On Facebook, I came across an early manifestation of the coming struggle for the Democratic Presidential nomination. We're in for two difficult years. The conflict will be between the New Deal & democratic socialist wing of the party and the overpowering centrist big money wing. The difference in ideology is genuine, but behind it are the thousands of staff careers and millions of dollars that go to the winners in the Democratic primaries. Think of the party as a giant corporation where you can make a good living and sometimes get Clinton rich if you support the winning faction. That's not all of the conflict, of course, but that is a major aspect of it.
I hope the Democrats nominate someone people like. Voters liked FDR, JFK and Obama. If voters actually like the candidate, it gives him or her an edge. But for the power brokers in the party, winning control of the party money is what counts most, not winning the election in November. So Democrats sometimes end up with a candidate most voters dislike. So do the Republicans. It's a strange outcome of our system.
Monday, December 31, 2018
Louis C. K.
The much-admired comic Louis C. K. apparently lost followers last year because of transgressive sexual misbehavior. I don't know the details. I didn't watch him. Anyway Louis seems to be getting ready for a comeback, and below is a sample of his new comedy material, which is addressed to the Parkland Farms kids.
“You’re not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot. Why does that mean I have to listen to you? How does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot, you pushed some fat kid in the way and now I need to listen to you talking?”
“You’re not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot. Why does that mean I have to listen to you? How does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot, you pushed some fat kid in the way and now I need to listen to you talking?”
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Who Is Captain Marvel?
Who Captain Marvel is depends on when you were young. My encounter with the good captain came in the 1940s when Billy Batson was more popular than Clark Kent. Captain Marvel was a handsome beefy dude who could fly etc. until the creators of Superman sued him for a copyright infraction and took away his power of flight. In my memory, though, Superman could leap tall buildings with a single bound, but that's not flying. It's jumping. He didn't flap his arms or flutter his feet.
In the the 1960s Superman bought Captain Marvel and restarted him in lesser comic roles, the ultimate revenge. Recently he turned Captain Marvel iinto a transsexual named Monica Rambeau, who appears as Captain Marvel in books published by Marvel Comics.
If you're old that may surprise you.
Captain Marvel led the Avengers for a while, so don't get the idea that she is the Other--she's one of us, only better.
In the the 1960s Superman bought Captain Marvel and restarted him in lesser comic roles, the ultimate revenge. Recently he turned Captain Marvel iinto a transsexual named Monica Rambeau, who appears as Captain Marvel in books published by Marvel Comics.
If you're old that may surprise you.
Captain Marvel led the Avengers for a while, so don't get the idea that she is the Other--she's one of us, only better.
Friday, December 28, 2018
Jennifer Rubin
I see a lot of Jennifer Rubin on MSNBC, where she is one of the anti-Trump conservatives I put up with temporarily I kind of like her, but I figure Rubin will soon return to attacking the New Deal etc.
This morning I read one of her columns, and in it she claims that our three greatest human losses in the last year were George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush and John McCain. Forget about Stephen Hawkings and Aretha Franklin.
In short, the nation should be mourning a colorless, Wall Street, CIA President no one remembers, his frighteningly unpleasant wife and John McCain, a war lover who had an independent streak and moments of honor and decency. The Bushes will be remembered, if at all, for their boys, an awesomely repellent governor of Florida and an uninvolved, dried-out-addict President who killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis by mistake. The couple who raised these creeps should have been mortified.
My point is that Jennifer Rubin's thinking must be an inch deep.
This morning I read one of her columns, and in it she claims that our three greatest human losses in the last year were George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush and John McCain. Forget about Stephen Hawkings and Aretha Franklin.
In short, the nation should be mourning a colorless, Wall Street, CIA President no one remembers, his frighteningly unpleasant wife and John McCain, a war lover who had an independent streak and moments of honor and decency. The Bushes will be remembered, if at all, for their boys, an awesomely repellent governor of Florida and an uninvolved, dried-out-addict President who killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis by mistake. The couple who raised these creeps should have been mortified.
My point is that Jennifer Rubin's thinking must be an inch deep.
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Spanky's Foe
President Spanky is currently holed up in the White House negotiating the building of a fence with his nemesis, himself (aka Agent Orange). He's going back and forth, playing the red checkers and the black ones, taking turns. Meanwhile the government is partly shut down.
Congress is at home, drinking eggnog and singing the songs of the season, while Spanky frantically tweets offers back and forth. He's promised to give up concrete and change the name "wall" to "steel oblongs," but Agent Orange won't budge.
Keep in mind that President Spanky is the greatest financial negotiator alive. He made a small fortune by inheriting a large one and losing most of it. Negotiating with himself is a can't-lose proposition on Twitter. Soon he will declare himself the winner and go home, where he dines on the best chocolate cake you can imagine.
Congress is at home, drinking eggnog and singing the songs of the season, while Spanky frantically tweets offers back and forth. He's promised to give up concrete and change the name "wall" to "steel oblongs," but Agent Orange won't budge.
Keep in mind that President Spanky is the greatest financial negotiator alive. He made a small fortune by inheriting a large one and losing most of it. Negotiating with himself is a can't-lose proposition on Twitter. Soon he will declare himself the winner and go home, where he dines on the best chocolate cake you can imagine.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Four Walls for Spanky
Curtis Lambert of Santa Rosa has proposed setting up a go-fund-me to build walls around President Spanky's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For unknown reasons, this star has been singled out to be frequently crushed by hammers and rinsed with loogies. There are four prototype walls developed by our government, awaiting only funding from Mexico to become useful. Lambert suggests that we place a different protective wall on each side of Spanky's star, but what if most people still object to building walls? We could unite behind steel slats instead.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Trump's Immigration Plan
President Spanky, of course, has no immigration plan and could hardly care less. He likes undocumented workers . He hires them at his mansions because they work for starvation wages and are helpless when he cheats them.
The immigration issue means nothing to Spanky but a lot to the bone-stupid Trumpers, who do have a plan. They want immigration to end.
To end immigration we will have to cancel flights, trains and boats from foreign countries and build walls along the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific coasts to keep foreigners out. Then we'll need a wall along the Canadian border to keep people in.
The immigration issue means nothing to Spanky but a lot to the bone-stupid Trumpers, who do have a plan. They want immigration to end.
To end immigration we will have to cancel flights, trains and boats from foreign countries and build walls along the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific coasts to keep foreigners out. Then we'll need a wall along the Canadian border to keep people in.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
The Dirty People
Yesterday I heard someone say that the city was dirty because immigrants like the Chinese are a dirty people. He watches Fox News. This morning I read that Tucker Carlson of Fox is losing advertisers because he suggests on air that our immigrants make the cities "poorer and dirtier." I'd like to suggest that Fox News does the work of the Devil, but I am not into Manichaeism.
People like Carlson attach "dirty" to groups in racist or religious categories. My wife is a dirty Jew, my student is a dirty Mexican, the Chinese are a dirty people and so on. This has little to do with reality except in cases where poor people lack access to showers. In the old West, underpaid cow herders bathed once a year in a creek. They did this in the late spring, whether they needed it or not.
People like Carlson attach "dirty" to groups in racist or religious categories. My wife is a dirty Jew, my student is a dirty Mexican, the Chinese are a dirty people and so on. This has little to do with reality except in cases where poor people lack access to showers. In the old West, underpaid cow herders bathed once a year in a creek. They did this in the late spring, whether they needed it or not.
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Old Yellow Hair
There's a sense in which President Spanky is not a liar. To lie is to consciously mislead. Much of the time Spanky does not appear to grasp what he's doing.
Instead, as new, damning facts come to life, Spanky instantly incorporates them into the delusional state in which he has lived his protected, billionaire's life. New damning facts, twisted on arrival, become added proof he's been innocent all along. Spanky does this effortlessly, automatically. He seems intent on convincing himself and maybe his dead father that he isn't a mental degenerate.
Today Spanky was saying that General Flynn is tough. But if Flynn rats him out, it's because the Feds scared him into making up false stories against the gorgeous victim, the ancient man with white hair dyed a urine yellow, the delusional dotard who is currently President of the United States of America.
Instead, as new, damning facts come to life, Spanky instantly incorporates them into the delusional state in which he has lived his protected, billionaire's life. New damning facts, twisted on arrival, become added proof he's been innocent all along. Spanky does this effortlessly, automatically. He seems intent on convincing himself and maybe his dead father that he isn't a mental degenerate.
Today Spanky was saying that General Flynn is tough. But if Flynn rats him out, it's because the Feds scared him into making up false stories against the gorgeous victim, the ancient man with white hair dyed a urine yellow, the delusional dotard who is currently President of the United States of America.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Upstairs, Downstairs in Roma
Netflix's big hit came out last week. Roma has the same name as Fellini's somewhat autobiographical film about growing up in Italy, but this Roma is somewhat autobiographical about growing up in a middle-class barrio in Mexico City. (You can't copyright a title.)
