Snowflake despair over ... court rulings? Sack-up! The fight will be elsewhere.

I planned to do a weekend post about how the insatiable (and thus insane) top oligarchs are sparking a world wide revival of the moribund works of Karl Marx. (Alas.) And thusly they seem determined to reserve their rides on Uber Tumbrels. 

But that will have to await another time. After I issue the next update of my book on AI... AILIEN MINDS.

Meanwhile, I have to address an even more dire phenomenon that's pervading across the liberal-o-sphere. Something so silly and unjustified that it plays into the very hands of those seeking to wreck Enlightenment Civilization.

Despair.

     == The Role of the Courts ==

This essay (not one of mine) makes a strong argument that the Roberts Supreme Court has been betraying the American Republic in many ways, but above all… Two Supreme Court Decisions and the Dismembering of Madison’s Republic, by Earl R. Smith II, PhD. 

Though I think cynicism toward Democrats like Nancy Pelosi is not supported by their activities in 2021 and 2022, when - collaborating with Sanders/Warren/AOC etc. - they accomplished so much more than the left will ever credit. Just one matter -- full funding of the IRS after 40 years of starvation - would seem to challenge the notion of DNC Dems enslaved to corporate interests. Since IRS funding was funneled into 'paid in advance' funds, those would have to be repealed by an act of Congress... 

...and they were, alas! By a Republican Party that is now the most tightly disciplined partisan machine in the history of the republic.

Still, I won't deny that the American Republic -- indeed the entire Enlightenment Experiment that let us escape 6000 years of dreary feudalism -- is in deadly danger! Hence I have tried hard to fulfill my own task in all of this. To imagine possible ways to make things better.

Seriously, If you want to see 35 pragmatic and quickly actionable measures to repair the damage, see my full list of proposed Newer Deal tactics and reforms. And pass them on to folks who might act on them!

    

     == In despair? Go to a mirror and... ==

On this blog's comment thread, some are expressing despair. Especially now that the Roberts Supreme Court has stopped pretending to be anything other than a Confederate/Kremlin shill, led by our generation's Roger Taney. And sure, 1859 looked pretty dire, too. As did 1776, when the American Revolution was saved from the pit of despond by Thomas Paine, whose pamphlets - Common Sense and The American Crisis - girded the resolve of brave, shivering patriots to keep fighting for a dimly-perceived better world.

How can I reject despair? Especially when few of you - certainly not even one of the sanctimonious despair wallowers - will actually go and read the epochally stirring words that Paine wrote? As if speaking specifically to you?

Perhaps it is a matter of personality. Wherein I deem despair to be grotesque and somewhat inhuman. But also a kind of pathetically ingrate laziness. So unjustified, when we are typing or narrating into miraculous devices, in comfort with nearby snacks, breathing air that (in urban areas) is vastly better than it had been, when I was young, with a self-repairing Ozone layer and yearly INCREASES in the number of trees on Earth...

... and (for now at least) freedom to research anything, and speak as we wish. For now, at least.

And sure, I read Jared Diamond's COLLAPSE about past civilization fails, more-often-then-not due to environmental negligence, and I know what's at stake. Criminy, do YOU know anyone who has fought this fight harder and longer than I have? From EARTH to The Transparent Society and so on? (Maybe Kim Stanley Robinson.) So,I got some cred.

When solar/wind/tidal+batteries are plunging in price and rocketing in emplacement, it would seem the only thing saving carbon-based electricity is the dam data centers. Which I discuss in Ailien Minds, by the way.

The news is dire, yes. and so is the blatant desperation of the Putinist/Foxites, who can see that a vast majority of citizens are growing aware and angry, as in 1859, and no amount of gerrymandered cheating will save the Kremlin shills from an approaching political comeuppance . 

.

== What the traitors will attempt ==

And so it is their villainous desperation that I fear! Because the Project 2025 SOBs will certainly - by now - have concocted a plan for some dire event - perhaps on a 9/11 scale or bigger - to 'justify' an emergency declaration of martial law. Why else would they have already - via Trump - fired or distracted a majority of counter-terror officials, agents and officers and JAGs?

The coming 'event' will only be prevented if they KNOW that we are ready and wary. That we will all hit the streets shouting "Reichstag Fire!"

