But listen: Kanye quoted scholar Joseph Campbell, on the hero’s journey.
This appropriation of a classicist’s life’s work would undoubtedly bring a vehement protest from Joseph Campbell, one of the great minds of the century, the scholar of the archetypes of the Inner Journey.
Kanye claimed the hero of the journey of life to be Donald J Trump.
Campbell would be aghast.
The hero of the journey is not Donald J Trump, the archetype of the the blind king, sightless, tanning goggles on, bathed in UV rays, in seclusion with a comb-over corona- a vain, blind sun king ruling the world by darkness.
The hero is not Kanye, the betrayer, the presumptive son, whose name is associated with sundown, and with ultimate means and ends of the discredited, rational state of consciousness.
The hero is not the true son, Barron, locked away in a tower somewhere, with a mythical psychological condition, protected, controlled by the Mother, who awaits her own revenge. The true prince is Barron, but he is not the hero.
The hero is not Melania- who deserves her own fairy tale.
The hero is not the daughter, Ivanka, the object of the King’s taboo fantasy: the armoured showpiece Joan of Arc that shields the king from his enemies; a symbol of neutralized feminine power, and a religious figure as well, untouchable, impregnable: the seller of shoes to Cinderella.
No, the heroes aren’t the sons, Eric, Donald Jr, and other aides and subalterns who stand alongside- that sideshow out of Shakespeare, these symbols of the Unconscious indicate what is to befall us if we pursue them closely enough.
The hero isn’t Jared, who carries the ancient spear for the administration.
The hero isn’t even Justice, symbolized by the blackout of the drink, rather than the balanced scales and blindfolded archetype.
No, Joseph Campbell, would have something to say about this archetypal scenario in which every person’s nightmare vulnerability (or aggression-sexism, racism , fascism,antisemitism) is somehow projected,including those true victims and warriors already wounded, and arising again, like Dr Ford- the anima.
Yes, male animus and female anima, ever-present on this journey toward the Integrated Self.
The levels of consciousness at a certain stage are beset by symbolic darkness, the Shadow of projected fears, sometimes depicted as sleep, as in Sleeping Beauty. Symbolic death. Regeneration. It’s a time of crisis. Otherwise, no hero, no journey.
The Jungians were pessimistic after the Second World War, faced with the atomic bomb.
And Campbell would have hoped for the hero, but would note that we have a short time to decipher the code.
I was thinking about forbidden words and euphemisms, and how these are debated and scorned.
How do we learn, as if hurrying at once to the same page, to find the line of a shared political vernacular?
I refer to cultural “linguistics” -cultural values of language: what is considered acceptable to some, objectionable to others, proscribed, and so in a weird reversal, promulgated.
Rather than reacting, it is interesting just to be very aware of where some draw the line- it’s an outer barrier, and limits insight.
I think of the probing of one of those deep-diving, remotely operated submarines with the tiny porthole and a thin beam of light. Meager. Insufficient. Almost hopeless in the darkness.
Language is illuminating; it alllows us to see in the dark, to navigate.
How limited we are! In a vast space which is the unspeakable, the unknowable.
I think of the loud political disputes and realize probably a kind of poetry is our only way out of the mess we’re in.
I think of the terrible language assault on the LGBTQ+ community. The language assault has its own dynamic. Violence is a language of limitation.
If we look closely at the language objectively, it is a map showing where we are as a country.
We can decide to make a change regarding human rights. As a country. In an official capacity. As a Nation.
Substitute for the language of hate and fear the language of service.
When in doubt, be of service. Service as offering, as opportunity, opens a space, unlocks a door. Shut down, or advance?
etymonline:
advance (v.) mid-13c., avauncen (transitive), “improve (something), further the development of,” from Old French avancir, avancier “move forward, go forward, set forward” (12c., Modern French avancer), from Vulgar Latin *abanteare (source of Italian avanzare, Spanish avanzar). This is from Late Latin abante “from before,” composed of ab “from” (see ab-) + ante “before, in front of, against” (from PIE root *ant- “front, forehead”)
**
Government Shut Down, The Home Version
Now I am able to look back at the last century as if it were the last century- and it was.
A talking wristwatch?
Nevermind the inventions. We’ve learned so much about human nature, have we not, by scratching the surface of disputes like a persistent itch, and daily facing the consequences of the common, base language of our politics.
It’s deep, what we’re living through. A crisis without definition is a mundane struggle to survive. Intelligence without analysis is propaganda.
The plan, the constitution, the frame of government, was always to do better, not worse- if only slightly; to preserve some powers and to allow others to contend for a freehold and basic necessities.
We are at a fascinating turning point. I realize we can see well into the mire and there is a path out, if we take it. Before us not one footprint, and that is the great adventure.
This might all be worth it. Without Shakespeare we find ourselves stuck in the play, and yet, at this moment, our main characters are out of options. We write the next act.
Farewell to the wash and dry at Cole and Carl across from The Other Cafe. I was apartment hunting in the bulletin board there 40 years ago and someone told me there was an apartment on Upper Downy St top of Ashbury. Rent was $210 /month for a railroad flat with five rooms and a kitchen with garden backlots. Split it with my best friend. 2 hippies in a five room flat. Now that fateful laundromat is gone forever and so is reasonable rent.
March 4, 1864, Lincoln 2nd Inaugural. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the fight as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
March 4, 2024, Trump on trial for conspiracy against the United States. “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”
***
Two Republicans. Part 2.
Abraham Lincoln wrote the following memorandum on Aug. 23, 1864:
“This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards. “ — A. Lincoln
Realizing that he would possibly not be re-elected as the war ground on, Lincoln wrote and had signed by his cabinet-without disclosing its content to them- a letter conceding the presidency to his Democratic opponent, who favored immediate conciliation to the Slave Power Confederacy, effectively destroying the United States as a united democratic republic.
Months before the election, Lincoln prepared this “blind text” and kept it in his pocket, so to speak.
In so doing, the Lincoln administration pledged itself to accept the verdict of the people in November.
In 2020 I sent this to Senators Hawley and Cruz and the others who proposed objecting to the free and fair election of President Biden. I sent it in November or maybe December, 2020- before their complicity in the violent attempt to overthrow the government.
Lincoln’s quiet concession was an obvious precedent for Trump to follow: peaceful transition of power, according to the Constitution.
