Fame Retardants

Elon Musk has reminded us what a cruel and insatiable master the attention monster is. Being the world's richest man wasn't enough. Eyes on him. What else can it have been? An addiction to risk? 

Maybe. I don't know. The attention economy has no possible master. It's its own thing but the addiction to attention causes people to try to contol a void. To manhandle vapor. To contain the world.

Obviously, a vain hope but addictions demand the impossible. To be master and slave in the same relationship. To grovel in control. The addiction is a false facilitator or intermediary, not a thing.

It promises something but it has nothing to give. It is transactional. A lie disclosing a lack. You have this need. It promises relief. Fulfillment. But it's a lie. A projection and false hope. A scam. 

Attention can't make you whole but it preys on the craving. A craving for love. But there's nothing there to love in attention mode. All the energy goes one way and dissipates. Of course it's a market. 

As such, a public good. Subject to regulation. A bad word in some circles. But regulations allow markets to work. We must therefore apply fame retardants. Or have continuing massive dysfunction. 

Sanding Sponges

I'm going to take it for granted Republicans are big sponges, sucking off the government as a show of contempt, one of many, together with the sabotage, but it's the abrasive aspect I want to highlight. Is it necessary? I mean, is the asshole part productively destructive? 

This is a good question when we consider the apparent death wish of anti-environmentalism, their fiscal insanity and love of discord, and their religious faction's warm feelings about Armageddon and the end of the world. I think the asshole thing is tactical but not strategic. 

They are highly paranoid. Historically paranoia confers short term competitive advantages but results in a huge meltdown in the long run. Hitler and Mussolini turned around their economies with authoritarian edicts and political muscle. But we know how that played out. 

Murdered Chicken

One of my friend's chickens got massacred by a hawk despite being too big to carry away. The hawk ate her on the spot. This made me think of Newt Gingrich, who believes this is as normal and acceptable among humans as any other species. I disagree, thinking there's an alternative that evolved under the heading of 'civilization' but mightn't we honor Newt's views in his case and take his fat ass out? 

In any event, he's too big to carry away so he'll have to be dismembered, towed or otherwise extracted and he shouldn't mind since he's so obviously physically inferior, having sucked off the government he so despises his whole life. He is beholden to us and fair game to do with as we please, I believe, according to the principles he espouses, that power is its own justification and the rule of law relative.

Twat Buys Twitter

Seized by optimism or a bout of mania Elon Musk has a new toy. What a deal at $44B! I don't think Musk wants to create chaos or knows what he wants or intends to hurt people. But he doesn't exactly give a shit either and chaos might occur as a consequence of his fun, the flexing his money muscles and his doing whatever. He's rich, and purportedly a genius. 

We should stay the fuck out of the way. 

The thing to note and know is that the whims and desires of a handful of ultra-rich people matter more than the lives of the rest of us, even collectively, because they are better than us and were chosen by God. Most of them are in some way crazy but don't mind that and say your prayers because they are going to do whatever they want, no matter what. 

New Deal to Raw Deal (the Stacked Deck)

I think it's clear enough the 'New Deal' will be an age in American history but equally clear it ended with Johnson's attempts at its expansion. The ensuing Republican backlash could be called the 'Great Screwing' if it would fly in high school history classes. DeSantis and some Texans would need to be immobilized first, though, since they won't allow any criticism of their side's determination that privileged white people never be discomfited or caused to question or even perceive their benefits, the better to preserve them. 

Death of the Dream

We all know people for whom the dream was realized but an essential point was its accessibility. That part is dying. Republicans are killing it off because they believe in exclusion and privilege. 

Englishmen and BDSM

Let's not let the Truss launchpad explosion obscure that the Indian bloke is a certified Thatcherite sadist and possibly a promoter of caste. Again Britain and America reflect one another, with Trump making anyone who isn't a drooling goon look good and various Cheneys (take your pick, war criminal or reliable battle-ax) appear to be fans of responsible governance. Clearly the respective voting populations have a problem with pessimism and a penchant for pain -- up to a point. But when you hand over mandates for arbitrary punishment to fatalists and people of detachment and privilege with an enormous dollop of self-interested egotism the safeword might not work. Still, I recommend we start screaming it as loudly as possible. What was it now? Julie Andrews? Or do they think we're in a Gilbert and Sullivan thing, with 'he is an Englishman' resonating the rafters and a guy, a stand-in for the working class, in his undies on the rack? No, it's real life. And there might be a point of irreversibility in playing brinkmanship with doom. 

Catholic Crazy Fucks

Somebody help me out here. I can't determine if Catholic schools or Catholicism itself is responsible for all the crazy asshole Catholics in the conservative nutcase movement. Fox News, below the Ailes level, was highly Catholic. I mean, I don't have to go into examples, they come to mind so easily. 

