Facts and Truth - the Vaccine for Our Nation

Yes, yes, despite all my efforts, this post is yet another one about the idiot living in the White House, and tangentially the idiots who think he is a genius. 

There's just this verifiable galaxy of chaos engulfing the country and, let's be plain - the chaos has cost lives. 

A particular detail about myself is I am one the elite cadre of Real Journalists - an alchemical creation made in my youth in the melting pot of newsprint and Murrow's television - made only with a relentless application of shoe leather and work and commitment to report two things: Facts and Truth. And by youth I mean, well, at the age of 11 I was the sole writer and publisher of a weekly 4 page news report on local and national issues which I printed 100 copies of and passed out for free to classmates and adults who needed it.

In other words, news and commentary is Foundational for me. And Journalism - news reporting and commentary - is Foundational to America.

Any good reporter can tell you, small petty men and women create little fiefdoms and large ones inside our daily politics and always have, whether on a local state or national level, we even have these fiefdoms pop up where we work, in the ways we interact socially. It's a behavior of the emotionally stunted. 

If Walter Cronkite were alive during this presidency, he would have already, personally, socked him in the nose.

The Press en masse is not the enemy of the people, Lies are the enemy. The news is not fake, its really that fucking bad. Bizarre rumors become National Policy. The one branch of our government, the presidency, has become a battering ram to the basic structure of government. What has been the most unnerving and disturbing aspect of this chaos is the boundless support the Republican Party provides for his lawlessness. 

Sigh.

Out of an enormous legacy of overall respect for whomever holds the office, the Press was reluctant early on, and even now, to call his statements what that are. False. Lies, Imaginary. I tip my hat to them for standing up more and more in the face of death threats and ridicule. I have one very big problem with cable news networks - far too much focus on panel shows of media consultants offering precious little in the way of Facts. Media has, especially with television and now the Internet, been a little too in love with itself.

America is not great right now.

(Though have we not learned very clearly how when things are hardest, the majority of us - we pull together to help each other?)

This president's failures are no hoax.

Accurate, factual, truthful documentation of this horrible era will be plentiful in future years - this post is now part of that record, another verification of our troubled times - As Merlin said in the movie Excalibur "It is the doom of men that they forget. They forget."

The John Wick of the Ocean

There are some pretty amazing stories and movies of maritime adventure, and vengeful aquatic creatures, but when Dino de Laurentis released his version of a vengeful whale, the result was truly unique. Imagine blending the retribution of "Death Wish" and Moby Dick.

I watched "Orca" (1977) again recently, I realized how special the movie really was.

The scruffy Richard Harris plays a fisherman who angers and incurs the wrath of the deadliest killer whale - a whale whose anger has no bounds. As others have noted, once the vendetta against Harris begins after Harris inadvertently kills a pregnant wale wife, then pretty much everyone Harris knows or talks do gets killed.

Before the movie ends,this Orca Assassin has wiped out Harris' entire town. This whale is more dangerous and more angry than John Wick.

Revenge is a dish best served cold and wet.

A User Review on IMDB masterfully lays out the film:

The dramatic fight between Captain Nolan and the whale could have easily become silly, but it doesn't. The Arctic Circle is accurately represented as a cold place with many iceberg, some of which whales can thwack themselves upon catapulting middle-aged Irishmen forty feet in the air. Keep in mind, also, this was done without the use of computer graphics. Steven Spielberg did not even put the shark in Jaws until over halfway through the film. Why? To hide a machine so fake that I can only assume one of his children made it at camp. The mechanical killer whale in Orca is almost indistinguishable from the stock footage of killer whales continually played throughout the movie.

