Response to a Democratic Supporter

Eventually you'll realize that you've been played. The Democrats aren't the progressive party they were in the 1930s and 40s; they sold out to the oligarchs long ago. They're NOT "failing" to represent the people; they're doing exactly what they intend to do. Which is to lose. Lose elections, or lose legislative battles. Haven't you noticed that when they're in the majority they're helpless, and the Republican minority blocks everything the Democrats claim to support? They meekly bow to the parliamentarian, or to whichever right-wing Senators are playing the bad guy role that week. The most they'll do is pass weak-tea Republican policies such as RomneyCare. And when the Dems are in the minority, they're HELPLESS - except when it comes to begging us all for money and stabbing progressive candidates in the back. 

They don't even pretend to try to keep their promises any more. Student debt forgiveness? Intentionally undermined by using an approach that experts warned in advance wouldn't make it past the Supreme Court. A $2000 check for every American? They didn't even offer an excuse for that one. Ditto for the public option; Biden promised it, and then never mentioned it again after the election.

Their job is to keep people like you constantly trying to kick that football, even though they pull it away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. They occupy the left/populist spot on the political spectrum to co-opt any real populist left movement, but their policies are cosmetic at best and always right-wing. They discredit the whole concept of leftism by pretending that it's purely a matter of identity politics carried to extremes, and spitting contempt at the vast majority of the American people who are dying under the boots of the health insurance "industry", the oligarchs, and inflation. 

That's why people voted for Trump. Believe it or not, they're smarter than you think; when offered a choice between hypocritical fascists who support the status quo and a fascist who at least acknowledged that the people are being screwed (even though he's just going to make it worse), they chose the option that recognized that there was a problem.

Stop playing the game. Recognize that we're being slowly exterminated by the upper class. We had it better under King George the Third. The political parties will NEVER allow a solution, because THEY'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. It's time to work towards overthrowing this murder-suicide of a political system. A better world is possible, but no politician is going to hand it to us on a silver platter. We have to make it happen for ourselves.

Ceasefire?

I'm VERY dubious about the ceasefire that #GenocideJoe announced today between Israel and Hezbollah - or is it Israel and Lebanon?

The terms seem to be entirely in Israel's favor. It could be that the government of Lebanon just sold out Hezbollah under pressure from the US. Or Biden could be lying again; he's certainly done that before.

It's hard to imagine that Hezbollah would just give in, abandoning not only the people of Gaza but their own people as well. I'm hoping they don't go along. Israel MUST be abolished. Genocide must be punished!

An idea that might work?

It seems to me that the biggest problem that Jill Stein's campaign faces is the near-absolute blackout imposed by the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. Most people have no idea that's she's even running! 

If voters knew there was a candidate standing for universal health care, housing, peace, a $25 minimum wage, getting corporate money out of politics, and canceling all student debt, I suspect she'd win. But the Democrats and the oligarchs are absolutely desperate to make sure that nobody even knows she exists. 

Here's a thought: what if every Jill Stein supporter printed out five or 10 (or more) Stein/Ware 2024 flyers? Standard letter size, with just a few bullet points for her primary positions. For those who only have access to black and white printing, maybe add a dash of green with a crayon or marker. Then everyone puts them up around town, across America, all on the same day. The media would still ignore it, probably, but people would see. At least some of them would. It just might be a way around the media blackout.

---

Postscript: I've written to the Stein/Ware campaign but only got a canned response. But it seems to be such an obvious move! The Democrats and Republicans have the advantage of money and the media, but they're scared; if we can get the word out, voters will go Green. Printing fliers is cheap. It's a decentralized project. We can post them on telephone poles and other public places. If we all did it on a single day, the impact could be considerable.

In the meantime I'm thinking about what the fliers might say. How about "Stein/Ware 2024", with "Healthcare for All", "$25 minimum wage", and "PEACE"? With a link to her webpage at the bottom? I'll work something up and post it here soon.

You're Up!

 

What a choice!

 

Sad but true

 

ARRET PARAR

 

Revoked

 

Lies

 

How much more?

Nearly 300 bodies have been found in a mass grave in Gaza INCLUDING CHILDREN. They show signs of torture and in some cases were buried alive.

The White House calls the reports "deeply disturbing", and have therefore closed their eyes, put their fingers in their ears, and are chanting "nah nah nah nah I can't HEAR you!" over and over.

What will it take to end this nightmare? How much longer will it go on?

The real issues:

Between climate change and ubiquitous PFA/plastic contamination leading to infertility, the human race faces existential struggles for the next thousand years at least. More likely 5,000 years. And yet no one in power is even willing to consider that simple truth.

The human outlook in the years to come (assuming that our species survives, which is by no means certain) will be very different from modern sensibilities. With a steady decline in human fertility, protecting children will be a primary social obligation. Abortion will become irrelevant except out of medical necessity. War and its concomitant environmental damage will be universally unacceptable, although I fear that we're going to see a lot of wars in the meantime for habitable land (with the zone of habitability moving inexorably towards the poles) and resources.

The food chain will be...well, if we're lucky we'll only lose an incredibly broad range of flavors. Spices and luxuries such as vanilla and chocolate will be stories of legend at best. Local production will be the primary source of nourishment. Knowledge of preservation techniques will be extremely valuable. The worldwide contamination of water supplies will boost cancer levels through the roof. Anxiety and depression will hit levels heretofore unimagined, as will suicide and deaths of despair. The average human lifespan will be shorter than it has for tens of thousands of years.