What gives? The authoritarian bent of Catholicism itself is too facile an answer but it doesn't make it wrong. On the other hand, I look at the parochial schools and especially the sports and wonder if that isn't it. In a larger way, though, the fascists understand the to appeal to the masses of 'smoke and bells.' 

Glitter and obfuscation. Entertainment and deceit. Distraction and subversion. This is as Catholic as it comes, using the 'lower' things for 'higher' purposes. Screw abstraction. Make it concrete. Don't give the rabble explanations give them enemies. Give them relics and superstition. Give them a show.

Stereotypes can be somewhat true. They are in this case. People sold their souls for power. Sold them cheap. I read a sci-fi book years ago and hit a place where there was some amazing anti-Catholic bigotry. By John Calvin Batchelor, to show how clueless I was that it still took a while to sink in. 

Venomous bigotry, portraying Catholics as degraded drones and sheep. Who are the sheep now? Batchelor's Calvinists have farmed out the intellectual heavy lifting and rationalizations to Catholics, to look at the Supreme Court, but they're all corrupt and idolators of the golden Trump calf. 

Calf and ass. That golden ass, let's say, that they bow to so religiously . . .

Rise of the Super-Rats

I usually look at percentages. But in comparing historical rogues it doesn't work. What percentage of the population did some authoritarian get killed? One is too many. None is okay, but leaders and people with power are supposed to respect life. To save lives. To enhance lives. To enable rewarding, productive and fulfilling lives, and not to be vultures, parasites and crooks. If they are vultures, parasites and crooks we must disempower them. 

By any means it takes. The world is not for their exclusive enjoyment. It's not their playground, to trash it if it gives them pleasure. It belongs to all of us. Or, more accurately, we have it in trust. We are stewards and caretakers, or we should be.

It's All Relatives

Humanity is a family. I'm not kidding. If we don't care about one another, all of us, it's beccause we hate ourselves.  

When in Nome

It will be a cold winter in more places than Ukraine. The world is growing darker. Authoritarianism is the latest thing, it seems. Human ingenuity and resource exploitation have enabled better lives for many but, is it only that we have further to fall? Is that why people are so fearful, that some balance of insecurity is needed or people make shit up to be afraid of? I recall Bill O'Reilly raking in millions hawking the 'war on Christmas' to his followers. Fox News promotes a diet of fear. And people are eating it up.

West of Eden

The sun is setting on a lot of stuff. The worst is not knowing where it will end or how badly. The uncertainty. You can understand people want to get it over with, like addicts wanting to bottom out, craving the ditch or death. Existence for them endless suffering. Though they're not agents in this but victims, not masters of their lives but slaves. 

American Gothic

We're staring at the gargoyle. A face full of Goth. Why the hell? Republicans want it that way. More so, they're there and they insist we join them, in their horror show. We insult and demean their sense of salvific urgency by wanting decent lives for everyone. 

Screw that, they say. If God wanted it we'd still be in Eden. So it's an insult to God as well, a flaming heresy. Salvific urgency isn't fixable or ignorable, but existential, ending when we die and face God. They have a death wish. A craving for annihilation. For all of us. 

That's their religion. A religion of greed, suffering, death and endless insecurity. The country will be a haunted house with real threats, they demand, the latest an election that promises to end our lives as we know them and, with a little luck, life on the earth. 

Go 'Bama

The black players on the Alabama football team should take a game or two off to catch up on their criminality. Surely they're too busy with practices and all to uphold the levels of crime their native impulses drive them to. Tommy Tuberville knows this. He's coached many young black men. 

Tuberville is an expert at motivation like any highly successful coach. He's motivating people now. Bigoted white voters. To get out there and support the old-fashioned strong-arming and suppression of minorities. Especially black people like the guys who won him so many games at beautiful Auburn.

Among the Aborigines

Viewing the cast of Republican candidates and assorted establishment functionaries do you sometimes feel you're looking back in evolutionary time? Those eyes -- Kari Lake or Paul Gosar, maybe -- peering out of a cave. The indescribable anger, fear and irrationality. And they are driven to lead. 

We Been Cheated . . . Been Mistreated . . .

In my days of writing satirical skits I always had a chorus of southern white boys in drag. Hula skirts, boas, all kinds of kitschy clothing. Transvestite like. Hairy legs sticking out, bad socks and boots. Original music would be good but in lieu I imagined variations on popular songs. The one suggested by the title, for example, a takeoff on Linda Ronstadt . . .

Tubular Balls

I wonder about Republicans and physical malformation, if there are physical counterparts to their mental deformities that are somehow connected. Americans alive today are among the most fortunate people ever. Why, then, would you spend your life trying to destroy it or make it your mission to screw your fellow citizens? There's plenty to go around. 

