,,,are malleable, gullible, despicable, and stupid human beings. Those adjectives and more came to mind as I watched a bit of yet another Trump rally on C-Span and yet another mealy-mouthed speech from their fuehrer as he channeled Hitler, Putin, and every other despot from the sad history of this world, autocrats who have preached hate to their misguided populations. How can this scurrilous human horde of Trumpers love such a fascist? Let’s put these bugs infesting our democracy under the microscope to see if we can’t design a pest spray to neutralize them.

When we’re not laughing at their crazy religious and hypocritical fervor or stupid beliefs in far-out conspiracy theories, we need to recognize what a danger Trumpers represent to democracy. Some are just unthinking lemmings; others are dangerous fascist SOBs who desire power over the rest of us. The first group might be harmless for the most part if the second group, members of a fascist oligarchy/plutocracy like Russia’s, didn’t convert them into mindless zombie hordes.

Trump’s book could have been titled Art of the Steal for many reasons, of course (read Cohen’s book), but a major reason is that this Big Loser (the majority of Americans did not vote for him) was the grand manipulator of everyone and anyone who voted for him in 2016 and 2020, a culmination of the grand steal that has occurred over the last forty or so years culminating now with the top 0.1% of the US population having as much wealth as the lower 90%…and paying little or no taxes!

Biden did not steal the election; Trump aka Il Duce stole it in 2016, with help from Mr. Putin, and he tried to steal it in 2020…with help from Mr. Putin! And all that was done for the fascist oligarchy/plutocracy that has been like Dracula sucking the life-blood from the American public.

Trump was the capo of what we might as well call Kremlin-West, a mafia group akin to Putin’s, complete with a favored family and other select mobsters who want to destroy American democracy for their own gain…and were doing so long before Trump. If we aren’t careful, he might yet succeed in this nefarious enterprise, considering recent events, pleasing those plutocrats; but more of his past crimes are being discovered, so hopefully not. The oligarchy/plutocracy might need to find another “f%$#ing moron” to manipulate the marching morons.

The following bears repeating many times: Trumpers are not conservatives; they’re fascists, even the dumb ones (and especially them!). They’re just as fascistic as Hitler and Mussolini’s crowds were and the men who exploited them. It’s peculiar how no one in America, not even ardent anti-Trumpers, want to use the words “fascist” and “fascism”! Misguided and overblown political correctness! Trumpers are typical fascists. Why play the game of political correctness with these words when they’re so applicable to and appropriate for Trump and his evil minions, or even to the mindless fools out there who are stupid enough to believe their crap? If you’re a follower of Trump, you’re a dangerous fascist! You have ceased to be a conservative. Period.

And that’s no joke! It’s an accusation. You, as a Trumper, are giving those who exploit you an opportunity to create a situation in the US that parallels the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe. You believe Trump et al have correctly identified all your enemies, the scapegoats they have chosen for you to blame for your own miserable lives, just like most Germans did with the Jews. (The oligarchy/plutocracy has included Jews as scapegoats too, of course.) You are too stupid to realize you’re being used! Moreover, you have proven you have no moral backbone, no common sense, and no ability to distinguish right from wrong. For you, what Trump says is right; what anyone else says is wrong.

If you think that’s harsh and insulting, too bad! I intend it to be. You can blame me and others like me for all your problems; I’m just an old white guy like Biden…and like many of you SOBs. Know what? I blame you for all of mine, especially this dangerous turn to fascism in our country. You elected your fuehrer in 2016 and failed to reelect him in 2020. Thank God for the latter! Thank God for fair elections…although you’re trying to end them with your fascist maneuvering. Now Biden is showing you the Big Lie and how gullible you are to believe it. Talk about stubborn stupidity!

(more…)

…is Benjamin Netanyahu. Old Ben is the autocratic Trump of the Middle East, right up there with Assad, the Ayatollah, Erdogan, and MBS. The Middle East has always had more of its fair share of murderous demagogues, of course, and they’re often entrenched in their power with support from religious extremists—old Ben’s is derived from religious fanatics just like the fascists here in the US.