And none of this was necessary. That's the thing that's hardest to take. Things didn't have to be this way. We knew better.

Welcome to my hole in the ground

Once again I'm effectively homeless online. I quit Reddit after the whole API thing; for some reason I didn't miss it. But I got involved again on Facebook, which I'd abandoned for years. I guess I really wanted a place to talk about politics.

It's probably me. There's an undeniable pattern. I get involved in political groups online, and end up being censored and/or banned for what I'm told are extremist comments. Now, as I see it, my comments are anything but extremist; the oligarchs are literally killing off the human race and rendering the Earth uninhabitable for life, but we're not allowed to even TALK about fighting back.

The latest round was particularly ironic, I think. I was on a Facebook group that was originally called "Guillotines for Billionaires", but was later called "Guillotines For A Better America", or something like that. I think the implication of violence was pretty clear, no? In fact, I was quite surprised that Facebook itself allowed the group to exist. It was pretty clear that the group wasn't hidden or anything, since we were hit by a surprisingly high number of DNC trolls. But in any case, I had fun making memes and being involved with the group. Until...

Someone posted a photo of a sign on a pillar that said something like "Thank a cop today", with a stick underneath that said "And pepper spray them". I commented "And kick them in the balls. HARD. And then take their gun." Okay, a little harsh, but all cops are bastards in my book. Nonetheless the INSTANT I tried to post that comment I got a message that my comment went against community standards - and that if I deleted it immediately I might "avoid potential account restrictions".

Now, there's nothing that gets me more angry than being told to shut up. So I quit the group and Facebook on the spot.

That's free speech in these days of late-stage capitalism; censorship by software, with no appeal allowed. The only places that have free speech are those where no one will hear you...like here.

So I'll be writing here and in the other digital holes in the ground, for now.

Israel's stalling game

As the grandson of four child survivors of a a genocide which is still denied by the descendants of the perpetrators, I can testify to the truth of this: nobody cares. Our land and homes remain stolen. The one and a half million men, women, and children dead remain unrecognized. Pundits and elites roll their eyes and say "get over it, already!".

For a little extra irony, Israel itself continues to refuse to recognize the historicity of that genocide, even though the International Association of Genocide Scholars has recognized it for over half a century. The government of the United States waited over a hundred years before recognizing the genocide. Prestigious American schools including many of the Ivy League have accepted millions of dollars from the government descended from the perpetrators to endow chairs that can only be filled by professors who deny the genocide.

Our people are dispersed throughout the world. In the decades following the genocide, some of us took what reprisals we could, assassinating some of those who'd given and carried out the orders. For a while, the activist organization of my people were the most feared terrorists in the world. But that was long ago. The last of the survivors died in the last ten or twenty years. And that's where things stand. There will never be an admission of guilt, never be any reparations. Which is exactly what Israel AND THE US plan for the Palestinians.

A response to a Vote Blue No Matter Who "leftist"

Refusing to support genocide is neither vote shaming nor purity testing. You put a lot of links in your post, but most of them seem to come from the mainstream left such as PBS and Robert Reich. I don't consider such sources particularly credible.

That said, you're not going to convince me that the genocide of Gaza is in any way a "lesser" evil. Genocide can only be the greatest evil. So unless you can prove that that Joe Biden isn't complicit in genocide, you aren't going to convince me to support him.

Of course, there's a lot more that Joe Biden has done that renders him absolutely unacceptable to any person with a conscience. Luckily I don't have to support either one of the major party candidates, since Jill Stein is running in my state.

Lesser evil voting only works on behalf of the lesser evil, and in this case that's Trump. It also requires that we accept the notion that voting for the lesser evil won't end up contributing to increasing the evil of the entire system, which is exactly what has been going on for decades.

Clearly you have bought into the DNC's assumptions about Trump being the ultimate evil and genocide somehow being a price worth paying to save us from Trump. I don't agree. To be honest, I don't see how anyone could agree.

I'll point out that the DNC ALWAYS portrays the Republican presidential candidate as the ultimate evil, the newest incarnation of Hitler. Trump was a shitty President, but he wasn't Hitler. We survived him. The children of Gaza are not surviving Biden.

That said, it's incredibly naive to believe that a political solution is possible for America any more. The blatant rigging of the 2016 and 2020 primary elections showed that; Bernie sold us out each time, for whatever reason. The oligarchs own both parties, the voting machines, the media, the legislators, the judiciary...they own everything except we the people ourselves. That's why they are doing everything they can to destroy us.

We will not find salvation in the political process. We cannot vote the boot of the oligarchy off our throats using the oligarchs' own political system. That's not how it works. There is only one way to try to assure the survival of our species, and that is ending the murder-suicide economic and political system which is killing our planet.

It's really quite simple: We fight, or we die. No other solution is possible. Throwing children into the maw of the military-industrial complex not only won't help anything, but makes us complicit in the most inhuman act imaginable.

Biden/Trump 2024

Donald Trump just told Israel that they were doing the wrong thing on Israeli TV. Here's the thing: Trump's a scumbag, and a professional heel (as in professional wrestling). He's a real-estate con man and narcissist.

But he's not a mass-murderer like Biden. He knows what appeals to his audience. That's pretty much the stock in trade of a con man. So he talks big and says all kind of shit that he knows his audience loves to hear - or do you believe that he's really an evangelical Christian?

