Thursday, December 28, 2023

DOO WAH

Dec 28

THE ABSURD TIMES

The first of our wise leaders.

We have been handed a decidedly ugly choice in the impending election, but first a few memories: most here remember INHERIT THE WIND and a few even have read H. L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial in its depth. The defeated marching monkey leading the defense and posing as a haloed Jimmie Swaggert was a real political figure. He went on to run for the Presidency and the American electorate in its paucity of mendacity elected arguably the worst President one can recall, Warren Harding. As disgusting as Harding was, our country survived him while its fate under Bryan remains a fortunate mystery.

On another occasion, he was opposed by Calvin Coolidge who has been described very well by Sinclair Lewis In THE MAN WHO KNEW COOLEDGE. (The same author wrote Elmer Gantry.) There was even an occasion or so that Cooledge spewed some common sense. He was once asked why he was able to finish all of his meetings and retire early while others slaved through 12-hour days or longer, he replied "Well, they answered questions."

So, we are now faced with what has turned into a disgusting choice, either vote for a lunatic with absolutely no redeeming qualities or goals other than to escape imprisonment, the Fascist who has not the slightest idea of what Fascism is (although he is quoted recently as saying "Did you know that the THIRD REICH was Germany? Wow)." Unfortunately, he has parasites that do know what it is and how to implement it and he will allow them to do so as long he is acknowledged as the leader.

The other choice is Joe Biden (assuming we vote at all). Now Biden did fine work early on in his administration, overturning twenty or more insane and sadistic "executive orders". He also managed to pass an infrastructure bill against virulent penny-pinching amongst Republicans and a few Democrats. Once passed, Republican politicians would announce to their constituents that certain money was now available to them (even though they had voted against it).

This hypocrisy has always, since Lincoln, been a linchpin of the Republican party, but it has never been supported by such testosterone-ridden simians as today. His followers are brilliant examples of the inability to think rationally. In the middle of the last century a book was published by Horkheimer entitled THE ECLIPSE OF REASON, (a fortunately loose translation of the German title) which was a general analysis of the lack of genuine reason that made Fascism possible and even attractive. These MAGA simians feel they have lost the power and respect due them, so they supported overwhelmingly measures they thought would restore their own status of the dominant "race". One such measure was to criminalize abortion as a crime against Jesus and anything else they could find holy, including white football players – making sure, for example, that the one athlete, the quarterback, with any sort of reasoning power was always "white".

They never did consider the obvious fact that "Negro, Black, Afro-Americans, or African Americans" became a strong voting force due to their preponderance. Obviously, forcing them into further populating the electorate is counter-intuitive at best, the law or practice has angered vehemently rational white women on a greater scale and thus made these "Republicans" even less popular. Their own resentment of taxation (and one can easily sympathize with that bias) led to the reduction of taxes of about two trillion dollars (benefiting those who have such funds easily available). Of course, this increased the need of many for more, not less, government assistance from which those in the lower income levels now need even more. It is easily demonstrated that the only population that benefits from taxes on Democratic Party-controlled states are the mentally inactive Republican-led states. Therefore, these fools conclude that such programs from which they benefit should be stopped in the name of another higher power they worship – fiscal conservationism.

But this leads to another problem: people who do not speak a vulgar dialect of English, or who have somewhat browner skin must at any and all costs be stopped at the border (obviously, the southern one). I remember vividly today in some line to a Texas Office, and man behind a woman who was speaking in a language on a cell phone he could not understand. He at least was polite to let he finish the conversation and then reprehended her, and I will not attempt to reproduce his language, saying that if she wanted to live here, she should speak in the original language of "murika". She replied that she was speaking in Navaho. I believe the irony escaped him as there was no further record of the conversation.

In my earlier years, I grew familiar with these types of vermin (I simply use their word) when I acted as an athlete. Their interests were quite limited, but they had not yet developed to where they could unite behind a strange salesman named Donald Trump. [He will be analyzed below.] It is now known as the Republican base, which obviously shows no fealty towards any concepts. No elected official once in Congress was more fascistic in orientation than Liz Cheney, but she had the liability of being about to think independently, in error, but at least independently. She has been tossed out and now speaks in favor of some sort of Democracy, mainly to so-called "mainstream press" organs.

We started this section with an illustration of the most insightful of political gurus named W C. Fields who when asked who he was going to vote for said "I never vote FOR, I always vote AGAINST." At least one can leave the voting booth with some sense of dignity.

This is the only rationale for voting properly this time around as the daily slaughter of civilians, including one child every ten minutes, is supported by his likely opponent, Joe Biden. Outrage in this country has not developed at the sadistic behavior of Israel as honest documentation of it is suppressed here. One news outlet, Al Jazeera, you can reach here to see doctored footage of what is being done, is heavily attacked and its news reporters systematically killed. The documentation of this behavior is censored here.

