Affordable Adult

As we all know the issue in America is money. Great healthcare, if you can afford it. Excellent everything, for the rich. Fuck everyone else. 

But for children? 

The same, sadly. Because the rich must always have more. I'm proposing an Affordable Adult Program, modeled on England's Appropriate Adult. 

Which is a legal thing. A kind of guardianship. Apparently America can't afford to take care of its kids. This will be intended to fill the gap. 

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bum

Some people support Trump because they think America is a massive evil and Trump is the man to destroy it. This argument, unlike almost any other for supporting him, makes sense. He's capable of destroying anything. 

Trump Cunning Kicks In

'What rough beast' and all that. Trump's talents as a con man are hereby acknowledged. It is his slouch. The second coming is upon us, as his evangelical supporters desire, and the destruction of the world. 

How the Fuck

I'm sick of how this and how that. How we got wherever or whatever, as though it requires explaining. We know. We chose it, should own it, and it's mostly not a matter for analysis but of observation. 

If we didn't have our heads up our asses. All we have to do is take our heads out of our asses. Wipe the shit from our eyes. Then we won't need anyone to tell us how it happened. Or pay them to do it.

Pros and Cons

Republicans are professional scammers. Pros at cons. 

Raining Death from the Moral High Ground

I'm not familiar enough with other cultures to judge if their fundamentalist religious sects are as bad as ours but American evangelicals are evil. They're rapists and murderers and criminals and they bring in drugs but I'm sure of few of them are good people.

They might be the worst. Not inherently but because of American history and the Civil War and America's power and reach. They, together with their laissez-faire political partners, informed Hitler's racism and put him in power by trashing the world economy. 

They have a lot to answer for. I think that's why they want to end the world. To escape accountability and justice.. And these morons think they're going to heaven. I hope to god there's a god and a judgement in fact  but I doubt it. And it's too late for justice. 

Pardon My Political Theater

Greg Abbott pardoned a convicted murderer because it was a miscarriage of justice. Because the pardon was a miscarriage of justice, intended to poke Democrats in the eye and to assert autocratic rights for Abbott and Republicans. Justice is what a ruling class wants. Their will and whim -- fuck everyone else. And Abbott did it because he could, and because he's an asshole. He loves being an asshole. 

All the President's Henchmen

They're showing up at his trial, taking potshots at the proceedings and channeling Trump since he can't channel himself anymore, under threat of jail. The corruption is complete. The degradation fully realized. Who are these people? And where is their humanity?

Their humanity is gone. They sold it. And it's not about the Republican Party and politics. Not really. It's about evangelicals, race, and selling your soul for power. The old Republican Party made a deal. Votes for the promise or hope of renewal. But an inverted renewal.

The South would rise again. The transformation is the inversion of the one offered by Christianity, in which you are saved. This transformation is debasement. Giving in to the lowest and worst impulses, ending in compulsion. Compulsion but certainty. 

Certainty is what they got. Feelings of certainty. Because they couldn't handle freedom. Not the Calvinist kind, where everything is determined and life is meaningless. So it's not about the Republican Party it's about fundamentalists and evangelical Christians.

Never have people been given so much, been so fortunate, and shit on it like this. They want to see the world end because they hate it. If Trump is transactional so are they. You go to a revival or church, and have a programmatic and choreographed experience.

You say the magic words and you are saved. I accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior. Or some such bullshit. No more worries. You are off the hook. How you behave doesn't matter anymore. You are not only saved you are irreversibly saved. By Satan. 

Christ doesn't want slaves. Or slavery, for that matter, without which no evangelicalism. So look at this parade of shit at Trump's trial, Vance and Johnson and the rest. Absolute automatons. No freedom. No humanity. And a huge appetite for destruction. 

I Love Lucifer

I know conservatives are unstoppable. They want to rule the world, fuck the rest of us into oblivion and they will have their way. But I want them to own it. Just admit they don't give a shit about anything but power. I want them to admit they've been doing the work of the devil and they know it. 

