Subterranean Rebellion

I’ve got Subterranean Homesick Blues in my head this morning. Yes, again or as usual – take your pick. If I could manage the steps I would head to the basement to mix up the medicine. If it wasn’t so damn cold out this morning maybe I’d be on the pavement thinkin' about the government. I believe I can still do that inside my home with a warm cat, husband, and cup of tea though.

Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
By the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Banksy

Word for the day?

Rebellion
     noun
: opposition to one in authority or dominance 

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.
~  Thomas Jefferson

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. 
~  Banksy, Wall and Piece 

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own government, I can not be silent. 
~  Martin Luther King Jr. 

Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows

Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it.
~  Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer 

He who obeys, does not listen to himself!
~  Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra 

Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters

So long as we are brave enough to accept the consequences of our actions, no one can take away our freedom of choice. 
~  Mike Norton

With rebellion, awareness is born.
~  Albert Camus, The Rebel 

Banksy

How can even the idea of rebellion against corporate culture stay meaningful when Chrysler Inc. advertises trucks by invoking “The Dodge Rebellion”? How is one to be bona fide iconoclast when Burger King sells onion rings with “Sometimes You Gotta Break the Rules”? How can an Image-Fiction writer hope to make people more critical of televisual culture by parodying television as a self-serving commercial enterprise when Pepsi and Subaru and FedEx parodies of self-serving commercials are already doing big business? It’s almost a history lesson: I’m starting to see just why turn-of-the-century Americans’ biggest fear was of anarchist and anarchy. For if anarchy actually wins, if rulelessness become the rule, then protest and change become not just impossible but incoherent. It’d be like casting a ballot for Stalin: you are voting for an end to all voting.
~  David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~  Margaret Mead 

Don't depend on governments or corporations to fix problems. Social revolutions are led by passionate individuals and that's what makes the difference.
~  Margaret Mead

      The pump don’t work
      ’Cause the vandals took the handles 

My father was right – Dylan was a god. 

Class

Not all of us had/have parents, teachers, friends with time, interest or the ability to help with the ultra basic shit of becoming a functioning human on the planet.

With this in mind, these are some classes that I would’ve appreciated having had:

Healthy friendships and other relationships—what’s okay and what isn’t
Given my mother’s complete hands off parenting style (with me anyway) and the fact that my father (who tried to be a caring, involved parent), always had to work two full-time jobs to support us, I had a solid dearth of experience with understanding friendships and social interactions in general. There's also the reality of us moving every year or three.

What are boundaries? Why are they important? 

How to set them up, how to recognize when someone is trying to manipulate you and basic diplomacy (how to civilly tell someone to fuck off) should all be covered in this course.

The only childhood socializing advice I remember receiving was “don’t be a doormat.” Good but not exactly encyclopedic.

Household budgets—how to make them
What are your earnings and what are your bills. If, on graduating school, you’re working 40 hour weeks, making minimum wage ($15 an hour here in Massachusetts. (check your state here), how much will you need to put aside each month to pay rent, groceries, utilities and general necessities? How much is left over for socking away in a savings account, for socializing or treats? I, by the by, always listed art supplies under the General Necessities column.

Aunt Mary Ann taught me to set aside a little bit out of each paycheck. As little as ten bucks a week adds up over time—there’s your vacation fund or new computer money, right there.

Simple taxes—the basics
The 1040-EZ form is ridiculously simple and the 1040 isn’t much more challenging. I’m easily overwhelmed by math, forms and keeping track of things that can and can’t be deducted. Even I could do my taxes until TAB and I finally went legal (got officially hitched) bought Valhalla and, immediately afterward, had to do a zillion expensive, unexpected repairs. That and the surgeries which left me deaf—it was all a bit overwhelming.

Taxes aren’t quantum mechanics—you don’t need MIT level smarts to do ‘em. Demystify this shit.

Finding and evaluating your first apartment—a how to
Make an apartment search check list. Include on this:

• Neighborhood (where you would like to live/where you can afford to live)
• Security (is there a functioning intercom/buzzer system, do all windows and doors lock, etc.)
• Building cleanliness (evidence of bugs, vermin?)
• Do all the lights, outlets, appliances work?

For a much more complete list of what to look for check out this rent.com link.

Having workplace skills—why you need them and how to get some
Apart from the basics, do you have experience/abilities that could translate into a job that pays better and is more interesting than working the register at McDonald’s?

• Can you accurately type a zillion words a minute?
• Can you cook?
  
• Are you an Excel pro?
• Are you mechanically adept?
  

