A Year of Unbearable Ironies: 2024

I'm looking forward to the 250th Anniversary of US independence, to see how Trump and the MAGAts spin his rise to absolute power and fascistic policies while celebrating a revolution against (alleged) tyranny and for liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. I'm wondering how they will deal with the irony of such a celebration led by a president who is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and insurrectionist. Trump makes Benedict Arnold look like a guy who made a minor error of judgment.

2024 has been a pretty miserable year: War, famine, massacres, genocide, mass murders, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, floods, fires, increasing inequality, and violent assaults on human rights. It is of course, a leap year, and on November 5th, American voters took a leap -- into the abyss. We may look back on 2024 as "the good old days."

Irony is an enduring feature of the human condition, but our moment fairly drips with it. Politicians denounce war crimes and crimes against humanity, yet continue to allow arms sales to the perpetrators. Politicians vow to combat climate change, poverty, disease, and other ills, but do nothing. The world should be getting better, given our vast experience and knowledge, but it is getting worse. Another irony.  

Irony extends even to the dates of key elections, though this may be evident only to those who take an interest in history. This summer in the UK, the Tory (Conservative) Party Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, called a General Election. He had to call one in 2024, the law demanded it. But he could choose the date and he chose (gasp!) the 4th of July -- the day the American colonists declared independence from Britain! On July 4, 2024, UK voters declared independence from the Tories, who suffered a landslide defeat after 14 disastrous years in power. 

That gave me hope for the US, whose election (oh, irony!) was set by law for November 5th. That happens to be the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot in Britain. In 1603, a group of Catholic opponents of the Protestant regime of James I (and VI) concocted a plan to blow up Parliament and the king at its opening. The plot was discovered just in time. In Britain November 5th became known as Guy Fawkes Day after the plotter who planted the gunpowder under Parliament. 

A presidential election in the USA is always a leap into The Twilight Zone. But this election has out done all the previous ones in its fantastically outrageous mockery of the democratic process, not to mention its sheer lunacy and incompetence. 

If this campaign and election were the script for a dramatic film or TV series, producers would reject it out of hand as ludicrous. No one would believe it for a moment. Its only hope would be to rewritten as a comedic farce loaded with slapstick and infantile dialogue, a kind of political Beverly Hillbillies. How TV news presenters have been able to report on this election and keep a straight face is beyond me. They must have been well trained. It's a good year to be on radio.  

When was the last time a convicted felon with scores of outstanding indictments against him ran for president? This snake oil salesman, father of 10,000 lies and nearly as many illicit affairs, sold bibles (!) to the faithful to raise money for his campaign. The scenario drips with unintended irony. Trump doesn't read and certainly doesn't heed the GOOD BOOK. He's broken virtually every commandment on a daily basis. "His" bibles are produced in China, a country he has repeatedly threatened and condemned. But they are cheap and profits are good. Never mind that a bible is the one book you can get for free in the USA. Just visit your nearest motel and cop a Gideons. 

Trump supporters swear that GOD sent him to save America from satanic "libruls and commonists" who run pedophile rings out of pizza parlor basements and use an infernal machine to hurl hurricanes into red states. Somehow, this godlike savior didn't manage to come up with a way to save a million or so Americans from the Covid pandemic. Bleach didn't work. The US, with 4% of the world population, racked up 20% of the deaths. 

To MAGAts Donnie the Blessed is both savior and savvy, and most important, is opposed to gun control, the litmus test of their political leaning. He agrees with them that guns are not the problem, people are. The solution therefore appears to be eliminating people, because guns without people will not be a problem. Irony leaps at us again here, given his allegedly close encounter with a high-powered bullet at a rally in July. 

Another irony arises from the fact that Trump, a convicted criminal, ran against Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor. The felon won, which is all you need to know about the abject state of the USA as it heads into the 250th anniversary of its existence. How low has "the world's last, best hope" fallen? 

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America's Last King, George III, a Far Better Man than Trump.

