Band of Brokers

They fight only for themselves, not from duty or principle and certainly not for a country or people or anyone else. Only for number one, and that big cash payoff that makes them feel all giddy inside. 

But the thrill doesn't last and the thrill is the point, so they always want more. Though they act only for themselves in the aggregate they control nations, by manipulation. Entire polities, with their greed. 

It's the Band of Brokers. Anyone who acts without brutal selfishness, and who doesn't win at it, at that, is a sucker. Most of us are suckers. They're the predators and we're the product, or prey, a sucker nation.

The Velveteen Babbitt

The Velveteen Babbitt wants to be middle class but he's not. There's little left of the middle class. They were independent but the Velveteen Babbitt is just a plaything for the rich. He's owned by the rich.  

He's not real.

One day there's a big economic downturn. Republicans blame poor working people like the Velveteen Babbitt who weren't at fault (Republicans were) but the Velveteen Babbitt already has too little,

There's no happy ending to this story. Republicans recommend torching poorer people in the crisis. Nicer people blunt the force of it and slow it down but, inevitably, there is another time of trouble.

A pandemic. Again, Republicans want to screw poorer people. They always want to screw poorer poeple. There is help but, again inevitably, the burdens fall disproportionately on those of lesser means.

Over time the Velveteen Babbitt loses ground and isn't useful as a plaything anymore. By nature he's docile and compliant but he becomes angry. At Democrats. The Velveteen Babbitt can still be useful.

As cannon fodder in the culture wars. Republicans convince him Democrats are at fault. A lie, of course.

A story, but convincingly told. The Velveteen Babbitt spends the rest of his days consumed by hate for the people who, yes, perhaps too feebly, tried to protect him. He never gets to be middle class. 

Inbreeding: Still a Problem in the NC Mountains?

Mark Meadows knelt in contrition before John Boehner after he failed to unseat him as leader of the House Republicans. He then became a particularly ardent ass-licker in Donald Trump's entourage. 

Is this normal? I argue not. This kind of degradation, chosen and unforced, has a whiff of inhumanity about it. A big whiff of inhumanity. The loss of a soul. Madison Cawthorn succeeded Meadows. 

Cawthorn seems to be even more degraded than Meadows. I knew a family from the North Carolina mountains, of old derivation there. A prestigious family by mountain standards. The kids went to college.

They were Episcopalians. There were rumors circulating around them that Episcopalians did things with babies in their religious services. Really. And, when I visited, there were a lot of troopers about. 

State Troopers. 

My friends said the old families in the 'hollers' had switched from moonshine to pot. Weed. Also they said that, among these families, it was the grandfather's privilege to have first crack at his granddaughters. 

Sexually. I assumed this only still went on in Arkansas, what with Huckabees and other such evidence. Cawthorn and Meadows suggest otherwise. They are not normal. Nothing normal about them.

Turd on Fire: the Donald Trump Story

In the beginning was the turd. And the turd was made flesh and dwelt among us. The turd was Trump and he stripped the meaning and justice out of everything . . .