A role call in shadow

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‘More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly’. {Washington Post 18 September}

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ar-AA2cwmIj

Pete Hegseth must be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours and removed from office. His stewardship of the United States Armed Forces hath proved an utter disgrace, and even thus do I speak mildly. The plight of the USS Abraham Lincoln alone ought, in mine own judgement, to furnish sufficient grounds for impeachment. 

In truth, this punk finds himself fortunate indeed that the American people have not presently their wits fully about them; for, were it otherwise, they should be marching upon Washington and Arlington, bearing pitchforks and torches, and demanding that the ‘Secretary of War’ be called to account. —

FTA: According to a document reviewed by The Washington Post, U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, has estimated that the Iran war has cost about $43.6 billion through early September. The total includes $28 billion in munitions expended during the conflict but does not account for the damage to U.S. bases.

As The Post reported last month, several top U.S. military officials have warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.

According to a September Reuters-Ipsos poll, 28 percent of Americans support Trump’s approach to Iran, whereas 62 percent disapprove.

On Tuesday, a record seven GOP lawmakers joined Democrats and helped pass a largely symbolic measure intended to halt the war — the latest of several war powers resolutions to advance in Congress.

All war deaths and injuries are supposed to be publicly reported on the Pentagon’s public DCAS system, where the military accounts for personnel lost or injured in its conflicts.

Over the summer, when the four combat deaths were temporarily excluded from the casualty database, the Trump administration reclassified renewed hostilities with Iran as Overseas Operations instead of being tied to Operation Epic Fury.

The change, which occurred as U.S. negotiators struggled to broker a permanent peace deal with Tehran, coincided with efforts by the administration to portray the war as a success even as Iran continued to fire on American forces and continued to target shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Senate Democrats have pledged to investigate the Pentagon’s handling of casualty notifications if they retake the majority after the midterms.

Rep. Jason Crow (Colorado) and 11 other House Democrats, all of them military veterans, on Friday said they were introducing a bill that would prevent the Pentagon from manipulating government data on troop casualties.

One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), moved this week to force a House vote on impeaching Hegseth over the war, alleging the defense secretary violated provisions of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 by pursuing hostilities without congressional authorization.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The ‘golden age’, deferred

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Vance, apparently with nothing better to do than make an appearance on a venture capitalist’s podcast: ‘Give us another chance’. {Mediaite 16 September}

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/jd-vance-asks-americans-to-give-us-another-chance-in-candid-podcast-moment/

How, then, about a resounding ‘no’, you arsehole? —

FTA: JD Vance joined the All-In podcast this week and was asked by Canadian-American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya for his closing message ahead of the midterm elections.

“It’s very complicated. But can you just give us some insight into what’s actually happening on the ground and what is the message that needs to be delivered so that folks can come to the right conclusion in November?” Palihapitiya asked.

“I guess I have two basic messages. There’s a lot of good that we’ve done over the past 18 months. We cut taxes bigly. We cut taxes on overtime, Social Security, and tips,” Vance said, adding:

Those are tax cuts for middle American workers, not just for the elites in Washington and New York City. We’ve had an amazing success with the border, with immigration. We’ve pursued H1B reform that prioritizes American workers over foreign nationals.

There’s a lot of good that’s been done, but there’s a lot of work left to do. Don’t give power to the people who cause the problems that we’re fixing. Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years, to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.

Vance’s request for Americans to “give us another chance” quickly went viral online as critics viewed it as a tacit acknowledgement of the administration’s perceived failures.

“The second argument I’d make is, even if you don’t agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness. They’re consumed by people who want to steal everything, who want to give the country over to illegal aliens and criminals. They actively brag about it,”

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

‘Not nearly long enough’

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Sadistic Trump, on the record deployment endured by sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln: ‘not nearly long enough’. {AP 14 August}

https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-aircraft-carrier-uss-lincoln-023413c38373d4a6ba033612a1f552c6

What can be said about this? If these comments do not rouse people to anger, after all else that hath failed to do so, nothing shall. 

FTA: WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran.

In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the deployment — which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days — is “not nearly long enough.”

