Comments by "wily wascal" (@wilywascal2024) on "Haley flip flops on Trump, praising his 'strong speech'" video.

  1. As political commentator and former Republican presidential advisor Mark McKinnon so aptly put it just recently, "The Republican party is at dysfunction junction." May disagree with conservative ideology and with their stances on many issues, but do value and respect LOYAL opposition--a duty that the GOP has for too long forgotten and abdicated, putting personal and party interests before country. That is not only harmful to their party, it is harmful to our democracy and institutions. And it has come to represent a clear a present danger to our nation, a serious threat to our very security. All of this is mentioned because it is firmly believed that this is not a time for diplomatic, soft-spoken words. This is not a time to be Pollyannaish about our current political landscape, but a time for frankness, a time for acknowledgment of defects, a time for confronting stark unpleasant realities. Our democracy is a fragile construct, only as sturdy, vibrant, and enduring as we maintain it, requiring constant vigilance and due diligence. Just as we don't forget Pearl Harbor, or 9/11, even more so the attack against our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021 by fascist Reich-wing domestic terrorists incited to insurrection by a deranged President against his own government must never be forgotten or forgiven. Thus, we MUST condemn both cowardly, corrupt Republican so-called "leaders" defying truth, justice, duty, democracy, and Constitution--and their dysfunctional political party that behaves as a cult--in the strongest possible terms, using the most muscular language that can be mustered. For it is necessary; the very fate of our nation depends upon it. Disaster was narrowly averted with the defeat of Trump, with Democratic control of the House and Senate, but the battle for the soul of this nation is far from over, and we must never again allow ourselves to become complacent. And so it is vitally imperative that we remind each other of this, that we impress these things upon our children and fellow citizens of this nation.
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  2. “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.” ~ Ulysses S. Grant, 1875 "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~ Typically misattributed to Sinclair Lewis, the original source of this quote is unknown, but likely derived from labor activist Eugene V. Debs 1917 quote, "Every robber or oppressor in history has wrapped himself in a cloak of patriotism or religion, or both." Before World War II, Charles Lindbergh typified American heroism with his daring flights, including the first solo transatlantic flight, and his celebration of new technology. He parlayed his fame and heroic stature into a leading role in the America First movement, which opposed America’s entrance into the war against Nazi Germany. In 1939, in an essay entitled “Aviation, Geography, and Race,” published in that most American of journals, Reader’s Digest, Lindbergh embraced something close to Nazism for America: "It is time to turn from our quarrels and to build our White ramparts again. This alliance with foreign races means nothing but death to us. It is our turn to guard our heritage from Mongol and Persian and Moor, before we become engulfed in a limitless foreign sea." The America First movement was the public face of pro-fascist sentiment in the United States at that time. In the twenties and thirties, many Americans shared Lindbergh’s views against immigration, especially by non-Europeans. The Immigration Act of 1924 strictly limited immigration into the country, and it was specifically intended to restrict the immigration of both nonwhites and Jews. In this era, the likes of Toxic Trump and Marginalized Greene have become the face of the new "America First" fascist movement built up over the last four decades by the GOP, Reich-wing plutocrats, demagogues, and media. But, as with Lindbergh, the American people gradually come to recognize their dysfunctional poison and reject it. Most Americans understand, accept, and appreciate that the enduring strength of America is that we are a nation of immigrants and multiculturalism, a "melting pot" where the best ideas rise to the top, and superficial differences are meaningless in the face of our common humanity and purpose. Most Americans want competent leaders who speak truth, who strive to unite, who are not corrupt, who care about them. So, it should come as no surprise that President Biden is already receiving high marks from the public, while Toxic Trump never managed to rise above even a 50% approval rating. To conclude where begun, the following quotes are submitted for further reflection: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ~ George Santayana "History doesn't repeat itself. But it does rhyme. ~ Mark Twain "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." ~ Aldous Huxley "If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind." ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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  3. Republican cult is the new ISIS. Republican politicians are appeasing terrorists...because that's their voter base, radicalization and extremism is what they have cultivated, nourished, exploited, and profited from for four decades. Reich-wing politicians, plutocrats, media, Christian religious leaders, and demagogues thought they could ride the tiger, too arrogant, greedy, and stupid to foresee that master would become slave, and the beast would soon come to consume them.
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  4. Nicki "Hellbound" Haley: "I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean I'm flopping around like a fish out of water, but I got no spine, so it's a miracle like Jesus multiplying the bread and fish, but I just pretend to be a Christian, because I got no character, principles, morals, integrity, or values.
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  5. The problem at the heart of all this is a Republican cult built up over decades by the GOP, plutocrats, Reich-wing demagogues, Reich-wing Christian nationalism religious leaders, and Reich-wing print, radio, TV, and social media, programmed 24/7, radicalizing them and creating mass delusion. A straight line can be drawn through to the inevitable catastrophic conclusion witnessed today from Lee Atwater, Roger Aisles, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs, Mitch McConnell, Billy Graham, Sean Hannity, Jim Jordan, to Donald J. Trump. Sure, some in the Republican cult truly are that ignorant or gullible; but most are willfully ignorant, being fed the lies they want to hear. They bear personal responsibility. Part of it's a cultural problem, as some mostly older white people's mistaken perception is that the America they knew is slipping away. Well, America is still America, but--like most nations--is constantly evolving, as progress invariably rolls on, but they are unwilling to accept that, or change with the times. Those Americans elected that pitiful, pathetic puerile President, and continued to support him no matter what travesty he committed! The creators of the Republican cult have always been weak men, and now find themselves harnessed by those they sought to enslave, subject to the fickle whims of a moronic madman and the mob whose ignorance they relentlessly nourished and cultivated. They created the beast, thought they could ride the tiger, exploit it for their own greed, vanity, and power, too stupid or uncaring to realize that it would instead inevitably come to consume them. Conservatism has always been the endless, futile quest to justify greed, but the coin of the realm in GOP land is fear; it’s what they peddle, it’s what they traffic in, it’s what they carry in their pocket at all times. Then, they turn that fear into hate. And that hate is the poison killing them, America, and all of us. It’s the poison to which the Republican cult has become addicted. Republican cultism is the disease, Toxic Trump is merely the most visible symptom and but one carrier of that disease. It existed before Trump, and it will continue when Trump is gone—unless or until the problem is adequately addressed. COVID-19 is also a disease; but a virus is blameless, unlike those who engage in willful ignorance. America would have confronted and easily conquered COVID-19 disease, had America not already been diseased for so long with Republican tribalistic partisan cultism. Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny and religious bigotry all were central to the formation of the Republican cult, and remain its lifeblood. "United we stand, divided we fall." A simple concept, really, that too many Americans seem to have forgotten or abandoned. Our nation is like an airplane; it requires both the left and right wings working together in tandem to operate properly and safely. Only problem is the Reich-wing decided to try flying solo, forcing us all into a nose-dive! Care about the issues, disdain political gamesmanship, while still recognizing politics is an inseparable and necessary element. Have always respected and valued loyal opposition, even if in disagreement with the ideology. Fact is, though, the GOP has abdicated the requisite role of loyal opposition to become a mindless, tribalistic, hyper-partisan Republican cult placing greed and political party over truth, reason, decency, and country.
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