Politics – Page 21 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Axios and the Axis of Missing the Point

Missing the point and missing the story.

The folks at Axios raised a few eyebrows this week with a report, follwed up with a behind the scenes look at the report, essentially telling us to calm down about what’s happening in U.S. politics. Those of us alarmed are living in a reality distortion bubble according to Axios. The country isn’t as divided as we’ve been decieved into thinking it is.

Head buried in sand 1170x638.

If you ask me the only bubble is the one in the Axios editorial suite.

Look, I get it. Yes, there are millions of Americans too busy to be anywhere close to up to speed on what’s going on in this country politically, legally, and socially. But that misses the point and also gives lie to what passes for current day media’s business model. Also the historical one. If it bleeds it has always led and the country could use a tourniquet about now. Missing that story misses all points entirely.

There are millions who are paying attention, landing on either side of whatever passes for fences these days. If there weren’t, the media bubble (of which Axios is a part of) wouldn’t have much of an audience, or at least wouldn’t have enough worth advertisting on.

Those pushing to turn the clock back and those pushing to keep it moving forward both count on those millions too busy with the everyday to pay attention everyday. Assigning those paying attention to “a fringe view,” side swipes at what’s been happening and what’s going to happen in the next seven months and beyond. It’s also at odds with broad concepts like political science, history, and just plain old math.

I’m not disagreeing with some of the facts and data laid out in these articles. I’m disagreeing with the head in the sand conclusions.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Forget Voting, Let’s Just Count The Cash

A Modest Proposal

There’s a part of me that thinks we should dispense with voting and just award the presidency to the candidate who raises the most money. Certainly that would be unfair to those with less money under our current system, but there might be ways to make it more transparent.

Campaign finance 1.

Big bucks donors have always felt this way. At least that’s what they have told themselves after stroking large checks to this or that PAC. It used to be for a chance to grab a government contract or two and that’s still the case. But after the 2016 election many got their quid-pro-quo with the Trump tax cuts. Some of which will expire at the end of 2025. Bettting on an extension or making those tax cuts permanent more aptly explains the current willingness to toss out good money after bad character.

That’s the point. As long as there’s a buck to be made, make the bet. Trump’s an edges-bent, easy to read wildcard, but big donors, like some criminals posing as world leaders, are counting on the chaos to save some tax scratch while also allowing them to do whatever the heck they want to do to keep the cash spigots open. They know what they’re betting on.

Regardless of party, politics has always been about who gets to ride the gravy train. With the Democrats some of it is actually about policy. With what used to be called the Republican Party it has always been about grift and graft. Mix in a little God and you can even roll the suckers when you pass the collection plates.

All of this gets dressed up in political debates about regulation, campaign financing, laws, and ethics. But those duds are as see through as the new Major League Baseball uniforms.

So here’s a modest proposal. Let folks donate as much as they want. But each donation only counts as one dollar towards the outcome regardless of the size of the donation. Do away with PACs and other three-card monte schemes that reward political operatives and lobbyists. Donate the money directly to the candidate. Only individuals can donate. None of this “corporations are people” bullshit. Tie the donations to social security numbers. It would still be about turnout, but you could only turn out your pockets once and make it count. Say goodbye to the Electoral College and Make Accounting Great Again.

Stupid? Probably. Candidates used to buy votes with a beer and a sandwich, now corporations and other governments buy candidates. I doubt this would change our genetic code that builds liars and cheaters, but it would at least be a stab at more honesty.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

The world seems a bit crazier each week when the calendar flips to Sunday. In the lead up to a ‘sun eating’ total solar eclipse perhaps a bit more so. Don’t gamble on things settling down after it passes. Regardless, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

According to Bertrand Russell “fear is the main source of superstition.” That may well be true. David Todd McCarty takes a look at The Disparity Between Fear and Progress.

Kyle Orland in Ars Technica tells us that Google Might Make Users Pay for AI Features in Search Results. I can’t imagine anything less intelligent.

