Beirut - An Airport Where Departing Passengers Cannot Carry What We All Carry on Departing Flights

Beirut - An Airport Where Departing Passengers Cannot Carry What We All Carry on Departing Flights

Electronic Devices that are Open to External Signals Like Cell Phones and Pagers

“The center of gravity is moving north, meaning that we are allocating forces, resources and energy for the northern arena… We are at the start of a new phase in the war.” 

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, September 18th in an address to troops at an air base in northern Israel following a coordinated set of blasts from walkie talkies, pagers and cell phones with hidden explosives.

Over several days in mid-September, dozens were killed and thousands wounded in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon as their personal communications devices each exploded, in sequential simultaneous actions. Even three to five grams of RDX, PETN or DetaSheet, very powerful plastic explosives and the likely culprits, can produce a devastating blast, able to injure or kill anyone touching or near a device where such lethal material was contained. If a portable device is subject to receiving external radio waves, a simple malware adjustment to the device’s software, the ability to trigger a violent explosion is easy. The devices – from walkie talkies to pagers and cell phones – used to hold explosive material, almost certainly planted by Israel to take out Hezbollah operatives – were mostly originally manufactured years ago, outsourced or “adjusted” by intervening manufacturers, most probably based in Hungary.

Japanese and Taiwanese companies, that are the normal manufacturers and suppliers of such devices, disavowed that the devices used were infected directly supplied by them. “The pagers were from a shipment of 3,000 that Hezbollah says they ordered from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company. But Gold Apollo says they were actually made by BAC Consulting, a company based in Hungary, and that the Taiwanese firm merely licensed its design and trademark.” Vox.com, September 18th.

Apparently, Gold Apollo authorized “BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC,” per a statement released by them. Formed in 2022, BAC seemed at the heart of it all. CEO and sole listed owner Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono told NBC that she knew nothing about the explosions. “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," she said.

Stories of innocents, like the death of a little girl carrying a buzzing pager to her father, are everywhere. Lots of Hezbollah soldiers were also injured or killed. Hezbollah had switched to pagers when they realized that Israel was using GPS from cell phones to track and kill Hezbollah leaders. It was bad enough when we face Lithium-Ion battery fires from ordinary components… but now they are being laced with high explosives that are intended to kill or maim. Israel was used to winning against these extremists and their sponsor, Iran, but is now beginning to face a leveling playing field where its military victories are not so simply achievable… as Gaza reflects.

Israel has faced various levels of missile and artillery strikes from Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon over the years, resulting in an intolerable and escalating conflict between Israel’s IDF and Hezbollah. In the fall of 2023, Hezbollah mounted massive barrage against northern Israel in sympathy with Gaza… and of course, the IDF retaliated. But this time, Israel did not simply “win.” As Hezbollah forces pushed IDF back, the situation stalemated, which reflected the status until the pager attack.

Now, retaliation is on the books; the US intelligence agencies, the Departments of State and Defense are warning of the rising probability of a full-on regional war. As the above quote suggests, Israel is obviously refocusing on Hezbollah in Lebanon as its efforts in Gaza have been far less than Israel leaders predicted. Hostages remain in peril with no viable endgame planned.

The uber-miscreant, Iran, has upped its game and technology. As its ties with Russia deepen, so has Iran’s expertise in manufacturing increasingly state-of-the-art high-speed missiles and artillery shells, with increasing targeting accuracy. And Iran has supplied Hezbollah with thousands of missiles, including a sizeable contingent of those new and very effective missiles.

With Israel’s recent executions of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, directly inside Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, Iran has also pledged a major retaliation against Israel. Things could go south very fast for all concerned, but the big worry is that this become a full-on regional war, where the US is seen as an active party for supplying Israel with a substantial portion of its military equipment and munition base, including essentials for Israel’s famous “iron dome” missile defense system.

“Even before the hundreds of widely dispersed [page and walkie talkie] detonations, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told other senior Pentagon officials in a [recent] meeting that he feared Israel could soon launch an offensive, after months of back-and-forth rocket and air attacks with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia group that controls much of southern Lebanon.

“U.S. alarm about a possible invasion has intensified since the brazen attacks in Lebanon. ‘I am very concerned about this spiraling out of control,’ a senior defense official said, echoing comments since Tuesday by other Pentagon aides… Israel’s military moved a division of commando and paratrooper soldiers to the north in recent days from the southern part of the country, after it had operated for months in Gaza, according to a person familiar with the matter. The division consists of thousands of soldiers.” The Wall Street Journal, September 19th.

Having lived in Lebanon, as the teenaged stepson of a US diplomat stationed at the US Embassy in Beirut, I see and feel pain from both sides. There was a time when local Lebanese wanted normalized relations with Israel… but times have changed. After the years of civil war, most of Lebanon seemed anxious to restore normalcy. Restaurants reopened, music poured from rooftop clubs, beaches reopened… but Iran, Syria and regional extremists had other ideas. So many talented and educated Lebanese have left, and even the prized American University of Beirut (with its most excellent medical school and hospital) is facing an uncertain future. The people are mostly ready for peace, but outsiders – mostly centered on Iran – have returned Lebanon to a strife-torn nation.

Lebanon’s form of government – “confessionalism,” where designated religious sects are granted exclusive and sacrosanct roles in government even with free elections – keeps the same-old/same-old families (from those sects) in rotational shifts in top governmental roles. If change is necessary, this familial rotation guarantees that it won’t happen. Corruption and massive outside interference have a safe haven in this beautiful land. Iran and Syria are most aware.

I’m Peter Dekom, and American missteps in the region – empowering Shiite controlled Iran by helping it grow in places like Shiite Iraq (we eliminated Sunni control) – have created a monster that grows stronger every day.

Things in America that Go Bump in the Night… and Daytime Too

 

Things in America that Go Bump in the Night… and Daytime Too

Like Big Pick-up Trucks and SUVs

Americans are railing at higher prices at the pump, though they have moderated of late. Yet we pay less than the $7.50 to $8.25 a gallon in Europe by a long shot. And even electric trucks in the United States are really heavy, with some of those larger electric trucks tipping 9,000 lbs. But like many reluctant gun buyers – “hey, I hate guns, but there are so many out there, I need one to protect myself” – Americans are prone to buying bigger cars simply to be safer as they drive in a world of lots and lots of bigger cars. The September 5th The Economist calls our startling higher death toll from car crashes “car-nage”… with good reason, as I will point out later.

