Monday, February 10, 2025

DEI-ty On the Rampage

 What does Elon Musk have against D.E.I. anyway?

Conventional wisdom would have us believe it's an adverse reaction to the gender transition of one of his children.

Here's an alternate theory. Although D.E.I. ostensibly is an acronym for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion marketing slogan adopted by government agencies and their corporate sponsors, giving a nice liberal gloss to predatory capitalism - in lieu of, say, legislating a living   wage and guaranteed universal health care to all people - DEI is also a derivative of  the Latin word for God.

And as the richest person in the world, Elon Musk is effectually a deity, the self-appointed ruler of the world. We must have no other gods before us.

In "As Gods Among Mn." his history of wealth since the times of the earliest civilizations, Guido Alfani cites medieval philospher Nicole Oresme, who in his own turn cited Aristotle:

"The super-rcih (superabuntaes) are so unequal and exceed and overcome the others regarding their political power so much that it is reasonable to think that they are among others as God is among men... the cities which are governed democratically should relegate these people, i.e. they should send them into exile or banish them. as such cities try and pursue equality for all."

Before there were nation states there were city states, which brings us to another acronym: DOGE. Today it stands for the Musk-controlled Department of Government Efficiency. But back in the time of late feudalism, Doges were ultra-wealthy oligarchs in Venice who bought their way into lifetime positions of political power. (In one of those weird events of history repeating itself, the demi-god Donald Trump Jr recently got caught illegally slaugjtering a protected species of duck on an island off the coast of Venice. Like any Doge worth his salt, we can assume he just bought his way out of his crime, or at least paid no price for his bad behavior.)

While the Musk-Trump administration (call them President Eldon Mump)go about their merry pranksterism of tearing things down just because they can, there is no talk of building things up, other than building Trump-branded seaside resorts above the bones of aslaughtered Palestinians in Gaza).

And you're not hearing any talk from the feckless Democrats of redistributing the savings that supposedly will be gleaned from paring back government waste. On the contrary, the recently elected chair of the DNC openly calls for more billionaire moeny from the donor class. There is no talk of taxing Elon Musk and his oligarchic cohort, let alone banishing him from power let alone giving him a one way ticket to Mars on a government-subsidized rocket ship.

They should just cut to the chase and redefine DEI as Elon Musk, or even better, as the de facto state of affairs in global capitalistic rule: Deprive, Extract, Immiserate. To be really smart and streamlined and transparent about it, they could simply scramble the letters a bit and call their official policy "Just DIE already!"

Why else would both government agencies and the corporations that own them already be re moving all mention of diversity, equity and inclusion from their websites voluntarily and proactively?

It was mostlya sham to begin with, a way to substitute nice words for policies for the greater public good. It's the same thing as the USAID acronym falsely implying all these decades that it is a charity rather than first and foremost a regime-change CIA cutout and a tool for corporate plunder abroad. 

The only good thing you can say about all this manufactured chaos is that it's ripping the facade of democracy into a million tiny shreds.

You can have democracy or you can have billionaires. But you cannot have both. So let's go full Aristotle. Let the catapulting of the fat cats into deepest outer space begin!

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Update on the Update

I'd meant to be back in action by now, but fate intervened. Without going into too much detail, I skipped the atrial ablation and went straight to a permanent pacemaker. It seemed my heart rate had beome so dangerously low (40-50) that it was actually "pausing" at times to the point where I felt dizzy and faint. I blame this on my underlying cardiac condition, the various meds designed to regulate heart rhythm, and, of course, the sight of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute.

Other than some soreness since Friday's procedure, I am feeling so much better now that enough blood and oxygen are reaching my brain and other body parts. (Don't even get me started on my Kafkaesque journey  through the medical industrial complex!)

I just want to reassure everybody that I am still alive if not yet kicking. Above all, thanks to all of you for your kind well-wishes.

Needless to say, there is plenty to write about these days and I have plenty of ideas jelling around in my oxygen-rich brain.

Stay tuned, and thank you again for your support!

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Blog Update

 Just a heeds-up to my readers that posts will be intermittent at best for the next little while. I have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and was hospitalized during Christmas week, put on meds and scheduled for a procedure called atrial ablation mid-month. I am feeling pretty good other than being very tired.

Please continue to submit comments if you feel so inclined. Or if you wish to contact me privately you can email me at herecomestrouble665@gmail. com.

Thanks for your patience. I hope to be back making trouble soon. Happy New Year to all!