WHAT ARE WE DOING?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Yesterday afternoon, a news brief came on the radio.  The voice of Donald Trump blurted out giving his assessment of NATO and a made-up conversation between (I am guessing) himself and a NATO member about paying their dues.  It was not exactly clear what he was suggesting, but it sounded as though if they don’t pay up, they deserve whatever they get from Russia or whomever and we won’t help.  It was a clear threat, but also a promise to his cult that he was still their guy, their playground bully who if allowed back in power, he would try to force everyone to accommodate his/their prejudices.  Of course, he focused on money, ironic considering how much he ignores paying for things.

I am currently reading a book entitled Becoming Mamma-san by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald.  The author was interned along with other Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II. 

These two things suddenly came together for me when Ms. Gruenewald talked about the “loyalty oath” all interned prisoners had to sign.  After depriving these persons of their homes, their livelihoods, their dignity, and their freedom, the United States Government was demanding a loyalty that could put their lives further at risk, requiring young men to go into the army and young women to serve in a women’s service branch.  If they refused to agree, the “no-nos, they were dumped into concentration camp, Tule Lake in California, a remote desert hell, and were considered pariahs by the people of this nation as well as by other interned Japanese people. 

The question that came to me was “what are we doing!  We the People seem to easily forget where we have been and we let people whose humanity is lacking, have power they should never have, then we believe that what they say should matter.  We buy into their “insanity” and pretend the damage done by them isn’t something we can do anything about. 

In one case above, with absolutely no evidence, people of Japanese descent were forced into concentration camps behind barbed wire and towers manned by soldiers with machine guns.  In the other case, with tremendous amounts of evidence that he is a serial liar, a tax cheat, and an insurrectionist who was legally voted out of office is still not behind barbed wire and is trying to get back into office by whatever means necessary.  The difference is pretty obvious it seems to me, no evidence is necessary if it is a group of people different from the majority and no matter how much evidence is presented, a rich white man can actually be disloyal to our nation and not only get away with it, but plans to do it again and take revenge, something the Japanese internees didn’t do, and they had cause where Trump has none.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, numerous investigations were conducted finding there was essentially no evidence of espionage by Japanese people in America.  Major Karl Bendetsen and Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, two officers of the Western Defense Command ignored the FBI and other reports of no evidence and pumped out conspiracy theories that “the fact that nothing has happened so far is more or less . . . ominous.”  DeWitt claimed this indicated there was control being exercised within the Japanese community that would shortly fail and that control ended, the sabotage would be massive.  Gov. Earl Warren of California and President Franklin Roosevelt, again with no evidence, agreed, both responding to their own biases against Japanese people.  Roosevelt signed order 9066 which forced West Coast people of Japanese descent into concentration camps in the most inhospitable places they could find in this country.

Two of the men who perpetrated the crimes against the Japanese community have names few remember but two, Franklin Roosevelt and Earl Warren, are seen as heroes.  The conspiracy theories that Karl Bendetsen and John DeWitt perpetrated took 40+ years to even discuss as a nation.  I suspect the conspiracy theorist in chief of today, Donald Trump knows little or nothing about it and could not possibly care less.

How do conspiracy theories work?  They start with someone who has a bit of recognition, sometimes respect.  The person does not like reality because it does not fit with their biases about a specific person, group, event, or process.  The conspiracy theorist makes up stories about something that has happened and distorts it enough to make the change harmful to the target but still somewhat believable to those receiving the “message.”  The theorist has sufficient prestige to “credibly” pass on information only they know to individuals and groups who also want that special knowledge.  We do have free speech in this country, a critical right.  It permitted two military officers to lie about Japanese people living on the West Coast and for Governor Warren and President Roosevelt to lie to the American people, through the media, enhancing and feeding the public’s fear of Japan and people of color in general.  Trump passed to his cult the idea that the election was stolen from him encouraging them to believe a lie which was reinforced by media platforms and spokesmen tied through loyalty to Trump.  It is one thing when a regular citizen lies to friends and family but something quite different when a prominent person lies or incites hatred of or violence toward others. 