Lincoln never had to use the concession letter, as the election resulted in a second term and a Union victory. But it demonstrates his commitment to the laws of the United States even in its darkest hour.
But Trump refused to concede. And worse, Trump held to power by every means at his command- and failed. And worse he launched this campaign after the decisive victory of Biden was obvious by the standards of today. There was no chance of a Trump victory. None.
This is a defining comparison of who these leaders are, as today, in 2023, heading into the 2024 election, one party, claiming to be conservative, rejects the greatest example of their past and follows the worst example of their present, rejecting forever their own party’s honored history.
So we have a fable to consider as the Republican Party goes to trial -for its existence.
This is driving me nuts: (already there, you say.)
He cannot be “president from behind bars.”
He takes an oath to the US Constitution, and therefore to Perpetual Union.
He has called for its termination.
The social contract represented by the Constitution really is a good faith agreement to acknowledge and mediate diverse policies and political goals, through balanced government. It is not a playbook for authoritarians, or a gamer’s quest for loopholes.
It favors individual rights- as opposed to those of powerful political actors, like the former president, who believes he is in a special class involving immunities -which are denied to every single other citizen of the United States.
His legal situation involves a conflict of interest with the obligations of the constitution, wherein he cannot serve until the case is resolved, involving his role as an officer of the law, administering the DOJ, which is prosecuting him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
He committed these alleged crimes while he held office.
Despite their acquittal, a majority of Congress upheld the charges of high crimes: the Constitution is clear that “high crimes and misdemeanors” are a basis for removal.
The reasoning is obvious, the rationale self- evident.
Further, his top aides -inc Lindsey Graham, Speaker McCarthy- cited the conflicts of interest, described above, as a reason to apply the 25th Amendment, citing his incapacity to hold the office. This, while he held office.
He advocated a “termination” of the Constitution on Dec 2,2022 as a response to the indictments against him. Such a procedure does not exist in the constitution. There is no authority that can terminate the Constitution, which upholds a “perpetual Union.”
Then there is the 14th Amendment cited by the Federalist Society, involving aid and comfort to the sedition, exclusion from office, effective immediately.
Just stop it, commentators. You’re being ridiculous.
He cannot take an oath of office to preserve and protect and defend the Constitution- which he pledged to terminate.
The oath is a requirement, an absolute, in order to hold office and wield authority on behalf of the American people.
The answer is no.
***
Arraignment
I asked myself what a good defense for Donald Trump would be, and it turns out it’s the Nutcase Defense. Always works.
So here.
It’s an answer to those free speech advocates who think it’s unfair what is happening to that poor former Leader of the Free World:
DEFENSE
The question is: Did he believe he actually won the 2020 election?
Your Honor, This man is a sociopath.
What he ”believed” at any given time is based solely on what benefits him personally.
That he “believed” he won an election is irrelevant to the case before us.
Further, he was raised in a cult, based on the writings of Dale Carnegie, and others, known as Science of Mind, which comes directly from the pages of Reader’s Digest on the toilet tank, which teaches that what you believe, you manifest, by discounting ALL contrary evidence and focusing ONLY on what you desire for yourself.
It matters but little whether that belief is plausible or even possible, so it equates well with fanaticism.
The “belief” is unswerving and will be adhered to, regardless of evidence to the contrary, and without cognizance of anyone or anything that stands in his way.
Far from being flighty, the system of belief is self-indoctrination, rigorous and tortured. It is fraught with pain, and failure as an outcome cannot be admitted to the mind for even a second.
In fact, evidence to the contrary to his belief becomes a challenge to his very being, and so must be dismissed or destroyed on his path to his goal.
That mind is a surreal landscape: for him, Joe IS sleepy, Nancy is a maniac, America is carnage, and golf is a paradise where an ex-wife is buried. Eggs drip from trees and clocks melt in the sun- which means it’s time for Fox and Friends.
As a sociopath, under the influence of a secular “religious” philosophy, he can not, will not, acknowledge a truth unfavorable to his goals.
He is a psychopath. He has no earnest true feelings.
I repeat, he is a psychopath- he is numb. The absence of emotion, empathy, esteem, is a hallmark of the pathology.
There lies a terrible truth, spoken out of the unconscious of one accustomed to manipulating others to his will:
He COULD shoot someone on Fifth Avenue -and feel nothing.
His pursuit of his goals, given the adherence to his faith, that what one believes is real, is an absolute compulsion, over which he himself has no power.
Sociopathology tells us that the sufferer – and he is a sufferer with a grave mental affliction- cares not at all about the fate of the earth, the country, his fellow citizens- even his family.
Without true healthy relationships, he must replace these with adulation from strangers, from supporters, from donors.
Instinctively these individuals find each other and conspiracy runs rampant.
Conspiracy is his bread-and-butter, and for his masses, the absolute norm of behavior.
Anyone or anything that interferes with his compulsive sense of what is manifestly his, he must dominate in complex ways that forever destroy the object from further interference.
The assumption that we are dealing with a normal individual with ethical concerns, good judgement, respect for norms of society- is utter folly.
Ladies and gentlemen, the defense that this man, a sociopath, is only expressing free speech provisions, protected by the First Amendment, is exactly what he is actually intent on exploiting, through cunning, through a keen sense of how to subvert and dominate the entire field. The defense is based on Good Faith propositions, of which Donald J Trump is incapable.
Of this my client is GUILTY and so therefore INNOCENT!
Defense rests.
***
Name It/ Claim It
You may say, JK, you are obsessed. You’re turning into Ginny Thomas, already.
But the indictment of the former president is a call to action for us. But the action is of a quiet type. Thoughtful. Reflective. It’s time to look under the hood. Let’s see here. Toss me that rag there. Shine a light over here.
My Mental Health Manifesto.
This horrid week of an indicted former president of the United States. Who is mad: as in, thinks-he’s-Napoleon, mad. Thinks-he’s-Jesus Christ, mad. (“I am your retribution.” -Really? That’s not in the job description, dude.)
No.
Writing is healing for some of us. To say it plainly is such a relief. To reach for a higher vibration involves high spirits and clear thinking. Writing is that, for some of us.
And I’ve longed to admit this, but I only write what really “wants to be written.” The writer part seems like an independent component of my psyche. Perhaps even another person.
It’s like songwriters that tell the listener, the main character in the song isn’t necessarily me, it’s a creative imagining, with its own personality and sense of the world.
