No clean water for you

 “Federal court rules there is no constitutional right to safe drinking water.” “A federal appeals court has used a decades-long water crisis in one of the Blackest cities in America to rule that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee Americans the right to clean and safe drinking water. The Sept. 4 ruling came even after Jackson, Mississippi, residents alleged officials knew the water was contaminated and assured the public it was safe. To this point, the appellate court also ruled that the Constitution does not offer citizens the “right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.” (Capital B).

In the age of Trump, I sadly have become used to headlines that are obscene, bizarre, sadistic, painful, miserable, and pathetic. I have not become numb to them, but seriously, the spark of surprise at their content has become less and less shocking, and more and more expected.

And now I read this article, where the Courts are declaring that our Constitution gives no fucks about each and every American having the right to safe and clean drinking water. If you live in a location where that municipal, county, or state government is run by fools who place profit over people, most likely owned and operated by some corporation that never gave a shit about people, who have now decided that it is too costly to provide the life-sustaining clean water, well then either die or spend your life savings and purchase bottled water. 

Yep, in America, it is of no concern, as stated by a Federal Court, for you to drink clean, safe water. Nope, your local government can lie to you, can purposely hide the truth from you, and in return, you have no rights to fight back. Just when I think we have reached some of the lowest points of our American life, suddenly the idea of demanding clean water is illegal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And God created Trump

 

“And on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’” the narrator says. “So God gave us Trump.” “God said, ‘I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this country, work all day, fight the Marxist, eat supper then go to the Oval Office and stay past midnight and a meeting of the heads of state.’ So God made Trump.” (HuffPost)

Critics were stunned by the video’s blatant idolatry, especially on a stage where speaker after speaker had attacked Democrats about faith while posturing as defenders of Christianity.  (HuffPost).

Hypocrisy is the real religion that Republicans and MAGA worship. They salivate over creating false Gods, and refuse to ever acknowledge a truth that may provide them with the real facts, disrupting their bigoted, xenophobic, and nowadays Fascist ways. 

Trump has audacity galore, but he and his sycophants understand that those who have joined his cult are so hateful that, as long as Trump points out the evil of the other, his followers feel safer.

“So God made Trump…” Hmm. Trump has been found to be a fraudster, a sexual harasser; he lies as swiftly as he breathes; he is crass, belligerent, a bully, just to list a few of his attributes. So, did God have all of this in mind with this creation?

I can laugh at this bull shit, but what becomes less funny for me is the fact that way too many other Americans don’t find this form of heresy funny, but insist this flimflam is true. Who is the bigger fool…Trump and his goons or the minions who fall for this shit?

 

 

the end of civilization?

 Political world erupts as AI researchers warn of ‘extinction’ threat. A researcher at the artificial intelligence company Anthropic offered a bleak prediction late Tuesday that the systems the company is racing to build carried the risk of causing human extinction, reigniting a debate about the gravest dangers that future forms of the technology could pose. (The Washington Post)

I know this paragraph sounds a wee bit overdramatic. Human extinction, come on. But take a moment, inhale, and as you slowly release your breath, wonder and ask the question: well, why not!

I am a fan of anything science fiction. I applaud the authors and screenwriters who, as they present their fictitious plots, have actually predicted future worlds and universes where bad things have happened at the hands of those who seem to base the future good of humanity not based on the good and welfare of the people, but on how much profit can be made off of those people. 

Technology is not always bad, but as I see it, technology created to increase the profit of those who support it, placing greed above morals and values, is, for me, like creating an uncontrollable monster. 

AI may have its usefulness, but as it is being created, do the inventors and investors consider its exact impact on the everyday person? Sounds wonderful that computers can make our lives feel easier, but in doing so, what is it about our everyday lives we now must relinquish?

If you have watched or read movies or books about the future, in which corporations suddenly play God-like roles, where the rich get richer, and anyone else is treated like chump change, most likely you have come to the conclusion that, in fact, civilization has become doomed. The haves have more, and the have-nots have even less. 

 

 

A quarter of a century later

 A quarter of a century, and yet the vicious, vivid, overwhelming sights and sounds resonate in my mind as if it were yesterday. Nine-Eleven, the fear, the frantic fumbles, the paranoia, the worry, the unknown smothering most of the time, frustrating all the time, demonstrating just how fragile life in this nation really could be. 

Enemies were created, scapegoats imagined, and trust was pushed far behind distrust, with confusion over who was friend and who was foe. Conspiracy theories flourished; the news seemed like propaganda; no honest appraisal of our current situation seemed to find fruition. We seemed lost and oh so much wanted to be found.

