Keep 'Em Flying!

I said I'd be back and I'm keeping that promise. But alas, it's to say farewell from this particular platform for the time being. I have healed nicely from my surgery and my knee is doing fine. But I have found that my recent decision to avoid the news (for the most part) has brought peace of mind this summer. I cannot heal the many, many wounds done by the vile administration currently running roughshod over so many norms of decency, but I've learned that stewing in that juice is corrosive to my spirit. So, I've decided to swear off the screeds for now. I will still be sending communications to my representatives, and giving money to causes I support such as the ACLU. And now that I have two decent knees, I might well join a march or two in future. But while I will leave this site here with its useful links, it will become dormant for the time being. 

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I Shall Return!

Due to some chronic health issues and an upcoming surgery (on my knee, nothing too serious) I am stepping away from this blog for a bit. I'm still firing off defiant e-mails to my Senators and my Congressman (all Republicans alas, but oddly among the few who actually will vote against the mad king, if for the wrong reasons). But this battlefront will have to fall quiet for a time. Keep up the fight! As that stalwart warrior General MacArthur is reputed to have said, "I Shall Return!" 

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Fascism In America!

The FOURTEEN TRAITS of FACSCIM

1. Emphasis on Nationalism

    "America First"! Need I say more. 

2. Disdain for Human Rights

    The fight now is for everyone to get due process and keep "habeas corpus". 

3. Scapegoats

    Hard working Mexican immigrants have been targeted for many years. 

4.Glorification of Military

    They want a military parade on Dear Leader's birthday. 

5. Sexism and Rigid Definition of Gender

    Fear of transgenders fueled the takeover. 

6. Mass Media Control

    The threat of losing access has cowed all of the major outlets.

7. Emphasis on National Security 

    Everything is turned into a National Security threat. 

8. Religion fuses with Government

    Evangelicals believe the end is near and support for Israel tops all other issues. 

9, Corporations celebrated

    Nothing new in America. 

10. Unions suppressed

    This has been going on for years.  

11. Censorship of Intellectuals and the Arts

    "Common Sense" rules the day. 

12. Emphasis on Crime and Punishment

     Nothing new. 

13. Fraudulent Elections

    The "Big Lie". 

14. State is the Ultimate Authority

    We the People are told what to do at all times. 

(Traits identified by Lawrence Britt)

Looking at these indicators the United States is deeper in the tank than I imagined. The big reason for that is many of these markers were already in place when Stupid-Head took office. The attack on 9-11 spooked the country and made some shading of rights already an ongoing practice in many areas. The current crop of clowns are creating processes which are as cartoonish as they are cruel. 

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The Death Of A Nation?

The Birth of a Nation is at once one of the greatest movies and most terrible movies ever made. D.W. Griffith's expansive and innovative storytelling is on full display and the magnificent power of cinema is is all too evident, but tragically the story this tells is one of a dreadful history, of an aspect of American life which is truly shameful. 

That shame is not present in Griffith's portrayal of the Klu Klux Klan, the Secret Empire which in this movie rises up out of a misguided sense of necessity to stem the savagery of the freed black slaves who show they are incapable of leading themselves in a civilized manner and threaten the creamy white skins of Southern womanhood. It's the most profound and dreadful bullshit! But this truly is a well-polished turd, and the artistry of The Birth of a Nation can be recognized, but never should its themes be celebrated.

The Birth of a Nation triggered a rebirth of the Klan, this time these cretins adopted the look of the movie and the wearing of the white robe became consistent throughout the country as chapters of this odious fraternity spread its wings over a seemingly ever-ready populace. The popularity of the Klan was such that they even marched in force in Washington D.C. in 1925. The Klu Klux Klan became damn near mainstream, but it was knocked out by the patriotic fervor of the World War II. The toads who had once sought to become Klan instead slithered around the new hate group in town -- the National Socialist Party better known as the Nazis. The Klan got another infusion of energy during the ascendency of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency. Now here we are again with a fourth version, all decked out in black and substituting an "X" for a Swastika. 

