James Marriott

“Our society has been peaceful and healthy for so long that for many people serious disaster has become inconceivable,” Marriott writes. “Americans who parade around in amateur militia groups and brandish Nazi symbols do so partly because they are unable to conceive of what life would actually be like in a fascist state.” Those who attack modern medicine cannot really comprehend a society without it. And, Marriott adds, those who are cheering the rise of autocracy in the United States “have no serious understanding of what it means to live under an autocratic government.”

(Heather Cox Richardson's substack.)

Marriott notes that five Texas counties that make up one of the least vaccinated areas in the U.S. are gripped by a measles outbreak that has infected at least 58 people and hospitalized 13. It may be, Marriot writes, that “[t]he paradise of fools is coming to an end.”

Sunday

Trump and Musk want a world where there's no government and you have to beg the oligarchy for any little crumb, and they can spend wildly on whatever they want. Suckers. 

With the states fighting against each other, state attorney generals are suing each other. Luckily some got a cease and desist order on Elon Musk. 

I am feeling a need to avoid politics lately, maybe I need a break from it all. They say it's OK to take breaks, there's a conscious overwhelming policy, that's why there's always blarney most days. If it were not so destructive and evil, I'd say it was creative.

Trump trying to erase slogans like "End Racism" and diversity, equality and inclusion programs really means they work. 

I was trying to think of Trump is more like Darth Vader or Golem, and I remember that economic man, Quentin Compson, the second section in The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner: Drowned in the fading of honeysuckle.

Been feeling anger at all the people apathetic not to vote. Germany and France resoundingly reject far right wing autocrats and wannabe Nazis and America elected one. Just so obvious to me, we've been hoodwinked and people are dying, being deported, fired without cause or legally. It's a huge mess. And why? Greed. 

People just keep posting on social media, how is this happening? In shock. 

no longer authorized to conduct informal activities using government time, resources or facilities.

Protests at City Hall NYC February 2025

There's certainly a lot going on and pretending to be comprehensive isn't going to work. The hacking into payments at the source, even if it's read only, well, we just don't know what's going on, but it's quite possibly quite damaging. Cutting off payments to nursing homes, and all sorts of vital things is going to cause mass chaos and that's what it's about. 

Now Elon is playing the game of avoiding being served for all the lawsuits he's creating with his lawlessness. Just sidestepping the courts, sidestepping the legislature, that is a coup. I don't care if he's been empowered by Trump to hijack the federal government, or that the supreme court and legislature are republican, there is a rule of law, and he's breaking it. The Felon in Chief who isn't so hot on laws either, is cheering him on.

How does it happen that clubs are banned at West Point? Does Trump call up the president, and say well if you don't cancel these diversity affirming clubs I'm going to cut funding, I have Musk on the inside and he'll do it. Or does the president just get the vibes of what's going on and do it? 

Meanwhile shitty Google's links aren't working, you have to scroll down past the sponsored links, which seem to have expanded, and find a working link. 

Headline: West Point Disbands Clubs for Women and Minorities After Trump Orders NYTimes. Why is the president closing clubs? At a military college? Should be the only place he could do such a thing but why would he even care. I certainly care that he's closing them.

The message is both, you're not welcome here, and your experience doesn't matter. Like you can stop the black engineers from gathering together. 

The soccer guys down at the park don't really care, they're all hispanic and like Trump, and prefer to identify with the oppressor, and don't want to be told how to think.

"The memo said the directive canceled all trips, meetings, events and other activities associated with the clubs, which were no longer authorized to conduct informal activities using government time, resources or facilities." NYTimes

I mean it's not to hard to rename the club rock climbing or photography and still meet, except they're being trained to follow orders, and Trump doesn't like the military because it resists being his stooge. This is a revenge tour by a petty small minded harmful president. It's offensive on so many levels, which might be his plan to offend liberal sensibilities, the freedom to be who you are. Now cower to his greed. What does he stand for? He can't say white supremacy out loud, but that's his Hitler type message ultimately. And the mixed race guys playing soccer in the park love him, even though they're less under this system. I can't tell them as a white man who to vote for, that's more oppression, they're already voting for an oppressor without my educating them, thank you. They identify more with the strong man who smashes people, hopefully they're not caught under foot. 

