Trump's Comedy

Sometimes I think of Trump as a standup comic without jokes. He has set-ups but no punchlines.

The great comics don't memorize jokes and go out on stage and repeat them like robots. They improvise. It's a strategy. They're just talking, often in a somewhat transgressive way. Like court jesters they say things polite society keeps mum. When they get to a punchline, it seems natural.

Trump walks up to a mic and starts improvising, but what he says goes nowhere, and it has grown repetitive. He's lost in a personal fog. If he has a point, it's that he is a victim of a system that made him a billionaire. And maybe he is a kind of victim but of a family of pimps and cheaters  who made sure he would never know love or friendship. 

Corrupt Systems

Trump brazenly corrupted the Republican party in open defiance of everything Thomas Dewey cherished. How was that possible?

Social scientists have an answer. Corrupt people are drawn to join a corrupt system, which they see as a welcome opportunity. Corruption snowballs.

People who otherwise would have become pimps or embezzlers in corporations recognized Trump instantly, and they decided to enter politics. They made easy money by preaching racism and sexism to the ignorant. They adopted Trump's crudeness, which some voters read as honest leadership. The worst elements in the party took control.

 

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Title IX

If you watched the world track championships, you saw American women do astonishing things. I won't try to list their accomplishments here. They were the best team by a huge margin. I will mention that the American women's soccer team is ranked first in the world. So is the women's basketball team. And why is that?

Title IX.

The country got something right. Even Nixon got this one right--fifty years ago he signed Title IX into law. The opportunities for athletic American women opened up. And American women, unmatched in their diversity, enrolled in the high level programs suddenly available to them. For some, especially those born into poverty,  their intelligence, strength, speed and training have meant everything.

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Our Creation Myth

According to Jack de Selby, some of our ancestors spoke a language we now call Proto-Indo-European, the ultimate mother of Latin, Greek, French, German, Irish, Spanish, English and so on. By looking at what current languages have in common, linguists have reconstructed parts of the original language. In a similar way they have reconstructed aspects of West Asia's and Europe's original creation myth. 

The scientists have to be cautious, of course, in working so far backwards, and the results tend to be limited. But western civilization's original explanation for our creation went something like this:

In the beginning there was nothing.

Ancient forces met in the nothingness, creating a  primeval being that was two things at once (twins, for example).

An animal appeared and served as food for the double beings.

Gods appeared who sacrificed a primeval being (one of the twins) and made the universe from parts of its body.

Versions differ but some include the concept that one half of the double being allowed itself to be sacrificed. 

What To Do?

Maybe telling us to vote isn't enough, We already did that and won by 7 million votes. We put the Democrats in charge, yet in our red states, women have been partly enslaved by religious extremists, who see women as disposable incubators. 

The Democrats can't seem to stop voter suppression. Isn't voting fundamental to their own party's survival?

Crackpots sit atop our legal system. There is no absurdity they will not make the law of the land. 

Why is tRump, who incited an insurrection that caused the deaths of five people, not on trial for manslaughter? In any other country. . . .

I watched a panel on MSNBC today. No fight in them. 

What are we supposed to do now? Vote again? 

War with Iran

Of course I voted for Biden, although as far as I could tell he had never been a leader or a progressive. Then on Thursday I read in our local paper that he was prepared to use force against Iran "as a last resort." 

My first reaction was to consider if there was a way to take back my vote. Why haven't we learned by now not to make unprovoked attacks on other nations? I did not vote to kill the men, women and children of Iran.  

Later it became clear that Biden's remark had been insufficiently primitive to placate the Israelis and Saudis. Biden was trying to avoid or postpone bloodshed "as a last resort." What he wants is a nuclear nonproliferation treaty with Iran. He doesn't want a war.

If the nations of West Asia decide to fight it out (as part of their social evolution), let's watch from a distance. When they are done killing, we can send in food and medical help.

The Bad Stuff

 

I read recently that 100 years ago, marijuana, heroin, and morphine were available over the counter at local drugstores. Maybe so. But beer was illegal. 

Some News from Florida's Fascist Governor

 DeSantis wants college students to disclose political views

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill this week asking college students in public universities to disclose their political views.

Students will take a survey every year, about their stance on political issues.

Starting in July, it will be time for a new controversial law to go into effect, designed to take the political temperature of every public college and university in Florida.

Signed by DeSantis this week, House Bill 233 requires students and faculty to fill out a survey to declare their political beliefs, and assess what the governor calls, "viewpoint diversity" on public college campuses.

"We Have the Ability to Stop This."

A deeply unhappy commentator on TV today said of the mass killings in America, "We have the ability to stop this." But we don't. That's the problem. We would stop the killing if we could.

Polling shows that Americans have lost faith in the media, the Extreme Court, the congress, the presidency, etc. On average American institutions get a 27% approval rating. 

The two institutions above 50% are small businesses and the military. 

What most ordinary people want (gun control) our current system cannot provide. Voters have lost faith in the system. Now change will come. But it might be for the worse. 

Highland Park, Illinois

The mass shooting today in Highland Park is about the 306th mass killing incident in America this year. That works out to about 50 a month.

The state politics of Illinois may be more crooked than average, but they aren't irrational. Left to their own devices, the people and leaders of Illinois would have enacted measures to reduce mass murder. But our Extreme Court won't allow that. 

These murders are on the Court. Over many decades the Court has blocked sensible local attempts to keep guns out of the hands of crackpots. We are now at a point where we can change the Extreme Court or resign ourselves to almost two mass murders a day, every day. 

Repacking the Extreme Court requires a leader who is dedicated and somewhat ruthless, an FDR or LBJ. The Democrats need a leader.  I hope they find one.

Texas

Texas is considering replacement of the word "slavery" in textbooks with the term "involuntary relocation." Have they considered what the term "involuntary" might do to the fragile self-esteem of white children? How can whitefellas grow up to be supremicists if they are subjected to this kind of indoctrination? I expect lawsuits and good news from our Extreme Court.