But this consumer preference has had an interesting impact on the US car market. Writing for the May 13th FastCompany.com, David Zipper penned a piece under a title that says it all: Detroit killed the sedan. We may all live to regret it. “[In early May,] General Motors announced that it would end production of the Chevrolet Malibu, which the company first introduced in 1964. Although not exactly a head turner (the Malibu was ‘so uncool, it was cool,’ declared the New York Times), the sedan has become an American fixture, even an icon, appearing in classic films like Say Anything and Pulp Fiction. Over the past 60 years, GM produced some 10 million of them…

“With the Malibu’s demise, GM will no longer sell any affordable sedans in the U.S. In that regard, it will have plenty of company. Ford stopped producing sedans for the U.S. market in 2018. And it was Sergio Marchionne, the former head of Stellantis [which now owns Jeep/Dodge/Crysler], who triggered the headlong retreat in 2016 when he declared that Dodge and Chrysler would stop making sedans. (Tesla, meanwhile, offers two sedans: the Model 3 and Model S.).” As all-electric cars were stumbling around looking for charging stations, the number of small cars did not increase, but hybrids have now become the new chic.

Zipper continues: “Where does the shift from sedans toward SUVs and trucks leave everyday Americans? With a strained wallet, for one thing. With its MSRP starting at $25,100 the Malibu has been one of the most affordable U.S.-produced cars, costing barely half as much as the average new vehicle, which exceeded $47,000 in February (the Malibu is also at least a few thousand dollars cheaper than the Bolt that will replace it at the Kansas factory).

“Especially when factoring in higher interest rates and spiking insurance premiums, cars are becoming a financial strain for many Americans. According to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average annual, inflation-adjusted cost of owning a vehicle and driving it 15,000 miles hit $12,182 in 2023, an increase of over 30% in just six years.

“Over time, the elimination of sedans leaves the Big Three vulnerable if consumer preferences shift away from enormity. ‘Legacy car companies haven’t done a great job of thinking long term,’ said Alex Roy, a cohost of the Autonocast podcast. ‘Gutting lineups is probably good for manufacturing efficiency, but not having one vehicle in a given product segment is short-sighted.’”

Not to mention that by comparison to car crash fatalities in Europe, with bigger vehicles, American roads have become literal killing fields: “THE NEXT time you are stuck in traffic, look around you. Not at the cars, but the passengers. If you are in America, the chances are that one in 75 of them will be killed by a car—most of those by someone else’s car. Wherever you may be, the folk cocooned in a giant SUV or pickup truck are likelier to survive a collision with another vehicle. But the weight of their machines has a cost, because it makes the roads more dangerous for everyone else. The Economist has found that, for every life the heaviest 1% of SUVs or trucks saves in America, more than a dozen lives are lost in smaller vehicles. This makes traffic jams an ethics class on wheels.

“Each year cars kill roughly 40,000 people in America—and not just because it is a big place where people love to drive. The country’s roads are nearly twice as dangerous per mile driven as those in the rest of the rich world. Deaths there involving cars have increased over the past decade, despite the introduction of technology meant to make driving safer.

“Weight is to blame. Using data for 7.5m crashes in 14 American states in 2013-23, we found that for every 10,000 crashes the heaviest vehicles kill 37 people in the other car, compared with 5.7 for cars of a median weight and just 2.6 for the lightest. The situation is getting worse. In 2023, 31% of new cars in America weighed over 5,000lb (2.27 tonnes), compared with 22% in 2018. The number of pedestrians killed by cars has almost doubled since 2010. Although a typical car is 25% lighter in Europe and 40% lighter in Japan, electrification will add weight there too, exacerbating the gap between the heaviest vehicles and the lightest. The Ford F-150 Lightning weighs around 40% more than its petrol-engine cousin, because of the battery that moves all those lithium ions from cathode to anode.” The Economist. By the way, that Tesla Cybertruck is 7,000 lbs., and the Hummer EV is 9,000 lbs.

I’m Peter Dekom, and with the proliferation of AR-15 style assault weapons and oversized passenger pick-ups and SUVs, we know one true thing that Americans seem to do best: killing each other and ourselves.

Saintly Elmo’s Fire

Saintly Elmo’s Fire

“The world is burning, Elmo. No amount of tickles can fix this.” X user who goes by Not the Bee

It started out as a response to a post on X back in January, where Sesame Street’s Elmo just asked folks how they were doing. There were tens of thousands of replies like the one above. To Sesame’s Street’s social media manager, Christina Vittas, this was an opportunity to open “up conversations about the serious mental health crisis in our country.” As noted by Karen Kaplan in the August 19th Los Angeles Times, “Six months later, Elmo’s creators at Sesame Workshop have collaborated with the Harris Poll to conduct a more thorough check-in on the state of Americans’ mental health. They conducted 2,012 online interviews in May on an array of topics with a nationally representative sample of Americans ages 16 and up… The resulting State of Well-Being Report was released this [August].”

Behind the television character is a genuine non-profit Sesame Workship, and this inaugural joint effort with the Harris Poll, was reflective of family concerns that impact young children more than many adults understand. Kaplan continues: “When Elmo tweeted, ‘Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?’ on social media, the consensus was clear: people are struggling. Leveraging its five-decade history of addressing the most pressing needs of children and families, Sesame Workshop—the global impact nonprofit behind Sesame Street—partnered with The Harris Poll to shed light on the mental health crisis, launching a first-of-its-kind index on the state of well-being in America.

“The inaugural study found that Americans view mental health and education as on par with economic stability. When asked what we should prioritize for the future well-being of our country, Americans indicated that economic stability isn’t enough—and is not alone as a top priority—but must be accompanied by investment in mental health and education. Parents are particularly affected – 1 in 3 say their or their family’s well-being is negatively impacted by mental health issues, and 61% say their family is still experiencing negative effects from the pandemic.”

Simply, most Americans don’t actually know when or by how much they are having diagnosable mental issues, minor or major, in a world filled with normal stress plus recent extremely abnormal (at least when compared to the relatively recent past) factors. Or how they just might be making life worse for their families and neighbors. These realities, which earlier generations did not have to face, include a toxic social media pandemic, climate change, a new polarized political world where we seemed to have legitimized personal insults (exacerbated by the anonymity of social media) and have elevated blame to a fine art. Are our children learning how to communicate with their heads bent forward on their smartphones? Do parents know how to communicate back with this army of neck-benders?

“Americans say getting honest about mental health and asking for help are critical steps to improving the state of well-being today. Sixty-seven percent of all Americans, with those numbers going up to 79% of parents, agree, ‘I wish my parents had been more honest with me about their mental health struggles’—suggesting that today’s parents are looking to break the silence around mental health with their own children. The study also found stark generational differences around attitudes towards mental health: 82% of Gen Z and Millennials agree, ‘I wish I had been taught more about how to understand and manage my emotions as a child,’ compared to 65% of respondents from older generations. That number jumps even higher to 84% of parents, signaling a major generational shift around the appreciation of speaking openly and honestly about emotional well-being from a young age.

“Half of Americans describe the average American child as anxious, with a sizable number experiencing negative impacts to their well-being due to mental health issues, said Jill Crane, Vice President of Consumer Insights, Sesame Workshop. ‘As an organization grounded in research and focused on impact, this new index will allow us to keep a pulse on the well-being of Americans and their families and make a meaningful contribution to our collective understanding of what drives well-being today.’

