Sometimes it feels as if life around you has run amok, and you can’t spew snark, sarcasm, and profanity fast enough. You’re making connections between seeming disparaît events and ideas that you think if you could just set them up in a nice post, it would wow the critics — Did it suddenly just get cold in the room you’re reading this in? Because suddenly my breath is forming mist in front of me! Okay, ma! Okay! Nothing I write will wow anyone. Sheesh! I can’t escape her criticism even when it is from the great beyond — but there is no way that a part-time blogger full-time retiree can possibly keep up. So here we have the disparate connections post of what we swept up off the editor’s floor here at Ye Olde Blogge!
The Surveillance State
The Chinese Feel Save Under Big Brother’s Ever Watchful Eye
China hts over a billion cameras aimed at its citizens recording everything they do. Using facial recognition software, they can locate anyone in the country in eight minutes, using a picture of them. They have virtually no street crime except for pickpockets and other crimes that are difficult to see. Most Chinese people don’t see the problem. They like living without crime and can’t understand why we tolerate unsolved murders,, for example.
AI and the Coming #GOPDystopia
The one thing that massive computing power, AI processing, and hundreds of billions of dollars makes is for an incredible surveillance state just like they have in China. Anthropic bent the knee. They didn’t want their AI to be used for surveillance or weapons control, but under pressure from Hegseth and the DoD, they’re okay with it. We’re already passed the tipping point. All we need are the cameras and they’ll be able to make up any crime they want to silence any individual they want.
How Does Your Vote Connect to Your Daily Life?
One of the problems our democracy has had is that for too many citizens, they couldn’t connect their vote to changes in their lives. Apparently, the good white people of Louisiana never could connect the Republican state office holders to the conditions that created Cancer Alley or the continued poverty of the state in spite of the multitude of multinational corporations producing all kinds of noxious products there.
We live in a complex world with a complex government. It can take years for changes in government to be seen in the average person’s life. It’s why we keep voting in Republicans who will cut taxes for billionaires when it is well known to those who know it well that it will crash the economy.
Like I’ve always said, there’s a dark center to every silver lining. Our silver lining is that it is becoming increasingly clear to even the most casual of observer that there is a direct connection between what Trump and the Republican Congress is doing and the miserable lives that we’ve all been reduced to. It is clear that there is one rule and set of laws for the Epstein class and another for the rest of us. It is clear that it is Trump’s immigration policies that are causing atrocities to be committed and civil liberties violated by ICE. The only question is, will we vote like it and will those votes actually be counted?
Trump Dreams Too Small
A mercurial temperamental forgetful electorate sticks us with a mercurial temperamental forgetful wanna be dictator, and, of course, that SOB dreams small. Compare Trump’s vision of how long his grand influence will last with that of Hitler:
I tell you what, Republicans have to win this one. We’ll never lose a race. For 50 years, we won’t lose a race
Trump says Republicans will ‘never lose a race’ if Congress restricts voting
FIFTY YEARS! The mo’fo’ thinks fifty years is a long time and is so so proud of it. Pales in contrast to Hitler’s jactation of a thousand years reich.
See all those things connect, and it’s pretty funny when you juxtapose them like that. I especially like the fifty years compared to a thousand. Ha! I guess we’re just lucky Trump has dreams about as big as his hands.
Image Attribution
This image was found on Wiki Media Commons using a Creative Commons search.
The Psy of Life 
the surveillance on the people by the government showed, that the government DISTRUSTS the people, who put it into office, and if you can’t trust the IDIOTS that put you in that higher up position, then, what does that make you, huh??? Communism isn’t good or bad, it’s just an IDEA, it’s the people who puts the Communist beliefs into practice, adding in their own distortions, that’s made it, bad, and, democracy isn’t that wonderful either, in democracies, we elect our own leaders, and, look at the leaders that are currently, running the WORLD’s GREAT countries, are they any good? In my opinion, ANARCHY would work best, because, sure, there would be a period of chaos as anarchy sets in, because now, we have NO laws to keep us from misbehaving, but eventually, we will all learn, to KEEP our hands to our own selves (to not ROB anything from anyone else, etc., etc., etc.), because, if we don’t keep ourselves in check then, we are the ones, getting screwed OVER, because of our own BAD behaviors!
