After The Chaos

 

Let's do something positive for ourselves today. 

Let's not talk about Mr. Trump and his chaos.

Let's discuss what's next when he leaves the White House on his last day. 

What can we do to pull ourselves up out of the Trumpian chaos and make our world not only livable once again but pull it back on track to life much better than we have now, toward achieving an improved world for all of us instead of only a few?

Here is how noted futurist, author, and advisor to world leaders Jeremy Rifkin* sees our future of opportunity. 

A Green New Deal for Europe (Jeremy Rifkin) | DLD (Digital-Life-Design) Munich 20

Jan 20, 2020

Jeremy Rifkin - Can a Green New Deal Save Life on Earth?

Sciences Po, Apr 9, 2020

17/10/2019 A conference with Jeremy Rifkin, American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist.

Moderation by Philippe Martin, Full Professor, Department of Economics, Sciences Po.

Author of the best-seller The Third Industrial Revolution, Rifkin is now developing a new idea, the « green new deal », a transformative program which would allow a massive global paradigm shift into a post-carbon ecological era.

Rifkin thinks that the global shift towards new cheaper green energies will create a carbon bubble that will burst by 2028 – leading to the collapse of the fossil fuel civilization.

*Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 21 bestselling books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. The books have been translated into more than 35 languages. His most recent books include the international bestsellers, The Green New Deal (2019), The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), The European Dream (2004), The Hydrogen Economy (2002), The Age of Access (2000), The Biotech Century (1998), and The End of Work (1995).

Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000. He has advised three past presidents of the European Commission - Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Jean-Claude Juncker - and is advising the current European Commission under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the current president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. Mr. Rifkin has also advised numerous EU heads of state over the past twenty years, including Germany's Angela Merkel, on the ushering in of a smart green Third Industrial Revolution economy.

Mr. Rifkin’s New York Times bestselling book, The Third Industrial Revolution, provided the blueprint for the economic transition to a post-carbon ecological society across the European Union. According to The European Energy Review, "perhaps no other author or thinker has had more influence on the EU's ambitious climate and energy policy than the famous American 'visionary' Jeremy Rifkin." In the words of Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, Jeremy Rifkin "is the economic and ecological worldwide ambassador of the energy transition… Rifkin presents a grand scenario for the future: a visionary approach unlike anyone has dared to put forward in the last fifty years that will boost our thinking and help with our orientation.”

Mr. Rifkin is also advising the leadership of the Peoples Republic of China on the build out and scale up of the Internet Plus Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure to usher in a sustainable low-carbon economy. The Huffington Post reported from Beijing on October 29th 2015 that "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution, and taken it to heart. He and his colleagues have also made it the core of the country's thirteenth Five-Year Plan..." The Huffington Post goes on to say that "this blueprint for China's future signals the most momentous shift in direction since the death of Mao and the advent of Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up in 1978."

According to EurActiv, "Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist and author whose best-selling Third Industrial Revolution arguably provided the blueprint for Germany's transition to a low-carbon economy, and China's strategic acceptance of climate policy."

-more about Rifkin- 

9/11 Cold-Blooded Murder

 

Immersed as we are in the Trumpian world, where disinformation, grifting, fraud and lying are as common as cockroaches in the dead of night, ferreting out 9/11 truth seems nearly impossible.

To this day a large portion of the U.S. population still accepts the 9/11 Commission Report as gospel, just like they accept Mr. Trump's unrelenting traitorous duplicity as well as his egregious incompetence leading to the deaths of nearly 200,000 Americans due to the COVID plague.

But 9/11 remains a cold case – the murder of 2,974 innocents  – as well as a demarcation point which opened the door to our Trumpian-Fascist present when we learned that the Trump Administration, "...siphoned around $4 million from New York City Fire Department’s fund for its September 11 first responders."

9 /11 Fraud - David Ray Griffin - 18 Apr 2005 

 

David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (born August 8, 1939) is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology, and a political writer. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach found in process thought. Griffin has published a number of books on the subject of the September 11 attacks, suggesting that there was a conspiracy involving some elements of the United States government.

More about 9/11

Let’s Get Real. Why 9/11?

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2018/09/lets-get-real-why-911.html

Remembering 9/11 – 2,974 WTC Murders

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2014/09/remembering-911-2974-wtc-murders.html

9/11 Cold-Blooded Murder

http://www.ibfinvestigations.org/

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - The Rising (Live In Barcelona)

On October 16, 2002, two months into The Rising Tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band took the stage at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain, performing over two and a half hours of new songs, classic hits, fan favorites and rarities. Feel the passion and power of their set with Live In Barcelona.

Voter Fraudster in Chief

 

Charles Schultz's Pig Pen. Art Credit: Peanuts Studio Blog

In one way, Mr. Trump reminds me of Charles Schultz’ Peanuts character, Pig Pen, who was always surrounded by a cloud of dust and debris. 

But in Mr. Trump’s case, wherever he goes a cloud of chaos will surely appear.

Just the other day Mr. Trump managed to create a cloud of chaotic pollution while committing an act worthy of impeachment and imprisonment by encouraging North Carolina voters vote twice this November. By doing so, in North Carolina, he violated the law and committed a felony

In an Alternet article, Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog is quoted, "Under North Carolina law, it is illegal: ‘For any person with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time, or to induce another to do so, in the same primary or election, or to vote illegally at any primary or election.’”

Oh, by the way, voting twice in the same election is also prohibited under federal law 52 USC § 10307.

Move over pig pen… The Voter Fraudster in Chief has appeared.