“And there is reason for hope: Americans see kindness and resilience as pathways to improving well-being. Strong majorities of Americans say it’s important for society to promote kindness (85%) and resilience (83%), with over a third (42% and 35%, respectively) saying it’s extremely important. Eighty-two percent agree, ‘My well-being would improve if society was kinder’—increasing to 89% when asked about children. Seventy-two percent agree, ‘My well-being would improve if I had the tools to be more resilient’—increasing to 88% when asked about children.” Kaplan. Actually, it seems when pressed, especially one-on-one, most Americans are actually pretty nice and decent. We need to remember that when tempted to feel otherwise. We probably didn’t need Elmo to set us straight… but maybe we did.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while some people at the top deserve those nasty epithets, most of us would do a whole lot better with true communication skills reflecting genuine feelings, empathy, listening more and avoiding words and phrases that pass negative judgment on others.

The Disengagement of the Rich, the Role of "Woke" in Education and Lawyers vs Voters

 

There are so many variables infecting voter choices, even outside of the diehard adherents behind each major party. Let’s start with the detachment of those with high net worths or those making at least $200,000/year. According to a Yale University study (Affluence and the Demand-side for Policy Improvements: Exploring Elite Beliefs About Vulnerability to Societal Problems), published on July 29th based on extensive surveys:

“An important stylized fact about American government is that many societal problems persist despite expert recognition that better outcomes are technically feasible. What explains the weakness of the political demand for more effective public policies? This study investigates one factor that may contribute to the attenuated demand for policy improvements: namely, the belief among many affluent citizens that they are personally insulated from societal problems. Drawing on a national public opinion survey, we show that affluent Americans believe their resources and ability to activate powerful social networks affords them a measure of personal insulation from key problems in areas such as education, healthcare and neighborhood safety. We also find that the affluent express a more optimistic view than other respondents of the average citizen’s financial situation and capacity to manage problems in several domains. Taken together, our results have important implications for understanding how highly influential Americans think about public policy in an era of inequality.”

Simply put, wealthy Americans can live behind guarded gates, can get any medical need fulfilled even if they have to travel to get there, and can afford private schools for their children. Abortion, good public schools, healthcare, and public safety are at best secondary issues for them. They can buy their way out of those threats. For those who only care about money, they will vote for anyone championing low taxes and minimal if any financial or environmental regulation. Otherwise, voting can be extremely optional. That society be may severely polarized and crumbling around them is “not my problem,” even though a highly unstable society is a very real threat to their wealth… and perhaps even their survival.

What’s more, too many Americans really do not believe in bona fide science. Ryan Summers, writing for the North Dakota Monitor (September 3rd), a periodical in a deep red state, calls it as it is: “Scientific theory has had a rough time in America’s public schools… Almost 100 years ago, science teacher John Scopes was convicted of violating a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. Although his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 1927, laws banning classes on Darwin’s theory stuck around for another 40 years. They were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968.

“Over the past few decades, conservative or religious groups that object to including the theory of evolution in science classes have tried a different approach . Now, they argue , if the ‘scientific’ theory of evolution is taught, other views, such as ‘intelligent design’ – a stand-in for creationism – should also be taught …. The approach is not limited to evolution . Legislatures across the country are proposing or passing laws that purport to encourage scientific discussion, but instead encourage students to treat established, scientific theories as equivalent to ideas that lack scientific study .

“In 2012, legislators in Tennessee – the same state where the Scopes trial took place nearly a century ago – approved a law that obligated teachers to present the ‘scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories.’ What constituted a scientific ‘strength’ or ‘weakness’ was not defined… Similar bills were introduced in North Dakota in 2019 and Oklahoma in 2023 . If the Oklahoma bill passes, teachers will be encouraged to explore scientific theories in class and to help students ‘analyze certain scientific strengths and weaknesses.’

“And a new law in West Virginia allows teachers to discuss or answer ‘questions from students about scientific theories.’ The bill’s author, state Sen. Amy Grady , said the law is about ‘encouraging students to think, encouraging students to ask questions and encouraging our teachers to be able to answer them.’” Red state school districts are keeping their students from learning about subjects they need to succeed, from accurate history, award-winning literature referencing the challenges of minorities and even science.

Those that stand behind these “anti-woke” statutory mandates are gathering lawyers and money to challenge what increasingly seems like a potential loss for Donald Trump in November… and they’ve got GOP backing for the expected challenges. A USA Today poll reported on September 3rd noted that 42% of Republicans do not believe the November vote count will be fair, and 27% will deny any result that does not elect Trump… “The consequences of the strategy could be dire. John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, who spoke at the Democratic national convention in August in support of Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, said that former president Trump and his allies ‘will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’, if Trump loses… He added: ‘They’ll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I’d be surprised if Trump doesn’t try to foment insurrection if he loses the election.’

“Twin drives by Trump and Maga allies echo some falsehoods from 2020 about fraud due to voting machines and drop boxes, but now promote Trump’s conspiratorial attacks on federal and state prosecutors who filed criminal charges against him for trying to subvert his loss in 2020, and push baseless claims that noncitizens are poised to vote in large numbers… Turning Point USA, for instance, has touted a multi-million dollar drive to get out more votes for Trump in key swing states, while holding a few big rallies for Trump where bogus claims are still being made that the 2020 election was rigged, and new fears are being raised about potential fraud this year” Peter Stone, The Guardian UK, September 3rd. Culling voter rolls and using voter suppression before the election are just the beginning. The RNC and local GOP groups are already engaging lawyers and raising financing across red and swing states to mount a battle royal if Trump fails.

But even in blue states, diehard MAGA supporters have poured money into local elections to defy the states’ blue majority. In California, Huntington Beach and Solvang are extremely red. In liberal Washington State, two rural communities in Clallam County were overwhelmed by far-right radicals before the normally non-voting majority woke up to the MAGA threat. “From the presidential election to the insurrection at the Capitol, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are usually portrayed as a national news story. But the impact it's had on local politics is just as serious — and often quite devastating. Taking advantage of the low turnout at local elections, QAnoners, election deniers, and anti-vaccination extremists have been able to gain power on city councils and school boards, where they often proceed to wreak havoc on the local community.” Amanda Marcotte, in the September 3rd Salon. With millions and millions of dollars, cadres of lawyers and powerful elected MAGA officials will do whatever it takes to “reelect” Trump.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while too many voters still believe that November will just be one more “issues oriented” election, the rising propensity of severely “my way or the highway” MAGA groups to use any means, whether legal or not, to reelect an avowed autocrat to the presidency should alarm us all.

There’s No Crab Like No Snow Crab Anymore

There will be a continuing period of complex and often unpleasant adjustment as climate change reconfigures life in every place on Earth. A whole lot of species (plants and animals) will continue to disappear, parts of the planet will disappear or simply become uninhabitable, while others may benefit. Methane-releasing melting permafrost (tundra) may accelerate the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Ozone, but countries at or near the Arctic Circle may just discover vastly more farmland and easier access to minerals and fossil fuels frozen for millennia. While it may spawn some nasty military confrontations – Russia has built the largest number of vessels (many state-of-the-art icebreakers, military, civilian and more than a few nuclear powered) designed to operate in the evolving “northwest passage” as ice melts away. A shortcut for military and cargo vessels… and a visual feast for cruise lines with the right ships. But there is a catch, perhaps the deadliest catch.

