Visiting Washington D.C. is always a treat; even though there are a lot of people moving and shaking “stuff” around – not all of them are great people, though.
It has been a while since I’ve written one of my favorite article series, “Today in America.” A lot has happened since my last update from November 29, 2023. If you are new to this series, these are meant to be a chronological snapshot of what is going on in the country. My analysis is not partisan, I don’t lean left nor right. I will hold either side accountable. Facts do not care about political leanings anyway.
Why haven’t I written a “Today in America” in such a long time?
Well, there are several reasons why. Primarily because there is simply so much going on, and quite honestly it was very hard to keep up with all the developments. Also, because a lot of what it is going on in America does pertain directly with what my debut book “Authoritarianism & Propaganda | The Puppet Master Tools” speaks about. In other words, even though I wrote this book several months ago, the premise of what I described is happening in real time.
Misinformation is rampant. Half-truths, faux outrages, and other misdirection’s are taking place far and wide. I am actually very concerned about that, because that was yet another prediction that I had assessed could happen. So, what it is happening? The polarization of our people. There is a growing number of people who are at each other’s throats, but they actually agree on key points. But since they are in “opposing teams” – they stopped listening to the facts. And of course, stopped listening to each other for quite a while.
To bring clearer context onto this issue, let’s start by defining a “fact.” A fact is something that is irrefutable. In order to be irrefutable, it must be logical, measurable, and demonstrable. If it cannot meet this criterion, it becomes conjecture. Conjecture is muck like saying “it’s like your opinion.” Opinions and facts are not synonymous, though some opinions could be valid if based on fact. The problem is that opinions can also be based on conjecture or incomplete context. That latter point is what we are observing here for the purpose of this article.
The political division
For the purposes of this article, I will not be leaning in favor of any right or left leaning figures. I will let you make that decision on your own. However, I will be citing examples, and these examples are largely coming from the very same political party. So that way you don’t have to be angry at me, I am quoting people in their own political party. If fact a quick [google] search, using any browser of choice will give you a lot of videos (from their own mouth) stating countless examples for this.
As we are getting closer to another presidential cycle, there has been no shortage of unprecedented events. Although the incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden does not enjoy stellar ratings at this point in time, there are also several contenders for the Democrat ticket. Biden, Williamson, Uygur, and Phillips. Runing as independents we have Kennedy, West, and Stein. And for the Republican ticket there are a bunch – Trump, Haley, Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, Binkey, DeSantis, Christie, and Burgun. And a few others who already dropped from the presidential race are Suarez, Hurd, Johnson, Elder, Pence (yes, former Trump’s Vice-President), and Scott.
Every last one of these candidates are running for the highest office in the land, and arguably the most influential office in the world. Pop quiz, how many of these candidates faces would you be able to pick out on a line? Further, what is their political platform, doctrine, and policies they are running on – For EACH and EVERY one of these? Afterall, any person seeking the presidency needs to have a reason to run – a reason other than a vanity project. For a voter, not knowing the answer to this last basic question is embarrassing at best, and highly problematic at worst because the fate of possibly of millions of lives rely on whether voters electing the next leader of the free world understands this simple premise.
If you are an American citizen who is allowed to vote, and you do not know the answer to this question – and you feel bad about it. It is ok, fortunately you still have plenty of time to figure the answers out before you show up and vote. And yes, I mean understand what your favorite guy or gal’s platform, doctrine and policies are all about… AND what are their Opposition’s policies and doctrines. Yes, for voting it is important to understand what the other person is actually running on. And by knowing I don’t mean hearing it from just your favorite talking head on whatever medium you consume. Chances are that some of that key information is not making its way to you if it is politically convenient to whomever has vested interested in a political figure.
This is what we call an echo-chamber. This can be up to a point acceptable, but often it can also be very-very bad. But even if a person love being in their echo chamber, it is best to also peek out from this bubble objectively and hear what the other side has to say. That does not mean you will agree with those outside your bubble (not necessarily at least) and with what they are saying. But if you are objective, you might be surprised how much you might have in common with the actual people outside your bubble – not necessarily with the talking points spewed by either politician.
