Boogaloo

 In a way, I should be happy that the British Tories are too thick to organise themselves. 

I'm reading right now about movements in the USA that are openly or covertly supported by Donald Trump and the Republican Party and their hangers-on. 

Boogaloo is the new one. 

You can read about it here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/whitmer-conspiracy-allegations-tied-boogaloo-movement-n1242670?fbclid=IwAR3cwWJLptngSLlDmEUzEVU8L50VsxUfGvSn6vu870_WdUjvLbo_nDOHDuE

Americans are good at making up names like this. 

Apparently, Boogaloo is another right wing militia group. Some of its members were involved in the planned abduction (and murder?) of the legally-elected governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. 

Sometimes, Republican politicians fail to reveal themselves because they're too scared to declare who they really are and what they really stand for. These days Republicans like Trump are worse than any right wing militias: they are happy to unleash gun-toting nutters on their fellow-citizens but then can't control them once they've got going. 

That's exactly what happened in the first presidential debate in September when Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back" and then had to tell them to "stand down". Dear me, if this man is presidential, the USA is in a worse state than even I imagined. 

It's pretty scary that the USA has gone in such a short time from the urbane, academic Barack Obama to a president who can't bring himself to condemn rogue police officers shooting black people on the streets.

So we're left with slogans and made-up words:

- Make America great again (When was America not great? And if it stopped being great, whose fault was that?)

- antifa (Let me remind you that stands for Anti-fascist (for Europeans this is a good thing and some Europeans know what anti-Fascism is about, but a lot of Republicans seem to regard these groups as the bad guys)

- BLM - Shockingly, this slogan is seen by Republicans as a dangerous left-wing group and they try to defuse its impact by introducing other slogans like ALM (all lives matter) and PLM (police lives matter). Both are valid points but these are not the point: being one of all lives matter or police lives matter doesn't mean you're likely to die on the street. Being black means that's much more likely - and we have the proof on video. 

Most Europeans wouldn't dream of commenting on other countries' governments. The Brits don't comment because even their politicians have no idea who heads up most other government in Europe, never mind what other countries' ruling parties might be called. They know who Angela Merkel is and that's it. But man, British politicians know who the USA presidential candidates are. That's because they're angling for a trade deal with the USA. They may get it but who knows what it will look like. The Brits cling to the idea of the "special relationship", but I often wonder if most Americans have the slightest idea what that is from their side of the pond. 

Anyhow, here in Britain, England, the UK - call it what you want - the thick as mince Tories, now in power for a decade, will stagger on hoping for crumbs from the American table, building up the National Debt - is it 3 trillion yet? - and trotting out whoever he is, the manager, director, chairman of the Bank of England every so often to assure us all is well, when we know perfectly well it's not. 

Lord, bless us every one...because that may be what it will take.