Lagging Indicator

The entire economy is a lagging indicator of a bunch of stuff, mostly indeterminate, amorphous and harder-to-quantify things such as justice, social well-being, responsible living and the reasonable and measured use of natural resources. Our society is mostly a reflection of the relatively decent, hard working people who went before us and not the pigs that we are. The society we are creating, the one reflecting our values, will be unlivable.

Love for Sale

Wealthy Americans are really feeling the love. Everything has benefitted them since the beginning of the Republican age. Date that to the election of Ronald Reagan, to go by the enormous increase in their fortunes starting then. 

Nothing is enough. Poorer and vulnerable citizens are now to be deprived of the healthcare needed to keep them alive so the rich can have more. You can buy anything in America, including the entire system. This means there is no America.

Lint Heads

In Southern mill towns the textile workers used to be called "lint-heads" because of the fuzz in their hair and elsewhere when they came out of the mills. The country club whites looked down on them and then there were the black people, another caste. 

The mill owners decamped when there were better pickings elsewhere and the workers were left with even less than before. It's unclear now how this will play out when the capitalists consolidate their power. They won't need their working-class voters. 

Are we there? Mitch McConnell, who married his millions, is trying to pass legislation to harm the hell out of his constituents while favoring mostly monied, out-of-state, Machiavellian interests. And there are the equivalents of bureaucrats and plant managers.

They face an ambiguous fate since the new lint-heads are now overseas. Visit a small Southern town and witness the despair to see how this looks and feels when it happens. The fate of most people will be determined at birth, with little room for advancement.

This is the Republican vision for America.

Card Sharps

Think of Republicans as card sharps, amassing all the chips by cheating. One day they win them all and the game ends.

Dignity, No. Deniability, Yes.

Lindsey Graham and others are upset that Trump has sullied the dignity of his office with an odd tweet again revealing an even odder interest in women with blood coming out of them somewhere.

 

For Graham and other conservatives trying to hedge their bets and cover their asses it's not about dignity or integrity or decency but deniability. 

They want to be able to survive Trump's implosion, humiliation or self-annihilation, should that happen. When Republicans talk about principles they always mean their own power and position. 

Charnel House Rules

I have been trying not to follow the news very closely because it's too painful but I noticed that Dean Heller, a Republican Senator from Nevada, has been excoriated by members of his own party and attacked by a Trump super-pac for daring to criticize their healthcare bill.

In other words, he was attacked for trying to do what was best for his constituents. Why even comment on this. It speaks for itself. Republicans continually tout themselves as the party of freedom, constitutional democracy, patriotism and everything else noble and good. 

Who's freedom do they mean? Not just theirs but only theirs. They will try to viciously destroy anyone who disagrees with them. The fault is with the American voters. There are no excuses sufficient to exonerate them for voting for these criminals, thugs and hoodlums.

No explanation is good enough--certainly not ignorance. There are on the hook for this. We should never let them off. Meanwhile we're increasingly living among corpses and in a boneyard. We are all increasingly dead men walking.

Alexa, get me out of here...

Big Brother really is watching. Big Brother is Amazon. Big Brother is Google. It isn't the government we have to worry about it's these massive companies seeking to infiltrate our lives in inventive ways. Granted, we get something in return. But there will be a price.

By the way, Alexa, do you know where some affordable healthcare can be had?

Republican Racist Cult

Virtually every Republican Congressperson in Washington is capable of acting on only one principle, caring for the wealthiest Americans by cutting their taxes and in other ways. They will not only disenfranchise poorer citizens but deprive them of services without which many will have miserable, insecure and shorter lives. 

Already the rich have had a bonanza under Republican rule, seeing their share of America's wealth increase inconceivably. Republicans despise Democrats and want to deprive them of their rights as citizens. In many cases elections and administrations fail to assert the will of the majority. Republicans are criminals and traitors. 

