Our Current Political Crisis (in addition to Trump and Trumpism)

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Watergate book & film “All the President’s Men” is highly relevant now!

March 13, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Last night I watched the feature film “All the President’s Men,” which accurately lays out the Watergate scandal and the criminality of Nixon’s administration.  I had watched the film a number of years before and read the book many years before that. Now it is more relevant than ever, especially because: — The extremely corrupt Trump regime is violating the Constitution and the rule of law — News media nowadays do not dedicate themselves to investigative reporting and seeking the truth, nearly so much as they did before — Media consolidation — especially by right-wing owners — has created enormous […]

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We must DEBUNK “the Myth of Redemptive Violence.”

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

U.S. culture has long perpetuated what has been called “The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” Look at the plots of movies about the Wild West, about cops & robbers, about spies, etc. Nearly every movie ends with a big shoot-out in which “the good guys” use violence to defeat “the bad guys.” The U.S. assumes that our military is “the good guys” and we can use violence to defeat “the bad guys” just like in the movies. The problem is that reality does not work that way. The U.S. LOST the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Violence is also PROFOUNDLY […]

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A smart, unexpected way to move voters to our side

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Liberals and progressives keep expressing amazement and confusion when working-class people vote for people like Reagan and Trump, whose economic policies and other policies actually make things worse for working-class people. George Lakoff, an expert in how people think, says voters vote their VALUES, not their interests. Typically, we assume that if we explain how a political issue pertains to people’s objective interests (e.g., their economic well-being), they will act or vote the way we want them to. However, Lakoff says we would be more effective if we would pay attention to people’s VALUES and frame our arguments to appeal […]

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Widely held values actually OPPOSE Trumpism’s cruelty, etc.

February 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Many people assume that Trumpism’s cruelty is more widely accepted by Americans than it actually is.  In truth, the vast majority of Americans hold better values.  In order to organize the public to oppose Trumpism, let’s tap into the better values that the vast majority of Americans hold. In order to push against the right-wing extremist agenda of Trumpism, we need to help ordinary Americans recognize that Trumpism seriously violates our nation’s best values. Ordinary Americans support truth, justice (fairness), human rights, the rule of law, science, preventing governmental corruption, etc. Trumpism violates these cherished American values. Exposing Trumpism’s violations […]

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The U.S.’s long-standing “cult of ignorance” is growing

February 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For a very long time the U.S.’s culture and political live have included a strong anti-intellectual tendency.  Half a century ago I bought Richard Hofstadter’s 1963 book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.  When Adlai Stevenson ran for president in 1952 and 1956 he was criticized and scoffed at because he was a very smart person.  Educated “egg-heads” are often criticized for being smart.  The list goes on and on. This anti-intellectualism seems to have gotten much worse.  The right-wing and Trump and the anti-science crowd and the anti-evolution crowd and the climate deniers are part of this. The editorial on page […]

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Trump’s latest behavior reveals dictatorial mindset

February 5, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

After many Democrats failed to applaud or show other support during his January 2018 State of the Union speech, Trump called them “treasonous.” His statement is what we’d expect from a dictator, not the president of a constitutional democracy with freedom of expression. We could expect North Korea’s leader to denounce people who don’t praise him. Trump keeps showing that he thinks of himself as a dictator who must dominate his subjects. Abuses began during the 2016 presidential campaign, and the abuses have been escalating. They will continue until the American people force Trump out of office through impeachment or […]

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Despite Trump’s behavioral distractions, he is accomplishing MUCH — but the WRONG stuff!

January 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Powerful interests run their agenda on two tracks: 1. For public consumption, they say nice propaganda, platitudes, etc., and they also put out a carnival of entertainment, scandal, eye candy, etc. 2. Meanwhile, apart from public view they do horrible things. So, for example, while LBJ and Nixon kept saying they wanted peace in Vietnam, they actually were escalating the war. Trump promised jobs, promised to “drain the swamp,” etc., but he has been doing the opposite. Both parties do this, and so does big business with “greenwashing” advertising campaigns while they hurt the environment. We must pay attention to […]

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An important post on this blog still reflects my best thinkig

