Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

***

White House on Crack

I’m concerned.

It’s November 15th. 2020. The election, a week ago.

My only questio now that it’s over is: were they ALL on drugs?

Ivanka seemed like the designated driver. Jared, based upon objective scrutiny, looks to be a total shut-the-door-in-your face dealer.

Whatever that hollerol they were snorting was- it brought with it all the classic signs of addiction.

As a Dr of the Internet points out, of three salient patterns which could indicate the use of some form of crack by the Former First Family, all three were present almost continuously in the chief executive:

Loss of judgement;
Rage;
Impulsivity.

Loss of judgement involves the cortex of the brain. More than mere confusion, this impairment renders logical grasp of consequences out the question. Fact/based analysis: uh no.

Rage was on display with flags on, just about every minute of every day, but it reached a fine dramatic incandescence in the performance of Kimberly Guilfoyle and the Trump sons at the White House Republican Rent Party Convention last September.

Then there were steroids, from which, in the case of testosterone, you have a sense of physical power and stamina and aggression- deximethazone too is known to have similar effects- to which, during his Covid-valescence, the president attested by beating his chest in public, claiming to be strong as a twenty- year old- after his time in ICU. Speculation, but whatever.

But consider, Americans.

Outside in the park in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza, stood a gathered crowd of what appeared to be a fringe cult being harangued by Alex Jones.

His speech- which he bellowed with manic force, was obscene and insane and senseless and inscrutable.

I finally get the gist of the message though: if government imposed a lockdown, in order to control the pandemic, and “everyone” ends up on welfare, then that will be followed by each citizen totally dependent on a perumanent mandatory flat government check, with the proviso that all must, to receive subsistence, submit to mandatory vaccination.

Socialism!

All of followers in the square jeered, or howled, at every word- including all the now-famous Democratic/satanic/pedophile/conspiracy theory schtick, and the idea that the head junkie, now hunkered down in the East Wing, not only won the election but has the power to make it all better.

Maybe. But, I thought to myself, why in God’s plaster pavilion, didn’t Donald J Trump fix everything when the Republicans ran all three branches of government?

Again, I ask you: are these people on drugs?

The cultists, no. But Donald, we think, is a stone addict- with all that this means.

In any event, one can see the mirroring effect, within and without the White House, in what Woodward and Bernstein would call The Final Days.

I promise to ignore this blip on the screen, in hopes for a better world beginning in January, but for now the addiction scenario, I fear, plays out in utterly predictable ways.

-No, he doesn’t get time to collect his thoughts and come to terms with reality.

That’s the last thing on his mind right now, during the Final Days.

So you and I, like it it not – and no one ever does like being part of such a hopeless process- are part of The Trump Intervention. I know. It’s disgusting.

It’s a gigantic unfair imposition on normal people.

Welcome to the world of the addict and his religious movement.

Bad news: Humility is the key to recovery.

***

Ok tomorrow he goes where all disgruntled frustrated defeated wannabe emperors go: to remote Texas.

That is bad.

Historically, prominent ambitious crazed scofflaws and politicians would take their dreams of empire out to the border territory.

To the Alamo.

Aaron Burr, Davy Crockett. Both wanted to build a little empire down there- completely rejecting the USA.

“You all can go to hell,” Crockett declared, “I’m going to Texas!”

Then there’s George W Bush, but that’s another story.

No no. This is bad.

The Man Without a Country is not going down there on a junket.

He’s placing himself out of harm and out of reach when he declares victory.

This is bad.

He probably doesn’t know that the Alamo isn’t in Alamo, Texas. Or that it was a massacre.

No matter. The symbol has already been activated .

I pray every governor in every state is prepared.

If this were a novel, Mr Trump would never return.

If this were a novel, Mr Pence would seize the moment.

It would all end well, sort of.

Back in 1836, Davy Crockett- who despised Trump’s hero, Andrew Jackson- would play the fiddle to entertain the besieged garrison. It would be a fandango. Before the big weekend. He had left the USA behind forever, frustrated after his term in Congress, betrayed by his own party and the president who hailed from his home state.

When the Trumps dance, it’s a fist-pumping affair, with a lot of hopping up and down. We saw that just before the massacre.

… The Man Without a Country

“The protagonist is a young US Army lieutenant, Philip Nolan, who develops a friendship with the visiting Aaron Burr. When Burr is tried for treason (that historically occurred in 1807), Nolan is tried as an accomplice. During his testimony, he bitterly renounces his nation and, with a foul oath, angrily shouts, “I wish I may never hear of the United States again!” The judge is completely shocked at that announcement and, on convicting him, icily grants him his wish. Nolan is to spend the rest of his life aboard US Navy warships in exile with no right ever to set foot on US soil again and with explicit orders that no one shall ever again mention his country to him.”
-wiki re the author, Edward Everett Hale

Don’t know how this Trump Texas Tale ends. Ambrose Bierce could probably tell us- but he won’t.

But here:

***

Endgame

Looking forward to the thought experiment the Republicans must elucidate.

They must explain the endgame of Jan 6.

So let’s begin. It’s Jan 6.

Assume the Vice President is now dead. And the Speaker of the House is kidnapped or held hostage. Or tortured and murdered.

Imagine Senator Hawley has prevailed. The certification of electoral votes is halted. There are dead Americans everywhere in the Capitol.

The electoral votes are seized. Congress disbanded.

The president declared martial law, as was discussed with his top advisors.

The election is declared “on hold”.

Election equipment is seized in every state and data is sealed.

The 45th President is still in power.

Then what?

Incapacitated and incapable of governing in the midst of four existential crises, then what, Republicans?

Explain, Sen Josh Hawley. Explain the plan. Because you’re an integral part of it. You played a key role.

So the Capitol is seized. Congress disbanded.

And Trump is still president. He’s still golfing and ranting and the pandemic is roaring and unrest spreads like wildfire across the country.

Then what, Senator Graham?

Senators: Did you read about the Russian Revolution? That’s what Steve Bannon advocated, hoped would occur: the destruction of the “administrative state.”

And everything that had occurred was inevitable.

There is no scenario that doesn’t include storming the Capitol. It’s a historical inevitability, an absolute, a Reality.

It would have to result in a military dictatorship- this too would be an inevitable chapter, by default. Power vacuum.

So, Senator Hawley, you’d have to be jailed or somehow disappeared. Your ambitions are too…inconvenient for the long term. You are a hack, a beginner. The oligarchs will eat you for lunch and spit you out.

And the powers of Trump? They evaporate- his power was never legitimate. It was granted by an electorate that no longer exists after a violent insurgency breaks up the government. He’s a coward, and those with brute force and true malevolence would take his place.

Maybe that most malevolent one, seizing power would be Senator Graham. For a minute. He’d be Commissioner Graham over the temporary military district.

Or perhaps merely de-legitimizing the US government was the plan. And somehow Senator Hawley, the genius from Missouri, was right and President Lincoln was wrong.

And Mike Pence in this likely scenario would be dead. So no, it’s not a peaceful transition to a second term. That’s over.

It’s bullets -not ballots- that will prevail.

No, Republicans can’t just “take over” on behalf of the oligarchs. The military wing support a coup. Not this one.

So Senator Hawley, you’re telling us to go ahead, fire on Fort Sumter, that Lincoln’s murder was no big deal. That JFK was in the way, so a crossfire was a good idea. That the Cold War was stupid. Let things take care of themselves. Business as usual.

That’s the genius of Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.

But they wouldn’t survive their own Insurrection. There is no place for them in the new authoritarian state. They’re incompetent, so they would be sidelined or imprisoned- if they were lucky.

Because without a system of balanced powers and good faith agreements we have violence. And we do have that, even before the Insurrection, in proportion to the injustice in the land.

There is no happy ending here for the Republicans.

***

Useful terms of address for the “president”*

occupant*
footnote*
asterisk*
mini-Mussolini*
mighty mouth*
herr helmet*
5.mr melania*
the tic tac troll*
mr melania, sir* (correction}

Thank you, Veterans

The United States of American is an idea.

It’s not going anywhere. There will be no successful coup. Why? Because the country is diverse, it’s indivisible, dedicated to liberty and justice for all.

It’s not a cynical idea. It’s just slooooow.

A political diversion from these ideals, as we witness today, by Republicans, renouncing the fundamentals of democracy, will fail.

The coup thing. Fail. Already has failed.

A rearrangement of civilians in government, by presidential fiat, will not overturn the facts as acknowledged on the world stage.

