Resistance is not futile... it is absolutely necessary

We've been on a vacation in Mexico, ignoring most of the news, for the last couple of weeks. I intend to continue to keep the relentlessly negative news from this terrible time at bay, for my mental health (not ignore it, but keep it within bounds in terms of consuming my attention). I hope we will be able to continue to live a decent life, as law abiding citizens who have small-d democratic ideals and seek to bring about change peacefully and through civil processes. But it is already clear to me that, without what amounts to a (hopefully entirely peaceful) mass uprising, our country's whole character is on track to be totally transformed in a dark and ugly direction, probably irreversibly, at least for a long while. We are rapidly headed for actual no-kidding dictatorship and, more than likely, economic collapse. At least to some degree this will be unavoidable. But conscientious people must resist. We must stand up and denounce oppression, defend human rights, and refuse to "go along to get along." Any violence that occurs in this dark time will... must....come from the oppressors, not from the people. We must organize and practice nonviolent civil disobedience, as taught to us by Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, and, especially, by Gene Sharp, whose work needs to be much more widely known. He systematized a whole theory and practice of nonviolent resistance, and we will need all these tools, and need to know how to use them, because the time is now. 

This may not be Germany, 1933, but it could be, and it certainly is a time when everything we care about as a democracy-based society is at risk of total destruction at the hands of people who simply do not believe in democracy, and who intend to impose tyranny upon the people. They have all but stopped pretending otherwise, and actual Nazis like Elon Musk are among their ranks. I genuinely believe that only through massive lies taking advantage of the structural defects of our political system were they, much like Hitler in the 30s, able to barely get elected. Another lie they all tell, like some hellish chorus, but remember the truth: it was no landslide, but a bare plurality. Had the 17 million people (including a margin for population growth) who voted for Biden in 2020 but simply stayed home in 2024 not done so, but had turned out to vote, good people who were lulled into complacency and believing the torrent of lies they were deluged with, this wouldn't have happened, but this is how democracy works. As Goebbels himself said in the late 1920s... the democrats (small-d), swayed by vicious and evil propaganda, actually give them the power to end democracy. 

We must have courage, like the students in Mexico City in 1968. With tears in my eyes I hope and pray that it does not come to that, but I fear it is likely. Courage!

Here is a good rundown of Gene Sharp's brilliant "codification" of nonviolent civil disobedience:

  Gene Sharp's principles and practice of civil disobedience are grounded in his belief that power in a society derives from the consent of the governed and that nonviolent action can effectively withdraw that consent. Here's a brief summary of his key ideas:

 

* Nonviolent Action as a Method of Combat: Sharp views nonviolent action as a method of combat, akin to military warfare, but using psychological, social, economic, and political weapons instead of violence. This includes acts like protests, strikes, and non-cooperation.
* Strategic Planning: Sharp emphasizes the need for careful strategic planning in nonviolent movements. This involves analyzing the dictatorship or oppressive regime, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and devising a strategy that targets these vulnerabilities.
* Concentration of Power: He argues that power in a society is not monolithic but rather dispersed among various pillars such as the military, police, civil servants, and cultural institutions. Effective nonviolent resistance seeks to undermine these pillars and shift their loyalty away from the regime.
* Methods of Nonviolent Action: Sharp catalogued 198 methods of nonviolent action, which he detailed in his book The Politics of Nonviolent Action. These methods range from symbolic protests like public speeches and displays of flags and symbols to more proactive strategies like sit-ins, strikes, and creating alternative institutions.
* Psychological Resilience: Nonviolent resistance often provokes repression from the status quo. Sharp argues for the psychological preparation of activists to endure suffering and repression without resorting to violence, thereby maintaining moral and strategic superiority.
* Political Jiu-Jitsu: This principle describes the dynamic where the nonviolent response to oppression can lead to political mistakes by the oppressors, which in turn erodes their power and legitimacy, and galvanizes public support for the resistance.
Sharp's work is focused on empowering oppressed populations with a methodology and tactics that allow them to effect change and resist tyranny without the use of violence, thereby reducing the destruction, casualties, and moral compromises associated with armed conflict.