Extreme? Hardly! Anyone who denies this reality today is part of the problem. Old Ben and his ilk aren’t even fascist capitalists like President-for-Life Xi in China. They’re just old-fashioned despots who violently strike out when their power is threatened. Loser Trump’s January 6 debacle was no exception; that was typical fascist behavior. Netanyahu is lashing out by employing the parallel technique, making someone else the enemy and murderously attacking them to preserve power and distract from all the corruption charges against him that would normally cause him to resign in a truly democratic state. I suppose one could argue he’s only following Trump’s lead, but I think Netanyahu is a lot smarter than that “stable genius” who lost the election in a landslide to end his four-year reign. God knows what it will take to get rid of Netanyahu. Maybe God doesn’t even know because, like Trump, Netanyahu is the Devil’s minion.

Autocrats can be very efficient at governing even as they become murderers in their attempts to hold on to power. The dictator Rojas Pinilla in Colombia built a new airport and hospital in Bogotá, the capital, that were still the best in the country last time I was there, but he and his daughter (channeling Mao and Mrs. Mao) killed many. In one case, Colombia’s secret police rounded up dissidents, put them in a soccer stadium, and mowed them down with machinegun fire. This happens a lot in Third World countries like Arab nations and Israel as tyrants struggle to maintain power. More democratic countries usually offer a smoother transition of power (Trump and Netanyahu are exceptions), but that fails miserably when voters stupidly elect tyrants (like Trump and Netanyahu).

Humanity seems to never learn. How are we going to solve the worlds’ problems that plague human existence when stupid humans support tyrants like Netanyahu and Trump? Trump tried to turn the US into an apartheid state; and Netanyahu just might succeed doing that in Israel, which was much farther along to begin with. Because both countries are assumed to be democracies, voters share some of the blame by voting for these fascist personalities. We reap what we sow.

***

Comments are always welcome.

A. B. Carolan’s Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Syrian refugee Kayla Jones is a successful STEM student. Her bad dreams no longer torment her, but, just as she thinks she’s on her way to a rewarding career, strangers start pursuing her. With some friends who help her, she struggles to find out why. A. B.’s new action-packed mystery/thriller for young adults and adults who are young-at-heart is filled with suspense and ancient intrigue, and it will keep all readers guessing about what’s coming next. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

After purging Rep. Liz Cheney from its House leadership, the Good Ole Piranhas have overwhelmingly declared their fealty to their evil lord and master Donald J. Trump aka Il Duce. Not their voters, mind you; just GOP House members like Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, etc., GOP Senate leaders like McConnell, etc., and other toadies who’ve drunk Trump’s Kool-Aid; in other words, the so-called conservative Republicans have shed their skins to reveal that they’re really fascist snakes who now might as well publicly proclaim “Sieg Heil!” as they salute their fuehrer. This is a sad time for democracy in America!

Why sad? After all, the destruction of Eisenhower and Reagan’s party—Lincoln’s party, for that matter—is good for progressives, right? Yes and no. Sure, it will allow progressives to move the country forward. Eisenhower can turn over in his grave, but the progressives won’t have to put any brakes on in their rush to change America’s ways.

But no, progressives can run amok just like fascists. I might be a progressive, but I’ll dare to speak heresy by stating that we need true conservatives (emphasis on “true”), conservatives like Romney, Cheney, and Kinzinger. They’re a dying species in government, but they’re common among voters, even in the Democratic party and independents. Trump and his followers aren’t true conservatives. Sure, they might use some conservative talking points to hoodwink the true conservatives, practicing the ancient art of snake-oil salesmen (although there are many women as well), but they’re fascists. Fascism is a catch-all term to describe these demented folks, summing up their characteristics as haters, bigots, racists, religious extremists, and other greedy, power-hungry narcissists and sociopaths. I saw this many times in the faces at work; I see it on my TV screen every day now, leering, sneering, holier-than-thou, and insane faces. They don’t have to say much—their body language is enough for this observer of human nature.

The politicians among them are all Putin wannabes who envy that old KGB leader who holds Russia in his death grip. Why not? Putin owns a whole damn country after all, having reached a pinnacle of power that only the great loser Trump the and his toadies can dream about…and I have nightmares about!

