Dancing with the devil.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Coffee. Black and hot.

Reconciliation has limits.

I am no stranger to family splits over different views. It boils down to character and peace of mind and in my previous world politics didn’t play a part in it. In my present world it does. My wife’s family lives in another state, where she was born, and ties were severed long before TFG came along. Politics was the reason.

Now that many of us endured Thanksgiving with or without parts of our families because of politics we’re back in a world where Americans are back to being “stupid”, “ignorant” and overall “fascists”. For much of the free and educated world WE are now the relatives who won’t get invited for a number of “family events” or if we are it will be out of necessity disguised as good manners. We who don’t agree with the course soon to be set are included.

In our lives we have to come to terms with this reality and find ways to survive in it so one day we can live again. Reconciliation is not part of the process. The only way out is resistance. Getting our shit together and go at it again, no matter the odds. We already knew the weak spots our young democracy was set on but we didn’t do enough to fix them. I hope next chance we get we will. In a painful post I drew the sad conclusion of the last election. Reality can’t be ignored.

Yes, there are many who are either fanatical or ignorant and can’t be recovered, but most are what we call “good people going through some things”. The ones we don’t understand because they “seemed so nice”. The ones who like children and pets and help their neighbors. The ones living next door. They still “seem nice” but for the fact we know who they voted for or, and here’s the kicker, we know they didn’t vote at all. Those are the “really nice ones”.

The ones with “coexist” lawn signs. But they didn’t vote. The ones who are always ready to lend a hand to their neighbors. But they didn’t vote. The ones that really make you shake your head. The ones we still talk to. We do need them to wake the fuck up but they won’t unless we do something “for them”. So we have options to consider and choices to make. 

In two years we have another shot at it and we should do it again starting with primaries where we should choose wisely. Don’t go after perfect but don’t settle for mediocrity either. If you can make a difference run yourself. That’s how it starts. However, four years away, some are already showing us who they are and why they are unsuitable. With the short term objective in sight, as 24 months go by fast, some are looking at 2028. Too soon, thriends.

We have to flip the Senate and win the House in two years. That’s all that matters. For those who would rather entertain delusional ideas, like AOC running for president, let me break it down for you again: in this fucked up country of ours change will happen with a candidate who checks all the boxes you may find “wrong”. Male, white, straight, good looking… All the shallow stuff we thought we were done with. We’re not.

In a deeply racist, misogynistic, ignorant country we need someone who hates those things as much as we do to get through the door and start making shit happen so that one day we can have anyone step into his shoes. There’s only one catch: it really needs to be one of us. He, for it will be a man, needs to address all these issues head on without fear plus show us he understands what is really wrong here. Money.

Getting money out of education, healthcare and above all politics is the key. We need someone willing to admit it and brave enough to make it his priority and explain why clearly. To break the status quo wrapped in its cloak. To bring good change to the lives of everyone, such that those “good people” can’t deny. Such that will slowly turn them into actual good people not by changing them but by allowing their children to know better. It’s a long game and the start is not exciting.

We have seen what real excitement looks like, what real hope looks like. We’ve seen it three times in the past 20 years. We had a small taste of it with Obama and two glimpses with Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Now Barack is back to tell us how we can break through to the other side with civil discourse and many say “nope”. The thing is I don’t think he’s telling us to sit down at the nazi table to talk. I think he’s telling us how to reach the “good people”.

The exact same “good people” that made Hillary and Kamala pay for Obama’s own success while helping their neighbors. The ones we don’t know why they did it. We do know. We can’t change that in two years or in four years. We have to take the smart option and make the right choice and it won’t look like Obama or Clinton or Harris. And it most certainly won’t look like AOC. I feel like we were set back years, decades. We have.

It is going to get worse. If the road to real progress was hard it is now much harder and we need to travel through it as it is, not as we wish it could be. We need to reach paradise through hell, there’s no purgatory. And if we are to make it we need someone who LOOKS like the devil to get us through. We need someone who understands exactly the kind of hell we’re in and doesn’t pretend paradise is around the corner. It’s not.

Shit just got real and we better get real too and fast. We’ll be dancing with the devil for a while so for those living in fantasy land I assure you paradise is not a step away. Don’t worry, I am smacking myself as I write this because for a brief moment I thought it was. Reality bites hard. Whatever we do we can’t deny it and as I see it we will never get out of hell by playing angels. Just remember: look like the devil but don’t become one. That’s the trick.

Is all this possible? Can you get through it without losing our souls? I don’t know. All I know is we need to try. We need to win. We need to survive in hell if we are to get out of it. The options that will get us all wiped out must be taken off the table. I don’t like it one bit but you know what? Reality doesn’t give a shit if I like it or not.

We need to win at any cost except our souls.

Other than that, anything goes.

Resist.

The Happy Place.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Must have coffee.

The happy place.

Somewhere in this once great country there’s a woman farmer smiling on a pasture with her cows. She calls it her happy place and there she can enjoy life after having voted for TFG. This is rural America, also known as the flyover part of it, and it’s been there all along.

Looking at that one happy farmer with her cows on her land makes you think she’s just a simple woman, happy with the little things in life. Her world stops where her farm ends or barely extends to her general store where she buys soap and fertilizer and all is well in it. She doesn’t look like a nazi or a racist or anything like that. She’s just enjoying her day with her cows. And she smiles. It’s her happy place.

She was probably one of those “one bullet ballot” voters, or whatever they call it, who just selected who she wanted for president and didn’t care much about the rest. Or maybe she did and thinks keeping it all R down ballot will make her place an even happier one. Either way, our warnings and our hope didn’t reach her and if they did they were quickly dismissed as a threat to her cows. She’s probably a devout Christian and as such expects God to sort us out after the purge.

