THE SWASH ZONE

Bernie Has It Right...

2025-01-22T12:22:00.000-05:00

When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.

Milarepa

“Just as it is known that an image of one's face is seen depending on a mirror but does not really exist as a face, so the conception of "I" exist dependent on mind and body, but like the image of a face the "I" does not at all exist as its own reality." Nagarjuna

"Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Nagarjuna

Bernie Sanders, in the following video, lays out the truth that the major problems this nation faces will only be exacerbated by the old/new president and his battalion of oligarchs.

Progressives, liberals, and independents have their work to do to build roadblocks the MAGA authoritarians will have to struggle mightily to break through,

That and the democratic party must find and run the brightest and best to run against and defeat the the backward thinking and misguided agenda of the fascist conservative movement in the USA.

“THIS IS McCARTHYISM!”

2018-11-30T07:37:00.002-05:00

Ironic words uttered by a man who represents the epitome of McCarthyism, Donald Trump protests and projects too much. He intends to finish as he began ... with verbal assaults against any critic, smears against any opponent, deceptions, defamations, and falsehoods. Trump bends spoons with his mind.

Is Trump a rogue politician? Or the stereotypic Republican following standard operating procedure? Republican defeats in the recent election give rise to speculation about the future drift of the party. Which faction will survive: The conservative wing? The nativist wing? Or the evangelical wing? With each faction more right-leaning and reactionary than the last, we ask: Are there any centrists or pragmatists left in the GOP?

No longer the party of Lincoln, modern Republicanism is the offspring of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and his legacy has become the DNA of the GOP. McCarthyism determines how Republicans … past, present, and future … run for office.

McCarthy stumbled upon opportunistic fear-mongering by accident. He gave postwar America a new, more sinister, more implacable enemy than defeated fascism. He gave us subversive communism, arch villain of the Cold War. From Korea to Vietnam and beyond, McCarthy bequeathed a powerful electoral weapon that has driven American politics for the past 75 years. Communism is gone, but Trump has conjured new enemies to fear. He scapegoats impoverished immigrants and refugees and their children. He calls them as ‘rapists and murderers,’ and his base of suckered bumpkins believe every word.

Remember: Trump voters were Nixon voters before they were Reagan voters, and every GOP president owes a debt of gratitude to McCarthy.

Today’s GOP draws support from rural America, Dixie America, and the ‘value’ voters of evangelical America. Nativist and xenophobic, these voters long for a fabled past when life was simple and America was great before the evils of modernism, globalism, and internationalism invaded their lives.

In Trump, we have the culmination of toxic populism raised to the level of demagoguery. Long after Trump is gone, the McCarthy gene of the GOP will still be with us … spawning the next demagogue de jour.

(O)CT(O)PUS IS BAAAACK!

2018-11-27T17:18:00.003-05:00

No! I am not Lord Cthulhu, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant mollusk, a hammed up clam,
To advance progress, eat a crab or two,
Evince a wince, no doubt, or play the fool,
Existential, unessential, easy to confuse,
Full of pretense, a silly catawampous;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous –
But always your intrepid Octopus.

Roger and #MeToo

2017-12-10T07:15:00.001-05:00

This post is not about Michael Moore and his acclaimed film. The title refers to Roger Stone, the presumed triggerman behind the political assassination of Senator Al Franken.

The speed of a social movement often outpaces the checks and balances needed over time to curb exploitation. No doubt, predatory sexual misconduct is more widespread than thought. Victims hide their abuse under silence in fear of shame and retribution. The correct term is ‘victim blame.’

In politics, the name of the game is obfuscation. To discredit one accuser is to discredit all accusers. To defend one rogue is to hang clouds of suspicion over honorable men. Welcome to the Art of the Smear.

Comedy often relies on sexual innuendo, and dirty trickster Roger Stone knows a comedian will push boundaries for a laugh. He knows an out-of-context publicity photo will incriminate the man and incite his base. These conventions of show biz turned Senator Franken into an easy mark.

Roger Stone concocted a double-bind smear with locked exit doors, a virtual fire trap with no means of escape. An honest investigation may have exposed the scam, but Senator Franken was preemptively sabotaged by his own colleagues and denied due process.

Dirty tricks create a perverse reality of reverse polarity. An honorable man resigns in shame; the Groper-in-Chief endorses a pedophile for senator. Most repugnant of all, a false victim discredits all true victims of predatory abuse.

A false equivalence is not easy to debunk in the best of times ... and next to impossible in the worst of times.

OF MICE AND MEN, AN UNTOLD TALE

2017-11-13T07:44:00.001-05:00

"I look at Gotham, my friends, and what do I see? Gangs roam the streets attacking at will” (spoken by the arch villain Ratcatcher in a Batman adventure, circa 1995).

