For No Rhyme Nor Reason

      Sure looks like one of them "real barnburners" we're all stuck with coming up to the Erections in a couple weeks- and never before have we witnessed the actual underbelly of the American Mind coming unhinged and blasting off in so many directions... Bad Cops popping off randomly, but with much more frequency, across the nation; President Stumpy daring the Virus to come get him, which it does; goon squads volunteering to "oversee" the polling places.... I mean hey what's not to like about the USA this year? I'm sure glad I don't live in some backward place like Bolivia or Bosnia-Herzegovina! 

     Obviously President Stumpy most wants to appeal to those Americans of whom Ben Franklin said because they desire security over liberty deserve neither, and if populations get the government they deserve, then perhaps this was all just as God planned it, because Those Americans have gotten noisier and noisier over the years, along with Stumpy. 

     Well it would be one thing if I had happened to respect what his profession was before election but since Real Estate is anathema to the Indigenous outlook (along with the importation of the European and Oriental concepts of "wealth" and "money" and "commerce") but since I know Real Estate is one profession where everyone must present themselves as exceedingly trustworthy (when their whole industry has been built on theft from the first) by dressing in best "business formal" for PR presentation... I never liked Real Estate people nor even the idea you can buy or sell the Earth Mother itself. Goes to say I couldn't care less about people such as Stumpy himself.

     Sigh. So many things went wrong in that going forward of Manifest Destiny over the original Americans and so much of all them are tied into the future demise of our Earth Mother herself, all rapped up in those civilizational tropes. I see and watch as the Arctic sea ice retreats, Greenland and Antarctica's continental ice shelves unmoor and unglue, as wildfires wreck what used to be everybody's ideas of idyllic California Summer dreams... 

     But why go on? It's duality anyway and more of the Games of mice and men. 

     Me, I think things are gonna get better. They always do, since "even this too shall pass away..."
The karmic pendulum can never remain on one angle anyway, and so, go vote, or not. It's your freedom and how much you value Life maybe. Things won't get better presto change-o and don't ever kid yourself buster that any new president is ever gonna be the Messiah you keep expecting them to be. 

     But you know, you can choose to go under in the onslaught, or you can "resist" by ignoring it, and the loud voices of hate you hear coming from left and right, of a country armed to the teeth ready to take each other on on an issue where the only sensible approach would be nonviolence, period. Those loud voices of hate want to eat out your substance and grind you down until you are in the same hole that they are. Don't listen, if they knew anything in the first place they wouldn't be down IN that hole looking up.

     Think with your heart., and walk your right dharmic path.

     Free your mind and your feet will follow.

Score 2 for the Indians

     This last month has seen 2 refreshing developments in the ongoing struggle of indigenous people to reclaim what once belonged to them, stolen by custom or treaty. In the first, a federal judge ruled that a portion of Oklahoma granted, by treaty, in the 19th C, to the Creek Nation, was still to be officially considered a reservation and under the tribe's, neither state of Oklahoma nor federal jurisdiction. It didn't mean that "Injuns are comin' - t' take away our land!" but it does mean that the tribe is allowed to adjudicate certain cases outside of any "constitutionally formulated" whiteman-style jurisprudence, set up since the great land grab of 1888. The judge ruled that since Congress had never said otherwise since the treaty was set in place, that the tribe still retains its sovereign dominion... over quite a large area of the state, including the city of Tulsa. This can possibly also mean that other tribes such as Cherokee who were removed by Pres. Jackson with the Creeks and Choctaws may themselves have righteous claims to the same opinions.
     In the other development, a ranch that had been out of Indian hands for over 250 years on the Little Sur River in California was purchased by the Essalen tribe, the original inhabitants, and will be a preserve for endangered species such as red legged frog and California condor. In this case, the land itself has been returned from the clutches of the 'wasichus" and every small step forward like this only serves to help to rectify the immense injustices done to the native people in my native state, and country.
     So score one for Sitting Bull  and the good guys. Wouldn't he look so much better than Andrew Jackson on the $20 dollar bill?

Long Hot Summer

     The latest national mood crash centering around race and police violence doesn't escape me, no matter how apathetic I choose to be toward most developments in my nation.
     The fact that cops are violent is no surprise. Neither is it a surprise that so many of them act like goons and bullies, since "that's their job." To be goons and bullies.
     To train for this , they often spend a term or two first in the military, and when they get out, no further ahead than they were before, they are given preference as veterans, in hiring- especially within police departments, where military hierarchy is a simulcrum of "service" life. These folks are trained to see things in confrontational shades, and so, we end up with a country that appears to have been overrun by an occupying army, where those paid to "protect" us bully, intimidate, harass, and kill us with impunity instead, since, of course, the man at the top "has their back." And we still want to think we are a "free country."
     We could go on about "the man at the top" but one thing strikes me as noteworthy at this point- he seems immune to the voices of actual protest against police violence whether directed at minority groups, or just the population in general. I notice he gives great credence to those who fought tfor the treasonous cause of slavery and secession as if they were "braver than you" and yet where's his own bravery to even match those? And why is a representative of the federal government so opposed to excising remnants and souvenirs of an abolished evil?
     Partly because he pays evil no mind, and swims with the likes of evil kings and dictators himself, and having long ago sold his soul (for whatever reason at the time- becoming most powerful man in the world seems to have been an afterthought) sees no moral turpitude in protecting his "friends" from moral and international justice.
     Well I sure would not want to drink a beer with either him, or most cops on the beat for that matter. The only way a President of the United States could ever be received in my home would be on the other end of a search warrant, thank you. And I never listen to his speeches- I only read abut them later, that's how little I think of the "msjesty" of his imperial position.

     Someday, and soon, America will get is head together about the Great Disease, and also, about Racial Equality These things take time and evolution, and often one step forward can mean two steps back will be required. However, since I happened to grow up in one of the world's great cultural melting pots, Honolulu, I could never understand why people on the mainland were so hung up about race, social status, class, and all those other things that go into making up "white privilege"- something I've never felt much of myself being both
a) a longhair and on the "wrong side" of the War on Drugs"
and
b) my partial native American ancestry, dating back to before the Trail of Tears, which gives me a sense and perception of being part of a community established much earlier than 1492.
     I can't yet, figure why people have to hang on to their stupid ideas that there are "races" when there is just ONE human species, our brains are grey, our blood is red, and when our hearts stop beating, we die.

The Great Pause

     What’s not to like about this situation? The Rat Race has shut down, although in fits and starts, it will come roaring back soon enough; the government is sending everyone money (after stealing it from us, and profiting off of us, for once we get a share of the take) and the natural world has had a chance to take a breather from the relentless Assault of the Seven Billion upon it.

     Times like these were built for those who get a little kick out of seeing things driven into extraordinary situations. For once, soldiers have not been forced to duke it out, although some continue to do just that; for the most part, the industrial nations which rule the world’s hegemonies have for the last two months been forced to freeze in their tracks. Politicians have had to face watching some of their dirtiest secrets exposed, and the Deep State revealed itself to have really blown it for once in instigating the whole Russiagate brouhaha. And while most musicians who depend on entertaining and the gig economy have been hurt, the sheer proliferation of folks just making their own noise coming out of homes across the world means that music isn’t suffering this so badly as some might have claimed, after all.

     There are always bright sides to things and silver linings and unicorns still play in the sunshine meadows of frolic.

