When In These Coarse Current Events

 Ein Mensch Ist Kein Tier
(Originally from December, 2016; somewhat updated.)

Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man
Es deckt einen da keiner zu
Und wenn einer tritt, dann bin ich es
Und wird einer getreten, dann bist’s du.

As you make your bed, you must lie in it
No one else makes it so, only you
And when someone kicks, it will be me
And when someone gets kicked, it will be you

--  Kurt Weill / Bertold Brecht; "Meine Herren, Meine Mutter Prägte",
(aka, 'Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet') from Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahoganny (1931)

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht; Berlin, 1930

In less than a month, a person who wants to be dictator of America will be elevated to Chief Executive of the Federal government -- a person who easily displays his prejudices through a spiteful, narcissistic, adolescent public character which no American now living has ever had to suffer, twice, from an elected official at that level.  Everyone knows what to expect, and the level of apprehension is palpable.

(A friend notes, "Are you referring to [The Duce] or Musk? They both think they are The Leader, and they're both spiteful, narcissistic, and adolescent." Ha ha ha. Ha.)

The apotheosis of such a person, such a known quantity, leaves many people around the world profoundly uneasy. Already, co-Pepsodent Musk has spoken: "Only AfD [the neo-nazi political party] can save Germany", and The Duce has AfD leaders join him at More-Lego, photographed wearing MAGA hats and grinning for der Cameras, na schon? Ja!

An energetic, animated Pestident-elect with neo-nazis

just some average persons at More-Lego, 2024

The Duce's inauguration is expected to be a show of hate, a celebration of triumph -- as he swaggers into Washington, carrying in his wake "decayed roués with dubious means of subsistence and of dubious origin ... vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mountebanks, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, [and] pimps...". 

The inauguration balls have been paid for by Tech Bros - Jeffy, Sergey, Marc; Zuck; Sammy; Peety; Larry -- all eagerly stepping on each other's faces to be first to give One Million Dollars! each to The Duce's inaugural fund. 

Maybe all this money helps pay the inaugural costs; maybe not. He may use this money however he wants -- as a gift, a bribe ... but, never mind. This is what it's like to be Duce. How fun!

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I keep thinking about the Juvenal quote: "Yesterday, they were scoundrels and ruffians. Today, they rule our lives. Tomorrow they will wind up as keepers of the public lavatories.".

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A friend noted that many have just switched off, a turning inward as response to eight years of societal upheaval, recent political events. They suggested we focus on a balance with a wider universe. That we keep family and friends close, and reduce our connections wherever possible to things which nurture us.

For the moment, I've switched off. I don't know how to get through the next space of years -- just retired; living on a fixed income; in my mid-seventies. I have a sense of blood in the air, and I hear a voice that says be ready to run.  I don't have it in me to become a refugee; can't make for the border, much as I might like to. And I have physical limits to the forms my resistance might take.

I do know I can't live with the predations of this fat, waddling, malignant narcissist the way I did the first time. I can't get up every morning and reflexively check the BBC or Guardian UK for an honest reporting of what he did while I slept.

Any insight I possess about what to do is subjective. We each live with one foot in the Cosmos and one foot on our dirty linoleum floor. I may have my own answer to basic questions but they only apply to me. I'm not arrogant enough to believe they'll work for anyone else.

Some time ago, a friend mentioned that the Dalai Lama was allegedly asked by a person who just bumped into him (at a hotel, or some public venue) what he felt the central tenet of Tibetan Buddhism to be. The Lama is supposed to have replied, " ' Just do your best.' "

I'm not a Buddhist, but I take the Lama's observation to suggest that Existence is too complicated for any person to say why they Are, and what the end results of their thoughts and actions will be. Be kind; act with compassion. Do the best you can. I'd like to aspire towards that -- so; works for me.

And, as a comparative comment on purpose and values, Albert Camus was at least an Agnostic. He believed in the fact of humankind's existence. For him, that fact was the only justification needed to make a demand for a better world -- and he wrote it in Occupied France, when the nazis still had their boots on the back of humanity's collective neck.

I continue to believe that this world has no ultimate meaning. But ... it has no justification but humanity; hence we must be saved if we want to save the idea we have of life. 

With your scornful smile you will ask me: what do you mean by saving humanity? And with all my being I shout to you that I mean not mutilating us, and giving us a chance for the justice that humans alone can conceive.     

(Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 1944)

Humans deserve Justice on all levels works for me, too.

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America is about to collectively leap off a cliff into unknown political, and social, territory.  I don't believe it's a time to turn inward; we need to listen to the voice in the pit of our stomachs which says Fuck this; I vote No; you don't do this shit in my name, and we need to act. Collective is good -- in fact, essential -- but, now what?  Kleiner Mann -- was nun?

It's a real conundrum, deciding how you live your values. Everything I hear on podcasts or read online is a variation on "This analysis will explain why we lost" -- more circular argument over who was right and who controls the party, or academic analysis about what the election demographics means. I'm sure that will make a number of professional political wonks feel better, or at least useful.

The sense I get is of a vast, collective indrawing and holding of breath, as we wait for The Thing We Know Is Coming to happen. After it arrives, the values of The Duce and his pack of Orcs will be on full display. 

Then, we will have to do.  Our discussion, our focus needs to be around what. That's where our values will be reflected -- now, and for the rest of our lives. 

I understand that sounds like overly-dramatic hyperbole, but if you don't understand that we are living in a moment of high drama and historic import -- then good luck.  The question -- Quo Vadis? -- stands.

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Your Holiday Steerage Update For Third Class

 We Had A Good Run 

I've noticed a binary spectrum developing -- with friends; commentors and analysts in the media -- about the arrival of the nazis in January. It's one perspective, or another; there's not much middle ground.

One Perspective: Things won't be as bad as you think. "You got a lot of hyperbole going, there -- and and and and; y'know, that kind of thinking is; well it's just not helpful, that thinking. You're frightening people, you're scaring people. You know that? Scaring them. And no matter how much you hate the Trump people, don't call them nazis. That's an incorrect use of the term -- and why don't you capitalize 'nazi', as a Noun? Thought you knew better. Look: You're being a downer. It's a difficult time; if you can't be supportive, just shut up. Shut up."