I feel some distance between my everyday self and this writer thing.
If it was a poem, I’d write that. Heck, if it was a knock-knock joke I’d write that. But what I have is this.
And having written, well, I feel great! Fantastic, even.
To be heard. To be listened to. Once in a while, is enough. And if you’ve read this, thank you. That’s a healing.
And if you, too, have been listened to, I applaud that.
Anyhoo.
My goal has been to engage the crisis through sanity, understanding, non-violent engagement, creating the opportunity, the chance of us, We the People, healing the nation.
I believe each person’s opinion is a living molecule of the larger expression.
We’ve been told our thoughts carry no weight on the national stage, that our private lives really don’t matter. We have no power. We are wasting our time.
Wrong.
I met the son of Woody Guthrie, Joad. Joadie Guthrie used to come to Phoenix Books to drop off a mimeograph copy of a book called “Sing Out, Superpowers” of lyrics he wrote to make peace in the middle of the Cold War, between USA and former USSR, in the 1980s.
He was trying to prevent nuclear war.
It was just some typed papers in a dime-store folder with a blue cover.
Nuts, right? Waste of time?
Wrong. That mattered.
I’m not sure we ever sold one. I don’t believe I took it seriously myself. I’m not sure I still have a copy.
No matter: it moved the energy toward a better world, even if in an imperceptible way.
That’s its true power. Stunning, isn’t it?
It inspires me today, to think about Joad and Woody. And stopping Fascism. And moving peace.
Thoughts, intentions, of peace are like a wave, with wave-energy. Global, too. That’s our true globalism, the nature of mass events.
(Money is just a form of that; votes are another form of that. Symbolic manifestations. Intentions. Really.)
It’s all energy, in motion. Wave of peace and higher vibration and healing.
If you don’t believe that, well I feel sorrow for you. For I believe it’s true. You make a huge difference. I wish you knew. Please endorse yourself. We need your sanity, compassion, empathy and understanding.
This is deeply challenging but we must think of these things. Non-violent communication is one of the keys to turning this crisis of Democracy around. The criminal justice system can’t fix the deeper issue. An election can’t fix it.
“Whatever we do from a basis of sound mental health will be life-affirming; what we do without a sound basis in mental health will be destructive of society.”
We have to do it.
We ARE doing it. Italics needed.
(The photos on the cover of the post here are problematic, but the interview/ video is truly compelling.)
Psychiatrists were the first to be silenced, but the mental health impacts on Americans must be admitted and addressed.
The mugshot of the former president is a turning point. Everyone stopped and looked. Everyone. It’s deeply disturbing on many levels. For those that consider it a joke, well, that’s troubling, too.
It’s time. Family members have been lost. Political parties are responding to extremely powerful destructive unconscious forces that are obvious to all.
We have a mental health pandemic, she says, and it’s true.
The mental health pandemic is more destructive than Covid. Far worse.
Our thoughts matter. Our private thoughts, our attitudes, our ability to be open-minded, to find neutrality, which is not a permanent state, but an option open to most humans.
Yes, we need health and exercise and nature and music and love, but the basic mental health part is totally overlooked.
No one wants to admit the national pathology-it’s too painful. To admit we were wrong, deluded, complicit, full of negativity, driven by selfish motives, didn’t really care for decades. It’s too much all at once. I know that. I’m not blaming others. I recognize my role, at least in part.
Holding him to account is but one step in the direction of healing, and without healing, there is no future.
There is hope involved in an honest appraisal.
And mental capacity is a standard used in every other workplace that exists.
Beware the leader who cannot admit a mistake.
Like Bugs in a Mason Jar
Federal Court today has thrown the book at Mr Giuliani and ruled that these accusations made by Mr Giuliani were defamatory.
The court ruled that falsity of fact is not protected speech.
Rudy has screwed the boss badly by not showing up for the defamation case. Woopsie.
Court finding that “Alternative Facts” are not covered by a 1st Amendment defense.
(Kellyanne always knew that, presumably, but she’s not a complete idiot, like the people she assisted to high office.)
Joy Reid’s analysis was that Rudy failed to provide evidence for discovery in court and so now is found liable, because it would incriminate him in other cases like the one he and Donald are indicted in by Jack Smith.
These Trump defendants -including Trump- are like bugs in a mason jar. (Ohio kid reference; no actual bugs were harmed in the making of this post.)
Did I just compare Donald Trump, the former most powerful person on Earth, to a little bug in a jar? Wow. Apologies to bugs.
It is clear that if Donald Trump were one of two bugs in a jar, he would attack the other bug.
Let’s see!
***
Sore Thumb
You know when you use a hammer and bang your thumb, showing lack of expertise with a hammer?
Eastman kind of banged his thumb the other day. Ouch!
I have to write this.
John Eastman was the individual who originated the ”self-coup” of the January 6 attack on the Joint Session of Congress.
So what?
He appeared in an interview the other day and -so what? again:
He implicated over 100 members of Congress in his conspiracy. Yes, he did.
In the interview with Laura Ingraham he went ahead and casually implicated over 100 members of Congress in his admitted plot to obstruct the official function of Congress on January 6, for which several defendants are now convicted and sentenced to over a decade in prison.
For the first time I could see with more clarity what he was doing, how critical were the bad-faith objections of 147 members of Congress that refused to recognize the legitimate win of President Biden.
Conspiracy defendant Eastman reverse-engineered the law, which states that both houses of Congress have the power to throw out electoral votes; after preliminary objections by single members of House and Senate on the date of certification, January 6, both Houses could have voted by a majority to throw the election. For any reason.
The Republican Party only needed a vague pretext- a “concern over irregularities” to use the Electoral Count Act for the purpose of canceling the Biden presidency.
And “concerns” can be ephemeral or free-floating, like a sense of wonder, or a sinking feeling. Could be anything!
So on Jan 6, 2020, over 100 Republican members of Congress pretended they were really “concerned” about swirling allegations of voter fraud. Which were created by Republicans themselves, by amplifying every fictional allegation.
And that, Eastman claimed, was sufficient reason to halt the proceedings, and to act as a precursor for the mob attack on the US Capitol. All with one goal.
Those 147 representatives that voted to object to the electoral win of Biden in two battleground states were not innocent bystanders.
The debate was interrupted by violence incited by President Trump, and so the plot to send the thing to a commission to re-do the election collapsed.