Entire states have be de-democratized. Republicanism is now a racist cult, requiring blind submission to authority and to a fixed set of irrational beliefs typified by climate denial, birtherism, economic reductivism and a form of social Darwinism in which the game is rigged and the cards are stacked and racism drives everything. 

Plantation America and the Quiet Coup

Republicans will break any promise and ignore any oath to institute permanent minority rule. There is a tipping point and we are alarmingly close to it. Of the two main groups the racists want to disenfranchise black people. Those poorer, stupid white people are also voting to disenfranchise themselves believing that their masters will protect them from the sins of modernism.

Their psychology is rooted in the Scots-Irish experience of minority rule in Northern Ireland and in the Celtic traditions of submission to the authority of a local lord. This is why these factional societies never evolved out of the Middle Ages and were ultimately defeated in battle. Celts make the best cannon fodder and will fight for any cause their lord dictates, no matter how unreasonable.

They will be proud to have died in the service of their masters and betters, or their families will be proud for them since they will be as dead as they deserve. Think of a butler, cook, maidservant or some other underling in an English drama who's motto is to know your place. Money and power motivate the other main constituent in the movement, typified by the Kochs and their allies.

Kochists are in a positive feedback loop with the racists, not that they aren't racists themselves but it is secondary since they can reasonably aspire to total domination and isolate themselves from anyone they choose in their sick, Machiavellian dream world. If there are legitimate (internally consistent) philosophical underpinnings to their beliefs it doesn't matter in this context.

It doesn't matter because the thinking is undeniably inimical to the laws and traditions of our country, which they have undermined for years. The results will be obvious as we descend into a society resembling a syndicate and a web of competing and cooperating criminal entities. They are like the Mafia. To stay the hell out of their way is the best option if they can't be stopped.

You do not want to be on their radar. They don't respect any law or rule not originating with them and your life is of absolutely no value in their scheme if you are not reasonably wealthy. Everyone only looks out for themselves. Poorer persons are a positive nuisance and it's a benefit to society if they cease to exist. My model for society is an ecosystem. Theirs is a prison or plantation.

It's Georgia

It doesn't mean anything for a Democrat to have lost an election in Georgia though it would have been nice to have won. Georgia is not quite as cracker a state as South Carolina but it's close, an old refuge of Southern depravity and stupidity. 

But it is a shame that the Democrat didn't fight harder by criticizing Republican lies and incompetence. If Democrats did this they would be building a brand and a message of responsible, competent government even when they lose.

Heart like a Whorl

The Trump family is being revealed to be so very self-centered and self-involved, each personality spiraling in on itself and gobbling up resources like goobers, it's hard to comprehend. It isn't about circumstances and these aren't working modes they adopt--public personas--but apparently it is all they are capable of doing or being.

They can't step back from it and choose other behaviors as though these are roles because they aren't. Trumps aren't only inappropriate as national leaders they are the most inappropriate people imaginable, incapable of taking care of anyone but themselves, so I think they are genuinely perplexed at the criticism. It confounds them. 

Stunningly, Trump is supposed to be working for us. He's supposed to answer to us. It's his job. But he will never work for anyone but himself or answer to anyone. And Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, the goons, have sold their souls and signed on to take advantage of the opportunity presented by their fantastically fucked-up leader. 

Gassy Troll

Donald Trump, Jr., it turns out, is as big a pig as his daddy, as he showed by being ungracious as hell on Twitter after Republicans won a congressional race in Georgia. And I see evidence that he's even less competent than the old man, which is saying something. 

What a genealogy. Fred was an aggressive, bigoted skinflint. Donald is a feckless grotesque and now Junior is just an idiot and a dick. These people don't even have manners and show decisively how ludicrous it is to think that wealthy people are somehow deserving. 

Road Kill Republicans

My committed belief is that Trumpism is not an aberration in relation to the development of modern Republicanism but its natural progression into a cult of governmental self-annihilation through incompetence, mismanagement and sabotage. If I'm right the result will be destruction and the white boys will then step back and say "oops" and try to find some creative way to blame it on the Democrats. 