We, the decent and pro-democratic people of the United States, whom I truly believe actually are the great majority of the people, must keep all this in mind, and simply not go along. We must strive to spread truth, and the importance of awareness and understanding of what is happening. We must identify and promote leaders from within our ranks who will actually do these things, and outsmart (that part's easy), and outwork those who would impose autocratic and oligarchic power upon us, against our will. We must resist any impetus to violence, but never give up, never give in, and do everything we can to maintain and restore democracy in our country. Again, my friends, Courage! 

 

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde

 I should hope it goes without saying that it is the (gulp) president, and not Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who should apologize. 

We cannot accept the end of democracy willingly

Friends, this is not a popular view even among Democrats, but I still think it's true. We went through a period around World War I when the possibility of real autocracy came to the fore, with the Espionage Act, etc. And for decades after the shameful compromise that ended Reconstruction we had a whole section of our country that was, in effect, an authoritarian state. But the turn to authoritarianism, towards legitimization of oligarchic control, towards the complete institutionalization of the disenfranchisement of much of the population, began with Ronald Reagan, and grew steadily worse under Republican and even Democratic administrations ever since. Biden represented a fairly strong attempt at reform, but the re-election of Trump has solidified a historical trend: the end of democracy in our country. Can we restore it? Yes, of course. Look at Argentina and Chile. But it will not happen without major sacrifice, and without far, far more courage and willingness to stand up and say No! than I see in our country right now. 

I still believe in the principles, and the great strength, of our small-r republican ideals. We must make reforms to ensure that they continue. But first and foremost, we must win over the hearts and minds of more of us, and we must be willing to stand up, to tell those who would just presume our compliance that we will not cooperate, we will not obey in advance, we will not follow orders that violate our Constitution and our conscience, even at great cost to ourselves. We must have the courage of our convictions, and really mean it. I hope it will be enough, but I am not sure. Please think long and hard about these things before you, as we all want to do, just "hunker down" and hope for the end of these dark times.  

I admit that it is easy for me to say this. I am not a teacher who might lose his job if he says that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, no matter what the autocrats say. That the Constitution does not give the power to the president to make laws or wage war. That releasing people who committed violence in an insurrection is an obvious abuse of the pardon power never intended by the framers of the Constitution. I am not a policeman being asked to commit illegal acts against our own people. I can just stay in my house and try to stay healthy and well. But we all must at the very least speak truth to power. 

Benjamin Franklin told someone that the 1789 convention had given us a republic, if we could keep it. Now we are the final test of whether we can, or not. Courage. 

My letter to Tesla

Public Relations Officer

Tesla Motors

1 Tesla Road
Austin, TX 78725

 

To whom it may concern:

 

I am deeply distressed, as an American citizen and Tesla owner, by the disgraceful and unpatriotic behavior of Elon Musk, the company's CEO, in twice giving a Nazi salute during the Trump inauguration.

 

This conduct is deplorably unpatriotic and a slap in the face to the memory of hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in the most terrible war of human history to rid the Earth of the scourge of vile white supremacist and genocidal Nazism. To emulate the salute of the most evil regime in the entire history of our planet is completely inexcusable.

 

I join millions and millions of Americans and I am sure many hundreds of thousands of Tesla owners in demanding the expulsion of this vile man from the governance of your company.

 

It will probably cost many of us a great deal, and undermine what we had believed to be an investment in a better, carbon-free future, but I can assure you that many owners of these vehicles will be disposing of them if strong action to repudiate this inexcusable conduct is not taken, and soon. Of course, failing such action, those of us with a conscience will never again make any purchase to support any business associated with Musk. There can be no redemption from such an extreme gesture in support of genocide, racism, and everything that America is supposed to stand against. 

