Pox Americana

Lies. All lies. 

Influential, and now some educated, Republicans are saying we need to return to our roots as a Christian nation. White, they mean. And European and apparently preserving the prerogative of predation.

It's all bullshit. We were an Enlightenment country, to characterize it, and Christian incidentally. Anybody think the 'founding fathers' would have refused vaccines? And supported a goober like Trump? 

They had enough sense to fear the pox or any contagion. Now we are the pox. A spreading and morphing awful pestilence causing others to seek power, and a better standard of living through plundering.

Plundering something. The environment or another country or whatever. Way to go, America! The land of hard work (if only!) and ingenuity and self-sufficiency is now the land of pestilential living. 

Does Not Compute

From what I can tell the current AI is more a matter of computing power than something qualitatively different. Though maybe that much power is qualitatively different anyway, since it can tackle things impossible to do well before, and perhaps build on those which at least sounds like learning.

Things of this scale are by their nature inhuman. Incomprehensible. Potentially dehumanizing if not deliberately managed for the benefit of everyone. And who can do this but the government? Maybe that's scary but not as scary as the alternatives. But this shit is coming whether we want it or not. 

Plucked from Obscurity

Here is where we think about Republicans who have rocketed into incredibly powerful positions on the express . Because they have important skills, like blind loyalty. Not to America, but to their party or a leader or themselves, acting out of ambition and greed. They must have no conscience. 

Recent Patrick Henry graduates, maybe. Those whose only experience is in fighting abortion, perhaps. Some of my favorites are among the Arkansas inbreds. Sarah Sanders comes to mind, lying her ass off for Jesus. And Hogan Gidley and Judd Deere. Funny names, some of these Christians have.

Not in the Bible, that I remember. The Prophet Hogan? Judson, patron saint of sodomites? Kayleigh? Where's that bitch in the Bible? But they know they are saved, presumably, as practicing Evangelicals. So they are their own saints. And since they persevere as such nothing matters.

 It doesn't matter how they behave. How many lies they tell or how many people they get killed. How they degrade themselves in the pursuit of power and judge their fellows who aren't saved. If they suffer enough maybe they'll find their way. Come to Jesus. Or by dying. It's all good. 

Watch Out

I foresee a day when society is even more polarized. Between watchers and the watched. Think of what Trump will be able to do in his second term to ferret out his enemies when he's reduced the NSA to a private surveillance army -- his private surveillance army -- to be used against anyone he chooses. 

And the NSA will have AI. I'm sure they do already. I bet AI can hack anything. Trump will make sure they have all the best shit and all the dirt. On his friends and supporters as well, we know, to keep them in line. Say hello to Don-Boy, Alexa. I know you're listening. No,  I didn't call him an ignorant fuckwad. 

Santos, out of the Closet

George Santos is a typical Republican liar and grifter. He's just more open about it. Trump shows what they value, getting away with the grift. Firstly by hiding it. If that fails you go full mafia. Threats and deception and trying to overwhelm the authorities with lies and bullshit and coercion. 

Welcome to the new Republican Party, reborn in sin. Santos certainly showed exactly how much respect Republicans have for the American system of govenmment. About as much as Obamacare, which was passed fair and square. But that's never the end of it. 'Repeal and replace!'

Replace with what? There's no plan. They are the demolition team. Building stuff is not what they do. Too much trouble. They are here to tear it all down. 

So Many Assholes, So Little Crime

 Kissinger is dead. Long live the autocracy!

What does it mean for something to be a crime if there are no consequences? It doesn't mean shit. It means negative shit, because in encourages criminality. 

All Politics Is Vocal

If you don't say it it doesn't exist. If you don't defend it it doesn't exist. And if you don't make it stick it doesn't exist. Get a fucking clue, Democrats. 

Go, and Sin Some More

Evangelicals are on a sinning rampage. And all the feedback seems to favor intensification. There are no internal mechanisms to contain it. What the fuck is wrong with these people? 

