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Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts

Monday, March 24, 2025

Spilt Champagne

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Sunday, January 12, 2025

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.”

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Ubu Enchaîné

“‘Sir Ubu, the Russians attack.’ ‘Well, what do you want me to do? It wasn’t me who asked them to.’” Playwright scorcher Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi, 1888

Waiting to see L’Infant Terrible, Ugliest American, Vilest Villain in chains for trying to annul constitution, destroy democracy, and violate laws. Decided who NOT to vote for 25 years ago.

Throw enough ketchup at walls and some will stick; requires no decisive planning whatever. Screeds and tirades against political candidates alienate everyone except like minded belligerents and partisans, and persuade nobody. You may legitimately question whether expressing a biased mindset compromises your own safety. Revenge is a real authoritarian threat. Russian novelists tossed complete manuscripts that criticized regime onto fire, because publishing them meant inviting a death sentence. The end is near; might as well rage on.

Choice before American voters in November of 2024 is progressive capitalism or reactionary fascism, forging forward under constitutional democracy or regressing into totalitarian tragedy.

The affluent seek brutal control since they have the most to lose. They believe fascism will keep them in positions of authority and secure their property, but history berates their abject stupidity. Nazis seized estates of wealthiest supporters, and sent them to concentration camps to die before they could exile abroad or seek redress. If you didn’t earn your wealth, you may fear disloyalty of everyone more experienced and somewhat smarter, when it’s irrational imbeciles you should mistrust. Their zero sum game stems in part from fear of deprivation and part from sadism for others' suffering. Sick sick sick planet Magathreea has a triple-D motto: deceive, divide, dominate. Trump’s candidacy makes a mockery of democracy, exactly how petty impotents Orban and Putin became dictators, by misinforming own people. And, as Pulitzer journalist Bob Woodward reports, politics today is an actual War with civilian casualties.

In America vs. Donald John Trump, the trial of which this 2024 election truly is, defense makes its case first, decades of excuses, failures, and prevarication, but final summation will always be prosecutor’s. Over 20% of expected 180 million turnout, 36 million jurors, so far requested early ballots, 65% of them Democrats; 7 million have already voted. Trump admitted 4 years ago he would run again just to avoid prison. If Harris defeats him, he’ll go down for all 91 indictments to date, though plenty more could follow, such as at least 8 documented violations of Logan Act and treason for revealing CIA assets who were consequentially killed. As a convicted felon and private citizen, Trump has no standing to discuss affairs of state with foreign dictators he admires; on bail in 4 jurisdictions, he’s not even allowed to travel outside country’s borders.

With 34 years in public service, 21 in elected offices as attorney general, US senator, and vice president, Kamala Harris is nation’s second most qualified presidential candidate in its history after Biden’s half century. Despite prior RNC spokesperson Alex Conant’s assertion,“We should not elect somebody as untested and inexperienced as Obama,” Trump followed as only candidate with zero military or political experience. His 3 years in office, when not away golfing for almost an entire year, still makes him the least.

For false promises and a fee, evil televangelist Paula White delivered her evangelical flock to this amoral oaf full of poisonous lust for presidential power. After given a chance to lead Christians, he screwed them repeatedly. He justified it saying,“People love to hate, so I’ll give them a target.” Since then, 4 known assassination attempts, possibly more unknown, by former followers have been thwarted by an expanded Secret Service squad generously granted by Biden administration.

GOP relies on numerous conservative think tanks creating policy for them, including American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, Christian Nationalists, and Heritage Foundation. All remorselessly favor affluence and privilege and toss challenged, middle class, and poor to the wolves. Takes a lot of talk to pull wool over majority’s eyes. Liberals also have a few, Center for American Progress, Progressive Policy Institute, and Roosevelt Institute, but mostly feel they don't need a hard sell, since their policies tend to be fair and inclusive rather than divisive and exclusive. Christian Nationalism is a disguise for fascist socialism, Nazis in smiley masks. Christ's only involved as a conceptual cudgel to beat pious saps into believing that a possessed demon who brags of breaking all 7 Deadly Sins without remorse redeems a convicted felon found guilty for obvious crimes and headed to jail.

Last lifelong New York crime lord Don the Con and his Art of the Deal sees every transaction as another chance to cheat and steal. Trump responds to any rebuke in his demented 4th grade, "I know you are but what am I," nadir of logic. He won’t stop because he gets airtime whenever he wants; fends off every accusation with a fictional narrative; is desperate to avoid prison; makes outrageous claims such as “Blacks love me; I’ve done more for them than anyone,” or “I’m the father of IVF,” or fatal January 6th insurrection was "A Day of Love," his personal Woodstock; owns a media company that spins whatever’s said about him into another gelt grift. Weaponized DOJ? (Garland‘s not even a BB gun.) Witch hunt? (No need to “trump up” charges with so many real crimes to prosecute.) He’s the one who wants to weaponize government sending military against opponents to quell free speech.

