Showing posts with label Trumpniks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trumpniks. Show all posts

Why are The FBI & DOJ Protecting THE INSANE ICE KILLERS? The Murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good were Both ruled Homicides... Let's Lock Up the Insane Monsters Before They Kill Again!

LET'S ARREST THE ICE KILLERS

LET'S ARREST THE ICE KILLERS - The Murders of Pretti and Good were Both ruled Homicides...

Ice killer 28 people


Danger Danger - Criminals are Posing as ICE Agents - Is that masked man really a federal government agent or did he buy a uniform online??? Danger Danger!

Danger - criminals are posing as ice agents



If We Crush I.C.E. - We Can Enjoy a Frosty Margarita... Simply Bring in Some Tequila from Mexico... and... Did You Notice that Trump Did a Mad Panic U-Turn on the Epstein Files?
If We Crush I.C.E. - We Can Enjoy a Frosty Margarita... Simply Bring in Some Tequila from Mexico...

Trump outlawing mockery in the media - meme


LET'S LAYOFF ALL ICE AGENTS! They are a Total Waste of Taxpayer Dollars! The Majority of Americans Do Not Believe that having Brown Skin is a Crime...
Ice agents are ashamed of what they do that's why they hide behind masks



And Cut the Budget in Half for the Pentagon, DHS, CIA, FBI & QAnon...  Refund that Money to the Taxpayers! 

Remember: "ANTIFA" Is an Imaginary Enemy. In Reality, there is no such organization... But ANYONE can be accused by Trump of being a member... This is similar to being accused of being a witch in the 1600s... 
And in reality there are over 100 million members of anti-fascist organizations... My own father fought against the Nazis in World War II... 

"ANTIFA" Is an Imaginary Enemy. In Reality, there is no such organization...




Remember: The FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA, DoD, DARPA and EIEIO are Members of the "Deep State" - Imaginary Boogiemen... Visible Only to Brainwashed TrumpNiks®, MAGA MORONS and QuackAnon Bakers! I TOO Suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia... Just Like They Do... But...

I found God on Farmville - gvan42
I found God on Farmville - gvan42

https://philipdick.com/resources/miscellaneous/the-religious-experience-of-philip-k-dick-by-r-crumb-from-weirdo-17/

On the Other Hand... Good News from Arcata, California! The City has Decided to Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants! Magic Mushrooms, Peyote, DMT... Those Plants are a Force for Good in the World... 

There is an Unstoppable Movement for Decriminalization... Already Santa Cruz, Oakland and Denver... or Maybe Bolder... 

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It Seems that EVERYONE Has Realized that Richard Nixon's War on Drugs was an Astonishingly EVIL Idea... He Just wanted an Excuse to Lock Up Black Men, Hippies and Anyone that Opposed the War in Vietnam... AND... Here in the USA We Have a HUGE Prison Population, yet "Drugs" are More Available than ever... Especially the Crazy "Doctor" Drugs Like Fentanyl... and OXY... If you remember... Rush Limbaugh Made a Career out of Getting Stoned out of him Mind on "Hillbilly Heroin" and the Ranting like a Deranged Lunatic into a Microphone... Total CrazyTalk® - and The People Loved it! Until He Died of Cancer Caused by Smoking Tobacco... Thanks For Dying Rush!

Smoking Causes Cancer - Learn from the Dead Rush Limbaugh

and then I Got This Recommendation of an Alternative to Google Search... My Friend Uses https://startpage.com/ because She Doesn't Like Being Tracked by Google... 

They Appear to Get All Their Links from BING... a Microsoft Alternative to Google... Whenever I Write a New Blog Post I Tell BING and Google About it... Google Frequently Rejects my Submitted URL because they Say it's "Not Worthy" - BING Accepts Everything... Up to 10,000 URL Submissions a Day... Google Starts Using "Prove You Are a Human" Tests after about Eight URL Submissions... I guess that Google Thinks it's The Master of the Universe and Only the Truly Worthy are Allowed... 

Yahoo Search and DuckDuckGo both use BING as Their Source of Webpages... I Had a QuackAnon Freak say he Never Uses Google because it's Controlled by the DEEP STATE and they Never Publish Trump's Lies as Fact... He Uses DuckDuckGo because they Validate His Brainwashing... 

