PCIntern
PCIntern's JournalSome thoughts this early Thursday morning,
There was a lesson to be learned from this year‘s Academy Awards. Well, they were several lessons, but the one which most interests me at this juncture is that you never know what is going to happen at a given moment. Tens of millions of people sat in front of their TVs and had absolutely no idea, none at all whatsoever, that one of the audience would at a certain point rapidly stride onto the stage and strike a presenter. There were no Vegas odds to this effect, and it was the equivalent of being hit by lightning on a perfectly clear day whilst playing golf . And yet, we react to these almost-impossible-to-conceive-of incidents in fairly predictable fashion, as witnessed even here at DU, and then go about our business as usual which while being quite appropriate, is remarkable onto itself because we have spent a lifetime dealing with the unknown and unexpected and have a mechanism which allows us to deal and integrate it into our lives.
It is the same way in the business and political world. There were people going about their business on the chilly November day back in 1963 and in an instant, the president was dead. No one who woke up that morning, with the exception of a few individuals who were involved, had any concept of what would occur that afternoon. The firmament was disrupted for decades following this incident, some might say that we have never recovered as a civilization , but this untoward and completely unexpected event changed everything. I would submit that this is a possibility at any given instant in this political season. There are investigations ongoing, there are people interacting with each other, there are events which have yet to occur which may alter the shape and the entire path of history and one or more of these may occur at any time.
That’s why when I see idiots like Chuck Todd describe what is likely going to happen given previous experience I smile grimly to myself knowing that he has absolutely no idea what will or won’t happen, but that since it’s a safe bet to make the statements and will absolutely not be held accountable for being wrong about anything and everything, he can feel free to do so. Only a very few people know what is really going on with respect to the investigations of January 6, of the malfeasance and kleptocracy of the previous administration and even then, the ramifications of revelations, should they happen, is utterly unknown at this juncture.
Interestingly, from a perspective of academia and literature, this is why the Greeks developed their deus ex machina mechanism, because things occur which are metaphorically at the very least the hand of God and impossible to predict. The only thing we know is that we really don’t know anything at all. Those of us old enough to remember Watergate distinctly recall that in the late afternoon when the evening papers would publish their additions, it would be reported that something had been revealed which was a game changer and would require the reevaluation of all the other evidence which had been presented to that point. Of course, those of us watching will never ever forget the lunch break when the news came down that the witness following the recess would testify that there was a taping system in the Oval Office and the tapes were extant and available. At that instant, the ground shifted underneath the political and apolitical worlds.
I expect multiple occasions of this type and nature to occur during the next few months with regard to what was by far the most corrupt, amoral, and frankly antidemocratic administration in our historically short history. So hold onto your hat…it’s gonna be a ride.
I have a film for y'all...
Go to HBO if you have it and watch one of my favorite 1980’s films: “Head Office”. (You may be able to find it on YouTube still)
In terms of 21st Century America, this is a film about a young man, a Senator’s son, who goes to work for a company, run by none other than the great Eddie Albert in a terrific comedic role, which makes everything from hair removal creams to thermonuclear weapons. The cast is filled with actors who became incredibly famous in later films, and there is a true moral tale told. The setup for the first half of the film is among the funniest scripts I have ever seen executed, and was right on the money in its description of corporate America and where it was headed.
My humble opinion is that if you don’t find it funny, you don’t really have a sensayuma. I know that’s presumptuous but I saw it when it came out and couldn’t stop talking about it from almost 40 years ago. I reference it often in political conversations. If you watch it I certainly hope that you enjoy it.
Apparently bad news re: Bruce Willis
According to CNN he is taking a break from acting and one of his symptoms apparently is that he has aphasia. This is both sad and very frightening.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/30/entertainment/bruce-willis-aphasia/index.html
https://www.inquirer.com/health/aphasia-bruce-willis-brain-disorder-causes-20220330.html
When Teflon scratches, everything sticks to it.
TFG should take note of that fact. Yea, tho he walks through the Valley of Death, he best better fear the wrath and judgment of the righteous Motherfuckers who seek his Soul.
I have spoken!
The Wrathskellar
(Time for another cocktail)
Holy shit. Will Smith vs Chris Rock.
Chris made an insulting remark about Jada’s hair or lack of it and Will went up on stage and then really let Chris have it. All bleeped.
This is a post which I have wanted to write for a very long time,
but was always hesitant to do so.
My baby daughter was born into the Clarence Thomas hearings and presciently, I wound up recording the entire ordeal on VHS tape all those years ago. I had set the VCR on super long play and ensure that the tapes were changed during breaks and I have every televised word from the network.
The reason I had done this in this fashion was that I somehow felt that this was going to be a very important moment in United States history given the politics of the age, benign by comparison in those days, and that I wanted my daughter at some point to watch this entire event and how it unfolded on Television . When the Anita Hill story broke I felt that I was vindicated in my peculiar quest and ensured that my efforts were completed without fail.
