Noted in Passing

Greetings to the Astute Reader, however imaginary you almost certainly are.

Observed in recent days, lot of folks out in "colors", but this phenomenon has been waxing and waning for the last three weeks or so. It's just that since I made a recent post -- wondering WTF was going on at the Rock Creek Village CVS as regards what appears to be a refusal of management to hire anyone who isn't a Yanomamo tattoed "born 2 bang" and "gangster 4 life" (might not be Yanomamo, but they sure look like the same tribe as Hugo Chavez) -- there seems to be a lot of agitation in the class of people who proudly declare in Spanish "the euros will be going back to Europe, homeless and destitute, and I will not speak English but I have a house and a job". Well, I am pretty sure that I am not alone in exclaiming with utter contempt for local government "por me es ahora no trabajo, para yo no hablo espanol" as I watch house after house emptied of English-speaking longtime residents who lost their jobs or got "downscheduled" (hours cut) and could no longer make the newly-adjusted payments when their "alt-A" mortgages reset.

Of course, the exact same people who have been gloating (in Spanish) about how they have a job and no debts because they pay cash for everything with no taxes because it's all off the books and under the table, finally are catching on to the fact that it's no surprise to probably most of their Anglophone neighbors that the reason certain people got ahead was because they cheated and didn't work within the system. Indeed, the cheating and tax evasion and cooking-the-books was an outrage all along, but since there was so much wealth floating around for anyone to grab, it was something you could overlook as simply more of the noveau-riche (by central-american standards) putting on airs and insulting people who went into years of debt so that they could afford to attend excellent colleges and get great grades and move into jobs that almost no Temporary Protected Refugee would ever even have heard of, much less fill. But now that times are grim and not looking to improve, the people keeping their jobs are sneering and spitting at people as much as always, but they're also starting to realize that their menial minimum-wage jobs aren't reserved to them as members of a self-defined underclass. No, people who used to be college professors or mathematicians or even business strategists with advanced degrees from the War College are looking for work at CVS or Giant or even McDonalds. And what do they find when they apply for a job? Sneering -- and frequently violent, with backstabbings in the most despicable and unsupportable ways -- assholes. That knowing smirk, that says "I have this job now, none of you dare even ask for work" is getting on the nerves of a lot of folks. And the sneering assholes know it. And, being sneering assholes, nothing makes them more happy than to sneer and to smirk. A little bit of well-rehearsed backstabbing of the pinprick attack variety is all over the place, with a smile in the face, because they know how infuriating it is.. and sneering smirking asshole love nothing better than to infuriate. Then again, these are the same people who torture household pets "because they are not us", so WTF do you expect.

But some of this crew -- the ones who were gloating all along with the rest, but who are not so high on being sociopaths that they have total failure to perceive the depths of anger they foster -- have realized the resentment bubbling up, not necessarily directed at them, but times are hard. Anger rises to the surface of even nice people. Some people realize that the ridiculous pretentions and foolish contumacy of their peers will create a deep resentment, and they may know the middle-class well enough to understand that we are slow to anger and move slowly and tend to be devoted to our routines... but once we are roused to anger, well, perhaps they have heard of the Great State of Texas, and understand what it means when people say "Remember the Alamo".

These people who have not engaged in the harassment, the scoffing, the disdain, the contempt, the orchestrated street-theater and whispering campaigns -- not to mention outright propaganda and rabble-rousing on the radio stations that declare themselves "voz de la Invasora" -- still, those who have not sinned understand well that the sinners look exactly like the saints. And so, not unreasonably, they seek to arm for their self defense.

And who is there to organize them? to Arm them? to train them?

People wearing Colors... Red, Blue, Black, and various Stripes.

Nobody profits more in an revolution, insurrection, or riot, than do gangs and other organizations of the criminally insane.

Thus, starting a fight is in the interest of the gangs, if only because they can sell ammo and weapons.

Typically, the "powers that be" pretend utter ignorance and refuse to comment, or more importantly, to lead.

But like I said, once the smirking sneering sociopaths manage to lead some poor lackeys into a victory that works exactly one time because of the element of surprise, the cry will go up: "Remember the Alamo"; "Remember September Eleven".

My only problem here is that I'm not sure who to feel sorry for.

I just know that if this goes the way I expect it will if the powers-that-be don't get the stick out of their ass, there will be lots of people to feel sorry for, and a seething rage will erupt. "A kind word turns away wrath", as the Proverb tells us, but some folks seem to be incapable of entertaining that notion, much less uttering a kind word.

Well, I could be wrong, and I devoutly pray that I am. But I am never wrong about this sort of thing, for which I suffer despair in desolation.

Something's Coming.

Coming Soon.