D.W. Griffith was a Kentuckian, and for that reason I was keen to include some of his work in a Film Studies class. But these are high school classes and not college and so much more care must be taken in selecting examples of cinema. When Spike Lee's BlacKKKlansman was in theaters, I sought to get permission from my principal to show The Birth of a Nation in class. I was eager to use the opportunity to drive home the misguided themes of the original movie within the context of the new film. Much to his credit my principal at the time listened to my arguments seriously but ultimately decided against it. I understand his decision. A news story that some white teacher was showing The Birth of a Nation to his mostly white students in a community famous for its conservative leanings could be publicity no one needed, least of all me. To attempt to explain the film being shown in some historical context with proper permissions from parents sought and signed, would've meant nothing to media intent on sensationalizing race relations in America at almost every turn. He likely saved me from myself.

But it's important in a way that Griffith made this document of the beliefs of the Klan one hundred years ago. This rosy anti-historical account is a byway into the mind of the racist nationalist who lives in constant fear of the outsider, the one who unlike himself seeks not just "tradition" and "heritage", but something new and different and vital. The real Klan is about preserving the false memory of a more civilized time when order was maintained through violence and the utter and complete dehumanization of men, women and children. It is the shame that will blight the American record for all time and sadly continues to spread its diseased tendrils down through the decades. 

And even more shameful that it has once again risen and taken hold of our federal leadership. Someone said recently that these new challenges to liberty threaten the soul of America, but in truth the country sold its soul long ago and has been trying in fits and starts and in a shambolic way to redeem itself. For the moment we seem to have taken a knee, but we will continue our journey. 

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O Canada!

I sometimes have a hard time believing that the United States and its longtime ally Canada are now in effective war. At present that war is limited to rhetoric and economic fisticuffs. The there is no doubt that my brothers in the far North fear for their political independence, and I don't blame them. And further I applaud them for not following us down this dark road. 

Canada is the only foreign country I have ever visited and likely the only one I ever will visit. The movement at the time between the U.S. and Canada was seamless, painless and built on decades of trust and good will. Now that's been sundered by the power-mad ravings of an ignorant celebrity and wannabe Caesar. 

I live in Kentucky renowned for horse racing and bourbon. I don't know about the horse racing, but I pretty much know the booze ain't welcome up North. Sweet Potato Hitler has seen to that with his ridiculous tariffs and moronic screeds about making Canada the fifty-first state. The former is utterly destructive to both countries, and the latter is sheer lunacy. 

I want things to be like they were before, but it's clear that even after this ridiculous leader has faded into the West they won't be. Like any relationship, when one strikes another, the victim might forgive in time but will forever and for all time remember the blow. And they should. 

O Canada, I wish it weren't so. 

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Post-Modern Monopoly!

Monopoly is a very popular board game. The history of his game is found here. The game was invented by a socially conscious woman named Elizabeth Magie who wanted the game to be a "practical demonstration of the [then] present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences". It began existence under the name The Landlord's Game and was to be cautionary. It's a cautionary quality was lost over time when it was snapped up by Parker Brother and decades of play made it seem quaint. 

The game was inspired by Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and Increase of Want wit Increase of Wealth: The Remedy written by Henry George in 1970. The book was important in triggering the Progressive Movement which the modern Republican Party is so intent pushing back. They want a land filled with vast wealth for a tiny few and grinding poverty for most, so as to allow the wealthy to garner as much power over others as possible. They have the money, now they want they want the power. The Golden Rule has no place in the game of Monopoly. Instead of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." the game promotes "Do all you can to get ahead and screw your fellow man." That edict is driving the United States and possibly the world into a great economic depression. 

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Constitution Pop!

Saturday is Patriot's Day, the day the American War for Independence began with the battles in Concord and Lexington. In these harrowing times, I thought it best if I picked up another copy of the United States Constitution. As an American citizen born in the Eisenhower administration, I have grown up just assuming my rights as detailed in that document were largely secure. These days not so much. The above volume is a fun way for a comics fan to revisit these solemn rights. 

I loved R. Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics, so I'm sure I'm more than happy to add Constitution Illustrated to my collection. It's an enlightening revisit of the words which bind our trembling democracy together. 

