America- The Chickens Will Come Home To Roost

I am getting older now. Well, okay, I am officially considered a senior citizen. I have few personal attachments and no business attachments and no real societal standing, so, I have little if anything to lose, That is why I feel free to write whatever the hell I want to. I do not care what others think.

I have written before that the most dangerous creature on Earth, possibly the most dangerous creature in the known Universe, is a person with nothing left to lose. I, fortunately, am not a violent man and can release all of my anger, and there is plenty of it, in my writing, and when not writing, with humor. There are others on this planet who are a very different matter.

If you look to the Mid East, you see prime examples of just how dangerous people with nothing to lose can be. Throughout the region, young men and women with no education, no jobs and almost no hope for the future are crammed into nightmarish, poor parts of cities. Look at the Palestinians. Generations are stuck there with no escape and no chance of escape. Then, look at the results.

It is all too easy to say, 'well that is there. We live in the good old USA.' Well, look closer. More and more of the Nation's wealth is controlled by fewer and fewer people and, trust me, those folks are always trying to grab more. There are those who decry the disappearing middle class, I have news for them. It is already gine. Any pretense those folks have of middle class status is riding on their credit. They are all aware that one more glitch in the economy and they are screwed. Many, most, have little savings and live if not paycheck to paycheck, then paycheck to the check after that next one. Any medical emergency and they go bust. You see, even if insured, if there is anything serious enough to stop the checks for a week or two or more, they have no safety net, and the Government is fresh out of those.

But, those are grown ups and they will likely, although not for sure, just suffer quietly. Oh they may rouse themselves to go vote for The Donald or Bernie as some sort of lame protest, but they may as well stay home and watch Bugs Bunny cartoons for all the good voting will do. That train left the staion and like the Mystery Train in the old rock song, 'it ain't never comin' back.'

But what of their kids, you know, the ones who have grown up watching the lifestyles and antics of the rich and famous on their TV?. They still have memories of the middle class life and they still have the energy to be outraged when they are stripped from it. And what of the poor who have always been frustrated by what they cannot have?

Do not try and feed me that get a good education and work hard and you will make it crap, that also left on that Mystery Train. In case you had not noticed, a lot, a big lot of folks with big educations are having to settle for low level, low pay jobs. There are many an MBA working the fast food circuit.

The noose on America is tightening. I remember, not that many years ago when $50 would buy a family of 4 a weeks worth of groceries (actually, I remember when it would buy 3 weeks of groceries, but I won't go back to ancient lore).  Now, that $50 will not feed 2 people for 4 days, unless they live on Pop Tarts and Ramen Noodles and cheap, fat-filled Hot Dogs. My Mom used to take me to a Doctor for a $10 office visit fee. Now, without insurance, an office visit, in a sorry walk-in clinic starts at $85. You once could get a darn decent used car for $3000. Now, a rattle-trap old junker will run you $8000 and up. Yet, the quality of medical care, food and cars have all declined. And still, the Federal Government has the unmitigated gall to claim that inflation is not an issue.

We have been, well let me be polite and say, abused and I look around at the Nation the young ones are inheriting and ask myself, 'how long do you think they will put up with this BS?' Not long I hope. One fine day, the folks who run this Nation, not the Bushes and the Clintons, they are just the lackeys of the elite, will wake up and find the poor who have been pushed to the breaking point at their front doors, demanding their share, demanding what is due them as human beings, some dignity. When it happens, I will jusr grin and tell the elite, 'well look at that. The chickens finally came home to roost.

America - Celebrate Spring

As we sit here in the grip of yet another cold front, it may be hard to realize that Spring is almost here. But, already, here in Georgia, I can see the buds on the kudzu vines starting to  open. The fescue is slowly changing from its lovely winter brown to a pale green and the pine trees are dropping copious amounts of pollen, much to the horror of my sinuses.

