Signal!

 

‘Signal’. Know what it is? Not the common noun or the verb but the proper noun that signifies the communication app.
(FYI: Signal is a ‘cross-platform centralized encrypted instant messaging service’.) It’s like ‘Twitter’ but -  and here’s the Big But – but, it’s encrypted and private.

Interesting, you might say, but what has this to do with anything? 

One of the heretofore anonymous texters (Congressman Scott Perry) reached out to Mark Meadows on, January 6^th, 2021, and recommended that they use ‘Signal’ for further communication. Rep. Perry wanted to keep his texts to the Chief of Staff secret. You know, like a crook, or a spy or an insurrectionist might do.

In point of fact, Meadows used his own personal cell phone and email addresses, as well as Signal, for official government business. (This may trigger memories of the Republicans (e.g. Gym Jordon, Trey Gowdy, etc) screaming bloody murder for years when they accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of doing that very thing.)

Perry undoubtedly knew that Meadows used Signal, rather than another app, for secret messages and so made the recommendation to go ‘encrypted’.

Why the secrecy if you’ve got nothing to hide? Mr Perry can try to explain that when he testifies before the Jan.6 Select Committee.

This adage may be applied to Roger Stone’s recent use of the 5^th amendment to stone-wall the Committee and still give the appearance of not violating the subpoena to appear. Simply reciting a claim of 5^th Amendment protection when asked one’s name is not compliance or cooperation.   

An observer with a functional memory might recall, his Orange Eminence stated categorically that ‘taking the 5^th’ in and of itself was a tacit admission of guilt.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is generally attributed to Joseph Goebbels. It’s undeniable that Pius Thicknesse uttered the sentence in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. It’s doubtful that either had ‘taking the 5^th’ in mind.

 

PowerPoint for Dummies

 

Hoo-boy! The 38-page ‘PowerPoint for Demented Dummies’ has certainly kicked over the camp latrine, hasn’t it? The ramifications of that stupendous reveal will ripple on for years. The January 6^th Select Committee must feel pretty big in the britches about now. One could almost imagine seeing smirks on the faces of several Committee members. Self-satisfaction was certainly playing around the eyes of Ranking Member, Liz Cheney.

Or was that me projecting?

One must wonder openly about what the hell Mark Meadows thinks he’s doing turning over truly block-buster documentation to the Select Committee and then – THEN – refusing to testify under the bogus and nonsensical claim of executive privilege!

Asha Rangappa, lawyer, former FBI agent, senior lecturer at Yale University, saw Meadows’ predicament as being ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’; a rock and a hard place. 

Apparently, an existential dilemma of this is sort is the key to remaining in the MAGA camp. Does Meadows somehow think that this is ‘taking one for the team’ or ‘falling on his sword’ while saving his own back-side? Ms. Rangappa also opined that Meadows may be hoping that the lesser jail-time for failing to honor a subpoena would forestall his being tried for more serious crimes. This woe-begotten tactic should favorably influence no one.  

CNN’s Elie Honig referred to Meadows’ actions as leaping half-way across a ditch; he’s neither in nor out. Neither a cooperating witness nor a hostile one. So, how does Meadows plopping down in the middle a muddy ditch serve himself or the former Guy? Time will tell but the smart money is on it failing miserably.

Or perhaps this is Meadow’s version of the grand gesture of throwing oneself on the hand grenade (to invoke the testimony of Gordon D. Sondland at the hearings on Trump’s demonic finagling with Ukraine.)

What is certain is that several Fox News entertainers have gotten caught with their feet wedged firmly their lying mouths. Ingrham, Hannity and that little weasel from the Fox & Fiends sofa all texted Meadows urgeing Trump to act presidential on that day while quieting their tele-sheeple with a gas-lighting fairy tale denying the dire reality of that day.

Little Donnie Jr even got into the act - to his dubious credit - begging Meadows (!) to talk to Junior’s Orange Daddy. Evidently, Jr. couldn’t call his own father, even given the drama and pompous circumstances of the day. Lawrence O’Donnell attributed that to caller I.D. Mary Trump said it was more that Jr. didn’t want to bring Big Daddy bad news. 

As a bonus, the public has learned of the existence of conspiracy theorist and PowerPoint maker, Philip Waldron, a retired U.S. Army colonel. One would imagine Chairperson Bennie Thompson has already drawn up a subpoena for that person of note.

Question: Were any of the leaders of the National Guard of a similar mind to Col. Waldron (rt.) on that day?

 

Inaction is NOT an Option

 

In his speech at the Democracy Summit, Biden said, “We should be making it easy for people to vote, not harder.” He went further, “And that’s going to remain a priority for my administration until we get it done. Inaction is not an option.”

