Bernie Is Making Me Gaze Into the Abyss

From the beginning of this election season I have supported Bernie because I wanted to send a message to Hillary Clinton to not be so cozy with the financial kingpins who nearly crashed the global economy with their unbridled greed.

Gazing into the abyss.

As we edge closer to the terrifying abyss that is a neofascist Republican Party I am less interested in sending a message and more interested in the United States not falling to its collective doom.

I have noticed Bernie's ambitions have recently trumped his common sense. He now threatens to tear apart the Democratic Party if it does not surrender to him. Burning down the party so he can command the ashes.
  
Bernie's ambitions have blinded him to the danger. Supporting Bernie seems suicidal now. I have changed my mind and will now vote for Hillary when the election comes to California. Bernie is making me look into the abyss, I feel Bernie pushing me, pushing all of us, into that abyss as he selfishly reaches for power that is out of reach.

No message is worth that.

Simply Put

If Bernie Sanders agrees to a "debate" with Donald Trump to mutually trash Clinton then I will switch my vote from Bernie to Hillary.

The Bundy Boys Whining

The Bundy Boys, Ryan and Ammon, are in jail pending trial for their armed rebellion against the government and do they have a lot of demands. Most notable, and most bizarre and funniest, is Ryan Bundy's complaint that he has been deprived of his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms while in jail. (The jail didn't even dignify that demand with a response.)

He can't sleep without suckling his pistol.

They want desks and chairs and other materials that smart anarchists use to build their own weapons. (The jail said no.) They want the government to buy office equipment - computers, printers, copiers, scanners. Again, the smart anarchist can use that equipment to construct deadly weapons. If they got all that stuff they'd probably need bigger cells. (The jail said no, maybe an iPad.)

A jail zip gun built with far less equipment that the Bundy's demand.

They want unmonitored phone access and unlimited internet access, especially Facebook access, that can be used to encourage outside rebellion. (Nope.) The brothers want to meet and plot together unmonitored. (The Bundy Gang is considered a gang of conspirators and it is standard practice at that jail to not let gang members foment plots together.) They want to hold "prayer meetings" where they can forge plots with other prisoners. (Again, no.)

And they want to wear their Mormon underwear. (The jail said sure, but their lawyers are responsible for cleaning it.)

I'm surprised they didn't demand maid service, too.

The Billionaire Buffoon

I'm sick of the Billionaire Buffoon and the thought of six months of his juvenile rants makes me want to hurl.

Irrational, pouty, vain, thin-skinned, hysterical and just not that bright, does that sound like anyone we know today? ~ Bill Maher on Donald Trump

I've decided that I will spend the four days of the Republican convention as far away as humanly possible from televisions, the internet, newspapers, and radios. I shall liberate myself from the tyranny of that ignorant slut.

Which is not to say I am happy recently with the person I will vote for in the California primary. Bernie Sanders has spend too much time attacking Hillary and too little time concentrating on the Billionaire Bimbo with the freaky hair. He keeps aiming at the wrong target.

Congress sickens me too.

The Senate just sits and waits till they find out what the president wants, so they know how to vote against him. ~ Will Rogers

Watching the stupidity of the Republican majorities is like downing a whole bottle of syrup of ipecac.

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. ~ Mark Twain

I hope to recover. I'm not so sure about the country.

How Presidential Is Trump?

Let's compare Donald Trump's traits to former presidents.

Intelligence

 Warren Harding is universally regarded as the stupidest man ever to live in the White House, a fact he was at least intelligent enough to recognize.

I am not fit for this office and should never have been here. ~ attributed to Harding by his friend Nicholas Murray Butler

His speaking style was described as "stale bean soup." He appointed cronies who took advantage of his dim wit to steal millions from the government.

Harding knew he was stupid, Trump doesn't. Harding was way smarter than Trump.

