Poli-Urethane

“Father, father, we don't need to escalate. You see, war is not the answer for only love can conquer hate. You know we've got to find a way to bring some lovin' here today. Picket lines and picket signs: Don’t punish me with brutality. Talk to me so you can see, oh, what's going on... Everybody thinks we're wrong; but who are they to judge us simply 'cause our hair is long?” Al Cleveland, Obi Benson, and Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On, What’s Going On, Tamla, 1971 - Protest song inspired by police brutality on Bloody Thursday in Berkeley hit #1 among Billboard R&B singles, made money for Live Aid chartities, and was covered profitably several times.

Bike&Chain exists because of marginalized bicycling culture, and recognizes “Fertilization Administration” has declared war on citizen cyclists, independent women, and public servants, so any program that supports lane designations, reproductive rights, or safety nets is now forfeit unless they unite to fight. Not to justify latest tirades to youths, culture inseparably intertwines with politics, though often authors won’t admit it. Small shop owners as Aaron Johnson of GoGrava must react to de minimis shutdown and new tariffs. Seems politics at its core tries to score through biased polls, deliberate lies, and varnished truths. David Nyberg debates, “Deception appears to be normal... a workday attribute of practical intelligence,” though ethics advise elsewise on sticky evidence. Mucilaginous polyurethane dries into several bike components including apparel cloth, bar tape, helmet inserts, inner tubes, pump gaskets, saddle shells, and such accoutrements. You're not a thane just because you back a baby daddy dictator politically, have assets worth billions, and want to be called a doge or minister; you must get elected first to govern or represent nation's constituents.

Bike Radar compiled a list of Best Cycling Books 2025, and said it’s for “cycling bookworms”; instead, most titles would only appeal to endurance athletes and wannabe racers rather than poli sci majors. Even James Hibbard’s The Art of Cycling (Quercus, 2021, 320 pp.), previously reviewed, has nothing to do with art or culture at all, rather what’s in it mentally for you, though more recently published than bulk of titles they recommend. By assembling citations and specifying contexts you elevate importance of items probably beyond their worth. Not surprisingly, Labann’s noncommercial volumes were again overlooked.

Zachary Mooradian Furness, Put The Fun Between Your Legs! The Politics and Counterculture of the Bicycle "(University of Pittsburg, 2005, 228 pp.) - Peer reviewed doctoral dissertation includes an extensive bibliography and short filmography, and touches upon all historic points of bicycle advocacy. “My analysis is focused upon the politics of cycling in the United States... largely based upon a critique of car culture, and with it, the ideological assumptions that inform our labor practices, consumption habits, uses of technology, and our relationship to our material world... important to analyze because globalization has resulted in the mass exportation of American culture and economics to other parts of the world.” Dicatators hate that, so VOA was just silenced. Must’ve been something in the air, since Bike&Chain also had been written by then.

Treatment equality among bicyclists, motorists, and pedestrians has been federal law since 1990, but same old culture war persists after decades. Federal Highway Administration officialy reaffirmed in 2010, "Because of the benefits they provide, transportation agencies should give the same priority to walking and bicycling as is given to other transportation modes." Federal regulations prohibit planners from impeding bicycling or severing routes bicyclists use during new construction; bridges must accommodate bicycling and walking. Despite long established guidelines, mounting lawsuit losses, and repeated court injunctions, new regime bullies onward, defies constitution, and ignores observance. But such criticism assumes normality and precedents one hopes, not criminality and disobedience from public servants. Charity directors, law enforcers, and school teachers who witness incivility may somethimes turn into misanthropes. Government officials are supposed to work for your reciprocal cooperation and toward your best interests. Seems cabinet of April fools, Mad Hatter, and March Hare rather make millions of resentful antagonists. Better consider what they do, not believe what serial liars say, to those they harm.

Ken Avidor, Bicyclopolis (2017, 98 pp.) - Intricate bike-centric graphic novel 17 years in the making was self published by this Minneapolis based cartoonist, first mentioned in March of 2011 while still being developed. Through a time travel theme, Avidor predicts where demented environmental and political abandonment lead. Amidst a global climate crisis, it’s not the time to shutter NOAA or withdraw from Paris Accord.

DeFranzy, Cycling is Freedom [German pop], single video, self, 2018 - Just so, suffragette, and when they begin to infringe upon basic motility, call it what it is: verboten slavery, vicious repression, or vote suppression. In a democracy, everyone gets a vote, women in majority foremost, unless theonomic ideology of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale comes to pass as a direct consequence of Project 2025. Can’t happen here? Read Genesis 29:29. Already has with sex slaves, toxic bros, and worse offenses upon horizon.

Adonia E. Lugo, PhD, Bicycle / Race: Transportation, Culture & Resistance (Microcosm Publishing, 2018, 192 pp.) - Cultural anthropologist defines “mobility justice”, and discusses racial discrimination and sustainable transport. Gets Labann thinking of how bicycles are stolen and vandalized less often than cars, with a huge black market for catalytic converters, quarter panels, and wheel rims to fulfill. Bicycles don’t suit lazy thieves, who'd rather plunder US Treasury, world's biggest target. "Infrastructure neglect" is just another tactic to funnel funds their way. Senator Booker's filibuster set record straight: American people are in charge.

“In mid-2018, women in Saudi Arabia gained the freedom to ride a bicycle, and the efforts of women’s activists such as Baraah Luhaid played a part in this, as she established Spokes Hub... We often see the bicycle just as a form of transport, but it’s much more than that; it’s a classless item that billions of different people across the globe own.” Zain Hussain, The bicycle: a symbol of unification, Medium magazine, 2019 - So, Saudi women are bestowed this right a century later than Americans and Europeans? Wow!

Ken Avidor, Courier, single video, self, 2019; short animation related to a future dystopia where bicycle couriers have to deliver food to front line battle zones instead of Door Dash, Grubhub or Uber Eats after petroleum paradigm crashed. First in a series where sabotage hero poses as a bicycle courier.

Avidor Family Singers, My Bike is Freedom, single video, self, 2020 - Short Ken Avidor animation with an original song. Bicycling is the fifth freedom, along with freedoms from tyranny and want, and of religion and speech, all of which are at risk under authoritarian attack.

Max Whittle, Cycling is Freedom, single video, self, 2020
It’s a sentiment that adheres longer than orange facepaint, more like steadfast shellac.

Peter Cox and Till Koglin (editors), The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure: Spaces and (In)Equality (Policy Press, 2020, 261 pp.) - “Physical infrastructure is currently posited as the primary key to unlock cycling’s potential as a primary mode of sustainable transport... Governance mechanisms that provide for and respond to citizen voices... recognize the need for and implement change... Infrastructure is never neutral and always inherently political.” Most articles in this anthology based analyses on European cities. In USA, conservative congressmen aren’t even holding public forums anymore.

