Five Days Up In A Haze - My New PO Visits - Bob Dylan!

 I did the group thing on Friday. I did not make it to Dumpling House. But I did get some groceries at Payless.

The new PO showed up Friday, just when I had thought to get a nap. He seems as clueless as the first one. For example, I explained the group sessions were not therapy. I offered him releases for anything he needed. I finally got an explanation of the government's interest in masturbation: it is an indicator of my emotional health. Uh huh. Not that I really disagree that is a sign, but the keenness of the interest has always seemed far more prurient.

What I forgot to ask was the diagnosis for which I was receiving therapy.

The piles have wrecked any interest in such acts - the pain, the numbness, have left me a capon. 

 Lethargy struck Saturday. All I did was go to Payless.

I did go to church on Sunday. I had volunteered to provide food; this gave me a reason to do something.

The brain concentrates on the wrong things. It is like I cannot keep my thoughts concentrated, except on things that might have happened and did not. At least, I have an idea for a story called “Alternate Histories.” Only I wish I had energy for more.

I swapped out the CPAP equipment with the hope that it helps me sleep.  

Tonight, I went to see Bob Dylan at Emens. The smallest venue on which I have ever seen him.  I have no idea who was in his band - his Dylan garble is intact. The concert lasted 90 minutes. Nothing from the last century, but “All Along the Watchtower.” Tow covers - “I Can Tell” and Eddie Cochran's “Nervous Breakdown.” I think there is an art to Dylan concernts - they are all going to be strange, probably unsettling, but this is how he does things.

I went to “No Kings” on Saturday, but I mean to put that into a separate post.

Out in the wider world, things are still crazy. These are items I've been keeping in open tabs

 Millions of Americans are now eligible for Canadian citizenship and many are applying ‘just in case’ 

Ball State Student Newspaper To End Weekly Print Edition 

The decision, approved unanimously by the newspaper’s editorial board, was driven by financial challenges and changing media consumption habits. Annual printing costs exceed $25,000, while advertising revenue tied to the print product has remained minimal. Approximately 5,000 copies are produced each week, with many left unread or discarded.

Student journalists, not university administrators, made the decision during a final vote held without staff present. The board determined that continuing to invest in weekly print production was no longer sustainable given current financial realities.

 Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff review – how Elon Musk is reshaping the world 

Like Fordism, it is a modernising project. Unlike Fordism, it does not aim to distribute its rewards widely. Its central promise is “sovereignty through technology”: the fantasy that, in an increasingly unstable world, states and individuals can become more self-reliant by plugging into Musk’s infrastructure. This is Muskism’s version of a social contract. But, as the authors point out, the reality is quite different: rather than self-reliance, we are offered merely greater reliance on the Techno-king of Tesla himself.

This might seem like an obvious point to make, but it develops into one of the book’s strongest insights, as Slobodian and Tarnoff follow the thread of dependence across Musk’s empire, from SpaceX (a near-monopoly provider to the Pentagon and Nasa, accounting for 95% of all US orbital launches) to Tesla, which sells electric autonomy in the shape of vehicles and batteries while drawing buyers deeper into Musk’s walled garden; and, more recently, to X and Grok, which promised a new town hall for the exercise of “free speech” before consolidating Musk’s own voice and his increasingly far-right agenda. 

Don’t Call MAGA “Conservative”

Conservatives once talked about the virtue of compassion; the importance of good character and the need to encourage courtesy and decency–opinions MAGA mocks as woke. Wehner concludes that conservatism is now politically homeless. 

MAGA replaced conservatism with fascism. Call it what it is. 

 An Indiana town shows two sides of Trump's factory "boom"

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