Jharrin4's Blog

As of the past week, it has become vividly clear the Supreme Court is a 67% rogue operation, doing the bidding of the billionaire class and its fascist faction of anti-democratic fanatics. The most egregious evidence of this creepy reality is the case concerning a supposed web site designer asserting a potential client emailed her asking for a web site for a gay couple. Claiming religious reasons for not wanting to be forced to cater to the LGBTQ community, she files a lawsuit. It reaches the Supremes. Sure enough, by a 6-3 vote, the Sinister Six ruled she was free to discriminate.

It turns out, however, Lorie Smith and her company never created any website for ANY individual or company. So why was the company created in the first place? It was, apparently, a far Right scam, orchestrated to find that friendly SCOTUS six to rule on the “merits” of the suit.

The supposed email sender was contacted, and he turns out to be a happily married heterosexual male. So, there was no such web designer, who received no such email by no such gay couple. But the six far Right jurists went along with the case as though it was real. By submitting false information to the courts, Lorie Smith committed perjury. The suit had no standing whatsoever. The six judges also committed “subornation” which means bribery!

Do NOT expect either Lorie Smith or John Roberts, Amy Barrett, Bret Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas to be held to account. We do not live in that kind of “rule of law” country, a label that has always been subject to verification, but it has now reached a red-line zone which places ever more stress on the engine of our so-called representative democracy. In addition to giving carte blanche to those of the bigot class wanting to discriminate against others, the Court also recently ruled against the student loan relief policy (the banksters want that loan fully paid off including the lucrative interest rate that goes with such loans). Keep in mind in the 50s and into the 60s public education was pretty much free. We don’t live in that country any longer either. Then the Six shot down affirmative action, using reasoning that aligns with a decade-ago decision that the Voting Rights Act was no longer needed since–using again non-existent “evidence”–the country was no longer beset by institutional racism. Hey, it’s the Six Shooter Court, and so there’s a new sheriff in town, is that it?

No doubt, since the Tea Party movement in 2010 (We want our country back! From that black guy in the White House) to 2015, and the ascension of a blowhard reality show host to candidate for the President, the U.S. has been slipping and sliding into a ever widening valley of hate, division, xenophobia, misogyny, and flat-out white supremacy. And thanks to a corporate-friendly, collusive mainstream media, and complicit social media platforms advancing the rot of the Right, We the People (that’s the majority of general public, okay?, who in the abstract want to simply be treated with dignity by our governing bodies), need to demand a pushing back of MAGA and their lot. And now with SCOTUS and its 60% unfavorable rating (sure, 40% of the public is fucking crazy as in MAGA crazy), the rot includes the Six’s propensity for using the Constitution as toilet tissue.

A push-back is an urgent matter. Ya think?

That push-back is very likely a matter of an uprising by rational, free-thinking, members of every generation, regardless of age. It certainly will not automatically come from the Democrat Party, which as been corporatized for decades itself. For the umpteenth time, it was, after all, senator Joe Biden who in 1991 along with a large Democrat senate majority, who allowed the lying, sexual harassing, jurist without portfolio named Clarence Thomas to be placed on the Court. This is a stone-cold fact that I believe 99.88% of the public is unaware of. Do the MAGA assholes even know this factual, incriminating factor regarding Joe Biden? So, why should “the Left” expect sleepy, stumbling, walking corpse JB to do anything now?

There has been conjecture of adding more liberal judges–at least four– to the Court to reverse its clear complicity with the fascist elements, which CAN be done since the Constitution allows for adding (or subtracting) the number of justices. However, Biden, Pelosi, and other upper echelon Democrats show no interest in using that as a campaign strategy as we inch toward a possible end-game election in 2024. In fact, stacking the Court lawfully in favor of true fairness and an actual rule of law and compassion for the afflicted ought be the absolute leading campaign pitch by every Democrat running for any office anywhere. Period. Full stop. But that kind of Howard Beale fed-up-and not-going to-take-it-anymore spirit is no longer anywhere to be found in the DNC’s DNA.

As an indication of just how fake an “opposition party” are the democrats and JB, Joe just proposed adding Elliot Abrams to the Public Diplomacy Commission. Abrams was part of Ronald Reagan’s henchmen who helped destroy Central American democracies during the Iran/Contra infamy of the early 1980’s. He was then knee deep in human rights atrocities. Look it up. He’s 75 years old now. I doubt he has seen the errors of his past and now is a love dove for humanity. Old dog, new tricks? Nah. Not if Biden thinks he’s fit for more duty. Are we about to invade Costa Rica or Belize?