Speaking of AI, NatashaMH wonders Will We Ever Be Ready for the Future? Have we ever?

Getting back to creativity in the real world, textile artist Minga Opazo explores being confident, finding solutions, and balancing research with your artistic practice in Engaging With The World In Your Work. Hat tip to Stan Stewart.

On the politics beat, Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica take a look at what appears to be another in a long line of Trump scams, this time with his last minute bond bailout. Ethical concerns abound in Trump’s Lawyers Told The Court No One Wold Give Him a Bond. Then He Got A Lifeline, But They Didn’t Tell The Judges. Too bad ethics don’t matter much anymore.

One thing about the political beat is that most of what we see and read is re-packaging things most of us already know. Details do matter, but not after the orange bull has wrecked the China shop. Lachlan Cartwright tells us What I Saw At The National Enquirer During Trump’s Rise. A too late, but good read.

Our Entire Society Is Becoming Addicted to Sports Gambling says Alex Shephard. I’m sure everyone saw this coming once the Supreme Court gave gambling the go ahead. Don’t forget, someone paid off Justice Kavanaugh’s gambling debts as he was being groomed for the bench.

To close things out, here’s a bit of history about solar eclipses from Leah Sarnoff in ‘The Sun Has Been Eaten’: Inside The History and Mystery of Total Solar Eclipses.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Axis of Chaos

Putin. Trump. Netanyahu. The Axis of Chaos. Absent chaos none of these men would be terrorizing their countries, their citizens, and the world. They’ve more than proven that the best way to stay in power is to sow chaos. They may one day reap the whirlwind, but currently they survive by tossing the world into a toilet bowel of turbulence.

They each need each other to continue churning the chaos mill so that they can continue creating and profiting from their own, simultaneously mocking any attempts at accountability.

Both Putin and Netanyahu despise Trump as much as they need him to keep the United States, and thus the rest of the world spinning off kilter. The Russians call tools of Trump’s ilk “useful idiots” and if you ask me he’s exhausted the cliché. That famous photo of Trump in the Oval Office laughing as if he’s in on the joke is one of the funniest and most iconic displays of his ignorance of his own impotence.

Putin doesn’t need Trump because he’s a clever ally with mutually aligned goals, beyond their desires for self-enrichment. He needs Trump because he’s a bumbling behemoth of bombast he can reliably count on to stir things up and keep all eyes unable to focus. It’s the old magician’s distraction trick. The same with Netanyahu. Both he and Putin recognize that they have an easy mark, easy to pay, easy to play.

Trump thinks he needs each of them for the same reasons. But being the awareness-deficient clod that he is, he doesn’t realize he’s being played for a fool. It’s easy for him to think he’s in the gang given the seemingly endless supply of his own useful and idiotic lickspittles leeching off him. None of them, regardless of whom they serve, seem to notice when others get tossed aside or unceremoniously fall out of windows.

That’s what chaos agents and charlatans have always thrived on: wanna-be hangers-on thinking they also have a chance at grabbing the brass ring.

If the three disappeared in a poof of dust overnight, the world would still turn on its somewhat more predictable axis. Certainly part of it would turn in on itself trying to sort out a way forward, perhaps creating a wobble or two. But it would still turn. Spinning in such circles has become so disgustingly normal that it has numbed most of us into inaction as we try to find an always illusive balance.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Profiles in Cowardice with the Caucus of the Craven

The Atlantic has a good piece out called A Study in Senate Cowardice. It’s worth a read for those who haven’t been paying attention, and I hope some do. But it’s old news and much like saying water is wet.

Perhaps they’ve removed all of the mirrors in their homes, because I don’t know how these Senators can bear seeing their own reflections. We’re surrounded and governed by cowards. But it’s not just the politicians who are cowards.