A more perfect Union will transpire- despite the unconstitutional and cynical efforts of those in government who subverted public service in a scheme to overturn the will of the people, to narrow the scope of government to the interests of the powerful and the few.

Trump’s denial of the clear election results, and the support of his political party in this, will fail- because that’s not what the United States is.

Implicitly, they advocate for what would be an unrepresentative government. It’s a fundamentally flawed plan, and Americans should be outraged by it.

Veterans secured our freedom. My father and my niece, my uncle, my great-uncle, stepped forward with unbelievable courage for the idea of the United States, and gave “far above our poor powers to add or detract.”

Thank you, veterans. We have a long way to go to get this right- but you showed the way.

We carry the flag now, thanks to veterans who protected and defended the Constitution.

The patriotic mandate has passed for now into the hands of compassionate informed and sane citizens.

That’s the result of this historic moment. The president that defies this constitutional plan is engaged in folly. And the founders planned for that.

***

“I Got Slimed By Vladimir Putin!”

I know, it’s trivial and non-consequential but

“I Got Slimed- by Vladimir Putin!”

Yes. You know the feeling. Something was not quite right.

Hm. What could be the matter?

Yes, I checked my email and read some shit online and then -wait a minute.

That’s when it hit me: the Virtual Slimeball.

Gross, sticky, stinky, invisible, indelible unprovable slime. It’s hate mail from Vladimir Putin! Right up to my digital doorstep, layers of scum rising in my virtual dooryard.

It’s down in the stagnant stream of opinion below the digital text. The gun-toting misogyny, the confusion about basic values, the demonstrative ignorance, the base sexual insults- it’s Vladimir!

It must have been when I opened a thread on Facebook. “Never read comments, and never reply,” I tell myself. But sometimes it’s too much. I pound my chest and let out a roar of Truth -and that’s when the slime all connects.

Gross! Yuk!

It’s psychological, of course.

The Putin-troll attacks the integrity of mind, its healing impulses, its better nature, its natural sociability.

Like a window shutter banging all night in an angry wind; like thunder, accompanied by a release of sulfur; like rotten eggs; like methane from the tundra, where a score of mammoths were pathetically sucked into sludge and then warmed in the cruel sun of a globally warming world into a reeking, fetid stench of hopeless totalitarian ideologies imported from afar and long ago.

That’s the digital comment from Hell, in every dialogue, seemingly so harmless, it mangles basic truth into a twisted insult from a Fake American that exists only statistically, virtually. It’s not real- and yet, somehow far more insidious.

But most actual people are pretty nice.

I told myself it is nothing. Put on your nightcap and toddle off. 75% of Americans are sane, hardworking and literate.

Vladimir.

***

Ode to Autumn

The Fall is all about drifting leaves

-Indict him.

The changing colors of the trees

-Indict him.

The sunsets blazing orange and red

-Indict him.

Recalling all the things he said

Indict him.

Creeks and rivers start to freeze

Indict him.

This precious moment is a time to seize

Indict him.

A bright orange jumpsuit will be so nice

I’ll take a latte- pumpkin spice.

***

Jigsaw Puzzle

Americans, this coup thing is not a jigsaw puzzle with a thousand pieces and intricacies and mostly sky. No.

It’s a puzzle with one piece.

One.

The future historians are asking WTF are y’all’s doin’?

Watch a rerun of “Colombo” if you’re still confused.

These criminals announced their crime in advance when they ran for office. The told us they were going to burn the whole thing down.

Ok. Breathe. That’s it. Calm down. It’s only an undeclared Civil War at its Pickett’s Charge moment. Nothing to worry about.

“Dang I’m being overrun by metaphors, sir. They’re coming at us from ever’ which way. They’re calling us names! They’re making fun of our legal system! They’re making everything go slow! It’s like being attacked by gnats! I can’t see!”

“The Union is befuddled!”

“There’s marbles on the dance floor, sir. How should we proceed?”

…I think that’s how it went back in 1863. No one knows because there are no You Tubes of the generals bc they had no phones.

***

…No Charge. Still at Large

Good morning, Americans.

The secret word today is “charged”.

I love this word. I’m like the charge’ d affaires of the word “charged.”

“Charge” is charged with effect, like an engine is super-charged; like a dish is charged with flavor, a line of poetry charged with meaning.

We exist in a highly charged atmosphere, do we not?

How wonderful, to acquire a thing -anything- free of charge!

In the fifties, ad agencies used a cartoon image of a general on a horse urging consumers to “Charge it!”

(Of course one is occasionally over-charged, and will perhaps wish to detonate a depth-charge, but the charges may be reversed according to the fine print on the credit card statement by dialing an 800 number.)

This may be accomplished electronically in a process involving electricity, with its highly charged particles.

“Charged” has the most wonderful synonyms!:

breathtaking, electric, electrifying, exciting, exhilarating, exhilarative, galvanic, galvanizing, hair-raising, heart-stopping, inspiring, intoxicating, kicky- [not sure of that one!], mind-bending, mind-blowing, mind-boggling, rip-roaring, rousing, stimulating, stirring, thrilling

And yet.

Headlines tell me that, despite mounting evidence of conspiracy and crimes, and intense public concern, the former president still has not been…

…charged.

***

Who Moved My Cheese?

Has anyone noticed that 1/3 of the country has seceded from the United States?

Oh, they left already. No, they didn’t leave a note.

They just up and broke up with us. That love letter, “The Constitution of the United States of America”- they’re embarrassed by it, really.

It was mere infatuation. Stupid.

So they broke up with us.

I know- they were assholes. We tried to pretend, but it was an abusive relationship the whole time. So it’s over.

The problem is – they’re still here!

It’s like an old relationship, and now we are stuck with a roommate from hell.

They’re devising situations. Passive aggressive shit at borders. Stuff to just work your last nerve.

They’ve got the credit card and they’re maxing it out right now.

-Assholes! (I am truly sorry, Your Grace, Facebook, Meta, but it’s time to speak normally, finally.)

You read a headline everyday and throw down your stupid IPhone in disgust.

Secession. Ending the Union.

This was an idea floated by their bloated deity R Limbaugh, who, just before he croaked, suggested secession was “probably” the only course of action for the Red States. We just don’t have anything common.

Those doofuses down there lapped that shit up.

Yeah, Rush called for secession and then he took the easy way out, collected a medal, dictator-style, and then pffft he was gone.

So the Red States have seceded in all but name and flag, but certainly they’re kicking around new names for the country. And the flag will have no stars or stripes. Because most of those stars are “woke” stars and many of the stripes are Antifa.

But there won’t actually BE a country, as such. It’s going to be a sort of Europe during the Feudal System, except the Knights Errant are driving Teslas. (I have heard you can’t get those repaired.)

The peasants usually have an oversized truck which plays loud ersatz rock music and shines gloriously from idleness.

Other than that, time proceeds along the lines of the same old story: Religious crusade, swimming in the summer. Draft picks. TV.

Fortunately this is not going to work in November or at any other time.

They need us more than we need them.

Yes. It is the unspoken truth that the Red States can’t survive going Full-Amish. Nope.

This is the United States, where we will let you dig a hole as large and deep as you want to, and for you to presently jump or stumble into, because this is the Sweet Land of Liberty.

Damn it they moved my cheese!

***

Saving the Country, One Salad at a Time!

Note to self- (A public service announcement to me.)

I can’t save the country but I CAN eat more salad.

I’m worried.

Has the J6 Committee done a diet/exercise survey of the participants, as part of it’s important work?

To put a finer point on it: How many of us are bonkers most of the time from overconsumption of…everything?

I speak to and for myself.

I know: how can one think about salad when the roof has blown off the political structure of the Western world?

Is there a connection between rampant consumption and, well, the end of the world as we know it?

I’m talking about mental clarity.

I’m talking about romaine lettuce.

I’m talking about an optimal body mass index of your typical Proud Boys person.

Hey, this is pretty good. Nice leafy green vegetables. Fresh cherry tomato. Why didn’t I think of this before?

I know I’ll backslide. It’s ok. A salad is a huge step for some of us.

Everything is an indicator of other behaviors, which follow naturally.

Salad may indicate mindfulness, and that awareness is perhaps an indicator of other behaviors. Maybe. Of course, I’m new at this. I’ve only been on this health kick for twenty minutes now.

That too is an indicator. One can begin to infer things from these impulses, if that’s what they are.