Who swallows myth of Trump’s business acumen? It’s a string of 6 bankruptcies and scores of convictions for statute violation and tax evasion. Why sell bibles, crypto currency, digital images, self medallions, ugly sneakers, and wait watches if he's so rich? Buyers underwrite the billion he owes in judgments, legal fees, and shortfall in campaign donations. Had he only put his inheritance into an index fund, he’d be worth triple his claimed $4 billion net worth. How do you fail to profit from a casino? Closer investigation would likely discover he exited that way to skip prosecution and stiff creditors after laundering money, offshoring assets, and stashing wealth.

What’s his attraction? Why aren't all who've abided decades of his blatant frauds, false claims, interminable rambles, sneaky cheats, and word salad sick to death of him? You’d think this creepy, unpopular, “weird-old” WWII relic would get the message and quit campaigning. Is it a combover, ramble, or weave? Every word from this convicted felon is a grievance, a lie, or a threat. His babble seduces to draw you in just before he murders, rapes, or screws you. He speaks to lonely hearts and losers, who yearn for morsels of attention, and worst among population, who seek validation for their malefaction. Sets the bar so low roaches can crawl over it. Those enthralled expect almost nothing of him, yet nit pick opponents over every detail. As his day of reckoning approaches, he has turned up extortion warnings and menace messaging to extremes, “Invasion, upheaval, and WWIII without me.” Framing arguments in absolutes is a symptom of his narcissistic personality disorder.

Trump appeared in about 500 rallies over 25 years of campaigning, boasting he had biggest audiences ever, more than Martin Luther King’s historic I Have a Dream speech, and presented live to more attendees than anyone in history, perhaps a million total, 0.3% of Americans. Not even close. Grateful Dead did 2,300 concerts over 30 years with biggest solo crowd of 107,019, and, of course, over 450,000 at Woodstock, way more than 5 million fans total. And they weren’t the most popular live music act in history, far short of Taylor Swift’s ticket sales during 604 shows spanning 20 years, 4.4 million on 60 dates of Eras Tour alone. He has to pay and plant phony firefighters, soldiers, and union members who were really RNC operatives at revival rallies and town hall meetings to fool onlookers and pad attendance.

Opposition’s drumbeats are immigration and inflation. After Obama handed Trump 6 years of job growth and less than 0.5% inflation, 24 months later it spiked at 3%, dipping only due to COVID, when nationwide economy stumbled with GDP down $1 trillion upon longest government shut down in history and 3 million lost jobs. Also during 2020, fentanyl deaths, gun sales, senseless murders, and 1,700 school shootings set unprecedented numbers, public debt jumped $8 trillion with nothing to show for it, and supply chains collapsed, reasons Trump wasn’t reelected and left with lowest presidential rating ever. Under Biden-Harris, inflation continued to climb to 3.7% before being doggedly beaten down to 2.4%, lower than Trump’s peak, much faster than inflation in all other industrial countries. Biden took Trump’s advice and Made America Great Again with best economy this century, biggest cuts in joblessness, huge improvements for neglected infrastructure, resurrection of manufacturing, and stock market indices at all time highs. US GDP grew by $2 trillion with nearly 5 million new jobs, and public debt was curbed by trillions. The Economist confirms, “The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust.” Yet current voters, having absorbed an aggregate of 21% rise in consumer costs since Bush's term, seem to have developed amnesia as to why it occurred. Biden-Harris didn't invent inflation, around for centuries, but Trump has many believing these facts of global life are either fake or someone else's fault. Neither did he take responsibility for his administration's mishandling of pandemic.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich listed the 75 worst things Trump did in office, though arguably there were 750 more worth considering. These are not the acts of public servants, rather what crime syndicates and mob bosses do if they can get away with it. No previous American president ever needed to seek Supreme Court intervention, but House can still impeach justices and president for treason and violations of oaths of office, while Senate can convict and sentence them. He accuses current administration for inflation that his party keeps high for crisis perception and dissident punishment.

Trump demonizes legal immigrants and radical left as bad genes, dangerous lunatics, enemy within, execrable vermin, general menace, and racial poison, and says they are to blame for greatness lost, when all that exactly describes MAGA assets and midnight agents he empowers to attack anyone who makes him look bad, break laws, and terrorize public. Capitol police, election workers, and families of opponents have been assaulted and injured. Decades of GOP influence begat congressional gridlock on important issues, loss of personal rights, transfer of $50 trillion of tax revenues to oligarchs, and weakness on world stage. Not Trump alone, all MAGA office holders are culpable - particularly Cruz, Graham, Greene, Johnson, Kennedy, McConnell, and Vance - therefore warrant recall and sanctions. Trump told them to vote down a bipartisan bill to address issue because perception of a migrant crisis serves as a campaign stump. This alleged illegal invasion accounts for less than 1% of population. Immigration during Obama’s 8 years was less than Trump’s 1 year spike in 2020; he opened border intentionally after all his tough talk of building a wall, really a permeable fence, purely as a political tactic. Since 2000, hispanic minority has indeed steadily doubled from 10% to 20%, with other ethnicities up by single digit rates; white majority shrank 15% to about 62% of overall population. The only citizens who object are white supremacists, while reasons this occurred are numerous and varied, though a healthy economy will always attract workers who want to contribute to country’s revenues, fill empty positions, and improve their lives. Citizens of a country are not enemies of themselves, they are the country itself.

