It has definitely gotten weird enough for me...


"Well I guess if I had to swear one way or another, I'd say Lazlo wasn't insane. He just had very strange rhythms. But he stomped on the terra. Lord Buckley said that. It's hard to say he got what he deserved, because he never really got anything, at least not in this story. And right now, this story is all we have ... It's sad. But what's really sad is it never got weird enough for me. I moved to the country when the boat got too crowded. Then I learned that President Nixon had been eaten by white cannibals on an island near Tijuana for no good reason at all. Golly, you hear a lot of savage and unnatural things about people these days. Lazlo and Nixon are both gone now, but I don't think I'm going to believe that 'til I can gnaw on their skulls with my very own teeth. Fuck those people, huh? If they're out there, I'm going to find them, and I'm going to gnaw on their skulls. Because it still hasn't gotten weird enough for me."

- Bill Murray as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson on the Nixon era..


Jeff here with more questions about the only world crazier than my own mind, our government. Or maybe its just politicians, I can't tell from the bridge of the USS Dementia.  As you know with LBD, your cognitive abilities can and often do swing throughout the waking day, from almost-normal, to almost-moron. For reference, an almost-normal phase would mean I might be able to cook a meal of medium complexity without the assistance of the local fire department. Almost moron means I am unable to open a box of cereal without literally ripping the top of the box off to get at the food inside. Its not rage or frustration; my mind can literally think of no other way to get it done so I set about almost-methodically ripping the box or container apart one bit at a time.

So when the up-phases mean I can use my mind even a bit, I am faced with the most bizarre and illogical things in the news, things that make no sense whatsoever to me. The problem is, this stuff is so broken that it makes my head feel as borked as in a down phase....please explain to me:

The wall that Trump has such a hard-on for.

That wall could never work, and Trump should know this already. My reasoning is this: I lived in Berlin in (then) East Germany for a handful of years in the 80's. Inside a wall constructed over decades by people who are about a 1000% more knowledgeable about this stuff than Trump will ever be, the Russians. Folks, this was a serious wall, not the mamby pamby thing Trump is talking about. And if Putin were to be honest, as we would hope he was while Trump is kissing his ass, he would inform Trump the wall never worked and even became more of a political liability than it was ever worth. Politicians do but history doesn't lie: People still got through and every time the Russians upped their game, so did the people who didn't want to be stuck behind a wall. So Trump should know it will never work; that is if he could read a history book, which apparently is not in his skill set.

In other words, if the Russians could not make it work, Trump can't either and is just a money-pit for the government with no practical value. He knows this yet still keeps crippling our government to get money for it...I don't understand.

Fake news......WTF?

There has been so much talk about this and I really don't understand why. Think about it: Trump lies so much and in such easily-proven ways, what does he leave the press to report? In engineering the principle is called GIGO for Garbage in, Garbage Out. Meaning if your original data is garbage, everything down-stream of it will be as well, no choice in the matter. I don't care what anyone says, the press have nothing to do with the fact that I can watch Donald Trump, president of the United States, lie to my face, his words to my ears, and all it takes is Google to assure me he is lying, that makes everything that follows fruit of the poisonous tree in legalese. Doesn't matter then what happens down-stream, as long as the source lies, there is nowhere else for the truth to go. As long as Trump lies, and continues lying to the American people, it doesn't matter a whit what the press does. As if to out-do his Jedi-level lying prowess, Trump even recently admitted that if for some reason the thing with North Korea goes down the tubes, he tells us in advance anything he says about will be some story he makes up. His words, not mine. Can you imagine if ANY past president said something like that?

Think about how messed up that is:

As of now we have a president running our country that:
  1. You can't trust a single word out of his mouth (by his own admission)
  2. If you can't trust anything he says, you cannot trust the motivations behind what he does.
  3. If you can't trust his word, you can't trust anything he claims when he has these private trysts with brutal dictators, and by extension, anything that is claimed to come of these encounters.
  4. His credibility is so low at this point, he could need to take our country to war, that reason could be a real and valid reason, and not one person in this country would or should believe him. That's his own fault for the constant and voluminous dispensation of bullshit his administration has become. They aren't even good liars either; it's like the American people don't even rate better lies from criminals. If this alone doesn't scare everyone....

Want anyone to take you seriously? Get your own house in order first. Yet still people are going on and on about "fake news". Spare me. That reminds me...

Whataboutism. Are you kidding me?