Like walking. A person that walks somewhere has a different outlook than someone who never walks anywhere at all. The air is sweet. And it’s ancient. All the molecules have been around for eons, and still fresh as a daisy. The air’s been there for millennia. So lucky, to breathe that breath of spring.

(I’m not talking about walking a safari to hunt endangered lions or elephants. I’m talking about a walk in the woods or just around the block; a non-aggressive saunter to nowhere, unarmed.)

I’d like to know from the J6 committee what the diet and exercise and mental health regimen were for the all participants.

It’s a public health crisis- authoritarian insurgency.

Can a person who is healthy in body, mind, and spirit destroy the country?

Perhaps. The Third Reich was full of health nuts, after all. But like here, the leader was basically on meth. So there’s that. And yes, the former president, lurking at his rallies- is definitely on something. Steroids, is my theory.

The mentality of consumption is the heart of the matter: the nature of its demand, the rage to satisfy, to get things regardless of cost or consequence- that kind of consumption. The kind that overrides good judgement, that steamrolls opposition.

Food. Sugar. Disinformation. Climate. Outer Space.

A salad and a tall drink of water. I still don’t feel like overthrowing the government… Maybe this is working for me!

Covid taught some of us to slow down and be aware. To hold to mental health, for our own sake and to serve others. To uphold well-being, and to allay mistrust and misfortune.

And now here we are, preserving democracy for generations to come, from a basis of sanity. A healthy foundation. An appreciation of what I have.

One salad at a time.

We’ll get through this together.

Next.

I can’t clean up the landfill, but I can cool it with the plastic, already. (Just thinking ahead toward the Future.)

***

Americans vs The United States

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

-Emerson, Concord Hymn

“We are not enemies, but friends.”

-Abraham Lincoln

“We’re too busy a-singin’ to put anybody down.”
-Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, “Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”

Americans vs the United States.

I wrote because this is nuts and helps me to breathe:

When a Democratic politician is accused wrongly of immoral behavior by a Republican opponent, remember this mantra: Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly.

Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. Say it again.

The recent Republican attacks on the mainstream, like the unspeakable accusations against Democrats in state races, are meant to be incendiary and explosive charges for which there is no defense.

They are meant to destroy and do the maximum amount of harm.

They’re meant to silence and terrorize others.

They’re meant to destroy bridges- permanently.

These are the symbolic equivalent of tactical nuclear strikes. With toxic fallout in all directions.

It’s basically McCarthyism. The Red Menace, again. (Even as they themselves are supporting Putin.)

I hope Americans know this venal, wedge politics, practiced for decades since Reagan, by criminals like Manafort and Stone- following Nixon’s Lee Atwater, are what the Republican Party has become.

No- there is no longer hope that the Republican Party will change course.

Hate is not a temporary expedient. It’s what they are. It’s a chosen identity, to be greedy, hateful, saboteurs of the American system.

No matter how bad this looks – it’s far worse than we think. The Republicans are taking a page from the Fire Eaters in Congress of the Civil War era.

Those politicians holding office in 1859 were planning to destroy the Union, even as they served in Congress, in effect creating the Confederacy while they held public office.

They’re baaack. And they’re global.

All the think tanks are on board, driving this fascist train: Heritage, Federalist Society, Hoover Institute here at Stanford- have declared war on the existing culture which is seen as “Decadent”.

It’s a repeat of culture attacks on artists and innocents in Germany before WW2.

(And that is a fact, Your Highness, Your Grace, Facebook/Meta.)

The idea is that members of the degraded culture have no rights, and can be attacked with impunity.

As Black, Manafort & Stone, the firm was one of the first political consulting groups to work for Ronald Reagan’s presidential candidacy in 1980, and would later also have extensive connections to the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Donald Trump was this firm’s first client.

The team of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone specialize in Dirty Tricks and the politics of person destruction in the service of dictators.

I truly believe we’ll get through this. And when we do, those forces will be- by their own actions- discredited and shunned from the political stage.

Thank you, Donald Trump, for showing us exactly who and what they are.

We’re going to send the devil we know right back home, and elect responsible adults as true public servants, to public office, for the more perfect Union that is the right of every American.

Democracy is global.

***

You are compassionate, sane and informed.

You are the counterweight, practicing the way forward.

I promise this will be my only anti-fascist rant. But it’s time. I apologize, but it must be said.

The Critical Importance of Authenticity

Ok I’m going there.

Last night I joked with my wife about travel and retirement and suggested we leave before the fascists completely take over.

I shocked myself when I realized what I’d said.

That was the first out-loud expression of the actual mess we are in.

So, before the hour gets later, America, I recommend a good Jungian analysis:

Maria Louise con Franz:

“The personal shadow (fears, shortcomings,- which everyone has but prefers not to know about- is the bridge, the doorway to the Collective Shadow…

When Germany went to the devil [collective shadow] in Naziism, people fell into it through their personal shadow- fears, inferiorities we all have, “human all to human”- and did far worse things than they would have normally.

…The Collective Shadow comes up as terrible mass psychoses.”

We see this happen across the US now. Mass psychosis is the path the Hard Right has chosen. They cannot win a reality-based election. It must be lies, bullying, bigotry, and vengeance. Insanity.

If there is any doubt, we see the authoritarian activity in the Red States and the Republican Party’s embrace of violent speech. They’re not listening. And listening is key to democratic process.

This began decades ago- and it has reached a critical mass: they’re bellowing hate speech, and threats to destroy all who dare to defy their authoritarian program.

It’s here. We’ve arrived at the point described above.

The failure to grasp the urgency of accountability for the movement toward Insurrection is a danger to the Republic.

Our political speech must take into consideration the deeper interpretation of the psychological drama in which we all have a role.

Pretending that those already committed to fascism in the United States are going to play by the rules or be influenced by debate is not going to work.

I am well aware that the political opposition to democracy makes the exact same allegations that I do. They’re liars.

There are not “two sides” to this crisis.
It’s one side, with aspects.

I’m not going to rant every day or preach again or even cry out a Jeremiad nor blame anyone, I but just mark the moment.

It’s heartbreaking- but the Unconscious is inviting us all to fix this.

We have deep resources to draw from: compassion. Grounded, like the oaks and redwoods, we have insight. Most importantly: Authenticity.

This is why it is of utmost importance to remain compassionate, sane, and informed; one is far less likely to be swept away.

(Here is Dr von Franz, associate of Carl Jung, on the Collective Shadow. If I could interject any idea into our thoughts on the crisis of Democracy this is the deepest I can offer.)

(Looking straight upward through trees. Filoli.)

***

Notes To Myself (in memory of Allison Krause).

No News!

News flash: There is no news today!

(Because it’s all really, really old.)

-The Sunday talk shows will feature the intense focus over the January 6 Insurrection- as well they should. And the war on Ukraine.

But the moderators of the Sunday round tables won’t delineate the cause of the trouble that led to an actual attack on the US Capitol by Americans.

It’s buried in the national closet. Up in the attic, with decades of Life Magazines and Playboys and Natl Geographics.

It’s a big secret no one wants to think about.

It’s Vietnam. And Anti-Communism.

This is our Fifty Years War, our very own Cultural Revolution.

Kids today, like Matt Gaetz, won’t remember, and we’re not going to tell them.

(They also won’t remember the supposedly perfect America that never ever existed.)

“Geezer on the park bench, please do not bore us w your rant again.”

Ok, hear me out.

The guys that did the “J6” insurrection, the Republican brain-trust, had on training-wheels, way back during the Nixon Administration.

It’s true. Roger Stone and his cohort. William Barr. Those types.

That “stop the steal” nonsense?

-That’s a completely Nixon/Roger Stone idea, to Blame the “Far Left”- for their very own right-wing attack on the United States.

I’m not googling, I’m just saying, based on the bystander/wisdom gained from just sucking air for 65+ years.

Yawn, but hear me out.

A brief blah-de-blah review. How did we get here?

We know that the political Right Wing in the United States today is mad- in both senses of the word- because after WW2 (The Big One), Americans had come home from Europe and Asia

-had babies, and those babies grew up to be the Counter-Culture, and that counterculture was fueled by anti-war activism

-and a hot consumer economy, with newly- minted rock and roll records, drugs from SE Asia then Mexico, and finally LSD from the CIA.

(Plus free-form radio, psychedelia and the free love movement. Oh yeah!)

And the terror of young men being drafted into a horrific conflict a million miles away.