Above is the utmost authority on everything: Mel Brooks. He first became known to the general public as the 2000-year-old man, but out of that series came a most significant observation on Psychology in a routine called THE NEW TECHNIQUE PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY. (More about that later.)

Among my own fields of study were the very abstruse and scientific (Physics and Mathematics) and the most edifying, literature and, of course, linguistics. This led me down what were directly separable paths finally ending in a specialty in Renaissance rhetoric and logic, the forerunner of our modern-day law schools. The most challenging aspect of the entire exercise was in teaching myself Latin with its eight grammatical cases (compared to modern English with three, all of which are under attack for political reasons).

I do remember an attempt to add the literature component and running into a rather authoritative elderly well-fed female who insisted I would have to take ten credit hours of INTRO TO COLLEGE MATH. I said that I did not need to spend my time on that and she felt that I was trying to escape the rigors of a general liberal arts curriculum. I asked who was insisting on that requirement and she said the Math Department, I assured her that the Math department was already satisfied with my training in that field, but she insisted on contacting the department to refute my pretensions.

I must first point out that I had no idea of which member of that department at the University of Illinois at Urbana she contacted, but it happened to be the chairman who was more used to answering questions from NASA. I did, however, nearly memorize her side of the conversation after I had armed her with the information that I already had passed Calculus and Differential equations. her side was, almost verbatim, "I have a student here here who doesn't think he needs to take this Intro to Math. Now I told him, er, yes, well he mentioned having passed Calculus and Different Equations and I told him in no uncertain terms that … yes, sir, er, no sir, I mean they have no "college" in the … yes, sir, no sir, really sir, you don't have to … sir? She turned to me and said, "Well, he seems to think you can get away with it." At that point, I knew a MAGA force was developing.

I decided to try a discipline in the center of the continuum which was Psychology. Psychology began within the field of Philosophy to some extent under the late Schopenhauer and the brilliant Nietzsche. This story indicates the understanding Schopenhauer had of mass Psychology. Every evening when He began dinner, he would put a gold coin on the table in front of him. He would then pick it up and depart. One day, the proprietor of the inn asked him why he did that and he replied that on the first night that his military customers talked about anything other than guns, horses, or wenches, he would give the gold piece to a charity. There is no further mention of that gold piece anywhere.

Nietzsche, in fact, was so perceptive and insightful that the acknowledged pioneer in the field, Sigmund Freud, said that he had stopped reading Nietzsche so that he could be certain that he had developed his field on his own.

The field soon made its way into the academic curriculum as its own discipline and that is where I began to study it. Since many aspire to the field but fewer can practice it to anyone's benefit, they migrate to the refuge of creating rules for those who are competent to the point now that it is almost impossible to say with any sense of clarity what qualifies one as a Psychologist: does putting the time of day before the progress notes disqualify the practitioner? This is not merely a ludicrous invention – it actually a practice no matter how much better the patient's life is afterward. The date is on the wrong line! For shame!

At one point, credentials other than, or in addition to, ability, knowledge, and supervised practice were invented, so I was one of the first members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPISTS. Well, that association then decided to require payment for "continuing education" in the field and the presentations I audited presented nothing I had not already known or direct confusion as to proper methodology which I had pointed out to the speaker to his or her sincere gratitude. The association then proceeded to require paid attendance at such proceedings when it was fairly clear to me that I should be paid for speaking, not paying for listening. I retired from the field or rather Association, then, when the hospital section where I was employed was shut down by the legislature.

The question remains: am I or am I not a Psychologist? One reference I found handy was called the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index) in its various incantations. Its value for me, using what was the DSM IV-R (diagnosis and statistical) was that rather than have to go through writing the list of the symptoms of my patient, I was able to simply able to diagnose him and then send the code number to the Psychiatrist who had a medical degree and was thus able to prescribe medication. This explanation carries little weight with insurance companies. Not even the fact that I can identify myself as a Doctor helps. Insurance companies are in the same racket as gambling casinos as they never lose money (unless managed by Donald Trump in Atlantic City).

This is complicated today by the fact that one is not able or allowed to analyze a person unless one has spent sufficient time with him. It was only recently that I learned that this is known as the "Goldwater Rule", designed to stop people, especially professionals, from commenting on Barry Goldwater's rather outlandish statements such as a desire to "bomb Hanoi into the stone age." Not remembered is the vast amount of money spent to protect him. In addition, every Monday on NBC was a program called "That was the week that was" which made Goldwater and his John Birch society ridiculous.

The television program was canceled in favor of far more lucrative fees for advertising for Goldwater. The John Birch Society, apparently some force about some missionary in China who met dire consequences also forced upon the profession what is now known as the "Goldwater rule" about meeting a subject in person before being able to make any pronouncement about anyone, especially a blathering right-wing Republican. It was clear that there was no defeating JFK in an election, but that matter was taken care of in Dallas. "Goldwater Girls," including Hillary Clinton, became dateable. The society was funded by Koch, yes, the father of those sons who started the "Tea Party". In view of all this, I do not feel bound by that rule.

