A Good Goombah

Mafioso, by reputation, are rational businessmen. Trump isn't that. He's so fucking needy everything is about him getting his strokes. Being a good goombah is tough in Trumpworld. You can be loyal and demean yourself and make it your only goal to please him and still get discarded or punished. 

Possibly for nothing, I'm saying, since part of Trump's failure is not knowing a good goombah when he sees one. He's out of touch with reality, impulsive as shit and a fuckup. Mostly the ultra-rich aren't seen crashing through life like Trump. Okay, maybe Elon. It's bad business. But Trump's a sick fuck.

Vance appears to be a good goombah. I'm sure it's why he was chosen. But when the whim of one wretched, unstable piece of shit is the law and standard anything can happen. 

Mostly Famous

Republicans are out for notoriety. Their 15 minutes or more. They don't care how they get it. The quickest route is acting out. And they don't give a shit how many people get hurt. 

The Parent Rap

J. D. Vance has some weird stuff going on regarding families That marriage and family are duties. And there's major baggage surrounding procreation. Why can't these people behave? Nothing was wrong here. But things that should be loving and spontaneous and free, one hopes, get burdened with guilt. 

Weighed down with necessity. Typically, they're tainting something possibly joyous, intimate and personal with odd societal demands. Like rebuilding a reich. They want a reich. Healthy and pure and freer from bad elements. Along the lines of Hungary. They want us emulating Hungary. Reducing us to that. 

They talk openly about it. I can't believe this is happening.

The Daily Planet

This will be the last issue of the Daily Planet. The planet is shutting down. We don't mean the periodical, we mean human civilization and the environment that sustained it. Shutting down because a relative handful of inconceivably rich people had to have more. 

Apparently they must always have more. The paper is secondary but we will miss it too. We're sad as shit about the whole thing but it seems we were no different from some mindless bug growing exponentially in its medium in a petri dish until they fucking died. 

I wonder if a massive minority of those organisms had a blast while their fellows starved or disgustedly watched them ravaging the place. Strange to think we were no different. And I wonder if some being has been watching us from above as we did the petri dish. 

Wondering what the fuck we were thinking. No Superman to save us now. Those who think they are super or aspire to be are the ones wrecking everything. I guess our assumptions about human nature were faulty. And all of the beauty made-up and an illusion. 

Not to discredit it. We should have appreciated it more. Appreciated everything more. Somebody said that once, that only the invented part made sense or meant anything, or words to that effect. He must have been right. At least he was on to something. 

All About Eve

I should probably stop because I'm not practicing but I still try to explain Catholicism sometimes, especially to southerners since many of them didn't grow up around Catholics. Catholicism is as strange to them as it was to me encountering early televangelists and being dumbfounded by how anyone could buy that shit and how in supposedly conservative churches women could show up looking like prostitutes.

Probably shouldn't have said that but, whatever. Anyway, I can tell how weirdly Catholicism appears to some folks because they can't hide it. And they jump immediately to the sex scandal, an admitted disgrace, so I should probably not even try but let's take celibacy. A practice or tradition and not biblical, granted. Of course it creeps them out. Whereas thoughts of a pastor having sex creeps me out. No win there. 

It's all plenty weird. I appeal to a larger perspective. 

I say there's a Catholic outlook about the richness of life that doesn't underplay sex. The idea is not against sex it's against self-centeredness and overweening individualism. Against taking things for granted. Focus, and the story of Eve. Eve was living in paradise and she got obsessed with the one thing she was told she couldn't have. Say it was sex. Say it was the power to create life. Say it was anything. 

Get a grip, Eve. So, the Catholic perspective, I tell people, is that we're living in a miracle. We should wake up every day in wonder and amazement. In awe. I want to say in gratitude but, no. I think it's one step removed from the more primal experience of astonishment at the strangeness and absurdity everyone must or should feel at emerging into consciousness. Existentially and on a daily basis. 

Sacrificing sex for some good ... not that big a deal.