They were still trying at midnight, to disqualify enough electoral votes from states that voted for Biden to throw the election into “doubt.” – after those Americans attacked the Capitol.
Loophole City!
So much for the Constitution, and votes and recounts and hand recounts and states fussing over getting it right, and blah blah de blah. What a waste of time, in Republicans’ view.
So in the tv interview, Eastman cited “over 100 representatives who thought there was still something wrong with the most secure election in history.
He organized that conspiracy, which includes Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley- US senators who led the objections in Congress to halt the certification of the election of Joe Biden.
And yesterday Eastman admitted the whole thing on television. While he awaits trial!
Bam! Ouch!
I’m convinced they’re unconcerned with the admonition by every judge to every defendant that anything they say can and will be used against them in court.
The Fascisti have already seceded from the US. They are working on jury and court nullification and so are ignoring the rule of law. So they talk on tv, whooping up the Fascism as much as they can.
Will Cruz and Hawley be held to account, like the seditionists now in prison? No. Doubt it.
Eastman clerked for Justice Thomas, the wife of whom is implicated in the conspiracy which is really not complex.
I haven’t heard a single word of consolation or apology or regret by any Republican, nor expressions of concern for every voter they have maligned and attempted to defraud- while their supporters – who were actually harmed by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, their vote devalued as was mine- still have the idea it was somehow all the Democrats’ fault.
Every American was harmed by this attack on our democracy, since the damage they’ve done to free and fair elections may in fact be permanent.
“Flood the zone with shit.” (Steve Bannon). That was the Republican platform- and still is.
The conspirators will surely be offered too cabinet posts if they somehow prevail in 2024.
***
The “Party” Is Over!
September is going to be large for the Quasi-Party.
My YouTube psychics insist. It is what it is. It is what we make of it.
Won’t be surprised if a Congressman or two will be indicted.
This ain’t over. But the Republican Party as a going concern is.
You can’t have old what’s-his-name-with-the-hair and a viable political party. Two different things: Your choice, not mine.
The onset of trials represent two roads diverged in a wood, and they all know it. I’m talking about now: September.
Up to y’all’s.
My hope was that the party would split, but it’s refused to do so. They’ve been lock-stepped in cement since Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh days. To the detriment of any debate whatsoever.
They just don’t want to pay for government.
But here we are. All of us. Each of us. Pray with me, Henry:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Or:
Ask not, for whom the taco bell tolls- it tolls for thee. (Maybe it will all just go away!)
***
Fifty-fifty
I keep hearing that half the country is unhappy.
I keep hearing that half the country believes that their leader is being unfairly harassed by investigations and impeachments and indictments.
Waitaminnit:
That’s like someone who owes you $100 dollars and gives you $18 and says, “What’s the problem?-I paid you half of it back.”
No. You paid me 18% back.
18% of the electorate are strongly MAGA.
Then pundits say half the country are Republicans. How can you disqualify a candidate supported by half the country?
That’s like someone who owes you $100 dollars, and gives you $25. And says, “there’s half.”
No. Republicans aren’t half the country. They are 25% of the voting public, self-identified by political party.
Then they say half the country supports the guy with the hair.
That’s like someone who owes you $100 and pays you $33 dollars, saying, “There you go, I’ll pay the other half later.”
No- support was historically 33% for the fat golfer.
Support was mostly 33% and disenchantment was 65%, over time. More or less, but pretty steady.
Today at Mr Pickles I ordered two pastrami sandwiches but they only gave me one and I was tired and in a hurry so I left and discovered the mistake and crap oh well I split it with Ingrid and ate half.
That half is the Republican Party. It’s really not half.
How come 25% of the electorate is controlling the government?
Because way back in the day they were really ‘concerned” about slavery. So they they gave 25% of the population a share of 50% of power and counted Blacks as 1/5 of a person and added that to the census, and said “ok, we’re good, am I right?”
Fifty- fifty government sounds fair. So judicious. Even. Nice!
We are wise like old King Solomon, am I right?
(Meanwhile the top 1% controls half of everything- woops- make that 90%. How did that happen?)
So he’s disqualified under the 14th Amendment. Half the country thinks he’s toast: (65%)
***
Halloween Came Early This Year.
Grand Jury Report Released.
The Republican Party is laid out in the front parlor, stiff as a board, cold as ice.
They tried to fix a smile using wire and wax and rubber cement, but rigor mortis set the jaw into a horrible half-snarl.
Tissue?
Halloween comes early this year I guess- The Thing is still moving:
Lindsey Graham belongs behind bars. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
Lindsey reacted publicly to the recommendation of an indictment, by implicating himself in the criminal conspiracy.
Lindsey says, “Nothing happened”- but just because the plan fell through in Georgia doesn’t mean it wasn’t a criminal conspiracy.
There was no “Congressional Hearing” into any of this. None was planned none was possible and there is no jurisdiction of Congress into state elections- during an election cycle. That was a false pretext to illegally delay the certification of the Biden victory.
There is absolutely nothing legal about this, as the grand jury report avers.
Lindsey Graham, a US Senator, campaigning for the guy with the hair, reached into the conduct of a state election on behalf of a candidate as part of a campaign. He had zero right or authority to call Georgia to scrutinize signatures. Or anything else.
In fact, Lindsey, a top official, claiming the authority of the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is an admission that he used his office for a corrupt purpose.
In fact, again, Lindsey selecting Fulton County, a Democratic county with a black constituency, is a partisan move, a Federal officer interfering deeply in state politics.
The states did not dispute the outcome. Trump did. Outsiders did. Lindsey Graham did. Fox did.
What Lindsey says cost Fox News 1 billion dollars in lawsuits. Lindsey is admitting his critical role in the conspiracy here.
He must be expecting to be indicted.
***
Grand Jury Report Follows Breadcrumbs to Clarence Thomas’ House.
The Georgia Special Grand Jury reached right into the top rank of the Federalist Society.
Let me digress.
My wife is an artist, she does collage and mixed media. She has a work table I helped set up for her, and I’m inspired by her work. I’m aware of her activity and when she’s involved.
Now, Ginny Thomas, wife of Clarence, hangs with Cleta Mitchell, who was recommended for indictment for criminal conspiracy.
They are both prominent activists devoted to their cause, (overthrowing the government).
It’s their art project.
(Shout out to Clarence Thomas right there on page two of the Georgia Special Grand Jury report released today, which led to the indictment of Trump and 18 others.)
