One More Angry Letter (sure to get me in trouble once more- TF)

Dear Senator Graham,

You sent me an email asking me if I supported the GOP tax bill.  The email had a link to a page with “yes” and “no”, and I said “no”.  I figured I’d sit here and, very honestly, type some of my reasons for my answer before you pass that useless piece of … legislation.

I sincerely don’t even know where to begin.  It’s scary to see what has become of the (not very) United States of America.  There is nothing good happening at the moment, except of course for the meteoric rise of the stock market: a good for those few of us with a little (or as the case might be, a lot of) money invested in it, but certainly not for the majority of the working class who you claim will benefit from this tax bill of yours.  This bill simplifies absolutely nothing, though simplicity was one of the claims you made for its necessity.  One will still need a degree in accounting to fill in a tax return.

I enumerate here a few of the reasons I answered “no” to your two-word answer survey.  I apologize in advance for the train of thought quality of this letter, it would take too long to write otherwise:

1)      The GOP bill is so complicated that I know you guys are either deluded or bold-faced lying when you say the average household will see a decrease in their taxes, certainly households with graduate students will not.  The only people who will really benefit are people like that horror show running the country at the moment.  Only the very rich will benefit; which makes sense since they pay, when they pay, the bulk of the taxes.  But please don’t lie, you are not passing this legislation to help “the people”, you are doing it for your very rich donors in order to remain in power.  Again, I don’t know if you are deluded or just lying, or maybe a bit of both. 

2)      …And speaking of taxing graduate student benefits, the fact that you are proposing to do this only points to the fact that you guys really don’t care about whether the public actually acquires skills to meet all those job openings that you claim will come with the passing of this bill.  And if those jobs do come and there are no Americans with the skills necessary to fill them, will you then simplify immigration policy?  Hah! 

3)      …And speaking of job creation, how do you explain the total lack of interest to invest in this country shown by top CEOs when Gary Cohn asked for a show of hands of who would invest more if the GOP tax plan passed?  You claim that job creation and company investment are the main reasons for passing this; but the reality does not seem to conform to your predictions.  How do you explain this?  Delusion?

4)      Getting rid of the Individual Mandate Penalty is ridiculous, especially because at one point such a medical insurance solution was actually a proposal by intelligent and rational Republicans that once inhabited the halls of Congress. 

5)      Last but not least, l bring up the fact that we will be spiraling into higher and higher levels of debt that will need to be paid for by future generations; once upon a time, a GOP concern.  I have no kids so I should care less, but I do in principle.  I have no faith in even the most pessimistic of your numbers, much less the rosy ones you and the president are trying to ram down our throats

I could go on, but I have better things to do; and you will strong arm this piece of legislation through, along party lines, no matter what I say.  You will do it just like the Democrats did with the Affordable Care Act; and although I totally disagree with how they did it, at least that piece of legislation had the well-being of people in need as its raison d’être.  Whether you admit it to yourselves or not, you are passing this bill mostly to help your donors and stay in power; but I repeat myself…  I hope that one day America is able to get its act back together.  As it is, the South might as well secede again, make a deal with Libya and import itself some slaves, go back to the old glory days eh? ...    Yes, I am very angry; Trump brings the best out in us all…

Sincerely,

More of Our Times

Whus up with people that ask to “friend” or “follow” you 

and then never ever “like” you?

😲

😆

NUMB

Today 50 people got shot dead and I didn't even bat an eye

I watch the Vietnam War while messing with my Instagram

I'm not longer human

11 years and 4 months

This Is Where We Are: Tiny House for Sale

painting also for sale (-;

The Present

Duchamp: Everyone is an artist

Warhol: In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes

Me: We're finally all stars of our own phones instantly.