“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. The acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, said the Lincoln “will return home soon” in a social media post on Friday.

Trump strode into office for a second term vowing to avoid lengthy and expensive military entanglements. And after launching the Iran war, alongside Israel, Trump and his advisers said the conflict would last a matter of weeks. The war is now more than five months old.

But on Friday, during his crime address in Garden City, New York, he acknowledged that he’s used the U.S. military “a little bit more than I wanted to,” while asserting anew that the U.S. operation against Iran is going well. He even said, seemingly in jest, that “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

“I’ll never apologize,” Trump added about the war and its impact on oil prices. “I did the right thing.”

That last sentence sums it all up: he shall never apologise for anything, because, in his deranged mind, he is always right. And an entire nation hath given him free rein to do whatever he wants. God help us all.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The golden lie

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Karl Rove advises Trump to stop gaslighting the public about the state of the economy. {The Hill 14 August}

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6030997-rove-criticizes-trump-economy/

The millions of #MAGA acolytes amongst us could not possibly remain oblivious to the fact that they are paying more for very nearly everything. As of now, they appear to be ignoring or tolerating Trump’s lies about the economy — ‘owning the libs’ being paramount among all other considerations — and they can always be induced to blame the Democrats for anything and everything. How much economic hardship must these people yet endure before they grow weary of this man insisting that two and two make three? Why, indeed, am I even asking? We are all of us well aware that they shall go on quite literally starving to death, and shall thank Mr Trump most fervently for the privilege of doing so.

FTA: Republican strategist Karl Rove on Friday criticized President Trump’s insistence that the U.S. economy is thriving despite rising prices amid the Iran war. 

Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Friday that the “economy was doing unbelievably from the standpoint of Wall Street.”

Rove told Fox News’s Gillian Turner that the president should “start by not gaslighting” the American public about the state of the economy. 

“The president made a mistake, in my opinion, last week in saying we’ve got the greatest economy in the history of the world and prices for groceries and gasoline and everything are coming down rapidly,” he said. “That’s not the experience of the American people.”

Rove agreed with Vice President JD Vance’s recent assessment that “throwing slogans at people about the free market” is not an effective counter from Republicans to the rise in socialism among candidates on the left. 

However, the GOP strategist added that he also had “a slight disagreement” with Vance. 

“I think he’s right: you do not need to call them names, you need to depict what is wrong with socialism,” Rove said. “But frankly, free markets is one of the reasons why we’ve been successful as a country and one of the reasons why socialism is a mistake.” 

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Unmaking of the Union

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Historian Timothy Snyder cautions the (former) US may cease to exist as a singular political entity within five to fifteen years. {IBT 10 August}

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/future-us-political-polarisation-national-divorce-1813376

A ‘national divorce’ shall, in due course, become an inescapable reality. The questions are: how messy doth it need to be, what exact disorder must such a rupture entail, and can it be done in a relatively peaceful and organised manner? Perhaps it is time for all states, individuals, and institutions to commence preparations and to grapple with the logistics — vital matters such as the precise delineation of geographic boundaries, the negotiation of a common defence pact where feasible (an outcome vastly preferable to any conceivable alternative), and the question of whether a common currency would remain — rather than pretending our present union remains sustainable. FTA:

Renowned historian Timothy Snyder has warned that the US may not continue to exist in its current form over the next five, 10 or 15 years. He argued that Trump supporters may be more likely to wreck the country as a political entity than to establish a homogeneous authoritarian regime stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

The warning appeared on Sunday alongside concerns about growing political polarisation, state-level resistance to federal authority, and renewed discussion of a possible national divorce.

The news came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly demanded a legal dismantling of the nation following conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination. Greene told supporters she wanted a peaceful national divorce, arguing the country was too far gone and no longer safe.

Polls conducted since 2021 by universities, YouGov and others found that a third or more of Americans expected a civil war during the next decade or so, according to the source article.

The process of separation shall not prove smooth, yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that it is necessary. We had a good run, these United States, but no empire in the whole of recorded history hath endured forever. Our time hath now drawn to a close.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Still one nation?

