A Curmudgeon’s Viewpoint (September 14, 2025)

Hello Dystopian America!

Here’s the NEWS!

Brian Kilmeade makes a statement on “Fox & Friends” that mentally ill homeless who refuse to get off the streets and/or help or treatment should be euthanized by lethal injection. Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolph Hitler proceeded to exterminate 250,000 mentally ill/disabled people.

His words: “Or involuntary lethal injection or something — just kill ’em.”

After walking back his statement, he doesn’t get punished by Fox News.

Matthew Dowd, a political analyst for MSNBC made this statement about Charlie Kirk while talking with MSNBC anchor Katy Tur:

“Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”

BOOM! Immediate termination by the higher-ups at MSNBC. And this is happening while Comcast is preparing to spin off MSNBC as a separate network, and controversy and antagonizing the government would make that impossible.

Gee, sounds like shades of Stephen Colbert getting shitcanned right before the Paramount/CBS-Skydance Media merger, which was pretty much orchestrated by Donald Trump because he controls the FCC, ergo the broadcast licenses of the CBS O&O (owned and operated) television stations.

(And if you have been watching Colbert, you have seen him just push everything to the limit on his show, because they cancelled him and they can’t do a goddamn thing about what he puts on short of pulling the plug and having Colbert sit out the rest of his contract.)

Is the mainstream media running scared? You’re goddamn right they are. And this is the first step in the slide to an authoritarian regime, control the media to control the narrative. Then they can feed the public any kind of bullshit that that they can dream up in their twisted little minds.

(I wrote a blog post in August 2021 about a weird fucking dream I had that sort of touched on the dystopian nightmare that we have now.)

https://deanbasler.com/2021/08/14/a-curmudgeons-viewpoint-august-14-2021/

Trump is sickly, mentally ill, and delusional. All this bullshit that he does such as paving over the Rose Garden to make it look like his shithole “resort” in Florida, building a new ballroom at the White House, because “the American people want it.” NO WE FUCKING DON’T!

What do Americans in general want? Affordable groceries. Affordable housing. Health care without restrictions. Being able to worship in their own way. Being able to love someone openly regardless of gender.

What have we gotten?

An attorney general (Pam Bondi) who just parrots whatever rises to to the surface of Trump’s adderal-fueled pea brain.

A communications director (Steven Cheung) who looks like the rotting corpse of the Pillsbury Doughboy who also parrots whatever rises to to the surface of Trump’s adderal-fueled pea brain.

A deputy chief of staff (Stephen Miller) who at the base is a self-hating Jew and chief architect of the Trump administration (Joseph Goebbels reincarnated?)

A FBI director who has no fucking clue how to run the FBI (Kash Patel) and can’t provide a straight answer when he is grilled by Congress. Not to mention his deputy (Dan Bongino, who does have law enforcement experience) who was more concerned with being a media personality than a law enforcement official. (And was slammed by former colleagues in the Secret Service as basically a grandstander.)

A White House press secretary (Karoline Leavitt) who is basically nothing more than eye candy for Trump and just keeps broken-record-ing the same shit over and over when grilled by the White House press pool.

And to top it all off, a sociopathic businessman (Elon Musk) who was brought in to “improve efficiency and reduce costs” in government, but according to projections, will potentially increase the deficit to $2.6 TRILLION by fiscal year 2035.

And to top it all off, there is the main man himself, DJT (and his demented Tattoo JDV, Fantasy Island anyone?) constantly changing the fucking goal line because he is a superficial sociopathic malignant narcissistic unhealthy sack of shit who shoves his tongue so far up the assholes of strongmen and dictators that Febreeze should be carried by his protective detail to mitigate the shit-smell that comes out of his mouth when he speaks.

Am I fucking scared? Yes! I am fucking scared! The current administration is turning against anyone who isn’t white, straight, Christian, and greedy.

There are signs of life in the American political landscape, though. The MAGA base is starting to show cracks in the foundation, as the tariffs and hardline ICE crackdowns are destroying trust in the government. Governors of states (JB Pritzker in Illinois mainly) are telling Trump to NOT send the National Guard into cities to “assist” law enforcement like they did in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (As of this writing, Trump has backed off Chicago and is now saying that he is going to send the National Guard to Memphis, TN to “combat rampant crime.”)

Also, there is independent media that should be watched and read, such as Mother Jones and The MeidasTouch Network. Sure, the mass media is good at shoving the big picture at you, but they are driven by advertising dollars. They don’t want your attention to stray from the pretty flickering picture box with all the ads blasting their audio at you in Dolby Atmos.

Okay, I got a bit verbose again (blame the cannabis sativa gummies, cigars, and dark roast coffee) so I am going to wrap this up by saying:

VOTE IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS! I think that there will be a larger turnout than in the general election that brought Trump back to power, because the vox populi have seen what has happened over the past eight months. If public sentiment is any indication, both the House and the Senate can be swung over to the left, and act as a check valve on whatever bullshit Trump can dream up in the remainder of his term.

I am Dean Basler, and I support (and also wrote) this message.

-30-
(c) 2025, Dean A. Basler Jr., all rights reserved.

Manufactured greed (or the enslavement of America during the holiday season)

sepiapipe 003Well, it’s the day after Black Friday, and as predicted there was violence across America as people stood in line to get *supposed * deals.  Myself, having worked in a retail environment (the back office of a department store chain over 20 years ago) knew that the "Black Friday" phenomenon is a case of catering to the fears and subconscious greed of the general public.  The fear of not having the latest and greatest things, and the greed of most people in general (the "I’ve got mine, now fuck off" mindset.)

Myself, I am pretty much immune to the fever that grips these assholes when Black Friday comes around.  My life is more or less involved in providing basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, utilities) and not revolving on having things that everyone else has.  Yes, I have a computer and my hubby has one, we have a big screen TV (that I bought over three years ago) and a Blu-ray player (also bought three years ago.) 

The closest analogies that I can make is from two episodes from Original Trek (yes, my sci-fi geek roots are showing, and I have been watching it on Netflix.) 

The first is the episode "Amok Time," where Spock becomes irrational (Pon Farr) and has to return to Vulcan to take a mate.  His bride-to-be challenges him and he is forced to fight Kirk to win the right to marry her.  The only thing on his mind is winning, no matter the cost.  It seems like we as a culture go through a yearly blood-lust to gain material possessions, and you try to gain the upper hand over everyone else for bragging rights.

The second is the episode "Return of The Archons"  where the Enterprise crew encounter a peaceful, pacifist society that is controlled by an all-seeing being, Landru (read this as Walmart.)  The society for most part is peaceful, but there is a time called "Festival," where the populace goes ape-shit.  Some of the populace is immune to it, and has been trying to overthrow the control of Landru.  They are mind-controlled (read this as advertising.)  As a pragmatist, I am pretty much immune to advertising. 

The point that I am trying to make is we as a culture for the most part have allowed our worldview to be shaped by advertising and what the mass media have spoon-fed us.  The right wing is so fucking enamored of the opinion that the government wants to control what we do and how we think, but they are blind to the fact that the same machine that forces the American public to gather en masse outside a retail establishment at midnight on Black Friday is THEIR creation. 

As long as big business is allowed to manipulate the American mindset to enrich their pockets, we as a people are helpless to resist because we are addicted to mass media.  The so-called "Zombie Apocalypse?"  It ain’t coming folks.  It’s already here, and unless more people shake off the barrage of advertising and soundbites that mass media feeds us, then we are truly fucked. 

-30-

© 2013, Dean Basler, all rights reserved.