The 2024 Elections and Beyond: Americans Need a Lesson in Examining and Appyling the Lessons of History to Ourselves

There were four influential people in my life whom I credit with placing in me the desire to choose education as a career and pass along an enthusiasm for learning, and a recognition of the value that solid, excellence in academics has to the preservation and advancement of a democratic society.  Of course, my father, a World War II Naval veteran, would be one of those, along with three very influential teachers, two in high school and one college professor.  These people knew and could interpret history in such a way as to make it come alive, demonstrating its relevance to my life and showing me where I came from as a result of it.  They also had a deep loyalty to the United States of America, a strong understanding of the connection between an educated informed electorate and the preservation and strength of our constitutional democracy, and a desire to pass this along to their students.  

My father's high school and college years occurred during the period prior to the beginning of the Second World War.  He had just started his sophomore year in college when Hitler invaded Poland, and graduated in June of 1941, when he enlisted, and was training in San Diego when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  He passed along to me a wealth of experience.  Several of his own high school teachers and college professors had the foresight to realize that the generation of students they were teaching would be depended on to defend the nation, in spite of the isolationist mentality and the priorities of the depression on American politics.  He grew up with that, and experienced the war in the Pacific, under the command of Admiral Halsey.  

One of my high school history teachers had a similar experience, but as an Army veteran who experienced the Normandy invasion and fought in Europe.  The other was the son of Irish immigrants, with an unlimited appreciation for all things American, but also a very realistic perspective of American history, setting aside the idea that everything we did as a nation was right, and exposing the real truth.  He eventually was re-assigned as a result of his perspective, always a danger in this country when teaching social studies.  That was one of the things that made me want to do it.  

One of my college professors, from whom I took the bulk of the constitutional law and government classes required for majoring in social studies education, was a Palestinian immigrant who grew up as a Christian in post-war Israel, near the Syrian and Lebanese border.  Being Christian and Arabic, at that time and place, was a double whammy, with being a woman as an added disadvantage.  Working as a translator got her to a place where she was able to emigrate, she got a scholarship because of a connection between the church in which she grew up and the university in the US where she would eventually teach.  I have met few people in my life with as deep an appreciation and understanding of the idealism and vision of our founding fathers, of the freedom that we enjoy and take for granted, our history as a nation and especially the way we are seen by the oppressed people of the world.  She would know. 

So, I Said All of That to Say This...

We are living in a time where the qualities, the information, the experiences, the loyalties, even the prejudices, of these people who influenced me to become an educator in the realm of social studies, may be what saves us from ourselves in the coming years.  It's a common cliche in history classes that "those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it."  I don't necessarily believe that history repeats itself, but I do believe that it teaches valuable lessons which, if applied in consideration of the context in which they occurred, can prevent similar historical disaster.  

I also believe, given the destructive capacity that technology has given us since the Second World War, that there is far less room for error, with far greater consequences resulting from failure.  Human intellect has yet to find a way to eliminate the influences of human problems, specifically poverty and the inequitable distribution of wealth along lines of political power, and the prejudices and biases that lead to destruction which grow within them.  We now have the capacity to destroy enough of the world that the survival of humanity is at risk.  That's a relatively new development in human history. 

The United States has been fortunate to have had the advantage of the minds of individuals who rose to leadership and had the intelligence and ability to recognize its own internal factors which gave it just enough of an advantage to win a very narrow victory over the British monarchy.  But the momentum of that victory took another decade and a half to arrive at the constitutional democracy capable of uniting thirteen very different colonies with very different interests into a single nation.  Survival was the motive then, in a world surrounded by political powers constantly at war with each other and survival is still the motive, in a world that we thought had changed significantly after learning the lessons of the destructive Second World War and seeing the fear of nuclear holocaust, but we may not have made the kind of progress we expected.  

I hope we are still fortunate enough to be able to see the dangers to democracy that are not lurking in the shadows, but are taking the form of members of our House of Representatives, Senate, state legislatures and in the judiciary.  Our country and most of its institutions, are under ideological and philosophical attack.  It is an attack that is using democratic freedom to sustain itself, infiltrating on the coat-tails of politicians who are finding ways to create fear and then use it to deceive people into believing that their way is the right way, while attacking the freedom that allows them to do it.  

America is Not Immune to Anti-Democracy Ideology

Many of the history teachers and professors I encountered in school held the belief that our country was immune to the kind of political and social atmosphere that produced Fascism, Nazism and Marxism.  "The social ills produced by authoritarian monarchies. led by incompetent or militaristic self-interested heirs to the thrones created oppression that bred the kind of rebellion led by the likes of Mussolini, Hitler and Lenin," they said.  "We fought for our independence in 1776, and most Europeans under the totalitarians didn't have theirs," they said.  

