Beset by The Lurdane

“Inch your way through dead dreams to another land. Maybe you're tired and broken, your tongue is twisted with words half spoken and thoughts unclear. What do you want me to do, to do for you, to see you through? A box of rain will ease the pain, and love will see you through.” Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead, 1970, about considering or leaving a confusing wet planet and power of love over hate.

A holiday hodgepodge with too many interesting tidbits and scandalous gambits demands synthesis and elicits generalizations, though entire books explore each dodge. Yet is there any point trying to make sense amidst an infowar malestream of propaganda saturation and violent commotion? Given Gödel's Loophole in US Constitution, one must muster courage and faith that this great experiment can endure another polar vortex spanning MLK Holiday, Marmot’s Reveal, Presidents’ Birthdays, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day, WWII era Remembrance Day (interment of Japanese American citizens), and winter’s cleansing at Pan’s Lupercalia renamed Ash Wednesday with no ICE free streets predicted for this Mardi Gras. Ramadan outruns Lent and precedes another mass nationwide protest by Mailer’s Armies of the Night planned for March 28th, not soon enough. Why can’t an early Spring instead bring a revival trend? Might democracy survive unscathed to celebrate country’s 250th anniversary? What does mainstream, oligarch owned media portend?

Under today’s unfair era have to wonder how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr would fare. During 1960’s, he had a mutually beneficial dream, marched and preached, mustered crowds in the hundreds of thousands, sought basic civil rights for every resident, and would have undoubtedly been on Krusty Gnome’s hotlist as an ANTIFA and BLM agitator, that is, an imaginary boogeyman. He earned his Nobel Prize upon brave and compassionate effort, not the same as extorting one from a worthy recipient. In 1983 Reagan named a federal holiday in honor of his sacrifice, much like Christmas and Easter for another rabble rouser. But along with Juneteenth holiday has been all but rescinded by executive order by a jealous racist No-King, his deliberate affront to Black History Month. Being divisive and offensive is what demons do.

Labann's reputation is likewise confined to a recognition oubliette, where they dump dissidents so oppressors can forever forget. If you’ve learned anything under this crooked Forty 6 or 7 regime it’s that besmirched cravings, blind ambition, and brazen aggression are mental derangements that invite the opposite: disappointment, dishonor, and disruption. Egomaniacal dictators by definition don’t care what the people deserve: democracy, opportunity, and sustaining security. Acts of cruelty create enemies aplenty. Camo, guns, masks, and uniforms cause fear, flashpoints, and suspicions that increase fatalities. Against such menace, threats, and villainy one might expect a marvel avengement rather than a mundane discontentment. Every day this repulsive manille fails to serve the rank and file expands crowd of resisting jacquerie, revolting peasants righteously exercising their constitutional entitlement.

Beside brownshirt tactics - blocking cars, kidnapping children, pulling innocents out of cars and homes onto frozen streets, shooting pepper balls at clergy, and tossing tear gas at bystanders in blue cities and school zones - ICE stormtroopers gunned down avid cyclist and VA nurse Alex Pretti while on a errand of mercy after murdering mother of three Renée Nicole Macklin Good. Despicable DHS deemed both assassins and terrorists to dodge own culpability. If you’re not outraged, you need an activist group bike ride to spark some empathy, though lately due to weather rides have been few, furtive, and short. New York City is closer to Canadian border than Minneapolis, yet ICE wouldn’t dare take on organized democracy in a world media hub. “These machines of freedom kill fascists.” Give a shout out to Angry Catfish, Bike Farmer, Critical Mass, and Twin City of Minneapolis - St. Paul under siege. The world is watching. 

Congress controls spending, makes laws, and uniformly levies duties, excises, imposts, and taxes. Original but never adopted 1st Article intended that every fifty-thousand citizens would get one representative, which is one reason government enumerates a census every decade; this would mean a House today with over 7,000 seats instead of only 435; every state still gets only two senators, something of a problem among states sparsely populated wielding undue influence. Begs a question about adequacy of policy attention, whether all citizens are being heard or served. Executive branch cannot direct states on how to run polls or limit voting in any way. Against goal of all people having a say, vicious parties with low member affiliation want to stack restrictions illegally against disenfranchised, elderly, immigrants, married women, and poor through birth certification, district reorganization, photo IDs, registration proofs, and scary prospect of armed agents arresting racially profiled voters in polling place parking lots.

US Constitution is a liquid talisman, more than a marriage license with a prenuptial contract, which survives as planet's oldest existing government charter, although it could fall to lurking autocracy if not preserved through alert vigilance and attentive care. Those who aren’t aware of these civil rights might not fight to secure them until too late. “We The People” in Preamble affirms that those allowed ascendancy serve citizens, not a cadre of oligarchs, a self assumed dictator, or some foreign autocrat. Its 7 Articles form a social contract between agencies of state and resident individuals. Citizens permit government (not other way around) to defend them through collected revenue, fiscal management, and law enforcement. Articles define and direct 3 branches - executive, judiciary, and legislative - to act accordingly and stand down when any state exercises its own powers. Violators found treasonous face impeachment, forfeit entire estate, held until they die, and possibly execution, exile, or incarceration. Original Bill of Rights formed a bulwark of The Four Freedoms: from tyranny and want, of religion and speech. Another 27 fortifying amendments were gradually ratified by a two-third congressional vote to address unforeseen challenges.

1st Amendment: Entitles freedoms of press, religion, and speech, peaceful assembly, and petitions for redress of grievances; prohibits laws that designate a state religion or impede free expression.
This right has never been more maligned and threatened, with colleges, news networks, even sitting congresspeople undergoing specious lawsuits and undue pressures from executive branch. Citizens, congresspeople, and taxpayers are fully entitled to speak against candidates, executives, governors, nominees, politicians, and representatives in every way without fear of lawsuits for slander. Everyone can vote without coercion or fear of reprisal based on any criteria including congressional record, donor lineup, nagging doubts, party affiliation, personality traits, potential merit, or private scandals, all of which bear mention by an independent press. Unlike equal opportunity human resource decisions, none are exempt from ageism, mental defect, nepotism, partisanship, racism, or such biases. Holding office is not for thin skinned sensitives. However, one cannot foment riots, libel private citizens, order crimes, or provoke harm to anyone else with impunity.

“When we’re not challenged, it’s easy to believe in free speech, when it doesn’t seem like the government is trying to crack down on free speech... when we’re not at risk of being arrested.” Barack Obama, President’s Day, 2026

2nd Amendment: People can bear arms and join state militias to secure freedoms and security.
Sixteen hundred insurrectionists that attacked the capitol, all right wing extremists, were pardoned; many took DHS jobs to further abuse civilians, while, not surprisingly, others were convicted of 129 new crimes since. But according to them any citizen carrying a concealed and licensed weapon who shows up in their location is subject to immediate execution. Laws don’t specify forfeiture of this right, but ought to exclude Proud Boys and worse sociopaths. Dilemma is that they primarily own and want guns, though a parole violation in nearly every jurisdiction, not average folks struggling to make a dignified and honest living, who recognize that weapons provide zero safety, more likely to kill than protect owners.

3rd Amendment: Soldiers can’t be quartered in a home during peace or war without owner’s consent.
Border control and ICE are not army, FBI, militia or police previously established by constitution. DHS is an illegitimate bastard of Bush era paranoia and can be ground into dust overnight by cutting its funding. Insiders agree that shifting agencies under one organizational umbrella created administrating chaos and reporting havoc. As a paramilitary force exceeding in number legitimate trained police in locations sent, they create pointless mayhem, disrupt daily life, impose upon resources, and snarl commuter traffic.

4th Amendment: No unreasonable searches and seizures of personal papers or property without a court warrant and probable cause.
Your documents, home, and person are supposedly exempt castles and temples, yet DHS has repeated violated these rights under worthless administrative warrants never adjudicated by appointed or elected officials.

