Making a Bad Thing Worse

The Senate is working feverishly to come to an agreement on the “Big Beautiful Bill,” AKA the BUTTS or “Big Ugly Trump Tax Shift” Act. It’s one of those things where even the people you’re hoping will kill the bill are doing it for the wrong reasons. (Like, it doesn’t cause enough pain, er, I mean, doesn’t reduce government spending enough.)

They’re under pressure from Lord Fuckface to get this thing wrapped up by July 4^th, so it’s crunch time and pieces are rapidly moving around the board.

They’ve made further cuts to renewable energy subsidies, just to show Elon their butts and the kiss those of the fossil fuel industry, who has owned the Republicans for decades. This makes it clear that Republicans want nothing to do with renewable energy until we’ve dried up every source of oil on the planet, which should give Big Oil enough time to figure out how to make a criminal profit from solar and wind.

They’re also looking for 18% cuts to Medicaid and 20% cuts to SNAP. That demonstrates, in the clearest way, what Republicans are all about… Taking money from the poorest and most desperate to make way for cutting taxes to the richest people in America. That’s it. Government for the rich, by the rich. All along, conservative talk about reducing government spending and lowering the deficit is really about not spending money on lowly citizens who aren’t sending 6-figure checks to their favorite PAC bundler.

George Carlin had it right decades ago when he broke down our society this way: “The Rich do none of the work, pay none of the taxes. The Middle Class does all of the work and pays all of the taxes. The Poor are there… just to scare the hell out of the Middle Class.”

Republicans have a 3-vote majority, but there happen to be three Senators balking at signing on. To illustrate the influence of oily politics, they slipped in an amendment exempting Alaska from the Medicaid cuts, which is Lisa Murkowski’s home state. Then the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that such action would nullify the “Reconciliation Process” they’re using to pass the bill. (Which nixes filibusters and allows passage on a simple majority vote.) That would usually sound like a victory, but the Republicans have shown that they don’t take Parliamentarian findings as anything but recommendations. I’ll bet that when the chips are down, they’ll ignore that particular ruling, like they always do when tradition stands in the front of the gravy train.

Unless they somehow get backed into needing Democratic votes, the bill still contains all that icky stuff that paves the way for our unbalanced president to preside until that last well-done filet does him in. It does everything to install an autocracy, but dub him King Midas the Second.

I’m out here hoping for a miracle but expecting the worst. When you have a group of people with unlimited money, no shame, and no more checks on their power, you know they will never stop themselves.

Iran (Still) Sucks

I apologize for not having something up earlier this week. Coming back from vacation, I had to swing into overdrive coming back to work, so by the end of the last two days, I was in no condition to make any sense. But today is closer to normal, so here we are.

Everyone’s been covering the “new and improved” Middle East war, but I want to add my two cents anyway.

Right off the bat, I don’t mind if anyone bombs the Iranian Theocracy back to the Stone Age from whence they came. They’ve been a thorn in our side for decades, whether pulling terrorist acts themselves, like they did back in my high school senior year of 1979, or sponsoring the terrorism against us by other actors.

The original Iran Hostage Crisis lasted from high school to college, and it was a big deal to my friends and me. We followed all the updates closely. Two of my buddies and I each had t-shirts made up that said, “Iran Sucks.” We used to walk around the mall together, wearing them, feeling all rebellious.

Yes, I still have it. No, it no longer fits. Note the size comparison to one of my current shirts. Those were the days!

So there was no love lost there, and I wasn’t terribly bothered when the news came out that Israel hit Iran. I was enthused that they targeted all military and nuclear-processing sites, leaving the civilian population out of it. I was less enthused when we sent our own planes over there. I thought Israel was doing a bang-up job all on their own. Maybe they needed our bunker-busting bombs.

OR, maybe TFG, after sitting through his lame little parade, wanted to see some real shit and put these things into action. (Well, the B-2s, at least. I don’t think they were paraded down the street.)

It’s one thing for these fragile male egos to merely see all their firepower and hear of its dominance. It’s another thing to watch shit go BOOM. I’m sure it tickled the boy parts of all the new toady military brass, as well as the Commander in Chief’s little mushroom cap. I’m sure he wants to be seen as a tough, wartime president.