In 1977, how many directors were brave enough to shoot a killer whale jumping from one side of the boat, eating actor Robert Carradine, and landing on the other side? Just one, Michael Anderson. His bold choices along with screenwriters Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati (who both show an above average command of the English languages for native-born Italian speakers) make the film a statement not only about whale hunting and whale forgiveness seeking, but also about humanity. Charlotte Rampling's appeal to Nolan not to go fight the whale just because the whale wants revenge is not just about social protocols of how to make it up to the father of a whale baby you accidentally killed, but also an argument against the death penalty. Will Sampson's pointless death is an indictment of the senseless slaughter of tens of millions of Native Americans. When the whale knocks down Captain Nolan's house without any explanation of this whale became such a genius that he can not only knows to knock down structural supports but also can look up addresses in the phone book, it directly shows how our incursion into the world of nature is two-fold. Robert Carradine's tragic death in the film is social commentary on the probability of being eaten if you stand around on a boat being followed by a crazed killer whale. And probably also something about Vietnam, I assume.

And while most in Hollywood choose not to admit it, many have ripped off Orca. The dead baby scene in Trainspotting is suspiciously reminiscent of the dead whale fetus scene in Orca. The creepy quasi-romance between an intelligent female and a somewhat crazy violent child murderer is directly stolen by George Lucas for Star Wars: Episode II. The use of icebergs is blatantly co-opted by Titanic, and I have never heard James Cameron so much as thank Michael Anderson. And don't even get me started on Free Willy. Orca is a complicated story. If you only enjoy movies with obvious heroes and villains, this is not for you. The characters are conflicted. Very conflicted. Take for instance how the killer whale jumps for joy after biting off Bo Derek's leg. The whale shows both glee in his jumps, but also the pain of having lost his family and never being able to bring them back no matter how hard he fights those who took them from him. Like Batman. You see, the only thing black and white in this movie is the killer whale itself. While Orca does not now get the respect it deserves, in time people will realize its genius. Just as people did not understand gravity or continental drift, in time they will come to recognize Orca as the greatest cinematic achievement of all time.

Good News, Everyone!!

Over the years of serving up your Cup of Joe (fresh and hot), this semi-experimental online  original commentary on our collective Past, Present and Future, well, sure, there's been great focus on politics. But something happened.

Pretty much a year, two even, have been posts about the Con Man Who Swindled America.

Titanic effort has been applied all along by yours truly to resist attempting to endlessly post pithy captures our current Idiocracy. The effort has won the day, so, in the words of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, "Good news, everyone!" More normal weird and wonderful items are making a welcome return here.

(No, I'm not turning blindly away. How could anyone? We all know what a horrible place we've become. America is now the place parents warn their children about. "And if they catch you, they'll lock you away forever.")

So.

First we heard about an Alabama man who allegedly had an Attack Squirrel, which he had been feeding meth in order to make it "aggressive", so the police better watch out! Then came The Chase after said owner of the perhaps meth-addicted Attack Squirrel.



Ok then.
---
Movies have been on my mind too, as always. Especially regarding the process of making them. As a hardcore fan of the films of Stanley Kubrick, I I enjoyed this oral history about the making of the orgy scene in Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut.

"Peter Cavaciuti (Steadicam operator): Stanley’s precision was the thing I remember most. I had three lasers on the Steadicam, pointed to the ground, and when they all lined up, a grip would drop a plumb line from a string from the lens; then I’d line my lasers up, and then the grip would talk me into the mark, saying I was two inches, one inch on the mark. That level of precision was pretty exceptional. You’d very rarely do less than 20 takes. So physically and intellectually, it was demanding. Very often, Stanley would say to me that I wasn’t on my mark. I’d look down and I had my three lasers, so I’d say, “Well, I am on the mark, Stanley.” And one time Tom Cruise whispered to me, “Just move the camera, Pete.” [I realized] it was just code for saying that Stanley wanted to put the camera in a different place."

As much as he was known for being a control freak, it is much more a case of his being a collaborator - gathering very talented people, work with them for months to create the best way to tell a scene or a story, and still at the moment of shooting the scene being open to what else might be possible. 
I was also struck by descriptions of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as great to work with - helpful and contributing to the work. One doesn't spend years working on a difficult project unless their is great commitment and excitement.

--

How about pretty much every way you can cook a potato?

So Many Enemies He Needs Some Executive Time to Relax a Little

So the president repeatedly says the American press is America's enemy - but not one word about Russia threatening a nuclear attack on America ... 

Former FBI director says he fears the president is a Russian asset .... but the press is the enemy (oh, and the entire FBI).

