his article will be a snapshot to remember the events affecting US politics despite the news cycle potentially glossing over the stories for the sake of ratings.
We are inundated by noise, and short memories.
This might feel like a barbed piece against mainstream and independent media – and it is, because it needs to be said. Clickbait, sensationalism, and trending seem to be a lot more important than substance. The industry has evolved to be that way. Sadly, it is all about the mighty algorithm, and this algorithm is people’s attention span.
Important stories get buried all the time in the national discourse, while sometimes incidental-at-best attention grabbers get national attention and go viral. This is true for independent media as well as for mainstream media. To be fair, that’s not everybody with a platform – but definitely the majority. Even some with good intentions fall into this trap.
At Half Life Crisis I’ve been writing pieces and warnings about how authoritarian propaganda tactics are becoming more prominent. That is why I am adamant about preventing this misinformation from continuing. Though I have to admit it does feel like I am constantly screaming into a void. Especially when we see a lot of misleading voices having a huge platform.
There is a lot that occurred in April 2024. The arguably most significant event is the ongoing hush-money criminal trial against former U.S. President Trump. This trial is less about his infidelity and more about the misuse of campaign funds and hiding information about his character. The substance on those would have been key attributes leading to the 2016 presidential election. Yes, accountability for these criminal proceedings took many years to reach the bench!
On a related Trump situation, the US Supreme Court conservative majority seems to agree with awarding former US President Trump unlimited power through immunity! Think about this for a moment, they actually are arguing giving the president the power of executing (as in murdering) political rivals, or anybody Trump would find inconvenient – as an official function. And that insane rationale comes behind a myriad of demonstrable criminal charges against Trump.
Also, there is a civil war inside the GOP as they disagree on policy and personalities. The so called MAGA Republicans have been losing traction over great swats of the country, but their loyal followers are still very vocal, and have been advocating for violence should Trump be defeated again. They are clinging to the “big lie” that perpetuates Trump’s inaccurate assertion that he won the 2020 election. He did not, Trump pursued more than 60 court cases across the country and won zero, because there is simply no evidence for the 2020 election being rigged.
Also, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson was saved largely by the Democrats from being kicked out by his own Republican party, an effort led by MAGA Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Keep in mind that she was mostly against the economic support for Ukraine’s defense, which by the way it is a world-wide and National Security concern she at the very least does not seem understand, and many around the world pray she is not trying to directly sabotage. By the way the GOP has a one-person majority on the House of Representatives right now, let that sink in.
Also, the impeachment investigation against incumbent US President Biden has unsurprisingly yield zero evidence against him. The chairman of that committee Republican Representative James Comer has not been able to provide an iota of proof for a Biden-related crime, and despite that they continue to spend an undisclosed amount of tax payers’ money and elected representatives and staff man-hours every single day for the last few years. Let that sink in too!
Finally, there the tensions at the geopolitical level, and the conflict is expanding exponentially – and has been already reaching American soil. Perhaps not kinetically, yet, but the propagandistic narratives and indicators are in full swing. From toxic masculinity, to rampant misinformation, to misleading distractions and dehumanizing rhetoric against several groups of people, and everything in between. That is why I am writing so much about it. We are losing sight of what is important, and that is convenient to those who want to divide us.
Meanwhile many prominent platforms seem to be more interested in chasing ratings rather than capturing what is truly important. And that is understanding that our very futures are at risk as dark chapters in authoritarian history are repeating, while their core audience is asleep at the wheel. HLC
Today in America 03MAR2024 – Half Life Crisis www.halflifecrisis.com
There is so much occurring simultaneously in the national discourse that the truth tends to be muddied up. Today I bring clarity to these many issues.
This article will be broken down into a few parts in order to segment some of the craziness. It is going to be a bumpy ride, and although it will be a long article, this is the very top of the tip of the iceberg. An open mind is advisable to read these passages, because it will shed some light on information that tends to be redacted in some news outlets and from the voices of many pundits & other influencers.
The good news is that I am truly independent, therefore I have no political motivation. I am, however, very much against misinformation, because that affects us all – regardless of which side of the political spectrum we lean towards. Enjoy the ride!
Trump is not “that” rich.
In case this is the first time you see it, Trump had to admit via his attorneys that he does not have the amount of cash he used brag to the entire world he had. For many of us, realizing that Trump was nowhere as rich as he claimed to be it is not surprising. It might however finally dissuade a lot of his loyal followers in the MAGA base to finally leave him. The reason is because many MAGA followers just tolerated his antics because they thought he was a multi billionaire.
In case you were not aware, Trump recently lost two separate civil cases and was ordered to pay several million dollars in compensation. Most of his supporters still think it is a “witch hunt” perpetrated by President Biden. Of course that isn’t the case, and these problematic cases of sexual assault and fraud he was found liable in two separate courts, occurred well before the Biden Presidency or the Trump Presidency [for that matter] even started. Here is a quick synopsis of these two cases.
Both of these cases were handled by his attorney Alina Habba, who has been touted by her peers [meaning other attorneys] as highly incompetent. Whatever the case, she is to my knowledge the only attorney who has cost her client almost half a billion dollars.
Trump’s Civil Fraud Case.
Trump was fund liable from swindling many investors through the span of several years. Trump was directed to pay $355 million in penalties plus interests. But the total figure starts at $454 million because it also includes people in Trumps orbit, to include his two elder sons. The interest for the payments Trump owes each passing day he does not pay is $87,502 – and by the way the verdict took place on February 16, 2024. So, this figure just keeps climbing more and more.
This case of course found out that he was lying about his wealth and that he overinflated his assets to get loans, and undervalued them when it was time to pay taxes. The fact is that if he is unable to have this interest rate from rapidly accruing, that on its own is enough to ascertain that he simply does not have the cash to pay, or even to appeal the case. Trump said he was going to appeal, but he needs to post the money upfront to guarantee he will pay if he loses again. Which will likely be the case.
The fact is that neither banks, nor attorneys are lining up to support Trump. Trump also asked to pay only just north of $100 million [or a fraction of what it is required] to appeal. That was denied to him as it would have been denied to anybody in a similar situation. Trump went onto making some unusual fund-raising events, which included selling some hideous $400 golden shoes and a $100 cologne that by the way sold-out, but won’t be making it to their customers hands until the Summer.
Another thing that sprouted, even if by proxy, was at least one Go-fund me campaign, and people were contributing to pay the legal fees of this billionaire. There seems also to be some course of action of utilizing GOP campaign funds for his legal troubles. But my understanding is that would be highly illegal. Which by the way, there is another case under that premise – this time for paying hush money to a porn star.
Bottomline, Trump said via his attorneys that if he pays the entire amount [even as a bond], which is close to half a billion dollars penalty, he would have to start selling some of his real state. So, let’s put that in perspective. Trump was ordered to pay that amount because he was found that he defrauded a bunch of people. You know, as in taking their money, and now he does not have the money. In other words, it was spent – not properly invested to grow. This realization might finally be what turns off some of his base who considered him a financial genius.
Trump sexual abuse case.
On May 9, 2003 Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Trump was directed to pay $5 million. But this case is a lot more nuisance than Trump simply being found liable for sexual assault, which under the New York statutes it is just different language that in fact found Trump liable of raping Carroll. Yes, they found and were able to provide proof that Trump is a rapist.
What some people might not realize about this case is that the statute of limitations has already expired, and although Carroll was unable to go against Trump back in the 90’s – remember, these were very different times. We have come a long way to being able to speak truth to power. For some of us who were alive in the 90’s I can assure you that the world has moved forward by leaps and bounds, yet there are many who want to return back to the most short-sighted blunders in those years.
However, as the story re-surfaced, Trump started bad mouthing Carroll and made some very defamatory remarks against her. The case went to court, Trump kept making some very low brow and insulting remarks in true Trump fashion style against Carroll – many of these remarks from very prominent platforms. You know, double down and triple down. So, the case ended up going to court for defamation. This of course backfired on Trump, because not only he was stuck with a $5 million award payable to Carrol, but he also got all his sexual abuse past come to light. It did not end there.
As expected, Trump was not happy at all with this, therefore he double down, and disparaged Carroll again. And this once again backfired. Remember, the case was already settled that Trump raped Carroll. Adding to the miscalculation, Trumps attorney, Alina Habba managed to make things a lot worse for Trump, turning this $5 million original award into a whopping $83.3 million award, as Carroll won her case for defamation again. It is very likely that Trump was the master mind directing Habba to say whatever is it that she said in the trial. Of course, that was not a good strategy.
One thing is clear, Trump has not paid a dime yet for either one of these millionaire awards against him. Which makes you think, if he really was a billionaire, paying off and then appealing could be a lot easier than accruing all this additional debt in interests, not to mention all the negative media attention that it puts on his supposed fortune. For now, only some of his most fervent MAGA supporters are still onboard and will pay their hard-earned money to help a billionaire pay his legal obligations. Food for thought.
Credit the link below to the Associated Press (AP) who is tracking Trump’s many criminal and civil cases. They have a huge team of journalists who can do that in real time; it is only me writing for the Half Life Crisis site at this time.
Hunter Biden handed GOP House Representatives their own butts.
In a different part of our bizarre political discourse, the GOP have been hell-bent in an unsuccessful effort to impeach President Biden. Bottomline, they have zero evidence. If the evidence to impeach Biden existed it would have been plastered all over the planet, and there would be non-stop coverage of it. That has not happened, nor will it, because what the GOP members are alluding towards simply does not exist.
In an effort to find some compromising links to Joe Biden, the GOP has been very adamant on pursuing dead-end leads related to the President’s son, Hunter Biden. For context, Hunter Biden is a recovering addict, and in the past, he had done some shenanigans, and has gotten in some trouble before. However, he has always made a conscientious effort to keep his father out of the spotlight, because he understands how important this is to his father’s public service.
For context Hunter Biden was still a young boy when Biden was elected to his first term in Congress. Fast forward, there have been a lot of allegations trying to tie Hunter Biden to his father. One of those sources was a former FBI informant who also was recently arrested because he was working with Russian intelligence in a concerted effort to interfere in US politics. And yes, that was the GOP’s star witness.
For some time, the GOP have been trying to corner Hunter Biden in many insidious ways. Even having sexually explicit images of him shown in the House Floor by Georgia Representative Majorie Taylor Greene. Yes, that happened! She showed what could be best described as revenge porn showing nude photos of Hunter Biden engaging in sexual intercourse during an official hearing.
And to add insult to injury, the GOP controlled House of representatives wanted to have Hunter Biden testify in a closed-door session – even though they had made this matter public to the entire country as the story of the century. Well, this was originally rejected, and Biden even showed up to Congress when they were deliberating about holding him in contempt of Congress – yet the GOP rejected the option of Hunger to testify in front of the whole country right there and there. You know, calling their bluff.
Fast forward to last week, and Hunter Biden did show up to a closed-door session, and handed the House GOP butts to them. The transcript is pretty long, but it is worth reading. The GOP Representatives tried to spin it as though it was a win, but for anybody with a 4th grade reading comprehension, you would be able to identify what the reality of the situation is all about. And the fact that it was political theater came full circle.
All this waste of taxpayer money and congressional man hours was nothing but a gigantic waste of time many of us realized years ago. There is no actual evidence to impeach Biden.
I recommend reading the entire transcript on the link below. It’s pretty long, but it is worth it. It might make you mad, or laugh in a tragically hilarious manner.
Reproductive rights are being threatened in the country.
You’ve probably been familiar with the overturn of Roe vs Wade by the Supreme Court that occurred in 2022. This is of course one of Trump’s supposedly proudest moments. And yes, this was possible because the three Supreme Court Justices confirmed under Trump were very much in favor of overturning Roe vs Wade – even though they denied during their confirmation hearings to be inclined to do exactly that.
Just like many of us realized that they were going after Roe vs Wade making abortions illegal and a lot more restrictive depending on each state – the situation was not likely going to end there. How do we know? Because the indicators of moving a certain “theocratical” political agenda has been plastered on the wall all along.
There is a certain group of “Christian Nationalists” – which is not the same as Christians from all stripes. In other words, not every Christian is a Christian Nationalist. Many Christians actually disavow Christian Nationalists as extremists who happen to use Christianity as a platform to push a political agenda. And Christian Nationalists are not shy about expressing that they want THEIR version of Christianity to be the rule of the land. In other words, a theocracy based on their particular interpretation. And yes, many of them are elected leaders.
For better or worse, this is actually a very unpopular stance – and in each and every one of the last several local, state, and national elections, the so called “pro-life” candidates have been defeated or severely underperformed at the ballot. Why is that? Because “Pro-Choice” does not equal “Pro-abortion.” In other words, the majority of Americans understand the difference, and how each case is unique. Further, they understand that the life and safety of the mother could be at severe risk with certain pregnancy complications.
And of course, most people are not onboard with forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to full term, if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. Especially considering that some young women get raped while they are still children themselves. For example, should a 13-year-old be forced to carry to term the child of her rapist? When Roe vs Wade was overturned, it now makes it illegal for this 13-year-old not be forced to carry a rapist child to term. Think about that for a second – what if that 13-year-old young lady was YOUR child?
The fact is that what we are observing is authoritarian rhetoric disguised as morality under theocratic rules. This situation is running rampant in America, and it has been largely normalized. Why? Because there are Christians all over the place, even though many fail to realize that their denomination is one of a few thousands in the world. Yes, there are several Christian denominations, and they don’t agree in a lot of their doctrines – hence they have their own denomination.
Although many Christian denominations agree on certain points, there is a lot more than they disagree with. Want an example? Sure, how similar are the doctrines between the Jehovah Witnesses and the Latter-Day Saints? How similar or different are the rituals between Catholics and Pentecostals? How about the guys who handle dangerous snakes during service, or those who worship in the nude?
Yes, those are all just a few examples of devoted Christians. Would you go to the nude service or the venomous snake-handling service? So, under that logic, then you might not be ok if “a particular” denomination of Christianity becomes the theocratic rule of the land. That is why there is separation of church and state I the USA. Also, why churches get a tax exemption as long as they stay off the political discourse. Although we all know that many churches are not only violating that law, but they are also very cavalier about pushing politics from the pulpit.
Some states have a higher concentration of politically charged religious following. One of these places is Alabama, where recently, In-Vitro Fertilization or IVF is under attack, because they’re considering the cells in a petri dish being already a person. Yes, this IVF has JUST become an issue – just a few days ago. And it is taking traction on other states – mostly red states. And if you think this is not expanding think again.
And by the way, there are many Christians who used IVF in order to become parents. Now, this IVF procedure is in jeopardy because some people interpret their scriptures differently, and want to force everybody to interpret them in the same manner. And yes, it is affecting also law-abiding Christians and non-Christians.
If you are a Christian – especially, if you’re a Christian, you might want to realize that there is a particular denomination which wants to take over the way YOU worship. Yes, I am serious. This is happening. If you want to call them false prophets, or swindlers or opportunists, that’s YOUR choice. And keep in mind that there is a segment of people who use religion as a way to prevent you from having ANY choice in the near turn.
For example, did you know that there is a bill being proposed in Virginia right now that is endorsed mostly by state-GOP legislators who want to make it a lot harder to get contraception over the counter? So, think about this for a moment, there are people hell bent in not only limiting your options should a person get an unwanted pregnancy, but they are also making it harder to not get pregnant in the first place!
In other words, they are somehow working towards legislating about sexual intercourse between consenting adults. I wish I was being hyperbolic, but just like Roe vs Wade and other indicators of theocracy working to replace our democratic system, this very much seems to be in the horizon. Of course, that most people might not want to see it as such, because when we talk about religion it tends to hit a nerve on a great segment of the population… because they think it is singling THEM out.
Well, that is not the case, the reality is that a few are trying to impose their version of religion onto all of us while using the very same religious protections to hide their agenda, which is to ultimately negate religious freedom to the rest of the country.
There is a lot more to explore on this topic, and I plan on writing a full article and perhaps other additional content on this, because it will become a lot more significant sooner than later. And if you think there are not people in high positions pushing for this to become the norm, think again.
The Supreme Court is perceived as MAGA-biased.
Lately the United States Supreme Court has been perceived as biased by a very large segment of Americans. The reality is that there is an evident power dynamic difference. If you have been paying attention, you’ll know that the great majority of the justices are very conservative. And as I mentioned, three of them were recently confirmed during Trump’s term.
This is a good time to bring current Minority Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell who was the de-facto catalyst to pack the court with highly conservative, and MAGA friendly justices. And McConnel is also the person responsible for denying President Obama from adding his nominated Justice to the Supreme Court, because that was during Obama’s last year in office. Yet, McConnel pushed a conservative judge in the last year of Trump’s office.
For any of us paying attention, we realized this tactic from the start. He was going to pack the courts, not just the supreme court but a lot of other courts in the country – to get a higher level of political advantage with like-minded people. Some might say that is an unfair assertion, yet the proof to this assessment has come through via many cases that have gravitated towards conservative goals. IVF is one such case. There are plenty more, but not many of those cases make it to the national headlines.
But the scrutiny of the conservative Justices has also gathered more momentum after their decision to hear the case for Trump’s eligibility to be in the Colorado ballot. This of course will put a delay on a resolution for other cases that are related to why the State of Colorado supreme court found that Trump’s election interference and role for the January 6 insurrection makes him ineligible to run for office.
And if you think for a few seconds about this concern to have Trump back in office, it makes perfect sense. Trump has 91 criminal charges spanning several court cases, has been very vocal about some very divisive rhetoric, he was found to be a fraud and a rapist – and that is just a fraction of the many red flags anybody who is paying attention sees about Trump. Hence, most Americans voted against him in 2020. The difference is that he has alienated a lot of his base from that time. And a lot of his supporters have not been afforded the full story either… so they might jump ship once the truth also reaches their eyes and ears.
Well, unsurprisingly the Justices who were appointed by Trump and other conservative justices are very much onboard with seeing Trump to run for another term, despite the myriad of criminal and civil cases against him. And this is not me – as the author of this article – trying to put the integrity of the US Supreme Court in question – as far as how objective they are when it comes to political discourse. This is the common consensus from many people reporting on this topic.
But what I will say is that the rulings and the precedent for each case do raise a lot of questions. And one of the fears most people have is that there is a clear bias towards one segment of the population and a disenfranchisement of another – an even larger segment of the same population. The proof is that the most “conservative” doctrines have not been popular at the ballot. It is especially noteworthy that the MAGA segment of the Republican party is dwindling. Even though, many remaining MAGAs are still very vocal.
I linked this article to tell you more about the particular case regarding Trump’s eligibility to hold office. Credit to the New York Times. Even if you don’t agree with them, fact check them with media sources from all political sides – you’ll see the pattern soon enough.
Conflicts continue to ramp up, and they are likely related.
And with the political discourse, we also have to realize that we have a very real linkage to the larger geopolitical stance of the United States on the world stage. What we have to remember is that what happens in the USA resonates with the rest of the world with ripple effects that are mind-bending to some, and very clearly evident to others who can see the links to these events from a different vantage point.
What does that mean? It means that even the situations who seen tangentially related at best, or totally unrelated are very much part of the same construct. They are just not as evident when seeing it from a particular vantage point. And that would not be a person’s fault, they are just not afforded that vantage point to see the big picture.