You may dream of supporting yourself as an artist (as I did) or writer but, until you can, you need to have a gig that pays you enough to survive, thrive and leaves you with enough energy and time to paint, write, pot, compete in Iron Man competitions, etc. So, with that dough you’ve been saving from your low level clerk gig, start taking time for job growth/advancement. Take some damn classes.

What classes/knowledge do you wish you'd had at a young age?

Death Penalty

Am I in favor of the death penalty? Fuck no!

Why not? For starters, our justice system is utterly skewed in favor of wealthy white men. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Sentencing Project:

African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences. African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites and Hispanics are 3.1 times as likely.
~~~
The source of such disparities is deeper and more systemic than explicit racial discrimination. The United States in effect operates two distinct criminal justice systems: one for wealthy people and another for poor people and people of color. (source)

There’s also the length of time those sentenced to die spend waiting for their big, last day.

In 1984, the average time between sentencing and execution was 74 months, or a little over six years, according to BJS. (Bureau of Judicial Statistics) By 2019, that figure had more than tripled to 264 months, or 22 years. The average prisoner awaiting execution at the end of 2019, meanwhile, had spent nearly 19 years on death row. (source)

After having spent 20+ years on death row, is the prisoner the same person as when they were sentenced? Maybe? Maybe not.

If I’m thinking that death is cheaper for the taxpayers—that is, we’re not paying to clothe, feed, house and guard the baddies (like Manson) for life—I’d be double-plus WRONG.

… report from Susquehanna University suggests that capital punishment costs about $3 billion more than it would to have everyone on death row serving life sentences instead. The average federal prisoner costs about $37,500 per year. In contrast, a death row prisoner costs about $60,000 to $70,000 per year. This is because death row requires more staff and single cells, among other things. So putting someone on death row for 20 years, common considering the appeals process, costs more than putting them in general population for 40 to 45 years. (source)

IS the convicted person actually guilty?

Studies estimate that between 4-6% of people incarcerated in US prisons are actually innocent. If 5% of individuals are actually innocent, that means 1/20 criminal cases result in a wrongful conviction. (source)

Maybe I'm willing to make exceptions to my death penalty stance for these two though.

Robert Bowers, the fetid scum-drooling sack of months old smegma, who murdered 11 people (and wounded six others) at a Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27th, 2018, has been sentenced to death. He definitely, beyond any doubt, did the molto heinous deed, he’s never bothered to show as much as a fake bit of remorse—he's, in fact, proud of himself.

The motherfucker deserves a painful, slow death! Given Bowers age (50) and the common 20+ years between sentencing and execution, he’s essentially serving life in prison but with fewer to no cellmates.

Meanwhile in Buffalo, NY, Payton Gendron, the murderer of ten in a Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022 has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

He pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, which carry the potential for the death penalty. The federal case is still in progress.

This 19 year old mass murdering fuck gave a lovely, even genuine sounding apology (I wonder who wrote it for him) and, of course, cried. Ya know, just like that vile puke pile, KKKyle Rittenhouse. The awesome judge was having none of it though.

“There is no place for you or your ignorant, hateful and evil ideologies in a civilized society,” she (Judge Susan Eagan) said. “There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances. The damage you have caused is too great, and the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again.” (source)

Gendron’s apology had everything to do with the fact that he didn’t, like Crybaby Kyle, get away with his horrifyingly evil deed. Am I rooting for the death penalty on the federal charges? I don’t know. I lean toward nah. He’s, potentially, got a whole bunch of years left in him. I want every last moment to be lived in fear and pain.

It’s times like this that I wish I believed hell (as described by Dante and painted by Hieronymus Bosch) actually existed.

Plague and the Maiden

We had nearly 3,000 new COVID cases here in Massachusetts yesterday. THREE GODDAMNED THOUSAND!

Mein fucking Gott!

No, we’re not doing as badly as Wisconsin (close to 8.500 cases yesterday), the Dakotas, Wyoming or Iowa  but we’re, sure as shit, not doing as well as Australia, Nigeria or India either.

Thanksgiving and the winter holidays are coming up on us fast. Will Americans be stupid, gather in tight clots, breathing, talking, coughing and sneezing our, quite possibly, COVID riddled germs all over mom, pop, fragile grandparents and our immunocompromised cousins and chums? Will we figure “c’mon, it’s just one day – surely Plague45 takes holidays off. RIGHT?!”

Also too, don’t forget – children can get and pass around the Republi/Fascist Curse too.

