Category: Culture

Meet the New Boss! Same as the Old Boss!

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

He missed! But he took out others in the crowd, so we cannot be totally jubilant. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful in taking down its primary target. Some say it was divine intervention that kept Donald alive, and barely wounded. I’m not sure about that, but it is an obvious fact that it was a very close miss. But if you hoped that the attempt would bring about a Road to Damascus moment for Donald, it appears you will be waiting for a very long time. It took only about a day before the murmuring to resume, only now with added emphasis based upon the assignment of blame.

Of course, according to Republicans, all of the speech that provoked this attention seeker was Democratic. It is very easy to whitewash all of the Donald’s past comments about violence as an acceptable response to political differences as simply another case of fake news. And of course, all of the sycophants are happy to go along with the flow, and lay the blame upon the enemy. It is worse at the RNC since all of the sycophants are gathered together in one space, where they feed off of each other’s energy, and they have absolutely no compunction against revising the story of our lives in the last administration. According to these speakers of their truth, it goes without saying that the economy was never better than in the 2017-2020 time period, and everyone was fat, dumb, and happy. People have never been happier than they were back then, with depressed energy prices caused by demand collapse, and 15% unemployment. Those little irritating facts just get swept away as one speaker after another tries to sell their own line of reality.

Remember, more Americans died of Covid under Biden than under Trump say the Trump cultists. So Trump must have done so much right, according to the story sold by the true believers. (I am feeling like I have a horrible cheek hernia caused by my tongue poking through my skin after penning these lines.) Unfortunately, all of this is exactly what I’ve been expecting. Nowhere is anyone willing to take any responsibility for creating the culture that results in lone punks trying to take out a presidential nominee. My late father-in-law shared his wisdom from his 90 years on this planet. He said, “there are too many guns in the hands of too many people who have no business having them.” When you combine apocalyptic rhetoric from politicians of all persuasions, along with so many weapons out there, it is a wonder that this sort of event has not happened before.

Many people now want to believe it was an evil plot that nearly succeeded in Pennsylvania. We are so expectant that nothing happens by chance, we cannot accept any result that is not formed from a complex conspiracy. As it so happens, the tiniest of actions, like turning your head unexpectedly to the side, can prevent evil from triumphing. But in our society that has been raised on conspiracies, it is now impossible to accept simple answers. According to the cultists, no one has free will. Everyone is manipulated into their actions, and the more convoluted the explanation for an event, the more likely it is to be transmitted as undeniable truth. I am reminded of the Mexican bandits in the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, except their iconic line has been changed to: “Facts? We don’ need no steenkin facts!”

So now it appears that our nation is going to be captured by a rogue minority who doesn’t believe in the changes of the past 60 years. Heck, they want to go back to the days before 1920, when US Senators were elected by legislators, women couldn’t vote, and Social Security and other safety net programs were only gleams in the eyes of the libs. All of the changes to society are suspect, and the only solution is open carry. Submit, all ye women, as ye reclaim your rightful position as being inferior to males. How do you deal with people who exist in an alternate reality? Who believe in male superiority? Forget white privilege, it is male privilege that is truly more important to the members of the cult.

So to imagine society will be brought together by the tragedy of Butler PA is a fever dream. It ain’t gonna happen! Although, I guess, if all of the people decide to join the cult, they would deign to pretend they’ve brought about unity. Of course, when you are led by someone who inherited hundreds of millions, then somehow successfully peddled the myth that he was a self-made business genius, a little lie about unity is easy to swallow.

The Rematch of Our Lives

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

Memories! It’s amazing how memories can be manipulated. They are actually claiming conditions were so much better under the past administration, and if we only grant them our vote again, they will institute nirvana once more. Well, I invite all who have short memories to look at the archives of this blog. I began the blog after the inauguration of Donald Trump, and have kept it ever since. It is a reflection of the chaos we all felt set down in real time. But what I now see is that the chaos does not matter to so many of today’s citizens who may vote in November for Trump. No, what matters is ignorance. A recent poll from NBC shows that people who use newspapers to learn about the world favor Biden over Trump by a 70%-29% margin, while people who don’t follow political news favor Trump over Biden by a 53%-27% margin. Hidden within these numbers is a belief that traditional media gives a more comprehensive understanding vs. reading T-shirt slogans. I know some reject that belief.

So we now understand the reason why so many people are supporting Donald Trump. They are ignorant of the real issues.  At last, a real reason for why people are voting against their long-term interests. They believe politics are totally outside of their concern, and they have no need to understand issues or have any sort of political perspective. They are content just to skim the surface of culture, and are subject only to the loudest voice. That is why one party is able to claim the exact opposite of reality and get enough folks to buy into it that they are able to win elections.