That’s wishful thinking on my part as it implies she’s aware of what’s coming. Most likely she’s not. Just as she is oblivious to how more expensive her soap and her fertilizer will soon become but then she will probably blame that “Muslim black guy” who was president and pray to her God to help her white president save her and her cows. And when they don’t she will just blame all the “Blacks” and the “Mexicans” who seem to hate her. And her cows. Do not fuck with her happy place.

She is the poster child of Republican America; all you have to do is replace her farm with a suburban house and her cows with a couple of big ass trucks. That’s the happy place for them. It stops at its boundaries and is secured by attack dogs and lots of guns, preferably semiautomatic. It became painfully obvious our great country is not made for you and me but for them only. At least in their minds. Hence the “once” great.

Of course there are deeper roots to this and of course it was racism, misogyny and ignorance combined with the apathy of so many who just don’t believe in elections anymore. But it was also this, and perhaps mostly this: the happy places these people live in without a care in the world, where ignorance is still bliss.

Outside, families will be torn apart, brown people will be put in camps, women will die in the dark, the written word will become government sanctioned but none of that matters in those happy places across America where God will provide as long as there’s a Republican in the White House. Or so the local pastor says. I thought America had a chance this time but I was wrong.

Our happy place is too big for comprehension compared to their enclosed little ones. There’s too many of us but that only makes things worse, apparently, and when their happy places turn to shit they will blame us for it and double down on their Bible thumping and maybe buy more guns. This shows us that hoping their happy places go up in smoke is not the answer, apart from being wrong to wish for.

All we can do is make way for change regardless of their happiness. To create a world big enough and inclusive enough for everyone, even that woman and her cows, not because of her but in spite of her. And perhaps stop worrying about how that will affect her happy place. After all, I am sure God will provide for her. Honestly I reached a point where I don’t really care if it will of not. A point where I couldn’t care less about that woman or her cows.

I realize it’s a dark place to be. Call it my alternative to her happy place. One her happy place created for me. But here I am and here I will stay until such time when I can find a little happiness of my own again. And maybe then I will give a fuck or two about those cows. Not sure about the woman. I don’t think I can ever forgive or care for her ever again.

Peace.

Come again?

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Need more coffee. Black.

Mary.

D.J. Caruso decided to make yet another movie about the birth of Christianity but this time from the perspective of Mary. Seems pretty standard as a project and controversy around such films concerning religion is to be expected. But in this case some people are big, big mad about it.

Caruso’s idea was to assign the roles to Israeli actors, in search of authenticity; something we can all agree on when one tries to be historically correct and not go the poetic license way of assigning Chris Jackson to play George Washington (which is fine, btw). Giving the roles to Jewish actors and actresses like Noah Cohen, who plays Mary, should be no problem considering the man Mary gave birth to is said to have been crucified with a sign reading INRI over his head.

I don’t expect most people to know Latin or that INRI stands for “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum”: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, but it’s a well established fact that, in this biblical tale, the same Romans who decided to name the region Palestine (135 years after his birth, btw) coined the title “King of the Jews” for him. Kind of ironic but historically correct since there was no region by that name when the events depicted in this movie took place as the Bible “tells us so”.

But who cares about History, right? So a lot of propal simps took to Twitter and “denounced this outrageous thing” that is portraying an “Arab Palestinian woman like Mary” as a Jew by a Jew. You really can’t make shit like this up anymore. It’s a bummer they can’t say Mary was a Muslim, since there would be no Muslims in sight for 610 years after the birth of Christ, but there sure were Arabs so they went with that. This is the point where stupid breaks away from ignorant.

I don’t remember people like these protesting Mel Gibson for the sadistic flogging of a “Palestinian” in his “The Passion of the Christ” blood fest. Many of them weren’t even born when this antisemitic trash was on the big screen or they would have probably jumped on the “Jews killed Jesus” bandwagon just for fun. I remember when movies about Christ were frowned upon for other reasons.

I watched the premiere of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and fell in love with the aesthetics and the masterpiece that is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score. It was my first vinyl double album! Back then it was all about Mary Magdalene and her “romance” with Jesus. Pretty neat. It was 1973 and the world was a different place. These days it’s like this: “A disgusting Jew got the part. lol”, wrote a Twitter user appropriately named “America First Zoe”. Oh and yes, “they” are allies.

If there is one thing you can count on is the Christian Nationalists and the Islamic Fascists hate of the Jews. Of course they disagree on who Jesus was, we know that now. For the former he is a blonde, blue eyed Aryan while for the latter he’s a hard core anti-Zionist Palestinian. Details. Never let those get in the way of a good time. This sickening vibe is the latest installment in the tragic rise of antisemitism all over the world. Many Arab media outlets ran this story too.

I know we have a lot on our plates right now and our minds are about to explode from all the real possibility of losing our country to fascism but this is no time to ignore antisemitism. Quite the opposite. Just yesterday, in Columbus, Ohio, the state I live in, Nazis marched on the streets again in what has become a regular occurrence. I bet the right wing Jews who are enthusiastic about every TFG appointment are thrilled about that. Get ready for more.

Appearances are deceiving. We will continue to witness the rise of antisemitic trends while some hope the propal simps will be crushed under the expected iron fist of the deceased Republic turned fascist. They failed to see it will crush them too, just as the naïve Muslims who placed all their chips on it are finding out. We all see what’s going on but many of us still refuse to believe it.

The antisemitic hate from both Christian Nationalists and Islamic Fascists towards a movie casting Jews to play Jewish people is a symptom of what both do: suppress any narrative that goes against their grain. In the end they are one and the same and we must fight both by standing against antisemitism always. In the world of pain that awaits us no pain is to be ignored, especially the pain of those who will pay the price of our dying freedom first.

