#tim barrus FB

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I am a radical. Not a democrat. Not a republican. There are no independents. They employ the same political and cultural infrastructure -- how things work -- that the rest of us are compelled to use. Climate: Not a word. It's the Trump go to for climate change, a hoax. Americans are in denial. Why. Not a word about that. Save the American Dream. The American Dream is flat-out vanished. Is America is a corpse because it has a fetish for illusion. The American people still believe in the goodness of Gotham. Hollywood's Gotham is urban decay on steroids. Not one word about how Hollywood's cultural prostitution, carved from graves for advanced rot. Criminals rise to power. The word criminal is not to be found. There are metaphors for the word rapist. There are metaphors for the word crook. There are metaphors for the word deviant. You will not find the word deviant here because the republican (small d) party cannot bring itself to believe it's leader (ownership culture) is aberrational. Even the bad word sex is an economic negotiation. Or it's rape. You get to pick one. Not both. They take a deviant, and they normalize him as a leader who struggled. Another idea they avoid is based on the word individual. Individual is Americana. This is about the rise of Trump. And what did I learn. The word nothing has a metaphor, too. Vacuum. They are telling us America loves Trump. Genuflect. Now, the truth. Scratching heads. Suddenly, perplexed. More questions. No answers.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I had to make a judgement call. I got my family out of North America. My decision was based in what the New York Times take is. In all the talk about vibes, the publication has one, too. It's dark. It's fearful. It's nervous. If it wasn't, something would be very wrong. Pollsters are beginning to look like stunned deer in headlights. One question dominates journalism. How Bad Is It Going To Be. What I hear in the voices of these conversations is a reckoning with defeat. Is there anyone at the New York Times who thinks he won't go after journalists. Journalists often feel immune to what to what is happening around them as they are there to cover it. A calm before the storm. No one has ever talked about a dynamic that is inherently stalking Trump. There is a psychotic link between suicide and homicide. It is not uncivil to say that because it is simply fact whether it is polite society or not. Trump is not stable. I have always seen him as being suicidal. Homicidal ideation is as toxic as suicidal ideation. He dreams of executions, and no one is pushing back because we cannot bring ourselves to believe it. Believe it. Ideation can swing like a pendulum back and forth. Them or me. Them or me. There is no us. There is no Other. There is no there there. The internal and the external is a contest between pitbulls in a cage. One of those caged dogs will win. And then both dogs will die. America is not immune. Trump is a junkyard dog. Let's fight. We remain transfixed.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. Caleb is a lucky guy. Curiosity drives us to a film set where people actually live. With all that stuff. Caleb has a voice. That is what a camera is, a voice. That is what a video is, a voice. The spaces that reflect us are accumulated voices. My own voice talks to spaces. Horses. No whispering. Homo sapiens have been living in horse stables since day one. My roommates were Arabians. I owned two changes of clothes, a sleeping bag, a camera, and a toothbrush. One book (mine). One dirt bike. I moved into a stables. I got to talk to the horses. This is going to sound silly. But horses laugh. I slept and worked in the hay loft. The guy that owned the place was a voracious reader. I had just published a novel about two brothers. His own brother had died a year earlier. And he was having a hard time with it. I had been complaining, I could not find the room I need to write because my writing involves getting up and walking in circles and yelling at walls. I'm autistic. The horses never seemed to mind. And I had a captive audience whose opinions on things, were the same as mine. Duh. Caleb found his calling. Most folks never do. The issue of privacy alone can get complicated. To see the personal behind the door. Oh, I own one of those. I like Caleb's socks. The leaves are not swept away on the outside deck. The towel on the oven door could be the opening of a book. I wonder who plays the guitar. Where's the laundry. It's the bike that really got me. I want that awesome bike.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. After I put my kids on the flight out of America, and all the crying had slightly ebbed, I had to sit in the airport for about an hour because I could not get up. I knew I had done the right thing. America is just not a place to raise kids. Life is giving them whip lash. This piece has little to do with keeping your papers organized. It's insulting that Americans would even think that. It's denial, folks. You do not know how to raise children, and you are leaving them with a toxic planet. Because you do not care. I am autistic and do not understand many of the rules I follow every day. I avoid the police because they will kill me as they are so easily threatened. I have never had so much as a parking ticket. America will not help in protecting my children. If we are going to slide into a civil war, and I think we are doing exactly that, I don't want my children anywhere near the Great American War Machine that focuses on identity. Our public policy is a pornography. Doing away with the Department of Education, or hobbling it, is a great plan to keep the marginalized in their place. Will there still be schools. Or indoctrination centers. The America you fear is coming at you like a trainwreck. I want my kids off the tracks, off the grids, I have already taught them how to fight. I want them educated. I want them to know how hatred runs the world of men. I want them to be able to recognize the power of authority, and to always sit where you can see the door.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. We all want to know, is it worth it. This question haunts us as the Internet becomes a utility. The tech oligarchs are not keen on the idea. One of the things FDR did, was bringing electricity to rural America. The people who got electricity last, knew they received electricity last. They could drive into town and see everyone had it but you. The Internet came last to rural America. Let's see what we can do with this and throw the bums out. It didn't work, so now they have focused on -- not kicking people out -- but in who can replace them with the proper messaging. One brick at a time. Journalists, gatekeepers, and opinion folks are flailing around with Let's Normalize Him when in their troubled guts they know he's laughing at you while he has his babycakes revenge of the entitled. They already own all the money. What more do they want. Do they really need the crumbs. Klein and Applebaum are playing a game where the intelligentsia cannot admit that they dropped the ball. They seem to think that the civil war will be a soft landing because it will have to be at least partially constructed by (who else) the intelligentsia. They articulate how surprisingly ordinary the opposition is. They go from We Will Never Ever -- to -- We Might in less than one tenth of a second for the pause. Pretty quickly. What choice do we have. We can't all move to Vancouver. I got my kids out while I could. You cannot talk the talk if you are unwilling to walk the walk.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. When you add up all the actuarial elements for a homo sapiens who is overweight, the numbers do not lie. The chances that a 78-year-old male will not be with us is ten percent. The story doesn't end there. The chances that a 78-year-old overweight male with a long history of mental health issues featuring a deep psychosis, grandiosity hallucinations, and has lost their ability to recognize what is real, and what is not real, and the generalized paranoia of dementia leaves us with a human being who has to be taken care of, not the other way around. The numbers have the homo sapiens of a 78-year-old in a timeline that indicates he has a 32.7 percentage chance of leaving us grieving when he goes. From ten percent to 32.7 percent. Adding in the actuarial numbers for political assassination, and the fact that two attempts (failed) indicates we are living in Vegas, and Vegas does not like the odds. Good times. At 32.7 percent, no insurance company will want to touch you, but you can be charged rates in 6 figures for the insurance. Government is run by the feeble and the elderly. The odds are good that Vance will be the new king. Musk has numbers far worse. His life is punctuated with exposure to toxic chemicals whose effects range from lead poisoning to cancer to impotence. You can't do actuarial charting without data. These guys control the data you can get on their health. The fetish for control is not an element that gets added but it drives the great machine.