This has been the pattern and Trump fits it exactly. He's less blue-blooded than Bush and more improper and profane but it's the same old story. They were each too privileged to fail though the Trumpster almost did anyway, misconstruing luck for ability. Trump, however, has cynics and ideologues at his elbows who make the Bush wackos look very nearly not insane. Bannon and Miller are truly scary.

Everything is into another realm of risk with them involved. The measure to have in mind is the road kill index, an informal indicator of how many people have had their lives ruined or ended as a result of Republican policies, directly or indirectly. Under Bush the figure is well up in the millions if you count the world-wide effects of the Phil and Wendy Gramm Whopping Economic Downturn, also known as the Great Recession. 

Republican incompetence and deregulatory fervor caused the Great Recession. Bannon and Miller are nearly admitting to wanting to remake the world and proposing its reinvention as a playground for rich white people and assorted privileged nut-cases. It would have to entail the exploitation and ruination of millions of nuisance lives and certainly many deaths, as happened under Bannon's heroes, notably Lenin. 

When, exactly, did this kind of thinking go mainstream? It should have been debated. I think Republicans would argue that the last election was such a debate but, no way. Ignorant Trump voters voted for road kill in the form of Hispanic immigrants, Muslims and anyone else Trump should choose to persecute. They didn't vote to be road kill and that is exactly where it is heading with every executive order and proposal. 

He is the Walrus

It's hard not to search for meaning where there isn't any. Donald Trump, for example, challenges us to find meaning in his actions and there isn't any. It's just Donald being Donald. He is his own perverse justification. He (it) doesn't "mean" anything.

But beyond the insularity of Donald's profane and pathetic life it means something to us--the elevation of self-centeredness to its culmination in social decomposition, which could only be appealing from a place of supposed immunity to its consequences.

Donald is the walrus, a nonsense character dropped inappropriately into a drama. He has to be removed or quarantined if order is to be restored. Whoa, though. The script is being rewritten by naive people and rogues, thinking he means something.

So Donald is this or that they write in their blogs.

He is being impersonated or has been replaced. 

He's a plant and not a philodendron. 

How do we make sense of it? From the grassy knoll, perhaps?

Goo goo g'joob. 

The Republican Ten Commandments (or Operating Principles for Life)

1. "God" is a useful concept in furthering one's ends

2. Therefore, use the ruse of godliness to promote yourself

3. In other words, there is no God but never admit it

4. Though, you, yourself, are a kind of God

5. To the degree that you assert your dominance in the world

6. So it is important to honor and respect nothing

7. Including human life, which you may destroy at will 

8. And steal and lie, of course, when it suits you

9. And screw your neighbor's wife or anything else that moves 

10. Or doesn't, since you should live a covetous, greedy and 

unprincipled life

Remember, "God" stands for accountability and intelligibility. 

You want none of this. It is for fools and losers.

Smoking Thumb

Democrats are looking for a smoking Trump thumb--a misdeed so serious, despicable, undeniable and obviously illegal they can use it to take down Donald. What good is this?

Now is the time to attack all of Republicanism: the failed policies, botched implementations and false doctrines. It's time to take them all down--an attack the whole house of cards. 

An Order of Death, Hold the Taxes...

Republicans are trying to figure out how to kill people by depriving them of healthcare without having them notice, so deniability is essential. They also want to cut taxes on the rich, of course, and raise defense spending, thereby bankrupting the government and possibly wrecking the economy. 

This is Republicanism, an anti-ethic of destruction from the minds of pigs, criminals, moral reprobates and pernicious assholes. Watch as they smugly wreck everything, pleased with themselves at the primal display of their power--and at the purity and cunning of their plots to kill their fellow citizens. 

The great, culminating fight of our times is this and it hinges on when the country wakes up to the Republican scam, in relation to when it becomes unstoppable. The lines will cross. When the consolidation of power is extreme enough it won't matter even if the will to resist resurfaces full-blown.

