Good Riddance 2017

Today is the last day of 2017. I have only written two blog posts in 2017. "How to Build a Cult" and "How to Build a Cult - Part 2". When I started this blog five years ago I cared enough to write about my atheism or rather my anti-theism. I have changed in the past year. In speaking on the thought experiment of what it would be like to meet yourself from when you were a teenager at an older age, AJ Jacobs said recently on Sam Harris' podcast that his adolescent self was a real asshole and he probably wouldn't have gotten along with him at all. We change drastically over the years, not just mentally, emotionally, or figuratively, but also physically down to the cellular level. If I were to meet myself at the beginning of this blog five years ago maybe I would try to convince him to loosen this obsession with anti-religion. I don't really regret it, I just feel like it was a large waste of time.

My views have not changed at their core. I'm still an atheist. I still think religion, superstition, magical thinking poisons everything (except maybe art. Well, art from antiquity at least) I obsessed over reading friends who were still religious somehow, some of which were pastors, or youth teachers. I'd look over their social media rolling my eyes as they would write or comment about things that were fallacious and illogical. I laughed at how bad a philosopher their heroes were like C.S. Lewis or C.K. Chesterton. I laughed at how their beliefs really were babyish and they never really grew up. It was a sort of addiction. People close to me realized it and even told me I was obsessed. I spent a lot of time in email disputes regarding some Biblical nonsense, or trying to get people who were "open to the idea of evolution" to stop tap dancing around and give me a real concrete answer based in science on what they actually thought about the natural world and how life evolved over time. These people knew next to nothing regarding the scientific theories they questioned, but that's usually how it goes. It was not really much different from the young Earth creationists I grew up with who taught my science classes. These people are magicians. To be a good religious apologist in the modern era (I called them the New Christians), you have to learn how to debate well and wiggle out of anything by deflection, usually by using the newly politically resurrected "whataboutism". The philosophical arguments against god have won the debate centuries ago. This is not bias, this is just true. The smarter the person is the less religious he or she is. That's actually true if you look at the polls.

I wrote a lot in those last five years about my personal experience growing up in a religious family. Though I rarely see my family now but only once a year at best I am not nearly as exposed to religion with them. My dad is my only real outlet to the past in this regard. There has been noticeable damage done to my mother in regard to how religion has poisoned her view on reality and especially reality based in science and politics. Our history, the planet in general is all compromised by religion then fanned by Fox News idiocy. I wrote several blogs over a couple years called "Into the Lion's Den: Notes on a Recent Trip" where I blogged about my experience visiting my father and going to church with him. We also attended some Christian school fundraiser Bible trivia night, that was fun. My aunts and uncles on my dad's side are still steeped in religion, my cousins have of course seen through some of the fundamentalism but aren't quite comfortable letting go of their faith completely like I have. Religion just won't go away. It's deeply embedded in our apeness.

Last year's distraction was the election of Donald Trump. I wrote the blog posts about the cult-like behavior of his followers. There is something deeply sinister, tribal, and religious going on and it only makes sense in a country as deeply obsessed with superstition, magical thinking, and religious fervor, that someone like this cult leader could rise to power. It is also not surprising at all to me that in a country as religious as America most of the Evangelicals supported and voted for a man that openly bragged about grabbing pussies, married and re-married multiple times, calling war veterans weak for getting captured, or having a wife that has nude pictures online. It also goes to show you in many ways at our core our idiocracy is deep and we want a blend of religion and politics. The Evangelical right has wanted this for years. Just as long as it is their religion in charge.

I'll be bluntly honest here, the election of Donald Trump fucked me up. I am still not fully recovered. The night it happened I had a panic attack. I had to sit down because my legs and arms were shaking so bad. We handed our country over to a fucking tyrant. A neofascist cult leader who's religion was nationalism and hate of "the non-white" or the immigrant or of Muslims. The man doesn't have a religious bone in his body but with Trump its con from top to bottom. Everything you see and hear from this lunatic is a con. He *uses Christianity and Evangelicals as his own personal cult army. Trump I can guarantee you is an atheist. Knowing what we know about Trump can anyone convince me that the man thinks anyone or anything (this includes "god himself") is above him? Or is better than him? The man is a narcissist so much so using the word itself doesn't describe accurately the deep obsession with himself he displays. He is deeply delusional and dragging the country and the world into his delusion of his view of reality. When he lies 95% of the time you know you are dealing with a man that has no regard for the truth. This too lies at the heart of how he is always deeply misread.

The biggest criticism you hear from people who loath Trump is that he is stupid, incompetent, idiotic, etc. There is of course truth to this but it's describing him *inadequately. He is of course not intelligent by way of scholarly knowledge or IQ. The man really does know staggeringly little about basic facts in the world and our country. But so did George W. Bush. Bush and Trump are clearly different. In fact they can't really stand each other and Bush warns that Trump is ruining the republic and isn't really a true conservative Republican, he's just using the party to gain authoritarian power. With G.W. Bush you have a guy who was ignorant but had smarter people in his inner circle surrounding him who were giving him little nudges along the way. Something that Trump is of course not remotely going to let happen. The media and many people got this wrong too. Trump is not influenced by anyone but Trump. This couldn't be any more obvious. He only does what he wants. He is like Putin. You don't tell these authoritarians what to do or guide them in any way. At least not successfully. You don't help guide or influence extreme Narcissists.

It is not *merely that Trump is stupid and incompetent. This is like saying Putin takes his picture with his shirt off too much to show he's manly. This is a feature of a narcissistic authoritarian gangster but it isn't his *defining feature; it doesn't get to the exact heart of the problem with Putin. No it's that Putin is stealing the Russian people's money and keeping everyone in Russia in this fake democracy, actual police state. It's actually worse than this comparison because Trump's ignorance is independent of his decision-making process. In other words, Trump cares nothing about the truth or being correct about issues, or learning, or building his knowledge UNLESS it will enrich himself and his brand, family, etc. Trump will embrace something that's true... Take the uprising of the people of Iran now against their authoritarian government and his open support of this. This is a good thing... but he only does this when it aligns with his goals. Trump's only goals have always been gain more power, money, fame. That's it. That's exactly why he became president in the first place. In the Iran example he's painting the picture that Iran is a terrorist state to bolsters his authoritarian position on immigration.

This is the type of thing that happens to me now in 2017. I'm in a constant state of panic. I set out to write this blog as a review of the past five years and as he always does, Trump has taken over my thoughts; he has taken over my life. This is what it must feel like to have an abusive spouse, living in a constant state of panic, worried if the mad man will do or say something else that could cause a nuclear war for literally no reason. Something big is going on here in American and we're right in the middle of it. Religion has primed this, tribalism (the true backbone of religion) of course is threaded throughout this problem fueled by a decade of propaganda from the right from Fox News to talk radio. These screaming imbeciles have created their own cult and it's called Middle America, mostly older, white, working class people with some upper middle class people as well. They have gotten these people to vote directly against their financial interests by voting for Wall Street, bankers, and CEOs. The con was started long ago and Trump is the physical manifestation of Fox News-type alternate reality painted for these cult members day in and day out. When I go home to my family's houses Fox News is always on. It is never turned off and my family actually thinks Fox News is fair and balanced because you know the rest of the entire world is liberal.

I would say another word for that would be ... "sane". The rest of the world is sane.

There is hope for 2018 for this country right? Democrats take back control of congress and we finally impeach this mother fucker already, right? Mueller's investigation concludes and Trump and his ilk are removed from office and sent to fucking jail where they belong for fucking TREASON, right? Or just more hourly madness? I cannot even bare to read the news headlines anymore on my News App. More bat-shit idiocracy tweets from our President about how global warming is a hoax, etc etc etc etc. We have finally reached the end of this god-awful year for America and everything is falling apart. Let me remind you, this is year one of four for President Donald Trump. But our institutions are still standing. So far. Trump hasn't fully turned us into a neofascist third world hell-hole yet. He hasn't yet started a totally avoidable nuclear war with North Korea or trade war with China. There is something to hang hope on isn't there? Our country is getting less and less religious right? The younger generation is dropping religion like a bad habit in the past several years because they are finally realizing its fucking childish nonsense their family's pushed on them. The statistics look really good for those of us who want this shit to go away or at least get more under control. We have that to be happy about, but we still have this man in office and I still want so badly to stop being distracted by him. First it was religion, now it's neofascism.