Sincerely,

 

David Studhalter

For today

I wanted to say something positive, on this particular day, especially, when I will be scrupulously avoiding live media coverage of all news (we're on vacation). I couldn't hope to come up with anything better than this, from the estimable Heather Cox Richardson. 

 

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more January 19, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson Jan 20  2025 You hear sometimes, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, that America has no heroes left. When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it's just the opposite: it's regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them. It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day's failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did. It means writing in your diary that you "still believe that people are really good at heart," even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did. It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did. It means defending your people's right to practice a religion you don't share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did. Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did. None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It's just that when they had to, they did what was right. On April 3, 1968, the night before the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a white supremacist, he gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1966, King had tried to broaden the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality into a larger movement for economic justice. He joined the sanitation workers in Memphis, who were on strike after years of bad pay and such dangerous conditions that two men had been crushed to death in garbage compactors. After his friend Ralph Abernathy introduced him to the crowd, King had something to say about heroes: "As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about." Dr. King told the audience that if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed. "Now, that's a strange statement to make," King went on, "because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." Dr. King said that he felt blessed to live in an era when people had finally woken up and were working together for freedom and economic justice. He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America. "I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter…because I've been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!" People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left. Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what. Wishing you all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025. — Notes: Dr. King's final speech: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/martin-luther-kings-final-speech-ive-mountaintop-full/story?id=18872817

All that is good makes but one demand of us: that we love one another with all our hearts and without exception. When the People keep this commandment, all falls into place: there is peace; there is plenty; there is happiness; and wisdom ranges far and wide in the world.
—Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE.

A slap in the face

We are trying not to pay attention to the political situation in our country while we are in Mexico. I felt I had to say to our tour guide today that my heart sinks for what is happening in the US. And that I feel deeply ashamed that the Trump people failed to invite Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum to the Inauguration next week. Possibly because she might well have refused to go, but nonetheless. It is a slap in the face to one of our most important allies. 

All that is good makes but one demand of us: that we love one another with all our hearts and without exception. When the People keep this commandment, all falls into place: there is peace; there is plenty; there is happiness; and wisdom ranges far and wide in the world.
—Tardig of Escondaria, 3648 CE.

A little statement of principles

I strongly believe in democracy as the only legitimate governance system, and in universal human rights. At least in theory, by and large, the US has been a force for these things for the last 80 years or so, despite failings and setbacks. Clearly we are now headed in the wrong direction. But equally important are the principles that (1) government must be free of corruption. Zero tolerance. And (2) that universally available high-standards education must be publicly supported. In both of these respects, the US has declined and is headed, apparently, for rapid further decline. To those of us who grew up believing in an ideal of America, this is extremely disheartening.

I point to Singapore as a counterexample of these last two "pillars." In that small country, democracy and human rights have taken a back seat, but in the areas of education and zero tolerance for public corruption, their system proves that these principles are also vital to the health and wealth of a society. (You have to pay your public officials very well, but tolerate no corruption whatsoever). 

May we learn from this, and return to governance that makes each of these pillars of good government to be of paramount importance once again. We're going to have a long way to go to rise from these ashes, but, as Timothy Snyder says, we must imagine, and always work towards, a better America. We must never give up. We must never condone or comply in advance with arbitrary authority, with repression, with corruption, or with tolerance of lies and willful ignorance. We must consider these pillars a bare minimum. A floor, from which a prosperous and healthy society must be built. It is those of us who believe in these ideals who must, in actuality, make America great again. Nothing less should be considered acceptable, much less patriotic. 

What might (almost) have been

• Here's a twist. With Chrystia Freeland (great name) poised to become the new leader of the Labor Party in Canada, we were close, for a brief moment, to seeing in 2025 women as heads of government of Canada, US, and Mexico. (Claudia Sheinbaum is president of Mexico). But it was not to be.
•  

  Message from you, An alignment of the stars not likely to be repeated in our lifetime., Friday, January 10 2025, 2:56 PM.