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Hillary Clinton articulates the obvious: Trump and the GOP invoke the epithet ‘Communists’ against Democrats because it works with their targeted constituencies, and leftists winning primaries are unlikely to survive the general election. {The Independent 8 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/hillary-clinton-trump-attack-communist-abdul-el-sayed-b3029631.html

A cursory glance at Reddit reveals self-styled 'progressives' incensed with Mrs Clinton for stating what ought to be a rather self-evident reality. They would be wise to remember that bloodthirsty tribalism and mindless populism are what delivered unto us Donald Trump, and that they are no better than the millions of rubes following the orange s**tbag if reasoned argument from one of the party’s senior stateswomen is met with violent indignation. This ‘Democratic Socialism’ — and we may debate all day the extent of its relationship or resemblance to the global Communism of the pre-1989 world — is a lot harder a sell than ‘MAGA’ in a country that more than just leans to the right. I have been saying for years that right-wing radicalism shall always prove to be an easier commodity to market to the general public than the left-wing variety in a centre-right nation. Ideological zeal possesses a remarkable ability to distort one’s judgement, as contemporary #Murica (Trumpistan) demonstrates without fail on a daily basis. 

The best thing for our republic at present would be the emergence of a moderate, electorally viable third party, presumably consisting of the remaining elected Democrats and Republicans disillusioned and betrayed by their parties’ retreat to the extremes of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, neither the ‘powers-that-be’ nor the majority of the general public are ever going to permit that; the public is too addicted to the team sport aspect (tribalism), the two-party duopoly does not want competition, and comparatively few Americans are in the centre anymore; of the latter, many have simply stopped paying attention altogether. America’s collective psyche hath been in a very dark place for some time now, and I see no light upon the horizon.

As concerns the mid-term elections: the Democrats are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, yet again. They are in an untenable position: they cannot simultaneously court their increasingly radicalised left flank and expect to win over moderates and independents; victory is attainable only with support from both factions, and they also need protest votes from the remnant of the centre-right who are disgusted with what the GOP hath become under Donald Trump. This is a fundamentally ‘conservative’ (right wing) country, a fact of which Hillary Clinton is plainly cognisant; the Democratic rank-and-file would be prudent to listen to her and think before emulating populist Republican voters by championing rhetorical firebrands for public office. It is simply not going to work as well for the left as it hath for the right. Even granting that relatively few Americans are centrists anymore, staying in the centre lane is still the sanest and most rational course available to the Democrats — or, indeed, to anyone opposed to the ruling Trumpist GOP. We need to get back to the centre; it shall not be accomplished through moderate public officials and voters simply capitulating and playing dead.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The last affordable dose

Millions to pay more for prescriptions after the Trump regime ends Medicare drug subsidy programme begun under President Biden. {NYT 28 July}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/business/medicare-drug-subsidies-part-d.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1VA.KJMX.72i9kl1BKhwW&smid=url-share

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The hidden cost of fresh produce

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Poll suggests large numbers of Americans are changing their eating habits due to cyclospora outbreak. {CBS News 26 July}

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyclospora-outbreak-fda-opinion-poll/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=986445447

Tellingly, Republican voters tend to approve of the job the Trumpist-occupied FDA is doing, whilst other Americans do not. At almost any point in the past, it would be Democratic voters expressing more faith in a given government agency in an emergency. But this is Trumpistan now, and the GOP is not the same party it once was in normal times. All told, who can be trusted anymore? Neither government nor private industry nor individuals. And the older I get, the more I consider eating to be a chore and a necessary evil.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The capitalist backlash and the growing appeal of socialism in Trumpistan

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Poll suggests that even some Republican voters may be losing faith in capitalism. {CNN 23 July}

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ar-AA28yb43

Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. American capitalism, at least as it presently exists, is corrupt, bloated, and in dire need of reform and restraint. We could start with regulating the content of these inane television commercials. I digress, however, for the words ‘communism’ and ‘socialism’ still scare the majority of the American people, and not entirely without reason. Communism was and is — look to Cuba and North Korea — a brutal and inhumane system of governance. Leftists can, and will, try to sugarcoat matters all they want, but many of the most notorious dictators of the twentieth century — Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Ceaușescu — were Marxist-Leninists. Nor is it a coincidence that such ideologies have repeatedly attracted ruthless authoritarians willing to subordinate individual liberty to the demands of the state. Fascism combined authoritarian nationalism with extensive state control and accommodation of powerful private interests, producing one of history's most destructive political systems, the worst of all worlds — and, perhaps, the closest historical relative to what exists in the former United States of America today.

