NIGHTMARE in November 2024 . . . . . .

I awoke the other morning with memories of a frightening nightmare filling my thoughts.  A familiar man's voice was uttering crude racist and belittling misogynistic words constantly ricocheting in my ears.  In my nightmare, my eyes swept my surroundings filled with the blurred faces of people whose hands pressed against their ears in a fruitless attempt to block the blaring sound and noise as I was trying to do.

Nearby I could see a slightly larger crowd including children, laughing, waving their arms encouraging this obnoxious man to keep shouting his obscenities.  "You love me, don't you!", he said to them.  Their unified voices responded, "Oh, yes!" 

"See, I can do and say anything I want", he said to his nearby cohorts who gave him smug smiles of approval they knew his ego expected, demanded.

I returned to the reality of the day -- our 2024 U.S. Presidential election results with the 45th ex-President to become the 47th President has had my mind reeling with questions about this nightmarish outcome.

We were just finishing a four-year respite with a welcomed degree of calm and sanity after the overwhelming daily chaos and noise from the 45th U.S. President.  That President has been thought by many to have given coded language's "dog whistles" to some fascist-like groups which seem to have interpreted his words as sympathetic to them.   Some of his own other words and actions have led many to see certain of his own ideas and behavior among those seduced by such a fascist ideology.  

During the years following the end of 45's 2016 term of office he successfully mustered enough voter support to receive a winning, over 50% of the popular vote for the first time, in the recent 2024 election. as well as winning the Electoral College votes.

Almost 50% of other voters, including me, were bewildered to appreciate his supporting voters intent when they embraced the apparent fascism our recently elected 47th U.S.President seemed to be promising.  They elected a man who many believe has demonstrated his racism, intolerance, and misogynism along with other undesirable moral, ethical and business practices reportedly throughout most of his life.

Did they not listen to his words or note his actions when he previously was President and when he campaigns?

Did his supporters not recognize the constitutional importance of maintaining the separation of church and state our constitution demands which he seems not to protect?

Did they not respect the right of women to control decisions about the health of their own bodies which he seems not to do?

Did they not believe he would act as he said he would which could undermine or weaken some of our constitution? 

Did they not believe he would obliterate a balanced rule of law and justice despite accusations of his own violations for which he is now not likely to be held accountable if warranted, as a consequence of action by his earlier SCOTUS appointments?

Did they not believe he would be intolerant of anyone whose thinking was different from his own as some allege he has demonstrated in the past?

Do his supporters actually believe in and trust a person who makes up facts, denies and distorts truth, prevaricates incessantly based on documentation of his words?

Did they not believe he would revert to instigating violence to achieve his end as many believe he did culminating in what some consider an insurrection on January 6, 2021?

Did he really mean there would be no more elections after his second 4 years if voters elected him, and why would that be true since our constitution specifies there will be every four years -- or is this just one more of his lies?  

Did voters not consider the meaning when he has reportedly demonstrated he expects everybody to have a primary allegiance to him over all else and is believed by many to have previously responded unfavorably to those who won't make such a commitment since everyone's oath, including him, is to the constitution -- not to a person or a political party?

Did they not know what it would mean in human terms when he said he would be a dictator the first day of his presidency?

Did they not understand what he is saying about women's right's when he said he would protect women whether they liked it or not?

Did they not recognize any fascist views he is expressing?

Did they not realize the dangers a fascist leader poses to everybody's freedoms, even lives, including their own?

Despite the lessons of history with fascist leaders as most recently occurred with another country's  invasion of Ukraine, or before that, WWII fought to preserve many country's independence, freedoms, including our own, save lives for which many sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters died, also freeing those captive, still living, who had not been tolerated -- do they not know what fascism is? 

Definition:                                                                                                                                           "Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition", ... as defined in Wikipedia.

I am left to consider the state of my beloved U.S.A. with this election painfully revealing there are far more of my fellow citizens in whom I am so disappointed, saddened, but alarmed, than I thought lived in our proud country which holds high ideals for the individual citizen.

A thought-provoking lead-in to a recent Guardian opinion article resonates with me now.  I believe this is a great country already, but the problem lies with the people, so I have slightly altered the wording:   

"Our mistake was to believe we lived in a" ...  country with more 'better people' ... "than we do".

VETERANS DAY - CALIFORNIA SECEDE? -- PROTESTS

SALUTE TO ALL VETERANS ..

(USA wars are fought in name of all citizens)

A Tribute always and especially to WWII Veterans 

---our nation would not be here today -- free as we know it -- if not for them.

T H A N K    Y O U   !

 * * * * *

 

A NEW COUNTRY ?      NEW CALIFORNIA

CALIFORNIA is the biggest economy in the U.S. and the sixth largest in the world.  

CALIFORNIA  population racial demographics already reflect what those of the United States of America are expected to be in 2044 -- a diverse nation of people -- based on the Census Bureau's projection:

"By 2044, the United States is projected to become a plurality nation.While the non-Hispanic White alone population will still be the largest, no race or ethnic group is projected to have greater than a 50 percent share of the nation’s total."

