We can't keep Trump from being the Republican nominee and people from voting for him. All I want is a little honesty. Trump is the shit with glass shards dish on the menu, as David Sedaris once termed it in another context. Don't order it if you don't want to eat it.
Republicans, we know you want to force it on us and we're tired of it. The endless lies and anger. And tired of cleaning up your messes. Own your shit. With glass shards.
Congratulations, America. The kinds of morons who burned Beatles records in the 60s are running the country. The good news, I guess, is you're so rich a lot of your citizens still have great lives. But that also means there's been no reckoning. And you're borrrowing from the past and the future and pillaging the world to continue living well. It's too late to make it right. Too much damage. Shame on you.
There will be a reckoning. A reckoning is already here but not for the people who most caused this awful situation and deserve to go down. Typically, it's not them but the poor and powerless who are being hurt. Let's thank southern white folks for this mess. Mitch McConnell and his kind and those who vote for them. They're horrible, bigoted, stupid and nasty. And they'll vote for racism forever.
The left is fracturing. We can't have that. Because the righties are becoming full Nazis. But this is what happens, because Nazis are incredibly driven and clever and good at messaging and deception and they're ruthless. They have the power of their delusions.
And the rest of us are hostages to these liars and crooks and cheats. We have no voice. And have been maligned and persecuted for decades. So I'm forgiving of the transgressions and stupidity of the left, because they're reacting to beinig completely disempowered.
I once fired a client who was abusing me. A few of my friends knew what was up and I ran the break-up email by one on them after I had sent it. He's a writer, a client and a friend.
In it I was entirely positive and not critical of the client at all. I thanked her for all the work they'd given me and so on. I'm not sure but my friend might have been surprised.
Surprised that I didn't point out how the client had abused me. Or even hint at it. No criticism at all. I would only have made myself small by doing that, I said. Let it be known I'm not always, or maybe even usually, good at this interpersonal stuff.
Anyway, then I said I saved that for my friends, which is true. With your friends you can average it out and they know it all already anyway. It's what they're for, as they say.
This is the way it is with Israel and American Jews and many of the criticisms of Israel brought up since the horror of the Hamas attack. I'm sure not all of it but most of the criticism I've seen, at least from the left, had been this, coming from family.
Coming from such committed friends it should be allowed. Not all of the criticism is this, of course, but I think most of it is and accusing those people of being antisemitic is wrong.
Wrong and hurtful and alienating and counterproductive. I was against America attacking Iraq after 9/11. I was against going into Afghanistan. I thought it unwise.
I was very much against the Waco intervention against that religious nut in the Clinton years. I'm skeptical of the efficacy of force. And I think it breeds more force and violence.
So, there. If some people think Netanyahu's reaction and going into Gaza was unwise and playing into the hands of a bunch of nutcases I think it's a legitimate concern.
And it doesn't mean they're anti-anybody.
Republicans are lining up for a nice helping of Trump ejaculate for the holidays. I guess they consider it a condiment. Maybe a kind of gravy. But anyone who understands Trump knows the real joy is in forcing yourself down the throats of your enemies and those who resist and ridicule you.
They must pay. So in his second term everyone will have to have Trump. If we're lucky, only as a treat for the holidays. This is what it's like for decent people to listen to the great defiler, day after day, shattering norms, encouraging violence and normalizing hate.
What have we learned? The road to hell isn't paved. The road to hell is hard. The road to hell is gravel and rutted and has potholes. And it's uphill. Steep. Not a slippery slope.
Follow the money. Americans didn't go to hell spontaneously. Money was poured into it. A fortune. The evil has momentum now and money is still poured into it. By investors.
In other words, people who only spend money for a return. This is good, I guess. Because I think it means if we shut down Fox and stop Koch and undo Citizens United it might end.
The rush to evil might end. On the other hand, they make it hard. They control everything. The recent claim that they're the victims is a lie. An obvious lie. So they have to push it.
A lie, like all the others. There's a concept in ecology, I think, that a monoculture is the most unstable thing ever, requiring enormous energy subsidies to exist. So with theirs.
A green lawn of white men. We be weeds. Their resurgent purity state is unnatural as shit. Diversity is natural. Time is on our side. Not to say they won't get lots of people killed.
They always have.
Republicans can't rest on their victories. They're too scared the people they've duped into voting for them will get a clue. And rise up and come after them. So they have to disempower those people. And there's always room at the bottom.
Watch as Republicans try to use the terrible suffering in Israel and Gaza for political advantage, as they have done with every bad thing that happens, many of which they have had a hand in.