There has been a lot of palaver criticizing Biden and the US generally for having the presumed audacity to host a summit on Democracy. The argument supporting this dismissive view runs thusly: The USA has fallen from its perch of moral superiority as a staunch proponent of Democracy in light of the Trump/MAGA-land attempt to negate a free and fair election. The argument normally has included reference to the various Republican-led moves to restrict voting rights and curtail the opportunities to vote by targeted communities. In sum, the US is in no position to lecture the rest of the world on Democracy if they can’t keep their own house in order, as it were.

The purveyors of this silliness ignore the fact that Democracy is always – always – a work in progress. It has always been; as each sub-set of a nation’s population gains recognition and power, that sub-set enters the democratic fray. The more democratic the society, the quicker each sub-set gains the power of its collective voice. That’s how Democracy works. 

The prime model for Democracy, the city state of Athens, did not allow women or slaves, or even the majority of the adult population of the state, to vote.  Nevertheless, Athens is cited as the cradle of Democracy. The USA, as the modern paragon of Democracy, by the aforementioned dismissive argument, did not allow slaves or women to vote until decades after its inception.

The struggle for Democracy is ongoing and perpetual. It is always a work in progress. Unfortunately, there will always some who turn to undemocratic methods, such as fascism, racism ultra-nationalism and autocratic rule to gain power. Those factions must be combated and repressed unceasingly. (Indeed, a great, inherent paradox of Democracy is that such undemocratic sectors must be included in the Democracy.)

They do not have to be tolerated but they must not be repressed, either. Thus, the struggle for maintaining a Democratic state is perpetual. 

Point of opinion; Biden’s duty as a world citizen and his role as President obligated him to call the Democracy Summit to counteract the growing presence and power of undemocratic actors.

“Inaction is not an option.”

 

The Goon Squad

 

                                          The GOP Goon Squad

I have recently written about the dire need to nullify the Insane Right. (i.e. Boebert, MTG, Gosar, Gohmert, Brooks, Cotton, Gaetz, et al.) The way that their narrative of alt-reality is nullified is not by debate. To debate their like is to elevate their nonsense to a legitimate, respectable platform. 

There is no debating psychosis.

There cannot be a rational response to the ravings of a lunatic. One cannot reason with insanity. When Alice entered the Looking Glass, she knew she was entering a world which was not governed by rationality and logic. In the words of Marty Balin of ‘The Jefferson Airplane, logic had ‘fallen sloppy dead’ and was not to be revived by the application of rational thought.

What must take place is not debate. The insane chatter of the Right must be usurped, over-thrown, derided and disposed of. That is done by the clear and repeated statement of the narrative which guides the rest of us to accept scientific findings, to place value in education, to instill a sense of social responsibility and require compliance with beneficial policies.

Moreover, the vapid and befuddling talking points of the Q-pixilated should not be addressed directly, nor quoted for the same reason that debate is discarded; to quote the right is to lend credence to the madness.

To be clear, the madness itself must be addressed. Mental illness must be treated but it must be treated by mental health professionals who can shepherd the addled to a safe haven. There, in professional care, the demented might gain a proper perspective of their own madness. There is little doubt that the members of the MAGA-cult have taken leave of their senses. MTG – perhaps by choice – exhibits symptoms of psychosis. It is a psychosis that is propagated by Donald Trump and his adherents and spread to a segment of the US population.

A delusion shared between partners is called ‘folie a deux’ – the madness of two. What has happened in the American public has been termed ‘folie de millions’ – the madness of millions - by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump".

https://www.salon.com/2020/11/09/psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trumps-election-meltdown-is-most-dangerous-period-of-this-presidency/.

The Insane Right

 

                                                                The Brain Trust

The 'Insane Right', exemplified by MTG, Boebert, Gosar and Gohmert, must be nullified. They are the replicating tumors that have metastasized with the cancerous growth of the MAGA-cult. They and their psychotic, ignorant ilk must not be allowed to take control of the House or the Senate in 2022 or in 2024. This is not simply a matter of loyalty to the Democratic party or the ‘liberal’ agenda.

Full disclosure: I am not a staunch Democrat. I do not adhere blindly to the policies of either major party. True, I have voted Democratic. I have also voted Republican. And I have voted Libertarian, as well. No party has a lock on what is proper, right and ethical. Obama was not perfect. Neither was JFK or FDR for that matter. The less said about Nixon, Reagan and either Bush, the better.

However, when confronted with the sheer lunacy and ignorance of the ‘Alt-right’, considerations of loyalty to a political party must be set aside. There can be no middle ground reached with those who have slipped the bonds of sanity. There can be no compromise with the insane without becoming insane oneself in the process of appeasement.

