Wanna talk about a couple of movies I’ve just seen – one on APrime and one in the theater at that wonderful place called Cinepolis.

The first one is Late Night with Emma T and Mindy K and the rest are just the usual suspects with a very much wasted John Lithgow. Sad to see..anyway, Emma has a late night show (remember Joan Rivers? No? Oh, um..anyway) late night show and the ratings are sagging so the stereotypical bitch network lady head says she’s going to be fired – but worse, replaced with a potty mouth young vulgarian boy cumedian (yes, I used that word on purpose – I hope I invented it and didn’t just copy some silly milly).

Poor Emma has to have a comuppance and a good sanding as she becomes ‘nice’ – and Mindy is there to suffer, but nevertheless to save the mostly ungrateful Em. It was like The Devil Wears Prada meets any Bollywood movie of late, but without the music and dancing. Guess you get the feeling I didn’t like it. Well, that’s not the point. It’s sort of like a meta movie – but not nearly as good as, say Truffaut’s Day for Night or even Altman’s Pret a Porter. Mindy probably has suffered on her way to the top where she’s now calling the shots. And Emma probably has struggled with getting replaced by younger…actors. But in this case, it’s just all too predictable. Cue the crying under the desk. Cue the last minute scandal to hurt the long-suffering husband in the background. Geez..We’ve dumbed down movies and now that Em is a blonde, she can play just about anybody you want to see? Goodbye Nanny McFizzle. Hello Anatomic Blonde.

Then there’s the second film – a tiny little thing with no promo and probably shoulda gone straight to video, but it didn’t, and we saw it at that lovely Cinepolis and … it was great. Film name? The Peanut Butter Falcon…Shia LeBoeuf (or however you spell his name – too tired to look it up – you know who I mean) with Dakota Johnson, Bruce Dern, that skinny bad guy you’ve seen a hundred times (ok..here’s his picture) and a marvelous little actor graduate from Dreyfoos School of the Arts named Zack ..he’s here too…guess which is which…hint – Zack Gottsagen has Down’s syndrome and frankly he did as good a job as any of the Hollywoodies.

A simple little adventure story with a well played sound track and a mention of the old home town as a sort of Nirvana for a mourning kid in trouble – what more could you want? Check it out…don’t waste your time on Late Night – it’ll just make you more cynical..like me.

And Now a Word from a Fanatic? The title of David Brook’s column today. The Comments are actually more interesting than the piece, but in line with yesterday’s post, here’s a quote from the column: “Catastrophizing is my mind-set. Catastrophizing is pure: Society is totally corrupt. The “system” is totally rotten. I am terrified by ambiguity and ambivalence, the idea that the glass might be only half full. I seize on the extreme example of anything and take it to be the typical case. In this way I create my truth. An immigrant committed murders, so immigrants are murderers. “

Here’s another line from his column; I’ll start my discussion from this one:

“To know anything about me you have to understand the chaos at the core of my innermost being. “

So now we have another ‘thought leader’ describing these characters who are ‘catastrophizing’…is that a word? With chaos – there’s that word again – at the core of his innermost being. Yes, his. A fair number of these individuals are like mass shooters – disaffected, under or unemployed males. That’s the picture being painted. So the comments on the piece? They fall into two categories: First – The Russians are Coming..no! The Russians are Here!! They’re the ones posting this scary stuff. Second: those of us on the left can’t be included with the trolls from the right, because we’re all good and they’re all bad. Jeez – kinda reinforces his point, eh?

But no. The world of internet commentary is binary and simple, but more like a reality tv show than real life. So much of this is made up, and because he can be anonymous on the ‘net, he’ll say most anything. Why? Because for a brief moment, he can be the star of his own little reality show.

The real radicals right now are the folks – young and old – filling the streets of Hong Kong. You wouldn’t be likely to find any of these internet commentators doing such a radical thing – it would interfere with their on-line gaming and commentary time. The citizens of Hong Kong protesting what they consider overreach by Beijing through Carrie Lam, the administrator, are defending their little island in a sea of repression. I’m confident the central committee back on the mainland would describe these individuals as equivalent to the person Brooks and the Danish/Philadelphia authors describe. But the protesters are just trying to be left alone to live their lives, distanced from the overreach and control of the Chinese Communist authorities. Hail Hong Kong protesters – may you be spared another Tiananmen Square fate.