When racists use the word "that" instead of "who" to describe people, it dehumanizes them. Trump saying "people 'that' are coming" are cannibals is among the many unhinged assertions that whipped his cult followers into an us versus them frenzy. Legal immigrants over last decade total about 21 million, about 7% of US population; among small undocumented subset no evidence suggests they are criminals or lunatics, an argument that goes back to boat people scare of 1975, propagated by, guess who, xenophobe Trump. Yes, an accumulated 45 million immigrants from all over now live in USA, the vast majority of whom are naturalized, including Trump's and Vance's wives. Immigrants already made America great, a fact that interferes with a neo-Nazi delusional dream to deport, enslave, exterminate, impoverish, and subjugate.

A consensus of hundreds of psychologists diagnoses Trump as a malignant narcissist, among the most severe of personality disorders: amoral, dishonest, lacking any empathy, and only in it for himself. Presidential historians rate his term as the nadir of American leadership: an eclipse of reason devoid of substance, fewest accomplishments, most divisive, the worst. He’d replace Pentagon generals with football coaches and NASCAR drivers. Directors, managers, and senior workforce of every federal agency would be fired and replaced with untrained loyalists, except agencies he'd eliminate altogether, like Department of Education and National Weather Service (because they laughed as his Sharpie redirect of a hurricane and wishes to nuke next one). NASA shows space based facts that nobody needs to know, so has to go. He wants to turn immigrants into unpaid prize fighters for entertainment. The list goes on.

Bigly Liar, Pance on fire, with interchangeable Pence or Vance, two Christo-fascists and Crypto-nudists, Trump did and would dump to install Donny Junior, an unlikable coke head and ticket drag who could never win even a token vote. As a matter of trust, how can you believe Trump? He bragged of waging the biggest misinformation campaign against Americans in history, got convicted of fraud, has run for office for 25 years under both major parties, and was fact checked to have told 35,000 lies over his 4 year term. If you take him at his word, he promises reprehensible and unconstitutional policies and virtual dictatorship aided by a his radical cult members. Freedom never means you can do anything you want, only what’s legal and responsible. Free speech excludes boldfaced lying, falsifying documents, fear mongering, inciting criminality, meanly pranking, outright perjuring, or testifying falsely.

While few want a dysfunctional democracy, only true deplorables who are cruelly delusional or deeply disturbed would replace it with totalitarian dictatorship. They'd accept corruption, insults, and negativity. GOP playbook has always been to bully, filibuster all legislation to create gridlock, gaslight, play race card, sex shame, then only discuss important issues to make unsupportable vague promises that won't go anywhere, or simply echo what's already been said by opponents that got a rise out of voters. Neocons created a series of recessions whenever they controlled congress, courts, or presidency. To squeeze grip on power, Nixon undermined journalism, Reagan busted unions, Bushes incited wars to funnel finances into warfare mills owned by cronies. Trump embezzled $8 trillion from treasury, and stuffed offshore accounts of oligarchs and self.

Build Back Better added and restored bike paths, highways, roads, and side streets long neglected by Republicans intent on impeding your mobility choices and impoverishing middle class. Speaking at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, Trump ridiculed Biden and Kerry, saying, “I’ll never be riding a bicycle,” defensively dispelling any worries over basic balance, bicyclists’ tan, or chronic infirmity, but not implausible injuries, “I’m not getting hurt riding a bicycle,” as if that did you a favor. So anti-bike is Old Bones Spurs who thereby dodged the draft, he initiated legislation to permit motorized uses of bike/pedestrian paths.

Trump’s a lazy slob in a sloppy suit and MAGA tie left too long, like a toddler who's guardians ought to know better. Ties stop at your waist, not crotch. He won’t disclose his college transcript, current health, or tax filings, probably hiding some truly damning disqualifiers. Furthermore, his henchmen raided doctor’s office to remove dismal records, though a heart stent merits concern, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is well smelt, and sociopathy confirmed by a consensus of certified psychiatrists. Nobody takes a cognitive test unless dementia is suspected. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac; you have to be really impotent to want it as much as Trump. Defensive Don called Doctor Harris, “A bitch, crazy, garbage, and low IQ.” Contradicts what dropout Trump hates most about her: an accomplished, competent, sane, and successful prosecutor.

An aged joker who would be king hopes you’ll vote for his celebrity status and comic presence out of exhaustion, identification, or sympathy rather than your own best interests. He resonates with antisocial scum, billionaire coconspirators, ignorant losers, paid propagandists, and triggered paranoiacs. He’s worshipped by antisemites, convicts, cretins, crooks, cultists, dupes, homophobes, misogynists, numbskulls, racists, rapists, and xenophobes just like him. His Royal MAGA-sty is only fit for swine. They should ask themselves, "Do I think I could handle being president?" By any measure both he and they are unfit for any role in public service. Based on his past acts nearly every other demographic deems him a dire threat and despises him: America’s 65 million bicyclists; business leaders and corporate CEOs; ecologists and environmentalists; educated and empathetic crowd; entertainers who didn’t endorse him; European allies; first responders; former cabinet members, military generals, staffers, and vice president; free press and journalists; Gold Star families; government agencies and intelligence assets; healthcare community; Latino, Middle, North and South Americans; muslims and non-christians; patients with diabetes or other preexisting diseases; physically handicapped; people of color; professors and teachers; protestors; retired pensioners; recipients of Medicare, Social Security, or TANF/SNAP; soldiers and veterans; union rank and file; unwed women and unsupported mothers; wage earners across all industry sectors; and youth in schools. More than half of population should represent too many individuals to avenge, deport, or exterminate.

