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. 

Rip Off 

Choosing Sides!

The war in Ukraine has been raging since Russia invaded its peaceful neighbor in 2022 after nearly a decade of unrest. Like so many Americans, I've followed the war with mild interest, considering this struggle just more conflict in a big wide world. I knew perfectly well that the United States was on the side of the Ukrainians, supplying them with arms and weapons enough to stave off the Russian assault. To most folks surprise the Ukrainians have proven to be a tough bunch and Putin has seen his hold on power threatened by their rugged resistance to his schemes. He has been using his resources to pay American influencers to undermine American support for the Ukrainian war effort and our President-Elect is actively hostile to the Ukrainian side of the conflict. 

In anticipation of a change of policy, the current President has lifted certain limits placed on the Ukrainians concerning the use of American armaments and this has resulted in American-supplied missiles striking deep into Russian territory. Weirdly, the Ukrainians also find themselves battling North Korean troops, sent by their insane little leader in exchange for much needed oil in the dark little kingdom he oversees. Many of these troops have taken this chance, so far from their homeland to defect. It's clear from events like these which side of the conflict is on the side of the angels, where in war it's hard to see the clarity. I dread that Americans are going to be fed a bunch of nonsense to allow the U.S. to switch up sides when the next President takes charge, and his Russian sympathetic Director of Intelligence begins to grind the machine. 

The Europeans can pick up the slack of supporting the Ukrainian effort, but what I fear more than anything else is somehow someway the future President delivering U.S. resources to the Russian side. It would have to be after some potent propaganda but that has already begun. People rightly fear a third world war, but what I fear even more is that my country will be on the wrong side. 

Rip Off 

The Battle Begins!

One of the many reasons that the late great Jack Kirby is a hero of mine is not only his utterly earth-shaking creativity in the relatively small world of comic books, but his dedication to promoting themes of individual freedom and his utter rejection of the mindset which makes dictatorships possible. This is most evident in his "Fourth World" material in which the maguffin that lies at the heart of so much of the action is a dread secret hidden in the brains of some humans which the deadly Darkseid and his minions scheme to get their cold bloody mitts on called the "Anti-Life Equation".

The Anti-Life Equation is an arcane formula which gives its handler the power over the minds and wills of other humans, it is the ability to make slaves of others and bend them to your will for whatever purposes you desire. It is the master scheme to make all of humanity slaves, never allow them to realize it, and instead make them relish their fate. It is the willful sacrifice of personal freedom to enter into a pact with an unholy master, to make of oneself a submissive acolyte.

Kirby explored the concept in the New Gods saga and to lesser extents in Captain Victory and elsewhere. The sundry insect armies he created at Marvel, DC, Pacific and elsewhere point back to this notion that individuals can disappear inside an army of drones dedicated to the welfare of an overwhelming master intellect.

That grim reality, so deftly explored by Kirby so many decades ago and informed by his Jewish heritage and experiences before during and after World War II are of great moment to us in America today when we find ourselves once "again" asked to surrender ourselves to something "great", to something which promises to a select company the chimera of perfect security if only they will hold at bay all those "others" who threaten the modern myth of perfect tranquility.

Our Leader is an exceedingly dangerous fellow, callow, and apparently lacking much if any empathy for those who fall outside his immediate family. He is overwhelmed with a need to constantly punch up his degraded self-worth by constantly lying about those who he imagines should adore him. If you fail to fall at his feet, he imagines you are an enemy and are to be sent away. If he cannot corrupt you with his charm, then you are a threat to the new order. 

He is currently filling his clown car of a cabinet with loyalists, drawn from sundry places. The richest man in the world is tapped to look for ways to cut government spending, conflicts of interest be damned. He entrusts a brain-wormed lunatic with the health of the nation.  He reaches out to television to get his new glib Defense Department leader, and into Congress for his next Attorney General. His pick there a bit shocking in that the individual was only a few days from an investigation into charges of child molestation. He wants only those who will toe the line and not bring up things like ethics and decorum when conducting "the people's business". 

