TIKTOK AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Due to the recent headlines about TikTok I decided to check it out. Most of what I saw was exceedingly stupid, but otherwise fairly innocuous, so I’ve become more skeptical about the claims of politicians. It is one thing if it in fact is a vehicle to enable the CCP to spy on us, in which case it might then be a threat. They are also tracking and collecting personal information, but so are all the other platforms, and at present they may be having enough trouble keeping track of their own people to bother much with ours. Otherwise, I can’t imagine much use for a collection of dopey videos. There may or may not be something more there, but the only way to find out is to do some serious research instead of shooting first and asking questions later.

 The more salient concern is what negative impact it is having on vulnerable, impressionable young people. But that feature of social media is hardly unique to TikTok, so the Chinese element may be irrelevant, apart from sour grapes from Silicon Valley over the success they have had. Instagram, which began as a place to share photos, has been transformed into a clone of TikTok, with identical short, mindless videos, and there are others, so the phenomenon would persist even if there were no TikTok.

 

Throughout almost all of history there was no “gap” between generations. Even in modern times, the 1960s, and possibly the 1920s were aberrations. Thus, we have the phenomenon of younger people still connecting with music that is five or more decades old.

 

But now there is something that really is different and barely perceptible to most adults. These kids have grown up with an almost integral connection to social media. The rest of us grew up with a variety of experiences and venues such as movies, television, publications, as well as far more interaction with the physical world. For these kids everything, all of it, is online, especially social media, which has resulted in a very different perception of the world around us as well as what matters. If you’re not “there” you basically don’t exist. The paramount path to notoriety now is there, not in other media, which has generated a horde of aspiring “influencers,” as well as outsized significance provided to the insignificant. 

 

If it was simply a different perspective it wouldn’t matter so much, but with a growing realization of how much real harm is being done, it is very consequential, if not critical. 

 

Social media has become a vehicle for boundless narcissism, not just for kids but for adults as well. In this world everybody is a star (which can also effectively mean that nobody is). When someone puts up a video of themselves doing silly, or routine things like exercising, frequently lip-synching with a dreadful soundtrack, they do so in the hopes of gaining recognition, likes, followers, and other forms of positive feedback validating their lives. But what happens to the vulnerable when the feedback is negative? Clearly it can be devastating. 

 

Even adults are not immune to this sort of exposure to the extent that they can bristle at any negative reactions to what they post. Thus, what social media fundamentally gives us, to the extent that we allow it to, is naked, exposed egos. For the young, or those with fragile egos, the consequences can be  catastrophic.

 

Yet much here is not new. Even in the earliest years of the Internet there was negativity via “flame wars.” A quarter of a century ago AOL provided essentially the same material as Facebook but arguably better. Then there was MySpace, where everyone soon had a Page, but with the technology of the time pages rich with graphics and blasting music incessantly, they took forever to load, so the plain, simple interface of Facebook left them in the dust. But both heralded something new- the real you. 

 

Back on AOL virtually everyone had a handle, not many real names were used, personal information wasn’t exposed, and there were few photos. Thus, you really couldn’t know who was and wasn’t real, but at the same time you were reasonably safe. Here may lie the crux of the matter and possibly the easiest solution to the social media conundrum.

 

Banning a service or attempting to control it all is neither viable nor desirable, with the possible exception of platforms. But if people were limited in their personal exposure, many problems would dissipate. Furthermore, under current conditions privacy has been shredded. As long as personal information is out there, or worse even promoted, problems will persist. What we really need to do, for the protection of the public, is simply limit the exposure of personal information, especially on public venues. If this were to come about there would likely be a healthy loss of interest, once “me” or “I” were out of the picture. Life then might hopefully return to normal.  

REFLECTIONS ON THE JANUARY 6TH RIOT AND TRUTH

This morning I saw a dingbat CBS “news” anchor airhead expressing outrage over Tucker Carlson’s January 6th revelations, which of course was echoed by the entire establishment media complex, along with some politicians demanding his show be taken down. But these are the same people who have continuously lied to us, repressed the truth, put an ideological spin on the facts, and have zero credibility left with the public. Even here they lied and distorted, basically charging that his report “lacked context,” and left out a lot of other things that happened, yet they could disprove nothing.