The Grand Jury recommendation to indict was almost unanimous, on Cleta Mitchell. Top of the list.
She’s a tip-top prominent attorney that Republicans adulate. Criminal conduct.
As I said, Cleta Mitchell. Activist with Ginny Thomas. (Hey there Clarence! How’s it going, big guy?)
Oh Clarence. Sitting out in the Walmart parking lot with the A/C cranked up. All peaceful. I too enjoy the simple things, Clarence.
Ginny Thomas/Cleta Mitchell/ Clarence Thomas …implicates the US justice on the Supreme Court to the Crime of the Century, by more than a whisker.
“Mitchell is chair of the conservative activist group Public Interest Legal Foundation, which is known for making claims of voter fraud.
She has claimed that Democrats engage in a “very well-planned-out assault” on election systems. (Completely debunked.
Prior to the 2020 election, she organized legal efforts to challenge mail-in ballots cast in the election.
Mitchell has worked closely with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, in the Council for National Policy to organize efforts to keep Trump in power,
-and The New York Times reported that it was Mitchell who “enlisted John Eastman, the lawyer who crafted specious legal theories claiming Vice President Mike Pence could keep Mr. Trump in power.” (wiki).
**
The Council for National Policy has been described by The New York Times as “a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country”, who meet three times yearly behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference.The Nation has called it a secretive organization that “networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy”. The organization has been described by Anne Nelson as a “pluto-theocracy” (plutocracy/theocracy). wiki
Cleta Mitchell on the Board of Governors.
**
How do we fleece the people that we think of as gullible yokels?
“One of the central features of MAGA in all this is that, at bottom, it is a massive con game. The incredible contempt they have for their most loyal supporters. They believed, and they were able to execute a plan, to fleece the most gullible” among them. -Charlie Sykes.
Instead of protecting them-
…”they looked at them as marks, as people to grab by the ankles and turn upside down and grab every nickel they possibly can.”
-Charlie Sykes.
***
I made a mistake and turned on the feed.
Oh my god. We simply must stop kissing Trump’s fat ass.
A gag order?
As Martha Stewart said: It’s a good thing.
It is.
Americans fear a terrible outcome from restraining an out-of-control political movement.
How did we become such pssy a* b*tches, anyway? My god!
The Civil War? We WON that. Jesus! Come on!
Listen.
The answer is simple: we just revoke his celebrity.
You think that’s impossible? Or perhaps unconstitutional? You’re wrong.
(Does anybody remember Leona Helmsley? No. And no one cares. That’s where he’s headed. You see, we are…changing…our…belief system.)
So.
We do not have to have stupid rallies.
We do not have to have candidates that don’t believe in our institutions.
We don’t have to grant every interview to every psychopath that thinks he’s Napoleon or Jesus Christ.
We don’t do those things for other candidates, in general. We really don’t.
These are special things we do for rich, weird celebrities. It includes a “death wish” that some horrid fate will befall someone, tucked away in the unconscious.
Yes we’re Puritan maniacs at heart, and yes it keeps everyone tuned in. Breathless.
(I’m speaking as a white person here, a WASP. We are nuts. I’m sure that’s obvious by now. Believe me, I’m not blaming non-whites -again- for our stupid lingering malaise, which somehow makes victims of everyone.)
No.
We can exclude candidates wherever we feel the need.
The people that disagree, that aren’t reasonable, they aren’t listening anyway. You can’t control them.
They may become violent. They live by threats, like a stone addict. Too bad! So sorry! -We can’t let them take charge of our political discourse.
Fretting about violence is not prevention.
America is no longer “The Gong Show.”
That’s where that reactionary movement is headed: go straight on Benedict Arnold Avenue, and make a hard right at Dillinger Blvd, avoid the crag- and you’ve arrived: Nowheresville!
It will take enormous courage for every person everywhere to simply do the next right thing.
Usually we know what that is. Usually it does not take a genius to figure out.
But revoking celebrity- we are really good at that.
Let’s get cracking.
***
The Republican “Health and Happiness Hour.”
…
-Lauren Boebert, really?
I wonder: if they drug-tested the House of Representatives, how many would pass?
…btw I want to confirm my “professional”assessment 🤣 that the guy with the hair was for a time on dexamethazone, a potent steroid that energizes, promotes sleeplessness and confusion and a sense of omnipotence. This was a treatment for Covid. I recently discovered reporting that for a time he was indeed in a roaring ‘roid rage.
Dexamethazone is a common effective prescription for patients in facilities I’ve worked in, for those with a failure to thrive.
They pee often, they won’t stop talking, and they may begin intricate projects which are impossible to complete.
(-Like learning to play the violin without lessons, or in-hospital television repair. First step: disassemble the unit to its components. -Or World Domination. So, nuclear football, anyone?)
It leads me to wonder that the effect of steroids rhymes with the Party Leader’s normal behavior patterns, of sleeplessness, non-stop thirst (diet soda) and impulsivity. It would not surprise me if he had steroids on his breakfast cereal.
The Guy With The Hair’s hero, the painter/politician of the Third Reich, promoted health and amphetamine use as aids in World Conquest, so why the hell not?
And how interesting that the followers mimic these behaviors.
My intuition is that the representative from CO was also not above partying on the side.
My assessment is drawn from my observations of human behavior during the 1980s. It seems that several political figures onstage today exhibit the common features of addiction: denial, anger, forced apologies and a (temporary) appeal to religion.
The congresswoman from Colorado experienced memory loss, impulsivity, denial, but, interestingly, not shame, after being caught on camera exhibiting some outre’ behavior at a theatrical event. Louche. Comme des animaux.
The French have all the good words.
Drugs can impair judgement. Especially if used for a sense of power.
Those with a lust for power and “success” seek enhancements. Matt Gaetz, for example. I’m pointing fingers now, randomly.
The motive force for this contagion of bad behavior, apparent to me, is the ever-present desire of Party members to possess “comprimat” on each other. (Matt Gaetz, again). This is the mode of control, to keep everyone in line.
That includes lying under oath, which Republicans did in concert under the Hair Guy’s “First Reich” of 2017. It’s a form of MADness (mutually assured destruction) that promotes an all-for-one, no holds barred form of covert agreement among Party members.