For the most part, this current accelerating climate change threatens to become the most expensive, life altering, shift since Homo Erectus and Homo Neanderthalensis evolved into Homo Sapiens, the tail of the Ice Age and Little Ice Age included. The cycle of life has become seriously altered for plant and animal life which are unable to adapt. As a result, many species are finding their habitat decimated, their food chain altered to the point of starvation, or the change in temperature moving new predators into regions and waters that were once too hostile for them to survive. Extinction is a very good description of what those life forms face, with no real way to change their human-caused devolving environment. Does it also describe mankind’s future?

There are millions of little stories of disappearing species, and while such abstract descriptions are unemotional and sanitized visions of agonizing starvation, defenseless creatures facing new predators they have never seen before and finding no place to reproduce and rear their young. So, when I write about yet one more “canary in the coal mine” event below, is this just another version of same old/same old… or should we begin to see these changes as dire warnings, even beyond the floods, wildfires, mega-storms, coastal erosion, desertification and searing heat that arrive today with increasing frequency and intensity?

You cannot vote out the laws of physics, enjoin nature’s rages, sue the sharks for moving into your beachy fun zones or believe you can build enough ocean barriers, stronger buildings, and control this awesome and awkward accumulation of climate change horribles. Sorry MAGA voters. Sorry campaign-contributing mega-corporations that refuse to pay for what they caused. And sorry to all the politicians who believe the pablum of their lies will do the trick and keep them in office. So, for today’s example, it is time to get our Berings Strait. Over what is supposed to be a $277 million segment of the Alaskan fishing industry.

Writing for the August 21st CNN News, Rachel Ramirez tells us: “Fishermen and scientists were alarmed when billions of crabs vanished from the Bering Sea near Alaska in 2022. It wasn’t overfishing, scientists explained — it was likely the shockingly warm water that sent the crabs’ metabolism into overdrive and starved them to death… But their horrific demise appears to be just one impact of the massive transition unfolding in the region, scientists reported in a new study released Wednesday [8/21]: Parts of the Bering Sea are literally becoming less Arctic.

“The research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found warmer, ice-free conditions in the southeast Bering Sea — the kind of conditions found in sub-Arctic regions — are roughly 200 times more likely now than before humans began burning planet-warming fossil fuels… The study underlines ‘how much this Bering Sea ecosystem has already changed from what it was even within the lifetime of one snow crab fisherman,’ said Michael Litzow, lead author of the study and the director for Alaska’s Kodiak lab for NOAA Fisheries… It also suggests ‘we should anticipate many more [very warm] years,’ he said, while truly Arctic conditions — cold, icy, treacherous — will be few and far between.

“Snow crabs, a cold-water Arctic species, thrive overwhelmingly in areas where water temperatures are below 2 degrees Celsius, though they can physically function in waters up to 12 degrees Celsius… A marine heat wave in 2018 and 2019 was especially deadly for the crabs. Warmer water caused the crabs’ metabolism to increase, but there wasn’t enough food to keep pace… Billions of crabs ultimately starved to death, devastating Alaska’s fishing industry in the years that followed…

“The decline of the Alaskan snow crab signals a wider ecosystem change in the Arctic, as oceans warm and sea ice disappears. The ocean around Alaska is now becoming inhospitable for several marine species, including red king crab and sea lions, experts say.

“A warmer Bering Sea is also ushering in new species, threatening those that have long lived in its treacherous, cold waters like the snow crab… Normally, there is a temperature barrier in the ocean that prevents species like Pacific cod from reaching the crabs’ extremely cold habitat. But during the 2018-2019 heat wave, Pacific cod were able to go to these warmer-than-usual waters and ate a portion of what was left of the snow crab population.” So, this could just be “one of those tree-hugger stories” that proliferate left-leaning mass media… or it could be akin to getting a serious medical diagnosis from your doctor… and ignoring it.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you vote for keeping things exactly the way they are, it is at your personal peril… because you will only ensure that things will do anything but stay remotely the way they are today.

Tax Cuts for the Rich as the American Dream Fades Away?

 

“We’re going to bring back a thing called the American dream.” 

Donald J. Trump

If you are in the American working or middle class, as costs of every conceivable basic – from food to transportation to housing to childcare – have reached unsustainable levels, you may be feeling what most of us feel: the American dream no longer exists, rising generations will live with more problems and lower quality of life standards than their parents, stability and hope are seen heading for the exits… unless that silver spoon is in your mouth or you simply luck out. European cities, on a crowded continent that has roiled in wars and revolutions for centuries, have relegated most of their residents to “renters.” The United States seems headed in that direction.

Even as candidates pledge to level the cost of living, there are elements over which even the President of the United States cannot find simple solutions. So much of this nation’s policies are predicated on the definitively false premise of giving the rich tax policies that return more money into their pockets will trickle down to the rest of us; more good jobs will be created, and the reduced tax base will made up for by means of taxes on those with those better jobs. This “incent the job creators” mythology has NEVER EVER WORKED. Rich folks didn’t get that way by hiring lots of people at good pay when they get a tax windfall. Yet half the country still believes this consistently disproven premise.

Presidents also do not have control over global shortages, supply chain challenges that emanate far from our shores or even interest rates that are uniquely controlled by a very independent Federal Reserve. Instability from climate change and wars in other nations contribute to this mess. Tariffs might seem like a good idea, until you realize that the primary victims are US consumers of the relevant goods, who pay the higher prices. And since the purchase of necessary consumer goods takes up a vastly larger share of working- or middle-class budget than a budget from a millionaire’s allocated cost of living, tariffs are a very cruel regressive tax on everyone but the rich.

Another huge price factor is that if companies can pass higher costs to consumers, hard dollar profits that calculated as percentage of the total purchase price soar when costs soar. The percentage may remain the same, but hard dollar profits rise upwards. Companies can play games like shirking the size of the package by charging the same price, but you can see that conservatives, running capital markets and those huge companies, are apparently devoid of empathy and incapable of self-regulation. So today, I would like to visit this urban transition from owning to renting primary residences to the rather clear price gouging for basic necessities, like food. Should we simply alter the definition of the American dream and pretend it still exists? If you look at MAGA policies, you know Trump’s pledge above is an empty promise.

Writing for the September 7th New York Times, Anna Kodé explains: “The American dream symbolizes many abstract ideals: hard work, assimilation, equal opportunity. But for generations it has meant one particular path in life: Get a job, save up for a down payment, and achieve the fairy-tale ending of domestic bliss and monthly mortgage payments.

