August 15, 2022

The Lizard Brain

" The only correct answer to 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' is 'Because it's lizard brain told it to.'" -- Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?


When I went out to feed the beings this morning, two hens waddled rapidly across the lawn to greet me. I suspect that their gate is similar to that of the tyrannosaurus rex. For reasons unidentified, I thought that if a chicken or tyrannosaurus was old, fat, and in poor health, its movements would look more like Donald Trump on stage, or walking down a ramp.

Turning on the morning news, I could not wash that image from my mind. Being old, fat, and wrestling covid, it occurred to me that there was a reason the thought of Trump crossing the road might be important. Might the consideration of Donald's "lizard brain" -- the limbic system/ brain stem -- along with his basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex help explain what behaviors that he and his cult are engaged in?

For the sake of this discussion, we should consider a type of human thought and of behavior that are closely related. Both have been part of the human experience since we were coming into being in Africa. Both continue to this very day, both consciously and unconsciously. The first is superstition, which includes beliefs that an objective outsider would recognize cannot be proven to be true.

Rituals involve either individual or group activities that are often, but not always, related to the superstitions. Both superstitions and rituals have the potentials to be good, neutral, or bad. Religious and spiritual beliefs often involve rituals that tend to help an individual in their understanding of the meaning of their life. I think of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X as positive examples. The neutral example that comes to mind is the wall that separates church and state. The negative is when one group wants to force its belief system upon others, and punish those who disagree.

Many decades ago, as an amateur boxer, there was one pair of trunks that I liked to wear into the ring for my potentially toughest fights. In the locker room, my preparation -- getting dressed, having my hands wrapped, and the gloves put on -- was a ritual that helped me to relax and focus my energies. Looking back, I do not think that the cloth the trunks were made of had any magical powers, of course. Yet that superstition and ritual helped me in ways that certainly can't be measured.

Now, let's consider Trump. Perhaps the example that best illustrates superstition is his belief that gold makes him a super human being with magical powers. Thus, the ritual of the (relatively) calm Trump is to pretend he is Scrooge McDuck instead of a human chicken. to wallow in false ledgers, and brag about his wealth. These behaviors demonstrate that he is an utter failure as a human being, someone only admired by other failed specimens.

Angry-afraid Donald is even more a slave to the nonrational, primitive lizrd brain. Indeed, his ritual behaviors are defined by the six "F's" : fight, flight, freeze, fear, feed, and fornicate. In his case, that last one translates to his willingness to fuck anyone to avoid responsibility for his actions. Thus, when confronted, he yells about conspiracies against him, claims victimhood, points fingers, lies faster than my hens can run, threatens, claims to have never lost a fight, and/or throws his plated against a wall.

At this point, while he may appear as pathetic as the decaying carp of hair upon his skull, one might ask why some human beings worship him in a religious manner? The only correct answer is because their lizard brains are telling them to. And that is why the current level of threat from them is so high.

August 12, 2022

Most Peculiar

Due to my friend "kpete" informing us that the House Freedom Caucus not going through with their planned press conference regarding the FBI's visit to mar a loga, I have decided to attempt to construct an essay. It is also in response to Saoirse9 messaging me, noting I am being quiet, and asking if I'm okay?

I did take a hard fall last Friday, injuring my knee, shoulder, and head. Then, on Saturday, I was exposed to a person with covid, before they had any symptoms. Despite being sick and sore, I'm pretty darned alright.

There is, of course, a lot of speculation on what was involved in the FBI's serving the search warrant on Trump's property. Let's first consider the republican response. Though the House Freedom Caucus is opting not to speak, a human being formerly named Ricky Shiffer spoke for them. May he rust in pieces.

Because I lack the capacity to speak about anything without focusing on "systems" and/or "history," allow me to combine them. As we know, systems can be understood by using the model of a mobile over an infant's crib. They attempt to maintain a balance. When something or some individual piece or cluster upsets that balance, the other pieces join together to resist the pressure to move off-balance.

We are witnessing an attempt -- primarily by Democrats, although now including a thin scattering of republicans -- to regain the balance that the Trump cult threatens. (Most republicans, as is their nature, are just scattering, trying to find a safe spot in their corn field, where they can repeat poison Trump's fertilizer.) This takes two things to accomplish: time and focus on the rule of law. As Ringo sang, it don't come easy.

In terms of the federal government, that requires a coordinated effort between the three branches. As we speak, the three are "trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored," so to speak. (Note: Steinbeck's classic "The Grapes of Wrath was banned and burned in parts of the United States. You know, the country with Amendment 1.)

Now, let me add a dose of speculation. What is this all about, I ask myself? If a person is waiting tables, and gets a $2 billion tip, they are engaged in more serving a meal. They are serving the person who gave the tip. Now, admittedly, this is just my opinion. I'm more than willing to consider that Jared got this, with no strings attached. Maybe it happens all the time. I don't know. I', asking for your opinion.

History may hold a clue. Back in the days of the Plame scandal, there was another one that tended to fly under the radar. It invoolved a couple lads from a US group that the FBI raided for suspected espionage. These lads were reportedly sharing intelligence on the potential Iranian WMD program. It's happened before, and it is possible that Donald & Co. were attempting -- or engaged in -- something similar. The fellow who gave the $2 billion tip would surely be interested.