War scares him. It's too big for his level of relatively petty criminality and graft. That's why he was the only President in decades not to start a new war. He even tried to shut down a war, and the generals and military-industrial-Congressional complex jerked the reins out of his hands and flat-out refused to end it. They only ended it for Biden because they knew the resources were needed for the upcoming war in Ukraine.

The DNC has been pushing the idea of Donald Trump as the Antichrist, Satan, and Hitler all rolled up in one turgid package. They see terrifying their voters about Trump as the only way to get them to swallow the shit sandwich that is #GenocideJoe. But Biden is actually killing children every day, probably close to 20,000 by now. He's jailing more refugee children at the border than Trump did. He's happily denying millions of American children (and their parents) basic health care, while he and his family enjoy the best health care in the world for life, paid for by our tax dollars. And don't get me started about Biden's penchant for grabbing little girls and smelling their hair. The guy's a senile creep!

Biden's the genocidal fascist. Trump's a sleazy crook and con man. They're both rapists, of course. But between the two, Trump is clearly the lesser evil. Because genocide, particularly of a population which is half children, can never be anything but the greatest evil possible.

Biden also serves the oligarchs and the military-industrial complex with unquestioning loyalty (or at this point his puppetmasters do, since his brains seem to be mostly tapioca). He's brought the world closer to the brink of World War III than any President since JFK. Trump's ego is so huge and his need for applause is so deep that sometimes - only sometimes, mind you - he unintentionally foils the will of the oligarchs.

Both of them belong in jail. Neither of them deserve to be within a hundred miles of the White House. They're both contemptible. But selling the DNC's painfully-concocted lie that Trump is the Ultimate Evil (a lie they've used in every single election for the past forty years) is just ridiculous.

Inspired by the bumper crop of DNC shills this year, it's:

 

But this time they really mean it...right?

 All Americans ever receive is meaningless, contemptuous grandstanding from politicians like Kamala Harris' appearance today at an abortion clinic. Tell me, will she roll back time and codify Roe as the Democrats promised to do for decades but never did? No? Will "Union Joe" turn back time to undo his blatant backstab of the railroad workers union?

The only thing we can count on ANY politician to do is kill the innocent and enrich the elite. Israel will never be short of bombs while #GenocideJoe is in office - or ANY Democrat or Republican. At this point anyone who believes that there's a political solution to ANY problem is part of the problem themselves.

Too Damn High

The average monthly rent in my state is $3,313. The average annual income is $39,666. Let's crunch some numbers, shall we?

An annual income of $39,666 is a monthly income of $3,305.50. We can stop there. We're done. You're $7.50 short. 

Except, well, not quite. Approximately 40% of your income is taken up by income tax, social security, etc. That means your actual take-home pay is $1,983.30. So now you're $1,329.70 short. There's not a chance in the world you're going to find a place that much cheaper than the average, unless it's a refrigerator box in a gutter somewhere under a bridge. And not a very nice refrigerator box, either!

Are there any mitigating factors we can dig up? Of course. That $3,313 is the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment. So what if you get a studio apartment instead?

That's $2,765 per month. Progress! Now you're only $781.70 in the hole every month.

Except for a few minor necessities. Food. Utilities. Health insurance. A car if you need one to get to work. Fuel for the car. Forget about having a family, of course. Those are all impossible dreams.

How about a second job? If you're lucky enough to find a second full-time job, you can double up that income to $3,966.60 per month. Success! $3,966.60 minus $2,765.00 leaves you $1,201.60 for your other monthly expenses. Okay, with inflation doubling the cost of just about everything that might be a bit tight. And you're going to be pretty short of sleep. But it's at least in the ballpark of survival.

Have we missed anything? Well, $3,966.60 is the average income. God help you if you make less than that. And you'd better pray that inflation stops dead this minute, because you absolutely cannot afford any increase in your expenses. If your landlord decides to raise your rent, you're out on the streets.

Anyway, good luck. Me, I'm looking to move to a shithole in a rural state. My landlord has been raising my rent at least 25% every year since COVID ended. 

After the 7th

So what's going to happen after Biden loses? More specifically, what will the Democrats do?

I'm guessing we'll see some really frenzied hate towards third-party supporters, with the usual threats to leave the country and complete renunciations of politics altogether. Perhaps they'll try to outlaw third parties completely. I can see them going all-in on banning protests, too.

But what else might they do? Any thoughts?

Six weeks...

 

The Guilty Parties

Israel couldn't continue their genocide for ONE MORE DAY without the constant flow of weapons and funds from the USA. Our tax dollars are being used to murder children every day, and #GenocideJoe is the one responsible. Along with the whole Washington establishment, both parties.

The wrong people are being killed.

Against Stupidity...

Here's my prediction for the future of American films: Disney, like Hollywood in general will (as always) take the wrong lesson from their failures. They're going to start making "male-centric" movies, but they'll approach them from the woke perspective: making pig movies for pigs. The writers, directors, best boys - excuse me, best "persons" - and all the rest will be just as woke and DEI as ever. The idea of hiring great writers and directors irrespective of their skin color, gender, or whatever type of furniture they sexually identify as is absolutely incomprehensible to management. So we're going to see a lot of condescending crap aimed at what they see as stupid, sexist men. They'll almost certainly try to slide in some sly jabs at the stupidity of their audience under the assumption that we're all too dumb to notice.

And they'll fail. Maybe some movies will do okay; they might even generate a few hits. But in the end, crap is crap. So they'll fail again. And once again, they'll blame the audience.