On the other hand, you have Bernie, the Squad, and others like them, perhaps good-intentioned progressives (although evidence is accumulating that they’re hungry for power too). These folks might have some good ideas, but they all too often lack the common sense to see the consequences of their proposed policies. Defund the police and replace them with social workers; offer free health care, child care, and education for all, paid for by the state; slash DoD funding and use the savings for social programs; etc., etc. True conservatives are needed to rein in that exuberance, adding some common-sense brakes to the progressives’ runaway train before it derails. Maybe consider things a bit more sedately to ponder what the government should or should not do a bit more.

I’ve often written about the Goldilocks Principle in these pages. It’s all about balance. True conservatives balance rabid progressivism. The scales might tip one way or the other over our lifetimes, but they should never be just one or the other.

Yes, true conservatives are necessary. Lamentably, Liz Cheney and others are being hunted, and they might become extinct before their mascot-animals, the elephants, do. Already marked for extinction by Newt Gingrich and his Tea-Party wingnuts, fascist Trump and his equally fascist and maniacal followers are out to make them extinct. The purge of Ms. Cheney spells doom for the traditional GOP. All the fascists in the Good Ole Piranhas will accomplish by their autocratic tactics is to give her a public platform that will hasten the well-deserved death of the party.

Hopefully the true conservatives can create an alternate party that offers a home to anti-Trump forces (there’s a movement among the old guard, which includes Cheney, to do exactly that—150+ signed on to call the current congressional leaders to task for promoting the Big Lie and denying the insurrection).  Those few anti-Trump Republicans correctly believe a fascist America is an evil America akin to Nazi Germany. I imagine that new home would certainly feel more comfortable for them than the center of the Democratic party as well as the Good Ole Piranhas.

In any case, we are all witnesses to the death throes of the traditional GOP as a home for true conservatives. America needs to solve this problem. Otherwise, what will also die is American democracy, where the whole spectrum of political idealism, from progressivism to conservatism, can debate in the public forum.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone Art Detective, Book Four. Esther Brookstone, ex-Scotland Yard inspector in the Art and Antiques Division and ex-MI6 spy during the Cold War, and new husband, Bastiann van Coevorden, have just returned from their honeymoon cruise down the Danube, refreshed and reinvigorated despite Bastiann’s having to handle a murder investigation as his last assignment as an Interpol agent. Esther is content running her gallery, and Bastiann works as a consultant for MI5. They hope to enjoy their active golden years together, but more adventures as sleuths await them, colliding with their idyllic existence, as they aid an American artist, try to thwart a Russian assassin, and go after the illegal art trade and human traffickers. Mystery, suspense, thrills, and intrigue once more await readers. Available at Draft2Digital’s affiliated retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc., but not Amazon or Smashwords) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor, etc.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

After purging Rep. Liz Cheney from its House leadership, the Good Ole Piranhas have overwhelmingly declared their fealty to their lord and master Donald J. Trump aka Il Duce. Not their voters, mind you; just GOP House members like Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and other toadies who’ve drunk Trump’s Kool-Aid; in other words, the so-called conservative Republicans have shed their skins to reveal that they’re really fascist snakes who now publicly proclaim “Sieg Heil!” as they salute their fuehrer. This is a sad time for democracy in America!

Why sad? After all, the destruction of Eisehower and Reagan’s party—Lincoln’s party, for that matter—is good for progressives, right? Yes and no. Sure, it will allow progressives to move the country forward. Eisenhower can turn over in his grave, but the progressives won’t have to put any brakes on in their rush to change America’s ways.

But no, progressives can run amok just like fascists. I might be a progressive, but I’ll dare to speak heresy by stating that we need true conservatives (emphasis on “true”), conservatives like Romney, Cheney, and Kinzinger. They’re a dying species in government, but they’re common among voters, even in the Democratic party and independents. Trump and his followers aren’t true conservatives. Sure, they might use some conservative talking points to hoodwink the true conservatives, practicing the ancient art of snake-oil salesmen (although there are many women as well), but they’re fascists. Fascism is a catch-all term to describe these demented folks, summing up their characteristics as haters, bigots, racists, religious extremists, and other greedy, power-hungry narcissists and sociopaths. I saw this many times in the faces at work; I see it on my TV screen every day now, leering, sneering, holier-than-thou, and insane faces. They don’t have to say much—their body language is enough for this observer of human nature.