Allergies aside, I love Spring. As trite as it may be to say, it is a time of rebirth, of renewal, and after a Winter of terrorism and El Nino rains, of Polar Vortexes and relentless Election campaigning, we are all in need of renewal.

The Spring holidays are seldom given a lot of thought these days. In times not that far in the past, Spring celebrations were great fun. Even in school, teachers goofed on their pupils on April Fools Day and everyone was Irish on St; Patrick's Day. Yes, I know, on St; Patrick's Day bars serve green beer (yuck) and here and their Moms cook corned beef and cabbage, but there was a time when the day was a big deal for all. It is a silly holiday, meaningless really, but that was the point. Most every little town had a parade and school cafeterias served green iced cake and everyone just had fun. Having meaningless silly fun is a much underrated way to spend some time; it's good for the soul.

I am not Jewish, so maybe I am wrong, but, according to many of my Jewish friends, Passover is now just a time to have a good dinner and a nice get together. When I was younger, most Jewosh families I knew viewed the day with at least some reverence as a cultural tradition and may were still very devout. Now, maybe that has faded a bit, but when you get right down to it, just getting together for the meal and company is a very spiritual event in its own right.

Easter, like Passover, is still of deep religious significance to some, but fewer and fewer as time goes by. Among Christians I know, many attend church on such holidays as more of a social event than a spiritual one, and that's fine. Social and spiritual are very related. Many who have fallen away from any specific religiuos tradition, the ever increasing category who call themselves Spiritual But Not Religious, celebrate Easter as a family tradition or as a kind of celebration of Spring. Again, that is just fine. Many Easter traditions, such as the great feast and Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are taken from old pagan traditions. The important thing is taking time to mark the passage into Spring and allow such a celebration to aid you in your renewal as you pass from Winter's doldrums.

In the old days, when I was in shool, we even celebrated the transition from Spring to Summer with a May Day festival. Games were played, a somewhat special lunch was served in the cafeteria and we danced around a May Pole weaving brightly colored ribbons as we danced. This was stopped when an early version of the politically correct thought police realized that May Day was a political holiday in the old Soviet Union and put a stop to the frivolity.               

The point of all this? Nothing, really, nothing serious or deep anyway. In fact my only point is that we would be well served to remember and celebrate the transition to Spring, to do silly things, eat special foods and enjoy good company, for in these actions, especially when set among the profusion of the grand colors of Nature in fine mild weather, we become renewed and if you are at all like me, you are in need of that.

American Writers - Ray Bradbury

I love genre fiction, mysteries, suspense, western, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. I know that these have long been the bane of literary experts but, with some exceptions, they are where you find good stories. They are also, in modern fiction, where you find human characters. And, best of all, they are readable.

Let's take the last point first. William Faulkner was a fine writer and, here and ther, could write stunning descriptive prose. However, to get to those parts you had to wade through page after mind-numbing page of his stream of consciousness shtick. Stream of consciousness is an effective tool for writers but, a little bit goes a long, long way. Faulkner's meanderings are annoying and detract from what could be fine tales of fascinating people.  He, ultimately, bores me.

Now, let's look at a sci-fi writer. I take as my example, Ray Bradbury. To call him a sci-fi writer is a bit misleading because, unlike Artur C. Clark or Isaac Asimov, he pays little attention to the science of the whole thing. Instead, he uses the backdrop of the space voyage and the exploration of strange worlds as a backdrop for his exploration of human nature.

His characters are us, you and me, and the story revolves around how we might behave when thrust into fantastic situations. His characters are kind, cruel, devious, loyal, violent, optimistic, pessimistic, stupid, smart, in short human. The tales often have a sweet longing for the finer moments of humanity while never losing the edge of dark possibilities.

Most importantly, they are stories, wild flights of fancy, absorbing tales of possibility and limits. If you have not read Bradbury, I can highly recommend Farenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, and. espec ially, the sublime Martian Chronicles. Some quiet afternoon, perhaps on a rainy Saturday when the World is quiet, settle back with one of his books. You will spend a delightful afternoon as these stories reconnect you to the best, and at times, the worst, of humanity. They are fine, fine tales.

