A GREAT MOMENT FOR HUMAN DIGNITY, PERSONAL AUTONOMY, AND SELF-DETERMINATION: THE UK HOUSE OF COMMONS HAS VOTED TO ADVANCE A BILL TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS THAT WOULD LEGALISE ASSISTED DYING FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL IN GREAT BRITAIN

Wikimedia Commons

{BBC News 20 June} Bodily autonomy should be a fundamental human right - the absolute ownership of one's own physical and mental being. Yet America's regressive majority, fuelled by religious and political extremism, consistently denies this basic freedom.

The Terri Schiavo case exemplified this cruelty two decades ago: Republican politicians and Christian fundamentalists fought to keep a vegetative woman 'alive', perversely branding it compassion. Forcing the terminally ill to suffer under the guise of 'sanctity of life' is among the most inhumane acts imaginable.

Today, I commend those UK MPs taking this courageous step toward reducing preventable suffering - a small but vital victory for human dignity.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-TWITTER, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/StopTheIdiocracy/new/. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

OBAMA DECLARES THE FORMER UNITED STATES IS ‘DANGEROUSLY CLOSE’ TO AUTOCRACY — NO, WE’RE ALREADY THERE

National Portrait Gallery

{The Hill 18 June} Obama: US ‘dangerously close’ to moving toward autocracy

And what is Obama’s legacy, anyway? Pushing moderates toward Trump, turning conservatives into nationalist populists, and costing the Democratic Party countless congressional and state legislative seats nationwide — thereby helping spawn today’s extremist movements — that is  his legacy. More recently, his grievous betrayal of President Biden, in backing the most hopelessly inept candidate imaginable — someone who, by circumstances of her birth, could not have won in America even had she been competent, and had not placed personal ambition above her boss and her country — confirms it: Barack Obama is a power-hungry autocrat with messianic fantasies, fortunate only that Trump has set the bar so low he appears downright humble by comparison.

Had someone told me in 2008 that the idol worship surrounding Obama — which repulsed me to a virulent degree at that time — would one day seem positively mild, I would have either laughed or shuddered. Furthermore, that it would be the Republican Party — the party of John McCain — enabling the next, even more insidious demagogue? Unthinkable. And yet here we are.

The country is now a lost cause, but still I pray we never face a tyrant who makes Donald Trump look modest by contrast. It seems almost impossible to imagine — but never doubt, things can always get worse. They usually do.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-TWITTER, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/StopTheIdiocracy/new/. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

In Dallas, the Southern Baptist Convention demands theocratic policies: abortion = murder charges, banning porn and same-sex marriage, opposing 'wilful childlessness', and restricting sports betting

IMB Photo

{AP 9 June} Southern Baptists target porn, sports betting, same-sex marriage and ‘willful childlessness’

Many Americans argue that our (secular) government has grown too big and tyrannical over the decades powerful — and there’s merit in that critique. But imagine the scale of a theocratic state required to impose these edicts on hundreds of millions who simply wish to be left alone. We are not talking about a hypothetical; it is already slowly unfolding in our ‘red’ states.

I yearn for an era when churches largely steered clear of electoral politics. Yet this Christofascist movement won’t peak without a bloody fight. Civil war. The road back to sanity will be long, and darker before the dawn. —Arthur Newhook, 11 June 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-TWITTER, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/StopTheIdiocracy/new/. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

The US State Department plans to close its foreign disinformation office—another gift to Putin, another act of treason disguised as the defence of ‘free speech’

Jeremy Pelzer/Cleveland dot com

{The Guardian 16 April} Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

They can scarcely claim this decision serves national security interests, nor can they provide any remotely rational justification for such reckless action, but they do very successfully peddle grievances. Yet again, as we witness literally every single day in this hellscape, rank-and-file 'conservatives' will support whatever this regime does, no matter how fundamentally it contradicts the national security principles they once valued during the years of the War on Terror, as long as it continues to nourish their endlessly pathetic persecution complex.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

