American Racism: Justice Thomas, LGBTQA and Just Stuff

This post is motivated by Mark Kaplan's November 27, 2017, article in 'Alternet.org' (Clarence Thomas Must Resign) where he correlates Anita Hill's 1991 allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas, during his Senate Confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, with the current sexual harassment allegations facing Roy Moore of Alabama who is seeking election as a US Senator from Alabama.


In 1991, the US Senate did confirm Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court where he remains to this day, but as Mark Kaplan points out, in hindsight, there was much to regret and puzzle over in the Senate's confirmation - by what occurred then during the hearings and later from Justice Thomas's often puzzling and enigmatic conduct (seen in his rare writings and verbal bench expresions (a marked lack thereof). One item that remains an egregious feature from the 1991 hearings was that in response to the Senators' fierce challenges to Anita Hill's allegations, she agreed to, and passed, a lie detector test ...that Clarence Thomas refused to take.

Overall, the 1991 Hill-Thomas events appear to define a threshold in American history that presaged a growing pattern of revelations, and counter attacks, of past and current sexual harassment in American institutions, both public and private.

But to Justice Thomas. Since his 1991 confirmation, Justice Thomas has acquired a consistent aura of mystery concerning just whose perspective and cause he represents. although one can glimpse through the fog and mist he throws up around his mumblings (literally) he does not 'voice' a progressive point of view,...nor does he always express a reactionary opinion. At best, Justice Thomas has appeared to have struggled to hedge his bets against all critiques and analyses. He seems to have a fear of expressing himself in any way that might identify him as a proponent of anything, and certainly hide his minority group membership. This 'running from himself' seems to originate from unresolved confusion and hurt, from from early age, from racial prejudice. Thomas's unresolved hurts seemingly restrict and throw a fog over his rare, written opinions and utterings from the bench. (In 2016, Justice Thomas made the news by breaking his 10 year silence from the SCOtUs bench.) Thomas's rare and largely unintelligible 'expressions' on the Supreme court stand out (i.e., are uniquely different from) from his colleagues's and when they do appear, seem awkwardly worded and simply different, from his colleagues's - an exception being Justice Scalia (RIP), his legal compatriot, whose anti-LBGTQA and anti-abortion, anti-progressiceness, ...seems to have lived in the same existential void as Thomas.

IMHO, the reason why Thomas' rare writings and 'sayings (rarely recorded because they are like a hurt child's spurts of confused anger. Thomas presents as a physical-appearing adult who disguises those hurts in empty-sounding phrases stemming from empty-meaning thoughts that even he seems to recognize as not worth speaking, as to speak these mind-farts would jeopardize his standing with the public and his SCOTUS peers...as they do when rarely uttered.

Justice Thomas's rare and unintelligible 'expressions' seem to say he has not confronted the hurt he has from past (and presently felt) discriminatory prejudices from others, and come to accept that those prejudices are based on superficial physical qualities he can not correct...no matter how hard he might try and pray to remove. These targeted natural (God-deemed) qualities are for Thomas focused on skin color. Thomas does not appear to have an adult minority person's reaiization that his and others' qualities such as race, color or LGBTQ are 'God-given' ('natural') and that he/she is morally right (and has the Constitutional right) to challenge those prejudices when they restrict his and others' freedoms to live the same as every majority (white, hetero) American citizen, i.e., to enjoy full color-gender-other blind Constitutional rights and protections, including marriage.

Consequently, imho, Thomas's rare and largely unintelligible SCOTUS opinions often appear to be ramblings to himself and his still-tortured soul. It's as if he wants to say he recognizes racial and gender prejudice and discrimination but fears to seem to acknowledge he is a member of the targeted group. Consequently, his opinions in cases of racial/gender nature are absent or simply disregarded as pro-forma (for him) and of little worth.

Thomas has yet to develop an adult's comprehension of 'what's going on' which would allow him to formulate an 'au courant', 'woke' sense of self, his boundaries, and his probable feeling of hurt from imjustly breached personal boundaries. This evolved but unreached selfhood would have given Justice Thomas a self-respecting defiance of those who breach those Constitutionally assured boundaries and justly define the prejudiced and their causes as unjust!. Instead, Thomas appears to struggle, with inarticulate non-success, to render all points of view, even of the prejudiced, in equal light. Thomas seems to think this middle-road stance is safe but it actually makes him appear empty and useless.

Moreover, from his 'waffling', Thomas seems to want to give racial/gender prejudice an equally valid moral weight as the misguided prejudices of the alt-right oppressor of LGBTQA and racial minorities...which also seems to be a hallmark of the present Trumpian (POTUS) philosophy.

(Pericles21 is certain that Justice Thomas, as an adult African-American male, continues to experience hurtful prejudice.) The point though is when might Justice Thomas wake up?

Artificial Intelligence: the Future of Our Religion-Capitalism Paradigm, New Gods...and the Eminent ? of Humanity

A recent article streamed from the DailyGalaxy web site, "An AI God Will Emerge, Replacing Our Concept of the Divine", 102417) painted a future where Artificial Intelligence (in device or mega-cloud format) may escape from human control after passing some cybernetic threshold of uber-smartness compared to humans. This threshold is, as of yet, undeterminable but felt by a significant number of vocal scientists to be both inevitable and fast creeping up on us.

Pericles21 posits that it will be impossible to sustain human control over future Artificial Intelligence because of our mercantile-dominated Western culture that is dominated by the Capitalist Equation where nearly every item or service is price-tagged and Western (nay, Global) economies are driven to maximize profit. A break in this post is inserted to review this phenomenon:

CAPITALISM EQUATION: Maximum Profit = Revenue - MINIMUM COSTS (where the desired cost goal is ZERO)

ZERO Costs is the 21st century mantra that governs most if not all human activity in this era of global capitalism.

ZERO COSTS is the cause of global wealth inequality and is killing working humanity by its consequences: elimination of raw material costs by resource robbery in non-developed nations, outsourcing of manufacturing to lowest wage areas, the elimination or at least emasculation of unions, and increasing productivity through automation which serves to reduce labor cost(human participation in manufacturing) to a goal of ZERO!

