DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 How do we know when we are rich? Does it occur when we purchase that home we’ve always dreamed of, or that automobile? Does it occur when we find we have the largest bank account in the neighborhood or that our children dress the best?

Is it when we realize that we have enough? Is it when we have plenty?

Apparently not: the richest man in the world, and his billionaire sidekicks have it all but still want more.

Perhaps the more proper question is: What does it mean to be rich?

My Sainted Mother once told me that the day she felt she might not be poor all her life was the day her family acquired an electric butter churn. Don’t ask.

A dear friend, born in El Paso, Texas to an Hispanic family told me of his memories as a young child when his family shared, with three other families, a fourth of the covered bed of a farm truck as they followed the harvest across America. He gestured to a modest home smiled and said, “And look what we have now.”

Is that being rich?

A man grew up in our county with barely just enough mental capacity to hold a job, marry, and raise a family. He was quiet and friendly and folks didn’t think about him much until they needed help with a minor task, assistance in mending malfunctioning equipment, or a hand in treating livestock. they might ask him for a ride to church or to pick up groceries for them. He was just a face in the community and easy to forget until he died of cancer.

That’s when those headed to his funeral found that, although they arrived early, the church had already filled to overflowing and the nearest parking spot was a quarter of a mile away. That’s when folks remembered him and a kindness he had once done them.

Ya’ll think whatever you want, but for me that man died a richer person than Elon Musk will ever be.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Maybe the question isn’t why 77,302.580 Americans came to believe that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are exemplary beings who should rule the country. Perhaps a more suitable question is: how?

I’m certainly not smart enough to figure it out. There were signs, though. Had I been attentive, I might have noticed. For example:

Knowledge had outrun our ability to reason. We treasure, almost above anything, our cell phones. They developed from science and stole our minds and hearts. They didn’t help most, though, better understand how we evolved from blue algae to minds that created nuclear bombs and the Jupiter Symphony in a brief galactic period of less than five billion years.

It’s as if our minds are like buildings that soar hundreds of stories into the sky but rest on no foundation of bedrock.

Today's challenge: Read

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 There comes a time when being nice won’t overcome evil. That time has come. I may become physically ill if I hear another person advise me to respect the opinions of others.

-          Should I respect the opinions of members of a cult that denigrates the heroism of John McCain?

-          Should I respect the opinions of members of a cult that mocks a disabled person on national TV?

-          Should I respect the opinions of members of a cult that calls my brother and sister veterans who died for this country “suckers and losers?”

-          Should I respect the opinions of members of a cult that attacked the United States Capitol, maimed police officers, and defecated on the floors of that national symbol of America?

-          Should I respect the opinions of members of a cult that is now destroying so many aspects of what made America great with a promise, to the deluded, that it will make America great?

No, there is a tipping point at which decent America must say:

-          Please, have you no sense of decency?

-          We will move toward the enemy until all are free.

-          Those children will go to decent schools.

-          A woman will have the same freedom with her body as a man.

-          Nice won’t get it. Nazi Germany fell not from having people be nice to it but by brave men assaulting the beaches with armaments made by their brave wives, sisters, and daughters.

-          The last vestiges of slavery ended not from respect for opinions but from the bravery of young children who marched into schools amidst curses and jeers.

One of the most popular books published in America on changing opinions was How To Win Friends and Influence People written by former salesman Dale Carnegie. In it he listed some 21 ideas to avoid conflict, from “Don’t criticize condemn or complain” to “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.” His readers have a attested to their efficacy for nearly 100 years.

It was long whispered, however, among the campfires of the faithful, that even Dale Carnegie sometimes joked that he might have included a final chapter that read: “When all else fails.”

The time has come to rebuke the acts of the unrighteous. To hell with being nice.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Hope evades us in these times. Where do we find inspiration when the forces of darkness rule every turret?

Perhaps from sources near us.

How about our brothers and sisters of color? They have survived over 400 years of persecution. On that path, they excelled in every field in which they were allowed to participate. Take sports, for example. Their excellence now forces us to place an asterisk beside the name of any white star who didn’t face athletes of color.

Their music formed the basis of many of our prevalent styles of popular entertainment.

The literature they managed to leave floats like sparkles of gems on a sea of mediocrity.

They flew, sailed, and fought heroically for a nation that despised and abused them.