For an illustrative example let’s say you’re in a valley, and you are at the bottom of the valley inside a forest. You might not be able to see the mountains around you, or even what is just a few yards from your vantage point. But if you climb the mountain, you’ll have a much larger view of the valley and where everting seems to be located. From there, you will be able to further explore with ease each area because you will have a better idea of how the terrain is laid out.
In geopolitics it is very much the same. For people who are in their own echo chambers, or political bubbles – they will not be able to see how the events are laid out and how they relate to one another. The way you can ascend this illustrative mountain is by understanding context. This context raises your awareness of what is going on, and from there you can see the road leading to each event. Keep in mind that each stage is going to have an inherited level of complexity, and it is meant to discourage people from keeping on climbing.
When I wrote my book AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools, I provided some tools on how to see this context in ways that will help you climb to a better vantage point. The geopolitical realm is complex, and it is also very contentious. And the end result of many adversarial nations is to negate the USA from remaining the premiere nation in the world – and give an open avenue for adversarial regimes to take the USA’s place. This has been happening for a while, and they will succeed unless we realize what its going on under our own noses.
I’ve said it before and it is worth repeating. There are insider threats integrated within the confines of the United States of America, and in many countries that are allied or partnered with the USA. Insider threats come in two big categories:
1. Witting Insider Threats:
These are people who are performing actions and supporting adversarial narratives and carrying out their desires willingly. In other words, they are very cognizant that what they are doing goes against the USA and its influence in the world. Even if they disguise themselves as patriotic.
2. Unwitting insider Threat
These are people who are too stupid to realize they are doing everything the witting insider threat is also doing, but they are just not aware they are complicit. This latter one is a lot more dangerous than the first one, because they are easily manipulated.
And it is worth repeating that there are a lot of people in Capitol Hill and in other prominent platforms who are repeating and parroting those adversarial talking points verbatim! I will be dedicating specific content to identifying how this works and how to defend against it. Remember that these insider threats tend to be wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will seem patriotic and even probably drape themselves in the regalia that screams USA – but they are repeating the points from their adversaries.
An easy way to see if that is the case is by looking at state-sponsored propaganda and news from an adversarial nation. How do you know it might be an adversarial nation? Well, if it is solely run by the state, then that means that the freedom of press is non-existent, and all narratives must concur with the government or be silenced. So that is already a good pointer, because the USA has freedom of speech [at least for now], and you’re able to speak your mind without the government coming to violently retaliate against you and everything you’ve ever loved.
We still have this freedom we are very much taking for granted and there are a lot of nations who have recently lost it. They didn’t pay attention to the same indicators I am mentioning, and it was likely there was somebody just like me trying to raise awareness, and he or she ended up screaming into a void. I’m trying to change that trend, and fortunately there are many who see what I am seeing – we are just not communicating together effectively. That is what I want to change through my writing. HLC
HLC Muller Report www.halflifecrisis.com American History
The Muller report was a litmus test on how cognitive dissidence can be exploited for political purposes. Many people are still confused about its importance.
The confusion perdures to this day.
The Muller Report is names after the Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Robert Muller, who was a prominent career law enforcement professional at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States of America. He was appointed to conduct a thorough investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
Among the targets of the investigation, was included the recently elected U.S. President Donald J. Trump. The reason was because there were credible allegations that his campaign had close unduly communications with the Russian Federation, and that his campaign conspired together with Russian operatives to get an advantage against Trump’s presidential opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Russia stated on record they favored Trump over Clinton as President of the United States.
Before I move on, please find below the link to the entire Muller Report, as released to the public. Please keep in mind that some of the released Muller Report [enclosed] to the public have been redacted for reasons of National Security.
Mueller Report Article -Report on the investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election – www.halflifecrisis.com
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is worth mentioning that when citing Russia in this report, and on this article, it is not referring to the entire country of Russia – nor it is a so called “Rusophobic” attack. But unfortunately, the people involved in this report were from Russia. Any country involved in a similar fashion would have been cited on a consistent basis if they were under the scope of the investigation Mueller conducted. It is worth noting also that most Russian people (like most people around the world) are actually super nice, and they might or might not have a say, knowledge, or condone what happens outside their immediate purview.
You are welcome to read the entire report now (all 400+ pages), or after you finish this article. We will be touching upon some of the important takeaways from the report. The report itself is written in legal jargon, hence for some people it might seem counterintuitive to understand what Muller is actually trying to say. That’s the nature of the beast, legal writing is very different than normal everyday vernacular.
For this article I will be using down-to Earth vernacular to ensure it is better understood. And I said, “better understood” – because in legal terms words and context have a much encompassing terminology. That is why it takes years of going to law school and passing a bar exam to navigate the vernacular. To put in context the bar exam alone takes about 12 hours and it is extremely grueling. Some of us (who are not attorneys, but) due to the nature of our jobs just so happen to be acquainted with that language to “read it” – but not to “write it” – if that makes sense. E.g. You might be able to distinguish the difference between a high-quality and low-quality steak when you eat it, it is a whole different ballgame cooking it.
If you do end up reading the full report (which I recommend), it is best if you read it in little chunks, and with an open mind. The report is obviously very well written, but for those unfamiliar with the lingo, it will be interpreted like “scripture” (as in a bible or religious text) – and create a misperception that it is subject to some interpretations – especially if a person has a particular bias. However, biases are not the case when writing the report – Mueller himself was a Republican. But it is possible that some people might find ambiguity. Remember, this report was not meant to be read by the people, but rather by legal experts.
This in no way is demeaning to the general public, it is just part of the area of expertise needed for that particular specialty. Just like a bartender might have some specific language they use for some of their mixology, or just like us Sailors have a very specific vernacular when we talk about Navy stuff, or just how mathematicians communicate with complex formulas. Somebody outside those specialties might find it confusing if seeing it from the outside in.
Same thing with the Muller Report. It has a specific language, crafted by experts in that field. Fortunately, just like any cryptic language out there, there is a key to understanding in everyday terms what the intent and purpose for that report means to the general audience. There is a reason why I put this in context. You will see what I mean by that as you continue reading this article.
The Muller Report is inheritably complex, because it addressed a very complex issue. Further, it was unprecedented because it was the first time a sitting U.S. President was involved in the middle of this type of controversy. And of course, the environmental factors (not as in weather) in the country, particularly on political divisiveness – was making an already incendiary issue all the more volatile. There were a lot of entities who had a lot to lose based on the findings of this report. And those who had a lot to lose were both inside and outside the United States of America.
What does this mean? The Muller Report was never just about Trump, it was a lot bigger than that. It was about the possibility that third nation was interfering with the American Electoral process, and potentially getting away with it. Trump was largely anecdotal, but had to play also a center role for the investigation because he just so happened to be the President of these United States.
Understanding the Report’s Context.
The Mueller report was not about finding “Collusion” – why? Because Collusion is not a crime. It was about finding conspiracy to undermine an American Electoral Process. However, as Trump became extremely combative, and largely [on the Right-Wing of politics], attacks against Muller started to percolate, the scope of the investigation had no choice but to add instances of obstruction of justice to the mix. Cause and Effect.
What does that mean? Let me illustrate with an example. Let say person “X” is accused of beating up his spouse. An investigation into domestic abuse will start taking place. So, let’s say that while this domestic abuse investigation is going on, person “X’ decides to antagonize and threaten the police officers with violence, and incites others to antagonize and threaten these police officers – as they are conducting the domestic abuse investigation. What do you think is going to happen? If you assessed that an additional charge will be added to the domestic abuse charge, then you will be correct.
Further, antagonizing the police and threatening with violence while they are investigating domestic abuse – is not helping person “X” case, is it? Use the same analogy, but just change the charges and names, and that is what happened during the Muller Report. The fact that Trump and is acolytes were attacking, disparaging, and denigrating the character of Robert Muller, made it very evident that Muller likely found a lead Trump and his acolytes found very problematic (against them).
Robert Muller himself got death threats, much like many other Trump dissenters had endured in the last several years. Especially those with a platform. But the death threats normally come from a Trump acolyte, or somebody who feel vindicated to do so in their [Trump’s] base. I should emphasize that issuing death threats onto anybody is a crime. And yes, it is a crime no matter if you do that face-to-face, by email, by social media, or any other method of communication.
And bear this in mind because of the wide context of the report. Remember, the report is a snap-shot in time, but the significance of this report is a timeless tool about glaring vulnerabilities in the very fabric of American society. And yes, the exploitation of divisive vulnerabilities is designed to be like that – divisive and confusing. That is why I said that in the beginning it became a litmus test regarding our political stability.
Finding Trump guilty in the Muller Report
The official name for the Muller Report is “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” – this report encompasses two volumes, and spans for 448 pages. In other words, the scope of the investigation was to find the facts about Russian Interference, which is not necessarily the same as an investigation about Trump, although Trump was certainly a significant factor in the entire situation – because Russia was favoring Trump over Clinton.
For us to understand the significance of this report, we have to understand that using semantics to fight the merits of the issue is not a compelling argument. It is a lot more abstract than that, because we are dealing with a strategic-level adversary levering personnel near to the sitting President of the United States, in order to push their [foreign country’s] agenda. This report is not about finding collusion, it is about connecting conspiracy behind the mechanics for which the favoring for Trump turned into action favorable to Trump.
Hope this is making sense so far, because it is about to get more abstract. It is designed to be that way. The adversary is not going to put this complex issue in a black & white, Fifth-Grade level of understanding – instead, this topic is an all-stars varsity multi-level strategy being played upon the US via its own political intricacies. Again, it is designed to be highly complex, and that is why the actual merits of the case will seem counterintuitive to a great swath of the population. Again, this report was not meant to be read by the general public, it was meant to be read by the top Attorney in the Country – The Attorney General.
And this is an important distinction. Because Muller and his team had to be impartial in their investigation. Hence, Muller (who was in charge of the investigation) was not going to declare “Guilty” or “Innocent” – among other intricacies we’ll talk about – that was not his role. His role was to find facts, write about them, and pass to the Attorney General to (for a lack of a better word) decipher what was presented to him on this report, and for him to make a recommendation as the top law enforcement person in the Federal Government at the time.
And at this particular juncture is where politics started to get from ugly to very dangerous. For as long as we can remember in the American discourse, the partisan political climate has become more and more polarized. It was not designed to be that way – it was meant to give a voice from different points of view; but through the years demagogs and other special interest powers have created a wider division among politicians. All this division is extremely convenient to regimes leading nations who have poised themselves as adversaries against America.
Some politicians (hopefully unwittingly) tend to play and parrot propagandistic points that are specifically designed to polarize America more and more. The reason for the division is incidental at best, but certainly politics is a very visceral vehicle that gets people enticed to perform actions that can very well go against their own best interests. They just don’t realize it does, because it is designed to make those victims feel like vindicated heroes, whilst making them believe they are the smartest people in the room. Sadly, that is a very prolific manipulation tool.
The damage created to discredit the Muller Report is causing negative effects even today! And that report was released in 2019. For that reason, it is worth understanding what the political climate was back during those days. And the short answer is, that the ENTIRE U.S. Government, all three branches at the time were Republican. The Executive power (President), The Legislative power (Congress with the House & the Senate), and the Judicial power with a conservative majority.
If you were a Democrat, you had no chance to push any legislation at that time. That of course changed in the very next midterm election when the House Flipped to the Democrats, and the Republicans lost the majority. But by the time this report came over, it was all Republican Controlled. This was very important for many political reasons, and of course gave a very high advantage to Trump as far as how the narrative would be controlled to the rest of the Republican political base.
Sadly, that means that if Trump was found guilty of any wrong doing, there was a snow ball chance in hell of a probability the GOP (Republicans) would even hint on giving Trump any level of accountability, let alone prosecute him, recommend impeachment – or any punitive action whatsoever for that matter. Why? Because that would be political suicide, that is why.
Politics are strategic by nature, and sadly this strategy tends to leave constituents out of the equation. A shrewd politician would be able to plan several steps ahead and bamboozle a base of voters to believe a false narrative with little to no scrutiny. Yes, it is designed to be that way. A happy constituent tends to be one who feels their political leader is reading their minds, and doing their will – as faithful representatives of their democratic process in Capitol Hill. You could argue, THAT is EXACTLY why they were elected in the first place to do, right?
So, what does any of this have anything to do with the Muller Report? A lot actually, that is why I say it is abstract, and might even see tangential. Again, it is designed to be that way. When we look at the Muller Report there is not one page which reads “guilty” except to demonstrate that somebody pleaded as such to previous proceedings – for example, George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. Papadopoulos was very close in Trump’s orbit – once he became inconvenient, Trump disavowed him.
Other big names in Trump’s orbit included Gates, Manafort, and Cohen. The later was also known as “Trump’s Fixer” and better known for the case involving porn-star actress Stormy Daniels – when she engaged in what was described as a hilariously short and unpleasant, though consensual sex encounter with Trump – when his wife Melania was staying home with their still infant son Baron. And I just want to add this part about the [if you can even call it] affair (which is factual by the way – however hilariously short). Because it adds to Trump’s character, and adds to why the overarching scope of his investigation is so important. Lack of character is vulnerable to exploitation – and having the President of the United States of America having an exploitable vulnerability is very dangerous for the country.
Another big player is Michael Flynn, who also pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about talks he head with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Note that in every mention of “guilty” was for already a person in Trumps orbit who have already been convicted. It is important to pay attention to the fact that these individuals were very close to Trump – that is problematic. Who wins if the President of the United States of America has people who have pleaded guilty to some very problematic allegations? Regimes who are adversarial to America, that is who wins when this happens.
Letting Trump get away without prosecution, despite the findings of the Muller Report is what has prompted a lot of the cognitive dissidence that has endured to this day. And this is really the crux of the matter. Cognitive dissidence occurs when we let our biases control the narrative despite the facts. There is always a lot more to the empirical facts behind the superficial context of a situation. Some of the facts can certainly be obscured by misinformation, and lack of understanding of the full context.
In other words, when we are presented with a situation out of context, and we don’t have enough datapoints to ascertain the validity of those facts, then our assertion to those facts will be flawed. Hence the correct answer will feel counterintuitive, despite the facts being against their core argument. Again, it is designed to be that way. And a lot of people have fallen into that trap. It is not really their fault; a trap is designed to capture those unsuspecting souls. Much like a con artist tends to be charming and engaging. The difference is that with propaganda this is executed at a much larger scale and level of complexity.
Was Trump found Guilty?
Yes, he was found guilty of conspiracy of getting aid from a foreign government to help him with the election, and of obstructing justice and making all kinds of public acts of intimidation that among other things included death threats to Muller himself. The key word is “found” – that is not the same as “declared” guilty. Doing so gets into a semantic game that fosters cognitive dissidence.
This is how they differ. Finding instances of guilt does not necessarily mean that a person is going to be held accountable. For example, if you’re driving 20+ MPH over the speed limit, but there are no COPs around to pull you over, and issue you a citation for reckless driving – then you’re not getting accountability. You (should) know that what you did is highly illegal and can put you in a pumpkin suit, and there are several witnesses to your misdemeanor. Mainly every other car that you zoomed by – but they don’t have the authority to pull you over and give you a citation. But it is very obvious to all witnesses that you were breaking the law.
Somebody being declared guilty, that means that somebody who has the jurisdictional power to give you accountability is acting upon those findings. Following in the example, if a cop does pull you over and issues you a citation – the cop can start the accountability process, but not finish it. It would be up to a judge (in traffic court) to give the verdict on the infraction. Some judges might be lenient and let the speeder go with a warning, others might impose a heavy fine, others might send the driver straight to jail. I’ve seen cases like this all the time – it largely depends on how repentant the person placed in front of the judge is.
So, let’s bring this into context. Mueller (as the example being the cop on the above example) was gathering the information and writing the ticket. But it was going to be up to the attorney General (as the judge in the previous example) whom was required to make the determination about if the president was found guilty or not. The Attorney General at the time was Bill Bahr, and he gave the press a very misleading version of what Mueller described in the findings. The point being that Bahr likely wanted to try to make this problem disappear. Particularly because of the heavy political baggage it carried. Finding Trump guilty would make the Republican party implode.
How so? Well, the obvious thing is that if Trump was found guilty, then a lot of legal actions – none of which were convenient, nor had a precedent, would inevitably snowball out of control. There was a lot of appetitive for the entire report to be released. The GOP fought tooth and nail against it, but eventually it came out. But it took a long time. During that time there were countless attacks against Mueller himself, and many more death threats not only to him, but to other people who were in favor of releasing this document. So, the fact that you can read it (even on this site) was a gigantic undertaking that was being prevented by the highest levels of government at that time.
There was an important caveat. Because Trump was a sitting President – regardless if he was indeed guilty – he was NOT to be prosecuted. Those were the guidelines at the time, because it was meant to protect against people from attacking a President as a political eruption… with the pretense that the President was indeed an innocent person. Well, this is not very much the case in the Muller Report. Although he does not call Trump with the words “guilty” he did say that he was not exculpated from wrongdoing. And I said before, he was to present the facts, not to issue a guilty or innocent plea. But rather point if there was culpability. There was gargantuan evidence of guilt.
Using a “big word” such as not “exculpated” probably muddied the water – even though it is an accurate term. “Exculpated” means “acquitted” – Trump was not acquitted, if we put it in non-thesaurus terms. Muller went on to say that if Trump was not a sitting President he would have indeed been prosecuted. So, what does that mean? It meant that as long as Trump was President, then he was able to run that suspended guilt until he left office. But once he was gone, then accountability would follow. What would Trump’s next logical move be then?
Obviously, it was in Trump’s best interest to stay in power as long as possible! For one, because the statute of limitations would run out on this – and besides he did so much other crazy s—t after this event that the Muller Report will seem like small potatoes in comparison. But that does not mean it is any less significant, because this started a snowball effect for a lack of accountability to any sitting President.
Let’s talk about this snowball effect, this is a non-exhaustible list.
1. It forced the GOP to truly play ball and become Trump acolytes by choosing party over anything else Trump was able to get away with. Doing otherwise would be political suicide.
2. It empowered other adversarial nations to flood the USA with propaganda. The same type of divisive propaganda that has continued ever since – because it proved to be effective.
3. Fostered cognitive dissidence. It is convenient for other nations when we are divided, and if there is a communication breakdown. This first step was a proof of concept for adversarial nations as far as how people get lost in semantics rather than understanding the overall context.
4. The enemy is hidden in plain sight – who is the biggest enemy? Our own biases are being manipulated by our own misperceptions. It is designed to look black & white – but in reality, it is a very dynamic gradient. Hence, even people with good intentions will not see the true depth of the issue – it is designed to be that way – much like an illusionist only shows you what they want you to see, but the mechanics of the trick are out of sight to the general audience.
5. If Trump was able to get away with this, then he was going to continue pushing boundaries until he would get push back. He sure did, and hence he got impeached twice – and he is currently facing 90+ criminal cases, and a myriad of civil cases. Accountability started after he left the office – and the investigation into the merits for these cases already started the process before he left the presidency.
6. A lot of people got turned off by Trump, but also a whole bunch of them got ignited their new found passion for Trump. The Republican partly itself is very fragmented. Some of Trump’s more vocal supporters are Republicans themselves; though the hate and attacks from MAGA Republicans are often directed to more “obvious” challengers – which are the Democrats.
