This last post of 2024 could be an homage to John Dos Passos. The early Dos Passos. Before life soured him rightward into becoming a reactionary. Until then, let’s consider him a “lost generation” writer alongside Ernest Hemingway. As did Hemingway, Dos Passos also reported from Spain during its 1936-39 Civil War. There’s where the pair diverged. Before the war, Dos Passos had established solid progressive cred with his 1925 novel Manhattan Transfer. He followed that with his USA trilogy (titles published in 1930, 1932, 1936, respectively) comprised of The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money. Throughout his USA fiction, he dropped in biographical elements and reportage. No need for fiction in 2024. Just real life that should sicken conscientious Americans. What follows has been plucked from a month of Slow Boat Media social media observations and commentary. It is who we’ve allowed ourselves to become.
December First
The “don’t know much about history” MAGA bunch should certainly have their personal safety pierced as the incoming administration arbitrarily burdens the lives of Americans below rarefied economic levels. Saw in it Cuba. Saw it in Russia. Saw it in France. All three instances had abnormal concentrations of wealth and power at the very top. That weight crushed those below until whatever constrained them burst and they could no longer be contained. The high and mighty who see the next four years as a dream come true need to know such pleasantries may wind up with heads on pikes or them standing before “committees” assembled to eagerly dispense the harshest kinds of judgments. I am still amazed that some of the ultra-wealthy among us somehow believe their riches award them special insights. As we see with increasing frequency more money simply clouds their vision and minds.
We must hope other foreign nations follow the leads of Australia and New Zealand by denying entries to odious MAGAs.
Between Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr who’s the bigger failure as a man?
More so now than ever, Americans who spend money they don’t have on items they don’t need can’t complain about inflation.
December Second
Did the short-fingered vulgarian issue Hamas a “hold my beer” challenge today?
December Third
Those in the know may ask why the following post excludes Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Unlike the pair of books referenced [The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath], I read the above 1941 tome in college, not high school. Besides, in high school I lived among people not all that far removed from the respective subjects. That wasn’t the case years later on campus. The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath are disturbing yet highly impressive and informative works reflecting America before it cared. We may be heading back there. Reading each title tells us from whence we’ve come. It’s always good to know where you’ve been. That way you know where you’re going.
Oooooh. Imagine my surprise. Know that already expensive house you were going to sell your soul for then afterwards buy another soul in order to have [another soul to barter which will complete the purchase]? And the mortgage rate so high it has loan sharks saying, “That’s too much!” Not going to say the desired house become [utterly] unaffordable but buyers need to ask themselves this question: “What limb don’t I need?”
Who else thinks the Afrikaner is that overly precocious child who’s yet to grow up? He’s a South African Peter Pan.
A disturbing moment in American justice will be Kash Patel becoming FBI director, not Hunter Biden’s pardon.
With the shit show that’ll explode down here on January 20th why would Canadians want to lose their identities and join the US?
With tariffs on the horizon let’s wonder how many firms will claw back from employees.
December Fifth
Callous as American for-profit health care is, I’m surprised more zips don’t grease its execs.
Today what CEO isn’t thinking about “heads on pikes”?
Anybody else noticing the incoming administration is issuing a lot of threats against citizens?
During the campaign I wrote the obvious. That should Americans be even more stupid than we were in 2016 and return the short-fingered vulgarian to the Oval Office, plans would be afoot to privatize the Veterans Administration. MAGAs found that prospect, or as I knew it, likelihood, laughable. So much so a lot of the simpleminded responded with laughing emojis. Okay. Today Hegseth took time off from abusing women and getting drunk to announce the incoming den of thieves and traitors will look to privatize the VA. Know that for-profit health care more and more Americans loathe daily? There’s a possibility those who served America will have a once grateful nation yank the health carpet we’ve promised them from under their feet.
December Sixth
If the US is ever attacked, the Chief Thief will trade for a “peace” that’ll put America at a disadvantage.
Americans are in our Second Gilded Age. Know what ended the First Gilded Age? The Progressive Era. We are so far removed from it we’ve forgotten how we’d advanced. It wasn’t seamless. And it required equal amounts of sacrifice and dedication. I wonder if our society is capable of a repeat. Those people back then were bone. We are pudding. Unfortunately, our society has become so feebleminded it’s restored robber barons. Our great-grandparents, or if you’re young enough, your great-great-grandparents, got so pushed against the wall they tossed caution, kindness, and manners. They resorted to direct methods. Which yesterday’s shooter demonstrated. If there isn’t course correction and attitude adjustment from the those believing themselves high and mighty, we may anticipate his act will just be the start.
