Showing posts with label ABSURDITY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABSURDITY. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Triumph of Abssurdity

           THE ABSURD TIMES

This is for those who will not believe that such B.S. actually happened.


And this is for the somewhat more educated who understand the absurdity of the moment.

 Absurdity Triumphs for Now

by

Honest Charlie



We have reached a new period of Absurdity and I freely admit that I am puzzled as to how to report it. I put a meme up just to help, if it does. I’ll try to say a bit about the absurdity now. I believe it was Voltairei who said that life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think. I do not particularly disposed to feeling these days, in face it is far too much effort, and so I finally find it amusing, but hardly a real comedy. Tacked on at the end is a discussion of religion for the new readers and for the Christian Nationalists.


Let us start with one of the more disgusting and vile, a congressman from Ohio. He not only says there in no difference between the Biden 10 pages or more that were returned as soon as noticed and the 30 to 50 boxes of papers down in Trump’s property, many marked TOP SECRET and which he has called MINE! Now, there are probably many right-wing fools and cowards who will believe him and buy into this “conspiracy” and “dauble standard”. I mean it. They actually equate the two. Now when Jimmie Carter wrote his WHITE HOUSE DIARY, he was careful to write it in the East Wing (officially his home at the time) so that it could not be claimed as government property. I can not even imagine him taking any government property home to Georgia, but that may be because at the time I would not take anything to Georgia.


Well, I can not help but move away from that ass from Ohio. He reminds me much of Dennis Hastert. Hastert was a (pardon the expression) Republican, an ex-wrestling coach, and liked to play with college-age naked wrestlers. He left politics as soon as the secret came out. Now, Jim Jordan is of that same party, and ex-wrestling coach, and there were remarks about how he liked to stare at naked wrestlers in the shower while he was a coach. The University had other problems with sex exploits, so this never went anywhere, but I do wonder what is going to happen every time he strips off his jacket in congress. But, he does shave – himself. I really do not want to spend any more time on him.


But we can not simply point to one poser the discuss this morass of muck. Another, postures himself as a self-made man, and has been noted several time, is rather a self made-up man, usually known as George Santos. He actually represents everything that the term “Republican” stands for, as well as several other politicians. It is overwhelming to remember and list all of his fabrications, but one was quite clear as somebody has a video of it. Santos was being interviewed and announced that he attended Baruch College on a Volleyball Scholarship. The host announced that he also went to that College, but did not pursue the topic. He says he was Magna cum laude, I believe, but it doesn’t matter as he never went to college.


He proclaimed that his grandmother was a holocaust surviver and felt that he was therefore Jew-ish. Oy! Fur dem Goyem? Enough of this one. His mother died on 9-11 in the twin towers and then again (sorry, I forgot the occasion) later. He loaned himself $700,000 for his own campaign for his new job of introducing rich people to each other (as best I can understand it). He said he worked for two Wall Street firms, but they never heard of him. I recently saw a video-clip of him: He was on the network program run by Steve Bannon who had to be in court for fraud as he misused the money he raised to build the wall on the border with Mexico. In that program, Mat Gaetz substituted for Bannon and the two of them got along quite well. I did wonder whatever to Mr. Gaetz’s violation of the Mann Act (I think it’s called, illegal to transport a minor over state lines for sex purposes), but that wasn’t the purpose here. He is a Republican problem and I think, therefore, we should start a fan-club for him. (Just to add one other point, he is also known as Anthony Devalde (I kid you not).


Now, they are also afraid that Democrats are coming for their gas stoves. Lock your doors and demand a warrant for anyone to enter your home! (Actually, that’s a good idea anyway.) They don’t seem to know that the debt ceiling has to be raised, or better yet done away with. It needs to be raised so that we and pay the money we have already spent. It’s about the only analogy they are capable of understanding is that it is like a credit card bill, but you send a note to MasterCard saying “sorry, we need to make budget costs”. The difference here is that if we do not pay our bills as a country, we could very well create a world depression.


