#the current catastrophe

[gentlyepigrams]

[hangingfire]

a derangement of epitaphs

Yesterday afternoon I was going one way down the sidewalk and passed this dudebro on his way to the gym going in the other direction. He was talking on the phone with someone and I heard him say:

"...radicalization of the liberals and Democrats, fucking rtards..."

The look on his face was one of plain savage hate and anger. I'm not sure if he even noticed me, but I sure as hell noticed him, and picked up my pace to put some distance between us too.

I feel a lot of ways about this, but one of them is this: I have some fresh insight into how one can live next door to someone for years, only to have them suddenly go full Purge on your ass as soon as they feel like they have permission to do so.

[booksclayandcatherine]

well…

I fully expect to see a Creation Museum on the Mall and an Ark exhibit at the National Zoo by this time next year.

[nonasuch]

current mood: very relieved that the horse is being evicted from the hospital, but also worried that he will somehow burn the hospital down on his way out

[awed-frog]

The usa situation just feels like a bad sequel of "A dry white season" by A. Brink... Like it's the same but much later in another country, its something that I have felt since I was 17 and read this novel for the first time but it's just becoming more and more true, like it's not as institutionalised as in the novel but in a sense it's even worse because it's still happening even when technically it shouldn't

Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about South Africa and the apartheid, but I thank you for the book rec. I just looked it up, it seems very interesting.

And, yeah - it does feel that way, doesn’t it? I think maybe for me the most striking thing is how separated the communities still are. Like, if I think about European cities, optimistically I want to say the separation lasts for one, two generations, and it has mostly to do with a) the price of flats and b) the fact many immigrants are happier around people from their own country, so they tend to live close to one another. But then, once children are born, are educated in the new country, grow up bilingual, make friends from other communities - including ‘local’ kids - those children usually live wherever. Or at the very least, their children do. For me, it’s very hard to imagine how African-Americans have been a part of the United States even before it was its own country, and yet centuries later there are still majority black / majority white cities, neighbourhoods, schools, offices and so on. It’s truly disheartening, and the sign of a (hidden) apartheid system, I think you’re right about that.

I don’t know what it will take to get out of this mess, and to be honest I’m not very optimistic. South Africa’s problems didn’t magically go away after the end of the apartheid, after all - what’s unfair about life is that social progress seems to require a constant and determined effort not to crumble into dust, and most of us are too busy staying afloat to put in that kind of work.

[idairsauthor]

This Fcking Impeachment, Episode 5: If You Go After The King

PLAIDDER: Hey, Conn.

CONN: Hello, stranger.

PLAIDDER: Leave me alone. I’ve been busy.

CONN: You’ve been hiding.

PLAIDDER: OK, fine. I’ve been taking a break from all...this. I don’t think I’ve really missed anything. 

CONN: How can you say--

PLAIDDER: For the first week, you know, I thought it actually would matter how things went in the impeachment hearings. And maybe it did, some. But not enough.

CONN: You were waiting for your Republicans to turn on him, weren’t you.

PLAIDDER: No. But I thought public opinion might shift, or something. Now, it’s just...you know, I don’t expect a lot of surprises at this point. The House will impeach and the Senate will acquit and the Russians will collude and this son of a bitch will be reelected in 2020 and that’s the end of the American experiment.

CONN: Please don’t tell me you regret your Nancy Pelosi’s doing this.

PLAIDDER: Oh no. No, not at all. We had to.

CONN: That’s a relief.

PLAIDDER: You know, they say, if you go after the king, you better not miss. But you understand better than most that sometimes--

CONN: Sometimes, you just have to go after the king. 

PLAIDDER: No matter what.

CONN: No matter what.

PLAIDDER: What actually depresses me most about all this, Conn, is watching everyone second-guess what the Democrats are doing. Everyone wants to be the one to have found the flaw in the strategy that will have led to the final defeat. This is what frustrates me about the mainstream media--the “good” media, the ones that actually try to be factually accurate and halfway responsible. There’s always this narrative, where for a while one side is up, and then that side is down and the other side is up, and so no matter what’s actually happening, you think you’re winning one week and the next week you’re plunged into despair.

CONN: Our repeater chains really aren’t that sophisticated.

