The Action of No-Action. Zen. Brilliant & Elegant.

 This is on today. We are doing it. Or in this case, not doing it. The action of no action. Kind of Zen. The moment I read about it, I thought it was a brilliant & elegant idea. Perfect for America. We are such world-class consumers. Let's be a bit disciplined, and show the world our power by not shopping. Soft power, yes. but, who knows, if enough people participate, maybe the world will notice? That is how movements start? Right?

Why are we doing this? The madness emanating out of the New Fascist Terror Dome Regime and their attack on Americans; the bullshit, and toxic lies, the cruel crusade against DEI and good government. They are trying to hollow out our government and empower the new asshole brigade. And some of our most successful corporations seem to be cheering them on. WE ARE AGAINST IT!

Some folks have belittled this boycott as "performative,"  I find that hilarious. Is it just for show? Sure. But think about it. Every act of opposition, every protest, every boycott, hell, every vote or speech is performative. 

Is it useless? Pointless? Who knows? It will feel good for the folks who do it. It is actually doing something in the face of the new fascism. How many will join? Will anyone notice? Good questions. I guess we will find out. 

Still, every protest started small. Every boycott. To cite some famous examples. One person sat at a drugstore counter and refused to leave. One person refused to sit in the back of the bus. One person posted #BlackLIvesMatter, and a world-wide movement happened. One person suggested boycotting the South African Apartheid Goverment, and over time, the boycott brought the government down.

Isn't that the glory of Democracy?  People Power in action. People standing up, or sitting down, having their voices heard, and astonishingly, somehow, someway, they change the world. A change of consciousness can happen in a flash of insight. Damn the torpedoes.

"Maybe something amazing will happen?"

America. Turns out there are many beautiful, intelligent, empathetic, creative, hopeful, funny, enterprising, diverse, multi-cultural Human Beings all across the land. Unfortunately, they are the "outs" at the moment, swamped and drowned out by the thunder, hate, noise & idiocy of New Fascist Terror Dome Regime in Washington, D.C.

So weird. The best of us are sort of flailing. The worst of us are lording over everyone. We are grappling with this new reality every day, doing our best to keep our heads. We know we are on the right track, but the direction of the Nation seems to be pointed to a  very different direction; over a steep, dangerous, cliff, portending an atrociously-bad & ugly fall.

Yikes. Our latest thought, which we floated yesterday afternoon: "Maybe something amazing will happen?" You know, unintended consequences? Could things get so bad, so dicey, so clearly wrong-headed & catastrophic that when the crash comes, a new way and a new day will be born from the rubble? Ha. Sure.  Why not? That's one of those tricks of the mind that come in handy; hoping against hope. Yes I do think this scenario is quite likely. Human Beings, we are resilient, tricky, always looking for an escape hatch. Maybe a new dawn is just around the bend?

Leashed Together...

 

When I first laid eyes on this image the laughter came like a flash of joyful lightening. My first thought, which I spoke out-loud to no-one in an empty kitchen: "Wow. Time Magazine has really stepped up their game." 

Funny. My 2nd thought, which floated silently in my head: "Oh. Of course, it's FAKE. But... it's perfect."

Almost poetry. Two billionaires leashed together. They seem to be attached to each other in a weird duality, bent on hollowing out & destroying the USA here and abroad.

And of course, they are on a mission to cut essential services to "regular" Americans, and to give tax cuts to billionaires. Talk about a terrible plague of an idea & ideaology. They both seem to be a bit "over their skis." You wonder, when will the "silent majority" decide to stand up for themselves? 

The "Have an Asshole Plutocrat Illegally Break the Government Agenda..."

 

 

Ha. Seems the "natives are getting restless." Even in those safe Red State Districts, folks who voted for the New Fascist Terror Dome Regime, are having second thoughts, & are none too happy about cuts to government programs, and proposed cuts to their benefit programs like Medicare & Social Security. All to try to justify tax cuts for billionaires. 

It does seem like a tough sell. But of course, we are being "ruled" by corrupt, greedy, idiots, and "the people" have been sleeping.

I think the new  (see three posts back),  version of this totally mega-rad-cool graphic is more on the nose. 

As Paul Campos so exquisitely sums is up: "It’s probably not a good sign for your “have an asshole plutocrat illegally break the government” agenda when you need a SWAT team to face your constituents..."