If we were to take these fools one at a time, it would be too much typing. Let’s take a State, say Missouri. Awhile back, I discussed Iran and the stupidity of forcing women to cover their hair and imposing the death penalty. Well, let’s look at Missouri. Not many people realize this, but we are talking about two states. Missouri is comprised of areas all by the I70 highway and includes Kansas City and St. Louis. Parts of Columbia are also Missouri. The rest of the state is Mizzourah. Which voted for Trump by double digits. The legislature just instituted a rule that female lawmakers must cover their arms. It also has the death penalty, but has not yet joined the two. Moreover, no one has indicated why this is the rule, but who cares? Also, abortion is illegal so far as anybody really knows. I believe Kentucky passed a law forbidding Sharia law, but our Constitution would do that anyway. Enough.


Well, too much of this. Let it not be said that McCarthy lost a vote for speaker 15 straight times!



On Religion

I started out to publish this because of too much misunderstanding about religion and so many new readers since it was first published about 9 years ago:






GOD'S DEATH -- POSTMORTEM BY NIETZSCHE

It reminds me of a remark of Tom Lehrer as saying that "Most patriotic Americans are feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I am actually finding it either amusing or laughable. On the other hand, when I realize that so many Americans take this nonsense seriously, it can become quite depressing.

One also remembers Bernard Shaw's dictum "Beware of the man whose God is in the skies." The problem is, of course, that these people simply state things as fact as coming from the word of God, and yet God does not have a phone number and is not available for confirmation.

Some time back, there was a great deal of consternation over the phrase "God is Dead!" Many people knew it somehow came from the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, but that was about it. They hated the idea, considered it blasphemy, and the kinder of them took pity on him and those who agreed. However, they never really understood what was meant by that phrase.

We are going to change all that right now.

First, an amusing bit a graffiti:

"God is Dead." – Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is Dead." – God

And thus it remained until the final statement, understood only by those who knew a bit about the subject:

"I was born posthumously." -- Nietzsche

And there it has stood for some time. (Yes, Nietzsche actually prophesied that.)

It seems quite clear that many of these people never read past the first mention of God's death in the Prologue to Book One of Zarathustra. In fact, many of them do not realize that the character Zarathustra was invented by Nietzsche and undergoes a change during the course of the work. He took the name of Zoroaster, the mystic, because he had experienced no prophet with whom he more intensely disagreed, and it is worth mentioning as well that the transliteration of Zoroaster is often Zarathustra, or something quite close to it.

I take it that few readers of Nietzsche also realize that he was trained as a classical philologist and studied a wide variety of languages. He was especially interested in pre-Homeric writers.

So, with this in mind, let us look at a few passages where Zarathustra discusses God's death. Nietzsche is nearly impossible to translate to anyone's satisfaction, but Walter Kaufmann, who came to Nietzsche hating everything he stood for BEFORE he did the translations, manage to translate him into sense in English and thus understanding what he actually stood for and changing his mind radically. R. Hollingsdale and M. Cowan have also produced excellent and scholarly accepted translations. I am providing my own, just because I don't want to bother worrying about the absurdity of "fair use" and because I want to translate it the way it came across to me originally. If you can read the original German, ignore the translation. Nietzsche abounds in plays of words, puns, double-meanings, and like to joke a great deal and one who takes everything seriously and as the last word will be helplessly lost.

Here is that first mention:

Als Zarathustra aber allein war, sprach er also zu seinem Herzen:

"Sollte es denn möglich sein! Dieser alte Heilige hat in seinem Walde

noch Nichts davon gehört, dass _Gott_todt_ ist!" -

Einst war der Frevel an Gott der grösste Frevel, aber Gott starb, und

damit auch diese Frevelhaften. An der Erde zu freveln ist jetzt das

Furchtbarste und die Eingeweide des Unerforschlichen höher zu achten,

als der Sinn der Erde!

OR

When Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it be possible! This old saint in his forest not yet heard that God is dead!"-

Sacrilege was the greatest crime of blasphemy against God, but God died, and so also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the role and the entrails of the unknowable to ensure higher life as the meaning of the earth!

The key to that now is that the idea of God is dead, blasphemy is to be stupid enough to attack quantitative evolution, a leap upwards from Mankind. (I know, you can have your own interpretation.)

One of my favorite, however, comes at the end of the third book, after Zarathustra has absented himself from man twice before and gain a better perspective on things.