5th Amendment: Specifies no arrest or incarceration without due process including court arraignment and grand jury indictment, no property seizures for public use without just compensation, no repeat prosecution of same crime after acquittal (double jeopardy), and right to hear a Miranda notification and invoke exemption from self incrimination.
Means that a judge has to add your name to a list used in enforcement dragnets. Police can’t just arrest anyone they encounter or profile unless caught committing an actual crime. Those arrested get to hear charges against and what further rights they still have. Same applies in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Portland Maine and Oregon, or such sanctuary cities nationwide, versus Red States where this paramilitary host has yet to be deployed. It’s clearly unconstitutional to impound a car for a fee or sell off without owner’s consent who has been acquitted or wrongly arrested, although sale and seizure of property following a conviction has served as judgment settlement or victim compensation.

6th Amendment: Rights of accused in criminal proceedings to counsel for defense, innocence until proven guilty, and a speedy public trial in the jurisdiction crime was committed before accusers, an impartial jury, and witnesses.
Justice delayed is justice denied, though insider Emily Almanza's Price of Mercy argues that facilitating a convict's basic needs beyond parole deters recidivism, thereby finalizing legal system's revolving door. DOJ and SCOTUS were stacked with “sychoplants” to ensure plans of dismissing or dragging out arraignments and indictments of the privileged until statute of limitation in each case expires. Epstein’s bride Spamula Blondie took a bribe rather than prosecute Frump University fraud. So, what was the coverup for which she was appointed Attorney General? Will she remain in office when magrats and maximalists lose congressional dominance after mid-term election and majority starts pedophile prosecution? Some of Epstein's and guests' thousands of victims have awaited DOJ interviews and justice in convictions for decades.

7th Amendment: Leave to elect a jury trial in civil suits and appeal decision.
Laws must be written to include all residents, then enforced equally despite class, race, or wealth. Oligarchs are subject to same laws as working stiffs. Took an act of congress to demand disclosure of Epstein Files from a DOJ intent on holding congress in contempt, obstructing justice, and protecting elite pedophiles and rapists. Many must ultimately serve prison sentences, if only those who should have fulfilled oaths of office.

8th Amendment: In criminal cases, further guarantees no cruel and unusual punishments or excessive bail or fines.
Of the hundreds of thousands detained indefinitely by DHS without judicial arraignment, 39 have died in custody as of this posting, far beyond excessive. Aggressive deporting and ethnic cleansing cure no problems; every opponent and protestor they preemptively kill raises a dozen in their stead. ICE raids are really a stop-at-nothing desperation to limit Democrat votes and keep Republican control over Congress despite their minority position, a mere 25% voter affiliation. If Democrats were welcoming aliens to pad votes, why then did Obama deport more than Republicans? Pure xenophobia, they depict as horrific sin aliens desperately wanting to get in to escape persecution under American protection, whereas they shield international sex panderers who extort marks, launder money, and rape children. If nation needs to be cleansed of some inferior groups, let it be fascists, pedophiles, and sociopaths.

9th Amendment: Other than specified rights, Constitution doesn’t deny or disparage state rights themselves.
Executive branch is prohibited from calling out the National Guard without a governors consent, unless to put down an insurrection. In several major instances, both clauses have been breached, insurrection wasn’t quelled while troops were unnecessarily deployed, while Speaker of the House colluded to allow without congressional remedy.

10th Amendment: If Constitution doesn’t designate a power to federal government, then power belongs to state or the people themselves.
Voting process can only be run by states free from interference from executive fiats or federal agencies.

11th Amendment: Citizens of one state can’t sue another state or foreign state.
Nor can beltway bullies bring unilateral action against sovereign states. Cooperation is key. Both imperialism and peace are bought and fought for. Since WWII, America spent trillions protecting treaty allies and saving starving third world. Conquering countries and controlling populations would cost many times more than good will gained through charities, food, and medicine.

12th Amendment: Covers how electors count and report votes.
Rabid narcissist for sake of vanity, after costly exhaustive recounts at states' expense, is still wasting millions of tax dollars trying to prove he won election he attempted and failed to rig in 2020. Vindication has no value except as legacy lyrics to a swansong.

13th Amendment: Slavery is abolished, along with indentured servitude, except as punishment for duly convicted criminals.
With a third of humans worldwide meeting definition of enslaved or trafficked, further social justice questions remain as minimum wages have not risen with rate of inflation resulting in the biggest gap in wealth in modern history. Reagan assumed that trade unions meant dreaded communism and busted as many as he could; this big phony would later take credit for loosening Soviets grip on Eastern Europe, which was in fact accomplished by trade unions in those countries.

14th Amendment: Citizen status is secured by being born within borders of United States (birthright citizenship) and gets to vote by attaining an age of 21 years (now 18), unless having committed crimes, given aid or comfort to enemies, participated in insurrection, or waged a rebellion.
Since states are in charge of voting, so, despite rider, all but ten now directly reinstate. Incarcerated convicts cannot, but once sentence (and sometimes terms of parole and/or probation) has been served, right is restored automatically. Remaining ten allow individual petitions under certain conditions.

15th Amendment: Secures citizens voting rights undenied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Current administration has been systematically excluding people of color and conscience from participating in government and society. Every effort is being made to deny registration or voting access to everyone not male and white. Convicted January 6th insurrectionists were pardoned, restored to voter rolls, and temporarily hired to attack and murder law abiding citizens with impunity.

16th Amendment: Allows federal income taxes, but not based on population census.
Current president is suing an IRS whistleblower for a breach of privacy that revealed he paid nothing over several years after and before first term. Other than a disclosure that contradicts lies, there’s no monetary loss upon which to base suit. In fact, constitution demands that third parties expose felonies.

17th Amendment: Designates lengths of terms and numbers from states of senators, and how to fill vacancies.

18th Amendment: Prohibited production and distribution of alcohol.
Later they'd argue that this discriminates against a certain class of people, so not generally applicable.

19th Amendment: Citizens cannot be denied a vote by sex; women’s suffrage.
Tearing down the “distaff wing” of the White House signals current administration’s misogynistic denial of women in any role except as loyal lapdogs and trophy tokens of chief executive.

20th Amendment: Describes congressional and presidential procedures and term limitations.

21st Amendment: Repealed alcohol prohibition under 18th Amendment.
Led to a permissive attitude on all addictive and harmful substances, particularly opioids. Fentanyl, a cheap synthetic illegally imported from China, lately causes as many fatalities in overdoses as automotive carnage or infectious diseases.

22nd Amendment: Each president gets only 2 terms, even if one term is less than 4 years.

23rd Amendment: Casting final vote, presidential electors (electoral college) number same as congressional seats.

24th Amendment: Citizens cannot be denied a vote for nonpayment of fines or poll taxes.

25th Amendment: Specifies order of succession for a president’s death or resignation.
Meanwhile, Putin’s portrait remains enshrined in recently gilded Oval Office.

26th Amendment: 18 year old and older citizens all get a vote.

27th Amendment: Congressional compensation won’t change until after next election.

A violation of any one amendment or article is an impeachable offense. Last year Border Control and ICE denied asylum to a half million people, detained 70,000, 75% of whom were immigrants without criminal records, and deported 300,000. This is 100,000 less than Obama’s 2014 peak, in fact, failing to match his rate despite twice the funding and manpower due to operating chaos. Add $1 billion for national guard deployments to back up abduction sweeps and occupy 6 US cities, trying to incite armed resistance and trigger war powers, and vanishing legal residents to concentration camps under inhuman conditions without congressional oversight. Marching orders are to deport, eliminate, or incarcerate foreigners (xenophobia), influential women (misogyny). people of color (racism), seniors (ageism), and welfare (medicaid, SNAP, TANF) recipients. These crimes are unprecedented in peacetime history. But focus on blue states proves it's also election interference, limiting votes from places that might undermine Republicans control. If you skirmish with goons you waste your power. Instead of battling ICE, nation’s revival of disposable Gestapo stooges, or cheering on vocal opponents, protestors should boycott bosses, corporate CEOs. Don’t buy IPhones or Teslas; cancel media subscriptions; opt out of social media.