Absurd, pie-in-the-sky ideology requires ruthlessness and suppression of human rights in order to implement and enforce; not entirely unlike forcing an entire empire (#Murica) to revolve around the ego and ambitions of one extremely flawed and pathetically insecure man. Perhaps some Americans believe it could not get any worse by now, but that is rather a moot point as everything is going to get worse still: so long as this buffoon remains president, and so long as everybody, left and right, is flirting with previously failed economic and political ideologies, instead of coming up with practical solutions — within the context of our democratic and free market traditions — on how to fix what is broken. Old-fashioned, reasonable, and measured centrism is the most unfashionable thing in the world right now, but it direly needs to make a comeback: boring and safe is far preferable to constantly teetering on the edge of the cliff, and will always produce greater prosperity and liberty than constant chaos.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

This was not in the briefing

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Secret Service reportedly fed-up with VP Vance and family. {MS NOW 15 July}

https://www.ms.now/news/veeps-security-detail-fed-up-with-hastily-arranged-personal-and-family-travel-requests

Blatantly entitled, brazenly so, and only a heartbeat away from the presidency. Taking a young boy to a golf lesson aboard a military helicopter at taxpayer expense, reportedly costing more than $24,000. Meanwhile, JD Vance and his wife — ever the natalists — are expecting their fourth child soon. 

Vance is not fit for the office he holds, and certainly not the presidency: too young, too self-assured, too many contradictions about him, and too aloof in nature. Alas, thanks largely to his boss, standards no longer apply to most Republican office-holders, provided they remain in Trump's good graces.

White Americans and much of the mainstream media — generally speaking, of course — do not hold Republicans to the same standards they apply to Democrats. I believe this has been true for decades, beginning with the political realignment that followed the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but more acutely so since 2016, when a third or so of the overall American population decided what a wonderful idea it would be to join a political cult led by a foul-mouthed real estate mogul and ‘reality television’ star with closets full of skeletons. 

At the dawn of his political career, Donald Trump could have attempted to run as a Democrat. After all, he spent roughly a decade registered with the party in the 2000s. Yet he understood that his chances of success were far greater as a Republican. He needed the white working-class vote, and that constituency had been drifting away from the Democratic Party since the 1960s, a process completed with the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008.

Just look at the number of state legislative seats Democrats lost during Obama's presidency, particularly across the South. The scale of the decline is staggering. Trump was taking note. Trump could not have won as a Democrat, nor could he have gotten away with everything he has gotten away with as a Republican. No demographic group has proven more willing to overlook — or even embrace — his corruption, incompetence, and ethical failings than the coalition that now comprises #MAGA. 

So long as JD Vance remains Trump’s trusted VP, he shall be Teflon. Ask Mike Pence what happens, however, when one falls out of good graces. The best thing that can happen between now and the scheduled presidential election of 2028 (and I use the word ‘scheduled’ as there is no guarantee there will be any election in 2028) is for Trump to throw Vance under the bus and fire him, for he would be a horrible president (yes, worse).

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The burden of false guardians

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White Christianity having been thoroughly hijacked by #MAGA, a remnant of pastors with a conscience run in Democratic primaries. {AFP 13 July}

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/democratic-pastors-run-reclaim-jesus-013012065.html

Godspeed to these individuals, but they have a very long and steep hill to climb if they believe American Christianity is going to be reformed any time soon. Indeed, they may even be placing themselves in genuine physical and legal danger. The seeds were planted long ago; now, so to speak, the harvest is underway.