  

  An alignment of the stars not likely to be repeated in our lifetime.

Baby Girl

In case anyone cares, here's my capsule review of Baby Girl. Well acted, sensual, loved the casual attitude towards outlaw sexuality and interesting take on BDSM psychology, but, as a gay man, wow, way, way too much soft core straight porn. (My partner is less put out). Porn has its place, but "mainstream" movies maybe isn't it. 

Traveler woes... princess problems

I guess I've become an encrusted curmudgeon, but man is it a pain in the ass to enroll to be "travel ready" on an airline phone app (scanning passport, entering all kinds of information and paying for extra bags in advance, etc.... unlike most apps and websites, it was unable to auto-fill saved credit card info., for example). I've always thought I was a little more tech savvy than most people my age (71 going on 72), but this was a genuine hassle. Flying and traveling has become a lot more hassle and less fun than it used to be. 

Fear of unforced catastrophe in the Good ol' USA

It's extremely frustrating that what amounts to mass delusion and ignorant reflexivity have given us a narrowly elected disruptor in chief right when the US is actually enjoying one of its halcyon periods. As Heather Cox Richardson points out today, even with the wealth inequality crisis, the climate crisis, and other serious challenges, the US economy is doing the best it has in this century, we have no military involvement of US troops in any foreign war, we are energy self-sufficient, and domestic crime, violence, and even overdose deaths are all down. As we prepare to invest the mad would-be emperor this month, I fear that we are about to throw all of this away. We still have many geographic advantages and tremendous resources, but it's just so hard to watch us blowing it all for the whims of an actual no-kidding madman. 

There is widespread belief among his cult followers that we are in the midst of some kind of economic and political hellscape, but, to the extent we are failing to realize our potential, it's mostly caused by them and the far right demagogues who take advantage of them and promote massive false propaganda to influence them in order to retain power and inordinate wealth to a tiny elite that just plain doesn't support democracy. They believe we are being undermined by hordes of immigrants, when the truth is that immigration by and large makes the rest of us richer and makes our economy stronger and more efficient. But we live in a time when there is no agreed upon truth, which may indeed be our greatest failing and the greatest threat to our prosperity and perseverance. 

If you're religious, please pray for our country, and regardless may we all pull together and weather this storm, and learn from it. Assuming we get that chance, which I'm afraid is no certainty. 

A day of mourning on the 20th?

Brad and I will be out of the country on the 20th, visiting the Valley of Mexico. Otherwise, I would probably stay indoors and have a quiet day of mourning, because I am pretty pessimistic about the short term future of my country. It feels like a death. And as a man in his 70s, there is only a short term future as far as I'm concerned. 2024 pretty much sucked for us, personally as well as in terms of public life, and this doesn't augur well for 2025, but we can try to pull out of it and make the best of it. Living 3000 miles from the locus should help make that a bit easier to accomplish. 

Statistical laws of nature

I have discovered three additional statistical mechanics laws, to add to Boltzmann's S=kBlnW. They are best expressed in words:

When searching for a pencil, only pens can be found.

When searching for a permanent marker, only whiteboard markers can be found. 

When searching for staples or pins, only paper clips can be found. 

All three laws are perfectly commutative, if as little as an hour has passed. 

You're welcome, although you will find that while perfectly true, none of these laws is of any use. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Anti-Americanism in the 21st century

"The Anti-American Party now is the Republican Party." 

George Conway, conservative constitutional lawyer (practitioner and scholar), Never Trumper and former husband of Kellyanne Conway. 

MAGA spinning itself apart

Seems MAGA is almost literally spinning itself apart before they even swear in the Menace. Heather Cox Richardson: 

Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans.