The July 4th holiday in the US always produces some reflections on America's last king, George III. Most of them celebrate the overthrow of a tyrant, allegedly a mad tyrant at that. 

In recent years, such denunciations of King George have often been expressed by Americans who desire to get rid of Trump. "We removed the tyrant King George in 1776 and we'll get rid of tyrant Trump as well." Bravo, but comparing Trump to George III is a distortion of history. 

Americans succeeded in booting out George III in 1776. They have failed twice to get rid of Trump. Why would a people who  rejected George III 250 years ago accept a virtual tyrant with powers George never had and did not try to get? 

Do the apparent majority of Americans feel comfortable going to bed with a president the Supreme Court has declared immune from prosecution for his acts? Charles I claimed similar powers in 17th century Britain. It cost him his head.

As a historian of Georgian Britain, I reject the claim that George III was a tyrant. In my opinion, the evidence shows that Trump is incomparably worse as a leader and a man than King George was. 

George III had flaws, but an urge to despotism was not one of them. He was sometimes obstinate but he was not a narcissistic sociopath. He remained faithful to Queen Charlotte, his wife of 60 years and mother of his 15 children, poor lady. Unlike most monarchs, he never took a mistress. Maybe it would have been better if he had.

George considered himself a constitutional monarch and took his job seriously. He venerated the (unwritten) British constitution. Unlike Trump, he understood his country's constitution. His father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, ensured he had a solid education in a wide array of subjects, including  politics and constitutional law. As early as age eight George could discuss current politics in speech and writing, in both English and German. He also learned French and Latin. He was the first British monarch to be thoroughly educated in science. 

As king, he was a strong supporter of the sciences and arts. He gave a large portion of his income to charity. He amassed a library of more than 65,000 volumes, and opened the collection to scholars including Samuel Johnson and Joseph Priestley. The collection is now part of the British Library and belongs to everyone.

Frederick, who died before his father George II, prepared his son George to be a "Patriot King," ruling in the interests of his people. Frederick believed, correctly, that the Hanoverian dynasty needed to improve its public image, and he passed that belief on to his son. 

The first two Hanoverian kings were highly unpopular. They preferred their native Hanover to England and spent long periods of time there. Many British people referred to both of them as "German George." 

In contrast, George III was born in Great Britain and considered himself British. At his coronation in 1761, he made much of the fact. "Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Britain." He made it clear that Britain and its prosperity would be his first concern. He spent his life of 82 years in the country. [Image: George as Prince of Wales, by Jean Etienne Liotard, 1754]

Initially, George III had little to do with the actions that angered the American colonists. They were devised by the king's ministers and approved by Parliament. The king opposed some of them, notably the Stamp Act of 1765. Part of that was personal. He detested the architect of the Stamp Act, Prime Minister George Grenville. 

In 1766, George was able to push Grenville out. His successor, Lord Rockingham, repealed the Stamp Act with the help of the king and the popular William Pitt. The king's efforts were applauded in the colonies. New York City erected a statue in his honor. 

In the following year, Parliament re-asserted its right to tax the American colonies. The furor the new taxes (Townshend Duties) produced led to all but a tiny tax on tea being repealed. Leaving the tea tax in place was intended to maintain the principle that Parliament could levy taxes on the colonies. (Image: George III by Johan Zoffany, 1771)

The king supported Parliament's right to tax the colonies. But it was Parliament's right, not his. After the Civil War of the 1640s, British monarchs could not levy taxes. That was Parliament's prerogative. 

The Declaration of Independence blames George III rather than Parliament for the conflict that followed, probably because it was simpler than explaining the intricacies of the British political system. The result was a distortion of reality that has become a standard meme of American history.

The Declaration listed 27 grievances against the British government. Most of them began with "He has...", personalizing the conflict into one of the people versus an overbearing king. It is worth noting that perhaps as many as half of the colonists were Loyalists who supported the king's government during the war. 

