Wednesday, October 30, 2019

You Put the Whine in the Coconate (And MAGA it all around)

"Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded." - Charlie Chaplin

Hello Blogiteers!

What's new in your world these days? In mine, there's a few things of note- I just received some snazzy custom-made orthopedic sneakers with a bespoke insert designed to be of assistance towards both my balance and mobility, and they feel pretty great, albeit slightly weird, overall. On a related aside, I now totally get why rich people imprison cobblers within their basements, let me tell you.

Unfortunately, after months of learning how to walk a certain way in regards to my partial amputation, I now find myself having to reboot (no pun intended) and readjust my current walking gait to this new normal all over again. Cross-pollinate the Pepe LePew galloping of Captain Jack Sparrow with the swagger of the Demon Crowley from Good Omens, and you'll have the correct representation in mind of how I'm currently ambling along.

Along with the new kicks, I'm also currently twiddling my thumbs in Limbos waiting room, attempting to quell all the medical insurance bureaucracies associated with my insulin pump approval, and this, more than anything else, is really the main irritant chafing my metaphorical chili pepper the wrong way as of late. Well that, and the fact that said rooms' magazines are several years old. Unless "Alf" the TV show is still a thing, and I'm pretty sure it's not.

As a rule, there is nothing I loathe more on this planet than dealing with the scripted inanity of the headset wearing sub-class that lounges within beige cubicles, and thinks: "That's where I can make a difference." If that's ever your thought process, please do the Future (and all of us) a favor, and go skinny-dipping in a swimming pool chock-full of blood and Piranhas, because you have clearly, and spectacularly, failed at Life. And that includes both the game and the cereal. One of the puzzling quirks about dealing with the industries interrelated with the profession of medicine is how inept their processes are- it's almost as if they've been purposely designed to be as frustrating as possible. In my case, it seems like the undercurrent of idiocy never stops in having to correct the flow of misinformation regarding my name, social security number, medications, and snack-cake preferences.

So, after a false start of almost three months, several blood tests, and a handful of phone calls interacting with customer service representatives so dense that they could be utilized to form containment walls inside nuclear reactors, I may be on the road to finally getting the tech that might allow me a semblance of what passes for a normal life again.

But enough about my medical consternations. Nobody really, including myself, is that interested in a personal story so drawn out and boring that it could be a limited series produced by the BBC. What should I talk about then? Well, I'm pretty sure I could spend weeks, if not months, writing about the imbecilic, incompetent, corrupt, and vacantly vulgar pumpkin husk that currently masquerades as our noble country's "leader", but I digress, because it's been done to death already, and there's only so many showers involving bleach that I could take, before I'd decide to just end it all by gorging on Halloween Peeps and Pringles. But before I find myself facing that personal precipice of sugar and salt eye to eye, I'd like to call attention to a psychological quirk known as the *Dunning Kruger Effect.
*[In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is referred to as a cognitive bias, in which people mistakenly assess their known ability as greater than it actually is. It is related to the cognitive bias of deceptive dominance and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of the known, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence, hence the reason why I still believe I look really good naked. Oh, who am I kidding? I do.]

So as you may have guessed, today's blog topic is going to be about one of my favorite online time-killing amusements, that being an insight regarding the insidious aesthetic of the modern primitive- that's right, I'll be waxing most poetic about the deplorably moronic hive-mind that constitutes the Cult of the Red Hat, AKA the slavishly idiotic fan base of America's most prominent, yet sadly not only, wannabe fascist that has been openly referred to as the following: Donald Drumpf, Cheeto Jesus, the Mango Mussolini, the Tangerine-Tinted Trash-Can Fire, Cadet Bone Spurs, the Winning Whiner, Adolf Twitler, a Screaming Carrot Demon, the Man-Baby from Mar-A-Lago, Two Pump Trump, Genghis Can’t, a Sack of Gilded Lunchmeat, the Angry Creamsicle, a boiled ham wearing a wig, Stuporman, a decomposing jack o’lantern, Creep Throat, Fuckface von Clownstick, the narcissistic human airhorn, the orange manatee, Prez Oompa-Loompa, and my personal favorite, The Fanta Fascist.

And while I could provide hours of mirth throwing witticisms about in respect to his lack of intellect, his inability to express either empathy or sympathy, or his uniquely bizarre fetish for weirdly exaggerating the size of his tiny hands, or as noted by the esteemed and highly professional wedding-tackle examiner Stormy Daniels, his sex-shroom, I'm going to take a pass. It'll be much more fun to mine the unintended comedy fields his *Schwarm Idioten directly provide.
*[Yes, it's German. Feel free to do the Google if necessary.]

Whether it's mindlessly chanting "Lock her Up" about a current politically irrelevant female rival at Trump's Nurembergesque rallies, or wearing American flag T-shirts and hats that are Chinese-made, and emblazoned with a KKK derived slogan that America currently sucks, the Trump collective presents as having more in common with a hoard of armless Zombies attempting to build IKEA furniture, than any form of an intellectually sophisticated political movement to date. Sure, there are many parallels that one could draw between them and the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, AKA: the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP for short) which is what the NAZI regime fermented out of, but that's a topic to dissect at another time, lest we be here all day.

Now to be clear, I'm no starry-eyed optimist, nor have I ever been- even as a kid, I truly understood that being educated didn't necessarily mean you were smart where and when it counted, nor did it mean you were non-replaceable, either. I've always believed that there is a sizeable portion of my fellow citizens that are more than happy to allow their pride in being willfully ignorant to fuel their misinformed world view, where the distilling of one's outward racism, misogyny, homophobia, and mind-numbing gullibility, contributes to the Dunning Kruger Effect that I referenced above. No matter who you are, you're going to have prejudices, whether it involves food or people- that's just the unique nature of our monkey-brains, and it's as inevitable as knowing full well that minus the first one, all the subsequent Highlander movies that followed are just God-awful.

Don't believe me? Just sit through the "Renegade" cut of Highlander 2, and you'll want to binge watch the Star Wars prequels on permanent loop mode just to get the taste out of your skull. But I digress. When I was growing up in my suburban 70's neighborhood, all of these human flaws were just as pronounced as they are today, but in my POV, without the advent of the Internet, they were also isolated to their respective home territories. The poison could spread, but it took time for it to disseminate widely, if it was allowed to extend it's reach in the first place. Such attitudes and opinions were kept in check by social mores, albeit to a limited degree. They were discreetly masked, and only candidly revealed when one's personal comfort zone and like-minded company managed to line up.

By way of example, I heard plenty of diatribes in private from my Father and Grandfather regarding how the [insert ignorant slur here] were "ruining the neighborhood, if not the country", but not once did I witness them issue such abominably asinine utterances within the general public. They wouldn't have dared, immediate social consequences and all that.

But with the relative anonymity of the internet, if they were given the chance to go online and vent in this day and age...? I'm not so sure if they'd still stay the path, I must painfully admit. I've often noted in my previous scrawling, that the Internet presents as a complex, if not multiple edged, and dangerous sword- on one hand, the ability to broaden the depth of one's intellectual knowledge, make crucial connections, and be both entertained and inspired, is debatably understated in comparison to what are regarded as the prior definitive achievements of Humanity. Nevertheless, the downside of this global access is just as strong, and way more virulent.

The estimated *speed of data sent worldwide via the Web, can (without interference) reach speeds of up to 300 000 km/s, or for us Americans, 186,400 miles per second, which means in the time it takes you to blink once, the data can travel around the globe seven times. This factoid is awesome if said data concerns bettering human nature, but not so much if it's contaminated with bias and paranoid conspiracies that target a race, culture, or orientation for no other reason than to spread divisiveness and ignorance as a means for the intellectually weak to bolster one's own fragile sense of place within the world. And if you take into account the misguided followers who will without question, swallow and immediately repost this inanity, you can see why keeping a lid on this carnage carnival is damn near nigh impossible.
*[https://networkingguides.com/how-does-data-travel-over-the-internet/]

In the bygone pre-Web era, the cranks, the paranoids, the racists, and the like had to settle for being the guy on the corner, the guy in the bar, or the guy at work everybody avoided like the plague- they were annoying, but essentially harmless, unless they managed to coalesce into a hateful amoeboid mass, such as a KKK rally, or your stereotypical children's beauty pageant. And no, I'm not reworking this analogy, as stage moms are the absolute worst. Seriously. Nobody gives a damn that you were "1995's Mrs. Cornstalk" Karen, we just want you to stop making your four year old up to look like a hooker. Sadly, we now find ourselves hopelessly encapsulated within a nonstop 24/7 news flow infested with disingenuous trolls who attempt to hijack, sidetrack, debunk, or neutralize fact-based information before the populace can ingest or make sense of it.

By way of example, why is it in this day and age that I have to remind my fellow Americans that: vaccines are safe, there is no Muslim cabal being run out of Obama's house nor is he the Antichrist, drinking bleach and eating Tide Pods is bad for you, the Earth is not flat, windmills do not cause cancer, there were no Muslims dancing in American streets during the events of 9-11, which on a related note, was also not an inside job or controlled demolition, and no- Donald Trump wasn't "helping out" either. In addition, the Apollo moon landing was not faked, Paul is not dead, Richard Gere was never internally involved with a gerbil, Sandy Hook and Newtown were not false flag operations, nobody controls the weather, or is turning frogs gay, and while there are no aliens at Area 51, I'm definitely sure they make up a good chunk of New York's population at any given point, especially where their street vendors are concerned.

Noted sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov once stated: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” There has never been at any time in my life that I can recall where this opinion has rung more true than now, and once again, I'd point an accusatory finger at the World Wide Web for summoning the Americanized version of the Chinese demon *TáowĂą.
*[Táowù: is considered as a demon of ignorance in Chinese mythology, and is responsible for sowing confusion and apathy, making mortals free of the curiosity and reason needed to reach enlightenment. In essence, he's a mythological Koch brother.]

What keeps our Táowù fed however, is the consistent torrent of fabrication we've allowed to take root and not only spread, but thrive, within the DNA of our free press since the FCC [AKA: the Federal Communications Commission] abolished the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. The Fairness Doctrine, structured upon two critical elements, mandated that broadcasters devote a portion of their airtime to discussing matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those issues. Stations were given a rather free form of liberty as to how those differencing views could be provided, stereotypically addressing them via news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials.

The doctrine itself however, did not explicitly require that equal time for opposing views be provided, only that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The termination of this rule has been put forth by more than a few political pundits as one of the main catalysts for the expansion of personality driven cable news outlets, such as FOX and others of it's ilk, where the emphasis and focus centers on promoting a specific agenda or point of view, versus a commitment to fact-driven journalism. And in one of the more striking examples of Right-Wing journalistic hypocrisy...

Sean Hannity, stating that water-boarding wasn't a form of torture, an assertion he made during his show on April 22, 2009, where his guest Charles Grodin asked him that if he didn’t believe in the fact that water-boarding was torture, would he himself agree to be water-boarded? His response: “Sure” Hannity said. “I’ll do it for charity. I’ll let you do it. I’ll do it for the troops’ families.” But ten years later, FOX's human analog of an Easter Island Moai, has yet to backup his own words, mainly due to the fact he's a smarmy, cravenly liar who knows that due to how much he's despised, that if he promoted said water-boarding as a pay-per-view program, it would be the highest rated and most profitable live-streamed event in broadcast history. Nonetheless, my interest isn't really centered on the droning interchangeable right-wing bobble-heads that disseminate paranoiac racism as if they were handing out free samples at a Klan rally- no, I'm way more intrigued by who accepts their bloviating bile as gospel, that being the Cult of the Red Hat, AKA: Trumpers, Trumpkins, Trumpists, Trumpanzees, and let's not forget the always fun moniker of Trumplethinskins.

I've never met a more overly sensitive, if not downright angry, group of "winners" in my entire life- offended by everything from coffee cups to razor blades, these people contain more whine than Donald Trump when he's forced to face the free press. But why is this so? After all, they now have their orange tinted champion in the seat of power, shouldn't that be enough? Apparently, it's not. And I'll try to break down the reasons as to why this insular group who struts around with such unfounded confidence in regards to their own intellect and sense of patriotism, is also the most thin-skinned, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, if not sociopathic and downright toxic, human clusterf**k you'll ever sadly meet.

This opinion by the way, holds up even if you put it up against the one-wang-Willamina-from-Wichita fanbase of Twilight, hands down. And on a related note, Go Team Jacob, because 101 year old vampires aren't supposed to be creeping on teenage girls, and they sure as hell aren't supposed to f**king sparkle, either. A small aside to the fans of this moronic morass of treacle- there is nothing sexy about getting your monkey on with a room temperature blood-sucking corpse, that's why Ann Coulter is not only single, but also allegedly banned from using Tinder. Just saying. And speaking of tepid temperature corpses, the only reason anyone should date Tomi Lahren is because she can chill a beer just by holding it near her heart.

Heart in this analogy, being used more as a geographical reference point, rather than describing an actual functioning organ, for sake of clarity. But let's not dawdle from the task at hand, that being the process of breaking down the foundational rivets that hold a Trump supporters’ fragile world together.

THE WRATH OF CON:

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." -Mark Twain

To kick it all off, we'll start with the main motivating factor in their cultish devotion to a narcissistic demagogue, a righteous, albeit wholly baseless belief that not only have they been done wrong, but that they have every right to inflict their sense of Wrath on the ones they think are the cause. Hence the rise in the twisted sagacity we've witnessed directed at women, minorities, non-white immigrants, the LGBTQ community, as well as the infirm and homeless. If there is one unifying aspect that truly fuels the paranoid fantasies of your average Trumpist, it would be a sense of anger- pure, undiluted, and somewhat to a large degree, self-scourging, anger. This rage, while having obvious feet of clay, is also the main element as to why en masse, this faction represents a clear and volatile danger to this country and it's solidly democratic process.  No matter how a topic is approached, any debate regarding it always seems to set these "winners" off, especially if it concerns the application of logic or inclusion.