August 10, 2022

Thalassophobia

"On the coast,
The long and tempting coast,
The cards on the table lie,
And a speech,
So eloquent in reach,
Was made by a passerby,
Passing by the way between
Here and left behind.
And it ripples through the crowds
Who run and cast their doubts
In the deep forbidden lake."
-- Neil Young; Deep Forbidden Lake


In the early morning hours, Donald Trump has a nightmare. He finds himself in deep, dark water, far beyond any point he has ever been at before. For Donald is uncomfortable in water. He attempts to locate a spot where he can stand, but he is in too deep. He is aware that some of his cult members are on the distant shore, waving the confederate rag, singing, "Lock her up!" Ron DeSantis can be heard laughing.

Suddenly, Trump feels something bump into his legs. Trump fears sharks. And this one has a warrent, and a shark with a warrent scares poor Donald greatly. He wakes up in a cold slime. Then he realizes he is in New York City, not deep, dark water. But he cannot rid his mind of the fear.

One can tell a lot about a person, including a president, by considering their relationship with water. My generation remembers John F. Kennedy, either swimming in or sailing on the ocean. We remember PT 109, and his heroics in deep, dark water. More recently, we have seen a trim, physically fit President Obama enjoying activities in water.

Pictures of Richard Nixon, walking on the shore wearing a suit and dress shoes, was intended to communicate one message. But it backfired in showing his discomfort with the water. Now we have an ex-president who exposed his lack of understanding of oceans when he suggested nuking gathering hurricanes in the Atlantic. This, I think, provides us with clues to how he will react to the FBI executing a search warrent at mar-a-lago.

For Trump is a sociopath. When under pressure before, he has always reacted by tossing the biggest bombs available to "enemies" -- those posing a threat to him. He lacks the capacity to have a conscious awareness that he has done wrong. Instead, he seeks to impose on any and all people but him. He will hug the American flag, claim victimhood, and obviously try to capitalize on this by seeking donations from his cult.

Each time he was able to avoid consequences for his misdeeds -- and that spans from his youth until Sunday -- He grew more confident. And every time, he would do something worse, fully believing he was above the law. But this is different. Indeed, poor Donald has never faced more pressure than he is dealing with today. He has never been tossed into this deep of dark waters.

Surely, Trump's legal team has advised him to be quiet. But Trump never listens to any lawyer thinking that they know the law better than him. And under pressure, he listens closely to a cluster of phantoms that inhabit his mind. Enemies everywhere. Conspiracies against him abound. Bad enough that many he believed were loyal, if only for fear, have betrayed him by testifying not only to the January 6 Committee, but have met with the Department of Justice, including the sharks in the FBI. Timing is always important.

August 4, 2022

Go Ask Alex: Phase Two

"A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying -- lying to others and to yourself." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky


I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Alex Jones for proving, in a very public trial, that Dostoevsky was correct.

And I actually do thank the plaintiffs, their legal team, and the judge in this case for exposing the filth known as info-wars.

I hope to thank the jury soon.

August 1, 2022

Political Climate Change

Despite getting some rain last week, with more to come at the end of this week, it is dry here in rural upstate New York. My rain barrels are again low, and so when I water the garden in the evening, I'm not using as much as I'd like to. Still, I am getting more beans, cucumbers, and peas than I can eat, and so I share some with neighbors. And some will be canned or froozen.

My cousin called me last night. He had visited his 92-year old mother in the evening, as he does daily. They were talking about current events, and he commented that he cannot believe how stupid the republican base is. She said that there has always been about the same percentage of stupid people throughout her life, that it is just that television and the internet get them worked up, and expose us to their ignorance.

This got me thinking about the environment crisis that is here, on Earth, today. It is worse now for some people than others around the globe. I cannot, for example, compare seeing that the open spring that feeds my pond producing less water than in 27 years -- less than in 2016, the worst drought on record here -- to people losing their homes to wildfires in California. Or to the farmers in Central America not able to produce crops to feed their families due to the on-going drought.

I think of how many of us, including myself, can take things like water and electric for granted ..... until a storm causes the electric to go out for anywhere from minutes to days. In other places, such as parts of Kentucky, it will be out for a lot longer.

I, for one, tend to curse out loud if the television goes blank while I am watching something of interest. Then I think of my father, raised in a home with no running water or electricity. Or the people who lived in this house before electricity and running water. It's not that we have to go back to that. But we do need to consider how much we use, and how much corporations -- like those in the above video -- use.

And that is not dependent on if one believes that human beings are the primary cause of environmental changes. If your well runs dry, it isn't going to matter if you say, "I don't believe it." If your house is on fire, it doesn't matter if you are convinced it is a Chinese conspiracy. Burying one's head in the sand is not a good option at this time.

That includes all the forms of denial, across the board. This includes saying it isn't the number one issue voters list in polls, and thus not a good campaign issue. Climate change is real. It is here now. It's not pleasant to think about, but it will change society. And as LBJ said, "We must change to master change."