I remember back when, whenever that was, the rather common occurrence of a doorbell ringing or a knock at the door, wondering whom might this be? It was quite often a couple of formal looking, well-rehearsed, well dressed younger folks proselytizing on behalf of Jehovah’s Witness. Perhaps, dear reader, you might recall this experience as well. Their reading material was headlined Awake! Hmm. Is that the precursor of becoming “woke”? Awake or woke or whatever. They were true believers, of course. Like all religions purporting to being the true Righteous Ones, these front door disciples, were and still are, full of shit. The MAGAs are true believers and are very full of shit. Hard core Democrat voters are full of shit. Joe Biden is full of shit. The mainstream media is full of shit. The Supreme Six are incredibly full of shit. Our two-party, rigged system is now completely, irredeemably, full of shit. To not be full of shit is to know a fact from an inference from a stone-cold FACT. With that superpower, also known as critical thinking, there are many among us who are not full of shit. Alas, none of us are completely perfect. But thinking, listening critically is seemingly not being applied to our body politic.

The question is, can those in possession of critical thinking outnumber those that are full of shit when it comes to demanding positive change? In some respects, given the last 40-plus years of Reaganomics, now morphed into a fascist movement, in spite of democrats having had moments of complete control of congress and the White House, and Biden and his semi-senile cohorts, the “why vote, it doesn’t matter” mentally mitigates the free -tinker’s sense of hope. No shit, eh?

The new Jehovah’s Witness ringing doorbells needs to be a swell of 3rd party acolytes. The woke and the awakened better organized or it will be a very bad 2024 and beyond. This critical thinker may be full of shit as far as that becoming a reality goes. Then again, at this point in my life, maybe I don’t give a shit anymore. Less is more. Just let me be. I’ve tried to make a positive difference, and what difference has it made? Jack shit, that’s what. Sure, all politics is local. All politics is also LOCO. Uh. But I will close this out by saying, again, we get the government we deserve.

Oh shit!

Hey ladies and dudes, boys and girls, kiddies and carpet crawlers, it’s the last day of June, 2023. That makes it akin to half-time in the smash mouth game of NFL football. To extend the analogy, this “half-time” highlights the successes or failures of each competing team. Is this one evenly matched and the score tied or showing no signs of dominance by either team? Hmm. Let’s take a look at the stats, but let’s drop the football game hypothetical.

Let’s make it the nastiest game, the most important game going on at this calendar year half-time: politics. In our essentially two-party system of Donkeys and Elephants, the game does feature one side–Donkeys–with a numerical advantage. That would be the Dems. Inasmuch as they have the majority in the senate, and have the more powerful “quarterback” by occupying the White House, one might assume they are controlling the game, using that advantage by using the power that advantage confers. basically using that political muscle to ensure victory.

Having an inherent advantage by having the majority in the senate and White House should place the odds of victory squarely in their corner. This Donkey bunch, however, has neither any real muscle nor do they have the leadership skills that ought to ensure that office-holding advantage provide results for its “fan base” to feel smug about. In fact, here at the half-time of 2023, they are actually getting their asses kicked by the team that wishes it had the advantage the Donkey possess but still appear to be in control of the flow of this political game, scoring almost at will. But 2023’s Donkey edge in controlling the game, using the levers of power pales in comparison to their ineptitude at pleasing their fan base when 2021 is recalled.

As of January, 2021, the Dems had even more of an advantage over the Elephant party by not only having the White House and the senate, but also the house of representatives. That edge was quickly lost in the mid-term election of 2022 (half-time until the 2024 tilt). The fan base again sees their support not being rewarded by giving their team control of ALL the levers of power.

Clearly, there seems to be a lack of effort here for democrats, from fossilized Joe B. down to a progressive wing called The Squad that barely barks, let alone bite. The minority party, the one that is now in full-bore fascist mode may be outnumbered, but no sweat, they see that their opponent lacks any energy in terms of fighting back. Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi. Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Jim Clyburn and their ilk are simply the latest incarnation of the play to lose DNC. And remember, Joe B held the gavel during the Clarence Thomas hearings. In spite of a 15 seat senate majority wussy Joe ushered a most vile and dangerous excuse of a human being into a LIFETIME appointment on SCOTUS. Then recall that it was 5-4 in Citizens United and 5-4 on gutting the Voting Rights Act. That fifth vote was Thomas. Way to go, Joe!!