Some American mayors brazenly act out their bicycling abhorrence. According to Jody Rosen’s article The Bicycle as a Vehicle of Protest, (The New Yorker, 2020), “N.Y.P.D. has a long history of hostility to cyclists... police have used questionable, sometimes violent tactics to sweep up participants in Critical Mass, the guerrilla group rides that aim to promote cyclists’ rights... Transportation issues are social-justice issues... American bike riders [are] of all races and backgrounds, but... The term ‘invisible riders’ has gained currency among critics who decry the marginalization of black, brown, female, and working-class cyclists by establishment activists.” Bike boom at the time kept reluctant bus riders moving alternatively, minimizing recession effects of pandemic quarantines.

Chris Watson, The Bicycling Guitarist, pedals beyond politically correct into some sort of unbalanced chauvinist rant while playing original tunes, poising himself and his Stratocaster guitar, and riding his 1977 Schwinn Sportabout 10-speed in circles.

The Bicycling Guitarist fea. Chris Watson, Repoman, Elektra’s Room, self, 2020 “Oh, Repoman. He likes my band. So I guess my Schwinn is safe from being repossessed. That means it was possessed more than once. Possessed and depossessed, then repossessed. But, fortunately, fortunately it's an ‘exorcise bike’.” Among a half dozen albums, this oddly appears to be only song that directly references bicycling.

American cycling team gets Trapped Inn (Leah Sturgis, dir., 2024) at a remote European mountain lodge; teammates then start unexpectedly dying. Taps into contagion angst. Peloton protagonists Connor (Matt Rife) and Greg (Robert Palmer Watkins) compete to solve this otherworldly mystery. Horror film genre merely mirrors and woefully understates what's now actually occurring because of DOGE meddling in earned benefits, established services, and foreign aid.

Heartfelt 2024 testimony from Claire Pomykala of Living By Bike declares that bicycling at all is a political act. “Resist capitalist forces and lifestyles that sit, to fight status quo, to reconnect with nature, to recognize our ignorance: bicycling is inherently political... Bicycling is revolution.” Battle hardened Claire has bike-packed from Atlanta to Oz through Europe, learned hands-on loads of lore, and taught self a myriad of truths through living vulnerable to what world provides. New US administration believes it can rescind visas. restrict travel, and strip citizenship from anyone who opposes their goal to control, because laws only apply to you, not them. Bicycling is human, not conservative, liberal, or partisan; all demographics ride except abject invalids and beer swilling, coal-rolling, extreme right, fossil fuel addicted wimps, who may or may not notice X's tweet logo now includes a sieg heil salute despite billions in stockholder losses undermining temporary victory. As in all crime syndicates, fraudulent DOGE forwards same fascist agenda yet insulates felon POTUS from prosecution. Unless you're a multimillionaire, you'll pay more taxes and suffer loss of services.

Montreal, Quebec has enjoyed better bike accommodations since Claire Morissette’s advocacy in 1990’s. Yet after decades many residents still don’t get it. A short Oh The Urbanity! documentary, I Went to an Anti-Bike-Lane Revolt (Patrick Murphy, dir., 2024) shreds local misconceptions about alleged bike issues of ableism, ageism, school safety, and such notions adopted without regard of indisputable evidence to the contrary. Everyone is mistreated, some more than others, though goal is to avoid egregious examples. Bruised egos can be self inflicted, so too close to exercising personal freedoms to cure. Roads mistreat bicyclists who nevertheless ride and tolerate them.

Wes Marshall, PhD, PE, Killed by a Traffic Engineer (Island Press, 2024, 424 pp.) - A professor of civil engineering whistleblower contends that AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) guidelines aren’t wholly based on inclusive safety or sound science. “There wasn’t nearly as much science behind the numbers as the 1,000-page manuals make it seem.” No sh*t! says Labann, who spent decades battling bull and writing manuals. Since 1899 when they began counting vehicle crash fatalities, 4 million Americans have died, many times that globally, more Americans than all military conflicts in which they fought including founding revolution. Best laid plans of Three E’s - Education, Enforcement, and Engineering - are rife with shortcomings among texting, tired, and twisted motorists, planners, and police.

“Asking Americans to sacrifice their beloved cars is not a winning political message, but helping them rediscover something they love more can change the world.” Steven Goodridge, The Conservative Case for Walking and Bicycling, Medium magazine, 2024 - Informative article appends a nice bibliography. Could continue with citations and contexts, but do conclude politics concern cyclists. It's too easy to round out paragraphs with so many asinine, bizarre, criminal, and despicable executive fiats signed daily, then immediately struck down by courts as illegal and unconstitutional. Forever forward, forge past onto next spin session and subsequent post toward velorution.

Spilt Champagne

“President he’s got his war; folks don’t know just what it’s for. Nobody gives us rhyme or reason. Have one doubt they call it treason. We’re chicken feathers all without one nut. Goddamn it! Tryin' to make it real compared to what.” - Eddie Harris, Gene McDaniels, and Les McCann, Compared to What, Swiss Movement, Atlantic, 1969... album certified gold and song covered by 270 other performers.

Le Demi-Fond was once a 100 kilometer velodrome event where “the big motor” paced “the stayer”, that is, motorcyclist created a slipstream for drafting bicyclist running huge chainrings to reach speeds up to 124 mph. A popular spectacle from last century, it was inherently dangerous with track competitors and spectators killed and maimed until officially banned in 1994, though something similar is still how bicycle speed records are made on salt flats. Somewhat echoes e-bikes today, which quicken pace so each ride averages 3 to 5 mph faster. Riding bikes used to mean mere spinning; with e-bikes that becomes e-moting, because you frequently have to react in a panic and try to spin faster than motor boost, typically paused at 20 mph, to conserve charge for final segment on tired legs. Although sprayed champagne celebrates podium wins, spilt wine portends disaster. There’s no glory in top speed to which a cyclist strives, just a blur among crowds desperate for fresh air and smidgeon of exercise as Spring season finally arrives.

Level of being admired at zero percentage, aggregator Labann generously marches on never wanting to address attention needy POTUS insanity and wishing current term to be over permanently. Tired of turds dominating words downing out every voter democratically. “Halfway through”, demi-term election might overthrow oligarchy advantage. News used to be idea provoking specifics, not obviously vicious lies, gamely negotiated politics, not gas lit by wise guys. Where’s public outrage upon this perilous stage? Witch hunts describe going after officers doing their jobs who stood in your way when you committed a crime. If you keep misapplying and violating laws, you will be impeached and indicted every time. Whence and whither congressional counterbalance? Court rulings can only compel law abiders; marshals are their sole contempt enforcers if judges take a stance.

American People for nearly a century have long been the bulwark against wanton homicide and a stabilizing influence worldwide. Amagastan dupes don’t inherit this reputation. Christian Nationalists say, “Be charitable to yourself first,” in other words, stuff your pockets at someone else’s expense, even to where others perish or suffer for your greed and predation. They don’t know recipes for stone soups. Homeless beggar Christ amassed no coinage as a carpenter and fisherman, performed miracles and served strangers for free, for which he was crucified and interred penniless in donated linen and tomb by way of example on how to live divinely. To opposite extreme, Mango Mussolini is marching an army of mercs and orcs out of his lair, Mordor Lago, to murder mankind, spill blood, and wreak havoc. Slashing cybercrime mob surveillants, law enforcement agents, inspector general operatives, and national security staff leaves both them and you less protected against megalomaniacal psychopaths who’d burn planet and torture infants for a laugh.

