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Category Archives: Civil Rights – Sociology – Politics
Subjects covering matters of health, the pursuit of happiness individually and as a common society, and sometimes life or death, usually involving politics.
I have been a big fan of Ken Burns and his many exceptional, award-winning historical documentaries on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) over the last few decades. The biggest reason? He does not skimp or cheat his audiences from historical accuracy, historical facts, historical context, or how history always, always applies today. This is never more true than with modern history—everything after the end of the Middle Ages, c.1500 CE, to the present—and how much we Americans are still living it, in fact, it can never be ignored nor should it be. Ever!
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“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero, circa 69 BCE
Cicero’s famous oratory as a Roman constitutionalist made him a statesman with no loyalties to either nobility, patrician, or plebian. He was a well-educated citizen for all the people of the empire. His work should echo in Washington, D.C. every single day and as far south as Palm Beach, Florida, and Mar-a-Lago.
Do Americans Know Enough About Their Own National History?
The short answer is no, and the age gaps are very telling: around 40% of older Americans (65+ years old) are able to show proficiency. Sadly, only 19–27% of those under the age of 45 showed proficiency in modern American history [Institute for Citizens & Scholars]. This translates to just 4-in-10 Americans passing basic history and civics tests (2019). And today it is worse, much worse. This has been an American downward trend the last several decades. To say that the United States has been raising and educating ignorant citizens of American history, not teaching their civic origins and/or their present livelihoods, is a gross understatement. “Houston, we have a problem,” a critical event-horizon problem.
“I’m embarrassed that, as a country, we don’t grasp our history. Everyone approaches it from the arrogance of the position of how it turns out. We are all in the grip of the present, but if you point out the parallels, they are dated immediately. People are always trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”
What Burns, Richardson, Goodwin, Foner, McCullough, and so many other top American expert historians are alarmed about is the same thing, the same alarm I’ve been sounding since at least 2010 not just here on WordPress, but in my school classrooms when I was a Social Studies/History teacher for several years here in Texas. Drawing from the past and present Ken Burns could not be more unambiguous in his current dismay of Americans. The parallels of his newest docuseries, TheAmerican Revolution on PBS, and speaks to current incompetence of our civic knowledge, duties, and privileges and how it applies right now, whether he intended it or not when making the series. He states:
“…President Donald Trump’s romanticising executive order signed earlier this year to remove “revisionist” interpretations in museums and on monuments that question the “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights and human happiness”.
Trump’s Department of Education has forged a partnership with more than 40 rightwing organisations, including the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation — “dedicated to renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation” — as part of celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary in July. On the White House’s official America 250 website, Larry Arnn, president of the conservative Hillsdale College, compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln in his desire to make America great again.”
— Ken Burns, ibid.
Burns and most all American history scholars, myself humbly included, label our current buffoon in the White House as “an insult to our [American] history” and its authentic contextual history and verifiable facts. And I feel these words are too polite and obtuse for the fake President.
Should any of you like to revisit or read some of my WordPress blogs on this troubling subject, I recommend the following from older to newest:
There are several more to be listed, but this is just introductory and relative to your interest, time constraints, and possibly much more in-depth education on American history, civic privileges/duties, and an American sociopolitical landscape past and present.
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always Your Nation’s History!
In the wake of what has happened here September 10th, 2025, in Orem, Utah, USA, where severe, violent extremism rose another notch, I am begging all Americans, every single one of you to please, please, please, PLEASE prove me wrong with the obvious direction this country is being led. Please prove me wrong! Speak up, do not stay silent… sadly, at the risk of your own life, like Charlie Kirk had the political right to do, whether his world-view, his political persuasion was right or wrong, fascist or American, SPEAK THA EFFIN UP and get active in your governmental process! I cannot emphasize this dire NEED enough, never.
Therefore, let me show all of you Americans the very poor state, the decaying cancer that has become the United States of America due to the apathy and non-participating American public standing up with their citizens of power to the unscrupulous authority, corrupt government, and persuasive mega-wealthy Dark Money into a Constitutional revamp that has been bringing down this republic democracy in which our 18th-century Founding Fathers fought so hard with their own blood, toil, tears, and sons.
Also, on a sidenote I do not mind one bit the length at which I examine and write about this subject of the decaying, cancerous condition and health of American democracy today and of the severe apathy and willful ignorance of American voters/citizens. Thus, if this blog publication becomes 3,000 or 5,000 or 20,000 words long, so be it. This understanding of the scummy, swampy, cesspool that is our nation’s current politics and corrupt wealth in it… is far, far, FAR too important for me to worry needlessly about reader’s short attention spans and shallow comprehension, or more to the point, their shameful laziness to read intently and earnestly what I’ve written here. So grin and bear it if you care about the terminal illness of your country, my country, our country as true Americans.
Let’s get started!
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There is a juxtaposed personality, or a duel and conflicting personality, or personalities in American politics. Not that that is big news, but the reality is that it has been present in our nation (and other nations) since the first cries of our 18th-century independence from Great Britain. 21st-century Americans must wake up and accept the state and condition of their dying nation! The fight to keep this democracy functioning is a DAILY responsibility. Period. Always has been, always will be.
This begs the question: where is the problem? Where is the cancer? I will tell you.
Our politicians and government no longer fear the American public or the American voters. Why? Because the “average American,” the masses of this country can no longer hurt those in positions of power and wealth, or they do not know how. The American public, the ordinary American voter/citizen has allowed this impunity to manifest inside U.S. government and its puppeteers. How? How has this been allowed to happen?
Our Lust for In-Your-Face Entertainment Value
Americans have always embraced affectionally their evil-doers, their entertaining criminals, e.g. D.B. Cooper, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, Anna Delvy, etc., and the long list goes on. Americans LOVE their defiant icons of cultish personality. Power, wealth, authority, defiance, and fear are extremely intoxicating, addicting to American politicians and the American public. Most of Americans are endlessly tempted and they fall from grace because of the severe pressures that go with a “public image,” celebrity status, and many of us worship them by our obsessive following of them like love-sick puppy dogs.
This too often permeates into our national and state governing as well. There is no exception either as a politician “Of the People, By the People, and For the People,” probably much more than all American voters could possibly imagine that goes on in Washington D.C., or those of us who become addicted roadies, followers, worshipers of them. And those officials/criminals in government roles must live up to a 24/7, 365-days a year, certain public image until they resign or retire from public service whether they like it or not, or whether they can demonstrate the moral fiber, character, and willpower to just say no… repeatedly. They must fake it publicly in order to generate campaign funding to stay in office and maintain their constituent’s support at the polls. Many fail, many are outright hypocrites whether intentional or not, and yet sadly the American people are duped over and over by these sketchy types of political personalities still to this day! This is and always has been the overly glamorized American culture by Hollywood. How? What are they really feeding it?
The Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious
Why is this lust for power, authority, and enormous wealth such a regular occurrence past and present with our American political officials? How do they keep getting appointed or voted into office? What is the psychology behind these public figures, and equally as much, with is the psychology behind their constituents and supporters that make them their elected governing officials?
Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche – Image from The Living Philosophy, Oct. 2021
The father of psychology Sigmund Freud, theorized in his 1915 paper that the human psyche had three distinct levels of consciousness, preconsciousness, and unconsciousness using a metaphorical diagram of an iceberg. I personally like Freud’s theory of the human psyche. In several ways I think there is much truth in its content and it is demonstrated every day and night by our human species, particularly in times of crisis. What exactly was Dr. Freud explaining to us?
Freud’s iceberg model was a metaphor for the structure or makeup of the human mind. Above the water was our awake, conscious mind of thoughts and perception that the general public around us witness. Everything below the waterline was the preconscious and unconscious, i.e. memory stored knowledge learned from life experiences and deeper below the waterline our instincts, fears, dark defiant inclinations, and selfish motives of the Me we usually hide from the general public. I believe this blueprint is a very true representation of all human psyches around the world; in all of us like it or not.
