Grob's Attack, Carlsen Variation

PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED I AM WELL, WELL, WELL! THIS IS JUST ANOTHER CLUMSY ATTEMPT AT CONCRETE POETRY 

Grob's Attack, Carlsen Variation. AI, open-source, Stockfish, popular in Nigeria as well as Norway. How expensive will oil have to get before Republicans, even the formerly-Republican Never-Trumpers, can mention EV's, solar or wind as something other than a joke in passing? "Yeah wind power haha" and it's back to what oh what will we do about this energy crisis. Is it hot in here or is it just the end of the world? California buys more than 40% of the EV's in the US, Caitlyn Jenner said she wanted to leave California because homeless people made her sad because they blocked her view of her private jet, but sadly, she stayed in Malibu.

Grob's Attack. 1. g4. Ask a chess nerd. Or just google it. Bobby Fischer said the object of chess was to crush the opponent's mind. I suppose there's less literal brain crushing than in boxing. Yes, I know that some people combine chess and boxing, box a round, sit down and play some chess, repeat and repeat and repeat. This, too, makes me sad, and saddens others who'd heard that the whole point of chess was to avoid violence. Channels warlike urges into less harmful directions, you see.

PS: YES, YOU'RE RIGHT, I SHOULD'VE LOOKED UP "CONCRETE POETRY" BEFORE POSTING THIS, WHICH IS MERELY PROSE POETRY 

Concrete poetry at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NWqgxg

Off-the-Record Republicans

Today, US Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, announced that he will object to Joe Biden's Electoral College win in the joint session of Congress on January 6 because he's "concerned about the integrity of this election."

How many Republican lawsuits which were "concerned" about this have been thrown out of how many courts, because of an utter lack of evidence to back the claim that this election was stolen from Donald Trump? Claiming that Biden stole the election is like claiming that Hillary did something wrong regarding Benghazi: it's not just ridiculous, it's monotonous already. Can't the Republicans think up some new scam?

But even most of the Republican morons who couldn't stop beating the Benghazi dead horse still said, early in 2016, that Donald Trump was a grifter and a fraud who succeeded in politics by stirring up racism and belief in stupid conspiracy theories. On the subject of Donald Trump, they spoke like sane human beings, until Trump became the apparent 2016 Republican nominee. Then they all shut up, except for the ones who started to extravagantly praise the same grifter they had been denouncing the day before.

Countless times since then, Republicans have been quoted off the record as saying that they know how horrible Trump is. In some cases it's not so hard to guess who these off-the-record Republicans are: you just match up what they said to a reporter off the record in 2018 with what they said to a cheering campaign crowd in 2015. Or maybe Chris Christie and Ted Cruz sincerely changed their minds and now truly, deeply admire Donald Trump. Yes. That's probably it.

How many others have been publicly supporting Trump while they privately despise him? Will we ever know? Does that group of thoroughly-dishonest, two-faced, party-over-country hypocrites include Mitch McConnell? Mike Pence? Josh Hawley?

This is Appalling!

Today I learned that a sequel to "Full House," the inexplicably popular sitcom which ran on ABC from 1987 to 1995, starring, among others, Bob Saget, who between starring in, directing and producing the show earned about half a billion dollars, and had a second run of fame after the show when word got around that Saget, star of "Full House," an unbelievably corny purveyor of conservative "family values," also happens to be a stand-up comedian whose act is very unusually dirty -- it's not particularly good, unfortunately. But it really is exceptionally offensive -- Today I learned that "Full House" has a sequel called "Fuller House" which has been on Netflix for several seasons now, and that Candace Cameron Bure, 

a main cast member in both series, who apparently is one of those Republican celebrities who is publicly known as a Christian because they publicly make a big deal of how they're Christians, has caused an uproar among Republican Christians who closely follow the lives of famous Republican Christians, because she put a picture of herself and her husband on Instagram in which her husband is touching her breast, and not just incidentally-accidentally brushing up against it or anything either, but blatantly grabbing it in a manner which many Christians have found to be un-Christian, and they've both got big smiles on their faces too, and Bure has responded to the uproar by saying that sex is something which God has given to people for us to enjoy. Even if they're Republican Christians. I believe at first she said she was sorry for upsetting people, and then later she said, You know what? I'm not sorry I upset you!

And I thought to myself: this is appalling! They've actually made a SEQUEL to "Full House"?! People actually hadn't had ENOUGH of "Full House"?!

Diplomacy

A: Republicans: "All lives matter!"
World: "Cool here are some refugees from Syr..."
Republicans: "lolol not those lives"

B: not all Republicans voted for Trump, let alone support these type of statements. There must be another word that can be subbed here instead of Republicans

A: You are right, no need for the word Republican there.

I disagree. There is some need for the word Republican here, because, of all the Republican elected officials in office who criticized Trump before the election, almost all of them -- not all of them, but almost -- immediately got a brand-new, supportive attitude about him as soon as he won. If you're thinking, "It's like they were sure he was going to lose, and they were just distancing themselves from a loser, instead of sincerely distancing themselves from policies they could never support," Then I agree. It's a lot like that. It's exactly like that.

