Helplessly Hoping...

I am growing in frustration at the rone of public "voices" of the alleged "left" carrying on in the wake of the democratic debacle of the past year, as if there were some magical, as yet undisclosed treatment for the Nation's assorted, debilitating ills and justifiying their incomprehensible, public optimism. It verges on DENIAL, the fervor with which the encroachment of fascism is ignored. I just watched John Oliver raving rationally about "Voting Rights" and, while he's sufficiently, and frequently hilariously outraged (I'll never view lobster the same way again), he's stretching for "hope."  

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9OdruH_qM)

We don't need "hope." We need DESPERATION! 

All hands to the pumps and repel boarders!

It now seems impossible to me that these divisions--symbolized by the various strains of the virus crisis--can be healed. Sadly, in a "democracy"--especiaslly in a simulacrum like ours, all hollowed out by "media_ation," an active, wealthy, fanatical minority--1/3 of the people?--can obstruct, damage, and prevent policies the Majority support and which preserve even the current charade. Witness: the present "Debt ceiling/spending limit" kabuki.

There really is NOTHING we can do about it. It's well past "doing something." The moment passed when the Ruuskis installed the Saffron Shitstain. Nothing WILL "restore" trust in elections, once it is effectively problematized, because nothing CAN restore it. No subsequent election will ever be conducted without post facto challenges by well-financed losers. That dam has burst. There's no going back. There's no "there" to go back to. It's being erased, effaced, defaced.

I would wager dollahs to quatloos that the elections in 2022 will be characterized by the same tactic. No "loss" at the polls will go uncontested, especially by the GQPhux. And this will become the rule, which won't be contested itself because of the benefit and advantages it bestows. Any functioning "democracy," especially such an aspirational one as this, so dreadfully unfulfilled, yet so hubristically proud of itself, absolutely requires that the governed trust in the means of selecting their governors. In "obsoleting" that agreement, our "democracy" has been turned against us while we watched, helplessly. Because, what can YOU do? They have packed the judiciary with Federalist Society toadies. The SCROTUS is an embarrassing, and a partisan joke presided over by "practicing" acolytes of Opus Dei. They've corrupted as much of the electoral machineries of the State as they can reach, and are extending their reach all the time. Votes don't matter; STATES matter, and they've been gerrymandered to ensure continued GQPhux dominance. Election laws are being overturned and rewritten to exclude the poor, the young, and people of color from Florida to Arizona. Seventeen States, over 100 distinct pieces of legislation. By the time we get to the next chance to vote, it'll be a dead letter. Such is my deepest dread.

The First Day of the REST of My Life: SEPT. 21, 1964

 

An eternity ago, last night, I was in a cheap hotel room, on the corner of Second & Central in downtown Albuquerque, awaiting the morrow, when I would fly to San Antonio for Basic Training.

(I had enlisted in April, just after my 18th, and gotten an induction deferrment for six months so I could play all summer in Santa Fe, where I had the position of Lifeguard at the city's preeminent and most reknowned hostel, La Fonda. I had a side gig operating an arc-light during performances of the Santa Fe Opera, too, which came with the very best lagniappe, the post-performance parties at the Ranch. But I digress...)

In the morning, they fed us at a nearby diner, then formally inducted the lot of us at the recruiting office. They then loaded us onto a Bluebird military bus, took us out to the airport, loaded us onto a commercial flight (an American Airlines Constellation) and off we went. I don't recall "making friends" or attempts to be made friends with at point with any of my fellow inductees. 

We arrived mid-morning in San Antonio. It was hot AND humid, still, in September,  unlike my accustomed haunts and runs in the High Chihuahuan. I had descended nearly a MILE in elevation from 'Burque. I soon learned what a difference that made--the same as for athletes who train at altitude.

There was a collection area at the airport, where enlistees waited upon arrival. It was manned by Sergeants of assorted stripes who maintained stern order in the terminal.  Another AF Bluebird bus collected a gang of enlistees from the civilian airport on the north side of town and shuttled us to Lackland AFB, far on the southern edge of the city.

Debauching from the bus, inside the gate, gut tight with anxious anticipation, we were rudely introduced to what was to come by a short, round, angry little "Senior Airman" named Bottelieri (after 57 years I remember the sonofabitch's name and appearance). That's where and when the adventure began. Bott (as we soon called him) lined us up in approved military style and performed the first of MANY inspections we/I'd endure in the forthcoming years. When he got to me, he reached up, wordlessly took the RayBans from my face, and unceremoniously stomped 'em into fragments on the drill pad. Message: Received.

Air Force "basic" was not of the same order as that experienced by enlistees in the other branches. It was notoriously 'easier' than the Army, not to mention the Marines. There seemed to be a tacit understanding that, since we were probably NOT destined for the front lines or infantry warfare, the rigors of training were somewhat relaxed. 