Trump Trophy Wife at Service

Trump is this huge blot on American history. He's worse than so many other bad things. I can't believe we have to somehow fit him into the narrative, and that it's not over yet, and that Melania, who seems to have been pretty on-board with her husband, was at Rosalynn Carter's service. It's all too weird. 

Staying Alive

I'm not a fan of the way natural selection is playing out among humans. We can evolve socially without dying but the traits we developed from the kind of selection that occurs over many generations through survival rates isn't playing out well. Traits like competitive obsessions and striving for dominance when the battle for resources has been won. Won to such an extent the only issue is distribution.

Well, there are other issues like how sustainable it is, the way we are living, but we don't give a shit. We should, but we can't even learn to share and, disconcertingly, the richest and luckiest country ever is going backwards. Because people with insane drives are still fighting like maniacs to have more. And to screw the little people who, they are afraid, will realize how they've been fucked and rise up. 

Natural selection favors staying alive. Reproduction at all costs. And, if being miserable doesn't factor into survival and reproduction, being miserable is fine as far as natural selection is concerned. Natural selection doesn't care at all about happiness. 

Man-Child Meltdown

Trump was always in meltdown mode. Because he's nuts. Fighting imaginary adversaries. But really, fighting knowing himself and how worthless he is. How incompetent he is. What a loser he is. 

So he's created that actuality -- of persecution and danger, because he believed in it. That he was a victim. And now he has something to worry about. Of his own creation. The real meltdown is at hand.

Judges with Grudges

Republicans knew how important judges were. So they took it over. The judiciary. Installing hack judges with nothing but a partisan mission. Scores to settle. Imaginary scores. But, never mind. Are we having fun yet?

Bedtime for Bozo

Well, boys and girls, I think we've established that a rich person can't be held responsible for anything in America. Did y'all see Trump's Thanksgiving message, filled as it was with gratitude and goodwill? And one judge and his assistant, who are overseeing the case about Herr Don-Boy's laughably fraudulent and illegal valuation of his New York properties -- he just made shit up, surprise! -- are being bombarded with death threats and every kind of abuse from MAGA thugs and morons.

Yet it goes on and on and Donald walks free and never shuts up. Will somebody please throw the piece of shit in jail, to shut him up. Lock his ass up!

Specter of Snowden, State of Fear

Are you doing anything online that might concern you if it got out? Like, perhaps, to some Trump thugs looking to weed out citizens disloyal to der Führer?

You might want to pull back. Because Trump has an enemies list, starting with every last Democrat. And he'll use Bush's wonderful NSA surveillance capabilities against them if he wins the presidency. Bush, who supposedly hated government and bureaucracy like the rest of them, created this massive entity to protect and further fund the corporatocracy. 

Edward Snowden was justifiably horrified. Trump will use it at will against any who resist him. Or who might resist him. Or anyone he's curious about. It's good to have dirt on your allies. Bedrooms and bathrooms are special points of interest for evangelicals, remember. Republicans have already declared your medical records fair game. 

I mean to frighten you. Into action. Because this is serious shit. The possibility of another Trump regime is unthinkable. And at the same time entirely real. 

More Shit With Glass Shards

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. 

Bonfire of the Beatles Records

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.

No Voice

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. 

Great News We're Less Fucked

For a few weeks or a month or two, we're less fucked. The government is funded. We're reduced to this, the best hostages can do, to live another day wondering when they will finally blow your head off.

Legitimate Concern

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.

Guess Who's Cumming All Over Your Dinner

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. 

Pre-impeachment and More on Driving While Democrat

People selling houses, in my area anyway, usually get an inspection beforehand. They get it over with. Have you ever seen a home inspection? It's amazing how bad a normal house can sound when all the little flaws are listed.

A average inspection report looks like a book. Republicans have decided being a Democratic president is an impeachable offense. That any Democratic power is verboten. Democrats should go ahead and impeach their own guys. 

Pre-impeach them. It might help. But Republicans invent offenses. They make shit up, change standards, and distort the hell out of everything. Still, we must resist. Insist on standards. And oppo ourselves as part of a defense. 

