Kathleen Quaife Memorial Service December 5, 2022

draft

 

There was a memorial service for Kathleen Quaife (-Hodge) on December 5, 2022 at noon.  Stereotypically, I got a late start and other hilarity ensued combined with everyone leaving immediately afterwards.  But the upside is that an insider tipped me off to the correct location and I arrived to have several hours to myself in the fabulous exhibit dedicated to Kathleen's work as an artist.  This exhibit was created by her co-workers at the California State University Channel Islands where she had taught for several years.

 

Kathleen was one of my favorite people from my time in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s and I was happy to reconnect with her for a day two years ago at the opening of a ceramics studio here in Santa Barbara.  

 

Kathleen was like having a glowing ball of positive energy around. Again, why are the best people taken from us while the annoying and amoral swine continue to live among us?  Where is the justice in that?

The physical plant of CSUCI is astonishing and was the location of a notable hospital far, far away from anything else five miles outside Camarillo.  The buildings are classic and the place is huge.

The "Left" Used to Love Elon Musk

A Republican friend pointed out to me that "the left" used to idolize Elon Musk.  First this is more or less totally true.  Second I thought it was obviously stupid and I think it is stupid now.  Third, what he calls "the left" is objectively more like the moderate center.  There is very little "left" in this country.  There is some but they are tiny and have almost zero credibility.

Maybe I Understand What is Going on With Boingo and their "hate site" Designation

draft

In the process of sending my little letter to Boingo to try and unblock this blog, I may have (almost accidentally) come across what they are thinking here.  In the process of contacting customer service, the phone system asked if I was calling about service at a government facility.  Perhaps it is their policy not to provide access to websites that discuss politics, particularly websites that are very negative about the political situation, which I certainly am.  I would not say that is a hate site, however.  So we will see.  Maybe they can just call me a "political site" and perhaps convince me that they do this to everyone who is political, and then it might be understandable and maybe even reasonable.  However, if they do this to me and not to, for example, the Wall Street Journal, that would not be reasonable.

Or maybe what is going on is that they can't handle the truth and dont want to be accused of allowing free speech to happen if it does not reinforce the illusion that we live in a functional democracy with a justice system and equal opportunity for everyone.  Maybe their clients require them to censor reality.  Its perfectly possible and completely understandable.  Maybe the "hate" is all on their side, they hate certain blogs because they say things that they dont want to hear.

Oh Boingo! Please Free Me!

This is a letter that I wrote to Boingo customer service.  Boingo is apparently an ISP for WIFI airports and military bases.

Dear Boingo,

Many months ago, when a friend of mine was traveling through Phoenix airport, she reported that something called “Boingo” was blocking my blog and calling it a “hate site”. I looked up “Boingo” and found out who you were and after a few nice conversations with customer support, I am writing this letter.

Whatever my blog may be, it certainly isnt a “hate site” as that is generally defined. It is a site about several different things including the history of LA and visual effects, the role of the artist in the motion picture industry, contemporary America and its politics, a site for writing practice and other things. I think it would be fair to say that I have strong opinions and that I am very unhappy about the state of contemporary politics in America but that could be said about a majority of Americans these days.

I am also very sarcastic and cynical about many things, some would say bitter, and I have noticed that Americans in particular find sarcasm baffling and disagreeable. Also many AI programs seem to have a problem with sarcasm, or at least Facebook does. For that reason I stopped using Facebook to discuss many issues because I did not want to deal with their pathetic and incompetent filtering system.

I am sure there are many ways that we can solve this misunderstanding and release my site from its bondage. First, for all I know, you have already unblocked my site and we are done. That would be wonderful. If not, then perhaps you have a document you can send me that describes your policy, what defines a “hate site” and with this statement in hand we can determine if (a) the policy is itself reasonable and (b) whether my site is guilty of it.

In either case, I look forward to learning what the procedure is to unblock the site. Maybe all we need is a slight redefinition of terms. Maybe instead of calling it a hate site, you can put up a notice that warns that my sight espouses “strong opinions” and to “click here to enter site”. That would be fine with me.  But "hate site" is just not correct and is in fact quite demeaning.

I hope this will be quickly resolved.

