Category: Politics – Miscellaneous

The Strongman Mash – BONUS POST

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There will be at least two more years of suffering under this Trump regime. Here’s a song about it in a nutshell.

STRONGMAN MASH

sung to the tune of “Monster Mash” with apologies to Estate of Bobby Pickett, the Crypt Kicker 5, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Trump did scheming for a power GRAB with the greedy Right. Our eyes behold, a traumatic sight, for this dictator with his cult, has damaged us all, and his inner circle has yet to fall.

He does his mash. He does the strongman mash. The strongman mash. It caused a political crash. He does his mash. It is extremely brash. He does his mash. He does the strongman mash.

From destabilizing the Middle East, to wanting a ballroom where his cronies feast. His sleazy donors all kiss his ass, to get deregulated by his top brass.

They do the mash. They do the strongman mash. The strongman mash. It caused a political crash. They do the mash. It is extremely brash. They do the mash. They do the strongman mash.

The fraternity is having fun. Democracy is coming undone. Many deaths have been caused by their actions, and the deaths have just begun.

The scene is shocking. Their greed knows no bounds: Trump’s muddled brain, backed by Fox’s baying clowns.

A political reversal is about to arrive. But for now Trump’s gang is still alive.

They do the mash. They do the strongman mash. The strongman mash. It caused a political crash. They do the mash. It is extremely brash. They do the mash. They do the strongman mash.

Out from his coffin, Trump’s voice does ring, seems he is troubled by many things. He stomps his feet and balls his fists and cries, I won the 2020 election, and Dems are CommunISTS!

He does his mash. He does the strongman mash. The strongman mash. It caused a political crash. He does his mash. It is extremely brash. He does his mash. He does the strongman mash.

Now his cruelty is uncool. Musk’s a part of his band. And his strongman mash is wrecking our land. If you don’t worship him, his mash targets you. When they come to your door, have a Supreme-Court-Justice with you.

But Trump can strongman mash. The strongman mash. It’s a political crash. Then he can mash. You’ll catch hell in a flash. Then he can mash. Then he can strongman mash…

The Dope

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The Book of the Week is “The Dope, The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade” by Benjamin T. Smith, published in 2021.

In this wordy and redundant volume, the author mostly stuck to his subject of narcotics– opium, heroin and cocaine, but also mentioned marijuana (not considered a narcotic nowadays). From the 1800’s, there have always been legal loopholes allowing stakeholders to sell narcotics.

The cycle of changing politics, supply and demand of specific illegal drugs, enforcement efforts and violence, have become a cliche in both the United States and Mexico. The author mentioned France, Canada, Colombia, Peru and China in passing, but failed to mentioned other narcotics sources and hubs that might be relevant to the story, such as Bolivia, Panama and Central Asia.

Anyway, destroying narcotics supplies and distribution networks NEVER works when politicians and law enforcement are trying to get rid of certain kinds of drugs. In a few years, entrepreneurs will always have found a way to make money from other kinds of drugs, or other enterprises– such as protection rackets. The same old corruption and atrocities return, time and time again. Unsurprisingly, it is actually ulterior political motives and the profit-motive that drive the cycle.

Starting in the late 1800’s, opium was a drug whose regulatory crackdown was an excuse for a smear campaign against Chinese immigrants in Mexico City– the major makers of it. In the nineteen teens, Americans zipped down to Tijuana or Mexicali in Mexico to get their fill of gambling, the sex trade and alcohol.

In June 1916, the governor of Baja, California put on a show, pretending to ban opium and shutting down its distribution, and killed some Chinese drug traffickers. It was a charade because the black market on opium stayed alive and well and the drugs’ stakeholders paid the governor protection money. With the minimum portion of that money he needed to spend to stay in power, he did public-works projects and funded schools in his district, imposing mandatory education.

In the 1920’s, goon squads in Mexico City raided Chinese stores and arrested anyone with opium paraphernalia. That same decade, the state of California passed anti-vice laws that adversely affected the Chinese.