[timbarrus]

Take Notes. I have to watch what I write. What are the risks of having a voice. As a writer, every time I turn around, there are new rules. There are the NYT rules of etiquette. There are the religious rules about specific words that are not allowed. All new ideas articulated will be subject to rigorous investigation. What Americans really want to know is where can they get tickets for the executions. Americans have taken sides. Neither side has the ability to recognize the humanity of the other. If we remove their humanity, we can... Do nothing. Which is what we always do anyway. We are powerless. Keep your head down. Do what they say. Look at the ground. Never look at them in the eye. Suits have always told us everything will be fine. Obey the rules. Rule #1. Do not speak. Ever.

All these people with voices. While your neighbors are being handcuffed, pull the shades. This is America. Has anyone noticed that the price of ammunition has skyrocketed. What do these people know that we do not know. What they know is that the price of the ticket must be paid. Retribution and revenge will guide the well-meaning authorities and their helpers to only execute the bad people. Managed quietly. The Night of the Long Knives in 1932 was a Brown Shirt German purge which was supposed to strike fear into the hearts of the compliant who were already about as compliant as you could get. There are many lessons in this. There will not be another civil war. The grass would get our shoes all wet.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. All flights (to anywhere) on November 6 are filling fast. I have already got my family out. The trick is to know when to get out of Dodge. The American people simply do not believe Trump will do what he has pledged to do. The threat to execute people he doesn't like seems to be, to most Americans, overkill. He wants you to be afraid, and we are. What will we be in 2028. If we are left standing at all. We are worried about 2025. 2028 seems so far off we refuse to examine the possibilities. Exactly how does he trash the US Constitution. How do you trash something you have vowed to protect. Do you burn it. Or do you rip it up. Question: Where are the other voices who have sworn to protect the Constitution. Why can't those voices do what they have vowed to do -- protect the Constitution. From Trump. What would that mean. Civil war. When the Confederacy was defeated in 1865, Jefferson Davis was captured, arrested for complicity in Lincoln's assassination, accused of treason, and imprisoned at Fort Monroe. Trump and Davis share analogies. A commitment to enforced institutional racism. We never really ended slavery. We just call it other names. Black prisoners working for the man (suits) do not represent an antithesis to slavery. That is slavery. Selective punishment, revenge, and it placates white people who are threatened every other minute. We have never settled the War Between the States. Fort Monroe is a museum. Bit it could still contain one old man.