To harvest a conduit for additional giggles and inadvertent comedy, let's not forget their string of failures in regards to boycotting companies who have refused to get in line with their warped sense of American values. Most of their asinine fury is misdirected at corporations that either promote diversity, equality, women's rights, anti-gun initiatives, or are openly anti-fascist. This focused ire covers a wide swath, from entertainment to cheap pancakes. This unintentionally hilarious register of so-called Anti-American offenders, to which I refer, is only covered in a small sampling here, because if I listed everyone they despise, we'd miss the next phase of the Marvel Universe, and I for one, am not going to be tardy for the upcoming Black Falcon & Winter Soldier movie.  Go, Team Bucky.

So, who's on this honored list? Well...

Amazon, Whole Foods, HSN, Wegmans, Perfumania, Macy's, Apple, Bloomingdale's, Pepsi, Starbucks, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Nabisco, Ben & Jerry's, the NFL, Ford, AT &T, Burger King, the Star Wars movies, the play "Hamilton", Keurig, Walmart, Netflix, Gillette, Nordstrom, Univision, CNN, HBO, Uber, Lyft, Kellog's, 23 and Me, AirBnB, Audi, Bank of America, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, YouTube, United Airlines, TJ Maxx, Sports Illustrated, Samsung, Pizza Hut, Microsoft, FaceBook, IHOP, Heineken, Grubhub, Disney, Converse, Brawny, and [I am not making this up] the game known as Cards Against Humanity.

To be fair, I'm going to try and not make too broad a judgment here, but it seems that your average Red Hat cultist has not only sort of shot themselves in the foot, but put a few slugs in their brain as well, in relation to their mediocre attempt to force or bully these multinational companies into some form of groveling and submissive ignorance. For instance, when these simpletons decided to "take Nike down", they did so by filming themselves burning or throwing away their already purchased merchandise- which obviously, was a display of pure genius on their part. After all, there's no better way to stick it to a corporation than by destroying products you ALREADY PAID FOR. Sure, they could have donated those items to charity like the good Christians that most of them claim to be, but setting things on fire is way more mature and politically productive, am I right?

This tactic by the way, was so devastatingly effective that not only did Nike's stock price go up 33% after the conservative backlash was announced, but it caused the morass of granite-brained deplorables to publicly switch their fair-weather allegiance to Converse, a company owned by, wait for it... NIKE. When these guys collectively boycott, they have the same success rate as I did trying to sleep with my co-worker Elizabeth back in the 90's,  and I had the advantage of possessing both a motorcycle and amazing abs. Whenever you need a good laugh, go to *YouTube and just enjoy the idiocy of watching fully grown adults handle their issues in the manner of people who are forced to wear a padded helmet around their home.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rleFTp1BSQw]

I'll admit it. I'm a simple guy. I like the simple things in life. A good zombie movie every now and then, a plate of chilled Ding Dongs, and a decent green chili bacon cheeseburger with a side of pizza rolls is all that I really require to remain happy, but watching these imbeciles on self-shot video bragging about destroying several hundred dollars worth of product  they’ll need to replace almost immediately, is literally divine comedy at it's finest. At this rate, they'll run out of places to shop, eat, hang out at, and in general, acquire the things they need. But on the upside, it would mean we'd see less of those stupid hats in public, so I guess there is some sugar to go with the acid, after all. But back to the original point I started off on- their anger. I would think that these winners, as they like to present themselves as, would be wholly euphoric 24/7- after all, they finally have someone in high office just as blatantly vulgar, uninformed, and odious as they are, so why aren't they in a state of perpetual Zen?

Easy answer. Their so-called "victory" came with no glorification or inherent respect. After years of political irrelevance, mocked beliefs, and the unfaltering steeliness of society's social repugnance, they thought that finally, they'd be able to come out from under their bridges and metaphorical rocks, and bask in the limelight that they'd been rightfully denied for so long. But it hasn't worked out that way, and notwithstanding the final election results, their values do not represent the greatness or promise of this country. No matter the pretense to the contrary, they're painfully aware of this reality, and this is a key factor in why they lash out. If you have doubt, just refer to their deliberate attacks on the Free Press in this country- any journalistic effort that accurately reports on the actions, words, and willful ignorance of their Tangerine Turncoat is swiftly, and maliciously tarred and feathered as "fake news" concocted by the "lame-stream media" in an obviously transparent attempt to deflect attention away from the failure of their movement and it's leaders to garner even the most begrudgingly tepid admiration.

Shockingly, non-sociopaths don't react well to racism, misogyny, jingoism, xenophobia, ageism, elitism, narcissism, homophobia, arrogance, fraud, corruption, and deceit.

Weird, that.

But all of these abominable traits are what helps underpin a Trumpists uninformed, if not outright mistrustful, world view. They also are the deciding characteristic as to why when cornered in a debate by somebody using empirical data, Trumpanzees immediately fall back to using slurs, deflection, and threats of violence as a last resort in a wretched attempt at gaining or maintaining the upper hand. First appearing on the internet around 2008, and wrongly attributed to Socrates, the quote "When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." is the first thing that springs to mind, describing the methodology in which said Trumptwits use in debates, typically falling short of whatever goal they had in mind. Along those lines, I also have a few more debating tips for the Cult of Personality Disorder, that being the following, which I hope in the future, allows them to appear smarter than they actually are.

First, calling someone who already identifies as a Liberal a "Liberal", is NOT an insult- it just reinforces the truth that we're on average, a far better person than you. Second, using the terms "snowflake", "libtard", "soyboy", "cuck", "Demonrat", or the like, shows that not only are you a less than mentally threatening opponent to begin with, the odds are also pretty good we could distract you with a set of particularly shiny keys and a box of bubble wrap. Third, learn what the various schools of political thought are before you attempt to slur someone as a Socialist/Communist/Flaming Kitten Juggler- in the long run, you will thank me for this, as will your immediate relatives, who for the last couple of years. have had to listen to you drunkenly mash them up at every holiday dinner. All they wanted was you to pass the salt Uncle Ted, not get into a superfluous debate about how you feel immigrants both legal and otherwise, are lazy parasitic slackers "gaming the system", right after destroying Venezuela, but just before they stole your job, which no matter how you slice it, is still one heck of a trick.

But let's not forget the additional qualities that set the intellectual geniuses of Dante's Fifth Circle apart from people who's souls actually work, the first being a remarkable ability to weather the most horrendous things cast upon them, as long they believe that the people they look down upon as inferior are suffering far worse than they are. The fantasy tax cuts and trade tariffs, by way of example. And therein lies the understated, yet highly disturbing concern: what will happen when an incensed herd of the unthinking, is faced with not only having their core beliefs attacked, but also publically disproven as well, if their Tang-colored leader is kicked out of office. whether that'll be by the electoral process or impeachment? What bad could possibly come from that? What might be the worst outcome of an enraged hive-mind being forced back into the ichors from which they slithered forth?

Nothing but Nazi unicorns and self-hating rainbows, I'm willing to bet. Well that... and amateur militias who've been waiting years to cosplay Tour of Duty. For real, that is.

PRAISE THE LARD!:

"Many cults start off with high ideals that get corrupted by leaders or their board of advisors who become power-hungry and dominate and control members' lives. No group with high ideals starts off as a 'cult'; they become one when their errant ways are exposed."- Philip Zimbardo

Another highly visible and vocal demographic within the basket of deplorable dimwits, is the puzzlingly large number of Trump followers who, while claiming to be true Christians, worship this fake-bronze demagogue. In my opinion, it just hammers home the intrinsic hypocrisy of both he and modern religion in general. Sure, I've always enjoyed the "KWIC's" [Keyboard Warriors In Christ] that you tend to encounter within the various forums on the web, whether those threads involve politics or not. I once encountered a quorum of these Bronze Age Book Club poltroons, in a place you might not think of, that being a recipe discussion group... seriously. While trying to track down a substitute for butter, I had to endure an extended harangue about how Trump was not only a "role model for good Christian values" but an "excellent example of ethics in business" as well.

Dude... I'm just trying to make my double-fudge-nut cookies healthier and lighter- I didn't come here for this.

Even knowing that in their duplicitous hearts they're just trying to rekindle my loving relationship with their petty if not utterly sociopathic God, I'm also pretty certain that isn't going to happen anytime soon just because of their muttered death threats directed at me, which from an agnostics' POV, doesn't really come off as the path someone who follows an all knowing, all seeing, loving God should walk. Just my two cents. To hazard an assumption, I'm also certain given their proclivity for interpreting the Word as if they were *Janus with a severe case of dyslexia, that Christ wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire, which is ironic, considering that's where most of them are headed, for perverting the lessons they were expected to follow and more importantly- learn, in the first place.
*[In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. It's sort of how Trump fans say they want America to be great again, yet call you un-American and tell you to leave the country if you point out America's obvious issues.]

By way of comparative and conservative hypocrisy, let's put the wandering appetites of Bill Clinton up against the vulgar proclivities of our current Liar-In-Chief, who unlike the smooth hillbilly from Arkansas, brags incessantly about what an amazing ladies man he  is. This is obviously the reason why he had to pay 130K for two minutes of sex, of which, a minute and 52 seconds was just him taking off his sexy jumpsuit. Good luck getting that visual out of your Occipital Lobe boys and girls, without bleaching your brain. In that, I wish you the best of providence in your attempt to do so.

Now, please don't misunderstand me, I was severely disappointed in what Clinton did, and how he tried to make it go away. The man's lack of moral character pisses me off to this day, and I always found his lying about it to be painfully embarrassing. But here's the caveat- whereas then the ever so righteous "Party of Family Values" was more than happy to gut Bill like a fish for his inability to keep both his libido and spawn-hammer in check, they're equally reticent these days to publically call out Trump's rampant misogyny and hostile vulgarity towards women, nor will they address the multiple and credible sexual assault accusations that are withstanding against him. Most people would call that hypocrisy, but according to the hollow White Chocolate Easter Rabbits who support him, it's no more than "a private issue", and is a topic that should be left unmolested- a weird stance from the party who's male members keep getting busted for child pornography and hookups with underage male prostitutes in seedy hotels.

Given the number of reprehensible rapists and pedophiles within their ranks, who would have guessed that they'd shelter, if not vaunt, a sexual deviant? That being other than anyone who's intellect still works? And don’t even get me started on how many blind eyes they’ve turned in regards to his stoking the fires of implied violence, starting with his racist speeches and false claims, up to abandoning and throwing our Kurdish allies into the blades of slaughter, while also simultaneously renting our military to Saudi Arabia, his known business partners and the fine folks who brought you 9-11.

The silent complicity of the current GOP says it all, I think.

But maybe I'm wrong here- after all, wouldn't our Lord and Savior, (AKA: Jesus) forgive a lost sheep who lusts after his own daughter, who bragged about purposefully walking in on nude underage beauty contestants, who allegedly raped a child with deceased and possibly murdered pedophile Jeffery Epstein, and is also a husband who committed serial adultery, and has made a career out of being a con-man who lies, commits fraud, and bears false witness when he's caught with his freakishly tiny hands in the cookie jar?

Normally, I'd say "yes", being a good recovering Catholic and all that, but I seriously doubt Trump will be able to con his way through the true Golden Arches when he finally strokes out on top of his last Big Mac, or most likely, his next underage Russian hooker.

If anything, I picture Jesus and Saint Peter leaning up against a post giggling, waiting for Trump to arrive, and telling him he can come in, but only if he can name one other person in the Bible first. The beauty of this scenario is not only can't he, but he also fails Jesus’s double or nothing offer to recite a single verse of the Word, and has no idea what any of Christ's teachings are in the first place. And when you take into account how many times he's shattered or routinely ignored the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Commandments as if they were his wife and kids, [looking at you, Eric and Tiffany] you can just imagine how happy Jesus will be to kick his corpulent ass into the Lake of Fire, where it bursts into flame as if it were a bag of pork rinds getting deep-fried at the Texas State Fair...  sigh, an agnostic can dream.

Speaking of hollow as a chocolate Easter Bunny Evangelicals, and adding to this pile of pitiful piousness is the fact that the almost certain closet case and current albino VP Mike Pence, once wrote in regards to Clinton: "If you and I fall into bad moral habits, we can harm our families, our employers and our friends. The President of the United States can incinerate the planet. Seriously, the very idea that we ought to have at or less than the same moral demands placed on the Chief Executive that we place on our next door neighbor is ludicrous and dangerous.

Throughout our history, we have seen the presidency as the repository of all of our highest hopes and ideals and values. To demand less is to do an injustice to the blood that bought our freedoms."

Well, this past opinion is kind of awkward, because when asked about Trump's affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, Pence referred to the allegations as "baseless", despite the at the time known and incontrovertible evidence, and has in essence, refused to comment on the issue or his hypocrisy regarding it, since. Now that could be because he's perfectly comfortable being duplicitous, or it just might be because Mother doesn't allow him to talk about other men’s sex lives, for fear he'll wind up at a Motel 6 with a rough trick named Chaz... again. Either/or. Roll the dice.

But that seems to be an intractable cornerstone in relation to the Cult of the Red Hat- the mass ability to overlook every detestable character flaw that if it were anyone else, would have resulted in an exodus of support not seen since Van Halen fired David Lee Roth. And if you’re looking for additional unintended comedy, I refer back to the complicit pretense of faux concern I noted earlier. The GOP tripped all over themselves trying to tar and feather Bill Clinton for his multiple sessions of mouth congress, but when it comes to the Orange Fanta F**kup and his well-documented history of racist tirades, asinine slurs, lies, obstruction, ignorance, fraud, incompetence, sexual predation, and outright treason, it’s as if every Republican is currently a hardcore member of a *Mummenschanz cover band.
*[Mummenschanz is a Swiss masked theater troupe who perform in a surreal style, which is usually augmented with stage props, so overall, it’s really not too far off what the GOP likes to do when called out for it’s consistent inability to do the right thing.]