Now SCOTUS is a 6-3 fascist nightmare, and although Joe, the Donkey QB, could add liberals to the Court, which he has the power to use, he chooses not to, then decries the latest radical Right rulings that continue to chip away (maybe jackhammer away at this point) at what is supposed to be a democracy. This started with Reagan in 1981, and with the help of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the slow but unabated slide into plutocracy, corporatocracy and the rule of the billionaire class.still grinds away.

If you care about the environment, social justice, education, worker-friendly economics, the ability to have your vote counted, or a woman’s right to control her reproductive rights and more, you have no party among the rigged frick or frack system forced down your throat. Third party? Not with a corporate media, which playing to win the ratings game circa 2015, escorted the now indicted, now convicted of sexual assault, twice impeached ex-president onto the political stage. And still this media normalizes the fascist take-over that is happening in plain sight.

This game, at a 2023 half-time mark, is not even intended to be a match of political opposites. The game is already over. One side scores a field goal here and there while the other side scores touchdowns, even while technically being shorthanded!

Me, I DO vote 3rd party. I know it is an act of futility as the game is so rigged, but it is with complete sincerity that I can proclaim: don’t blame me, I never voted for this.

Sci-fi writer William Gibson imagined a world where computerization becomes less a life-easing commodity for humankind than a ever more self-aware form of artificial intelligence. Artificial maybe, but a “real” part of everyday life here in 2023. Been reading about ChatGPT? It’s an A.I. program that has advanced conversational qualities. I believe that Siri and Alexa somehow are the parents that spawned The Chat Master. The  machines are getting smarter. I mean, it was written about by Gibson, but before he had computers as human adversaries,  Arthur C. Clark brought HAL9000 along in his writings, with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Remember  “Open the pod bay door Hal!” Hal essentially replies with “Fuck you. I’m taking over this space craft.”

Will GPT eventually try to stage an A.I. coup de’ etat on we humans? We shall see. However, sci-fiction has become more science fact that ever. Isn’t it cute when that computer program you may be working your way through in order to by a new Apple or Android gizmo asks you to prove you are not a robot? Well, the U.S. is a massive consumer culture, with many seeming robots ordering junk on-line that they may not need and perhaps cannot afford. The computer that resides between the ears of these consumers have already been overtaken. They are Amazon-controlled humanoids. We have been digitally colonized, for sure. There are some pockets of resistance still wanting to visit brick and mortar retail outlets. How quaint! Or maybe even a library! You know, where the books are. Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination (author unknown).

There is now a travel warning for the state of Florida issued by the NAACP related to people of color and the LGBTQ community. Why? Well, it has a dangerous character in charge of that state who is not made from science fiction. The human-born Governor there is turning Florida into a de-facto version of 1933 Germany. Ya know. Fascism. Hate. Persecution. And he’s leading the way with the banning of books that he and his droneheads deem dangerous to their preferred way of life.

Hmm. HAL9000 is one imagined dystopian character that can be found in a library, at the same time that in many outposts around the country, here in 2023, the library itself, and many iconic works contained within them are having a scary moment that transcends the A.I. issue. That being the Far Right lunatics that have also essentially told what’s left of free-tinkers who critically use the computer residing between their ears “Fuck you, we’re taking over!”

Thus, while the digital world is becoming one kind of future threat, the political arena is going backwards in time, marching to the beat of a drummer leading its acolytes in an about face that is scarier than A.I. possibly plotting to shut out humanity. Hmm. Wait, which one of these scenarios is actually more frightful? Yikes! It’s Sophie’s Choice, the nightmare edition.

I, personally, feel this rise of neo-fascism–with the book banning a harbinger of worse to come–as the bigger threat. Maybe A.I., a la The Terminator, will decide our human fate in a nano-second the moment it realizes what fucking idiots humans are in the first place. Smart enough to construct a means of idiotically self-destructing. But the cyborg threat is down the a road apiece, ya think? The fascist jagbags are here. Now. Ugh.