Rat Race Goes Down Under the Weather

     The appearance of clean fresh blue skies (under an unusually long pattern of cloudy weather) and green mountainsides ought to be a inspiration to our neighbors- this is what our world looks like when we don't drive our cars so much. The Bay Area is experiencing unprecedented views, generally impossible since the 50's and the coming of AutoSuburbia to the West Coast.
Here's one example (and my apologies to the local photographer whose name I did not note):

      As you can see, situated on the MidPeninsula the photo shows (with great clarity) a view from the Palo Alto foothills all the way to The City and beyond. Usually we can't even see across the bay! Now, we could all enjoy more views like this, if people could only slow down and not drive their Rat Race machines so often. 

     The forcing of the Rat Race to slow down to a standstill or crawl at this time is greeted by many with horror. They are too trapped within it see anything but a negative outcome to their personal quality of life, meaning they are hard-pressed to see what a positive it is for all the rest of us to be able to enjoy and appreciate nature for what she is. And without the daily, impeding presence of humans, the natural world is able to reassert itself, as this next photo shows...

      How badly do you really, honestly, need to get the Rat Race back into your life? Many of the folks I know are welcoming this release from a daily grind of commuting and spending hours in a place which, were it not for being employed there, they'd quite probably ignore in favor of the other places in their lives which have a more lasting & meaningful value.

For what good is our Rat Race in the end, if it leads to high stress, hypertension, heart attacks, and a sense that everyone else is just out for themselves and exhibiting it in the meanest fashion?

So there are silver linings to this current world pandemic. Not the least of which is, we get a break from our species' constant efforts to deny our place within the ecology of our planet. Take some time to breathe this new life freely and appreciate it for what it is. Your job, title, and position in society are pretty meaningless when you comprehend your place in Nature and in God's World. All that other stuff, from politics to sports to the economy, are creations and interventions of the human race. And in the end, what can they matter for a soul seeking  spiritual freedom?

On Bicycling 2

     Well I figured I would take a little time and revisit the topic, since the last time I wrote about this, I was still beholden to my analog bike (a Raleigh Mojave 2.0 mountain bike) - I upgraded in late 2016 to an Emazing Daedalus, which served me well until earlier this year, when an inept mechanic made it generally un-serviceable & the need arose to replace it (with a sister bike, the Emazing Artemis).
     The first of these two had a throttle-only setup, but the new one has pedal assist, and it's a wonderful help. I should note that, since acquiring an electric bike, my trouble with my knees (always aggravated by what few spills or mishaps I'd be recovering from) got much less, in fact, the electric has given me Years of Life to my knees which otherwise it would not have...
     My daily commute generally is 16 miles a day, which is easily handled by the bike's range (18-20) and speed (I've come close to 22 tops). Half of that is uphill, half of that is downhill. The trouble with the commute is that is happens twice a day (4 miles per trip) and that was just more than my poor knees could take, on an "analog" bike. I was constantly in a state of recovery and/or strain, and having to chug uphill twice a day- morning and afternoon- was certainly as much work as the chore I had to get to. Which is, being a school crossing guard, at a pretty dangerous expressway intersection with a blind corner, in Los Altos California.
     Working there I get to see behavior of the best, and worst, kinds, performed by drivers in a town which is probably the highest-rent and income zip code in the entire nation. Many of these people do drive like they are indeed "entitled" even if their entitledness amounts to merely blowing through  a guy with a handheld stop sign trying to protect their neighbors' children from their bad driving & attitudes.
     The attitudes in America still are very much auto-centric ones. A pedestrian, or a person on a bike for that matter, are still not seen as relevant and deserving respect as are other motorists, apparently. For all their civic crowing about "bicycle friendliness", towns like Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos are still full of "high-minded professionals" who want to get out on the freeways just as fast as they can, damn all the torpedoes, come morning's rush hour.

     As a bicyclist I have had my share of these sorts of comments-
     "You're too old for that bike anyway- "
(like it's anybody's business what someone else of any age does for transportation)
      "You're not a car-"
(Because I want to cut my corners here on my left turn, and you are too far out in to your own left turn lane that I will ram you the hell over if you don't respect my idiotic ego)
     "I ride a bike too, bro, so can you move over so I can turn?"
     "Wait your turn! Right now, you're just another asshole in a car!"
     (No I didn't actually say that, but maybe I should have.)

     The "war" between auto-motorists and bicyclists is apparently not over, and maybe never will, until bicyclist finally outnumber the folks in cars... But I try not to escalate it myself.
Lots of bike books will tell you "make eye contact with drivers!"
But-
that eye contact often is just what keeps the wars simmering. I prefer to make eye contact only to make sure a car turning out sees me approaching, and ring my bell. I go out of my way to be the LAST possible thing someone is going to run into on the road, and would rather you pass me up than have someone sitting "on my six" for five minutes, because I hate hearing things coming up in back of me. I always bike defensively and take these words of caution.

     "There are a lot of old bicyclists, and there are a lot of bold bicyclists.
      But there are not very many old, bold bicyclists..."
   
     You stay out of my way and I will stay out of yours, OK?
     Happy Trails.

Musings from the Big Top

     Recently there's been even more disturbances on the circus stage we know as Washington DC.
The latest big buzz is about how the former director of the CIA is experiencing "repression of his free speech rights" by having had (long overdue) his security clearance pulled. Well, it is a security clearance, his still free to spread his blather, just cannot do so from that point of privilege. What is so wrong with that? The privilege of a security clearance is not the same as a right.
       Now, it used to be, once upon a time, (about the same time John Brennan voted for the head of the Communist Party USA for president), that Democrats were the leading and fiercest critics of the CIA. Ah, but now that he's had his security clearance taken away, he's their latest martyr in the grand slaughter which has accompanied President Stumpy's great stumble into the driver's seat of the ship of state. No, now they're all quite upset Mr Brennan cannot use what he learns from available secrets to make his comments and drive his continued attempts to help create an authoritarian state in the US. Of course, if that's what he'd like, we've got an authoritarian at the helm now, but then for the last eighteen years we've had something of the same thing going on, just trading places. He just wants one that will pay him better, (politics and prostitution being somewhat kin to each other in their methodologies.)
     In a world where both political parties have major blood on their hands, they are both reduced to finger painting with the sanguine knowledge that, if I'm as bad as you are, then I'm OK, and you're just sick, bro. {And I guess by extension they were also all OK with his spying on members of Congress, and Obama's drone assassination program, etc etc et al}
     Of course for Democrats,when the Republicans run the CIA, it's evil, but when the Democrats do, it isn't. This is bullshit too. The entire beast must be deconstructed and slate wiped clean if we are to regain the control of our government to the People and not these various cabals, composed of various members of both parties, which have turned our country into something like a simmering caldron of civil war inspiring grievances. And it will only get worse.
                                                                           *****
    But hey -what a great country America is, where even a boy who votes for a Communist for president can grow up to become Director of the CIA!
                                                                           *****
      Americans should be (but they do not seem to be) outraged that an American war profiteer, Lockheed Martin, built the missile that slammed into a Yemeni school bus and killed 49 obvious enemies of the Saudi Arabian state. Nope, it's just business as usual for Lockheed Martin, for the various folks who signed off on the deal to ship these weapons to the Saudis, and those who work for Lockheed Martin, sleeping comfortably in their American homes, where bombs will most likely never fall on a school bus carrying their kids to school. That's our tax dollars at work bro. Are you still OK with this? I haven't seen much evidence yet to the contrary. Americans just love their bombs, doesn't natter who is using them, is the only conclusion one can take.
                                                                          *****
It's also sad when you see people who you consider longtime friends to be taking sides in this entire thing based on their political allegiances and not critical thinking, and drawing the conclusion that if you hold a position in any way contrary to their own, then you are A) a Stumpy supporter or B) a Stumpy-hater.  (If you are not for A, then you must be for B, and vice versa!) Actually you can be Stumpy-indifferent, which I still am. Presidents do not impress me, even boorish real estate guys that get there by appealing to the lowest common denominator of  public thought. And neither do any presidents intimidate me, not even Obama with his "collect it all" NSA and his "indefinite detention privileges." The only answer I can draw from the whole "Russiagate" farce is that there's a lot of KoolAid drinkers out there. It doesn't matter who mixes it- the poison is still central to the brew.
To sip from the chalice of American politics is to slip into the deep well of Alice's Wonderland, for reals.