“Now, though, with soaring housing costs — along with student loan debt and inflation — homeownership is becoming increasingly inaccessible for young Americans. As of June, according to Redfin, nearly one in 10 homes in the country were worth $1 million or more — a share that more than doubled since June 2019. And as prices rise, people are becoming first-time homeowners later in life. In a 2023 report from the National Association of Realtors, the median age for a first-time home buyer was 35. In 1981, it was 29… Even before the current housing crisis, people have been arguing that the American dream was disappearing, deteriorating, dying or dead. But perhaps it is simply changing.

“Over the past month, I’ve been speaking with millennials and zoomers across the country to learn how they think about the American dream. My survey was nonscientific, but it dovetailed with recent polling: Many of the people I spoke with expressed how today’s exorbitantly high prices have made homeownership feel unattainable, and that in such an uncertain world — plagued by pandemics, political turmoil, war, climate change and other disasters — it felt foolish to pinch pennies for the goal of one day buying property. Instead, many young people are placing more value on community and family, growing their wealth in other ways, or spending more on everyday pleasures.

“When the concept of the American dream first emerged, it was meant to be an ideal for people to mold into whatever fit their lives. Over time, it became a more rigid model, cementing homeownership at its core. Now, young Americans have been forced into a turning point for the American dream, one that might not have a house in it at all.” With student debt factored into the equation, with inflation corrected tuition running at a 3+ multiple over what their parents paid, even the notion of younger Americans’ investing in asset-building is a stretch.

How about that price-gouging that Kamala Harris is talking about? MAGA claims it is due to bad policymaking, not greed. But what is the truth? Writing for the September 9th NPR, Alina Selyukh notes: “From February 2020 to this July, grocery prices grew a cumulative 25.6%. That's higher than overall inflation, which was 21.6% during that same period… It doesn't help that corporate executives have spent recent years touting their pricing power on calls with investors, like when the CEO of Cottonelle-maker Kimberly-Clark, Mike Hsu, said last year: ‘If the price goes up on bath tissue, generally doesn't mean you're going to use the bathroom less.’ Many makers and sellers of home and pantry staples have reported record profits…

“NPR crunched financial disclosures by a dozen of the largest grocery-item makers and sellers, including Walmart, Pepsi, Oreo-maker Mondelez and Procter & Gamble, which makes Pampers and Bounty… The idea was to track changes not in the sheer dollar amount, which rides the waves of our shopping sprees, but in the percentage of money that stays in corporate coffers after a sale. Economists and accountants use different metrics for this. The gross profit margin is one of them — the portion that companies keep after paying just the direct costs to make or stock their goods… Companies' financial disclosures cover global operations, meaning lots of variety in costs and prices. But for almost all companies that NPR analyzed, between 2018 and 2023 the [percentage-based] margins either declined or grew less than 1%...

“‘If supply is fixed and the buyers suddenly have more money, then prices are going to rise — and that's kind of what happened,’ said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. ‘There genuinely was an increase in costs, but then there was this extra margin on top. So the question is, how on earth did [retailers] manage to get away with that? That to me is the big issue.’… Only this year did brands including Pepsi and Nestlé begin noting pushback from shoppers. Walmart and Target have started promoting discounts and lower prices. The cost of ingredients and shipping has eased; wage growth has cooled. And so, many grocery prices have been declining, including those for cereal, cheese and fruit.”

You only have to remember that when costs go up, profits based on a percentage of costs go up too – even if that percentage stays the same. Wink. Wink. Corporate America hates it when consumers push back… but if they can so easily respond to those pushbacks, perhaps they were price gouging in the first place.

I’m Peter Dekom, and be wary of politicians’ pledging to slash the cost of living while pursuing policies that produce the opposite effect.

Truth, Lies, Media and Liberty – Irreconcilable Differences?

BY Guest contributor: PhD Behavioral Science Consultant & Research Specialist,.....(media/ethically trained journalist.), Fayr Barkley, MEd, DCH, PhD, DAC

My first media job came at age 20, after an internship with a CBS Network affiliate in a major capitol market. I ran camera, set overhead lighting, moved heavy sets, and managed sound. It was tough work, and I was the only female on the studio crew.

After the 10 pm newscast, I sat in the anchor chair on the news set and practiced reading news script that I tore off the AP Wire machine, a contraption the size of a kitchen waste can that continuously spat out news stories twenty-four hours a day. The guys in the control room obliged me by staying late and setting the studio camera on me so I could practice reading the news for the job I really wanted: television journalist and anchor. Each morning, I met with the general manager of the station, and he gave me feedback so I steadily improved.

Three months later, I was promoted out of the studio to a co-producing, co-anchor role on a five-day, live morning show. News, sports, weather, live interviews–much as you see today; that format hasn’t changed. We did entertaining fluff pieces to ease viewers at home into their hectic day. I worked hard for little pay, but I loved it.

At that time, aspiring broadcasters had to pass a challenging FCC exam to become legal, on-air anchors. It was not for the faint-hearted, and its complex technical content certainly was not taught in my school program. In journalism classes, we were trained to avoid bias and hearsay. Our job was to report facts, presenting all sides impartially. Ethics and the pursuit of truth were our guiding principles.

However, today, those principles are quickly fading. News has given way to advertising-driven ratings by way of escalating the “entertainment/lies over truth” factor and pandering to political parties–effectively becoming a public relations arm espousing only one view/one side of a story, allowing broadcasters to avoid standards of truth in favor of indoctrination. As long as the corporation claims their stories, editorials are for “entertainment,” they can present just about anything, free from accountability, which means free from speaking truth. This shift has replaced most journalists’ platforms with propaganda, fueling societal division. We have already seen the “this isn’t a news network, it’s an entertainment entity” defense used successfully in court.

Our country has fractured over gender, race, politics, religion. We’re paddling in different directions as we spiral toward extinction. This division prevents us from uniting against forces that control us, telling us what we want to hear. By staying divided, we enable those who seek to dominate.

What was once unacceptable is now celebrated as truth, a “new normal,” which means a forced delusion foisted upon us that we aren’t necessarily comfortable with, but gaslit and often shamed into embracing. We keep our mouths closed and dutifully march single file with the other sheeple, out of fear. This force-fed acceptance serves someone else’s controlling agenda, eroding others’ core beliefs and undermining traditional beliefs and dividing society while trying to convince us it’s done in the name of unity, equality, inclusion, and even “joy”–which was a Nazi key word under Hitler to rally people to support his agenda based upon emotions instead of based upon policy. We used to present all sides, and we trusted the public to make informed decisions. Now, division and manipulation reign, and our freedom to think independently diminishes.

In my search for truth, I seek out diverse sources, always look for evidence. Proof dwells in facts, not assertions, and certainly not in emotions. When ethics are lost in any industry, whether it is news, medicine, law, corporations, people suffer. Society suffers. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know who benefits at the peoples’ expense.

Though lying may now be the ‘new normal,’ it remains destructive. When we constantly redefine ‘normal,’ it loses its meaning, fracturing under competing, nefarious interests.

