Tuesday, November 05, 2024

Election Day musings: overall the US is actually better off than it was 4 years ago, but will be much WORSE off if 45 becomes 47

We are in the waning hours of Election Day in the Divided States of America, and it's no exaggeration to say that if American democracy has any hope whatsoever of surviving, Kamala will be our Number 47. Unfortunately, if we're to believe the polls and the pundits (and there are reasons to be skeptical of both, but we can't ignore them), Dolt 45 has an alarmingly good chance of winning -- and then there goes the country, and along with it much of the rest of the free world.

And I think most of us also know that when all is said and done, even if Kamala were to score what in a sane 
political milieu would be considered a landslide victory, the vicious and well-organized MAGA forces will do everything in their power, both inside and outside of the law, to overturn the will of the American people. So we need to brace ourselves for the possibility that January 6, 2021, was just a rehearsal.

"Are you better off now?"
One of the constant themes of the Trump campaign has centered around the loaded question, first posed by the late Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential debate with Jimmy Carter: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Of course the MAGA faithful have shouted that they not, not, NOT better off, citing soaring food prices, expensive gas, imaginary "open borders," and an equally imaginary violent crime tsunami as evidence that the Biden/Harris administration has brought the country to ruin. The devotees fondly recall the halcyon daze of the first Trump reign, when food and gas were cheap, the border was totally secure, and law and order prevailed.

Accordingly they long for the Second Coming of their Cheeto Jeezus, who, they imagine, will swoop in and fix every aspect of the deep national malaise, because of course, he alone can fix it. I can't help but think about the
rooftop party scene in the 1996 movie Independence Day; that scene, as I've mentioned before, is the perfect metaphor for hopeful Trump supporters, who should in reality be very careful what they wish for. They may think he's a known quantity, but they could be in for some very unpleasant surprises under the Trump 2.0 operating system.

Meanwhile, people with a much less cloudy rear view mirror counter the "we were better off four years ago" mantra with fond memories of makeshift mortuaries and big trucks stacked with the bodies of COVID victims, endless lines at food banks, and bitter battles over toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Good times, good times.

MAGA cognitive bias has driven this election
I believe that apart from their abject worship of their orange god, there are two forms of cognitive bias that make MAGAs so disconnected from reality -- causing them to believe that things are horrific now but were a virtual paradise under Trump, and will be again upon his Second Coming. These biases have been cynically and relentlessly fueled by Trump's increasingly unhinged rhetoric and republican messaging in general.

1. Negativity bias
Granted, a majority of Americans report feeling "worse off" than they were four years ago, at least from the perspective of personal well-being, which seems to be guided by their perception of the US economy. This is according to
a September 2024 Gallup poll, the results of which were posted on the Gallup site on October 18, 2024. But, but, but...

The higher-than-usual percentage of U.S. adults who say they are worse off this year is largely owing to Republicans’ much greater likelihood to say this than opponents of the incumbent president’s party had been in prior election years. Likewise, the higher-than-usual percentage of “better off” responses in 2020, when Donald Trump was in office, was attributable to Republicans’ much greater likelihood to give that response than supporters of the incumbent president’s party did in prior election years.

So there's that. In any case, Americans' general lack of economic confidence is at odds with the fact that the economy is actually booming. And it is this lack of confidence that appears to be one of the main reasons Trump supporters give for being Trump supporters.

It's not just the economy with the MAGAs, of course. Larger culture-war issues are a big factor too, and there again the negativity bias really comes through, with Trumpists blaming Biden/Harris for what they see as the disintegration of decent society into an immoral, godless hellscape. The trans folks are taking over our schools, forcibly gender-affirming our innocent children and destroying school sports! The brown and black criminals are flooding into the country from prisons all over the world, and occupying our beautiful cities! They're eating the cats and dogs! And it's all Kamala Harris' fault!

Yesterday, on a shuttle bus on my way back home from visiting my husband at the VA hospital in Houston, I had an extended conversation with three male veterans ranging in age from mid-60s to early 80s. The four of us were getting along famously, sharing an amiable exchange about this and that. I am proud to say that even after the conversation turned, perhaps inevitably, to politics, it remained amiable -- no doubt because I kept my mouth shut at crucial moments during the exchange.

I hasten to say that I have nothing but respect for these men, who served their country willingly and are now receiving well-earned treatment for various medical conditions, some of which are service-connected. They deserve every benefit they receive, and so much more.

Our gabfest took a political turn when one of the guys mentioned that the next day was going to be Election Day. Another one asked the rest of us if we'd voted yet, and we all said yes, we'd taken advantage of early voting. Having been privy to previous political conversations on the VA bus, I was kind of hoping that the conversation would end there, but no: one of the men said something about hoping that it would be a free and fair election, but that he had his doubts because of all of the "illegals" who were presumably being allowed to vote. The other guys expressed their agreement, and then they seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

I decided it best to remain as neutral as possible, so I said, "No matter what the results are and how clear they seem to be, there are going to be people who dispute those results. I only hope it doesn't get too ugly. I think that above all, we should all be hoping and praying for peace." (Being a devout agnostic, I'm normally not a praying person myself, but they all seemed to be, and I'm not above playing to the room if it doesn't go against my deepest held beliefs, or lack thereof. Apparently I hit the right note, because they all nodded in agreement with my statement.)

That would have been a fine ending to the conversation, but... no. One of the men said, "I think ABOVE ALL, we need to return this country to being one nation, UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The other two nodded vigorously in agreement and one of them piped up, "And it definitely HASN'T been that for the past four years."