In an ideal USA, MAGAs would get sick from drinking raw milk then be denied coverage by their health insurers.
Right-wing billionaire [bros] braying about cutting retirees’ social security and Medicare is a bad look.
The UH CEO further proves this: wealth does not make you bulletproof.
December Seventh
Is the Chief Thief paying attention to events in South Korea and Assad’s fate in Syria? In our times, either can happen here.
The short-fingered vulgarian will do his utmost to lead America into despair.
December Eighth
This time next year let’s hope the Chief Thief has relocated to Moscow beside Assad.
Once life settles in Damascus, the rebels will start releasing files of assets who assisted Assad. Tulsi will be one.
December Ninth
The man alleged to have clipped the UH CEO used a ghost gun. Gun nuts love [them] because [they’re] untraceable.
December 10th
Following Macron’s lead, more world leaders will resort to flattery and fawning to sway the scab.
With the advances science is making towards agribusiness as well as climate change increasing/lengthening growing seasons, Americans will soon be able to reduce Plains acreage under the plow yet reap equal or greater harvests. In short less necessary land requires less cultivation. Therefore, a number of those currently occupied in Plains agriculture will be rendered redundant. Fortunately, our wonderful ever-soaring metropolises may offer them outlets to grow and truly fulfill themselves. In time the fallow land will revert to much of its original state. But we won’t ignore it. Instead, we will right a grievous wrong and reintroduce the buffalo to its natural habitat. There, the indigenous peoples who wish may roam then resume their ur-practices unfettered by any Christianity they find stultifying.
December 11th
Time has named the short-fingered vulgarian its “Man of the Year.” Hitler and Stalin also received the same “honor.”
December 12th
Why do Americans allow private equity firms to buy hospitals?
December 13th
Bezos and the Zuck each ponied up a $1,000,000 towards President-elect Pay for Play’s Inauguration. That’s tip money for them. But as seen by the Queens mook it’s a significant figure. It’s the kind of money that further inflates his bloated self-esteem. Bezos and the Zuck, as are many of the [avaricious] and vain, understand the easiest way to sway the short-fingered vulgarian is either treating him obsequiously or dumping piles of cash on the table. They know he lacks qualities. Why not take advantage of someone so absolutely vacant at his core? Still, though, it is upsetting to see the nation’s next chief executive being rented so cheaply. Be assured Melania would’ve charged way more.
December 14th
True Americans need to say thanks to our northern neighbors. They’re not bothering to be polite and defer to President-elect Pay for Play. Canadians are speaking plainly to the short-fingered vulgarian. They regard his bluster for what it is. A joke. It knocks him further off balance. It diminishes him. More of us here below the 49th Parallel should’ve taken the same tact. Particularly what still passes for reputable media. The term used was “sane washing.” It made him seem palatable. Understandable perhaps for despots and royalty. Bad for elected and appointed officials who are our servants. Or have we forgotten they are our servants?
Who on earth is delusional enough to take nutrition advice from a roid monster like RFK Jr?
During the next four years Mexico will be better governed than the United States.
RFK Jr’s “health crusade” may’ve gotten a vicious deep-pockets opponent in Monsanto.
December 17th
How did Joe Rogan become a go-to for manly conduct? Where are fathers?
December 18th
It’s one thing to be threatened from outside, but to be threatened from within? During his next term of soiling the Oval Office, let’s hope the short-fingered vulgarian discovers that one-way loyalty can also be a two-way street. He’ll need some of the very same [Republlicans] he’s now putting under the gun later. More than a few will have bad memories of his needlessly pressuring them. They will act accordingly.
It’s about time for President-elect Pay for Play to enter a detente with reputable media through which he can deflate the Shadow President. While the short-fingered vulgarian could possibly feed it to Fox Kennel and Newsmax, those viewers can’t handle learning their poison idols have feet of clay. Besides, imprimaturs of truth will be further bestowed if the major networks broadcast it and esteemed (at least on the news side) newspapers print it. Apparently, the Afrikaner’s rumored fondness for Schedule One substances makes him a security risk. And if our security and intelligence agencies know it, imagine how the Russians will exploit it to the hilt.
President-elect Pay for Play has yet to comprehend that because of his considerable wealth and no compunction against using it as a cudgel, the Afrikaner has more juice than him. For a turd who dislikes being upstaged, the Queens mook may soon find himself heaved overboard.