Maybe down the road Bollywood or China will start producing good films for American audiences. But one thing for sure is that Disney and Hollywood are lost causes.

A Ceasefire, Of Sorts

I'm absolutely convinced that the "ceasefire" proposed by Joe Biden is a TEMPORARY ceasefire. The plan is to get Hamas to release all hostages, followed by resumption of the genocide by Israel and the extermination of the Palestinian people.

Biden's puppet masters really believe that the public is stupid enough to fall for that. Their contempt for the working class is boundless. We are nothing but cattle, in their eyes.

Bidenomics

 

The Big, Big, BIG Lie

Now this makes all kinds of sense to me. The supposed "great economy" in the USA has been a lie all along. It always seemed strange to hear that claim; it went against everything I've been seeing and feeling. The cynicism behind the claims of the success of Bidenomics would be stunning if it weren't so predictable.

Facebook rapes privacy

Holy CRAP, does Facebook rape privacy! I was explaining my CPAP machine to my mother, and looked up "CPAP mask" images on Google to show her what they look like. Now, I DON'T have Facebook Messenger or any other Facebook app installed; I use my non-Google browser to access FB instead. And I used the native Google search box in Android to search, not the browser at all.

Nonetheless Facebook is now cramming my feed with CPAP ads. It never did before. So my only conclusion is that Facebook is leveraging their presence in my browser to steal data from unrelated apps on my phone. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I'm NOT happy. This only reinforces my determination to never buy anything I see on Facebook, ever.

Genocide Joe

Gaza isn't the only genocide that #GenocideJoe enables...

https://armenianweekly.com/2024/02/20/why-im-voting-uncommitted-in-michigans-democratic-primary/

Shortcut to a General Strike?

I just had an odd thought. The oligarchs who rule our world are clearly heading us towards extinction. Either their power must be ended, or the human race will probably be gone within a thousand years, if not considerably sooner.

A sustained general strike would be the least violent way to end the power of the oligarchs. But one possible shortcut to that general strike would be the shutdown of the internet. The idea occurred to me because of the wide-scale shutdown of AT&T's cellular network. That was only a partial shutdown, of course. But what if the whole internet went down, not for a few hours but for days - or weeks?

How would people react? What would they do? What would happen to the economy?

Well, it was just a thought.

Response to an "over-the-top" Biden supporter

The facts are in the public record, and I'm not going to go back over them just because you deny them. #GenocideJoe went around Congress twice to send billions of dollars worth of weapons purchased with our tax dollars to Israel. He did so knowing that they would be used to murder thousands of children and adults. He vetoed a ceasefire at the UN three times. He is a war criminal and sociopath. Dementia is no excuse.

But that's not all that he's done. He promised to add a public option to Obamacare, and broke that promise. He promised to veto Medicare for All if it ever came to his desk, even though he, his family, and everyone in Congress gets the best health care in the world for life, paid for with OUR tax dollars. Meanwhile millions of American children go without basic healthcare. Billions for Israel and Ukraine, but Americans don't matter to Joe Biden.

Now he's offering to reinstate the worst Trump border policies if Congress will only authorize more billions in weapons for Israel and Ukraine. That includes putting even MORE refugee children in cages at the border - cages which he and Obama built.

And that's just the crimes he's committed against CHILDREN. There are lots more atrocities he's inflicted on the rest of the people of this country. Your candidate is one of the greatest monsters in the history of the human race. What's wrong with you, that you support him so fervently?

A response to a Democratic candidate's request for money to help him protect abortion rights

Wait a second. The Democrats passed up LOTS of chances to codify Roe over the last several decades, despite endless campaign promises that they'd protect those rights. But now we're supposed to believe that if we just give a little more and vote a little harder, you'll REALLY do it this time? And meanwhile we should just ignore the murder of over 13,000 children in Gaza that you're all supporting? Why? Do you consider bombing children a form of extra-late-term abortion?

Digital Chains

For some reason I can ONLY post on Blogger with the Chrome browser. Or on my phone, with the Blogger app. FireFox and Brave are both unable to log in and post here.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that Google owns both Blogger and Chrome?

In Old Blood

Say Joe Biden had personally strangled a Palestinian toddler. Put his hands around that helpless little neck and squeezed until it broke, giggling softly all the while. Would Democrats and their supporters still be talking about it not being "too late" for him to earn a second term? Is that a sin that can be wiped away with a quick political pivot, in your book?

If not, why is his complicity in the murder of over 13,000 children somehow BETTER than that single murder? Not to mention another 17,000 or more adults?

I'll wait for a reply.

? = ?

 

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno

Lately I've been thinking about heat. Particularly heat waves, because I think we're going to be seeing lots more of them - and much hotter ones - in the years to come. At the same time it's widely predicted that the power grid will be failing far more frequently, so air conditioning will not be an option for those who aren't rich enough to own and fuel their own generators. That will be the vast majority of the human race.

In the short term, I personally have water stored in the basement. We can spray ourselves with water and lie on the concrete. That should be enough to get us through a few days of intolerable heat, I hope. But longer term, I believe that our species is going to have to become at least partially subterranean. Just as in the Midwest every home has a tornado cellar, every home in the future will need a heat cellar. The rich will probably have their whole homes underground, or duplicated both above and below ground.

The one concern is food production. I'm really not sure what could be done about that. Maybe large-scale subterranean farming of edible mushrooms and fungi? I don't know enough about underground animals to know what species might be adopted into successful sources of protein. 

