not old enough to vote? become governor

Teenage candidates for the Kansas governor race spoke at a forum in Lawrence in October. From left, Ethan Randleas, 17; Alexander Cline, 17, a candidate for lieutenant governor; Jack Bergeson, 16; Tyler Ruzich, 17; and Dominic Scavuzzo, 17. Credit Christopher Smith/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

If Donald Trump can be taken seriously as the president of the United States, I see no reason why a teenager running for the post should not become the governor of Kansas. Never mind that he's not old enough to vote.

In a state where the youth voting rate is even worse than the dismal national average, more than half a dozen Kansas teens are running for statewide office in 2018 — a sort of viral movement against apathy that could, in theory, make a high school student governor.
Naturally, adults are trying to stop it.

Based on responses some youthful candidates gave to mainstream media, the young people sound straightforward. Whether they lack depth is hardly a question that needs asking in an era when prevarication seems to pass for historical perspective.

Pentagon gets a budget W

If there were any longer any doubt about it, the latest spending bonanza out of Washington does some wonderful things for the Pentagon, America's war-making arm:

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the biggest budget the Pentagon has ever seen: $700 billion. That’s far more in defense spending than America’s two nearest competitors, China and Russia, and will mean the military can foot the bill for thousands more troops, more training, more ships and a lot else.
And next year it would rise to $716 billion. Together, the two-year deal provides what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says is needed to pull the military out of a slump in combat readiness at a time of renewed focus on the stalemated conflict in Afghanistan and the threat of war on the Korean peninsula.

Peace is hard. War is easy. And the American taxpayer, me included, makes it all possible. I wonder if it would be possible to add a cabinet post status to a Department of Spines.

sumo world seeks to right itself

The Mongolian sumo grand champion Harumafuji

While daily doses of whisper, allegation and insinuation send American entertainers, politicians, and sports figures to one distant slag heap or another, sumo wrestling in Japan is suffering a different and perhaps more decorous bit of fallout.

A grand master (yokozuna), among other sumo members, "is expected to display exemplary behaviours at all times" and one such grand master, Harumafuji, crossed the line when he beat the crap out of a junior wrestler. A three-month-old Guardian article noted:

The incident comes just as sumo was beginning to rebuild its reputation following a string of scandals and criticism that the sport’s authorities had failed to address a culture of violence outside the ring.

There are a variety of other malfeasance incidents (eg. driving a car without a license) riveting the Japanese public, which seems to attribute to the world of sumo a dignity and purity worthy of ... what? ... Arthurian knights? Clearly this is not the slobolicious and lucrative World Wrestling Entertainment institution.

The latest bit of grist for the sumo mill (which strikes me as more interesting than Donald Trumps' minions):

Every one of Japan’s sumo wrestlers is to face questioning by outside investigators after a series of incidents tipped the sport into crisis.
The Japan Sumo Association has setup an external panel to question 900 members, including wrestlers and elders of the sport. Former members will also be invited to submit details of old incidents that may have gone unreported.

In Washington, we've got the chisel-faced Robert Mueller hovering over Trump's insanities and perhaps lies. I wonder if Japan has a counterpart or would that be too gauche in a world so raffiné.

GOP deficit spending

Was it only a couple of months ago that Republicans were pissing and moaning about the deficit spending that Democrats were so prone to? And now, artfully hidden in a story that relies on a government shutdown, there's this:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a $400 billion budget deal that sharply boosts spending and swells the federal deficit, ending a brief federal government shutdown that happened while most Americans were sleeping and most government offices were closed, anyway.
The House and Senate approved a bill to keep the government funded through March 23, overcoming opposition from liberal Democrats as well as tea party conservatives to endorse enormous spending increases despite looming trillion-dollar deficits. [emphasis added] The House voted 240-186 to approve the bill just before dawn Eastern time, hours after the Senate had approved the measure on a 71-28 vote.

And, as well...

“With this deal, we will experience trillion-dollar deficits permanently,” said Andy Roth, vice president of the conservative Club for Growth. “That sort of behavior, the last time I checked, is not in the Republican platform.”

"nuclear chicken" column

The following column -- lopped and chopped -- appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette yesterday (Feb. 7; Viewpoints Section)

By ADAM FISHER

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

The erroneous back-to-back warnings that a nuclear attack was imminent — first in Hawaii on Jan. 13 and then Jan. 16 in Japan — may have sent an understandable shiver down a lot of spines.