Saudi Arabia murders a journalist, the president's staff has secretly sold nuclear weapon secrets to them ... because the press is the enemy?

The president calls for retribution against media comedies for jokes about his great self, and a coast guard officer is thankfully arrested for planning mass murder based on a hit list spreadsheet of media targets ....because the press is the enemy.

Except the press is not the enemy at our southern border. It's all the non-white people. Such a horrific enemy the president says America has a national emergency. 

Odd ...The press, non-whites, treaties with our allies, our military alliances, our trade with other nations, these are the enemies of America in the eyes and mind and actions of the president and his followers. Oh, and all the ex members of his administration. They are all bad people too. And his lawyers. And former friends. 

So many enemies. Gonna have to grab some Executive Time.

The Question Only You Can Answer

As much as I have railed against folks like our current president who promote racist ways, let me instead today refer you to Martin Luther King Jr. and celebrate our better selves, and go gently among the battered and wounded America by way of this humble but lovable blog and remind you of how much King got right, that hope among all of us rises in every walk of life, that possibility, life, freedom and equality exist, that justice exists. 

However.

I am stumped and stupified by the reality that this country is still battling over the same ground so many years after King's death. Since that battle still rages, then, as now, it is my responsibility - our responsibility - to speak up and call out the racism and injustice others consistently tolerate if not promote. This is America -  everyone is an immigrant's child. 

So on this day, let us remind ourselves of some of King's words:


--  "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"


 --  "An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality."

The Worst Kidney Stone in Human History

Here at the end of 2018, I am somewhat embarrassed so many of the few posts this year have been about the Fake President currently in office. I didn't want to do that, but the harm being done by the individual is consistently alarming and newsworthy.

I take some minimal comfort in the reality that the majority of voters cast their votes for someone else. Also bringing relief, the fact that the political faction responsible for his term were pretty much thrown out in the elections of the Fall of this year. But restoring the nation will be a great task and one that takes more time. Simply put, this bizzaro episode isn't going to end well. 

So onward to 2019, and again, I'll exert more effort to renew the readability and worth of posts on this humble, but lovable page. As for our current discomfort, it shall pass .... like the worst kidney stone in human history.

The Bizzaro President

I keep striving to stay off and away from the current politic holding sway in America, the Trump-Anti-Politic, but I'm really concerned for the Americans aiding and abetting it's prominence whether through will or apathy. 

And I'm concerned for those who have never been taken in by the Trump con, because, hey I feel ya. It's like living in a Bizarro Superman presidency or something and worse, it just keeps getting worse. Today, it's the president's attorney proclaiming "truth isn't truth" with relation to Trump. (Oh, we knew that already, btw).

I'm no political newbie. It's been a passion, a hobby,and local, state and national politics has - just in my lifetime - been a chaotic mess, a swill of corruption and also a realm of great achievement for the common good of our nation and our planet. 

If Trump posted his Tweets as the CEO of a company, he'd already have been fired.

So I'm concerned for all these folks who are trying to hold political concepts like "truth isn't truth" alongside the Constitution;support for arresting immigrants vs. the Constitution, our own history, morals, etc; and so much more - such contrary-wise thinking has to be debilitating after a while. 

A lot of the conflict and headaches you're having would ease up considerably if you'd just remember that no skin color makes any difference to anyone's worth, just like where someone is from is any reason to go all knock-kneed in terror, no need to fear them or harm them if they are poor, or if they love someone you don't approve of. I understand your sense of unease - our country has been at war in the middle east for 18 years now and Fear of Others has been our National Default Setting. All alliances become strained, and then 18 years of war along with other regional wars waged by despots have, no surprise, displaced millions and millions and millions of people who no longer have a home. Strangers seem to be everywhere.

But we have (well, we had) some strong skills at adapting and cooperating with our alliances to provide shelter and security, and we surely must soon consider how to end the longest war in the history of America. There are no voices of leadership even calling it into question.

For the rest of us - those who tried to warn others - if America isn't the leader of Democracy and Equality in the world ... who is?

Summer 2018 - They Live ... Again

Let's knock the dust of this page.

