Yossarian Lives!

 Ron Crawford, over at Sewerwatch ( www.Sewerwatch.blogspot.com  ) has completed a hilarious second round of puzzle-solving.  This one involving former BOS Katcho Kachadjian, he of the public crocodile tears and private “as little as possible” Chinatown ethos.

  Well, who can blame him.  Katcho’s punched his Ambition Ticket and moved on up to play with the big boys in Sacramento and you don’t get into that game unless you’re willing to ask no questions, and when asked to request a very simple, highly focused audit to answer a few simple questions on the State Revolving Fund (all fully documented with supporting documentation), your response will be to do “as little as possible,” or, preferably, nothing at all.  

If you want to know why The 99% hate “government,” Ron’s posting will show you why.  The public, official letters contrasted with the semi-private, wink-nudge casual e-mail exchanges are particularly telling.  It’s all a delicious mash-up of Through the Looking Glass and Catch 22.  Part III of this funny/tragic story will pick up again on January first, when Ron contacts the new “independent” state auditor and starts his “Waltz me Around Again, Willie” round of inquiries.  My bet is the nice lady heading up the new office is already firmly in the Chinatown loop. 

As usual, the local media, Tribune, New Times, Cal Coast News, all of ‘em are also into Chinatown mode.  For a politician, doing as little as possible, especially when it’s all about covering one’s ass, is understandable.  But for the “ watchdog press?”   

Spray Your Troubles Away

I love American snark.  No sooner had campus policeman Lt. John Pike sprayed seated, non-violent, non-threatening Occupy Wall Street protesters at the UC Davis campus, than some wag whipped out PhotoShop and there was Mr. Pike cakewalking through art history.  It was a deliciously satirical take to a needlessly savage act. ( at Huffington Post  www.huffingtonpost.com ) 

The visual symbolism of the real spraying is certainly telling – the absolute contempt, the indifference to the damage about to be done, the pain inflicted -- Mr. Pike as The Exterminator about to poison the bugs at his feet.  It was also an image that evoked the 1960’s, with Sheriff  Bull Connor blasting civil rights demonstrators with high-powered fire hoses.

As an icon of how the 1% views the 99%, Officer Pike dancing through art history doesn’t get any better than that. Let them eat cake. Pike is also a great reminder that things do not change much.  Power does what power does, even in a country whose government professes to derive its power from . . . We the People.  You know, those folks on the ground getting pepper sprayed in the face. 

Stop That Brandishing

Odd little story in yesterday's Tribune. Our two Republican representatives, Senator Sam and Rep. Katcho voted against AB 144 (which is now on Gov. Brown's desk for a signature or veto).  The bill, if passed, would make it a misdemeanor to "openly carry an unloaded handgun in public."

"According to a legislative analysis published on the states website, the bill's supporters believe the absence of such a law has led to an increase in 'problematic instances of guns carried in public, alarming unsuspecting individuals (and) causing issues for law enforcement.

"Open carry creates a potentially dangerous situation," according to the analyst's summation of the bill's supporters.

"In most cases when a person is openly carrying a firearm, law enforcement is called to the scene with few details other than one or more people are present at a location and are unarmed, . . . In these tense situations, the slightest wrong move by the gun carrier could be construed as threatening by the responding officer, who may feel compelled to respond in a manner that could be lethal.  In this situation the practice of 'open carry' creates an unsafe environment for all parties involved."

Since the Republican Party (and most of the Democratic party) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NRA, and Sam and Katcho are also sworn blood oath Norquistians, they want nothing to do with this bill and voted against it.

And if Governor Brown vetoes it, that'll mean that upcoming Tea Party Rallies can be filled with people carrying guns.  Nobody will know if they're loaded or not without checking, which is half the fun.  I mean, a resentful, angry crowd playing the victim card, an emotionally charged rally, when excitement and tempers are high, and people are waving guns around, what could go wrong?

