Archives for March 2021

Wednesday March 31, 2021

I turned on the TV midday to watch one of my archaeology shows. The George Floyd trial was on. The young woman who was one of three who videoed the incident was testifying. The video was as bad as it gets. The woman was seventeen at the time. She was going to the store on the corner, called The Cup Store, to get a charger cable. She saw Floyd in the gutter with three policemen with their knees on his body. One had a knee on his neck. People were clearly heard pleading with the policemen to let him up. Instead the policeman with his knee on Floyd’s neck put more weight on it. There was a point just before that where he seemed to be letting up and then coming down again, like pumping. 

I’ve heard the defense is going to say this policeman was a nineteen year veteran and this was normal police training and that Floyd died from other causes. Okay, I’ll give the defense the benefit of the doubt. I suggest we prove their case. Let’s return to the scene, cuff the defendant with his hands behind his back, make him lie face down in the street, and let three black men do the same thing on him that he did to Floyd. I mean it’s normal procedure, right? So he should be alive after that. If so let’s check him for witchery.

My god. You can’t watch that video and wonder what was that cop with his knee on the man’s neck thinking? At no point did Floyd resist. He was sitting in his car across the street when they came over and told him to get out of his car.

Later an EMT who happened on the scene and demanded to help was refused. The defense attorney, in his dickishness, said “just answer my questions.” Hey, she was reliving the incident and you are demanding? You cut her off. I get it. You didn’t want to hear the whole thing. The truth. She said she witnessed someone being killed.

A mixed martial arts fellow said he was witnessing a murder. 

There was a nine year old girl who testified. I didn’t see or hear that. Apparently, the defense didn’t ask her any questions. What are you going to ask that a nine year old wouldn’t answer in a way that made it plain and simple?

The young woman that was going to the Cup Store says she has not been back to that store or that intersection. She doesn’t want to relive what she saw.

Moving on. We get to Matt Gaetz. He’s under investigation for sex trafficking. He was framed he says. Yeah? What else would you say? I was doing what they allege? I didn’t know she was 17? Wait. She’s “a friend of the family.” You were porking your friend’s daughter? Just answer the question yes or no. 

Then it turns out he got into a twitter spat with another representative. A Republican congressman who voted to impeach Donald. Matty didn’t like that and so went after the guy who was in the panhandle of Florida on National Guard duty. Gaetz made fun of that fellow. You know the guy who served in Iraq and Afganistan? The guy who fought and disarmed a knife wielding man who slit a woman’s throat? Yeah Matt. Good move. The woman survived the attack btw.

Meanwhile I have to ask the good people of Georgia, Florida, Texas, Wyoming, Mississippi, North and South Dakota who ya gonna believe your governor or the head of the CDC when it comes to protecting yourself and others?

Special shout out to Gov Ron of Florida who has actively tried to prevent local authorities in that state from issuing mask mandates or from demanding that people show their vaccination card before entering a restaurant or bar. Good move Ron. You can kill a few more before it’s over.

Reports are now coming out that Fauci and Birx were playing good cop – bad cop with Trump, but in a child like way because he was so dumb that’s the best they could do to keep him from doing something really stupid.

There are also reports that the Pentagon tried another tactic – giving Donald an alternative that was so egregious even he would recognize it and pick another, more sane one. Guess what happened? Yeah. They didn’t do that again. 

Unfortunately, he met with Putin who gave him other ideas.

PS Temple of The Seven Dolls* and Pano of Dzibilchaltun

• So named because they discover seven small figurines in the building.

Tuesday March 30, 2021

The boat is free!

This is in no small part because I wrote about it yesterday. Thus kicking off much correspondence between me and my engineer minded friends. As one put it “every armchair engineer is watching this.” I mean we haven’t had this much speculation since that ship ran aground in Italy. Before that it was the oil wells aflame in Kuwait.