The children growing up in Roma don't get much attention. The movie has one developed character, a servant, a young Mixtec, who lives in the big house. We learn nothing about her culture, her education, her goals. The first half of the film is a slice of her hard-working life. She picks up dog waste (most of us have done that). The children seem to accept and like her. The mother blows hot and cold. The father isn't competent or nice. The movie gets off to a long dull start.
Then all hell breaks loose. And so on.
That structure--a long dull start and then hell breaks loose--is rare. In general movies want to grab your interest right away and keep you involved. The director took a big chance. There is something painfully honest in the film: life can be long and boring, followed by horror.
Roma has received high praise from everyone It's a contender. I'm not sure it works, but it is memorable and real in a way that movies nearly always are not. It ends with a shot of the back part of the family home, and all the structures are canted expressionistically.
The children growing up in Roma don't get much attention. The movie has one developed character, a servant, a young Mixtec, who lives in the big house. We learn nothing about her culture, her education, her goals. The first half of the film is a slice of her hard-working life. She picks up dog waste (most of us have done that). The children seem to accept and like her. The mother blows hot and cold. The father isn't competent or nice. The movie gets off to a long dull start.
Then all hell breaks loose. And so on.
That structure--a long dull start and then hell breaks loose--is rare. In general movies want to grab your interest right away and keep you involved. The director took a big chance. There is something painfully honest in the film: life can be long and boring, followed by horror.
Roma has received high praise from everyone It's a contender. I'm not sure it works, but it is memorable and real in a way that movies nearly always are not. It ends with a shot of the back part of the family home, and all the structures are canted expressionistically.
The Cost of Killing Andy Lopez
About five years ago a frightened training officer shot Andy Lopez, a Latino boy, seven times and killed him and then was promoted to sergeant. The sheriff responsible for all this, having somehow grown unpopular, backed away into retirement and was replaced by someone similar. The new sheriff appears to be pushing a movement to block civilian review of killings committed by scared white male law enforcement shooters.
Fine--if that is what citizens want. But this week county officials are meeting to deal with the lawsuit by the dead boy's parents. It took five years to get this far, but at last the county has to face what it and the sheriff sanctioned and rewarded. So far this year the county has coughed up 3.6 million dollar of our money to people with civil rights lawsuits. I'm talking about tax money that might have been used to repair roads or buy supervisors new swivel chairs.
I want to see the Lopez family paid for their incredible pain. They were cheated out of seeing Andy Lopez grow up and become a better man than the law enforcers and supervisors who abruptly ended his childhood. But damn the sheriffs and supervisors and voters who made this happen--and now we get to pay for their heartless cowardice.
Fine--if that is what citizens want. But this week county officials are meeting to deal with the lawsuit by the dead boy's parents. It took five years to get this far, but at last the county has to face what it and the sheriff sanctioned and rewarded. So far this year the county has coughed up 3.6 million dollar of our money to people with civil rights lawsuits. I'm talking about tax money that might have been used to repair roads or buy supervisors new swivel chairs.
I want to see the Lopez family paid for their incredible pain. They were cheated out of seeing Andy Lopez grow up and become a better man than the law enforcers and supervisors who abruptly ended his childhood. But damn the sheriffs and supervisors and voters who made this happen--and now we get to pay for their heartless cowardice.
Apparently my comment on the killing of Andy Lopez was removed by someone on Facebook with the power to censor me and cover for errors in criminal justice.
In any case, Sonoma County has agreed to pay the parents of Andy Lopez 3 million dollars of taxpayer money. The county and sheriff still refuse to accept any blame for their training and shoot first policies. "A county spokeswoman said the $3 million settlement, which the board unanimously approved in a closed-door session, includes legal fees but does not admit liability or fault on the behalf of the county.
"Andy’s tragic death five years ago was a heartbreaking moment for the entire community," said James Gore, chair of the Board of Supervisors, in a statement. "The settlement today is a moment to move forward in the healing process."
Not really. Andy Lopez is still dead. James Gore may feel healed, but how much did he care to start with?
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Fully Clothed
It is a curse of each aging-out generation to discover that younger people have found better ways in which to enjoy romance. I was reminded of this last night while watching a cutting-edge romantic comedy in which the young couple (in this case a male and female) were enjoying premarital conjugal relations (so to speak), and the woman was fully clothed. Not only was she wearing a bra but also a blouse. I believe she had removed her down coat.
I've seen a lot of clothed congress in films over the last decade, but I don't suppose it is actually new. People living in chilly caves probably did it while wearing leather and perfume; and then fire was invented and clothed sex fell out of favor for 100,000 years. It was likely forgotten until recently revived by imaginative youngsters in the film industry.
(also on Facebook)
I've seen a lot of clothed congress in films over the last decade, but I don't suppose it is actually new. People living in chilly caves probably did it while wearing leather and perfume; and then fire was invented and clothed sex fell out of favor for 100,000 years. It was likely forgotten until recently revived by imaginative youngsters in the film industry.
(also on Facebook)
Saturday, December 15, 2018
A Few Dollars More
President Spanky is planning changes that will allow cars to emit additional pollution, increasing the speed at which global warming is altering the world's climates. What does he care? His mansions are air-conditioned, and he'll be dead soon.
The automakers have argued against these changes, which tells us one thing about corporations. They can behave responsibly, thinking about long term interests. But Big Oil lurks behind the move by Spanky, which also tells us something about corporations.
Our balmy Supreme Court has declared that corporations are people. But what kind of people? I think it's fair to say that Big Oil is a sociopath, addicted to greed, so dedicated to money grubbing that they'd kill a billion people to make a few dollars more. We, as has been done in many countries, should nationalize Big Oil. Oil is a natural resource that belongs to our nation, particularly if it is being mismanaged. We can use the profits to rebuild our roads and bridges.
The automakers have argued against these changes, which tells us one thing about corporations. They can behave responsibly, thinking about long term interests. But Big Oil lurks behind the move by Spanky, which also tells us something about corporations.
Our balmy Supreme Court has declared that corporations are people. But what kind of people? I think it's fair to say that Big Oil is a sociopath, addicted to greed, so dedicated to money grubbing that they'd kill a billion people to make a few dollars more. We, as has been done in many countries, should nationalize Big Oil. Oil is a natural resource that belongs to our nation, particularly if it is being mismanaged. We can use the profits to rebuild our roads and bridges.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Spanky Kills a Seven-Year-Old
President Spanky has boasted that he could kill someone in full view on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
Recently a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl and her father crossed a desert on foot to reach the United States, where they were picked up by the President's Border Patrol. The little girl was dehydrated and exhausted. No one helped her, and eight hours later, in American custody, her heart stopped and she died; the Border Patrol apparently turned their backs to her until it was too late, much as Spanky has turned his back to black people and Latinos.
We don't have all the facts yet, and I don't know this girl's name, but in her unknown name I ask the incoming House of Representatives to impeach the monstrous borderline slob in the White House. The Republican Senate might vote to keep Spanky in office for another two years. Such a vote is a legitimate part of the legitimate process; and if the Republicans save Spanky's gigantic ass, that will be on them.
Recently a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl and her father crossed a desert on foot to reach the United States, where they were picked up by the President's Border Patrol. The little girl was dehydrated and exhausted. No one helped her, and eight hours later, in American custody, her heart stopped and she died; the Border Patrol apparently turned their backs to her until it was too late, much as Spanky has turned his back to black people and Latinos.
We don't have all the facts yet, and I don't know this girl's name, but in her unknown name I ask the incoming House of Representatives to impeach the monstrous borderline slob in the White House. The Republican Senate might vote to keep Spanky in office for another two years. Such a vote is a legitimate part of the legitimate process; and if the Republicans save Spanky's gigantic ass, that will be on them.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
What Trump Wants
Individual-1 wants to fight. That's a main key to his behavior, although not the only key.
As Ezra Klein pointed out, Individual-1 does not want to build a wall along our border with Mexico. He wants to fight about a wall. Fight or flight is as far as his eft-like mind will reach. (In time he will choose flight.)
Individual-1 does not care about policy. He isn't mentally organized enough to recognize a policy. But winning a shouting match makes this troubled, cheating golf-child feel better. And if he loses, he will tell himself and us that he won.
Yesterday he told a few people that he isn't concerned about getting impeached. He thinks the American voters still love his pussy-grabbing-evangelical style. He counts on voters from Cowskull, Texas, population 149, to save him. And if they don't save him from impeachment, he will say it doesn't matter.