In 1925, in Mexico, the secret service agent who investigated and prosecuted members of a large Mexico City heroin ring, became the new chief law-enforcement officer, and eventually the new drug kingpin. The year 1936 saw Mexico again become a hub for illegal narcotics going to the U.S.

In early 1940, Mexico tried a new policy: opening dispensaries that allowed addicts to get their fix at a discount while still holding down a low-skilled job, in order to put black-marketeers out of business. Yes, street-crime in the local areas fell because addicts no longer had to steal to stay alive.

However, the head of the U.S. Treasury was against the dispensaries. He was “supremely pragmatic and with only a passing interest in the actual facts, he would go on to blame U.S. narcotics addiction on an almost comically incoherent litany of shady conspiracies…” He was the one who decided which countries’ narcotics were medicinal only, not recreational; only the medicinal could be imported into the U.S. The dispensaries were shut down in a few months.

President Nixon (with his usual “public humiliation, manufactured panic and diplomatic bullying”) started anti-narcotics hysteria in his first term. But the series of anti-narcotics operations implemented in Mexico by American presidents and law-enforcement from the late 1960’s to the mid-1980’s, never did reduce the overall addiction rates of Americans, because other countries picked up the slack.

Around 2006, Mexico became like the red-light district of Amsterdam. Former members of Mexico’s military in the Zeta drug cartel violated what in the United States were the “RICO” laws, amply aided by gun violence.

Read the book to learn a boatload more about: how untold amounts of American taxpayers’ monies have been wasted in all different ways on trying to fight the drug wars; what roles shifting power structures (involving different stakeholders including but not limited to PJF, DFS, DEA, ICE agents, drug traffickers and cartels), weapons (guns, grenades, bazooka missiles), herbicides, deaths (lots of them!), and marijuana have played in the narcotics shenanigans in the last hundred years.

God Help America – BONUS POST

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The United States needs divine intervention. Here’s a song about that.

GOD HELP AMERICA

sung to the tune of “God Bless America” from the scene in the 1943 movie “This is the Army” with apologies to the estates of Irving Berlin, Kate Smith, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

While our president blathers about “me, me, me”

let’s vote to make sure our land is free.

Let us all help keep elections free and fair, heed our founding documents. Deeply, we care.

God help America. Bring back the love.

Democratize her, exorcize her of GOP’s “might makes right” from above,

from ICE and Fox News, to the White House, to the reflecting pool, filled with scum.

God help America. Land of freedom.

God help America. Bring back the love.

Democratize her, exorcize her of GOP’s “might makes right” from above,

from ICE and Fox News, to the White House, to the reflecting pool, filled with scum.

God help America. Land of freedom.

God help America. Bring back the love.

Democratize her, exorcize her of GOP’s “might makes right” from above,

from ICE and Fox News, to the White House, to the reflecting pool, filled with scum.

God help America. Land of freedom.

From ICE and Fox News, to the White House, to the reflecting pool, filled with scum.

God help America. Land of freedom.

Weapons of Math Destruction

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The Book of the Week is “Weapons of Math Destruction, How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy” by Cathy O’Neil, first published in 2016.

This hodgepodge of a volume pointed out the dangers of Big Data, whose name has been changed to AI. The software that collects data and does number-crunching that results in harm– the author calls “weapons of math destruction” or WMDs. Since the book’s writing, ALL aspects of Americans’ lives have been taken over by AI. The author provided several real-life examples of groupthink and herd mentality that has led to a toxic loop of self-deception and cluster-screwups.

The three elements of WMDs are: damage, scaling and opacity.

In software engineering, the cliche, “Garbage in, garbage out” means that a flawed process that generates inaccurate data (garbage) will result in an end-product of inaccurate data (garbage). When AI models collect data on a small number of people, and those data are extrapolated to an entire applicable population (“scaling”), there can be honest ineptitude or even malice; numerous additional people’s lives can be adversely affected. The software models used are opaque because they are considered trade secrets or intellectual property. Of course, maximizing profits is the number one goal of AI makers.