The Other Perspective: It is exactly as bad as you think (a group that includes Mary Trump, who is in a position to know whether her uncle is a fascist and dead serious, or not). It's tough, playing Cassandra in a room full of people who want any reason to feel less afraid. And, Things could be even worse than you imagine.

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Now It's Done

So, I'll just say it: The United States of America we know is done. It's over. 

That long, persistent idea of a nation -- the one backed by the Constitution, that we studied in school; chronicled by Ken Burns in so many films; the place where we and our families were born and lived; the nation we volunteered (or were drafted) to serve; the place we counted on to be there every morning when we woke up because, at least here, there were limits. Most of us were Safe.

But, 'Safe' depends upon your race, gender, economics; choices; your place in the pecking order of society: George Floyd was not safe. Matthew Shepard, Jazzlyn Johnson, Pauly Likens were not safe. The children at Sandy Hook were not safe. The children abused by the team doctor at Ohio State, or in Catholic churches across America, were not safe. The families of Flint, Michigan (still) drinking lead-tainted water were not safe.

Even so -- in other societies, other countries, there might be armed troops in the streets; identification checkpoints. The press may be censored, muzzled. Mail and communications, monitored. Warrantless searches or raids on homes; arrest and imprisonment, or worse, for opposing the government. 

But in America, we had a Constitution. Our history rested on being a nation of laws. Until, we weren't.

We've always had crazy politicians -- but they were fringe, cartoonish characters, creeping around in the margins. The people we elected to keep America on an even keel (and stay out of our hair) spouted typical Democratic or Republican nonsense. 

But they would never allow The United States to become unstable and unpredictable, like those dreck countries in Asia or Africa, or dictatorships like Russia or China; North Korea. 

This was the United States of America, for fuck's sake; we're better than that. Until, we weren't. 

49% of people casting a ballot in the election voted for a demagogue. A fascist. He told everyone during the campaign what he would do, and showed everyone (as if the previous nine years weren't already proof) who he is. People voted for him with full knowledge: This is what Trump is. And they did it anyway.

49% of the United States put a gun to our collective head -- grinning a manic grin, shouting MAGA !!! MY LIFE FOR YOUUUUUUU !!!! -- and pulled the trigger.

1/20/25 is a red line in the calendar of history: Where we, Americans, ended. Please take note.

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Pass The Last Of The Schadenfreude, Please

As you sit down with family and friends over the next month -- consider all the others in past history who suspected they were on the edge of catastrophe, collapse; war; oppression; penury; mass suffering, but gathered together anyway: Peasants of Europe before the Hundred Years' or Thirty Years' wars; the Irish before the Famine; the French before financial collapse and Revolution; the Weimar Germans on Christmas Eve and over Hannukah in December, 1932.

And now, We, The People.  Us.  We're on the edge of... we don't know. We only know it will be bad.

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Americans sat down to Thanksgiving on Tuesday, November 20th, in 1941. On the 26th, by proclamation, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it as a national holiday. Eleven days later, Japanese carriers reached their designated positions northwest of the Hawaiian Islands and launched the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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"Trumplandia, 'Tis For Thee"

So, our country, with its long and fabled history, much bad and some good, is finished. That America will not exist after 12:00 Noon on January 20th, 2025. "The United States" will be only a label.

Its new Owners should call it Trumplandia, because it won't stand for anything but the twisted, unquenchable greed and violent misogyny and narcissism which will run our lives from this point forward.

Someone once noted that the American Story is one cliffhanger episode after another. The Great Depression was an example: the worst financial collapse in U.S. history. It could have been the end of our Constitutional Republic -- but, at the last minute, we got FDR. It was the New Deal, and a global war, which lifted America out of it. 

The American story remains: How will they get out of this one? And, What next?

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Leave The Hopeism At Home, Yo

We have never had a dictator become President, not to mention controlling both Houses of Congress and a majority of That Court, before. Never in America have our politics -- our very lives -- been so openly and cynically manipulated by technology. Never have so few arrogant theocrats and technocrats spent billions of dollars so openly, to force their desires on so many.

Democrats, the political Left, will push back. Citizens will fight. It may be possible that this is a four-year, seminal period which America will emerge from battered but wiser, as if struck with a terrible disease and surviving.  It may be that We, The People, endure, fucked over as usual by wealth and power, but that in the end We Get Out Of This One. Maybe. 

We seem to have so much stacked against Us, The People. One thing is true: The shared idea of a nation we've had to carry us this far -- right up to January 20, 2025 -- is going to have to fundamentally change when and if we come out the other side of this. The bullying, the lying and violent greed of the Right needs to be kicked to the curb -- but Neoliberal Happytalk and Hopeism on the Left won't work, either.

When you have this very technocratic, 'Third Way' neoliberal approach, and sprinkle in some anti-corporate, anti-billionaire populism... then you're a rudderless ship. You're not communicating what you are about -- and when you don't have a North Star every single person can point to and say, 'this is what the party is about', then your enemies can portray you as whatever they want.

       --  Hasan Piker, 'Pod Save America'; November 27, 2024

America can't be ruled by a dictatorship -- whether by an individual, or the Proletariat. It isn't the way in our Culture-- as opposed to our Society, which changes more rapidly and dynamically.

Perhaps we need to experience a cruel and vicious politics, to feel unsafe in our own land, in order that We, The People will reject it -- now or ever again. 

Yesterday, they were ruffians / Today, they control our lives /

Tomorrow, they will be the keepers of the public lavatories.

--  Juvenal

Trump and his toadies, the pack of Billionaire tech Bros, do not care about you, or me, or anyone but themselves. America is their social engineering laboratory, now -- and they are literally drunk, gibbering with delight at their power. Americans, as Eeelon said, will "endure hardships". Oh, they can't wait.

I've been rereading various histories of France under the Occupation. I'd recommend it.

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It reminds me of the 1993 film from a Steven King novel, Needful Things: The devil (Max von Sydow) comes to Castle Rock, Maine, opens an antiques / curios shop, and in selling various enchanted items to town residents, sets them murderously against each other. It ends in chaos, flames; madness and death. "Hey," Lucifer tells J. T. Walsh, who calls to confess he's just killed his wife, "These things happen."

