№ 412.1: EXTRA! A Distraction?

WSJ: Poll Shows NFL Fan Interest Remains Lower, Stark Divisions Over Anthem Protests (Paywall)

Fewer people, in particular Republicans, are following the NFL closely than they did four years ago, according to new WSJ/NBC News poll

NFL owners happy with anthem “discussions”
because they take people's minds off concussions?

№ 412: Speaker Ryan

Obviously,

no one can be 

Christian
AND Libertarian.

Actively
preaching the Trinity

while claiming to be
Unitarian.

Libertarians,
for all their convictions,
tend to forget
Ayn Rand wrote fictions.
While, for their part,

Christians, at heart,

are communitarian

not in the least bit

are they libertarian.

But Ryan insists

this is what he is.

Christian
AND Libertarian,

that is.

He is THE EXPERT

so let him be.

He insists he is both

so let us agree.
To paraphrase Schiller's,

perhaps, too apt refrain:

Against stupidity the gods,
themselves, contend in vain.

№: 411: Endgame?

Will we ever erase
this idea nugatory:

the notion that “race”

is a real category?

Ethnicity, yes,

language, I guess.

Religion, of course,

's a continuing source

of intercommunal strife.

And nationality

trumps rationality

in most every aspect of life.
Culture's another
terrific divider:
marking distinction between
in- and outsider.
Sex orientation's

dividing nations.
(As if we need
yet more perturbations.)
The Bible says,
“Be fruitful and multiply.”
Instead we divide.
I don't know why.

Would that we could

fast forward the sequel

to that happy day

when everyone's equal.

A world full of equal

sisters and brothers.

(And as Orwell foresaw

some more equal than others?)

Not really relevant, but when Barbra met Elliott.. . .

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№ 410.3: EXTRA! Rudy Loses Romanian Dignity

Guardian: Giuliani says firm defending corrupt Romanian-American is paying him

Trump’s attorney said he wrote to the Romanian president under a retainer paid by Freeh Group, who represent Gabriel Popoviciu

Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani is being paid to assist lawyers working to free a wealthy Romanian-American real estate magnate who was convicted and sentenced to prison over a corrupt land deal.

Please excuse “Puiu” Popoviciu

for being a corrupt oligarch.

It was only some crooked real estate deal,

nothing more than a lark.

Business as usual or so says my boss —

you do know I work for the president? —

who joins me in noting punishing deal makers

could set a very bad precedent.

(And you know he's the White House's chief resident.)

Of course, you know best

how to do your duty,

but in enforcing the “law”

there's no need to be snooty.

Donald says so.

As ever, Rudy.

(America's Mayor who no longer has hair.)

№ 410.2 EXTRA! Another Good Guy Says Goodbye (I wonder why?)

WSJ: White House Counsel Don McGahn Will Leave Post in the Fall (Paywall)

Mr. McGahn, who was also chief counsel for Mr. Trump’s campaign, had discussed his departure with the president earlier this year, but was surprised by the president’s tweet, as were several other senior White House aides including chief communications adviser Bill Shine, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Though we'd never say it

it does seem to us

that it's getting real crowded there

under the bus.

№ 410.1: EXTRA! Ya Think?

Scientific American: Are Humans the Only Conscious Animal? (Subscription may be required)

Might we humans be the only species on this planet to be truly conscious? Might lobsters and lions, beetles and bats be unconscious automata, responding to their worlds with no hint of conscious experience? Aristotle thought so, claiming that humans have rational souls but that other animals have only the instincts needed to survive. In medieval Christianity the “great chain of being” placed humans on a level above soulless animals and below only God and the angels. And in the 17th century French philosopher René Descartes argued that other animals have only reflex behaviors. Yet the more biology we learn, the more obvious it is that we share not only anatomy, physiology and genetics with other animals but also systems of vision, hearing, memory and emotional expression. Could it really be that we alone have an extra special something—this marvelous inner world of subjective experience?

Non-human animals.

Do they feel pain?

Are they really conscious?

