The Two Political Parties are the Same - NOT!

I'll post an update addressing the most recent Trump outrages soon, but let me go Big Picture today and address one of my pet peeves...
If you still think there is no difference between the Parties, consider this distinction: The Rich own the Republican Party, they only rent individual Democrats, as needed, to pad Republican numbers. Let's throw out Republicans at every level--Federal, State, and Local, first. After that, we can start taxing the Rich until they scream, with reinstated high marginal taxes and steep progressive inheritance taxes. Let's call this "The Confiscate Obscene Income and Accumulated Wealth Tax Act" in response to the Republican absurd branding of the 'Death Tax' phrase.

My Modest Federal Tax Proposal

On all income, from any source: 33.3% - $250K to $1 million; 50% - $1 to $5 million; 66.7% $5 to $10 million, 75% over $10 million. Same rates for inheritance taxes. When the dangerous and obscene Wealth Gap is cut in half, maybe slowly reduce the rates over decades... Or, as an alternative if the Filthy Rich resist:

The Moral Equivalency Argument

Whether or not Trump's recent "both sides" comments are a deliberate or unintended attempt to create a moral equivalency between the excesses of the Left and Right [HINT: they are deliberate, in my humble opinion], and give comfort to the neo-Nazi and Alt-Right, White Power segments of his dwindling "base,"given the continued comments by Trump, his apologists, and propagandists, trying to "spin" this, I feel an article is order. With the very future of our Republic at stake, Hence…

Please read and discuss among yourselves or comment below. Oh, and “Share” if you will…

The Moral Equivalency Argument and What the Pro-Trump March in Washington DC, September 16th, 2017 Could Bring - https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1pngl0tmatnh1w/The%20Moral%20Equivalency%20Argument%20v-1.15.pdf?dl=0

The most recent national polling data: Donald Trump's approval rating lowest since taking office, Marist Poll shows

Reap the Whirlwind - The End Game is Nigh

Neo-Nazis armed to the teeth are not exercising their free speech rights. Free speech is not limitless. Sedition is a crime. Had we finished this the first time a hateful minority, clinging to an untenable Slave-based Past, sought to split the Union and stop the march of History and the Future, at the end of the Civil War in 1865, instead of letting the surviving Confederate forces disarm and go home, we would not have to re-litigate the Civil War now, in 2017. This time, 152 years later, there must be no premature peace, no disarming and sending them home. As we are now forced to face the biological, cultural, and intellectual descendants of the original Confederates, we must abandon Obama's naive belief in One United States. This cancer of hate must be surgically removed from the body politic once and for all. This time, the original General Sherman solution, using a mighty Union Army, its ranks swelled by former slaves who fled or slaughtered their masters and took up arms, will be followed to the bitter end. No peace, no solace, no quarter, until every last Trumpian hold-out dead-ender is literally dead.

"They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind", originally from the Book of Hosea in the Hebrew Bible (Hosea 8-7). You can find it in your humbly titled “Old Testament,” the heavily edited and redacted version of the Hebrew original, my Christian Brothers and Sisters. [Google Hubris if my sarcastic “humbly” went over your head.]

See Reap the Whirlwind

OMG, Trump at 200 Days

OMG, has it only been 200 days since Donald Trump seized the White House. As I—and others who get paid for such insights—have pointed out for months, it was Independent voters who first abandoned Trump. The latest polls show that now, finally, Trump’s lunatic “base” is faltering. With increasing erratic and difficult to ignore tweets, statements, and actions, Trump’s profound mental illness gets harder to ignore by the minute. And with no legislative successes to distract the voters, their selfish, short-term vested self-interests are not being served either. Even a fake or real international crisis, like North Korea’s accelerating ballistic missile and nuclear weapon development programs, is not enough to distract an aware and skeptical electorate. [See Trump at 200 days: Declining approval amid widespread mistrust]

Having attacked the entire national Intelligence Establishment, the Forth Estate [a Free Press and other legitimate mainstream media News outlets], the Creative Class, the independent Judiciary and Legislative branches of the Federal Government, the Rule of Law, and just about every other sacred institution or norm that serves as a counterweight to the exercise of illegitimate Presidential power, the only “trick” this one trick pony has left to fall back on is the echo chamber of his adoring lunatic supporters, enablers, and apologists. This shrinking support network does not provide a plurality that renders the Nation governable.

