Way back in my deep history I dabbled in the Dark Arts: sorcery, ceremonial magic, witchcraft, etc. A friend who was having some problems with a would-be stalker once asked me if it might be possible to put a spell on him. Now, this friend happened to be a deeply religious person on the verge of taking Holy Orders, so I asked the obvious question, "Why don't you pray for help?" Her response was, "It doesn't work that way."
I've long since forsworn and renounced the dark world. Now, notwithstanding my friend's disclaimer, I spend a lot of time praying for some kind of supernatural help that would rid us of the Great Pretender.
At first I thought COVID-19 might be our deliverance, and I've not given up on that thought. It has certainly caused indirect damage to his tyrannical agenda and to his re-election campaign. It has come at the cost of 180,000 American lives, which is Biblical in its scope, but strikes me as excessive collateral damage. It is beyond me and my understanding of statistics why he hasn't contracted the plague, given his tendency to eschew medical advice and safe practices.
My prayer requests are generally of the Old Testament variety. I wish for the unpresident to be attacked by swarms of biting insects, covered with boils, caught in a fiery hailstorm, assailed by an army of skeletons, and faced with water that becomes blood. Occasionally I shift into Revelation and call down the Four Horsemen on him.
I know it was presumptuous, but I've even asked the Almighty to appear to him in all His glory and blast DJTrump into tiny bits.
I think I'm in this apocalyptic mood because I've just read Riot Baby* by Tochi Onyebuchi. The book follows the struggles of a Black family--mother, son, and daughter--to survive life in ghettos, through riots, surrounded by gangs, in an America that is steadily becoming a police state where every Black face is perceived as a threat.
Ella, the daughter, has a Power of destruction that rises with her anger--and she has a lot of anger. Her brother Kev is brilliant and hopes for a future in some technical field, but winds up in jail from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their mother, spoken of only as Mama, is one of those indefatigable women whose exceptional strength and strong religious faith keep the family together spiritually, even when they're geographically separated.
This is a gripping book with well-developed characters and a realistic mise en scène. Anyone who seeks to better understand the Black experience in America could profit from reading it.
At the end, when Kev finally says, "I see freedom," Onyebuchi's magic realism lets us see it, too.
--- Diogenes, 9/8/2020
* Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2019.
U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
08 September 2020
06 September 2020
On Hold
Yesterday I spent two hours staring at a blank screen and was able to come up with only a 5th-grade level screed on the Constitution. Maybe I was thinking the Great Pretender could read it.
I finally took the advice of a former mentor: "If you can't write, don't try." It's excellent advice. If it were universally taken the crap on the Internet would probably decrease by about 80%.
I'll be back when my brain decides to work.
--- Diogenes, 9/6/2020
I finally took the advice of a former mentor: "If you can't write, don't try." It's excellent advice. If it were universally taken the crap on the Internet would probably decrease by about 80%.
I'll be back when my brain decides to work.
--- Diogenes, 9/6/2020
03 September 2020
The Bedrock of Democracy
You can tell a lot about a person by the way she speaks of the Constitution. I've noted four general ways that people respond to mention of the document when it comes up in conversation. I refer to them as Affirmative, Objective, Indifferent, and Hostile.
An affirmative response usually comes from a person who has some knowledge of the Constitution and enjoys talking about it.
Objective responders typically have a neutral response. They usually understand the general importance of the Constitution but don't think about it unless some part of it directly affects them.
Those who are indifferent really couldn't care less. Mention the Constitution to them, and their response will likely be something like, "Oh, yeah, that. Whatever."
Then there are those who actively believe the Constitution is a bad thing, usually because it gets in the way of something they want to do, or the way they think things should be. These are people you don't want to know. Police often fall into this group, as do some politicians.
In the present day, the unpresident of the United States and probably most of his Cabinet is firmly in this camp. This is an unprecedented and dangerous situation. The Constitution is the only thing that stands between the ordered society we know and a power-mad would-be tyrant. Or, if you like, between order and chaos.
