Good morning, welcome.
Happy White Supremacist Day!
Because that's, where we're headed now....
Conservatives gotta be pleased with their take over of the American Government. They've waited so long, tried so hard, and finally got their chance to show us all wrong in our silly beliefs of decency and intelligence over base binary authoritarianism. They do love being told what to do and letting daddy take control. How Republican though.
Shock and awe, now followed by an act of compassion in Pres. Trump attacking the drug companies so his own can say,
"See what good and compassionate works he is doing?" But he failed and backed off claiming success as usual.
Yes, we see the shallow ignorance of our ways. Praise conservatives and the Republican party!
Hey. By the way, how come so many Republicans are questioning what's going on now as if they didn't see it coming? Well they are good at that. For instance, remember, Flint Michigan? They do.
Tom Countryman put it well, we now have a president and his selected administration of amateurs who are damaging America.
"A policy without professionals is by definition an amateur policy. You have to help make the choices that bring this country forward," Tom Countryman, the outgoing Undersecretary for Arms Control, said in a farewell address at the State Department.
Idaho is supporting Pres. Trump's ban on Muslims.
But then they've been saturated in white supremacist culture for as long as I can remember.
In Spokane at the GOP offices someone wrote on their windows yesterday, "refugees welcome Nazi scum". It's being investigated as a "hate crime". Yeah, THAT's what hate is. I get it, but it's intolerance of intolerance, isn't it? And that's the crime? But then, surrealism surrounds supremacist beliefs.
I remember being tricked into a white supremacist compound in the back hills of Idaho in the late 1970s. One of the scariest days of my life. It was surreal. Very nice people, with an ugly doctrine pouring through their veins.
My wife ripped my shirt sleeve at the shoulder that day from hanging onto my arm while smiling to them until we could get the hell out of there. She just kept whispering to me, "Get me out of here, get me out of here...." But we had come with one of them we didn't know was one of them till we got there. We got to listen to their visiting national leader that day in their church.
It was Surreal.
Frightening beliefs. Separatist, superior to other races, an easily proved defective doctrine and delusional belief system of lessors trying to see how to be more than they are.
I'd hate to say that I can't wait until the first extreme vetted Islamist terrorist act, with it being no better than what we have now but, reality does have a way of making things ironic.
This ban is going to be a recruiting boon for ISIS types.
What we had was working, is worked out and we've had no terrorist attacks from people from the banned countries. Fear mongering is the fascist's tool to call fear to what hasn't happened so people have to prove a negative, which is nearly impossible. And stupid.
According to experts, we are now less safe from this ban. People like Mike Morell, Former Deputy Directory, CIA, said last night on Charlie Rose:
"I did not find it surprising that Donald Trump's first butting of heads with his new administration was with the intelligence community.
"Because the fundamental job of the CIA, of the intelligence community is to put FACTS on the table. For a guy who fundamentally doesn't like facts. They interfere with his opinion."
Americans are brave and independent. Or should be to stand up to who we are.
Not brave on a compound and independent as separated from all other Americans. But out in the open with ALL other Americans of every race, creed or color. Nor do we hide behind cowardly authoritarian laws and executive orders that abuse others to protect ourselves.
Make up your mind, American... or fascist?
Fascism - authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. synonyms:authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy; More:
(in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
#POTUS
PS The politics and actions from the White House are making me ill. I need a break. So my blog on Monday will be on creative pursuits and some new and pretty cool news about Troma Pictures new Amazon Prime style of streaming B- rated horror films they are so well known for and, Kelly Hughes and one of his films, Don't Kill Grandpa Until We Strangle the Babysitter (2016).
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Cannabis - Up Side, Down Side
It's good to face reality whatever that may be. Good OR bad (as Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has recently pointed out). But this is an article that can be perceived only as bad, bad for the masses, as well as disingenuously good for anti-cannabis groups. What we need is more research, more information. Legalization, not continued abuse. Healthcare, not prison.
This is a time and a climate where we need things like cannabis. Not just for medical issues but also for recreational ones. It is far more gentle on one's system than alcohol, recreational drugs like cocaine, heroin and so on. As for people calling it a schedule one drug, or a gateway to harder drugs, that is pure ignorance and goes against what science shows and we are seeing. They are looking at personality issues there with people, not the actual cannabis itself.
We have a new president now in Pres. Trump. A capitalist and a businessman who has left a lot of damage in his wake in making more and more money. However if he truly is a capitalist and a businessman then cannabis should be legalized by the end of the year, nationally.
Certainly before he leaves office. Which as things are going from his actions, could be any day now. If he is who he says he is in being a capitalist and having such a great mind, nobody has one better, he claims. Then surely he can do anything. Even this.
I'd expect to see by the beginning of 2018, a new and thriving capitalism based, not criminal based, health based not judicially based industry. But we won't. That however is an argument for another time.
There is a new article is talking about people who over indulge on a daily basis, that is to say, actually abuse it, and does not refer to normal or even regular use of cannabis.
Conservative and anti Cannabis types are already gloaming onto this report in droves. It is their Godsend in the realm of anti Cannabis diatribe and potential legislation. They will take this out of context and use it inappropriately as always. Seeing the world as they do in black and white and not the measured grey that it is and how honest people, how adults would normally use information.
It's odd however that this result would be found as cannabis, unlike tobacco, is a vasodialator. Tobacco actually is a vasoconstrictant. Ever know someone who right after sex has to light up a cigarette? HAS to?. It's because in part sex releases chemicals to relax, but they are addicted to nicotine. So while they like the good feeling from the release in the culmination of sex, they crave that tension, that vasoconstrictive effect that nicotine induces. It also explains those anxious people who need to smoke cigarettes. They crave the familiar when really they need soemthing else. But that's the confusion of addiction.
Meaning overall anyway I suppose, that under this study tobacco would be potentially leading to Alzheimer's even more so, yet we haven't heard about that. But apparently not so. Well, kind of. Nicotine has some nasty side effects, and some good ones. However once the body breaks it down into cotinine ....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-201899/Tobacco-cure-Alzheimers.html
"In the case of Alzheimer's, cotinine may share nicotine's ability to improve attention and memory and at the same time reduce or halt disease progression. "One advantage of cotinine is that it could be used long-term with little concern about serious side effects and substance abuse."
Who knew?
"Addiction" is a medical term indicating a physical addition. Cannabis is not physically addictive but can be psychologically addictive. That however is a mental and not physiological defect.
About that..."Marijuana use disorder is a new term introduced by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) used by psychiatrists and mental health professionals for diagnostic criteria."
http://hightimes.com/medicinal/science/pot-matters-marijuana-use-disorder/
The High Times article has a list of eleven elements for the criteria of diagnosing substance use disorders.
Again, the article states (and I'm not disputing this, but it's odd) that:
"Those diagnosed with cannabis use disorder showed a significant reduction in brain blood flow in almost every region."
I think that requires more investigation because of the way Cannabis works on the brain. It doesn't make sense. If this was a conservative anti cannabis article I would call bull on this. As the article itself indicates, this is odd indeed:
"More research will have to be conducted to corroborate this claim. But it’s reasonable that someone who only lights up occasionally won’t have such an issue. This study conflicts with a 2014 preclinical trial, also published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. There, tiny doses of marijuana’s active ingredient, delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) had neuroprotective qualities. It helped ward off Alzheimer’s by destroying beta amyloid proteins which are what cause the disease. So in the end, it may be an issue of dosage. A little is okay, but too much is damaging. But only more studies can tell us for sure."
There does seem to be some support for this report's contentions:
http://www.idmu.co.uk/canncardio.htm
Which says:
"Summary - Cardiovascular effects of Cannabis:
"Cannabis increases heart rate in na•ve users although tolerance develops to this effect.
"Cannabinoids can also reduce blood pressure via arteriollar dilatation in a variety of tissues, although the effect on blood flow varies at a local level, with some organs or brain regions experiencing vasoconstriction, others vasodilation.