The compensations have to be there. And they are, in the kind of Catholicism that's a form of art. In ritual and music and beauty. We are intended to live fully human lives, lives of immersion in our humanity -- not to deny our ties to God. We reach God through our created nature. The whole package. Emotions and intellect. Sadly, balance is out of fashion. Humans are on a huge power trip, wanting what is God's. 

Perspective is the point -- wide angle lens, soft focus. In a state of awe and wonderment things fall into place. Humility comes naturally. Respect come naturally. Empathy and compassion come naturally. And the pure, innocent, non-compulsive enjoyment of the good things of life comes naturally. Denying any of these isn't too big a deal, as matter of discipline or in maintaining a perspective. We should all fast. 

You first. And God bless. 

Semper Lie

Assume everything Republicans say is a lie. Sometimes it isn't but then it usually still supports the greater cause of obfuscation and deception. All will be clearer if you do this. Republicans try to destroy the truth. Any truth is inimical to them and a threat. They are attacking the very existence of intelligibility, because it implies accountability. And they don't want to be accountable for anything. 

The Death of Decency

Republicans are excited. They sense the end. Utter domination. The final victory. The enemy, a faction of their fellow citizens they deem unworthy, and a probable majority, is weak and possibly failing. 

Republicans are moving in for the kill. And they are killers. This will be the end of decency in America. The death of decency as an institutional matter. And the total victory of injustice, racism and hate. 

Nativist Sons

What is it with these sons of wealthy fathers -- Koch, Trump, Bush, and others of their awful kind. Always trying to prove something. And never succeeding which we know because they keep trying, taking their shit out on innocent bystanders. Bystanders to their family dramas. 

Poor spectators. Guiltless onlookers. These privileged sons of the powerful must be beset by feelings of worthlessness. I wish they would get the fuck over it. But they've all gone nativist. 

See No Evil

It's different when I do it. Say, 'this is evil.' Democrats don't want to say something is evil. Not quickly enough. Republicans are dying to do it. To say someone is evil. Too quick.

Democrats don't want to see evil. Republicans see evil everywhere. Republicans do it as a matter of identity and tribal allegiance. They are judging the person or people. 

Their being, in a way, or essence or existence.

Democrats are judging behaviors. Behaviors change. If the behavior changes the judgment changes. Not guilty. But you can't be not guilty of being black or gay, for example. 

They come at it from a racist outlook. And it fucks it all up. 

Donald Trump: Patriot and Altruist

I avoid seeing anything of the Republican convention but I think I heard a little of Vance's speech this morning on the radio. I believe Vance was portraying Herr Donald as a patriot and altruist who gave up a wildly successful business career to serve his country. 

And if you believe that I've got a Yale law degree I'll sell you cheap. Donald was the fucked-up son of an asshole developer. Daddy's daddy owned a hotel cum brothel. Vance's momma was a crack whore so you see the affinity. But even Trump portrayed himself as a dick. 

Think back. He postured himself as a ruthless, pragmatic businessman who'd be ruthless and pragmatic on our American behalf if elected. As though the country wasn't already run by ruthless asshole businessmen. His innovation was in admitting it so openly. 

But, altruist.

Even Trump's grand-daddy was a draft dodger. But it's not about reality. It's about the magic-dust of forgetfulness, which is presumably being spread through the ventilation and ductwork at the convention. This is of course about the Lost Cause.

The romanticizing of the hideousness and inhumanity of the Old South and slavery. The Big Lie filled the same brain space and fed the same emotional need for escape. Escaping the guilt and shame. And compensating, by portraying yourselves as better. 

Not just okay but cleansed. So they're 'saved' and we aren't. They're the patriots. They're the creators and we're the takers. They're real Americans and we aren't. Ah, forgetfulness. And lies. It's all about lies. And, at this point, a complete inversion of reality. 

Don't Make Me Laugh

Remember when Republicans could claim fiscal responsibility with credibility? That they were deficit hawks, for example? They were hawks alright. Predators that will fly in and steal your livelihood. 