The looming danger to immigrants and marginal communities is taking shape. These folks seem eager to tear apart families in grim and costly show trials before supposedly returning those interlopers to their homeland (which likely won't receive them). We are promised tariffs which are already playing havoc with the economy. It's predicted that if Sweet Potato Hitler's plans are implemented in full, it will trigger not only a recession in this country, but across the globe. 

Democrats are at the moment are strident but weak and will offer only a token resistance to the whims of his new autocrat who chafes at the limits of constitutional authority. It is once again up to Republicans (Argh!) to tame the monster they have uncaged and unleashed upon us. But at the moment they are too distracted by the avaricious desire for yet more tax cuts and a forlorn hope that they someday will be in charge, to pay attention to anything else. Once they have secured the fortunes of the rich and mighty then maybe they might deign to pay attention to the problems of the people. It's going to be yet another hair-raising ride, I fear. With even more dangerous consequences. 

Rip Off

Court Of Fouls!

The United States hasn't gotten screwed quickly. The Supreme Court has been chipping away at liberty for a few decades now, pretty much about the same time when John Robert became Chief Justice. The scheme seems to be to use the Constitution against itself, corrupting its clear intent and make the world safe for corporations and Caucasians. 

Let's just start in this century (Roberts was not yet the head of the court) with Bush V. Gore, when the Supreme Court awarded the 2000 Presidential election to George Bush despite the fact that history has shown than Al Gore actually won. The bizarre interplay between the branches of United States government took a turn that day. It led to a year of a President who lacked authenticity, and if not for the tragic intervention of 9-11, it's a tension that would've continued. But that attack on the nation melded the populace but sadly allowed the creation of the Patriot Act which increased the state's ability to scrutinize the people. It also led to the war in Iraq which was perpetrated by the Bush administration under an umbrella of lies. 

The next body blow to the union came in 2010 with Citizens United V FEC which decided bizarrely that corporations were people and deserving of First Amendment rights of free speech and that money equaled speech and as such no limit could be realistically maintained. For all practical purposes legitimized bribery and our Congress has been largely corrupted since. One can obviously argue the corruption was already in place, but this just made it easier and put campaign spending on steroids. It made it even more difficult for folks of even moderate means to run for office without personal wealth for a sugar daddy of some sort. That's why we have a congress full of millionaires. 

Dobbs V Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022 stripped women of full citizenship as it reduced them to second class citizens in many states in the nation when the court decided to say a woman did not have a Constitutional right to control her body and full control of her reproduction rights. This decision was made by Justices who perjured themselves to get a seat on the Court. This decision was made by Justices who got those seats by Congressional thievery and failure of basic civic fairness. 

The Court decided that racism was over and rescinded the limitations on certain states instituted decades before by the sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of rampant racist practices limiting the right to vote for people of color. Those practices returned within hours of the decision. It seems racism wasn't quite as dead as they thought. There is even talk of rescinding Brown Vs. Board of Education which ended segregation in American schools. And just this past month we have had a barrage of bad decisions. 

But it's Relentless V. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises V.  Raimondo in which the court reversed its forty-year precedent called the Chevron Deference which allowed for federal agencies to use expertise to best operate in a wide range of areas such as education particularly in education for special-needs education, food and water safety, labor safety and work rules, and environmental protection among a gigantic range of others. We will be subject to the kindness of the overlords to make sure our food and water are not poisonous and that we might get a break at work now again, forgetting completely that a raise might be coming. But on the other hand, I've heard that this might be an opportunity for more liberal approaches to break through using the courts. The battle is on. 

This court also reversed upheld some city ordinances and boldly announced it was illegal to sleep outside, making homelessness a crime. Cities and towns can now arrest the homeless and fine them for not having a roof over their head. These authorities are no longer required even to supply an alternative, save jail. They have decided that homelessness and poverty are a sin and crime, and jail is the way to punish such slackers. Never mind that supplying shelters is much, much cheaper than putting everyone in jail. As Jesus said the poor will always be among us, but in America now you can arrest their ass. Christian values win again. 

