Define Bargain

Having studied anatomy and psychology with a notion to graduate medical school and practice psychopathology, chuckle to know a “trick cyclist” can sometimes be just a gibe for a “psychiatrist”. But fancy riding and treating crazies both invite bruises and worries. Stuck within a brainwashing regime where sanewashing every inane executive act occurs daily, analysis of abnormal behavior occupies way too much of everyone’s time. Didn't sign up for no-choice diktats, postmaster fraud, or ridiculous extortions. There are enough grievances worthy of resistances including connectivity fee hikes, planned obsolescence, and product shrink-flation amidst historic dollar inflation and federal debt at $50 trillion. That's 5 followed by 13 zeroes, which is 12 times what IRS collects annually, while government budget exceeds entire amount, so never pays down debt you owe. Last hurrah for Labor Day, because your dutiful efforts dug deeper holes for yourselves, while sweetheart deals develop ever fewer jobs.

While riding AMONG, not impeding, traffic (bicyclists and pedestrians are integral to overall flow), was twice zoomed by both an “Abuisick” SUV guarded by its aggressive triple shields, and a brutal land cruiser with state plates driven by a soccer mom with kids, which doesn’t much sound like an administrative function for which taxpayers should have to pick up tab. This leapfrog scenario happens as a result of traffic lights, which repeatedly halt motorists with bicyclists catching up, though on uncontrolled stretches operators typically escape into distance.

Scofflaws are hereby placed on notice that bad driving, including pinching off cyclists, could invite a personal retaliation or traffic citation. Cyclists memorize offender license plates, and might later find that car parked. Why risk deep scratches or flat tires that could become costly damages, time killers, or tows? Why should hundreds of millions put up with a few hundred oppressors causing so many woes? One is always responsible for own conduct, but that goes both ways.

“Cyclosporter” parasite promoter prez T-wrecks has always had a reptilian lust for taut athletes or teen queens. Turd's bankruptcies and jealousies incited Tour de Trump, staged only twice with no chance of competing against storied Tour de France, year's most attended sporting event in the world for over a century. Pageant involvement was plagued with molestation complaints. New York Times (behind its paywall, so no link) recently reported his absolute animus against bicyclists, pedestrians, and women through transportation measures that will purge as many of them as possible. His executive fiats violate constitution and numerous federal laws passed by representative legislators on behalf of public, just another reason to despise, impeach, and imprison his diapered butt. Only acts of congress allow changes to earmarked grants or home rules. Such reports go practically unnoticed by anyone, especially bike advocacy nonprofits, who rely on chances that government TIP grants will continue, thus entice charitable donors; otherwise it’s game over.

USDOT’s Sworn Doofus rescinded $100’s of millions in active Biden grants, shifted to car-centric infrastructure planning, and started scrubbing bicycle specific safety regulations from agency standards and websites. What are administration’s lies that try to to disguise these illegal acts? “Bike paths and road diets are ‘hostile to cars’, while bike presence impedes traffic flow, increases road congestion, and reduces vehicle capacity.” Sounds ignorant or insane, no? Should have divulged real reasons: Huge windfalls for already heavily subsidized Big Oil and redoubled kickbacks for a crime family forever on a greedy grift netting billions each term. They’ve already begun to claw back grants, condition funding upon agreeing to strip bike accommodations from approved transit redesigns, and remove existing cycling infrastructure where it occupies space previously used by motorists, although some of these efforts face legal challenges in court from concerned groups, local leaders, and municipal officials, whose job it is to assess, implement, and strategize based on resident demands in compliance with Code of Federal Regulations. New York City already secured court orders against their targeted attempts there. Also too late here; Build Back Better repaved 100 miles of bike paths, good for 2 decades or whenever democracy returns.

Local councils who undid unsustainable traffic planning scored incalculable benefits for everyone in a dozen major cities, as Tom Babin testified last spring. They have the receipts: Better air quality, fewer accidents, less crime, life saving mental and physical boosts, lowered costs, multilateral flow relief, and renewed small business profits. Petroleum exhaust is a primary air spoiler contributing to COPD and heart disease, nation’s #1 killer. Automotive convenience confined in fumes is an obscene and shameful bargain at best, really an inimical but unrecognized danger that has killed more people than warfare over last 100 years.