I do understand that there are many who have bought into Trumpian principles. Some of them are true believers in the Republican mantra of lower taxes and smaller government, and they honestly believe other positions are evil and must be opposed. Bill Barr fits into this category, since he has come around to supporting Trump since the Biden / Democrat leftist thrust (according to him) is so evil, Trump is better by comparison. More than a few also share in the Trumpian racism which is reflected in so many of his positions, such as a vituperative distrust of any immigrants from what is called the Third World. These are the ones who believe in the great replacement theory, wherein whites are being deliberately forced into subservience and minority status, primarily by Jews who are pulling the strings of society. These are the hard core of Trump’s support, and no one will ever convince them otherwise.

No, what seems as if it is defining the election to come is the core of lazy and ignorant people who refuse to get involved. They may be convincible about the total unfitness of Donald Trump for presidential responsibilities. Somehow we must show these folks that the upcoming election is not an ordinary choice between opposing views of government. What we have instead, is a choice between reality, and a fantasy world of entrapment. Should we choose the latter, what might we expect?

For one, expect an attempt to be made to expel all who do not possess legal status inside of the US. Even if those who have a status of undocumented have lived within this country for decades, and have obeyed all other laws during that time, there will not be an exception made for good behavior. The mere act of illegal immigration will be enough to offset any subsequent behavior, and forced expatriation will be pursued throughout the second Trump administration. Expect scenes to be broadcast of crops rotting in neglected fields, followed by inflation in all prices agricultural. Remember that we no longer have a meat packing workforce that employs  legal residents, so prices for all farm protein will also skyrocket. If we thought prices escalated during the Biden administration, you can expect many times that level of inflation to afflict US consumers during the next administration.

Restaurants will close down as the work force disappears. Schools will be in flux as some students abruptly leave in order to accompany their families across a border to a land totally alien to them. Television crews will focus on those left behind, some with family support, but others trying to tough it out having lost both parental figures. The GDP of the country will nosedive as the US attempts to compensate for the loss of a substantial portion of its labor force.

This all did not have to happen. Immigration policy has been verboten to resolution in our congress for decades. Now, it appears the issue will be forced upon us because of the threats coming from one of the two political parties in this nation.

Other consequences we can expect? How about the abandonment of the rule of law, both domestic and foreign. We can expect the commitments to international order to vanish in a flurry of Presidential decrees, and people will be surprised to see an expansion in international conflicts, instead of the peace promised by Republicans. An attempt will be made to seize the levers of control for the US justice department, and only court challenges will potentially stop that from happening. Expect the job market for attorneys to ramp up, while productivity in the US economy slows to a crawl.

Of course, food-borne illnesses will take a huge jump up, as we abandon any semblance of regulatory control. All of the guard rails set up to prevent financial players from gouging clueless consumers? Gone in a blink. The political group that wants to eliminate Darwin from the schools has no qualms about unleashing financial Darwinism on the hapless people who live on the margins of the economy.

The controls on women of reproductive age will tighten. Reproductive rights? Merely a mirage, nothing to see here, your duty is to produce a new generation of citizens. The right kind of citizens, that is. Remember the laws against miscegenation? They were big when America was Great. Those same laws will reappear to prevent our culture from homogenizing. You want your government to monitor the status of your pregnancy? Your wish will be fulfilled in many states.

Worst of all, we will see the continued crackdown on political expression. TDS will become a capital offense, Even the far corners of the internet, like this blog, will be searched and forbidden. Those who think this is all hyperbole? Just go ahead with the election of Donald Trump and see how many of these projections come to fruition. This is not my choice of societies to live in for my remaining years. Unfortunately, societal dystopia may be coming for us all.

Racism? It’s Not Just For Breakfast Anymore

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

Photo credit Wikipedia Unite the Right article

It would be so easy to slip into an adoration mode. All I need to do is adopt racist attitudes and actions, and I would not react in an emetic fashion to his pronouncements. To think it could be that easy, to slip into a comatose state where all things emotional are provided by my master. Of course, we have to oppose any immigration, since only evil people want to come in over our borders. Of course, it is only white northern European stock that is capable of advancing society. Those primitive natives in shithole countries have never invented anything. It is only because of our beneficence that they have any semblance of civilization. To think of then coming into our country and poisoning our blood, why it is an appalling concept!

Or so one side of the debate would have you believe. More and more, you hear only of the evils of immigration, and unwillingness to accept the “other”. Makes you wonder whether these hypocrites remember their Bible stories, since they are so eager to impose their supposedly biblically-based morality on everyone else. Do they remember the parable of the Good Samaritan, who was the one who cared about an injured person and spent their own money making certain that the injured person could recover from their wounds? Even though the injured person was from a different human group than the Samaritan? Probably not, since so much of the hypocrite’s time and energy is spent on making certain they never come across anyone different than themselves.

