Charismatic Repulsivity

CBS News reports that 76% of viewers of Trump's speech to Congress "approved." They stressed that most viewers were Republicans, and that he lied throughout the speech. The Independent had the speech's approval rating at 44%, but lukewarm. The Daily Beast says many tuned out, of the 99 minute-long speech, and that it was his lowest-rated speech to Congress he has given, at 36.6 million masochists.

I didn't watch. I have revulsion limits, not precise, but when it comes to Trump, any revulsion is too much.  I watched a movie instead, Ocean's 8. It was fun. I did catch the tail end of PBS's coverage, where commentator Jonathan Capehart said we just watched an hour-and-forty-five minutes of fear-mongering. All I needed to know. Here's an example.

This is the strangest time in my entire life, which includes many strange times. The Vietnam War. Three years in the U.S. Army during that debacle. Nixon. Reagan. Bush I. Bush II. Genocide Joe. I even lived through the McCarthy era, though I was too young to have any idea what was going on. The atomic bombing of Japan happened when I was in my infancy.

The Trump presidency is a criminal operation, enabled by the U.S. Senate, which failed to convict him in two impeachments, the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted him impunity, and Genocide Joe, who never should have run for president even once, but, hack that he is, ran a second time when he was clearly unfit to hold office. He dropped out too late, paving the way for Trump. 

I didn't think Trump would live through his second candidacy. I thought the accumulation of mental decline, bad health habits, age and his ill-temper would do him in. Instead, he now is able to speak before Congress and the American people for 99 minutes, lying, fear-mongering and hate-mongering the entire time. It is almost beyond belief. 

I still believe he will fail, for a number of reasons. Trump, deranged and malevolent criminal sociopath, is still in decline. That is the way time works. We all get older every day. Even sociopaths. Mental decline does not improve as a time variable. 

Most importantly, life will become increasingly difficult for Trump as time advances. He has set his criminal regime in motion, and now has to follow-through on all his bonkers orders, firings, bullying and corruption of government functions. He has to get up every day and try to make it all work. It takes energy. The world is lining up against him. He will be frustrated, enraged, confused, exhausted, weakened and defeated. He is not a bright guy. He does have talent - as an entertainer, demagogue, liar and mob-inciter. If bullying is a talent, he is a master. As I wrote recently, he has charismatic repulsivity.  He is pretty good at getting away with crime, though it is through enabling by toadies in the justice and political system. He is good at bluffing.

The most revealing indicator of Trump's impending failure is the near-hysterical cheering by the Republicans in attendance. They doth protest too much in reverse. They all know Trump is a criminal sociopath, but went over the top in their adulation. That partly is because they are all criminals, of course, but the enthusiasm is fake, dictated in advance, transparently phony, and as reliable as, well, Trump. When he starts to fail they will bail.

This is not an exercise in Pollyannaism or happy days are here again. Climate change is still with us, and will be an increasing presence for the rest of our lives, and we may be facing extinction as a species. The days of infinite growth of economic output are drawing to a close. But the time of the criminal Trump regime and its equally criminal Project 2025 will not be with us for much longer, though it seems all-powerful to many. 

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Here's a song. Here's another, a rare time Bill Wyman sang. Something pending for the Drumpf. Maybe today. Even The Ramones believed Time Has Come Today. Maybe they were on to something. Time waits for no one, not even the Drumpf. He may be gone soon, though he might steal your face right off your head before he's done. His empire will fall, similar to others throughout history. Once again, the times they are a-changin'. Here's what will happen when Trump is gone. The sun will continue to rise. Alternate version. Another alternate version. For a while, at least, it will be time to jump in the line. Here's a song for the MAGA crowd. Studio version. Another song for the MAGA crowd. A song of guidance. This song if you have the U.S. blues.

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No Other Land, an Oscar-winning movie worth seeing. Here's the trailer. This article provides great insight into the importance of this film.

I had a response to this article: When Documentaries Become Propaganda: The Case for Rescinding the ‘No Other Land’ Oscar | Guest Column 

Nice try. Empty try. The genocide in the Palestinian lands will end, painfully for all, and sooner than we would now believe. Because of the incompetence and malevolence of Donald Trump the U.S. economy will tank, likely in the near future. 