Ruining how agencies run creates dissatisfaction meant to pave way to privatization, falsely reputed to improve efficiency. Taxpayers, which excludes many billionaires who evade paying, have invested literally hundreds of trillions in buildings, equipment, infrastructure, and workforce training. Consider post office with facilities and vehicles (Bezos drools), or military with jets, munitions, tanks, vessels, and weapons (Dumbo tools). Social Security (nobody’s fools) has $3 trillion in a trust fund you amassed. Fort Knox stores your tons of gold treasure, increased in value to $300 billion, enough to reduce public debt if liquidated. Unelected villains want to hand it all over to cronies to exploit for profit, leave citizens impoverished, raise service costs, and rob you blind. You’re already paying millions to Nicaragua to inter a few hundred deportees not even indicted while stateside prisons remain full of convicted perps. Tariffs have nothing to do with encouraging domestic production; champagne only comes from France, as do thousands of other goods impossible to copy and only made abroad. It’s all a reality show for the cluelessly gung-ho, not sensible policy for vast majority.

Administrative decisions of late have been met with abject horror among three quarters of population. Not one campaign promise has been fulfilled, and vile edicts are being carried out despite federal court injunctions against. Conservative congress decided to cede their power as a coequal branch of government and let Felon 47 do his damnedest to destroy democracy, exploit war power act to deport without due process and stay in office, and target potential domestic enemies including political opponents and press reporters. How can half of supposed representatives support such unconstitutional injustice? Cowardly congressmen listened to advice not to answer questions or conduct forums. That’s admissible evidence of their violating oaths of office to stand for constituents. A quick fix would be to recall them individually from state to state, which would reverse curse of a slight GOP majority. Investigative journalists hold public officials accountable and shine a light on acts unlawful; otherwise, democracy dies in darkness.

When SCOTUS ruled in favor of Citizens United, it enabled billionaires to buy congressional seats among both major parties, call shots as they please, and determine all policies. Before oligarchs seized control, government had sustained many popular participant programs - Affordable Care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Nutrition - that a succession of Republicans since Reagan wanted to crush and divert funds from held accounts into hands of the richest few. Temptation to smash and steal was just too strong for self indulgent legislators and their stink tank lunatics. Brian Tyler Cohen argues, “This feels like betrayal... We are desperate for fighters... If this crop of elected officials won’t, then people are going to elect new ones who will.”

Make great again for whom? Criminal kleptocrats, crypto schemers, goon squads, greedy oligarchs, privatizing congresspeople, shrewd whores, storm troopers, white supremacists, and yes men. Everyone else will be banished, deported, or targeted. Better watch your back and pack a go-bag when you have to escape, especially congressionally appointed judges forced to follow constitution who block autocratic playbook, or dissidents and opponents to unitary executive rule. “You don’t impeach judges who issues orders you don’t like... Debate makes this country great,” said senior senator Bernie Sanders. Unless as slaves, there’ll be no quarter for Asians, Blacks, Indians, Latinos, seniors, or women. Sorry, MAGA-mob, you were literally sold a big perverse joke and a pig in a poke. Have to have faith they’ve miscalculated effects of mistreating military veterans and public servants, two groups who own lion’s share of nation’s war tactics and weapons expertise. Would not want to take on these patriots in any fight, especially ones that threaten their families.

Voter remorse? “I been a bad, bad, bad man... Remember the time when I eat you up? Yeah, I was a lie that you can't give up. If I was to cheat, oh no, would you see right through me? ...How you like me now? How you like me now?” The Heavy, The House That Dirt Built, Counter, 2009

To whom do you turn? Liam Turner (Robert Timothy Smith) ineptly scribbles a dyslexic Dear Santa (Bobby Farrelly, dir., 2024) letter to North Pole, but transposes characters and winds up with a visit from Dear Satan (Jack Black) from North Lope, who offers him 3 wishes for his soul. Black’s character turns out to be a demon on probation, not Prince of Darkness himself. In another such switcheroo, you got a convicted serial con man instead of a Leader of the Free World. “Slow down, Lance Armstrong,” says school crossing guard (Cate Freedman) to nemesis teacher Mr. Charles (P. J. Byrne), whose midlife crisis has him riding a racing bicycle about town on Christmas Day. They agree to go together for Chinese food, though he rethinks asking her to sit on his back rack, so they stroll instead.

Not all romances conclude happily ever after. In favorably received Netflix series One Day (Luke Snellin, dir., 2024), Episode 13, Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) and Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) are an engaged couple in 2000, 14 years after they met in Edinburgh at their graduation ball. Having crossed paths for years, they are now planning their wedding. Dexter looks to open a café. Emma’s is about to publish her fourth novel. After a spat, she leaves Dexter an apology note, saying she still loves him and that she'll be five minutes late for their realty appointment to view a honeymoon house. On a rainy Saturday, Saint Swithin's Day, a careless motorist knocks Emma off her bicycle, and, despite wearing a helmet, she dies; foul weather must follow each day for next 40, according to folklore and screenplay.

Bicycling culture among contemporary Navajo Nation is the subject of documentary In The Dirt (T. C. Johnstone, dir., 2023) in conjunction with New Mexico non-profit Silver Stallion, where youth learn bicycle handling, mechanical repair, personal empowerment, and specialty coffee skills.

Dick Wolf’s scripted drama Law&Order: SVU, Season 16, Episode 4, Holden’s Manifesto (Jean de Segonzac, dir., 2014), portrays bike messenger and ignorable incel Holden March (John Karna, shown), who avenges his narcissist ego by murdering women he’s convinced wronged him by ignoring his awkward advances. Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Sergeant Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) have to ferret out and take down this serial slayer. Story is based on real life case Elliot Rodger's Retribution resulting in Isla Vista Killings of same year. Over 25 years, program has won 46 awards including 6 Primetime Emmys.

Pivotal scene in blockbuster musical Wicked (John M. Chu, dir., 2024) has fondling Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) by bicycles spiriting off a lion cub in a basket that Oz (Jeff Goldblum) wants to cage along with all other animals. Harks back to original when Ms. Gulch put Toto in her basket. Creature mistreatment sets her on course to becoming Wicked Witch of the West. Though cut off to be continued before story concludes, this Wizard of Oz prequel was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won 2.

Big budget sci-fi bomb The Electric State (Russo Brothers, dirs., 2025), beside being among the most expensive movies ever made, takes on dystopian interface between artificial and human intelligence, but wastes many acting talents. Foster teen Michelle Greene (Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things. shown) channels previous role while battling evil tech CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), bicycling about to muster a posse, and bringing back her comatose genius brother during a civil war instigated for profit in data memories. If not for bad character development and weak plot, you’d think audiences would identify with made-in-China “Tesler” boycott backstory, and react to EV insult reversal as hypocritical irony. Not masochistic enough to enjoy fiction so close to current events?