Pretending that racism, sexism, classism doesn't exist, that doesn't erase it. Just compounds the problems that the clubs were working to redress. 

"end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government and supported by federal funds"

Trumps ultimate script flipping then goes on to say, "promising to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”"

This is why lying is so vital to Trump, because doing the opposite of what he says he's doing is the key to the art of the deal. 

Meanwhile the legal system is fighting out diversity programs, as in against affirmative action (NY Times). Total shitshow. I wouldn't be surprised if colored water fountains start showing up in federal buildings. 

All the NASA website posts trumpeting women have to be taken down. (gizmodo).

This is what you jerks voted for. And that is what the cheating felon president is doing.

Many conservatives applaud his works, meanwhile it's going to be too late to stop him later when these self interested types get trampled on in some way.

The Coup

I thought it was dramatic to call it a coup, but I see it now. Musk is circumventing too many rules. Check out HCR's letter to America:

"...the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change. But they are not doing that."

"Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes."

"The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical."

"...permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man."

Nation headline: Who Will Stop Elon Musk’s Coup?

Never forget he did the Nazi salute 2 times recently.

"“What is happening now is predictable,” Die Zeit said in its editorial. “Neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals can interpret the stretched right arm as a gesture of fraternization and empowerment.” NYT

The selling price for American government is 280 million, seems cheap. Wasn't even into Trump's pocket, it was just on his campaign.

Selling fear of chaos, president creates chaos. America have never been in more danger than in this moment.

Many news outlets are calling it a hack. It's a coup. (example, 

Guardian: Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of ‘a plutocratic coup’

I am very angry! Worst threat to American democracy in my lifetime. Today I am calling my legislative representatives, Schumer (202) 224-6542, Gillibrand (202) 224-4451 and Meng (202) 225-2601, to protest the coup. Websites aren't working but I figured it out with non-governmental websites.

All I can say is anytime a conservative starts to talk about security of state secrets, I'm going to ask them if they spoke out about Trump's boxes in his bathroom, and Musk accessing social security numbers even though he was not vetted. They keep crossing off items of their agenda through lack of integrity.

Links:

Atlantic on Archive: Elon Musk’s bureaucratic coup is underway.

Nation: Signs of a New Anti-Trump Opposition Amid Elon Musk’s Coup

Heather Cox Richardson YouTube. She points out the Coup was after 5PM on Friday, avoiding the media coverage. She says people keep their pensions when they resign instead of being fired, that's why people are resigning instead of fighting things more. Musk's philosophy is break everything and then if it was really necessary, they can add it back. He says he's doing things, never really sure if they're really doing things. She says the Republicans in congress can stop this, but not for much longer. Democrats are screaming from the rooftops. Republicans stopped Nixon. Will they stop this time? Stepping past the congress and courts sets up a dictatorship. There's a blizzard of lawsuits. Normally when people are breaking the law, they try to stay within the law, it's harder to understand how to attack back when people completely disregard the law. People don't know how to respond. How do we proceed? This GOP isn't popular, and since then they stay in power by suppressing the vote, gerrymandering, and overspending from corporations, the media follows. That Trump can't really talk isn't being covered the way Biden limped after he broke his foot. We got to the place we are now because Republicans control president, legislature, and supreme court. They don't even have the notes in congress, so they're not going to do it with legislature. They're not acting to stop him. Without laws, we're in authoritarianism. 