Neocon Zeppelin Crashes & Burns

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America has sent shock waves through America’s political elites and Establishment. They were all so sure they had it in the bag- Indeed- this election was always Hillary Clinton’s to lose, and so, she has.

There are a good many reasons I’m not completely displeased by these results, personally. I found Ms. Clinton’s delusional ranting about “the Russians” to be hyper-bloviating nonsense, and I’m certainly breathing easier knowing that finally we will have a president that’s deciding that the US and Russia ought to get along. The idea of my friends in Siberia vanishing in a cloud of plutonium-impacted fallout will be just that- an idea, something from a bad dream.

Of course, that’s not to say Hillary and her crowd of now discredited warhawk “experts” won’t keep rattling their wheelbarrows about the asylum screaming yet, “The Russians did it! The Russians rigged Our Election!” and waving their limp dicks at Julian Assange and Wikileaks for their uncovering the vast and dirty secrets that lie beneath the mud in the Democratic Party, the nerve of them, informing the American People as to how politics is actually conducted in the USA.

And the Republican Establishment is no doubt sucking their thumbs in wonder as well, most of them having defected to Hillary’s camp, most notably, both Bush presidents, Henry Kissinger, and the Wolfowitz-inspired war criminals at the New American Century. Weren’t they all hoping for more of the same “humanitarian” interventions and regime change, more international entanglements, and wars where they could get ‘em. No, the election of a populist Trump has set them in a tizzy, and expect them to be out and about raising as much dust as they might continue to, in the hopes that Trump will be every inch as interventionist as Ms. Clinton. Except that, he won’t.

Trump stated in the second debate he would NOT resort to first use of nuclear weapons, but most of that seemed to have gone right over the Democrats' heads as they continued their rants about how Trump “can’t be trusted” with The Button. If anyone could not be trusted with The Button it was Hillary Clinton, who has shown the American public, and the world, what her type of diplomacy actually means- drones, falling bombs, endless wars, and millions more refuges on the unarmed roads of flight across the Middle East. There won’t be any more speculation as to “Russian aggression” since what amounts to :Russian aggression” was is and will always be the Russians taking care of their own sphere of influence as it is, reacting to US and NATO pressures on their borders.

Hillary’s fanatical hatred of Putin won’t get any play, either. Wouldn't sensible people rather get along with a large country like Russia, especially since they’ve also got The Bomb, and they’re actually doing more at the moment to contain and defeat ISIS? Haven’t the US done enough by arms sales to Israel and Saudi Arabia to inflame the conflicts of the ME into further unsolvable conundrums than they already were?

All these worries will vanish like a bad headache now. Ms. Clinton can go back to New York, or Arkansas, or Illinois, or wherever it is she is actually from, shake her doddering head, and remove herself from the political arena like a good Grandma. For after all, Americans apparently still prefer assholes to bitches when it comes to Presidents.

Bicycling

 Recently I ran across a book titled “Cycling” (subtitle:  “Philosophy for Everyone.”)  And it’s full of a good number of essays, memoirs, and such, expounding on the various authors’ views about bicycling, what turns them on about it. Halfway through the book though I was a little bit more than turned off by the tone taken by a good many of the writers, who seem to be into bicycling as “racers.”  I think you know the sorts of bicyclist I mean. you often see them every morning on their daily commutes, dressed in their flash Spandex with the various company-whore logos splashed across the ass and the chest, their heads down as they force themselves forward as though the ride to work were another Tour de France, or something.

Nearly all of those people also drive cars, which is something they’re not ashamed of, but somehow cycling to work looking “like a pro bicyclist” helps them assuage the guilt that might come from their not using a bike to get around, everywhere, which , thankfully, there are a few essayists in the book who take the time to defend. I mean you could say that about most bicyclists on America’s roads- that they also own a car, and they will use it “when necessary.”

Unlike those types, though, I am not that sort of bicyclist. I do not rely on the proposition that “new endeavors need new clothes” and I am not into the idea of making a commute to my job (as a school crossing guard, defending the children of ultra-rich Los Altos, California, from the even more maniacal and demonic drivers who take up the other two lanes of traffic on the Foothill Expressway) another race for the finish. I wear what it is, whatever, I choose for my daily wear, since there’s no need to shower and change into “real world clothes” when I am in the “real world” enough as it is already.
I am also not so infected with the need for “speed” as are three fifths of other Americans, which also includes a high percentage of the drivers, almost uniformly. When I go someplace n a bike, I take the time to take my time. If I need to be somewhere on time, I take the time to be sure I’ll get there on schedule, but being on my bike, I really don’t care to ever be in a rush about things.

There are qualities of bicycling that are transformational, and one of these is the ability to look at the world going past your wheels, being in the world as you travel in it, un-insulated from it by tons of steel and glass. As a person on a bike, I like  the fact I am going slower than all the cars. I like the human pace of being on a bike, of not being part of the rat race, of being closer and more in tune with my surroundings, less caught up in the bullshit of the “human game.” I will get there when I get there, and not before. So why not smell the roses? Why not take the time to look at the houses, the gardens, the trees, the various things which are nature  despite man’s desperate rush to reinvent his environment in his own image?

In the old days, Indians would travel the length and breadth of their lands seeing, noticing, taking into account all the various differences in their trails. By the time they had walked ten miles, they knew every rock and tree on their way. This is one of the things bicyclists have over cars. When we are up and riding we are much more influenced by the different textures of the roadway, to a degree travelers in autos are not. A three inch rock or a  seven inch broken tree branch in our path  may present no problem to a car, but for us could mean a spinout or even a flip. So we have to notice these things. We notice the dead squirrels, the skunks, the possums, raccoons, birds, and pets and other fellow Earthlings the cars left as road kill in their wake. Maybe we reflect on them, maybe we don’t. But we are much more aware of them than were the drivers who sent them to eternity.

Riding a bicycle is one way to help defeat the awful guilt of having a “carbon footprint” which is in any case inevitable for any people who live in our society. Yet a bicyclist’s is just that much less. Regardless, like I say, two thirds of the other “bikers” on the road have their own automobiles, which they will revert to in times of inclement weather. Unfortunately I have no such luxury. The job I hold as a crossing guard demands me to be there, rain or shine, and this of necessity demands I ride in whatever weather is out there. I have rain gear, which has vastly improved my morale over the years I rode without so much (rain pants having been the best and biggest agent of change.)  And yet there are times when riding in the rain, itself, can be a “pleasant experience”. After all, one can only get “so” wet. At such times the best thing to do is surrender to the idea of being wet, and act accordingly. Splash that puddle! Excelsior! But it’s also few people who would face the weather in such fashion. Even the kids going to school who on sunny days ride their bikes are riding past me in their parents’ cars when it rains. There are a hardcore few who continue on whether it’s rain or not, but for the most part, the number of kids I need to cross diminishes by a factor of five on a rainy day.

