Donald Trump: Insane or Possessed?

A madman will soon be sitting in the Oval Office, a man who I am seriously beginning to think could be actively trying to destroy America. There are only two very unpleasant realities: One, Donald Trump is perhaps the most ignorant, clueless, self-absorbed individual to ever inhale oxygen, or two, he is evil and is intentionally dragging America to the bathtub to drown it.

Yesterday Trump announced his choice of former neurosurgeon Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. As Robert Reich points out in a post today, Ben Carson:

- Has no experience in government whatsoever;

- Has no experience outside of government with housing or urban development;

- Does not believe in Fair Housing Laws;

- Disagrees with the Supreme Court decision banning housing discrimination;

- Was called a child molester with a pathological temperament by Donald Trump.

The choice of Carson for this position is clear evidence that Trump is suffering from either the onset of dementia or demonic possession. I mean, I could throw a water balloon into a crowd at a Nickelback concert and hit someone who would be a better candidate for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development than Ben Carson.

Why does a man who lived the American Dream want to destroy the very country that helped make him and his father filthy rich? Does that make sense to you? How can anyone in America who is super wealthy criticize the very system that made them successful?

Every pick Donald makes for his administration is another nail in the coffin of democracy. Whether he is merely stupid or under the thumb of Satan may not even matter if the results are the same and we all go down in flames.

Ben Carson Should Not Be Allowed Anywhere Near the White House

Just a couple of observations about Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Carson has said some very strange and troubling things during this campaign. He has also, so it appears, lied about parts of his life story, and was in full defense mode all of last week after the media checked into some of his claims. But here’s the thing that gets to me: Who makes a serious run for the presidency and DOESN’T expect his or her background to be investigated? It was the same thing for Bush, who apparently thought his personal history should be off limits to journalists.  Yet Carson is shocked, shocked I tell you, that his past is being scrutinized by the media. WTF? You’re a freakin’ brain surgeon and you don’t have the ability to understand that as a presidential candidate your past will be investigated? Something’s off here and it’s either the size of his ego or IQ.

The second issue relating to Carson is truly a fundamental one. As mentioned above, Carson has said some seriously batty stuff during this campaign, like the biblical Joseph built the pyramids to store grain and that being in prison can turn you gay. The way I see it there are only two situations that can explain Ben Carson’s loony beliefs: Either he really believes what he’s saying, which is a serious indictment of our education system in America, or that he is only saying crazy things to appeal to the Right’s lunatic fringe, which makes him one of the most disingenuous, manipulative people to ever run for office. I don’t really know the answer to this conundrum, but as more and more evidence emerges that he is a pathological liar, I might cast my vote for the latter.

Despite All Logic, a Republican Could Win the White House

So let’s take a step back and see where we’re at with the Republican presidential candidates after a couple of debates. We have the back-of-the-pack group who, if they had any sense whatsoever, should all throw in the towel and issue public apologies for wasting everyone’s time. Among the so-called front runners we have a guy who calls himself a libertarian, but who is really a Tea Party conservative minus the religious fervor, a woman who is trying desperately to rewrite her personal history of business failures, several religious fanatics, a bumbling Bush, a whiny, arrogant billionaire and, at the steering wheel of the crazy bus, a neurosurgeon and pathological liar who believes that the biblical Joseph built the pyramids.

The Republican presidential candidates are living, breathing representations of everything that is wrong with America, from a parochial, puritanical religious extremism to a rejection of science to war mongering to an allegiance to the wealthy and powerful over the rest of America’s citizens. If any one of them manages to win the White House, and Republicans maintain control of Congress, this country is in serious trouble.

To make matters worse, there are troubling stories out of Kentucky and Ohio that election results in those two states may have been rigged. In the Ohio case, there is clear evidence of votes flipping related to the legal marijuana ballot, with screen shots showing the votes changing automatically from “yes” to “no.” In every election since voting machines were introduced, there have been questionable results, almost always favoring Republican candidates. This is a huge issue that goes to core of what makes a democracy and democracy and should be a high priority for the Justice Department, but it doesn’t seem to be.

Gerrymandering, electronic vote hacking, state requirements making it harder for minorities to vote, fat cats bankrolling campaigns…Republicans are growing more and more desperate as their base of voters grows older and dies off. The most depressing aspect of this is that the tricks work, just look at Bush’s 2000 win, and no one within the system is strong enough or brave enough to take on the fight.

If anyone thinks that there’s no way one of those Republican lunatics could win the Presidential election, I’m afraid there’s ample evidence that it could indeed happen, if only by hook and crook.

The Republican's Benghazi Blunder

The political sites I visit online are all leading off with articles about Hillary Clinton extending her lead over Bernie Sanders in the polls. Gee, why the sudden surge in popularity for Hillary? Let me think….

Benghazi!

Benghazi!

Benghazi!

That’s right, folks. We have the walking brain-dead Republicans to thank for Clinton’s sudden rise in popularity. It apparently never occurred to any of them that a calm, articulate, intelligent woman being hounded for eleven hours by a rabid, redneck lynch mob might not play well with the public. So wrapped up in their delusional hatred of Clinton, Congressional Republicans gave full voice to their ignorance and ineptitude last week, and voters are responding accordingly.