After the trench warfare of WWI, the invasion at Normandy, the Chosin Reservoir, and the Ia Drang valley, they weren't allowed to vote when they came home.

They excelled in countless important achievements in America history for which they received no credit.

To teach youth about the acknowledgement of their many contributions is against the law in my state and forbidden in more and more instances at the federal level.

Their descendants today have grandparents who weren’t allowed to sit in the ground floor of a movie theater or enter the front door of a restaurant.

Ad nauseum.

Yet they have survived. As the darkness descends upon us, let us ask them how.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 America needs some heroes. These days remind one of an old western movie. You know, the one where the bad guy has no moral restraint and holds his pistol to the heroine’s head. Despite the potential consequences, the hero drops his gun and yields. Righteous heroes, the ones bound by morality, do that.

Justice comes nonetheless. Sometimes through what the ancients called a “deus ex machina,”  literally “a god from a machine,” or an unexpected solution to a problem or a contrived ending to a story.

-          The hero’s Quaker wife, who has lived a live free of violence and has never held a gun, shoots one of the bastards from afar.

-          The gun misfires.

-          A distant sidekick solves the dilemma.

-          The townsfolk converge to convince the terrorist of his doubtful future.

America stands on threshold of disaster now. The fascists who have pushed her to the edge have no moral compunction whatsoever against pushing her into oblivion. Their long-range plans lie far beyond the borders of a single country.

Those who would defend Democracy, only slightly less in number, stand paralyzed by their opponents’ lack of morality-based restraint.

There will not be a deus ex machina described in the history of our nation.

We need some good guys.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Presidents Day. America has benefited from some great presidents. She has suffered, and now suffers, from some stinkers.

We attribute great events to great individuals such as presidents. Some thinkers, however, like Leo Tolstoy, didn’t subscribe to what was known in his day as, “The Great Man Theory.” Rather than the actions of one person shaping history, he attributed events to the combined action of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Let’s look at perhaps our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. During his term of involvement, the union was saved and slavery, one of the darkest spots in America, ended. He receives much of the credit. But what else happened that may have influenced, at least to some degree, these admirable things?

-          An obscure woman wrote a book called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

-          Another obscure woman taught us the value of freedom by her work in the Underground Railroad.

-          A group of elderly men sitting on the United States Supreme Court ruled that American people of African descent enjoyed no benefits of citizenship.

-          Thousands of property owners in the American South performed such mendacious deeds on fellow human beings as to arouse the indignation of the righteous.

-          Over two million American men, for that many different reasons, donned the uniform of the United States of America to defeat insurrection and save the Union.

-          Thousands of leaders in Europe and elsewhere declined to support a group of rebels waging war against their mother country in order to preserve the institution of slavery.

And so it goes. Where does greatness lie?

Within each of us, that’s where.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Useful idiots abound these days, unfortunately on both sides of the political spectrum. It is a term that originated with Russians Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, mega-madmen who raised mass genocide in the pursuit of power to a level not to be matched until Pot Pol arrived on the scene in Cambodia. It refers to those who help maintain power but aren’t part of the inner circle of actors.

A more apt descriptor might be “useful idiot” for we cannot assume these folks are stupid. Rather, they are sometimes quite intelligent enablers who do not consider the harmful effects of a given cause, political or otherwise. They attribute to a given cause its positive effects. They ignore the harmful, even disastrous effects.

The tragic aspect is that they exist on both extremities of rational behavior and can join hands to place pure evil into power.

On the far right, useful fools pursue the eradication of a women’s choice for abortion to the extent of supporting laws that subject a 12-year-old to the bearing of a rapist’s child.

On the far left, they respond to the actions of a renegade police officer by supporting the demolition of entire commercial areas of a city by mobs screaming, “Defund the police.”

Sadly, we have reached a point in our approach to universal problems such as inadequate health care, lack of housing, crime, and poverty that we now cling to the far margins of rational thought.

Imagine the process of addressing of cognitive thought to solving a problem.  Our workspace is a long spectrum of analysis allowing for major complexities. Take the issue of immigration, for example.

On one far end the useful idiots scream “open borders.”

On the other far end the useful idiots scream “concentration camps, walls, and machine gun nests.”

Any person advocating an approach lying somewhere in between based on logical thinking and compromises encounters vicious, sometimes career-ending attacks on their personal and professional stature. Moving even beyond the strictures of Mafia doctrine, even family members and friends lie within the field of fire.