7. Trump started a very dangerous precedent that made people around the world distrust the United States of America. Who do you think wins when America gets isolated from NATO or other partner nations? It is not the USA; it is the countries who want to get the USA to lose its primacy in the world. By getting away from interfering with our political candidates’ process, this helps other countries who do not like America to perceive that the US candidates are for Sale.
8. Propaganda Points from other countries flooded the political discourse, and created an enormous social engineering campaign to find out which minds are more exploitable and obedient to Anti-American talking points, disguised as ultra-patriotic. Yes, it sounds like an oxymoron – that is why I say it seems counterintuitive to many. I wrote an entire book about it [AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools], because it is affecting us all.
9. The entire world was watching the proceedings about the Muller Report, and caused a worldwide mistrust in the American legislative process. If the USA is not considered a reliable intrinsic arbiter of justice, then the rest of the world will start seeking for a “better alternative” to follow. There is no shortage of adversarial nations who want to set that standard. And if the USA is not holding their leaders accountable, then that becomes the norm for the rest of the world. Like it or not, the USA can either set the standard for equal accountability under the law, or yield that option to any other nation who wants to impose their political agendas onto the rest of the planet.
10. Interpreting the Muller Report on “semantics” rather than substance is a very fertile ground for Information Operations campaigns by adversarial nations. In other words, they get to realize how naïve particular segments of the population are based on their lack of reading comprehension – and turn them into obedient parroting assets. More importantly, by providing these out of context talking points, they will feel vindicated as though they have “won” a battle of wits with somebody else – when in reality they have not been afforded the entire context. Plenty of people who are cynical about complex issues, but get hung up on semantics, are very much off-the mark on the actual substance of the matter. And yes, that is extremely convenient and exploitable by adversarial nations.
Moving Forward, and Deprograming Compromised Minds.
It might sound idealistic, but there is a way to straighten up this slew of propagandistic campaigns pouring over the USA. I use the Muller Report as an example, but there are hundreds if not thousands additional examples linked to Trump alone. But he is not the only one who enjoys a cult following, many of his acolytes also benefit from that clout. And even those who say that they don’t support him could very well be misled by thinking that “giving him a perceived fair” shot is a valid argument – when in reality, Trump was indeed guilty – hence, giving a “perceived fair shot” after he already has tilted the system on this favor is in fact a win for America’s adversaries.
What do I mean by that? Lately, as I became an author, I had to start learning the intricacies of the social media world. Not that I am super stoke about that, and I only hang out on the different platforms whenever I have some downtime. Which is not that much time actually. At this point in time, I am either checking my social media accounts while I am taking mini breaks during actual stuff I need to do in the computer – of if I so happen to be in a waiting room – as I have to sit and stay put prior to a scheduled appointment.
But no, debating people on Twitter (X) in 280 characters or less, or in Threads in 500 characters or less is not the only thing I have to do with my day. Especially if the cognitive dissidence from somebody drowning in a glass of water that they poured themselves off proves it is too much of a waste of time for me to spend my scarce time dealing with them. I’ve met all kinds of people, from super nice human beings, to well-intentioned confused people, to incredibly nasty individuals. During the less desirable interactions, I am afforded the opportunity to use it as a metric on how this cognitive dissidence has taken a foothold in the propagandistic realm.
Generally speaking, some people who seem to fall into a certain category (being left or right), tend to trail a very particular pattern of biases. All of which are very exploitable, and they have been exploited in spectacular fashion (even if they think they are winning an argument – thus prompting them to perpetuate that behavior). To figure out if they have been deceived, sometimes it is as simple as doing a quick check by looking at their feed, their vernacular, their answers to other tweets, the memes they post, their level of misguided arrogance, etc.
It is similar but more complex when we validate and assess how some people (to include those I mentioned) have easily been manipulated by adversarial nations Information Operation campaigns, and other methods of exploiting their biases. These are synonyms for propaganda.
And if you think only Trump supporters fall for this, think again. Even those who are against Trump can be vulnerable to unwittingly support those who want to see Trump back in office. And yes, it will seem counterintuitive to them as well. I mentioned earlier in the article that this level of propaganda is at a high varsity level. Most people sadly will read tweets, or read important talking points at a very elementary level. Then it is very easy to hide gargantuan amounts of misinformation on a semi-superficial level of veracity. Again, it is designed to look legitimate. Especially to target those who superficially think they have it all figured it out. There is plenty of room to add visceral responses in whatever falls through the cracks.
But for us who have been afforded a different vantage point, and have dedicated our lives to understanding these intricacies – the falsehoods stand up like a sore thumb. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. It does not make us “better than anybody” – what it does, however, gives us a level of awareness that is otherwise hidden in plain sight. Again, that is why I wrote an entire book about authoritarian propaganda [AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools}. And, it is also the reason why I keep writing these long-form articles. Riding just ahead is extremely important, and many people are oblivious to that fact.
The political discourse is full of misinformation, and when something important comes to light, it quickly loses the spotlight to another event – suddenly this previously important event becomes forgotten, and the facts for the argument become misconstrued. In other words, it is easy to help a person you don’t like win, just by misconstruing the facts -even if in your mind you think you’re attacking this person, or “just letting the system” run its course – without really understanding if the system perhaps has been compromised.
I keep saying it, and will keep repeating it. It is designed to be that way. It can be frustrating at times when I talk to some people in Twitter, or other social media outlets and they are clearly confused about something, but in their minds, they think they are spot on, or that they had a sick burn on me or whomever they are debating.
Let me make this entirely clear. First, I have a lot better things to do that debate somebody who clearly has not made their homework; and to build on that statement – they are just not ready to make the argument because their understanding has plot holes large enough to fly jumbo jets through it. But in their mind, they might think they have it all figured it out. Again, propaganda is designed to be that way. There is always a lot more than what meets the eye, and a semantic battle is often non-compelling to the actual merits of a situation.
The Muller report found Trump guilty, but won’t not say guilty. It found what it needed to find, which was conspiracy from a foreign country to interfere with our elections, and obstruction to investigate said obstruction. That begs the question. Why did Russia (in this case) wanted Trump to win over Clinton?
Think about it for a moment, and this will [hopefully] give you the “ah ha” realization about why the Muller report is so important. Why did Russia favored Trump over Clinton to the point they would interfere with our election process?
The answer is obvious, but it is complex. The obvious part is because Clinton would have been inconvenient to Russia. That’s the obvious part (yes, I said it twice). The complex part is the thousands of reasons for why this was the case. And no, it is not just because Clinton was better prepared (like her or dislike her) than Trump for president between both candidates. Learning the intricacies of government is not something that you can do in a short amount of time. To put it in context, even our turnover whenever we have one military member taking the EXACT job we are performing, despite the fact they arrive highly trained for whenever they come from one unit to the other is a very thoroughly complex process.
The less obvious part is Trump’s character, and the character of people in his orbit – and how this can erode the trust of our institutions and the divisiveness that was going to create in the USA for years to come. In that sense, it was a huge win for them (America’s adversaries). Not only did democrats and republicans further polarized, it also destroyed in the internal political parties inside their own ranks – and further radicalized people (from either side) who think they are the only ones holding the truth – so long it is dissenting with the other side.
By enabling Trump to essentially get away with a bunch of problematic issues as they were found in the Muller Report (and his many controversies), makes it extremely convenient for America’s adversaries to push all kinds of other divisive rhetoric – and find a fertile ground to keep dividing us. And yes, they are doing that even as we speak. You’ll be surprised how many “patriots” and other unwitting acolytes repost a lot of propaganda points that are against their own interests – and most definitely against the interests of the United States of America.
Fast forward to 2024, and some people still think that the Muller Report found Trump innocent. It didn’t, many people in his orbit went to prison because of it. Trump would have joined them in a pumpkin suit IF he was NOT a Sitting President. That is why, of course, it is worth mentioning why Trump will continue seeking the Presidency. Because if he is not a sitting president, he is liable to prosecution.
Just pay attention to some of his rhetoric [especially the days circa when this article was written] asking for unabashed immunity for potential crimes. Such as when his lawyer was asked if hypothetically Trump should be prosecuted if he directed Seal Team #6 to assassinate a political opponent – and he asserted that he would be ok, unless both he gets impeached and convicted by Congress… But keep in mind that even if that ever happens, then the political opponent is already dead in this case.
This is what the Muller Report found, that Trump has proclivity to do some certainly illegal actions – and use the limitations in the legal system to get away with it. And the startling thing is that the partisanship in the system has enabled him to get away with all of this. The Muller Report is only the dress rehearsal for a lot more than followed. And it is worth reminding that the entire US Government was Republican led at that time, so there was no way they would hold Trump accountable or impeach him, because for the GOP, that would be a win to the Democrats – when in reality it would be a win for America, because it would hold every person equal under the law, regardless of party loyalty. That course of action was convenient to adversarial nations too.
How can we solve this situation? It starts with each and every one of us. I cannot change your mind, I can only give you the facts, and spark that curiosity needed to continue researching the exceedingly deep levels of context affecting this situation. I’m doing my part by writing from an objective perspective. If it was a left-wing candidate doing the same stuff I would be writing about, and condemning them too. Each person owns their own life, but their actions can positively or adversely affect collective lives if they cling to propagandistic blind spots that cloud their judgement. HLC
HLC J6 2024 – www.halflifecrisis.com Today In America
Three years ago, today Capitol Hill was assaulted by thousands of MAGA supporters. Because of that I started my series “Today in America.” Let’s talk about it.
Three years later, the “big lie” continues.
I remember it like it was yesterday. The horrific images of a mob assaulting Capitol Hill, fighting Capitol Police, smashing the windows, the gallows along people chanting “hang Mike Pence” – who was Trump’s Vice President at the time. These images were broadcasted live on TV around the world, as they were also live streamed by many insurrectionists themselves.
As the events were unfolding, I was writing my first “Today in America” article as a chronicle of what I was witnessing in real time. I invite you to read the article at the following link if you haven’t seen it yet – before you continue with the current article. If you decide to read it later, that is fine also – but by reading it, it will give you more context as I update about what has been going on in these last three years in connection to that dark day in American History.
As I was reading back my words from that day – my sentiment has not changed at all. I was just as disappointed that day as I am today. In fact, perhaps I am even more disappointed today because there is a copious number of voters who: a) have no idea about what happened that day, and b) they know what happened, and think it is very much justified.
And that either one of those is not good news at all for our country. But it is very convenient to other regimes who do not want America to remain the number one nation on the world-stage.
The denial of the 2020 presidential election is commonly referred by the “Big Lie” – and that is likely the way it will be designated as in future history books. The 2020 election was not “stolen” and it was not “rigged” as Trump and his supporters would assert. And they have tried it in numerous ways to set forth that narrative. In every legal case the claims about the 2020 election from being stolen, and legitimizing Trump as the winner has failed. That includes cases were Trump-appointed judges around the country ruled against him.
Did Trump get the most votes of any sitting US President ever? Yes, he did. But there were millions more voters who voted him out of office. And that includes copious amounts of Republican voters. Despite all the legal cases, lawsuits, investigations, recounts, etc. Trump was never able to proof election fraud to be the cause for his defeat. However, there have been thousands of cases combined against him and his followers in connection to try to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
At some point, no matter how fervently we like a person (like Trump fans), the numbers are simply not on their favor. And think about this for a moment. Many MAGA Republicans (please note that not all MAGA are fully convinced of this lie, and not all Republicans are MAGA) were perfectly ok about not contesting electoral fraud on elections they won. But they were very much calling foul for elections and they were defeated. Conversely, all blue-contenders who were defeated in that election conceded. Keep this in mind as we continue this dialog.
The critical question we should arrive to is: “Who has the most to lose if Trump was not to be elected?” The country “survived” and even thrived under the Biden administration – regardless of whether you like the guy or not. It has even been good for business. It is not perfect – there is plenty left to do. But I for one am very happy not having to wake up to a twitter storm. And yes “mean tweets” against targeted private citizens is not acceptable coming from the highest office on the planet.
So, the question remains. Who had the most to lose if Trump lost the 2020 election? Well, that is actually an easy answer. Trump himself. And he knew it. There were plenty of legal cases pending against him before he was to leave office. Many of those cases were not prosecuted while he was a sitting president (such as the findings on the Mueller report) because that was a guideline set forth by the federal government. By the way, he was found guilty under the Mueller report – he was not convicted because of the guideline I mentioned, and the at-the-time Republican controlled House and Senate saved Trump from being kicked out of office.
After the House of Representatives flipped in favor of the Democrats, Trump was impeached – twice for two additional high crimes and misdemeanors; and saved by the at-the-time Republican controlled Senate – twice!
No stranger to controversy.
For many people who had been paying attention objectively, the Trump Presidency was bizarre at best, and extremely polemic at worst. And by polemic, I mean that there was never a day were a career-ending scandal did not dominate the headlines. It became so common place that people got oversaturated with negative information about Trump. Trump and his acolytes also used this as a catalyst to excite his base – the higher the polemic, the more he would double or triple down. This perceived “martyrdom” is a very powerful tool to exploit certain biases.
But objectively, if Biden or anybody else for that matter would have done 1/1,000,000th of what Trump was getting away with – the entire right-wing media ecosystem that favors Trump would have called Biden (or any other dissenter) out on that. But for the court of public opinion, redacting particular stories is simply the status quo nowadays. Many people don’t tune in to watch something that disagrees with their world-view. The loyal eyeballs are more interested in getting more of what they come to accept as true – regardless of if it is factual or not.
And this is why it is important to understand the MAGA mentality at this point in history. Trump is NOT who is leading the MAGA movement, contrary to what many would think. There are a lot of other interested parties who are using Trump as the figure head who will spout all kinds of things that excites the base. THAT base, THAT is what they are after. The MAGA Republicans are divided in two main segments. And from those there are a lot more subtleties. But that would take me days to go through. So, this is a good starting point. Let’s explore:
JAN 6 2021 gallows capitol hill
Types of MAGA Republicans:
If you have read my articles for a while, then you have likely seen that I am not a fan of treating anybody with disrespect. That includes MAGA Republicans. I’ve met a bunch of them, and they do have their heart in the right place. We can disagree on policy, but we can generally agree on what is good for the country. Others are just very unsavory people, and have more of a “debate me bro” attitude than actually trying to find a solution that is good for the country.
What they have in common is that for some reason they find Trump appealing. With that context let’s delve into what we are seeing here. This is my own analysis, and I illustrate it in a manner that is intended to make better sense to the reader.
MAGA Type 1 – Honest to goodness Patriotic good people who actually want the best for the country.
We all have biases. It is part of being human. However, if those biases are exploited, then somebody can take advantage of our otherwise good intentions. If that ever happens to you, don’t feel bad – it is designed to be that way. And those perpetrators are very good at what they do. And what they do is turn good values into a narrative that is actually self-destructive.
Before I continue, let me emphasize that this variety of MAGA is less likely to remain loyal to Trump. Why? Because at some point they realize that some of the narratives sent their way are not as accurate as they were led to believe. In other words, they feel betrayed and their devotion turns on its head and suddenly they become very vocal dissenters from Trump. What causes them to turn against Trump? Depends on the person. But the common denominator is that they will be as vocal against MAGA as they were vocal in support of MAGA once they decided they are out of that club.
Being MAGA does not mean that a person is unintelligent, but they do have a proclivity to choose one side a lot more fervently. For example, very unlikely you will see a person being draped head to toe with Biden merch. Sure, you might see a few, but never at the scale and scope as you see MAGA regalia all over the place. And that MAGA merch tends to be expensive.
I have to emphasize that many ex-MAGA started their journey out of that movement once they stopped listening to what Trump or his acolytes were saying – and pragmatically started “challenging” what the non-MAGAS (including other Republicans) were advising. Which as simply “hey, there is a lot of official information posted in the public domain, read it and find out what they are saying.”
Many who (albeit reluctantly) actually read through the paperwork realized the obvious. A lot of important details were [perhaps] conveniently left off on any of their outlets or choices. Being TV, pundits, influencers, podcasters, whatever. And as they attempted to refute that information objectively, they realized that there was so much more data that was contradicting a lot of the narratives fed to them for years.
This is not an easy process for anybody to accept. Actually, it can be very traumatic. That is why whenever a person “hits a nerve” on during a conversation with a MAGA republican, they tend to more from the defensive into the offensive very quickly. Often using name calling, condescending epithets (such as cupcake, honey, sweetie, etc.), and suddenly shift towards a non sequitur to state “what about this or the other” – often unrelated to the topic at hand – and coincidentally, a repetition of a buzz phrase that they were fed before as an argument point.
However, when those arguments cannot be held to scrutiny, this will be very traumatic to them. It is meant and designed to be that way when the information was implanted on their minds in the first place. People hate to be told they are wrong, and will immediately gravitate towards their echo-chamber to regain that “sanity check” they desperately need as part of a confirmation bias, they might not see it as such, but that is exactly what is happening. “Somebody said something I agree with, I’ll use this as a narrative counterpoint” – I’ve seen it thousands of times.
I’m not intending to change their minds, but when the conversations happen in a public forum such as social media – other people do pay attention to the narrative, and they can see by proxy how valid or flawed an argument really is. Most people will just look, but rather not comment, or even react with a heart, or like or whatever. But the crux of the argument resonates with them. Even if it takes a while for the argument to settle in their minds. Especially if this argument is now rocking their world. People need time to process.
This segment of MAGA has and will likely flip against Trump if they are afforded the opportunity to make decisions based on the merits, and not just limited to the strategically cherrypicked talking points deemed convenient by those in the second group as described below.
MAGA Type 2 – Opportunistic people who are actively pushing a nefarious agenda that is actually eroding the country from the inside out.
Some of those who belong to this group do so wittingly, others unwittingly. I would argue that the second group is more dangerous, because they have convinced themselves that any dissenting option should be discarded outright, regardless of factual merits. These become the perfect vehicle to become the muscle and loyal soldiers to run with a narrative. What they have not realized (yet) is that this devotion is indeed disposable.
The witting group definitely know that what they are doing or advocating for can be clearly divorced from the truth and in many cases illegal. There is a reason why Trump has 90+ criminal charges against him. And no, it is not because of the mean tweets. Although that type of sophomoric behavior is also well below the prestige of the Office of the Presidency of the United Sates of America.
Surprisingly or unsurprisingly to some, Trump himself is likely not part of the higher echelons of his own MAGA movement. Some people would say that is nonsensical – but as I mentioned before, Trump is the figure head – but strategy is not his strong suit, but he is surrounded by people who can directly or indirectly take a full advantage of his clout. Despite what anybody might have perceived in the MAGA universe, Trump is not a one-man show. There is a gigantic team who help him drive the MAGA narrative. Trump himself is disposable.
What Trump was able to forge is a movement that is way bigger than him. For better or worse, it has not been without controversy. Why do you think that is? Well, if all the indictments, the impeachments, and the many controversies tell you something – it is obvious that he is not going to play by the rules (to include the rule of law). And that is [sadly] very enticing for a big segment of his base.