January 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Trump, Trumpism and the Republican Party are doing horrible things to the U.S. and the world, while the Democratic Party and many Americans seem clueless. Often I think I should write something for this blog about the underlying problems that led us into this crisis.  Then I immediately remember that I did convey my best thinking in a long essay I have already posted to this blog.  Some of that article I wrote in January 2017 around the time of the inauguration, and I had added more before posting it in the autumn of 2017.  It is still valid, and […]

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Besides Protesting What We Oppose, Let’s Also Organize to Achieve Positive Goals

January 12, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

by Glen Anderson We need to keep protesting against the cruelty, corruption, injustice and violence that continually assault us. But if we spend most of our time and efforts fighting the bad stuff, the oppressors will continue to have the upper hand because they can keep throwing bad stuff at us and we will always be on the defensive. We need to spend most of our time and efforts taking the initiative to organize for the positive goals that we want instead. We need to be proactive, envision the future we want instead of the current mess, and organize to […]

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Support the Mar-a-Lago Dump for Fossil Fuel Sludge and Nuclear Waste

January 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

by Glen Anderson Trump wants to massively increase oil drilling, coal mining, nuclear power, and nuclear weapons. All of these would massively increase the amounts of sludge and wastes from those nuclear and fossil fuel operations. The wastes will need to go somewhere. Since Trump is so enthusiastic about those, I’m proposing a gigantic toxic waste dump right next door to his Mar-a-Lago luxury resort in Florida. Before the Trump era, the Environmental Protection Agency would have prevented such a project. But Trump and Scott Pruitt, his appointed EPA Administrator, have been eliminating environmental protections and converting that agency into […]

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“Understanding and Protecting Civil Liberties”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The American people want our society to provide freedom and social justice. The building blocks for this are human rights and civil liberties. Unfortunately, too few Americans understand and support our basic constitutional rights. If we don’t understand civil liberties, we can’t protect them. As a result, governments and right-wing agitators have been expanding police and surveillance powers, chipping away at our freedom, and reducing our human rights. After September 11, 2001, this process got even more reckless and dangerous. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s July 2010 TV program helps viewers better understand the range of civil liberties and how […]

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“Create a Publicly Owned Washington State Bank”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Serious problems require bold, creative solutions!  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s January 2011 TV interview explores a creative solution to help our state’s economy. Even during hard financial times, a lot of money flows through the state government. Property tax payments, sales tax revenue, payroll taxes, fees for licenses, and other revenues arrive at various times. From time to time the state pays out this money for salaries, equipment, supplies, rent, payments to local governments, and so forth. What happens to the money while the state has it? The state deposits most of it with the big Wall Street banks […]

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“A Nonviolent Society for the Common Good”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

In recent years American society has experienced a serious upsurge of anti-government rhetoric, including threats of violence against members of Congress – and in January 2011 an actual shooting. We have seen a continuation of war, torture and human rights abuses by our government, cutbacks in vital social and health services, a mania for privatizing public services, intolerance of minority races and religions, and an overall breakdown in the sense of our common humanity. Are these interconnected?  Do they have common roots? Can we find solutions that will resolve these problems and restore our public ethics and our common humanity? […]

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“Real Democracy, Not Corporate Personhood”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

“End ‘Corporate Personhood’ and Other Power Grabs” In its January 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that big business corporations can give as much money as they want to election campaigns. By a 5-4 majority (all 5 were appointed by Reagan or George W. Bush), they overturned a century of settled law that had protected election campaigns from excessive corporate interference. This decision further entrenched the bizarre notion that money is “speech” and that corporations are “persons” with free speech and the same civil rights as living, breathing human beings. The Citizens United […]

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“Causing and Exploiting Economic Crises”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

What do Wisconsin’s Republican politicians, the political aftermath of 9-11, the Wall Street banking crash, and the federal budget crisis all have in common? In each case, a crisis (real or contrived) was used as the excuse to impose preconceived agendas of radical right-wing policies upon our political and/or economic lives. The Patriot Act, for example, was not a carefully crafted response to the 9-11 attacks. Rather, it was a massive collection of proposals for stripping away Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy, due process, and so forth. These proposals were too radical to ever be passed by Congress during normal […]