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Howdy Taurus!
There was a town in Vermont, I think, that a group of libertarians — not quite anarchists, but pretty close — decided to buy into. They moved enough libertarians into the town to take over the local government and institue libertarians rules… Or lack of them. They only lasted a few years. They removed the garbage collection rules and services, so garbage built up around the town. Bears moved in to eat the garbage. You can imagine how it went from there.
The single advantage that democracy has over other forms of government is that the government can be changed. Can you get rid of Xi? Putin? If we maintain our democracy, we’ll be rid of Trump in 2029. Carney could be gone tomorrow on a no confidence vote. You think Russians really have confidence in Putin?
Huzzah!
Jack
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I still contend that ignorance is what drives the voters these days. They fixate on one phrase or policy not considering how all the policies will change their lives….some feel that their mistakes can be rectified because in 4 years we can vote again….so far that is a pipe dream. chuq
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In that sense, you’re right. The world is a complex place. We gravitate to simplicity. Cynical politicians exploit this rather than trying to govern responsibly.
If the democracy remains intact and the world doesn’t slide down the shitter, then we’ll be able to rectify our 2024 mistake. That’s why Trump and company are trying to destroy it so fast. They got to get there BEFORE the 2028 vote comes in.
Jack
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Jack let us say Dems win in 2028….how long before they can fix things? I am thinking it will take more than 4 years to do so. chuq
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It’s going to take a generation or two to build the country anew. We have to reinvent the country. We cannot go backwards back to what we had. We have to create new institutions and ways of doing things.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I totally agree but are politicians willing to take that step? Right now I do not see it. chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
Our biggest problem right now is that all of our senior politicians and the leadership of both parties are not willing to take any steps. They are willing to wring their hands and tell us all how concerned, very concerned, and even extremely concerned they are about our current situation. We are sorely lacking in leadership at this moment in our lives.
The bad news is that in the Republican Party, they have some very good leaders coming up who are more than willing to finish Trump’s destruction of our democracy and institute a total kleptocratic oligarchy. The good news is that we have even more good young leaders coming up in the Democratic Party that are willing to pull the Overturn Window back to the center and institute some effective reforms.
Let’s hope we can elect the Democrats and get the reforms in place before it is too late or we fall even further.
I have to say, this is not the world and future that I thought my daughter would inherit. It distresses me that it is.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Jack I look at the so-called leaders we have now and I do not see any of them doing much to change things….if they do it will be incremental at best. chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
One thing we’ll have to watch are who gets elected to Congress. There are some young dynamic candidates that I find very compelling. There is some hope in them. I don’t see Schumer surviving the next leadership vote, but I don’t know who will be elected. Jeffries will go with the wind and can play some hardball. Pelosi learned him well.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I see Texas is got a couple of dems coming up….I do not trust Jeffries he is a corporate stooge. chuq
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In many ways, Pelosi is a corporate shill, too, but she could get the job done. Jeffries was her protege. He’ll be okay.
Jack
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Jack do we really need a continuation of the corporate influence in the DNC? chuq
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I can’t see that we have a choice. There is enough of “corporate” or establishment Dems in leadership and in Congress that I can’t see breaking that hold so quickly. The best metric is effectiveness. Pelosi is the perfect example of someone who was incredibly effective at her job but also staying within the lines of the status quo as she sought to placate the liberal progressive wing of the party. The ACA is the perfect example. Schumer is the perfect example of the opposite. Incredibly ineffective and failing to placate anyone while staying within his very narrow lines.
