Never Ending Struggle

Same shit, different day.

Locust, May 4, 1970

Closet Skeletons

How many skeletons does Donald J. Trump have in his closets?

“It’s A Free Country.”

I was channel surfing on the Web, and came across an interview with a Trump supporter. He was asked about one of the infamous “perfect” phone calls, specifically the one requesting that they “find 11,780 votes” for him.

The ex-president’s testosterone engorged male supporter with a balding head mouthed off, “It’s a free country isn’t it? He can do what he wants.” I believe that would be called a rhetorical question. The interview segued off in another direction from there.

I have been thinking about that free country concept ever since. That line has been said with bravado for a long time, probably even by me, to rationalize all sorts of things. In my case as an excuse for phoning in sick for work. Or, just as an easy way to slip into a tavern for a beer. Bars have used that reasoning every time they open their doors, but regret it every time they say “last call” and want to clear out the drunks.

We are a nation of laws that we ourselves gave the “law makers” the ability to make. We gave them the tools to police those laws. We were taught to believe in the rules of the game. We have been instructed to not cheat at cards. Performance enhancing drugs are frowned upon. There are penalties.

So, all in all, it is not a free country. As they point out in the John Wick films, “There are rules, they separate us from the animals.”

In the “real” world, the human animal cheats all the time. When they get caught, the other human animals are supposed to enforce the rules. That is what government gets paid for. It keeps the mob from their knee jerk reaction of riding an offender out of town on a rail. Hangings need to be sponsored by the courts because it is not a free country. Once you live in a group, there are rules which when crossed have consequences, just not the penalties an individual might like.

The “find 11,780 votes” line is not looking into election fraud, it is attempting to cheat. It is election fraud, election interference. It breaks the rules, the law. It is not just kicking the ball out of the rough when nobody is looking. It is worse than cheating at golf.

For this kind of crime, there are tar and feathers, rails for riding and the rules are sanctioned by the courts. In this game of government there are rope burns. We gave up our freedom so that we could keep our crimes under the radar. When those crimes become public, there are supposed to be consequences. We agreed on that.

Freedom is an illusion that governments like to encourage. But the human animal will bite the hand that feeds them.

A Tendency Towards Tacky

I remember when people talked about the dignity of the office with the U.S.A.’s presidency. As of 2016 that no longer is a thing thanks to the Russia’s FSB (Federal Security Bureau), GRU (Chief Intelligence Office), the Trump Organization, and the Grand Old Party. The Russian Federation and the Grand Old Party, and Donald J. Trump recognized the flaw in American’s nature: the ugly American. Kudos, well played.

Not Soviet Realism

Tsarist Appeal

Tsarist Envy

What is the appeal of the gilt frame?

Lara Trump

A person desperate to find a skill set other than being the wife of Eric.

Flags

RUSSIAN FEDERATION’S GOVERNMENT: We love the American people; it is their government we hate.

U.S.A.’S GOVERNMENT: We love the Russian people; it is their government we hate.

“Government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.” –Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

WHAT PEOPLE IN GOVERNMENT REALLY THINK: ‘We hate those guys.’

The Trump Organization

In the shell game of working the grift, could the Trump Organization be called a Big Store?

Cyber War

It doesn’t seem that long ago, 1966 when Lorraine Schneider drew this poster. It is still true. Any sane person who has ever been around a war knows better than to be there. Some people are not sane or are never really around the war. Unfortunately, members of Congress are not generally around a war and yet they are the ones vested with the power to declare one. What happens when those people have a vested interest in having or not having a war? Some of the laws that we have are only applicable when we are at war like the law against treason and aid and comfort to the enemy. It took for ever for the Library of Congress to change the classification from police action to war in Vietnam. We could not have prosecuted Nixon if we wanted to. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/06/nixon-vietnam-candidate-conspired-with-foreign-power-win-election-215461/

“Real” war is necessary for the prosecution of traitors when they are engaging in information warfare. The best you can do with congress-people who know they are aiding the enemy is prosecute them for obstruction of justice or fraud when there is no “real” war. Nobody wants to do that because they are afraid of breaking the system they all use. A whole bunch of people have to die to turn the warning light on that system is about to break.

“Is it not enough to know that they are servants of the Enemy?” answered Gildor. “Flee them! Speak no words to them! They are deadly.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“What a long strange trip it has been.” — Jerry Garcia

The Republican party has had almost 50 years to taint the U.S. government. Their tendrils are tangled in every branch. We as a people have neglected the qualifications of our gardeners for far too long.

If only I had had more discipline in life, I should have learned to call lightning down from the sky by now or at least made enough money to hire ninja assassins’. Now I am pretty much old and useless. I do not care what governing system people choose, it is still made by people and people cannot be trusted. My schooling was filled with disinformation about people, about checks and balances. Human nature overcomes checks and balances. The U.S. Constitution was built for course corrections, but when the revolution ends, you cannot get people to agree on anything. The nature of people is both good and bad; the bad carries forward.

Homo Sapiens Sapiens are not rational animals; they rationalize. They do not seek justice, they justify. For good or ill, they do what they want. They wallow; they grasp with their grubby little fingers. The bad inside will hide behind doing good. The bear will hibernate until it awakes hungry. Then the bull rides forth in the spring were it can rapine.

Regrets only happen when people are caught. Some people never regret, even when caught. Ignoring these kind of people just comes back to bite you. You can only heal if the illness is gone. The bad in people never goes away. It can only me managed, treated. If it is not excepted as a reality, eventually people will delude themselves into believing it is not there. You cannot cure and illness if you ignore it. You cannot manage and illness if you do not believe it is there. People are not wired like that.

Can’t we declare a state of cyber war with the Russian Federation? Just for one day. Then the U.S.A. could use the treason laws to snatch those who are providing aid and comfort. We can sue for peace the next day, after we have snatched them all up safely in a bunch. Homeland Security was given latitude to take out terrorists, even the ones in our own government. They have lots of black sites for this kind of thing. The trials will take years, but we might have years left to process them.

Oh yeah, declaiming war is a Congressional power and there are a hold bunch of the Republican Party imbedded there. Does war have to have more than a majority vote? It might be tough to come up with even that as some of the Grand Old Party are actually Democrats. They have been providing aid and comfort to the enemy in return for aid and comfort from them. There is too much dark money moving around behind the scenes. Squabbling has replaced the checks and balances. Squabbling seems to fall under the old concept of secrets being kept between 3 people when two of them are dead. It was hard enough to get the Constitution signed with 13 colonies. Now there are 50 states and 350 million squabblers.

Compromise happen when the original 13 states institutionalized slavery with the electoral college system and representation by the number of bodies in population, not citizens with the right to vote, but bodies. It was almost like they were planning ahead for indentured servitude as a way of coddling the population. Maybe they recognized the potential of encouragement to get into debt thing.

The media likes to toss around the terms Liberal and Conservative. Both like to talk about freedom and liberty. Conservatives want the freedom to conserve the right to beg, borrow, and steal other people’s property and protect “what is theirs”. Liberals want to be at liberty to wonder if they really need that and sell it off for a profit. Liberals also do not seem to see fraud as covered by the right to free speech, but there are some liberals in sheep’s clothing out there.

I wish I had an answer to how people’s brains are wired. Education might be one, but as hard headed as people are, ideas have to be shaped like two by fours so they can get through the thick skulls. It is pretty certain that people are not going to stop doing what they want to do because that is the way people are.

Course Corrections

Government is a necessary evil, but always remember it pulls toward evil. It needs constant course corrections.

Puffery

When exaggeration overwhelms thought.