It would be exceedingly easy to write-off these acts of deliberate collaboration to either a desire for the accruement of even more power, or perhaps the furthering of long-held, but deeply hidden personal convictions, but I think this overview is a tad bit inaccurate in the long run. I’ve never attached myself to a flaming train-wreck of destiny, but when one does, is it wiser to exit the car and suffer possible grievous damage, or just hang on for dear life and hope the inferno snuffs itself out somewhere further down the line? For most GOP sycophants, I can only assume they’re taking the latter choice, praying that in the end, they’ll be able to salvage whatever shreds of their personal dignity and/or political capitol they may have left. But at what cost? After all, fame and power are fleeting at best, and a bad reputation tends to broadcast your past transgressions in a manner very much akin to how your ex talks about you- sure, you may have both shared a lot of good times, but do you really want total strangers knowing about your fondness for dressing up as Spongebob Squarepants and playing “Naughty Squidward”? I think not.

Going forward, this would still come off as a minor embarrassment when compared to having the allegorical yoke of treason hung around your neck, as many of these so-called persons of faith will face when this reality TV abomination has finally run it’s carnivorous course. So, in the end, when one tallies up the goals achieved, what will these modern-day disciples of Judas gain other than a vile legacy of grift, deceit, personal cowardice, and complicity? Prison sentences, hopefully. Long ones. And waiting at the end of that mortal penance, will be their God, who strikes me as an entity who’s quite the stickler when it comes to rules that he/she/it set, and even given the concept of divine forgiveness, the Proverbs 6:16-19 are pretty clear as to where the line on the cloud is in relation to staying on the good side of the Supreme Judge.

To quote: “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” The fact there’s a Highway to Hell and only a Stairway to Heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic when our toil on the coil is done, and if God does indeed exist, these faux Christians will find themselves residing in an over-priced condo development located on the shores of Lake Gehenna.


REALITY. WHAT A CONCEPT:


"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it." - Thomas Paine

Along with unfounded anger and the religious zealotry I’ve noted, another keystone in the foundation of the Red Hat Cult is the pride they espouse in being disdainful of reality- it’s equally the most hilarious and terrifying quality they possess. People who, no matter the evidence presented to them, happily and willingly swallow every faketoid that mirrors their erroneous beliefs as if it were free candy This behavior, which mirrors the *"beetle men" of George Orwell's magnum opus 1984, is at best, nothing short of sociopathic, and at worst- exceedingly hazardous to a unified society. 1984 described the not too dissimilar and just as ardent followers of the fictional despot Big Brother as such:

"For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week.

And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grammes.

Syme, too- in some more complex way, involving doublethink, Syme swallowed it. Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?"

At the moment of this scrawling, our Traitor in Chief decided to host yet another one of his lunacy-filled press conference, this right after having his miniscule semen demon handed to him on a paper plate by Nancy Pelosi, wherein he tried to defend the selling of our Kurdish allies out, our abandoning of an base to Russia, while Turkey seized several of our nuclear weapons and as scores of ISIS prisoners escaped- all of which I’m certain, won’t come back to bite us in the ass. Some additional highlights from this latest flaming train-wreck of merde, courtesy of the self-styled stable genius who possesses the best words, the biggest brain, and unmatched wisdom:

On the Allies we just screwed: “We have a lot of great people over there we’ll see. In the meantime, our soldiers are not in harm’s way, as they shouldn’t be, as two countries fight over land. That has nothing to do with us. The Kurds are much safer right now, but the Kurds know how to fight. As I said, they’re not angels, they’re not angels. If you take a look, you have to go back and take a look, but they fought with us. We paid a lot of money for them to fight with us and that’s okay. They did well when they fought with us. They didn’t do so well when they didn’t fight with us.”

Regarding the escape of ISIS militants: “We have them captured. The United States captured them. Some were released just for effect, to make us look a little bit like, “Oh gee, we got to get right back in there.” You have a lot of countries over there that have power, and that hate ISIS very much. As much as we do. I think we’re in a very strategically good position. I know the fake news doesn’t make it look that way, but we’ve removed all of our, as we said, 50 soldiers, but much less than 50 soldiers. They’re now in a very, very safe location, heading into an even safer location.”

Pushing his standard conspiracy mantra: “I think people, I know nothing about it in terms of the report. I’m waiting for the report like everybody else, but I predict you will see things that you don’t even believe, the level of corruption. Whether it’s Comey, whether it’s Strzok and his lover, Page, whether it’s so many other people; McCabe, whether it’s president Obama himself. Let’s see whether or not it’s President Obama. Let’s see whether or not they put that in. Wait a minute. Let’s see whether or not.”

More fantasy braggadocio: “Here’s the problem. I think we’re going to take the House based on what’s happening with the impeachment stuff. The Republicans can do the same thing in reverse if they ever have, and I hope it’s going to be a long time because nobody’s done a better job with the economy, with our military. Whether I’ve rebuilt the military, our economy is the best that’s ever been. We have numbers that just came out where, not including taxes, the median household income for the average American has increased $5,000 in a very short time since I’ve been President. Nobody’s ever heard of numbers like that.”

“This administration has created the strongest economy in the history of our country. We have the greatest stock market. We had over a hundred times, we broke the record for stock market. If you look at people’s stocks, their 401ks. If you look at anything you want to look at, they’re far better off now than they probably ever have been in this country. Record stock markets. Don’t forget, stock market’s not just rich people, it’s all people. All people own in the stock markets. New York stock exchange, all of them. They’re at record highs. Nobody’s ever done what we’ve done.”

Regarding his abominable attempt at an ambush photo-op with the British parents whose son was killed by an American diplomats wife: “My meeting with the family was really… it was beautiful in a certain way. They did not want to meet with the person in question, but we had a very good meeting. They’re very nice people. We met with the full group. It was four people, actually. You know how it’s all broken up, and the meeting took place right here at about six o’clock last night. It was very sad, to be honest. She lost,, and they lost their son. I believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in Europe. You go to Europe and the roads are opposite, and it’s very tough. If you’re from the United States, you do make that decision to make a right turn where you’re supposed to make a left turn.”

And the capper: “The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome."

By all offered evidence thus far, the case could be strongly made that I am a mercenary realist. I understand that from time to time, one’s brain likes to take an unannounced, if not unforeseen, siesta. But Jesus F’ing Christ, at least when it happens to most of us, we try to unhitch our mouths from the runaway train first. Normally, most presidents have these people in place known as “advisors” who serve as walking repositories of wisdom, tact, and guidance, all of which is utilized to focus, if not control, an administrations course of policy implementation. But the mangozee who’s currently failing at being our leader on a level never before seen, eschews this vital resource, believing that, and I quote: “My gut tells me more sometimes than anybody’s brain can ever tell me.” Given the size of said gut, he’d make Tesla look like Jenny McCarthy if it actually served as a working brain, but sadly, it being comprised mostly of stale Big Macs, greasy quarter Pounders, lukewarm Diet Cokes, burnt cheap steaks, and a spiritual hollowness that only comes from the knowledge that your parents, wife, and children never loved you, it fails to impress anyone, save the maker of industrial-sized Spanks.

Sure, it can be argued that not every president has the aptitude to become a future long-term member of MENSA, but even the worst that has come before had the ability to at least act like a reasonably intelligent, if not socially civilized, mammal a majority of the time. I could spend my life entire cataloguing the amount of concocted flotsam this blathering buffoon has put forth as Gospel, but why would I do that, when I can sum up his character by quoting a friend of mine who once opined that: this universally inadequate fuckhead, this avatar of insecurity and a selfishness so thorough it's likely he's only brought a partner to orgasm by signing divorce papers, expressed a desire to nuke *HURRICANES.*

On that basis alone, not to mention his asserting that the Emoluents Clause in our beloved Constitution is “phony”, the necessity for not only impeachment, but for his corpulence being launched out of a trebuchet, should be obvious to all. And while he’s bad enough alone, he’s really no more than the side effect of the long-developing uneducated mass that licks his every footstep.
Need some definitive proof of this assertion of mine? Well, how about we enjoy a small sampling of the "true stories" that these useful idiots of the right-wing have taken to heart, such as:

Pizzagate. The FBI, CIA, and the Justice department are part of the Clinton/Obama Deep State. Immigrant caravans are attacking America. The Seth Rich "assassination”. The "war" on Christmas and more urgently, Christian white males, The frequency of late-term abortion and it's funding sources. Pretty much anything regarding the Obamas. How Trumps’ fantasy wall is not only necessary, but how Mexico will pay for it. How Hillary Clinton keeps murdering people and sold Uranium illegally, Big cities have Muslim controlled no-go zones for cops, and are under Sharia Law. Institutionalized racism is a hoax. The LGBTQ community are lusting after your kids in bathrooms. Gang violence is rampant. Every single undocumented alien is stealing your job, and is also on welfare at the same time, which is an amazing feat, no matter how you look at it.

Hired “crisis actors” are staging mass shootings to serve as false flags in an attempt to seize your guns. Healthcare isn't a human right. Hate crimes are a hoax, World-wide climate change is a hoax, created by the Chinese. Women are wholly at fault for their being sexually assaulted. Schools and product advertising are indoctrinating your children in the Dark Arts of liberalism. Established science is a socialist plot. And despite Trump being in the midst of, and surrounded by, corruption- he’s essentially an honest patriot who’s being set up for failure.

And my personal favorite…  Jesus is as White as a bottle of Bayer Aspirin floating on a sea of milk.

Silly me, I must have skipped over that chapter in the Bible that describes the ancient gated community of Bethlehem where all the Jewish snowbird WASPs hung out. And it’s not just a simple rebuke of preferring a few petite conspiracy theories over established reality, it’s a comprehensive swallowing of a rancid elephant not only whole, but sideways, to boot. Even when the proof comes from right-wing outlets, Trump himself, or a thousand other sources that are undeniable, these slobbering simpletons refuse to accept what’s right in front of them in exchange for a metaphorical hand job that empties their wallets and devours what remains of their souls. The answer commonly presented as to why this is holds that his base is no more than an amalgamation of inbreeds, dullards, and racists, and while this theory does hold some Diet Coke, it’s just not that simple a conclusion. I know plenty of otherwise rational human beings who’ve willingly signed over their pride, patriotism, and principles hoping to be part of the studio audience for this reality show from Hell, all on the thinner than paper certainty that finally at long last, they’re “winning”.

Now, what they’re winning is debatable at best, but it does seem to be fueled by what I’ve already covered- a volatile cocktail of misplaced anger, cultism, and fear. It has to be a heady experience for people who’ve always felt marginalized due to the unpopularity of their views, to be able to truly express themselves openly for once. After all, when the leader of the free world says the things you’ve always wanted to say in public and suffers no actual consequences of note for it, how far would it pave the path for you and others of your ilk to move forward with your plans of desired vengeance?

To quote Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Given how the vile rhetoric being spewed by these mouth breathers is continually being ratcheted up, is it too much of a stretch to believe that it’s only a matter of time before one or several of these play-time patriots decides to try and impress their Moscow Mushroom with acts of targeted violence against the very same people that he has deemed as enemies? Let’s tick off some boxes in regards to their hypocrisy- they’re Pro-Life, but seem to have absolutely no problems with immigrant children dying in captivity or others living in extreme poverty. They believe in Free Speech, but want the Free Press silenced from criticizing their false idol. They’re American Nationalists, but are okay with their President being not only Putin’s puppet, but also having no knowledge or respect for the Constitution. They’re Pro-Military, unless it comes to taking care of our Veterans. They’ll obsess over the myth of “Black on Black” crime, but ignore the reality whites are just as equally culpable in regards to their own demographic.

I literally could go on for days, but I don’t have enough alcohol and Ding Dongs to do so.

There are three points of view in the Church of the Self- how strangers see us, how our intimate relationships see us, and how we see ourselves. If we’re lucky, these all line up, minus a few millimeters here and there, but it typically doesn’t go that way, especially if we’re forced to look at the big picture with any modicum of honesty. The Red Hat brigade however, doesn’t benefit from this in-built safety valve however- in their minds, not only are they winners, they’re also simultaneously victims, patriots, and the only holders of the “truth”, no matter what the actual realty is. As noted earlier, I can frankly say that I’ve never met so many angry winners in my life, nor have I ever experienced a group of true patriots who resent American values as much as these capitalist cuckolds do. And as far theri being the lone arbitrators where Truth is concerned, all I can say is this... Wahahahahaahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha!!!!
 

Sorry, just needed to really get that out of my system before my pancreas up and exploded on me. I like overestimating my importance just as much as the next guy, but even I know that when Chris Evans walks in the room, no one’s going to give a damn about my Captain America impression, no matter how good I look posing with the shield. For people who endlessly mock others for being “woke”, they sure do spend an inordinate amount of time going out of their way to prove their inherent ignorance beyond any shadows of doubt. To have the intellectual flexibility that demands that you gleefully accept a vulgar, adulterous, narcissistic, elitist, racist, misogynistic, mentally obese carnival barker as your paragon of all that is trustworthy, is truly, no pun intended, a case study for future psychologists to dissect, and for Benecio del Toro to make film trilogies out of.

So far, and happily caught on videotape, which his disciples of density refuse to watch, their moronic messiah has incessantly bragged that “nobody knows more than me” in regards to the following subjects:

Taxes, personal income, construction, campaign finance, drones, technology, healthcare, infrastructure, the H-1B, the H-2B, ISIS, the other side of the picture(?), comprehension, environmental impact statements, Facebook, renewables, polls, the courts, steel workers, golf, banks, economics, trade, nuclear weapons, tax law, lawsuits, offense and defense, devaluation, money, the system, cybersecurity, contributions, the military, politicians, the fair-haired boy (?), debt, the game, the internet, capturing ISIS, and the word “apprentice”.