The first time I visited the Constitution at the National Archives was almost a religious experience for me. It came to me that those few pieces of parchment, faded and wrinkled as they are, represent a pinnacle of accomplishment in humankind's long search for a means of just government.
Since at least the third millennium BC rulers and peoples have sought to establish codes of law that would provide order and protection. Some of them were successful. Others were unbearably severe. Many included practices we consider absurd, and punishments so horrid that we can scarce imagine them. Yet they were all needful experiments leading to the document that gives our society order.
Donald Trump wants to be a supreme autocrat with nothing controlling him but his own whims. He does not want to be limited by a system of laws that will prevent his becoming a dictator. Were it up to him, he would replace the Constitution with the occultist and libertine Aleister Crowley's mantra: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
The Constitution of the United States may not be a perfect document. It may not be the last word in the search for and perfection of a just system of laws. Yet it is our system, bought with the blood and sacrifice of our ancestors. We must defend it against Donald Trump, a thug and a pig of a man who already dismisses and dishonors it, and would destroy it if he could.
Four pages of parchment are the bedrock of our country. They must remain inviolate.
--- Diogenes, 9/3/2020
01 September 2020
Cowards, Cretins, and Fools
435 Representatives
100 Senators
15 Cabinet members
1 Vice-president
And not a scruple of conscience among them. Not a whiff of courage to call out dishonesty and injustice. Not a shred of evidence that each one of them once swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Every day these 551 individuals plus a host of staff watch the alleged leader of the free world lie, scheme, cheat and swindle his bumbling way through life and not one raises their voice to call him out.
Only the press, in their Constitutional position as government watchdog, call him out regularly. The 551 should be listening. There was a time when the editorial boards of major newspapers had the ear of Congress. Now the portion of Congress that isn't deaf listens only to its own voice crying for attention in a masturbatory maelstrom of fear and self-loathing.
Donald John Trump is not special. He is a man, not a superbeing. He is not unstoppable. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. He belches, farts, and picks his nose. He is nobody's Chosen One. He has such little self respect that when he cannot gain praise from others he invents it himself.
His Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, but there is nothing real about him. He is a creature of his own imagining, cobbled together from whole cloth into a simulacrum of a leader, but lacking any knowledge or talent for the role. He is material but lacks substance. He is false from the hair on his head and the complexion of his face to the emptiness of his heart. He is the living embodiment of the emperor's new clothes.
The 551 know this but cannot admit it. They are politicians, hacks, and wonks so entrapped by the system they have built for themselves to ensure a continuing spot at the trough of public money that they can understand nothing else. They are cowards, cretins, and fools who will continue to be accomplices to the crimes and misdeeds of the Poser-in-Chief who squats atop the house of cards they have built. They disagree superficially but know they are totally interdependent, so not one will say "Enough! Stop!" Not one. Not. one. They are beyond shame.
Meanwhile the Traitor-in-Chief who has not betrayed his oath because he never intended to follow it attacks genuine patriots. He defends murderers and domestic terrorists like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the mouth-breathing, tattooed lowlifes who drove into peaceful demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.
Speaking to the National Republican Club in February 1938, Vermont Governor George Aiken said Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today."¹ A plaque with that quote should hang in every Congressional Republican's office to remind them of their responsibility to be a check on executive actions.
Government functionaries don't fear the Bully-in-Chief; they fear the power he wields. That is a small but significant distinction. There is nothing to be feared from Trump the man. He is a small, insignificant entity whose personal power over others is limited to insults and epithets. But he holds the presidency, and with that can cause irreparable damage, if not destruction, of careers. He holds it over his minions like Damocles' sword, threatening them with the worst possible fate: expulsion from a government job and the loss of their place at the trough.
Elected officials are beyond his reach, but cower nonetheless because even after four years he remains a phenomenon foreign to their culture. They fear the unknown and therefore bow before it.