Would being conscious be to their gain?

Granted, most don't harm others for pleasure.

AND they appear to prefer pleasant weather.

Deep thinkers argue, “But do they think?

Is what they do just reflex and instinct?”

Really, this question strikes me as bizarre.

Don't ask if they're conscious.

ASK WHETHER WE ARE!

№ 410: World Geography (Borneo)

Is it inessential,

a waste of potential,

being born a brain surgeon on Borneo,

where Malaysians,

Bruneians and Indonesians,

have countless abilities

and modern facilities

so a Bornean brain surgeon

is, indeed, apropos?

I'm an American.

How would I know?

Where knowledge should be

a considerable gap is.

I don't really know

where Borneo

on the map is.

№ 409.1: EXTRA! A Tweet (and a prayer)

Guardian: Donald Trump: Google’s news service is rigged against me

US president claims ‘Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good’

I've studied the matter and I cannot see

why anyone, anywhere would not love me.

I'm handsome, I'm smart. I am really rich

and well educated. I'm sexy. Sonofabitch!

Anyone claiming I have a flaw

is in violation of what should be the law.

That it is not is a small technicality.

Congress address with true impartiality!

Make it a crime to demean my regality!

THE central tenet of my theology:

Everyone, everywhere owes me an apology.

So say, “I'm sorry!” or you will be sued.

I cannot stand it when people are rude.

№ 409: What DO You Tell The Kids?

If you have children —

very worst luck! —

your problem is telling them

life's bound to suck.

So few parents do.

I know, WTF!

Even those whose lives arrive on silver platters

soon or late deal with unpleasant matters.

Mummies and daddies and tutors and nannies 

cannot protect you from all of the baddies

lurking in shadows, themselves ill-equipped

to play any role in this encrypted manuscript.

However hard we endeavor to strive 

to do minimal harm and still survive,

we foolish and clumsy unhairy apes

should keep close at hand lots of duct tape.

I recall Grandma Moses is said to have said

something I try always to keep in my head:
“Life is what you make it. Always has been. Always will be.”

I don't know about you, but that sounds good to me.

Click

№ 408.1: EXTRA! A Trump Solution For Air Pollution

Guardian: Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health. . .

Set fossil-fuel economy free,

reduce IQ, lock in majority

at the same time purging Medicare rolls.

(We won't even need Vladimir's trolls.)

Let them eat cake.

To be fair and square,

if they have cake,

they do not need air.

№ 408: Mosquito Rights

Quartz: Mosquitoes

. . .the minuscule bloodsuckers kill hundreds of thousands of humans each year, earning the notorious distinction of being the deadliest animal in the world.

A lady mosquito has to drink blood.

It's what she was born to do.

If you were a lady mosquito,

that is what you would do, too.

She does not intend to cause you to sneeze,

feel ill-at-ease, give you disease.

She must drink your blood —

it's her mothering instinct.

If she doesn't lay eggs,

she'll go extinct.

Same as everyone else in this zoo,

animals, plants and you and me too,

we gotta do what we gotta do.

The Week In Rearview (August 26, 2018)

Monday, August 20
№ 403: Compare And Contrast: Donald and Gotti
What is the diff 'twixt
Donald and Gotti?

Tuesday, August 21
№ 404: Artificifail Intelligence
When robots learn how to think

will they think we are their gods?

Wednesday, August 22
№ 405: Trump Doctrine Emerges (musings from the latrine)
I mean what I say

and I say what I mean

Thursday, August 23
№ 406: Trump's Unfolding Strategy
I could maybe sit down with Mueller

with a Diet Coke and a cruller

№ 406.1 EXTRA! The Royal Wee (Trump's secret letter to former and present aides under investigation or already indicted)
Judges and juries

and their opinions

have no effect

on my millions of minions.

Friday, August 24
№ 407: The Second Coming 7 - 2 SCOTUS Majority
Stare decisis
just comes from Jesus.

Email subscribers: Saturday, August 18 – Friday, August 24
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