I'd like to go back and ask any of them if they watched the evening news tonight.  In a relatively short hour, there was coverage of a civil rape assault trial of a former President whose idealism runs so close to some totalitarian European ideologies of the 1930's that it's frightening.  In addition to a Supreme Court justice who took hundreds of thousands of dollars in the form of expensive, exotic vacations from a wealthy businessman who frequently appears before him in the court, there are now other cases where conservative justices are violating ethics while refusing to enforce any ethical standard on themselves.  Three United States Senators are calling attempts to hold the justices accountable to ethics standards as a "political attack."  Apparently, they think their own constituents are bottomless in their ignorance and stupidity, to believe their lies.  

That's on top of ongoing investigations into an insurrection that attacked the Capitol and Congress, intending to subvert the Constitution and overturn a legitimate election, which was a direct attack on Democracy.  The fact that these investigations have not produced any conclusions with regard to the perpetrator, and have dragged on into a time frame that will make them moot and useless if they don't produce convictions prior to the 2024 election make me wonder just how far the ideological infection in this country has reached. And what message is being sent every day that the perpetrator walks free and continues to run for President.   

The governor of Florida is launching a direct attack on constitutional democracy and individual freedoms.  He's decided to label his stumbling Presidential campaign "anti-woke," and stand against individual rights and freedom, and against every other ideal that Americans have.  His assault on freedom has run like a blitzkrieg through the state.  Florida, after Trump's presidency, is a preview of what American fascism looks like.  Thankfully, he seems to be alienating more people than he is attracting, and there are lawsuits and protests piling up.  And hopefully, it's not a preview, but simply an unfortunate experience that leads to a surge of support for candidates who are for real democratic values. 

And there's still all kinds of discussion over the firing of Tucker Carlson at Fox News.  Now there's a news commentary that summarized every anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-democratic principle that exists.  His was a tangle of racism, sexism, misogyny, and outright hatred for which he was paid a tremendous amount of money to spew on a nightly basis, and which made me wonder whether he really believed all of his lies, conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric, or whether he spewed it because it paid so well to play that role.  His uncovered text messages would seem to indicate that he didn't really believe much of what he was saying, which makes him saying it even worse.  

Defending Democracy is Always a Challenge

Personally, I think defending and preserving our democracy will always be in the face of challenges to its existence and ability to function as it was designed to do. There is always an enemy waiting to destroy it, whether that enemy is fascism, communism, the wealthy and prosperous, unbridled nationalism or corrupted religion.  And that requires an electorate that is educated and informed, able to recognize the dangers that are being posed and have the ability and the power to eliminate the threats.  We need to recognize the threat, but we also need to be willing to fight to prevent the threats from taking our freedom.  

The power in a constitutional democracy is "we the people."  And it rests in the ballot box.  If we really care about this, we need to figure out a way to activate the large segment of our population that doesn't participate, convince them that their rights are in danger, and get them to the polls.  Voter turnout among registered Democrats in most red states in the midterms wasn't good, because all of the money and momentum goes to the battlegrounds.  We need a real surge in support.  And while I hate cliches, that will take some outside of the box thinking, some risks, and some courage.  

Trump has to fall.  It's long past time for him to suffer the consequences of his actions.  The Manhattan indictment and the E. Jean Carroll rape trial are sideshows.  It is time to bring multiple indictments for the sedition and rebellion against the United States that he committed on January 6, 2021, and for the document scandal at Mar-a-Lago.  I've heard all the excuses and all the arguments, and I also know that powerful people can do powerful things.  Trump needs to be indicted, and he needs to get a speedy trial and a quick conviction and a judge who sticks his finger in his face, and wishes him well on his way to hell.  

This, too, is the power of the people.  No more dithering and dinking around with possibilities and probabilities at the DOJ.  Garland must act now.  The indictments must rain down and the trials must be on the docket in time for the summer re-run season.  We must push for this, we must protest for it, we must demand it.  It is already beyond ridiculous that he has announced a presidential campaign while hundreds of the minions who followed his orders on January 6th are in prison or are headed there.  The news media is going to sit around, watch it happen, comment on it and let it happen.  We, the people, must use the means our democracy and constitution provide to us, staying true to our ideals, and defending our freedom before it is too late, and it is lost.  