They want to get rid of federal education. That would get rid of money for disabilities and poor schools. Nursing homes. If you shut down a nursing home, it's really bad news for the people who live there, the people who work there. It's the ultimate destruction of the liberal consensus to use tax dollars to create a structure, a safety net. That's not going to turn out well for America. This isn't a private company like Twitter, this is a country. There's going to be some real problems. The hardships are going to be extraordinary, and it takes down the whole system. They want to destroy everything and helpless, and divided. They'll sell the parts. You voted to take the car to the mechanic, and you come back and it's been stripped and sold, they kept the money and we should thank them for it. 

What to do: Musk is not elected. He threatens to fund opponents in the legislature, and he doesn't need them any more by side stepping them. The republicans need to wake up. 332 million Americans against one. The question isn't whether you're left or right, the question is how do we stop this? Gizmocrats. They can stop any payments they want to from the government. Why would you trust them? It's chaos.

How did America mobilize the people in their own interest without the constitution (which they're sidestepping). Government needs popular buy in. He keeps saying he had a landslide, had a huge inauguration and sidestepped that last time. In this moment our voice needs to be heard.

The switchboards went down in Washington yesterday, so many people were calling.

The democrats are doing the best they can but they're not in power. People yell at the democrats, even Heather Cox Richardson doesn't do anything. Yell at the arsonists setting things on fire, not the firemen. 

You can even go to your bank and ask how you're protecting their information, the treasury has been breached. 

No violence, that always changes the narrative.

Putting money into programs that undercut ISIS, for less than 1% of the budget, is acting in our own best interest. 

Help people see how white people or their tribe is being hurt. They point out one tiny piece of this obscure grant. They're trying to cut nursing homes. Transportation. It's endless, you're about to see what happens with a really terrible run government. 

Throwing up your hands won't do. This is the worst moment in American history in many people's lives. The future is unwritten, we can maybe make this not be so bad.

In other news:

Timeline of crash

January 20: FAA director fired

January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen

January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded

January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees

January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

January 30: Whitehouse addresses the nation. Donald Trump blames DEI, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama for the tragic accident.

Pete Buttigieg: "Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. 

President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

I’ve been thinking that everyone has two people inside them. One is liberal and one is conservative. What our politics is the one we let out. If you let out the liberal, the caring, then you want to try and do things with the government. If you let the conservative out, you don’t want government, you see it’s influence as negative. 

Libertarians can say they’re liberal, like Chomsky, but it’s a fundamental move to hate government from a conservative perspective. 

You can be a liberal and see unintended consequences of government, and missteps. 

You can be a conservative and want roads and garbage taken away, collectively, for the general good.

We are large, we contain the multitudes.

I think about how upset I am during this time, and I’m going to imagine conservatives who feel that way even though we’ve only had centrist democrats. I think Clinton was a DINO. We need left leaning people infiltrate the republicans and then switch sides when they get in office, like the Republicans are doing.

I think things in politics used to be about limiting action versus greater action, but the current regime is all about putting on an elaborate song and dance for the revival and snake oil. America has become a parody of itself. 

Gish gallop

Seems like Trump is cutting off all government money, and whatever he lets come back, they’ll be relieved, when really he’s just an asshole the whole time. 

Meanwhile he’s trying to sneak through a federal abortion ban. It’s a gish gallop. 

Lefties joke about him playing golf, but I’d like him to take days off from this chaos making. He’s got his minions working anyway.

We've progressed even though we’re going through a fucktastrophy

Few steps forward, a few steps back. 

It's 2025, and in 1954, 71 years ago, Betty White's show was canceled for having black people on it (Wikipedia)(Watch segment). We're bound to take steps back, like maybe for the next 4 years. Trump has taken things away, like the Anti-discrimination act of 1965, and such things. We'll see what pops back right away after he's going. He's talking about trying to erase the 2 term limit, but we'll cross that road if it happens. I'm going to have to assume that they can't get that done. I assumed Trump couldn't win, but he did, and maybe it's good not to close your eyes to prepare for reality, but I think I have to just for sanity sake. 