Trump versus the World

The latest development should surprise no one. Trump wanting to throw the world under the bus. He promised the heads of the oil companies the opportunity to run rampant if they give him a billion dollars to get him reelected and it succeeds. He's promised them the world. 

For peanuts. Because it's him. And he outweighs the world. And it isn't new. It isn't news. He's been this way forever. As has the Republican Party. That's the incredible thing. There should at least be a down side. If they do it and fail they get put it up against the wall and shot. 

Republicans are emerging as more than the party of national suicide. They're the world suicide party.

Sola Scriptura at the Supreme Court

I think the Reformation idea of Sola Scriptura was sincere. They wanted things less fuzzy. They wanted accountability. They wanted answers, a benchmark, and feelings of regulation, limits and security. 

To feel secure in the prospects of their salvation and its terms. The Supreme Court has taken the same path with originalism.  So they can claim certainty and authority. It's a scam. To do whatever they want. 

Originalism is nothing but a scam and power grab. A lie. Another lie. From the party of lies. The party of Trump. Big surprise. A stolen election. Stolen by him. And a stolen court. And nothing but lies. 

Taking a Shine to Philosophy

Maybe it's true. 

That Joseph Kennedy knew it was time to get out when the guy shining his shoes was talking about investments. I had a similar experience. With a well dude. 

In the days of Corona my well stopped working. I called the well person, who was retiring and trying to hand his business off. Three young guys showed up. 

It was an easy fix. 

One, a young unmasked punk, seemed intent on getting into my personal space. Assuming I was a college-town liberal, I guess, and a believer in science, vaccines and such.

I am a college-town liberal. And a fan of science. 

I've taken all the vaccines. I think. Somehow, this little peace of shit let out a comment on Hayek, who wrote 'The Road to Serfdom' which idiot 'libertarians' love. 

I knew it was time to sell -- my emotional and intellectual investment in America. But somebody is buying. Get it now, people! Everything is on the block.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/with-trump-everythings-for-sale

Originalism as Deconstruction

People calling themselves conservatives want us to believe they are upholders of standards. That, in opposition to relativists who want to throw open the doors of uncertainty and define everything on the fly as what they want it to be at that moment. 

Conservatives want to claim they have the franchise on meaning and intelligibility. And that the dreaded 'liberals' are proponents of chaos. But who are the relativists here? And who is standing for standards and who is trying to keep things glued together? 

I say that liberals, to the extent they believe in relativism and skepticism and subjectivity, are arguing for an acceptance of the responsibility we have to make everything work. The responsibility that goes with being free. That our societies are what we make them. 

What we want or choose. Conservatives are arguing for enslavement. At many levels, but that human nature is what it is -- competitive. Some people win and some lose, and that we fuck with that at our peril. Pure fatalism, in other words, and Social Darwinism. 

If that's an actual 'ism' now. Theirs is the road to serfdom. We don't have to speculate about it, because we're observably on it. The Supreme Court cloaks itself in an 'originalist' mantle and decrees whatever they want, resulting in plunder and exploitation.

This is their 'freedom.' Conservatives decry relativism and postmodernism, whatever the fuck that is, and tremble and quake at the threat of the powerless 'liberals' when conservatives control everything. But that is their immutable reality -- fear. 

So they fight. Out of fear, tilting at the windmills of their minds. 

You Break It You Collect Insurance, Laugh, Mock the Suckers Who Let You Get Away with It, and Move on to Next Scam

This is the new model. Breaking shit is good. Because we're spoiled. And sick. And Republican frat boys are running everything. 

Trump Slut to Wed Rich Guy

Anyone else notice how the women of Fox who ratted out Ailes and O'Reilly (and whatever other hideous bully scum) waited until it suited their interests? It appears it was always about ambition. 

Looking out for number one. Which slut is to wed? Kellyanne is available now, we know, but she seems to be a true believer so maybe not a slut but more of an aspiring doness, in the mafia sense.