The politicians among them are all Putin wannabes who envy that old KGB leader who holds Russia in his death grip. Why not? Putin owns a whole damn country after all, having reached a pinnacle of power that only Trump the Loser and his toadies can dream about…and I have nightmares about!

On the other hand, you have Bernie, the Squad, and others like them, perhaps good-intentioned progressives (although evidence is accumulating that they’re hungry for power too). These folks might have some good ideas, but they all too often lack the common sense to see the consequences of their proposed policies. Defund the police and replace them with social workers; offer free health care, child care, and education for all, paid for by the state; slash DoD funding and use the savings for social programs; etc., etc. True conservatives are needed to rein in that exuberance, adding some common-sense brakes to the progressives’ runaway train before it derails. Maybe consider things a bit more sedately to ponder what the government should or should not do a bit more.

I’ve often written about the Goldilocks Principle in these pages. It’s all about balance. True conservatives balance rabid progressivism. The scales might tip one way or the other over our lifetimes, but they should never be just one or the other.

Yes, true conservatives are necessary. Lamentably, Liz Cheney and others are being hunted, and they might become extinct before their mascot-animals are. Already marked for extinction by Newt Gingrich and his Tea-Party wingnuts, fascist Trump and his maniacal followers are out to make them extinct. The purge of Ms. Cheney spells doom for the traditional GOP. All the fascists in the Good Ole Piranhas will accomplish by their autocratic tactics is to give her a public platform that will hasten the death of the party. Hopefully the true conservatives can create an alternate party that offers a home to the anti-Trump forces (there’s a movement among the old guard, which includes Cheney, to do exactly that—150+ signed on to call the current congressional leaders to task for promoting the Big Lie and denying the insurrection), those who believe a fascist America is an evil America akin to Nazi Germany. I imagine that new home would certainly feel more comfortable for them than the center of the Democratic party as well as the Good Ole Piranhas.

In any case, we are all witnesses to the death of the traditional GOP as a home to true conservatives. America needs to solve this problem. Otherwise, what will also die is American democracy where the whole spectrum of political idealism, from progressivism to conservatism, can debate in the public forum.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone Art Detective, Book Four. Esther Brookstone, ex-Scotland Yard inspector in the Art and Antiques Division and ex-MI6 spy during the Cold War, and new husband, Bastiann van Coevorden, have just returned from their honeymoon cruise down the Danube, refreshed and reinvigorated despite Bastiann’s having to handle a murder investigation as his last assignment as an Interpol agent. Esther is content running her gallery, and Bastiann works as a consultant for MI5. They hope to enjoy their active golden years together, but more adventures as sleuths await them, colliding with their idyllic existence, as they aid an American artist, try to thwart a Russian assassin, and go after the illegal art trade and human traffickers. Mystery, suspense, thrills, and intrigue once more await readers. Available at Draft2Digital’s affiliated retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc., but not Amazon or Smashwords) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor, etc.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

The NY Times, for some insane reason, recently decided to use “guest essay” in place of “op-ed.” Let’s ignore the fact that most writers posting articles to the Times two opinion pages aren’t “guests”—they’re paid contributors who regularly post their opinions there. Instead, I’ll analyze why this new policy is insane.

I was expecting more blowback about their stupid decision. There was a bit, but it certainly missed the points I will put forth in this article. The Times‘s decision is an arrogant attempt to change tradition for no reason at all (the “editors” try to give some, but they’re so lame, I won’t even mention them). The Times is trying to change standard American English usage on a whim, as if only they know what’s best, an editorial decision it has absolutely no right to impose on the rest of us. In other words, it’s but another example of thrashing around by a dying and anachronistic print medium.

“Op-ed:” is a shortened form of “editorial opinion”: or “opinions of the editor” that the Times has already morphed into an Irish stew of many ingredients if one considers the writers who post articles on their opinion pages, generally covering a wide, multi-dimensional spectrum of opinion. “Opinion Pages” or simply “Opinion” would be better choices to use, not only as a title for those two pages (in the Times‘s defense, they still use the latter), but “op-eds” is the well-established term employed everywhere, except by the Times.

