Culturicide...It's What's For Breakfast

The Western Bamiyan Buddha of Afghanistan
before and after

I learned a new word today: CULTURICIDE. [Note: this is the correct form if you're talking about cultural genocide.]

I used to call it cultural genocide but today I found out this is an actual word. Let me lead you down last night's rabbit hole so maybe you can follow my thinking. Granted, it's not always all that cogent, but maybe you'll let the idea. 

There's lots of different ways to think about cultural genocide. I'm not talking about the cancel culture movement. I'm talking about what the US did to the indigenous populations here, what the Nazis did in Europe, and what the Taliban did to the magnificent Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.

Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt supervised Native American prisoners in Florida and  believed strongly in the premise that one had to kill the Indian, save the man. Ultimately, he founded the Carlisle Industrial Indian School in Pennsylvania and was the architect of cultural genocide large swaths of our indigenous population. History.com provides an excellent description of how that worked in its article How Boarding Schools Tried to ‘Kill the Indian’ Through Assimilation; Native American tribes are still seeking the return of their children.

As part of this federal push for assimilation, boarding schools forbid Native American children from using their own languages and names, as well as from practicing their religion and culture. They were given new Anglo-American names, clothes, and haircuts, and told they must abandon their way of life because it was inferior to white people’s.

But that's only one kind of culturicide. The Nazis rounded up and slaughtered millions of "undesirable" people...like jews, Romani, and homosexuals, but they didn't  stop there. They looted art and monuments. They burned synagogues, churches, and museums...but not before scooping up their cultural artifacts. A huge repository of art and artifacts was hidden in of salt mines in Altaussee in Austria. While the movie THE MONUMENTS MEN shows those guys as the heroes saving the cache, it was actually the miners themselves who disarmed the Nazis plan to blow up the mine, thereby saving it all from destruction. [note: the Wiki article does go into the historical accuracy of the film.] 

As for the Taliban in Afghanistan...they followed the principles of ISIS and other Islamist regimes. They set out to obliterate anything that was not of Islam. They did not hide their loot in salt mines; they simply destroyed everything. If the rich cultural and artistic history of the Afghan people no longer existed........

We, the People, are not immune from being looted culturally. President Felon's desire to change the name of The Kennedy Center is the perfect example. Named for a president and first lady who embodied the expansion of America's cultural achievements deserves to be honored with that theatre. Neither President Kennedy nor Mrs. Kennedy stripped portraits of presidents they didn't like from the White House. They didn't decry exhibits that recognized the failures of America as well as the successes. 

But wait! There's more. A romance writer is cited as having written a superb description of culturicide in a rather dreadful (yes, I actually read it) book called JAKE. Adrienne Bell wrote:

...by destroying a culture’s art, you destroy the people. If you erase every reminder of their history, their symbology, everything... everything that made them special and distinct in this world, then you can make those people forget who they really are. And that’s what conquerors truly want.

Feckless President Felon is trying to rewrite our history in the most revisionist of ways. He is removing entire classes of our armed forces from recognition based on sex. Yes, sex. Whether it is homosexuality, transgenderism, or how about just gender...it doesn't matter. He's got people in his cabinet who actively believe women should not vote. 

To be very blunt: the White House is carefully curating what they think we should think. That, folks, is a form of culturicide. 

Now for the rabbit hole. Here's where my thought trains runs amok. 

I got to thinking about how President Felon is trying to build a garish addition for the rather sedate yet elegant White House. Here's what the White House says about it:

The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.... 

The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s [sic] theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942. 

This rendering is a little too ornately designed for the simple taste of the nation's house. I mean, it's like more Versailles than the image America usually presents....non-royal. This is the antithesis of who we are....or who we like to think we are. He is not an Ottoman Sultan, nor is he a king of any kind. He is OUR frickin' temp employee. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

He thinks we don't notice what he's trying to divert us from seeing with this bullshiht sidestep. But sometimes, he cannot keep his big trap shut....and he didn't keep it shut enough on Monday (today as I write this.) 

In taking control of Washington, D.C.'s police force, he not only tipped his hand, but he exposed himself. Let me explain.

January 6th was, much like more recently in LA, a dry run in taking control of a city. He tried to overturn the election and used orchestrated violence to demonstrate how out-of-control the city of Washington was. It didn't work. He tried to take over LA, but while a little more successful, he did not end up running the government of LA or California out on a rail. He is attempting to try it again with this morning's announcement of wresting control of the DC police force using home-rule law. 