[timbarrus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/opinion/kamala-harris-dignity.html#permid=137174224

Take notes. Dignity in the face of screaming rage. By someone who has been burned before. This was very well written. I could never get into the whole nonviolent affect that speaks to us of calm. Calm is a problem. Anita Hill is pointing to a bigger issue. Her focus is rational and restrained. Sexism and racism are not compatible with human rights. If I were Anita Hill, I would be putting out feelers as to what flight she can pop into before Trump gets on the train toward his first day executions. It sounds downright dizzy, but we have all looked into the heart of Donald Trump and finding only an old man's venom.

The US prison system would volunteer to put on shows with hangings and beheadings. Do not think they won't. All you have to do is ask them. Small children will be required to watch, too, so they can begin indoctrination. I'm not going willingly when the big bad men from Ice arrive and batter the door down. There is risk in this scenario for them, too. Some of us don't get pushed around. Torture. Televised. Entire cities torched. The noose will be slipped on tight. Margaret Atwood had it right. What they really hate is sex. Once again, sex becomes a political act. Doing dignity does the same thing. It projects the whole idea of the word no. This is the hopeful view. My own is grounded in knowing who these people really are, and what their bottom line is among the wealthy who will win this culture war. Dignity is a great thing. But it will not stop Donald Trump.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. Last Church Standing could be a book title. I live in the Blue Ridge. Our little towns all have a kinda strange housing market where $250,000 buys you one bedroom. I lived in a church once in Michigan. My bedroom was the balcony. It was a great place to write. How does architecture play romance with the light of soaring. I'm autistic and could spend an entire day just watching the sun move from window to window in more of a caress than spilling. When is worship worship. We danced in there. We made music (loud). We had a drawing class where (it was rumored) artist models had no clothes. Gasp. Every male for twenty miles signed up for that art class. Art is a den of depravity. "We thought we were getting a beautiful woman to model" I was told. "What we got was you. Can we bring our cameras." I am now a little sorry I said no. The church was haunted. Or. What was it that started playing the organ at four in the morning. That organ was worth more than the church. The building was a big bad box of fun things. We played dress up and put on shows. My favorite was the light show. With flashlights. We made huge fish fries for the entire community. Solemnity is not quite my vibe. Solemnity is a looking down because we are not worthy of seeing the angry face of god. Fiddledeedee. I don't look down. I look up. Soaring.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil". Under Hitler's leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. The playbook works, but only if you have a population of compliant -- willing to do anything whatsoever -- people who are always ready to give up their human rights, like the right to live, and die for a cause whatever fearless leader wants to shove down any culture's throat. Hitler was impotent. The rage took everything and everyone. This piece is too prosaic. One journalist interviews another journalist. Come on, NYT. You can do better than this. There is nothing normal about Trump. There was nothing normal about Hitler. Both men found their victims, and that led them to a power based on hatred, revenge, and a blood lust that tore the world apart. When Trump comes to power, he will have lots of henchmen to carry out the orders (they will call it process), and comply. These are the guys who knock on doors late into the night. Interrogations will consume us. Hate will consume us (it already has). Revenge is a psychotic dive into the ugliness of the human race. You cannot talk about Trump and look for causation. His hatred means all bets are off.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. There is no such thing as identity. Identity is a cultural concept of the self at war with society. I have had many windmills in my life. Those things we shake our swords at. What comes around, goes around. I lied. I said I was someone (I made him up) I was not. I knew I would be busted, that was the point. It was not identity theft because I created him. There is no such person, and I am not him. Cagey autobiographical -- pain -- is a dimension that most writers can flirt with, but they fail to sustain the far reaching impact that pain has on everyone in your life. Especially sexual partners. I cannot even know writers. I tried. It's self-defeating. If you meet a writer, run. I am currently in love with a character who has red hair. I don't know anyone with red hair. I love her. She's a soldier and does very bad things to her enemies. You see plot. I see desire. Desire is not unlike a mouse. You never know what's coming. We rarely even mentioned it, and it is not touched upon here. It's often a message we dance around. We do not claim it. My red head is named Hecuba, and she does claim it. Desire is the prowling animal of the night, and so is Hecuba. As someone who is autistic, I do not identify with prowling animals of the night in search of lust. A sense of lust is what -- pornographers -- do. I am a pornographer because my palette of desire is my mask, and I do not care what you, the reader, wants. You are only there for the performance.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. There is no god.