Reaping what one sows

I am not taking sides here because it is all such a fucking mess that  I can't find a side to take other than we should scrap everything and start from scratch.  But as to the title of my blog, I remember how Obama Care passed:

http://www.briansussman.com/politics/how-obamacare-became-law/

This, meaning the then and the now, is no way to govern.

ugh

Chance Encounter with Art in Phoenix

A Less Than Satisfying Exchange

Dear Senator Scott,

I have been wanting to write to your office since President Trump was elected, but there is so much wrong with his presidency that I just haven’t had the strength.  However, the firing of Director Comey at this juncture is the last straw and I feel compelled to finally communicate my displeasure. 

Time has come for congress to appoint an independent prosecutor, not only to investigate the Russian connection to President Trump, but to look into all the president’s dealings.  The “Trump people” are using the office of the President of the United States of America to make all kinds of personal deals and this country is looking more like a Banana Republic every day; it’s not only embarrassing, it is dangerous. Honestly, I am not even certain what it is the man knows and doesn’t, he appears totally clueless to me, which is plenty scary in itself, but the people around him aren’t, and they are using their position to enrich themselves; they use the White House as a marketing tool.

Senator Scott, I have no clue what our foreign policy is: very very scary (double adverb like the president likes to use either for emphasis or because his vocabulary is limited, mine isn’t), our environmental policies are a disaster, this medical bill fiasco solves absolutely nothing, and as long as “the optics” look like they do, you legislators will not be able to do anything concrete for the foreseeable future (not that your track record has been very good for, oohhhh the past 8 years).  We will soon be hankering for the 2% growth rate of the Obama years.  I did not think President Obama was a very good president; but President Trump will make him look like Lincoln.

In conclusion: I, your constituent who did vote for you, want you to call for an independent prosecutor to investigate this very dangerous White House.

Sincerely,

Katya Cohen

Dear Ms. Cohen,

Thank you for contacting me to share your thoughts on former FBI Director James Comey’s dismissal by President Trump. I value your opinion on this important issue and firmly believe that I cannot perform my responsibilities efficiently without having the benefit of the views of my constituents. I thank you for the opportunity to respond.

As head of the executive branch, it is entirely constitutional for President Trump to exercise his discretion regarding who leads executive branch departments. It must be remembered that every employee of the executive branch works for the president.  As with previous administrations, there will continue to be no tolerance for excessive over-reach by the executive branch. I will continue to push for accountability and transparency at all levels of government.

I thank former Director Comey for his work and service to our nation. Leading the bureau responsible for upholding our nation’s laws and integrity is no simple task.  As per the powers vested in the Senate by Article Two, Section Two of the constitution, my role in the Senate will be that of appropriate consideration and review of the new FBI Director nominee.  As such, I look forward to focusing on reviewing President Trump’s pick for FBI Director.

I do not believe that the Director’s dismissal will affect how the FBI carries out its investigations, and I have full confidence in the brave men and women serving our nation every day at the FBI. Multiple federal entities are currently and independently conducting Russia investigations, including the Senate Intelligence Committee. Chairman Burr and Ranking Member Warner have repeatedly demonstrated they are working together to uncover all of the facts, and I have no reason to believe they will not.

I look forward to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, and to reviewing that and any findings made by the FBI at the conclusion of their investigations.

Again, thank you for sharing your perspective with me; I hope that you will continue to do so in the future. If I can ever be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me or a member of my staff.

For more information, please visit my website at www.scott.senate.gov and subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter. I also encourage you to follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SenatorTimScott and Twitter:www.twitter.com/SenatorTimScott for daily updates.

Sincerely,

Tim Scott

Dear Senator Scott, 

Thank you for your predictable response.  I understand the constitutionality of Director Comey's dismissal and understand the Congress' willingness to see how this all shakes out before committing yourselves to anything; we will all have to wait and see.  However, apart from this matter, my concerns also have more to do with the overall ethical environment within the White House, and honestly, with the president's mental health.  It's going to be a long four years....

Sincerely,

Katya Cohen

Like an Oasis

Artforum May 2017  Tobi Haslett on the Whitney Biennial

Like an oasis in a desert, finally an art review with meaty content.  It’s been so many years since I’ve read one that I forgot how pleasant it is be informed by one.  I almost forgot what it is like to read a well written, formed, and formulated opinion that actually imparts information.  

