Saturday, April 1, 2023

March 2023 in review

EITHER WE PUT A FULL STOP TO ALL THIS POPULIST AND EXTREMIST MADNESS THAT HAS INFECTED NEARLY ALL CORNERS OF SOCIETY - be it nationalistic, theocratic, far-left, far-right, pro-Russian, anarchist, paternalistic, misandrist, homophobic, pedophile, hedonistic, puritanical, crony capitalist, communist, fascist, white supremacist, black supremacist, whichever or whatever - or Orwell’s prophecy of the proverbial boot stomping our faces - forever - will be the reality from which we will never escape. At this point, it is the theocrats and the far-right nationalist populists (#Cult45) that have the upper hand and are most likely to successfully divide and conquer. All of them want complete and total control of society, and absolute subjection of every individual. Now, once they conquer, they will start eating each other alive - too many differing agendas lying beneath the surface - but the rest of us won’t have anything to do with that; seeing as we will either be dead or rotting in some concentration camp …

At some point in the next year or two, President Biden will be forced to invoke Martial Law, but I am not counting on that being enough to stop the bleeding and to set us back on the right course. Too many in law enforcement and the military are sympathetic to #Cult45, or are outright part and parcel of it. I hate saying that, and it only increases my appreciation for those officers and soldiers who do honorably uphold their oath to serve and protect. Truly, I wish to believe the honorable ones can successfully stem the tide once the blood begins flowing in earnest, and that our efforts now to push back against extremists will bear fruit; my gut says the future is extremely bleak for America. I seriously doubt I will be around to see what is on the other side of this nightmare - if my health doesn’t fail me, somebody is going to kill me - but for those who are creating this coming hell on earth ... even if they're not reading this, I say to them for when the moment arrives: Enjoy! They will have so earned it.

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The genie is not going back in the bottle: As with the nationalist populist crowd (#Cult45), I do not like the majority of the cultural and socioeconomic changes we have undergone in our lifetimes. Moreover, and this is a general statement, I do not like how people have changed. The 21st century itself has been one giant mistake, yes. America is unrecognizable from when I graduated high school in 1996. The problem I have with populists - beyond their simplistic worldview - is that their solutions to the issues facing us are always so wrong-headed and self-defeating. For all my many faults and errors in judgment, the populist masses embracing a long-proven con-man in Donald Trump was the moment I fully understood beyond doubt that the masses are always going to be stupid asses …

The millions of everyday populists among us can never be taken seriously ever again after making such a massive error in judgment, and then doubling down on their mistake time and again. Attempting to fix a reprobate society by putting the biggest reprobate of all in charge - and then worshiping the man almost as if he is Jesus Christ and demanding the rest of us follow along - is illogical to the extreme. Believing we are ever going to return to an (oftentimes imaginary) glorious past is a pipe dream. Embracing retrograde Christian nationalism, racism, sexism, and Fascism will not bring back the ‘good old days,’ it will only make this dying nation an even more terrible place to live. I do not proclaim to have all the answers to that which ails us, and frankly I am just waiting for the meteor to strike at this point. Just sick of most everyone on all sides; sick of extremists of all stripes imposing themselves on others; sick of the hypocrisy; sick of the inhumanity; sick of all of the damn bulls**t, period. My tolerance for the endless noise and nonsense has run out …

To quote C.S. Lewis: ‘(T)hose who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.’
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AP

PUTIN’S WAR OF AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE

‘Russian President Vladimir Putin planned a “total cleansing” of Ukraine with “house-to-house terror” to subdue its people, leaked spy documents reportedly show’ - #Cult45 and its leader all obey Putin, and this is an example of why. For years, I have had premonitions of enraged Trump followers going door-to-door and demanding everyone’s loyalty; and I believe it will happen, to one extent or another. The willingness - ‘eagerness’ may be a more appropriate word -  of #Cult45 to abuse, even kill, fellow Americans is only growing in its severity. When that day of reckoning is upon us, will we display even half the tenacity and character of the Ukrainian people in their fight against the Russian barbarians? Fact is, Ukrainians were prepared for at least eight years, or longer, to do battle. Most Americans are not going to fare well when the blood starts flowing in earnest here, probably myself included (my area of the country is not quite as likely to see mass violence, but that is also not an absolute given.) The time to stop this madness was about 25 years ago: We went down too many slippery slopes, and I really do not believe there is any coming back for America. For Ukraine, I have far greater faith. #StopPutin #StandUpForUkraine {NY Post 3/25}

Putin to call up another 147,000 conscripts between April 1 and July 15 - Welcome to Russia, where young men are nothing more than cannon fodder for a madman’s desperate and unlawful crusade to bring Ukraine to its knees. {Meduza 3/30}