This little ditty started appearing on Saturday morning television over fifty years ago. I have to admit I prefer the melody of "I am a Bill", but this one is pretty good too. What it speaks of is beyond good, it was noble, at least in its original intent and in more recent decades its interpretation and amendments. But now white men got scared they might not be top dogs anymore, so they scrounged themselves up a sociopathic galoot to run for the highest office in the land (he still works me though he tends to forget that) and win and begin a terror campaign which gives lie to not just essence of the document but the words themselves. 

Take a look at this remarkable document, the very one they'd love to get their hands on and shred.  

The Constitution of the United States | National Archives

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The Misshape Of Things To Come!

Here is a look at a musty concept called "The Technate" which according to some is the ultimate goal of the current administration and explains all the saber rattling with allies such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union. It imagines a single North American entity governed not by democracies but rather technocracies, a society governed by the whims of engineers and technocrats. It's deemed more efficiency and was deemed a more effective way to arrange society in the 1930's in the first Great Depression when it looked rather like the normal arrangements of society had fallen well short.  

Now that creaky old notion might well be back. 

If I imagined for one goddamn minute in our increasingly dangerous world that an intellectually honest technocracy as described by H.G. Wells and others was possible, I might buy in. (Even in his world though Wells had to contend with the demagogue.) But I have zero confidence in a felonious administration that has given us a vaccine-denier as the Human Health and Services, is working steadily apace to deconstruct the "Department of Education", is shadowed by a no-nothing, pretend "Tony Stark" who keeps blowing up rockets and wrecking planes just to keep himself out of jail, and puts forth a tariff plan that seems to have been cobbled together in the last moments with bizarro-world math! Is a true meritocracy possible under that guidance? Of course not. We are led by narcissists and man-children who look on other people as mere props in their much more important life story. 

Let's work to bring back and improved version of our once defective, but still at least nominal democratic republic instead. 

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Apokolpytian Analogs!

I wonder why as a loyal American citizen I have a hankering to read about a brave and bold struggle against a depraved power-hungry despot who wants nothing more than total control of everyone all the time? I wonder?

I've bought Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga yet again. This time in the mammoth single volume version put out by DC Comics several years back. I end up reading about the New Gods saga pretty much every year. Often, I return to the source, the works produced by comics genius Jack Kirby in the early 1970's soon after he'd left Marvel Comics, the place which had been built on the backs of his bountiful creations. 

He saw that comics could be something other than cheap pamphlets hawked by low-rent publishers who were given rebuff by "real" publishers. That his greatest creation has been collected time and time again in format after format proves he was right all along. That they formed the foundation of the most successful film series in history is just one more indication that Kirby saw the world in ways which spoke to the spirit of man. 

When I read the news of the day, I often get a yearning to see some Jack Kirby character deliver a haymaker to appropriated chins. There's is no doubt that Kirby would have been among the most ferocious voices against the predations of the current Republican cabal. When I look at Trump and his lackeys, I see the faces of those villains Kirby crafted long ago, at a time when another President tried to flout the law. 

Donald Trump is the canny center of the evil, though I don't think he's got the long-term strategy skills of Darkseid, but rather he's a villain who merely seeks to fulfill his rapacious desires in the moment. Trump also is slavish to Vladimir Putin, and Darkseid would never have allowed himself to be put into such a situation, at least not for long. Our "President" is the puppet and not the puppeteer. 

Marco Rubio works as the bumbling but ever diminutive Virman Vundabar. Rubio was once a somewhat respected legislator, but by aligning with this administration has forever stained his reputation. 

Cash Patel seems born to play the role of the malignant DeSaad, There's a manic cruelty in Patel's eyes which indicate he's eager to torment another soul. 

The often-inebriated Pete Hegseth would make a dashing but corrupted Kanto. Kanto was smarter and more competent than Hegseth, but still working with evil is its own reward in most cases. 

Susie Wiles fits as Granny Goodness. (Tulsi Gabbard is auditioning for his role in years to come.)

RFK Jr. could slither into the role of Doctor Bedlam. He is madness all wrapped up in one foul single little man. His quackery might well kill us all. 

Kristi Noem's got Lashina written all over her. She and the other chicks in the administration such as Linda McMahon (Mad Harriet), Kelly Loeffler (Bernadeth) and Elize Stefanik (Stompa). This is of course before the Furies reformed. And I'm not including Big Barda in this mix at all. 