Godmother, I think, is the term. 

Hope Hicks is marrying a tycoon. Will she be happy now? Will she carry on the con or sit back and watch the world burn after stylishly and with composure throwing her own bit of gas on the fire?  

This passes for character among conservatives. I wonder if they talk about it. If they have tests. They love the litmus. With us or against? Does having sucked Ailes's dick confer status or contempt? 

Hopey is all set now. And she was worried about her employment after Trump got canned. Can she have been so clueless? When it's clear that no bar is too low. She seamlessly became pussy at Fox. 

Well-paid Fox pussy.

Now she's just going to be retired pussy. Which, the way she's doing it, like Mitch McConnell and others, is totally honorable. Only idiots believe in anything. Smart people are pure opportunists.

Hicks is all set. More than 50 years of feminism and white women still vote mostly Republican. They wanted jobs, they said, and to be equal. But clearly having a job being pussy is still fine. 

Maybe they are equal. And America was never about anything but ambition. Our men were sluts. Anything to win. The talk of principles was always a scam. Principles were for little people. 

The fools who died in the wars and worked and built everything while the Wall Streeters raked it in. Those with 'principles' were always suckers. And it was always a scam. Another kind of opium. 

A civic religion of bullshit to blind people while we plundered the world. 

Stop the World He Wants to Get Off

Here's a fantasy for you. Donald Trump has an awakening. A come-to-Jesus moment. A real one, not the bullshit pandering for evangelical votes and pretending he stands for something. Besides himself. 

He drops the con. I don't believe it. That it might happen. I probably wouldn't believe it if I saw it, he's so habitually, compulsively false and insincere. But I'll try because my equilibrium is fucked.

I'm worried sick. Really. There was a story once -- a book, play and movie -- about a guy who lived only for himself and took everything for granted. Finally, he saw the light. What a wonderful thought! 

If nothing else such a reverie reminds us how far gone we are. How fucked we are. That this treasonous piece of shit stands any chance of reelection. When he should be shot. After a fair trial, obviously. 

Bikini Overkill

Absolutely everything in America gets fucked up by puritanical utopians. Feminism got fucked up. It immediately went from a good thing to a crusade and got co-opted by power-seeking, masculine bullshit and the consumption machine.

But punk-rock feminism was great. Fun and angry and really challenging to the system, but with some compassion. Some amazing shit and they just about didn't get co-opted. It was inclusive and democratic and free. The things that make the white guys uneasy. 

Everything gets comromised. You can't be an American without implication. Artists can still stay true, but they get mediated by the system. Everything is a commodity. Including people. You can't breathe in America without that shit. It's in the air. 

What men had got defined as what was worth having, in the case of feminism. But what men had and wanted and strove for was the problem. Punk feminism was feminine. And pissed and strident and fun. And human and vital and noisy.

Noise is good. Make some today.

I Tackle Palestine

I think I understand how the protestors in support of the Palestinians feel. That the status quo is against them. That the status quo involves inexorable movement backwards -- the loss of lives and lands. It's not a static status quo. And they don't feel heard.

They feel that Israel and Jews in general get a pass because of the Holocaust. Which they had nothing to do with. So they get emphatic and belligerent because they feel helpless. Helpless and unheard in a situation where they are always moving backwards. 

Wouldn't you be pissed? And act out just to try to get people to listen to you? 

Hedge Your Bots

Bots are people now. And as more bots get in the game they're rubbing elbows with themselves, bot on bot. People can't compete with them. Not at what they do. So there will be layers of bots. Tactician bots and worker bots, like managemant and labor. White and blue collar bots. Bot bureaucracies.

Enter AI, whatever the fuck it is. Being incorporeal is an advantage. Inhumanity is an advantage. I smell evangelicals. They've always hated 'the flesh' and despised their humanity. And taken it out on us. So they empower rich people to prey on all of us. More inhumanity. They teach it in business school. 