There are 551 of them and not one will stand up. The refusal of every one of them to stand and announce their opposition to the Cretin-in-Chief is disgraceful and cowardly. Bullies respond to being pushed back, but we Americans and our Constitution have no one to push for us.
In a post several weeks ago I said I would not condone assassination as a means of removing Tyrant Trump.
I have reconsidered that position.
--- Diogenes, 9/1/2020
Please share
¹ D. Gregory Sanford, "You Can't Get There From Here: The Presidential Boomlet for Governor George D. Aiken, 1937-1939," Vermont History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fall, 1981), p. 204.
100 Senators
15 Cabinet members
1 Vice-president
And not a scruple of conscience among them. Not a whiff of courage to call out dishonesty and injustice. Not a shred of evidence that each one of them once swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Every day these 551 individuals plus a host of staff watch the alleged leader of the free world lie, scheme, cheat and swindle his bumbling way through life and not one raises their voice to call him out.
Only the press, in their Constitutional position as government watchdog, call him out regularly. The 551 should be listening. There was a time when the editorial boards of major newspapers had the ear of Congress. Now the portion of Congress that isn't deaf listens only to its own voice crying for attention in a masturbatory maelstrom of fear and self-loathing.
Donald John Trump is not special. He is a man, not a superbeing. He is not unstoppable. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. He belches, farts, and picks his nose. He is nobody's Chosen One. He has such little self respect that when he cannot gain praise from others he invents it himself.
His Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, but there is nothing real about him. He is a creature of his own imagining, cobbled together from whole cloth into a simulacrum of a leader, but lacking any knowledge or talent for the role. He is material but lacks substance. He is false from the hair on his head and the complexion of his face to the emptiness of his heart. He is the living embodiment of the emperor's new clothes.
The 551 know this but cannot admit it. They are politicians, hacks, and wonks so entrapped by the system they have built for themselves to ensure a continuing spot at the trough of public money that they can understand nothing else. They are cowards, cretins, and fools who will continue to be accomplices to the crimes and misdeeds of the Poser-in-Chief who squats atop the house of cards they have built. They disagree superficially but know they are totally interdependent, so not one will say "Enough! Stop!" Not one. Not. one. They are beyond shame.
Meanwhile the Traitor-in-Chief who has not betrayed his oath because he never intended to follow it attacks genuine patriots. He defends murderers and domestic terrorists like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the mouth-breathing, tattooed lowlifes who drove into peaceful demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.
Speaking to the National Republican Club in February 1938, Vermont Governor George Aiken said Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today."¹ A plaque with that quote should hang in every Congressional Republican's office to remind them of their responsibility to be a check on executive actions.
Government functionaries don't fear the Bully-in-Chief; they fear the power he wields. That is a small but significant distinction. There is nothing to be feared from Trump the man. He is a small, insignificant entity whose personal power over others is limited to insults and epithets. But he holds the presidency, and with that can cause irreparable damage, if not destruction, of careers. He holds it over his minions like Damocles' sword, threatening them with the worst possible fate: expulsion from a government job and the loss of their place at the trough.
Elected officials are beyond his reach, but cower nonetheless because even after four years he remains a phenomenon foreign to their culture. They fear the unknown and therefore bow before it.
There are 551 of them and not one will stand up. The refusal of every one of them to stand and announce their opposition to the Cretin-in-Chief is disgraceful and cowardly. Bullies respond to being pushed back, but we Americans and our Constitution have no one to push for us.
In a post several weeks ago I said I would not condone assassination as a means of removing Tyrant Trump.
I have reconsidered that position.
--- Diogenes, 9/1/2020
Please share
¹ D. Gregory Sanford, "You Can't Get There From Here: The Presidential Boomlet for Governor George D. Aiken, 1937-1939," Vermont History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fall, 1981), p. 204.
31 August 2020
Too Stupid To Live, Part Two
Things people do who are too stupid to live:
Believe Donald Trump.
Swim with sharks.
Cross heavy traffic against the light.
Vote for Donald Trump.