Honesty
People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. ~ Richard Nixon in a press conference, 1973

Nixon is the gold standard for dishonest presidents. In 1971, he ordered his chief of staff to break into the Brookings Institute to steal the Pentagon Papers and encouraged another aide to firebomb the Institute. During the Watergate investigation he told his staff, "I want you all to stonewall--plead the Fifth Amendment, cover-up, or anything else. If that will save it, save the plan."

Trump would have to do a lot to be more dishonest than Nixon but, if anyone can do it he can.

Vengeance

Tricky Dicky Nixon again. He had a famous enemies list that included politicians, journalists, and actors. Nixon used the power of the government to punish his enemies.

I want to make sure he is a ruthless son of a bitch, do what he's told, that every income tax I want to see I see, that he will go after our enemies and not our friends. ~ Nixon on what he wanted in his IRS commissioner.

Trump is more paranoid than Nixon, takes offense more easily, and is even more vicious towards the people he deems to be his enemies. I have no doubt Trump would be the most vengeful president in history.

Racism

Woodrow Wilson was a total racist. Besides blacks he hated Asians (whom he called "coolies"), Poles (Slavs and Jews), and Italians. If you weren't of Northern European heritage, old Woody hated you. Like Wilson, Trump is a champion of and championed by the Ku Klux Klan. Trump adds hatred of Muslims and Hispanics to the standard KKK malice. That means Trump would challenge Wilson as the most extreme racist president in history.

Mafia
Donald Trump has known ties to both the Italian and Russian mafia. Other presidents with mob ties were Harry Truman who was sponsored and a longtime friend of Kansas City mobster Tom Pendergast, Nixon (again) was a close friend of alleged mob fixer Bebe Rebozo, and John Kennedy was having sex with the girlfriend of mafia don Sam Giancana.

Casino mogul Trump certainly has the deepest financial ties to organized crime of any presidential candidate in history.

Narcissism

All presidents are narcissists, it goes with the job. Self-effacing people seldom get elected (Jimmy Carter excepted). There is no evidence that Donald Trump proudly displays his "little donny" to business competitors but that's probably because it's tiny and not as impressive as President Johnson's johnson.

The clinical definition of narcissistic personality disorder reads like the biography of Donald J. Trump. Trump will be the biggest narcissist to ever hold the office of President of the United States.

Paul Ryan's Coquet Dilemma

Speaker of the House Ryan was just being coy. He wanted Trump to politely ask for his support, maybe even beg a little, you know, like Ryan did with the Freedom Caucus to get the Speakership. But The Donald don't ask. The Donald snaps his finger and politicians are supposed to come running, sort of like Danny Zuko or The Fonz.

Ryan was being Midwestern prim when Trump expected a slut. So Ryan unexpectedly finds himself symbolic leader of the #NeverTrump movement when all he wanted was to preserve the illusion of virginity for a little longer.

It's like he didn't let Trump grope him at the drive-in movie and suddenly he's a prude leading the Political No-Sex League. Ryan's dilemma is how to surrender his self respect to Trump without looking like a common whore.

Trump's Plan for Hyperinflation

Hungary (1946), when money was trash.

Donald Trump today announced his plan to reduce the American debt through hyperinflation.

Previously, he had proposed to pay off the debt through giving bondholders "haircuts." Rather than paying the full value of the bonds he would "negotiate" deals where bondholders would be forced to accept partial payments for the debts they hold.

In simple financial terms, that would be declaring bankruptcy and defaulting on the debt or, as Trump called it, "playing with debt."

That didn't go over too well with the global financial market.

A ten billion mark German postage stamp, worth about 50 cents.

Trump's new plan is to make every American a billionaire by inflating the currency so the US debt is nearly worthless, making it easy to pay off. Because that worked so well in 1920's Germany and modern Zimbabwe.