People on this group might end up being disloyal to Trump at some point – but they will be very loyal to the ideology behind MAGA. Trump himself has set that standard. He had disavowed hundreds of supporters whenever they became inconvenient. We have seen that on live television, on his “mean tweets” and many other platforms – such as the rallies.
Do you think he is able to orchestrate all those events by himself? Obviously not, he has teams to put that together. So, there is a vested interest in getting MAGA as a strong brand. There is plenty of money to be made for each and every one of those appearances. And the crazy amounts of merch are only a small fraction of everything else.
Just do yourself a favor. Google “MAGA Merch” and see how much all that cost. Then do a “Biden Merch” – and you will see plenty of MAGA merch being disparaging to Biden. Who do you think buys all that stuff? Obviously, a Biden supporter is not going to spend the 40 bucks on a sweatshirt that is depicting him in a disparaging manner. Also, by the way – a lot of that merch is actually made overseas. Even though some might have a “Made in USA” label.
I’ve never attended his rallies, but from people who attended – I’ve been told they are not free. And can range somewhere around $50 to $4,000 depending on what access you can afford to get. Add these costs, and it gets to be pretty penny to support him. If you attended a Trump rally, can you confirm this?
Perhaps some people think, how is it all relevant to January 6, 2021? Well, it is very much related because what I’ve described is the context that helped bring rhetoric into action. And despite what many would say to the contrary, January 6, 2021 was the date that marked an extremely violent insurrection. Some would call it a “guided tour” – and I realize it is very hard to listen to that type of narrative without wanting to understand how much misinformation and spin was needed in order to help them reach that [extremely erroneous] conclusion.
Bringing it full circle to January 6, 2021.
As much as it pains me to say this, January 6, 2021 was a day of insurrection against the United States of America. And it pains me, because it did get worse after that, despite all the accountability that was embarked via law enforcement and other legal resources to bring those who desecrated Capitol, and committed acts of violence to justice.
Over 730 people pleaded guilty, with about 170 convicted, and two acquitted (the latter only by a judge, but not by jury trial) in connection with the January 6 insurrection. That alone negates the “guided tour” narrative some have floated around. Trump himself is facing criminal charges due to his involvement in January 6, and of course is the reason why he got impeached for the second time – just days before he was supposed to leave office. Ever since, a lot of his allies have turned their backs on him. Afterall, for the first time ever in our lifetimes, we did not have a peaceful transfer of power in America.
But Trump did not act alone, he had huge teams working towards this particular goal – months in advance. For anybody paying attention, during his rallies, tweets, and other events, Trump would assert that the 2020 election was going to be rigged. Of course, there was no proof of that, but he did say that he would only accept the results if he was declared the winner.
Then it makes perfect sense why before the assault to Capitol he hosted the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington DC. What do you think a name like that would prompt into attendees who travelled from all corners of the United States to see him speak?
Trump finally addressed the crowd at noon, but before that time his loyal supporters were listening to a bunch of speakers who were revving their discontent – and validating “the importance” that brought them to the capital that day – after traveling from all corners of the United States – largely at their own expense. Yet there were some Trump campaign donors, and even Alex Jones pledged $50,000 to the cause. But it is obvious that 50 grand is not near enough to make a dent on the gigantic amount of resources January 6 took collectively.
Some quick math considerations: -Lodging in D.C. (generally three figures a night) -Transportation to DC either driving or getting there (flights, caravan, whatever). Parking is not free most everywhere in D.C. -Transportation Inside D.C. from wherever their hotel or lodging was arranged -All the Trump regalia they draped themselves with (flags, shirts, hats, hoodies, etc.) -Meals -Time Off from work (vacation time / sick days / etc.) -Childcare (back home) for whomever that is commuting from out of area. And even if they brought their kids – they still need a place to stay while they attended the event.
I can go on, but hope this makes the point. So, even thinking about the logistical nightmare that would be for loyal Trump MAGA supporters – imagine what it would be if those storming the capitol were “posing as MAGA” as some conspiracy theorist seem to assert. I can tell you that it is hard enough for Democrats to go out and vote, unless they feel it is very-very important to do so. They would not go out of their way to invest all that time in effort just to discredit Trump.
You can see more about the timeline of events for January 6, 2021 at the following link. Credit to NPR for that report.
But again, bringing this full circle. Democrats and many other Republicans simply did not want to give Trump another chance to sit in the Oval Office. The country was not better off when he was President – it might have seen like it was from the outside in like it was good, but working for the U.S. Government when he was in Office, I can tell you that we had to do a lot of damage control every time he would go on a Twitter rampage. Although the current administration has plenty of room for improvement, at least I am not worried about what the next scandal will be.
And about scandals – there were so many under Trump, that even before we got a chance to process one, the next two were already making headlines. I’ve mentioned it before, and it is worth repeating. This creates a media oversaturation that hides in plain sight important indicators to a larger issue. Some of us who like to pay attention to that, then can identify when these “hidden issues” percolate and appear. That is one reason why I am not surprised about the geopolitical events that occur. That includes our domestic policy.
Fast forward three years, and Trump has won absolutely zero cases regarding his narrative of the election been stolen. 60+ cases spearheaded by Rudy Guiliani as his former lawyer. Guiliani not only lost every case – he had to file for bankruptcy due to a lost case for defamation. And to add insult to injury Trump never paid Guiliani for all his legal services on Trump’s behalf. Also, his legal team flipped on Trump, and will be witnesses against him in criminal court in the next few months.
Fox News had to pay a 787 million dollars settlement for reporting that the election was stolen, and blaming Dominion for this alleged irregularity. Whenever Fox News had to prove in court that what they were reporting was factual. They could not, because it was not true. Other far right news outlets were also required to fact-check themselves on air in order to avoid the lawsuit. Why did they concede to Dominion if they (these far-right news outlets) had actual proof?
The answer is obvious, there was no proof that the election was stolen. It has been recounted a bunch of times, and researched to exhaustion. The only thing proven was that this was in fact the most secure election thus far. And that would actually give credit to Trump, because was technically under his watch. Therefore, talking about the election been rigged is actually a hit on his own record, because that would mean he did not do his due diligence to have a secure election. In other words, he is searching for a lose-lose solution. But fortunately, the facts are what they are. This was a fair election – and Biden defeated Trump.
It is worth repeating what I said three years ago. Republicans are perfectly fine showing up to rallies and buying tons of merch. Democrats generally do not do that type of stuff. They will show support by reading what’s available and showing up to vote in any convenient way available to them. Sometimes it’s in person – but during the pandemic the mail-in-ballot option was a lot more attractive to them. Hence, they voted in troves by mail. Trump could have taken advantage of mail-in-ballots, but he preferred to ask his followers to go out and vote in person. And that is exactly what they did.
They showed up to the polls in person – at least the ones who were not either dead or sick with COVID during election day. The Biden campaign probably already realized that advertising on any right-wing outlet – especially those MAGA consume was just going to be a waste of money. So instead, they advertised in outlets that would target democrats and undecided voters. It worked, the popular vote for Biden superseded Trump’s tally by more than seven million votes.
However, these optics make it counterintuitive for a lot of right-wing voters to ascertain that Biden had a following. Because obviously he did not appear on their television screens. Why should he? Was he going to be able to change any MAGA Republican Minds to vote for him in 2020? There was a better chance for a cargo ship to navigate on top of a bunch body-builder squirrels marching in unison on a residential street than for a Trump voter to vote for Biden. Hence, Biden chose places where he would be better received. It is a commonsensical strategy when you think about it.
Trump has never won the popular vote, but was able to win the Electoral College in 2016. Democrats learned their lesson, because they were losing seats in the previous elections. And many could [rightfully] argue those were self-inflicted wounds. In either case MAGA Republicans endorsed by Trump did not perform very well in the polls in subsequent elections. That is of course a harsh reality many MAGA Republicans would prefer was not true. Sure, that is normal, nobody likes to be defeated. And as I said earlier, some of them really thought the country was going to be destroyed – yet, here we are – there have been some records of how well it has been going – although there is plenty of room for improvement.
For many people in the United States of America, sadly today is not a very significant date for them. For some of us who are paying attention to what is going on (sometimes on their behalf), we’ve realized already what many who got turned off by Trump eventually realized. The difference is that we did not have to either go behind bars, or lose a lot of time and money to become aware of it.
Food for thought, and cult of personality advisory.
This applies to Trump followers, but it could very well apply to any person to whom we develop a cult of personality. Trump can be charming and even funny to some. He might sound like he is “authentic” and even caring about others. But is he though? The same can be said about any person with whom you had a relationship of any kind that enjoyed your attention and devotion.
There is no shortage of people who have disavowed Trump, and I’m not talking about “Liberals” or “Progressives” or “Never-Trumpers” – I’m talking about hard-core MAGA Republicans. If you are a MAGA Republican reading my words right now, YOU might not be feeling that way towards Trump right NOW (and maybe even resent me for the time being). But it could very well be sooner or later that you will change your mind about him. Why?
Let’s do a quick parallel example to illustrate. Remember a time whenever you were hanging out with a person who had a lot of baggage and your loved ones were warning you against hanging out with this person? What happen in the end if this person was indeed full of crazy baggage? Hopefully you realized what your loved ones warned you about time and time again. Yet, if you are a living-breathing human being, there is a non-zero chance you blew off all your loved ones and decided to hang out with this person who was clearly not good for you. It could have taken days, months, even years sometimes. But eventually, you got to see for yourself what everyone warned you about.
At some point, the indicators are just too many to ignore. No matter how much you truly adore and admire a person – the facts are what they are regardless of their love and devotion to them. For an extreme example, if your child goes and murders somebody in cold blood – you might still love your child, but you will have to come to terms with the fact that your child did something that cannot be condoned, no matter how much you want to justify it.
To a much larger extent, because blood has been shed by people who want to protect Trump’s rhetoric – yes, there are people with proclivity to violence who are just waiting for marching orders. That should be very disturbing to any person. The only group who wins if we descend into a civil war are adversarial regimes who want to defeat America.
Sure, that there is a lot of emotional baggage every time indictments, lawsuits, impeachment inquiries, criticism, and so much more is being directed at Trump. But that is not YOUR baggage, that is Trump’s baggage. Bluntly put, it is cause and effect. The difference is that it is put in black and white, and he is getting a level of accountability that did not occur in the entire time of his Presidency. Fast forward to today, and there is a huge number of people who understand the dangers of putting him back in the office. And I am not talking about Democrats saying this – this is coming from Republicans.
There is no shortage of Republicans who have a lot of following all over social media disavowing Trump, and encouraging others to do exactly that. In fact, there are some who are even rooting for Biden on this election, because they feel that is the best course of action at this point in our history, and for our country. You’re welcome to agree or disagree with them about this. But the question should be “why are they going through such lengths?” If [on first impression] handing the steering wheel to the Democrats is not “on their best interest.”
Well, this is the truth, party loyalty is not everything. The best interests of the country are nonpartisan. Sadly, there is a very real threat of a non-insignificant number of MAGA Republicans who have a proclivity for violence. Most of the countries prefer not to give power to those few people who could do great amounts of damage to the rest of the country should they get unlimited power.
January 6, 2024 is a wakeup call that has been snoozed for three years. It is a call for people to understand what is truly affecting our political discourse, and if whomever is enjoying our loyalty, devotion and affection is the right fit for ALL Americans. Some might think that only “certain” Americans are to be in a privileged position – then that is not America – America is a land of equal opportunity and accountability for everybody based on their merits and their character.
I will finish by saying that the rhetoric of a 2024 stolen election by the Democrats is already floating around in the national discourse – mainly promulgated by Trump himself. Much like he did for 2020. That is propaganda, it is not true. The voters will decide in the end if Trump is given a second chance. That is if he can pass the Supreme Court case that is reviewing the Colorado decision to get him off the ballot. The case is going to be heard in the near future. And yes, Trump was removed from the Ballots in those states because of the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
I don’t want to think too hard on what the future will hold, but what I can tell you is that nothing that is happening has surprised me. I have my suspicion of what the US Supreme Court will rule – We’ll see if I am still right. My hunch is that it will be voted by party lines letting Trump stay in the ballot, thanks to the Conservative SCOTUS majority. If that is not the case, I would be very surprised. But if he is disqualified, I can only begin to imagine how divisive the next several months will be. HLC
HLC Today in America 22DEC – www.halflifecrisis.com – Today in America
America’s polarization is accelerating, the early drumming of a potential civil war is being played – and I don’t like it. This is what we can do about it!
Politics are still irrelevant – yes really…
It has been a while since the last time I got a chance to write a “Today in America” article – my favorite series on this blog-site. But that has not stopped my predictions from becoming true. What I find most disturbing of all right now is that the early drumming marching set-up for a potential Civil War – these indicators are ongoing. Is that parabolic? I wish it was, but the reality is a lot more complex and dynamic.
Politics are not as relevant as some people might think, because this visceral response is not about actual policy or doctrine. Those attributes are incidental at best. They only serve as a way to pick a “team” to “root for” or to “feel” part of. Never mind that the actual platform policies have been already conflicting with their own narratives for years. It is important to highlight that not everybody feeling compelled to “fight” this civil war is actually a “bad person” – many are just confused. Especially some who are aggressors who think they are in fact defenders.
And in this confusion, they can feel vindication for their nefarious actions – THAT is why I find this situation most disturbing in these early states of the potentially-looming horrific divide. I’ve written before – several times, that for example, it is futile to label so called “MAGA” Republicans in any derogatory epithet and expect that is enough to reach a solution. Communication breakdown is a key component of division. It is intended to be that way. In simpler words it’s a trap. I interact with people who have become victims of propaganda pretty much every day.
Many of them are honest-to-goodness good people, or at the very least their heart is in the right place. However, their decisions are factored with faulty data. Then the correct answer to them becomes counterintuitive, and arguing with them tends to becomes frustrating or even futile. Especially if they realized they are wrong. Some of them then just really want to piss you off. For others it actually becomes a traumatic event. Facts, and rationally be damned at that point.
But it is this lack of rationality that is so enticing to those demagogs who want to push a divisive narrative into an action. Whatever this action might be, so long it is self-serving. If does not matter if you are for or against it. It only matters if the conversation breaks down to the point that we stop listening to each other, and forgo any actual substance in the argument’s merit. Especially if we happen to agree on key points. Again, this is by design, and I’ve been talking about it for years, and I am quite frankly starting to get desperate, because we’re quickly approaching the point of no return.
What IS happening to America?
The latest incendiary issue to affect us all spans from the verdict ruled by the Supreme Court in the State of Colorado. On December, 19 2023 – the Colorado Supreme Court voted to remove Donald J. Trump from the primary ballot. Sure, there are a bunch of other things going on, but this is a catalyst for a lot more than what meets the eye.
The grounds for the removal were put in effect because of a provision on the 14th Amendment of the United Sates Constitution that prohibits a person involved in an insurrection to run for office. This a provision that dates back to the times after the Civil War. In essence politicians who were pro-Confederacy were (and former Confederate themselves) sent to Congress by those same states who wanted to separate themselves from America.
Unsurprisingly, they were not very cordial to anybody who was not pro-Confederacy – yes even after the American Civil War. Fast forward to December 2023, love or hate Trump is not the issue here. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY would have been able to run for office with his legal rap in a realistic Presidential-race. In fact, with all his 90+ criminal charges and other civil charges he would most likely not been able to apply for even a low-level government job anywhere. Not as a civilian, not as a military… he would have not been accepted. I know that for a fact, because I am quite familiar with the process, having been working with the government for over 20 years.
And of course, it was recently broadcasted that more criminal charges might be added in connection with election interference. This time in the State of Michigan. So even if this pattern of misbehavior was a coincidence, at some point we have to face the reality that the probably for coincidences have long been exhausted. It behooves to see the facts very pragmatically – especially for MAGA supporters. Because if he is actually guilty, they are defending the indefensible. And it also becomes their legacy. Not unlike knowing that you’ve gotten swindled by somebody and giving them your sustained undeterred devotion.
To put this in context, every U.S. Government worker – being civilian or military must have at a minimum impeccable trustworthiness, loyalty, and character. If any of those are impacted negatively in any way, then the person would not be selected for that job, and other candidates who do meet that minimal threshold would be considered for that (or any position) available. Hence it is only logical that for the most exulted office in the land, this minimum threshold should not be an exception. In fact, a lot more is needed of the incumbent or aspirant for that job. Sure, that Trump is innocent until proven guilty, but likewise when there are open cases (especially criminal cases) people applying for a government job do not get hired until it gets sorted out. Why should a candidate be different? Because he’s popular? There are other candidates who could represent the ticket who do not have the same list of charges.
Let’s do a quick case study example. Let’s say that a person who is seeking a job in a junior position which requires a security clearance has gotten into some legal trouble. The case is still pending. For example, let us say that the job deals with the maintenance of a particular weapons system. The person might or might not be innocent of the charges, but how do we know for sure? So, the question is: Should this person be hired regardless? Spoiler alert, the answer is NO.
And that is exactly what does happen in government – and it has for years. Even contractors have a lot of limitations based on placement and access. That being the case, what should we expect for the highest office on the land, the office with the greatest placement and access of all? The answer is obvious. And we would have to be very naïve to think that accruing 90+ criminal charges, being twice impeached, and a plethora of other civil cases (which he has not won, or is losing) it is actually a very hard list of trouble to amass for any person.
Are ALL those charges frivolous? Are they? Are the prosecutors going to risk their career risking a mistrial? Also, worth mentioning, why are most of Trump’s lawyers and co-defendants jumping ship and testifying against him? At some point, the “benefit of the doubt” becomes more dubious than simple apathy for this man. However, his base will happily listen and believe anything that comes out of his mouth, and his acolytes. However, they will disavow and even go on the offensive against those very acolytes, should they start speaking out of turn against Trump.
Some of those acolytes were themselves on the offensive of others beforehand – until it was their turn to be under the Trump train wheels. For many of us, we are not surprised to see this happening. Being Trump or anybody else, the actions are more important than who is enacting them. If Biden was doing the same things, I would be writing about him too. But I digress. However, there is no shortage of GOP members, to include presidential-hopefuls who are galvanizing in favor of Trump. I was actually surprised that many of them would actually take themselves off the ballot in Colorado to support him. And that of course might have been naïve of me to think that they had some principles on the actual merits.
The promoter for that was Presidential Hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy. He essentially dared the other candidates to do so. I let Ramaswamy know every now and the of them via twitter my opinion when he pops on my feed and his words are dangerous to national security– not that I will ever get a response. But I want to do my part, even if he does not understand why. I always ask him to have his staff contact me for him to understand the unintended consequences for his often-misguided policies. In either case I was hoping deep inside that the GOP hopefuls would take the hint that this is not a battle they want to fight. Maybe a tactical advantage -because of Trump’s base, but the pages of history will state the truth – they are right now advocating for supporting a person who has been guilty of several crimes, insurrection in particular – and punishing their own campaigns in the process.
I was specially disappointed at Chris Christie who tends to be a very vocal dissenter of Trump – nowadays. He has of course been humiliated by Trump before multiple times, and despite this Christie was also one of his most fervent supporters. I don’t know if he realizes that cameras do record what he was saying. But his flip flopping and excuses for his actions might be bought by a few people, but most people don’t trust him. Hence the polls show it on the numbers for support among the GOP themselves. The blue side would be goose eggs.