Jack
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I agree about Schumer….we need more progressive candidates and not just in name only. chuq
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I have to wonder if he thinks he’ll be here for 50 years.
Getting all crime off the streets just means it hast to happen in the board rooms, the ritzy clubs, and on private islands.
Lag time between the vote and the effect really is a problem. Trump is trying to fix that by doing things fast without going through the legislature and the budgeting process (which is broken anyway). Maybe folks will make the connection.
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Howdy Bob!
He “believes” he will live forever. God will make an exception for him. He has the best genes in the world. He’ll live to two hundred.
He fears death more than anything else. His health is failing. The awareness of it creeps past his carefully constructed delusion of perfection and disturbs his thoughts at night. That’s why he’s posting at all hours of the night. His anxiety is peaking and he has to do something to alleviate it.
We’ll find out in November 2026 and 2028 if folks have made the connection.
Huzzah!
Jack
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He does seem to be in a big hurry. Doctors may be telling him scary things.
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Howdy Bob!
Many authoritarian experts have said that he’s moving at breakneck speed compared to Putin and Orban and others. I think it is because he has to secure his hold over all of our institutions by 2028. He’s almost got the media in his pocket. Luckily, we have the decentralized mediascape nowadays, so it will be difficult to do. He’s gearing up to grab vote counting, but we’ll see if that succeeds. Another decentralized system. It will be difficult.
Huzzah!
Jack
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And, he is just temperamentally impatient and disinterested in details. Those are the kind of details that tend, when ignored, to bite one in the butt. We will see in a few days how our legislators respond to his pulling the trigger on Iran before they could get to a vote on a War Powers Resolution.
Decentralization was designed in by the founders, the hybrid system that came out of the struggle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. His attempts to take over the voting and counting will be litigated quickly, in fact it is a sure thing that draft causes of action and arguments are already being written.
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Howdy Bob!
One of the few sources of comfort is the preparation that state AGs are going through to defend their elections. We’ve had two elections in which Republicans have tried to challenge the way we run our elections and their outcomes. It is the preparation that has kept us functioning, and hopefully it will get us past this one, too.
Trump functions almost exclusively by instinct and intuition. The timing of the attack was total instinct. When he stops it, it will be instinct, just like the obliteration of the Iranian nuclear program. From what I understand, Netanyahu wanted to continue bombing Iran, and Trump didn’t, so it stopped.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Netanyahu has wanted to do to Iran what he has done to Gaza for his entire political career. Israel isn’t big enough to do it by itself without using its nukes (which it won’t officially admit having), so it needs to get the US involved.
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Howdy Bob!
Netanyahu’s eyes maybe bigger than his or the US’s armory, though. I don’t think we have the munitions on hand to use bombs alone to kill enough of the leadership of Iran to effectively decapitate the regime. The Ayatollah was presiding over the choir that had a deep bench of like-minded folks. They have to kill down to the junior officer corps to get rid of the diehard fanatics, and, then, they’ll just radicalize a whole new generation of Iranians to carry on the jihad against the Great Satan.
The whole endeavor is madness and bankrupt.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Sun Tzu had some things to say about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. Trump knows neither. Some expert said today (NPR) that the first things we are likely to run out of are anti missile and anti aircraft missiles. Iran has more drones and rockets than we have things with which to shoot them down. But Trump says we have an infinite supply.
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Howdy Bob!
The Sun Tzu axiom that I’ve been reflecting on is that you should always leave your opponent an escape route, otherwise they will fight like a tiger. Trump has said that the only thing he’ll accept from any opponent is complete capitulation. I read a social media post from an Iranian government official that Iran will never negotiate with the US. Even if Trump quits tomorrow and declares victory, they’ll becoming for him like they did Salman Rushdie. According to Rachel Maddow, They’ve tried to assassinate him twice and there are some vague implications that they may have been involved in the scratch on his ear.
Huzzah!