More precisely though the “Id” or ‘the It’ and the Ego and the Superego are all in conflict with each other for dominance and according to Freud are the driving forces of all human internal conflict with the bad, good, or neutrally egalitarian human decisions we make throughout our lifetimes.
The Id is the genetic, hormonal, and transgenerational part of the psyche we are born with. The Ego and Superego develop after and from the Id. In other words, the former is all formed from nature and genetics. The Ego and Superego are formed from our immediate family (parents, siblings, etc.), extended family, and our communal environment. There is no nurturing in the Id, but over time more and more nurturing is impacted upon the Ego and Superego. Below the waterline are all of our basic instincts, physiology, primal urges (libido) and impulses running wild inside our bodies, heads or perhaps sometimes manifested in actual behaviors. The Id is not organized or managed by logic and reasoning. According to Dr. Freud the Pleasure Principle rules the Id—it is energized by self-satisfaction and not by what society and others dictate. In my lifetime, I have found this principle, this Freudian theory to be mostly true.
The Superego can be thought of as the counter-balance to the Id and what we have individually learned throughout our own social life experiences. In short, the Id is the For Me, By Me, Of me, and the Superego is the bigger than me and my wants, or the ‘Of the People, By the People, For the People‘ manifestation. Within this third are two subparts: the full conscience and the Ego ideal. The conscience is the summation of what our culture, our parents, family, and community have taught to us and everyone what is right and what is wrong morally and ethically. When we do not live up to that standard or code, we feel shame and guilt, not only from society and family, but the Superego as well. The Ego ideal therefore would be the best internal version of one’s self that family, society and culture approves. And this approval has benefits: accomplishment, pride, and value to name just three.
The Superego also has the ability of forethought. It has the long-term in mind rather than the immediate primal urges and self-satisfaction. It is more altruistic in nature/role than self-gratifying and narcissistic, the angel on your shoulder so to speak, rather than the devil.
The Ego, according to Freud and in the proper German translation, is nothing more or less than the ‘I’ of your existence, the literal awake part of you. It has a very difficult role to play. It serves three domains, three masters. It must fairly manage the impulses of the ‘Id‘ and the Superego as well as reality or your societal/cultural world. This struggle is demonstrated daily by our individual actions 24/7, 365-days and nights a year. When your Superego and your Id are aligned and balanced with reality, then all seems to be happy, content, peaceful, and hopeful.
“There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation… nothing in the id which corresponds to the idea of time” —Sigmund Freud
Whether one agrees wholly with Freud’s model, partly, or not at all in any way, I find much truth to his theory of all human psyches—it can be found one way or another in every single human being on the planet.
Applying Psychology and the Human Psyche to Our Nation
How our better self, the Ego as Freud puts it, manages the conflicts within us and without us between the Id and the Superego. It is of course the ultimate and never-ending debate of what’s best and what is not best in the timeline of human endeavors. I want to show how poorly, how dismally America is doing today on a psychological, societal, and political level both domestically (locally) and internationally.
Never before in the whole history of the United States has the wealth of one nation, in nearly two and half centuries, been so atmospheric, so high, so abundant among so few citizens than in the 21st-century United States. The USA is currently the 10th richest country in the world by GDP per capita constant prices. That might be a surprise to many, but when compared to 196 designated official nations, that is remarkably outstanding. That leaves in the dust all of our perceived “enemy” nations like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. But underneath this outer shell of glitz, bling, and power is a fragile, decaying illness inside. The biggest growing, cancerous tumors inside the U.S. are its economic model (hyper-capitalism) fed by mega-corporations, as well as its bribed, corrupt, scandalous government officials by those wealthiest individuals, their corporations, and their Super PACs. American history has shown adequately that it isn’t just one political party either. It is now the 21st-century millions, billions, and trillions that has infested our entire political and judicial systems. What and/or who is specifically responsible for this metastasized cancer inside the United States? Many well-educated, well-informed, secular Americans who know inside and out this country’s Charters of Freedom, as a whole, and their Core Founding Fathers who designed them will say two things or two people:
Pick your poison, any of those four in conjunction with each other and backed secretly, anonymously by a few extremely wealthy Super PACs and donors are the cancer, the power players that now rule or ruled this country straight to the ER. Let’s look at the consequences of these four entities since before 2010 and the Supreme Court’s eventual Landmark decisions of Citizens United vs FEC, followed by Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022.
The Root of All Evil
It is the popular pop cliche that “Money is the root of all evil.” Yes, it probably is given how human behavior around it, with it, and using it too often leads to many sins and evil. But this cliche is actually a misquote and misinterpretation of 1 Timothy 6:10 which actually states:
“For the love of money is a root of all [a]sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” — NASB 1995
In this passage’s correct exegetical meaning the author(s) intends that the love of or affection for or obsession with money and/or power is a root, a pathway to all sorts of evil, corruption, scandal, bad moral judgement, and destruction of not only marriages, families, and careers, but also of one’s public image… but only temporarily in 21st-century America.
How many people, friends, family members, celebrities, sports stars do you know or can think of that clearly change in their behavior toward others (you?) and change their personality when enormous fortunes fall upon them? Think about it. Who can you list? Abnormal wealth, usually in large degrees, changes a person’s life sometimes for the better other times for the worst. Some can handle the change, others fail miserably.
Personally, I have almost always found in my experience, about 90% of the time, people, family, or friends who have come upon vast amounts of money and with it inevitable socioeconomic status, they definitely change. More often than not, the change is quite unhealthy for them and everyone around them. All of us see this in our lifetimes and learn about its corrupting nature throughout human history. We have learned about the Seven Deadly Sins, that too often distract us from a virtuous altruistic life of healthy inclusion. Of the seven deadly sins, the ones always associated with massive wealth are greed, gluttony, and implicitly, sloth. The many temptations, distractions from true life as Henry David Thoreau alludes in Walden: Or, Life in the Woods, and the slippery slopes of falling into the other four deadly sins are more often than not irresistible to most. This is why personally I am and always will be a Minimalist. As a result, I would never in a million years make a popular, quid pro quo American politician or lobbyist; not ever. I do not have the stomach for, much less the Machiavellian traits required today for either Washington D.C., or Austin, Texas, careers. As the saying goes, my soul or integrity are not for sale.
Does Money Equal Free Speech?
Beginning in 2008 a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization called Citizens United led initially by Floyd Brown and later David N. Bossie, both very Right Conservatives and well connected to extremely wealthy conservative donors and the corporate sector of campaign donors who all share the same ideology, won the Landmark Supreme Court Decision in January 2010 Citizens United vs FEC. With the legal assistance of Indiana attorney James Bopp, Jr., specializing in anti-abortion legislation, election laws, American campaign finance, and a staunch Republican activist, Citizens United, Brown, Bossie, Bopp, and several other extremely wealthy donors and organizations successfully pushed the argument of Money Equals Free Speech past the Supreme Court and into law. This SCOTUS decision would change the landscape of American politics, true democracy, campaign finance and donations entirely upside down for untold decades, possibly centuries given the new floodgates of enormous, ungodly amounts of money everywhere in our government and its elections. Worse still would be the start of the United Oligarchs of America where the wealthiest govern and control all aspects of American freedom and liberties.
And the numbers above have only skyrocketed since 2020 into stratospheric amounts to 2024. Since Nixon and Watergate lobbyist spending exploded to the Bush administrations from a $100-million dollar industry to a $2.5-billion dollar industry by 2009. It has only gotten gluttonous and hideously obese through 2024. Why now is our election process so vulnerable to the most heinous of corruption and bribery?
The arguments for and against money = free speech came down to basically two opposed positions: 1) the hiding and disguising (misleading) of unlimited amounts of campaign donations from the wealthiest donors, albeit individuals or corporations, or 2) the insane amounts of temptations that unlimited money favorably influences actual legislation for special interests groups, minority beliefs, and minority ideologies, and thus literally screw over the greater common American, whether they are in the majority or not. In other words, a few richest entities and individuals of our nation can dictate what sort of life the vast and ordinary Americans from coast to coast can have or not have despite their votes at the ballot boxes.
