You were freed, too, conservatives.
Now that Donald Trump is losing the 2020 presidential election, he has continued to allege voter fraud without any evidence. And some Republicans are fanning that idea to their minions on the street, who eventually could try to stop a legitimate election with violence.
If Donald Trump, a man you didn’t like five years ago, can so easily turn you into liars on his behalf now, conservatives, what hope do you have to articulate your values in the future and win people to your causes? Who will trust you? Who will trust your judgment? Your maturity? Your goodness? Who would believe that your ideas come from a good place and not from your ability to be so easily molded by malefactors? Who would not reasonably ask, “Was being molded by bad people what got you to where you are in the first place?” You risk everything, including your souls, standing by this man.
Posted in Politics | Tagged Donald Trump, Election, Joe Biden | Leave a Comment »
The third volume of my serio-comic epic novel The Ghost and the Hemispheres is now available as an e-book on Amazon.com. This was the last part of what was originally supposed to be one giant book. I noticed when I was still talking to agents that the size of the work put them off, so I have chopped the novel into what I hope are three more palatable bites.
The book is about the family of Octavio Albedo, a coffee baron who builds his empire in the early 20th century in northern Nicaragua. Octavio’s success helps build the town of Ascension, which over the years sees civil war, hurricanes and upheaval. The town is also beset by metaphysical problems: Its denizens start to think that they are living half in a dream, half in reality. Some are possessed by demons. Others see themselves caught in the conspiracy of capitalism.
In Volume 3, we follow four of Octavio’s great-grandchildren after they’ve fanned out into the world. One is a blood-thirsty, murderous Contra whose downfall comes when he finds his own capacity for goodness. Another grandchild is an inmate in a Honduran prison who’s got a secret formula for an amazing and possibly valuable street narcotic tattooed on his back. He becomes a highly prized target of several gangs. Next is a child prodigy painter in Miami who finds that the demons chasing her family have somehow inspired an awe-inspiring artistic talent in her.
Despite leaving their war-torn country, the various Albedos still find themselves plagued by various feelings of unreality, post-traumatic stress disorder and thirst for revenge—but an even deeper hunger for understanding of their world and what their madness really means.
Lest that all sound too austere, I should remind the reader that the novel is absurdist and funny. Here is the description on the Amazon site:
“A mountain town in Central America lives half in reality and half in dream. In Volume 3, the great-great grandchildren of Octavio Albedo fan out across the hemisphere trying to put their lives back together after a decade of war, but find that as spiritual creatures, their flesh is something best inhabited only part time.”
You can check out Volume 1 of The Ghost and the Hemispheres here.
You can check out Volume 2 here.
Again, the cover painting and design is by my friend Corey Brian Sanders.
Posted in Fiction | Tagged The Ghost and the Hemispheres, Nicaragua, Sandinistas, Contras, Volume 3 | Leave a Comment »
Coming soon to Amazon … the last novel in my three-volume work, The Ghost and the Hemispheres.
(Cover design and painting by Corey Brian Sanders.)
Posted in Fiction | Tagged Eric Randolph Rasmussen, Fiction, The Ghost and the Hemispheres, Nicaragua, Sandinistas, Contras | Leave a Comment »
Tonight, Vice President Mike Pence faced off against Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City, Utah. The debate was shrouded in anxiety over what doctors considered high risk of Covid-19 transmission, and plexiglass dividers were set up between the candidates.
What were some of the highlights?
–*When asked why the U.S. death rate from Covid-19 is higher, Vice President Mike Pence said it was far worse to imagine the deaths that could have happened in the past under the Barack Obama administration. Unfortunately, this joke has no punchline. The stupidity and ignominy speak for themselves.
–*Covid-19 is on top of people’s minds tonight. Also, it might be on on top of Mike Pence’s clothes.
–*The plexiglass dividers allow us to wipe the communist China comments off with Windex and bleach.
–*Mike Pence dodges the question and starts talking about taxes when somebody says, “Mr. Vice President, I might be having a heart attack right now. My God, can you call an ambulance!”
–*Mike Pence grants you the serenity to accept the climate change that Mike Pence will not change.
–*Pence asks Kamala Harris whether her team will stack the Supreme Court and dilute the court system’s current crop of unqualified, ideological conservative lackeys.
–*Kamala Harris has spent her career honing her skills cross-examining people who are desperately lying to keep themselves out of terrible trouble for high crimes and mischief. So, yeah … that …
–*When asked about the debate, four out of five viewers said, “Jesus, would you stop using the phrase ‘thread the needle’! Give it a rest!”
–*Pence promises to close the gender gap his ticket faces by pressing ahead with the Trump administration’s plan to grab more women by the crotch.
–*We now cut away for commercial break … Yikes! … suicide hotline ad. Not a good time. We don’t want to give anybody any ideas.
–*Pence stands solidly behind those members of American law enforcement not currently investigating multiple members of his administration.