From Her Own Perspective, Boebert's Downplaying of Son's Teenaged Pregnancy is Hypocritical

 Newsweek: Boebert Doesn't Want to "Nitpick" the Bible Over Son's Teen Pregnancy

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's recent announcement that her sixteen year old son would be making her a grandmother at age 36 was accompanied by some remarkably hypocritical comments from her.  

"So we can nitpick what the Bible says is right and wrong, but I think just having that heart posture of wanting to serve God and do the right thing is so important," she told Dave Rubin, a conservative talk show host.  That comment followed her saying, "Obviously, I'm a Christian and you know there are standards we like to uphold, but none of us do it perfectly."  

"It doesn't work that way," Boebert said she told her son, when he claimed that being a teenage parent was "heredity" because both Boebert and her mother had their oldest child at 18.  "But I'm really proud of him and my grandson's mom for being responsible, because they could have taken a different route, and both of them chose life," she said.  

"It wasn't anything I had to browbeat with them, I very calmly had the conversation when we found out, just let me know if you think something else, I just want to have a talk with you if you decide to go a different direction, and both of them were very excited and wanted to move forward and welcome life into this world," she said.  

Boebert is not an articulate speaker, so the position she is actually taking isn't always clear.  But for one who campaigns frequently with a microphone and a preacher-like pacing and pointing that frequently makes use of church buildings as campaign venues, and whose rhetoric and perspective is a classic, textbook blend of right wing politics with fundamentalist religion, going soft on the issue of personal morality, which is a major component of both Jewish and Christian doctrine, is inconsistent with most of the rest of her politics and her brand of Christianity. 

She's right when she says that none of us uphold standards of Christianity perfectly.  But she missed the point completely.  It's not a matter of "nit picking."  Christianity is a faith that rests wholly on grace.  And while she doesn't want to "nit pick the Bible" with regard to her son's situation, she doesn't seem to mind doing the equivalent of that to those she identifies as her political opponents. 

In a church service in Colorado, during her campaign for Congress, Boebert declared that she was "tired of this separation of church and state junk.  The church is supposed to direct the government.  The government is not supposed to direct the church.  That's not how the founding fathers intended it."  

She went on to declare that separation of church and state is not in the constitution but it's in "a stinking letter and it means nothing like they say it does."  

More incoherent babble from her here, including the failure to identify the nebulous "they" who are declaring that the government should direct the church, if that's what she was referencing.  Where is there any government "directing" of the church?  That's a straw man argument if I ever heard one.  

And that "stinking letter" to which she is referring is, I'm guessing, Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, a group of Christians who had expressed their concerns about whether the new American constitution would set up and support a state church, an institution which they had concluded, through their study of the Bible, was not the church that Jesus had established through the Apostles in the first century.  Theirs was a doctrinal and theological concern, based on the Bible.  Jefferson's response, in that "stinking letter," explains exactly what the founders intended when they wrote the establishment clause into the constitution, and it was not for "the church to direct the government."  

But Boebert's remarks are not surprising, coming from one who doesn't want to "nitpick the Bible" on major doctrine.  She is clearly not an expert on government, American history or Christian doctrine and theology.  And her oldest son has apparently not picked up on the sincerity of his mother's blend of religion and politics.  

I love the fact that the constitutional, representative democracy in which we live makes it possible for anyone who makes the effort and puts their ideology and vision out there in a place where it can be seen can run for public office and have a chance at getting elected and serving.  The down side of that it opens the door to those who carry the prejudices of ignorance and fear to get elected and have influence.  There are places where ignorance and apathy outweigh the influence of an educated and informed electorate, which are the keys to preserving and sustaining democratic government.  

But this closeness to the people, which gave us founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who were religious opposites, but politically compatible, has also given us representatives like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who is a bright star in the future of Democratic politics, or like our own Vice-President, Kamala Harris, whose success in politics is an example of what an educated and informed electorate can produce.  

I'll add this in closing.  It's a prophetic word from the obscure, frequently overlooked book of Jude in the New Testament.  Readers can decide if it applies here. 

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for condemnation as ungodly , who pervert the grace of God into licentiousness, and deny our only Lord and Master Jesus Christ.  V. 4

 

Age Not a Factor; Signal Press Endorses Joe Biden's Re-Election Campaign

The economy is moving along well.  Inflation, which is the sign of a strong economy and a good job market, is under control.  That's not something heard in the media now, as the focus on the 2024 election coverage ramps up, but that's a fact.  Gasoline prices are stable.  The unemployment rate is at a historic low.  Lots of people love to complain that they don't have it as well off as they should have, but the fact of the matter is that, two years into the Biden Presidency, the contrast between his success and the failures, inept mistakes and corruption of his predecessor, are as stark and realistic as any in history.  

