fjf1.bsky.social

fjf1.bsky.social

@fjf1.bsky.social

Husband, father, managing editor emeritus of academic journal, ex-musician, writer as time permits, concerned citizen, audiophile and videophile tendencies, etc.

617 followers230 following2.8K posts

Goodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita. Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria. You won't have a name When you ride the big airplane All they will call you will be Deportees. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), Woody Guthrie, 1948

On morning Joe, Tom Tillis portrayed Trump as a victim of his advisors and Blanche as a responsible choice for attorney general. Many of his arguments relied on a dubious “what about-ism.” He refused to grant any moral high ground to Obama or Biden. He is first and foremost a diehard Republican.

Storming the polls in record numbers to vote out MAGA in 2026 would be the perfect counterpoint to the lawless storming of the Capitol on 1/06/21 to overturn an election. In a democracy, election should always have the last word.

Remember when you could toss off a comment like “have a good 4th of July” without a second thought? It might not have had any deep meaning, but at least it could be a genuine expression of good wishes. Now it seems like a betrayal.

Trump has just now been appointed secretary of the Dept of Redundancy Dept now. I repeat… This cabinet-level appointment regulates speech in every governmental setting and in the cabinet. Thank you for your attention to this matter, for which I thank you.

What’s up? Another round of childish chest-thumping at the pentagon, sanctified with shock and awe bible talk. All or it seems designed to celebrate the machinery of war and bury any inquiry into ethics and context. Hegseth et al revel in the opportunity to show off the military’s capability per se.

Noem, Patel, Kennedy, Hegseth, the whole infestation in the cabinet, are all Trump’s little creations, fashioned in his own graven image. They have no real qualifications, in the sense of intelligence, insight, or training, for their roles. They are just appearance, cosplayers from central casting.

And he plays at taking his inventions seriously, as if he had conferred expertise on them by fiat, thereby proving to himself by circular argument that authenticity is artificial, a mere sham. Nobody can know more than he does, about anything. Life’s a con job. Get what you can, and watch your back.

Trump’s war on immigrants is not unlike Putin’s war on Ukraine. The same desperate fear about a worldview under threat is at play, abetted by lies about ethnic violence and changing appeals to flimsy legal justifications. This is the political climate in which religious ideas about “chosen ones”…

co.reco.re

and saviors emerge. Human conflict is what breeds them, not some kind of divine inspiration. The quest for power that can mask fear is the link between people like Putin and Trump, even as it can just as easily make them enemies. Resolution is nil in their worlds; “winners” are always in peril.

I have no new information to offer today. I simply refuse to believe that the American population is deaf, dumb, and blind. A lot of us may have grown up as Republicans. Others may have a soft spot for Republican platforms, even Republican rhetoric. But we aren’t engaged now in partisan wrangling,

not even in politics. It’s pathology masquerading as politics, the unmitigated desire to hurt other people. The fear that grounds it is as old as the hills, but the scale and reach of it here and now is unprecedented. As always, we have a chance to stop it. How well we respond remains to be seen.

Any responsible person unsure about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines would welcome more information. The current skepticism, however, is really a spiteful opposition to fact, the height of stupidity. It’s a mortal disease that infects the whole body politic, spread by fools and sociopaths.

Don’t waste time trying to make sense of the MAGA cult. It is pure malice and spite directed against those who represent what they don’t have or can’t be. It’s even willing to surrender to billionaires who flatter their outlook or to endanger people in the name of pro-life. Logic is no impediment.

Apparently, the 4k boxset of The Third Man has been out for a few months. Not long ago, I would have been all over it. Yet, notwithstanding the dire state of the free world, it holds some interest. It’s that good a film. I wonder how this new version compares to the superb Criterion blu-ray.

Tonight Rachel took the brass at MSNBC to task for their treatment of Joy Reid and all those staff members caught up in the changes who were cavalierly removed from their jobs. It was a heartfelt moment. Thanks, Rachel, for giving voice to what many of us were feeling.

I’ve just attended the town hall conducted by Massachusetts rep Jake Auchincloss. I came away much impressed. He was quick on his feet and had no gaps in his knowledge or ideas. The event managed to counteract the voice in the wilderness syndrome that can plague me. Anyone else there? Thoughts?

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