BTW - The silly question I floated to my partner in the kitchen yesterday: "Did they outlaw fun yet?!" Tongue in cheek, don't you know? 

All of this bad shite rolling across the land fuels a gnarly, sharply-pointed attitude. It is an attitude familiar to me. Probably a survival mechanism, and a good strategy for better living. Fuck these rich, wanna be Fascist, Emperors, and Kings, trying to con us. That ain't America, buddy. Those oligarchs are vastly outnumbered by the people. What if the people finally wake up? Hmmm. Could get interesting. 

Damn the torpedoes. We are, and can do, so much better...

Disease & Debauchery...

"I prefer to be ignorant of your disease of invention and your debauchery of confused ideas." - Paul Valery

Yes. Great line from a long-gone French poet, essayist, and philosopher. Still, I find it so of the moment.

What do I have to add? 

I hate, with a passion and fire of a million suns, the lies, the obvious, the ridiculous, the damaging, the mind-bending, the audacious, the vicious, the weaponized, the MAGA-out-landish, the damned, and damning lies that are emanating from the New Fascist Terror Dome Regime.

The constant lying is a plague on the mind and soul. Bad shite, indeed. 

Power in the Pocket Book...

You know, there is all this Fascist Terror Dome action rolling out in Washington D.C. It is very concerning. What are the people to do? Here is a simple and easy thing for Americans to do. We are citizens & consumers. We are probably the greatest shoppers ever to grace the planet. We love to buy shit. We pride ourselves on being smart shoppers. We love to sacrifice our $ for things.


How about showing our power by not shopping for a 24 hour period? Show the powers that be that there is a sleeping giant: the American Consumer, and we are not happy with this turn to authoritarian, white-nationlist fascism. Yes.

Burn Your Tesla!

There seems to be some confusion lately. A refresher: The Nazis & Hitler? They were the bad guys. Do something good. Burn your Tesla.

Soul-Searching with a Purpose...

Fuck it. 

Yes. It is true, I find cursing like a drunken sailor quite satisfying. I do recommend it. So, yes, again, fuck it. Despite all the bad news, all the madness, bad blood, corruption & idiocy, with the fascist assholes running amok, hollowing out our government and unleashing fresh misery on the people, you know, welcome to Dystopia 2025, I am still betting on reality & gravity, winning the day.

I can't help it. If I dig down deep enough into my own soul, soul-searching with a purpose, I come to the conclusion that this bad faith madness can't last. The stupid evil ones are just too stupid & evil for this to work. This new phase of fresh fuckery is built upon such obvious lies & such evil intent, it just can't hold.

Do I have any evidence to support my gut intuition? Not really. There is a bit of a push-back coming from the usual suspects, but the fascist assholes control all the levers of power. And lots of folks are staring in shocked silence. Not a good dynamic at the moment.

Still, I dream of a better day. It's the only way I can get up every morning. I do think we are heading toward some wild, unforseen Black Swan event, and then well, who knows?! Hold tight. Damn the torpedoes...

How Destructive will the Destruction Be?

Yesterday afternoon we hung out with our tribe: creative, intelligent, engaged, musically-inclined, accomplished, life-long, Americans, who have survived and thrived thru many eras in our American experiment. We all love this country, although, we are deeply aware of it's flaws & shortcomings too. It's a healthy & complicated relationship. We are committed, and fully-invested American Citizens.

We chatted about everything under the sun, sipping coffee and hot chocolates at our favorite local coffeehouse. If only those walls could talk; open mics, poetry readings, art shows, elaborate r&r extravaganzas. So many good times, the gathering place for folks from around the neighborhood. This is a meeting place, a cultural crossroads: artists, writers, poets, singers, musicians, political activists, dog-walkers, dramatists, comedians, celebrities, maintenance men, shop-keepers, clerks,  old-timers, young whipper-snappers. All races, creeds & colors. A perfect little example of the American thing in action.

The conversation was fun, heartfelt, rambling, filled with laughter, a bit of sadness, and good stories. We saved the state of the nation for last. It was a subject we all sort of hesitated to delve into, but of course, it was hanging over us like blooming clouds of doom.

The word that bubbled up: Dystopia: "A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ (dus) 'bad' and τόπος (tópos) 'place'), also called a cacotopia[2] or anti-utopia, is a community or society that is extremely bad or frightening."

Yes. No doubt. We are there. Surprisingly. Tragically. 