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more December 27, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson Dec 28   READ IN APP   Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans. On the one side are the traditional MAGAs, who tend to be white, anti-immigrant, and less educated than the rest of the U.S. They believe that the modern government's protection of equal rights for women and minorities has ruined America, and they tend to want to isolate the U.S. from the rest of the world. They make up Trump's voting base. On the other side are the new MAGAs who appear to have taken control of the incoming Trump administration. Led by Elon Musk, who bankrolled Trump's campaign, the new MAGA wing is made up of billionaires, especially tech entrepreneurs, many of whom are themselves immigrants. During the campaign, these two wings made common cause because they both want to destroy the current U.S. government, especially as President Joe Biden had been using it to strengthen American democracy. Traditional MAGA wants to get rid of the government that protects equality and replace it with one that enforces white male supremacy and Christianity. New MAGA—which some have started to call DOGE, after the Department of Government Efficiency run by Musk and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy—wants to get rid of the government that regulates business, especially technology, and protects American interests against competition from countries like China. Their shared commitment to the destruction of the current government is about the only overlap between these two factions. With the campaign over, traditional MAGA and DOGE are ripping apart. Trump sparked the fight when he announced on Sunday, December 22, that he would appoint Musk associate Sriram Krishnan, who was born in India, as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence. On Monday, MAGA activist Laura Loomer criticized Trump's choice of Krishnan. Loomer was in Trump's inner circle until three months ago, when her anti-immigrant tirades made Trump campaign staff worry she would cost Trump votes and forced her out of his public schedule. Loomer noted that Krishnan wants to remove the cap on green cards for workers from certain countries. Krishnan has also called for making it easier for skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. on H-1B temporary visas. These programs are important to the technology sector, but critics say they enable companies to hire foreign workers at lower pay than U.S. workers, that H-1B workers are trapped in their jobs, and that wage theft is rampant in the H-1B program. Loomer said those jobs "should be given to American STEM students." Then she got to the heart of the matter, complaining that MAGA is getting left out of the new administration. She noted that "none of the tech executives who are meeting with Trump and getting appointed in his cabinet supported him in 2020 or during the 2024 primary." She continued: "I feel like many of them are trying to get into Trump's admin[istration] to enrich themselves and get contracts at [the] D[epartment] O[f] D[efense]. This is not America First Policy." When another tech entrepreneur and Trump appointee David Sacks defended Krishnan, Loomer made a series of racist posts, claiming among other things that: "Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third-world invaders from India." She said, "It's not racist against Indians to want the original MAGA policies I voted for. I voted for a reduction in H-1B visas. Not an extension." On Wednesday, December 25—Christmas, a major holiday for MAGA supporters—Musk took a stand against Loomer and the MAGAs. He posted on X that the U.S. needs twice the number of engineers it has, and welcomed foreign engineers. "The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low," he tweeted. "Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win." Loomer responded: "Is DOGE real? Or is it a vanity project?" Others complained about the "Tech Bros" "hubris [and] arrogance with their flippant, condescending, and elitist responses to legitimate criticisms of the H1B1 program." Still others pointed out that there were big layoffs in tech this year and asked why they weren't getting rehired if there was such a desperate need for workers. Musk posted: "Investing in Americans is actually hard. Really hard. It costs money and time and effort to make a person productive. It's a short term net loss. It's much easier to bring in skilled workers who might not do quite a good a job [sic], but will work for a fraction of the cost and be happy just to be here." Loomer responded: "The elephant in the room is that [Musk], who is not MAGA and never has been, is a total f*cking drag on the Trump transition. He's a stage 5 clinger who over stayed his welcome at Mar a Lago in an effort to become Trump's side piece and be the point man for all of his accomplices in big Tech to slither in to Mar a Lago." [sic] Musk called Loomer a troll, and she responded that "Telling the truth isn't trolling… You bought your way into MAGA 5 minutes ago…. We all know you only donated your money so you could influence immigration policy and protect your buddy Xi JinPing." Thursday everything broke open. Ramaswamy, who was born in Ohio to parents who immigrated to America from India, posted on X an indictment of American culture that seemed a direct assault on MAGA Republicans, who have been vocal about their disdain for education. Ramaswamy posted that tech companies hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers rather than native-born Americans because "American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long…. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers." He called for "[m]ore math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less 'chillin.' More extracurriculars, less 'hanging out at the mall.'" "If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve," he warned. "'Normalcy' doesn't cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we'll have our a**es handed to us by China." He called for America to embrace "a new golden era," but warned it was possible "only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness. That's the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence." With that, the fat was in the fire. MAGA dragged Ramaswamy, with even former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley retorting: "There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers." Haley ran for president against Trump but ultimately endorsed him. She is herself the child of Indian immigrants. Loomer also hit back against Musk, posting: "Is DOGE a way to 'cut spending' or REDIRECT the spending toward the pet projects of tech bro billionaires? It's looking like the latter, T[o] B[e] H[onest]." She continued: "'Hey, let's convince the peasants that we are saving them money as we enrich ourselves!'" Another right-wing poster wondered: "How did DOGE go from 'let's cut wasteful government spending' to 'here's why we need to import more immigrants' almost overnight?" When Musk appeared to limit Loomer's ability to use X, she posted: "I have always been America First and a die hard supporter of President Trump and I believe that promises made should be promises kept. Donald Trump promised to remove the H1B visa program and I support his policy. Now, as one of Trump's biggest supporters, I'm having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy." Other right-wing accounts accused Musk of censoring them, too, and racist anti-immigrant sentiments flowed freely. On Friday, when cartoonist and right-wing commenter Scott Adams posted that MAGA was "taking a page from Democrats on how to lose elections while feeling good about themselves," Musk agreed and added: "And those contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem." Loomer commented that Musk "is now referring to MAGA as 'contemptible fools.'... The Trump base is being replaced by Big Tech executives. So sad to see this." She tagged Trump and added "I feel so sad for MAGA." Meanwhile, other MAGA supporters on X piled on Musk, complaining that he had not paid them, as promised, for their participation in his "free speech" petition during the campaign. By today, key Trump ally Steve Bannon, a central figure in MAGA, had taken to another right-wing social media platform to warn his supporters that Musk is showing his "true colors" and to demand that the H-1B visa program be "zeroed-out." Another right-wing influencer, Jack Posobiec, tweeted: "Today was the day we found out who is getting rich by screwing over the American worker." Trump did not weigh in on the fight but, in what appeared to be intended to be a private communication to Musk, wrote on his social media site: "Where are you? When are you coming to the 'Center of the Universe,' Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year's Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT." (According to Aaron Pellish and Alayna Treene of CNN, "x" here likely refers to Musk's son X Æ A-Xii.) Why does this all matter? Because while Trump's people keep insisting he won in a landslide and has a mandate that he will put in place on day one, his fragile coalition is splintering even before he takes office. Trump won less than 50% of the vote. Despite their slim victory, the Republican Party was already in a civil war between MAGA and establishment Republicans who are fed up with the MAGAs who threaten to burn down the government and almost a century of international diplomacy: just a week ago, Senate Republicans were publicly complaining about the dysfunctional "sh*t show" and "fiasco" in the House. Now, with Trump not even in office yet, the two factions of Trump's MAGA base—which, indeed, have opposing interests—are at war. — Notes: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-allies-worry-laura-loomer-georgia-north-carolina-rcna171137 https://www.epi.org/publication/new-evidence-widespread-wage-theft-in-the-h-1b-program/ https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/H-1B-FY15.pdf https://www.newsweek.com/trump-musk-ramaswamy-immigration-h1b-visa-workers-2006669 https://www.newsweek.com/h1b-immigration-visas-india-elon-musk-vivek-trump-2006308 https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/21/tesla-has-downsized-by-at-least-14percent-this-year-internal-number-shows.html https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/24/tech-layoffs-2024-list/ https://newrepublic.com/post/189681/vivek-ramaswamy-american-workers-suck-maga-reaction Jeff Tiedrich, "hey MAGA— President Musk wants an immigrant to take your job," December 27, 2024, everyone is entitled to my opinion. https://www.axios.com/2024/12/27/elon-musk-contemptible-fools-maga-doge https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/27/politics/donald-trump-bill-gates-elon-musk/index.html https://www.rawstory.com/elon-musk-2670690070/ https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5049966-senate-republicans-house-government-funding/ https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-elon-musk-h1b-visa-2006627 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/27/h-1b-visas-elon-musk-trump-immigration/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-appoints-former-paypal-coo-david-sacks-ai-crypto-czar-2024-12-06/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/who-got-duped-maga-activists-worry-that-nativism-and-tech-oligarchy-may-not-go-hand-in-hand X: trump_repost/status/1870949048750104795 LauraLoomer/status/1872068786767228992 LauraLoomer/status/1872319643936870548 VivekGRamaswamy/status/1872312139945234507 NikkiHaley/status/1872344248915554712 GavinWax/status/1872124852695679189 politiwars/status/1872284365771931867 davidshuster/status/1872457573817065589 DavidShuster/status/1872770778472825089 TheTNHoller/status/1872488549037281583 rpsagainsttrump/status/1872443407349817531 micah_erfan/status/1872497996392522219 elonmusk/status/1872744295884841262 LauraLoomer/status/1872753504085000262 acnewsitics/status/1872680874350907455 DavidSacks/status/1871649673158758458 Share

