Human Sacrifice

We're no different. Civilization? What about the Holocaust and nukes? Now, that was human sacrifice. Not an occasional virgin chucked into a volcano, but senseless mass slaughter.

Were the gods appeased? I guess not. Because they're back at it. 

She's in the Führerbunker Now

Demented mafia Trump slut Kellyanne Conway is proving to be one of those. A lost soul. With the Trump ship sinking it plays out -- who will stay with him until the end.

And at what cost? Some have jumped ship. 

Kellyanne's recent cheapshot/insult/deranged nonsense accusation had me thinking of her daughters. Who are not nuts and probably Democrats. Kellyanne didn't.

She didn't think how her slanderous mouth might affect her family, her relations with her daughters and her co-parenting. Führer before family. Führer before everything.

Before life itself. She's in the führerbunker now. Kellyanne is so wrong. Where you don't want to be, in the hole with Adolf, preparing for the last immolation.

I Can't Believe It's Not Bullshit!

Republicans are so buried in their bullshit even when some of them, like the Lincoln Project people, speak the truth in a particular instance I wonder if it doesn't serve the greater interests of bullshit. The bullshit hegemony they've established -- that is, their amazing, multi-generational reich of lies. 

We saw with Trump the lies have a life of their own. Liz Cheney now has hero status in some circles and that horrible imperialist wench is selling a shitload of her book (and presumably piling up cash) though she's eyeball deep in lies. Americans all are, courtesy of the wonderful Republican Party.

And I don't believe any of the nonsense that any of these people are really reformed. 

Comrade Trump Banned from Ballot

Comrade Trump has been banned from the ballot in Colorado because he's a traitor. If the Supreme Court doesn't screw it up. But they're also traitors. And all of the Republicans in Congress. What are we to make of it when the system has been overrun by people who want to destroy the system that allowed them the privilege of such power? I say that this can't be what the founders and originators of the thing foresaw as a possibility. But surely they couldn't have foreseen such scum would ever be empowered in a democracy. Oh, well. I guess we all did the best we could but it's over now.

Forever Is a Day

There's no down side to living every day to the fullest. In quiet ways, ideally, that don't involve a lot of consumption and such. Because that's part of the problem. 

Republicans are numbering our days. Who knows how many we have left. They want to destroy everything. End-times shit. Fire and flood. They think Jesus will come. 

The Time of His Life

Trump is having the time of his life. You think he gives a shit about the prosecutions? He loves it. All the attention. He wants the whole world to be centered on him. And he still won't be satisfied. It will never be enough. Nothing will ever be enough.

The Ring of Truth

What with AI and miniaturization I wonder if we can make a ring linked to a polygraph that we could have members of Congress wear. These would be networked and so capable of detecting systemic fraud, corruption, scams and sham. 

Punishment on detection would be immediate. I figure little razors inside the rings that would cut into the fingers, ultimately severing them if possible. Some people would soon run out of digits. I say we then go from digits to dicks.

It would be tested on Trump since he can't help himself, so development would be fast and the device quickly perfected. Donald will lose his dick but men have lost more for their country. This would be nothing but good in the end.

People will see we mean business. We would have a necklace in reserve in case there's another riot and insurrection. I mean, as Trump said, you know what they used to do to traitors. Trump seems to think he could kill petty criminals. 

So it's all good. 

America is for Assholes

America is now a playground for assholes. A protected place where Bushes and Trumps and such can play and be safe. But it's not pretend. It's not a video game or a cartoon. Bush and Trump got millions killed. 

And all of them back to Nixon. There are no consequences. As I said, it's a playground. Their parents bought them a country to play around with. With people. Among the toys are weapons, on up to nukes. 

A great country this is, that would put Trump in charge of weapons that can destroy the world. But, all in good fun, because there are no consequences. No time out. No discipline or penalties. That's America.

Youthanasia

Do Kochs worry about their kids? Of course not. Their kids live in another world. An unimaginable world. A world centered on them. Kochs and such are so rich they can compete with the government, And win. 

The govenment is supposed to look our for everybody. The rich look out for themselves. So the rich set out to control the government. In a democracy that means destroy the govenment. And they did.

It has come to pass. Though not to completion. They're working on that. Controlling an entity with some autonomy is one thing. Taking it over completely, another. They are close. Your kids don't count.