  

wow

Earth Day, March for Science, and the Stickiness of Alternative Facts

After years of the intellectual contingency of the far left beating the drum to the sound of “Science is just White Man’s mythology used to oppress the masses,” all of a sudden science seems to matter to progressives. These are ironic times indeed....

I listen to the news while I am working in the studio until the news depresses me too much and I switch to jazz.  This past Friday leading to a weekend of protests for science all over the world, the news was full of reports about it.  It was interesting to listen to and to find out about the different flavors the international marches were going to come in.  

I listen to the news on National Public Radio which is progressively bent, and so it was doubly interesting to listen to them interview a Nigerian organizer who was telling the reporter that in Nigeria they were marching for GMO’s.  Yes, I said FOR GMO’s. Usually on NPR one only hears about the ill effects of GMO’s on food production and how the E.U bans such products in their sphere of influence; and if NPR listeners hear about a protest, it is usually anti-GMO.  Well, here was a person from a developing nation clamoring for GMO’s, or what in Europe is known as "white man’s tools of oppression".  Weeelllll, it seems like scientific fact might actually be local (-;

I have a friend who used to do some landscaping for us and his father worked in the AG School at the university in town.  He told me we would never be able to feed the world population had we not engineered food and used all the chemistry we have done…  These are scientific facts, that is, facts supported by data that progressives don’t usually like to hear.  Honestly, I like my food organic and grass fed, but "facts be facts"… or are they?  

Today, facts be damned, let’s march for science no matter what's what!

The kind of Political Discourse I love

One in which my representative actually agrees with me!!! hah hah

By way of context: 

When Nikki Haley left the helm of this state after Trump made her an offer she could not refuse on her climb to seeking her party's nomination for the presidency of this mess of a nation, I thought that at least the State of SC might finally pave a few of its crumbled (note, they are no longer crumbling, they are way beyond that) roads. Unfortunately Governor McMaster is in the same pockets she was in, and we are left with one more governor willing to sink this state for the profit of a few.  It's "bidness" as usual in the state of South Carolina. Heck, I bet his street and those of his puppet masters have new pavement....

Dear Senator Alexander, Representative Clary, and Governor McMaster (I address all three since you ostensibly represent me),

It is hard for me to believe that you guys are still dickering over how to get money to pay for our urgent infrastructure needs.  That being said, you don’t seem any more dysfunctional than the rest of what has become an embarrassment of a nation; and this is not a compliment. 

Let me ask you this: when you want a TV, or say, an internet plan, what do you do?  Do you issue a bond in order to get funds to pay for these things, or do you go out to Wal-Mart and get one; or in the case of digital connectivity, call an internet provider and pay a monthly fee to get on that digital highway in order to surf for cute pictures of cats?  Buying infrastructure should be no different than buying internet time; the people getting the benefit of using roads should pay for them, and they should do so in the form of present day taxes since it is a public good they want to be using privately.

I understand one might call this a regressive tax, but I sure as heck know that is not why people of the republican persuasion don’t want to pass it.  And regressive or not, everyone should pay for road reconstruction and maintenance regardless: you use it, you pay for it.  And at this juncture I might add that this is the real conservative way of looking at things. 

I know republicans, and apparently Americans, are allergic to the word “taxes”, but it is high time we change that attitude; the status quo is no longer working.  As a state (and as a country) we need to start paying, as a group, for what we want to consume, not consume and then defer the costs of that consumption for future groups to pay.  If we don’t start taking responsibility for our expenditures, we will cease to be a nation.  I understand that it is complicated and that some debt is a good thing; but debt does not mean never ever paying for anything.