Jack
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They do tend to take threats of utter destruction personally. Bebe ;is for sure on their list too. It may not be as intensely a revenge culture as some in the neighborhood, but it is honor based. The Islamic Republic was created very much in reaction to our previous regime change there and the imposition of the Shah. The grudge is long standing. They also know that he cannot be trusted in any negotiation or to keep any deal. In that sense, culturally, they see him as dishonorable. Of course, as we know, they are right about that.
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I think Trump, the neo-neo-cons, and our military have grossly underestimated the capabilities and tenacity of Iran. We’ve seen this so many times before: a country that feels the existential threat, is angry, and really hates its opponent, just doesn’t give up and finds a way to continue fighting no matter what. Germany in Yugoslavia in WW2 is the best example. Germany bombed it to rubble, routed the army, and took the government. They never quit fighting. With two million in the military and security apparatuses of Iran, it is going to take a lot to get them to quit. Fighting will die down, no doubt, but then there will be a terrorist attack, a missile attack, or a drone strike. And, it will just keep happening.
Jack
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Yes, and Netanyahu and Trump are likely to have very different ideas about when to end this thing. Trump will want to declare victory long before his buddy. As for Netanyahu, I think his goal for Iran looks a lot like Gaza, hunting down every last suspected member of the regime, with no regard for collateral damage.
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Howdy Bob!
I’ve read that Netanyahu’s goal is to kill all two million people enrolled in the Iranian government and security appertus and whatever collateral deaths and damage it takes to do so. You don’t make friends that way. You make forever enemies that will attack you at every opportunity.
Trump has just called for complete surrender and to allow him to select their next leader. Such humiliation only results in forever enemies who will attack you at every opportunity.
You know that there are Iranian agents and amateurs who are planning the assassination of both men. This is an utter fuck up that will only end badly.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Those kind of grudges never die. I remember a friend’s Assyrian mother angry about “Those damned Babylonians.” over some news from Iraq in the 1960s.
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Howdy Bob!
One of the things meant my Balkanization is the on-going blood feud that goes back centuries. Trump played into the honor-revenge mentality by saying that we would avenge the deaths of every soldier. As sad and upsetting as it is to lose soldiers, their deaths are not avenged unless they are wrongly caused through unfair means. Siding with the Jews and Sunnis makes us part and parcel with the ancient conflict between those sides. By claiming that we’ve been at war for 47 years since the fall of the Shah and the hostage crisis, just carries on that generational tit-for-tat revenge cycle. And Trump utterly humiliating Iran by killing the Ayatollah and demanding threir complete surrender. As much a the average Iranian came to hate their government, you get a rally around the flag effect. This is setting off another round of revenge and fury.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Meanwhile, Afghanistan and Pakistan are hard at it too. And, now it is reported that Russia has been giving Iran intelligence and satellite data help. Russia has always wanted closer relations with Iran as a path to warm water ports. Keeping track of the players without a score card is getting difficult.
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That’s the problem when you lack geopolitical or economic value, you end up like Myanmar and the Rohingya. Everybody watches and shakes their head sadly and wishes loudly for someone to do something, but no body does anything. Pakistan does have a nuke, but they are unlikely to use it against Afghanistan.
We’re back to gunboat diplomacy under Trump. It is going to take a long time to dig out from the mess he’s creating and lots of lives are going to be ruined and lost because of him.
Jack
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I Agree. Pakistan’s nukes are all aimed at India.
When the cop on the beat keeping the world in some semblance of “regular order” goes not just rogue but gangster, it gets hard to put the pieces back together.
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The politization of policing is a sure sign of rising authoritarianism.
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Always.
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A good doctor doesn’t mince words on this kind of stuff. He probably has been told exactly how bad it is and what he has to change. It is pretty clear that he’s been doing Ozempic or equivalent to lose weight. Maybe he’s stopped because he seems to be getting heavier, and definitely looking worse.
Huzzah!
Jack
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That’s the way degenerative conditions are, and he is a hard person to convince of anything he prefers not to believe.
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