Carry a loaded rifle in a crowd.
Turn peaceful protests into riots.
Go maskless in a crowd.
Think Donald Trump is a good president.
Believe humans have never been in space.
Get high on wood alcohol to see what it's like.
Think Donald Trump is a good man.
Get news from the Internet.
Handle poisonous snakes.
Look down the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded.
Prop an electric fan on an unstable shelf above their bathtub.
Think Donald Trump is a good father.
Sneak up on a mule from the back.
Eat fugu on a bet.
Drive a car into water.
Believe Fox News.
Trust Donald Trump.
Play Russian roulette.
Believe dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
Believe every conspiracy theory they hear.
Rewire an electrical switch with the current on.
Flirt with their boss's wife in his office.
Jump off a roof into a pool.
Think Donald Trump is a good ___________.
--- Diogenes, 8/31/2020
Believe Donald Trump.
Swim with sharks.
Cross heavy traffic against the light.
Vote for Donald Trump.
Carry a loaded rifle in a crowd.
Turn peaceful protests into riots.
Go maskless in a crowd.
Think Donald Trump is a good president.
Believe humans have never been in space.
Get high on wood alcohol to see what it's like.
Think Donald Trump is a good man.
Get news from the Internet.
Handle poisonous snakes.
Look down the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded.
Prop an electric fan on an unstable shelf above their bathtub.
Think Donald Trump is a good father.
Sneak up on a mule from the back.
Eat fugu on a bet.
Drive a car into water.
Believe Fox News.
Trust Donald Trump.
Play Russian roulette.
Believe dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
Believe every conspiracy theory they hear.
Rewire an electrical switch with the current on.
Flirt with their boss's wife in his office.
Jump off a roof into a pool.
Think Donald Trump is a good ___________.
--- Diogenes, 8/31/2020
29 August 2020
We Shall Overcome
"Today is the 57th anniversary of a terrific event and a beautiful speech made by a great man."
That's what DJTrump didn't say about the Commitment "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Friday. In fact he said nothing.
On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in what was called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I'm sure a great many people remember where they were that Wednesday.
Although the march was a protest action the spirit of the day was one of celebration, brotherhood, and aspiration. Speakers included a bevy of Christian and Jewish clergy and most of the leaders of major civil rights organizations.
The stream of speakers was punctuated with music by the likes of Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Mahalia Jackson. It was at this gathering that "We Shall Overcome" became the civil rights anthem it remains.
And it was where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told us about his dream. The "I Have a Dream" speech was inspired. Partially improvised, it speaks of visions Dr. King had for an integrated and free future. It was one of the great addresses of the 20th century, and Dr. King is still held up as one of the century's greatest orators.
Yesterday's rally had much of the same spirit, now carried by a generation new to civil strife, but no less energized to meet it. Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III spoke. He is an effective speaker, and reinforced the battle cry of the march: "There’s a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. . . . The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can must cast a ballot."¹
But it was clear that Dr. King's mantle of Chief Orator of the new civil rights movement has fallen squarely on The Rev. Al Sharpton. He has a commanding voice and the intensity and classical cadence of generations of preachers before him: "We need Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to meet on the George Floyd Policing and Justice Act or we’re going to meet you Senators at the polls November 3rd. Whether we’ve got to mail in, walk in, ride in, crawl in, we want our bill passed." And, "It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry out for our lives. We need a new conversation. . . .You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a chokehold on us while we scream, 'I can’t breathe' 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him. It’s time for a new conversation."²
His is the voice that will gain followers and grab the attention of the disinterested and disenfranchised. He will need to use it wisely to speak truth to all things Trump and to raise the spirit of revolution in the American people.
Our voices will rise again, and We Shall Overcome.
--- Diogenes, 8/29/2020
¹ https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/2020-march-on-washington-event-transcript (Begins about 26 minutes in)
² https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/al-sharpton-speech-transcript-2020-march-on-washington
* Videos of the event are available on YouTube, MSNBC, and CBS, among others.
