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 (internment of Japanese American citizens), and winter’s cleansing at Lupercalia coinciding with 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 martyrdom, 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 But along with Juneteenth holiday has been all but rescinded by executive order by a jealous racist No-King, his deliberate affront to Black History Month.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-thirds 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 (SCOTUS upheld a bill to deny carry privilege to domestic abusers under restraining orders), but ought to exclude Proud Boys and worse sociopaths. Dilemma is that they primarily own and want guns, though that would be 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 agents 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 horde 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 routinely 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 militarized mob 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. Now DOD is randomly murdering fishermen suspected of trafficking drugs without a shred of evidence, and regime changing by kidnapping heads of state without United Nations approval.  

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.
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 barbaric 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, muslims, 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

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 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

Hanker Sane

“They say that, ‘Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.’ Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king. There's only one step down from here, baby. It’s called the land of permanent bliss. What’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?” Bob Dylan, Sweetheart Like You, Infidels, 1983

None can predict what might occur with certainty, though irrational behaviors often bring harm and ought to be avoided if possible. Don’t expect genius decisions from brains afflicted with dementia, parasites or syphilis. Legally and politically, ignorance is no excuse, but insanity does provide a lame defense. Madmen can be entertaining, about the only reason anyone nowadays acquires a name, evades blame, gains fame, or stakes a claim. One ought to hanker defining reality over sane washing absurdity. But as a criminal regime dawns, exemplary service in society’s interests secures yawns.

Andrew Wyeth (1930 to 2006) watercolor on board; artist is known for painting scenes from native Maine to Pennsylvania brimming with intense surrealism and magic realism.

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth.’ and so it goes away. Puzzling.” “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.” Quality maniac Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (HarperCollins, 1974, 448 pp.), 50th anniversary

Before 2024 election, couldn’t get enough of Strike Force Five and their hilarious criticisms of sick cultists in diametric contrast, and sparkling wits such as John Stewart and Tim Miller (shown below in parent’s basement flanked by bicycle posters). Now they are too sad and tragically targeted to merit same attention. Entertainers and journalists who champion truths and expose lawmakers will always be the enemies of tyrants.

Compulsions to create authentic content instead spread fallacy pollution. You can read lies daily in salacious headlines drawing audiences to another dull presentation meant to meet deadlines. Social media uses artificial intelligence to score influence, and, since purchased by privileged immigrants, sift out disloyal or dissident participants. All you can legitimately do is avoid trolls, boycott nonsense, buy nothing, ignore clickbait, and resist despots. Meanwhile, the exact opposite coexists, modest titles fronting indispensable testimony, intangible religiosity, and nontaxable charity.

Robert Isenberg, Mile Markers (Last Picked Books, 2024, 220 pp.), “A bicycle isn’t just a piece of sports equipment or a fun hobby. It is the purest innovation, a tool of liberation, the antidote for a million human woes.”

Complex phenomena come from random insufficiencies. Situations greatly vary. Seldom does one size fit all. Ice Road truckers don’t benefit as much from bicycle transportation as crosstown office commuters. Bicycles are labor saving devices compared to walking, but not while hauling tonnage. Who wants to be forced arbitrarily to do something more difficult than necessary? Jacques Derrida warned of torturing poets on a Procrustean Bed which sacrifices context for conformity. Old farts who plot violence and proceed unhinged against those they swore to serve will themselves, “Be hoisted with their own petard,”poetic justice of ironic outcomes, unintended suicides during terrorist bombings, not to be confused with pittards, leather gloves that protect well until outdoor winter trips trigger frozen fingertips.

After a year in America that saw historic investment in bicycling infrastructure and reciprocal equipment purchases, you’d naturally expect books, films, and songs to acknowledge and celebrate, and a dozen sparked recognition. Never underestimate the power of visual stimuli to shape perceptions and sway behaviors. Pick for yourself which one promotes prudent conduct. 