The dystopian vision of a comicstrip may not be as farfetched as we think. Let us recall the work of Thomas Malthus whose essay, Principle of Population (1798), foreshadow modern concerns of over-population versus sustainability. When human population growth far outstrips the available food supply, the result is called the Malthusian Catastrophe … a apocalyptic descent into poverty, starvation, armed conflict, and death.

Citing modern advances in agriculture and birth control, contemporary critics reject the ideas of Malthus. Not so fast, I say. Let us recall Rumi's time-honored tale about the blindfolded men and the elephant. Even a consensus view fails to complete a picture. A research hypothesis rarely offers a fully satisfying explanation. More often, studies raise more questions than answers.

How can we account for a rash of mass murders that defy explanation but have become all too commonplace?

Perhaps it is time to revisit the research of John B. Calhoun, who studied the effects of over-crowding on social animals at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Originally published in 1962, his findings have profound implications in the fields of architecture, urban planning, criminology, and the psychosocial sciences.

Imagine a fully enclosed 9-foot by 9-foot square box. Introduce fours pairs of breeding mice and supply unlimited amounts of food, water, and nesting material. In essence, Calhoun created a perfect utopian environment free from predators. All things being equal, the only test variable under study was the confined space of a box.

Calhoun watched the population double every 55 days. He observed profound breakdowns in social structure over time and a dramatic increase in the rate of internecine violence. After 315 days, dominant males ceased courtship; non-dominant males no longer defended themselves; immature mice were expelled from nests before weaning, and females ceased to reproduce altogether.

By Day 600, the population had grown to 2,200 mice after which time the population crashed … to extinction. Mice removed from this overcrowded environment remained permanently damaged and never recovered.

Does Calhoun’s experiment serve as a metaphor for the future fate of human beings on this planet? Was Malthus right after all? When will the next Ratcatcher Strike?

STOP DODGING BULLETS … NO MORE EXCUSES!

2017-10-04T09:34:00.001-04:00

NRA: “Now is not the time to talk gun control.”

Aurora - 12 killed, 70 wounded
“Now is not the time …”

Columbine - 12 students and 1 teacher killed
“Now is not the time …”

Fort Hood - 13 killed and 30 injured
“Now is not the time …”

Sandy Hook - 20 children and 6 faculty killed
“Now is not the time …”

Tuscon - 6 killed and 13 wounded
“Now is not the time …”

Virginia Tech - 32 killed and 17 wounded
“Now is not the time …”

Washington Navy Yard - 12 killed and 3 wounded
“Now is not the time …”

STOP DODGING BULLETS … NO MORE EXCUSES!

Death in Vegas

2017-10-03T09:52:00.001-04:00

Expecting yet another round of amorphous generalities and off-the-shelf solutions to the problem of determining in advance just which solid citizen will become a psychotic citizen, I tuned into Rachel Maddow last night. Much to my surprise she seemed to know what she was talking about and got right to points that needed to be heard through the clamor and frenzy.

How do I know these were important points? Because I've been trying to make them, that's how. And wouldn't you know the worst and most angry attacks against some simple ideas have come from our young Liberal friends who see any departure from dogma as anathema. Background checks would have been useless here. the weapons weren't bought at a gun show nor would registration have made a difference. Other things might have. Can we talk?

The first thing that occurred to me Monday morning and to Maddow on Monday evening was the strange fact that a man could bring at least ten rifles into a hotel room, along with tripods and cases of ammunition without anyone taking notice or bothering to have a hotel security person or even housekeeping take a look. The hotel didn't know where to find the shooter because nobody took notice. Locating him minutes sooner would have saved lives. So far only Ms Maddow has suggested such a small thing might have allowed this horror to have been averted. "Customers will kindly check rifles at the front desk." Hotels already have the right to do this. Anyone can refuse to allow guns on their property. Why don't they? Little by little, step by step we can get to a better place.

But of course the degree of mayhem was so high because in some fashion some legal guns had been converted whether legally or illegally (we still don't know how) to something like fully automatic weapons. To the layman, that means machine gun or a smaller caliber submachine gun. This might involve drilling some holes and replacing some parts, or it could involve gadgets added to the trigger or the stock. Some of these are legal in Nevada and elsewhere, some are prohibited by Federal Law which heavily regulates gas or recoil operated automatic weapons, but ignores other forms. Suggest that and the reaction is anger and mistrust. "We don't want that, we want sensible gun control."

Instead of the same old and vague cries for gun control, would some good Congressman suggest an effective way to get these devices off the market? Can we start there and not drown the idea in ad hominem attacks or raging about the NRA?

Such high rates of fire, it can be and has been well argued, are too dangerous for private ownership and perhaps those 100 round or 75 round magazines I see for sale aren't much less so. I'm not naive enough to think banning them would get rid of them any time soon, but it would be more effective to argue for such specific action than to blather endlessly about demanding things which demonstrably don't work and pretending they do. Weapons that are not "military style" can also be modified of course. I've seen kits to combine ordinary hunting rifles to make perfectly legal multiple-barrel "Gattling" guns. Let's add them to the list of things: destructive weapons, the Feds have successfully kept off the streets for many, many years.

