Koup Klutz Klan

 Koup Klutz Klan

By Ranting Panda, 13 June 2021

6 January 2021. The date that traitors stormed the US Capitol in an effort to usurp democracy and keep Donald Trump as President. Trump was resoundingly defeated in a valid election, but neither he nor his supporters could accept the truth. Even today, Trump still believes that he won the election. 

Trump's followers, gullible and gutless, refused to take responsibility for the insurrection, and instead blamed Antifa for it. The FBI, however, confirmed that it was Trump loyalists who staged this coup attempt (Anderson 2021, Sadeghi, 2021). Antifa isn't a threat to democracy. The real threat is the MAGA cult, with its inability to grasp truth, its willingness to rewrite 'facts' to suit its ignorance, its hatred of anyone who is different, its twisted religious fervour, and violent nationalism. They wanted to kill the Vice President during the coup attempt. They'd bought wrist ties & built a noose. These people are not right in the head.

There's no point arguing with MAGA cultists. It doesn't matter what facts are presented, they are so brainwashed that they can't accept truth, fact or reality. Just like cult-members, the MAGAs need de-programming, otherwise they stick with their self-pitying, paranoid, victimhood talking points that Trump cultivated and nourished. 

Trump deliberately attacks truth in order to create doubt about facts. He once admitted to a journalist that he attacks the media to, 'discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you' (Applebaum, 2020). This is one thing that Trump has been very successful at. His supporters lack the critical thinking skills to challenge Trump's blatant lies; they believe everything he says. The real danger of this is that despots are renowned for their propaganda, manipulation of media and use of falsehoods and fear to manipulate the populace. 

When Twitter purged its platform of Trump and many of his adherents because of their flagrant lies, conspiracy theories and hate speech, the MAGAs claimed it was an attack on their freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech doesn't mean that others have to listen to it. Twitter was cleaning house ... as anyone can if some racist fool comes into their house and starts spewing vitriol. MAGAs can get their own soapbox and head down to the local corner to spew their vile hate-speech, ridiculous conspiracy theories, and victim-mentality rubbish.  

Freedom of speech only goes one way for the MAGAs; the moment anyone has a contrary viewpoint, the MAGAs screech socialism and 'Reds under the bed' conspiracy theories. They believe that if someone challenges them, they are victims of 'cancel culture' ... yet, the MAGAS tried to cancel an election because they didn't get their own way. They only believe in freedom of speech for themselves, not for anyone else.

Stripe Inc ceased processing payments for the Trump election campaign because of the 6 January insurrection (Andriotis, Rudegeair, & Glazer, 2021). Ever portraying themselves as victims, the Pity Party MAGAs claimed it was yet another attack on their freedoms. However, the action by Stripe was similar to the action that financial institutions took in dealing with terrorism. And the Trump cult is a terrorist organisation, evidenced by their violent attack on the very heart of US government.

Trump was impeached for inciting the insurrection. It needs to be kept in mind, that he did nothing during this riot to quell it. He was hoping that the coup would succeed and install him for another term ... perhaps a perpetual term in which he never loses (Applebaum, 2020). Trump is anti-democratic and only interested in his own power. Despite significant evidence of Trump directly inciting the coup attempt, the Republican Party voted against convicting him at his second impeachment trial (Holpuch, 2021). This says a lot about how anti-democratic the Republican party is. They try to claim they are patriotic defenders of democracy, but they value power over free and fair elections. Republicans value authoritarianism over liberty.

During riots following Black Lives Matter protests, Trump big-noted himself by dog-whistling to his racist followers that 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' (Burns, 2020). Trump incited violence with this tweet. A couple of months later, a gutless piece of shit named Kyle Rittenhouse, shot dead BLM protesters. Trump and his followers supported these killings (Wilson, 2021). Yet, when it came to the Capitol riots, Trump didn't threaten to shoot the protesters, instead, he supported them and even told them how much he loved them (Caldwell, 2021). Although he eventually told the rioters to go home, he did it under duress. Trump had an expletive-laced argument with House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, after McCarthy told Trump to call the rioters off because they were Trump supporters. Trump abused McCarthy, telling him that the rioters cared more about the election than McCarthy did (Gangel et al, 2021). Republican senator, Ben Passe, claimed that Trump was delighted that the Capitol was being stormed (Papenfuss, 2021). 

Prior to the riot, Trump gave a speech in which he told his supporters to 'fight like hell' or they would lose their country because, according to him (and in keeping with his admitted attacks on truth mentioned earlier), the election was corrupt. He then told his supporters to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to 'try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country' (Blake, 2021). Trump directed conspiracy-theorist, Alex Jones, to lead the march that stormed the White House (Linge, 2021). It took six hours for the situation to be brought under control. This period revealed Trump's leadership to be paralysed, to be no more than a passive viewer who stood back as five people, including a police officer, were killed by his supporters (Parker, Dawsey & Rucker, 2021). 

Only weeks before the riot, Trump the Grand Traitor, directed the neo-Nazi Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by' (Pilkington, 2021). Now we know what he was asking them to stand by for. 

This isn't the first time he has supported violence. In 2017, he condoned white supremacist violence that culminated in the killing of an innocent woman. He even went so far as to describe the white supremacists as 'very fine people' (Coaston, 2019). Throughout his presidency, he directly incited violence by white supremacist groups (Pilkington 2021). 

The traitors who stormed the Capitol included Nazis wearing shirts such as 'Camp Aushwitz - Work brings freedom' and '6MWE', which stands for Six Million Were Not Enough ... in reference to the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. These are the extremist groups that Trump claims are 'very fine people' (Kessler, 2020).

Trump and his followers are white supremacists. They believe in fascism, not democracy. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a mass casualty event every single day of the final year of Trump's presidency, culminating in more than 420,000 deaths by the time he was finally removed from the White House. The deaths were directly caused by Trump's lies, inaction and incompetence. This puerile moron was more interested in shoring up his own power, while spreading lies, hatred and division, than in saving his fellow Americans. His incompetence was on a genocidal scale.

Republicans claim they are the 'law and order' party, yet they've let Trump get away with murder ... literally: around 420,000 deaths from his ineptitude in addressing Covid-19, five deaths during the insurrection he orchestrated, and several executions that he directed in the final days of his presidency (Honderich, 2021). They have let him get away with his threats and cheating over the election, such as when he rang the Secretary of State for Georgia and demanded more votes be found to overturn the election results (Morris, 2021). Does this seem like the leader of the free world, or the tyrannical dictatorship of a far-right murderous despot in a banana republic?

The Republican Party  condoned Trump's treason, by voting against holding an inquiry into the Capitol insurrection (Fandos, 2021). The Republicans are not defending democracy, they are defending the traitors within their own party. They are defending Nazism, white supremacy, and fascism. 