Our real world's version of the savage Kalibak is Tom Homan, the brutal man who runs I.C.E. and likes going on TV to brag about dragging undocumented people out of the homes and workplaces. There's a glee in his eye when he talks about it that can really roil the stomach. 

I do a gender switch for the Glorious Godrey role and stick in the fare but fatuous Press Secretary Karoline Levitt. She smiles gleefully even as she delivers yet another death blow to democracy. 

And I haven't forgotten the mutating J.D. Vance who gets the role of Mantis just because he gives me the creeps. Our Vice President doesn't work for us, and he doesn't work for Trump either. His master is a billionaire who wants to rule his share of the planet. 

Scott Bessant, Sean Duffy, Doug Collins, Lee Zeldin, Russel Vought and Howard Lutnick can pick among themselves as to who wants to be who in the Deep Six. 

And there they are. I found analogs almost too uncanny as I thought through this post. These are dark times in America. But as Jack Kirby learned so well, the villains have to confronted, the enemy must be defeated and we as humans must always choose Life and not Anti-Life. We have heard the word...it is battle. 

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Another Galaxy, Another Time?

In between fretting about the downfall of the 20th Century order, I'm indulging myself in some Star Wars. I saw the first movie in the theater four times, and it was among the very first VHS tapes I owned. (Still have it.) I got the Marvel comic for a few issues, but I got distracted from that and didn't pursue it. One thing I've never done in all these years is to read the novelizations of the first trilogy. Lucas is credited with the first installment, the one we now call "A New Hope". When I read the first few pages though, I was struck by some startling parallels. Here is the "Prologue". 

I was gobsmacked at how much it reads like the news of the day. I guess we are enduring a story as old as time and fraught with enough drama for nine feature films and counting. Change a few names and we have the current crisis in the United States well and properly predicted, albeit from the depths of space from a time long, long ago. 

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No More "Justice"?

As you likely know, the Sweet Potato's administration has outlawed certain words from appearing in federal documents and further should be scrubbed from existing documents. The usual suspects are on the list such as "inclusion" and "multicultural", but it doesn't stop there. Of course not. 

In this new age there is no more "equality'' and "women" have been disappeared, as has "female".  I can only guess what they are using for substitutes, but I'd guess "dame" and "chick" might fill this new gap in federal locution. Also gone are "hate speech", "victim", and "race". It's a lengthy list and you can find it in a number of places, but this handy link will still serve. 

But even with all this nonsense, the one word that leapt out at me was "justice". "Justice" has been removed from the coming fascist state, but then we already knew that. Combine that with the Congress threatening to unravel the federal court system which has to this point been the only constraint on executive power demonstrated, and we see that "justice" is not a priority or even a consideration for his fascist regime. 

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Lighting The Fire Of Activism!

Here is a speech by Cliff Cash, a comedian and now one of the most potent voices speaking out against the fascism which is seeping into America. He has long been a critic of the current President and has set up a website called Donnie Loves Vladimir to document the many ties between him and the Kremlin. He pulls few punches and it's that frankness and humbleness which will hopefully get out the crowds into Washington D. C. He points up the difficulty of raising such mass protests in this large expansive country but calls for the continuing need. The legacy media has abandoned the country in no small manner, seeming to be disinterested in the large-scale protests which have been happening all across the land, in every capitol and more besides. These are protest I myself took part in, so I know they are real, and I know the fervor the people have to throw this dictator to the curb of history is real as well. As Cliff says...

FASCISTS FEED ON FEAR AND WE MUST FUCKING STARVE THEM! 

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There Will Come A Reckoning!

There will come a reckoning. It's easy to get mired in the avalanche of daily news as we watch barbarians attack our society from inside the walls. We let them in and they are all about tearing it down so that enemy at our gates can plunder and pillage at his ease. It's easy to get overcome with all that. But there's also this. 

There will come a reckoning. We will survive this and using the lessons learned rebuild and modernize our society so as to better protect ourselves from these predations. Future villains will find it harder to penetrate the refreshed and quickened civic defenses we will construct. But until that day.

There will come a reckoning.  And when it does come, these enemies we see so pumped up with power this minute will face justice, prison and more besides.  Their shabby icon is old and will soon shuffle off this mortal coil. When he does at long last or even before.