Trump Gives White Nationalists the Legitimacy They Desire But Don’t Deserve…

2017-08-21T19:05:00.004-04:00

Since our pretend pResident fully and unabashedly showed his true colors following the white supremacy gathering in Charlottesville, VA this weblog has remained silent. It will no longer do so.

Trump’s stunning lack of historical perspective, his obvious soft spot for white nationalism and the white supremacy movement is unprecedented. No former president of the modern era has ever filled the sails of the white nationalist and white supremacist ideology and movement as Trump has done. Disgraceful at best, evil and dangerous at its worst.

Trump deserves condemnation by all ethical and moral people, conservatives, moderates, progressives, democrats, republicans, democratic socialists, religious and non-religious folks alike. America defeated Nazism and white supremacy in the 40″s, or so we thought. The ugly head of this ideology and movement has raised once again, fed by the Trump administration. It must be resisted, defeated, and relegated to the dust bin of history once and for all.

More right HERE.

SAY HELLO TO WEIMAR-A-LAGO

2017-07-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

“Obi Wan, weak mindedness is strong in this one.”

In the morning edition of our void and vapid tabloid, one letter writer tells us to “stop whining and support the president” (Bill Sances of Vero Beach, Florida). He speaks of “elite, whining, bleeding-heart liberals who seemingly dominate the letters section of this newspaper.”

If POTUS #45 says “jump off a bridge,” would Mr. Sances take his chances? He reminds me of the Jonestown mass suicide cult. For years, we witnessed Donald Trump’s own voice on videotape:

The self-worshipping egotist;

The deadbeat who failed to pay bills and wages;

The charlatan who operated a phony university;

The demagogue who fanned the flames of discord;

The bully who praises dictators and demands obedience;

The hypocrite who fills the swamp of nepotism.

Such soundbites would sink any candidate … unless your followers happen to be the Three Troglodytes of Hear No, See No, and Speak No Evil.

Trump’s secret to success is the motivated reasoning of his followers. They ignore his defects of character, filter only the evidence they want to hear, and willfully deceive themselves. In Jonestown, the diehard lemmings died hard. When a leader gaslights an entire nation, we get fascism.

Yes, Obi Wan. There are Sheeple everywhere who refuse to learn the lessons of history. Sheeple suckered by self-glorifying narcissists … from Il Duce to Pinochet … who brought entire nations to ruin.

BEHOLD THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

2017-07-25T05:56:00.000-04:00

A Letter to the Editor of our local rag asks a simple question. “What’s really behind Trump’s demand for voter information,” asks Mary Oliver of Jensen Beach, Florida. A reasonable question for voters of every persuasion, nevertheless it triggered this online exchange:

“Mary you must be a liberal. Only liberals are afraid of checks on voter Fraud. then you people can't vote numerous times and in different polling places or have your dead relatives vote,” argues Christine Possidente Bilello.

Letters reveal much about people. Mary eats potatoes; Christine knows instinctively they will never see eye-to-eye. Why? Because …

Liberals vote many times ... and have many dead relatives who also vote. Christine never knew a straw man she didn’t like … or a liberal she didn’t hate.

Mary prefers potatoes; Christine serves ad hominem grits tu quoque.

Look at all the lonely people. Where do they all come from? Do they act like, speak like, or think like you and me? Shall we smash their windows? Deport them to concentration camps? For Christine Possidente Bilello, liberals are la crème de la crème of the crematory.

Here’s how to build a straw man: Thought A collides with Exaggeration B which crashes into Defamation C and smashes into Fallacy D. Following this chain of illogic, Christine is a Nazi.

March 4, 2017: During a Trump rally in Maricopa County, Arizona, attendees chant “Kill Liberals” and “Deport Jews.” Another Trump supporter yells: “I can't wait for the liberal genocide to begin.”

June 13, 2017: Right wing broadcaster Michael Savage warns: “There’s going to be a civil war.”

June 23, 2017: Arch conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars infamy says: “I don’t need some coming-of-age deal to kill a bunch of liberals.”

This is how all democracies end, Plato predicted 2,300 years ago. A democracy declines in decadence, succumbs to demagoguery, and ends in tyranny.

I hope these examples of magical thinking offend Christine, because this is how a Straw Man summons the Exterminating Angel.

FROM NARCISSISM TO FASCISM

2017-07-21T05:01:00.000-04:00

When 58,000 mental health experts ignore a self-imposed ethics rule to issue a dire warning, it behooves us to pay attention.

Since 1973, a directive known as the Goldwater Rule has constrained psychiatrists and psychologists from issuing professional opinions about public figures. Character assassination by proxy compromises the integrity of the profession, and the purpose of the Goldwater Rule is prevent psychiatric name-calling. Moreover, totalitarian regimes have a history of abusing psychiatry as a tool of oppression. What motivates these mental health professionals to suddenly break ranks and violate protocol?