How Trump Wins in November

I desperately want to believe that Hillary will trounce Trump in a landslide of biblical proportions. But I am a natural pessimist who is always looking for the dark cloud behind every silver lining. I'll leave it to the professionals to analyze the polls (Clinton leads by 13 points in the latest poll) and the bookies to press the odds (Paddypower gives Trump odds of 2-1, a 33% chance). I want to look at two bizarre alternatives that will make a Trump victory likely.

The Reichstag Fire Scenario

A major terror attack causes a spike in American's fear and Donald Trump is a master at manipulating fear. In 1933, Nazis (probably) set fire to the German parliament building, blamed the Communists, and used the resulting furor to take total control of the country. A civilian drone destroying the Lincoln Memorial or the successful assassination of Trump's Vice-President would dissolve any Clinton lead as the nation turns to the strongman candidate. Importantly, Trump wouldn't have to wait for an outsider attack, his own supporters could pull off either event and Trump merely has to blame Muslims or Hispanics.

The Double Reverse Scenario

When people are ripe for a mass movement, they are usually ripe for any effective movement, and not solely for one with a particular doctrine or program. In pre-Hitlerian Germany it was often a toss up whether a restless youth would join the Communists or the Nazis. ~ Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

Trump starts running to Clinton's left. As long as he sticks to his wall, mass deportations, and banning Muslims Trump's supporters don't care what else he advocates. He has already come out with anti-Republican positions like a $15 minimum wage, LGBT rights, and wanting to appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters. None of this has affected Trump worship among his followers. If he can attract enough Sanders loyalists to split the Democratic Party then we could see a Trump takeover of the entire nation.

I won't relax until Trump's political career is dead and buried with a stake through his heart and salt in his mouth. 

The Horror ... The Horror

The photo in the poster above was taken, unedited, from a neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer. If fascists add Trump to their pantheon of idols who am I to disagree? The reactions to last night's Indiana voting is astonishing.

Movement Conservatives

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. ~ Esther 4:1

The tears and gnashing of teeth from movement conservatives is actually a little heart rending. For generations, the Republican Party has been the only home they had known. Their beloved Party has nominated a man many of them hate worse than Hillary Clinton. Some are vowing to leave their Party, others say they will vote for Hillary.

Surrender Monkeys

Rise before Zod. Now, kneel before Zod. ~ Superman, the Movie

For every movement conservative standing by his commitment to #NeverTrump there will be a dozen who will debase themselves before their new lord and master. William Kristol was one of the leaders of #NeverTrump even vowing to run a third party candidate. Until yesterday. Now he is meekly hinting that he will eventually worship at the altar of The Donald. Bobby Jindal capped his short, aborted presidential run with a full throated denunciation of Trump. Yesterday, even before the voting was over, Jindal kowtowed before Trump and promised his support.

The highlight of the Republican convention will be when Ted Cruz humiliates himself by pledging his everlasting fealty to Donald Trump.

Poor, Poor Pitiful Ted

I have seldom seen a candidate have a more miserable week before an election than Ted Cruz in Indiana. It almost makes you feel sorry for the man. I said "almost."

• His blockbuster move to anoint his Vice-President landed as hard as a turd down a 20-foot pit toilet. Literally. (Carly falls off stage) 
• The former Speaker of the House called him "Lucifer in the flesh." Ted response that he barely knew John Boehner was quickly proven to be a lie, Cruz was Boehner's lawyer in 1996.
• His embarrassing seven minute debate with Trump supporters outside Indianapolis proved again the old adage, "Never mud wrestle with a pig; you'll both get dirty and the pig will love it."
• While being heckled by a ten year-old at a rally (bad enough), he proudly announced that he hits his own children.
• The absolutely absurd story his father conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald to kill JFK has gained traction. 
• So did the story that Ted himself was the Zodiac Killer even though the first Zodiac slaying was two years before Ted was born. That's damn precocious.

I expect poor Ted to be trounced by Trump in today's election.