Nothing was done about the deadly 2017 white supremacist protests in Charlottesville ... and this culminated in the storming of the Capitol by Nazis. The Trump presidency wasn't the first time that white supremacists were incited to violence by a megalomaniac. Another leader also incited mobs to violence by using racist dog-whistling and bigoted fear-mongering ... and nothing was done to stop it! That leader was Hitler and we saw how that went. Many of the Capitol insurrectionists were Christians who believed they were doing God's will to keep Trump in power (Green, 2021). They claimed that God was telling them to 'let the church roar' (Posner, 2021). This has an eerie resemblance to Nazi Germany. Throughout his rambling manifesto, Mein Kampf, Hitler stated numerous times that he was doing the 'work of the Lord'. Not surprisingly, this galvanised Christians to support Hitler and incited them to violence and, ultimately, genocide. 

Today's United States faces the same threat of Nazism that Nazi Germany did (Brenner, 2021). The Republican Party has links to many far-right extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, Proud Boys, and QAnon (Broadwater & Rosenberg, 2021).

No leader has damaged the US as much as Trump has. All the efforts by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to bring down the US never undermined democracy as much as Trump. It's not surprising then, that Trump is alleged to have been cultivated by Russia to undermine US democracy. An ex-KGB spy claims that Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset for 40 years (Smith, 2021). A book by journalist, Craig Unger, entitled American Kompromat, states that the spy alleged there were celebrations in Moscow as Trump parroted anti-Western propaganda (Smith, 2021). 

Trump did significant damage to US democracy, however, what may have saved it was Trump's mental instability and his complete ineptitude as a leader. This ineptitude however, killed more Americans than World War 2. 

Meanwhile, Republicans continue supporting Trump. There's even talk that he will run for president in the 2024 elections. This is a clear indication of just how morally bankrupt the Republican Party is, and by extension, the Christians who continue supporting and defending Trump in the face of significant evidence of his genocide, treason and white supremacy. 

In 1993, musician Frank Zappa, made the prescient observation, 'There's been an incredible rise in racist and fascist attitude here, most of them being helped along by the Republican Party' (Ouellette, 1993). 

Nothing has yet been done to hold Trump to account for the Covid genocide in the US, that is directly attributable to him. Nothing has been done to stop Trump inciting Nazis and conservative Christians to violence, so we have not seen the end of extreme right-wing blood-shed, insurrection, and treason. Allowing Trump to continue empowering these extremists could signal the end of democracy and the rise of fascism in the United States. 

References

Anderson, M 2021, Antifa Didn't Storm The Capitol. Just Ask The Rioters, NPR, 2 March, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972564176/antifa-didnt-storm-the-capitol-just-ask-the-rioters.

Andriotis, A, Rudegeair, P, & Glazer, E, 2021, Stripe stops processing payments for Trump campaign website, The Wall Street Journal, 10 January, viewed 12 June 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stripe-stops-processing-payments-for-trump-campaign-website-11610319116. 

Applebaum, A, 2020, Trump won't accept defeat. Ever., The Atlantic, 7 November, viewed 13 June 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trumps-forever-campaign-is-just-getting-started/617021/.

Blake, A 2021, What Trump said before his supporters stormed the Capitol, annotated, The Washington Post, 11 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/annotated-trump-speech-jan-6-capitol/.

Brenner, M 2021, Pre-Nazi Germany tells us the fight to save American democracy is just beginning, The Washington Post, 9 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/09/pre-nazi-germany-tells-us-fight-save-american-democracy-is-just-beginning/. 

Broadwater, L, & Rosenburg, M 2021, Republican ties to extremist groups under scrutiny, Hartford Courant, 29 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.courant.com/nation-world/ct-nw-nyt-gop-extremist-groups-20210129-fstili3spvea7fss3mdsobu5eu-story.html.

Burns, K 2020, The racist history of Trump’s “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet, Vox, 29 May, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/5/29/21274754/racist-history-trump-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts. 

Caldwell, T 2021, Trump's 'We love you' to Capitol rioters is more of the same, CNN, 7 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/trump-history-comments-trnd/index.html.

Coaston, J 2019, Trump’s new defense of his Charlottesville comments is incredibly false, Vox, 26 April, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.vox.com/2019/4/26/18517980/trump-unite-the-right-racism-defense-charlottesville.

Fandos, N 2021, Democrats failed to get enough votes for an independent inquiry into the Jan. 6 riot, The New York Times, 28 May, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/us/politics/capitol-riot-commission.html.

Gangel, J, Liptak, K, Warren, M, & Cohen, M 2021, New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters, CNN, 13 February, viewed 6 June 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/12/politics/trump-mccarthy-shouting-match-details/index.html. 

Green, E 2021, A Christian Insurrection, The Atlantic, 8 January, viewed 7 June 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/evangelicals-catholics-jericho-march-capitol/617591/. 

Holpuch, A 2021, 'White supremacy won today': critics condemn Trump acquittal as racist vote, The Guardian, 14 February, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/14/trump-acquittal-white-supremacy-racist-vote. 

Honderich, H 2021, In Trump’s final days, a rush of federal executions, BBC News, 16 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260.

Kessler, G 2020, The ‘very fine people’ at Charlottesville: Who were they?, The Washington Post, 8 May, viewed 12 June 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/08/very-fine-people-charlottesville-who-were-they-2/.

Linge, M 2021, Alex Jones claims he funded rally that led to Capitol chaos, The New York Post, 9 January, viewed 12 June 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/01/09/alex-jones-claims-he-funded-rally-that-led-to-capitol-chaos/.

Morris, J 2021, Georgia secretary of state's office launches investigation into Trump's phone call, CNN, 16 March, viewed 6 June 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/08/politics/georgia-secretary-of-state-trump-investigation/index.html.

Ouellette, D 1993, Frank Zappa, Pulse!, August 1993, sourced from https://www.afka.net/Articles/1993-08_Pulse.htm.

Papenfuss, M 2021, Trump Was 'Delighted' His Supporters Stormed The Capitol, Says GOP Sen. Ben Sasse, Huffington Post, 9 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/ben-sasse-delighted-trump-capitol-attack_n_5ff93b1bc5b6c77d85e6df60.

Parker, A, Dawsey, J, & Rucker, P 2021, Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol, The Washington Post, 12 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-mob-failure/2021/01/11/36a46e2e-542e-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html.

Pilkington, E 2021, 'Stand back and stand by': how Trumpism led to the Capitol siege, The Guardian, 7 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/donald-trump-armed-protest-capitol.

Posner, S 2021, How the Christian right helped foment insurrection, Reveal News, 30 January, viewed 12 June 2021, https://revealnews.org/article/how-the-christian-right-helped-foment-insurrection/.

Sadeghi, M 2021, Fact check: What's true about the Capitol riot, from antifa to BLM to Chuck Norris, USA Today, 14 January, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/14/fact-check-truth-capitol-riot-antifa-chuck-norris/6653343002/.