Many within the younger generations are being indoctrinated into Christian Nationalism, and informed by violent anti-Semites and misogynists such as Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes. When the youngest members of that movement eventually come to power in force, they may unleash waves of repression across this country — and beyond — that are scarcely imaginable to the average Western citizen today. The Democratic Party should have confronted the political and cultural right's successful hijacking of Christianity and patriotism decades ago. To attempt to reverse the process now is too little and far too late for a party that is itself, in all likelihood, headed for the ash heap of history.

Furthermore, I am no longer entirely certain that Jesus is opposed to any of this. Perhaps He is simply allowing these travesties to unfold as judgement upon an empire — not so much a nation as an empire — of hypocrites, sinners, and liars. I am almost certain that He hath forsaken this polyglot realm of the former United States (still known as such in name, of course), and entirely certain that He hath hated me from the day of my birth. As a nation, at least — I shall deal with my own spiritual house, thank you — seeking His favour at this point seems a futile endeavour.

In other words, America increasingly appears a lost cause, and I believe it is so. And if so many people genuinely desire their Christian Nationalist utopia, then perhaps we ought to carve out a large swathe of this empire — a substantial portion of the South and Midwest, sacrifices notwithstanding — and allow them to build it in earnest, no more ‘woke’ folk to get in the way. Raise a wall around and keep their citizens the hell out of everybody else’s lands. As someone living in Massachusetts, I have no desire to be governed by such people, nor to watch them continue to poison the well for the rest of us.

Again, though, good on these pastors for trying. If I lived in any of those states, I would not hesitate to give them my vote — even in vain. After all, it seems to me there have been many times through the years I have voted for candidates and ballot questions that I knew were going to lose, so do not mistake my cynicism for lack of approval… perhaps there is even some mild enthusiasm here.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

A mortgage, not a miracle

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Bipartisan housing bill becomes law without the president's signature; Trump dismisses housing affordability for American families as 'so unimportant' while continuing his hissy fit over the stalled SAVE America Act. {AP 11 July}

https://apnews.com/article/trump-housing-bill-77ec340dcdd676c46c458813b461b1af

Rigging elections in his own favour and that of his party, under the thin pretence of combating largely nonexistent voter fraud, hath been openly declared by this man to be more pressing than helping Americans purchase homes. The alleged epidemic of voter fraud was thoroughly debunked in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, yet that hath neither stopped him from repeating the lie nor dissuaded his supporters from believing it.

And this bipartisan legislation is probably not even a bandage upon the gaping wound that is housing unaffordability in today's #Murica. It is better than nothing, certainly, but even that appears to be a step too far for a president determined to have the entire world — and every person's very psyche — orbit around himself.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Liberty’s fall on the rocky cliffs of Maine

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Maine Democratic Party calls on Graham Platner to drop out of US Senate race after sexual assault allegations emerge. {Maine Morning Star 6 July}

https://mainemorningstar.com/2026/07/06/democrats-are-calling-on-platner-to-drop-after-latest-allegations/

Do not be so confident the Democratic Party is going to win anything in November. Between backing a clearly unstable and dangerous candidate in Platner, candidates moving further left and alienating a centre-right nation, and successful GOP gerrymandering efforts in key states, it is not looking as though the GOP becoming nothing more than a personality cult — a gaggle of sycophants to Trump — is going to dissuade average voters from leaning Republican, because the alternative is just that much worse to them. I do not personally believe the Democrats are worse — not after ten years of Republicans making fools of themselves, appeasing Trump and his white trash voter base, and adopting neo-fascism as their guiding ideology — but are they any good? They stabbed President Joe Biden in the back, and in doing so allowed Donald Trump to return to office, and these are the consequences of such treachery. The Republicans are clearly aiming toward an eventual one-party state, and the Democrats just keep shooting themselves in the foot. A viable centrist third party should have come along about a decade ago, but it is too late. Into the abyss we go.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The light we could not keep