For instance, I never had to march 20 miles under a full pack, or run a mile under six minutes. We did pretty extensive PT but, for me, coming from a MILE higher than Lackland, it seemed I could take a deep breath at reveille and exhale at taps.

But what the USAF lacked in physiological rigor, it more than made up for in gratuitous, capricious humiliations, inflicted with glee and malice by the "Drill Instructors"--witness the incident of my (expensive) shades. I think they were recruited for the jobs BECAUSE they were capable  of such asswholery and shittery. 

WHAT WAS "THE LAST STRAW?"

 

Bruce Lindner wrote:

“Dear Republicans:

You didn’t object when you heard Donald Trump say he likes to grab women “by the pussy.”

You didn’t object when he kicked the American media out of the Oval Office and handed two Russian spies classified data entrusted to him by one of our allies.

You didn’t object when he likened our intelligence community to “Nazis.”

You didn’t object when he stood before the Memorial Wall of Stars at Langley and told lie after lie about himself and the election.

You didn’t object while at the Helsinki Summit, he met behind closed doors with the Russian President.

You didn’t object to him banning the American Press from covering that meeting.

You didn’t object when he emerged from that meeting and sided with the Russian President over the findings of our own intelligence community.

You didn’t object when the Trump campaign admitted to accepting Russian offers to help him defeat SecState Clinton.

You didn’t object when he stood before the cameras and said; “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find 30k e-mails that are missing.”

You didn’t object when the Russians responded that VERY DAY with stolen emails.

You didn’t object when it was confirmed that the basis for the Trump Tower meeting was a total fabrication. That it had nothing to do with adopting Russian children, and everything to do with swinging the election.

You didn’t object when it was revealed that Trump himself floated the cover story of adoptions from Russia.

You didn’t object when it was confirmed that his campaign staff had met with Russian agents over 150 times, after claiming they had never met with them at all.

You didn’t object when the Trump campaign declined to inform the FBI about the Russian advances.

You didn’t object when Trump’s campaign manager gave internal data on four key battleground states to agents working for Putin.

You sure as hell didn’t object when those very same four battleground states miraculously shifted towards trump on Election Day.

You didn’t object when Trump kicked his Attorney General out of the room and asked the FBI Director to let his National Security Advisor off the hook for lying about his contacts with Russian agents.

You didn’t object when Trump fired that FBI Director for declining to let Flynn off the hook.

You didn’t object when Special Counsel Robert Mueller said he couldn’t establish a conspiracy, largely because so many of Trump’s staffers lied during their interviews, and because Trump himself refused to submit to a live interview.

You didn’t object when Special Counsel Mueller cited no fewer than ten instances of the president himself obstructing justice in his report: an impeachable offense.

You didn’t object when it was revealed he cheated on his wife with a porn star.

You didn’t object when it was revealed that he paid off that porn star to the tune of $130,000.00 to buy her silence just prior to the election, an illegal attempt to hide relevant facts from the electorate.

You didn’t object when he withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA, which was the first and ONLY treaty that’s successfully kept Iranian nuclear ambitions in check.

You didn’t object when he pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords.

You didn’t object when he scuttled the Obama administration’s clean air and water standards.

You didn’t object when he opened up vast tracts of protected wilderness to his friends in the oil and mining industries.

You didn’t object to the myriad cases of violations of the emoluments clause.

You didn’t object when he mocked a disabled man at one of his rallies.

You didn’t object to the recently-discovered military stopovers at Trump properties in Scotland.

You didn’t object when after mass shooting after mass shooting, he wouldn’t lift a finger to protect even little school children from gun violence.

You didn’t object when he started putting tariffs on everyone from China to Turkey, which have undeniably hurt millions of people around the world and shaken the stock markets.

You didn’t object when he gave the corporate farming industry $26B in compensation for their losses due to his tariffs.

You didn’t object when he channeled $3.6B in Pentagon appropriations to his wall on the Mexican border.

You didn’t object when Trump called out against “Islamic terrorism” on multiple occasions, but never once for terrorism by white nationalists.

You didn’t object when he forcibly separated little children from their parents.

You didn’t object when he confined those children to chain-link paddocks.

You didn’t object when a whistleblower revealed the president had on multiple occasions said things that potentially undermined our nation’s safety and security.

You didn’t object when his personal lawyer, his personal consultant, and his army of sycophants at Fox News have repeatedly and consistently lied about ALL of the above for three excruciatingly long years.

So here’s my question for you: What about any of the above do you believe entitles you to the right to call yourselves “patriots?” In anything other than today’s bizarro-world, you wouldn’t even make the rank of American. When this nightmare ends, we’ll remind you of just how patriotic you were during these days. Your karma is gonna sting.”

A TYPOLOGY of FACTICITY: Discuss

 

On further reflection, I have come to think that a "fact" may be any perceptible phenomenon that exists independent of human verification, e.g., gravity, weather, etc., which in addition exerts material influence upom behaviors. Human interaction with "facts" begins with acknowledgment of their irrebuttable universality and universibility, which "Science" then seeks to explain. 

