Stumbled on this video of Musician Frank Zappa warning America about the coming of a theocratic fascist state. I believe this show is CNN’s old Cross Fire. Zappa’s skepticism serves him and us well. Unfortunately most folks won’t listen to much other than the weather and the sports scores(5:30):

The threat of a theocratic fascism is within sight. Trump is the main adherent, but any of the current MAGA presidential candidates will be the useful idiot that will put the theocrats in charge. They are currently only a couple of steps from full control. We can see this in the US House and the Supreme Court.

While I am speaking of this it seems like a good time to bring up the subject of banned books in Iowa. Nothing says theocratic fascism like controlling what the populace can read. Little Village Magazine printed the full list of some 527 titles that have so far been removed from Iowa schools.

Just to add to the surrealism of the situation the LVM article quotes an extremely clueless governor:

“As predicted, many of the titles commonly removed are by, or depict, LGBTQ+ people. None are pornographic by any commonly held or reasonable definition.

Despite this, Gov. Reynolds insists there is no book ban in Iowa, boasting only that “we got porn out of the classroom and the libraries.”

I mean that woman is clueless.

I am asking that you give the LVM some traffic and read the list over there. But I do want to list some titles that really surprised me:

1984 by George Orwell (seriously?)

Animal Farm by George Orwell 

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (are you kidding?)

Forever by Judy Blume (good lord)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (good grief)

Maus (graphic novel) by Art Spiegelman 

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron 

Ulysses by James Joyce  (wow – a book so important to ending censorship in the US is now censored)

You get the gist of what kind of books are being banned. I was very surprised that Anne Frank:Diary of a Young Girl was not on the list. I had heard it was. 

I will repeat Barry Goldwater’s warning about the religious right from Saturday’s article:

(BTW – I am sure Kim Reynold’s will have us banned as soon as she can):

There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.