The author discussed the subprime mortgage crisis that resulted in the 2008 financial crash. In 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. The repeal allowed banks to enter the securities business. The securities-ratings services went hog-wild in their quest to collect huge fees from banks, labeling high-risk securities as the opposite of what they really were, while the banks bet against the very same securities they’d sold to their customers.

These perpetrators poisoned the well for everyone, so that new laws were enacted that made it more expensive for financially responsible, law-abiding people to apply for mortgages going forward.

In the 2010’s, students in Zhongxiang in China were slated to take the national standardized university entrance exam. There had been a crackdown on cheating. Approximately two thousand students protested outside their school, shouting “We want fairness. There is no fairness if you don’t let us cheat.”

American politics is currently witnessing this kind of unmitigated lawlessness and hubris. It waxes and wanes through decades, but now it is more extreme than ever because:

  • Since the 2008 financial crash, the profiteers’ wealth has been compounding, which has increased its power, as money is power.
  • The “president” (who some would argue is a dictator) is entrenched with the legal system.
  • Previous administrations were neither as litigious nor as driven to stay in power forever by rigging everything (including but far from limited to: a blood-for-oil war, insider trading, redistricting, launching smear campaigns against all enemies, sweetheart contracts with political donors, etc., etc., etc.).

Here is one last example of how poor Americans were the victims of expensive stupidity: Between 2013 and 2015, a deeply flawed AI system that screened unemployment-benefits recipients in the state of Michigan, wrongly accused 93% of the recipients of waste, fraud or abuse.

Read the book to learn about many more examples of the Orwellian juggernaut AI has become.

White House Fraternity – BONUS POST

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This is a song for all law-abiding Americans. Don’t hesitate to show that you still believe in democracy.

WHITE HOUSE FRATERNITY

sung to the tune of “The Addams Family” TV theme song, with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

They’re sleazy evil criers, mysterious deniers. They’re altogether liars. The White House Fraternity.

The House is a greedfest for ’em, with a shrinking Congressional quorum. It’s impossible to ignore ’em. The White House Fraternity.

Beat. Cheat. Wall Street.

So vote out the corrupt leeches. Ignore the cliched speeches. We’ll correct the contract breaches of the White House Fraternity.

Donors Kissing Up – BONUS POST

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Shoutout to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) for elaborating on the extremely criminal and unethical behavior of the Trump administration. Here’s a song about it.

DONORS KISSING UP

sung to the tune of “The Jeffersons” TV theme song with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Trump-donors are kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy, donors kissing up.

Getting tax CUTS and pardons with this guy.

Donors kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy.

Honest people are sick of his lies.

Innocent-foreigner detentions, impunity, gambling and crypTO. Sweetheart contracts, criminal acts with each quid pro quo.

Now they’re in the big leagues, strongman tactics on tap. As long as he lives, it’s him and his cronies, and everything wrong with that.

Donors kissing up, donors kissing up.

Tax cuts and pardons with this guy, donors kissing up, donors kissing up, to this guy.

Honest people are sick of his li-ies.

Different Jokes – BONUS POST

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To all you comedians out there, thank you for getting us through this difficult presidency. Here’s a little song that explains the American entertainment situation.

DIFFERENT JOKES

sung to the tune of the TV theme song (the original) “Diff’rent Strokes” with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Well, Americans won’t-long apPROVE, of elitists and-a-prez who’s dumb.

When the Right screws the poor, they screw everyone.

Trump acts like a slumlord, he’s a man of means. He’s mocked as a buffoon, while there are serious scenes.

But we’ve got, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, to move the world.

The United States has an exceptional story. Entertainers are always in your face.

The internet and idiot box, cause brain rot. So what? They cheer us. They give us hope. It’s an infinite space.

And together we’ll start over.

It takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes, it takes, different jokes to move the world.

