RUNNING COMMENTARY ON THE UNITED STATES

- WHY VOTE?

For people, especially young people, who wonder: Why should I vote? Look at Brazil. Lula won by just over 2%. He was initially expected to lose. His winning means that the Amazon rainforest, and which is key to life's survival, will be saved, at least a lot more than would have been the case under the fascist Bolsonaro. In America your voting will mean President Biden is able to govern progressively, without being held hostage by turncoats Manchin and Sinema (or even a frozen government for the next two years - if the Republicans take the House). Voting matters. Vote.

- DENYING BETRAYAL

It appears a large percentage of Americans are not capable of making intelligent decisions in their own best interests.

I get it when you are conned that you don't want to admit it, that you were stupid and that you were betrayed. Betrayal is one of the most difficult things of all to accept, even worse than death - when it is at the end of a normal and happy lifetime. Betrayal cuts to the core. People guard against it earnestly because of this impact, so it is rare. It's most common in relationships, when you are betrayed by a romantic partner, which doesn't make it any easier but at least you know it's not only you. Humans are promiscuous - many people have betrayed their partners (and been the betrayer). But when you are conned, it is even more damaging. And when you are conned using your deepest held beliefs, it's unforgivable. Maybe that's why so many Republicans are in denial. They can't acknowledge that they have been used and abused, and not only by political leaders, but also their religious leaders, and business leaders. They are dupes; rubes; idiots. For many it is even better to die - witness the Covid vaccine refusals, than to admit this.

- EVIL IN AMERICA

The most revealing result from the upcoming election is that it will tell us how many Americans have black hearts. Prior to 2016 and even 2020 one could argue that the Republicans were merely victims of a slick conman, anti-Christian "Christian" evangelism, intergenerational patterns of racism and bigotry, and other forms of us versus them tribalism. But given what is at stake now, the future of America not only as a democracy but even as a functioning country, we have moved beyond all of these social diseases. No one one with any intelligence (admittedly many Republicans no longer have political intelligence) could possibly choose, purposefully, to create an existential national crisis. But it seems this is their goal. None of them can plead ignorance. In their hearts they know what they are about to do.

- MISUNDERSTANDING THE REPUBLICANS

A lot of Democrats and Independents make a logical mistake about Trump, the "Great Divider." The ask again and again, how can the Republicans fall for his lies? They are so easy to see through and refute. But what these people are missing is actually the core argument: Trump's core argument. Republicans - many of them - don't believe the lies. They believe the hate. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Neoconservatives began the modern movement to turn Republicans into frothing at the mouth haters. Trump then perfected it. They put a small cut in the center of the American tree. Trump drove the ax through.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hate Republicans. I mean, I do, but not because they are evil, although many are. I can't stand them because they have allowed this sociopath open access to their worst human tendencies. The have given him permission to turn them into an unthinking torch and pitchfork mob.

But I and many others still welcome them back - all of them. We are desperate for them to see reason, and to stop dragging the country down. We do not want a civil war! If they start one we will fight them, but we absolutely do not want it.

America is in many ways already a democracy only in name, because of the actions of the Supreme Court to grant corporations personhood and then to give corporations and the ultra-wealthy the freedom to have a magnified impact on elections. Our democracy, at least in advocacy, is not one person one vote. But, at the actual polls it is. That's why Republicans are trying so desperately to block Democrats and Progressive Independents from voting. There are more of us than them.

November 8th is life and death. Please, for America, vote.

- YOU HAVE TO VOTE

People who don't vote in November basically deserve dictatorship. You can't plead ignorance, or disinterest, or be lackadaisical or a procrastinator. The choice is that stark. Choose good (The Democrats) or willingly accept evil (The Trump Republican Death Cult).

What is astonishing is that many, many people will vote Republican not because they don't understand the never ending sewage of lies that it spews, but to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Party members who are their family members and friends, and who died after accepting Trump's lies about Covid. Rather than blame him for their deaths, they will reward him.

Jim Jones move aside. America has a new Greatest Cult Leader Ever.

- REPUBLICAN TRAITORS

Just a small point on American politics that everyone has missed. James Comey revealed that he was investigating Hillary Clinton just before the 2016 Presidential Election but did not disclose that he was also investigating Donald Trump, thereby handing the election to Trump. He did this because he, James Comey, is a Republican. Robert Mueller refused to indict the Trump campaign over its collusion with Russia (which also helped Trump win the election), and which would have effectively banned him from politics, because he, Robert Mueller, is a Republican. Now, Jerome Powell is tipping America into a recession by raising interest rates extremely quickly, even though the core reason why inflation is up is - again, Russia, and raising rates will have no effect on the Russian impact on prices. But driving America into a recession will help the Republicans in the upcoming Midterm elections. Jerome Powell is a Republican.

We all know that virtually every Republican congressperson and most Republican voters have turned their backs on American democracy and are traitors. They only care about power and have no problem at all with destroying the country to get it. But there was still some residual hope that trusted figures, such as Supreme Court Justices, might put politics aside. But as Comey, Mueller, Powell and the five Christian fanatics on the Court illustrate only too clearly, ALL Republicans are now traitors. To stand for and with America, you cannot be a Republican. You don't have to be a Democrat - you can be an Independent, but you can't be a Republican. Similarly, to now be a real Christian, meaning a follower of Jesus Christ, you can no longer identify with an organized church (with perhaps one or two exceptions from what is known as Mainstream, not Evangelical or Catholic, Christianity).

- THE REPUBLICAN PARTY MIDTERM PLATFORM

1. White people are superior and should rule the world. Caucasians have more rights, and value, than people with darker skin.

2. Women, even white women, are domesticated animals, useful mainly for their role in breeding, and which, as with other domesticated animals, is acceptable via forced penetration. (Rape is against the law - in some cases, but any pregnancies resulting must be completed. Otherwise, the crime for the woman should be greater than for the rapist.)

3. Children are acceptable casualties to preserve our right to own military-grade weapons.

4. Since our share of the population is declining, and we don't want to get along with other people, democracy must be replaced by a dictatorship run by white men. We will steal the vote to achieve this.

5. Our God is Money, and the best and most important individuals on earth are the billionaires (the white billionaires). They have the right to rig elections and to control social media, and through this to dominate social discourse and the nature of society. Other than them, we have no concern for anyone, and will enslave people with darker skin when we can get away with it.