Sincerely

 

 

Andor and the Explanation Triumphant

draft

As we have discussed, it is "the explanation" that is the better part of filmmaking.  Forget and leave behind the pathetic necessity to "show something" to "demonstrate something on the screen".  Some pointless visual effects.  Some ridiculous action sequence.  No, the most important part of the film, the play, the whatever, is when a character explains to another character what is going on, what they believe, what they are thinking, what they have been hiding.

I dont know where the series Andor is going and whether it can maintain its momentum to transcend, to rise above the pathetic Star Wars mythology with its emphasis on giant cosmic eggs / death stars and its Joseph Campbell-esque "hero's journey" so simple, so overused. 

No, what we need is two adults, desperate and alone, who reveal their plans, their hopes, their dreams, their failures, their secrets.  To reveal, at least in part, what is going on.  

 

Forget your battles between giant robots, that is for children.  

Episode 10 of Andor has a classic in the explanation genre.  It even has a little craft from the intelligence world.  It seems the rebellion has planted an agent in the empire security service.  This agent requests a meeting with his handler to warn him and to resign.  And the handler, in classic intelligence fashion, tells his agent that he can not resign, that he is trapped.  And then the handler explains his sacrifice, his motivations, his fears as a way of reminding the agent that he is not alone in regretting, in part, the price he has paid.

They did a really good job.

 

 

 

 

No Democrat Concedes

draft

I called my congressman today to request that (a) they send the long range missiles to Ukraine and (b) that no Democrat should concede today.  If the vote tally seems to suggest that they lost, that means that there was voter fraud and we need an investigation and a lawsuit.  No Republican should be seated without a battle.  Its time for the Democrats to wake up and start defending the American people.

Which they will not do because the Democrats are weak and stupid.  But we can try to stiffen their backbone.

A Report Card for the Democrats 2020-2022

draft

The Democrats had two years of unobstructed power in Washington.  They controlled the presidency and both houses of congress.  They have no excuses for not at least attempting to deal with these issues.  If we got progress on some of these, that would have been impressive.  But not trying is beyond frustrating.

Before you criticise me about what is involved to do many of the following (e.g. more than mere legislation in many cases), why not just assume that I already know what is involved and actually dont care all that much.  Yes, some of these are constitutional amendments, etc.  As I say, I dont care.  I have waited (we have waited ...) long enough.

1. Reform the federal and supreme courts.  The supreme court is clearly controlled by partisan hacks and some of the federal appeals judiciary as well.  As with item 11 below, incompetents or traitors or partisan hacks need to be removed.  Term limits would make sense.

2. End the electoral college. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton won their respective elections by any reasonable, modern standard.  Same thing for the House of Representatives and the Senate.  No longer is the domination of the majority of Americans by a minority in rural states acceptable.

3. Investigate and indict Republicans for their crimes.  Enforce the 14th amendment.

4. Put Trump in jail for trying to overthrow the US Government and for stealing classified documents.

5. Tax the rich and repeal the Republican tax giveaway.

6. See to it that we have a uniform voting code and end voter suppression.

7. End Citizens United and reduce the impact of big money on our elections.

8. Support abortion rights with federal legislation.

9. Support Ukraine against the Russians.

10. Support the creation of renewable energy.

11. Remove the other Trump and Republican swine from the mechanisms of government where they have been placed to destroy our republic.  People like DeJoy of the USPS.

12. Articulate a vision for addressing crime, addressing institutional racism at local police departments and addressing the homeless problem.

Of all of these, the Biden administration and the Democrats have failed except possibly for item #9 which they have done in a half hearted manner and item 10 which is somewhat addressed by the inflation reduction act.

The Democrats seem to think that by spending two years passing an infrastructure bill that they deserve to be reelected.  But why should we elect these people if all they do is fail the American people?

Policy Change for Comments on Global Wahrman

draft

 

For someone to comment on Global Wahrman they must have a Google account.  I tried allowing open comments but got too much spam and too many trolls.  There are a lot of sick people out there.

 

As America Declines into Self-Parody (10/26/2022)

draft

As the American Empire or Republic or Whatever-It-Is continues to self-destruct before entering its full-fascist period, we are required to watch one ridiculous self own after another.  Its sad to see a formerly great nation, perhaps, or at least one with some self-respect collapse into farce but here we are. Please forgive this brief narration as frankly I find the whole situation tiresome and there are others out there perfectly capable of writing about the situation, and a few of them do.  I write this post more as a form of diary.  These are the events that pollute my life and humiliate my country before the world.  