If not the near future, the future nonetheless. This is because of the infinite-growth imperative of our economic system, in tandem with climate change and the impending breakdown of the fossil fuel energy system. 

When the U.S. economy fails we will no longer be able to sponsor genocide in the Southern Levant. The Israeli economy, not self-sufficient and also dependent on infinite growth, will also fail. It won't be a happy place, eking out an existence on stolen land which it first must rehabilitate to accommodate civilization. With few friends in the world and no sponsor, it will become a failed state in no time.

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Jimmy Kimmel revealed that a study of  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok estimated that the likelhood that the Drumpf is a Russian asset is 75-85%, leaning towards the higher end. This, according to Kimmel, is enough to fire him. Or impeach him, except he curiously now has impunity for whatever crimes he commits as president, even treason. A French senator spoke eloquently about Trump's treason. We could use about 53 senators of similar eloquence and dignity. Instead, we have fellow-treasonists, enablers, codependents.

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Trouble ahead?  Yes. Trouble behind.

History Repeating Itself

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Here's a song. Here's another. CSN&Y. John Fogerty. Talking Heads. The Golden Gospel Singers. The Woody Guthrie original of this song is not available, so this Bruce Springsteen version will do. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Arlo Guthrie. Elizabeth Cotten. The Grateful Dead.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank of the Jordan River, this. Some perspective on our deranger-in-chief's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Amanda Marcotte of Salon calls it the revenge of the mediocre.

The Southern Levant will never be the same.

Genocide Is All They Have

By now it should be clear that Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza was not a spur of the moment response to the October 7 attack by Hamas. It has been planned for a long time, just waiting for the opportune moment to spring. The same goes for the relentless attacks on Lebanon and now Syria. Iran may be next, a fantasy that has been in the works for at least since Barack Obama was president.

What has been a surprise for most Americans is the exuberant complicity of the U.S. government in this carnage. It shouldn't be. Even before there was such a thing as the United States of America settlers in the "New World" were massacring the people who lived on both the northern and southern continents. Those that weren't massacred were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to "reservations" – large concentration camps in remote and westward areas of the newly claimed land.

Then came the empire. Historians disagree on when the U.S. empire began. It could have been the war against Mexico from 1846 to 1848, where Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California were "acquired" along with parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. Or maybe it was the Spanish American War, where we gained the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. As late-comers in World War I we established our presence in Europe, effectively sealing the "victory" Britain and France. This was followed by overthrows of democratically elected governments in Central and South America, interrupted by World War II, which we were the dominant victors in both the European and Pacific theaters.

After World War II we had invasions of choice in Korea and Vietnam, the first ending in stalemate and the second in humiliating defeat. I was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam war, managed to avoid it by enlisting to get a school and getting sent to Germany, now our "ally."

Since then there have been invasions of tiny Panama, the postage-size island of Grenada, Iraq – twice, and Afghanistan. Mostly what our foreign "policy" establishment has been involved in is subversion, assassination, coup d'état sponsorship, funding of militias and guerrilla forces, economic blockades and sanctions, such as with Cuba.

Then there was Israel. When the nation state of Israel was created in 1948 it was a British handover, with United Nations support following World War II. The land of Palestine was not Britain’s to give, but they gave it anyway, a hubris that has been its hallmark characteristic for centuries. And soon in for a reaping.

For some strange reason it became the purview of the United States of America to step in as the guarantor of Israel's presence as a colonial settlement in the Southern Levant of the eastern Mediterranean. Many billions of dollars and vast supplies of armaments have been given to the government of Israel over the years, all for free, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, who have been largely ignorant of the largesse they have provided. Whatever brutality, destruction and land theft committed by Israel has been virtually unquestioned by U.S. "leaders" for the duration of the takeover.