I am personally very tired of hearing this “left against right,” and “right against left.” Sure, that either side could be wrong about something or the other, and one side even more erroneous than the other… but what we are not taking in consideration is that a lot of people who are making decisions about who they will support (politically) might or might not be deciding based on facts. Demagogs have a proclivity to hide a lot of important facts and data points, and then their loyal base only gets to hear the more incendiary and visceral narratives. Of course, that fires-up the bases, and can even make that sweet cookie-baking grandma to get off her cozy home to “fight like hell.” Yes, that does happen – especially in America, somebody not too far from you is packing a firearm with a round in the chamber. Yes, even some sweet cookie-baking grandmas.
And no, gun-loving American people are not only limited to red-meat-eating Republicans, but there is also no shortage of Democrats who love their guns. So, thinking that only one side is holding all the firepower is misinformed at best, and delusional at worst. Instances of violence among our people are on the rise, and I am not just talking about mass shootings, even though as of the time I write this article there has been 617 mass shootings in the USA. Just a couple days ago another person got killed and one other got injured in Meridian, Mississippi.
This is a good resource among many others which track gun violence in America:
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
But just for some context, here are some quick stats as of the moment I am typing this:
- 38,671 Total number of Gun Violence deaths.
- From that big number above, we derive the numbers below (these do not include all gun violence)
- 17,023 Homicides/Murder/Unintentional deaths
- 21,648 Suicides
- 33,239 Injuries
- 617 Mass shootings
- 33 Mass Murders
Why is this important? Because what we are going to do (or not do) about gun violence is also on the ballot. It has been part of many political platforms by the way – and for a long time. Maybe not so on the nose with some politicians, but it is definitely in a politician’s agenda, donors, and potential special interests’ groups. That is why I ask if you understand every running candidate’s policy. Sadly, huge swaths of people vote solely based on party lines, and some others cast their vote on whether they “like” the person, rather than really understanding their policies. I know that for a fact. Even anecdotally whenever I’ve asked around – 9 times out of 10 it boils down to the fact they like the guy (or sometimes gal). You can try it yourself, especially with people with a dissenting political leaning. Although you might also be surprised with people in your own political party. Surprise!
During my last “Today in America” article I spoke a lot about the new Speaker of the House and his very strong biblical devotion. I went on to say that although that his faith his prerogative, his particular religious views are not consistent with the majority of Americans – including Christians. There are several thousand denominations, so that on itself gives quite some room for dissenting views on religious doctrinal practices. Why am I bringing that topic up? Because it is significant – although the majority of people do not want to impose their version of theocracy. Some others might say “good – let’s impose our theocracy;” until they realize that that version of theocracy does not jive with a lot of the doctrines they actually profess or worship. That is in the ballot too – by virtue of the religious leanings of the different candidates.
It is interesting [and disturbing] to see the level of polarization in our country based on religion and politics – and for anybody who was not aware, these two factors (because they are multipliers) tend to be very intertwined. Add to these factors the special interests’ groups with power and money, and the return of investment from some non-elected entities can very well (and very much do) affect our political system. Especially when it comes to money into politics, a regular good American would have an exponentially hard time even making it to the ballot. Yet the fact remains that most people sitting in an elected position – either at a local or state level; and of course, even at the federal level are somebody their constituents have no idea who they are.
Another quick pop quiz. Who are your city council members? Who is your district’s House Representative at the federal level? Or even who is your state senator at your state level (not the federal level – that’s a different set of two people). All these and more elected leaders affect our present and future. And if you ever wondered how that is sometimes, we get stuck with candidates for the presidential ticket that you don’t particularly fancy – well, the race started way before any of them started their presidential bid.
I know, politics can be so boring – and literally anything else could seem more appealing. And in a way it is kind of designed to be that way. It is easier to pay attention to anything else than what might seems like a very boring legislature, debates on bills, and a bunch of other things that seemed to be “the politicians problem.” Well, their abilities or lack thereof to work together affects the entire country. And unfortunately, any buzz about politics tends to be clinging on the sensationalism. Chances is that you only know some politician’s faces at the national level when somebody does something “newsworthy.” And by newsworthy, it is often linked to a scandal.
© 2020 Marcelo Baqueroalvarez / HLC | Capitol Building in Washington D.C. photo by J. Marcelo Baqueroalvarez Half Life Crisis 26NOV2023
We Americans are actually more similar than we think
I can tell you the surefire way to shut down a civilized dialog among dissenting parties. Call them some demeaning epithet or insult their intelligence (especially if they are wrong), and whatever is it that they are for or against in that moment will not be a matter of “lets open some dialog,” but rather an “I must win this battle, no matter what” type scenario. It happens, and yes, people on the right or the left have been very many participants in this division. And it has been ramping up lately. With this I am not saying that they will automatically “agree” with one another, but at the very least they will truly understand what they are disagreeing about.