US Supreme Court appears keen to restrict online porn. Foolish theocratic crusaders dominate, and civilisation's future is grim

{Vox 15 January} The Supreme Court seems eager to curb First Amendment protections for porn

To one degree or another, the individual jurists on the theocratic US Supreme Court appear keen to restrict adults’ access to online pornography—a right mess brought about by tiresome moral busybodies on the left pushing their social agenda rather too vigorously, which has rather predictably catalysed a reactionary movement culminating in millions embracing the sort of far right, antisemitic rot that those of my age rather naively thought had been permanently vanquished with the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Now, the moral crusaders of the right—who vastly outnumber their ‘progressive’ counterparts, are dreadfully well-embedded in the local/state governments and among military and law enforcement, and whose capacity for armed force is demonstrably superior—are pursuing an absolutist agenda. All vestiges of measured discourse and temperance appear irretrievably forfeit for at least the next quarter-century. The mechanism by which future generations might recover these essential qualities—to put this particular Humpty Dumpty back together again— is a total mystery to me. My gut says future generations will dwell in caves like savages, having quite forgotten how to work a can opener, let alone possessing the knowledge and wherewithall to rebuild anything resembling civilisation. - Arthur Newhook, 15 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Sound the alarm: Trump is escalating warnings that all dissent against him will be criminalised in his second presidency

'Totally illegal': Trump escalates rhetoric on outlawing political dissent and criticism. {NBC News 13 October}

I’ve long said that the top priority of Donald Trump and his millions of cult-like followers is to dominate the culture and force their fellow citizens to conform to their will. Criticising him is already dangerous to one’s health in certain areas of this country, or in certain circles, and shall soon outright become illegal everywhere. Pay attention to the way his devout supporters speak: they genuinely want all Americans on their side and react with venomous rage to even the slightest criticism. They see any attack on him as a personal attack on themselves, and like him, they are highly sensitive and willfully ignorant. The United States now revolves around one man, Donald J. Trump, and those of us who refuse to bend the knee to him are in serious trouble. Better pay attention, because he is telling us what he is going to do: millions will be repressed, and millions more are perfectly fine with that. Dark days lie ahead.

Recent headlines:

Q-Anon guru and convicted felon Michael Flynn, when questioned, does not deny that he wants Trump’s political enemies to be executed - Quote: ‘Believe me, the gates of hell, my hell will be unleashed.’ {Raw Story 12 October}

‘(C)ompletely comfortable channeling his inner eugenicist.’ Mary Trump: Donald went full-on fascist. {Substack 12 October}

Gen. Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, says Trump is ‘fascist to the core’, the gravest danger to the US in its history. {The Independent 11 October}

‘If given a second term, (Trump is) preparing to go much further, reimagining the military as an all-powerful tool to deploy on U.S. soil.’ {AP 13 October}

‘People are just so far gone, it’s honestly making me lose all faith in humanity.’ US meteorologists receiving death threats for doing their jobs - Another quote: ‘Ignorance is becoming socially acceptable. Forty or 50 years ago, if I told you I thought the moon was pretend, people would have laughed at me. Now, people are bonding over these incredibly fringe viewpoints.’ This f**king country, I swear. {Rolling Stone 9 October}

‘What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis.’ {Charlie Warzel 10 October}

Poll shows one-fifth of young Americans, and one-tenth of Americans overall, believe Adolf Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy, after all - Take with a grain of a salt, the real numbers are undoubtedly a bit higher {Daily Mail 12 October}

Amsterdam, NY: A giant sign reading ‘vote for Trump’, visible from the Thruway and posing a hazard to drivers, has been given the ‘OK’ to be illuminated - Take NYC and its metro area out of the equation, and most of what remains of New York is a red state. {NY Upstate 8 October}

Trump falsely claims he has visited the Gaza Strip, ‘and it’s rough.’ {CNN 8 October}