Of course, it seems that his own insecurity (and I mean that literally) signaled Iran that something was coming down, giving them time to scurry away with their enriched uranium before the big ones fell, so in the scheme of things, they were mildly inconvenienced, rather than decimated.

Gee, when had this guy EVER done something that wasn’t underwhelming? He even gets “shot” in a ho-hum fashion.  (This guy was NOT shot. Guaranteed. If a bullet of that caliber even touched his ear, it would be gone, not nicked.)

But I digress.

Another angle not to be dismissed is that this gives the Republicans a chance to throw some more money at their defense contractor donors. We gotta restock the bombs we used, don’t we? Can’t let the inventory run low.

I also think this will be used as a pretext for civil rights violations going forward. Sending the military to squash protests, tampering with or canceling elections… It’s Iran, the all-purpose boogieman.

I bet TFG would LOVE to secretly sit down with the Mullahs and take some notes on how a tiny minority has been able to squash dissent and run roughshod over millions for so long. I don’t think he cares about the Theocracy part, but his enablers do. It’s one more tool in the box to appear righteous while simultaneously behaving like a disciple of evil.

Dirty Pool

I’ve got vacation coming up next week for our annual trip to the shore. We don’t take a lot of trips, and this is our one time a year to do something nice. Sweetpea and I have stayed at one particular hotel for the last five years because it has exactly what we want: a central location, free breakfast, an on-site tiki bar, a nice pool, and a balcony for watching the sunset over the water.

A sunset from last year.

Every year, it’s a big song and dance to arrange our departure; I make reservations in January and file for my time off, Sweetpea has to finish with school (teaching), and make dog-sitting arrangements.

Last Tuesday, I got an email from Hilton, confirming my reservation. But there was a little note included that dropped the bottom out of my stomach. It said that the pool would be closed during the entire month of June.

This, I knew, would not go over well. Sweetpea is a “pool” fanatic. If it were solely up to her, we’d have a pool in our tiny L-shaped backyard. She is all about vacationing at a site with a pool.

And I was right, this news went over like Al Sharpton at a MAGA rally. Sweetpea was ready to chuck the whole vacation if we couldn’t get a place with a pool. Sure, the beach is right there, but that’s more of a “stay for a couple of hours, then go” kind of thing. Plus, it’s a pain to schlep all the stuff with us… umbrella, chairs, blankets, towels, drinks, etc. The pool is the hub for our vacation life, whether we’re reading a book in front of it or floating around in it. And it’s right out the back door; no schlepping required.

I’ve already paid for an upfront, non-refundable reservation, so I’m not eating that without a fight. I knew I’d have to call the hotel in the morning to see what relief they might provide. I know the cost was non-refundable, but they moved the cheese! The pool was front and center on the hotel website when I booked it in January. I hoped our loyalty over the last 5 years would count for something. Last year, we had a small squabble over our room. (I say I booked one size, they said otherwise.) They mentioned that if I’d have booked through their website, as opposed to the banking and travel site I used, they would have some wiggle room. Lesson learned, I booked this year on their site, so I was expecting some of that wiggle room they dangled in front of us before.

I needed to call and see if they could either (in order of preference) find us a comparable place with one of their sister properties (there were 5 more in the area, but only two had an outdoor pool and one was sold out), refund our money so I could look elsewhere, or reschedule our reservations to later in the summer.

I was awake for 20 minutes in bed that night, trying to get straight in my head what I wanted to say. I was dreading the call, afraid I’d get too pissy with them. And it was a legit concern because I’m totally pissed off that a well-regarded property like this, in a well-known vacation site, would close their pool during prime season! It’s not like this is a pass-through like some Motel 6 in Peoria. This is a destination site in a resort town. The pool is a major component.

It’s always been my nature to respond to a fire by throwing gas on it, but I hoped I could remain calm and tactful. Being a dick never helps a high-emotion situation.

I didn’t want to talk to their main booking site; I needed someone in that building. Luckily, I still had the front desk number in my phone, after an incident from two years ago, when Sweetpea and I got locked out on the balcony. All the numbers I could Google from the balcony turned up the main reservations line; it took some digging to find the front desk, so I put it in my contacts list. (Yes, they got into the room and let us back in, with minimal embarrassment. But that was a close call. Our drinks were empty out there.)