Criminals who’ve been investigated by justice department want him to succeed. Pledging loyalty is a scammer’s route to maximal loot without scrutiny. FCC and SEC violations flourished under Dubya Bush, enabling Fox and Newsmax nonstop propaganda and green lighting stock swindles with shareholders cheated out of trillions in dividends and equity value. The dead and disinterested eyes of Cruz, Greene, infotainment spokespeople, Murdoch’s murder of crows, Sean Hannity, Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, and talking heads betray their bitter deceit and faithless fury. He’s never won a court case or popular election, just cheated his way in by electoral manipulation through Russian help and voter intimidation. They had to implement new rules, security, and surveillance of polling places because of him. Nobody he endorsed won in the 2022 midterms. Toxic, unmanly, unpopular: Trump's political poison personified.

The only promise his single term delivered was to funnel trillions of tax dollars to billionaires, including payoffs to foreign dictators to whom he owed billions, through 145 unilateral executive orders, having signed the least representative bills ever. “Infrastructure Week" was a cruel joke that waited 4 years for Biden to invoke. Biden decreased illegal immigration, deported over 1 million, while statistics show that 99% of crimes are caused by country’s own citizens with 95% of domestic crimes and terrorist acts directly attributable to radical right and Russian mob, to which Trump has strong ties. The main reason life is more expensive was his response to pandemic destroyed supply chains, while he encouraged Big Oil, Big Three, and other corporations run by same billionaires who gouge consumers and take record profits at public’s expense, done to cause fear and connive his reelection.

MAGA’s efforts to route dark money and stack Supreme Court are patently illegal and totally unconstitutional. No president ever required or sought absolute immunity for anything, especially not mass deportation, obnoxious sedition, and specious prosecution. You had to know this was coming after nobody from ENRON or Wall Street was indicted for cheating investors out of billions. Now one thousand billionaires have formed an oligarchy covertly ruling 330 million unaware Americans, who don’t want any page of 900 full of repressive policies they plan, including stripping constitutional, educational, entertainment, retirement, reproductive, and voting rights. There would be no e-commerce, internet encyclopedias, Truth Social, or X-tweets without access to information and bait of pornography. Trump’s no danger to deep state or shadow government, but surely an existential threat to ordinary citizens. His VP replacement called him "America’s Hitler", then figured that’s what America needs, a cruel dictator, so said, “Sieg heil!” and started goose stepping behind. Own generals call him “fascist to the core”. Dis-aster is not belittling a Fall flower, it’s what an authoritarian regime ushers in.

Americans used to expect candidates to be paragons of virtue. Logically and morally bankrupt, Trump owes a billion in court judgments against him, legal fees, and venue rentals he refused to pay. Nationwide nobody would post his bail. Paid off billions in loans from Putin and Saudis with secret documents, for which he’s also been indicted. His defense was to appoint judges who stalled cases until after election, then whine about being the most investigated individual since Alphonse Capone, and not without solid evidence that should terrify entire planet.

Trump humps flags because this rapist/stalker serial psycho "loves" to assault America, a country mired in a civil war of his making between MAGA “inhumans” and alleged liberal “unhumans” as Jack Posobiec feverishly reimagines them. The ultimate in Bronzed Aged megalomania, Don-old wants to be considered an ancient god able to do whatever he wants on a throne above AR-15 and Bullet Crown crowd. When he dies he wants everyone to die with him in a mass sacrifice. There’s no such thing as enlightened autocracies, as his supporters assume. Even if there were, dictators would actually have to be a quantum leap smarter than those being ruled, not just be convinced they are. Among American politicians, only Transportation Director Pete Buttigieg meets such criteria, and he isn’t running, yet.

Role of POTUS is chief public servant. Why then is he running? To exploit Biden’s revenue success to pillage more? Party politics no longer work like they once did, evenly divided voters, half Democrat and half Republican. Over 75% are now liberal or moderate. Trump only represents 15% on radical right, an extreme splinter mob that uses criminal tactics to hold onto power, so must somehow con 36% unaffiliated and 29% neither. Recipe for fascism: Consolidate power in a single dictator surrounded by an oligarchy; steal everything not nailed down (unlike $3.8 trillion Social Security trust fund, which they plan to take next); use wealth ($8 trillion during 45's term) to wage war against own people, cower them into submission; round up undesirables (disloyal), deport en masse, and murder as a final solution. Russia’s power play is to get morons to believe nonsense. Putin is desperate to discredit democracy, because his autocracy is failing. With hundreds of thousands of army age males fleeing homeland, and war on Ukraine going about as well as Afghanistan, Putin doesn't want his remaining subjects figuring out he's a failure and fraud. DOJ and FBI caught RT red handed paying social media stooges to sway USA’s national election for their favorite puppet, Ubu Trump. NATO must eventually align to neutralize threat after massive death and destruction.