Ist es denn nicht _lange_ vorbei auch für alle solche Zweifel? Wer

darf noch solche alte eingeschlafne lichtscheue Sachen aufwecken!

Mit den alten Göttern gieng es ja lange schon zu Ende: - und wahrlich,

ein gutes fröhliches Götter-Ende hatten sie!

Sie "dämmerten" sich nicht zu Tode, - das lügt man wohl! Vielmehr: sie

haben sich selber einmal zu Tode - _gelacht_!

Das geschah, als das gottloseste Wort von einem Gotte selber ausgieng,

- das Wort: "Es ist Ein Gott! Du sollst keinen andern Gott haben neben

mir!" -

- ein alter Grimm-Bart von Gott, ein eifersüchtiger vergass sich also:

Und alle Götter lachten damals und wackelten auf ihren Stühlen und

riefen: "Ist das nicht eben Göttlichkeit, dass es Götter, aber keinen

Gott giebt?"

Wer Ohren hat, der höre. -

Also redete Zarathustra in der Stadt, die er liebte und welche

zubenannt ist die bunte Kuh. Von hier nämlich hatte er nur noch zwei

Tage zu gehen, dass er wieder in seine Höhle käme und zu seinen

Thieren; seine Seele aber frohlockte beständig ob der Nähe seiner

Heimkehr. -

Or

II is long passed for all such doubts? Who may still wake up those old light-shunning things!

With the old gods, it went so long since come to an end: - and verily, a good joyful Deity-end they had!

Their "falling asleep" is not to death - that is probably lying! Rather, they laughed themselves to death once!

That happened with the most godless word of a God himself, - The word: "I alone am God! Me! Thou shalt have no other gods before me! "-

- An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous old fart, forgot himself thus. And all the other gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones and shouted: "Is this not just divinity that there are gods, but no God exists? "

Who hath ears to hear, listen!

And that is it. Obviously, Nietzsche did not write "fart," but it fits! You can supply whatever you like there – try Langenschiedt's (or however it is spelled).

Later on, Zarathustra offers details as to how God died (as it is, I skipped over about 15 different versions between the first one and the last). In Book 4, after another hiatus in his life, Zarathustra speaks much more calmly and evenly as his audience is comprised of only the "highest" of mankind.

Probably the most salient reason is that God died of pity for man after he saw man nailed to the cross.

Nowhere does God mention the morning after pill.


iIn Paris, France (there is one in Texas that has caused many problems with the term “french fries, but that is besides the point here) I attempted to ask one of the policemen where Rue de Voltaire could be found. He was extremely polite, even saluted me, clicked his heels, and bent slightly, and I tried again. He then said Agh! Voltargghair! Or something like that. I nodded vigorously, joping he did not consider me a German (they seem to have a long memory there) and he pointed upward to the street sign and, sure enough, we were standing at the very corner. We both laughed and I nodded to him, said Danke, and left him, somewhat puzzled.





































































































 THE THREAT HAS BEEN MADE


BY


Honest Charlie



We have reached a new period of Absurdity and I freely admit that I am puzzled as to how to report it. I put a meme up just to help, if it does. I’ll try to say a bit about the absurdity now. I believe it was Voltairei who said that life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think. I do not particularly disposed to feeling these days, in face it is far too much effort, and so I finally find it amusing, but hardly a real comedy. Tacked on at the end is a discussion of religion for the new readers and for the Christian Nationalists.


Let us start with one of the more disgusting and vile, a congressman from Ohio. He not only says there in no difference between the Biden 10 pages or more that were returned as soon as noticed and the 30 to 50 boxes of papers down in Trump’s property, many marked TOP SECRET and which he has called MINE! Now, there are probably many right-wing fools and cowards who will believe him and buy into this “conspiracy” and “dauble standard”. I mean it. They actually equate the two. Now when Jimmie Carter wrote his WHITE HOUSE DIARY, he was careful to write it in the East Wing (officially his home at the time) so that it could not be claimed as government property. I can not even imagine him taking any government property home to Georgia, but that may be because at the time I would not take anything to Georgia.