Young people were always cannon fodder. Now they're cannon fodder in the culture wars, for which you don't need to sign up or get drafted. Just get born. They are farmed like livestock. For profit. 

And then what? 

We will find out. Americs's future has been mortgaged. The kids know it and feel helpless. Watching a vanishingly small group of rich fuckers destroy everything. Because they want more. Complete control.

The rape of nature goes on. Only that is saving the livestock. We are so rich we can afford to keep less profitable entities around. The rich bought up nursing homes, among everything else, 

They're making money on us until we die. It will all change. Especially for the young. For the old it's too late. The rich will have to keep the young powerless. Never owning a home. Less access to education. 

The rich must be slobbering themselves. They're so close now. Complete control. A Constitutinal Convention, their ultimate dream, is still possible. But they must control young people.

Why do you think they're after universities? Those are the last thing they don't control. We're very close. The libertarian dystopia the rich have always wanted, an unimaginably brutal place, is almost here. 

But We're the Good Guys

Exceptionalism is racism. Giving yourself a pass. Because you're special and the rules don't apply to you. 

Assorted Authoritarian Scum

Exceptions don't prove anything. Averages prove stuff. Where's the mean? This side of insane? Evangelicals we can generalize about, because they've generalized themselves. Sold their souls, achieving unanimity. Through utter submission. And not to God. Assuming God didn't create us as a race of slaves, degraded aggregations of arbitrary and uncontrollable impulses.  

Rich fuckers have mostly done the same. Shown us their hand. They don't give a fuck about anyone else and they're infinitely fucking greedy. 

But beyond that we have assorted authoritarian scum. Jumpers onto bandwagons. Lots of them drank the dope in the Reagan years. They went identity. They wanted to feel good about themselves, above all, and their greedy or sociopathic little ambitions and they got sucked in. Paul Ryan got sucked in. He built a life and living on wanting to screw his fellow citizens. On being an asshole.

It's a career choice. A way to make a living. No kidding. Stephen Miller? What's his résumé? Professional racist? In America you can get paid to be an asshole. 

Dictators Without Borders

Now, this is a more natural and stable thing, an international alliance of dictators. Based on the unstated agreement that somebody has to run shit and it might as well be me, since I'm willing to play dirtier than anyone else. It's therefore inevitable. Resistance is futile. You want to be on my good side because I am the law. And I will crush you if you resist me. 

They are the law. There are evil forces abroad. Say your prayers, people. 

Your Shit is Being Shipped!

We aren't getting it. The consumer society has to end. How many tractor trailer loads of stuff going into landfills does an average American account for in a lifetime? This is insane. Tell me it isn't crazy. 

Tell me it doesn't assume an end-times. So it all makes sense. The party of 'drill, baby, drill' is controlled by people who believe in the apocalypse, who welcome the apocalypse and are trying to bring it about. 

Now does it make sense? 

If you want to see the world crash and burn who better than Donald Trump? And the new morbidly rich? Because they really don't give a fuck. They are the last ones you want running things. Welcome to hell.

Society for Destructive Anachronism

I think it's safe to rebrand the GOP at this point since they're unrecognizable as a lawfully functioning entity let alone as one deserving of respect, authority and control. They shouldn't be entrusted with anything. No power at all. 

I want to suggest we call them the SDA, or the Society for Destructive Anachronism. Interestingly, their meetups might resemble those of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where they whale away on one another with swords and shit. 

System Failure

Mitch McConnell hasn't had a brain freeze lately -- as far as we know -- but I want to talk about his soul. Or lack of one. Consider just how our system failed and McConnell stands out. Much was anticipated. Much, but not Mitch. The possible malfeasance and tyranny of a majority. The possible tyranny of a minority, presumably a less plausible thing and more easily protected against. 

But here we are.

There's no way to protect against a ruling caste led by pieces of shit like McConnell. All McConnell had to do was his duty. Impeach the traitor Trump. It was put to him and it would not have been hard. McConnell is the link that failed. The guy who wouldn't do his job. This is the Senate's function, to be a stabilizing force and protection against volatility, overreactions and outliers.