But the end came with me. Just my talking about it. Okay, writing about it did the trick. In fact I had barely posted it when I got word that the boat was free. Turned out it was only the back end. The bow was still fifty feet in the sand. But lo and behold a little more speculation and it was free.

I would also like to remind that we haven’t had a power failure since I bought a generator. Like the great missile defense sites I see on “Mysteries of the Abandoned” that were never used and thus proved their effectiveness by averting war, I by the very buying of a generator have prevented a power outage. 

This proves I am god.

Now some of you may nit-pick (there always are a few.) But you can’t deny that the boat is free and that we haven’t had a power failure! QED

No, actually WTF.

However, my argument is as solid as all those who say there is a god, and that there god is the real god. 

One more TLA CAE. That’s “Three Letter Acronym” and “Cause And Effect.” See, scientists are always saying stuff like, “Just because A happened and then B doesn’t mean A caused B to happen.” Oh yeah? And therein my claim to being god, and everyone else’s falls apart.

I rest my case.

But here is the danger. BELIEF. You can’t defeat belief with reason. I’m not sure how you do it. If someone is convinced of a wacky idea and they “believe it” You aren’t going to win with facts. Because when they get cornered they bail with “I don’t believe it.”

We are now vaccinating at a rate of over 3 million a day in this county. That means within 100 days from now, if no one was vaccinated, we could all be. But. But. What about the people who “don’t believe!” Hum. It will be interesting to see how many there are and what we as a society do. Will we let them wander around? Will we force them to get vaccinated? Or ostracized? 

The Director of the CDC when she was giving the facts about the numbers of people being vaccinated went, as she said, “Off Script,” to plead with people and elected officials to please hold on a bit longer, to keep the mask mandate in place.

Do you think that would effect the governors of say Texas? Or Mississippi? Or Wyoming? Or South Dakota?

I say, No. It will not effect their decisions. Why? Because they are idiots. And God may strike me dead right now if I am wrong.

… Wait for it…

I’m still alive! Therefore, I am right and they are idiots.

I will pray for the people of those states because their governors have sided with evil (or at least the virus,) and some of the good people (and some of the bad) of those states will have to die because of their governors’ decisions.

Because I am god. (I already proved that remember?) I will send a hex upon those governors, which will make them make more stupid decisions. In so doing they will get voted out of office and a person who really cares about their people can come and clean up their messes.

In other news, a phone call has been revealed between a consultant hired by some of the dark money billionaires who continually screw with our elections (ie Koch) to rig the system in their favor. Turns out these billionaires want to defeat SR-1, the voting rights law. Turns out it is wildly popular with all stripes of the populace. Imagine that? 

People think it’s a good idea to let people vote.

Now the some of the same states that are lifting their mask mandates so more people can die are also the same states that are hurriedly trying to pass laws to restrict people from being given water while they wait in line to vote. In the very lines that these billionaires purposely created. 

So I ask those folks who liked the previous administration which side of this issue are you on? Do you think people have a right to vote? Do you think we should outlaw giving people water? (Well, okay at the border sure. Let ‘em crawl across the desert. Don’t worry Stephen Miller is on it, but we are talking while waiting in line to vote.)

In other news the trial of the cop who killed George Floyd is on trial for murder. The defense has said Floyd died from complications due to poor health conditions and that the police officer was following standard police procedures. 

Hum. I guess I missed the part in the manual where it said the police procedure is to demand a man get out of his car, march him across the street, cuff his hands behind his back and make him lie face down in the gutter so three or four policemen can put their body weight on him. Let’s not forget that this policeman knew Floyd from before. They worked together as bouncers. I gotta wonder if the cop had some grudge. 

Don’t forget. I am god.

Thank you, and good night.

PS Hookah Mania

Monday March 29, 2021

The picture of the excavator next to the ship stuck in the Suez Canal has caught people’s attention. I like most people tought it was a little tiny backhoe. It isn’t. My brother, who knows a thing or too about cars and big equipment, told me that it’s the largest excavator they make. Period.