And yet… he can’t close an umbrella, see a limousine parked right in front of him, buy a suit that fits, read a prepared statement without reeling into lunacy, obey marriage vows, stand and breathe like a normal human being, or have spank-me sex without cutting a check afterwards. Real stable genius at work here, boys and girls, let me tell you. But when it comes to his Pavlovian flock of simplistic sheep, there may be a need for the creation of a new term, as “ill-informed” seems far too genteel a description. No matter what issue you’re debating with a Red Hat contrarian, inevitably you will come to the point where using facts and reality will be met with the same resistance that exists every time somebody asks Batman and Superman about family get-togethers.


I often joke that my week is not truly complete unless I’ve received at least two death threats and been called the following: anti-American, transgender, a libtard, a soy-boy, a cuck, a snowflake, a faggot, a Russian Bot who for some strange reason is anti-Trump, or a pussy, and that I politically lean towards socialism, communism, or Nazism, which is ironic, considering it’s usually actual NAZIs saying that to me in the first place. As an aside, I’m pretty sure calling a NAZI a NAZI is what got me banned from Twitter for life in the first place- a badge that I proudly wear with both honor and humor. Especially when you discover that Twitter is loath to let it’s anti-racism algorithm run unimpeded, due to the fact it would red-flag most pro-GOP accounts.

Think about that for a minute- when your custom-tailored program cannot distinguish between NAZIs and Republican politicos, you’ve got a much bigger problem on your hands than an incel influx of Proud Boys. In the last few years of excavating the sediment that constitutes the World Wide Web, I’ve seen the usual racism, homophobia, misogyny, and density of intellect that pervades the conversation attempting to be had by actual adults, but also the fallout from these, the most repulsive of our society’s firebrands. I still maintain that if memes and fake news were not a real thing to be accessed, two-thirds of Trumps fans would have no form in which to undertake communication, unhinged as theirs tends to be. But I tend to just roll with it, using both sarcasm and humor. These are two constructs MAGAts don’t understand, which is why it always confuses and enrages them. But I do try to include them in the unintended comedy they willingly provide, because at heart, I’m a people person.

For instance, if somebody who looks like this,


posts a retort like this to something I’ve said,


I’ll usually post something like this in return.


Just so that they can giggle just as hard as I did when I discovered the similarities by comparison. In the last week alone, I’ve been told that the FOX network who as of late, are now criticizing Trump, is being run by a cabal of liberals, that Trump and Turkey are working as one to undermine the Russians, and that, sigh… the ISIS prisoners who escaped are actually now on our side, and are going to help America fight terrorists. Surprisingly, this noxious Black Widow fan-fiction fantasy is still not the densest thing I’ve heard recently. That honor goes to yet another public appearance wherein our Dumbass Dictator of Dementia stated during his speech at the Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh, and I once again painfully quote:

“And we're building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works — that you can’t get over, you can’t get under, and we’re building a wall in Texas. And we’re not building a wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the walls that we just mentioned. And Louisiana's incredible.”

Sigh…. and yes, as you may have guessed, his idiotic base not only accepted this word salad of insanity, they actually clapped for it as well. Per standard procedure, he’s now claiming it was “a joke”, but have you ever heard of anybody who consistently tells so many non-obvious witticisms that their representatives have to come out anywhere from several hours to several days later and explain that the person they work for was attempting humor? I didn’t think so, but then again, I’ve never been a fan of the Andy Kaufman approach to comedy. I particularly like his claim that you can’t get over or under one of his walls, when he’s been shown to be totally incapable at keeping his marital affairs, his crimes, his treason, and the purported size of his clam-hammer leaking into
our invasive 24/7 news cycle, but yeah… you’re not getting past anything he designed.

After all, he knows more about construction than anyone else, remember? But when it comes to geography, obviously not so much, if at all. To our nations credit, the official responses in regards to his most recent of inanities were filled with swift wit, if not outright savage shade. Governor Jared Polis of Colorado slapped back hard on Twitter with this gem: “Well this is awkward ...Colorado doesn’t border Mexico. Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography.”

State Rep Diana DeGette, referencing Trump’s multiple past promises that he would make Mexico pay all the costs associated with a border wall, queried on Twitter: “Is NEW Mexico going to pay for it?” Speaking as a citizen of New Mexico, I’m here to tell you that, no… we won’t. I am so sorry about this, but we’re up to our necks in unforeseen debt, since we recently invested all of our free money into green chile futures. We, unlike our presidunce, seemingly at least have our priorities straight. But his followers, much like lemmings, will still follow him off the cliff, even at the cost of their reputations, livelihoods, and family ties, if not the valid risk of possible imprisonment. For all their talk about “the intolerant Left” , the only people I see on a regular basis being prosecuted and going to jail for threats, assault, and domestic terrorism are those following the Trump doctrine of ignorant posturing.

Their newest attempt to force the conversation in the direction they’d like, is the threat of a “Civil War” if Trump is impeached, or jailed for his public crimes and treason spree. That’s right, people who swear that they love both this country and its underlying principles, are proclaiming that they are willing to take up arms and rise against it if the Constitution is used as it was designed to be. No sense of rational discord there, am I correct? To be fair, if these human pizza rolls wage “war” as well as they debate, insult, or boycott, we’re all going to be fine in the end, I assure you.
To serve as our Litmus test of what not to do, let’s observe the genius of the hopefully soon to be unemployed veteran MLB umpire Rob Drake, who posted and then quickly deleted, this deplorable Tweet in regards to the ongoing impeachment hearings facing the so-called President Donald Trump:

“I will be buying an AR-15 tomorrow, because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL WAR!!! MAGA2020"

And no, that’s not a deliberate misspelling on my part, that’s the actual verbiage straight from the horse’s ass who took his own reputation and future, and put two slugs behind it’s ear, as it simultaneously fell forward into an open wood chipper. This in effect, almost comes off as a mercy killing of sorts, if his spelling is any indicator of his lack of intrinsic intellect. On a note that is not too surprising these days, Drake is also a co-founder of Calling for Christ, a ministry whose demographic is specifically umpires, whether they are working in the Major or Minor Leagues. So in between a busy week of loving and pimping Jesus as if he were soap, praying on his knees, and flogging his Bible, he devotes part of his time contemplating killing his fellow Americans who just won’t let his orange oracle continue to perpetrate crimes.

Yeah… that sounds about White, doesn’t it? There’s an old joke that says that all umpires are blind, but I wasn’t aware they could possibly be mentally ill as well. I guess when you spend all that time wearing a too tight mask and a chest protector, it’s only a matter of time before you start hallucinating that you’re a noble in Trump’s 14K gilded plastic sword version of the Templar Knights. Currently, I find myself around 10 thousand words (plus) in to this, my current scrawling about the world that’s around me, and despite the fact I have material at my feet that I could mine for days, I’m feeling the need to wrap it up, sooner than later. And to that end, I’ll cap it all off with a personal story of online civil discourse, via a lovely and highly intellectual MAGAt from Chicago, who goes by the name of Frank Coconate.

Frank to be frank, is quite frank in his frankness as to what he regards as the problem with America today- that being anyone who’s a Democrat, a minority, or has the unmitigated gall to use their Freedom of Speech the way it’s meant to be, or heavens forbid, is not a bootlicking fan of our Craven in Chief. On his Facebook page, a delightful miasma of conspiracies, theories, and not too thinly veiled threats help set the tone for someone who’s grasp of Constitutional law is equal to his comprehension of Reality- that is to say, I’m not sure what the color of the sky is in his world, but I’m also just as certain that if there’s ever a place where one might bump into the blond blue-eyed immigrant-hating Republican Jesus, it’s probably there.

So, this is Frank. And as some of you who have dealt with him online previously have suggested to me. his family tree having no branches may be something we may all want to take stock of, in relation to how hard we try to engage him as a fully rational adult.



And whether he looks to you like the type of guy you’d expect to see cosplaying as a bald Ted Nugent somewhere deep in the woods of Michigan, or the person you sometimes see out of the corner of your eye lurking at the edge of a children’s playground, he’s so much more that that, as evidenced by these screen-caps of his impressive ability to combine slurs, white fragility, racism, and sheer paranoia. And I particularly like his multiple threats of unnamed and vague “consequences” for those who want to use the laws found within one of our most sacred founding documents, as a conduit to rid our democracy of the Russian asset currently masquerading as our leader, but I’ll expound upon this adorable quirk a little further down the literary road.















In fact, here’s a not too subtle warning that I’m going to be in some serious trouble right after he’s “done” with a friend of mine first. Granted, the fact I haven’t been called a “pussy” by anyone since I was twelve, in no way, shape, or form should infer that he doesn’t have a truly dizzying sense of intellect, it just shows that he hasn’t developed mentally past the range of 5th grade insults, which is why he likes Herr Hamberder so much. Birds of a feeble feather, and all that.


There were two things I took away from this pathetically weak attempt at presenting as a badass, the first being that this gaseous windbag is hardly going to get on several connecting flights, in an attempt to come to my small hamlet in the middle of nowhere to have a chat of any sort, especially when he has the linguistic skill-set of an under-cooked pork sandwich. And second, why am I the backup Plan B here? I don’t wake up, work out, plaster the Web with my opinions, and dress as snazzy as I do to be anyone’s second choice for a Prom date, thank you very much.

There’s an order to these things- death threats, some verbal degradation, disco dancing, dinner in a restaurant that has no clown out front and cloth napkins on the inside, and only then, may you lay your hands violently upon me. I tell you, there’s nothing truly sadder than a dastard who has no love for the traditions of their craft.
 

Seriously… what are they teaching at these overpriced White Supremacist rallies these days, Home Economics? I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this in print, but when you suffer from an illness that tries to kill you professionally 24/7 as I do, you don’t really sweat the minor and nonsensical details. Given all of the terrible things that my condition can and has done to me, a swift death almost comes off as an early Christmas gift, and a long one is more akin to me being stuck at a really boring gallery opening. You want to scare me?

Either tell my parents where I really live, or my ex-fiancé that yes, I did think her friend Eva was freaking hot, and that if I were single at the time, would have moved on that like the Silly Rabbit going after an unlocked boxcar of Trix.


Screw you kids, all this is mine.

But I, unlike he, do have respect for the art of Troll-filleting, and to prove it, I will bestow my newest fan/stalker with a nickname befitting both his reasoning and overall relevance to the surly political discussion at hand. I’m thinking of going with Frankie *Coconuts, as he comes off not just as a wannabe OG, but as that particular kind of batshit insane that comes only from either huffing cheap paint with your windows closed, or abusing the kinds of drugs that make crack look like a cheese Danish, but I digress.
*[Apparently, this is not too coincidentally, his nickname back home for the very same reason.]

Let’s see what Google has to offer us as a way to understand Frankie and his cut and paste POV on loan from Breitbart. Let’s see… there’s these *articles from 2010, which expands upon Frankie’s assertion that he was dismissed from his city job in 2005 at the Water Department on trumped-up charges of engaging in “a pattern and practice of serious misconduct.” This harsh assessment was leveled by city officials who presented their side based on GPS tracker data that they said did not match his reports of sites he said he examined under his then capacity as a safety inspector.
*[https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/maverick-frank-coconate-campaigns-against-mayor-rahm/Content?oid=16184842]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/us/21cncway.html]

Forced for a time to work as a part-time security guard, process server, and in what seemed more like a PR stunt, as a $100 a week “infrastructure consultant” to an Alderman from Chicago’s 32nd Ward, he eventually went on to win a $75K settlement using a 1983 case filed by Michael Shakman as a basis for his alleging that he was denied promotions and overtime because of his independent political beliefs. A story that I feel isn’t entirely accurate, but hey, it is Chicago after all, so I’ll give him a 50/50 split in regards as to whether this is true or not. In addition to his flaming train-wreck of a Facebook profile, he also has a YouTube blog, which has the exactly the production quality and significance you’d expect it to, wherein he not only promotes his run for the 10th Ward Alderman seat, but which also serves as a platform for his diatribes against local politicians whom he finds corrupt. 

This does seem like an oxymoron of sorts, where both Chicago and he are concerned, due to his obsessive support of Trump, the topmost corrupt and possibly treasonous, politico of recent times. In essence, that’s like calling Mr. Rogers an adulterer, and Donald Trump a devoted Christian and faithful husband. Add to that his sad YouTube “channel” only has FOUR subscribers, and you can see that this conspiracy believing, modern-day civil war agitator is a powerhouse not to be trifled with, unless of course, you really need to stress to your children why funding birth control and staying in school is so desperately crucial in this country.

Now these links are just the top Googlings that mention him, but I’m sure if I dug deeper, I could really get to the meat of this man’s character. I’d place solid money on my sincerely held belief that most of that meat is over-salted SPAM, but it still technically qualifies as meat, nonetheless. But let’s talk about a past political dice roll of his for a minute- as one might have gleaned from the listed articles and screenshots, he seemingly shares a lot in common with his idol, that being charges of alleged malfeasance, unquenchable Ego, thin-skin, and an inability to remain civil and/or mature when crushed under (and by) his own hubris and indisputable facts.

Back in 2010, Frankie Coconuts decided to run for the esteemed position of City Clerk, which is nothing to sneeze at, let me tell you. I’ve often thought about running for office, and it’s been often suggested to me by others that I should, but I could never do it, until people. as Comedian John Mullaney once put it: “… get cool with a bunch of things real quick.” Now, running for and failing to succeed in the acquisition of a position in local or federal government should never be marked suitable for public shaming, unless you ran an amazingly inept or wholly unethical campaign. I’ve always felt that answering the call to public service is one of the most noble things you can do, if your heart and conscience are in the right place. And key to this lofty goal of helping your fellow persons is making sure that all your steps are on decidedly firm and non-ludicrous ground, a concept which our Coconut didn’t think applied to him.