Smith, D 2021, 'The perfect target': Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years - ex-KGB spy, The Guardian, 29 January, viewed 12 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book.

Wilson, J 2021, US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals, The Guardian, 16 April, viewed 6 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/16/us-police-officers-public-officials-crowdfunding-website-data-breach.

The day a make-believe potato destroyed the world

The day a make-believe potato destroyed the world 

Conservative cancel culture & the perpetually offended right-wing

By Ranting Panda, 1 June 2021

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to rile a conservative? There are so many ways. I mean, just mention how easily offended people are today. Said conservative will launch into a tirade about everyone being offended so easily these days. A great response is to agree and then pick a topic, like 'Black Lives Matter, 'Australia Day should be moved', or 'Trump is a traitor'. Bust out the pop-corn, sit back and watch the fireworks. It's kinda ironic how easily offended conservatives are as they wail about how easily offended everyone else is. 

Another way to rile a conservative is to talk about political correctness and being 'woke'. Apparently being woke or politically correct is bad. Just ask a conservative. 'Woke' is just another word for critical thinking, however conservatives idea of critical thinking is to go 'conclusion shopping', that is they will seek out confirmation bias to support their ignorant beliefs. Being woke means to appreciate people (regardless of differences), the environment, and science ... without bigotry or ignorance. Critical thinking means that a person would change their views if presented with compelling evidence to the contrary. It's not surprising that conservatives reject being 'woke'; they aren't renowned for their critical thinking or self-reflection abilities. They believe anything they are told if it confirms their own bigoted biases, while criticising science and academic study. 

For conservatives, being 'woke', being considerate of others, the environment, and appreciating science, are all part of a Marxist plot.

But my personal favourite way to peeve a conservative is to discuss 'cancel culture'. Holy. Mother. Of. God. They will go off like a fruit bat in a mango tree at sunset! They'll get their knickers in a twist every tim; which doesn't solve anything, but it makes them walk funny. Conservatives often melt down over left-wing 'cancel culture'. Which is ironic because conservatives cancel everything!

Dare to question a conservative's uninformed opinion and they'll screech that their freedom speech is being curtailed, that everyone is easily offended, and that they're SICK AND TIRED of political correctness, woke snowflakes, lefty scientists, and GOD DAMN neo-Marxist cancel culture! Funny shit, really. 

Conservatives continue living in the dark ages, condemning anything and anyone who questions their ignorance.

Actual image of conservative cancel culture

A couple of recent decisions offended the sensibilities of conservatives so much that they took to social media to wail about 'do-gooder snowflakes' and 'political correctness gone mad'.

One decision was by Dr Seuss Enterprises, who decided to cease production of six of their own books that they felt were overtly racist. This was a business decision of the company and not the result of campaigning by any group (Helmore, 2021). Conservatives claim the books were banned by lefty snowflakes, however, they were not banned nor have they become illegal; they are just not being published because of a decision by the publisher. 

The second decision was by Hasbro who manufacturers the Mr Potato Head series. Hasbro rebranded it to 'Potato Head'. 

Yeah. That's it. Offended yet? Well ... our resident conservative snowflakes melted down like a ... er ... snowflake in the heat. 

Apparently, the 'de-genderisation' of a pretend potato was some sort of left-wing woke agenda to remove gender from society ... according to conservatives. In fact, according arch-conservative commentator, Piers Morgan, this was a harbinger of the apocalypse: '... woke imbeciles are destroying the world' (Mellor 2021).  It was nothing of the sort. Try to follow me here. There is the brand and then there are the products within that brand. The products include Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head, and soon there will be little Potato Head children. Hasbro felt it looked a bit weird packaging Mrs Potato Head with a Mr Potato Head brand sitting on it, so they made the brand 'Potato Head' in order to more openly accommodate the various products sitting under that brand. So conservatives need not panic or rush out and stock up on Potato Heads, because Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head and all the little child Potato Heads will still be available. 

The great Potato Head Crisis of 2021 was summed up nicely by Jon Stewart on Twitter.

Some years are defined by a significant event. For instance, 2020 has been defined by the emergence of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Surely, it couldn't get any worse right? Well, 2021 was particularly troubling for Conservatives, because the year was bookended by the Great Potato Head Crisis in February and the Big Bird Controversy in November. Focusing on the big things, Conservatives lost their collective minds over ... checks notes ... Big Bird. In case you're not familiar with this particular character, Big Bird is a muppet from Sesame Street ... a make-believe character of a giant, feathery bird. Said character innocuously tweeted in support of Covid vaccinations. The Conservative establishment melted down like ice-cubes on a hot bitumen road in the middle of summer in North-West Queensland. Big Bird (a pretend character remember) was accused of being a Communist and promoting government propaganda (Gillespie 2021). After all, sending a community health message is Communism according to the ultra-right-wing extremists who seem to dominate the Conservative establishment. 

Speaking of make-believe characters, there is the global phenomenon, Harry Potter, the fictional boy-wizard created by best-selling author, J.K. Rowling. Across the globe, conservative Christians burned or destroyed the Harry Potter books because they depicted witch-craft (Tucker, 2017). Those who didn't burn the books, often protested at cinemas showing the Harry Potter movies, or campaigned to have the books banned or removed from libraries. In 2017, conservative voters torched the books for political reasons, not religious ones. J.K. Rowling was openly criticising the inept, bumbling and racist Donald Trump. Of course, Trump supporters are not well known for having thick skins, so they react poorly to critical thinking and criticism. Trump's cult-like, brainwashed fan-base melted down like snowflakes dropped in a witch's hot cauldron ... 'double, double, toil and trouble'. They burned Rowling's books because of her opposition to Trump (Brockell, 2021). 

It is kind of funny how conservatives melt down over these things while accusing the left-wing of being snowflakes. 

Trivial things trigger intolerant minds.

Some commentators have even blamed President Biden and the Democratic Party for the Dr Seuss and Hasbro decisions, even though they had nothing to do with it (Cillizza, 2021). However, the reality is that conservatives confected their outrage by misrepresenting the facts ... yet again. 

Conservatives talk of 'cancel culture' and 'political correctness gone mad', yet they have their own forms of political correctness and cancel culture. For instance, it is politically incorrect in conservative mindsets to behave in an 'unpatriotic' manner, such as criticising the military action of conservative governments. When the ABC reported on complaints that the Australian military had physically abused asylum seekers, many conservatives claimed it was left-wing bias and that the ABC were traitors ... even though there was video evidence. Similar conservative outrage was unleashed when the ABC reported on alleged war-crimes by the Australian military in Afghanistan. Apparently, it was terribly unpatriotic to expect that Australia's defenders of democracy would not commit war crimes. 

