Onion Cap

Election Day is the only poll that matters.  It’s not a binary choice since you have the choice of voting this way or that way (and maybe another way) and you also have the choice of not voting.  Trinary at least.  When the polls close and votes are counted, the choice is made, revealing what was going on all along, regardless what narratives has been created, solidified, and believed in.  Nothing actually changes with a vote; it is a reveal, not a confirmation of narrative.  We learn from it insofar as it conflicts with our narrative, just as we experience cognitive dissonance when new information emerges.

My Uncle used to pop his teeth out, just to be funny.  I thought it was horrifying, since I couldn’t imagine how a person could pop his teeth out.  Of course I learned that he had false teeth, and the sound of popping them out was more of a plastic on plastic rattle than a cracking of bone.

So Trump was elected.  Did I hear the popping of firecrackers and noisey whistles or cracking bones and dry screams?

The Great Oil Spill is stopped, but the sea is still pretty oily.  Are the whales safe?  How about those coral reefs?

I saw a sail boat for sale a while back and it got me thinking.  What it would be like to sail the seas today in a small ship, like Jack London on the Snark?  Maybe such a sail to Australia is in my future.

Change continues.  Two years ago we were celebrating Obama’s election; two years later some other people are celebrating Boehner’s ascension to power: no one is publicly celebrating the current progress of the human race.

We’ve lost a sense of unity, of common purpose, of mission.  Are we here for selfish ends?  Are we here for each other?  Do we make up what we’re here for as we go along?  Are we here for a purpose that calls upon us to eliminate or dehumanize anyone who does not share our purpose?

Time to restart.  Come on people now.  Everybody get together, try to love one another, right now.

Or, maybe just plan a sailing trip that will take several months, if not years.

Lies and distortion took a new twist with the Shirley Sherrod affair.  Everyone bought the initial lies and distortion.

Now that  BP and the feds have figured out how to do a static kill on the spew in the Gulf, it’s time to apply the technology elsewhere.

Let’s come up with a way to pump heavy mud down the spewing wells of lies and distortion.  I’m thinking something of the nature of hovering airships that dump heavy loads of raw data on Sarah Palin’s appearances, Fox News outlets, Breitbart, and other repinionaters of whatever stripe.  Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers should be in charge.

The word is in from the feds: BP Gulf Oil Spill 2010 is the worst oil spill ever. Four million barrels of oil has gone missing in the Gulf of Mexico. The other million or so was captured by BP skimmers or burned off.  Perhaps the four million barrels were eaten by micro-organisms?  If they were dispersed, where were they dispersed to?

The political spill has just begun.  Who is to blame?  Who should have known better?  What happened to the oil?  Are the government estimates correct?  Has BP paid its bills?  Why does the name Haliburton ring a bell?

What could we have done with four million barrels of oil rather than spill it?

How many barrels of oil does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is turning out to be one of the events of the century.  Maybe of the millenia.

The Blob will likely engulf the Gulf as it swirls and expands into the largest oil slick ever, catches the Gulf Stream, coats the Florida coast, and smears it’s way right up the eastern seaboard.  This oil spill is rapidly becoming an unprecedented disaster:  The Oil Spill of 2010.  Spew Orleans.

Already we hear reports of anger at the oil company and at the government for failing to make sure it didn’t happen, for not acting fast enough, and for not fixing it already.  As it drags on, the anger will solidify into a story of who should and must be held accountable for this mess.  A price must be paid.  It will change the political calculus of the 2010 election.  So much for “Drill, baby, drill.”  And who will Pat Robertson blame for this?

All the while we retain our right to a tank of gas.  How common and expected it has become to stop at the gas station, fill the tank, buy a bottle of milk, and maybe even have a chat with the neighbors.  The routines of many millions of lives include a stop at the local filling station.  We don’t question it.  It’s almost impossible to imagine life without a car or a 4 wheel drive truck.  As for the gas, we don’t want anyone to tax it, we don’t want to pay a higher price, and we most certainly feel entitled to have our gas available whenever we need it just about anywhere we go.

As we watch the slick spread to fill the Gulf from the satellite view, it’s not at all hard to see the reflection of everyone responsible right there in the sheen of oil, events following our collective actions with the inexorable logic of cause and effect.

I don’t know what the Taliban is, really.  From my limited knowledge, they are a hodgepodge group of fundamental extremists trying to take over their country.  They seek to overthrow their government or at least reduce its influence so that it has very little control or power over the Taliban’s interests – which seem to be guns, money, and religion.  The Taliban seeks to destabilize and upset the nation so that the people living in it actually turn toward them as a the solution rather than view them as the enemy.

No doubt many members of the Taliban are sincere and even well-meaning people.  They may be desperately poor, utterly convinced that their religious values and traditions are under attack, and they may view themselves as the holders of a sacred truth.  Many members joined out of great fear as they listened to the leaders, who frightened them with lies and distortions, but who frightened them out of their wits nonetheless. In any event, they now have lay claim to fundamental doctrines that they will die and kill for.

I suspect as well that the Taliban leadership may use their own members’ religious fundamentalism in deeply cynical ways to exert political influence, maintain access to huge financial benefits, create fear, and promote their own interests that are in direct contradiction to the interests of the most sincere and passionate common member.

Who are these guys?  Obviously, I’m talking about the Tea Party.