Hi Red Center. Canned Mystery (c.1964) Distributed by Fluxus

Inscriptions and Marks
Inscription: bottom of can, in artist's hand: The letter on the bottom of the can - either H or I - is a code referring to the contents. The code can only be broken by opening the can, which then changes the work....

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"This somnambulance could be killing us!"

Since this NextWorld formally began on January 20, 2025, mysteries have been proliferating for me. They started in the moments following inaguration when the new incumbent tied into what, just a scant hour before, had been universally-recognized as the world's most successful economy, the envy of every other nation. The acceptance speech, or what passed for one, disparaged what universal concensus had previously praised. We were transformed from a prosperous country into a pauper one necessitating wholesale restructuring. Budget cuts were not just proposed but imposed, even though the incumbent was never given that particular constitutional power. Mass layoffs were implemented, again without the authority to initiate them. I could not imagine how this magic had occurred, from prosperity to the very edge of penury, in minutes. Never in the history of this world had any country fallen so quickly and so far.

Since then, the mysteries have only deepened. An official with no official credentials commenced to creep into confidential and formerly secure databases. Records were compromised and, in some cases, transmitted via unencrypted emails. Inspectors general were fired without cause and apparently illegally. They refused to leave and filed suits. The rule of law, the one aspect of this country that historically set it on par or above all others, seemed suddenly to have been relegated to beside-the-point status. The crisis, whatever it was, apparently demanded that the very constitution be relegated to irrelevance, replaced with a few coders hacking databases and threats to loyal public servants. When were we unable to afford our prosperity? How did we come to revile common decency, label it "woke", and opt for more somnambulant options? When did we discover that decency should be held beneath our contempt?

The new incumbent tried during his first term to learn how to administer the country based upon transparent lies. He seems to have been doubling down this time around. He might have finally become incapable of committing a truth, and certainly never for public consumption. He swells with edema or pride and proclaims, "administering" almost exclusively via Presidential Proclamation, probably the least binding of any medium he might employ. They require no congressional confirmation. They elicit only questions from a continually mystified nation. The administration seems most interested in performing, though its audience appears to have been steadily losing interest. Many immediately recognized the stench of misinformation. Those memories rarely extinguish. Others felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of apparently irrelevant information. The Gulf of America? Why? What would any of those machinations actually buy anyone? Oh, and pissing off our most important trading partners couldn't possibly prove short-sighted. Could it?

The courts, who have always ridden the slowest horses, have taken some time to start wading in, and they have almost universally declared the new administration's moves shady. They've frozen virtually all of its initiatives. Resolution will require more time and even greater scrutiny. Some court orders have apparently been ignored, and many question who will be willing or able to enforce them. The partisans who had always been a thousand percent supportive of the new incumbent's schemes have started to feel some of the externalities’ pinches. His budget cutters have often targeted the constituents who elected those senators and representatives. Cutting off clinical trials in the middle of somebody's critical cancer treatments couldn't possibly prove popular. Privatizing VA benefits could cause an actual uprising that would dwarf January 6th's. We do not know why they insist upon so damned much budget-cutting. They seem most insistent upon passing another ruinous tax cut to benefit the wealthiest. To achieve that, they began by killing innocent babies in Africa and depriving starving refugees in Somalia before focusing on domestic preschoolers. Then they turned on Kansas’ farmers. What they believe those actions might achieve baffles me.

In time, even these BigMysteries might resolve. For now, it's still early days, and the arrogance of the ignorant apparently rules. The many laws already broken preface an eventual impeachment, which is more likely to lead to something other than a Senate unwilling to fulfill its constitutional responsibility. We'll see. The administration- apparently uninterested in administering anything seems to be undermining our constitutional order. For this to occur, Congress must ultimately concur, and so must the courts. It seems at least unlikely that these two collapses could ever occur, though I do not doubt that the story will prove to be a cliffhanger. The competition appears to be between profound ignorance and decency, with decency, as usual, back on its heels. It could not be decency if it didn't engage circumspectly. Those engaging more cavalierly should properly never see their demise coming. They premised their initiatives upon absolute fictions. I pray that decency prevails again. This somnambulance could be killing us!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld, #PureSchmaltz