In any case, I expect to see tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths from extreme heat within the next ten to fifteen years. And I should note for the record that predictions such as those almost always turn out to be extreme underestimates.

Either/Or

The Democratic Party leadership don't give a shit about democracy. If they did, they wouldn't have put a visibly demented, doddering old  octogenarian up against Donald Trump. 

OR, this is all just a game between the two major political parties and who wins is meaningless - the oligarchs win either way. In which case we don't have democracy and probably haven't had it for decades. If ever. 

The Unforgiveable

For the record: even if #GenocideJoe drops out and is replaced by someone else, I'm still supporting Jill Stein. Gavin Newsom is a sleazy scumbag; take a look at his record in California, and you'll see that pretty much everything he does is a betrayal of poor and working Americans.

Hell, even if Bernie Sanders was the nominee I wouldn't support him. He sold us out too many times, and proved himself a shill for the oligarchy. The entire Democratic and Republican parties are complicit in the genocide of Gaza, and for that there can be no forgiveness - ever. 

#FreePalestine

I Forget

The special counsel tasked with investigating Joe Biden's keeping of classified documents in his home during his time out of office has declined to prosecute, saying that Biden's memory is shot. Apparently he doesn't remember when he was vice president or even the year that his son died. I can't say that I'm surprised.

I keep an eye out on the Daily Kos occasionally to see what dyed-in-the-wool Democratic supporters are thinking. In this case, they were virtually unanimous: it's no big deal.

"I'm 63 and I forgot my wedding anniversary. This is totally normal."

"I'm 81 and I forgot my debit card PIN. Joe Biden is the greatest President in history."

"I'm 47 and I just forgot my own last name. Four more years!"

Sticking your head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge reality is such a classic Democratic coping mechanism! But I fear we're going to see some truly epic Democratic tantrums after election day.

I just wish I could see them all without having to suffer through another term of Trump. People really need to wake up and realize that both parties are killing off our species. 

Can I post pics?

Post-war Gaza

I see a lot of talk about "post-war Gaza". Assuming that's it's not just a bunch of luxury beachfront condos for wealthy Israelis (the most likely outcome, and already being offered), most pundits seem to feel that Gaza should be ruled by a "reformed" Palestinian Authority - under Israel's thumb, of course, and thoroughly disarmed and surveilled.

For some reason no one ever seems to consider that the people of Gaza might want to CHOOSE their own government. I wonder why that might be? Do Palestinians not deserve democracy, perhaps? 

Joe wants money?

Sure, Joe. I'll donate just as soon as you resurrect the 30,000-plus Gazans you've murdered, including the over 11,000 children. While you're at it, you can also restore the limbs of the thousands of children who've had amputations WITHOUT ANESTHESIA because of your bombs. Oh, and rebuild Gaza.

Then just institute Medicare for All, cancel student debt, and hold REAL primaries. My contribution will be right on it's way! You have my word as a Biden on it. 🤮

#AbandonBiden
#GenocideJoe
#FreeGaza

Self-rule = Self-rule

Gazans have the right to elect their own leaders. Neither Israel, the USA, nor any other entity has the right to impose their own decisions or limitations on Gaza. 

Red Tsunami?

For some reason it just occurred to me that the 2024 election might just be an overwhelming Republican victory, not only making Trump President but possibly giving the Republicans supermajorities in both the House and Senate. I'd like to think that that would lead to the emergence of a replacement party for the Democrats, but my guess is that the oligarchs would support the Democrats to maintain the illusion of democracy.

Just a theory. I hope I'm wrong.

Question

Question: if there was an election, and Hitler was the lesser of two evils between the two main candidates, would you vote for him?

The Biden Bump?

In the last day or so I've seen several stories in the mainstream press claiming that new polls show that Joe Biden is receiving a flood of support, so much so as to give him a clear edge over Donald Trump.

I'm not buying it. This is triggering my troll-sense. I suspect that someone high up in the political establishment has decided that it's time to fake it 'til they make it - or try to, anyway. Maybe (they think) if we tell everyone that Biden is in the lead, they'll believe it and surrender to the inevitable! After all, the DNC has been convinced all along that enough progressives and other weak-minded recidivists (as they see it) will break as the election draws nearer and flock to the Biden banner.

From how they've behaved lately I think they've been getting pissed off by the strength and durability of the anti-Biden crowd. Nancy Pelosi thinks that protesters are Russian agents one day, Chinese agents the next. In either case she wants to sic the FBI onto them. Hillary Clinton is no doubt seething with rage. Perhaps just a bit of falsehood will be enough to speed up the process and get those childish and recalcitrant young voters/Moslems/African Americans to cease their caterwauling and fall obediently back in line.

I'm pretty sure that they're in for a disappointment, though. I've followed politics closely for about fifty years now, and I've never seen this level of rage directed at a candidate from their own prior supporters. The #GenocideJoe hashtag has caught fire, and many of the pro-Biden comments I see online seem like poorly-done shills.

It's an interesting situation. If I had to place odds on it, I'd say that Donald Trump is extremely likely to win. The wild card, of course, are third party candidates. Personally I don't see any of them other than Jill Stein as having much chance, since most of them simply don't have the necessary ballot access. I'm also quite sure that the Democrats will stop at virtually nothing to keep all third party candidates off the ballot. Even so, I'd bet good money (if I had any) that Biden will be soundly thrashed on Election Day.