The ones who forced Japanese people into concentration camps were wrong but never held accountable for what they had done.  I believe all were dead by the time President Reagan finally stood up to acknowledge what had been done to Japanese people here in the United States.  We as a nation have not fully come to terms with what was done to somewhere around 120,000 men, women, and children.

Donald Trump has used wealth to promote him to a status where he can make statements that are lies or threats and people will not only listen, but also act on them.  His actions could have brought down our democracy and still could if We the People don’t stand up to him.  He has targeted NATO before, but things are a bit different now that Republicans are following Trump’s move toward favoring Russia’s Putin over our actual Ally Ukraine.  That seems to me as having some similarity to an American favoring Japan or Germany during WWII.  Many Americans did favor Hitler’s Germany over our democracy.  Had the Japanese not attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered the war, those fascist Americans could have succeeded in seriously damaging our democracy, if not destroying it.  One wonders how Trump’s and Tucker Carlson’s fondness for Putin will impact our current situation.  What conspiracies are they planting among their cult? 

We are going to need a lot of help to counter the anti-democratic moves by Trump and his Republican Party.  It is pretty clear we will not get sufficient help from our courts.  Trump and his Senate appointed so many of his cult to the courts that they will protect  him regardless of the law (Judge Cannon and the Florida classified documents case).  The Supreme Court showed us on Thursday, Feb. 8^th that they will force every state to have Trump on their ballots despite our Constitution because a Republican insurrectionist with enough influence can do pretty much whatever he wants and the SC will back him or at least not get in his way.  They did the same During WWII when Japanese-Americans brought a case against Japanese internment.  The Supreme Court declared it was legal, though without evidence that it should ever have happened.  They ended up protecting Roosevelt’s signature instead of doing the right thing for the incarcerated innocents. 

So, my question, what are we doing?  Why are we not protesting loudly in large numbers?  Why are we not demanding our media call lies what they are?  Why are “journalists” not challenging statements made by Trumpers and Trumpettes that are just plain wrong, and doing it on air?  When someone says he would prefer fascism to democracy, the interviewer needs to ask, WHY!  Do you have any idea what fascism is, what it would mean for you? 

The Democratic Party seems to be spending more effort on begging for money than actually countering the Trump conspiracy theory and lying presentations.  Republicans have decided that racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and fascism are their modus operandi and along with their lies and misinformation, are what they will use to get power to do whatever.  They are not clear on exactly what, but they do have a plan for 2025 which is appalling.  In any case, a whole lot of people will suffer if they get their way.  The rising fascists somehow think it won’t be them, rich, white, straight men.  It will be those people.  What are we doing?  Why are we listening to a man every single day who respects no one, lies incessantly, threatens his fellow citizens and the nations of the world, who is losing his ability to think clearly while being led along by people who are as power-hungry and lacking in morality as he is?  Do we really want that crew back in power?  It seems our media thinks so.  Trump is covered in our media broadcasts more than our president and vice president who are competent and working hard on behalf of this nation.  Trump is working for no one but himself.  What are we doing?

SOME SCARY SIMILARITIES

By Ruth Sheets

Lately, things in the good old US of A are getting a bit scary, and that is on purpose.  One of our political parties, Republicans, has decided that democracy might not be what they want for America.  The party and its corporate managers want something else.  It is not clear just what that would be, but they are throwing spaghetti ideas against the wall to see which stick. 

OK, calling what Republican leaders are throwing against the wall, “ideas,” is probably inaccurate, but the truth is, what they are tossing with the greatest arm strength are ways to ignore our Constitution, how to lie incessantly and break laws with impunity, models for cheating the American people of our rights, while gaslighting their supporters and the rest of us that they are doing no such thing.  You’ll probably remember that gaslighting comes from the movie “Gaslight” in which a husband tries to drive his wife mad by changing lighting levels and other things around the house and either pretending he doesn’t notice the changes, so they must be all in her head or that she must have made the changes herself and doesn’t remember. 