It was a hard ending, to an amazing afternoon. Hard, but essential. It is so important to see, and to face up to, the reality of our New Fascist Terror Dome Regime in Washington D.C. What was the verdict within our tribe? Things are bad, very, very bad, indeed. How bad? No one knows for sure. Seems the question is how destructive will the destruction be? We know folks who already are living in fear for their well-being, and those they love, worried about being disappeared in the night. How many folks will see pain and misery, and terror? Pretty sure that answer is quite clear: All of Us.

Let's Change the Channel Folks...

Yes. Well... hell... we control the vertical & the horizontal. We can change the channel. You know, we must.

The Power of that Sinking Feeling...

Ha... 

Wrestling with how to deal with the new reality. It's an on-going conversation in our household. Things are moving fast, things we thought we knew, and believed in, seem to be crumbling around us. Truth has turned out to be fungible, the rule of law fragile, the constitution a raggedy old piece of paper. The liars, con-men, creeps, the filthy-rich tech bros, the newly-minted American oligarchs, white supremacists, yes, the new American fascists, are out front and center, goose-stepping around, and lording it over everyone else here and around the globe.

I am the type that is always looking for a silver lining in any dark cloud. If everyone is leaning to the dark side, I look to the light, oh yeah, and sometimes, of course it's vice versa. You know maybe I'm just a recalcitrant, subversive mother? I was something of a left-wing radical in my teen years, that same righteous feeling is zipping thru me these days too. Anyway, the "power of positive thinking," is not exactly working for me. I can see the downside of our present circumstances in vivid technicolor. The upside is barely even a wispy little cloud. 

Still, I do my best to try to conjure up some hope and positivity. Seems it's just in my nature.

Maybe these evil-doers, these over-the-top liars, these chaos agents, are so public, so bold, so arrogant, so blundering, and so obviously wrong they will burn out sooner than later? Maybe folks, the teeming millions will wake up to their malevolent idiocy?  And they will rise up and throw off the bonds of evil? Yikes. That is a slender reed to cling to. History tells us that the lies can live and rule in any era. 

Human Beings are expert at lying to themselves and are happy to live with the lie until their last breath. Remember those folks dying of Covid, refusing to believe that they had Covid? Yeah, that was a thing.  It's hard to watch our fellow humans swallow and cling to, the lies, that's for sure. And it could sink us all. I will be over here leaning to the light, but, you know, the boat has hit the ice-berg, we are taking on water, and there aren't many life-boats to go around.  Sounds like a movie...

American Dream > American Fascist Nightmare...

I can confirm that Heather Richardson is right on the money with this morning's post: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-16-2025

Yesterday, I had my own long rambling, heart-rending, conversation with my best friend, who lives in Poland, and who is tuned into the latest fuckery from the new American administration. 

The question on both of our minds was mainly how could America abandon the "post-war (World War II) dream?" How is it that America now aligns itself with Fascist Authoritarians and against the grand Democratic experiment, here and across the globe? What happened to the great American dream & example?

Good question. Easy answer. The Trump/Musk New Fascist Terror Dome Regime is out to upend decades of Ameican good will and intention. It is heartbreaking. Disgusting. Totally destabilizing. And gob-smackingly stupid and counter-productive. Chaos unleashed. 

Back to Heather here: 

"At the conference on Friday, February 14, Vice President J.D. Vance launched what The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour called “a brutal ideological assault” against Europe, attacking the values the United States used to share with Europe but which Vance and the other members of the Trump administration are now working to destroy.

Vance and MAGA Christian nationalists reject the principles of secular democracy and instead align with leaders like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. They claim that the equal rights central to democracy undermine nations by treating women and racial, religious, and gender minorities as equal to white Christian men. They want to see an end to the immigration that they believe weakens a nation's people, and for government to reinforce traditional religious and patriarchal values.

Vance attacked current European values and warned that the crisis for the region was not external actors like Russia or China, but rather “the threat from within.” He accused Europe of censoring free speech, but it was clear—especially coming from the representative of a regime that has erased great swaths of public knowledge because it objects to words like “gender”—that what he really objected to was restrictions on the speech of far-right ideologues."