That's what DJTrump didn't say about the Commitment "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Friday. In fact he said nothing.
On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in what was called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I'm sure a great many people remember where they were that Wednesday.
Although the march was a protest action the spirit of the day was one of celebration, brotherhood, and aspiration. Speakers included a bevy of Christian and Jewish clergy and most of the leaders of major civil rights organizations.
The stream of speakers was punctuated with music by the likes of Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Mahalia Jackson. It was at this gathering that "We Shall Overcome" became the civil rights anthem it remains.
And it was where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told us about his dream. The "I Have a Dream" speech was inspired. Partially improvised, it speaks of visions Dr. King had for an integrated and free future. It was one of the great addresses of the 20th century, and Dr. King is still held up as one of the century's greatest orators.
Yesterday's rally had much of the same spirit, now carried by a generation new to civil strife, but no less energized to meet it. Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III spoke. He is an effective speaker, and reinforced the battle cry of the march: "There’s a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. . . . The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can must cast a ballot."¹
But it was clear that Dr. King's mantle of Chief Orator of the new civil rights movement has fallen squarely on The Rev. Al Sharpton. He has a commanding voice and the intensity and classical cadence of generations of preachers before him: "We need Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to meet on the George Floyd Policing and Justice Act or we’re going to meet you Senators at the polls November 3rd. Whether we’ve got to mail in, walk in, ride in, crawl in, we want our bill passed." And, "It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry out for our lives. We need a new conversation. . . .You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a chokehold on us while we scream, 'I can’t breathe' 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him. It’s time for a new conversation."²
His is the voice that will gain followers and grab the attention of the disinterested and disenfranchised. He will need to use it wisely to speak truth to all things Trump and to raise the spirit of revolution in the American people.
Our voices will rise again, and We Shall Overcome.
--- Diogenes, 8/29/2020
¹ https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/2020-march-on-washington-event-transcript (Begins about 26 minutes in)
² https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/al-sharpton-speech-transcript-2020-march-on-washington
* Videos of the event are available on YouTube, MSNBC, and CBS, among others.
27 August 2020
Will We Never Learn?
Police have killed 766 Americans this year.*
Two hundred fifty-five of those deaths--almost exactly one-third--have happened since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis.
And now Kenosha. Last Sunday, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force, shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back.
Seven times. In the back.
Blake is alive for now, paralyzed from the waist down and with severe internal injuries. He was shot as he was attempting to get into his car. Shesky fired at very close range. Putting seven rounds into a suspect you're actually holding by his shirt is beyond excessive. It speaks of intent to kill.
If anyone thought, in this season of plague and politics, that Kenosha would remain quiet after the needless shooting of a Black man at the hands of police officers, they've been living on a different planet.
Violence begets violence. Senseless violence begets anger and more senseless violence. Of course protests were going to happen, and of course they would turn violent. America is angry.
The target of our anger is, oxymoronically, a vacuum: the vacuum of leadership in Washington that should have offered assistance, supported victims and helped to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation. Instead, the fearmongering, hate-spewing, tyrannical Psycho-in-Chief, knowing nothing of leadership or conflict resolution, blames everyone in reach and makes inflammatory threats to send in troops, which heightens the tension, leading to more violence, and on and on . . .
We will fight back.
I happen to believe that the majority of American police forces are staffed by women and men who take seriously the charge "To protect and defend." But the profession also draws rogues who are attracted by the notion of having control over citizens, and sadists like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd.
One such is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a police and/or militia wannabe who showed up with some other rifle-toting terrorists on the third night of protests. At some point, possibly because he had fallen and feared attack, he fired randomly into the crowd, killing two people and injuring one. He was arrested and is being held in Antioch, Illinois. He faces first-degree murder charges.
And he is celebrated. Fools-of-a-Kind Aubrey Huff and Tucker Carlson actually praised Rittenhouse, a terrorist whom on-site videos show to be a cold-blooded killer.