People who performed at the Inauguration in 2025: Carrie Underwood, Snoop Dogg, Jewel. Jewel apologized for playing at an after party for RFK, she said she just wanted to advocate for mental health (VF).

I'm thinking Trump is very asshole rolled up into one. All the negative traits. All the asshole bosses you've ever had. All the rapey guys you've ever met. All the rich assholes you've ever met. Not a sports jerk, not an intellectual jerk though, so maybe not all, just most of them. 

Trump is talking about doing away with FEMA. He dropped the 1965 discrimination act. Seems like he's kind of tinkering with things quite a bit. He's messing with the fabric. The defense cabinet guy is a rapey alcoholic with fascist tattoos, with no experience, sounds about right. I'm counting on the military giving pushback. The footage of ICE raids are chilling. No more warning about bird flu, only farms with ducks on Long Island quietly killing all their birds because of the bird flu. Bezos, Zuck quiety comply, taking down discrimination writing on their websites. Female cleric stands up to him though. Newsom gets his photo op pointing at Trump, telling him what's what. 

When you look at the videos of Musk acting weird, perhaps high, wobbling his eyes around , and then giving a Nazi salute, you think he's taken a page from the Trump playbook where you don't some stupid shit to attract attention to yourself, and even the left wing spreads it about, with disapproval, sure, but still you're everywhere, saturating the imaginations, negatively to the people you don't like, and geeze whiz isn't he a funny one to the people who do like you, which must be shrinking, but some people think money equals good, so he must be the most good. 

Distraction, distraction, distraction. When you don't like government, want smaller government, the style now is to just put on a dope show to distract from the poor governance, and lowering the bar. I see you. People who dislike government feel that way so strongly, they'll take these clowns over what they consider worse, and that's the liberal vision. I can empathise with the conservative vision, I even like it sometimes when it's not enabling clowns. The culture war for me is clowns versus good governance, and that's no disrespect to clowns, who I'm just using as a metaphor, not speaking literally. At least clowns entertain, these guys are the opposite of entertainment. 

Letting the criminal J6 people out might seem trivial, but to me it's horrible, very upsetting. The only principle is loyalty to the Commander in thief. 

They have taken down the Spanish part of the White House website, and many of the rights pages. They really simplify everything. The government is just about Trump grifting, not serving the people. 

Looks like France might seize Musk's assets, jail him (twitter). Who knows if this is real, I haven't seen it in the press. 

Reddit has many subreddits have banned X links. 

MLK

They were talking about MLK Day in 1968 after he was assassinated, but they didn't get it done until 1986, almost 20 years later. That kind of shows you how slow society changes and getting things done.

I still have a dream. 

We live in a country that seems to be fractured into radical conservative visions and the liberal order that was established. The yin and yang of America is to think about others and make a world of equality with justice, and just dropping all that and, whatever, just dropping that. 

I think I took women's rights to abortion for granted, I thought Roe v Wade enshrined that, but they found a way around it, put it back on the states, and conservative states outlawed abortion. Poor women who wants abortions because they can't really afford a child, don't have the money to travel out of state, so that's a barrier, but that's enough they're talking about setting up checkpoints to make sure pregnant woman are not going to leave the state to get an abortion. It has led to terrible cases where women carried babies to term that they knew were going to die, and a few women have died from this excess of zeal not to have abortions.

Look at the photo of Gerry Santoro who dies from a botched illegal abortion in 1964.

Crime going down was one of the consequences of abortion being legal. Now that's not an argument for it, but you could look at this issue from all the angles and think about. People die in many ways, and if you're really pro-life, and not just pro-birth for poor women, then you'll see it's complicated. 

That's just one right that has eroded over the years, and perhaps it's because a significant segment of the population feels strongly about this issue. My ex-friend who voted for Trump said he just didn't want to pay for it, like you could pick and choose the things you pay for in society.