I wish we could adopt the same race consciousness that cats have. Differences in coat coloration do not matter in the least to a cat. Instead, they roll about in play not caring whether they cat they are playing with has a black, or tabby, or calico coat. We’ve adopted two kittens and they make no distinction about who they play with or any superficial differences between them.

It does seem that humanity is regressing, moving away from full integration of the flavors of humanity, and insisting on the superiority of a single strain of the population. This resistance to the future seems to be what is driving so much of our politics today. One side seems convinced we are in a zero-sum world, where advances by one group will result in diminished returns by all others. Since white, European people have been the dominant group in the US, challenges to that dominance are greeted with as much hostility as the aggrieved group can muster. When this fear is coupled with a political leader who explicitly gives permission to vent political incorrectness, we see an abandonment of supposedly long-established principles. It has long been said that the veneer of civilization is thin, and once it is removed, animal impulses come out. That is the explanation I see for the rank hypocrisy exhibited by what the Republican party has become. It is now a party of Archie Bunkers, full of rage against anything that would interrupt their stay in a recliner. What so many people fail to realize is how easy it is to fall from a high perch. If we resist coming change, it will overwhelm us and the dominant class will find out what it is like to live at the bottom of the ladder. If we don’t bend with the applied pressure, we will break. I for one do not wish to live in a society which is broken. If the party of regression somehow wins the next election, I’m afraid it will confirm a break. Such a result will make me think long and hard as to what my response will be.

Worship In A Troubled Time

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

Our normal Thursday night church choir rehearsal was interrupted, by a visitor who clearly did not belong. Now our church is home to an AA meeting happening at 8, but this visitor was an hour early if their intent was to go to that meeting. He came in in slippers, which he left at the front of the sanctuary. He wore what appeared to be a hospital gown, and went back to the last section of the sanctuary. We asked if we could help, but he said he was just there to listen. I found my eyes wandering back to him repeatedly to give me a heads up should he behave even more erratically. Then later in the rehearsal, he got back up, retrieved his slippers, and disappeared.

On the next Sunday, as we were practicing before the service, someone came in and sat in the front row of pews. Again, we asked if we could help, and in a voice straight from an apocryphal movie he described how he wanted the word of God preached so as to stir up the emotions of the congregation, and he wanted to know if that was going to happen here. We let him know the service began in about 45 minutes, and he was free to go to the Adult Forum down the hall. This was a different person from the one who interrupted rehearsal the previous Thursday, but he exuded a stench of weirdness across the sanctuary.  I half expected him to have LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles, but fortunately never got close enough to confirm or deny this.

Why do I mention these two invasions? Because I am convinced it is only a matter of time before we are subject to someone who objects to our openness about LGBTQ topics. I mean, after all, we dedicated a plaque to Matthew Shepard that is now above the heads of one half of our choir. Someone will enter our sanctuary with a fully functional assault rifle, and decide to make their moral stand in favor of the vitriol of the old Testament, or the various sogynies that Paul espoused over his evangelistic career. Indeed, the Jesus who spoke the Beatitudes is foreign to most of these vindictive souls, who follow the letter of the word rather than the intent of Christianity as described by Jesus. I am so furious about the perversions of Christianity we see daily as followers of Trump conflate his actions with those of their supposed Lord and master.

We at St. John’s in Charleston are particularly vulnerable. We’ve been home to a ministry that feeds all comers, breakfast and dinner, since the mid-70’s. It was literally a godsend for the working poor who would participate. But somehow since the pandemic descended, things just haven’t been the same. Now this week there was an incident that affected the Catholic school across the street, and the immediate response is to stop the serving of meals at the church. For how long, we cannot say. This will help in reducing the number of potential intruders, but for the most part, it is not the mentally unstable who participate in this ministry that cause the most concern.

It seems the whole US society is subjecting itself to an uncontrolled experiment. Unabated access to firearms with no controls whatsoever. More and more guns flood the streets, and it is obvious guns are in the hands of people who are not stable enough to possess said weaponry. Yet many cry out for even more access. We should have the ability to purchase silencers with no limits. We should have bump stocks to convert a semi-automatic into a weapon almost like an automatic rifle. And if I am accused of an offense serious enough to trigger a domestic protective order? Since I am only accused, it will violate my constitutional rights to own a weapon if the order results in the removal of my weapon. It literally does not matter that your odds of becoming a gun victim go up if you own a weapon, the answer to all weapon offenses is let’s have more weapons.

So I will continue to sit in the choir pews awaiting the inevitable. It is not what I originally signed up for in becoming a choir member. I thought I was lending my voice as my gift to our worship services. Unfortunately in this day and age, in the country I live in, more and more we sit as potential victims to the next unstable person with access to weapons, who is convinced that the moral sin of mass murder is less odious than the horrendous sin of supporting the LGBTQ community. Odds are still in my favor for not having to face such a person. But I ask for how long?

