Prop 50

 

On California Prop 50: It stinks. It reeks of all that I hate about how people distort, twist, and manipulate facts all the while claiming to be promoting democracy. Anyone—anyone—who hopes for a more robust and functioning democracy, not to mention a more perfect union, will cringe at the thought of this miserable proposition.

Gerrymandering—along with the Electoral College, the dominance of big money, propaganda and disinformation in the media, the distorted structure of the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the piss-poor civic education of our children—is one of the major assaults on the basic tenets of democracy, republican or otherwise.

But of course, a functioning democracy is also one where citizens use the little power they have in a strategic fashion. One must hold one’s nose for a little while in order to get a little bit of what one wants.

In this case, we have the absolutely genuine threat of the anti-democratic power mongers having no compunction about rigging the system in order to impose their vision on the population—like it or not. We must do the same, or they win. It’s compelling.

It can become an endless regress though, failing to return to the promised outcome. Without the people…the citizens…supporting the more democratic option on their own, rejecting the pressure of their braying leaders, regardless of political party, there is little hope for much that’s worth while in any case.

So I’m sitting this one out. That’s my vote.

 I've published another novel, the second this year. It's short at 130 pages. The snoots might call it a novella, or worse, a novelette. It's just a short novel. It'll be on Amazon et al. in a couple months. Meanwhile: https://www.lulu.com/.../paperback/product-kvdz9wk.html...

 

The Murder of Charlie Kirk

 

The murder of Charlie Kirk was sad. It is also sad to see the misspent tributes cropping up like weeds, to a figure who advocated for an exclusionary vision of not just America, but of a wider world that would forbid and cast out human beings narrowly considered deviant, or simply unacceptable—to their particular community—which deems itself the arbiter of right and wrong, good and evil. A community that tries to impose on others, who are actually a majority, the stale and ancient dictums contained in a chaotic and contradictory collection of writings of desert pastoralists living in a tiny portion of the earth many, many centuries ago. Those in this community are able, without shame, to meld the greed of the Gilded Age to carefully selected passages from these murky ancient ramblings to justify further levels of exclusion and cruelty.

The murder of Charlie Kirk was sad, as is any other murder. It was neither sadder nor more heinous than any other murder, and it does not deserve any greater level of mourning than any other murder.

I’m not convinced that Charlie Kirk was truly committed to open and free discourse. Such a commitment would mean a person is open to changing or amending their position on being confronted with convincing arguments. I think he was more supremely self-confident and eager to bowl over opponents or challengers with the depth of his convictions and details he amassed in support of them (not without a strong dose of confirmation bias). His shtick was more performance than debate. Did he ever change a position? Admit he was wrong? Maybe he did. I’ve only skimmed a few of his podcasts and clips.

 

New novel. My 11th book. You can get it here: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/dadownie1

On Amazon (cheaper direct from Lulu, above link): 

https://www.amazon.com/Diminuendo-Doug-Downie/dp/1300227397/ref=sr_1_1

 

This Country

 

This country is being run by a bunch of juvenile delinquents

a mass case of arrested development

a collective failure to grow up

a flood of fools forever blocked from reaching maturity

 

with any luck the dam will burst

and they’ll all rush downstream

like the swift action of a toilet flushing

Prophets

 

The existence of prophets is evidence of the nonexistence of God

if the word of God always comes second hand, then God is a coward

and that does not compute

 

for all of the prophets to be liars is not a hard thing to add up, however

JC

 

I must confess

I’ve pretty much had it with a lifetime of Jesus Christ

or even an evening

 

it does seem like he was a nice guy

an admirable guy

 

until he got all preachy

 

he and his buddies (the vanguard)

put on a pretty good show

and later the professionals really took it to the next levels

 

people really seem to go for that kind of shit

where things that are impossible are made to seem possible

 

and then there’s the trail of tears