The Duties of Chief of Staff

Five Official Duties of Chief of Staff

1. Arrange for the printing of place cards for a presidential dinner.

2. Play polo in Yemen. 

3. Steal elections.

4. Try on Hitler's cummerbund.

5. Eat shit. 

The Rhinos

Is there a difference between the goals of Trump and the MAGA mob and the goals of the leaders of Russia and China? 

The dictators of Russia and China seem to have complicated goals and  things to negotiate. Their aims seem typical of Fascists. Reduce their own nation to one culture, one ethnic group. Capture any foreign lands where members of your ethnic group are citizens. And so on. The things Hitler did.

The MAGAs have something we might (by extension) call a goal. They want to smash into and trample society. The goal of a rhinoceros: to act out. Rhinos have nothing to negotiate. Just close eyes and charge. 

Gazillions

If you look up the current gross national products of nations, you will find something like this.

1. USA 25 Gazillion

2.  Europe about 21 Gazillion

3.  China 18  Gazillion

4. Japan  5 Gazillion

and so on. Russia comes in tenth with less than 2 Gazillion.

So in the Ukraine war, 2 Gazillion is going against more than 46 Gazillion. But Russia has some support from China and Iran.  

What do I see in person-on-the-street interviews in Russia? (You can watch these interviews on YouTube. There is no science to them.)

Apparently many ordinary Russians believe they live in the world's most powerful country, one with a manifest destiny: to restore the golden age when children were straight and obedient and women didn't speak.  

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The FBI

 

Trump and his MAGA gunmen claim the FBI has recently become an unfair political attack machine. Meanwhile the charming entertainers on MSNBC claim that the FBI is objective, not political.  

Is the FBI political? Ask Hillary Clinton. The FBI was invented by politicians, and it is paid for by politicians.   

But if my choice is between the FBI and MAGA, not a close call. 

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Pete

This morning someone reported on TV that the Hollywood artists' strike has been particularly hard on gay people in the entertainment industry. For a few moments I didn't get it, and then I remembered Pete.

A year after World War II ended, my father was working as a machinist in an oil refinery. We lived out of town on four acres, and we had two horses that had cost $150 total. Pete, another refinery worker, loved horses and was a frequent visitor.  Pete was Mexican-American. 

The oil workers union, which had foregone raises during the long conflict,  went out on strike for a pay increase. They would lose the strike, and my father would end up in a different union.  

Anyway, after a month or two of striking, Pete visited us and told my father that he had to cross the picket line and return to work. He was going to scab. His family was broke, and Pete, an ethnic outsider, had been unable to find a job to tide his wife and children over during the strike. 

My father said that he understood. They shook hands, and I never saw Pete again. My father tried to retain the friendship, but Pete wouldn't have it. He said he felt ashamed. 

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Fornication

A friend recently handed me a pamphlet on imperialism to read, an essay written by a professor of Greek history at Hillsdale College.  

For some reason the first 90% of the essay is a standard recital of what school children already know about Greece. Near the end the essayist suddenly attacks San Francisco as a place where the voters fornicate. 

I'm not sure what fornication has to do with imperialism, but the writer's charge seems well founded. A recent study found that about 79% of the Christians in America have fornicated, and the percentage of fornicating Jews is even higher. 

Hindus, not so much. 

Without making inquiries, I can't be certain, but I suspect that nearly everyone I know has fornicated.

No only have many in San Francisco fornicated, but the activity is legal within city limits and in some other places like Canada, Europe, etc. 

Hillsdale College, which "provides insights into the nature of God," is located in Michigan, where some forms of fornication remain technically illegal. The penalty would be four years in prison if the law were enforced.

Wolf

Susan and I raised a small Mexican wolf with a coat of many colors, including reddish hues in winter. We called him Colorado. He was well behaved and happy.

In 1967 I was walking Colorado along the esplanade in Redondo Beach, not far from Avenue C.  We paused near an old woman who asked me what breed he was.

"A Mexican wolf,"  I said.

She scoffed.

"You don't believe me?" 

"Do you believe I'm Jack London's younger sister?" 

"No. You're not."

Sometimes dog fanciers looked at me with concern, wondering how I'd gotten stuck with such a malformed German shepherd.

Colorado had been around both wolves and dogs and treated them the same. To him, they were the same. He liked them. Once a collie had jumped him. Colorado had knocked him down and stood on him in good humor, then let him up. 

From the esplanade I looked down at volleyball players on the beach, some surfers on boards, two brown lifeguards on a tower, people in cars driving by. No one seemed to notice the wolf. He went unrecognized (except once by a man who worked at the Los Angeles Zoo). 

Most of the time I was the only one who knew what Colorado was. He didn't know he was a wolf. 

The Importance of Listening

I don't understand my own time.  

Political leaders don't understand what is happening in their own time, which is why no one likes them. 

Putin, for example, has no idea what is happening. Trump has no idea. The Democrats argue that health insurance for 30 million is a good idea. But they don't include dental care. 

Our leaders don't listen. If you sit down and listen to a voter, how often will she say, "We need health care for some but not all and, please, no dental." 

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St. Jude's Arm

The Catholic Church announced that St. Jude's arm will be touring California at some point between September and May. Probably toward May, I think, because the arm will begin its tour on the East Coast. 

Saint Jude is one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. Today he sits in the presence of the Lord, face to face, according to Church doctrine.  

This will be the first journey the arm has made to America, but it has traveled extensively in Italy. 

JUDE THE OBSCURE by Thomas Hardy and the song "Hey, Jude" by the Beatles may reflect the lasting impact of the patron saint of lost causes. 

Note: Philomena Cunk recently claimed that the arm is so encrusted with gold and jewels that none of it is actually visible, and that no one cares about it anyway.  

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A Level Field

During the recent pandemic, California, a progressive state, received a ton of federal money to use in improving our internet infrastructure. Plans were written to help our students who were learning online. 

According to a reporter, Shomik Mukherjee, over time the plans somehow changed. In the beginning the emphasis was on providing good Internet for children living in places like the poorer parts of Oakland and Los Angeles. Students there are still having a hard time staying online. They are seriously handicapped by bad connections.

The private internet companies make good profits in rich neighborhoods, so they are already well served.

The alternative to a useful and profitable internet company is a useful government program that provides good internet connections for poor people. But something in our culture tilts the government playing field, so that the good things in life slide away from the poor kids and toward the rich, even in Sacramento.

According to Mukherjee, newer plans shift the state emphasis from fixing poor neighborhoods to enhancing wealthy neighborhoods that already have good connections. How did that happen?

Florida or Hell?

According to Corina Knolle, reporter, for 170 years the population of California grew. Now it is shrinking.

I knew something was afoot. Back when I attended Redonda Union High School, California had about a third of the population it has today. Now the overfilled state lacks adequate housing, and the freeways are parking lots. To backpack in Yosemite, you need a reservation. 

California is overcrowded. 

Why live in Bakersfield? Let's encourage more California Republicans to move out, heading for places they'll find warmer, cheaper and more congenial like Florida or Hell.  

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