An American Fable

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

Photo by Tunde Olaniron through CNN

Once upon a time, there was a nation where everything was peachy-keen. Nobody was discriminated against, everyone was judged by their character rather than their skin color, and the nation had never been guilty of anything bad ever happening in its glorious history. Into that country slinked some naughty evil people, who stole an election from the rightful winners, and went on to impose all manner of bad rulings and total debauchery.

Fortunately, the good guys (because of course, it was guys since you can never depend upon that other sex to do anything resembling logical and virtuous behavior) came up with a plan to reinstate their glorious leader and set our nation upon its righteous path again. Who could object to that?

Oh, but of course the evil people wouldn’t stand for that. They insisted upon reminding us that this nation had not always behaved honorably. There were times where we didn’t give those who appeared different from us an even break. They even had the audacity to remind us that 350 years of subjugation could not be overcome with 60 years of legal equality. Why, by gum and by golly, if those who aren’t true Americans can’t overcome the disadvantages they are up against, then they don’t deserve any consideration at all. Can’t see giving them any sort of a hand-out. They’d only want more, and they’d take that from all of us who really deserve to be respected and honored.

Well, we will just have to make certain that our young’uns never hear about any of these past issues. After all, we now are past any of the sins of our long-ago ancestors. None of us have ever enslaved anyone. And just remember, it was our ancestors as honorable northerners who fought and bled to free those slaves. You know those others, who fought against the northerners and wanted to keep slavery as an economic system? Why, they just were trying to stand up for state’s rights. Certainly people could understand the lily-white motives of the good people on both sides? We would never have any sort of remembrance of that, no torch-lit parades of marchers, would we?

Oh, but of course we are conflating issues here. See, much of the problems that we have is due to those few people who follow Judeo-Christian religious beliefs, but only the first part of that hyphenated word. You know, that small group who somehow manages to worm their way into controlling all of us, the true Americans. You can see them as they spread their tentacles over all of our media. That is why we have to scrub all of our media, in order to ensure that any images reaching our precious children show no traces of the struggles of humanity.

Why, any suggestion that we might not represent the ultimate pinnacle of evolution needs to be stricken from any historical source. If we remove all traces, and ensure that our precious children never have to feel uncomfortable about actions of their ancestors, then we can move forward and claim our prize. Just like if we expunge the historical record of the foul stench of impeachment, it will be as if it never happened. See? If we’d only have discovered how easy it is to alter the past, we’d never have any actions to repudiate in the future.

Now, I know some of you are feeling just a mite uncomfortable with the thought we can change the past. Let me assure you of all of the successful movements of the past where this has borne fruit. We all remember the thousand-year Reich, right? That pinnacle of man’s glorious accomplishment where we all celebrated the purification of our race? There’s no finer example of how successful we can be if we but emulate those in our recent past. Why, I have no patience for those who dare to declare any words which minimize our ascendancy atop humanity’s peak. Since we’ve learned the trick of reversing anything unpleasant in the past, we’ve certainly learned how to get rid of any mention of the victims of those who dared to be different than the objectives of those who ran the Third Reich. Now those people would never have a reason to lie.

Look, if you don’t believe in the goodness of those who want to run this country, just look at all of those who support them. You couldn’t find a more honorable group than those evangelical followers who have not quite internalized the lessons of the Beatitudes. They are the ones who believe in the inherent goodness of concealed carry without a permit. They are the ones who embody the life of the gospels by turning away all strangers, since they might be carrying fentanyl. And everyone knows it is not their fault if someone shows up at their door without explicit permission, thus incurring a lead baptism. Why, if we have these God-given rights, would we not want to exercise them to their fullest extent?

I’m tired of trying to explain to others how wrong they are. Since they refuse to accept their faults, I feel justified in using my fist to impose a little ‘larnin upside their head. If we do that enough, surely they will begin to pick up some sense. Least that’s what I think.

Choices People Make

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

This post is kind of hard to write. I am making the point that some things are inherently better than others. In doing this, I am claiming my membership in the “elite” class so many people wish to dismiss. Indeed, I am asking to be “owned” as a card-carrying lib.

First, let me address something that I hope is local to Appalachia, though I fear it has spread across much of the country. I think those who participate in, and attend “Toughman” competitions, represent a failed class of humanity. A bit of explanation, in case these events are not universal. These are competitions where untrained amateurs put on boxing gloves, and go and whale away on opponents who are likely as unskilled as they are. In between rounds, examples of Daisy Mae femininity parade around the ring, holding up the round numbers. In one fell swoop, this commercial enterprise manages to denigrate both the men and women of Appalachia, as only being capable of serving as cannon fodder or as sex symbols. Since these events have survived for decades in this market, I believe they serve to confirm the stereotypes hung on the residents of this region.