WTF?! Sure over here in the states we are crushed by the hollowing out of the USA government. But this European catastrophe unleashed in Munich is just as, if not maybe even more, disturbing. As a born & bred American Human Being, I am appalled and ashamed that my country is aligned with the worst, retrograde Fascist, racist forces around the world. Not my American Dream by a long-shot. WTF?! I mean, this is a total betrayal of the American Dream. We have totally fucked up by electing a moral cretin, convicted felon, and lying con-man. No doubt.

Billionaire Knucklehead's Purging...

Reading Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter every morning is now essential. You get a cogent history lesson, and a grand over-view of the lay of the land here in America, or, you know, it's not the same old America anymore, as the billionaires amongst us try to hollow out our government, it is now our newly made Fascist Terror-Dome Regime.

This kind of sums up the latest purge from our billionaire knuckleheads... 

On Reddit, federal employees shared their experience. One wrote: “The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my f*cking firing. I make $50K a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Right.  WTF!? The New Fascist Terror-Dome Regime: corrupt as fuck morons, con-men, bozos, wanna-be-kings, emotionally-stilted, severely-twisted psyches. They think they are incredible, world-conquering geniuses, instead, their billions cover-up the reality, they are dumber than a box of rocks. They have no clue what they are doing...

The Poison & the Antidotes...

The answer to yesterday's question (see previous post).  The antidotes to the new fascist poison emanating out of D.C. = Poetry, Music, Spirits, Love...

We packed up our instruments, motored over a few miles to a small wine shop, and played our songs in a fabulous back-room. There was a small, wonderful, loving crowd. Three of us up front. Two guitars & drums/percussion. Two voices. Big chandelier dangling over us, an impressive fireplace raging behind us. It was cold and snowy outside, warm & cozy inside. A poet started the night with gorgeous lines of poetry. Then we did our thing. A small, but super-essential thing to do. We billed it as a night of Poetry, Spirits, Music & Love. It was all of that and more. I even took the mic and floated a few choice words against our new fascist terror dome. We are against it. Whole-heartedly. Anyway, a good way to celebrate an alternative vision; manifesting a better day, a better way. And, yes, for sure, damn the torpedoes...  

How Best to Live, Now?

Feeling like there is a broken record spinning inside my head. Running thru the same grooves over & over. Yesterday we engaged in a long, disheartening, nerve-wracking dialogue; twisty, disturbing, convoluted, meandering, confounding, about "the state of the state," or, you know, grappling with the new very gnarly & obvious proposition: "How best to live in our new fascist/authoritarian/run-amok-oligrachy?" Yikes.

Reality has us in it's hairy grip: we are helpless beings, silly-putty in the face of the horror. This is going to be an on-going, most-likely-ever-deepening, law-breaking, norm-bending, truth-defying, democracy-destroying, constitutionally-challenging, heart-rending, soul-crushing, nation-wide crisis. The horror-show is scheduled to unfold hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly; coming to a town near you. Even the folks who voted for this shit-show are going to feel the pain & humiliation.

Pretty sure every one of us in this once fairly glorious nation will be in peril. The government is in the hands of the worst people imaginable. Hiring criteria for this mob? No morals, no shame, no intelligence, just vengeful stupidity, over-amped greed, finely-honed-corruption, easily-tongue-tripping lies, casual cruelty. Clearly, these people don't give a fuck about anything except power. The law, the truth, the constitution? They aren't interested in such quaint, old-world ideas.

Did we come up with a satisfying answer? "How best to live, now?" Not really. We are stuck with grappling with this shite. Aware, alive, awake is a double-edged sword. We saw it coming, we couldn't stop it. Shite. Yikes. Fuck those evil-doers. Damn the torpedoes.

The Lay of the Land...

I try to get it down to one sentence. The lay of the land today in America.

America's Oligarchs run amok; the unimaginably wealthy, and unashamedly corrupt fucks, are feeding at the public trough, and at the same time, looting dollars from the poor, the needy, and all the other common ones.

Yep. And everyone just watches the show. Yikes.

A Surreal, Creepy, Lynchian Film?

 

Sorry. I hestitated to post this photo. It is quite scary. It is not photoshopped. It isn't a still from a never completed David Lynch  (god bless his soul) movie. Sure, I mean, it looks so Lynchian; surreal, bizzare, confounding, creepy. WTF?! This actually happened yesterday in the Oval Office. These two emotionally-crippled, psychologically-damaged, malevolent adults currently on a mission to destroy the U.S. Govenment, systematically shutting down perfectly-fine departments (that's illegal!), & agencies fully-funded by Congress. They are lying to us, saying it's about "fraud & waste," but really they are just describing their own lives. What about the child? What can one say? Poor kid. Sure he is being brought up in unimaginable wealth, but... well... yikes...