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and Then there is Facebook... They have a AI (Artificial Intelligence) Program that Publishes Posts That You are Likely to Agree With... People Have a tendency to Unplug when they encounter Posts that do not ECHO their own Beliefs... Since the Entire GOAL of Facebook is to Keep People Online as Long as Possible... They Just Serve Whatever YOU want to See... and Then SELL Targeted Advertisement Space to Businesses that Have Determined that YOU Need to See Their Ad... Because The Math Proves that People Like You have a Tendency to Buy Buy Buy That Stuff... It's a Hall of Mirrors!

I found it really funny that... SHOCKING! Some Lady in a Congressional Hearing said That Facebook Puts Profits ahead of People's Safety... Well, 100% of Corporations do that! The only organizations that do NOT do that are Called NON-Profits... and They Maximize Paychecks for The People That Work There... 

The Church Maximizes PROFIT, Not PROPHET, Salvation or Good Deeds... It's pretty dang Obvious that The Christian Church is ALL ABOUT Providing a Work Free Life for Ministers... and a Place for Child Molestors to Abuse Children While Being Protected by "God" - What a Sleazeball Racket! 

Another Really Absurd part of the Christian Church is "Forgiveness of Sin."  A Perfect Faith for The MAFIA... Do Evil, Go to Church and Ask for Forgiveness, Get Forgiven... Then Do Evil, Go to Church and Ask for Forgiveness, Get Forgiven... Then Do Evil, Go to Church and Ask for Forgiveness, Get Forgiven... Then Do Evil, Go to Church and Ask for Forgiveness, Get Forgiven... Then Do Evil, Go to Church and Ask for Forgiveness, Get Forgiven...

an endless "Get Out of Jail Free Card." - Perfect for a MORALITY FREE LIFE... 

Button Eyed Man - psychedelic Art by gvan42
accuracy on Facebook...

ask your doctor - are magic mushrooms right for me?
Don't be Fooled... vandergreg vanished because I didn't pay my bill... All the Worthy Content was Transferred to gvan42.blogspot.com



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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogeyman

The Real Deep State Is Trump... How the FORMER president has used William Barr and other officials to turn the government into his personal fiefdom... and Make Crime Legal for His Friends! https://newrepublic.com/article/159551/real-deep-state-trump

The deep state is a conspiracy theory[1][2][3][4][5] which suggests that collusion and cronyism exist within the U.S. political system and constitute a hidden government within the legitimately elected government.[6][7][8][9][10][failed verification] Author Mike Lofgren believes that there is "a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process",[11] or consider the deep state to encompass corruption prevalent among career politicians and civil servants.[12] The 'deep state' theory has been dismissed by authors for The New York Times[13] and The New York Observer.[14] University of Miami Professor Joseph Uscinski says, "The concept has always been very popular among conspiracy theorists, whether they call it a deep state or something else."[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_state_in_the_United_States

Trump’s Deep State conspiracy is fake— anyone with work experience is automatically a Conspirator if they State Truth instead of TrumpLies® - but the threat from US intelligence services is real... Danger! Danger! https://qz.com/932449/trumps-deep-state-conspiracy-is-imaginary-but-the-threat-of-american-intelligence-is-real/

Trump's Corrupt State Is So Much Worse Than His Imaginary Deep State | Opinion... https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-corrupt-state-so-much-worse-his-imaginary-deep-state-opinion-1445302

What the American 'deep state' actually is, and why Trump gets it wrong... https://www.businessinsider.com/what-deep-state-is-and-why-trump-gets-it-wrong-2020-1 

Led Keychain Flashlights for Camping FUN

Legalize Medicinal Psychedelics - rainbow Header Image by gvan42



Minneapolis didn't become a war zone because of crime, immigrants, or protesters. It became a war zone because Trump wanted one. And ICE was more than happy to play soldier.
This city didn't ask for armored federal agents prowling neighborhoods like it's Fallujah. It didn't ask for flashbangs, tear gas, mass intimidation, or a federal agency so reckless it managed to kill an American and call it "procedure." Yet here we are...watching ICE do what it does best...escalate, brutalize, and then lie about it.
Let's stop pretending this has anything to do with helping Americans. ICE is not fixing housing, lowering prices, or making anyone safer. It is actively making Minneapolis worse...more afraid, more divided, and more volatile. The only thing ICE has successfully secured is chaos. And chaos is the point.
Trump's entire governing philosophy is provocation. Flood a city with federal muscle. Dare the public to respond. When they do, scream "law and order" and send in more agents. It's a con as old as authoritarianism itself...manufacture unrest, then use it as an excuse to tighten the fist.
ICE has happily become the blunt instrument of the strategy. An agency staffed by people who genuinely despise the public they operate among...Americans included. Dissent is treated as hostility. Protest as terrorism. Civil rights as inconvenience. This isn't enforcement, it's punishment.
Minneapolis is less safe today not because of it resistance, but because a federal agency was unleashed on it with zero accountability and a president itching for confrontation. If this is what Trump calls leadership. It's no wonder everything he touches turns toxic
This isn't strength. It's fear in uniform. And Americans are the ones paying the price.
Never stop demanding more my brothers and sisters
Elections have consequences

These Kings of Tech (Google, Facebook, Twitter) are More Powerful Than Presidents of Countries... Think About It... Do YOU Really Care about the Opinion of "Balls Are Narrow", the President of Brazil? A Country with MORE PEOPLE Than the USA...