We can surmise what the strange reason is. The U.S. is an empire. An empire possesses or controls other countries. Israel is indirectly controlled by the U.S. through weaponry and money. Israel uses that money and weaponry to control the region, and as a side benefit gets to steal land and resources. The Mideast is resource rich, especially in oil, and is strategic in establishing hegemony over Africa, southern and eastern Europe, and the far East.

Or so it seems. That may have been how the plan was supposed to work, but the best laid schemes o’ mice an' men gang aft agley, an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promis'd joy! Empires die, some quickly, some not-so-quickly. Ours will be over very soon. Some observers, like Noam Chomsky, believe it already is. Others, like University of Wisconsin professor Alfred McCoy and journalist Chris Hedges, believe it will be soon. Eminent economist Richard Wolf  also describes the end of the U.S. empire.

The end of the U.S. empire, whether already or soon, is for two reasons: stupidity and timing. The stupidity is plain for all to see, described in nauseating detail on a daily basis in worldwide news. I have written about it ad absurdum in this blog for a couple of decades. No need to run it into the ground again.

The other reason is timing. The climate crisis, while horrendously bad already, is about to get worse. Scientist after scientist are warning of impending planetary catastrophe in the very near future, and for the rest of the lives of anyone now alive, and well into the future. No need to run that into the ground here either. The information is plentiful.

In tandem with climate catastrophe is the end of Capitalism. It has run its course. It is a system that started roughly two centuries ago with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. It has befouled the planet, destroyed many millions of lives, and impoverished the vast majority of humans who have lived on Earth since it began. Because of the imperative that economic systems get bigger and bigger, Capitalism creates its own demise, outgrowing both the planet and itself. Karl Marx predicted this a century and a half ago, but capitalists were too busy laughing all the way to the bank. They won’t be laughing so heartily when it collapses.

With the collapse of Capitalism comes the collapse of the U.S. weapons industry – the military- industrial complex. Indeed, it can be truthfully said that the free flow of weapons to Israel has kept the weapons industry alive, and by extension the weapons industry has kept the U.S. economy alive. No more weapons industry means no more weapons.

In this context, how fares Israel? Without unlimited and unquestioned aid from the U.S., what does a settler colonial country do? I make no predictions, but things will be different. The demise of Capitalism also bodes ill for Israel, since it depends on foreign trade to provide the goods and money that keep the country functioning. Just as Israel requires U.S. funding and weapons to exist, it also needs economic interaction with the rest of the industrial world. If Capitalism goes bust foreign money and goods no longer arrive to keep the country going. Almost needless to say, we won't be hearing anything about crypto-currency, the big nothing hype of virtual money, or Ponzi money.

This all is likely well-known to both Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies. It may be why the genocide in Gaza and now Lebanon (and who's next?) is proceeding at such a feverish pace. Get it done before it is too late. It is a loser's endeavor, but from the perspective of empire, it is all they have. It won't be for much longer. Should Donald Trump actually become president again – not so certain, given his mental and physical health – collapse will happen even sooner.

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Here's a song for the end of the empire. Here's another. Can't forget John Prine. Cream. The Doors. Chuck Mangione. I saw him for free in 1974, one of the best concerts I ever went to. I gave a presentation on freedom in an economics seminar the following day, based on what I learned from his performance. It worked.

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Surviving members of the Grateful Dead were honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. last night. Genocide Joe pointed to himself as a "Deadhead" in a short video. Jerry Garcia must be rolling over in his grave.  For the record, a Deadhead is someone who follows the band on tour. Jerry Garcia died in 1995, ending the band and thus all touring. Genocide Joe never followed the band on tour, and likely never went to even one concert. He is a dead head, though. Not the same as a Deadhead.

Another reason why Jerry Garcia might be rolling over in his grave is the array of celebrities doing cameo performances of the band's songs. The worst was Sturgill Simpson doing Ripple, followed closely by Dave Matthews doing Not Fade Away. They should have let Susan Tedeschi and her husband Derek Trucks do all the songs by themselves. They had the feel. 

Jerry's daughter looks just like him. Same smile too.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also in attendance, pleased with himself, grooving with the Dead vibes. He has stated publicly that he is a Jew first and an American second. He approved Israel's bombing of aid trucks in Gaza. Maybe he was wearing a tie-dye when he gave the go-ahead for bombing those who provide food, medicine and other humanitarian aid. 