In that sense, it’s not anyone’s right to change its meaning to “guest essay,” and especially not the Times‘s right to do so. For example, this article is an op-ed because it’s my opinion and I’m editor of this blog, and (most of the time) its only contributor. I might use the term “post” (short for “blog post”) or “article” (they’re journalistic articles—journalism covers the internet as well), but never “essay.” That smacks of eruditeness and elitism. Newspapers feature articles; they don’t publish essays. Not only is the Times‘s decision an incorrect one, it’s inappropriate to use “essay.”

So the use of “guest” and “essay” are both wrong. More than that, the Times‘s decision goes against the traditional purpose of opinion pages: The rest of a newspaper’s articles report facts (or they should!); the opinion pages contain points of view, hopefully opinions supported by a purview of the facts (and not by outrageous conspiracy theories). The articles on opinion pages express the opinions of their writers and aren’t necessarily those of the paper.

The Times has done many stupid things. I’ve written several op-eds about how they’ve turned their “Book Review” Sunday insert into a mouthpiece for the Big Five publishers, for example. (Most of their reviews are just disguised ads designed to promote a Big Five book.) Changing “op-ed: to “guest essay” is yet another stupid decision. Anything but “op-ed” is fickle self-indulgence.

This newspaper is becoming more and more annoying and irrelevant to this author of novels and blog posts aka op-eds. Like most newspapers, I’ll probably not miss the Times if it goes under. Most papers certainly aren’t worth the price to subscribe anymore. But maybe they would be if they’d just stick with what works.

***

Comments are always welcome.

A. B. Carolan’s Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student who looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she’s on her way to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles waged by hominids bent on conquest of a primitive Earth. An ebook for young adults and adults who are young-at-heart, only available on Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Frequent readers of this blog are probably aware that I’ve not done movie reviews for more than a year. The reason is obvious: Covid-19. We don’t have streaming video and don’t want it because we the need the full-screen, surround-sound, reclining seats, and popcorn—the full experience that can only be obtained in a big, traditional theater setting. I hope to return to that experience and writing movie reviews soon.

Any opinions I have about this year’s Academy Award nominees were formed by movie trailers and chats with friends, online or otherwise. These opinions about films, actors, and other film workers, if any, are basically worthless, but I will make some comments. Anthony Hopkins was a surprise; I’d have voted for Chadwick Boseman. That’s more a personal choice than a valid observation because I didn’t see their performances. I’m happy that Soul won two awards, but that’s because I love music—I have yet to see this film that seems like another advance in animation art with its portrayal of NYC’s vibrant life and citizens.

While Covid has been an unwelcome force of change, there’s no doubt that Hollywood needed to change. The descriptor “tinsel town,” intended to capture in general how irrelevant movies and how detached and out-of-touch actors, directors, and producers were in the past, is less appropriate now: Change is occurring in Hollywood. Whether it’s good or bad, Hollywood will never be the same. And maybe that’s good in itself.

Evolution isn’t only a force of nature; it’s a force for change in the world’s institutions and social norms. Whether they like it or not, conservatives have to learn to live with a changing world. Chana didn’t watch the Oscars; they boycotted them, even though a Chinese-American professor from NYU won an award. That’s disconnecting from the world. China does that at its own peril. Trumpers, and the great loser and con man himself, hate Hollywood; they’ll achieve the irrelevance they fear so much and so richly deserve.

Yes, evolution is social change too, like it or not. Dylan’s song is as true now, if not more so, than it was in the nineteen-sixties: The times are a-changin’—and that’s a good thing, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Let’s hope it speeds up so we can save the planet and arrive at the point where we all recognize that we’re all on the great spaceship Earth together and must make the best of it.

***

Comments are always welcome!

Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One, by A. B. Carolan. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student who looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she’s on her way to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles waged by hominins bent on conquest of a primitive Earth. Available at Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

There’s no doubt that the jury’s decision in the Derek Chauvin trial is historic. But let’s revisit how long it has taken: the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 and was followed by cops beating up marchers in 1965 at Selma, with little or no legal action taken against the cops; and Rodney King was beaten by LA cops in 1991, with getting off free. Finally, after about sixty years of police violence against Black men and boys, a cop is convicted. Is this the start of significant change, a change leading to police realizing that there’s a bias against non-white Americans, specifically blacks? I hope so.

