Stop the Idiocracy: July 2023

Monday, July 24, 2023

Junior GOP presidential hopefuls make noise about slashing Social Security and Medicare

AI generated image

As I have grown older and further away from the absurd right-wing populism and conspiracism of my younger years, I see more clearly that one need not be a Communist or a Marxist - or even think of oneself as any variant of a ‘socialist,’ which I never have and still do not - to understand that rich and civilized nations should have basic safety nets in place to prevent its citizens from going into poverty. European nations typically take far better care of their seniors and vulnerable, and their living standards (by and large) only continue to rise or stay at a high level, while America’s living standards have been plummeting in recent decades. In this country, we have only the most basic of social safety nets for citizens, and even that is far too much for many Republicans and their enablers. Earlier this year, during the contentious debt ceiling negotiations, more than a few House Republicans and especially those in the ‘freedom caucus’ were growing quite bold in their proposals to suffocate and drain Social Security and Medicare. Three of Donald Trump’s 2024 GOP rivals - namely, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley - are again testing the waters in hopes of bringing public opinion around to incrementally ending these vital programs.

Younger Americans are already having an extremely harder time, all across the board, in getting ahead in life than previous generations, and they are going to have nothing to fall back upon when they reach their senior years. And I hate to say it, but I sense that many in the ‘Boomer’ generation (so long as they are still getting theirs), along with some of the more callous among my generation (Gen X) and even among the ‘millennial’ generation (who will suffer themselves) are quite okay with all that. That callousness is what the likes of Pence and DeSantis are counting on. And Donald Trump as well, even if he at least has enough sense to know it is still bad for business to hint at anything that would threaten senior citizens and the vulnerable. {WP 7/22: Trump's GOP rivals open door to cutting Social Security for younger people}

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Lowlife pseudo-country music star stirs controversy with video shoot at an infamous Tennessee courthouse

Beginning seven years ago, with the emergence of Donald Trump as the ultimate populist demagogue, this former right-winger was left with no recourse but to finally stop giving all these people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to most anything. In particular, in matters of race, religion, and morality. The assclown musician Jason Aldean and his people chose a particular courthouse with a sordid history for his video shoot as a dog whistle to his neo-Confederate fans and white nationalist populists everywhere. Let us be real, those types are by far the largest consumers of this kind of trash modern ‘country’ music, and Jason Aldean certainly knows this clearly and capitalizes. Trump has taught his little grifters quite well in the game, but how difficult can it be when there are millions and millions of Americans so gleefully willing to be gaslit and swindled by con-men who say or imply the sort of things they want to hear. Especially any rhetoric stating or implying that blacks must be kept in line. Do read this article from the Washington Post and the harrowing account of what happened at the Maury County Courthouse in November of 1927. {WP 7/19}

Friday, July 7, 2023

Elon Musk: The epitome of our self-destructive and malevolent age

AI generated image

It still boggles my mind that the ‘richest man in the world’ is such an unholy idiot. Either that, or he is a sadist. I am offended that he has ruined what was the single most effective communications platform we had. Post-Trump and post-COVID, it really should no longer surprise myself or anyone else the lengths some will go to in order to hurt and control others. Elon Musk literally spent $44 billion - many times what Twitter was worth at the time of the transaction - in order to declare himself King of the Trolls, to play mind games with people, and quite possibly to deliberately destroy the platform altogether (if it was deliberate, he is succeeding in grand fashion.) Millions in #Cult45 routinely vote against their own economic interests because their hatred of fellow Americans and foreigners is all consuming. None of it makes any logical sense, but logic and common sense no longer live here and ours is not an age of reason. No, we really should not be surprised that the likes of Musk and Trump will hurt themselves, and their acolytes will hurt themselves, in order to hurt the rest of us worse. Never, however, can people of goodwill allow all of this insanity and degradation around us to be normalized. We must continue speaking out against it, for however long as necessary - which is going to be the rest of our lives, I am afraid. (Follow my new account on Threads, @arthurnewhook.)

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Hell on Earth: The hottest day in world history, and it is only going to get hotter

AI generated image

So far as is known and for as long as records have been kept, the earth has never had a hotter average temperature than it did on July 4. For the longest time, like the good little right-wing ignoramus I once was in the pre-Trump days, I rejected any notions that the earth’s climate was changing or that man was at fault. The evidence eventually became too much to ignore or downplay any longer, and now it appears as though the most severe and damaging effects of climate change are beginning to ravish the earth years ahead of some of even the most dire forecasts and projections. It is clear now, we are seriously f**ked and the time to save ourselves has passed. {AP 7/04}

Monday, July 3, 2023

Are we seriously going to allow our history to be rewritten, real-time information to be suppressed, and the voices of reasons to be silenced? (Spoiler alert: Yes)

AI generated image

A legitimate crisis of nightmarish, dystopian proportions unfolding right now: The 2020s will be remembered - that is, if they are remembered with any degree of accuracy, or if the earth is still standing - as an era of extreme crisis. And the biggest crisis of all is the ‘crisis of trust,’ where everything is becoming a facade and nobody will be allowed to think for themselves anymore. Not that most Americans have bothered to think for a long time now, but we are now moving into something that is beyond Orwellian - or beyond anything Huxley could have envisioned - and it is already too late for any hope of stopping it. All hands are dirty, and I genuinely believe myself cursed to be living in these times. An excerpt from a must-read Ted Gioia piece: ‘Folks have been dumping their crap into our information flows for a long, long time. Big corporations and institutions are the worst offenders—they actually get rich by polluting our data streams. But individuals are adding to the raw sewage too.’ {Ted Gioia - Thirty signs you are living in an information crap-pocalypse 6/30}