He never claimed that this was the whole truth about January 6, but that it was a part that was deliberately ignored and suppressed by the odious Jan 6th committee. Had they been truthful it would not have been necessary.  Had they not blatantly rigged the committee in a partisan fashion and allowed no representation from the other side, no cross-examination, etc., it would have been different. They even hired one of their collaborators from the ABC to prepare the show for them. It was a a propaganda exercise that needed correction. The media propagandists further threw of deceptions as some sort of evidence that hundreds pleaded guilty to whatever they were being charged with, because they a willfully ignorant about how the federal “justice” system actually works. If you are unfortunate enough to fall into the crosshairs of the US Attorneys you are screwed as the full weight and resources of your own government are turned against you, and you go broke if you litigate, or take a plea which most have to do because the system is so unfair. That is why they have a higher than 98% conviction rate-higher than the Soviet Union in its day. It is not because they are so good at what they do but because the system is rigged. 

Were the actions on that day justified? Of course not, but the distortion and suppression of the truth of the matter, the deliberate withholding of evidence, months of unconstitutional incarceration without any charges, add up to something far worse than the event itself. Those who reject this should honestly ask themselves what their thinking would be if it happened to people they sympathized with. We either have a single standard of justice in this country or we don’t have any justice, and right now the latter is the reality. 

But leaving all that aside, the most disturbing thing about January 6th, which they never investigated or questioned was how and why it was able to occur in the first place. They were only interested in going after Donald Trump, (who admittedly could have conducted himself much better that day), and scoring political propaganda points. 

There is a villain who bears the most responsibility for this event but it isn’t Donald Trump. It is Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi was responsible for police and security in this instance, and despite being given intelligence that there would likely be disturbances she refused to take any precautions or enhance security, even as the Capitol police pleaded for them. You never heard any of that from the sham committee or its media collaborators, along with repeating lies even now about people being killed that day, when in fact there was only one, Ashli Babbitt, a veteran, who was basically murdered by a trigger-happy officer even while she was right next to two other officers. They don’t say her name either. 

On top of that Pelosi then took the unprecedented step of rejecting any members from the minority party and instead handpicked only two renegades who reliably agreed with her party and pre-ordained position. The real purpose of the committee wasn’t even getting Trump, it was covering her tracks.  Is it at all credible that no one even raised these questions? It was a totally dishonest travesty, a show trial worse than anything that has ever occurred in this country, yet not an objective word was said about the warped legal atrocity being perpetrated by the incompetent media, who gleefully cooperated directly with one side in staging these hearings. 

The reality of the riot on January 6 is not at issue here, but rather how it has been handled, how so many outright lies and myths have been sold, how unjust the whole process has been, and worst of all how total incompetents botched the basic security of of the facility. Speaker McCarthy, Tucker Carlson, and Fox are to be commended for their efforts to get at the whole truth despite the vilification from that same media that doesn't want you to know the truth. 

THE LESS SECRECY THE BETTER

All the attention currently directed towards purloined presidential documents raises a larger question. Why are they secret in the first place and how is this determined?   Few terms have been abused more than “top secret,” often for ulterior motives and obscure, unexplained reasons. Secrecy frequently gives unchecked power to faceless bureaucrats without any accountability. That kind of power is easily subject to abuse that is devoid of any consequences. Many people have been apprehended for violating secrecy, but has anyone ever been held to account for designating something secret improperly, withholding or distorting information, to the detriment of truthful deliberation? This security umbrella has enabled our intelligence institutions to become politicized, and weaponized into hitherto unthinkable abuses. Meanwhile most of the media that once might have raised loud objections and alarms about this have instead ignored, or more inexcusably, collaborated in suppressing the truth for ideological reasons. Secrecy excesses have provided much convenient cover and the whole subject now desperately needs some serious reconsideration. 

 

Secrecy is what has enabled one administration after another to lie to us, make disastrous and costly mistakes, while concurrently spinning the narrative to evade responsibility. But often enough it blows up on them, and worse, terrible damage occurs that could have been avoided had there been full disclosure in the first place. Further, secrecy is fundamentally at odds with the notion of a free and open society.  But that only works when there is a media that sets aside partisan considerations instead of participating in them.