But I realize that to an extent that is irrelevant. Just now I’ve been speaking with somebody on social media who is very much convinced of narratives that have been fed to him for years – and parrots propaganda points with a lot of confidence. Even though his arguments have the water integrity of a hair net. Facts be damned. But the problem is a lot deeper than what we are seeing now, this propagandistic narrative has been building up for years, and it is accelerating. And it needs to stop. The only way to do so is by educating people who are perhaps blissfully unaware of all this chaos happening around them – to wake up!
The drumming of a Neo-American Civil War needs to be stopped.
Yes, it might seem like my articles turn into a shameless plug for my books, but I wrote them because of what is happening right now. Everybody is “talking” about the symptoms of authoritarianism and some of the rhetoric, but missing the point by a factor of galactic proportions. This goes for mainstream media, pundits, and a bunch of other – perhaps well intentioned locutors. They are falling into the trap too. My books, just like my writing pertaining to these articles, are not a vanity affair. I am very disturbed by the events in the world, and I will use my platform, however (relatively) small at this time to do my part.
J. Marcelo Baqueroalvarez Authoritarianism & Propaganda The Puppet Master Tools.
We have to understand that propaganda is designed to be subtle in execution – even if the reactions it incites are very much on the nose. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but I is not. You see, a propagandist plants some seeds, and these ideas are churning on people’s minds. They become repeated from different angles, validated by other people repeating them, and suddenly they become normalized. It does not matter if you are in the favoring or dissenting side of the [chosen] issue. That is not important as much as how willing are you to be divisive against “the others.”
If you are on the side that is divisive – but on rooting for the home team, good news! They got you – or you will become a token figure to be made an illustrious example to the larger audience. A picture-perfect speaker.
If you’re rooting for the visitors’ team, stand by. They will either discredit you or try to quiet you down any way possible. This is what I realize more and more is happening to the rest of the world who has an important message to share. It won’t be surprising for you to see that some of the people with the most short-sighted and off-the-wall ideas are getting a lot of attention – AND followers! And so are those who are distracting people from the real situation that is affecting their very lives. Meanwhile, trying to get your foot through the door to speak your voice will feel like screaming into a void. I know I’ve felt that way more often than I wish, though things are turning the tide – but perhaps not fast enough, given the urgency of the situation.
I’ve been pondering on that instance – though I am grateful that we have reached readers in 79+ countries, and there is a grass-roots audience who is receptive to the message we are conveying. But there are millions out there who will prefer to be disengaged, but who will affect all our lives, like it or not. I’ll continue doing my part to help the “algorithms” (which is the larger audience) find my content and spread my message.
I do get offers from many people who claim to be able to do so, but they haven’t read a word I’ve written. I prefer not to give them my business if they haven’t taken that crucial first step.
But in the meantime, this “junior clout” makes it very difficult to get across to others who need to hear this message. Because of the inheriting emergency for this topic. For that reason, I’ve decided not to be subtle at all, and I am going to be engaging with people who have large platforms until they get sick of me. Or finally re-engage. I am not rude, but I am going to be appearing more and more on their feeds until those who review the” engagement” finally get the epiphany I’m trying to transmit.
The truth is that I cannot keep waiting until maybe one day those with a larger platform figure out who I am and what I was trying to say. I do this project (Half Life Crisis) on my own (my daughter is my team mate, but she is only 12) while trying to retire from Active Duty Navy – so this is incumbent on me to put this together in the most effective manner. That is why I keep asking for help to spread my message. This is no different, but the reason why I say that is because I see a neo-American Civil War approaching, and by the time I finally reach some clout it might be a moot point.
Nothing that has happened in the last several years has surprised me, and so far, I’ve been spot on in every prediction. The only way to stop it is if people understand what is REALLY at stake and how to reverse these bad trends. It is disturbing to me that most people I speak to have no idea about the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Some are even in denial that for the first time in our lifetimes the former and current Presidents of the United States were not present together for the peaceful transfer of power.
Those controversial moments are wonderful news for other nations who are suppressing their people under authoritarian regimes. “If it happens in the United States, then it is very easy to let it happen in any other country around the world.” This new trend should be a very disturbing situation to anybody. It most definitely is very disturbing to me. That is why I keep writing about it.
I realize that the tenor of my article is a bit darker. I don’t wish it to be that way. But the fact is that we have to adapt to the environment, and the environment is dangerously chaotic. There have been a lot of instances where violence and dehumanizing rhetoric continues to normalize. In fact, some people even seem to welcome it. When people such as Trump call their opposition “vermin” or “poisoning the blood” of our country. Those were words used by Hitler himself.
When Trump says point blank that he would be a dictator “only on day one” – that should not be tongue in cheek. Most disturbing is the fact that his base actually cheers and applauds, yet they don’t realize that this divisive rhetoric is eerily similar to what others have communicated before some of the worst chapters in our history.
The solution is ensuring that people go out and vote understanding what they are really voting for. Understand the policies, and understand the urgency of the situation. There is a much larger world than the United States alone. And some of those authoritarians have already galvanized their power over there. It is going to happen here sooner than we know – but we still have time to work together.
If you haven’t yet, please read and share my books with everyone you know, so we can continue this important conversation. Time is running out, and anything else we try to do will become a moot point. I’m doing my part, the best I can – but I am only one man. Thank you for being part of this solution! HLC
HLC Bipartisan Possible – www.haflifecrisis.com – Understanding History
It is rare in today’s political climate int eh USA. Usually, the votes are strictly divided over party lines, on THIS rare occasion we have bipartisanship!
Political parties can work together!
Yes, you read that right! Bipartisan agreements in Congress did happen yesterday December 1, 2023. Yesterday was a historical day as the Republican U.S. Representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district, George Antony Devolder Santos was expelled from Congress in a Bipartisan vote.
As much as I agree that it was right to expel Santos from this exulted position, this is not necessarily a happy day in America. The real question is: How was he able to hold on to that seat for such a long time? (Or at all for that matter) Santos entered congress after falsifying – essentially pretty much everything. His education, his credentials, his income, his affiliations, and I can go on for hours on that. Seriously, this young man had quite the affinity for stretching the bounds of truth. Some of his lies were pretty petty too.
And despite the superficial perception, I am not trying to bash George Santos (although he also was not forthcoming with his name among many other things – and he did a stellar job at discrediting himself without any help). But rather I am trying to show how important it is for us to take politics seriously. At least seriously enough to ensure that whoever gains an exulted position is actually the person they are claiming to be. Later in this article I will list many of his red flags before, during, and after – and we’ll talk about what he is likely going to do next. He did leave Congress spewing a lot of choice words against his own party and of course against the democrats (in office and throughout the country).
I really want to discuss the situation on the merits, but unfortunately, Santos did become the face of this very case study. And I am sure scholars from decades to come will look at this time in our American history and talk about it – because it deserves the attention is getting. Of course, for a great block of voters (both Democrats & Republicans) this situation is possibly an oblivious fact. I know this for a fact, because I like to ask these types of things. And much like I said in my last article, the answers I tend to get are pretty frustrating.
Partisan politics galore.
In yesterday’s article I spoke about how there is political theater in the United States of America. And no, it is not the only country suffering from these types of performances – this is a systematic world-expanding problem. And to be honest, depending on the proclivity of different segments of the population, this political theater can range from non-existent to very enticing in the minds and hearts of actual voters.
Well, that is another problem, a lot of voters do not really want to learn about what is affecting their lives. And I can imagine this can be incredibly frustrating to many of us who in one way or the other depend on people voting in a well-informed manner. Why, because it affects all of us. But the fact is that for a long time, voting has become a visceral situation – it is about the feeling rather than the actual policy. This has been normalized, and many might be voting “their conscience” without actually scrutinizing the validity for that decision.
I also mentioned in yesterday’s article, as I have in the past, that the politician’s voting record is what ultimately matters. Because that ground truth is what will tell you if what they say is true or not. Sure, some will vote for terrible legislation and won’t be shy about it. Others will prefer not voting on better legislation because that becomes politically inconvenient at the time. There is actually an artform when it comes to that voting record. I don’t mean that it is good art, per say – but it is not (unfortunately) a straight forward process. And that is also very frustrating.
Why frustrating? Well, when you see it pragmatically – if a person is voting one way or the other just because they are required to follow a certain crowd, then they are [not] actually doing what is best. And of course, this has been very evident, especially in the last few years when voting on any legislation ends up split by party lines. Hence, whomever controls the majority – no matter how slim, will win by default. That is a problem, because that means that either the policies set forth to the floor are crap, or (and) that this partisanship is not sustainable.
I invite you to look at these. You can spend some time on those – because there is plenty to see. But the fact is that I want to show you that what I am speaking of does not come out of thin air. I am not a pundit – I am just a dude with a website who likes to state facts that are affecting us all. Division solely on party lines is not good. It creates gridlock and the actual substance of conversations that need to occur are pre-determined even before the vote comes to the house. Everything else is just lip service and sound bites. The decision was largely already made up before it had a chance to be properly heard.
And that brings us back to the fact that George Santos was kept in office despite the fact he had a rap sheet longer than the Pacific coast in the continent. But Santos had an ace under the sleeve, the House of Representatives was hurting for members. The “red wave” they predicted did not happen. The Republicans lost the Senate majority and gained only a very slim majority in the House of Representatives.
Santos, although he was drenched in controversy – kept a low profile as far as voting. He would show up, do his partisan game when it came to voting. And of course, bash Democrats any moment he could get a camera in front of him. That was convenient for the slim majority when pushing (or what many would rather call “stalling”) legislation. That is why he was voted to stay in as a sitting member the first time he was supposed to be expelled. However, he did become a political liability as the ethics committee validated the character most people (not politicians) both Republicans & Democrats had already assessed – not fit for duty as an elected leader.
Bipartisan Support to expel Santos out of Congress.
This is the first time in the history of the United States of America that a sitting legislator is expelled out of office – without being actually convicted of a crime. You can read the report in the link provided below. Court trials are forthcoming though.
However, Santos did not have a clear-cut vote to oust him. The troubled ex-legislator did get votes from several Republicans and even a few Democrats to prevent his ousting. However, mathematically it was already evident that Santos was not going to win this round. I will not focus on what each Democrat of Republican colleague said about him. Especially the more unflattering language. But I will point out that Santos was in the scorching end of the statements given by many of his fellow Republicans. And in today’s political climate that is very significant.
In the link about the voting record, you can see how each legislator voted. However, I will highlight that some of those you could expect to support Santos did vote to hold him in Congress, despite the fact of this scathing report and prelude. Among those are Gaetz, Boebert, Greene, Johnson (Speaker of the House) … and yes those are some I mentioned in the previous article. I will let you have your own reasoning about their decision. My intent is not to disparage anybody, but rather to show the connection points to spark deeper conversations.
To that end, let me just add a list of the things that have been deemed problematic by most people who had been aware of Santo’s antics; and why this has been problematic for the ousted member of the House of Representatives.
George Santos Lies & Controversies(short list until I get bored of talking about this gentleman’s controversies). But I figure this would make you understand why it is significant that 114 people voted to keep him as a member of the House of Representatives. Fortunately, 311 voted to oust him. Let’s see why I say fortunately.
Batch #1 Santos was charged with 23 counts.
– One (1) count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States
– Two (2) counts of wire fraud.
– Two (2) counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission
– Two (2) counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC.
– Two (2) counts of aggravated identity theft.
– One (1) count of access device fraud.
– Seven (7) counts of wire fraud,
– Three (3) counts of money laundering
– One (1) count of theft of public funds
– Two (2) counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives
In the second indictment Santos was accused of stealing his campaign donor’s identities! Using it for all kinds of selfish expenses to include clothes, sessions at Only Fans, and money back to his own bank account. This is donors’ money who did not authorize additional expenses – but he had their credit card numbers.
Adding to the list, in a superseding indictment, Santos was accused of loaning his campaign half a million dollars, as an effort to pad his campaign. This falsifying of finance reports is of course criminal in nature.
Even before these latest accusations, he had quite a few others. I wrote an entire article about him back then. But let’s do a quick recap of some of the many simply bizarre stories we had to deal with. I’ll just add some teasers about it, you are welcome to look more into it. You might find it entertaining and/or frustrating.
– Claimed to be a model for Vogue.
– Impersonated (Former Speaker of the House) Kevin McCarthy’s Chief of Staff to try to raise money from rich donors.
– Claimed to have lost four employees in the mass shooting at the Pulse night club.
– Made national news for alleged swindling a disabled veteran out of money to save his pet – the pet tragically died.
– Lied to his landlord about being robbed on the way to pay his rent.
– Accused by former roommates of stealing their belongings to include an expensive scarf.
– Being charged in Brazil for writing bad checks.
– Claimed to be connected to working with Goldman Sachs and/or Citigroup to use as leverage for a Ponzi scheme.
– Claimed to be a volleyball start champion in a college he never attended – or was even enrolled at for that matter.
– Claimed to have been victim of an assassination attempt in 5th Avenue in New York City.
– Claimed his mother died in 9/11.
– Claimed his niece was kidnapped by Chinese Communists as retribution.
– Claimed his Grandparents Fled the Holocaust.
– Claimed he was Jewish, and when he was confronted, he said he was Jew-ish – I know, cringe alert.
– Stole donors credit card numbers and made personal charges with them.
I can go on, but I got bored to be recounting these crazy antics – but there are plenty more. Sure, some of these stories are allegations – but the fact that he has actually been so prone to lying (and admitted himself he was a liar)– his credibility is not quite helping him with the benefit of the doubt.
This is a link to my previous article about him in case you want to see what I was already talking about earlier this year when we were introduced to this gentleman.
This was meant to be a relatively short article, because I figured my readers would like to review the information I enclosed. Case in point the Congressional voting record and the ethics report. And those can take a while to go through, but please feel free to bookmark this site as a quick reference point. Whatever time you invest reviewing the information provided in this article (to include the links) it will be time well invested. In future articles I will delve more in-depth into these political intricacies.
To close, you might be surprised to learn that I am not actually all that much of a fan of politics. Much like I am not a fan of getting a kick to the kidneys with soccer cleats. But in order to prevent that I have to have situation awareness to avoid that proverbial kick. The difference is that legislators make decisions that will affect our lives for generations to come. And if we don’t understand if they are up to the job, then we are actually at fault for not paying attention when the house is burning down. We are all in this together – like it or not. That is why this has been taking so much bandwidth in my attention span.
Please let me know in the comments (down in this site’s comment section) or any of our social media outlets about what other topics you would like me to talk about. Thank you for being with me through this journey! HLC
HLC Today in America 22NOV2023 – www.halflifecrisis.com – Today in America
Visiting Washington D.C. is always a treat; even though there are a lot of people moving and shaking “stuff” around – not all of them are great people, though.
It has been a while since I’ve written one of my favorite article series, “Today in America.” A lot has happened since my last update from November 29, 2023. If you are new to this series, these are meant to be a chronological snapshot of what is going on in the country. My analysis is not partisan, I don’t lean left nor right. I will hold either side accountable. Facts do not care about political leanings anyway.
Why haven’t I written a “Today in America” in such a long time?
Well, there are several reasons why. Primarily because there is simply so much going on, and quite honestly it was very hard to keep up with all the developments. Also, because a lot of what it is going on in America does pertain directly with what my debut book “Authoritarianism & Propaganda | The Puppet Master Tools” speaks about. In other words, even though I wrote this book several months ago, the premise of what I described is happening in real time.
Misinformation is rampant. Half-truths, faux outrages, and other misdirection’s are taking place far and wide. I am actually very concerned about that, because that was yet another prediction that I had assessed could happen. So, what it is happening? The polarization of our people. There is a growing number of people who are at each other’s throats, but they actually agree on key points. But since they are in “opposing teams” – they stopped listening to the facts. And of course, stopped listening to each other for quite a while.
To bring clearer context onto this issue, let’s start by defining a “fact.” A fact is something that is irrefutable. In order to be irrefutable, it must be logical, measurable, and demonstrable. If it cannot meet this criterion, it becomes conjecture. Conjecture is muck like saying “it’s like your opinion.” Opinions and facts are not synonymous, though some opinions could be valid if based on fact. The problem is that opinions can also be based on conjecture or incomplete context. That latter point is what we are observing here for the purpose of this article.
The political division.
For the purposes of this article I will not be leaning in favor of any right or left leaning figures. I will let you make that decision on your own. However, I will be citing examples, and these examples are largely coming from the very same political party. So that way you don’t have to be angry at me, I am quoting people in their own political party. If fact a quick [google] search, using any browser of choice will give you a lot of videos (from their own mouth) stating countless examples for this.
As we are getting closer to another presidential cycle, there has been no shortage of unprecedented events. Although the incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden does not enjoy stellar ratings at this point in time, there are also several contenders for the Democrat ticket. Biden, Williamson, Uygur, and Phillips. Runing as independents we have Kennedy, West, and Stein. And for the Republican ticket there are a bunch – Trump, Haley, Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, Binkey, DeSantis, Christie, and Burgun. And a few others who already dropped from the presidential race are Suarez, Hurd, Johnson, Elder, Pence (yes, former Trump’s Vice-President), and Scott.
Every last one of these candidates are running for the highest office in the land, and arguably the most influential office in the world. Pop quiz, how many of these candidates faces would you be able to pick out on a line? Further, what is their political platform, doctrine, and policies they are running on – For EACH and EVERY one of these? Afterall, any person seeking the presidency needs to have a reason to run – a reason other than a vanity project. For a voter, not knowing the answer to this last basic question is embarrassing at best, and highly problematic at worst because the fate of possibly of millions of lives rely on whether voters electing the next leader of the free world understands this simple premise.
If you are an American citizen who is allowed to vote, and you do not know the answer to this question – and you feel bad about it. It is ok, fortunately you still have plenty of time to figure the answers out before you show up and vote. And yes, I mean understand what your favorite guy or gal’s platform, doctrine and policies are all about… AND what are their Opposition’s policies and doctrines. Yes, for voting it is important to understand what the other person is actually running on. And by knowing I don’t mean hearing it from just your favorite talking head on whatever medium you consume. Chances are that some of that key information is not making its way to you if it is politically convenient to whomever has vested interested in a political figure.
This is what we call an echo-chamber. This can be up to a point acceptable, but often it can also be very-very bad. But even if a person love being in their echo chamber, it is best to also peek out from this bubble objectively and hear what the other side has to say. That does not mean you will agree with those outside your bubble (not necessarily at least) and with what they are saying. But if you are objective, you might be surprised how much you might have in common with the actual people outside your bubble – not necessarily with the talking points spewed by either politician.
I am personally very tired of hearing this “left against right,” and “right against left.” Sure, that either side could be wrong about something or the other, and one side even more erroneous than the other… but what we are not taking in consideration is that a lot of people who are making decisions about who they will support (politically) might or might not be deciding based on facts. Demagogs have a proclivity to hide a lot of important facts and data points, and then their loyal base only gets to hear the more incendiary and visceral narratives. Of course, that fires-up the bases, and can even make that sweet cookie-baking grandma to get off her cozy home to “fight like hell.” Yes, that does happen – especially in America, somebody not too far from you is packing a firearm with a round in the chamber. Yes, even some sweet cookie-baking grandmas.