The failure of the Benghazi witch hunt is just the latest example of how out of touch with reality Republicans have become. Just look at their presidential candidates. Their only concern right now is who can throw the largest chunk of red meat to their loony followers and, as of today, that honor goes to Ben Carson. I can hear Carson preparing for tonight’s Republican debate right now.

Carson: I don’t believe abortion is right under any circumstances.

Consultant: Crazier.

Carson: I don’t think abortion is right under any circumstances, and any woman who even thinks about it should be arrested.

Consultant: Give me more crazy, Ben.

Carson: I don’t think abortion is right under any circumstances, and all women should be jailed for the term of their pregnancy to prevent any abortions.

Consultant: Perfect.

No one, not even some Republicans, believed the Benghazi hearings were anything but a partisan hit job on Hillary. The fact that the pinhead Gowdy and his posse thought this public hearing would be a good thing for Republicans simply blows my mind. Lost in their delusional fog, Republicans continue to believe that they can bend reality to justify their ideology, but that never has and never will work.

The Kochenstein Monster Lives

Without question, the biggest news of the weekend (sorry, Mayweather) was the announcements by former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former head of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina that they are running for President. Wow. A surgeon who knows how to fix brains, but doesn’t understand how they work and a former business dynamo who was consistently rated the worst CEO in America have joined the field of Republican luminaries campaigning for America’s top job.

There is actually only one Republican running for President, but it has five faces  (and could end up having as many as 13).  This multi-headed monstrosity is the creation of the evil Koch brothers whom we also have to thank for the Tea Party, which visibly sustains the hideous creature. The Kochenstein monster answers only to its masters and speaks in one voice, advocating regressive, repressive policies that are favored by the criminally insane and old white people with dementia.

If I were a rich man, I would award a large sum of money to anyone who could identify a significant policy difference between any of the current Republican candidates. They all speak Tea Party, a language filled with code words and dog whistles that provides a thin veil over their true racist, elitist, greedy selves. They are united in their hatred of Obama and his accomplishments, blaming everything from the Baltimore riots to Dutch Elm disease on the socialist, foreign-born uppity negro.

At least in the Democratic race there is a clear choice between a very moderate establishment candidate and a boat-rocking progressive socialist, but on the Republican side there are many different faces, but they are all saying the same things.

The Kochenstein monster stumbles forward, its mass increasing as its mind shrinks, terrorizing many in its path as it lurches towards its final destination: Washington, D.C. It’s time to grab the pitchforks and light the torches.

Politics in 2015: Ignorance is an asset

The first two “official” Republican candidates for the presidency, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, are fumbling their way from one gaffe to the next, and left-wing commentators and publications are having a field day. From the shirt-rending hypocrisy of Ted Cruz signing up for Obamacare after spending 24/7, 365 days a year trying to destroy it to Ben Carson’s bloodthirsty homophobic rants, columns of eye-rolling, head shaking revelations are being posted at Salon, The Huffington Post, Raw Story and many other zines.

The one point that is overlooked in all of the verbiage is that in today’s Republican Party, ignorance is an asset. The religious right and Tea Party members are deeply distrustful of people outside their ideological circle, which is the majority of Americans, seeing them as snarky know-it-alls who look down their noses at America’s true patriots and their bedrock values. As difficult as it is, we have to come to grips with the fact that one of the two major political parties in America values superstitious beliefs and unquestioning adherence to a faith-based ideology over reason and objective reality, and that this group is putty in the hands of today’s ruling elites.

Politics in America today is not about competing solutions to our major problems, it is about competing views of reality. Our political leaders can’t even agree on what’s real and what isn’t real. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we have people in positions of power who believe the earth is 6000 years old, that humans and dinosaurs lived together; that global warming is a hoax; that homosexuals should be put to death; and yes, that dark-skinned people are inferior.

Many of us shake our heads in astonishment when Ben Carson reveals he knows absolutely nothing about modern-day Israel, a country he loudly supports with every fiber of his being, but that attitude only strengthens him in the eyes of his supporters. Ignorance is strength. War is peace. Up is down.

Republican candidates in a race to the bottom of the intellectual barrel

There are days, actually a lot of days, when I feel as though I’m living in a nightmare of collective insanity. Everywhere I turn in this dark theatre, there is someone on stage saying things that are incomprehensibly stupid, but the audience applauds as if he or she is the president of MENSA. In my nightmare, ignorance is rewarded and knowledge debased.

I feel that way after reading a quote from Republican presidential contender Ben Carson. In a CNN interview, he said that homosexuality was absolutely a choice. How does he know this?

"A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question," he said.

This may sound like something one of the Duck Dynasty hillbillies might say, but Ben Carson isn’t some backwoods hick with a microphone, he’s a freaking neurosurgeon!  A brain surgeon! Here is a highly educated man, a serious contender for the most important job in America espousing views that make Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne sound like Harvard professors.

Of course, he’s only doing what he has to do to win the approval of the intellectually stunted, rage-filled Tea Baggers who have taken control of his party. That fact alone tells you a tremendous amount about the quality of political discourse in America in the twenty-first century. One of our two major political parties has forsaken reality for a fantasyland built on a foundation of wishful thinking, anger, superstition and bigotry. It’s their dream world, but to everyone else it’s a living nightmare.