I placed scare quotes around the word “success” because of my personal belief system, copped from traces of Buddhism and online psychic readers, that success, as Americans understand it, generally demands suffering and humiliation, so is not on the Four-Fold Path to higher consciousness.
But I digress.
***
Famous celebrity/homeless/ former executive Trump was so disgusted at the homeless encampments in Washington. He just wanted homeless people to disappear. I only feel that way about one.
They got a 30-day notice.
*
My Conviction
Hey I just want to make one non-rant about the guy with the hair at his fraud trial today:
In 2016, the evangelical church in the neighborhood, where we went some Sundays because my wife has a devout heart, had a voter guide at the door to church which directed worshippers to vote for Trump and the 2nd Amendment.
He was a heartless criminal, Pastor.
In fact, he is the poster-child of heartless criminality.
Although the massive fraud is a civil case you know what I’m saying: he’s convicted today. It is not “alleged.” He is guilty, in the court of law.
Those crimes were obvious in 2016. It was an open secret in NY.
I am so angry at these churches. And I’ve never admitted a sense of rage ever online. But that truly sucked.
Ok thats off my chest.
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord- (in an obvious corrective to the one who claimed “I am your retribution.” No sir, you’re not.)
Correction: He was a heartless criminal leading a band of heartless criminals and financed by a semi-secret league of heartless criminals- all with a history of heartless criminality. Let’s get this straight.
***
Stroke of “Genius”
(Everyone knows, you’re only as pretty as you feel, am I right? Think on these things.)
-Now, it’s fairly certain Biden is taking care of himself. Exercise, watches his diet. Ice cream. Delegates authority. Massive teams with decades of experience and expertise do the heavy lifting.
But the other guy? The walking nuclear meltdown? Not so much.
The campaign, the trials, the constant travel, public appearances, sleepless schedule, more plain flights- all must take a toll on the supposed front runner.
76 years old, overweight, nearly died of Covid… Blowing a gasket publicly for years without sleep, probably on steroids, who knows what else?
Reminds me of President Wilson’s final campaign.
Woodrow Wilson toured the western states by train in 1919 to campaign for the League of Nations- and it destroyed his health. He was probably predisposed to stroke:
“The tour’s intense schedule—8,000 miles in 22 days—cost Wilson his health. During the tour he suffered constant headaches and, in late September, collapsed from exhaustion in Pueblo, Colorado. He managed to return to Washington, but suffered a near-fatal stroke on October 2. He recovered and continued to advocate passage of the covenant, but the stroke and Republican Warren Harding’s election to the presidency in 1921 effectively ended his campaign.”- History Channel blurb
My favorite psychic readers are predicting Hair Guy might run out of steam by October due to some lifestyle choices and the ghost of Fred lashing him forward.
Sad.
Ok, who’s next?
How about Warren G Harding?
Now, as I said, Biden takes pretty good care of himself. The other guy, not so much.
We know the other guy, the insurrection one, is making whistle stops in the dead of winter in an interlocking schedule of contentious court cases where he’s yelling at the judge and no hours of prolonged rest.
So. Predictions?
You’re 76, your corpulent, your joints are stiff, your extremities are numb, you can’t stop yelling, and your stay up all night shadow boxing and tilting at windmills on the internet.
Stroke? Long Covid? Steroids? Mood enhancers? Super-hormone growth formulas bought from Republican hucksters? All the above.
Turn back the page, one hundred years ago, President Warren G Harding.
“Harding hadn’t been in good health when he took off for a West Coast tour that some people saw as a step in laying the groundwork for a 1924 re-election campaign.
Witnesses said Harding didn’t look well during the trip, and that he may have suffered a bout with food poisoning after eating seafood. Harding’s doctors were concerned enough about his health to divert his train to San Francisco. Harding was able to walk off the train into a limousine, which took him to the Palace Hotel.” Then. Dead. Heart attack.
Well. Let’s see who can use court appearances and rallies as a substitute for sleep.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Like the energizer bunny!
How about LBJ? Had his first heart attack at 47. The currrnt contender in the lack of sleep marathon is old enough to be his dad.
President Johnson:
“He was one of the hardest-working presidents ever and could have lived much longer if he had changed the lifestyle factors that caused his first heart attack at age 47. He had 20-hour work days, was always sleep deprived, chain-smoked, drank excessive amounts of alcohol, was overweight and did not exercise. He had eaten hamburgers and fried foods virtually every day, loved sugary desserts such as tapioca pudding, and almost never ate vegetables.” Villages News, FLA
Sound familiar?
So I do work in the medical profession, albeit on the lowest rung. I’d give the former guy some pro advice:
Sir sir!: Keep on! You’re doing fantastic! Everybody is saying so. There’s never been a campaign like this!
Who’s next?
Eisenhower. On the golf course.
“Eisenhower’s myocardial infarction began on Friday, September 23, 1955, while he was playing golf in Denver. At first, he attributed his discomfort to the hamburger he’d had for lunch. He went back to the house where he was a guest, continued to have what he thought was intermittent “indigestion,” then awoke around 2 a.m. with severe chest pain. His wife, Mamie, called Eisenhower’s personal physician, who arrived about 3 a.m.”
Yes- though he is not actually the president of the United States but a Pretender, he is vying for a place in some journals of medicine.
If he’s keeps this up, supporters may have to stop by during visiting hours and tap on the glass. An aide will assist with the famous “thumb’s up.”
Too cruel? (For a man devoted to destroying health care?) Perhaps you’re right. Answer the call bell quickly quickly.
The Fire Sale of Fortune.
I can see clearly now. Super Tuesday was a turning point, in a mystical way.
I look at the whole Republican hostile takeover thing, over all these years, with a candidate that seems to be devolving before our eyes, but now looks to me like one big Russian psy-op to provoke the reactionary politics of defeat.
Yes, media amplifies opposition talking points and inaccuracies.
Yes, Trump is allowed to be tired and make errors. -But not errors involving not enough hate, a hate-deficit.
As of yesterday, I’m convinced he’s Russia.
I know: that’s not news. But no. He IS Russia.
I mean that: that is ALL he is. Asset. Operative. Willing servant.
I think it’s objectively possible to say it aloud and defend the idea to all comers. It’s gone way beyond the Democratic Party. His supporters now think it too.
Super Tuesday: he looks like he just ran over your dog. And that’s after a great victory!
Friends, that is not normal. No.
He’s Putin. He’s Libertarian Billionaire Brigade.
