Maybe Republicans need to smell the coffee, make decisions on their own, and leave Trump out of it. He’s out of office, for crying out loud, though it’s hardly seemed that way. He’s clueless, no student of history, and he’s never had a handle on governance. He’s a pretender of the first magnitude, yet people keep lining up to ride his coattails.

Just because he’s running for POTUS again should make no difference whatsoever. He shouldn’t be able to run again, for one thing—the 14^th Amendment provision should have ended his run a long time ago. And his inherent offensiveness should have ended his eligibility before that. He’s his own attempt at being a thug, the kind of persona he seems intent on conveying.

He boasted about his “big” win in Iowa, where he got 51% of the 15% of eligible voters that ventured out on a cold night. Where was everybody else? Did they just figure Trump had it in the bag, or did they not care enough about Trump and the rest of the slate of candidates to make an effort to get to the caucuses?

Anyway, even though he’s yakking constantly, he says nothing, ever, and can’t offer a cogent, thoughtful commentary on anything. He’s perpetually angry, sarcastic, motivated more by vengeance and a need to prevail than any love of country. One might reasonably think he’d be unduly distracted by everything currently on his plate! And, for some reason, he’s still a media darling. Ugh.

How impotent can a party get?   

I recently had a two-night stay at a local hospital. My roommate had his TV on the whole time—24 hours a day, no lie—and often tuned to police procedurals and forensic files drivel that probably contributed to my headache and fever (actually, that turned out to be a mild case of pneumonia).

The layout of the average hospital room is such that there’s little hope of creating your own space without going into total recluse mode. In other words, even if you close the curtain as far as it will go, you’re always going to be able to hear whatever it is your roommate is watching. It often doesn’t matter that the intent of the combination call bell and TV remote with speaker is to keep it at a reasonable volume by your ear. The guy in the other bed had his raised to strikingly audible levels. I never complained, other than the time he knocked the speaker/remote/call button onto the floor while sleeping and the volume became ridiculously loud practically next to me.

Anyway, back to the subject matter of what was often on his screen. I realize that I was under no obligation to peek over and watch, but it was pretty hard not to. I could have turned on my own TV and listened in a more considerate and commendable way, with the speaker next to my ear, but that would have created a cacophony of sound that probably would have made my headache worse. So I just laid in my bed, tried to ignore what was going on next door, but occasionally sneaking a peek.

By the time of discharge, I sensed a change in the way I looked at the world. And I had confirmation that a lot of what passes for entertainment on TV is nothing more than dramatized, sensationalized accounts of people behaving badly. Garbage television. Viewed the same way as slowing down to take a look at an accident on the interstate.

Oh, there’s always the forensic pursuit, in which viewers are supposed to find some redeeming value, and which can be fascinating, but their whole reason for being strikes me as that of a fire company arriving in time to save a cellar hole.

I don’t really care how the crime is solved. What looms larger for me is that the crime happened at all, among people who, more often than not, really don’t have it all together, who are unhappy for numerous reasons, who have a deficit of coping skills, whose worlds are small, who are ignorant and stupid and driven by base desires they never learned or were taught how to handle. It was depressing, after a while.

As we drove away from the hospital, and through various neighborhoods, I was evaluating the likelihood that something like what I was watching could happen there, or around the next corner. Someone with a devious plan to collect on an insurance policy, someone else with unresolved jealousy or anger issues or mental illness, with depravity and evil in their heart.

These “shows” aren’t just shows. They’re intentional efforts at drawing us in, with little consideration for quality and content. They are appealing to some lowest common denominator, some prurient interest. The fact that a crime is solved is almost immaterial, an inconsequential aside. So much brain power and sleuthing and stupid luck are involved in solving heinous acts that should have never happened in the first place, much less made their way to a TV screen. A steady diet of such rot could make one lose their faith in humanity, start seeing monsters behind every tree.  

The NASA/Lockheed-Martin X-59 sounds like an interesting machine. The pilot will have to depend on feeds to 4k screens in the cockpit in order to “see,” all while cruising at Mach 1.4 (937 MPH) at 55,000 feet.

Sounds like a Darwin Award in the making.

Pilots say they aren’t worried, though, partly because it’s not a wholely IFR situation, not a totally obstructed view. There are windows– just not front-facing ones. Talk about having faith in your instrumentation.

The weather is front and center in the newsfeed this morning. Bitter cold, snow, coastal flooding in New England and elsewhere. Water in places it rarely goes, maybe a reminder that the predictions of rising water along the coast aren’t the sky-is-falling, unfounded warnings of crazed scientists after all.

It’s hard to know if what’s going on now is just a perfect storm of simultaneous onshore winds and high tides, or if there’s some consequence of global warming in the mix. Either way, winter is making itself known, after a relatively tame December.

Talk about banging your head against a wall… The U.S. undertook a second attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen, and of course the Houthis have vowed revenge.

Of course they have! Because that’s the way these things work. This early in the proceedings, one side doesn’t suddenly wake up to the fact that they’ve been bested in a fight and should probably sue for peace. They take it personally as an affront to their nationhood, their manhood, their religion, so the back-and-forth commences. The hostilities simply escalate, the cycle of violence deepens, and maybe other countries decide to get involved.

And before you know it, we have ourselves a shootin’ war. There’s nothing like a war to pull countries out of whatever malaise is laying heavy. Nothing like a war with Islamic adversaries who have long memories for payback. Gotta keep Allah happy.

And we have to keep the shipping lanes open and protect the flow of black gold.

What’s the master plan here, and who’s behind it? Because whoever it is has succeeded in drawing us in. And here in America, there’s always been a faction who’s more than willing to get drawn in. Suckers for a good fight, or a bad one.

