IT AIN'T “THROWBACK THURSDAY”, BUT IT'S DAMNED APROPOS!

This popped up in my Facebook “Memories” feed this morning. One of the reasons I haven't posted as much is I've been busy with music and my better 2/3s and putting the final touches on getting ready for spending a month in Japan. I've also been working on “Homeless Chronicles in Tampa – The e-Book” and some of the Nebraska Creepers series, which is coming out in dribs and drabs as short stories.

But, I couldn't resist re-posting this, since there's been so much hoopla in the news about fake news and leaks and the Russians subverting the election, and all of this just sounds so damned familiar. We've gotten to the point where we really CAN'T tell reality from fiction, and people just do not know how to think critically, anymore. The ones I know who went through the Critical Thinking classes with me in HIGH SCHOOL for Chrissake, are still as sane as they ever were, but what in the HELL has happened to the rest of the Goddamned world?

And, why aren't the people in power doing anything about this travesty of a President and his bottom-feeders Cabinet – the least experienced, ever and just all standing there like a house by the side of the fucking road? This has really irked the shit out of me since the Legislative Branch told the Executive Branch that it – President Obama, as a lame-duck president, was not to nominate a Supreme Court Justice after the death of Antonin Scalia, because... “tradition” that had never, ever happened before. Fuck the GOP. So, The Legislative Branch essentially told the Executive Branch to take a hike AND hijacked the Judicial Branch of Government. ALL of this occurred BEFORE the election!

THEN, we had the James Comey, FBI farce which went on far too long and not one single jackleg up there in D. C. did a thing about it, except let the cat resign, I guess? No charges or malfeasance? A few decades ago, he'd at least have had to endure a few Watergate-like hearings, but nooo. The dude just resigned and skipped off, to his Skull-and-Bones Secret Society meet-up with the Bushes prolly.

I'm thinkin' that it wouldn't be such a bad idea if we had us a situation like “Designated Survivor” and just cleaned house. Preferably during the Inauguration, where we can get rid of a whole lot of dead wood and I will be out of the country. So there!

Original post: 12/19/2014

SONY, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, NORTH KOREA, “THE INTERVIEW” AND “TEAM AMERICA”

So, here it is December 19, 2014, the middle of the second decade of the 21^st Century. Cool stuff is supposed to be happening, like we all ride around in personal-pan helio-copters that repel themselves away from the earth and (one hopes) each other, as we flit around and do Important Things, wearing our onesies that are made out of a combination of tin-foil and Queen Latifah's weave and that also self-repel dirt. We all wear Johnny Quest's friend's Race Bannon's style of sunglasses indoors and out, because, well, we're cool. This is all of the cool stuff I remember from about 1960, and what I thought the world would become. How'd I do?

I don't remember my vision of the future being this blah, or sepia-toned, but heck, I can't draw this well, so it'll have to do.

Apparently, not very well in the prognosticating department, since we still have jacklegs like Kim Il Jung running rogue Dictatorships AND sticking their noses in OUR cultural bidness, which is even worse in the whole “America is a place where you can say what you want, and depict what you wish in the movies, as satire, with the complete understanding that IT IS SATIRE!” Nope, can't even do that any more and no one, who ACTUALLY matters, (I'm looking at you Mr. Obama*, and you, people who run Sony and Paramount Pictures) are willing to take a stand and say “look here, you little worm! We are going to make fun of you, whether you like it or not! So what if we take your head off with a chainsaw? It's all in good, clean fun, and besides we're showing it in OUR country to OUR people. Take a hike, Kim!”

*As of 2:30 A.M. EDT on 12/20/2014, Huffpo published an article stating that Mr. Obama condemns Sony Pictures' Heads decision to bow down to the request of the Dictator of North Korea. All nice I guess, but shouldn't Mr. Obama have been out AHEAD of this and taking up for the "Freedom of Expression" crowd before now? Just a thought.

No doubt I'm on someone's shit list now; but, when am I not? I'll just hunt me up a chorus of "Team America, F*ck, Yeah!" and march bravely off to. . . whatever.

(note: That is also a team name of one of our better SETI@home teams and with whom we fight with on a regular basis for 64th or 72nd position; I forget which one, along with the “Get Off My Lawn” team.)

1^st Lt. Glenn Wallace, U. S. Air Force

Granted, the man LOVED to fly, but he also served in WW II in Okinawa, as did both of my mom's brothers, my uncles, Stan and Nile. They were in the Navy in the South Pacific.

But, that didn't happen. I realize I've just jumped right here in the middle, with no explanation, not mention aforethought and no context, but this is really just unbelievable to me. I can just hear my father, who lived through all the shit of the Joseph P. McCarthy era, - with Stalin laughing, saying, “I don't have to do anything to weaken America, she does it to herself!" - in the early 50s, after he left the Air Force and I can remember him talking in hushed tones about professors of his who did lose their positions because people were afraid, and people talked, and cast aspersions, even if they weren't true. 