There's a scene where von Sydow, his face a manic grin, grips his hands together -- shaking with glee as he literally feeds on the energy of the evil he's set in motion; 'Ave Maria' plays in the background. A few townspeople, including the police chief (Ed Harris), fight back. Castle Rock is ravaged; people are dead, shaken, the damage done; but the devil is finally forced to leave.

Von Sydow's Satan -- Looking Very Much Like Good Ol' Fred Trump

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Shaking with glee at their perceived power: Perhaps this is where Trump and his Orcs are now. It may be possible that this moment, before they've even swaggered into the White House, is the Zenith -- that it all begins to fall apart for them from here. 

There's no way we can avoid what they intend to do. That the seeds of eventual failure are being sowed, now, can be a comforting prospect. Earlier today, I heard Mary Trump telling Molly Jong-Fast, "We'll get through this".  Maybe. 

Lee Miller's photo of a local nazi leader and family, having committed suicide, 1945;

One can only hope this is the future of our Fabled Leaders

We'll see.

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November 11th

 Absent Friends

You know who they are.  

And none of us went to Southeast Asia for this shit.

Mozart: Concerto For Clarinet and Orchestra; 2nd Movement, Adiago

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Sag' Mir Nicht Adieu; Sag' Nur Auf Wiederseh'n

It's A Crool World
Welcome To Your Post-Electoral America

Tree Roots, Vincent Van Gogh's Last Painting; July 27, 1890

Not A GBCW

I'm considering ending this Blog, partly in reaction to what has just happened -- but also because there's nothing worse than a creative effort which, ultimately, is little better than what that cat shit person shovels into the digital universe.

I've been posting for 16 years, "masquerading as a Medium-Sized White Dog". It's provided an outlet for aspects of myself -- mostly, not that positive -- and releasing a large amount of sarcasm and anger all had some direct benefit for me, but not necessarily for any readers. I've dropped 1,257 posts over those sixteen years, but -- small wonder -- few people have read Before Nine, and few people follow it. No sour grapes; that's just how it is.

Most of those posts have been doomscrolling. I'm not an original thinker; I know facts, but in context of being a writer or social observer, I don't analyze them well.  Before Nine never had a wide readership, never moved opinions, or educated, or persuaded; I don't know what other result I could have been expecting: If you make cookies that taste like cardboard, no one wants to eat them.

Recently, I deactivated my Twitter account. It served much the same purpose as this blog, on a daily basis. I hated what Musk did to the platform; I hated his reinstatement of users who were effectively nazis; his opinions and behavior are personally repugnant. When he announced Twitter would eliminate the Blocking function (making it easier for Rightist crazies, scammers, and some persons with real pathological intent to stalk and harass others) that was all the motivation I needed to leave.

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Half of the United States electorate just shouted, " Ja ! Ein Volk, Ein Reich; Ein Fuhrer! " They have said, We want Fascism. Unfortunately, 'democracy' worked -- very unfortunately for migrants, People of Color; gay and transgender persons; women; liberals; the elderly; children. If you have been a vocal, visible critic working against That Person, writing and posting and speaking -- were I you, I'd leave the U.S. for relative safety abroad.

Also, it will be very unfortunate for Ukrainians, Taiwanese, the Baltic States, the EU and collective European security; Japan, South Korea, AUS, NZ, and the Pacific Basin.  Unfortunate for Palestinians, for Israelis. It will be unfortunate, eventually, for France, Germany; for any country whose nationalist political parties are hungering to seize power -- now bolstered and energized by That Person's election.

A majority of adult voters in America want That Person in power. They voted for Project 2025. They voted for everything that's about to happen. They voted in favor of lies, violence, and corruption, and I am trying without much success to comprehend it.

A general election in 1932 in Germany resulted in gains for the nazis and the KPD (German Communist Party). Any coalition government had to include both. The nazis maneuvered in the background for months, until Center parties and Rightist parties in Parliament agreed: Hitler could be appointed Chancellor, in January, 1933. He could be managed, controlled. We know the rest of the story.

Now, we've had our election. That Person has been elected president. I fully expect the next 24 months to seem much like the story of 1933 (only That Person may no longer be president -- I expect J. D. Vance, courtesy of the 25th Amendment). America will be run for the benefit of our Oligarchs and old-money Wealthy; and fuck the Peasantry.

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There will be no resistance; no unravelling of the fascists and theocratists; no calling the fascists to account. No justice. No major media, revealing events. There will be some marching, protesting, but America -- the one I grew up in, served -- is done. January of 2025 is a red line -- and once crossed, the America that exists now, right now, will never come again. 

I can offer my own opinions; but there are better thinkers, writers, observers, than I am. My points of view are similar to some, but not adding anything positive to the sum of human experience in this blog. There don't seem to be reasons to continue -- I haven't decided; not yet. Some of that dithering is simply technical.

According to The Great Curmudgeon, there is an internet tradition known as the Good-Bye Cruel World post (GCBW), where a content creator (nominally, a keyboard warrior type, like the cat shit person) writes a swan song of criticism and grievances, full of acid and bad language -- why not; you're jumping off the ledge, right? -- to explain why they're leaving.

This is not one of those; not really -- but, we're all living in Interregnum America.

Be kind, and be well.

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Absent Friends

You Know Who They Are

Last of the Old Unit just got a little smaller.

Mozart: Concerto For Clarinet and Orchestra; 2nd Movement, Adiago

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Dawn Of The Dead

 The Envy Of The World 

In The Newsroom series, there's an episode where the fictitious ACN network covers the 2012 elections. Before airtime, Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) , president of  the news division, asks for everyone's attention in the studio. On overhead monitors, Skinner shows a series of still photographs.

This is China -- people having their picture taken pretending to cast a vote [in a facsimile of an American polling station]. In India, they're waving [American] flags and having viewing parties of the coverage... In South Korea, they're watching an electoral map... Our elections are the envy of the world.

ACN was fictional. The photographs being shown were not. Our elections have been seen as a symbol of an America continually reaching for an ideal form of union, of society. It's the right to vote in a fair election, where We, The People, elect politicians who are supposed to move us toward that ideal society. Supposedly. Ideally.

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.

