Watch a Soul Go Up in Smoke

Let's call it the RSDA. Elise Stefanik has toed the line as required. According to her Republicans are going to save us all from the Radical Socialist Democrat (sic) Agenda. God speed, my little hellhound!

Political Limbo

How low can you go? We thought we'd seen the worst with Bush. 

He inherited everything humming. He left smoking ruins. Economy a shambles. Unending, pointless wars. And, his second-term dream of "fixing" social security was a bust. 

He would've trashed that if he could. And then there came Trump, a walking shitpile of majestic dimensions. Where's the bottom? We have yet to find out.

Calling all scumbags and fiends . . .

The Republican clarion call has gone out. If you're a crook, schemer, or any brand of asshole you have a home. You have a place and work to do undermining democracy and fulfilling your gluttonous desires. You will be rewarded and protected. The consequences for criminality are being eliminated as long as you contribute to the cause.

The cause has shifted over time. Now it's a criminal conspiracy to debilitate and overthrow the government and the "rule of law," establish minority hegemony and guarantee impunity for insider transgressors. Government as organized crime. Not a new idea but always enriching for those that succeed. Fewer than ever of the conspirators are arrested.

Fewer are convicted and Trump has cracked the door on the possibility of a blanket of pardons, retro and proactively, that will invalidate most laws without altering them -- every criminal's dream, and the Republican dream of organized and bureaucratized injustice. They aren't against government and bureaucracy. Only the parts that promote justice.

Ass-Kissing Episode

Disgraced former president Trump-boy summoned some Ohio politicians to his house for some intensive ass-kissing. The four potential candidates complied and groveled appreciatively, putting on just the kind of display of debasement Trump most loves . . . 

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/trump-ohio-candidates-478059

The Mouth That Roared

Tiny Trumpville accidentally took over the United States, never dreaming their obvious scam would work. Ridiculous. Who would possibly vote for them? Who would be so stupid? Enter the famed American idiot. America had raised up a tribe of morons. A sizable cohort.

Trumpville's hereditary royal family, Herr Donald and his clan, knew better than anyone what charlatans and pretenders they were but the takeover gave then legitimacy. Legitimacy they couldn't possibly handle or live up to. They could only run with it. And away from it. At the same time. 

Run they did . . . as fast as they could, knowing the truth of their charade, that they weren't administrators of anything or politicians or diplomats but hopeless squanderers, habitual malcontents and congenital fuckups. Born hugely wealthy, they had been always on the verge of losing it.

That much money (it was a hell of a sum) can be hard to lose. They lost it anyway but stumbled into an opportunity to get paid to pretend. Acting! Thus the real scam began. Pretend to be a businessman. Pretend to be a boss. Pretend to be competent at anything. Pretend to be human and to give a shit. 

Bellowing on for a four year term is hard work for someone who has never done anything. Whew! It was incredibly difficult to deflect attention from the truth, as visible as they were. A smoke screen of unprecedented verbiage was deployed. A torrent. The Mouth That Roared.

Unprecedented it was in its volume, quantity, and libelous and slanderous content. Understand, though it looked aggressive as hell, this was all defense. They were sitting on an empire of criminality and incompetence that had to be concealed. It has worked. They have an Entourage now.

A posse of predatory of followers and soulless, sycophantic slobs, the MAGAites. They will do anything for Herr Donald and his heirs. They will eat shit all day long. Trumpville has decamped to another fantasy palace, Mars-a-Lago, where host Herr Donald holds court and receives guests. 

Donations pour into the MAGA Defense Fund, their latest gambit and front, another money pit, house of cards and tax dodge. Stay tuned to see how it will play out. Americans wanted their soap opera. They've got it now. Thank God, the nuclear football is subtracted from the plot. That was a bit much. 

The Trump Comorbidity

Any modern American of insubstantial means should be able to list Trump as a comorbidity. He's a threat to life and health. 

Mourning Camelot

Let go of the dream. Let go so we can save what's left of it. Mourn the loss but let it go. We had Camelot and it's gone. Get over it or things will get uglier than we can imagine. 

Fox Abhors a Vacuum

Tucker Carlson is trending evil. When an evil vacuum is created at Fox, as happened when O'Reilly left in disgrace but rich as shit, it gets filled by another degraded fuck who trends downward until he reaches the lowest possible level. Then, at that sublimity of debasement, the evil equilibrium in which Fox normally operates is reestablished and conservative loonies everywhere can again enjoy their nightly infusion of hate. 