Go ahead; delete dedicated bike lanes and designated shoulders. Means 70 million bicyclists must take to travel lanes to which they're fully entitled to use. Three times as many motorists can be assured this will limit speed to a de facto average of 12 mph, except on limited access highways distantly apart from actual destinations. Before you go grab a mug of joe to sip in gridlock as slow cyclists squeeze past on mandatory shoulders comparatively saving dough. This can only get worse as more and more road users adopt acoustic and electric bikes due to idiotic tariffs and sick wars that have driven up fuel prices and emptied strategic oil reserves. The real war is how enemies in office implement policies to traumatize three hundred million Americans, who still have to pay for bombproof limos a small cadre of subjugators use to protect themselves against them, though they’ll be sitting in snarl with all motor passengers unless congress reverses. Next, they’ll ban and confiscate bicycles, as did their 1940's führer. Bicyclists discern and emphasize with discomfort and suffering; greed driven narcissists in cars never care.

Such desires, emotions, trials and tribulations fill a director’s palette. American filmmakers have had a century of freedom to expose cruelty, say and show practically anything, and spend literally trillions to entertain, persuade, and titillate with original and outrageous presentations. This bred both bad and good, but served a wide range of needs including entertaining, imagining, informing, and promoting democracy. Many movies set in years since their introduction after Civil War feature bicycles in crucial roles, as seen in examples below.

Urban documentary 1 Way Up (Amy Mathieson dir., 2014) follows two teens, Quillan Isidore and Tre Whyte, who hope to escape one of London’s toughest gang neighborhoods through the Peckham BMX Club on route to World Championships. Though R rated for explicit language and violence, it smashes ghetto preconceptions and racial stereotypes.

In British historical drama The Choral (Nicholas Hytner, dir., 2025), Ralph Fiennes plays Dr. Henry Guthrie, an uncompromising stand-in for town’s chorus master, who joined armed forces for service overseas in WWI. Set in 1916 in Yorkshire Dales, young men ride bicycles that create a stark contrast between carefree innocence and looming devastation on the Western Front. Bicycles represent pre-war era, while conscription of bicyclists represents realities of war.

Australian plus size positive actress Rebel Wilson on a bicycle with a basket and training wheels rides throughout a Noom weight loss spot, Lose for Keeps (July, 2026), while eschewing persistent food temptations. It's not the first time she's been filmed riding bikes.

French comedy Good Vibes Only (Pour le plaisir, Reem Kherici, dir., 2026) is based upon the true story of Bavarian hobbyist Michael Lenke. Inspired by a medical study on scarcity of orgasms among women, Lenke built in 2014 a prototype air pulse clitoral stimulator using an aquarium pump, plastic tubing, and testing by his wife Brigitte. The Womanizer reached a climax in sex tech, which grew taboo since 1922. By 1970 feminist Irina Dunn had already coined the adage, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” In film, married spouses of 20 years Fanny (Alexandra Lamy) and Thomas (François Cluzet) didn’t know what they were missing until Thomas invents a new toy. They celebrate success with a duo bike ride.

French feature film Le crime du 3e étage [The Crime on the 3rd Floor] (Rémi Bezançon, dir., 2026) is deemed a comedic homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window where François Tarnowski (Gilles Lellouche), a writer of historical crime novels, and lovely partner Colette Courreau (Laetitia Casta), a Hitchcock expert, believe they witness a crime through a "rear window" being committed at a neighbor’s apartment behind theirs. Both bike about collecting evidence.

Also set in Paris, where cyclistes are the rule rather than exception, Hugo (Pascal Bonitzer, dir., 2026) hears Fabrice Luchini (Robert Zucchini) reading passages from his favorite author, Victor Hugo, on stage to packed audiences. His true goal, however, is to reconnect with his estranged daughter as he pedals around The City of Light.

