“My rifles comforted me after the terrifying future revelations portrayed in Planet of the Apes.”

–Charlton Heston

The news is getting better. Our neighbor state Indiana has joined 23 other states in permitting public carry of a pistol without a permit.: https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/indiana-eliminates-permit-requirement-for-carrying-a-handgun-in-public/article_ac088279-07d7-5d41-89b4-2c00708edc27.html At least some states seem to be preparing their citizens for the post apocalyptic world.

The flippant jokes I can make about my fears for the world are practically infinite. It took me years, but I’m finally sober, just when I actually have a pretty good excuse to drink myself stiff as a board. Well, it’s a good thing it’s easier (and safer) to grow weed than it is to maintain a still.

I’m left with these comforting thoughts: It’s still possible that none of the post-dystopian novels that have been so popular will come true. If they turn out to be true, cockroaches will take much better care of the world than we have.

3:10 to I am Legend?

Republicans Dust off their most outrageous slur: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/20/republicans-2022-campaigns-00018591

The slur is the acronym “RINO,” or “Republican In Name Only. Frankly, I was expecting the N-Word; or Immigrant;” or the anti-gay “F-Word,” or “Communist,” or practically any hateful word at this point. There is not a caliper accurate enough to measure my indifference to Trump-inspired kvetching. In any event, the more divided is the “Fascist Middle Schooler (FMS)” Party, the better for democracy, human rights, and our collective intellectual growth.

Regrettably, the awful slur is not one that gets to the current problems with the FMS: It’s not “Delusional;” it’s not “Bigoted.” it’s not “Seditious;” it’s not “Chronically Insecure;” it’s not “Astoundingly Selfish;” and it’s not “Intellectually Vacant.”

We have our DINOs no doubt. Krysten Sinema and Steven Munichin are currently the best examples, but they’ve existed before. I think now of Sam Nunn, a U.S. senator from Georgia during the 80s and 90s, as well as speechwriter Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and frankly President Bill Clinton. They were simply referred to as “Conservative Democrats.”

In fact, there were also “Rockefeller Republicans,” such as Senators John Warner, Arlen Specter, and of course NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Currently Maryland’s Governor Mike Hogan and U.S. Senator Liz Cheney are the most high-profile examples. I’m not even sure if the latter are Rockefeller Republicans per se, they’re simply not Trumpists.

The central function of U.S. Democracy is to enable compromise. It irritates people who want the country to go in one specific direction (like me). It is also frustrating because Citizens United and voter-suppression laws have so loaded the system in favor of moneyed plutocrats. It is certainly not news to well-read people that we have a Democracy in Fantasy Only. It sounds futile and pathietic, but some democracy still beats no democracy.

However, if the voters are unable to accept that not absolutely everybody absolutely agrees with them, then there will be no compromise. No compromise means no democracy. (Sigh) Everybody wants to be heard, whether it’s their vote or their gunshot.

Grow up, America. It seems clear that the elite wealthy, regardless of who they voted for in 2016 and/or 2020 are largely indifferent to ANYTHING that upsets me, other socialists, thoughtful democrats, and the 3 or 4 Eisenhower Republicans still around. Whether it’s the Third World War or the Forth U.S. Civil War, or whatever, it will be the millions and millions of nobodies like us and rank and file Trump cultists who suffer, not the wealthy.

I really do think the apocalypse is on hand. Isn’t anybody else worried?

Inscrutably Speaking…

“Truck convoy mnufck boofoo drufring tiwana sup FREEDOM FREEDOM FREEDOM, mufuckers.”

–Boomhauer

Post-script: I would like to have a serious discussion on here sometime about the trucking industry, in particular about the way it’s been steadily making life more difficult for its drivers since…..since….since …wait for it…DEREGULATION!

Self Evidently Speaking….

Two Revelations:

A) Putin is an infinitely more dangerous enemy than Osama Bin Laden ever was. Nearly everybody was willing to do pretty much anything to bring the latter to justice, whereas now, one-third of the country is fine siding with someone who is seriously threatening nuclear war…you know, the kind of thing that would make the number of Covid deaths seem amusing.

B) There has never been a greater intelligence triumph than Putin turning what would be a U.S. President into an intelligence asset. Even more spectacular than that, the nitwits who made it happen (Trump’s 100 million cultists) believe they’re accomplishing the opposite by sticking with him like lovestruck teenagers. As Kaiser Sozay said, “the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

I can’t say that I’m astounded anymore by how starkly wrong, hateful, and ignorant is the trump cult. How can I continue to be amazed by and scornful of a group of people who are so truthfully aligned with their true natures?