What they stood for was us paying their bills. Has a nice ring, doesn't it? Free shit! For the haves. Average citizens subsidizing the rich. Modern serfdom. And they're still at it. They gamble. They lose, you pay.

And if they win they keep it all. They take it all. And then some. They've pillaged our savings and mortgaged our future. Our kids' future. Because they must always have more. Now and forever. Amen. 

Amen, because it's with religious sanction. Prosperity for them. Austerity for us. Divinely approved. God wants them to be predators. Made them carnivores. And us prey. Don't make me laugh. It's all lies.

Don't make me laugh. 

Turn Up, Tune Out, Drop In

Make yourself available. Ignore the noise. Show up, stay on message, stay involved and vote. Though I wouldn't blame you for doing it stoned. 

Tread on Them

The Republican convention is about unity through hate. 'Don't Tread on Me,' they say. 'Tread on Them' is the actual platform. 

Satanic Celebration and Black Mass

The Republican nominating convention is a massive celebration of evil, the first I've see of this movement having gone so far beyond normalization -- the full Nuremberg, devil worship and a spectacle of drunkenness on the power of hatred. 

Pure moral inversion. There is no normal anymore. Everything is upside down. Hate has become the arbiter of virtue.

Burning Down the House

Imbedded in a lot of destructive behavior is a desire for renewal. This is entirely Christian. Regeneration by burning it all down. Adolescents also do it. In an attempt to grow up. 

Blow stuff up. It's supposed to be an interior thing. The 'dying unto yourself' kind of language. But fucked up people who can't deal with their guilt and shame externalize it. 

They will burn down your house. And every other house. Cities. Countries. The world. Because they've got it wrong. So it doesn't work. And since it doesn't work it's compulsive. 

That's where we are now. Evangelical Christians are taking over in America. Some of the most guilt-ridden, screwed-up people in history. And they might be unstoppable. 

Trump Picks Peon

Look at Vance as a peon and it makes sense. Bergum isn't a peon. Rubio, well, I don't know what he is. Peons can be ass-kickers but only on behalf of their liege or lord and Rubio is kind of a worm.

So, you see how we got to Vance. He's loyal but degraded in the right way. He's like the guy who sees to the needs of a knight, a Sancho Panza to Trump's Quixote. And God help us all. Squire Vance it is. 

Do You Lack Drive?

I do. I'm there with you. We should talk. But, to preface the thing, and given the way a lot of people with drive are behaving these days, I'm feeling better about it all the time. 

Now We Know

The Supreme Court's immunity (for Trump) verdict seems to have given Aileen Cannon the confidence to own her boot-licking, anus-sniffing fealty, say 'fuck-it' about appearances and embrace her inner hack. I'm sure there's more of this to come from hoards of Republican judges, operatives, lawyers and organizations. 

While America Slept

The battle that's shaping up, which the head of Heritage, Kevin Roberts, says might be bloodless if liberals behave, has nothing to do with liberals -- 'the radical left,' as Kevin calls them. The fight is internal to some wackos who call themselves conservatives. Apocalyptic evangelicals on one side. 

Authoritarian Catholics on the other. Both decry declining standards and permissiveness but, guess what, those social problems are worse in red states or trace back to 'conservative' policies. The problems are not due to social deregulation and an assault on standards. Who deregulated that shit? No one, really. 

The problems resulted from despair and deprivation put on average people in the richest country ever by asshole Republicans who, when it came down to it, stood for nothing but cutting taxes on the rich and allowing corporations to plunder at will. That's it. That's all. Though there's an interesting aspect.

Those rich people. 

Where do they fit in? Nowhere. Not among the combatants. The great manipulators are elsewhere. Money speaks for them, powerfully if imperfectly. Do they care about abortion and D.E.I. and that shit? Maybe a little. But not for reasons other than money and power. Money and power are it for them. 

