Lining Up the "Kill Shot"

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I am ALWAYS surprised when folks profess astonishment that the filthy fucking Fascists of the GOP seem intent on destroying Social Security and Medicare.
"Why would they want to destroy programs that are HELPING people," these tyros inquire, stupifiedly?
The answers range from the paralyzingly ordinary to the byzantiely bizarre. But it is fundamentally this:
It is BECAUSE they "work," BECAUSE they are  effective, BECAUSE they are popular, that the GOPhux target them.
They have an ulterior motive: They WANT you to hate Government.
Remember Ronny Raygoon's endearing homily, the nine, most feared words? ("I'm from the government and I'm here to help.")
They run for office claiming Govt. it terrible, and then, when elected, they PROVE it, beyond any possibility of doubt.
They want YOU to become so tired, and sick, and disgusted, and horrified by the mess they create that YOU will throw up your hands and walk away. They want you to voluntarily foresake your popular sovereignty.
Trump is the ULTIMATE insult and affront. He has irreparably damaged the Office of the President. And yet, he CANNOT be defeated in the conventional sense. Thus, his mere presence on the office lends to it an aura of meretriciousness that is fatal to public trust.
Which is PRECISELY the whole fucking POINT@!
Because, if the people hate and distrust their own sovereignty, they won't mind so much when the CorpoRats swoop in and steal the whole fucking thing, and privatize it.
This is an historical moment, because it is apparently the culmination of the Centuries'-long plutocratic attacks upon the Commons.

The Reason "Why"

Yer ol' perfesser'd say, the answer is simple, but it tolls so loud a knell for the decease of the Murkin "democracy" that it is likely to be dismissed as nihilism, because most people cannot admit or really comprehend the inhumanity of their enemies.
"They," your plutocratic enemies, are systematically alienating the People from their own sovereignty.
The GOPhux and their billionaire paymasters are creating the conditions under which even those people most committed to the political "values" of the Founders, John Locke, and the Enlightenment, will HAVE to throw up their hands in disgust and distaste at the feculent clusterfuck our politics have become and walk away, leaving all the messy shit to the corpoRats and plutocRats to handle in their boardrooms.
El Dotardo's just the dirty end of needle, and a distraction from the real shit work in Congress and in the deparments and agencies, such that by the time they're done, there will not BE any part of the Federal state involved in actual "public service," only "public regulation" under CorpoRat direction and supervision.
If one were a student of history, this present moment could be viewed, historically, as the culmination of the centuries-long design to eliminate "commons," and "public property.," altogether.
You're watching history unfold.
Aincha excited?

Double Y/Our Trouble: NO to ConCon!

Just Say "No"
I recorded this video in early 2015,  long before the advent upon the scene of the Orange Dotard and his retinue of grifters, philistines, and gunsels. I have been concerned about the prospect of a Constitutional Convention for the last decade or more.
Don't scoff at the idea that the GOPhux and the El Dotardo's Douchevix will try to call a Constitutional Convention. I believe it to be one of the main reasons the feculent, fetid lot  were brought to power.
Roy Moore spoke for a whole LOT of folks when he said life'd be a whole lot simpler if there were only the first 10 Amendments. But the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth,, Seventh, and Eighth are already as good as defunct.
The election of El Dotardo will likely be floated by ConCon advocates trying to attract support from the "Left/Lib/Pwog" contingent. It would require a Con Con or an Amendment to close the Electoral College, and one may easily foresee disguised corpoRat interests recruiting the gullible, thoughtless, or intemperate from the "left" to support a ConCon on the promise that the Electoral College--or the Second Amendment, or Citizens United, or Hobby Lobby, or any of the shibboleths of that wing's dream agenda--would be up for debate and repeal (when nothing would/could be further from the truth of the matter).
Don 't underestimate the mischief that could ensue.
While appearing "democratic," nevertheless there is a very legitimate threat that the Corporats would commandeer the whole process, especially now with the Orange Dotard in the White House. They would then use the occasion to rewrite/overturn the US Constitution in favor of Corporat/plutocratic (and racial) interests, and to eliminate or greatly curtail individual and civil rights/liberties.
What could go wrong?
For instance, an amendment would be written to codify English as the national language, even though "we" are becoming more linguistically diverse every year.
I'd anticipate installation of a national religion, too; and the constitutional prohibition against abortion. Prohibitions against GLBTQ behavior/marriage. I think the freedoms of speech and assembly would be diminished if not excised. Repeal and/or revocation of much civil rights and environmental law. Draconian immigration restrictions. You've already seen the portents, haven't you?
Let your imagination take you to the darkest place/worst case you can think of and THAT'S what will be on the table.
The GOPhukkkerz killed 'democracy' on Dec. 12, 2000. The republic effectively perished on Nov 8, 2016. All that's left, really, is that old parchment. I really object to the idea of Trumpola, Bannon and the Koch Brothers wipong their asses on it.
Not even James Madison, who effectively authored the first ConCon, wanted to go through another.