... and "Appomattox!" And then do much more, to prove the stupidity of proto-feudalists who wage war on all the folks who know law and cyber... along with bio, chem, nuclear and every other potential recourse. And who know where every single prepper bunker lies, and how to crack them open. (Yes, we know, boys.)

Alas, did I mention "stupid"? As they surround themselves with flatterers who croon them into believing they will be immortal lords? That they can terrorize and terrify us into submission. Or coax the masses to blame all the fact professions, as in A Canticle for Leibowitz, instead of the delusional oligarchs who are doing all this?

So no, I am not a Pollyanna. I am shouting warnings!

But those who despair over some despicably partisan, election-cheat court rulings are staring at epiphenomena, not at the real danger.

No, those who despair are historical ignoramuses, too lazy to look at how past Hero Generations girded themselves for a fight that's worth grit and courage and pain, to win. Tom Paine, especially. But also Lincoln, FDR. The soaring words of Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt... getting us on a path that might lead to the stars.

If I could, I would slap you glowering gloom-addicts silly! Till you get up off the couch and shout:

"Okay! Okay! I'll FIGHT instead of wallowing in desolate grumpiness! Now stop that or I'll slap you back! Let's go."

Republicans admit “We’re blackmailed!” – Plus quick/partial fixes for the Electoral College

There's not a lot of time left, so let’s go for the carotid on a couple of major political points that could benefit from a little ‘judo.’

== Republicans denouncing the subornation ==

Remember Madison Cawthorn, the rising young Republican star Congressmember, who was suddenly dumped by the GOP, for revealing ‘orgies’ amid upper ranks of the party? That huge over-reaction - destroying him for offhand (and likely stoned) remarks on shock radio - reflected almost-certain desperation to silence truth; otherwise he'd a got a slap on the wrist. 

But was it true? I've long posited that the behavior of so many top GOPpers – e.g. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz – can only be explained by blackmail. Mere corruption is insufficient, because any merely-corrupt official can say ‘that’s enough bribery for this year; if I keep saying more shit, I’ll look suspicious or insane.’ 

Blackmail, on the other hand, is insatiable. You simply keep doing whatever the blackmailer demands, even if it makes you look like an idiot, or hypocrite, or both, as in the multiple times when Graham tried to say "I'm done with Trump!" hoping that it would end his ongoing humiliation... followed the next day by utter groveling. 

I mean, do you have an even remotely plausible alternate theory?

This isn't new. Russian secret services have been expert at ‘honeypot traps’ ever since the czars.  Look up the Moscow US embassy Marine guards (1980s) as just one example.

Now, yet another Republican Rep has spoken out, even more explicitly than Cawthorn. Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett warns that fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives have been lured into honeytraps with sex workers and drugs. 

"Republicans aren’t backing important efforts, such as Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s crusade for Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs, under orders by big backers and Russians."

Seriously read this.  It’s not getting the attention it deserves and this fellow is at least partially a hero. Or watch this. 

== It’s the Republican defectors who will make the biggest difference, stupid ==

Above, I showed how an honest and decent conservative Congressmember has stepped up to denounce the blackmail subornation of his party. Others recently used insane rhetoric and mad conspiracy theories about hurricanes as their own excuse to step up and partially reject the madness.  

Not as much courage as we need from them. But we'll take what we can get.

Then of course there's the long list of former Trump officials – his ‘adults in the room’ during Trump v1.0 – who have nearly all denounced him. From Tillerson & McMaster to Kames Mattis and John Kelly, to even far-right schmucks like John Bolton and Bill Barr. As many as a hundred have said "even I can't stomach the insanity and treason."

To which Tump's answer is that in Trump2.0 there will be NO adults in the room. Total brownshirt time. 

Which is why I urge the zillionaire oligarchs, murder sheiks and "ex" commissars who have pulled Trump's puppet strings for decades to watch the movie Cabaret, especially the last 5 minutes. Because if he does get back into office on a MAGA sig-heil-wave, none of those masters will ever again ‘control him.’ Not with blackmail or anything else.

In fact, you oligarchs and Kremlin guys need yet another film... watch Angela Lansbury’s chilling soliloquy near the end of The Manchurian Candidate to see what Don will likely do to his former masters, once the strings are cut.