I had a logic professor that withheld the percentage of his taxes that went to the defense budget because he was pacifist and he didn't want to support war. 

The USA budget expands and contracts with left and right, but the right drives up the debt and the left pays it off, so in the end the right ends up spending money. They don't mind spending money on defense, which is rife with corruption and problems. It's a messy system.

I digress. I was trying to say in America we don't really have that feeling I used to feel when MLK day came around, that I was proud of our nation, this year it feels like we live in a deeply divided nation. The people who profit from dividing our nation have succeeded: Foreign countries, etc. 

Can't believe people make money writing about politics, because mostly people just hate politics, and avoid it. 

Realize this blog is just an expression vehicle because nobody wants to talk politics, and it's actually quite a big part of the problem, and we're about to enter a period where the left wing is going to be howling about all sorts of wrecking up and enshitification by the idiocracy. 

It's quite boring seeing the same memes over and over on Bluesky. Yes, air force one can be renamed con air. You get the sense that Trump does it all for the trappings. Nothing ever works but actually the government plane works for the right wing tinpot authoritarian 

I didn't go to the People's March, and it turned out to be a lucky thing because there was a crisis I was needed for. 

But before then I felt so guilty about not wanting to go alone, and not finding anyone to go with me. 

I also think about French Dispatch (2021), where the student is always protesting part. I love Wes Anderson, and I'm about to have a Wes Anderson marathon.

I took Tik Tok off my phone because it's Chinese, and I love the Chinese people and history, but i don't trust their government. Plus Insta, FB and YouTube have short videos, and I generally don't look at those anyway. My daughter likes it, maybe I should put Rednote on my phone.

Two arguments go in different ways. One says this is cutting off our freedom. Another says we're protecting ourselves from Chinese manipulation, but the China government can manipulate us from the other apps too, I suspect every dastardly country should have a kind of social media spin division. In the end it's protectionism for Zuckerberg, which is funny, he donated all that money to Trump and Trump is saying he's going to executive order it back, somehow, specifics to come later. If Biden signed it into law, it's law. But perhaps he can finesse the legislators to write a new law. Him wanting to do that makes me think China gave him money or will grant him some hotel concession or whatever that can complete the grift, government by highest bidder. I'd love to see an actual bidding war for Trump's policy. 

One thing you can be sure of that the Cacocracy is working it's magic of enshitification. 

AOC voted against it because they didn't make the case, no evidence of the actual problem.

Others are saying it's manufactured, it's banned, and Trump is going to rescue it. 

I love it that China and Russia have a clear favorite candidate for USA and we voted for him.

My pet peeve about my daughter's school is that it's not whole language hippy dippy learn to read when you're ready stuff, it's drill baby drill, North Korea, full on all the time. 

I'm wondering if my Taoism undercurrent, thinking things should be natural, is part of why I hate it, and find it unnatural. They would claim it works on a few kids, so it's worth it, but the consequence to the rest worries me, and the best kids who it works on would figure out how to learn anyway too probably, and can ramp it up later if they want. Not in 3rd grade. 

thoughts today

Three thoughts today and a list.

The first one is that I actually think cults are pretty cool. I’m not saying death cults or exploitation cults but the cult of loving your spiritual tradition, is is kind of devotion to me. Devotion is good so I don’t really I’m not really into Saying that Trump‘s cult has put down

Every little resistance and hatred of the opposition is being filed in my head is something that potentially a conservative or a right wing person would feel when there is a left-wing or in office. I don't think there's an equivalency, Trump is an outlier, I'm thinking Reagan, Bush, Bush, Clinton conservatives, not Trump. 

I’m really tired of “this might” happen. There’s so much sort of culture war trying to create space BS so this might happen that might happen. This might happen, that might happen. I’m getting really sick of it. I just really wanna hear what has been accomplished, blocked, or rammed through despite the people's wishes. How misinformation has been fought.