All the sudden the Dick Van Dyke/ Pat Boone/ “Surrey with a Fringe on Top” WASP culture that I was born into was overturned, seemingly overnight.

And women, whom even the Hippies tried to repress, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, found their voice. Which had been going on for decades but you know what I’m saying.

And Civil Rights demonstrations. Riots. Activism. Horrors!

All the above was fueled in some way or other by a horrible unjust war run by rock-ribbed conservatives of both parties.

Viet Nam.

None of this would’ve occurred without a senseless war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, run by President Richard Milhouse Nixon,

whose advisors on internal politics were Roger Stone. And Paul Mantafort. With the Politics of Personal Destruction. And the detestable, but somehow vaguely ingratiating, Pat Buchanan- an earlier version of Donald J Trump.

So here we are again.

They hated the press.

They compiled an Enemies List of anti-war activists and possible Communists. (You and I are somehow on a list like that right now.)

They beat the war drum, day in and day out, from the White House, in the early nineteen seventies. With a not-so-secret surveillance war on American citizens, by the FBI.

Of course Madison Avenue capitalized on that counterculture a. to make money and b. as an act of subversion- like they do today.

Hello, Elon Musk.

-And then suddenly, Four Dead in Ohio. May 4,1970.

William Barr, who is universally derided for dismissal of the Russia scandal, made far, far worse pronouncements, with more destructive ramifications, that give proof to my surmise.

I list two:

Speech at the Federalist Society delivered on Nov 19, 2019, declaring war on the Congress, claiming that during the Russia investigation, Congress had usurped power of the presidency, and further that the Far Left had destroyed the “norms” of society. Therefore it is both fitting and necessary to use any means available- including violence- to right this wrong. The Left is destroying the country, and must be stopped!
that mail-in voting is a Communist plot.

I see these as the starting gun on what was to ensue. The Unpleasantness of January 6.

Yes.

The Federalist Society granted the ultimate imprimatur for these ideas, up to and including the armed insurrection of January 6, 2021.

(They’ll say the Federalist Society is merely a think tank. A tank in which we think thoughts. Are you against thinking thoughts? Yes? No? Which is it?)

…My Mickey Mouse Club hand-crank ukulele was stuck in the toy drawer in 1961. I couldn’t open that drawer. It was really jammed.

I was three years old. I remember that vividly -and also a commercial of Russian Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev saying “we will bury you in bombs”.

Completely frightening in every way, even for a toddler.

The Red Scare was about Americans.

Americans vs Americans.

So here we are, on this lovely Sunday morning.

Turn off the tv, I’ll turn off my devices, and let us take a walk together in the fresh spring air. It will be delightful. Look: a flower.

You’re not missing anything. Not really.

Support Ukraine. Fight for Democracy.

But as far as the Sunday morning news panels, there’s no news.

***

Soap Box

-What they’re doing is not going to work!

Don’t give them credit for a victory now. Not yet. No. History is unfolding. It’s not set in stone. Not yet. Not ever.

The Supreme Court has broken more than a few commandments to get where we are.

We now have a truly dissident population ruled by a thin minority. Up to 80% oppose a court ruling. They’ve created an untenable political situation for themselves in the long term.

The Court knows the decision discredits the court in the eyes of the public. It’s a niche opinion that can’t withstand intra-state legal conflicts which will follow.

We have a Dred Scott Court right now. The cruelty is the whole point.

Alito’s gloss is full of acrimony and self-conscious bombast- like Scalia’s reactionary style, it can’t withstand logical scrutiny.

Eventually Congress will have to act.

The US does not go into reverse. It’s geared to move forward. That’s a gift of the last generation of activists.

I understand this is a disaster and causes immense suffering.

But division in the country is now between a massive national majority and a minority in entrenched Red States. They’re screwed, my brothers and sisters. That’s why they’re desperate to force issues now. The gate is closing forever on the far right agenda.

Losers!

The demographics are changing in our favor every second!

We need a Congress that can act. That possibility is now within our grasp.

Have faith. This is the time to completely defeat the Right Wing- not to give up.

These assholes are losers.

Do not go around moaning and groaning. They live for that. Fight!

We have a tremendous advantage if we can but see it.

Power has a way of changing hands. It moves around. It falls out of one’s grasp.
It’s not actually predictable. They know that. They can taste defeat. It’s in the air. It’s in the polling. Its in the demographics.

True Believer support for the Right is about 11%-18% of the electorate. The rest are “economic” conservatives ( ie self-deluded.) And Republicans are 25% of the voters in America! 25%!

Losers!

At the same time right wing voters are destroying the country, they’re subscribing to a diverse culture. It’s dumb. It’s not going to work.

That was a brave American who leaked that opinion. That’s one of the most significant acts in the entire history of the United States.

That leak stunk up the Court and I’m sure they’re freaking out. Which is as it should be.

The justices must be horrified that this is mishandled before the midterms. Good. Explosive and damaging.

The very structure and membership of the Court is rumored to be under enormous destructive pressure. Thomas is scandalized by his wife’s involvement in the Insurrection, conflicts of interest and illness. Roberts is fed up. Kavanaugh faces investigation. Lied under oath. Resignations are rumored. It’s a fucking mess in there.

Don’t let them gain ground now. They want people to lose hope.

We are not divided.

Fuck them. Seriously. Losers.

(And Justice Alito’s name is mud in the History books forever, so also Thomas and Scalia and Kavanaugh and Coney Barret. The damage is permanent. Watch what they do: They’ll try damage control and that’s a sign to pay close attention to. It’s too late for that now.

***

Writing helps. That’s all I can say. It helps to write and seek truth and perhaps affirm common sense. Not sure why it works it just does.)

A Court Without Public Support

Impeachment really means to question the credibility or validity or character of a judge or office holder. So, loosely speaking, the five Supreme Court justices are already impeached in the public mind.

By everyone, I mean – everyone. Proponents know the truth as well.

This kind of impeachment has 100% agreement across the political spectrum.

The justices have signed off, and their decision is legally binding but not supported by existing law and everyone knows it. Weird, huh?

“To catch, entangle.” -We are certainly there.

I’m just saying a degree of impeachment has already occurred.

We’re in a banana republic, judicially speaking, with the Court, (ie everyone knows it can’t withstand scrutiny, but retains authority.)

We haven’t seen a court completely lose its authority in the public mind- but we are there.

Oh, I know that 25% will support the court. But that’s not consent, and that isn’t public acceptance.

But impeached?:

Of course, at a minimum, they all lied under oath to get where they are today.

The process by which current justices were nominated and confirmed – denying a seat to Obama’s nominee, was also unconstitutional- ie illegal.

Then there’s the thing with Kavanaugh.

Then there’s the thing with Clarence Thomas.

Scandals and lack of public faith in institutions precede this debacle.

So public acceptance of the draft decision is pretty iffy.

Government, to function, requires good faith participation. At least in a basic minimal form. It’s kind of like a natural law.

I know this means little but it will be interesting to see what happens when the public rejects the Roe reversal. We know what the Red States will do. But this will create a tremendous backlash. This is not 1973 anymore.

If you’re like me, a woman is your employer. The CEO, the CFO. The director of nursing. In charge. That’s not 1973. That is 2022.

I believe, with Gloria Steinem, that this gambit will not work. Eventually the Natural Rights of Americans will be re-established.

Getting there is a mess.

I wonder how Republican citizens are going to be 100% compliant with their new laws. -They’re not going to comply either? Because it’s impossible? Oh. Ok.

Midterms.

***

Thank You, Fascists! You noticed me!

Americans, Being threatened by Fascists makes me feel so… important.

It’s a high compliment, if you think about it.

The fact that they’d kick down my door, no questions asked. Little old me!

Oh yes, I’m not a pregnant lady, but they still allowed me to be included in the Hate Decision that leaked out of the Supreme Court this week. That’s awesome!

The fact that they would even notice me enough to be angry in a Supreme Court decision. Wow. I exist! Thanks, guys!

(I say “guys” because it’s mostly the males on the Court, with the anger management issues.

The female justices give me a pass, except for the Church Lady, who lets her hair down in public. You noticed that too? Shocking! Radical!)

The big donors think I have some power that they consider a threat. That’s so cool!

This isn’t only a gender thing, the SC decision.

They’re scared of all of us enough to throw down the book, all the laws and precedents and say “Fuck it. We’re going full fascistic.”