As people on the Left, in the Center, and even on the Right of the political spectrum agree that Trump represents a real danger to our very way of life, coordinated actions to correct this abomination and protect the Republic grow. The Trump Resistance, already broad, grows daily. And now, deliberate countermeasures and plans are taking shape. [See Naomi Klein: The Worst Is Yet to Come with Trump, So We Must Be Ready for Shock Politics.]

Our Republic has faced dangers before, foreign and domestic. The threat posed by Trump is unprecedented, but the remedies are at hand. The Nation is already ungovernable and none of either Trump’s or the Party’s agenda can pass the House and Senate. Republicans enjoy a 2-vote majority in the Senate and 24-vote majority in the House. Once Trump’s support deteriorates to the point where House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Senator or two, and even just 30 Republican Congress members are facing likely defeat, not to mention a possible blood bath, in the 2018 Mid-term elections, they will cooperate with Democrats and the pace of the various Congressional committees investigating Trump will quicken.

Even if they can Impeach, Convict, and remove Trump [and probably Pence too, as his head has been so far up Trump’s ass] from Office in disgrace before the 2018 mid-terms, it will be too late for the Republican Party. It has been too late for at least 100 days. The best they can hope for is that a President Ryan can: (1) form and lead a coalition bi-partisan government with Democrats, if he assumes office; (2) put some bi-partisan wins on the Legislative board; and (3) redeem the Party before losing the 2020 Presidential election.

The Republican Party needs to purge its lunatic Freedom Caucus and Fundamentalist Christian wings, which have poisoned the Republican Primary process and make it impossible for the Party to govern when they win. Once it does, the Party can return to its rational and productive roots, as the successful minority loyal opposition small-government, pro-business, low-tax Party occasionally controlling one House and/or the White House. This worked well for decades.

It is only when Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House, that they—the lackeys of the Rich and Corporations—get into trouble and expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. As the Nation has known well, at least since FDR and the Great Depression: Capitalist Greed and the selfish interests of the Rich do not further the Common Good. In fact, they don’t even serve the long-term interests of either Corporations or the Rich. Occasionally, enough voters forget this lesson to elect Republicans, against their clear self-interest and better judgement. Fortunately, Republicans—usually effective and ruthless in serving the needs of the privileged few, at the expense of the rest of us—quickly remind the majority why they should not vote for them.

When is Enough, Finally Enough?

At what point does the mainstream News Media establishment stop pretending that this is normal; a “new beginning;” another opportunity for Donald Trump to change and become Presidential; playing this as “entertainment” and/or a ratings bonanza; and being “Fair and Balanced,” as if there are really two sides to what is happening. When do they stop being a conduit for the blatant Propaganda from Trump, his enablers, and apologists? When does the Fourth Estate start doing its job: by clearly and unambiguously pointing out that Trump is profoundly mentally ill—as thousands of mental health professionals have publicly asserted for months—and a clear and present threat to our Nation and Way of Life?

When does the entire mainstream News Media establishment face and report to the American people, what the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, and a handful of other organizations are beginning to report: Donald Trump must not only be opposed and resisted, he must be removed from Office? It must be swift and brutal—via Impeachment and Conviction in Congress [for high crimes and misdemeanors too numerous to list] or Article 25 [for being emotionally unfit to serve]—as an object lesson for any would be future demagogue.

The people who had the power to expose and stop Adolf Hitler, in Germany in the 1930s, did nothing. A decade and bloody World War later, with much of Europe in ruins and Germany devastated, the madness ended with a bullet to the back of Hitler’s head, likely delivered by some trusted aide.

We are a Republic, with three co-equal branches of the Federal Government and an independent Free Press. We have never faced a threat like Trump before. A truly insane President is unprecedented. But the Founders of our Nation knew Tyrants well in their time, and put in place mechanisms to protect our Republic from a tyrant. We have the tools; we have a dangerous demagogue and would be tyrant, a mental cripple, occupying the White House. All that is needed is for We the People to recognize the threat and demand our representatives eliminate it.