Modern Tips for Health and Happiness: Footy Pajamas.

I really dislike pajamas.

Mostly, it is the legs creeping up while I lay there. Every time I turn over, they ride up another half-inch or so, until it feels like I am wearing knickers.

So, I decided about a month ago that I had a solution: I would wear socks to bed, and tuck the ends of the pant legs of my PJs into them, keeping them in-place.

But then, my shirt would get bunched-up and twisted, so I tucked IT into the PJ bottoms.

And thereupon I realized I had created my own adult-sized footy pajamas, and I was at peace with it.

I think all the world needs footy pajamas.

Zuckerswerves: How We Are Skirting the Facebook Censorship of our hopes for a Trump ending.

What are some metaphors you use to get around Facebook censors, when addressing how Trump should make his final exit from the stage (see, there's one already!)?

Some that I like are:

1. Long drop, sudden stop.

2. Hemp rope ride.

3. Air dancing.

4. Actuarial advancement/acceleration.

5. Needs to be fitted for a hemp necktie.

6. Needs to stand by a window in Russia.

Got any creative ways to express what we are all, in our souls, hoping to manifest in the universe?

Do I at all regret this post in any way, whatsoever?

Not in the ever-loving least, brother.

Play Responsibly

 

On morons and, well, basically this is about MAGAts.

A friend who is a teacher recently posted a picture of science denial fallacies, etc. A really cool reference or instructional tool. I like to see such posts, as I am biased in favor of science and demonstrable facts. But, they also remind me that a lot of people are just stupid. And they like it that way. In fact, they LOVE being dumb as a stump. I have tried for years to try to imagine the mindset behind that, to no avail. It is akin to trying to imagine the concept of infinity, or dividing by zero.

They have had decades to address their own ignorance, and for free, no less! Decades to benefit from the distilled wisdom of over six thousand REAL years, across multiple cultures and traditions, expressed through the best educational system and the freest society in the history of humanity, and, in fact, of the Earth itself.

Yet, they embrace being morons, and double-down when you do so much as LOOK as if you are about to draw the slightest breath in reply to their inconceivably abysmal foolishness.

And, a truly puzzling thing, to me, is that so MANY of them have college degrees, multiple degrees, in fact. And, yet, somehow they have failed to learn a damned thing about LEARNING.

I am more and more amazed, as I get older, that humanity made it this far out of the caves.

What the Majority wants.

Unfortunately, what the majority really wants, in my view, requires abandoning identify politics (current Democratic Party MO) and culture war (current GOP MO) distractions, and focusing on class issues, as it really has become the haves vs. the have nots (particularly in terms of raw political power and government control).

Things like a return to a progressive tax structure such as the ones in place after the Depression and WW2. Such a change would benefit a WHOLE lot of people who now consider themselves to be just temporarily embarrassed millionaires. I certainly believe it would drive economic growth across the board.

And, as I will demand until my final breath, a vast enlargement of the House of Representatives, which, in my view, again, would stand to eliminate most of the issues related to big money in campaigns, as well as reflect a far more fair representation of the American body politic, through mush smaller, human-scale districts.

But, both of these require going cold turkey on power addiction, and on the parts of a lot of politicians. Thus, it stands little chance of happening outside of unprecedented extenuating circumstances.

Silver Linings from my Box o' Wisdom

I was just thinking, as I doom-scrolled the internet, that even though it is pretty dark, these days, there is some cause for optimism.

Front and center is the arcane course through the court system that bogs down attempts at dramatic, extra-congressional changes.

Next, humans, especially the dumb ones, are slow to buy a clue on anything that doesn't fit their personal, "lord-get-me-through-this-day-I-beg-you," narrative. We cling to our personal biases until they, or we, snap in two. Then, reality becomes clear as a bell, and changes can occur.

In this regard, I am, and have always been, optimistic that MAGA voters cannot ALL be brain dead. At some point, some of them are going to recognize that they were taken, as I often say, for chumps. I must assume many of them spent life savings, and then some, supporting Trump, and, now that the pain is hitting home, it must be coalescing in their brains that chumps they indeed were.

Which brings us to another human foible: our pride.

Many of those MAGA who realize they were played are NOT going to take it well. And, they aren't the types to be quiet when they feel burned.

Hell, lots of them are gong to be gun owners, and the only contact they can have with DC is through their reps, who are now refusing to hear them in town halls.

This means lots of shot-up storefront GOP offices.

It is also obvious that Trump isn't meetng a single campaign promise that they repeated for him endlessly all campaign. I dare say that an insulted former supporter is going to be inclined to re-examine what they were told, and stand aghast at it all upon such reflection.

So, a slow system, a slow-to-learn population, and a prideful population that takes being punked pretty badly. What a wonderful combination.

All this, and reminding myself that we cannot ever see the end of the storm from the heart of it. We simply have to remember that storms pass.

Like Winston said: When you are going through Hell, keep going!

I have a feeling MAGA splashback could be a brutal, if entertaining and cathartic, thing. And I think it is coming.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I am showing rare optimism, so enjoy it while it lasts.

To Hell with MAGA, Friends or Family.

Let me repeat myself: MAGA are unreachable.

They have chosen to be unreachable.

They embrace their unreachability.

They have committed themselves to the embrace of selective ignorance as to their complicity with and/or active engagement in the banalities of workaday evil, the largest example of which is voting for candidates who promise to pay the rich on the savings incurred from denying help to the poor and oppressed.

And I know for a damned fact that many of you are friends with at least one of these people, or related and in contact with them.

I am told it is hard to just turn your back on an old "friend," or a family member. When it comes to bad faith actors, and any embrace of evil, I find it the easiest thing in the world. I don't know why. I just find it easy as falling off a horse to kick someone to the side if they prove to have been acting in bad faith all along.

No matter the thickness of the blood, there is no excuse for supporting those who would have you drown to create elbow room for a rich man in the lifeboat.

People have argued that this is absolutely the wrong approach to take. I argue that they are closing their eyes to the reality and demonstrability of evil, embraced.

Anyone and everyone who voted for Trump in this past election KNEW he was a bad person. If they didn't THAT IS ENTIRELY AND SQUARELY UPON THEM: they have had decades in which to simply be passively open to the best educational system the world has ever seen, and yet have learned not a god damned thing.

Trump wasn't new on-the-scene, either: this was his third presidential campaign, meaning every voter had twelve years to get to know this fascist sonofabitch.

And yet, they chose him over you and what you hold dear.

So people remain connected for what reason?

Studies have shown that people committed to a wrong idea are unlikely to be swayed by demonstrable evidence.

And, time is of the essence.

I figure we have less than a year to stop the nation from failing. The fiscal year ends this Fall, which is when new federal spending levels take effect, and all manner of shit will hit the fan (assuming the fan isn't already shit-encrusted, by then). Certainly, federal funds to states for social programs will take a huge, if not fatal, hit, as states tighten their fiscal belts and scale back or eliminate programs for social good and public health.

And this will be happening at the one-year mark before the midterm elections. There will be great pressure on GOP reps to stay the course, or face real physical threats from MAGA. If the heat gets too hot, do not assume for a fucking second that Trump won't impose martial law and simply postpone elections indefinitely. And the moment he will have to start really acting will be when, in November, people start looking forward to throwing him out of office with the rest of MAGA one year later.

Out of office, to be quite blunt and honest with you all, Trump is a dead man walking.

So, why are you still in contact with people who support him?

Sometimes children require harsh correction, but we embrace them afterwards because they have no agency and knew not what they did.

Adults only learn by falling and hitting their face on a boulder when they make a horrendous error.

Let. The. Fuckers. Learn.