 

Moreover, it is no “secret” that secrecy is something we are not particularly good at. Our government leaks at a greater rate than a pot full of holes, whether intentional or not. Washington is simply terrible at keeping secrets. The reality is that our officials are simply unable maintain much secrecy for long. It is also quite likely that our adversaries know more of our “secrets” than we do, given how porous our institutions are. This should also put to rest any notion about some nefarious hidden trove of information about aliens, assassinations or anything else consequential. It simply isn’t there or it certainly would have leaked. Otherwise, you would have to believe that every president since Harry Truman through Joe Biden were part of some great conspiracy suppressing the truth, or that Donald Trump would not have blown the lid off if anything were there.

 

Leaks involve intent on the part of someone to pass information out publicly. They are more embarrassing than damaging. What is far worse is when secrecy is maintained on false premises in order to protect the powerful, to cover up and lie on their behalf, prevent the revelation of avoidable mistakes, and distort or suppress the truth. Withholding information is more egregious than exposing it, even when ill-advised. 

 

There is only one possible justification for government secrecy and that is national security. But that being case it can also be stretched to unjustifiably transform something trivial into something consequential enough to be secret, or to cover up ineptitude. The temptation for abuse is hard to avoid when something is inconvenient, embarrassing, violates accepted assumptions, etc. none of which can possibly justify secrecy. As with anything that is overdone it ultimately trivializes and diminishes what otherwise might be important. 

 

There is obviously a need for secrecy in military affairs. It is also justified to a lesser extent, with diplomacy and intelligence services, but there is always a downside. The more something is secret the less it is open to scrutiny, alternative interpretation, alteration, or critical questioning that comes from open and free discussion. We have stumbled into disasters too often in recent times due to “faulty intelligence,” which usually means any serious questioning or consideration of any contrary evidence or alternative views. For that matter if diplomacy prior to World War I had been more open, the bumbling uncertainty that unleashed a terrible war and all the disasters which followed in the last century could have been avoided.

 

This has always been the great weakness of repressive regimes as information is unreliably skewed and eventually undermines the worst kind of state. That is why free societies have been able to triumph in the end, despite all their untidiness. The more things are out in the open the less chance there is of miscalculation, or worse, being fed lies to suppress some inconvenient truths and mislead the public. The more we emulate our adversaries the more likely we are to share their eventual fate. Experience has shown us that secrecy has too often been pointless or counterproductive.

 

Fortunately. perceptions have changed. When Ellsberg lifted the Pentagon Papers many of us reacted angrily at the time at what we perceived to be an act of disloyalty rather than to the substance of what was being revealed. But by the time of Snowden and Assange or the Iraq war things became more nuanced. It no longer is all that clear as to who the bad guys really are. However, the high level of institutional distrust the public currently maintains is also not healthy. This could easily be assuaged with much less secrecy, and more plain truth. The less politicians lie the better they will sleep at night and the more effective they will be during the day.

 

Now that the secrecy canard has come back to bite two presidents, we must wonder just how critically secret many of these documents really are. We really need new standards that provide a clear rationale and justification before anything is blacked out by secrecy. This should be stringent, minimal, and subject to review, both initially as well as subsequently. Secrecy of any kind is at odds with the tenets of a free society, frequently suppresses the truth, or makes things worse and ought to be sparsely applied. For history has clearly shown that the more things are out in the open and subject to scrutiny the less chance there is for avoidable mistakes. By now one thing should be very clear- the less secrecy the better. 

 

  

ELECTION RESULTS 2022

 Two factors contributed heavily to what should have been a landslide victory for Republicans fizzling out. First the “red wave” essentially was aborted.  (I do so hate that color dichotomy that was originally foisted on us by NBC news a couple of decades ago, maliciously sticking the right with the “red” label previously always associated with the left). Although abortion did not rank high as a issue compared to the economy, inflation, etc. it clearly boosted turnout among one group strongly concerned about it, namely single women, 70% of whom voted for Democrats. Even though there was in reality no serious threat to abortion rights, the scare campaign worked. 