It was first obsession with anti-religion and fighting with those who were religious or Christian apologists. That's so clearly a waste of my time now that I don't even bother thinking twice about some Bronze Age gibberish. I have too much else to worry about. Now I have to worry about a cult leader as President. An atheist *using religion to build a cult. A man who is truly and best described as "pure evil", The ideal Con Artist. He now sucks up all my attention. I just graduated with my degree in Earth and Environmental Science and I'm entering into a country slashing environmental regulations, making massive cuts to the EPA, shoveling money into old dirty energy, and opening up National Parks for resource extraction. Meanwhile record-breaking storms, fires, flooding, and drought is taking place all over this country alone, but these people won. It's over, right?

My family is religious, my family likely voted for Trump. Most of them did at least. Not my brother of course and I'm sure a few others. My mother won't tell me because of course she voted for Trump, let's just be real here, and she knows I'll lose my shit over it. Most of my family voted against my future and voted against people I love deeply. I have several people in my life who are peaceful contemporary Muslims. I have several friends who have immigrated from Mexico. My family picked a side and that side was with the cult leader. My father actually was the one exception to the rule. He didn't vote at all. Who saw this coming? I sure didn't. He said he couldn't vote for Trump and I asked him why after thanking him over and over. Was it because after I graduate I want to do things that this administration will completely undo? Was it because I have people in my life that I love very much that are Iranian and would be possibly banned from visiting their family in their country of origin?

No.

It was because of something my dad said that I would "think was probably stupid". Well, I'm sure I would. My dad turns the channel when a cuss word is uttered, so I'm sure it was some silly dogmatic rule. I guess at least, unlike most Evangelicals he's consistent in his beliefs. He wouldn't tell me but my guess is it had something to do with Melania posing nude or Trump being married multiple times. I'm not sure. But it was something dogmatic silly rule that hung up my dad just enough that he couldn't quite bring himself to cast a vote for Donald Trump. Never mind the obvious reasons not to vote for that utter piece of shit. The list is too long to go into here.

So after five years and a cult leader as President, thinking about my dad's decision to not cast a vote for the cult leader and for whatever silly reason he made that decision, maybe I should revise my outlook ...

Religion poisons most things!

Sources:
Photo credit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/567206792/fuck-2017-banner-fuck-2017-new-years-eve

How to Build a Cult - Part Two

Trump’s most ardent supporters are . . .  remolding their own views to keep pace with their leader. . . This shows the extent to which Trump’s rise was not based on any particular positions or views. It was and remains a cult of personality. Trump’s followers worship him—and he worships himself, too. They are bound by a conviction, rooted in basically nothing but quasi-religious faith, that he is a singularly tough and savvy deal-maker who will protect American interests in a way that no previous president has done. - Max Boot

Right now I am watching archival NBC News footage from Jonestown the day before the mass suicide on November 18, 1978, just a little over two weeks before I was born. Little children are running around laughing and playing while the adults play games with them. The very next day a belief (for most) will drive them to inject these children with cyanide poisoning. An interviewer is asking the people who want to leave questions as Jim Jones in his bright red shirt, comb-over, and tinted glasses looms in the background. The very camera man that is filming this footage for NBC News was shot down with congressman Ryan, three journalists, and a Jonestown cult defector just a few days later.

I just finished "The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple" by Jeff Guinn on audiobook. The other day I was in the bookstore and I thumbed through the actual book to the pages with images. Having only listened to the audiobook I didn't get a full grasp on the scope of the mass suicide. I had forgotten about these images. When I flipped to the image I posted at the beginning of this blog I lost my breath and felt extremely nauseous. The visceral sensation is something that welled up from deep within my core. It's hard to mask the terror I felt at that moment.

I was brought up in a large cult. Christianity is a large cult. It is a blood cult based on the life, bloody death, and resurrection of the supposed Jesus of Nazareth. There could be some family or friends reading this right now that are rolling their eyes and thinking I'm being sensational and absurd. Of course I didn't escape from some strange twisted suicidal ritual like many survivors of the Jonestown cult did, but people who have escaped fundamentalist religion of all varieties will attest to what I'm saying. It is low-level consistent brain washing, and it is most effective when it begins at childhood.

Jesus of Nazareth (the supposed Son and god of a Triune God) ,if he existed, was another messiah or zealot from ancient Palestine. There were many messiahs during this time. For our purposes "cult leader" can replace the word "messiah" since they are the same thing essentially. When I was a kid I recall the passage in the New Testament in the Bible where Jesus spoke fondly of the little children and how adults should have faith like little children to enter the kingdom of god. Like many stories that somehow were explained as wonderful ancient holy moral examples from God's Word, this one is really disturbing. The allure for these ancient cults like Christianity and Islam is the significant block of time separating us from it. We tend to make sacred that which is old. Look at how we now revere Native American culture as it was almost angelic when in reality it was quite brutal at times. Look at how we revere old books and ancient stories. There is something "magical" about aspects from our distant past.

The passage from the New Testament is Matthew 18. Here's just a small sample:

1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,  3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Jesus understood its easiest to propagate your cult if children are involved. They have the most "faith" in the cult because they in many cases haven't yet had a chance to develop critical thinking skills. Jesus was an amazing cult leader. In fact in retrospect and hindsight he was likely the best cult leader of all time given the size of his cult in human history after he died. That fanatic ape sure tricked a lot of other gullible apes. The power of belief is what drives us and it is why we so easily fall for the trap of cultism. I challenge you look up this verse and read the entire chapter. It's all sorts of cult gibberish from cut out your eyes and chopping off your hand if it offends the cult leader and a set number of how many times a cult member has to forgive someone who did them wrong (that's precisely 490 times, just so you know).

I often cannot believe I made it out of the blood cult of fundamentalist Evangelicalism. Clearly I have my cult-PTSD which is likely why I'm writing this right now, but all in all I came out on top and it feels good. There is nothing more powerful in life than reasoning your way out of they years of conditioning perpetrated on you by bullshit artists. I was surrounded by a slew of bullshit artists growing up. Sure some, maybe even most were genuine believers in the bullshit they were telling children and teenagers but there were some I am sure were self-aware of the cult game they were playing.

Jim Jones was a fraud. In interviews with Jim Jones' son, Stephen Jones he explains that his father knew he was a fraud but was terrified others would find out and he increasingly became more paranoid as time went on. He started to lose his grip of control on his cult. This is ultimately what led to the mass suicide. Cult leaders often know they are frauds. I would venture to say most are this way, whether it be overtly religious cult leaders like Jim Jones or David Koresh, or Nazi cult leaders like Adolf Hitler, or fascist cult leaders like Mussolini, or political-cult gods like Kim Jong Un, or neofascist cult-of-personality leaders like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump.

Demagogues recruit by uniting a disenchanted element against an enemy, then promising to use religion or politics or a combination of the two to bring about rightful change. Those as gifted as Jones use actual rather than imagined injustices as their initial lure - the racism and economic disparity in America that Jones cited were, and still are - real- then exaggerate the threat until followers lose any sense of perspective. - Jeff Guinn, author of The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple

In the NBC News footage they scan through the dead cult members' dead bodies laid out in layer after layer, along with a shot of one dead dog. The camera man films the parrot obviously amused at how blissfully unaware it was of all this carnage. And says, Strangest thing I've ever seen. One man on camera says, You name it they got it, as they look at the vat of Flavor-aid and vials of poison while another person oddly laughs at that statement. It's funny. From the inside cults are hard to detect. The cult member does not think he is in a cult. The power of belief is enough to make one kill themselves. This is clearly true among the cult at Jonestown. This is clearly true of the cult of Islamist suicide bombers.