Baleful Wain

“I see you got your list out. Say your piece and get out. Yes, I get the gist of it, but it's alright. Sorry that you feel that way. The only thing there is to say, ‘Every silver lining's got a Touch of Grey.’ I will get by... I will survive.” - Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, 1987

To stay authentic and topical today’s writers must surf ahead of a tsunami of social insanity within a tyrannical tube of factuality. They have to assess advertisements, arts, blogs, books, broadcasts, documentaries, edicts, interviews, manifestos, movies, music, newscasts, podcasts, poetry, posts, rap, speeches, TikTok, tweets, videos, vlogs, and what’s not even on this Sisyphean list while investigating in person both an artificial and natural world, specific spaces at times, either eager to commit murder and devour your corpse. No bubble or force field, only cloth, grey matter, leather, or lycra to protect, it’s hard for anyone to say for sure, if at all, what preserves one’s inner self from threats out there. While being absorbed, ingested and inhaled, world in turn swallows you whole, simultaneously bestowing and taking, crucifying and forgiving, furnishing and suffocating, punishing and rewarding.

Labann’s mission has always been to encompass all of bicycling culture, monitor sources as new examples emerge, and show how items interconnect. Too often lately that involves baleful reports of political smackdowns, such as a POTUS proclamation trying to reverse NYC’s smart and successful Congestion Tolls. For GOP, state sovereignty only applies when it suits their own hypocritical lies. Often here cited public datasets are disappearing; all hail fascist efficiency that funnels public treasures to billionaire parasites! Low class cowards and thugs attacked Palestinian Muslims during Ramadan, then extorted neighborly Canadians because they think they can. No Russian mobsters have been deported. Gitmo has no promised alien detainees. Government services are disappearing. Inflation worsens daily. Stock shares are tanking. Poles are doubling their army expecting a Russian incursion. Is WWIII on its way? News you can lose? All deter civilian bicycling.

Anyway, The Douche is in the White House, and Duffer’s on vacation, golfing again, while true men from founding fathers to honored patriots are rolling angrily in their graves. What FDR said echoes loudly, "Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." Cruel and devious modus operandi define criminal sociopathy. Farm wains upon which they loaded Black Death casualties and fallen soldiers (“sold yer” out with huge cuts to veteran benefits and jobs) have been superseded by flat beds and trailer trucks for next inevitable Grey Death. Wailful days upon us warrant brown study and frown melancholy.

About time for a direction reversal: Hope of renewal springs eternal, thus perennial Easter festival. “Those trips a-wheel before the break of day, the pause to hear the morning songsters sing, the break of fast on berries by the way, the thirst assuaged by kneeling to the spring; The drill, the race, that memorable run, Quixotic like, in search of conquests fair - Each ‘joyed event returns like Summer sun, to warm the chillness of the Winter air.” - S. Conant Foster, A Midwinter Reverie, Wheel Songs, Poems of Bicycling, 1884

Not all bicycling memories melt into gratitude or warm your soul. How about brand new leather saddles before broken in or frozen fingertips throbbing as if seared by molten steel? Always attempted a last spin before weather set in for real, especially in winter when snowfall chases you home to stay until sun and wind strip streets of black ice and white depth, then watching out window day to day for another chance while trying to judge which bits of apparel will work under an ever varying conditional array. It’s an anniversary worth celebrating when single-ply short sleeve jersey and spandex shorts suffice. But paying the price panting between baking sun and grilling asphalt that waft watery mirages and wondering if you’ll complete course before wholly exhausted still haunt and menace, what Rachel Meltdown does to your typical MAGA clown. Self’s amuse abuse, or folly hobby, seems bombastic onanistic or depressive obsessive to someone else’s mentality.

Mary Mensana (Amanda Seyfried) is pregnant widow of a would-be environmental terrorist and rueful parishioner at First Reformed (Paul Schrader, dir., 2018), on eve of rural church’s 250th anniversary, where Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke) serves as pastor to whom she rides her bicycle for emotional support. As an aside, a man does say Fred in reference to stodgy cyclists devoted to riding classic but outdated steel models such as a Peugeot Super Competition or Schwinn Varsity. This grim drama about climate despair, doctrinaire politics, hollow ceremony, and reproductive rights won Critic’s Choice Male Lead award for Hawke; screenplay was nominated for an Oscar.

Not finding a lot of new bicycle songs from dispirited Americans, composing still on wane, as previously described. Do note Europeans compiling abridged Youtube playlists, such as one from Germany of which only some of those not previously mentioned are listed below chronologically by release date. Interesting how France and Germany now stand together backing Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s aggression after USA’s betrayal of democracy despite interwoven diversity and widespread mutiny of its citizens.

John Manchester, French Bicycle Music [piano instrumental], Blue Sky, Omnimusic, 1985

Beppo Küster, Ich fahre Rad [German pop], Bitte nach Ihnen, Amiga, 1986

Wolle Kriwanek Band, Mike (Mit dem Mountain-Bike) [German rock], Hot Wollé, Bell Records, 1992

M. A. Numminen, Fahrradfahren ist Notwendig [German, “Riding Bicycle Is Necessary”], soundtrack from short film Polkupyörällä ajaminen on tarpeellista (Sökö Kaukoranta, dir., 2000); commemorates 450th anniversary of Helsinki, Finland. Depicts a grey day with Numminen singing song beside riding on back of a bicycle being pedaled along a slushy roadside.

Spieltrieb, Fahrrad fahrn [German pop], Ohrrangement, self, 2008
“How do I feel? Of course, it rhymes with free. Whatever comes and happens can't touch me, because I have my song... There are a thousand ways to ride a bike, whether endurance, fast, downhill, or on the track. One thing is certain: you'll burn calories, and next summer you'll shine with a dream figure. Only what you eat is your fuel, and you're gliding along.”

Pat C, Klapprad [German], single video, self, 2010
“I ride a folding bike around the area; no reason to get upset”

Pratterino, Bicycle Song, Old Bicycle, Pär Strandberg, 2011

Souljah, Was mein Fahrrad angeht [German], single video, self, 2011
Bikecentric remake of the autocentric MoTrip song similarly named; if you sold God’s benefices, ecclesiastical privileges, or pardons it was once condemned as heretical simony, but now it’s the sole jam of Christian Nationalists loyal only to opportunist oligarchy.

Kommando Zurueck, Velociped [German hip-hop], Back from Out of Space, self, 2012

KraftKlub, Mein Rad [German], In Schwarz, Universal Music Group, 2014
Americans can related to this angst of loss plentiful evidenced, “My bike is no longer here, it's gone, that's what happened. But why is it now with an idiot like you... who sees things and just takes them like a stupid child?” Answer: Kleptocrats addicted to greed.

Anthony’s Putsch, King of the World, single video, self, 2014
“Won’t you grab that bike, please take me for a ride, and see that I’m King of the world! There is nothing I'm afraid of, mama, only the howling of the wind.” Right! Citizens of a democracy are collectively king, not some orange shellacked combover thing.