Alabama MItch is a traitor. too. He represents a foreign power, the Confederacy. He is doing his job, destroying the United States in retribution for the Civil War, Reconstruction and desegregation. See where Trump has ended up. At retribution. His only talent is cunning. Because he's a conman. A crook. A liar, a thief and a supreme piece of shit. More that anything an opportunist.

He read his base. They want to destroy. They are here to destroy. The opportunity is here. To kill off the country, so it can be reinvented and run by rogues like Trump on behalf of rednecks, racists and assorted authoritarian scum. Mitch was once a moderate. But then he realized how stupid Kentuckians were. And that he could get rich and screw them and they would still vote for him. 

The rest mad they say, is history.

Buffaloed

A couple of people I know have commented on similarities between the Palestinians and Native Americans, saying they've been watching the Ken Burns series on Buffalo. I haven't seen it. A more powerful group wants your land. They want you gone. 

Which seems to happen, no matter what. You cooperate you lose. You fight you lose. But if you fight them you get killed as Native Americans did when they struck back. Like buffalo. The shoot you down. They shoot you down en masse. And it's your fault. 

I think we've got some Manifest Destiny going on in the Middle East. And the Palestinians know it.

Huckster Holidays Radio

I wonder what 'conservatives' and evangelicals listen to for Christmas. They seem to need such a steady diet of hate. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. They never tire of it. If I hear a television on in a house in the middle of the day I always suspect Fox. Such a diet requires some inventiveness, to keep it fresh. They have a whole ecosystem of this shit. How much mileage can you get out of 'woke' and 'cancel culture' and the 'war on Christmas' other such fabrications? A lot, it turns out. 

More than the truth, it turns out. The truth is boring. Conspiracy theories are exciting. So, under the fixations mentioned above we have variations on the themes. All the little people think woke is coming for them. And woke came out of nowhere. Not really. It's a lie. A deliberate and calculated invention. Created and maintained by persons with agendas. Stuff they want. Money and power are always, among some of them. But listen to Trump. He's cunning, if sick and stupid. 

He's about retribution now. Trump is promising punishment. They want to hurt us. Remind yourself, it's all invented. It all came out of nowhere. Trump is huckster holidays radio, promoting hate in the season of love. Among Christians, mostly. The most venomous piece of shit ever is a huge hit among people who call themselves Christians. But that is to be determined. By God, if I remember my catechism. God and no one else. Except Trump, I guess. Providing justifications to hate. 

Legislating from the Beach

The jury is in on our supreme jurists, that they are not fundamentally legal scholars but social and class warriors, which worlds have melded under MAGA. The super-rich will now endure any level of social stuff, like a flight back into the Middle Ages with the ignorance, illiteracy, persecution and superstition, to keep the financial advantages they enjoy afloat. And since part of extremism and being crazy, is a lack of perspective and restraint we are heading off a cliff. 

Complete control of every aspect of American life by nutcases is where we are going. The other goal of such maniacs and Bond villains in addition to world domination -- a reich spanning generations -- is less easily reachable but desired nonetheless because it affords a kind of immortality. Remember the Trump nuts with visions of a series of Trump children, Ivanka first, following Herr Donald into the presidency? Primal shit. Monarchical shit. Tudors and Stuarts and such. 

And killings. Lots of death is in the works. 

Cool kinds of gratuitous death. With this level of wealth and power there is really nowhere to go but down, a recipe for paranoia. Tech goons might envision being lords, and they are in a way and it might get codified and institutionalized under the Roberts Court, but that's precarious with lunatics like Trump running around. The Koch machine has backed Haley, though Trump was probably less of a loose cannon and more manipulable than they expected, first go-round.

We owe it all to the Supreme Court. Ivory Tower types they are not, but Winnebago Republicans, legislating from a context of immeasurable privilege, with the ultimate sinecure. They make the laws, they flout the laws. They aren't even ideologues. All of that, the 'originalist' nonsense, was a smoke screen and a scam and it's being abandoned now. They don't need it anymore. And we are in for it. They are determinedly attacking the last bastions that stand against them.

Such as the home of actual legal scholars and persons with respect for judicial standards -- academia. The Supremes are not rich by Silicon Valley standards. Those people wouldn't be caught dead in a Winnebago. They buy yachts. But our boys (and girl) are happy to serve them, as a bunch of sort-of game wardens, estate managers and lackeys. They are all-in on hierarchy. Big surprise all the ties to Catholicism. In their own way they are working class. Supremely working class.