Accountability is essential to a functioning society. Transparency, a good moral compass, consequences, integrity, altruism cannot afford to be watered down or eliminated with the normalization of attributes that destroy society in favor of granting its leaders total dominion over individual and collective rights and freedoms.

Seek truth. Do not blindly trust information from media, acquaintances, or even close relatives. Everyone views the world through their own lens.

If you rely only on sensational headlines, you miss the full story. If you watch just one news source, you miss vital perspectives. If you ignore history and the decline of other nations, then you might not believe it could happen here. It can. It’s happening globally, and it’s coming for us.

This is not a political statement. It is an observation from my years as a journalist and my education as a PhD in psychology and knowledge of human behavior, media, and watching how things have been declining since my just-out-of-university days as a television journalist.

Consider all sides of an issue before drawing conclusions. The stakes are much higher than political opinion, as our future and freedom are at risk.

The choices we make today, whether guided by truth or lies, will shape our future lives and our freedoms or lack thereof.

Don’t be blinded by myopic one-issue needs, salacious headlines, hatred toward your fellow Americans, or your emotions. Look at what’s in the best interest of our country as a whole. Each of us benefits or suffers based upon our individual efforts to drill down to the truth and not blindly follow the herding efforts of the media/party/propaganda matrix.

History will be written by the winners, but who wins might not be what is best for us. To overthrow a government, one must dismantle the very rules set forth to preserve its society’s freedom. Do not allow that to happen.

I’m Fayre Barkley, and “The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the constitution.”– Thomas Jefferson

Christian Dissonance – Reconciling the Disharmony of Opposites

 

Christian Dissonance – Reconciling the Disharmony of Opposites

Ends-Means and Justifying the Unjustifiable?

I have already questioned the underlying doctrine behind the strong evangelical movement in support of Donald Trump, including my recent Fear, Loathing, Christianity and Polarization – Election 2024 blog. After watching the September 10th Harris/Trump debate and looking at the tsunami of post-debate polling results, his numbers with his base… and even with non-evangelical white males… held firmly. Even his references to non-existent pet-eating Haitians in Ohio and “retroactive” abortions – obviously absurdly and verifiably false – did not move the needle much to erode his base.

At first blush, this might seem as nothing more thandoing whatever needs to be done, without moral question, to end abortion, enhance white Christian nationalism and marginalize or destroy those who oppose those beliefs. After all, notwithstanding his recent failing efforts to pivot away from his direct responsibility for the reversal of Roe v Wade, profoundly damaging to the MAGA GOP, Trump is irretrievably linked to appointing the Supreme Court justices who made that possible. That alone might give evangelicals a willingness to support Trump no matter his obvious lunacy. But so many evangelical pastors and the majority of Trump supporting evangelicals, truly believe that Donald John Trump is the anointed one, chosen by God to rule, absolutely, the United States of America. That goes way beyond a simple end-means test.

The theories began circulating during Trump’s 2015/16 presidential campaign, and rallied millions of evangelicals into his base. The various alternatives arose justifying this seeming deification of Trump, but one particular approach seemed to dominate. “Evangelical thinker Lance Wallnau then gives [reporter Chris] Mitchell his take [on where Trump’s “connection” to God came from]: Trump is a ‘modern-day Cyrus,’ an ancient Persian king chosen by God to ‘navigate in chaos.’… Mitchell notes that some evangelicals disagree but does not name or cite them. Instead, he cites the growing threat of China, Russia, and Iran, before Wallnau concludes, ‘America’s going to have a challenge either way. With Trump, I believe we have a Cyrus to navigate through the storm.’

“The comparison comes up frequently in the evangelical world. Many evangelical speakers and media outlets compare Trump to Cyrus, a historical Persian king who, in the sixth century BCE, conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity, a period during which Israelites had been forcibly resettled in exile. This allowed Jews to return to the area now known as Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in which he appears as a figure of deliverance.” Tara Isabella Burton for the May 5, 2018 Vox.com. A motion picture (The Trump Prophecy released in the fall of 2018 on the Christian movie circuit – poster above), that provides historical and biblical “support” for this inane allusion, was wildly popular.

I’ve counted that Mr. Trump and his followers have broken eight of the Ten Commandments. Even as Trump survived an assassination attempt, it’s quite clear that MAGA has normalized political violence, often egged on by their “God Anointed” candidate. “In the past five years, a man walked into the House speaker’s home with a hammer and assaulted her husband; a young man upset about the Supreme Court’s direction turned up in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s neighborhood with a gun; a man showed up at a district office of Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia with a baseball bat looking for him and attacked two staff members; this year, someone lit the door of Bernie Sanders’s Vermont office on fire with seven staff members inside.

“The list goes on up to and including the many things that happened on Jan. 6, and the threats and harassment politicians, election officials and workers, judges and other public officials faced after Mr. Trump refused to concede the election and attacked political and legal efforts to hold him to account. This also leaves aside less targeted violence, like the carjacking attempt that took place near Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s home.

“Things can feel alarmingly precarious: What kept the shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice from turning into something much worse was the presence of Representative Steve Scalise, who suffered some of the worst injuries but also had an armed Capitol Police security detail who returned fire. Near Justice Kavanaugh’s home, the unwell young man with a gun never followed through, because his sister talked him into calling 911 on himself. Part of what made the attack on Paul Pelosi — which Mr. Trump has told jokes about — particularly harrowing is that Ms. Pelosi’s armed security detail was not there because she wasn’t there.” Katherine Miller, in the September 8th NY Times. Lambasting those you oppose as you cast the first stone in toxic judgment of others is the new “A-OK.” He eschews responsibility for his egregious behavior and statements and likes to blame anyone but himself for the consequences.

So unschooled pastors, now scared to defy the MAGA party line as un-Christian as it has become, continue to tow the party line. My above-referenced blog, however, illustrated what happens when pastors actually know and understand their faith. Trump’s deification cannot withstand these experts’ scrutiny. The only way to understand this mass willingness to face and deny reality is to analogize the group behavior as cultlike, a phenomenon that explains why so many Germans refused to reject Adolph Hitler as their cherished leader. Those who have broken out of cults, that they were firmly committed to, provides some slams of reality, exemplified by Carley Suthers in the August 14th Buzzfeed, that “no matter how devout a person is, there can sometimes be a single turning point when one realizes they can no longer be a part of the faith they used to be so devoted to… “

Including, going through a severely traumatic event but being told it was your fault because you are a sinner. Perhaps it is a scandal involving the religious leader. Living with the harsh premature death of a loved one and being told “it’s part of God’s larger plan.” Maybe, it’s a hard-stop conflict between your own moral values and what you are being told to do. Or when you are helping someone trying to understand why they (you?) believe the words of your faith… and you can’t.