As Ezra Klein pointed out, Individual-1 does not want to build a wall along our border with Mexico. He wants to fight about a wall. Fight or flight is as far as his eft-like mind will reach. (In time he will choose flight.)
Individual-1 does not care about policy. He isn't mentally organized enough to recognize a policy. But winning a shouting match makes this troubled, cheating golf-child feel better. And if he loses, he will tell himself and us that he won.
Yesterday he told a few people that he isn't concerned about getting impeached. He thinks the American voters still love his pussy-grabbing-evangelical style. He counts on voters from Cowskull, Texas, population 149, to save him. And if they don't save him from impeachment, he will say it doesn't matter.
Monday, December 10, 2018
Free College
In 1957 I graduated from UCLA debt-free, because tuition cost nothing for state citizens at the state universities. No red tape, no loans. That was helpful to untutored people like me in working class families. Californians understood that a strong education led to better understanding of life and a richer economy.
I graduated from a university that ranks second among public universities in the United States (Berkeley ranks first). I went on to become a college professor.
Today a year's tuition at UCLA for a California resident is a little over $13,000 in a state whose economy would rank fifth among the world's nations. There are many families that can't deal with that. Republicans took us steeply backwards in funding education.
Several assembly members have a bill now pending (AB 2) that would, in effect, allow many full-time students to study tuition free at our junior colleges. That would be a step in the right direction. What we had 60 years ago, we can have again. And the better educated California becomes, the stronger our economy will be.
I graduated from a university that ranks second among public universities in the United States (Berkeley ranks first). I went on to become a college professor.
Today a year's tuition at UCLA for a California resident is a little over $13,000 in a state whose economy would rank fifth among the world's nations. There are many families that can't deal with that. Republicans took us steeply backwards in funding education.
Several assembly members have a bill now pending (AB 2) that would, in effect, allow many full-time students to study tuition free at our junior colleges. That would be a step in the right direction. What we had 60 years ago, we can have again. And the better educated California becomes, the stronger our economy will be.
Friday, December 7, 2018
The Agony in Spanky's Face
I record TV news-entertainment shows. When I watch it, I silently speed through the parts that disgust or bore me. This morning I was speeding through the President's usual appearance, the walk to his motorcade or helicopter (I guess), where he shouts nonsensical guff at reporters, in lieu of a genuine encounter. In this speeding along, Spanky's face seemed to jump from one agonized rictus to another. Has there ever been a more unhappy chump?
As a youngster this fool learned to deny his criminal incompetence by proclaiming each of his mistakes a grand victory. If your father is rich enough, you can surround yourself with toadies; you can live like that, and Spanky did live like that until he entered politics, not to win but to build his brand.
There he goes, lurching across the White House lawn, his bloated guts encased in formal tent-like man suits, his transplanted, boond-dyed back hairs growing backwards on the top of his ugly dome, but they are his hairs, each one, and no one has ever cared about him or will as long as he lives.
(also on Facebook)
As a youngster this fool learned to deny his criminal incompetence by proclaiming each of his mistakes a grand victory. If your father is rich enough, you can surround yourself with toadies; you can live like that, and Spanky did live like that until he entered politics, not to win but to build his brand.
There he goes, lurching across the White House lawn, his bloated guts encased in formal tent-like man suits, his transplanted, boond-dyed back hairs growing backwards on the top of his ugly dome, but they are his hairs, each one, and no one has ever cared about him or will as long as he lives.
(also on Facebook)
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Someone Died Recently
The grapevine is saying that G. H. W. Bush died recently. I'm writing this because I think we should, in some small way, acknowledge his passing. It should not go unnoticed, although Bush meant nothing to me and I don't give a damn. I'm just wondering why I haven't seen anything about this on TV. Will there be a funeral?
I'll grant you Bush was no Zachary Taylor, but he did volunteer and fight in the Big One, and he kept his own obligatory Presidential wars short. I once had a brilliant, gay brother-in-law who died of AIDS, perhaps because of the ineffective advice the President gave (Bush advised gays to change their ways). Also Bush invaded tiny Panama and killed several thousand people there for reasons that even the survivors don't remember. There was good and bad, but I hope that our media can take a few minutes to at least mention that Bush, born rich in a noble Yale dynasty, has left us to become a footnote in a history dissertation.
I'll grant you Bush was no Zachary Taylor, but he did volunteer and fight in the Big One, and he kept his own obligatory Presidential wars short. I once had a brilliant, gay brother-in-law who died of AIDS, perhaps because of the ineffective advice the President gave (Bush advised gays to change their ways). Also Bush invaded tiny Panama and killed several thousand people there for reasons that even the survivors don't remember. There was good and bad, but I hope that our media can take a few minutes to at least mention that Bush, born rich in a noble Yale dynasty, has left us to become a footnote in a history dissertation.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Impeachment
The Democratic leadership, intensely pragmatic, has made itself clear. When it comes to impeaching President Spanky, they will not be found in the lead. Why take a chance, eh?
The leaders have promised on TV to lag behind public opinion. That's who the Democrats are now. If the voters and the Republicans someday decide our nation needs a good impeachment, the Democrats will pretend to lead it. Until then they are committed to waiting for some other penguin to test the safety of the possibly shark-infested sea.
The leaders have promised on TV to lag behind public opinion. That's who the Democrats are now. If the voters and the Republicans someday decide our nation needs a good impeachment, the Democrats will pretend to lead it. Until then they are committed to waiting for some other penguin to test the safety of the possibly shark-infested sea.
Monday, December 3, 2018
The Goose with the Golden Eggs
Economists learned three hard lessons from the Great Depression. Money doesn't trickle down--it gets sucked upward. You kill a depression by flooding it with government money (budget cuts make the economy fail even worse). Banks and businesses need to be carefully regulated, or they will gamble wildly, cheat and go bust.
As a consequence President Obama and the leaders of Europe knew exactly what to do when faced with the Great Recession in 2008. Obama did about half of it, and the European leaders did almost none of it. They reverted to policies that fail every time. As a consequence Europe's economy has yet to recover, America's economy recovered weakly, and Trump's idiotic trade wars are pushing much of the world's business over a cliff. Apparently our elected officials don't have the will to correct this.
FDR showed us what to do. We've blown it and continue to bleed ourselves. As historian Joseph Ellis said, when asked how we can get America back on the right track: "Perform one hundred million frontal lobotomies."
As a consequence President Obama and the leaders of Europe knew exactly what to do when faced with the Great Recession in 2008. Obama did about half of it, and the European leaders did almost none of it. They reverted to policies that fail every time. As a consequence Europe's economy has yet to recover, America's economy recovered weakly, and Trump's idiotic trade wars are pushing much of the world's business over a cliff. Apparently our elected officials don't have the will to correct this.
FDR showed us what to do. We've blown it and continue to bleed ourselves. As historian Joseph Ellis said, when asked how we can get America back on the right track: "Perform one hundred million frontal lobotomies."
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Money Grubbing "Centrists"
Central California newspapers sometimes publish a column written by Dan Walters. I seldom read it. Walters is basically a servant of money grubbers, men (mostly) who have dedicated their lives to acquiring so much money that it eventually becomes a meaningless number in the cloud. They waste their entire lives on greed and then die.
What interests me is that white-wing money grubbers and their parasites invariably talk of themselves as political centrists. Centrists? Dan Walters considers himself a centrist and a defender of centrism. He's worried that in California (which has one mildly progressive party, one dead party and many independent voters) money grubbers or "centrists" are under-represented.
Beneath this position lurks the weird assumption that the central goal of a centrist majority of Americans is to get rich. The grubbers who do get rich (according to this theory) are those who have been especially blessed by Mother Nature with smarts or maybe blessed by Jesus Himself.
Did Jesus devote his life to getting rich?
My experience is that I've known maybe 300 people, and perhaps three of them set out to get rich. Money grubbers are a tiny minority, not central in any sense and about as tolerable as boys vice principals. Grubbers and vice principals serve a function, but who wants to smoke a joint with one?
What interests me is that white-wing money grubbers and their parasites invariably talk of themselves as political centrists. Centrists? Dan Walters considers himself a centrist and a defender of centrism. He's worried that in California (which has one mildly progressive party, one dead party and many independent voters) money grubbers or "centrists" are under-represented.
Beneath this position lurks the weird assumption that the central goal of a centrist majority of Americans is to get rich. The grubbers who do get rich (according to this theory) are those who have been especially blessed by Mother Nature with smarts or maybe blessed by Jesus Himself.
Did Jesus devote his life to getting rich?
My experience is that I've known maybe 300 people, and perhaps three of them set out to get rich. Money grubbers are a tiny minority, not central in any sense and about as tolerable as boys vice principals. Grubbers and vice principals serve a function, but who wants to smoke a joint with one?