America and Storytellers

I have said before that I love to read. I believe that storytelling is what makes humans different from the rest of Creation. After all, we are said to be made in the image of our Creator and what has been created is, to make a complex issue simple, a grand story.

I seldom find books these days that simply tell a good story. For the past many years, authors seem to have become obsessed with style over substance. Take, for example, James Joyce.

Joyce could write. His first novel, Potrait of the Artist as a Young Man, was very good, not great but very good, His book of short stories, Dubliners, was brilliant, especially  his Christmas story, The Dead. I know, that does not sound very Christmasy, but it is a beautiful, warmly human story. We will get back to that human part shortly.

I have tried repeatedly to read Ulysses and each time, about half way through, I ask myself why I am bothering. I understand it, and can appreciate the quality of the writing. I even get the humor but, so what? The story is simply boring. The main characters are unpleasant and who really wants to know every thought that passes through their minds.

Then, we reach Finnegan's Wake. The book is absurd and I think that is almost the point. It is experiment for the sake of experiment, a sort of artistic masturbation.

Joyce was an odd man, obsessed with himself and his own thinking. He was so disappointed with the people of his own native Ireland and seemingly wwithdrew into himself. He developed that habit of writing notes documenting his every thought and truly, they were not that special and really uninteresting. His experiments in writing are absurd and I believe that is because he found people absurd and somewhat distasteful, if not downright loathsome.

For reaasons that escape me, literary critics became enamored of his nonsense, hailing his great profundity at every turn. Honestly, he was a naught schoolboy, a near sociopath who expected the World to support him while he thumbed his nose at his supporters. His own wife once asked him when he was going to write something that people could actually read.

Well, as should have been expected, all the praise heaped upon him set the wheel in motion and rather quickly, substance was foresaken for style and classic style was foresaken for experiment, experiment for its own sake. The art of storytelling was lost.

There are still writers who tell stories but the quality of their subject matter is limited. For example, Phiilip Roth and John Updike are fine wordsmiths but their obsessions are trivial and boring. To be blunt, Updike's suburbanites are not the stuff of great stories, nor are Roth's tales of the frustrated Jewish males.

I once heard Ken Kesey say, in an interview, that he wanted writers like Twain and Poe who could write tales of heroes and villians, of machines and monsters. I concur.

America and the Future

I am befuddled (I like that word). I was brought up with the idea that the Nation, in fact, the entire World, was going to enter some wonderous age, a period of high tech wonders, easy living and enlightened peace. Well, here I am, 60 years later and I'm still waiting.

Sure, we have technological wonders aplenty. The cell phone and personal computers are two, but how beneficial are they really? I, for one, do not like feeling connected all the time so I have come to abhor cell phones, especially since the advent of texting, a rude and insidious habit. Computers are useful but I have begun to question just how time saving they are. I have worked at places where it took more time and effort to do the books with a computer that it did manually. And while there is a vast amount of information on the Internet, information can become a trap. You can resaerch yourself into inactivity. Add into that the out of date web sites, the enormous numbers of popup adds, and the frequent disruption in Internet service and the whole computer revolution grows a might shaky. Just wait until they start taxing Internet commerce and start censoring content. Bith are on their way.

Mediaclly, doctors can do wonders. Or can they? They sure have a whole bunch of really cool gadgets but, you know what? Folks still get the same diseases and they still die and when they do live longer, the quality of life is often not high enough to justify the extra few years. Also, did you ever try to get an HMO or a low cost insurance policy to cover the use of those really cool gadgets? Good luck on that.

Cars are still about the same. Food is basically the same. Clothing is about the same. Well, that's not really true. The quality of all 3 has gone down while the prices have gone up. Remember, we import much food, many cars and most clothing, all from countries where people work for a couple of dollars a day.