Hell:  San Francisco's Tenderloin, 2019.  It's no different in 2024.

At this juncture, my cynicism compels me to say Blow it out your ass, man; just walk six blocks downhill into the Tenderloin and tell me how ideal it all is. Check out the corrupt, money-fueled, Fuck-The-Peasants viciousness of our Tech Bro Oligarchs and our Gang-Of-Six justice system and tell me about perfection. 

Fair point. But both are true: America's elections are expressions of reaching for an ideal, and the priorities of many politicians being elected reflect corruption and degeneracy.

The majority of those narcissistic politicians are attracted to one political party -- and while we should keep that in mind, it's not entirely the point. That is worse.

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Stuff You Already Know

Votes in each municipality, county, and state are tabulated and results 'certified': election officials attest that all processes necessary to confirm those results were performed. Some Presidential elections have had questionable voting results -- but the overarching fairness, accuracy and impartiality of our elections has been a bedrock assumption in America for generations.

 In Presidential elections, state results drive the Electoral College process; Electors' votes, recorded on Certificates in each state, are delivered to the Congress. The Vice President accepts the Certificates before a joint session, reads the results, and the Senate certifies the totals.

That long chain of certifications -- cities and towns, to the states; to the Congress -- is a legal requirement, but mostly a formality, an afterthought, because of course we have rules and checks and balances. Of course it's fair. We're all Americans, for god's sake.

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After The Scalia Court appointed "Lil' Boots" Bush as leader in 2000, the Thugs wanted to ensure Forever Republican Rule. One method would be elimination of votes cast by Liberals, under the guise of "election integrity". Suddenly, the Thugs claimed voter fraud was epidemic.

Fat Karl, "The Architect": A Boot, Smashing Into A Human Face, Forever

Over the next twenty-four years, Red states adopted draconian and exclusionary ID requirements, purged voter rolls, created obvious gerrymandering; and groups were founded to organize voter suppression efforts. Funding for many of them came from the Kochs, and a half-dozen other Bundist billionaires.

"Election integrity" was the backdrop for Trump's absurd, delusional claims about the "stolen" 2020 election, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.

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The Third Reich Tiki Room At Charlottesville.

Death Cult  

The political and religious Right in America is a delusional death cult. Donald Trump is its figurehead -- a corrupt, narcissistic con artist. The cult has absorbed the GOP; it is the Republican party now.  It intends to force America to become a white supremacist, fascistic and theocratic state. Project 2025 details how that will happen.

On The Walkway To The Pavilion; Jonestown, Guyana; November 1978

But first, Trump must be elected. Or something. He was running against Biden, and LaCivita and Cheung -- The Smartest Guys In The Room -- told Trump yes, Leader; the election is in the bag. You are the strong, the all-wise. Trump smiled, and strutted, and preened and played golf -- taking mulligans, cheating; always the top score when he played on his golf course.

Then, suddenly, Biden dropped out -- and supported Kamala Harris, a younger, charismatic Black woman whose campaign solidified and hit the street within thirty-six hours. 

Everyone had expected a long, nasty public bar fight within the Democratic party if Biden left the ticket, but it was an astounding transition without any visible friction. And after just two weeks, polls and the vibe on the street are saying it's a much closer race -- possibly, a down-ballot Democratic Trifecta; the Presidency and both houses of Congress.

(Whether you like Harris or not; or see the election as Americans being fooled by a bourgeois political elite into voting for a non-fascist neoliberal -- a large number of people appear grateful, overjoyed at feeling any hope for the future in Harris' candidacy. Blame it on human nature, I guess.)

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Trumpo, Magic Murder Clown; August 8, 2024

Political Seppuku Will Be Televised

In Trump's hour-long self-parody whatever, broadcast from the Florida Reich Chancellery last week, he appeared old, muddled, and pale -- unbelievably, he wasn't wearing his signature skin bronzer. He took questions from the press but said nothing new; it was the same repetition of themes (immigrants, crime, economic collapse), grievances, victimhood, and lie after lie -- but his voice was up an octave; his throat was tighter. In addition to seeming confused, he sounded frightened.

Trump's pathological narcissism won't admit he could lose. His multiple criminal indictments have been dismissed or delayed, but aren't gone. Unless he returns to power, it's possible he will die in a prison infirmary, like Bernie Madoff.

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The death cult was jubilant, celebrating: after fifty years, they are within inches of fulfilling their dream of controlling America -- once Trump is elected. The agendas of dozens of Rightist political and religious organizations are in Project 2025, and they all want those agendas realized.

This Photo Makes Me Ashamed To Be Over 70 Like Nothing Else Can.

Through the falling snow, they can see the spires of the Kremlin. They've taken all but a few thousand yards of that city on the Volga. So much is at stake. The anticipation of victory, revenge, domination for the glory of somebody's god, after so long is palpable. 

 -- then, suddenly, Kamala Harris' Morning-Star rise. Trump is apparently disintegrating. In the blink of an eye everything has changed: the death cult leaders are angry, confused: What do you mean, we're losing??

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Your Continuing Freedom May Be In The Hands Of Bubbah

My concern is that, if Trump loses, the death cult feels risking a second coup is worth it -- What have we got to lose?? Trump will support it -- he approved the coup planned in 2020 -- but the stakes are higher in this election. The death cult may feel they'll never have as good an opportunity, and pull out all the stops. Trump has to win or his world collapses.

The 2024 coup would follow a path similar to the 2020 claims of election interference and fraud. But before, Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell filed 70 separate legal actions, trying to overturn Biden's win. All seventy were dismissed for an astounding lack of evidence -- That Court wouldn't even hear an appeal on so flimsy a case. That can't happen this time.

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In early June, Rolling Stone reported that a Republican county election official in Georgia, who has worked for prominent election denial groups, filed a lawsuit to allow them the discretion to refuse to certify election results based on nothing but their judgement.

On August 4th, Rolling Stone also reported "nearly 70 pro-Trump conspiracists are serving as election officials in key battleground counties" across the U.S., and were ready to attempt a "mass refusal to certify their county's election results" in November. They have no proof of fraud being planned, no defined threat; they just know it will happen. So they want to refuse certification, in advance, and yes, this is as insane as it sounds.