All my life this has been going on. At first I was distracted by another war in Vietnam, but violent police tactics motivated by racist, antiquated policing protocols and academy training has been plaguing the US for years. Ever since Vietnam, I’ve been afraid of police and sheriff’s deputies dressed in riot gear, but I could always imagine the fear a Black man must face. It always seemed to me that baby steps were taken to improve the situation, often followed by big steps back.

To paraphrase Will Smith, there’s always been racism and racist violence in America. The difference now is that sometimes a video record will show us how trivial offenses can often escalate to murder, more so for Blacks and other minorities than for whites. That has been going on since before the Civil War and continues even with that Civil Rights Act. It’s as if we’re still fighting the Civil War. Frankly, it’s tearing the US apart at the seams and has helped divide this country into the new North and South, i.e. blue states vs. red states. Of course, that current division is more about fascist mentalities (the Good Ole Piranhas) versus reasonable people (we liberals and progressives who are the GOP’s enemy).

But fascists in America, as all fascists do, look for scapegoats to blame all their failures on. They’ve added Blacks and minorities to their hate list. “It’s us versus them,” they say, and tell the big lies blaming them and anyone defending them. This is what Hitler and his Nazi party did in 1930s Germany, and it’s no different here.

It’s sad that Mr. Floyd was murdered in the north, because fascist racists aren’t as prevalent there, as elections have shown. Never doubt it: Derek Chauvin was the fascist racist in this case! I don’t know why it didn’t come out in the trial, but Floyd and Chauvin were nightclub bouncers. Perhaps he had a personal hatred for Floyd, but his arrogant expression of fascist power easily seen in the video record tells most of the story: for whatever reason, Chauvin became a fascist racist and a murderer. Most people in Minnesota aren’t like that. That happens more in the south.

But it can happen anywhere twisted minds can wield power. They said the trial wasn’t about who Chauvin was but what he did. Okay, but it was certainly about who he was in the sense that it was about who he became, a fascist racist willing to do violence from a position of authority. He ended up as a non-human monster.

As long as such monsters become police, I’m afraid there will be no significant change. Police training and protocols must be modified so that fascist monsters cannot hide in the ranks of officers who want to be part of the community and help the citizens they serve.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One, by A. B. Carolan. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student who looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she’s on her way to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles waged by hominins bent on conquest of a primitive Earth. Available at Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

No, it’s neither Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, nor Gov. Gavin Newsom. It’s Joe Manchin, a US senator from Pennsylvania who’s so alone on the far-right edge of the Democratic Party that he might as well be in that Good Ole Piranhas’ fascist gang. And, because of the fifty-fifty split in the Senate, he can become a virtual autocrat because of the leverage that allows him to blackmail the Biden administration. Such is the current situation in the US these days—one person torpedoing all future progress in Covid relief; police, economic, and immigration reforms; and gun control—to name some important changes that must be made to preserve our democracy.

Manchin forced adjustments in the Covid relief bill that made Biden’s package worse than what Trump and his sleazy mafia offered to the American people. Imagine! He’s practicing the same chicanery with the infrastructure bill. And forget gun control—the bankrupt NRA loves Mr. Manchin! This GOP wolf dressed in Democratic sheep’s clothing is doing tremendous damage to the Dem’s plans to revitalize and make a better America, one man with far too much power in what is looking more and more like a failing US democracy. He has also sold his soul to the reelection devil, because, in deep purple Pennsylvania, he has to create there some kind of appeal to those marching morons in the Good Ole Piranhas’ crazy base. I suppose satanic Trump loves Manchin because that loser but still a devilish con man revels in stiffing common people struggling to make an honest living and feed their families, whatever their party. The latter are people Trump considers to be suckers ripe for the fleecing.

Yes, Manchin might as well be in loser Trump’s camp like butt-kissers Mitch McConnell (in the sense of leading the charge against the Biden administrtion); shifty, sleazy Lindsey Graham; double-speaking Kevin McCarthy, soon-to-be-in-prison Matt Gaetz; and other infamous Republican fascists. Manchin is helping them destroy American democracy and go against the will of the people.