Capitalism's goal of ZERO LABOR COST will essentially be achieved as automation becomes widespread and eventually human labor becomes fully redundant with Artificial Intelligence taking over from all labor activities.

The ascendency of this simple Capitalism Equation (destruction of Labor's negotiating powers by eleiminating unions and automation) has been a steady trend since industrialization was introduce in the 19th century, with certain halts such as the period after the Great Depression, principally the Roosevelt programs that promoted a balance of power between labor and capital. But there was also a second attempt to restore that power balance through an appeal to reason and observation that unfettered capital development was ruining our water and air quality that quite naturally deteriorated the health of workers and the general population...thus negatively affecting worker productivity. A strong voice among economists bringing attention to this need for Capitalism to support policies that acknowledged Capitalism's shared accountability in preserving clean water and air through appropriate manufacturing practices and government guidelines (regulations) was what Pericles21 calls the 'Samuelson School' of the 1980s (Samuelson, MIT). Unfortunately, after a brief popularity the Capitalism world re-established its former myopia regarding the public weal and went full out to complete the destruction of American unions and further its CAPITALISM EQUATION goal of ZERO COSTS.

This brings this discussion back to Artificial Intelligence...which will, unless managed in some way, complete the process of making human labor and humans in general, redundant!

The process of making the working human labor, and humans themselves, redundant will be unstoppable as long as Western culture is, unquestioned, shaped and ruled by the profit-driven, unbreakable partnership between Western religion's gods and modern, unfettered global capitalism, aka Neo-liberalism - all of these will allow unthinking acceleration of technologies that serve purely to promote the Capitalist Equation (ZERO LABOR COST). If not a declared partnership, the relationship between economic-corporate-society and religion has become mutually supportive, mutually protecting and mutually preserving. The first two traits of the 'Partnership' might be seen as positive or at least non-destructive, but the third trait is negative because it traps humanity into a whirlpool of its own making, greed of profit and what profit will 'buy'.

Yes, it appears human 'civilization' has beecome simply defined as 'Buy' (how much available to buy, what to buy and what next can (must?) be bought to satisfy basic urges that are not 'needs'. Humanity's real 'needs (those of the world's needy, i.e., food, clean water, clothing, housing, health care, education ...are now ignored because the needy have no money to Buy right now...and the corporate frame is short term, quarterly at best. The corporatist frame can't wait a decade for an educated and more productive, and more consuming, citizenry to appear after a social makeover!.

Given this dynamic and the increased profitability of Ai replacing inefficient human labor, the uber-Ai threshold is inevitable, approaching rapidly, and can't be stopped without some major social-economic adjustment...which is not likely.

Pericles21, secondly posits that the uber-Ai threshold for exceeding human 'smartness' is between 5-10 years (probably already here in some defense agency projects). 'We' can do nothing more than hold onto our hats and ride it wherever 'it', not 'we', goes.

The preparative signs of a coming demotion of human importance is already here, most significantly being the gross, global mal-distribution of wealth and income..where the net assets of several billion 'poor' are exceeded by the assets of only a few hundred or less uber-rich.

Humanity is stuck neck deep in our own muck and mire generated by greed, lust, selfishness and the other human frailties we know about and fret about but they are supported or preserved by that sacred partnership between what we believe in - the joining of religion and capitalism.

What is it about us humans and technical progress that seems to entrap us in our own technical cleverness where we injure our health with untested pharmaceuticals, injure our environment (and again, our health) by grossly polluting factories and our failure to conceive of consequences of letting industrial waste be dumped willy-nilly into our water and air as if it no longer is our concern if we can't see it?

Whatever 'It" is about human shortsightedness, we have been unable to learn to slow down and think about what demons technical progress might unchain. And so it seems we are faced with unseen consequences that might accompany uncontrolled development of Artificial Intelligence.

Except, there is a growing movement to try to see what might come upon humanity from super-intelligent artificial constructs.

Under the current 'religion-capitalism' partnership that seems to dominate the Western world, it will be difficult to stop Ai progress as long as economic profits appear linked with Ai. Current Western religions and associated gods are thereby doomed by human greed, selfishness, etc... the human frailties. This good for progress but bad for 'stability', i.e., the status quo. Bottom line -corporate-speak), unfettered capitalism will have to be 'made over', or go.
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An AI God Will Emerge --"Replacing Our Concept of the Divine"
October 24, 2017

America Needs A Make-Over, A 21st Century Bill of Rights and 10 Year Economic Plan

Preface:
America needs a 21st Century Bill of Rights - an updating of the 1791 Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the American Constitution. The 1791 Bill of rights were intended to protect the rights of the citizens from potentially overpowering government authority. Now, 225 years later, a radically different world faces the American citizen who once again seems to be forgotten and de-prioritized (viz., "Citizens United") and where corporations are close to having the right to vote! America desperately needs to revitalize its commitment to its citizens' (the rights to a quality of life as the unique rights of actual living persons as contrasted to imagined 'rights' of abstract legal constructs). America must update its commitment to the 'Common Weal' (Common Good) - the right of an alive citizen to 'quality of life' (health, education and economic security) in the face of modern technology and global interactions.

Currently, in 2017, America has no plan to change itself regarding its neglect of the Common Weal, and more sadly, America seems to have something against self-examination and planning changefor the future, and seems stuck in place and losing ground. Amazingly, in many areas of the America and among a sizeable voting segment (the new nationalism), this American stasis or even reversing of history is something to be valued and pursued!

To provide insurance for the future, America needs an modernization program for its national air, rail and roads infrastructure. And America needs an industry modernization program to review, prioritize and plan in phases of short, intermediate and long term.

America especially needs a social makeover - a self-analysis and understanding of itself to finally resolve its racial (and gender) tensions even as America has become, increasingly, multi-racial and multicultural.

In all, America needs a self-examination, review and restart like never since 1791. While the 'first Bill of Rights intended to offset and balance the powers of the State, for nearly 150 years since the Industrial Revolution, deep changes have happened in America and the world around us while we have neglected the Common Weal. And, for almost 100 years since the 1940s, we have neglected our industry and the people who work in it. This is the crux of an August 14, 2017, Washington Post article by Seva Gunitsky who analyzes the spread of American Fascism in the 1930s.