A reason for the long time between posts - I wanted it to be ignored for a while, forgotten even, so I had fewer concerns about who might read it. Job done!

On to business -

As a lifelong political observer, it has been a most fascinating time, though a sad one for the old U.S. of A. After surviving so many challenges of the most dire sort, it seems the worst folks imaginable are in charge supported by a very vocal minority of citizens who are demented by hatred and racism and self-aggrandizement. I can't say the prognosis is good - I'm afraid the old U.S. of A. is probably going to to get sicker before it gets better. 

An encore rally of the white-supremacist neo-nazis from Charlottesville have booked their next appearance - the national mall in front of the White House in August. Guest speakers to include........

Meanwhile, I've noted some true Weirdness worth noting - such as

 - - The use of foreskins from Korean babies as the base of a high-dollar facial treatment for rich white ladies (aka The Penis Facial). I hear The Idiot in Chief is a big fan.

- - America currently has the largest stockpile of cheese in over a century. Too much milk which is a part of the Idiot in Chief's Trade War stratagems. 

- - Finally! Robosuits are here!! (and remember, Robos can't unionize!!)

-- So for nearly 18 years now, every big-budget Hollywood box office hit feature agonizingly long and detailed scenes of giant skyscrapers collapsing into enormous billowing clouds of dust but no one is talking about the nation's recurring daydream of what happened at the World trade Center. Y'all are creeping me out.

- - Speaking of movies, check out the Daily Itinerary of the Killer in a Slasher Movie.

Breaking News Spring 2018

Yep, I'm still here. Did any dear reader take my suggestion to read thru the decade of previous posts?

No matter - here's a few things worth noting.

For the last few months, I've let the world turn and gyrate without commentary. I know you're trying, World, (well, there are sure some who are not) so I've withheld my views, much as a parent must eventually let go of the bicycle and let the child take over. And i'm not going to say I'm disappointed or angry. 

At this point, we just need to all be grown up and admit that consequences for illegal and impeachable offenses in the current White House are inevitable, if we follow our own governmental rules.

However, our current president is greatly skilled at a sort of "loss-leader" style of governing. From day one, actually, when this lifetimer salesman announced he was running. He is certain to include an outrageous comment (that Mexican immigrants are rapists) knowing full well the media machines would make that the story, when the real thing to probe and report on is the Candidate - who's who in the campaign, platforms and plans, experience, potential appointees, specifics. He continues such daily and weekly, via Twitter or in press briefings, meetings, legislating, etc - while the surface roils with items known to management to be losing are touted in order to draw in more potential 'customers' or voters, while real effort is being devoted (and not really debated) in areas affecting real changes on a national governing level.

I take great solace that hopefully the actions and voices of a generation (several actually) are about to march on Washington by the hundreds of thousands to demand an end to assault rifle sales, to stronger controls over high-powered weaponry, to refuse to accept endless shooter alerts while attending school will create a much-needed shift away from gun violence. Public school 2018 is akin to Vietnam, wasting the lives of the youngest and brightest for reasons archaic and obscure and pointless.

What else we got here?

Oh hey, welcome to the Internet America - because yes, all the info you put online, every connection and click you make, is being collected, studied, sold, and weaponized against you. You don't have to provide all that free data, you can keep a lot private, but it is being consumed and used without your ok.

In Entertainment news, I still haven't seen "Frozen" and I feel just fine.

And what was that other thing? ..... Ah yes, our nation is still at war in the middle east. Anybody got a year count on this war?

Gobsmacked in America; or The Tweetering Inferno

Oh blog, poor blog, you have been mightily not been much present for the Dear Readers of the world in 2017.

It's not your fault. Wailing negativity each and every day has dominated the news and the talk and politics and the personalities which a battered modern America has brought forth are fairly depressing. I really do not want to add even more weight to the self-manufactured drowning stones being looped around America's neck. So I've kept my mouth shut, my keyboard untouched.

And the information flowing from the political distortions of reality presented as fact is a likewise river of sewage pretending it's a princess. The emperor may have no clothes, to quote the fable, but in today's world none care but we will video him with their phone as he goes walking past. The screen is running the show.