There is wayyyy too much liberty. It’s the work of the Devil:

“I see no right to Devil-worship in the Constitution,” they’re pointing out.

That’s a condensed version of the Alito decision.

-Yes, I am not a woman.

But I do work in a field devoted to LGBTQ+ advocacy and care. And I am kind of a Far Left lunatic: I believe in government for the People.

They see us all as a problem.

-Therefore the Hate Speech screed, issued by the Sunday School Superintendents of the Supreme Court, overturning Human Rights, includes me with my beloved fellow citizens.

The decision, with its bigotry and vitriol and vituperation is directed at all in the hated Reality-based World, in which most of us live.

That hate and derision tells us how powerful we are, potentially. They noticed!

They contemplate my existence enough to want to destroy me: That’s a high compliment, coming from Fascists.

The hate is how they say they care.

And make no mistake: they hate me. Perhaps not as much as they hate you, but it’s a distinction without a difference at this point.

If you aren’t 100% with Them, they’ll definitely have some questions at some point down the line.

Example: If someone needed some gender affirmation care or procedures, for example, as in my work at the facility, well, they’d have a problem with that, relating to a code of Hammurabi they decided to believe in. I don’t know. I’m not religious.

Oops. That slipped out. I might be a witch. Or possessed by a demon. They might be right about that!

That means I have some power, just lurking around, with nothing better to do than hang out with the most vulnerable members of society. Communists! Poor people! Immigrants!

The hate is a clue to our actual power- or else they’d be kissing our butt and asking us to buy shit or pay for their yacht. (There are only two modes of expression in the fascist culture.)

Consider it a compliment, for it automatically unifies the good people of the United States in a common cause for human rights.

Thank you for that, Fascists of America!…
You have united the public in a cause for justice.

That’s awesome. We have another law in play:

The Law of Unintended Consequences.

United, we crush you on our way to a more perfect Union.

Have a nice day!

***

I’m crazy but I’m seeing two justices resigning from the Supreme Court. I just feel it in my gut.

I guess I gotta lay off the Doritos after 9 pm.

It’s just an intuition, but we do live in strange times.

If this was my novel that would be a bombshell.

A justice stepping down in disgust would damage the Court. Two would lead to a crisis and reform. Especially if they made public statements of protest.

It’s one of those wild bets that are impossible but worth saying out loud.

The Court has lost legitimacy. It really is not a place a human being wants to be right now.

The justices hijacked their own process but they didn’t foresee the walls ripped off the building metaphorically- the public completely steamrolling in. It’s changed everything. Completely turned the court upside down.

It’s like the insurrection. It took time to sink in, the in the dimensions of the disaster. The court is in complete disarray. Absolute nightmare for the Chief Justice.

The process of overturning Roe is completely compromised now. The hermetic seal is broken. The simple stupid case of theirs is blown up.

They’ll strike down Roe. But the court will be so damaged by it in the public mind.

They usually at least try to make it seem a case was rightly decided. Not this time. This case is fucked. Because of the leak. It really is.

Court is supposed to avoid public opinion during decision. So it’s poisoned their well.

You can sense they’re disorganized, the Supreme Court. They thought they had this dialed and the roll-out controlled. Nope.

Huge tidal wave of outcry is coming.

I imagine the justices are pretending not to hear a word. They must be sequestered. Or else they’d go absolutely insane.

But a couple on the Court are sociopaths- so they’ll sleep well.

The arrogance does not preclude dread. Or terror. Alito has a big problem now. He lost control and it’s blown up in his face. Even he has worries now. Most despised person in America, no question.

So yeah. I can picture two justices leaving.

***

The Thing

Q: Hey, where do hamsters go on vacation?
A: Hamsterdam.

-Laffy Taffy wrapper.

Americans, I’m goin’ in.

I’m reading The Thing.

-The draft decision overturning you know what. Human rights.

It’s bad. It’s shallow and shoddy and inconsistent and filled with false assumptions and half-baked premises.

Wait, you already knew that?

So far it’s bad. I’m only on page 28. Maybe it gets better.

In truth, the draft written by Justice Alito is a form of human rights violation, in and of itself.

-Side note that Justice Alito will appreciate: the draft is actually on a scroll. You have to scroll down. Just like the Old Testament prophets! Or like an endless roll of toilet paper.

But I am not going into this unprepared.

I have made up rules to guide me. Just as Alito has done. Maybe they’re the same rules. Strictly procedural.

Here’s what I have so far:

Guidelines for Interpretation/ Draft Opinion or virtually any public comments of Justice Alito, Thomas et al:

Don’t assume that powerful authorities are right. This came up in Section A. (I know- already?)

Don’t assume they did their homework.

Don’t assume that their ideas have merit.

Don’t assume that they know what they’re doing.

Don’t assume that the issues are complex.

Don’t assume that issues are not complex.

Don’t assume that the assumptions are true.

Don’t assume that long-held religious beliefs should be the default position for laws they overturn.

( ie How many justices believe in the Virgin Birth? Show of hands. Five believers? No effing way! Really? Don’t they know that was a typo in the Testament? Alrighty then.)

…Etc.

These will guide me on my way forward in this here Taliban Tract of Alito.

-I’ll report my findings. I can only take a few paragraphs at a time.

I’ve selected special snacks to tide me over in rough sections. Laffy Taffy is one that is really helping me. It’s chewy.

One salient feature stands out at this juncture. Justice Alito has a deep respect for his own opinions, and contempt for those of others.

This, he asserts, is because his own assertions are plain as day, and contending ideas are murky.

This is not a paper airplane that will fly. That I can tell you.

Another feature of the text belies the adage “sober as a judge.” We need to rethink that.

If we need further encouragement to disrespect the Court, we remember the example of Judge Roy Moore from Alabama who lugged the Ten Commandments into the State House and actually broke some commandments himself and became a subject of scandal and an icon of depravity when he ran for the US Senate.

Speaking of 1973:

“Laffy Taffy was first invented in the 1970s and has been made in flavors such as Sparkle Cherry, Grape, and Sour Apple. (Banana!) It is oftentimes, but not always, fruit-flavored and flavors that are chocolaty have been produced as well. This 70s candy does not take itself too seriously and likes to do things like add jokes to its product to amuse its customers.”

Q: What do you call a fake noodle?
A: An impasta.

Q: What did 0 say to the number 8?
A: Nice belt!

Remember: Only you can disrespect the Supreme Court. No one can disrespect it for you!

***

Note to Self: A Country Called Asterisk

or Why I Don’t Really Hate You

I’m going to write this thing anyway.

Its too many words. It’s very dark. But it’s kind of funny, in a tragic dangerous way.

Robert Benchley wrote a very good line about the true identity of Shakespeare.

He said it is quite true that the plays of William Shakespeare were not written by William Shakespeare; they were written by someone else, who also happened to be named William Shakespeare.

So mystery solved!

Ok.

Yesterday I was called a traitor by some other American who objected to the hearings into what happened at the Capitol. We are traitors, and this is a sham, he said.

It’s politics. Same old/same old. Blah-de-blah.

You know, I’m just sitting here. I have done zero traitorous acts. But in his mind it may be true.

This may be true, for this gentleman- a real person- lives, not in the United States of America, no; he lives in a completely different country, that is also called the United States of America.

He lives in USA*.

He lives in a country I’ll call Asterisk. It looks like this: US*.

It’s an old idea from the playbook of the Confederacy, 1860, which had sitting members of Congress acting like representatives of USA, but really building an alternative, secession government covertly. That proto/government functioned for a while under cover.

Here’s the dark part. My accuser’s asterisk/nation actually exists. The alternate US, the ersatz US, is where he lives. And they hate us over there.

I don’t hate them though. The rage is asymmetrical. (And most do not actually hate us over there. We must tread carefully here. People are good; that is a half-truth worth holding on to.)

It’s a Right Wing Country they are creating mentally, sort of on the sly, with belief systems and propaganda and a cardboard cutout to stand in place of government- like they did during ballgames to represent the audience, absent during the pandemic-and with one true leader and one idea and you know what I’m saying.

It’s sort of …totalitarian, in a quiet way.

We have a neofascist insurgency inside our government now.

So when called a traitor I have to look into this upside-down world-in-reverse and understand.

They have seceded. But, in a strange way, we have to let them go.

This too shall pass. But not without a struggle. But that too shall pass.

**
So hear me out. Hear ye.

Kurt Vonnegut was the innovator who, in his novel Galapagos, used the asterisk imaginatively to indicate, in advance, which species and characters of the plot were not going to survive.