My trip up to the job involves four miles of steady, uphill grind climbing. Twice a day. Of course, that eight miles up means a fast cool eight miles back down. But my aging knees have begun to protest. The current bike I‘ve ridden for the past seven years hereabouts is a rather heavy British-made Raleigh mountain bike- the Mojave 2.0. It qualifies as both mountain and road bike, but I have adapted it or commuter use, since mountain biking, like racing, is a bit too outré for my personal tastes or style in riding. I am going to be retiring good old “Pony Boy” real soon, however, in favor of an electric bike. Which will make a difference, one would hope, in the manner in which I am able to endure those eight miles up everyday, and hang onto this crossing guard job, which despite its close proximity to the “cars vs. peds” and “cars vs. bikes” wars, is nonetheless a stable income, even if it isn’t quite the hours I’d prefer (I have a night job, so all the bases do get covered.)

As for the cars vs. bikes wars- I have found that, despite the advice from many bike authors, it’s best not to maintain much eye contact with the “road cagers” and “oil serfs” except when absolutely necessary. When they  are pulling out, of course, I want them to see me, so I always ding my little bell just so I know that they saw me. And at times when making headway against left turners. But for the most part, eye contact seems only to increase the road rage on both sides of the game. They probably don’t even think people on bikes are “real people”- at least, that is a sentiment I have seen expressed in more than one anti-bike newspaper opinion letter- but for the most art, it’s been working out OK. The only accidents I have been involved in were both the fault of the driver- one ran a red light, the other "didn't see me” as I started to cross a junction near some train tracks- but for the most part, it's true, nobody wants to collide with anyone else on purpose, and I am always super-cautious as can be in so far as :riding defensively: is concerned. I never make aggressive moves, nor do I tend to test yellow lights or roll on stop signs. After all, I need to be consistent, don’t I? I couldn’t work in traffic safety and fail to attempt to set a good example for others.

There are a few pet peeves I have with both drivers and other bikers. One of them is the "hot dog” syndrome. This usually involves a “racer consciousness” bike coming up on my left to pass me, but making no noise about it. Whoom, they are just there, and they gave no warning! And they just have to get somewhere faster, no doubt. Although these types are just as hung up with speed as the drivers are. There’s assholes in cars and as many on bikes, apparently the spread is even throughout the road populations. And just like the status players with fast foreign sport cars, there’s the status players on bicycles. You can spot them a mile away because they are the ones who needed new clothes before they got on their bikes. But their bikes are always racer drop-bars, titanium wheels, ultra-lite carbon fiber frames, and usually cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of five grand. Back when Facebook went public and gave their employees giganto dividend bonuses you saw a lot of brand new bikes showing up on the street. Around here, workers in the high tech industry have their own interior office cults devoted to road racing, and form little cliques and clubs to indulge it (we call this type “Google ponies,” around here.)  And usually they all also own cars. SO they can’t be accused of pro-bicycle lifestyle activism with any degree of sincerity, for the most part. Nope, it’s all on a par with “keeping ahead of the Joneses” so to speak.

And we have the “new clothes” issue. God help me if I eve get into a suit of spandex with a heap of bike shop logos plastered all over it! Nothing in the world looks worse than an over fifty, overweight  male with a muffin top crammed into a pair of lycra bike shorts. These were obviously contrived for bicyclists in their twenties and thirties, and even then thirty or forty is usually pushing it. There’s no way to hide the flab the wrinkles or the obvious fact you were out of shape when you started and you’re going to still be pushed out of shape once you squeeze into those ridiculous things. I could never take that route. I wear what I am wearing and the hell with it! No pretending to be Lance Armstrong, or part of the weekend warrior club. The bike is my everyday transportation, no more or less, and I am going to keep it that way.

All things considered I am glad to ride my bike and not spend a penny on auto maintenance or insurance. my failure to do so, of course, sets me apart from the “real” people, but, that’s a distinction I don’t mind so much as yet. Yes, being a performing musician has suffered since I left the city for the country-suburbs, without a car, there’s not the same ease of toting an amp to gigs as there was when I had a cab or a bus to hail and that was that. But my conscience is still clean and that means a lot. I won’t be the one you can pin the ass-tail on for being hypocritical about my carbon footprint, not  just yet, anyway. Even if I were to one day surrender to the oil-serf lifestyle, even then I would only use a car to get to a gig, or to visit friends a long way off (and so doing, save myself a plane ride.) Bikes are great. You are closer to the real world you live in, you are in some ways, closer to danger, you are doing something about, rather than acceding to, those problems human society digs itself into. And for the time being, that’s the gist of my thoughts on Biking.

A Parable

The following is dedicated to any who believe that the previous blogpost is somehow evidence of "inaction", "copping out" or somehow "not meaning to live responsibly in the face of evidence. (What evidence? Show me.)

Lemming Leap

You are at the edge of a serious pair of precipices.

Whichever lemming leader amasses the tallest pile of dead lemmings at the bottom of the cliff will be judged “the winner.” It has also been said among lemmings that to take part in this “great sacrifice” is one’s “highest civic duty.” “If you don’t jump, don’t complain about who wins!”

It’s not your fault - all the other lemmings have driven you there,  but,  now  they have split in two directions. One set of lemmings is headed one way- toward a 100 foot cliff. The other is headed to a 200 foot drop.

At the bottom of each is a massive pile of the skeletons of other lemmings, from previous jumps. 

No matter how many lemmings die, the ritual is to be re-enacted, every four years.

The thought occurs: “Either way I go if I fall (or I am pushed) I’m gonna die!”

“Choose the lesser of two evils! Minimize the damage!” yells a voice behind you.

You take the 100 foot fall.

At the bottom, you are still dead, just as dead as the lemmings on the 200 foot fall (only that they had twice as long to think about where they were headed, while falling, theoretically.)

You’re dead! So then you see the ghost (or the actual body of) your leader! 

“Congratulations. You jumped with us, but thank god, you are so lucky, you will sit tonight with God and the angels because you chose the lesser of the two evils, you didn’t let THEM win!”

My my, you think, My jump meant as much -or more!-  as that of all the others!

OR:

Your other choice would have been- step back from the precipices, let all your fellow lemmings choose whichever hell-death- they chose for themselves, turn to the leaders and say “Aw,fuck you, I’ll be just as dead as the rest of you, I want none of this!”

Looking down at the two piles of your dead lemming brothers and sisters, all you can say is

“What a bunch of dumbshits!”

Value added question:

Which lemming exercised critical thinking best?

The Most Insulting Election In History

The Most Insulting Election in History

It’s that season again, folks. Everywhere across the land, neighbors are oiling their automatics and sharpening their pitchforks. Yes, it’s another Presidential Election, and it looks as though this one is bound to be a doozy. In fact, it could be said, we have never had an election like this in our lifetimes. Just look- One candidate has been under scrutiny by the FBI for improper use of governmental communications (and just happened to squeak past judgment, on the recommendation of a coy FBI Director, who did all but say, the lady is just stupid, folks) and a real estate con artist up for a civil lawsuit regarding some shady practices enticing his “students” into tutelage at his “university”- on charges of fraud. Well. since when have politicians ever been innocent of stupidity and fraud?