I saw his face when he won the nomination:
He’s not really into you, America. His mind is offshore somewhere.
There is no other side to this. Democrats are on-message and the President is meeting stated goals with a disciplined domestic and foreign policy team.
Biden has wasted zero time since taking office. He has chosen his words quite carefully despite the unwarranted citing of momentary slips. His accomplishments- without the cooperation of one half of the government- with one hand tied behind his back, as it were- are remarkable.
There is no advantage to Putin from Biden, as with the GOP.
But if I’m correct- and I am- allowing the Russian candidate to wander around threatening this country and its citizens, as a walking national security problem, spreading hate and lies and toxic division- it’s really crazy. We are officially nuts.
Trump, ever attempting to humiliate the actual president and discrediting America’s standing in the world by flapping his gums day and night and tossing sophomoric insults. Who benefits?
Right. Putin. And some billionaires and stock holders. True.
Just my opinion.
Republicans tank the economy with stupid tax cuts, fail to take Covid seriously, nearly a million American deaths, planned system failures and govern shut-downs. Who loves all that?
And former American presidents traditionally would never criticize the sitting president during international conflicts on the world stage. It undermines American prestige.
Who benefits from that?
Putin.
But Hair Guy must remain on the ballot, because we’re America!
So dumb.
And- if true- imagine the Supreme Court failing to recognize the absolute danger posed by a candidate on a political suicide mission like this. Stupid. Crazy. Nuts. Did the justices just decide whether a domestic terrorist can be on the ballot? Yes, they did.
He’s there to flood the zone. He’s not the ark- he’s the flood.
Am I being a Loony Leftie? If so how is it that no Republicans are truly defending him? They know.
No Republicans are making an effort to explain the legal hazards facing the candidate. Or to explain his conflicts of interest. They make vapid statements but fail to go into specifics. They know.
In fact, now everyone knows.
We’ve always known since day one. He would sell our shit to the lowest bidder during the fire sale of his fortunes which is happening right now.
The day we decide that’s not who we are is the day we turn this around. That day is now.
The JFK Assassination we can’t do anything about; this situation we can do something about, collectively.
It has begun. Americans get it.
America, he’s just not that into you.
State of the Union
This evening the President is going to quietly and with plain polite respectful language drive a huge steamroller over the Red Party and then put the steamroller gently into reverse and back up and roll over the Reds again and again and again.
(I use the word “Reds” advisedly: in 2018 the former president made a pact and an alliance with the Russian president at Helsinki, after initial contacts in 2016 through the Trump campaign, which, when disclosed, caused a scandal and triggered an investigation, in which all members of the Trump team lied to government officials. Historically in the Soviet era the Republican Party were hawkish Cold Warriors and referred to members of the Communist Party in thrall to Russia as Reds.)
The Biden steamroller will happen because a party possibly run by Russian bots is uninterested in having anything to do with solving American problems or our international responsibilities or national security or shoring up Medicare and Social Security or administration of justice and border policy.
The Biden steamroller will happen because the Republican candidate is a cartoon character of himself with a myriad of personal problems (which are of his own making) and conflicts of interest and so is of absolutely no use to anyone at the present time.
***
The Red Party Program: (Response to the likely response to the State of the Union) The abortion issue was not a “problem” deserving immediate national attention. Abortion rights under Roe was not a pressing “problem” demanding immediately national attention. Similarly, a dispute over social studies in grade school is not a pressing “problem” deserving immediate national attention. Similarly, the use of public bathrooms and by whom is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, the prevalence of political views on university campuses is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, who can play sports is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, “taking a knee” at a football game or praying on the 50yard line was not a pressing “problem” deserving immediate national attention. Similarly, what statues of historical figures are preserved or removed from town squares was not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, a state’s legal disputes with a corporate network’s animated presentations is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, what channels and institutions promote or decline to promote political speakers is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Similarly, the immediate return of archival presidential documents, given 100% compliance and cooperation by a previous administration, does not pose a pressing “problem” that demands immediate national attention. Similarly, the travails of celebrities and relatives of office-holders who do not hold political office are not pressing “problems” demanding immediate national attention. Antifa- which doesn’t exist as an institution, is not a pressing “problem”demanding immediate national attention. Planned Parenthood is not a pressing “problem” demanding immediate national attention. Pronouns are not pressing “problems” demanding immediate national attention. These taking points ignore true pressing problems that DO demand immediate national attention. Ukraine. Was that list a huge waste of time? Agree. And a rule of thumb about immigration: we know immigration is used as a device to stoke a reaction among the uninformed and to divert attention from other more pressing problems that demand immediate national attention.
I’ve never seen it, the actual live broadcast feed- I was working that day.
I have to say the commentary is absolutely extraordinary.
I was stunned at the real time assessment of the commentators who knew right away what they were seeing: the potential end of Democracy in America.
This is how authoritarian regimes work, they said. It remained to be seen whether the Republic would survive the day.
This was pretty much at the beginning of it and it was absolutely obvious how immediate the danger was. Even the first milling around of the crowd and the first incursion of insurgents strolling through the Rotunda posed a potential threat.
One commentator noted in the first hour that the President had long prepared the ground with recent violent tweets and public statements – even noting that the violence had been stoked by Trump since his very first speech.
All noted that the President of the United States had just tweeted about Pence, and that the vice president now “had a target on his back”.
No one had yet seen the actual footage of violence that ensued, with one exception: the battering of the Capitol door.
But you didn’t need to see the violence.
The violence was the very presence of that crowd. The danger was immense.
No security in sight. The lawmakers in lockdown. The Capitol, said one commentator, “appears to be besieged.”
That was by 2:30 that day.
I was at work so we only saw moments. Our jaw dropped when we saw even isolated moments.
And it just got worse.
Remember: no crowd was to be allowed anywhere near the Capitol that day. Not on the steps, not on the grounds, not anywhere near. And Covid protocols were all in effect.
Seeing the footage of the day tells me so much.
I can see how people who watched images could have mistaken an authoritarian putsch as simply a bunch of people walking around. Until you see them attempt to batter the Capitol door down.
The “security” protocol was simple- for the government to flee the Capitol. Through underground exits etc.
You know things are bad when a joint session of Congress has to consider fleeing the Capitol.
The following little poem is the second Primeval Poem, after one called “Moon Party.” August 2001.
They were both “instant poems”- I just wrote whatever was there to write.