One can still read the history of the world, be it fascism or science fictions. Books still exist. We still have libraries that serve as cathedrals that worship the written word. There is a library in Riverside, Illinois that has a quote set in stone above its entrance:

There is no past as long as books shall live;

Hardbound or even good ol’ benign, computer, e-book versions.

Do you have a brain? Of course you do. Humans are no different than many other species of life on Mother Earth. There are some exceptions. For instance, the sponge is a brainless organism. Hmm. Maybe that’s why sponges are in most everyone’s home, soaking up suds and wiping up gunk. Maybe if sponges did had brains, it would find it easier to avoid exploitation by Sapiens del la Homo. Just a thought. But even if the sponge could outwit human’s desire to make it a household commodity, the brainy Homo Saps would find a suitable substitute to serve its purposes for cleaning up after human mess-making.

Humans have used their brains to better their lot in life. No more cavemen stuff. Agriculture! Thanks to our domination of livestock, we can can now leave the spears and cudgels behind when seeking dinnertime fare. Cattle, lambs, pigs, buffalo, ducks, chickens, turkeys, goose, rabbit. To name some of the creatures–like the sponge–that we exploit because we are humans, with human brains. We know how to think. We understand how to make our lives better by consuming species that are consumable. And as the saying goes, we consume every part of the cow except the “moo”. Broken down human heart valves are sometimes replaced with cow heart valves. How’s that for exploiting one specie for another’s betterment? Pig valves too. Moo and Oink! At the supermarket and the surgical suite. Yeah, humans know to use their brains.

Well, yes and no on that assertion. Sure, we need to eat and eating creatures large or small, livestock or flying feathered ones, usually does become messy. We have evolved from hunter-gatherer, al a kill it, skin it, start a fire, fill the belly and live another day, to Michelin three-star rated destination dining. You’ve at least heard of those upper-crusty cuisine practitioners with the less is more approach to proportionality of that which arrives on a plate–sometimes with a complimentary magnifying glass to seek out what is supposedly there. That is an ultra-refined version of not eating to live, but living to eat. The brain of those who dine refined with their plutonium credit cards likely are rewarding themselves for some sort of success. But of course. Excuse me, but might you have some Grey Poupon? Such elites must have been brainy enough to get to the head of the line. Maybe mega-corporate, cattle ranchers? Perhaps the surgeon who performs those bovine and porcine valve transplants?

Or maybe yet another smarmy con artist? Hmm. The devious users of the brain. You know, the art of the con that depends on one’s fellow human being being dumb enough to fall for their all-style-no-substance excrement. Yeah, then those suckers eat it up. And oh, are those brains busy working their cons these daze! Yeah, we humans have brains. But how can so many of those brains be so monumentally deficient in simple reasoning?

Maybe it’s because of some generational drift into mental lethargy brought on by ever more devious con artists getting one to act very intentionally against their own best interest. These humans have been generally–methinks–raised as though a type of livestock, slowly, steadily made to have less of everything by more-or-less asking for such an outcome, all the while thinking that they have a made a smart choice. Wow. It takes some really, dumb, dumb, spectacularly dumb fucks to fall for such a bait-and-switch.

But just look around. Humans of very, very vile ilk, of sickening self-idolization, whose agendas are pure evil have been voted into office. Offices in local to national places and various levers of power. Who asked for being served daily doses of increasingly ill-tasting dishes of legislative slop? Millions of humans who may as well be sponges asked for it, that’s who. Ironically, these brainless versions of the human species are then, like the hapless, exploited sponge, in need of cleaning up their messy lives that they intentionally messed up by not using the brains that they actually DO have to figure basic right from wrong. Of course many of these dupes and dopes are content with their choices even as they get nothing of meaning in return, except the illusory satisfaction of hating certain other fellow humans. For superficial reasons. Reasons as thin as human skin. Ah, the fear appeal. It’s always someone else’s fault.

Legislators in statehouses are now so emboldened by their ability to get voted into office, then get re-elected, they are now in your face using the levers of power to take away basic human rights, while offering the spoils of their electoral “victories” to those who need help the least. Let them eat cake, they say. Let them eat shit. They seem to actually not mind (lessly) enjoy such slop. Oh, what wicked fun!

Humans are now disposable, replaceable commodities for the despotic few. Wake up, folks. See what you are being fed? You can smell it too! Yuck!

Use that brain and and be all the better for it. It may, or may not, be too late.