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Survey: Trump voters sought protection from democracy itself — the heart of their choice. {Raw Story 5 July}

https://www.rawstory.com/abundance-democrats/

Perhaps for the entire history of this nation, it hath always been taken as an article of faith that the American people, whatever their given ideological bent, would forever live and die at the altar of democracy. In 21st century #Murica, however, it turns out democracy is not very popular anymore. To his perverse credit — though I hate using the word ‘credit’ even in a perverse context — Donald Trump saw this before anyone else, and capitalised. A decade later, there is almost no incentive for the GOP to be anything but an illiberal, far-right populist party, whilst at the same time a wave of illiberal hard-leftists stands poised to take over the Democratic Party. So, on both extremes — and the decided majority of Americans have drifted toward the extremes now, just look around — democracy is no longer enjoying great support with the rank-and-file. If somebody had shown me how this would play out twenty-five years ago, when democracy was still held as sacrosanct, I would have been stunned. In retrospect, it all makes sense: no matter how we advance technologically or otherwise, human beings by nature remain tribalistic creatures.

FTA: Lofgren then explained the study found 14 out of 21 participants responded negatively to a fundamental American value. He quoted a Wyoming woman named Sarah as telling researchers, "I don’t like the word democracy.”

"Let that sink in," the Salon writer urged. "It’s what many of us expected, but it’s still surprising to see it in print, given the almost phobic avoidance by major media, academia and think tanks of any discussion of whether Americans actually believe in the nation’s unofficial civic religion of democracy. It may also explain why ordinary, non-elite conservatives are untroubled by Donald Trump’s assertions that he would be “dictator on day one” or that he intended to 'terminate' parts of the Constitution. On the contrary, that’s what they want."

The study, Lofgren argued, found that what such Americans would prefer is protection of the beliefs they perceive as under attack by democracy itself.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The Dallas ultimatum: Trump announces GOP mid-term convention, the cost of falling out of line — or, falling in line — to be great

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Trump announces first-ever GOP mid-term convention. {The Guardian 30 June}

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/trump-republican-convention-midterms-dallas

Get ready for the mother of all gaslighting campaigns. And it shall work. Guaranteed. I have said it before, and must say it again: it is the Democratic Party, not Trump and the GOP, that is the most hated faction in this nation. Of course, millions hate Trump and millions hate the Republicans, but not anywhere near in number or close in intensity to those who view the Democrats as mortal enemies. Hence, they shall not be satisfied until the enemy is completely wiped out. Then, they shall start turning on each other. 

Trump's success has never been solely about Trump. It has always depended upon millions of Americans who either support him enthusiastically or repeatedly excuse conduct that would be unacceptable from anyone else. Abandon all hope, for this is what ‘y’all’ voted for, #Murica.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Trumpification of US flag complete; increasing numbers of ordinary Americans now see Old Glory, the 4th of July as ‘red flags’

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‘MAGA hat on a stick’: the Trumpification and partisan co-opting of the American flag and patriotic symbols is complete, as ordinary Americans say Old Glory is now ‘a red flag’. {NBC News 29 June}

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/america-turns-250-say-stars-stripes-now-red-flag-rcna345939

Millions in the former United States say they will not celebrate the Fourth of July as poll reveals deep national pessimism. {The Independent 29 June} 

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/america250-independence-trump-divisions-pennsylvania-b3004933.html

The Reuters poll quoted in the second article reports that about one-in-five Americans do not intend to celebrate the Independence Day holiday this year, while two-in-five say the nation is not going to endure for another 250 years. I have to believe a further portion of those polled are only reluctantly celebrating out of habit and family obligation, are unsure if they are going to ‘celebrate’, or simply will not admit they are not celebrating. People do lie in polls; it is the exact reason why Trump — in each of the three presidential elections in which he hath been the GOP candidate, including his loss in 2020 — always outperformed them by at least a couple of percentage points.

Beyond the political realities, for a lot of people the Fourth of July hath always been an excuse to drink beer, stuff their mouths with hamburgers and hot dogs, and shoot off fireworks (do not even get me started on those). No matter, for the only people who are truly celebrating what this country is becoming under Donald Trump are the third or so of the overall population that worships him as a cult leader. Which is a hell of a lot of people, and the divide between them and the rest of us is growing wider by the hour. I rather resent having to live in these times and bear witness.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Speaker Johnson essentially admits the GOP is a Trump protection racket; voters poised to back own impoverishment again

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US House Speaker Johnson, in a get-out-the-vote pitch before one of the 12,000 Christian nationalist lobbying groups in #Murica, warns in stark terms: 'I run the (Trump and co.) protection program. I’ll take care of you’. {The Independent 26 June}

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-johnson-trump-republicans-investigation-b3004011.html 

The GOP hath unabashedly become a mafia dedicated to shielding Trump from prison; there are no more pretences.