 HEADLINE: Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs Testify Before Congress: 

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/980510388/facebook-twitter-google-ceos-testify-before-congress-4-things-to-know

I Don't Have a Strong feeling of Patriotism towards the USA. However I DO Feel Loyalty to Google... I Entrust ALL MY DATA to Google. I Have Uploaded My Autobiography, All My Artwork, My Family Photographs, My Travel Photographs, My Absurdist Fiction Stories,  All My Songs and Every Opinion I've Ever Had...

I DO Feel Some Patriotism to the State of Jefferson. (Southern Oregon and Northern California) But The USA Has Too Many Crazy TrumpNik® Freaks for My Liking... 

MEME - i will survive - covid 19 shot gregory vanderlaan self

 Think About It For a Second... Google is Not at War With Anyone... Has No Need to Buy Weapons... The USA is in a Constant State of War Against Imaginary Enemies... 

There Exists an Industry of People That Write Magazine and Newspaper Articles BASHING BIG TECH. It's Possible to Sell and Article that Shouts: DANGER DANGER Google Will Find Out Your Innermost Secrets! These Articles are Written by People That Need Work and Have Discovered a Niche... as a Matter of Fact, There are People That Will Say ANYTHING if they Get Paid. Often They Work for "Think Tanks" - Witness the Bizarre Falsehood Published by the Heritage Foundation... They Even Had a Guy That Said The Electoral College Was a GOOD IDEA! Madness! Other Freaks Publish Endless Articles and Youtube Videos Promoting Nuclear Power Plants as a "Green" Alternative Energy Source. They Conveniently Ignore the Fact That Nukes Create Radioactive Waste that Has to be Stored Safely for 10,000 Years... They Say: Look! No Air Pollution! No Disasters Since F*CK YOU Shima, Chernobyl, TMI and Santa Susanna Field Laboratory... Mostly Safe... Except for the Increase in Cancer Around thos FAILURES... 

Remember the Endless War in Afghanistan? Can We Even Pretend That There is a MISSION? A GOAL? Can Anyone State Why We Are At War There? No... It's Just Another BogusWar® Designed to Sell Stuff For Defense Contractors... Sell Boots to The Military? Well, You Sell More Boots if We Have Boots on th Ground in DirkaDirkaStan... Sell Bandages? You'll Sell More Bandages if there Are Americans Bleeding in Some Far Off Land... 

abandoned Military airplanes rusting in the desert... a total waste of taxpayer dollars... meme gvan42
Abandoned Military Airplanes Rusting in the Desert...
a Total Waste of Taxpayer Dollars... 


Medicare for All would Cost A GREAT DEAL LESS than Paying for Insurance Company Profits...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/30/17631240/medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-32-trillion-cost-voxcare 

Bernie Sanders’s $32 trillion Medicare-for-all plan is actually kind of a bargain. The federal government would spend a lot more money on health care, but overall US health spending would be about the same as otherwise projected.


http://www.connectthedotsusa.com/

Let's Cut Defense Spending in Half and Use The Money Currently Wasted to Pay for Medicare for All and Free College... Since the Military Has NOT ACTUALLY DEFENDED The USA since 1945, Why Spend Billions on Something we Do NOT USE? Since August 15th, 1945 [Victory in Japan Day] ALL WARS HAVE BEEN BOGUS... We have Invaded Foreign Countries and Taken Sides in THEIR Civil Wars. Remember Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq and Afghanistan? Why Did We Spend Taxpayer Dollars to Blow Those Countries UP? Corporate Profit! That's Why... 
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/04/lets-cut-defense-spending-and-use-money.html

What IF We Simply Taxed Marijuana and used THAT Money to Heal America? GEE, That Was Easy... 

When I am wrong, I simply Change my Mind. Sometimes I Change it Back and Forth as I LEARN MORE!

I used to be in favor of "Medicare For All" but...  
I saw an advertisement that stated we would have to WAIT LONGER for treatment with a single payer system. 

