Gone By Christmas

I post comments here and there to keep my mind engaged. The spontaneity is irresistible. A few days ago The New York Times had a story about three Republican congresswomen who broke ranks with Trump over the Epstein files. They are pretty stingy about what gets published, but they included this one in the comment section:

J

John Hamilton

Madison, Wisconsin Nov. 18

So ironic. Trump hoisted on his own petard. We will be looking back on this era very soon, and will wonder how we let it happen. It was a long leadup, well before Trump. Trump is now melting down. He will not solidify up. The melting process will continue. There isn't much to him, so when he heads downhill he has no internal resources to bring him back. He also has no friends, so it will be comical to see the internal firing squad, as his soon-to-be former cronies turn on him in desperate efforts to save themselves.
We should start preparing now. There has been much criminality in the past ten months: ICE, Homeland Security, DOGE, the Department of Justice, the FBI, others. We will need to go about this carefully, making sure the system holds together in the process of un-Trumping ourselves of this complete nightmare.

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Some are more fun than others, like this one in response to Trump calling a Bloomberg reporter "Piggy" this past Tuesday: 

Always projecting his fears out. He, rotund, gourmand, obese, has no hesitation calling others what he pretends is not himself. As I have said many times before, he is progressively mentally ill. He has now reached a new phase. Gone by Christmas.

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Or, more seriously, from this Yahoo repost of an article in the Wall Street Journal about the effect of Trump's tariffs on global growth:

Duh. Trump of course doesn't have a clue about what he is doing, partly because he doesn't have a clue about anything, and mainly because his tariffs were motivated by malevolence and a pathological need to bully and dominate.

In the long run he is only speeding up the process of the demise of worldwide Capitalism. It is an infinite growth system, destroys the planet and its people, and is unsustainable. What passes for Socialism is also infinite growth, so it is no answer either.

There is no answer but time. What will happen will happen, and we don't know how it will play out. The planet has never been in such a predicament before. There are plenty of know-it-alls around, CNBC, Fox, etc. Wall Street Journal. They will all have more than plenty to say as it all comes down, and will all be wrong. They will hold to the belief of infinite growth to the bitter end. It will be far worse than the Great Depression.

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This post is dedicated to the great ones. This calls for a song. The Beatles. Lynne Arriale Trio.

If you need some inspiration, watch this movie, the Ken Burns/PBS history of the American Revolution - the entire twelve hours. I spent November 1977 to the end of February 1978 in India. It became clear to me that the vast poverty and disease were the direct result of the British "Raj." The nation of Israel was mostly a "gift" from "Great Britain" - a gift that was not theirs to give. My ancestry is from Scotland and Ireland, both of which were conquered by the British Empire. Because of this my forebearers emigrated to the United States. One of them, my namesake John Hamilton, fought against the British in the War of 1812, along with his brothers.

Salon has a good article about the movie.

This interview with Ms. Rachel is worth your time.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Donovan. The Allman Brothers. Here's the story of the song's meaning. Some money music from Down Under, another former British theft. The Moody Blues. A song for the times from Canadian fist nation singer and musician Amanda Rheume. Peter Tosh. Stevie Wonder. John Prine. 4 Non Blondes. Tracy Chapman. Bob Dylan. Another song from Bob Dylan, a perfect description of our disintegrating and incompetent leader.

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New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is still calling Trump a fascist. I count myself among Mamdani's admirers and supporters. I tend not to think of Trump as a fascist, though. That would require some thought, some intellectual construct. Trump may ACT as a fascist, but his only belief is narcissistic - an ego-centered focus on himself. This makes him more dangerous than a fascist. We only need to stop him from now until Christmas. His disintegration will be complete by then.

Heh. Narcissism, unlike fascism, is not an ideology, not a belief system. It is only an "ism" because of linguistics, in the English speaking world a way of describing an array of behavioral characteristics. Trump, unable to form a belief system of any kind outside his own ego, is the perfect example of the folly of assigning "isms" willy-nilly. The syndrome is better described as Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

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Like her or not, Marjorie Taylor Greene is genuine. The sad part is that she is a genuine crackpot. David Frum writes in The Atlantic that she didn't "get the joke" about serving in Congress - that it is all bullshit, just a corrupt gaggle of greed merchants. Another sad aspect of this is that Congress sending money and weaponry to support the genocide in Gaza and Israeli lawlessness elsewhere is more cynical than we imagined - bleeding the U.S. treasury for campaign contributions from AIPAC and the military-industrial complex.

