The Books of Bokonon

This seems like a pretty good frame of reference for sorting out how at risk you are in the US as long as the Trump regime exists. I am probably more in the "keep your eyes peeled" category for now. Let's just say that when I go through airport security now, I make sure my phone is turned completely off. Otherwise due to my line of work, I am definitely not valued as a citizen. I would prefer not to expatriate at this time simply due to age. But if I had to, I am already preparing. Always good to have a backup plan just in case.

There are times when truth really is stranger than fiction. Want to know where Trump found the "intellectual" backing for his insanely awful tariff plan? Rachel Maddow spells it out. Turns out that Peter Navarro, Trump's crackpot trade hawk, cited an individual in his books named Ron Vara as his basis for promoting tariffs. Here's the thing: Ron Vara doesn't exist. He is a work of fiction by Navarro himself. Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro. Yep. In the academic world, we would refer to this as fraud. We shun those who commit fraud in the academy with good reason. In the current White House, fraud is considered a positive. Crikey.

Johnathan Last of The Bulwark goes into just how self-destructive the current White House regime truly is - in the process declaring the American Age is over . When we keep in mind that Trump's big idea for decades has been to reimpose the sorts of tariffs only a Gilded Age president would love (McKinley, anyone?). We now are dealing with a tariff regime that makes no sense. Ask the penguins in isolated Antarctic islands that got caught up in this mess - well actually don't because penguins cannot talk or trade goods and services.  The tariff regime has led the current Canadian Prime Minister (and likely future Prime Minister following elections in the near future) to declare the era of American leadership to be effectively over. As a great power, the US is finished. We just don't quite know the scope of what has been done just yet. The way the tariffs were rolled out had no real coherence. The end result in addition to possible (or probably) plunging all involved into a gl...

It's too soon to say with any certainty, but today is one that is cause for cautious optimism at the very least. I posted the live feed to Cory Booker's record-breaking 25 hour Senate floor speech last night when he had only been on a few hours. At the time I would have had no way of predicting how long he would hold the floor. His action beat the previous record of Strom Thurmond (an old-school segregationist) that went back to the 1950s, who needed to swept into the dustbin of history anyway. This speech was more than a form of performance art. Senator Booker tackled substantive issues throughout the 25 hours and four minutes he held the floor. He was joined by Democratic colleagues along the way - a number of whom asked questions to give Senator Booker's voice a rest. And those questions were substantive. For those who question whether or not the Democratic Party can meet the moment, hopefully this day will offer reason to hope. There were a number of special elections ...

This is part of my job that I enjoy the least. #March32Forever [image or embed] — Communies ( @communiess.bsky.social ) April 1, 2025 at 7:15 AM

For those interested, it is streaming live. I don't know if the full live stream will be archived, but just in case: Some action - any action is better than nothing. I am glad to see this. If he can last long enough to disrupt some of Tuesday's Senate business, that's even better. There's something to be said about good trouble.

Last night I finally got some down time and decided to watch a film recommended to me on Netflix called Leave the World Behind . The film has an ensemble cast (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, Myha'la, and Mahershala Ali, among others). It is based on a book that I will now want to read. Based on the reviews I read after the fact, the book is probably far superior to the film, and I say that while at the same time noting that I found the film to be pretty darned good.  It's an apocalyptic film with a fairly basic premise. A bored and out of touch yuppie couple decide to go on vacation with their teenage kids in a beachfront hamlet not far away from their home in Brooklyn. Julia Roberts' character comes across as something of a Karen. Ethan Hawke's character is this superficially politically correct college professor who seems to succeed by charming his way through life (there is something a bit skeezy about that character). Their vacation starts off fairly munda...