Alcoholic divorcee Michael (Brian Stillar), known locally as Bike (Terrance Odette, dir., 2024), resorts to collecting bottles, raiding dumpsters, running errands, scrounging beers, and stealing bicycles. One assignment has him arduously messengering a mystery envelope up a steep escarpment. His one hope, to jumpstart a relationship with his teenage daughter, runs into a detour when he witnesses a drive-by shooting.

Camera Corner (Josh Weinberg, dir., 2024) documents Wende Cragg’s archive of thousands of photos of early mountain bikes and Marin County’s MTB community circa 1974.

In uplifting fact-based feature film Hard Miles (Daniel Hannah, dir., 2024), social worker Matthew Modine ushers juvenile delinquents serving soft sentences on an epic bicycle tour to Grand Canyon, aided by sag driver Cynthia Kaye McWilliams and wrench tech Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee in LOTR). Everyone tumbles at least once on first attempt at using cleats.

Heretic (Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, dirs., 2024) follows Mormon sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East) blithely biking about, imposing their beliefs door to door, while seeking converts, until they arrive at the home of atheist psychopath Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), lock up bikes, and shuffle indoors. Resembles empty promises and fraught visits on political campaigns. This grim film received 2 dozen award nominations.

Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier, dir., 2024) shows ex-special forces marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) run afoul of corrupt police in rural South. After they knock him off his mountain bicycle and confiscate cash with which he was planning to bail out his cousin, random Rambo mayhem commences.

Souleymane’s Story (Boris Lojkine, dir., 2024, in French) is portrayed by Abou Sangare, who delivers food in Paris by bicycle. To qualify for asylum, he must prepare an autobiography prior to a state inquiry. Was nominated for 10 awards and won 7.

Tess Parks - Some Days: The Bike Song From Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Pictures, Tim Burton, dir., 2024), “I don't like anything, but I love everyone some days... when the sun is out and good people are about it restores my faith.” Lydia Deetz’s psychic heir Astrid (Jenna Ortega) avoids colliding her bike with carelessly driven trucks but crashes through fence into the yard of Jeremy Frazier (Arthur Conti), who secretly designs her unsolicited destiny for his own expediency. Despicables dupe innocents, especially during elections. Living free is wondrous, withstanding afterlife monstrous. 

We Are Rock n Roll (Justin Balog, dir., 2024) is a documentary of the American Criterium Cup, a series of up to 10 races for points for purses totaling $500,000.

Bicycle Film Festival is currently and virtually presenting BFF Classics, short films previously introduced during its 25 year history, through 31 March 2025. There will also be physical exhibitions of new works at various global locations including Copenhagen.

Pandemic doctor Daniela Schwendener gets revitalized by gravel bicycling on her Days Off (Liam Higgins, dir., 2022), an overlooked short from a few years ago promoting Cotic Bikes shot on location in England’s Peak District National Park.

Project A (Jackie Chan, dir.,1983) casts himself as Sergeant Dragon Ma Yue Lung and performs in martial arts battles including a frenetic bicycle scene set in Hong Kong alleys. What’s the goal of that silly slapstick sound at every kick?

Patricia Taxxon, Big Wheel, Bicycle, self, 2024 - Rambling aural experiment eventually gets around to lyrics: "The big wheel in the sky, he arcs o’er miles and miles... We can see the whole town from up here, feel the wind sail past our ears, the whistling noise it makes, so frigid and so fierce.”

Blaine or Blane?

Likewise, Rene and Riley can be either female or male names, but blaine means lean and blane means curiously yellow, summoning a slew of references including para-cycling World Championship and World Record Holder Blaine Hunt and indomitable spirit of late Swedish bicycling actress Lena Nyman. Any individual can sexually identify as either or neither with pride and without your permission. All have a right to choice in lifestyle matters... effeminate adverbs, nuance of nouns, pit of gender pronouns be damned. Homosexuality was legalized in catholic majority cycling crazed France during 18th Century. Ancient cultures included and other creatures still behave bisexually. Major contributors to culture and science throughout history were gay. Bible Old Testament disapproved in passing, so it’s been around forever, not a recent liberal invention. 