Will we never learn?
--- Diogenes, 8/27/2020
Please share widely
* The Washington Post, "Fatal Force," https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
Two hundred fifty-five of those deaths--almost exactly one-third--have happened since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis.
And now Kenosha. Last Sunday, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force, shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back.
Seven times. In the back.
Blake is alive for now, paralyzed from the waist down and with severe internal injuries. He was shot as he was attempting to get into his car. Shesky fired at very close range. Putting seven rounds into a suspect you're actually holding by his shirt is beyond excessive. It speaks of intent to kill.
If anyone thought, in this season of plague and politics, that Kenosha would remain quiet after the needless shooting of a Black man at the hands of police officers, they've been living on a different planet.
Violence begets violence. Senseless violence begets anger and more senseless violence. Of course protests were going to happen, and of course they would turn violent. America is angry.
The target of our anger is, oxymoronically, a vacuum: the vacuum of leadership in Washington that should have offered assistance, supported victims and helped to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation. Instead, the fearmongering, hate-spewing, tyrannical Psycho-in-Chief, knowing nothing of leadership or conflict resolution, blames everyone in reach and makes inflammatory threats to send in troops, which heightens the tension, leading to more violence, and on and on . . .
We will fight back.
I happen to believe that the majority of American police forces are staffed by women and men who take seriously the charge "To protect and defend." But the profession also draws rogues who are attracted by the notion of having control over citizens, and sadists like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd.
One such is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a police and/or militia wannabe who showed up with some other rifle-toting terrorists on the third night of protests. At some point, possibly because he had fallen and feared attack, he fired randomly into the crowd, killing two people and injuring one. He was arrested and is being held in Antioch, Illinois. He faces first-degree murder charges.
And he is celebrated. Fools-of-a-Kind Aubrey Huff and Tucker Carlson actually praised Rittenhouse, a terrorist whom on-site videos show to be a cold-blooded killer.
Will we never learn?
--- Diogenes, 8/27/2020
Please share widely
* The Washington Post, "Fatal Force," https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
26 August 2020
A Brief Study in Gentility
The only thing within lightyears of being slightly positive about DJTrump's unpresidency is that it affirms what we were told as children: anybody can become president.
The first 44 American presidents had experience in military and/or public service.
Not only does #45 no have such experience, he has no idea what "service" means. He does get "public." It's the rabble that he governs. The American people, via the obsolete and archaic Electoral College, have put a buffoon who knows nothing about government in charge of it.
Robert Heinlein once quipped that "Vox populi vox dei" best translates as "My God! How did we get in this mess?" How very apt.
The Framers were Gentlemen, a term from British society designating a land-owning, low-ranking nobleman. In America it signified a man worthy of respect by reason of his honesty, good character, and integrity.
Signing the Declaration of Independence they swore, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In an age when honor was everything, prized even more highly than one's life, that was saying something.
We still use the term "gentleman," but it has become degraded. As wealth in the United States came to be prized more than ancestry, America's richest men began to fancy themselves the nation's gentry. They built mansions in cities and summer "cottages"--palaces to the rest of us--in places like Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York.
Then came the trustbusters, WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. Wealth was redistributed, redefined, and reallocated. New species of moneyed classes appeared: Hollywood actors, professional athletes, "celebrities."
Few vestiges of gentility remain in this country, and certainly not in the White House. The Poser-in-Chief can put on the trappings of fancy dress and ceremony, but he's still obviously a schlub. He has bad posture, looks terrible in a tuxedo, and doesn't know how to shake hands. His social skills are nonexistent, and polite conversation is beyond him. Completing sentences in extemporaneous speech is a skill his expensive schools never taught him.
Facing an interviewer he leans forward, mouth agape, hands clasped between spread knees, far more resembling a horny adolescent watching a striptease than anything vaguely gentle or manly.
And this is the chief executive of these United States.
--- Diogenes, 8/26/2020
The first 44 American presidents had experience in military and/or public service.