The second factor was a series of relatively weak candidates chosen by Donald Trump, in otherwise winnable races. My earlier warning that his penchant for celebrity candidates would backfire was unfortunately realized, along with candidates who were still sounding off about the 2020 election to please him instead of focusing on more salient current concerns. Trump accomplished a great deal despite unrelenting constant opposition, and deteriorating conditions across the board since he left office prove he was right about virtually everything.  He certainly does not deserve the political persecution he has been subject to since leaving office, and from direct experience I can say with certainty  that he is not the ogre he has been depicted as, but is on a personal level kind and considerate individual. 

Nevertheless, his behavior and remarks since the election have fatally compromised his viability as a candidate going forward, along with his refusal to let go of the last election. I  fully understand his rage and frustration with that outcome, given the gross unfairness of the forces arrayed against him. That election was not “stolen,” but it certainly was rigged, given the hostile, partisan major media, their calculated suppression of the truth (i.e. Hunter Biden laptop), the collaboration of “big tech,” (which is a misnomer- most are fundamentally just Internet companies), powerful partisan bureaucrats, over 400 million in Zuckerbucks, etc. etc, all of which must be held to account. Thus it is understandable that he feels cheated, but his reaction only underscores his lack of self-control and inability to keep his mouth shut, which is what cost him re-election in the first place. It is because of this that Trump himself is liked far less than his positions and policies, which proved to be successful and popular. But given his continuing diatribe, and most recently his unhinged attack on Ron DeSantis, essentially for simply existing, have made a repeat candidacy untenable, and many Republicans are increasingly realizing this. 

This election also exposed the lie about “threats to democracy” conjured up by Democrats and their collaborators in the media. That one is really rich given that Republicans got 6 million more votes than Democrats, yet picked up relatively few House seats.

Here in New York Lee Zeldin lost an election he should have won, largely due to the weight of New York City, because outside of that, Long Island and upstate New York are much like the rest of the country, and in fact are largely Republican and the party actually gained House seats in those areas. Unfortunately the prospects for the city where I have spent most of my life increasingly seem hopeless. After rising to 8.8 million from a prior low thanks to a period of relatively competent government, the city is again now rapidly losing people, mostly middle class taxpayers, and as conditions deteriorate further that may only increase. 

Another legacy of the disastrous radical DeBlasio administration were odious amendments to the city charter which passed, to change the preamble to reflect “racial justice,” and the creation of an Office of Racial Equity in the city  (note the term “equity” not “equality)” throwing fairness out the window, and which is only going to make doing business here more of a nightmare. Is there anything more ludicrous in a city where three of the four top officials are black, including the Mayor and Speaker of the City Council? Or a state where the Senate Majority leader and Assembly Speaker are both black, never mind the Attorney General? Worse with no relief from high taxes, rising crime, and progressive lunacy the outlook for the future of this place is pretty grim. 

IS NEW YORK OVER?

 Like many others, I’ve often thought about leaving New York due to deteriorating conditions that have steadily gotten worse following a long, continuous period of decline. Indeed I even wrote a monograph called The Decline of the Empire State when I was the founding director of the NY State Republican Policy Committee, and generated some programs to reduce the burden on taxpayers the last time we held any power here. But that was over two decades ago, and for most of this century things have steadily gotten worse. Taxes are high, crime is rising, the quality of life is declining, and we have been hemorrhaging people for decades, mitigated slightly only by immigration. One can only wonder if there is any future left here now?

The decline is heartbreaking because it didn’t have to happen, and would not have happened had there been better stewardship, but the corrupt mismanagement and political rot runs so deep that the chances of ever reversing the trend grow dimmer. When I wrote of the decline in the past I was looking at the relative position of the state. Once it truly was the Empire State, the biggest and most dynamic in the nation. When I was a kid it seemed as though everything was here,  including the headquarters of most large corporations, many now long gone. New York was first in everything. But in the 1960s California passed it by, then Texas, and now even Florida has a greater population. But it is telling that the budget of the latter, despite a larger, growing population is half that of New York.