And no, gun-loving American people are not only limited to red-meat-eating Republicans, but there is also no shortage of Democrats who love their guns. So, thinking that only one side is holding all the firepower is misinformed at best, and delusional at worst. Instances of violence among our people are on the rise, and I am not just talking about mass shootings, even though as of the time I write this article there has been 617 mass shootings in the USA. Just a couple days ago another person got killed and one other got injured in Meridian, Mississippi.
But just for some context, here are some quick stats as of the moment I am typing this:
38,671 Total number of Gun Violence deaths.
From that big number above, we derive the numbers below (these do not include all gun violence)
17,023 Homicides/Murder/Unintentional deaths
21,648 Suicides
33,239 Injuries
617 Mass shootings
33 Mass Murders
Why is this important? Because what we are going to do (or not do) about gun violence is also on the ballot. It has been part of many political platforms by the way – and for a long time. Maybe not so on the nose with some politicians, but it is definitely in a politician’s agenda, donors, and potential special interests’ groups. That is why I ask if you understand every running candidate’s policy. Sadly, huge swaths of people vote solely based on party lines, and some others cast their vote on whether they “like” the person, rather than really understanding their policies. I know that for a fact. Even anecdotally whenever I’ve asked around – 9 times out of 10 it boils down to the fact they like the guy (or sometimes gal). You can try it yourself, especially with people with a dissenting political leaning. Although you might also be surprised with people in your own political party. Surprise!
During my last “Today in America” article I spoke a lot about the new Speaker of the House and his very strong biblical devotion. I went on to say that although that his faith his prerogative, his particular religious views are not consistent with the majority of Americans – including Christians. There are several thousand denominations, so that on itself gives quite some room for dissenting views on religious doctrinal practices. Why am I bringing that topic up? Because it is significant – although the majority of people do not want to impose their version of theocracy. Some others might say “good – let’s impose our theocracy;” until they realize that that version of theocracy does not jive with a lot of the doctrines they actually profess or worship. That is in the ballot too – by virtue of the religious leanings of the different candidates.
It is interesting [and disturbing] to see the level of polarization in our country based on religion and politics – and for anybody who was not aware, these two factors (because they are multipliers) tend to be very intertwined. Add to these factors the special interests’ groups with power and money, and the return of investment from some non-elected entities can very well (and very much do) affect our political system. Especially when it comes to money into politics, a regular good American would have an exponentially hard time even making it to the ballot. Yet the fact remains that most people sitting in an elected position – either at a local or state level; and of course, even at the federal level are somebody their constituents have no idea who they are.
Another quick pop quiz. Who are your city council members? Who is your district’s House Representative at the federal level? Or even who is your state senator at your state level (not the federal level – that’s a different set of two people). All these and more elected leaders affect our present and future. And if you ever wondered how that is sometimes, we get stuck with candidates for the presidential ticket that you don’t particularly fancy – well, the race started way before any of them started their presidential bid.
I know, politics can be so boring – and literally anything else could seem more appealing. And in a way it is kind of designed to be that way. It is easier to pay attention to anything else than what might seems like a very boring legislature, debates on bills, and a bunch of other things that seemed to be “the politicians problem.” Well, their abilities or lack thereof to work together affects the entire country. And unfortunately, any buzz about politics tends to be clinging on the sensationalism. Chances is that you only know some politician’s faces at the national level when somebody does something “newsworthy.” And by newsworthy, it is often linked to a scandal.
Capitol Building in Washington D.C.
We Americans are actually more similar than we think.
I can tell you the surefire way to shut down a civilized dialog among dissenting parties. Call them some demeaning epithet or insult their intelligence (especially if they are wrong), and whatever is it that they are for or against in that moment will not be a matter of “lets open some dialog,” but rather an “I must win this battle, no matter what” type scenario. It happens, and yes, people on the right or the left have been very many participants in this division. And it has been ramping up lately. With this I am not saying that they will automatically “agree” with one another, but at the very least they will truly understand what they are disagreeing about.
Take for example the incumbent President Joe Biden. There is a lot of people – even on the left who are not fully supportive of him. In fact, I’ve mentioned before President Biden is pretty much to the right of the left side of the political spectrum. Then again being left or right on its own it is not a bad thing. There have been solid governments leaning either side. The key is on the leaning and not imposing. That is how we can work together – even if we disagree. It provides balance.
However, there is a non-insignificant number of people who are denying the legitimacy of the election that placed Biden in office. This aside from being wrong, demonstrably wrong – there have been dozens of cases challenging the election and none – as in zero – were able to prove that the election was rigged. Biden simply had more votes both in the popular vote and the electoral college than Trump. Even though it is a fact that Trump got the most votes from any sitting President in history. Good for him, but Biden (love or hate the man) simply got more.
The 2020 election was very contentious. Yet there were simply more people who would rather vote for a three-ring-circus monkey than to allow Trump another term. In other words, not voting for Biden, but voting against Trump. And even among former and current Trump voters who go (and went) to his rallies, they do concede that they are not fully onboard with his antics, although they still consider Trump the best choice for their party. I am not here to demonize Trump; some would argue he can do that very well on his own. And to be honest, for some reason a lot of his base very much loves that type of personality trait. However, that very same personality trait very much turns-off a wide swath of Americans – and these also include republicans. Many of which have been very vocal against Trump. Look it up, there is plenty of public-record video about it.
For anybody who was not aware Trump has been facing a lot of legal circumstances. There are four federal criminal cases, a major civil case, and a bunch of other legal woes with his name on the other side of “vs.” Yes, it is unprecedented that a former American President have been charged with just shy of 100 criminal convictions.
Additionally, quite recently (July 2023) Trump was also guilty of sexual abuse and rape. This last case was under trial in a civil court of law in NY. You can look it up, it is in the public record. Some of Trump’s still ardent supporters will deny the validity of these and all other claims and charges. Unfortunately to Trump, there is very strong evidence against him in all of these cases. And prosecutors who are indicting Trump at that level are not going to risk setting a case forward (and risk losing their bar license) unless they have irrefutable evidence. And it is worth mentioning that many of Trumps former attorneys have also flipped on him. I’ll let you decide for yourself as why does that jumping ship from former loyal followers keep happening to Trump.
You’re welcome to read the full copies of all the criminal indictments in this very site. I posted these articles not because I particularly like or dislike Trump. I would have written a similar article if ANY former U.S. President was indicted under those circumstances. The indictment documents are long, but they are well written – so it is worth the time you invest reading them. You don’t have to agree with the prosecutor – that is why there is a trial to reach the truth. But at least you will know what it is about. Another interesting fact linked to these cases is that also most of his co-defendants have jumped ship and are testifying against him on these criminal charges.
And we are not talking about never-Trumpers, these guys worshiped the very floor he walked upon. Not anymore though. How can this happen?
Well, I’ve mentioned before in this site and in other writings I’ve set forth. This is what I call the “ex-significant other effect.” Have you ever been in love? I mean like head over heels, writing letters past midnight until sunrise, butterflies in your stomach, and losing all rationality over somebody?” Many of us have. If you are still together with that person and you share a happy life, good on you! So do I, I love my wife. But there were some exes-and they probably had a similar level of devotion. Some relationships ended in amicable terms, some perhaps not so much. Let’s see what happens with the latter.
For example, when a person for whom you would have given your life before, for some reason falls out of favor… you fall out of love. Then suddenly you realize that what a lot of people were “warning you” against this person, or some of those premonitions that made you irk – but kept hidden will haunt you. This is traumatic to any person. Especially if you have devoted your trust, loyalty, devotion and even love to this individual. In our own minds we will do all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify any shortcomings they have – when they are still the object for our devotion. Until at some point you cannot longer justify this – and you move on.
In politics something similar happens. Those same very ardent supporters can swing the pendulum 180 degrees and the same energy and devotion becomes the antithesis that was previously favoring that person. Especially if people felt they were manipulated or cheated upon. Have you ever been cheated upon? How did that feel? Have you at some point a person who you loved more than anything is somebody you prefer not to associate with anymore? Again, something similar happens in politics.
This might sound anecdotal, but I have met a lot of fervent former-Trump supporters. This analogy came out of their mouths unprompted. That does not always mean they swung to the left-leaning politics side. A lot of them remained fervent republicans – just no-longer-Trumpers. We have seen this effect a lot in the last several elections. That is why in 2020 Trump was not elected, but a lot of Republicans chose to keep their Senators in power on that election.
Then the Republicans themselves started distancing themselves from Trump as the 90 percentiles of his endorsed candidates did not win their political races. But of course, despite this there is no shortage of people who would wrap themselves in Trump regalia and camp-out at a rally venue hours before the main event, or even overnight prior to the event.
Seeing it from an objective manner, we would have to admit that it is quite a visceral response to go through such lengths to see somebody speak. His followers really-really like this man. Conversely, democrats do not really do that kind of thing for a candidate of their choice. Generally speaking, if they support somebody, they will cast their vote, but not really make much of an event about it. That is why support for a Democrats will seems non-existent to anybody who prefers to show support in a similar manner like MAGA Republicans do for their candidates.
But despite the overt devotion towards their candidate of choice, both Democrats and Republicans generally want what is best for their country. Sure, that in either crowd you could find some awful people from any walk of life, but I’m referring in this case that the majority of Americans are very good people. And I can tell you firsthand how amazingly caring American people are. When people are speaking of American exceptionalism, it refers to the actual candor of their people. ALL people who come from all walks of life. Yes, that includes Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. And yes, American Citizens do come from every country in the world.
Which begs the question, why would be anybody else be interested in dividing our people with petty differences? Well, I am glad you asked. I wrote entire books about it. “Authoritarianisms & Propaganda | The Puppet Master Tools,” and “Woke & Proud | The Charlatans’ Inconvenience.” And aside from the obvious plug – well, I did write those books for a valid reason. And that is to bring us together as people. There are plenty of opportunists out there who want to destroy the United States from the inside out. Eroding it away from what makes it truly great – their people.
Visiting Washington D.C. with my girls.
My wife Alicia was in the other side of the country visiting her family for the last week and change. Sammy and I drove up to Washington D.C. to meet her plane and have the closest thing we have had to a family vacation. Last time we had a chance to do something similar was in New York City after a long underway. It is wonderful being together in our nation’s capital.
This is also Sammy’s first time visiting the District of Columbia. It is actually interesting that some people don’t realize that Washington D.C. is not in any actual state in the United States of America. It is actually under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. So, it is not a state either – although it is [however] surrounded by Virginia, and Maryland.
By the way this is a pretty expensive city (or rather a district), but it is worth visiting. This is a wonderful town full of history, awe-inspiring sites, museums (which most are actually free), and so much more. Are there also a bunch of terrible people roaming around this town? – Well, yes there are. But for the most part I’ve always had a wonderful time when I’ve stopped by to visit. We spent Saturday night to enjoy Sunday in D.C. and drive back thereafter. This won’t be the last time we’ll be here, but it was enough for Sammy’s first visit. She was very happy to be back home.
As you walk through the nation’s capital it hits you… people in this town are entrusted with the decisions that will affect not only every Americans’ future – but pretty much the rest of the world. Agree or disagree with what I am about to say – well… not everybody is fond of the great U.S.A. There are several adversaries and even some other countries not-so-aligned with the U.S.A. that would be very happy to see the country lose its influence in the world stage. How would they achieve that goal? By dividing the people. This is not an easy process, but if you’ve been paying attention in the last several years – this internal division is taking a lot of traction.
To be honest, I wanted this to be a feelgood iteration of my series “Today in America.” I will be writing in a separate article about some of the insane amount of political circus going on in Washington D.C. – and there is plenty to speak about. But for a moment I rather focus on us – we the people. The actual constituents. Especially those voters who end up electing some of the people who are happy to do everything except actually governing in support of ALL U.S. Persons.
And seriously, that is an unfortunate situation. We have politicians who have introduced ZERO legislation – but they have been happy to pursue all kinds of political attacks with ZERO viable policies attached to that political theater. And that is why I mentioned that it is up to us – the people to understand what is actually affecting our lives. It takes very little digging to uncover the gaslighting that does take place. There is no shortage of politicians who will lie in front of the entire country with a straight face.
Further there is no shortage of politicians who repeat adversarial nations talking points and propaganda VERBATIM! Now, you would hope that a politician would not be as F-ing stupid as to do that. Yet that does happen… too often in fact. Do they realize it? Sometimes I wonder. Are these politicians that dense or are they actually cognizant to the fact that this rhetoric and misguided policy goes actually against the United States.
I’ve mentioned in my books that most good people who for whatever reason make a wrong decision – are often victims of the circumstances. In other words, an adversary (and this could be also a propagandist, and authoritarian, a charlatan, or any other grifter) will give an unsuspecting victim a very redacted version of the full context. The result is that otherwise good people make wrong decisions because they factored their criterium on flawed data points.
People wanting safe communities, living wages, reasonable taxes, national security, prosperity, rights to be happy, freedom of (and from) religion, freedom of speech, right to defend themselves, right to express themselves in a way they are considered people, among so many other values – those are not uniquely Republican, Democrat, or third-party policy points. Those are American values. And yes, you can argue those are human values, no matter what country they are originally from.
When things start getting awry is when there is an overreach over people’s rights and freedoms. In other words, what does make this country great – and it is already great… it is that if you dissent with the federal government, the government is not going to chase you from your house and put a couple of bullets on your head and kill you and everything you ever loved.
There are countries in the world as we speak that will severely punish a person if they dare speaking against their leadership. We – the USA are not there – yet. It is up to us to keep us at bay from that nefarious reality. No, we are not there – yet… but this division is getting a lot closer each day. That is why I keep writing this stuff. I want to do my part to avoid it. But I cannot do this alone. And even if my words do not resonate right away, at least it will be recorded with a time stamp in history that I did what I could, using whatever platform I could find to broadcast my message.
I’ve studied authoritarianism & propaganda for several decades – I’ve lived through it before coming to USA. I know what it looks like. Propaganda is here in America also – alive and well. But it does not have to remain as such. In another manuscript that I wrote which will be released next year I speak about conflict management. And I say something to the effect of this: “If you want to win an argument, don’t look at the adversary unless you’ve objectively looked at yourself first.”
If you are very patriotic and want the best for America, you owe it to yourself to truly understand the policies and doctrines of your politician of choice AND their opposition. You’re welcome to take with a grain of salt any dissenting evidence. But you must also review it objectively as though it would be affecting another person who is not the politician who currently enjoys your devotion.
For example, if you’re a Trump supporter and you are not happy about all the indictments; well, you don’t have to be happy about it, but you can know the details about them (as in plural). These documents are publicly available, you can read them yourself. As I said, I’ve even spoken about that in this very website. And if the question is “what about Biden?” Well, what about him? You can bet your bottom dollar that if he gets indicted, I’ll be writing about him too.
By the way, out of his own mouth (Biden), he said that he wants nothing to do with Trump’s legal issues. Hence, he has not publicly commented about it. If you find a clip of him doing so (commenting on Trump’s legal issues in detail) from his own mouth, please share it with the group. President Biden himself is also under investigation for some classified documents found in his property. The difference is that he was cooperating with law enforcement. Thus far I have not been able to find anything in the public record accusing Biden of any criminal offenses. And trust me, if there was a three-there, his political opposition would have been implacable in posting that evidence far and wide. If you have seen it, please feel free to share it with all of us.
And by that I don’t mean some talking head who already dislike Biden. I am talking about actual court documents such as the ones I have posted in my site about Trumps criminal cases. I am not asking you to like or dislike Trump or Biden, that decision is all yours. If the indictments had a “vs. Biden” rather than a “vs. Trump,” you would see me speaking about it in exuberant detail. In either case, Trump is still leading the Republican primary by a long shot. Although there have been court cases that are challenging him if he can even be in the ballot due to the third amendment.
My assessment, based on current events I would not be surprised if we will have another Trump vs. Biden for the U.S. Presidency in 2024. But it is worth mentioning that both candidates will have a lot of other voters in the race that will be syphoning votes away from them. Also, there are a lot of new voters this time around because they have come of age. This includes a bunch of new younger 18–22-year-olds. Whomever they decide to follow could very well decide this next election. What are the current candidates doing for this new generation? That’s probably something worth looking into – for any politician. Just saying.
I’ll close by saying that we are the UNITED States of America. And United is the operative word here. That means we the people, we decide – together. HLC
Republican US Representative, Mike Johnson, from Louisiana was elected as the 56th Speaker of the House on October 25, 2023.
I’ve been wanting to write this article for a few days already. Finally, today I got a chance to sit down and write about the significance of this event. This is another historical moment, although there is quite a disagreement if this is a happy or challenging moment in our American history. I will let you decide what is the answer to that question, but I must note that this is a far from straightforward issue. There are lots of twists and turns in this situation.
Let’s start with the fact that the mere reason why a new speaker of the House had to be elected is because the previous speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted in a coalition lead by Republicans themselves. In particular spearheaded by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). In case you were not aware, there was a sizable number of Republicans, not only in the House but across the country who had many choice words (not kind words at all) towards Rep. Gaetz for spearheading Rep. McCarthy’s ousting.
Rep. McCarthy was voted out on Tuesday, October 5, 2023, and the race for getting a new Speaker of the House was contentious to be fair (backstabbing to be borderline hyperbolic). There were a few contenders for this position. Many of which most people would not be able to pick in a height line, but the most prominently recognizable was Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) – the guy that seldom wears a jacket and who speaks very fast. He tried repeatedly to get that post and ultimate failed to get elected even though Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives. In fact, there was a very vocal coalition against him. Then again, Rep. Jordan likely burned a few bridges during his tenure.
Rep. Jordan failed to reach the coveted speaker of the House gavel after three attempts. To add insult to injury, each voting round awarded him fewer votes than the last. Rep. Jordan has been viewed by many as a very polarizing figure in the American political discord no matter what side of the aisle you lean towards. Obviously, what many would qualify as a controversial record has not helped him out in reaching across the aisle to gain Democrats support either, especially when he keeps talking smack about The Left.
It is worth noting that when the House had an open voting, a lot of the fellow Republicans voted in support of Rep. Jordan but, on the secret vote – in his own caucus where the names are not recorded as far how each representative voted – Rep. Jordan’s support was far less than what is in the no-secret vote. Strange huh? This is important to note, because it shows potential baggage on how the voting record of each representative can affect their political stances and incumbency. Also, there were numerous reports of intimidation and downright threats to members of Congress and their families who openly voted against Jordan.
Blaming the Democrats.
It seems more like a talking point, a buzz word, or a trope for Republicans to discredit Democrats when it comes to some of the setbacks the Republicans in Congress have been facing in the past few weeks. To be honest, much like most of the country I am sick of this partisan “us against them” mentality that keeps permeating our political system. Votes seem to be going strictly down party lines regardless of the need for an actual dialog necessary to reach a win-win situation. And by that I don’t mean a “compromise;” I don’t like the word compromise because a compromise leaves stuff out of the table – somebody gets disenfranchised. I like a win-win situation. A win-win is attainable (there is precedent in Congress about that in the voting record), but it takes more than effort. That is why we elect people to positions of power to perform that demanding duty on behalf of ALL Americans.