So, with nothing else from which to manufacture news, the media is focusing on Joe Biden's age.  O.K.  Well, that's a factor.  He's the oldest President we've ever had.  So what?  It opens him up to criticism from enemies and political opponents who throw around terms like "dementia" and slow mindedness.  There's been no evidence of that.  He grew up with a stutter, which still affects his speech, his voice, because he uses it so much, does get raspy on occasion.  But it is clear to anyone who knows and is objective about it, that his age is not a disability, and hasn't been one up to this point.   

And as far as Nikki Haley's remark is concerned, that electing Joe Biden is just setting things in place for a Harris presidency, well, if that turns out to be the case, a Harris presidency would be a considerably better prospect than a Haley presidency, especially if the latter follows the pattern of mediocrity and absence of service to the people that her governorship of South Carolina did.  Having Kamala Harris as Vice President is an additional reason to vote for Biden.  

However, the most practical reasons we have for endorsing the President and supporting his re-election come from the success he has enjoyed during the first half of his first term in office.  In every way, from foreign policy success to job creation and the economy, to caring about American senior adults, veterans and the working class, President Biden's first term in office is worth repeating.  People love to complain about the economy, but it's hard to be critical of a Presidency during which unemployment has reached historic low points, the stock market has reached historic high points, personal income growth is setting records, and a post-COVID recession has consistently been avoided.  Inflation is a problem, but it's also the sign of prosperity, even though, of course, no one likes it.  But even that is responding to the economic policies of the Biden administration.  

The Republicans who are running are offering nothing.  Trump's term in office was a disastrous failure in every way, and his ongoing campaign theme of "the election was rigged and I was cheated" offers nothing to the American people, because it is all about him.  Desantis, in his culture war, "anti-woke," approach is seeing his support and favorability among Floridians drop like a stone in a well, and in just a few short months, even before announcing a candidacy, his support among the GOP has evaporated.  Haley was a mediocrity as governor of South Carolina, Pence, a pitiful figure left over from the failed Trump administration, lost what little integrity he had by agreeing to crawl on to that ticket with Trump and shares responsibility for the corruption and incompetence of the administration. 

We've seen all the headlines and read many of the follow up stories this week to President Biden's announcement.  Earlier in the week, a Rasmussen poll, which is a polling service that generally isn't known for a high level of accuracy, but has a conservative bias, came out with a 49% figure for job approval of the President.  On occasion, other polls, in a two or three day survey period, report similar numbers.  Personally, I'm not in a location where I have observed anything but wholehearted support, but it seems a bit incongruous, with the results of the mid-term elections in 2022, that the President's job approval ratings were ever as low as they were reported.  As far as 2024 goes, as the Democratic nominee, he's the odds on favorite to win.  

And I'd bet on those odds. 

Just So You Know, In Case You're Interested

As a regular participant in Democratic Underground, I frequently see many posts from participants who have a much different perspective on politics and religion than I do.  Politically, this is the kind of diversity that is the strength of the Democratic party.  From a religious perspective, I don't expect complete agreement, and, because I am a practicing Christian, I respect the religious perspective of others, all others, regardless of what it is.  

To be fair, in a free society, I have a full right to my beliefs, and to my expression of them which includes explaining why I believe what I do, and to interact, when the discussion goes in that direction, based on what I believe.  Within the whole scope of what is identified as "Christianity," the differences in what people believe are considerable.  I have moved, in my life experience and education, from the narrow position of believing that what was allowable, to please God and to be a legitimate Christian, was a single track set of doctrinal and theological beliefs and behaviors, to realizing that, as the Apostle Paul describes it, "Now we see through a glass, darkly."  

I have no corner on the doctrinal or theological "market."  There are many others who, through their study of the Christian scriptures in their historical, cultural and  theological context, know much more than I do, and have drawn conclusions and established traditions that are as legitimate as any expression of Christian faith in which I have engaged.  Jesus himself left the door to what constitutes a "conversion" experience, if one chooses to call it that, or a life experience, which is a better description of what it is, fairly wide open, emphasizing virtues and values that bring human beings together in community, rather than emphasizing eternal existence as some kind of "reward" for right theology and doctrine, and right living.  

In fact, in any form of orthodox Christianity, eternity isn't a reward for behavior or for getting doctrine and theology right, it is a grace gift of God, eliminating a sacrificial system of worship in place in most human cultures, and replacing it with a system that emphasized a set of higher values and moral character development. What Jesus pointed to was a way of life requiring the use of our intellectual and emotional capacity to understand characteristics and values that make life better, not just for ourselves, but for the entire whole of humanity.  The Christian gospel and the New Testament are full of references to those characteristics.  By preponderance of the written evidence, Christianity is living according to a set of values, immersed in freedom that results from humans being created in the image of God.   