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Political Beliefs about Israel
I support the right of Israel to exist, but Chuck Schumer is co-sponsoring an ugly bill that that deserves attention. I doubt if this bill is constitutional, nevertheless. . . .
There's been a clamor to replace Nancy Pelosi (after her enormous victory in the last election), but Schumer is the leader who needs immediate replacing. What follows is quoted from the Huffington Post.
________________________________
According to the ACLU, the Cardin legislation would “bar U.S. persons from supporting boycotts against Israel, including its settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (emphasis mine) conducted by international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations and the European Union. It would also... include penalties for simply requesting information about such boycotts. Violations would be subject to a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison....This bill would impose civil and criminal punishment on individuals solely because of their political beliefs about Israel and its policies.”
Friday, November 30, 2018
President One
What on earth are we supposed to do with President Individual One, the co-conspirator?
Apparently most of the legal community agrees that President Indy One is above the law, as if the Founders, that bunch of hard-cider-drinking chuckleheads, had created a Constitutional king. That may be nonsense, but what do you One expect from today's legal dudes?
The House can impeach a co-conspirator, but chances are good that a morally bankrupt Senate will not convict One. Instead they will stall for two years, while the Republicans coming up for re-election decide to retire or to edge away indignantly from the pussy-grabbing Christian One (to save their jobs).
We’re in for a long, dangerous two years. Trump and his cretins will fight dirty, dirtier than Nixon, worse than anything we’ve seen before.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
The SF Giants and Niners
Yesterday we learned that one of the principle owners of the San Francisco Giants, Charles Johnson (85), gave the maximum contribution to the campaign of America's newest racist senator, Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. The brutal Hyde family is back among us.
It's possible that Johnson didn't know Hyde-Smith is an overt racist, but he did know she is a Republican.
The Niners, on the other hand, fired a useful linebacker, Reuben Foster, because he may have slapped his woman-friend around and definitely found himself arrested again. Foster was immediately hired by another NFL team, the Washington Racist Slur. The Slur believe they can provide the supportive environment needed by long-term domestic abusers. Some now claim that racist slurs and abuse of women are at times joined together, along with homophobia, in football leadership.
It's possible that Johnson didn't know Hyde-Smith is an overt racist, but he did know she is a Republican.
The Niners, on the other hand, fired a useful linebacker, Reuben Foster, because he may have slapped his woman-friend around and definitely found himself arrested again. Foster was immediately hired by another NFL team, the Washington Racist Slur. The Slur believe they can provide the supportive environment needed by long-term domestic abusers. Some now claim that racist slurs and abuse of women are at times joined together, along with homophobia, in football leadership.
Trump's Nobel Prize
Today Pres. Spanky got to obsessing in public about the probability he will be cheated out of the Nobel Prize. It wasn't clear which Nobel prize he meant. Perhaps the prize in literature for his tweets or in physics for his contributions to global warming. Of maybe he should get a special prize for his expert portrayal of most of the personality disorders known to psychology.
Saturday, November 24, 2018
The Guns of Thanksgiving
Our modern version of Thanksgiving is the result of a campaign by a prominent editor in the 1860s named Sarah Josepha Hale, who also wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb." She was known as "a woman of masculine energy." Then she was forgotten.
The Pilgrims brought thanksgivings events with them from England, where fasting and harvest festivals were intended by the pious to replace dubious pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter.
From day one the Puritans and then others held occasional secular and religious thanksgiving fasts and feasts to celebrate whatever seemed important to them, often military victories. President Washington suggested that states put together thanksgiving holidays. Thanksgiving remained a locally scheduled series of holidays, not regularized into one federal holiday until Lincoln did it in 1863. That was not our most thankful year. A great number of young Americans were killing one another.
From colonial days onward some parts of the South resisted this Yankee holiday.
Canada and many other countries influenced by Europe have their own versions of Thanksgiving, but it isn't such a big deal.
In 1941 Congress made the holiday permanent in the United States.
As far as I know, the fasting, feasting and giving of thanks to Jesus have had little to do with America's original settlers. If your school made you don a onesy and war bonnet and participate in a Thanksgiving pageant, forget about it. You should have been waving a musket and wearing a powdered wig.
The Pilgrims brought thanksgivings events with them from England, where fasting and harvest festivals were intended by the pious to replace dubious pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter.
From day one the Puritans and then others held occasional secular and religious thanksgiving fasts and feasts to celebrate whatever seemed important to them, often military victories. President Washington suggested that states put together thanksgiving holidays. Thanksgiving remained a locally scheduled series of holidays, not regularized into one federal holiday until Lincoln did it in 1863. That was not our most thankful year. A great number of young Americans were killing one another.
From colonial days onward some parts of the South resisted this Yankee holiday.
Canada and many other countries influenced by Europe have their own versions of Thanksgiving, but it isn't such a big deal.
In 1941 Congress made the holiday permanent in the United States.
As far as I know, the fasting, feasting and giving of thanks to Jesus have had little to do with America's original settlers. If your school made you don a onesy and war bonnet and participate in a Thanksgiving pageant, forget about it. You should have been waving a musket and wearing a powdered wig.
Bread and Circuses
Ancient Rome reached a point where poor people greatly outnumbered the rich, so the nervous authorities began to distribute grain and stage chariot races and entertaining gladiator fights and so on. The poet Juvenal famously called these precautions "bread and circuses." Food prices were regulated and kept low. And it worked. The poor did not get hungry and attack the rich.
America has a related problem today. People are employed, but wages are low. Getting new glasses or getting your teeth pulled can be unaffordable. The rich outlive the poor, on average, by 14 years. Meanwhile knuckleheads like President Spanky (who inherited hundreds of millions) flourish. The Republican response has been an attempt to punish people for being poor. Republicans want to cut entitlements. That is guaranteed to irritate a majority of people.
The party that works hard to provide health care, to raise the minimum wage and to keep bread cheap will have an edge.
America has a related problem today. People are employed, but wages are low. Getting new glasses or getting your teeth pulled can be unaffordable. The rich outlive the poor, on average, by 14 years. Meanwhile knuckleheads like President Spanky (who inherited hundreds of millions) flourish. The Republican response has been an attempt to punish people for being poor. Republicans want to cut entitlements. That is guaranteed to irritate a majority of people.
The party that works hard to provide health care, to raise the minimum wage and to keep bread cheap will have an edge.
Friday, November 23, 2018
The Sameness of MSNBC
Many years ago I was elected to serve on a faculty committee that weighed in on personnel disputes. I was sent to examine and report on a case where a tenure candidate, Jane Doe, had gotten a vote of only 65% from her colleagues. I scheduled interviews with Jane Doe and her colleagues. In the end the main accusation against Doe was that she dressed herself exactly like a senior professor, who bitterly resented being copied.
I wrote the complaint up, perhaps expressing reservations about the nature of the charge against Jane Doe, who seemed like a regular professor to me, and she got tenure.
What brought this back to mind was watching MSNBC this morning. This station has at least three nearly indistinguishable but intelligent blonde hosts with the same hair, same coloring, same age, same big lips, etc., and this morning two of them were on at the same time, interviewing one another while wearing the same clothing. Wow.
I wrote the complaint up, perhaps expressing reservations about the nature of the charge against Jane Doe, who seemed like a regular professor to me, and she got tenure.
What brought this back to mind was watching MSNBC this morning. This station has at least three nearly indistinguishable but intelligent blonde hosts with the same hair, same coloring, same age, same big lips, etc., and this morning two of them were on at the same time, interviewing one another while wearing the same clothing. Wow.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
A Moron in Paradise
Last week we saw President Moron visiting Paradise, California, where a raging forest fire had totally destroyed a town of 26,000 people. This may have been the first time Moron had ventured outside and into a forest; and he was visibly upset. For one thing, the forest floor was filthy, littered with dirt and pine needles. He wanted cleaners sent into the foothills of the Sierras. “This is a management problem,” he insisted.
He might have been able to call the American Army in to police the forest floor, but he had already sent the army to our southern border to fend off hundreds of families and youngsters seeking asylum.
What matters is that Moron may have opened a needed discussion, which is how do we live with the monstrous fires resulting from global warming? I've seen one fire up close. It's no joke. Fortunately, the answer is straightforward and inevitable.
We have to build fireproof structures and make them safe by surrounding them with fireproof grounds. The fires will happen. We let the fires flow around us. We watch fires race by. And we stop using oil, coal and natural gas.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Rich!!!
Suppose you own five hundred acres of empty ground in downtown Chicago, but you have to live on social security. Are you a rich woman?
Suppose you are a nation with gigantic holdings in corporations, oil fields and Wall Street, but your bridges are falling down, your people's teeth are falling out and your school textbooks are fifty years out of date. Are you the richest country in the world?