So, with all of that chatter behind us, I turn to the sage of our Media, Mel Brooks who, in addition to posing as the 2000-year-old man, also did an extempore bit called THE NEW TECHNIQUE PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY. Psychiatry was used for the term, but it applies to all fields of talk therapy and the general republic has no awareness of the distinctions between the fields and hence are irrelevant here as most current readers are very much aware of the distinctions.

Rather than aver further, it is quite clear that the "base" called MAGA finds its popularity from it enabling numerous nobodies into somebodies. People with no obvious qualifications now consider themselves as "Patriots," "Oath Keepers," and racial purists, the infantry against the vile "vermin" who have the audacity to reason and occasionally be productive, people, therefore who make them realize that they are truly inferior. Such nonsense, endorsed by some document called the Constitution is the truly destructive force in this country.

The person of the salesman in Chief of this movement, a salesman with the charisma of a Mr. Pillow, has distinguished himself as a social activist supporting the conviction of six innocents for rape (since overturned), the President of his own University (which managed to bankrupt lesser minds and for banks to force revision of Chapter 7 bankruptcy laws), and recently to serve as Putin's revenge on the United States and then to plot and inspire an insurrection. He has slipped a great deal cognitively in recent months stating that his political rival is Barack Obama, that he cured leprosy, and many other absurdities make him less mentally acute than Joe Biden who is perhaps 30 months older. One major difference, however, is that Biden has been known to read and thus has more information.

So, how do I establish my credentials to speak in Psychological terms? I refer to the illustration above. In one bit alone Mel Brooks played a series of Psychological practitioners. One of whom was Dr. Buck Richardson who gave as his training the State of Texas. When asked which institution, he said "The State! Ah put muh hand on a rock, looked up into the sky, and said I AM A PSYCHIATRIST!" The only way to do it, is to have self-confidence. And that is why I am such an authority on the narcissistic behavior of the man in Orange.

I could say more negative things about the idiot, and it is really his sycophants who could do the most damage, but the point seems so obvious that only "numskulls" (a word that needs resurrection) would find it interesting if indeed they ever progressed to the task of reading could be enlightened.

Money

By this time of the year, you must be deeply in debt or have extraordinary willpower. Are any of you able to enumerate the number of solicitations for good causes you have received in your mailboxes? I doubt it. I have received many such pleas from causes I would like to be in a position to help, but I am unable to contribute anything to any of them without feeling that I have abandoned the others, so I have avoided such pangs of conscience by sending no funds to any of them. Instead, knowing that it is futile, I am asking all of you to send me money, as much money as you can. If you do that, I will be very happy about it and send you a personally written e-mail thanking you at perhaps a dollar a word. I promise not to part with it to contribute to a numbskull or a charlatan. Even better, I will send you a prior edition depicting such scatterbrains as the strange woman in Alaska whose foreign policy credentials include how close the border of Alaska is to Russia.

So, who are the two most vile characters I promise not to support? They are both well-known and of absolutely no value to mankind: Benjamin (numbskulls call him Bibi) Netanyahu (or NIT WIT YAH HOO) AND THE Orange man Mr. Donald J. Trump (or Drumph). Their motives and goals are nearly identical. Neither has any good intentions nor any conscience and their entire campaigns are the same: to keep out of prison (where they may well be safe from rape on aesthetic grounds) and care not one bit for their fellow man.

If somehow the war against innocent Palestinians is stopped, Bibi will lose his position and then be subject to the wrath of the Israeli Supreme Court for bribery and other fiscal charges and, given his more recent conduct murder or other more serious charges. Such charges are already prepared and it is only this slaughter he inspires that keeps him out of court. This slaughter is greatly assisted by you and our government. The cruelty of it is irrelevant to him and he failed at his attempt to castrate his Supreme Court (you may remember the scenes of Israeli citizens waving their flags).

Donald Drumpf, the man in orange, of about 99 indictments for felonies and for inspiring an insurrection, has been cited as asking that if he were sent to prison would he have to wear an orange jumpsuit? Electing him would at least end the election ritual as he certainly attempted to avoid wearing an orange jumpsuit. I hope that I have at least established that I am not in favor of the man in orange.

However, if you send me money (and you can do this by credit or debit card) I will be happy to thank you. Or, even better, I will send out to paid subscribers only some Chrestomathy-tinged samples. Since the busiest travel day of the year is coming within hours, be sure to donate before you get home, open your mail, and find out how deep in hock you already are. If you do not find this the most ridiculous request for such funds you have ever seen, send instead a copy of that request. I have also lowered the minimum amount to the point where this platform will not cooperate any further.

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