‘Mr. Trump’s speech and actions makes him incapable of serving safely as president,” claim 33 mental health experts in a public letter (New York Times, Feb 13, 2017).

“Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States,” reads a petition posted on change.org earlier this year.

For Professor Allen Francis of Duke University Medical College, “the antidote to a dystopic Trumpean dark age is political, not psychological” (NYT, February 14, 2017). Point taken.

Clinical impressions do not overturn elections. A diagnosis is neither a crime nor a guilty verdict in a court of law. And pop psychology should never stigmatize persons struggling with mental health issues. Nevertheless …

The new ‘normal’ is abnormal. The chaos is ‘unpresidented.’ What is the consensus opinion of these 58,000 mental health professionals? Here are the signature traits of narcissism (according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association):

A compulsive preoccupation with success and power;
Self-absorption and exaggerated claims of superiority;
Pervasive patterns of arrogant and haughty behavior;
Constant demands for admiration and loyalty;
A grandiose sense of entitlement;
Employs dishonest means to achieve selfish ends;
Ruthlessly exploits people without conscience;
Intolerant of criticism with a tendency to lash out.

Sound familiar? Years of recorded soundbites and anecdotal accounts reveal the character of the man:

A deadbeat who fails to pay bills and wages. A charlatan who operates a phony university. A demagogue whose appeals to bigotry fan the flames of division and discord. A bully who demands fealty while praising despots. A compulsive liar whose daily mendacities subvert reality. A hypocrite who fills the swamp of cronyism and nepotism to overflow. The leader of a democratic republic who disrespects the protocols of governance and violates the rule of law.

Have we learned nothing from the lessons of history? How self-glorifying narcissists hijack democracies? From Il Duce to Pinochet and beyond?

For all these reasons, 58,000 mental health professionals have signed petitions to inform journalists, the American public, and members of Congress. Despite past misuses and abuses, the consensus opinion can also be instrumental to forestall oppression. The antidote is political. Let the debate begin.

The Manchurian Candidate

2017-07-09T17:01:00.001-04:00

Just in case you imagined for half a moment that Trump wasn't really under Vladimir Putin's powerful sway, or perhaps that Trump is not really quite as incurious, uninformed and just plain stupid as he sounds when he attempts to do presidential...

This happens. Well, after all, why would Putin lie to his buddy, Donnie-baby? "He said that I'm a genius!" "I pressed him three times about meddling in the election. He denied it vehemently every time. You already know my position."

Putin and I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking & many other negative things will be guarded. [sic]

Just wow. Much stranger than fiction.

Damn straight! 2016 is going to be the last time ever that Crooked Hillary and Obama collude with the California Registrar of Voters to allow three million undocumented brown people to corrupt what should have been a fair and honest count of the votes. Go Putin! BFF! #MAGA!

It's probably not his fault. He may actually have been hypnotized when he thought he was just having a good time with the pretty blond hookers in Moscow. Post-hypnotic suggestion. Brainwashing. Apparently it is still practiced. And apparently, it still works.

Two good men

2017-05-27T09:39:00.003-04:00

You don't generalize from small samples as anyone should be willing to confirm -- but not everyone does. Our president, for instance loves to make it look like our biggest crime problem is the presence of undocumented Hispanics, although it isn't. It only takes a handful of examples to make us think "typical" A handful of examples and a lie.

But we're not going to see that at work today in the case of the Christian killer in Portland: Christian in faith, Christian in name. As you know when two good men stood up and attempted to intervene with Mr. Christian who was assaulting an apparently Muslim woman, they had their throats slit. According to a witness, one was black and the other apparently Muslim. Both were young. Both make me proud.

Should I say "typical Christian" and blame all murderers on Christians? After all, they commit most of them in the US.

It isn't Islam or Christianity or knives or guns, it's hate. Hate is a religion and it's preached everywhere radio, TV, the Internet and yes, sometimes the pulpit are available. We even have governors of states suggesting reporters who ask questions be killed. Will the real Americans please stand up, speak up, act up. Lady Liberty wants you!

He's a Big Boy Now

2017-05-16T08:44:00.002-04:00

"I did it and I'm glad," a high school friend used to say as an act of high school bravado against the unsympathetic faculty attitude toward our antics. We long since grew up and perhaps are no longer so proud of certain deeds of what we saw as the resistance. Our "business man" in chief seems to be similarly proud not only of his flaunting of prior norms and practices, but of his ability to get away with things otherwise criminal because of his Presidential status.

Donald Trump is 70 and not 17 and his pranks don't involve eggs or rolls of toilet paper or even detergent in the town fountain, but Armies and rockets and nuclear weapons. Loose lips sink ships and so do loose cannons. Loose commitments to truth brag about sending armadas North and order them to steam South: they brag about reducing debt while borrowing trillions and about achieving greatness for us while achieving immense wealth for himself. Loose lips screech and rant about leaks and secrets and serve them up with Beluga on toast and vodka on ice to our enemies.