Some Californians are considering options for the state to secede from the United States.  
Such an action is partially based on  the rhetoric which the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump  has previously directed toward various Silicon Valley business leaders and their enterprises, including media ownership.    Specifics may be read at this link to the  Guardian article describing current seceding issues.

Here is a link to the official site for California secede.


NEW INFLUENCES
 
The 2016 Presidential Election outcome has increased the impetus for more California residents to give serious consideration to supporting our state becoming our own country.

The degree of actual support for California's secession remains to be seen.   Other states in past years have had residents suggesting seceding for their own various reasons, most recently  as described in Texas. (by Phillip Bump, Washington Post.)

Inquisitor includes comments that select social media is suggesting  some Californians may see if  other Western states such as Oregon, Washington, Nevada  may be interested in seceding.


MY PERSPECTIVE

I presently think  this grand experiment of our democratic republic is best successfully perpetuated if California remains within the union of our fifty states plus Washington D.C.  

Citizens responsibility is to consider the current needs required as we continue to
-- sustain the viability of our way of government with thoughtful voting choices
-- refine, define, change, alter and correct our mistakes by demanding officials act only
    within the parameters  prescribed by these three  USA documents known collectively as

The Charters of Freedom:
Declaration of Independence
The Constitution
The Bill of Rights


The Great Questions  

Has "the establishment" (including the President-elect, House of Representatives and Senate members) received, correctly processed, determined to rectify the existing  inequity situations  -- including the economic gap described in "The Rich and the Rest" by Christina Pazzanese?


How long can our nation's way of government survive as we strive ethically and morally  to provide liberty and justice for all -- to be a positive force in the world and for humanity?  



* * * * *

ELECTION PROTESTS developed as I began this post......

This is the United States of America.    Traditionally the hallmark of our democracy has been a peaceful transition of one administration to another.   In fact, current President Obama has initiated transition arrangements following candidate Hillary Clinton's earlier concession of the 2016 Presidential election to Donald Trump.

However, the offensive nature associated with President-elect Trump's conduction of his campaign has resulted in eliciting strong emotions from voters.    That coupled with the election's outcome triggered citizen protests which began earlier Wednesday afternoon  in New York City outside his Trump Tower residence --- he was the winner when the Electoral College votes were tallied, but received fewer popular votes than his opponent.

This is the second time in the past five elections the Electoral College winner garnered fewer popular votes than the opponent.   In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George Bush following the U.S. Supreme Court's intervention to terminate controversial vote-counting in Florida.    A candidate designated to be President based on winning Electoral College votes but not the nation's  popular vote had occurred only three times before in the 1800s.

Most recent developments are that protest groups in cities from coast to coast  have amassed, saying in reference to President-elect Donald Trump, "He's not my president!", stressing Trump did not win the popular vote.    Regrettably, vandalism, disruptions, freeway traffic blockage and some arrests began to occur Wednesday night around midnight necessitating law enforcement response here in Los Angeles as I wrote this.

Typically, only a few protesters are responsible for violence in such events -- always a risk they'll infiltrate the peaceful groups, but with their own destructive motivations -- such as looters, anarchists who desire and will instigate crowd chaos for their own agenda toward overthrowing our way of government.

Fascists, too, benefit from inciting violence as often citizens will relinquish their rights and freedoms to leaders/law enforcement for promised security -- only to eventually find themselves living in an autocratic form of government, a dictatorship presided over by a demagogue systematically depriving them of their rights.

 Undermining freedom in a democratic government can be a many years lengthy process, achieved in slight, incremental, sometimes seemingly innocuous small steps.   Systematic attacks and discrediting other government branches -- judicial, legislative -- also The Fourth Estate (the press) -- to create mistrust in all systems are part of the fascist pattern documented throughout history.  (Legitimate shortcomings in the branches and press must be addressed and corrected, but citizens must guard against being seduced by a leader's conspiracy intimations, intentional distortions of truth through innuendo, deliberate falsehoods.)  

These, hopefully, primarily peaceful protests in additional cities around our nation continue Thursday -- they include many high school, college students of the most populous millennium generation who may be most concerned about their future.   Those of us who are older care about the younger generations and the world in which they will live long after we've departed this earth.  We must pay attention.

After Trump's weeks, months of vitriolic diatribes, misogynistic,  racist, sexist, name-calling directed toward his opponents and others, his sudden measured adoption of rational manner the final week or so of his campaign, and his speech after the election may have aroused suspicions and mistrust in the minds of many citizens -- they may be wondering:

-- who is this allegedly prevaricating,  narcissistic, sociopathic, fascist-sounding person?

-- what are the ethical and moral values of Donald Trump?

-- what does the real Donald Trump truly believe?

-- who is the real Donald Trump?

Most of our citizens do not take lightly a leader whose behavior throughout much of his presidential campaign was insulting and  boorish, to say the least.  Some citizens might also even be inclined to interpret his tactics and some language he has used as mirroring that of fascists whose similar activities, words and actions are described in histories of the nineteenth and twentieth century.  Fascism is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.

Let our republic have a peaceful democratic transition to the legally elected new leadership.

Let us actively oversee all actions of those we've entrusted to occupy government positions.

Let us use our votes and  all legal means to ensure governing individuals each actually fulfill their Oath of Office.

Let us guard and protect our privacy,  rights and freedoms.