Marjorie Taylor Greene supported Israel sort of honestly - for religious crackpot reasons. She recently has changed her tune about the Mideast, criticizing Israel's genocide and Trump's bombing of Iran. Trump seemed unperturbed, but when she called for the release of the Epstein files, Trump turned on her. She announced her resignation from Congress to be effective January 5 of next year.

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Update, November 25:

R.I.P. Jimmy Cliff. He was one of the three pioneers of Reggae music, along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Reggae music is native to Jamaica, a former British slave colony in the Caribbean Sea. My favorite of his songs are The Harder They Come and Sitting in Limbo, both perfect metaphors for what we are all going through. Alternate version of The Harder They Come. Alternate version of Sitting in Limbo.

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Update, November 30:

Others are noticing Trump's decline. He can't help name calling, most recently defaming Minnesota governor Tim Walz with the accusation that he is "seriously retarded." Walz is demanding Trump release his medical records of his recent MRI scan. I replied to the Huffpost article about it thusly:

John Hamilton

Once again our fearful leader projects out what he tries to hide about himself. He has ruined his life with bad behavior, turning his brain into mush. He brags about "acing" the simplest intelligence test, which is fake anyway. The only time questions like he brags about are asked is of people already suffering from dementia.

In real life experience, Trump faked his way through school, benefiting from endowments made by his father, such as to Penn State, where Fred Trump donated handsomely so his errant son could get an MBA. Proof that his degree is fake is Trump's total incompetence in business. He only knows how to grift.

I used to substitute teach in special ed. There was quite a variety, but the kids with down syndrome were typically very decent and cheerful, and eager to learn. They also were enthusiastic about helping others. As far as intelligence, they were smart enough to be who they were, and to accept the condition that life offered them.

There were kids like Trump too. They tended to often be remanded to "Time Out Four" - confinement of some type. His parents sent him to their version of special ed - military school. He learned how to grift there.

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Salon has an update about Jeffrey Epstein crony Larry Summers, "Democrat."

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Update, December 4:

Salon verifies that Trump is collapsing.

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R.I.P. Steve Cropper. He co-wrote Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay with Otis Redding, and Midnight Hour with Wilson Pickett, among many other collaborations. This rebroadcast on NPR's Fresh Air of an interview with him from 1990 was aired December 5. Here's my favorite Booker T & the MGs song. I learned to play along with it during my indenture in the Army. This studio version has better sound. Here they are on the David Letterman show in 1991.

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Update, December 6:

Marjorie Taylor Greene told 60 Minutes Trump was furious with her for voting to release the Epstein files. I had this response:

John

Making Trump furious is Marjorie Taylor Greene's greatest accomplishment in life. We should all be doing whatever we can to make him furious.

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There is talk about SECDEF/WAR Pete Hegseth being investigated by five government bodies, suggesting it will lead to nowhere. I see it this way:

John 

What matters most is that he will be investigated. His accountability is the life sentence he has of being Pete Hegseth. Investigations will slow him down in his various criminal operations, leading to fewer people killed. And, investigations will weaken his power over the military. 

I served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, but thankfully was sent to Germany as part of our threat to the Soviet Union via NATO. The war was morally bankrupt from the beginning, but had "legal" sanction from Congress when they enacted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - totally fake. 

Trump and his underlings don't even bother with fake legality, but still can be stopped or slowed down. It likely will only take a few months. Trump is in failing health, both mentally an physically. His health and personal habits militate against him. Bullying is bad for your health, and bullying the entire planet is particularly bad. One old, weak and unhealthy dictator versus the world is a bad gamble.

