Future Amnesia

Denying food to the hungry, shelter to the unhoused, health care to the poor, and civil rights to all; while transferring the savings from this parsimony (and more) to those with the most, who need it least.  

Thousands of people who have been drawn to our land by our long-standing promises of sanctuary, fairness, and the promise of a better life--even some who have lived here and contributed for decades--are kidnapped and deported to hell-holes even more dangerous than the ones they fled to reach our shores.  Denying these captives of an opportunity to defend themselves - even a writ of habeas corpus, the most basic of civil rights under two-thousand-year-old Common Law.   

Doing all this while weekly finding assurance within the walls of a church; feigning worship of a God who clearly condemns their every workweek action; yet finding validation from a preacher who wouldn't dare to call out their blasphemy, for fear that the jingling in the offering basket might be silenced.  

We have been here before.  

One day, our nation will awaken to the cruelties being committed in our name, and end them ... 

And the next day Republican school boards across our land will create curricula that will prevent the history being created today from being taught tomorrow.

Bill Moyers' Passing

I think it may be a bit self-indulgent to feel like it was like a punch in the gut when I learned a few minutes ago the Bill Moyers has died.  He was ninety-one years old, and has shared from the depths of his soul for his entire life.  It is time to let him rest, rather than be envious of whatever thoughts he might have left unshared at the end of his time.  

One of the last television shows I would try to schedule around was Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  He would interview guests I had never heard of, but would seek out once I learned of them.  His extended conversations with Joseph Campbell are such a treasure-trove of insight on mythology, showing commonalities of the elements of the heroic narrative that spans cultures, and unites humanity.  The way they shared their conversation invited the listener to be part of it.  It really conveyed a feeling of oneness with humanity.  

As brilliant as Bill Moyers was, it was never his intent to display his intellect, but to facilitate our visit into the intellect and imagination of the guest he was interviewing.  It's been a while, but I've enjoyed many hours hiking in the woods, with the volume my earbuds set so I could hear my footsteps, and the squirrels, but also take in the insights of  conversations like this one, with Campbell.  

Moyers & Campbell

One-Liner Quips

GOLF - A game played by fat middle-aged men who pretend to be athletes, and by athletes to just want to relax and pretend that they are not.   

Bridge of Giggles

La poésie n'est pas incompréhensible, 
 elle ests inexplicable.  
 - Octavio Paz

Little Donny Not Loved

My father never had any use for 'bleeding hearts', or 'sob sisters', so I know I risk his wrath from the afterlife, as I express my sympathy here.  

But I can't help but wonder what chance the Current Occupant of the White House ever had ... 
and just how different things might have turned out, both for him and for the world, if he had ever, for a moment been shown love as a child.  

Mass Deportations

The internet is alive with stories about people being deported due to mistaken identity, or for exercising their rights to free speech, guaranteed by our Constitution.  In some cases, they are not just being deported, but are condemned, without due process, admittedly by mistake, to a hell-hole prison, where our government intends to abandon them to their fate.  

Seems to me an excellent subject for discussion in the days leading up to Good Friday - the annual remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  In that context, it is worthwhile for each of us to consider in our own hearts, which side we are on.  

-------------

Well, Jerry, you have wound yourself into a pretty tight logical Gordian knot here. The validity of your point rests on a web of entirely:

((- You are absolutely certain that nobody you know meets the criteria you have set

AND

- All of those we have sent to this hell-hole meet the criteria you have set)

OR

(- You are willing to relax some of your criteria for the people you know... perhaps they may beat their wives, so long as the are not gang-affiliated,

OR

- the gangs with which they are affiliated are not 'illegal'.))

OR

The other possibility is that this has nothing whatsoever to do with logic, fairness, or rule of law. You just don't like having Latinos here--legal or not--and are happy to randomly round them up, and send them to this death camp, irrespective of what they may or may not have done - and will come up with any excuse to justify your behavior.

SAVE Act and DINOs

The Republican Party faces an ongoing demographic barrier to remaining relevant. A key part of their response to this is to disenfranchise as many progressive voters as possible. Once enshrined in law, these changes are almost impossible to reverse, because those most seriously affected no longer have a voice in our democracy - and are thus reduced to a substandard tier of citizenship.

Whether one is a woman who changed her name when she married, a poor person who doesn't have a passport, or even a public figure who moves fluidly between using her birth surname, her husbands surname, and a hyphenated version of both, the effect is the same - disenfranchisement.

Even a small number of Democrats voting for this outrageous attack on fairness lends it a transparent patina of bipartisanship. We cannot allow the center to be moved so far to the side of unfairness ... or leave it to the Senate to display the courage lacking in our representatives.

Pump and Dump

The folks who gloat over the about-face on tariffs this week—who say that maybe he has learned his lesson, and is chastened—have missed the point.  

It's a variation on he classic 'pump-and-dump', perfected in the days before securities regulations, to move money from investors to insiders.  There is money to be made on stocks, whether they are going up or down.  The trick is to know which way they are going, and when.  

Though sharing or receiving, and acting on, inside information for a single stock has earned high-profile individuals a few high-profile stretches in jail (Martha Stewart, for example), there isn't much in the way of precedent for going after those with inside information on the timing of tectonic shifts in the entire economy, and the timing of their reversal.  Trillions of dollars were made and lost in the recent boomerang announcements of crippling tariffs, followed by their postponement.  The opportunities for an insider for sudden wealth would be irresistible - assuming such an insider intended to resist in the first place.  The person who can pull these economic strings would be in a position to make or break fortunes, and demand loyalty from the wealthiest people on the planet.  

He has indeed learned a lesson - a lesson he intends to repeat over and over again, until he perfects it.  He has nothing to lose.  He's playing with house money.