Still from viral video of Border Control failing like Keystone Cops to catch a Chicago bicyclist who taunted them with, "I'm not a citizen!"

The alchemy of democracy is ordinary people joining in extraordinary action. America’s 350 million residents of 50 states are in charge, not an amateur cabinet of pennywise clowns and reckless lurdanes who were specifically chosen for their lack of experience so as to offset impotency of an organized crime boss, world's latest Humpty Dumpty, tottering atop a house of suits in a gathering impeachment gale, stumbling upon cankle rankle, fallacious commentary,  fascist policy, and illogical arguments that incite permanent rancor and personal ruin. Can’t retort, “Fake news,” without admitting that journalists reporting whatever press secretary says is nothing but lies, propaganda, or spin. Can’t allege, “Reporter is biased or stupid,” without committing libel or slander, unless one has evidence to support, not just angry over question asked, since the only stupid question is one that wasn’t posed. Self important puffery usually summons a powerful fiend who pretends to befriend. Cautious, conflicted, coy, and obscure may well serve as survival instincts, as long as one so characterized somehow withstands corrupt and cruel shenanigans.

That a record number, 48, of representatives, ~10% including 30 Republicans, are leaving office during midterms has been attributed to death threats upon unpopularity of executive branch’s policy, yet coconspirators raiding treasury won’t take a hint. If you want justice or reparations you need a deck of playing cards (remember Gulf War?) plastered with faces of this despicable cast of inhuman kakistocrats, insidious criminals, and willful miscreants who cater to their kleptocratic king:
ADA badboy Bod Mange
Agri-Sec Broken Rollers
Ambush artist and loyalty enforcer Garish “Lips” Gloomier
Ballroom concierge Nell Gripter
Border czar Tae “Cavacash” Homeboy
Budget mangler Rust Vault
CIA spook Clyffe Dirtirat
Defunct doge Greedon Disgust
DHS’s Krusty “Puppysnuffer” Gnome
Deputy advisor and worm tongue whisperer Sleazy Murder
DOT’s Sure Doofus
Energy drain Jist Wrong
EPA’s Pee Dinhell
Fascist fashionista Gregstapo Bodiodor
Fake DA Lying Hooligan
FCC’s Bendhard Waycar
G-man Gobar Kattle
GOP congressional goons Bringon Donsballs, football coach Patches Downtubes, Jaundice Coma, Max “Teen Dates” Skates, Peaches Callin, Sandy Dune, Skipper Hawksley, Shift “Grindr” Jonesin, and Toy “No Neck” Smells
High spy Tugsee Grabhard
Interior designer Doublemint Blurglum
Health conspiracy savant Ed “Quoth the Raven” Youkandie
HUD head Spot Token
Labor leader Lousy Dreamer
Propagandists Barfa Ravioli, Dirty Waters, Liar Ingrained, Gore Gutfelt, and Sworn Insanity
Revenue's smug spewer Snot Pissant
Sauron’s mouthpiece Copro Leverite
SBA’s Reelly Loathesome
Schemer Frank Lee Nutz
Schoolmarm from WWE Letus McSlam
Secretary of State Ruby Begone
SSA’s Mr. Effing Big
Teabagger Howodd Nutlick
Trade rep Gameloser Jeer
Veep Divan “Poopy” Pants
Vet Affair draft dodger Cuck Doggi
VOA absent announcer Hairy Fake
Warhawk twink Repeat Headsmash
White House surrogate mom Sorri Weasel

This greedy, grifting, smirking cohort is the very definition of “The Enemy Within”. Hesitate to mention them, given frequent indictment and rapid turnover of first term henchmen; over 400 were fired or jailed. These merciless fascists, party in minority, and right wing maximalists abuse 75% majority of independents, liberals, naturalized Latinos, and nearly 200 million workers with an increasing number of them, at least a million, unemployed over last 12 months. Their platform is not what they pretend, rather the opposite of fiscal prudence, rule of law, and support for security.

Republican bobbleheads nod in agreement of their criminal scheme betraying own guilt. What of the optics that their conservative cosplay has perennially failed nation since Reagan? It’s because helping constituents has never been their intention, rather stealing trillions while turning your attention to other distractions. Such fringe fixations attract creepy, exclusive, insecure, privileged, scorned sociopaths. They spend other people’s money on themselves, spread hate, sponsor genocide and terrorism, strip rights from whoever resists, and want to murder anyone who won’t bend a knee to whatever they want, including crypto-bribes, habitat destruction, heinous acts, human trafficking, Ponzi schemes, slave torture, and statutory rape. It’s best described as an asylum for the criminally insane without attendants, cells restraints, or walls. Makes you wonder why they aren’t being collared, convicted, and incarcerated, preferably in some jungle gulag where they’d gladly send you for daring to demand autonomy.

After stealing trillions, nothing is left to assuage their greed obsession and naked aggression but scofflaw satisfactions of arrests, searches, and seizures. While laughing at the Constitution on a mission to break every amendment and article, cabinet compiled a 250 page gaslighting bundle of lies listing illegal “achievements and firsts”, which no previous public servant would have ever conceived. In assaulting social contract and attempting autocracy, the sliver of silver has been clarifying laws and raising awareness of what might be lost under tyranny.

Taking orders from an albino lobster, an adoration of tinkerbells believe his addled confabulations. How can you presume you’re Peace Prize worthy when you’re against everything for which former laureates Al Gore, Barach Obama, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, and United Nations stand. Bemoans a couple birds endangered by windmills, but couldn’t care less that a half billion humans have died since foreign aid was halted; instigated more international conflicts than all previous presidents combined ostensibly to claim another peace brokerage. Boggles one’s mind how a misogynist pedophile racist who alienated entire LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, independents, military, people of color, vets, and women could score any victory without rigging and stealing elections. There isn’t enough angry hetero poser white males to make his perverted math work. But having known how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton struggled for votes, how delusional were Democrats to nominate a black woman? When they pushed historic firsts they invited horrific consequences. Yet latest poll given 20/20 hindsight shows Kamala Harris winning with 58% of votes.

Happiness for yourself is impossible while others suffer. Valentines remind one of how essential building loving relationships truly is. "Hold on and hold out," said the late Jesse Jackson. Families live for each other in cooperation with surrounding communities. On a daily basis, national policies hardly register or resonate, though they directly cause death and want.  Keep poking a hibernating bear; dormant citizenry will arise and react brutally and decisively. 

“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming. We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio... Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down. Should have been gone long ago. What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know?” Neil Young, Ohio, 1971

Paine for Germain

When did the fork crotch replace fork crown for forking around? Long before trending among 1990’s hybrid and mountain bikes and today’s gravel style, in 1899 Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works patented a double arched, non-brazed, welded fork, with sides oval in cross section. What once was always seems to recycle historically, including not only bike technology, but fascism, monarchy, slavery, and sociopathy.

George Germain. Viscount of Sackville, didn't foresee Thomas Paine’s Common Sense becoming a royal pain. Published on January 10th, 1776, exactly 250 years ago today, during its currency this pamphlet was almost as popular as and sold more copies than The Bible within a predominantly Christian community.