Crush the Fucker

I don't care if it's good tactics. I don't care if it's impracticable or that it might inflame his followers. I want to see Donald Trump crushed and flattened, moaning on the ground or unconscious and then, after that, incarcerated, humiliated and despised.

He deserves it.

On the Oedipal Origins of Republicanism

Why is it these government-despising Republicans can't stay away from it? From its origins these kinds of "conservative" parties are comprised of people who want a leg-up or want to lock-in one they already have. Fine. But they get exclusive about it. 

They want to exclude us. There's that jealousy. And they want more of a leg-up than they're due. A charming and easy life. See how this ties in with racism? They want your life to be locked into a course of difficulty. Arbitrarily. Theirs to be a free ride.

They want a life as free from care as a child's. The government is that surrogate momma, the grantor and guarantor of privilege. It all comes down to privilege. They want something for nothing. And they want it forever, down through the generations. 

Nixon in China?

I'll take the operatic potential of Cruz in Cancún . . .

Cut That Man a Medal

Among those who honor under-the-bus-throwing Ted Cruz has earned an encomium. His wife and girls are all wearing tire tracks . . .

Out of the Depths He Cries to You, Oh Lord

Donald Trump thinks he's persecuted. He thinks he's persecuted because the whole world doesn't recognize him as its center. He thinks he's God. 

He is the void. People go to Trump to lose consciousness, personhood, their humanity, individuality and responsibility. It sounds trite but he's a disease. 

Trump is the false god and idol of the evangelicals who proves their Christian god was never real. Their god was a racist and deterministic invention.

Their god was always the projection of themselves. 

Puritanism and Addiction to Risk

Why would Trump, having inherited enough to be comfy forever, continue rolling the dice? Because, every time he comes out of it intact, he feels chosen again. Since he can't ever be reassured he's deserving, having the leg-up of the gods, the next best thing is to get his card stamped over and over in the capitalist revival tent. 

But it will never be sufficient. Necessary, maybe, to his psychic survival. Trump, unlike his evangelical followers, gets to be saved repeatedly when he acts recklessly and survives. In that sense he lives many lives. The Trump on the balcony after COVID is this Trump. Look at me. I am (the) chosen (one), by the hands of fate. 

What's My Lie?

Trump's "big lie" about the election has competition. I favor the more subtle ones for recognition. In particular, the disconnect between the drive to control everything and the ruse or delusion that they can, without responsibility. That lie plays out in accusations, like those about "antifa" and the ridiculous assertion that anything on the left compares to the crime cartel on the right.  

Republicans have controlled everything for forty years. Democrats are utterly defeated. Sometimes I think it would be better if Democrats left the field. Gave up entirely. Threw in the towel. Then the country could see what Republicans have in mind for us -- a monstrous "libertarian" dystopia. Then Republicans couldn't blame anyone else. They would anyway, I know. Worth trying, anyway.

Lost in Transition

Passing through four years of Trump takes a toll. I feel like one of the dogs you see that has had a bad encounter with a porcupine. Mr. Biden, pull the quills out, please. Not too fast. And not too slow. 

My Pillow Maniac

I don't begrudge anybody their existence. However, citizenship isn't a right without conditions. That right might not be revocable but some of the rights it confers are, such as the freedom to participate in a way that fundamentally threatens the system that protects those rights. Or, to directly deny the rights of others of similar legal standing. 

Our fellow citizens. Change that. Even non-citizens, when it comes to human rights.

What do we do with the My Pillow dude? He has a right to his opinions and their expression. He doesn't have the right to see those amplified in public. Nobody does. He's so crazy it wouldn't stop him if we ended anonymity on social media though that might not be a bad idea. Regulation. A society has a right to regulate the dissemination of lies. 

I'm not saying that decision is easy to implement. But somebody has to do it.

Scum on Top

Inevitably, the scum rises to the top among Republicans. Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton express displeasure over impeachment. Unnecessary, they think, since the miscreant is out of office. They want to get back to their work on Benghazi . . .

A Piece of Shit in Every Job

With Biden in there the contrasts really stand out. I'm realizing how much I defensively distanced myself from the utter horror of the Trump administration. I think it's especially pronounced in Biden's hirings and appointments. Trump was determined to have a piece of shit in every job.

I've seen the light . . .

 as the smoke clears, which has been streaming out of Trump's ass . . .