Of course, I was predisposed to believing in God by my parents and by the culture around me.  I grew up in a small church, where I was able to discern that what people claimed to believe wasn't how they actually lived their life.  I saw church leaders who used their position in the church to bring advantage to themselves.  I saw people who would nod their agreement with the belief that the Bible was " the inerrant and infallible word of God" but who could not answer simple questions about its contents, and whose lives didn't really reflect what they claimed to believe.  I grew up in a "faith" that was all about getting the doctrine right and obediently following the rules in exchange for pie in the sky by and by.  

I've questioned my beliefs, adjusted them, filtered them through the education that I was fortunate enough to receive, including through graduate school in a state university where my faith was challenged by professors and students.  They have been refined, supported and undergirded by some outstanding, faithful people whose lives reflected the full effect of the values and virtues that are at the very core of Christian faithfulness.  I believe that being a Christian, by following the full gospel text and the apostolic narratives in the New Testament, is living in this world according to those values and virtues, all of which are prioritized in a theology that leads one to worship and acknowledge God as love and the acceptance of his grace that leads to the service of others through those values.  I have concluded that the faith in which I grew up, and which has intersected with right wing politics to produce a heretical apostasy of the Christian gospel, was not for me and was not really Christian.  

The Quaker influence over my faith emphasizes living immersed in the values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship, which touch the surrounding world to make it a better place and help others make it through this life.  The Baptist influence, (historical Baptist, not "conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical Baptist) emphasizes Christian liberty, including freedom of the individual soul to worship God and choose the grace he has offered through Christ, freedom to engage in spiritual relationship with God by individual freedom to read, interpret and apply the principles of written scripture by faith alone, belonging to a local assembly of other Christians, "called out" as Christians into the ecclesia, or body of believers in Christ, and the complete independence, autonomy and freedom of that body, without any ecclesiastical authority or political power over it.  

It's my faith.  And I'm not interested in making you change your mind about it, or coercing you into believing exactly as I do.  You and I, and everyone around us, are all human beings, and in my faith perspective, that means we are all created in the image of God, which is the core of our freedom and the essence of our humanity. I hope that I motivate others by my example, that I am an inspiration, not browbeating by using threats of eternal damnation, but showing and living by values that I believe make our lives better.  

Jesus made two major points under which the rest of the Christian gospel falls.  One, to love God with all of your being, and two, to love your neighbor as yourself.  That's where living out those values comes in.  That's real faith, giving relevance and meaning and a purpose to this life.  There are long lists of the characteristics and qualities of living according to the gospel, along with passages about forgiveness of sins, not judging others, belonging to a faith community that mutually supports, cares for and encourages each other, written during a time when a totalitarian Emperor ruled much of the known world and a selfish, cruel and inhuman form of paganism was in control.  I'm not going to argue the finer points of evidence for or against God's existence, the historical accuracy of the Bible, or the accuracy of science.  I'm just going to live according to those values.  

It is because I believe faith means living according to virtues that give our life meaning and purpose that I am a Democrat, who believes in democracy and all of the individual freedom that comes with it.  I will stand up for it and fight for it.  

I will also stand up for, and fight for a pure Christian faith in the face of an intrusion of apostasy and heresy that is distorting its doctrine, corrupting its theology and undermining the effectiveness of its mission and purpose.  I'm talking about the intersection, and I use that word with deliberate smugness, of Christianity with right wing Republican politics and MAGA Trumpism, that has subverted loyalty to God and replaced it with loyalty to power and influence.  It is not possible to be loyal to political leaders whose lifestyle is diametrically opposite the values and principles, mission and purpose of the Christian gospel.  That is the main false, paganism of our time and place.   

It is not necessary for anyone to intellectually challenge what I believe, or try to prove it wrong, or belittle it, or criticize me for believing it.  If you're not a believer, that's OK.  I'm not asking you to become one in order for us to agree politically, socially, or otherwise.  But it's not necessary for you to justify your perspective by bashing mine.   

Arizona County Hires Election Denying Conspiracy Theorist as Elections Supervisor

Election Denying Conspiracy Theorist Hired as Cochise County Elections Supervisor

After multiple controversies, lawsuits and actions demonstrating an incredible amount of gross incompetence, two county supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona have approved the hiring of a conspiracy theory-spouting election denialist as the man in charge of counting their ballots.  These two supervisors continue to insist on casting doubts on the accuracy of the last two elections, despite evidence that proves those accusations to be lies.  

