Silver Linings from my Box o' Wisdom

I was just thinking, as I doom-scrolled the internet, that even though it is pretty dark, these days, there is some cause for optimism.

Front and center is the arcane course through the court system that bogs down attempts at dramatic, extra-congressional changes.

Next, humans, especially the dumb ones, are slow to buy a clue on anything that doesn't fit their personal, "lord-get-me-through-this-day-I-beg-you," narrative. We cling to our personal biases until they, or we, snap in two. Then, reality becomes clear as a bell, and changes can occur.

In this regard, I am, and have always been, optimistic that MAGA voters cannot ALL be brain dead. At some point, some of them are going to recognize that they were taken, as I often say, for chumps. I must assume many of them spent life savings, and then some, supporting Trump, and, now that the pain is hitting home, it must be coalescing in their brains that chumps they indeed were.

Which brings us to another human foible: our pride.

Many of those MAGA who realize they were played are NOT going to take it well. And, they aren't the types to be quiet when they feel burned.

Hell, lots of them are gong to be gun owners, and the only contact they can have with DC is through their reps, who are now refusing to hear them in town halls.

This means lots of shot-up storefront GOP offices.

It is also obvious that Trump isn't meetng a single campaign promise that they repeated for him endlessly all campaign. I dare say that an insulted former supporter is going to be inclined to re-examine what they were told, and stand aghast at it all upon such reflection.

So, a slow system, a slow-to-learn population, and a prideful population that takes being punked pretty badly. What a wonderful combination.

All this, and reminding myself that we cannot ever see the end of the storm from the heart of it. We simply have to remember that storms pass.

Like Winston said: When you are going through Hell, keep going!

I have a feeling MAGA splashback could be a brutal, if entertaining and cathartic, thing. And I think it is coming.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I am showing rare optimism, so enjoy it while it lasts.

To Hell with MAGA, Friends or Family.

Let me repeat myself: MAGA are unreachable.

They have chosen to be unreachable.

They embrace their unreachability.

They have committed themselves to the embrace of selective ignorance as to their complicity with and/or active engagement in the banalities of workaday evil, the largest example of which is voting for candidates who promise to pay the rich on the savings incurred from denying help to the poor and oppressed.

And I know for a damned fact that many of you are friends with at least one of these people, or related and in contact with them.

I am told it is hard to just turn your back on an old "friend," or a family member. When it comes to bad faith actors, and any embrace of evil, I find it the easiest thing in the world. I don't know why. I just find it easy as falling off a horse to kick someone to the side if they prove to have been acting in bad faith all along.

No matter the thickness of the blood, there is no excuse for supporting those who would have you drown to create elbow room for a rich man in the lifeboat.

People have argued that this is absolutely the wrong approach to take. I argue that they are closing their eyes to the reality and demonstrability of evil, embraced.

Anyone and everyone who voted for Trump in this past election KNEW he was a bad person. If they didn't THAT IS ENTIRELY AND SQUARELY UPON THEM: they have had decades in which to simply be passively open to the best educational system the world has ever seen, and yet have learned not a god damned thing.

Trump wasn't new on-the-scene, either: this was his third presidential campaign, meaning every voter had twelve years to get to know this fascist sonofabitch.

And yet, they chose him over you and what you hold dear.

So people remain connected for what reason?

Studies have shown that people committed to a wrong idea are unlikely to be swayed by demonstrable evidence.

And, time is of the essence.

I figure we have less than a year to stop the nation from failing. The fiscal year ends this Fall, which is when new federal spending levels take effect, and all manner of shit will hit the fan (assuming the fan isn't already shit-encrusted, by then). Certainly, federal funds to states for social programs will take a huge, if not fatal, hit, as states tighten their fiscal belts and scale back or eliminate programs for social good and public health.

And this will be happening at the one-year mark before the midterm elections. There will be great pressure on GOP reps to stay the course, or face real physical threats from MAGA. If the heat gets too hot, do not assume for a fucking second that Trump won't impose martial law and simply postpone elections indefinitely. And the moment he will have to start really acting will be when, in November, people start looking forward to throwing him out of office with the rest of MAGA one year later.

Out of office, to be quite blunt and honest with you all, Trump is a dead man walking.

So, why are you still in contact with people who support him?

Sometimes children require harsh correction, but we embrace them afterwards because they have no agency and knew not what they did.

Adults only learn by falling and hitting their face on a boulder when they make a horrendous error.

Let. The. Fuckers. Learn.

Mere suggestions, for Democratic leaders.

First suggestion: begin the long-delayed transfer of leadership from the corpses to those still living.

We've done it your way long enough.

You cannot win political campaigns in this environment with wordy, policy-thick ads, read by septuagenarians in reading glasses. 

Those leaders must retire to the backbench, and allow more connected politicians to take the lead.

Nothing against you, really. You had your run, but now, you must do what Joe Biden did, after great pressure FROM YOU yourselves (if I may say so): admit that you aren't the ones to continue leading, and turn over the keys to the new members. There are fiery leaders in the House already, and many more in state houses who are on the verge of making the leap to the federal level.

Make way for the new leaders and, please, enjoy retirement.

Second suggestion: use ads like knives, not boxing gloves.

Every Democratic ad, from now until Trump is gone, must involve a logo-like graphic on the chyron, and it must be as crudely offensive to Musk and Trump as possible under FCC regulations.

There are so many to choose from. First to mind is the hacked HUD video, showing Trump kissing and licking Musk's feet. The graphic could switch from a focus on the kissing and licking, to the look on Musk's dumb AI-generated face.