They’re all bad, even the “good” ones. The price we stupid humans keep paying.

South Africa’s claim of genocide is Israel’s claim of defending itself and taking revenge for what happened on October 7.

The high court at the U.N. is hearing a case positing that what the world is seeing in Gaza is genocide at the hands of Israel. Israel, of course, begs to differ, and its reasoning is not all unreasonable. No one has ever been able to crawl inside Israel’s head when it comes to how they behave. They live with deep scars and unimaginable hurt. A switch was long ago flipped when it came to how it reacted to animosity and aggression directed at them. They take no prisoners because they have been prisoners way too frequently.

The disconnect with all of that, the dissonance with regard to what’s currently happening in Gaza, is that, from what the world is seeing and hearing about the humanitarian crisis, the opinion could be formed that Israel needs to back off, needs to reevaluate its strategy and pay more attention to a distinction between civilians and Hamas fighters. It is currently easy for the rest of the world to believe that Israel is making little effort to honor that distinction.

What muddies the water is that Hamas makes it their vile practice to use civilians as human shields, to scurry around and plot strategy in tunnels underneath hospitals and other structures where non-combatants are liable to be present.

What is Israel to do? Sometimes, the claim is made, they just say, “Oh well… not much we can do except take them all out.” Israel claims otherwise, but the world is growing more skeptical that such care is being taken to minimize harm to innocents (there must be innocents, right?) who are just trying to stay alive and get through the day in one piece.

The U.S. is walking a steadily fraying tightrope. Without knowing what percentage of Israel’s military hardware is domestically produced, and without our (currently) unwavering support both politically and militarily, maybe Israel would be singing a different tune. Then again, maybe not.

Things are heating up in the Red Sea, like most everyone with a pulse expected they would.

I truly believe people are rooting for war to break out. People love a good war from the comfort of their living room. They love to see the U.S. kicking ass and having no pity on the Houthis, in this case, even though the subtext—the fear—is that this will all lead to a larger confrontation with, who knows, Iran, Russia, or China? Or all of the above?

Why do we need to be good at warmaking? It’s the saddest of commentaries on humanity.

DeSantis and Haley had a debate last night, and it’s looking like the best they could do was engage in a 5^th grade fight. In other words, the same old mishmash of unenlightening blather.

Anything of substance was overshadowed by the usual pushing and shoving and sniping and digs and quest for the memorable one-liner. They ignored or skated over the moderator’s questions because they came loaded for bear with their own talking points.

They were afraid to really go after Donald Trump, because they dared not offend the almighty Base. Imagine candidates for POTUS measuring their words in deference to another (disgraced) candidate’s supporters.

What does the Base actually believe, what do they really want, and who are these people? Because they control the narrative, apparently. They wield the levers, have some power. And they still think Donald Trump is the cat’s meow, some sort of savior.

Maybe that’s all we need to know.

And now for some cathartic rambling, with an apology for the f-bombs…

Looking for an excuse to shoot something, to flex military muscle and make trouble and inflict pain and suffering? You know– because pain and suffering are in such short supply around the world.

Fuck you, Xi. Fuck you, Vladimir. Fuck you, House Republicans and always Trumpers, and hawks everywhere, with dollar signs for eyes. Power-hungry, always burning hot. Paranoid Bible-thumpers preparing for the worst.

No wonder it’s easy for many to feel hopeless and helpless, and angry.

Many of us don’t want war. We don’t want proponents of limitless executive power. We don’t want whatever it is you’re selling. We’re smart enough to know that you don’t care about much beyond what works for you and your desire to preserve… something. We’ve had enough of your moldy, decrepit agendas.

Maybe we’d love to declare war on you, tear you down and wear you down and destroy everything that makes life bearable for you (is life bearable for you?), but then we’d be as depraved and cold-hearted as you.

What the hell are we doing here? You want to talk about destiny, and ownership? Whose destiny? What ownership? Leave Taiwan alone. Leave Ukraine alone. Leave women and gay people and immigrants alone, and come to terms with the reality that the world is a big place and there’s room for everybody. People hate being “owned,” and discounted.

And please keep your religious faith, or lack thereof, to yourself.

Most people don’t like being told what to do or how to think any more than you do, so deep-six your seemingly insatiable craving to force yourselves on people who really resent the fact that you think you know what’s best for them.

Shut the fuck up, basically. Leave the world alone, tend to your own houses, and learn how to cooperate, how to lead, though it’s probably too late for that. Cooperation is a dirty word for the Dynamic Duo from Hell. Right, Vlad? Right, Donald?

We can’t seem to win on the going green front.

PBS interviewed a scientist just last night who offered up unsettling opinions on where we stand with regard to the 1.5C threshold and his view that our environment may not be as forgiving or robust when it comes to handling the amount of greenhouse gases we continue to spew into the atmosphere.

With regularity, we read conflicting opinions on the benefits of electric vehicles—various voices proclaim that they are aren’t the solution but now the problem. One report claims wind and solar account for a significantly growing percentage of energy output in this country, while another badmouths and minimizes these efforts.

On closer inspection, one might discover that the badmouthing is being done by people working for or benefiting from their association with the fossil fuel industry, an industry which might claim it’s taking the hint and trying to diversify but in reality is still dragging its feet and reaping the benefits in a world reluctant to curb its thirst for oil and gas. It all depends on who’s authoring and funding a study.

Many can probably concede as legitimate the alarms a majority of scientists have been sounding for a very long time now, and that they aren’t out to lunch or playing Chicken Little. They’re looking at data and trends and trying to tell us that we need to act now, up our game, if we want to keep living on a planet that won’t drive its highest achieving life form—the one with the best brain– to extinction.