Response to a Democrat (Vote Blue No Matter Who)

So you're saying we should support the man who:

A) is responsible for the deaths and maimings of tens of thousands of civilians

B) is bringing us closer to World War III than anyone else in history

C) promised to veto Medicare for All if it ever reached his desk, while he and his family receive the best medical care in the world for life, paid for by our tax dollars whether we like it or not,

D) has a credible accusation of rape against him, just like Trump,

E) is visibly in a state of advanced dementia

F) was the primary mover behind the 1994 Crime Bill that put millions of black Americans in prison, depriving their children of parents

G) rigged the 2020 Democratic primaries, depriving voters of a fair vote,

H) cancelled the 2024 Democratic primaries, depriving voters of a chance to vote again,

I) was the primary mover behind the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill, which deprived millions of young Americans of the option to escape crushing lifetime debt,

J) armed and is STILL arming actual Nazis in Ukraine

K) broke up refugee families and put them in cages at the border, including thousands of children - many of whom were subsequently raped by staff,

L) is offering Republicans the reinstatement of Trump's most savage treatment of refugees at the border just to get more weapons for Ukraine and for Israel's genocide?

There's lots more I could come up with, but if that's not enough nothing is. As for your suggestion that Trump would be worse on Gaza: perhaps you're right. But it's well known that Trump and Netanyahu hate each other, quite probably because they're both thugs. And for all his evil, Trump is politically pretty canny - and he's cheap. Those are all reasons to suspect that Trump wouldn't be willing to write Netanyahu unlimited checks, unlike Biden.

All that said, genocide - particularly of children - is very personal to me. It's a red line that I will never, ever cross. A vote for Biden is a vote for the continued extermination of the children of Gaza, among many other terrible policies which are bringing the end of the human race closer every day. I'm a father. I WON'T support that.

Tax "Fairness"?

There is no such thing as tax fairness. Not all the money in the universe would make up for even a FRACTION of what the billionaires have stolen from the people of the world - not to mention the human potential they've destroyed. There can never be justice, but the closest we could get to it would be for every billionaire and millionaire to spend the rest of their lives as the poorest people on the face of the Earth. Complete redistribution of all wealth is the MINIMUM we can do!

The Fierce Urgency of Meow

Too many black leaders have leached onto the gospel cadence of speech that MLKJr used, without emulating his fierce dedication to practical action and scaring the shit out of the Establishment. They just use those ringing tones to play meaningless political games, like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. Where are the Black Panthers when we need them?

The DNC's plan after losing:

So Nancy Pelosi believes that some Gaza protesters are working for Russia. She wants the FBI to investigate. 

So much for free speech. So much for plausibility, too. I guess it's not surprising that Nancy Pelosi, a sociopath without a conscience, can't understand people who object to the mass murder of children. They must seem as alien to her as creatures from a distant galaxy.

So what I suspect we have to look forward to after Joe Biden's inevitable loss to Donald Trump (thanks in large part to his support of Israel's genocide in Gaza, and his absolute tone deafness about the economy, enhanced by his blatant dementia) is a witch hunt by the Democrats for Russian agents and a replay of the post 2016 Russia Russia Russiagate.

And of course progressives will be their target. I wouldn't be surprised if it works up to a full-blown replay of McCarthyism.

Housing is unaffordable

Housing is now unaffordable for a record half of all U.S. renters, study finds

And yet the rich, all the economists in the media, and everyone in government has no idea why so many Americans feel that the economy is shit. After all, isn't Wall Street doing great? What else do those filthy subhuman peasants WANT, after all?

I just hope I live long enough to see some of these aristocratic pricks lose their heads.

Simple

 No state that commits genocide has a right to exist.

The World's Best Heel

There's a simple insight which will completely change your view of Donald Trump: he's a heel. Not in the sense of being a bad person, although no doubt he is. Rather, he's a Heel in the sense of professional wrestling.

Do you know about professional wrestling? They offer a timeless battle between good and evil, using stage personalities. Faces are the good guys, the ones the audience cheer and applaud. Heels are the bad guys, the ones who hit the good guys from behind with a folding chair or illegally double-team a Face. It's all an act, of course. Sometimes Faces become Heels, or Heels become Faces...but it's all part of the show.

Trump is a Heel. He's always been on TV, even back when I was a teenager. He claims to be a businessman, but his real role has always been media personality. That's what he loves more than anything. That's why he can't shut up, even when a judge orders him to. He's a professional Heel, and he just might be the best one in the world.

Which is probably why Bill and Hillary Clinton approached him before the 2016 election with their Pied Piper scheme. Donald would run for the Republican nomination, supplanting all of the "legitimate" competitors. But he'd be so odious that Hillary, the designated Face, would crush him in the general election. Except...

I'm inclined to think that Hillary simply underestimated just how loathsome she was, and how much people hated her. Any experienced wrestling impresario could have told her that she wasn't Face material. They could have also warned her that even though audiences love to boo Heels, they also love them.

You know the rest. Donald Trump was probably as surprised as Hillary on Election Day. But he still did his best to play the part. And the Democrats shrugged and decided that they could raise LOTS of money for four years, campaigning against President Heel. Which is exactly what happened.

He's actually a narcissist, cunning but not all that intelligent. But he's great at being a Heel, which means he's great at judging an audience (in this case, about half of the American electorate) and giving them what they want. His Hitler quotes are a bit over-the-top, but that's what a good Heel does sometimes. The one thing a Heel dreads more than anything else is boring the fans. And of course when the media and the Democratic elite clutch their pearls and squeal, well that's just music to a Heel's ears.