But let’s add yet more pertinent movie overlaps! This interview with former Trump Communications Director Scaramucci is interesting. “Scaramucci on Trump: "He's going to lose because he's getting boring."

 

Dig a little, and you'll see that the Mooch is describing the "Howard Beale Scenario." (Watch the last 10' of Network and get truly scared!) 

Still, the part of his interview that I resent - because if it does happen, Mooch will get all the prediction points - is when he gives 40% that odds ol' Two Scoops won't even make it to the election or inauguration. 

While I was there lots earlier - with lower odds - I hedged it with the election that actually matters - the Electoral College. Which is where the fix may be in.

== It’s the Electoral College, dummy ==

Okay, three big points about the Electoral College, America’s weird (insane) but unchangeable Constitutionally gerrymandered gimmick favoring Red America.

Make that four points. The first? Um why are there two Dakotas? And shouldn’t just one state – Ida-Wyo-Mont – span the northern Rockies?

But no, let’s get practical. The core aim of the Trumpists has been openly declared… for GOP governors and others in some Harris-won states to refuse to certify enough electors, so that the count for president will be invalid, so that the choice will be ‘thrown to the House.’ Hence, even if Dems win a sweeping, crushing victory in November, you might still see Trump get in! 

Because at that stage - in another insanely dumb Constitutional provision - the House votes by delegations – one vote per – and Republicans have 26 delegations vs 24 for dems.

Now, that nightmare assumes there won’t be brave and patriotic Republican Congresswomen or men in some of those reddish delegations, who decide to put country first, the way Alexander Hamilton (bravely) swung the 1800 election to Jefferson, instead of Aaron Burr. That might happen. 

Or else some of YOU will be heroes who help swing just one or two of those delegations blue. In some cases it could come down to just one Congressional race. Look around. There may be some tight races you can help with. And that's where $100 could make a lot more difference than donating to Kamala.

== More Electoral College partial fixes within reach! ==

Okay, two more. I have elsewhere ruminated on the Wyoming Rule. If the dems get real power in Congress, they should pass it, so that all Americans get at least roughly equal representation in the lower house, as was intended. And if that happens, not only will blue states get more representation in the larger (~560 members) House, but the coloration of the Electoral College will change forever.

Only let’s swing to another of my proposals, One which no one else has broached, but that could (well, maybe) make a real difference this year.

In Polemical Judo I mentioned a possible action by one hyper rich person (say a Mark Cuban?) A bold yet totally legal move that could (possibly) get us past whatever tricks the Project 2025 schemers have in mind, to screw up certifications and throw it to the House. 

Briefly: rent a whole mountaintop luxury hotel with minimal - highly vetted - staff. Then announce that for two weeks ...

"Only certified Electors may come as guests. Upon arrival from their home states, they can just stroll and enjoy the views and meals and discuss with each other anything they like. Or else they could - at their own volition - convene the first actual Electoral College in U.S. history. As would be their prerogative! And this year, such a gathering just might be one more bulwark against shenanigens." 

Again, no coercion or persuasion. Just show up by individual choice, eat, stroll and chat with others who just happen to be there at the same time, without any of those others being anyone but fellow electors (and minimal staff of trusted cooks). And if you just happen to decide to convene a meeting - formal or informal - well…

Suppose this happened. Watch how quickly the stalling states would rush to certify! 

Though note. No matter how carefully Trumpists have ensured the GOP elector slates are party hacks – and most dem electors would likely be loyalists as well – some would likely talk it over, suddenly moved by the genuine (not ceremonial) power in their hands. 

Moreover, as one of the candidates (you-know-who) fulminates volcanically against this "trickery!!" just enough of them might listen to their conscience and reason…

… and act to save the Republic.

Biden's Judo Moves, Part One: Who is the Big Fat Liar?

This could be won in so many ways! Loyal and sane Americans might apply so many under-used tactics to settle this latest phase (#8 I reckon) of the recurring U.S. Civil War, restoring peace and rationality to civilization. Elsewhere I offered 100+ such tactics. 

 

But right now - as frantic pearl-clutchers moan for Joe Biden to withdraw - two proposals stand out.