The number and rate of cases in children in the United States have been steadily increasing from March to July 2020. The true incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is not known due to lack of widespread testing and the prioritization of testing for adults and those with severe illness. (source)

Do you want your little Ethan or Ava to be the spark that kills off Auntie Donna or Uncle Ten? No, I rather think not.

Back, a zillion eons ago, when I was a wee bairn, I had chickenpox. My parents had friends from England visiting us. They’d not been vaccinated and, yes, I gifted them the birdpox. They died. I remember them, liked them a LOT and I killed them.

Adults are 25 times more likely to die from chickenpox than children. (source)

Until we’re all vaccinated, it ain’t fucking safe out there.

Having said that, I totes get that spending holidays alone is hard for a lot of folks. Back in my early 20s (B.B.– Before The Amazing Bob) I was mostly alone on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I reveled the shit out of that – loved it! Warum? Holidays in my parent’s house were all about pitched battles, near lethal sniping and general displays of discord. Yeah, mega big fun, loads of peace and fun (NOT!). So, solitary Xmases and Thanksgivings were refreshing and bloodless.

Years on, TAB and I always spent part of Thanksgiving and Xmas with Jen and Oni before they'd head off to (or host at home) the big, happy Jen Family celebration. If they were hosting we’d pop over, say hello and then head back to our tiny, quiet cottage. Win/win. After TAB died, there was still Jen, her fam and Oni. Plus, occasionally my friend Joe would drive down from Salem to watch movies and snarf Chinese food with me.

Now, wonderfully, Ten is here. The Jen Family Feast won’t be happening this year because her clan is smart, careful and, again, SMART about the plague. In its stead, the four of us will make a meal and watch some movies. A quieter day for J&O but precisely my cuppa tea. No, I won’t be cooking or baking – NO one needs to experience that! I’ll be buying pies and ice cream for dessert.

I’m a little concerned about my friends who’ll be alone, possibly for the first time, on these holidays. Will they Zoom with friends and fam? Are they cool with a day of quiet solitude? Do they need food? Do they have good, ripping yarns on hand? Enough Jamo?

If I had hearing, I’d call Daddy. Instead, I’ll send a letter with loads of pics. He’s in a very nice care home where he’s quite popular with staff and other residents alike. He's safe there and comfortable.

Jack, Jen’s Pop, lives alone but is in a nearby town. Jen and her sister Erin see him (socially distanced and masked up) regularly. I wish I could visit too but it’s more dicey than ever for me to be out and about.

This, if we use the brains Bast gave us, is temporary. We can prep, make adjustments to work around and ease our respective holiday sads. The goal is survival. It surely helps that America’s Biggest, Most Destructive LOSER is headed for the toxic waste dump of history (AND, if we’re lucky, penury and jail).

Let’s work on taking away Moscow Mitch’s ability to continue destroying democracy. Donate To Warnock and Ossoff’s runoff campaigns.

How will you be spending the holidays?

Conversational Narcissist

Listening, REALLY listening – hearing what’s being said, what’s NOT said, paying attention to the speaker’s body language and tone of voice  – is one of the most exquisitely valuable virtues on the fucking planet! I’ve whinged on about this and conversational dominatrices before.

What brings it up now/again? Eh, I’m over-scrutinizing myself, as uzh. I know that I talk more now that I’m deaf. Does my sound system’s crap-outage mean that I’m listening less? Well yeah-duh but, actually, not so much. That is, when I first joined the ranks of the deaf, I was kinda sorta, WICKED preoccupied with adjusting to my new state of being. And recovering. That too. As time went on and I got the hang of the No Sound state, I found different ways to listen.

For the ASL impaired, I carry around pad and pen and my iPad. Yes, I can lipread fairly well BUT, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m no Jedi at this shit. The point here is that listening involves, fer instance:

• NOT dominating the talk action unless, of course, you're being paid to deliver that speech you're making.
• Asking questions of your convo buddy. You know, inquire about them.
• Exercising patience – most of us don't talk in PowerPoint slide format. Ya know,  just FYI.
• Focusing on the speaker, what they’re saying and how – do they seem comfortable or un? happy or un? thrilled to itty bits? tense and nervous? Body language – check it out.
• And here’s a biggy, don’t hijack the convo. Don’t interrupt the speaker’s flow with “Oh, I know – this is MY experience and how I felt and what I want and …” etc. Yeah, I totes want to hear all about my friend’s feelings and thoughts BUT LET ME FINISH!

  

  Gratuitous daffodils

Coco's I'm Listening face

We all have friends and fam who could easily win the gold in the Loquaciously Me-Me-Me Olympics. I don’t want to be like that. Evah!

Also too, I can be a good listener while deaf. Cool? Cool!

While tooling around the 'toobz, I found this cool article:

In The Pursuit of Attention, sociologist Charles Derber shares the fascinating results of a study done on face-to-face interactions, in which researchers watched 1,500 conversations unfold and recorded how people traded and vied for attention. Dr. Derber discovered that despite good intentions, and often without being aware of it, most people struggle with what he has termed “conversational narcissism.”

Conversational narcissists always seek to turn the attention of others to themselves. Your first reaction to this statement is likely, “Oh, I don’t do that, but I know someone who does!” But not so fast. Conversational narcissism typically does not manifest itself in obviously boorish plays for attention; most people give at least some deference to social norms and etiquette. Instead, it takes much more subtle forms, and we’re all guilty of it from time to time. Everyone has felt that itch where we couldn’t wait for someone to stop talking so we could jump in; we pretended to be listening intently, but we were really focusing on what we were about to say once we found an opening.

“If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two tongues and one ear.” 

~ Mark Twain

What Shall I Be?

Remember that stupid, destructive and flat out assinine board game from the '60s?

Society didn’t show us loads of interesting career options. Second Wave Feminism was just taking hold. We could be teachers. nurses, secretaries, models (!), flight attendants (!) and waitresses.

If we had parents who encouraged us to dream big or teachers inspiring us to think expansively, yes, we could go on to work in more interesting, traditionally (at that time) male dominated fields. My mother wanted me to go to college in order to meet a nice boy, marry and start shooting out a fleet of bambini. No thank you. Daddy? He just wanted me to be happy but being a concert flautist or music teacher would have made him proud.

What did I want? To paint, do a little sculpture, throw a few pots and then paint some more. The problem, of course, was that I wasn’t born in a money patch. That is, I needed a job to keep me in cotton duck, gesso and Phthalo Blue.

At first I thought I could be an elementary or high school art teacher. Somewhere in my first or second year of college, though, I had an epiphany. I wasn’t good with people. In fact, apart from my BFF Kevin, I wasn’t terribly keen on humans. Most of them scared or, at the very least, annoyed the shit outta me. Working within a school system seemed like a recipe for extreme unhappiness and potential disaster.

Kevin and I always said that, on graduation we’d just get shit jobs that’d keep us in beer and art supplies. Clearly we were thinking with the romatic sides of our brains and didn’t prepare for entering the working world. At all.

I’d never learned how to type. This was pre-Internet, don’cha know. High school girls who would go on to be secretaries, learned how to type. Being some cozy office, nylons and pumps wearing secretary wasn’t on my agenda. Fuck that shit, man!

Oh yeah, kids who knew they’d have to type term papers learned how to do more than hunt and peck too. Oops.

Where did this leave me? Waitressing (and I couldn’t have sucked more at that) and modeling for art classes. Yes, I eventually got into the wonderful world of offset printing. Now I do, primarily, layout and design along with a bit of marketing.

Jen and I were talking about this job thing yesterday. She also went to art school, just wanted to paint and graduated without obvious, easily plugged in job skills (and ended up in printing). Her thought is that art departments should have a class (or series of seminars) on job possibilities for artists. You know, for those of us without rich parents.

Great idea! Apart from teaching and graphic design, there's no real obvious career paths for artists without dosh. That's how it seems but there's got to be interesting stuff out there that pays better than minimum wage.

What else could I have done? I believe that I would’ve really loved a gig constructing and painting sets for the theater. I did that throughout high school and college and LOVED it. Was this something that paid or did people do this just for fun? I’d no clue and no idea where to even begin a search (this being pre-Google and all).

Funnily enough, my favorite gig—and one that I was quite good at—was teaching. Like with design work, it was something I had to evolve into. Does this mean that I’m now all stiffly straight laced? Phbbt, fuck no! I’m just less misanthropic.

Social Skills 2.0

As with my Mac, I'm forever attempting to install upgrades on my abilities.

Social skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance.

Important ones to remember:
1) Listen to what other people have to say. Don’t assume you know what’s gonna come out of their mouths. You don’t. I don’t. None of us do.

I’d like a do over of that chitchat from last week with the Trump supporter. Instead of attempting to introduce him to reality, I’d like to just ask Why do you believe Trump’d make a good president? Even though Mister Trump Booster wasn’t interested in what I had to say, I would’ve liked to have heard, straight from the source, why a sentient human being, who’s not wearing a pointy white hood, would vote for a Trump (or a Cruz for that matter).

Related to listening to others is this important bit:
2) Take turns when you talk. My Trump buddy was all about proselytizing, not so much with the convo. He was, basically, just jerking off. That’s a great way to make the person you’re jawing at run away. Which I did. Being slimed with fact free, inchoate red meat, illogic jizz just ain’t my thing. Dig?

Contrary to popular custom, listening is more than just waiting for your turn to speak.

3) Knowing how, when and how much to talk about yourself - 'self disclosure.’  This isn’t just a don’t dominate the discussion tip.
I know a man, an honest to Bast adult, who was fascinated by the fact that he was attracted to the same sort of woman over and again. He really wanted to discover the root of this and seemed to think everyone else was interested as well. The topic came up at the most bizarre times, like when he wrote a condolence note to an older, buttoned-down relative, who’d just lost his beloved wife. Yes, my reliably inappropriate friend brought his sexual predilections into play even here. He honestly thought that it was appropriate and a compliment to tell Uncle that he so admired the dearly departed that, ever after, he was attracted to women of a similar build.

Not only did he make himself look like a total self obsessed loon (which, to be fair, he was), he lost any chance of continuing a friendship with his father’s brother. Indecorous words at a radically bad time. Plus, this was NOT a person who would, even at the best of times, appreciate this bit of TMI.

4) Which brings us to empathy. Try to get into the mocs, Chucks, Psychadelic platform dancing boots, clogs or whatever of the person with whom you’re attempting connection. 

Empathy 
noun
the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. 

Which is a close relative to:

Grok
verb (used with object)
to understand thoroughly and intuitively.

I've mentioned my friend (of the ex variety) who said, upon hearing that I was going in for another round of brain salad surgery, Oh, I've had a headache for a couple of days now. She thought that whinging on about her stress headache was a show of support. Misery loves company, right? Not in this case, NO.

Empathy FAIL! So then, think before you speak.

Why’s this all come up now? Jen, Oni and I, during our weekend teatime, have been watching Dexter. You know, the story of a Miami police blood spatter expert who’s also a serial killer of evil baddies who’ve escaped justice.

 Executive producer Sara Colleton describes him as a guy who doesn’t feel he’s a human being, who has to fake it. But in faking it, he’s a better brother, boyfriend, colleague than most real people.

Ya know, if Dexter can recognize and triumph over his inner demons, learn to channel the beast, can’t we all?

Work Dream 3000

Ooof, work dreams. These are never, ever about the happy place where I am now (freelance-ish land) or that last horrific joint where I thanklessly toiled. Nope.

In last night's nocturnal journey, I was back at the print company I’d worked for 5,000 years ago (more or less). This was where I’d been a receptionist, a customer service rep, a delivery department manager, production manager in the main pressroom, trainer, training director and preflighter. Yeah, I’d done it all. Most all anyway.

In this crazy nightmare-ish 'scape, the biz was in the midst of moving from Back Bay down to an ancient factory type four story building on the waterfront in Southie. Things were mega chaotic which matched the unfinished, very rough space. Student-y furnishings capped it off—desks made of old doors, battered old black metal file cabinets and trash day, cast off couches.

I found my new boss—Katherine. In real life she’d run the Digital Pre-Press department for a few years. I’d always liked her but felt that she was wary of me for some reason. She kept a wall up. I never understood why but I’d done all I could to respect that.

Back in the dream though—Katherine was pleasant but mucho hands off. I needed to find my new office, files, computer equipment and other bits on my own and the goods were nowhere to be found. Joy.

 In reality, in my last coupla years with this company, my role was majorly fluid. I did a little prepress, some design/layout, some sales and customer service work. I don’t think the owner knew what to do with me—he just left me to fill in gaps. It was a weird set up. In the dream, my job description was also in wholly undefined territory.

So, no one was gonna find my computer or file cabinet 'cept me. I had to hunt through this giant, rabbit warren of a building while, at the same time, discovering what my gig entailed. I kept walking through cubbies and conference rooms packed with 20 and 30 something hipsters all heavily focused on a TV. They were dissecting some presentation in terribly serious tones. It was at mondo odds with their Crayola colored dreds and bright, striped, cotton Peruvian hacky sack pants. Their look was a cool but odd detail. The owner wasn’t known for embracing the hippie-er side of life at all. No, Gerald was buttoned down, right down to his, doubtless, professionally pressed boxers.

After stopping for a moment to puzzle over it all—Are we now a marketing firm catering to Frisbee manufacturers and head shops? We're not a printshop anymore?—I moved on.

Eventually, before finding my office (top floor at the rear) or computer (which I somehow knew would be an elderly PC with only the antique Office 2000 for software), I ended up assisting a customer who’d called in looking for her print order (yes, I still had hearing in this verrückt phantasm). I passed Israel, who’d been, in reality, another Prepress Manager. He looked a little confused but cheery.