We, as a people, need to live up to our fiscal responsibilities, not continue to be a debtor nation, which only enriches the banks (and the people who run them).  We saw how well that turned out in 2008.  We cannot continue passing ALL costs to future generations.  In fact, as concerns infrastructure, that model has failed completely.  I travel to other countries and, as pointed out by our very own president, this one is truly an embarrassment.  Moreover, and as concerns this letter, it is infuriating for me that I can tell, with closed eyes, just by the way my car rides on the pavement, when I have entered South Carolina from either Georgia or North Carolina, themselves not the states with great roads.

We, the people of South Carolina, should pay for our needs as we go, not borrow more money we will then have future generations find a way to default on.  This state can’t even live up to its current future obligations, i.e. The State Pension Plan, why incur more debt?  You need to start simplifying things, cleaning house, not complicating them and letting the state crumble more than it already has.

Please, if this applies to you, stop being in the pockets of the special interests that are insisting that you keep from levying a tax, a tiny tiny tax on gas, whose prices are some of the lowest in the nation, so that we can start rebuilding that which we urgently need.  Let’s start acting like responsible adults for once; in the long run that can only benefit the state as a whole. 

… And I know I should apologize for being curt, but I am so steamed at this point…

Sincerely,

Katya Cohen 

Ms. Cohen,

Thank you for reaching out to me regarding South Carolina’s infrastructure issues and how to address them.  I am proud to be a sponsor of H. 3516, the Roads, Bridges and Infrastructure bill.  This bill passed the House of Representatives on March by a vote of 97-18 and I was proud to cast my vote for this important legislation.  This bill resides in the Senate, and you have correctly addressed this issue to Senator Thomas Alexander.  I remain hopeful the Senate will pass this bill.  Of course, Governor McMaster has pledged to veto any gas tax increase, and I hope I have the opportunity to override his veto.

You are absolutely correct that outside influences and groups are attempting to influence the vote of our General Assembly.  Fortunately, the House did not succumb to these tactics, and I have the Senate has the intestinal fortitude to do the same.

I am honored and privileged to represent you and House District 3 in Columbia.  Again, thank you for sharing your views with me, and please feel free to reach out to me at any time.

Regards,

Gary

A few more shots taken in a walk of less that a 1/4 mile on one of the state roads:

Hah as in Aha

On March 6th I wrote A Funny- not hah hah- Thing About Alternative Facts

Today, April 10th, I read the following in Artforum, one of those journals whose text and texture I had to master along my "art journey" as described on the A Funny....  It comes from an interview by Michele Kuo, the magazine's editor, with Adam Szymczyk, director of this year's Documenta 14.  I take it out of context, but it definitely echoes what I said on my blog entry.  ....Though I might think it is more funny, as in hah hah, than she does (-;

MK: Absolutely. And I think one of the most ironic or shocking developments we’ve witnessed in the past two decades is the way that some of these strategies have been so handily appropriated by the Right. For example, the jettisoning of master narratives and the critique of empiricism have now been globalized and deployed in all these reactionary ways. The denial of climate change is an obvious case in point. But we face a real dilemma, because even though we need to resist the resurgence of “alternative facts,” we can’t go back to a naive conception of truth and objectivity.

still 

ugh

small thought for the day

Freud Ache

Reaching that euphemism: middle age, or what used to be the end of life in most cases before modern medicine, is indeed a strange thing. Other than noticing that your body really, really, reeeally has changed and will not unchange no matter how much more physically fit you are now than you were when young (or not, as the case might be), you also realize that the life you lived is nothing like the life you thought you would live... ...or so it must be for most people, and the why for that other euphemism: the mid-life crisis.  The trick sometimes is to look back and be kind with oneself.

A Funny- not hah hah funny- Thing About Alternative Facts...

I want to preface this with the fact (no pun intended) that I absolutely despise the administration currently parked at the White House.  But this morning, while taking my cardboard boxes to the recycling center, I was musing on its use of the words "alternative facts" to describe bold face lying; and I was wondering how come, even though the words made a small splash, there wasn't a greater sustained outcry, and how maybe the Left is actually complicit in all this.