Fortunately, for the Living Evolving Constitutionalist of which I advocate, the poster boy for the deplorable corruptions, briberies, and deceit in our money-loaded repulsive elections was nurtured and manifested by Citizens United and James Bopp, Jr. Who is the caught, criminal poster boy? It is Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff has served two prison terms because he always wanted to circumvent the Law of Our Land. And there are many others that could be listed. But just in Abramoff’s investigation-scandal twenty-four (24) others were convicted of corruption or bribery directly nurtured by Citizens United, James Bopp, Jr. and two other key accomplices: Leonard Leo and Robert Schenk. I highly recommend that Rev. Schenk’s link be thoroughly read and comprehended! Why? Because Schenk later realized, far too late, that all the Christian Nationalism he had fought for and gone to jail for previously was a huge, huge regrettable mistake.
“When religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both. To claim that one political figure uniquely represents God’s will is a form of anti-Christian idolatry.” — Reverend Robert Schenk
Rev. Robert Schenk would be a second poster boy of what Citizens United and attorney James Bopp, Jr. have irreparably created—pure, unadulterated corruption and bribery at the highest levels of our federal government. Period, including our Supreme Court. No ifs, ands, or buts. Period. James B. Mintz founder of the Mintz Group, a research and financial investigation group and a former adjunct professor at Columbia University Journalism School, finds six components of how corrupt politicians and lobbyists launder the “gratuity gifts” that buy-off and bribe our federal officials. His example is Paul Manafort and his indictment as Trump’s 2016-17 campaign chairman:
And this sort of corrupt underhanded dealing and influence on elections happens all the time in various forms. What Citizens United and its champion, Bopp created was nothing short of legalized bribery of Washington D.C. In fact, this is a direct quote straight from James Bopp, Jr.’s mouth:
“I have found that being rich is always an advantage. It’s always an advantage to have money. You get a nicer house, a nicer car, you know, steak every night, whatever it is you are into, okay… and fine wine, and you can pay for speech if you want to. Okay? So there is always an advantage to have money and people with money will always have an advantage. Always.”
Boy howdy, if that isn’t rich, superior, snub-your-nose, white-man arrogance, then I have land on the Moon to sell you. That is the most undemocratic, uncouth, audacious hubris stuff to say to a nation, his nation founded upon the People, the ordinary, hard working People of America who are not the upper 10% or 15% of the most wealthy in the nation. They are average Americans who absolutely have a voice, as equally as anyone else has a voice Of the People, By the People, and For the People whether they are filthy rich or not! Man, James Bopp, Jr. chaps my ass royally with that level of blatant pomposity! And readers, he is the reason Citizens United succeeded in 2010 and directly corrupted this supposedly fair democratic republic nation. No debate whatsoever; he and the ramrodded Supreme Court Justice appointments by the last six (6) Republican administrations going back to Richard Nixon to deliberately ideologically fix our highest court in the land.
Though there are many Jack Abramoffs to list as incapable of resisting corruption, deceit, and bribes in our nation’s capitol due directly to Citizens United, James Bopp, and several other big money players, Abramoff is one of the few who was caught and who could never learn his lesson even after two lengthy prison sentences. What does that say about unlimited money flooding into our politics and government the last 15-20 years? How many excuses will be made to keep unlimited big money inside our elections and government?
Before moving on I want to address the heavy power and influence “campaign finance” via Citizens United now has inside Washington D.C. with Leonard Leo, the puppeteer, and come back to Robert Schenk’s part in it as the puppet.
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Who is Leonard Leo the man? What has shaped his life and character? Well, describing Leonard Anthony Leo is not at all difficult. Why? Because he has single handedly reshaped our nation’s Supreme Court. The highest of all courts in our country. That’s right, one man, not several presidents, not the People of the United States—that is to say, not ALL the People—but one single man created the line of dominos then tipped the first one forward and the domino effect is still happening today.
Federalist Society co-chairman and former Executive Vice President Leonard Leo speaks to media at Trump Tower in New York, Nov. 16, 2016. Carolyn Kaster/AP
Leo’s biggest accolade to date was his engineering of the Republican supermajority of our current Supreme Court Justices via his Federalist Society and several/many players and donors. Soon after SCOTUS followed HIS personal agenda and rolled back a woman’s right to an abortion, especially in critical or emergency situations. Does Leo’s version of Catholicism represent all the People of the United States? Is this a true republic when fringe minorities rule the land? He thinks it does. Leonard Leo, let me remind you of two Scriptural passages:
“Therefore [a]whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for [b] good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” — Romans 13: 2-7 (NASB 1995)
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent [a] by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” — 1 Peter 2:13-14 (NASB 1995)
On the contrary though, Holy Scripture does not always apply to the whole, but only to the individual interpretation or belief of that Scripture’s exegesis (Opus Dei). Often one person or one tiny group believes their ideology applies to the world, not just themselves. This was and still is Leonard Leo.
Personally, Leo has been deeply shaped by his radical religious faith of ultra-conservative Catholicism, and the death of his daughter by complications of her spinal bifida at 14-years old. Yet, somehow (and who knows) that tragedy caused him to attack abortion rights for American women and to go relentlessly after the Roe v Wade’s repeal. It was purely a personal vendetta on our country and he succeeded with the aid of the Federalist Society… very sadly though at the expense of a much higher mortality rate for American pregnant women and their unborn or infants in 14 states with new abortion bans, including one of the highest ones, my native state of Texas. That is horribly and grossly disproportionate for one 14-year old girl named Margaret Leo, his daughter, for all the deaths due to inaccessible emergency medical care. Really? One girl for 100’s and 1,000’s of other women and infants? WTF Leonard! But I assure you 100% that Leo would say something like, ‘That’s God’s domain and only His domain, not man’s.’ I’ve heard that over and over and over ad infinitum from religious fanatics. In the end, Leonard Leo received in particular a $1.6-BILLION dollar donation that he used for slush funds to buy off near hundreds of activist leaders, including one that violently marched upon our Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in an insurrection on our federal government killing several people and Capitol Police sworn to defend the very institution Leo, Trump, his Federalist Society, and his crony politicians were attacking!
However, when so many powerful, well-connected, wealthy men in Washington D.C. serve only themselves, they will turn on you in a heart beat. Has Leo learned this painful lesson of who he serves or uses as a puppet? From Politico.com, May 2025:
Trump goes after Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society in fury over court ruling
“The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America.”
[…]
Trump’s attack came after the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down his tariffs, a massive blow to the primary pillar of the administration’s economic agenda. The ruling was temporarily stayed by an appellate court on Thursday. One of the judges on the three-person panel that blocked the tariffs is Timothy Reif, who was appointed by Trump in his first term.
The blame, Trump said, lay with the Federalist Society.
“I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,” he wrote. “This is something that cannot be forgotten!”
[…]
And at a time when much of Trump’s agenda is facing tests at the Supreme Court, Trump’s vitriolic attack on Leo has the potential to further distance the president from the court’s conservative justices. All three of Trump’s high court nominees, as well as Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, are known to be close to Leo.”
What lessons has Leonard Leo and his closest associates really learned from their Supreme Leader in the White House? Dealing with fringe special interests and greedy megalomaniacs has a risky, high cost. When the proverbial feces hits the fan, historically it has always been “every man for himself; everyone will go down with me” mentality.
Robert Schenk was one of Leonard Leo’s, James Bopp’s, and David Bossie’s puppets from the Evangelical activist circles to help galvanize the nation’s Conservative Right behind Citizens United, ironically very much a minority group in our country. As many corrupt lobbyists and D.C. politicians say, “Money talks, bullshit walks,” even when you are a fringe minority money dictates the minority’s ideology upon the majority, as attorney James Bopp, Jr. boasts above in his direct quote of ‘being rich.’ Today, Rev. Robert Schenk has done a complete 180-degree turnaround on his beliefs; listen/watch closely:
Rev. Robert Schenck, one of the first to abandon the Far Right Conservative’s extremist movement on Pro-life abortion laws (Roe v Wade) after years of being a radical activist in that same movement.