Darkness follows in experimental Italian short Roadkill (Vito Nicoletta, dir., 2026), which displays humanity’s adversarial relationship with natural environment while slowly riding a bicycle past assorted dead creatures terminated without remorse by technological conveniences, such as those preferred by current regime.

Just gets worse with horror short Something Might Be Wrong (Eymen Karahan, dir., 2026), filmed on location in Genk, Belgium but with Turkish dialogue throughout. Teenage cyclist Serdar (Muhammed Kiraz) rides his bike through a local forest, then struggles to distinguish between actual reality and his own auditory hallucinations, as he descends into a fragmented nightmare. External danger may also be closer than he thinks. On own recent isolated ride segment, was more aware than ever how appropriate its tagline can be, “Don't roam the trees alone, because you're never alone.” Doesn’t take a priest or psychologist to explain one’s unexpected enthusiasm in encountering an idyllic open meadow along a road surrounded by tangled understory. Can personally attest to having seen where few New Englanders go strange creatures in abandoned corners, e.g., supernatural entities, supposedly extinct Eastern catamounts, and world’s worst mass murderer, mosquitos. Yet fear 47 with nukes more than Iran's theocrat kooks. 

Or maybe they’re aliens from other planets, allegedly posing as nonthreatening species to study humans. That’s one tenet of summer blockbuster Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg, dir., 2026). Meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) and whistleblower Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) discover they have paranormal abilities imparted upon them during alien abductions, a truth only they wish to share to the world and authorities want to suppress. Of course, they’re involved in a bicycle chase scene that harks back to ET: The Extraterrestrial. Phone home.

Exposing antisocial behaviors, not at all uncommon given 25% of people (esp. crack, meth, and steroid abusers) are aggressively messed up mentally, may have negative effects, such as encouraging more. Tizzy Ent (Michael McWhorter) tries to sort out bicyclist Gary’s allegations against a motorist buzzing by in new Discovery Channel docuseries How to Catch a Dirtbag (Season 1, Episode 3). His frenzied complaint to police lands Gary a citation for disorderly conduct. He could have just reported vehicle’s plate number rather than try vigilante vengeance, though police seldom enforce laws designed to protect bicyclists and tend to favor motorists.

Set for September release, romantic fantasy sequel Practical Magic 2 (Susanne Biers, dir., 2026) revisits the Owens coven 25 years later. Daughter Kylie’s boyfriend, played by Xolo Maridueña, riding a bicycle with a bouquet of flowers gets gravely injured when a motorist slams into him. This tragic event compels her, Gillian (Nicole Kidman), Sally (Sandra Bullock) and their aunties to begin a course of action to rid family of its longstanding love curse. In part 1, Sally's beloved husband, while pushing a hand truck with racks of apples across village's main street, gets suddenly distracted by a phalanx of cyclists, then slaughtered by a tractor trailer, thus fulfilling jinx.

Cwen Ygrayne

Landscapes change over time, but do habitats become less benign? Used to be eager to go out for another spin; lately it seems safer staying in. Life threatening weather with driven rain and toppling gales lately seem often and tragic, as is news of crime, disrespect, and extra traffic. Who’d then go out on an e-bike and risk being blitzed, lightening hits, overtaking misfits, or shorting circuits? Anyway, why do some communities want to ban e-bikes? They appear to fear that 0.5 kilowatt lithium batteries might cause wildfires, though any such calamity has yet to be confirmed, and wouldn’t that apply more to 100 kilowatt Tesla e-cars and thousands of petroleum fueled brands, motorized molotov cockpits? E-bikes have been outselling passenger vehicles every year. Automakers consider them a threat, since gas-car purchases so far in 2026 declined versus a growth trend during previous administration, even though motorists tend to buy both, perhaps e-bikes for every passenger.