Putin to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, cites the U.S. having said weapons in several European countries as justification - Playing a very dangerous game, allowing a tinpot dictator such as Lukashenko access to nukes. {AP 3/25}

‘Morality shouldn’t get in the way’ - Russian state media’s propagandists are outright genocidal and psychopathic in their rhetoric, but also increasingly nervous and full of despair, as Putin’s forces continue to flounder in Ukraine. {Julia Davis 3/13}




The nerve of this man - ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September and a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.’ {AP 3/19}

Xi gets a warm welcome in Moscow - Delivers a twelve-step ‘peace plan’ that would call for a ceasefire, but would not include removing Russian troops from Ukraine’s territory. {BBC 3/20}

‘“Navalny,” a look at a Russian opposition leader following an attempt on his life, has won the Oscar for best documentary feature’ - Don’t care about the Oscars, but grateful they’re bringing attention to Alexei Navalny’s plight. Apparently, he is in really rough shape. Putin is a monster. {AP 3/13}


Deal brokered by China - ‘Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.’ {Reuters 3/10}






Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call

NATIONAL NEWS

TRUMP BECOMES FIRST FORMER PRESIDENT TO BE CHARGED WITH A CRIME -  #JustSaying: As thrilled as I am that the orange bastard will finally have to face justice, #Cult45 is about to explode, and the streets of this country will be flowing with blood tonight and in the days to come. Do NOT take the threat lightly, and do NOT underestimate how angry they are at fellow Americans for not standing beside them (among other reasons.) They honestly believe the rest of us are obligated to see the world as they do, and to live our lives as *they* see fit. Anybody who supported Trump from the get-go - remember, there has never been a more obvious conman - did so to spite the rest of us. These Trump supporters made a subconscious decision to no longer be rational actors, and it was 100% to spite society-at-large. It is a cult! Probably best stay away from the Trump supporters in your lives for a while. Even if they are not violent people, or otherwise good people apart from politics, they are going to be unpleasant to be around. The only thing I have to say to any Trump supporter, the #MAGA crowd, right now is this: ‘Cope harder, snowflakes.’ And mind your manners, respect the rule of law, take off the tin-foil hats, and respect your fellow Americans. {AP 3/30}

Trump prepares to turn himself into prosecutors in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday (April 4), while the NYPD prepares for #Cult45 big babies to throw a giant hissy-fit - Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson is quoted in the article as saying that it is ‘probably not the best time to give up your AR-15.’ Nobody tells me these people are not inciting violence; nobody tells me they are not Fascists. The evidence is overwhelming, staring us all right in the face. President Biden, the DOJ, the FBI, and all relevant authorities need to take drastic action and start cracking some heads; otherwise, it will be the rest of us getting our heads cracked. George Orwell never wrote truer words than these: ‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’ When Trump and the entire cabal around him tells the American people, ‘they’re coming for you,’ they are just projecting their own intentions onto their political enemies. Full stop. {NYT 3/31}

LOVING THIS LITTLE #MAGA FANTASY I AM SEEING ALL OVER TWITTER: That the rest of us are suddenly going to put aside years of disgust with Trump to rally to his side now. Hence all these predictions that indictment is actually going to help Trump in the 2024 election. Delusion, or a form of intimidation? Their brains are so far gone that they honestly believe they are doing God’s will, and anyone who stands in the way is Satanic. It is sick, and probably for naught anyway, as I do not believe it is likely we will have an election next year. #Cult45 is going to force President Biden’s hand to declare martial law if they do not get ahold of their senses soon. Meanwhile, the other side (or ‘our side,’ such as it is) is being absolutely too cavalier concerning the threat posed to them by their fellow Americans in #Cult45. We are not prepared for what is coming. These freaks *really* want all of us to either die, or join them; just look at their rants and read between the lines. Eager to make it happen. #MAGA is a hate movement against modern American society. I will take death before I ever submit to the true Satanists among us. ‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil,’ as it is written in Isaiah 5:20. What I really would wish to see happen is for all of these people to find their humanity and sense again, and to admit they all made a grievous error in judgment. But that is not going to happen. 

