It’s a Small World After All
For every alcoholic drink you have, drink 12 ounces of water.
Beer, wine, hard liquor. Whatever.
That’s it.
It works.
I have included a picture of my immensely favorite alcoholic of all time, Christopher Hitches.
He claimed alcohol was his amanuensis. I agree.
a·man·u·en·sis
/əˌmanyəˈwensəs/noun
a literary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.
A Christmas Carol: the heartwarming story of how the wealthy must be supernaturally terrorized into sharing.
Think about it and its implications for our future on this planet.
Updated 01/26/2021:
As a new author doing my own advertising, I can’t create ads on either Google or Facebook for my new book of parody “Concerning Trump” – with no end in sight for the ad restrictions.
The ad bans are related to the 2020 presidential election – which by the way was fair and perhaps the most secure American election – ever.
Don’t take my word for it, Trump’s top cyber security guy said so. Then was fired.
In any case, I await some word from the Galactic Overlords at Google and Facebook to let lowly peons like me promote our product.
So, I just jump through the galactic hoops and wait. And wait.
This is the America we live in now.
We have arrived at a place where the overlords have to stop both Liberals and Conservatives from advertising because we are so polarized as a society.
When will it end? How will it end?
Here’s a quote from my book that pretty much sums up what Trump has done to and continues to do to our wonderful country:
See the screencaps below which show the ad restrictions and that one has to verify your identity as well.
JAN 20, 2021. Biden Inauguration day.
Another delightfully quiet, sane day without Tweets from the Twit-in-Chief.
Thank you, Twitter, for blocking and protecting us from the worst President in the history of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
The following excerpt is from a fantastic article by the New York Times that lists THOUSANDS of insults by Trump.
I picked just one object of Trump’s Twitter ire: the insurrectionist Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Check out he following parable from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and contemplate its applicability to the political divisions we find ourselves in America today:
One cold winter’s day, a number of porcupines huddled together quite closely in order through their mutual warmth to prevent themselves from being frozen. But they soon felt the effect of their quills on one another, which made them again move apart. Now when the need for warmth once more brought them together, the drawback of the quills was repeated so that they were tossed between two evils, until they had discovered the proper distance from which they could best tolerate one another. Thus the need for society which springs from the emptiness and monotony of men’s lives, drives them together; but their many unpleasant and repulsive qualities and insufferable drawbacks once more drive them apart. The mean distance which they finally discover, and which enables them to endure being together, is politeness and good manners. Whoever does not keep to this, is told in England to ‘keep his distance.’ By virtue thereof, it is true that the need for mutual warmth will be only imperfectly satisfied, but on the other hand, the prick of the quills will not be felt. Yet whoever has a great deal of internal warmth of his own will prefer to keep away from society in order to avoid giving or receiving trouble or annoyance.
About the Book:
Political parody can be defined as: “… a literary work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule.” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Parody may help those of us cope who have a liberal or moderate political disposition. It may also help make bearable these turbulent political times under the growing shadow of Trumpism.
This frequently somber, sometimes humorous volume reimagines historical quotes with a keen eye focused on Donald J. Trump, Trumpism, and his Republican party.
But beware, this book can only be taken in small doses.
Like arsenic.
If you read it and start feeling ill, that’s a good sign, a sign that you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in our country under the Trump regime.
Set it aside for a while.
But never set aside your vigilance for leaders like Donald J. Trump.
—
Sample Parody Quotes:
Aquinas, Thomas
Since we cannot know what Trump is, but only what he is not, we must consider the ways in which he is not rather in the ways in which he is. Is that clear?
Arabin, William
Trump, God has given you abilities, instead of which you go about the country talking trash.
Arendt, Hannah
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future. But Trump makes doing so unpredictable and unreliable to the extent that it is humanly possible.
Trump shows that no cause remains but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of tyranny.
For Trump it is easier to act than to think.
Trump haunts us. It is his function to haunt us.
Ariosto, Ludovico
Nature made Trump and then broke the mold.
Aristotle
Trump is dear to Republicans, but dearer still should be truth.
Trump does not know that excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines our destiny.
Trump is fading away because the energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Dignity does not consist in Trump possessing honors, but in him deserving them.
The educated differ from Trump as much as the awake from the dead.
A would-be tyrant like Trump must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Voters are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has God on his side.
Trump and his cult-like followers know that democracies may easily degenerate into despotisms if enough lies are believed. The bigger the lie, the better for them.
Arlen, Michael
It is amazing how nice people will be to Trump after they know he is leaving office.
PHenry at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons
Yup, for real. The American political system is nuts. What happens as as soon as Members of Congress are in office is that they spend an inordinate amount of time begging for money for the next election. And there is always a next election. In 2013 I donated $500 to congressman Ron Barber. He personally called me about once a month trying to get more money out of me and finally stopped (I had lost my job which was a very good reason). It’s the only time a MOC ever talked to me. Ever. And he wanted more money. They all do it. The system is broken.
MOCs spend weekends back home at personal fundraisers, then fly to DC on Mondays and fly back on Fridays. That leaves just Tu, Wed, Th to get any work done in DC… and the definition of “getting work done in DC” is fluid and questionable. The American political system is broken and I don’t have an answer. Citizens United really F’d this all up. I’ll support anyone that does have an answer.
| Jeremy Peters and Maggie Haberman have explained that Republicans believe that defying Trump would damage their standing with Republican base voters. By doing so, the politicians are “inflaming the public,” French noted, causing many voters to believe — wrongly — that a presidential election was unfair. And that belief is fueling an outbreak of violent threats against elections officials, including: |
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