Lacta alea est? Omnia amittitur?

Spes fontium aeternarum?

Es iocari? Aperi oculos tuos.

Malus prohibitum. Aufferens sumus immo super!

Ius est iniuriam. Iniuria est. Sursum est. Deorsum est sursum.

Est scibere.

Legere id intra New York Times. Washington Post. Fictus journalis.

CBS. ABC, NBC. CNN, et alia.

Cognoscere hostem tuum. Ubique sunt. Suspicari omnes. Familia et amicus.

Quanto magis haec eadem manere manent. Et insaniae.

Sed habet a nice dies!

Generation Z is apparently not generation Zzzzz–as in cured up under the covers and preferring to sleep off the funk they’ve faced in their still formative years. Indeed not, at least based on recent events documenting their channeling of Howard Beale a la the movie Network. Not that the Zs likely know Howard’s famous rant as a fed-up newscaster yelling into the camera I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore! That is, documented not by mainstream, corporate media, but by the outer precincts of social media platforms.

In huge numbers, the Zs have shown up, fed up, and ready to fight for a better future by confronting mostly old, mostly white guys, in certain blood-red states who get their rocks off as they seek to make the U.S. an autocracy. You know: virtually declaring the LGBTQ community illegal, telling women they will be jailed or even executed if they terminate a pregnancy (even in cases of incest or rape–of course!) and as usual protecting the gun lobby no matter how many students get shot up by assault weapons in classrooms from kindergarten to university classrooms.

As a Boomer who witnessed (and sometimes participated in) youthful protests in the 1960s–relating to civil rights, women’s rights, the Vietnam quagmire and more, the Zs are a reminder of those movements. The fact that they feel compelled to call bullshit on the actions of the very few who want to control the very many is, at once, encouraging, and disconcerting. Why? Well, for all the social turmoils of the 60s, the end result gave us still more wars, more inequality, more marginalizing, more political betrayals and eventually a racist, fascist, flim-flam man who for eight years and running is the face of hate, and bigotry. The Zs may or may not have any better outcome than the old school hippies, yippies and other protestors seeking that better, kinder–dare I say–democracy?

I certainly hope for a better outcome. We shall see…

Generation Z is stepping up right now. What is different now than back when is our digital world, and the means to use social media to expose the enemy and serve as a call-to-action against them. The broadcast media dare not give the Zs their due. The current call to ban Tik Tok is demonstrative of how the Establishment fears such a facile form of instant communication and collaboration. What was that expression from Gil Scott Heron’s 1971 song that seems prescient today? The revolution will not be televised.

The last stanza from that song goes:

the revolution will not be televised, will not be televised

the revolution will be no re-runs, brother

the revolution will not be televised

the revolution will be live

Not televised, but viewable from the palm of one’s hand, Apple or Android.

Hey boys and girls, kids and kiddies, gents and ladies, what is new on this last day of March, 2023? It’s been two months since I have posted anything. Exactly two months. Figured I should post something before we enter in the cruelest of months: April. Thus, we have April Fool day manana. Are your gottcha! pranks well conceived with hopes of pulling such off with equally well executed timing?

Nah, me neither. Too much work.

Besides, aren’t many of us weary of the expression is this a joke?, by now? What can surprise or shock anymore? Since 2015, there has been a mind-numbing amount of what the fuck entries in our quotidian confrontations with reality. We’ve had a freaky cartoon character who for these past eight years has managed to bulldoze decorum and dignity, and make prevaricating a weapons-grade mind-trap to lure in tens of millions of cult-like followers.

Tens of millions also loathe this Creature from the Media Lagoon. Is this a joke?, some may still be wondering but c’mon. The lesson of the past eight years would seem to be, in its most basic, simplistic form, that the media loves all of the toxic spew it can get from its all-time best ratings earner.

The media, if you haven’t noticed, has completely normalized the notion that this toxic creature’s desire to run for the office he was emphatically voted out of, and who conspired to turn defeat into anarchy, failed at that, but hey, so what? Nothing to see here. Okay? Just listen to the mainstream media. Oh, there is something to see here, for sure. It lingers in our line of vision. But isn’t it all just one bad joke, and enough already?! And maybe we will see it but refuse to believe it is there. All over again. Kinda like that snippet from some wordsmith: It takes a mind of winter to see the nothingness that is there, and the nothingness that is not here. Or something like that.

