The Irregular Bullshit is about to lose some value. I have, for several years, maintained several subscriptions to various publications, to keep up on the news.
But I have suffered some reverses and I am a news junkie who cannot afford his habit. A number of subscriptions will expire beginning in April. I simply cannot afford to continue carrying them. It will take me some time just to find them all to cancel. But unless my life starts making some kind of sense—and we know, as sure as the sun rises in the east, it will not[1]—this cannot continue.
Inevitably, I will be less well informed. Inevitably, the quality here will decline. For that, my profound apologies. There may well be further cuts. My entire online presence is in question. I apologize for all this as well.
There will, in addition, be a toll on my mental health, which after a lifetime of abuse and exploitation, is not great to begin with. My work here and on my blog is in part to take my mind off my utterly intractable other problems. This will not end well. It can’t. Because I have been consistently refused—at this point, how can it not be personal?—the opportunities that nearly everyone else enjoys. Even with a Ph.D.
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Finances
Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Finally, we’re seeing the nitty gritty on how Letitia James will have to proceed in seizing Donald Trump’s properties.[2]
Edward Helmore, “Seizing Trump’s New York properties will not be easy for Letitia James,” Guardian, March 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/24/letitia-james-seize-trump-assets
Abortion, reproductive freedom and health
Fig. 2. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Chris Geidner, “Anti-abortion rights reach the Supreme Court,” Law Dork, March 25, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/law-dork-video-anti-abortion-rights-reach-scotus
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023-2024
Fig. 1. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
I’m still not inclined to make much of this, but where’s there’s smoke, there might be fire. It doesn’t really sound like the situation[3] has changed much from Friday (March 22),[4] but a narrowing Republican majority may indeed introduce some far out possibilities, like a speaker from the Democratic Party.[5]
Maegan Vazquez and Mariana Alfaro, “Weakened House GOP majority reckons with Johnson’s leadership,” Washington Post, March 24, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/24/house-speaker-johnson-spending-complaints/
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[6] fair use.
Ishaan Tharoor, “The U.S. and Israel have a ‘major credibility problem,’” Washington Post, March 25, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/03/25/israel-united-states-credibility-confrontation/
- [1]It is amply clear that I have been delusional about my value in this society and delusional about my prospects. There’s no excuse. I had hoped that my contributions here might improve my prospects, but this can never happen. My recent setbacks are part of an ongoing pattern of rejection, which I have been in lifelong denial about, that dates to the day I was born. I should have understood this much, much sooner from my father’s abuse, my schoolmates’ relentless teasing and bullying, my ongoing failures in job hunting dating back to when I burned out hard on computer programming, and, of course, the fact I have never found a woman who could tolerate me. I didn’t.↩
- [2]Edward Helmore, “Seizing Trump’s New York properties will not be easy for Letitia James,” Guardian, March 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/24/letitia-james-seize-trump-assets↩
- [3]Maegan Vazquez and Mariana Alfaro, “Weakened House GOP majority reckons with Johnson’s leadership,” Washington Post, March 24, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/24/house-speaker-johnson-spending-complaints/↩
- [4]Victor Reklaitis, “Speaker Johnson faces ouster motion as bill to avert shutdown passes House,” Market Watch, March 22, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/house-passes-package-that-prevents-government-shutdown-ce0b032b↩
- [5]Maegan Vazquez and Mariana Alfaro, “Weakened House GOP majority reckons with Johnson’s leadership,” Washington Post, March 24, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/24/house-speaker-johnson-spending-complaints/↩
- [6]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