When a journalist named Yasmin Abdel-Mageid tweeted about Anzac Day in a manner that was politically incorrect for conservatives, they were so offended that they unleashed a torrent of vile abuse, including threatening her with rape and murder. Yasmin left Australia in the wake of this abuse. This is a shocking example of conservative cancel culture, and is far worse than degenderising a make-believe potato.

Remember when conservative Christians tried to cancel rock music? It was reminiscent of the Central Scrutinizer in Frank Zappa's album, Joe's Garage, in which music was banned. In fact, some Christian conservatives even went so far as to try to cancel anything with a 4/4 beat ... which was a bit awkward when they realised that quite a few Christian songs are based on 4/4. Some pastors quite seriously explained that 4/4 was the devil's music because it emulated the beats of our heart. Yes, the heart has 4 chambers, so 4 beats, so 4/4 is of the devil. I wish this was one of those light-hearted non sequiturs, but no ... they were serious as a ... er ... a heart attack.

Here's a reminder of conservative cancel culture in action:

• cancelled Dixie Chicks and burned their merchandise when they criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• boycotted the NFL because Colin Kapernaeck knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with Black Lives Matter
• boycotted Cadbury Chocolate because of Easter Eggs that dared not mention 'Easter' ... even though they were chocolate eggs ... and sold at Easter ...
• boycotted shops and hounded celebrities who said 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'.
• boycotted Nascar because it banned confederate flags
• tried to ban Dungeons and Dragons because they believed it to be 'demonic'.

Diversity and inclusion are not high on the conservative agenda. As long as minorities and under-represented people tow the conservative line, then they might be tolerated by conservatives. If minorities want to be heard, to have equality, then conservatives will carry on about political correctness going mad and that the world is being taken over by a some sort of neo-Marxist agenda. In other words, minorities and under-represented people can be seen but not heard.

In May 2021, Australian Defence Force chiefs made the decision to ban diversity and inclusion activities, such as morning teas and lanyards (Greene & Mannheim, 2021). Apparently, this would make Australia a safer place. What it really showed was that as far as the ADF is concerned, Australia is for white, straight males. It meant that conservative cancel culture had cancelled morning teas or wearing rainbow lanyards or ally pins that supported events such as Harmony Day, Women's Day, National Reconciliation Week, or International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). In other words, if you support these issues, conservative snowflakes have one message: don't be seen or heard.

Conservative cancel culture has been with us a long-time. You may recall many centuries ago, the burning of witches, and the Spanish Inquisition. In the 1950s, we saw something similar with the 'Reds under the bed' fear-mongering, in which hundreds of people were arrested, imprisoned, and their careers destroyed, for allegedly have left-wing sympathies. 

In the 1980s, Queensland was very much a hick state with an exceptionally conservative, authoritarian, and corrupt government led by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, supposedly a Christian. Jackboot Joh, as he was known, used the cops as his own personal attack dogs to violently quell protests and concerts. After all, how dare people protest against South African apartheid or the export of uranium, or march in solidarity with indigenous issues. How dare they attend concerts and have fun. Joh's fun police even raided record stores to remove albums that may offend the sensitive ears of conservatives ... even though conservatives would never listen to those albums any way. Joh hated communism so much that he established a fascist police state. He hated anyone who aligned themselves with left-wing politics, including the community radio station, 4ZZZ. Apart from supporting human rights causes and local music, Triple Zed was also holding the government to account over allegations of corruption and police brutality. Thankfully, Triple Zed outlasted Joh and his fascist dictatorship. 

By 1979, Triple Zed was operating out of the iconic and heritage-listed ballroom, Cloudland, which it also used for hosting large international and local bands that drew the ire of Joh and his police bully-boys. Many of ZZZ's journalists were subject to police surveillance and intimidation, and in some cases their homes raided (Stafford, 2004); so paranoid was the government of anyone who questioned them. On the morning of 7 November 1982, Brisbane residents woke to find that Cloudland had been demolished overnight. Joh had directed its illegal demolition without a permit. The demolition was an act of political bastardry against journalism, music and the young people who frequented Cloudland.

Conservatives can't claim the high moral ground against cancel culture, particularly when they are perpetually fearful and looking for things to offend their myopic sensibilities. Recently, they cancelled Coca-Cola, because the world's largest beverage company dared to criticise the Republicans for their anti-democratic voter suppression laws in Georgia (Carter, 2021). 

Conservatives have a very liberal approach to truth. The truth is whatever they say it is, regardless of the facts. Dare to contradict this narrative and you'll find yourself cancelled ... or worse. Conservatives seem to believe that Truth is a tool that Antifa uses to destroy democracy. Give them alternative facts so they don't have to deal with substantiated facts that contradict the comfortable lies they like to believe.

The Godfather of Conservative Hogwash is Donald Trump, former president who told thousands of lies while in power, who embraced and promoted racism, hate-speech, white-supremacy, and normalised lying as 'alternative facts'. In the face of overwhelming evidence that Trump lost the 2020 election, he tried to gaslight the United States into believing the election had been stolen from him. It was truly the most remarkable piece of blatant bullshit by a president in the history of the United States. His gullible followers believed him and refused to accept the legitimacy of the election. On 6 January 2021, whipped into a brainless furore by the Trumpenfuhrer, they stormed Congress in an attempt to cancel the election results. The attack on Congress went further than mere conservative cancel culture; it was an act of treason, of sedition. Republicans have since voted against holding an inquiry into the storming of the Capitol (SBS News, 2021), because they know they are culpable. Conservatives claim to be patriots, but that very act showed they are nothing but gutless traitors who act like spoilt kids if they don't get their own way. They hate democracy, because they don't want anyone else to have a say in running the country. Put it this way, these deluded snowflakes were so offended by losing an election that they tried to cancel democracy. Forget Marxist cancel culture, conservatives showed us fascist cancel culture ... these nutters are extremists, they are terrorists, they are cowards, they are traitors. 

What conservatives call cancel culture, is merely people asking that they be treated with respect. Ironically, conservatives will bemoan the lack of respect in today's society, while defending why they should be able to disrespect, abuse and denigrate others. Respected Australian entertainer, Kamahl, was subject to years of racist taunting while performing on the TV show, Hey Hey It's Saturday. He recently made the observation, 'I know they call it cancel culture, but they’re not stopping culture. They’re only trying to limit unnecessarily vulgar or crude terminology or gags or whatever ... If something has merit, if it is witty, if it’s clever, so be it. If it’s crap, maybe we can do without it' (Stafford, 2021).

The problem is that conservatives can't handle criticism. They accuse others of being sensitive snowflakes who are easily offended. Yet, the perpetually offended conservatives have a victim-mentality in which they believe they are being persecuted and their freedom of speech stifled whenever someone argues with them. Challenging falsehoods is not persecution. Asking someone to stop abusing someone else does not make the abuser a victim. All it demonstrates is the persecution-complex that conservatives wallow in.