PLAIDDER: I didn’t want them to be. Your country’s never going to have social media; you already have telepathy.

CONN: So this week, the story is the Democrats are down, eh? 

PLAIDDER: Yeah. Knowing that this is the narrative somehow doesn’t protect me from it emotionally. But all week it’s been “what the Democrats should do that they’re not doing” or “what the Democrats shouldn’t do that they are doing” or “why the whole process is broken and our country is fucked up beyond all repair” or...and I’m sick of it. 

CONN: Do you really think they could be doing a better job with this?

PLAIDDER: No. I don’t. This is what drives me nuts. When Pelosi was staving off impeachment, everyone I knew was like, what is this weak sauce, what are they waiting for, he gives proof of impeachability every day, this is what we always do, we keep our powder dry till it’s too late to use it, this party will never do anything right as long as they’re taking money from corporations, etc. etc. etc. Now we’re actually doing it, and everyone wants to talk about why it’s not working. 

CONN: How is it not working? All the evidence--

PLAIDDER: I know. I know. They have no evidence, they have no logical or coherent defense of him, they have nothing, everything during the Intelligence Committee hearings went our way. But to the people who support him, it doesn’t matter what the evidence shows. It doesn’t matter what the law is. It doesn’t matter what the Constitution says. If he does it, it’s right. 

CONN: And you don’t understand that.

PLAIDDER: I have never felt that way about any politician. When it comes to politics, I don’t fall in love.

CONN: Not even with your Mr. Obama?

PLAIDDER: Look, I’m not gonna say I was immune to his magic, or Bill Clinton’s either. But when Bill Clinton was accused of having an affair with a White House intern, I was like, well that’s not implausible. I hoped he was telling us the truth about that, but I was ultimately not really surprised to discover that he wasn’t. Obama promised to close Guantanamo and he didn’t. Obama deported all kinds of people. Obama was fine with undeclared drone warfare. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s ideal. Nobody’s a hero.

CONN: None of that stops you from wanting them to be. That’s why you get mad at them, when they inevitably betray your hopes.

PLAIDDER: My point is, Conn, Buttercup came into this presidency with about 35-40% approval and that’s where he’ll be when he finally leaves it, no matter what happens. And 35-40% approval is good enough to keep the Congressional Republicans fawning around him licking his boots. It’s disgusting. It’s depressing.

CONN: Well then why did you want this impeachment, if it doesn’t matter?

PLAIDDER: You can be a real pain in the gleacha, you know that?

CONN: Maybe, but I’m cheaper than your therapist.

PLAIDDER: Yeah, all right. We had to do it. Because you have to do what you CAN do, even if it doesn’t matter. Before you get to the...scary shit...you have to exhaust the constitutional remedies.

CONN: Exactly.

PLAIDDER: If we hadn’t done this, we’d always have told ourselves that was our mistake. Now we’re doing it, and whatever happens, at least we don’t have to beat ourselves up for not having been willing to take the risk.

CONN: And may I remind you that you don’t know what’ll happen.

PLAIDDER: I think I do, Conn.

CONN: You didn’t predict how the shutdown would end. 

PLAIDDER: Yeah, you were closer but you were wrong. They didn’t vote to override his veto.

CONN: Because he realized it was a danger and decided not to give them the choice. If he comes to think there’s a real chance he will be removed, he’ll run. He’s not a brave man.

PLAIDDER: But there is no real chance of his being removed-

CONN: --yet.

PLAIDDER: NO! NO MORE YETS! I AM SICK OF YET! THERE ARE NO YETS IN THIS COUNTRY! WE ARE YETLESS! AMERICA HAS A MASSIVE YET DEFICIT!

CONN: Friend, I can see you’re upset, but let me tell you: you don’t know. Nobody knows. People have opinions but they don’t know. Did anyone know that your Mr. Giuliani was going to go to Ukraine this week to continue soliciting bribes and propagating Russian disinformation while the hearings were going on?

PLAIDDER: NOBODY CARES!

CONN: Your Rep. Matt Gaetz, he of the Great SCIF Sit-In, is on record saying that it’s “weird.”

PLAIDDER: So what. Buttercup will tweet at him and he’ll walk it back.