I desperately asked “Is Al still in the pressroom?” I knew that only Al could help me and not just in finding this client’s printwork.

And then I woke both confused and a little pissed off. That's what the joint, particularly at the end, always inspired in me—confusion and pissed-offedness. It's much of why I left—that and they were sinking under the weight of the owner's OCD-esque mismanagement.

Oof!

Who Let the Clowns Out?

So there was a debate last night. The insane clown car posse was in the usual bat shit crazy, fiction spewing, hate and distrust mongering form.

A friend summed it up for those of us who couldn’t bear to watch:

"Because I hate myself, I stayed up last night for the GOP shit-show again. Here's what you missed: Cruz' father sailed from Cuba & breathed the 'salty air'; Kasich has a daughter; Paul will spend no money, not a cent; Bush will save the VA from Clinton (wha ?); Fiorina likes to say "crushed" - and have you heard abt her 3 page tax code?; Rubio is the American Dream & ISIS is coming now for yr family; Carson (snorting Valium before debate) just wants you to stop lying abt him; Trump asks, are we a country? Oh, and he is special & will make America GREAT!”

Some of the live tweeting from Stonekettle

 This is what we’re up against. A bunch of players who’ve no goddamned interest in making America great for anyone but themselves and their corporate backers. They all seem like buffoons to me but one of these freakazoid fuckwads could win. Of course they could. President Trump? President Paul? President Rubio? It could happen especially if we on the left splinter. We need to hang together and stay focused on the immediate goal—getting a Dem, NOT a Tea/Repub, in the White House

On that note, looka here, I’m sick of the Feel the Bern crowd telling me that my potential vote for Hillary is akin to a vote for Trump/Rubio/Shit-on-a-Stick-Du-Jour/Darth Vader and then continuing on to note that the only reason I’m, potentially, casting my vote for her is that I want a female president.

Guess what—that’s NOT why I think Clinton would make a great president AT ALL.

Here’s why I may vote for her—she’s qualified.

I’m not saying that, in contrast, Sanders is an inept poltroon. No, no, NO I am not! I like him. I like what he has to say. His resume rocks! I believe, however, that Clinton's, quite likely, a better, more skilled champion against the lunatic, enslave-the-poors, rape-the-planet "right." Her performance at the Benghazi Shit Show nailed it for me.

I like Clinton's stance on issues (from Blue Nation Review):

She’s pro equal rights for LGBT Americans
She opposes using “religious freedom” to justify cutting access to healthcare and discrimination
She understands economic inequality – and wants to fix it
She thinks anti-vaxxers are stupid
She supports gun control
She knows the criminal justice system in this country is broken
She wants to fix Citizens United
She supports other women in the climb towards equality
She supports American Workers
She’s Pro-Choice

Stephen Charbonneau on Quora wrote an excellent response to the question Why should one vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election?

Hillary Clinton is hyper-competent, highly intelligent, and well connected. She has all the skills necessary to be a great President...

 He then makes eight solid points on why it makes obscene amounts of sense to vote for her.

Think about what the Supremes’d be like if one of the cracked crop gets to replace even one. Just think on that for a moment.

Justices Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia will be 81 years old in 2017 and will likely retire during the next president’s tenure. Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be 84 and Stephen Breyer isn’t getting any younger either—he’ll be 79. Imagine the decisions made by a Tea/Repub dominated Supreme Court. Citizen’s United? McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission? Roe v Wade? Equal rights for those who flash a darker shade of pale? Phbbt—I want a sane, just court, not a bunch of extreme right wing puppets.

Think about what's at stake. Blasting Clinton because she’s not pure enough and tellin’ me that the only reason I’ll, most likely, vote for her is because she’s rockin’ the lady bits is utterly reductive, disingenuous bullshit.

 Clinton and Sanders voted the same 93% of the time when they were both senators. In response to one of those ugly, divisive viral memes which makes Clinton out to be some hawkish DINO, I ask you to read this very clear Politifact column.

I will vote for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

Habib Fanny, at that same Quora page, nailed it.

I support HRC because even though she's not my dream candidate, she offers the best chances of maintaining a left-of-center domestic policy and I care more about winning than I care about ideological purity.

Barney Frank had it right:

We're not perfect, but they are nuts.

VOTE!

Today is Election Day. It's a local election—every bit as important as the national ones. Micro becomes macro.

Here in Quincy (where Valhalla is located) we’re voting for a new mayor. I’m keen on seeing the current one replaced.