For all the civic impoverishment and ruined lives Trump left in his half century wake, perhaps the worse is the cumulative stress it had on cardiovascular health and mental sanity, all the more reason to ride a bicycle for its mood boost. Duning-Kruger effect sees MAGA cultists using slurs as “low information” against prudent opponents not thoroughly brainwashed by nonstop agitprop. Trump’s responsible for the rise of “woke" as a pejorative, which is the opposite of his degeneracy. Jennifer Welch of I Had It Podcast calls out their “buzzword bullshit” of screaming trigger words instead of promoting unifying principles, of which MAGA has none.

“Woke" has become a joke meant only to gaslight and provoke. GOP hurls DEI around as if it's terrible. Diversity creates new markets. Money-grubbers sell equities, shares in systems everyone operates within. Inclusion? GOP is a minority party with only 25% voter affiliation; fact anyone abides their presence is a mystery given they are so eager to exclude. Difficult to relate to those for whom The Calculus only means a pebble in their sandal. The 7 Corporal Works of Mercy are to act charitably, bury the dead with dignity, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter homeless in entirety, visit convicts in a penitentiary, and visit those suffering from infirmity... woke to the core. Access to education and information enables, yet the cultured, educated, and literate still find it next to impossible to convince deplorables to act in everyone’s best interests and not vote for relentless recidivists.

A tenet of comedy is to portray absurdity. Trumpkins embrace atrocious, bizarre, criminal, diabolical, horrid, and monstrous. Not to hop on some bandwagon, MAGA isn't just “weird”, it's creepy, enraged, humorless, invasive, nefarious, perverted, and sadistic. “I’ll be your protector... women won’t have to worry about abortions.” GOP wants to be an army of elephants in your pajamas. Hard to believe holier-than-thou Christian Nationalists irrationally love their Cheeto Jesus, the very personification of The 7 Deadly Sins: Envy (better than Lincoln), gluttony (wolves down tons of MacDonalds and KFC), greed (embezzled trillions from public treasury), lust (cheated on wives with porn stars), pride (without me, catastrophe), sloth (golfed away half his term), and wrath (angry at everything, especially when economy outperforms his doom scenario). Higher Liar at end stage dementia cheers when stock market self corrects with profit sell-offs or slight hiccups that suit his red flag narrative. No one ever saw him actually open bible he sells; he’d probably burst into flames. If it isn't bad built, rage 'roid bimbo jerks like MTG, it's botox, collagen injected, face lifted, mascara man phonies butt kissing their grease painted, girdled pinched ex-POTUS, who, after running for office since 1999, has never won a popular ballot, and must feel justified in rigging elections.

Kindhearted kids expressing concern are not going to topple conservatives. You have to go armed with elephant rifles and rpg’s against their rampaging herd. These dopes are going to find their schemes backfire. They inadvertently gave Joe Biden complete immunity, while Kamala Harris fills Pence’s 2020 role. Even if Trump somehow gets reelected, Biden and Harris can negate electoral results, have Seal Team Six grab him before he escapes to his Venezuela estate, and sack SCOTUS Six, so Harris can restore balance to the courts. Dark Brandon, indeed. Con te partirò, Mr. Trump. He plays this song at rallies but probably doesn’t know what it means, “Time to say goodbye.” Next on his play list is YMCA; The Village People represented LGBTQ+, yet MAGA refuses to recognize them, vilifies them, and wants to purge them from society.

Fools who fall for false equivalencies, for example, “Don’t forgive student loans unless you first honor veterans,” can’t seem to understand that government handles thousands of diverse transactions every second. A trained army of agency employees make sure you hardly notice their steady service to which most feel entitled. They address and fund needs as constitution and laws provide. It’s never some Malthusian choice between national defense and social security, 2 separate buckets. But their competence is Trump’s first target, vowing to replace them all. AI servant Yuval Harari opined, “Ignorance by itself is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, this is a toxic mix.” Facts are MAGA's kryptonite.

Silver lining? Trump exposed scale of greed, misogyny, racism, white supremacy, and xenophobia that still exists, and vicious 15% of population, criminals and mental defectives who belong in prison or on medication. As a textbook case, Trump also demonstrated how to identify antisocial personality and malignant narcissism to a degree seldom seen in leadership roles. Suppose greed appeals to someone who burnt through billions, knows desperation to regain status, though his embarrassment can't be compared to plight of 99% of Americans he made poorer. Millions of deaths later, Trump reveals how stupid policies can be a deadly threat to a vulnerable population. Points out the need to actually prosecute and duly process felons before they can do more harm to society.

Men I Trust, Lauren, single, self, 2016: “Rather chase a gentle breeze, set my thoughts by taller trees, ‘cause I can’t stay forever by my window. I need whispers that make me move, riding the country... Sync me within the outside world.”

Sunday, June 23, 2024

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.