Stages of Trump Grief

I've seen a subtle shift in the tone among movement conservatives in recent days. Denial (Ted Cruz will win Indiana and use that momentum to sweep to victory at the convention.) is fading as they realize that his act of desperation, Carly, looks less like a brilliant strategy and more like a pathetic act of desperation.

Anger at Trump stealing the Republican Party from them is still boiling but what is trending is the third stage, bargaining. Maybe Trump will put "Lying Ted" on the Supreme Court. Maybe his advisors will talk him out of nuking Syria. Maybe we'll be able to work with him. Maybe it won't be so bad. This isn't acceptance, they are negotiating with themselves.

Movement conservative depression won't peak until the convention, where Donald might decide to boost ratings by adding bikini ring girls to the podium for his acceptance speech. (More showbiz.) I'd be reveling in the Schadenfreude right now if it weren't for the nagging fear that something horrible may happen and Trump takes the White House.

Trump's 'America First' Dog Whistle

When Donald Trump used used the phrase "America First" in his foreign policy speech today it was a loud and clear dog whistle to his white supremacist and neo-Nazi followers.

Yes, Dr. Seuss drew this.

"America First" is a phrase that reoccurs periodically in US history. For the last 80 years it has always been associated with isolationism, fascism, and racial purity. Before Trump, Pat Buchanan was the last to campaign with that slogan. Buchanan also wrote a book claiming that Britain was mistaken opposing Nazi Germany, should have backed Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, and that Winston Churchill was responsible for the Holocaust.

The most prominent America First movement was headed by famed flyer Charles Lindbergh before the US entered World War II.

Lindbergh received this medal in 1938.

Lindbergh loved the Nazis and Hitler returned the affection, awarding him The Order of the German Eagle and offered him a house in Berlin which Lindbergh refused after finding out it had previously been owned by Jews.

He returned to the United States before Germany invaded Poland.
he lobbied heavily for American neutrality and attacked President Roosevelt and "the Jews" for trying to help the British during the war's early years.

Lindbergh thought that the United State's "European blood" was being being diluted by "foreign races" like Asians, Mexicans, and Jews. Before becoming an isolationist he had urged the US to ally with Nazi Germany to rid the world of the Jewish and "semi-Asiatic" Russia.

All this is what Donald Trump's neo-Nazi listeners are hearing in the phrase "America First." They are hearing a call to purify American blood from an invasion of non-Aryans. A call for trade wars with Asiatic nations like Japan, South Korea, and China. And a call to wage a war of extermination on brown skinned Muslims.

Primary Postmortem

Just a few observations.

Nerd Alert
Ted Cruz describing "that basketball ring" is just the sort of thing any dweeb that had never set foot on a basketball field or football court would say. I wonder how many votes he lost in Indiana were basketball is a holy sacrament.

#NeverTrump, Do They Mean It?
The phrase "conservative in the primary republican in the general" is a mantra of movement conservatives. They fight for the best they can get in the primaries but loyally toe the party line in the general election. Four years ago they hated Mitt Romney right up to when he won the nomination after which they forgot their rabid opposition to Mitt and became dutiful if not enthusiastic supporters.

This time around, most movement conservatives have loudly proclaimed for months that they will never ever vote for Donald Trump in November come Hillary or high water. The time when this principled stance ceases to be theoretical is rapidly approaching and I suspect most of them will pretend #NeverTrump never existed. Movement conservatives will eat their shit sandwich, kiss his ring, and pledge everlasting fealty to The Donald.

Profiles In Courage
I am reminded of this JFK book when thinking of the unbound Republican delegates. I imagine one remaining undecided, unbound delegate from Pennsylvania. Trump's count is 1236 his last vote would put Trump over the top. This lone delegate is besieged by cajoling, bribes, and death threats. He knows he can never return home if he does what is right for the nation and votes against Trump. Will he? Will he have the courage or will he take the coward's way and follow the herd?