Without advance warning, Vonnegut’s character’s name in the text would appear, followed by an asterisk, without explanation, so, heartbreakingly, the reader would be faced with an advance notice of what was to come.

It’s ironic and funny and pathetic and amusing and effective. You know what’s going to happen but it still stings.

Galapagos is about survival.

So I give you the United States of America*.

…But the United States of America prevails. It’s a fight. It involves every citizen.

And the result is that it’s going to be a more perfect union, when it includes everyone.

Farewell in advance USA*. It’s not going to evolve. It’s going away. Sorry. Agony. -Tissue?

With malice toward none, we vote a Blue Wave.

***

Hey, if you have lemons, make lemonade!
-jk

Supreme Insurrection and Today’s J6 Bombshell Revelations

I beg my fellow Americans to think on these things when you think about the current Supreme Court, and review the testimony of Special Assistant to the President, Cassidy Hutchinson.

My feeling is it will be important later, as history continues to unfold.

We lay down a marker here. A point of reference.

Hear ye: Amy Coney Barrett now is besmirched by the revelations of the J6 Committee which revealed that Trump’s cabinet members were preparing to declare him unfit for office, considering the 25th Amendment.

He was unfit for office on Jan 6, 2021.

He displayed unfitness one week earlier, Dec 2020, when his lawyers told him his actions would be illegal and lead to violence.

He displayed unfitness for office one month earlier, on election night, when he declared his “landslide” victory at 2:30 am, at Giuliani’s direction. Nov 4.

He displayed unfitness one month earlier after Oct 3, 2020, when he left Walter Reed Hospital against medical advice being treated for Covid with steroids and experimental treatments, and when he ordered Secret Service to drive around in circles to greet his MAGAS, against the agents’ advice.

And he was displaying unfitness when he nominated Amy Coney Barrett, Sept 26, 2020, the same week he -secretly positive for Covid-debated Joe Biden, exposing the elderly Biden to the infection, and called on the Proud Boys militia, which Trump put on alert, as his personal paramilitary.

He was unfit for office when he publicly announced his plan to use the Supreme Court to hold on to power if he lost the election.

Was Trump of sound mind when he picked a justice? Was he committing felonies as a prelude to an insurrection? Just curious. I know it doesn’t matter practically speaking.

But the public view of the court really matters.

Legitimacy is a thing, so to speak.

It’s just good to correct the record, that’s all.

The scandals of the Court must include Trump’s unfitness to hold office at the time he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.

An objective observer would notice that the former president was …erratic, around the time he nominated Amy Coney Barret to the Supreme Court.

If you or I behaved and spoke as Trump did in the days of the Barret nomination, we might be considered to be placed on a 72- hour hold, for observation.

I include in the comments below his outrageous public statements in interviews the week he placed Barrett in nomination.

Was he a harm to self or others?

Duh.

(Indeed Trump’s staff agreed, considering the 25 Amendment to have him removed from office.)

I realize the nomination was submitted by McConnell, but at a minimum one would expect the president to be mentally competent, to have sound judgement, to decide a matter of critical import to the country at the time of the decision.

To repeat: Behavior that last week of September 2020 when Barrett was announced also included insane retweets of false information about Biden killing Seal Team Six (the Americans that captured Bin Laden), and numerous false election claims, as well as the famous Walter Reed Hospital incident where he was given steroids as treatment for Covid -19, which are mood-altering and can be dangerous if medical orders are not followed.

He left Walter Reed (Oct 3 admission) against medical advice. Days after the Sept 26 nomination of Barrett.

I’m telling you, Trump’s behavior does not meet any basic standard of mental competence at that time he nominated a justice.

He exposed Biden (during Sept 29 debate) and his own Secret Service detail to infection around that time. Reportedly furious at this lapse of judgement and concern for others, the Secret Service detail had to quarantine.

He demanded the Secret Service drive to greet well-wishers- against the doctors’ and the agents’ advice and at risk to their lives, due to virulent Covid. The vehicle drove around in celebratory circles at Trump’s miraculous recovery.

His false election assertions were a constant during the weeks after Sept 26, when he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.

It was just three days after the nomination (Sep 29) that he called on Proud Boys as his personal strike force!

It was the inception of a paramilitary threat to the safety of voters during an election and led to an insurrection. Arguably the plot was underway.

Americans, this is insanity!

Barrett’s nomination has to be reconsidered in the light of Trump’s illness, psychological impairment and the prelude to the felonies he was already verbally expressing his intention to commit-against the very Constitution he was nominating Barrett to uphold. Also worth noting were 186,000 preventable deaths from Covid-19 on his watch.

Multiple public scandals accompany the nominations and actions of the Conservatives on the Court. Trump’s state of mind, behavior, and criminal intentions not the least of them.

Barrett was nominated by a felon who was committed to undermine the US government and polity, even as Americans had already cast votes for Biden.

If Barrett wasn’t nominated, that seat not stolen from Biden, we would have 5/4 decisions- and probably with Roberts, a possible firewall against what just occurred.

Postscript:

(Oct 5, 2020, 1 month before the election and 9 days after the Barrett nomination:

“President Donald Trump has tweeted a new video taped after he returned to the White House in which he tells the American public not to be afraid of COVID-19, which has killed more than 200,000 people in the U.S. and more than a million worldwide.

In message that is sure to infuriate medical doctors trying to keep the country safe, Trump says he has “learned so much” about the virus he contracted. And he says: “Don’t let it dominate. Don’t let it take over your lives.”)

He’s completely altered the week he nominated Barrett. And the plan to overturn the election had arguably begun.

When looking at the court this week, this serves as context, along with the Clarence Thomas ethics scandal, the stolen Garland seat, the Ginny Thomas seditious conspiracy, the two sexual harassers, the lies before the Senate, and the illegitimacy of the Trump presidency, ushered into office with help from a foreign government, of Putin working with Trump operatives.

No I don’t think this matters to the composition of the Court- but it encourages the critical need to consider impeachment or reform.

This corrupt court has no true authority- and I believe that Chief Roberts knows it.

The bombast, the hate, the willful ignorance, the lack of concern for American citizens and ideals- no. No.

***

Postcard from the Edge

Postcard from the Edge.

Deep Belief Moment:

I believe…

This is a wave. A fantastic , skyward-rising wave, of political and religious influence.

It moves in direction with force. It seems overwhelming. Perhaps, for a brief time, it is.

Waves have crests and troughs. They scrape like bulldozers and crash through barriers.

Waves pick up whatever is there, detritus, seaweed, shells, and hoist it all heavenward.

They reflect a spark and sparkle and glimmer and roar. Terrifying immensity. A moving skyscraper of energy and absolute solidity, magnifying the sun.

One doesn’t hear the roar of tigers in America, but one can hear it in the sea.

Those riding the wave at the crest right now must feel a sense of power and dominance- of victory.

Until the wave breaks- and all that wave energy recedes.

And that wave energy will recede.

The tide is going out -for that political movement.

Perhaps not today. But that is not mere prophesy. It’s a law of nature that governs our survival.

Is Marjorie Taylor Green riding the crest, Kristi Noem? The Gang of Pirates, with exhilaration, that can see their houses from here, from there, from the crest of an ever-moving churning force, quite beyond human control?

Fame and fortune. Roe. Guns. The Anti-environmental movement. Tictoc politicians.

That tide is going to go out.

If you live by the sea it makes you wonder and reflect on its power.

Don’t turn your back on the ocean.

***

Midterms 2022

Cloud of Unknowing

This is a perfect time to love the country.

A quiet rainy evening in California, where rain means winter, and water. And good hope.

I really don’t know, and no one- no American alive- can tell me what I’d like to know.

Isn’t that interesting?

Not a soul alive can tell us what we don’t know.

So the majority of us Americans have a kind of pragmatic faith.

Those that don’t have faith are trying desperately to will something into existence.

I saw lightning out my window just now.

No one predicted that, either. No one.

Rain in California in November.

Unknowing, the opposite of ”content.”

Isn’t that interesting?

Krishnamurti says that one cannot will oneself to enlightenment or that expansive moment of Knowing, one may only make possible, prepare by clearing the mind, making way.

Krishnamurti says, You leave the window open just a crack, and it may come.

So I have long range faith in what this country is.

Lightning again! Just now!

***

You know what’s really nice?

It’s over.

Done.