England: North London golf club vandalised with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti. {Jerusalem Post 12 October}

Severe COVID-19 cases from the first pandemic wave may face double the risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study finds. {ABC News 11 October}

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

If we are destined to live under a dictatorship, then pick one’s poison wisely: for the sake of our survival, President Biden must now go scorched earth on Trump and friends, the MSM, and all who enable and support these treasonous entities

The Biden campaign needs to go scorched earth, emphasising that a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for the genocide of the Ukrainian people.  A vote for Trump is a vote to destroy Social Security and Medicare, and impoverish and kill millions of seniors and disabled people.

Furthermore, it is crucial to remind the public - on a daily basis - what an inept buffoon Trump was during his four rotten years in the White House, most especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. No president in American history - save for James Buchanan - mismanaged a major crisis worse than Trump did with COVID-19, and this nation of shallow idiots with short attention spans needs a harsh reminder.

Finally, it is time for the administration to put the fear of God into our mainstream, corporate ‘news’ outlets. As in forcefully shut them down and charge various individuals in these outlets with sedition and treason. Start with CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times.

The Supreme Court has just ruled presidents are above the law, civil war has been all but officially declared, so no more playing around. If our destiny is to live under a dictatorship, then I will take my chances with Mr. Biden as the dictator and not Trump and his band of theocratic, Putin-loving bozos.

The complete list of Trump’s lies during Thursday night’s debate. {Meidas News 28/6}

Univision finds that undecided Latino voters moved towards Biden following his supposedly disastrous debate performance. {Newsweek 28/6}

A legal scholar doth sound a dire alarm of the 'terrifying and dystopian' consequences of the Supreme Court's ruling granting leave to municipalities to fine and imprison homeless people for seeking refuge in public spaces. {The Guardian 29/6}

Self-proclaimed 'political prisoner' Steve Bannon reports to prison at FCI Danbury. {AP 01/7}

Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson says giving women the right to vote ‘undermined the family’. {Little Green Footballs 24/6}

U.S. Congress to take up legislation that could potentially force young women into combat. {WHDH 24/6}

#Cult45 pressure group plans to release a blacklist of government employees deemed hostile to Trump. {AP 24/6} 

Burying their heads in the sand: #Murica reaches new heights of denial in this ‘dumpster fire of a historical moment’. {Scientific American 18/6}

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Senate GOP blocks bill to protect access to contraception, claiming it is 'unnecessary'

Photo: Elon Musk

Though not mentioned in the AP article, extreme natalism is increasingly becoming mainstream in Republican/#Cult45 circles, and any Republican who saith they voted against this bill because it is ‘unnecessary’ is gaslighting the public. These extremists, such as the pictured Elon Musk, along with their natural inclination to control women and their bodies, are trying to convince the general public that there are not enough babes to sustain humanity. There are eight billion souls in the world, more than twice the population at the time of mine birth in 1978, and roughly half of them are starving and living in extreme poverty. Frankly, bringing a life into this world today is an act of sadism, but I digress.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Thin-skinned Donald Trump receives boos, yet also cheers, whilst speaking at the ‘libertarian’ convention

Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP

Reuters - Trump booed and heckled by raucous crowd at Libertarian convention

Something a little odd about a wanna-be dictator who peddles fascism and Christian nationalism addressing a group that calleth itself ‘libertarian’, yet I have long believed the Libertarian Party to be a collection of crackpots and rank hypocrites. COVID made this crystal clear: they did not wish to be forced to wear a mask or take a vaccine, but had zero concern for the rights and liberties of innocent people around them, unwittingly exposed to deadly germs. This lot truly believes it is their right to make others sick. Others may stay home if they do not like it; I saw this attitude explicitly expressed repeatedly during the pandemic. ‘Liberty and freedom for me, but not for thee’.