It adds up to greater concentrations of power. More and more until it implodes, as it will from it's own gravity, an unsustainable, mindless black hole of greed and a vampire economy. It used to be you could only die once, when life was more coherent. Now some people, the winners, have many lives.

The rest of us, many deaths. In any case, time to hedge your bots. If the bots are on your side you will need vertical integration. If not you need damage control and an escape plan. And good luck with that. 

Beyond Meathead

There's a hedge fund or private equity kind of guy out in my neck of the woods. What is it with them? They're rich as shit but still compelled to keep nervously doing stuff. Stirring stuff up. Trying to prove their manhood, is my thinking. This person is positively Muskian. 

A mini-Musk, I might say, lording it over the locals. And ... why? He buys up land, clears it, nuking a lot of beautiful trees, and adds overdone (and poorly designed) stone entries like it's some English royal enclave kind of hangout. He put in a shooting facility -- skeet. 

I'm awaiting the fox and hounds thing or whatever. I can't imagine what is next. What can these people possibly have left to prove? But look at Musk. So insecure and needy he has to constantly cause trouble and throw his weight around. God save us from these rich guys. 

Interview With an Umpire

I'd like to interview our Republican Supreme Court justices -- grill them, really -- to find out what they think about being instantly proved wrong about voting rights and abortion and some other things. Their side proved them wrong about voting rights by immediately jumping on the opportunity to screw people out of the right to vote in a partisan -- racially unequal -- kind of way. The exact states that were covered under the Voting Rights Act for having a history of screwing black people. And some others with Confederate refugees who relocated after getting their asses whupped. 

And their abortion ruling is leading to unintelligible law. If it's up to the states it's not a constitutional right but nor, presumably, is it constitutionally prohibited. So their boys are now pushing for a national prohibition and not through new law, though I'm sure they'd be fine with that, but by arguing that stuff already in the constitution applies. That's how I understand it. This is arguing from conclusions. They want to outlaw abortion so they come up with reasoning to do it. Bullshit reasoning. Rationalizations. As they did with gun rights. To reward rednecks for voting for Republicans. 

They said they would call balls and strikes. They didn't say they wouldn't be biased, bigoted and partisan about it. Clarence is behind the plate. Harlan Crow is in his sky box watching Clarence, his boy, do what he pays him to do, protect the interests of the super-rich. The thing is, the justices don't give a shit. They're ideologues and bullies. We can all fuck off. There will be no interview. They answer to no one. The dream of all criminals is impunity. Immunity. To be a law unto yourself. These Republicans make the law (what a feeling of power!) and they don't even have normal consciences. 

Live Baiting

I hate baiting. And Republicans do it constantly. They have no morality at all. 

Evangelicals Have This Right

No, I haven't converted. But I bought a new dishwasher. And I think -- God, we can't go on this way, using up and throwing out this consumer shit like there's no tomorrow. Evangelicals have a plan. 

No tomorrow. Fuck tomorrow. Let's get everybody killed. Destroy everything. And in this they're right -- it can't go on. Beyond that we differ. I love life. I love humanity, nature, the world and creation. 

And dogs. I love dogs. Evangelicals hate it all. Maybe not dogs, but ... collateral damage.

Pure spirit, that's what they want. A bunch of souls, maybe with incorruptible bodies, floating around in space somewhere. But no more of this awful imperfection. They're going to blow it all up. 

Mortality puts an edge on everything, I'll grant that. Corruptibility, the way it plays out, where anybody can die of cancer or another misery, for example, might not be my favorite. But life is what it is. 

I don't think it's our place to pull the plug. Presumptuous, to my mind. But evangelicals want to see the end times. I think life is a miracle. They think it's a catastrophe. A huge mistake. 

And they will have their way. Destruction is easy. But I'm going to stick with wonder at the miracle of creation. As long as I can. Thank you, friends, for being here with me. And I wish you well. 