And on the last day of the session this summer, mere days before the celebration of the Fourth of July, the Supreme Court manufactured a loathsome edict in the aptly named Trump V. United States, one which gave nigh full immunity to the President of the United States, elevating the office holder above his fellow citizens, making him a de facto king. It's early days yet, but worst-case scenario is that they have possibly dissolved the union, creating a dictator who will over the course of time strip-mine the government, corrupt international alliances, and imprison and assault its former citizens. The best case-scenario is that the evil will be seen for what it is, creating a tidal wave of votes which will forestall for a time the attackers and give the union more time to defend itself and root out the traitors. An expansion of court would return balance and sanity to the institution and let new cases rise and reverse these hideous attempts to co-opt the nation and brutalize the citizenry. Joe Biden has put forth reforms, now we need just win the election to begin to roll this travesty back. 

It ain't over. They think it is. They think they've already won perhaps. They are about to learn a very hard lesson. 

Rip Off

The Clash Of Ideas!

How in the world did the United States get like this. How did a nation that healed itself after a Civil War, organized and participated successfully in two World Wars and generally over many hard-fought decades come to include all its citizens in the public square get like this. Well, the beginning of the story began in 1987 when the Federal Trade Commission, then operated under the Republican Reagan administration rescinded a rule that had governed communications in these United States of America since 1949.

The Fairness Doctrine was adopted in 1949, when it was clear that both radio and television communication were to become dominant in the coming society. In a world in which in addition to a chicken in every pot, there would be a new visitor in nearly every household, to hold sway with is older brother.  Radio was the means of communication in the United States for over two decades then came TV. This was potent stuff, and the immense power of propaganda was well understood by a nation fresh from war. So, to keep someone from using the airwaves, owned by the people and only leased to the companies which used them (not unlike modern roads) the Fairness Doctrine was created. 

The Doctrine said that if a broadcaster presented one side of an issue it was obligated to supply time for opposing views. The point was not to allow any single voice to overwhelm the airwaves and send only one unguarded message out to the masses. It worked pretty well, though obviously some bristled at it. Then with the Reagan administration, the progenitor of so many of our woes, came a new idea. The Fairness Doctrine which specifically provided for a range of voices, was somehow restricting free speech. Like Trickle-Down Economics this theory was swallowed and the doctrine rescinded. 

And then came talk radio. Folks had been talking on radio since its invention, nothing new there. But now one voice could get on the air and blather on unrestrained by anything so quaint as facts or the possibility of valid opposing viewpoints. The balladeers of bombast needed an enemy and in the 1990's they found Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. Bill came from nowhere to win the presidency and with a keen understanding of politics gave the U.S. something of a heyday. He had the morals of an alley cat, but we had a balanced budget for the first and only time in my long lifetime. 

But that didn't matter to a lout named Rush Limbaugh who came onto the airwaves at about the time Justice Clarence Thomas was being grilled by Congress in 1989. (Yes! The same fucking guy!) And using a deft understanding of what made harried middle-class white men angry he built an empire of hate and resentment and division. Supported by ads for gold (which undermined confidence in the money supply), and divorce lawyers targeting men (which fed an outlandish specter of the white male being oppressed by society), Rush chiseled away at the roots of civic order. He and his imitators harped on about how guns didn't kill people, guns killed people. And we all could see for ourselves when guns walked into schools across the land and murdered children. (Oh, wait! Those were people using guns as tools to murder.)

America got this way because we were talked into it. 

Rip Off

A Day In The Anti-Life - Health Scares

[The message was originally posted at the now defunct Rip Jagger's Dojo on July 29, 2017]

The failure of Republicans to abolish Obamacare "root and branch" as had been long promised for  years to their legions, has been an amazing spectacle. There's a lot of blame to sling about and for sure the chattering classes are up and at it, with the devoted Trumpians attaching little blame for the failure to their savior despite his incessant promises to offer up something much much better and apparently overlooking the small detail that he discovered after winning office and actually engaging one or two of the details of actual policy that health care was "hard". Still he's off the hook it seems and is apparently willing to let poor folks suffer yet again to make the point that he was right all along.