Journalists could hang some of their own mugshots on this cover artwork from the Atlantic pictured above. There was an election in 2022 and some pictured above stood for office at the time. Where was this article then? It could have been written at any point since the Senate voted not to convict Trump after January 6th. Most know it. Too many don’t seem to care. And yet, here we are.

Go-along-to-get-along is the age-old anthem sung by cowards and should be the new motto of the U.S. Senate.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Confrontation Nation

The intimidation tactics and strategy have worked far too well.

Judges. Pastors. Politicians. Every day Joe and every day Jane. People feel threatened by rhetoric spewing out of mouths like lava out of a volcano. It’s an insult to the concept of rhetoric, just another in the long list of “life as we knew it” torched by the angry mob.

The threats multiply daily and there’s no system or institution that can contain them so we might as well quit pretending and waiting around for the fire brigade. Like it or not the decaying orange turd and his worshippers are taking everything down with them. Scorched earth. It’s only going to get worse and there’s no “before it gets better” on the horizon.

The intimidation tactics and strategy have worked far too well. Judges can toss down a gag order, but they’re doing so behind security details and burdened by a judicial system that’s melting under the heat and buckling under its own burden. Pastors can preach for patience and penitence, but those that follow the lessons of scripture are being overwhelmed and overmatched by their own brethren who’ve reduced to ashes the messages of the Gospel, or any other good book, while profiting from the pulpit. As for politicians, let’s just say I don’t think there are anymore feet remaining worth holding to the fire.

This approaching calamity too many are trying to avoid is coming one way or the other. It’s just a matter of when.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

The price of chocolate is through the roof and even ideas seem to be melting away in some fashion or the other in this Easter edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

Leading off this Easter Sunday morning it appears the price of cocoa is soaring leading to worry for chocolate makers and chocolate lovers. Aliina Selyukh covers it in Pricier Easter Bunnies and Eggs. Half-Dipped Kit Kats. What’s Up with Chocolate?

Much of this week’s news was dominated by the Baltimore maritime disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This is an fascinating take from Will Bunch: A Ship Crashed Into a Baltimore Bridge and Demolished the Lies About Immigration.

Less fascinating perhaps, but also timely, A.W Ohlheiser says The Slow Death of Twitter Is Measured in Disasters Like the Baltimore Bridge Collapse.

David Todd McCarty tackles the power and the mystery of ideas in The Idea of Things.

Moving into the poltical world Marc O. De Girolami may be late to the party but he’s correct when he says Something Other Than Originalism Explains This Supreme Court.

Perhaps the most important political piece written this week comes from Chris Quinn, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Check out Our Tump Reporting Upsets Some Reades But There Aren’t Two Sides To Facts: Letter From the Editor. Better yet, forward it on to the editor, publishers, and programmers of your local media sources.

Andres Marantz wonders Why We Can’t Stop Arguing About Whether Trump Is A Facist. It begs the question as to who is arguing this anymore, but it’s a good read.

Will Knight takes a look Inside The Creation of the World’s Most Powerful Open Source AI Model.

Meanwhile Erik Hoel says A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture.

And to round out this week’s edition, Catherine Rampbell tells us The Internet Was Supposed To Make Humanity Smarter. It’s Failing.

Collapsing Bridges and Bridging Analogies

This bridge collapse and the reaction to it seems analogous, yet in an almost incongruent way, to the slow motion collapse we’re living through of all of the guardrails we’ve built up in American society.

The images from the maritime disaster in Baltimore’s harbor this week certainly caused a collective gasp from everyone who saw it. The quantity and volume of gasps have continued in the relatively short time span since the Dali hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As we’ve heard how costly and much time it will take to demo the wreckage, reopen the harbor, and rebuild the bridge, the magnitude of the hard work needed to navigate the challenges ahead is hard to really grasp, but we know that those challenges can be overcome.

Even so, this bridge collapse and the reaction to it seems analogous, yet in an almost incongruent way, to the slow motion collapse we’re living through of all of the guardrails we’ve built up in American society.