A Fair Shakedown

What constitutes a fair shakedown? Republicans might be wont to wonder. What's enough? When are average people disempowered and screwed enough? The answer is never. Once they might have thought so. That was another generation of Republicans. 

The new crew is scared they'll be found out. They ask themselves, perhaps in some subtle, unconscious way, what they would do. What they would do if they realized they'd been suckered, lied to and shafted for decades. They would want to kill the fuckers. 

Kill the fuckers that screwed them. But there's no such thing as a fair shakedown. Republicans told themselves anybody who wasn't completely selfish and willing to do anything to win was an idiot and a sucker. That those people deserved to lose. 

That would be us. 

Pooches are for Screwing

What good is the opportunity to crash and burn if it isn't explored occasionally? Thus we see the need to tempt fate. To explore limits. To challenge authority for the hell of it. 

This was supposed to be done, and the issues resolved, in adolescence. When adults do it it's from arrestedness. From having not grown up. Like those running the Republican Party. 

This is the eminent domain approach to idiocy. Use it or lose it. And Republicans are about to cause us to lose it. Flexing their meathead muscles they're going to take us all down. 

Inadequacy in the New Testament

Being inadequate and bring bad are different. Christians should to own inadequacy because it's not corruption. Corruption is different. Being corruptible is different. 

And sins of error and inadequacy are different from sins asserting that life is unintelligible. Christ is the Logos, without which life is unintelligible. Intelligible, with Christ. 

Intelligible, in the way of beauty. By uninspired reason life is not intelligible. People are inadequate at that. Which is where faith comes in, making up for our inadequacy. 

Short on Truth

The news from Scamalot is bad. Truth Social is tanking. Everybody knew it was a lie. But could Trump make money anyway? After all, he's always made his money on image. 

Trump was corporate vaporware. Everything was always based on Trump vapors. Which does't bear too much thinking about. Like everything Trump, scrutiny is not allowed.

Apostles of Treason

Evangelicals have a new niche. They're winning the culture wars so it's about consolidation. Stuffing their values down the throats of their enemies. That is, their fellow citizens whose rights they are supposed to respect as part of a social contract which benefits them enormously. The responsibilities of that social contract don't suit them. Like, respect, tolerance and compromise. They are out to win. By any means.

By illegal means, since they're in a hurry and they answer only to God's -- not secular -- law. They're traitors and parasites, in other words, enjoying the benefits of a society while being its irresponsible members, sucking off the stability and success provided by others. The stability and success they are destroying. They vote for Trump. They support voter suppression, gerrymandering and intimidation.

They are traitors. 

Evangelicals and Revenge

I'm going to take the evangelical drive for death and destruction as a given. As an observable thing. And I'm going to say this is about revenge. Revenge against God for having been born. 

Wow Trump Looks Like Shit

Trump finally looks as deranged as he is. He always looked nuts to me but so did Reagan and Bush so what do I know. But Trump looks terrible. Like the madman he is. 

There's no way to wind this thing down.

There's no way to wind down the vampire economy. It will have to crash and be killed. Keep the wooden stake handy. A big one.

Ass Fault

Trump's ass is over the line. Out of bounds and foul. He's thrusting his ass out into odd places trying to get it kissed. He's a sick ass-man. And I call him on it. 

How Feminism Lost to Bad Masculinity

Puritanism always wins in America. Somewhere in there feminism went puritanical. It became self-righteous, and a numbers game. It became angry and vindictive. It became masculine and left-brain. Analytical, divisive and intent on power. Focused on individualism. 

Lesbians were seen as being a more pure form woman, gay men a less pure of man. That's pure male centrism. A view of women as men who lack something. A dick, presumably. And here we are now, after women promised everything would be better if they were empowered. 

And things are worse than ever. From a feminine perspective anyway. 

Don't Tell Newsmax

I was going to write a little satire on how you could probably get MAGA to support implementing a preemptive nuclear first strike. Then I realized it might catch on. 

Friends! Romans! Americans!