 

Today, please consider the most plausibly effective one.

 

 

== Joe, make it about facts. The very existence of facts. ==

 

Amid all the hoorow over Joe Biden’s shaky performance in the first presidential debate of 2024, Lawrence O’Donnell nailed it: 

 

“How come the (100%) liar is seen as ‘winning’ a debate?”

 

How come? The answer’s simple. Though our savvy ‘blue’ pols & pundits never get it. 

Somehow, here in the most scientific, technologically competent and progressive society the world ever saw, the word ‘fact’ is debased to a mere matter of opinion.

 

I’ve been railing about this for eons. Right after the debate, I crafted a careful description of how this mental trap likely has you ensnared and thus rendered politically useless. Only then I realized - you won’t read anything complicated.

 

So, instead I’ll just offer here a capsule of the only issue that truly matters in this election.

Instead of lamely murmuring “That’s not true,” as he did many times in the debate, Joe Biden (and every other Democrat) should shout:

 

>> There is no better test of who shouldn’t be president than which of us is lying!

 

So let’s check that now!

 

>> I propose right now that Donald Trump and I nominate respected, mostly-nonpartisan Americans for a commission to adjudicate just that one matter.

 

Which of us is a big, fat liar.  

 

>> I will offer a list of nominees tomorrow that includes Republicans and Independents, scientists, sages, biblical scholars, and retired senior military officers, all of whom should be acceptable to any opponent who is an honest person.

 

>> Let’s see your list, Don! Widely revered Americans who aren’t overtly partisan or under anyone’s thumb.* 

 

Let’s join in this one thing! Helping separate truth from lies, restoring FACT to some meaning in American political life.

 

>> Just don’t give us any crap about how “It’s all subjective” or “Truth isn’t decided by experts voting on it.” You use biased ‘experts’ all the time. (Many of them operating in Fox or Kremlin troll shops. Today it’s the same thing.) 

 

Look at the list I’ll offer!  If you don’t offer up a matching list of widely respected, judicious, mature and knowledgeable Americans to participate, we’ll all know why.  

 

It’s because you don’t have any! …and because you know that you are the big, fat liar. 

 

And that is why you run away from challenges like this one, screaming more lies as you flee.

 

 

                                    == WHY THIS WON’T HAPPEN ==

 

Sure. Yeah. I know all the reasons why you are shrugging this off, right now. Why you are muttering “It’ll never work, Brin. Trump and his minions will just ignore this, or mock it.” 

 

Alas, all that proves is your laziness. Because it’s worth a try!

 

(I get similar responses when I push the tactic of demanding pre-staked wagers over easily fact-verified challenges like ocean acidification. It always works, making the cultists flee in panic. Always. Yet, lazy bums make excuses to never even try it for themselves.)

 

Do I think Trump will actually accept, if Biden issues this challenge? Will Donald Two Scoops nominate a list of admirably cogent and responsible adults to join Biden’s nominees on such a fact-adjudicating commission? 

 

Of course not. He doesn’t dare!  If Trump accepts the challenge and names qualified people, he’ll be fact-checked into oblivion. If he names shills, that will be clear!  And if he refuses…

 

No, of course Fox and the Kremlin trolls will shriek denunciations, like “You don’t vote on facts!” Or “Our viewers do their own research! By leaving ‘fact’ presentation to us!!!”

 

Only, that’s the point, fool. Their shrieks and excuses will be the silver bullet. Because millions will see the cowardice!  They will see Biden’s long list of respected American sages** and compare it to whatever list Trump provides… of shills and raving loonies and KGB agents. And just those lists, compared side by side… will say it all.

 

Okay. I know that I type too much, in an era when almost no one has the patience to read. I have so much more to say about this, like how Biden whining “That’s not true!” during the debate was utterly counterproductive.  I’ll follow this posting with all that stuff, even knowing how futile it is.

 

 

== Other ideas ==

 

I also have a second proposal, in case Joe-B wants to both soothe and satisfy those calling for him to withdraw. It’s potential gesture he could make that could be a win-win-win all around!  

 

I’ll post some of that, midweek… if I can find the heart for it. 