Since 1791, times have changed...and radically changed. It takes a fool, or one who is deliberately self-delusionned, not to see this. Times have even changed substantially since 1950 which indicates that life is not waiting for the slow to catch up, whether individuals or nations. It is time to make national policy course corrections with a updated Bill of Rights and a 'Plan' for America's future (hopefully, a long term plan not just a 30-90-360 day profit-loss accounting).

America's 21ST Century Bill of Rights must emphasize self-examination and review, planning and implementation...for the immediate, intermediate and long term. This will be a 15-20 year program. (It could be a series of 10 year phases with major reviews each decade). This idea struck Pericles21 after reading today an excellent article that highlights America's current economic and social paralysis -our national, dysfunctional stasis - that compares our 2017 status with dynamic destructive forces of the 1930s. To 'break through this impasse, America needs a 21st century 'makeover' however difficult that might be...not to accomplish this will see America increasingly sink into the mire of past history as we beecome more and more clownish in our economic distress and our simplistic, bad political choices.

We need to catch ourselves up from long neglect of our quality of life, investment in our human resources (one-payer health coverage and subsidized higher education) and as well looking elsewhere while our antiquated industrial base rots away and dies out from neglect and our lack of planning for future industries and sources of employment. America needs a Bill of Rights for the 21st Century if America is to remain a global leader, have a stable, competent, satisfied (high quality-of-life), and invested citizenry, and be prepared to exist 50 years from now.

At the 'bottom' of this thought lie critical questions about America, and Americans, in the 21st century - how to measure national 'success', how to 'successfully' govern a modern nation and how to plan for its future, continued success?

These questions make up a set of choices:

where does the citizen rank in priority vs other institutions and measures of national ranking such as military might, industrial GNP and GDP, etc; does the 'Common Weal' (Common Good) come second to socio-economic hierarchy, the 'betters' of Old Country feudal ways, are Common Good programs (health, education and economic resources such as jobs) far secondary to military spending, or second to ...something(s) else? And what is a valid measure of a 'sucessfull' nation'?

America's seemingly has adopted a preferred measure of success, the national 'Profitability' metric (GDP, GNP, the various Stock indices, etc). But, profitability as a substitute for moral ethics (regard for the human element in the mix, without which there is no meaningful national purpose) is a sad, destructive substitution because it defines America as having little or no moral direction and implies minimal concern for its citizens relative to the rest of the planet's developed nations. An example of America's drifting about is its 200 year old, continued, unresolved moral paralysis about its racial history and current racial relations.

America's current prioritizing of 'profitability' indicates America has lost the Founders' 1791 regard for the Public Weal, the Common Good, the whole purpose of the original 1791 Bill of Rights. But, the concepts found in the 1791 Bill of Rights currently seem the whole purpose of havng a modern nation.

America must correct from its current dangerous emphasis almost wholly on military ascendancy. This change is especially important as the pace of life and the rate of changes in life especially are accelerating beyond our capacity to keep up, as a nation and especially its citizens.

And this acceleration of life seems (No! Does come!)from Washington, DC in the person of America's current, new POTUS (President) whose ever changing, randomly focused, capricious, vengeful, shifting and shifty personality is affecting Americans (even those who voted for him) and the rest of Earth's living creatures (as America, under new POTUS directives, has chosen to withdraw form human quality-of-life resource protective international accords, animal habitat preservation policies, water and air regulations, etc).

Our remaining industries are increasingly antiquated, or dreamed about as miraculously being born again, even though the rest of the world is replacing them with totally newer technologies, products, and services.

More time, it seems is spent crying for reincarnating our industry relics (eg, coal mining) and 'gold-strike' beating of chests over fracking and shale oil than developing fusion, wind and solar power. (Fusion power is so much a worthwhile goal yet one rarely hears about its development and/or funding, except in Europe, China, Russia, etc...in other words, the rest of the planet.

Why is America caught in this stasis condition - where there is no plan for the future of our industry (employmemt sources), education, a healthy citizenry to function in the new 'industries'? Imho, America is prevented from modernizing because America has been seduced, misled and deliberately derailed from modernizing by allowing (voting for) our national leadership to substitute a facade (false or at best, incomplete)way of judging value and success of programs, businesses and people by the measure of its profitability.

The measure of 'Profitability' over real ethics is a sad and destructive substitution because it says America has little or no integrity, moral direction and concern for its citizens and has lost the Founders' regard for the Public Weal, the Common Good - the whole purpose of the original 1791 Bill of Rights.

, with a dangerously abbreviated (but easy as heck to handle mentally) business 'ethic' of 'what's good for business is all we need to knowi.e. our capitalist 'milk cow' sentiments (don't invest in something s long as it's surviving and generating profits, and move to the next market when it dies).

America's new 'ethic' since Reagan or since Nixon, has been 'What's right for business, is what's right'!

Ideological resistance (current Republican Party) to the notions of the PUBLIC WEAL (from the earliest colonial times) and the general consequence of decades of, again by conservative ideology, economic impoverishment and dumbing down of the working American, Doubt the latter claim - then examine the purpose and result of America's 3 to 5 decade old policy of selectively thieving the ready-made, technical human resources of foreign countries rather than investing in improved math and science teaching, and free or subsidized education for American-born kids.

As for education, health and the general Common Weal of America's human resources, America has for 50 years cannibalized-by-neglect its own children.

And 'Thank you' that, Republican conservative ideologies mixed with bitterness from a lost Civil War!! There, it's said...one day America will heal itself from the left overs from the 1860s Civli War that supposedly, but not, ended going on 200 years ago!!!

Some day, perhaps not soon, and not soon enough, America will take the time and make the effort to ponder the effects of the Civil War, heal the wounds, salve the bitterness and face the future as a diverse, true equality for gender and race, multicultural, modern and united America - mutually tolerant and restored in dynamism...ready to look outward.

Meanwhile, 'Life' is now immensely more complex and becoming more complex at an accelerating rate of change..

For example, America's industry, what is left, is piecemeal a dwindling, unplanned, or even un-envisonned, set of 19th century fragments and dinosaur bones whose final deaths are being postponed by 'upgrades' (actually'delay' strategies destined to die away ...soon ).

