Wayward Landlubber

     I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy a degree of incivility. I often skirt the outer ring of civility, that is what satire does, but there is a greater service done by incivility than black humor. Incivilty at one time drew a line in the sand for what is no longer acceptable. Ironically, that haven of civility gave birth to a sense of too much power by people who do not know the limits of civility, and don't much care. These are the people who believe that cultural sensitivity (political correctness, PC) is something to belittle. And now we have forgotten the location of that line in the sand.      Politicians are a convenient target of opportunity for humorists, satirists, and comedians. "Humor is comforting the oppressed by oppressing the comfortable." There is no better time to start oppressing the comfortable than now. In my life, where I barely remember Eisenhauer, become politically aware with JFK, conflicted over LBJ, hated Nixon, did not hate ...

     I am a proud member of the political left. I believe that guns are a too effective way for people to kill people. I believe some gun owners are unhinged, when those gun owners identify with the right wing, most of those gun owners are unhinged. I believe universal healthcare is a social good. The Covid 19 pandemic should be proof of that statement. I believe climate change is an existential threat and we have waited too long to address it because the rightwing has called it a hoax. I believe we are close to viewing coal, oil, and natural gas in the way we viewed whale oil at the turn of the 20th century. I believe the solution to these and many other social dilemma's is to tax the very rich. We did it after WWII and it worked pretty well. In addition, the people who have such large fortunes that they can purchase elections for compliant legislators, are using a small portion of those large fortunes to take away the consent that we, the governed were bequeathed in the...

     I can remember walking in anti-war marches alongside priests, ministers, rabbi's, and even imam's. Sometimes the conversations that took place during the march carried over to coffee after it ended. A booklet given me by a member of the American Friends Service Committee helped me to get a medical deferment from the draft. As a child I loved sitting on my grandma's capacious knees learning the gospels. I lost my religion sometime around10 years old. Yet, I admired many of the religious leaders I met resisting our wars. Many years later while lobbying with my union in Washington DC, I went in search of the Reverend Jim Wallis, leader of the Soujourner Society. He was out of town at the time, so I was unsuccessful. During all of this time there was a the feeling in the back of my mind that not all religions are worthy of respect. And those unworthy religions were among the Christian churches.That feeling rose to ugly prominence when President Jimmy Carter was considere...

To Couy Griffin:      I do not wish to address this letter with the usual salutation because in no way do I want to imply any respect for you, your organization, or anyone stupid enough to follow you. I have over some fifty-five of my 70 plus years,  carried a strong animus for Republicans. For you inarticulate Trump jackasses that is synonymous with hatred. Your party has represented, for much of my life, the confluence of intolerant assholes overzealous Christians, and corporate dicksuckers. From Joseph McCarthy, and Dick Nixon through Ronald Reagan and Donald fucking Trump. You have allowed in your party people who exhibit intolerance in all of its myriad guises: racial, sexual, religious, political. And this brings us to your statement that "the only good Democrat is a dead one."      Are you incapable of thinking up original insults? Must you go back to the 19th century general, Phillip Sheridan for your inspiration? There are far too many people ...

     Back in the late 60s or early 70s I participated in several anti-Vietnam war marches. Peace marches were a common expression by many Americans at the time, and many of us were quite passionate about expressing our distaste for America's foreign policy. That passion sometimes erupted into civil disobedience and even property damage. There are reports that FBI agent provocateurs initiated some of that  violence as part of J Edgar Hoovers' COINTELPRO operation. The differences between the Covid 19 lockdown protesters of today, and those anti-war protesters of yesteryear are legion, most notable is the weaponry openly displayed by the anti-lockdown groups today. Sometimes we openly carried candles, at dusk, signs, some even bang out a rhythm on 5 gallon plastic buckets. The only lasting effect of that was some discarded cups in the streets, cigarettes and roaches. There was no chance of arson, no possibility of gunfire. There was always the possibility of being knoc...

     There is a meme at the site, Donald Trump is Hated (which oddly enough has undergone a hostile takeover by people who admire Trump) that says, "If Donald Trump is responsible for the pandemic, as libs say, then Obama is resonsible for Sandy Hook". This is a pretty good example of a non sequitur as argument. It could also be described as argumentum ad absurdum, Latin is probably as poorly understood as some of the more elementary examples of American English by these people.       A non sequitur is defined as, "a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement". So let's examine why. An accomplishment  you trumpies will never get because there're too many words here and you people don't much like wasting your time with words. First let's examine what those statements have in common: both events took place outside of either presidents influence. The Sandy Hook killings happened because Republicans,...

    A Michigan state legislator, responding to Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, said on NPR: "I don't think she has a plan." I can't evaluate whether she has a good plan or not. But, she has a plan, a plan that President Trump (oh, how I hate that combination of words) and rightwing pundits, including the Michigan legislator, have continually criticized. That is their right, Trump has a plan, Republican governors have plans. Whether those plans are good PUBLIC policy or not is what we on the left criticize. What is ironic is how a republican, supporting President Trump (I'm gagging with revulsion), can envision a "plan". Maybe Governor Whitmer should hire a son-in-law to coordinate multiple departments while lacking any history of competance. Maybe she should try to profit off of any part of the pandemic response. Maybe she should deny its severity at every public event. But please, Governor Whitmer, don't drink the bleach. This seems to be Tru...

     Attorney General William Barr may be the most corrupt Attorney General since Harry M Daugherty, President Warren Hardings AG. In Daugherty's defense, he at least worked to get Presidential pardons for jailed anti-war protesters such as Eugene V. Debbs, a level of compassion not recently on display from Trumps cabinet or the leaders of his party. Barr, who is both Consigliari to the Trump crime family and the head of the American peoples justice department, cannot serve both constituents. He has made protecting the most ethically challenged administration in recent history his goal.      Next to Sen.Ted Cruz, Barr personifies that German word, backfeifengesicht, which translates to: "a face that needs to be punched". Recently he opined, with that face that needs to be punched, that "history is written by the winners" when asked how historians will view the justice department. This question was prompted by the decision not to prosecute yet another Trump ...

The term "community standards" has become somewhat muddled of late. The party who mocked political correctness, PC in their terminology (which merely means cultural or racial respect), is now crying the blues by being called "white trash" or other insulting names. These are, it should be remembered, people who are part of the cult following of the most insulting, bullying president we have ever known.      I have been punished again by Facebook for such an insult. Commenting on a meme-post claiming trump was hired to sweep the trash out of Washington DC (he was), I responded by claiming that he had swept the mostly competent trash out of the capitol and replaced it with mostly incompetent white trash. Some aspect of that statement was a violation of Facebook community standards. I'm guessing it was not calling them incompetent.       Facebook has no reason to feel superior to those of us who speak out against the lies, insults, and innuendo of Donald (...

     We often hear Reinhold Niebuhr, the great theologian and philosopher quoted in support of democracy. In that quote he states that democracy is a proximate solution for insoluble problems. It should be noted here that Niebuhr was a "political realist". There once was a space for political realism in American politics, though I'm at a loss to define it. Politics today is highly polarized; split between the people who believe that there MUST be room for compromise and those who believe there is a "tyranny of relativism". The relativism that many of them fear is moral relativism, but they are solidly linked with groups who have little tolerance with political relativism.      Isn't that political relativism the very description of Niebuhr's quote? And while we're at it, isn't tyranny the result of absolutism, be it religious or political? What is it about these people that they cannot see through that dissonance? This tolerance of intolerance is...