They've cost the taxpayers of the county thousands of dollars in legal fees for their incompetence.  Their antics led to the resignation of a competent, professional election supervisor, something they apparently had on their agenda when they were originally elected.  They almost caused the county to not have any of its votes counted in the 2022 midterm elections because of their illegal delay in failing to certify the vote total, making the same false claim about Dominion voting machines that have been proven false time after time after time.  

All but one of the county residents who came in to provide testimony during the supervisors meeting expressed their displeasure at the hiring of this individual, who was one of the election deniers leading the effort to attempt to stop certification of votes in November, 2022, in order to try to save the election deniers who lost. 

The election denier who was hired, Bob Bartelsmeyer, is a hard liner.  The irony one of his previous comments, "Everything the Dems are doing was done in Germany before Hitler took over," should not be lost on anyone who understands exactly what these people are doing and how they are going about it.  That, along with insisting that he will never be convinced the 2020 election wasn't stolen should disqualify him from serving on any public payroll where tax dollars pay his salary.  These people need to be exposed and expelled from any contact with any part of our elections system.  They are the real danger to democracy.   

County Residents Are Taking Action

After all of the incompetence and confusion created by the two Republican supervisors, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, costing thousands of county taxpayer dollars, violating the law and making a mockery of the election process, a group of residents in Crosby's district determined to start a recall effort which appears to be moving along quite well.  This will throw some gasoline on that fire.  Recalling one of the two will save the county's election integrity, since the third supervisor, a Democrat, votes in a responsible, common sense way, based on affirmed facts.  Judd's district has the highest percentage of registered Republican voters in the county, but many of the constituents who came to the meeting to express their opposition to the choice of this election denier were from her district, and apparently several of them are also planning to get the recall petitions circulating.  

The Warning Was Sounded Long Ago, so Where Have We Been?

Our hope of having free and fair elections depends on making sure these people are shown the exit from any responsibility related to elections.  We've been warned, but for some reason, unless it's a presidential election year, a lot of our constituency doesn't take the time to cast ballots or check out who is on the lower end of their ballot.  The evidence that the 2020, and 2022 elections, were clean, that there was no "massive voter fraud" and that the conspiracy theories about voting machines being programmed to favor Democrats were all lies is overwhelming.  Believing it in the face of hard evidence is insanity, and we don't need mentally ill people in government, where there is enough incompetence already. 

It was almost a regular, weekly part of Rush Limbaugh's radio show to point out ways Republicans can use what power they had to game the system, and use the rules to create an advantage for themselves while Democrats were focusing on the upper parts of the ballot and behaving according to their normal patters.  And a lot of those local county officials, who were regular listeners to his program, followed his instructions, invading precinct meetings after primaries, school boards, city councils, county supervisor boards and other places where local officials have almost absolute control over elections.  

And so here we are.  What do we do about it?  

Most of this will have to be fought through the courts, or through what processes the Republicans once slipped this under the door, through local elections where supervisors, city councils and other governing bodies, even local school boards or hospital boards where public dollars are spent, and it will take time.  I just hope we have enough, and until then, there are enough people keeping an eye on this, like the people who show up in Cochise County, at supervisor meetings, and keep telling their two Republican supervisors that they need to either get it together and do it right, or get out.  According to the article posted from the Herald Review, the county's only daily newspaper, every supervisor's meeting since the election has drawn a crowd of voters angry at the two Republicans.  A recall effort might just trigger a resignation, and that would change everything. 

It's time to put an end to this nonsense.  These nut jobs don't outnumber us.  Finish the recall effort against Crosby, and that's enough to make some change.  It might just be the encouragement others need in other places like Cochise County to motivate and bring an end to this creeping fascism.  

Here is a link to donate to the recall of Tom Crosby: 

Donate to Recall Tom Crosby

On the Political and Religious Right, Does Character in Leadership Matter?

Baptist Standard: Court Documents Shed Light on Allegations Against Pressler

There are all kinds of things like this, buried in the intersection between the religious right and the GOP.  It's important for Democrats to take note of stuff like this and bring it out when the far right tries to claim support for being the party of "family values" or trot out their conspiracy theories about running child trafficking rings in the basements of pizza parlors, and the "grooming" of students for sexual exploitation purposes.  

Who groomed Lauren Boebert's son for getting his 15 year old girlfriend pregnant? Who launched the message that the Congresswoman "wasn't going to nitpick the Bible" in her response, after nearly three years of nitpicking the Bible on the campaign trail? Who groomed Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol?  Who influenced her boyfriend to use his new-found fame and grab some cash by posing for a photo shoot in a pornographic magazine?  