Suppose you are a nation with gigantic holdings in corporations, oil fields and Wall Street, but your bridges are falling down, your people's teeth are falling out and your school textbooks are fifty years out of date. Are you the richest country in the world?
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Death for Republicans
The Associated Press summarized what has happened to politics in California, once Nixon and Reagan country and today America’s biggest tax base: demographic change. And California is the future.
In California racism will no longer get a candidate elected. People of color outnumber white people. Independents outnumber Republicans. The Democrats hold a 41 to 9 edge in House seats. One House district with a 7 point Republican registration advantage ousted an incumbent Republican because so many Republican voters found Trump toxic. They elected a protege of Elizabeth Warren.
Hillary Clinton carried Orange County, a legendary Republican stronghold.
So far the Republican Party has learned nothing from its defeats. It's doubling down on a losing hand.
The nation and state need two or more viable parties to give voters at least a shadow of choice. The Republicans in California are on life support. For the moment, the voters mostly are choosing between the two wings of the Democratic Party, who seem fairly well matched.
If the nation's deluded Republican leaders and voters can re-orient themselves to face reality, their party might avoid joining the Passenger Pigeon.
(also on Facebook)
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Mars?
Jim Jefferies recently explained what might be wrong with the idea of Americans settling people on Mars. Mars, Jefferies points out, is a piece of crap. We could go there and fix it up, but it would be a lot cheaper to fix up our own planet.
One Shade of Gray.
We've been told that a spokesman for America's First Lady apparently fired a Presidential security advisor named Mira Ricardel, writing she "no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House."
The White House mentioned above is currently sheltering a President who enjoys a good spanking or one shade of gray.
This is the first time an immigrant wife of a President has fired one of his advisers. I guess someone had to do it. The President couldn't act. He fell into a gigantic pout after his team lost the midterm election and Mueller outstared him.
I mean no disrespect, but the firing does raise a philosophical question: What is honor to a gold digger? Does she have any?
I say she does. The difference (allegedly) between an honorable gold digger and a dishonorable one is that an honest gold digger, once she is bought, stays bought. Trump may wander about in an addled way from one porn star to the next, but he can count on Melania.
The White House mentioned above is currently sheltering a President who enjoys a good spanking or one shade of gray.
This is the first time an immigrant wife of a President has fired one of his advisers. I guess someone had to do it. The President couldn't act. He fell into a gigantic pout after his team lost the midterm election and Mueller outstared him.
I mean no disrespect, but the firing does raise a philosophical question: What is honor to a gold digger? Does she have any?
I say she does. The difference (allegedly) between an honorable gold digger and a dishonorable one is that an honest gold digger, once she is bought, stays bought. Trump may wander about in an addled way from one porn star to the next, but he can count on Melania.
Monday, November 12, 2018
A Short History of the Republican Party
As I recall it, the Republican party grew out of the Whig party (whatever that was) as a party opposed to slavery. This led to the Civil War, won by anti-slavery forces. After the war, reconstructing the nation began well but ended with Rutherford B. Hayes, who traded away the civil rights of men of color in exchange for the Presidency. Jim Crow began and lasted for nearly 100 years.
During the Great Depression the Democratic party won the loyalty of a majority of voters by trying to help them. The Democrats included both America's main progressive elements and the most racist voters. About 60 years ago, the Republicans realized that one way to return to power would be to hint that they were now the genuine home of racists. That would split off some of the Democrats' voters.
So the Republicans began to hint that they might support a little more racism. This was the dog whistle tactic used by Nixon and Reagan. Soon Southern racists began to shift their loyalties. With more racists voting in Republican primaries, candidates began to compete, seeking racist votes more openly. The most obviously racist candidates began to win primaries.
To stand out among so many racists, some Republican leaders began to add that women were forgetting their place, which was pregnant, barefoot and in kitchens. Abortions should not be tolerated by men. Now armed with two issues, white supremacy and male supremacy, the Republicans began to attract fringe elements like the KKK. Soon the KKK and Nazis were voting in Republican primaries. Instead of nominating Wilkie, Dewey or Eisenhower, the Republicans were nominating Nixon (paranoid), Reagan (senile) and Trump (nuts). Each election the Republicans slid deeper into a concentration of America's worst muck, until, today, the old-style Republicans are leaving the degenerating party in disgust. (This summary omits the Wall Street factors and attempts to repeal social security, Medicare, Obamacare, etc.)
During the Great Depression the Democratic party won the loyalty of a majority of voters by trying to help them. The Democrats included both America's main progressive elements and the most racist voters. About 60 years ago, the Republicans realized that one way to return to power would be to hint that they were now the genuine home of racists. That would split off some of the Democrats' voters.
So the Republicans began to hint that they might support a little more racism. This was the dog whistle tactic used by Nixon and Reagan. Soon Southern racists began to shift their loyalties. With more racists voting in Republican primaries, candidates began to compete, seeking racist votes more openly. The most obviously racist candidates began to win primaries.
To stand out among so many racists, some Republican leaders began to add that women were forgetting their place, which was pregnant, barefoot and in kitchens. Abortions should not be tolerated by men. Now armed with two issues, white supremacy and male supremacy, the Republicans began to attract fringe elements like the KKK. Soon the KKK and Nazis were voting in Republican primaries. Instead of nominating Wilkie, Dewey or Eisenhower, the Republicans were nominating Nixon (paranoid), Reagan (senile) and Trump (nuts). Each election the Republicans slid deeper into a concentration of America's worst muck, until, today, the old-style Republicans are leaving the degenerating party in disgust. (This summary omits the Wall Street factors and attempts to repeal social security, Medicare, Obamacare, etc.)
Saturday, November 10, 2018
The Captain of the Titanic
This is the captain of the Titanic. We just crushed a major iceberg. We won bigger than I said--I said we would win huge. The North Atlantic loves me. It always has. It loves me. People tell me there's never been a bigger victory in the history of ships. That's right. People know I have a big brain, really big, and the best words. Lots of the best words. These icebergs are small, little things, but cold. Fine. I can be colder than they are. Everyone is telling me I am the coldest. Icebergs are losers. They're ugly and low I.Q, somewhere in the mid-30s. You ever see an iceberg? They don't know what they're doing.
Friday, November 9, 2018
In the Land of the Fraud
Probably you've seen or heard that the White House distributed a fake video clip yesterday. This fiction showed (supposedly) a respected reporter pushing around a young female intern at a press conference.
We live in a tech age of faked data used to manipulate ignorant voters.
Politics has always been rife with lying. Lies were told for and against President Washington. More recent political leaders have often presented absurd travesties of the truth. Johnson lied about Vietnam. Richard Nixon was paranoid. Reagan was senile in office. Bill Clinton perjured himself chasing young women. George W. Bush started a war with the wrong country, killing hundreds of thousands (by mistake?).
This increasingly steep downhill slide has produced today a rich President who is mentally blighted, emotionally warped, vulgar in the worst ways, cruel and utterly incompetent. He's a lout a dog couldn't love. Trump is unbearably ugly inside and out, but nearly half the nation worships him. That's what our system has come to. We need to change something.
We live in a tech age of faked data used to manipulate ignorant voters.
Politics has always been rife with lying. Lies were told for and against President Washington. More recent political leaders have often presented absurd travesties of the truth. Johnson lied about Vietnam. Richard Nixon was paranoid. Reagan was senile in office. Bill Clinton perjured himself chasing young women. George W. Bush started a war with the wrong country, killing hundreds of thousands (by mistake?).
This increasingly steep downhill slide has produced today a rich President who is mentally blighted, emotionally warped, vulgar in the worst ways, cruel and utterly incompetent. He's a lout a dog couldn't love. Trump is unbearably ugly inside and out, but nearly half the nation worships him. That's what our system has come to. We need to change something.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
The Outcome
I'm trying to come to terms with Tuesday's outcomes. On the positive side, I still live in the Republic of California, which has deep flaws (including politicians groveling to real estate corporations)-- but the state rejects the mad Trumplets who ate and excreted the Republican party. In the larger nation, I am grateful to the many ignored but decisive organizations like Indivisible that organized and brought out women candidates and encouraged the votes of the women and young people. Independent volunteers won the House of Representatives. They did for the Democratic party what the party remained too backward, too Bill Clinton-enfeebled to do for itself.
The last Republican congressmen from L.A. county is packing his bags. The Republicans lost Statin Island and the last Republican congressman from New York City.
On the negative side, 45% of the voters still approve of the zombie, our vulgar, misogynist, openly racist and brain-dead President Spank-My-Buttocks. White-Wingers prevailed in the South 150 years after the end of the Civil War. We lost, at least for now, three promising leaders to the nasty lunacy of racism. That's hard to accept. When I was young I once stood within a few feet of MLK, and now that I'm old, this?