Thankfully, Jerry Garcia was spared of the indignity of rolling over in his grave by being cremated, with his ashes poured into the Ganges River in India and in the San Francisco Bay. This calls for a song. Alternate version.

Here's the real Grateful Dead doing Not Fade Away. See if you can find Genocide Joe in the audience, maybe tossing a balloon or beachball. He would be wearing a suit. Maybe even a tux. Here's the real Grateful Dead doing Ripple. This brief synopsis was played at the Kennedy Center extravaganza. It included remarks by Molly Tuttle and Nora Jones. Bill Walton can be seen in the audience in one short snippet.
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R.I.P. Zakir Hussain. Here's a sample. I saw him perform twice. Absolutely mesmerizing.

R.I.P Michael Brewer. Here's a sample. Here's another. Here's Brewer and Shipley's only hit song covered on the Lawrence Welk Show. Lawrence Welk thought it was a spiritual because it mentions Jesus, purported savior of mankind. Here's the original. For the unaware, to be one toke over the line is to have imbibed slightly too much cannabis sativa. This is my favorite Brewer & Shipley song, a rendition of the Jim Pepper original. Here's the complete album of Rural Space.
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I sent a message to Genocide Joe recently, suggesting he resign for the good of the planet: 

To: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
From: Me

Date: December 7, 2024

Subject: Foreign Policy

Hello Mr. Biden

You have proven yourself to be a man without honor in your zealous sponsorship of the genocide in Gaza, now Lebanon, and who knows next. The only honorable act available to you now is to resign from office immediately and let your vice president fulfill the duties of president for the remainder of your term. She will likely continue the genocidal campaign in the southern Levant, but perhaps not as unflinchingly and remorselessly as you have. She couldn't do any worse.

I voted for you in 2020, not eagerly, but considering the alternative, the only sensible choice. In 2016 I even campaigned for Hillary Clinton, walking an entire "turf" by myself, not a wise thing at my age. I am two years younger than you, and served three years in the U.S. Army while you were staking out your meaningless political career.

My first vote for president was for Hubert Humphrey in 1968, also my first for the lesser of two evils. I have never voted for a "Republican" for president, though I did once for mayor of Honolulu, Frank Fasi, a renegade "Democrat." C'est la vie. We do what we can. You could have done what you could in preventing genocide in Gaza and elsewhere, but instead chose the soulless politician option. I remember some of your past soullessness, Clarence Thomas, the 1994 crime bill, Iraq, Afghanistan, continuation of Trump's border crimes and tariffs. Yikes! What an unlife! You can rescue at least a tidbit of honor by resigning. A little honor could go a long way. It might do some good.

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Update, December 26: This feature in Salon gives a pretty good rundown on the psychology of Trump supporters.  This, from Slate, reveals some of the stupidity of the Cold War. Meanwhile, Americans are tuning out on political news. 

R.I.P. Jimmy Carter. There are many remembrances of the great things he did. I have one no one is mentioning. He appointed John Froines, Chicago Seven defendant, to head the toxic chemicals division of the Occupation Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). This shows much about his character and beliefs. For an overview of Carter's presidency, click here. Or, you can read about it here. In 1976, I fell for a TV ad by fake labor activist Lyndon LaRouche, who was actually a "right wing" zealot. C'est la vie. I voted for environmentalist, biologist and author Barry Commoner for president in 1980. I still believe he was the best candidate.

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Update, January 5, 2025: 

José Andrés, founder of the World Central Kitchen, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Genocide Joe yesterday. It would have been much more honorable if he had refused the award, given the carnage in Gaza has been sponsored thoroughly, enthusiastically and unscrupulously by Joe Biden and his henchpersons. Among the tens of thousands of people killed indiscriminately in the butchery were seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1 of last year, and three more in November. It seems fame, awards and celebrity are drugs that render all other concerns meaningless, even when it comes to being flattered by Genocide Joe.