Lend me your savings. The treasonous, socialist Democrats are after me. The 'woke mob' is after me. I'm the most persecuted man ever. The most abused. 

So, lend me your money. I need it to defend myself from the scurrilous accusations of the Democrats. They hate America! They hate me! Same thing!

Everything I did was perfect! Save me from cancellation! Trump Show must go on! Ratings are high! Please buy my sneakers. Instant collector's items!

Sincerely, 

Donald J. Trump

Toga! Toga! Toga!

The Heritage Foundation's plan for America, Project 2025, is toga party. Drunken revelry. Debauchery. In the basement of the frat. Lots of pussy. Gaetz is pussy-master, the go-to guy for snatch. 

Sorry if the language offends. Go after the offenders. Don't blame me. 

Party until somebody pulls the plug. Or it all all falls apart when they get busted. Daddy money funds the thing, in the manner of Bush and Trump. Their daddies bought them countries to play with. 

Privilege has its indulgences. Toga! Toga! Toga! 

Bad Hitler

Hitler was good at being Hitler. He had Hitler talent. Trump is a bad Hitler. A half-baked Hitler. A typically derivative American. A loser's Hitler, and I don't know if it makes him better or worse.

Miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue

Democrats don't believe in pieces of shit. Pieces of shit such as Ted Cruz. Democrats want to think there are shreds of dignity and decency in every person to which you can appeal. But some people, like Cruz, are irredeemable or must be treated as such because they are lost souls. 

Their only hope of redemption is confrontation. I intend to run for Congress and, once there, speak the truth loudly and every day that Cruz and Hawley and Gosar and all the rest -- so many now -- are total pieces of shit. No doubt this will end up in court. That's what I want. 

I mean to prove in court that they are pieces of shit, in any normal sense of the term. I will bring in the best people in scatology, those who study feces and turds. Experts in shit. Experts, relatedly, in bullshit. People who understand menace, cheapshots and vituperative innuendo. 

If such a thing can be. The Cruzites are practiced in nastiness but also in avoiding accountability, so they lay much of it between the lines and have a sure command of suggestion. 'Brutus is an honorable man.' Right, we get it. Brutus is a treasonous asshole. No honor in him. 

Like Cruz. And virtually every Republican left in Washington. It was bad before Trump but it's horrendous now. I face an uphill battle and may fail, but I will go down fighting. If I can win it will be a miracle. A moment for the ages. The clouds will part and the sun shine. 

We must try. If we can win the truth will reign again. 

Persecuted by Themselves

Trump has his uses. He's so extreme we can see in him the essentials of Republicanism and 'conservatism' and apply that to the less crazy, thereby acheiving enlightenment. First off the primal fear, the persecution complexes and preemptive belligerence. 

Trump was born so rich he didn't have to do anything. Some say he would be wealthier if he hadn't done anything -- if he had invested his money in index funds. I believe it, but he's been at war his whole life, trying to prove something to somebody. 

To prove to himself he's not a worthless piece of shit. But he is a piece of shit so he's in a positive-negative feedback loop, self-reinforcing self destruction. The destruction of those around him or affected by him is incidental, not to say it doesn't hurt. 

So Trump is not a reality based operation. Similarly 'conservatives' are skeptical about their humanity. They don't like their human existence. It doesn't satisfy them, as we see in their religiosity which longs for the perfection of incorporeality. 

That is, death. Non-existence. To be pure spirit, assuming that exists and with a form of consciousness attached to it. Heaven, presumably. Go for it. 

Good for them. God bless. But this means they're mean. They're dissatisfied. They feel persecuted and they lash out. At those they envy, the segment of humanity which, if not thrilled with the prospects of being human and mortal, make the best of it. 

These 'conservatives' therefore experience the loathing as though it's coming at them from somewhere. When, really, it's what they feel for themselves. They assume being human is a disgusting thing because they're disgusted with it. I find that disgusting.