NOW, My Facebook Friend Changed My Mind Back!
Medicare for all - costs less, works better - meme - gvan42



I asked Google and It's True. In Canada they wait Longer... Well, I don't want to wait longer! I'm 65 years old and I already HAVE Medicare. The Medicare For All plan would ADD YOUNG PEOPLE... and I don't CARE about them... Really... CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY MEDICARE FOR ALL WOULD BE BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE NOW? 

Maybe Medicare For All would be better for People under 65 but... 

I Emailed Bernie Sanders but have not gotten a response... Maybe You Know the Answer... 

Medicare for all Costs Less, Works Better - meme - gvan42




"The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few.... Or the One." - Star Trek Quote.

FREE COLORING BOOK ART! - Find more at Google Image Search using the Keywords: gvan42 free coloring book

FREE COLORING BOOK ART! - Find more at Google Image Search using the Keywords: gvan42 free coloring book



FREE COLORING BOOK ART! -
Find more at Google Image Search
using the Keywords:
gvan42 free coloring book 
or click on this link!
https://tinyurl.com/gvan42


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On a Different Subject... 
a Post of Mine Was Deleted from This Blog
because I Dared to Ask the FORBIDDEN QUESTION:
"Why do we allow fresh water from the 
Sacramento River to flow into the Ocean?"

after all... 
We Pump the Colorado River Dry before it Gets to the Ocean in Mexico... and No One Complains About THAT!

all the water from the Colorado River is used to Drink, Water Crops, Fill Swimming Pools, Shower, Water Animals and Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks Beverage... 

SO... Someone Reported My Question to Google
and That Post was Deleted... 
WE MUST ALLOW NO QUESTIONS!
OBEY THE ECOLOGY NUTS!
NO THINKING!
Sat Image of Sacramento River
Sacramento River Satellite Photo Google Maps - Delta - 2021 Here is a Post on that same subject that was NOT Deleted on Facebook... "I Wonder Why Fresh Water from The Sacramento River Flows into the Ocean? After All, The Colorado River is Pumped Dry.
We are Having a Drought Here in California... This Water COULD be used to Grow Crops, Water Livestock, Take Showers or Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks... But NO... It Flows Out into The Ocean at San Francisco... "

What IF? Would Pumping all that water out of the River and Into Fields that are Growing Crops Change the Climate of California's Central Valley... In the Summer, all that water would evaporate and then fall as rain when those clouds meet the Sierra Nevada Mountains... In General, the Wind Flows from West to East... WE NEED RAIN...

The Objection to Pumping the Sacramento River Dry is That Salmon Need the Water to Survive... and They Would Go Extinct... In That One River... Other Rivers, Like The Klamath and The Columbia and Rivers in Canada and Alaska would NOT Be Changed... and The Salmon Would Continue to Survive There... and... What IF Salmon Became Extinct? The Drought is The Western USA Is Putting Salmon in the Klamath River in Danger Right Now... Even With The Dams being Removed...



Kapow-Un-Dam-the-Klamath-River-All-Species-Parade-Arcata-CA
Protest Sign Says:
Kapow! Un Dam the Klamath River
in the All Species Parade: Arcata CA

Golden Bear Portrait Klamath River
Golden Bear Sculpture on The Klamath River Bridge.
Highway 101 - Northern California

The San Francisco Bay would Become Salt Water flowing In under the Golden Gate Bridge... Currently it has a Mixture of Salt Water and Fresh Water...

salt flat san jose
That's Surprising because there are Salt Harvesting Businesses Near San Jose... They Just Let the Bay water Evaporate and Collect the Remaining Salt...


You may read MORE Blog Posts 
by Clicking on the LABELS Below... 

Like and Share using the Handy Buttons!

A BIG THANK YOU! to the Millions of Americans that Protested in the Streets... The NO KINGS! movement has certainly gotten the attention of the people that work in the US Congress... They have to realize that if they continue to be obedient to Trump, the vast majority of Americans will vote against them and they will Become Unemployed...

Those fancy pants jobs in the US House of Representatives and the United States Senate will be lost! No one gives bribes to a former government official... Only current ones...

Their only hope of keeping those government jobs is to Impeach and Convict Trump...  If they have any survival Instinct, now is the time to flip and banish Trump to Mar-A-Loser... Or maybe he will flee the country and go live in Venezuela... 

You can find the exact location of your representative's office by following this link:



Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/apr/19/hands-redux/

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest

Eureka, California April 19th Protest


Written earlier... 