America not only needs a 'Plan' for new industry (employment 'platforms' of whatever shape they might be sustaining a satisfying quality of life for everyone - either by a basic income for everyone, or minimally a basic Common Weal threshold..of health care and education. With those two 'basics' a small family can work at serving burgers yet have self respect and a future for its children.

Change is the new mantra and essence of life. Now, it seems we can only take a quick breath before the next 24 hours brings even more changes. Now we can best describe our lives in terms of change but no longer over a decade but in 24 hour cycles. We now must adapt ourselves to a new concept of 'second order' living where change is replaced by the need to cope with accelerated change, a rate-of-change. If one has been calculus-trained, this concept is familiar...when designing machines, jet planes, international space stations, etc. Never before have 'we' had to test our mental capacity to function like a machine under stress from a 'hard' accelerating pace of life. By 'hard acceleration, one means the substantive changes that are coming over not the next decade or even year, but tomorrow, literally.

And this acceleration of life seems (No! Does come!)from Washington, DC in the person of America's current, new POTUS (President) whose ever changing, randomly focused, capricious, vengeful, shifting and shifty personality is affecting Americans (even those who voted for him) and the rest of Earth's living creatures (as America, under new POTUS directives, has chosen to withdraw form human quality-of-life resource protective international accords, animal habitat preservation policies, water and air regulations, etc).

There is now a clear call for a new, 21ST CENTURY BiILL of RIGHTS and National Plan. Such a framework will serve to remove desperation and social instability and economic stagnation by installing three basic pillars of a healthy society...sound public education, a national long term economic plan for new industries (not just focused on benefitting the stock-owning class) and a one payer, universal health coverage. These programs, after 2 generations, will have created a physically sound workforce with minimal sick-out 'downtime', an educated citizenry prepared to adapt to, and invent, new global technologies, and make enlightened political choices, and overall a physically healthy, employed, positive society at peace with its diverse history and with a confident vision of its future as a modern nation.

A Solution for the Times: 'Daddy Let Your Mind Roll On' (Or, Why Worry, Suck Down That Kool-Ade) - Why Don'tcha?

Are 'we', America and the rest of Earth's inhabitants (all of 'us' - hominids and lesser 'folks')beset with the projected dis-ease of a 'canted' personality, that of our dear POTUS? Think carefully about that before you answer 'Nyet'! (Catch the insinuation?!?!)

Since the November 2016 POTUS election, it's been tough to gather oneself and 'find' time to ponder and collect one's thoughts about what happened in the election, and what is happening and what might still happen. Basically, it's all been 'batshit' crazy since November 2016.

For several months (geez, 6 months actually) Pericles21 has had an unfinished overview post about what happened last November 2016, but it seems - No! It does not 'seem', it 'is the case' - that America, and the world with us (because of us), has fallen into a whirlpool..a whirlpool in the middle of a cesspool..of confusing, too quickly changing but uniformly chaotic..'existence' if one can call it existence. It's hard to adapt to constant chaos isn't it?

How can one use the term 'uniform' with 'chaotic'? Well, for a start, just sit and try to describe what is now going on in Washington, DC, and globally. 'See' - thoughts go round and round...where it all stops is not possible to see. The current world and national situation can't be described using standard expositional structures and analysis and structures. There is so little sense to it all. And it changes so quickly. Too quickly. Chaos is a good term to use.

Some do adapt, though not exactly in a 'healthy' mature manner (depending one one's perspective and personal tools). A Zen perspective might help. But not everyone has the Dalai Llama's reincarnate centuries of Zen training.

'Taking the bullet' and simply ducking and avoiding the stage lights helps, too. Doesn't it?

But the 'normal' person (who gives a shit) is left with just dizziness - but that at least means plenty of company ( isn't that comforting?), over 60% of our American population experiences 'diarrhea-nervosa' trying to get its heads around our dear leader and his antics.

That's comforting, too. Isn't it?.

The rest of the world largely copes by laughing it's collective head off at our arms-a-flailing running around like headless chickens.

And that's real comfort...isn't it?

And there you have it,

there is comfort for everyone... we all can be happy, theoretically, if one is willing to walk around giggling like a mad person, or half asleep or mentally dwelling off-planet.

If these traits (artifices for us) sound familiar it's because they are all found in the person of Dear POTUS. In other 'words' we Americans and the rest of Mother Earths two-legged hominids have been gobbsmocked, bamboozled and smoky-mirrored by an ace carny clown into a state of high dis-ease.

But what does one do, many times, in that state ...of dis-ease? Why kick back, pop a top (or corn), fill a bowl (popped corn, cherries, or might be appropriate in your State, or state?), turn on TV and 'GET OUT' (Paglia). It works. For a while.

America re-discovers it's past remedy for this dis-ease(1970s at least, during the time of the Nixon 'illness').

'Sit right down, Daddy, let your mind roll on'

But, there is, at least, an analysis tool/phraseology that many Americans are familiar with who have experience with military. A unifying phrase, ultimate in simplicity, maximal in American linguistic abstraction that describes our current national state of existence pretty well and has been used a a safe drug by many military recruits whose minds have been have been dizzied by the whirlpool of immersion in a military world of commands and counter-commands and counters-to-counter commands:

'SNAFU..SITUATION NORMAL, ALL FUCKED UP'.

SNAFU pretty well describes the world we live in...a world in a chaotic 'non-sense' state since America's Nov 2017, POTUS election, and largely accelerated in non-sense by the principal (POTUS) of that election.

Are 'we', America and the rest of Earth's inhabitants (all of 'us' - hominids and lesser 'folks')beset with the projected dis-ease of a 'canted' personality, that of our dear POTUS? Think carefully about that before you answer 'Nyet'! (Catch the insinuation?!?!)

There, it's said - America's POTUS is the principal agent of a current, all-enveloping national and global Chaos - our global, existential WhirlPool. Will it end, this mutant sport presently occupying the Office of America's President? Of course it will end, sometime. Meanwhile, cope however one can, or must. Just don't forget.

America Stumbles in English to Describe Trump Jr's Two-Stepping Double-Cross of America - 'We're Just Not Subtle Enough, Ma' (Where is HL Mencken?)