And then they were off and running, talking about how awful the economy is because egg and meat prices are so high and whatnot, and how dire the border situation is. Their consensus was that the most important issues in this election are the border and the economy. They were having a fine time griping about Democratic policies, laughing bitterly about things such as the Green New Deal, the proposed banning of gas stoves, and, of course, sky-high food and gas prices, all of which are apparently part of a demonic Democratic plot to destroy the republic.

One man said that the Democrats even want to impose high taxes or fines on cow farts, a reference to the decades-long controversy over methane emissions, which are considered to be a big contributor to the climate crisis. Of course the guys all guffawed about this, but I remained silent, not pointing out that
they were drawing on a distorted and over-simplified narrative, and that Congress has consistently blocked methane reporting regulations for years and years (and you can't tax or fine what isn't reported). Moreover, there is bipartisan support for legislation that encourages ranchers and farmers to voluntarily measure and report methane emissions. Plus there's ongoing research to find ways to reduce the cow-fart problem.

The conversation went on for a while in that vein, with the three vets riffing on how awful America had become during the last four years because of Democratic policies. And I stayed quiet for the most part. Why? To keep the peace, of course. It would have served no purpose to express my strongly dissenting opinions, especially since all of the men had already cast their votes.

But clearly, my new friends were suffering from negativity bias.

2. Euphoric recall
The other form of cognitive bias that seems to guide the MAGA mindset is something known as euphoric recall, which as a newly recovering alcoholic decades ago, I was warned could lead to relapse. Euphoric recall in the recovery context refers to a tendency, brought on by time and distance, to recall only the good things about one's drinking or drugging days, while glossing over the bad.

I took the warning to heart. I wasn't much of a praying person back then, either, but I clearly remember offering up a prayer to the Great Whatever, saying, "Please, no matter what happens, never, ever let me forget how bad it was." I wanted never to forget the horrible hangovers I had every day, that felt like a combination of jet lag and flu. I wanted never to forget the social gatherings that were ruined because of my drinking myself nearly into oblivion. I wanted never to forget the few times I might have come close to seriously or perhaps even fatally overdosing on alcohol, and was saved only by the intervention of caring friends.

And indeed, I never forgot any of that. I guess the prayer worked, because I'm still sober today.

Every one of us is prone to euphoric recall, because that's just the way our brains are wired. But MAGAts' euphoric recall, coupled with their negativity bias, could very well push our country over the edge.

My brother told me about a guy he recently met and with whom he'd struck up a conversation about a mutual friend of theirs. My brother, who is emphatically not a Trumper, mentioned to the guy that their mutual friend is. Well, it turned out that my brother's new acquaintance is also a Trumper. In trying to make his case for his support, all the guy could come up with was that gas was cheaper under Trump.

I've noticed that is a common refrain from Trumpists. But their memories are a bit distorted.
A July 2024 piece on the Forbes site takes a closer and much more realistic look at this issue.

There are reasonable explanations for the movements of gasoline prices over the past 30 years. Few of those movements involve actions taken by a president...

...Although Trump is often credited with low gasoline prices, the average price during Trump’s first three years in office was higher than during Obama’s last two years in office. But this isn’t the general impression people seem to have. One shouldn’t read too much into this, as there were macro factors – like strong global demand – putting upward pressure on prices
...

...Some fondly recall $2.00/gallon of gasoline, but they forget that it’s because there was little demand for gasoline since most people stopped traveling
[because of the COVID pandemic]. To the extent you give credit to Trump for low gasoline prices, you would need to account for which actions of his caused gasoline prices to fall. The stay-at-home orders? Yes, if you want to credit him for that, this was a major factor in the drop in gasoline prices.

But as soon as those orders ended, gasoline prices began to climb. In the last eight months of Trump’s presidency — following the decline to $2.00/gallon, gasoline prices climbed nearly 25%. The increase that began in the summer of 2020 continued throughout 2021.

Biden’s energy policies didn’t help, but supply chain disruptions made the biggest impact on gasoline prices during Biden’s presidency. (For a thorough comparison of the energy policies of President Trump and President Biden, see
this month’s cover story in Shale Magazine).

The truth is that gasoline prices did fall sharply during the last year of Trump’s presidency. But that drop happened because of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, prices had begun to steeply climb before Trump left office in January 2021. Thus, those who credit President Trump’s energy policies for the drop in gasoline prices are presenting a misleading picture at best.

Indeed.

So much is at stake
There are of course many other domestic issues at stake besides gas prices (and food prices, and the border, and crime), not to mention grave foreign policy issues. There is so much riding on this election, and it's both saddening and alarming to me that so many people are still embracing Trump, much like
the foolish lady with the snake in the song that Trump so loves to quote as a way of demeaning immigrants. But the fact is that masses of folks are still pinning their hopes on him, and my fervent hope is that Blue voters will turn out in record numbers to remove the ugly orange stain from our political landscape. (Even then, of course, the battle will be far from over; Trump might exit the main stage, but Trumpism has taken a vicious hold on this country. The work will not be done; it will just be beginning.)

By many objective measures, our country really is much better off than it was four years ago. Subjective measures are another matter; lots of folks, including me, still aren't feeling the results of that better-off status, and there are still serious problems, such as income inequality, lack of health care access, and housing insecurity. But Kamala Harris has expressed a willingness to address these problems, whereas Trump has done little more than vow revenge on his enemies, promise further tax cuts for billionaires, and outline his ambitions to be a brutal dictator like some of the tyrants he so admires. The choice should be clear.