George III was no warmonger. One of his first actions as king had been to bring an end to the Seven Years' War with France and Spain at a time when Britain was winning victories everywhere. 

It is true that once the American war had begun, he was determined that it end in British victory. He obstinately continued to support the war even after the disastrous British defeat at Yorktown (Oct. 1781), when most of his ministers urged him to give up. A few months later, he agreed and authorized peace negotiations.

Once independence was conceded he accepted, grudgingly, the new relationship with the former colonies. In 1785 he told John Adams, the first American ambassador to Britain, "I was the last consent to the separation; but the separation having been made ... I have always said, as I say now, I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power." 

George III is often referred to as Mad King George, and people persist in connecting his loss of America to insanity. The problem with this view is that he showed no symptoms of mental illness before 1788, five years after American independence.  

British rule in the colonies was often insensitive and infuriating. The frustrations were increased by the immense distance between Britain and America. But no colonies of the time were as loosely governed by an imperial country as the thirteen who declared independence in 1776. They were also highly prosperous.

 

The timing of the revolution had more to do with the removal of the French threat from North America in 1763 than any actions of George III or the British government. Before then, the colonists felt the need for British protection. After then, they didn't. That emboldened them to push for change in the relationship between mother country and themselves. British actions exacerbated an already difficult situation.

The change to independent status made sense, but explaining it as the result of the tyranny of George III is misplaced. In 1785, an American Quaker, Hannah Griffits, provided an interesting perspective on the results of the revolution: 

The glorious fourth -- again appears 

A day of days -- and year of years 

The sum of sad disasters 

Where all the mighty gains we see 

With all their boasted liberty 

Is only change of masters. 

(Image: George III by Allan Ramsay, 1762)

Further Reading: 

John Brooke, King George III (London: Constable, 1972)

Stanley Ayling, George the Third (London, 1972)

Jeremy Black, America's Last King, George III (New Haven; Yale University Press, 2006)

Andrew Roberts, George III (London: Penguin Books, 2023)

 

ALL Hail the God-King Donald! Sent by Heaven to save the USA!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present His Majesty and Savior, The God-King. The divine instrument of the Lord, chosen to lead America to the Promised Land of Dumbfuckistan via Proposition 2025.  Dumbfuckistan has NEW RULES. 1. Worship the God-King. 2. Obey all orders of the God-King. 3. All other rules are hereby repealed. 

The God-King's rise to total power as POTUS 47 was greatly smoothed by the six SUPREME SAINTS of SCOTUS. They have ruled that he can do anything he wants, from stealing classified documents and inciting insurrection, to rape, bribery, theft, and pedophilia. His powers include shooting someone on Fifth Ave.   

In his quest to unify the USA, the God-King chose as his vice-president a man dedicated to the values of GOD's people. The Senator from OWHYO defends the peaceful tourists who wanted to visit the capitol on January 6, 2021 and carry away some souvenirs including a few heads. He is a fighter for LIBERTY, who would deny women control over their own bodies and the right to leave abusive husbands "for the sake of the kids." He denounces Social Security and Medicare because they make people lazy state leeches.  

Senator ADVANCE denounced the God-King a few years ago as "America's Hitler" and "an idiot." But that was before GOD sent the senator an epiphany on the Road to Washington, a donation from a billionaire MAGAt, and polls showing Trump was likely to win. Like St. Paul, ADVANCE is now on the side of the Angels.   

Many Americans feel confused. How should they respond? They need advice, and I am here to give it. Lie back, spread your legs or buttocks, and repeat, "MAGA!" GOD has been preparing you for this miracle, but you have been blind. You followed the PATH of SIN. Now HE has shown you the PATH of  RIGHTEOUSNESS. MAGA!  JOIN, OR DIE, Or both.  

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Dump Trump! Then Reform the System that Made Him Possible

 

We must defeat Trump again. That is obvious. But that will not be enough to preserve America's Democracy. His supporters and enablers will remain. Unless the USA carries out major reforms of its political system, the danger from anti-democratic movements will remain high. 