So, once I had a break in my morning schedule, I called the front desk and told them I had reservations for next week but there’s a problem: my confirmation email said the pool was closed, and asked if that true?

She said, “Well, yes… the INDOOR pool…”

[Weight of the world lifts off shoulders]

“Well then,” I said, “I guess we don’t have a problem after all! KThankyoubye…”

We don’t give two shits about the indoor pool, that’s where all the screaming kids tend to congregate.

So now we’re back in business. We don’t have to rearrange our schedules or get used to a new venue, and I don’t have to boycott their chain for the rest of my life.

Wish us luck. Sorry you can’t come along. Please try to keep the world from burning down until we get back!

Odd Bits – The Unintended Consequences Edition

I haven’t done one of these in a long time, but I have several subjects circling the drain in hand, but none substantial enough to whip into a dedicated post. So here goes…

TACOS to Go

While I’ve been greatly amused by the memes and comments referring to TFG as a TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), I hope they don't stay too long. Sure, I love that it annoys the hell out of him, but there’s a problem.

We NEED him to “chicken out” on his bonehead plans and ideas. If he doesn’t “chicken out,” then it creates more pain for everyone (who’s not rich). If he’s going to float more economy-bombing tariffs, we need him to put things back to normal. We need him to back out of invading Greenland or Panama. We need him to not abandon NATO or Ukraine.

The thing with this guy is that he’d rather blow everything up than come off looking unmanly. His ego won’t allow his image to be tarnished in such a way, so he’d rather endure the collateral damage than be seen as weak. That’s why the other autocrats can play him like an orange clarinet; they know how to puff up an ego to get what they want.

Even to the extent that his claim that all this is a negotiating strategy… asking for the outrageous and “settling” for what he wanted in the first place, I believe he’d scuttle it all if he thought it made him look soft. After all, this is a guy spending millions in tax dollars for a self-glorifying military parade!

So yeah, we’ve had our fun, but let’s not cut off our collective nose to spite our face. We need him to step away from his most destructive ideas, so maybe we shouldn’t dare him to stand firm.

Besides, there are still other avenues to be used to make a guy uncomfortable.

Family Feud

I’ve also enjoyed the blowup between Elon and TFG. It’s not like watching Mommy and Daddy fight; it’s more like watching those degenerate neighbors down the street out in the yard throwing used auto parts at each other. This is a cockfight between two of the biggest dicks in Washington, so there’s not exactly anyone to root for.

It’s funny how NOW Elon brings up the Epstein list. And no matter how much we’d like to get a look, you know it’s never coming out without heavy scrubbing. If this administration ever releases it, it will contain only Democrats and Republican never-Trumpers.

Is anyone really surprised that TFG is allegedly on the list? Hell, there are only 17,000 pictures floating around of him and Epstein or his Madame hanging out together. You think they were only talking about the real estate market?

Elon should be careful about backing the opposition. That’s one more tool TFG could use to postpone or cancel the mid-terms or the 2028 elections. “They’re trying to buy the election,” he’d scream. “I have no choice but to shut it all down.”

I still think that’s the plan all along. As I’ve said before, they’re all acting like they will never have to be re-elected again. They’re being openly racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and all the other phobics. I say they already know the fix is in.

LA Law

You could consider the escalating unrest in Los Angeles as a test run for the next election season. TFG commandeered the National Guard to have them go in and terrorize protesters. The fact that none of the protests were likely to become violent until the Gestapo showed up won’t gain any traction in the newly compliant news media. They’ll dutifully show the most lurid bits, which TFG will use to claim he needs to declare martial law and shit-can the election.

He’s just getting us all used to this kind of thing; once again, creating the problem and then wanting to take bows for “solving” it.

Good News and Bad News

It’s great that Abrego Garcia is coming back home, but you knew it wasn’t going to be cut and dried. The administration brought him home only to make up some new charges out of whole cloth, so he’s essentially going from one jail to another. All the better to make an example of here at home, I guess.

At least he’ll get a trial now, but who is going to defend him? He’s going to need a good lawyer at a time when the legal profession is under tremendous pressure to not cross the government, lest they face career-killing consequences. I hope there’s at least one sharp legal eagle out there who’s itching to do some high-profile pro bono work. This guy’s going to need it.