This one has an image which was actually a precognition of the World Trade Center on 9/11, which occurred little more than one week after the writing of this: it’s the inscrutable line about the air turning to sand.
I thought, I can’t write that. But then later I knew exactly what this was about.
These first draft poems have their own drawbacks, mawkish perhaps, but a nice movement toward life as well.
I’m thinking of kids going to school and hoping that everyone stays safe.
Two pages from an old notebook.
Primeval Poem #2
Ferry Bldg, Bridge, afternoon
Poem:
Out on the pier I saw a little boy chasing seagulls. He did the baby dinosaur dance for his ancient cousins.
They squawked their appreciation hopped to one side or up to the pier or beat the air gaily with one wing.
The green water smiled its flat square smile, cool to its deep deep bottom.
The bridge continued its yoga stretch and relaxed.
Then, because it’s the modern world and I’d seen it so many times
the boy did his warrior dance in slow motion, the air turned to grains of sand, and I began to cry.
Each star came out to watch, waited patiently as God filled in its brightness, and then, set free, the air shown with gold.
The green water was thirsty for that nice gold color, I noticed.
The bridge held back the night sky for one more minute; one last ship, a giant, red and black pulled out to sea every wrinkle.
We have to be very still now. No one move.
Solemnly a gull hops to one side though, And up on a pier and lifts its wing.
“Attack of the Murder Robots!” (or How a Congressional Science Lab blew up Democracy.)
A light- hearted parody- or weird actuality? You decide.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
Democracy is under attack by robots.
Congress could have prevented this situation in which we find ourselves, this historical cliffhanger, in which an authoritarian megalomaniacal criminal plays footsie with the fate of humanity and unleashes robots to attack our democratic values, but no.
Supreme Court also left the door open, to Fascist/friendly operatives and robot/ friendly outcomes. Now we see what can happen.
sigh.
They have unleashed the robots on our political system!
Unlike my contemporaries, I believe the Framers of the US constitutional system sensed the potential robot-problem. They were well aware of it, but admitted that, in order to function, a certain amount of good faith and luck was involved.
The Framers hoped we would do the right thing, and not invent robots to send to Congress with a mission to self-destruct and sabotage the command structure, so that rich people might be free.
Wrong!
So if Smith actually prevails, the judgement could ensure voter rights where Congress has failed to do so.
(Duh!)
This IS personal.
Roger Stone, top advisor, with Steve Bannon, to Trump, well before the election of 2020 said the voter intimidation and the proposed fraudulent schemes would be aimed specifically at California voters- to override the liberal vote which he knew would win in 2020.
“Fuck you, California!” said Stone. That’s a quote. From his mouth to God’s ears.
And that means I was an actual targeted victim of the multivalent and malevolent scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
I, and every other voter in America, was/ were made victims, representatives of whom would be replaced in public office -by robots.
It’s good Smith sees that, as one disclosed indictment, in the hoped-for soon-to-be-released charging document, is expected to address the rights of all voters as infringed by the GOP crime spree.
And I feel that victimization keenly. Especially when, so soon after the election, the Supreme Court found no human rights in the Constitution worthy of respect.
That stung, since we won that election and those Supreme Court seats were, virtually, ours.
Trump, incidentally, was activity recruiting militias (“stand back/stand by”) and courting QAnon, the same week in September that he nominated Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court. This was just weeks before the presidential election. Which Trump lost on November 7, 2020.
And that month also he and his Attorney General Wm Barr- who is tasked with defending the rights of all Americans- disparaged mail- in ballots and normal voting procedures as fraudulent then also. And then Trump and Barr both attacked the USPS, founded by Ben Franklin.
Remember how Trump had Covid at that debate? The “stand back/stand by” debate?Nice.)
And then they unleashed the robot hordes.
(Hey, remember when Trump invoked the Second Amendment as a threat to Hilary Clinton on the campaign trail? No robots picked up on that, than god.)
So who is or are the true Enemy (-ies) of the People, again?
Benjamin Franklin knew the answer, but you do not need a Ouija Board to figure this out.
A cream pie in the face of Trump on tv would be a nice first step right about now. That’s about all I could hope for. It would disarm him entirely. But don’t bother the Secret Service. They have enough to worry about right now.
Sadly there can’t be justice because the damage done is so extensive and ongoing and fascists are working still on the disestablishment of Congress.
Taylor Green and Jordan in Congress – and RFK Jr, too- are much like Survival Research Laboratory projects, each like a robot designed to destroy itself with mechanical arms equipped with hammers and maces and chains that bash its own carapace and bounce around destroying the entire field, so that the damage left overwhelms the ability of the institution to recover.
Tell me they’re not robots, or robot/equivalent. I’m listening.
Putin won that hand nicely. I no longer consider the Republican Party a thing.
Speaking of robots, there is a distinction without a difference between robot warfare and actual random mass shootings. If random robots were dispatched, invented by a Sci-fi obsessed mastermind, and went around blasting shopping malls, the effect would be identical to what we have in real life. The statistical inevitability, the same.
Interesting, that destabilizing democracy using frail humans heavily armed would be a thing to advertise and uphold and wave a flag from a shiny truck over.
Fricking murder robots everywhere. I speak in metaphors, Meta. Don’t freak out. I come in peace.
Discuss.
Come to think of it, I’ve been sitting next to an ocean of information my entire life.
Started out as a trickle. Howdy Doody was just off the air. Before my time. Miss Barbara had a magic mirror. There was that. There were ten books for sale at May Company. And there was a Carnegie Library. Jack Parr was on the tv. Not more than one rotary dial telephone. There was quiet talk.
In lieu of information, parcheesi.
Transition. Pulse. Satellite. Bathysphere. Iron lung. Iron curtain.
It’s possible that ocean overwhelmed everything around 1968. I won’t go into it. It was bad it got worse and worse massive maverick waves of information. It became abysmal throughout the decades. As in, falling into the abyss: an imaginary maelstrom in which imagination is really the foundation stone of reality one grasps to one’s heart like a life preserver made of pure lead. It came out of pencils and file cabinets in the workshop. Next to the tool chest. There was a Texas Instruments calculator and a roll of tape.
How to Make Friends and Influence People.
I said influence “people”- not the weather.
Still, oceans of information.
Now I’m bobbing around the surface again and there’s RFK Jr floating by on a log.
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.
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