These ‘libertarians’ would be wise to remember that Trump, the GOP, and #Cult45 do demand he be treated as infallible. Should he regain the presidency, none shall be allowed to boo or criticise the orange god-king, and every aspect of our lives shall be micromanaged by far-right busybodies and tyrants. Is the Libertarian Party actually ‘libertarian,’ or are they but a gaggle of quasi-fascists who just happen to favour smoking weed and despise paying taxes? A rude awakening eventually awaits all these malcontents with their heads up their arses. #Biden2024

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

DOJ recommends downgrading marijuana from Schedule I to III, does not endorse federal legalisation

A poster advertising ‘Reefer Madness’, 1936. Public domain.

Full legalisation nationwide, and the neutering of moral busybodies who routinely treat adults as mere children, are the only acceptable outcomes. Our lives should not be subject to the whims of those yearning for 1950s America; nor should there be a crime if there are not any victims. {AP 5/16}

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

If extraordinary measures must be taken to prevent national suicide, then so be it: The Biden campaign needs to launch an an all-out, all encompassing PR assault on the bloody imbeciles of #Murica, putting the fear of God into them against restoring Trump

President Joe Biden. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

President Biden and his people urgently need to initiate a comprehensive public relations campaign, aiming to instill a sense of urgency and gravity over the repercussions of voting for Donald Trump, or most any GOP candidate on the ballot, this fall. Alas, I see scant evidence of this happening to a necessary-enough degree, and the MSM is not helping matters with its constant doom and gloom coverage of this White House.

The widespread and increasing animosity towards Israel and the Jewish people has stirred a significant portion of the left to oppose the president. Moreover, a considerable portion of the remaining population are misinformed, oft harbouring malice and attaching themselves to #Cult45. Additionally, the Department of Justice hath lamentably failed in its duty to dispense justice: Trump should have been incarcerated, at the very least, three years hence, following J6. The man incited a most egregious insurrection, and the indifference displayed is alarming, mayhap even from President Biden himself. Adhering strictly to conventional norms and taking the high road hath not yielded positive results for Mr. Biden, nor for those of us who have been steadfast in supporting him.

Donald Trump's presidency from 2017 to 2021 was a calamity on most fronts - even if he had performed perfectly otherwise, the grossly incompetent mishandling of the COVID pandemic would be a sole factor to forever disqualify him from any leadership henceforth (I would not entrust the man to oversee a Target or Walmart location). With 91 felony charges pending against him and his dubious association with America's worst adversary, Vladimir Putin, Trump's legal woes incessantly dominate the news. Despite all this, too many Americans are apathetic, allowing him to remain a credible contender for re-election. 

Is this the image we desire to present to the world? Do we find contentment in being viewed as a jest amongst nations? We are going on, approximately, our third decade of being the most despised country on earth; remember, the world hated George W. Bush, and Mr. Bush is most decidedly a very benign figure in comparison to the useless golden boy that immediately followed him in office, and, verily, in comparison to Donald Trump.

I would advise President Biden that the extreme factions on both the right and left of America already harbour disdain for him and will support Trump or enable his return, regardless. Instead, I suggest Mr. Biden should give these various folks something to really hate him over. If the political centre is to hold, Mr. Biden must reach out to those who are still reachable but are not actively engaged and all too susceptible to outdated 'it's the economy, stupid' rhetoric; along with those millions who abstain from voting or paying any attention altogether. It is imperative to continually remind Americans how awfully Donald Trump performed as president during those four years. Because, at the moment, it appears a whole lot of them may be suffering from amnesia and chronic fatigue. 