Paine’s impassioned persuasion and "No Kings" prototype rallied colonists to cut exploitive ties with English Crown. Just 6 months later they declared independence. However, George III had heeded Germain’s advice to harvest overseas investments through repression and taxes, enforced by atrocities and massacres. Taking farmers and followers for granted, Germain underestimated 13 mainland colonies and veered into Caribbean with military diversions and incursions. Sound familiar? All of their disrespect and intractability practically assured British defeat in The American Revolution (Ken Burns, dir., 2025. current miniseries).

Freedom’s resolve is an unstoppable adversary. Germain was deranked and recalled to England, where, as a noble heir, he demanded a public court martial. Crown obliged and he was dishonorably discharged altogether in humiliating disgrace, never to recover his ill gotten prestige. Odd that Burns didn't highlight him or Paul Revere in maybe his last documentary, given federal cuts to PBS funding. All pain, no gain. Does you no good to complain; just feel worse after, nobody listens anyway, while your reputation circles down the drain.

Right words at right time will cause deranged despots, smug snots, and terrible tyrants to swear, sweat, and tremble. Only fascists fear nonexistent ANTIFA as the baba yaga of domestic terrorism, along with art, commentary, performance, and writing that expose their nefarious dissemble and resist their extremist policies that cost lives, shelter, and wothwhile economies. Can't hide facts of crimes for long, especially ones against humanity televised for The People and their prosecutors to witness for themselves. Privileged situations can turn on a dime. Entire cabinet can be impeached and imprisoned within statute of limitations time.

What do you call this blog? Citizen journalism or clinquant deception? You might complain these posts quickly detour into dark cul-de-sacs. Last entry, before busy holidays, was titled with a hapax portmanteau resembling an overused spice flavor. Anyone can compose hopeful, nonthreatening text to reap praise from self deceiving admirers. Why then do authors or journalists gamble their lives and reputations publishing unabashed truths? Encyclopedias aren’t popular. Wikipedia always begs for funding.

Catering to the affluent who dominate media pays better than heroically standing up for the indigent. Why paddle doggedly upstream? Why pedal honorably upslope? Concerted effort overcoming obstacles is how you succeed, but rewards obviously aren't guaranteed. Lazy methods make one fat, stupid, and susceptible to brain/sane washing and crazy controls that instill doubt and fear. Hard not to recall cool satire of Jonathan Swift while riding cruel streets on a Brooks old school Swift saddle. To ironically add insult to injury, an executive edict just stopped making common cents. Businesses anxious to make change are buying rolled pennies at a premium, $1.40 per hundred; a roll of 50 wheat pennies is actually worth $3.00 to any coin dealer.

Inspired by the michaudine, mankind’s first pedaled bicycle, purloined a French nom de plume, Labann, implying a declaration of intolerance for injustice and an eternal curse against state marginalization of bicycling borne with righteous dignity, versus Batman’s Bane, who presented an existential threat and warranted severest of penalties, as does every traitor and villain. One doesn’t just pluck an alter ego from rare ether. Riding a freedom machine among a brotherhood of equals makes one wonder why anyone would prefer to be cheated, threatened, or victimized rather than assume personal responsibility, learn governance for themselves, resist temptations of comforts, take charge of routine business, and undermine mewling dweebs on a power sweep. Propelling by pedal among millions of others supposedly sharing roads, bicyclists come to fully appreciate equality, fraternity, and liberty of France's tripartite motto, another undervalued benefit to reap.

"It is no longer necessary to go into lengthy detail about the usefulness of the bicycle, because it has long since established itself as indispensable in our national life...A good bicycle...provides just the needed exercise for keeping in good health, and in the most pleasurable way. It means quick and safe transportation at the cost of practically nothing. It enables one, at any time, to take the fresh-air-route all over the highways of health, and be independent of crowded trolley and railroad cars of slow and interrupted service... Many boys and girls get back the purchase price of their bicycles with money earned after school hours, and on Saturdays, by running errands and delivering packages...The bicycle is the safest outdoor sport anyone can take up ...an Iver Johnson Bicycle bought today [list price $120.00], if treated right, will be handed down from father to son...” - J. Lovell Johnson, Iver Johnson Catalog, Fitchburg, MA, 1928

By way of a run-on rant, today’s confluence of artificial intelligence, automotive convenience, corrupt politics, instant gratification, and virtual presence has already arrived at an unsustainable destination. Rather than serving needs of the many, scheme relinquishes control to oligarchs, who, by definition, are a small but vicious minority driven by self interest at the expense of 350 million coequal members of a Democratic society. Masses only acquiesce because they were conditioned to believe that some designated driver rules and they don't. It’s gotten so bad that optics of lavish parties and revenue raids while qualified programs are being unilaterally terminated don’t rise to overwhelming outrage, revolution even. Bullies get away with capital offenses by blaming victims and pitting underprivileged against unhomed individuals. SNAP family kids must go hungry because POTUS and SCOTUS want to lord over public and maximize political leverage.

Average voters already have a profound grievance; imagine how maniacs, sociopaths, and such “special folks" feel with current clown at the head of their class. Maybe white supremacists are proud to see a fellow deviant rise to “Leader of the Free World”. Or maybe they feel uneasy about impending legislation leveled against them. A diagnosis might mean your privileges and rights are forfeit, like operating a motor vehicles or simply mingling outdoors. SCOTUS recently decided they can't own weapons. Severely disturbed people were once imprisoned in asylums until they proved themselves fit to return to society. Felons among them served life sentences or were summarily executed.

Everyone, including those so afflicted, ought to survive if not thrive under world’s richest economy. If you’re sinking or underwater with food and shelter uncertainty, blame billionaires, Congress, and cryptocurrency CEOs, who deny you by keeping wages low and tightening money supply. Soon your foreclosed property, tanked investments, and worthless savings will lead to serfdom under self-made royalty dictating your only path forward. Is dystopia not what you signed up for? Nonconformity and self defense are legal. Nothing can stop encouraged and organized masses. Not deterring invaders, improving lives, and lowering costs, regime is instead lowering standards, murdering moms, redefining citizenship, stripping rights, and taking agency cost avoidances for themselves. After a decade of word salad rife with thousands of demonstrable lies, how can you believe anything they say?

Low frustration quotient? No, low tolerance for willful stupidity, a form of community abuse and consequence of antisocial self interest. Those who lay down and let themselves be subjugated don’t earn a free pass, they get abused all the more, having made easy targets of themselves, kicked to the curb. Sadistic curs given immunity sucker punch the most vulnerable relentlessly, since they so often get away with it. That’s how extortion succeeds; deals dangled can range from fear of being beaten, embarrassed, exposed, imprisoned, punished, or stripped of dignity, freedom, property, rights, or wealth. Often the slightest resistance foils them completely. Just say no to the despicable, few, powerless, thoughtless autocrats, dictators, and tyrants.

B&C is art, the antithesis of AI slop, laden with empathy and imagination, versus generic digital content devoid of emotional appeal and human interest. Bicycling is dark woke performance art when wars are being fought over oil consumerism. Gasoline is no queen. Anthropologists say if only 3% of any constituency raise their voices in protest collectively, chain of command and repressive governance will usually get deposed; that's only 1% more than number who showed for last coast-to-coast protest. With approval polls in every category now at historic lows, any push will renew citizen commitment to democracy and topple delusional rule. Given facts, it took only one pamphlet and residual tea tax from Townshend Acts for fathers to found the greatest nation ever despite destiny and drawbacks.