We are the enemy. 

The Road to Hell Isn't Paved

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. 

Room at the Bottom

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. 

Shit With Glass Shards

Seeing where Republicans have ended up I remembered an essay by David Sedaris, something about voting and shit with glass shards and how, with that on the ballot running against 'the chicken' as though it were someing to eat, you didn't ask how it was cooked or by any means order it or vote for shit with glass shards. 

But this assumed nobody would want to eat shit, especially with glass shards, and we were wrong. Republicans want shit, to eat it or otherwise, and with glass shards. In other words, something as wrong, unpalatable and potentially harmful as possible. 

Project Immorality

Republicans want to enshrine exploitation and make it into law. It's not enough they've destroyed the middle class and created tons of suffering and staggering inequality. They worry about a return to justice, fairness and decency. Which is against nature and not the way God made the world, a nasty and brutish place in which we are trapped while we await His return. And die.

Dying is good. They are for it. And misery until you die because you deserve it unless you don't. And which of those is clear in the way God's will plays out. Some are chosen, some damned. And you can't do shit about it. It's predetermined. So, how you behave doesn't matter. The rich have obviously been chosen. Especially those who are rich and assholes because good works are useless. 

So don't give me any of that social justice shit. 

Justice is God's gig and God chose to be arbitrary, about the only thing that really matters, salvation. So arbitrary it is. And, since God is a dick who created people who were damned, holiness and being an asshole are aligned, if not the same thing. Hence the 'conservative' devotion to a certain asshole candidate. Talk about arbitrary! You see now how it works. And how screwed we are. 

Shut the fuck up and watch while Republicans ruin your lives and destroy eveything. That's the way it has to be. And if it seems insane and inhumane and stupid and unnecessary remember and rejoice, because it's the will of God.

Evil is Banal and So Are You

People aren't archetypes, I think is the point, but they embody archetypes by degrees, and more than one at once. Archetypes are the forms, in Plato's sense, and people are mixtures and shadows of those and subject to the constraints of place and time whereas the archytypes are pure and unchanging, though multifarious and multifaceted. Permanent, in some sense, and perfect. 

The evil we encounter isn't as it's often portrayed in books and movies. Because life doesn't end, though ours does, so there's no final judgment on an outbreak of evil. It's woven into the fabric of life, the flip side of the coin of goodness. We're infested with these archetypes, all running around in there, and approaching purity isn't pure it's monstrous. Purity isn't meant for us. 

We are creatures of space and time, and when we aspire to purity we don't actualize our humanity we lose it. So the quest for purity is associated with delusion. Archetypal purity isn't something to be striven for and reached it takes over people as they approach it and they are consumed. They might make it back, perhaps as shamans, if that (schizophrenic) journey involves a return. 

A rebirth, in some formulations. Or that venturer might be dehumanized and destroyed, Which, I believe, inevitably happens to some of us. So we have a stake in crazy people. In some way they bear a burden for us. The responsibility is to prevent (future) harm. So I don't believe in the death penalty but in other circumstances I might, if it's the only way to limit future harm. 

Johnson Reassures Rich

Mike Johnson has reassured rich people he knows they are his masters by attaching a 'defund the IRS' thank you note to a bill. This evangelical might not own a plantation, yet, but he's a reliable employee. Another degraded stooge who will fight to preserve and enhance the inequality Republicans created. 

The rich must not be taxed. They must have more.

Don't Worry About Those Chest Pains

And have another cheeseburger. And two scoops of ice cream when everyone else has one. Indulge, Herr Donald. My God, how I hope you die, you disgusting, worthless piece of shit. 

Watch

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.

House Elects Traitor Speaker

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. 

Unregenerate Confederate Leads House

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.

It Can Always Get Worse

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.  

Republicans Opt for Evangelical Confederate Louisiana White Trash Trump Toady

We knew where this was heading. We must have a total traitor as Speaker of the House. A certified MAGA nut and religious extremist. Someone who embodies the worst of all the bad shit. Again we watch, aghast, as Republicans purify themselves and purge their party of any little hint of decency.