A year of Dogs: A Small Celebration

This time, last year, I still had Budreaux, the noble, ruddy-nosed pit bull, my 14-

year, boon companion. He had an aggressive cancer, and his health was failing very fast last winter. I had to "send him on ahead" finally, on the 23rd.
Little more than a week later, Angela Stell, the Guardian Angel(a) of NMDOG www.nmdog.org/ and benefactress of the myriad abused/neglected/chained dogs all over northern NM, and whose work I have supported as much as I could/can, asked me, would I take in a hospice case: a large, elderly fixed male of indeterminate 'husky' lineage, who had been essentially chained to a tree for perhaps as long as 7 years or so. He was in shock, with some unspecified, possibly gastric ailment and they didn't have much hope, but he needed a place to spend what time he had left.
So: Enter Mr. Smokes
Aka NOBLE @ NMDOG.

When he arrived, last January, the NMDOG folks carried him in and laid him on a pad. He was lethargic, indifferent, withdrawn, apathetic, without affect of any kind. He responded to nothing but the sound of big trucks going by in the street, fireworks, thunder, and my appearance at his bunk with food.  Not a name. Not a whistle. Not a clap. Not a click. He ate, but without appetite. In about a week, he relocated into what became his lair, the library/tv room.
Amazing NMDOG rescuer/groomer Dawn Rivas (http://doggieden.biz/index.html
had shaved over 30 lbs of matted fur. He had been so matted, he couldn't raise his chin from his chest, when they rescued him. I had to lift him to his feet and lead him outside. He had no interest in human contact, at all.
Over the next several months, Mr. Smokes, as I called him--cuz he moved silently as a cloud--slowly seemed to be sort of coming around. He raised his head more often, and more alertly. He perked up when I brought him his meals. He started to be able to rise under his own power.  Progress was slow, but steady. He began to look around at his surroundings. He started to go out without urging. I had procured a collar-bell so I could track his doings at night, because he was rather catholic about where he would relieve himself. He preferred to go outside but if the door wasn't open the the need was exigent, it wasn't his fault; he doesn't haz thumbs.
Except for the matter of affect. He was still aloof, inert, and when not, then evasive to my efforts to interact.
I petted him and cosseted him as much as I could, but him being 1) aloof, and 2) on the floor, and 3) my difficulties with mobility in general, there wasn't a lot of opportunity for intimate interactions.
Then in late September, Tasha arrived, and it's like night and day. The LIGHT went on went on.
She had had some human socialization, and knew how to "dog." and she set about teaching him. He was a reluctant pupil at first, but learned fast. He noticed how much she sought out skritches and such, and it slowly was revealed to him what a pleaasant thing a human touch can be.
Tasha's been such a blessing for Smokes: They're both "fosters" (but try to take 'em!), but she'll stay with me, and when the inevitable time comes, we'll find another foster/hospice. But Smoky's a totally new dog, since she arrived. It's a night/day change., or, rather, dawn/NOON contrast, cuz he was slowly emerging.
But the change since Tasha/Buttercup/Petunia/the Blonde Bombshell entered his/our life has been significant. Tonight he's prone on a mat four feet from me, head on paws, just watching me, in the front room of the perrara... Out of his lair (for the last 11 months), and where he's been there 30 min, or so, while the tri-paw,  Tasha/Petunia/Buttercup/Blondie, curls up like in arctic fox on the black futon, six feet away. They'd move as soon as I stood up to tale the foto. She's an amazing athlete, possessing only three legs. Just as agile and active as if she had all four.
The big developments are two:
First, over the course of the last week, or so, I've become Smoky's official human/person. He's attached himself to me. He stays close. He follows me from room to room, like a puppy. He's always nearby, though he returns to his lair in the library to sleep... I have to be aware of it, cuz he's an old dog, with bad hips...
He now actively SEEKS affection and attention. Tasha taught him. He'll wander off and then wander back and stick his head in my direction for some skritches, a couple of times an hour. He responds to my voice and he now recognizes his name, in most of it's permutations.
And, as it turns out, his breed is "Wooly Malamute."
He has displayed some 'frolic' behavior, albiet limited. But the instinct seems to be returning. And Tasha would be willing, though I think she's too strong. No animosity. Pack order.
In another major development, Tasha bestowed her first and so far only Kiss-on-the-Nose on me the other evening when SHE was getting the petting session, and HE came over to horn in: In a paroxysm of jealousy, she reached up and licked my nose!
My cup runneth plenty!
May you have "Happy Holidays and Jolly Yule!~"