Great Exudations

“Here Lies Our Democracy”

**A detached obelisk, reminiscent of our Washington Monument, rests on its plinth in Mt Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore, MD (from July 2020)**

Despite the worst efforts of Trump/Musk & Co., I remain optimistic that we can and will withstand the onslaught of skullduggery and outright stupidity that defines the current administration. The United States has endured a bloody civil war, the grave injustice of the Jim Crow era, two world wars, the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, McCarthyism, political assassinations, deep divisions over civil rights and Vietnam, Nixon and Watergate, oil shocks and hyperinflation, the OKC bombing, the AIDS epidemic, the attacks of 9/11, the ill-advised war in Iraq, the sitcom “Friends,” countless school shootings, COVID-19, and the first Trump presidency. These yahoos, drunk on power and their homemade fake news, will ultimately collapse from the political and psychological dysentery that results from consuming one’s own bullshit. It will be grotesque and nasty in the extreme, but we will survive it. That you can count on.

I’m currently reading a good book called “Every Valley” by Charles King. It’s about the creation of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah,” but it also delves into the philosophy of 18th century England. Jonathan Swift was a contemporary of Handel’s and, of course, became famous for his satirical tales that held a harsh mirror up to English society, including “Gulliver’s Travels” in 1726 (subsequently watered down as children’s fare). King paraphrases him with this wonderful flourish: “… the worst sin of all, Swift said through Gulliver, was not run-of-the-mill faults like blasphemy, avarice, or dishonesty; pickpockets, fools, and lawyers all had their backstories and maybe even their uses. The only truly shameful thing was to take pride in one’s worst qualities.” And, man, doesn’t that quote hit idiot Trump right between his lyin’ eyes…

**Alternatively, “On Becoming Human Horseshit”**

“Good Weird or Bad?”

In recent days, our underground folk troubadour Tommy Treacle has re-tuned to the more political. His latest song was written after the series of awkward public statements made during the campaign by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s Acting Sycophant in Chief. To my eye, he’s an odd cat who looks like the poster child for the World Congress of Incels. Definitely the last kid picked at recess kickball. And probably runs around the house wearing a cape. At age 30, still a virgin, the avowed atheist suddenly turned to Catholicism after a defrocked priest taught him how to properly masturbate (his prior attempts ended in failure). The former clergyman fled in disgust, however, when Vance insisted on looking at pictures of himself during the onanistic ritual. Yes, he’s definitely a man for our times!

Potent Quotables:

“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
— H.L. mencken

Beyond ironic that you would chose to trample our national symbols (our flag, the US Capitol, the Constitution, etc.) in the name of patriotism. The Confederate battle flag would be far more appropriate and intellectually honest. For Trump-Musk, Inc., this is a zero-sum, black-and-white world. But to me, it’s clear who the real “black hats” are (photo from Chicago in Feb 2025).

I’m in despair for, among other things, running low on negative superlatives to describe these MAGASSHOLES. It’s 95% lies and fantasies and hypocrisy and adolescent trolling. It will end badly. And worst for the red-state working class who voted for him. Suckers all. But Emperor Heel-Spur has no clothes. He fancies himself William McKinley but he’s so much closer to PT Barnum, only less honest. A carny huckster. A charlatan. A fraud. As your grandma might say, a giant fuck-wad. What we used to call in grade school a dickweed. Ultimately just a cowardly bully who will get his in the end.

And what he’s been setting up some are calling a monarchy. Nah. A broligarchy? That’s certainly part of it with Musk and Bezos (just cancelled my WaPo subscription, BTW. Where are the Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham of yesteryear?), though he’ll toss his goofy hatchet-man aside before too long. Kakistocracy? Mos Def. But I was trying to think of other terms we might use to pass the time before the inevitable iceberg hits and sends the USS Trump to the cold and foggy bottom. Here are a few:

Doucheocracy

Trolligarchy

Clown Car-Kleptocracy (CCK)

Frauditarianism

Brutocracy

The Turd Reich

Flailistocracy

The Legion of Tools

Shitshowistan

Confederacy of Dumbasses

Cacastocracy

(Crony) Crapitalism

I’ll try to think of a few more. Let me know if you come up with any. Taking callers now…

The Orange-faced Howler Monkey throws his verbal poop in the hallowed halls of Congress flanked by the two most punchable faces in government during their insufferable *smarm* offensive. Makes me embarrassed to call myself an American. We would do better with three asylum patients from St. Elizabeth’s old neurosyphilis ward.

“Cherry Smash”

**A sad ending at EATALY in downtown Chicago (Feb 2025) although with an artistic flair.**

“Balcony View”

“Marilyn, My Marilyn”

**“Marilyn Monroe” (1954) by Willem de Kooning**

“Marilyn, My Marilyn”

There she lives inside this movie

A misfit face up on the screen

And her soft voice that I’m still hearing

Alive and well, in mise-en-scène

She’s standing tall before de Kooning

Impossible to be erased

With an arc so wild and swerving

And lipstick in its perfect place

But to the flame that licks eternal,

Or monuments that mock the wind,

From the lines of tossed script pages

Come whispered warnings ‘neath the din

**Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in “The Misfits” (1961), the last completed film for both.**

“The SLAYER-er”

**The cheerful album cover for “Reign in Blood” by the thrash-metal band Slayer**

Today, we continue the saga of that little-known troubadour, Tommy Treacle. The Jan 25, 2025 blog post exposed his failed commercial attempts to produce horror film themes in the 1970’s. As the 1980’s matured, the many genres and subgenres of heavy metal music began to morph and multiply at an astonishing rate. Mr. Treacle found this to be fertile ground for song re-interpretation. In a rare interview with Metal Mania Magazine in 1987, he explained that his initial interest in the project was based on an inability to clearly discern the lyrics of speed and thrash-metal songs. He decided to slow it all down with folk-style arrangements in an attempt to broaden the appreciation for the lyrical elements. This was generally met, by the bands and their rabid fans, with vicious invective that included extreme profanity, colorful threats of death and dismemberment, bursts of saliva (and other unnamed secretions), as well as actual bodily violence. He was stripped naked and nearly lost a testicle at a bowling alley in Dayton, Ohio (it was found 1/2 block away near a Shoney’s and successfully reunited with its owner). He has since stated that time will bear out his unorthodox approach and that it was “all worth it in the end.” On the above track, you will hear a portion of Slayer’s song “Necrophobic” from that same album, followed by Tommy Treacle’s altered arrangement. Please enjoy.

**Heartfelt words to live by. My new necro-nihilistic mantra!**

“Santayana’s Inner Secrets”

“The modern Republican Party is comprised of those who well remember our sordid past and, through both negligence and malfeasance, have condemned us to repeat it.”
— modified quote from george santayana