I believe classical music and jazz represents a higher capability when compared to rap, hip-hop, and country music. It is harder to make the notes on the scores come to life when you compare classical to these other forms, and as such, I believe it is better to have one’s music come from the classical repertoire. For jazz, the writing is minimal. You must internally improvise the chords and harmonies. Certainly you can write a memorable song only using 3 chords. But that does not mean you are a musician.

I believe most television is aimed at the lowest common denominator. Certainly the plethora of reality television shows represent some of the worst of humanity. Anything that allows mankind to exist vicariously and enable people to feel either envy at the lifestyles of celebrities, or wishing they had the physical abilities on certain reality shows, those shows further the misallocation of mental resources made possible by visual media. The popularity of TikTok videos, in five second increments, shows how the diminishing of the attention span is progressing quite well.

Even in our choice of weaponry, we seem to want to reduce our functioning capability while increasing our dependence on technology. Whereas shooting sports used to require skill, and superb hand-eye coordination, now we just get a semi-automatic weapon, point, and shoot aimlessly. Perhaps we are fortunate in that simply spraying bullets is normally less lethal than someone who is trained on their weapon. Let me just say that I do not measure my worth by the number of weapons I keep around the house. Those who seem to live in a permanent state of paranoia of the “government” coming to take their weapons are inferior to those who want to live in peace among their neighbors.

Let’s see, whose oxen can I gore now? We could talk about all of those who feel a perfect monoculture of grass is the highest form of landscaping possible. The ones who keep the landscape companies in business applying endless quantities of fertilizer, herbicide, and insecticide all aimed at turning suburbia into a boring sea of grass. They are the ones who on a small scale are responsible for the loss of pollinators and birds we see around us. They will never have the joy of watching naturalized crocus bloom in their lawn as a harbinger of spring every year.

To all who not only are incapable of understanding scientific principles, but actively work at diminishing them and proselytizing against them, you have my scorn. It is amazing in this day we are still seeing state legislatures devoting time and effort towards implementing intelligent design (ID), but that is the current condition in West Virginia, where the ID camel has stuck its nose in the legislative tent. Of course, research has found a higher death rate in the counties where science denialism is more widespread as compared to those counties repudiating those anti-intellectual beliefs. Only a few more generations and mankind may evolve towards a belief in science. Too bad we have to deal with the idiots in charge in the interim.

I believe the underlying cause for all of the issues I’ve identified is money. People go where the money is. And unfortunately, people are willing to spend money on those things which tend to feel good, but don’t last when looked at from afar. If people didn’t buy rap or hip-hop, we would not find it infesting our culture. If there wasn’t peer pressure to maintain a “perfect” lawn, lawn chemical companies would find more useful ways to serve society. If people stopped contributing money to those hypocritical politicians who give voice to populism, but really just want tax breaks for wealthy people, then we might get a political class that wants to solve real-world problems. I am not holding my breath waiting for sanity to sweep over this land.

Some of these distinctions are real, and cause much of the division between people we find in society today. Some seem like minor irritants (like reality TV – no one is making you watch that). But there is a deeper meaning to be found in people’s preferences. In most cases, people go for the easy solution. That is a primary reason why people find it difficult to postpone gratification and save for the future. If you are lucky, you will win the lottery and never have to worry about the future.

The Fight For Women’s Rights Goes On

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

It was 50 years ago that I took part in Cornhusker Boys State. Got myself elected to the legislature, too. I was told I could co-sponsor up to 3 draft bills already to go. So, this wanna-be liberal chose to sponsor bills to legalize abortion, outlaw capital punishment, and raise legislative salaries (in Nebraska those salaries were so low they encouraged bribery among the elected). Sounds pretty unrealistic for a high school junior. Unfortunately, I never got to add my voice to those few who were in favor of these positions while sitting in the legislative chamber, since I suffered a shredded knee ligament from a touch football game, and underwent surgery instead of arguing in favor of these bills. 50 years later, and the knee which suffered its first indignity will soon (COVID permitting) undergo replacement surgery as I suffer from arthritis.

Still, I was encouraged when 2 years later, the Supreme Court stamped its imprimatur on the abortion debate with the Roe v. Wade decision. For my entire adult life, I’ve seen women in the United States able to exercise autonomy over their own bodies due to this decision. It seems difficult to believe, but we are likely in the last year when this bodily autonomy is an unfettered right. We are about to back into the time when the state exercised its autonomy over all of its residents, and imposes its will against the will of a majority of the inhabitants of the nation.

Since the early 1970’s, there has been substantial change in society. Back then, the social stigma associated with an out-of-wedlock birth was severe, with many middle-class high school girls disappearing for several months while the deed was done. The social stigma has lessened, if not altogether vanished. But somehow we still have victims of rape and incest who will soon be forced to serve as indentured servants to the state, so as to ensure God’s will be done. This is especially true for the minor girls who may not be aware of their condition before their bellies swell. Everyone knows it is divinely ordained that girls are mandated to bring incestuous offspring to delivery, so that the abuse cycle can begin again.