Despite the abysmal degree of chronic incompetence and corruption, for the longest time I have been reluctant to seriously consider leaving places I know so intimately and such great detail, and if you’re from the city, everywhere else seems slow. So I think this has always been my home and I should stay and fight for it. While Democrats have a big advantage in party registration in New York, it is in no way as “progressive” as many people think. It has little of the far out lunacy of places on the west coast, and there is still a significant segment of conservative Democrats who stay registered as such so as to be able to vote in the primary elections, especially in New York City.  

But if Lee Zeldin can’t win this election then no Republican ever can, and we are doomed to unfettered one party rule. There will be no check on the irresponsible legislature, no barrier to the ever-expanding state with ever diminishing resources as the most productive taxpayers and enterprises accelerate their departure. This will inevitably lead to insolvency- and yes, New York State can and will go bankrupt, crime will continue to increase, and day to day life will become ever more miserable for most people remaining here. 

That is why the upcoming election is the most critical in the history of the state. It is our last chance to stop, and even reverse the decline, and truly begin a new era of renewal and reform. Many Democrats know this as well, but it is going to require that they abandon the party regime responsible for the awful situation we find ourselves in, and vote this time around for Lee Zeldin. He is appealing on so many levels, facing a weak candidate and unusually favorable prospects based on objective conditions. He is an outstanding candidate who is poised to save our state from the disastrous prospects awaiting us. 

Things don't have to be the way they are now.  We can become so much better. New York is a vast and beautiful state with abundant resources and great historic places, and extraordinary, untapped potential. With competent leadership  it would still have a good chance of recovery and renewal. Electing Lee Zeldin as Governor is the only way forward now, and voting this Election Day is critical for all our futures. 

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DON'T DRIVE IN NEW YORK III

 Every time I drive back into the city from Long Island I manage to get a ticket, usually for “speeding;” except that in NYC speeding means driving say 34 mph on a main thoroughfare; not a side street but a multilane main road,  because the speed limit is 25 mph in the city. On residential side streets I drive even slower than that because you never know when a kid might dart out between parked cars. But on parkways, main streets, etc. the limit is ridiculous. The last one I got was for “speeding” at 37mph on an approach to a highway, where anyone would normally start accelerating to join the traffic, and where pedestrians are nowhere to be found.  

There have always been speed traps. When you cross the line between Nassau County and Queens on the Northern State Parkway the speed limit suddenly drops. As long as everyone else is exceeding the speed limit there is little they can do, but if you happen to accelerate to pass another car they will get you, and that one cost me nearly $1000 due to a creative “surcharge” the state adds to the already high ticket cost, not to mention increase insurance (which I had to take a course to undo). But now the entire city is a speed trap. There are cameras everywhere and “school zones” have been extended to places where no school is remotely visible. So this is really about revenue in this horribly managed city and state. 

Now Long Island has gotten in on the act. I have never passed a stopped school bus in my life. Nevertheless I got one driving all the way in the left lane to make a turn while the bus was actually parked two lanes over on the right and there were no flashing lights! But as I read the ticket it basically said in so many words there is no way you can fight or appeal this ticket so that cost me another $250.  These governments are hardly concerned about safety in realit, but do have an insatiable appetite for revenue. Thus in New York in addition to high property taxes, income taxes, and sales tax they have creatively increased all sorts of nuisance fees on things like permits for things that in a normal world would not require permits. Unfortunately it is only going to get worse because high taxes are driving people to move away while spending just keeps climbing.

New York has a visceral anti-car policy. But these rules are made by well-to-do people living in Manhattan and nearby high rises who believe that people don’t need cars and therefore should be punished for owning or driving one in the city, never mind that most of it still consists of low-rise residential neighborhoods.  It is almost impossible to find free parking on the street anymore. There are meters everywhere. Worse there are fewer and fewer lanes for traffic as they have expanded bike lanes all over the place, along with a weird arrangement on some streets where the metered parking is now somewhere near the middle of the street. Further space has been lost due to “temporary” pandemic-related outdoor restaurant facilities that aren’t going away any time soon. 

They are trying to make this Amsterdam where your life is in danger if you carelessly step into the street while bicycles are whizzing by, but at least there they have some order to it. In New York bike riding is chaotic, traffic rules are ignored, and you are in as much, if not more, danger of being hit by a bike whizzing by than cars, which are usually stuck in traffic moving at a glacial pace. So naturally, in typical “progressive” fashion, they then come up with a “solution” to a problem they created in the first place- congestion pricing. That means that if you drive into the central city you will have to pay an extra fee for the privilege. They haven’t been able to pull that one off yet but don’t be surprised when that kicks in. 