One cannot accept as fact that ‘up is down’ without losing one’s sense of direction. One cannot give credence to the blather of Marjorie Taylor Greene without tacitly acknowledging ‘Jewish Space Lasers’ as fact or that cancer is contagious or that Dr Anthony Fauci is on par with a monster like Dr Mengele.

While it is most troubling that a substantial number of MAGA-landers have accepted the blithering of Trump, MTG, Gosart, et al. as truth, we must maintain our own, grounded, world view; one which takes medical science seriously and holds the ludicrous nonsense of the MAGA-view (e.g. the Big Lie) as a despicable, woeful departure from reality.

Nullifying the psychotic gibberish of Trump-landers is a step that must be taken. The alternative is unthinkable: the end of the American Experiment.

 

Patience, Hell!

 

There was a cartoon that showed two vultures sitting together. One said ‘Patience, my ass! I’m gonna kill something!’

The perceived slow-walking of the process of bringing January 6 perpetrators to task has got some people ravenous and impatient. Impatient enough to insist on rash behavior. That’s very much what many people seemingly want; rash action regarding the January 6 Special Commission and the DOJ’s handling of the criminal investigations, issuance of subpoenas and indictments.

Just like the vulture in that old meme, many want instant gratification and a quick resolution to very thorny and complicated matters. Like that impatient buzzard, there is nothing to be gained by rashness. Alacrity is demanded, but efficiency and efficacy must stand before speed. The vulture in question was no more able to take direct, forceful action by killing something than Benny Thompson or Merrick Garland is in speeding the wheels of justice along. 

Simply said; that’s not how any of this works. Vultures don’t kill; they scavenge. They leave the killing to others. That’s how they have evolved. That’s how they fit into the grand Circle of Life.

Garland, the DOJ and the Jan 6 Committee must operate within the strictures of the rule of law. There’s no alternative but to go ‘rogue’ and take on the dubious extra-legal attributes of a Banana Republic. Nothing good can come of that. 

Still, there are those vocal souls who clamor for immediate action; those who squawk that Trump and Meadows and Bannon are all getting away with the crimes we all witnessed on video.
(Spoiler alert: they won’t.)

We can and must take heart that the Appellate Court is ruling against Trump’s groundless invocation of executive privilege. Bannon has been indicted and arrested. Alexander Ali is ready to spill the beans. Mark Meadows will testify after all and Jeffrey Clark and all the other nefarious actors who helped perpetrate the attack on the Capitol Building will be dealt with according to the legal processes of the United States. The patience-testing deliberateness of the wheels of justice must be endured and tolerated.

Patience is called for.

The Jan 6 Putsch

 

The Weimar Republic. Ring any bells? It didn’t last long. It’s been reviled as feckless, ineffectual and cowardly. A guy named Adolph ended that republic.

Richard Painter, White House chief ethics counsel under W. Bush calls our attention to the Weimar Republic. He does it as warning; a deja view of a cautionary tale. Mr Painter says that it’s the Weimar Republic all over again. Here. 

There have been ample warnings of the similarities between the USA and Germany between the wars coming from many quarters since the rise of MAGA-dom. Stark warnings have even come from survivors of the Holocaust who fear the another fascist reich.

Caveats will apply, of course. One major caveat to espousing a complete identification with the Weimar Republic is that we have the history of their failure before us to consult. We must do that and not mentally pooh-pooh the parallels.

Everyday, we are inundated by lies; what Kellyanne Conway branded ‘alt/facts. False accounts of everything from COVID-19 to the contents of the Build Back Better Bill pour forth from the GOP, Fox Gnus, NewsMax, OAN, the Orange Mar-A-Lago MAGA-dope and his minions. 

“The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact.” William A. Wallace, FDR’s VP before Truman and former Secretary of Agriculture and former Secretary of Commerce, observed in 1944. (Even in the midst of a World War against fascism, there were, evidently, fascists active in America. 

Witness the despicable actions of Paul Gosar. Or MGT. Boebert. Brooks. Cruz. Graham. Guiliani, Stone. Meadows. We must stop pretending that they can be dealt with as honorable people. They have no honor, no sense of decency or ethics or social responsibility. They want power and if the 'subtle' tactics they’ve employed thus far don't get them what they want, they will resort to more desperate and violent means. Let's call it a 'putsch' rather than an insurrection and see how that plays. 

Keep pretending that 'It Can't Happen Here' and watch it happen here. Let's start calling Jan.6th a 'putsch' rather than an insurrection and see if that gains traction.

 

White Evangelicals?

 

White Evangelicals.

If that shop-worn phrase brings harps and halos to mind, you’ve been brain-washed.

White evangelicals is a euphemism.

It’s a euphemism for theocratic fascists.