"In the withdrawal phase following cessation of chronic use, cerebral blood flow may be significantly reduced.
"Cannabis use has been implicated as a causative factor in a small number of patients suffering strokes or transient ischaemic attacks, and may represent a risk factor to susceptible individuals.
"However cannabinoids, in particular CB1-receptor agonists, have been shown to protect against nerve cell death following stroke, and dexanabinol at an advanced stage of the licensing process as a drug to be administered to victims of stroke or closed-head injuries to minimise the long-term brain damage caused by such events, and to improve survival and recovery prospects."
Conservatives and anti Cannabis types are gloaming onto this report in droves. It is their Godsend in the realm of anti Cannabis legislation. They will take this out of context and use it inappropriately. Seeing the world as they do in black and white and not the measured grey it is.
More to come, I'm sure.
This is a time and a climate where we need things like cannabis. Not just for medical issues but also for recreational ones. It is far more gentle on one's system than alcohol, recreational drugs like cocaine, heroin and so on. As for people calling it a schedule one drug, or a gateway to harder drugs, that is pure ignorance and goes against what science shows and we are seeing. They are looking at personality issues there with people, not the actual cannabis itself.
We have a new president now in Pres. Trump. A capitalist and a businessman who has left a lot of damage in his wake in making more and more money. However if he truly is a capitalist and a businessman then cannabis should be legalized by the end of the year, nationally.
Certainly before he leaves office. Which as things are going from his actions, could be any day now. If he is who he says he is in being a capitalist and having such a great mind, nobody has one better, he claims. Then surely he can do anything. Even this.
I'd expect to see by the beginning of 2018, a new and thriving capitalism based, not criminal based, health based not judicially based industry. But we won't. That however is an argument for another time.
There is a new article is talking about people who over indulge on a daily basis, that is to say, actually abuse it, and does not refer to normal or even regular use of cannabis.
Conservative and anti Cannabis types are already gloaming onto this report in droves. It is their Godsend in the realm of anti Cannabis diatribe and potential legislation. They will take this out of context and use it inappropriately as always. Seeing the world as they do in black and white and not the measured grey that it is and how honest people, how adults would normally use information.
It's odd however that this result would be found as cannabis, unlike tobacco, is a vasodialator. Tobacco actually is a vasoconstrictant. Ever know someone who right after sex has to light up a cigarette? HAS to?. It's because in part sex releases chemicals to relax, but they are addicted to nicotine. So while they like the good feeling from the release in the culmination of sex, they crave that tension, that vasoconstrictive effect that nicotine induces. It also explains those anxious people who need to smoke cigarettes. They crave the familiar when really they need soemthing else. But that's the confusion of addiction.
Meaning overall anyway I suppose, that under this study tobacco would be potentially leading to Alzheimer's even more so, yet we haven't heard about that. But apparently not so. Well, kind of. Nicotine has some nasty side effects, and some good ones. However once the body breaks it down into cotinine ....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-201899/Tobacco-cure-Alzheimers.html
"In the case of Alzheimer's, cotinine may share nicotine's ability to improve attention and memory and at the same time reduce or halt disease progression. "One advantage of cotinine is that it could be used long-term with little concern about serious side effects and substance abuse."
Who knew?
"Addiction" is a medical term indicating a physical addition. Cannabis is not physically addictive but can be psychologically addictive. That however is a mental and not physiological defect.
About that..."Marijuana use disorder is a new term introduced by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) used by psychiatrists and mental health professionals for diagnostic criteria."
http://hightimes.com/medicinal/science/pot-matters-marijuana-use-disorder/
The High Times article has a list of eleven elements for the criteria of diagnosing substance use disorders.
Again, the article states (and I'm not disputing this, but it's odd) that:
"Those diagnosed with cannabis use disorder showed a significant reduction in brain blood flow in almost every region."
I think that requires more investigation because of the way Cannabis works on the brain. It doesn't make sense. If this was a conservative anti cannabis article I would call bull on this. As the article itself indicates, this is odd indeed:
"More research will have to be conducted to corroborate this claim. But it’s reasonable that someone who only lights up occasionally won’t have such an issue. This study conflicts with a 2014 preclinical trial, also published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. There, tiny doses of marijuana’s active ingredient, delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) had neuroprotective qualities. It helped ward off Alzheimer’s by destroying beta amyloid proteins which are what cause the disease. So in the end, it may be an issue of dosage. A little is okay, but too much is damaging. But only more studies can tell us for sure."
There does seem to be some support for this report's contentions:
http://www.idmu.co.uk/canncardio.htm
Which says:
"Summary - Cardiovascular effects of Cannabis:
"Cannabis increases heart rate in na•ve users although tolerance develops to this effect.
"Cannabinoids can also reduce blood pressure via arteriollar dilatation in a variety of tissues, although the effect on blood flow varies at a local level, with some organs or brain regions experiencing vasoconstriction, others vasodilation.
"In the withdrawal phase following cessation of chronic use, cerebral blood flow may be significantly reduced.
"Cannabis use has been implicated as a causative factor in a small number of patients suffering strokes or transient ischaemic attacks, and may represent a risk factor to susceptible individuals.
"However cannabinoids, in particular CB1-receptor agonists, have been shown to protect against nerve cell death following stroke, and dexanabinol at an advanced stage of the licensing process as a drug to be administered to victims of stroke or closed-head injuries to minimise the long-term brain damage caused by such events, and to improve survival and recovery prospects."
Conservatives and anti Cannabis types are gloaming onto this report in droves. It is their Godsend in the realm of anti Cannabis legislation. They will take this out of context and use it inappropriately. Seeing the world as they do in black and white and not the measured grey it is.
More to come, I'm sure.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Push Button Mentality
What exactly is push button mentality (PBM)?
It is using concept of "buttons" in the mind, in the mindset, in one's ideology, in one's view of the world. Especially useful if one follows an agenda, a platform, a group or belief system. It is what religion depends on.
It is a binary action. On, change happens. Belief is that you can fix things in this way and if you can't, it is desired. If not demanded. People want easy answers. Simple explanations, easy fixes. It is a short cut for initiating a reaction, or action. It is not a deep evocation, it is a shallow one.
It is how Pres. Trump and the Republican party have found their way into being primary in American politics today. The lowest common denominator.
Education is the antithesis of this.
It is a concept that is especially useful to extremists. It is much used in the conservative movement (and religion) where deep thinking is not desired. Where indeed it is antithetical to it. Where accurate information is counter to its sustainment.
Where education is undesirable and while massive or complex information is highly valued, it is only superficially understood. Highly valued because too much information is the same as not enough to most people. Too much or too complicated information leads to paralysis and then people start to demand the push button answers.
It's odd. An odd behavior. But it relates to fight or flight. Another binary decision. Easy. Effective to either remove your threat, or remove yourself so that the threat remains, but you do not. It has led to the dumbing down of America. But not just America. We're seeing these authoritarian platforms growing world wide.
Even the intelligence community has issues with too much information.
In an age where we have massive amounts of data and information, "intelligence", how does one evaluate it all in order to make use of it? ONE, does not. Because that requires many analysts, computers and programs to do the analysis and serve it up in formats that make most needed data available and actionable.
Those who are informed, who are professionals, are then able to make use of it.
But there is no push button mentality involved there.
Where there is, it widely desired and yet, minuscule functional.
Beware when politicians offer quick and easy fixes. Who say, only they can fix things. Who claim what the problems actually are, are not.
Therein lay insanity. If not...evil.
From "The Man in the High Castle" (S2E5):
"Its intentions were pure. But its methods were cruel."
That says so much too about the republican party and many conservative, especially misguided theistic based beliefs.
The ethically blind cannot see where they step, while those around them who can see, can merely try to warn them of the dangers they are approaching.
It is how faith can be used by those who have no shame, just power, in order to convince their blind followers of the grand stairway before them, yet not warn them of the cliff's edge that is actually there. All to their benefit and that of, the Party.