Bottom-line? Easy, there is just a corrosive, obese amount of buy-off money (bribery) everywhere in Washington D.C. and Citizens United, James Bopp, Jr., Leonard Leo and their created culture in the money schemes/scams are simply too predominate in our modern politics. Period, full stop. And unless Citizens United v FEC is overturned, repealed… it will never stop; it will only get worse every year, two years, and four years until American democracy completely collapses precisely like the Roman Empire in the 4th- and 5th-centuries CE. Guaranteed.
More Poster Boy Examples of Citizens United Corruption & Bribery
There are many poster children/persons that are corrupted by Bopp’s Citizens United that I must narrow down my examples to just three. If I listed all the depraved individuals in Washington D.C., this blog-post would take far too long and be well over 20k to 30k words. No one wants to read that much evil corruption that takes up all of their days/nights for a few weeks.
Suffice to say I will concentrate on just three prime examples of the extent James Bopp, Citizens United, Leonard Leo, and many others have undermined and intently tempted, corrupted, and bribed our American democratic politics and officials.
“Horse-trading.” That’s the term often used to designate the growing corruption, bribery, and back-alley deals that permeate every part of introductory U.S. legislation and elections. Horse-trading is essentially ‘I scratch your balls, you scratch mine… for a price, a big price.’ This is how things and legislation gets done, passed according to all lobbyists, all congressional and executive branch members (with few or no scruples), and all special interest big-money donors to them. It is accepted. It is the norm. And many/most say and believe it is all totally legal thanks to Citizens United. So who are my three prime multiple examples of U.S. and Washington D.C. briberies, corruptions, and weakest, immoral will-power? Here they are…
#1 – Former Illinois Governor (D) Rod Blagojevich
Though indicted and sentenced, former Democratic Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was just two years prior to the SCOTUS Landmark decision of Citizens United vs FEC, he is still one of the best known victims, or rather criminal felons who got caught, who fell victim(?) in the 21st-century to ungodly, obese amounts of money in U.S. state or federal politics and legislation thanks to the lead-up of Citizens United.
Every day across the United States, in every single state, our political system is bankrolled by an onslaught of armies of wealthy fund raisers and their associate donors throwing in millions and millions of campaign dollars to their own special interests and puppet candidates. When those super wealthy donors front $50k, $200k, or $1-million dollars, they demand favors, paybacks, or kickbacks.
And no thanks to Citizens United in 2010, Brown and Bossie, attorney James Bopp, Jr. Leonard Leo, and our Republican supermajority Supreme Court, a wink and a nod that borders ever so thinly on bribery, U.S. politics has been and is as corrupt as it ever has been. Before it was cool to be filthy corrupt, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, and attempting extortion prior to 2010, Rod Blagojevich was the poster boy forerunner and first major consequence of too much money in state-federal politics.
Temporary note — I am trying to finish this post while dealing with my Mom’s soon and eventual death from severe dementia/Early Alzheimer’s and other medical complications. I am handling a LOT at the moment. Please bear with me and thank you so much for your patience and understanding.
To be continued…
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
Over the last decade or more there has been a resurgent movement inside America’s Deep South, as well as in Texas, of whitewashing or rewriting our verifiable, factual history of the 19th-century United States by Far Right White Conservatives. These political groups and organizations are removing certain parts of history and their implied meanings of America’s less desirable, dark past from our middle and high school textbooks primarily throughout the former Confederate states and certain midwestern states.
What they have achieved already in the modern public eye and in many classrooms throughout the South and Midwest, as well as in those History/Social Studies curriculums on school campuses is that the American Civil War, fought between 1860–1865, wasn’t about slavery of the African-Americans brought here as slave-laborers to work southern plantations and carry their economic load of the American South for free. But instead they argued and argue again today that it was really about states’ rights as written in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution by our Founding Fathers. No, the latter is absolutely not true. Let’s go back and reexamine those first seven states’ “proclamations” rationalizing why they had to secede from the Union.
Why the States’ Rights Arguments are Wrong and Untrue
As late as December 2010, I repeat, 2010, many American states, primarily in the Deep South and former Confederate states, were celebrating that state’s secession (South Carolina) from the Union, from the United States of America and all the federal union stood for that our forefathers and the Founding Fathers had shed so much blood, sweat, and tears for, as well as the loss of their sons, brothers, and fathers to win independence from the tyranny of King George III and Great Britain. South Carolina, followed by six more southern states, left that united union just one generation after the American Revolution. One. And yet today many of these same descendants of the Confederacy scream “patriotic loyalty” for the USA. It does seem very perplexing that to this day in the 21st-century the Confederate South lives by a double, perhaps triple standard of what national patriotism means and represents.
But on the contrary, history shows abundantly that the South’s definition of national patriotism is cloaked and veiled in hypocrisy, rationalization, and double standards, back then and still today.
Alexander H. Stephens — Under the newly formed Confederate States of America, Vice-President Stephens in a speech in Savannah, Georgia, March 21, 1861, explicitly articulated that the Confederacy’s foundation was the staunch belief that:
“…the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery – submission to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition”
There is no misunderstanding by what Mr. Stephens was laying out as the basic ideology of the Confederacy: racial inequality. Period. If you so desire and see fit to read Mr. Stephen’s entire Cornerstone Speech and verify this history, then click here:American Battlefield Trust – Civil War. The essential fact to remember from this speech is that Stephens tied slavery to race, making perfectly clear that the cornerstone of the new Confederacy was not just vassal slavery, but the total subordination of black people for the benefit of white people. In a twist of historical irony the Confederacy was indeed the political ancestor of Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa—regimes founded on the assumption of the racial and ethnic superiority of the white ruling class and the utter inferiority and subordination of other non-white races and groups. Furthermore, VP Stephens as he often did was incorrectly attributing and maligning this Southern ideology to Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson’s resident slaves.
Dec. 1860 South Carolina was the South’s first state to secede from the United States of America because of their “slavery rights.” Afterwards South Carolina fired the first shots against the Union at Ft. Sumter. – U.S. War Department map
“A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.”
Once fighting and war broke out, Mississippi followed suit on January 9, 1861, followed by Florida January 10th, Alabama January 11th, and Georgia January 19th. Mississippi and Georgia made the same declarations. Emphatically Mississippi stated in their second sentence of their Declaration of Secession:
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.”
And Georgia did the exact same thing second sentence of their Declaration of Secession from the United States:
“For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of virtual civil war.”
Union and Confederate geographical divisions June 30, 1861 – U.S. War Department map
Today, the relationship between secession and states’ rights is more often misunderstood and not based in the historical method or proper interpretation, especially by those who argue that the Confederate slave states seceded from the Union to ‘protect their states’ rights.’ But here’s the rub, the states which left the United States never maintained that they were being denied their “states’ rights”—that the national government had eliminated the lines been between national authority and state authority. Nor did the South complain that the federal government was too powerful and so it threatened the sovereignty of the Confederate state governments. On the contrary, the southern states complained that the northern states were pushing their states’ rights upon the southern states and the federal government in Washington D.C. wasn’t strong enough to counter or stop the North’s claims. Additionally, secessionists weren’t complaining that an overly oppressive federal government was violating their civil liberties of southern peoples; rather it was the federal government’s refusal to check and suppress the northern states’ civil liberties. Let’s examine this more closely.
Rogers map of 1861 showing the eventual entire Confederacy
The 1850’s: Substantial Pro-Slavery Advancements in the United States — This decade in American history was a time of striking movements for pro-slavery states. They came in three major areas of law: 1) recovery of fugitive slaves back to their slave owners, 2) slavery into new and newest territories in the nation’s westward expansion, and 3) slave owners rights to travel the country with slaves even into non-slave (free) states. In fact, all three branches of our federal government passed legislation to expand the rights of slave owners! Moreover, the federal government drastically restricted the rights of free black slaves. The U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in the Dred Scott Case of 1857 is one such example; it denied citizenship to people of African descent, whether enslaved or free, and declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional.