Then there's this. Noam Chomsky again on why we can't have bot Capitalism and Democracy.

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Update, January 12:

Genocide Joe has bestowed another Presidential Medal of Freedom, this time to the Pope, supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church, head of state of the sovereign state of Vatican City, and apostolic successor to St. Peter, to whom the supposed savior of mankind, Jesus, gave the keys to "Heaven" and pronounced him the rock upon which the Church was built. But woo, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Genocide Joe! With distinction! Now that's an honor he will surely treasure above all others. And he was given the honor by phone. How American, to phone it in.

In times past, at least one pope sold indulgences, forgiveness of sins. Pope Francis is no fan of the genocide in Gaza, so he likely is displeased with Catholic genocidist Joe Biden. Attempting to pay the pope for forgiveness wouldn't yield a positive result, but a Presidential Medal of Freedom might. With distinction, maybe more forgiveness. I used to identify as Catholic, and silliness like forgiveness of sins is part of the belief system. Joe Biden isn't a very bright guy, so belief plus dumbness can make for some ridiculous gestures. 

Biden still has eight days left in office. He has much more to accomplish. How about a Presidential Medal of Freedom for fellow genocidist Benjamin Netanyahu? Genocide Joe has already expressed his great affection and support for "Bibi," giving him billions of dollars in money and weaponry. Netanyahu, under indictment in Israel for fraud and by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, could add the award from GJ to his treasure trove of dishonors. 

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Among my many experiences in life is having worked in Pacific Palisades, California. I had driven to LA in early 1968 with a high school friend, a last fling, sort of, before going into the Army. Another high school friend was already out there, and we found jobs at a high-end mini-restaurant called The Hot Dog Show, on Sunset Boulevard. It has long been closed, and the building likely razed for redevelopment. Whatever replaced it has now burned down, along with the shopping center across the street and all of the adjoining neighborhood.

It is eery, sitting here in Madison, Wisconsin, knowing the the area where I worked so happily is gone. There were forest fires in the nearby mountains even then, but they were always kept under control. Strange, though, for me, who grew up in the flatlands of Illinois, seeing forest fires as routine. 

The Palisades seemed tenuous even then, with luxury houses built to the edge of crumbling cliffs that ran along the Pacific Coast Highway. The houses were incredibly lavish and expensive, similar to nearby Brentwood. I used to hitchhike in those days, and became familiar with the topography, the people, and the wealth. I got picked up by people driving Jaguars, Mercedeses, Ferraris and the like. I never felt resentment or jealousy towards these wealthy people. I was in awe, and thankful for the rides. 

And, it almost goes without saying, compassion for all the suffering, death and destruction. Somewhere and someone else will be next. Climate change is here, and we are all in the same boat, all vulnerable to the next shock. We should be having a winter in Wisconsin, but aren't having much of one. We will pay for it when the weather gets warm.

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The PBS Wisconsin program Here and Now interviewed  University of Wisconsin sociology professor Chad Alan Goldberg about his research on populism last Friday. The main conclusion of his research is that Trump voters are motivated by status threat, that "demographic changes in American society, cultural changes in American society have threatened the status of dominant groups in our society and that that is what’s driving support for Mr. Trump." In other words, the superior status that they feel belongs to them, and that other groups that they feel are inferior are threatening their entitlement to superiority. Or, put simply, "white" supremacy. Even more simply, Trump supporters are bigots, xenophobes and racists, as we long suspected.

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Update, January 22: Over 20,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned in the war in Gaza. Israel's plan, with U.S. bombs, ammunition and money, is to flatten Gaza.

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Update, January 26: Israel is blocking 11 American doctors and nurses from leaving Gaza. One obvious reason why they are being held hostage is that when they get back home, they talk. Another reason, I suspect, is that keeping them in Gaza increases the opportunities for Israeli forces to kill them.

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R.I.P. Garth Hudson. I listened to this song many times during my indenture in the U.S. Army. Garth Hudson on the accordion just screams.