Open your eyes. See the cliff's edge.
Then push those guiding you toward it to the demise they had planned for you.
It is using concept of "buttons" in the mind, in the mindset, in one's ideology, in one's view of the world. Especially useful if one follows an agenda, a platform, a group or belief system. It is what religion depends on.
It is a binary action. On, change happens. Belief is that you can fix things in this way and if you can't, it is desired. If not demanded. People want easy answers. Simple explanations, easy fixes. It is a short cut for initiating a reaction, or action. It is not a deep evocation, it is a shallow one.
It is how Pres. Trump and the Republican party have found their way into being primary in American politics today. The lowest common denominator.
Education is the antithesis of this.
It is a concept that is especially useful to extremists. It is much used in the conservative movement (and religion) where deep thinking is not desired. Where indeed it is antithetical to it. Where accurate information is counter to its sustainment.
Where education is undesirable and while massive or complex information is highly valued, it is only superficially understood. Highly valued because too much information is the same as not enough to most people. Too much or too complicated information leads to paralysis and then people start to demand the push button answers.
It's odd. An odd behavior. But it relates to fight or flight. Another binary decision. Easy. Effective to either remove your threat, or remove yourself so that the threat remains, but you do not. It has led to the dumbing down of America. But not just America. We're seeing these authoritarian platforms growing world wide.
Even the intelligence community has issues with too much information.
In an age where we have massive amounts of data and information, "intelligence", how does one evaluate it all in order to make use of it? ONE, does not. Because that requires many analysts, computers and programs to do the analysis and serve it up in formats that make most needed data available and actionable.
Those who are informed, who are professionals, are then able to make use of it.
But there is no push button mentality involved there.
Where there is, it widely desired and yet, minuscule functional.
Beware when politicians offer quick and easy fixes. Who say, only they can fix things. Who claim what the problems actually are, are not.
Therein lay insanity. If not...evil.
From "The Man in the High Castle" (S2E5):
"Its intentions were pure. But its methods were cruel."
That says so much too about the republican party and many conservative, especially misguided theistic based beliefs.
The ethically blind cannot see where they step, while those around them who can see, can merely try to warn them of the dangers they are approaching.
It is how faith can be used by those who have no shame, just power, in order to convince their blind followers of the grand stairway before them, yet not warn them of the cliff's edge that is actually there. All to their benefit and that of, the Party.
Open your eyes. See the cliff's edge.
Then push those guiding you toward it to the demise they had planned for you.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
America is Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
Dear Member of the Press,
Please immediately point out whenever the President lies.
You may wait until he's out of the room, but then turn to the camera and just say it:
"Nothing exists to support what the president (or Sean Spicer, or Kellann Conway, or etc.) has just said. It appears simply to be a falsehood."
Start getting sued for libel and defamation. I'm sure the courts will toss it out and you'll be a big hero and achieve many monetary gains at some point. But if not, dude, come on, just toss yourself on the sword. SOME one HAS to!
The President doesn't even want to hear from us.
I suggest you also start having fact checkers in an ear piece working furiously behind the scenes back at the station\network.
You're our last hope. We cannot find Obi Wan Kanobi. it's up to you.
Thanks,
America
#POTUS
Please immediately point out whenever the President lies.
You may wait until he's out of the room, but then turn to the camera and just say it:
"Nothing exists to support what the president (or Sean Spicer, or Kellann Conway, or etc.) has just said. It appears simply to be a falsehood."
Start getting sued for libel and defamation. I'm sure the courts will toss it out and you'll be a big hero and achieve many monetary gains at some point. But if not, dude, come on, just toss yourself on the sword. SOME one HAS to!
The President doesn't even want to hear from us.
I suggest you also start having fact checkers in an ear piece working furiously behind the scenes back at the station\network.
You're our last hope. We cannot find Obi Wan Kanobi. it's up to you.
Thanks,
America
#POTUS
Monday, January 23, 2017
Are we witnessing the death throes of Religion?
Will Islam be the religion that takes us from nation state world wars (2 so far) to ideological world wars (seeing anything fomenting around you yet?). Finally pushing religion over the edge from its last vestiges post dark ages to utter obscurity and mere historical research topic?
Sure it may not look that way to believers, but these things happen and when they do, at times vast changes can take place in a very small amount of time.
Many Christians, Muslims, Islamists, religionists, theists, conservatives and even Trump supporters suffer from the arrogance of ignorance.
In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. That behavior is a mainstay of the Republican party. A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, out of their ignorance, and their desire for power and money.
Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed to be built, around them. In their desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise, they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies. And so other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America. No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.
When you have a bad idea (think, self serving Islamist or even Christian terrorism, or American conservatism) and you push it on others to the point of hurting them, of even killing them, what exactly do you think eventually is going to be the backlash?
When do people feel they have finally taken enough and what will they do about it? I'm currently writing a horror sci fi story, "The Unwritten" (soon to be out in my book, Anthology of Evil II) in which a parallel universe has had the Religious Wars and then from the backlash of that came the Science Wars. Science wins out. Because truth always will in the end, it just takes time. Religion was squashed over that of reason. With the demise of religions came the demise of conservatism, or the rise of reasonable and rational conservatism for what it was intended to be and not what it has been absconded and transformed into. The rise of reason and humane attitudes toward one another and the planet then inevitably takes over.
I am not and have never been against people, but against stupid mindsets that lead to ignorant behaviors. Believing Trump is better than someone who is obviously a better quality person in either (take your pick) Bernie OR Hillary; conservative beliefs of ludicrous anti people doctrines; murdering over stupid ideologies based in pie in the sky ancient beliefs of fantasies from ancient and ignorant cultures, and then formed those beliefs in such a way so as to disallow updating that knowledge base...because it destroys those fantasies.
An extremely dangerous and destructive habit to be sure in ignoring reality, in beleiving what is not real to be real. Just be aware of what could be coming. Because we've been setting ourselves up for failure and allowing it to progress.
Religion is also the mindset that leads to denials and one has to be careful about that. It has led to the American form of political conservatism, a cancer on American society and government. It has devastated many of our citizens leading now to a Donald Trump type candidate and no president elect.
Where DO YOU think this current form of conservative political movement came from? Do you not believe it came from religion? Specifically, Christianity? From Christian Evangelicalism? From a mindset born of religion, from their belief systems, from practicing constant denials of reality for the sake of perpetuating religious beliefs in revealed religions, of fear. Fear of a greater power outside of oneself and one's community? Fear of reprisals by a divine force who apparently actually hates you and wasn't considering loving after thousands of years until a historical figure in Jesus of Nazareth come into religious literature because of a failing empire of Constantine the Great?
Fears which conservatism is based in? Fear of knowledge? One has to ask oneself, why does religion beg it's believers to study it only and not its origins? Why is educations anti religion? Why does many of its adherents advocate avoiding education? Why are conservatives in Republicans so anti education? Why do conservatives act one way, then deny their actions, blaming those who had nothing to do with the results of what they have done. Over and over and over again?
Doesn't it all fit together rather nicely and we're not suppose to notice?
All that being said I've never been anti religion through most of my life. I don't mind people having their beliefs if they keep them out of my personal reality, including my government in a country designed to allow for all and not for one to control which we're seeing now in some conservative Christians in government abusing their positions in the Republican party to abuse our citizens. It wasn't until them, until terrorists that I started thinking we need to get control of religions. Trouble being you can't just control one or two, or just their bad parts because of their design. I find it sad for all that so few are ruining things for so many, both believers and non believers alike.
IS the current individual groundswell of attacks based in religious beliefs, white Christian domestic terrorism which we've seen for years graduating to international Islamic delusion brought real, physical desiring death?
It IS interesting to note that the oldest of these three religions in Judaism doesn't seem to be really bothering the world, perhaps because it is the eldest of the three brothers in religion from that area of origin?