Busy during prime season - May, June, July here - riding through residential areas, usually less hectic than main thoroughfares, saw streets probably named after developer’s kids, Eleanor and Todd, not typical family surnames. Doesn’t seem right, but beats generic A, B, C, or 1, 2, 3 designations, or mob nicknames, as Baby Shanks or Bent Finger. Hot Toddy sounds like a porn star, while Icy Lenore might well be a Poe femme fatale or tragic heroine. For street names prefer allusions to bike brands, say Columbia, Merlin, or Wheeler. Some presumptions are wholly imaginary. Many motivations are undivulged intentionally. Few ever hear whole story or want to.

Closed minds delude themselves that truths are easily accessed by common sense; because they are seldom pleasant, minds are easily poisoned against them. If you want to explore ripples of reality, your approach must be random rather than regimented, stochastic instead of scholastic, or you stumble upon revelations. Like a knight errant, must mine connections among myriad sources, and seek righteous results, not personal validations. Since everything in universe is interconnected, have to escape self imposed silos to derive veracity. Rather engage in cultural omniana and unsocial media of nonfiction articles and books than worm though self indulgent mad magaverse or sad metaverse of unfounded opinions and unlovely poetry. Innocence attracts tragedy; some songs are better left unsung apparently.

"But you will come, won't you?" said Miss Ivors, laying her arm hand eagerly on his arm.
"The fact is," said Gabriel, "I have just arranged to go----"
"Go where?" asked Miss Ivors.
"Well, you know, every year I go for a cycling tour with some fellows and so----"
"But where?" asked Miss Ivors.
"Well, we usually go to France or Belgium or perhaps Germany," said Gabriel awkwardly.
"And why do you go to France and Belgium," said Miss Ivors, "instead of visiting your own land?"
"Well," said Gabriel, "it's partly to keep in touch with the languages and partly for a change."
"And haven't you your own language to keep in touch with -- Irish?" asked Miss Ivors.
"Well," said Gabriel, "if it comes to that, you know, Irish is not my language."
Their neighbours had turned to listen to the cross-examination. Gabriel glanced right and left nervously and tried to keep his good humour under the ordeal which was making a blush invade his forehead.
"And haven't you your own land to visit," continued Miss Ivors, "that you know nothing of, your own people, and your own country?"
"0, to tell you the truth," retorted Gabriel suddenly, "I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!”
James Joyce, “The Dead”, The Dubliners, 1914

Recall only a few years ago wondering what might negate Bund screeds and seditious newscasts versus invisible liberality and progressive proposals. Decency demands tolerance, but conservative rascals have never been decent. When YouTube podcasts began exposing authoritarian cruelty, depravity, and hypocrisy, unforeseen effects were to poke beehive and provoke threats. Now pedophile cult and tightwad wingnuts want to deny free speech for everyone but themselves while steadily embezzling trillions from public treasury and forfeiting America’s future. Never wanted to be so angry and vengeful as to entertain permanent solutions, even for genocidal monsters and serial killers in positions of trust. In just countries, no one deserves a death penalty, yet deportation, exile, incarceration for life in an ICE facility without comforts or medicines, property seizure, and restitution of stolen funds are ethical sentencing options for irredeemable convicts.

Republicans believe in free enterprise for themselves alone, especially bilking, brushing, cheating, crypto conning, extorting, grifting, money laundering, phishing, rigged gambling, scamming, selling phony coinage or worthless garbage, sex trafficking, spoofing, stealing, and sticking it to suckers. They’ve been fighting public entitlements and race reparations for decades, thus preserving their treasury nest egg so only they can continue to embezzle from it. Family values to them means involving sons in their criminal enterprises, making a cynical show of morality, and waving bibles and flags as validity. Of course they want limited government and little change, so they can avoid indictments under immunity and inflict torments with impunity. Not only are crimes statistics poorly collected but they are reported based on political optics. Independent and objective journalists these days loathe access loss and lawfare alarm, so seldom expose such egregious villainy, or suffer consequences of being fired or indicted falsely. 