What did you expect? That the crazies would miraculously stop and be satisfied with a stalemate and a Democrat as president? No way. They want to control everything. And it will be a nightmare.
Still, apathy abounds. So they will win, to some extent. Like a drunk we'll end up in the ditch. We might die. Or we might reform. But anybody who tells you they know is nuts. Everything is on the line.
The lines are drawn. Yankees have the White House. Rebels have the House, with an unregenerate Confederate now in charge, and the Supreme Court with Federalist Society hacks and ideologues on top. The Senate is nominally Democratic but not really.
The Civil War never ended. The South surrendered but never gave up. The rebels didn't even bother to go underground. They wrested back control of their turf with a country too weary to worry enough about it. Black people got screwed for continuing generations.
America had apartheid. Then came desegregation. Southerners were well prepared to combat it, steeped and practiced in lies. Layers and institutions and structures of lies. A society built on a foundation of lies and invested in lies. They are good at it.
And the South rose again, in a stench of racism, violence and injustice. They champion injustice. They love inequality. As unwise as 'woke' is as messaging there's an understanding there. That the injustice was still in the institutions and structures of the society.
Those structures are armed. Prepared for war. They say it's defensive. But remember the lies. Always remember the lies. Never believe anything they say. They're on the attack. They always have been but it's worse now. They mean to take over for good.
Until there's nothing left. That's the point of Republicans. They came to destroy and they won't stop until they're standing among the rubble.
Trump with meat sauce. He was born as desperate as he was rich. Desperate for love, we have to suppose. I think he was sent to military school to cure him of being an asshole. To teach him there's an authority in the world beyond his whims and desires. A big fucking 'F' grade on that, I would say.
He failed civility, decency and respect. Maybe comportment, though maybe he could comport. He respects nothing. Maybe power. But that's not respect, it's pandering. It's ambition. And the only expression of real power is to destroy people's lives. Now he's looking down the barrel of accountability. And he was already attacking everybody, the sick fuck. Now he's got to go nuts.
He was nuts. But now he will have to go berserk, to be true to himself. There must be carnage. We can see it's always what he wanted. It was in his inaugural, if we can call it that. But it was a peek into his sick brain, anyway. And he's been driven to create carnage. There will have to be death.
Only death can capture the horror of the life of Trump. The terrible, unspeakable persecution he's endured. He must have known. That even his parents thought he was a piece of shit. Has anyone ever loved this guy? Of course not. They associated with him out of greed and ambition. Even his kids.
Because Trump is a total, world-class, biblical, Homeric and galactic piece of shit. And a third of the country doesn't love, him they latched onto him because he is the destroyer. He's their tool. He's a tool. Not human, in some way, but we have to pretend he is. For our own sake.
Above all else, however, he must be stopped. Because he will demand human sacrifice now to placate his ego. Death. Bodies. Carnage. Mayhem and destruction.
Republicans have no plan beyond destruction. Or, they think, as the Koch crowd has convinced them, that in the absense of regulation and governmental authority all this wonderful shit will happen. Tides will rise.
I don't think so. As it happens, we've had a preview. In the absense of regulation and authority -- law and order -- banditry occurs. Criminality flourishes. The rich get richer and everyone else gets smashed.
I will not counter this offer. In a card game these are the cheats. You play you lose. And in the absense of authority there's nowhere to turn. You leave. And hope they don't shoot you in the back on the way out.
Because they don't want you to tell everybody the game is crooked. This is why they wanted to have all the guns. So that we would be utterly defenseless. And we almost are now. Say your prayers, people.
Republicans are involved in an asshole competition. The biggest asshole wins.
For the last time (as a figure of speech) conservatism has shown itself to be racist, non-adaptive, and a cesspool of Freudian psychological dysfunction. The conservative outlook is built on pessimism and fear. On a cynical assessment of human nature -- projection, and a self-fulfilling expectation.
And, all the while, a conviction that some people are better than others. That 'some people' meaning them. Not so much a conviction but a suspicion. What they want when they grow up. To be übermensch. Or lackeys and enforcers for them. One does what one can. Republicans have no plan beyond destruction.
They are the handmaidens of destruction, speeding up the collapse and fall into injustice. Because they think the reverse of the 'fall of man' is in there. In the rubble we will see Jesus. On high. A conundrum, but religion is full of conundrums. Liberalism is constructive and adaptive. It accepts change.
And change happens, and is inevitable and is potentially good, so liberalism is realism. Conservatism is fear. Conservatism is anger and resentment. Conservatism is jealousy and hate. Resisting change is a loser's game and impossible anyway. So, get with the program. Vote for Democrats.