The Pact

When I read that Ted Cruz and John Kasich signed a non-aggression pact I couldn't help thinking back to the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939.

They divided Poland between them, Uncle Joe got to pick the ripe fruit of the Baltic states while Brother Adolph got a free shot at France. They still hated each others viscera and it was only a matter of time before one stabbed the other in the back.


The Cruz-Kasich non-aggression pact divvies up the primary map like Poland - Ted gets Indiana while John gets Oregon and New Mexico. And like Joe and Adolph, the question is not whether there will be betrayal but who will deliver the first cut.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact was forged in ambition (for land) and mutual weakness. Hitler didn't think the German army was strong enough yet to fight a two-front war while Stalin had decimated his general staff through his purges and feared the Wehrmacht.

The Cruz-Kasich Pact is also founded in ambition (for a nomination that is slipping away) and mutual weakness. For both the weakness is the lack of money. Kasich is broke while Cruz lacks the resources for the massive media buys he'll need to come from behind in California. Cruz is also expecting another humiliating butt kicking in tomorrow's primaries with more third place finishes meaning he will be limping into Indiana.

We'll see if it works but I anticipate betrayal before success.

Historic Perspective to the Campaign

Understand history is a handy tool for understanding today's politics.

Cruz, Trump, and the Gold Standard

What the gold bugs are doing for Uncle Sam.

If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. ~ William Jennings Bryan, 1896

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump want to return the United States financial system to the gold standard, a discredited monetary policy that no modern country uses. Pegging the US economy to the price of gold would have no positive effect except for the advertisers on Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity's shows. It would, however, put the country at risk of debilitating deflation and at the mercy of gold producing countries like Russia.

Hillary Clinton and the Suffragette Victory

By 1916, western states had all granted women the right to vote and Lady Liberty was striding boldly east.

The women's suffrage movement is only the small edge of the wedge, if we allow women to vote it will mean the loss of social structure and the rise of every liberal cause under the sun. ~ Winston Churchill, 1911

Assuming things go as seem inevitable, it will have taken 96 years for America to nominate a woman as this nation's leader. That's quite a long time. Many nations got their first female head of state in the 1970's and 80's. Pakistan beat us by over a quarter of a century, electing Benazir Bhutto just 21 years after women gained the vote.

The Republican nominee, be he Trump, Cruz, or Paul Ryan, will not be so plainly spoken as Winnie was 105 years ago but they will hint at the same prejudices. Women are too liberal. Hillary is a harpy and too emotional for the job (Like Trump and Cruz aren't?). American society will collapse if that woman is elected.

Trump's Campaign Is All an Act

Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. Sure, I got 'em like this... You know what the public's like? A cage of Guinea Pigs. Good Night you stupid idiots. Good Night, you miserable slobs. They're a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they'll flap their flippers. ~ Lonesome Rhodes, A Face In the Crowd 1957

I'm far from the first to notice the striking similarity between Donald Trump and Andy Griffith's first starring role as an obscene huckster who became a media sensation and political power. What's new is that Trump's own spokesperson, Paul Manafort, has told Republican bigwigs that Trump's public performance is just a show to excite the crowds and that he will become "presidential" when the time is right.

That evening, Trump was in eastern Pennsylvania throwing chicken shit at a crowd that ate it all up with gusto.

The (NY) State of the Nominations

It's Hillary. It's not Cruz.

Bernie Sanders went all in on New York, spending a shit ton of money and predicting victory. He lost in a landslide. Ted Cruz wasted every second he spent in the state; not just finishing third but a pathetic third. In one congressional district (the 16th) Cruz managed the impossible, finishing fourth in a three man race (Ben Carson got more votes).

I will still vote for Sanders on June 7 but, short of Hillary defecting to ISIS next month, I don't see any way for Bernie to top Hillary in pledged delegates or votes cast. This means he is reduced to convincing the establishment (super delegates) to abandon the establishment candidate. Ain't gonna happen.