Trump used to tell us the world was laughing at us under Obama, who had much respect around the world and doesn't seem to know or acknowledge that they've now stopped laughing at him and started building fallout shelters. The most chilling laughs I've seen were those of the Russian spymasters mocking the US reporters as they and Tass film crews entered the closed door meeting with the swaggering, boasting buffoon. Lavrov's smile was the Russian Bear remembering a hundred years of pent up frustration and hate and anticipating long-awaited revenge.

I did it and I can get away with it, thinks Trump. Look at me, I'm the president now.

Last Laugh

2017-04-16T15:19:00.002-04:00

I can't remember who said it on MSNBC this morning, but it's been bothering me all day. To paraphrase: "The entertainment value of Donald Trump's Circus is as dangerous as the policies we laugh at." Yes, I confess I delight in his gaffes and his outrageous tweets, jaw-dropping deeds and pronouncements, to the point where I look forward to my morning laugh of outrage as much as my morning coffee. I'm not alone, and of course laughing at someone feels good. It means we're smarter, better informed and rational and someone else is not. That's the cheapest form of humor, of course, akin to vaudevillian slapstick and plain old mockery.

Why is this dangerous? I think it creates a demand for more. It's a demand that nature and the Trump organization doesn't always fill. When demand exceeds supply, the market will provide. Are we the market? The Networks, the Newspapers, the late night comedians? Are we addicted to outrage?

Case in point: after Trump or his daughter or some equally unqualified person ordered a missile strike on the Syrian airbase we were unconsciously waiting for the drummer to give us the rim shot a burlesque comedian punctuates his one liners with. Trump didn't give us one so when the Pentagon and Army Gen. John "Mick" Nicholson commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan who took office under Barack Obama a year ago called in an airstrike to end a growing problem with the recrudescence of terrorist fighters in striking distance of Kabul, we jumped on it. It must have been Trump. It must have been a distraction because without it our outrage balloon deflates and we have nothing to laugh or scold or be outraged about.

Remember when Bill Clinton's cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda were laughed away as a distraction? An outrage? Remember the accusations of Monica Missiles? We found it disgusting, stupid, irresponsible and the denials that there was anything like Al Qaeda downright dangerous. Change the names and the joke is on us.

The Big Bomb likely saved lives - American and Afghani. The attack created no collateral damage and no American casualties. In a time when terrorists are gaining ground in this 15 year old theater of operations, when Afghani forces are taking huge casualties and civilians are being killed and the pathway to victory seems invisible, why are we making a joke out of a rare success? ISIS may not affect us here at home, but in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria and elsewhere they are already apocalyptic and huge numbers of people have been killed horribly. There are now 100 fewer of them and their fortress is rubble no one will use again for a while.

Not long ago I watched a video of a soldier being slowly burned alive by ISIS. I listened to him cry like a child while trying to brush the flames out of his eyes with his burning hands. It will play over and over in my mind until I die. They are not imaginary. They are not a joke. We have no option but to destroy ISIS utterly in any way possible and anything our government does to further this preempts my desire to see Trump make an ass of himself.

Pants on Fire

2017-03-22T16:07:00.000-04:00

It was ages ago, during the Gore Vs Bush contest that Al Gore quoted some figure - lets say it was 4.5%. After the debate the Bush people sprang up to tell us "Gore Lied! He Lied" the figure was closer to 4.6% apparently. Such is the joy in finding error in an opponent, all sense of proportion evaporates along with the ability to see how ridiculous you are. In politics degree doesn't matter. A mistaken prediction of insurance cost is right there with selling missiles to Iran and conducting a secret illegal war and training death squads to kill nuns. All that matters is Who, not what.

This joy sings loudest in the hearts of liars. Barack Obama once said there were more black males in prison than in university. Not quite true, but didn't the headlines howl with outrage. It's happening now that Obama has left the building. It's important to portray him as the purveyor of frequent and grievous lies. Books and articles are appearing to distract from Trumps Treasons and felonies, rapes, thefts and frauds by telling you Obama is a liar. He's just as bad so don't criticize Trump

It's hard for me to understand that people think they're not being clowns by comparing the insignificant with the felonious, that Obama saying he thought you could keep your doctor makes him the same kind of liar as saying Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons ready to land on us in 45 minutes. The lives of millions and the expense of trillions are equal to having your insurance force you to see a different doctor.

But that's how people think: political people that is. We hate to be wrong, foolishly wrong so much we will twist time and space to make it seem like we were really right all along. Endless articles have been written showing just how much of a liar Obama is and it's memorized by Obamahaters all over America to be taken out and waved in your face.

Johnson, Nixon, Clinton and Reagan to begin with - they were caught in lies of some sort. Some changed the world and cost many lives. But Gore lied too. He was 0.1% off in some meaningless figure. Gore lied.