"Ladies & Gentlemen, the new scary comedy duo terrorizing the nation, Fraud & Waste!" BTW - Which is which?  Not sure, thinking both are both with an assist from the Unfortunate Child.

So, anyway, they are doing their thing. It seems like total madness. They are crushing the rule of law, the constitutional order, common sense & decency. And lying the whole time as they do their dirty deeds. It is quite astonishing. There is a push-back happening. Primarily in the courts. The switchboards are jammed with calls from concerned citizens, the Democrats are starting to rally in opposition, but the Republicans in the House & Senate are either cheering these two on, or hiding like the true cowards they have been throughout this whole ugly political era.  What's a humble Pilgrim to do? Hang on, hang in. I think all of this activity is so corrupt & bad-intentioned, so unhinged from reality, that it can't last or succeed. At least that is my hope. How long can this go on? I don't know. It's gonna be a wild, scary ride for awhile.  In the meantime, a lot of bad shite is being unleashed on us all. I'm no longer a betting man, but I am betting on gravity, sanity, and reality making a comeback. You know, slow, halting and sure, but a comeback for Democracy & USA. I mean, really, I'm not ready to give in, or to give up on the American dream for the ill-intentioned American nightmare. Fuck that.

"My Kids are Scared..."

"My kids are scared." 

That was my friend & neighbor, a wonderful human being & a hard-working American & a devoted father of four teenage kids, husband to a beautiful, hard-working wife. The living embodiment of good, hard working Americans, Mexican/Americans living here with full documentation. These are the kind of folks who truly make America great. All this talk of deportation, all this racist shite floating in the air, has real-world consequences. 

The kids don't know what's happening. They feel like they are being targeted near & far. Terrible.

My partner and I shared all the info we could gather about ICE and our friend's rights as individuals under the law. What to do if ICE comes knocking at their door? The fear of course is that people will just get swept up and disappeared into the night because they look and speak a bit differently. It is the heavy hand of authoritarian bullshit disrupting people's lives. Scary shite, indeed.

We reflected on when we were kids. We were worried about fitting in, being different, it comes with the teenage years. Add to that the President of the country railing against your national roots, your heritage, pointing out your people as a threat. Yikes. So disgusting. So sad. So un-American.

I told my friend & neighbor we were there for them if they needed anything. He is exploring options just in case. Could he uproot his family and go to live with relatives in Mexico? He seemed so crushed when he floated that idea. I was crushed too. 

We have become America the Great Terror Dome under our lawless Felon/President. This is not our American Dream. WTF?

Warrior Spirit...

I think it was Nick Cave (the Bad Seeds one), who said something about Hope being a "warrior spirit." It resonates with me. Hoping against Hope. Sometimes I find myself hanging onto Hope as a life-raft. Even I am surprised how I can conjure up a lightening-flash of Hope in the lowest & darkest of times. Maybe it's just an impulse, finding Hope for no good reason? Lately Hope comes with a little smile of incomprehension. It is sort of a bold "fuck you" to the tenor of the times. The idea of giving up Hope is just Hopeless, distasteful, anti-Life. Hope is just a tiny glimmer of an intention; a speck of light, a strange, little, zingy feeling shooting through my veins. Can't explain it. I think it's just embedded in me, it's there with me, I suspect it will be with me as long as I can draw a breath, blink an eye. So yeah, the shit is coming down hard, things look quite dark & bleak. The evil-doers and assholes are ascendent, but I just can't stop that funny little warrior spirit bubbling up, animating my being. You know it's a gnarly, nasty, recalcitrant, rebellious, fuck-you, Bartelby the Scrivener: "I would prefer not to," thing. Maybe it's tough-minded, hard-wired discipline? An always rooting for the Underdog position. Losing is part of it. The losses come fast, hard and relentlessly, like a ravenous shark. Disagreeing with my fellow Humans? That's cool. Being out-numbered, pushed around by the bully? Made to eat dirt?  Oh, well. The not giving in, the resistance to that shite, makes one stronger. "Fuck, everything didn't go my way." Ha. That's life, buddy. That's when you turn to the rebels like Joe Strummer, "The Future is Unwritten." That's when Hope really comes into play. Hope; spiky, gnarly, weezing, cursing, crusty, beat-up, you know, I think it's true, Hope dies last, the dark is always contending with the light, it's a battle moment to moment. Damn the torpedoes.