 

Only it can be hard, these days. Because (again) I know that it is futile.  If one side in this phase of the U.S. Civil War consists of confederate-Kremlinist incantation junkies flocking around Vlad Putin and a cabal of microcephalic inheritance brats…

 

…the other side – the side with all the cogent citizens and fact people and scientists and loyal Americans and just plain decent folks who can’t stand a pervert-traitor slathered in tanning dye, makeup, hairplugs and bad karma… alas, the good, loyal, Union side in this phase of the 250 year culture war over America’s soul…

 

… has the collective political/tactical IQ – en masse – of a crypto biotic tardigrade.

 

===

* We can interrogate each others’ nominees before cameras, like in jury selection. Televised. Let’s do it!

 

** The thing about such a list is the dems don’t even have to line up these folks, before listing them! The whole purpose is to list folks who AREN’T overtly very partisan! Being listed can be involuntary, since all you are saying is “here are people I respect and would listen-to.” 

 

Okay, in today’s polarized nation, most such folks have already taken sides. But still, just offering such a list is worthwhile!  Because you’ll get Trump to denounce them! And each august American he denounces will be a blow that rocks some supporters out there.

Republican rationalizations are unchanged, even in the face of ... facts

Down at the end, I'll offer an excerpt from an essay on my alternate site asking "Does government-funded science play a role in stimulating innovation?" Both the far-left and today's entire-right share in common a cult reflex answer to that question. An answer emblematic of the lobotomization of our time.

But do hang around for that excerpt, at least!

== Another milestone raises a serious question ==

With the passing of the "Greatest Generation" (GG) - parents of the boomers - and now Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter - perhaps it's time to re-evaluate the America... and world... that they made.

Especially the Rooseveltean social contract that transformed the USA into a world titan, science-leader and awash in wealth, while setting us down an inexorable road toward some kinds of equality: first regarding social/working class. But then (admittedly far too-slowly!) race/gender and the rest.

That social contract directly correlated with the highest rates of middle class prosperity increase, fastest startup entrepreneurship and lowest levels of wealth disparity the world had ever seen. But it has been - since the 1980s - carved-away on a range of incantatory excuses and partially demolished by a massive campaign of conservative 'reforms'...  

...economic and social theories that were supposedly aimed at enhancing creative market freedom, but that correlated exactly and always with reduction of innovation and competition, while restoring the one trait that the Greatest Generation despised most... born-class as the primary decider of a child's destiny. 

This campaign was justified by guys like Milton Friedman and Robert Bork, and think tanks such as Heritage and AEI, that continue pushing utterly-disproved notions like "Supply Side (voodoo) Economics" - that never had one successfully predicted positive outcome.  

(In science, a theory is abandoned in the face of relentless predictive failure, but cults don't do that.)

In the 90s, those pro-oligarchy economists were augmented by "neocon" imperialists who urged both Bushes and Dick Cheney etc. to plunge us into blatant traps that had been laid for us by Osama bin Laden and his ilk. Those Middle Eastern wars were supposedly in revenge for 9/11 attacks that (always remember) happened on their watch. The neocons openly brayed their ill-disguised glee at transforming an 80% benign American Pax into a thumping, gallumphing empire.

(My hero - George Marshall - held meetings in 1945 revolving around a question that no leader had ever asked, before: "We are about to become an empire. What mistakes did all other empires make and how can we make something that succeeds? That won't make us hated and eventually destroyed?" (paraphrased))

Look at the blared yowls of Wolfowitz, Nitze, Adelman and the other neocons, in those days, and tell us you see any signs of wisdom, or awareness of the traps they were falling for.  Alas for them, their orgiastic era was brief. America soon soured on imperial preenings that distilled down to $trillion dollar ripoffs. At which point those poor neocons were promptly flushed away by the Republican establishment - without even a word of thanks - as oligarchy decided to veer republicanism away from armed adventures, over to populist/isolationist/lobotomizing/nerd-hating classic confederatism... now called Trumpism or MAGA.

But don't be distracted... all along, those apparent gyrations were superficialities. The central goal has always been the same. To defend and expand "supply side" tax grifts for aristocracy while crippling the Internal Revenue Service, so that a myriad cheats and thefts should remain hidden. 