Republicans no longer hide their racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, or xenophobia.  These have been integral to the party for decades but what used to be said behind closed doors is now spoken openly, while practitioners claim “I don’t have a racist/sexist bone in my body” or other inaccuracies.  Then, We the People are told we really didn’t hear what we heard, see what we saw, and aren’t being threatened the way we are being threatened.  The Republican in Chief brags of violence erupting if he is indicted on charges for crimes he actually committed.  He doesn’t admit the crimes or simply claims he had the right to do them by virtue of him being president or just being Trump).

We’ve seen some of the Republican-inspired violence at Charlottesville in 2017, the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, and smaller outbreaks all over the country.  Now, Democrats and anyone who does not go along with the Republican playbook of lies, hatred, targeting, and dehumanization of women and non-white people, often receive death threats and warnings. Trump himself warns that if he is elected president again, he will take revenge on all of those terrible people who crossed him.

To me, this is sounding an awful lot like Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  The economy was bad after World War I and the people’s anger and frustration were carefully funneled into blaming and hatred of Jews, despite the fact that Jews had fought on Germany’s side during the war, were making significant scientific advancements for their country, and were integrated into nearly every part of German life. 

When the fires of hatred had been sufficiently stoked by Hitler and his band of thugs, they moved on to maligning political figures who opposed the newly powerful Nazi Party.  When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he had those political leaders rounded up and thrown into prison camps, those who were not killed.  Once Jews were safely on the nation’s hit list, the Nazis needed more groups to hate, so the net expanded to include:  Communists; the Roma people; Jehovah’s Witnesses; “homosexuals,” then, disabled persons as burdens on society.  The thought must have been that everyone in Germany would find at least one group among the many targets they could hate sufficiently to permit harm to be done to them.  

The horrors the Nazis and their allies perpetrated on the people named above did not begin all at once.  Those in power had to do it a bit at a time so the German public could get used to seeing Jews and others, men, women, and children, at first humiliated, then beaten, then murdered in the streets.  When the trains rattled toward the concentration camps filled with those Germany had decided had little or no right to live, neighbors might notice some folks missing, but they could lie to themselves they had just left the country for somewhere else.  And, the freight trains were carrying trash, right?  It seems we humans can convince ourselves of just about anything with the right motivation.  Hitler et al could not have done what they did without a whole lot of community participation.  Many Germans after the war said they didn’t know what was happening.  I suppose they thought it made their post-war suffering seem undeserved, even righteous.  They may not have known the details, but they knew enough. 

Our current position is at the top of the slippery slope toward some kind of autocracy or oligarchy (it is uncertain which Republicans and their rich puppeteers are hoping for).  Either type of government would be disastrous for this nation.  Loud-mouthed Trump painted a picture of revenge that soothes the hearts of people who believe they are entitled to something they don’t yet have.  Clearly if they don’t have everything they want like the rich men they admire, someone must have kept them from it, sounding similar to the propaganda that was ubiquitous in 1930s Germany.  In both cases, the leader claims to be the only one who can save them from this horror. 

 German media played classical music while regularly breaking in to spew lies, both the positives the leaders were supposedly doing and the negatives about the targeted groups.  All day into the late evening it played.  One could be fined for not having the radio on.  That’s kind of like Fox for many Republicans, twisted/alternate facts, all day, all the time, (no good music, though).

 Our media, owned by rich corporations rather than a corrupt government as in Germany, is failing our people as the media of Nazi Germany failed the German people.  Our media claims to be “fair and balanced” even when it gives as much coverage to an extremely minor, unsupported viewpoint as to a viewpoint that has a strong majority, even scientific support.  Whatever Donald Trump, an ex, twice-impeached president does or says is covered extensively by the media, often with no indication as to whether what he has said is the truth or what he has done is legal, a continuation of a practice for the past 8 years. 

By the mid-1930s, the German courts no longer even pretended to hand down justice, just the rulings Hitler and his crew wanted.  Our courts are acting in similar ways.  They care little to nothing for what the American people want or need, mostly what matches their personal beliefs and their corporate donors’ desires.  One might think the Supreme Court, having lifetime appointments and decent salaries wouldn’t get donations, but alas, there are plenty of corporations, in exchange for judgments on their behalf that will donate.  Who can call them out on it since there is no standard of ethics for the Supremes?