But the first thing I thought of was American comedian Will Rogers and his observation that “There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

Rogers’ smile-inducing quip is not meant to minimize or trivialize the seriousness of the potential catastrophe, but it is to suggest that many of us have been there and done that. Government has long nourished its capacity to frighten its citizenry and thereby, perhaps, divert attention from the business of governing ... you know, the fractious stuff like jobs, health care, infrastructure or climate change.

Serious discussion of nuclear disasters goes begging with survival sloganeering like “duck and cover,” the touchstone of the 1950s and early 1960s.

But I am not interested so much in another knee-jerk liberal peace rant. What I am interested in is the answer to the question, “Yeah, but what happens after you duck and cover?” What brass ring is there for those who might possibly survive?

"During the 1950s, the nation took part in an annual defense drill called “Operation Alert.” During the first exercise, on June 14, 1954, the then-Federal Civil Defense Administration used a scenario of nuclear bombs hitting about 100 American cities. The drill involved everyone finding shelter while government officials and volunteers practiced what their duties would be during an actual attack."

I remember participating in one such defense drill in the late 1950s or early 1960s in New York City. While everyone headed for his or her designated shelter during the drill, I sat outside on the steps at Columbia University and considered what it might be like if a bomb actually did hit New York. If it decimated the skyscrapers that were everywhere, would the resulting rubble entomb those who had fled to safety in subway tunnels or other below-ground shelters? What other result was possible?

If anyone did survive and did manage to dig themselves out, what world might await them? Instant incineration, however frightening, struck me as a sane alternative. But no one seemed or seems to want to consider the fallout from the fallout ... no food, no water, no medicine, no help that could possibly help enough. Which is worse, dying or waiting in considerable pain to die?

John Hershey’s “Hiroshima,” which was published in 1946, makes it clear that those who survived the nuclear bomb dropped there in 1945 were doomed to a world of ravaged anguish. Some 146,000 died. Flesh slipped from bones; radiation’s fallout was gruesome — the consequences made it clear that a quick incineration might have been preferable. But no one mentions that stuff — the hell of the heaven of survival. Wishing to survive may be a natural human instinct, but that doesn’t mean survival is the best possible outcome.

Living as we do in a time when a self-absorbed president of the United States is willing to play nuclear “chicken” with North Korea and Iran while overlooking the potential nuclear provocations of, say, Israel or Pakistan, here is a modest suggestion to add to the latter-day version of survival braggadocio.

I herewith call on internet hackers around the world to pick a day in the future — perhaps next summer — on which to hack into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media. Block all references, direct or indirect, to Donald Trump. Just for one day. No reporting, no analysis, no speculation, no praise, no blame, no press releases: Anything mentioning or penned by Trump will be barred in the same way that utterances from Islamic State or skinheads or other deranged or irresponsible “geniuses” might be blocked.

C’mon — just for one day! Imagine what a relief it might be.

Yes, I can hear the yowls about First Amendment rights. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream.

Adam Fisher is retired and lives in Northampton. He can be reached at
genkakukigen@aol.com.

apendectomy

Last night, my wife went into the hospital and later was diagnosed with appendicitis, which, if my guess is correct, has been dealt with as of this morning. When I was growing up, appendicitis was something contracted by some, but not by others ... but all of them were kids like me.

Now a couple of older Americans (to be delicate about it) are confronted with a discombobulation accompanied by snow that needs to be shoveled. What do we do when both of us reach the fragile end of the stick? Well, maybe there will be a couple of teenagers looking to make a buck shoveling the snow in front of this house.

Well, it'll work out or it won't, but I concede I am resentful of my weakness and need to sit down when to-ing-and-fro-ing to the hospital or (assuming I can make it a reality) shoveling snow.

up next -- something else

Strange to think that what comes next is always something else.

But since, in reality, there is no "next," then "something else" gets thrown into a cocked hat as well.

This is just the way of the world. There is no understanding, parsing, confining, elucidating, cursing or lauding the function. It's just a matter of taking stock of the idiocies I am willing to stoop to.

“unfriendfacebook.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Delete your account.
That’s what Jim Carrey says Facebook users should do, as the actor looks to pull the mask off fake news.
The star of “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Mask” said on Twitter on Tuesday that he’s dumping his Facebook stock and deleting his page because the social media giant profited from Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election via spreading false news with Russian origins, and says the company is still not doing enough to stop it.