If not out of humanity then out of self preservation, because they will come after you next; but I wish it’s humanity that drives us in not forgetting the Jewish people among us. It’s not only necessary for our own survival. It is the right thing to do. So don’t expect me to shut up about it in our present situation. We leave no one behind and we must not accept this as well. We must fight it with every fiber of our beings if we are to remain human through these trying times.

Resist.

Glowing in the dark.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Must have coffee while it lasts.

Surprised yet?

Part of the finger pointing going on lands on the other. The other was guilty, not me. The question we have been asking ourselves is how can such a successful administration’s deeds have been ignored by the masses? It’s true Biden was up there with FDR. So why did we lose? Would we have lost with Biden on the ticket? And on and on. Walk with me.

One of the “otherizing” factors is to blame it all on misinformation and right wing media, legacy and social. There’s no denial it played a huge part in misguiding the masses and promoting chaos by spreading lies without checks. No doubt. But they couldn’t have eclipsed every single positive thing this administration did. Some were pretty obvious locally: entire cities revitalized by the infrastructure bill, insulin gone much cheaper, more jobs, objective things like that were real.

As I said before, for large portions of those who voted for TFG no matter how wonderful life was it would still be worth it to throw it away in favor of the institution of misogyny and racism as normal. To them that’s what “make America great again” means and no amount of good would change it.

I am concerned about those who STILL did not vote OR voted “in protest”. They cost us this election; TFG got roughly the same votes as before, there was no landslide or millions of new converts.

In remote areas where news are unheard of, all this made no difference. It was in the large urban and suburban areas most of these non voting or protest voting people ruined things for us. Why?

Fox News? Infowars (btw kudos, Onion)? Twitter? For some yes but I believe most of them are not avid consumers of right wing propaganda. We have to stop wondering why so many voted against us and start thinking about why they didn’t vote for us.

In my view it came down to the perception Democrats are tolerating too much that impacts their lives negatively. And it wasn’t just the price of eggs; that’s on the turd’s bandwagon. The perfect example is how this administration was perceived by Jewish and Muslim Americans. It encapsulates this reason in one portion of the electorate but it’s a carbon copy of others. Both these groups accused Democrats of being simultaneously too soft and too hard.

In my view it came down to the perception Democrats are tolerating too much that impacts their lives negatively. And it wasn’t just the price of eggs; that’s on the turd’s bandwagon. The perfect example is how this administration was perceived by Jewish and Muslim Americans. It encapsulates this reason in one portion of the electorate but it’s a carbon copy of others. Both these groups accused Democrats of being simultaneously too soft and too hard.

One side accused Harris of being too weak to handle Netanyahu and the other accused her of being his greatest ally. One side accused her of being cozy with the pro-Hamas crowd and the other accused her of being a baby killer. It turned out they either voted in protest by choosing a third party or going with TFG (still protest) or didn’t vote at all. Now replace the Israeli crisis with the border crisis, or the racial crisis, or even the healthcare crisis we’re in.

It’s not that all these things are not true or that Democrats had almighty power to change them for the better in 4 years. It’s that they spent way too much time lecturing a population that can barely read about the intricacies of how to solve problems while NOT recognizing them. Antisemitism? Oh, yes, very bad but it’s complicated. Islamophobia? Well, that’s a big no no, next? Healthcare? Yes it’s a human right but business is good. Immigration? Ah, we are a country of those!

For all these things and more, up to and including government itself and how they have always found excuses to NOT deal with it when they could and mostly not TALK about it when they should, Democrats have dug themselves into a hole. It can be described as a mix of failing to communicate and not wanting to. By avoiding hard issues like the fact Democracy is not a universal one size fits all system and recognizing how deeply flawed ours is they failed us.

Yes, antisemitism is bad but we’re not Germany. Yes, Islamophobia is a coverup but look at the Muslim ban. Yes, immigration is in crisis but it could be worse. Yes, healthcare is a business but profits boost research. And yes the electoral college is an aberration but our founding fathers were gods. We did live in the greatest country on Earth but not because it was perfect. It was the greatest because it allowed like no other the improvement of its society.

They got accustomed to the status quo and made a little niche for themselves with all the things we should have but just for them. They got addicted to campaign funding and its personal benefits and the assurance of a life of plenty upon retirement. They didn’t feel our pain or our reality and as such not only they were not inclined to deal with it they lost the ability to do so. That’s why for a brief moment Kamala, and especially Tim, gave us hope.

It soon became apparent that, though they were a sight for sore eyes, there was still a reluctance in talking about the real hard issues. They touched some superficially but there was no time to say much and inevitably the old ways slipped in. Other than a few moments of clarity where we could feel they knew what is wrong there was the uncomfortable feeling of appeasement, getting along, Liz Cheney on stage, there’s more that unites us and all that. No.

It wasn’t Fox News or the Russian bots. It was not facing our greatest problems head on. It was the exultation of a flawed country as the best on Earth while avoiding the causes why it can’t be better. The greatness of America is still a promise we need to fulfill. We had it all in reach for almost 250 years. All we needed was to improve it and we failed. We settled for keeping the promise instead of realizing it. We all saw it.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda, right? That’s not it, though. Now we face the possibility that all may be lost soon. We shake our heads as we watch those who told us we were up against fascism now seem to take it in stride as if it wasn’t the case, it isn’t that bad, or there’s nothing to do about it leaving us scratching our heads wondering which is it. It’s none of the above. It was the case, it is even worse than we thought, and we can do something.

When this nightmare is over, and it will be over, we just cannot accept the return to the status quo that brought us here and find solace in going back to doing nothing as a reward for escaping hell. It’s not that the Pelosis and the Schumers of old are evil by design but their way of maintaining what is for fear of losing it when most of us don’t have it stopped being reassuring long ago. We need new blood but with good brains. And the courage to talk about hard truths with facts.