With "one man, one woman equals one marriage for life," as the centerpiece of the religious right's position on "family values," it seems a little strange to me that in 1980 they chose to nominate a divorced, "B" movie actor with marital fidelity problems over the most visibly Evangelical Christian ever to occupy the White House.  Or that they ended up giving the most support they've ever given any candidate to the man with the most worldly, anti-Christian image they could find, twice divorced, multiple extra-marital affairs, including with known porn stars and make him their standard bearer.  Strange, perhaps, but surprising, no not really.  It's standard M.O.  

An Ongoing Story That Underlines the Hypocrisy of the Religious Right

Back in the 1970's, a group of prominent pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention did not like the fact that the denomination was being influenced by the scholarship of its six seminaries, moving toward a more historical and contextual foundation for interpreting scripture, and away from the fundamentalism and anti-education bias of old time frontier religion.  There were two individuals who figured out how to manipulate the trust-based apparatus of choosing trustees and leadership of denominational institutions, including its two mission boards and the six theological seminaries, and, using the celebrity status of some prominent, megachurch pastors, began what became known as the "conservative resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention.  

These two individuals, known as the "architects of the conservative resurgence," included Dr. Paige Patterson, then-president of a small, struggling Bible college, Criswell College, an independent school operated by the First Baptist Church of Dallas, on whose campus its classes met, and Paul Pressler, a Texas appeals court judge from Houston and then a member of Houston's First Baptist Church.  Patterson supplied the theological and doctrinal rationale for the resurgence, while Pressler, with connections to the Bush family, worked on the political ends.  

Pressler served as president of the Council for National Policy, a far right wing Republican group connected to Ed McAteer's "Religious Roundtable" that was instrumental in securing Ronald Reagan's nomination for the 1980 election.  Pressler received the organization's Ronald Reagan Lifetime Achievement Award for everything he did to bring the religious right into the GOP.  And that was his primary interest and his role in the Southern Baptist "conservative resurgence," to link the movement with right wing Republican politics, which he did with some success.  

The article that is linked notes multiple allegations against Pressler, from young men who were either under his leadership as part of a church ministry, or at his law firm.  He was not a member of a Southern Baptist church until 1978, when he left Bethel Presbyterian in Houston, where he was a youth pastor, after allegations of an "incident" involving a young man.  He joined First Baptist Church, and shortly thereafter assumed his role as "architect" in the "conservative resurgence."  As noted in the article, this congregation also became aware of an incident involving a younger man who was also a member of the church.  

Pressler settled one sexual assault lawsuit with a plaintiff in 2004, paying $450,000.  The article in the Texas Baptist Standard also notes that he was recipient of a letter from First Baptist Church's deacons, regarding another incident with another young man, also a member of the church, which warned him by stating, "Given your stature and various leadership roles in our church, the Southern Baptist Convention and other Christian organizations, it is our considered opinion that this kind of behavior, if brought to light, might distort your testimony or cause others to stumble."  

It seems to me that the church's leadership is pretty muted and understated.  There are allegations, one case that has been settled, and incidents of which multiple individuals, including the leadership of at least two churches and a law partner, are aware, involving attempts to cover things up.  The issue has come to light, whether justice will be served by the courts or not, and it has created a huge credibility problem for the Southern Baptist Convention.  By extension, it also undermines the credibility of the religious right.  

At Least Find People Who Sincerely Believe in the Cause

It doesn't make much sense to claim to be advancing a conservative religious and political agenda while engaging in behavior that is the moral opposite of the agenda.  And yet, time and time again, the leaders that the religious political right consistently turn to in order to fight for their cause are morally bankrupt, worldly, and have a lifestyle that is exactly the opposite of the kind of Christlike sincerity one would expect from those who want to force this by law on everyone else.  

But when I see things like this, it helps me understand why a movement that claims to be built on "family values" turns to leadership that exhibits anything but family values in its behavior.  It's not about the values, it's about using them to convince people to put them in power so they can grab the money.  

All of these leaders, regardless of the level of the religious right they have functioned, will go to their graves as rich men.  That's the America they live in.  And they'll get it by convincing millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, to give it to them.  

A $787 Million Admission by Fox News That They Lied to Their Viewers

Fox News Settles With Dominion for $787 Million 

There was never any doubt in my mind, at any point, that Fox News, including most of its local network affiliates, put a spin on the news that made facts unrecognizable and that it served as a de-facto propaganda arm of the Republican Party.  Frankly, I've really never watched it.  The closest I've come is when interviews are played on other networks because certain politicians won't appear anywhere but Fox.  Other than Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, I couldn't name another person who appears on the network.  