Whatever the reason, large flocks of evangelicals, led by pastors of questionable values, still seem unable to apply their values to Donald Trump. He can be convicted of multiple crimes, indicted for many more, a substantial cadre of his inner circle have also been convicted of serious crimes, he has been found liable for lying (fraud) to both lending banks and governmental taxing authorities, proven in court to have “raped” at least one woman, recorded on an open mike of how he is able to take some absurd non-consensual sexual liberties with attractive women, and since the beginning of his presidential term, there have been an alarming number of events where Trump has used unsubtle words (vermin, bloodbath, mass arrests of political opponents, flattering descriptors for racists, murderous rightwing militia and foreign dictators) … to rally (stir-up?) his gathered followers.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the weakness of the US Constitution, drafted by men who wrongfully believed that only men of good moral character would be drawn into those designated elected offices, is dramatically illustrated by a man who violated some of the most basic mores of his nations while president, got impeached, indicted and then convicted and with this track record has no barriers to running for second term.

Fear, Loathing, Christianity and Polarization – Election 2024

 

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.” 

 Donald Trump, posted September 7th on Truth Social, threatening his opponents.

For civil servants, believing Trump’s threats to reclassify them out of the Civil Service and into the ranks of “at will” employees to be terminated, including those in administrative agencies (like the Department of Education) that will be eliminated, to federal law enforcement officials (like the FBI) whose agencies Trump promises to defund, to minorities who look like people who should be rounded up, detained and quickly deported by the millions, to women crossing state lines who need access to reproductive medical care not available in their home state, to dedicated educators often with decades of experience who teach subjects unpopular with one rightwing group or another, to journalists facing arrest by Trump operatives because they do not tow the “right thinking” line required by Trump’s MAGA forces, to consumers who know that it is they (not foreign nations) who will bear the price rises that always follow US tariffs on foreign goods, to seniors on Social Security and Medicare who are sacrificial lambs needed to support further tax cuts for the rich… and the list flows like a great river, picking up more water from the litany of contributing tributaries… their future if Trump gets elected is indeed terrifying.

So, take a look at the Ten Commandments above, which in one form (Old Testament for Christians) or another (Torah for Jews) are the ethical and moral building blocks of those faiths. Yet I see four commandments on each panel that Donald Trump and his followers have violated, often flagrantly. A very large segment of those followers calls themselves “evangelical Christians,” but their words and behavior – supported by mandates from their fiery ministers – are not even faint reflections of those most basic and sacred requirements. But as I blogged back on August 25th, (see that post: Not All Evangelicals are Trumpers), there are a rising number of rabbis, pastors and priests, deeply educated in biblical studies, who are raising their voices to stop this serious distortion, literally a rejection, of the most basic premises of their faith.

Most recently, a gathering of 300 evangelical ministers solidified their objection to this biblical mistreatment by those purported MAGA “Christians” who have distorted the Bible to suit their commitment to their neo-god, Donald Trump. Their written response, “Our Confession of Evangelical Conviction,” includes various statements by exceptionally well-regarded prelates, as summarized by Josh Shepherd in the September 9th The Roys Report, dedicated to “Reporting the Truth, Restoring the Church”: “The statement titled, ‘Our Confession of Evangelical Conviction,’ affirms seven core beliefs framed to reject ‘evangelical’ as a political, rather than theological, label. According to a press release, the statement ‘marks the largest and most unified evangelical effort in decades, bridging denominational and theological differences.’

“Skye Jethani, co-host of the popular Holy Post Podcast and lead author of the statement, said in a press call on Monday that the statement’s purpose is ‘to remind everybody of what our primary allegiance is. It’s to Christ and His gospel, to the values of His Kingdom.’… Jethani spoke alongside evangelical leaders from diverse ethnic and theological traditions. Organizers stated that members of thousands of evangelical churches, totaling over four million congregants nationwide, have been presented the statement and many have affirmed it.

“Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NALEC) and a pastor in Orlando, Florida, commented on how current politics has affected the pulpit. ​​‘We’ve seen church splits,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen pastors afraid to declare the truths of the Sermon on the Mount because it may be seen as too polarizing or political.’… Several speakers on the press conference emphasized how polarized political media has fostered fear among evangelicals.

“Dan Boone, president of Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee, talked about how media coverage has impacted his 100-year-old father, a World War II veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart… ‘I have watched his consumption of media across these last years literally steal the joy of a man who was a gentle Christian in every way,’ said Boone. ‘Now when I talk, nothing but fear pours forth from him.’… Similarly, best-selling evangelical author Karen Swallow Prior said, ‘There is so much fear in the political realm right now. As evangelicals, we have an opportunity to show what it is like to lead through love rather than fear.’”

Writing for the September 9th The Guardian (UK), Lucy Mangan, adds: [So many of Trump’s] “fans include rightwing Christians prepared to overlook the multiple marriages, being found liable for sexual abuse and assorted other events not in keeping with biblical recommendations because, as Frank López, a pastor, businessman and founder of the evangelical Iglesia Doral Jesus Worship Center in the Sunshine State, says: ‘He has a vision of America I like.’ ‘I feel God is with him,’ says another fervent Christian. ‘He fears the Lord.’ A video made by some of the 45th president’s supporters assures viewers: ‘God made Trump.’..

“The Latin American community he speaks to, which includes 36 million voters across the US, approve of Trump’s hardline approach to immigration. The host of a popular Hispanic radio show in Miami explains to [Trump documentarian Matt] Frei that many members come from countries ruined by dictators and they don’t want to see the same thing happen in the US and – although it’s not quite made clear how – they evidently consider that a Democrat win would increase the chances. Callers to the show cite their own contributions to society after coming here legally and are not welcoming to people who arrive illegally and whom they think will deplete the resources of their new home.

“Yareliz Méndez-Zamora, who works for the Florida Immigrant Coalition supporting recent arrivals to the US, says this is the result of Trump’s highly effective fear-based narratives (‘ ‘Sending their worst …’, ‘Poisoning the blood of this country’,’ she quotes. ‘There’s a lot of white nationalism’). Méndez-Zamora fears that a second term would see the beginnings of mass deportation, raids and further, deeper division between races and communities being sown by the president and his government.

“Over in Washington, Fiona Hill, an adviser on Russia to George W Bush, Barack Obama and Trump, calls Trump a canny politician who knows how to tap into people’s grievances and appeal to their worst instincts ‘instead of their better angels’, who ‘presided over an insurrection’, polarised the political system and is ‘an incredibly flawed candidate’. She believes a second pro-Putin term would be a disaster for Ukraine in particular and western security generally, in terms of an increased nuclear threat and the encouragement of Putin’s disregard for European borders.” The resulting headline: we needn’t just fear Trump in a second term… we need to be terrified.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as much as Trump rails against “cheating” at the ballot box, no group in the United States is doing more to eliminate voters who oppose Trump, before and after the election, in order to cement a Trump “cannot lose” result, than Trump’s MAGA faithful.