Well, make of it what you will. We have lived to see much in these past eight years. Currently, the climate is angry, the Domesday Clock is less than two minutes to midnight, women are being turned around to march back into the back alley at worst or stay in the kitchen at best, LGBTQ members are virtually being outlawed, books are banned, but guns are no problem, and rainbows are now considered subversive.

Oh, but on the bright side, the Creature from the Media Lagoon has been–at long, long last,–indicted. But that’s a joke, too. methinks. Ha! April Fool! The suits who run the mainstream media are probably high-fiving one another. Indicted? Nothing to see here..,except the ratings going up.

That’s no joke.

On May 11 the pandemic will have come to an end. I read that on any number of mainstream news outlets today. Wow, that’s what medical science can do in just a few years when facing a global pandemic.

Except the Covid-19 killer-disrupter will only have ended here in the U.S. That May 11 date was set by the Biden administration. So, the financial and medical assistance programs established to address the situation will disappear. I know that Joe Biden’s wife likes being addressed at Dr. Jill Biden, owing to her having earned a PhD in education, but I wonder if any medical doctors were advising Joe on the practicality of making such an announcement? The pandemic is global. It is not over. Likely never will be. Mitigated here and there but not over.

China has had 345,000 deaths from the virus just since December. My guess is by May 11 many more Chinese citizens will have died by then. Are we here in the U.S. to assume that life can return to pre Covid “normality” come May 11?

Of course not. While the U.S. has had over a million deaths from Covid, aided by a certain sociopathic former president who was in office when the virus hit the U.S. in early 2020, his departure allowed medical science to work free of his Oval Office idiocy regarding the spread of the pathogen–including the what the fuck? idea of consuming bleach as a remedy. Medical science has certainly mitigated the pandemic’s ability to infect and kill its victims, but again, like the flu, it is still present. No matter what May 11 is supposed to represent as far as an individual’s sense of danger per masking, disinfectant wipes and casually encountering crowds both indoors and out.

Caveat emptor, as per May 11, or right now, January 31, 2023, here in the U.S. Paging Dr. Fauci…

***********

Did I mention the former president up there? Right. He who not only treated the pandemic as an annoyance rather than a matter of urgency, and who now is on the campaign trail as a candidate for president in the November, 2024 election. Wait. Did I just right that sentence unironically? President Joe Biden may have just made a questionable pronouncement per federal programs and the ongoing pandemic, and his detractors will make it seem outrageous in one way or another, but his predecessor, the guy with a bleached brain, who wants to be president again, begs many questions as well. By orders of magnitude beyond anything Biden has done, his running for office in and of itself is outrageous. The irony! Here is a person, responsible for tens of thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths because of his official dereliction of duty to act in accordance with virological science, should for that reason alone have been charged with second degree murder.

However, as egregious as that matter is, worse still is his now documented role as the instigator of an armed insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. People died that day, too. But never mind, he has not been indicted for anything personally, and somehow he is being permitted to run for the office that he attempted to criminally retain after being defeated in the 2020 election. What. Is. Wrong. With. This. Picture?

The media, evidently, doesn’t have a problem with it. Nor does Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, lead by one Merrick Garland. He has been charged by some State Attorneys, but it now truly appears to all be a charade. Of course it is. The Flim-Flam Man, the sexual assaulter, the tax cheat, the xenophobe, the white supremacist, the insurrectionist, is allowed to remain a free man. Nothing to see here.

November 2024 is far in the future! Any day now the charade will end, right? Certainly. Or at least likely. Okay, maybe. You never know.

Ha! I’m just kidding. But for the non-MAGA, non-looney tune types in the public square or on Capitol Hill, it’s all a sick joke. Try not to think about it.

And remember to pay your goddam taxes. There are laws about that, you know.

Reality. It has been quite a tumultuous aspect of life for as long as humans have had to face it. Reality. Other than being asleep, one must face it every waking day of life. Whatever number of days one may be granted before succumbing to an inevitable endgame. What transpires between the cradle and the grave is sometimes planned and sometimes not. Presumably we all seek satisfaction. Whatever might provide for such. Along the way, maybe the pursuit of satisfaction (dare I say “happiness”?) may be filtered through a wide aperture, magnanimous personal lens. Or maybe a tunnel-vision that serves ultimately only the self.