The President of The United States is Criminally Insane

And should be removed from office immediately. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides the legal framework for removal of a president who is unfit or unable to discharge his or her duties. It authorizes the vice president, along with a majority of the principal officers of the administration (the Cabinet) to submit a declaration of unfitness to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

This of course won't happen. The vice president and the Cabinet are all partners in crime with their boss. That makes them at least criminals without conscience, and likely criminally insane as well.

I don't need to make a laundry list of Trump's crimes. We know them all-too-well (Here are some. Here are more.) He has been criminally insane for a long time, a process that likely began in his childhood, advancing over time, getting worse until now he is threatening military action in Nigeria to protect "Christians." As a deranged criminal sociopath he cares not one whit about Christians, real or imagined. He is responding to some conspiracy theory garbage he saw on "right wing" TV. He has announced the resumption of nuclear testing

The country is stuck in a codependency with a deranged criminal sociopath. The clearest evidence of this is that hardly anyone is calling him a deranged criminal sociopath. For reasons of career, safety and survival the corporate news media treat him as the legitimate "leader" of the free world. the U.S. Supreme Court, for supposedly ideological reasons, decides in favor of his various shenanigans. Heh. Support a criminal for ideology. The only ideology that supports a criminal sociopath is a crackpot ideology.

Those who call themselves "leftists" are also part of this codependency, railing about Trump's various criminal actions as oligarchic "fascist," authoritarian and on ideological grounds. In other words, to advance their own stance and stature. The word crackpot is rarely used, serving no ideological purpose.

So here we are. A government that seizes people off the street, transfers many of them to foreign torture prisons, sponsors genocide, bombs fishing boats in two oceans, and now is comfortable with mass domestic hunger. For how much longer? Probably until we hit bottom, start a national 12 step program, admit we are powerless to the drug of Trump criminal insanity, and seek help.

One step for sure is to recognize what the word crackpot means. Dictionary.com has pretty good one - a person who is eccentric, unrealistic or fanatical. Merriam Webster says one given to eccentric or wildly foolish notions. They are little help when it comes to mass hysteria, though - the multitudinous fanatical following Trump has among his mentally challenged followers. 

It will come to an abrupt end. Trump is trying to keep too many balls in the air, and is threatening the entire planet. We can help by making life harder for him. He is not Superman or a super man. The pressure of one thing will be his undoing: the Epstein files. When a prince of the British royal family is dethroned, or whatever de-princing is called, the case is bigger than we imagined, and getting bigger every day. My predictions tend not to come true, but I can still give it another try. Trump gone by Christmas.
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R.I.P. Diane Keaton. I always liked her, even in the movies I din't like. My favorite is Reds. Here's a snippet. The train station scene. The Internationale. The full movie.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Talking Heads. Pink Floyd. World Music in the Schools, 1987.
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Update, November 3:

Trump was interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday night. Here's a rundown. I noticed a couple of things worth noting. One is that he squints his right eye. The body exhibits opposite to the brain, and may signal that Trump is more dominant in the right side of his brain, having to do with creativity and free thinking. And, more ease with lying all the time. 

The other thing I noticed is that he is at ease with coming up with extensive, confident answers. Lies, of course, but on task and manipulative. He had just returned from an overseas trip to several Asian countries, having met with their leaders, plus an extra in Chinese President Xi Jinping in Korea. I think I know the drug that keeps Trump going. Prednisone. It is a corticosteroid used to decrease the inflammation and suppress the immune system. Among its side effects are weight gain, swelling and psychosis. It also can increase alertness and relieve pain, making it easier to function. It is addictive. Addiction runs in Trump's family.

Penn State professor Sophia McClennen writes in Salon that Trump's greatest destruction isn't political chaos or partisan decay, but the destruction of the American mind. Maybe, but he kind of needs to stand in line with television, the Internet, social media, alcohol and drugs. And, or course, guns. And, lest we forget, the poisoning of our ecosystem by corporations who are destroying the planet with their unregulated greed.

Here's an interview from April 13, 2020 on Madison's WORT with Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America.

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Update, November 8:

Surprise of surprises, Genocide Joe was even more Genocide Joe that we gave him discredit for. He, and his underlings Blinken, Sullivan and others were fully aware that they were supporting and inciting genocide in Gaza. Could Trump be worse? Of course, but genocidists exist at the bottom of human existence. 