Let us look at the two candidates which the major political parties have chosen to foist upon us, as this year’s “choice.” Let’s go with the one who looks like she leads the pack, because her polls show 75% likelihood of winning this highly corrupted and incurably evil office, the Democrat, Mrs. Clinton. You know, I don’t call her the “Teflon Goddess” for nothing. Mrs. Clinton has been the source of a good number of scandals and political imbroglios over the years, and yet, somehow, has managed to eke her way past each and every rapid without nary a scratch. Some would lay claim that this is somehow “proof” of her incipient innocence of all allegations. Others, like myself, just call it “1%er privilege”.

It is no secret she has taken great sums of money from the same big Wall Street donors that gave huge sums to the election of the current president, who also contributed to the meltdown of 2008, and like the Teflon Goddess, suffered no recriminations from the justice system for their machinations. Mrs. Clinton’s refusal to release transcription of the speeches she gave for six figure pocketbook change equals the refusal of her adversary to release  his recent tax returns. But we’re not at him just yet. She managed, during her term as secretary of state, to destroy the regimes in at least two nations, engineer chaos in a third, and create for the US two new bellicosities (Libya and Syria)  and is now setting us up for a shooting match with another nation with whom we have no actual beef- Russia.

Killgrrl’s recent embrace of a draft for women assures us that yes, not only will our sons continue to be brutalized into PTSD situations, but, our daughters too. And what better reason to start up the roll for the slaughterhouse than another unpopular, undeclared, presidential fiat war? Of course, operatives of the Democratic National Committee are already ginning it up, with their so far unproven allegations that “the Russians” leaked the Committee’s emails to that treasonous Julian Assange’s Wikileaks. No matter that the emails themselves reveal even more of the sort of Dirty Tricks Killgirrls’ first Washington job (on the Watergate Committee) was graciously uncovering on behalf of the American public during the Nixon years. Oh and did  mention she was actually fired by the head of the committee, Samuel Dash, for being (in his words) “a liar?” But again, we don’t call her the Teflon Goddess for nothing.

Killgrrl makes a big to do about how her use of a private email server to conduct official US Government business as head of the State Department exposes her inherent stupidity as well. What would get her fired from her local construction company gets her walking papers from the FBI, and from her erstwhile, belittled, and cheated Democratic  opponent. Is it any wonder folks feel they can’t trust her? Apparently, the scepter of a “two-family presidency” just hasn’t struck a shadow of fear enough into a vast majority of Democrats, as if, the Bush family wasn’t enough in the first place.

And then there is her opponent on the Elephant party side, in the corner, Mr. Orange Julius himself, Donald Drumpf (as John Oliver would have us remember, is his natural original pre-immigration family name). There aren’t enough words, perhaps to describe him, he must be seen to be believed, but believe me, he is now giving the Teflon Goddess a run for her money. A conniver, a reality TV star, a Real Estate mogul (perhaps the second most odious occupation in America today besides that of politician) whose business practices are under scrutiny in a court of civil law. Dare we trust another used car salesman at the head of our nation? At least Mr. Drumpf is making sense on the issue of a “WWIII” with Russia. he would rather have us gain the support of Russia’ president in fighting the international threat of ISIS than pick a fight with him. This may be the only part of his platform that makes sense to me, but indeed it does. The rest of his program seems to be an inflation of Barry Spybot’s mass surveillance cyberstate, directed against those of Mexican or Muslim persuasion, and promising a new Great Wall. Like most operations of Drumpf, it will have to have his name spelled out in big lights, it will offer 24/7 casinos, and “Princess Towers” every ten miles so you  can drive your family there for a great vacation overlooking the wild and wooly Rio Grande. Of course, he promises that Mexico is going to pay for it, and not only that, more than likely the labor involved will be those poor deportees awaiting the next lane back across the border.

It’s pretty obvious to me that nobody ever seeks the office of President of the United States without a long consideration beforehand of the powers attendant to it. Thanks to Barry Spybot, these powers now include the ability to assassinate anybody anywhere on the planet, with drones, if necessary, to hold in detention for indefinite periods anyone consider suspect of “terrorism” (however some future president chooses to define it) and the ability for the US Army to act in civilian operations, as they did in Boston, committing house to house searches while residents “sheltered in place.” These powers ought to be particularly attractive to a narcissistic egoist like Drumpf, but, having tasted her share already of some of the benefits of the office (being First Lady just wasn’t good enough) they are damned attractive to the Teflon Goddess, herself.

Let us look though a little closer. Nobody honest, and certainly that goes for Mr. Sanders, who ran an admirable campaign against the Goddess only to sell out when the chips were down, will ever hold the office of Killer-In-Chief. The office itself is incurably corrupted and corruptible. Whoever wins it must sell their soul to the devil- figuratively, or perhaps, even literally- to hold the title of “most powerful person in the world.” Wasn’t that the very same temptation offered to Jesus in the desert by Beelzebub? “Dominion over all the nations and peoples of the earth?” How could you refuse!!! Because the office now wields these (“awesome”-G. W. Bush- powers) and therefore is no longer a presidency, but a kingship- I feel as though I cannot “consent to be governed” any longer by any man, or woman, who is elected to it.

Nay, I do not feel, as a well informed, educated American voter, that I can offer any consent at all to any future holder of the office, nor even grant the consent implied by vote, for the foreseeable future of my lifetime, unless, and until, these powers are repealed. And who gave Barry these “awesome” powers? Why, a shitting-their-pants Congress, of both Republicans AND Democrats, afraid of the terrorist under the bed, drunk on the possibilities that somewhere, somehow, the US will have to come to grips with some of those very forces they themselves unleashed on the world- like the Afghan Mujahedin that became Al Qaeda, the “Syrian Rebels” who became ISIS, or any number of homegrown whackjobs intoxicated with maladjusted interpretations of the Koran.  I cannot, by casting my vote in any direction, give my consent for these ideas, that the President is a King and not subordinate to the Congress any longer, nor to accountability under national and international law. People say it is our civic “duty” to vote. No, it is not a “duty.”

     Voting is a right and a privilege, and it is our right to exercise it where, and when we choose, in secret, and nobody has the right to tell us how or even when we must, if we choose to use it, or not. “Duty “ is something that matters only when you are helping the neighbors take out the invading North Korean Army barricaded down at the end of the block, or getting a jury summons, or filling out an IRS 1040 return. Don’t give me that bullshit about voting being a “duty.” I will vote as, if, and when I choose. And that’s why I come to, in conclusion, saying that, this is the most insulting election in US history. Two very questionable and obnoxious characters are competing for the role of “King and Queen” of the world. And I just don’t buy it. 

Absent with Leave

My apologies to any readers who have come to expect something “regular” out of this blog. I try to post when I either have something I think is important to say, or make an observation which I think may be meaningful (such as the cartoon in the post below this one). I made the decision to speak as little about politics as possible with this blog, which I broke, and re-promised it again, so, no real polemics will take place here. Neither do I like using it as any means of whining about the economy or my place in it, or health issues, all of which might have played some part in the absence of the past four months or so.

So be it. I don’t live on an island, so the internet reaches out across the seas and the miles and brings me terrible news, news I was otherwise avoiding. Terrorist attacks in Paris. Did you ever see a stupider way to fight a war than these fellows, who conveniently remove themselves from the battlefield as soon as they fight their greatest battle? (And are ultimately, so happy to lose it?) Wars are usually fought with combatants that strategize a means of leaving the field with their forces more (or less) intact and able to strike somewhere again. These folks are, as we once used to say in a less linguistically challenged way, “retarded” in the way they go about things. All they do is pit more and more people up against their “cause” by wreaking terror and not having the balls to up and answer for it. An army that fights this type of battle might strike fear, but it only lasts for a little whiles, and certainly, won’t convert anyone to submission to Allah any day soon, I’m afraid.