The Soul of an Old Machine

In spite of our enormous technical advancements the modern world's neglect of meaning has weakened its foundations. We think barbarism is behind us. It surely isn't. People exist on symbols and the content they encapsulate. Think of 9/11 and the images that brought about a belated and flawed awakening, riddled with reactivity and denial. Now think of the grudge riot at the Capitol. Will we face what it means or deny it because we don't like how it reflects on us? Denial, as we  know, only causes faults to fester. 

Fester they will, I fear. 

Lethal Presidency Finally Ends But Goons Are Still a Concern

Donald Trump's lethal presidency, in which he only looked our for himself and, incidentally, the richest Americans, is finally ending. Corpses litter the ground. The Trump pandemic rages, during which he tried to deprive millions of citizens of access to health care. The economy subsists on a typical Republican sugar high, stoked by unsustainable tax cuts and easy money, that portends a bust. 

The government itself is a shambles. Bush's practice of sabotage by installing hacks in every possible position was raised to new levels, with active, deliberate destruction the new norm. Mere incompetence was not enough. Personal loyalty to the president, flouting constitutional constraints and provisions, was the only acceptable practice. In spite of it all, Republicans lined up to serve him. 

Trump's legacy is this, the exposure of the soul of the Republican Party, a treasonous den of iniquity, as a morally bankrupt and hopelessly corrupt entity that runs on racism and division for personal profit. Why do they cling to their jobs to save their lives? They came not to serve but to plunder. And to serve plunderers because even that yields impressive rewards. They are that addicted to power.

Their henchmen remain a concern, feeling encouraged and emboldened as never before. Many are still in the government but, more alarmingly, others feel free to turn to the streets with ridiculously deadly firearms designed to kill people as efficiently as possible. They respect no law or tradition. The system of elected government is breaking down, with persons of the worst character everywhere. 

This is more than Trump's legacy. It's the legacy of a political party that sold its soul decades ago. Internal checks on their behaviors don't exist. Only deniability keeps them from violent rebellion and that is slipping away under the influence of Trump, who dared to speak the hate that was once hidden. All they have is hate now. It animates their entire movement. 

Demonicracy

America is inventing a new kind of government. Only demons are enfranchised. The government and its power are limited to servants of Satan. 

What's Next for the Appendages?

Pay attention. An encounter with someone as sick as Trump is educational. Opportunities this visible and extreme seldom arise. Because of Trump public figures getting killed for their views or associations is now entirely possible. Mostly sad fantasies present themselves.

But, what would happen if Ivanka got shot? Mind you, this isn't wishful thinking only a mental exercise -- a simulation. Would Don-Boy care? Only to the extent that HE was diminished. People are appendages to him. Or, not. But they have no existence in-and-of themselves.

Trump inhabits a world of one. He is all of his existence. Nothing else is real. All "being" emanates from him. Give his goons some credit. They are picking up on something -- that this is god-like in its aspect. No matter that it's pure psychopathology. People are not gods.

Especially, Trump. 

Licentiousness

Trump will live on in his licenses. He issues them informally. He's done it forever. Everyone in his orbit is drug down. It's his life’s work.

Licenses to kill. Licenses to overthrow our government. Licenses to act on the hate and resentment he's fed on himself and inspired in others. 

Redneck Revolution

My objection to Hillbilly Elegy (the book) was that it was delusional. Hillbilly culture isn't lost it just stormed our capitol. Redneck values aren't in retreat. They have disseminated. The Confederate diaspora spread them everywhere. 

The American Dark Ages began with Bush. Bush signaled the evangelical, fundamentalist takeover. That meant ignorance. That meant violence. That meant making war on principle, and tribalism everywhere. A violent time is upon us. 

A Declaration of the Rights of Assholes

Assholes also have rights. Where would Jesus be without Judas? And, notice that in the Bible Judas is his own punishment. There is no posse of apostles to track down Judas. There is no inquest or assignment of punishment. Assholes are a fact of life. 

They will always be with us. 

It's the responsibility of those who can to protect the weak and innocent from assholes and not to empower them. Assholes shit all over everything but they challenge people to be better. Good people are defined against the standards set by assholes.

But you never let them run things.

Plunderdome

Maybe we need to isolate all of the capital obsessors. A big-ass fence. The lobbyists can fight it out in there for the booty. To make it interesting let's reduce the available resources incrementally to overall subsistence level, if that, as has happened to working Americans, in good part because of those lobbyists. Keep them in there and let them fight it out. See how they like it.

