1.13.2024 – intellectual

intellectual
acuity invented
that does not exist

Some speculate that Trump is engaging in Richard Nixon’s deliberately staged “madman” theory of intimidating people into accepting his terms, whatever those might be. Still others wonder if it’s all performative to keep his masses entertained with the show. His grandiosity is certainly a constant expression of his malignant narcissism. Attributing his atavisms of imperialism and blunt-force tariffs to a thought through theoretical exercise to return to the 19th century invents an intellectual acuity that does not exist.

From the article, “Donald Trump isn’t even in office yet and silly season has already begun” by Sidney Blumenthal in The Guardian.

Mr. Blumenthal’s mastery of multi syllable words must be saluted.

I also like the idea that adding Greenland and Canada will add multiple, more likely Democratic Party based, states with their Senators and Representatives to Congress.

Maybe once the GOP figures that out, they will be as excited about adding these new states as they are about adding the States of DC and Puerto Rico.

On the whole, how did this guy end up President.

As Mr. Mencken said in his book, In Defense of Women in 1918, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

12.18.2024 – I did it to make

I did it to make
his life miserable, which
I’m happy about

From the article, Trump Sues The Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Maggie Haberman, David Enrich and Alan Feuer.

The article states:

In Mr. Trump’s own telling, winning his civil legal actions isn’t always the point.

Mr. Trump, who has often attacked journalists publicly for details in news accounts that he hasn’t liked, famously lost a libel case that he brought against the writer Timothy O’Brien over Mr. O’Brien’s description of Mr. Trump’s net worth as much less than he claimed it to be.

The case played out over the span of years. But during the 2016 election, Mr. Trump told The Washington Post that it was worth it, even with the loss.

“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” he said of Mr. O’Brien and his book publisher. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”

There isn’t enough here to move my needle of dismay and disgust anymore.

There is a spoiled little ten year old coming in the run things from the Oval Office again and may God Save the United States.

It’s like when The 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz once said, “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.

Only we got the poor United States.

So far from God.

So close to Donald Trump.

I am also reminded of what Winston Churchill said when Germany under Mr. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and Mr. Churchill said, “If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”*

I think that I can say if Mr. Trump sues the Devil, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in Court.

*Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 370.

11.18.2024 – new rulers stymied

new rulers stymied
by incompetence, infighting
self-sabotage

Once Trump won, decent outcomes for the country were probably off the table. The institutions are unlikely to hold. Establishment Republicans cannot be counted on to protect us. The best we can hope for is that our new rulers will be stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage. In that respect, Gaetz may be just the man for the job.

From the article, Matt Gaetz Is the Perfect Man for the Job by Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times, Nov. 14, 2024.

I am trying to stay out of politics so the topic of the article is incendental and I want to salute the word craft in the marvelous sentence “The best we can hope for is that our new rulers will be stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage.“

… stymied by incompetence, infighting and self-sabotage.

In many ways, this was the underlying foundation of the Allies war on Nazi Germany and it worked out okay and I can easily imaging these words being strung together by Mr. Churchill.

That being said, I am reminded of a discussion of the so called ‘End Times’ I had with a friend of mine.

The End Times in Evangelical circles is when the world as we know finally falls apart.

As we talked about this I thought outloud:

The amount of sin in the world gets to the point where the only thing that can make any difference is the return of Jesus.

Then I looked at my friend and asked: “This would be a bad thing … why?“

Then I asked, “Do we want to encourage bad behavior?

11.17.2024 – do not be afraid

do not be afraid,
discouraged – go and attack
the King of Ai

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.

Book of Joshua, Chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, (New International Version Translation).

It’s mostly just a coincidence that couples the resurrection of Trump with the rise of Artificial Intelligence.

A coincidence that lends itself easily to the idea of a new world if not a brave new world is just around the corner and all the uncertainty and discouragement that the idea of this brave new world will not be much a world to live in.

It’s also mostly just a coincidence that my daily Bible reading was from the Book of Joshua, Chapter 2.

And it’s mostly just a coincidence that a city that stood against Joshua was named Ai.

I ask you, when you hear the term, The King of Ai, who do YOU think of?

I know not the orange guy but that other oddly named feller the has a seat on his train.

And the King of Ai will be delivered into our hands.

Today you draw your reassurances where you can.

I cannot understand where this country is in respect to its past and in response to its elected future but these Bible verses helped me to remember that God is IN control and I draw reassurance from that.

I will NOT be afraid.

I will NOT be discouraged.

Hang on to hat, this is going to be a bumpy ride.

11.7.2024 – a grey mist sea’s face,

a grey mist sea’s face,
must go down to the seas, call
of the running tide

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Sea-Fever By John Masefield.

This poem is forever in my mind remembered from the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory movie when everyone gets on board he Wonkatania and Gene Wilder gestures towards the ship and says, “And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;“

Then the boat goes through what has been considered to one of the most bizarre 3 minutes in movie history.

It has been written that, “ … you can see the abject terror plastered on the faces of children and adults alike in the scene. He didn’t tell any of the performers how Wilder would behave in character for that particular sequence, which led some of the younger actors, like Denise Nickerson (aka Violet Beauregarde), to believe Wilder was suffering a very sincere, very alarming psychotic breakdown.”

I feel like we are all about to start that boat ride.

Walking on the beach yesterday the clouds closed in to the south and you couldn’t see far down the beach or across the water to Tybee Island.

The horizon of the water and the horizon of the sky were together.

A light rain fell.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.

The mist will clear and we will see the way through.