I am currently working on a new novel/ebook and see it coming to fruition in the next three or four months, if not sooner. And this is taking my time, as it were, since there’s always the business of surviving and making a living in Obama’s America which might not need to depend on his Big Brother state to do so. Even if it involves three different part time jobs  (a total of 43 hours a week) because employers have shied away from providing FULL TIME work for new employees in order to avoid copping to the Obamacare health care provisions (for full-timers). And so while I work full time hours in total, I can’t call my self “employed full time,” even if I should wish, and probably deserve, to do so. All creative work must therefore sideline itself to the available free time, which generally comes out to a few hours on a couple of mid-days in the week, and the god-blessed weekend, the haven of all goodhearted American workers, where no employer can touch you and you’re left with your sizzling steak, your TV, a six-pack, and whatever ball game that floats your boat.

So there, I struck a blow for worker liberty as well as got my political chop in too and that didn’t hurt, did it? I promise more chapters of the upcoming work as well as maybe more frequent commentary, but, I sort of like how this hiding out has helped my poor head recover from the health threats I was facing. Like I said, no whining, that’s between more intimate friends. Be well wherever you are, stay safe, and don’t let the monkeys in Washington run your Life.

Bernie and the Messiah Complex

I feel so sorry, fellow Americans, that as a collective entity, your political weathervanes love to shift in the direction of the most persistent, the most prevailing, and most revealing winds. I speak of the Messiah Complex as it populates America’s politics, and it is a recurrent wind, which while blowing hot air most frequently, always blows in the perfect candidate to perpetuate unimaginable devastation.

Look at how the American people received Barack Obama. Hope! Change! Yes, things were going to be Different! The oligarchic, militaristic, and plutocratic evils of the Bush years were to be swept away, and replaced by a new fresh tide of young ideas! Boy, that man is sure some orator! Why, he’s a Constitutional scholar! My, oh my!

Until three weeks into his presidency he is walking back the promises as to putting the BushCo torturers under prosecution and telling us all it’s “time to move on”. forget I said that, puh-leeze! Oh, we are going to close Guantanamo, because its very existence is a stick in the eye of Miss Liberty. Let her hang on to that torch there, of course, we are going to need it! To relight another fire in the Middle East... This time Libya... this again, Syria! We are here to prevent a humanitarian cataclysm! Right.

So where had we heard all of that before?

In the very funny and oracular movie Idiocracy, Joe Not Sure is called upon by his president- many many years into the future- to solve a number of national crises.  “And he’s gonna fix EVERTHING!” crows the President, about his new Secretary of Agriculture. This same approach- we’ll sit back and do our part, and vote- and the (new) president will fix everything- seems to be the easy way out, and the one under which the Messiah Complex forms, in the context of which I am speaking.

Wait for the next president. He is gonna fix EVERTHING! Why, we just had most of our civil liberties vacuumed out from under us by Bush’s AND Obama’s NSA. There might be some ground regained yet, the 2 Billion dollar Megamind in the Utah desert is not going to be going away any day soon, whether or not anything is put forward by our ever-contrary Congress, nor by the next president, whether Bernie Sanders or not.  (The campaign promises of Rand Paul must remain as scrutinized, until the highly unlikely event of his own acquisition of the office and any post election result.) Maybe it is the characteristic “perpetual optimism” of the American people, that same one that drives many of our politicians to lofty and shallow praise and sentiment about the character of the American nation, en masse. I can’t say. But...

I hate watching Americans fall for the same old crap twice. Remember that old Who song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”? How true and appropos it came to be, when we discovered that Barack Obama was no fresh wind, he was just a more-erudite version of the same old stagnant amoebic-bearing gusty mistral. How different it will be with Bernie! Woohoo! Get on the bandwagon now, don’t get left behind!  Grow the cult of personality!

Sanders is growing his popularity for some damn good reasons, but I only offer this as a caution to everyone that when it comes to politics, there can never be any “messiah.” You are laughable if you believe any president can retain the miraculous powers of, so to speak, multiplying the loaves and the fishes in order to feed the tired huddled starving masses, collected around the feet of Miss Liberty, straining at the bit to get in.

No, there never is any Messiah in American politics. On this, you can call me an atheist, unequivocally.

That Was No Revolution

     The 1960’s “Counterculture” has come to full maturity and fruition as a quality of “mainstream” America. This year, the Grateful Dead celebrate their fiftieth anniversary of their incarnation: A peek into an old dictionary gave the shimmering golden name to a bemused Jerry Garcia, about half a year into their life as “the Warlocks” It could not be said that this was the “birth of the Sixties” even if it was, more or less, the birth of this particular “Sixties band”. But there are parallels in the life of the Grateful Dead and their stumbling, cursed, rise to respectability which ebbed and flowed with the fate of the concomitant “sixties Counterculture” they purportedly went on to represent (for four and a half more decades.)

     One of the misleading assumptions, first of all, is that the “counterculture” actually amounted to anything, in and of itself. That somehow (this was one of its biggest conceits) just having had the LSD experience somehow qualified a person thereafter into a “better” sort of personality, a “novus humanus” or in its Iron Curtain sense “New Soviet Man.” Of course, psychedelics themselves did no such things. Many people DID benefit from the awareness they received therefrom as to the qualities of their personalities, but personalities aren’t so easily washed away, nor is human nature so easily wished away. The “Psychedelic Revolution” of the “groovy Sixties” actually was pretty much all about access to illegal drugs, and the right to use them. An entire economy grew out of the marijuana smuggling trade and burgeoned into pop culture arcades such as High Times. One might get the feeling, were one to peruse its back volumes, that there had always been this somehow incredibly intense and international marketplace where substances banned by the Customs Departments of innumerable nations had an actual agora, and centers of distribution. The truth was, of course, as usual, much, much dumber than that.

     When I say that it has “come to fruition” I mean in the sense that, only now, as the validity of the idea of marijuana being a medicine, has come into a majority among the population, “recreational” marijuana is gaining a legitimacy it had never achieved before, and this, of course, is the result of the hard work and patience of the millions who grew up expecting legalization to occur within their “lifetimes”.  And the Treasury Departments of numerous states make calculations and projections based on the profits they can bring in from revenues attached to taxation schemes.

     This, itself, is a rather gauche and offensive development itself, for in states where it is re-legalize, there is probably not bound to be any state funded reparation made for all the thousands those states have imprisoned while cannabis was still under its “outlawed” status. And it’s offensive as well to many who grew up expecting the price of an ounce of marijuana to cost no more than ten, fifteen, or (tops) forty-five dollars. Perhaps a reason for this massive inflation in price (and conversely, state tariff expectations) was primarily due to the fact that, back when High Times magazine began publishing, the international marijuana smuggling “industry” (composed primarily of rogue pilots, ex-servicemen,  and entrepeneurs) wisely decided (for their benefit) to add the costs of obtaining legal representation to fight court cases (if caught) into the risk expectations of their profit margins. So the price of ounces began their long, inexorable climb to the execrable status they now hold today- $260 in California, alone.