Ah, Republicans and their guns.  That love affair goes way beyond a well regulated milita and rolls off into Freud territory. Not to mention dog-whistle territory, that lovely territory of juxtaposition and historical memory: a black president, open carry guns at a political rally, carried signs picturing  an Afro-haired witch-doctorish Obama with a bone through his nose. All that was missing was the noose hanging from a tree with strange fruit swinging, and the grinning smiles of the armed folks gathered there, grinning obscenely for the camera.  Dog-whistle music for our dark unspoken racial history.

Do I overreach?  Then tell me, did you ever see guns at a Bush rally?  Clinton? Heck, he was a good 'ol boy, you'd think the gun toters would have not thought twice about showing up to his rallies carrying weapons, but I never saw any of that.  Until Obama. Did you?

Ah, Republicans and their guns.  Well, maybe that explains why they've grown so mean.  Fear makes you meaner 'n a snake and Republicans are truly scared people.  They're scared that somebody's going to take something away from them (like some money to pay for the roads they drive on or the schools their kids atend) or scared that somebody's going to make them help take care of the sick and lame and, for God's sake, The Poor, (like their neighbors).  That's a horrifying idea to people who so strongly and publicly profess to being Christian.  Look after the poor?  What the hell is that??

And if you view the world as a scary place where you are constantly being menaced by taxes and civic responsibility to love your neighbor as yourself, and instead you view your neighbor as some horrible scary Mexican Black Woman who's threatening your manhood by coming to take your job and move in next door and marry your daughter while the Commies and Socialists are coming in their black helicoptors to take you away to a slave labor camp in Montana for re-education purposes, then naturally you'll really NEED to carry a gun with you at all times.

Even when you go into a pie shop -- especially a pie shop -- because you never know when some urban black thug will rush into that pie shop and yell, "Stick 'em up," and if you have your unloaded weapon you can wave it at him and he'll run away.  Or, more likely, since your weapon is unloaded (since it's still illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit and one of the reasons you're glad Sam and Katcho voted against this new bill is it would have forced you to a) get a permit, which nobody would give you since you're paranoid, batshit crazy dangerous, and b) with a permit you'd have to conceal your weapon which would defeat your purpose of being seen to be a badass without the requisite responsibility and risk of actually being a badass.), the end result of your little faux Clint Eastwood dumbshow would be to get your behind shot off, either by the robber, or by the cops who burst in, think you're the criminal since you're the jackass who's waving a gun around, and blow you away.

Thus doth fear -- False Expectations Appearing Real --  irrational, free-floating, unnamed, unacknowledged, chthonian fear make fools of those suffering from that chronic, lethal condition.

But, boy, does it make for great profits for Gun Companies, increased revenue for the NRA which means copious campaign money will rain down on the NRA's foot soldiers -- our Congressmen and Senators.

Sweet pie all around! Pass the bullets.

Oh, Brother
Well, my dear old HP color printer finally started giving up the ghost.  Actually, it started croaking several years ago.  You know the drill, when it's new you can print off photos which is really cool, then very soon, the printer starts getting out of whack, so you get those striped bands through the photo and no amount of adjusting helps, so you forgo photo printing and just use it for genera printing, which raises the questioon, Why am I wasting money buying colored inks (my HP was one of the ones wherein you could replace each ink cartridge, not one of those all in one deals) when all I"m printing is black and white stuff.

So I limped along, wasting ink, until finally the thing stopped printing much of anything.  So, down to Staples, wherein I chatted with a nice Staples Geek, who suggested a laser printer, B&W only, way cheaper.  So there it sits, all neat and tidy and humming.  Then it's back to Staples with my old, dead HP for recycling. (Yes, Stapes will recycle electronic equipment, (and empty ink cartridges) bless their hearts).

Now I'll post this, say a prayer to the Computer Gods (which is needed since my computer's Macafee system is apparently having random glitches for no known reason.  Steve Vandagriff, my computer guru, ran the thing through its paces and can find no known reason for Mac's weirdness), then hit print and see what happens.