It’s Hunter Thompson Day

I wonder what Thompson would say about the state of U.S. politics now, in the Trump Era. Of Nixon, amongst other things, he wrote:

The slow-rising central horror of “Watergate” is not that it might grind down to the reluctant impeachment of a vengeful thug of a president whose entire political career has been a monument to the same kind of cheap shots and treachery he finally got nailed for, but that we might somehow fail to learn something from it. (source)

Did we learn anything from Nixon? It seems the only lesson learned is how to more completely and grotesquely bamboozle the minds of low information, hate filled, violence prone U.S. citizens. All it took to win the allegiance of the self-proclaiming “christians” and the rest of this country’s venomous misanthropes was a rich, tiny brained, reality TV clown who hurls sneering mockery at anyone who dares to oppose him.

Von ShitzenPantz couldn’t have done it without his billionaire backers and, of course, his boss—Putin the Puppeteer. The rich don’t need convincing—they’ll donate and vote for any slimy despot as long as it means they’ll net more millions and billions. Human rights? Fuck that shit—they can buy all the human rights (for themselves) they want.

By the by, the Paris Review column, linked at the quote above, is fabulous. Go, read the full piece—it’s short and well worth it. In the meantime, have some wisdom from the wise:

We live in a jungle of pending disasters, walking constantly across a minefield.
~ Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream

America...just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
~ Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.

No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.
~ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
~ Hell’s Angels 

Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.
~ The Proud Highway 

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
~ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Ralph Steadman

Some may never live, but the crazy never die.
~ The Proud Highway 

We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.
~ Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80's

Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.

I have never seen much point in getting heavy with stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I... And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots.
~ The Great Shark Hunt

Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.