And if such is patently obvious to many of us, and hath been for far too many years, this reality is somehow still going over the heads of the American public at large. Either they have not figured it out, do not care, or are in full agreement with the agenda.

With the Democrats bitterly divided between moderates and the left-wing flamethrowers who are never going to receive majority support in this very right-wing country, I predict that the Republicans will retain control of Congress this fall. And then we are going to see some truly dreadful legislation coming down the pike.

Johnson hath been making noises of late about wanting to gut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other ‘entitlement’ programmes in 2027, and one better believe millions of horribly stupid people are poised to (yet again) vote for their own impoverishment. Never again can one be surprised when folks vote against their own interests, because that is the case more often than not. 

If this were a mature country, the people would be coming to terms with the fact that one of its two state-sanctioned political parties is not interested in governing, only in telling people what they want to hear whilst robbing them blind (and worse), and perhaps doing something about it.

A centrist third party would be a great help, but the establishment and citizenry alike will simply never allow it.

Alas, this is no longer a mature nation, so abandon all hope.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

The boy who broke the Reflecting Pool

generated via Gemini

US Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) demands Trump be made to pay out of his pocket for the damage to the Reflecting Pool. {The New Republic 24 June}

https://newrepublic.com/post/212284/senator-john-hickenlooper-trump-pay-reflecting-pool

Bravo to this idea. Alas, he shall never be made to pay for anything… not in this life, anyway. And if the evangelicals and fundamentalists are correct and he is Jesus’ right-hand man on earth, then I suppose Jesus shall forever shield him from consequence. At this point, I am inclined to believe that Jesus does hate us so very much as to inflict this insufferable douchebag upon America for years yet to come. (Yes, I know he is decrepit, but fate appears determined to keep him living for another twenty years or longer — probably serving as president the whole time, for he is not leaving office alive.) The American people decided, several times over now, that Donald Trump is above the law, and for the time being this is so. Taxpayers shall pay for the clean-up of the Reflecting Pool — not merely a damaged landmark, but a national symbol — and shall thank their hero for the privilege and honour of cleaning up his mess.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Fear of the Golden Elephant

generated via ChatGPT

Evangelical propagandist Todd Starnes: Christians must support the GOP in spite of ‘how bad the Republicans have betrayed you’. {Right Wing Watch 23 June}

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/todd-starnes-says-voters-must-support-gop-regardless-how-bad-republicans-have

generated via ChatGPT

And so we see a prime example of how and why the GOP maintains such a powerful hold over large swathes of this country and its people. Regardless of one's views of the Republican Party, Todd Starnes is articulating a sentiment that hath become increasingly common among most professed Christians in the former United States: support the party no matter what, even when it disappoints thee. Loyalty to the cause, and to Donald Trump, supersedes dissatisfaction with the party. Consider Starnes’ own words, putting it all very starkly:

"I've been telling people, 'I don't care how bad the Republicans have betrayed you or have not done what [they] said they would do,' … It's not about them. It's about protecting President Trump at the end of the day. And it's about protecting the Supreme Court."

Not much nuance or room for interpretation there. It is plainly stated: loyalty to Trump and keeping hold of the high court are tantamount to any and all other considerations. It explains why the GOP is so difficult to hold electorally accountable. Voters who would otherwise punish a party for perceived and real failures instead view the alternative as the literal spawn of Satan. Rightly or wrongly, the Democratic Party is the most hated institution of any kind throughout middle America, particularly in the South, where Democrats once enjoyed overwhelming dominance. For these white, working-class types, opposition to Democrats is not merely political; it is cultural, religious, and deeply personal. 

generated via ChatGPT

The Democratic Party did itself no favours in 2024 when it cast President Biden aside in favour of a candidate who proved incapable of winning the confidence of enough voters to prevent the return of a convicted felon to the White House. Indeed, the woman was unelectable from the very start; including for reasons that should not be, of course, but they are. Furthermore, she has not acquitted herself well at any point in her political career; it was not the time for a grand political experiment, not when it was so obvious and apparent how far rightward the winds were blowing in 2023, 2024, and continuing onward to the present moment. 