Psychologist Steven Pinker was interviewed recently in a broadcast by the Commonwealth Club of California about how common knowledge is necessary for social coordination. He elaborates in his latest book "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life." He gives the example of Donald Trump, whom everyone knows that everyone knows that he is a deranged criminal sociopath (my description, not his), but there is a common pretend that he is a normal and legitimate world leader. Pretends like this are ceased suddenly, typically when one significant dissenter explodes the myth. Like the king who has no clothes. Or, say, the complete publication of the Epstein Files.

Welcome to the USA

When I saw the news headline on September 10 that Charlie Kirk was "shot dead," my reaction was "Who's Charlie Kirk?" I thought I was pretty aware of the various celebrities, political actors, pop stars, artists and other famous people on the planet, but the name Charlie Kirk didn't ring a bell. I don't subscribe to cable, dish, streaming or podcasts, so I am not familiar with every Tom, Dick and Harry who shouts from the proverbial rooftops of cyberspace. Because I didn't know who he was, my curiosity went to the where, how, why and when of the shooting. 

When I heard it happened in Utah, I thought "Hmm. Utah. A Mormon state. How unlikely. I wonder if he was shot by a Mormon." It turns out that the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, was "raised" Mormon. When the weapon used in the shooting was found, and it was a bolt-action .30-06 Mauser 98 rifle, I wondered again if the shooter was a hunter, experienced in shooting large game animals at a distance. He only took one shot. According to an official at Utah Valley University, the position of the shooter was 200 yards from Kirk, a distance of two football fields. According to an all-knowing Navy "Seal," it is an "average" shot. I don't know, but I have some experience shooting a rifle - Army basic training, growing up with hunting, boy scouts - and hitting someone from 200 yards away seems like pretty accurate shooting to me. Far more accurate than I ever was.

It has become de rigueur among commenters of all political and other stripes to say the shooting was "horrific" as a prelude to a litany of pronouncements one way or another about the life and worth of Charlie Kirk. Few talk about the daily massive death count in Gaza as horrific, or in Ukraine, or in Sudan, or the onslaught of shootings in the U.S. as uniquely horrific, but somehow the shooting of Charlie Kirk is special. I suppose it is because he was famous. The lives of famous people, no matter the  reason for their fame, are more valuable in our fame-obsessed, vapid culture.

So supposedly Charlie Kirk was assassinated for his beliefs, which are described variously as bigoted, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and dangerous. I would add stupid. If "Conservatism" is all about othering and disenfranchising people, then it is undemocratic and paranoid, a scourge upon the land. Charlie Kirk should have known better than to go around in public parading his crackpot beliefs. This is the USA., the land of guns. People will shoot you for any reason here or for no reason at all. They shoot themselves at record rates. Now Utah with all its Mormons has full membership in what we call the greatest country in the history of the human race. Welcome.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Johnny Cash. Cat Stevens. Talking Heads. Bob Marley and the Wailers. The Grateful Dead. Another from the Grateful Dead. Marty Robbins. Another from Marty Robbins. Jimi Hendrix. Neil Young. Another from Neil Young. Warren Zevon. The Fugs. Los Lobos. Iris Dement. The Waterboys.

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R.I.P. Robert Redford. It is hard to pick a favorite movie, but The Sting was endless fun. Here's a sample. Before his long career in movies he played a key role in the live TV version of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. I watched it with my father on our small black and white television set. I was too young to appreciate it, but stayed up to watch it anyway, feigning adulthood, spending time alone with my dad. Here it is in full.

R.I.P. Claudia Cardinale. She was in the shadow of the more renowned Sophia Loren, but had great talent and beauty. When I was serving in the U.S. Army in Heidelberg, Germany in 1970, Once Upon a Time in the West was a cult favorite among the Germans I would mingle with. The harmonica theme to the movie played repeatedly in the riverfront bar I used to hang out in on weekends. I didn't like the movie much, except her character, the most believable and endearing. Here's a sample.