I laughed at Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s inane pronouncement upon signing his state’s draconian 6-week limitation on abortions. You know, the one where he said women didn’t need to worry about rape, since his state was going to imprison all rapists. What a jerk! It is difficult to understand how his ilk has obtained the reins of power in his state, since he is so clueless. But it is consistent with the twisting of the American electorate towards the extreme right which has accelerated in the time of Trump. What those of us who believe in thinking for ourselves must keep in mind is that fully half of the population is below average – whether it be in strength, IQ, or any other measureable trait. If you can consistently appeal to the below average population and offer them dream fulfillment, then you can overwhelm any appeals to rationality. It is much easier to fall back upon emotion than to require thought from your supporters.

My last post had the title of Two Steps Forward, One Back. Unfortunately, in terms of social cultural warfare, we are swiftly heading in reverse, and seemingly have forgotten how to move in a forward gear. We seem bound and determined to institute a theocracy on this nation, in order to meet the rabid desires of the most vocal enemies of secularism. Unfortunately, we have seen where this type of religious conflict can lead. How many of the conflicts of humanity have been instigated by those who believed their side was divinely inspired, and thus had God’s blessing upon their endeavors. To those whose view of Christianity involves sending Christmas tweets out with their fully armed families asking Santa for ammo, a pox on you and your kin. I seem to remember an admonition to turn the other cheek to the aggressor, and forgiving your enemy not 7 times, but 70. All of the good news from the Gospels seems as though it were seed scattered across rocky ground when the current breed of Republicans trample it underfoot.

It is one thing to complain about the current political situation. It is quite another to do something about it. That is why this year I will be mindful about the charitable contributions I make, seeking not to “own the conservatives”, but instead, live what I believe is a truer sense of a Christ-centered life. And that will include a contribution to Planned Parenthood.

War on Crime – We All Are Victims

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment

So after 40 years of “tough on crime,” it’s come to this. In addition to the military-industrial complex, we have the penal system / financial complex as something to worry about. We now have perverse incentives in place to continue the expansion of incarceration as the answer to all of our societal problems. It makes perfect sense to keep building new facilities whose sole purpose is to enrich the corporate investors, who enable governments to pretend they are addressing their crime problems by locking up miscreants for longer sentences. All in the name of being tough on crime, which politicians love to tout to their voters.

In the October 15 issue of Science Magazine, there’s an outstanding summary of current research and trends in the social sciences regarding incarceration in the US. They show how the past 40 years of tough on crime has ignored secular trends on reduced crime rates (yes, homicide rates for the last couple of years have gone up). Instead, the incarceration rate keeps going up, and we are building a class of people who find it impossible to function in society after they are released from prison. Imagine you are someone convicted of a crime, maybe through a plea deal you took to prevent the possibility of being locked up for a much longer term if you decided to exert your constitutional right to a trial. You then find it impossible to qualify for almost all jobs, since the background check screams ex-con as soon as you apply. You try to comply with the terms of your release, but you find yourself falling behind on the requirements to pay all of the assorted fees heaped upon you because you were convicted of a crime. Sooner or later you find yourself unable to comply with all of the requirements, and you end up violating a term of your parole, thus triggering your re-incarceration.

The articles in Science describe how the penal system / financial complex views the poor and the convicted as sources of revenue. Whether it is a system of fees you are responsible for which greatly exceed the restitution amount, or whether it is a requirement that you pay for your own incarceration, or whether it is the ungodly fees you face to use the telephone in a prison where the phone is just another profit center, it certainly seems like the system is stacked against you.

At the same time, attempts at reducing the crimes police and the justice system respond to are causing societal upheaval wherever they are tried. Take the example of San Francisco, where organized shoplifting draws no enforcement activity, but the stores subject to the shoplifting are responding by closing locations. Choosing to minimize unlawful activity can have unintended consequences of greatly increasing said unlawful activity, and then the politicians can say, “See? Liberal approaches don’t work. Lock them up and throw away the key!”

Overlaid on all of this is the war on drugs which has been going on since the 1970’s. Many of the people in prison or subject to re-incarceration ended up with multiple strikes from small scale drug offenses in the past. Trying to separate out those who do represent a threat to society from those who were caught up by drug enforcement in the past is difficult. Therefore, the response from the politicians is often the same. “Lock them up and throw away the key!”

The articles in Science show the folly of using the same techniques as we’ve tried for the past 40 years and expecting better results. Now we have a vested class who have a financial incentive for maintaining the status quo. Many locations which were graced with the construction of a new penal facility, are now dependent upon the jobs these facilities provide. Especially since these are often the only jobs replacing manufacturing jobs, which have disappeared over the decades. All in all, we face a much more difficult task at trying real reform of the justice system, since so many locations and corporations are dependent upon the money provided by the penal system.