For sake of clarity, I’m not referring to his publicly stated erroneous views on various social media platforms regarding feminism, minorities, our laws, or what he believes about all Democrats. No, I’m talking about the first action that is involved in getting your candidacy green-lit in the first place, namely fulfilling the legal requirements for valid signatures. In the case of running for office in Chicago, that prerequisite is 12,500 signatures to be officially presented in order to secure a place on the ballot. Coconut, along with five other long-shot contenders failed to make this bare minimum, and in turn, decided to *sue Chicago Board of Elections Chairman Langdon Neal, and Commissioners Richard Cowen and Marisel Hernandez, as a way to force the issue, by claiming that the criteria was “unconstitutional”.

This quota by the way, is almost 2.5 times the national average needed to run for Governor in most states, which strikes as a harsh, yet credible means to stave off the latent and interwoven corruption that to this day, still underpins Chicago politics like sauerkraut does a hot dog. But as I am not knowledgeable enough to a degree where I’m truly comfortable opining about procedural election law, this is at best, only a one-shot educated guess on my part. *[https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/12/07/bounced-candidates-sue-over-signature-requirement/]

The **decision eventually handed down was that the statute was constitutional, thereby effectively shutting down the argument. Before this judgement was made however, our loveable Coconut had dropped out of the case after the main plaintiffs filed their third amended complaint.
**[https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20130709983]

But let me if I may, dissect a few things here. If this was a calculated political move to call attention to what some have seen as a hindrance or burden in letting the common man run for office, I could get behind this on a few levels, power to the people and all that, as you know. But on a lighter note, does anyone want to guess how many signatures Frankie brought to the table? My girlfriend when I asked her this, first guessed ten thousand, then eight thousand, before eventually settling on seven thousand, to which I replied: “61.” “Well,” she said, “6100 isn’t a bad showing…” I giggled: “No, babe, he brought sixty-one, not sixty-one hundred.”

To which, I can only say her response was charitable at best, mocking as hell at worst. By way of using this thing called math, that’s a percentage difference of 198.057%. For those keeping track, that’s essentially the same number of people you’d find at an art show opening where I currently live, and half the time, we’re promoting the event with free wine and cheese, no less.

Did he go about collecting the illiterate entirety of the mob at one of his “dress up like an American flag and complain about brown people” strategy meetings, and just go home? He lives in Chicago- do they not still register dead people to vote anymore? Seriously. This nationalistic Neanderthal has no love for the craft. However, given his past and current comments online, his predeliction for aligning himself with political power grabs, and his slavish support of a lawless, crude, treasonous, man-child of a President, I’m hesitant to give Frankie any credit towards successfully crafting the planning of a Machiavellian endgame. It’s one thing to be passionate about your beliefs, but quite another when you post actionable threats of violence towards those that you disagree with, and encourage others to do the same with sneering benevolence.

And as for his self-made persona as a noble disciple of the Constitution? Yeah, I’m going to call horses**t on that one too, right across the board. In my opinion, he’s a patriot in the same way that Trump is, in the sense that he picks and chooses what is and isn’t proper applications of the law, when he sees fit to do so. For instance, Coconuts likes to rant all over his Facebook profile that if anyone “removes my President” using the process of impeachment, which was clearly and specifically to thwart wannabe dictators and their illegal actions from harming our democracy, there will be  “consequences”, which his cravenly self has yet to define the boundaries of, despite multiple requests to do so.  

Speaking of feigned bravery, may I present yet another screencap, whereas we can see his boast of planning to come to Trump’s Chicago Ego-rally carrying a concealed weapon in order to “protect” his fellow White ISIS members from the evil “Anti-American weirdos” who obviously want nothing more than to skin all conservatives alive, and force their surviving children to watch PBS. Other than using the word “the” twice, one could just write this off as a good citizen using his 2nd Amendment rights to protect not only himself, but others of his political bent from dangerous and violent counter-protestors as they go forth utilizing the purest distillation of their Freedom to Assembly and Freedom of Speech. America. Fuck yeah.


Except… did anyone else notice the rest of his statement? The part where he encourages his fellow citizens of the can’t-get-laid-brigade to bring peaches and eggs because CTU will be there as well? Now at first, I thought to myself: “Isn’t that nice? They’re going to communally make a giant Peach Cobbler to serve as an epicurean olive branch to show their political rivals they have more in common then they realize, and all they want is peace.” But the more I looked at it, I noticed there was no call for the other ingredients that would be needed, such as salt, milk, lemon juice, cinnamon, baking powder, butter, flour, and most importantly, love.

And then it dawned on me, as if the great man Bob Ross himself bitch-smacked me upside the head with his palette- maybe he’s hoping that a riot will break out, because he has a personal fetish that is only sated by watching innocent fruit and yolks get hurt.
Despite the temptation, I’m not going to judge him if this is so, because if you people knew what I like to do with a box full of Marshmallow Peeps, none of you would ever let me take you to the airport ever again. But if I were a cynic, and Lord knows I truly am, I might also propose that he’s not only encouraging his fellow rabble-rousers to incite a melee, he’s hoping one does occur, so that he has an excuse to whip out his substitute yogurt hose in a pathetically transparent attempt to intimidate his fellow Americans.

This is no more than an asinine ruse to justify his already fu**ed up definition of what he thinks a traitor actually is. Once again, he might have some due cause in being somewhat paranoid, as I for one, would never want to deal with a teeming drooling mass of anti-American weirdos- this is because I already have quite the full social calendar dealing with the anti-American MAGA morons, and free time to add in others is hard to come by these days.

But as noted, considering how volatile these gatherings can get these days, even I would take some precautions, especially if I were facing the combined might of the wholly terrifying organization that operates as brazenly and as openly as the CTU. So, who are, and what is, the CTU? Well, they’re a bunch of [checking Frankie’s notes] America hating, socialism promoting, diversity demanding, liberal soy-boy snowflakes who, when they’re not plotting to destroy our great republic from within, make their unethical living as public school teach… [looks at notes again, pauses, sighs deeply] …ers. Public. School. Teachers.

These are the enemies of Frankie Coconut? The Chicago Teachers Union? An organized group of underpaid [59,528K avg. starting salary] public servants whom without there would be no careers, and who are almost single-handedly responsible for making sure that as children, we didn’t try to eat crayons or use a plugged-in hairdryer in the bathtub?

Now it all makes sense, his call to bring a quantity of fruit and eggs, because I can only assume that Frankie wanted to feed these hard-working and dedicated people who most of the time, work two jobs just to be able to continue teaching the Hellspawn of mutton-heads like himself. But if charity isn’t the motivating factor, then that only leaves the possibility that our YouTube revolutionary felt the need to get locked and loaded to face people armed only with dry-erase markers, stickers, construction paper, glue sticks, and if tradition still holds, multi-colored chalk.

Personally, I don’t fear these people due to my familiarity with these items, that couldn’t hurt an immobilized baby, but then again. I also don’t need to have a substitute dick strapped right next to my real dick to voice any of my long-held opinions out in public, either.

But maybe it’s not the classroom accessories Frankie fears, but something far more intangible- that being, logic, knowledge, and Reality. All things he tends to eschew in his defense of Trump’s idiocy, fraud and obvious treason. Frankie claims it’s all because the CTU backs the sanctuary cities concept and teaching the children of undocumented workers, which quite honestly, bothers really nobody of note except marginalized xenophobic ear-breathers like Frankie. Odd that he’s never seemingly commented on the fact that “his president” has not only consistently hired the undocumented class, and paid fines for it, but also married two questionably certified emigres- namely, because no American wants to sex him up without getting the money upfront.

Once again, we observe immigrants doing a highly distasteful job for little money and equally low prestige. I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I will say it again- if your chosen job can be easily taken by a person unfamiliar with the English language, American culture, or it’s history, you and only you, screwed up right out of the proverbial gate.

So, what does the future hold for our Caucasian Coconut and his fellow whiter than Wonder bread “Cival” War wannabe reenactors? Well… the outlook is one I would think will befall those who believe that Elvis, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Tupac Shakur, and Biggie Smalls, are still alive, that Nickelback are musicians, that there was a need for a third Indiana Jones movie, and that Jean-Luc Picard is the far superior Starfleet captain, when we all know that James Tiberius Kirk is. I will opine that Jean-Luc however, as a means of not dividing my Starfleet geeks, is the far better officer though, so there.

My point is that you can always say what you want, but that doesn’t make it true, and nobody has to respect your opinion in the end- they just have to acknowledge you have one. All that will be presented freely to these Moscow-approved malcontents is a lifetime of mocking scorn and derisive disdain. No more, no less. In time, they will find themselves back under their rocks and bridges, without any havens, sanctuaries, or advocates, and watching them having to distance themselves from their fake tanned Twitler will be worth the popcorn bill we will all collectively have to pay for.

In the case of despots, dictators, and petty tyrants, history has shown if not proven, that people who represent the worst of Humanity rarely if ever, come to a glorious and dignified end. Sure, Stalin died in bed, Mao was ended by a heart attack, and Idi Amin was taken out by kidney failure while in a coma, but let’s not forget how Hitler after killing himself, was immolated as if he were one of my Dad’s notoriously overcooked backyard steaks, and Mussolini and his mistress were turned into a human pinata, sans candy.

Now, I’m not suggesting that the Orange Orc will meet the same fated end, but given his fraud, his acts of treason, and his ties to money-laundering Russian Oligarchs, I would at the very least suggest he might not want to drink any cups of tea that are offered him.

I can’t even imagine how it must impact your fragile Ego when, on the very same day your incompetent administration manages to kill the leader of ISIS, you’re literally booed out of a baseball stadium, along with your gaggle of sycophants, from which you excluded your own kid/prop. Even better, is knowing the massive chanting crowd that is currently surrounding the White House isn’t there to praise the accomplishment you succeeded at despite yourself.

No, they’re waiting to see you do the bigliest perp walk of all time, and whether Frankie Coconuts and his cohorts want to admit it or not, their demagogue of democracy is set to topple- and there’s not a god**n thing they can or will be able to do
to stop it from happening, no matter how much they pontificate for violence.

So in time, the joy of watching all that our Coconut holds near and dear getting decimated will eventually come to pass. His leader will be reviled in our future History as a corrupt and treasonous failure, his allies will eat and fail each other as they try to save the last of their political capitol, and he’ll get to watch as his subsequent irrelevance comes at him head-on.

You know… the direction he’ll only face if he’s safely behind his gun, his Facebook profile, or the group of like-minded embarrassments he’ll send out first.

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Collected Works









Monday, July 29, 2019

Hart-burn (Carry on, My Wayward Engelsen)

"If workers are more insecure, that's very 'healthy' for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won't ask for wages, they won't go on strike, they won't call for benefits; they'll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that's optimal for corporations' economic health." - Norm Chomsky

Hello Blogiteers!

Today's screed is all about responsibility, and how some corporations avoid it much in the same manner that I tend to shun gas station sushi. I've previously written* about how the Arizona Attorney Generals Civil Rights Division (AZAGCRD for short) dropped the ball regarding my claim of diabetic discrimination against my former employer and immediate supervisor, but their inability to do what they were supposed to do can easily be ascribed to a perversely bloated bureaucracy and alleged incompetence, versus an actual focused unethical intent. While technically not a corporation, in my POV, they're as useless and corrupt as any of the ones who are.
*[http://waynemichaelreich.blogspot.com/2019/01/2018-11-lard-of-dunce-liar-sleeps.html]

Sure, AZAGCRD may have threatened me with a Class 1 misdemeanor if I wrote anything about the case that I alone filed, but despite my repeated requests for clarity, they failed time and time again to directly inform me exactly what law I would be breaking that superseded my first amendment rights. Therefore, I didn't lose any sleep over it, as I laid comfortably secure in the knowledge that at best, I was being attacked by an impotent porcupine, that was all gums, badly matted fur, and posessed no actual claws of note, with the odds in my favor that I'd soon have a really nice matched set of quill-free pot-holders as a consolation prize for all of my troubles. I also purposely avoided using the real name of the company I worked for, along with giving the two arrogantly asinine employees I was forced to work with on an almost daily basis pseudonyms, as a means to tell my story without the concern of snaring myself in any legal issues.

But I'm now of the belief that this self-imposed ball-gag of sorts needs to come off, and that right quick. After I wrote my fact-based tale of alleged ineptitude, definite inanity, and defended myself against the wholly ludicrous slander of my former supervisor, I felt there was nothing more to say, or more to the point, do. The Phoenix chapters of my days were over, and I had to move on to the next phase of my new life in New Mexico, land of the "we put green chilies on everything" mind-set that I've come to love. And for a while, despite all the health issues I've suffered through the last couple of months, there was what can sometimes pass as relative peace within the Lair of Snarkitudes' storied halls, and to bolster this, just read the previous blog where I wrote extensively about my inner Zen as of late.

Oh, how the times do change.

So what brought about this shift back to my switchblade tongued self of old after months of inner tranquility? In a simple word, ethics, or the lack of them, as displayed by two entities I've had the misfortune of dealing with for over a year. The first being my former Michigan-based employer, which goes by the name of Engelsen Frame & Moulding, and the second, collectively known as The Hartford, which allegedly, perpetuates medical grift under the guise of providing insurance. And yes, I can back up my statement, or otherwise I wouldn't be here at my office away from the office, otherwise known as The Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery, writing about it. Sorry for the shameless plug, but I'm trying to get my future sodas for free, and to do that, I need to whore myself out somewhat. I may not be proud, but if all goes well, I won't be thirsty or sugar-free either.

As to the first entity, I worked for them as a warehouse laborer for almost a year and a half, and hated almost every second of the job, save for the interaction I had with my first crew, that being a great co-worker named Bernie, and my then immediate supervisor Barry, who despite his somewhat conservative point of view, turned out to be both an awesome person and boss. Deep discussions were had, and we ran like a fine Swiss watch most days, despite the hellish heat in the summer, and the crippling cold in the winter. A team worth being proud of, if I were to fake all shades of modesty.