Is this the beginning of the end for death based religions (life is better after death in a heaven), capitalistic religions (if I do now, I will reap the rewards later in Heaven)? Why do these problematic religions all come from the Middle East? From the ancient and harsh environment of the desert? With multiple religions based in a single location leading to discord and bitterness?
One has to realize that a single mind worm in a large entity such as Islam, a belief perpetrated by a group, can cascade down into death and destruction before one even realizes it and it's too late.
One has to realize that the end of something long lived, tough, that refuses to die can exhibit a massive amount of pain and destruction as it dies in order to fight for survival that it is losing, in order to appear more alive than it is.
Is this the end?
And if so, just whose end will it be?
We're living in interesting times, to be sure....
#Religion #Islam #Christianity #DesertReligions
Sure it may not look that way to believers, but these things happen and when they do, at times vast changes can take place in a very small amount of time.
Many Christians, Muslims, Islamists, religionists, theists, conservatives and even Trump supporters suffer from the arrogance of ignorance.
In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. That behavior is a mainstay of the Republican party. A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, out of their ignorance, and their desire for power and money.
Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed to be built, around them. In their desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise, they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies. And so other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America. No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.
When you have a bad idea (think, self serving Islamist or even Christian terrorism, or American conservatism) and you push it on others to the point of hurting them, of even killing them, what exactly do you think eventually is going to be the backlash?
When do people feel they have finally taken enough and what will they do about it? I'm currently writing a horror sci fi story, "The Unwritten" (soon to be out in my book, Anthology of Evil II) in which a parallel universe has had the Religious Wars and then from the backlash of that came the Science Wars. Science wins out. Because truth always will in the end, it just takes time. Religion was squashed over that of reason. With the demise of religions came the demise of conservatism, or the rise of reasonable and rational conservatism for what it was intended to be and not what it has been absconded and transformed into. The rise of reason and humane attitudes toward one another and the planet then inevitably takes over.
I am not and have never been against people, but against stupid mindsets that lead to ignorant behaviors. Believing Trump is better than someone who is obviously a better quality person in either (take your pick) Bernie OR Hillary; conservative beliefs of ludicrous anti people doctrines; murdering over stupid ideologies based in pie in the sky ancient beliefs of fantasies from ancient and ignorant cultures, and then formed those beliefs in such a way so as to disallow updating that knowledge base...because it destroys those fantasies.
An extremely dangerous and destructive habit to be sure in ignoring reality, in beleiving what is not real to be real. Just be aware of what could be coming. Because we've been setting ourselves up for failure and allowing it to progress.
Religion is also the mindset that leads to denials and one has to be careful about that. It has led to the American form of political conservatism, a cancer on American society and government. It has devastated many of our citizens leading now to a Donald Trump type candidate and no president elect.
Where DO YOU think this current form of conservative political movement came from? Do you not believe it came from religion? Specifically, Christianity? From Christian Evangelicalism? From a mindset born of religion, from their belief systems, from practicing constant denials of reality for the sake of perpetuating religious beliefs in revealed religions, of fear. Fear of a greater power outside of oneself and one's community? Fear of reprisals by a divine force who apparently actually hates you and wasn't considering loving after thousands of years until a historical figure in Jesus of Nazareth come into religious literature because of a failing empire of Constantine the Great?
Fears which conservatism is based in? Fear of knowledge? One has to ask oneself, why does religion beg it's believers to study it only and not its origins? Why is educations anti religion? Why does many of its adherents advocate avoiding education? Why are conservatives in Republicans so anti education? Why do conservatives act one way, then deny their actions, blaming those who had nothing to do with the results of what they have done. Over and over and over again?
Doesn't it all fit together rather nicely and we're not suppose to notice?
All that being said I've never been anti religion through most of my life. I don't mind people having their beliefs if they keep them out of my personal reality, including my government in a country designed to allow for all and not for one to control which we're seeing now in some conservative Christians in government abusing their positions in the Republican party to abuse our citizens. It wasn't until them, until terrorists that I started thinking we need to get control of religions. Trouble being you can't just control one or two, or just their bad parts because of their design. I find it sad for all that so few are ruining things for so many, both believers and non believers alike.
IS the current individual groundswell of attacks based in religious beliefs, white Christian domestic terrorism which we've seen for years graduating to international Islamic delusion brought real, physical desiring death?
It IS interesting to note that the oldest of these three religions in Judaism doesn't seem to be really bothering the world, perhaps because it is the eldest of the three brothers in religion from that area of origin?
Is this the beginning of the end for death based religions (life is better after death in a heaven), capitalistic religions (if I do now, I will reap the rewards later in Heaven)? Why do these problematic religions all come from the Middle East? From the ancient and harsh environment of the desert? With multiple religions based in a single location leading to discord and bitterness?
One has to realize that a single mind worm in a large entity such as Islam, a belief perpetrated by a group, can cascade down into death and destruction before one even realizes it and it's too late.
One has to realize that the end of something long lived, tough, that refuses to die can exhibit a massive amount of pain and destruction as it dies in order to fight for survival that it is losing, in order to appear more alive than it is.
Is this the end?
And if so, just whose end will it be?
We're living in interesting times, to be sure....
#Religion #Islam #Christianity #DesertReligions
Friday, January 20, 2017
American Presidential Inauguration Day 2017 - Donald J. Trump
Ask yourself this, if a President Trump "fixes" America, triples everyone's income, vastly enriches his position, do you really care?
Do you?
I'd like to be rich too, I'd like America "fixed". What do I care if one guy becomes not a billionaire but a trillionaire over it? Spell checker just now didn't even recognize the word, trillionaire, but it soon may have to.
If you do not care, do not care if Trump breaks laws, befriends other oligarchs and discpicables toward their private benefit in other nations, binding together elements we won't even recognize perhaps for decades, then you have become one of them. Their poor supporters. Like poor Republicans who keep voting against their own best interests because their politicians keep telling them, they will benefit. And they so frequently simply do not. As in Flint Michigan where people were poisoned with lead and their Republicans governor refused to listen, or act, but protected himself and his family and people.
So, just join the Republican party. By the way, I'd like to apologize to the world for Trump. But I'd also like to apologize for Putin. Let's face it, and they're not the only ones, we have some pretty pitiful leaders running things in the world today. Well, maybe not Canada. And a few other places.
Anyway, you might as well start calling yourself a conservative. One of the basket of deplorables once referred to.
Why?
If you have to ask that question, aren't you really already one of them?
Let me explain.
We have laws, for a reason. We are a powerful nation. We could do many things that are awesome for us (or some), but when you take from one basket, you remove from someone else's. Same thing we have seen with Republicans in taking from those who have little, to give to those who have much.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, if they just abused their own supporters. But they cross off to affect non Republicans in restricting election days to keep themselves in power.
We have laws merely because they are the right thing to do. Like laws against torture. They keep us from devolving as a nation, from becoming a power of ignobles and perhaps, a world wide despised nation. Feared, not respected.
Fear, is the mainstay of the Fascist, the Authoritarian, the Trump, who is an authoritarian. So is Putin. Would YOU be a Russian citizen, a Russian defector, a Russian opposing Putin, a Russian reporter, a Russian needle under skin of Putin in Russia? Many of those are now dead. I wouldn't want their position.
Though I do have to admit, if it were my country I saw being abused, I could be one of them. I have issues with authority since childhood you see, something i have trouble controlling. Whenever I see someone doing bad to others, I have to call them out on it. I've been beaten for it, abused socially, set up, and attacked. And I keep on going like the bunny in the battery commercials. Someone has to and I see too many now a days (mostly on the right) who turn a blind eye, who don't see ahead, don't see what their actions can lead to, apparently.
Many Russians have died for speaking out, for love of their country. They were murdered and they have my respect. They certainly do. Did Putin murder them? To be sure I believe we can safely say he did, some of them. Have them murdered anyway. At his position, in a country like Russia, all it takes is a comment, a nod, a smile, and someone dies. Plausible deniability is key. Just like Bush used for Iraq.