The DNC makes money, the oligarchs make money, and the only people who get hurt are the ones who don't matter: the poor, refugees, civilians in far-off countries...the nobodies.

The DNC is still playing that game, of course. Donald Trump is Hitler. George W. Bush was Hitler. Ronald Reagan was Hitler. Don't get me wrong, these are shitty and evil people who did a lot of terrible things. But they were all in service of the oligarchs, who always get their way no matter who's in office. You'll never see a candidate on the ballot who doesn't have the approval of the oligarchs.

That said, it's worth remembering that for all of his bombast and threats, Trump (unlike most of his predecessors in office) never tried to start a new war. I suspect that his show-business instincts told him that a real war (unlike an occasional assassination) would be dangerous business, something that could turn the rubes against him fast. If he'd been President during this genocide in Gaza, he'd have made some grandiloquent speeches. The media would have clutched their pearls and squealed, right on queue. But he'd have shut down Netanyahu within a few weeks. For one thing, he and Netanyahu basically hate each other. I think the problem with them is that they're too much alike.

But in any case dying children is bad press, and unlike the mainstream media and the Democrats, Trump knows social media. A Heel has to know his fans; they're his bread and butter. More than that, they give him the attention he craves more than anything else.

My guess is he's going to be President again. Biden and the Democrats have managed to make themselves the greater evil; there's just no way to smooth over 10,000 dead children, not even with bulldozers (ask Israel!). He'll be a bad President, that's for sure. Hell, he might even try to stay in office past his term, assuming he lives that long - although with his diet and weight, that would be a surprise. But he's not the second coming of Hitler, and he's not going to start any concentration camps. He'll put refugees in camps, yes, and that's a terrible thing. But just a reminder, those camps were started by...Barack Obama.

All of which is just my way of saying, try not to freak out. The DNC is spending millions of dollars to terrorize you into supporting #GenocideJoe through sheer terror of Donald Trump. But bad as he is, I'm sure the next designated Hitler will be even worse!

Response to "But TRUMP!!"

So your canned response to criticism of Joe Biden is to try to scare people about Donald Trump? There's nothing positive you can say about Joe Biden to get us to vote for him? Looks like the Democrats and the DNC are the REAL terrorists. In any case, bad as Trump is, #GenocideJoe is worse.

He's taking our tax dollars and making an end run around Congress to murder thousands of children in Gaza. What did those children do to you?

He takes our tax dollars to have the best medical care in the world for himself and his family, along with every other flunky and Congressperson. But he promised to veto Medicare for All it ever came to his desk. Millions of American children go to bed hungry every night, and live without health care. What did those children do to you - or to Joe?

And how much longer are you going to settle for a supposedly "lesser"  evil that murders children? Shouldn't Americans be able to go to the polls without having to choose between two evil old sociopaths? Me, I'm going to vote for Jill Stein. Her policies are great and humane. You have to put your foot down some time​ and say "ENOUGH!".

[blank} IS SO OLD

Back in the days when Bob Dole was last running for President, there was a bit of a fad on Usenet: the "BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT - " joke. They started out funny and/or stupid, but quickly got really weird and incredibly stupid.

Now, I've been maintaining files to store funny bits that I find online over the years, and sure enough there are some BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT -  jokes in them. But after looking them over, there's nothing there that...oh, hell.

BOB DOLE IS OLD

BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT THE BIRTHDATE ON HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS IN ROMAN NUMERALS.

BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT HIS FAVORITE SPICE GIRLS IS OLDY SPICE

BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT WHEN HE WENT TO SEE THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS THE LEAD ACTORS NAME CHANGED FROM CHOW YOUNG FAT TO CHOW OLD FAT

BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT THE GRIM REAPER DIED WAITING FOR HIM TO DIE

BOB DOLE IS SO OLD THAT WHEN HE PEES HE PEES DUST

And those are the relatively less-embarrassing ones!

Anyway, if you want to plumb the depths of Bob Dole old jokes, here's a link. But it's on you.

I posted this because I suspect that there aren't a lot of people who remember this lame internet fad. But I'm also posting it because it seems incredibly appropriate for the upcoming Presidential election, in which two of the oldest and most senile candidates in history will be inflicted on the American people yet again. Maybe it's time to resurrect and repurpose those jokes!

God made a dictator?

God (or rather the oligarchs, who believe that they're God) made TWO dictators: Biden and Trump. A pair of genocidal, corrupt old rapists. If God existed they'd both have been stillborn.

Three products that aging boomers (will) desperately need

I am, it seems, the last of the Boomers. An early adopter, I'm more comfortable with technology than the majority of my age cohort. So here are three products that elderly Boomers will desperately need in the years to come:

1. Hearing-aid headsets. Some of these exist, but they're rare, insanely expensive, and not well-made. Most hearing aids seem to be designed for people who want to hide the fact that they're wearing them. This isn't just stupid and hopeless, but I believe it cripples the basic functionality of the devices. A hell of  a lot of boomers grew up listening to music with earphones, unlike previous generations. That's probably part of the reason that so many of us are going deaf now! So "hearing aids" that are full-sized headsets would work for my generation, I believe. They'd also be a lot harder to lose, and I know from personal experience with my father that losing (incredibly expensive) hearing aids is a huge problem for the elderly. I also believe that a larger hearing aid device could be far more effective. More size offers more potential power to work with. That's common sense, isn't it?