The bottom line is avoid driving a car if you’re visiting New York (although I don’t know why anyone would want to these days). But those of us stuck living here are out of luck. 

SEPTEMBER BRIEF NOTES

 THIS CACAPHONY HAS TO END

I have decided to refrain from any further partisan political remarks because I no longer want to contribute in any way to the self-destructive hellhole we have managed fall into. Since most people are basically apolitical and sensibly engaged with their day to day lives, when I say “we” I mean that 20% or so who regularly follow politics and the even smaller minority that are ideologically passionate about it, because their perspective is based more on emotion than reason. The more intensity increases the more unhinged they become from reality, to the point where they start de-humanizing the opposition, opening the way to a potentially very dark result. This is tragic because the ongoing political cacaphony is clouding so many other, sometimes wonderful aspects of life.

For most of my life I have been optimistic about the future of this country, but that is increasingly fading and I am truly worried about our future. This insanity has to stop or we are doomed, and sadly for fundamentally foolish reasons. For whatever differences we may have, they are minor alongside of those we have with external powers that increasingly threaten us all. The only saving grace is that it involves a minority of the population, but they tend to be people in influential or decision-making positions who think they know what is best for everyone else and are determined to impose it upon them.

We haven’t quite reached the point of no return, but the trajectory is accelerating. Having pondered this phenomenon for decades from the 1960s onward, going forward I will have a lot to say about how we got here, as well as how we can possibly get ourselves out of this mess.

*. *. *.

FOR OLD HOLLYWOOD FANS

My favorite streaming service is among the least expensive and most informative- Curiosity Stream. Even if you favor"entertainment" venues, you have to check a really interesting feature about the original Hollywood movie moguls- Titans: The Rise of Hollywood. If you have some knowledge and expertise in that area you are still going to be surprised by many fascinating nuggets I don't think have been articulated anywhere before.

It tells the story of the birth of the American movie industry, and how, ever so haphazardly, the great studios came to be in the form of a docudrama that succeeds in bringing it all alive. Many people may still be familiar with Louis B. Mayer or Jack Warner, whose careers lasted much longer, but here you also have the others in ways I don’t think anyone has seen before.

This isn’t the usual narrative about “the talent,” but how they came to be in the first place.

I once read a book that referred to William Fox as “film's forgotten man;" well here he is. I only thought of Adolph Zukor as some little old guy at Paramount but now understand who he was as a young man. Who knew that Carl Laemmle (Universal) pretty much got the feature film concept rolling, or the extent to which Mary Pickford (United Artists) was a savvy working executive? How about the other two Warner brothers, or the fact that The Jazz Singer was supposed to be played by George Jessel, who originated the role on Broadway, not Al Jolson?

It also shows how Mayer’s position and power were a lot more precarious than everyone once assumed. The series ends just before the golden age of Hollywood most people are more familiar with, (the death of which really started when Louis B. Mayer was unjustly ousted, in my opinion). You also see how and why they wound up in Hollywood in the first place, then the middle of nowhere when there was nothing much there besides fruit orchards and farms.

Now Curiosity Stream is no big budget production company, yet with far fewer resources they have managed to present a really good product. Consequently there are some limitations, so some settings are more emulated than authentic and many of the actors bear little physical resemblance to the real characters they are playing, and some accents are missing, but nevertheless they provide convincing performances. I think they went a little too far portraying Thomas Edison as a nasty villain, in a way I suppose is designed to augment the mogul’s viewpoint, and the term “movie moguls” came about much later on, but aside from those quibbles it’s a really good undertaking. If you love the old Hollywood and the movies, you must see this program.

                                                                    * *. *

A BRIEF ASIDE ABOUT 9/11

THE events of 9/11 are still very much with us, and still have a living presence in our consciousness. But think of a 21 year old today. For those of us who were around circa 1961, the equivalent comparable event was the bombing of Pearl Harbor! How different it was, for the attack that brought us into WWII by then was already something out of a more remote world of black & white newsreels.