[this post is an edited version of a July 12, 2017 post]

'Come forth, you incarnate Menckens! America calling! Mencken is also referenced, thoroughly, in a recent article, 'Revisiting H.L. Mencken in The Age of Trump' (FRANK FEAR, LA Progressive)

The American, so-called progressive, media keeps going with the Trump head-fakes - or is too cowardly to steady-gazed call a charlatan a charlatan. 'How come, Ma? They can read and write words like nobody's business(scratching of head.)' Ma: "Well, sonny, it's all about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - or, if you can't deal with that, 'you pay your money then you have to choose', is that clear enough for you?" Sonny: "Sure Ma! Can I go out to play, now?" Ma: "Don't forget to tie your shoe laces and chew some gum." Sonny: "You're great, Ma."

Americans use language like...chimps read encyclopedias...seemingly absorbed utlil one notices the encyclopedia book is upside down.

And on to this post.

Almost daily,in the last six-months since the January inauguration, we've witnessed better entertainment than television farce - belly-splitting comedy and ballyhoo regarding Father Trump and most recently, son 'Junior' Trump and the 'Russian thing'.

More specifically, we are now grappling with Trump Jr's attempts to tell us about his interfaces before the 2016 election with Russian interests while in the same breath, lying-by-omission about those encounters. Seems Trump Jr, and many many other key Trump-president staffers and advisers who have critically sensitive security clearances (insisted on by DT) didn't exactly tell about all their meetings with Russian agents, businessmen-agents, crooks and grifters... all of whom had bad intentions in mind for America. Or, who were currently involved with active bad things against America.

All this has come down to a specific meeting between Trump Jr (with two of daddy's key staffers) and a Russian lawyer-alleged-agent. But wait a minute! Seems that meeting has grown in number with each retelling. We won't know where it ends but how many others attended that meeting? Well, that room surely was crowded with all those Russians, American political hacks (Trump supporters) and electronic surveillance and blocking devices!

According to Trump Jr, the meeting was all about procuring offered "dirt" (damaging info) on Hillary Clinton. But then again, if one shifted one's gaze into the mirror a bit, there appears in the background a tear jerking scene - the meeting was 'really' about pleading with Russia, on behalf of all those sad American childless couples, to lift Russia's bad ban on letting childless Americans adopt Russian babies. 'Bayby-Gate'

'But then', Russia's baby-ban was Russia's answer to America's economic sanctions on Russia (Putin and his Russian-global mafia) for it's attempt to launder dirty money from illicit global operations (read 'crime') consisting mostly of sex-slave trafficking, surplus nuclear-and-standard weaponry, drugs, etc.

The main talking point surely wasn't about babies!

But Trump Jr's tale has shown us tricky turns, back flips, reverse angle corner shots ( excuses and dodges) and other contortions all woven together in Trump Jr's attempts to tell his side of things and yet spin a golden veil from coarse home-spun.

Almost as bad as Trump Jr's omissions and dodging is the almost-as-bad efforts of the American press and media to parse WTF is happening in all this tragi-comedy, political magic act from the Trump opus.

Is it that the Trump male line is endowed with a 'slick gene' so slack that any one of them can come off the bench and bamboozle the media with split-fingered, meth-jumpy, spit-gooberish curve ball pitches? It looks like it, but Pericles21 posits a reason for this might just be that the Trumps are playing Brooklyn street ball (known for its traditions of roughhouse mayhem) while the media is playing cricket in the highlands (tea break, anyone?

In the July 12, 2017, DailyKos web page (july 12, 2017) "On language: The meeting was about sanctions, not "adoption", "Dcg2" commented on the failure of even veteran American media writers to use the English language sufficiently to convey how Trump Jr's recurring excuses and resultant, unending descent into ludicrousness and self-immolation amaze the 'veteran' American media.


However, fret not. Pericles21 has a thought that should help put our media's plight into perspective.

Pericles21 (me):

Americans are not subtle in how we use our language...even though increasingly our culture, especially the political part, has become full of situations that call for subtlety in cynicism and humor, or (deliciously) both. 'Ordinary' America-speak just can’t carry the weight. I have had Russian-American friends who’ve described the cathartic joy that Russian people under current and previous Russian dictators have enjoyed using the power of subtlety and irony in their language. Maybe it’s that we Americans like to get right to the bone of a situation and, instead of language-basd subtlety, employ such mind-releasing tricks as shooting, stabbing, punching, lynching, burning to the ground, running over with cars, tossing out of windows, etc. (and with as much dramatic noise as possible).  America needs, desperately, as many Neo-Menckens as possible. They’re around...let them come forth!

And Dcg2 sums it all up in a tidy parse:

Ultimately, we don’t control government.  We don't control the media. But we do control the language we use — and we don't have to adopt their language or their spin, nor should we legitimize the mainstream media adopting their language or talking points

Daily Kos web ("On language: The meeting was about sanctions, not "adoption")

'Yes. There was Collusion, There is Collusion and There will be Collusion' - RICO DeDiTos

Nothing to add.

America at the Crossroads: Empire or Republic? All the Pieces Are On the Board!

Alternatively, the title of this post might have been, 'America's New Caligula' - Donald Trump!

What? Questionnable taste? Then, how do You describe America's current political bad dream? Pericles21 sees too close a parallel between America after November 8, 2016 and Emperial Rome under the Emperor Caligula, maybe its grossest, most decadent leader ever. And now we have Trump.

'Caligula' (Little Boots, 'Bootsie' in Latin) based on the root 'Caliga' the oversized Legionaire boots that Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula) marched around in as a child in his father's Roman military outpost in Germany.

And America has 'DediTo' (DT, Little Fingers, 'Fingers' in Latin) based on a physically noticeable featuture of America's latest president.

(more coming.)

Trump and His Base: Same Race but Not the Same Life Quality, Health Coverage, Education Opportunities and Definitely Not the Same Wealth

Trump has nothing in common with his base except race and anger, but Trump’s anger is not the same anger of his base. Trump has everything his base wants (and more) but his eye is on things like respect and status , things that are earned by grace, style, integrity... qualities that Trump doesn't show.

So,except for race, Trump has nothing in common with his base except both are White. And, while Trump looks down on poor whites,he manipulates that racial coincidence masterfully.