I find Trump disgusting, but that's me. I find life miraculous. I'm not entirely satisfied with my humanity and humanity generally but it's what we have. And I don't think it makes sense to fight it. They crave more. Always more, in the way of vampires.

Stealing life from life. Which is a scam. They have to lie, all the time, because they have bad intent. Lie, that is, and strive for complete domination and hegemony, the institutionalization of their persecutory impulses. Then they can stop lying. 

And speak their truth to the world, which is fuck you we're the winners and deserve everything and will take everything and will kill you if you stand in our way. Which is Republicanism and 'conservatism' as we see it increasingly openly in Trump.

More Koch Less Woke

Poor Andrew Sullivan has his panties all in a twist over 'woke' which doesn't exist or exists mostly in the famous fever swamps of the conservative collective imagination. Bugger that. Shades of rich white boys trembling at the sight of hippies protesting Vietnam or, my God, Black Panthers strutting the streets. 

Calm yourself, Andrew. Woke isn't going anywhere. It's a reactive, powerless puritanical movement protesting the real disenfranchisement they've been handed by your side's inconceivably rich elite and their goons. Are you a goon? A writer goon? A hit man and enforcer with keyboard and Wildean wit? 

Andrew is an elitist. A supremacist. Andrew thinks some people are better than others, extrapolating from his own obviously higher state and Oxford and all that shit. As a conservative, though, he's been plenty enfranchised. Super enfranchised, I would say. By assorted manipulations, stolen elections, etc. 

He hasn't watched his rights go out the window, like the 'woke' crowd, owing to a Gingrich or other principled crusader coming after them. Gingrich, another man convinced of his superiority. Possible inerrancy, as the movement confers it. They know they're right. Why not worry about a Koch, Andrew? 

Instead of 'woke'?

Never mind Reagan and Bushes and Trump stealing elections and bankrupting the country and annihilating the middle class and starting wars and exploiting tragedies for personal or party benefit. All that is fair game for conservatives, because they deserve to rule. They were chosen. By being rich.

Or anointed by God, maybe, being fundamentalist evangelicals or authoritarian Catholics just following orders. Like Andrew they don't understand that dominance and submission don't have to be issues. Nobody has to be on top. We can all be together. Alive together, on an even existential footing. 

What a thought. 

Evangelism as Compensation

When the higher functions are gone what's left is a desire or drive to replicate. Sick religions devolve into this, out of insecurity -- the nacissistic need to see themselves reflected in everything around them.

Everything. 

In their weakness, meaning lack of faith, they are struggling to find themselves. The persecution is incidental. Tell that to their victims. Those they persecute. They need mirrors. People who reflect them. 

Institutions that reflect them. For fucking everything to reflect them. But there's nothing there. No there there. No self. No ego. No conscience or humanity. They're vampires. Life stealers. Bloodsuckers. Killers. 

They are the void. Which they try to fill, in compensation. They are befuddled by those who love life. They resent them. Envy them. Despise them. Religious fundamentalists hate life. They want to kill us. 

But, nothing personal. 

Nearer My God to Thee

I want to thank Republican evangelicals for bringing so many people closer to God. By dying, for example, people presumably come closer to God. Also the heathen, if they suffer enough, might be induced to repent and in that way draw closer to God. So, death and suffering are good -- for non-evangelicals. 

Evangelicals, already being saved, don't need the benefits of death and suffering. In fact, they don't even have to behave since their salvation is already assured and is persevering. Evangelicals have been great at causing suffering and getting people killed. So, thanks for all that, though I'd like to say it's a bit presumptuous.

The Satanic Forces of the Confederacy Gird Up

I feel that all the forces of evil are marshalling under Donald Trump for a last great battle. And I finally understand, in a way I never have, the impulse to pray. In other words, the evangelicals have us where they want us, staring down the end times, And they don't care which side they are on. They just want to see Jesus. 

I Am Not an Individualist.

But I'm becoming one. Because I've discovered insecurity. Being scared makes you think of yourself. Being really scared makes you think only of yourself. 