Some people took their lives. Were my dad alive today, he would say what I thought when I was reading the article; a quote by Joseph Welch that was televised, when Senator McCarthy began to insinuate a witness was a long, long-ago member of the American Communist Party, “Have you no shame? Have you no decency?” Where is that genuine outrage and righteousness now? When did we become so cowed by the liars in this world and let them just take over all that is right and decent and good?

B-29 Wing, over Korea, circa 1951

Have we no shame nor decency, that we can let the freedoms that were won so hard for us over the centuries and the decades go so easily? Are we really that willing to just brush it off? Or, are we that knavish and craven that we believe the North Koreans and the anonymous hackers are capable of 9/11-era attacks BECAUSE OF the showing of something like the previews for “The Interview” or a midnight showing of “Team America: World Police”, a movie that has been out for TEN years?

At least George Clooney had the gumption to stand up and attempt to do the right thing. He tried to get other actors and people of note to sign a petition backing the Sony Pictures, but was unsuccessful in his attempt. The media did little as per usual; their modus operandi of late has been to run around with their hair on fire making everything seem far worse than it is, and they do little to bring calm, reason, parity and a fair perspective to anything I've watched in many a year.

As far as I am concerned, we should NEVER bow down to dictators, never negotiate with terrorists. Once we start down that road, it is simply too easy to get us to give in on bigger things. It is the “slippery slope” that lawyers and lawmakers and diplomats worry about. Were it up to me? I'd be showing that bastard “Team America: World Police” for free in EVERY THEATER in the country! It's just a movie for crying out loud! (You can watch the damn thing on NETFLIX, which I intend on doing for the next week!)

#IWSG – DECEMBER CHECK IN – TROTSKY FILLING IN THIS MONTH!

Sorry, Viola Fury couldn't make it! She all tied up in symphony rehearsals and many viola playing! Playing otlichno viola! Is korosho? You think for once in her life, she could post decent check in that let everyone know she care about writing? Bah! All she care about is stupid viola and music! Not give one damn about me and her kinda crappy about goals!

D'obro Vechir! Mena Zavut Trotsky!

They all play lovely Rachminov “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” in some alternate universe, when they should be playing Schumann's Symphony Number 1, in B flat Major in Tampa Bay Symphony. But... Nyet! They all run off and find some wizard of a pianist!

“Play Rachminov!”, she said! “Stay home!”, I said!

Never! Off she goes with viola and leaves me alone to pine! “Sigh!” It is sad to be a Russian Blue... Maybe I go off and sing the Blues... Is that allowed here? In the USA? Now, that President Obama is not going to be in White House?

This Trump Turnip? He say he knows Putin? I think Putin will, how you say? Have his lunch... maybe eat him for lunch. More like it; Putin very, very wily and smart; this Trumpkin Turnip. He dumb, like bag of hammers, or napkins; he a goner. For sure, he no President; he think he smart? Ha!...

I wish my redhead would come back to me. She was my one and only; actually I left her. I came to her when she most needed me; left her when she most needed me, but I couldn't help it. I was so old; sick beyond sick. She know that; she still pine. Now, she doesn't really need me, but... I need her. How do I get her back? Does anyone know? Or am I with her always in her memories.

ViolaFury and stupid viola, "Wolf".

    I should be in lap, not piece of junk wood! >.<

Da, that is it... we are interwoven. Well that is #IWSG for now. She will not be here in January. She will be in another country, with her beloved viola, playing. There is a saying in my country, in Rodina, da. “Your first love may be great, but your last love will be perfect.” I truly believe this, and as she has had tough times, she crafted her well-earned perfect life, but is still waiting for her perfect love. Spaciba and D'zvadanya! More drivel in февраль, 2017. Maybe she write some words, but she still be playing many viola in Tampa Bay Symphony. Bye Bye, as you say, for naow!

WHY TO BE CONCERNED NOW AND NOT SIX MONTHS OR A YEAR FROM NOW

courtesy:deviantart.com    

Up until now, I've had little to say about the election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States. I suppose something like this has been a long time coming. We haven't exactly followed the credo of this great country and allowed any true free speech in a long time. I've been watching and waiting carefully and I've not been idle.

For years, I've written on my own blog about the abrogation of our personal freedoms as they are lined out in the Bill of Rights, under the Constitution of the United States. I've watched as Amendments III, IV, XIII IX and XIV have been repeatedly abrogated by local law enforcement, and time and time again, the officers have NOT been brought to justice, but have been let off with either minor sentences or fines, or just declared innocent, when countless video tapes tell us this is not so. Our Writ of Habeas Corpus has been violated and where is the outrage that the transgression of this most sacred of our rights should have spurred?

Despite the calls to justice to remedy the situation, there's always a lot of palaver and nothing is done. Then, more blood is shed, and it continues. I'm not just calling out the law enforcement agencies, although they do a shockingly bad job of following up on leads as was the case in Orlando, Florida, where the unholy massacre of so many innocents took place last summer.