So I've just been working on real human interactions. Not writing about it, not observing, living. Such tends to severely limit writing.

And the good and the positive which I have encountered this year, I've kept clutched silently to myself, as if such things were tattered remnants of a nation once proud and mostly honest. Festering sores aren't much use to share with one's fellow humans. Though if your fellow human is indeed covered in festering sores, maybe one should speak to it.

In more simple terms. the cheese has fallen right off the American cracker.

It's on the floor, even if you like, clean it off, put it back on the cracker, you'll know.


PS - Fear not dear reader. Your  Cup of Joe is here, even when quiet. There's 12 years worth of archives to read - just click on a month in the sidebar on the right. You can see how many dead links and dead websites and music and video sites that aren't around anymore. But I am still here. I be back.

Ray Bradbury Arrives in Morristown

Well, where oh where have I been? 

Working on this show --- from Ray Bradbury's celebrated novel.

TrumpBrand - America For Sale

The tweeted idiocies, outright lies, and deceptions gurgling up out of the TrumpBrand Government might appear entertaining, but the real, daily, and constant work to dismantle America is growing by leaps and bounds. Six months into this wrecking ball approach to government and the damage is already immeasurable. What a horrifying mess the TrumpBrand Government is making.

The Big Lie (aka the Blame Them Game)  which many Republicans and most Conservatives cling to, demands all problems or issues are merely the fault of any and every one except themselves - the reason those who hold office can't affect change is you, bucko, you and your crowd are bad hombres. It's the media, it's the previous administration, it's students, it's China, It's Germany (but it's isn't Russia), it's the immigrants, it's refugees, it's lazy poor people who make the problems that won't go away.

Oh and it is also the governed and those who govern. They - they - they - it's a mantra of blame throwing.

Meanwhile the real work to transform and elevate the control of business over government and the governed is on a stampede, noted in this report from Washington Monthly:

"The Trump/GOP effort to shrink the civil service plays on a narrative the American people have been hearing for decades: the federal workforce is bloated. As Mulvaney’s guidance put it, there are “too many Federal employees stuck in a system that is not working for the American people.” Press secretary Sean Spicer, announcing Trump’s executive order in January, explained that the hiring freeze “counters the dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years.”

"The only problem with this narrative is that it is the exact opposite of the truth. As a share of the U.S. workforce, the federal civil service is actually smaller than at any time since before World War II. In absolute terms, it has been about the same size for half a century. In 1966, there were about 2.1 million executive branch civil servants (not including Postal Service employees). Since then, the country’s population has increased from 196 million to 323 million. The annual gross domestic product, along with annual government spending, more than quadrupled. And the workforce? In 2016, there were still only 2.1 million federal employees.

"There’s no rule that says the number of civil servants has to rise in lockstep with the population or the economy. Many federal jobs in the 1960s were clerical positions that computers have made obsolete. But still. In 1966, there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no Department of Homeland Security, no Federal Emergency Management Agency. Medicare and Medicaid had been signed into law just a year earlier. It’s hard to believe that the same number of people we had in 1966 can run such a radically larger government enterprise.

"And, in fact, they don’t.

"While the number of federal employees has basically flatlined for a half century, the government has ballooned if you include another group in your tally: private contractors. As the size and scope of federal programs grew, but the number of civil servants stayed fixed, that labor had to get done by someone. Congress’s answer has increasingly been to contract with the private sector. So when Trump and the Republicans say they’re going to shrink government by cutting federal workers, do a mental autocorrect. What they’re really saying is, we’re going to be shoveling a lot more money out the door to federal contractors."

For the record, anyone who says government should run like a business does not know what government is actually for or what it does. 

" ... there are between 600,000 and 800,000 service contractors; the government spends more on them than it does on the salaries of the entire civil service, which has three times the number of people. Contracting accounted for 40 percent of all discretionary spending in 2015, and service contracts accounted for 60 percent of that (even more at nondefense agencies). And it’s rising. Even the Defense Department spends twice as much on contracts for services as it spends on aircraft, ships, and land vehicles. According to a 2015 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, spending on contractors nearly doubled from 2000 to 2012, and the subset “that grew the most in dollar terms was contracts for professional, administrative, and management services”—that is, service contracts."