This is what I believe to be true. When the chips are down, so to speak, when the issues are real and meaningful, internet rants will turn into action. But my question is: when does a group decide the issues are real? Who is the group? It could be anybody about anything. It makes for a fascinating time to be alive, eh?

The circulation of hostile political rumors (including but not limited to false news and conspiracy theories) has gained prominence in public debates across advanced democracies. Here, we provide the first comprehensive assessment of the psychological syndrome that elicits motivations to share hostile political rumors among citizens of democratic societies. Against the notion that sharing occurs to help one mainstream political actor in the increasingly polarized electoral competition against other mainstream actors, we demonstrate that sharing motivations are associated with ‘chaotic’ motivations to “burn down” the entire established democratic ‘cosmos’. We show that this extreme discontent is associated with motivations to share hostile political rumors, not because such rumors are viewed to be true but because they are believed to mobilize the audience against disliked elites. We introduce an individual difference measure, the “Need for Chaos”, to measure these motivations and illuminate their social causes, linked to frustrated status-seeking. Finally, we show that chaotic motivations are surprisingly widespread within advanced democracies, having some hold in up to 40 percent of the American national population.

That’s the abstract for the paper I mentioned yesterday. Thomas Edsall found it, and wrote about it in the NY Times yesterday. I think the authors from Denmark and Philadelphia are onto something.

Desiring chaos as a way to feel better about oneself – a story as old as time. Brings to mind Coriolanus again..the citizens and some ‘populist’ politicians of Rome, work hard to bring down the hero Caius Marcius. The result in Edward De Vere, alias Shakespeare’s play, is the hero turns against Rome and teams up with the enemy at the gates. Edsall picks up on this, wondering what will happen if Trump loses in 2020. Interesting question – likely not a pretty answer.

This notion has been in my head too. My latest series of installments reflects this idea, but in a different way. My ‘intellectual’ web guru is the sower of chaos. The down- and- outers in the story fall under his spell and behave monstrously out of a combination of fear and love..fear of the future and love for their children. It becomes a sort of mass psychosis, and once started, it gets normalized. The guru is motivated by anger at his institution for stealing his patents and then firing him. Sowing chaos makes him feel he is somehow getting even with these ‘elites’ – just as the authors of this paper indicate. When he starts his podcasts, it’s within a relatively small sphere of people. Once the ‘system’ tries to stop him, he goes national with his persuasive, simple to understand messages. Along the way, he takes down liars, hypocrites and pornographers. So who’s the good guy and who’s the baddie here? Depends on your perspective.

Haven’t written in six days – been running away from Hurricanes.

Close but no cigar…sorry, Dorian.

Have an interesting piece to parse ..ha ha.. but not today – still recovering from four days away from home. Tomorrow..I promise. But I did go back to the gym today – hurray for me.

Later

Day 432 and the topic du jour is again the weather – should we stay or should we flee to Tallahassee? That is the question we are currently waffling about.

My instinct is to stay put, dashing the hopes of in-house daughter that she’ll have the house to herself, weather be damned. Yeah – that makes as much sense to me as the current model runs.

What we got here is failure to communicate (Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke). The two pre-eminent models, the European and the GFS – otherwise known as the American – don’t agree on where the eye of the storm is going. Thus far, neither has been particularly accurate with this hurricane. It was supposed to hit Puerto Rico (bless their hearts) but instead, changed course and hit the Virgin Islands. The American model has been updated this year, so it’s the maiden voyage for the ‘new and improved’ version. Wonderful. It says the storm will hit Florida somewhere near Jacksonville. The European model has been the most accurate the last few years in predicting storm paths, and it’s the one that says Dorian is going to hit us dead on. So what does the weather service do? The split the difference between the two and predict a mid-state direct hit. Either way, at least half of the east coast of Florida will be hit simultaneous with what’s referred to as king tides. What’s that? Higher than normal tides that coincide with new or full moons. That will occur just about the time the storm makes landfall in Florida. Coastal areas will see longer retention times for water because it can’t recede with the higher tides. Not our problem.