As for Cruz, he is mathematically eliminated from a first ballot victory. His only hope is to finagle enough delegates through underhanded maneuvers to steal them from Trump for a second ballot coup.

Democratic Convention
This will be a Hillary coronation. The only way she can screw up this Hillabration is trying to punish Bernie by denying him a prime-time speaking slot. It would be an inanely stupid thing to do but politicians can be petty and vindictive animals.

Republican Convention
Donald Trump will not get enough pledged delegates to insure a first ballot victory. He will need some number of unbound delegates to put him over the top. I put the odds of one chance in three that he will get enough of the unbounds to pledge before the convention to turn it into a Trump coronation.

Trump's only chance at the nomination is on the first ballot. After that first ballot his delegates will melt away faster than a tropical iceberg. Ted Cruz's only hope is a second ballot victory. If all his machinations to snag Trump pledged delegates fail to get him to the magic number the convention won't give the most hated man in the Republican Party another shot. At that point expect Paul (The lady doth protest too much) Ryan to be dragged kicking and screaming to the crown, figure it to be around ballot six.

Conservatives Have Gone Meshuga

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories. ~ Sun Tsu

People who know me know I read a lot of rightwing sites, I have for decades. The best way to know what the people I'm fighting are thinking is to actually listen to them. So, I'm here to tell you that conservatives, right now, have flown way past batshit insane into a black hole of blithering idiocy.

Entrance to RNC headquarters.

Take Redstate.  For years it has been the go to spot for batshit opinions but lately it is all Donald Trump all the time. This obsession is even more bizarre because they hate Trump. Day after day is a continual upchuck of pettifoggery nitpicking over some tiny piece of Trumpology. They are forced into this silliness because the voluminous legitimate reasons to hate Trump (racism, sexism, xenophobia, islamophobia) are all things that Redstate readers agree with. So they are reduced to searching desperately for microscopic things to hang they Trump-hate on.

Then there is National Review. I used to read National Review when William F. Buckley was alive because, regardless of his politics, he was a witty and gifted writer. Now it is painfully idiotic. The linked article is a long essay defending Ted Cruz's opposition to dildos including Cruz's legal contention that Americans have no constitutional right to masturbate. Really?

Buckley would have dismissed the whole subject with a single wry joke. But National Review as well as many other conservative sites are trying to prove that anti-dildoism is the mark of profound legal scholarship. These many defenses are much more ludicrous than Cruz's originally wasting taxpayers money taking the Texas law outlawing the sale of dildos to the US Supreme Court.

Trying to understand conservative thought is like seeking rational discussions on current affairs at a turn of the 20th century insane asylum. There maybe someone there who'll briefly make a little sense but mostly all you'll get is babbling lunacy.

This Nation of Hate

A couple recent stories have shown me how pervasively hate motivates Americans.

Man Removed from a Flight for Saying One Word of Arabic

In modern America, nothing engenders both hate and fear like the Semite language of Arabic. Government and airline officials have threatened and intimidated people just for wearing shirts with Arabic letters. Speaking Arabic or just looking suspiciously Muslim will get people kicked off flights, detained, and interrogated.

For comparison, my flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto was on Air Canada where in flight announcement were made in four languages - English and French (the official languages of Canada) plus Hebrew and Arabic (the official languages of Israel) - and nobody freaked out.

Last month, an Illinois police officer on vacation in California stabbed a teenager for the crime of speaking Arabic within his earshot. In Philadelphia six years ago a man was arrested by police for attempting to learn Arabic.

Trump Visits Site of Racist Murder of Hispanic
Patchogue Village on Long Island is a small town of just 12,000 folks, not a great place for vote harvesting. Donald Trump's venue last Thursday has a capacity of just 1100, which is way too tiny for a typical Trump rally. So, what was he doing there?