Jim Jones' son, Stephan Jones said in that video, I lost everything that day. I lost brothers and sisters and dear friends, people I'd known my entire life and the dearest person on the planet to me: which is my mother. My father, Oh I can tell you, I've never grieved his death. I remember feeling disgust that he didn't go the way everyone else went. Not only did he have to be shot in the head but he had to have somebody else do it. And I still believe it was because he couldn't bear to go out the way he was seeing other people go out.

Ask yourself, what would someone have to tell you or what would someone have to do to you to get you to do something that you couldn't possibly believe you were capable of, and examine that. Learn from it. Don't judge it. Don't stand separate from it. Be willing to stand in the shoes of the people you are judging. - Stephan Jones

Cult leaders thrive on fear and conspiracy and they are mythical strongmen to eyes of their cult, but in reality, like with Trump, like with Jim Jones, like with Jesus of Nazareth they are weak and pathetic deranged little men. Cult leaders have mental disorders, they are narcissists at bottom, only concerned about themselves. In the end whether the cult leader is Adolf Hitler or Jim Jones you take everyone down with you. Cult leaders never actually care about the safety and well being of their cult followers. This is something people should understand so they are able to walk away if they even can. We may know people who are trapped in cults and want to leave but feel like they can't, maybe someone in Scientology or Mormonism. We may know someone who is a Trump cultist who can never speak a bad word of their dear leader. This country is being run by a cult leader. This is the biggest a cult leader has even risen. Let's try to put ourselves in these people's shoes to help them out of the cult. I am writing this for myself to heed my own advice. We all should do our best to help them escape these cults if it's possible.

Sources:

 Jeff Guinn's book on Jonestown:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-jonestown-jeff-guinn/1124016017?ean=9781476763828

NBC Archive Footage from Jonestown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm7k2Eq-vD0 

Jonestown Cult Suicides: the True Stories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3yzkhJVXE4

How to Build a Cult

And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. - Thomas Jefferson

...If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. Without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started. - Sen. John McCain February 2016

What is a cult? Most people would say that Scientology is a cult. If you asked your average person in this country if Scientology was a cult they would say, "yes", most likely. We've all heard of the fringe cults like Branch Davidians or the People's Temple. Some consider Christianity a cult too. I do. It's largely a distinction without a difference. Religions are really just cults that have a large following. Christianity is a blood cult. The center of their cult is salvation derived through the blood shed of the Son of God. Also cults are newer. On average people would consider Scientology a cult because it's new. Even some people consider Mormonism a large cult. One definition of a cult is "a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object."

I was born less than a month after the Jonestown Massacre. I had heard about the People's Temple growing up. It fascinated me even then but didn't realize I was smack dab in the middle of my own cult. I was brought up in a small Christian fundamentalist Baptist church/school in a small town in Illinois. I recall very specifically some of the "cult-like" behavior from several youth pastors and Sunday School teachers. It wasn't as extreme as some of the famous cults but some of the stuff I was taught and behaviors were very cult-like.

I had let go of religion and the notion of god for awhile when I watched the PBS documentary on the People's Temple and Jonestown Massacre. It deeply disturbed me. If you haven't seen this documentary I recommend it. If you are anything like me when they play the "death tapes" at the end of the documentary a chill will go down your spine. The audio recording is almost an hour long and in it you can hear the cult leader Jim Jones explaining to his cult followers why they need to first feed their babies cyanide poison then finally drink it themselves. This is where the phrase "one is drinking the kool-aid" came from.

In the tape you can here Jim Jones saying, Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." He also said, "I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries...death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight."

^{In the audio tape you can hear screams by women and their babies crying. It is very disturbing to listen to. A lot of people can't understand how anyone can get to a place in their life where they are willing to kill their babies and themselves for a cult leader. Why is this so shocking though? Sam Harris has correctly pointed out that there is a direct straight line from beliefs to actions. He's right. All one need do is look at jihadists. These people are willing to die for a religious belief. History is riddled with examples of humans dying for beliefs. So called "holy texts" have stories of men of great faith willing to sacrifice their first born son for god. People will do anything for their masters. Even if their master is imaginary.}

A cult doesn't necessarily have to only be in a specific religious context. Another definition is "a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing, as in a 'cult of personality'" Cults can be in a political context too. This is how you get fascism. Even communism (the flip side of the coin) centers around a central figure head that people worship. Throughout world history we see example after example of what happens when people follow a cult of personality. The famous fascists such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao all had a die-hard cult following that would do anything for their "dear leaders" and millions died as the result.

Fast-forward to 2016 and we have the rise of our own cult leader here in America. Donald J. Trump got his feet wet politically by putting into the spotlight a conspiracy that President Obama was not born in the U.S. This was debunked when President Obama provided his birth certificate as proof. Trump danced around whether he accepted this as proof or not paving the way for what we now know and are used to with Trump: The fact that he can never be proven wrong because he operates on a different level from everyone else. He is immune to debunking because he operates on the "alternative fact" level. It's an alternative reality world in which Trump resides. He generates this on a daily basis. This is exactly how cult leaders operate. They pump out propaganda over and over to feed their cult armies.

As Senator John McCain recently said, dictators start out first by declaring war on the media. This has been one of the staples of Trump for a long time now but especially as of late while anonymous individuals working for the intelligence agencies are leaking out information on his administration's connection with Russia. Trump has to ramp up the drama to distract. Of course anyone with an ounce of knowledge in American history realizes a free and robust press is the key to democracy and is said to be so in our founding documents. There was recent research done on 50 of Trump's speeches and almost none of them mention the words "Freedom", "Liberty" or "The Constitution". This is a red flag!

The gateway to fascism is conspiracy culture and Donald Trump is the king of conspiracy culture. Fascists like Hitler rose on a wave of conspiracy culture. It is no accident that conspiracy culture spokesman Alex Jones has Trump's ear and vice versa. Alex Jones spent almost a decade under the GW Bush presidency railing on the New World Order and the police state. But now he is one of the biggest proponents for the police state. There is no way to fit the amount of absurdity in this blog post that Alex Jones has said over the years to his vast amount of followers. Here's just a few:

9/11 was an inside job orchestrated by the Bush administration
The government is releasing "gay bombs" to turn people gay
The government is trying to kill us through chem trails, fluoride, and GMOs
Michelle Obama is a transvestite
Hillary Clinton and her aids are pedophiles
Demons are in our government
Sandy Hook shooting was all staged with "crisis actors"

Etc. Etc.

Alex Jones recently said,
I'm ready to die for Trump, at this point. And I'm already ready to die for America, it's the same feeling I have for America, because he is America, you're America.

Let what Alex Jones said there sink in. This is fascism. This is melding the dear leader with the love of country itself. Donald Trump = America. There is no distinction you see. And clearly if you are against America you are a traitor of the worse kind and an enemy of the state. Remember this gem? -- Donald Trump wanted to make his inauguration day a national holiday called "National Day of Patriotic Devotion". Think about how troll-ish that is. Think about how fascist that is, how con man, how cult-like. Do you see it? 

Just before he was elected President Donald Trump appeared as a guest on the Alex Jones show and said about Jones "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down." Sometimes its hard to keep track of the horror that is this President because we're all drowning in a sea of it, but when you stop to closely examine one of these horrors it shakes you to your core. We have a "Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief". Recently some documents were leaked that in the pipeline for Trump legislation is the defunding of PBS. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Trump propaganda news like Breitbart News or mostly Trump propaganda news Fox News soon get federal funding. The goal here should be obvious to readers. Trump is trying to kill the old media and replace it with a North Korea style all Trump-friendly propaganda news.

