Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

In a face to face conversation between two reasonably polite people, one will say something, the other will then say  something which  relates to something the first person said, or maybe ask a question, and it will go back and forth like that, like a friendly game of catch, or frisbee, where the object is  not to win, to defeat your  opponent, but to keep the volley going.
Of course, there are variations on  this.  Some of your friends are likely to be  more garrulous than others, and sometimes you’ll just let them go on.  Sometimes they are entertaining.  Some people are quieter, and it may take a bit of work to draw them out.  But if both, or all, parties are willing, some kind of conversation takes place.
Social media is a bit different, and is still in the process of discovering its own norms and etiquette, but the taking turns format still exists.  And is sometimes ignored.
I just had a very odd conversation, if you can call it that.  Someone posted a bit  of  a rant about how beauty is only  skin deep and we should look more for spiritual beauty and  not be so materialistic and shallow.  It’s a popular thing to say, and I don’t object to it.

I’m a fairly  shallow person, true, and very attracted to  attractive people, but I understood what he was saying and, in most contexts, would have  just ignored it and moved on.  Not an evil statement, just a  bit of pablum.
But, it came from one of  my poetry sites, and it was not poetry.  No line breaks, no meter, no rhyme, no metaphor even.  So, I commented.  “Not poetry.”
This great lover of beauty erupted in a torrent of expletives which made me suspect him of right wing tendencies.  Bitch ass snowflake.  Fuck you, you ain’t got shit, you pussy.  Stuff like that.  Five or six comments.
I responded, something along the lines of how his choice of words contradicted his original statement.  This brought out another string of about 8 comments.
My point is, if you’re on social media, and you look at the comment thread, and the last three or four comments are all yours, maybe it’s time to let somebody else get one in.  If nobody does, it’s probably a sign that nobody else is particularly interested, and you can move on to another conversation, in which other people are actually involved.

Just a suggestion.

I read a great article today.  I’d cite it here, and even link it, except I can’t remember the author’s name, or what site, or publication, he was writing  for, and didn’t save the link in any way, so I can’t.

But the gist was that being a sociopath is not the thing that marks Trump as unique among politicians and other people  in power.  Most of them are sociopaths.  They don’t mind if they are endangering people’s lives.  They will start wars and order people killed and not bat an eyelash.

In fact, it is so common that once Bernie Sanders came along, he stood out.  He was a ray of sunshine on a  cloudy day, a beacon in the night, water in the desert.   When he opened  his  mouth and spoke the truth, it rang out clear as a bell and by comparison it was clear that almost every other politician was a mudmouthed weasel.
No, the thing that marks Trump as different is that he is so emotionally retarded that  he can’t even pretend not  to be a sociopath.  Thus, saying to flood victims who’ve lost their homes “Have a good time.”  He probably meant well. (Not really.  But it was probably his  intent to look as if he  meant well)

He just has never mastered, in his hollow and  meaningless life, the ability to pretend he gives a shit.  His sycophantic fan  section might say that’s a good thing, it means  he speaks his mind, he’s transparent.

And that’s true.  We can listen to his  words and know exactly what  kind of man he is.:  A selfish, sociopathic, ignorant, emotionally retarded asshole.

I’m glad that people are all enraged about  the  arrest of Alex Wubbles.  True, the reason she’s getting more press than a lot of black people who were flat out murdered by cops, is because she’s white.  One cop in Atlanta the other day told  a female motorist he’s stopped “Don’t be nervous, we only shoot black people.”

But, any case which shows people how out of line the  police really  are, is a case I’m glad to hear.
It’s not  just that  she’s white.  It’s also that she’s a nurse.  The policeman was way out of his jurisdiction.   If  you are inside a school, the teachers are the boss.  If you’re inside a hospital, it’s the doctors and nurses.  This is important.