Fascists love the strife and opportunity caused by this dialectic.

It has placed America in her current condition of impending doom and will get worse as we end progressive education and replace it with indoctrination based on loyalty to the forces in power (FOP).

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 It seems unlikely that we’ll have elections anymore, not like we used to. Events point that way, at least to me. Why? It’s something that a columnist said once. I think it was George Will and it occurred at the height of Newt Gingrich’s power. He was altering forever, and for the worse, the stature of political discourse in America. He was drunk on success as was the political party he managed. Known as part of a group of sycophants known as “Reagan’s Robots” he saw a country not governed by thought and compromise but by one-party rule with his party ruling forever.

Then the columnist said something prescient. He said a ruling party should always temper its actions based on the understanding that the opposition party might be in charge someday and use the same power and tactics.

In other words, what happens when your enemies enter your castle and seize your weapons?

I think this current bunch, at least some within it, is smart enough to know that. With that knowledge and the power they have built with help from controllers of information outlets posing as news sources, there is little indication that they will countenance competition. Why should they?

They have the police.

They are assuming control of the military.

They have both houses of Congress.

They have the United States Supreme Court.

They have the money.

They have a large base that has eliminated morality and ethics from its religious beliefs.

They have control over the flow of what is called information in this age.

They have blame-victims aplenty to instigate fear among the populace.

They have an embedded belief that there is never enough wealth or power.

Conclusion? Anything resembling a popular election must go. It should be easy in the great scheme of things.

Hitler proved that.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 The point of America’s greatness is a personal one. Some moments that stand out to me may not stir the emotions of others. For example:

I think America was headed toward greatness when the troops of Generals George Meade and Ulysses S. Grant’s army had fought their way through The Wilderness, having suffered great losses, learned, that instead of retreating back to Washington as lesser leaders would have commended, Grant ordered them to head toward the insurrectionist army to restore our Union and end slavery.

I think America was on the verge of greatness when Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address.

I think America saw greatness during the first 100 days of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

I think America was great the day that, after allied troops that had landed in Normandy during the year before, America’s 79^th Infantry Division troops, my future father-in-law among them, crossed the Rhine River and became among the first Allied troops to enter Nazi Germany.

I think America was great the day that Joseph Welch initiated the end of the hateful and destructive career of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy with the words, “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”

I think America turned toward greatness the day that nine of the bravest young Americans who ever blessed this country entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, my home state.

And I think America became great the day that Barack Obama took the oath of office as her president.

Sadly, the people who rule my America today would have me arrested and punished for expressing these thoughts. Feel free to share your own.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

Make America great again: The slogan that killed a dream. A nation died while we searched for a moment, the moment when America was her greatest.

Was America greatest when the troops of George Washington crossed the Delaware River and won a victory that energized her revolution? Patriots would have it so.

Was America greatest when her Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision which stated that African slaves and their descendants were not considered citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court, essentially declaring that enslaved people had no legal rights to protection under the Constitution? Our current administration thinks it so, wishing to apply it now to the country’s first inhabitants.

Many Americans now think greatness occurred sometime in the 1950s. That is when income tax rates were near their highest, and

-         when citizens were being slain in the South for aspiring to vote,

-         when our children faced a life in iron lungs as a result of polio,

-         when women couldn’t obtain credit on their own,

-         when young men faced the military draft to go unwillingly into undeclared and unmotivated wars,

-         when veterans who had fought for America in WWII and in Korea faced denial of the GI Bill of Rights due to the color of their skin,

-         when drafty, leaky, shabby, and unsafe houses were good enough for some, and

-         when education in America existed on a binary system of quality.

Moments are difficult to pinpoint. Defining them requires thought, bravery, and compassion. America was at her greatest when these factors came into play, long ago in a country far away.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RISIST

 It is an evolutionary irony that those to whom America has been most generous are now the chief demons of her destruction. Perhaps it goes back to our primal instinct to gorge on food when the supply was always unpredictable. Plenty never seems enough to those who have it.

It wouldn’t seem to come from our religious background. In the Christian gospels, for example, Luke 12:48 states, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

Later, the phrase Noblesse Oblige was a byword for any noble action of merit. Translating to "nobility obliges", the words represent the idea that nobility has an obligation to demonstrate impeccable conduct and to protect and serve one's subordinates.