I always felt the wealth. I always felt and knew I lived in a land of plenty. So I didn't worry. But now I worry a lot. Because I live in a land of plenty of nuts.

Where crazy people abound. And they are trying to destroy everything. 

As the World Burns

Marketing has discovered cynicism. In the wild, they claim. In other words, they aren't saying they're cynical or that they're using cynicism per se they're saying they've read the mood. That people are cynical. As though they had nothing to do with it.

With businesses breaking faith with the people they serve. Marketing can be rooted in reality but we're way beyond that. They're not selling you anymore in the sense of selling to you they're selling you. Because they already own you. Your attention. 

What do you think all the 'big data' is about? It's you, in a nutshell. They have your number. Numbers, really. But, no matter. They sell you to established businesses and monopolists. Those who can afford it. To increase their 'market share.' That's you. 

This is partly the power of not giving a shit. So, of course, they are cynical. But they're making good money at it. So they don't have to own it. They already own it. Again, not giving a shit. If this sounds circular it is. A perpetual motion machine.

Which can't exist. Doesn't exist. So, look for the subsidies. There's no product anymore. No producer. Those elements are powerless. Remember 'real' needs? Food, clothing, shelter. These aren't the players. If they were everyone would have them.

Because that battle was won. To a ridiculous extent, at least in developed countries. America throws away a shocking amount of food, which it produces unsustainably, by the way, and people are hungry. Tell me this isn't insane. And I'll tell you it is.

And that this system is sick. No wonder we're cynical. That I won't deny. 

MAGA Shitshow

Our whole country is a MAGA shitshow. There's no escaping it. 

Mined Expansion

The age of extraction is coming to a head. The age of exploitation. The age of violence, manipulation and disempowerment. Strange about the disempowerment. When we're raping the world of resources. 

Truth in paradox. Enormous wealth, but insanely concentrated. By a mercilessly greedy system. Injustice by choice, in a quest for power. Don't look now. The end will not be pretty. And the end is near.

The Transformation Will Not be Televised

The right wing media empire -- the hate machine -- is a creature of evangelicals. Their home brew. Their grow room. Their spiritual retreat.

Christianity is about a transformation. To a place of love. There are seeds of hate. And seeds of love. Cultivate the seeds of love. 

The transformation is being televised. By Fox News. The false transformation of hate. The real transformation will not be televised. 

Trial by Ordeal, or Something

Puritans had some cool ways of determining guilt. Like submersing you to see if you sank or what. Float and you're guilty. Sink and you're innocent but presumably drowned. Or something like that. In this way God makes your guilt or innocence known. 

There were many variations. But we've moved on. Puritans have new kinds of trials. Suffering is efficacious in lots of ways. You might be induced to repent and have a 'personal relationship' with Jesus. Or you might die and get to see Jesus that way.

All good. 

So they love suffering. For other people since they assume they are saved, being evangelicals. The thing now is money. God reveals his favor by who gets rich. This has advantages. Not least that you can suck up to rich people by telling them they're the best.

God's chosen, like you. 

They reward you by giving you money. You cut their taxes to thank them and apparently it goes on forever. That's negative taxation, effectively. Socialism. Socialism applied to the rich because God loves them. You socialize the costs of their predations. 

We've come so far since the Middle Ages. 

Tea and Clampetts

They are an odd alliance. Some semblance of the old American high-tea aristocracy that pretended to royalty and claimed innate superiority by the favor of God and ... the rednecks. But the rednecks, or evangelicals, also claim innate superiority because they are saved. Got their card stamped at some hideous revival or whatnot. They have a 'personal relationship' with Jesus.

Like with a guy in a bar. What if God were one of us? From which personal relationship we are evidently excluded. All the weird shit is kicking in. Like wanting inheritance to determine everything, in some way. Genetically or monetarily or by being chosen by God or make-it-up. The important thing to know is some people are better than others. And it probably doesn't include you.