Where We are At...

Where we are at... 

The Billionaires (the Oligarch Class), have gone rogue, they are rough-housing our government. To what end? Tax cuts for Billionaires is on the agenda for sure. Some of their destruction just seems like mindless cruelty. Cutting Cancer research? Destroying NOAA? Dismantling the Department of Education?  Squashing USAID? A power grab to look powerful. If you know Psycholgy at all, you know the psyche of the mean, creepy bully comes from a deep-seated weakness, an over-blown ego, a psychic house of cards; lonely, unhappy, unloved, quivering little shits, folks who want to rule the world, and strike out at anyone smarter, happier, more empathetic, compassionate, truthful than them. You know, most of the rest of us. They are miserable human beings who want to spread the misery. That's where their essential evilness emanantes from, a kind of epic weakness and cruelty. They are ultimately pathetic creatures. All their money, power and cruelty does them no good. Their hollow nihilsm eats them up from the inside out. You do not want to be, or to envy them. You just don't. Their ultimate punishment? They have to be them. Yikes. Life is too short, too interesting & too beautiful to spend one's time in such a soulless, heartless, fruitless way. You and I, we can do so much better. No doubt.

No Lines Now...

Yeah... well... the over-load, or maybe the over-lord...

I am in that "Everything I know is wrong" phase of our new era. The glass isn't half full or half empty, it is shattered into a million tiny pieces, and scattered on the pavement. The pieces sparkle like little stars in another galaxy far away.

I am now questioning everything. Back to total gob-smacking incomprehension. I have no fucking clue what's going on. Sure. Let's think worst-case scenario. I mean, I am not gonna conjure it up here, but whatever you or I am thinking, it's probably inadequate, fuck, just push it to the max-worst-case scenario you can possibly scare yourself with. I think we are there.

Alarmist? Am I alarmed? My being is vibrating madly, I am ringing off the hook, like a bell on a fat cow doing the Watusi.   Shite. There is a downside to being fully aware, alive, awake, having a vivid imagination, armed with empathy, compassion, good sense, and good reading comprehension. Anyone who knows a bit of history, should rightly be scared shitless. History illustrates in vivid technicolor that things can quickly unravel & devolve into a primitive, brutal state of affairs. If you can't imagine USA heading that way, well, I can't help you buddy. I mean, try extricating your head out of your ass.

No shit, Sherlock. So yeah, I often fall back on Tom Petty's great line: "Damn the Torpedoes," but you know, it's only a line, and it seems clear, there are no lines now...

Simple Theme...

So much news stuffed into a day. Crazy. I don't think Human Beings are built to process so much information so quickly. Lately, most of the news is bad. Forces of destruction have descended upon the centers of power in the USA. The theme: Criming & Lying. 

That's a simple handle to try to process and understand it all. It's frustrating, and annoying, to say the least. Many of us could see the Catastrophe coming from a mile away. Electing a Felon, a Sexual Predator, someone who is constitutionally lawless and careless, should never have been elevated to one of the most important and powerful jobs on the planet. 

We are now swimming in corruption and idiocy. Sure. A catastrophe. We saw it coming. Amazingly, some folks cheered it on, and are happy today. Stunning. Criming & Lying. What a terrible waste of a good country.

Can we recover? Hopefully. Maybe after a period of wallowing in the shite, folks will stand up and choose a better path? How long will this all play out? Who knows? We truly are the tricky monkeys. We are basically nature's fuck-ups.

We Know the Better America...