Well, I can not help but move away from that ass from Ohio. He reminds me much of Dennis Hastert. Hastert was a (pardon the expression) Republican, an ex-wrestling coach, and liked to play with college-age naked wrestlers. He left politics as soon as the secret came out. Now, Jim Jordan is of that same party, and ex-wrestling coach, and there were remarks about how he liked to stare at naked wrestlers in the shower while he was a coach. The University had other problems with sex exploits, so this never went anywhere, but I do wonder what is going to happen every time he strips off his jacket in congress. But, he does shave – himself. I really do not want to spend any more time on him.


But we can not simply point to one poser the discuss this morass of muck. Another, postures himself as a self-made man, and has been noted several time, is rather a self made-up man, usually known as George Santos. He actually represents everything that the term “Republican” stands for, as well as several other politicians. It is overwhelming to remember and list all of his fabrications, but one was quite clear as somebody has a video of it. Santos was being interviewed and announced that he attended Baruch College on a Volleyball Scholarship. The host announced that he also went to that College, but did not pursue the topic. He says he was Magna cum laude, I believe, but it doesn’t matter as he never went to college.


He proclaimed that his grandmother was a holocaust surviver and felt that he was therefore Jew-ish. Oy! Fur dem Goyem? Enough of this one. His mother died on 9-11 in the twin towers and then again (sorry, I forgot the occasion) later. He loaned himself $700,000 for his own campaign for his new job of introducing rich people to each other (as best I can understand it). He said he worked for two Wall Street firms, but they never heard of him. I recently saw a video-clip of him: He was on the network program run by Steve Bannon who had to be in court for fraud as he misused the money he raised to build the wall on the border with Mexico. In that program, Mat Gaetz substituted for Bannon and the two of them got along quite well. I did wonder whatever to Mr. Gaetz’s violation of the Mann Act (I think it’s called, illegal to transport a minor over state lines for sex purposes), but that wasn’t the purpose here. He is a Republican problem and I think, therefore, we should start a fan-club for him.


Now, they are also afraid that Democrats are coming for their gas stoves. Lock your doors and demand a warrant for anyone to enter your home! (Actually, that’s a good idea anyway.) They don’t seem to know that the debt ceiling has to be raised, or better yet done away with. It needs to be raised so that we and pay the money we have already spent. It’s about the only analogy they are capable of understanding is that it is like a credit card bill, but you send a note to MasterCard saying “sorry, we need to make budget costs”. The difference here is that if we do not pay our bills as a country, we could very well create a world depression.


If we were to take these fools one at a time, it would be too much typing. Let’s take a State, say Missouri. Awhile back, I discussed Iran and the stupidity of forcing women to cover their hair and imposing the death penalty. Well, let’s look at Missouri. Not many people realize this, but we are talking about two states. Missouri is comprised of areas all by the I70 highway and includes Kansas City and St. Louis. Parts of Columbia are also Missouri. The rest of the state is Mizzourah. Which voted for Trump by double digits. The legislature just instituted a rule that female lawmakers must cover their arms. It also has the death penalty, but has not yet joined the two. Moreover, no one has indicated why this is the rule, but who cares? Also, abortion is illegal so far as anybody really knows. I believe Kentucky passed a law forbidding Sharia law, but our Constitution would do that anyway. Enough.


Well, too much of this. Let it not be said that McCarthy lost a vote for speaker 15 straight times!



On Religion

I started out to publish this because of too much misunderstanding about religion and so many new readers since it was first published about 9 years ago:






GOD'S DEATH -- POSTMORTEM BY NIETZSCHE

It reminds me of a remark of Tom Lehrer as saying that "Most patriotic Americans are feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I am actually finding it either amusing or laughable. On the other hand, when I realize that so many Americans take this nonsense seriously, it can become quite depressing.

One also remembers Bernard Shaw's dictum "Beware of the man whose God is in the skies." The problem is, of course, that these people simply state things as fact as coming from the word of God, and yet God does not have a phone number and is not available for confirmation.

Some time back, there was a great deal of consternation over the phrase "God is Dead!" Many people knew it somehow came from the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, but that was about it. They hated the idea, considered it blasphemy, and the kinder of them took pity on him and those who agreed. However, they never really understood what was meant by that phrase.

We are going to change all that right now.