It's only my opinion but we may at the moment have the most profound liar in our history in the oval office. If you don't realize that you're not worth talking to, and I'm not wasting words on you, but the worse he gets, the more felonies, conflicts of interest, secret illegal deals add up the more that's true. You're hopeless in fact. Please realize that I consider you a mortal enemy of everything I hold dear and will act accordingly.

So Whether we find bank records of illegal deals, illegal transactions, tax fraud or pictures of Trump with underage girls and piss whores or signed contracts to yield sovereignty to Putin and invite attacks, you're going to tell me all about crooked Hillary and lying Obama and if you're lucky you might get away unscathed. I'm nowhere near as fast as I used to be you know.

UNNERVING INNERVATIONS

2017-03-18T13:10:00.002-04:00

Here is a variation of the knee reflex test. Called the "hammer strikes thumb" test (self-explanatory), its purpose is to measure the time it takes for a pain signal to reach the brain and elicit an "ouch" response. As a measure of the bullshit threshold, some people wince faster than others. Wham!

Among normal people, the pain reflex is instantaneous. For Trumpsters, however, the pain response can take weeks, months, years ... or never. Personally, I prefer people who can feel pain in real-time. Otherwise, those numb and dumb Trumpster types drive me bonkers and bring out my sadistic streak. Wham!

RussiaGate? Wham!!! Falsehoods and fraud? Wham!!! Wiretap rap? Wham!!! Feel anything yet?

Page Views by Country

2017-03-16T04:39:00.000-04:00

Here are page view statistics for the Swash Zone, March 6 through 10, 2017:

United States 1,634

Russia 1,611

Croatia 441

United Kingdom 16

South Korea 14

China 11

Germany 11

Why are page views from Russia almost on a par with those in the USA? What can possibly interest them? Have they never seen a talking (O)CT(O)PUS before?

In the Beginning

2017-03-07T14:43:00.001-05:00

In the beginning was the lie and the lie became Trump.

'verum est falsum' will replace e pluribus unum on the new coinage of Great Again America. What's true is false. And no one does it better than our new ruling party. Am I joking? Being facetious or is it true? emails, Benghazi and Clinton one told a lie both sides are just as bad, it's all illusion.

Notice how pointed questions of why it isn't perjury to lie under oath begin to pixillate and blur within moments as the center drifts to discussions of how many people talk to ambassadors every day and after all when he said no, yes is almost the same thing because it was a conversation about something else and wasn't that Obama from Kenya after all?

A reporter's question about why we need to investigate something for which there is no evidence or even a suggestion of it, becomes a discussion of FISA courts and the lying press and all the things Obama did that Republicans found threatening.

Enough of this dastardly distraction and diversion and doubletalk. Sessions lied under oath twice and unequivocally and it's perjury and it's a felony not an innocent mistake. There is no evidence that President Obama in anyway instigated a wiretap of Candidate Trump's telephones and those who would absolutely know if he did are denying it. Making such accusations without evidence should be actionable and is not presidential and if it's unpatriotic and "Liberal" to question the president (pace Mr. Miller) it's revolution time. It's throw the bastards out *today time, tar, feathers and all.

Apparently any evidence against Trump & Co. from money laundering for Russian Crooks and Iranian Mullahs to rape and assault and fraud and enough civil liabilities to fill a thousand courtrooms is written in smoke and it dissipates as you watch. What is never was, and what never was will always be, blessed be the lie et in saecula saeculorum amen.

Hope Springs Infernal

2017-03-06T14:11:00.002-05:00

Certum est, quia impossibile.

Tertullian - De Carne Christi

It's been too easy to hope, too tempting to giggle as the President makes a bloody fool of himself with tantrums and childish lies like the spoiled brat he is who just can't understand why things don't automatically go his way. I still look forward to enjoying his further humiliations and embarrassments even if all we'll be able to get from him is increasingly irrational accusations of the WTF kind. But it's not about Trump really, any more that it's the Flying Lady hood ornament that makes a Rolls what it is.

The gates to hell don't say "abandon all hope" they tell you to keep the faith. That way the disappointment will be eternal.

Total, absolute and utterly conclusive proof that there was no wiretapping by Obama or Alexander Graham Bell for that matter will not do one thing to tarnish the myth that it did happen, just as Obama always will have been born in Kenya or Malaysia or both even with a birth certificate notarized by 9 Supreme Court Justices and filmed in wide screen Technicolor.

Absurdity is traditionally a cornerstone and a buttress for belief, not an argument against it. We're dealing with a religion in the Trump movement, a bit of a new religion. It has its own prophets and preachers and all the other trappings. I can't give it a name but it constitutes legions and it's growing. Its sacraments are phrased in hate and anger and scorn and numberless acts of denial. Denial of science, technology, mathematics and the more absurd the denial, the more tenaciously held. What you see isn't true and what doesn't exist is dogma and everything that argues against us is proof of this.

