Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Caliban Chronicles: Special Edition
http://calibanonline.com/newsletter/CC37.pdf
Two weeks from today will be the final day that anyone can cast a legal ballot in the nationwide elections for which voting has already started. Approximately 16,000,000 citizens who are enfranchised, or one out of ten of every likely voters, has already made irrevocable choices. As I predicted a couple weeks ago, I believe that Trump is going to win a buzzer-beater election in which less than a total of 10,000 votes distributed across three or four states will eke out his victory. In those “swing states” Jill Stein will probably receive a total of slightly more than 100,000 votes. I do not make this prediction with any pleasure. Rather, I tremble as I write these words because that will mean the FCA (Fascist Christian Association) has triumphed. This cluster of American citizens wants more than Trump in the White House, however. They want an Ayatollah with a Crucifix to be be in charge of all matters: religious, social, and cultural.
These fanatics are not nationalists. As Ava Kafman’s excellent article points out, what I have called the FCA objects to the conflation of their religious agenda with nationalism. Modifiers matter, and from the point of view of ulta-Christians, nationalism as the primary keyword denigrates the only “deep state” that deserves our loyalty: the Kingdom of God. This is the cause that Jill Stein is aiding and abetting.
Trump’s victory in the Electoral College will be due in large part to his appeal to the MAGA legions of the FCA, which were his bulwark in the past two national elections. In addition, Trump has understandably gained the support of many working-class voters whose economic well-being has been ravaged by inflation. Trump’s narrow but decisive victory will also be due to the intransigence of Jill Stein in a buzzer-beater election. I fear tor the worst, of course. Jill Stein justifies her self-aggrandizement because she thinks her ideals are worth the rest of us enduring Trump for another four years. I actually loathe her more than Trump, who could at least plead that he is incapable of controlling his narcissism. Stein is perfectly capable of doing the right thing; she just lacks the integrity to do it. Nadar and she have done more damage to this country that Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell combined.
A fellow poet-editor, Lawrence Smith, has posted an eloquent appeal to all voters to consider the consequences of voting for a candidate who offers nothing more than a fantasy high of self-indulgent self-righteousness. I hope you will read his statement and take it into account as you cast your vote. I posted the link to his special edition at the start of this blog entry.
If you want a woman who is also a person of color to be elected president for the first time in this nation’s history, then this is no time to be voting for a woman who has no chance of winning the election. In case you wonder if she might have even have a million to one chance of winning the election, just ask yourself if she receives secret service protection. Of course not! And I can safely say that she will be finish yet another campaign without receiving a single threat to her physical well-being. Just as Donald Trump will have “absolute immunity” in the White House, thanks to her efforts, she has “absolute immunity” on the campaign trail. I’m glad has it. That’s how the First Amendment should override anyone’s temptation to abuse the Second Amendment. I only wish that I did not lose sleep at night as I think about the internment camps that Trump and his heir apparent have planned for people like me, who support “the enemy within.” Perhaps Stein’s real goal is to hope that she will be exempt from sharing my fate.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/magazine/texas-politics-billionaire-preachers.html
How Two Billionaire Preachers Remade Texas Politics
They control Republican politics in the state. Now they’re poised to take their theocratic agenda nationwide.
Oct. 2, 2024 Updated 8:41 a.m. ET
by Ava Kofman
About Bill Mohr