Cancel culture is an innate part of the conservative psyche. They've been doing it for centuries. 

References

Brockell, G, 2021, Burning books: 6 outrageous, tragic and weird examples in history, The Washington Post, 13 November, viewed 15 November 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/13/book-burning-history.

Carter, A, 2021, Republicans are cancelling Coca-Cola after company denounced Georgia voting law, Now This, 7 April, viewed 7 April 2021, https://nowthisnews.com/news/republicans-are-cancelling-coca-cola-after-company-denounced-georgia-voting-law.

Cillizza, C, 2021, Why Republicans think Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head can save them, CNN, 3 March, viewed 1 June 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/politics/cancel-culture-potato-head-muppets-dr-seuss/index.html. 

Gillespie, E, 2021, The tweet from Big Bird that caused waves of backlash from US Republicans and anti-vaxxers, SBS News, 9 November, viewed 14 November 2021, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-tweet-from-big-bird-that-caused-waves-of-backlash-from-us-republicans-and-anti-vaxxers/c72d7924-a22c-43c8-9801-f5569206a25f. 

Greene, A and Mannheim, M, 2021, Defence declares war on political correctness, bans morning teas aimed at promoting inclusion and diversity, ABC News, 21 May, viewed 21 May 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-21/defence-chief-angus-campbell-political-correctness-morning-teas/100156436.

Helmore, E, 2021, 'It's a moral decision': Dr Seuss books are being 'recalled' not cancelled, expert says, The Guardian, 7 March, viewed 1 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/07/dr-seuss-books-product-recall-cancel-culture. 

Mellor, J, 2021, Best reactions as usual mouthpieces are foaming over a genderless Potato Head, The London Economic, 26 February, viewed 1 June 2021, https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/best-reactions-as-usual-mouthpieces-are-foaming-over-a-genderless-potato-head-222403/. 

SBS News, 2021, US Senate Republicans block bipartisan inquiry into the deadly 6 January Capitol riot, 29 May, viewed 29 May 2021, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/us-senate-republicans-block-bipartisan-inquiry-into-the-deadly-6-january-capitol-riot.

Stafford, A, 2004, Pig City - from The Saints to Savage Garden, Chapter 8 - Everybody Moves, Kindle 2014 edition.

Stafford, A, 2021, 'I felt humiliated': Kamahl on racism, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and cancel culture, The Guardian, 27 March, viewed 27 March 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/27/i-felt-humiliated-kamahl-on-racism-hey-hey-its-saturday-and-cancel-culture.

Tucker, T, 2017, What do protests about Harry Potter books teach us?, The Conversation, 26 June, viewed 15 November 2021, https://theconversation.com/what-do-protests-about-harry-potter-books-teach-us-79327. 

Updated 15 November 2021

Conservative logic: Nazis are better than abortion

Conservative logic: Nazis are better than abortion ... to wit 6 January 2021

By Ranting Panda, 31 January 2021

Evidenced by their blind support for Trump & defending his incitement of an insurrection by neo-Nazis & white supremacists.

Donald J. Trump, the most divisive, corrupt and treacherous president the US has seen, was embraced by many conservatives as if he was the Messiah. Why? Because he promised to protect them from the 'socialist' agenda of the woke left ... and he banned abortion. He also supported, empowered, praised and incited white supremacy, domestic terrorism, Nazis, and used fear-mongering to stir up hate against Muslims, Mexicans and migrants ... but conservatives said that he represented their values. This says a lot about conservative values. 

Christian nationalists were chanting 'Christ is King' and flying Christian flags as they joined Nazis and white supremacists to storm the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Even up until Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, many conservative Christians believed that Jesus would somehow intervene and reinstate Trump. As an aside, these terrorists were no different to Islamist extremists who chant 'Allah Akbar' (God is great) before murdering innocent people; they are cut from the same cloth: traitors to their religions and countries. 

Trump supporters still believe his lies that the election was stolen, even though dozens of court challenges failed to produce evidence or prove these claims. 

One of the first things that Trump did when he became president, was to ban the funding of women's health centres if they dared to mention abortion. It was a gag rule that cost countless lives as women sought abortion from less ethical means. The removal of the funding didn't just affect abortion procedures, but also meant that contraceptives and pregnancy advice were not carried out. Not providing contraceptives tends to increase the rate of unwanted pregnancies. Trump's policies had the opposite affect that many conservatives wanted: it increased the numbers of abortions, plus risked the lives of more women through backyard abortions. 

This policy isn't new. It was originally introduced by President Reagan in 1985 as the Mexico City Policy, or the 'Gag Rule' and has been the policy of every Republican president since then. This has presented researchers with decades of data to conduct longitudinal studies. Refer to my article of 4 February 2017, which covered this in detail: Trump's Gag Order banning abortion will increase abortion & kill more women. 

A 2011 study by Stanford researchers found that abortion rates in 20 sub-Saharan African nations increased by 40% when Republicans implemented the Mexico City policy.

Impact of Mexico City Policy (Bendavid 2011)

The United Nations has stated that the Gag Rule is 'flawed on evidentiary and public health grounds' (United Nations General Assembly 2018). The report went on to state, 'There is conclusive evidence that efforts to cut back on or deter the provision of quality contraceptive and antenatal services, HIV/AIDS treatment and safe abortion care contribute to increased rates of otherwise preventable death, including maternal and infant mortality and death and injury from unsafe abortion'. It identifies that sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit by the Gag Rule.

The evidence demonstrates that the outcome of anti-abortion policy that Trump implemented, is 'significantly increased rates of induced abortion' (United Nations General Assembly 2018).

One would think that this evidence would be enough to convince pro-lifers to consider alternative ways to reduce abortions. The Guttmacher Institute found that ' ... poor women have the least access to family planning services and the fewest resources to pay for safe abortion procedures; they are also the most likely to experience complications related to unsafe abortion' (Guttmacher Institute 2012). One of the primary drivers of abortion is poverty, yet conservatives tend to oppose measures that would more equitably share wealth or raise minimum wages. 

Conservatives take a very black and white view of abortion. That is, ban it and it will go away! However, the opposite is true: it increases! And the conservative response? They don't care. Clearly their reasoning for banning abortion is not to save the life of the foetus, but to control women, even if it means more women die. 

Conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, are driven by two main things: abortion and homosexuality. 

Interestingly, the United Nations also reported that laws banning the provision of life-saving services to LGBTIQ+ people has resulted in increased morbidity and mortality (United Nations General Assembly 2018).

Is it any wonder then, that conservatives ignored everything else that Trump did, simply because he banned abortion and attacked LGBTIQ+ issues? They ignored his blatant lies ... more than 30,000 lies! They ignored his incompetence, which was on a genocidal scale, in dealing with Covid-19 that killed more than 420,000 while he was president. They cheered on the Nazis, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists who stormed Congress on 6 January 2021.

