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?
whitewolfsonicprincess' 2nd single Child of the Revolution
Friday, February 28, 2025
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?
Thursday, February 27, 2025
"Maybe something amazing will happen?"
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
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."
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
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...
Monday, February 24, 2025
Disease & Debauchery...
Sunday, February 23, 2025
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.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Burn Your Tesla!
Friday, February 21, 2025
Soul-Searching with a Purpose...
Thursday, February 20, 2025
How Destructive will the Destruction Be?
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Let's Change the Channel Folks...
Yes. Well... hell... we control the vertical & the horizontal. We can change the channel. You know, we must.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
The Power of that Sinking Feeling...
Monday, February 17, 2025
American Dream > American Fascist Nightmare...
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.
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.
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."
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Billionaire Knucklehead's Purging...
Saturday, February 15, 2025
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...
Friday, February 14, 2025
How Best to Live, Now?
Thursday, February 13, 2025
The Lay of the Land...
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
A Surreal, Creepy, Lynchian Film?
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.
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
"My Kids are Scared..."
Monday, February 10, 2025
Warrior Spirit...
Sunday, February 09, 2025
Where We are At...
Saturday, February 08, 2025
No Lines Now...
Friday, February 07, 2025
Simple Theme...
Thursday, February 06, 2025
We Know the Better America...
Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Tiny Acts of Activism...
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.
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...
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
Romantics in My Head...
Monday, February 03, 2025
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...
Sunday, February 02, 2025
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.
Saturday, February 01, 2025
"Surly Noncooperation and Insubordination..."
Blog Archive
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2025
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February
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- The Action of No-Action. Zen. Brilliant & Elegant.
- "Maybe something amazing will happen?"
- Leashed Together...
- The "Have an Asshole Plutocrat Illegally Break the...
- Disease & Debauchery...
- Power in the Pocket Book...
- Burn Your Tesla!
- Soul-Searching with a Purpose...
- How Destructive will the Destruction Be?
- Let's Change the Channel Folks...
- The Power of that Sinking Feeling...
- American Dream > American Fascist Nightmare...
- Billionaire Knucklehead's Purging...
- The Poison & the Antidotes...
- How Best to Live, Now?
- The Lay of the Land...
- A Surreal, Creepy, Lynchian Film?
- "My Kids are Scared..."
- Warrior Spirit...
- Where We are At...
- No Lines Now...
- Simple Theme...
- We Know the Better America...
- Tiny Acts of Activism...
- Romantics in My Head...
- A Very Different America...
- Misery Index Turned Up High...
- "Surly Noncooperation and Insubordination..."
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