Even the military seems rooted in the concept. From and address by Col J. D. Willis, commander of the Air Force’s 17th Training Group:

“Gen. George S. Patton, the WWII-era general known for his bluntness and battlefield acumen, espoused one component of Noblesse Oblige when he stated 'you are always on parade.' An effective leader must always conduct him or herself in a manner they would like their subordinates to emulate.”

We have arrived in America at a point where the rule of conduct for our present leaders is that power is  granted for one’s self-aggrandizement and profit. It also serves to reward the loyal, notwithstanding their use of the favors granted.

The concept of "Noblesse Oblige" historically meant that nobility had obligations to give. In modern society, it means each person sharing his/her special talents or gifts. Unfortunately, our present rulers exhibit no special talents other than those of using inherited wealth for the purpose of making more money, building power, and punishing those with differing opinions.

What a model for our youth to emulate.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Andrew Jackson, the presidential model of the Musk/Trump regime, defied the Supreme Court by refusing to enforce its decision in the case of "Worcester v. Georgia." This bit of history includes the famous statement by Jackson regarding the Supreme Court Chief Justice: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."

Similarly, Joseph Stalin dismissed the power of religion when he asked, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

We have assumed that an heroic stand by a few brave attorneys, and the adherence to the Rule of Law by the lower courts, may be the only effective protection has against the onslaught being waged against America.

It is a vaguely comforting thought.

Until …

Until we consider that we may be erroneously assuming that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have any intention of abiding by any set of laws.

To wit:

The police lobby has registered its support of the regime.

The former TV pundit running the Defense Department has demonstrated the future of an officer who doesn’t subscribe to the party’s dictates.

A snap of the finger will produce from the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate a slate of supporting litigation mimicking the Nuremburg Laws.

Any case that should reach the United States Supreme Court is pre-adjudicated to support the current administration.

There may, in fact, be enough power over enough states to dismantle the United States Constitution.

A slight majority of American voters support this.

A slight minority of American voters don’t, but face the obstacle outline above.

A significant segment of American voters don’t care one way or another.

A deplorable segment of American youth will believe whatever their cell phones tell them in lieu of braving the elements and the forces of darkness to protest.

Is political overreach the only possible salvation for our country?

DEFEAT RACISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 A hitchhiking dog? You may not believe it. My wife doesn’t believe it. No friend in years has believed it, but it is true. My shipmates and I once had a dog that would hitchhike whenever he chose.

It was like this. I was part of a security detail of a Navy communications compound on Monkey Mountain on the south side of Da Nang harbor. There were five compounds on the mountain and we were third from the top. The Air Force occupied the highest elevation, then the Marines, and then us, We had a lovable shaggy dog named Charie, first name Victor.

Well Charlie liked to go, on occasion, to the base of the mountain and visit friends. When the urge occurred, he would stand outside our perimeter on the only road serving the mountain and, before long, someone would pick him up.

Later, a vehicle would stop outside our gate, the driver would wave, and out would hop our canine shipmate. Most everyone on the mountain knew him by name, Charlie, first name Victor.

Once, when he had been below for an afternoon, a Marine deuce-and-a-half came roaring by like it was trying to outrun an AK 47 round. A few minutes later we heard it grind to a stop and shift into reserve. Soon, it backed up to our gate.

Yep. A door opened and out jumped Charlie. He wagged thanks and trotted in with his “ready for supper” look.  The driver, a newbie, explained that he thought he was rescuing a stray and was going to make him a Marine until he passed our compound whereupon Charlie began to express his displeasure in the best of nautical terms. The driver even asked us what an “effing fenderhead” was.

Home is the sailor, home from the sea. I think we operate under conflicting urges, one to seek adventure and one to come home when the adventure is done. I learned that from Charlie, first name Victor. America is on an adventure now and we can only hope she chooses to come home soon. If a dog can, America can.

Why will people believe Donald Trump and Elon Musk are decent human beings but won’t accept this lovable bit of history? I guess if a Fox entertainment pundit told it, they would.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Many of the kids I grew up with had fathers who had served in World War Two. Some were missing their fathers who were among those for whom a tiny portion of a foreign field will forever be America. Two I remember had fathers who couldn’t hold jobs because they were drunkards. Yes, we call it “alcohol abuse now.” It makes it sound like eating too much pie at Thanksgiving. Euphemisms assuage guilt.