This belies the notion that things always changing faster and faster. The contrast between the world of 1941 and 1961 was immense, but between 2001 and today, not very much.

HOLLYWOOD TOUGH CHICKS

 In recent years we have had to sit through endless scenes of women beating up men in productions coming out of Hollywood although that rarely, if ever, is to be found anywhere in the real world. They can get away with this in endless comic book/super hero/fantasy productions, but not in anything closer to reality, or supposedly more serious. The other night I came across a movie on Netflix so awful I couldn’t simply ignore it. But neither could I sit through it, and instead fast-forwarded so as to see enough to justify what I’m saying here. 

The name of the movie is Ava. It is about a female assassin who goes around physically taking out men much of the time, and not just one on one, but several  big, armed military men at once. Ava is laughably played by Jessica Chastain, miscasting herself in her own production. To provide more “authenticity” blood is splattered all over the place, including on her face, but it is so sloppily and ineptly applied that it is dabbed on places where no blow was ever struck. Never mind though, for, none the worse she can quickly just wipe it all off,  and go about taking out more guys, yet without any bruises left over from the brutal blows.  Seriously? Oh so liberating to portray a “strong” woman, but if there was any substance at all in this kind of portrayal, then logically  these me-tooing women should have been able to punish  the lecherous pigs on their own. 

If this was simply bad entertainment it wouldn’t be worth a mention because we get that all the time. But when false themes are repeatedly endlessly to the point where they are accepted norms, especially among the young and impressionable, something is wrong. Older people grew up with the belief and expectation that a real man never strikes a woman. But the ubiquity of this garbage now makes it okay to hit a girl, while at the same time encouraging male-like behavior among females. 

It’s bad enough there are few real men left in Hollywood, but it now occurs to me that the same applies to women. There is little in the way of femininity left, with actresses who are oh-so-professionally serious and refer to themselves as “actors.”  Few of them are attractive enough to inspire masturbating teenagers. They are part of the preferred pronoun crowd, who view people symbolically emerging from some sort of check-box that is devoid of any resemblance to the real world. They are ironically obsessed with “representation;” but represent not reality but categories. Enough already!

A LEGISLATIVE ABOMINATION

 The bill preposterously labeled the “Inflation Reduction Act” concocted by the Democrats will do exactly the opposite, which is unsurprising given their inclination for redefining and labeling terms like inflation, recession, woman, etc. Among other things they are seeking to double the number of IRS agents in an effort to obtain more revenue so they can continue to profligately spend it. But the thing that really infuriates me is the disgustingly corrupt “green energy” boondoggled that has been sought and paid for by crony capitalists seeking to profit from it. This is clearly what this is all about whether it is good for the country or not. If it were any other industry they would be howling about it, but somehow because it is allegedly “green” it must be good so it is exempt from scrutiny. 

But it shouldn’t be. These are disgusting hypocrites who want to pretend they are serving the public interest when all they are serving is their own pockets or interests. It is  blatantly and profoundly offensive, yet shamelessly done out in the open because the corrupt media is not going to question it. So these “entrepreneurs” are lining their pockets at public expense. They are the ones pushing it most intensely, and trust me it is not out of civic-mindedness. They are less concerned about “climate” than profiting from it. It is getting close to passage because they were able to buy off Joe Manchin by promising projects in his state, never mind that the overall effect is detrimental to West Virginia.

We have already squandered half a trillion dollars on supposedly green energy projects with not much to show for it beyond enriching those able to cash in on it. Remember Solyndra? Multiply that several times over. Yet the result of all of this is that less than 5% of our energy comes from unreliable “renewable” sources. At the same time they are trying to ruin natural resource extraction industries that actually do work for people and that have uplifted the lives of countless millions around the world, and push them to electric cars they can’t afford, or for that matter easily charge. These “future” technologies are nothing of the sort and are simply not any where near ready for prime time. I guarantee you without question that many of them will be obsolete five or ten years from now and money will have pointlessly thrown away instead of being spent on things like education, medicine, basic research, defense, and real future technologies, or for that matter directly mitigating the consequences of climate change. 