Monday, May 27, 2024

Marcescent Soutane

Anselm Kiefer, “I want to fly my bicycle”, neo-expressionist lead, steel, and wire sculpture; artist is best known for exposing authoritarian atrocities for decades and never more timely.

Christian clerics wear cassocks to show they live to serve. These garments were inspired by padded riding tunics of nomadic Persian adventurers who performed good deeds at the bidding of those who deserved kind boons. Slowly soutanes withered to nothing more than ceremonial vestments bereft of importance, possibly because nobody anymore quite knows adornment type, button number, fringe material, sash selection, or such regalia and rules befitting a false sense of majesty and traditions to which they cling. Bicyclists’ bib tights more closely resemble original outfit, but churches frown upon congregants who don lycra or dress down.

Good deeds for community’s sake supposedly satisfy self and serve others, but none go unpunished. You can hardly help anyone without interference from their questions and resentments. No number of arguments or explanations overcome distrusts and misgivings. Letting down one’s guard when all goes well for a while can be such an extravagant luxury after signing over one’s rights unnecessarily at insistence of bankers, bill collectors, or insurers. People only accept assistance on their own terms, even when they don’t understand what’s going on, thus adding to chaos and blocking their prepotence. Blame assessing and finger pointing immediately ensue. To paraphrase Jean-Paul Satre, “Condemned to your freedom machine, Hell is other people interfering with your scene.”

Church times, city planning, and cycling politics haunt Dave Walker’s cartoons.

Another rainy day? Early New England Springs extend into interludes of misery and mud as ground heats, permafrost melts, and sequestered carbon emerges into atmosphere. No wonder climate tracers warn of eroding glaciers and skies are gray every day. Drizzle keeps many riders out of saddle, while black mold and tree pollen makes for allergic bike rides and potential asthma attacks. Consequently, new insights and reveals elude. Aged, belligerent, cantankerous, damaged dowagers, and indeed Labann, indiscriminately shower angry, burnt, cautionary factoids upon apathetic readers who don’t heed because they can. Why bother preaching?

Never roll through a shiny spot or standing water masking a pothole, which can trap entire wheel causing an endo. A helmet with a brim helps keep drips out of eyes. Goggles fog and obscure outlook. Gloves improve grip and protect hands in a fall. Beware of hypothermia; dress in warm, wicking clothes, windbreaker, and winter shoe covers. Cash, cell and keys belong in a zip-lock baggie to deter getting soaked by gutter juices. “Acqua e sapone,” they actually say. Clean and dry bacteria laden apparel, bike, and equipment; re-lube drivetrain to avoid chain wear and rust. Slow down. Take extra care; motorists with steamed windshields might not see you. Anything that interferes with tires gripping pavement - broken glass, cold wet, damp leaves, ice patches, loose gravel, sand shoals - can be dangerous and disconcerting. Broken pavement also causes flats.

Flats fit 3 categories: pinch, puncture, or sidewall. Pinches are caused by improperly installing tube twisted or under tire bead, hitting sharp edges of curbs or potholes, or running at too low pressure. Punctures come from rolling over glass, metal, sand, thorns, or wire. Sidewall blowouts can be avoided by never entering into linear cracks that scar sides and renewing setup at regular intervals: new rim tape, tires, and tubes. Inspect rim beads and entire rims for damage, too. Carry a "boot", which is a plastic self adhesive patch to bridge gap in sidewall allowing you to limp to home or safety. Don't try to patch tubes; abrasion thins, valves go; carry two or more because being prepared for failure means it occurs less often. Don't tighten the knurled nut on valve; it's only there to stabilize the pump head, not hold air in; some remove altogether because they can freeze and prevent repairs. Prevention is perfection, avoiding anything by parsing paving.

Ironic how flats with skinny racing slicks are so much easier to repair than with stiff beaded twice as wide gravel and mountain specifics. Using butyl tubes, Kevlar belted tires, and plastic liners, almost never get flats, so ultimately save time. Need two tire levers and a new tube, never patched used ones. Deflate old tire, dismount wheel (assume quick release skewers or you'll need a hub wrench), lay bike down with drivetrain side up, remove knurled nut from valve, and use levers to pry off tire entirely from rim bead. Importantly, inspect beads, rim tape, and sidewalls, remove punctured tube, and rub entire inside of tire with fingers and thumbs to find and pluck anything piercing through before reusing tire; use needlenose pliers to remove embedded bits of wire unless you want another instant flat. Remount tire halfway (note if one directional, some are), slightly inflate new tube, thread inside rim so valve sticks through evenly, then carefully install other bead of tire in rim careful to avoid pinching tube. Inflate a bit more, squeeze sidewalls all around to encourage proper seating. Pump (or CO2 inflate) to spec, reinstall wheel onto bike, and ride on. Some brake calipers have small ratchets that spread pads off rims for removal. People might forget to swivel ratchet back into position after reinstalling tire, which affects braking tension.

Global Cycling Network (est. 2013) is some sort of advocacy group apparently living off advertising clicks for last decade. Content impoverished, they recently concocted this list of “Bike Terrors: 6 things that cyclists are scared of” [random and unrated]: Animals/pets prowling roads, black Ice, being doored, destination cafés closed, slippery white lines, and wet drains. Lame and unimaginative? Or is it AI generated claptrap?