Does that seem harsh? It doesn’t sound like Aunt Bessie sewing quilts in the church basement, does it? No. It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t because quilting bees in church basements is a very benign enterprise.

Now, imagine that the quilt that Aunt Bessie and company are making features the face of the Tangerine Beast – TFG – with a banner that reads ‘Stop the Steal’ or ‘Trump Won!’ with the stars and bars as a back-ground. Still benign?

Preachers spewing anti-vax/anti-mask twaddle from their TV studio chapels. Evangelicals hopping up and down in a toddler-like rage that ‘Geezus is my vaccine!’; bloated braggarts of ‘god’ telling their congregations that MEDIA stands for ‘Most Evil Demon in America’! Say fecking what?

This ain’t Aunt Bessie taking cookies to the doddering, widowed pastor. The modern pastor may very well own a sizeable real estate portfolio or even a small fleet of private jets.

Think not?

Consider the mega-churches; temples to the grift that keeps on giving and forgiving. They represent a most substantial outlay of capital. Considerable moolah has been invested in grandiose tabernacles on expansive and luxurious tracts of land.
(Sorry if this disillusions you but that money does not fall from the sky – no matter how righteous you are.)

Investors want return on their investment. ROI. Bilking the gullible is the basic business plan. Wow ‘em with stage-craft and baffle ‘em with bullshit. That’s a proven method of getting a sustainable return on investment, quarter on quarter.

Here’s the pitch:

‘Want to be delivered from perdition? Send a check or money order in an amount that hurts.’ Go without food. Let your dog skip its visit to the vet. Let your husband skip his medication or his chemo. Cut corners anyway you can but send the ‘Good Lord’ your dough. As George Carlin brilliantly observed, "God Loves you... and he needs money."

Harsh, right? Indeed, it is. Conning gullible folks out of their savings is despicable. Promising a pie-in-the-sky happy-ever-after prance in the clouds for eternity - redeemable only after you’re dead - is simply evil.

 

 

 

 

Hair's-breadth Cracks in the Tortoise's Shell

 

Is Mitch McConnell cracking?

After years of being the Grim Reaper and Obstructionist Numero Uno, has Moscow Mitch finally been backed into a corner he can’t escape from? 

It’s only a guess at this time; a conjecture based on scant evidence, but Mitch definitely blinked in the staring contest between the GOP and the Dems. Despite the own-goal assistance of Dem bugaboos, Manchin and Sinema, Mitch has blinked and kicked the Debt Ceiling Can down the road.

In prior years, Mitch would have gone to the mattresses with oleaginous dorks like Rafael Cruz and Rand Paul to force the hand of the Democrats to cave to his chelonian will. This time, however, the Old Turtle seems to have gotten flipped onto his back.

Conjecture is that Mitch is trying to play stall-ball while the Dems steel themselves for a change in the Senate filibuster rule. It has been reported that the Dems were hammering out such a change in the filibuster and were close to making such a play work. It was also intimated that Mitch may have made his can-kicking move because the Dems were about to pull the filibuster rug out from under him.

At the same time, the proverbial rug would also be yanked from under the Bugbear Pair, Manchin and Sinema. Their faithless leverage would all but disappear.

Mitch blinked when he proposed offering a delaying tactic to put off a vote for raising the debt ceiling until December. All that it has done is gain Mitch some time. In that time, it is hoped that the Dems will amend or end the filibuster rule and take rightful control of the Senate, at long last. In that time, the Dems should be able to steel themselves, close ranks and bulldoze through Biden’s agenda.

Mitch blinked and it was quite a ‘blink’. Perhaps Mitch even nodded off briefly. Perhaps that’s hoping for too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Windows; January 6th

 

Video has revealed that the January 6^th attackers bee-lined to the four exceptionally weak points of the Capitol Building.

(Nota bene – After 9-11, the Capitol Building was fortified and reinforced; first the windows and glass doors were laminated with a translucent coating of Kevlar. Later, most of the same windows and doors were more solidly, structurally fortified to hold up to truck bombs and the like. However, two windows and two glass doors were not strengthened in this way because they were deemed to be ‘tucked away’ and probably not subject to the force of the blast from a truck bomb.)

As it turns out, it was to these vulnerable windows that the seditious militia members made a bee-line.  After three tries, (with fist, then pole, then stolen police shield) the rioters smashed the first window and slithered through it to wreak havoc. All of this was captured on video; much of it – the smashing of the windows   and the unlawful entry – has been seen hundreds of times on MSM.

Moreover, it has generally been known that the leaders of the assault obviously had detailed maps of the Capitol by which to plan and execute their assault.  Conjecture of complicit Congressmembers such as Lauren Boebert is rampant but as yet unverified; feasible and likely but, as yet, uncorroborated. The Select Committee has issued subpoenas in that regard.