Our so-called top boss Ellen, who was comfortably entrenched in Michigan, was wholly ridiculed by us in the Phoenix division, due to her stunning consistency at being both a micro-manager and a screeching nag, which led to abominable work delays because my supervisor had to spend as much time on the phone placating her uninformed idiocy as he did working, but I digress for the sake of my sanity. But what's really sad to point out is that Barry had worked for this company off and on for close to thirty years, and was quite fond of talking about it's founder (always respectfully referred to as "the old man") as a paragon of ethics, dependability and loyalty- traits which obviously skipped a generation, if I were to be so bold.

A few months before my illegal and discriminatory *firing Barry gave his notice, due to Engelsen coldly reneging on a false promise they had made in exchange for his uprooting his life to run the Phoenix branch of this once proud company, and with that, my troubles began.
*[https://waynemichaelreich.blogspot.com/2019/01/2018-11-lard-of-dunce-liar-sleeps.html]

[The following is paraphrased from the previously mentioned blog, hence the reason for the use of Italics]

At first, my new supervisor Antonia ("Toni") Ramirez, came across as somewhat sweet, even with her internal Damocles sword of self-doubt that was fairly and markedly displayed from day one in regards to how she ran our day to day operation. To be fair, there was a good chunk of days where we ran like gazelles, but on a majority of the days, it was akin to trying to swim through molasses with concrete blocks tied around your feet, as you try in vain to settle down a headstrong three year old who's having a full-on meltdown, as they grab all the candy out of the racks next to the cash register at WalMart. In addition, Ellen also foisted upon us a dense slab of idiocy in barely human form known as Rick, who in my opinion I'm pretty sure, is the missing link that paleontologists have been searching for all of their professional careers.

Held together primarily by Monster energy drinks, pain pills, and sheer hubris, Rick presented as one of those people that all those after-school specials tried to warn you about. Arrogant as hell, he often clashed with Toni, and visibly chafed at having to take orders from her, as he helped push our customer product return rates through the roof, due to the fact he spent most of his time on the production floor running his mouth and acting as a vulgar distraction to my actually competent co-worker, Bernie. And nothing else by the way, makes you want to work alongside your co-worker on a commercial saw, then their constant bragging about engaging in hard drinking before 9 a.m., let me tell you.

And as an aside, now might be a good time to mention that Rick was also obsessive, engaging in unhinged meltdowns with the local homeless population as part of a clearly well thought out strategy of personal diplomacy, because nothing represents your company better than an employee threatening a dispossessed person that lives rough in the causeway behind your building who's trying to just get some sleep, with a totally unprovoked beating because they dared to attempt doing so in "your" alley. But maybe this all stemmed from that A.M. drinking he liked to brag about- I honestly don't know.

Granted, I did expect somewhat of a sea-change given the new line-up, but I didn't foresee what would eventually happen in regards to my work schedule, my responsibilities, and most importantly, my sense of self-worth. At the time, long before Toni and Rick would go on to darken my metaphorical doorstep, I had already seen my hours cut way beyond the normal parameters of what constitutes a standard part-time schedule, the excuse being that we "didn't have enough work", and yet, Rick was given a full 40 hour work-week laboring at most of my previous responsibilities, despite Ellen's claims he was only there to build storage bins and perform general duties. By the way. we had a full capacity of storage structures already built and in place long before he arrived, but I digress, as I hate glorifying obvious falsehoods.

In addition, let's all just forget to note the phone call and text he placed to me one day while I was thankfully off, asking if I could score him some pain pills, because fully unbeknownst to me, us Diabetics apparently are on some seriously heavy narcotics, if you exclude our predilection for mainlining Coca-Cola and Ding Dongs, along with our several standard daily shots of Insulin. That's heavy sarcasm by the way, for those of you in the back who arrived late.

Now at that point, I was still grinding along with a serious shoulder injury I had suffered earlier while in the employ of the company, but as of then, had not yet filed the workman's comp claim in regards to it, as I immediately did after my illegal termination. Why, you ask? Well, I needed the job, and prior to the management shift, I was essentially an assistant manager, in all but name only, and was tasked with product shipping and tracking, material inventory, overseeing the receiving of deliveries, opening/closing the warehouse, and filing the crucial end of day paperwork. Rick by the way, wasn't allowed anywhere near the access to the procedures like I initially was, but I'm sure Ellen has a rationalization for that too, if I were to hazard a guess.

However, by the end of my employment, my daily obligations had been brusquely abridged to sweeping the floor and occasionally doing the most basic data entry that Rick, the walking meat slab could not be trusted to do. I was also originally, the lone official
key-holder, but after Toni arrived, that responsibility was, without any form of rational explanation, taken away from me and never returned. Keep in mind, the entire time I was under employ there, I never once received any official rebuke, write-up, or period of suspension- EVER. To this day, I strongly believe that for whatever reason, Ellen was, previous to the hiring of Toni and Rick, trying to get rid of me by a form of not too subtle attrition. And to be quite frank, I wasn't going to give her the surplus ammunition she'd require to fire me.

Arizona is sadly after all, a right-to-work state, and I'm sure if she had been made aware of my limitation, a dire tidbit of knowledge I suspect my ex-supervisor Barry neglected to inform them of on purpose, she would have fired me on the spot, and of that, I have no doubts whatsoever. Keep in mind, that working with said injury only aggravated it more, but I had no choice. as there was literally nowhere I could go, and I had been SERIOUSLY looking for a new job since the first week I started there. But from the start of her tenure, besides being in way over her head, Toni also took a highly inappropriate interest in my ongoing health issues way past what some might consider to be the normal boundaries in regards to what truly constitutes the boss/worker relationship.

Toni was (at the time) morbidly obese, and came to work daily, wearing a knee brace, compression gloves, talking at length about the salves she used for her bad back, so naturally, she was an obvious go-to for asking how I should tackle my various health issues. Once again kids, that's sarcasm, and no, I'm not deriding someone's serious lack of well being, I'm just pointing out that somebody suffering with such, should keep their unsolicited and erroneous advice to themselves, since at that time, I already possessed a cabal of white-coated professionals trained in the medical dark arts.

Not to mention her penchant for eternally composing (on company time, no less) a never sent missive to Ellen, basically telling her to go f**k herself twelve ways to Sunday. That's definitely an ethical way to justify earning your paycheck, no matter which way you look at it. And as an employee, it definitely boosts one's morale to have your superior constantly ragging on the top boss as if they dumped you at the Prom. As I noted earlier, we all used to take great joy in mocking Ellen, but none of us ever approached it as if it were a viable career option. Shockingly, I don't need to be told by what is essentially a total stranger, to "eat better" or that I "should be at home working on my diabetes" nor am I open to any suggestions that Ashley (my GF) "doesn't know how to take care of me", a trio of stated discourtesies that if Toni had been a dude, would have been refuted by receiving both of my size 10&1/2 work-boots straight up that mass of extensive cellulite she refers to as her ass, without question or concern on my part.

I've already noted my assertion that Toni had no business being placed in a leadership role, but as evidence for what I consider an alleged lack of character, I would like to reiterate that in the official statement to AZAGCRD regarding my illegal dismissal, she talked at length about her not caring one bit about my diabetes, whilst constantly obsessing about my diabetes throughout it's narrative. Then, after being questioned, Toni abruptly quit working for my former employer, a detail the AZAGCRD investigator somehow missed, despite her inherent Jello-sharp instinct for ferreting out obvious contradictions within Toni's official retort.

Once again, that's heavy sarcasm for those of you in the back. And thus, the ending of the Italics proceeds.

But even with all that, I still was willing to let Toni's slanderous lies slide, as I had a new future in New Mexico to look forward to, and what would be the point of going after a person who along with her lack of credibility, also lacked anything financially worth taking? When I appear to be more fiscally stable than you, odds are pretty good you either need a better accountant, or need to snag a sugar-daddy who's into both congenital liars and betrayers of trust. But as what I thought was soon to be a settled issue (more on this in a bit) reared it's ugly head yet again, I realized that walking away was the wrong thing to do, given the principle of the thing, and the harm it's caused. So, while I'll be focused primarily on dealing with the soon to be discussed issue first, I'll concurrently be seeking legal damages against Toni personally as well- that means she won't have the cover of her former employer to hide behind, and I plan to use every legal method at my disposal... and that's a guarantee.

And if you're wondering why I just don't file an appeal with AZAGCRD, I counter with this thought- why would I place my faith again in an agency with an impotent bureaucracy, who couldn't do their conscripted jobs properly in the first place, and why would I depend on the naive belief that they'd do it correctly the second time around? Fool me once, that's on you. Fool me twice, that's either my personal idiocy or Tequila Jesus taking the wheel. Heck, maybe it's both, since they do have a legacy of working together as a unified team.

Let's face it, other than A Clockwork Orange, no truly good story has ever started with a glass of milk. Just saying. But there still was the issue of my filed workman's comp claim to be settled, and that is why the ol' Admantium claws have come out of storage, still sharp, rust free, and unlike my partially amputated left foot, ready to dance. When I filed my claim on (or close to) the day I was illegally fired, I assumed it would take some time, but over a year? Either the wheels of Justice turn really slow, or they're damn outright narcoleptic, a theorem proven after multiple attempts to settle this case with my former employers insurance company, The Hartford, who in my opinion as I noted earlier, is nothing more than an unethical grifting Ponzi scheme. Now, I do realize the sole purpose of most insurance companies is to avoid providing the service that they're paid extravagantly to supply, but these muck-dwelling carrion feeders take the proverbial cake in this regard.

My apologies. I feel the need to correct myself.

When you look at it more closely, "take" isn't really the best term to truly describe the absolutely odious malfeasance that I believe they willingly engage in, but I'm trying very hard to be diplomatic in the face of what I consider to be the closest I've ever been involved with an alleged white-collar crime ring. Why do I think this? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that they never talked to my first supervisor who was aware of my injury, never discussed my injury at any length with the doctor who diagnosed it, or even bothered to think of questioning the physical therapists who were working with me so that I could hopefully one day, reestablish the full range of motion back to my shoulder.

And in addition, they never once contacted my first supervisor Barry, who was my boss during that time period. It's known as "due diligence"  and it's what ethical companies do in order to solidly establish fault or exoneration. But why do that when the employer in question (without any evidence) claims that their former employee "didn't get hurt here". I guess I must have strained my supraspinatus trying to move their pile of bullshit out of the path of my life- who knew? A small and unintentionally humorous aside: when one of their treacle-oozing media customer relation reps (AKA: "a professional liar") called me in a pathetic attempt to cover the Hartford's metaphorical ass, I made the sarcastic comment that perhaps she thought I had hurt myself at home putting away a dish, and she responded, and I kid you not, with:

"I see nothing in the determination report that mentions any dishes."

Let's get real for a moment. We've all done dumb things. We've all said dumb things too, as it's a natural part of our being former monkey-brains with opposable thumbs who can occasionally fashion tools and to a lesser degree, television shows starring D-list celebutards. But with the non-existent God as my witness, most of us comprehended sarcasm long before we aged out of that whole paste-eating phase in Kindergarten, did we not? Keep your eyes on this dumb wench, boys and girls, because one day she's gonna be the Hartford's newest CEO.

Sigh... if one goes online to see what people think of this company, one can easily find scores of consumer complaints, ranging from the issue of stereo-typically poor customer service to charges of outright fraud. No wonder they're not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, as the BBB generally likes to know their client's check will clear.

Granted, online reviews are sometimes not worth the pixels that they're posted with, but there seems to be outwardly at least, the idea that they're not vaunted as reputable by many. And as someone who spent the last two days on the phone with these parasitic pinheads, I can easily attest that this overall consensus rings true for me. And if I may offer another insight? Soon after I was illegally fired at Engelsen, The Hartford had an open-house hiring drive at one of their locations in Arizona, which I attended, based on the recommendations of two of my GF's friends, who as current employees, waxed poetically about how great the company was to work for.

The fact that both of these people are as exciting as a glass of sun-warmed milk should have been a tip-off as to what was to come, but I desperately wanted another job where I didn't have to come home beat to a pulp every day, and so I went to the orientation. First, after being herded into a conference room by a person I would charitably describe as "working off a badly written script", we were presented with two trays of a refreshing snack combo , that being room-temperature bottled water, and wait for it, individually wrapped, single-serve, LifeSaver brand... mints. Looking back, I can only assume their caterer sent our actual munchies to the retirement community down the street, and we got theirs by mistake.

At that moment, I tried to leave discreetly, but found the only exit blocked by two more barely sentient Hartford houseplants who closed the door, and started the orientation off by playing what amounted to a full-on PR commercial for the company. Let me just put it out there for the future generations of workers yet to come, that nothing makes you want to work more for a company then when it forces you to sit through a narcissistic video circle-jerk, supplemented by unfettered access to tepid water and cloyingly noxious mints. I'm frankly amazed other companies don't utilize this approach more often, as it seems like a real winner. A casual heads-up? When everyone in a corporate video and the presenters of said video themselves start tossing the buzz-phrase "Work/Life Balance" around as if they own the royalty rights to it, you should be suspicious as all get out.

What this innocuous idiom really means is that the company expects you to put your job ahead of your life, that's why "work" comes first in that word duo. How was this made clearly obvious to me, you ask? Other than the fact I heard it no less that eight times in the video, where at least one of the "employees" made sure to mention that his "work family" was just as important as his real one, it was dropped into conversation at least another ten during the Q&A section of the conference room orientation, where the Hartplant twins kept saying how much "fun" and money was to be had, but only if people were willing to work the multiple 10-12 hour shifts available.

Hard to believe that in the end, I gave all of this a hard pass, huh?

But if you think having no life outside of your job, slaving away for a company that will use your life-essence to sell a service begrudgingly given to the dupes who paid for it, and that only after being threatened with legal action, sounds like one heck of a good time, who am I to dissuade you? And given the fact that they already had an in-house contingent doing that anyways, it was obvious their recruitment pitch worked on some level, that clearly being the one that houses all the lonely people. Sure, we were politely asked not to talk to or ask any questions of the work/life warriors at the facility, but hey... wasn't that one heck of an employees break-room we just showed you, boys and girls? Now, I won't as a rule speak for you, my loyal readers, but I've always liked to think that my soul and social life would demand a higher asking price for their submission than a Foosball table and free vanilla lattes.

