Is there a cadre, a cabal, a circle jerk of so-called world leaders conspiring to bring us down?

One might think that, by this point in our evolutionary journey, or at least by the power of observation of what has come before and learning from our mistakes, we as a species might be moving away from harboring a desire for world domination and war. But apparently not.

There will always be, as Bertrand Russell observed, official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart who cannot envision a world where their philosophies, their dreams of conquest do not hold sway, are not acted upon, and are wholly refuted by the masses.

Sadly, we must have some miles to travel yet. There seems to be little hurry to walk upright.

What’s the fascination with body counts? The earthquake in Syria and Turkey is horrible, yet we stand by waiting, and maybe perversely hoping, that the death toll will go higher? Thousands of human lives snuffed out in the blink of an eye, in grotesque ways, and we await news of higher numbers like it’s some sort of notable achievement.

I guess it’s a frame of reference, or something. Another way of grasping the magnitude of the disaster besides 7.8.

And 7.5.

I couldn’t give less of a shit about the best and worst looks on the red carpet at the Grammys. I’m sure some are absolutely apoplectic over these fashion faux pas.

We have the corner on distractions and fluff in this country.

I search for a good news story every morning, but such a thing is not easy to find.

Recently, there was news of a Chinese spy balloon sighting over Montana (since shot down off the coast of the Carolinas), the removal of Ilhan Omar from an important Congressional committee, and the shooting death, as she sat in her car, of a young local black Democratic official in NJ.

There was the coldest weather in several decades arriving in New England, with likely power outages due to high winds.

And, to add insult to injury, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will offer the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union Address. That should be enlightening.

So the US is securing the use of military bases in the Philippines. That’s just the best news!

I mean, isn’t it great to know that we’re moving into position so we can keep an eye on China in case they decide to attack Taiwan? Isn’t that just the greatest piece of news since everyone’s favorite megalomaniac decided to ruin a whole country and challenge the current world order almost a year ago?

It’s the greatest news we could possibly hear amidst all the other great news we try to assimilate every day.

Nothing like a world war to snap us out of our economic funk and general malaise. Woo-hoo!

Ben Crump is omnipresent. What is his gig, anyway? He shows up everywhere, particularly in the midst of potential lawsuits against municipalities and their police departments.

He stood at the podium at Tyre Nichols’ funeral, or whatever that was, and offered up what I can only describe as an impassioned plea for justice, perhaps fueled by the prospect that he’s gonna be in on another cut of another multi-million dollar lawsuit.

He’s the consummate ambulance chaser with perfect cover, dressed to the nines.

Greta Thunberg is arrested in Germany for protesting a groundbreaking for a coal-fired power plant. You go, girl. It feels like David v Goliath without the slingshot, but you go, girl.

This is on you, Vlad, you son of a bitch.

The fact that George Santos- or whatever his name is- is still standing, still a member of Congress, should be an indication to anyone who’s paying attention that the Republican Party has indeed lost its way. No bargain is beneath them.

To quote Audie Cornish, from an interview with Stephen Colbert the other night, Santos is the logical conclusion to the end of shame. It’s anything goes anymore, exacerbated by a lack of accountability and the notion that someone who’s been accused of a serious gaff can simply ride it out, tweet through it, proclaim with as much indignation as one can muster that the media are liars, and it’s all about enemies out to get you.

There’s no place for introspection, or making the effort to sort wheat from chaff.

Who says Donald Trump, the master of doubling down, isn’t a good teacher? He continues to leave his mark, like skid marks in the tighty-whities.

There must be a language, other than violence, that Putin or any bully could understand. Some effective use of words and images that would cause even a determined megalomaniac to pause, if only for a moment, maybe just long enough to catch himself, to ponder the breach he’s creating, to recognize his monstrous error, his roll of the dice, his careless threats to destroy the world by precipitating a nuclear Armageddon.

Who does this? Who even dares utter such threats, besides a mad man with anger issues and nothing to lose?

Are there any words of reason being spoken to him, or around him? Is there anyone who has the courage and strength and authority to get through to him, to appeal to any vestige of humanity that might remain? Does he have anyone close to him who he cares about, who he loves and couldn’t imagine losing? Or has he reached a point where no one can get too close, where people are merely useful or not useful, and nothing more?

We’re all living with a certain anxiety over what tomorrow might bring, in no small part because a cold-hearted, Stone Age Soviet throwback has decided to force his will on people who want no part of his vision. His “genius” might be that his attack of Ukraine will precipitate American involvement, eventually, and not just in a proxy war. He’s been looking, all along, for an excuse to unleash the worst of his weaponry against us. Against America and anyone else who espouses democratic values and self-determination.

He’s conscripted 300,000 more troops to do his dirty work, to leave loved ones and livelihoods in order to go off and fight in a needless, pointless conflict. Imagine being able to rip people from their lives just like that, and send them off to fight battles of someone else’s making. And maybe dying for… what?

Stupid humans. All that has come before has taught us nothing. So life as we’ve come to know it, and all that has been accomplished in the name of beauty and good, are in jeopardy of vanishing in a flourish of radioactivity and utter depravity, no match for a little man with a giant chip on his shoulder.

  

What have we done to deserve another round of Donald Trump, aka Pompous Airhead? The gods are conspiring once again to make our lives miserable despite the looming indictments that may or may not ever come, despite common knowledge that he’s an insufferable egomaniac, a criminal and bad for the country, despite everything we’ve seen and heard from him over the last seven years and longer.

We unbelievably have to adjust to him being front and center, again. It’s like walking with a limp, and suffering from sciatica and acid reflux and several other chronic conditions all at once. We have to learn to live with his grating presence, his negativity and stupidity, all in the midst of the huge pile of other shit that’s going on.

Who’s pulling the strings this time, Donald? Is your pal Vlad multitasking– orchestrating the chaos in Ukraine while smoothing the way for your second act?

I thought the media might have learned their lesson about covering him, but apparently not. He’s still ratings gold, media crack, obviously impossible to resist. 

*Just kidding. He never really went away.