Steve Bannon says opponents of trump will be imprisoned once trump returns to the Oval Office. [FN1] trump stokes anger at rallies w/threats of violence. Election workers are threatened as DOJ is “investigating dozens of threats” and has charged 20 individuals so far.” [FN2] 1/10

Those who claim to “own the libs” don’t understand a lot of things. One: threats can’t be walked back w/a lame “nuh-uh.” That didn’t work w/mama & it only makes you look like merde de poulet. Two:…

In 2017, I blogged about the 2016 election. Several threads made little sense, ate up my time, and always were rude. They were trolls: person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages for the troll's amusement, or to [cause] harm to other people. [FN1] 1/11

In 2016 Russian trolls tilted to trump, according to a Columbia University study. [FN2] On Facebook yesterday, a post expressed relief that trump was not in office for the bridge collapse in Baltimore. “Ted Fine” had…

As trump hawked bibles [FN1] he posted, “Let’s Make America Pray Again.” Some, who claim to be devout Christians, claim to be persecuted by separation of church and State, i.e., if their god can’t run the lives of everyone, they are the ones who are (somehow) “victims.” 1/8

trump’s post is another reason to fear his return to power & anyone taking power who advances this belief. 1) We should take seriously that he & others will “make” us pray. In this context, the verb “make”…

Shame & revulsion are positive if they spark change and the change is positive. This time of year, the two major political parties celebrate presidents each claims as its own. In 2016, the Indiana Democratic Party dropped the moniker “Jefferson-Jackson dinner.” [FN1] 1/9

Jefferson, 3rd POTUS, wrote a 1st draft of The Declaration of Independence, [FN2] but claimed to own human beings, whose numbers moved “above and below 200.” [FN3] Andrew Jackson had > 200 slaves & oversaw…

Amongst replies on FB to a Far Side cartoon of “Aerobics in hell,” one [FN1] was serious: “They got two things wrong in this cartoon 1. the devil does not look like that. 2. in Hell you are utterly alone!!!!” In exchanges of posts, I tried for humor.[FN2] He didn’t. [FN3] [FN4] 1/13

November might see our last election if trump retakes The Oval Office. Threats of violence, explicit [FN5] and implicit [FN6], from the far right are a constant. Whether “born again,” “fundamentalist” or…

Maybe it’d be fun to call Micah Beckwith [FN1] a gussied-up name, [FN2] but he doesn’t seem to read. As an HEPL board member, he did not seem to have read books in that library. Now he appears not to have read a description of an office, Lt Gov, he seeks via end run. 1/10

Beckwith’s “action plan for serving” as Lt Gov is redolent of a 1924 minority that ruled Indiana from offices on the Circle. The head of IN’s KKK, D.C. Stephenson, ran the State, but could not, as a candidate, win an…

The last war [FN1] this country fought ended 9/2/45 with Japan’s surrender [FN2], longer than any time in our history without war. Elected political officials have found circumvention of formal declarations of war as convenient as the use of war as metaphor for anything else.1/9

Eric Doden is a candidate for IN Governor in this iteration of the GOP. He lays claim to being an “outsider.” [FN3] That’s not true. His GOP primary loss in a 2011 run for Mayor of Ft Wayne [FN4] is not the…

After the shootings in Broad Ripple around 1:20 a.m. on 3/16, in which one person was killed and several wounded, I blogged about the absurdity of circumstances that give rise to death tolls from our gun culture. Police weren’t called to the scene, but were working near the bar. 1/8

The officers ” heard multiple shots go off inside” the bar, [FN1] a bar catering to a younger set. [FN2] Officers were steps taken in June 2023 to address gun violence. [FN3] “The wild west” is movie…

Russia still has a hand in our elections. Paul Manafort chaired the GOP presidential campaign in 2016. He later admitted he lied to investigators & under oath “about his contact with a Russian associate during the 2016 campaign.” [FN1] Manafort was pardoned by trump. 1/5

Some of the information was “internal polling data” and was shared with Konstantin Kilimnik, a “Russian and Ukrainian political consultant” and that “Russia could have exploited such inside information to target…

After my post this morning about trump’s threat, during a speech in Dayton OH 3/16/24, that if he loses on November 5, there “will be a bloodbath,” one comment was “bloodbath” was taken out of context from a speech about the auto industry. YouTube has several replays.

trump talks for a bit more than a minute. He describes jobs going to Mexico that should be here. He then says that, if he is re-elected [FN1] he will put a 100% tariff on cars from China. Then he says that if he does not…