Awash in lies, misinformation, opinion, prevarication, and propaganda, there are lots of notions and reports one can dismiss immediately. Yet with an open mind a pleasant surprise may sometime arise. You must ask questions to solicit answers, yet never forget how humans communicate clumsily and mangle vocabulary. Pictures speak volumes of memes but never explain own tropes. Words portray actions, people, and things; they are not those, merely ersatz placeholders, signposts, substitutes, or ways to convey concepts. In an era of anomie, broken oaths, normlessness, nullification, obfuscation, ostracism, and suppression, language has become a weapon to solicit compliance or stab you in the back. Yet they claim sledgehammers, sticks, and stones may break bones, but not insults, names, or remarks. Democracy exists in a bubble of rights and rules comprised of promises (broken) and suppositions (mistaken). How one behaves matters more than what one avows.

Does a quarter century of B&C suggest Galahad (Savior) Syndrome mired in monomaniacal obsession? Or just something that offers a benign diversion that organizes every mundane observation? Trying to capture all facts on a narrow topic can be immensely challenging. Bicycling culture defies monographic treatment in its universal scope. Energy companies capture electricity, methane, oil, and other sources in barrels, grids, and pipelines, akin to snaring game and spreading nets. Hunter-gatherer mentality spotlighted in B&C as “hugger” practice began for humanity in prehistory. It’s still a survival strategy that inspires literary approaches. Given intricacies of sharing information upon which humans are so totally reliant, people should instead let fair and kind acts to both familiars and strangers speak for them, at a minimum, driving extra carefully now that school is again in session, and sharing roads with vulnerable users, including bicyclists.

Of like mind tackling complex topics comprehensively, Bert Olton, Arthurian Legends on Film and Television (McFarland Publishing, 2000, 341 pp.) delves deep into cultural echoes surrounding King Arthur Pendragon, an archetypal hero and war lord who many revere as a betrayed martyr and exemplar redeemer. Medieval monk Gildas the Wise held as a role model golden king Aurelius Ambrosius, Arthur’s uncle, descended from Aurelii family of Republican Rome, later morphed narratively into wizard Merlin, now a famous bicycle brand. Merlin’s magic lets Uther Pendragon covertly rape Duchess of Cornwall Ygrayne, Britain’s most beautiful handmaiden, a relevant tale first mentioned in pseudo-historical Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) by Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth. Uther then embarks upon war against and mortally wounds her husband Gorlois, takes his castle, and weds Ygrayne. Cwen Mother dies giving birth to Arthur, who’s raised apart secretly by Sir Ector, according to yarns promulgated by medieval Matter of Britain authors.

Certain truths echo over eons. Given perennial struggle of freedom versus responsibility, society seems to prefer divinely inspired selfless knights righting wrongs, or whoever assumes burdens for community’s sake, over squabbling rabble grasping for own advantages. Camelot became a convenient catchall for morality plays until police dramas, war stories, and weird westerns dominated airwaves. It’s all really the same old “herstory”, so called heroes fighting over Helen of Troy as an excuse for testosterone fury. People are unsure of what justice should entail, whereas experts versed in entire canon of laws seem better equipped to decide punishments.

An independent court system is a democratic cornerstone some historians trace back to Breton nobleman Alan the Red (aka Alanus Rufus or Alain le Roux, c. 1040 to 1093), a brave knight also of Aurelii ancestry and loyal advisor to William the Conqueror. Absentee monarchy, Frankpledge, one hundreds, and shire courts dispensed verdicts locally, after knightly tradition, referring only the most difficult decisions to royalty. “For the great thinkers of the American Revolution, this was their intellectual and historical foundation. Magna Carta and Parliament’s victory over the Stuarts showed them that not only could they place limits on the government, but that they had the right to run that government themselves.” David Edwards, "How the Norman Conquest Underpinned American Independence", 2020

True heroes do exist, often cowed by Gawain (Imposter) Syndrome, presidential persecution, and self doubt, thousands already fired by regime for perverse amusement, including top scientists at CDC, exacerbating pandemic risks, and Federal Reserve, though courts already will likely block a misogynist/racist targeting of board’s first and only black woman member Cook. Cabinet roles and court appointments now go to loyal but unworthy amateurs and incompetents, none of whom can pull a sword from a stone to become king. Nazi’s likewise targeted blacks, educators, homosexuals, Jews, Romis, Russians, scientists, and whoever was a threat to their white male supremacy, but führer loser suicided and Germany never fully recovered; meanwhile for sake of hate millions of innocents tragically died unnecessarily.