And therein we see the problem.

Why don’t they unload the boat? Did you see the excavator? Do you have any idea how big that crane would have to be?

What happened to cause this problem? At first we were told it was wind that blew the ship into the side of the canal. Now we are hearing maybe human error. Remember the Exxon Valdez? Yeah. You think? Yup, I’d bet pretty serious money on that. (Like five dollars.) And what has happened that there are now ads for on-line betting apps?

So much to wonder about.

However, when it comes to our political situation there is little wonder. It is sadly laid out in front of us. There is one group that is trying to fix this country and its people and the world. There is another group that isn’t. In fact that other group seems to be doing whatever they can to destroy what we have built up. They are even convincing themselves of their own lies and the lies of others. 

Do you remember a Charlton Heston movie “Omega Man”? It was about a world ravaged by a disease. It got into your blood and you became kind of crazy. You couldn’t stand the light. These people hide out during the day. At night they would come out looking to infect others. Seems like that is what we are up against both literally, politically, and culturally.

The ante has been upped. The Republicans and their fascist enablers are trying to dismantle our democracy so that they can stay in power. Once in power they try to enable laws to keep themselves in power and to steal as much as they can. Other than that they have little by way of an agenda. Well, wait. They do want to take away our freedoms and to keep us poor. Someone has to clean out their horse stalls and shine the brass on their yachts? 

Rank stupidity, crassness, churlishness seem to be the order of the day. These people have been sucking off the tailpipe of their own lies too long. 

I once was in a six moth training class. One of the founders of the training company asked us if we had any complaints. They rained down on him. After several minutes of this, it got so bad that he eventually laughed and said, “You aren’t telling me anything new. I’m just stroke counting now.” 

Our complaints were really minor. I can see that now. 

We are facing a huge threat. A crisis. I don’t know the answer but I know we need to fight on. Evil never rests.

I wish I liked to fish. 

PS Da Boat.

Sunday March 28, 2021

I have been studying ancient Egypt and I frequently find myself wondering how they could have believed what they did about an afterlife. Then I think about our situation. How many people believe in heaven without any evidence?

It’s disturbing in that the true believers wish to inflict their beliefs, whatever they are, on others. 

I also think about how many famous figures throughout history used religion for their own ends. Either they used it to control the populations they had sway over, or they used it as a possible insurance policy to seek eternal life. 

Constantine the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity did so near his death. Genghis Khan seemed to believe in the great sky lord, or something like that, but his belief in this seemed to be more of an “Okay. Why not?” than an actual belief. 

Then there are the pyramids of Egypt. Did they really believe or was it a giant works project to keep everybody busy? What about the pyramids of the Maya? Of Teotihuacan? Or any of the graveyards? 

How many examples do we have of priests controlling the populations by ceremonies and wive’s tales? 

And now we have a new belief system entering the world – Q’anon. It seems to be an extension of the game of Dungeons and Dragons with an element of disinformation thrown in. It has a group think cult like belief built in too. “Ya Gotta Believe!”

How we got here will no doubt be analyzed once we are past and through this period.

But not only are these people being led astray by the most bald faced of lies but there are much more subtle ones too. Okay, they aren’t so subtle, but still. Fox News, OAN, InfoWars, RT, and others say things that are untrue, verifiably untrue and yet People Believe! 

These believers seem not to be reached by logic or reason. 

In the same way that people who are dependent on the Federal government programs will vote for people who promise to abolish them. How does this happen is the oft asked question.

I have the answer.

People are stupid.

No? Yes? Maybe?

Many people seem to have a desire to have an answer for things. I understand that, to some degree, but to lie to yourself and others for the satisfaction of having an answer is disturbing. Yet, “we” do it all the time.