Our national security, Social Security, individual liberties, and even our very lives are at stake, yet we appear paralyzed and disoriented. If President Biden must take unconventional measures to prevent national suicide, I will support him wholeheartedly. He may never be Mr. Popularity, and that is more than acceptable to him so long as he serves honourably and begins the process of cleaning up all the filth polluting this land.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

National suicide: Fascism is staring us right in the face, and much of #Murica is oblivious while many more embrace it

America is on a path of gradual national suicide, and within a year, it will meet its final demise unless significant changes occur urgently. The looming threat of a one-party, Fascist, and theocratic dictatorship with echoes of Auschwitz's horrors is imminent. It can happen here, and most Republican officials and lay people are outright begging for oppressive rule. The desire for fascism in these United States is beyond palpable, revealing mean-spiritedness and willful ignorance on a scale I have never known in my 46 years on this rotten earth. 

Despite the fact that we have a sane and capable president, somehow he is hated and resented. The widespread lack of respect for the president from seemingly all sides is appalling, and I have reached a point where I genuinely want to see President Biden assert himself forcefully and instill the fear of God into all those who would have their fellow Americans live in constant fear - the ones deemed bad Americans by #Cult45, so roughly at least half of the overall population of men, women, and children (yes, they will happily kill children, their ‘pro-life’ bonafides notwithstanding.) Give the Fascists a small taste of their own medicine, for we have no other choice if we are going to survive. We are in a cold civil war, soon to turn hot if #Cult45 is not brought down within the next ten to twelve months. This is war.

Americans today appear to actually crave chaos, tyranny, economic turmoil, betrayal of allies, and overall degradation. So long as they are endlessly entertained and the people they do not like are being punished, a majority will lovingly embrace authoritarianism on an epic scale. My faith in fellow Americans perished in 2016, and eight years later, it is abundantly clear that we, as a nation, have embraced pure evil. Americans can no longer be trusted on the world stage, at least not for a long time to come and likely never. By all means, though, keep allowing #Cult45 to trigger us and to set the terms of engagement every single time out. Keep on attending every single fight one is invited to by the trolls and goons. The United States of Entertainment is almost certainly f**ked, but hey, isn't that Taylor Swift great? Our priorities are so out of whack and people better start to take seriously the dire threat staring us in the face, and to realise that the enemy is us. #SeriouslyAnnoyed #Biden2024OrDeath

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

Colorado court rules on Trump ballot access: A privilege a s**tbag such as he *never* should have had to begin with

Luke Gronneberg/Sidney Daily News

Concerning the Colorado ruling: An individual of dubious character such as Donald Trump should never have been legally sanctioned to vie for the presidency in 2016, nor yet in the year 2024, given all that hath transpired. Henceforth, stricter qualifications should be imposed on a federal level to attain the privilege of the ballot. These qualifications may encompass examinations of mental competence, civic knowledge, moral rectitude, a minimum amount of government experience, background checks conducted by multiple law enforcement and national security agencies, and mayhap even the mandate of prior military service, at least for male aspirants. I have also firmly concluded that some of these same prerequisites should be met to qualify for the right to cast a vote: We are compelled to renew our driver's licenses every few years. Wherefore not introduce a voting license resting upon, at the very least, passing a rudimentary civics exam? Those who support this nation-killing jackal bear responsibility for the consequences. The year 2016 revealed the truth, and the COVID pandemic confirmed it – people at this historical moment are truly this horrible and stupid; the trend has worsened exponentially since then with no signs of improvement in the foreseeable future. Get me off this sinking ship.

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

Sleepwalking into tyranny: Trump blatantly refuses to rule out abusing power if returned to the White House. Do Americans care?

Charlie Neibergall/AP

{AP 12/06: ‘Trump declines to rule out abusing power to seek retribution if he returns to the White House.’}

President Biden’s campaign manager: ‘Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s reelected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him.’ Amen, but the real question remains: doth Americans still hold regard for the rights and freedoms of any other than themselves? Care they not if they themselves are stifled and oppressed, as long as the bread and circuses keep coming? The peril is indeed palpable and dire, yet I perceive that pleas for democracy and the rule of law fall upon deaf ears with the common American. From the four troublesome years wherein Trump was sitting president, and from the scourge of COVID, and from the memories of 9/11, and from the multitude of school shootings suffered over recent decades, and from the insurrection of January 6, people hath learned nothing!. 