The health care bills which were put forth failed because they had as their primary reason to exist an attempt to claw back taxes. They failed as health care bills because they were not health care bills at all. And ultimately it's a lack of courage on the part of all Republicans to stand up and be counted on the promise they've bleated about for so many years. Democrats stood in line and took the harsh medicine which followed the erection of Obamacare and suffered many electoral defeats to accomplish the last big project of the Progressive program. It's the reason Democrats appear to be out of big ideas, they are; the mission is accomplished in its broadest strokes.  Individual men and women took hard votes and showed their personal success was less important than the help they would be able to extend to Americans across the land. Republicans have never been able to show that courage, or perhaps now it appears the courage is not to stand up for repeal but to stand in its way.

And now for another thing -- Trump voters! What the hell will it take for folks, even those hard-headed folks from the heartland to see that the man they have invested all their hopes and dreams with is a lying, xenophobic, racist asshole who is utterly consumed with his own immediate welfare at all times. He lies to the country on an almost hourly basis, shows zero loyalty to folks who have sacrificed their integrity to back his erratic plays, and kisses Putin's butt with weird aplomb.

These folks appear to think that only the high and mighty Trump is the one who can tell them the truth. Okay, but when he fails on health care why don't they then realize he isn't what he pretends to be. They ignore the media because they've been encouraged to think it is against them, and now it seems they have more faith in the former USSR. than CBS or NBC. The idea of patriotism seems now to be limited to the benefits of one man - Trump. How many shit sandwiches are folks going to eat before they get a clue the stink ain't a media conspiracy. God almighty!

Rip Off

A Day In The Anti-Life - Troll King

[The message was originally posted at the now defunct Rip Jagger's Dojo on July 25, 2017]

Trolls of myth are ugly critters than live in the dark and make havoc for civilized folk. Likewise on these here internets, we find ugly critters who adore making life a misery for honest people. And it's a sad fact that our "So-called" President is one of these critters, he might even be their king.

This modern Troll King lives in a shadowy world of international finance and it becomes more and evident with each passing day that the dangerous denizens of those shadows have influence on the machinery of our democracy. If not directly, then indirectly by the daily denigration of communication and governing norms which have for many decades served to create the stability citizens of the United States and the greater western world have taken for granted for over fifty years, my entire life.

I have been gifted with a life free of the rigors of true chaos which was the norm for the world's population before the current hiatus of order which has been maintained by the old rules. There have been winners and losers for damn certain and those who feel left out are to some extent finding ways to act out and strike at the heart of the order they object to. Some do so out of ignorance of the true nature of society, some do so with full cognizance of the chaos they will unleash and the power they hope to gather unto themselves when the old order falls.

But these are important times and it is dangerous indeed for anyone to attempt to undermine the very pillar of a free society in the vain attempt to maintain momentary momentum. The brash self-importance it requires to sacrifice all news media in a lackluster attempt to "win" a single news cycle is short-sighted to such an extent that it seems tragically childlike.

I work with folks who often require reminders to behave in an adult-like fashion. Being childish is seen as a weakness in adults, emotions like peevishness and sulking are seen as weaknesses and should be avoided. Churlish insults are not part of the social fabric, at least not any part of one most folks want to participate in.

These are dangerous times. The election process is challenged by the guy who "won" because his fragile ego is bruised that he gained only an Electoral College victory, and so all of us must face an identity check to make sure we're sufficient American citizens. The rule of law is questioned and challenged by a "so-called" President who demonstrates guilty knowledge with almost ever utterance. The fourth estate is in danger of being dragged down by the "leader" of our country because they don't kowtow to his meager efforts to be "Presidential", even if you slap a pointless adjective like "modern" in front of that phrase. These are indeed dangerous times; trolls are dangerous folk.

Rip Off

A Day In The Anti-Life - The Great Thing!