The last Republican congressmen from L.A. county is packing his bags. The Republicans lost Statin Island and the last Republican congressman from New York City.
On the negative side, 45% of the voters still approve of the zombie, our vulgar, misogynist, openly racist and brain-dead President Spank-My-Buttocks. White-Wingers prevailed in the South 150 years after the end of the Civil War. We lost, at least for now, three promising leaders to the nasty lunacy of racism. That's hard to accept. When I was young I once stood within a few feet of MLK, and now that I'm old, this?
Monday, November 5, 2018
The Democrats
We are at a peculiar corner in history where one of our two major political parties has collapsed into white-winged, radical-right nihilism. There is one relatively rational major party left on the field, the Democratic party. As an independent democratic socialist, my view is that it is up to the Democrats now to represent a spectrum of voters ranging from Bernie Sanders to Ronald Reagan, from FDR to Eisenhower. Responsible people have no place else to go.
Voters have the options of supporting third parties or not voting at all, but they won't restore sanity to our governance system.
The Democrats have been claiming for decades to be a big tent party. At this point we need an absurdly big tent party, and we may have one. I see surviving Reaganites on television asking people to vote for Democrats. They are trying to save what little exists of a representative system already stacked against women, the working poor and people of color. Republicans and Democrats had better hang together on Tuesday or we will, as Thomas Paine wrote, all hang separately.
Voters have the options of supporting third parties or not voting at all, but they won't restore sanity to our governance system.
The Democrats have been claiming for decades to be a big tent party. At this point we need an absurdly big tent party, and we may have one. I see surviving Reaganites on television asking people to vote for Democrats. They are trying to save what little exists of a representative system already stacked against women, the working poor and people of color. Republicans and Democrats had better hang together on Tuesday or we will, as Thomas Paine wrote, all hang separately.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Who Is White?
The definition of the white race depends on which culture you dwell in. Below I reproduce the official position of American white nationalists (Trump). It's from a website called STORMFRONT. According to nationalist guidelines, my wife, children, grandchild and son-in-law are not white.
What follows below is a quote from a leader in the movement. By his definition, which is reminiscent of the old "one drop" rule, white-wingers are a minority group.
_____________________________________
So in response to the question, "Who's White?" we answer: "Non-Jewish people of wholly European descent. No exceptions."
What comprises "European?" Those areas north of the Mediterranean and west of the Urals corresponding roughly to what was formerly known as European Christendom.
Note the word "wholly" -- "of wholly European descent." Sometimes a person might volunteer that he is some small part non-White, like 1/64th or 1/128th, and then ask if we still consider him White. The answer is that if a person identifies with his non-White part so much that he is concerned about it and feels compelled to tell us about it, then we consider him to be non-White.
If someone were to say that they (sic) were 12.5% Amerindian then, as far as we're concerned, that's what they are, 1/8th non-White. This is something about which we can't compromise. You're either White or you aren't.
What follows below is a quote from a leader in the movement. By his definition, which is reminiscent of the old "one drop" rule, white-wingers are a minority group.
_____________________________________
So in response to the question, "Who's White?" we answer: "Non-Jewish people of wholly European descent. No exceptions."
What comprises "European?" Those areas north of the Mediterranean and west of the Urals corresponding roughly to what was formerly known as European Christendom.
Note the word "wholly" -- "of wholly European descent." Sometimes a person might volunteer that he is some small part non-White, like 1/64th or 1/128th, and then ask if we still consider him White. The answer is that if a person identifies with his non-White part so much that he is concerned about it and feels compelled to tell us about it, then we consider him to be non-White.
If someone were to say that they (sic) were 12.5% Amerindian then, as far as we're concerned, that's what they are, 1/8th non-White. This is something about which we can't compromise. You're either White or you aren't.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
"Prepare to Squat," a True Story
In our first war against Mexico (1846), which trained the military leaders of the Civil War (Grant, Lee), one outfit was led by a general named Doniphan. Maybe he was a colonel.
Anyway, Doniphan soon faced an enemy army at the Battle of Brazito (Little Arm). Both sides loaded their muskets and lined up to exchange volleys. At this point Doniphan, like many a good Irishman before him, was struck by an idea. He turned to his troops and uttered the first command he had ever given in combat. "Prepare to squat!"
Doniphan squatted his men as the Mexican army fired its volley, which passed overhead, wounding only a few traditionalists who had rejected the new order. He then stood his men up, and they fired a volley into the ranks of the confused and possibly indignant Mexicans, killing many and winning the day.
This is today's small piece of history.
Anyway, Doniphan soon faced an enemy army at the Battle of Brazito (Little Arm). Both sides loaded their muskets and lined up to exchange volleys. At this point Doniphan, like many a good Irishman before him, was struck by an idea. He turned to his troops and uttered the first command he had ever given in combat. "Prepare to squat!"
Doniphan squatted his men as the Mexican army fired its volley, which passed overhead, wounding only a few traditionalists who had rejected the new order. He then stood his men up, and they fired a volley into the ranks of the confused and possibly indignant Mexicans, killing many and winning the day.
This is today's small piece of history.
Fort Bragg
Civil War General Braxton Bragg was responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, starting with Shiloh, one of many battles he lost for the Confederacy. Anyone familiar with the Civil War knows that Bragg was mightily disliked by many soldiers and generals of the Confederacy, including James Longstreet. Bragg was sustained by the high regard of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, but nearly everyone else considered Bragg a toxic loser.
Recently I read the republished diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, DOWN THE SANTA FE TRAIL AND INTO MEXICO, in which this 18-year-old woman, newly married, records her journey into Chihuahua in the middle of the Mexican War. Her portrait of life on the road in 1846 is compelling; this is what she says about Bragg, then a major. "The Maj. is called a great disciplinarian, drilling his men twice a day much to their dissatisfaction, they a few nights since placed a shell (under his cot) with a slow match, intending to kill him, but fortunately tho' it exploded about 11 O'clock shattering the roof of his tent, his trunk, part of his cott and even piercing the bed-clothing, he was unhurt."
This was one of two attempts the men made to kill Bragg during a short and unwarranted war.
I mention this because there's a town in California named Fort Bragg. It's located a few miles west of Fort Benedict Arnold.
Recently I read the republished diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, DOWN THE SANTA FE TRAIL AND INTO MEXICO, in which this 18-year-old woman, newly married, records her journey into Chihuahua in the middle of the Mexican War. Her portrait of life on the road in 1846 is compelling; this is what she says about Bragg, then a major. "The Maj. is called a great disciplinarian, drilling his men twice a day much to their dissatisfaction, they a few nights since placed a shell (under his cot) with a slow match, intending to kill him, but fortunately tho' it exploded about 11 O'clock shattering the roof of his tent, his trunk, part of his cott and even piercing the bed-clothing, he was unhurt."
This was one of two attempts the men made to kill Bragg during a short and unwarranted war.
I mention this because there's a town in California named Fort Bragg. It's located a few miles west of Fort Benedict Arnold.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Technology-Enabled Savagery
In The New Yorker John Cassidy wrote about America:
"Despite a rising tide of gun violence and political extremism, it has repeatedly failed to adapt its institutions and its laws—particularly those relating to guns and the online spread of hate speech—to an age of technology-enabled savagery." Cassidy's point is that our country is malfunctioning.
I'll add this. We are now down to one political party, and it is out of power.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Saps We Admire
There's a category of saps we admire. This, of course, is a topic that will annoy people. It certainly annoyed my wife. Or some might want to add to my short list.
The classic example, I suppose, is Paul Henreid in CASABLANCA. Ingrid Bergman flies off to the safety of London with this noodnik at the end of the film when she could have had Humphrey Bogart. She does this to bolster a dude important to the Czech resistance. What? you may ask. Does the overthrow of Hitler really depend on a Czech's girlfriend? Or George Patton?
Don't misunderstand. Bergman's inexplicable and terrible decision is what makes the film shockingly great. Without it, what would be left would be good but ordinary.
We've all seen people do that kind of thing. "My god," we think, "that decision ruins three lives or more lives if there are children, and I've made a few bad choices myself."
Another example of a noodnik is Mr. Rogers. I saw film of him on the news today, brought back on TV by the massacre of Jews in his Pittsburgh neighborhood. He assured me that we live in a wonderful world.
Czech Resistance leader,
The classic example, I suppose, is Paul Henreid in CASABLANCA. Ingrid Bergman flies off to the safety of London with this noodnik at the end of the film when she could have had Humphrey Bogart. She does this to bolster a dude important to the Czech resistance. What? you may ask. Does the overthrow of Hitler really depend on a Czech's girlfriend? Or George Patton?