States do have rules to resolve election disputes -- but after results are counted and certified. It provides a baseline for an investigation. But Georgia's Board of Elections has voted to provide county officials in Georgia with the power to launch "reasonable inquiries" into election integrity -- before vote totals are certified -- and what 'reasonable inquiry' means was not defined. 

I Understand That The Film "Bubbah Ho-Tep" Was Released 

On The Same Date As The November 2016 Election, But That's Coincidental. Right?

Some states have regulations which prevent or mitigate these situations. But if voting results in several counties are not certified, the statewide results can't be, either. This gives the appearance of substance to charges of fraud where there is none. It's Alice-through-the-looking-glass logic.

One of the legal actions will find its way on expedited appeal to That Court -- where the Gang of Six will do their duty to an Opus Dei god and find in favor of Donald Trump. As they already have. Twice.

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If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected on November 5th, it's not over.

The death cult has come too far to lose. There is even some possibility (who knows how much) that, if Trump's return to power can't be forced through a Supreme Court decision, proponents of a violent attack on the government -- the Michael Flynns, Eric Princes and their mercenaries; Steve Bannons and Roger Stones -- may act. And then we are in truly uncharted territory.

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Reprint Heaven Forever: Moby-Dick, Or, One Big Fuckin' Whale

 Hoo Boy The Birthday of Big Marine Mammal Avatar Creators

Moving through life, we find ourselves on occasion in the midst of experience or the presence of a thing which resonates and reminds that something, more than what we think we know or can perceive (if we would just stop and shut up and pay enough attention to see), exists.

Principally, this happens when we're 'out in nature', but it also happens when we encounter some art -- in particular, when it's been created by someone who made deep and illuminating connections and Brought Them Back To Tell Thee. 

I blew it this year and did not remember the anniversary ("Shame over you," said the Whale).  So from August 1st in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 23.

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There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville / Moby-Dick, or, The Whale

Over at the Soul Of America, it's a celebration of Herman Melville's 206th birthday (!), and things of the Sea, and a Whale, and other notables which Herman brought back, To Tell Thee.

I keep considering writing a post from the viewpoint of the Whale just for the potential Yucks (because, god knows, We Need The Yucks Wherever We Can Get Them), but gave it up and settled for the Humorous Image.

I voice The Whale elsewhere on social media. He's thoughtful, makes Pontiac GTO noises in the water (" 'Vroom Vroom', said the Whale") and is honestly amazed at the delusional stalking being done to him by Ahab, "that crazy old genocidal fart."

The best thing about BLCKDGRD's annual post, and the reason I mention it here, is -- Herman tends to be overlooked in a culture whose highest expression is a Taylor Swift remix (I take your bullets, I take your bullets). 

It's good to be reminded that the Whale is still there -- as he reminds us that we are chased by our mortality, the fate we make through our emotion and actions; and that sometimes the Form Of The Destructor is large, albino, and aquatic.

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I was introduced to Melville when I was fourteen -- not through the novel he's most often identified with, but in the short work, "Bartleby The Scrivener" (1853), a classic in its own right. Ishmael's tale was next, and I was, uh, hooked. Later, I wasn't able to read anything by James or Conrad where the voice of the narrator was almost identical to the one conjured up when I encountered first with Melville. 

"Moby Dick: Or, A Whale" is ubiquitous. There is No Whale before He who populates a portion of that book (Yeah, okay; 'Shamu'  and 'Willy' are not the same thing). 

The Whale at least lurks, an unseen presence, in the background of all the on-ship action -- like Death, or Fate, or reruns of Fringe.  As if you might hear the Whale chuckling and snickering in the dark during certain scenes, because the Whale knew what was coming:

" 'What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike.'   

" 'Heh heh heh heh,' " came a deep basso rumble out of the darkness which hid the waters. Ahab started, but did not otherwise acknowledge the presence of that upon which he had focused for so long."

That Big Marine Mammal is archetypal, now.  And, aber natürlich, the moment something makes an appearance on "Family Guy", it's an absolute certainty that, whatever it is, it's now hard-coded into our DNA.

 Herman Left Out The Part Where Whales Prefer Raisin Bran

You Will Not Be Able To Un-See This Travesty

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UND DA IST NOCH IMMER MEHR:  Once I saw this, I could not un-see it, either. It is an actual book. Swear to god.

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UND: WAS IST AUCH SCHON WIEDER LOS? MEHR:  At one point, if you had $39.9K, Jim Morrison's Moby could have been yours.  At that price, you'd think the seller would have provided free shipping -- but, remember: this is Aremica, Land Of The Free and Home Of The Hip.

Your Pre-Flight Orientation

A Brief History Of The Now

Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), "The Swimmer" (1968)

It's A Strange, Undeniable Fact; Out Of The Blue And Into The Black

The news of the day rolls up to that place where the bricks meet the end of the stairs. It's really a sidewalk, something urban and poured, not pieces set by hand, and the stairs are front steps of the place where I've lived -- for twenty years this month, and for now.

While the majority of America has basted and boiled through these summer months so far, San Francisco slipped its hands in its pockets, tucked its chin down a little, keeping its cool. We have beautiful sunsets beyond the Golden Gate, light gold and red across the La Nina waters, the delight of sailors. We also have fog, of course.

I'm grateful, but immediately think: Don't say that; you're tempting the Wrath of the Whoosis From High Atop The Thing, go outside, turn around three times and spit, because I've always been like that. I am the embodiment of George Carlin's Hippy-Dippy Weatherman ("Behind every silver lining -- there's a dark cloud"). Look both ways before you cross the street -- and even if you do, stuff happens.

And so while places in America are baked beneath a Dome, here in yesterday, it rained -- or, almost -- and I made my way across the City to the house of the Best Friend to join others in a low-key dinner, a rite of passage: my retirement after 25 years from, almost assuredly, the last regular job I will ever have.

One of the Last Of The Old Unit arrived. So did The Girl who Refused To Be Mrs. Mongo (now happily married, but not to Mongo); the Godson, an A.I. Robotics Wizard-In-Training who took the biography of Oppenheimer I gave him and read it seriously; the Goddaughter, just back from a Masters' program abroad with a gift from The Old Country. Mostly, we were Olds, which meant by ten-thirty it was time to say goodnight. 

