The answer to the question above really could be yes. World fascism/authoritarianism is a real possibility.
Some might say that if it can happen in the United States, it can happen anywhere.
The caption: The Earth and Moon as seen by the Cassini probe from Saturn’s orbit. All of humanity in one small dot in space.
A reminder of what Carl Sagan said about a photo of Earth from space he called the “pale blue dot,” which begins:
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
It continues here.
My thanks to the reader who suggested this to me:
Is it possible that God’s will actually is being done?
That a president tried to overthrow the government is not particularly surprising. Those in power have a natural inclination to remain in power, and this type of activity happens constantly in countries all around the globe.
What’s amazing is that tens of millions of American voters either dispute the clear and compelling evidence that this actually took place, or simply don’t care. Our democracy is teetering on the edge not because a criminal conman happened to come along, but because of a nation jam-packed with hateful idiots.
Good advice to religious leaders: Don’t promote the mutual exclusivity of faith and reason.
Go back to the good old days where religion and science were compatible. Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz were collectively known as the “rationalists.” Good times!
Do you really want to say that God sometimes says irrational things? Bad idea!
Here’s where we are, folks.
Almost half our nation eats up Trump’s rhetoric with a spoon.
Earlier today, I had the opportunity to ask some old prep-school chums about something I consider to be absurd: the U.S. Supreme Court’s considering the idea that the president of the United States should enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution.
One such friend, the only conservative in the group, pointed out that presidents have done things in the past, e.g. dropping the first atomic bomb and sending troops into Vietnam, for which he could have been criminally charged. Such immunity would enable the president to do what he thinks is right, and not be worried about going to prison for it.
An interesting response, to be sure, though both of these examples are potential war crimes, which are prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In any case, this seems to be a red herring. What we’re concerned about here is something quite “over the top,” something that would definitely be, and, in all likelihood will be, prosecuted within state and federal jurisdictions.
In particular, there is ample evidence that Donald Trump tried to overthrow the U.S. government, which, if he had been successful, would have made him a king, rather than a public servant. Are we saying that this is a valid direction for our nation to take? Insofar as I don’t recall any mention of the subject in the Constitution, it’s hard to imagine what these SCOTUS people are talking about.
I know absolutely nothing about the strategizing that must be going on inside the Republican party, but one has to think that some smart people realize that the GOP’s current course, MAGA/Trumpism, is not sustainable, and that an alternative must be developed and put into place.
America has shown that it has a certain appetite for the lies, the criminality, the rejection of science, the hatred, and all the rest. But that appetite is limited.
How hard would it be to organize around some garden-variety conservative who happens not to be criminally insane?
What Glinda is saying here is true, of course.
Trump may be convicted of all the charges in the other three indictments (and maybe more to come), and most of his followers will forever maintain that their hero was innocent, the victim of weaponizing the justice system by the Biden crime family, the Deep State, the Hollywood elitists, or whomever.
Admitting the truth would be a horrible embarrassment, and it’s simply never going to happen.
There are people in the former Confederacy who teach their children that the Union invaded them, a 165-year-old assertion that, similarly, will never die.
If you think that reason and truth are the guiding points of our lives, think again.
In 2023, the United States received an 83 on a scale from 0 to 100 on the Freedom Awards, from an organization called “FreedomHouse.” That placed us #17 of the 200+ sovereign nations on Earth.
Not bad, but what would it have taken to win first place, i.e. at or above the levels of Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia and Iceland? Well, let’s look at the 12 criteria the judges use:
Rule of law
Security and safety
Movement
Religion
Association, assembly, and civil society
Expression and information
Identity and Relationships
Size of Government
Legal System and Property Rights
Access to Sound Money
Freedom to Trade Internationally
Regulation
I see two main gaping holes in American’s position here.
1) Rule of law. The judges don’t like multi-tiered justice systems. And just wait until they see what is happening here in 2024, where our Supreme Court is weighing the idea of granting immunity from criminal prosecution to the president, essentially making him a king. It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.
2) Religion. The judges are also turned off to countries in which the proponents of one religion have authority over others. Our push to have the Christian bible inserted in our public school system will not sit well.