Eight years ago, a gang of local white teens were looking for Hispanics to attack. They found and beat several and stabbed to death one, immigrant Marcelo Lucero. Trump's rally was a short walk from the site of that murder. The theme of Trump's rally was hate for Hispanics. The reason for that specific rally in that specific location was to signal solidarity with white Long Islanders who hate the growing Hispanic population of their insular communities and long for a strongman who promises to rid their town of swarthy neighbors.

Cruz and Gay Haters

If there is one consistency in Ted Cruz it is his hatred of gay Americans. Last week he celebrated an endorsement from Colorado state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt who describes himself as a gay hating demon hunting exorcist. Last November, Cruz followed Kevin Swanson on stage at Swanson's "religious liberty" conference, right after Swanson openly called for the murder of all homosexuals. Swanson also thinks Girl Scout leaders deserve death. Cruz's daddy is also an outspoken gay hater.

Hatred, it's as American as apple pie.

Thinking of Spiders

I like spiders. Admittedly, most are not a cute as the fellow above but, who is? I consider spiders to be service animals. They eat the little creepy crawlies that hang around my house waiting for an opportunity to get into my ear and and eat their way through my brain.

I kinda have an earwig phobia. I hate those guys. What bug needs to have pincers on their butts? Eww.

Anyway, I like spiders. I have since I was a child and read Charlotte's Web. If I find a spider in my house that I think would do better outside I carefully capture her and release her in my backyard where she can hunt crickets and maybe find some cute little fellow she can mate with and probably eat.

There are dangerous spiders where I live like brown recluse and Black Widows...

No, not her but I wouldn't mind having Scarlett Johansson living in my backyard.

but they don't scare me, we're friends.

All this was inspired by an open letter from a spider published by Pest Control Technology back in October. It's good to know that even professional poisoners have spiders for friends.

Footnote: Yes, I'm this desperate to write about something that is not named Cruz or Trump.

Nogales: The Growth of a Wall

Nogales in 1899. The telegraph wire down the middle of the street marks the US/Mexican border.

Until the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the scrub land that became Nogales was part of Mexico. The US wanted to build a railroad through the land and told the Mexican government to sell it to us or we would up and take the land and a whole lot more besides.

The twin cities of Nogales (Arizona and Sonora) grew up during the latter part of the 19th century as, effectively, one community. As the photo above shows, nothing prevented people from crossing back and forth across the border.

Circa 1918.

By the 1910's the United States had some concrete posts to mark the border and, with the outbreak of World War I, added armed border guards. That second addition caused a disaster.

On August 27, 1918, a Mexican carpenter crossed the border going home carrying a parcel. A US guard shouted at the Mexican to return to the US side so his parcel could be examined. A Mexican guard told the carpenter he could stay in Mexico. A US guard pointed his rifle at the carpenter. Somewhere, there was the sound of gunfire. The terrified carpenter hit the ground. The Mexican guard pulled his sidearm and shot at the US guards, killing one. Americans returned fire killing two Mexicans. The US military invaded Mexican Nogales, Mexican civilians grabbed their guns and fought back in defense of the homes. As many as 125 Mexicans were killed in what has gone down in history as the Battle of Both Nogales.

Circa 1950.

In the 1920's a chain-link fence was strung down the center of the road separating Mexican Nogales from American Nogales.  The days of freely moving between south and north were over. That not too oppressive fence was good enough for several decades.

The same street as above in 2008.

Over time, the fence was "upgraded" by the United States into a rusting twelve foot tall monstrosity that was, in places, in danger of falling over because its shoddy construction.

Nogales, Sonora 2015.

By 2011, the Border Patrol was proud of their new Nogales fence. Now thirty feet tall in places and more befitting a prison than the border between two democracies, the fence is still tiny compared to the one Republicans want lining the border.

This final picture is of mother and daughter separated by this latest Nogales border fence following the mother's deportation. The evil in the hearts of fence builders know no boundaries.