Many of us, our culture being as compartmentalized as it is today aren't aware of the disciples, the writers of gospels. By now we know about Limbaugh and the Sons of Fox, but Alex Jones, Mark Levin, Steve Bannon and Breitbart are all deeply immersed in fantastical Armageddons and mystical transformations as well as the end times for the Administrative State and the structures of the Republic. It all needs to wither away or be destroyed and don't ask why or how. It's a mystery, and just as no major religion and few minor ones ever are defeated by being disproved or by being reduced to absurdity, this one won't either. Denial denies all.

Economic recovery is collapse. Dramatic reductions in crime are "carnage" Crime is caused by Immigrants and we are in more danger from all things than we ever have been. The lizard people are everywhere and they're all Jewish and the Illuminati and the Elders of Zion are all in charge of the invisible "deep state" which is "leftist" with it's contradictory Leninist capitalism and fake news. Come inside friend. No matter how ignorant, stupid or degraded you may be. We will make you feel smart. We will make you important and powerful and give you the tools to bring it all down.

Species don't evolve but the truth does. In time Obama will truly have staged some silent invisible coup and started a police state with marshal law and sharia law and armed gangs dressed like Pancho Villa will have been dumping megatons of drugs and raping millions and putting millions out of work. In time Hillary will have murdered more than any serial killer, her husband will have bankrupted the economy and she will have made ten billion dollars in some mysterious fashion by being "in" with Wall Street, whatever that means. The giggling masses will believe and even when the story changes, it will always have been true.

We don't stand a chance and it will all be ushered in by the nicest people who will turn you in to the inquisition without hesitation for saying the wrong thing and god bless the troops for protecting our freedoms.

The Enigma of Arrival

2017-03-01T09:26:00.003-05:00

They jump up, they sit down. They jump up again, blank expressions on their face as though listening intensely to instructions or some inaudible tune. Marionettes in dark suits, they jump up, they sit down.

The mind recalls scenes from Korea, the dark clad people grovelling in tears at the loss of a leader who owns their lives and their families and who must be impressed with their devotion lest he kill them on the spot. In the big room the Republicans jump up, they sit down. The other half slump in their seats, dark rags not able really to sit. Not reacting, looking at their hands: failed men in a homeless shelter, waiting. Refugees and a packed train station, waiting; cattle in the chutes. All people caught up in a huge drama and no longer the people we knew only moments ago with motives, and positions and goals and explanations and narratives. They all jump up, they all sit down.

He inherited, lies the man at the podium, a chaotic mess. He's the last US president since James Madison to wear a wig, although it's died and not powdered. He lies outright about it, making up figures, contradicting himself when he mentions a recovery albeit slow, he says, neglecting to mention that it was a recovery from the biggest recession in nearly 90 years and caused by policies he again proposes. We've had a rarely equaled economic expansion, rarely achieved employment levels and wage growth is accelerating, but that's fake news. The real news is bad. He needs it to be. The real news comes from me and none else. And you will believe.

It wouldn't be appropriate to comment as a reporter or columnist. We have to pretend not to be "fake." No, let's just watch. Just stand here like refugees in shabby clothes and our things in cheap suitcases waiting in a public place for the trains.

"As we speak," says the big ugly man who looks so much like an ugly little man on camera:

"as we speak, they're rounding up bad guys."

I can picture men and women and children running through dark alleys, sneaking out of back doors, hiding in culverts and under abandoned cars in the uncaring conservative night, the wind of American hate blowing like a stink from a slaughterhouse. In the big room, they jump up, they sit down and we watch, stunned.

DONALD TRUMP: DOG WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

2017-02-21T15:15:00.000-05:00

At last count, 55 Jewish Community Centers receive 70 bomb threats. In Missouri, vandals overturn 150 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery. What accounts for the national pandemic?

Anti-Semitism has always lurked in the shadows of Western civilization, a constant menace made permissible by fear-mongering and demagoguery. In part, Trump’s embrace of extremism, nativism and reckless rhetoric account for the latest resurgence.

“I don't have time for political correctness” — incendiary words from a presidential contender. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose voters” — arrogant words pitched to an angry rabble summoning them from darkness. Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn — the president fills high profile cabinet posts with self-avowed bigots.

In a press conference last week, the president dodged questions from an Israel reporter — ordering him to “sit down.” Trolls from neo-Nazi websites applaud the snub.

President 45 finally denounces the scourge. “The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible,” he admits grudgingly.

For an egotist who turns every public stage into an “I” for an “I”, his torpid appeal is a day late and a dollar short. The Anne Frank Center of New York condemns his words as “a pathetic asterisk of condescension.”

In short order, this is how Donald Trump unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism unseen since the 1930s.