But that is not really the subject of my post, simply the prologue. I recall distinctly watching the nominee’s face as things got worse and worse and I thought to myself that he is now a changed man. He has evolved from whatever bureaucratic toadying Republican individual into a “vengeance is mine” lifetime mode. I remember watching his wife’s body language sitting behind him, and noting to myself that she was this really angry beyond all human comprehension and the way that she and her husband had been treated, fairly or unfairly. I also remember thinking that if he or she had any chance to avenge himself or herself for what they would consider these public airings of embarrassing truths, he would exact that vengeance upon any group or individual who had perpetrated this, who assisted the opposition, or even had a negative political position in his regard.
This man has spent the last 30+ years on the bench attempting to destroy virtually everything that has been achieved since and including Roosevelts new deal. This is not ideology, but a punishment exacted upon a society which demeanedhim on international television. What is somewhat unexpected is his wife’s participation to such a degree in these fringe movements which are evolving and growing so quickly that they will lose that appellation shortly if they have not already.
By no means am I defending one iota of this man, his character, his wife, or the conspiracy against the United States of America. I am simply saying that the process which manifested itself all those years ago will have contributed to the degree of his hatred of all things which we here at DU would describe as moral and the true American values. What happens next in this remarkable tale is anybody’s guess.
Don't bother telling me that this is a fallacious Conspiracy Theory...
Thomas is in the hospital having full knowledge a priori of the communications which his wife had with the intention of overthrowing a duly executed democratic election. There is other information of which he is aware which may come to light imminently which may be even more damning. And you can bet there’s even more that we do not know, cannot know, and if we knew, there would be a huge outcry demanding his resignation.
I posit that he has either had an episode, possibly cardiovascular, or cerebrovascular, or psychiatric which has caused him to require hospitalization or he is faking illness due to all of the above. All this is no coincidence.
I'm known for speaking frankly compared to most healthcare professionals:
Sometimes I say things which shock people, not because they’re untrue, but that people almost can’t believe that these words came out of someone’s mouth given the hesitancy most have for speaking the obvious.
So here goes: these combative Republicans are, to a man and a woman, among the most repulsively sexually and emotionally repressed overachieving narcissistically aggressive and fundamentally ignorant individuals whose hypocrisy and silent depravity are limitless in scope and wishful experience.
Historically, creepy senators were portrayed in a manner explicitly demonstrated in The Godfather Part 2. They have now publicly devolved into a cinematic combination of a John Wayne Gacy enticement, coupled with an evil asymptotically approaching that of Hannibal Lecter joined with PT Barnum.
And to think that at one time the most repulsive Senator was Orrin Hatch...
but he is a rank amateur compared with Graham. DU rules explicitly forbid me to post EXACTLY what I feel about Graham.
Speaking of Thermonuclear weapons...
When I was much younger I dated a Christian conservative Republican, (yes I know but there were a couple other factors at the time which, and pardon the expression, trumped her political beliefs). Anyway, she once mentioned to me that she was a believer in what she called the Jesus factor. She had told me at the time that there was a book which stated that you can’t drop bombs or shoot them at an enemy because they will only explode if Jesus wanted them to which of course he does not…
Such was a hope that someone was clinging to that the world was actually safe and that we were protected by the Almighty and his minions. So, the other day, this all ran through my head and I decided to look up Jesus factor and found it was actually the title of a book whose premise was that Thermo nuclear weapons cannot be detonated in a non-stationary gravitational field, and that the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki were actually massive flares coupled with radionuclides over earthquake areas to simulate bomb targets. The protagonist of the novel is running for president and has a position of nuclear disarmament and has discovered the plot as an ex bombardier of one of the planes. Or something like that.
Anyway on many levels this is most distressing but the main one for me is that all Republicans have to do is close their eyes and click their heels together and the problems just disappear. If you believe that Jesus, the creation of man on earth in his goodness and might can stop catastrophe, then all faith may be restored in humankind and our purpose here on the globe. The fact it this was a complete and utter misinterpretation of the plot of the book is actually irrelevant to the wishful thinking of an otherwise extremely bright individual. For you folks shaking your heads, and I get it, she was raised in a very conservative environment and had great difficulty surrounding the lies she was told as a young woman because they were so deeply inculcated into her psyche. What eventually convinced her that maybe things were not so rosy on the right wing and the establishment was that her family was very proximal to Three Mile Island and when the catastrophe occurred all the people in the region who had even 25% of a brain knew that they were being lied to during the crisis by the establishment in order to protect the energy sector as well as the probable contamination of billions of dollars of farmland between Harrisburg in Philadelphia . It was truly an Aha! moment for her. Of course this is all an aside from the point of the post, but what else is new with me and my posts??😄
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Gender: MaleHometown: Philly
Home country: USA!USA!USA!
Current location: Jersey Shore
Member since: Sun Feb 22, 2004, 09:01 AM
Number of posts: 25,534