Not only does #45 no have such experience, he has no idea what "service" means. He does get "public." It's the rabble that he governs. The American people, via the obsolete and archaic Electoral College, have put a buffoon who knows nothing about government in charge of it.
Robert Heinlein once quipped that "Vox populi vox dei" best translates as "My God! How did we get in this mess?" How very apt.
The Framers were Gentlemen, a term from British society designating a land-owning, low-ranking nobleman. In America it signified a man worthy of respect by reason of his honesty, good character, and integrity.
Signing the Declaration of Independence they swore, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In an age when honor was everything, prized even more highly than one's life, that was saying something.
We still use the term "gentleman," but it has become degraded. As wealth in the United States came to be prized more than ancestry, America's richest men began to fancy themselves the nation's gentry. They built mansions in cities and summer "cottages"--palaces to the rest of us--in places like Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York.
Then came the trustbusters, WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. Wealth was redistributed, redefined, and reallocated. New species of moneyed classes appeared: Hollywood actors, professional athletes, "celebrities."
Few vestiges of gentility remain in this country, and certainly not in the White House. The Poser-in-Chief can put on the trappings of fancy dress and ceremony, but he's still obviously a schlub. He has bad posture, looks terrible in a tuxedo, and doesn't know how to shake hands. His social skills are nonexistent, and polite conversation is beyond him. Completing sentences in extemporaneous speech is a skill his expensive schools never taught him.
Facing an interviewer he leans forward, mouth agape, hands clasped between spread knees, far more resembling a horny adolescent watching a striptease than anything vaguely gentle or manly.
And this is the chief executive of these United States.
--- Diogenes, 8/26/2020
25 August 2020
Mr Mxyztplk
Here's what I've taken away from the Tumpalalooza so far:
I I I I I I I I--AM GREAT!! I AM THE GREATEST, NOT WHATSISNAME THE BOXER. MEHRR,T BIDENN JSOTHW OMD I HAVE NO SKY FALLING HSIWRHVUENWN APOCALYPSE WITH HARRIS NASTYU C B,,WITCH IS HE STILL ALIVE? NO NOT BIDEN, WHATHISNAME YOU KNOW THE COL--B-B-BLACK BOXER--ALLEY/ ALI, HE'S NOT--THEN I AM THE GREATEST! AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
HERE'S--WHATSYERNAME, SWEETIE? OH YEAH--K-K-KIMBERLY, ONE OF MY SON'S GIRLFRIENDS, (WINK, WINK) TO TALK ABOUT ME--WELL, OF COURSE ME, WHO ELSE.
HEY, EVERYBODY--WHERE ARE YA? I CAN'T SEE ANYBODY? WELL, ANYWAY, I JUST WANNA SAY WHAT A GREAT GUY DONALD IS. OH, YEAH, I KNOW HE'S THE PREZ, BUT HE LETS ME CALL HIM DONALD. ISN'T THAT JUST ADORABLE? AND HE'S A GREAT GUY, YA KNOW--I MEAN HE'S JUST GREAT, AND HE'S DONE A LOT OF STUFF AND HE'L KEEP DOIN MORE--SO GOODNIGHT.
BACK TO THE PREZ: YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT--I'VE DONE SO MUCH GOOD STUFF I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER MOST OF IT BUT I KNOW IT WAS GOOD. DKMSDPKPF A LOT BET--BET--BETTER THAN OBAMA EVER DID, AND HJHDU SLEEPY JOE WON'T EVEN COME CLOSEKKDJBI I'M GOING TO M CJB BE PRESIDENT FOREVER. HUH?