As I'm wrapping up this post, the polls are already closing in some parts of the country. It will be many hours and perhaps several days, or maybe even longer, before we know the results, and then it will a long, long trek towards certification. I'm on pins and needles, and you probably are too. I don't expect my ramblings to change anyone's vote, but I did want to make my voice heard in this remote little corner of the blogosphere.

So now I'm off to watch the election returns, without the aid of stiff drinks or, for that matter, human company to make it a little easier. I'll see you again soon.

Before you leave...
This has been, through what is no apparent fault of her own (excluding, perhaps karmic matters that are quite beyond her ability to comprehend), a nightmare of a year for the ruler of this Whirled. Money, alas, cannot make the nightmare go away, but it can make it easier to bear. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

  • New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
  • New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to Cosmic Connie's PayPal page.
  • Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account of Cosmic Connie's husband, RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is a gift, which it is (as opposed to a conventional purchase, for which PayPal deducts a percentage for their fee).

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Fifteen years after Sedona "sweat lodge" deaths, McSpirituality guru and Trumpanzee James Arthur Ray is still hustling and lying (and his victims are still dead)

 

Today, October 8, 2024, is the 15th anniversary of the day that sociopathic New-Wage/McSpirituality guru/cult leader James Arthur Ray killed two of his followers: Kirby Brown and James Shore, and set in motion the death, nine days later, of a third follower, Liz Neuman.

The instrument of their deaths was
a fake and utterly reckless "sweat lodge" ceremony in Sedona, Arizona. Dozens of other participants were also injured and emotionally traumatized. The phony sweat lodge had been the "final challenge" at Ray's pricey "Spiritual Warrior" workshop, and unfortunately for three good people, it really was final.

Ray, who had shot to fame following his appearance in the simplistic and crassly materialistic New-Wage moviemercial
The Secret, was convicted of negligent homicide for the three deaths in Sedona -- and consequently served less than two years in an Arizona state prison -- but he was never criminally charged in the death of yet another follower, Colleen Conaway, at a San Diego Ray event a couple of months before Sedona.

For Ray, the daze of the four- and five-figure live events such as Spiritual Warrior would seem to be over, and that's a good thing.
His homicide creds are right there at the top of the page on Google search results along with the promotional stuff, and although he has been struggling mightily to make a comeback since his release from prison in July of 2013, framing the whole Sedona thing as a terrible trial and tribulation for him, his audience -- both live and online -- has shriveled like the balls of a long-time steroid user.

Though his base of followers remains as shrunken as his nads, Ray keeps on keeping on with his various shticks, because it's all he knows how to do. These days he spends
a lot of time on Xitter alternating between spouting Bible verses like the man-o-God he wants you to think he is, and stumping for the American fascist movement popularly known as MAGA, kissing up shamelessly to the Mango Mussolini.

Naturally, much of Ray's MAGAt efforts center around demonizing the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris,
an angle I wrote about here back in August. He hasn't let up on his attacks on VP Harris, continually reposting highly edited videos and anti-Kamala memes that paint her as the destroyer of American democracy and an evil manipulator. If you know anything about Ray it should be clear that there's a lot of projection in those tweets and re-tweets, and a mercenary angle as well. As I wrote on my August post, in the context of Ray tweeting that Harris is evil and an abuser of power:

Well, I must say that Ray is a fine one to talk about "evil." Obviously he's projecting again. In any case it should come as no surprise that he is an ardent Trump supporter who is perfectly willing to paint Madame Vice President as an evil, dangerous, power-crazed demon, while totally overlooking Mango Mussolini's lies, felonies, authoritarian obsessions, and total lack of moral compass.

Ray, like his serial-scammer colleague
Kevin Trudeau, is just another sorry illustration of the marriage-made-in-hell between Scamworld and reich-wing politix. Grifters are attracted to reich-wing/republican philosophies and policies, and I've been saying for years that this is due in large part to the reich's traditional disdain for consumer protection laws and regulations, the very tools that, apart from education, are necessary to protect the rest of us from the crooks.

Even as he has no room to talk about evil, Ray has zero standing in any discussion about the abuse of power. For years
he abused his power over his followers, resulting in numerous injuries and at least four deaths of said followers.

I will repeat what I wrote on last year's Death Lodge anniversary post: as long as he continues to try to claw his way back to the top of an industry that has more than its share of sociopaths and predators, I feel duty-bound to post periodic reminders of why you should not listen to James Arthur Ray. In addition to being a MAGA social media warrior, he is still playing his dual role of faux-hero and martyr -- and most of all, still refusing to take any blame for the deaths and injuries of his faithful followers. And the people he killed are still dead.

Never forget.

Related on this Whirled

* Currently on the SEEK Safely site:
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Before you leave...
This has been, through what is no apparent fault of her own (excluding, perhaps karmic matters that are quite beyond her ability to comprehend), a nightmare of a year for the ruler of this Whirled. Money, alas, cannot make the nightmare go away, but it can make it easier to bear. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

  • New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
    New: PayPal --
    Here is a direct link to Cosmic Connie's PayPal page.
    Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts,
    this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account of Cosmic Connie's husband, RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is a gift, which it is (as opposed to a conventional purchase, for which PayPal deducts a percentage for their fee).

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Thursday, October 03, 2024

With Hurricane Helene, Trump & reich-wing influencers/conspiranoids once again show that hurricanes not only have eyes, but assholes as well

DonOld Trump and a host of crass attention whores across the GOP and the reich-wing idiosphere have been ruthlessly exploiting the tragedy of Hurricane Helene, spreading lies and conspiracy theories to further their own interests. And unfortunately this isn't just harmless nonsense; it is causing panic and hampering recovery efforts.