Something must be bothering them. Something they can't put out of their minds. They're tortured in some way. So, I surmise, maybe a higher percentage of them have hidden physical defects, leading to nagging insecurities and persecutory fixations. They can't relax and enjoy life. They have to stir shit up. Maybe they have chronic existential worries. 

You know, unquiet minds over their fate after death or whatever. We know, statistically, recent trends favor ill-educated and possibly ignorant voters as a bigger share of their base. Brain deformation would straddle the physical and mental realms, adding in emotional instability for good measure. The problem, in any case, is all too apparent.

The Once and Truly Fucked

I know it's hard for Yankees to understand why lower-class southerners seem to want to fuck themselves. And why, then, they seem to want to fuck everyone else. I can fill you in. When you've been fucked by God you're really fucked. You're fucked with finality. 

This is why these poorer white southerners resent people who try to make their lives better. That, and since the idiot Yankees instituted desegregation, they can't be un-fucked without blacks being un-fucked, thereby increasing personal intimacy between the races which is against the will of God and stupid and anathema, for reasons that can't be explained. 

Calvinism did this to them, Extreme, fundamentalist Calvinism. They are sinners and God is pissed. God is always pissed because creation is imperfect and He made it which doesn't make sense but wouldn't you be pissed? I mean, what a mess! We're all stuck in it. 

So, Armageddon is the obvious way out and something to be desired. And that, friends, is the thinking of the people who are running everything. And you wondered why we're in trouble. It's a miracle we made it this far with such a cultural inheritance. 

Trump's Presidential Library

I'm thinking, where do we put this, Riker's or Bellevue?

Go Fuck Me

I'm starting a 'Go Fuck Me' service for Republican politicians, operatives, and right-wing hacks and functionaries generally to help them raise money the Trump way, by deceiving innocent people into supporting your corrupt lifestyle. Alex Jones, a remarkable but all too typical Trump supporter and astonishing piece of shit, gave me the idea by fundraising off a well-deserved conviction while he was being prosecuted and sentenced, and while he was continuing to bullshit everyone, deny his culpability, and attempt to hide his assets. I think that's fraud and another crime, but, never mind. 

Republicans Aghast at Biden Decency

Republicans, with moral exemplar and Trump humper Sean Hannity in the lead, are appalled at Joe Biden's caring and loving recorded message to his troubled son, which they aired as a matter of national security concern and caring Christian kindness. They want to snuff out every instance of empathy as it arises in case it should take hold and spread, knowing it is the sort of thing that destroys civilizations. 

The Constitution, á la Carte

Our Constitution is all á la carte or a smorgasbord. In Republican hands. And they control the High Court. Mostly foreign food now. Fascism, authoritarian religious cultism and racist, apartheid segregationism. 

They Bwoke his Bwidge

Trump and Vlad, what a pair. So sensitive to slights. Donald's grievances are everywhere, as it would be if you only think being king of the world is good enough for you. Vlad, on the other hand, is a bit of a badass. But a princess, at times, too. And they bwoke his bwidge. The Ukrainians bwoke his bwidge. So he's pissed and bombing shit in a tantrum. 

Wanker Media

Republicans today announced the formation of a new organization to coordinate the various dissolute strains of conservative media on thematic principles, Wanker Media, LLC. They acknowledged the problems with consistency that arise under a regime based on MSU, or Making Shit Up, which is their core tactical outlook and modus operandi. 

At most levels inconsistency is a good thing and has served them well by creating chaos and confusion not only about the interpretation of observable reality but observable reality itself using denial and distraction. The problem, they were finding, is that younger 'conservatives' were turning out to be legitimately insane after having been raised on bullshit. 

This is one thing with religions, which have evolved for the most part not to self destruct, but the new conservatives were exhibiting an identifiable death wish, and not just individually but for the culture at large. They were scaring the rich people who control the party, who of course were fine with eliminating the surplus population' generally.

But even that needed to be done with structure and discipline, as the traditions of starting wars because you have a bug up your ass demonstrate. There are ways of getting millions of people killed that leave rich people essentially unscathed. The new young conservatives don't seem to understand this, desiring an unheard-of level of social deconstruction. 

In Trump one can see how the means of deconstruction became an end, when he built those huge failed casinos in Atlantic City, for example, becoming king of a pile of rubble and debt. This is not what America's oligarchs have in mind, to be sure, to rule over a massive, money-eating failure along the lines of a Bush or Trump administration. 

Old Yeller

If Trump has to make such a nuisance of himself, issuing threats and hurling insults all over, couldn't he do it a little more quietly?