We walked around town yesterday. Super-cold here. It's a Blue Bubble Town in a Blue State. The streets alive with a vibrant rainbow of humanity. It's a town with a large, presitigious University, there are students from all over the world who go to school here. It a totally diverse, impressively intelligent & a very educated community, with all levels of income, all races, creeds & colors. Equity, Diversity & Inclusion are not only fine with us here, those values are essential to our community, fostered & celebrated. It's an open-hearted, open-armed, very friendly town. A great place to live. It's the America I know and love intimately. The hate, madness and idiocy emanating out of Washington D.C. can't erase any of that; our world, our reality, our life here is so much better than that cruel, stupid, nihilistic vision snaking thru the corridors of Federal power. We know what we love, we value the beautiful, vivid, lively, "melting pot" version of America. We aren't going anywhere. We can't be erased. We will stand our ground. All the lies and bullshit, bad blood, idiocy, revenge and madness doesn't really impress us. What a fool's errand. We know we have the better vision based upon reality and clear-seeing. The assholes are trying to foist a false reality upon us all, filled with lies and idiocies. It is quite ugly over there,  all that huffing & puffing, sound & fury. But it truly is a tale told by an idiot. Their vision is flawed, soulless, ridiculous, harsh and stupid. A false America, a badly-concieved version that will not fly. Damn the torpedoes...

Tiny Acts of Activism...

The latest news about that Nazi-saluting, wildly-rogue, totally-Unelected, South African-born,  Apartheid-country bred, white-supremacist, fat-cat, billionaire whispering in the ear of our newly-elected, seriously-corrupt, sexual-predator, certified-felon, stone-cold racist, fat-cat, billionaire President; you know, an anti-democratic, ketamine-infused Worm-Tongue, acting like the real big monkey man, comes from Wired Magazine: A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System.

Some of us refer to this as the Soft-Coup. Unelected, lawless software techs mucking about with the holy grail, crown jewels computer systems at the U.S. Treasury. Sounds a bit like a William Gibson cyber-punk novel. Suddenly folks who have no accountability to Americans have their hands on the mechanism that controls all the money in the U.S. Government. Yikes.

What are we, my partner and I, doing about it? You know, besides totally freaking out? Well, I guess, mainly just freaking out, but also...

Tiny actions: calling our representatives in the Senate & House. Writing emails and letters too. Calling our local bank to ask what they are doing to protect our data, and to alert the banking community that the U.S. payment system is now under attack and at risk. We also ready to march and protest. 

We also just subscribed to Wired Magazine, I mean, it is definitely a time to support good reporters and reporting. We also follow along with daily reports from Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman and Timothy Snyder. Staying informed & engaged. We think it's our duty as citizens.

It is time for "the people" to stand up for Democracy. This latest threat cuts across our political divide. Those dollars belong to all of us, the people. What is happening is lawless. Mind-bending too. WTF...

Romantics in My Head...

Ah well the news is all bad. I turn to my clued-in writers of politics and culture, and they all paint a dire picture. The folks of intelligence, grace, knowledge, understanding and empathy are troubled by current events. One concludes: they are not wrong.

Still, the coffee is good, the sleep was restful, and the sun is rising in the East. It is cold and a monochromatic scene of dark trees, black rocks, a spare field of dark grass. Life is on the wane.  But a bold orange light breaks across the sky. A winter's day in February.

I have been reading Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus" (1818).  Everyone knows the story, but it is the language of Mary Shelley that really transports the reader. It is a "Romantic" novel, as in a prime example of the Romanticism or Romantic Movement ascendent in literature and culture in the 1800's.

What really comes forward in all the descriptive language is the love, and the transcendent beauty of Nature. It is almost a religious experience, just being alive in the Natural world. So vivid; the mountains, the forests, the rivers, the oceans, the sun, the moon, the stars. A novel bounded by the bounty and beauty Nature. 

That understanding and experience is something that seems lost today. So much of our lives are cut off from the beauty around us. Then there is "the Monster," an ill-made being, created by a man of science, a being immediately rejected & exiled from community, ugly, scary and unwanted. The Monster, articulate and intelligent, only wants to be loved, to be embraced, to be comforted, but is met with horror and violence at every turn. The Monster does monstrous things by accident, and out of lonliness & misunderstanding.

I suppose it's also a novel that shows the calamities of trying to cheat death. What Monsters do we become when we are out of tune with Nature? It is extraordinary novel. First conjured up by a young woman on a weekend of ghost stories told by Byron, Percy Shelley and John Polidori (The Vampyre).  

It is a transporting experience. Haunting. Otherwordly. A beautiful example of the Human Imagination unleashed. There is the vivid sense that Humans who feel madly, deeply, purely, see more of Life & know more too. A picture of another time and place. So very, very Human. Alive now too.

A Very Different America...

 "Something's happening here, what it is, ain't exactly clear..." - Buffalo Springfield

What is that weird feeling I am feeling? You know, like the Earth is shifting under my feet? Or the floor just opened up to reveal the flames of Hell? Or the sun, moon & stars are falling from the skies?