This cabal includes many lunatics that also want to ban cow farts. You can’t take them seriously, yet the damage they are doing is very serious. None of this is meant to deny there are problems with changing climate but simply to highlight the massive amount of corruption involved in this particular approach. Nor does it mean that there may not be some good elements in the legislation, but this devious tactic of combining unrelated matters in bills has got to stop. Proposed projects must be able to stand and pass scrutiny on their own. In the end if this goes through inflation will get higher, the deficit will expand, and you personally will be that much poorer.

AN UNMITIGATED CATASTROPHE

 No one voted for Joe Biden; they voted against Donald Trump, who only lost the election due mostly to his lack of self-control and inability to keep his mouth shut, in spite of a record of considerable accomplishment. Like most people I was prepared to accept what promised to be a bland, gray, moderate administration. It was obvious he would be the dumbest president since Gerald Ford, but otherwise relatively harmless. So after many decades of struggle I looked forward to turning my attention to long-delayed more satisfying pursuits, leaving it to younger people to carry on. 

Instead we found ourselves in the unusual position of having a government to the left of all of our allies. From the outset  there has been an ever-accelerating disaster unfolding along with the loss of everything we fought for, everything we achieved over many decades of effort with a great loss of blood and treasure that I never dreamed would ever happen. 

-From day one Biden began his reign with a series of boxes to be filled by every conceivable minority regardless of merit, to the point where supposedly “under-represented” groups are now over-represented! He wanted to be able to announce as many irrelevant “firsts” as possible while implementing blatantly anti-white policies across the board, creating yet more division. The result has been most mediocre, incompetent cabinet in American history. 

-He empowered the radical left that hardly any one supports to run rampant across our institutions with offensive, insane “woke” policies. 

-With his blessing they knowingly and deliberately ruined our economy by sabotaging our oil and gas industries in the name of a phony “climate crisis” without any remotely feasible alternative. This was a precipitous attack on the lifeblood of the world economy and along with incredibly massive, unnecessary, and wasteful spending they  instigated the inflation that we are now experiencing, while spreading misery around the world due to their fanatical ideological blindness.

-They managed to ruin our standing in the world via weak fecklessness. Sadly the horribly bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan is fading in memory, even though he basically handed the country over to the Taliban, left them billions of prime military hardware, ignored our allies, and royally screwed a lot of people who had cooperated with us. 

-If not for Joe Biden the Russians would not have invaded Ukraine, which he blithely dismissed as just a small incursion initially, and effectively gave the go-ahead for that disaster. 

-The ascendance of the radical left has resulted in a sharp increase in crime in all of our large cities while undermining and demoralizing the police and allowing criminals to rampage with little fear of punishment.

-Worst of all he not only dismantled our southern border, but allowed, encouraged, and even provided to support for millions of people to flagrantly break our laws and illegally enter the country.  He has handed effective control of the border to Mexican cartels, who now profitably traffic in humans as well as narcotics, including the flood of Chinese produced fentanyl, resulting in the death of over 100,000 Americans in a single year.  

The deliberate failure to maintain our territorial integrity alone is clearly grounds for the impeachment of both Biden and Harris, and this is on the Democrats for failing to do so themselves, or invoking the 25th amendment.* They have been consistently wrong about everything. Now, most people know how incompetent this regime is, and the radical left cannot now distance themselves from the monstrous disaster they themselves have engineered. Biden only facilitated their power grab, but the suffering now being experienced is primarily due to their unbound ideological lunacy, and they must be held accountable and never be allowed anywhere near power again. 

All this without even getting into the politicizing of “justice,” Hunter Biden’s antics, or a host of other infractions. When a government is this incompetent, it no longer has any legitimacy. Nor should anyone feel sorry for Biden’s cognitive decline, because he has proven himself to be little more than a nasty old grouch without any redeeming qualities. Unfortunately we aren’t even half way through this term, and unless we find a way to mitigate this catastrophe, more, and probably worse, is yet to come. 

*Regarding removing a president via the 25th amendment, it has to be seriously reconsidered. I don’t think anyone anticipated a situation where the President, the Vice-President, and the third in line Speaker of the house would all be unsuitable. If at least the congress changes hands then we might stand a chance with Kevin McCarthy instead of Pelosi but that’s the best we could hope for.