In a word: Justice. We need Justice. It does not please everyone because it’s blind to prejudice. Now we resist the best we can the worst possible outcome but once we win we must keep that spirit of resistance alive and resist the impulse of going back to the ways that got us here. Exactly what we should have done if we managed to win the election. Never go back to that. That’s what I heard in the chant “We’re not going back!” Back to accepting change is impossible.

Change is possible. Denying these fascists an easy establishment is possible. Preserving AND improving our democracy is possible. As long as we open our eyes, embrace facts and know hard choices are the only ones that matter. Please don’t give in to despair but don’t long for days gone by. Wish for days to come we never knew. Fight for dreams to come true not for the right to dream. Fight for the right to make it happen and then do just that: make it happen.

Resist.

Blue is just a color.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

More coffee, please.

Blue Skies.

There’s a notion a big migration is happening from SM sites to Blue Sky. You may think the Xitter and Threads but there’s movement from Instagram itself and, behold, from TikTok! It’s “a thing”, apparently. I created a bsky account some 8 months ago, “just in case”. It really doesn’t work for me, though.

The case in “just in case” was (and still is) the real possibility the “algorithm” will kick me out of Threads permanently. Back when I created the bsky account the interface and functionality there were appalling compared to Threads. Recently I went back (I am keeping a moderate presence there) and I noticed many improvements. Not enough for me. Of course being able to “block block” swathes of magats and having toxic accounts banned by the app itself is cool, but…

Considerations about algorithms or lack there of aside the main reason for me not to adopt bsky over Threads is what you are doing: reading. The initial premise of Threads is the threading itself, what came to be known as a string of threads since thread is the word we use for the posts here. As a content writer, writer being the key word, this remains very appealing to me. Even though I created a blog for elaborate long threads I still find pleasure posting them like this.

The same pleasure I find reading other people’s strings of threads. This app was made for it. It’s an app for readers and thinkers. I also love not just the sense of community but the fact we built it from scratch. We smash the algorithm every day by self moderating and selecting the parameters that define our environment. I even got to get rid of the porn bots that way! Of course it takes time and effort but it works.

Now most will probably prefer short bursts of text and lots of memes “à la” Twitter, and the fact the TikTok crowd finds Blue Sky attractive has a hidden clue in it, but for me it’s about writing and community. For those reasons, although as I said keeping an account on bsky, I will only leave Threads if I am kicked out. And that may well happen. I am following my own advice and not conceding in advance. Consider it as well.

Some who migrated already are elated by their fast growing follower numbers and compare their slow rate of new followers on Threads to that flooding on Blue Sky. Maybe. My personal experience confirms following rises fast on bsky, I had a handful of them before I started using it again two or three days ago and I am over 1K now. Not much but more growth than here. However, after a period of ups and downs I am again on the path to 9K followers here. Will that happen?

And if I do ever reach 9K will it last? How long will it take to reach the mythical 10K? Oh, the anxiety! I am joking, of course. To me it never was about huge followings, that’s just an indicator and to be honest I have already a lot of work trying to keep up with the engagement I have as it is - and thank you for it, by the way. It is much appreciated. I know reach is important and information is key, but there’s another key factor in this battle for knowledge: thought.

Not just the ability to make people think but to do so in an elaborate way, expanding ideas coherently (or at least trying!) so that others have what we call food for thought. Some are brilliant enough to do that with a few words on one post or an outstanding meme. Others, like me, are not as gifted and require space to maneuver in the realm of words. Yes, I have heard of Substack. I have a blog instead and I know it’s old fashioned.

Bottom line is I am an old fart that likes to think and pass it along so others think too. Threads is not my soap box or my high horse and I don’t really want to become numb by being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of followers I will never be able to know as well as I know many of the few who do now. I like it like that. I know I make you think and I know you make others think. I am just a ripple in the ocean, creating other ripples.

That’s fine by me. I am not telling you I wish you didn’t migrate to whatever new trendy app is out there just that I hope you still hang out here and keep finding food for thought in my words, so often not good enough to express my feelings. And keep thinking about our world with a little perspective from my point of view. Because all I write is just that: my opinion. Based on facts as much as can be but still an opinion.

I do hope Threads improves; there’s a lot wrong with it but this one fundamental thing they got right from the beginning: it’s a good vessel for writers and readers. And these two categories of people tend to be thinkers. In a world of short bursts and immediate satisfaction I choose to be a threader because I am a writer and a reader and I like food for thought. I trust those who think this way will remain. For those of you who do I will be here, writing. It’s what I do.

Enthusiasms.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Fucking coffee.

Enthusiasms.

I have stated before that in order for a totalitarian regime to replace a democratic society the one element it needs to absolutely control is the military. Following Project 2025 guidelines that effort is currently underway. No matter how flawed a democracy is it will remain salvageable as long as the military stay independent of its political struggles.

Some often compare this descent into the abyss we are in to present day Russia. There’s no truth in it and here’s why: Putin’s Russia may seem like an old fashioned totalitarian regime but it’s not. It’s really a fascist like oligarchy that inherited the work of the Soviet Union’s true totalitarianism. And that we may well become. Putin didn’t have to worry about controlling the military to ensure his ascension to power. Stalin did it for him.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was a brief period when life seemed possible in a democratic society. There was a free press and there was freedom of expression and there was hope for the future but the roots of repression ran too deep and corruption in a more open environment spreads faster than in a closed one so there was a race to the top to find out who would profit the most and retain control of political power through that type of influence.

The objective, of course, was to have absolute power and Putin achieved it not with the help of the military but by aligning the interests of the top tier oligarchs with his and guaranteeing their fortunes. Because Stalin did the dirty work for them they need not worry about a military that would intervene to stop the madness nor did they need it to crush dissent. Their military had been transformed into a corrupt tool without meaning many years prior.