Take for example the incumbent President Joe Biden. There is a lot of people – even on the left who are not fully supportive of him. In fact, I’ve mentioned before President Biden is pretty much to the right of the left side of the political spectrum. Then again being left or right on its own it is not a bad thing. There have been solid governments leaning either side. The key is on the leaning and not imposing. That is how we can work together – even if we disagree. It provides balance.
However, there is a non-insignificant number of people who are denying the legitimacy of the election that placed Biden in office. This aside from being wrong, demonstrably wrong – there have been dozens of cases challenging the election and none – as in zero – were able to prove that the election was rigged. Biden simply had more votes both in the popular vote and the electoral college than Trump. Even though it is a fact that Trump got the most votes from any sitting President in history. Good for him, but Biden (love or hate the man) simply got more.
The 2020 election was very contentious. Yet there were simply more people who would rather vote for a three-ring-circus monkey than to allow Trump another term. In other words, not voting for Biden, but voting against Trump. And even among former and current Trump voters who go (and went) to his rallies, they do concede that they are not fully onboard with his antics, although they still consider Trump the best choice for their party. I am not here to demonize Trump; some would argue he can do that very well on his own. And to be honest, for some reason a lot of his base very much loves that type of personality trait. However, that very same personality trait very much turns-off a wide swath of Americans – and these also include republicans. Many of which have been very vocal against Trump. Look it up, there is plenty of public-record video about it.
For anybody who was not aware Trump has been facing a lot of legal circumstances. There are four federal criminal cases, a major civil case, and a bunch of other legal woes with his name on the other side of “vs.” Yes, it is unprecedented that a former American President have been charged with just shy of 100 criminal convictions.
Additionally, quite recently (July 2023) Trump was also guilty of sexual abuse and rape. This last case was under trial in a civil court of law in NY. You can look it up, it is in the public record. Some of Trump’s still ardent supporters will deny the validity of these and all other claims and charges. Unfortunately to Trump, there is very strong evidence against him in all of these cases. And prosecutors who are indicting Trump at that level are not going to risk setting a case forward (and risk losing their bar license) unless they have irrefutable evidence. And it is worth mentioning that many of Trumps former attorneys have also flipped on him. I’ll let you decide for yourself as why does that jumping ship from former loyal followers keep happening to Trump.
You’re welcome to read the full copies of all the criminal indictments in this very site. I posted these articles not because I particularly like or dislike Trump. I would have written a similar article if ANY former U.S. President was indicted under those circumstances. The indictment documents are long, but they are well written – so it is worth the time you invest reading them. You don’t have to agree with the prosecutor – that is why there is a trial to reach the truth. But at least you will know what it is about. Another interesting fact linked to these cases is that also most of his co-defendants have jumped ship and are testifying against him on these criminal charges.
And we are not talking about never-Trumpers, these guys worshiped the very floor he walked upon. Not anymore though. How can this happen?
Well, I’ve mentioned before in this site and in other writings I’ve set forth. This is what I call the “ex-significant other effect.” Have you ever been in love? I mean like head over heels, writing letters past midnight until sunrise, butterflies in your stomach, and losing all rationality over somebody?” Many of us have. If you are still together with that person and you share a happy life, good on you! So do I, I love my wife. But there were some exes-and they probably had a similar level of devotion. Some relationships ended in amicable terms, some perhaps not so much. Let’s see what happens with the latter.
For example, when a person for whom you would have given your life before, for some reason falls out of favor… you fall out of love. Then suddenly you realize that what a lot of people were “warning you” against this person, or some of those premonitions that made you irk – but kept hidden will haunt you. This is traumatic to any person. Especially if you have devoted your trust, loyalty, devotion and even love to this individual. In our own minds we will do all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify any shortcomings they have – when they are still the object for our devotion. Until at some point you cannot longer justify this – and you move on.
In politics something similar happens. Those same very ardent supporters can swing the pendulum 180 degrees and the same energy and devotion becomes the antithesis that was previously favoring that person. Especially if people felt they were manipulated or cheated upon. Have you ever been cheated upon? How did that feel? Have you at some point a person who you loved more than anything is somebody you prefer not to associate with anymore? Again, something similar happens in politics.