Sentimental Journey

I come from sentimentalists. I know the dangers. Sentimentalism can be a kind of denial. A failure to see the reality. We are beset by that now. 

The reality of it is that we have a flourishing Nazi Party in America. I don't fault anybody for an attachment to our, American, ideals.

I don't fault anybody for a sentimental attachment to their own experiences. America was the promised land for my family. But not for everyone.

And those people, the people with grudges, have taken over. They are a hate movement. And they think they are justified. 

They think they are justified to the point of doing whatever is necessary to reestablish white supremacy and their, Republican, racist hegemony.

Stop the Stealers

The only reasonable course now is to expel every member of the Treason Caucus from Congress, every elected representative who sided with Trump in trying to steal an election.

Trumphenge

Whitehouse is looking like Trumphenge . . . prehistoric . . . inexplicable . . . reflecting some kind of power or power dynamic . . . maybe useful for excarnation . . . are there vultures flying about? 

Both Sides Now

It's life's illusions we recall. We gave ourselves away. 

This Connotes a Coup

Lots of loose talk about coups these days. Words get used in different ways. The law is all technicality. I don't even know if there's a word for the spirit of the law but we're learning something about that -- that the technicality of it is meaningless without some kind of goodwill and informal commitment to its authority. There's a semantic field to everything. 

A range of meaning to every word. 

People are claiming to be the keepers of our legal Torah. Fundamentalists. Federalists. They don't dispute the existence of a Talmud but claim they have possession of the ark of truth so they get to decide all the issues. Reformers be damned. But, no matter how wise those original documents, the spirit of the law must be understood and applied independently.

 

Or, forget it. We are fucked. What is going on now might not denote a coup. Technically, I don't think so. But it sure as hell is an illegal attempt to seize power for minority interests. The coup conviction is there. The will of coupists is there. That's good enough for me.

Ted Cruz

Now we understand the beard. He's a Proud Boy. If not, maybe a Proud Boy wanna be. He wears it in solidarity. I heard his speech. It left me wondering what the meaning of the word "is" is. And, some other words. 

Trump Goons Invade Capitol

We needn't make a point of saying what this means. We know what it means. But we must insist that every Republican legislator shares the blame. None of them has taken a stand against it, as we watched for four years. Fuck them all.

Smoking Gums

We have the smoking gums now, a whole hour on tape of President Trump trying to wheedle and threaten his way into stealing an election. For those who demand smoke this is it. The fire is coming from Trumps's mouth.

Non-Work Ethic

Somewhere in my youth and childhood I got the idea that you find out what to do in life because it comes to you so easily. It makes some sense but I think I took it too far.

Brutes on the Ground

I guess Republicans deserve some credit for openly being thugs. No more hiding their inner Nazis. The fight is on but I think the pink hat people are unprepared.  

Asshole Ascendency Asserts Itself Again

Mitch McConnell doesn't give a fuck anymore. He's old. He's rich. He's an asshole, He's a traitor. He used to hide his treasonous intent away but treason is normal now. It has gone mainstream. 

No call to rest on one's partisan laurels, though, when you're as big a dick as Mitch. Mitch is plugging away for every bit of advantage in the middle of a pandemic no matter who gets hurt. 

To say nothing of the coup. Let it be remembered.  

Morons Make Wrong Decision Once More

What is right and wrong anymore? The White House is now sitting on half of the available doses of vaccine because, they say, they need it for the follow-up shot as though the manufacturers aren't still making it as fast as possible. 

I smell a rat. When hasn't Trump treated the nation's resources as though they aren't his to do with as he pleases? And what does he please? To feel like a big man. To feel powerful, effective and in charge. Trump wants to husband his power. 

Again, it's all about him. Trump is an unbelievably evil man.

Drain the Trump

Time to think about purging the evil of Trumpism from our government and society, But, how? 

The Age of Treason

Americans can't wait for time to pass judgment on the decades-long history of Republican treachery that has culminated in Trump, because it's ongoing and so destructive. Just this week Pat Toomey, Republican traitor of Pennylvania, sabotaged a relief bill in a horrible winter of pandemic to advance partisan aims. How many times have we seen this? Blackmail and sabotage playing off the genuine and justified concerns of Democrats for the lives of average citizens.  

Obamacare alone has inspired 10 years of insane opposition and dirty tricks, to a bill passed fair-and-square that benefits millions of Americans and has caused none of the larger-scale economic problems Republicans predicted. Of course they were lying. We were supposed to wait for "trickle-down" to kick in, I suppose, no matter how many people died along the way. They are still trying to kill it in the middle of the pandemic they turned into a monster with their wilful incompetence. 