 That was the year 2001. It is now 2026, and from my point of view, so many of the feelings and emotions I felt way back then have reformed, re-emerged, been re-invented. Conspiracy theories regarding who the Other is (Immigrants, The Trans Community, Muslims). Distrust of anyone who is not white, Christian, or male. Propaganda flowing freely from the Trump Media machines, never focusing on the crimes and grift of members of the Trump Reich, but on anyone who is not them. Fear of what might come next: which nation will be bombed, what tariffs will be expanded, who really should be able to vote, and who should be denied.

Planes were flown into skyscrapers; then, buildings imploded; lives were almost immediately ended, and now lives are being ruined; crumbling foundations of democracy are everywhere, but this time, this year, 25 years later, the terror is not coming from across the oceans but emanating from Trump and a cadre of billionaire terrorists.

Was there a lesson we were supposed to learn? No, seriously- no snark on my part- was there a lesson to be learned to help us heal? I wonder. To those who became heroes, to those who still mourn the loss of those they loved, I remember you. 

 

Third time ain't no charm

 President Donald Trump promised a $5,000 check for U.S. voters if Republicans win both the House and the Senate in the looming midterm election.

Such a payout could cost more than $1 trillion and break federal law.

The promise follows Trump's proposed "DOGE dividend" and "tariff rebates." (CNBC)

Promises, or are they bribes? He lies, and so far, he has gotten away with it. He breaks the law, and so far, he has gotten away with it. He is a con, a criminal, a charlatan, a convict, and yet he remains in office and is primarily the most powerful man in the political world.

I suppose the old adage of “the third time is a charm” is exactly what his sycophantic Fascists have told him. They must have added that your base has no memory of being kicked in the balls; they are full of amnesia, forgetting each promise and snake oil recipe you have provided them, and as long as you continue to list a bunch of scapegoats, your masses will overlook being had, due to the fact that as long as you hate the folks they hate, you remain a hero!

And yet… no one within the Republican Party or the Billionaire Class has the conscience, the spine, the moral fortitude to say Donald Trump, enough is fucking enough already! Sad!

 

Making "suckers" great again

 The top 10 problems with the Republicans’ pointless and futile midterm convention. If Trump and his party are feeling optimistic about the gathering in Texas, they probably ought to start lowering their expectations. (Maddow Blog)

It is lovingly (ha, ha) referred to as Trumpapalooza!)

So, the Republicans who have supported the Trump-Iran War, which is still going on for exactly 193 days, won’t be talking about that issue at their HUGE Midterm spectacle. Nor will the Republicans be discussing the fact that it has been 266 days since, by law, all of the names in the Epstein Files were to be released to the public.

One must wonder if the issue of affordability, or, in the case of Trump and the lackluster action on behalf of the Republicans in Congress, the lack of affordability, will be a topic of discussion. Oh yeah, and now the burden of paying for the newly minted tariffs on Canada, with their price increase for Americans- you bet that won’t be mentioned.

Will the Republicans talk about the exact cost to the taxpayer for things like the ballroom, the MMA ring built on the White House grounds, and the actual price of tearing it down and redoing the lawn, or the Trump Arch, and the plans he has for making the public golf courses in DC look like his private clubs?

Perhaps FOX will cover this sham and say that Trump and the Republican Party have made America great again, and provide details about how the Trump Reich has made measles great again, or civil rights great again, or voting rights great again, or American allies great again? As P.T. Barnum once believed, “there is a sucker born every minute,” and tonight and tomorrow night Trump and his billionaire donors will try their darndest to make “suckers” out of most of America, once again!

 

 

 

Tuesday after Labor Day

 This is Tuesday, immediately after Memorial Day; it should be a moment when a variety of emotions rise up. This unofficial but significant day marks the end of summer. Jokingly, for some, wearing white is Tres taboo. Summer loves most likely have been left for pages in a diary. Too soon for Christmas music, but not soon enough for College Football. Perhaps the romanticizing of autumn and its coziness, its let’s take out our sweaters motif, seems like a well-needed break. 

But as I write this blog, two sentences seem to be gnawing at my gut and running rampant in my brain. “The value of things that do not contain profit” is the first. As I look around, read, watch, and witness the arrogance of the billionaire class, under the guidance of Trump and the vast majority of Republican politicians, who prioritize anything but health care and the climate, and the impoverished, placing profits over people, I become angry. This demographic goes on and on, getting wealthier, planting more roadside bombs to deter almost everyone else from doing more than survive.

The other sentence that burns my brain is, “manufactured fear!” Once again, Trump and his willing accomplices seem to freely decide who will be the newest demographic to hate, to judge with the indulgence of great hypocrisy. Knowing that most of their cultists are drowning in insecurity, breathing in a lack of introspection, and always looking to point their fingers at the so-called others, it is without any pushback that Trump and the Republicans can invent the newest villains with the snap of their fingers. 

The coming of the Fall season, full of change and mysteries ahead, has for me become just another moment in this current moment in the life of this nation, as scary, not romantic, but a bit ravenous. And once again I worry.