What to do? Prepare as best we can. The generator works; we have flashlights and lanterns for when we lose power. We have a gas cooktop, gas hot water heater and gas dryer, so they will all be available to use. Just have to ensure a steady gasoline supply to keep the generator fed…the Achilles heel of hurricane preparedness. The local gas stations all seem to run out about the same time. Ah well…we’ll just KBO.

Day 433 and I suppose it’s time to talk about the weather. Thanks to the El Nino fading, our hurricane protection has now gone away. Crank up the generators, and kiss Puerto Rico goodbye – again.

You’d think by now we’d be used to hurricanes hitting us in September and October – gotten to be a habit with the weather gods. Michael, Iris, Matthew – all occurring in this time frame. We missed a direct hit with Matthew and never lost power. Iris was worse; no power for 4 days and the house got to 89° F before we bailed and went into town for a fine meal at very-much powered up McCarthy’s pub. Best meal ever! Michael went to Tallahassee and played havoc with our home and child there. So this time, we have a storm named Dorian, who was supposed to come in as a tropical storm and is now aiming at Melbourne as a Category 3. They can get the track right; never the intensity.

But geez – how many storms do we have to experience before we see the pattern? The intensification generally occurs as it gets closer to land and then may back off a bit in shallower waters. But ask the people about that at Mexico Beach that Michael wiped out last year.

I doubt they’ve made much progress in rebuilding. But they won’t get the brunt of Dorian; Daytona will. Watch out, sister in Deland! You’re a bit inland, but do you have a generator? If not, might be wise to grab one before they’re all gone – all those trees around y’all’s property may have an impact. I’ll call her and talk about it. Later, hurricane haters!

If there ever was a time to be concerned about global politics and economics, that time is now – likely more than at any time since 1939. But back then, we had Winston Churchill, FDR and yes, Joseph Stalin who made sure his troops knew that anyone retreating would be shot. That is a genuine incentive to push forward. But leaders they were – contrary to what we have today.

I’ve been reading Zinky Boys by Svetlana Alexeivich about Russia’s adventures in Afghanistan that preceded ours by a decade. Often referred to as Russia’s VietNam, I’d call that incorrect. When America left ‘Nam, a few years later we impeached a president and started to watch Saturday Night Live. When Russia left Afghanistan and experienced the explosion at Chernobyl, the empire melted down, just like the reactor. The wall between East and West Berlin came down, and shortly thereafter, the emboldened countries in eastern Europe declared their independence. Russia was too broke to send troops to fend off these moves to democracy.

Soldiers returning home in zinc coffins was the origin of the term Zinky Boys. Svetlana captured commentary from soldiers, nurses, mothers, officers and enlisted men to describe the experience of fighting an unseen enemy who was determined to oust Russian soldiers from its country. Of course, we’re still there after 18 years, but in small numbers with very limited casualties. But here’s what I’ve gleaned from reading this book, as well as her Voices From Chernobyl, from which Craig Mazzin wrote the screenplay for the HBO series. After these two major shocks to the Russian system, it showed ordinary people that the state – contrary to what they’d been told – was not infallible and – more importantly – was unable to care for them, individually or collectively. The curtain was pulled back and the guy pulling the levers was revealed to be a fraud. Only in this case, it was the system that was the fraud. Broke is broke, and we see that today in countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

What’s that got to do with my first paragraph? The paucity of leadership has created a world today running on fear, anger and hatred – very much like Germany, Italy and Japan in 1939. We are on the cusp of something ugly, generated by this craven and spineless set of politicians currently running things. There doesn’t appear to be anything better anywhere on the horizon. So be prepared to experience a conflagration on a much bigger scale than the war in Afghanistan or a nuclear meltdown. The only interesting question now is what will be the spark that sets off whatever is coming. But if history is any guide, I see militarization in all our futures.