This was on full display in the recent press conference President Trump gave where he lashed out at the media for a long time sifting through the reporters to get one that was friendly to him and asked him a question that wasn't at all challenging. Fox News started this mess way back in the early years of George W. Bush. They created this false equivalence between "fair and balanced" and objectivity. Fox News is the Republican news because as they say all other cable news is liberal news. Of course this is complete fiction but divide and conquer has been a great business model for Fox News. They are providing a narrative their Republican base wants to consume.

The groundwork was laid for our first neo-fascist President through talk radio too. All these years day in and day out many from the heartland of our country listened/listen to propaganda news (talking points from the Republican party) when they listen to Mark Levin, Michael Savage, or Rush Limbaugh. There is good money to be made in propaganda. The left even tried it, though it's not nearly as lucrative as those channels on the right.

After years and years of priming the groundwork was finally laid for a cult of personality to take hold. The right-wing news propaganda machine has been building a "fake reality safe place" where most of their listeners and viewers live in. It's a reality that has Obama as an evil, far left Islamic sympathizer. Trump took it the furthest when he actually said Obama was the literal founder of ISIS. So it wasn't much of a leap to take the full plunge into Trumpland fake reality. This fake world created by talk radio and Fox News painted Obama as one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history when in actual reality (where facts and evidence matter) the economy grew, low-income families received health insurance, and we had no major terrorist attacks in 8 full years (unlike under his predecessor George W. Bush).

Trump capitalized on an opening created by Fox News and talk radio. He saw that door and walked right through it. As Trump was marching through the door liberals laughed him off, not taking his chances seriously along the way. I saw this coming from a mile away. Myself and only one other friend of mine saw this coming. Most of America is easily conned. On both sides of the political spectrum. Our country as a whole does not overall put any sort of emphasis on scientific or critical thinking. The education system overall in this country is embarrassingly lacking. This is how you build a cult.

For those on the left that misdiagnosed and misjudged Trump nearly every single step of the way they let their egos get the best of them. They over-thought everything. They still do. I see some on alternative news shows like the Young Turks or Secular Talk talking as if Trump is still a bumbling idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. The whole #PresidentBannon thing is another glaringly obvious missed mark from the Left. They cannot just take in the simple fact that Trump is controlled by Trump alone. He is a narcissist why would anyone think he would let Bannon control him? Some don't see him as a very politically savvy con man either because they can't admit they themselves were conned by him. It's as simple as this-- Like all cult leaders or authoritarians Trump wants as much power and money as possible. That's it. Keep that in mind and filter everything you read about Trump through that and your success rate for prediction on Trump go up significantly I swear. Trump will continue to seek as much money and power as possible until he is stopped. He will never relinquish power until he are pulled from power one way or another. This is going to happen with Trump. He will not go quietly under any circumstance. Just wait for that show.
  It gets difficult to see any other colors when we are swimming in a sea of red flags regarding Trump and his fascistic tendencies. Trump praises dictators. I would have thought this would be enough to sink him. Apparently praising the leader of North Korea and tweeting out Mussolini quotes isn't a problem with millions of Americans. Apparently neither is saying you want to bring back torture EVEN IF it doesn't work or to proudly kill women and children (the family members of terrorists). Apparently saying you want to ban people due to their religious affiliation or saying you would have stolen Iraqi's oil if you would have invaded Iraq isn't enough. Obviously it is OK for millions of Americans to vote for a man who defended Putin over America saying "we do a lot of killing on our side too". The Trump voter voted for a man that had for a moment there a Noam Chomsky talking point. It is clearly not a problem that Trump once said John McCain wasn't a war hero because he preferred soldiers who weren't captured.

The list of horrors said by Trump could already fill books, and it's easy to follow rabbit holes and get lost in a maze of shock and awe when discussing Donald Trump. We are focusing on how to start a cult and a cult starts with a charismatic leader who attracts people like moths to a light source. It's easier often to see this in religion. The founder of Scientology L Ron Hubbard is a clear example of this. The leaders of cults are in their essence masters of emotional manipulation. I would suggest that most cult leaders didn't even believe their own bullshit they were preaching. Donald Trump is no exception. He is conning. The con man cons, he knows he's conning. That's the point. Like I said, this is where often the Left falls flat. They have been misreading trump since day one. The intellectuals on the right have actually been the ones most consistent and correct in their diagnosis of who Trump really is. He's a con man. And at their core most cult leaders are con men.

I would suggest if you listen to those "death tapes" that Jim Jones doesn't actually believe the bullshit he's saying to his congregation as they commit suicide. He didn't even drink the poison like the members of his cult. He most likely shot himself in the head. Jim Jones first says, "This isn't suicide"... then later, "We are committing suicide". Like most cult leaders, from the fascist sorts like Hilter to the religious ones like Jim Jones, they utter complete gibberish. There is no logic, no reason because at it's core it's anti-logic, anti-reason, anti-intellectualism. It's the death of reason to become a member of a cult. You lay down reality and let the cult leader implant his own manufactured reality into your brain. It's where reason and rationality go to die. This is what makes cults so dangerous.

The cult leaders are con men, they are emotionally manipulating their cult. L Ron Hubbard once said,  
Make money. Make more money. Make other people produce so as to make more money.(Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384) He also said, The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."  

The purpose of the cult is to keep the cult leader in power as long as possible and often to make as much money as possible. Usually there is some sexual deviance mixed in, often pedophilia or in Trump's case incest. His openly televised attraction to his daughter Ivanka comes to mind.

Fascism when you boil it down is a essentially built around a "cult of personality". We as humans have a tendency to follow a strongman and follow him right off a cliff if necessary (and it usually is). The red flags are there with Trump. Historical experts say he is definitely fascistic. Just take a broad look at Trump: The silly hair and uniform (long ties over-the-top stupid red trucker hat with expensive suit). Trump wanted missile launchers (like in North Korea) at his inauguration. Like no other President before him, Trump held a campaign rally only a month into being elected President. His cult cheered and chanted his name as he explained that the media was the enemy of the people. Trump praises dictators and authoritarians like Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Saddam. Trump said in his GOP nominee acceptance speech (with a smirk on his face as if he knew he was trolling), I alone can fix this country! The list goes on.

In a recent article in Raw Story the author David Ferguson outlines a point-by-point comparison of Donald Trump to cult leaders. In the article cult expert Rick Alan Ross is quoted as giving three main signs Trump is like a cult leader:

Sign 1: His campaign is fueled by charisma
Sign 2: He's a raging narcissist
Sign 3: What he says is always right. Even when its not

Rick Alan Ross explains also that it's much more dangerous to have a cult leader as the leader of the free world,  

We're not talking about a compound with a thousand people. We're talking about a nation with over 300 million people. So the consequences of Trumpism could affect us in a way Jim Jones never did.
  There will be true patriots that will find a way to fight from the inside. John McCain is one currently. As of right now, Lindsay Graham may be another Republican siding with country over party. He said on Face the Nation today that a free press and an independent judiciary are the backbone of democracy. They're worth fighting and dying for. I hope it doesn't come to the last part of that sentence. Cults tend to have a strong track record with death. Not just mass suicide as in the case with the People's Temple but selective murders by fascist cult members. In modern times, just look to Putin's Russia for examples to this. The judges who deemed Trump's "Muslim ban" unconstitutional have received death threats from Trump's cult. The cult members are minions who will do your dirty work for the cult leader. If a judge is murdered by a Trump cult member Trump can go public and distance himself from it. If someone would have murdered Hillary Clinton after he suggested there were "Second Amendment solutions" to Hillary Clinton's email scandal then he would have of course been out there denouncing it, going through the motions. But his language is what fuels these fervent cult fans of his that do the dirty work of the cult master for him.