A store in my hometown sold military surplus equipment which we saved our pennies to buy. Back yards rang with our sounds as we donned backpacks, strapped on ammo belts, and charged enemy foxholes brandishing our mock M-1 training rifles affixed with plastic bayonets.

It was a good time to be proud of America.

Then came Korea. When those brave men came home, they didn’t talk about it much. No one seemed quite sure why they went or what they accomplished. Americans soon forgot about them.

All of a sudden, the equipment wasn’t surplus junk. The weapons weren’t make-believe training pieces. Everything was real. It was our turn to go.

Donald Trump bought his way out. Americans now love him for it.

Many of us went despite our misgivings. Americans have never forgiven us for it.

Do we hate them for it? No. They are inconsequential. We still love America and it breaks our hearts to see the curtains being drawn closed.

DEFEAT FASCSIM: READ REBUKE RESIST

People are now saying call your congressman. My congressman went to the Dark Side on January 6, 2021 and voted to overthrow a legitimate election. Although a flood of calls has flooded and blocked the congressional phone lines, there is no indication that our current slate of elected officials pay the least attention to the cares and concerns of their electors, as long as they have Elon Musk and Fox Entertainment on their side.

My advice? Postcards.

They won’t open letters. Calls are easily ignored. Postcards demand, and receive, at least a glance.

No, the elected officials will never see them. But a young person who became seduced by the sweet music of fascism will. Is there a chance for a Thomas Becket Moment or a flash of moral clarity? Maybe, just maybe. A multitude begins with one person.

What should the postcard say? I prefer courtesy as in, “Your mendacious approach to your honored officed has produced one positive outcome. It motivates me to send money to institutions who will resist you and your cause in the lower courts. A few brave attorneys now stand between your fascist army and my America. I choose to support America as I once did years ago.”

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Back in the day, I lived in San Francisco for a short while. Enjoyed life there. Who wouldn't? It was during the height of the so-called "hippie movement" and I was avid observer. I lived practically across the street from Panhandle Park where Ken Kessey and his "Merry Pranksters" did their act. It was, as they used to say, "A hoot."

Entertainment was plentiful and cheap. I particularly liked the shows in North Beach put on by the drag queens. It was a harmless and creative type of humor, designed to make people feel better.

The Draft Board interrupted my carefree life. Before long I wound up on a bunker at the edge of the jungle on a mountain overlooking the Da Nang harbor hoping I wouldn’t get shot. The watches were six hours long and one was from midnight until 0600. It was particularly demanding. I did exercises to stay awake. One was to make a mental list of people in my life who had done me wrong and another of those who had done me “solids.”

The drag queens never made the first list, but a lot of politicians and self-proclaimed Christians did. Funny how the people on that list never went away but are still around in the same form with different faces, most of them snarling.

You didn't become a fascist because you love Jesus. Admit it. The Sermon on the Mountain makes you nauseated.

DEFEAT FASCISM: READ REBUKE RESIST

 Dark days are ahead for America’s military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, by assaulting retired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley (four stars) delivered a stern message to officer corps of the United States military: “I now control your careers, so decide today whom you will serve.”

It takes very little imagination to think of the next step. “Don’t think of resigning. I need you and should you desert me, I can’t be responsible for your family’s future. You do have a nice family, don’t you?”

Thus the future of our military is not set by study of Clausewitz, history, or the brilliant staff of the war colleges.

The guidance of our military is now based more on the TV series, The Sopranos.

 

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Read Rebuke Resist

We've demeaned them over the years. We've ridiculed them. We've made the butts of our jokes. And yes, we've even said that a hundred of them chained to the bottom of the ocean would be a "good start."

We've quoted Shakespeare out of context to suggest killing them all to solve a crisis.

Yes, I'm talking about attorneys, lawyers, counselors, ambulance chasers, Perry Masons.

Where are we today? The takeover of Germany by the Nazis in the 1930s is being replayed on the streets of America. The clowns have taken over the circus. As my late friend Gary "Doc" Toler said, "It's a different picture in a different frame." Despair settles on us like a freezing fog. Where shall we turn?

In one of those strange circumstances History plays upon us now and then, we scream for help. Who hears us? Who will man the ramparts? Who will pull us safe from the onslaught of fascism?

A band of brave lawyers, that's who. Let's resist the madness by supporting them.