 

First, at a time when the Supreme Court is making itself illegitimate, we have our old buddy Clarence Thomas give Sen Lindsey Graham a pass.  Lindsey doesnt have to face a grand jury to testify and no doubt perjure himself because Clarence gives him a pass until after the midterms, at least.  This is the same Clarence Thomas who should recuse himself from anything related to the attempts to overthrow the US Government, an activity that his wife is well known to have participated in.  Now tell me the Supreme Court has any legitimacy, I dare you.  Their illegitimacy is so flagrant as to be insulting.

 

This on top of the Trump loose-Cannon and her "special master" makes the whole justice system seem a joke.  [As some wit put it, if you want to use the term "special master" it should be at a BDSM party.]  If you want us, or some of us, to respect the judiciary and its decisions then you have to do something to mitigate the damage that Cannon and Thomas and Alito and Gorsuch and Barret and Kavanaugh do in plain sight.  Tell us your plan.  Oh, you dont have one.  I see, thats clear. 

 

As we blunder into the midterms where is the DOJ in the effort to make the midterms a legitimate exercise in democracy, the free exercise of the franchise?  Nowhere to be found.  Vigilantes in Arizona and Republicans in state after state are working to restrict the vote and intimidate voters.  Many of those to-be-elected are so insane as to believe that their leader, the traitor who stole classified documents and got caught at it, was elected in 2020.  Guess what, he wasnt.  

 

Where are we in getting rid of the Electoral College, that fatal compromise from 250 years ago?  Our leaders are nowhere to be found. Nowhere.  Nothing.  Here we have an unstable situation where a minority can seize the presidency against the will of the people again, and force someone, maybe even Trump, on a defeated former Democracy, if that is what we were, and there is no serious effort to fix it.

 

And while the DOJ fiddles, they manage to arrest some Chinese spies, which is nice, I guess, but how about putting Trump and his minions in jail.  Nope, nothing.  

 

Totally impotent.  A complete failure.

 

This country is pathetic.

 

[And so, Boingo, if this is what you call hate speech and therefore censor me because I express my opinion, then so be it.  I dont think it is hate speech.  I think it is the honest expression of an informed citizen about the most important events in my lifetime, the collapse of the American Republic.  Golly, I guess you dont approve. ]

The State of the Midterms and War

draft

All sorts of things are going on and most of you who read my blog know this as well as I do.  You dont need me to tell you this stuff, and I am really averse to repeating myself which I tend to do.  But its also the case that most of us forget what happened when so there is some utility in writing some of these things down.  So a few notes for the future about the state of politics and about war.

The 2022 midterms are weeks away and you can read many analysis and predictions.  The Senate is up for grabs and could go either way.  The Republicans are expected to win the House of Representatives but it could be by a very small margin.  But whoever wins, everyone will be looking closely to see how the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade affected things, if at all. Will people vote who might not have voted before?   Furthermore, the pollsters have covered their ass by pointing out that they have consistently underestimated the right wing Republican vote and they have every reason to think that is the case this time.

This disturbs and disappoints me a lot.  The stakes of the midterms are very high.  If the Republicans win then all progress of legislation must stop and they will make life hell for America.  At this point, there can be no lukewarm feelings about politics in this country.  Whatever the long term prognosis for the Republican party, and for the conservative forces in this country, as they are currently represented they seem to want to destroy the country.  I know I can never forgive them.

And then of course the Supreme Court is about to let loose.  Anyone who thinks this court has any legitimacy and is not completely partisan and reactionary will find out shortly how deluded their beliefs are.

 

We have Trump, the theft of classified material, and slave judges and special masters.  Its alternately horrifying and disgusting.  Do we have a functional legal system left?  Prove it.

We have war in Europe.  We have Russia threatening to use nukes if they dont get to do whatever they want.  We have war crimes to make the SS proud.  We have the vindication of initiative and morale and precision weapons.  We have anonymous destruction of energy infrastructure to punish those who would not obey Putin. We have drones galore.  Oh brave new world to have such munitions in it.