In a speech in Dayton OH Saturday afternoon, trump said that if he loses on November 5, there “will be a bloodbath.” The word “bloodbath” is defined as “a ruthless slaughter of a great number of people; massacre.” [FN1] In Indiana, voter intimidation is illegal, specifically: 1/8

Indiana law forbids intimidating, threatening or coercing an individual to vote or attempt to vote.” [FN2] This goes to the heart of the right to vote. Neither trump nor any member of his crime family should…

Gun violence on 3/16 claimed at least 1 more person in Broad Ripple. Police “working near” a bar on Broad Ripple Ave “around 1:20 a.m.” heard multiple shots go off inside” the bar, [FN1] which caters to a younger crowd. [FN2] IMPD took measures last summer 1/9

to address violence after four people were shot, three of whom died, last summer. [FN3] In the latest shooting, police were not called to the scene. They “heard multiple shots go off inside” the bar. Close proximity of police…

“Oh What a Lovely War” [FN1] a 1969 British film, is sharp, bloody satire set to happy songs popular in WWI. The scene for each tune disintegrates to carnage on the battlefield. I saw the film at DePauw around the same time I first read Tuchman’s “Guns of August.” [FN2] 1/9

I drew several impressions. European leaders blundered into WWI, each believing others would back down. People had little grasp of the realities of modern warfare. Roughly a century had passed since the Napoleonic…

I disagree that no one could be more stupid and mean than Rep Jim Banks [FN1] and Micah Beckwith. [FN2] There are over eight billion people on Earth. [FN3] The odds alone negate such an assertion. Then these events occur. Beckwith re-tweets a Banks re-tweet: 1/10

“After the next census, illegal aliens will have more representation in the electoral college than the entire population of Indiana. That’s the point of the Biden border crisis.”

I must ask: are they ANTIFA plants or…

11/5/24: could be our last elections. At CPAC a speaker hailed “the end of democracy”adding “All glory is to God.” [FN1] [FN2] On social media, groups mesh evangelical Christianity & politics. Most operate on a misconception easily dispelled. One such group: 1/9

“My Faith Votes” (MFV) says it is “a non-partisan movement” to get “Christians in America to vote in every election.” [FN3] It mentions “90 million Christians in America” [FN4] With its claim as “non-partisan,” MFV seems…

There were highlights of past State of the Union addresses in the lead-up to tonight’s SOTU by Pres Biden. There was Pres Obama (winner of the popular vote in 2008 and 2012) saying to the justices of SCOTUS right there how they screwed up on Citizens United. Alito mumbled 1/4

“Not true.” Unfortunately, Alito doth protest too much. [FN1] That decision “ushered in massive increases” in campaign spending that further tilted political influence toward wealthy donors & corporations.…

In his 2nd inaugural address, Pres Abraham Lincoln saw reconstruction of our country after The Civil War and said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.” [FN1] Lincoln sought to “unify a broken nation.” [FN2] The Civil War was not sparked overnight. 1/8

Preservation of the institution of slavery ripped this country apart, and not because abolition was an overarching goal of the North, but because southern States seceded from the Union over the issue of slavery. [FN3] Abraham…

This is a test.
Is the following phrase consistent with the Republican Party?
“With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
If your answer is “no” (too wimpish?) please realize Pres Lincoln said this in
his 2nd Inaugural Address.
Today’s GOP, jacked by trump, is NOT the party of Lincoln.

The 2024 elections should frighten Hoosiers. [FN1] Indiana’s GOP is a not-for-profit corporation that acts like a closely-held, for-profit corporation. Insiders run Indiana’s GOP. The candidacy of one person running for Lt Governor, reflects an attempt to build distance from voters. 1/8

Micah Beckwith [FN2] wants to be GOP’s nominee for IN Lt Gov. He’s never won an election, general or primary, but on 9/8/22 w/o fanfare & w/a few minutes’ public notice he was appointed to HEPL’s…

Pres Biden was wrong. On 2/29 in Brownsville, Texas, he was right: trump [FN1] ordered GOP members of Congress to “tank” a bipartisan immigration bill. [FN2] trump needs that issue. Pres Biden wants ppl to understand "clearly" that the border deal, a bipartisan agreement, 1/9

was tossed by partisan politics. Pres Biden could have used a stronger anatomical metaphor to describe GOP members of Congress ("show a little spine"). [FN3] Pres Biden was wrong when he said: "Let’s remember ..…