Hurricane Helene has been one of the deadliest hurricanes to make landfall in the mainland United States in the modern era -- with more than 200 people dead as of this writing, hundreds more missing, and the death toll sure to get drastically worse, according to Rowan County, North Carolina Sheriff Travis Allen. Thousands of survivors have had their lives upended -- many have lost everything -- and it's an ongoing nightmare for victims and aid workers alike. Unfortunately but inevitably, Helene has also provided endless opportunities for #NeverWasMyPresident DonOld John Trump and a host of lesser attention whores to mouth off and exploit the tragedy for their own purposes.

It should come as no surprise that Trump is using the storm to further his political ends, while much of the American reich is also politicizing it, and the usual run of social media conspiranoids and conspicuous contrarians are milking the disaster furiously in their endless quest for a few precious drops of attention.

For his part, Trump has been busy pretending to care about the storm victims, while pretending that Kamala Harris doesn't care (
spoiler: actually, she does care), and unjustly slamming the Biden administration for its response to the storm. From an AP story by Matthew Daly, September 30, 2024 (via the ABC News site):

Former President Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response to the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, even as his supporters have called for cuts to federal agencies that warn of weather disasters and deliver relief to hard-hit communities.

As president, Trump
delayed disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to finance an effort to return undocumented migrants to Mexico. And Project 2025, backed by Trump supporters, would restructure FEMA to limit aid to states and says that the National Weather Service, which provides crucial data on hurricanes and other storms, “should be broken up and downsized.”

Trump
claimed without evidence Monday that the Biden administration and North Carolina's Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” And Trump adviser Stephen Miller said President Joe Biden “failed to evacuate or rescue” U.S. citizens, “just like you failed in Afghanistan.''

And the Trumpian lies just went on and on. From AP, also on September 30:

Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

“He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday.

The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone Sunday night with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he spoke to Biden the night before.

Like everything Trump does, this goes far beyond politix-as-usual. An October 4, 2024 piece on the conservative Bulwark site elaborates on the harm and chaos that Trump and his allies are causing with their campaign of lies.

Trump has argued that FEMA has depleted its storm relief funds because it spent much of that money “housing” illegal migrants. His allies have accused FEMA of confiscating property, of making people apply for help, of asking for cash donations, and of preventing everyone from Elon Musk to the Department of Defense from helping out with the response efforts. Virtually all of them have pushed stories insisting that Kamala Harris told storm victims they could get only $750 in aid. (That’s just one type of assistance they can get quickly, not the full amount available.)

Things have gotten bad enough that on Friday, FEMA took the step of
posting a “rumor response” webpage. The White House put out a memo of its own accusing Republican leaders of spreading “bald faced lies” and “poison.” One official, speaking to The Bulwark, said they feared there could be on-the-ground confrontations involving people who believed FEMA was trying to plunder the dispossessed. 

Here is a direct link to FEMA's Hurricane Helene rumor response page.

To MAGAts, however, the fact that Trump and gang are out-and-out lying won't matter, nor will the government's attempts to set the record straight. And from what I've seen in various news reports, even some of the vics of the hurricane are apparently taking Trump's in-person appearances at some of the devastated areas as evidence that he actually cares about them (or more accurately, that he cares about something beyond getting their votes in November).


But, giving credit where it is due, infesting impacted areas with his orange presence and lying about Biden/Harris aren't the the only things Trump is doing. Despite his notoriously shaky history with charities, he -- or rather, his campaign finance director, Meredith O'Rourke --- has launched a GoFundMe that so far has raised more than 6.3 million bucks and counting, supposedly to help Hurricane Helene victims (or more specifically to help other charities that are providing hurricane relief).

Originally I wrote that the GoFundMe page did not actually list a charity, and it didn't, but this has since been updated; several charities are now named: Samaritan's Purse, Water Mission, Clinch Foundation, and Mtn2Sea Ministries. According to an October 2 update by the fund's organizer, "an initial disbursement" has been made and more will be made as donations continue to come in. Here's a fact check from Reuters, dated October 4, 2024. (But also see the last couple of paragraphs in this section.)

Notably, it's not at all clear if Trump himself has been among those who have made a contribution to this Very Worthy Cause...but I'm guessing not. And you have to wonder why. From
The Daily Beast, October 1, 2024:

Former President Donald Trump has launched a GoFundMe to support those affected by Hurricane Helene’s path of destruction—but some are saying that the Republican presidential nominee, who is reportedly worth around $4 billion, could do a lot to help victims out of his own pocket. The “Trump authorized” campaign has already raised $3 million from some 19,000 donations since it appeared yesterday. The list of the campaign’s biggest contributors is a sampler of Trump’s most high-profile allies: it features musician Kid Rock, UFC CEO Dana White, hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman, and Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, to name a few. It is unclear whether Trump himself has contributed to the campaign, but his name does not appear among the list of its top donors—those who gave between $5,000 and $500,000. Some wondered how much of an impact Trump’s personal wealth could make for those affected by Helene, however. “Why did Trump need to start a GoFundMe to raise money for hurricane victims?” reads a post with 22,000 likes from the X account @TheUSASingers. “Isn’t he supposed to be a billionaire? Can’t he just give them 10 million bucks?”

That Trump has formidable fund-raising clout is not in dispute. But more than funds are being raised: questions are being raised as well, at least by folks who aren't blinded and deafened by Trumplove. Even with the assurances by both GoFundMe and the fund's organizer, if you are willing to just take it on faith that every penny of every one of the contributions (minus GoFundMe's 3 percent cut) will go to the cause of helping Helene's victims... well, I've got a pair of gold clown shoes, a share in a social media company, and a $100k watch to sell you.