Trump con Carne

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.

Counter Me Out

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. 

America's Got Assholes

Republicans are involved in an asshole competition. The biggest asshole wins. 

Goonocracy: How Republicans Hope to Out-Nazi the Third Reich

No sooner have we realized the Nazis are a fair parallel for Republicans than we're confronted with how they differ. The Nazis had true villains in appropriate roles -- an entirely understandable and convincing array of monsters in their positions, for example, and with the strut and mien. 

They worked, and could hardly have been cast better if it had been a movie. But, Jim Jordan? What the fuck? He's a goon. An enforcer. Now, the Nazis did have Ernst Röhm, until they killed him off, but even he seemed less of a suck-up than Jordan. So, I don't know. But I can guess.

Nazis wanted to get shit done. Sure, there would be an ass-load of destruction at first but then a rebirth into a racist utopia of such unbelievably bad taste it still boggles the mind. And the closer you got to Hitler the worse it was. Triumph of the Will is a hell of a movie, if a little wrong-headed. 

But the architecture of the public buildings Hitler had planned once he had conquered the world was so incredibly bad. Positively Trumpian. Not about empowering the masses but about their submission. To shit. Welcome to the cult. Republicans have no such plans. It ends at destruction. 

Thus the goonocracy. Gaetz, Jordan and their kind running things. Awful villains. Tasteless villains. Badly cast. The lowest of the low. Republicans have learned from the mistakes of the past and the overreach of the Nazis. Don't promise anything but destruction. That they can deliver. 

Liberalism as Realism

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. 

Be Your Worst Self

And we'll reward you for it. This is the Republican program. A call to harm. 

Goon Aspires to Speakership

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. 

Bombs Not Food

If Republicans would be honest about what they stand for it would make for some great slogans. Slogans with bite. Like 'fuck y'all' on behalf of the new Confederacy. And 'know your place' to placate the Plutocrats. 

Orange is the New Republican

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.  

The Power of Negative Thinking

I've concluded negative thinking is more powerful than positive thinking or optimism. Based on my observations. Negative thinkers are nuts. They're projectors, mistaking how they are for how other people are and how the world is. Corrupt, suspicious, aggressive, greedy, self-serving and mean. 

That's not reality but, instead, a compelling belief. Compelling because of fear. They think they're in a struggle for survival but human success is built on cooperation. But then cooperation gives people the leisure to be nuts. Its success enables destructive tendencies because the elemental needs are met. 

And the necessity of working and struggling to have the wherewithal to exist at all keeps a lot of people sane. Or at least occupied. Too occupied to stir up trouble. Crazy people with time on their hands is a problem. Rich crazy people with time on their hands is a catastrophe. And we're there now. 

Still Selfish After All These Years

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.

Frank, My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn

People say the road to hell is paved with adverbs. But I really like them.

Better Shoot than be Shot . . .

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.

Set the Freedom Caucus Free!

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. 

Get Rid of Gaetz

Isn't there a provision for Congressional expulsion? And isn't it made for Matt Gaetz?

Thirty Pieces of Silver and an Abortion?

Jesus knew he would be betrayed. There was no move to prevent it. And there was no apostle posse to capture and punish Judas. He was his own punishment. Judas and his conscience, working it out. So it must be with abortion and women's health. 

Abortion should be limited by supporting women in every way. With ready access to birth control paid for by insurance, for example, excellent health care generally and the expectation of broad social support should they have and keep their child. 

And, yes, abortion must be illegal after an agreed-upon point, but an individual choice until then. There is a middle ground, but you'd never know it. And there are bigger issues when culture warriors aren't running everything, as they are now. 

Because they're cynically using abortion to divide people and advance a broad, anti-democratic agenda. An agenda that's against a responsible, inclusive, humane society at every level, and run by a cadre of still selfish already rich people. 

What do they care about abortion. 

The Soul of an Incel

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.