“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever I choose... Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing. Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms... Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient... You road I enter upon and look around... I believe that much unseen is also here... I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.” Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road, 1856, describes freedom to live fully and joyfully through courage and motility

Punkin’ “Cinemain”

Riding around lately noticing obsessions with “Horrorween” decorations and orange greasepaint clown creations. Are homeowners trying to dodge own anxiety and dread from nation’s walking dead who only vote red? Don’t you adore commentators who endorse Top Ten lists deciding for you what to explore? “Compared to what?” those they annoy might ask. How many films have these pumpkin headed critics seen? Small sample numbers bias opinions and skew perceptions. Labann has viewed tens of thousands, though only a few thousand set within last 200 years actually involve bicycling, mere hundreds in some main role. Among the many mentioned or reviewed never rated any against another, given each have scenes worthy of attention that uniformed punks ignore.

Excusable mistakes in Bike&Chain’s appendix “Bike Obsessed Films” rate a retraction. Long unavailable Les Bicylettes de Belsize (Douglas Hickox, dir., 1968) is a short musical with almost no spoken dialogue about Steve (Anthony May) recklessly riding a Raleigh RSW16 (not a Moulton) sans helmet on location in Hampstead, London, England. Belsize Park neighborhood in title of famous Englebert tune (someone else sang on soundtrack) is never visited. One morning Steve evades 2 broadsides and gets into 2 minor crashes before falling in love on first sight with Raleigh billboard model Julie (Judy Huxtable). Best to review after you actually view.

The Cyclist, aka Peloton (John Lawrence, dir., 2012), depicts down-on-his-luck self-absorbed athlete Nash (K.C. Clyde), looking to resume his racing career while scraping by as a messenger. There’s a contrasting Iranian film under same title, aka Bicycleran (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, dir., 1989), in which a motivated Nasim (Moharram Zaynalzadeh), hoping to pay wife’s medical bill, will do anything for money, including marathon riding in a circle nonstop for 7 days. Both plumb depths to which humans will go when determined to succeed or survive.

Infinitely Polar Bear (Maya Forbes, dir., 2015) depicts Boston biracial married couple Cam (Mark Ruffalo, Avengers) and Maggie (Zoe Saldaña, Avatar) as they try to work around his bipolar disorder and their two school age girls so she can attend Columbia’s MBA program in New York full time for 18 months. Set amidst the 1970’s bike boom, filmed on location in Providence, Rhode Island, in manic mode Cam bikes around in a speedo and embarrasses family. Despite important story and star cast (including cycling obsessed and often mentioned Ruffalo), film didn’t return 25% of its investment.

In “awesome” short Litterbugs (Peter Stanley Ward, dir., 2016), precocious inventor Alice (Leila Wetton) and tween sidekick Stanley (James Grogan) get even with mean girls who’ve bullied them. Riding out to a junk yard on her adult tricycle, Alice scavenges castoff gadgets and mechanical litter then recycles into "robugic" drones to do her bidding. Vengeance!

Mary Poppins Returns (Rob Marshall, dir., 2018) one generation later to a Banks family in Depression Era crisis at risk of losing their home. Mary (Emily Blunt) advises as usual to “go fly a kite”, through which they avert foreclosure and regain youthful outlook. Leader of lamplighters Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) makes extended and frequent uses of his cargo bicycle culminating in a dance scene with bike acrobatics and Mary spinning wheelies.

Youths who are bicycling sleuths Elliot (Jensen Gering) and Willow (Catherine White) save mom Celine (Denise Richards) and town of Wickensburg (Richard Boddington, dir., 2022) from an unscrupulous nuclear waste disposer. In worse sequel Return to Wickensburg, 2 years later young adults motor about rather than ride, unlike adventurous twentysomething Anathema Device in Good Omens.

Documentary feature Dear Sirs (Mark Pedri, dir., 2022) retraces by mountain bicycle grandfather Silvio’s route as a soldier captured by Nazis during WWII, a wounded patient mistreated in an insane asylum, an exploited slave scavenging scrap metal, and starving prisoner in Sandbostel’s Stalag 10 concentration camp. While in Hamburg, Mark reflects on Nazi inhumanity by citing ANTIFA dissident and Hitler victim Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself... No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it, and serve it... Comfort the troubled, and trouble the comfortable.” This one hour sobering reminder exposes what occurs when a nation becomes subservient to a sociopathic tyrant and stops caring about entire community. Nazis detained and murdered anyone who wasn’t compliant and white; history repeats itself, both bad and good, so resistance isn't futile.

Anytime (Darcy Wittenburg, dir., 2024) has extreme sports promoter Red Bull celebrating freeride’s elites through sponsors Arosa Lenzerheide’s Bike Kingdom park, Evoc Sports bags, Maxxis tires, and Shimano components.

Another documentary, The Extraordinary Journey of the Bicycle (Michael Kollatschny, dir., 2024), describes how the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1818 and its dust resultant global winter diverted reliance on horses onto mechanical innovations, such as the draisienne. One might argue that chariots were also bicycles; putting cart wheels in line with a pedal push pulley drive reassigns human riders as horse’s asses.

Gold Peak Tea, Real is Gold spot (2024), “Doesn’t need hype or trickery to be interesting,” because bicyclist spokesman breaks away from phony set to tour exotic fascination of tea plantation.

History Honors 250 is a series of PSA spots that History Channel is running through 2026, when America celebrates its quarter millennium as a Greco-Roman democratic republic... if it makes it that far under current totalitarian threat. Of particular interest is one on Women’s Rights first aired on 7 April 2025 that connects their vote with freedom experienced while riding bicycles.

Itinerant bicyclist Cliff Cash delivered The Long Road standup comedy special and destroyed MAGA mythos specifically.

Xfinity Mobil Spot (2025) shows Frankenstein’s creature bicycling around some dark scary backwater, which inspires learning to cook with a pinch of cinnamon like a gourmet chef. Incongruous?

Jimmy Kimmel Live, September 30th, 2025, half way through show, Seth Meyers’ brother Josh parodied California Governor Gavin Newsom bicycling onto stage, cracking up his Brooklyn audience, and reviving stereotypical west coast tropes. Will show survive?

Mocking Ozempic and Wegovy commercials, Comedy Central’s South Park interrupts itself for a “Lizzo spot" with a stop at a bike shop, then resumes ridiculing godless villainy of Pol Prop. Pigs who want it all pop semaglutide pills to avoid exercise and glomb whatever they want. You can simply adopt riding as a lifestyle and so much safer lose chubby blubber, then thumb your nose at first president since Lincoln who didn’t appreciate bicycling and rather make war against bike advocacy in favor of petroleum consumerism.

Out this October, Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, dir., 2025) is an absurdist black comedy remake of a South Korean film. Two beekeeping bicyclists, conspiracy theorists, and environmentally conscious twentysomethings, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and cousin Dan (Aidan Delbis), kidnap and torture powerful pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), convinced she's an alien who wants to destroy Earth.  Maybe they aren't wrong?

Fantasy/SciFi film in development Ghostwriter (J.J. Abrams, dir., 2025) produced on location in both Glasgow, Scotland, and Rhode Island, USA stars Glen Powell (Twister), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), and Samuel L. Jackson (Avengers, Pulp Fiction). A bloodied Powell was snapped being filmed along Providence’s Lovecraftian streets for supernatural scenes of him cycling on a Specialized.

Rhythm and sounds of bicycling inspire so many songs, some composed over last 5 years heretofore slipped through cracks:

Christian Alexander, Bicycle, single, AMF Records, 2023

Doon Kanda, Bicycle [piano instr.], Celest, wwwomb, 2023

Eric Owyoung & Future of Forestry, Bicycle [piano instr.], single, Sound Swan Records, 2023

Lili Trifilio, Bicycle, Book Club, 1326398 Records DK, 2019 - “I was riding home on my bicycle on the northwest side of Chicago. Then I saw your face in a rain puddle looking back at me from a car window... If you wanna come and see my new place in the city by the freeway, we could ride our bikes at our own pace. If they break down, we can fix them.”

mariek, Bicycle, single, self, 2021

Nevi, Bicycle [jazz instr.], Istanbul Edition, Losen Records, 2020 - Russian and Turkish musician collaborate; no apparent relation to the Italian bicycle brand.

