Tag: government

Sunda’s Theme Music

Good morning’! Welcome to Sunda, Jan. 26, 2025. We’re closing out 2025’s first month, and what a first month it’s been!

Here in Ashland, we have…drum roll, please…blue skies and sunshine again. Current temp is 33 F and the ever present ‘they’ are speaking of highs in only the upper forties. A stout wind carrying wintry shards have cranked up. It’s moanin’, groanin’, and hissin’, while tossin’ loose things around like an irritated gorilla.

Today’s song emerged because I was singing “Hash Pipe” to myself. “Hash Pipe” is a 2001 Weezer song. Its first vocal line is sang in descending notes. The words go, “I can’t help myself, I go out of my mind.”

Hearing that, The Neurons unburied a point about those lyrics. They’re lifted from a Beatles song, “You Can’t Do That”, from 1964. Pivoting with that, Der Neurons filled my morning mental music stream with the Beatles’ song.

Sing along with me.

“So please listen to me if you want to stay mine.
“I can’t help my feelings, I go out of my mind.
“I’m going to let you down and leave you flat.
“I told you before, oh, you can’t do that.”

Never bought it, but I know the song well.

“Hash Pipe” was being sung because of a NYTimes Tale. I read a piece about MAGA folks and where they thought Trump was leading them. They were interviewed after the inauguration. Man, talk about a misinformed, misguided bunch. Even after all these years of exposure to their many instances of ignorance, I’m still shocked when I encounter it. For instance, here’s a woman from PA:

We are so divided. It’s scary. Scary for the kids that are growing up, like my grandkids. I don’t like the way this country’s turned — all this woke stuff. Stuff that the kids shouldn’t be exposed to. I think I was 18 before I knew that there was gay people, you know? I listened to Queen. I didn’t know he was gay.

Amish came out in Pennsylvania. They came out in droves. They came out in their horse and buggies. It was incredible. So that’s a united country again. We’re tired of being lied to.

I infer from what she said that she thinks Trump speaks truth. *head shake*

Beyond that example, they demonstrate no idea how tariffs, the economy, or energy production and prices work. They believe all those things Trump says he’s doing with his magic pen. They believe this, of course, because they’re fully wired into right-wing news sources. So even when inflation doesn’t drop, prescriptions drug prices increase, unemployment rises, food shortages spread, and pollution mars our land, water, and air, they’ll be blissfully touting all the great things Trump is doing.

That is part of the big picture. Create a right-wing media that disparages the left and praises the right without regard to the truth or facts. Dismantle the education system so people no longer know history, economics, science, and government. Shutter transparency on the government by firing inspectors and dismantling agencies. Crush opposition so there are no dissenting voices. Teach the big lies in church as part of their religious worship. And of course, keep ’em soaking in fear: fear of what the left is doing by mislabeling Democrats as socialists and communists, which are dirty words in the right-wing. Keep ’em in fear by lying to them about what the LGBTQ+ community does to their children. Fuel their fear with worries about immigrants taking their jobs and eating their pets.

The transformation will be complete, and Trump voters will never know. They’ll go down, whining about increased prices, high unemployment, dirty air, and so on, without ever understanding how they were part of it, how they were duped and used. It’s a con on a national scale.

And that’s why “Hash Pipe” was being sung. There’s a chorus about being kicked in the song.

Oh, come on and kick me
Oh, come on and kick me
(Whoa) Come on and kick me
You’ve got your problems (Whoa)
I’ve got my eyes wide (Whoa)
You’ve got your big G’s
I’ve got my hash pipe

h/t to Bing.com

See, those GOTP supporters are asking to be kicked. But that’s okay. They got their hash pipe. In their case, their hash pipe is the fear hatred that fuels their bitterness, sexism, and racism; or entertainment like video games, television shows, sporting events, and movies that keep ‘em distracted. Meanwhile, reality will keep kicking them, and they won’t fuckin’ know it.

Ignorance is truly bliss.

Coffee and I have are into another one-morning stand. Here’s the music. Hope you have a strong day. Please, don’t ever turn your back on the truth. Here we go with some music. Cheers

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Just Sayin’

It’s nobody’s business, including J.D. Fucking Vance, if my wife and I have children, and why or why not. Talk about intrusive government. Talk about petty. What a jackass. There are serious problems in the world, and this is what he thinks about?

Give me a fucking break.

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Friday’s Wandering Thoughts

Earlier this year, the SCOTUS cut down the Chevron decision of 1984 while adjudicating Loper Bright Enterprises et al v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, et al. In the Chevron decision, it was established that courts must defer to federal agencies when it comes to interpreting certain laws. The bent right-wing Roberts Court has now said, “Naw, uh.” The decision significantly changes how Federal regulatory agencies’ decisions are addressed in the judicial system and hamstring the ability to enforce Federal regulatory standards.

As if on cue, Iowa suffered heavy rains and flooding in the northwest corner. Agribusiness is huge there, and one area where Iowa has been pretty laconic is how animal manure is handled. Their solution was to put it in large ponds, creating a fecal soup. Guess what happens when floodwaters overtake fecal ponds? Yes, water drinking supply systems are contaminated.

The same sort of story was told in North Carolina a few years ago after a hurricane caused major flooding, so projections about what Iowa will experience, like skyrocketing e-coli levels, are known. Did Iowa learn from that? Hell, no.

So, to recap, in an age when regulatory enforcement is being blown up, an age where climate change is causing more extreme weather and droughts are endangering the nation’s water supply, the dangers and damages of such lax oversight is clearly demonstrated again and again. And yet, they won’t change, cause — money.

That’s the wisdom of the 21st century GOP.