The funny thing about the "theory of alternative facts" is that the Liberal Left has been preaching about it since, oh I feel like saying the 80's, but that's just when I became aware of the theory of "alternative narratives" because I needed to internalize the main bullet points of Continental Theory in order to understand the conversation around the Postmodern art being made then, as well as, some of the art being made since.  So it seems that the defense of "alternative facts" from the Far Left has probably been with us since at least the Frankfurt School in the 30's (the 1930's)... 

Although Continental Theory, by its own nature (and theory (-:) absolutely refuses to state anything unconditionally or definitively or precisely or scientifically or logically, science and logic being "mere narratives of the ruling (white male) class", its de facto logical conclusion is absolute relativism; and apparently the Ultra-Right has internalized that decades old drumbeat.

ugh  

beyond the pale...

The fact that Trump constantly makes it sound like the USA is an aggrieved party in the world stage is beyond the pale.  GOOD gOD!

The USA: a superpower that has imposed its will and might, welcome or not, all over the world for decades; a power that has shaped the world with its policies and treaties, and that has been instrumental in molding the planet to look exactly like it looks like right now...

To cry out that "Mexico (or any other country for that matter) has not treated us fairly" is so ridiculous, it is beyond unbelievable!

It is really the end of the world that I, the product of a freedom loving American education, once envisioned and hoped to grow old in.  GOOD gOD!  The man is textbook bully!


Alternative fact:

A well oiled machine, I tell you...

Who out there still believes in the alternative facts?  Good god, what does it take...

small thoughts

Fascism is the norm; democracy will be but a blip in human history.

....And not even that in the history of this planet whose biosphere we have been modifying at a geometric pace...  

... and which the planet will (possibly) replace with some wondrous thing else once we are no longer here to witness it.

The road is perfectly lit by a beautiful rosy sky, but my google maps just turned to night.

  Liberté    Égalité    Fraternité    blah    blah    blah

Trump finally says something the whole world probably agrees with!

In his usual 6th grade English, Trump defends "the killer Putin" by equating American leaders with him:

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump replied. “We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”

Ahhh finally something the rest of the world can get behind!

glee

Ahhh the pesky problem of checks and balances

I wonder how President Trump is enjoying "this great country's" system of checks and balances...

And I wonder if when he says, "I am going to make this country great again," he just means that he is going to get rid of the non-executive branches of the government whose strange voting system has placed him at the head of its executive branch with a minority vote...

I don't follow what he tweets, but I am certain he is, as usual, misinforming his followers with his little tweet-tantrums....

And I wonder if one day even his most ardent supporters might get tired of his little missives and start seeing past all the "alternative facts".

yawn

2 day old kvetching

The Machete Wielding “Terrorist” in France was apparently a citizen of Egypt and a resident of the UAE; last I saw, countries NOT on the Trump list; not to mention that the biggest terrorist act perpetrated on this soil was done by a bunch of Saudi Arabians, another country NOT on the Trump list (but that's an old story). 

Logic does not seem to be part of our new president’s agenda.

 ...Though profits still do, since he has not imposed any travel restrictions on Middle East countries where he actually has business in; businesses, I might add, that he supposedly no longer pays attention to...

ugh

Another day... another fis...

It is not every day, in fact it is (very very) never, that I agree with statements coming from Iran; but their reaction to Flynn’s (and Trump’s) inexperience is on the money (not that I don't think the regime shouldn't be viewed with extreme suspicion).  Moreover, Flynn's abstract and unspecific threat feels like President Obama’s “red line” in Syria; and we know how well that turned out… Does anyone ever learn anything in this crumbling Nation?

....Ah yeah, there is that thing about history repeating itself first as tragedy and than as farce....

ouch

I don't need to be a speech writer to see this coming

Funny, I was listening to NPR this morning (no, that is not funny, it is habitual), and they had David Frum on (speechwriter for George W Bush) promoting his article on the Atlantic "How to Build an Autocracy" and talking about our disturbing times.  His is an interesting and long, very very long (notice the double "verys", I am speaking like Trump these days) article that says nothing more and nothing less than I have been writing, without all the knowledge of how the government of this country is supposed to work that he has, since that Orange Mophead made it to President....