Thus far, sentences for the Jan. 6^th insurrectionists have been perceived as pathetic slaps on the wrist. However, when the Select Committee hears testimony that these mutherfeckers were primed with the information about which windows they could smash, penalties for their treasonous behavior should drastically increase. Right now, it seems the courts and the prosecutors are accepting the tall tale that rioters were 'swept up' in the emotions of the day. 

This is utter Trumpian twaddle.

It is evident to most on the Left that the January 6th attack was planned and the Capitol Building scouted and reconnoitered beforehand.

The most important questions that the Committee must ask are; ‘Who planned the attack?’ and ‘Who facilitated the attack?’.

 

 

Stephie Dishes a Cold Dish

 

The raft of tell-all books, from accomplices to the criminality of the Former Arsehole-in-chief, keeps growing larger. As one wag put it, ‘We don’t need to read about it. We lived through it!’

Indeed, we scraped by ‘by the skin of our teeth’ considering how close the Republic came to being dismantled as Steve Bannon had intended. 

The non-functional press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, is the latest to make the promo circuit. (Grisham is, of course, best known as the White House press secretary who NEVER held a press conference during her blighted tenure. The silence, IMHO, was a welcome reprieve from the incessant lying of her predecessor.)

Stephie is hawking her gut-churning tale of folderol, tabloid gossip, and – on occasion, insight - of the inner psychosis that was the Trump White House.  

No surprise, Grisham’s tell-all is an “unrepentant confession” presumably meant to excuse her psychotic silence while she actually held office in Trump’s West Wing.

Are we actually meant to accept as fact that Stephanie Grisham has had a ‘come-to-Jesus’ moment re: the Giant Orange Blob of fascist protoplasm?

Pardon if this writer is unconvinced by her self-serving, feigned remorse.

To wit: Ms Grisham feebly beat her breast (without accepting any blame) that the Trump Administration’s response to the pandemic was ‘tragic’.

As Doctor Jonathan Reiner, professor of Medicine at The George Washington University Medical Center responded; “Tell that to the 700,000 dead Americans!”

Dr Jonathan Reiner also tweeted; ‘I have no respect for the insiders who witnessed the madness of the last president and with their silence became his enablers. Grisham’s book should be called “Complicit”’.

When asked point-blank by Brianna Keilar, during CNN’s ‘New Day’ interview, if she, Stephanie, was culpable for any of the tragic mis-steps of TFG mal-administration such as the January 6^th Insurrection, Ms Grisham demurred. 

Isn’t it odd how all of these former functionaries in the Former Guy’s White House had so little influence while they held positions of influence?

ATTN: Pearl-Clutchers

 

Okay, there seems to be a lot of pearl-clutching angst amongst some in response to Senator Kyrsten Sinema, being cornered in the wash-room by her own constituents whom she does not deign to meet in a more formal setting.

Please note that Ms Sinema is a sitting US Senator. She is not your child’s kindergarten teacher. She is not the chair of the clothing drive at your church. She is not the smiling cashier at CVS or the helpful teller at your local bank branch. She is not attending a tea social. She is not a member of your bridge club.

Kyrsten Sinema is an elected official. She was sent to the Senate after she promised to make her constituents’ lives better. Her supporters campaigned to elect her in Arizona. They gave of their own time and energy to put Ms Sinema in a position of power and influence.

However, Ms. Sinema is holding up vital legislation that will change people's lives for the better all over the USA. Sinema is obstructing that effort for no good reason at all. She is acting more like a pawn of Mitch McConnell than a member of Chuck Schumer’s team. She has thrown her campaign workers – her own constituents – under the proverbial bus. She has done this without comment or rationale.

So, get in her face and demand some answers. Confront her whenever and wherever she is. On a plane? Yes! Confront her. At dinner? Yes, Confront her. Walking down the street? Yes. Confront her. At her next Iron-man event? Yes! In the rest-room? Yes! Confront her.

Demand answers. Demand some action that shows that indicates she is a member of the Democratic Party. Demand that she respect the wishes of her own constituents.

 

 

 

Video has revealed that the January 6^th attackers bee-lined to the four exceptionally weak points of the Capitol Building.

(Nota bene – After 9-11, the Capitol Building was fortified and reinforced; first the windows and glass doors were laminated with a translucent coating of Kevlar. Later, most of the same windows and doors were more solidly, structurally fortified to hold up to truck bombs and the like. However, two windows and two glass doors were not strengthened in this way because they were deemed to be ‘tucked away’ and probably not subject to the force of the blast from a truck bomb.)

As it turns out, it was to these vulnerable windows that the seditious militia members made a bee-line.  After three tries, (with fist, then pole, then stolen police shield) the rioters smashed the first window and slithered through it to wreak havoc. All of this was captured on video; much of it – the smashing of the windows   and the unlawful entry – has been seen hundreds of times on MSM. 