This is how people die. This is also what solidifies the strength of the strongman. Trump also needs and I would suggest wants a terrorist attack to happen on U.S. soil. He's all too eager to fan the flames of fear and revenge by making up terrorist attacks. He said at his rally this weekend that there was a terrorist attack in Sweden. He just made this up whole cloth. Just as Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway made up a massacre that didn't exist (the Bowling Green Massacre). Like all cult leaders this administration is trying to invent a new reality, a reality with their own facts and their own press. They can make policy off of this manufactured reality. There is no accountability when there are no facts. Orwell warned of this in his classic book 1984. People are waking up to this. Orwell's book sold out all over the world.

It's all what the dear leader says is true. This is the beginning of the end of the American experiment and I'm afraid it's going out with a bang - a flamboyant neo-fascist cult leader is going to drag us kicking and screaming into his reality whether we like it or not.

We must fight this. We must fight the cult from the inside and out. Cults don't die quietly and cult leaders take everyone in the cult off the cliff with them.

Resist as long as we can!

Sources:

Jonestown death tape:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown#Deaths_in_Jonestown

PBS documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHRESPjBxg

"I searched the transcripts of 50 of Trump’s campaign speeches. He (almost) never mentions the Constitution, Liberty or Freedom":
http://poorrichardsnews.com/i-searched-the-transcripts-of-50-of-trumps-campaign-speeches-he-almost-never-mentions-the-constitution-liberty-or-freedom/ 

‘Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid’: Cult expert says Trump is like Rev. Jim Jones — but far more dangerous:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/drinking-the-orange-kool-aid-cult-expert-says-trump-is-like-rev-jim-jones-but-far-more-dangerous/

This is the End.

Abandon all hope. We elected our first neofascist President.
Sure we've elected some embarrassing Presidents over the years. Reagan was a shitty actor with low IQ and GW Bush was an ignorant spoiled dunce but this is another level. Sure it's horribly embarrassing that Trump is a reality TV show star and has zero experience in governing. And sure it's beyond irrational to expect experts in all other walks of life (doctor, lawyer, scientist, police officers, military officers, etc) yet not at the highest office in the land as the leader of the free world. No. It's not just this. It's something much more sinister. Trump is a con man. He's a machiavellian master troll and he has a troll army. He has a cult of personality following him something akin to Scientology. These neofascist cult members of Trump's have threatened anyone who opposes him. There are many examples of this. Trump can "condemn" (*wink *wink) their actions but of course Trump is an opportunist and he's using their threats of violence like any good fascist demagogue would for their own gain.

America died the day we elected our first neofascist. That's it. It's over. The American Experiment has now failed. I've had arguments with so many people about this. Most of which I disagree with are people that I would consider fellow liberals. Many think I'm being conspiratorial or hyperbolic to paint the picture of our reality as so deeply grim. To them I simply say you haven't been paying close attention then in the past year. When I say people should buy fallout shelters to protect themselves against nuclear war I admit it sounds at first listen like a conspiracy theorist speak. They ask aren't you a skeptic? Don't you usually bat away most conspiracy theories now? Why is this different?

Why? Because I have eyes and I'm just merely reading Trump's tweets in black and white. It's not a secret he is taunting the unpredictable leaders of Communist China and North Korea with tweets about nuclear weapons. This is happening and he's not even the President yet... And why? What is the point of these tweets? To make a joke? Will Kim Jong Un really "get" that joke?! To be entertaining? When your President who's first job is to protect the country is directly and pointlessly putting the country in harms way then this President is not fit to be President. FUCKING PERIOD. Obama and congress must take any action possible to stop this madman. Of course they won't. This much is clear. There are only a few Republicans left standing such as Lindsay Graham and John McCain who are speaking out against the anti-American fascist sway (and they should be careful of Trump's cult). The GOP has proven that first and foremost they care about staying in power even if it means selling out the republic to a fascist. GOP leaders like Newt Gingrich have been in full boot-licking fascist mode for Trump for a long time now. They will be rewarded by Trump. That's how he bases everything.. like a mafia boss - on LOYALTY. Just take Mitt Romney for example who Trump recently made a very public display out of. The message is clear you don't bend the knee then you are going to be publicly humiliated, bitch. Fall in line. Hang a picture of our dear leader above your alter at home you sellout fascist pigs.

Then there is Russia interfering with our elections to specifically get Trump elected. Putin wants Trump to be our President. Both the CIA and the FBI have concluded that Putin interfered with our election to get Trump elected. That should be the end of it, Trump cannot take office. Done. It's over right?? Despite what Sean Hannity says (praising Assange - who he once called to be executed for leaking US reports). We have a serious breach and seriously no one is outraged. The media is consistently being played by Trump and when Obama acts it totally backfires and he is painted as the warmongerer while Putin and Trump as the peace-loving level-headed leaders. Make no mistake: This is essentially a right-wing coup. Trump is redrawing the connections of who our allies are and who are enemies are. Putin took a huge risk by doing this. If Hillary would have won he would have been up shit's creek, but against all polls and odds Trump pulled it off. By the way, I called it for Trump. I was against the grain on this prediction clearly but I knew idiocracy was much stronger in this country than most liberals thought. Check a few blogs back.  So now we basically have a Russian plant for President. This is starting to sound like a Tom Clancy novel, but IT'S REAL! I guess all these freedom-loving, patriotic, constitutionalist conservatives are fine with Russia interfering in our democracy. No problem. Not a traitorous act at all. It's our turn liberals to call this shit out. If you support Russia interfering in our elections you are UN-AMERICAN damn it! You are a traitor, (as you once said to me as I opposed the pointless Iraq War) - AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT! Well, what's it gonna be there, Fox Neutered O'Reillyites?? You with the Evil Empire (Russia) or you with America?!

When people get sucked into the Trumpnado and they start doing these mind-blowing cognitive dissonance mental acrobatic feats of wonder on a scale that should really be in some sort of Olympic event they say to me I'm being paranoid and ridiculous. Just wait. We don't really know Trump will be horrible or do any evil fascist shit. I always tell life-long conservatives to start reading some of the oldest and most consistent intellectuals on the right. Read David Frum or Bill Kristol's articles in the Atlantic. Read Andrew Sullivan. These men were all completely against Hillary Clinton (many loved GW Bush like you did!) but they realize the absolute danger of electing our first neofascist. The founders would be disgusted by us letting go of our republic willingly. These intellectual conservatives (some even neocons from the GW Bush era) from day one have been critical of Trump. They all say he is overwhelmingly unfit to serve as President. No one listens to the intellectuals. Instead its what a talk radio pundit says or cable news talking suit.

Idiocracy always holds strong. It's not just idiocracy, it's anti-intellectualism. This is how you go from a nuclear physicist to Rick fucking Perry as the Energy Secretary. It's also how you go from a woman with a masters in environmental science and policy to a baseball team owner with zero environmental science credentials as the head of the EPA. It's also how you go from a constitutional lawyer to a reality TV show star as PRESIDENT!

Also, I highly suggest conservatives look at what our usual allies are saying about Trump. The countries we have had for decades now as our friends and allies (countries in Europe for example) are horrified by Trump. When Europe is afraid alliances could be broken and think your President is a fascist madman you may want to rethink what's happening. Why do suddenly conservatives feel the need to side with Russia over Europe? Just think for a second how utterly mad that is! Everything has flipped on it's head. Trump has turned the world around. You have Julian Assange friends with Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck friends with Samantha Bee, and Glenn Greenwald friends with Tucker Carlson you know the world is changing! I encourage them to look at what the last sitting Presidents had to say about Trump during the campaign. Doesn't it bother you at all conservatives that your heroes GHW Bush and GW Bush have openly showed disdain for Trump calling him unqualified to be President. Did this not resonate with any of them?!

No. just grab 'em by the pussy and move on I guess.