Private crimes and public behaviors do warrant scrutiny, especially among those who falsify records to hoodwink voters about amoral acts while promising cult followers to rob opponents, queers, transgenders, and women of their basic rights. Ways laws are enforced, indictments processed, and sentences given are infrequent and random; GOP is not hiring police or prosecutors, instead increasing tax cuts that would pay for both. Their Plan 2025 would reduce LGBTQIA+ to a subhuman species by recognizing only hetero gender from birth, among a series of nazi mandates excluding and persecuting everyone except white Trump loyalists.

Rebellious beatnik counterculture? Don’t confuse mid-1960’s protesters with flower power hippies, though some did cross over. Hippies hated violence visited upon vulnerable individuals, so banded together as a bulwark against brutality. Being apolitical, they evaded authorities, whose main interest was and will always be seizing power, which those disaffected didn’t threaten, and loathed personal responsibilities by dropping out and suspending resistance. Valuing freedom, kindness and peace blinded them to consequences of empty promises and false prophets. Without 20 million drifting parasites (one quarter of voter turnout nationally at the time) begging for scraps, drowning in drugs, forgiving political corruption, and retreating from confrontation, minority rule by cruel plutocrats never would have emerged from the cesspool of nation’s worst depravity and horror, cavernous greed hidden behind evangelical conservatism. Can’t dominate, enslave, or oppress without both mind control and unimaginable wealth.

As previously cited, some say MAGA slogan was lifted from a 1929 Mussolini speech, “...fellow citizens who are working to make America great,” but that would require study into history, something cult would rather purge than read. Melania since let it slip that Don directly plagiarized a Michelle Obama speech. Nevertheless, it’s really a law firm acronym that stands for Mammon, Abaddon, Grimoire & Astaroth, the demons who represent respectively temptations, mischief, powers, and false accusations. Indeed, it’s among those spiritually minded that evil incarnate casts his vile net; deplorable and willing transgressors are already legion.

RINOs are all in for Trump, a sociopath convicted of fraud and rape, further accused of espionage, extortion, money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion; he only got into office because enough independents bought this babbling celebrity and his biased bullpucky. Depending upon when and who you ask, only 25% of voters affiliate with GOP, 33% affiliate with Democrats, while 36% are independents, fools who stand aloof without any representation, then feel neglected and get angry through their own fault. You get the service you pay for, which, in their case, is none. If you didn’t thrive on whatever Washington delivered over last 20 years before Biden, blame Boehner, Bush, GOP, McConnell, and Trump, since they either controlled presidency or senate throughout, thus instigated all these discredited and disreputable policies, and Independents for their lack of organized opposition.

Liberals demand democracy now; lowbrow conservatives own the franchise on hypocrisy. Wow! Americans aren’t free to do whatever they want, only what’s legal and responsible. Majority wants to preserve constitutional rights and pursue happiness. Conservatives want freedoms to commit crimes with impunity, enslave or imprison everyone else accusing them of what they do themselves. MAGA describes itself as anti-fascist, anti-regulation, Christian righteous, constitution preserving, law abiding, national patriotic, pro-life, public inclusive, and radically progressive when it’s exactly the opposite: criminal, false, homophobic, misogynistic, noninclusive, racist, reactionary, selfish, unconstitutional, and xenophobic. Few immigrants are as purely rotten as home grown offenders. Fox and Newsmax went mental when Obama saluted with a coffee cup in same hand and wore a tan suit; now they are doing damage control over their candidate’s civil and criminal convictions acting as if that’s no scandal at all. Double standards this bizarre and blatant just can’t be borne, though much has already been discussed as a source of entertainment rather than extreme threat beyond reckoning, because nobody can stand considering so serious a topic.

Americans don’t need jingoism and populism, humping Old Glory and repeating hollow slogans, nor self styled patriots who rebel without cause based on false flags from seditionist media. Politicians who feed upon fear and pride and promise results that only congress can deliver are big liars and fat phonies unworthy of your vote, one of citizens’ few controls over government. Unhappy with how things are? Be heard through a ballot for candidates free of fraud convictions, not hucksters likely lying to you.