A hospital is a place for repairing human bodies.  That is their number one priority on a list of one.  Fighting crime is not their job.  So, it’s not just that this particular policeman (who I certainly hope gets fired.  The mayor and the police chief of Salt Lake City have apologized to Wubbles, but if they don’t fire the pig who caused the problem, then their apologies are as hollow as Corey Booker saying he cares about health care.) didn’t understand the law, which Wubbles had very clearly explained to him, it’s that he doesn’t understand how modern civilization works.

The law, in Utah, is that the hospital  doesn’t have to give  the police blood samples unless:  The patient gives their consent, the patient has been arrested, or a warrant has been issued.  This should have been fairly easy  for  the police to deal with.  Most judges today will authorize warrants quicker than a hippie doctor will write you a prescription for cannabis.

I don’t know what this particular patient was suspected of, but in any event, he was in the hospital, and unconscious at the time of the incident.  He wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.

They had plenty of time to get a warrant, if one was warranted.

Bernie Sanders always has been, and continues to be, a class guy.
When he was being interviewed by Chris Cuomo on CNN, Cuomo asked him if he was running in 2020.  Bernie set him straight.  No rudeness, no over-reaction, but let him know  in no uncertain terms he was being a wuzzock.

“The media never, ever gives up, and instead of focusing on real issues, they keep talking about never-ending campaigns.  We just had an election six months ago.  People are sick and tired of it; they want me to go back to Washington, to deal with climate change, to deal with healthcare, to deal with education, to deal with the issues that impact their lives.”
Not only did he educate Cuomo as to his proper role as a journalist, he managed to introduce three critical issues into a discussion Cuomo was trying to make as issue free as possible.

It is too early.  One thing I hate hearing, which I hear a lot of  in my particular group thoughtbubble, is whether we, the Berniecrats of ’16, should  be sticking with Bernie, or pushing for Tulsi Gabbard.  There’s no conflict, there’s no argument, since they are in basic agreement on the  issues, and it’s the same  group of supporters.  Therefore, I’m sure that if Bernie runs, Tulsi won’t, and vice versa.
There’s two reasons for that.  First of  all, neither of them are in it for raw, personal ambition.  At least, it doesn’t seem like it.  Secondly, it would be politically  foolish for them to run against each other (as I said above, same group of supporters).  So, we’re wasting energy arguing about something that’s not going to happen.  When we should be talking about climate change, health care, and education.

Exactly as Bernie said.

This sort of follows on what I said about Joel Osteen yesterday.

Kamala Harris is a corporatist Democrat.  She has fundraisers in the same places Hillary Clinton  has fund raisers.  Her record as California Attorney General favored the banks over their  customers, the police over the people.  She is the darling of the DNC, and thoroughly disliked by the Berniecrats.  But, she said  today that she is in favor of Sanders’  medicare for  all  plan.
So, we should be jumping for joy, but plenty of Bernie supporters are saying “Don’t trust her, it’s just lip service and she’ll screw us again in the end.”  That might well be true, but in the current battle what  we wanted her to do was back the bill  and she’s done that.  I’m not suggesting that we all go  out and sign up in  the Harris for President campaign, I’m just saying that we might shift our anger to the next Senator or Congressperson in line.  This would both send the message that anybody who fails to support it will  be targeted, but also that supporting it will earn a bit of a reprieve.
The statues.  That’s another place  where maybe we’re going overboard.  We demanded the removal of Confederate statues, and a lot of communities have responded and torn them down.  We’re probably stuck with Stone Mountain, but a whole lot of small, southern town squares have changed for the better.  Problem is, I’m seeing calls on  Facebook for removing statues of Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, and some famous gynecologist who apparently was a slave era version of Dr. Mengele and did some seriously cruel experiments.  But, where does it  end and is this diluting the original message and just becoming a frenzied war against statues?
Why does this happen?  I suppose some  of it might be trolls, some of it is well intentioned people who have an obsession with some particular aspect of history, and some of it is people who are just on a roll.  Once they feel they are on the winning end of an argument, there’s a temptation to pile on, to  try  and run  up the score, to take it as far as you can.

Sooner or later, it always goes too far.