Don't misunderstand. Bergman's inexplicable and terrible decision is what makes the film shockingly great. Without it, what would be left would be good but ordinary.
We've all seen people do that kind of thing. "My god," we think, "that decision ruins three lives or more lives if there are children, and I've made a few bad choices myself."
Another example of a noodnik is Mr. Rogers. I saw film of him on the news today, brought back on TV by the massacre of Jews in his Pittsburgh neighborhood. He assured me that we live in a wonderful world.
Czech Resistance leader,
The Globalists
Trump and Kevin McCarthy have stepped forward as classic anti-Semites, denouncing billionaires George Soros, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg. Soros has been accused of funding the group of Central Americans slowly walking toward our southern border to seek asylum. The right to ask for asylum is settled law. Soros has funded none of this. But he is a rich Jew who supports liberal causes. Trump's base of Klansmen and Nazis and deranged potential killers get the anti-Semitic message. Unstable men will continue to act on it. Soros is a marked man.
No doubt Trump and McCarthy and other Republicans will be quick to say that some of their best friends--and even some children--are Jews. How can a dear friend of Bibi Netanyahu be an anti-Semite?
Two days after a bomb was sent to Soros' house, the National Republican Party ran an ad denouncing Soros. The Republican anti-Semitic campaign continues this morning. It will not stop.
Who your friends or relatives are doesn't define you. If you encourage anti-Semitism, if you pass laws banning Muslims, if you ignore the lethal targeting of Barack Obama, you are a bigot. If you denounce "globalists" we (and Nazis) understand that you mean Jews. This is not complicated.
No doubt Trump and McCarthy and other Republicans will be quick to say that some of their best friends--and even some children--are Jews. How can a dear friend of Bibi Netanyahu be an anti-Semite?
Two days after a bomb was sent to Soros' house, the National Republican Party ran an ad denouncing Soros. The Republican anti-Semitic campaign continues this morning. It will not stop.
Who your friends or relatives are doesn't define you. If you encourage anti-Semitism, if you pass laws banning Muslims, if you ignore the lethal targeting of Barack Obama, you are a bigot. If you denounce "globalists" we (and Nazis) understand that you mean Jews. This is not complicated.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
The Jewish Vote
(I wrote this the day before the Pittsburgh massacre, the worst mass murder of Jews in USA history.)
My wife is a Jew, and who the Jews are matters to our family. I can hear Trump's cruel voice mincing on TV as I sit here. He's supported by the KKK and the American Nazis. We understand that our bloated President and Bibi work hand in hand. So where do America Jews stand on all this ?
About 71% voted for Hillary. Current polls show that in 2018, 74% of the Jews plan to support the Democrats. They may be only 2% of our population, but their impact on elections matters.
My wife is a Jew, and who the Jews are matters to our family. I can hear Trump's cruel voice mincing on TV as I sit here. He's supported by the KKK and the American Nazis. We understand that our bloated President and Bibi work hand in hand. So where do America Jews stand on all this ?
About 71% voted for Hillary. Current polls show that in 2018, 74% of the Jews plan to support the Democrats. They may be only 2% of our population, but their impact on elections matters.
Verdict First!
President Spank-My-Bottom has called for the death penalty for the Pittsburgh shooter. This is perfect ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
Verdict first, trial second!
Verdict first, trial second!
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Death in Pittsburgh
Yesterday we saw the quick arrest of a Trump supporter who sent more than a dozen bombs to political leaders, the largest American assassination attempt since the murder of Abraham Lincoln. Copycats were expected. This morning we saw an anti-Semite murdering people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh; and the police gathered there to engage the terrorist. Three officers have been shot, many Jews dead, shooter in custody.
Conspiracies of hate are not new, but our current President, a mentally ill slob, has emboldened the KKK and American Nazis and the violent Right. What stands between us and them is the police. Many of us have a somewhat adversarial view of the police, and people of color fear law enforcement with good reason. But how quickly we turn to the cops when the need arises. Patrol officers run into gunfire because that's part of their job.
Conspiracies of hate are not new, but our current President, a mentally ill slob, has emboldened the KKK and American Nazis and the violent Right. What stands between us and them is the police. Many of us have a somewhat adversarial view of the police, and people of color fear law enforcement with good reason. But how quickly we turn to the cops when the need arises. Patrol officers run into gunfire because that's part of their job.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
The Herd and William Morris
Near Monterey, in the old days, the cattle would gather into a herd on November 11th of each year to discuss how they'd like to be eaten. Some would argue for all-beef franks while others spoke for ground chuck or prime rib and so forth. Then one year a longhorn named William Morris made his way to the stage and announced he had a shocking new idea. "I would like not be eaten," he said.
Morris was mooed off the stage. The boss bulls voted to eliminate the right of longhorns to speak at meetings. The bulls talked about the need for animals to be practical if they hoped to enjoy the feed lots, something Morris admitted he had not considered. The debate restarted and sensible bovines soon compromised and reached a consensus: barbecue.
(also on Facebook)
Morris was mooed off the stage. The boss bulls voted to eliminate the right of longhorns to speak at meetings. The bulls talked about the need for animals to be practical if they hoped to enjoy the feed lots, something Morris admitted he had not considered. The debate restarted and sensible bovines soon compromised and reached a consensus: barbecue.
(also on Facebook)
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Please Lie to Me
Someone has noticed that President Spanky's voters do understand that he lies seven times a day. Of course, they do. And they love it.
Spanky's lying endears him to them.
I'm guessing that the Trump voter has a belief system built on denying reality. In this post-factual galaxy, white men have the right to grope women of every race, white people are smarter and more moral than people of color, old people are more worthy than young people, cruelty is kindness, feminism is toxic, your status is determined by a new car, Latinos are lazy and an imaginary wall will block inferior and criminal people from arriving in the States on boats and planes.
Maintaining this weird belief system requires constant lying to yourself. A President who lies with authority, the most powerful white man in the world, who lies seven times a day, dominating the media, is a buttress that keeps the ceiling from falling on nutters. So nutters love him ten times as much as they did Reagan or Nixon, who settled for half measures.
Spanky's lying endears him to them.
I'm guessing that the Trump voter has a belief system built on denying reality. In this post-factual galaxy, white men have the right to grope women of every race, white people are smarter and more moral than people of color, old people are more worthy than young people, cruelty is kindness, feminism is toxic, your status is determined by a new car, Latinos are lazy and an imaginary wall will block inferior and criminal people from arriving in the States on boats and planes.
Maintaining this weird belief system requires constant lying to yourself. A President who lies with authority, the most powerful white man in the world, who lies seven times a day, dominating the media, is a buttress that keeps the ceiling from falling on nutters. So nutters love him ten times as much as they did Reagan or Nixon, who settled for half measures.
Gender and Sec
President Dribble-Cup Spanky, in his daily effort to harm voters and to stir up the most base among his base, is threatening to make it government policy that the words "sex" and "gender" mean the same thing (and it isn't "gender"). His political method is to make it federal policy that transgender people don't really exist and to pretend that the sexual and gender categories that actually exist are really fictions.
My guess is that most Americans don't have a firm grip of the two key words and already tend to blur them together. I see the words misused daily.
Sex is a name for the differences between the male or female of a species, distinguishing them by the reproductive organs and the behavior dependent on these famous organs. Note the word "behavior." The definition is beginning to blur.
When a word is vague or blurry, it can be a mistake to attempt to sharpen its definition. Vague words have their uses.
Gender is a person's internal sense of all this. Gender identities are, in reality, many: but in Spanky's truncated world view, that of a five-year-old dimwit, there are only two genders, female and male or spanker and spankee.
How all this will end no one knows. Languages apparently have minds of their own and develop out of my control. I resent that. So does the French Academy, which pretends to be in control of French.
My guess is that most Americans don't have a firm grip of the two key words and already tend to blur them together. I see the words misused daily.
Sex is a name for the differences between the male or female of a species, distinguishing them by the reproductive organs and the behavior dependent on these famous organs. Note the word "behavior." The definition is beginning to blur.
When a word is vague or blurry, it can be a mistake to attempt to sharpen its definition. Vague words have their uses.
Gender is a person's internal sense of all this. Gender identities are, in reality, many: but in Spanky's truncated world view, that of a five-year-old dimwit, there are only two genders, female and male or spanker and spankee.
How all this will end no one knows. Languages apparently have minds of their own and develop out of my control. I resent that. So does the French Academy, which pretends to be in control of French.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Spitting on Lindsey Graham
Senator Lindsey Graham complained recently that people are spitting on him. That's just wrong. It aroused my compassion, certainly, but when I looked into the matter, no one near Graham had damp lips. He has presented no spitting evidence to date. He's been accused of lying. Also, why is he named "Lindsey"?