Under Koch (related to the infamous Koch Bros? Dunno):

• The HUGE downtown renovation project’s totally stalled. Quincy Center’s been dug up, fenced off and, just generally, a total mess for at least three years now. NOT an appealing area of town despite the comic book emporium, coffee shops and the Fat Cat.
• Quincy Medical Center was shut down (though there's still an emergency room of sorts there) during Koch’s reign. Quincy, the eighth largest city in Massachusetts, is now without a hospital.
• Also in downtown Quincy, there’ve been mas grande cost overruns in renovations at Old City Hall. Street-Works Development LLC, the city’s ex-downtown developer, has quit. Whyzat?
• Those new flood maps (which show who’s in a flood zone and is in need of more insurance {$$$} coverage and who’s not) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency? That whole biz was handled poorly to say the very least.

 So yeah, I'm not inclined to vote for Koch. His opponent is Bill Phelan. I can't find out much about him beyond what comes from his campaign site and Wikipedia. He was the mayor of Quincy from 2002-2008 though. I def don't recall him being a bumbler like Koch.

Also in the race were Anne Mahoney and Doug Gutro but they lost the primary to Phelan. They both looked good but they're out and throwing their support to Phelan. So then, given Koch's record, what I've read of Phelan's and the fact that Mahoney and Gutro are in favor of Phelan—I'll be voting for him versus Koch.

This decision feels unscientific. That is, I wish I had more solid info on Phelan before I pull the lever for him. Local elections, local campaigns don't get the scutiny, the bright klieg lights of press coverage and that's rotten.

The final penny for me not voting for Koch, came last week. A friend works for the printer who's done all of Koch's promo pieces—brochures, postcards, signage. Apparently, on a 5,000 run of big, full color, gloss brochures, Koch's name was mispelled! The printer had nothing to do with the text, design or layout—they just printed the damn thing. Koch's own campaign staff not only bungled their man's name, they didn't catch the error when proofreading (IF they even bothered to proofread).

They ended up making stickers to place over each and every mispelling. Think of all the needless hours spent applying those stickers. If his own cheerleaders, his campaign staff, can't manage something so simple as spelling their candidate's name correctly (or giving a decent proofread), what else, what other bullshit will rain down on Quincy if he's elected mayor yet again?

Emotional Intelligence

I know I've touched on this before but it's worth revisiting.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.

AKA Interpersonal/Intrapersonal Intelligence.
Attributes of Emotional Intelligence include:

Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior, know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.
Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.
Social awareness – You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.
Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Folks who lack Emotional Intelligence? Donald Trump and his ilk, the idiots that I briefly worked for at a small print company fall into this boat too (Pro Tip: Smiling when you tell me that I’m a lazy slag is NOT a motivator AND, given that I was working faster and with greater accuracy than most of your other employees, makes you look even more stunningly clueless and breathtakingly fatuous).

We’ve all had a boss, co-worker, friend, relative and/or acquaintance who just can’t seem to make a point without bellicose insult, without sneering condescension.

Telltale signs that you lack emotional intelligence from the Harvard Business Review:

• You often feel like others don’t get the point and it makes you impatient and frustrated.
• You’re surprised when others are sensitive to your comments or jokes and you think they’re overreacting.
• You think being liked at work is overrated.
• You weigh in early with your assertions and defend them with rigor.
• You hold others to the same high expectations you hold for yourself.
• You find others are to blame for most of the issues on your team.
• You find it annoying when others expect you to know how they feel.

I’ve one addition to that. You feel that everyone should write, behave, believe and emote just like you.

There’s a list of things at the link that you can do, should you recognize yourself in any of the above points.
Being an emotional dumbfuck doesn’t doom you to failure. After all, there are many forms of intelligence. There are ways to make up for this lack, like the blind person who has more finely tuned hearing or the deafie with higher visualization skills. BUT being self aware and able to control your outbursts will, sure as Bast made little black cats, get you a lot further in this long life.

Emotional Intelligence—GET SUM!

Words for the Day:
Bellicose: adjective—inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent; pugnacious.
Pugnacious: adjective—inclined to quarrel or fight readily; quarrelsome; belligerent; combative.
Self-Aggrandizement: noun—increase of one's own power, wealth, etc., usually aggressively.

One More Cup of Coffee

It’s Monday. The Monday after a long gorgeous weekend. I’m ragged out and thinking a Bloody Mary wouldn’t go amiss. OK, maybe just One more cup of coffee 'fore I go. To the valley below. Yes, the great Mistah Dylan is now, happily, in my head.