Scan from 1981 to present. That sole priority was the only consistent policy position of the GOP and the only one always enacted, whenever they got power. 

(Other than that, and recently the abortion mania, can you name any actual legislative activity by GOP Congresses, the laziest in US history?)

No other 'priority' (e.g. the border) got more than lip service. That is, until the virulently riled MAGAs ('Do you still think you can control them?' Watch Cabaret!) demanded real action on abortion and other social incitements.

A lot of dems/libs went along with Supply Side (SS) in the 80s and even 90s, until, by it's 4th round, the effects grew clear: that not a single positive outcome prediction - not one - ever came true. 

Industrial investment? Nada, zip. As Adam Smith predicted, the vast waves of grifted lucre were poured by the rich into passive, parasitical 'rentier investments like real estate and bonds and tax havens. (A third of US housing stock was snapped-up by inheritance brats in cash purchases, immune to interest rates. It's why young couples can't buy homes.)

As for investment in manufacturing? Recipients of Supply Side largess did almost none. America's current, booming re-industrialization only began with the 2021-2 Pelosi bills.

== Why does no one point this out? ==

Well, Robert Reich does. Like the pure fact that federal deficits always worsen across GOP rule and after SS tax grifts (duh?)

Any non-hypocrite, competition-friendly conservative would realize by now that ONLY democrats enact pro-competition and pro-liberty measures. (Have your attorney contact me when you have escrowed $$$ wager stakes over that assertion; but first look at things like the ICC, CAB, AT&T and the damned War on Drugs - and now on reproductive rights.)

Here, in this New York Times article - Google on Trial - a corner of this program is appraised -- whether anti-trust laws can and should be used to break up super-corporations like Google who have inherent advantages. And yeah, that's a major issue. Cory Doctorow rails about it, entertainingly.

Left out are more imaginative solutions. Like whether it's time to help mom & pop America and get needed revenue by instituting a 5% National Sales Tax on interstate internet purchases. Since you-know-who (a South American river) is no longer a baby - but now a market dominating behemoth. In fact, since we all rely on that central market, without much other choice, isn't that the very definition of a public utility? (Ponder that. Treat that unavoidable e-marketplace like electricity and water and trash pickup. If there's no competition, then regulate it to be flat-fair-for-all?)

But the core issue that I keep returning to is one of tactics - at which Democrats (the Union Side in this 8th phase of the 250 year U.S. Civil War) have proved utterly inept! 

It's the reason why I wrote Polemical Judo. A few better tactics and we could peel away just one million residually sane Republicans, leaving the Confederacy in a state of utter, demographic collapse. 

(Of course then the oligarchs will resort to more violent versions of incitement; but we have skilled defenders working on that, right now, e.g. in the much maligned heroes of the FBI.)

And this...

In this conversation, Evan Anderson, CEO of INVNT/IP, an expert on global manufacturing and supply chains, takes us on a deep dive into the power dynamics between the United States, China, and Taiwan.

== Merits and drawbacks of government-funded science ==

And finally, as promised, here's that excerpt from an essay on my more formal, WordPress site asking "Does government-funded science play a role in stimulating innovation?"

There's a deep-cult that underlies many of our familiar political cults. What do the far left and today's entire right share in common? A desperate urge to AMPUTATE our options and methods down to only the few that they prescribe. And hence I posted (on my formal WordPress site) a dissection of this shared, sanctimoniously-oversimplifying, mania.

Excerpt: "For a century and a half, followers of Karl Marx demanded that we amputate society’s right arm of market-competitive enterprise and rely only on socialist guided-allocation for economic control. Meanwhile, Ayn Rand’s ilk led a throng of those proclaiming we must lop off our left arm – forswearing any coordinated projects that look beyond the typical five year (nowadays more like one-year) commercial investment horizon.

"Any sensible person would respond: “Hey I need both arms, so bugger off! Now let’s keep examining what each arm is good at, revising our knowledge of what each shouldn’t do.”

"Does that sound too practical and moderate for this era? Our parents thought they had dealt with all this, proving decisively that calm negotiation, compromise and pragmatic mixed-solutions work best. They would be stunned to see that fanatical would-be amputators are back in force, ranting nonsense."