Events Will Overtake

The election, such as it was, is now three weeks old. For some, it was the Second Coming, American style. For many others it brought on waves of fear, foreboding and depression. Another Trump presidency promises lawlessness, oppression, worsening climate disasters and international instability.

It took me a few days to regain my sense of perspective and optimism. The prospect of four more years of Trump is almost unthinkable, but here we are. We’re cooked.

So it seems. But seeming isn’t the same as actual. Donald Trump may not, for one reason or another, be inaugurated on January 20 of next year. His mental state is pretty well-known: deranged criminal sociopath, narcissist, bully, fraud merchant, demagogue, pathological liar, clown, glutton and sexual predator. It seems obvious to many behavioral scientists and clinicians that he also is in decline. He has difficulty remembering things, though it can be hard to separate forgetting from lying. He has trouble focusing, speaking in a wandering, incoherent manner, saying whatever comes to mind, making no discernible point.

He also has uncontrollable anger, making him a dangerous person to be president, but making him also a danger to himself. His preference for low quality fast food can be seen as further evidence of pathology - food addiction, with inevitable health effects.

This isn’t exactly cause for cheer, but the prospects for another four years of Donald Trump don’t appear so likely. Project 2025, blah, blah, blah. The fascists are coming. Make plans to move to Canada, Europe, Australia, etc. Or wait a while.

So Trump himself is more Wizard of Oz than Adolph Hitler, and his fifteen minutes of fame are way past expired, but what about the wrecking crew he is bringing in? Won’t they do his dirty work whether he is here or not? His threat to “burn it all down” can take place with or without him.

It isn’t likely. The threat of Trump’s revenge crusade (after all, he is the Messiah of vengeance) depends entirely on him. If his health fails and he is incapacitated, his phony power ceases. Without the illusion created by endless bluster he has nothing.

So Donald Trump, deranged and in decline, 78 years old, six-foot three and obese, is an implausible dictator. Not for lack of want or trying. He would like to be worse than Hitler, Stalin, Franco, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Suharto and Amin put together. In addition to his declining mental and physical health, he is lacking in intelligence and competence. His life is a pathetic study of failed businesses, unpaid debts, fraud and disgrace. His only talent is as a performer – a mob inciter and entertainer. A hate monger. He has an audience. It worked for the past nine years. It won’t be for much longer. Events will overtake.
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Here's a song. A movie. Another movie. Otis Rush. A going away song for Trump. A lesson he was incapable of learning. Maybe when Trump is gone we can do this. Amanda Rheaume sings a going away song for the American Dream

Kamala Harris For President

Joe Biden is mentally unfit to hold office. This has been plainly obvious since his debate with Donald Trump on June 27, but he has likely been unfit for over a year, maybe longer. He never was a particularly bright guy, so it might be hard to tell when the decline advanced to a level of unfitness. 

Biden's unfitness seemed clear to me when he went to Israel last October 18, hugged the vile Benjamin Netanyahu, and declared himself a Zionist. He then proceeded to supply the government of Israel billions of dollars in money and weaponry, more than they could ever want or need. 

Whenever Biden's condition advanced to unfitness we will never know, but he is now in a sufficient degree of incompetence that he is a danger to the country and to world peace. It is probably too late to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, but we can pressure him to resign from the presidency. Kamala Harris, next in line for the presidency, would assume office for the duration of Biden's term, and would surrender the office to the thoroughly evil Donald Trump on January 20, 2025.

Kamala Harris lost the election resoundingly to Donald Trump in what has to be the greatest political humiliation in modern memory. She is through as a politician, but she is not unfit to hold office and is not a danger to the country and the planet. She would be an interim president, leaving office on inauguration day, but that is far preferable to Joe Biden being in office for even one more day.
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And, for the Democratic Party, nice going assholes! You deserve this for your nothing campaign, your nothing candidate and your nothing stance against the worst genocide since World War II. History, should we have a history, will remember this nothingness as symbolic of the times in which we live. 

Here's a song. Here's another. Laura Marling. Tommy Emmanuel. Tony Furtado. Van Morrison and Brian Kennedy.