Labann learned a lot, but no one mind can encompass all facts; takes humankind as a whole and scientific consensus. However, majority lacks the necessary foresight and willpower to forge forward. After plenty of analysis yielded useful insight, next steps should have been planning ahead and taking action. But folks rather ask a family member or friend on how to decide instead of applying logic, laboriously remembering, studying anew, and thinking through.

Neither diligent study nor rote repetition leads to omniscience, only direct revelation. Prophecy comes from dreams and meditations that expose subliminal input from a cornucopia of connections and decades of experiences stewed in unconscious undercurrents. Why not read more nonfiction? But deep text dives into conflicting data will always be intolerably uncomfortable for vast majority. Anyone clever can access all sorts of amusing tidbits and audience reactions to late night comedy sketches. Rather than of staying up to watch them live, studying while sober makes more sense. Bicycling and thinking require a reasonable night’s sleep.

Pointed out transportation alternatives for decades. Now millions of newbies have discovered bicycling for themselves and repeated same discoveries. Once reposted bike authors and their titles when few were to be found; now there are just too many to recount. Commercial websites do a better job than a casual blog at recommending more. Quod Erat Demonstrandum (abbreviated as Q.E.D.) is a Latin phrase that means literally "that which was to be demonstrated.” In normal English, this means, "Thus it is proven.” Mike drop!

Recently passed NBA hall-of-famer Bill Walton and Bjarne Rostaing, Bill Walton’s Total Book of Bicycling (Bantam, 1985, 367 pp.) enthusiastically covers bicycle types, cycling apparel, equipment maintenance, long history, physical fitness, racing lore, safety precautions, and touring strategies.

Daniel Shea and Jeremy Withers, Culture on Two Wheels: The Bicycle in Literature and Film (University of Nebraska Press, 2016, 376 pp.) collects 16 relevant essays.

Frank Angelo Cavaluzzi, Standing Cyclist: Flirting with Wisdom, One Breath, One Mile at a Time (ThirtyThree45 Media Group; 2016, 296 pp.)

Gestalten [editors] and Martijn Doolaard, One Year on a Bike: From Amsterdam to Singapore (Gestalten, 2017, 368 pp.)

Gestalten [editors] and Martijn Doolaard, Two Years On A Bike: From Vancouver to Patagonia (Gestalten, 2021. 416 pp.)

Gestalten [editors], Velo City (Gestalten, 2016, 256 pp.)

Eighty years after D-Day, facts have emerged on the role of bicycling resistance preparing for an Allied Invasion to free Europe from Nazi tyranny, as covered by “vélosophe" Guillaume Martin’s books and podcast through Radiofrance.

Guillaume Martin, Socrates by bike (Grasset, 2020)
Guillaume Martin, The company of the peloton. Philosophy of the individual in the group (Grasset, 2021)

Martin’s source bibliography includes:
Bernard Chambaz, Little philosophy of cycling, Flammarion, coll (Flammarion, 2019, 130 pp.)
Bernard Andrieu, International Vocabulary of Sports Philosophy, 2 volumes (L’Harmattan, 2015)
Philippe Hassler, Louison (theatre, 2021, 1 hour)


Jody Rosen, Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle (Crown, 2022, 417 pp.): “The bicycle in the nineteenth century was a marvel; in today’s formulation, it is moral. It was enchanted; now it’s enlightened. Bicycles are great - but, more to the point, bicycles are good... the bicycle’s relationship to progressivism and radicalism is grounded in history... Hitler’s first acts upon assuming power, in 1933, was to smash Germany’s cycling union... confiscated bicycles from the local populations. To a repressive regime... the bicycle was a menace, a device that could be used by dissenters to sneak up and speed off, to organize and mobilize and elude.”

Ole Wagner and Shonquis Moreno, edited by Robert Klanten and Sven Ehmann, Velo: Bicycle Culture and Design (Gestalten, 2010, 235 pp.)