FEAR AND VICTIMHOOD IN THE HOKEY POTUS AGE

2017-02-20T09:48:00.001-05:00

In the opinion pages of our local newspaper, one letter writer fabricates a claim of victimhood:

“The word I keep hearing over and over from liberal Democrats as they protest everything is ‘fear.’ My fear is that if I wear my “Make America Great Again” hat in public I may be assaulted. If I am overheard saying that I supported Trump I may be verbally assaulted. That is what I call ‘real’ fear. True Trump supporters are generally a quiet, hard-working, taxpaying, respectful group of people. We need a little more conversation and a little less confrontation,” she writes.

If this letter were an honest appeal for “conversation,” I would have no argument. However this is not an invitation to hold a conversation but an argument built of straw. How many people wear their partisan hats when venturing outside their homes? Are quiet, hard-working, taxpaying Hillary voters just as likely to be harassed by a rabid Trump voter?

Misplaced attribution has turned our public life into a bully pulpit of exaggerations and fabrications. Real news records real events; not the falsehoods of a demagogue who weaves self-serving narratives to mislead the public. Here are examples of real news in recent weeks:

In Quebec City, a gunman kills 6 people at a local mosque. Authorities arrest a Canadian national whose Facebook page reveals an admiration for Donald Trump (Toronto Star).

Two Texas mosques are destroyed by fire in one month, one within hours after the president signs his Muslim travel ban (Texas Tribune).

CNN reports a wave of bomb threats that close 54 Jewish Community Centers. In the face of pandemic anti-Semitism, the president dodges questions from an Israel reporter — ordering him to “sit down.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center documents a sharp rise in hate crimes since the election. These reports correlate with slogans and remarks made by candidate Trump during the campaign.

Over 1,000 incidents committed by rabid Trump supporters, but how many are attributable to a liberal Democrat? Imagined fear is the province of children. Playing the victim card is a dishonest and disingenuous argument at best.

There is no excuse for willful self-delusion. Those who voted for the candidate ignored his defects of character: His appeals to bigotry and racism; his admitted misogyny; his bullying of a disabled reporter; his predatory conduct; his litany of cheats, deceits, nativism, and narcissism.

When voters deny such defects of character and turn mirrors to the wall, they are refusing to see their own reflections and to hold themselves accountable.

THE HOCUS POCUS POTUS

2017-02-18T05:06:00.000-05:00

“A landslide,” he claims. Let's fact check the feckless claims and vainglorious grandstanding. In Electoral College votes alone, the man ranks near the bottom. In terms of popular vote, the picture is far worse. A simple pie chart shows the certified election result, raw data as follows:

Eligible Voters — 231.6 million

Eligible voters not voting — 92.7 million (40%)

Raw Vote Total — 138.9 million

Clinton Vote — 65.8 million (29%)

Trump Vote — 63 million (27%)

Other (third parties) — 7.8 million (3%)

Clinton plurality over Trump — 2.8 million

As you can see, only 27% of eligible voters decided the election. Almost three (3) voters in four (4) did not vote for the troll in the hole — hardly a landslide (or mandate) as claimed.

Yet the man-child in the White House and his minions cling to a falsehood. Let’s recall an old adage: “Figures don’t lie but liars figure.” Which is why I prefer to call him by his real title: BOGUS POTUS #45.

What the Hell Just Happened?

2017-02-17T14:15:00.002-05:00

The unthinkable happened. Because the American electorate revelled in their unthinking. We saw it unfold in microcosm right here in the venerated blogosphere. Asked who they would vote for, uncaring millennials said something like, "Oh, I dunno. I'll probably vote for Jill Stein." Bernie Bots openly flouted their hatred of Hillary Clinton whilst claiming true liberal cred out of the other side of their mouths. When asked if their boy lost the primary, would they cast their votes for HRC? "We won't!" they proudly proclaimed.
What just happened? Who are the good guys? Who can we trust? We thought Jill Stein was a crunchy progressive?

Turns out she actually campaigned on the concept of principled collaboration with Russia, spouting the pseudo-liberal line of bullshit, "The United States is now embarking on a $1 trillion program to update its nuclear weaponry while we are slashing programs to fight hunger, address homelessness, and provide economic security for our people,"

And the full-on crock-of-shit, "Solutions to problems such as jihadi terrorism will require Russia and the United States to work together, shedding outdated cold war attitudes that prevented collaboration on problems facing both nations."

And even the reprehensible, "The Obama Administration's obsession with toppling the government in Damascus is fundamentally inconsistent with winning the fight against ISIS," Stein asserted. "US pursuit of regime change in Libya, Iraq, and Syria created the chaos that promotes power grabs by extremist militias. Many of the weapons we are sending into Syria to arm anti-government militias are winding up in the hands of ISIS. This isn't a clever foreign policy - it's disastrous militarism."

On another topic, I'm sure you were as dumbfounded as I was when Rand Paul said it was time to get busy repealing Obamacare instead of investigating. They trying to pull young minds into the abyss.