(This reminds me of Tucker Carlson's complaint that when he eats in a restaurant, other customers call out things like "Fuck you, Tucker," which ruins his meals of fried butterfly antennae. His response is to eat our of a can at home. Also, why is he named "Tucker"?)
In my high school, we had a potato-shaped vice-principal who walked the halls at every recess looking for potential truants, shouting, "Clear the halls!" He had a broad torso and a tweed suit, and some scholars would walk along close behind him and silently spit on the back of his coat. I'm just saying that certain lads developed certain skills.
I'd hate for anyone to think Lindsay Graham is a liar, so I am volunteering to spit in his face, thus proving his complaint well founded. Also, when he dies, I volunteer to pee on his grave.
(This reminds me of Tucker Carlson's complaint that when he eats in a restaurant, other customers call out things like "Fuck you, Tucker," which ruins his meals of fried butterfly antennae. His response is to eat our of a can at home. Also, why is he named "Tucker"?)
In my high school, we had a potato-shaped vice-principal who walked the halls at every recess looking for potential truants, shouting, "Clear the halls!" He had a broad torso and a tweed suit, and some scholars would walk along close behind him and silently spit on the back of his coat. I'm just saying that certain lads developed certain skills.
I'd hate for anyone to think Lindsay Graham is a liar, so I am volunteering to spit in his face, thus proving his complaint well founded. Also, when he dies, I volunteer to pee on his grave.
How to Fight
The Saudis have concluded their investigation and announced that Jamal Khashoggi entered their consulate in Turkey and started a fist fight with 14 security experts, one of whom had a bone saw. As it turns out, my family has a history of fist fights that goes back more than one hundred years, and here are some maxims my family taught me that Khashoggi should have known.
1. Always throw the first punch. Many fights consist of one punch.
2. Never punch a guy with a bone saw.
That must be why, when I look back on the more than ten fist fights that are part of our lore, including my last effort at 67, which must be the age record in my family, not one of us has been dismembered once the fight ended.
It's common sense.
1. Always throw the first punch. Many fights consist of one punch.
2. Never punch a guy with a bone saw.
That must be why, when I look back on the more than ten fist fights that are part of our lore, including my last effort at 67, which must be the age record in my family, not one of us has been dismembered once the fight ended.
It's common sense.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
A Stunning Movie
Last week I stumbled across what might be the best movie made in Spain, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE. I’ll guess that students of film know all about it and studied it and so on, but my circle has not heard of it. I won’t tell the story of the movie, but I suggest that you find a copy and view it.
The film is set in Fascist Spain in 1940 in a lonely village surrounded by empty fields. It’s about a family in which the the father is a poet and a beekeeper. The beehive is there to represent the dull decadence of a moribund society where individuals mean nothing and don’t connect and nothing changes. This is a simple, plain and gorgeous movie. Two little sisters see the weekly town movie, FRANKENSTEIN and set off through empty fields to find the monster. In contrast to the beehive is the inner life of a six-year-old, played by Ana Torrent, whose dreams, hallucinations and creativity dominate a haunted landscape marked by forboding.
Comment on Voting (revised)
Some friends have asked me to comment on voting, so I will. Do not take me seriously.
California has a jungle primary in which the top two candidates go on to the general election. Sometimes that results in two Democrats running against each other.
The big contest in California is for the senate seat, where two Democrats are on the ballot, incumbent Dianne Feinstein vs. State Senator Kevin de Leon. I voted for de Leon in the primary. He’s to the left of Feinstein. But de Leon has run a misleading and unscrupulous campaign, so I am switching to Feinstein. I’m fed up with political nonsense.
In candidate races where there is a Democrat and a Rapepublican, I will vote for the Democrat. (No third party candidate survived the primary.) In the races where two Democrats face each other, I will vote for Hernandez for Lt. Governor because he is experienced. For State Senator I will vote for Mike McGuire, the incumbent. He’s a skilled, professional progressive I once knew. As usual I know nothing about any of the judges up for election.
I will vote for Jim Wood to return to the assembly because he is rational, a scientist and progressive enough, although I may disagree with him on some issues.
I will vote for Jim Wood to return to the assembly because he is rational, a scientist and progressive enough, although I may disagree with him on some issues.
When it comes to the propositions I look at who is for them and who is against. If the proposition is supported by The Richey Rich Taxpayers To Hell With The Poor Association, Hooray for Greed, I know what to do. If the proposition is supported by the nurses union, I’m inclined to agree. If I’m conflicted I vote no, on the grounds that the state legislators should decided the matter—that’s what we pay them to do.
Prop 1: Yes.
Prop 2: Yes.
Prop 3:Yes.
Prop 4: Yes
Prop 5: No
Prop 6: No
Prop 7: Yes
Prop 8: Yes
Prop 9: This was the one designed to divide the state into three parts, giving us six senators. It was removed from the ballot.
Prop 10: Yes
Prop 11: No
Prop 12: Yes
Why vote at all? That is a fair question. If you live in a state and county that is always won by the same party, your vote for or against that party will change nothing. I live in such a place, a Democratic county and state. When we retired my wife specified that we move to a place where Rapepublicans lose. My voting here has no practical value, but it says that I remain committed to developing a democracy sometime in the distant future.
Please pay no attention to any of the above.
Saturday, October 13, 2018
My Father-in-law and Frederick Douglass
My father-in-law told jokes about my kind (the Irish) and how they were drunken oafs and so on. When we named one of our daughters Maggie, he objected, saying it was a servant's name. In nearly all ways he had sound working class, progressive politics, and this Irish thing was just a minor hitch. It didn't bother me, because I was raised to believe that there were only two kinds of people, the Irish and those who wished they were Irish.
The early women's suffrage and black suffrage movements, it seems, had the same hitch, and that's probably where my father-in-law got it. They argued that it made no sense to allow drunken, ignorant Irish oafs to vote while denying suffrage to dignified men of color or good women. Douglass did hold that suffrage for men of color was more crucial than votes for women, because when women protested for the vote, they were seldom lynched or burned alive.
Frederick Douglass made after- dinner jokes about the Irish, and this country has not produced a greater man than Douglass.
Douglass embodied both of the main bodies of black political thought. He was a pragmatist who understood that people of color were a minority who need majority support. He worked with Lincoln and Grant. He also militantly advocated violence when (and only when) it would work (the Civil War, in which one of his sons fought). Douglass was Malcolm X and King combined. Yet, like us, he was imperfect.
The early women's suffrage and black suffrage movements, it seems, had the same hitch, and that's probably where my father-in-law got it. They argued that it made no sense to allow drunken, ignorant Irish oafs to vote while denying suffrage to dignified men of color or good women. Douglass did hold that suffrage for men of color was more crucial than votes for women, because when women protested for the vote, they were seldom lynched or burned alive.
Frederick Douglass made after- dinner jokes about the Irish, and this country has not produced a greater man than Douglass.
Douglass embodied both of the main bodies of black political thought. He was a pragmatist who understood that people of color were a minority who need majority support. He worked with Lincoln and Grant. He also militantly advocated violence when (and only when) it would work (the Civil War, in which one of his sons fought). Douglass was Malcolm X and King combined. Yet, like us, he was imperfect.
Friday, October 12, 2018
The World's Oldest Babysitter
A year ago a city wild fire swept into Santa Rosa, a fire driven by huge winds throwing sparks over the city and county. About 40 people died. The morning it started, my wife called me from San Francisco at about 6 AM and said that she smelled smoke. San Francisco is 60 miles to the south. So I got up in the dark and went outside and saw that the mountain east of us had turned red.
We're in a huge apartment complex, but the only people we knew were a young couple from Italy with a small daughter. I was a little worried about them not knowing what to do, so I knocked on their door and told them what was happening. We all had to leave, but our place did not burn, just lost its electricity etc.
Anyway, last night I was home alone. My wife was staying with a friend who is recovering from a hip replacement. The young Italian woman knocked on our door and told me that she had to go to a parent-teacher's conference, and her babysitter had canceled. She asked if I would sit with Sophia, her three-year-old. This came as a considerable surprise. Sophia does like me, for no good reason, and I said yes. But how strange. Here I was, an 83 year old, suddenly with a 3 year old to entertain for 90 minutes. We did fine. I found SpongeBob on the TV, and when Sophia said she wanted to draw, I came up with some printer paper and pens, and she did about ten portraits of her mother and several of her father. She found a collection of rubbery plastic bugs my wife has, so I gave her one bug and told her she could use it to scare her mother. Some music came on the TV; Sophia did some dancing. When her mother returned from the meeting, Sophia immediately began chasing her around with the fake bug and so on. Sophia is very lively and self-assured (and bilingual).
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