2. Easier TV remotes. Given the increasingly-boring wasteland that is modern cable TV, easy access to streaming services is critical - but a lot of tech-illiterate seniors simply can't cope with the mystery of HDMI1 vs HDMI2. Hell, my mother has serious trouble pressing the "ON" button on her TV remote! There has to be an easier way to switch from broadcast TV to YouTube to Netflix-etc. Some sort of really simple remote with buttons the size of quarters.

3. Cell phones. Okay, I know that simplified cell phones for the elderly exist. They're advertised by the AARP, among other places (which I have NOT joined, despite constant junk mail). But while they have large buttons, they're not designed with a real understanding of how easily confused the elderly can be by technology. Handing a Jitterbug to my mother would be like handing her a real phaser from Star Trek. She'd put it in a drawer and never use it again. Which was the literal fate of the cell phones she's been given, by the way. Want to make a phone that tech-hesitant seniors can use? Make it talk. "I am low on power. Please plug me in.", for example. Would that be so hard?

Okay, those are three devices which are needed, and which will only be MORE needed in the years to come. I hope someone makes them. And if they do, I hope I never need them.

New Day, New Google Problem

 For some reason as of today I can ONLY reply to comments here from Chrome. Brave (my current default browser) and FireFox both produce the following results even if I've already logged in:

And then:

My guess is that Google is getting more aggressive about forcing users towards Chrome. They're getting more evil every day. I really need to work on alternatives for Gmail, Drive, and Photos, because I'm expecting more cash grabs from Google in the months and years to come.

I'd also like an alternative to YouTube Music, but we're a little trapped in that one because we've uploaded so much of our music on it. And I created a playlist that replicated the tapes I'd recorded in the 1980s; it has nearly 800 songs on it, and took a huge amount of time to make. Although Google keeps deleting songs off that list (and others), which screws everything up.

The world needs publicly-owned, democratically-operated online services of all sorts. Big Tech needs to be demolished. They contribute nothing but problems and keep milking us for every last penny. Come to think of it, the exact same thing applies to Big Pharma!

Google's GIANT Money Grab

I'm not sure how they did it, but overnight my Google account storage went from about 70% full to 110%. Big red warnings tell me that my photos won't be backed up and I'll soon lose the ability to receive email - unless I start sending Google money every month for more storage.

I tried deleting all Promotions emails, but after I deleted them all they were all still there and my storage was unaffected. I deleted my largest video, which in itself should have brought me well below 80%, but that too had apparently no effect.

My guess is that Google has decided that it's time for them to leverage their monopoly to just outright steal from the peasants.

Make it so

In an ideal world "child p0rn" would only be pictures of candy, toys, and teddy bears.

Happy MLK Jr Day

White America only looks up to revolutionary black leaders after they have put them 6 feet underground.

Why, Joe?

You are using our tax dollars to mass-murder children - CHILDREN! - in Gaza, Joe Biden. Exactly how do you reconcile that with your supposed conscience?

Meanwhile you and your family (and every Congressperson and Senator) are receiving the best medical care for life, paid for with - once again - our tax dollars. You didn't ask our permission; you just took that money for yourself. Meanwhile you've promised to veto Medicare for All if it were ever to reach your desk, which the Democrats in Congress will never allow anyway. Why? Why are you willing to make us pay for your healthcare while denying it to the rest of us - including America's children?

And you built the cages on the border where terrified refugee children are kept like animals. You STILL keep them there, and have offered to put even MORE children in cages if the Republicans will only allow you more money to send to bomb and kill children in Ukraine and Gaza.

What's wrong with you? What kind of a monster are you? You're going to lose, #GenocideJoe, and you're handing the country back to Donald Trump.

Why?

A Question

So 153 nations are signatories to the International Convention on Genocide (including the United States and Israel). Signatories are required - please note, REQUIRED - to report suspected acts of genocide to the International Court of Justice.

Yet of all 153 states, only South Africa filed a charge of genocide against Israel in the ICJ. Doesn't that make the remaining 151 nations complicit in the crime of genocide? Or at the very least, place them in direct violation of the Genocide Convention?

A reply to Joe Biden's plea for support

Have you considered a ceasefire in Gaza? You've killed well over 10,000 children in Gaza, so maybe it's time to stop that. How about Medicare for All? You and your family enjoy the finest medical care in the world on the taxpayer's dime, so it seems odd that you've promised to veto health care for us. Hey, how about running fair primaries? There's something a little strange about a party named for democracy being against the whole concept.

You could stop persecuting Julian Assange while you're at it. Journalism isn't a crime. How about not using our tax dollars to arm Nazis in Ukraine? That's a bad look for a US President. Americans are drowning in debt, Joe. A lot of that is because of the bankruptcy bill that YOU pushed for.

If you want our votes, give us something to vote FOR. As it is all you seem to have is endless fearmongering about Trump, Trump, Trump. You're literally trying to scare us into voting for you. I don't think that's going to work this time.

Maybe He is?

The only way to believe that Israel has a "right" to exist, is to believe that God is a real-estate broker.

Refuse the Uniparty

You don't have to compromise your principles or accept complicity in the cold-blooded murder of thousands of children. You can vote for Jill Stein or Claudia de la Cruz. They both have great stances on Gaza, and you'll find that their policies are outstanding across the board - far more in line with what Americans want, rather than the oligarchs.

No matter what we do, Trump's going to win anyway. But we don't have to accept the DNC's cynical forcing of another Biden/Trump contest on America.