If you are interested in this... and especially whether government-funded science has played a big role in "Making America (and civilization) Great," then drop on by.

The Struggle Against Vile Authority Continues... but which authority? Want the perfect place to express discontent?

First -  for those of you tl;dr folks who only have patience for just a few paragraphs -- a mini-rant you'll like:

== Torches & Pitchforks? Or.... ==

Sales of private jets are likely to reach their highest ever level this year, placing an increasing burden on the planet. While many of the owners escape aviation taxes, there are few curbs on the greenhouse gases.  

With wealth disparities at French Revolution levels and the Oligarchy Party shrieking for more always-wrong Supply Side tax cuts and desperate to slash the IRS... one aspect of this growing class war proves that our would-be lords are mostly dunces! That aspect is their gluttonous belief that folks will never wake up. Never radicalize. 

Me? I don't want things to get to French Revolution levels! Or the kind of fury that was incited by the idiotic/evil Romanov czars.  A moderate reformism, that is fiercely determined but calm, accomplishes far more! Moreover, there is a gentle radicalism that could awaken many (not all) of the dismally moronic inheritance brats to their own, ultimate self-interest. To ignore their addiction to flattering sycophants and instead help restore the Rooseveltean social contract that gave us all - including the rich - a better world.  

That radical act would be for millions to march on all private jet terminals, on the same day, with signs and chants - NOT torches and pitchforks – prodding the elites with Mildly and Legally revolutionary cries: 

“BACK into commercial First Class where you belong! Sit there in your leather seat that's only twice as comfortable as ours, sip your mimosa, enduring our delays and our frustrations, so you'll help fix them! 

"Chat with us, when we upgrade and thereby broaden your horizons. 

"Fly with us! Or else learn from Thomas Paine and Adam Smith and their peers how even a moderate, reasonable people can rediscover vigor.”

In fact… care to get this started? Offer a date that YOU think would be good one, for us all to march on the private jet terminals! The anniversary of commercial air travel? 9/11? Some Republican primary debate? The Dec 17th anniversary of Wright Brothers first flight? Will YOU help promote it?

And now to all the tl;dr stuff...

== Were we all 'programmed' by Hollywood? ==

I’m always ready to credit another contrarian who shines light on too-unquestioned assumptions. Take Jonathan Kirshner, a professor of international political economy at Cornell University and the author of "Hollywood's Last Golden Age: Politics, Society, and the Seventies Film in America." 

I don’t quite agree with JK, that cinema became so much less critical since the 1970s. (The issues - and the world - grew more complex, but there's still plenty of griping going on.) Still, Kirshner does zoom in-upon something important:

 “…that government will likely always be a reliable antagonist because the story line of lone, underdog individuals triumphing over the odds is uniquely American.”  

That’s consonant with my #1 assertion in Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood, about why our films nearly always contain themes of individualism diversity, eccentricity and - especially - Suspicion of Authority (SoA). 

It's hard even to conceived how such a relentless propaganda campaign - (you got your SoA reflex from those movies, myths and songs!) - would be propelled deliberately by some cabal. An anti-authority campaign dictated by a cabal... of authority figures? 

Kirshner believes - as do I - that audiences themselves are the ones driving these narratives, not the studios or filmmakers, who chase after products that audiences will buy. He elaborates:

 ..."The government is very powerful, and so opposition to power is always a good trope. We also have things that are walled behind us in secrecy and so we are allowed to let our imaginations run wild."

Of course it’s more general than that. Suspicion Of Authority (SoA) is not always directed at Big Government. Conniving corporate kingpins will also do! And crime lords. And foreign despots and SPECTRE-style secret societies. And alien invaders, sure. Heck SoA is by now the most pervasive way to get an audience to bond with a protagonist – even in a romantic comedy! Especially if you include oppressive ‘authority figures’ like a status-conscious dad or gossipy mother-in-law.

SoA is one of the core memes conveyed in nearly all Hollywood flicks you ever loved, along with tolerance, diversity and personal eccentricity. Which helps explain why many monolithic regimes deeply fear Hollywood media and censor it, when possible.

And yes, all that propaganda that YOU suckled all your life helped to make YOU the fiery independent Authority-resisting gal or guy you are, today. 