Last year, the media spent more time worrying over who leaked the Alito draft of the anti-woman, anti-Roe BS at the Supreme Court than what pain the decision would cause women in the poorest states with the least ability to withstand forced birth.  It was clearly Alito who leaked the anti-Roe draft to his family or friends.  He was just so proud of his poorly reasoned, ignorant draft he just couldn't stop himself.  His targets, women of reproductive age.  The Alitos in our society are still going after women and our right to bodily autonomy.  They hope this will all be taken care of soon and women will be properly cowed.  Like the Germans, once one group is dealt with, move on to the next target to keep the people off-balance fearful they might be next.  Scared people can be manipulated. 

Trump and Kump’s next target is the LGBTQ community, trans children and youth in particular, vulnerable young people who often require some medical intervention and counseling to manage their gender dysphoria.  Through laws passed by mostly ignorant, pseudo-Christian legislators, families and doctors are threatened with severe fines and imprisonment if they treat trans young people.  Women protested after Roe fell and are trying to find ways to get around the rabid red state white legislatures.  Some people are standing with trans youth, but who will help get those young people what they need when basic medically proven treatments become illegal and unavailable?  We have seen the “drag” community targeted in several states as though “drag” is a new thing.  The Germans didn’t like “drag” much either and stomped on that too.

We have seen the police brutalize communities, kill young Black men just because, break up peaceful protests, and other tactics used by the German police 90 years ago.  Back then, people who spoke up were often silenced while the police became more and more powerful and unethical.  Sound familiar?   

The really scary part for me is, what’s next?  Which states will begin the killing?  Imprisoning folks for almost nothing, including inability to come up with bail, is already going on.  White men (only) are encouraged to have guns and the laws in many places now let them open carry with no permit or background check.  All they have to do, just as the police have been doing, is say, "I feared for my life," when they shoot someone they don't like or approve of.  Children are murdered in schools, but somehow Republicans just can’t manage to outlaw military-type weapons in the civilian community. 

Some members of our congress are insurrectionists who claim the various elections have been stolen when they are clearly lying.  A representative, albeit from a backwater part of Georgia, says she wants a civil war and with others, is trying to get things going.  The House of Representatives has as Speaker, a fool, Kevin McCarthy who wanted the Speaker title more than he cared about our Constitution and our nation and proves it every day in office.  The media seemed mostly OK with this.  Congressional Republicans were OK with McCarthy’s handing over classified materials to an insurrectionist media madman.  How is this acceptable?  This too parallels the Nazi rule. 

German corporations weren't too concerned about what Hitler was doing as long as they were bringing in the bucks.  Heck, they even got the slave labor of Jews and the other hated groups to keep them going while "the boys were at war."  If fascism happens here as some Republicans would like, would our corporations be right there, thinking up ways to use their fellow American citizens for their corporate profit and other benefits?

We the People need to find ways to stop a repeat of the suffering of 1930s Germany here.  We can't wait and hope things will blow over.  There are already a bunch of scared white people who believe they deserve power over those they think of as “non-humans.”  Why, they should be able to make them servants (slaves maybe, or dead).  I am guessing many of the MAGAs would be happy to participate in harming, mass-imprisoning those people, a few at first, then more and more of them over time to get even, for something they wouldn't have to name. 

Many conservatives/Republicans don’t want students or really, anyone to study the holocaust.  Probably, it’s because if we study it, we will start to notice the scary similarities between what happened to get the horrors going in Germany and the taking away of citizen rights here and now, , the rights to:  vote, bodily autonomy, medical care, be LGBTQ or whatever we are meant to be, affordable housing, seek asylum, learn the full flow of American history, read books we choose, have dependable media, know the truth without the lies and gaslighting  by Republican politicians.  It's time for the downward slide into ignorance and cruelty to stop!  We can’t pretend we don’t know what’s going on!