After all,
as J.D. Wolf pointed out on the Meidas Touch site on October 4, the fund still has some basic transparency issues. After noting that Samaratin's Purse is an established charity (and that Trump had falsely taken credit for the charity's "truckloads" of hurricane relief supplies), Wolf added:

Trump's GoFundMe hasn't linked to the organizations for easy identification. MeidasTouch was able to find groups operating under the Water Mission and Mtn2Sea Ministries, but couldn't locate any entity providing hurricane relief under the name "Clinch Foundation."...

...We don't know the amounts Trump is donating to any of the groups or how much he has left to donate. With the Trump family history of impropriety involving charities, Trump needs to do better.

Also of note, the long-time President and Chairman of the Board of Samaritan's Purse is Christofascist and devout Trumpian Franklin Graham, who, among numerous other sins, defended Trump by deflection and whataboutism in the wake of the violent January 6 insurrection that Trump incited.* What I'm wondering is: will any of the funds donated to Samaritan's purse from the GoFundMe be redirected into Trump's pocket? It's not beyond the realm of possibility.

Harping on HAARP (and those evil Dems)
Meanwhile, in the larger reich-wing idiosphere, there's a new conspiranoid narrative in town: Democrats are responsible for Hurricane Helene. We've heard the wind blowing from the same direction before, regarding Dems being to blame for all manner of tragedy and evil and disaster, but here we go again. From
The Daily Kos, September 30, 2024:

Brace yourself, because if you thought Donald Trump’s racist “cats and dogs” lies were bad enough, it won’t be long before this bit of QAnon and Q-adjacent insanity ends up in one of his rambling, incoherent campaign screeds.

I’m talking about Democrats controlling the weather.

Conservative influencer Matt Wallace, with his 2.1 million X followers, lays out the case
here.

Don’t worry guys, weather modification isn’t real! It’s just a coincidence that Hurricane Helene is one of the most devastating “inland damage storms” in history and that hundreds of pro-Trump counties are being massively impacted during the most important election of our lifetimes. 

Obviously the elites would never be evil enough to create hurricanes designed to interfere with “democracy”… Pay no attention to the storms currently brewing in the Atlantic either! You can ask any mainstream scientist and they will tell you that it isn’t even possible to create those or target them at certain areas. 

Just stay silent. No need to vote or expose anything. You wouldn't want to be called a conspiracy theorist right? Couldn’t have that. So please ignore your own eyes and don’t share this post or investigate further.

In truth, of course, if there are bad guys in this tale of yet another storm of the century, Dems/liberals are definitely not it. More from The Daily Kos article:

...liberals didn’t control [Hurricane Helene]. In fact, we’ve been trying to tell anyone who would listen that these megastorms will become the norm if climate change remains unaddressed, and they don’t want to listen. Quite ironically, it is them, the climate deniers, who are in large part to blame. 

Instead, they’re claiming that
HAARP—a research project in Alaska studying the ionosphere for communication and surveillance technologies—can’t just control the weather, it can even cause devastating earthquakes

High-profile conservative nutbags have spent the weekend blaming HAARP and the dastardly Democrats behind it for specifically targeting Trump counties for malicious purposes (you can see
here, here, here, here, and here, just for starters).

The thing is, if Dems really had that much control over the weather, wouldn't they just target Mar-a-Lago, at a time when they were pretty sure Trump would be home, and/or hit key Trump areas closer to Election Day, and/or spare Asheville, North Carolina, a key blue area?

Alas, logic has rarely been a criterion for the conspiracy-minded. Among the logic-free loonies are reich-wing legislators such as Marjorie Taylor "Jewish Space Laser" Greene, who has been spreading the weather control narrative on Xitter. On September 30 she shared a map, created by the aforementioned Matt Wallace, that shows hurricane affected areas with an overlay of 2020 election results, and apparently is supposed to demonstrate that red areas have been targeted and blue areas spared. (In truth, the damage caused by Hurricane Helene has created challenges up- and down-ballot for both political parties, particularly in the battleground state of North Carolina.)

This is far from the first time that the conspiranoid loons have harped on HAARP and weather control and whatnot, and it won't be the last. I wrote about this
back in 2017, in the wake of yet another devastating hurricane, Harvey (which hit my neck of the woods).

Apart from the election-manipulation narrative, other conspiranoid stories are making the rounds as well. In a recent post, a proudly Trumpian blogger claimed to know the real, true cause of hurricanes and floods, 'cause it's on seekrit government documents. The post links to a section on a conspiracy site called Stop World Control [spoiler: it's WEATHER CONTROL]. But and the blogger added her own pet theory about Asheville.

I fully believe that the flooding in Ashville [sic], NC was a purposeful land grab just like the direct energy weapons unleashed on Maui…

Ah, yes... the Maui Wildfire Conspiranoid Loonapaloooza. I wrote about that one too. Never one for originality, the Trumpanzee blogger is far from the only person to promote the land-grab lunacy re Hurricane Helene; in fact, apart from the election manipulation theory it's it's one of the top nutter narratives.

Not that setting the record straight on the weather-modification articles of faith will matter to those who are attached to conspiracy tales like orange glop to Trump's face, but
there's this from Politifact:

Hurricane Helene was not a product of weather modification. That’s Pants on Fire!

There’s no proof that Hurricane Helene was formed through weather modification. Bart Geerts, professor at the University of Wyoming Department of Atmospheric Science, told PolitiFact that’s "false."

"NOAA confirms that there are no weather modification activities that could have resulted in Hurricane Helene. Hurricanes form on their own given the right conditions and that was the case with Helene," Monica Allen, director of public affairs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Research division, told PolitiFact.