His claims that the crime rate is DC is higher than it's ever been is total bullshit. Go look for yourself: Fact check: Violent crime in DC has fallen in 2024 and 2025 after a 2023 spike. No other city in the US is subject to home-rule like DC, but that's not gonna stop him. And he said as much in his speech:

You look at Chicago how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore they're so -- they're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this.

There it is, folks. This is nothing more than a harbinger of authoritarian control. Read the whole speech; it's a dilly.

You deny us the right to our own history. You change the facts in museums and the public square. You convince enough people you really just want to protect them....

And then you cancel elections because the people are being denied their true voice....the one that kowtows to him and his rhetoric.

Remember, you might not have seen it here first, but you've seen it here. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you haven't seed SIDESTEP

you need to see it. 

Now. 

Provocation and Instigation

This is yahrzeit week. Wednesday night begins the observance of the 16th anniversary of Ziggy having the poor form to leave the building. I recently wrote a comment in a Substack about widowhood:

I am, in many ways, still married to the dead guy. I miss him. Our lives weren't perfect. Far from it...Being a widow can be a challenge, but it does not define me as much as other people like to think it should. Being invisible is sometimes okay. Losing people you once thought close to you because you no longer have a partner actually tells you who your friends are...something worth knowing.

Truth be told, I could really use his astute input on tonight's episode. I would like nothing more than to listen to him unraveling the threads of the past couple o'weeks in Trumpistan. I know when I pop over to the cemetery tomorrow I will well imagine those wheels spinning in his grave. A total devotee of spy novels, I know he would've had a whole lot to say. 

Once upon a time....September 2020, the President Felon made the following statement during an ABC News town hall in Portland, Oregon:

 
Look, we have laws. We have to go by the laws. We can’t move in the National Guard. I can call insurrection but there’s no reason to ever do that, even in a Portland case ...
 
We can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by a governor.   

 

I doubt he remembers saying that because that's exactly what he's doing to LA this week. He is the first president in 60 years to send in National Guard troops without a request from a governor. Of course, he couldn't stop there. From The Washington Post: 

Trump repeatedly ridiculed Newsom, a Democrat, saying that he is “grossly incompetent” and had done “a terrible job.” Asked about a threat made by his border czar Tom Homan to arrest the governor, Trump said, “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump added, without specifying any alleged criminal wrongdoing or charges. “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”

Now, he's sending in the Marines to backup ICE and the 2,000 National Guard members. Another 2,000 are being readied for deployment. No way is this gonna go down quietly. President Felon is looking for a fight, and betting that he's gonna get one. But here's the thing: quelling this conflagration will not make him a hero; it will make him a the most hated man in America. 

Since when can the US Military perform enforcement duties within the United States? Let's get real: this is not  an act of response; this is an outright act of provocation and instigation. Instead of what began as peaceful, lawful protests, the arrival of military apparatus and uniforms has now created a volatile atmosphere of distrust and confrontation. The White House has created its own crisis which, in all likelihood, is a backhanded positioning for a power grab. If the protests continue to escalate through confrontation, there is every reason to expect some form of martial law to be declared. 

This is a serious step toward authoritarianism in the United States. 

I view this as a test case to see if anyone will set boundaries. The test case on January 6th, 2021 may have put some people in jail, but the re-election of President Felon has pardoned most of them and put them back on the streets where they can now regroup to support the move further to the right. 

As they continue to put targets on the backs of Jews in America with their "antisemitism" programs...which the angry mob can then easily turn on the Jews, the continued erosion of civil rights for minority groups continues unhindered. Highly trained, honored, and respected trans military officers are being effectively fired as "unfit to serve." 

Between the TACO tariffs, the cryptocurrency fail, the endless suits against his policies, the bromance break-up with the Muskrat, and now the  LA debacle, my only question is:

Who is actually running the country?

 

I'm guessing it's this guy: 22 year old recent college grad Thomas Fugate, recently named head of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the United States Department of Homeland Security with great credentials like "secretary general of his Model United Nations Club." He ain't no Doogie Howser, that's fer sure. He's just one more untrained, uninformed, unprepared kid. He is the perfect fall guy: blame him, jail him, and throw away the key 'cuz he can't afford an attorney. Just paint him red and give him a fish suit because this kid is the ultimate red herring. He will be the deflection point for what is really happening in this country. 

And by the way, we have NOT seen the last of the Muskrat. He's out there laying in the weeds waiting for the coup.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Widowhood does not necessarily define a widow.

How you treat her can, however, define you.