Infallet, Cykelhjälm Cykelhjälm [Swedish in English; group name means a “Sudden Whim”], single video, self, 2014
A helmet is stylish, the ultimate swag, no? “No pain, no gain. It’s a place to put your brain.”

Binyo, Fahrrad [German], Der Steg ist das Ziel [“The jetty is the destination’], self, 2015

The Rotaries, Bicycle Girl, On the Outs, self, 2015

Dota Kehr, Rennrad [German pop], Keine Gefahr, Kleingeldprinzessin Records, 2016

Maybebop, Lust auf Fahrrad [German], single, BMG, 2016

Moop Mama, Die Erfindung des Rades, M.O.O.P.Topia, self, 2016
“You are a miracle of nature on a miracle of technology, your round body contour, carefree and casual. They talk, and shout, and gesticulate, hands off the steering wheel. Sirens and horns are only for you, because you roll like a gangster.”

D.U.M. Enterprises, Fahrradtrack [German hip-hop], single video, self, 2018

Peelander-Z, Bike Bike Bike, Go PZ Go, Chicken Ranch Records, 2018

Günter Nüssle, Das Liegerad [German], single video, 2019

Nico Suave, Von Hamburg bis zum Meer [German pop], single video, Hamburg Marketing, 2019
“So many corners, so much to discover, on my bike... I’m never stuck in traffic. I pass you with a big smile.”

The Dirty Nil, To the Guy Who Stole My Bike, F*ck Art, Dine Alone Records, 2020
“I hope it serves you well. I hope the brakes don’t seize, when you’re riding down the hill to hell.”

Mr. Rose, Radfahren [German pop], single video, Problembär Records, 2020

Requisite, Bicycle, Rusty BBQ Demos EP, 1943896 Records DK, 2020
“Next time you offer me a ride, I might decline. I’d rather ride my bicycle.”

Severin Groebner, Rentner auf E-Bikes [German for “Retirees on E-bikes”], single video, self, 2020

Estéban Cortez, La-La-Lastenrad [German, “Cargo Bicycle”], single video, self, 2021
Going backwards by pedaling? Isn’t fuel is too expensive?

Kadeja, feat. DieZelle, Bike, single video, PZK, 2021

Treptow, Nachts auf dem Fahrrad [German heavy metal], single video, self, 2021
“On the bike at night in Berlin... There’s room for you on my luggage rack; I'll gladly take you anywhere. Who needs a taxi?”

IFHT fea. Matt Dennison, New Bike Day, single video, self, 2022
“Got kicked out, got fired; wanna do stuff but I’m too tired. At least my mother’s proud of me (no, she’s not). But it’s new bike day, and I can’t be broken... I get to ride. I might be broke and alone, but there’s rubber and chrome... I feel alive... Can’t afford to fix my car, but I got shiny handlebars.”

Mike Ständer Band, Fahrradfahrn [German], Zweites, self, 2022

Blondie & Iris Wallaschek, Mein Rotes Fahrrad [German, "My Red Bicycle”], single video, Chromatics Entertainment Studios, 2023

Alex & Lukas (A. Diosegi and L. Brennecke), Radlerhymne [German hip-hop, “Cycling Anthem”], Schiffbruch, self, 2024
“Leather saddle padding and the pedal crank made of gold! The chrome rims measure an impressive twenty-six inches. Yes, then annoy a few passers-by with your exhaust. Hey, we'll pass you if you look out at us while you're filling up.”

E-Aldi, Fahrrad-Punks Not Dead, single, self, 2024

Vielleicht Emma, (Ich und mein) Fahrrad, (Ich und mein) Fahrrad, self, 2024

Tsk, Tsk, Tshwane

For some wordsmiths a blog is a small business, but not Labann. All of Bike&Chain’s nearly 3,000 pages are ad free and open source, so not-for-profit, though not worthless exactly. From 2008 until 2021, dropped 20 to 40 posts each year; since pandemic, shared less than 10. Sounds like slowing down, but some posts quadrupled in length, because they covered more complex issues affecting bicyclists after deeper dives, and those interesting times they curse you to live in have now come with a clown car of callous and corrupt incompetents in control consumed by depraved, illiberal, mean, sordid and uncultured policies.

When you discuss generalities you make little sense. When you offer instructional specifics they’re too dense. Yet entertaining parables and formulaic fables get revered, even if generally fictitious or situationally factual. Truths have to apply all the time everywhere, may cause anger or generate fear, but unless they predict how to take advantage few readers care. Prophets are defined after the fact through any self fulfilled act. Busy bees believe divisive buzzes, forget their allegiance pact. Big topics present many perspectives that criminals and ignoramuses ignore. But assessing self in world then disclosing what’s discovered is bound to bore.

Small business is America’s largest private employment sector, 46% of workforce, often conducted from a backyard garage, home basement, or kitchen table. Government is nation’s number one employer, not unlike most industrialized countries. Economists have always agreed that severely reducing either will cause a global depression. Among wage earners, whether they serve badly or well, more will always be better, because 80% of corporate projects are fulfilled by 20% of those assigned, while transacting paychecks as widely as possible fights desperation and despotism. Who’ll pay IRS their $6 trillion in annual revenue? The top 1% will get obscene tax cuts, while former tax payers will be collecting short term unemployment benefits. Their math doesn’t add up, and might inspire a filing moratorium or voter recall of congressional fascist minion.

Trains, behemoths compared to also made from steel bicycles, require lots of steam to get rolling, like honking up hills by bike, but both are remarkably efficient otherwise, because they absorb kinetic energy. Same momentum applies to economy. Republican recession sent record public debt into stratosphere and stranded nation at station until democrats returned to invest in workforce and restore normalcy to keep on rolling awhile. According to Harvard sociology professor Mathew Desmond, if only top earners paid taxes they owe, poverty across country could be cured.

Now on revenge tour, unsatisfied with domestic terrorism with thousands dead from random shootings, tactics too slow setting factions at each other’s throats, tearing coalitions asunder, and walling off restoration with insurmountable obstacles, why not confiscate bank accounts and property? China and Russia still need trillions to wage war against Africa, Europe, India, Taiwan, and USA. Allies are dumping treasury notes in massive numbers. Cryptocurrency, computer based Ponzi schemes contrived to launder crime loot, plunged 27% since inauguration; bit coins will never deserve strategic treasury reserve. Tariffs bar imports and try to strip America of its territorial resources. Citing waste deterrents, this bash and grab really betrays citizens and innocents. Social Security has always been separately funded, 4 trillion on account good through 2040, and has no effect on future obligations due to fewer babies being born and recipients living longer, false flags, because expectancy has dropped and population has grown from legal immigration by tens of millions in short order, lies exposed.

