ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR THREE

At this point, I really don’t think it’s worthwhile asking why the megalomaniac in the White House decided to bomb Iran. Every time he says something, the responses range from outrage to even-voiced (from the mainstream, anyway), and none of it is particularly helpful. 

Yes, we should continue to react with outrage; normalizing the toddler in chief’s behavior and his posse committed to profiting from that behavior isn’t up for debate. The moment we become complacent, is one more moment closer to accepting the idiotic as legitimate.

However, asking why is redundant and pointless at a certain point. 

I can think of three reasons right off the bat:

1. To paint himself as a decisive, powerful ruler leader; both to cow his opponents and banking on bolstering the MAGA Republicans (and maybe the entire quisling party) to win at the mid-terms. OR
2. To use the war effort as an excuse for canceling the elections altogether. Even if the US isn’t at war in November, he’s enough of a douche to claim that the “enemies within” (those who didn’t support him or perhaps, even the whole Democratic Party) are outlaws and until they’re brought to brook (and/or arrested/disappeared/executed), no elections ever.
3. To draw attention away from his and his administration’s crimes. And OF COURSE, the Epstein Files.
4. Likely other grifts that haven’t come to light yet. There are, of course, the Official Reasons (see attached images), but these are nonsense. These incompetents have decided that a war is the best way to distract from their losses in the polls and their all but certain losses at the mid-terms, if they happen.

Credit: Jack Ohman; source: https://jackohman.substack.com/p/your-daily-cartoon-ed4

It’s this last that concerns me most. Sure, the Administration has suffered losses in lower courts across the land;  sure, there have been wins in the primaries that spell something like a major sea change across the country. But we still have the worst, least concerned if not outright hostile, Congress in the history of the country. We have a Department of Justice that is more like the Department of Retribution, and a Supreme Court that, while having ruled favorably now and again, cannot be trusted to uphold the Constitution or even their own oaths to that Constitution.

The point lingering behind all this is that we cannot trust the powers that be to do anything like the “right thing”. 

The only reason to ask why anyone in the administration is to reiterate how morally bankrupt they are. 

While I insist we need to remain outraged, and while it might be reasonable to ask rhetorically about the motivations of the Sphincter in the Oval Office and his Cabal of Clods, it is more important to plan on what to do to try to ensure that elections will be held without interference from the federal government with an eye to the sleight of hand that they may likely use to either preclude the elections entirely or post facto, in the event of losses, that the elections were rigged. I don’t know that if it comes to that, lawsuits are going to work. I fear that protests will be more forcefully targeted.

What can we do right now? 

In addition to what is now “the usual” (calling/emailing your representatives, making public statements at town halls, writing editorials, organizing protests, registering voters, and even running for office), I’m not sure. Speak up, show up, hold the line.

That said, I do think we need to plan for the likelihood of foul play between now and the mid-terms and certainly, after the elections. The best case scenario is that elections are held, results accepted, and life continues apace. However, knowing that there are parties with a vested interest in maintaining the current status quo, it’s vitally important to consider malfeasance from any number of quarters: technological, (mis-/dis-) informational, and yes, paramilitary. The additional likelihood of ICE agents being recruited to watch the polls is worth considering.

But the main threat in the near time? The SAVE Act. It hasn’t cleared the Senate, and to that end, lean on your Senators. HARD. Even if like me, you’re in a Red State, call them, harass them with emails and get your friends and family to do the same. Of course, it’s predicated on bullshit. Of course, until recently, the United States elections were as tight as any on the planet throughout history. Of course, all the claims from Trump the first time to this time are bullshit. The SAVE Act exists to minimize participation in elections. Again, most people don’t have their birth certificate and only half of the country has a passport, the two forms of identification the federal government would require if the Act passes. The pushback from even some Republicans is that while this would mean most women would be eliminated from the voting pool, owing to birth names being different from married names, the lack of a passport is going to impact more Republicans than Democrats. How many MAGA people have travelled outside the USA’s boundaries? 

Thus, apply pressure as much as possible and keep hammering your reps.

If it passes? Look for a lot of lawsuits and tie-ups in courts across the country, but also work on helping people get the proper identification before November.

Now for the piece of all this that I don’t want to face in this piece, but needs to be addressed. What about the fall-out from this fool’s errand in Iran? Fall-out is the key word. I don’t think we’ll see some nuclear conflagration, but we are going to see hideous war crimes (predominantly from our and Israel’s side) and a global disruption of markets and supply chains that is only going to paint the US into a deeper, darker corner. We are already facing hardships from Trump’s tariffs; think of what would happen if/when the EU or China decide to levy sanctions on the country? Yeah. Let that marinate for a bit. Regardless of Mr. Art of the Deal’s bluster, we are no longer in a position to bargain. The rest of the world is moving away from reliance on us, because the US in no longer reliable. 

Will we see military actions taken against us? I don’t know. I hope not. But if we are given to regime change in Iran, it’s not too hard to imagine that we’ll be in a long war, again. Only this time, given the geography, it wouldn’t surprise me if enough Arab countries decided to renegotiate petroleum deals and/or force Trump and his lackeys to consider what happens when you piss the wrong people with. They’re bound to know he’s untrustworthy; I’m sure that they’ve watched with interest at how easily he’s shredded our relationships with our allies. They’re bound to know that he could screw them over on a whim, as well. 

The retort might be that they wouldn’t because they wouldn’t want to lose a market as large and robust as the US. However, they may well have other people at the bargaining tables to make up for any loss of revenue.

But it’s not just the Middle East. Our bridges with Latin America are burning, and I don’t think many African countries are willing to support our interventions there, either. Unless, of course, it’s to prop up other demagogues and dictators. However, at some point, push-back is bound to happen. Trump will lead us into a painful pinch-point of isolation that we are still a ways from. 

I’m less concerned about military excursions on US soil from other countries than I am from our own military being used to round up minorities,  dissidents, artists, or anyone who doesn’t hold the party line. We have a system of incarceration in place that imprisons more people per capita than any other in the world. The prison-profit industry is vast and if anyone thinks that the detention centers are only meant to hold immigrants, think again. 

This last is speculative, of course. I’m not placing bets and only an idiot thinks he has a lock on the future. I am, by the way, an idiot, but not that much of one.

Below are resources and ideas for what you can do now in relation to a number of the administration’s catastrophes in the making. Some will be more effective than others, of course, but pick one or many or a few and try to get as many people as possible to join you.