All the more reason for Joe Biden, unfit for office, to resign. He, still assessing aid restrictions to Israel, might want to reassess his prospects for "Heaven," should he be facing the Grim Reaper after he leaves office.
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Here's an image that can be used as a bumper sticker, sign, or any other kind of prompt. Click on it and get a bigger version.

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Update, November 20: White House Says Democrats Who Oppose Weapons To Israel Are Aiding Hamas. I responded thusly:

The soullessness of this accusation is revealing, showing there is no depth to which Biden and his servants will not sink. It is also revealing of how desperate they are. As the genocide in Gaza progresses towards its, er, final solution, time is running out for Biden to wrap things up before January 20, when he will face not only powerlessness, but universal condemnation for his futile effort.

Out of office, he will face the further humiliation of having Trump take credit for whatever peace follows this shameful episode of U.S. history. He will not be able to leave the country, lest he be arrested and sent to the Hague for war crimes prosecution.

This should be a warning for all who seek power. Biden has been seeking power for his entire public life. In the four years in which he was the "most powerful man on Earth" he steered Russia towards invading Ukraine and sponsored the worst genocide since World War II in Gaza. He made powerlessness look attractive.

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Pollster Nate Silver is calling on Biden to resign. The chorus is likely to grow.

Official Truth

I voted Tuesday, the first day of early voting in Wisconsin. As I said I would, I voted for Alfred E. Neuman for president and U.S. senator. It felt good. It was not an easy decision, risking passive support for totally evil Donald Trump with my one vote. It was worth the risk. Given Kamala Harris's full support for president Joe Biden's sponsorship of genocide in Gaza, I couldn't bring myself to vote for her. No morality about one area of concern means no morality about anything. Expedient and situational ethics are no ethics at all. A president with no morals or ethics will sell-out any and every principle or policy if it is politically inconvenient.
It is hard to comprehend how the lives of an entire population can be politically inconvenient, but this is the stance of the supposedly decent candidate. She is a fellow-genocidist with her mentor and bestower Joe Biden. This is a lesson in politics for the whole world. The U.S. presidents, present and future, are not only comfortable with genocide, but are threats to world peace.

How can this be? Are "Americans" genocidists? Some, maybe, but the broad population of the United States is no more likely to be a mass of genocidists than the German public was during the time of Adolf Hitler. This is the fatal flaw of the mass system. The many are governed by the few, who ostensibly represent them, stand in for them - democratically or despotically. 

Experiences with bureaucracies are good lessons in how representative governments operate. They are authorized to perform certain functions in service to the public, and they generally do serve the public. They also serve themselves. The way organizations function is through internal processes, practices and relationships that cohere to perform their roles in society. Internal dialogue becomes organizational truth, or what John Kenneth Galbraith called "bureaucratic truth." It may or may not be actual truth, but it is working truth, operational truth that the organization presents to itself and to the public. Another name for it is institutional truth, but for me official truth works best.

Official truth can have tragic results, such as the genocide in Gaza. The front man for the genocide is Joe Biden, President of the United States. After the October 7 attacks last year he declared himself a "Zionist," hugged Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and supported the onslaught on Gaza with the slogan "Israel has the right to self-defense" and "Every effort is being made to protect civilians." Lies. But true for the organization, the Biden foreign policy establishment. They started with lies, and no matter what happened in the ensuing months they stuck with the lies. They also stuck with supplying Israel with all the bombs, artillery and bullets it could ever want, the instruments of genocide, er, Israel exercising its right to self-defense.

This madness will not end well for anyone. The war has extended into Lebanon, and Iran is next. Based on the genocide that Israel is already perpetrating, deaths could mount into the millions. It couldn’t happen without U.S. funding and weapons. Or Joe Biden and his underlings Blinken and Austin. Who knows where it will go from there? Israel is on a rampage, and it is apparent that it was planned for a long time. Because of organizational inertia and hubris our "leaders" are unable to stop the carnage. They will continue to lie, and they will continue to arm Israel. This is the fatal weakness of organizations. They live by their own truths, and damn the consequence.