Gangster DOGE denigrates civil servants, some of whom work at home, which surged during COVID to prevent contagion but was customary for many feds not limited to deployed reservists, enforcement agents, and FEMA coordinators. Telework decongests highways, put boots on the ground to respond quickly, and saves enormous amounts of fuel otherwise wasted during pointless commutes to cubicles; likewise, bicycling. Big Oil has GOP in their pocket and hates efficiency that impacts their bottom line, especially bicycling. Not the only reason, 9 to 5 on-site attendance also makes it easier to target and terminate beltway bureaucrats. Chainsaw change in no way improves, just deals death, decimates families, and disregards needy. Two out of three citizens disagree with these cuts, but their representatives in congress bend a knee to ruling oligarchy.

Climate crisis directly threatens food supply. It increases capricious tornadoes, excessive heat, severe hurricanes, and unexpected floods that destroy crops and kill livestock. Latest administration denies problem, has withdrawn from Paris Accord, ridicules efforts to deal proactively with its effects, and sacrifices family farms, a large segment of small business employment, when serious savings could be had by ending pork barrel contracts to defense suppliers and subsidies to gas and oil giants setting record profits. Why not demand repayment of this corporate welfare? Or seize state control of refineries and utilities? Furthermore, NOAA and USDA layoffs make foods less safe from bacteria, fungi, parasites, poisons, pollutants, toxins, viruses, and weather cataclysm. Roadkill Robbie advises gleaning whatever you can from auto collisions and ignoring taboo against cannibalism.

Since every act so far by new regime destabilizes law enforcement, expect criminals to test degree of lawlessness with which they can get away, greater for them every day, until rioters loot small businesses, as did Pretoria’s political protesters in 2005, 2016, and 2023. Tsk, tsk, when a party acts unilaterally and attacks majority trouble occurs for which guiltless survivors pay. Homeboy Lumberjack Muskrat is still a South African citizen, having emigrated temporarily to Canada in 1988 from Jacaranda City to dodge military draft. Along with co-president, he figures military service is for losers and suckers. Indigenous residents with motto, “We are the same,” put such apartheid racists and presumed betters behind them by renaming Pretoria, but Afrikaners still refuse to adopt official handle Tshwane over one imposed by colonialists. By the way, kudos for your bike lanes, biodiesel initiatives, criterium races, fondo events, and wastewater processing.

Only a majority vote warrants a capitol city or international gulf rename, not an egomaniacal fiat from a fat fart self fêted führer. How pathetic and petty is that? It’s a ploy to pander to supporters while planting butt on throne, plotting chaos and revenge, and putting enemies in charge. Flooding zone with outrageous decrees tries to hide their demonic atrocities. What does he care for tax cuts? His crime syndicate evaded taxes for decades. Root “trompe” literally means “trick”, while Maga is the fifth and highest level of Satanic clergy. To the core Taco de Trompo is corn and pig al pastor, a crooked wolf who leads sheep to slaughter. Conspiracy theories evidence a special form of psychopathy, but sociopathy on top warrants resisting relentlessly. What did you expect from an insane crime lord and reality TV celebrity for whom only money, popularity and power hold relevancy? Having already danced and golfed across rubicon, his Ides of March approach.

America’s residents (340,100,000) vastly outnumber 1,000 billionaires and their 670 operatives among House (435), POTUS and Cabinet (23), Senate (100), and SCOTUS (9), along with unappreciated underlings (3,000,000, once including Labann) who work for agencies including USPS (660,000). It’s the military (2,800,000) provided with weapons and trained in tactics that you have to worry about; of their on average one thousand deaths per year biggest portion is self inflicted, then so-called accidents, then illnesses. It’s no wonder given how badly veterans are now and were being treated. Total (6,000,000) represents less than 2% of Americans. By contrast, seventy million Americans receive small monthly Social Security payments after a lifetime of involuntary annuity contributions, enough voters to recall from office entire Republican Party. If dedicated agency workers in critical roles can be summarily dismissed or replaced, so can mere representatives and senators, since they are coequal public servants, not untouchable rulers.

Finney (Mason Thames) and younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, shown) have enough heartache with an abusive drunken widowed father. The Grabber (Ethan Hawk), part time magician and persistent prowler of Denver suburbs, looks for teen boys to abduct and torture in his brother’s basement. After a terrorizing string of disappearances, he grabs Finney. Gwen won’t give up her sibling search, crisscrossing side streets by banana bicycle, reacting to clues from clairvoyant dreams, just like her deceased mother had. In this supernatural thriller, The Black Phone (Scott Derrickson, dir., 2021) supposedly broken hangs on cellar wall, but Finney gets calls from the beyond he needs to survive. Bicycling easter eggs scattered throughout include Gwen after being spanked tearfully watching a scene about a broken bike from Christian tolerance cartoon Davey and Goliath, previous abductees who also rode bikes into danger, and screen door barring Finney’s escape secured by one’s bicycle combination lock. Will cycling newsboys, door-to-door sales-kids, or state’s constituents ever be safe from these monsters?

NR 24 (John Andreas Andersen, dir., 2024) was code name for agent Gunnar Sønsteby (Sjur Vatne Brean), who during early 1940’s Nazi occupation of Norway earned a reputation among the best allied assassins, forgers, and saboteurs in Europe. He resourcefully conducted clandestine missions by bicycle; indeed, his memorial statue at Solli Plass in Oslo depicts him straddling one. In many occupied countries during WWII, bicycles were confiscated to suppress resistance. Sønsteby was awarded the British Distinguished Service Order and US Medal of Freedom. Democracy dies if everyday heroes don’t stand in solidarity and undermine this autocracy. May robber barons forever fall to robin hoods.

This year’s Academy Award Best Actor Adrien Brody (shown) stars in The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, dir., 2024) as Hungarian-Jew László Tóth, a Bauhaus trained architect who emigrated to Pennsylvania after being forcibly separated from his child and wife by Nazis and surviving Buchenwald death camp, only to be abused and exploited by a rich industrialist patron. Daniel Blumberg’s Best Original Score for this film includes beautiful piano instrumental Bicycle covering Tóth’s rides on steel steed to proposed sites to sketch ideas. Release couldn’t be better timed to remind Americans how eager despots, kleptocrats, and oligarchs are to mistreat victims and strip them of their human dignity, individual wealth, and personal freedoms. He who says everything will be alright, as if it ever has, does you no favors.

Crashed Fairlane

Humans are social creatures who crave and deserve happy interchange and helpful input. Consider years you invest maintaining fragile relationships. Expressing one’s opinions matters as borderline personality therapy. Internet, which once promised both contacts and facts, has now succumbed to disinformation, manipulation, and omission. Despite free speech permission guaranteed by constitution, inexplicably but insincerely reiterated recently by signed executive order, networks critical of new regime risk having their broadcast license revoked. Only sanctioned perjury will pass Project 2025 arbiters. There’s a lot to unpack in their nefarious acts. At least judges protect press members; nobody has a blogger’s back, though they don’t need to be forgiven for evil they attack.

