Because MONEY is more important than anything else.

"Avarice" (1904), James Ensor

National parks are popular! They actually bring in more money than it costs to run them. Yet the Republican regime wants to kill them. Why? They want to trade the public good for private gain. The plan is to sell our natural resources to ruthless industrialists, to be torn apart, mined for minerals, drilled for oil, and stripped of lumber. Creepy rich guys will pay a lot to be allowed to shoot all the animals. The Grand Canyon is huge. It would be a great place to dump toxic waste.

None of the money generated by destroying our parks and other agencies will be used to benefit Americans in any way. Old people will still be robbed of Social Security and Medicare. Research to cure diseases will not be funded. Disaster relief will not be provided after storms and fires. Laws that protect our food, water, and air will not be enforced. Schools will be closed. Children will not be fed. Medicaid will disappear. Even weather forecasting will be stopped.

Where will all that money go? Will it be refunded to taxpayers? No. Will some helpful programs be re-opened? No. Instead, there will be more ad campaigns praising Dear Leader. An irresponsible billionaire will get more government contracts. Dear Leader and his buddies will spend even more time using government-owned planes to fly off to resort vacations. They will hire more private soldiers to guard them from contact with the public. Wealthy Republican donors will buy more yachts, do more golfing, and have more fancy parties.

The sole purpose of the Republican regime is to create permanent damage in exchange for the temporary gratification of the oligarchs. A billionaire's lifestyle will not be improved or harmed if his net worth goes up or down by hundreds of millions, but seeing it go up on paper makes him feel better for a little while, and that's a good enough reason to make sure our grandchildren never walk in a forest or see an eagle.

• Parks Are Being Dismantled
• Trump Targets National Parks
• Cuts to U.S. National Parks

 

Ancient History

Caligula Appointing His Horse Incitatus to the Consulship, unknown author, 1616–1669. Source: The Art Institute of Chicago

The Roman emperor Caligula ruled for only four years before he was assassinated. Caligula was hated by the Roman people, and historians hated him, too. The tales of his madness and misdeeds are likely exaggerated, and sometimes invented, just to show what a monster he was.

In any case, it seems true that he was mentally unbalanced. He declared himself a god. He spent a fortune on his palace and put up statues of himself. He forced the Senate to watch him dance in the middle of the night. He passed laws to keep people from looking at his bald spot. He mocked and insulted people. He was also a sadist. Among other things, he sometimes locked up the food supplies so the population would starve. He really made politicians mad when he announced his plan to appoint his horse to the Senate, making it clear that he thought an unqualified beast could do just as good a job as anyone else.

His unpopularity reached its peak, and officers of his own Praetorian Guards conspired to kill him. Led by a man Caligula had mocked for having a squeaky voice, they stabbed him to death and then declared his uncle Claudius the new emperor. That's how they did impeachment in 41 A.D.

To this day, Caligula is remembered as a cruel, narcissistic, depraved tyrant. Unqualified political appointees are sometimes compared to Caligula's horse.

 '

Is This Pornography?

Historically, authoritarians have censored dissidents and others they dislike by accusing them of being pornographers who corrupt children.

Something many people don't know about Project 2025 is that its authors intend to make pornography illegal again, but not before they first change how pornography is defined.

Pornography is typically defined as sexually explicitly material (video, written, or audio) that is intended to cause sexual arousal. Educational material, such as medical books or sex-education texts, are usually exempt from being considered pornography, as is material which has "socially redeeming value".

Currently in the US, pornography is not usually illegal, unless it depicts children, or if it is provided to children, or if it depicts people who did not give consent, or if it is determined to be "obscene" - completely lacking artistic or social value and offensive to community standards.

The key thing to remember is that, legal or not, throughout history, pornography has been understood to be explicitly sexual, or to be "indecent" in its portrayal of the human body. (There are longer discussions to be had about how different societies define indecency, or what kinds of things were or weren't taboo in other places at other times.)

Project 2025, however, would expand the definition of pornography by including anything that depicts or mentions gender identity or transgender information. Christine Jorgensen's autobiography would be labeled porn, as would the song, "Take a Walk on the Wild Side", as would my posting an anecdote about how my nephew became my niece. Librarians who allowed people to check out these newly forbidden books would face prison time and would become registered sex offenders. See Page 5 of the manifesto.

This new concept of pornography is just part of the Heritage Foundation's drive to demonize LGBTQ (with a particular emphasis on the trans community). On page 4, they claim that certain words and phrases - sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights - "deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights" and must be purged from "every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

They do not explain how the existence or use of a word can deprive people of First Amendment rights (which include the right to free speech).

