Our conflict is larger than political battles can encompass.
How do we understand what has happened?
What will happen next?
And what needs to happen next?
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Sep 25, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
As if we need more proof & discourse re the absolute incompetence of Trump... But we do. We are desperate for it. The violent, vindictive, angry man is a threat.
So here: a serious, in-depth report re details generally only superficially known/understood.
The really amazing thing is how many citizens have been infected with this blood lust level of seething violence, ready to break out on command.
It has been seen once. The fires seem to be stoked & hotter.
One of the core principles making America unique & is foundational to Every Single Thing good about America is the separation of the Religious from the Civil.
When this distinction is breached there is no more America, but Giliad.
Religion has to thrive on its own... and be utterly independent of the power that is invested in the Civil Governmental structure.
When Religion longs for that power, & then couples with it to form a unified power base there is no more anything that resembles America.
May 4, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
There is an Achilles heel in the axioms of democracy enabling its attackers to use the system to destroy the system.
Exampled w Tr: The difficulty of the Justice system to respond to that level of criminality, the system does not know how to deal with that quality of malevolence.
This is the essence of the argument of the book "How Democracies Perish" written in the '80s.
It is happening in Europe and democracies across the world. The assault by those who take power & then use that power to deny any challenge to their power.
We are in embroiled in the
Sep 30, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Every system has its Achilles heel;the axioms & premises upon which the structure of the system is built. The system has remedies built in but the constitutional design could not also have addressed the condition that each of the main branches of gov would capitulate like this.
In order for the system to deal with the constitutional axioms concerning the 3 main aspects of government & the underlying power and also to add all the qualifications if breached would have made the constitution, not the bedrock structure it is, but just another book of laws.
Aug 11, 2022 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
Stepping back from the scrum, notice how the storyline coalesced. You could see how the "maddening coverage"/Trumpers were trying to find a hook of a story to drill into the brain of the country.
Settled on "planted evidence". Now that has become the "fact" pounded into the [->]
public square. Watching all the lines being tested, then settling on this one, then the increase in volume by Rand Paul, and others where it is not a question but the certain insinuation.
All of a sudden what happened hardly matters. It is absolute proof that the gov is out ->
Jul 24, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
As a point this is great.
The systemic problem is these "insights" from "conservatives" are so often based on their personal experience, not principles or reasoning
When GOP members are personally affected they find the "courage" to voted against the bellicose dogma of the party.
Problem with this is we cannot depend upon there being enough GOP members with personal experience, and the ability to even care enough to overcome their "Scarlet Letter" certainty & severity, if they do.
Jul 19, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
@AnnSchurman I think I understand your point. I certainly have the same level of frustration at the apparent paralysis.
The 'knot' is that the assault is not within the boundaries of the system, but is an attack on the system itself. Like a cancer, it has infiltrated the body, making it hard
@AnnSchurman 2/ to distinguish, for the purpose of eradication, the good "tissues" from the infected & deadly ones. You can see them. You know they are there. You cannot easily just blast the area with radiation...
Evil depends upon this. It is the definition of evil, IMO.
Having made the point that if you will not look at what is in front of you, if you deny reality, you are left with nonsense.
These solutions do not reflect the current knowledge or contexts, thus: Stupid.
#StupidSolutions are not like these failures in the early attempts at making an airplane.
In those times they were learning:
Try something, based on some idea or hypothesis
see what happens - experiment
Fail - learn
Try again
That is science. -->
Jun 1, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
@Truetoourpast@CupcakeGlitter6@Dangchick1 It is also deep human nature to tend to group w/ ones of your "tribe".
Look at how any city organizes itself. NY is prime example.
The unique thing re America is it is established in the first place on principles or ideas, not heritage/tribe.
Of course it doesn't work out in
@Truetoourpast@CupcakeGlitter6@Dangchick1 2/ practice perfectly. (a euphemism for not very well at all...)
But we have this going for us:
a/ we are trying to figure this out, something most countries do not attempt
b/ this is the deeper meaning of the fundamental precept of why we appeal to "the rule of law"
So ...
May 30, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
@Dangchick1 To ask a complex, even fundamental question, is to open an array of answers, all of which are needed for as fundamental a reply.
Here is one line:
A fish does not know it is wet.
To be caucasian in a caucasian culture is to fit & not be troubled by being "different".
To be ->
@Dangchick1 2/ caucasian in a different culture - say Japan - is to be different and be always aware of the difference.
How the difference is navigated & experienced is part of a deeper/different inquiry. And may be the one you are trying to get to?
To extend the point (IMO): When the "fish"
May 15, 2022 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Lots of stories, comments and essays about Fox & Tucker and how is this possible et al. And all of it on point & necessary to ponder.
Meanwhile, we have to ask other questions. Like what does it tell about America that after all this time, this is still one of the major issues?
It is not sufficient to notice that a thing, like this is happening, but to understand it.