That's because I want to be informed, I want to hear facts, not spin, and I want real information.  I can watch cartoons and get more than I could off Fox.  So I am not surprised that they were going to be held accountable financially for the slander they committed with their lying, and repeating lies, about the 2020 election.  That's certainly not all they've lied about.  If justice were served by circumstances, Fox would have been shut down a long time ago.  But this settlement, which is obviously an amount aimed at preventing a shut-down, is quite satisfying.  

As much as I hate to admit it, money is one of the only ways a company like Fox will ever be brought to justice.  It has to hurt or it won't do any good.  I'm not sure this will actually change anything.  As long as they stay in business, they make money off lying.  I don't expect them to be more cautious, just more careful about how they lie. Why they seem to think it isn't possible to spout conservative propaganda and still be truthful about it is a mystery, except that they seem to think that's what they have to do in order to keep their audience.  

There are conservatives who claim that the other, "liberal" news outlets are just as bad, just as reckless with the facts, and just as assertive with the left wing propaganda.  I don't doubt that, even among the best journalists, there can be a spin or perspective that comes from their bias.  But the bottom line is that none of them are getting sued for defamation.  Claim that they aren't telling the truth, but find facts to support the claim.  That's the big difference we're looking at here.  The difference between Fox News and other media outlets which their viewers label "liberal," is being open to correction by facts.  Most everyone else is, Fox, along with the extremists like Newsmax or Breitbart, are not. 

I've followed this case fairly closely, just to see where it might end up. The discussion on MSNBC's Morning Joe program this morning speculated about Fox's ability to figure out how to divide out the payments of this settlement in order to survive. There was speculation about shifts in ownership, dividing up the company into smaller pieces and selling them off, being absorbed by another media source, or simply going out of business.  There are multiple independent lawsuits related to this same issue, along with at least one other two billion dollar suit filed by Smartmatic.  

What we now have are admissions from those within the company responsible for content of news and commentary broadcasts that they knew the claims about rigging voting machines was a complete and total invention of the Trump campaign, and that the "reams of documented evidence" promised by Rudy Giuliani, which never made it into a single courtroom, did not exist.  This is no small amount of money, but I'm sure it represents the accounting department's best guess at what it can afford to get this out of the court without completely bankrupting the company.  Unfortunately, with much more to come, based on this same lie, I don't believe Fox News will be able to continue to exist in its current form.  

Personally, I believe everyone involved should be held accountable.  This was a crime committed against the American people, a lie that they continued to circulate when they knew that what they were reporting wasn't true.  And those in Fox's lineup who opened their mouths and spread it, including the likes of Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, should have to pay out every penny they have to their name to cover the damages.  Frankly, they should serve time in prison, along with Trump when he is convicted of seditious conspiracy.  

A Network That Had Zero Credibility Now Has Less Than That

So what does this mean with regard to their news reporting?  

It means that the credibility of everything they've ever reported or about which they have pontificated and commented is questionable.  The information that has come out, just about this specific case, undermines everything else.  It means that whatever they report cannot be trusted.  That's nothing new for me.  I always knew this.  So did almost anyone else who can think for themselves.  

Will it change the minds of any of their viewers?  I have always wondered how it could be possible, in a country with the resources and education of the United States, that so many people can be so ignorant, lacking any critical thinking ability, discernment, moral or ethical values or even reading and listening skills.  So I'm not sure.  Many of them are the same people who believe Q-Anon conspiracy theories, which would indicate a pre-disposition toward false, fake news and information.  I did see a post on social media from a conservative admitting that he no longer believed that Dominion helped "rig" the election, but still believed there was election fraud.  When I asked where his support for that statement came from, he said, "Fox News."  Even after the word came out of the trial that virtually everyone at Fox News was aware that Biden legitimately won the election, this guy wasn't convinced.  There's no cure for ignorance that runs that deep.  

$787 million is a lot of money. For what Fox News and Donald Trump perpetrated on the United States, and the distrust and fear that has created, there is no compensation adequate enough to repair the damage or restore what was lost as a result.  This is a huge loss for Fox News and a huge windfall for Dominion and I hope the latter hugely benefits from it.  I hope that it does result in the dissolution or destruction of Fox News.  I also hope that it opens the door for lawsuits that bankrupt other media providers, like Newsmax and Breitbart, among others, and put those liars out of business as well.