Moreover, it has generally been known that the leaders of the assault obviously had detailed maps of the Capitol by which to plan and execute their assault.  Conjecture of complicit Congressmembers such as Lauren Boebert is rampant but as yet unverified; feasible and likely but, as yet, uncorroborated. The Select Committee has issued subpoenas in that regard.

Thus far, sentences for the Jan. 6^th insurrectionists have been perceived as pathetic slaps on the wrist. However, when the Select Committee hears testimony that these mutherfeckers were primed with the information about which windows they could smash, penalties for their treasonous behavior should drastically increase. Right now, it seems the courts and the prosecutors are accepting the tall tale that rioters were 'swept up' in the emotions of the day. 

This is utter Trumpian twaddle.

It is evident to most on the Left that the January 6th attack was planned and the Capitol Building scouted and reconnoitered beforehand. 

The most important questions that the Committee must ask are; ‘Who planned the attack?’ and ‘Who facilitated the attack?’.

 

 

Folie à Millions

 

 

They can’t be this stupid.

Think about it.

Anti-maskers, Anti-vaxxers, COVID-iots, etc.

They can’t all be so stupid.
Some? Sure.
All? Can't be.

What is being asked of us all is prescribed by experts from pertinent disciplines; immunology, virology, infectious disease and the like. That prescription is meant to prevent disease and death by that disease. What’s being asked of us is that we take very simple precautions; wear a mask, wash your hands, keep your distance, get your jabs. What’s being asked of us is that we preserve our own life and the lives of our own.

Refusing to comply with the recommendations of medical experts is not a just an ignorant choice. It is something more than ignorance. It is something that over-rides the inherent compunction to save one’s own life. That’s not just stupidity or a horrific failure of sound judgment. 

That’s insanity.

A Curmudgeon's Take

 

Seems the only way to approach this is as a curmudgeon. There have been two stories which have dominated international cable news; Gabby Petito’s disappearance & Britney’s legal plight. While the first is certainly tragic, how can it be that this story – this one story - is international news? The second - a ‘poor-little-rich-girl’ story - is only deserving of the National Inquirer, yet it, too, is international news.

Additionally, Facebook and Instagram are in deep doo-doo for bringing low the self-esteem of young girls. How the social-media giant(s) were able to accomplish this mean-girl feat is bogglesome, at least to this curmudgeon. 

Apparently, young girls following other young girls on Instagram are dismayed by the presentation of good times, prosperity and blooming love-lives by ‘influencers’ who are rewarded for presenting idyllic fables for their subscribers to drool over. According to reports, the on-line display of enviable lives devastates the confidence of some young women; purportedly. 

If the curmudgeonly attitude towards the real-life stories of young women seems cold and unfeeling, it’s because the incessant coverage of them makes so little sense.

First, are these troubled teens troubled by the fact that there is inequity in life? Can they be forlorn due to the Tik-Tok narratives they view? Slice-of-life narratives showing others at exotic vacation sites, dressed in cutting-edge fashions, replete with fairy-tale romances and high-ticket accoutrement apparently ushers in crushing depression amongst those viewers for which the aforementioned glimpses of life among the Rich and Famous are well-beyond reach.

Why the media attention? Do people fear that Gabby’s estranged fiancée might be a serial killer and so, warrants a multi-state manhunt? The inclusion of Dog, Bounty-hunter of reality-TV fame makes for a real media circus. Is the despotic junta in Myanmar not an issue anymore?

Do people fear that they, like Britney, will fall under the court-ordered control of a demonic conservator? Are these stories to be taken as emblematic of all women? Is ‘#FreeBritney’ on a par with ‘#BLM’?

Perhaps those poor, unfortunate Instagram followers might take solace or at least, glean cautionary tales from the tragedy of Gabby Petito and, in Britney’s case, the horror of parental conservatorship with this simple observation: “Gee, they looked so happy.”

But, that just might be the curmudgeon talking.

 

COVID and Group Psychosis

 

 

There are crazy people everywhere. It’s a fact of life. Each one of us has had to deal with crazy people. Sometimes, they’ll be seen on the street railing against unseen entities, scolding a wall or shaking their fist at the sky. Sometimes, the relationship is much closer; on the job, where a co-worker will share inner-most thoughts which should only be heard by a psychiatric counselor.

Full disclosure: I am not a mental health-care professional. I used to be, though; a Psychiatric Aide in a state mental hospital. That experience was revelatory and educational. The crazies I observed were not only the patients on the ward but the people I worked with; the supervisors and administrators I worked under. 