The United States had acquired vast amounts of land from Mexico, but the area was closed to slavery due to the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 which banned slavery from new territories. During the Mexican War, the House of Representatives passed the Proviso, but it never made it through the Senate, where the Confederate South had a majority at the time.
Also in the 1850s, supporters of slavery won huge victories in Congress, which legalized slavery throughout the west. Congress further protected the rights of masters to recover fugitive slaves with a new and powerfully nationalistic fugitive slave law. Added to this were Supreme Court decisions which made slavery a specially protected institution under the Constitution, allowing slavery in all the federal territories, concluding that free blacks had virtually no rights under the Constitution and could never be considered citizens of the United States, and finally undermined the right of free states to emancipate visiting slaves.
The United States US in Order of Secession from 1860-1863
Another milestone for the Confederacy was the admission of Florida on March 3, 1845 giving the South a one state majority in the Senate. Texas’ admission on December 29, 1845 gave the South a two state majority in the Senate and the South maintained this two state majority until December 28, 1846 when Iowa was admitted into the Union, then Wisconsin (1848), and finally California in 1850 which ended the parity inside the U.S. Senate. California’s admission into the Union and Mexican territorial cession, it also made possible new slaves states entering the Union in the southwest. President Abraham Lincoln and the Union had to stop it.
The Compromise of 1850 — This compromise was a series of legislative bills addressing issues related to slavery and slave owners. These bills granted slavery be decided by popular sovereignty with the admission of new states, prohibited slave trade in the District of Columbia, settled a Texas boundary dispute, and established a stricter Fugitive Slave Act. While intended to resolve North-South tensions, the Compromise of 1850 ultimately proved more disruptive. The Fugitive Slave Act, in particular, angered many in the North, while the South felt it didn’t go far enough to protect their interests. The compromise delayed the inevitable conflict, but did not resolve the fundamental issue of slavery, contributing to the build-up of tensions that eventually led to the Civil War at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina in 1861.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, followed by several landmark Supreme Court decisions from the late 1840’s and 1850’s, the Confederate South and its slave owners made huge gains, for all intents and purposes, by winning all the Supreme Court’s slave cases, set the nation on a path of no return to a long, deadly, bloody civil war.
A more distinguishable modern map of the Confederacy (grey) and the Union (blue) by 1863
Confederate Secession and States’ Rights
After a decade of remarkable success at the national level, in 1860-61 the most aggressive proslavery politicians led their states out of the Union. Were they concerned about states’ rights? Was the right of the states to control their own domestic institutions at the heart of secession? The answer is clearly no.
There is not a single historical example of the loss of states’ rights that any southerners could protest about. The federal government never threatened to end slavery in the states or even interfere with it where it existed already. Moreover, in his first inaugural address March 4, 1861, Lincoln reaffirmed this while quoting his own party’s platform on this point:
“Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that—
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:
“Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.” ”
— President Abraham Lincoln, 1861
The most important and prevalent state right that any of the southern states ever claimed was that they had the “right” to secede. Secessionists claimed that this right was rooted in the inherent sovereignty of the states. South Carolina noted that the Federal Government’s “encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified” the state in “withdrawing from the Federal Union” and that “now the State of South Carolina” had “resumed her separate and equal place among nations.” However, the tangible reasons for secession were not the rights of the states, no. While rhetorically South Carolina and other seceding states may have claimed that the national government had “encroached” on their “reserved rights,” none of the seceding states offered any examples of this, because in fact there were none. Instead, all of the Confederacy’s examples—the reasons they offered to justify secession—were purely about national policy involving slavery in the territories, the admission of new slave states, John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, northern opposition to slavery, the refusal of northern states to aggressively help in the return of fugitive slaves, and the other actions by northern state governments that were “hostile” to slavery. Most of these protests were not in fact about the federal government encroaching on southern states’ rights, but rather they were protests that the federal government had note ‘impinged on northern states’ rights.’ But this was a Confederate diversion and veiled declaration that on the surface portrayed falsely one thing, but was actually about slavery and slave owner rights. Nothing else.
John Brown’s raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, 1859, and Brown’s subsequent walk to the gallows to hang.
Therefore, there were four obvious ironies and outright deception by the South’s later purported states’ rights controversies and their later fabricated justifications of secession from the United States that are not well detected, understood, or equitably studied by Americans, even today in the South.
First, because the Constitution of 1787 was strongly protective of slavery, and the Supreme Court amplified this protection, there was an obvious direct link to pro-slave nationalism. This meant that, before 1861, slave states didn’t require to have a states’ rights ideology to protect their most important social and economic slave institutions. A federal position did that for them. Most of their complaints about the federal government and slavery in the secessionist documents of all first seven Confederate states were not about the federal government impinging on southern states’ rights. For example, South Carolina complained that the northern states were not helping to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and thus “laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine, all knew full well that in order to have all thirteen colonies ratify the new U.S. Constitution in 1787 they were sacrificing total equality, liberties, and rights for all American persons, including Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians too, as alluded to in the Declaration of Independence, as well as for (or not contesting) slavery, for an immediate compromise and ratification of the Constitution for ALL thirteen colonies as one nation. The core Founding Fathers aforementioned in a sense looked the other way on the boiling problem of Southern slavery in order to get full ratifications. This does not include the problem of religion in the First Amendment which was nicely solved by the Separation of Church and State, temporarily.
Those core Founding Fathers though pleased with the Constitution’s ratification, they were not thrilled so much about several unaddressed problems. They knew just how fragile and brittle their new nation would be because total equality, liberties, and rights for all American peoples was missing or too vague and not resolved clearly and succinctly. On September 8, 1787, on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a lady asked Dr. Benjamin Franklin:
Elisabeth Powel: “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Dr. Franklin: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
“A republic, if you can keep it.” In this case here, how prophetic a response by Dr. Franklin when 1860-61 rolls around. That ignored slavery mess, so to speak, soon became a powder house ready for the smallest spark.
Second, because our U.S. Constitution was proslavery and supporters of slavery (including several of the Founding Fathers), slavery governed the federal government almost continuously from 1801 until 1861, the most critical supporters of states’ rights in the Antebellum Period were northern oppositions of slavery. Northerners had to assert states’ rights in order to preserve their free blacks from recurring kidnappings from southern bounty hunters and defend their fugitive slave neighbors from being chained-up, beaten, and returned to bondage. Thus, starting in the 1820s, most free states passed individual liberty laws, which annoyed the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 for southern slave owners.
In the 1830s, courts in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania upheld state exclusive, black liberty laws which undermined the 1793 law and in effect held that the 1793 law was unconstitutional, in part on states’ rights grounds for the North. In the early 1840s, Governor William H. Seward of New York and three successive governors of Maine spurned to surrender northern free blacks for helping slaves escape sought by the South’s slave owners. Just before the Civil War, Governors Salmon P. Chase and William Dennison of Ohio also refused to surrender a free black who had helped a slave escape. These northern governors rested their actions tit for tat reprisals on states’ rights arguments. Finally, after the Supreme Court brought down the first wave of northern personal liberty laws in Prigg vs Pennsylvania, many northern states responded with new laws, like the South’s, which simply withdrew all northern cooperation in the return of fugitive slaves. This was a variant of states’ rights philosophy. In these laws, passed in the 1840s and more so in the next decade after the adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the northern states took the position that their states no obligation by law to cooperate with the federal government. In doing so, the North made enforcement of the 1850 law quite difficult, or in some places, practically impossible.