Here is how CBS reported the story:

President Trump suggests supporters illegally vote twice to test mail-in vs in-person

CBS This Morning, Sep 3, 2020
President Trump and his administration are continuing to cast doubt on mail-in voting two months ahead of the election. Speaking to his supporters in North Carolina, President Trump encouraged them to test the system and illegally vote by mail and in person, a potential felony. Ben Tracy reports.

Lying, Misleading, Deceiving and Tricking

 

Discrediting Biden using any misleading or fraudulent means is the
Trump Republican standard practice.

Acts of gerrymandering, voter suppression, armed thuggery, voter intimidation, threats of violence and insurrection, Russian hackers… all these things must not be enough to ensure Mr. Trump’s hold on the White House in the minds of the Trump Republicans. 

No, they must and have gone to the lowest of lows. 

They have become remarkable practitioners of social media age deception, lying and trickery, having honed their skills to a degeneracy of exponential despicableness.

Just think, one day soon your grandchildren will earn their degree in the fine art of deception and trickery, all based on the 2020 Trump Campaign.

Below are a few examples of the Trump Republican’s unmatchable work product. The first is from,  Trump campaign posts fake video of Biden, Elyse Samuels, The Washington Post, 2 Sept 2020:

White House social media director tweets manipulated video of Biden

"White House social media director Dan Scavino tweeted a manipulated video that depicts Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden as asleep in a TV interview. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)"

Four fake videos from Republicans draw tardy or no response from Facebook, Twitter, Donie O’Sullivan and Daniel Dale, mercurynews.com, 1 Sept 2020.

Facebook Removes Russia-Linked Ploy To Spread Disinformation Among Left-Leaning Voters, Nick Visser, huffpost.com, 2 Sept 2020.

Alternative Universes

 

Fox and Friends for Fans Facebook page

Examples of “alternative universes” mostly devoid of fact and charged with rabid racism are floating around now. This one (above), was recently posted on the Fox and Friends for Fans Facebook page.

Back in the olden days, when I was in college (1967-1971), we studied “yellow journalism”, the kind practiced by Hearst and Pulitzer to build circulation for their New York newspapers prior to the Spanish-American War, (circa 1898).

For Hearst and others, this form of publishing worked because, among other things, it grabbed their reader’s attention using, “…daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts (with large illustrations and perhaps color), heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and unabashed self-promotion” (Joseph Campbell). Further, the practitioners used, “faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts, according to historian Frank Luther Mott. 

So, creating an alternative reality to support a political agenda is not new. 

The only difference is today we have Fox News and Facebook helping pander the deceptions vastly more effectively to millions of Americans vs. just the readers in the old New York City. 

This November I hope we don't fall victim to the modern yellow journalism and lose our Democratic Republic along the way.

Trump Makes Nixon a Choir Boy

 

Amy Goodwin of Democracy Now! interviews John Dean, of Watergate fame.
Photo credit: screen capture.

"Hope springs eternal," is an expression attributed to Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man, 1732). I guess, for me at least, the expression is true. I am hoping for our "John Dean" to help take down Mr. Trump.

Who will emerge as the hero who saves our Democratic Republic from the authoritarian monster, Trump Party? Who will be our John Dean to take down our Richard Nixon, Donald Trump? 

“Authoritarian Nightmare”: John Dean Helped Bring Down Nixon over Watergate. He Says Trump Is Worse

Aug 27, 2020

As President Trump is set to accept the Republican Party’s formal renomination for president amid ongoing scandals and multiple crises, we speak with John Dean, who served as the White House counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1973. His testimony during the Watergate scandal helped bring down Nixon. His new book is “Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers.” “I worked for the last authoritarian president we had,” Dean says. “Trump is of a different cut than Nixon. … He’s going to make Nixon look like a choir boy before it’s all over.”

Yes. It Is

 

Photo credit: http://www.expertise-asia.com/2017/01/will-need-putin.html

“It is what it is,” to quote Mr. Trump.

Unfortunately for Americans, Mr. Trump's words were not just about the COVID plague deaths, but also prophetic about his treasonous acts.

Looking back, you recall, Mr. Trump stood idle, while:

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin took control of the Crimea, established a foothold in the independent state of Ukraine, orchestrated the Syrian strife into a victory for Bashar Assad, and through cyber-warfare, worked to have Mr. Trump elected president in cooperation with Mr. Trump’s elections committee, expressly with Trump Campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort and Trump-Fixer, Roger Stone.”

Yes, absolutely. 

That is now established fact, among many other findings, detailed in a bipartisan investigation in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s fifth and final report into Russian interference in the 2016 US election., which was released a couple of days ago.

No longer can Mr. Trump claim that it was all, a “hoax” and that his election chairman was not deep into treasonous acts with Russian intelligence operatives on his behalf.

According to CNN, “… the report makes very clear is that Trump's campaign chairman was 

a) working with a Russian intelligence officer 

b) seeking to share proprietary campaign data with him and 

c) attempted to sway public opinion about which country actually had meddled in the US election.”

“And that (Roger) Stone, whose prison sentence was commuted by Trump last month, was designated by the campaign to find out what he could about the information that had been hacked by the Russians and when WikiLeaks planned to release it. And that the two Russians from infamous Trump Tower meeting had more ties Russian intelligence than we previously knew. And that Russia continued through this year to muddy the waters about its interference in the 2016 election.”

Further you recall, during a joint press conference in Finland, “Mr. Trump groveled and made his views clear: he (took) Mr. Putin's “powerful” denial of meddling as true over anything national intelligence director Dan Coats and his team…warned him about.”

All this clearly adds up to, “…giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”

Add standing idle while the Russians paid bounties to Islamic extremists in Afghanistan for killing American soldiers, and there is nothing left but to say, “It is what it is.” 

Indeed. 

It is Treason.