Paul Smethurst, The Bicycle: Towards a Global History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 208 pp.)

Stephen Fabes, Signs of Life: A Doctor's Journey to the Ends Of The Earth (Pegasus Books, 2020, 408 pp.); physician Fabes gave up a practice to tour world by bicycle, then discovered how medical histories don’t exceed life stories.

Sven Ehmann, Velo - 2nd Gear and Velo - 3rd Gear, Bicycle Culture and Style (Gestalten, 2013 and 2016, 256 pp. each)

Tree Abraham, Cyclettes (The Unnamed Press, 2022, 224 pp.) offers a millennial’s first take on freedom and stillness in motion.

“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets,” opined essayist, journalist, novelist and poet Christopher Morley (d. 1957), long before automotive paradigm and urban rap trampled such sentiments.

Escapades on the "D" train

“We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it, and Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it... In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain. And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train... The ghost of ’lectricity howls in the bones of her face where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place. And Madonna, she still has not showed... We see this empty cage now corrode... while my conscience explodes. The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain. And these Visions of Johanna are now all that remain.“ Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan, from album Blonde on Blonde, 1966 vs. "Bicycle (oil on canvas)", Bob Dylan, 2012

Orange Bullet D Sixth Avenue Express once served stricken World Trade Centers en route between Bronx and Brooklyn's Coney Island. Escapades make one think of overreachers and terrorists. Why did Oppenheimer call A-bomb research The Manhattan Project? Because most sites involved were secretly located there, splitting atoms with millions of residents none the wiser. In classic obsessive compulsion he quoted Hindu scripture, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Film of same name (Marshall Brickman, dir., 1989) has smart cyclist Paul Stephens (Christopher Collet) steal plutonium from industrial tycoon John Mathewson (John Lithgow) to expose his company as a covert danger to surrounding community, whereupon he makes his own thermonuclear weapon that inadvertently almost takes out much of The Big Apple. All concerned join as a team to defuse it, while innocents unknowingly dodge instant death. After Sartre, being stranded by existential threats, biological to technological, has become the new “normalcy”.

Earth Day (April 22nd) and Mother’s Day (May 9th) evoke Earth-goddess Gaia offerings, Fugian Granny Mazu pilgrimages, Greek Cybele cult sacrifices, Laetare Sunday when Roman Catholics celebrate Mother Church, mother goddess Rhea rites, ode to a barefoot and biased madonna, Roman Hilaria festival, Semite Asherah adherence, Sun Goddess Amaterasu rituals, Taino Atabey admiration, Taoist Doumu adoration, and worship of queens of heaven Anat, Astarte, Inanna, Hera, Isis, Juno, Mary and Nut. All are tied to blossoming springtime, natural rejuvenation, and respect for life. But you get the feeling that however humans, even Shinto mountain ascetics, venerate them, these goddesses and saints don’t necessarily reciprocate, in fact, would rather wipe species off planet after multiple manmade threats of atmospheric pollution, fossil fumes, industrial toxins, nuclear weapons, ocean garbage, and prophesies of a hard rain delivered by Bob’s nasal twang when poetry used to matter.

B&C is 180° opposed to any anti-intellect, cancel culture, dumb down descent into global ignorance. Labann daily observes, reads, views or writes. Recent research indicates that sitting too close to computer screens and watching too many media streams can cause seizures or worse. Yet scholarly books encourage more of same; at least B&C preaches a balance between pedaling and viewing. Holidays might even inspire a ride if weather doesn't decide otherwise.