In “The History of God” by Karen Armstrong I got the impression that the explanation of god and the powers that god possesses is a constantly redefining as various statements and positions held by those in religious authority are shown to be provably false. This means the retreat forces religion into more and more of a position that is unprovable. Ya gotta believe because ya gotta believe.

I often wonder what the people who claim to be conservatives think that is and what they think their polar opposite, which the call either liberalism or being progressive is?

I mean many of those “conservatives” want no government interference in their lives. What do they think liberalism is but the ability to be allowed “to do your thing”?

Yet these conservatives only want you to do their thing! In other words, “Don’t tread on me, but I’m gonna walk all over you.” (Sorry Nancy*)

*Sinatra. Look it up.

The weirdest thing about it is that they are so dependent on the government for their existence. 

Then we get to the conservative politicians. OMG! It’s not just here. It’s now coming to light that Boris Johnson and the whole Brexit thing is a travesty. He pulled people off of pandemic response to sell Brexit. Then Covid hit. Not only is Britain screwed economically but their response to the health crisis has been hampered by a lack of government oversight. That is to say no one was there at the wheel.

In our country besides the complete incompetence of the previous administration there was also a desire to explain away. How else does one understand the fact that Mike Pence replaced his staff with PR people? He got rid of anyone who knew or cared to do anything.

In Brazil they elected a strong man. He was going to fix things. He didn’t. He’s let the pandemic run wild in his country.

I have two suggestions for each one of us. This comes from the app Noom, which I am using to lose weight. Most of the time they are talking about psychology. It’s mostly stuff I’ve heard, but it is being presented in a useful way with practical suggestions how to accomplish stuff you desire. Like lose weight. What they suggest is: 1) smiling and 2) hugging yourself. Both they claim will physically make you feel better. It works! Try it.

Have a day!

PS “Does the crown make my head look fat?”

Friday March 26, 2021

Yesterday was the first time I didn’t write a screed during the new administration.

Yesterday, The President having met his goal of 100 million shots in arms in 100 days has now upped that goal to 200 million. When he announced his 100 million goal we had barely vaccinated anyone in this country. There was no delivery system. There was no National plan. Now? Everyone says we are on track to hit 200 million by Biden’s 100^th day in office.

In fact, the national response to the pandemic by this administration is so well in hand that at his news conference yesterday he didn’t get a question about it.

President Joe Biden stood for a hour at that conference and took answered questions. He gave real answers. He knew what he was talking about. The press has started to go back to asking inane questions. How refreshing.

“Are you planning to run again?” – Yes.

“Do you think your opponent will be Trump?” – Trump? (Exhausting a breath and then quietly.) I miss that guy. (Then more loudly) I have no idea.

Apparently Joe Biden had a bevy of American historians to The White House a few days ago: Mecham, Kerns-Goodwin, Beschloss, and several others. The commentary I have heard is that various presentations were made. After each one Biden commented and asked questions that demonstrated a depth of knowledge in the area presented.

But now, let us turn to the question I raised in today’s title – The Persistence of Evil. In Egyptian folk tales there is a character who is always causing trouble and stirring things up. For example he cut up his brother into 13 parts and scattered him all over Egypt. The cut up brother’s wife, and sister (same person), collected all the parts (except the penis – yikes!) and put him back together again. She completed him with a fake penis – btw. The reincarnated brother defeated his evil brother and the tale ends with the moral – You can defeat evil, but you can’t kill it.

And so we see that evil has risen once again in our land. We may have thought we defeated it in the last election, and so we had, but now? Now, a new evil is upon it. Some are calling it Jim Crow 2.0. That’s apt because in states where Satan lost the election that the local state chambers are controlled by Republicans they are rushing to pass despicable election laws. Laws that limit voting, that allow the state’s political machinery to overturn the elections or get rid of election boards if they so choose. This is a direct assault on our democracy. 