Make no mistake Hillary Clinton is very much to blame for our first neofascist "dear leader". She was not allowed to lose. That was not an option yet she fucking did. She was a deeply flawed candidate from day one but let her selfish entitlement get in the way of our democracy. "Isn't it time?" was her pompous shitty slogan. Yeah, time for you to lose to a fucking reality show star! Bernie could have lost to Trump, possibly. No one will know for sure, but he certainly would have been much more clean and scandal-free than her. Plus, there was not one member of a "Hillary-or-bust" movement, that wasn't a thing, where there was a rather large group of Bernie-or-Bust voters out there who wasted their vote for Jilly Stein or Gary Johnson. Wrong time to protest vote, assholes! When the very fabric of our republic is on the line it's probably best to go with the rational choice of sHillary Clinton. I hated the Bernie-or-Bust movement so much. They helped get our first neofascist elected President as well.

There is a lot of blame to go around for Trump but at the top of the list is the propaganda right wing media machine of Fox News and their cult following of old white people from the midwest. Right now a channel that would not stop talking about the unpatriotic left when they protested the Patriot Act and NSA spying is PRAISING Wikileaks and wanted criminal Julian Assange for hacking into the DNC emails and leaking documents illegally. Fox News is now opposite of government agencies such as the CIA and FBI who have concluded Putin interfered with our election to get Trump elected. A channel that once treated Ronald Reagan's birthday as the greatest spectacle celebration of all time (when really there were just a few people there) and praised his ending the Cold War and opposing the evil empire (Russia) now is praising the Evil Empire and it's neofascist leader. This is a Twilight Zone episode. There are pundits on Faux News that literally consider Putin a better and more admirable leader than President Obama. Just let that soak in. If you know even the slightest bit of Russian history about Putin and his rise to power you should be shaking your head right now at the sheer stupidity of what I just wrote.

Lastly you must lay most of the blame at conspiracy culture which is where our "tremendous" Phoenix-Trump originated in all his orange-tinged glory. The first real major splash Trump made, his introduction into the political spectrum, was by saying President Obama was not an American citizen. He was the first public figure to publicly ask our first black President for his papers. The contagious Trump disease was birthed out of racism as well as conspiracy culture. This was debunked quickly and yet still Trump danced around this not quite conceding, as he does. People believed it despite knowing that it was false. This was the origin of the rise of conspiracy culture into the mainstream. I implore you to go back and re-watch some of those interviews with Trump about Obama's birth certificate and you'll see the master troll at work. Some of my liberal friends say Trump is just winging it, he's a moron who doesn't know what he's doing. No. Trump is a master tactician and troll. He knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it.

Think about this: Trump as sitting President has agreed to appear on the Alex Jones show. If you don't know who Alex Jones is find clips of his on YouTube. Turn the volume down and adjust your color settings because it gets really loud and really red. You will soon discover that this man is a popular conspiracy theorist who believes that 9/11 was an inside job which Bush knew about, that Sandy Hook massacre of little children was all staged with "crisis actors". Jones' believes in chemtrails, aliens, satan, demons, fluoride poisoning us all, that Michelle Obama is a transgender and so on and so on. Oh he also propelled the "pizzagate" story, where Hillary Clinton and top aids ran an underground pedophilia ring in the basement of a pizza parlor. (by the way even after this has been debunked with zero evidence nearly half of Trump voters STILL believe it to be true. - This is how their mind works.) Yes, Alex Jones is about to get an upgrade to a legitimate status pundit when President Trump grants him an interview. Trump is normalizing conspiracy culture to usher in the death of facts, rationality, and reason on a national scale. The trolling is so masterful that I sometimes have to pinch myself to see if this isn't a dream. Some horrible horrible David Lynchesc dream. Everyone around me is being conned. Even many of my liberal friends are still lost in the weeds with Trump. They don't know how to talk about him and when they do the adjectives they use to describe him are completely off-base demonstrating that they STILL do not know what Trump is all about.

Conspiracy culture pushed Trump to the top. Think about all the insane conspiracies Trump has spun throughout this election run. Remember when he said Ted Cruz's dad could have been, I don't know, I'm not saying, I'm just saying- I heard somewhere... (you know how our "dear leader" speaks) that he was connected to Lee Harvey Oswald who assassinated JFK. Everything is conspiracy theory with Trump and this is completely by design so that he can operate in a fact-less or truth-less realm. He's created this space for himself so that he can say and do nearly anything and the media is off chasing a crazy tweet he just said 2 min. earlier. He floods the media with this constant contradictory horrifying gibberish to distract and to shape the reality in which we're forced to live in. He said that global warming is just some elaborate hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government. The list is endless really and we have to realize what is happening. Trump is more than just a liar, he's a bullshit artist. He's a very talented con man who just conned the entire country into electing him President.

If you want a trajectory of what Trump plans to do look to his friend Putin and his history. Throw red meat to the masses (Trump may even govern Bernie Sanders-style left if it means keeping him in power by getting most people voting for him) Trumpcare? Rising minimum wages? Most likely because these things will keep him popular. Another characteristic is to be a fascist tyrant with the media. This has already happened. Trump met with the top media outlets and a person in the room described it as a lecture session where Trump went off on them forever then told them they must treat him favorably and fall in line. This is total-Putin. Trump and Putin have similar outlooks on the media and how to handle them. Would I put it past Trump to "indirectly" have media members killed all Frank Underwood style? Not at all. You must understand the basics: Trump, like Putin wants only two things. 1. Money 2. Power. It's that simple. Like Putin did with Russia, Trump will basically turn the US into Trump Inc. enriching his brand in all sorts of ways here in America and abroad. Wars for oil pipelines? Count on it. Whatever makes the Trump brand more money and keeps Trump in power will be the goal of Trump. Everything fits through this lens. He will side with literally anyone (democrat, republican, fascist dictator,  you name it) as long as it means his brand profits. Keep that in mind.

So can our country survive our own version of Putin? Will we look something like Russia in 8 years? Who knows and who knows if we make it through even a single year under a Trump presidency. He has been tweeting out nuclear threats for no reason ... that could be the beginning of World War 3. It's not easy to wake up and remember that that orange neofascist psychopath is about to be our President, like FOR REAL in just a few short weeks. I didn't even mention climate change mitigation. That's a distant memory under Trump. Nothing will be done and he's even called for increasing carbon-heavy energy. So a Trump presidency is most likely a death nail for the planet as Noam Chomsky once correctly warned. There really isn't much hope here. Obama looks like the greatest President of all time and in some ways he certainly was in my lifetime. Obama was against demagoguery, while Trump is a demagogue. We of course must try to fight the fascist and his cult but it won't be easy and it's going to get really scary and shitty really fast. So just keep that in mind while I play us out to this fitting Door's song- "This Is the End":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4

Vote Corruption Over Fascism

This blog is my final plea to sway anyone reading this to vote corruption over fascism tomorrow on election day. I'm not going to insult Trump voters and call them morons or rednecks. I'm not going to say you are stupid for not supporting Hillary Clinton. As I've stated previously I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton. I voted for Obama over her in 2008 democratic primaries and was a passionate supporter of Bernie Sanders over her this time. I don't expect anyone to like her. In fact on a very primal, visceral level I like watching and listening to Trump speak over Clinton, but this is not reality TV, this is reality and I don't pick my doctor or my dentist because he's good at making me laugh or entertaining me. We should not be aligning who we want to lead this country to the lazy part of our brain.

We should want a leader that is knowledgeable and competent. We should want a President that is rational and experienced. This was one of the main reasons I thought Bernie was the far superior candidate to Hillary in the general because with Bernie you get not only honesty and integrity but experience and he's anti-establishment (in the healthy way!) But we are forced between these two less than ideal choices. There is no going back. Bernie or Kasich will never be elected president in 2016. We have to accept the reality of this situation.

And with this horror of a reality we land about where most people I know feel about this election. They say, "these two candidates are equally horrible" or "picking the lesser of two evils is still picking evil" or "I refuse to vote for someone I do not want to be my President". I understand the sentiment to all of these but there is no way one of these two will not be our President. It will never be Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, or "Vernon Supreme"! So if you vote 3rd party or "none of the above", as they call it a "protest vote" you are part of the problem.

