please don’t tell us that Republicans are “pulling the economic weight in this country.”²
- 𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦, 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎 𝑗𝑜𝑏. 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡.
More than 1/3 of Americans have a second job or side-hustle just to survive.³ In 2020, 4.1% of our nation was classified as “working poor,” people who have jobs but still fall below the poverty line.⁴ The old GOP line about “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel philosophy that leads to things like opposing the cancellation of student debt. “I had to pay off mine, why should other [implied: undeserving] people sponge off my taxes?” In Romanian, they say “să moară și capra vecinului” (may the neighbor’s goat die too), expressing a desire for others to suffer if you cannot thrive yourself, a feeling that is inherently worse than Schadenfreude.⁵ “Wage theft is a costly and pervasive problem that affects millions of workers across the country. For example, Cooper and Kroeger (2017) investigated just one type of wage theft (minimum wage violations) and found that in the 10 most populous states in the country, 17% of eligible low-wage workers reported being paid less than the minimum wage, amounting to 2.4 million workers losing $8 billion annually. Extrapolating from these 10 states, Cooper and Kroeger estimated that workers throughout the country lose $15 billion annually from minimum wage violations alone.”⁶ “According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft costs U.S. workers as much as $50 billion per year — a number far higher than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined.”⁷
- 𝑈𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑈.𝑆. 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑛, 𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑈.𝑆. 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑! 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠.
The fact that you don’t care what “liberal media channels” say doesn’t change reality. American citizens are being caught up in Donald Trump’s sweep for undocumented immigrants. It’s happening, it will continue to happen as long as ICE is given carte blanche by the current administration and MAGA-dominated Congress.⁸
- 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑝. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒.
International trade is not a zero-sum game. You don’t have to have a winner and a loser – the best deals are made when everyone wins. Sadly, Donald Trump – and hence MAGA – believe something entirely different: “You hear lots of people say that a great deal is when both sides win,” he writes in Think Big and Kick Ass, co-authored with Bill Zanker of the Learning Annex. “That is a bunch of crap. In a great deal you win — not the other side. You crush the opponent and come away with something better for yourself.” To “crush the other side and take the benefits,” he declares, is “better than sex — and I love sex.”⁹ In other words, it’s not enough for Donald Trump to win – 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒. Treat business collaborations or international relations in this cruel and narcissistic manner and you will only generate one thing – massive resentment and a decreased desire to do any business in the future. That’s not winning – it’s self-sabotage in the long run.
- 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝑅𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝐴𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑓 1964 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑔𝑒, 𝑠𝑒𝑥, 𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒, 𝑒𝑡𝑐. 𝐷𝐸𝐼 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠. 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒.
If you think the Civil Rights Act has eliminated racism in America, you are living on your veranda, sipping mint juleps while the “darkies” work happily in the fields. The Brookings Institute, writing about systemic racism in America, said “The reality of this history has been on stark display in recent weeks. From the terrible killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, to the countless, untold acts of racism that take place every day across America, these are the issues that are defining the moment—just as our response will define who we are and will be in the 21st century and beyond. Truly, the very nature of our “national soul” is at stake, and we all have a deep responsibility to be a part of the solution.”¹⁰
“At this point, it’s evident that DEI has become interchangeable with a less socially acceptable racial slur” – specifically, the “N-word.”¹¹ And sadly, discrimination across the board which remains endemic in our society and which Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, and DEI attempt to combat includes not just people of color but women and all sorts of minorities as well.
- 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡’𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦, 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑛 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡.
This is 100% true – and it’s why Trump and Company want to eliminate all financial oversight, such as the elimination of organizations like Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.¹²
- 𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘. 𝐼𝑓 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠. 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑦 ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑜𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎.