Project 2025 is no longer just a proposal or a looming threat. Donald's advisors and other Republicans have now openly stated that it is their agenda.

The Project 2025 manifesto is difficult reading, most likely deliberately so. It is over 900 pages of academic-style writing, heavy-handed propaganda, strange fantasies, and outright lies. It often uses code words and convoluted language to disguise its true intent. Nevertheless, we should all become familiar with it. A good way to start is to read the comic book version.

Links:

• Comic Version of Project 2025
• Online version of the manifesto
• Republicans Admit Project 2025 is Their Agenda
• Christine Jorgensen's autobiography
• On Tyranny



 

It Only Happens to Other People

Maybe you don't care that donald speaks as if his sentences were produced by a random number generator. After all, not everyone can be a great public speaker, and there is no requirement that presidential candidates demonstrate English fluency.

And maybe you don't care that donald calls for the execution of people who disagree with him. After all, it's just a fantasy, and we have laws to prevent it from actually happening. At least, we do right now.

Maybe you don't care that donald has encouraged his supporters to shoot reporters. After all, it's unlikely they'll take him seriously, right? And if a few reporters are killed, so what? They probably deserved it for revealing how donald speaks, and for showing photos of his makeup. Anyway, we don't actually need to know about current events when we have social media and podcasts to inform us.

And maybe you don't care that donald has called for rounding up millions of immigrants and putting them in detention camps on the way to deporting them. If several thousand citizens get rounded up by mistake, it's a small price to pay for removing all those non-human vermin people from the country. So what if it requires sending the National Guard into neighborhoods to pound on doors and conduct warrantless searches of homes? You've got nothing to hide, right?

It probably hasn't occurred to you that the time will come when you, or people you like, are targeted for imprisonment, deportation, or execution. As time goes on, it could easily happen that your heritage (German, Italian, Armenian, Greek, Spanish, or whatever) could be labeled as a problem, especially if we have a political dispute or war with your ancestors' home country.

Or your church might fall out of favor. Or certain professions, not just reporters, but maybe doctors, architects, teachers, or farmers, could be denounced for not following the party line. Or maybe a spiteful neighbor could report you as a communist, even though all you did was laugh at a joke about donald. Not that you're likely to encounter many of those jokes, once all the comedians are in prison.

 

Hold Still While I "Help" You

Don't Cross That Line

Imagine you are pregnant and you live in a state that has completely outlawed all abortions. That's okay, because you don't want an abortion. They've also made it illegal to travel out of state for the purpose of getting an abortion somewhere else. That's still okay, because you definitely don't want an abortion.

You're driving to visit your sister in the next state, and she's going to give you some baby furniture and clothes that she has from her five kids. As you near the state line, you see a flashing light in your rear view mirror. You pull over. The state trooper checks your license and registration and asks where you're going. You tell him, and he says, "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to turn around."

"But why?" you ask.

He looks annoyed, but explains, "There's a women's clinic just over the state line on this road. It's illegal for you to go there."

You smile. "I'm not going to a clinic. I'm heading to my sister's house, 50 miles beyond the state line."

The trooper shakes his head. "Ma'am, I'm sure you understand why I can't just take your word for that. We get a lot of lawbreakers on this stretch of highway."

"But look at me!" you protest. "I'm eight months pregnant. This baby was planned. We've already named her."

The trooper is starting to lose patience. "Ma'am, I'm pretty sure you know as well as I do they could abort that baby right up until birth. You need to turn the car around and go home."

You realize that it's pointless to argue, so you make a U-turn while the trooper watches, and go back the way you came.

Later, you call your sister and tell her what happened. You suggest that maybe she could bring the baby things to you, but she declines because she's afraid that if she sets foot in your state, she'll never get out.

 

Your Children's Future Health Care

Imagine that you're in your seventh or eighth month of pregnancy and you go into labor. It's frightening, because you know this is too soon.

You rush to the hospital. Fortunately, you don't live in a neglected rural area where there are no hospitals and you're lucky enough to get there on a day when they aren't overcrowded, at a time when the nurses aren't in the middle of a shift change, on a day that's not a holiday. You get seen right away by the best obstetrical team in the region. Your baby is born very prematurely, weighing less than two pounds. She's alive!