Third, it should be known that the most pushy “states’ rights” arguments of the Antebellum decade in truth came from northerners, not southerners, particularly judges in Ohio, New York (Lemmon v The People), and most of all Wisconsin (Abelman v Booth). In response to the Oberlin-Wellington deliverance in Ohio, that state’s supreme court came within one vote of causing a clash with the federal government by issuing a writ of habeas corpus directed at the U.S. Marshal in Cleveland. The Wisconsin Supreme Court was not so discreet and in fact issued a writ of habeas corpus that forced U.S. Marshall Stephen Ableman to relinquish the abolitionist Sherman Booth after he had been arrested for helping rescue a fugitive slave. In New York, in Lemmon v. The People, the state’s highest court rejected any measure of courtesy towards visiting southerners. Here, the state emancipated eight Virginia slaves who were brought into the state for just long enough to take the next steamboat to New Orleans. They were in the city only because New York was the only east coast port that had direct passage to New Orleans. The decision in Lemmon was valid within the context of American constitutional law and state police powers. But, southerners believed this decision, and similar ones in other states, violated the spirit of the Union and the courtesy that should be given to citizens of other states. In addition, some southerners believed the decision in Lemmon actually breached the Commerce Clause or the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Constitution because it denied southerners the right to travel throughout the United States with their constitutionally protected property and it interfered with “interstate commerce,” i.e. slave trading of say cattle and negro free-labor services for wealthy, lazy white southern supremist plantation owners.
The last months of the Civil War and Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant’s final two greatest victories over Robert E. Lee and the Confederate States of America, who were merely rebels, not a recognized nation anywhere, ends the bloodshed and abolishes slavery in the United States forever… well, sort of.
Final Verdict on Today’s “States Rights” or Slavery Argument
Given this short examination of the reasons and justifications of the 1860 Confederate South’s right to secede from the United States because of states rights violations by the North, all one must do is go to the Library of Congress and closely read the secession declarations of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee (all in that order) to see with your own eyes the false arguments of today’s pro-South, pro-Confederacy (White) state residents are unequivocally NOT historically factual; not even close. Plain and simple the American Civil War and secessionist southern states was about ONE thing and one thing only:
SLAVERY.
Nothing else, nothing more. Period. End of debate.
As you read, keep in mind and in the back of your memory who or whom I might be describing today in this post; the similarities or the indistinguishables of someone(s), past and/or present.
n. a highly inflated conception of one’s importance, power, or capabilities, as can be observed in many individuals with mania and paranoid schizophrenia. In the latter, megalomania is often accompanied or preceded by delusions of persecution. See delusion of grandeur.
What is the definition of narcissism? The American Psychological Association (APA), the clinical definition of the term is this:
n.
excessive self-love or egocentrism.
in psychoanalytic theory, the taking of one’s own ego or body as a sexual object or focus of the libido or the seeking or choice of another for relational purposes on the basis of their similarity to the self. See body narcissism; primary narcissism; secondary narcissism. —narcissistn.—narcissisticadj.
What is the definition of paranoia? The APA states the clinical term means:
a former diagnosis for a relatively rare disorder, distinct from paranoid schizophrenia, in which the person reasons rightly from a wrong premise and develops a persistent, well-systematized, and logically constructed set of persecutory delusions, such as being conspired against, poisoned, or maligned. It is equivalent to persecutory-type delusional disorder.
historically, any psychiatric disorder characterized by persistent delusions. See also classical paranoia.
in ancient times, any mental disorder or delirium. —paranoiacn., adj.
One could also elaborate further with a #5 under paranoia the regular, unfounded perception of oneself always being the victim of say, witch hunts, or sociopolitical attacks.
What is the historical definition of tyranny? According to the Cambridge.org dictionary the term means:
tyranny
noun.
government by a ruler or smallgroup of people who have unlimitedpower over the people in theircountry or state [or police state] and use it unfairly and cruelly.
a situation in which someone or something controls how you are able to live, in an unfair way.
There are many other manifested, associated behaviors which are typically present in a person who suffers from these four mental-illnesses, whether the person is aware of them or not in their behavior and thinking or admits them to others.
Of the most notorious eight tyrants of modern history in the header at top and then labelled here, I want to focus on Adolf Hitler, third from the left. Between January of 1919 and April 1945, Adolf Hitler and his inner-circle of Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels (Propaganda Minister), Martin Bormann, Albert Speer, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, then all of their subordinates, were all responsible for the murders, killings, genocide and/or imprisonments leading to death of over 12,243,500 men, women, and children in a span of just 12-years.[1] In other words, 1,020,292 people per year, or approximately 85,025 men, women, and children per month. The scale of this industrialized killing and combat fatalities by the Nazis may never again be topped unless it is a nuclear war of three to four enemy nations.
What was the hypnotical draw of Hitler to the German-Austrian masses in July 1919 through October 1929? What was his personality at the time? Who was around him? What were the living conditions in Germany after World War I? Let’s take a closer look.
Adolf Hitler’s Personality 1919–1929
Throughout all of recorded human history even into the 21st-century, most people want to be ruled, told what to do, what to think. They do not want total freedom. Total freedom often scares the shit out of ordinary people. They would feel even less control of their life and would rather not be held accountable for their mistakes or bad decisions. Psychologically, even that fear mentality of horribly screwing up enslaves them to live a self-perceived yet false reality of not having enormous responsibilities and suffering the consequences if they stay in the shadows; otherwise being disliked or hated by hundreds or thousands of people. Therefore, the majority of ordinary people with fragile self-confidence seek out ways, or to be on the lookout for a leader, an extraordinary spokesperson and doer they can follow and they do the hard work for them, a fall-person, e.g. Cult Leader, supreme King, or Messiah to name just three.
Adolf Hitler quickly gained immense popularity among the German National Socialistic Workers’ Party members and the general populous by February 1921 because of his gifted talent for crowd manipulation and fervor. How did he do it?
Animated and anger-ridden speech posed by the leader of the National Socialist Workers’ Party, Adolf Hitler. Hitler made an everlasting name for himself with this speech before the Reich Court in Leipzig.
He enthralled his audiences because his speeches, whether to a small audience or a very large audience was full of hate, of blaming others for the misery and hardships of the German workers in which he overly pandered to, to the poor and struggling German’s internally angry for their horrible living conditions. Hitler gave them permission to be angry, outspoken, and violent, if they chose to be, toward perceived threats, but not actual proven threats. But no matter, outrage sells. Period. Sadly, it is one of the easiest human traits to whip up and unleash.
Hitler understood the nature and underlying fury the German people were experiencing. He understood at least two causes of this anger: 1) the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, and 2) the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression of 1929 and hinted about in 1919. Hitler truly believed that he alone was Austro-Germany’s liberator, savior, and only solution. This was his ‘divine calling/mission.’ Thus, what does a Cult Leader do for his lost people?
One quick method to fan the resentment and fury of ordinary, struggling, unemployed workers and to gather them together, rally “followers” for the cause was to go on the attack. Hitler targeted intellectuals of the universities. He targeted deplorables, e.g. gays, lesbians, and ‘loose women.’ He specifically attacked philosophical progressives (that often stabilize a country and their citizens) and he especially targeted immigrants. Years and years as a underachieving student in school, a floundering mediocre artist, unemployed man with little to no money, unrecognized and overlooked by any World War I distinctions other than the Iron Cross, First Class for his combat service—but never ranked higher than a private which in military strategy would one day come back to bite and haunt him—had all built up in immense frustration. It would soon inflame the selling of public outrage and hyper-animated speeches. His fury hypnotized the Nazi party and German people.
Who Surrounded Hitler in 1919–1929
Let’s examine the most important political colleagues Hitler assembled around him.
Franz Xaver Schwarz — when the Nazi Party was banned from existence by the German government in 1923, Schwarz became a member of the Greater German People’s Community as their treasurer. This “community” was merely a fake front for the Nazi Party based in Munich. By February 1925 Schwartz completely restructured and reformed the Nazi Party’s finances and administration. In March 1925 he was also the significant (or only?) money-bags for Hitler’s new book, Mein Kampf, which laid out Hitler’s ideology for territorial expansion as well as transforming German society into a dictatorship based on the Aryan race.