Breezes of Heaven

Jupiter: Juno Perijove 06 from Sean Doran on Vimeo.


"As soon as somebody demonstrates the art of flying, settlers from our species of man will not be lacking on the moon and Jupiter... Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse."  -- Ovid


Cyclones as big as the planet Mars - dozens of them - cover the poles of the planet Jupiter. A spacecraft named for the mythical Jupiter's wife, Juno, has traveled the 300 million plus miles and is capturing the best images yet of this giant planet.

Here on Earth, we have observed and studied Jupiter for thousands of years, and we've never had such astounding images or detailed measurements. 

More on the mission itself here.

Who Could Possibly Be Surprised at the State of Trump's Presidency?

All of us who intentionally voted otherwise (aka the majority of Americans, thank God) knew.

A lot of those who voted for this deeply unqualified man, they knew too, but they were willing to gamble everything ... everything. Shame, shame.

Many voted to see if he would just gum it all up, turn into a headline fest of outrage. They are likely pleased, but still, not surprised.

What did we know? Trump is way out of his league, and his business practices are ragged secrets on the dark side.

As for me? My post  from Nov. 9, 2016 says it well -

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, puh-leeeze welcome the 45th President of the United States -- you know him as a middling brand name product made from toxic materials, the Kmart of Billionaires, the golden-toned skeezy Gordon Gecko leftover, the C-list TV actor popular in Soviet bloc countries - one Donald Trump -  and here we go on a slippery and rapid descent into political madness.

There has been no mass repudiation of politics-as-usual despite claims to the contrary, since the vast majority of folks already in office were re-elected yesterday. 

Anger, seething for 8 years, directed at all those who dared support a non-white male president, has flowered with poison.

Yes, only the man who was born with solid-gold privileges can save Americans from solid-gold privileged men.

On a personal note, there is not one person in office in the state or nation that I voted for. Whatever is about to happen, it will not be my fault. I'll just be over here complaining and saying I told you so."

And you know what, oh constant readers? I freakin' told you so.

The Armaggedon Roundup

Some observations -

- If you run a gun shop called Armageddon Supplies, isn't it inevitable one day some dude will send a 200 page manifesto of discontents to the White House, and steal dozens of guns and tons of ammo and armor from your store? Yer store, see, is called Armageddon Supplies, so that's like ... stupid.

- The witless prom girl video blogger is suing her insane boss for wrongful termination. Smart money says the two agreed to file suits against each other in order to generate some publicity, aka desperate pleas for attention. So, no.

- We've all seen some Dick moves in our time. For the president - any president - to gut billions from national parks and then donate $76,000 to them -- Grade A Dick move. It's the kind of asshole thing the asshole character in a bad movie does. Dick.

- The actual facts, the plain narrative of the president's financial connections to the Russian mob is right here to read. No special investigation revealed this - and any new investigation into this swamp means one thing which I predict right here - the current administration is defunct and within 2 years, the U.S. is going to be placing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan into the presidency. It's fairly inescapable.

- Here In Tennessee, those poor folks in the internet provider business just got $45 million in tax dollars to encourage them to actually provide internet in places they have refused to go. Oh and to let utilities to run internet wherever they can, because two businesses that just can't seem to make a profit are utilities and internet providers? 

The Disappeared-In-America Immigration System

You can read this article and you can not believe it, or not believe it, you can call it a generalization, or call it an abomination. Yet, dear reader, your opinion about this story and the people in it does not matter. Many others will be treated like the individual in this story, no matter who you share this story with or how much you might not want to even believe it or protest against it. 

That's because right now, a loud chunk of the voting public and the elected leaders hate immigrants. Voters don't actively hate them, they do it passively . Elected leaders are, however, very actively drafting and enforcing policies which are beyond cruel and abusive. Everyone, of course, can just call this system inadvertently harsh and brutal. And do nothing about it.

So why am I posting this? As with so very many posts here - it is something I do for myself. I post this because I do not want to be part of such a system. I have many friends who are terrified to be even near the edges of our current war on immigrants. I post it because I have this awareness, this slim bit of knowledge added to what is already known.