TODAY! April 19th - Anti-Trump Musk Protest - In Every City Across the USA - NO KINGS! #50501 - Please share these memes Worldwide! On MANY different social media platforms! Twitter, Tooth SoCal, Ribbit, social1776, Gab, GETTR, Threads, Blue Sky...
April 19th - Anti-Trump Musk Protest - In Every City Across the USA - 50501

April 19th - Anti-Trump Musk Protest - In Every City Across the USA - 50501

April 19th is the day of protest all over these great United States. I know the news media will try to down play that day but they can't ignore the American people forever . No Kings Freedom March if you can get you a sign and hit the streets with your other Americans to protest how Trump has let Musk rape this country. People are fighting back .250 years ago to this day, the revolutionary war was started now 250 years later we have to do it all over again.


No Kings poster


April 19th anti-trump protest - meme -


click on the link below for more information!

April 19th protest poster
April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

April 19th protest poster

Anti-trump meme cartoon - April 19th protest - 50501

Anti-trump meme cartoon - April 19th protest - 50501

Anti-trump meme cartoon - April 19th protest - 50501

Anti-trump meme cartoon - April 19th protest - 50501

Anti-trump meme cartoon - April 19th protest - 50501




Trump's Brain is Fried! 
MAGA MORONS: 
Why Don't You Just Stop Believing Lies?

Trump's Brain is Fried! MAGA MORONS: Why don't you just stop believing lies?

Republicans are the Party of HATE. They Hate Non Whites. They Hate Women. They Hate Gays. They Hate Books. They Hate Choice. They Hate School. They Hate Freedom. They Hate Liberty. BUT THEY LOVE GUNS!

and If Their GUNS Kill Children... No Problem! They'll Just Breed Some Spares! It's Obvious That Republicans Are Totally Into HATE... Well, Hate Won't Make America Great! and they REALLY Hate TRUTH... Because Facts Make them Look Bad... Because... They ARE BAD! and Now Going to Prison for their EVIL DEEDS.

A man in a hot-air balloon was lost, so he shouted to a woman on the ground below, "Excuse me. I promised a friend I would meet him, but I don't know where I am."
"You're at 31 degrees, 14.57 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude," she replied.
"You must be a Democrat," the man shouted back.
"I am. How did you know?" said the woman.
"Because everything you told me is technically correct, but the information is useless, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've been no help," the man replied.
"You must be a Republican," answered the woman.
"Yes. How did you know?" he said.
"Because," the woman replied, "you've risen to where you are due to a lot of hot air, you made a promise you couldn't keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow now you think it's my fault."

Excellent Button - Pro Choice, Supremely pissed off

Trump is the Titanic Iceberg - Cartoon

In Fact... Trump is in  Bad Health due to Junk Food - meme

Trump's a Criminal... and We're Gonna Arrest Him Three More Times!

Trump's a Life Long Criminal...
and We're Gonna Arrest Him Three More Times!

Do Something About Climate Change - drive less



We are being hit with a massive campaign to deny climate change. They have really upped their game since the early George W. Bush years when they started denying everything and tearing down the proof that was established, in the same way as Trump tore apart the science community, taking down many useful websites and destroying much of what our tax dollars meant for, as in to ensure that our science was legit. Funny thing is, no one complains about that. They don't complain about anything except the sanctioned stuff. You'd think that most of the truth must be off limits.