Despite the fact that Colin Turnbull’s analysis of the Ik in his book 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 has widely been discredited, Lewis Thomas in his seminal work 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑙 wrote: “For total greed, rapacity, heartlessness, and irresponsibility there is nothing to match a nation. Nations, by law, are solitary, self-centred, withdrawn into themselves…. They bawl insults from their doorsteps, defecate into whole oceans, snatch all the food, survive by detestation, take joy in the bad luck of others, celebrate the death of others, live for the death of others.”¹³
America is not an island, and as the world’s wealthiest nation we have done more than our fair share to assist the global community in many ways, which is only right and proper. The Brookings institute soundly refutes many myths about foreign aid, including “America spends too much on foreign aid,”(foreign assistance is less than 1 percent of the federal budget), “Others don’t do their fair share,” (There is a broad international commitment that wealthy countries should provide annually 0.7 percent of GNP to assist poor countries. Five countries (Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the U.K.) exceed that benchmark. The average for all wealthy nations is around 0.4 percent. The U.S. ranks near the bottom at below 0.2 percent), and “U.S. foreign aid is mainly backed by Democrats” (Foreign aid historically has been viewed more as a Democratic than Republican program. The Marshall Plan was initiated by the Truman administration, and in the 1990s, when votes in the Congress on foreign aid spending were close, the appropriations bill garnered more Democratic than Republican votes. But every president, Democratic and Republican, until the current occupant of the White House, has been a strong proponent of foreign assistance. In fact, some of the most rapid increases in foreign aid have come during Republican presidencies)¹⁴
The shuttering of USAID will literally kill people, and it’s unbelievably cruel and xenophobic. “The Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide charity arm sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid on Monday, saying his plans to end funding for relief agency USAID will have a “catastrophic” impact in the developing world. ‘The ruthless and chaotic way this callous decision is being implemented threatens the lives and dignity of millions,” Caritas Internationalis, a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social services organisations working in more than 200 countries, said in a statement.'”¹⁵
- 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦, 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙. 𝑊𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑦? 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡. 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒? 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑖𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑢𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠? 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎. 𝑊𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛? 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑖𝑙, 𝑔𝑎𝑠, 𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑢𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟. 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑟!
First of all, your data is incorrect. The world’s leader in lithium production is Australia, followed by Chile. China is only third.¹⁶ Your quote about unicorn farts and liberal tears sounds like something you’d hear on Breitbart or OAN or Fox News, and is petty and childish. Europe is the world’s leader in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, and is on track to reach a target of a 42.5% share of renewables by 2030.¹⁷ It can be done if the social and political will is there, but in the USA the fossil-fuel lobby is immensely wealthy and powerful, and our legislators receive massive amounts of money to ensure that renewable energy is consistently sidelined in favor of more drilling and coal digging.¹⁸
For what it’s worth, it’s worth mentioning in the service of full disclosure:
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
THIS POST MOVED STICKY BLACK FILTH FROM THE BOWELS
OF THE EARTH, AND SET IT ON FIRE IN YOUR AIR
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
On the other hand, 15% of my energy consumption comes from a solar farm in Maine, and similarly did for many years in Utah thanks to their Blue Sky program. It can be done, and people who care about our environment will continue to fight the fossil fuel industries’ dominance.
One point on which we agree: Nuclear power has been given a bad rap, and we need more of it – along with increased research and development on how to reduce or treat nuclear ash.
- 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑡.
R. Buckminster Fuller, one of the world’s greatest forward thinkers and the inventor of the geodesic dome, had a philosophy that came to be known as the “World Game” – “Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”¹⁹ Historically, progressives have aligned themselves with this concept in various ways, while regressives – those in favor of preserving a world where only the wealthy and influential have rights – have sought to accumulate power and build walls to keep the “unworthy” out.
A big subset of MAGA today are evangelical Christians who wear their religion on their sleeves, who in the words of Paul the Apostle are “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (New Testament, 2 Timothy 3:5)
Russell Moore, long one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention, said “Well, it was the result of having multiple pastors tell me essentially the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount parenthetically in their preaching – turn the other cheek – to have someone come up after and to say, where did you get those liberal talking points? And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ, the response would not be, I apologize. The response would be, yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak. And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”²⁰
It is only the feelings of people – whether from doing their best to follow the teachings of Jesus, or from a humanistic sense of wanting the best for the greatest number of people – that will help humanity crawl out of the mud and reach for the stars, by building a world that works for everyone, with no one left out. And we will never “get over” that.
- 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛. 𝑆𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡.
Sure, if you want to base your opinions solely on the Bible or what you’re hearing over the pulpit instead of science. In reality, it’s not simple at all.
“Sex can be much more complicated than it at first seems. According to the simple scenario, the presence or absence of a Y chromosome is what counts: with it, you are male, and without it, you are female. But doctors have long known that some people straddle the boundary—their sex chromosomes say one thing, but their gonads (ovaries or testes) or sexual anatomy say another. Parents of children with these kinds of conditions—known as intersex conditions, or differences or disorders of sex development (DSDs)—often face difficult decisions about whether to bring up their child as a boy or a girl. Some researchers now say that as many as 1 person in 100 has some form of DSD. When genetics is taken into consideration, the boundary between the sexes becomes even blurrier. Scientists have identified many of the genes involved in the main forms of DSD, and have uncovered variations in these genes that have subtle effects on a person’s anatomical or physiological sex.”²¹
Even if you want to discount the science, which is a terrible thing to do²², people need to understand that LGBTQIA+ people have always existed, they will always exist, and no amount of oppression or erasure will stop them from existing. Gay rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights. There’s no question that inclusion and respect for non-binary people brings social challenges and demands difficult adjustments, but to do anything else – especially to work to strip rights from your fellow sojourners in mortality – is in direct opposition to the teachings that most MAGA adherents claim to honor: “That which is distasteful unto yourself, do not unto others – this is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary.” (Rabbi Hillel).