First, an amusing bit a graffiti:

"God is Dead." – Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is Dead." – God

And thus it remained until the final statement, understood only by those who knew a bit about the subject:

"I was born posthumously." -- Nietzsche

And there it has stood for some time. (Yes, Nietzsche actually prophesied that.)

It seems quite clear that many of these people never read past the first mention of God's death in the Prologue to Book One of Zarathustra. In fact, many of them do not realize that the character Zarathustra was invented by Nietzsche and undergoes a change during the course of the work. He took the name of Zoroaster, the mystic, because he had experienced no prophet with whom he more intensely disagreed, and it is worth mentioning as well that the transliteration of Zoroaster is often Zarathustra, or something quite close to it.

I take it that few readers of Nietzsche also realize that he was trained as a classical philologist and studied a wide variety of languages. He was especially interested in pre-Homeric writers.

So, with this in mind, let us look at a few passages where Zarathustra discusses God's death. Nietzsche is nearly impossible to translate to anyone's satisfaction, but Walter Kaufmann, who came to Nietzsche hating everything he stood for BEFORE he did the translations, manage to translate him into sense in English and thus understanding what he actually stood for and changing his mind radically. R. Hollingsdale and M. Cowan have also produced excellent and scholarly accepted translations. I am providing my own, just because I don't want to bother worrying about the absurdity of "fair use" and because I want to translate it the way it came across to me originally. If you can read the original German, ignore the translation. Nietzsche abounds in plays of words, puns, double-meanings, and like to joke a great deal and one who takes everything seriously and as the last word will be helplessly lost.

Here is that first mention:

Als Zarathustra aber allein war, sprach er also zu seinem Herzen:

"Sollte es denn möglich sein! Dieser alte Heilige hat in seinem Walde

noch Nichts davon gehört, dass _Gott_todt_ ist!" -

Einst war der Frevel an Gott der grösste Frevel, aber Gott starb, und

damit auch diese Frevelhaften. An der Erde zu freveln ist jetzt das

Furchtbarste und die Eingeweide des Unerforschlichen höher zu achten,

als der Sinn der Erde!

OR

When Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it be possible! This old saint in his forest not yet heard that God is dead!"-

Sacrilege was the greatest crime of blasphemy against God, but God died, and so also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the role and the entrails of the unknowable to ensure higher life as the meaning of the earth!

The key to that now is that the idea of God is dead, blasphemy is to be stupid enough to attack quantitative evolution, a leap upwards from Mankind. (I know, you can have your own interpretation.)

One of my favorite, however, comes at the end of the third book, after Zarathustra has absented himself from man twice before and gain a better perspective on things.

Ist es denn nicht _lange_ vorbei auch für alle solche Zweifel? Wer

darf noch solche alte eingeschlafne lichtscheue Sachen aufwecken!

Mit den alten Göttern gieng es ja lange schon zu Ende: - und wahrlich,

ein gutes fröhliches Götter-Ende hatten sie!

Sie "dämmerten" sich nicht zu Tode, - das lügt man wohl! Vielmehr: sie

haben sich selber einmal zu Tode - _gelacht_!

Das geschah, als das gottloseste Wort von einem Gotte selber ausgieng,

- das Wort: "Es ist Ein Gott! Du sollst keinen andern Gott haben neben

mir!" -

- ein alter Grimm-Bart von Gott, ein eifersüchtiger vergass sich also:

Und alle Götter lachten damals und wackelten auf ihren Stühlen und

riefen: "Ist das nicht eben Göttlichkeit, dass es Götter, aber keinen

Gott giebt?"

Wer Ohren hat, der höre. -

Also redete Zarathustra in der Stadt, die er liebte und welche

zubenannt ist die bunte Kuh. Von hier nämlich hatte er nur noch zwei

Tage zu gehen, dass er wieder in seine Höhle käme und zu seinen

Thieren; seine Seele aber frohlockte beständig ob der Nähe seiner

Heimkehr. -

Or

II is long passed for all such doubts? Who may still wake up those old light-shunning things!

With the old gods, it went so long since come to an end: - and verily, a good joyful Deity-end they had!

Their "falling asleep" is not to death - that is probably lying! Rather, they laughed themselves to death once!