     Whereas, an individual in a legalized state reserves the option (if they can obtain seeds, that is) of always growing their own. A yard of six plants will yield well over two pounds, in proper conditions, which ought to be well enough to provide a single smoker, and his friends, of at least a year’s supply. This is speaking conservatively, but really who actually and truly wishes to smoke it every single day? Despite all contrarian claims, there are aspects of heavy marijuana use every bit as obnoxious as chronic alcoholism.  Everyone knows what you are up to since you smell like what you’ve been up to, you begin to center your life around the daily expectation of its rewards “to unwind” and similar to a life living on a diet of chocolate cake, very soon, it isn’t really very special anymore. But surely growing your own is the individual's  very best personal defense against the ever-greedy “marijuana industry.”

     And so it has never really been “ a revolution.” Were it a revolution, truly, it could never have taken this long even to achieve the turnabout in status which cannabis now holds amongst the nation. Cannabis itself is but one small emblematic icon of the “Peace and Love” generation. Generational outlooks aside, the hope of a “more peaceful planet” has not exactly come about either, as the Sixties generation assumed roles of power, such as Barack Obama, current occupant of the White House, elected as the “peace candidate”, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just for being elected, and waging his own wars in several theaters and ignoring the consequences of his inhumane use of unmanned mobile weapons upon civilian populations in a nebulous “war on terror” where the world itself is a battlefield.  It is a harsh thing to judge a younger man so, but when one has been around a while, one has a keener eye for discriminating hypocrisy and lies. That enough people keep swallowing the lies, well, people are always going to be swallowing lies. And no, it wasn’t a revolution. Because love of money and power are attributes of our human nature, and men are corruptible.

America’s Dialog Problem

     It’s become de rigueur in chat rooms, newspaper and magazine comment sections and social media, for Americans to take a “me against the universe” position. Not only Americans, of course because this is basically an internationalist problem. But it boils down to an equation in essence, of this:

Whomever does not believe as I do is an idiot.

     It does seem that when some people are taxed to the point of a maximal intellectual box canyon, the common reply is not to offer a counter-argument, but to throw out the canard “You’re a moron!”; “You're an idiot!”; “Libtard”; “Repugnican” ; “Demorat” and the like. I am sure you’ve seen your share of this, so I presume that you, the reader, have had significant encounter with it. If not, believe me, you shall before you die, somewhere! Just state our opinion forcefully and succinctly enough, and there will be someone who crawls up from the bushes to raise this cheap shot. It’s probably all the ammo he has left anyhow.

     One of the big arguments that has become something of a leftwing meme in defense of President Spybot is that he is “faced with an obstructionist Congress”. Actually in a society which is built on a principle of checks and balances, loyal opposition to question the moves and motives of Executive authority - of either party- seems like they’re pretty much doing what they’re paid to do- not “obstructing.” But part of the problem is the partisanship which IS of itself, “obstructionist.” But neither party is immune from this illness.

     It seems that this loyalism to Spybot is rooted in the partisanship which accompanied his political victory, and which seems to get worse with each passing election. Americans who have achieved an election then begin behaving like lager louts at a football match” “Our team won! Your team sucks!” and taken to an extreme, you hear one party saying of the other, that the opposition must be driven completely from the field. No, they are not allowed to the corner of the ring to nurse a wound, regroup, come up with alternative positions. Just get rid of them, because: THEY are morons!

     This euphoria however only goes so far. It rarely if ever lasts longer than the first year and a half after each election. This is true for a few reasons, but the biggest, of course, is that we live in a liberal democracy. Let me explain what I mean when I call it that, so nobody goes all haywire and screams I’m writing out conservatives myself.

     The classic definition of “liberal” means, able to tolerate opinions held contrary to one’s own. Toleration in this society does involve the extension of the rights of minorities- minority viewpoints, not just minority demographically speaking. Therefore, one would think that “liberals” would welcome the expression of diverse viewpoints to the political dialog. But what do we find? We find those who otherwise champion first amendment rights often calling for the censorship of commentators they deem distasteful: “Pull their license! “ “Ban them from the airwaves!” “the man is a moron!” etc.

     While a true liberal would shrug, and say, “Okay, that’s just HIS opinion...What a great country we have, that people can be so wonderfully whacko”, “progressives” often wish to take things to the next step, which is the equivalent to censorship and inability to tolerate ideas and persons who make them uncomfortable. But fortunately, the Constitution does not settle for people just being comfortable. There have been a great number of societies where that was attempted, but almost all of those which have held that chosen goal are those who can be blatantly labeled totalitarian. But then we are on our way to a totalitarian society in America, anyway. You can notice that in the social media and other commentary spaces, where Americans cry for the “extermination of all Moslems!” in a manner reminiscent of the Nazi pogroms against Jews. One sector of society, by dint of religious adherence, is the stain and infection of the nation, and must be eliminated! Gee, but where have we heard that before?

     American exceptionalism is not limited to a belief held by “conservatives”- the old right wing that sent America into a losing war in Vietnam, and rushed the USA into another hornet's nest in Iraq. American exceptionalism is actually something of a national religion akin to patriotism (q.v., my blog post dated 6-14-13 Our State Religion: Patriotism). This theory rests on the belief that the United States, (at one time) the first and best world hope for  a “Novus Ordo Seclorum” after two hundred some odd years is STILL the first best hope for same. And that despite all evidence to the contrary, American interventionism anywhere in the world is justified by that alone.  Somehow it is proving itself. Somewhere. It must be because, God Bless the Greatest Nation on Earth!

     Americans are all exceptional individuals, this is true. A nation is not its government, its people are more virtuous than those with lack of sense enough to meander into what is charmingly called “public service” but which amounts to (basically) public robbery, insider trading, and corruption. But calling the other guy an idiot, well, that’s just part of free speech ma’am.

     But here I have to refer to the other great Latin sentence at the heart of our democracy, “E Pluribus Unum”- Out of Many, One. It need not only refer to the nation itself in the furthest macro cognition. From the other end, it recognizes that out of a diversity of opinions, the people of America choose that which they deem best to hold their self-governance. It recognizes that minority opinions have a place (even if it’s just sitting back in the corner) but that minority opinion has a right to its existence. No place in the Constitution does it claim we have a “two party system.” This has been a myth fostered by the major parties to justify their bullying other competition from the ring, and continuing the charades of “Big Evil” vs. “Bigger Evil” each party poisons its partisanship with before during and after each election, that same force which drives people to yell “Our party rules! Your party sucks!” as if that should substitute for debate, and dialog. All too often, unfortunately, it does.

Happy Anniversary!

     Today, August 9th, is the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States of America. By now, we have been insufferably treated with the yelps of the “greatest generation” with their unconvincing rationale, “if it wasn’t for Hiroshima, millions more lives would have been lost.” Now there, indeed, is an arguable point. No doubt, Hiroshima lessened the value of human life to the Allied powers of the western Alliance that fought Hitler back across the Rhine and Japan to the nexus of the Home Islands. But something in this also rings hollow. If Hiroshima is understandable, as a “last resort” against an indomitable irreducible enemy, what was Nagasaki? Rubbing it in?

    No doubt if Hiroshima cheapened the value of human life, Nagasaki rendered it worthless. In a matter of milliseconds, in both cities, the United States achieved the same feat as .009166  of the European Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi’s, and joined the competition for “best atrocity photos of stacked up dead bodies” hitherto engaged in by Germany an the Soviet Union , and later, Maoist China, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia,  in the race for “Most Efficient Genocidal Methods.” Surely the USA won that one, for no other mass slaughter in human history was ever so effective nor as instantaneous. The atomic bombings of Japan achieved in seconds what months/weeks were needed for the Nazis. Now THAT is industrial scale efficiency!