In CamelNot, today’s USA, circuit judges are about the only ones standing between democracy and despotism. Of their latest rulings, 70% have restrained current regime, over 300 suits pending, due to total contempt for constitution’s limits on chief’s role and court decisions and orders. Historic numbers of demonstrations and protestors probably won’t reverse the degenerate agenda of this power mad minority. Instead, arguing unconstitutionality of every executive order before a biased and stacked Supreme Court seems the only way to form a basis of impeachments for toxic justices who violate their sworn oaths to protect and uphold constitution, not hand over blanket immunity never before needed by any law abiding official. Anyone who makes such a demand must already be guilty.

If you don’t speak or write conventionally you obscure meaning. Each sentence has a noun component cheering on every action verb, then possibly dissecting afterward. A verb matters more than a noun, since it makes little difference who does a deed as long as whatever gets done whenever or wherever. Mind your adverbs, which can exaggerate or falsely qualify. File “oh, ouch, ugh, and wow” under official parts of speech, interjections. “Bang, boom, buzz, crash, slash” and so forth are onomatopoeia, nouns that describe sounds that can also be used as adjectives and verbs, sometimes crucial modifiers and qualifiers. “Ah, er, erm, hmm, uh, um” are utterances, not words, yet may imply duplicity, indecision, indifference, ignorance, or weakness. Even gestures, a raised eyebrow, finger, or hand, are fraught with confrontation, menace, or uncertainty.

Carrying forward from list half way through Bike&Chain (page 498) decades ago, and with a growing propensity to add idioms to English dictionaries, now recognize that many people are unaware of thousands of complicated communication concepts, e.g., logical fallacies. It’s not just chosen words but studied elocution and timely delivery that persuade. Furthermore, inflection and tone also alter meanings. Innocent statements delivered with bitter anger, eerie calmness, increased volume, or obvious passion say something altogether different than what words alone express. Buddha demonstrated a millennium ago how verbal logic is inadequate for attaining enlightenment and perceiving important truths. A foreign tower of babel and glut of incomprehensible rhemes convinced many European composers to write wordless dances, quartets, requiems, and symphonies; some became so anti-epeolatric they believed only parole-free musical passages should be shared, not the political and sentimental horrors of operatic librettos rife with provocative and turgid arias.

What is truth after all? In today’s war of words that gaslight rubes and refute facts, much of what you’re told enriches them not you. A precise statement hinges upon definitions, logic, semantics, sentence structure, and spellings. Over 3,800 terms do nothing more than describe, parse, qualify, question, and specify idioms, statements, and words themselves, all trying in vain to eke out and pin down what human chatter signifies. See Labann’s Glossary of Spoken and Written Communication, a veritable genome of verbal expressions, if you’ll pardon a metaphor. If you look up their definitions, they only reference literary abstractions, more words, nothing concrete, definite, or emotional.

The circular reasoning of defining one term by another and vice versa makes you question all of them. A is not B; not even atoms of same element are identical. Imaginative minds ensure meanings morph over time; specialized terms tied to moribund activities disappear from use. Without fully understanding how to use a vocabulary effectively, you’re striving blindly to share data and speak freely. If you didn’t know this, where’s your insight into how to interact for mutual benefit? You probably can’t avoid being deceived, persecuted, and snared in woebegone weeds. Brown studies and humble prayers often occupy midnight insomnia until Matins hours.

If you’d wage hostile incursions under international laws and rules of engagement, best to analyze each of these phrases carefully. They consist of nouns that solely describe other words, not objects from nature, what humans use to exchange concepts, conventions, and plans, thus forming compacts, contracts, customs, and treaties. Broken oaths amount to crimes. Geneva Convention violations equal war crimes punishable by extreme measures including execution. Time to curb your enthusiasm for “unwoke” warfare, such as indiscriminately blowing up fishing boats in international waters.