This wasn't the first time the FBI had been warned of an individual who was a danger to society. But lest I get off the main track of this post, let me keep going.

With the election of Donald Trump and now, a Republican House and Senate, and the empty Supreme Court Justice seat, Trump has in his hands the power to do many of the things he said he would. So far, his actions, statements and choices for his cabinet are nothing short of hair-raising.

Firstly, we have collectively been told by America that We (rhetorically speaking) hate women, Muslim, Jews, LGBTQ, people of color; basically anyone who is NOT a white male and in one stroke we have made White Supremacy legitimate. It's now called the alt-Right and has left the forests and the huntin' dogs behind and wears a pin-striped suit and a tie and speaks in more scholarly terms, but it's still a pig; it just wears lipstick now. Whatever it looks like, it's still the same old racism that just hid, when we all thought we were being progressive.

I read an article by Masha Gessen called "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" and I believe the woman knows what she is talking about and it's another reason I'm not one of these people who are saying "Give Donald Trump a chance, blah blah blah". No chances am I giving to someone who talked and acted the way he did. I'm a woman with a Movement Disorder. How out of my mind would I have to be do such a thing?

But back to Masha's article. I'll boil it down for you, and provide the link, as well. 

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. We tend to rationalize his extreme statements because we're reasonable people, but he isn't. Several million Jews, Communists, Trade Unionists and others did the exact same thing in 1933 and look how that turned out.

Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. Hitler loved his dog and we saw plenty of pictures of him playing with her. Also, consider the fact that even though the markets tanked overnight, calming speeches from the Clintons and Obama smoothed things over considerably.

Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. Putin took over the Russian media within a year of his election and within 4 years, he dismantled the electoral system; their judiciary system fell apart without a whimper. Turkey's so-called Democratic President, who was celebrated for taking them into the EU, worked even faster in capturing the institutions that would safeguard the populace, and sadly, Poland has in less than half a year torn apart any democratic gains made within the last thirteen years.

Naturally, the United States has had a much longer history with the Democratic process than the aforementioned countries, but we also rely on not just the process but also the political culture to do the right thing. If all of the actors are not abiding by the law, then it means nothing. Reince Priebus' "Loyalty Oath" was supposed to put an end to Trump, but it backfired; Trump "became" GOP and then, anyone who couldn't endorse him, or agree with him, was being "disloyal to the oath". Trump isn't a stupid man; he's very Machiavellian in his political moves.

We also witnessed our three branches of government go completely off the rails, shortly before the election, At the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the GOP-led House informed our lame-duck President that it was "tradition" that a President in his final year of office wasn't "allowed" to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. This was just made up bullshit on the part of Mitch McConnell and the GOP and there is no such "tradition". So, basically, one branch of the government hijacked another branch of the government, and the third branch of the government stood there like the house by the side of the road! Our institutions are only as strong as the people who will defend them and uphold the laws.

Rule #4: Be outraged. If you follow Rule #1, and believe what the autocrat-elect is saying, you will not be surprised. But in the face of the urge to normalize, you will have lost the capacity to be shocked. It is essential to maintain this, although people will call you hysterical and/or unreasonable and accuse you of overreacting. I'm sure there were plenty of people in the 3^rd Reich who had reason to wish they had been accused of overreacting, when they found themselves in the Camps. Certainly the Lutheran Reverend Martin Niemöller had huge cause for regret (initially for Hitler, he later had doubts; as Head of the Lutheran Church, he remained silent), and expressed it beautifully* when freed from Dachau in 1945 by the allies.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Rule #5: Don't make compromises. I'm already sick and damned tired of hearing "we have to give him a chance". No, I don't. You may think you have to, but I think he needs to go away. He is unfit for the office of President of the United States and he is dangerous, simply because he doesn't know when to shut his mouth. If it were only that, he could be outfitted with handlers, much like Boris Yeltsin, who would regularly have to have a total "oil change" before meeting heads of state, because his BAC was pushing 70% or something ridiculous. At least, Boris was courteous.

Lastly, Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever, certainly not Donald Trump. I hope his days in the Oval Office are in the single or double digits, maybe. He is not going to be good for this country; he's already bringing out the worst in people. I heard this story from my better 2/3s, who's a friend of a preacher man, who is also a singer/songwriter and is Afro-American; this involves a family in his congregation. 

A white couple went into a restaurant, where a black family were finishing their meal. The white couple went up to them, and said, "You need to hurry up and leave. You KNOW who OUR President is now!" This kind of divisiveness will only continue to spread; the hatred will fester and we will once again, become a weak, divided nation, as we were during the McCarthy era. We can all turn each other in for crimes imagined. I might be here, or more than likely I won't. I'm not sure this country is worth sticking around to try and save. 

I'm not even going to address the "Hamilton" mess or Pence's penchant for torture and waterboarding; I'd be here pounding on this keyboard all night. But, if this is what America wants, so be it.