Throw in some free pizza, if not an Asian stripper wearing thigh boots, for God's sakes. Make it worth my while at least.

Now outside of the brainwashing they hope works on their employees, is the mewling rationalizing that they hope will work on you. When I noted that I had not heard anything from them, despite three letters, one inquiry on Twitter, and half a dozen phone calls, I was rudely informed that my claim had been denied months earlier, with no explanation given. It took an additional four phone calls, and the better part of a day and a half, to be informed of their bullshit excuse that because my Doctor had not expressively noted his diagnosis of my injury as a work-related injury, therefore it was not a work-related injury. And no, I'm not making that up. Despite several months of physical therapy for an injury CONSISTENT with the type of work I was doing, once again, The Hartford, without talking to my therapists or my first supervisor, decided that I wasn't injured at work at all.

Because it makes way more sense that one day, for no reason whatsoever, I decided to go randomly engage in months of unnecessary stretching, lifting weights, having ice-packs strapped to me, and sweating my skin off in order to make sure various assorted personal trainers got paid, and I wouldn't see dime one. Anybody who knows me that I walk a lot, but I don't play sports, I don't hike, I don't work out, and I sure as Hell don't lift. If I drop something on the floor, I weigh whether it's easier to either buy a new one, or actually pick it up. The only time I'll engage in non-work related physicality is if sex or Ding-Dongs are on the table, and even then, It's has to be something I really want to do. And trust me, if I had received this injury doing something manly or sexy, I'd have already written about it here, bragged about it on FaceBook, and then posted a hilarious meme in regards to it on Instagram.

But I do have to give The Hartford's alleged customer service reps one thing, they tried every way to call me a liar and fraud, without using the actual words to do so. But then again, it's not like they know how to respond with answers that aren't scripted anyway, so perhaps I'm giving them too much credit to begin with. But on the upside, they've seemingly got the "work" part of their bullshit slogan right, because given their inability to come across as actual people, they might need to work on that "life" half when they're done doing a flawless impression of a RICO case defendant. So this week begins anew, with me filing yet more forms with the Arizona Industrial Commission, tracking down my former supervisor so I can file a claim against her in civil court, and getting a host of other errands done as well, because let's face it, I love both the art of multi-tasking, and swiftly crossing items off of lists.

Once more into the breech is seemingly where I find myself at the moment, and if I have to go down swinging, I honestly can't think of a better reason to do so, than in defense of both my honor and my principles, can you? And while I can't possibly dent the skin of the arrogant human-suit that is The Hartford, I can definitely (and legally) scratch the paint off both my former employer and their deceitful ex-employee, without breaking too much of a sweat, I hope. And if not...

Well, I'll always have Yelp.

"There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?" - Woody Allen















Tuesday, July 23, 2019

The Latest Chapter. (Same Bitch, New Tricks.)

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go."- Dr. Seuss, "Oh the Places You'll Go!"

Hello, Blogiteers!

It is yet another beautiful day out here in the splendor that is Silver City, NM. The sun is shining, the clouds are puffy, the birds are singing, and the sky is the color of blue you've only seen in old Westerns and when you're choking out a Smurf in the ambient gloom of your crawlspace. Idyllic, by and large. But as with all things that are seemingly bucolic, there co-exists within a dark and seedy underbelly, unobserved by even the sharpest of eyes. What is this menace that sows it's evil under the carapace of many names, summoned by sugary drinks and worshiped by overpriced medical specialists with withered souls and blackened hearts?

Some of you may have guessed by the subtle clues, it's my old go-to nemesis, also known as Diabetes, or as I like to reference it, the blood-monster nobody writes operas about. As a rule of thumb, I'm pretty much ok with the majority of my adult responsibilities- sure, paying bills does suck, and having to always wear "real" pants when you go outside does tend to put a kibosh on one's good mood every now and then, but the knowledge that I can have pizza and ice cream for breakfast any time I want* does act as a salve of sorts.

*[UPDATE: I have just been informed, and rather tersely I might add, by my GF Ashley that I cannot in fact, "have pizza and ice cream for breakfast any time I want", citing my said brittle Diabetes as the core reason for her belief. In addition, it was also noted that it would also be a "cold day in El Azizia" before she, I, and that gothically hot girl who works at my favorite coffee-shop would ever get physically creative in a tub full of Cool-Whip and Jello. I can only assume that she's worried about my blood sugar spiking, which in of itself, is actually quite responsible on her part, when you look at the situation overall.]

For those of you painfully familiar with my writing, I tend to mine my diabetic condition  every now and then, both for blog fodder and as a means to blow off the 24/7 stress of having to deal with it, notwithstanding the complications it brings to my personal Lair of Snarkitude. Unfortunately, I can't use my doorstep's automatic trapdoor system to get it off my back like I tend to do with missionaries and those annoying kids who sell candy at three times it's price for their school's band camp program, but you get the idea. If I had to do it all over again, I'd make sure to pick a condition that either comes with a built-in Lifetime movie, such as fighting a corrupt City Hall, or a sense of true adventure, that being abducted by Aliens, or "Grays" as they're known within the cosmically hip circles.

I definitely would not have chosen this as my go-to back-story, given what it's cost me over the years, that being one already fatally flawed relationship, my ability to paint and draw, multiple gastric issues, feeling like an overly prodded lab rat, and my personal favorite so far, the forced liberation of chunks from my left foot, resulting in a walking style charitably once described as "the swagger of an overly drunken pirate" to which I can only use the rejoinder of "eat your heart out, Captain Jack Sparrow". Speaking of said traitorous foot, I find myself swimming within the prosthetic technology river, and so far, my options seem to be rather wide, in relation to where shoe-based fashion is concerned.

Recently, my medical peeps set it up for me to have my foot cast* in order to create a custom insert, which in theory, should limit the need to rely on my cane so much. Say what you will, but if I ever get famous enough to get my footprints placed in front of Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater, mine are definitely gonna be more interesting to look at than Errol Flynn's, let me tell you. 
 

Even so, I may still decide to keep the cane, because it does add considerable weight to the whole "mysterious stranger in a small-town" mystique thing I'm currently crafting. In addition, I'll hopefully be getting a sexy state of the art insulin pump* along with a brand-new CGM system**, and if all goes to prescripted plan, I'm just one bionic eye and red 70's jogging suit away from being the next Steve Austin***, sans the cool sound effects and occasional Bigfoot appearance.**** I'm so looking forward to getting this tech that I'm almost willing to overlook the fact that the med-lab out here not only failed to do all the blood tests they were supposed to do, they somehow LOST MY BLOOD as well, which gives me the impression that certain technicians in charge of my future health couldn't arrange a fellatio session in a bordello, but I digress.

[*Just look at this tech- it literally does everything, save giving me an erotic backrub, and I'm sure that will be an option relatively soon.


**A Continuous Glucose Monitor measures the body's glucose levels in real-time by sensing the glucose present in tissue fluid, and are truly awesome, because it cuts way back on the whole "jab a freaking spike into your fingertips" thing.
A CGM works through a tiny sensor inserted under your skin, usually on your belly or arm. The sensor measures your interstitial glucose level, which is the glucose found in the fluid between the cells. The sensor tests glucose every few minutes, and then a transmitter wirelessly sends the information to a monitor. Science. It's just not for accidentally creating armies of the Undead or Kardashians anymore.


***Steve Austin had superhuman strength due to bionic implants inserted after an accident, and was employed as a secret agent by a fictional U.S. government office titled the OSI. He also had a bionic girlfriend named Jamie Summers, and while I know you're expecting me to make several off-color jokes about oil changes and keeping his piston lubed and polished, I'm going to opt for the high road on this one.


  And as an aside, the Six Million Dollar Man Bionic Transport and Repair Station toy was the motherf**king bomb.  


**** This was a thing. It actually happened. And we as a country, are all better for it.]


Getting back on track, my first three articles and two photo-shoots for a regional New Mexico publication are finished, which in theory, could lead to further writing and photo opportunities out here, or so I hope. At this stage in my life, I think I'm pretty much done working for a fiefdom type gig- If I ever feel the need to go work for a truly arrogant idiot again, I'll just cut out the middleman and go straight to my Dad. That title of course, being honorary, as he's never had any idea how to do the job in the first place. As I've explained to friends and strangers alike, I'm the end result of immigrant parents, one German, the other Sicilian, who for some strange and as yet unknown reason where the Universe is concerned, decided not to listen to the grand Cosmos in all of it's Wisdom, and bred a trio of children with whom they could equally and with a varying degree of success, turn their own individual projected disappointments and failures into cavernous psychological scars.

In other words, the stereotypical American family.  As I've often said, we're the ones who truly put the "fun" in "dysfunctional", no matter what my therapists say.

I recently heard a comedian describe their family as cardboard cutouts sitting around a dining room table, and if that doesn't describe my family dynamic to a T, I don't know what does. My mother is for all purposes, a lying narcissist, my father a clueless one, and my youngest brother is essentially a disturbingly distilled version of them both, but with an added dash of arrogance that makes me look like Bob Ross. My older sister on the other hand, is totally good peeps, so there is that. To give you an idea of just how fractured, if not emotionally isolated my so-called family is, my parents and younger brother don't know that I moved out of Phoenix, they don't know where I currently live, they don't know about my amputation surgery, and they sure as Hell don't know anything about what I do for a living. And obviously, none of them are readers, either. Unless you count pop-up books as actual adult literature the way they do, that is.

Heck, if any of them actually know how to turn on a laptop without the aid of a tutorial given by hand-puppets, I will literally eat a case of knock-off Ding-Dongs as an act of recovering Catholic contrition. But in their limited defense, they always did have an opinion as to how I should live my life, even if all evidence and reality pointed to the contrary, and this has never wavered even in the face of their own shortcomings and failures, of which there are too many to note.

Sorry for the unforeseen Freudian lay-down, but one of the side-effects of living in a place where I can actually breathe and relax for the first time in 20 years, is the time to do some serious self-reflection. Granted, having yet another go-around with your mortality is another aspect that helps this inner conversation, and as a means to underscore my POV, I will quote Thor, the God of Thunder: "The rage, vengeance, anger, loss, regret, they're all tremendous motivators. They truly clear the mind... so, I'm good to go." Now, that's not to imply that I'm walking around with my Admantium claws unsheathed, snarling at the common rabble, but my tolerance for dealing with sheer ignorance has been severely truncated as of late, whether it's been on Twitter or in the real world.

Speaking of which, I was permanently banned from the Twitverse a while back, and it feels great, knowing that I've vexed conservatives and faux Christians to the point where they felt the need to rally en masse- to get me banned is almost a badge of honor for this ol" Snark, let me tell you. And sure, their decision was and is based on sheer hypocrisy, considering whom they've let remain, but I'll defer from commenting on that... for now.

As I've often said before, I don't care that you think differently, as long as you have made it clear that you're THINKING in the first place. No debunked conspiracy theories. No weak debates based on emotion over facts. And I definitely don't want to hear any racist, misogynistic, homophobic, jingoistic, xenophobic, elitist and wholly uniformed opinions either. I get enough of that every singe time I run into a Trump supporter, and let's face it- they're more than holding up that end for their ilk. If anything, I think I'm moving into a position of reinvention for both myself and my focus of what I truly wish to do now and in the future. And at the very least, it definitely does not involve anyone who purposely gets in the way of my destiny, whatever course that may chart.

Aside from my personal cabal of impotent cyber-stalkers, I usually don't have to deal with too much animosity within the place I currently live, which is a very nice change from where I was in Phoenix not too long ago. And since I haven't made too wide of an inroad within the local Arts community yet, it's also been rather nice being a metaphorical fly on the wall in regards to interacting with my fellow Creatives. It's definitely a nice pace I've set for myself here, and coalescing my facets as a writer and artist certainly hasn't hurt the self-recovery process either. It's such a relief not having to write about (or experience) the worst aspects of the Phoenix Art Scene anymore- I literally feel these days like I was paroled right before the penitentiary was nuked, and it's foundational ruins camouflaged with overpriced condos and shitty corporate murals.

Say what you want about Phoenix's obsessive need to undermine it's own road towards actual progress, at least it does it well and with stunning consistency. Now for some, there has been what might be considered as bright points of light in relation to the Scene, but when looked at with a practical eye, are they really? Many are hyped about the plans by Sant Fe-based art collective Meow Wolf to open a boutique hotel in Phoenix's so-called Downtown Arts corridor, but if a city can't even economically support the majority of it's artists, can it really sustain an overpriced flavor of the moment niche hotel? I for one, am quite cynical that it can, but what do I know? I only have my well-established track record of calling it right for the last decade or so to draw my conclusions from, and it's not like that ever carried any weight with those who consider themselves as an influencing force within the scene.

What is worth looking at however, given how some blithely dismissed my point of view in the past, is why I'm still being asked to write about what's going on in the PAS, even though I've lived in New Mexico for almost a year now, and have zero interest in doing so any longer. I've served my time in the pointless PHX art advocacy army, I've bought the
trendy t-shirt and ate the fatty hamburger, and I'm more than happy to have turned over this thankless task to anyone who in time, and like myself, will eventually come to truly understand that it presents as nothing more than a series of confrontational and wholly circular arguments with people who are more interested in calling themselves Artists, rather than backing it up with solid work, forward progress, and self-benefitting economic stability.