I've heard populist murmurs from both evangelicals and reactionary Catholics. That could get interesting -- if their dupes begin to turn on the rich. But for now it's scapegoating. Of lefties. Who have nothing to do with all the stuff they hate. They created their own problems, like their racist forebears.

Like the southerners who couldn't bring themselves to let up on black people, the fucking racist asshole morons, and put the country through hell and got exactly what they didn't want, compensatory damages. Forced racial intimacy. Black guys with big dicks scoring on their pretty little daughters. 

Trust me on that one, if you don't see it. I live in a college town in the south. But that's the kind of sick animus and fear we're looking at. Coming from sick fucking people who will take us all down. Ultimately because they can't handle their own imperfection. Their shittiness and carnal desires and mortality. 

So I say pray for a real populist on one or other side of that mess to succeed. One who will go after the rich, which a true populist would have to do. Trump made such noises. Evangelicals are apocalyptic individualists and incoherent. Nobody tells them what to do. Or that they're not 'saved.'

The Catholics are institutionalists. Radical authoritarian institutionalists. Fascists, that is. And incoherent. Sane, sustainable social structures and policies result from balance and compromise. The people making out on this mess are the rich. We might have to kill them. They're already killing us.

Kill them just enough to get their attention. Not that I believe in this but to minimize the damage. Because they will stop at nothing. Their greed and lust for power know no bounds. They did the classic thing and played the little people off against one another. They were unbelievably successful.

Meantime we're spectators in our own destruction, with Democrats several layers into irrelevance dating to the implementation of the Southern Strategy and the rise of bad faith, notably under Gingrich. So Democrats been hostages for decades, as have we all. But the schismatics must schism. 

Always. Their lives aren't livable without conflict. Modern Republicans were an unstable coalition dating to the sixties. Now the voters to whom the Republican elite sold their souls for votes have risen up and are fragmenting. I say again, this could get interesting. The rich might finally have fucked this up. 

Well, That's Clearer Now.

That was a reminder. 

For anyone who thought John Roberts might have come around, maybe fearing he'd be remembered as the guy who oversaw the destruction of America by judicial fiat, the jury is in. Roberts was playing a longer game. And aiming breathtakingly bigger, as was speculated about when he 'saved Obamacare.' 

Roberts is a committed reconstructionist. He intends to remake America, returning it to something it never was. But there's this conservative image in amber of simpler times. An abstraction of unreality faithlessly rendered in fantasy. He thinks he has special access to the ideals and perfections of governance. 

The messiness of reality is what he can't handle. Everything is a theoretical construct. You can't cure racism with racism, or whatever ridiculous justification it was that led him to throw out affirmative action, for example. In a purer world he might be right. In the 'real world' he's tragically wrong. 

So with voting. So with abortion. Their eyes were watching godliness. And people -- sorry -- are not usually godly. I think it drives people like Roberts nuts. The awful imperfection. Which it's why we must love God through loving our neighbors and all of creation. Loving an abstraction is easy. I suppose.

Loving the imperfection is harder. Loving reality is harder. But only at first. 

Then it becomes easier, because it enables the same love and forgiveness and tolerance of oneself. And that diminishes the anger. The hatred. It's called Christianity. And what it doesn't look like is Bill Barr and Herr Trump rushing through as many executions as possible before the opportunity was lost. 

Which they did, the sick fucks. For the sheer persecutory pleasure of it. And Roberts is right there with them. He's got bigger fish frying than worrying about human suffering, since he's on the side of God and has God's sanction and some kind of delegation and franchise. Or maybe he's wrong. 

And he just loves the power rush of the crazy shit he's doing. The same kind of rush someone might feel -- hypothetically, mind you -- if they blew his fucking head off. Those Republicans have hell of a death tally. Iraq. Afghanistan. Trump and COVID. Funny, Bill Barr doesn't crave justice on that front. 

Good thing for them, including those wonderful justices now who've chosen politics over principle, and so are implicated in all those deaths. But Trump must be saved from the perfidious Democrats. Save away, ye fuckwads, but lose the righteousness. It doesn't sit well with all the blood and gore.