https://baptistnews.com/article/trump-law-and-order-and-evangelical-hypocrisy/

Trump has benefited greatly by exploiting the racialized fears of white Americans. If Trumpism has taught us anything, it’s that law and order is not really about public safety for all, but about white men exerting power and control over marginalized people.

Trump has not been beyond engaging in political theater to further solidify his base. A grotesque example of performative law and order was on full display in 2020, in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement officers used tear gas and riot control tactics to forcefully clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square.

This was done to create a path for Trump and senior administration officials to walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church. There, Trump awkwardly held up a Bible, posing in front of the church’s parish house for a photo op. This sent a clear signal to white evangelicals and other conservative Christians. Trump was saying to them, “I am your warrior who will fight for your ‘religious liberty’ and against all ‘troublemakers.’”

Put him in jail without bond until his trial. If any of the rest of us had done what he's doing, that's where we'd be now.

Stop the kid gloves treatment.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/bad-politics-is-result-of-loss-of.html

It's impossible, I think, for someone who has been trained to think logically and practically, who has lived their life by making practical decisions based on facts and reality, and who hasn't had any experiences that have led to developing a sense that someone, somewhere is pulling the levers and strings of control in such a way that we are oblivious to it and victims of it at the same time.

I understand the way our political system works and the differences which have created, and then undergirded, the political parties that dominate our society. What I don't understand is why there's a desire to remove individual freedom from people simply because their lifestyle and their politics doesn't agree with the other side. It is possible to coexist, without bothering anyone else. But by nature, being "conservative" carries with it a measure of personal insecurity and a desire to justify that particular position by imposing it on everyone else, becoming both inhumane and tyrannical.

The fact that a majority of people might believe something, do something or live in some particular way does not affirm the correctness of what they believe or do or how they live. But it is a fact of human nature that putting someone else down helps us feel better about ourselves. Or does it, really?

for doing the same things?

Someone needs to get some fortitude and courage. A judge needs to smack him down and mean it, telling him to either shut his pie hole or he will spend the days before his multiple trials in jail, and not campaigning for office.

Get his rear end in jail, where it belongs. Now.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/desantis-rhetoric-makes-him-sound-like.html

Can you think of any other 20th century figures who might fit this bill?

Now, the campaign for the Republican nomination for the Presidency has become a ridiculous contest of oneupmanship, with a train of Trump imitators vying for the cheers and applause of a shrinking group of misfits and angry ne'redowells who think the world owes them a living and are angry because it's not being given to them.

After four years of Trump lies, ridiculous, laughable comments and attempts to use shock value to get attention, I thought I was pretty well prepared for anything some Republican candidates might say, or do, to get attention they seem to be starving for. But I was surprised, and shocked, when I heard the reports that Florida Governor Ron Desantis said that he would "start slitting throats on day one when it comes to taking on the 'deep state'." That's radicalized language, sensational appeal to the extreme.

I don't think I would have been more shocked, or absolutely disgusted, if he had taken off all of his clothing and stood there stark naked.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/denying-constitutional-rights-to-some.html

There are a lot of political groups in this country, organized for the purpose of opposing rights for some Americans, mainly those whose lifestyle and personal beliefs they do not agree with, or that they think somehow has a reflection on the culture at large and they don't want to have to explain to their children, or perhaps worry that they might be influenced and take up that kind of lifestyle. Among many groups of Evangelical Christians, especially the Pentecostal and Charismatic branches, there's a belief that God is going to hold America accountable for allowing people who live, according to them, a sinful lifestyle, to have rights like everyone else.

That's bad theology, a twisted and inaccurate interpretation of the Bible, and its shocking to hear that coming from people who are supposed to be reflecting a whole different set of values than vengeful hatred of anyone they don't like. But it plays well behind the pulpit, to beat one's chest, decrying the sinfulness of the world and longing for the day when God destroys this country because its Christians haven't converted enough sinners.

And here we have, in the "Parents Defending Education," abhorrent, disgusting racism without the hoods and robes. Of course, one of the reasons the Klan wore those ugly things was to prevent being personally identified. These people, apparently, have lost that shame. They, fortunately, lost a lawsuit in which they were trying to overturn a school district bullying policy that punished students specifically for attacking and bullying people based on their race, religious beliefs, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Yes, parents wanting to remove bullying policy so there can be an open season on other children their own kids don't like.

nomination.

And there are people who think that there is equal treatment under law in America.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/scatter-shooting-with-random-thoughts.html

We live under a constitution that guarantees individual rights, including the right to a "speedy" trial by a jury of our peers, and under which we are considered innocent until proven guilty. But even if proven guilty of a crime, which involves a conviction and a sentence, unless that crime specifically involves an act of disloyalty to or rebellion against the United States of America, it does not disqualify the criminal from being elected, and from serving, at least in principle, as President of the United States. That is, in my opinion, a serious flaw in the constitution.

As much as we might think our society and our country would not elect someone to its highest office who is not of the highest level of integrity, that's just simply not the case. Even compulsory public education, which was aimed at providing an educated and informed electorate, does not preclude the election of a tyrant. We looked down our noses as the fledgling democracy in Germany failed to prevent the rise to power of a demagogue dictator, who almost destroyed the whole world, and whose twelve years in power left Germany, and a good portion of the rest of Europe, in ruins, physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. We clicked our tongues, believing it couldn't happen here.

Then, Donald Trump got elected as President. That was partly the result of our quirky, antiquated, anti-democratic electoral college, a device born out of fear of the commander in chief somehow turning into a dictatorial monarch. But it was also the result of a breakdown of trust and of the age of technology making the spread of conspiracy theories about the "deep state" and a cult-like following developing around all of that nonsense. The political divide we face now can't be solved by reason, logic and rational thinking, because the far right has abandoned rational thinking and has been overcome by fear. I'm a rational thinker, at least, I hope that I am, so I have no way at all to relate to someone who is driven by fear and I cannot understand how someone can believe something that has no evidence or facts to support it, and which flies in the face of reason and reality. But his followers do.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/hold-defendant-for-trial.html

Isn't he a potential flight risk? A danger to the American people, who could decide to incite another insurrection? He's entitled to a speedy trial under the constitution, but his obfuscation slows things down, so this would prevent the delays.

As one of the collective "American people" who are the plaintiffs here, I am asking to hold the defendant for trial, for my safety and the security of my country.

Yeah, yeah I know, but it never hurts to say what you're thinking.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/08/hold-defendant-for-trial.html

There are three legitimate, legal reasons to do this, aside from the fact that it will show complete impartiality, and that this defendant will be treated like any other American, not with kid gloves because of who he is or was. We are a nation of laws, and respect for law and order is something to which all political sides lay claims. So treat him fairly and equitably under the law. Because of the risks he poses to the American people, and to showing up for the trial, lock him up.