Tech oligarchs and their delinquent mutant ninjas, who own top algorithms based on a century of sociology and latest AI, deny advantageous access, monopolize social media, poison pleasant convos, ridicule appeals to better self, sell your proclivities to some vulture, shame your relentless curiosity, and suppress any attempt to organize, because isolation makes individuals vulnerable. Somewhere there’s a disastrous dossier on your search history actively being exploited or aggressively being filed for them to utilize against you in future. An antisocial immigrant unelected appointee with close ties to China and Russia already has all your bank, census, medical, phone, and tax details in direct violation of Privacy Act of 1974. Damage is already done despite court orders to desist. Over an adulthood spent months shredding documents to avoid exactly what’s now occurred by overreach decree. You’ve already unknowingly surrendered privacy and security. Crimes used to be transacted over dark web in cryptocurrency, but now they’e committed against public treasury openly with impunity.

Neutral Swiss sentimental illustrator Chendi Xu, At the Newsstand, detail, 2019

Before personal computing, intellectual forages were fed by bookstores, libraries, and newsstands. You got acquainted with authors, diarists, egalitarians, journalists, librarians, and other strangers who earned your trust because they knew more than you and shared their knowledge without attached strings. Recalls enlightenment era encyclopedias by Chambers, D’Alembert & Diderot, and Harris meant to disseminate burgeoning body of knowledge and loosen royal guilds’ grip on profitable things. Analog studies provide a sense of community, and seem worth your physical efforts, as does bicycling instead of driving. Digital saves labor but stirs anger; social media alienate participants and propagate faceless villains who prey on innocents and proffer nothing of honor. Close encounters promote camaraderie, democratic thinking, dignity of work, and sense of patriotism that distance and segregation unravel, says dour Harvard professor Michael Sandel.

Regret wasting decades online squabbling with damned souls, dirty predators, and dopey trolls. You’d think 50 years of electronic dialogue would have brought consensus and peace. Wasn’t all bad: Conversed with a sweet and wise few, learned new wrinkles in communication, and sought revelatory inspiration, but stumbling upon grace is akin to taking bait as trap snaps shut. Since religions founded upon best intentions and divine origins get perverted into cudgels of control, what can you expect in a secular superbowl presided over by a lecherous a**hole? Blanket browsing, confirming bias, and obsessive doomscrolling have exacerbated ageism, antisemitism, grievances over elitism, illogical prejudices, jealous egotism, personal menace, racist supremacism, science denialism, and violent terrorism among angry misogynists and anxious morons, as offensively portrayed in film Ford Fairlane (Renny Harlin, dir., 1990) by Andrew Dice Clay, another obnoxious example of toxic masculinity.

Ford Fairlanes were models of family sedans, muscle coupes, station wagons, and stretch Falcons with an apparent identity crisis built for distribution throughout nation from 1955 to 1970, longer elsewhere. Once owned one for demolition derby use. Full size car sales crashed stateside even before OPEC Oil Embargo in 1974, when bike sales boomed and both bugs and compacts spiked in popularity. These impractical gas guzzlers were later supplanted by minivans and SUVs. Neither ideal nor just, Fairlanes exemplified consumer betrayal, planned obsolescence, and policy contempt. FHWA, another agency soon to be on chopping block, explained mandate for bicycle lanes to stem mounting number of crash fatalities, up to a thousand annually, identifying cars overtaking bicycles as their primary cause.

By exiting all your social media accounts, you can attend neglected chores, bike further afield, and stick it to the man, who needs you to take part in time wasted to build his fascist warchest. Narrow byways enveloped by shrubs and trees are fair lanes to ride upon, because they evoke a sense of intimacy with natural world and foster face-to-face encounters that other roads don’t. Yet a neighborhood paperboy finds suburban streets treacherous among Sling on-line users who prefer digital soundbites to newsprint insights.

Does bicycling really represent an economical alternative to driving? If own 20,000 hours of pedaling were instead spent working at a minimum wage job, provided a flexible part time role could be landed amidst a full time career, would have earned an extra $100,000 after social security deductions and taxes in a higher bracket. Supplanting half of all driven miles with bicycling saved at least $4,000/year, half national average for car ownership less costs of bicycling, totaling $100,000 over 25 years. This leaves a net gain only in intangibles of better health, closer appraisal of what it means to be alive, developed sense of risk assessment, entertaining experiences outdoors, and fossil fuel boycott. Do you really want to drive a car at all faced with all its expenses and stresses? Bicycling is statistically 20 times safer. Between 2017 and 2022, Tesla owners had the most per billion charged infractions, collision incidents, consequential fatalities, and safety recalls, twice national average. Until now, Tesla was being actively investigated for multiple anomalies and infractions among agencies being gutted by Tesla’s CEO.

MAGA conflates equal opportunity into a nonexistent DEI mandate, further, employment of incompetents in critical roles. This gives partisans a way to avoid criticism for illegal firings, blame opposition for unrelated tragedies, and rationalize their own racism that assumes sex identity and skin color preordain intelligence quotient. Much of American aviation and space program success was based on manual trajectory calculations by badly treated black women rocket scientists, particularly Kathrine Johnson. In total hypocrisy marching toward tragedy, less than half of a weak voter turnout reacting to racist dogwhistles picked a diagnosed sociopath as POTUS, ranked worst by a consensus of historians, or, as Bill Maher describes, “The Ultimate in Reverse Improvement.” Dozens of debacles have already been documented as a result of Despicable Organized Greed Enormity. Ain’t no medieval Duchy of Venice, just a contemporary accountability dodge, cruel scam, and word weave by wannabe leaders without constitutional status drawn from cavernous greed and fearful need to seize all wealth at blitzkrieg speed.

Who is the evil known by many names? Lucifer, of course. Likewise, Adolf Scissorhands, Alphonse Ca-porn, Bugs Moron, Cannibal Lecturer, Dearth Insidious, Dolt 45, Felon 47, Frequent-Lolita-Flyer, General Lies-in-Shower, Grifter in Chief, His Royal MAGA-sty, KAOS Capo, Mango Mussolini, Napoleon Bone-a-Nibble, Nostra-Dumbass, Panama Read, Pol Pops, Putin Putty, Scowling Grimace, Simple Stalin, Velveeta Voldemort, Why-Him-See-All-Day, and worse monikers than Old Nick. Compare tactics in common: Conceited avarice, deceptive subterfuge, divisive betrayal, empty promises, foul amorality, glib excuses, heinous vengeance, and indecent schadenfreude. Only a possessed pest gets called out by Catholic Pope; only a godless narcissist demands an apology for a loving homily given by an Episcopal Bishop, who since has received death threats. Christians supposedly pluck out a heart of stone and reinstall a soul of compassion, but not his. Instead of embarrassing citizens by floating cryptid currencies, fraud which illegally funnels campaign funding and violates Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and merch grifting resembling reptilians dining on delicacies of cadaver flies, someone ought to offer anti-chump pins for free with a wee stipend for wearing them. Clever ridicule couldn’t convince zombie cult. Laws lose potency with POTUS illegality.