Sarah Watson, Bicycle [piano instr.], Bicycle EP, self, 2021

Xaia, Bicycle, single, self, 2020 - “I don’t have a car... I’m tired of the yelling, I just want to be alone... All I do is ride my bike all day...”

Final Curtain

B&C Companion Reader, 5th and last edition containing all blog entries to date [huge single .pdf], has just been linked to blog web version. Now upwards of 3,000 pages of perplexing text provide those interested with, if nothing else, 2 lavish volumes, not to mention thousands of links, to fritter days away, produce less trash, and protect planet’s resources. Time allows existence; how minutes are applied defines lives. Despair, drinks, distractions, drugs, fears, obsessions and traffic all steal months and waste years. Labann’s race was run; did not finish, got disqualified for exceeding time limit.

"All of us in some way are trying to kill time. When it's all said and done, time ends up killing us... I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago." Bob Dylan, Masked and Anonymous (Larry Charles, dir., 2003) "Time will only move us toward freedom if it moves us toward truth." Noam Chomsky

As in all previous editions, reviewing posts led to a few more insights. Why mention Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, or Led Zeppelin? Massive popularity and prolific repertoires deliver better bait, cultural impact, lyrics galore, and reader recognition. They played what they discovered inside themselves, and prayed for an audience that paid. Labann's not some clapping monkey dancing on a string either. Breaking fourth wall, did reference less renowned artists 400 times as often because they were more directly relevant. Plenty of evidence in sources cited, not just author’s personal expertise of riding under every condition for over half a century, and vetted texts from other participants and peers. So much has changed over so many years, media seem to melt into muck of myth.

While seldom repeating self, laid bare every topic within scope definitively, including how bicyclists are dismissed and marginalized by billionaires and their war against humanity and planet, which makes them prime targets for retribution. Americans should revoke their license to kill, seize their assets for redistribution, what taxation used to do, and send these traitors to same jungle prisons they won’t admit are funded by taxes citizens other than they pay. Majority ought to boycott taxes altogether; good time to start since thousands of IRS enforcers were fired. Consequences! No revenue would derail their national betrayal.

Exceeded tolerance on painful reminders while climbing bluff they call College Hill where scions of moneyed elites look down across a southwestward vista of failed factories, grim ghettoes, and setting sun. Grew up surrounded by brilliant achievers 10 to 20 years older doing remarkable things, some legendary for their innovative departures: “New things to do, new ways to be.” Decades later, along with early gen-xers, late-boomers, and might-have-beens, did nothing so notable. Fame skips generations, akin to twins; or was it intentional suppression? Did decommission failed devices, dejunk their disarray, develop data methodologies, digitize entire libraries of corporate manuals, distribute important protocols, and draft a quarter million published pages. In own defense, mundane due diligence delivered 10,000 dense but desired results as a direct consequence. Followed sensible rules and made great progress smugly expected and taken for granted; did any of it matter? Since managed to insult everyone by exposing group and party foibles, not a popular approach but a product of logical analysis and righteous rage. Which suit is trump may dominate games, but not with houses of cards or temporary schemes one might stage only to end call or let fall.

View from space reveals Earth as one place for entire human race, more black, brown or yellow peoples than pale or pink who seem to think only they can seal deals. Rate of annual human reproduction peaked in 1965 at 2.3%, now down to a half-century low of 0.85%, but among an all-time high population of 8.1 billion. So, though rate declined upon withering costs and ZPG awareness, headcount yet rises unbridled, which stresses sources of food, income, potable water, shelter, and transportation. How long and how many before this unsustainable situation self corrects? In response, rich preppers buy GS jets and private islands; survivalists buy bomb shelters and crypto currency; both encourage global apocalypse expecting elbow room afterwards. A flawed plan, people they want dead produce everything.

Vox verifies, “Poverty, defined... as having less than 50% of the US median household income of $71,000, is associated with 183,000 American deaths per year.” By just existing and wealth they deny, billionaires cause more deaths than mass murderers. GOP has always defunded basic education, food assistance, legal protections, and minimal standards that raise families out of poverty into prosperity. Businessmen aligned with GOP may hate taxes, but having no workforce to exploit is far more problematic. “Nobody wants to work,” signifies that not being able to apply skills for which folks weren't trained kills. Souls go so hollow that any false ideology fills holes. At least pick a capable leader or partner, because dictators and parasites will drag you under. Tariff policy fiasco of 47 has already collapsed all markets and cost investors $6 trillion. Seems goal remains instant poverty and wealth destruction; 6 bankruptcies later, you'd think nation wouldn't trust his business sense.

Can't expect populace to really understand science, given continual distraction, drug abuse, educational inadequacy, mental defect, naive slackness, oblivious apathy, and/or social conditioning. Should expand and qualify previous mentions. Science is a methodology that begins with curiosity, carefully observes, deduces causes, experiments repeatedly, formulates theories, and gradually gains useful knowledge through peer review, published data, and sophisticated consensus. Science delivers accuracy, quality, reliability, safety, and satisfaction. Only morons and narcissists deny its value as a cooperative principle. Sounds like too much effort and too slow results until you realize an army of practitioners built myriad tools specifically to assist (not subrogate responsibility), and together wield these computers, devices, and spreadsheets in service to society. Anemometers, barometers, modeling software, and thermometers let bicyclists know weekly weather conditions to plan rides, or you can just set out and suffer miserably like some medieval serf for sake of some sadist's schadenfreude.

“I should really go for a run... but, hmm. That sky looks kind of ominous. Doesn't it? So you pick up your phone to check the weather... when you look at your phone you’ve got a message or an email so you open... It’s forty minutes later and you put your phone down wonder what you were doing and remember you were going... That is exactly how I first find Alan [pioneer of The Men’s Rights Movement]... The old normal is long gone... all these factoids about how bad things are for women? Alan debunks a lot of them.” Penelope Skinner’s stage play Angry Alan, 2018, now being staged on Broadway.

A series of Youtube videos recently emerged purporting to explain demise of 1960's counterculture, what media labeled beatniks, freegans, and hippies. Of course none could succeed against oligarchic power and wealth, what Govenor Tim Walz aptly describes as, “Corrupt and cruel.” Senator Jamie Raskin says, ”Their version of justice is ‘just us’”. Altruism always clashes with capitalism and loses. Those with royal presumptions don’t want to rub elbows with filthy, rebellious, perverse, unwashed commoners, serfs, or "their subjects", rather have henchmen squeeze them for every penny then use extorted money to exile those they’ve impoverished. Every concession written into law as a human right was just negated by ruling class in their “Big Beautiful Bill” that will care for billionaires alone and dare millions to die or suffer, conspicuously seniors and vulnerable others.

Creation of Bike&Chain was compelled 30 years ago by recognizing a crisis of truth and dearth of honesty were coming. Because bicycling is a balanced activity, equally joyful and painful, leaning and upright, it often seems self contradictory. Spectrum from blatant deceit to undeniable fact climbs from Cheerleader Leave-it's press briefings, conservative news propaganda, cult leader's Truth Social tweets, depraved gaslighting, embarrassed euphemisms, eyewitness testimony, frequent white lies that get you through your day, homespun folklore, metaphors, myths, neglectful omissions, passages from Testament and Torah, state secrets, statutes of math and science, to subtle tenets beyond your grasp that make your brain hurt. Don’t reference gods and kings since they always lie to solidify ascendancy. Oligarchs and politicians are not listed in Preface of Bike&Chain, either, as it’s given they’d hate every paragraph written by Al (Labann), but not AI (Artificial Intelligence), as are many 47-era documents that cite nonsense from nonexistent sources excused as format eras. Public has no idea of trillions of pages written that few ever read, including their omnibus bill. Own goal was never to amass text but in context make sense, practice poise, and prevent failure. Both excess and paucity signify sin.