Long before Putin the former Soviet Army had been indoctrinated to obey the men in power without question and their senior ranks were already infected with delusions of imperial greatness and addicted to the material benefits they are provided to this day. The uniformed little versions of oligarchy who collect the crumbs left for them. They had lost their honor long ago. They lost it in a dark day of July, 1918, at Yekaterinburg and what was left of it was put to death by Stalin.

We’re not Russia. The Biden family will not be arrested and executed nor will our military ranks be purged with bullets. Instead there will be another staged legal process where opponents are dragged through the mud for the entertainment of the masses and what they call “warrior board” will ensure the military high ranking officers who have a shred of honor in them are fired. It’s the apprentice again. Will it work? Oligarchy in the US thrived and ruled in our flawed democracy.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, the society they have worked so hard to create, where people were just poor enough to still hope to be rich and just ignorant enough to seem educated, regurgitated an obscenity: the orange turd. The one who they despised the most and so desperately wanted to be like them. It was a fluke, a glitch in the matrix. In this construct they built to thrive undetected this clown found a loop hole to reach power.

His first four years were marked by attempts to throttle him and keep him in check. He didn’t like it at all and when the people voted him out he brew in his hatefulness and prepared a come back solely based on revenge. So instead of looking for support among those who despised him all along he gathered little men like him who also had similar resentments. A mix of ideologues and technologues all of whom also despise the people as much as he does but are masters of deception.

On November 5 this strange coalition managed to barely pull through and allowed the turd a second chance. But this time there will be no listening to the old money or adherence to long games to preserve the status quo. That’s not what he wants. He wants his own little kingdom and will try to extend it too or at least make sure he can keep his fortune and influence should the attempt to get rid of presidential term limits doesn’t stick to the wall.

Watching the way Joe Biden received him at the White House as witnessing Kamala Harris concession before that is like watching a rerun of a bad movie in which the actors pretend the rules didn’t change and, like many say, “we will be okay”. No. We won’t. This is a new game. One with no rules except one: get rid of the rules. As I said before: chaos. A sudden new burst of chaos to allow for the installation of unchecked authority. A chaos in which we will all suffer.

The slow descent into controlled chaos is suddenly a free fall into it so expect everything to happen everywhere all at once in a brainless but very dangerous attempt to land safely before we hit the ground. It’s like we’re in a plane that was put in a downwards trajectory to the Land of Oligarchy but by a sick twist of fate the lunatics got in the cockpit and took over, putting it on a steep dive. They need to get rid of all the rules and fast before we can take control again.

There are still too many things that can stop them, among which the very same oligarchs that watch in horror as the ground looks bigger and closer through their first class windows. This is not what they had in mind. This crazy deep dive will turn into a deadly spin and they know it. But the lunatics in the cockpit don’t. They just want it to land as fast as possible. They want to “get there” now. They will crash and take us with them. Their failure will still cause immense damage.

They have the three branches of government now. The “free press” already started to dumb us down and sing high praises to the dear leader. They laugh and giggle and use words like “brilliant” when they refer to the turd. They are scared shitless and hysterically laugh as they plunge into the abyss. Unless they change that I think it’s safe to say we lost the fourth estate with few exceptions.

But not all was lost. For all intents and purposes we are still a democracy with an opposition party and midterms on the way. Dissent is still (barely) present in the legacy media and there’s this: social media. There’s a chance to take over Congress in two years and they know this. That will be our turn to show up and remove his ability to crash us into the ground. That’s why everything’s so crazy and is happening so fast. They are out of time.

In 2026 there will be no “Palestine”, there will be no Jill Stein (that’s in 4 years), there will be no orange turd on the ballot. There’s no 2028 this and that. There’s no time. I am laser focused on the 2026 midterms. And so are they. They know they only have two years and need to move fast. So what was the one thing that stood firm and didn’t give in during the turd’s first go at it? The military. During those dark four years no one told him “No” more than the military did.

Even the “Mad Dogs” he tried to convert told him to fuck off. That’s why he is appointing a lunatic news host as Secretary of Defense and planning the tacky named “Warrior Board” to “purge” the ranks of their honor and their ability to say “No”.

Will it work? Will all women in the military go away? Will the VA be extinct? Will we bomb Iran and most of all will we be shot in the streets when we protest? I don’t think so.

Acceptance is not an option.

Stay strong. We’re NOT Russia.

Fantasia.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Coffee time.

When reality bites.

This is a difficult post to write. In all honesty this is my second go at it. I want to be clear and precise and it’s hard to share a perspective that transcends me even if it affects me. I will try. Walk with me and keep an open mind.

As a white male born in Europe I am in the eyes of others the embodiment of privilege. Society also reinforced that perception and growing up I was taught the benefits of patriarchy. Boys and girls were told how superior we were because of the color of our skin BUT, at the exact same time, boys were given guns to play with and dolls were assigned to girls, along with toy kitchens. And when it came to play “doctor” guess who was the doctor.

White privileged women have confounded me for this reason since I became aware of this. What exactly is their privilege? The privilege to play “patient” or at best “nurse” in a world where only men play “doctors”? While for white men privilege comes from birth, for white women it comes from submission to them. It’s their reward, their allowance. This revolting reality has been fought for centuries and the XX Century brought at last many victories for women’s rights.

Women’s emancipation was part of the civil rights movement and their struggle was (and is) very real. In the US they conquered the right to vote in 1920 but it took them 45 more years to actually make it true. It was their quest for equality and a revolt against patriarchy. One would expect such struggle would wash away any misguided white privilege but it hasn’t. As for men, we seem to still cling to the delusion of whiteness and also long for the days girls played only with dolls.