Like Trump already uses for so many things. How far will he go? How bad will it get? Unlike many conservative conspiracy theories, we don't really kill as can happen in Russia. It's unnecessary, messy, too much risk of blow back, especially not a days with all the electronic surveillance and in our our government works differently than in Russia. Yes we have our abuses, but they play out differently here.
Others were murdered in Russia by Putin's friends, or just supporters, perhaps even those he abused who were from other countries. But he has created a climate as such that allows for others to think they could execute that kind of behavior on his behalf, bring a brief smile to his face, and get away with it.
And they have, and do. To be fair, Russia has had a climate of killing reporters going back over a hundred years. But that doesn't excuse it happening today.
Trump has been setting up such a climate in America. Weak like his ego, but it's there. Will it grow into the fruition of strange fruit hanging from trees as we saw during the slave and Jim Crow laws years? Some have threatened just such things. Reporters have been threatened. In America. For speaking the truth, or trying to get to the root of a truth.
Are you seeing how things are going with Trump and reporters? There are similarities already before he has even become president.
We are in a difficult position. In how America works, we need to support our elected President. But when you have elected someone like Trump, you also have to speak out. We have to protect our Office of the President of the United States. But we also have to protect America, and our ideal of being America.
I wouldn't like to be a reporter in Russia who is well known and speaks against Putin. But I also wouldn't like to be an American now, who has to deal with the current climate we have that is coursing it's ugly way through our heartlands. And yet, here I am. So I'll do my best.
We have to be careful. We do have to follow the laws. Not just to legalize something like let's say, murder, just so we can say that technically there is no murder in America. But we have to take the time to fix things correctly and legally, and in the spirit of America, so that in that case, the murder rate goes down for real, and not just as something we can claim, while people continue to die all around us.
1984 by George Orwell was a warning. A stark warning we have thought int the past was going on around us. And it was, to some degree. But I don't think I've ever seen it raise its ugly head every before in such stark and ugly fashion. During a time now where we have issues with government surveillance, with government abuses, with secrecy, with then an authoritarian bordering on fascism entering the White House. Russia is turning into an oligarchy. Will America? In Trump trying to be friends with Putin will their rich affect our wealthy? is this the beginning of the end?
Yes, following the laws slows things down. Yes we could certainly move faster. Conservatives believe President Obama didn't move fast enough. And yet, he pulled us from a pit of despair and has now turned over to Trump, a viable economy where once was a damaged and ravaged one. Just as Democratic President Bill Clinton turned a viable and healthy economy to Pres. Bush, who ran it into the ground and passed that nightmare on to President Obama.
What will the future hold now that another Republican is in office? Our only hope being, he's not a real Republican. But worse, he's a devout Capitalist. What day should we plan for a war, President Trump? Because that seems to be the mainstay of Republican presidents. That, and ruining the economy.
So, should we allow some few to illegally benefit in our behest? Trump is putting many wealthy people into key positions in his administration. We could invade other nations too and just take what we what.
Like Russia has done. Then again, that is not really who we are, even though we have done things in the past. For many years we have been trying to get on track to be the best we can be. Many of us will continue to push in that direction. But it would be so easy to just invade, to pillage weaker nations, even disingenuously, through trade, through bullying them. through other means the rich may know of and most of us do not.
But then we'd have to change our name from America, to the UFSCR, the United Fascists States of Conservative Republicans.
We try to hard to do good in such a diverse society as America. It seems like every good dead has an associated and unintentional bad one. We just need to keep educating ourselves, be patient with those who don't yet know, and keep trying.
I know that's why many object, craving a return to a simpler time.
Yes, we're too stupidly PC sometimes, but much of this is a need in America, and making it a safe and pleasant living space for everyone living here. Be reasonably vocal about PC idiots. But also realize, you may be the idiot in the other direction if you're not even trying to be aware.
Now, ask yourself.
Who are you? Who do you want to be?
We wish you the best President Trump.
Because we're stuck with you now. You and your scary ideologue in VP Pence, who has damaged his own state as governor as many Republican governors have done merely for wont of pushing their silly conservative, religious, Republican agendas.
Serve the people, all of us, not just yours. Other religions not just Christians. Other ways of thinking, not just theism.
They say taking the Oval Office changes you.
Here's hoping....
#Trump #Putin
Do you?
I'd like to be rich too, I'd like America "fixed". What do I care if one guy becomes not a billionaire but a trillionaire over it? Spell checker just now didn't even recognize the word, trillionaire, but it soon may have to.
If you do not care, do not care if Trump breaks laws, befriends other oligarchs and discpicables toward their private benefit in other nations, binding together elements we won't even recognize perhaps for decades, then you have become one of them. Their poor supporters. Like poor Republicans who keep voting against their own best interests because their politicians keep telling them, they will benefit. And they so frequently simply do not. As in Flint Michigan where people were poisoned with lead and their Republicans governor refused to listen, or act, but protected himself and his family and people.
So, just join the Republican party. By the way, I'd like to apologize to the world for Trump. But I'd also like to apologize for Putin. Let's face it, and they're not the only ones, we have some pretty pitiful leaders running things in the world today. Well, maybe not Canada. And a few other places.
Anyway, you might as well start calling yourself a conservative. One of the basket of deplorables once referred to.
Why?
If you have to ask that question, aren't you really already one of them?
Let me explain.
We have laws, for a reason. We are a powerful nation. We could do many things that are awesome for us (or some), but when you take from one basket, you remove from someone else's. Same thing we have seen with Republicans in taking from those who have little, to give to those who have much.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, if they just abused their own supporters. But they cross off to affect non Republicans in restricting election days to keep themselves in power.
We have laws merely because they are the right thing to do. Like laws against torture. They keep us from devolving as a nation, from becoming a power of ignobles and perhaps, a world wide despised nation. Feared, not respected.
Fear, is the mainstay of the Fascist, the Authoritarian, the Trump, who is an authoritarian. So is Putin. Would YOU be a Russian citizen, a Russian defector, a Russian opposing Putin, a Russian reporter, a Russian needle under skin of Putin in Russia? Many of those are now dead. I wouldn't want their position.
Though I do have to admit, if it were my country I saw being abused, I could be one of them. I have issues with authority since childhood you see, something i have trouble controlling. Whenever I see someone doing bad to others, I have to call them out on it. I've been beaten for it, abused socially, set up, and attacked. And I keep on going like the bunny in the battery commercials. Someone has to and I see too many now a days (mostly on the right) who turn a blind eye, who don't see ahead, don't see what their actions can lead to, apparently.
Many Russians have died for speaking out, for love of their country. They were murdered and they have my respect. They certainly do. Did Putin murder them? To be sure I believe we can safely say he did, some of them. Have them murdered anyway. At his position, in a country like Russia, all it takes is a comment, a nod, a smile, and someone dies. Plausible deniability is key. Just like Bush used for Iraq.
Like Trump already uses for so many things. How far will he go? How bad will it get? Unlike many conservative conspiracy theories, we don't really kill as can happen in Russia. It's unnecessary, messy, too much risk of blow back, especially not a days with all the electronic surveillance and in our our government works differently than in Russia. Yes we have our abuses, but they play out differently here.
Others were murdered in Russia by Putin's friends, or just supporters, perhaps even those he abused who were from other countries. But he has created a climate as such that allows for others to think they could execute that kind of behavior on his behalf, bring a brief smile to his face, and get away with it.
And they have, and do. To be fair, Russia has had a climate of killing reporters going back over a hundred years. But that doesn't excuse it happening today.
Trump has been setting up such a climate in America. Weak like his ego, but it's there. Will it grow into the fruition of strange fruit hanging from trees as we saw during the slave and Jim Crow laws years? Some have threatened just such things. Reporters have been threatened. In America. For speaking the truth, or trying to get to the root of a truth.
Are you seeing how things are going with Trump and reporters? There are similarities already before he has even become president.