There is an added factor. The weapons industry. The military industrial complex. They stay in business by selling armaments. Wars, any kind of wars, are good for business. The assault on Gaza, and now on Lebanon, are a bonanza for gun-runners. That, plus the billions in weaponry for Ukraine are making the gun merchants very rich. In an election year the jobs provided by the weapons industry can mean the difference between defeat and victory. All the more reason to keep the slaughter going.

These people are that bad. All of them: Biden, Blinken, Austin, Netanyahu, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the arms merchants. All genocidists, and in the case of the Israelis, gleefully so. We will all pay dearly for this crime. Paying for this while we are also paying for what we have done to the planet. Alfred E. Neuman, who never existed and couldn’t possibly have generated such madness, is already a far better president than Biden or Harris could ever be. Without ever being president. Nothing and nobody are better than these two genocidists.
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Here's a song. Here's another. Brewer and Shipley. Bob Dylan. Another song from Steve Miller. Another from Brewer and Shipley. Citizen Kafka.

Some background on how genocide in Gaza is being carried out.

Here's some news about Donald Trump. I predicted over a year ago that neither Biden nor Trump would be their party's candidate by election day. So far I'm half right. Trump is disintegrating before our very eyes. Between now and November 5 his disintegration will likely be complete. Good riddance to both of them.

R.I.P. Phil Lesh. A tribute from Warren Haynes. He didn't sing often, but was revered for this song, written for his dying father.
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Writing beyond the bounds of thinkable thought, I submitted the following to four local newspapers. None of them published it.

To The Editor (oped@badgerherald.com, editor@dailycardinal.com, wsjopinion@madison.com, tctvoice@madison.com)

Ahead of the Pack

It would seem that the University of Wisconsin’s football fortunes are back on track with the blowout victory over Purdue. In actual fact, though, the fortunes remain exactly the same. Gargantuan. College football is all about money, and win or lose, athletic departments nationwide stand to reap a vast fortune year after year. In order to make even more money, the major conferences have consolidated into still larger conferences, with the Big 10 now consisting of 18 teams. It used to be, when the big 10 was a real 10 teams, that they all could play each other every year and have a sense of cohesion and regional identity.

A huge money-making scheme needs marks, suckers who fall for the grift, believing the hype and the pretense that it is about athletics, sportsmanship and an integral part of the educational process. If you believe that, I have some land in Arizona you might be interested in. Students play along, filling stadiums with bodies, noise, bands and even jumping on the supposedly indestructible stadium. Players, pawns in the game, risk lifelong injury and obscurity, giving their most hale and hearty years to an increasingly brutal game. They move easily from one school to another, maximizing their marketability and NFL draft posture. Most drift into anonymity when their playing days are over.

I have a solution. Drop football. A state university, funded by the public, should not be a professional sports vehicle. In ancient Rome crass entertainment was known as bread and circuses. What we have today is bread and circuses on steroids. I don’t have cable, dish or Internet streaming, but on any fall Saturday I could watch football for free on about seven channels, maybe more. It is madness. No one could watch that much football, but madness knows no restraint.

This won’t last. Our unsustainable infinite-growth economic system will fail, likely soon, and the money for ever-expanding football hype will dry up. Universities will have difficulty filling stadiums, TV revenue will shrink, and the enormous salaries paid to coaches will be a thing of the past. Many schools will no longer afford to have football teams. Wisconsin can get ahead of the pack and drop football now.

John Hamilton 

Madison

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A surprising update about University of Wisconsin football. They are hosting the nation's number one team, Oregon - now a member of the Big 10 - on November 16.
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Here's an update about how AIPAC controls Washington. Here's another update on how an Israeli digital intelligence firm, "Cellebrite," is becoming the top U.S. contractor. The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.

This interview on Madison's WORT is pretty comprehensive about the dangers of genocidal theology. It is one of the best interviews I have heard in a good while. A week later this interview about Hamas on the same show is great too. It doesn't seem like it now, but I believe truth will prevail. It might take until Satya Yuga, but we are likely to see an infusion of truth in the current times. Meanwhile, you can tune in to Democracy Now. It is also on YouTube.