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“You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can’t lead to a good conclusion.”
~ Julian Assange
'The truth will set you free' is an aphorism we’ve all heard so many times it’s lost a lot of its meaning and doesn’t sound especially profound when we hear it again, but it really does contain the answer to humanity’s most difficult problems. A truth-based relationship with reality is the only way to move into peace and harmony, whether you’re talking about the inner peace and harmoniousness of an individual or the peace and harmony of our entire species.
For the individual, you can’t generally come to inner peace and a harmonious way of moving in the world until you’ve done a lot of inner work and gotten extremely real with yourself about your experiences, your relationships, your ways of thinking about things, your behavior patterns, and your motivations. The deepest levels of peace and freedom open up when we have transformative insights into the truth of our very nature: the nature of consciousness, mind, and self.
It doesn’t come from trying to be a nicer person, from praying to the right god or espousing the right belief system. True and lasting peace and freedom comes from a penetrating realization of what is already the case. It comes from knowing what’s true.
This is a bit counter-intuitive, because our minds and our culture tell us that we get peace and happiness from getting what we want — the right accomplishments, the right job, the right belongings, the right romantic partner, the right circumstances. But none of those things will ever take us where we’re really trying to get to. Only the truth will.
And it’s exactly the same for a group of people, and for humanity as a whole.
Real widespread change can only come from knowledge of the truth — that’s why those who don’t want widespread change pour so much energy into keeping people from knowing what’s true. That’s why there’s such a frenzied push for more internet censorship and for the government to get more involved in regulating speech. That’s why our civilization is saturated with propaganda. And that’s why Julian Assange is in prison.
Real change will only occur when a sufficient number of people realize that we live in a profoundly unjust society held together by violence and lies, where our very existence is being imperiled by nuclear brinkmanship and environmental destruction. Because only then will enough people begin mobilizing to use the power of our numbers to force the changes we need.
Again, this is somewhat counter-intuitive, because we’ve been told all our lives by our schools and our media that we get change by voting for political candidates we like. But our electoral systems are stacked against change, and the candidates are controlled by interests who seek to keep things more or less the way they are. This means change can only be arrived at by widespread forceful rejection of the entire system, and widespread forceful rejection of the entire system can only come through truth.
So the truth will set us free, but those who don’t want our freedom are doing everything they can to obstruct, obfuscate and distort the truth. The good news is that there are a whole lot of us, and (for now at least) we do have the ability to share the truth about what’s going on with each other. And the more people understand what’s going on, the more people there are to help share the truth with others.
The first step is spreading awareness of the fact that our civilization is saturated in propaganda, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening. Helping people to understand that they’ve been lied to their whole lives about their nation, their government, their society and their world will help shake them free from their propaganda blinders, so that they can begin to figure out what’s true.
By working toward a collective understanding of what’s real in this way, humanity can come into a truth-based relationship with reality, one freshly opened pair of eyelids at a time. And, just as a truth-based relationship with reality inevitably brings peace and harmony to the life of the individual, a truth-based relationship with reality will bring peace and harmony to the life of our entire species.
Truth is its own reward. It’s not always pleasant when you get it, and it might not be obvious at first that it’s helping to move things in a positive direction, but every step toward health and harmony begins with truth. The more opportunities we have to experience this fact in our own lives, the more obvious it becomes.

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Heather Said:
June 15, 2023 (Thursday)
Yesterday, the Republican Study Committee, a 175-member group of far-right House members, released their 2024 “Blueprint to Save America” budget plan. It calls for slashing the federal budget by raising the age at which retirees can start claiming Social Security benefits from 67 to 69, privatizing Medicare, and enacting dramatic tax cuts that will starve the federal government.
I’m actually not going to rehash the 122-page plan. Let’s take a look at the larger picture.