Anyone (typically not white) can be taken by ICE agents, and as a their detainee, you have no right to call anyone, no visitors, nor right to counsel though the detainee can hire one if he/she fills out the proper paperwork, that is if they can read and write English, and in the meantime ICE can move you from prison to prison, no outside contact, no hearings, no pleas, no time limit on how long you can be held so they just wait for the detainee to wear down and sign a voluntary deportation order.

"Locking up accused criminals indefinitely is a tried-and-true way of getting them to plead guilty, whether they actually committed a crime or not. The same principle applies to immigration detainees. And criminal defendants, even those accused of the worst crimes imaginable, don’t get sent to three different states in a two-month period as part of their pretrial detention."

Artists Are All Loser Slackers, Says Lying Media Outlet

I avoid reading the thin drool offered on the PJMedia website but I happened to read the opinion piece recently offered by a failed artist now church employee who demands the National Endowment for the Arts be totally eliminated 

The writer trots out withered, ancient and fake narratives which ignore the reality of what the NEA does and how it does it. The writer wails that crazy commie leftist artists suck up tax dollars to insult you with lousy arty stuff no one needs 'cause art ain't food; another false claim is that all art should be regulated by a free market and therefore insure only good art that everyone likes will survive and crappy art will die; and finally that "all Americans' don't have any creative notions so no creative notion should be supported.

The facts are enormously and utterly at odds with such drivel.

"The NEA’s 2017 budget is $149.8 million. In a nation of 319 million people that amount doesn’t allow the agency to subsidize much of anything. But the endowment has found ways to make the money work with outsized effectiveness and efficiency. It makes thousands of small grants to nonprofit organizations — on average 2,100 a year. Each grant requires the recipient to raise matching local funds — often at a ratio of two or three local dollars for each federal one. So the NEA mostly serves as a catalyst for local groups to raise private and state money to serve their own communities.

On its modest budget, NEA funding now reaches every state, every congressional district, and even most counties — rural and urban — in the United States. Grants fund programs in schools, libraries and military bases. Nearly half the grants go directly to state and regional arts organizations to expand grass-roots efforts. NEA grants never pay overhead or annual expenses. They only fund specific programs of artistic and educational excellence that reach the public."
--
"The arts in America wouldn’t be destroyed if the NEA ceased to exist. But music, dance, theater, literature and visual arts would become less widely available, especially in schools, rural areas and poorer communities. Access to culture should not be a function of family income. That is why citizens should remind their representatives in Washington that the NEA needs to be protected. Believe it or not, most members of Congress will be pleased to get these letters.

Public support for the arts and arts education is neither a partisan nor a divisive issue. Most Americans want to see the arts in their communities and their schools. Most members of Congress agree. So do most governors and state legislatures. A 2016 public opinion poll conducted by the advocacy group Americans for the Arts found that 55% were in favor of doubling the NEA’s budget (from 46 cents per person then to $1 per person)."

Truth - eliminating the tiny amount of the NEA budget resolves no issue and addresses no problem. So why push for it?

I find it fascinating the writer from PJM is employed by a religious organization, which is exempt from paying taxes - if the writer were truly concerned about fair tax policies, shouldn't he argue that religious organizations should be taxed? So it isn't a tax issue or an economics issue - it's a cultural control issue. It also perpetuates hateful, demeaning, false and ignorant views about anyone who works in the arts - as the article's writer asks, "why should my tax dollars pay for your slacker son to be in a play when if had any talent he would not need any support to reach the heights of success and fame and wealth'.

A few million dollars supporting tens of thousands of arts programs is bad. Billions to subsidize oil companies or banking is good. Only art that is bought is good. The crap you make in your own community is crap, go get a real job, slacker.

The Republican party continues to show it opposes collaboration, open dialog, education, a free press, or anything which provides opportunities for the poor, for rural residents, for schools. Every argument about the arts they offer is debunked but they continue to lie and distort reality - the real problem, they say, is your sin of not being wealthy. Art is for the wealthy and talented - your creative contribution is a laughable pile of crap.