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David Rothkopf's summation

We are all sick and tired, almost literally, of mulling over and hearing others blather on about what the new year will bring in crazy politics world. But this piece is well worth reading anyway:  https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/ill-say-it-again-the-numbers-dont 

You may have to subscribe to the free version of the substack, but Rothkopf is always worth paying a bit of attention to. 

Happy New Year, and may it be not as bad as many of us fear.  

Merry Christmas

Whatever your belief or practice, wishing you peace, love and joy on this traditional day of rejoicing. 

David & Brad 

Wray is a coward, as you'd probably expect

This is perhaps a bit weedsy for some. But shee-it. What a coward Wray is. Unfortunately unsurprising. But by acquiescing to Trump's nose thumbing at the intention of Congress in establishing a straddled term for the FBI director, and voluntarily resigning instead of forcing the issue, he has, after Trump did the same thing to Comey, ensured that this particular "norm" and "guardrail," among so many others, is now gone forever. I truly hate these people. I try not to, but I do. They are deliberately, corruptly, and anti-democratically destroying my country. On purpose. 

What really disturbs me is that there is so very little protest, or even mention, of these terrible developments, which keep coming, one after another, even before the Menace takes office. 

 

Amazon sells crap (not all crap, but it's a thing)

I freely admit to hypocrisy when it comes to Amazon. I used to decry Walmart as a destroyer of small retail business, but of course Amazon is far, far worse, having launched a largely successful assault on nearly all brick and mortar retail, with devastating effects across the land. Yet the convenience and fantastically honed service is addictive, and I shop at Amazon more than I care to admit. Which brings me to my comment. Not entirely original, of course, but worth repeating. Amazon engages in, or at least tolerates from its "merchants" and suppliers, a curious phenomenon in the realm of caveat emptor. I call it "quality counterfeiting." Frequently, if you buy a part, piece of hardware, or just some small utilitarian item (such as a sink stopper, which is what prompted this), and you buy one of the cheaper listings, what you get is an object that looks like the desired item, but which, in fact, is of such poor quality that in many cases they will fail in a short time or just not work as intended at all. They know most people will not bother to return something that only cost $5 to begin with, but it's really very insidious. Even things like fasteners and electric switches are sold that simply don't work, or break soon after purchase, and are essentially worthless. A savvy buyer learns to recognize this, and avoid the cheapest items, or items with few or no reviews (although once they acquire a bunch of bad reviews, they just pull it and release it as a slightly differently described but actually the same item; indeed the same item is often sold at different prices by ostensibly different producers, when in fact they are identical and equally worthless). So, indeed, caveat emptor. I've started buying things like this in... mirabile dictu ...hardware stores, where the price is higher but the damn thing actually works and lasts longer than a month. 

