“And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country’s pride.” -Bertrand Russell

It’s good to have goals when fighting a war. At least that’s what I’ve been hearing for a while now. I imagine that objectives are important, planning is important, a clear reason for entering a conflict where lives will be on the line is important. Though I suppose the best laid plans can be challenged by a tenacious enemy.

The temptation among some is to immediately go on the offensive, but it has never been clear to me why someone would want to start a war—unless it is a last resort, and intended to force the issue of independence and relief from oppressive rule.

I’m sure there are those who would say that war is a part of life, that war is inevitable, even necessary. I included the quote from Bertrand Russell in a much earlier post, but brought it back here because Russell was referring to the insanity of WWI, the absolute depravity of war in general, along with the often-vacuous, vain, imbecilic and selfish reasons behind fomenting such violence.

Some things, sadly, haven’t changed, and we find ourselves still dealing with conflicts around the world. Our current involvement in Iran weighs heavy on anyone who’s had enough of this nonsense, who may wonder how long it will be until we turn a corner on such primal urges, such costly gaffs.

Apparently, it will be a while yet.

To add insult to injury, Donald Trump and the cast of inept sycophants around him appear to have started a war as a distraction, with no clear objectives and little planning except as it serves Benjamin Netanyahu’s goals.

Trump is one of those official gentlemen of which Mr. Russell spoke– indeed living a luxurious life, mostly stupid, without imagination or heart, thin-skinned, easily offended, and so lacking in decency that he thinks nothing of sending our troops into harm’s way if it helps avert the world’s gaze from his and the Heritage Foundation’s depraved agendas.

Good for Jen Psaki. She didn’t lead with the Lake America drivel. In fact, I’m not sure she mentioned it all, though I didn’t watch until the end of the show. At least it wasn’t Story 1, or even 2.

This is the way media should treat the swill emanating daily from Washington. Just disregard the dumbness and finally focus on the things they don’t want us to be noticing, like election tampering and immigration tactics and monumental grift and the Epstein files and a complete disregard for kitchen table issues.

One of these days, Republicans in Congress will have seen enough. Right?

Right?

When we read about an Executive Order that changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, we might ponder for a moment before realizing who’s done this. Even knowing that it was Donald Trump, we may still hold out for the possibility that there is a method to his madness, some plot twist or stroke of genius yet to be revealed.

This might be why he still gets away with doing the next ridiculous, hair-brained thing—people are wondering what The Donald has up his sleeve, when the brilliance of the tactic will be revealed.

Of course, there is no brilliance. It’s just the next dumb, infantile thing Donald does to distract from something else more consequential. So, we best keep our ears and eyes peeled, eh?

I’m sure Canada is beside itself.

It’s the time factor, as in, “How long, Lord?”

Well, that, and life is often blindsided by random viciousness and calamity, where one moment it unfolds in a nondescript way, and in the next moment it’s snuffed out by a thunderous, staggeringly massive, angry and other-worldly wall of water and mud and debris.

I’ve watched a few videos of the beyond-Biblical, epochal avalanche and flooding in Nepal, and I’m once again reminded that people will start asking where God was, or why such a thing could possibly happen to innocent people just going about their day.

And there will be nothing but crickets in response, or at best paltry efforts at letting God off the hook, or the old classic: “That’s life in a fallen world.”

What I’m becoming more convinced of is a more logical truth: life on earth is a crapshoot, and humans have a tendency toward believing that bad things can’t happen to them—even when they decide to populate topography like steep-walled canyons with a river running through it in proximity to the Himalayas and glaciers and avalanche threats.

Earth has no reverence for us. Earth is Earth, with its currents and ecosystems and forces that operate despite our attempts to harness or limit or abuse. Earth is dynamic. It may be wounded, but it will seek and find some level of homeostasis, with or without us.

As much as it troubles me to write these words, I’m becoming increasingly of the mind that God has nothing to do with this disaster, or us. And “How long, Lord?” is a mere scream into the void.

😦

One of life’s great mysteries: why boxing and MMA and the rest are called sport.

A primal proving grounds for attention-starved combatants? An outlet for anger issues, legalized mayhem and income stream? An indulgent escape for those who watch with hopes of a bloodbath or someone rendered unconscious, or worse? Sounds more like it.

It’s hard to know if it’ll ever happen, but I’m still holding out for an awakening.

I have no choice. It seems it might be our only hope—that Republicans arise one morning, look at their newsfeeds or network of choice and suddenly realize they can’t be accomplices anymore. They can’t ride coattails and compromise values. They can no longer prop up, humor, or feed an insatiable ego.

They miraculously grow a spine and finally tell Donald Trump to fuck off.

It’s always been all we’ve ever needed. We could have ended this nightmare a long time ago. Maybe not nip it in the bud but at least minimize the damage. As it is, there’s a monumental amount of fence mending in order, and if we don’t get started soon, it’ll be too late. Trust will be an ongoing issue.

Thanks, Donald. And Stephen. And Kevin and Russell, and all the MAGA voters and others who thought Trump might just be what we needed.

Beware the idiot who says he alone can fix things.