How thick a skin one has had to have just in the past several years in facing reality. We hear about horrors far flung or literally in one’s front yard. For some, cruel fate has become the quotidian hunter. No place seems safe anymore. Good versus Evil is the narrative of much news. With Evil typically the “if it bleeds, it leads” headliner. One wants to be safe in spite of everyplace now seeming to be subject to assault. We are less shocked anymore from the accounts of cold-blooded killings as than becoming-numbed out from them.

Well, clearly we try to escape reality. For many, through a virtual reality. Caveat emptor on the virtual world of the Internet age. One might be lured into a web of deceit. The self-servers are everywhere and nowhere in cyberspace. That’s the trade-off on seeking satisfaction in a world filtered through a hazy lens that keeps reality tucked behind a deceptive, digital curtain.

In a more passive approach to wanting a distraction from brutal, outside-the-front-door cold reality that satisfies, there’s sports. Sports are big business. Name the major professional sport and then consider the salaries of the players; but don’t scoff at the obscene mounds of money the stars of sports receive. Big money aside, watching players skill levels in action can be exciting, even if one’s teams or individual competitor flops. We watch, they get paid for doing so. It’s a business transaction,

You bet it is. And winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing, said a famous football coach of back when. Yeah. And some sports are inherently violent, but the violence is accepted by the fans. Like football. Football plays are planned and rehearsed. The violence is a spontaneous outcome. Players suffer broken bones, dislocations, concussions, torn ligaments, tendons, muscles. It’s part of the game and the fans accept the possible sight of potential season or career-ending injuries. It’s an ironic way of escaping personal reality for a few hours or so. Watch others intentionally trying to ruin someone’s health. They get paid well for the risk. Not sure how much wrecking one’s health at an early age is worth, but the choice is theirs.

Right now, however, that mentality of eyeballing violent sporting events as “entertainment” of a sort has now been given a really strong dose of harsh reality all its own. Oddly so, I might say. Bear with me…

Mass shootings, gang violence are harsh realities. The stench of polluted politics is a harsh reality. Entertainment is supposed to give the audience an escape, whether light-hearted or heart felt. The audience member understands when the show is over, they are either to going to find it worthy of watching or not. They’ll likely not lose sleep over what they saw. But last night, with tens of millions of eyeballs watching a game that was a football fan’s extra-strength dose of escapism, a player suffered more than an injury. A player went down, and stayed down. And stayed down. Cut to commercial. He’s still down. Cut to more commercials. Still down. Team mates surround their fallen brother, but they know this not a broken this or that, not just a knock-out head slam. He might actually, in front of their eyes and the eyes of the TV audience, die.

As of this writing, he is still alive. In a Cincinnati hospital. Only after being given CPR to get his heartbeat back, get him breathing. But he was laying there, with the TV coverage of this stunning, gut-wrenching event lasting for a long enough time to wonder, will he survive? The moment of his collapse was caught in-the-moment. Replay shows he barely got to his feet after he tackled another player before dropping free-fall on his back. He was almost certainly in cardiac arrest before he hit the ground. From that moment on, all players from both teams, the announcers in the stadium and back in broadcast studios, and the national viewing audience stopped thinking about being entertained. Or winning and losing. Or anything, anything having to do with the game at hand. It had suddenly become all about our inevitable human mortality. A prime time lesson in appreciating life and its fragility. That game will never be played. Players may play again, but they and the coaches, broadcasters, and viewers at home won’t be able to view the game as mere entertainment. It became all too real. It begs the question of how the game now and as always invite such a grim outcome in the name of generating revenue for all involved. Is this Ancient Rome and gladiators? From now on, I have to believe the violence will be unnerving for all to watch, and not just “part of the game”.

The player is 24 years old. Everyday, people his age and much younger die in senseless acts of violence. Little does Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills football team know how he has brought people from around the world together in rooting for his life to be given back to him. People who did not know he even existed. Millions of people saw what happened.

The mayhem and senseless loss of life that occurs so frequently around the world is not captured by live media. And certainly the cold reality that encompasses such dreadful local and worldly events cannot ever be a form of recreational entertainment. That’s the “odd” irony I alluded to earlier. Just maybe this story will have a satisfying ending. It certainly has the potential to make a lot of emotionally insulated people understand what does and what does not truly matter in life beyond their own.