So, I am sorry, but I will have to fly the bullshit flag when I see Republicans blame the Democrats for not voting in favor of the Republican caucus candidate. Are Republicans willing to vote in favor of the Democrat candidate caucus? No, they are not. Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that either side would be compelled to vote outside party lines. This needs to change, as I mentioned, but I don’t see an end in sight any time soon.
Republicans also have the majority in the House of Representatives at this time, however razor thin, so in either case the Democrats votes are less of those of the Republicans. Even if all Democrats voted unanimously over any issue, they are not going to win. Do I wish things would be different? Yes, of course, and I stated as much in the previous paragraph. But, once again, it is exceedingly naïve to ascertain that there is going to be a truly bipartisan agreement based on the obvious gridlocks that we’ve observed in the last several years.
Case in point, Rep. McCarthy and other Republicans blamed the Democrats for voting in favor of removing him as speaker of the House. I don’t know if this gaslighting that Rep. McCarthy and company are spewing works on anybody, but it is very patronizing to anybody who is actually paying attention. The Democrats were starkly opposed to having Rep. McCarthy as the speaker of the House in the first place. They did not vote to elect him and, given the opportunity to vote to remove him, what the hell would Rep. McCarthy think they would do? No Duh! I mean, historically, it took Rep. McCarthy the most amounts of votes to gain the speakership in the first place (15 tries), and that was only after giving severe connections to the more extreme parts of his party who ended up removing him from his post anyway. Like, nobody saw that coming. I did, even back in January.
Yes, the Democrats do have their choice for speaker of the House and his name is Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). For this last vote, unsurprisingly, Democrats casted all of their 209 available votes for him in every ballot while Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) got all 220 votes (of course) from the Republicans. Rep. Johnson, although a very obscure figure when compared to some other US Representatives who make headlines more often, is not without controversy.
For this article, I will not delve too deep into those controversies because I don’t want my words to be perceived as leaning towards favoritism or partisanship for, or against any personality. However, some of these facts will not be easy to read for some people who might have a political bias at this particular time in our history. If the person was a Democrat and had the same baggage, I would be writing the same things that I am writing now. To anybody with a political bias I would recommend them to check this same article in the future when the emotional factor is quelled. Yes, emotional factors are deliberately part of the political discourse. The good news is that facts are impervious to emotion. The bad news is that there are a lot of people who vote based on conjecture instead of facts.
Why am I talking about emotional factors? Simple, because our country political discourse is currently largely polarized based on emotions. We need to return to some adequate level of pragmatism to realize what are the facts and underlining issues. This is not the time in our history to be willfully ignorant, or to let our emotions take the best of us, especially whenever we face statements that [we] otherwise find challenging to our perception [of what we want to believe is true, even if it is not].
What is at stake?
Actually, a lot! For starters, the extension to prevent having the US government shutdown expires mid-November. We have been without a speaker of the House for over three weeks (22 days). That is also important because during that entire time a lot of other significant events have occurred- among other things, the attack on Israel by the violent extremist group, Hamas.
When Congress lacks a speaker of the House then a lot of legislation that will afford our troops the funding to conduct operations comes to a stand-still. It is worth mentioning that USA’s military role in this conflict is to prevent this situation from spilling and expanding away from the region. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, but that is a topic for another article. I have chosen not to write much about the Israel-Hamas conflict yet because of all the historical sensitivities that surround this struggle. But, for anybody who thinks that these are not correlated somehow, think again. There is a lot more than what meets the eye riding on these events. Anybody who has been paying attention to history in the last 70+ years will be able to explain to you why.
Which is a good segway to speak about why this new speaker of the House is significant during this time in our history. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has openly spoken about how his decision making and governing style derivates directly from biblical doctrine. Is this a good or a bad thing? Well, it depends if you happen to be in the same Christian Denomination as Johnson, or you are anybody else [for that matter].
By the way, he seems to subscribe to one of the many Baptists sub-denominations. Aside from many specifically contentious theological doctrines, he also subscribes to an Evangelical segment that believes in a young Earth believing that the world is ~6,000 years old. This can be attested by his open support to the Young-Earth Creationist group answers in Genesis – meanwhile, the rest of the scientists agree that the world is 4.543 billion years old. For any eagled-eye mathematicians that means many people who make a living on several independent established and demonstrable sciences had independently concluded that our planet is 4,543,000,000 years old, or 4,542,994,000 older than what young Earth Creationists assert. I’ll let you be the judge of who is correct. But I think you can imagine which number I lean towards in this issue.
Among other things, House Speaker Johnson’s political career is built on the claim that the USA should be governed as a Christian country. There is a slight [euphemism for huge] problem that not everybody in America are Christians, and a follow up problem is that a lot of Christians do not agree in great swaths of their own doctrines. Hence, we have thousands of Christian denominations, although there is an estimated nine million Baptists (combining all branches for Baptists), and there is a further estimated 210 million Christians combining all denominations (including Baptists) in the USA. Of course, there are 332 million people in the country. So, let’s do a bit of quick arithmetic to show why this fact is significant:
332,000,000 US People
– 210,000,000 US Christians
__________
112,000,000 US non-Christians.
Are these 112 million people supposed to be mandated to convert to Christianity? If you are in the group that says “YES”, let’s discuss and please answer, “Then what Christian denomination should we all convert to?” House Speaker Johnson is a Baptist, so is every other Christian alright with following this denomination as the theocracy of the land? Let’s use quick arithmetic to ensure we are capturing this reality:
210,000,000 US Christians
– 9,000,000 US Baptists
__________
201,000,000 Other-than-Baptists US Christian Denominations.
I am not trying to start a religious contention in this article, but if we are talking about a democracy, and the House representing ALL Americans, then this is an important topic to understand if religion in politics is playing a central role. I was unable to discover how many exact numbers of Christian denominations exist in the US at this time. I tried, and there is a lot of information that does not actually narrows it down, but instead it bundles a lot of larger segments of Christianity and does not give an exact number.
However, there are about 45,000 Christian denominations in the world. So, under that metric, if we consider that the US is pretty much a microcosm of the world it is bound to have a similar number of Christian followers. For this experiment, we’ll divide people equally among Christian denominations in the world. Since Christianity should be world-wide, correct? Although these 45,000 denominations do not agree with their doctrines, if they did there would not be a need for divergence.
210,000,000 US Christians ÷ 45,000 denominations = about 3,889 people.
Why am I doing this? Well, simple. Christianity, when combined with the many denominations, is indeed a huge religion. But, when you put it in separated denominations, there are a lot of minorities (as you can see in this rough average) that are religious with a common theme. They diverge very drastically in doctrine and epistemology. In other words, it is very risky to proclaim only one denomination or religion as the law of the land. But, if you’re still in favor of this please consider the following if you’re willing to convert anybody to Christianity:
For example,
What if the “Christian US” was all Jehovah Witness? Or…
What if the “Christian US” was all Latter-Day Saints (Mormon?) Or…
What if the “Christian US” was all Catholic with Augustinian doctrines? Or…
What if the “Christian US” was all Pentecostal? Or…
What if the “Christian US” was all Christian Orthodox? Or…
What if the “Christian US” was all Southern Baptist? I can go on with all the 44,994 remaining Christian denominations but I hope this makes my point.
Hopefully, this makes sense as to why there is a separation of church and state in the United States of America. It actually PROTECTS your right to worship whoever, or whatever, you want which is freedom of religion. For example, if you are a Southern Baptist, would you be cool with being mandated under Catholic Doctrine? Which includes doing all the ceremonies and rituals under that doctrine? And, of course, adjust your epistemology accordingly? How about the possibility of instead of being allowed to practice your Southern Baptist faith, you are now required to be a Jehovah Witness? They are also considered Christian. Yes, I am very sure most Christians would not be cool with anybody imposing a denomination that is contrary to their current epistemology. Well the same is pretty much true for anybody else, no matter what their current belief (or lack-there-off) they have chosen to follow.
Why do you think we don’t have a requirement to be forced into a particular religion? Because otherwise we would not live in a democracy, or a republic for that matter, but rather we would be stuck in a theocracy. For example, countries who live under Islam have a theocracy and the Koran and Sharia Law are the law of the land. If you don’t agree with it, well too bad because it is the law in those countries. By the way, in Islam there is a death penalty for apostacy (or leaving the faith). Would you be OK if that happened in the United States, too, as a mandatory theocracy?
If that gives you pause, even a little, then the same feeling goes for anybody who does not agree with your own particular denomination. That is why we have religious freedom. The separation of church and state protects every religion and prevents any one denomination from becoming the mandate of the land.
I am spending some time on this religious leaning of the speaker of the House because he is so adamant about governing under his religious interpretation. It worries me that under that metric not all Americans are being represented equally. In other words, believe what you want, dude, but don’t force it onto anybody else. Nobody is stopping him from being a hard-core Baptist. If that works for him, cool – but that does not give him authority over imposing his religious doctrines onto everybody else from the third highest office in the land. In other words, please respect all other 323,000,000 non-Baptists in the country. Want examples about the world-views he wants to impose? Sure:
He is very vocal against LGBTQ+ people. He wants it to be criminalized. He is on record stating as much, and how he disagrees with what he considers as “a choice.” Being LGBTQ+ is not a choice, much like being straight is not a choice. You are either straight or not. So, if you’re in that 7% of the US population, he has made some pretty inflammatory comments about you. My position is simple; love the person you love and spend your life with them if it is mutually consensual.
Among the same misunderstanding he believes that LGBTQ+ leads to bestiality. For example, erroneously stating LGBTQ+ would be inclined to marry their pets. That is a very slippery slope that dehumanizes people.
He has a very deep misunderstanding of evolution, and to add insult to injury he also based that on some public statements he has made regarding school shootings (look it up but it might make you mad).
How did we get here?
Yes, that begs the question, how is it that we ended up with House Speaker Mike Johnson? Well, it might be by design. There were two other candidates for speaker of the House who gained the majority nomination to run by the Republican caucus, but they voluntarily stepped down. The most recent example is Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn). He was the Majority Whip, and his voting record does show bipartisan participation. He resigned even before the vote came to the floor, and only four hours after his nomination.
Rep. Emmer, however, did not enjoy former President Trump’s good graces. Trump had called Emmer, among other choice words, a “RINO”- or Republican in Name Only- which is some sort of insult that conservatives throw at each other if they are “not conservative enough.” What is interesting to me is that it’s likely that Rep. Emmer could have gained political support from the Democrats to be elected as speaker of the House because his voting record already reflected a willingness to work across the aisle on certain key issues. As a political strategy that would have been very inconvenient to the Republican’s narrative that theDemocrats are not willing to work with the Republicans on electing a Republican Speaker of the House.
Of course, that was very true with candidates such as Rep. Jim Jordan, and it was true with Rep. Mike Johnson, but although we will never know how it would have been with Rep. Emmer- because the vote did not come to the House floor- I have a feeling that Rep. Emmer might have been able to get at least a few votes from some of the Democrats. In fact, that would have been a wise move for the Democrats because that would undermine any narrative that they are unwilling to work with the Republicans to reach agreements across the aisle. Selecting Rep. Mike Johnson was very likely to prompt the all-so-common voting we see segmented by party lines.
As I mentioned before, the voting record is designed to be a tool for good, but it can also be politically compromising, especially when it comes to lobbyists or other special interest groups. Most Americans won’t care much about the voting record a politician cast for whatever legislation reaches the floor, but those who fund campaigns do pay attention to that closely. I am not necessarily talking about grass-root donors but instead, those who have a lot more money to spend. And, no, that kind of spending money in politics is not just altruistic, but there is an expected return on investment.
Far from implying that, House Speaker Mike Johnson is coming with a nefarious agenda, and I am just stating the obvious. There is a valid reason for why House Speaker Johnson was selected to take this role. Although Johson is far less vocally-famous than more polarizing figures such as Rep. Jim Jordan, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s voting record and career have spearheaded several issues that have been very contentious in the American political discourse. Let’s list just a few for your information:
He is pro-Election Denial, in asserting that former President Trump won the election (this is a very important factor, and I’ll expand more on that shortly). In fact, he was one of the architects of this narrative that is now better known as “The Big Lie.”
He blamed the last mass shooting on “the human heart.” In case you were not aware, the last mass shooting was in Maine and is the deadliest one in 2023, and 2023 has already experienced 565 mass shootings. And, yes, that is more than previous years. It just keeps getting worse and worse. He is very much against common-sense gun regulations which by the way the majority of Americans support (which is not the same as confiscation of firearms, by the way – a lot of liberals also love their guns and some tend to own quite the collections).
We already discussed his issues against you if you happen to be a LGBTQ+. He was in favor of criminalizing what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom. Not sure why anybody should care what consenting adults do in their bedrooms no matter if they are straight or LGBTQ+ – just staying, that’s creepy.
He wants to impose his religious views onto the rest of the country, which is what he did before being elected to Congress. He was an attorney who fought in favor of some controversially-charged religious issues.
His voting record goes against climate and clean energy policies.
And I can go on, but if you do a quick Google search you will find enough material to read for hours so I will leave it at that for now. I mostly want you to have a timeframe of reference in case you want to do more research in the future. But I will return to the one that I find most contentious, and that is the election denialism. Let me explain why this is such an important issue.
Why is election denial dangerous?
First, a few facts. Former President Trump did not win the 2020 election. There have been multiple lawsuits to contend the election results and they all failed. Many other criminal charges have been levied against Trump and some of his followers that categorically demonstrate that his narrative of a stolen election were found false. In fact, a few of his attorneys who were pushing this narrative flipped on him now that they are face-to-face with serious criminal charges. But there is a more important issue, and it is that this narrative of a stolen election is convenient to countries who do not want America to remain the shiny city on the hill. What does that mean?
Well, simple. There are a lot of authoritarian countries out there who are bidding for becoming the number one nation in the world. That would mean that whatever narrative of authoritarianism they spew would become the new normal. America does have room for improvement, but we are not in a political climate whereas if you speak out of turn the government will drag you out of your house and make you “disappear.” But those disappearances, or violent repercussions, do happen in other countries where elections are actually a sham.
The election in 2020 was the most secure election thus far. Trump lost the popular vote and the electoral college in 2020. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral college. There are simply fewer people who wanted to have Trump remain President of the United States. So, it should be a credit to Trump that under his watch the election was not rigged, yet he is somehow telling the world that he was presiding when election fraud occurred. Such a gigantic problem would actually not be good optics for his ability to govern, just saying. Yet, in the same election, a lot of Republicans did win a few races and they did not contest those results, including Mike Johnson’s ballot. Bizarre, huh?
Anyway, claiming election fraud in the US would make other countries in the world seem “acceptable” to have rigged elections. In other words, “if the US has rigged elections being the leader of the world, then it would be normalized to the rest of the world.” Now, that is a convenient narrative to all of those authoritarian countries. But, fortunately, the merits on the evidence do not hold any water. Let’s explore.
Commonly you hear the trope that President Biden did not hold big rallies like Trump as the smoking gun for why there was election fraud. So, let us dispel this very quickly. Democrats do not really go to rallies, and if they vote they will vote but that does not mean they will be wrapping themselves with their candidate’s regalia while spending copious amounts of money to support their candidate of choice. They will just show up and vote, and perhaps donate some money to their campaigns, but otherwise they do not make a big fuss over it.
For example, it’s very unlikely that you will see Democrats buying hats, shirts, hoodies, flags, merchandise, and stay in line for a rally hours before any of their people speak. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on that, they would instead donate to a campaign up to whatever is the allowed amount. Instead of spending on merchandise, they will listen or read what they have to say in the platforms that they consume. For example, instead of going to a rally to view the candidate as they speak, they will login to a website and hear what the candidate has to say from the comfort of their own home. Also, 2020 was smack in the middle of COVID-19 and Democrats preferred to stay home and social distance than going out to rallies and, by doing so, minimize the chance of getting infected with COVID. And, yes, many of them also listen to Right-wing news, they just don’t agree with their narrative.
However, these factors have mostly been forgotten by some of the Right-wing voters. Some don’t even know what happened on January 6, 2021, and that is already startling. By the way, that is the day of the insurrection and assault on the Capitol in Washington D.C. and what caused former President Trump to be impeached for the second time. There are many criminal proceeding and charges against Trump because of that, even though it took more than two years for the indictment to come to light.
The point is that a lot of otherwise very caring and good people who are currently supporting some of the more extreme policies were simply not afforded the full story by their outlets of choice. In other words, Republicans and Democrats can and have worked together, even if they don’t agree on everything. But there is a lot more of what makes us similar than different. That is not convenient to some people who want to push a certain agenda. We have politicians who repeat adversarial talking points verbatim and their constituents parrot them as well. Some people will follow this agenda because they have been lied to while others do so because they are willfully trying to deceive their base.
I have heard the point of views of many so called MAGA Republicans, and they are indeed good decent people, very patriotic, and have a lot of love for the country. But I say this with a lot of love in my heart; they have not been afforded the full story and, yes, I have told them as much in person while giving them an opportunity to see the full context.
It is actually very startling to see how much Republicans actually agree with Democrats on some common denominator policies. In conversations with both sides I’ve noticed they were onboard with certain doctrines BEFORE they knew that those were political policies that they thought they were supposed to dissent upon. It’s fascinating! I find it very disturbing that good people are being utilized by certain politicians to spread misinformation. If you are a MAGA Republican, it will do you well to read and listen to news that are not from your usual “trusted” outlets- both, from the US and internationally. You will discover the obvious, and that is that some of the key information is not making it to your ears. Some of that misinformation is forcing your vote, but this vote is actually against your best interests.
Whether you love or hate Trump is not the issue, here, but the fact is that he has 94 criminal charges and several civil lawsuits. He is also not winning on any of them. Understand that some of those judges were appointed by Trump himself. And any person who was his supporter but had to dissent- well, Trump disavowed them exceedingly fast.
It is worth mentioning that if you file even ONE charge for a case (for example pertaining to an indictment or a lawsuit) [especially] against a high-profile figure that means that actual evidence exist in order to bring said case to court. Especially in high profile cases attorneys would prefer not to risk losing their bar license for bringing a frivolous case to trial – especially if it cannot be won on the merits. The US Government is not in the business to bring a trial they don’t think they can actually win – and if they bring a case will be armed with evidence they gathered well before goes to trial. This realization can be very traumatic for people who have a deep level of devotion towards Trump (or anybody else who enjoys their devotion for that matter).
But it will, just like breaking up with a significant other that sometime in your past gave your butterflies in your stomach. The facts in the end will dictate how that relationship will survive. Some of the people who flipped on him [Trump] felt that their relationship with him was not as positive as they originally envisioned. You might be one of them, too, in the future. Who knows? The fact is that, although very vocal, the MAGA voter just happens to be dwindling for the very reason I just mentioned, and I have met a bunch.
They loved Trump, and they tried to prove somebody else wrong before they found out the [verifiable] truth available pretty much everywhere else, except their usual go-to media outlets. Then they got mad at Trump, and now they are not MAGA Republicans anymore. Still pretty awesomely patriotic Americans, though. Some others (who did not particularly like nor dislike Trump) already realized some that otherwise freely available information before giving Trump a chance to galvanize his power over them. That is why Trump would call anybody else “fake news” – even outlets he previously endorsed if they said something critical of him at some point. It would be counterintuitive if he didn’t – obviously he does not want his fans to hear anything that could be considered disparaging.