I don't want to try to convince you Hillary Clinton has earned your vote. I would say she has done literally nothing to earn mine. This election seems to be voting for a candidate that will stop the other candidate. It's an election of voting against someone not for someone. That is just the reality of the situation, and this gross narrative could all have been avoided with Bernie. Not a whole lot of people loathe Bernie they way they do Hillary. So what we have to do is convince you voting against Trump is much more sane than voting against Hillary.

I have several friends that see Hillary as Satan. Some have even compared her to Hitler. She's a murderer, a traitor, an evil secret reptilian Jew alien.. you name it. There are legit concerns about Hillary and her corruption. I find most of the outrage from Republicans to be overblown but there is some cause for alarm. You can say she paid off the FBI to get out of indictment. You can say she paid off the those that cleared her of wrong doing in Benghazi and not produce evidence but you have to understand that your bias is screaming through here. You need to reel it back and look at the facts we have.

With Trump we have a clear case of "strongman" authoritarian. He said in his GOP nomination acceptance speech that "he ALONE can fix this country". I often wonder how many times people just laugh their way through Trump's silly speeches and forget to catch red flags. He has praised 3rd world dictators like Kim Jong Il. He has made no apologies for really admiring ex-KJB and Russian leader  Vladimir Putin. He has quoted Mussolini in tweets. He has mentioned opening up the libel laws to sue journalists for lying about him. He talks of shutting down satirical television shows that make fun of him like SNL. He has on several occasions called for outright war crimes, breaking international law like torturing more than just waterboarding (even if it doesn't work) and bombing the family members (innocent women and children) of terrorist organizations to teach them a lesson.

 Trump is a thug. Trump is a pathological liar (there is data showing he lies 70+% of the time. Let that sink in! Trump is a true narcissist. He is a fascist demagogue.  He very talented con man and master troll. If will not release his taxes, breaking tradition by all presidential candidates in modern American history. Likely reasons he will not: He isn't as rich as he claims (a true psychopath that cannot be undone) or he has ties to Russia. Trump incites violence at his rallies.. telling his supporters that you should punch protestors in the face, take them out on a stretcher and he'll pay for the legal fees. He is a passionate opponent of free speech and if you are a Tea Party conservative constitutionalist American patriot and don't see a problem here you need serious mental help. He is a hollow human that has no idea what it means to self reflect. A quote from the movie American Psycho best sums up Trump,

There is an idea of Patrick Bateman (aka: Donald Trump); some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply and not there. - Patrick Batemen

I want you to close your eyes and imagine voting for someone with this psychological profile and laying your head down at night with a clean conscience. I know many of you hate Hillary with the passion of a thousand suns but giving this mad man the keys to the nuclear codes is suicidal. Giving this man the ability to "bring back coal" and shut down alternative energy in this country would destroy the progress we've already made towards mitigating climate change and ramp up the effects of climate change. If the U.S. completely embraces the environmental policies by a climate change denier like Donald Trump the rest of the world could follow suit. If America doesn't care why should we? Coal is much much cheaper and easier to process energy from.

We are looking a world wide disaster possibly Tuesday on election day. You can either be on the right side of this or the wrong side of this. I know many of you cannot vote for Hillary. I get it (sort of) but just at the very least be a person of integrity, patriotism, rationality, grace, and class to NOT vote for Donald Trump. If Trump gets into the White House it will likely spell the end to our republic. A fascist authoritarian was the exact type of figure head our founding fathers warned us about. He will shatter this country and those of us that are not part of the fascist cult will be on the radar.

You have to understand too fascism isn't just some scary authoritarian ego-manic as a leader of a country. It's a cult. It's anti-intellectual and deeply hyper-nationalistic. The in-group/out-group is on hyper-drive among the cult. Fascism is grass roots and anti-establishment (in a bad way!) The cult does the dirty work and just like in all neofascist situations the dear leader can say oh I never gave the direct orders to lynch this journalist or kill this Muslim American... BUT it's been done. The cult takes on a life of its own and those that oppose the cult are the enemies. Do you oppose the cult? If Trump is elected this cult gets legitimized. The red hats are coming, but you can stop this. Please I beg you to use the rational part of your brain here, be pragmatic... vote against Fascist Don.

Vote corruption ONLY to stop fascism.






The two best links on Fascism and the dangers of it rising here with electing Trump:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html

Trump or Clinton? (A Blog Short)

American politics currently has become utter madness. This presidential election is a nightmare, one of those types of nightmares where it seems everyone is blind to something you and a handful of others are seeing. Is everyone being conned by a textbook conman or by a mostly identity politics-driven corrupt politician? It is a choice between the lesser of two evils. Like, really this time! We often say that but this time it appears that there has been a raising of the bar for evil. Our choices: "Boundless Corruption" or the "End of the Republic"? Here's a few of my thoughts now that my pick for President, Bernie Sanders, is no longer in the race. Let's start first with Hillary:

Is Hillary corrupt? Yes.

She likely deserves to be in jail if justice came properly for criminal negligence. Now there is often scandal and corruption. It's a spectrum. There was Nixon and other corrupt presidents in U.S. History. Hillary if elected will be probably one of the most corrupt President yet. I'm willing to admit this right off the bat.

But knowing all of that I would still pick Clinton over Trump for President. Not because I'm democrat. I'm actually currently not. I was a registered republican in the GOP primary in  2012 to elect Ron Paul as nominee. I was a delegate here in my home state supporting Ron Paul. Then for this election I registered democrat and became a delegate to elect Bernie Sanders as the democrat nominee for President. However, once I viewed, with my own eyes, the disgusting anti-democratic display by the DNC/DNC chair here at the Nevada democratic convention I burned my DNC registration card. I then registered as an independent. I have no party now. 

I've been here before. I've been down the 3rd party route before. But not this time. No. Even after my first hand horrible experience at the NV DNC I'm still going to vote for Hillary. I hate her. I will vote for someone I hate just to stop trump. Wait! It gets worse! I actually like Trump's personality better than Clinton's personality. When he's not playing the role of a racist xenophobic bigot he's much more fun and entertaining to watch. He doesn't cackle like a witch. He doesn't dress like a communist dictator from North Korea. He's just much more likeable to me than her on a visceral level.

I even find myself really enjoying when Trump often very accurately calls out her specific corruption. His tweets about her corruption are many times exactly right. Hillary is bought out by Goldman Sacs and Wall Street. She is the poster child for donor money in politics. Trump is right about this, but even with all of this I'm still voting for Clinton to stop Trump.

So why am I voting for Hillary over Trump? It's simple. With Trump we are voting to fundamentally change the essence of our country. I don't mean this in some Sean Hannity or Michael Moore abuse of apocalyptic prediction sense. I mean this very literally. Neo-fascism if let in will end our republic as we know it. Fascism has led to mass genocide and so many other horrors that are unmatched in world history. We cannot change courses to this. Trump offers nothing of any substance to the American people because Trump is nothing but a con man troll. Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" is essentially hyper-nationalism where he wants to introduce America to neo-fascism. We do not have a typical politician on our hands with Donald Trump. And I'm not saying this in "a good way" I'm saying this in a "this man is a neo-fascist with aspirations of dictatorship" way. This has become obvious but so many otherwise well-meaning conservative voters are still being conned and are not seeing it. Their "bullshit detectors" are rusty and they cannot see when they are being trolled.

I wish I could properly express my desire for conservative voters to simply read what their party's most intellectual thinkers are saying about the dangers of electing Donald Trump. That's it. Shut off the usual talk radio pundits and read only the conservative intellectuals with advanced degrees in political science. That's all I ask. Maybe then and only then could conservative voters heed their warnings. Intellectual conservatives right now are saying exactly what I'm saying.

Another thing to let sink in for conservative voters on the fence about Trump: If I'm wrong about how Trump is fundamentally trying to turn this country into his own personal neo-fascist enterprise than why on earth did every single GOP President of the past several decades NOT attend the RNC last week!? Because they know this Machiavellian demagogue is NOT a conservative or republican. He's a neo-fascist. Trump is the Master Troll. Understand Trump plays a conservative, Trump plays a republican, Trump plays many roles many different times. He is all things to all voters so he can maximize votes.