There will come a reckoning. The great American experiment is not over, and this testing time will only  make us stronger. 

"Bloodless"? Good luck with that Kevin. I hope you're right.  But just because there will be a second revolution, doesn't mean you're going to win it. And always remember, you guys picked this fight. 

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We March Again!

 

For those out there in the world who might think that American citizens are not rising up in opposition to the predations of the current evil administration, I offer the previous post and this one. We have marched, but we have been betrayed by our news media. Boycotts seem to be getting the notice of these greedy bastards and those are only beginning to get going. Companies will fall during these protests, the ironically named Target seems the first that might topple. When we train our economic might on another outlet they will take note. 

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We Are The Flood!

The media outlets in the United States seem to have gone silent. The shaking of the trees has brought some minor local improvements, but still the protests develop, and we march in the streets every day all over this big country. The Democratic Party leadership has been revealed to be complicit, and so those leaders have failed utterly in their responsibility to be the focus of a national uprising. Leaders such as AOC and Bernie Sanders have risen with a few others to take the place of the feckless establishment. The people came out before and our votes were stolen through computer gimmicks, he did not win. The courts hold the line for the moment, but it's feared they will not be enough. The uprising is coming nonetheless, inevitably like a mighty flood that sweeps away all before it. 

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I Am A Kentuckian!

I am a Kentuckian. 

That's been true all my life, but in my elder years it might become even more important, at least to my soul. I'm watching the United States of America get taken apart bit by bit, its mission to its citizens rarely if ever considered. Everything is done in service of whittling down the opposition when the creepy powers that be introduce their really outlandish and cruel notions upon the populace. Steps are taken to undermine the safety of those nations who once were staunch allies in what seems to be slavish service to a former KGB agent. 

Daniel Boone led settlers through the Cumberland Gap and into the land which would be called "Kentucky". The name is of course of Native American origin, but what it means is not fully established, but best guesses are that it originates from an Iroquois word mean "Land of Tomorrow". The settlements in Kentucky went on to become the only second state added to the original thirteen, which were the United States of America. 

But now I am embarrassed to be an American. I well understand the world's reaction to the insanity inside this nation as a convicted felon sells the nation off and into the hands of a foreign dictator. The world is not wrong to shun us. Foreigners should not come here. But do remember if you are able, that not all of us, in fact far from a majority voted for this, including me. (That's why I'm "embarrassed" and not "ashamed" -- two different things.) But that's of little comfort for the latest outrage.

Now it's come to light (as if anything else could be the case) that at least one innocent man and almost certainly more were bolted out of the country despite a judge's order to a foreign prison which the United States effectively rents. The blood-rage to send non-whites out of this country burns so hot that no time can be seem to be wasted on actual due process of law. This lawlessness must result in his repatriation and in the punishment of those who are responsible. But the former is almost certainly the best we can hope for. Disgust for those in my own country who allowed it and for those who will surely find some way to defend it. 

But this latest horror isn't just the problem of one election and its pitiful result. It's been coming for quite some time. Forty years ago, or thereabout, when I was a hale and hearty man in his twenties with a blooming family on the way, the nation made the tragic mistake of making a Hollywood actor its president. His nonsensical policies of trickle-down economics began the slow and steady slog to our current status as a debtor nation. Citizens decided they just didn't want to pay for services anymore and to justify that greedy decision began to blame those that needed help and those that gave it to them. We were taught to do that at the highest level and while some of us resisted, many did not. 

The aforementioned courts at the same time began a series of decisions which bit by bit made bribery legal. Our politicians (on both sides) were by and large reluctant to call this out as they benefited mightily. The media slowly but steadily abandoned its responsibilities and the only news we got most of the time was that which was pre-cooked or easy to scavenge up. More and more Congress allowed mergers to occur when none should have been allowed, but stocks were up so who cared really. 

Some did, but they were not enough. And now I live in what some call a rogue nation, unfit to have real allies and isolated. We can't be ignored because of our military might. The U.S. will continue to play a pivotal role in the future history of his planet, I just hope we are not the outright villains. Until the ship is righted though I am not an American first and foremost...

I am a Kentuckian. Maybe one day sooner than later in the land of tomorrow I can proudly be an American again...I hope. 

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