Allen cited Project Stormfury, a NOAA project in the 1960s that "involved seeding existing hurricanes." Attempted on four hurricanes, the project studied how seeding clouds with silver iodide could lead to a decrease in the hurricane’s strongest winds.

"This project ended in 1983 because it had, at best, mixed results, and there were concerns about unintended consequences," Allen said. "Since then, NOAA has done no weather modification."

But hey...that's what They want you to believe. Conspiranoids and conspicuous contrarians, of course, know better. And they will continue to let everyone know what they know throughout the aftermath of this storm and the next one and the next.

And it can't be emphasized enough that as Hurricane Helene recovery efforts continue, this is causing genuine harm to thousands of people. People are even threatening to kill FEMA workers because of the toxic lies being told by mega-influencers such as Trump's arguably most powerful ally at the moment, the profoundly evil Elon Musk.

It's gotten so bad that even some of the GOP officials who are actually in the thick of things are pleading for the nonsense to stop.
North Carolina State Senator Kevin Corbin, to give but one example, wrote this on Facebook on October 3, 2024:

Friends can I ask a small favor? Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC. Example: FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on. PLEASE help stop this junk. It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known. It is the largest crisis event in the history of N.C. The state is working non-stop. DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers. My Senate district is 8 counties and it takes 3 hours to drive across it in good weather…. And this disaster is 25 counties in N.C. This is going to take MONTHS if not years to overcome. Government will play a role in this cleanup. We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money. But Government is not the total solution. YES, there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors and that’s good and the way it should be. Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true. I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. “fill in the blank.” 98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it and not waiting for a post to go thru 10,000 people to be addressed. Thanks for listening but I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job …. which is to help our citizens in need.

I hope Senator Corbin's message is doing some good, but my feeling is that the dedicated conspiranoids will just consider that Corbin has gone over to the Dark Side.

Meanwhile, as Trump blows on and lesser loons babble on,
here is one of many sources of legitimate information about how you can actually help the victims of Hurricane Helene.

* While Franklin Graham's nose has an ugly orange stain, on the other hand, Graham's niece, Jerushah Duford (whose mother Virginia "Gigi" Graham Tchividjian is Graham's oldest daughter), has spoken out strongly against Trump and for Kamala Harris.

This post has been amended and updated since its original publication on October 3, 2024.
~ CC

Before you leave...
This has been, through what is no apparent fault of her own (excluding, perhaps karmic matters that are quite beyond her ability to comprehend), a nightmare of a year for the ruler of this Whirled. Money, alas, cannot make the nightmare go away, but it can make it easier to bear. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

  • New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
    New: PayPal --
    Here is a direct link to Cosmic Connie's PayPal page.
    Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts,
    this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account of Cosmic Connie's husband, RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is a gift, which it is (as opposed to a conventional purchase, for which PayPal deducts a percentage for their fee).

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Trumpian crapitalism continues with tacky $100k watches (and crass exploitation of assassination attempts)

For nearly a week the Interwebs have been abuzz with yet another one of #NeverWasMyPresident DonOld Trump's endless efforts to suck all of the oxygen out of the room (while siphoning as much money as possible from the gullible): his gaudy $100,000 tourbillon watch collection. There are cheaper watches in the new Trump collection as well -- some as low as $499! -- but they just don't have that tourbillon magic, so take that into consideration when planning how to squander your retirement savings or your kid's college fund. (Hey, who needs college anyway? Trump veep creep JD Vance says that colleges make "worse people" and that universities should be destroyed.)

If you don't know much about watches, you may be asking, as many have (and as I no doubt would have if I'd actually cared enough), what a tourbillon is, since that's the thing, apart from the Trump name of course, that supposedly makes the $100k wrist bling so very, very special. Daniel Miller at the LA Times explains it
(via MSN, October 1, 2024):

Two hundred grams of gold. 122 diamonds. A $100,000 price tag. And "TRUMP" on the dial.

Flashy, yes, but the most notable feature in a
mechanical wristwatch debuted by former President Trump last week may be the anachronistic technology encasing its beating heart: a tourbillon.

The device, for which the watch is named, is an 18th century invention meant to improve accuracy by counteracting the effects of gravity on a watch's mechanism. It does so by suspending timekeeping components
in a rotating cage.

While visually interesting — the Trump watch's tourbillon is displayed via a cutout on its dial — it is no longer functionally necessary, owing to advances in watchmaking...

Even so, the tourbillon continues to be kind of a status-symbolish thing among snooty watch wearers. However, the tourbillon in Trump's tawdry offering doesn't justify the hefty price tag, according to folks who are in a position to know.

...among watch cognoscenti, the timepiece attracted instant opprobrium. In Instagram posts, WhatsApp group chats and TikTok videos, influential voices savaged the solid-gold watch over its appearance and cost...

...In
one online clip, Mike Nouveau, a vintage-watch dealer with a large online presence, calculated the value of some of the watch's parts, a tally far below its retail price. He said the timepiece featured an "off-the-shelf" tourbillon that costs less than $3,000.

Several industry experts said including a tourbillon in Trump's watch made sense.

"It is a beautiful mechanical parallel to Trump — here is a person who whirls around, and is shiny and flashy, but has no function or purpose and is entirely anachronistic in how he sees the world," said Phil Toledano, co-founder of the watch brand Toledano & Chan.

Well, I wouldn't say he's without function or purpose; Trump has proven to be a very useful tool indeed for tyrants overseas and Christofascist evildoers Stateside. But Toledano's point is well taken anyway.