It juust hit me.

Now, today, after the illumination of the full moon, midterms, with its drama of eclipse and revelation, that completely revealed for the world to acknowledge the political actors for what they are, both the authentic and the false-

we can get a wider view of the ground.

The Trump thing. Fini.

Now a years-long investigation is a moot point.

It no longer matters. Every day of Trump will become more and more boring, less and less exhausting, more hopeful, and every day the subject will fade inexorably into what it always should been: complete total irrelevance.

Donald Trump is a man without a country and without interest.

So let it grind slow, as we turn the page, leaving MAGA behind.

The country has moved on.

Don’t worry about the prosecutor, the fake authoritarian, the mob. It does not matter if it’s fast or slow. His political life is over. And his following?

They fell right into their own fable and there’s no way out of a trap you set for yourself, when you hate those that would rescue you.

Only two years of half-assed political fakery and then- 2024- they’re either voted out, retired, indicted, or banished from public life.

And the Florida man has nothing but trials.

New moon next week. Time of beginnings.

How sweet of is.

Ah. Feels good.

***

Brain-Washington: Weird Party Politics

Americans are weird, so they invented a Weird Party to promote and protect the weirdness.

Which party that is, I leave to you to decide. I think it’s obvious. For one thing, the Weird Party is really loud. It’s a big mouth, wide open.

(Instead of an elephant they ought to consider a giant mouth, like ye olde Rolling Stones logo.)

People are saying, why don’t they indict some of these people, already?

The reason: brainwashing. And the religious underpinnings of our society. And respect for The Weird.

It’s like religion, the active ingredients. True Believers will tell you.

There’s a basic ideology, often ignored or ridiculed. But potent.

The text of the sermons of Weird are varied.

The titles revealing.

“How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

“The Science of Life.”

“Think- and Grow Rich.”

“The Old Testament” and “Revelations.” (Super weird, by any definition.)

Back in the day there was a book that was very influential, about advertising.

“The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard. 1957. It was a major Anti-Weird book.

It was all about subliminal tactics in advertising and mind control and was seen as an attack on the Weirdness, on American Society. It predicted robotics etc. Subversive ways to get people hooked on stuff.

Advertisers were horrified and also intrigued.

Why? I refer to an adage: There is no such thing as bad publicity. So advertising is cunning. That was seen as a good by the Weird people.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not read these texts. If you think I should, I will be glad to.

But one doesn’t need to read them, for the ideas have been injected, infused into the thought processes of society, and reinforced ad infinitum.

So a basic tenet of the Weird Party is that you (whoever you are) have been brainwashed.

This was an idea that comes from way back in the 1900s in the Cold War when antiCommunist fervor was at its peak.

The Weird Party had a point there. There was brainwashing going on.

This is an application of the the adage: there is a grain of truth in what they’re saying.

Waitaminute you’re saying. This is too long. Get to the point, man. You suck right now.

I admit I’m getting rather “Larry” in my writing.

I’m using “Larry” as an adjective, since my friend Larry, a former professor of something at Berkeley, one day asked me why I was writing. I’d send him short essays against the War and W Bush, and he says, “What are you doing that for?”

For fun. I just feel like saying something, I told him.

The problem was no one at the time was making fun of Republicans. It was a time when they were respected. Sort of. The weirdness was well established then. No one really questioned it.

So anywho Larry went home and he too started writing. He wrote and wrote and wrote essays on statistical information on the US economy and sent these to this writer, inspired by my fine example. Unfortunately these were lengthy and dense and … unreadable.

So I’m being very “Larry” right now, I realize.

My point is two-fold:

One, that a basic tenet of the Weird Party, a false assumption about brainwashing, is that everyone else is, and you aren’t. You have the secret information, others are deluded.

The second point I’d submit is factual, is actual, that the brain- washing is more subtle: The brainwashing isn’t about the world- it’s about who you are.

Say you are born to wealth. You are guided every step along the way, you’re just normal, but the expectations are stratospheric.

You are sent to the Academy. Someone fills out your paperwork, pays your expenses, takes your tests. Gives you a glide path to a hedge fund or a political position. Bails you out of your blackouts. Hides your military record, if not up to par.

You fail, all the way to the top of society, and every step of the way you are promoted, adulated, and secured.

You are given the message: YOU are what is great about America.

You and others in your economic class. You have immunity, security, and that’s important to the way America is supposed to work. It’s critical to the way of the world.

So when you talk about making America great again, it’s all about you.

You have been brainwashed every minute of your life.

The reverse may be true, as well. Some see themselves as nothing.

So that is ending now. The weird religion of getting what you want at any cost, to the planet and to those beneath you, is beginning to fall to pieces, as when Mel Brooks, portraying Moses in a film, drops half the 20 Commandments on Mt Sinai.

Oops.

And what may be great about America is that the reality of freedom and opportunity for others is the key to life.

And as the adage says: You either have it, or you don’t.

Or: The medium is the message.

-klink

What a difference a day makes!

Not only did Russia invade Ukraine, Russia also invaded us. Oh yes.

The ensuing crisis with Putin has shed a tremendous light- like magnesium afire, so that, looking back we see with harsh, blinding clarity how the 2016 US election was hacked, how voter registrations rolls, election sites in several states were compromised; how Putin attacked, disrupted, and planted a completely subversive ideology right here inside the US, destroying one political party without firing a shot.

Oh, we in the US pretended that we “withstood” these incursions, despite losing our democracy.

I say that definitively- because we do not yet know whether our Democracy has survived. The best we can say is it is a highly toxic situation. The well has been poisoned.

The pro-Russia party -the GOP- in the United States fought to deregulate, to disestablish the agencies of government, so that American individuals in the highest ranks could join the oligarchs, to burn the flag, as it were, and live like princes- like Trumps, without limits.

And princes are not troubled by one of their own, annexing territory and invading sovereign nations. It’s what they do.

It’s what Trump did. Hostile takeover. Trump had friends in high places.

The Russia goal in 2016 was to shake faith in US elections, so that all Putin’s desires, which we now see playing out in Ukraine, would be possible. A weakened adversary with deep connections to dark money, blackmail-able. With the biggest donors to the Republican campaign, like the Mercers, pledged to a Putin-approved plan involving Wikileaks espionage and cyberattacks on the United States.

In return for submission, subversion, the US allowed the opportunity for Putin to strike while he believes he has time. He softened the ground, as military strategists might say.

Putin is facing some limits, as to Time.

Which Republicans defended their country at this time?

None. Zero.

The party is pledged to the Putin scheme, so it has succeeded in permanently disabling US elections.

First chapter of Hybrid War. First battle: we barely survived. Just lucky, I guess.

The Truth is Marching On? Two minutes at CPAC, with violent seditious nerds.

“We are proud to live in a country that started with nothing and became the greatest nation on earth.”
-Sen Josh Hawley, at CPAC

That statement, like every other by the Senator, is absolutely false. (Though he may indeed be proud, of that we can be certain.)

This is an Andy Rooney moment- It’s insignificant, but telling. Remember Andy Rooney on 60 minutes? Rooney, opinion closer, who would complain about little irksome facts of life, like not enough towels in motels or whatever?

I know, olden days.

No- the country didn’t start with “nothing”. It wasn’t a Biblical Eden wished into existence in a day.

The “Nothing until suddenly Something” is a ridiculous mythology.

It’s a weird gold rush mentality. We understand that.

The continent wasn’t “nothing”- it was an infinitely magnificent or, more objectively, infinitely alive something, including civilizations and indigenous culture and vast resources.

Even after the European incursion, the colonies fared well for a century before the Revolution. 1776 came later. And that wasn’t a likely success. But at least four cultures with a claim to civilization as well as indigenous power brokers for a time would have figured something out. Though it would have had monarchical and parliamentary systems and not the republic we know. Repressive, dominating or egalitarian, no one can say in such a scenario.

Everything pre-existed, including democratic theories of government, Maga Carta, King James Bible and electricity.

And forces that Josh Hawley is courting and representing are those that attempted in 1861 to destroy that nation that became the greatest nation. Those forces hedged every attempt at democracy if the government threatened the slave power, all the way to the point of violent extremism. And North concurred until the flag was fired on at Fort Sumter.

And we are at the point of violent extremism right now. And historically, violent extremism runs the table for a time.
But not for long. Not this time.

And why reclaim history in a fake way now and ignore the historic pandemic- which is changing history every minute?