I'm talking about Republican Senators and Republicans in the House of Representatives. If you look at all Republicans, including former office holders and never-office-holders, it's easier to find criticism of Trump. The thing is, if Trump is to be regarded as unfit to rule, it doesn't matter how many rank-and-file Republicans and Republican governors and mayors want him out -- it's going to take some Republican Senators and Congresspeople in order to impeach, convict and remove him.

That's why it's so important that so many Republicans in the Senate and the House became so much more supportive of Trump as soon as he was elected.

Also, of course, it means that they were either being completely insincere before, or they are completely insincere now: either, before the election, they didn't really think he was unfit to rule, and only said so because they were sure he was going to lose -- or, they really thought he was unfit now, and they still think so, but getting some bills passed and appointments filled is more important to them that the President is -- all of those things they said he was: despicable, unbalanced, dangerous, utterly unfit to lead...

Of course, the diplomatic thing for me to do right now, as a Democrat, would be to forget about that insincerity for now, and practice some insincerity of my own, and be friendly to the Republican Senators and Congresspeople who criticized Trump before the election, because we need them in order to impeach, convict and remove Trump.

So: nevermind what I said before: there's no need for the word "Republican" in that joke. Do I mean that? No, I'm lying, because this is politics. But maybe, if I think it over, I'm actually not lying, because politics is very important, and the main thing right now, the political priority, is dealing with Trump. And maybe those Republican Senators and Congresspeople will seem much more like allies again very soon, when they can't pretend to like Trump anymore. And maybe I'm actually having a little bit more understanding for their shifts in position. I mean, if I want to whip out the l-word, there's the President and his people lying much more egregiously on a daily basis than any Senator or Congressperson of any party does in the average month.

You know how I'm always talking about moral relativism in relation to philosophy and especially in relation to Nietzsche? Well, it also applies to the actual real world, like this. What is truth? Good question, Pilate! Good question!

Republicans' Attitudes About Things They're Completely Wrong About

Why don't they trust Hillary? Any sober investigation of the facts shows that she's actually unusually frank and forthcoming -- or at least, unusually frank and forthcoming for a politician. Likewise, it's easily demonstrated that Trump, whom some refer to as a "straight talker," is unusually dishonest even for a politician.

And why do they think that the economy isn't recovering, and that the climate isn't warming?

Someone may have actually answered all of those questions.

Someone -- I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell -- pointed out that many Republican positions are emotion-based, by their own admission. They (probably Lawrence) gave many examples with video clips from the Republican Convention. Seeing the entire montage all together was very striking, and suddenly some previously baffling behavior and rhetoric made sense to me: "The numbers may say otherwise, but it just FEELS to me like the economy is stagnant." "I may have no evidence, but I'm convinced that Obama is a Muslim. That's how it FEELS to me." "Yes, those scientists have all of those numbers, but it doesn't FEEL to me like the climate is warming." "I don't know... I just don't trust her!" "Okay, so actual cases of voter fraud in the US have been extremely rare for decades... but that's not the way it FEELS to me!" Etc.

This may be surprising to some people who "FELT" that conservatives were hard-headed and fact-driven, and liberals were wussies who were controlled by their emotions and refused to face unpleasant realities. File that one alongside the one about conservatives spending responsibly and liberal running up huge budget deficits.

I wish I could say that a quick and effective solution had occurred to me, now that someone, probably Lawrence, pointed out the nature of the problem to me. But no, knowing the nature of the problem just points out how extremely difficult it will be to solve it. Tripling the budget on education might put a dent in it after a few decades. That won't be easy, because there a lot of pinheads out there who vote and who FEEL like money is being wasted on education as it is, and that there is a huge liberal conspiracy to hand control of the world over to lesbians (and by the way, they can't prove anything, but for a long time they've had this FEELING about Hillary...), and that academics are an integral part of this liberal-lesbian world-conspiracy.

Still, understanding more about the nature of stupidity can't hurt. The problem, the enemy, is stupidity: the deliberate cultivation of ignorance.

The 2014 Mid-Terms And The Can't-Do Attitude Of Some Leftists

First of all, let's try to shake off this reluctance to call ourselves Leftists if we're left of center. Let's get a grip and speak plainly: yes, there are some Communists in the Democratic Party. And there are some Nazis in the Republican Party. And that's one of the long list of reasons why the Democratic Party is much better than the GOP.

It irks me so to hear people say that they "usually" vote Democratic, but they hate doing it, because Democrats and Republicans "are all pretty much the same," all "bought and paid for by corporations," and "things will never really change" because "those in power" don't want them to.

Things change all the time, so there's one of those premises I don't buy. You can read about some dramatic changes about to occur as a result of the mid-terms in this brief, accurate and depressing portrait of Jim Inhofe, who will probably be the next chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The stupidity of the readers' comments on the article are even more depressing, matching the stupidity of the US public's behavior this past Tuesday. There may be changes in Social Security and Disability checks received by the elderly and disabled. There will be changes in policy on women's rights, minority rights, affirmative action, voting rights, LGBT rights -- if you feel that Americans have entirely too many rights and that poor people have it too good and that it's time for billionaires to finally catch a break, the election returns should gladden your heart.