As far as peace goes, well, it doesn't. We have fightinmg throughout the Mid East, China is rapidly militarizing, the Koreas are rattling sabers, and Russia is bombing Syria to rubble. In addition, India and Pakistan still hate each other and keep those nukes ready for action and God Himself doesn't know what the Israelis have planned. Europe is a hot bed of Islamic terrorism and just wait and see what happens when the average Europeans get sick and tired of taking in a semmingly infinite stream of immigrants. In our own US things are not at all peaceful. There is a simmering tension between whites and blacks, that has come to the forefront because of the gestapo like attitude of a lot of cops and now I am beginning to notice a few white groups such as the Klan, raising their ugly little heads.

When I was schooled, we were, with surprising frequency, treated to Disney made documentary films showing how science was going to lead us all into a glorious future. Well, that ship sailed a long time ago and has been lost at sea.

Years ago, science fiction seemed to take two contridictory stances toward the future. The Ben Bovas, Arthur Clarks, and Robert Heinleins painted a fairly rosy picture of a brilliant shiny techno-future, full of adventure and discovery. Huxley, Orwell and Phillip K.Dick portrayed dystopian visions of  weird, viscious totalitarian regimes. Guess who's winning?

America and the Election, The Laughs Just Keep Coming

I loathe politics but I have to say that this years campains have become a hoot. I have not laughed so hard since the last time I watched the 3 Stooges. Now, instead of Moe, Larry and Curly, we have Donald, Ted, and Marco.

The Donald is amazing, a true phenomenon. He is profane, professes ignorance of many key issues, and has no real plans, except for building that now infamous wall. He insists that Mexico will pay for it, despite some fairly explicit and colorful rejections of that plan by Mexico. He has now started ranting about restoring torture to the battlefields, which will be fascinating since Military leaders are saying that they simply will reject his orders as illegal. He is basically saying that when President he will do just what he wants. Funny, we have a President now that is doing just that and folks do not like that, yet, they continue to support Trump. His basic point seems to be that he will win because he is winning. I am sure any student of logic will find fault with that line of thought but, it is working.

Then we have 'honest Ted Cruz,' who increasingly reminds me of an especially sleazy used car salesman. He has been caught in lie after lie and still has the gall to stand up at podiums telling us what a devout Christian he is. He summons up fake humility, which must be hard for an Ivy League lawyer who's wife is a Goldman Sachs employee. Remember those nice folks? You know, one of the good American businesses who brought us the banking scandle, the housing bubble collapse and the Great Recession we still haven't really climbed out of.

Then we have Marco. I believe I have finally seen politics hit rock bottm, at least I don't think it can sink lower. Marco is now attacking Trump's tan, saying it comes from a spray can. Maybe, maybe not, but what in the name of all that is holy, does that have to do with being President. Then to make things weirder, he starts saying that Trump has small hands, adding 'and you know what that means,' a schoolyardish reference to the thought that small hands on a man means a small penis. On second thought, maybe he just hit the nail on the head, so to speak. All of this lunacy is an attempt by silly grown men to see who is The Man. So, let's eliminate the whole stupid campaign and all the ridiculous speeches and have them all gather on one stage, on Nationwide TV, and drop their pants. The guy with the biggest one wins. Good idea, Marco, best one you've had. That has the added bonus of putting Hillary out of the race.

Then we have the Democrats. Bye-bye, Bernie.  You see, Bernie was banking on young, white voters and they came in droves to his Campaign Rallies. However, they seemed to confuse Campaign Rallies with Pep Rallies and never seemed to understand that, after the party, they had to go to the yucky old polls, stand in line, and actually vote. You built your house on sand, so, by Bernie.

That brings us to Hillary, aka the Wicked Witch of the West. Hillary seems a shoo in to take the big prize, the White House. In fact, she is so sure that, like Pavlov's dogs when they heard the dinner bell, she seems about to salivate at the mere mention of the word, President. Actually, she has stopped givinng speeches, and has started almost growling them, I truly would be little surprised if, while campaigning under a full moon, she morphed into a werewolf, which would be really cool. I am quite sure that if she thought that might gain her votes, she would arrange it. Ah well, at least I can be amused at the thought of Slick Willie having to function as the First Lady, or First Man, or First Whatever, what does it really matter anymore?