We are in a difficult position. In how America works, we need to support our elected President. But when you have elected someone like Trump, you also have to speak out. We have to protect our Office of the President of the United States. But we also have to protect America, and our ideal of being America.
I wouldn't like to be a reporter in Russia who is well known and speaks against Putin. But I also wouldn't like to be an American now, who has to deal with the current climate we have that is coursing it's ugly way through our heartlands. And yet, here I am. So I'll do my best.
We have to be careful. We do have to follow the laws. Not just to legalize something like let's say, murder, just so we can say that technically there is no murder in America. But we have to take the time to fix things correctly and legally, and in the spirit of America, so that in that case, the murder rate goes down for real, and not just as something we can claim, while people continue to die all around us.
1984 by George Orwell was a warning. A stark warning we have thought int the past was going on around us. And it was, to some degree. But I don't think I've ever seen it raise its ugly head every before in such stark and ugly fashion. During a time now where we have issues with government surveillance, with government abuses, with secrecy, with then an authoritarian bordering on fascism entering the White House. Russia is turning into an oligarchy. Will America? In Trump trying to be friends with Putin will their rich affect our wealthy? is this the beginning of the end?
Yes, following the laws slows things down. Yes we could certainly move faster. Conservatives believe President Obama didn't move fast enough. And yet, he pulled us from a pit of despair and has now turned over to Trump, a viable economy where once was a damaged and ravaged one. Just as Democratic President Bill Clinton turned a viable and healthy economy to Pres. Bush, who ran it into the ground and passed that nightmare on to President Obama.
What will the future hold now that another Republican is in office? Our only hope being, he's not a real Republican. But worse, he's a devout Capitalist. What day should we plan for a war, President Trump? Because that seems to be the mainstay of Republican presidents. That, and ruining the economy.
So, should we allow some few to illegally benefit in our behest? Trump is putting many wealthy people into key positions in his administration. We could invade other nations too and just take what we what.
Like Russia has done. Then again, that is not really who we are, even though we have done things in the past. For many years we have been trying to get on track to be the best we can be. Many of us will continue to push in that direction. But it would be so easy to just invade, to pillage weaker nations, even disingenuously, through trade, through bullying them. through other means the rich may know of and most of us do not.
But then we'd have to change our name from America, to the UFSCR, the United Fascists States of Conservative Republicans.
We try to hard to do good in such a diverse society as America. It seems like every good dead has an associated and unintentional bad one. We just need to keep educating ourselves, be patient with those who don't yet know, and keep trying.
I know that's why many object, craving a return to a simpler time.
Yes, we're too stupidly PC sometimes, but much of this is a need in America, and making it a safe and pleasant living space for everyone living here. Be reasonably vocal about PC idiots. But also realize, you may be the idiot in the other direction if you're not even trying to be aware.
Now, ask yourself.
Who are you? Who do you want to be?
We wish you the best President Trump.
Because we're stuck with you now. You and your scary ideologue in VP Pence, who has damaged his own state as governor as many Republican governors have done merely for wont of pushing their silly conservative, religious, Republican agendas.
Serve the people, all of us, not just yours. Other religions not just Christians. Other ways of thinking, not just theism.
They say taking the Oval Office changes you.
Here's hoping....
#Trump #Putin
Monday, January 16, 2017
Making of Mea Culpa the Film by JZ Murdock
This is a personal journal of how I wrote, shot and produced my new film, Mea Culpa. An LGN Productions project. I'm still at the initial stages. But how did I get into this? How did it get to this point. Where is this going and...what IS this, anyway? For one, it's a way to break into film again. To create a new piece, a business card if you will. A way to create something new, network with new people, build a crew, exercise creative muscles new and old and have a new, fun product to show.
It's a story about a Medieval Witch Hunter, based upon a story I wrote with the help of one of my University Theater Professors back in 1983 titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It has something to do in this current reincarnation on video with today and here.
But it reaches all the way back to the 12th century.
I am writing the screenplay in order to shoot my own screenplay. It is a business card, a show piece, a way to translate my written words to an easier form to view. A door by which I hope to see it opened and other opportunities to come about, to meet other like minds, and to produce even more in the future.
Selling screenplays is a pain. More than writing them and that's not easy. Getting the attention, going through the process, working with producers, money people, whomever. It's a lot.
Just doing it, is doing it. You can wish, desire, think about, but doing is...well, doing. You don't need super studio quality high production values, or a big studio. Really just grit, determination, perseverance, networking, a good knowledge of cinema, equipment and of course, help.
Oh, and skill doesn't hurt.
So I thought I might also try to write a kind of intermittent journal of the process here.
Something I last (had) to do at Western Washington University. Always looking to rack up more class credits toward my degree in Psychology, in Awareness and Reasoning division, I discovered I could get credit by shooting a video on half inch reel to real black and white video tape. I had also decided I had enough credits almost to get a second degree but rather than stay longer than four years including summers in classes, I'd settle for a minor in Creative Writing, in fiction and screen and script writing.
All along I had been studying cinema however, both in and out of class. I took classes like Cinema, Film into Documentary (taught by an almost British stiff but quite intelligent and at times funny, ex Yale professor).
I studied sometimes on my own, specifically the works of Hitchcock, Kubrick and... Woody Allen. Years later I worked with an east coast production company for over five years as a remote "in house" screenwriter. I never got anything on screen, but I learned a lot about things I'd never expected to learn about. Like dealing with producers, and studio squabbles.
When I was a kid, I was an odd kid. No surprise, right? At five I would sneak watching TV detective shows. I watched Perry Mason with my grandmother, and The Twilight Zone. I loved them. I also watched westerns, cartoons, and kid fare as many kids did back then in the 1950s and 60s.
But I also used to listen to an eclectic collection of music. Classical, experimental, blues, hard rock, all which got me some pretty weird looks from friends how came to visit. I remember in junior high a kid came over and I had on Bach Piano Fugues (Glenn Gould). He scrunched up his nose and said, "WHAT are you listening to?" I said, "Oh, sorry, it's Bach." I took it off and put on a rock album which pleased him.
I got into science fiction books and TV very young. Mostly from first watching old sci fi films on TV in the very early 1960s. My mother had always been a fan of Hollywood. Oscar night was an event. Every year our mother made a party of watching the Oscar Award show. They were our American royalty. She especially loved the troublesome, beautiful and talented Liz Taylor, an idol of hers and of course Liz's Richard Burton. Lucille Ball, her biggest idol.
Thank God for that because mom acted crazy fun at times, even though she could be still be strict as hell at times.
I kind of grew up at a drive in theater where my step father was Assistant Manager. My sister worked there as her first job and it was one of our oldest brother's first jobs also.
My first job was (ignoring having shined shoes in a cantina near the beach in Spain in 1958 at about three or four), was in ninth grade in cleaning the field of the theater during the day. I later worked my way up to Snack Bar Manager, then Box Office Cashier. Before graduating high school.
While growing up we were at the drive in watching whatever show was on every Friday night, rain or shine. We had little money and it was quite a benefit. Because it was free. Because we got half off on snack bar food and just had to charge it to my step father's account. So I saw a lot of films. Many I probably shouldn't have seen so young. Like biker movies. Which scared the hell out of me. What if they showed up in our town?
Eventually...I discovered PBS. Ah... Public Broadcasting! Channel 9, KCTS in Tacoma.
In the 1960s they played foreign stuff. I got to learn who Monty Python was but never found out what his Flying Circus was really about, till years later. But I loved them.
I got to watch, to learn about the Auteur directors in Europe, like Francois Truffaut. I saw Samurai movies (Ikura Kurosawa's films anyway). I came to love Francois Truffaut. Also, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Lina WertMuller, and many others.
I'd already grown up with so many other directors and actors and later learned of others still. We loved Hitchcock and I saw his old films on TV and new ones as they came out in theaters.