Because Republicans will make losers of all of us.
Jim Jordan wants to be speaker. I have never paid attention to him. Too painful. What a scumbag. But I looked him up. He's never done anything but had a government job, if you can call what he does having a job. And he's worth $30M, or so they say. I say that warrants looking at.
McCarthy was a more presentable goon, if a spineless blob and political whore. He presented okay. But the Republican representatives are all whores. And Mitch senior master, den-mother, pimp and panderer. Jordan is a whole different ball of shit. A true degenerate and Trump toady.
We're reduced to this turd fest. They're all turds. Some stink worse than others and hold together a little better. Maybe more fiber in the propaganda diet. But what pieces of shit they are.
You have to be a criminal now to be an effective Republican operative or politician. They've weeded out all the decent people. And assholes are running everything.
Do the rich really want more money? I suppose so, not that they know what to do with it. How many yachts does it take to make some mojo? No, they want control. Because they know it's a scam. They're part of a scam. There are many okay ways to make money, but not taxing it is a scam no matter what.
People say the road to hell is paved with adverbs. But I really like them.
Haiti. Kenya. The U.S.A.
All dominated by thugs who believe in preemption, because they assume life is competitive, brutal and mean, and that only losers and suckers think otherwise. America is keeping great company these days. And the MAGAites are working to make it worse.
They won't do their jobs. Set them free from the responsibility. And the other nuts who voted not to impeach Trump. Expel them from Congress.
Now we have a new book on Musk. But I can tell you the truth of him more succinctly. No matter how much money he has he will always be an incel. His character formation got stuck at incel. He can't escape because all his relationships are compromised by money. Defined and determined by money.
Probably due to money. He's still trying to prove something and he can't. He knows he was lucky. He feels like a fraud. He is a fraud. And no amount of cash and attention and praise will get him out of this. Too late. But why in the world do we revere such people and let them run our lives? That's our problem.
Collateralized Debt Obligations are basically debt secured by debt -- truly a house of debt cards -- so they act as a multiplier. The potential for gains is increased as is the potential for losses. The value in them as a whole is that they privilege insiders. They privilege the banks themselves and the tiny cadre of people in their highest echelons. Shareholders are on the list but far enough down they might get hurt.
The society at large derives no benefit but, as we've seen, is insuring this mess.
In other words they're not legitimate financial instruments but a scam. And should be illegal. Republicans work in the same way. There's underlying value -- their votes in Congress, for example -- but not enough to support the debt. Their 'real' responsibilities, to their constituents, the 'rule of law' and so on, are unenforceable and therefore abandoned. But the risk resides there. Constituents are screwable.
Not so wealthy donors. They get benefits at no risk. You can only lose your life once, so you shouldn't be able to borrow as though there are three or four of you. You can only lose your financial or political life once by going bankrupt or getting beat in an election. You see why these politicians cling for life to their jobs. They are underwater, having sold themselves several times over. And they are forced to lie.
They have sold out and are screwing their constituents but they have to continue to convince them they represent them when they only represent their rich donors and the whole cesspool of lobbyists, lawyers, spin meisters, Fox News hosts and so on. This is an artificial industry, dwarfing the actually productive work of the rest of the economy, and powerful enough to put the entire society at risk.
As we learned in 2008. On the heels of which we had the deregulator's costume ball. They all came made up as makers. Job creators. Wealth creators. Benefactors, philanthropists and heroes of the free market. But they don't make anything but money for themselves and misery for the rest of us, endlessly sucking off responsible citizens. Their constituents are apparently endlessly gullible and living in a fantasy.
We been collateralized. Republicans borrowed against the value of our lives. But they don't care. Their system filters out decency.
Back to peace and justice.
Democrats have been trying for peace. For years and decades. They've been trying to work with Republicans 'across the aisle' or choose your gap or chasm. This has only enabled Republicans because they've rejected our core principles and the amorphous and never fully actualized but still existent thing, the American Social Contract.
Justice is the other, more left-brain side of this and it can be harsh in comparison with peace, which is conciliation and understanding or maybe humoring in the hope of a spontaneous remission of the disease. The disease will not remit. Even when justice can't be realized it's important as a touchstone, guidepost, reference point and rule.
What would be just? Facing another possible or probable government shutdown and default because a group of lunatics simply want it shows the limits of conciliation. I say, not as a practical matter but as a point of reference and accountability, they should be shot. In justice, because they've gotten hundreds of thousands of people killed.
More importantly, they don't care. They don't care how many people they get killed or how much suffering and destruction they cause. In fact they seem to enjoy it. Looking back on the rebirth of the party and its takeover by the College Republican faction we see they are frat boys. Arrested little sociopaths are running everything.