Both these things, racism and misogyny, go hand in hand when it comes to white people but the latter spreads far wider. In a world designed by and for white males, many men who are not white find some comfort in sharing the sense of patriarchy. They may be made to feel inferior to white men but they sure can make up to it by feeling superior towards women. Of course not all men feel this way, either about the color of their skin or their masculinity, but a lot of them do.

I honestly believed women would save us this election but the result showed me this: if only women voted we would have won. Women are ready, men are not. Men are not ready for a woman “doctor” yet. They wish they were clinging to their “dolls”. And many white women are showing us submission to the patriarchy is still embedded in their beings even when women are dying as a result. Other women are right to feel betrayed by them but in the end it was the men who did it.

I am not blaming women for not saving us as I expected. I chose this aspect of the results and misogyny over racism because for too long myself and many others, men and women, have entertained the feeling we were ready for a woman as President. The fact that many of us don’t think so is terrible and it should dispel this notion. No, we’re far from ready and even less ready to have a black woman in that role. But this reality is enhanced by our political system.

With no electoral college, with the adoption of national sovereignty over state sovereignty, with the certainty that for national office one person’s vote really matters, this may not be as true as it seems. But we lost the popular vote. Was it because of all these things? Did we at last resigned to the fact minority will rule no matter what? I hope not. In any case, losing the popular vote and having still so many who don’t care to vote reinforces my feelings.

This is the hard truth we need to come to terms with. Despite the righteousness of our cause and the right of women to be recognized by their own merits, just as the same applies to all women and not just white ones, we need to face reality. The way elections work in this country will not change or it will get even more resistant to change and THAT is the system we got to work with. We can either go ballistic into the realm of idealistic purity or we can come back to Earth.

And the truth is this: when it comes to the Presidency of the United States and how it may affect our world and enact the changes we need only a qualified, relatively young, white man looking like a million bucks can do it for us. Only he can break the glass ceiling under these conditions and expected worst ones. I am well aware that as a man this is a terrible thing to say and if you come at me I understand. But know this is the only way. No point denying it.

It turns out we don’t live in a romance where the brave amazons take the power from the evil king and bring Justice to the land. That’s a fantasy. A nice fantasy, but still one. In the real country we live in, as demonstrated by this election, we still need a qualified, eloquent, educated, rational, clear minded person like Kamala Harris to put us on the right path. Unfortunately that person can only be a white man that looks like a movie star.

This may not be the America we want but it’s the America we live in. If we keep denying this and refuse to adapt to it we are not going to make it. This was always an inside job. We just thought we could beat the system from the outside. We can’t. We must not accept what is to come but if there is one thing we cannot accept is to live in a fantasy world where a rainbow colored fairy will save us, no matter how much we love rainbow colored fairies.

I still don’t think I found the right words for this message to you - especially if you are a woman. I apologize. I want to live in a world where our most beautiful fantasies come true but I am absolutely certain that we can only reach it if we stop living in one. I wish I was wrong about this. I wish we lived in a country where a competent black woman could be accepted as our leader. It seems like we need a competent man to make that possible. And he better be white. Just in case.

Chaos.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Hot black coffee.

Chaos.

I believe chaos has been the objective of the puppeteers for so long they don’t realize yet it’s all they are getting. Chaos as a strategy only works in furtherance of concrete gains when it can be crushed after it served its purpose. I don’t think it will.

Though the orange turd first term was marked by some chaotic circumstances there were still some guardrails and some sort of smart people who tried to maintain order to an extent. This time there will be a sea of turds in charge and their idea of order is to deport 20 million people and somehow control 300 million others. Good luck with that. We are not Nazi Germany or North Korea and we certainly are not Iran. Plus, the lunatics at the head of the asylum are real.

Their Project 2025 is not brilliant; it’s a wish list made by some presumptuous assholes who believe there’s enough like minded people with half a brain to implement it. There really isn’t. We will watch the attempt to dismantle the existing social system by dimwits who have no clue how to put a functioning one together. Just like with the ACA their stupidity will drive them (and many of us) off the cliff. Chaos is their only mantra. I expect lots of it.

Deporting 20 million people, most of whom are essential for the preservation of our society as part of its workforce in essential areas, like construction and agriculture, would work just great if they could replace it by another large group of existing people who can do those jobs, say by reinstating forced cheap labor, aka slavery, and though that’s a solution it is just not going to happen.

Controlling 300 million people, many of them armed to the teeth, is a nightmare when the ideas they wish to impose are irrational, not popular when implemented, and based on the worst humankind has to offer. No matter how racist, misogynistic or ignorant the people are they will not like being taken apart limb by limb. It’s not a feel good sensation. Of course, like all authoritarian regimes, the goal is totalitarianism. Good luck with that in a country this big.

As I mentioned yesterday, fascism requires the military to become its iron fist, not abroad but at home. It’s the only path to totalitarianism and it worked in the early to mid XX century in selected places with the planing AND high level execution provided by people who had much more than half a brain. Those conditions will never be replicated. Order of that magnitude requires not just chaos as precondition.

It requires a near extinction level event. It’s not enough that 75% of the population have the brains of a twelve year old when there are 250 million of twelve year olds running around. It’s just overwhelming. It just can’t be done. Add to this the reality of the era we live in. Only an electromagnetic pulse of continental proportions would prevent us from knowing the horrors to come as a result of this attempt to establish Project 2025 as our world.

Again, another kind of extinction level event. Leveling the ground when the ground is so vast and submitting a people when they are so many would not only require removing all sources of present day information but cutting population numbers drastically. Neither of those things will happen. To be honest, the best chance these fascist wannabes have to succeed is if a large meteor hits us. And that’s not happening either.