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W. 40th Street At 6th Avenue, New York, New York, 1940;

"Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris"; Breakfast Special, 10 Cents

I can see up ahead the grey, granite plinth by the side of the Road, the 75 Mile stone; three-quarters of a century. Physically, things are good. A short, sharp physical ailment this past January was resolved quickly but reminded me this is how it happens. As abruptly as a switch being thrown. Someone was standing in front of you, and in an instant, ein Augenblick, they're not. You were this; now, you're that.

A work friend (actually, an old boss) counseled against giving management more than two weeks' notice. She reminded me a mutual acquaintance, an Executive Director with over thirty years' tenure, had retired after giving senior leadership months of advance notice, and was shelved for most of that time, little to do. "They cut him out," she said. "It drove him crazy. They'll do it to you, too."

"And, why retire? What will you do?" This, from someone in a senior director role, 37 years with the company, who gardens but lives to work. I explained, my health issue in January reminded that life has always been a crapshoot, but after 75 years, the odds had shifted. I have no way of knowing how much longer I'll live. It's really that simple. "Well, retirement scares me," she snorted, though I sensed she was afraid of the same thing I was; work is her distraction. We each have our methods.

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"We'd like to welcome you to Styx Airways. If the flight attendants in the cabin walkway could have your attention, we would like to take a moment and review the Safety Card -- which should be in the seat-back pocket directly in front of you. The Safety Card will show you positions and items and popular songs which may assist you should an unanticipated event occur with this Boeing aircraft. Also with the Safety Card is our in-flight drinks menu."

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Every January, corporate organizations begin firming up strategic goals, setting work assignments. If I waited until the last two weeks to drop my bailout notice, the team I was part of (already understaffed, no backfilling in sight) would have to scramble.

A week after the minor health issue, I met with the Person I Report To and advised within six months, I would be retiring. Already tasked to move 1,000 tons of sand with two spoons and too few hands, she wasn't happy, but said she recognized that was not my fault.

I appreciated her saying that. However, I didn't give a shit. I was committed to leaving; and while over the next 22 weeks I would wake up thinking what the fuck am I doing, last Friday was functionally my last day; tomorrow I begin burning through a banked 500 hours of Paid Time Off. In November that stops.

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I arrived home after the dinner, stood in my living room considering the evening, listening to the silence at the top of Nob Hill. I thought of Neddy Merrill, Cheever's The Swimmer -- he did most things right, tried his best, but still discovered Stuff Happens -- and I wondered: Now What.

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Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Ogg Ogg

Bark Bark Bark Bark 

The news of the day: I didn't expect Saturday, July 13th. I'd gotten up that morning, considering how utterly, deeply fucked America seemed. Biden was staying in. He had enough delegates to secure the nomination. However, our politics requires candidates for President be an avatar, able to articulate a compelling vision of the future. 

It's shitty, popularity- and gut-driven; yes -- a large number of voters don't pay attention to more than their instinct about a candidate: Uh yeah I guess I'll vote for Trump, 'cause he's strong, ya know? Seems like that, anyway. 

Biden couldn't bring it. Everything was going to end as badly as you can imagine. I looked as far into the future as I could, and it was violent, hungry -- The Shire, plundered and oppressed by Orcs. My old, self-critical persona cackled, You picked one hell of a time to retire, buddy.

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"The Captain has turned on the Fasten Seat Belts sign, and we request you remain in your seats and not move about the cabin. Please bring your tray tables to their full upright and locked position, and consult the Safety Card in anticipation of a brief period of turbulence."

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Trump Rally Site, Butler, PA: After

Trump had been absent for a while, letting the Democrats self-destruct, but had just returned to the campaign -- roaring, screeching; mumbling about battery-powered Hannibal Lecters, sharks with tasers -- America mesmerized by his swagger and brutality. Polls showed Biden's numbers falling and beginning to affect down-ballot Democratic races; Trump was having him for lunch, unstoppable; Der Fuhrer.  In fact, he was having a rally in Butler, PA, that afternoon.

I was one of those trying not to think about it but failing, as ever -- and there was Trump, reigning as the dark center of it all. It could be different, If only ... and while I'm not the only person in America to make this observation, it's not one I would share. 

But thinking in that vein reminded me of a passage in Furst's Dark Star -- August, 1939; Hitler and the nazis rattling sabers at Poland. Everyone knows what will happen on September the first. Andre Szara is a Soviet journalist and intelligence operative in Paris, involved with de Montfried, a member of the French aristocracy, to move Jewish refugees to Palestine. The men meet at de Montfried's club:

When Szara entered the library de Montfried was reading a newspaper. He looked up, his face flushed with anger. "He's going into Poland. Do you know what that means?" ... "I was born in Poland," Szara said. "I know what it's like."  "But, why this man, this Adolf Hitler? Why is he permitted to live?" [de Montfried] folded the newspaper... "I don't know," [Szara said].  "Can nothing be done? ... An organization like yours, its capacities, its resources for such things... Forgive me," [de Montfried] said. "What I feel is like an illness. It will not leave me."  "I know," Szara said.

The events in Butler occurred four hours later. I wasn't expecting that on my bingo card -- but having idly considered, If only ... just that morning, was I picking something out of the ether? Is that how it all works? It did seem oddly coincidental.

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I watched the videos. Once Trump could hear his protective detail saying, "Shooter's down", the Slug instinctively understood what a gift he'd been handed. He delayed the agents, twice, as they were trying to push him off the stage, so he could pump his fist and mouth fight fight fight ! And the agents let him.

Later, at the Rethug convention, Trump basked in great waves of adulation, praise and -- dare we say it? -- love from the Mob. He sported a bandage over one ear. His mob roared, an ecstatic frenzy,  fight fight fight fight !  Ah, what Leni could have done with that.

Trump, at his Zenith. He was the Chosen One, head of House Harkonnen, eager to hurt that Mumbling Old Man Biden and seize control of his prize, his America -- there for the taking. Feared and bigger than his daddy at last.

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Somewhere in there, Federal Judgy Aileen Cannon dismissed in full the classified documents case against Trump in Florida. It seems that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith was improperly appointed and funded. It's already been appealed to the Florida 11th Circuit, and who knows what happens next. 