The Inquisition

Republicans are on the attack. Their witch trials will succeed because it's not about the crime but about the prosecution. Or, persecution. They will only accept the outcome they want. Like terrorists they play the averages. Plant a bunch of bombs. Some will go off.

Their fixations are evident. Universities. Personal vendettas. Universities as power centers they don't control. Personal vendettas to wreck those who resist them and discourage further resistance. An Inquisitor and ardent Trumper is having her day in the sun. 

On conservative media. By badgering and hounding people until she gets what she wants, abusing her congressional power to do so. She badgered them into a corner and made them look bad. She wants is to win. And to be the judge. Because she can, an abuse of power. 

Midnight in the Garden of Evil

All of the goodness has fled. Evil is victorious. 

The Passion of the Trump

Here's how a persecution complex plays out. The perp has some kind of personality problem and thinks people are out to get him. He attacks, thinking it's in self defense. Just like that we're at a critical juncture. Does the person fight back?

And, is the ground fertile for contagion? Is there insecurity in the land? Are there old grudges lying around? Usually individual instances of this, which abound, are absorbed into the system and never seen again. Not that there isn't harm.

There's loads of harm but no contagion. But if there is mass insecurity and groups about with festering grudges and lots of personality problems because the society has a 'soul sickness' it can catch on. We are there now. By intelligent design.

Republicans have made people more insecure and spread fear. Which they then exploit. Conspiracy theories flourish. And they think Trump is a savior, and that he's being persecuted. A wholly inverted, perverted, imaginary world. 

I Heart Hate

Republicans, being Christians and all, are offering hate and division this Christmas. Nothing but, it turns out. Trump is at the reins of his sleigh full of goodies. Insults, innuendo and invective are pouring forth. 

Trump for Resident

I've decided to renew my generous offer from the 2016 election, and early since Trump isn't officially the nominee yet, to allow him to remain in the country, retired. But since his destructive potential is now known, having been realized for a term, conditions must be imposed. Conditions on his residency.

He can stay but with loss of privileges. All those conferred on former presidents, to start, such as Secret-Service protections, travel allowances and pay. He must shut the fuck up. On jail time I'm flexible. Justice can't be realized. The torture that can exact it doesn't exist. There would need to be thousands of him. 

So I might allow him to roam free if other, sufficient restrictions are in place. 

Individual states shall be allowed to bar him from entry, including into their air-space, in line with federalist principles. His children may not run for office. They must also shut up. And Melania is never allowed to decorate any space for Christmas again within view of children and vulnerable populations. 

The rest can be worked out when the agreement is finalized and signed. 

The Last Noel

Let's say we are God's gift to the world, as some persons seem to think. And that the fate of said world and Christianity are tied to America's fate. Manifestly, we're the wealthiest and most fortunate country ever. Never matter how we got there, whether you believe the bullshit line that it's destiny and we deserved it or that we plundered a continent because we could and then moved onto the rest of the world because, well, we're God's gift and exceptional so fuck them. 

What does it all mean? That, in spite of our wealth and professions of moral excellence we are screwing even swathes of our own society in the name of a bogus literalist interpretation of the Bible now having spread into an 'originalist' take on the Constitution? And the closer we get to evangelical/libertarian Nirvana the more we approach a greater state of screwing. A convergence, I guess. Of interests or interpretations or, maybe, just old-fashioned power lust and puritanical sadism.

Yay! This means humanity is shit. That the better we do the worse we do. When we get power we abuse it. We abuse and kill our fellow humans for no reason. When we could feed everybody several times over we starve them. We imprison them. We make life more difficult for them for the hell of it. Speaking of hell, we tell them it's their fault when their lives suck and, by the way, they're actually going there. To hell. Literally. Because they deserve it and God intended it. 

So, there. And this charge is being led by evangelicals, though a bunch of Catholics are pretty implicated. This is the end, I believe. It was humanity's last chance to show we weren't shit. That we were decent. That we wouldn't destroy ourselves out of paranoia and stupidity. That we weren't either created shit or evolved into it, so at odds with ourselves we chose collective suicide. Enjoy the holiday season. It might be the last you have before the doom descends. 

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.