The point is, I grew up with film. I learned to appreciate Cinema. I studied it on my own as a kid not knowing I was studying it. Then in college and at a university where I studied screenwriting and team script writing. Later still I was a public access cable TV producer with Viacom in Seattle, and late in 1993-early 94 I produced and aired the "25th Anniversary Lost In Space documentary". No one did that. There was only one other I found in the world who celebrated that show, a documentary from Australia for that anniversary. And honestly, with higher production values. But I thought we had more interesting information.
I have a background in film, it's in my blood since childhood. Before through my mother. It's literally in my DNA.
I've just never been able to find a way to have a creative career in writing or film. I was a Senior Technical Writer for years but that is in IT work on computers in information and internet technologies.
Until I got tired of writing where there was simply no character development, no story structure, no tension. All information had to be put up front.
Yet, it was an excellent way to learn to be a writer, but not lots of fun. Rewarding though. You learned attention to detail, to produce on demand, to take the stress (and trust me at the high level I was at, lots of stress!), how to think out of the box, on your feet, and quickly, how to take complicated information from people smarter than you and turn it into something usable they would love. Even if you didn't understand a word of what you were writing about.
So my creative side was put on hold for years, decades to raise a family. I'd tried before that but never could get anything to click. Many times, almost, but then it never just locked into place. Sad, and frustrating, but you do what you have to do.
Finally in August 2016 in retiring from a decades long career in IT, in computers all things complex and annoying, fascinating and frustrating, I got my chance to get back to my original intent. IT had paid well, it had helped to pay for raising my kids and it had situated me now and finally for writing and producing... films, or whatever I liked.
What a feeling, what a breathe of fresh air! But now I also had to do something.
So here we are today, right now. After 2010 I wrote and produced a couple of books, multiple short story ebooks, several audiobooks, published stories in magazines and I am in several other author\s anthologies. I've written screenplays, worked with producers from both American coasts so that here I am, ready to just do... stuff. Interesting stuff.
I've currently been finishing up a new story for publication. "The Unwritten." I wrote the first draft on Wattpad as an experiment. I will finish and put that in as a novella in my sequel to one of my books, Anthology of Evil. When I retired in August I bought thousands of dollars of film equipment and software all of which I now have to learn and utilize.
Now finally is the time. And I'm going for it.
So I'm writing to shoot a story I'm calling for now simply, "Mea Culpa". As I had said, it is built upon the original story I wrote during my university years titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It is a tale far more twisted than most people realize when they read it, unless you know some history.
This story is further explored in an extension story in my second book, Death of heaven, and is titled, Vaughan's Theorem. And no, the lower case "h" in "heaven" is not a mistake. You'd have to read the book to understand why.
What I am doing in this new version of the Mea Culpa story is to update it, to localize it, to translate it into a short video. But how does one do that? Take a narrative piece like that, and put it into film. The obvious way is to shoot it as told, to "show not tell". But I wanted as always, to do it differently, to creatively break the rules I've spent so much time learning.
The story originates in 1100CE in England. It continues in more recent times in England. It is now continuing in America, in a city called Bremerton, in Washington state. Where I now live as of August 2016. Located about thirty miles from where I was born, in Tacoma, it is a Navy town. A town I thought I'd never live in. Because it was the first and only place I was ever incarcerated in jail. At seventeen. For something I had nothing to do with. But that is a story for another time.
When in high school in twelfth grade, I was dating a girl in college in Bremerton. It was funny. The old, "I have a hot girlfriend but you can't meet her, she lives in Canada" routine. No one except close friends believed me. But she was real and named, Char (Charlene). The new assistant manager of the drive in theater who replaced my step dad when he moved to a brand new 112th Street Drive In Theater, introduced me to his old girlfriend. She was only a few years older than me, as he was only a few years older than her. But I'm getting off the point here....
The current filmic version of my Mea Culpa story is a story about a descendant of one of the main characters and his peculiar discovery of the Mea Culpa document in his garage workshop, the bizarre way it got there, and why it is there.
Weirdness runs rampant in this short extension of my now nearly ancient Mea Culpa story.
Originally it was a story that was done for no real reason. I was sitting in my Professor Perry Mill's office in the our university theater department in our PAC theater building. Where my girlfriend and I first saw Road Warrior and learned of Mel Gibson for the first time, the crowed loved it. Nothing like viewing a great action film with a university audience. Perry and I were just talking and I got an idea for a short story while listening to him talk about medieval stuff.
So I went home and wrote it, then showed it to him the next day. Being a student of medieval literature he loved it and offered me some ideas, clarification and some history which he could go on about forever in the most enlightening and entertaining ways. He liked the story so much he wanted me to turn it into a one man stage play for him to play. It would have been brilliant to see him in it. Brilliant. But my skills at the time in play writing simply weren't up to the task and it never came to be.
However, I did walk away with a story I eventually published. I later expanded it into a much larger story in Death of heaven and now, here we are decades later and I am turning yet another version of it into a short movie. I love expanding the universe of my characters as I love when other authors do that with their characters and literary universes.
I've also done that with my Lord Ritchie character who is in my Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer story, and in an anthology with other authors detailing his adventures as a younger man and pirate in the Caribbean ("Breaking on Cave Island" in the "Giant Tales series "World of Pirates" anthology, edited by Heather Marie (H.M.) Schultz.
I also have another story I did a similar thing with in the Giant Tales series book, "Final Ships", with my "Gravity Up" story, based upon my Death of heaven book. A great little story I had wanted to title, "In the Shade" but acquiesced to the editor's suggestion. While you learn what is going on in Death of heaven, I thought it would be interesting to experience the bizarre things happening in that larger book of mine as a character who simply experiences some of all those terrifying things in having absolutely no clue why it is happening.
Anyway, for my film I was shooting for a ten minute length but as happens, it grew beyond that.
Ten minutes is very good for film festival submissions and the director in the directing class I was in yesterday highly recommended getting it back down to ten. And so I will.
So that's it for now. I'm currently working on finishing up Anthology of Evil II, but have to finish, The Unwritten, story first. It's currently in the hands of beta readers and my editor. I'm learning a lot about my new camera equipment, trying to remember and relearn cinematography, and overall relearning filmmaking after decades of absence, and also finishing up the writing of, Mea Culpa.
More to come...stay tuned.
#JZMurdock #MeaCulpaFilm #LGNProductions
It's a story about a Medieval Witch Hunter, based upon a story I wrote with the help of one of my University Theater Professors back in 1983 titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It has something to do in this current reincarnation on video with today and here.
But it reaches all the way back to the 12th century.
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| The Mea Culpa Document of London front cover |
Selling screenplays is a pain. More than writing them and that's not easy. Getting the attention, going through the process, working with producers, money people, whomever. It's a lot.
Just doing it, is doing it. You can wish, desire, think about, but doing is...well, doing. You don't need super studio quality high production values, or a big studio. Really just grit, determination, perseverance, networking, a good knowledge of cinema, equipment and of course, help.
Oh, and skill doesn't hurt.
So I thought I might also try to write a kind of intermittent journal of the process here.
Something I last (had) to do at Western Washington University. Always looking to rack up more class credits toward my degree in Psychology, in Awareness and Reasoning division, I discovered I could get credit by shooting a video on half inch reel to real black and white video tape. I had also decided I had enough credits almost to get a second degree but rather than stay longer than four years including summers in classes, I'd settle for a minor in Creative Writing, in fiction and screen and script writing.
All along I had been studying cinema however, both in and out of class. I took classes like Cinema, Film into Documentary (taught by an almost British stiff but quite intelligent and at times funny, ex Yale professor).
I studied sometimes on my own, specifically the works of Hitchcock, Kubrick and... Woody Allen. Years later I worked with an east coast production company for over five years as a remote "in house" screenwriter. I never got anything on screen, but I learned a lot about things I'd never expected to learn about. Like dealing with producers, and studio squabbles.