My World – BONUS POST

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As is well known, AI software is the conduit through which Trump’s shenanigans are conveyed. His handlers let him be chief spokesman so that HE alone gets blamed for all the nation’s problems. BUT Trump has dementia, so anonymous bad actors are actually to blame! They carry out his alleged orders to besmirch his name forever in the history books.

This will continue until Trump has irreversible cessation of vital body functions.

Infuriatingly for many people, not much will change even after that, because mostly rich white men will still rule the United States; they have been doing so since the country’s founding.

The media network FOX will continue to try to “put lipstick on this pig.” Here’s what AI is singing on Trump’s behalf.

MY WORLD

sung to the tune of “My Girl” with apologies to Smokey Robinson, The Temptations and to whomever else the rights may concern.

I hear LIBerals-whine, in this prosperous day.

When you’re on my side, I keep our foes at bay.

I rest and play, and I always get my way.

My world, my world, my world, doubling down in my world. MY world.

I’ve got so much money, Bibi envies me.

I get to stay on top because no one wants anarchy.

Well, I rest and play, and I always get my way. My world, my world, my world. Doubling down in my world. My world.

I always need honeys, and fortune and fame. I’ve made all the riches lately, one man can claim.

Well, I rest and play, and I always get my way. My world, my world, my world. Doubling down in my world. My world.

I’m superior to JFK in my world. I’ve always won every game in my world. Doubling down, doubling down. My world, woo, my world. That’s all anyone can talk about is my world…

Timebends, A Life

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The Book of the Week is “Timebends, A Life” by Arthur Miller, published in 1987.

Born in 1915 in New York City, Arthur Miller was an internationally famous playwright best known for Death of A Salesman and The Crucible.

Miller commented that in 1932, ordinary Americans were out of money and hope, and the Republicans were out of ideas. In 1952, the Republicans were extremely furious that the Democrats had had a stranglehold on the American government for twenty years. Miller was a participant in an informal think tank of intellectuals– academics, writers and artists, and as was common for the time– who were also heavy drinkers and smokers. They were at wits’ end trying to counter the overwhelming, vicious anti-Communist propaganda of the political Right.

In 1948, Miller and his friend, an Italian attorney, met the mafioso Lucky Luciano in Sicily. In exchange for having three cartons of American cigarettes taken from them, Miller and his guide got a free road-tour of the island. Curiously, at every gas station, their driver wasn’t charged for fuel, either.

In the early 1950’s, Miller tried psychoanalysis, which was the latest thing among deep thinkers like himself. However, he gave it up, as he feared that digging too deeply into his subconscious might curb his creativity, which would mean the loss of his livelihood.

The [U.S. government’s] House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) maximized its power to terrorize all Americans by convincing them that Communists were conspiring to take over the country. BUT the Communist Party had been legal in the 1930’s and 1940’s– the period when the accused had allegedly been associated with it, or knew those associated with it. In many cases, by the end of the 1940’s, the accused had shed their ties to it, so at the time allegations surfaced in the 1950’s– there was no illegality. Even the accused who were actually guilty, were denied due process.

Besides, in the United States, the Communist Party and its front had had mostly Socialist, not Communist goals. There was, and still remains so much ignorance about the two ideologies. In this blog, do a keyword search for “Communist” and “Socialist” to become informed.

Miller forgave Hollywood-director Elia Kazan for naming names of alleged Communists he’d interacted with when HUAC pressured him into doing so. Miller argued that if Kazan had not caved, his career would have been ruined, so he wouldn’t have made any more emotionally moving movies with socially valuable messages; the same way some politicians who make ethically difficult choices by voting on legislation that will harm their constituents, are doing it to get reelected so that they may continue to do more good for their constituents in the long run.

On the other hand, in recent decades, laws have been changed to make excessively unethical behavior legal. So most of the disgusting behavior of America’s leaders is lawful, regardless of the leaders’ unconscionable greed and hubris. One ray of hope indicating that the United States still has democracy, is that it still has two political parties– one to rein in the other.

Read the book to learn a lot more about Arthur Miller’s life and times, generally a rerun of earlier times.