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The Trump Lump

I think of support for Trump as an artificial thing. A big bag of gas, a nation sized bag. When fully inflated by the attention economy, superfluous issues, such as those affecting superheroes, seem to outweigh the legitimate operation of government. But as it deflates, it becomes merely a lump. The Trump Lump. People make up the Trump Lump. And although they can check out anytime they like, some will never leave. Those folks I think of as End Lump. Some good people will be trapped in there, just as certainly as there are among the gentle ancient people who, to this day, declare fealty to the Austrian Painter, in their dementia. Early Lumpers are Americans who come to their senses early in the cycle. There is no prize for leaving the Trump Lump at any given time. However, if you leave the Trump Lump, you may always point and laugh at the Lump. That might feel great, but it does the unborn children of the United States no good. Everything that we do, good or evil, now affects...
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Image of Sabertooth

A loud cracking cluck pierced the stifling heat as the large bird flew overhead. The old sabertooth ignored it. She was observing the pit. Mouth open and panting silently in the razor grass, this is what she saw. Across the expanse, there were pools of tar. Jewels of black, among the straw colored grass, reflecting the sunlight with polychromatic sheens. A giant sloth was the first victim this time. So delicious, the scent of the tar kissed rotting flesh is absolutely enticing! Hunger keeps her pinned here yet, though she knows not to give in to her belly. Others have not seen what she has seen. She waits to ambush one coming to eat. The others, who were not like her, all leapt to an apparent feast, and became hopelessly stuck. Dying, at turns, from dehydration, and believe it or not, starvation! Many never even got to the precious flesh before finding themselves hopelessly bound in the tar, and new bait for the trap. Once, two predators fought over the feast, neither killing...
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A Triumvirate of Furies

O ur crow-eyed Illusionist hero has been stung by the glamour Image of Hottie before, and as a counter, casts a glamour of his own, Image of Impoverished Chimneysweep . Little does he know he is mistaken, and the woman is not a brigand in disguise. (You dope! It is the rain in your eyes!) As the woman leaned over the opened owner’s manual in the rain, she held her phone to illuminate the pages that she shielded once again. She heard steps from afar. Turning from the disabled car, she saw a man approach.  “There seems to be some voodoo afoot, but it looks like you know what you are doing!” The curious man wore a coat full of soot, and he passed her without looking. She angrily looked down at the manual once more, as his footsteps clapped to Echo, and she tattled on him down the lane.  Now, Dear Reader, spoiled destiny demonstrates a characteristic of this hero's mechanics! All illusions have at least some blur , most obvious in the recollection of their memory . This il...
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Truesight

“S hhhhh! You fool, that is no nun! Close your eyes, and think upon the memory of your last vision of it, er her!” the small old man whispered fiercely. “I see her,” his companion said, “in my mind’s eye.” And then, “The face and one arm is smeary.” “The blur , now look at the nun’s face again, and look away and remember, is it still blurred ?” The young man poked his head around the corner and looked at the nun, he then retreated and covered his eyes with one hand . A sharp inhalation of breath, “By goodness, IT IS!” “The cantrip of Truesight : think and remember, blurs indicate illusions from memories where the immediate sense seems perfect in every way, at first blush.” “I will remember,” Viscotti replied quietly.         Please find the footnote above, read by me below!  The words are always my own!
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Bonespurs

I apologize for my country. We failed to take responsibility for the proper education of our citizens, and we failed to take responsibility for the doctrine that our citizens are exposed to. This has created an environment where Bonespurs was elected to office. Twice. Today was a brutally embarrassing display of ignorance and mendacity on the part of our administration. The only bright side is that I can imagine no other act which would so conclusively demonstrate Donald’s enthrallment to Putin. Suddenly, a man who has stood for absolutely nothing in his entire life, has taken a stand with a murderous invader. It is obscenely obvious to any ordinary observer. But Putin, Trump, and the attention economy will try to make this corrupt behavior seem like the correct course of action. Do you see now why I believe that the influence of the attention economy is the most serious problem facing the world today? With wariness and cleverness, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy handl...
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Those Who Bear the Flame Must Light the Way

There is an inscription in stone at a Journalism School in Missouri. The newshounds love it. And I love the newshounds! I think about them, and I try to see through their cute little puppy eyes! I know that they would rather be writing stories about the happy hunting grounds , or how Phyllis over at the hair salon won the lottery. Journalists would rather write those stories, but they don’t. They write about Constitutional crises and the existential risk for Ukraine. I believe that our faithful and trustworthy newshounds do this out of duty. Which brings us back to the the inscription, that as students some of them passed underneath many a crisp fall day: “Those who bear the flame must light the way.” Now, Ukraine is that flame. Support for Ukraine is a naturally unifying position among the good people. Americans seem to agree that Ukraine’s defense is righteous . I am pleased that public opinion is moving against Donald, when he acts to betray Ukraine. Ancient religions ba...
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The Symbol of Chaos

Have you seen the eight barbs? Never mind if you haven’t seen it yet, between you and me, with a little help from David Hume, we can imagine one. First, the idea of a compass on a map. I could have simply said ‘cross’, but that would begin in a way that is too far from the end to make the middle mean anything. So a compass on a Cartesian plane, it is. We now have two lines intersecting, each with an arrow’s head at both ends. They are black steel, embossed with red enamel. We have seen this idea many times. North, South, East, and West. Now, this idea we copy, and place it in the same place as the first. They occupy the same space, but they are ideas, and ideas need not be competitive, like quarrelsome matter. Now we grasp one of the two, and twist it against the clock, until the distance between each of the arrow’s heads is exactly the same. We have seen this idea many times. Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. As is said in the book that shall not be named , “M...
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A Vexatious Glamour

“Do you know Ray?” one man asked another. “Oh, the cameraman for the late night comedian?” “Yeah, he sent me this audio clip, listen to this,” the two men huddled around the phone. The recording began to recount the memory of traffic, as a voice questioned, “Were you upset that Dr. Martin Luther King was not invited to President Trump’s inauguration celebration?”  It sounded like a street interview. Another voice answered, “Oh! I see! We are after the necromancers, again! Indeed! As an Illusionist myself, I will always lament teaching one of those scoundrels a relatively simple glamour, Image of Hottie . It has led to an inordinate number of death threats against me, but I can’t blame the threateners! Imagine thinking you have finally been blessed by destiny with a hottie out in the wild! One kiss, and boom, you’re making out with a reanimated corpse. I jest, I jest. “As you are aghast, I see that I have gone too far! It seems that amidst the bubbling of my story, I have ...
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An Official Request for a Chaperone

What can be said of this?  Donald apparently spoke to Putin for ninety minutes and his head is full of Russian lies.  And now he says them out loud, in place of reasoning.  Why does he do this?  I do not know.  But that he does is certain. David Cay Johnston tells an early story of when he first met Donald.  He said that he determined that Donald was telling him lies, so he introduced a new lie to Donald, and Donald took that piece of disinformation and mixed it in with the other words that he was saying.  Donald then told the lie back to David, in addition to his other words.  Fascinating. In my smallness, I imagine greatness.  If I had debated Donald Trump, I would have used the same trick.  I would have started my initial soliloquy by thanking the veterans.  Then I would have complimented Donald on making the greatest monument to veterans during his administration, and thanked him.  You can imagine the rest.  I am in so...
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