Are these good news? Well, if you think chaos is something to look forward to, yes. Other than that it’s not reassuring. The danger we face today of losing our democracy and living in an authoritarian system comes from our own acceptance of it. That’s the OTHER way this attempt to end our world can work: if we give it up willingly. If those of us who still can think and research and reason lose hope and start cooperating in the settling down of the 12 year olds instead of teaching them.

If that happens there will be no need for an iron fist. No one will need to take your freedom if you willingly surrender it. No one will need to silence you if you don’t speak. This is why, not referring to the election, I said I am over the steps of grief. They end in acceptance. The only way this chaos can turn into real fascism is if you accept it. And the meteor, of course. And don’t think for a minute that when we recover from this it will be over.

Don’t be fooled into thinking once these dipshits are forced back into their caves and under their rocks it will be okay. There are plenty of brains among the ones who have for decades become our most dangerous foe and the true obstacle to progress: the oligarchs. We may not devolve into a fascist state but we may well become a full fledge oligarchy like Russia did. With elections and all.

Once it becomes apparent to these few people in the shadows their puppets are too stupid to pull this new order off some of them will “help us” to go back to “normal”. Some of them already have and even sided with us to prevent the crazies from reaching power. Don’t let them fool you. The objectives are still the same: remove from politics the obstacles preventing progress: religion, money and ignorance. We will live in chaos for a while but not too long, I hope.

Brace yourselves. Stay safe. Stay together and resist as best you can. Never believe the only way out of the chaos about to start is acceptance. Acceptance is the end. Nothing is lost in the world today if you refuse to give it away. So refuse; resist; do not allow it to happen. There will be no meteor hitting us and everything else that needs to happen to subdue a nation of 330 million souls is not happening either. Unless you let it happen. Don’t.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie Wiesel

At the bottom.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Coffee in the rain…

Racism.
Most are tiptoeing around it like it isn’t real and yet it’s the root cause of xenophobia including antisemitism. Beyond ignorance and selfishness that caused so many not to vote we can no longer ignore most who voted for fascism didn’t prefer it because of the price of eggs. They preferred it to a black woman.

Eddie Glaude, a Princeton professor who often participates in TV panels, put the finger on the wound to the disbelief of the white panelists and anchor, Stephanie Ruhl, herself the epitome of whiteness. I have been saying for as long as I can remember all these people like the orange turd because he gives them license to be openly racist. That’s why. We can’t keep ignoring it and it must be shouted from rooftops until everyone understands it.

In a sense we don’t have to go back to 1950s America. Plenty of white people never left it. All they needed was an excuse to act like it and when that thing wobbled his way into politics they got onboard. It was their chance to be who they are. This is our country, my thriends. And it’s also the reason other forms of hatred and discrimination rise in it. The same environment that allows racism and misogyny allows antisemitism. The license to hate is broad.

As long as we keep ignoring these things, pretending they don’t exist, we can’t start truly eradicating them from our lives. All we are doing is allowing for hate to spread unchecked. I will give you an example: nobody in the MSM ever asks the staunch pro Palestine advocates why they are so outraged by Israel’s existence but none of them seem to be bothered by the fact most of Palestine is “occupied” by Jordan. Nobody mentions it. Ever.

What’s wrong with the Palestine beyond the river to the East? Why must Palestine be free only from the river to the sea? Why is it okay it’s not free beyond the river to where Arabs “occupy” it? I am going to say what needs saying and declare these propal simps only problem is there are no Jews in Jordan. That’s why. That’s why they ignore it and that’s why the root of their “just cause” is purely antisemitic. Hate is the cause of all our problems.

All the philosophies and ideologies based on class warfare missed this point. Populism works just great when the strong men who drive the masses are rich oligarchs not because the masses don’t know they are despicable but because they hate the same people they do and they allow them to do it freely. They are the right kind of despicable. As despicable as they are. Populism is no longer driven by class but by hate. Maybe it always was.

Maybe these people are not voting against their best interests at all but in fact voting for their true interests. We need to acknowledge that if we are to fight against it. Sure they will soon find out how wrong they are and just like the propal mobs will start being rounded up and jailed and the magats feel the pain in their bones they were allowed to spew their hatred for a bit and they all believed it would last. For some it will.

Those who share the right kind of hate, those who are the same kind of despicable as the ones in power, those are doing their victory lap and telling women their bodies belong to them and black people they are going back to the cotton fields. Soon they will openly tell Jews they will be put in camps too. As for the others, who were stupid enough to think their hatred alliance would last, they will find themselves in those camps too. They are despicable but not the sanctioned kind.

We are in for a very rough ride. Choices were made and consequences will follow. I know some still put their faith in our institutions but the truth is they are mostly gone. What’s left of them will either be ignored by executive power or, like the Supreme Court, bow down to it. We are on our own, my thriends. Resistance is the only way out. Perseverance is the only answer. Stay strong in your convictions and fight.

We often say love trumps hate but in order for that to be true love must be unconditional and hate must be faced for what it is. We can’t tolerate the intolerable any longer, no matter where intolerance is or what it looks like. Hate is on the loose and we have to accept that as the overwhelming phenomenon it is and stop saying it’s not as bad as it really is or finding excuses for it because it happens to be disguised as free speech.

The fact remains we live in a country where most people’s best interest is to hate. As long as they are free to do so all else doesn’t matter. Fascism may rise and eggs may be expensive just as long as women go back to the kitchen, black people back to the cotton fields, Jews put away in camps and yes, dear Muslims, you are fucked too. But free Palestine, hey? Fuck all these people. All they care about is the misery of others to forget their own.

Why can’t we live in peace? Why is there no Justice left? Why can’t we just “get along”? I’ll tell you why. Because hate trumps love when love is misguided and weak. Because we have for too long failed to speak up against it for fear of hurting other people’s feelings. Political correctness is not saying approved words; being righteous is not recycling cans or driving electric cars. It’s acting decisively and without fear against injustice and hate.