So what is the answer to really reduce crime while making it possible for those caught up in the prison system to find their way out and become productive citizens again? That is a good question. First, we need to agree on this as an objective of our justice system – we want people to emerge from prison ready and able to become productive citizens. If we agree on that as a real objective, then solutions begin to appear. Chief among these is to reduce the incentive to make prisons profit centers. Privatization of penal facilities is not good, since the dollars saved by the taxpayers, ends up getting eaten up by encouraging recidivism.

Let’s face it. We do not want a society where violent activity is tolerated. But that means we want equity for all, not just those who happen to fall afoul of the justice system as it is currently configured. There is plenty to be said about racial preferences in traffic stops, which is the entry point for many into the judicial system. When all races use drugs in roughly the same proportion, yet one race is disproportionately singled out for possession, something is not in balance.

Many who believe themselves to be conservative patriots will discount the findings in Science as namby-pamby pabulum presented by liberals to denigrate the feelings of True Americans. Yet it is becoming more difficult to ignore the consequences of our “tough on crime” approach, when so many people are being swept up in the maelstrom that is our justice system. Perhaps an outcry for change will only be heard by the politicians when more White people are caught up in the system, which must show a perpetual increase in inmates to justify the investment made in facilities. It would be a shame that our politicians do not believe the evidence already in front of their eyes, but when everything is viewed through a racial filter, it is not surprising.  

Alternative Reality? Sure, Got Some Right Here

evenabrokenclock10Leave a comment
Photo from Dan Rainville, USA Today Network

It is getting scary out here. I encounter glimpses of the alternative reality many people live in and it is horrifying. In this alternative reality, there was no pitched battle for access to the Capitol building on January 6. Instead, a lovefest occurred where hugs and kisses were exchanged between the Capitol Police, and the totally peaceful protestors who only were upset about the massive voter fraud that took place back in November of 2020.

In this alternative reality, all of us who received vaccinations for COVID 19 are living on borrowed time since we are all going to have blood clotting from the vaccine and we will all die horribly due to dire effects from the depopulation wrought by the kill shots. We have shed virus particles across our social circles immediately after we received our inoculations. There’s even a private school in Miami which forbids any student who receives a vaccination from attending school for 30 days in order to avoid inadvertent viral shedding. In the alternative reality I have witnessed, vaccinations and masks are signs of tyranny, while repeated expensive infusions of monoclonal antibodies are viewed as saving those whose regimen of vitamins, antibiotics, and ivermectin somehow didn’t prevent infection.  

In this alternative reality, it is a mortal sin on one side of the political spectrum to disavow the former President or any of his delusions. Therefore, it is obvious to them that any effort to prevent voter suppression represents an existential threat to their source of political power, and must be opposed unanimously no matter how egregious the acts of state legislatures are.

In this alternative reality, trickle-down economics works, has always worked, and always will work. Therefore, the necessity of keeping the existing bias towards capital in the US tax system is obvious, and any attempt to confuse the issue by bringing up the obscene increase in income inequality over the past 40 years is anti-growth, and thus anti-American. Note: it only took 40 years for the Israelites to discover the promised land after wandering through the desert. One can hope that wandering through 40 years of the Laffer curve would be enough for the Republicans, but seemingly any attempt at reversing course is verboten.

In this alternative reality, the moral exemplar is one who came into power by quashing any discussion from those he committed adultery with. The one who became known for running casinos into the ground was anointed by Christian ministers by the laying on of hands. The one who denigrated any who deigned to oppose him with all manner of derogatory nicknames, he was the one uplifted as a moral model by those who supposedly practice Christianity. From where I sit, these Evangelicals need a lot more practice, since their actions are the antithesis of true Christianity as I understand it.

In this alternative reality, those who have devoted their lives to the study and practice of a field of knowledge, and have also dedicated their lives through government service, are definitely not to be believed or followed by those in power. In fact, it is necessary to denounce these experts since they utter uncomfortable words to those in power. Gut instinct is so much better than any PhD’s expertise.

In this alternative reality, all moral failings of the dear leader can be obviated by nominating those who are hand-picked by the Federalist Society. Though the time in office of our dear leader is hopefully limited, the damage done by those favored by the Federalist Society and dutifully advanced to the Federal Judiciary will last long after the name of Trump has crumbled into dust. The ability to shape our judiciary is one main reason why so many Republicans held their noses and followed the past president down into his moral quagmire.