SO NOW---KEEP REMEMBERING THAT I'M THE ONE WHO KEEPS YOU---FJEOM WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE AND WILL NOT LET UNDESIRABLES MOVE INTO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. HOLD THE DAMN TELEPROMTER F'KNIJO SDTILL! YES, I PERSONALLY WILL KEEP UNDESIRABLES--YOU KNOW WHO I MEAN, RIGHT? THEY'RE NOT WHITE. THEYVE GOT DE PLACES TO GO AND ITS NOT YOUR NEIGHBOR----HUH? CNN TURNED OFF? WELL, FUCK 'EM I AM THE GREATSOKMK M F AND FOX IS THERE. I KNOW--I BOUGHT 'EM ALLF JJNVNKJFP
Diogenes --- 8/25/2020
I I I I I I I I--AM GREAT!! I AM THE GREATEST, NOT WHATSISNAME THE BOXER. MEHRR,T BIDENN JSOTHW OMD I HAVE NO SKY FALLING HSIWRHVUENWN APOCALYPSE WITH HARRIS NASTYU C B,,WITCH IS HE STILL ALIVE? NO NOT BIDEN, WHATHISNAME YOU KNOW THE COL--B-B-BLACK BOXER--ALLEY/ ALI, HE'S NOT--THEN I AM THE GREATEST! AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
HERE'S--WHATSYERNAME, SWEETIE? OH YEAH--K-K-KIMBERLY, ONE OF MY SON'S GIRLFRIENDS, (WINK, WINK) TO TALK ABOUT ME--WELL, OF COURSE ME, WHO ELSE.
HEY, EVERYBODY--WHERE ARE YA? I CAN'T SEE ANYBODY? WELL, ANYWAY, I JUST WANNA SAY WHAT A GREAT GUY DONALD IS. OH, YEAH, I KNOW HE'S THE PREZ, BUT HE LETS ME CALL HIM DONALD. ISN'T THAT JUST ADORABLE? AND HE'S A GREAT GUY, YA KNOW--I MEAN HE'S JUST GREAT, AND HE'S DONE A LOT OF STUFF AND HE'L KEEP DOIN MORE--SO GOODNIGHT.
BACK TO THE PREZ: YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT--I'VE DONE SO MUCH GOOD STUFF I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER MOST OF IT BUT I KNOW IT WAS GOOD. DKMSDPKPF A LOT BET--BET--BETTER THAN OBAMA EVER DID, AND HJHDU SLEEPY JOE WON'T EVEN COME CLOSEKKDJBI I'M GOING TO M CJB BE PRESIDENT FOREVER. HUH?
SO NOW---KEEP REMEMBERING THAT I'M THE ONE WHO KEEPS YOU---FJEOM WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE AND WILL NOT LET UNDESIRABLES MOVE INTO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. HOLD THE DAMN TELEPROMTER F'KNIJO SDTILL! YES, I PERSONALLY WILL KEEP UNDESIRABLES--YOU KNOW WHO I MEAN, RIGHT? THEY'RE NOT WHITE. THEYVE GOT DE PLACES TO GO AND ITS NOT YOUR NEIGHBOR----HUH? CNN TURNED OFF? WELL, FUCK 'EM I AM THE GREATSOKMK M F AND FOX IS THERE. I KNOW--I BOUGHT 'EM ALLF JJNVNKJFP
Diogenes --- 8/25/2020
23 August 2020
America v. Америка
There was a time when "America" was synonymous with strength, justice, freedom, opportunity, enlightenment, peace, cooperation, fairness, and understanding.
Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.
Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.
Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.
This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.
The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.
Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.
He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.
After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.
He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:
The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.
Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹
American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.
That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.
Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.
Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.
--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020
Please share widely
¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832
Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.
Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.
Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.
This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.
The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.
Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.
He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.
After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.
He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:
- The Paris Climate Agreement
- The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc
- UNESCO, the UN's culture and education body
- The UN Human Rights Council, responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe
- The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Near East
- The Iran nuclear accord
- The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the U. S. and the Soviet Union to eliminate all nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers
- The Open Skies Treaty allows member nations to overfly other members' territory to collect data on military forces and activities
- and others, including a possible withdrawal from the World Health Organization; he has threatened to withdraw but not carried through
The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.
Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹
American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.
That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.
Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.
Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.
--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020
Please share widely
¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832
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