And, as usual, those ideas are held only by a small, angry, petty crowd of deplorable clucks who have a warped view of the world. They simply lust for power for it's own sake while claiming to be your Protectors. 

Let Me Tell

It seems clear to me and to many others that the one word and concept which the current president does not understand is -- Intelligence.

Presidential campaign staffers - likely at trump's orders - contact foreign envoys for Russia (and probably other nations) whose phone calls have been routinely tapped by U.S. agencies since the 1950s - and they informed the president a month ago about such critical lapses and potential crime. When the president failed to act, they wisely informed the press, something intelligence agents have always done when national security is in grave danger.

It's even more unusual that a former intelligence director (Mike Flynn) appointed to National Security Adviser would not know about the taping of calls.

Russia meanwhile, acts pretty much like the One Who Defeated Trump - Russian jets buzz over our navy, a spy ship is spotted off the Connecticut coast, they're refusing to even discuss the Crimean issue, they've gotten the Syrian civil war going their way, they've violated missile treaties - who knows what else they can push into Trump's blustery face?

Now let's consider China, where Trump's business interests have been losing a 10-year legal battle over the rights to trademark his name. Dozens if not hundreds of lawsuits are underway. And as with Russia, the American people and Congress have zero idea how much of Trump's businesses rely on income from these countries - and most important - what will he do to preserve his income?

National security? Why that's just entertainment for Trump's country club gang.

The Age of Trump and the Rise of the Fake Generation

The president-elect truly wielded the digital might of Twitter into office. There are some basics about our digital communications which most Americans don't know, however. 

Overseas, nations like Russia, China, the Philippines, India, and more, have thriving digital economies built solely on defrauding digital communications. I'm not talking cyber-spies and plots. This is pure economics. 

Armies of low-paid workers create and use fake social media accounts, often hired by companies developing software or hardware or any product, really and they click away 24-7 around the globe. 

Also worth a read - clickfarming.

The problem so clogged up the giant Instagram platform that in 2014 they had to purge over 18 million suspected fake accounts.

Such digital tactics have been honed into a targeting political tool which found great success in the presidential election.

Cutting across many demographic groups, the rise of believers in Fake coalesced around a TV celebrity, Donald Trump, whose identity is and remains more of an Avatar than a person. He's the perfect spokesman of the Fake generation.

Accuse the spreaders of fakery (and their leader) and they'll respond such accusations are proof of guilt of the accusers. A political writer at Politico chucked mainstream news outlets for a couple of weeks and just followed the Fake generation online for information:

"Indeed, my feed was totally saturated with Pro-Kremlin sentiment. Part of that seemed connected to the likely Russian hack of emails that weakened the Clinton campaign and were published on Wikileaks, an organization that seems to have the trust of the alt-right. Anti-ISIS sentiment was baked in, and many Tweeters were just parroting the nation’s most prominent Russophile, Donald J. Trump. In any event, Russian propaganda intersected with Trumpian propaganda to such an extent that I observed little skepticism of Putin or RT, his English-language mouthpiece. At one point user @neverRINOs retweeted an image of Bashar Al-Assad on RT, saying, “Western media has no credibility, morality.” Above it, he wrote, “FACT CHECK: TRUE.” As Cernovich tweeted, “Putin is a larger than life alpha male who loves his country and will fight to defend it. Why don’t you admire him? Brainwashing.”

It's a swamp that isn't being drained, it's growing.

7th Annual Christmas Monkey Caption Contest

The Annual Christmas Monkey Caption contest began here on this humble but lovable blog Dec. 22, 2009. To be honest, so far, despite a weak handful of entries, my sample captions have always been better than any submitted by a reader.

The Christmas Monkey does not care what anyone says. The Christmas Monkey seen here, since 2009, has not been replaced or upgraded. The Christmas Monkey is beyond replacing. Do not mess with Christmas Monkey.

Christmas Monkey dares you to write a good caption.

Here's a couple to get you going:

"I'm gonna make Christmas great again!!"
"What did I get for Christmas? An orange, an apple, and three brazil nuts."
"Say "egg nog' one more time."