When we are weak confronting these situations and look for ways to appease intolerance because they wear flip flops instead of black riding boots and they wave Palestinian flags instead of blood flags with swastikas this is what we get: hate running wild. There’s no cherry picking when it comes to hate and racism. This is why so many of us voted against what we wish for. We wished they weren’t real but they are and they won. What are you going to do about it?

Do not give up. ✊

* Link to the Eddie Glaude’s moment mentioned. HERE.

Scorched earth.

Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.

Black coffee.

Privilege won’t save you.

I have been looking at a sort of trend that’s showing up. I will call it the scorched earth trend. Basically, let TFG go wild; let him do everything he wants, appoint anyone he wants; enact any crazy measure he wants without obstruction or opposition of any kind. Let it all burn. Really? If you think this way you must be extremely privileged.

What is to come will affect everyone, no matter how privileged. Granted some do have the means to weather the storm at first but their lives will be impacted as well and very few of them will truly benefit from the misery that is to come. This scorched earth strategy is built on the massive suffering of others and in many, many cases on the loss of their livelihoods and even their lives. We can’t just let it happen. Enough damage will be done even with opposition.

If we do nothing and let the madness expand unchecked and unopposed the replacement of the fact based reality by this new fact free one will be complete. We will surrender to the crazy instead of trying to restore rationality. Plus we will start believing the only way out is to become even crazier than they are; that’s what wishing for scorched earth is. Craziness. Some will tell you we are already there and there’s nothing else we can do about it. Wrong.

We won’t have to wait very long to see how things are going. In two years time there will be midterm elections. Other elections will happen for open positions at the local and federal level. They are counting on you to check out and don’t even bother to show up. And just like that, without burning the Constitution or revoking the right to vote, they will remain in power from now on; because even before they try to end elections you will end them yourselves. Don’t check out.

We need time to deal with this. Each of us in their own ways. We also need to allow each one the space and time they need to do that. If they tell you to step back and leave them alone you better do that. Don’t go waving a blue bracelet on their faces to prove you’re “a good one”. If you are a good one they will know. They will know because you give them space and respect their feelings. Don’t turn into a new version of “fuck your feelings”. Be respectful.

Don’t wish them harm to validate your point either because soon enough you will find out that they are throwing the baby, the bath water, the tub and the whole bathroom away. They will not deport only the “bad apples”, like we had the chance to do and chose not to. They are deporting all the apples. Including the ones you like or love and the ones who worked for you and put food on your table. Denaturalization is on the table, thriends. Hell, everything is.

I was born in Portugal; hardly a country that will show on any “unwanted” or “unwelcomed” list of people facing the risk of losing their citizenship, but when things get bad enough that dissent is enough to get you on that list it won’t matter I was not born in South America or the Middle East. I will just be another fruit gone bad to them. That’s what happens when we fail to remove just the bad apples. All apples turn bad.

And the minute the first bad pineapple shows up pineapples bad. All pineapples. And if you think you’re safe because you’re a banana wait until the first bad banana shows up. Yup, bananas bad. It won’t matter who you are. We are witnessing the product of generalization. What demonizing whole portions of our society means. What not being able to communicate nuanced messages means. Most of us cannot understand the complexity of this world.

That was what ultimately cost us this election. It’s not that hate is acceptable for millions of people but that love seems to be too selective. We have forgotten love is unconditional. We too ended up in a place where our love for others depends on who the others are and when that happens we open the door for discrimination ourselves. Discrimination is not a targeted phenomenon it’s a generalized one. It’s hard not to fall for that trap. But we have to.

Somehow we must not fall into the reverse attribute tendency and ourselves become infected by this notion everyone wearing a blue bracelet is real good and everyone wearing a camo hat is real bad. I can’t help to think that’s the root of the hate behind antisemitism and why it extends to all other hatred. I am not talking about bad apples only, good apples too. We can’t assume all apples are good just because they are apples either. That’s what got us here in the first place.

In the end action is all that matters. What you do is what matters. You’re not eco friendly because of the car you drive and driving a Prius does not automatically makes you better than those who drive a truck. Virtue signaling has become the real identity politics and we need to break away from it. It’s what you do, not what you signal. And please don’t align ignorance with stupidity as a general attribute either.

Do I think people with the ability to look for facts and don’t are stupid? Absolutely. Do I loathe college students who fall for brainwashing without questions? Yes, I do. But remember they are a very small minority. Their “protest vote” didn’t get us here. The ignorant vote did, along with those ignorant enough not to vote at all. Are there lots of racist, misogynistic people out there? Of course there are. Are they enough to keep us down? No. They depend on the ignorance of others.

I know righf now it feels like allowing the scorching of the earth may seem like a plan but it’s a shitty plan. A inhumane plan. I refuse to stand on a pile of bodies to feel vindicated. Some of my friends will be among them. The answer to evil cannot become evil itself. The reason why civilization didn’t end yet is not because we allowed everything to be burnt to the ground but because we refused to allow that to happen.

Please don’t stop believing. Do not lose hope. Do not turn off the light yourself. Do not check out. Take your time to deal with this pain, find your way out but know this: you need to come back. You can’t give away what they want to take. Make them try and take it. Make it hard. Resist. They won’t need to end elections if you stop voting. They won’t need to silence you if you stop speaking. Hold on to each other. Give each other hope. We’re in this together; when it’s really bad.

That’s when it matters most. Know this is not the end. It’s the beginning. Expect things to get worse but don’t give up. Staying engaged was always the plan. Stick to it. It was never going to be easy and it’s a bitch that it has to be this hard but if you give up without a fight, if you become silent, if you turn off the light yourself then it will really be over. Breathe. You are not alone. Restore your strength. We need each other. We need you.

Stay.