Human explanations of "facts" are NOT the "facts," just as the map is not the territory (Korzybsky, 1931). Using words to describe an or explain scientific "facts" necessarily distorts those "facts" to match the words available to describe whatever the phenomenon being described either consists or is capable of. 

Which, I think, could be at the center of the Schroedinger paradox.?   

A Case of "In-House" Victim Blaming

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-biden-is-priming-the-pump-for-trump-part-deux/ar-AAOuEBp?ocid=msedgntp#comments

"Biden is priming the pump for Trump Part Deuce? Opinion by Arick Wierson and Bradley Honan "

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$

A couple of big-time ("moderate") Dem "movers & shakers"--two very comfortable White males--are already tolling the Democrats' forthcoming electoral woes, heaping on President Biden for "giving" the Fascisti & GOPhux increased electoral leverage. Wierson was Bloomberg's media hack and Honan is founder and honcho of a "strategic public opinion research and data analytics outfit consulting with the DNC.

Democrats blaming Biden for Lord Dampnut's concession to the Taliban and the subsequent withdrawal, or for Lord Dampnut's failed response to the pandemic, is the height of intellectual dishonesty.

Nor can Biden be blamed for not shutting Lord Dampnut's flapping yap and whiny, aggrieved tone. That's the Corporate media doing that, which you guys make fortunes advising, at the stern behest of their CorpoRat masters.

Biden's not at fault for being unable to more successfully penetrate the continued barrages and the residual effects of FOUR years of conscious, malignant attacks on the possibility of public truth, via big lies, false information and conscious distortion which the MSM gleefully publish.

I don't think the Democrat's majority in the Congres will survive the 2022 election, and if it doesn't, then their 2024 hopes will vanish. But they've never been very large, and the unchecked, malicious, dishonest and intentionally divisive "fraudits" will unquestionaby metastasize. Fraudits and similar challenges don't have to succeed in overturning elections if they plant and tend the seeds of distrust.

If the losing side refuses to concede defeat, that defeats Democracy, in a single act.

P.s.: Votes matter less than States.

One Little Conspiracy Among Friends

I confess to entertaining one "9-11 conspiracy theory": LIHOP: They "Let It Happen On Purpose."

I think (circumstantial, I know) evidence points to the fascist Busheviks knew some kind of attack was coming.

They thought it would be "small," and "manageable," so they cynically and criminally let it happen, to strengthen the (at the time, dissolving) Bushevik regime. (Recall that the Bushies were being crucified, nightly, by the late-nite comics like Jon Stewart?)

Remember, too: The Regime was in chaos. Bush was proving dumber and more incompetent every day, Rumsfeld was on "death watch" through the summer at DoD, Condi Rice was (and still is) a pathetic joke, Colon Powell was still a patsy.
They were losing power daily.

It turned out, of course, worse than imagined, but the Regime bounced back by invading Afghanistan and then Iraq.

To me, it was a cynical, homicidal war-crime, the first of hundreds more to come.

Desperate times (the collapse of the Bush presidency into a steaming heap of irrelevant rubble, taking the party with it) require desperate measures?

I do not have hard evidence.

I said as much.

I just have the suspicion, based on their 1) history and 2) later behaviors, that the Busheviks/GOPhux felt they needed a provocation to unleash the U*S military, thus to distract from the disaster the regime had become in just over EIGHT months.

They didn't expect the towers to fall, even if the nature of the attack may have been anticipated. They didn't know the date or time, so couldn't institute preventative measures. They weren't surprised y the attack, only by the size and scope.

I think it is impossible to underestimate how carelessly destructive and evil are the upper echelons of the GOPhux and its ownership.

The GOPhux reply to the COVID demonstrates conclusively they do NOT care about USer casualties when there is political advantage to be gained.

If you reject the possibility, you seriously underestimate the depths of their depravity.

Expert Counsel

 

When I have erudite, expert friends, I defer to their wisdom. The estimable Dr. Kempster MD (aka Prof. Wombat) is one such, Hear HIM!

>> Unless you're allergic to it, there is no excuse for not taking the vaccine. None. No excuse.

You run the risk of perpetuating the pandemic. Of killing kids, immunosuppressed people, old people, right wing antivaccination radio talk show hosts, more.

You also, by perpetuating the pandemic, make inevitable the emergence of new mutations of the virus, which could be anything from the trivial to the catastrophic.

You are committing a far, far worse offense than is the drunk driver, who, I presume, you think should be enjoined from going at 90 mph past a school.

The proud rightie position is that you have an absolute right to freedom until your fist actually touches someone's nose.

We're not just talking touch here. We're talking driving the nasal septum up into the brain.

Government has not just the right but the duty to require vaccination for those who aren't allergic to it. Period.

There is no excuse, none, I repeat, none, for the immoral, unethical, despicable and stupid act of refusing vaccination. Period.

Do I make myself clear?<<

Abundantly, Professor....