This budget dismisses the plans of “President Joe Biden and the left” as a “march toward socialism.” It says that “[t]he left’s calls to increase taxes to close the deficit would be…catastrophic for our nation.” Asserting that “the path to prosperity does not come from the Democrats’ approach of expanding government,” it claims that “[o]ver the past year and a half, the American people have seen that experiment fail firsthand.”
Instead, it says, “the key to growth, innovation, and flourishing communities” is “[i]ndividuals, free from the burdens of a burdensome government.”
It is?
Our history actually tells us how these two contrasting visions of the government play out.
Grover Norquist, one of the key architects of the Republican argument that the solution to societal ills is tax cuts, in 2010 described to Rebecca Elliott of the Harvard Crimson how he sees the role of government. “Government should enforce [the] rule of law,” he said. “It should enforce contracts, it should protect people bodily from being attacked by criminals. And when the government does those things, it is facilitating liberty. When it goes beyond those things, it becomes destructive to both human happiness and human liberty.”
Norquist vehemently opposed taxation, saying that “it’s not any of the government’s business who earns what, as long as they earn it legitimately,” and proposed cutting government spending down to 8% of gross national product, or GDP, the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States.
The last time the level of government spending was at that 8% of GDP was 1933, before the New Deal. In that year, after years of extraordinary corporate profits, the banking system had collapsed, the unemployment rate was nearly 25%, prices and productivity were plummeting, wages were cratering, factories had shut down, farmers were losing their land to foreclosure. Children worked in the fields and factories, elderly and disabled people ate from garbage cans, unregulated banks gambled away people’s money, business owners treated their workers as they wished. Within a year the Great Plains would be blowing away as extensive deep plowing had damaged the land, making it vulnerable to drought. Republican leaders insisted the primary solution to the crisis was individual enterprise and private charity.
When he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in July 1932, New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt vowed to steer between the radical extremes of fascism and communism to deliver a “New Deal” to the American people.
The so-called alphabet soup of the New Deal gave us the regulation of banks and businesses, protections for workers, an end to child labor in factories, repair of the damage to the Great Plains, new municipal buildings and roads and airports, rural electrification, investment in painters and writers, and Social Security for workers who were injured or unemployed. Government outlays as a percentage of GDP began to rise. World War II shot them off the charts, to more than 40% of GDP, as the United States helped the world fight fascism.
That number dropped again after the war, and in 1975, federal expenditures settled in at about 20% of GDP. Except for short-term spikes after financial crises (spending shot up to 24% after the 2008 crash, for example, and to 31% during the 2020 pandemic, a high from which it is still coming down), the spending-to-GDP ratio has remained at about that set point.
So why is there a growing debt?
Because tax revenues have plummeted. Tax cuts under the George W. Bush and Trump administrations are responsible for 57% of the increase in the ratio of the debt to the economy, 90% if you exclude the emergency expenditures of the pandemic. The United States is nowhere close to the average tax burden of the 38 other nations in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), all of which are market-oriented democracies. And those cuts have gone primarily to the wealthy and corporations.
Republicans who backed those tax cuts now insist that the only way to deal with the growing debt is to get rid of the government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and eventually promoted civil rights, all elements that stabilized the nation after the older system gave us the Depression. Indeed, the Republican Study Committee calls for making the Trump tax cuts, scheduled to expire in 2025, permanent.
“There are two ways of viewing the government's duty in matters affecting economic and social life,” FDR said in his acceptance speech. “The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will leak through, sift through, to labor, to the farmer, to the small businessman.” The other “is based upon the simple moral principle: the welfare and the soundness of a nation depend first upon what the great mass of the people wish and need; and second, whether or not they are getting it.”
When the Republican Study Committee calls Biden’s policies—which have led to record employment, a booming economy, and a narrowing gap between rich and poor— “leftist,” they have lost the thread of our history. The system that restored the nation after 1933 and held the nation stable until 1981 is not socialism or radicalism; it is one of the strongest parts of our American tradition.