And yes, see a whole lot of examples in Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.

== The struggle continues ==

Oy, does even a week go by without some Trumpian factotum turning on him? 

Dig it, Trump's been 'betrayed' by more folks he earlier called 'great guys!' than all other U.S. presidents combined.

Wherever you stand in today's U.S. culture war - even if you love Trump - one thing is utterly inarguable. He is by-far the worst judge of character ... or at inspiring loyalty... that anyone ever saw.

Of course this jpeg only scratches the surface. The "Former 'great guys' who betrayed me!" thing has no answer!

In contrast, when you point out the other fact from that jpeg... that almost a hundred times as many high GOPpers as Dems have been indicted for crimes including child molestation, bribery etc, by grand juries all across America (especially in red-run states)... the reflex response is that thousands of randomly recruited jurors (mostly white retirees) are part of a massive conspiracy, in collusion with GOP-appointed prosecutors and judges, that has stolen elections...

...and 'weaponized' the quarter million heroes of the FBI/Intel agencies and military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on Terror... all without leaving a single tangible trace.

Riiii-i-i-ight. 

Absurd? Sure, But that incantation works for them, perfectly. 

So... stick with the "Former 'great guys' who betrayed me!" thing. It has no packaged response and truly terrifies em.

== Facts beat blowhard yammers? ==

Ten minutes worth watching. Brian Cohen compellingly highlights Biden’s truly impressive accomplishments, followed by someone’s interview with Biden addressing the age issue. Alas, the recent ABC poll shows that a significant number of Americans may prefer America’s least successful and most criminal past president over one of America’s most objectively successful ones.  

Far worse are those on America's (blue/sane) side of this phase of civil war, seeking any excuse to flake out and betray the only coalition that can save America, the planet and our kids.  By jibbering off to the next version of standard, Nader-Stein-Kremlin treason.

Dig it. Biden may not be the Grant or Lincoln we want. But he has more than earned vigorous support. And yeah, if he fades a bit into taking more naps, I am willing to rely (as he does) on the 5000+ vastly skilled and qualified grownups he appointed to positions Trump had filled with jibbering horrors and potemkin stooges and 'great guys." 

Those hugely competent adults are why we differ from 6000 years of nations focused on kings or dictators or 'strong men.' 

Those grownups are why I sleep well, even knowing old JoBee may take naps. 

== The Court ==

Yes to everything being said about the Roberts Court, which is proving to be by far the most corrupt and politically biased in 140 years, now distrusted by over 75% of Americans. But none of the essays and rants about this zero in on the Supreme Court majority's priority #1... the "Roberts Doctrine" that individual state legislatures have utter sovereignty to control their own elections, thus empowering cheats and travesties - like utter gerrymandering - so that the party in power can ensure they will remain in power, no matter what the people want. Which means...

...that democracy is meaningless, which is, after all, the stated position of the oligarchs who control AEI, Cato and other institutions of feudalism. Like the Republican Party.

Even were this not blatant betrayal and theft, the whole notion of state 'sovereignty' - especially to restrict voting rights - was settled in... um... 1865?

Alas, the Union side of this phase of civil war is stunningly incapable at laying things out clearly and cornering this cabal of blatantly suborned or blackmailed shills. e.g. there are ways to cancel out the writing rationalizations offered by John Roberts. Tactics that I have seen no Democratic politician or pundit even hint at. See a couple re gerrymandering at The "Minimal Overlap" Solution to Gerrymandering.

…and Gerrymandering American Democracy: More Fragile than we think.

== Final Miscellany  ==

A fascinating example of the new computer art stunningly taking off… A Midjourney AI video visualization for Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". Incredibly vivid… and the thing I resent is not Midjourney but Billy Joel, for not taking responsibility for maintenance of a song that’s a public cultural item, even if he still owns copyright!  He should have issued updated versions every decade since… with a foundation to keep rolling (burning?) after he is gone.

Across the lifespan, and across every demographic group, Americans die at younger ages than their counterparts in other wealthy nations. An inflection made this worse when many Americans refused vaccines that lowered death rates in many other countries.  And yes, the 2^nd derivative of this curve seems to associate very strongly with the Trump Administration.