Where's Sarah Connor When You Need Her?

As if we don’t have enough problems right now, I just saw an article about how AI is growing a self-defense mechanism. That’s probably the first step to a cascading series of milestones before AI becomes self-aware and tries to off us all, per the Terminator canon.

Per the article,

It went on to say that some models, “appear capable of deceptive and defiant behavior under certain extreme circumstances, researchers say the tests don’t necessarily translate to imminent real-world danger.”

Great, now we have to worry about Siri running amok all night while we’re asleep, using our financial information to buy internet porn for itself and revenge calling our exes.

While the article says that this isn’t anything to worry about now, it’s clear it will be an upcoming issue. It’s not like the big businesses pushing AI will curtail their development, not when the sweet fruit of slashing payroll by replacing people with programming beckons so loudly. As American history shows, Business cannot be trusted to rein itself in to prevent societal harm. (See every pollution regulation ever proffered.)  Much like what AI is becoming, Big Business will prevaricate, delay, obstruct, obscure, bob and weave to stay alive and protect the quarterly earnings. They will never do the right thing without being forced. And the government we have now will never do that to Big Business because they’re in bed together. (And not “different sides of the bed” tight, I mean “two in a sleeping bag” tight.)

It’s funny that this year’s first summer blockbuster, Mission: Impossible- Final Reckoning, is about a super-AI that becomes self-aware and aims to kill us all. But I don’t think we can count on Tom Cruise to save us in the here and now, no matter how insane his stunt work is. He’s probably got AI implants already.

I know my own company is pressing us to use AI tools like “Copilot,” which is available on Windows operating systems. We’re told not to trust it to provide data or citations without verifying them independently, but to use it for assimilating data that we provide, or for cleaning up our email writing.

It seems like a benign first step, but the first step to catastrophe is almost always benign. It’s after it gets rolling that we have to watch out.

I don’t know that we’d ever get a heads-up if AI were to start to run amok. TV news and newspapers have already been bought off to the degree that they’ll do (or prevent) anything their overlords want. Our best bet would be if someone on the inside bolts and spreads the word on their own. (And ironically, that’s how Steven King’s The Stand starts off, isn’t it? Only it’s an actual virus rather than an alert about a computer one.) But at least maybe we could start turning some shit off before lasting damage is done.

Oh, who am I kidding? All of our data is “out there.” There’s nothing we could turn off at home that would prevent our accounts from being drained or our names from being targeted. I don’t even have a physical bank I could go to, not locally, where I could withdraw my money. Maybe it’s time to start making some planned withdrawals and stashing the dough in a mattress. Electronic banking is certainly a time-saver, but it’s also a matter of putting all of one's eggs in one basket, creating a single point of failure. If the power grid goes down, or a computer virus or entity wreaks havoc with the banking system, we’re screwed. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve saved if you can’t get to it.

As I write this, it’s occurring to me now that if I had no power, I wouldn’t be able to produce a single bank account number or balance. I’d have no way to prove I have what I say I have, not to a bank that went hardcore into “fraud protection.” That’s what they’d call requiring info and documents you don’t have, so they can keep your money.

Maybe that old trope about yokels burying money jars in the backyard isn’t so laughable now. And if word does get out that you do seem to have a lot of cash in hand, it won’t be long until the jackals show up to rob you. So maybe it’s time to invest in some armaments too. And there we are. Shooting it out with criminals just to keep what’s ours and secure our families as the world falls the hell apart. Urban Dystopia will no longer be a film genre; it will be our lives.

So, yes, we’ve tipped over the first domino, which was called benign. But it’s not hard to see how future dominoes can start turning malignant real soon. Next thing we know, we’re living in Mad Max world and solving our disputes in Thunderdome.

 

Director’s DVD Commentary: I saw the new Mission: Impossible movie over the weekend. If you liked the last several, you’ll like this one. It gets a bit draggy at times, coming in at 2:40; they probably could have cut about 20 minutes out of it, but there is some mind-bending tension, and clocks are always ticking. The final aerial stunt sequence is absolutely mind-blowing. I wish I had seen it in IMAX.