If Labann were asked to list and rank: 6. Losing car keys or catalytic converter while parked for a ride; 5. Loose debris, gravel or sand while cornering; 4. Breakdowns/flats during extreme weather or when riding through bad neighborhoods, 3. Hitting a deep pothole or linear crack while descending at speed; 2. Attacked by apex predators on back roads; 1. Being overtaken by a motorist whose license to operate already has or should have been revoked years ago. All such arguments grossly impeach cycling as dangerous, ignore deadly scourges of motoring, and never examine root causes. How about calling out self serving conservatives who want to kill bicyclists to continue profiting off environmental ruin?

When asked to rank their anxieties, Gen Z respondents named fatal car crashes as number one. Young adults aren’t yet concerned about top general population killers: cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and existential threats, rather their main threat. Fascist candidate facing imprisonment offered Big Oil cuts in environmental controls if they donated a billion dollars to his campaign, from which he’s already demonstrated a felonious propensity to pay personal legal expenses and state levied fines. If reelected, he’ll avenge any opposition and suspend state support for bicycling, which he already stated he adamantly hates.

Skells, sluts, and studs are beyond your control, attacking fragile victims, extorting cowering minion, slapping kissers of crooked suckers, stealing coveted stuff, unworried they might murder some and spend rest of their lives in prison, because repeat felons running for office seem to have gotten away with worse offenses forever. Not even angels can fly away from vile examples. Sustainability derives from battling daily. 

MAGA RINOs stampede under a banner of better living through Christian Nationalism, neither of which previous administration and its führer espoused, merely self serving plays for domination bringing economic recession and human desperation. This power mad sociopath dreams of becoming America's and world's dictator;  menace of poverty makes public cower. What did you think? After years of being conditioned by advertising bullshit anyone couldn’t be convinced to vote against conscience for a cartoon villain crime lord? Some believe whatever they are told, can’t apply basic logic, have no tools for comparative analysis, lack common sense, and won’t ever change their minds. Are there enough normal voters who value what independence America still affords?

Unless district attorneys, DOJ, FBI, journalists, and police act in concert and do their unenviable jobs, “conduct becoming” hardly applies to military officers, never mind civilians and politicians. Censure and scandals currently surround Congress supposedly serving us, conservative SCOTUS, and previous POTUS. Accused stalling proceedings for literally years betrays guilt. Infamy only lasts for next few news cycles. To become an indelible household name means to own ubiquitous blame. Seems more time is spent on producing feature films and taping TV series about crime than actually collaring and prosecuting criminals. Why so encourage wrongdoers? Recognized experts are disregarded; mob obeys social media influencers whose messages were recorded drunk or stoned behind pickup truck wheels while wearing flannel and red felt ball caps.

Among automakers, bicycle builders, and gunsmiths, who do you think has been repeatedly and successfully prosecuted for deaths and injuries? Both cars and guns kill more Americans with complete impunity than infectious diseases, yet due to less than lethal design flaws bicycle factories have been closed and workers laid off. How has this happened? Mom and pop businesses get steamrolled by multinational corporations. But for altruistic activists, evil typically eclipses marcescent virtue hanging on by a hopeful thread.

“Language is my knife, my weapon.” Sir Salman Rushdie, 2023, Booker Prize recipient and hate crime stabbing victim

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Suspect Tramontane

Looking for redemption from a cycling obsession and stumbling through a universe two-wheeled, you never know what will be revealed, sometimes resembling a suspicious blast of northerly wind from Alps that brings disease and excises convenience. Reserve right to refuse any mention, though exclusion has never been Labann's intention.

Called out, woke, then canceled: Practically describes how society dealt with Labann specifically. How do distaff cousins, mistreated mothers, and significant others organize during a pandemic to counter crooked officials, misogynists, nazis, patriarchs, and whoever else wants to overturn hard won civic rights? Make no mistake, what’s at stake are common sense, licensed licentiousness, power lust, privileged status, treasury rape, wealth dominance, and world influence. So no big deal, and not cancel culture, to skip extraneous references, so songs that actually capture culture can inspire independence, as do the following two baker’s dozens.

Eek a Mouse, aka Ripton Joseph Hylton, Peeni Walli [Jamaican reggae], Peeni Walli EP, Gorgon Records, 1983
“Riding on my bicycle got knocked down by a motorcycle in front of a motor vehicle. Luckily, I was Jah Jah disciple. I lay on the ground. I was so injured... did not know what to do... Yeah, man! When the bike really hit me I see stars and peeni walli [fireflies]. Beddameng [akin to Valetudinarian]! Pain all over me, me tink [sic] me get shocked by electricity... Crowd gather around like it was a funeral, ‘ey! Some say it accidental.”

Robert Palmer, Pride, Pride, Island Records, 1983
Addressing a body building obsessed girlfriend, “Roller skates and vitamins and diet plans, academic discipline will ruin your hands. We used to ride tandem and have lots of fun, but bicycles for exercise are made for one.” Perhaps the late pop artist, often surrounded by supermodels, might have lived into his sixties with own spin regimen.