I have seen weasely politicians in my time on this planet but like Spinal Tap, I think these characters have it set on 11. First, the current class of politicians seem to be the most corrupt of any generation I have seen but their brazen arrogance is just messing with my mind. They have some kind of broken logic that makes no sense at all that goes: if I can point at someone else doing something similar, I must somehow not be guilty. They even invented a name for it, Whataboutism, where when faced with evidence of their own wrong-doing, they try to move the guilt by saying "but what about such and such" and then the argument moves in the direction, as if that somehow absolves the speaker of guilt. What I can't figure out is why someone isn't pointing out the obvious:

Even if what the speaker said is true, even if the other "whatabout" example was guilty of the exact same crime in the past, it doesn't matter at all because the current crime is the one of higher importance, ask any judge. To put it in terms the simple need, say you are in your house and an arsonist breaks down the door and sets fire to the couch. After calling that person an asshole, you accuse them of trying to burn down your house. They come back with "well, what about Joe Schidlap who burned down a house 20 years ago??? Huh what about him??". The problem is, your house-fire, the current crime-in-progress, will always take priority and you will not really care about someone burning down a house 20 years ago because it doesn't have shit to do with your home burning right now.

If you need it spelled out even plainer, even if the what-about person was guilty in the past, say both get convicted (and in your case, the arsonist is stopped before more damage is done), will your life be more improved by

A: The person being punished for the two decade old crime going to jail or
B. The person still perpetuating the same crime being stopped (and going to jail)

I even made a dumb video pointing out the absurdity of this a while back....click on the icon lower-right to make it big enough. Some odd setting in this blog software I can't find would fix it....




Karma is a bitch, don't these politicians get this?

I am reading/watching in the news the antics and underhanded tricks the current political power is using to circumvent the way the government, our government I would remind you, is supposed to work and has been working for a very long time. Perfect? Of course not, no one is but this current political class (read the Trump and Republican gang at the top and the white supremists and other miscreants at the bottom) are reaching levels of just plain unforgivable behavior not seen since the last time the church and state got together and decided to run things "their way". Some remember it as the Spanish Inquisition, and we all know how that turned out.

So someone explain to me why these people are acting this way, making stupid law changes they know will not be tolerated in another two years, if that long, and will be wiped away like crap from the bottom of a newborn? IOW all these great (to them) and bizarre "victories" are at-best temporary so how on Earth do these guys and gals expect to profit from their perfidy with "big business" when "big business" will get cut off next election? They act like the corruption they are putting in place will just last forever like a Supreme Court Justice, from the president to the EPA clown Scott Pruitt. In the case of the latter, they may have just as well appointed Snidely Whiplash from my youth:



But even stranger to me is the idea they (in this case, the Republicans), in their zeal to out do any previous generation in corruption and dirty tricks, haven't grasped the concept of what goes around, comes around. What has kept opponents of the Republicans from doing to them what the Republicans seem intent to do to America is simple decency. There were levels to which most would not sink in order to enrich themselves or push some political view. Republicans have shown time and again that the decency factor no longer applies....and so what I can't figure out is how the folks in power don't think this will be visited upon them ten-fold the next time the political winds change, which by the writing on the all seems like about 6 months from now...I mean, even a child realizes a dog might be tolerant of poking for a while but gets pissed and then dangerous if poked too much. I don't get it. Don't some of these idiots also realize, as bad as the opponents will be, history will probably be harshest on them of all.

Finally, the Whitehouse itself.

Explain to me why/how a rich guy, is supposed to have all this class, has now dumbed down and classed-down the most important office in the land? Anything that Trump screws up, he points to some other generation and say but what about so and so, or blaming the party not in power for his misdeeds/shortcomings (another very common lame corporate management tactic, "blame the person not in the room")...the position is supposed to be for the very best of us, not the second-worst, which is what Trump is saying every time he says this. Respect and honor are earned, not bestowed, purchased or taken by force. Trump seems to have equated the highest office in the land with the lowest common denominator. This is like some serious JabberWocky shit I just don't need as someone suffering from dementia.

For that, as an American of 50+ years, I will always hate him. He has wrecked the country I love, made the news become non-sense, challenging my already-tenuous grip on reality and the worst seems that no one points out the really dumb aspect of what he/they are doing.

Its definitely gotten weird enough for me....

Peace
Jeff

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Randy, to paraphrase Einstein, it seems to be an eternal race between the Trump administration to come up with more ways to corrupt our government and plain old folks trying to stay ahead of the bullshut. Thus far, Trump is winning. Will be glad when his dementia kicks in full tome and we can boot him on a medical discharge.

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  2. Boo. Test reply. The thrills are cheap tonight.

    ReplyDelete

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