Dearest Susy,

I am you
You are me
Love is True
And we are we

Graph Theory And Us

The true ugliness of the great power technocracy gives ambitious mobsters seems shrouded in the mist of technocracy's compartmentalizations of us. The violated residue of capitalism adds the great economic rewards of specialization.

Here we all float amidst a fog of others, isolated. Unwitting conspiracies or at least conspiracy theories offer to connect the dots into something Bigger. And all the while we are just seeing dysfunction by design yield its natural consequences.

Dots connected in healthy, functional ways yield power too, of course.

I mostly think of thinking as connect or disconnect the dots. Dots are experiences, and connections are relationships among those experiences.

This approach may not live or die with the computer-mind analogy and neural networks, but it has its limits.

Consequences

Natural consequences are the sweetest revenge.

- Paul

D-Day

Go-Army Paulyanna Conway's Dissing of Daily Disasters, D-Day Edition [The D stands for Delivery of my fiancé Susana Verduzco's latest argument to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals]:

For as much property as Trump believes he controls, he knows precious little about ownership.

Just once I'd like to hear ownership of a misstep from Trump, or from the government lawyers lying to protect the lawbreaking doctor who attacked my fiancé then tried to cover up, or from the country club "Republicans" who spend more money worsening sexual abuse causes than on healing and prevention.

I know just what it's like to "know" everything without studying, like Trump. But I've always had to own missteps before I could earn self-respect. As usual, it all comes back to the mirror; if I saw a piece of meat staring back at me, I would still be making Godless or anti-God choices too.

Meanwhile, Good luck finding a satisfying love life with someone who's meat to you, Donnie boy. And Good luck blustering creative and wise choices out of the other meat you see around you. I threw away the stinky T-shirt I got from being there and doing that.

Good news though: If we own and learn from missteps and misinformation, they change into lessons. Have a great stay in Club Fed, Trump.

Drama Bonding

There's something in psychology called "trauma bonding." That's when people feel emotionally attached after they've experienced some trauma together. For example, Stockholm Syndrome, where a hostage feels loyal to a kidnapper. Maybe we learn to associate a person with some intensity or energy, and that makes the relationship feel meaningful or something?

Anyway, many of the relationships I've been in and seen were based on what I'd call "drama bonding." In the past my drama bonds - "friendships" - didn't feel right unless we were facing some crisis.

I'd say genuine loving commitment gets replaced in trauma/drama bonds by mob boss loyalty. All this has me thinking of Trump and his army of wannabes, who don't seem to feel okay about themselves unless they can play the heroes in some big crisis they've created.

I used to do that all the time. These days, when I'm with loved ones I'd usually just as soon calmly discuss art and philosophy over a beer, or go hiking or watch a movie or something together. Not all that different from things I do when I'm alone, really. But then his alone time must crazy for Two-Timing-Trump ... What does he even see in the mirror?

US versus Trump

When I was in the U.S. Army there weren't any soldiers of different colors - skin pigmentation didn't matter, we were all green.

That's why the patriotic answer to Trump's "us against them" politics is us for U.S.