For Hitler the only solutions for reforming and transforming Germany back to a world power (MAGA = Make All Germany Awesome) was 1)exterminate Jews and undesirables, and 2)imprison his dissidents, or those who don’t agree with him and speak out against him. Sound familiar today?
When Hitler was released from prison in December 1924, he immediately went to work on his “divine mission/calling.” Ever since his narrow escape from a French or British artillery shell that killed all of his regiment in the trenches of the Battle of the Somme, 1916, and wounded by shrapnel, then later the British mustard gas attack at Ypres, Belgium, 1918, where he was severely blinded and barely escaping death, Hitler fully believed he was divinely picked to lead Germany and conquer the world. Does escaping death or assassins sound familiar today? 🤔 During this 1925–1929 period of political rise to power Adolf Hitler endeared several key, future Nazi Party leaders. Below are some of them.
Rudolf Hess — when Hess witnessed Hitler speak in 1920 at a Munich Nazi rally, Hess became deeply zealous on every word Hitler spoke to him. In fact, Hess and Hitler saw eye-to-eye on the belief that Germany lost WW1 because of Jewish conspirators and Bolsheviks in eastern Europe, not total military defeat as was the fact.
Dietrich Eckart — was a staunch Völkisch poet, journalist, and political activist for the German’s Worker Party, the predecessor of the Nazi Party. Eckart was a major influence on Hitler’s rise to power. He died after being released from prison in Lansberg where Hitler and other Nazis were jailed after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, 1923, the failed coup d’état by Hitler’s Browns. It’s worthy to note too that Hermann Goering was also part of that insurrection.
Otto Strasser — as an early member of the Nazi Party he and his brother were part of the party’s more extremist wing of the Nazis. Focusing primarily on the party’s socialist elements, Strasser and his brother joined forces with Joseph Goebbels to govern the northern sector of Nazi Germany. Until 1930 Otto Strasser was a key component of Hitler’s early rise to power in Germany.
AdolfHitler, Supreme Dictator and Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels — is arguably one of Hitler’s closest political colleagues very gifted in oppressive, deceiving propaganda and completely controlling Germany’s narrative of world domination then World War II through all 20th-century communication methods. Essentially Goebbels completely outlawed any communication entities in 1930’s Germany other than the Nazi State’s propaganda ministry. Sound familiar today with attacks and defunding of National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and many other media companies critical of the current administration in Washington D.C.?
Who today can you think of and remember that surrounded our 45th and now 47th U.S. President that is in prison, or convicted in court (less than 34-times 🙄), or continues to avoid arrest for illicit, explicit, or criminal behavior? I can think of at least ten men.
Michael Flynn
Peter Navarro
Rick Gates
Roger Stone
Michael Cohen
Steve Bannon
Charles Kushner
Allen Weisselberg and…
Jeffrey Epstein
Germany in 1919–1929 the Post-War Years
These ten years in Germany were not just horrendous times for ordinary Austro-German people, but the perfect crisis/storm for a liberator, a quick-fix Snake Oil salesman and a Savior/Messiah of Germany to make the nation great again, i.e. Make Austro-Germany Astounding… again (a 1930’s–1940’s MAGA party).
What were the key factors in Hitler’s divine arrogance, unmatched political drive, extreme self-belief, and rise to ultimate power?
Escaping Death — not just once, but multiple times. Hitler narrowly escaped death in World War I at the Battle of the Somme. He survived, barely, a mustard gas attack near Ypres, Belgium in October 1918. And later during World War II he survived multiple assassination attempts, the most notable was Claus von Stauffenberg bomb attack at the Wolf’s Lair at Rastenburg, Poland, in 1944, otherwise known as Operation Valkyrie. Sound very similar to a present-day leader who survived Butler, PA, at a rally, and again on a golf course in West Palm Beach, FL? Hmmm. Some egomaniacs often believe that if they “miraculously” escape death multiple times they are destined for historical, epic stories lasting the test of time like a Savior/Messiah bloodied-up raising their fist in defiance. It makes a huge TV spotlight series, doesn’t it? Even better than the fame of The Apprentice. 🙄🤦
Enlisting Radical Loyal Followers — Hitler and his Nazis campaigned enormously for years on empty promises and false hopes in order to fill/pad their ranks. If the followers are gullible and want quick, fast results from their leader/savior, they will swallow their “membership” hook-line-and-sinker asking no questions, but total devotion to the cult and cause. Again, sound familiar today?
Ceasing Total Control of the Press and Speech — with the enlisted help of Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda mechanisms in place, he and Hitler had complete control of exactly what the German people would learn, watch, and hear, i.e. tricked and brainwashed. Even when Nazi Germany was losing battles and the war, Goebbels was still deceiving the people with false victories and promising Nazi Wonder Weapons and technology that was about to win the war for the Third Reich. Of course, these were all bold face lies and were never delivered as promised.
Creating a National Police State — once Hitler was unequivocally made the sole supreme leader and dictator of Germany, he and Heinrich Himmler immediately created the two forces of the Schutzstaffel (or SS) and the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo with Hermann Goering, Rudolf Diels, Heinrich Himmler, and Heinrich Müller. These two police forces were charged with accusing, arresting, removing dissidents or opponents of the Third Reich and Hitler, then imprisoning them without trial. They did it with haste and brutality particularly against unwanted immigrants and Jews. Sound familiar today? If not, then simply research the current track-record of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.
National Expansion via Annexing or Force — Hitler and his inner-circle began planning for the expansion of the Third Reich throughout all of Europe then the world. With the exception of Great Britain and the Soviet Union, Hitler accomplished this goal of European domination and expansion. Sound familiar today? Question. Who today has publicly stated the U.S. will reclaim the Panama Canal, seize control of Greenland and the Gaza Strip. Also Canada, Mexico even renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and seize Venezuela. Sound familiar today? It should.
Targeting Perceived Deplorables — Hitler and his Third Reich police state specifically targeted lesbians, bisexuals, gays, trans-different, and queers (LGBTQ+) throughout Germany and Europe, imprisoning and/or killing them as contaminating the Aryan race. Sound familiar today? It should because in two terms as President this was not only what was campaigned, but is now happening… again in the U.S.A.
These six “mandates” above—that MAGA Republicans keep falling back on from their supreme cult leader—are just a few of his power-seizing acts that catapulted a liberating savior king to ultimate power, especially when his base/party and radical followers control every aspect of federal governing right now. Coincidence? Or is it intentional totalitarian authority exactly in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich? Think about it. Try to deny it. You can’t. History can never be rewritten, only ignored, hidden, or white-washed. But the facts never change.
Trump narrowly escapes death and assassination attempt in Butler, PA, just like Adolf Hitler did multiple times.
A Conclusion About Past-Present Tyrants
In the recent past and today, who utilizes the exact same Hitler-tactics here in the U.S.? Who used it earlier in 2015-2016 then to a fever pitch on January 6th, 2021 at the Capitol Building? Like the Supreme Reich’s Chancellor, Hitler, could have halted everything, but did not stop the violence in 1930’s Germany. Hitler also sat idlily by watching the reports from his staff in the 1930’s. On January 6th, 2021, so did the U.S. President sit idlily by not doing a damn thing about the violence, destruction of the U.S. Capitol and the killing of Capitol Police Officers. Then several hours later the President wanted to JOIN the violent insurrectionists mob at the Capitol, but the Secret Service refused to take him there!
Any of this sound familiar? It should. If you know your history—not just modern history of WW2, but also Classical history and Ancient history—then you know full well this is us Americans, and our current President, repeating history practically to the tee. And one of Hitler’s greatest talents was deflecting and distracting his base supporters to real events of his regime. Hitler’s followers had (apparently) no clue about the many concentration camps just outside of their town/village. Today who does the exact same thing in the U.S. and Washington D.C.? You know who it is, there is no denying it.
Did you put him back into the White House in November 2024? If so, shame shame SHAME on you! 🤦♂️😠 You’ve killed democracy and the spirit of liberties and the rule of law! The American voters are in need of a SERIOUS education in critical-thinking skills and verifiable history that is currently being mimicked here in the United States by our present administration. Wake up people!