Culture on Two Wheels: The Bicycle in Literature and Film, literary criticism compiled by Jeremy Withers and Daniel P. Shea (University of Nebraska Press, 2016, 376 pp.), includes Nanci J. Adler’s insightful essay The Existential Cyclist: Bicycles and Personal Responsibility in Simone de Beauvoir’s Blood of Others, among dozens directly related to bicycling culture. Elsewhere, Adler explains how bicycles evolved into antifascist armament:
“Existential, absurdist and postmodern philosophers and writers of the era... questioned pre-war cultural values and the meaning of existence. Bicycles continue to appear in novels as transformative vehicles, but they no longer play the straightforward role as vehicles of liberation from the constraints of cultural mores, gender restrictions or social hierarchies. Bicycles often continue to be symbols of freedom, happiness and love, but they lose their irrefutable power to transform characters in permanently positive ways... Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Blood of Others, Luigi Bartolini’s Bicycle Thieves, Samuel Beckett’s Molloy and L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, reflect bicycles as beloved articles, useful vehicles, and potentially positive transformative machines, yet they are unable to overcome the disquieting times; bicyclists are no longer destined for eternal happiness... [for Beauvoir] the bicycle is used to differentiate the hardships of the French from the relative affluence of the Nazis... The bicycle machine, in previous decades a symbol of modernity and personal freedom, takes on a more solemn role as a machine of the French Resistance.” Nanci J. Adler, The Bicycle in Western Literature: Transformations on Two Wheels, 2012

“The bicycle was still there, brand new, with its pale-blue frame and its plated handlebars which sparkled against the dull stone of the wall. It was so lissome, so slender, that even when not in use it seemed to cut through the air. Hélène had never seen such an elegant bicycle. ‘’I’ll repaint it dark green, it’ll be even more beautiful,’ she thought.” Simone de Beauvoir, The Blood of Others, 1945, which explores themes of freedom and responsibility, as B&C continues to.

You know Nazis by what they do: Berate, boss, command, demand, denigrate, force, grab, hate, lie, and lots of people die or suffer. The opposite is whoever calmly encourages, leaves be, merely suggests, offers help, shares wealth, and tolerates differences. Everyone has opinions which guide personal code. Nazis will kill if you don’t meekly submit to their sick will. Nazis are divisive, greedy and stupid, because intelligent people know that they do better when everyone does well. Nazis scream continually, irrelevantly of current situation, and unintelligibly. People who tell you facts and truths never change their story and seldom repeat themselves. Let-live losers sort through details to suggest stuff worthy of your time above ground.

Father and Daughter (Michael Dudok de Wit, dir., 2000) poignantly captures a person’s grief over loss and longing to be reunited. After father abandons daughter during their bicycling outing, she spends entire life revisiting spot on a Dutch dike, where throughout each character rides on a bike. Deservedly won BAFTA award and Oscar for best animated short.

Police sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) races his Bronco past a Big Apple bicyclist running errands to site of World Trade Center (Oliver Stone, dir., 2006) disaster, where he'll wind up trapped under rubble with fellow officer Will Jimeno (Michael Peña) for trying to evacuate towers and save lives 20 years ago this September. Bottom line: This jihadist suicide salvo against an international commodity exchange was sheer ignorance that targeted democratic freedoms, more muslims and people of color from 87 different nations than America, and system of commerce that feeds world. It purported to use technology to strike against technology, but turned out a vicious attack upon humanity itself. And never forget, Bush and conservatives tried to exploit this holocaust by describing it as a "test of our will" to continue pursuing illegal wars for sake of greedy swells, while it's never been clear who was really responsible. With no help from GOP, decent citizens, firemen, and police answered the call to duty.

An Irish fisherman named Syracuse (Colin Farrell) trawls up a foreign woman (Alicja Bachleda-Curuś) in his net. Astonished she’s not drowned, he asks her name, Ondine (Neil Jordan, dir., 2009). Syracuse, whom townsfolk call Circus, is a divorced recovering alcoholic who has visiting privileges but not custody of his daughter Annie (Alison Barry), whose kidneys are failing. After dialysis in her wheelchair she stalks dad and stumbles onto fact he’s hiding this mysterious beauty. Annie imagines Ondine is a selkie, a mythical chimera seal turned human. Mean kids on bikes take her wheelchair and taunt her for being different, but she’s wise beyond her tender age, because love conquers all.