Of course she did. Of course That Court, a judiciary packed with judges hand-picked by Leonard Leo, would back Trump, the flawed but necessary Leader who can help them realize Project 2025. My response is fuck all of you fucking motherfucking fucks. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything.

"PULL UP   --   PULL UP   --   PULL UP   --   PULL UP"

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Then, two announcements on Sunday, July 21st. 

I didn't expect Biden to leave. If he did, I assumed a bloody, dramatic bar fight, in public, would follow among the various factions and personalities of the Democratic party. The national convention would showcase just how churned and divided and you-can't-trust-us the Dems are. 

(And oh, the MSM, whose two main themes are Dems In Disarray and Biden Old, were expecting a long, ugly contest, too. They were hoping for it, because (to quote the Mango Mussolini) "you can be the worst person in the world -- but if you have the ratings, it doesn't matter." It's all about clicks and likes and audience and revenue. It's Capitalism and the Free Market, baby. News? Facts? Ha ha; no.)

But It didn't happen. Biden stepped away. He passed the torch to Harris, and (even putting aside knee-jerk hyperbole) -- the explosive response from Democrats measured in contributions to Harris' shiny new campaign in just the first 24 hours was record-breaking, staggering. It was like putting a tiny sponge in the shape of a dinosaur into a dish of water and watching as it became hideously large. And nationally, 48,000 new, first-time campaign volunteers were signed up -- in those first 24 hours.

I'm one of the most cynical people I know -- but all this tells me Left / liberal voters seemed desperate for almost any Democrat who could articulate a consistent message, stand up to the bully in public and kick his ass. The Democrats have pressed the message that Democracy Is On The Line in this election; and guess what? People believe it.

Something else stood out which hasn't been mentioned enough: The Dems weren't in disarray. If anything, the transition from Biden's campaign to Harris' was rapid and (from the outside, at least) seamless. Endorsements from major Democratic players and even potential rivals, from the Clintons, the Obamas, were quick to line up. 

Harris has all the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination -- it will be either by acclimation, or a first-ballot win. But it's all been disciplined, with few if any rough spots. For a party traditionally seen as too factionalized for its own good, the transformation, discipline and organization was impressive.

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I'm cynical, but I want to hope. I don't want everything to go back the way it was in the late 50's of my childhood. I don't even want a return to pre-Trump, pre-Covid America (Harris' campaign has already settled on a slogan that resonates: We're Not Going Back). What I'd hope for is a country with an actual future. There is no future in an authoritarian America -- and that will determine my vote. 

I live in the Bluest of cities in a Blue State, so my vote is not critical -- except to me. How and what I choose matters, to me. I suspect that's true for many people, even living in a 'battleground' state. I won't support our nation-state becoming a dictatorship of native nazis and so-called 'christians'. I'm too old to do what I did, age 19, in one war; but as an Old, there are other ways to resist. I hope that's not another choice I'll be faced with.

The Democrats have to deliver on a demand from The People -- that they prove their ideals, their policies are better than Trump's within the context of a culturally-saturated political contest.  Harris has a slightly easier road -- she's younger; can articulate the Democratic message. And, Trump is a bloated, raving monster.  But whether she can maintain momentum, really bring it to the bully and kick his ass -- whether she can win this absurd personality-contest of an election -- I hope, but no one knows. Not yet.

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"We have arrived at Big Airport in Your Town. Before you deplane, please take a moment to look around and make sure you have all of your personal belongings. Local time is 0800 Hours, or Eight A.M., and the temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit. On behalf of Captain Mongo and our flight crew, we'd like to thank you for flying Styx Airways, and wish you a pleasant trip."

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I Lift Up Mine Eyes To The Hills, Not Disposed To Mercy

 Yet One More Barking Rant To Begin An End-Times Laugh Riot Week

Mikey Johnson Reminds: Church Attendance Is Mandatory

This Might Replace Rodin's 'The Thinker'

This post seems incomplete, like two relatively unconnected essays thrown up on the wall which stuck, barking about the Middle East, and the omnipotent, they-are-always-with-us Rich. You may think this is low-hanging fruit, but it's not.

Not that it's important; if this blog's observations had any impact in the public discussion of serious issues, then this post would have more meaning. But, it's only unsourced opinion by one individual with no agency beyond their own existence. 

I am as singular as, and no more important than, any of the dead uncovered at Pompeii whose names we'll never know, all events and actions and experiences in their lives -- for what? -- unknown, lost.

Some of my observations offered will, in all probability, cause the few readers of this blog to say yeah, eyeroll, whatever the fuck, but this is what happens here in downtown Earth. Be well.

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   I Have Wanted To Say This

Listen to me:  Fuck all you motherfucking fucks; you murdering fuckers you.

The Middle East's history is woven in the interactions of generations -- families, clans, tribes; all part of religious sects, now become modern political movements and governments. This geography is steeped in misogyny, cruelty; art, science and spirituality; and blood feuds millennia old.

Comedian Don Rickles inadvertently summed it up on his first album, a live recording of his heckling standup routine in Las Vegas, which I heard in 1969: "What's your name, sir -- Habib? ... You got to laugh about people, Habib. I've met you before, haven't I? That's right, you hung my uncle." 

Rickles' joke was a rough equivalent of the history of Palestine and Israel, which was just 20 years old, then. It hadn't even been a year since the 'Six-Day' War, where Israeli troops occupied the West Bank, the Golan, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai.

The casino crowd on the Strip laughed at Don's joke -- but Habib might easily have pointed the same joke at Rickles ("Yeah; didn't you hang my uncle when you took his house and orchards?"), and few would have understood. It was all happening so far away, and Vietnam had everyone's attention. Including mine.

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Everyone knows what happened in Israel on October 7, 2023. It was more than a massacre by Hamas; it was an obscenity. And everyone knows what happened next in Gaza, and what is still happening; more monstrous brutalities. War crimes were committed and are still being committed.

And all the participants -- Hamas, Hezbollah; Islamic State, Iran; the Houthis, the Saudis; the IDF, the Israeli government; the United States government; Netanyahu, Biden; members of Knesset and Congress -- are guilty.  No one is clean. 