 My own somewhat inept petition to get hackers worldwide to pick a future date and then excise as many references as possible to Donald Trump on that date for 24 hours has somewhat the same flavor ... or so I like to tell myself. If ever there were a purveyor of "fake news," Donald Trump is the king and Facebook, etc., are his hand maidens.

solar industry takes a hit

(Reuters) - The U.S. solar industry lost nearly 10,000 jobs last year, led by steep losses in mature markets like California and Massachusetts where installation growth has slowed, according to a new report published on Wednesday.
It was the first time employment has contracted in the fast-growing industry since the non-profit research firm The Solar Foundation began tracking solar jobs in 2010.
Nationwide, solar employment fell 3.8 percent to 250,271 jobs in 2017 from a high of 260,077 in 2016. A drop in both utility-scale and residential solar installations, as well as industry jitters about tariffs on imported solar panels, were to blame for the decline, the report said.
Employment in the solar industry far outpaces that of the coal, wind and nuclear energy industries, the report said, citing federal jobs data.

eastern Europe ... "enter the robots"

In eastern Europe, human labor is in short supply and robotics are on the rise ... though now there is some problem rounding up the people who maintain the robots. I imagine there is an object lesson in this, though whether it is to counter-act or jump on the band wagon is not entirely clear.

The unemployment rate in the western Hungarian town of Papa, where Hirtenberger Automotive Safety employs 725 people making products such as seat belt pre-tensioners, was approaching virtually zero. High turnover was already a big problem.
Enter the robots. Hirtenberger has since spent 2.5 million euros automating two production units at the factory to meet surging demand from the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi. And it’s not alone

"escarole" as a "foppish courtier"

"Escarole" is defined as "an endive of a variety with broad undivided leaves and a slightly bitter flavor, used in salads." It often shows up on a side dish accompanying oh-so-well-decorated dinner plates that never offer a square meal... dinners cum feng shui, dontcha know.

One of the problems with having Donald Trump as president is that the world of whimsy as a whole has been set back on its ear. The man is so clearly whimsical (the nicest possible word) in his mental gyrations that it gives whimsy a bad name. People are forced to take whimsy seriously, which is a great loss.

Which brings me back to "escarole," whose definition might whimsically be revised to mean "a foppish courtier." For fun, that feels like fun to me. That feels/tastes right to me. But where the fun-helium has gone out of the social balloon, I'm not sure anyone wants to giggle with me.

OK, "escarole" is "an endive of a variety with broad undivided leaves and a slightly bitter flavor, used in salads."At my age, serious people who take themselves seriously are, at a minimum, tiring ... me included.

Vapid escaroles!

when all else stumbles, have a parade

The obvious is easy enough ... you know, the big and important news stories. But the flimsy and whimsical and times-changers -- they're the ones to be careful of from where I sit.

Eg.:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has asked the Pentagon to plan a grand parade of the U.S. armed forces in Washington this year to celebrate military strength, officials said Tuesday.
The Washington Post, which was first to report the plan, said Trump wants an elaborate parade this year with soldiers marching and tanks rolling, but no date has been selected.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the request Tuesday evening. She said Trump wants the Pentagon to “explore a celebration” that will allow Americans to show appreciation for the military.t

It feels as if Trump were playing catch-up with Russia:

Or China:

Or North Korea:

When peace cannot generate the requisite applause and satisfaction, play the war card.

Jingo bells,
Jingo bells,
Jingo all the way!

President Donald Trump will propose $716 billion in defense spending in his fiscal 2019 budget request, a [sic] 7.2 percent from his request for this year that backs the Pentagon’s push for a major buildup, a U.S. official said.

hidden treasure trove

Passed along in email:

robots for the elderly

Japan’s elderly are being told to get used to being looked after by robots.
With Japan’s ageing society facing a predicted shortfall of 370,000 caregivers by 2025, the government wants to increase community acceptance of technology that could help fill the gap in the nursing workforce.
Developers have focused their efforts on producing simple robotic devices that help frail residents get out of their bed and into a wheelchair, or that can ease senior citizens into bathtubs.

But the government sees a wider range of potential applications and recently revised its list of priorities to include robots that can predict when patients might need to use the toilet.

"Loneliness heaped on loneliness" is the first thing into my mind.

who consumes "junk news"

It may be just another junk poll, but here is one swing at who, precisely, is consuming various kinds of media swill.

Low-quality, extremist, sensationalist and conspiratorial news published in the US was overwhelmingly consumed and shared by rightwing social network users, according to a new study from the University of Oxford.

The study, from the university’s “computational propaganda project”, looked at the most significant sources of “junk news” shared in the three months leading up to Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address this January, and tried to find out who was sharing them and why.