How the American systems failed us: 

The supreme court overruled Colorado taking Trump off the ballot. States were not allowed to take him off the ballot. Colorado didn't vote for him anyway. Maybe only states that are controlled by Democrats would have taken him off the ballot and he would have remained on the states he won anyway. 

Education: People allowed manipulation of information to take root in their minds. People imagined Trump was worthy of being president, didn't introspect enough to see how they were just bored and wanted to wreck up the place some.

Attorney General: Dropped the ball obviously. Merrick Garland is synonymous with shitty attorney generals who couldn't get it done.

Spiritual communities: We haven't educated our communities enough to avoid this outcome.

Citizenship: People imagined him to be worth voting for, the American people didn't provide the fail safe.

"A federal judge (and Smith) only agreed to dismiss the case because Trump won the election in November and prosecutions against sitting presidents are against long-standing Justice Department policy." Huffpo

Basically he ran to avoid prosecution, and America didn't notice or care enough. 

Politics of cruelty

I wanted to gain insight into conservatism and I tried to read George Will's tome. I couldn't go far because I was so repulsed by the idea that it was about doing the unpopular thing. It was just too vague and too cruel. 

I can't help but think of Ivanka Trump making her kid ride his bike in the hurricane. It's a good lesson in a way, that your child doesn't have to surrender to fears. It was just raining and he was getting wet. Mostly it's upsetting because she's kind of forcing him out of his comfort zone. If conservatives are about flaunting fake fears, I'm OK with that message. It's a flimsy vision, but OK. You can add that to any larger vision easily, and Democrats do that. 

Pushy therapist who gets in there and ignores you defenses can be seen as good. A guru will upset you, shatter some illusions. That's almost what the republicans are going for, but I think it's more guided by insecurity and fear than what a therapist and guru are guided by. 

Biden is forgiving loans, creating parks. The economy is booming. He's provided vanilla stability, which is what I want in a government. His presidency is going to be a shining beacon because it's sandwiched between the ineptitude and cruelty of Trump.

What is the opposite of cruelty? Compassion. I'm everything for the politics of compassion.

People are so afraid of compassion, call it vague and soft. It can also be fierce and apt. 

No shame

Trump has raised quite a lot of money, strike at the roots of poverty money, end hunger type money, for his inauguration.

People deal with the surfaces, I'm sure Zuckerberg looked around and realized he could save costs on the bottom line, and even make some free publicity in doing it. Attract the troll types that kill social media, because he's got his bunker in Hawaii, earnings were probably declining, try something new. Cutting costs is always where these guys evolve to. More for me. 

Trump spins it, that's his influence. Zuck already gave him millions. 

Trying to filter out the blather, the nonsense, the attention getting.

In some ways it's crime in broad daylight. Trump's strut about getting away with it. Let the assholes strut around. Pretty sure there are many aspects of discontent in their lives. They think they have thick skin for all the criticisms. Canada liking the narrative of wrecking the boom, get Trudeau to quit. Never really understood it, though I've seen about 20 different explanations. Humans sabotage themselves. They get tired of things run well, they want chaos. I'm afraid they're too much in touch with that urge. Where is appreciation for virtue and propriety. 

Meanwhile LA burns, the hubris of Americans burns up America. "Recalling  Buddha’s Fire Sermon: “Bhikkhus, all is burning … burning with the fire of greed, with the fire of aversion, with the fire of delusion.” We are seeing burning in all quarters." (Halifax)

Selectively punishing Giuliani, he has to give up his World Series Ring. Not sure why he didn't hide everything, he's already lost his lawyer license, he must feel guilty about it, think he deserves it. 

Chris Hayes

The ‘Crush Nazism’ monument outside Oslo Central Station.

Chris Hayes asks in the Times (Gift Article), "Did Americans elect him again because they were just kind of bored with the status quo?"

I'd say I was quite allergic to boredom, in combination with being put upon at work at times.