Conservatives were more upset with Biden for reversing Trump's Mexico Policy, than they were with Trump genocidal incompetence killing more than 420,000 people, or him inciting Nazis to attempt a coup that would unlawfully keep him in power, and ended up killing five people, including two police officers. The rest of the world was like, 'what the actual fuck, America???'. Meanwhile, conservatives were like, 'What? It's just a coup for a stolen election. In the name of unity, let's not charge anyone with a crime'. The rest of the world is like, 'It's fucking treason! Charge Trump & the insurrectionists'. 

Imagine if the world did not hold the Nuremberg trials 'in the name of unity'. Trump has the deaths of more than 420,000 people on his hands, plus the untold damage to democracy. He must be jailed for treason and crimes against humanity.

The problem with Trump's lies is that they pandered to the victimhood mentality of conservatives. Their pearl-clutching fear fed by Trump's lies, culminated in Trump inciting them to stage an insurrection and storm Congress, with the intention of assassinating certain senators. This is serious. This is treason. Yet conservatives are so blind, so myopic, that they refuse to see they have been duped by traitor Trump occupying the highest office in the land. 

But yeah, hey abortion, socialism and gays are all bad, but Nazis are good ... according to conservative logic. 

References

Bendavid, E, Avila, P, & Miller, G 2011, 'United States aid policy and induced abortion in sub-Saharan Africa', Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 27 September, https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/12/11-091660/en/, viewed 31 January 2021

Guttmacher Institute 2012, 'Facts on induced abortions worldwide', January 2012, https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/induced_abortion_2012.pdf, published by World Health Organization and Guttmacher Institute, viewed 31 January 2021

SBS News 2021, 'Joe Biden reverses Donald Trump's anti-abortion ‘global gag rule’, citing 'damage' from his predecessor'. SBS News, 29 January, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/joe-biden-reverses-donald-trump-s-anti-abortion-global-gag-rule-citing-damage-from-his-predecessor, viewed 31 January 2021

United Nations General Assembly 2018, 'Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms', 73rd Session, Item 74 (b) of the provisional agenda, 7 August, https://undocs.org/A/73/314, viewed 31 January 2021

The 9 circles of hell in Trump's 'Murica

The 9 circles of hell in Trump's 'Murica

by Ranting Panda, 3 January 2021

Medieval writer and philosopher, Dante Alighieri wrote of the nine circles of hell. 700 years later, feckless fraud of a President, Donald Trump, has taken the United States to hell in a handbasket. The once great American empire has now descended into all nine levels of Dante's Hell under the incompetent and genocidal leadership of Trump. 

1st circle: Limbo

Traditionally this level was the home of the unbaptised and the pagans. In today's USA, Limbo is the domain of the witless Trump supporters who eschew science and intellect, while feeding their feeble minds on a diet of faux news that panders to their twisted ideas of a dystopian world created by Trump's lies and fear-mongering. 

2nd circle: Lust

This level is reserved for the carnal and the adulterers. Trump would certainly feel at home here so that he can grab women by their pussies as much as his lecherous heart would want. 

3rd circle: Gluttony

This level is reserved for those who don't know when to stop filling their inflated bellies. Trump's America gorges on the fat of the land, while the less fortunate are left to starve. They couldn't possibly share their larders with the impoverished because that would be 'socialism'! And we all know that socialism is the bugaboo of the Trumper snowflake.

4th circle: Greed

Trump promised to 'Make America Great Again', with untold wealth trickling down to his gullible supporters as he lavishes tax cuts on the already-rich. Instead of his followers seeing through this scam, Trump manipulated them through lies and fear-mongering about Democrats stealing their wealth through socialism ... when it was corporate greed that stole their wealth. Trump turned his supporters into greedy, self-absorbed individuals who have no concern for the welfare of anyone else.

5th circle: Anger

Well, well, well ... Trump has been an angry man for many years, but since losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump has been chucking a massive temper tantrum. His behaviour is anything but presidential. In fact, his petulant hysterics are comparable to a cry-baby toddler who's pacifier has been taken away. No parent would want their child behaving like the spoilt-brat that Trump is, yet the worse this buffoon behaves, the more his feeble-minded fans idolise him.

6th circle: Heresy

Many of Trump's supporters claim to be Christian, even though Trump epitomises all that the Bible warns against. For instance, Trump embodies all seven of the deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Trump claims to love God, yet inspires hatred of our neighbours and empowers white-supremacists, neo-Nazis, racists, and bigots. Trump's son, Eric, remarkably claimed that Trump 'literally saved Christianity' from the atheist leftists waging a war on the faith (Castronuovo 2020). Trump's behaviour is anything but Christian. For that matter, the behaviour of Trump-loving christians is anything but Christian, as they support his racist, sexist, violent, dishonest, and corrupt leadership and administration.

Trump supporters who claim to be Christian  are heretics who have recreated Christ in the image of Trump: a greedy, violent, sexist, racist buffoon. They have shown just how shallow their depraved version of Christianity is. 

7th circle: Violence

Trump's followers are exceptionally angry violent people. They have called for violence and war should Trump be kicked out of the White House. Much of this violence has been stoked by Trump himself (BBC 2020).

They violently attack activists who oppose the values that Trump and his followers hold dear, such as fascism, racism, capitalism and greed.

When a 17 year old murdered two protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally, Trump defended him, claiming he was 'just trying to get away' (Solender 2020), even though it was clear the killer had deliberately travelled to the rally armed and with intention to kill. Trump encourages murderous violence.

8th circle: Fraud

Could this be any clearer. Trump has whinged incessantly about fraud in the 2020 presidential election, yet after dozens of failed court challenges and vote recounts, it has become clear that there was no wide-spread fraud. Instead, it's Trump who is making fraudulent, debunked claims to subvert legitimate election results. Disturbingly, his followers lack the critical thinking skills necessary to challenge the lies and fraudulent claims that Trump continues to propagate.

9th circle: Treachery

Wow! This is the big one. Trump threatened to declare martial law because he lost the election. Republican leaders threatened to call in the military. Trump's son, Don Jr, called for all out war because of the election result. That Trump and his brainless zealots would not see this as a military coup or the implications of it is concerning. So concerning, that all 10 former Secretaries of Defence have warned against involving the military in Trump's fraudulent claims about the election, stating it would plunge the USA into 'dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory', and that 'Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic'. (Burns 2021). They went on to state that, 'Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party' (Carter, Cheney, Cohen, Esper, Gates, Hagel, Mattis, Panetta, Perry & Rumsfeld 2021). They went on to warn that Trump's refusal to provide a smooth transition of power, including not sharing intelligence, with President-elect Biden, is putting the USA at risk during this vulnerable time as adversaries could 'seek to take advantage of the situation'. 