Tons of other writers and commentators have been on watch watch as well, and many have really been having fun with the story (along with making some serious points about the grift). On September 27, 2024, Jonathan V. Last at the conservative Bulwark
posted a Q&A about the griftwatch collection.

Q. If I buy a Trump watch, will I get it in time to wear to the next insurrection?
A. Maybe. The website
says the watches will ship in October. Or November. Or December. Or maybe some other month?

Watches start shipping in October/November/December. . . . Shipping and delivery dates are estimates only and cannot be guaranteed. We are not liable for any delays in shipments. Your order will ship as it becomes available, so the earlier you buy, the quicker it will ship. Each watch is made to order.

“Made to order,” by the way, does not mean “bespoke.” It means “dropshipped.”

Q. Why is a billionaire bothering with this scam project?
Trump says that his Victory watches are limited to 147 pieces in total. But they’re offered in three colorways. I would bet he’s selling 147 of each, for a total of 441 pieces. At $100,000 per, that’s $44 million. Less the production costs, that’s still $35 million. Trump licensed his image and likeness to the company doing the watch sales—exactly as he did with his sneakers and NFTs. We don’t know what his percentage of the take is, but if it’s less than 75 percent, he’s a fool.

Because if you’re the watch guys, you bring nothing to the table except the ability to make this a turnkey operation that the Big Guy never has to think about.

What Trump brings to the table is: There is no business without him. He could find other fulfillment monkeys to handle his wares. The watch guys could not find another Donald Trump to sucker people into paying $100,000 for a $20,000 watch.

From Trump’s perspective, he puts in an hour of work—signing off on the design and taping his video spiel—and walks away with low eight figures.

Q. If this is such a good scam business, why didn’t Trump sell watches before?
A. He did. Perhaps you remember Trump Watches 1.0? He sold them in 2005
through Macy’s, with a typical retail price around $300. (This was before he had an army of mouth-breathing idiots panting after his merch.) In the main, these were gold-plated stainless steel pieces with Japanese movements. You can find them on eBay where as of yesterday—surprise!—people are trying to sell them for many thousands of dollars. Because game recognizes game, I guess...

Niece Mary Trump, also writing on September 27, 2024, had a few words as well:

Donald is not a builder—he has, in fact, created very few things in his life, unless you count the smoke and mirrors. Since he’s been unemployed over three years, he’s spent the bulk of his time playing and cheating at golf; but he’s also spent a considerable amount on his lucrative side-hustle: grifting his followers.

Sometimes the grift comes in the form of asking for campaign contributions that go to fund his legal expenses and not his campaign. Sometimes he hawks cheap products somebody pays him to slap his name on. In the last year alone we’ve gotten gold sneakers, non-fungible trading cards, bibles, and, most recently, watches.

Donald long ago learned that there’s no risk in selling his name—he gets paid up front, does a sales pitch, and cashes his check.

The new watches sell for anywhere from $499 to $100,000 (not a typo). The FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT collection (who among us hasn’t tried to raise money off of an assassination attempt in which people were actually killed?) includes a stainless-steel watch with a blood-red dial. The Victory Tourbillon comes in 18k yellow or rose gold and costs more than the average American makes in two years.

Following this, Mary discussed the site's disclaimers, which in themselves should be a huge red flag for anyone with any sense at all (and which the aforementioned Jonathan V. Last, as well as numerous other commentators, also covered). Then she added:

In a slimy video that would be stunning in its ridiculousness coming from any other presidential candidate, Donald tells us the $100,000 watch is made with almost 200 grams of gold and “more than 100 real diamonds. That’s a lot of diamonds. I love gold. I love diamonds. We all do.”

Jesus.

There are much, much worse things about Donald Trump than his shameless hucksterism, but leveraging the presidency in this way is truly grotesque. Despite the fact that we’ve learned to expect nothing, it’s still shocking that corporate media considers that this ugly aspect of a presidential candidate is something we all should ignore—or accept.

Indeed.

On a more serious note, on a September 30 Bulwark piece, Jonathan Last suggested that
Trump's watch scheme is specifically designed to skirt bribery laws. Last described a method by which a theoretical politician could monetize his power:

  • The politician publicly sells some valueless good—let’s say, magic beans—at a wildly inflated price. Say, $100,000.
  • Very few people would pay $100,000 for magic beans.
  • But an individual who wants to influence the politician might buy lots of them. This individual might say something like, “Yes, I will take $1,000,000 worth of your magic beans.”
  • The politician takes the money and winks. It would be implicitly understood that the politician owes this individual an unspecified favor in the indeterminate future.
  • I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but this arrangement is probably not illegal.

You can see the logistical problems with this arrangement. It is complicated and the implied contract has been abstracted. The briber doesn’t always get the chance to say explicitly beforehand, “I will buy $1 million of magic beans and then at a later date, you will do X for me” and confirm an agreement from the politician. And the more abstract the exchange is, the harder it is for both parties to be satisfied.

But that’s the tradeoff for mitigating criminal exposure.

And to further insulate himself, Last wrote, a pol could sell the overpriced crap during his campaign -- that is, before being elected to office should he win -- and he could run the sales through a third party. Which, of course, is precisely what DonOld is doing. Draw your own conclusions.

Media types haven't been the only ones who've weighed in on Watchgate, of course. Countless social media commenters and meme-makers/sharers have also attacked this appalling grift, with many pointing out that the very same political party that is crying crocodile tears over average consumers struggling with sky-high grocery prices (supposedly because of Biden/Harris) has chosen for their presidential candidate a sleazy salesman who is encouraging those same aggrieved consumers to sink their dollars into tacky, egregiously overpriced merch. I would say that this blatant inconsistency is a sign of tone deafness, but that's being far too kind: it's really just a toxic mix of plain old cynicism and hunger for power at any cost.