They should all be shot. The social contract, and the willingness to work together on an even footing, underlies everything and is more foundational than any law or document. But peace and justice can come together in the administration of justice. There's value in owning that these Republicans should be shot. As punishment. However, it can't give us justice.
It would be just but it can't undo past harms and wouldn't prevent future harms but only inflame matters and sow the seeds of later grievance. But we can choose mercy while keeping in mind that they deserve to be shot. Trump deserves to be shot more than anyone but this too is impracticable. Justice is even more unrealizable with Trump.
There must be an accounting but the overriding thing is to prevent future harm. His capacity for which is limitless. So, let's not shoot them all, only recognize they deserve it. The thought of which gives me peace. Order and understanding return in the abstract, at any rate, in comparison with the chaos, injustice and brutality they try to normalize.
Having people vote to end democracy isn't on balance a democratic activity. It's a disease.
Republicans have always been against democracy. And always in favor of minority rule. Previously they won by compromise and deviousness. Less by force. Those days are gone.
Now it's whatever it takes. And no Democratic, meaning the Party, influence or input is allowed. They're full-on fascists now. Authoritarians and dictators and madmen and thugs.
That glimpse we had of real life in the Nixon White House -- of that gang of criminals, thieves and arrogant, power-mad slimeballs -- has won. They run the country now.
Watch some comedy. On Youtube or somewhere. Comedy is great at stress reduction, a little vacation from everyday life. If it's any good. Then think about what it would be like to watch it all the time. Horrible. Comedy is not meant for that. It's a diversion.
To give you an idea of where Republicans and Trump are now, they are a diversion. A drama. Made up. They play off of life as though what they do doesn't count. Drunks and addicts sometimes do it -- pretend the way they behave when they're stoned doesn't count.
Republicans are always stoned. Stoned on lies. Drunk on deceit. So nothing they do contributes to making the society work. In fact they're tearing it down. They're playing off the responsible citizens and free-loading on them. But it can't go on. Because it's not real.
Why reinvent the wheel? It's called taxation. Contributing to the degree you benefit. And not as generosity. Because you owe it. Because an ordered society enables it. Enables everything that goes on, be it profit or whatever. If people want to engage directly in good works, taking care of others, that's great and that's altruistic. But rich people in the U.S. are being massively undertaxed. Tax the fuckers. The way they used to, when America was great.
Before rich assholes ruined it.
Republicans worship entrepreneurs. Really, they just love money but by bowing their heads in reverence every time entrepreneurs are mentioned they can further the bullshit notion that most of these people contribute something remotely proportional to their rewards. Another lie, in other words. Part of the scam, together with rising tide and all that.
Makers versus takers. Oh, right. How is it then that the 'takers' don't have anything?
Most Republicans couldn't be more the opposite of makers. They suck off the state in droves, burrowing into the system and hunkering down until they can retire with a nice pension. One step removed we have the hordes that are a job away from direct government employment, but at the trough. Heads buried in the trough. Feeding bags, sometimes.
Defense contractors come to mind. Lobbyists come to mind. This is more than a scam, we know now having witnessed Trump's criminal behavior. Organized crime is more like it. Organized crime is it. We like to think the government is ours but insiders understand this is laughable. The government has always been susceptible to selfish influence.
Now it is completely bought and controlled by rich people. We're so wealthy even the scraps are good, so there's a class of affluent folks deluded into thinking they're autonomous. More likely they don't care. Too busy buying shit and tooling around in expensive, air-conditioned cars while the world burns. Oddly, as many have noted, a lot of little people vote for this.
These are the idiots. I'm tired of making excuses. If seeing our capitol sacked and the horror of Trump's presidency weren't enough fuck them. Their destructor fleet is doing its thing, mindlessly, like the Vogons in the HItchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Except there won't be a miraculous recreation at the end. It will all be over. Nothing but death and nothingness.
William Shatner was great on this point, after he blasted into space courtesy of an obscenely over-rewarded entrepreneur. Guess which one? They converge on certain desires, space and yachts and islands, the idea being a realm where they aren't regulated. But Shatner saw through it to the death. That space is death. Listen to Kirk. Oh, captain, my captain!
We are so fucked.
And all for nothing. The fucking Vogons are here with their destructor fleet of Republican trolls, operatives and functionaries, mindlessly executing the order to destroy. They don't know why. They don't care. They will conform, play their role and fulfill their mission. No drama, just demolition. No heroes or villains, in the end, just annihilation.