Your tiny child is given the best available treatment, and spends many weeks in the NICU. There are several close calls, but the great doctors and nurses are heroic, and your baby survives, despite being very weak and sick. Finally, she's strong enough to come home. You have a long list of special instructions for her care and feeding. Fortunately, there are no major emergencies. The hospital expenses were huge, but you were fortunate to have a good health plan that covered almost everything.

As time goes by, your daughter still has some health issues, but she keeps getting stronger, and by the time she is ten years old, you would never guess she was a preemie. One day when she's 15, she falls off her bike and breaks her leg. This is a fairly normal problem, so you are shocked when your health plan refuses to pay for her treatment, because she has reached her "lifetime limit". It's not easy, but you manage to pay the bill.

You start looking around for a new health care plan, but you find out that your daughter can't get coverage because she has "pre-existing conditions."

"Wait a minute," you say, "I thought pre-existing conditions don't matter because of the Affordable Care Act."

The insurance agent replies, "Don't you remember? The ACA was repealed by the Republican majority in Congress back in 2025, after the Supreme Court installed trump as President For Life. We can now exclude anyone who's ever been sick. In fact, we are about to declare that being female is a pre-existing condition. Your daughter will never have health care coverage. Even if she somehow lives to be 75 - the new retirement age - she won't be eligible for Medicare, since it was privatized and operates under our rules. Sorry." He's not sorry.

 

Freedom?

I grew up in a region known for being politically and socially conservative. The churches displayed American flags inside the sanctuary. We pledged allegiance in school every morning. People talked a lot about patriotism and freedom, especially freedom as in, "America, land of the free." Freedom meant that we could choose any religion (or no religion), that we could read (or write) any books we wanted, that we could listen to (or perform) the music we liked, and enjoy (or create) whatever artworks we chose. It meant we were free to choose where to live, whether or not to marry, how many children to have (including none), what kind of career to pursue, what clothes to wear, what food to eat, etc.

A saying that was popular in that time and place was, "Your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins," meaning that we were free to do what we wanted, as long as we didn't interfere with someone else's freedom to do what they wanted. We were taught to "tolerate" the existence of other religions and people whose way of thinking or way of living was different from ours. "Freedom" was a concept that applied to everyone.

Today, those ideas seem to have changed within the "conservative" community. Many people now define freedom as not tolerating those who are different They seem to believe that the existence of someone whose beliefs or choices are different is an affront to their own beliefs and choices. They want to swing their not-always-metaphorical fists squarely into the noses of those whose very being offends them. They will not feel free until everyone else complies.

 

Whose Nose Is It, Anyway?

Imagine a state government that decides to outlaw rhinoplasty and septoplasty. In other words - no nose jobs. They are under the influence of a small but vocal religious sect that opposes cosmetic surgery as being against God's will. "Your face is sacred," they insist.

Of course, it's not just about imposing one group's religious beliefs on the larger population. The government also sees changed noses as a way to evade facial recognition software and other surveillance/identification systems.

People who need nose surgery because they have breathing problems are dismissed as a tiny, meaningless minority. People whose noses are damaged in accidents or by violence are told that it's "God's will," and they should learn to love the new look.

Plastic surgeons, protesting against political interference in medical decisions, are vilified as money-grubbing demons who mutilate people for profit. People with crooked noses who travel to a state where rhinoplasty is still legal are reported to authorities and their medical records are seized. People with naturally small, straight noses are viewed with suspicion by religious zealots who harass them in public and send death threats to their homes. Protestors outside plastic surgeons' offices carry signs with graphic photos of bloody, swollen noses, and chant at everyone entering the office: "Don't break your nose! Don't break your nose!"

A couple of politicians get publicity for themselves by blocking state highway funding as a protest against government agencies that allow employees to use paid sick leave for nose surgery. The unrepaired roads contribute to an increase in traffic accidents - and more damaged noses. People who get out-of-state nose jobs are afraid to be seen with bandages on their faces, so they stay indoors or wear disguises.

People unhappy with their big, crooked noses are labeled as having "facial dysmorphic disorder" and are told they need counseling to accept themselves as they are. Parents who allow teenagers to get nose jobs are investigated by Child Protective Services. Some people go to underground practitioners who may or may not be safe. Some people become so desperate they try to fix their noses themselves, using steak knives and crochet hooks. Sometimes it works, but some people get permanent brain damage, and some bleed to death. Anyone with a nosebleed is suspected of having had an illegal nose job.

Celebrities who had nose jobs back when it was legal write books about their experiences; a few are invited to testify before Congress.