This might sound anecdotal, but I have met a lot of fervent former-Trump supporters. This analogy came out of their mouths unprompted. That does not always mean they swung to the left-leaning politics side. A lot of them remained fervent republicans – just no-longer-Trumpers. We have seen this effect a lot in the last several elections. That is why in 2020 Trump was not elected, but a lot of Republicans chose to keep their Senators in power on that election.
Then the Republicans themselves started distancing themselves from Trump as the 90 percentiles of his endorsed candidates did not win their political races. But of course, despite this there is no shortage of people who would wrap themselves in Trump regalia and camp-out at a rally venue hours before the main event, or even overnight prior to the event.
Seeing it from an objective manner, we would have to admit that it is quite a visceral response to go through such lengths to see somebody speak. His followers really-really like this man. Conversely, democrats do not really do that kind of thing for a candidate of their choice. Generally speaking, if they support somebody, they will cast their vote, but not really make much of an event about it. That is why support for a Democrats will seems non-existent to anybody who prefers to show support in a similar manner like MAGA Republicans do for their candidates.
But despite the overt devotion towards their candidate of choice, both Democrats and Republicans generally want what is best for their country. Sure, that in either crowd you could find some awful people from any walk of life, but I’m referring in this case that the majority of Americans are very good people. And I can tell you firsthand how amazingly caring American people are. When people are speaking of American exceptionalism, it refers to the actual candor of their people. ALL people who come from all walks of life. Yes, that includes Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. And yes, American Citizens do come from every country in the world.
Which begs the question, why would be anybody else be interested in dividing our people with petty differences? Well, I am glad you asked. I wrote entire books about it. “Authoritarianisms & Propaganda | The Puppet Master Tools,” and “Woke & Proud | The Charlatans’ Inconvenience.” And aside from the obvious plug – well, I did write those books for a valid reason. And that is to bring us together as people. There are plenty of opportunists out there who want to destroy the United States from the inside out. Eroding it away from what makes it truly great – their people.
© 2020 Marcelo Baqueroalvarez / HLC | With my two girls in Washington D.C. November 2023
Visiting Washington D.C. with my girls
My wife Alicia was in the other side of the country visiting her family for the last week and change. Sammy and I drove up to Washington D.C. to meet her plane and have the closest thing we have had to a family vacation. Last time we had a chance to do something similar was in New York City after a long underway. It is wonderful being together in our nation’s capital.
This is also Sammy’s first time visiting the District of Columbia. It is actually interesting that some people don’t realize that Washington D.C. is not in any actual state in the United States of America. It is actually under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. So, it is not a state either – although it is [however] surrounded by Virginia, and Maryland.
By the way this is a pretty expensive city (or rather a district), but it is worth visiting. This is a wonderful town full of history, awe-inspiring sites, museums (which most are actually free), and so much more. Are there also a bunch of terrible people roaming around this town? – Well, yes there are. But for the most part I’ve always had a wonderful time when I’ve stopped by to visit. We spent Saturday night to enjoy Sunday in D.C. and drive back thereafter. This won’t be the last time we’ll be here, but it was enough for Sammy’s first visit. She was very happy to be back home.
As you walk through the nation’s capital it hits you… people in this town are entrusted with the decisions that will affect not only every Americans’ future – but pretty much the rest of the world. Agree or disagree with what I am about to say – well… not everybody is fond of the great U.S.A. There are several adversaries and even some other countries not-so-aligned with the U.S.A. that would be very happy to see the country lose its influence in the world stage. How would they achieve that goal? By dividing the people. This is not an easy process, but if you’ve been paying attention in the last several years – this internal division is taking a lot of traction.
To be honest, I wanted this to be a feelgood iteration of my series “Today in America.” I will be writing in a separate article about some of the insane amount of political circus going on in Washington D.C. – and there is plenty to speak about. But for a moment I rather focus on us – we the people. The actual constituents. Especially those voters who end up electing some of the people who are happy to do everything except actually governing in support of ALL U.S. Persons.
And seriously, that is an unfortunate situation. We have politicians who have introduced ZERO legislation – but they have been happy to pursue all kinds of political attacks with ZERO viable policies attached to that political theater. And that is why I mentioned that it is up to us – the people to understand what is actually affecting our lives. It takes very little digging to uncover the gaslighting that does take place. There is no shortage of politicians who will lie in front of the entire country with a straight face.