Marco Bello/Reuters

(posted March 18) Trump says he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in connection with the Manhattan case, calls for #Cult45 to ‘PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’ (re: violence) - FTA: ‘Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted.’ Every law enforcement agency in every state, city, and town in this country better start preparing. Frankly, I am terrified, and I am not the only one who has been saying - for many years now - that all of this is going to end tragically. J6 was but a foretaste of the chaos to come, and it will only take but a fraction of #Cult45 to unleash carnage the likes of which we have never seen here. Do not underestimate their hatred for the rest of this country, nor their devotion to the one who gave them permission to openly hate again. Remember these people are armed to the teeth. Know that at least some law enforcement and military are going to betray their oaths in service to their favorite former president. Know that if and when they succeed in intimidating the rest of the general public and completely taking over the government, it will be open season on any American who did not board the ‘Trump Train,’ especially minorities, LGBTQ, etc. In the end, nobody is safe. Study what happened to the German people in Hitler’s wake. Not a single German citizen was left unscathed when it was all said and done. Damn you to Hell, Donald Trump, for what you have done to this country and its people. {AP 3/18}


Trump says there will be ‘death and destruction’ if/when he is charged in the Manhattan case - Not a prediction on his part, and not mere hyperbole, but an order to his lemmings. Going back to 2016, I’ve been saying this is all going to end in horror. How I wish I had been wrong. {WP 3/24}




‘Pivot to being deferential' - Former Tucker Carlson producer confirms that Fox News is terrified of its #Cult45 viewership, therefore will not report accurately on conspiracy theories or anything unflattering to their orange master. {Mediate 3/13}

Trump-aligned super PAC files a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics, alleging that Ron DeSantis is illegally running a ‘shadow presidential campaign’ - While everyone knows Trump and the word ‘ethics’ do not belong in the same sentence, this particular activist group probably has a valid point. Stand out of the way, and allow these vultures to devour each other. {CNBC 3/15}

Ron DeSantis talks out of both sides of his mouth on a potential indictment of Trump, but ultimately declares he will not interfere - Far be it for me to defend DeSantis, but #Cult45 is enraged at the Florida governor today: What the hell do they expect him to do? Call out the National Guard to fight federal law enforcement? Nutbags. {CNN 3/20}

DeSantis says defending Ukraine is not a vital interest of the United States - Electing this clown president would not be in our national interest. Preventing nuclear armageddon and crippling an avowed enemy of this country are the single-most pertinent national security issues we have. Unfit to lead. {Reuters 3/13}




Still their lord and master - Trump delights the crowd at CPAC; former Brazilian president Bolsonaro and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake show up to complain about their elections being ‘stolen.’ {Reuters 3/04}

Leading Republicans in denial over Trump’s chances in 2024 - Seventy-two percent of GOP voters without a college degree, according to an Emerson poll, are still standing behind Trump. The true number is probably higher. Pathetic to see the GOP establishment making the same mistake in reasoning they made in 2016: The rubes of America are loyal to Donald Trump, and he and they have this spineless party by the throat. {Axios 3/14}

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Why we’re still stuck in Trump’s world - ‘The Republican Party’s swing voters are in a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil mood.’ {WP 3/26}




Tennessee’s lieutenant governor ‘pauses’ social media after repeatedly lusting over a young gay model on Twitter - Says he sees ‘no contradiction’ between his support for the GOP’s social agenda, and his homosexuality and interest in pornography. {AP 3/13}

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) calls public libraries ‘liberal grooming centers’ and calls for them to be replaced with ‘church-owned alternatives’ - Any semblance of sanity these people once had has been obliterated. The future is bleak. {MSNBC 3/24}

Can’t make up this level of stupid - ‘A Florida charter school principal has been ousted after multiple parents complained that their sixth graders were made to view pornography—because they looked at Michelangelo’s iconic statue of David.’ {Reuters 3/23}

Mile-long lines at food banks in Appalachia as COVID-era SNAP benefits come to an end - Foreshadowing ‘a summer of misery as food prices continue to soar due to inflation.’ {WP 3/04}





Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and January 6 rioter is sentenced to two years in federal prison - Judge refuses to grant leniency due to the defendant’s incendiary rhetoric on social media. {WP 3/17}





AP

Just another day in #Murica, where the natives are at once horrified and yet loath to do anything to fix the problem - ‘A female shooter wielding two “assault-style” rifles and a pistol killed three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.’ {AP 3/27}


Elon Musk announces another change to Twitter, only those with the blue check will have posts recommended to other users after April 15 - So transparent in his intentions to ensure Twitter is exclusively a right-wing echo chamber. Eventually, he is going to say ‘pay up’ just for the privilege of posting or even having an account. Actually, I would have been for such a thing, that is if Twitter was a trustworthy company run by trustworthy, non-partisan individuals. Elon is not trustworthy, and therefore only his fans - more or less, #Cult45 - will be willing to pay. If you are not a public figure and you have a blue tick beside your name now, then you are a dupe. {BBC 3/28}

Jason Beaubien/NPR

COVID-19 & OTHER HEALTH NEWS

One single animal may have begat the COVID-19 pandemic - People are still going to cling to their stupid created-in-a-lab theories, but it was reported by multiple sources right from the very beginning that this zoonotic plague likely originated at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China. Additional evidence of this has emerged. {NYT 3/16}