In post-apocalyptic Montana, bounty hunter Gage (Gina Carano) hunts criminals who refuse to give up fossil fuel vehicles, considered the worst of offenses, and infiltrates Jackson’s (Ryan Robbins) belcher crew for both offered reward and personal vengeance. Jackson captures pilgrims to mine silver, a crucial commodity for ubiquitous masks that filter otherwise unbreathable toxic smog on a Scorched Earth (Peter Howitt, dir., 2014). Bicyclists escort pilgrims, but also get scorched. Those who ride horses fare better; how ponies breath isn’t explained.

Television sitcom Mom (Season 2, Episode 22) Fun Girl Stuff and Eternal Salvation (James Widdoes, dir., 2014) has mom Bonnie Plunkett (Allison Janney) by bicycle chasing daughter Christy (Anna Faris) from flop to flop after she moves out to avoid their toxic interaction that threatens both their relapses into substance abuse.

Fathers and Daughters (Gabriele Muccino, dir., 2015) has novelist Jake Davis (Russel Crowe) tell his daughter Katie (Kylie Rogers as child, Amanda Seyfried as adult), “Daddy sold a book today... That means you can have any toy on the planet.” She replies, “I want a bike! Pink with a basket and bells and streamers dangling from the handlebars...” So he buys her one and teaches her to ride in the park. Later they ride together on her birthday. Rest of film documents Katie’s traumas over tear jerker childhood: car crash, custody battle, fatal seizure, parents’ untimely deaths, separation anxiety, shadow of fame, and trust issues.

Microbe & Gasoline (Michel Gondry, dir., 2015) are nicknames bullies call school chums Daniel the artist (Ange Dargent) and Théo the grease monkey (Theophile Baquet), respectively. Theo rides around school on a bicycle tricked out with a sound system of his own design. Daniel’s caring but depressive mom Marie-Thérèse (Audrey Tautou, Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) and Theo’s dying and needy mom (Janna Bittnerova) give their adolescents cause to try crossing France in an inventive vehicle that can, with the flip of a lever, appear as a tiny house. Being underage, they can neither get driver licenses or register a motor vehicle, so stop when police happen by and transform to stationary. Theo regrets his mother’s death during his jaunt and returns to attend funeral.

Midsomer Murders, Breaking the Chain (Season 18, Episode 3, 2016), has DCI Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) investigating homicide of pro cyclist Greg Eddon (Jack Staddon), who just won local leg and was leading tour. Plot thickens when it's disclosed that 5 years earlier Judith Oliver was accidentally run over by a motor vehicle while leading tourists along a side road supposedly blocked off for bike racing. Then rival Aiden McCordell is struck on the head with a chain whip, and his lungs were pumped with a high-pressure air compressor, rupturing them. Police finally act to save dad McCordell thereby ending the killing spree.

The Philadelphia Bicycle Vignette Story (Bryan Oliver Green, dir., 2017) is a socially scathing surreal series of short skits on title city around 2009. Marcus Borton plays the cyclist. Charlie Day and Rob “Mac” McElhenney of sitcom It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Season 13, Episode 5) keep up their unfunny putdowns of pedaling on a pair of stolen BMXs. Again, bullies are kids on bikes.

Adam Sandler is back to biking in latest film Hubie Halloween (Steven Brill, dir., 2020), where his character, town idiot Hubie DuBois, tries to save citizens of Salem from real skullduggery hidden behind holiday festivities.

SciFi thriller Songbird (Adam Mason, dir., 2021) set in near future speculates billions will die from highly contagious airborne variant COVID-23. Protagonist is a bicycle messenger, who is immune, so able to roam freely except through check points. Haven’t seen, but suspect poor ratings and weak returns are more due to people’s frustration with pandemic and suspicion over situational exploitation and theater attendance. Sure, it’s no Twelve Monkeys, in which Terry Gilliam totally predicted this predicament 25 years ago, but willing to give it 90 minutes after seeing hundreds of low budget turkeys that may have been worse.

Starz original series Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham (Episode 106, 2021) have title pair touring native Scotland by air, land and sea, partly by bicycles, to which one grumbles, “I cannot believe that this was your idea of a good time.”