- 𝐸𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙, 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑. 𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔.
“The modern education system was designed to teach future factory workers to be “punctual, docile, and sober.”²³ 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 is what’s wrong, and utterly so. In 1928, Margaret Mead, an American Cultural Anthropologist, was famously reported saying, “Children should be taught how to think, and not what to think.” It turns out she was way ahead of her time and was already tapping into a theory that educational psychologists would later term ‘Metacognition’.²⁴ For societal progression to occur, children need to be taught more than reading, writing, and arithmetic – they need to learn critical thinking, social consciousness, and life skills as well, and they need music, literature, world history, and the arts.²⁵ And they definitely don’t need religious indoctrination, as specified in the Establishment Clause of our nation’s Constitution. Public funds must be used for public education, not private religious institutions. If people want their children to attend such schools, they should pay for them out of their own pockets, not via tax-supported vouchers.
- 𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑑 𝐽. 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑒 — 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒. 𝐺𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑡.
In 2020, Joseph Biden won the popular vote by a margin of 4.45%, and for 4 years MAGA screamed “Not my President!” in 2024, Trump won the popular vote by a margin of 1.48%. In 1972, Richard Nixon’s margin over George McGovern was 23.15%; 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 was a landslide, despite Nixon’s later disgrace and resignation. Trump has no mandate for anything despite what you might hear on Fox News. It’s worth mentioning that the “electorial” (sic) college has long been recognized as an outdated construct designed to preserve the power of white landowners²⁶ and deserves to be replaced by a one-person, one vote Presidential election. Yes, even if this had been the case in 2024, Donald Trump would have won the election, but the results would have been entirely different in 2000 (Bush/Gore) and 2016 (Trump/Clinton) and Trump would never have ascended to the presidency at all.²⁷
¹ https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024
² https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/07/red-states-feed-at-the-federal-trough-blue-states-supply-the-feed.html
³ https://www.newsweek.com/americans-side-hustles-survey-1930416
https://www.newsweek.com/vault/banking/savings/gen-z-money-habits-bank-of-america-survey/
⁴ https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/working-poor/2020/
⁵ https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/06/we-must-banish-bootstraps-mythology-from-american-life
⁶ https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-2021/
⁷ https://inthesetimes.com/article/wage-theft-union-labor-biden-iupat
⁸ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-citizens-profiling-accusations-native-american-rcna189203
⁹ https://www.vox.com/a/donald-trump-books
¹⁰ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/systemic-racism-and-america-today/
¹¹ https://archive.ph/5TPDb (archived from http://readcultured.com/how-white-people-quickly-turned-dei-into-a-racist-slur-1866e4e3dedd)
¹² https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-senator-vows-to-fight-back-against-trumps-plan-to-dismantle-financial-watchdog/3478108
¹³ https://www.goodnews.ie/betweenourselvesjune2005.shtml
¹⁴ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-every-american-should-know-about-u-s-foreign-aid/
¹⁵ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-foreign-aid-cuts-catastrophic-says-global-catholic-charity-arm-2025-02-10/
¹⁶ https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/lithium-electric-vehicles
¹⁷ https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/share-of-energy-consumption-from
¹⁸ https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=all&ind=E01&mem=Y&recipdetail=S
¹⁹ https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/world-game/
²⁰ https://www.npr.org/2023/08/05/1192374014/russell-moore-on-altar-call-for-evangelical-america
²¹ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/
²² https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ASIMOV_1980_Cult_of_Ignorance.pdf The salient quote here from Isaac Asimov is this: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
²³ https://qz.com/1314814/universal-education-was-first-promoted-by-industrialists-who-wanted-docile-factory-workers
²⁴ https://coachbit.com/the-parent-bit/metacognition-reflective-learning-can-help-kids-perform-better/
²⁵ https://artomicparticles.tumblr.com/post/95126208009/no-child-left-behind-cartoon-by-david-horsey
²⁶ https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/electoral-colleges-racist-origins
²⁷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_by_popular_vote_margin
Playing in the World Game 