June 24, 2023 (Saturday)
Yesterday, forces from the private mercenary Wagner Group crossed from Ukraine back into Russia and took control of the city of Rostov-on-Don, a key staging area for the Russian war against Ukraine. As the mercenaries moved toward Moscow in the early hours of Saturday (EDT), Russian president Vladimir Putin called them and their leader, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, traitors. This morning, they were bearing down on Moscow when they suddenly stopped 125 miles (200 km) from the Russian capital. This afternoon the Russian government announced that Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko had brokered a deal with Prigozhin to end the mutiny: Prigozhin would go to Belarus, the criminal case against him for the uprising would be dropped, the Wagner fighters who did not participate in the march could sign on as soldiers for the Russian Ministry of Defense, and those who did participate would not be prosecuted.
Prigozhin said he turned around to avoid bloodshed.
U.S. observers don’t appear to know what to make of this development yet, although I have not read anyone who thinks this is the end of it (among other things, Putin has not been seen today). What is crystal clear, though, is that the ability of Prigozhin’s forces to move apparently effortlessly hundreds of miles through Russia toward Moscow without any significant resistance illustrates that Putin’s hold over Russia is no longer secure. This, along with the fact that the Wagner Group, which was a key fighting force for Russia, is now split and demoralized, is good news for Ukraine.
In the U.S. the same two-day period that covered Prigozhin’s escapade in Russia covered the anniversaries of two historic events. Yesterday was the 51st anniversary of what we know as “Title 9,” or more accurately Title IX, for the part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 that prohibited any school or education program that receives federal funding from discriminating based on sex. This measure updated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and while people today tend to associate Title IX with sports, it actually covers all discrimination, including sexual assault and sexual harrassment. Republican president Richard Nixon signed the measure into law on June 23, 1972 (six days after the Watergate break-in, if anyone is counting).
Fifty years and one day later, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion. That is, a year ago today, for the first time in our history, rather than expanding our recognition of constitutional rights, the court explicitly took a constitutional right away from the American people.
The voyage from Title IX to Dobbs began about the same time Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act. In 1972, Gallup polls showed that 64% of Americans, including 68% of Republicans, agreed that abortion should be between a woman and her doctor—a belief that would underpin Roe v. Wade the next year—but Nixon and his people worried that he would lose the fall election. Nixon advisor Patrick Buchanan urged the president to pivot against abortion to woo antiabortion Catholics, who tended to vote for Democrats.
As right-wing activists like Phyllis Schlafly used the idea of abortion as shorthand for women calling for civil rights, Republicans began to attract voters opposed to abortion and the expansion of civil rights. In his campaign and presidency, Ronald Reagan actively courted right-wing evangelicals, and from then on, Republican politicians spurred evangelicals to the polls by promising to cut back abortion rights.
But while Republican-confirmed judges chipped away at Roe v. Wade, the decision itself seemed secure because of the concept of “settled law,” under which jurists try not to create legal uncertainty by abruptly overturning law that has been in place for a long time (or, if they do, to be very clear and public about why).
So Republicans could turn out voters by promising to get rid of Roe v. Wade while also being certain that it would stay in place. By 2016 those antiabortion voters made up the base of the Republican Party. (It is quite possible that then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell refused to permit President Barack Obama to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court because he knew that evangelicals would be far more likely to turn out if there were a Supreme Court seat in the balance.)
But then Trump got the chance to put three justices on the court, and the equation changed. Although each promised during their Senate confirmation hearings to respect settled law, the court struck down Roe v. Wade on the principle that the federal expansion of civil rights under the Fourteenth Amendment incorrectly took power from the states and gave it to the federal government. In the Dobbs majority decision, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the right to determine abortion rights must be returned “to the people’s elected representatives” at the state level.
Fourteen Republican-dominated states promptly banned abortion. Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas banned abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest; Mississippi banned it with an exception for rape but not incest; and North Dakota banned it except for a six-week window for rape or incest. West Virginia also has a ban with exceptions for rape and incest. In Wisconsin a law from 1849 went back into effect after Dobbs; it bans abortion unless a woman would die without one. Texas and Idaho allow private citizens to sue abortion providers. Other states have imposed new limits on abortion.
But antiabortion forces also tried to enforce their will federally. In April, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the Food and Drug Administration should not have approved mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug, more than 20 years ago. That decision would take effect nationally. It is being appealed.
When the federal government arranged to pay for transportation out of antiabortion states for service members needing reproductive health care, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) put a blanket hold on all military appointments—250 so far—until that policy is rescinded. For the first time in its history, the Marine Corps will not have a confirmed commandant after July 10. In the next few months, five members of the joint chiefs of staff, including General Mark Milley, its chair, are required by law to leave their positions. Tuberville says he will not back down.
On June 20, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chair of the House Republican conference, called for a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, saying that the right to life “is fundamental to human rights and the American dream” and calling out the justices who decided Roe v. Wade as “radical judges who frankly took the voice away from the American people…. The people are the most important voices” on abortion, she said.
But, in fact, a majority of Americans supported abortion rights even before Dobbs, and those numbers have gone up since the decision, especially as untreated miscarriages have brought patients close to death before they could get medical care and girls as young as ten have had to cross state lines to obtain healthcare. Sixty-eight percent of OB-GYNs recently polled by KFF said Dobbs has made it harder to manage emergencies; 64% say it has increased patient deaths. A recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll shows that 80% of Americans—65% of Republicans and 83% of independents—oppose a nationwide ban on abortion while only 14% support one. Fifty-three percent of Americans want federal protection of abortion; 39% oppose it.
In politics, it seems the dog has caught the car. The end of Roe v. Wade has energized those in favor of abortion rights, with Democrat-dominated states protecting reproductive rights and the administration using executive power to protect them where it can. Republicans are now running away from the issue: the ad-tracking firm AdImpact found that only 1% of Republican ads in House races in 2022 mentioned abortion.
At the same time, antiabortion activists achieved their goal and stand to be less energized. This desperate need to whip up enthusiasm among their base is likely behind the Republicans’ sudden focus on transgender children. Right-wing media has linked the two in part thanks to the highly visible work of the American College of Pediatricians, which, despite its name, is a political action group of about 700 people, only 60% of whom have medical degrees. (They broke off from the 67,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics in 2002 after that medical organization backed same-sex parents.) They are prominent voices against both abortion and gender-affirming health care.
In Nebraska in May, a single law combined a ban on abortion after 12 weeks and on gender-affirming care for minors. “This bill is simply about protecting innocent life,” Republican state senator Tom Briese said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has made protecting reproductive rights central, traveling around the country to talk with people about abortion rights and pressing the administration to do more to protect them. At a rally in Washington, D.C., on Friday, she articulated the message of fifty years ago: “We stand for the freedom of every American, including the freedom of every person everywhere to make decisions—about their own body, their own health care and their own doctor,” she said. “So we fight for reproductive rights and legislation that restores the protections of Roe v. Wade. And here’s the thing. The majority of Americans are with us, they agree.”
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