The watches are just the latest in a long line of Trumpian crapitalistic endeavors
And with that sub-head I've just overstated the obvious once again, but that's what I do best on this blog.

Trump of course is a lifelong huckster, but his hucksterism has increased greatly since he entered politix. It was only a few months ago that he was making news with his tacky gold $400 high-top clown shoes,
to which we paid tribute on this Whirled, of course. If you didn't grab a pair for yourself early on, too bad for you: according to the web site, The Never Surrender High-Tops ("Bold, gold, and tough, just like President Trump") are SOLD OUT. (Wait. "...just like President Trump?" Shouldn't the shoes be orange?)

Anyway, only 1,000 pairs were slated to be released. I've been Googling and Bing-ing in an effort to find out if any shoes were actually ever shipped, but I haven't been able get details. I suppose we will just have to take it on faith that there are 1,000 proud Never Surrender High-Top wearers who are the envy of all of their friends and neighbors and local professional clown associations.

A few months after the gold shoes came out, and just in time for Holy Week (for those non-Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter), the Trump grift machine announced, completely without irony,
the $60 Trump Bible, which was actually a new way to sell an older product that hadn't been doing so well until it was blessed with the official Orange Stain. I haven't been able to get sales figures on that holy tome, but the web site indicates that it's still actively on the market: "IN STOCK NOW FOR QUICK SHIPPING."

And the good news is that now there are two Very Special Editions of the Trump Bible -- I mean, even special-er than the original. To begin with, as part of the endless exploitation of
the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt against Cheeto Jeezus (which has been a fundrazing BONANZA for Trump), there is The Day God Intervened Edition:

God Bless The USA Bible – “The Day God Intervened” Edition

This beautiful God Bless The USA Bible has been custom embossed to [sic] in remembrance of the day that God intervened during President Donald J. Trump’s assassination attempt.

DONALD J. TRUMP
45TH PRESIDENT
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE DAY GOD INTERVENED
JULY 13, 2024

In the interests of setting the record straight, however, I must mention that God Himself hath declared, "Hey, don't blame me." Sayeth the Lord:

Do you really think I’d waste my divine power on the Tangerine Palpatine? Come on, folks, for once just PLEASE give God a break. I’ve got better things to do, like making sure the sun rises every day and keeping the universe from falling apart. And playing with Lego. You really think I’d step in to save that conman who can’t string two coherent thoughts together?

And if you think I saved Donald’s life, then why did I let the innocent bystander die? Huh? HUH?!? Do you Trump supporting Christians realize how crazy you all sound?? Of course you don’t, because you’re batshit. 

But never mind Him; He's just God. Trump is the real Almighty, and you really need to pick up this new edition. Like the original, it's only $60.00. What have ya got to lose?

If you're a true Bible collector and truly loyal to Trump, there's also a very limited edition now available: the President Donald J. Trump Signature Edition God Bless The USA Bible:

President Donald J. Trump Signature Edition God Bless The USA Bible

Limited Edition
Only 1000 Available!
While Supplies Last!
Each Bible Contains President Donald J. Trump’s Hand-Signed Signature

Hand-signed, as opposed to printed... which presumably means that Trump sat down with his Sharpie and signed 1,000 Bibles. Think of that: he took time off from golfing and boasting about his crowd sizes and griping about Kamala's resume and I.Q. to sign those Bibles just for you!

That's why they're worth every penny of the $1,000.00 price (plus $100.00-plus shipping). Heck of a deal.

The shoes and Bibles and watches are, of course, just a few of a seemingly endless string of Trump's crapitalistic ventures. On September 26, 2024, Rolling Stone published
a more comprehensive examination of recent Trump merch. Included are what Rolling Stone describes as "assassination attempt cologne."

Trump has made hay over the assassination attempt against him in July, both through campaign fundraising and hawking merchandise — including “Fight Fight Fight” cologne and perfume. “This scent is your rallying cry in a bottle,” the description of the cologne reads. “Featuring Trump’s iconic image and raised fist, this limited-edition cologne embodies strength, power, and victory.” The perfume is intended for “women who embody strength and grace, like President Trump.” Both are for sale for $129.

The "Fight Fight Fight" Trump-odor series is not to be confused with the "Trump Victory 47" stinkum that was being pushed back in February along with the clown shoes.

And all of the above is in addition to Trump's long history of grift preceding his entry into politix -- e.g.,
Trump University and The Trump Network. Not to mention his entire history of shady and corrupt business practices...

In other words, watches and Bibles and shoes and toilet water are just the tip of the iceberg.

With Trump, now as in the past and in the future, it's really all about the grift. And if he can land another gig in the White House, you can bet that in addition to being an instrument in destroying American democracy for good, he'll be making bank in a big way. Meanwhile, most of the rest of us will still be struggling with soaring food, housing, fuel, and healthcare costs, and Trump and his uber-rich allies won't give a damn about any of that.

Vote Blue in November.

Before you leave...
This has been, through what is no apparent fault of her own (excluding, perhaps karmic matters that are quite beyond her ability to comprehend), a nightmare of a year for the ruler of this Whirled. Money, alas, cannot make the nightmare go away, but it can make it easier to bear. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

  • New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
    New: PayPal --
    Here is a direct link to Cosmic Connie's PayPal page.
    Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts,
    this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account of Cosmic Connie's husband, RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is a gift, which it is (as opposed to a conventional purchase, for which PayPal deducts a percentage for their fee).

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.