We will be in the terrible position of helplessly watching ourselves go down the tubes, with images of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump and the sickos Bannon and Miller swimming in our heads. That's a lot of awfulness to look forward to. 

More Harm Than Good

The critics of the Republican hegemony are a mostly civilized caste but they understate the horror of modern Republicanism and so act as enablers by launching muted criticisms into the black hole of right-wing depravity. There they tracelessly disappear. 

It's worse than wasted effort. Republicanism is now an oil well on fire. It can only be stopped by a proportional blast or running out of fuel and the fear and hate empowering it show no signs of abating. Measured criticisms only do harm by implying normalcy.

They imply that Republicans are loyal Americans working within received traditions and an accepted institutional framework. They aren't. They are thugs and revolutionaries intent on destroying our democracy. Their shy critics should get a clue or shut up.

A Sure Bet on Degradation

I have and will put money on it. Republicans are going to destroy everything. I put money on it before and won but nobody noticed. The noise of the destruction was too great. This was under Bush. Bush destroyed everything he touched and there was no accountability. 

We hired Obama and carried on but the message was there. Republicans will not be held accountable. Voilà: the system coughs up Trump, irresponsibility personified. This sort of thing occurred after the Civil War when a worn-out country chose not to insist on justice.

The South retreated into institutionalized injustice and rationalized immorality, making their deal with the devil. Finally, in the 1960's, attempts at restitution were enforced over the resistance of the degraded white population of the South. Again, these attempts failed.

Racism is a tough one. The Republican Party then made its deal with the devil. They sold their souls for electoral victories by playing the race card. Southern votes streamed in and Republicans now run everything, as they have increasingly since the days of Nixon. 

It culminates in Trump, the end point of their deliberate, destructive dysfunction. He is not an outlier or an aberration but the result of the determined will of a minority victorious through leverage and manipulation. It is not democracy or decency but the end of both. 

Asshole Breakaway

The Republicans are in the open and running for the end zone. Nobody can catch them now. They've bought the team and bribed the ref's. There's nothing worse than an asshole breakaway. 

This one seems interminable. Let them win and let's get it over with. It's one thing to get beaten. It's another to get beaten by crooks and assholes and cheats. Of course, they're the triumphalists.

They're the people who gloat. This is going to be painful as hell and it makes you want to believe in divine intervention, that there will be a splash of thunder and--kaboom--lightning strikes them.

The Least Interesting Man in the World

There's nothing tongue-in-cheek about Donald Trump. There's no irony or layering. He's too shallow for that. There's nothing interesting about Donald Trump. His world is himself. He's defined by himself. Donald is what he owns and there's nothing interesting in that. 

I won't name names but I've been shocked a couple of times to hear actors I've admired interviewed who were inarticulate to the point of vacuity. Their skills were mimetic, their selves undetermined, but there may have been something there. Not so with Trump. 

The vacuity is real--real nothingness. Yes, it's a bit of a mind-bender.

Trump is an artifact of consumerism. He's defined by his stuff and other artificial constructs--the roles he plays. There's nothing there. He's an artificial man, a brand. He's a human-like entity. Don't look for the essence of Trump. There's absolutely nothing there.

Malfeasance Monsoon

I have never been through monsoon but I understand it's an immersive experience, much like the malfeasance in Trumpworld. It's unthinking on the authorial end, a spontaneous torrent of lies.

It's passive and irresistible on the receiving end. The hype and nonsense stream down on you but we know it will end. By its nature it can't go on. Trump and his tribe will pass. But, what will be left?

Full Metal Blanket

Trump just played the asshole card on climate change, rejecting the Paris accord. Who knows why he does anything but it's a good bet that being an asshole was the point. Poor little Donnie always needs to show the world what a big man he is because, in reality, he's a cowering infant clinging to the armored security blanket of his pathetic ego.