 Ready to Harvest on YouTube

Bolsonaro as an evangelical

Young couples in developed countries are not having children. Despite the efforts of the religious right’s efforts to purge abortions across the United States, the nation is experiencing a record rise in such pregnancy terminations. Mental stress is enveloping younger demographics; younger parents are feeling it more than ever, and there is a severe disconnect between macro-statistics (which tend to represent numbers where big, rich elements distort the average and the quantitive whole) and the life experience of average citizens (which reflect daily costs and basic wages). Even for those who decry the existence or the power of climate change, they know and feel in the back of their minds that something is happening. It’s hard to ignore killing heat, an increase in the intensity and frequency of wildfires, floods and powerful storms… but since they cannot figure it out, perhaps God will lend a hand.

Since finding solutions and learning to live with a profoundly difficult world often stumps even the best minds on the planet, it is not surprising that the answers for so many lie somewhere between the pledges of “say anything to get elected” candidates and the reliance on God to intervene. The deniers they hate the most are those who oppose those beliefs… and since perceived mandates from God do not require further justification, passion of faith becomes a path for extremism. Marginalizing the “vermin” who oppose them, recasting a particularly ugly part of our past as the glorious “good old days,” finding innocents to blame, becoming part of a massive movement with simple answers, ordered responsibility and outsourcing opinions to “higher sources” are part of that existential search for an anchor upon which they can rely and explain life … and just let go.

And while misery loves company, the Harris-Walz campaign seems to have found a counter to the above: the politics of joy and optimism, perhaps the only non-religious (but is it?) counter to the same old-same Trump litany of complaints, mostly personal vitriol, and the “worst [insert phrase, person or institution] in history” standard response that is getting severely worn and tiring. But for all his personal “charisma,” Donald Trump’s political instincts – at least when he was able to focus and not wander into tangents about his personal trauma – initially understood the fears of so many American traditional demographics, ordinary citizens who faced displacement, their own marginalization and a most basic fear of behind left out or left behind. This is hardly unique to the United States or simply a recent change. It’s been building for years. Everywhere.

So as an example, I will examine in a different nation, Brazil and its politics, with startling parallels to US politics. In Jordan Mintzer’s August 29th Hollywood Reporter’s review and summary of a film by Petra Costa, a Brazilian documentarian and past Oscar nominee, as she examines the volatile state of democracy in her homeland with the eye-opening exposé Apocalypse in the Tropics ( Apocalipse nos Trópicos ), a nation where evangelical fundamentalism now defines a once profoundly Roman Catholic nation: “[Costa] she focuses primarily on Silas Malafaia — a popular televangelist and key figure in the Assembleias de Deus Pentecostal church, who holds great sway over politicians on both the left and right in a country where evangelists represent over 30% of the population.

“With its portrayal of fundamentalist agitators, fake news purveyors, the very Trump-like [ex-president] Jair Bolsonaro, and, during an explosive finale, an attack on the country’s capital waged by hordes of insurrectionists, the similarities between events depicted in Tropics and recent U.S. history are uncanny, to say the least.

“But Costa goes further than simply making unspoken comparisons. She explores the history of evangelism to try and grasp how its apocalyptic visions managed to capture the hearts and minds of so many Brazilians. By doing so, she sheds light on a phenomenon present not only in Brazil and America, but in countries around the world where ‘faith in progress and democracy’ is currently being tested like never before…

“Costa cleverly uncovers how evangelism arrived on Brazil’s shores via the likes of Billy Graham and Henry Kissinger, who saw the increasingly left-leaning turn of the Catholic church in South America as a danger to U.S. interests. The new name of the game would be ‘Christ and capitalism,’ with fundamentalist pastors flooding Brazil and opening new churches across the land. By the time we arrive at the 2022 election, the country counts 50 million or more evangelists, who can no longer be ignored by any candidate running for office…

“It’s hard to tell if Bolsonaro, who gets baptized in the Jordan River to prove his Christian bona fides, is a true believer or strategically aligning himself with one of the nation’s most potent political forces. Either way, the people are soon referring to him as a ‘messiah’ — a reference to his actual middle name, Messias, as well as to his promises to save Brazil from the triple threats of corruption, communism and wokeism.

“The crusade against the former, resulting in the false imprisonment of Lula for nearly two years, backfires big time when it turns out the Bolsonaro-appointed prosecutors of the case were the actual corrupt ones. That — along with the president’s disastrous handling of the COVID crisis, where he told the people, ‘I’m a messiah, but I don’t do miracles,’ as his ill-prepared country took on the highest death toll outside the U.S. — spells Bolsonaro’s defeat to Lula during the latter’s comeback four years later.

“And yet, the many evangelical powers in play, whose apocalyptic visions of Christianity were inspired by an all-too-literal reading of the Book of Revelation centuries ago, and who see Jesus as a violent martyr rather than a figure of peace and brotherly love, do not take their electoral loss lightly. Taking cues from the Jan. 6 riots, they and other Bolsonaro supporters storm government buildings in the capital of Brasília and make their way into the Supreme Court, which they hold responsible for validating Lula’s victory — breaking windows, smashing statues and leaving the place trashed.” Yet Lula embraced the evangelical movement as well, a seeming essential in Brazilian politics these days.

But this embrace of these retro values has also seeped deeply into the American Roman Catholic community, where US priests are vastly more conservative than Catholic priests in general. “The number of priests who identify as progressive has nearly vanished, especially among those ordained after 2020, with more than 80% of them identifying as ‘conservative/orthodox’ or ‘very conservative/orthodox,’ according to a report by Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America.” Mariya Manzhos, writing for the August 31st Deseret News.

The experience of US architect Nicolas Charbonneau, who earned his degree with a focus on classical architecture, uniquely taught at the University of Notre Dame, is telling. Eschewing the progressive architecture of so many new churches and temples around the country, Charbonneau’s firm is in high demand these days, as conservatism seeps into that yearning for the past. “Working from Washington, D.C., he leads Harrison Design’s Sacred Studio, which focuses on designing traditional and classical churches. In the 10 years since Charbonneau launched the studio, it has seen an increase in commissions from all around the country for classical and traditionally designed churches, mainly in the Catholic tradition, a surprising development given the backdrop of declining church attendance and church closures…

“The influence of modernism as well as the Second Vatican Council, a series of meetings held between 1962 and 1965 that sought to modernize the Catholic church, gave rise to boxy, austere and futuristic-looking churches, which ultimately didn’t stand the test of time, Charbonneau said. In other faiths too, ornamentation and traditional styles were abandoned in favor of more experimental church designs.” Deseret News. Leading American candidates seeking higher office are increasingly making sure to associate with church services attendance and must show a clear affinity for Christianity, regardless of party, with many ending their speeches with, “May God bless America … and protect our troops.” Sincere? Manipulative? Or a bit of both. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while moral values reflected in most religions give many solace and direction, all too often they allow people refuse to take responsibility for their acceptance of toxic habits and work for a better world… and rely on those leaders who misuse faith simply to manipulate voters into sheep-like passivity.