What’s getting me is the foolishness of one friend who told me how shocked and angry she was about Putin’s indiscriminate use of cluster bombs and other antipersonnel weapons on civilians. She forgot about the barrel bombs he used on Syrians. She forgot about OUR use of such weapons in Iraq. In Afghanistan. In North Vietnam. In South Vietnam. In Tokyo. In Hiroshima. In Nagasaki. In Dresden. In Hamburg. In Philadelphia. In Gaza. In Ramallah. We didn’t invent civilian terror bombing, but we certainly perfected it. Someday, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps never, we’ll halt the almost uniform support for American exceptionalism from most Republicans as well as many Democrats. Some day we’ll say to our collective selves, “It’s not them, it’s us.” I anticipate this will happen soon, just as soon as I get those X-Ray Specs I sent away for back in 1977. If you’re interested, one interesting article on the subject is this: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/03/04/1084230259/not-every-war-gets-the-same-coverage-as-russias-invasion-and-that-has-consequenc

It discusses American indifference to U.S. atrocities, but de-emphasizes the race element to this indifference, which kind of avoids the real issue. If Americans are incapable of feeling empathy for the non-white people dismembered, burned alive, raped, and/or otherwise mistreated as a result of the American Military Industrial Complex, than perhaps they should consider excluding those actions from their foreign policy….or switch to dismembering, burning alive, raping, and otherwise mistreating only other white people.

Out here.

Z Povahoyu (Respectfully Speaking)…

The above is written in modern Ukrainian, that is to say, Ukrainian via Google translate. Anyway, I have to admit that I jumped on the anti-Russian bandwagon as soon as I could. But after speaking to a friend the other day I put this quite possibly apocalyptic situation into some kind of perspective.

First of all, I needed to admit that despite the absurdity of a country with over a million soldiers being somehow threatened by one with 310,000, this is simply a situation in which one imperialistic country is imposing its will onto a weaker country; you know, the way the U.S. invaded Iraq, supported the Nicaraguan Contras, toppled a legally elected leaders in Chile, Guatemala, propped up tyrants in Viet Nam, El Salvador, Brazil, Haiti, etc. I could go on forever, and already have in past BA entries. I didn’t include Afghanistan because there was an actual justification for that invasion, at least initially. The point is, forget the self righteousness, it’s simply another instance of the weak being attacked by the strong.

Still, I was against all of those actions as I am against this one. What makes it different to me is that the next step after Ukraine is Moldova, or Poland, Romania, take your pick. The fact that it’s not going too well for Russia and Putin’s solution is to put RU’s nuclear forces on alert suggests that Putin has ambitions way beyond simple regime change in Kyiv. Granted, this is just LBJ’s Domino Theory projected onto Europe, as opposed to Southeast Asia. The difference is we actually have a defense agreement with Western Europe (N.A.T.O.) that may soon be militarily threatened by Russian action. The fact that there have been multiple actions by multiple parties to oppose the Russians already (getting kicked out of SWIFT, admitting refugees easily, donations, etc) implies that other European countries are AGAINST Russian Imperialism and not interested in further war. What this all distills down to is I’m still on Ukraine’s side. They, more than anybody else, have shown the world what Putin is doing: passionately missing the Cold War like a heartbroken teenager missing a teen idol who doesn’t know she’s alive. It would humorously remind me of Marcia loving Desi Arnez Jr. on the Brady Bunch, if it wan’t for all the the senseless killing and destruction. Sorry, Vlad, but you just can’t go back to your youth.

Ultimately, it’s still a race issue. Most Americans were fine with the invasion of Iraq, despite the fact that its justification (Iraq’s non existent nuclear stockpile) didn’t exist. People were okay with it, versus the invasion of Ukraine because they were Muslim, non-white, and they had oil. Face it, when the U.S. invites itself over, plan for it to overstay its welcome.

Inefficaciously Speaking…

With Europe back at war, the sixth mass extinction started, crude at $100/barrel, Trump let off the hook (again),and Mein Kempf the only book in the textbook cannon allowing white kids to feel good about themselves…this is a perfect time for one of those “Mass-Extinction Meteors” to hit.