Fair or not, the election reinforced existing perceptions of Democratic weakness and disorganisation. And I do not see tangible moves being made to at least attempt to alter these perceptions. So long as the white working-class remains the most powerful voting bloc, the Democrats have to win at least some portion of them. And it is as though they do not even try, or the attempts they do make are clumsy and not well thought out (see nominating Tim Walz as the running mate in ‘24, or what hath become of Sen. John Fetterman).

Yet Republican strength cannot be explained solely by Democratic mistakes. Right-wing media ecosystems, partisan identity, religious affiliation, geographical sorting, nationalistic and anti-globalist sentiment, and decades of heated cultural conflict over a range of issues from abortion to zoning have all contributed to an environment in which voters increasingly define themselves by what they oppose even more so than by what they support. In this atmosphere, criticism of Republican leaders simply fails to translate into electoral consequences for the GOP. How else can we explain Trump being restored to power by the voters in 2024 after the myriad failures, embarrassments, and abuses of power previously, to say nothing of being a convicted felon?

Rightly or wrongly, the Democratic brand is toxic: if they hope to regain durable political power, they may need not merely new candidates, but a broader reconfiguration of how they present themselves to the electorate. Perhaps they retire the ‘Democratic Party’ brand name altogether, in the manner of how major corporations will rebrand when they have become toxic in the public eye (think Philip Morris becoming Altria, perhaps; or Lord Elon changing Twitter to ‘X’, though everyone still calls it ‘Twitter’, but I digress). Revivals rarely begin in Washington, though; they begin in town halls, state legislatures, school committees, and local communities. And in these places is where the Democrats have lost the most ground in recent decades.

On the current trajectory, Republicans will enjoy significant institutional advantages for years to come. Gerrymandering; favourable electoral geography; peer pressure upon individuals from family, society, and church; and the structure of American government all provide benefits that make Democratic victories more difficult than raw national vote totals suggest. It is not enough for Republicans to perform poorly in office if voters remain entirely unwilling to embrace the alternative. Especially, if only one alternative is ever allowed or considered. I suppose, going back to the 1790s, Americans have always demanded their politics be us against them, a team sport, and have never been keen on nuance. George Washington warned us about this in his farewell address, even as ‘the spirit of party’ was already overtaking the nation’s populace.

Whether a temporary realignment or the beginning of something more permanent remains an open question, though I am heavily leaning toward the latter. American history is filled with moments when observers believed one party had achieved lasting dominance, only for political circumstances to change... but that was then. Concerns about democratic erosion are never without foundation in the best of times, but today we are at red alert. To put it mildly. What ‘y’all’ voted for.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

An eternal night of sorrows

generated via ChatGPT

In one of the most Jewish cities on earth, NYC mayor says the pro-Israel lobbying AIPAC are ‘monsters’. {Jerusalem Post 19 June}

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-899945#google_vignette

Just a bit unhinged, perhaps? And, unlike Trump, this man is only in his thirties, so we do not have old age to account for such remarks. It is rather sad that words such as these are barely notable when the POTUS blurts out offensive statements as a matter of course.

The Great Zohran is also a Muslim, and if one does not believe such influences his views on Jewish people, then one is hopelessly naïve. 

The coarsening of American culture is inevitable when leaders fail to act like leaders. Furthermore, I believe we can have concerns about how the Israeli government and military under Netanyahu are conducting operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere without resorting to rhetoric that is both inflammatory and antisemitic.

And Israel is hardly the only country on earth that hath lobbying organisations or diplomatic missions in the former United States. There is nothing inherently shady or improper about a nation representing its interests on the world stage.

Mamdani is the flip side of the same coin as Trump: rhetorical flamethrowers and populist agents of chaos posing as leaders who, in the end, achieve nothing beyond stirring division and leaving their realms poorer and weaker than before.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.