Supermarket Merger Quashed

Here in Portland, for all practical purposes, there are only two major chain grocery stores, and neither is named Albertsons nor Kroger, but, in fact, they are, both of them: Safeway (Albertsons) and Fred Meyer (Kroger). (The current names are relicts of earlier mergers that effectively ended the original holders of those names). So, the quashing of the obviously monopolistic merger of these two major players in the nationwide supermarket biz is definitely a good thing. Even as things stand, both these chains engage in altogether too much wink and nod price fixing and other monopolistic practices. Plus there are already food deserts in our city; I can only imagine that the inevitable closing of proximal locations would just make matters worse. So, in the bleak run up to America's first overtly aspirational autocrat's taking office, there is at least a little good news. I'm assuming the reason the Federal court action was here in Portland is that our town is ground zero for why this proposed merger should not be allowed. 

Ending birthright citizenship? Huh?

So the would-be autocrat says "we're going to end" birthright citizenship. I don't think he knows or cares that it's in the Constitution (Amendment XIV). I want to say there's no way he could get a Constitutional Amendment through. But that's us, Americans who believe in the rule of law and playing by the rules, who can't hope to amend the Constitution, with the anti-democratic procedural hurdles in place. Can MAGA? I guess only time will tell... I suppose the alternative is that they will simply impose their will by fiat, and the era of the Constitution as supreme law will effectively be ended. Is that possible? I honestly don't know. And that's absolutely terrifying. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Where the hell are we?

In case you would like a little help visualizing where our Galaxy is, in relation to its surroundings, this might help (a response from ChatGPT to my question about it, in which I suggested the "edge of the city" metaphor):

The Milky Way is located on the outskirts of the Virgo Supercluster, which is a massive cluster of galaxies that acts as a central hub in this part of the universe.

The Virgo Supercluster itself is part of an even larger structure known as the Laniakea Supercluster, which encompasses over 100,000 galaxies stretched out over 520 million light-years. Within this vast structure, the Milky Way, along with its local group of galaxies, is situated toward the outer regions of the Laniakea Supercluster.

Beyond the edge of our galaxy and its immediate galactic neighborhood lies the Local Void, a vast, relatively empty region of space. This void serves as a stark contrast to the densely packed clusters of galaxies found in the supercluster. In this sense, describing our galaxy as being on the "edge of the city" with the void beyond is a useful visualization to capture our relative position in the cosmos. 

Laniakea Supercluster

Hell, no, to dictatorship

When I heard yesterday that S. Korean president Yoon had declared Martial Law, I immediately thought, in my cynical/sarcastic mindset, "oh, great, now OUR incoming would-be dictator will find inspiration in that and do the same thing!"

Today I'd like to think that if he tries it, OUR Constitutional system will do the same thing as Korea's legislators: immediately move to impeach him (this time for real), and emit one giant "Hell, no, you don't!"

The Milky Way from the South

I don't know if it's common knowledge that the view of our Galaxy from the Southern Hemisphere is vastly better than the view from up here in the North. If you've never been South of the Equator (as I have not), you've never really seen the Milky Way in its greatest splendor (naked eye/dark sky). 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)

Sharing a picture

Instead of a picture of bug eyed crazy person "Gimmida Kash" Patel, Trump's pick announced today for SS FBI Direktor, how about this newly revealed photo of the restored interior of Notre Dame de Paris? There is still beauty, and lasting heritage of civilization, in the World. Despite everything. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)