Former Surgeon General under Trump says he struggled to find work after leaving office - Jerome Adams made a total fool of himself at the height of the pandemic, and he knows it. #ETTD {Political Tribune 3/17}

East Palestine, OH - ‘Mobile health clinics and camera crews have begun to pack up and leave this town of 4,700, but … frightening questions remain: How could they know if they had been poisoned by the spill? Were toxins still lingering in the air, the water and the soil surrounding their houses? Would they develop lifelong health problems?’ {NYT 3/18}







‘Is a paternalistic approach always right?’ Brookline, MA, has a law banning anyone born in the year 2000 and afterward from ever purchasing cigarettes in the town - The Nanny State strikes again. To the Town of Brookline, snootbag, overrated town you are: We have much bigger problems to worry about than if kids or anyone else are smoking cigarettes. I began smoking when I was around 13 (full-time around 16 or 17), and I turned out okay. Actually, no, I did not, but that did not have much or anything at all to do with cigarettes. Still enjoy them now in my mid-40s, and I am grateful I came of age when I did: In a time when kids and teens were not expected by society to be perfect little angels all the damn time, and we were given - to one degree or another - liberty to have some freedom and to make mistakes without the constant presence of ‘helicopter’ parents and other busybody adults regulating every last thing we do. That was before 9/11, before everything went just bonkers. Think I will go have myself a smoke now. {The Guardian 3/31}

CLIMATE CHANGE

Prayers for all affected by the deadly tornadoes across the South, particularly in Mississippi - The damage is horrific, and apparently more tornadoes are possible on Sunday in certain regions. Hoping none of my social media contacts down that way - and there are a few - were in harm’s way. {AP 3/25}

The Interior Department approves Alaskan oil project, known as Willow, upsetting environmental activists - Until alternative forms of energy become more practical, affordable and widely available, people are going to have to accept that we still need fossil fuels to live. {WP 3/13

Claude Paris/AP

MISC.

Extremely saddened to learn of Wayne Shorter’s passing - Some of my favorite songs ever written were performed by this man and the many amazing musicians he worked with: ‘Young and Fine,’ ‘Miracle of the Fishes,’ ‘Spanish Key,’ ‘Deluge,’ ‘Birdland,’ and that’s not even scratching the surface. A great musician and an even greater man. Rest in Peace, Wayne Shorter. {NPR 3/02}


RIP, Gary Rossington - Nobody was ever more devoted to this band. Is there a Lynyrd Skynyrd without him? No, I don’t think so, time to finally put it to rest. But between 1973 and 1977, there never was a finer and more fiery Southern rock band. {SPIN 3/05}

Evening Standard/Getty Images

Happy 50th to Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, released on March 28, 1973. A stone-cold classic, not a single bad moment on it. It has always been impossible for me to rank Zeppelin's records, because they are nearly all of such high and consistent quality. Some people may get sick of hearing 'D'yer Maker' on the radio all the time (not yours truly, but I've seen that sentiment expressed many times over the years), 'The Crunge' is a bit of an oddity, and the cover art wouldn't pass muster today. But any recording containing as poignant and moving a ballad as 'The Rain Song,' or as haunting and ethereal a track as 'No Quarter,' and an all-time groovy 'banger' (as the kids say today) as 'Dancing Days' deserves its status as being among the greatest musical albums of both its time, and of all-time.

Pink Floyd

Fifty years of Dark Side of the Moon, and why it still resonates so strongly in spite of being ‘very much a product of its era’ - FTA: ‘The early 1970s were prog-rock’s heyday, particularly in Britain, where bands like Genesis, King Crimson and Yes were constructing suite-length songs and unveiling elaborate conceits. But the early 1970s were also a time when the utopian promises of the hippie era were fading, pushed back by entrenched interests and corporate co-optation. “Dark Side” captures naïve hopes falling away.

‘It was Pink Floyd’s eighth album, the continuation of a cult career that had been synonymous with psychedelia and progressive rock: with extended structures and open-ended jams, with verbal conundrums and with an oh-wow appreciation of reverberant textures and spatial effects.’ {NYT 3/03}

Vid.me

The infamous ‘Turner Doomsday’ video - Upon the founding of CNN in 1980, founder Ted Turner had a ‘sign-off’ video produced to be aired only in the event of the world ending. Setting up a military brass band outside of his Atlanta mansion, they produced this haunting rendition of ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’ Long believed to be a hoax, its existence was proven when it was leaked to the public in 2015.


Shohei Ohtani and Japan win the World Baseball Classic, defeating the United States in the championship game - An event for the ages, truly excellent. Meaningful baseball in March is a good thing. {ESPN 3/22} 

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera. Facebook - @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera; Now also on Post and Mastodon. DONATIONS - click here.
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