Nikki Haley and Racism in the American Country

Yes, slavery caused the Civil War. Remember the Race Wars that followed. Remember the genocide of Indigenous Americans. Learn the truth.

Nikki Haley blew it with her clumsy responses to questions from her audience regarding the causes of the American Civil War and whether or not the United States is a racist nation. She bungled this during a campaign rally in New Hampshire in late December 2023. Found this sad and disturbing. Why? Because I like Nikki Haley even tho I disagree with her on a number of domestic policy and social justice issues. I won’t waste my vote as a protest in favor of a third party candidate. President Joe Biden is too timid and wobbly when it comes to national security and waging war. He did a great job up to his shameful abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Biden was nearly FDRian during his first year and a half as POTUS in the manner he pulled the nation out of the chaotic near-collapse the Usurper Trump had pulled America down into. 

Now the tribulations of being elderly have caught up to him. It’s painfully obvious, embarrassing, and dangerous. The vice president who once elevated his ticket as a candidate is equally painfully way in over her head a la the Peter Principle. Kamala Harris is now a burden. Nikki Haley, however, is razor sharp, blazingly brilliant, witty, and surgically precise. She can be folksy and wonky and a spitfire all at the same time. This South Carolinian daughter of Sikh Indian immigrants is fierce, combative, and courageous. She’s accomplished as a former two-term governor and UN ambassador. Yes, she’s too conservative for me on many domestic issues. She’s anti-woke but not asleep, a rare combination these days. She failed and continues to fail to call out Donald Trump for what he truly is: a fascist, racist, misogynistic, bigoted, bullying usurper and traitor. She even vowed to support Trump in the first Republican debate back in 2023 even tho she derides him for his chaos and even tho Trump refuses to debate. Haley may be moving towards revoking her past promise to support Trump if he’s the GOP nominee as she currently escalates her criticism of the Usurper as chaotic and incompetent. In her surprise cold opening on a recent Saturday Night Live episode in early February of this year, Haley roasted Trump as a buffoon. She challenged the goofy loser, portrayed by Nashville native, actor, and comedian James Austin Johnson, to a mental competency test. Trump, or rather the man behaving as Trump, flubbed it in the silly skit designed to drive the Red Maggots mad. Continue reading

President Biden’s Inflection Point

Pay attention to what the American President … and the Chair of the Fed declared

Inflection Point with what’s next. On a rare, hand drawn graph…

“Good evening, my fellow Americans.  We’re facing an inflection point in history — one of those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come.” ~ from President Joe Biden’s Address to the Nation Thursday night on the 19th of October 2023.

“We’re facing an inflection point in history…”

Those words are significant. He’s preparing the world for war.

“That’s what I’d like to talk with you about tonight. “ Except he really did not further address the inflection point. Continue reading

Afghanistan, August 2021: Ramifications

Joe Biden has severely damaged his American presidency. We can argue the history and legacy of 43 years of constant warfare between multiple sides in and over Afghanistan since 1978, but the cameras are on what’s happening now. We can repeatedly declare no one was prepared for the rapid collapse of the Afghan state with bloody chaos in the wake of Biden’s acceleration of American withdrawal despite intelligence reports to the contrary. The perception rings true, however, the events of August 2021 overshadow Biden’s progressive agenda. Who’s thinking about his trillion-dollar FDR-style bipartisan infrastructure package now?

Biden is correct most Americans want to get out of Afghanistan and indeed out of all the “forever wars.” A withdrawal wasn’t supposed to be defeat, however, and now the United States has fallen face down into the Graveyard of Empires. Biden failed to remember Americans hate losing wars more than they hate being stuck in them. Even neverending wars draining the US and its NATO Allies of blood and treasure “should” or “could” have been won despite what Clausewitz wrote of war and politics. Yes, Americans don’t like wasting time, lives, and money in endless wars in faraway, remote places distracting them from more immediate concerns back at home, but they hate losing even more. Continue reading

The Usurper versus The Challenger: Trump vs Biden, 1st Debate

Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden squared off tonight in the ugliest, most brutal, and cringe-inducing presidential debate I’ve ever witnessed. Many older journalists say it’s the worst such debate in U.S. history, at least in the history of television. The majority of observers pointed to one participant in particular for the emotional squalor and mean-spirited bullying, Trump, the man who kept harping upon his belief he “won” the 2016 election for president. Did he? A valid case can be made Trump usurped the American presidency. Trump hijacked the GOP as he bulldozed aside traditional conservatives, neocons, and libertarian Republicans alike. Trump barreled on to lose the popular vote by about 3 million people. The candidate and his Far Right base interfered with the Electoral College’s vetting of candidates, forced the states to ignore third party and independent candidates, and intimidated the Electors to vote for him. Faithless electors rebelled against having to vote for either Trump or the also-unpopular Hillary Clinton. Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party attempted to get votes recounted in controversial states in an attempt to move the EC towards Clinton. The EC certified him the winner, Congress then declares whom the EC certifies as the winner, and then the winner is inaugurated. Trump apparently saw far more people out upon the Mall before him on Inauguration Day than actually existed. And all of this without adding in election tampering by ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin and the Russians. Yes, Trump is the Usurper, the Goliath in the house, and Biden stands firm as the Biblical David, the Challenger with a slingshot firing stones of truths thru Trump’s torrent of lies and distortions.

I’ve never felt such weird, unpleasant anxiety before a presidential debate before. Such debates are politically vital to the campaign, and they’re also regarded more as drama and entertainment rather than a serious debate over policy differences as to what are the best steps to address critical priorities. There was so much more at stake tonight than media-driven personality dramas. Trump pulled out his dirty mob boss attitude while Biden dug into this working class, small town, and suburban roots. Tonight’s clash proved ferocious. We stand at the brink of our own dystopian apocalypse, so if you’re one of those who doesn’t give a rip, wake up! Stop running around so oblivious and pay attention. If and once a fascist dictatorship is established, the tyrant often devours his own minions early on. Are you a minion? Or of the Resistance? Choosing doesn’t make you a “radical.”

The Challenger stood up to the Usurper in the White House tonight. A global pandemic rages as a recession worse than the Great Recession chews up our economy. Human-driven climate change is destroying our habitats. Gun violence, social justice conflicts, a partisan Supreme Court struggle, severe income inequality, an opioid epidemic, homelessness, underemployment, and Black Lives Matter versus the Police rips thru our neighborhoods like wildfire.

Perhaps conflating Trump with Goliath does a disservice to the Biblical giant. The Usurper in the White House built by Black slaves violated debate rules, ethics, morals, and boundaries. Trump demonstrated a stunning lack of respect for anything and everything. The man simply did not give a shit and delighted in throwing metaphorical turds. Trump was dangerously infantile and out-of-control as he narcissistically made the election all about himself even tho he bullied everyone around him including the moderator, Chris Wallace. There were several moments when Trump was so disrespectful and shamelessly rude Mr. Wallace, a prestigious journalist from Fox News who spent years prior with NBC and ABC, would have been justified to terminated the debate and send Trump packing. Either way, the real losers were not only the American people but people from all around the planet who deserved to hear the candidates present their platforms. Instead the world had ringside seats to witness a bully in action as a most unpresidential president attempted to hijack the first debate. 

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