Gulf Oil just celebrated its Orange Logo's centennial anniversary. Their slogan? “Unstoppable together,” an attitude perfectly in tune with melting pot of America. Compare to orange combover, who’s nearly as old, never wins his unilateral demands, and next to him nobody may excel or outdo lest he looks stupid or weak. Golf is THE game for self serving narcissists for whom teamwork means nothing. If DJT really wanted to conserve tax money, he'd pay back hundreds of millions of it he spent on golf junkets and record $8 trillion deficit he ran up in previous term. Does any of this underlie why Gulf of Mexico had to go? There's already an actual Gulf of America between 1% affluence and 99% of populace.  

Economy, government policy, and morality are intertwined. Government employment churns economy, ensures justice, and provides crucial services. Wealth redistribution from an oligarchy is key to public solidarity. What elected officials do in office whether you agree or not matters to you personally. Ask Russians if their lives are better under kleptocracy. One way to fight impact of higher grocery prices is to raise threshold for SNAP. However, GOP intends to eliminate all benefits, and let corporate bosses gouge consumers mercilessly. Accusing all welfare recipients, not just few thousand already indicted who were gaming program due to data breaches and identity thefts, blindly and cruelly victimizes millions who need dole and never did, 75% of whom are children and infants. To gripe about other nations cheating USA by running trade deficits takes some extreme of psychopathy after holding title as America’s foremost money off-shorer and tax cheater with hundreds of millions evaded, convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying financial records. Guilty as charged. Likewise, making excuses about drug smuggling as a reason for tariffs from world’s worst drug money launder is an absurd assault on indisputable logic. Totality of this corruption is evidenced by his first act of firing inspectors general who saved nation $93 billion, and other law enforcers who fight corruption according to constitution. Nothing mutually beneficial gets done in a huge hurry with zero transparency.

Deportation roundups cause serious economic harm and menace families independent of status. ICE spent $300K raiding several Arizona homes to catch then release one documented resident. At this rate it might cost $3 million to catch ten potential deportees of suspected ten million, so more collectively than nation’s GDP, not to mention price of incarceration and transportation. Chaos and waste ensure pain and suffering, probably the sole reason this folly was undertaken. Leaving them alone to earn a living and pay taxes maintains federal and state revenue while suppressing inflation. Arrangements become what they are for serious reasons. Situations can always be made worse through cancelling or meddling. Rather than ICE blindly raiding, a simpler solution would be to let local police enforce existing laws and verify status upon arrest.

Tariffs will cost US automakers tens of billions, since American plants are completely integrated with Canadian and Mexican. Ford CEO Farley said tariffs would, “Blow a hole,” in US auto industry, which goes far beyond major brands and their 2% of total workforce into suppliers and surrounding communities. Retaliations will hike prices of durable goods, fuels, and utilities for Americans, since 60% of gas and oil supply comes from bordering countries. Threats of trade wars have already escalated costs for consumer and losses for investors. For political leverage, Democrats seem satisfied to let Republicans fall flat, as if they might fare better come midterm elections, which could be cancelled altogether, falsified, or ignored. Hoping for a congressional majority win won’t defend against this invasion from within.

Comfortably numb boomers act like begrudging bosses and Karen crones who had their fun but now want to block yours. Worse, they forget how youth struggle and marginalize those outside their orbit. Why don’t they just cease being obstacles and fade into sunset? Anyone who engages in divisive us-them arguments against small population segments to dominate politically can’t be trusted in any deal or debate. Ultra rich only exist because they’re terribly insecure, whilst society doesn’t resist their hedging against next plot twist. Espy an epic fortune and expose a colossal felony or lie. Downtrodden masses recall excesses of French Revolution and own powers to level playing field and recoup losses. Oligarchs fear labor strikes, massive protests, open riots, and shrinking popularity.

Peter Gabriel, Solsbury Hill, Peter Gabriel, Atco, 1977, “I was feeling part of the scenery. I walked right out of the machinery, my heart going boom, boom, boom! Son, he said, grab your things, I’ve come to take you home.” Suggesting that you should accept a loss for what you might gain, song was composed on point in forward propelling but unusual 7/4 time. Secret World Live Tour 3 decades ago covered tune upon a stage-in-the-round, where almost throughout Gabriel sang while boldly riding a Moulton folding bicycle.

All acquired balance, good deeds, and virtuous achievements get expunged by lawless and soulless fascism. What comes from government firings, thoughtless deregulation, or too little oversight? Aviation, infrastructure, and policy disasters have already cost lives. February (Latin, februum, purgation), will see an illegal purge of dedicated, nonpartisan government workers, many former combat veterans who transitioned into government, rationalized as draining deep state swamp, but really whitewashing their embezzlement of public heirlooms and treasury assets. But is it smart to disenfranchise trained agents with encryption, gun, legal, and tactical expertise? Predicts spiteful payback. China and Russia don’t want to invade America yet, thus inherit every immigrant, minority, and welfare issue. But they will after ethnic cleansing and military divestment removes any effective deterrent. Vast expanses of empty fields and ranges populated by disarmed farmers and subjugated slaves would be deemed enviable acquisitions. Never closer to midnight, The Doomsday Clock has descended from 17 minutes in 1991 to less than 2 minutes since existential threats posed by POTUS 45, now an “all time” nadir of only 89 seconds under 47.

All you get is a vote, some limited rights, and what little discretionary actions laws allow. Autocrats attempt to strip even those, decide how you’ll abide or die, everything you’ll be provided as to nutrition, rewards, shelter or tools. Free market is a fairy tale. Unitary control forces everyone to comply with energy scheme, motoring paradigm, sanctioned model, state programs few agreed upon or asked for, and transfer of trillions of dollars into private accounts. Cuts in involuntary programs to pay down national debt just preserve wealth's value at workers' expense. Yet public outrage is aimed at allies not enemies, or self for apathy and stupidity. Ignorance can be emotional or intellectual, but can’t be justified or opposed. For sanity’s sake, people prefer to ignore POTUS, whose aims are to ensure despair, evade scrutiny, exacerbate fear, an exact revenge; reimagines civil war sans destruction. Sovereign state secession could avoid fed’s $36 trillion debt, make laws and taxes equitable, and open opportunities to merge with European Union.

Blurry Be-In protest images on Kodachrome slides from half a century ago still affirm aspirations to act responsibly and stay mindful. Writing blogs has always been busy work that challenged patience of both reader and writer. Bike&Chain posts may seem enigmatic and fictional, but every paragraph was wrought directly from personal experiences and reliable reports. In contrast, Chat GPT emerges as noncommittal mumbo jumbo, never synthetic thought, but often beats nonchalant lies and passionate nonsense touted as facts by today's politics, and probably masquerades as human content more than you detect or expect. When authors write, they assemble correct words into paragraphs, celebrate own language which might be disappearing, put them through multiple editorial reviews, reconsider readers' divergent perspectives, sequence into sensible segues, test for probity and veracity, then transmit in print or whatever. Computers talk among themselves while humans kowtow to authority and lose touch, which means it’s time to attend to own affairs, get ready for end grind into oblivion, and hug loved ones in your hovel.