There is no Jesus. There is no heaven. There are no wing rentals for Victoria’s Secret Angels. There are no angels. There are no gates. There is no sane theology. There never was a virgin Mary. Jesus did not walk on water. When Ross writes the word religion, he means Catholicism. He means some form of institutional oversight. The gravitas of vacuum. Be very careful about doors being opened to you. Ross glosses over the whole Boys Being Raped thing. Like it happened but let’s get out of here. Ross cannot see that the relationship between the institution and its behavior is an interiority eager to disguise itself yet again and again. Ross is being provocative. But to what end. The end is called authority. They are worshipping jurisdiction. Our lives are juxtaposed by an authority whose purpose is regimentation. Let us away to stories and legends and myths and illusion. That’s really blood you were drinking and it was not grape juice from Ralph’s. High theatre. Performance art. Kings and princes were created by homo sapiens. It’s not exactly hard to prove. Show me. Don’t tell me. You have no proof that there is a god to subjugate anyone. The greatest fraud in human history. It’s a great story. But it is not real. I am frequently lectured to about faith, and if I cannot find mine, there has to be something bad inside me to get me to ask such questions like what is reality. Maybe I am a witch. I am not a witch.

I am a steadfast heretic.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I have been listening to the whole Let Us Have More Babies And More Babies. So that we can keep the status quo of growth at all costs, development at all costs, overcrowding at all costs, environmental disaster and bring on climate change at all costs, we will pay you to have more babies. Conservatives love this nonsense. What is a time loop. There is something strange about going back to 1950.

Let us away to 1950.

Someone needs to tell these sillies that 1950 is over. 1950 is never over. In 1950, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, begins operations. In South Africa, apartheid became the law. Briton recognizes Israel. The Korean War begins. 39 U.S. soldiers are executed after being captured in battle by North Korea. In 1950, six people have all the money. In 2024, six people have all the money. I am not one of them. The point is that, no one is. Winston Churchill supports the idea of a pan-European army, allied with Canada and the U.S. President Harry Truman sends United States military advisers to Vietnam, to aid French forces.

Good times.

1950 was a big ha ha. We did not know the future. You want our babies to fight your wars. 2024 is a meat market. The burden of overpopulation is exactly what got us here on the freight train. We already have 14-year-old boys mopping the floors of the slaughterhouse. Analogies abound. In 1950, smallpox, polio, tuberculosis were still still around. Release the doves.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. Great piece.

I knew we were in trouble when the Hurricane blew the front door off. I live at the top of a mountain in the Appalachian Blue Ridge. I have survived 22 hurricanes. But nothing like this one. The water was coming at us sideways.

There was no time to say goodbye to my tree. I love all the other oaks. But this one was their mother. Where the squirrels lived. Acorns everywhere.

It's just grief. I sit in stillness. It's a wound.

This mama lived through Edinburgh burning down. The Gregorian calendar. Sweden attacked by Denmark. The treaty of London signed. The poet, John Dryden, died. Massachusetts passed a law: Jesuits & Popish Priests. Making a finding that Roman Catholic clerics have attempted to incite American Indians into a rebellion against the Crown. Deposed King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) dies in exile, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London; it covers only foreign news. Russian troops besiege the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg, and capture it after 15 days.

She lived through all of this and the War Between the States.

Every day, I could gaze upon something larger than myself. Something that came from the dirt like I did. I am not quite up to replacing that front door.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. There are two Americas. The rich tribe. And the poor tribe. Nothing of significance in between. The senate is the rich guys. They never go down without a blood feud. The House of Representatives is also with the rich guys. They do go down regularly. The bottom is never bottom enough. The Supreme Court is not a tribe either of substance or authority. There are two kinds of justices. The rich kind with their fingers in our face. And the rich kind with their fingers in our face. I would gleefully clap with joy if the justices had to go out into the real world and find a real job. I dare you to go out into the street right now. Take your bullhorn and ask the public one question: Who Thinks We Need These Rich Guys.

No one.

They are expendable. And they have a lot of help. A lot of help. They have minions who fetch books, coffee, and wash the dishes with soap. No rich guy sees himself or herself as expendable. What is it these people do. Beyond the free rides and the camping trips and the best, only the best, health care money can buy. Giving Speeches. But do people listen. We smile because we would like to give a few of those ourselves clocking in at 50K per speech. I want an RV, too. And flags. Little flags that their wives wave back and forth, back and forth. Guess who writes their speeches. Go over to your SCOTUS window. Open it. Put your head out there and scream: "We Need More Money, We Need A Raise." Listen up. You do not need a raise. You need validity.