Does anyone feel, as I do, an up-swelling of lassitude when reading such things? Are polls really telling us anything? I suppose so, but I'm not sure what.

tax-evaders' fate

MANILA (Reuters) - Bulldozers and backhoes pounded more than two dozen seized luxury cars in the Philippines on Tuesday, including Porsches, Mercedes, Jaguars and Corvettes, in a dramatic demolition showcasing the no-nonsense leader’s crackdown on crime and corruption....
“It does not pay to evade taxes in the Philippines so might as well stop trying, because you will never succeed,” Duterte’s finance minister, Carlos Dominguez, told reporters before letting diggers loose on 20 slick-looking vehicles at a Manila port. A further 10 were simultaneously destroyed in ports in the southern cities of Davao and Cebu.

From high-end to Tinker Toys in a single pass.

revised labor provisos

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany’s biggest industrial union and employers have reached a wage deal that gives workers the equivalent of 3.5 percent annual raises over a 27-month period and the chance to work a 28-hour week for up to two years.
Such wage gains could boost an already strong German economy by increasing consumer spending. And if they spread to other sectors and countries, they could raise inflation across the 19-country eurozone from its current weak levels, something the European Central Bank has been trying to do for years.

Imagine: A 28-hour work week. The shorter hours are balanced with other provisions that allow for longer work-weeks as well, the story makes clear. Still, even conceiving of a work week that amounts to little more than a single day in seven seemed to dovetail this morning with a photo passed along in email (read the caption):

federal promises unkept

Promises unkept top the agenda, it seems:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The era of trillion-dollar budget deficits is about to make a comeback — and a brewing budget deal could mean their return comes just next year.
Talks on a budget-busting spending pact that would give whopping increases to both the Pentagon and domestic programs have been inching closer to an agreement, aides and lawmakers said.
GOP defense hawks are prevailing over the party’s depleted ranks of deficit hawks while Democrats leverage their influence to increase spending for domestic priorities such as combating opioid misuse.
Details are closely held and subject to change. But at issue is a two-year deal to increase crunching caps on spending set by a failed 2011 budget deal. Republicans have pushed for defense increases in the neighborhood of $80 billion a year and have offered Democrats nearly as much — $60 billion or so per year — for nondefense programs.

Disgorged, Oklahoma

Awoke this morning accompanied by the 'fake-news' companion, "Disgorged, Oklahoma," a flat arrangement of houses with a small population and a tradition of getting drunk as a prairie dog on joke-weed when the first Saturday of the month rolled around.

First Saturdays were a time to tell the old tales -- again. No one minded they were old and the words were frayed as grandmother's quilt. First Saturdays were a time to get together and remember, again.

Remember to speculate and stake out a position on how Rune had got his name, for example. Some said it was a result of some wispy spider web of history that led back to Scotland or Ireland or one of those places. Others scoffed as they sipped their beer and preferred to point out that Rune's pa and ma were in agreement that boys knew better about boys and girls knew better about girls and so, in a mark of their matrimonial devotion, they agreed that if the baby en route were a boy, pa would name him. If it had been a girl, ma would have done the honors.

On the night in question, after much of the groaning and screams had settled down and ma was relieved of her load and pa was drunk in a corner, someone told pa, "Luke, it's a boy. You want to name him?" And pa looked up, bleary as an old oil filter, and hummed out what sounded like "ggnnnnuuune," which the questioner, also heavy with joke-weed juice, transmitted with assured but uncertain grandeur: "The boy's name will be 'Rune.'"

None of it mattered much as the years passed. The name served as well whether uttered by friend or foe. "Rune, you asshole!" or "Rune, you are one smart fellow!" both served their purposes. Rune, who was stuck with the name, didn't think to complain. He got his beer on the first Saturday of the month, same as anyone else in Disgorged.

It was one of the old, frayed tales.

Increasingly, my own fictions gain a certain ascendancy. What's the matter with fiction when fact is as blowsy as an old whore? I wouldn't presume to press my fictions on anyone else, but what's the matter with lowering myself into this warm-water tub of je-ne-sais-quoi?

Disgorged, Oklahoma.

a little complexity, s'il vous plaît

The simplicity of disapprobation.
The simplicity of approbation.
Both pertain to the human skein.

These days, a seeming horde of entertainment moguls, politicians and prelates have taken their licks as one-time abusers of the young and vulnerable. Ugly acts have brought on a tsunami of accusation and presumed guilt after a long period of overlooking, hiding and disguising ugliness.

Now art museums have considered banning the works of artists whose acts were as ugly as their art was compelling.

