WHICH DIRECTION ARE YOU PUNCHING?

Are you punching up or punching down? If you're punching up, you are defending from a position of weakness, gravity is working against you. And you are probably not the one who throws the first punch. Punching down, you have a more defensible position. Ukraine is punching up. Russia is punching down. France, and later US, punched down, the Vietnamese punched up. Donold of Orange would like us to believe he is punching up, he's punching down-at your exposed nose, especiall if you might be woke. Some people, usually those who are unable to take a stand effectively can't tell the difference. Whether they have become punchdrunk from too many blows to the head, or from playing Rope-a-Dope with Republicans there're a whole lot of people out there supporting the bully. For some of us  the defensive tactic; lay low and try not to be seen. If you are punching against someone close to your own size and weight you are boxing according to the Marquis of Queensbury rules. A dictator prefers MMA rules. They even cheat at those rules because a dictator cares only about ways they can dominate their opponents. 

Most of us have seen individual politicians who exceeded their public responsibilities in pursuit of power. They come from both parties. If there were more than two parties there would be power-hungry politicians in those other parties. It's a fault of people who seek power. That's why our founding fathers gave us a Constitution and Bill of rights. They even gave us a 9th amendment that allows us to change the Constitution as times demand, the the worst Supreme Court ever prefers to believe in a thing they call Constitutional originalism.

 Gradually, over the last 50 or so years, the most corrupt racists and fascist people, with great inherited fortunes, have set about punching down on the American Constitution. They tried this before, in the 1930's and 40's in support of Germany and her fascist party. The playbook is too familiar, including a corrupt Supreme Court and the failure to follow the directives of the lower courts. They failed, barely. Only a few unknown people were able to stop the assault on democracy then. We have not seen the final chapter written on this latest assault on democracy. What we have now that we did not have in the 1930's and 40's

Was an entire majority party complicite in the caper. The only Republicans that have openly opposed the Trump/Musk caper are no longer Republicans. Joanie Ernst had a brief moment of moral certitude until Elon Musk threatened to sponsor an opposing candidate in the coming Iowa primary. So much for her claim to know how to castrate pigs. An irony: Elon Musk has somewhere around 14 children, all born by IVF. The story making the rounds is that he, Musk, had had a failed surgical procedure on little Elon. We might speculate that he wanted a bigger, fatter, little Elon. A possibility that brings joy to our hearts when this topic emerges completely. A too rare example of karma. It is not for me to decide if Karma is punching up or punching down. It is punishment for doing bad; punching down on bad people. But punishment administered by deities is over-rated. They never seem to find the culprit. Or maybe they pick one of the many wrongdoers as an example to us all. However some of us see that as affirmation; he didn't get me, I'm good (It's always he). It's never that elephant-headed Hindu goddess with the many arms. The worst Western religion can devise is the stern Nun with a yard-stick. 

It's  kind of ironic for this troubled American who has opposed our military adventures of my lifetime. For too long, each president that has taken office has had a war somewhere to finish. Usually it was a president punching down. Sometimes the initiating President will use some noble reason, weapons of mass destruction, Communists building a longer runway on a small island, or even the possibility of a domino falling and starting a bunch of other dominoes to fall. We were still punching down. But here we are. The last of our military occupations ended in 2021. But the new guy, who took over a few months ago, decides to back our long-time enemy, Russia, in its punch-down of Ukraine. And he makes the claim that Ukraine was the villain. The president making that claim is not well-known for telling the truth. But here's the thing he is unable to understand. We can tell who invaded by following the tank tracks. We can tell who the attacker is by discerning how motivated the army is. Ukraine is defending their Homeland. Defending it from a nation who previously paid a toady to lead Ukraine, until the Maidan, when Ukraine became a democracy. Follow the tank tracks. Follow the invading troops. How far from home are they. Never defend the side punching down.