CONN: But did you expect that?

PLAIDDER: No. No, to be honest, I did not expect that.

CONN: Your Senator Kennedy can’t seem to decide whether he’s all in on the propaganda or not. He keeps going back and forth. 

PLAIDDER: What does that get us?

CONN: Nothing tangible. The report on that investigation your William Barr started into the Mueller investigation is due to be released today. Have you read it?

PLAIDDER: No, they haven’t dropped it yet. 

CONN: Why not?

PLAIDDER: I don’t know, maybe they got held up at Kinko’s.

CONN: You don’t think it might be because they’re desperately trying to massage it into a vindication of Trump’s “hoax” narrative even though they know they can’t?

PLAIDDER: Of course it might be. Or it may be they’re planning to dump it at 5 after the impeachment hearings are over.

CONN: If it’s going to vindicate their man, wouldn’t they drop it now and pull focus?

PLAIDDER: Conn--

CONN: YOU MADE ME RESILIENT. You MADE ME an optimist. YOU made me capable of preserving my faith in democratic institutions and diplomacy through EVERYTHING. Through imprisonment and mindforcing and torture. Maybe I SHOULD stop hoping but I can’t because you made hope unkillable in me. Why are you yelling at me? I am who I am because you need me to be that way.

PLAIDDER: I know. I know.

CONN: And I say, do not throw yourself into a pit of despair just because he has not been defeated YET.

PLAIDDER: All right, Conn. Point taken. 

CONN: They’re doing what you want them to do and what you know is right. They’re going after the king. No matter what.

PLAIDDER: No matter what.

CONN: The consequences will be what they will be. But this was the right thing to do and they’re doing it. Can’t you celebrate that?

PLAIDDER: I guess I can try.

CONN: That’s the spirit!

PLAIDDER: All right, Conn, thanks for coming in. See you next episode.

[ladysaraharper]

Finished my homework and caught up on the news. Huh, now I’m angry. And I have a rhyming dictionary. 

 Below the cut you’ll find political parody versions of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Always Look in the Big Pile of Lies) and Knights of the Round Table from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Knights of the Rotund Table). 

Always Look In The Big Pile of Lies

Cheer up whistleblower, you know what they say Tax reviews are bad, they can really make you mad, Undue meddling can make you swear and curse When your concerns are met with dismissal, Don’t grumble, give a whistle!  And this’ll help things turn out for the best…

Always look in the big pile of lies! Always look in the big pile of lies! If something in Ukraine seems rotten, There’s something you’ve forgotten And that’s that Congress can subpoena everything! When your report’s in the dumps, Don’t be silly chumps, Purse your lips and whistle, that’s the thing!

Always look in the big pile of lies, Come on! Always look in the big pile of lies,

If the President’s absurd And Barr has the final word You find out that you’re serving a Russian cow Forget about your job, give Congress a ring Enjoy it, it’s about over anyhow!

So always look in the big pile of lies And when forty-five’s threatening your death He’s a piece of shit, when you look at it Barr’s a laugh and Pence a joke it’s true You’ll see they’re all for dough And Ukranian quid pro quo Just remember the laws protect you!

And always look in the big pile of lies Always look in the big pile of lies Come on guys, cheer up Always look in the big pile of lies Worse things happened in Rome, you know Always look in the big pile of lies I mean, what have you got to lose? Rule of law came from nothing and it’s going back to nothing What did we lose? Nothing! Always look in the big pile of lies

Knights of the Rotund Table 

We’re the Knights of the Rotund Table We lie whene’er we’re able  we do our crimes in double time and Barr sweeps ‘em under the table  We sure do trust in Trump a lot He thumps some chumps and grumps a lot We’re the Knights of the Rotund Table Our wrath is formidable  But many times we’re given crimes  We can’t quite finangle We’re often mad and can be bought Our lawyers go to jail a lot  In war we’re genius and stable  Our fuckups are plenty and of fable  Between our scandals we tweet a lot and gaze into our navel It’s a busy life not being caught a lot  We have to push bullshit a lot

[tryxyhijinks]

In retrospect, TNG The Inner Light was maybe a little on-the-nose for light evening entertainment...