I think I can put my finger on it, it's a paradigm shift: "representing the notion of a major change in a certain thought pattern—a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing."

What has changed for me? From Timothy Snyder, The Logic of Destruction:  "The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government deny all of this, and are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation. For them, only a few people, the very wealthy with a certain worldview, have rights, and the first among these is to dominate.

For them, there is no such thing as an America, or Americans, or democracy, or citizens, and they act accordingly. Now that the oligarchs and their clients are inside the federal government, they are moving, illegally and unconstitutionally, to take over its institutions."

That is a new way of thinking for me.  We are in the midst of a hostile takeover of our government. It's a strange feeling. A crazy story. A new paradigm. On the one hand, my life is pretty much the same, same air, same ground, same day to day tasks, but on the other hand, all my thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams about my birth-country, and our democratic experiment are up for grabs. Yikes.

There's also this from Paul Krugman:  "When democracies die, big business and wealthy individuals often play a crucial role in their demise. They provide a would-be strongman with financial support; their control of or influence over news media ensures that he receives favorable coverage, while his opponents are trashed. They do this because they expect to be rewarded with policies that favor their interests and imagine that they will in effect be shareholders in the new autocracy.

What comes next is familiar to anyone who studies history (which the oligarchs don’t.) Eventually it becomes clear that they don’t own the dictator they’ve helped install; he owns them. Maybe they’ll like some of his policies, maybe they won’t, but in any case they’re not in control — and they soon learn that criticizing the big man isn’t just fruitless, it’s dangerous.

In the past this script has typically taken a few years to play out, but this is the internet age, so right now in America the process seems to be taking only a few weeks."

Mind-blowing shite. We are not in Kansas anymore. Whatever we are lurching towards, it is something very different than the America we have grown up in, and have taken for granted...

Misery Index Turned Up High...

Funny. A trade war initiated by our Imbecile in Chief. For no good reason. It is impossible for a low on the totem pole, fairly hard-working, very Humble Pilgrim to side with the Imbecile. So, I suppose that means I will be rooting for the rational, logical, reasonable, and intelligent folks like Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum. Seems like the Misery Index will be turned on high here in the States. We have elected the means of our own destruction. What a strange way to end the American Experiment. Why is the Imbecile intent on punishing Americans and our close Allies? A bit of Mystery there but I suppose it's a combination of Corruption, Incompetance, Idiocy, Revenge, and Bad Intention. Sure I still have Hope, Hope dies last, don't you know, but not sure where that Hope is coming from. Maybe there is potential in the unintended consequences, the variability of calamity, a hard re-boot in the midst of the chaos? Still looking for the Champions of Democracy. There has to be an Opposition, a Pushback. Folks like Tank Girl (see previous post). Sure, I know she's just an imaginary comic book character, but I guess, let's start there. I am flailing around at the moment. How bad will things get? Who knows?! The Future is Unwritten, but right now it's all about the over-amped sound and fury, a tale told by the Corrupt Imbecile. We are all under his very stupid-making thumb. Not good.

"Surly Noncooperation and Insubordination..."

I turn to Tank Girl...

Well, if I were an alarmist I might say, "We are well and truly fucked." Latest news flowing from D.C. is all bad, mega-stupid, quite confounding & concerning. The Tech-Bro Barbarians are at the gates, no, in fact, they are locked in offices, accessing the holy grail of our Treasury Department computers. "Soft Coup?" What does a Humble Pilgrim think of it all? "Not good." And of course the Absolute Imbecile in Chief is continuing his campaign of misery and idiocy. As one of my friends remarked to me yesterday afternoon: "It's going to be a long 4 years." Yes. It seems like a lifetime has flashed past our eyes already. We have unleashed the forces of "fucked-up-ness," in our little land. It is a stress-test for our Democracy, our Sanity, and our Good Cheer.

I must credit the Tank Girl reference to Rebecca Solnit. Check out her useful and somewhat encouraging thread on Blue Sky here: "But I like the surly noncooperation and insubordination I'm seeing. Let's feed and water it and remember that resistance takes many forms. Some quiet and subtle. Some civil disobedience, some lawsuits, some campaigns, strikes. Maybe some new forms yet to emerge." - Rebecca Solnit