Learn from History – Do Not Repeat It – Otherwise Wallow in Misery – Wallow in Death
This is my final post of the series and the events of July 4th–7th, 2025 and the extreme flooding disaster here in the Hill Country.
This July 7th news briefing by Dalton Rice, Kerrville City Manager and part of the Kerr County emergency services, deserves to be mentioned and watched here:
Mr. Rice went on to say and imply that ‘we did not want to or need to alert residents too early. We wanted to wait and see.’ 😲
Having covered these events before and during the severe flooding, now we are ready for the nauseating aftermath of July 4th.
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The ABC news affiliate in San Antonio, KSAT, reported today that at 4:22am July 4th, a volunteer fireman in Ingram, Texas, contacted the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office—protocol for Texas fire departments working in sync with other officials for public safety—and he urged the Sheriff’s Office to send out CodeRED alerts to Hunt and Ingram residents. Contrary to what state and county officials are “claiming and saying” to the media, the public, the nation, and the world these last 6-days, the facts are it took these Kerr County and state officials almost 6-hours to respond with those emergency alerts. Shocking, just utterly shocking! From ABC news:
“The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39,” the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. “Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?”
“Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” a Kerr County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher replied.
The first alert didn’t come through Kerr County’s CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn’t arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters.
Kerr County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Now a question Mr. Dalton Rice, was holding off emergency crews and waiting 90-minutes and upwards of 6-hours enough waiting time to “not cry wolf?” Given the long history of frequent severe flash floods in this region in late-June through July going back to the early 1930’s, these are not stupid, worry-wart concerns and questions, not when actual human lives are at high risk. I’m curious to know how many years (or less?) Mr. Rice has lived in Kerrville, TX and the Hill Country. In a quick search I was unable to determine this.
Six days after the horrific events of the wee-hours of July 4th, local government officials here in Kerr County, Travis County (Austin, TX and our capitol), and federal officials in Washington D.C., are still arrogantly defending themselves and their political colleagues on how everyone performed beginning at about 1:15am–1:30am, July 4th.
One of the most popular remarks coming from all these officials is ‘We never could have predicted this type of storm and flooding in time to save lives.’ Jebus H. Christmas! If I hear this excuse come out of their mouths again, I’m going to just pullout all of my hair—what I have left—in a long fit of fury and screaming. 😡 That is such a lame cop-out excuse and simply NOT TRUE! Why? Because meteorologists, climatologists, atmospheric scientists, ecologists, oceanographers (e.g. NOAA), geologists, environmental engineers, economists, sociologists, and disaster-counseling psychologists have all been warning populations and every branch of federal, state, and local governments that exactly what is happening now and HAS BEEN happening the last 20-50 years was all predicted in at least the early-1980’s. Fact.
However, aside from those warnings by all weather related fields, the Texas Hill Country, which is dominated by ultra-Conservative politics and now MAGA politics, have known for decades that this region often referred to as Flash Flood Alley is very prone to severe flash floods that leave little time for residents to evacuate. But that knowledge and preparation is obviously outdated now.
Here are the some of the severe floods along with the most notable, severe floods in the past for this area during the three months of June, July, and August as well as those associated with tropical storms and hurricanes:
July 16, 1900: This is listed as the first catastrophic flood event locally as more than 11 inches of rain was reported in the area. San Antonio newspaper reports indicated that houses were washed away, and camps were heavily damaged. The Guadalupe River crested at 31 feet ,and significant damage was reported to the Kerrville electrical light plant. “Damage to crops and fences was enormous, but no lives lost,” according to a San Antonio paper report. Downstream, a 42-foot crest was observed at Comfort.
July 1909: The next major flood to strike the area was in 1909. Rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches were observed and, while no lives were lost, the power plant was destroyed again.
September 1915: The flood of 1915 threatened to annihilate Ingram, according to official weather reports. Major flooding occurred upstream, producing a 30-foot wall of water. Many homes were destroyed or washed away, along with large loss of animal life. No loss of life was observed.
July 1st, 1932: Hard heavy rains pushed the Guadalupe River out of its banks, resulting in many fatalities and significant property damage.
Guadalupe River, July 1, 1932.Photo taken from atop the Blue Bonnet Hotel, facing upriver. Note the Cascade Pool in the bottom right.
Guadalupe River, Kerrville, July 1 1932
September 13th, 1936: This is the month it never stopped raining. On Sept. 13, 1936, it rained 0.56 inches, which was followed by 6.42 inches of rain on Sept. 14 and 5.95 inches of rain on the 15. Then another 0.95 inches fell on Sept. 16. A small break in the action occurred, but then it rained another 4.58 inches on Sept. 27 to close out the month. This was triggered by a tropical disturbance that passed inland near Corpus Christi and remained stationary across the area for days. As high as this total was, San Angelo was the wettest location in Texas, recording 27.65 inches of rain that month. Every station in the Texas Hill Country reported at least 10 inches of rain that month, and flooding was observed everywhere. The fatality occurred at Quinlan Creek on the bridge along Fourth Street, when a 75-year old man was on a low-lying bridge and rising waters knocked him off his feet and carried him a quarter mile downstream.
August 2nd, 1978: Tropical storm Amelia stalled over the Guadalupe and Medina Rivers, causing severe flooding that killed 33 people and caused widespread damage.
October 19th, 1985: The Guadalupe River rose 22.80 ft at Hunt, TX. I could not find the loss of life number for this event.
July 17th, 1987: During the overnight hours between July 16 and 17, up to 15 inches of rain was estimated to have fallen just west of Hunt. Rain in Edwards and Real County spread east into Kerr County, and the storm was a quiet killer. This was caused by a cloudburst rain event that produced a crest between 35 and 40 feet, a weather phenomena here that is increasingly frequent every 1-2 years. Young campers were trying to evacuate before the flood hit, but many did not escape in time. Ten people were killed in this tragic event, but one body was not recovered until several years later.
July 4th, 2002: Comfort reported more than 32 inches of rain. Estimates of 40 to 50 inches of rain were reported between Kerrville, Center Point and Comfort. The damage along Lytle Street was significant ,with major flooding and damage reported. The Guadalupe River rose to record levels, but not in Kerrville, as the rain fell over the city and drained toward Canyon Lake, creating water breaches in the Canyon Lake Spillway area near New Braunfels. Nine lives were lost in this flood event, mainly east of Kerrville.
May 27th, 2020: This May brought a thunderstorm event that caused more than $1-million in damages during the late afternoon and early evening hours of May 27. A supercell thunderstorm moved to the south from Mason and Gillespie counties. A large shelf cloud was observed with this storm, and it produced golf-ball sized hail, wind gusts between 75 and 100 mph and reports of tornadoes. The death toll for this storm is difficult to determine, however, archived reports imply fatalities from these extreme weather events have gone down since 2002… until July 4th–6th, 2025.
Therefore, when local, county, state, and federal officials tell residents of the Texas Hill Country that these type of extreme weather storms and floods happen only about every “100-years,” or “we couldn’t have predicted this,” or “the warning systems and staff are in place for these types of disasters,” they are obviously lying through their teeth as can be shown above in the long history of Kerrville, Hunt, Ingram, Center Point, and Comfort, Texas. Period. It simply is not true.
But sadly and maddeningly for residents here, officials like Dalton Rice (R), Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha (R), former Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring, Jr. (R), federal Representative Chip Roy (R), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R), and Senator Ted Cruz (R), and many other so-called “officials superbly performing and executing” their public duties of office… in this case and disaster it is pure and simple lies and more lies still arrogantly defending themselves and their political colleagues.
Meanwhile, 111+ people are dead, many were children, and 161+ persons are still unaccounted for as recovery efforts for dead bodies continue. 😣😢
For further reading and research about Climate Change right now and the havoc it is causing the Earth:
'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it' - Terry Pratchett
The Professor's Convatorium 