The overall absurdity of people asking for my continued input in regards to a scene I no longer have any interest promoting past the point of calling attention to certain peeps within it, can be best summed up by this quote from my fellow Creative and Obi-Wan of Snark, Artist Peter Petrisko:

"As somebody in a position to write about the arts scene, it's discouraging to find out that all the news tips are being sent to a dude in New fuckin' Mexico. #ThatsSoPHX though! :( "

Now don't get me wrong, it's nice to be missed, but not when the only reason that people do is because they think they can continue in their attempts to use you as their personal hitman. I'm here to carry my own axe, as it should be, not to do the wet-work for others. As the saying goes, my plate is full. But at least it's topped off with something I'm happy to be chewing on, for the first time in a while. Say what you will about the metaphorical politics and limitations of a small-town art scene, but at least the Creatives here strike as authentic in how they deal (or don't) with you. One of the highly understated perks of anonymously starting from scratch within a new Lair of Snarkitude, is that you can observe the lay of the land from the shadows of your parapet, before reinventing and presenting yourself to a scene that's never heard of you, but hopefully, soon will.

Along those lines, my home studio is finally starting to feel like a creative space after almost a year of being tweaked, re-tweaked, and blankly stared at. All it really needs now is a double-wide papasan chair, and an additional bookcase, and I'll be ready to rock out with my Diet Coke out, come this Fall. But overall, things here are pretty ok- I've got a fairly Zen office* away from home that comes complete with a bar and the best medium green chile bacon cheeseburger I've ever had in my life, along with being perfectly situated on the busiest corner in this town, where the people watching is excellent, and three cars backed up is considered a traffic jam.
*[That "office" BTW, is called The Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery, and I swear on all that's holy, the entire wait-staff is disturbingly gorgeous. I don't know what the stats are on that, but I'm thinking I need to go buy some lottery tickets right quick to take advantage of this anomaly within the time/space continuum.]

I will admit however, to feeling a tad bit weird in relation to the fact of how laid-back I find myself these days. If you had told me 20 years ago that I was ever going to be living in a nice 3-bedroom house, complete with curtains and coasters, in a small town where I would find myself willingly waving "hello" at strangers, I would have glared frigidly, punched you in the throat for spewing such inanity, and then, after throwing your girlfriend on the back of my bike, would have roared off into the sunset, laughing darkly.

You know... like you do.

But time heals all wounds, polishes off some of the rough edges, and if you're lucky, also has enough consistent memory lapses to make your transition from the old life to the new one that much easier. And let's face it, one's health being bad also tends to take your pole position of being relevant down a few notches, whether you want to admit it or not. That's not to say I've been sitting on my butt as of late, far from it- but my need to be on the go constantly has been immensely reduced as my time here goes on. Or maybe it's just old age settling in, and given another week or so, I'll be yelling at the neighborhood kids to get the hell off my front lawn, as I add yet another of their errant footballs to my ever-growing collection. Yeah, go tell your Dad, Timmy- I'll be waiting right here.

Hence as I sit here at The Toad, writing this blog, listening to awesome 80's New Wave Pop music, (Is that Sigue Sigue Sputnik's "Love Missile F1-11"?!? AWESOME!!) I find myself creatively recharged in a way I haven't been for quite some time, and it's a nice change of pace from the position and scene I was up to my neck in for the last 25+ years. It's amazing how your priorities shift back to yourself, once you're able to get away from yourself, if you know what I mean. And if all goes well, I'll be able to figure my own narrative out as I work on the craft of telling other peoples stories.

Well, that's the plan, anyway. And those always go the way you want them to, right?

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
- Andy Warhol,The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Work in Progress: Post Number One.

This is a semi-fictional exercise at the moment, that I'm hoping to turn into something more solid one day. Something different to chew on, as I work on the new blog batch.

CHAPTER ONE, BECAUSE IT HAS TO START SOMEWHERE:


"As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I'm not sure that I'm going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says 'you are nothing', I will be a writer.”- Hunter S Thompson

Every good book, at least all the ones I've always admired anyway, have without exception, started off with a succinct introduction, a really good joke, or both. I for one, having never seen a truly persuasive reason as to ditching the use of a winning stratagem, will with any luck, merge the two into one concisely hilarious statement:

Hi there, I am a writer.

Now, the end goal of that fairly sardonic introspection is to hope that when I'm beyond the pale of all that is doubtful, I'll have a finished book, adorned with a beautifully bespoke cover graphic, and that resplendent smell of vanilla flowers and almonds known as Biblichor, which to this day, still makes me more contented than a small child that's hopped-up on sugar, armed with an illicit Sharpie, and has no parental oversight within their view. For the majority of people who haven't been blessed (or cursed) with the duality-tinged gift that is writing, assumptions that as a trade it fails to meet the standard of what true work is, or that it's nothing more than stringing words together as a lark, is just flat out wrong, if not naive.

Writing IS work. It demands dedication. Prominence. Blood. Sweat. Tears. And in my singular case, the unusually large consumption of Ding Dongs, which we'll return to at some later point. For those who have no idea what a publishable pile of words must attain in order to be designated as such, here are the benchmarks:

- a short story: 1000 to 7500 words.
- a novelette: 7500 to 20,000words.
- a novella: 30 to 50,000 words.
- a novel: 55 to 300,00 words.*

*A related aside: if you do indeed intend to aspire to craft a novel that makes War and Peace which clocks in at 587, 287 words, come off akin to skimming an index card, such as "author" Nigel Tomm's ongoing 23 volume opus known as The Blah Story does, some words of caution are to be expressed. A deservedly well-maligned tome that belabors it's non-point with an agonizing 3,277,227 words, which translates into 7312 pages, it's one you're probably going to be shopping around for a bit, considering a sheet of paper weighs .01 ounces, indicating your manuscript would weigh an average of 36.56 pounds.

That's in American weight versus European, which as we all know, seems heavier and far more intellectual than it really is. Best of luck mailing that to Hatchette.

At this point, my skin is only in for 474 words, so as you may have surmised, I have a bit to go before I can righteously demand that Nigel buys me a drink for inscribing something worth reading. But as stated, I am a writer, and perhaps I should get back to that, before I set any future inebriation in stone. Primary introductions having been made, albeit with an attempt at levity, I shall now give you my, as they used to say back in the day, Christian name- which always make me laugh darkly, since regardless if one uses the Biblical or the applied definition from Webster's, I'm no Christian.

However, either does apply to my best friend Percival Alexander Breathnach, who will make an appearance further along the line in my narrative, if only to serve as this tale's rarely seen and somewhat metaphorical Dante. To wit, my name is Jannik Niklas Schriftsteller, which if I were to translate it's fully ascribed meaning directly, it would present as: "God is gracious, victory of the people, author." Fate plays cruel tricks on the brethren it manipulates, so I was doomed from the start, for as I may have possibly mentioned, I am a writer. This lofty and at times, imprecise depiction of the burden that was placed upon me at first by others, was begrudgingly taken to heart after the criticism, and the polite compliments being disseminated within the concentric circles of friends started leaking out, and asserted themselves directly to the public, evermore the pity.

But who am I exactly? Easy enough answer. I'm the end result of immigrant parents, one German, the other Sicilian, who for some strange and as yet unknown reason where the Universe is concerned, decided not to listen to the grand Cosmos in all of it's Wisdom, and bred a trio of children with whom they could equally and with a varying degree of success, turn their own individual projected disappointments and failures into cavernous psychological scars. To this day, I still cannot eat soup, but the blame for that squarely rests on my Mother alone, and it's also a very long story, which someday I may share outside the confines of my current support group.  

In preceding incarnations, I've been a comedian, a waiter, a poorly trained telemarketer, a hotel front desk clerk, a cartoonist, a betrayed fiancé, a muralist, a fine artist, an art framer, and now, a writer who at this present moment in time, has had his skill-set ranged as being anywhere from "mildly competent" to "damn good", which when given pause, balances out the too much pressure, followed by a spectacular flame-out scenario for being the best, or the contrary, bringing shame unto the family name and all that for being the worst.

This, despite my in-name-only Father's assertions that's what I've been doing my entire life. On a slightly more carnival-esque note, I also happen to be a severely brittle diabetic, who's missing one toe, and I can craft some serious Psyanka when the need arises.

Granted, these details aren't enough to earn me a stabilized niche in a traveling side-show, but it definitely sets me apart at the family get-togethers. And as a courtesy for the sadly uninitiated, Pysanka is a stunningly beautiful custom from Ukraine, wherein Easter eggs are decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs by means of a wax-resist method, which if you're truly interested, will lend itself to a fairly pleasant, if not an ethereally serene evening of Googling. Overall, my life isn't all that interesting, but I have had a few moments here and there, that have raised it at times, a few degrees above my standard average, and it's that untapped reservoir of note that I will be drawing most of my observations from. Lucky you.

But as noted earlier, all good stories start with a succinct introduction, a really good joke, or both. I'm pretty sure that my birth could easily qualify for that consideration, given how my life has turned out. I was born in Port Charles, New York at the beginning of 1969, a year that introduced the Pontiac Firebird and the 747 Jumbo Jet, would see Americans land on the Moon, and witnessed 350 thousand fans gather at Woodstock. In addition, the Concorde had it's first public test flight, and PBS was established, much to the chagrin of Republicans today, due to the fact that an educated populace is truly dangerous to a government that prefers it's citizens ignorant, docile, and quiet.

However... it was also when the the Beatles' played their last public performance, found Senator Edward Kennedy's driving skills to be somewhat lacking, and capped itself off with the Manson Family murdering eight people. In essence, a mixed bag of signals, if I were to make the keenest of observations. I've often theorized that the Universe has gone to Hell in a hand-basket since David Bowie, and Lemmy Kilmeister died, but I believe the beginning of the end truly started when Paul Mc Cartney and John Lennon thought their respective wives needed to be in the band. And while all indicators lean towards the late Linda and the current Yoko being really nice people in general, their efforts at singing have always reminded me of a cabal of tone-deaf Scotsmen playing bagpipes made out of screeching chickens.

Related to that observation is a side tale of sorts- I once had to let go of my well-loved LP of Double Fantasy by John and Yoko, and decided to save a few bucks by hitting up my favorite gently-used music store to acquire it's replacement. This in itself wasn't that hard, as they had multiple copies, as at that time, vinyl was being slowly phased out by CD's, but all of the albums had one curious attribute, that being the John Lennon disc was truly and completely racked- multiple scratches, nicks, and obvious man-handling were evident on the majority of the ones I was looking at. And Yoko's? Well...

Smooth as glass. Never played. Possibly never even taken out of it's sleeve, by all fair scrutiny. If there was a modern equivalency, I'd opine that it might be the first album since Metallica's "St. Anger"  to be downloaded off the Web and then almost as quickly, returned back to it. Given that knowledge, Geffen Records could have just made one master copy for John to give to Yoko as an anniversary gift, and then pressed the other album to be nothing but reissues of his greatest hits. If the record company had only the foresight to do this, that album would've charted Dark Side of the Moon numbers by now, guaranteed.

Speaking of failing to see forthcoming future harm...

As far as my childhood goes, I grew up within a relatively middle-class neighborhood on Long Island, with an older sister and a younger brother, surrounded by lush forests and a peach farm whose workers brandished shotguns loaded with rock salt as a means of discouragement towards the illicit poaching wave that happened every year during harvest time. Overall, my early childhood was rather non-descript, as my mother stayed at home, and my dad founded an empire based on lawn sprinkler installations. You literally can feel the pathos and dynamic tension in the air, as this riveting back-story brings it's presence to the forefront. The hamlet I spent my early youth in was almost a Norman Rockwell caricature, with friendly to a fault neighbors, community barbeques, baseball games, and a Catholic parish headed up by a seemingly always slightly tipsy priest. But it's also the kind of place that if one has a terminal disease they should move to, as every day there will feel like a damn eternity- idyllic, no?

Granted, it was your fairly stereotypical suburban neighborhood, with a cookie-cutter conformity and master planned monotony, but we did have a few unique square pegs that kept it interesting, such as the Mennonite family known as the Frosts whose patriarch was renowned for his talent of fabricating near-perfect replica birdhouses of the dwellings in my neighborhood, right down to the shingles on their roofs and the etched glass panels of their front doors. If I was a sparrow, I know damn well where I would have bunked, if given the choice. The other fascinating thing about the Frost clan was the fact that despite their parents being truly exceptionally odd-looking, all of their children, nine in total, were gorgeous. Four boys, five girls, and all of them could have been cover models for Vogue, without breaking a sweat.

Even as a young lad of seven, I wholly understood that having any of the Frost girls as a babysitter was an experience not to be missed, if not to brag about, and while the phrase "get me some of that" may not have been known to me due to my tender age, it was definitely something that I would have applied to the situation if I had only the skill-set and presence to do so. Look at it from this POV- Catherine Bach is coming over to cater to your every whim for a few hours, and if she finds herself under obligation elsewhere, she'll send over one of her equally stunning sisters to fill the void. And this situation was made all the more interesting, for as I declared earlier, their parents were truly strange-looking. Not sideshow strange, nor any form of "Dear God, what is that?" eccentricity, they just didn't appear to be actually human in the traditional sense.

Picture a gregarious yet over-stretched Abe Lincoln fabricated entirely from animated Slim Jims married to an adorably petite woodland creature straight out of the Pennsylvania Shire, and you've pretty much nailed the reality of what was. The matriarch was truly recognized far and wide for her amazingly green thumbs, and her community garden was the envy of many in my faux village, as was their penchant for being decently laid-back neighbors, the kind that will not only loan you their lawn mower, but also come and help you rake and bag up afterwards. But nature tends to abhor a vacuum, and requires a balance of sorts, and that was provided in sharp contrast by their somewhat rabidly feral neighbors, a rough-hewn gaggle of Scottish malcontents known as the McCraigs.

Armed with nothing more than viciously short tempers, whiskey induced attitudes, and a standoffishness that would make Joan Crawford blush, they engaged in throwing shade of a caliber that had not been seen since William Wallace gleefully informed the English that they not only could go shove their crumpets sideways, they could do it without the aid of butter. This is not to say that they couldn't be civilly social like rational people, it is just to note that it wasn't their inherent go-to as a standard.  


FINI (For now)