Former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr Fauci over his attempts to address Covid-19. Trump vacillated between calling Covid-19 a hoax and downplaying its severity. In the meantime, more than 350,000 Americans have died because of Trump's lies and incompetence, which was on a genocidal scale. Trump is usurping the democratic process by trying to cast doubt over the election result and refusing to concede. His moronic followers are preparing for a coup to keep him in power. Trump failed to challenge Russia over bounties it took out on US troops in Afghanistan. He failed to challenge Russia over its interference in US elections. 

In an extraordinary recorded phone call on 3 January 2021, Trump is heard pleading, cajolling, threatening the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes, in other words to change the vote tally (Rubin 2021). He threatened Raffesnperger with criminal liability. This is extortion. It is likely this behaviour is impeachable. Trump is attempting a coup. 

There have been at least three occasions in which Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct; (1) the obstruction of justice by firing special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III during the investigation into the 2016 election, (2) tried to extort Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to find dirt against now President-elect Joe Biden, and (3), threatening the Georgia Secretary of State to 'find' 11,780 votes to change the election result (Rubin 2021). 

These are the actions of an authoritarian who has no respect for the law, for democracy or for the constitution.

Trump is a criminal. 

Trump is a traitor hell-bent on destroying the USA.

Trump and his followers think they are patriots, but they are traitors to the US constitution, democracy and their fellow citizens.

Welcome to the hell that is Trump's America.

References

BBC 2020, 'Trump inciting violence, warns Georgia election official', 2 December, https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55153918, viewed 3 January 2021

Burns, R 2021, 'Extraordinary warning to Trump against use of military over election by former Pentagon chiefs', Brisbane Times, 4 January, https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-america/extraordinary-warning-to-trump-against-use-of-military-over-election-by-former-pentagon-chiefs-20210104-p56rnj.html, viewed 4 January 2021

Carter, A, Cheney, D, Cohen, W, Esper, M, Gates, R, Hagel, C, Mattis, J, Panetta, L, Perry, W & Rumsfeld, D 2021, 'All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory', The Washington Post, 4 January, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html, viewed 4 January 2021

Castronuovo, C 2020, 'Eric Trump claims his father 'literally saved Christianity', The Hill, 10 July, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/520090-eric-trump-claims-his-father-literally-saved-christianity, viewed 3 January 2021

Rubin, J 2021, 'It’s impeachable. It’s likely illegal. It’s a coup', The Washington Post, 4 January 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/03/its-impeachable-its-likely-illegal-its-coup/, viewed 4 January 2021

Solender, A 2020, 'Trump Defends Rittenhouse, Caravan After Biden Condemns Protest Violence', Forbes, 31 August, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/31/trump-defends-rittenhouse-caravan-after-biden-condemns-protest-violence, viewed 3 January 2021 

Updated 4 January 2021

Trump - a modern day Nero: fiddling as America burns

Trump - a modern day Nero: fiddling as America burns

By Ranting Panda, 2 January 2021

Soon-to-be ex-President Donald Trump will go down in history as America's worst ever president. That should gel well with his fragile infantile ego. 

Way back in the day ... in ancient Rome to be precise, there was another incompetent and corrupt leader; the Emperor Nero. This particular emperor is best remembered in an axiom, 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned'. In 64AD, Rome was ravaged by a fire that burned for six days, destroying 70% of the city, rendering half its population homeless. Nero allegedly spent his time playing the fiddle (or similar instrument) while Rome burned, and did nothing afterwards to help the citizens of Rome as they suffered and starved. Nero was not trusted and many believed he started the fire. Nero scapegoated Christians, then an obscure minority sect, claiming they started it. While there maybe dubious elements of the story, Nero was renowned for debauchery and corruption, hence they way he is remembered thousands of years later. 

Just like the House of Caesar, Trump speaks the 'language of the republic, but the reality of the dictator' (Ashbrook 2016). Interestingly, historian Tom Holland identified that the Roman empire destroyed every republic throughout the Mediterranean, until all they had left was to destroy their own republic (Cohen 2015). The US is at the point, where it is destroying itself ... and that self-destruction is being led by Trump, who speaks of democracy but is subverting the democratic process. Like Nero, Trump rules through fear, excess and corruption.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/09/nero-trump-rome-burned-coronavrius-twitter/

Similar to Nero, Trump's presidency has been rife with nepotism, corruption and self-serving greed ... along with the preventable deaths of hundreds of thousands of people because of his incompetence and lies. Imagine how Trump will be remembered!

Trump fiddled while America burned. In Trump's case, his fiddle was golf. America burned from the racial division and the domestic terrorism that Trump inspired in his radical, racist followers. When California was ravaged by bushfires, Trump went golfing and said they should 'clean the floors' of the forest. But the most tragic of all, was that Trump played golf while America was ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. During 2020, more than 347,000 Americans died while Trump alternated between calling it a Democratic Party hoax and downplaying the severity of the virus. He blamed it on China and lied about vaccinations for it. On 3 January 2021, Trump tried another tactic: deny the numbers. This from a pathological liar who now claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) can't count. 

During the presidential election campaign of 2016, Trump stated, 'I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf'. Since becoming president, he has played golf around 300 times, costing American tax-payers around $144 million, according to the website, www.trumpgolfcount.com. On average, he visits a golf club ever 4.9 days of his presidency. 

There are other things that distract Trump from actually doing presidential business. He is a prolific tweeter and according to many of this tweets, he also spends a lot of time watching TV. Between January 2017, when he became president, and November 2020, Trump sent 23,858 tweets (Madaminov 2020). 

In the weeks following the 2020 election, around three-quarters of Trump's tweets made debunked claims of election fraud (Yourish & Buchanan 2020). While Trump was throwing a temper tantrum on a apocalyptic scale, record numbers of people were dying from Covid-19. 

In his New Year's Eve address to the nation, Trump raved on about his efforts to defeat the 'China virus'. It should be clear, Trump hampered all efforts to address the virus, from downplaying it to calling it a hoax, to challenging the science and criticising the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to the withholding of vital equipment for states that were not 'loyal' to the Trump throne. While health professionals worked hard with their limited resources and scientists worked around the clock to find a vaccine, Trump golfed and tweeted, while indulging in racist scapegoating, propagating false conspiracy theories, ignoring experts, and boasting of his non-existent achievements in hyperbole reminiscent of childhood playground arguments about who has the biggest and best toys. In his NYE speech, Trump took credit for the vaccine, which was not developed because of him, but in spite of him. He even claimed that he brought peace to the Middle East which he claims is easy 'if you know what you're doing'. 

Since the presidential election on 3 November 2020, Trump has incessantly tweeted false claims about the election results. Meanwhile, Trump has failed to do anything to save lives or to control the virus even though reported cases and deaths from Covid-19 have skyrocketed during that period, as the following graphs show (Washington Post 2021). 