Madness hath been normalized, honour and integrity are scoffed at, and the populace hath grown insensate. Meanwhile, every other post upon my timeline is venerating a pop music star, most renowned for composing ditties about her foolish ex-paramours, as if she were a deity. When will people start getting serious? We find ourselves in a murky abyss, strolling unconsciously - even knowingly and gleefully in all too many cases - towards despotism. Should President Biden not be reelected in 2024, then turn off the bloody lights, for it shall be curtains for us. Heed the president’s warnings, heed Liz Cheney’s warnings, heed the admonitions of all who still dare to trumpet the alarm. 

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

Grand Prix auto racing on the streets of cities: How and by what right is such an event permitted?

A Grand Prix race in the nighttime streets of Las Vegas, with a scarlet race car hurtling past a grand, multicolored, and illuminated globe-shaped edifice. Upon the structure, the words 'Welcome to Las Vegas' are boldly emblazoned. The car is cornering swiftly, and the scene is bathed in the vibrant hues of the city's neon lights. Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters.

Grand Prix auto racing on the streets of cities; in this instance, Las Vegas. But how and by what right is such an event permitted? Pray tell, is this not a prime example of crony capitalism, where a private entity, with the blessing of the city's authorities, is granted the power to shutter public roadways, forcing them to be repaved not once but twice, for the sake of a mere spectacle? Such actions not only disrupt the normal flow of trade and commerce, but also severely curtail the freedom of movement of the city's inhabitants. Indeed, tales abound of workers on the renowned Strip who were forced to endure hours-long waits in parking garages, their workday extended by this arbitrary closure. Yet, one wonders, were the citizens of Las Vegas consulted in this matter? Did they clamor for this Grand Prix, a race that would bring with it the disruption of their daily lives and the expenditure of millions for infrastructure repairs? All for the sake of a noisy and dangerous contest of automobiles, whose economic benefits remain dubious at best? 

I declare this a flagrant violation of the civil liberties of Las Vegas residents, nay, of any city that is subjected to such an absurdity. Such a spectacle should find no place in a free and just society. 

Do peruse the esteemed Neil deMause's blog, 'Field of Schemes,' wherein thou shalt uncover the unscrupulous tactics employed by professional sports organizations to exploit the public's goodwill, most often with the complicity of self-serving politicians who eagerly thrust their cities and states into the path of financial ruin. A veritable awakening to the machinations of these avaricious entities. 

As a steadfast devotee of sporting contests, I find myself wrestling with an internal turmoil, torn between my enduring passion for the games and a growing disdain for the shameless commercialization that has engulfed them. This pervasive pursuit of profit has permeated every facet of the sporting realm, from the incessant barrage of ever-goofier television advertisements to the outrageous demands made by teams upon public funds. Such excesses have reached a point where our daily lives are disrupted and our hard-earned tax dollars are diverted into the coffers of millionaires and billionaires, all in the name of perpetuating these grand spectacles. This has transformed our nation into a veritable 'United States of Entertainment,' a realm where the pursuit of amusement has eclipsed all other values. Alas, this trend is but a harbinger of further excesses to come.

{READ ‘Vegas Grand Prix claims $1.2B in positive impact from closing down local businesses for a week’ from Field of Schemes 11/21}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

Anti-vaxxer movement continues to rise, vexing the White house and anyone with common sense, decency, and sanity

Had we not a complete faction of backward, tin-foil hat-wearing rascals in our midst, mayhap we could begin to enact laws of true substance to coerce the obstinate to abide. (Or, for that matter, to commence a firm repression of these conspiracy theorists - offenders of the First Amendment - who do disseminate such refuse.) Purposeful and rebellious foolishness reigns supreme. Without any hyperbole, I verily believe the stubbornly and hatefully foolish do intend and fervently desire to eventually bring about the deaths of the rest of us. {Politico 9/20 - The anti-vaccine movement is on the rise. The White House is at a loss over what to do about it.} 