Do We Really WANT A Democracy?

by muon

Something extraordinary happened this past week in the US. I don't mean the impeachment trial. That's been rare in American history, but not extraordinary, except perhaps how the outcome of this one trial was reached. But let's go back to the night before the vote, when the chamber of the US House of Representatives sounded more like one of Hitler's rallies in the 1930s.

Every Congressperson in that chamber, whether senator or representative, knew that almost everything coming out of Trump mouth that night was an outright lie or exaggeration, even before the Associated Press came out with their official fact-check the next day, yet Republicans not only did their usual standing ovations, but they chanted aloud over and over, yelling "Four more years!" as if they were drunken teenagers at a school football game, cheering on their team.

In 2009, when Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" at President Obama during the State of the Union, the entire audience gasped and Wilson received a formal rebuke by the House of Representatives. At last Tuesday's speech, the only person punished for yelling out was Fred Guttenberg, a father whose daughter had been murdered by gun violence at Parkland. Right now in America, we punish for grief and reward for lies, deception and cheating.

Which brings us back to the Senate vote the next day. Most senators have been to law school. They understand the law. They understand evidence, and they all knew there was enough of it to prove Trump guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, even without more witnesses and documents. Some GOP senators gave that as their reasoning for not voting for more witnesses. Yet all but one GOP senator voted Not Guilty on the both articles, and that one senator, stupidly, voted Not Guilty on the article of obstruction, the one most easily proved. Every one of them KNEW they were going against the law and against their oath of office. 

So what is happening in this country to make otherwise educated, (one would hope) intelligent, and yes, mostly well-to-do men and women blindly follow a man like Trump, who has no respect for the laws of our democracy or even for anything close to fairness and decency? Those senators had no second thoughts about taking on the mantle of that disrespect and lack of decency themselves.

I'd like to believe that at least some of those Congresspersons, even as they were chanting during the speech and especially as they were voting "Not Guilty" the next day, had little twinges of conscience way back in their brains, telling them "No, this isn't how a democracy is supposed to work." But in the face of all that blind Hitler-like devotion to their leader the last week, they seem to have become monsters before our eyes. 

Yet, I see an envy for that devotion on the Democratic side too. I think it's why the Democrats seem to be having such a difficult time sorting through candidates. It's not that they want someone so perfectly qualified that victory is assured. It's that they want someone who can be put on a pedestal, who inspires in them a willingness to follow the candidate off a cliff if necessary. They don't think anyone can defeat Trump unless their candidate is also like him. They want someone who'll make them "feel" a part of something bigger than themselves, the way Trump Nation seems to -- a charismatic golden idol who will fix everything single-handedly. Then all the voters have to do is sit back, wave flags and cheer.

Democracy doesn't work THAT way either. We seem to be gauging potential presidents by the size of the crowds or noise made at rallies. Rallies don't run a government. That's obvious from the last 3+ years. Yet everyone seems to now crave daily political drama on their newsfeeds more than a return to a sane functioning government of the people.

What I want in a president is someone sensible enough to appoint qualified, knowledgeable people to be in the cabinet and head the departments. People who we can trust to get us our tax refunds and Social Security checks. People who'll make sure our water is safe to drink and our interstate bridges are safe to drive across. People competent enough to quickly take care of Americans who've been through hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes and wildfires. People who'll care for separated refugee families with compassion as they do their best to reunite children with family members. People who'll revitalize our education system. People who'll actively work to reverse the human causes of climate change instead of shutting down every federal research facility studying it. People who can negotiate with foreign leaders without cooking up back-room deals that give a select few Americans more power or wealth. People who'll protect fair elections and keep them open to all US citizens.

I think any of the Democratic front-runners can do the job. We shouldn't stress over charisma, or even stress over differing policies right now. The task of putting back together the tattered shreds of the current government needs to be job one. Keep your eyes on the prize:  Democracy.

We don't need a president who inspires us to chant in ecstasy when he/she enters a room. That's not American. It's not Democracy. It's Fascism. But remember, when you're busy voting for a president who'll preserve our democracy next November, also vote out all the congresspeople who'd turn this country into a dictatorship. Don't sit back, complacently waving flags, while your power – the power of the people -- is being taken away.