The fundamental problem here is that Manchin has no moral backbone. He’ll never receive a Profiles in Courage award either. His actions are determined by his obsessive interest is re-election. He’s adding to the problems the US is facing right now: The country is divided between the marching morons, mostly old racist white boys afraid that their privileged status is threatened, without considering their own economic interests (who the hell will pay for their social security benefits if there are no immigrant workers to replace them?); and the rest of us, no matter what the color, who want to see a functional country where progress is made.

Many times I’ve thought the only solution is another civil war. That could be bloody, as we saw with the Capitol insurrection led by sleazebag Trump. (And, like the one in the nineteenth century, old Joe’s Pennsylvania would at the center of the conflict! How many died in Gettysburg?) Hopefully, it will be a more peaceful parting of the ways where East and West Coast and northern-tier states, the so-called “blue states,” remain the progressive bastion of the free world, and the others sink into abject poverty, especially as local talent flees the mess they’re bent on creating.

Admittedly, a break-up, peaceful or not, can be messy, just like a marriage gone sour. But let’s face it: the South won’t stop fighting the Civil War or give up its traditional Jim-Crow ways of hatred, bigotry, and racism. Why should the rest of us tolerate that crap? That includes Manchin too, and most of Pennsylvania outside Philly and Pittsburgh that are representative of that state’s “east and west coasts.” Maybe we can clean the Trumpers out of the state out and kick Manchin and other jerks out, sending them to radical and fascist, red America where they belong.

In any case, I consider dishonorable Sen. Joe Manchin public enemy number one for our democracy. He represents everything I see wrong with America right now, and I’m fed up with him.

***

Comments are always welcome.

The “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. In a way, these three novels (soon to be four) are a nostalgic bow to my years as a young reader. The novels also pay homage to la grande dame of mystery, Agatha Christie, and her two famous sleuths, Miss Marple (Esther’s role) and Hercule Poirot (Esther’s paramour Bastiann van Coevorden’s role). I often wondered those many years ago why Christie never allowed her two sleuths to solve a crime together. Of course, Esther and Bastiann are very much twenty-first century characters, so I have added a lot of thrills and suspense to the mystery. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold. Print versions can be ordered for you by your favorite bookstore, or they can be found on Amazon.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Cecilia Vega of ABC News asked President Biden in his first press conference, “Do you find this acceptable?” in reference to the miserable conditions of unaccompanied children at the southern border. (Sorry, Joe, this is a crisis!) Another reporter—maybe from Bloomberg?—asks id the president will draw a red line in reference to Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Many of them ask why the president hasn’t done this or that (hmm, seems to me he’s done a lot in sixty-plus days, but I guess the reporters don’t think so).

These and many other questions reporters ask amount to media looking for the gotchas. Biden in the short time he’s been in office can’t fix what Trump broke during the four years of his administration. When Mr. Biden laughs and says to put Ms. Vega in her place, “Really? Is that a question?”, he’s implying it’s a stupid question because she’s looking for the gotcha, She counters with another stupid question (naturally!) that turns everything upside-down, asking if his plan to contact the relatives of those kids, using the phone numbers they have carried from Central America, doesn’t encourage even more to make the long trek to the border. Sorry, Cecilia, you can’t have it both ways!

Ms. Vega is only one among many ambitious reporters (she just received a promotion to White House correspondent, so she has to increase the number of her gotchas), but she was particularly irritating that day. ABC News did us no favors by replacing one SOB (Jonathan Karl) with another (Cecilia Vega). Karl’s book provides her with a guide on how to be maximally annoying (and maximize her number of gotchas!).

Trump drew the May 1, 2021 line in the sand for Afghanistan, but it never could have been maintained without leaving a bloodbath behind and our allies in a bind (they have more troops there now!). Mr. Biden flubbed a bit here, saying that he could imagine all US troops out of Afghanistan by sometime in 2022—a fuzzy line to be sure. But such questions only serve the media’s and their reporters’ purpose: create the gotchas! From the gotchas, the media creates their beloved scandals, and those sell (see my previous post)—of course, where they really make their money selling is expensive advertising space, those ads made possible by the scandals.