In the end, Trump will screw over his base until they have nothing left - no jobs, no homes, no education for their kids, no healthcare, no pennies. Hail Trump, dear leader.

Trump at Month 5 / Pt 2: Archons Making Bank. Yes, Arabia is in the Mid East. And so is Israel. And The Farce Continues!

Indeed, resulting from dear potus' (DP) very clever mis-thunking (forcing us to fact check our 'shared belief' that Israel is not a mid-east nation), DP reminds us by using 'reverse truth'(alternate fact?) that not only are BOTH Arabia and Israel mid-east nations but we Americans in this new era must keep up with his. clever testing of our mental alertness. We must remain sharp at all times. The nation's safety depends on our brain-nimbility...we owe so much and are so ingratitude to dear potus.

Contrary to near widespread belief, faked realities and coincidences that are not - like contract signings between dear Ivanka or dear Jared and foreign nation corporations at the same time dear potus was signing executive orders or policy that favored the foreign parties to said contracts - America really hasn't at all changed. DP shows his love for us all by not hiding. DP is all love and open-ness. We owe him our 100% support and fealty. We are so happy.

Under DP, business at the White House is as usual, except now dear potus shows his love for America by letting us share his joy with making big bank. Now, we are all Archons - we can all ride in limos by enjoying seeing dear potus, accompanied by our spirit, enjoy the fruits of America's democratic process, the 2016 election - this is the New American Democracy. We are so happy for him, for his family.

Trump at Month 5 / Pt 1: What have we got? What did we do? 'Wha Happen'd?' Could We Have Imagined? YES!, And It's Not Good!

The idea for this post was conceived more than a month ago with the intent to draw up a list of thoughts and key bullets linked to Donald Trump's then 3 but now 4 months in the White House - as POTUS not as a hall-wandering guest.

But, regularly every time, just as Pericles21 seemed to see a window of calm in the goings-on in Washington - a point to sit devotedly at writing this post - something would happen with DT that disturbed the apparent calm-in-the-waters and so put off writing this post. Something, an event or utterance from DT, that both strengthened previous opinions about DT's mis-match to his new POTUS 'gig', yet also added something new and more strange that was beyond prior imagining what boundaries, traditions and (even) laws might be twisted, bent and possibly broken to satisfy (or 'sprung from' as the whelping of a two-headed calf) the whims of 'dear POTUS' (nomened with thought ala Kim Jong-un).

Trump has proved to be not a POTUS but an ongoing, depersonalized, continually blossoming, non-scripted event...like a giant fart striking those around with noise and odor, and never ending, going on and on. It seems with Trump's every movement, breath and thought, some American tradition, ethic, law, is breached, tossed aside and/or wrecked.

This description of the first 4 months is written with trepidation but with confidence that the sentiment is shared, increasingly, by a growing majority of Americans whose segments sometimes cheer him as watching the Bull in a 'China-shop', or sneer or quake in fear.

But at the root of things about America's perception of Trump as POTUS, as reflected in current polls (and even in the polls before the November 2016 election), is America's doubt about the 'aptness' of Trump to meet the skills, standards and requirements to be America's president.

The choice of the "Aptness' of Trump is an attempt by Pericles21 to 'ground' this post in phrasing befitting polite and considerate readers. But, 'Polite and Considerate Readers'- maybe that is the dance partner to the current POTUS 'debacle' (oops, there we go again, about to take off.) 'Enablers we are' seems the more accurate label we all must wear as our sharing in the Trump era.

Bluntly, Trump is not qualified to be POTUS. If Trump had lost the election, no one would been surprised (not even Trump). Plus, not only would no one have been surprised but no one would even have felt relief because we couldn't have imagined, without 'It' happening, just how weird, strange, bizarre and f...ked things could get.

And yet to our self-condemnation and self-flagellating angst in post- modern Western culture, it's all so mesmerizing (hypnotizing). To his 'credit', Trump as POTUS is arguably better watching than any television sitcom series...it's free and 'obviously ' written by a team of truly 'gifted' (deranged) writers who seemingly must work 24/7 (around the clock) to dream up this s...t.

Trump as POTUS' been Odd (to be polite)...and the oddness keeps on being there.

But at the root of it all, something not pleasant is going on with the current POTUS. Is he physically ill? Mental? A traitor? Double Agent? Evil genius? Or not evil? Or is Trump just a genius so above every American and the world's leaders that we are toyed with like Barbie and Ken?

'Wha' is happening? To us? Wha's up with this whole piece? When's the commercial break, this s..t is getting too real? Isn't somebody in the control booth, we need relief? This looks, smells, sounds like a staged farce - it can't go on. Fire ASAP the warped agent who hired the burned-out druggies who are writing this. Our brains can't take it? Sniffle, sniffle.

That is what the current polls are describing and increasingly so, by trends.

What have we got? What did we do? 'Wha Happen'd?' How could we..did America ever.. envision ...after the inauguration..no, before the inauguration...no, after the election sabotage... !....

OK, bluntly put, it was, or should have been, always apparent there was something off-kilter with DT so we never looked closer than surface (his too-bright,smallish, eyes and crooked smile and over-the-top, self-exaggerations), and definitely askew with the picture of DT as POTUS, even several presidential cycles ago, that is why DT never got beyond or to the primaries.

Trumpian Times: "A Loser President" (Dan Rather)

Pericles21 commented (below)on a piece in the March 24, Dailykos webzine covering Dan Rather's description of Trump in the Oval Office, to date,... "A Loser President".

Pericles21:

It’s so good that Dan Rather is still with us in body and spirit — Rather was a martyr warrior who stood face to face with The Nixon...and suffered for that. Kudoes, Dan.

But to the subject of DT, perhaps we might say DT is simply not a fit to occupy the Oval Office (one hesitates to even use the title of potus). And, America should learn its lesson from this debacle, the basic qualification for being a true POTUS is an understanding of, and commitment to, the principles of democracy and the significance and respect for the Constitution — DT seems to have neither of these qualities.  DT seems to not understand where he is and what ‘it’ is all about. And then, DT doesn’t appear to understand the great efforts (toil and body sweat) taken by less rich men to pave the roads he has driven on in his expensive cars, the importance of regulations to guarantee the good quality air that has kept his lungs healthy for him to live this long and the laws that assure the quality of water that has helped keep his body going, and the diligence of the many service people whose lesser wealth status have assured safe foods for his table. Trump has benefitted from these, and more, service but has probably never realized (if he is capable) wherefrom or how they they were delivered to him — he seems to just automatically assume they appear at his wish as if delivered by a God’s command or whim.  Trump is a “User” simply and solely. Trump is not fit to sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. (And Melania’s description of the furnititure in the White House as ‘old furniture’  nails it that the White House has been run over by rude, misfit rug merchants.