In the last election, in 2020, if a few thousand votes had gone the other way in several states, Trump would have won the election, even though Biden got almost seven million more votes. How is this possible? Because democracy in the US is not firmly rooted, and never has been. 

The Trump regime built on anti-democratic policies and machinations dating back decades or more, some to the very beginnings of the country. Many of them exist at the state rather than federal level. A root and branch strategy is needed to eliminate these dangers. 

Many people will say the changes I suggest are impossible. And it will be a huge struggle to achieve any of them. But many people said that all men, and later all women, could never get the vote. Many people said slavery could never be eliminated. Britain was the greatest slave trading nation in history, but after massive grass roots campaigns, Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in the British colonies in 1833. The US required a bloody civil war to accomplish emancipation.

The Chartist Movement in Britain in the 1830s and 1840s took its name from "The People's Charter." Its goal was to establish a working democracy. The rulers of the day dismissed Chartism as utopian. But of its six demands ("The Peoples' Charter"), all but one is now law. Moreover, this was accomplished without a revolution, and only minor violence. (Image: photo of Chartist Demonstration, London, 1848)

The Chartists did not include women in their vision of democracy but that demand surfaced almost immediately, and women got the vote in two stages, in 1918 and 1928. 

I have drawn up a People's Charter for the USA: 

• 1.       Abolish the Electoral College, the anti-democratic gift that has empowered American reactionaries since slavery times. Replace it with the National Popular Vote. 
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• 2.       End gerrymandering in the states. Create an independent, non-partisan commission to draw up boundaries of congressional constituencies. This is done in the UK and other countries.
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• 3.       Overturn the obscene Citizens United decision of SCOTUS. It is responsible for hugely increasing the influence of big money in elections. Nothing like this exists in other democracies.
•  
• 4.       Prohibit political ads. They are virtually useless as information, misleading or untrue, insulting, and damned annoying. 
• 
  
• 5.       Introduce proportional representation or ranked voting to end the stranglehold of the two-party system. Some people will argue that this would make efficient government impossible. Ask yourself, is what have now efficient? 
• 
  
• 6.     Make the Senate representative of the country. It gives the less populated states collectively far more power than the most populated. California with 40 million people and Wyoming with only half a million have the same number of senators. This is both absurd and grossly undemocratic.
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• 7.       Make voting simple, safe, and convenient. Voting is an obligation. It should not be a survival test, torture, or a danger. Eliminate voter suppression of all kinds. 
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• 8.      Fund public education adequately and fairly. Public college and university education should be free or cheap, as it was when I went to college and university in the late 60s and early 70s. Why are we shortchanging our children and dumbing down our voters? 
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• 9.      Establish a national, affordable health care plan that covers everyone. The present for profit system is a disgrace and an international laughingstock. The system costs the US twice as much as in other developed nations, and the results are worse in terms of mortality and morbidity. Scores of millions are uncovered, or poorly covered. Health insurance must be separated from employment, which turns workers into virtual serfs.
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• 10.       Require the payment of a living (not minimum) wage for all adult workers. This should vary according to local living costs. It costs a lot more to live in California than in North Dakota.
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• 11.     Reduce the period between the election of the president and the inauguration to two weeks at most. This would have minimized Trump's ability to create havoc. In the UK and many countries, a new government generally takes over immediately after the election. This can be done because the parties have already selected the members of the cabinet and other ministers.
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• 12.     Reform the judiciary. Judges should be selected by professional bodies, not by politicians. This includes the Supreme Court, whose bias towards Trump is flagrant and dangerous. Justices of the SCOTUS and all judges should serve fixed terms, not for life. They should operate according to a code of ethics. The number of justices, currently nine, should be fixed in law.

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"Perception, 2" - nalan's paintings

"Perception, 2" - nalan's paintings

Island Sunset - nalan's paintings

Island Sunset - nalan's paintings

Spectrum - nalan's paintings

Spectrum - nalan's paintings