Following accusations of sexual misconduct, Washington’s National Gallery of Art has indefinitely postponed an upcoming exhibition of Chuck Close, one of this country’s most celebrated portrait artists and Seattle University removed his “Self-Portrait 2000” from display citing concerns over “potential student, faculty or staff reaction”.

 How much simpler to villain-ize villains through and through. If they can be this bad then they must be bad through and through, in all reaches of their activities. Simultaneously, how much simpler to elevate the wondrous ladies and lads of this life: If they can be this good, then they must be good through and through.

But the simultaneity of those opposing thoughts is tiring. It requires effort. Every onlooker might like to think they can be 'balanced' and 'even-handed' but in the end, it is easier to call someone a star or a villain, if only in the mind. How is anyone to hold both the gag-reflex and the hosanna in the palm of the hand simultaneously?

In these politically polarized times, we need to value art institutions as places where we can think about complexity – including about how artists of such creative gifts can be such awful human beings - rather than treat them as churches obligated to issue judgments about who merits salvation and who doesn’t.

And of course it's not just art museums that warrant such effort.

My Zen teacher, Kyudo Nakagawa, once told me his own approach to Eido Shimano, a fellow with whom Kyudo had studied Zen at the Ryutaku monastery in Japan. Eido was also someone accused of abusing his 'teacher' status by hitting on/manipulating/coercing his female Zen students. Kyudo had gone to visit Eido on two occasions in New York. On each occasion (which I haven't got the energy to reprise here) Kyudo had received without comment some shoddy and uppity treatment from Eido. And when I asked Kyudo about his reaction to Eido these days, as we sat across from each other at a kitchen table and he told the tale, he said simply, "I have finished with him."

Complexity is holding two hot coals in the palm of the hand. In the end, hot coals, both of elevation and denigration, boil down to Kyudo's approach: Hot coals burn and produce an "ouch" and create a personal choice which deserves to be acknowledged as such.

Beauty and ugliness here in the palm of my hand. No one likes getting burned. It does not require a degree in ethics or philosophy or religion. Complexity is pretty simple -- a lot simpler than heroes and villains.

A little complexity, s'il vous plaît.

tax sniggering

Tax breaks are bearing fruit, to hear Republicans crow about a recently-passed bill that heavily favors business and the well-to-do after a few years of crumbs for the working class. Case in point:

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan has highlighted on Twitter a school secretary benefiting from the Republican tax overhaul, then deleted the tweet after online criticism that he is cheering an increase of $1.50 a week.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that changes in tax withholding were sparking bigger paychecks, citing as one example Julia Ketchum of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whose check went up $1.50 a week.
Ryan on Saturday posted a Tweet noting the secretary’s increase and linking to the AP story. He has posted several other examples of worker pay increases and bonuses since the overhaul, some as much as $1,000.
Ryan’s spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

OK, so Ryan goofed and backtracked and AP sniggered. But wait a couple of years to a time when those benefiting from the tax break will pay for those actually benefiting from the tax break.

Zane Campbell ...

... [A]n eccentric musician and artist named Zane Campbell.... People talked about a “hillbilly madman,” a punk version of outlaw country-singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver and the product of DNA that contained the entire life span of country music. Adding to the mystery, Campbell was a recluse, rarely playing shows and, in fact, rarely leaving his house.

Even the linked article has a hard time nailing this Jell-O to the wall. A well-read tornado, perhaps ... just fractions of an inch away from suicide. He sounds a bit as if he had sprung full grown from an updated version of "Jabberwocky." The article was worth its length, in my book, and Campbell makes me glad to know such people still exist.

Cape Town taps turned off?

Day Zero is looming for Cape Town. According to the latest estimates 16 April is when the city’s water supply will be turned off until the rains arrive, leaving residents to line up for water rations at one of 200 points across the city.
The scramble for water is already raising tensions among residents. Freshwater springs now require 24-hour policing as congestion builds in surrounding streets and there have been sporadic reports of fights break out in the lengthy queues.

Elsewhere in Africa (Donald Trump's "shithole"), many are likewise gasping for water.

publishing the 'cursed' text at last

Previous workers on Golden Age manuscript The Orphan’s Story died, leading to rumours of curse

auction for the Amish

At the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex, at the nation’s first major horse auction of the year, the activity bustles along like a well-oiled buggy.
Amish from all over the country come here to buy and sell their massive draft horses and magnificent harness horses. It also draws non-Amish horse fans, lured by the “Cadillac” quality of the animals, and vendors of everything from saddles to buggies to custom-made harnesses.