We all encounter crazy people as a matter of course. They may work at the local shops or deliver your Amazon packages, flip your burgers or collect your trash. These are functioning members of society; even if they go home to an inflatable doll dressed as their mother. Even if they beat their children, their spouse and their dog for inconsequential violations of their private and psychotic code of behavior, they may function fairly well in their job.  They may hold positions of responsibility such as teachers or lawyers or Congress members. Gym Jordan, MTG, Mo Brooks and a host of others may spring to mind. 

Clearly, these folks ‘aint wrapped tight’. Their cheese has slid off the cracker. Their oars don’t reach the water. They have two wheels in the sand. Their elevator doesn’t go to the top floors. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. They’re a few bricks shy a load.

See how easy that is? The euphemisms regarding those of, shall we say, an ‘occluded’ view of reality are legion. It’s a fact of life that we encounter crazy people all the time.

That leads us to anti-maskers, anti-Vaxxers, COVID deniers, COVIDiots, QAnon-ninnies and MAGA-mutts. These people have dipped into a pool of group psychosis that is filled, stirred and replenished by Fox News (sic), NewsMax, the Sinclair Network, Breitbart and too many other sources of misinformation that cloud the mind and tip the scales toward insanity for far too many.

To be clear: throwing off the basic instinct of self-preservation at the behest of a ‘talking head’ is insane. To risk the lives of your children, your friends, your family at the injunction of a political hack is criminally insane. To detached oneself from a common, shared reality is insanity in a nutshell. COVID is the reality. COVID-insanity is the new shared psychosis.

Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Keep your distance. Get your jabs. To do otherwise is insane.

 

America's Longest War Is OVER!

 

War has always generated euphemism. Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby referred to the withdrawal from Afghanistan this way: “We have begun retrograding…” Even the word ‘withdrawal’ was too loaded for the bruised national ego, so ‘retrograding’ was purloined and twisted to fit. Make no mistake; what we witnessed was a retreat.

GOP criticism of the ‘retrograde’ has been harsh and dutifully ignored the role that the Former Doofus and Pompous Mike Pompeo had in its calamitous execution. The traitorous deal made in Doha was called by Trump's first national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, "… a surrender agreement with the Taliban". 

In a presser on the eve of America’s final day in America’s longest war, John Kirby was asked again why the evacuation – the ‘retrograde’ – hadn’t gone better. Mr Kirby’s answer brings a clarity which has been obfuscated by GOP bluster. 

America had a partner in Afghanistan; it was the Afghani government supported by the Afghan military – the same military that was supplied and trained for decades by America. Unfortunately, TFG and Pompeo hadn’t surrendered to the Afghani government; they had struck their craven deal with the Taliban! 

When the rubber met the road, Biden fleshed out that ill-advised surrender… er… ‘retrograding’ with the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul; the one party who had had no part in the surrender to the Taliban in Doha. That is the worn nub upon which this calamitous carousel wobbled its final revolution.

America had depended on the existence of the Afghan government and the Afghan military to make secure the withdrawal…er… ‘retrograding’ by protecting the airport and facilitating the processing of Afghan civilians whose live were forfeited by assisting the American occupation. 

Then, reality struck; the Taliban were resurgent. The Ghani government was gone with the wind and with the cash. The Afghan military evaporated like dew on a hot rock. That left the US to depend on the trustworthiness of an untrustworthy accomplice to secure the airport and secure Kabul. It left the US dependent on the undependable. Striking a deal by which your generational enemy provides cover for your retreat…er… ‘retrograde’ is ludicrous on its face. 

That more than 122,000 were evacuated from Afghanistan is remarkable considering how TFG and his doltish minion, Pompeo the Paunch, left Mr Biden holding a soggy paper bag of diarrhetic feces.

 

Malapropisms, Mondegreens, Spoonerisms & Eggcorns, Oh My!

 

Okay, now for a bit of fun.
Some malapropisms, mondegreens, Spoonerisms & eggcorns (as well as some simply bone-headed misstatements)  for your enjoyment and edification.

"If you have that, the world is your walrus."

"I've got ears like a hawk."

"He looks like he's three sheep in the wind."

"I am going to let you move around more, just to break up the mahogany."

"We don't want to screw ourselves in the foot."

"I think it's time to get our sleeves dirty."

"You can't see the forest if you're barking up the wrong tree."

"We need to get our ducks in the fire."

"We don't want to go barking up a dead horse." 

"We're going to come out of this smelling like geniuses!"

"The ball is squarely on our shoulders." 

"It's like those who can't, don't have to!"

"Your work is late, but that's neither hide nor there!"

"Sometimes you have to turn a blind ear to these things."

"The best way to learn is from the school of Fort Knox." 

"Don't do anything in public that you wouldn't do in private." 