In this alternative reality, so many of his followers view him as a buff, fit man holding the weapons used to attack the deep state. The image of him with muscles rippling, riding the velociraptor with the background of red, white and blue will last for a long time. Even now, some of his most ardent supporters seem to live in a world where Joe Biden is just an image, and it is really him (the dear leader, your favorite President) who still maintains the reins of power. Somehow, the Supreme Court will recognize the errors of the past year, and restore him to his seat of power. It is evidence of the power of this alternative reality that the Constitution offers no way for this to happen. If you just believe hard enough ……

In this alternative reality. Really, we saw this at the beginning of the last administration, when the concept of alternative facts was presented and received no push back from those who are members of the cult. Having had a practice run, those who follow the dear leader are awaiting their turn to demonstrate once more that no one has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. We had one bite of the poisoned apple in 2016. Remember most poisons are dose-dependent. If we take as second bite of this poisoned apple, we deserve the death it will induce to our democracy.

It’s Mine. Mine, I Tell You.

evenabrokenclock102 Comments
Photo by Flavio Gasperini on Unsplash

The word of the day is:  Selfishness. This is the one thread that binds many of our current social ills together. Selfishness is behind those who proclaim loudly they need not support our schools since they no longer have any students of school age. Selfishness is behind those who claim they made it on their own, and therefore have no sympathy for those who may need a hand up. Selfishness is behind those who claim their decision not to be vaccinated affects only them, they have no responsibility for the rest of society. Selfishness is behind those who believe fervently that any public policy aimed at providing a needed service is symptomatic of creeping communism.

It was Ayn Rand who popularized selfishness. Before her books hit the mainstream, it was unfathomable that people would believe it was a moral wrong to provide charity. But her memes infected many who gained power over the years. Her philosophy served as impetus for people like Paul Ryan to wield his gavel in the service of selfishness. For many years, it was not thought necessary to inveigh against her beliefs, since the predominant philosophy from mainline Protestantism was Christian charity. That some of the charity was done by government was viewed as a necessary evil, and thus many of the programs set up became infested with bureaucratic means testing which often served to demean anyone who tried to use the “free money”. So people were prohibited from accumulating assets if they used a government program, since they could “afford” to go without the money if they had any assets whatsoever.

There is no doubt that the desire to prevent people from living high off of the dole has caused many programs to be bloated with government overhead. And many folks who could benefit from the programs, refuse to be subjected to the oversight of the government masters. Even the age of technology has been an impediment, since private enterprise is able to use technology efficiently to implement things like rewards programs, while government programs such as unemployment are saddled with antiquated systems totally incapable of dealing with the surges our new economy is able to create.

So the belief that anyone who became dependent on government support was morally inferior caught on with more and more of the population. Meanwhile, the private sector kept on evolving, while the government sector kept getting throttled and prevented from adopting new technology. Well, now we have seen the effects. An economy where the number of unemployed and the number of job openings are both high. An economy where private home ownership becomes unaffordable to more and more of the population, while inadequate investment in affordable housing creates legions of homeless populating the streets of major urban areas. Will we use the disruption created by the pandemic to remake the fundamentals of this economy? Or will we jump at the chance to regain a semblance of normality, and accept the human detritus unable to climb aboard the economic ship as a cost of doing business?

Even with the increased spending aimed at maintaining private consumption, we still find it nigh unto impossible to give the IRS additional funds aimed at collecting legal taxes due. Any attempt to include additional revenues from tax collection as offsets for additional spending were quashed. Why? Because of selfishness and a misguided belief that the government is already too intrusive on our lives, we certainly should not give them additional funding. So its ok to reduce taxes on the wealthy, but not ok to ask the wealthy to not cheat and to pay their fair share. I view this as an overt form of hypocrisy from our political classes. Though the Congressional Budget office predicts that $80 billion in additional spending will result in $200 billion in increased revenues over the next 10 years, the IRS is a Republican boogeyman, which makes any effort to increase its budget problematic at best. Let’s just chalk up one more issue that is falling prey to selfishness. Please note that IRS audits have increasingly focused on potential abuse of the earned income credit, where a few thousand dollars are at stake. The IRS is outgunned on dealing with higher income folks, and cannot take on the army of accountants and lawyers the rich can employ. So the bipartisan infrastructure bill lost its IRS component, leaving a long-term plan to address IRS changes in limbo.

Sooner or later, the concept of a guaranteed basic income will come to pass. If this is enacted, with no means testing, then it will prove to be an incentive to work, since benefits will not decrease with salary. As much as people may detest the idea of folks sitting on their asses, living it up on the government’s dime, we may need this type of program to rebalance the power differential between the wealthy few and the many who struggle in today’s economy. Think of it. We can eliminate welfare departments and greatly reduce the overhead required to administer benefit programs. As more jobs are eliminated due to automation and AI, this type of floor may be needed to prevent mass starvation and mass homelessness.

At some point, those who do not share in the prosperity around them, even though they work for wages, will realize they have the power to disrupt the lives of those who are comfortable. The right decried the demonstrations of 2020, where commercial properties were looted and burned. What will they do when it is the gated communities that become the target for mass action by those who do not believe they have anything to lose? If you don’t accept programs to improve the hope of the many, you just may receive the backlash from those who have no hope.