And thus we have the media, publishers, and reporters doing exactly what democracy does not need, yellow journalism, plain and simple. They’re all out to be like the British tabloids. Of course, those adversely affected can always sue. Meghan and Harry just won a big lawsuit. But not even the threat of litigation seems to stop them from looking for the gotchas. And when they can’t find them, media creates its own by quoting people out of context.

For now, looking for the gotchas is largely apolitical in the sense that the media only wants to create something scandalous because scandal sells. The media is not the enemy of the people, but it sure is the enemy of logical and reasonable discourse in the twenty-first century. When I see that NY Times motto, “All the news that’s fit to print,” I just laugh. It should be “We find the gotchas and get you the scandals.” Honest journalism is rare these days. And there are no honest reporters because they are all looking for the gotchas.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Hard sci-fi, anyone? The bargain bundle The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection contains three “evergreen” sci-fi novels (i.e. as current and entertaining as the day I finished the manuscripts) that span thousands of years of future history, including the founding of ITUIP (“Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets”) featured in A.B. Carolan’s novels, Rogue Planet, and other stories. In the novel Survivors of the Chaos, readers discover a dystopian Earth where powerful international corporations rule and exploit the planet and the rest of the solar system, even hiding the greatest discovery Humans could ever make, an ET ship that crash-landed on a moon of Saturn. In spite of the chaos, three starships are launched to colonize planets orbiting Sol-type stars. In Sing a Zamba Galactica, readers can follow two colonies’ struggles to survive an ET invasion in near-Earth space; the colonists aren’t alone because new ET friends are there to help. The reader will also  meet new ETs, including Swarm, that strange collective intelligence so important in ITUIP history. In Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, readers will see how a mad industrialist, akin to ones Humans fled decades earlier, plots to rule all of near-Earth peace and end the peace in that corner of the galaxy so dearly won. Three novels for the price of one ebook—a veritable smorgasbord of sci-fi! Available wherever quality ebooks are sold. (The first edition of Survivors of the Chaos is also available in print from another publisher.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

From the Fifty Shades books to the NY Times and Wall Street Journal’s reporting about Gov. Cuomo, we have ample evidence for this truism. Scandal is the opium of the masses today, not religion. Better said, scandal as reported in the media has become the new religion for most people, and they can’t seem to get enough of it. Where there’s a demand, there’s a supplier, and publishers, writers, and media outlets have jumped on the bandwagon and are shoveling the SOS out by the truckful.

We can’t really blame sleaze-meisters like Ronan Farrell or Pierce Morgan, or even Fox News or MSNBC pundits, who are out to shock their viewers. People love their doses of scandal, and others feed that addiction for profit. Blame the media outlets’ producers and writers. The sleaze-meisters are just their toadies.

There’s absolutely no concern for the people who might be hurt unfairly by scandalous accusations for the simple reason that they are assumed to be guilty until proven innocent. Even when proof of innocence is available—i.e. the scandal doesn’t just reduce to an X-said-Y-said, as in the case of Cuomo (you don’t thing a high percentage of politicos didn’t favor their families with Covid testing or vaccinations?)—the public only remembers the initial claims of scandal and never the proof that there was no scandal, or it was often simply an attack generated by a few disgruntled people with an agenda (Cosby’s case was a classic, because the AG was running for office; in Cuomo’s case, you have a new generation  of pols aching for a chance at power—his first accuser is also running for office and the twenty-years-old story of abuse came from a de Blasio supporter—guess which Dem in NY state is Cuomo’s biggest enemy!).

Often the person accused of scandal has to face a lynch mob spurred on by the likes of Morgan and Farrell, who become judge and jury for the lynching—this group includes such “fair and honest” news media stars as Jake Tapper. The media know scandal sells, there’d demand for it, and they supply it.

This is all exacerbated by the speed of communications nowadays, mostly social media, where bandwagons for scandal abound. Some of us rush to keep up with the scandal; others (I’m one) are more logical and reasonable and say they’ll withhold judgement until all the facts are in (i.e. due process takes place, and the scandal is proven to be true or false in absolute terms, not a storm in a teacup). But most people are scandal mongers—they buy, sell, and consume scandal.

The scandal’s often not there, folks! Some social media sites even create it out of thin air, leading to all those conspiracy theories that seem impossible to debunk.

(more…)