Not bored anymore, but I do seek simulation even so. I can meditate for an hour, a couple times a day, and that can have all sorts of negative emotions, including boredom. 

My daughter came into my room towards the end of vacation. She was bored. I put the responsibility of finding something better to do on her. What can she imagine? I realized I don't feel bored, but I do sometimes think about what I'm going to eat next, what movie I'm going to watch next, what TV show I'm going to watch next.

Ouch: "What parents haven’t had the experience of rejecting a child’s request for screen time and then catching themselves immediately going back to scrolling their phones?"

I'd say it was one of my triggers for substance abuse. Intoxication somehow makes life briefly easier. The downside costs are too much, but I wasn't there until recently. 

I've been meditating for 20 years, but I guess not hard enough at times, because I fell into substance abuse. Maybe it was the mistakes I made that were utterly disappointing. Maybe it was because I realized I couldn't be a monk. 

“When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men,” Pascal observed in “Pensées,” his collection of essays published in 1670, “I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.”

I'm not sure if you have to suffer being alone as much as this implies, and I think if we can understand how balance works in our life, desire for stimulation and retreat. 

“Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; quite the contrary, it is a truly divine way of life, so long as one is not bored,” Kierkegaard wrote. “Indeed, one can say that any human who lacks appreciation of it proves he has not raised himself to the level of humanity.”

I feel like anapanasati, the brahma viharas, 6 element, Buddhanasati and just sitting meditation has given me resources, combined with vast reading of the Dharma, combined with talking to other Buddhists, has given me resources for coping with boredom. 

And I'd say this is the 20th hypothesis as to why America was hoodwinked and bamboozled by Trump, by a very slim margin. 

Fake crisis by fake people

Elon Musk, the fake man of free speech, is against Wikipedia. Of course he's going to be against facts and truth. It's almost like him being against something makes it all the more valuable fighting these oligarchs. 

The panic about shrink birth rate. When the black plague reduced population worker rights went way up, as people tried to retain workers. Shrinking birth rates mean better worker conditions. Greedy jerks don't like that. The planet could really use a reduction in population.

The right wing have no insight into how their policies suppress the urge to have children.

They invent fake crisis to go with the real ones like climate change and class war.

I zoom past anything Elon or Trump says. I'm not even interested in developing disgust for how wrong they are, how mendacious. 

Trying to let go of my hatred of Elon and Trump, let go of the attention they old. Articles about them and videos not getting attention would really deprive them. Need to burn Zozobra. 

Enshitification

One of the elements of the idiocracy the Americans have elected because inflation was just too frustrating is a bozo who won’t fix inflation either, and will pick his cabinet with the worst people, because government isn’t meant to be federal, only military and currency production. The garbage hauled away, the roads, the schools, the mass transit is all local government, that is only what we need. The federal government could cut some spending and lower taxes, but these wholesale swings of back and forth aren’t productive. 

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy, they don’t want people to believe in government, they won’t increase entitlements, indeed, they’ll ratchet up the deficit so the democrats can’t increase entitlements. They won’t give medicaid for all, and they won’t build housing, and the housing crisis will get worse and worse. It’s going to be a very difficult 4 years, but it will usher in a new democratic leader. Harris got 75 million votes, Trump got 77, and more people didn’t vote than voted. America just couldn’t grasp that Trump won’t raise inflation more than Harris, they repeat the tired old slogans of the right. They chose this idiocracy, the enshitification of America. The people who voted for him think he’s more honest in his lies than Harris was with her colored female truths. 

There’s a knowing glee by many conservatives for this time of lawlessness, and white supremacy. Punching down returns as the pass time. Pictures of the parties show women who’ve been plastic surgeried into looking like android sex machines.

Struggling not to dread the next 4 years, to be ready, but also aloof. I want to protect myself for the most part, but I want to be ready to launch into action when the opportunity arises. Looks like the march in Washington on January 18th looks like an opportunity. 

Someone wrote a similar article on the same day--Jason Linkins