It's time for some accounting and accountability. Mitch McConnell could die any day (but not from COVID since he's protected). I won't have him remembered as anything other than the loyal citizen he is -- loyal to the Confederacy. He hates America. He hates the version, anyway, that is a representative democracy that tries to take care of its citizens and live up to its promises. He wants the America of slavery. He has succeeded. Americans work longer and harder for less. 

And the rich, like McConnell, by marriage, only get richer.

Famous Anus

I'm not sure what I think about it but Republicans are owning their inner assholes to an unprecedented degree. They think nothing of openly engaging in treasonous behavior. Famous anus Bill Barr is moving on, though. I had a fantasy that he might immediately lead Trump away from Biden's inauguration in chains, irritated that his groveling before Trump, which was complete, still wasn't enough . . . 

A Dastard's Guide to Government Service

Become a Republican. The rest will come easy.

Wolf Shepherd

What does it mean when the shepherd is a wolf? Trump is the wolf-shepherd for his deluded flock. I think this means he is the devil. 

A Bridge Too Funky

Overthrowing an election was a bridge too funky even for Republicans, not that treasonous behavior hasn't become second nature for many of them. 

The Philosophical Idealism of Donald Trump

Donald Trump's existence is defined by (esse est percipi) attention. Philosophically,

. . . the “opinion strangely prevailing amongst men, that houses, mountains, rivers, and in a world all sensible objects have an existence natural or real, distinct from being perceived” is inconsistent, “a manifest contradiction." If one construes ‘sensible objects’ as ideas of sense, and ideas are objects of knowledge, then having a real existence distinct from being perceived would require that an object be known (as an idea) and unknown (as a thing distinct from being perceived), which is inconsistent. He explains the source of the error on the basis of the doctrine of abstract ideas, a discussion which parallels the discussion in Introduction §10. (Internet Encyclpedia of Philosophy, on George Berkeley)

What is not perceived does not exist. The less something is perceived the less real it is, like kids in cages. Not only is existence contingent on perception, it is contingent on the ultimate mind, God, whose all-encompassing mindfulness determines and accounts for everything that exists. And, God is immaterial and the most existent thing there is, that on which we are modeled, at a high degree of removal. Our existence depends on perception, Trump's does not. We are shadows. Trump is the sun.

We can see that Trump, in this case, deems himself to be, or has mistaken himself for, God. His attention and acceptance is to determine the rights of every being, that is, the scope and limitations of their existence. People may be eliminated at his whim since the exist only at or by his permission, solicitude and pleasure. You can see that Trump's behaviors become immediately intelligible in this context, as does the devotion he inspires, as that on which the existence of everything else depends.

Therefore, when he declares elections to be invalid they are invalid, the "reality" notwithstanding, since it must be the mistaken perception of lesser beings. Houses, mountains and rivers are hallucinations if he declares them to be. He may slaughter people at will, or take actions that lead to their annihilation, because they depend on him for their existence anyway. He is not "worthy of" or in need of attention because he doesn't "need" anything, being complete unto himself, so any idea to the contrary is mistaken. Attention accrues and is due to him naturally because he is the source of all being. 

To the extent there is resistence to this it is a denial of reality and, additionally, apostasy and the work of the devil. All hail, Trump! Donald is not only our leader but the second coming of Christ. The only qualification is that, accepting this framework, if Donald is not in fact God he must be the Antichrist. 

Exile of Main Street

Main Street is gone, burned in its way like Atlanta. It was gone before the virus hit but the virus certainly helped. A new class of architects creates parallel little Main Street theme parks you can live in, halfway to Disneyland but Main Street is gone because it was democratic. It was available to everyone at least as imagined. It was available to everyone in our aspirations. Main Street is gone because those aspirations are gone and we are left with this, something beyond parody . . .

https://youtu.be/oowTOV5SHvo

Its Own Imperative

Finally, our politics gets down to something that is its own imperative -- animal activity. Self-preservation. Notice that this necessitates a threat. There wasn't one so they stirred it up. 

Paranoid impulses work this way. Primitively frightened people unknowingly create discord because they believe it's there anyway. They can't live without it. Trump has taken us there. 

We Are Probably Fucked Anyway

Trump or no Trump, we are probably fucked anyway. There are too many crazy people in America. This election shouldn't even be close.