Further there is no shortage of politicians who repeat adversarial nations talking points and propaganda VERBATIM! Now, you would hope that a politician would not be as F-ing stupid as to do that. Yet that does happen… too often in fact. Do they realize it? Sometimes I wonder. Are these politicians that dense or are they actually cognizant to the fact that this rhetoric and misguided policy goes actually against the United States.
I’ve mentioned in my books that most good people who for whatever reason make a wrong decision – are often victims of the circumstances. In other words, an adversary (and this could be also a propagandist, and authoritarian, a charlatan, or any other grifter) will give an unsuspecting victim a very redacted version of the full context. The result is that otherwise good people make wrong decisions because they factored their criterium on flawed data points.
People wanting safe communities, living wages, reasonable taxes, national security, prosperity, rights to be happy, freedom of (and from) religion, freedom of speech, right to defend themselves, right to express themselves in a way they are considered people, among so many other values – those are not uniquely Republican, Democrat, or third-party policy points. Those are American values. And yes, you can argue those are human values, no matter what country they are originally from.
When things start getting awry is when there is an overreach over people’s rights and freedoms. In other words, what does make this country great – and it is already great… it is that if you dissent with the federal government, the government is not going to chase you from your house and put a couple of bullets on your head and kill you and everything you ever loved.
There are countries in the world as we speak that will severely punish a person if they dare speaking against their leadership. We – the USA are not there – yet. It is up to us to keep us at bay from that nefarious reality. No, we are not there – yet… but this division is getting a lot closer each day. That is why I keep writing this stuff. I want to do my part to avoid it. But I cannot do this alone. And even if my words do not resonate right away, at least it will be recorded with a time stamp in history that I did what I could, using whatever platform I could find to broadcast my message.
I’ve studied authoritarianism & propaganda for several decades – I’ve lived through it before coming to USA. I know what it looks like. Propaganda is here in America also – alive and well. But it does not have to remain as such. In another manuscript that I wrote which will be released next year I speak about conflict management. And I say something to the effect of this: “If you want to win an argument, don’t look at the adversary unless you’ve objectively looked at yourself first.”
If you are very patriotic and want the best for America, you owe it to yourself to truly understand the policies and doctrines of your politician of choice AND their opposition. You’re welcome to take with a grain of salt any dissenting evidence. But you must also review it objectively as though it would be affecting another person who is not the politician who currently enjoys your devotion.
For example, if you’re a Trump supporter and you are not happy about all the indictments; well, you don’t have to be happy about it, but you can know the details about them (as in plural). These documents are publicly available, you can read them yourself. As I said, I’ve even spoken about that in this very website. And if the question is “what about Biden?” Well, what about him? You can bet your bottom dollar that if he gets indicted, I’ll be writing about him too.
By the way, out of his own mouth (Biden), he said that he wants nothing to do with Trump’s legal issues. Hence, he has not publicly commented about it. If you find a clip of him doing so (commenting on Trump’s legal issues in detail) from his own mouth, please share it with the group. President Biden himself is also under investigation for some classified documents found in his property. The difference is that he was cooperating with law enforcement. Thus far I have not been able to find anything in the public record accusing Biden of any criminal offenses. And trust me, if there was a three-there, his political opposition would have been implacable in posting that evidence far and wide. If you have seen it, please feel free to share it with all of us.
And by that I don’t mean some talking head who already dislike Biden. I am talking about actual court documents such as the ones I have posted in my site about Trumps criminal cases. I am not asking you to like or dislike Trump or Biden, that decision is all yours. If the indictments had a “vs. Biden” rather than a “vs. Trump,” you would see me speaking about it in exuberant detail. In either case, Trump is still leading the Republican primary by a long shot. Although there have been court cases that are challenging him if he can even be in the ballot due to the third amendment.
My assessment, based on current events I would not be surprised if we will have another Trump vs. Biden for the U.S. Presidency in 2024. But it is worth mentioning that both candidates will have a lot of other voters in the race that will be syphoning votes away from them. Also, there are a lot of new voters this time around because they have come of age. This includes a bunch of new younger 18–22-year-olds. Whomever they decide to follow could very well decide this next election. What are the current candidates doing for this new generation? That’s probably something worth looking into – for any politician. Just saying.
I’ll close by saying that we are the UNITED States of America. And United is the operative word here. That means we the people, we decide – together. HLC