here on the darkling plain

Beagles brings up something I have been wondering about  lately, namely his joining the John Birch Society at an early age.  Outside of being in ROTC, oh and that fascination with hunting which was odd in an urban setting, he seemed like a more or less normal guy, like I guess all of us seem more or less normal, so what turned him to the John Birch Society, what seemed believable about Ike and his commie gang delivering us to the untender mercies of the Russkies?

I do seem to recall that there was a conspiracy theory among us hippies that Richard Nixon was actually a double agent and would deliver the nation to rampant hippiedom. The main thrust of the argument was that no human being could be such an asshole and therefore he must be a double agent.  Class, can you see how Occam's razor could slice this theory into confetti?  Actually once the marijuana wore off so did any thought of this theory.

The latest thing on the conspiracy battle is that Anonymous has ridden onto the scene, I assume their steeds are also wearing Guy Fawkes masks, and are ready to take on QAnon.  Haven't heard much from Anonymous lately.  I think they were loosely aligned with  Assange who I used to favor until he became an agent of the Russkies helping to defeat the big girl.  Anyway the whole thing is reminiscent of Mathew Arnold's Dover Beach:

And we are here as on a darkling plain 

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

See if I had never gone to college I would never have heard of Matthew Arnold, that and knowing obscure words in crossword puzzles is the value of a liberal education.

Speaking of conspiracies the lame stream media are widely claiming that the blue wave is going to wash over Michigan and Wisconsin,  though this is now and then will be then.  I wonder how those republican candidates will be able to walk back their paeans to Trump in face of the suburban moms who will be the point of the spear of the blue wave.  Will Trump allow them to tone down their Trumpiness in order to win or will he bristle at the slightest slight to his eminence?    Three months away, things will be heating up Baby.