Appeals to the conscious of these people is pretty fruitless, because if they had any sense of justice and fairness they would not have tried to pass these restrictions in the first place. In Georgia the bill started out at two pages and ended up at 100! The bill passed the Georgia House, Senate, and was signed into law in 24 hours. It went from 2 pages to 100 in 24 hours and was signed into law.

A state legislator wanted to be at the signing ceremony, which was being live-streamed. She knocked on the door where the signing ceremony was being conducted (all by white Republican men.) She was arrested, cuffed, and dragged out of the state house. Yes, she was black and a Democrat.

A similar bill has been introduced in Texas, and in many other states across the country. This is a concerted effort by the Republican Party. This is not some fringe thing. 

The fear is that one of these bills will get not only passed but will be upheld in the courts by one of the Trump nominated and approved judges.

There is a voting rights bill in the U.S. Senate that could stop a lot of this. Forty nine Democratic senators are for it. The holdout is Joe Manchin who wants ten Republican Senators to go along with it. I kind of like that idea. Let’s see the comity of the Senate as Mitch McConnell envisions it. And Mr. Manchin what will you do if none of the Republican senators want to support voting rights? 

Then we get to the “end the filibuster” question. No one is proposing ending the filibuster. What they are talking about is cloture, the vote to end debate and call the question. If someone wants to stand and talk they are welcome to do so. 

Will Republican stand for honesty, integrity, voting rights, and fairness? I don’t think so. They haven’t for decades. Well, they used to at least make it seem like they did. Now,  the best they can do is to name their heinous bills with high sounding principled names.

They aren’t trying to cover up what they are doing. Trump showed them that you can commit your crimes in the open.

Brian Kemp who stole the election for governor from Stacey Abrams did some heinous things when he was Secretary of State for Georgia. Besides overseeing his election for governor he lost lots of registration forms that were filled out. People asking to be added to the voting rolls never made it. Abrams complained about this at the time. The number was 50,000.

In a similar instance a woman in Georgia had started a push that season to get people of Korean descent registered to vote. The project was called “10,000 Koreans Vote”. That was her goal – to register 10,000. After she had registered 4,000 she checked the voting roles. None were on the roles. She asked the voting commission. They said there weren’t any registrations. She said there were and she had copies of the forms. They (Brian Kemp) told her that copying registration forms was illegal. 

I mean, how are you going to prove you registered if you don’t make a copy? What did Kemp do? Had the place raided. Seized the computer and all the paperwork. The movement collapsed.

That was what he was doing in 2016. Imagine what he can do now with this sweeping new law? This is crime in plain sight. This is a direct attack on democracy. This is the modern Republican Party. 

Now Georgia is being hit by deadly tornadoes. One went for one hundred miles. Obviously this is God sending Kemp and his fellow white Christian Republicans a message.

In other news the nomination of Vanita Gupta to move forward was voted in the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines 11-11. This means Chuck Schumer will have to use procedural methods to advance her nomination to be #3 at Justice. One person who voted against her was John Cornyn. This is no doubt because she rose to prominence by taking the cases of 35 black people in Texas that were convicted and sent to prison on drug charges based on the testimony of one police officer who admitted to having no evidence whatsoever in any of the cases. These people were sent to jail and languished for four years until Gupta took up their cause. Meanwhile, Cornyn was Texas AG and gave the cop “The Lawman of The Year Award.” 

Under Gupta’s legal fight the cop’s case fell apart and he was found guilty of perjury. How embarrassing for Cornyn!

In earlier exchanges this year with Gupta, Cornyn was shocked to learn that there is racism in our institutions. Shocked I tell you. 

We are facing evil. We are facing forces dead set on destroying our democracy and they are coming from within.

Oh, by the way, the folks promoting some of these draconian Jim Crow laws were at the January Insurrection and were in communication with The Proud Boys, who were in communication with The Oath Keepers, who were in communication with Roger Stone.

PS JESUS! JESUS, Jesus – Jesus, jesus jesus