Most of those guardrails already lie in a heap of debris and the rest seem to be hanging on by mere threads just waiting to unravel. Frankly, I waver back and forth wondering if it’s possible to rebuild those guardrails or not. Physcial things can be replaced. Societies built on common understandings, traditions, rules, and experiences, not so much. Once the keystones begin to decay the arches eventually fall.

Bringing back what we have already lost will require a rebuild as substantial, if not more so, than what needs to happen in the Baltimore harbor. And nothing rebuilt is ever the same as what it replaces. Society’s guardrails have been as forever crumpled as what remains of the Key Bridge.

As Rick Wilson is famously fond of saying, Everything Trump Touches Dies (ETTD) and the casualty list is long: the media, the justice system, Congress, political parties, civil discourse, social media, and on it goes. What isn’t dead has already been infected beyond cure. And watching those willingly accept their own demise is as twisted as is this sentence describing it.

We were far too complacent with those guardrails, far too passive when we first felt them begin to erode, and far too comfortable to push course corrections or implement further protections.

You never think about the ground underneath you until it collapses and takes you with it.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Stocks, Shoes, and Bible Bunkum

A fool and his money are soon parted the saying goes. That’s obviously an understatement that didn’t come close to anticipating the gullibility of large swathes of the American public. There are obviously flocks of fools out there begging to be fleeced by this conman-in-chief Donald Trump. In the last few weeks, supposedly facing financial peril due to the increasingly large legal fees and judgments against him, he’s managed to roll out sales pitches for trashy shoes, launch an IPO for his solipsistic social media network, and now bibles. I just don’t get the fascination with throwing good money after such bad bunkum.

It makes you wonder if all of these folks somehow drank Trump branded water or ate Trump steaks at some point in their lives that contained some sort of additive that bound them to him in some weird way. That makes it sound like bad fiction, but I just find it hard to believe that there are enough minutes in any given day for this many suckers to be born.

Sure, some folks are going to make some money from the Truth Social stock deal. Many more will lose their shirts. I imagine those Trump bibles will one day get passed down through a few familes here and there. Everyone needs a door stop or two. I can’t comment on the shoes, because there’s no rational excuse for anyone who thinks that’s a remotely attractive way to spend money or adorn their feet. But the conman who owns the courts, bilks his creditors, and gives lie to the concept of shame, just keeps on conning and his flock keeps lining up to be sheered.

If we saw any or all of this in a movie or TV show most would change the channel. But then Reality TV is how this whole thing kicked off in the first place.

We are not serious people. But this guy is a serious serial shyster.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

There’s No Happy Endings For This Trump Fairy Tale

Yowsa did the howls go up! Trump’s bond in the civil fraud case got reduced on appeal from $454 million to $175 million and he got a ten-day stay before he has to cough up the dough. If the intital judgment had been for $175 million instead of $454 million I’d bet we see this differently today if that amount had been upheld. But that’s fiction. In a werid Sartre-esque reality show of our own making. And it shouldn’t be surprising.

That’s how screwed up we’ve allowed this sad excuse of a man to warp most of the world around us. On every conceivable level. We can continue to pretend the institutions we’ve relied on will offer some protections from the likes of this decaying orange turd and someday after he’s gone the world returns to a better place. But he’s crushed any hopes of that. At least for a few generations. Besides it’s a fiction he’s exposed, not one he’s created. Most fairy tales don’t end with happily ever after.

Yes, this vedict is a lifeline. Yes, it seems like he’s getting a break. And you know what? He is. And he will continue to get them. He might one day be held accountable for all of this, but I’m betting not whle he’s still breathing. Life ain’t fair damnit, especially when you’re trying to play by the rules and the other side doesn’t give fuck all about rules.

One of these days we’ll learn that. It will be messy. But at least it’ll be more honest.

Meanwhile: The judge in the porn star hush money case that trial will begin jury selection on April 15th. And so it goes.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.