I condemn every threat, every act of violence, of thuggery, viciousness; every calculated political decision allowing more violence and more suffering to continue: No one is clean. To argue that one side is more monstrous, more brutal than the other, is the comparative mathematics of lunacy.

It has to stop. The maiming and the killing, the abuse and enforced suffering. Stop bombing, stop launching rockets, stop seizing territory, stop starving refugees. You are all complicit. And questions of land, of statehood, of security, can't be addressed so long as anyone raises their voice or a hand in any way against any Other.

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During the 2006 Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, I wrote a post on a still-new Daily Kos, then republished it here six years later during another spate of regional violence. You may consider its conclusions simplistic and naive. I would argue the horror in Israel and Gaza passed beyond nuance, rhetoric and sophistication long ago.

There is a point where the amount of death and misery is so great that nothing matters, except that it ends. And damn anyone willing to sacrifice more children, use all the blood-feud deaths of generations, to justify more violence.

... look into that child's eyes. ... Look at the expression written there: Where are you taking us? Why are you doing this? What will happen to me?

Will you tell them, when you put your pistol to their head, burn them alive, drop your 500-pound bomb on their encampment, kill their siblings and friends in front of them, that it's for a greater good? For the glory of a faith? Because your wife or husband, brother or sister, your parent or cousins or friends, were killed and revenge demands that now this child's life has to end?

I do not care about the political or religious "dimension" in all this. I swear to you because I know: a dead child is an utterly final answer to all the puking, screeching human argument justifying our species' ability to commit murder. It all must stop -- followed by a final resolution to all questions of Palestinian statehood and Israeli security. Period. 

No one is clean; and It has to end. Stop killing the children, then make peace --  because the alternative is nihilism and obscenity, the blood-feud, forever. Agree and then act. It really has to be that simple, because every other convoluted attempt at peace has twisted around the axle of pride, history and hate. Enough.

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   Bring My Car, And Be Quick You Fucking Proles

I'll just say it: American / Western society is essentially owned by a vicious, arrogant layer of wealth -- call them the 0.001 % -- principally Old Wealth, maintained in the same families for generations. I've actually been around these folk, a bit, and they are just as venal and clueless, as well of course I should have this as I wish it arrogant, as if you'd lifted a cultural stereotype from a comedy-of-manners and dropped them into Real Life. They truly exist.

They own multiple homes, in neighborhoods which, if you don't live in them, you'd better have a verifiable reason to be there. They move in a cyclical progression from home to home, seasonal vacations at resorts and private hotels. Their children attend preparatory schools, a tight circle of European and American universities; eventually, sliding into sinecures at law and investment firms. They are members of clubs we wouldn't be allowed to join. They do not know how to build a fire, make coffee, set up a tent or cook a filet of sole: they hire others to do that sort of thing.

Most families know (or are at least aware of) each other. They intermarry. Their children grow up with each other. They are supported by accountants, financial and investment advisors, personal assistants, tax and estate attorneys, physicians and surgeons, tailors, chefs and valets. Their children walk in comfort and anonymity along the same private, manicured paths as their predecessors in generations before them.

Within their class, maintaining their family's fortunes is the critical priority ("You don't love it as I do," Lord Grantham explains to his cousin as they regard Downton Abbey. "But I am merely a steward of all this"). There's also a certain amount of social Darwinism between players, a jockeying for position: It's Edith Wharton and John Cheever with a touch of Voltaire (see "Discrete Charm Of The Bourgeoise", and The Ruling Class).

They tolerate the Zucks, the Musks, the Jobs' and Bezos' and Thiels and Andreesens; all the Tech Bro billionaires, as nouveau riche arrivistes; pool boys, waiters and office workers who somehow struck it rich. Not the right sort -- no history, no breeding- -- but, they can afford to live well, and, if the past is any guide, eventually they and their money will disappear. Or, they'll be around for a few generations and finally become acceptable. 

They have serious class solidarity: depend on it.  Even if Claus von Bülow appeared to have attempted to murder his wife, members of their class might disapprove, but would "support the side", "maintain common cause" against a greater mass of humanity: We are the Owners, and Fuck the Peasants (see 'The Draughtsman's Contract').

These persons are not accountable under any law in the same way, or to the same extent, that you or I are. They don't wait in line, don't submit to passport control or customs checks; aren't required to appear in court for all but the most serious charges (if they appear at all). They are anonymous to all but each other.

And collectively, they own you whether you believe it, accept it, or not.

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   You Are Pwned -- A Dream Coda

Years ago, I had a dream which stands out in memory -- because I don't often dream with details that I recall so completely. 

I was some kind of mountaineering guide, taking wealthy persons up -- not Everest, but some similar peak. I was "inside" myself in this dream (sometimes dreams allow you see yourself in 'camera view'), looking out on a snow-covered slope -- a right triangle of pure white, from upper left to lower right -- against a sky of deep Cobalt blue.

A man in his late twenties / early thirties stood a few feet in front of me, wearing an orange parka with the hood pulled back. He had a light stubble of beard, curly, reddish-blonde hair, and wore a pair of aviator-style sunglasses. He was completely at ease, smiling, and spoke with an accent (French, I remembered). He wasn't arrogant or emphatic with his delivery, but matter-of-fact, as if describing the weather.

"I will tell you how it is," he said. "My family is thirteen hundred years old. One of my ancestors was  knighted by Charlemagne. We've survived plagues, wars, financial collapse, revolutions, occupation. We've had our black sheep, our idiots -- but mostly, we have made fortunes and passed them down to the next generation. We've been good at it, and lucky. 

"If you can't trace your family back more than a few generations? I don't care. You've always worked for pay -- but maybe you get lucky, win some lottery, and your children inherit that money? I don't care. In one, maybe two generations, it will be gone, absorbed into banks, financial houses, and by taxes. Perhaps my family owns some of those financial houses.

"We own forests and mines. We own companies" -- he waved at me with one hand -- "Maybe you have even worked for us. But some day, you will be dead, and that will be the end for you. Your name will be forgotten, as if you and everyone in your family line before you had never existed. My family will still be here.

"And if that's unhappy for you, if it makes you angry, I don't care," he said, and smiled again. "And that is how things are."

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