People who know a sole esoteric or special thing gleefully repeat it to the exclusion of learning anything else, as they were repositories of a single fact, for examples, "affordability, groceries, and tariffs". Feature film Book of Eli (Gary Whitte. dir., 2010) was set in a post apocalyptical future with a scarcity of printed books, where individuals “became” a notable piece of literature by memorizing it for recording back onto pages for distribution someday. Eli possessed a brail bible only he could read, thus memorize. Makes knowing and reiterating a few fancy terms seem rather pathetic and slack.

You might not think anyone except hipsters and showoffs would need a new glossary of words about words. But how can citizens live legally and righteously if they can’t understand the polysyllabic terms from which laws are written? Chief executive and his justice secretary don’t care or know what Habeas Corpus means. You can use list to identify every false flag politicians foist upon fools. When you twist words to mean whatever you want, any social contract dies alongside freedom, rectitude, and rights as collateral damage. Truth be known, you live among dangerously deranged and raving animals including antisocial, armed, potential murderers roaming freely everywhere you need to be or go by bike. You did nothing to disarm mental defectives, yet expect to evade calamity for as long as you blissfully and naturally live?

Pope Leo recently said, “Belonging shifted to digital tribes and echo chambers... Something was lost... We are witnessing the combustion of meaning itself. The old symbols flag faith constitution still stand but their authority flickers. For some they are relics of order, for others instruments of oppression...fractures under too much information and too little wisdom... We speak often of freedom, yet rarely of responsibility, of rights, but not of duties.” Humans are programmed to chat and share, but lost language mastery and moral propriety. Global failures mount upon fiendish advice by fascists whisperers in White House. Multiple Catholic Popes condemned current regime’s false Christian pretext that causes clothing manufacturers to close shops, leaves dead bodies on streets, levies tariffs that drive up cost of food and negatively impact farm operations, removes charities and children from grant and welfare rolls, starves the least fortunate, and suffers no injured or sick poor to seek medical attention. One can be certain that growing and widespread hunger and want leads directly to murders and thefts. Bad deeds and callous wishes usher evil into all lives.

Citizens hear and see what bullies and dunces in office do and say; some compare notes and converse among themselves to decide how to deal with damage and decline they’ve caused. SCOTUS be damned, the People govern themselves cooperatively by knowing, obeying, and using laws, not kowtowing to a bloated traitor with illicit conditional/temporary immunity, or shirking duties to terminate his malfeasance. They may also recall and renounce fathead legislators who dishonor office by kissing asses of oligarchs who didn’t elect them. Republican Congress has done almost nothing for vast majority, in fact, made lives of constituents less secure and worse in every way. When death dealer Mordred mansplains away short term setbacks for long term gains, it’s time to hold accountable for a long list of impeachable offenses he who, for fraud and rape convictions, should already be serving multiple prison sentences. Whenever he trots out his more dreaded mistress Morgana, execrations and expletives greet this maleficent couple.

Because accusations and indictments are only words, criminals expect to be exonerated for their vicious acts against voiceless victims. When confronted with demonstrable facts, they pivot to win an intellectual argument through illegitimacy of “because I say so.” Late knight lighthearted momologues get preempted while White House promotes sedition and slander, which alone serves GOP, a 25% affiliation party beholden to rich scumbag kleptocrats and tech bros, who buy influence and throw their weight around individually. Damsels and maidens are their routine prey; lock up your preteen daughters until they are adults, because “consent” is yet another term they abuse. Seek no relief from Round Table regulars Sirs Agravain the Hard Hand, heir to crown Constantine, Perceval of the Grail Quest, star-crossed queen lover Tristan, or tall valiant Ywain du Lion liberator of the Castle of Maidens, all having lived exemplary lives but long since lain well below British terrain.

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 governor's 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 GOP 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 Sworn 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

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?

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.”