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Another Grrr Moment

What do we make of Clay Higgins? Is he:

a. Delusional

b. A Liar

c. A Republican

d. A Representative from Louisiana

e. A MAGA member

f. All the above

You might remember Clay Higgins from that time back in 2016 when he declared “Kill them all” and wanted to start a ‘Christian war’ against radical Islam.

Yes, because war works so well. Check Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine for example, or the never-ending killing between Israel and HAMAS to verify how fucking great that’s working out.

Now, Rep Higgins is channeling Mike Lindell. No, Mike Lindell isn’t even dead yet. But ‘My Pillow’ Lindell clings to declarations that, “…we have enough evidence to put everybody in prison for life –300 some million people.”

Lindell made that claim back in 2022. He’s still out there making it. None of that ‘evidence’ he claims to have has been revealed.

Also note that the U.S. population is 332 million. Lindell is claiming to have evidence to have almost 90% of the population imprisoned — ‘for life’. Adults make up about 78% of the population, so he’s including children. There are also about 38 million registered Republicans, so Lindell is jailing about six million of the GOP, based on his purported evidence.

Should we ask him what prisons he plans to use? Should we address with him how the economy will continue to function after he’s imprisoned 90% of the population?

First, let’s just ask him to show that evidence, or shut up about it and go away.

And yet, this is the same course which we see Rep. Clay gleefully skipping down.

I’ll let NYTimes reporters Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer take it from here.

Even by a conspiracy theorist’s standards, the wild claims made by Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, stand out.

The hard-right congressman, now in his fourth term in the House, has said that “ghost buses” took agents provocateurs to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to instigate the riot. He has claimed that the federal government is waging a “civil war” against Texas. And he has called the criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for mishandling classified documents a “perimeter probe from the oppressors.”

But far from relegating Mr. Higgins to the fringe of their increasingly fractious conference, House Republicans have elevated him. They made him the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing border enforcement, and Speaker Mike Johnson named him one of 11 impeachment managers tasked with trying to remove the homeland security secretary from office in a Senate trial set to take place next week.

None of it has dampened Mr. Higgins’s penchant for spreading unsupported theories, many of which portray law enforcement and the government in an evil, conspiratorial light.

This week, in a lengthy podcast interview, he expounded at length on his belief — based, he said, on his own extensive investigation and evidence that only he has been able to see — that federal law enforcement officers entrapped Mr. Trump’s supporters into violently attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was repeating a conspiracy theory that has been debunked repeatedly.

Over the course of a two-hour interview on the “Implicit Bias” podcast, Mr. Higgins, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the Three Percenters, a right-wing antigovernment militia, repeated the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. He laid out an outlandish story that tied the rise of the coronavirus pandemic to what he said was a plot by the government to infiltrate pro-Trump online forums and urge members to engage in “riotous” behavior, as he put it.

Finally, he said, also groundlessly, that federal agents posing as Trump supporters traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 and tricked Mr. Trump’s backers into carrying out mob violence.

Really. REALLY? Here we go again.

A MAGA election denier claiming they have evidence no one else has ever found. They’ve never shared this evidence. Higgins specifically claimed his findings were based on evidence that only he could see.

To be a conservative or hard right politician is one matter. But to make wild claims of conspiracy without showing any evidence supporting these conclusions has become too much.

Yet, the way that the GOP treats its members making these outrageous claims, lying about evidence they have (or are so delusional that they THINK they have real, hard evidence which no one else has noticed or can see), has entrenched being delusional and lying as the GOP party norms. GOP voters eagerly support them in sufficient numbers that these liars are voted into office again and again.

So what do I make of these voters? Are they:

a. Delusional

b. Ignorant

c. Hate the United States

d. All the above

I asked this sadly but earnestly. Because, how can you continue supporting people actively undermining our government’s structure and claim that you support that government? How can you expect that government — our federal government — to continue functioning if you’re filling positions with people who spread wild conspiracies based on lies or evidence only ‘they’ can see?

If the government fails, do you really expect the nation to continue to exist as a democratic republic?

Fortunately, there are intelligent and engaged voters in most of the country, Democrat, Republican, and Independent, voting for capable people to represent them.

Fingers crossed that they emerge in Louisiana and boot Clay Higgins from office. Please make it soon.

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The Port Dream

This was a dream about port, the fortified wine drink. A very expensive bottle of port had turned up missing from its crate. The owners were the U.S. government. CIA, I think. I didn’t know who took it but I quickly realized where it was. The bottle had been sent to offer samples to people at a function. I met with the agent, a blond, white male, clean shaved, tousled hair, average height, casual clothes, and relayed what I’d learned. He told me it was critical to recover that bottle. I told him that I would get it back.

A strange car journey in a Ford Thunderbird convertible (a 1965, I think, which was what my father owned) followed, a circuitous route that embraced old steel girder bridges over ravines and rivers, a bumpy, dusty lane, a winding country highway, and a modern American Interstate. I always knew where I was going but detours kept coming up. Fair weather and certainty kept me calm, though.

I arrived at the function, where a gathering of women was about to open the bottle to sample it. I intervened, telling them they’d been sent the wrong bottle and producing another bottle for their benefit. The agent arrived to take the bottle from me. We then agreed we would go to the river. A few others joined us enroute, including a female acquaintance of mine, a young white woman with a round face and a short, black bob. The agent told me to open the bottle. That confused the woman. She protested that it was supposed to be a protected bottle, according to her understanding. I replied, that was a different time. Circumstances had shifted and we were approved to open the bottle to sample it.

I turned to the agent for confirmation. After talking about it with me and thinking more, he agreed with me. We opened the bottle and poured small portions into fine, small glasses. Toasting, we drank.

Dream end.

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