And the rest of it at CPAC is a rant against “oligarchs” (ironically) and Technology and Google and “the Left”.

And what are oligarchs and Technology, but “the Financials” that Republicans worship the other six days of the week?

Who deregulated corporations and media, Josh Hawley, and created the exploitation and violent fantasies you condemn?

Yes, Republicans. And Democrats.They were the principle authors of the current situation with an unregulated corporate scheme. That’s not “the Left.”

The GOP is dead. The Conservative Movement a corpse. Watching the procession into the Void.

***

Free Ted!

God damn it! I have to forgive Ted Cruz again! For the quadrillionth time!

Why do I have to forgive an asshole like Ted Cruz? (How long, Lord? How long? Why me?)

Because we created him, and everything we can’t stand is a boomerang which we launched.

Also I’m not going to be Them. I’m not a rally bigot, or a Whataboutist or a gun-toting loser looking for his mama. I need no hat to remind me what I am.

No. I’m an American, and we have a better way.

We have a system. We have objectivity. We have collaboration and we have a wide frame of reference going all the way back to Athens, Greece and Constantinople and Magna Carta.

We aren’t some mere doofus in an airport with a stupid IPhone 8 and an attitude.

We Americans don’t wake up in the morning to don fake feathers and holler about incorrect dates in the American Revolution like some rooster drunk on home-made mash. No sir.

We have work to do in this country and Ted is not even slightly interested in doing that work.

But despising Ted as I do turns me into a disgusting minor-league version of Ted- an inferior version of a highly inferior individual.

No! No! Again, no!

I forgive you for being a toxic gasbag, Ted.

You are not worth the powder.

It’s only partly your fault. We allowed media to consolidate. We allowed a total Nazi to be the most popular “personality” in radio history. We allowed elections to be all about cash and infotainment. We proclaimed the ascension of yahoos and buttheads into the chambers of Democracy and rewarded them for bad behavior.

No. I pray to my plastic Jesus to deliver me from the evil of Ted. And there is only one way to make that happen.

And it’s truly gross. I forgive you, Ted.

You don’t belong in government, and we need to set you free to gambol in the fields of corporate enterprise as a highly paid consultant to a useless enterprise or start-up. Free Ted!

Eventually we work together. We have to.
So there: my American Dream.

It seems a shame,” the walrus said
“To play them such a trick,
After we’ve brought them out so far
And made them trot so quick.”

The Carpenter said nothing but
“The butter’s spread too thick.”

I’ve never seen a Senator more pathetic than Lindsey Graham, crying, ranting, fundraising, speaking for and on behalf of one person. A US Senator, who does not represent his constituents, nor the broad constituency of the American People; as a senator Lindsey Graham, tears streaming down, represents one person: the criminal defendant, Donald Trump.

So what?

Here’s the problem: On Sunday morning, Americans will see politicians like Graham, condemning the criminal indictments of Donald Trump on all the usual rountables.

And that is a problem.

There is but one reason- and only one- why Trump is problematic: Senator Graham acted, against his own personal knowledge, against the evidence that Republicans themselves publicly declared, to not convict Trump in the Jan 6 impeachment.

A majority of the Congress voted to convict Trump- but not 60%. There were holdouts.

And if Congress had convicted Trump, related to his crimes against the Constitution, Trump would have been barred from holding public office.

And if Trump were barred from holding public office, he would not be a candidate for the Presidency. And if he were not running, the slow-moving steamroller of indictments would not be an issue of contention or strife or violence.

So we really have Lindsey Graham to thank for digging this ginormous pit that yawns before us, as indictments proceed at a snails’s pace until 2024.

Graham impeached Clinton, and now cannot bear this karmic reversal he himself created.

Graham has retired, so his sudden activity stands out boldly. Oh, he is still there in the US Senate, but pledged to do nothing whatsoever for the American people, while his donors attempt to dismantle the Federal system.

Republicans in office are placeholders- there for no reason than to halt and undermine government.

So grab some popcorn and toss it at Meet the Press, and know the energy has changed, and that the pit Lindsey dug- Republicans are heading right into

I Weep For You, Lindsey Graham

It seems a shame,” the walrus said
“To play them such a trick,
After we’ve brought them out so far
And made them trot so quick.”

The Carpenter said nothing but
“The butter’s spread too thick.”

So what?

Here’s the problem: On Sunday morning, Americans will see politicians like Graham, condemning the criminal indictments of Donald Trump on all the usual rountables.

And that is a problem.

A majority of the Congress voted to convict Trump- but not 60%. There were holdouts.

And if Congress had convicted Trump, related to his crimes against the Constitution, Trump would have been barred from holding public office.

So we really have Lindsey Graham to thank for digging this ginormous pit that yawns before us, as indictments proceed at a snails’s pace until 2024.

Graham impeached Clinton, and now cannot bear this karmic reversal he himself created.

Republicans in office are placeholders- there for no reason than to halt and undermine government.

So grab some popcorn and toss it at Meet the Press, and know the energy has changed, and that the pit Lindsey dug- Republicans are heading right into it.

Love and light, Americans. We are in a new era.

***Huzzah! Mike Pence is running for President!
Everyone is so excited.

(Pence was, of course, as everyone knows, head of the Space Force.)

So.

I learned something today, from now-Presidential candidate Mike Pence, via Wikipedia. Pence reminded me of this old iconic thing.

Here’s what I learned:

That the three famous wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. The three monkeys are:

Mizaru, who sees no evil, covering his eyes
Kikazaru, who hears no evil, covering his ears, and
Iwazaru, who speaks no evil, covering his mouth.

Curriculum Vitae:

Before renown as head of the Space Force, Mike Pence was the head of Trump’s transition team.

While Mike Pence was head of the Team, he had no idea that the Trump team had reached out to Russian ambassadors, that he was lied to about their activities with Russian ambassador Kisliac, or that back channels were open to end sanctions illegally before the team assumed office. Also that Michael Flynn, who lied to the FBI, and reported directly to Pence as the new National Security Advisor, was reportedly opening a back channel to the Saudis to establish nuclear plants under Jared Kushner’s direction, in the Mid East. Under the table, of course.

(Somehow along the way Kushner was eventually granted a $2 billion hedge fund by the Saudis- although the Saudis’ own advisors advised against that. Hm. Head scratcher.)

Pence had no idea all that was going on!

(Or maybe he thought BLM/Antifa were secretly running the government and so had probably concocted alternate facts from the Deep State in order to undermine a perfectly nice shiny new administration with nothing particular to do with any of that.)

Pesky Far-Left Deep State, that just exists to make Mike Pence miserable. That would be just like those Super-Woke Democrats and Pelosi!)

That was all AFTER Trump’s Access Hollywood tape. That displeased Pence, but ok.

Either Mike Pence was completely clueless, an ineffective manager, or a co-conspirator.

Also.

Pence dithered until the critical last minute to defend the US government from a coup that was in the works from, at the latest, September, through January, 2020.

He had a wait-and-see attitude, then a see-no-evil attitude. Very presidential.

Not only Trump- but his entire team was impeached twice, if you really think about it.

I guess Pence and Pompeo and other cabinet members went into hiding, while the minions testified against Trump.

Pence and others did not expose themselves to scrutiny somehow, during the Ukraine impeachment, though they were in charge of the Department of State, while Rudy Giuliani made covert efforts to undermine the US ambassador to Ukraine- a big issue in that particular impeachment.

Pompeo, the Invisible Man, Secretary of State, who hid from the glare rather than be held accountable for Rudy Giuliani’s Ukraine endeavor to undermine Biden and extort Ukraine President Zelinsky, also is expected to throw his hat into the ring. It’s almost like Rudy was the actual Secretary of State, not Pompeo.

If any Republican should run for president it ought to be Rudy Giuliani, but he’s kind of busy right now.

So now Republicans can choose between a clueless former radio talk show host who loves Jesus, and whose team were involved in Federal crimes; a serial philanderer convicted of sexual assault, with 34 indictments and four grand juries poised to charge felonies including potentially espionage; or a quasi-Fascist from Florida who banned books from children’s libraries and hopes to assume govt control of corporations- which IS Fascism, defined. Or the aforementioned Invisible Man. Those are the front runners. (Hey hey, Nikki Haley! Oops. I forgot Chris Christie, who can explain everything, I’m sure.)

Republicans must be absolutely thrilled.

Go Mike Pence!

I wrote a slogan:

“If Pence is Good, there must be Evil!”

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