That happened with the most godless word of a God himself, - The word: "I alone am God! Me! Thou shalt have no other gods before me! "-

- An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous old fart, forgot himself thus. And all the other gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones and shouted: "Is this not just divinity that there are gods, but no God exists? "

Who hath ears to hear, listen!

And that is it. Obviously, Nietzsche did not write "fart," but it fits! You can supply whatever you like there – try Langenschiedt's (or however it is spelled).

Later on, Zarathustra offers details as to how God died (as it is, I skipped over about 15 different versions between the first one and the last). In Book 4, after another hiatus in his life, Zarathustra speaks much more calmly and evenly as his audience is comprised of only the "highest" of mankind.

Probably the most salient reason is that God died of pity for man after he saw man nailed to the cross.

Nowhere does God mention the morning after pill.


iIn Paris, France (there is one in Texas that has caused many problems with the term “french fries, but that is besides the point here) I attempted to ask one of the policemen where Rue de Voltaire could be found. He was extremely polite, even saluted me, clicked his heels, and bent slightly, and I tried again. He then said Agh! Voltargghair! Or something like that. I nodded vigorously, joping he did not consider me a German (they seem to have a long memory there) and he pointed upward to the street sign and, sure enough, we were standing at the very corner. We both laughed and I nodded to him, said Danke, and left him, somewhat puzzled.



Friday, March 24, 2017

The Absurd as Official Policy


THE ABSURD TIMES


Trump's budget favors the military, so illustrated a way to solve starvation.



"Nonsense and utterly ridiculous" was said by the UK in reference to Trump's wiretapping claims.  It could easily be extended to every single other justification for anything he does.  In fact, the Absurd has taken on greater significance since Trump took office.





ABSURDITY BECOMES REPUBLICAN AGENDA UNDER TRUMPISM

[BTW: We have just received the transcript of the Franken questioning and will attaché it to the end of this week's edition.]



Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the recent hearings on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.  It may take a few more words to make this clear, but it is wroth reading to the end, I assure you. 



Gorsuch has shown tremendous, almost unmatched creativity, in devising a multitude of ways in which to say absolutely nothing of any value in evaluating him for such a position.  Only one Senator, Al Franken, who has no law degree, was able to penetrate this façade of blank badinage. 



He asked Gorsuch a simple question, one about a trucker in which he was driving in 17 degree below zero temperatures and the trailer brakes froze.  He called the company and was told to wait for the repairs.  Three hours later, he had fallen asleep, a victim to hypothermia, and was woken only by a cell phone call from his brother.  Since he had called the company several times with the same result and instructions, he detatched the trailer and drove the cab to a source of heat.  Upon his return 15 minutes later, he was fired for not following orders.  All courts, including the Department of Labor, ruled in his favor except Gorsuch who insisted that "that was the law". 



Now it gets interesting.  Franken asked him about his dissent.  Another reply saying nothing.  Franken then said he did not have a law degree, but he had been on this committee for eight years and actually paid attention and was familiar with the doctrine of Absurdity.  Now Gorsuch said that the doctrine only applied to "Scrivener's errors."  Ok, so what's a scrivener?  It goes way back to before the invention of typewriters and law clerks, scriveners, hand copied documents and sometimes spelled a word wrong or even skipped a line or put in the wrong date. 



Today, it simply means a typo, although I personally encountered one myself when I was treating addicts as patients.  Sometimes they were committed by a judge for treatment for mental health reasons and once a judge literally committed herself to the care of my patient (I was one of those troublesome ones who actually read the legal documents).  Now, this would be considered a scrivener's error, even though, since in her case I did argue a case pro se  and in retrospect did feel that she was a good candidate for mental treatment.  Still, I sent it back for correction.



Now, are you still with me?  Well, never mind.  Gorsuch was wrong.  Here is a definition of the doctrine of Absurdity:



The common sense of man approves the judgment mentioned by Pufendorf [sic. Puffendorf], that the Bolognian law which enacted 'that whoever drew blood in the streets should be punished with the utmost severity', did not extend to the surgeon who opened the vein of a person that fell down in the street in a fit. The same common sense accepts the ruling, cited by Plowden, that the statute of 1st Edward II, which enacts that a prisoner who breaks prison shall be guilty of a felony, does not extend to a prisoner who breaks out when the prison is on fire – 'for he is not to be hanged because he would not stay to be burnt'.