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

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}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

School avoidance: Students refusing to go to school a growing crisis post-COVID

AI generated image via Hotpot API

'School avoidant behavior, also called school refusal, is when a school-age child refuses to attend school or has difficulty being in school for the entire day. Several mental health experts told USA TODAY it has become a crisis that has gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.' The only reason I was not one of these kids was out of extreme fear of authority (most of all, my parents), along with outright ignorance that I even had any option of opting out. Back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s - at least in my area - even the most rotten kids still did not dare cut classes on any sort of regular basis. One time, late in senior year, we took off in some kid’s car to eat lunch at a local pizza joint, and were relieved that we didn’t get caught. I may have snuck out of a pep rally or two, but that was about the extent that I would ever dare ‘play hooky.’ In retrospect, I should have just said ‘f**k it’ and not have cared. For all the good earning decent grades, dutifully following the rules, and dealing with my a**hole peers ultimately did me; I may have even turned out a more healthy person than the one I became. Still, I would not want to be a kid today for anything, and I do not blame these ones for pushing back against the hellscape they were born into. {USA Today 5/15}

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Colorado man attempted to evade DUI arrest by switching seats with his dog. {BBC 5/16}

Total jackasses caught on camera riding their bicycles inside Boston’s Tip O’Neill tunnel during Friday rush hour, forcing drivers to slam on their brakes. {WHDH 5/16} 

Self-checkout kiosks are now asking customers for tips, prompting some to ask if ‘tipping culture’ has gone too far. {Deseret News 5/16}

Twenty percent of Canadians polled say medically-assisted suicide should be legal to any adult, for any reason. {National Post 5/16}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

DHS issues memo to government and law enforcement agencies warning that violent threats against gays, lesbians, and transsexuals are on the rise

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America has never really been the ‘live and let live’ country most of us would like to believe that we are. Perhaps some of us are seeing this truism more clearly now, in this post-COVID, post-Trump, and post-truth hellscape we are navigating; where large portions of our fellow Americans are violently rejecting liberal democracy, and liberal democratic values. A renewed moral panic has been whipped up against the LBGTQ community, and I would have to advise that many of us who are not in that community will nonetheless be targeted (or already have been) by extremist homophobes. Think of the witchcraft hysteria that my Puritan ancestors shamefully engaged in during the 17th century (a great-grandmother of mine was actually hung in early Hartford, CT, after accused of being a ‘witch’ because the community did not approve of her remarrying at age 72; her husband was also hung right alongside of her.) #Cult45 is eager to punish anybody not standing with them, and I have a feeling a lot of us are about to be deemed ‘witches’ of sorts (or ‘groomers,’ or any number of aspersions) in our new 1692. {ABC News 5/15}

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‘Russian authorities will launch construction of a village outside Moscow for conservative-minded Americans and Canadians next year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.’ {The Moscow Times 5/11}

David Smith: As Trump’s lies and scandals deepen, the GOP responds as usual - with silence. {The Guardian 5/13}

‘OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman delivered a sobering account of ways artificial intelligence could “cause significant harm to the world” during his first congressional testimony, expressing a willingness to work with nervous lawmakers to address the risks presented by his company’s ChatGPT and other AI tools.’ {WP 5/16}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

‘A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a law banning licensed federal firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults under 21 violates the Second Amendment and is unconstitutional’

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What a country: Those between 18 and 21 cannot legally drink, or buy cigarettes and marijuana, or gamble, or even rent a car. Owning firearms, though? Perfectly fine. Shipping them off to war? No problem there. I am not a gun grabber by any means - nor am I necessarily advocating young people engage in the vices listed above - and the judge probably made the constitutionally-correct legal decision, but those are some glaring and blatant double standards right there. {AP 5/12}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.