     At the time of the bombings a full 13% of Americans approved of “annihilation and extermination” and a “wiping out” of the Japanese nation, and 27% approved of building and dropping even more bombs. America’s transition from moral victor over the genocidal fascists to an equivalent moral pariah in mass murder was complete. So long as the United States continues to drone to death innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she has absolutely no right, nor the moral standing, to criticize Israel for its own “collateral damage” in Gaza- unfortunately.

     So Happy Anniversary, America! Don’t choke on the olive in the martini!

http://rare.us/story/7-conservatives-who-thought-dropping-the-atom-bomb-was-barbaric-and-unnecessary/

A recent poll has shown that Americans regret having chosen President Spybot over the competition by a poll of 55%-43%, if an election were held today. Having voted in the 2% qualifying as “Innocent” vs the “Big Evil”-“Little Evil” Tweedledum-Tweedledee Party race, I find this completely unsurprising. Here’s a look at Prez. Spybot’s legacy and what it means six years into “it’s all Bush’s fault!”

http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon0806mm.html

LEMMING MARCH IN PROGRESS - JOIN, OR DIE!

MANY WORLDS SINCE I LEFT HOME

Book 2 of the Julian Plectrum series is now available at Smashwords.com. You can either download a free sample, buy it or continue to read it in serial format here @ Grand Jatte. 

     Minstrel Julian and his new wife, puppeteer Mary, accompany their friends Stephen and Roger to Amiens in France and the market fair there. There, Julian meets a Moorish minstrel from Granada who is traveling at the behest of his Sultan to feel out the political climate of the Spanish and French kingdoms on Granada’s borders. Julian and Abu enter into discussions on music, chess, and religion, and when he returns to Penzance, Julian decides he will open a tavern of his own.

      At his annual Christmastime feast, Julian’s landlord, Baron Anselm, agrees to put up money to help finance the beginnings of The Fallen Lady. Much of the rest of Book 2 involves the numerous measures which Julian must take to make his venture succeed, from Mary’s making ale, to their upstairs baker neighbor providing bread, and making deals and friends with local providers, to adding on to their house to create the structure that will become the tavern. Many Worlds Since I Left Home is to be followed by a concluding Volume 3 in the Julian Plectrum series.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424161

You Will Never Be So Free Again

     The last fourteen years of American life have been terribly disheartening for those of us who thought, perhaps, that with the new millennium, we might see an actual expansion in American culture of the ideas of Freedom and Liberty. Surely there might have been a window in which culture might have been allowed the opportunity to break through. But several things have happened, and I wish to let people know, that America will never be your parents' America, ever again, in light of these changes.

     The first, and largest change, of course, was what seized the population after 9-11-01. Fear, and fear of “terrorists”, set us on a one way course to the point where now we see our own Constitution taken to task for its “oversight” allowing for Amendments One, Two, Four, and Five to be stripped of all meaning and reinterpreted in the hands of those who wield power over we, the citizens.

     Besides the scourge of the Free Love generation, AIDS, which swept in like an avenging Victorian angel at the end of the 70’s to chill any chance remaining of the idea of “casual sex” ever regaining the status it had held for a decade, the social climate of the 1980s- that there was nothing which could not be commodified, and nothing worth living unless commercialized in the name of profit and greed- “loss leading” gatherings like the original Woodstock were seen as naive, Utopian fantasies, “proven” unworkable by the exceptional phenomenon of its doppelganger, the Altamont festival. Of course, Altamont was a disaster waiting to happen for a number of reasons, but the existence of a receptive counterculture to its idea was never one of these, not the way it was later sold to America by “Law'n'order”.

      A situation like the Woodstock Festival of 1969 will never happen again. It just can't. In part, it is because the reactionary community led by the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan took umbrage to the extent of making many such mass gatherings impossible to recreate. As well, their “War on Drugs” enabled a community of law enforcement officers to enact their own cultural war in revenge, punitively seeking to destroy wherever possible the growing “counterculture” attended to by a community of mostly young people. Those who foresaw a more healthy recreational lifestyle in the use of marijuana over that of alcohol. That the youth of America were automatically suspect of UnAmerican ideologies was half of the problem- the other half of the problem were those among America’s youth who actually were taken by UnAmerican ideologies (such as Marxism and Maoism) and self-appointed themselves to lead the lemming charge against the Military Industrial Complex. And if we need bombs to do it, by God, let’s build some bombs to do it with (i.e, the Bill Ayres and Bernardine Dohrns). Such persons never represented the leading edge of the movement, even if historical revisionists of both the right and left would like you to think they did.

      Another element of the culture war, of course, is the revision of historical truth over how and why the Vietnam war was lost by America. They would like you to believe it was lost either on the battlefield by a mutinous soldiery, or in the streets of America itself, where people took to mass protest in order to end an illegal occupation of another nation. Defeatism, and not the possibility that the other side held the moral cards- it was their country after all. Of course, illegal occupations of sovereign nations have become de rigeur now for those charged with enforcement of American foreign policy. Some, like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, never see a prewar situation they do not approve of. They would love to escalate each and every situation into an excuse to throw more Americans into a slaughterhouse, for that is where their own greatest “service” to America took place. If it is good enough for us, then it ought to be good enough for you. Stupid peaceniks are always the problem.

     Then there are the ones who would like you to think that the whole nation would go to hell if drugs were legalized, particularly, pot. Well, you know, any drug is a gateway drug, if it happens to be the first you use. And it could be said that many would never turn to alcohol, (or worse, heroin or amphetamines) if the safer alternative of pot as a culturally sanctioned intoxicant were to be normalized and alternatively available instead.

     Mass gatherings like the Woodstock festival will never be possible again, despite their benign and nonviolent nature, because of law enforcement’s “need and desire” to be in control of mass assemblies. Anarchic opportunities such as Woodstock truly represented are seen as opportunities- if not for sheer out and out rebelliousness, then, as opportunities for “terrorist attacks.” Better to keep the population in line, than allow them the freedom to come together in such a disorganized (or unprofitable) fashion. The commercialization of the festival is not the issue (to be fair, it was a noble attempt to begin with- but the organizers did not count on the actual popularity of the attractions to be presented, nor the ability of a movement of highly mobile young people to assemble at what was, in those days, something of a moment’s notice) It goes without saying that even in the case of a national mobilization of militia in response to a governmental military coup that such a large mass gathering could only be seen as something to be nipped in the bud with helicopters, drones, and SWAT teams.
    The legacy of Woodstock was to be reduced and distilled into a small stream more easily channeled by authority into the phenomenon of “the Grateful Dead concert community.” Dead concerts, indeed, became a trap for the unwary, targeted by law enforcement as “havens of drug taking and sales” and sure-fire opportunities for drug bust press. That the Dead themselves rarely, in later years, played into this mentality (as they once might have in early years, when they actually were members of the activist psychedelic community) only points up the pathetic hopelessness in conceiving that somehow it was also “the last hope” for such freedoms as it could stand to represent. The Dead, eventually, endorsed the crypto-police state candidate Barack Obama (not merely once, but twice) and the possibility of a world where such extreme opposites as Ann Coulter and Al and Tipper Gore might meet over bong hits evaporated in a mist of PRISM-inflected super-spy paranoia. You never can know who your real friends are, now, can you? Only that we are all suspects in a bigger game which has been played by powerful shadow figures, ever since the death of John F. Kennedy.