At any rate, Franken attacked by pointing out that he had his prior career in identifying absurdity and pointing it out (as a comedian, or comedy writer), and then attacked, asking he what he would do.  Getting no response, Franken said "well, I can tell you what everyone else here would do" and then left the questioning.  That was the one bright spot in the entire hearing and it made Franken more popular than all of his work on Saturday Night Live.



That is only one example.  However, if Gorsuch cannot tell the difference between a scrivener's error and the Doctrine of Absurdity, it is the equivalent of a layperson not being able to tell his ass from a hole in the ground.



**

Conservativism: the belief that human beings are to be treated with as much contempt as possible.



**

Trumpism: See conservativism.



**

There was to be more about healthcare and the like, but the transcript is too important to omit as Gorsuch could be with this country for 30 or 40 years:



We feature an extended excerpt of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) grilling Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about the so-called frozen trucker case of Alphonse Maddin. Gorsuch ruled it was right for Maddin to be fired after he disobeyed a supervisor and abandoned the trailer that he was driving, because he was on the verge of freezing to death. "It is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire him because he made the choice of possibly dying from freezing to death or causing other people to die possibly by driving in an unsafe vehicle," says Sen. Franken. "It makes me question your judgment."



TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Senator Al Franken, who questioned Judge Gorsuch on the Alphonse Maddin, the so-called frozen trucker, case during the confirmation hearing.


SEN. AL FRANKEN: A couple hours goes by. The heater is not working in his cab. It's 14 below zero, 14 below zero. He calls in, and he says, "My feet, I can't feel. I can't feel my feet. My torso—I'm beginning not to be able to feel my torso." And they say, "Hang on. Hang on. Wait for us." OK, now he actually falls asleep. And at 1:18 a.m., his cousin, I think—cousin calls him and wakes him up. And his cousin says that he is slurring his speech and he doesn't make much sense. Now, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota says that is hypothermia. And he had fallen asleep. If you fall asleep waiting under 14-below-zero weather, you can freeze to death. You can die.

He calls them back, and his supervisor says, "Wait. You've got to wait." So he has a couple of choices here: wait or take the trailer out with the frozen brakes onto the interstate. Now, when those brakes are locked and you're pulling that load on a trailer with brakes locked, you can go maybe, what, 10, 15 miles an hour? Now, what's that like on an interstate? Say you're going 75 miles an hour. Someone's going 75 miles an hour. They come over a hill and slam into that trailer. Also, he's got hypothermia. He's a little woozy, probably figures that's not too safe. I don't think you'd want to be on the road with him, would you, Judge?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Senator—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: You would, or not?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: I—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: It's a really easy yes or no.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Would I want to be on—would I want be on the road with him?

SEN. AL FRANKEN: Yeah.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: With the hitched trailer or the unhitched trailer, Senator?

SEN. AL FRANKEN: Well, either, but especially with the hitched trailer with the locked brakes.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: No, I don't think that was a serious option. I agree with you.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: OK, I thought that was—I wouldn't want to be there, either.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Yeah. An unhitched trailer—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: And so, what he does is he unhitches it—

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Right.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: —and goes off in the cab.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: And then I believe he comes back 15 minutes later.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: And he comes back after he gets warm, so that he can be there when it gets repaired.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Right.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: OK. Gets fired. He gets fired. And the rest of the judges all go, "That's ridiculous. He shouldn't—you can't fire a guy for doing that." It was—there were two safety issues here: one, the possibility of freezing to death, or driving with that rig in a very, very—a very dangerous way. Which would you have chosen? Which would you have done, Judge?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Oh, Senator, I don't know what I would have done if I were in his shoes, and I don't blame him at all, for a moment, for doing what he did do.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: But—but—but—