And, you can always just flash images of Musk wearing his shades indoors, a sign of ketamine abuse. In fact, you might flash them, with the caption, "Ketamine abuse? Just asking questions!" Or him at the beach with his fishbelly-white gut hanging out, giving us all snowblindness, switching between images of a rocket exploding or penile implant ads.

You have got to get serious with these clowns. Now is NOT a time for policy wanking. Now is the time to save the nation. It is not the time for old approaches.

They have made it a fistfight, we must make is a knife fight.

Ungentlemanly things will need to be said and done.

Third suggestion: organize progressive "security" groups

The message has been sent, but have you read it? A liberal citizen speaking at a GOP town hall in Idaho was abducted by a private security force without uniforms or other identification.

No one could remember exactly WHO hired them.

Like fuck they didn't know.

They have now officially turned security forces AGAINST YOUR BASE.

It is now demonstrably apparent that liberal voices at town halls need physical protection, as well.

Of course, you cannot just show up and say you are there as security, because that would be laughable.

However, if you have volunteer speakers ready to be escorted by a lawfully-organized security force issued TO them, each individual might go in with two security officers accompanying them.

So, Susie Homemaker, all in gingham and lace, carrying a basket of apples, and all sweet and pure, might enter with a question in mind about Trump/Krasnov cozying up to Russia, and what they have on him. She is escorted to the mic by security, and escorted back to her seat afterwards.

If the locals object, flash the official badges from your organized force and state that THEY made this necessary.

They might need sidearms. Or not.

Legally-issued, of course.

This would be a good progressive billionaire project, also.

***

So, yeah. A few little suggestions.

A Public Service Announcement from this broadcaster: don't call them Swasticars.

Please, don't call them Swasticars.

They are Teslas.

Not Swasticars.

Swasticars imply the swastika, which was a symbol of Nazism.

Swasticars are something you shouldn't call them.

Or wankpanzers, either. That insinuates that the owner/driver is masturbating in the vehicle, or sees it in some strange paraphilic manner. Also, that they are a Nazi.

Those all hurt Melon Husk's feelings. It drives down sales of Swasti--I mean, Teslas.

You know, the guy who makes Nazi salutes ON ACCIDENT. His fee-fees get hurt.

So, remember, never refer to them as "Swasticars" or "wankpanzers."

And certainly never refer to them this way in perpetuity on your social media.

So, remember, don't say "swasticar" or "wankpanzer."

Swasticar.

Wankpanzer.

Don't.

Moving forward with D, E, and I: hindsight is 20/20.

DEI has become the whipping boy of the right. As always, while the left was busy telling everyone: DEI GOOD! DEI GOOD!, without actually defining DEI, the right gladly took the cue and defined it for them, into an electoral and policy cudgel with which they continue to effectively pound Democrats at this writing.

[Hint: if you have to use an acronym in your campaign, you really have TWO campaigns: a campaign defining THE ACRONYM, and then the subsequent campaign USING the acronym]

The same has happened with the concept of being "woke." Each perfectly describes something clear FROM THE INDOCTRINATED, ACTIVIST LEFT, but not from other, more pedestrian, less activist perspectives. Without some kind of "rollout," to bring others up-to-speed, lefties hamstrung themselves for a race they ought to have won, easily.

What DEI-allied interests might have done all along was to roll it out, one letter at a time, in a marketing campaign. Kind of like the old Ad Council sort of ads. First cycle: Diversity (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples. Second cycle: Equity (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples. Third cycle: Inclusion (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples.

Roll it out over a year or two, so people understand some simple examples from above, and are able to internalize them. Evaluate the results and gear it up for campaign time.

Would it work?

People of a certain age: how many of us remember "Give a hoot, don't pollute," "The Crying Indian," Smokey Bear, and others like that? Schoolhouse Rock?

Do we still trash the highways and rivers, or burn down forests regularly?

And it has been, what, fifty years since they initially played?

In addition to leaning far too heavily into identity politics (culture war bullshit, instead of the actual, unfolding class war at-hand), there has been an enormous failure on the part of the left to coherently advocate and promote novel concepts to new and disaffected voters.

It has been foolish for progressives and other activist lefties to assume that the center (and other generally-disaffected factions) share their lexicon and read from the same newsletters. Thus, in their use of DEI as shorthand, which has been given no linguistic value to other voters, they go into battle unarmed and unarmored. A complete "self-own."

So, how much is a basic, national, public interest ad campaign of maybe three-to-nine, fifteen-second commercials, spread over a one-or two-year campaign?

Tell me. I don't know. Then maybe we start a gofundme and recruit production staff.

There, that's three grand for my consultation fee. Thank you, I'll take cash or venmo.

Eric Trump OPENLY WARNS that they "can get so much worse."

So, Eric (the gummy, dumb one), posted a tweet, for twenty minutes, that warned enemies things will get much worse for people denying "The American Golden Age," and sounding not even a wee bit fascy at all.

I think it is important to note a few things, here.

First, that it was posted, at all.

Second, that it was taken down relatively quickly, but not quickly enough for the message to NOT get out.

Third, that speed of deletion makes for what Reagan would call plausible deniability, and Eric could claim it was posted in error by a fired staffer or what the fuck ever.

This was an order to stand by, exactly the way that Donald's "It's gonna be great!" tweet was, weeks before Jan 6.

This is a warning and no one is identifying it as so.

Dead to me:

ABC News

CBS News

Washington Post

New York Times