This parade of idiocy at long last has a scattering of Democrats and Republicans mutterring about a 3rd Party ticket, to which I say, 'what the hell are you waiting for?' In the country, they have an old saying, 'root, hog, or die.' Well, if you folks are serious about this election, or any other damn thing in this Country, then you best get to it, or just shut up, crawl into your little holes and admit that every one of you are as spineless as a sponge. By the way, I am writing  in SpongeBob Squarepants on my ballot and I urge you to do the same. Our slogan can be, 'We've tried humans, and they've failed miserably, so why not an invertebrate?' 

 

 

America, Race, the Donald and the Klan

Now let me see if I have this straight. David Duke and the KKK endorsed Donald Trump. When asked, Trump said he knew nothing about either. Then, the next day, he said he had a bad earpiece and did not hear the question. Yet, the tapes show that he responded by stating that he knew nothing about either while using Duke's name and using the phrase 'white supremacists.' How he gave such a directed response without hearing the words is beyond me. Keep in mind that a few years back he refused to run as the Reform Party candidate because of Duke's and the Klan's backing of that Party, so to say he did not know them is a little hard to swallow.

At about the same time, there was a little reported bit of news out of South Carolina. Seven protestors at a KKK rally were stabbed by Klansmen. How are these 2 events related? Glad you asked.

I understand that people do not know, or want to know, history, but it might be a good idea to learn a bit. In the ancient days of the 60s and 70s ( yes, I know, you are tired of hearing about the 60s, so am I, but bear with me), the FBI ran a program called COINTELPRO. Other agencies, such as the CIA ran similar plans and all were set up to observe and manipulate radical movements, ranging from the Black Panthers to SDS, from the NAACP to the Antidefamation League, and from the Mobilization to End the War in Viet Nam to, yes, the Ku Klux Klan. The goal was to infiltrate and subvert the plans of these groups and to do so, agents acted as provocateurs, urging insane tactics, including violence, to make these groups look bad, to justify police action against them. to turn public opinion against them, and to use one group to damage another.  I will not go further into COINTELPRO because there are several thousand websites that explain it in detail. It is sufficient to know, beyond any doubt, that through this program, money and materials were funneled toward the Klan. Their job, to promote racial unrest.

Of course we are told that COINTELPRO was done away with long ago. Maybe, in name, but if you truly believe that the US Government does not have undercover operatives in  many domestic groups, then I invite you to contact me about all of that swamp land I own in Florida; if you have enough cash and don't worry about silly little things like deeds, I'm sure we can make a deal.

So, we have, in a country already at the boiling point over racial issues (remember those riots in Ferguson and Baltimore), a Presidential candidate, faced with white supremacist endorsements saying he doesn't know a thing about them ( he did later, brusquely denounce them, but that is kind of like trying to put out one of their burning crosses with a squirt gun), and a violent confrontation at a Klan rally. Something smells rotten. Pay attention to anything that sets off further racial tensions soon. Someone, or some people, very powerful people want the racial pot stirred and the Donald dumped.

Or maybe I am just a paranoid lunatic and, come election day our new leader will wave a magic wand, say the magic word and the Land will be at peace, all will embrace each other as brothers and sisters and, like the old Merle Haggard song, 'we'll be drinkin' that free Bubble Up and eatin' that Rainbow Stew. Maybe, but not likely. Always remember the words of cartoonist R. Crumb's guru, Mr. Natural, 'just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Addendum: At a rally last night a group of Black students started their 'Black Lives Matter' routine, something I am growing rapidly weary of, and Trump had them thrown out. Understandable? Yes, but probably, given recent developments, he should have handled it a wee bit more delicately.