December 19th
Seeing how the Chief Thief and the Shadow President are beavering towards a government shutdown, the sole reason must be that both wish to bankrupt the nation. We all should be aghast at their goal. It’s for the express purpose of restructuring the debt of the United States. If America was a private company bankruptcy might be an option. An unpalatable one, but an option. But the nation is not a private corporation. It is not a profit-making enterprise. There are no shareholders, just citizens. By their natures governments are not profit-making entities. Governments exist to serve the people. The idea of bankrupting the United States in order to get terms which will allow it to finagle its debts is just what a seven-times bankrupt like the 78-year-old penile implant would look favorably upon. Of course, the Afrikaner is goading him on only because precocious man-child he is, he wants to see what results such a national calamity would create and leave behind. There is no upside to government shirking its financial obligations. There is only loss in the full faith and credit of the United States.
Can’t believe Congressional Republicans are already so cowed by someone still weeks away from taking office as well as a shadow president. How could they have forgotten or forfeited who holds our nation’s purse strings? Congress does, not the incoming executive nor any loudmouthed, selfish, uncaring rich bros. The GOP will have control of both chambers during the next session. It must be asked will they be able to exert any control?
December 23rd
About two weeks ago, dumb fate favored me insofar as a sought-out movie. The title of the streamed flick was Lonelyhearts, a 1958 rendering of a stage adaption of Nathaniel West’s [novel] Miss Lonelyhearts (1933). If West is recalled at all today, it’s from his having penned The Day of the Locust (1939). He only completed four pieces of long-form literature. Each a Depression Era fable combining fantasy and woe. And maybe even surrealism. The pair of books mentioned were his best. Lonelyhearts starred Montgomery Clift and Robert Ryan. It also featured Maureen Stapleton and Myrna Loy. The divergences between West’s tale and what resulted cinematically from the stage play are major. On screen the book’s bones barely survive Eisenhower Era repressiveness. Adam White envisions himself as a reporter. He lands a newspaper job, all right, but malevolent editor William Shrike assigns him an agony aunt column. Rather than reportage, White is saddled with giving advice to the lovelorn. Six days a week. Which if you’ve ever been a journalist, is six days too many. Here is the greatest split between West’s book and the movie. The former is so caustic it’s corrosive. The latter has been so denuded of the source material’s grotesque human debasement its dilution even concludes with a happy hopeful end. Writing during the Depression, West ably captured grotesque human debasement. Long with misery. Hopelessness. There was plenty going around then. In the book the columnist shared equal anguish with his readers imploring him for guidance. Clift being jittery and jarring throughout [as White] is no substitute. Watching him, he should be beseeching such a columnist for advice rather than providing any. Then again maybe there was to have been some suggestiveness viewers should’ve grasped by such casting. The kind that couldn’t have been stated openly thanks to the decade’s mores. Ryan’s Shrike, though, is a hard stick of bitterness inflicting vengeance whenever opportunity arises. Failing that he’ll invent an opening. That is until the fade out.
December 25th
Las Vegas Christmas scene: gambler too long at table or machine visits ATM for cash. Finds card is tapped out. Ho-Ho-Ho! Oh, no!
Who else is having a good laugh at the Afrikaner possibly hindering Congress seeing any raises?
December 26th
Ford Motors execs must be laughing hysterically. All it took for them to get close to President-elect Pay for Play was a $1,000,000 cash contribution to his Inauguration and a fleet of cars. We’ve always known what he is. But whoever thought he could be gotten so cheaply?
Except for Christmas dinner, the day turned out okay. Had to settle for Chinese instead of traditional because casinos for Las Vegas locals have abolished buffets. The few alternatives are arm-and-a-leg seatings at beyond pricey Strip hotels. Leave those for the few [tourists] in town this time of year. Got to conclude the holiday with watching the Baryshnikov-Kirkland version of The Nutcracker ballet, then listening to Charles Brown croon Merry Christmas, Baby as well as Eartha Kitt sing Santa Baby. There are occasions when it’s good to escape the present and return to easier comforting times when everybody was still around. Every Christmas in Nevada has been one of those times.
December 27th
Despite the jury verdict, there are MAGAs who disbelieve President-elect Pay for Play has been convicted.
MSNBC and CNN are losing viewers to Fox Kennel. Just shows Americans prefer being deceived rather than informed.
December 29th
Jimmy Carter did not have a successful presidency. Yet he was a kind and decent man. More importantly, he did not disgrace himself. He did not disgrace his office. Nor did he disgrace our nation. The 39th President was a Christian, a true one. He did not loudly proclaim or profess his faith. He demonstrated it through deeds. How unlike his immediate successor and the country’s first 21st century president. Both were men who too many beguiled voters wrongly believed sat on the Almighty’s right side. As it increasingly affects younger generations today, Carter’s failed 1980 reelection opened the gates to the squeezing of the middle class. The Eighties’ “greed is good” ethos would not have taken root and bloomed wildly during and after a second Carter Administration. RIP.