“There’s a cost for telling the truth, but you have to stand up for it,” said actor/producer George Clooney regarding Edward R. Murrow’s departure from CBS and fall from grace after nullifying Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt. He then accepted JFK's offer to run Voice of America. “Humans have a lot of trouble with the truth; there is [sic] so many layers of lies and deceptions: political, religious, economic, moral... how do you behave toward other people?” R. Crumb, interview, 2020.

Crime lord and executive branch don’t want you to apply knowledge, just cower from their threats and jump to their commands. They deeply fear disruptive entrepreneurs and smart adversaries and direly dread relative poverty and social setbacks. They covet all power and wealth others possess. Even the power of a motor makes simple drivers lose compassion, empathy, and love for anyone other than themselves. However, most audiences prefer a positive message that enslaves them rather than a sad truth that sets them free. Bicyclists shouldn’t have to calculate dangers of political overreach, including criminal charges and prison sentences bicyclists alone must face for exceeding 15 mph limit in Mayor Adam’s New York City, only how long cassette gears, cork tape, drive chains, latex tubes, pneumatic tires, or shoe velcro will last and how many to stock up on before tariffs commence. It’s Adams himself who should be in prison for accepting bribes, being convicted, and catering to 47's optics; soon he'll be replaced by a popular progressive.

Heroes don’t fold under intimidation, they hear a call to action. Honest leaders don't call their every decision "the greatest in history" and other hyperbolic superlatives that confess inferiority. Soldiers weren’t honored by 47’s $50 million dollar 79th birthday bash attended by a mere tens of thousands, probably many foreign spies assessing military might. Heroes joined five million collectively attending preemptive No Kings events, largest single-day protest in nation's history, peeing on his parade and reinforcing his revenge. People in positions of power must protect those for whom they are responsible. Those who cause trouble invite reprisal. Love is more powerful than fear. 

Fascists are nihilists. They don’t want to do cooperative work, rather coerce or kill to achieve their callous agenda. You’d have to be a burbling moron, drug addict, or execrable menace to endorse such behavior, as does DOGE oligarch Leon, meddling in every federal agency while on Adderall, Ecstasy, and Ketamine. Now silent, GOP hypocrites relentlessly vilified Hunter Biden for his self admitted addiction, though he had no role whatever in government. They’ve been doing that for at least half a century when they humiliated presidential brother and southern farmer Billy Carter. Not one word of B&C has done any harm or was generated through substance abuse. By closing USAID DOGE caused 300,000 deaths to date, a small fraction compared to the millions trade wars will ultimately kill. Resultant chaos and cuts cost billions more than expenses avoided. Republican Senator Ron Johnson called their bijou fugly bid “grotesque and immoral”; Leon called it “a disgusting abomination” for adding $5 trillion to public debt. Doesn't meet ratified criteria of Four Freedoms: From tyranny and want, of religion and speech; in fact, passed Senate on narrowest of margins, one vote by Vice Vance, nullifies all four, and strips most rights. Demented grifter boss is back at it, stealing from poor trying to surpass former pal as world’s richest SOB. Idiots bribing him for influence by buying his goldcard citizenship and grift-coin will lose it all, not be repaid, and probably get deported should they complain. Ponzi schemes bilk marks and monetize presidency; a few million seems his price for a prison pardon. Supporters are being deceived and thieved by a gang who federal counselor Michael Popok identifies as, “a cyrpto-currency fueled, ferocious, godless, unpatriotic kleptocracy.” Just 18 months from now there will be a Democratic Congress and Senate impeaching entire administration for gross violations of articles of Constitution and oaths of office, not to mention hundreds of felonies including mass murder, other capital offenses, and ursurping congressional and court powers. Hard to commit treason, do favors, or pardon others for pay while incarcerated in El Salvador.

Labann’s predictions on politics of plunder began with 1990’s listserve posts, so it's maddening when what was avoidable imposes itself anyway. Countermeasures for this emerging Milieu of Murder can’t be polite or timid. Abiding laws doesn’t involve contriving loopholes, such as delaying judicial cases indefinitely, or returning names of military bases for confederate traitors by slightly altering spellings. Courts, military, and most states have so far shown they aren’t on board with such absurdity, so there’s still a spark of optimism. Nikita Khrushchev threatened he’d bury USA through financial warfare; he couldn’t, but own congress is now taking same tactics. First they'll fail to deliver on promises, so you can't pay home ownership costs, then you're forced out, mobile, and vulnerable, as corporations absorb all properties and raise rents so high that only slaves they own get housed as a measure of control, "I owe my soul to the company store." Same old game. Happy Independence Day!

“Don't give it up, you got an empty cup only love can fill... From day to day just letting it ride. You get so far away from how it feels inside. You can't let go cause you're afraid to fall, but the day may come when you can't feel at all. The words come out like an angry stream. You hear yourself say things you could never mean.” Grateful Dead, Comes a Time, Europe ’72, Warner Bros., 1972

Panel from Maria Scrivan’s graphic novel Nat a Chance, Graphix, 2025 (233 pp.) - What kind of world will be left for next generation?

Jimmy Kimmel Live was nominated 35 times and won 3 Emmy Awards over its 24 year run to date; it reaches 43 million viewers monthly. Top rated late night show Stephen Colbert was nominated 31 times and won 4 Emmy Awards, as well as 107 total nominations among dozens of different awards through 1600 episodes, since taking over from David Letterman in 2015. Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show in same theater attracted 73 million viewers. Cynically capitalistic, The Apprentice hosted by Donald Trump for 14 seasons was nominated for 4 Emmys but won none through 178 episodes with an average 20 million viewership (mediocre back then) and earning a below par Nielsen rank, 4 out of 10, before being canceled. Nielsen rates as #1 game Grand Theft Auto 6, where players take on roles in organized crime to drive badly while shooting helpless bystanders and smuggling drugs, as if public needed a blueprint for more violence against innocents or example of a crime lord running government. Hateful leadership also promotes intolerable traffic violence.

Finally, as curtain closes, this vinyl track of finality: “...the singing man is at his song; the holy on their knees. The reckless are out wrecking; the timid plead their pleas. No one knows much more of this than anyone can see... all we ever wanted was to learn and love and grow... Gave the best we had to give, how much we’ll never know... there were days, and there were days between.” Last collaboration between Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter before Jerry’s untimely death, Days Between, live 1993, Long Strange Trip soundtrack, 1999

Must Romaine

“Well, my wife still respects me, I really misuse her. I am having an affair with a random computer. Don’t you know I'm a 2000 man, and my kids they just don't understand me at all. ‘Oh daddy, proud of your planet... Oh daddy, your brain's still flashing like it did when you were young. Or do you come down crashing seeing all the things you'd done?’ All was a big put on.” - The Rolling Stones , 2000 Man, Their Satanic Majesties Request, London Recordings, 1967

Conditioned to think as cycling foodstuff dark leafy greens were ultra healthy, then confused to learn all vegetables could contain pathogens and require careful prep to be ingested safely, public was easily convinced by psychotic conspiracists that horticulture and science failed them completely. No, science succeeds wildly at saving humanity as long as its advice is applied conditionally. There are no panaceas; too much medicine can be worse than none at all. Vaccines have evaded over a billion deaths, and millions of cases of crippling ailments such as polio, over last century or two. Refrigeration reduces diarrhea, rot and spoilage. Only “experts” who want you to develop arthritis, cancers, colon polyps, heart disease, osteoporosis, and type-2 diabetes tell you not to eat chard, collards, kale, mesclun, mustard, romaine, spinach, sprouts, and watercress. Kill all competition is their murderous mantra. Still best to consume each home grown, in season, local, loose, uncut, and washed twice with filtered water, rather than commercially grown, late season, pre-trimmed, unwashed, and vacuum bagged later.