–*Kamala Harris stands up for the future of racial justice (and probably ought not talk about her role as a prosecutor in racial justice past).
–*America is easily distracted by a fly that spent several minutes on Mike Pence’s hair. That would be frivolous of them, but if you’ve been looking at or listening to Mike Pence for any length of time, I’d say the frivolity boat has already sailed.
–*”Vote for the Fly” would be a funny hashtag, right? Sure, go back and tell your 2016 self how well “Vote for the Fly” worked out.
–*Covid-19 is no laughing matter. Remember to ask your sexual partners if they’ve had any contact with Mike Pence.
Posted in Politics | Tagged CNN, debate, Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, vice presidential debate | Leave a Comment »
A cruel loss for music. RIP Eddie Van Halen. Though no one likes to admit it, stunt guitarists are a dime a dozen. A lot of them can play fast. A lot of them can play different styles. Given all his flash, you might be forgiven for not noticing that Van Halen was, like all great musicians, imaginative, innovative, witty, melodic and even—wait for it!—tasteful. He knew how to use noise and silence, distortion and clarity. He understood the dynamics of a song and knew that the mood and color were ultimately more important than the showboating. And in that way he was able to create his own aesthetic universe and expand upon it. It’s obnoxious to just call it metal (full disclosure, heavy metal is not my favorite genre). One of my favorite Van Halen songs, probably more for the attitude than anything else, was “Finish What Ya Started.” Why? Because it starts life as something that could be mistaken for k.d. lang song, gets VH fans tarted up for the hot signature Eddie solo, and then … bang! He wreathes them in country guitar licks. It was as if he were saying “Think I can’t play roots music? Watch me play roots music, assholes!” I always found the song hysterically funny. We’re sorry you’ve left us Eddie, but eternally grateful for what you’ve left behind.
Posted in Music | Tagged Eddie Van Halen, hard rock, rock, Van Halen | Leave a Comment »
–*Donald Trump said every man, woman and child was guilty of tax fraud but him.
–*Imagine that Trump is Smoky Bear saying, “Only you can prevent forest fires,” and by that Smoky pretty much meant he’s personally not going to do anything about forest fires.
–*Trump said that 200,000 people dying of Covid-19 was not that big a deal since there are so many numbers higher than 200,000.
–*Trump interrupted the sentence, “This is Donald Trump, the current president,” because he knew the statement would reflect badly on him.
–*Trump attacked the unrest in American cities that he’s not personally causing when he promotes street violence by angry white dropouts.
–*Trump used the word “socialism” as a kind of scientific experiment to see which low IQ mice that word still bothers.
–*People who don’t know the stock market from the economy cheer contradictory arguments with much animation and blank eyes.
–*”I want freedom for myself and oppression for everybody around me” now the guiding philosophy of most Americans.
–*Biden didn’t use the word “socialism” because at this point it is synonymous with the phrase “government working correctly.”
–Trump lashes out at Biden’s son because when the children of the powerful make money it’s better that they do it with buffoonish and obvious criminality.
–“I hate both sides,” still the go-to phrase for Americans without the ability to discern, judge or engage.
Posted in Comedy, Politics | Tagged 2020, covid-19, Donald Trump, global warming, Joe Biden, presidential election | Leave a Comment »
While I’m not an expert on cults, I’ve spoken to ex-members of a cult in the past as a journalist. I won’t name the sect, but I did note in both cases that the spell of the cult leader was broken only when the members finally saw he was fallible. In that particular case, the leader died of old age, and when he didn’t take them all to heaven they stopped believing.
When you see so many people taking Donald Trump’s lies as their own (and start lying for him), the parallels should become clear. And the only way for them to stop being his co-dependents and stop enabling his crimes (yes, obstruction of justice and bribery are crimes) is that they have to see him fail. That means the American majority, who are not Trump supporters, if they are to win back friends and family members from the pits of depravity they are digging, must vote Trump out so his supporters can watch him lose. After that, they will be less likely to keep investing their feelings of personal pride and belonging in an abusive person–and stop feeling the need to protect an abuser they’ve wrapped their identities around.
Here’s a link from How Stuff Works about how cults work, specifically, how to leave one.
Posted in Politics | Tagged cult, Donald Trump | Leave a Comment »
She said she liked my song
But not the tasteless arrangement
My melodies are like pigs, she said
And roll in muddy firmament
And her dark eyes had kohl and looked wet in the room
Here she knew she could judge me
Knew her look meant my doom
Looking for a flat or a word out of place
She could cut me and see the pain on my face
My whittling thirds and a seventh out of time
I cut it too quickly like the green off a lime
She knew how it hurt to squeeze some flavor from truth
Still she shot down my song
Called it tasteless, uncouth
Then she asked me for dope money
And I gave her a ten
Till next time she cuts me
When we do this again
And as she left me alone
So her arm could seize joy
I’m here tasteless in waiting
For those with taste to destroy
Posted in Poetry | Tagged Poetry | Leave a Comment »
Beauty is Imperfection 