No, I don't buy the premise that Democrats and Republicans are the same. It astounds me that anybody could think they are.

Corporations aren't all the same either. Yes, they contribute heavily to the campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans, but they don't all contribute the same to both sides of the aisle. It'd be pretty stupid for oil companies to give as much to the party trying to take away their tax exemptions -- that'd be the Democratic Party, including that notorious wimpy centrist corporate stooge Barack Hussein Obama -- as they give to the party stamping at the bit to open up Keystone XL and remove restrictions on fracking -- yes, Sparky, that'd be the Republicans.

Also, one of the two big parties is trying to reverse the cynically-named Citizens United and VASTLY REDUCE the amount of money given to political campaigns, and no, Sparky, it ain't the GOP.

I don't buy that "those in power" all want the same things. I put the phrase in quotes because power constantly shifts, there isn't one clearly-defined Them running everything, that's a paranoid fantasy. In reality, individual human beings wield power, people who by no means always agree about everything, even when they're in one and the same of the 2 major parties. party. To those who feel powerless -- if you occasionally try to DO something to change the things which dissatisfy you, your chances of actually having more power yourself are better than if you just sit there and bitch and vote 3rd-party and stupidly, smugly believe yourselves to be morally superior to all of us who are actually trying to do something.

I'm talking to you, Greens. Yes, I blame you for Inhofe, and yes, I still blame you for W beating Gore, and no, I don't want to try to explain to you how the one individual most responsible for bringing global warming to the attention of the general public is different from the Republican POTUS whose administration shored up the near-unanimous Republican position that global warming isn't happening, if you really are too stupid to see the difference.

Oh well. About all we can do now is hold on for 2 years, dig in and try to keep the GOP from killing us all, and hope that the stupidest among us re-learn what they learned between 2010 and 2012 and then forgot again.

Yeah, I'm a little bit steamed. Just a tad.

There's No Difference Between Democrats and Republicans Except --

-- on women's health and freedom to choose, green energy, tax breaks for Big Oil, labor unions, whether one fears that the government has too much control over corporations or that corporations have too much control over the government, whether the best way to help all of us is to help the poorest and weakest or the richest and most powerful, whether or not everyone should have access to affordable health care, whether too many tax breaks are available to corporate CEO's making 8 figures a year or more or to teachers and firemen making $50,000 a year or less, whether GLBT's don't have enough rights or whether they have too many, whether or not it's time to revoke the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, whether or not drilling for oil and gas in national parks would be a good idea, whether it should be easier or more difficult for people in the US to obtain guns and ammo, whether or not Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim Communist...

That's just off the top of my head. But yeah, if none of the above matters to you, you might as well vote Green. Or Libertarian. Or not at all, depending on what kind of stupid you are.

When Republicans Are In Power They're Scary. But These Days They're Kinda Hilarious

After a fairly disastrous attempt for the Republican nomination for President and a close re-election to the House of Representatives in 2012, it's rumored that Michelle Bachmann is planning to run against Al Franken for US Senator from Minnesota in 2014. If that's true, it's funny. She'd get creamed. She'd be headed for the celebrity-wrestling circuit along with Sarah Palin and Dick Morris.

Karl Rove admits that the main component of the effort of what is left of his political machine to stop Ashley Judd's budding political career will be to continue to make fun of her. He said exactly that, on Fox News. This is great news for Judd. Look at Bill and Hillary Clinton, both of whom Rove's flying monkeys relentlessly and substancelessly attacked for decades, until they are now perhaps the two most beloved politicians in the US. The Clintons didn't do that all by themselves, Karl: you helped by being such an icky troll with no actual arguments against them. Thanks.

Mitch McConnel, against whom Judd may run in 2014 -- hey, I don't even have to tell you all the ways Mitch is helping out the Democrats.

From the big big big-time to the teensy small-time, Republicans just keep on shooting themselves in the foot: for example, some of you may have noticed a lot of right-wing ads on my blog. Different readers will get different ads to look at, but when I look at my own blog on my own computer at home, it seems that very often, perhaps as often as not, I see a lot of ridiculous fear-mongering ads here with headlines like "What Is Obama Not Telling Us?" and "Why Is China Hoarding Gold?" The real question is, "Why Are These Reactionary Doofuses Advertising On My Blog?" I don't get to pick the ads which appear here; there's a feature where I can supposedly block certain categories of ads; I tried that for a while but it didn't seem to work and so I just gave up. Google is a big dumb lumbering beast, and conservatives -- well, you know. Maybe if I keep working hard on this blog, and I'm fortunate enough that it grows to a certain level of popularity, the people who put the ads on it will begin to realize that my audience mostly doesn't belong to the John Birch Society.

There are a lot of different terms I could use to describe the political Right in the US these days. One thing I honestly cannot say about them at the moment is that they look like winners to me. The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, is more what they look like.