The future still looks scary as shit and I await it, powerless, with sana paura.

A Nightmare and Google Irony

Every day I wake up thinking the news can't be worse than the day before and that Orange Haired Puppet can't possibly make a more egregious decision than the ones he has made a day earlier; but every day the puppet masters that are pulling his strings get him to do something scarier than the day before (today, as I blogged before, it is Bannon installing himself in the National Security Council)... It's a four year (let's hope it is that short) nightmare.

The Google Irony statement of the day is that when you open a new tab today Google reminds us that it is Fred Korematsu's birthday today...

sigh

Fascism

This weekend I told my husband that we were devolving into fascism.  He told me that no, not yet, fascism was a breakdown of all procedural law...  

Steve Bannon in Nacional Security Council -> FASCISM

I've been "learning" Italian

A year or so ago I was introduced to the language app Duolingo and decided to start using it to ostensibly learn to speak Italian. I don't know how much I have really learned, but most lessons have hilarious phrases that reinforce the (un/fair?) stereotypes we hold about their culture.  A lot of the phrases have do with cars, theft, death, design, mothers and love.  Phrases such as:

È più facile morrire que amare  :  It is easier to die than to love.

Or

Il mio fratello non ruba  :  My brother does not steal

And one that shows up a lot and that I particularly like:

Il direttore del museo è in prigione  :  the museum director is 
                                                       in prison 

(-;  

And today's phrase struck me as being particularly reflective of the way I feel at the moment:

La nostra è una sana paura  :  Ours is a sane fear.    

…I am not making this stuff up.

Two things I already got from President Trump

1) He took Nikki Haley away from South Carolina so that we can finally raise some money to fix our once great and now deplorable roadway system,

2) The intuitive knowledge (versus academic knowledge) of how something like World War II and the Final Solution can organically happen.

Banana Republic

When I came to the US from Brazil several decades ago, I wrote to friends and family that America seemed to be just like Brazil but that you needed more money to bribe the people in power. ... I still think that what I observed then holds true then and especially now, the difference being that then the great and beautiful middle here still functioned honestly and in first world fashion.  ... “first world” being a descriptor shunned by the privileged left because it implies that there is a third one, which then implies a hierarchy whose existence the left refuses to admit to... ...and thus contemporary humanities trouble with "reality"… any-who…

...With Trump coming into office, the tendency towards “third world-ness” of this nation that I first perceived as a teenager, 40 years ago, moves from the background to full frontal.  Yep, America you've finally turned into a Banana Republic (yes, lefties, they exist, I was born in one), though this one has somewhat of a Russian Oligarchy flavor to it, so maybe we’ve turned into a Caviar Republic.  …Caviar, Bananas… no matter the food, still a third world kleptocracy.

Welcome to the "Best and Most Amazing" present "ever"....  Oy.

Life Contemporary

ugh

Affordable Healthcare...

...So upon waking up to the news on Tuesday, I heard an interview on NPR with Zeke Emanuel, one of the architects of the Affordable Healthcare Act, on the future of the aforementioned which is now being referred to mostly by its name, but that for the past 8 years has been called Obama Care...  The interview was mostly propaganda with the takeaway being that Zeke was calling for the Dems and Republicans to work together to modify it; and I quote:


EMANUEL: Right, but consistency suggests that they want a - they would want a bipartisan bill. And I understand that the president-elect, Donald Trump, wants a bipartisan bill. He really does I think genuinely want a bill and a health care system that works for all Americans, that achieves universal coverage, no preexisting disease exclusions. And I think therefore there is some ray of optimism that we could actually get a compromise bill rather than just something rammed down the country's throat by the Republicans.


That's rich, since the act was passed in the first place by a majority Democratic Congress ramming it down the minority Republican throat! 

I love politics: verify and never trust.