This period of America's history will hopefuly be short (ending soon with resignation or impeachment).

Trumpian Times - Exit Left (IN JUST 60 DAYS !) with a Suggested Plan for an Interim 'potus' and New Election), Or, ' Down With the Business Model of Governance , Citizens Are Not A Disposable Labor Pool'

In 2009 and 2014 Pericles21 posted about the fallacy and threat of regarding the American Citizen as a disposable labor pool under a business model governance system run by big corporations and/or their servants.

It's Time to stop filling in the blanks in Trump's performances and statements with hopeful or "fair" interpretations of DT's daily (thrice daily?) gaffes, un-presidential tweets, insults to foreign leaders, threats, bullying, saber rattling, and so on...and look straight on at what sometimes occupies the Oval Office (sometimes its DT). It's a big cow-pie!

DT is a mess, his appointees are a line-up crew, fringe dwellers or zombies..who among will be indicted, investigated and dismissed next?

The majority of voters thought Trump was mess and about half of those who voted for Trump also thought he was a mess!

Now it's the moment, (and JUST 60 DAYS!!) the majority of voters thought would happen, even though willing to give the sobering influence of sitting behind the Oval Office desk to work some kind of magic on DT. It, the rehab of Trump, hasn't happened, it looks like it won't happen and things are getting worse daily.

We've gained INSIGHT from the Trump debacle:

wanting to be President, being President and earning respect (even begrudgingly) requires something Trump doesn't show he has...a basic personal integrity, a love or at least respect for the Constitution and democratic principles, a desire to better the lives of American citizens at all levels.

A tough job? YES! That is why a modern, 21st century America doesn't deserve Trump who is not at the intellectual level with other global leaders, not inspiring global comfortability (just the opposite, in Aces), and definitely not a person of inspiring ideas and vision beyond threatening to bomb the "sh//t" out of the demons of his twisted paranoia.

Pericles 21 has the following suggestions, after today's March 20, 2017, televised hearings between FBI Director Comey and the House Intelligence Committee (Wired Ezine, 03/20/17):

1/ DT given opportunity to walk out the front door, away forever from the White House and not be indicted for treason - with 10 yr suspension of all business licensing in the the USA; if he chooses to remain in the USA, DT has to register as a foreign agent while on American soil, but his family will not be affected, even though some of them might potentially also be in conflict of interest with the Russians.
2/ 2016 election declared void, and all appointee positions not filled be frozen in place with Obama holdovers.
3/ 6-10 month Pro-tem "chief executive" appointed (Obama) to set up real 2017 or 2018 election, with proviso that Obama will not be eligible not be allowed to run in the new election.

Obama is the only person with enough global cache" (trust, experience and confidence inspiring intellect), administrative determination, management skill and patience to reach compromises where required and set up the machinery for the new election.

After this, anyone with imagination can write books...and hopefully America will have had it up to the eyeballs experimenting with a business model leadership.

What we have witnessed - the Business Model just doesn't work...

CITIZENS ARE NOT A DISPOSABLE LABOR POOL TO BE LAID OFF OR DISCARDED TO IMPROVE THE BOTTOM LINE, OTHER SOLUTIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR LIVING STANDARDS INEQUALITY, JOBS, HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION!!!!).

And especially, DeVos should go or be placed aside in favor of a proven public servant (or committee of impartial educators) with national vision, not her.

Trumpian Times: The "Deal" will Kill Us All (or, A DEAL IS NOT DIPLOMACY)

Lead-in:
Let's stop using "Deal', as in make a deal between nations...'Deal' is so inappropriate and dangerous in that context. It suggests gangsters shaking hands with crossed fingers behind their backs, And 'Deal' making between nations is about as useful a description as to call a whale a big fish...so wrong in so many ways.

This post is about the first 60 days of the Trumpian Times and repeats a theme Pericles21 posted about in 2009: the 'citizen' of a nation is not, nor should not, nor be treated as, nor regarded as, nor defined as labor. As 'Labor' in the economic sense that would attempt to stuff 'citizen' into the cramped mold of labor, as in 'a productive unit of expense' to be used, or discarded as useless, under the arbitrary disposition of a business owner. This is, imho the principal fallacy of Trump's book, 'The 'Deal' or contract is a temporary creation with limited import outside tort court but a treaty is so much more because mass suffering may incur:

In logic notation:

DEAL:CONTRACT =NOT= PACT:TREATY

"The Deal" might be a good primer if one wants to become a business person, a property vampire, a killer kapitalist,...or The Deal may even guide one lying, bluffing and postering to becoming 'king of the hill' in one of the biggest scam-hustles going on the planet, the campaigning to be President of the United States (POTUS).

But 'The Deal', after the campaigning and election are over, is, as we've discovered, so very inappropriate for training someone to successfully perform as a POTUS.

WHy? Because, 'Ninny' the United States is not a business, nor is any successful nation strictly a business. The United States is a NATION of Citizens where Citizens should take precedence over everything else. We'v so gotten the wrong message by idolizing that book (and the charlatan that 'wrote' it!).

Simply put,..in the area of international affairs which Trump so eagerly hopes to apply the dynamics of business deal-making...basic logic, a deal (business) is based on contracts (both of which can be, and are wily-nilly, broken as desired with no loss but money and pride...usually, except in the Bronx). But a treaty between nations is anchored by a pact that is weighty to the extreme because lives, thousands and millions of them, may depend on the honoring of a treaty.

Trump's 'DEAL MAKING I NOT DIPLOMACY.
Kanth’s latest book, Farewell to Modernism: On Human Devolution in the Twenty-First Century,

An excellent recent re-covering of my 2009 theme was Lynn Stuart Parramore's March 2017 article in the Alternet Webzine ('Have We Been Denying Our Human Nature for Four Hundred Years?', Alternet.org, March 10, 2017). Lynn Parramore asks, again, has "...a devil called Eurocentric Modernism unhinged us from our real wants and needs?"