Given my extra special, early morning knackeredness, you’d think I’d give the news a pass. That’d be the smart thing, no?

Never let it be said that I take the easy road when a perfectly nasty boulevard presents.

Man Admits To Plotting To Massacre Muslims, Judge Sets Him Free Anyway
“We’re gonna be carrying an M4 with 500 rounds of ammunition, light armor piercing. A pistol with three extra magazines, and a machete. And if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds,” Doggart allegedly said according to the transcript of a wiretap cited in the complaint.

From the Southern Poverty Law Center: 
Currently, there are 784 known hate groups operating across the country, including neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others.

Check out Terror From the Right: Plots, Conspiracies and Racist Rampages Since Oklahoma City for a detailed listing of major terrorist plots and racist rampages that have emerged from the American radical right in the years since Oklahoma City. The list ends with Larry Steve McQuilliams’ Austin, Texas attacks on November 28, 2014. Needs to be updated.

Oh but DO tell me again how it’s those awful Muslims who are the REAL terrorists.
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Greece seems to be and have been in all the papers lately. Apparently some huge monetary thing's going down. I should really pay attention, read up on this. Mary Ann absolutely loved Greece. We could’ve had a rousing convo about this. Christ I miss her. I suppose I always will.
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And up in way Northern Maine:

 22-year-old Devon Staples of Calais was killed after placing a fireworks mortar tube atop his head and setting it off with explosives inside the tube around 10 p.m.

Fireworks—they bring out the stone dimwit in so many.
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And finally, after skipping over so much unstomachable nonsense this morning, some good news:

Obama Plans Broader Use of Clemency to Free Nonviolent Drug Offenders
 Sometime in the next few weeks, aides expect President Obama to issue orders freeing dozens of federal prisoners locked up on nonviolent drug offenses. With the stroke of his pen, he will probably commute more sentences at one time than any president has in nearly half a century.

The expansive use of his clemency power is part of a broader effort by Mr. Obama to correct what he sees as the excesses of the past, when politicians eager to be tough on crime threw away the key even for minor criminals.

YES! The insanity of mandatory minimum sentencing for NONviolent drug offenses has to end. Prison is not the solution and for-profit prisons are an abomination.

Hmmm, maybe I'll go sit on the seawall for a bit—ya know, clear and calm my head.

Man's Inhumanity

I'm puzzling over this word:

Humane
adjective
1. characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed:
humane treatment of prisoners.
2. acting in a manner that causes the least harm to people or animals:
humane trapping of stray pets.
origin
    mid-15c., variant of human (compare german/germane, urban/urbane), used interchangeably with it until early 18c., by which time it had become a distinct word with sense of "having qualities befitting human beings." But inhuman still can be the opposite of humane.

Given the barbarous and savage history of the human race, using the word "humane" to describe caring for those less fortunate, is laughable. Conversely, “inhumane” is used to describe heinous acts perpetrated by shitstains of the highest levels of fecalhood. Huh.

Fer Bast’s sake, here in the good ol’ US of A alone there’s been (short list!):

• Slavery
• The genocide and reservationing of Native Americans
• Rape and the bizarre shoot-the-victim rape trials
• The ridiculous gun fetishist culture
• The demonization of the Poors

Americans don’t have the corner on despicable words and deeds though, on any given day, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Jeb can be counted on to spew idiocies, inanities and callously cold-hearted packed cretinisms.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
~Upton Sinclair

Who’s paying their bills? To whom are they on the take? When did their souls take the highest bidders mark? What happened to all their respective centers? Were they born without? What derailed them into Opposite Land, where down is up and backwards is forward, full speed ahead.

Are they all incapable of making an honest dime? Have they, at long last, no sense of decency?

IF there is a devil, IF Hades actually exists, these folks will have seats at the big fuck’s table.

After the gross insanity, cruelty and ruthlessness of the Bush/Cheney reign, it's taken Obama eight years and counting to restore sanity, some semblance of dignity and, yes, humanity. Has he been appreciated for it? Lauded as much as he should be for this heroic and, seemingly, impossible task. Only by those who voted for him. The Republican/Tea Party and their paid shills (Fox DUH) continue to cry—Obama’s the anti-Christ! Obama’s a Socialist! (how/why, if true, would this be bad?) Obama’s a Muslim! (again..bad why?) Ad nauseam.

So then, to me, “humane” is a laughable term.

“I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.”
~Primo Levi, If This Is a Man / The Truce