Like bicyclists who widely roam, veggie consumers must choose wisely and decide times from home, but should never rule out altogether, because produce satisfies hunger and sheds bicycling weight, while worse perils remain. Critics instill e-coli fear over unseen bacteria versus visible evidence in health statistics. Animal flesh alive or dead is 100 times more dangerous: pathogens plus animal vaccines, carcinogens, fungi, hormones, parasites, poisons, prions, and toxins. Blame genes or delude special self it won’t happen to you.

Out of desperation to dominate, gaslighters, lawyers and salesmen will demonically argue definitions of words. So, many words now have multiple connotations and meanings, i. e., cool (distant, nifty, or temps below norm), some even contradictory. Constitution and jurisprudence rely upon vocabulary consensus from Age of Enlightenment, not gutter slang from this offensive, postmodern, skeptical, transactional, vulgar era that argues “86 47” is an assassination threat and proof of intent, as was Posobiec’s prior goad “86 46”. “Love is as strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave,” according to Bible. Deep six all for love, and expect scorn. Sown wind reaps whirlwinds, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

If America was a meritocracy, 46 would be revered as best performer in modernity, rather than renounced for not making way sooner for nation’s next most qualified candidate in history, who would then have been elected versus an abominable sociopath facing sentencing. Measure of success today compares number of crimes committed and indictments canceled through perp’s cunning denials and excuses. Star status and street cred now go to those with most convictions dismissed. Unless you discriminate between evil and good, heroes are whoever rewrites history after massacres. Relentless incredulity attacks undermine confidence in facts. If trust dissolves, democracy dies, faith rusts, and fascists rise.

No matter how much this semaphore of structured sentences stalks facts by relaying stuff personally witnessed or stated responsibly in expert testimony, those who live in echo chambers and mirrored halls interpret essay stacks to amuse and suit selves. There are ample provocations but little truth in social maelstrom. Cautionary communication seems sprinkled as if metaphor seasoning readers scarcely taste. Journalistic liberty is under FCC bombardment while press secretary parrots lie of president championing 1st Amendment. “Don’t wait to be told. Heed no tainted hints. Experience your own enlightenment, pain, pleasure, and relationships. Collect facts that matter to you, let others do the same, listen carefully, question explanations, and take for granted things that make no difference. Tolerate diversity, since it's a species survival mechanism. Once you’ve analyzed for yourself, stick with what challenges you. Those who do will know marginally more than the multitude of defeated; that's all it takes to get an edge, move ahead, restore momentum, serve others, and succeed. Forget about seeking truths, eternal tease; let them find you should ever they please.” Labann Says, 2015

Many, but not all, people would prefer negative situations to resolve positively. They seldom do without exertion and intervention. There’s no exit ramp that lets you lazily and safely pull over and watch society crash. Individuals must assume responsibility or mankind collectively suffers consequences. Mundane repetition in all things seem like ruts in road that motorists cause by following each other trapped in lanes as if locomotives on rails. Bicyclists avoid cracks, potholes, and ruts for safer and smoother rolling. As a large but mistreated minority, bicyclists dodge hazards and weave edges rather than confront planner neglect and demand better treatment. Driving USA into wartime status would evade some constitutional issues fascists face. Without digging in heels through dissent, you’ll be one forced to do all fighting when sent to war zones or worse. Bicyclists could unite against radical right bent on excluding them from roads against their consent. Liberals don’t care how you choose to go, so it’s clear who your enemies are.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch now has police issuing criminal summons to bicyclists for minor infractions, which could lead to deportations and definitely discriminates unconstitutionally by targeting neither motorists or pedestrians, only bicyclists. You might wonder why she suddenly changed this long established policy. Sinner-in-Chief extorted Mayor Eric Adams, to whom Tisch reports, and tried to negate Congestion Tolls to Lower Manhattan, as if they were a matter of national importance rather than patronage of Big Shell Oil washed up on beaches. New York is entitled to make its own local policies as long as they are legal without undue federal encroachment. Their Attorney General Tish James has filed over a dozen lawsuits against a range of lawless and unconstitutional acts framed as executive orders, none of which bind states to comply since they violate existing laws enacted by Congress.

Civil rights, safety nets, women’s suffrage were all hard fought contracts between citizens and democratic rule, a public consensus forged from civil disobedience, groundswell protests, and nonviolent countermeasures. But vigilant neutralization can be difficult to sustain when executive branch is,“Doing things every day... obviously corrupt, unpopular, un-smart, and zero constituency,” as Rachel Maddow reports. Determined to destroy democracy and establish rule by oligarchy, they must see how many articles of constitution they can negate to wage war against public. Collapsing system seems stupidly shortsighted. If US dollar crashes and loses global reserve currency, crypto will become worthless and other state currencies plummet in value. Fathead fascists should do what makes them richer and thiner, which means fasting and sacrificing to maximize value and spread wealth. They’d rather make everyone poorer.

Former NFL and UFL lineman Kristjan Sokoli stars as Messenger 666 (Dwayne Buckle, dir., 2025), a low budget sci-fi debacle where maniacal truckers seem intent to mow down bicycle messengers. Then the 300 lb, 6’-5” hero unleashes his super power to tackle pharma company behind this mayhem.

The Big Bike Film Night 2025 events presented scores of short documentaries intended to inspire participation across Australia and New Zealand, just winding up in Manitoba, Canada. More encouragements are scattered around internet and Youtube of which a small sampling are described below.

Gushing documentary We Ride Why (Greg Roth and Jason Tang, dirs., 2025) covers affluent but guilty cycling for charity and Specialized in Seattle.

Study Says Biking to Work Prevents Early Death (Berm Peak, dir., 2025) is just one of several videos advocating bike commuting, because its accountability, consistency, and lifestyle integration make it a unique way to improve mental and physical health. The testimonies in countless appended comments are even more inspiring.

Happy and harmless Thai immigrant May Lilaonitkul is caught Switching Lanes (Guy Wilkinson, dir., 2023) after she restores a bicycle to explore with gratitude her new home, San Francisco, California. Canned sardines better describes motorists, who choose their transportation specifically to avoid all contact with environment and human involvement, versus curious and vulnerable bicyclist who are glad to be alive and interactive.

Ride (Dean Johnson, dir., 2021) profiles wrench tech Ian Downing enjoying and reviving bicycles in Tumut, NSW, Australia in conjunction with Chris and Gemma Russell of Tom’s Outdoors. Dean has also made other outdoors short documentaries including one on bikepacking, which highlights laden bikes and lovely terrains.

Some songs definitely reference while others just remind you of bicycling. Below are two of each, respectively. Note: Official List has just been updated.

Caitie (Caitlin Claessens), I Like to Ride My Bicycle [juvenile], single video, self, 2019 “I ride it everywhere. Anywhere you need to go, a bike can take you there... It’s easy as can be... and you can ride with me!”

Crepes, Bicycle Man, single video, Spunk Records, 2018

“I would really like to watch you ride, and always feel you by my side... You have a way of walking ‘round; Your feet, they never touch the ground. And you are shining... For me, oh, our shadow in the morning sun becomes my fun.” - Jefferson Airplane, Watch Her Ride, After Bathing At Baxters, RCA Records, 1967

“I remembered the days when I wasn't afraid of the sunshine, but now it beats down on the asphalt land... We can run but we can't hide from it. Of all possible worlds we only got one; we gotta ride on it. Whatever we've done, we’ll never get far from what we leave behind. Baby, we can run, run, run, but we can't hide.” Brent Mydland, Grateful Dead, We Can Run, Built to Last, Arista, 1989