Lynn expands on her question by citing Rajani Kanth, economist and social thinker, and the originator of the term, Eurocentric Modernism, which he phrased in his most recent book 'Farewell to Modernism: On Human Devolution in the Twenty-First Century'.

In Rajani Kanth's view:

what’s throwing most of us off kilter— whether we think of ourselves as left or right, capitalist or socialist—was birthed 400 years ago during the period of the Enlightenment. It’s a set of assumptions, a particular way of looking at the world that pushed out previous modes of existence, many quite ancient and time-tested, and eventually rose to dominate the world in its Anglo-American form.

We’re taught to think of the Enlightenment as the blessed end to the Dark Ages, a splendid blossoming of human reason. But what if instead of bringing us to a better world, some of this period’s key ideas ended up producing something even darker?

Kanth argues that this framework, which he calls Eurocentric modernism, is collapsing, and unless we understand why and how it has distorted our reality, we might just end up burnt to a crisp as this misanthropic Death Star starts to bulge and blaze in its dying throes.

A mass incarceration of humanity

Kanth's view, so kindly translated by Lyn Parramore to the current dismantlement of the American democratic apparatus by the Trump political administration, gives a framework to explain why 'Trump' happened and where "Trumpism' might lead us.

Trumpian Times: EyeBall Deep in DT's Dialectic Doo Doo ('You Don't know What You Got 'Till It's Gone)

This is a post-in-progress. Stay tuned.

PREFACE:
This blog began in 2009 and was somewhat consistently added to through today, 2017. What a ride it's been since election day 2016! And what a difference from the transition from Presidents Bush II to Obama - a transition that was carried out with mutual self-discipline and regard, and above all, a concern for America's continuity and peace. (Bush 2 is to be congratulated for his decency with which he conducted himself through that smooth transition).

But this transition, the 'Trumpian Tribulations', is a different show - this is a taking of America by force, an occupation by a foreign enemy (in several ways, morally and what looks to be a true coup assisted by a foreign enemy state, Russia)...but no one seems to have the guts to do anything serious about it.

It is also a macabre sign of this transition that so many of this blogger's acquaintances are so deeply affected (shocked, traumatized, mind-zonked ..) by the barbaric and crude disrespect, and unmerciful willy-nilly viciousness and ruination-by-trampling as DT and his gang of troglodytes have raped, pillaged, decimated and 'sold into bondage' sensitive and secure federal government apparatus. (Though all in character for DT, one supposes.)

'Oh, Hillary, Sanders, Stein, Johnson, Brazille, Wasserman-Schultz...what were you thinking? And all you lib-progressives who with miffed, kindergarten egos sat this one out and did not vote at all...well, this is what you (and we all) get. What a price to pay for lib-progressives to be educated for future campaigns.

But what fascinates one most is how the perpetrator (once again our 'DT', 'OBP'(Orange Big Pimp'n), OG (Original Gonzo) so easily (and often) has gotten away with flaunting American standards no POTUS has ever violated ...with only feeble complaints like American Tradition is a sweet deer-fawn being done with by a hyena mauling and eating it live while it simply lays there in wide eyed shock.

One has to wonder why (if one cares)if this 'stick up' is so easy, why no POTUS in one's reading hasn’t done the same previously in America's short history.? One explanation must be that regardless of Party, every modern POTUS except this One has had a basic respect set for the office, the country and humanity, that create built-in borders of some decency.

And, this job is not easy. Every modern POTUS has quickly shown signs of mental exertion trying to seriously juggle and manage America's complexities. Struggled to find the right way.

But THIS ONE makes it look easy because he is unaware of traditions (like the Constitution of the United States), has no behavioral boundaries and knows very little of the significance of the job except for a one-sided misconception that the Presidency is just a job description of something that should be simple because 'obviously' being President means automatic exemption from all laws and the ultimate freedom to do what one wants - like 'grabbing America by the 'Shorts'.

In other words, being POTUS is a simpleton's dream come true - the ultimate freedom to rule like an emperor or a kid in a candy shop. Or, it should be..and if it isn't. then all one has to do is whine, wscrean, threaten and pull any other kind of nasty tricks a man-child can manage or dream up. And, 'regarde', they all fall down ...especially if man-child occasionally throws in a brief second of adult-mimicry that makes them all (mostly) swoon with relief at the prospect that man-child has finally grown up. Only it's all just one more joke on us.

The conflicts of interest and monetizing of the Presidency for private gain is appalling! And the family altogether seem a gang of rug merchants parking their camels on the front lawn and pissing in the corners of the Oval Office. Sorry.

Trump aka the Adams Family Gang--Settling in and Setting Up at the White House.

The Adams family are almost moved into the White House... in Washington... 'DC' that is? Setting up a swap meet booth at the West Wing...getting rid that old stuff laying around.

Morticia as usual is taking her time, brooming in from Borneo (or from the Bronx...hmmmm).

Uncle Fester usually 'hangs'(in harness) in the unused intell-briefing room wherefrom he was last seen emerging with a smile and satisfied belch whilst munching on Mike Flynn's thumb knuckle - Mike disappeared some days ago.

The Pensive, ever faith-full stolnik, the one in charge of ...something, occasionally presents his glow-worm countenance to be chain-whipped to the amusement of all.

The crew assembles in their good time. Some kind of show is about to happen and crescendo. Something coming.

Trump Era: Day 10 !

Day 10! What else is there to say.

Comments and Advice For a Progressive in 2017

What to say? The dirge. The droning, throbbing ache.

Glum Gloom. Love the Bomb? (The copout option?...don't think so, but 'Geez'.)

The White House turned into a flea-market stall. A 'Carney' booth.

Might be some laughs in 2017 as the china breaks...but those crashing sounds will also mean that someone innocent and helpless will most likely suffer by DT's ignorance and incompetence.

Enough. The fire in the gut will come back soon, then write more. Meanwhile, 'Carry On' Warren, Reid, Bloomberg...'Hard and Classy'... the 2017 mantra for Democrats.