Strange to think that a dream or philosophy, however quaint or sophisticated, always boils down to the details. Someone's gotta make this clock tick. There is housing and nourishment and sweat and the tools to make it all possible. In this case, horse-drawn carriages and harrows don't work without the horses and the men to judge their fitness, so ....

On my wall, there is an Amish-made baby-quilt -- a wedding gift from a friend. It is patchwork, but the subtle, hand-stitched designs camouflaged within its borders ... it is nice to think such things exist in a world of merchants and merchandizers. To take the trouble to make one beautiful thing and not look back ... somewhere there is singing.

a good question

Somewhere on the internet is a video about a good Christian who ventured into some place in South America with an eye to bringing the gospel to a 'primitive' tribe that had not yet benefited from the holy word. I can't find the video, but I know it's there somewhere.

Anyway, the video portrays the man's highly-resolved intention. For reasons I am not entirely sure of, Christians are encouraged to spread the holy word. The natives were willing to listen to his talks about the gospel and its meaning. They heard him out with what appeared to be a bland willingness. They too knew something of the gods and so one more was not offensive to them.

But there came a day when the man began talking about Jesus and members of the tribe asked a single, simple question.

"Have you ever met this man [Jesus]?" they asked approximately.

And when the well-convinced Christian admitted he had not, the natives refused to listen to any more of his talk about Jesus. They didn't argue or complain. Gently, but firmly, they simply refused to listen.

In the end, it was the good Christian who was converted by these 'primitives.'

A single stone drops into a smooth lake. The ripples reach out to forever.

on my mental bulletin board

Someplace on my mental bulletin board, like some odds-and-endsy post-its of reminder, are the snippets that linger but do not insist too volubly ... they're part of the collection:

-- I think it was the Zen teacher Aitken out in Hawaii who coined the observation, "Silence is golden and sometimes its color is pure yellow." Or maybe it was Kapleau. Whatever the case, the reminder is nice. Pointed, and nice.

-- I think it was my now-dead friend McKechnie who mangled Ben Franklin ("Early to bed/And early to rise/ Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise") nicely with

Early to bed
And early to rise
And you never see any of your friends.

--  In "Hagakure," Yamamoto Tsunetomo attributes the following to Yamamoto Jin'emon: "An affected laugh shows lack of self-respect in a man and lewdness in a woman." Affected laughter -- you know, the condescending, CEO, I'm-in-control-of-what-cannot-be-controlled shit -- strikes me as disgusting. Laughter is like sneezing -- you either do it or you don't. Pretense demeans what I can only think of as 'the gods.'

And yet Tsunetomo's compilation of observations in "Hagakure," while cuddly-soothing in its samurai-etiquette-prone tone, is simultaneously irritating ... like needing to take a good shit and being stuck with endless constipation.

Improvements and reproofs require, in the end, too much energy. What the fuck is the matter with an already-blue sky? As Ummon pointed out, more or less: "When you can't say it, it's there. When you don't say it, it's missing." I suppose my own long history of improvement and reproof is what irritates me today.

Another improvement.

Shiiieeeeeet!

"Fat Leonard" and a hell of a news story

Leonard Glenn Francis

Just finished reading all of a longish Washington Post story about a fellow known as "Fat Leonard" who wined and dined Navy brass in an effort to steer business to his businesses in the Pacific. The "worst corruption in Naval history."

Well-written by Craig Whitlock. Clear. Decent in its depiction of indecency. Made imperial Roman get-togethers seem like also-rans ... hookers, cigars, bribes, "the best"  ... wowsers. Over 500 people under the legal microscope. It took me back to a time when newspapers dug in and dug down. Hot damn! News!

photo array

Bennie’s Grocery, Sylvania, Georgia, 1939, by Marion Post Wolcott

Among others from The Guardian

military facilities at risk

Ooops. It seems according to a U.S. Department of Defense report that climate change has or will have a deleterious effect on almost half of America's 3,500 military facilities worldwide.

But wait! Climate change is a myth to hear Donald Trump and his minions tell the tale. And yet,  there's a problem: The U.S. is ramping up its military capacities/jingoistic rhetoric (in part to distract from the healthcare, employment, economic, infrastructure, educational needs) ... so how will anyone handle the deterioration of military facilities due to a myth?

I guess the excuse will be that it's normal wear and tear ... just give us more hardware and all will be well. To put the Department of Defense and the wisdom of Donald Trump on a collision course doesn't compute well.