The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly fatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much
Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness
I’m leaning towards abandoning all activism efforts and just sitting back and letting shit roll. AI, politics, climate disasters, corruption, and generally the craziness of the world. It’s too much.
Today I saw a video of a robot dog taking a real dog for a walk. So that’s where we are. And there’s no getting this genie back in the bottle. As I write, Microsoft Outlook is out for hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions of users; no doubt a hacker, probably AI facilitated.
All I hear about is Dem’s won because of the unpopularity of the Iran War and gas prices. No mention of the other 1,000 terrible things Trump and the Republicans have done and are continuing to do. So that shows really why Democrats are unlikely to ever hold power. If Trump had not bombed Iran, Dem’s may have won the house but definitely not the senate.
The 40% or so of people who still support Trump did not suddenly get smarter. They were just overpowered by people for whom gas prices matter more than the lives of children or vulnerable people or our planet in general.
There is an immediate divide in the Democrat Party as they find themselves suddenly in power.
There is ample evidence that Trump has broken the law many times. Also, the 25th amendment allows removal simply for being incapable of performing the duties required of the office. Given Trump’s public admiration of Jon Husted’s ass and all the other crazy shit he says and does every day, it’s clear he has evolved from ignorant and mean to full on mentally incapacitated.
The democrats who are against impeachment base that view on a political calculation that it will re-energize MAGA and could impact 2028 election. Those for impeachment, recognize that rule of law matters and all people who break the law should be held to account. If you are a politician that also means you should be removed from office. This is not vengeance, as Hakeem Jeffries and Rahm Emanuel have suggested, but justice. It is the definition of justice.
To not pursue justice reinforces the perception that laws do not apply to politicians (or wealthy people), the same way they do for the rest of us.
So. Do what’s right or do what is politically convenient so those in power can stay in power?
A more prescient argument has yet to surface. Donald Trump is personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Cutting US AID funding has already resulted in the death of 700,000 people (a high percentage under the age of 5) and in the next two years, will result in more than a million additional deaths. Some estimates say as many as 14 million could die by 2030 directly as a result of shutting down US Aid.
On the first day of the Iran war, which Trump unilaterally initiated without consent of Congress and against majority of the populations’ wishes and without any coherent rationale, strategy, or expected outcome, United States Forces killed 120 schoolchildren in an air strike.
Is it our desire as US citizens to allow Trump to continue to leverage the power of the presidency to bomb and kill at will, and to veto any legislation coming from Congress as he has already said he will do. His continued destruction of national parks and federal lands; facilitation of fossil fuel industry while shutting down renewable energy projects; tariff wars; allying himself (and us by proxy) with Putin and escalating risk to Ukraine; undercutting our allies and isolating the US in foreign policy. The list is endless.
Impeaching him is not just an option, it’s a moral imperative supported by facts, legal precedent, and even a child’s comprehension of ethical behavior.
But mostly the Dem’s are hapless and far more concerned about keeping their privileged position than voting for what is best for their constituents. They are prostitutes, same as Republicans, but they like to think of themselves more as high dollar escorts than street hookers.
If history is a guide, the Democrats will immediately start converting their victory to future failures as they once again misinterpret voter sentiment and turn towards the center where they think they will be safe. This is what they did when they chose Hillary over Bernie and then Biden over Bernie. They will ignore the obvious celebrity status of people like AOC and Bernie and now Talarico and El Sayed.
Meanwhile, Repubs will hunker down, obstruct, start new culture wars and fire up their lie machines to start defaming Democrats and liberals and creating fear by manipulating stupid people and religious nut jobs. In fact, it’s starting already. Distract the public from issues that matter by creating culture clashes or false claims of corruption while they themselves are packing up the entire country into the trunks of their cars.
So we’ll see if Dems have the balls to do the right thing, but unless they grew them in the last week, we will see them snatch defeat from the jaws of future victories.
Easton came to work on the distillery today and he did not have any idea what the election results were or what it might mean to the economy.
He is up doing some work for me. He’s 20 but been running his own business for two years now. He’s super nice, personable, hard worker and smart in the way of farmers and people who make their living doing some of this and some of that. Easton was home schooled. I’ve quizzed him on a few things and haven’t seen or heard anything that would obviously distinguish him from someone who attended public school.
I suspect if I drilled down we might start to see some differences, but he is well prepared for what he wants to do with his life.
He has a new helper. Thaddeus. Not Thad but Thaddeus. Also seems a nice kid. Thaddeus is only 16 and is working full time for Easton and is also being home-schooled.
Easton is finishing up the last of the work on structures at Black Dog Ridge. The little outbuilding that was there when I bought the property, and which I have closed in, is being finished in true cabin style and will function as a distillery, cigar room and writing lounge. We’ve hooked up the wood burner out there so there is heat and we also cut in a couple of small windows. It will be functional and rough, as a man-cave should be.
I am re-reading ‘Heart of Darkness’, which I think I read last in high school or maybe even Junior High. I finished ‘Songs of Solomon‘ by Toni. Good book. Damn good. My reading game is strong. Writing too. Exercise is suffering a bit as I prioritize cerebral activities.
I’m still working on my re-write of SV2SA. I even went all the way back and am re-starting the effort, having convinced myself I wasn’t taking enough care to get it right. I don’t know what I’m doing really, or what I hope to achieve.
TOOM is becoming DOOM. I think after the first of the year I will extract myself and either give the company over to my partner or we will shut it down. Unless something significantly changes, we simply do not have the formula right. Even friends and family are not using it, so I think I massively over-estimated the appetite for something like this.
Still time for a Hail Mary, but by definition, Hail Mary’s require divine intervention. I don’t think I have the consecrated legitimacy for that to happen.
We’ll leave it there for now.
Humbly submitted
Robert Myres – Flanker (ret.), Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club, writer, comic genius & Lord of Black Dog Ridge Manor