Nero was an amateur compared to how much time Trump spent fiddling while the country was going to hell in a handbasket.

Since he became president, Trump averaged more than 50 false or misleading claims every day of his presidency, for a total that exceeds 22,000 claims - his lying has gotten so out of hand, that fact checkers can't keep up (Kessler, Rizzo & Kelly 2020). 

Trump claims that he brought the greatest job creation program in United States history. So yeah, about that. It was Obama who created the longest streak of job growth, while Trump merely stepped into his shoes and was unable to fill them. Yet one more lie of the Trump presidency.  

Trump continues maintaining the lies about the 2020 election being stolen from him (Robertson, Kiely, McDonald & Gore 2020a). He lodged dozens of court challenges and demanded recounts. The court challenges were thrown out and the recounts legitimised the election results. But Trump, like a petulant spoilt brat, has been unable to accept losing. He would rather destroy the country, than admit he lost.

Now he keeps pointing to 6 January 2021, when Congress formally counts the Electoral Colleges votes. Trump continues saying that Congress will overturn the election results. More than 80 million people voted for Joe Biden, while around 74 million voted for Donald Trump. The Electoral College ratified the election results with a resounding vote in Biden's favour of 306 - 232. Trump's fragile ego doesn't like the maths. The vote on 6 January could be hampered if there are objections by Republicans, which is likely. 

With more than 347,000 people dead from Covid-19, Trump recklessly announces a protest rally on 6 January 2021, for the gullible fools who still believe his debunked claims of election fraud. This will breach social distancing rules and likely add to the Covid-19 infection tally and possibly more deaths from Covid.

Meanwhile, Trump continues fleecing his supporters for cash to support his fraudulent attempts to steal the election. Once Trump is finally removed from office, he should be charged with fraud as he is obtaining money by dishonest claims about the election. With around 60 court cases that have declared the election valid (Tillman 2020), as well as multiple recounts, Trump is deliberately lying to his victims about supporting his fraudulent attempt to hijack the democratic process. It's hard to feel sorry for his victims because there is ample evidence that Trump is lying (Robertson, Kiely, McDonald & Gore 2020b). As the old saying goes, 'A fool and their money are soon parted'. 

Trump's fraudulent attempt to hijack democracy & fleece his gullible victims

Trump's undemocratic attempts to overturn the clear will of the majority of voters, is a disturbing development which demonstrates that Trump does not care for the people, for democracy, or for the United States. He is not a patriot. He is only in politics for himself and all that he can milk from the economy for his own benefit.

Trump is essentially attempting a coup. He threatened martial law (Inman 2020, Goodwin 2020), some Republicans talked of using the military to prevent Trump's removal from the Oval Office (Nguyen 2020), and Trump's idiot child, Don Jr called for all out war (da Silva 2020). Republican Louie Gohmert dog-whistled to deluded Trumpists that there needs to be a violent uprising if the election result isn't overturned in favour of Trump (Colarossi 2021).

Had Trump put as much effort into working as President, there may still be 347,000 people alive, there may have been greater racial unity. Instead, Trump demonstrated how completely and utterly incompetent he is as the President of the United States. He failed as a businessman, with many of his businesses going bankrupt. He clearly failed as President.

Trump's legacy includes the preventable deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, the empowerment of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and racists, and the normalisation of laziness, incompetency, blatant dishonesty, corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the highest office in the United States. 

Some people are immortalised in words and phrases because of their actions. Benedict Arnold is synonymous with treason. Nero is synonymous with incompetence, corruption and apathy. Trump is a combination of Benedict Arnold and Nero, he is an incompetent, corrupt, apathetic, self-serving, lazy traitor. History will not be kind to Trump and his family.

Trump is a modern-day Nero, fiddling while the US burns and dies ... and he should be held criminally responsible.

References

Ashbrook, T 2016, 'Five Dictators Of Rome', WBUR, 20 January, https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2016/01/20/rome-dictators-nero-history, viewed 3 January 2021

Cohen, N 2015, 'Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar review – deft and skilful', The Guardian, 6 September, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/06/dynasty-house-of-caesar-tom-holland-book-review-nick-cohen, viewed 3 January 2021

Colarossi, S 2021, 'Louie Gohmert Flat Out Calls For A Violent Uprising If The Election Isn’t Overturned For Trump', PoliticusUsa, 2 January, https://www.politicususa.com/2021/01/02/louie-gohmert-flat-out-calls-for-a-violent-uprising-if-the-election-isnt-overturned-for-trump.html, viewed 3 January 2021

da Silva, C 2020, '‘Reckless’ and ‘stupid’: Trump Jr calls for ‘total war’ over election results', The Independent, 6 November, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-jr-election-results-war-b1634841.html, viewed 26 December 2020. 

Goodwin, J 2020, 'Trump's talk of martial law sends White House staffers rushing to the press', CNN Business Insider, 21 December, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/20/media/stelter-trump-martial-law/index.html, viewed 26 December 2020.

Inman, D 2020, 'Military on alert over Trump’s martial law threat: ‘The craziness is unprecedented’', Yahoo! News, 25 December, https://news.yahoo.com/military-alert-over-trump-martial-230200241.html, viewed 26 December 2020. 

Kessler, G, Rizzo, S, & Kelly, M 2020, 'Trump is averaging more than 50 false or misleading claims a day', The Washington Post, 22 October, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/22/president-trump-is-averaging-more-than-50-false-or-misleading-claims-day/, viewed 2 January 2021

Madaminov, A 2020, 'All the President's Tweets', Medium, 25 November, https://medium.com/swlh/all-the-presidents-tweets-e7d31fd1dbc6, viewed 1 January 2021.

Robertson, L, Kiely, E, McDonald, J, & Gore, D 2020a, 'Trump Repeats Baseless, False Claims About the Election', FactCheck.Org, 30 November, https://www.factcheck.org/2020/11/trump-repeats-baseless-false-claims-about-the-election/, viewed 2 January 2021

Robertson, L, Kiely, E, McDonald, J, & Gore, D 2020b, 'Trump’s ‘Most Important’ Speech Was Mostly False', FactCheck.Org, 3 December, https://www.factcheck.org/2020/12/trumps-most-important-speech-was-mostly-false/, viewed 2 January 2021

Tillman, Z 2020, 'Trump And His Allies Have Lost Nearly 60 Election Fights In Court (And Counting)', Buzzfeed News, 14 December, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/trump-election-court-losses-electoral-college, viewed 2 January 2021

Washington Post 2021, 'More than 347,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S.', data as of 2 January, 11.05pm, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=hp_pandemic-guide-box-1208, viewed 2 January 2021.

Yourish, K & Buchanan, L 2020, 'Since election day, a lot of tweeting and not much else for Trump', The New York Times, 24 November, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/24/us/politics/trump-twitter-tweets-election-results.html, viewed 1 January 2021

Updated: 4 January 2021