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: I empathize with him entirely.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: OK, just you've—we've been talking about this case. Don't—you don't—you haven't decided what you would have done? You haven't thought about, for a second, what you would have done in his case?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Oh, Senator, I thought a lot about this case, because I—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: And what would you have done?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: I totally empathize and understand—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: I'm asking you a question. Please answer questions.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Senator, I don't know. I wasn't in the man's shoes. But I understand why he did—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: You don't know what you would have done.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: I understand—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: OK, I'll tell you what I would have done. I would have done exactly what he did.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Yeah, I understand that.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: I think everybody here would have done exactly what he did. And I think that's an easy answer, frankly. I don't know why you had difficulty answering that. OK, so you decide to write a thing in dissent. If you read your dissent, you don't say it was like subzero. You say it was cold out. The facts that you describe in your dissent are very minimal. But here's the—here is the law that—and you go to the language of the law, and you talk about that: "I go to the law." "A person may not discharge an employee who refuses to operate a vehicle because the employee has reasonable apprehension of serious injury to the employee or the public because of the vehicle's hazardous safety or security condition." That's the law. And you decided that they had the right to fire him, even though this law says you may not discharge an employee who refuses to operate a vehicle, because he did operate the vehicle. Is that right? That's your—that's how you decided, right?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: That's the gist of it.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: Well, no, is that how you decided? That's what you decided, right?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Senator, there are a lot more words in the opinions, both in the majority, by my colleagues, and in dissent. But that—I'm happy to agree with you. That's the gist of it.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: Right. Well, that's what you've said. And I—look, I'm not a lawyer. But I've been on this committee for about eight years. And I've paid some attention. So, I know that what you're talking about here is the plain meaning rule. Here's what the rule means. When the plain meaning of a statute is clear on its face, when its meaning is obvious, courts have no business looking beyond the meaning to the statute's purpose. And that's what you used, right?

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: That's what was argued to us by both sides, Senator.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: But that's what you—that's what you used.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: Yeah. Both sides—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: That's right. OK.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: —argued that the plain meeting supported their—

SEN. AL FRANKEN: Yeah, and you used it to come to your conclusion.

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: But both sides did.

SEN. AL FRANKEN: But the plain meaning rule has an exception. When using the plain meaning rule would create an absurd result, courts should depart from the plain meaning. It is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire him because he made the choice of possibly dying from freezing to death or causing other people to die possibly by driving an unsafe vehicle. That's absurd. Now, I had a career in identifying absurdity, and I know it when I see it. And it makes me—you know, it makes me question your judgment.

AMY GOODMAN: That's Senator Al Franken, former comedian, before he was a senator, questioning Judge Neil Gorsuch about the Alphonse Maddin case, the so-called frozen trucker case. Again, Judge Gorsuch was alone, among seven judges, to rule that the company was right to fire Alphonse Maddin. As we wrap up, we're still with Maddin's attorney, Robert Fetter. I want to talk about the timing of Judge Gorsuch's dissent. When the candidate Donald Trump gave his list of Supreme Court justices that he would choose if he were to be president, Gorsuch was not on that list. That was in May. Bob Fetter, the decision was handed out—when was it? The dissent handed out by Judge Gorsuch, August 8th last year, on the frozen trucker case. When the second list came out in September, Gorsuch was added to Trump's list. Can you talk about the significance of this?

ROBERT FETTER: Yeah. It's certainly a set of circumstances that, after he was nominated, it certainly rung a bell with me that he was not on the initial list. He writes a—he has this case on his desk where he can show just how uncompassionate he can be and how far he's able to take extreme textualism in order to rule in favor of a company and corporate interest. Certainly, if I were the Chamber of Commerce or other business interest and I saw that decision, that signals to me that this is my kind of guy. Then he appears on the second list, which, of course, we all know it now, that that decision was outsourced to the Federalist Society and Heritage. And those groups certainly would have saw that decision, a very recent decision, and said, "This is the type of guy that we want on the Supreme Court, because he's going to be pro-business." And they've indicated they're very happy with his nomination, because he is pro-business. Pro-business is not a judicial philosophy. It is fine for a legislator to be pro-business, if he can get elected on that basis. But not for a judge. When you're pro-business as a judge, you're just biased. And we cannot accept bias on the United States Supreme Court.

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Fetter, I want to thank you for being with us, labor lawyer, partner at Miller Cohen firm in Detroit, represented truck driver Alphonse Maddin in his wrongful termination lawsuit.

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