By e-mail: "... Does anyone have a concern?  Speak now, or hold your piece!"

"The Indians are nervous at Waterloo."

"Throw that monkey back over the fence." 

"Let's not put our dandruff up in the air."

"Those new salesmen are still green behind the ears."

"She really rubs me up the wrong tree."

A former CEO made the following statement. "Some of you think that only half of the Board of Directors do all the work and the rest do nothing, actually the reverse is true."

The receptionist asked me, "Do you still live at your current address?"

"Well, I'm just busier than a one-armed naked man."

"It depends whether you are drinking from the side of the glass that is half-full or half-empty."

 My manager once said, "We triumphed over diversity."

Symptoms of a Sick Society

 

Pundits have been claiming for years that Donald J. Trump is not the cause of the insanity which is MAGA; he is but a symptom. The same is said for Tucker Carlson, Ron DeSantis and a host of other MAGA-mutts.

That’s a decent assertion to make; all of the racism, bigotry, greed, authoritarianism and disdain for education witnessed in the writings, bleating and clamoring of the alt/right can be traced to earlier times in the noble, yet flawed, American experiment. 

Much of the fault and many of the tragic missteps could be accounted for by the on-going changes in social mores. As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us; “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The sins of the past – slavery, disenfranchisement, etc – are rectified and addressed by the newer generation with a more ‘modern’ sense of justice and righteousness. 

One can, furthermore, understand the desire to mitigate the corrosive effects of psychotic personalities by claiming that political actors such as Trump, Hannity, Cotton, Gaetz, MTG, Cawthorn and Boebert are not truly indicative of inherent political and social rot but, rather, are merely symptoms which can be handily dealt with by level-headed care-givers and the application of analgesics. 

However, Trump and his MAGA-cult cannot and must not be dismissed simply as ‘symptoms’ of sickness in the body politic. To do so would be a monumental error. It would be akin to dismissing the inability to breathe as just a symptom of COVID-19 or pneumonia. Indeed, shortness of breath is a symptom but it is a life-threatening one; one that indicates the need for drastic action; hospitalization, intensive care, a prescribed regimen of pharmacological treatments.

That is where we find the democratic republic known as the United States of America; gasping for life. The symptoms are dire and life-threatening. (Think January 6^th) They must be handled with thoughtful aplomb and rational action.

As the pandemic tightens its strangle-hold on society with increasingly infectious and fatal variants, the metaphor could not be clearer; we must, as a nation, as a society, bite the bullet and take the bitter pill which will alleviate and ultimately eliminate the diseases of racism and economic inequality and thereby remove the symptoms such as Donald Trump from our body politic. 

My Dumb Over Your Smarts

‘My ignorance is better than your expertise.’

‘My lack of information trumps your encyclopedic knowledge.’

Hence, the MAGA disdain for education.

Critical thinking? Feggetabodit.

Go with your gut. If a primal emotion is triggered, then that’s what we imprint.

Needles bad! Vaccine Bad! Fauci BAD!

“My inability to grasp basic facts of the real world is the truth that I live by.’

My dumb is better than your smarts.

An indignant and cretinous woman at a public hearing on June 8^th, tried to testify to Ohio Republican lawmakers, that she had been ‘magnetized’ by the COVID vaccine. She claimed that she had just learned this new ‘truth’ over lunch. She then proceeded to demonstrate her newly gotten magnetic qualities. She placed a small metal object (a key?) on her nervously perspiring chest. The object adhered to her skin for a moment. This is a trick learned by children and demonstrated by adults at drunken parties. This woman, though, offered the sticky nature of human skin in warm conditions as ‘PROOF’ that she had been harmed by the vaccine; she had been magnetized!

The late night shows had a field day with her hysterical query to the room; "Any questions?"

‘Actually, quite a few...’ was a typical retort.

Questions such as; ‘What planet are you from?’ and ‘Did you sleep through all of your school years?’

(It would also be very tempting to ask how being magnetized caused harm and was undesirable. Sounds more like a low-level super power.)

Magnet Girl’s nonsense was preceded by testimony from Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an Ohio osteopath who wrote a book called ‘Saying No to Vaccines’. Dr Tenpenny (I flash on Dickens every time) claimed that the vaccines made you magnetic because there was a ‘metal’ in the serum.
She stated (ahem...)

"I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who’ve had these shots, and now they’re magnetized. They can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them, and they can stick. Because now we think that there’s a metal piece to that."

To be clear, this is utter and absolute rubbish. Also, clearly, Dr Tenpenny and I go to very different parties.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to address this preposterous non-issue on its website because they’d gotten so many questions on this bunkum.

“COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can produce an electromagnetic field...”

The plague is not COVID-19 and its variants. The plague is brain-deadedness. 

Stay safe. Get your jabs.