Listen to him speak. He more often than not cancels himself out by saying one thing than contradicting himself within the same sentence. He is saying literally NOTHING. Just recently Trump said he didn't know who Putin was. Then in the same interview talked about knowing Putin. This type of confusing rhetoric is on purpose. Read about Napoleon. His positions were often extremely confusing to scholars because he was all over the place politically. This is by design for a fascist. This is the way they speak. Go right now and watch of the utter nonsense-speak of Adolf Hitler speeches. 

Trump, like all cult of personality demagogues, is nonsensical and deeply narcissistic and thus much more dangerous than just another deeply corrupt politician like Hillary. Hillary wants to at least be corrupt within our current system. Trump wants to fundamentally change the system of government. And I for one cannot support handing this country over to a neo-fascist demagogue. Yeah, fascists don't get my vote. Figured that one out when I was a child. I wish America could break the spell, break the con of this conman. Please read some of the following articles:

Recommended links for further reading:

How an Obscure Adviser to Pat Buchanan Predicted the Wild Trump Campaign in 1996 from The Week magazine:

http://theweek.com/articles/599577/how-obscure-adviser-pat-buchanan-predicted-wild-trump-campaign-1996

America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny from New York magazine:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html

History Tells Us What May Happen Next With Brexit & Trump from The Medium:

https://medium.com/@theonlytoby/history-tells-us-what-will-happen-next-with-brexit-trump-a3fefd154714#.an97vpae5 

Anti-Trump videos worth your time (Please share on social media!): 

(S)hillary Clinton Campaign Ad (?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnncrGurHfY

Donald Trump: Make the World Fascist Again Ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOop_9Tb-sU

Dictator Donald Ad: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37qRaQjRg4M

Photo credit source: JOHN DARKOW/COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, MISSOURI

Where Are the Moderate Christians At? (A Blog Short Rant)

1. On Anti-Gay Terrorism

Just this week 49 people died in this country's largest terrorist attack since 9/11/2001. A homophobic radical Islamic psychopath busted into a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and calmly shot and killed 49 people / injuring 53 people. Reading the survivor's accounts of terror will give you chills. The horror these people had to experience is mind-boggling.

As with most mass shootings in this country the aftermath is essentially democrats trying to pass some semblance of common sense gun reform and the republicans block this legislation. The right say it's the damn Muslim's fault not the weapons. The left says it's not Islam it's just the weapon. Of course we rational Americans realize it's a combination of many of these factors.

We often hear cries from people in this country asking where are the "moderate Muslims" standing up and denouncing this sort of terrorist behavior as being wrong? Sure, there was some response to this from the American Muslim community. But I also ask simply, where are the "moderate Christians"at?! I asked several of my Christian friends on social media why they were so silent. Some it took well over 48 hours to even say the simplest of meaningless phrases --"we're praying for the victims". My father, who is Christian and I've written about before in my blogs, was awkward when talking about this terrorist attack. He never said "this is what they deserve for their sinful lifestyle" or anything but there is this biting of the tongue that comes across as obvious to me.

Now we're watching all these once openly bigoted Christian Republican politicians saying all these nice things about the LGBT community. Suddenly they love the gay community. After 50 of them were slaughtered by some ISIS-lover! Well, I say fuck that! Where have you been all along, moderate Christians?!! I'll tell you where they've been all along: They have been on the wrong side of history fighting against LGBT rights, denying equal rights to marry who they love. They have been fighting for transgender citizens to use the "correct" bathroom. They have been shaming gay and lesbians in they're churches and in their homes for their "sinful" lifestyle. They founded "curing you of your gayness" camps and sent their poor homosexual Christian kids there. They "pray the gay away" and force their LGBT loved ones into a closet of shame for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The "moderate" Christians more often than not think they are so hipster and cool; they are "totally cool" with gay people and show their blood-cult love by rubbing shoulders with them while patting themselves on the back for not being part of those horrible "God Hates Fags"-type Christians.

... But yet they still think that acting on their sexual orientation (if it's with the same sex) is a SIN! The core of their very biological essence is an offense to God! Think about how mean that is for a second. Some also think that if they don't identify with their biological sex then they are living in sin. Now let me be extremely clear here to even the most liberal of Christian... if you agree with me that people have the right to be whoever they want and to love and be with whoever they want and it's not some SIN!... if you agree with me, even the most of progressive of Christians then....

OPEN YOUR FUCKING MOUTHS!!!

and start being vocal publicly AND frequently about allying yourself with these people who deserve equal rights under the law for whatever lifestyle they choose.

Why the crickets though? Seriously, where are the moderate Christians at?!

2. On Religion Being Taught in Public Science Classrooms

I've had several different discussions with a few Christian friends that accept evolution or say they don't but that it wouldn't affect their impenetrable faith *if evolution was true. Well, of course evolution is true. Any of us with the slightest of education in the biological sciences know this, but yet when Christians promote pushing religion in the public science classroom on school boards across this country, . . . not a fucking peep from these same "moderate Christians". Why is that?! These people are part of your blood cult not mine.... Speak up! I can't hear you! You need to stand up to this if you know it's wrong because many of these "moderate" Christian friends of mine scoff at the silliness of Young Earth Creationism but strangely don't really say much publicly against it when it creeps up in our public science classrooms.

I should be reading articles in "moderate" Christian publications denouncing the actions by the Christian fundamentalists who want to teach unfounded mythology as science in science classes in public schools. I should be reading these articles before reading them from atheist blogs or secular coalitions group publications. These people are part of your religion, your team, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ... Call them out! and speak the fuck up when you do it, please!

Where are the moderate Christians at? Why are they so often quiet on this subject?

3. On Donald J. Trump

Lastly, another subject the "moderate Christians" tend to avoid publicly is Donald Trump. During the G. W. Bush years in the glory days of the evangelical political right of this country you could barely separate politics and religion in churches across this country to meetings in congress.

Apparently most of God's children in America choose a fascist as their candidate: Donald Trump. It makes sense, I suppose, since Yahweh is the Supreme Dear Leader Celestial Fascist. But most of my "moderate" Christian friends who deeply dislike Trump and don't support him will send out a tweet or facebook post from time to time denouncing Trump, but that's about it. They aren't organizing to "get out the vote" ...  Why aren't more "moderate Christians" speaking out specifically against Trump .. as in the best way you can ** actually make the most difference - by telling your congregation and you yourself VOTING for Hillary. I hate Hillary too but clearly you cannot bitch and moan about Trump my dear New Christian friends if you don't fucking vote against him where your vote actually counts, in the general election. If I as an informed politically intelligent Bernie Sanders supporter have to suck it up and vote for the "lesser of two evils" then so do you, "moderate" Christian!

There are many ways you can bitch and moan about moderate Muslims, some of this is warranted but not all because Christians built this landscape of homophobia in this country with their own gloriously bigoted sweat and tears. This country is and has been overwhelmingly Christian. You all started this so if you REALLY are for LGBT people then speak the fuck up and support their rights. You can't have it both ways. You are either on the side of equality or you are not. If you are not. You are a bigot and you can fuck off.

In conclusion please by all means take a pause from quoting your selected "nice" Bible verses on twitter while ignoring all the bigoted, sexist, racist Bible verses. By all means set aside for a second discussing theological "problems" of your specific brand of  blood cult dogma. Take a minute away from blogging about animated films or superhero movies and the parallels to your favorite antiquated old book of mythology and wake up to join us in the real world with real problems. Open your mouth and speak out against things you seem to only quietly support or are against. Make some noise! Or else we'll just brush you off into the trash bin of history where your ancient super-woo blood magic cult belongs. -- With the rest of the bigots and garbage human history.

Where are all the moderate Christians at?! That's a serious question. Anyone Christian want to answer it?