It is a start to notice the condition, but insufficient if we fail to understand that what is happening is long banked coals reigniting.
There is an easy fix to the problem. Thread
Stop lying.
Recognize the authoritarian power grab that installed 3 judges (6 if you go back further)who are out of sync w the country, the times & the law, choosing to impose their Catholic sotted "morals" [joke implied] on the country
The point has been made elsewhere that of the judges now called conservatives [but are far removed from any judicial foundation that could reasonably be called conservative] five are appointed by presidents who did not win their election, but installed by E.College.
May 12, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
@BrianJOMalley My bottom line POV:
The Pubs, esp as currently constituted, incl now the 5 Catholic/regressive/installed SC judges, are not premised on such things as the principles of Constitution but a legalistic reading used as a tool.
The vision for what is America & what is democracy are
@BrianJOMalley 2/ not premised on such things as the Preamble to the Constitution, which sets out its purpose and vision for the structure that follows, but upon their own reified desire for power...
You'll recall Delay years ago, Bannon today (just a few ex) have stated their purpose/vision is
May 11, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Noticing a few of the "free speech" pronouncements from @elonmusk. I have made the point that Elon is amazing where he is amazing, & is to be honored for it.
But that does not mean he is a master of those domains, like social philosophy, where he is little more than a "user".
It is easy to toss around ideas like "Free Speech". And the ideas themselves are not necessarily wrong.
But when ones ideas are potentially actionable, as in "fixing" twitter, then they require more depth, more consistency, more clarity as to the embedded premises .
The #systemic
Skimming comments I get the sense he is taking on the Socratic role of asking questions but not really stating his position.
Not necessarily suitable to engagement, esp on Twitter.
What I find interesting is how
@laura__3_14@BlakeWriting 2/ his respondents reveal their assumptions/axioms by responding as if the context of the question had been established.
The obvious assumptions made:
Ref JudeoXn context, Atheist is the opposite of Xn. Provoking the axiomatic belief:if no god people would become depraved... etc.
May 6, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The noose tightens
as we slouch towards Gilead.
20yrs.
I remember reading about the Gulag & the 58's and 25yr prison terms & thinking how perverted & corrupt a society was that would impose such penalties.
Now finding the USA is replete with 20+ yr penalties.
This is indicative not of justice, or of a healthy society, but the free-fall descent into a pernicious authoritarian society.
It is the blanket simplicity of the mindset, the boorish refusal to entertain nuance or complexity reducing it to a childish binary proposition.
May 6, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
@elonmusk Continues to opine in odd absolutes that are crazy.
I like Musk, but for where he’s an expert.
These amateurish forays into matters outside his expertise is like watching a first grader draw the house.
This is so obviously wrong it’s curious why he said it.
What it means to be “technically excellent” at the level of management, design, project management, versus excellent coding is immense.
It would be like requiring the designer & project manager of Hoover dam being an excellent shovel operator.
Apr 9, 2022 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
It is not just wrong
& it is not just the epitome of historical ignorance,
& a comprehensive misunderstanding of the relationship of religious and civil society,
This is the declaration of a much deeper intention of instantiating an "American Fundamentalism".
Think "Gilead".
This is the low information ranting of fundamentalists who lay out the emotional, fact & history free, case for what is essentially an American Taliban.
There is no "compromise" or a sense of comity between differences. When you have "the truth" it is a violation to "compromise".
Feb 13, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
@JoyceWhiteVance@RaviaRaven It sure seems like there is something else driving this investigation. Having lived through the debacle of the Mueller report, how is it any different? & how should our expectations be set?
Noting that report w all its detail has been sidelined.
Is it not apparent that to let
@JoyceWhiteVance@RaviaRaven 2/ this level of open, egregious, direct assault on the foundational pillars of our constitutional system without a challenge and strong legal response is to loosen the bolts on these pillars?
Bannon, for ex, is left free to continue propagating his anarchy wo consequence for his
Feb 2, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
If/when America crumbles into a new authoritarian system it will be in part due to the corrosion of "politically correct" thoughts & speech that cannot bear nuance or the working out of essential ideas wo being truncated by nonsense & a rigidity that would make a Puritan proud.
What she said is not wrong...it may not be right, in some absolute sense...But the point re humanity's inhumanity is spot on.
There was no minimizing the holocaust here. From what is reported, she made a statement that is true, but not exclusively so as if a contradiction to the
Dec 12, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
@tommy_pane You are presenting yourself as exceedingly ignorant. Or simple. Sorry.
You simply are not paying attn if you think this is true.
Regardless if you think it is right or wrong, Trump is an insurrectionist & is being proved trying hard to overturn democratic norms.
Those who
@tommy_pane don't go along, in particular in the Republican party, are being systemically exiled from the Party.
You want to call any & all who won't do Tr bidding RINO? Not so long ago these were the bedrock rightwing members, now being excommunicated!
You make my point.