A pretty sizable segment of the MAGA Republicans are indeed very patriotic and spirited but we also have to remember that all MAGA or non-MAGA are also required to understand that the world is a lot more complex than what is being afforded in many outlets. I am willing to bet that MAGA Republicans will not be very happy with Trump if they actually figure out that not everything relevant for their decision making and devotion has being percolated in the rallies and their outlets of choice. There is simply a lot that whomever are controlling the narrative are not telling them [MAGA supporters].
How do I know? Well, I have been looking at a lot of MAGA outlets and I can tell you that there is a lot of pertinent information that is being left out. This information could indeed change a MAGA mind. I’m not even kidding. Don’t take my word for it. The factual and official information is available to you. That includes information about the topic within Today in America. And, yes, I have met a lot of ex-MAGA people who were not super happy with Trump after they learned about the full context. Try to prove me wrong. The information exists and it only requires critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Look at the official records that are posted for public consumption. I have even posted some on this site. I only write facts so you’re welcome to prove me wrong, but that means you will have to do some research outside of your usual outlets. In the end, you’ll be happy to embark on that research adventure. Please let me know in the comments how it went. Happy research! HLC
HLC GOP vs GOP – www.halflifecrisis.com – Today in America
In an unprecedented event, the Speaker of the House was ousted by members of his OWN PARTY! Let’s talk about it before this gets forgotten in the news cycle.
For the first time in U.S. History the Speaker of the House seat has been voted out of office. That was a couple of days ago.
On Tuesday, October 3, 2023 Republican Representative and Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his post. This is the first time in the history of the United States of America that a Speaker of the House has been essentially fired, and the majority vote included his own party no less. Yes, the fragmented Republican voted out his own leader.
Granted that this historical moment occurred on Tuesday, but the following Wednesday and Thursday have not been any less bizarre. In fact, I have been trying to start this article more than a few times since Tuesday. But just as I am starting to write something, there are other breaking news and additional news that add to the context. If you are familiar with my writing style, I will never sacrifice exactitude for the sake of brevity. Afterall, these articles are meant to be a chronical portrait – an instant in our American history. I will aways choose to add important [and relevant] data points to the discussion if it provides a better understanding.
So what is going on?
Today all these news will seem bizarre, and in years from now when we revisit this time frame – it will likely remain bizarre. Dare I say, exceedingly frustrating. I have to admit, it is actually frustrating even right now. Why? There are very important situations in the crux of our world history, and with America being front and center of all this massive paradigm. And when we see something that most pundits would characterize as political theater the whole situation is distracting. Most importantly it is a win for other regimes who do not particularly like America, and they point at our political discourse as a win for their own governing style.
And to be clear this situation with Kevin McCarthy being ousted has been telegraphed for a long time. How long might some would ask? Well, for some of us who saw the writing on the wall, pretty much from the time he ran for the position as Speaker of the House. McCarthy also made history back then when it took 15 ballots for him to be elected in January 2023. And that was only after a handful of Republicans voted “present” to lower the vote threshold. Not a promising start… a bit ominous, perhaps?
The votes were of course divided through party lines. Since the House of Representatives had a slim Republican Majority, all Democrats voted against McCarty and in favor of Representative (D) Hakeem Jeffries of NY, who was serving also as the Minority Leader. Representative (R) Kevin McCarthy of California who was the Majority Leader was still short even within his own party. There was also a group of so called MAGA Republicans, which includes Representative (R) Matt Gaetz of Florida. The latter is the Representative who started the process to outs McCarthy out of his post.
So just to recap, these are the six Republicans who were blocking McCarthy from being elected in the first place. Yes, you will see some familiar names in this article:
– Rep. (R) Andy Biggs – AZ
– Rep. (R) Lauren Boebert – CO
– Rep. (R) Eli Crane – AZ
– Rep. (R) Matt Gaetz – FL
– Rep. (R) Bob Good – VA
– Rep. (R) Matt Rosendale – MT
So, is this surprising? Not at all, in fact I wrote previous articles on how this rocky relationship unsustainability seemed not as a matter of if but when. Unsurprisingly, many Republicans are not happy with Gaetz at all because of this move. And the more I learn how this came to be, the more discombobulated this entire situation has been evolving, it is actually mind-bending. Many of Gaetz fellow Republicans had some very poignant words to describe him. These include but not limited to “pathetic, charlatan, creepy.” Hey, their words, not mine. It did not help that each time Gaetz would do a political stunt like this he would use it as a fund-raiser. And yes, he has been called out to his face on that – by other Republicans, no less. And yes, in the House floor.
So how did he get this much “love” from his cadre? Well, for instance Republican Representative Matt Gaetz put a Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy in a precarious situation as Gaetz spearheaded a cadre of 21 Republicans who were pretty much onboard with shutting the government just a few days ago. To keep the government open, McCarthy had no choice but to team up with the Democrats in order to get enough votes in order to secure the decision for the Government not be shut down at the 11th hour. Gaetz complained in front of the entire world that McCarthy did wrong by teaming up with the Democrats; yet Gaetz will immediately move to push for a motion to vacate the Speaker of the house position, and was able to do so by getting the Democrats to vote to vacate the Republican Speaker of the House in addition to the eight Republicans who also voted against McCarthy.
Yes, that happened… it would be funny if it wasn’t so weird. Eight Republicans joined the Democrats to vote Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. The final tally was 216 to 210. In the meantime Republican Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as the “Speaker in the Interim.”
In case you are wondering who are the Republicans who voted to take the seat away from McCarthy, these are the names (you’ll see some familiar names from the government shutdown vote):
– Rep. (R) Matt Gaetz – FL (no surprise there, he started all this)
– Rep. (R) Andy Biggs – AZ
– Rep. (R) Tim Burchett – TN
– Rep. (R) Eli Crane – AZ
– Rep. (R) Bob Good – VA
– Rep. (R) Nancy Mace – SC
– Rep. (R) Matt Rosendale – MT
And in case you were wondering if the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives are upset at Matt Gaetz, then your assertions are spot on. McCarthy himself during his rather sad “farewell from the House Speaker” seat speech had a few choice words against Gaetz. Among other epithets, it seems that “charlatan” is one of those that fellow Republicans seem have it trending. There has been some chatter about trying to outs Gaetz as well. To be honest, I would not be surprised. Seeing the political discourse devolve from afar seems like a bizarre new normal. I have to admit I am looking forward to a time when the prestige of what the House of Representatives is supposed to be returns to that point of proper decorum.
McCarthy also had a few choice words against the other Republicans who ousted him, and of course he had no love for the Democrats. No surprise on the latter.
But back to the House of Representatives decorum, even if they disagree in policy, that is why debates in the House floor are part of the process. However, political theater is not conducive to address all the other important factors our country needs to resolve. And I say factors, because these issues are multipliers. However, this bizarre political theater, to include this civil-war among republicans in their own party remain very divisive. I am concerned that the reason why more people seem to be paying attention to politics is because it is resembling a reality show. That is not good news for the prestige of our country at a macro geopolitical stance. The good news is that another election is around the corner and hopefully this political theater will also serve to drive more positive change support to the polls.
What do I mean? You might or might not be surprised to learn that a lot of Americans decide to stay home instead of going to the polls and vote. And sadly, a pretty sizable group of people who actually goes to the polls and vote are misinformed about actual policies and the candidate’s platform and doctrines. It is not unusual for a lot of people to vote on political affiliation rather than actual grasp on policy. And by policy, I mean truly understanding their candidate of choice, and their opposition platforms (as in plural).
The intricacies of the political process are indeed complex, but that does not mean that we can all participate with knowledge in the process. I envision an opportunity for our country to stop this bizarre political theater in this sacred chamber that is meant to represent our country. The rest of the world is paying attention. They use these spectacles as exhibit “A” to try to frame the mighty U.S. of A. as a dysfunctional and failing governing system. Yes, our political discourse travels a lot farther than our domestic policy. The world pays attention to what the Leading nation in the world does – and how they conduct business. The good, the bad and the bizarre.
Do you know who is happy when we fight with political theater? Well, I said it already but it is worth repeating. The Regimes who do not want America to remain the leader of the world. The process is arduous, but it has been in motion for quite a while. And it started with eroding our trust in our government and institutions. If these are errored beyond repair, then any other dysfunctional type movement system will seem “justified” to act with impunity. In other words, a new normal will percolate. I’m oversimplifying for the sake of succinctness, but we have to understand that is the responsibilities we hold as the leading nation in the world stage.
Final vote Kevin McCarthy ousted from as Speaker of the House
What is next?
Who knows? Seriously, I think I will have to continue writing updates on this case. I was even seeing reports that there is a group of Republicans who want to nominate former President Donald Trump as a Speaker of the House. And guess what? Despite all the criminal and civil cases against Trump, that situation is not that far from possible. Yes, I am serious.
And by the way, Trump did have a bad day on his civil court for fraud in New York. I’ll write another article about that at some point, I am sure there will be plenty to dissect. But the trail is ongoing so you can look forward to that once we know how it will end. But the point is that McCarthy ousting even overshadowed the fact that the former President of these United States was sitting in civil court today and the fact he was issued a gag order by the judge. Yeah, that is pretty unique too. Regardless, Trump did state that he would be willing to assume the position of Speaker of the house if drafted.
But he (Trump) is not the only one eye-balling the Speaker of the House seat. Republican Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio is perhaps the most news-acquainted of all potential contenders. Which is interesting, because Jordan was asked if he would support Trump as the Speaker of the House. I have not been able to confirm this, but his answer was perhaps before he (Jordan) announced his bid to Speaker of the House. Jordan’s answer was a nervous laughter and defection saying something to the effect that he wants Trump to be President again. At the time I saw that I was no aware Jordan was a Speaker of the House hopeful. But in hindsight his response demeanor makes perfect sense.
I saw a few other names of people hoping to run for Speaker of the House. I am sure that the names will change – either add or decrease. An interesting up-side with McCarty being ousted, then the “implied succession” of who should or should not be Speaker of the House has evolved. In other words, it used to be a sort of a non-spoken rule that either the minority or majority Republican would be the candidate to compete for that coveted position. After all the Speaker of the House position is the third person in line to the U.S. Presidency.
But just in case you are wondering who is planning on running for Speaker of the House, already as a person in office, here is the list:
– REP. (R) Steven Scalise – from Louisiana and current House Majority Leader
– REP. (R) Jim Jordan – from Ohio
– REP. (R) Tom Emmer – from Minnesota and current House Majority Whip
– REP. (R) Kevin Hern – from Oklahoma
And by the way – as a reminder, if you feel so inclined to run for that position, our system of government allows an American Citizen person who is not already a sitting Representative to run for Speaker of the House. I do have a feeling that the most aggressive campaign will be pushed by Jim Jordan. In case you are unfamiliar with him, he’s normally the one politician in Congress who tends to wear a yellow tie, light blue shirt and no jacket. Oh, and he is a fast talker.
I am sure a lot of us will continue keeping our eyes peeled as these events continue to evolve; quite fast if I might add. In either case, it seems that the civil war inside the Republican-wing of Congress won’t end anytime soon. I am not naïve enough to ascertain that the political theater will end any time soon either. But I will say that while this is happening, the clock is ticking toward the possibility that the government will in-fact shut down coming November 2023. And I would like to think that is an issue that deserves a lot of immediate attention. HLC
HLC Govt Shutdown – www.halflifecrisis.com – Today in America
Threats of Government Shutdowns have become the norm in America to impose political agendas. This political theater negatively affects every day Americans.
The U.S. Government Shutdown was averted, for ~45 more days.
On Sunday, October 1, 2023 the United States of America woke up to a still-non-shut U.S. Government. Republican-led House of Representatives had a vote on Saturday night to keep the Government open for another 45 days, and this was quickly endorsed by the Democrat-led Senate, and signed into law before the midnight deadline by Democrat President Biden. Good news, crisis averted? Not quite, let’s explore the facts.
As promised, I am writing a follow up to the almost-Government Shutdown issue that could have put millions of Americans in a very precarious situation. Sadly, I can bet you both my arms and a foot that there are millions more Americans who had no idea what had happened in the last 48 hours… nor do they might even care. Event thought this would have been an enormous disaster whether if they work for the Federal Government or not. And that is a scary thought, yet it is a very sad reality.
What happened?
If I could summarize it with one term it would be “Political-Theater.” I’ve mentioned in the previous article how both the Republican and Democratic parties are polarized. Further, the Republicans are fragmented inside their own party. One of the variables to keep the government open was how would the current Speaker of the House, Representative (Republican) Kevin McCarthy would act at the 11th hour. Well, as predicted, he got the help he needed from the Democrats in order to keep the Government open. He was not happy about this course of action, but he had no option.
If you remember from the previous article, there were 21 Republican Representatives who essentially held the entire country hostage, risking the well-being of millions of Americans to push their political agenda. There is a time and a place for everything, and the 11th hour when millions of Americans could be severely negatively affected is not the time nor place. That is why there was a vote for the “motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended” the opportunity to buy more time to continue discussions in Capitol Hill. This bill HR 5860 allowed the government to remain open by extending the timeline for dialog.
The 21 MAGA Republicans, led by FL Representative (Republican) Matt Gaetz voted to NOT allow this discussion from happening last week, hence the looming shutdown. But finally last night, the final tally passed with 335 “YEA” votes, against 91 “NAY” votes, and 7 “non-Votes.”
In order to understand the polarization AND the possibility to work together on the House of Representatives, this is the final breakout:
In case you are wondering who is the only Democrat who did not vote Yeah is Representative (Democrat) Mike Quigley, because the legislation failed to include aid for Ukraine. And we’ll talk more about that in a moment.
The “stop-gap” measure that was voted to continue having the Government open for about 45 more days was not without actually having a few concessions in order to reach the deadline. One of those was the financial aid to Ukraine. For context Ukraine is not a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally, which would require Article 5 involvement – a.k.a. fighting against whomever Ukraine is fighting. But rather Ukraine is a NATO partner, which falls under Article 4 – a.k.a. “We help you not get beat up but, you are pretty much on your own.” And the Ukrainians have been fighting on their own. Russia crossed Ukraine’s border on February 24, 2022. That’s 584 days (1 year, 7 months, 1 week) of fighting a war.
The aid to Ukraine is to prevent the conflict from expanding into the region. In a very oversimplified way, it is preventing World War III (WW-III) from occurring. I’ll write a full article on that. You can get some additional context on my series about the Ukraine-Russia conflict on this very site (www.halflifecrisis.com). And the reason why they are intertwined, is because the world is connected in so many levels. It can be mind-bending, but that is the reality. I am very aware it can be overwhelming to even think about it.
But the fact is that if we (you, or anybody else) is happy to be willfully ignorant about the reality, then somebody who is actually paying attention could become the difference or the demise to all those who are otherwise distracted. That is another reason why I write these articles, and I have written a few manuscripts who will be released in (hopefully) in the near term.
As I have been speaking with people from all walks of life. A lot of them seem very misinformed. Worst, many don’t seem to care about why this is important, yet they vote. Others care a lot about the country and have their heart in the right place, but their perception is deceived with skewed facts. I just try to do my part while in any way I can, hence I use my platform (however small at this point) to try to illustrate the importance of these events in our history.
Vote on Motion to Suspend The Rules and allow the Government to remain open
The noise of dissent.
I watched several interviews with Kevin McCarthy and with Matt Gaetz… both Republican Representatives who are pretty much at wat against each other. Gaetz who will start working on ousting McCarthy argues that the latter did not play ball to the deal they made at the beginning of the year. In case you were not tracking, the so called MAGA Republicans in the House were making it difficult (understatement of the year) to McCarthy to get enough votes to be the Speaker of the House from the very start.
Gaetz also threated McCarthy that if he worked with the Democrats and not let the Government Shut down, then he (Gaetz) would start the process to get McCarthy to vacate his post. That is also interesting, because when Gaetz was confronted with the fact he likely does not have the votes to do so, he just attempted some deflection to the facts. But the other facts are that the Democrats do not want McCarthy as the Speaker of the House either, especially because the House has been focusing mostly on trying to Impeach Biden and a lot of political theater than actually passing any actual viable legislation. To oversimply, we almost got the government to shut down because of this inability to bring the parties together.
The Democrats in a way will be forced to look from a far how the show will unfold on the other side of the aisle. Since the Republicans hold the majority, it is not really up to the Democrats who will be the next Speaker of the House. And McCarthy has not shown to be in control of his own caucus. This is also very disturbing because the Speaker of the House is the THIRD person in line to the Presidency of the United States. This power succession goes like this, The President, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House.
Fortunately, although under a lot of political pressure, McCarthy did the right thing and sided wit the Democrats in order to keep the Government open. Remember what I said in the last article. In this case the Senate introduces, debates and, passed the bill. Then this bill goes to the Senate where it gets its own debate, and when it passes it goes to the President to sign into law.
Of course that Congress is a lot more complex than this single example. There are different bills that also originate from the Senate, but that also means that the House will have some hand in the process before it becomes a law. At some point I will write about the intricacies of Congress, because there is a lot to discuss. But for now let’s just stablish that both the House of Representatives, and the Senate need to work together to complete a “legislative product” – even though they are two separate government bodies under the same Legislative Branch.
In the meantime, although we averted the worst part of the situation – having millions of Americans in a precarious financial situation because of a Government Shutdown… we are not out of the woods yet. The new deadline under the HR 5860 signed by President Biden is set to November 17, 2023. There is still plenty to be discussed in Capitol Hill. And yes, you can bet I will write another article about it.
What is next?
We can only hope that our elected representatives will reach an agreement that help us all Americans. However, this help is a lot more complex than stuff that happens inside our borders. Why? Because this country is placed in a planet with ~200 other countries. And like them or dislike them, know them or being oblivious to them; it does not matter. All these countries, big or small affect the United States of America in many ways.
We are likely to see more Political Theater, this time with FL REP. (R) Matt Gaetz forcing a vote to outs the Speaker of the House, REP (R) Kevin McCarthy. And I would not be surprised if that is also going to eat a lot of bandwidth and precious time during this extension. And I would not be further surprised if we are having a similar conversation about a looming government shutdown coming mid-November.
In the meantime, I am grateful that I did not have to manage a lot of emergency financial situations for my Sailors, and many other people working in Government did not have to do the same – you know, help them weather this terrible financial storm. And the same can be said about the United States as a whole. Because if we would have shut down, our debt and credit rating in the world would have taken a plunge.
Yes, much like an individual credit can go good or bad, the same happens to a country. A Government Shutdown would be akin as being late on payments, and making a person looking for a loan a credit risk. That is bad in many ways, for instance less opportunity to borrow, and higher interests in repaying whatever is being borrowed. And our debt is pretty high, in the trillions.
That debt level is a whole discussion to another article – and there is plenty to talk about. Because misunderstanding of this debt is what is weaponized in order to try to push some incongruent legislation. And that lack of understanding is what has become a catalyst for many elected representatives to push for unattainable, and in many instances nefarious legislation. I promise I will write more about it, because that is a very complex topic on its own – and it affect us all. For now I am just grateful that we (the USA) have some additional time to work things out. HLC
JAN 6 2021 gallows capitol hill