Josh Rouse, Sweetie, Country Mouse City House, Bedroom Classics, 2007
“Life in circles and we dream of some place to go. [Chorus] We’ll sleep on roof tops. We’ll ride on bicycles. Baby, we'll get married. Don’t you want to, Sweetie?”

Jonathan Mann, Song #121: To: Sarah and Mike From: Meredith and Adam re: Sorry about your bikes, Song a Day: Year One, self, 2009

Jonathan Mann, Song #203: Bike Love, Song a Day: Year One, self, 2009

Jonathan Mann, Song 249: Bicycle Blvd., Song a Day: Year One, self, 2009

Jonathan Mann, Song #280: Hey Mr. Bike Thief, Song a Day: Year One, self, 2009

J Prozac, A Boy and His Bike, Here Is My Heart, self, 2013

Julian Bach, Ride [South African], Man on The Bicycle, self, 2013
“We’ll ride into the source of the night... into forever where nobody has ever gone.”

Julian Bach, Man on The Bicycle [South African], Man on The Bicycle, self, 2013
“Man on the bicycle now rides a luxury car miles away from his bicycle... Come back to your roots.... Get your bike into gear.”

Kids On Bikes, A Boy Needs A Bike, Transference EP, self, 2014

Me for Queen (Mary Erskine), Bike With No Name, Iron Horse, self, 2014

Me for Queen (Mary Erskine), Freewheel, Iron Horse, self, 2014

Me for Queen (Mary Erskine), Traffic Light Crush, Iron Horse, self, 2014

Me for Queen (Mary Erskine), Wheelie, Iron Horse, self, 2014

Me for Queen (Mary Erskine), White Bike, Iron Horse, self, 2014
The Guardian said, “Iron Horse: an album [crowdfunded] inspired by cycling in the city will give 5% of all sales to RoadPeace, a UK charity for road crash victims, and 20% of anything over its target.”

Owen Pallett, Soldier’s Rock [Seattle indie], In Conflict, Domino, 2014
Interesting dissonant use of lead violin. “Out on a bicycle a reflection left behind, behind. The desires of your daughters they will never be defined, defined. Wild pedal wild energized by the stolen vodka and triple-sec. Wheels spurting up the flecks of mud on your blue jeans and your turtleneck. I'm out on a bicycle feeling God is on my side. My mother didn't believe in discipline or the unconscious mind... Somewhere between the road and the ever-darkening sky, ooh, the greediness of our hearts will not be satisfied.”

Alexander & Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, fea. Dan Moriyama (piano), A Woman Wearing Bloomers on a Wheel, single/video, Andagio, 2015

“There’s nothing quite as splendid as a bloomer; for riding bicycles they’re perfectly ideal.” And while they’re at it, organizing with suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst to force men to let them cast ballots. After 150 years of women citizens exercising their born right to vote, begun in State of Wyoming, and 100th anniversary of the ratification of Nineteenth Amendment, none of all those specious objections against manifested. In fact, quite the opposite, enfranchised women actively and successfully fought fascism during WWII. These days, either gender is just as apt to vote foolishly or wisely. State of Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp has again disenfranchised blacks and women with vicious new Jim Crow laws based upon the Big Lie, despite Trump’s actively and illegally trying to distort results there, and due to Rudy Giuiani’s false claims of a stolen election. As the minority party, GOP knows it has to resort to electoral redistricting, exclusionary ballots, low turnout, and restrictive measures to creep into office and only represent privileged creeps including themselves. Such an outrage should never be tolerated, and those who try ought to be recalled or voted out.

Hip-Hope Buster, À bicyclette [French], single, self, 2015
Hip hop homage to old Yves Montand song.

Slabs, Brian Pulva [space jazz], Ballena Solitaria, self, 2015
“That man, the man with a beard, in a skirt, on a bicycle... Lumbering internal combustion. Wildering images distinct from, lumbering internal combustion. Slabs form in tarmac. Smog is scattered. And in the dust all our friends will rot.”

Jackal & the Wind, Finding Home, Finding Home, CD Baby, 2017
Concludes with, “A bicycle with nowhere to go. I’m on my bicycle, and I can’t find home.”

David Haerle, Glendale, Garden Of Edendale, Edendale Records, 2018
“Well, I had, had a love, and she lived there way up high above Kenneth Road, and I rode, yeah, my bicycle there, and she showed me how it felt to feel like a man, a man in love with a girl and with the whole wide world. In Glendale it all began.”

Geotic, Swiss Bicycle [electronica instr.], Traversa, self, 2018

Ghost Suns, Cards on a Bicycle [English synth], single, Fierce Panda Records, 2018
“Something like a new machine ready to be turned on... It’s been a long time since I’ve been down on this road... Cards on a bicycle marking time and space, keep moving forward, never looking back.”

Hawksley Workman, Italy [Canadian], Median Age Wasteland, Isadora Records, 2019
“Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle days. Riding through the hayfields, riding through the haze, just giving into summer, giving yourself away. We never came here looking to dispel any notions, looking to mop up any oceans. but just to see the sun upon your face.”

Kamuflauge, Bicycle [reggae], single/video, 2186113 Records DK, 2020