Four hundred thirty five more days ’til the election and the world is no longer safe for democracy, It appears that many of what I’d call thought leaders are now afraid that income inequality will lead to chaos on a national – or even global – scale. They want to protect what is theirs, and are looking to history as a warning to act before it’s too late. You know all the historic examples – the fall of Greece, Rome, Bourbon France, Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, Libya, Syria. These falls were all caused by income inequality to greater or lesser degrees. A hungry mob is a dangerous mob.

Opiates deadened the pain of unemployment and poverty for a while. Drug companies used databases to locate parts of the country where there were the greatest number of prescriptions being written, and flooded those areas with more opiates. Brings to mind soma from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World – deadens the body and the mind. Hard to join the revolution when you can’t tear yourself away from the couch and the video game (notice the treadmill behind him..)

The DEA was aware of all this, keeping a database themselves that detailed the drug companies’ actions. It took multiple FOIA requests and lawsuit threats to get them to turn over the data, and it contained some fascinating information – a clear example of Pareto’s law (20% of pharmacies responsible for 80% of opiates prescribed). The hypocrisy and corruption of state and federal government officials, both appointed and elected, is rampant. All this is just another brick in the wall toward – wait for it – dissolution of the various parts of this country, when enough people finally get fed up with a central government that no longer cares for its citizens.

I have no confidence that there’s a path to turn away from this inexorable slide into a breakup, any more than Franklin Pierce could have done anything to stop the civil war. It took Abraham Lincoln being elected president to set the spark that led to secession. But as I pointed out in a previous post, the south effectively brought dissolution to a reality by having three different candidates for president, since none of the three could defeat Lincoln, either in the popular vote or the Electoral College.

But there was an interesting court case reported last week. An elector voted contrary to the rest of the slate from Colorado, where he was supposed to vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead, he voted for John Kasich, and the Secretry of State nullified his vote. A federal appeal’s court said the Secretary couldn’t do that, that voters are actually voting for electors, who are not bound to follow their wishes. Confusing, ain’t it? I expect this’ll go to the Supremes, but in time for the 2020 election? Surely..if not, OMG!

But now that all this is coming out, will anything change? Not until we hit bottom and a critical mass of angry and disgusted citizenry effect change. But who will emerge – Madame Lafarge with her knitting? Or Boris Yeltsin standing on the tank, supported by the Afghantsi (the returned Russian soldiers from Afghanistan that kept the KGB from successfully ousting Gorbachev and then Yeltsin). The odds of a smart group like our founding fathers emerging from the chaos are slim..we’re so past that point of innocence.

Last week was a tough one for just about everyone – except DtheT/crazy. It seems clear being president has, in fact, driven him to the brink of madness , as I predicted. It just took longer than I expected.

He’s telling American CEOs now to abandon their efforts with China – either trading with them or working in country. He’s saying he has the power to compel this directive, using legislation passed by Congress in 1977, which was intended to curb the power of the president. Worked real well, didn’t it?

Most folk think it’s just one of his typical negotiating ploys, and that he won’t carry through with the threat. I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance that he will try, but the logistics of carrying it out are nearly impossible – not to mention the cost associated with that dissolution. I’ve used that word before – just a few posts ago. It would appear we are working toward that goal, with my prediction being it will occur some time around 2025 or 2026. And yes, Virginia, I mean a dissolution of the U S of A…no more United States, but the countries I showed in that illustration. That will be DTT/crazy’s legacy to the good voters of this country – look how powerful I am! I can destroy a country.

What to do? Don’t vote for him in 2020 – change the inexorable direction of the country. See – wasn’t that simple? But we seem to be in a situation similar to the one Winston found himself in on May 10, 1940. He said he’d hoped it wasn’t too late to change the reality that Nazi Germany was going to take over the world. I expect our allies with whom DtheT/crazy is meeting today at the G7 are hoping the same thing. So, take him on? They won’t; too many problems at home for each of them, because of the rise of nationalism everywhere. We’ve a long way to go before this is over; hang on to your hats; it’s gonna be a bumpy ride (Margo Channing; All About Eve).