When I was a kid, I was an odd kid. No surprise, right? At five I would sneak watching TV detective shows. I watched Perry Mason with my grandmother, and The Twilight Zone. I loved them. I also watched westerns, cartoons, and kid fare as many kids did back then in the 1950s and 60s.
But I also used to listen to an eclectic collection of music. Classical, experimental, blues, hard rock, all which got me some pretty weird looks from friends how came to visit. I remember in junior high a kid came over and I had on Bach Piano Fugues (Glenn Gould). He scrunched up his nose and said, "WHAT are you listening to?" I said, "Oh, sorry, it's Bach." I took it off and put on a rock album which pleased him.
I got into science fiction books and TV very young. Mostly from first watching old sci fi films on TV in the very early 1960s. My mother had always been a fan of Hollywood. Oscar night was an event. Every year our mother made a party of watching the Oscar Award show. They were our American royalty. She especially loved the troublesome, beautiful and talented Liz Taylor, an idol of hers and of course Liz's Richard Burton. Lucille Ball, her biggest idol.
Thank God for that because mom acted crazy fun at times, even though she could be still be strict as hell at times.
I kind of grew up at a drive in theater where my step father was Assistant Manager. My sister worked there as her first job and it was one of our oldest brother's first jobs also.
My first job was (ignoring having shined shoes in a cantina near the beach in Spain in 1958 at about three or four), was in ninth grade in cleaning the field of the theater during the day. I later worked my way up to Snack Bar Manager, then Box Office Cashier. Before graduating high school.
While growing up we were at the drive in watching whatever show was on every Friday night, rain or shine. We had little money and it was quite a benefit. Because it was free. Because we got half off on snack bar food and just had to charge it to my step father's account. So I saw a lot of films. Many I probably shouldn't have seen so young. Like biker movies. Which scared the hell out of me. What if they showed up in our town?
Eventually...I discovered PBS. Ah... Public Broadcasting! Channel 9, KCTS in Tacoma.
In the 1960s they played foreign stuff. I got to learn who Monty Python was but never found out what his Flying Circus was really about, till years later. But I loved them.
I got to watch, to learn about the Auteur directors in Europe, like Francois Truffaut. I saw Samurai movies (Ikura Kurosawa's films anyway). I came to love Francois Truffaut. Also, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Lina WertMuller, and many others.
I'd already grown up with so many other directors and actors and later learned of others still. We loved Hitchcock and I saw his old films on TV and new ones as they came out in theaters.
The point is, I grew up with film. I learned to appreciate Cinema. I studied it on my own as a kid not knowing I was studying it. Then in college and at a university where I studied screenwriting and team script writing. Later still I was a public access cable TV producer with Viacom in Seattle, and late in 1993-early 94 I produced and aired the "25th Anniversary Lost In Space documentary". No one did that. There was only one other I found in the world who celebrated that show, a documentary from Australia for that anniversary. And honestly, with higher production values. But I thought we had more interesting information.
I have a background in film, it's in my blood since childhood. Before through my mother. It's literally in my DNA.
I've just never been able to find a way to have a creative career in writing or film. I was a Senior Technical Writer for years but that is in IT work on computers in information and internet technologies.
Until I got tired of writing where there was simply no character development, no story structure, no tension. All information had to be put up front.
Yet, it was an excellent way to learn to be a writer, but not lots of fun. Rewarding though. You learned attention to detail, to produce on demand, to take the stress (and trust me at the high level I was at, lots of stress!), how to think out of the box, on your feet, and quickly, how to take complicated information from people smarter than you and turn it into something usable they would love. Even if you didn't understand a word of what you were writing about.
So my creative side was put on hold for years, decades to raise a family. I'd tried before that but never could get anything to click. Many times, almost, but then it never just locked into place. Sad, and frustrating, but you do what you have to do.
Finally in August 2016 in retiring from a decades long career in IT, in computers all things complex and annoying, fascinating and frustrating, I got my chance to get back to my original intent. IT had paid well, it had helped to pay for raising my kids and it had situated me now and finally for writing and producing... films, or whatever I liked.
What a feeling, what a breathe of fresh air! But now I also had to do something.
So here we are today, right now. After 2010 I wrote and produced a couple of books, multiple short story ebooks, several audiobooks, published stories in magazines and I am in several other author\s anthologies. I've written screenplays, worked with producers from both American coasts so that here I am, ready to just do... stuff. Interesting stuff.
I've currently been finishing up a new story for publication. "The Unwritten." I wrote the first draft on Wattpad as an experiment. I will finish and put that in as a novella in my sequel to one of my books, Anthology of Evil. When I retired in August I bought thousands of dollars of film equipment and software all of which I now have to learn and utilize.
Now finally is the time. And I'm going for it.
So I'm writing to shoot a story I'm calling for now simply, "Mea Culpa". As I had said, it is built upon the original story I wrote during my university years titled, The Mea Culpa Document of London. It is a tale far more twisted than most people realize when they read it, unless you know some history.
This story is further explored in an extension story in my second book, Death of heaven, and is titled, Vaughan's Theorem. And no, the lower case "h" in "heaven" is not a mistake. You'd have to read the book to understand why.
What I am doing in this new version of the Mea Culpa story is to update it, to localize it, to translate it into a short video. But how does one do that? Take a narrative piece like that, and put it into film. The obvious way is to shoot it as told, to "show not tell". But I wanted as always, to do it differently, to creatively break the rules I've spent so much time learning.
The story originates in 1100CE in England. It continues in more recent times in England. It is now continuing in America, in a city called Bremerton, in Washington state. Where I now live as of August 2016. Located about thirty miles from where I was born, in Tacoma, it is a Navy town. A town I thought I'd never live in. Because it was the first and only place I was ever incarcerated in jail. At seventeen. For something I had nothing to do with. But that is a story for another time.
When in high school in twelfth grade, I was dating a girl in college in Bremerton. It was funny. The old, "I have a hot girlfriend but you can't meet her, she lives in Canada" routine. No one except close friends believed me. But she was real and named, Char (Charlene). The new assistant manager of the drive in theater who replaced my step dad when he moved to a brand new 112th Street Drive In Theater, introduced me to his old girlfriend. She was only a few years older than me, as he was only a few years older than her. But I'm getting off the point here....
The current filmic version of my Mea Culpa story is a story about a descendant of one of the main characters and his peculiar discovery of the Mea Culpa document in his garage workshop, the bizarre way it got there, and why it is there.
Weirdness runs rampant in this short extension of my now nearly ancient Mea Culpa story.
Originally it was a story that was done for no real reason. I was sitting in my Professor Perry Mill's office in the our university theater department in our PAC theater building. Where my girlfriend and I first saw Road Warrior and learned of Mel Gibson for the first time, the crowed loved it. Nothing like viewing a great action film with a university audience. Perry and I were just talking and I got an idea for a short story while listening to him talk about medieval stuff.
So I went home and wrote it, then showed it to him the next day. Being a student of medieval literature he loved it and offered me some ideas, clarification and some history which he could go on about forever in the most enlightening and entertaining ways. He liked the story so much he wanted me to turn it into a one man stage play for him to play. It would have been brilliant to see him in it. Brilliant. But my skills at the time in play writing simply weren't up to the task and it never came to be.
However, I did walk away with a story I eventually published. I later expanded it into a much larger story in Death of heaven and now, here we are decades later and I am turning yet another version of it into a short movie. I love expanding the universe of my characters as I love when other authors do that with their characters and literary universes.
I've also done that with my Lord Ritchie character who is in my Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer story, and in an anthology with other authors detailing his adventures as a younger man and pirate in the Caribbean ("Breaking on Cave Island" in the "Giant Tales series "World of Pirates" anthology, edited by Heather Marie (H.M.) Schultz.
I also have another story I did a similar thing with in the Giant Tales series book, "Final Ships", with my "Gravity Up" story, based upon my Death of heaven book. A great little story I had wanted to title, "In the Shade" but acquiesced to the editor's suggestion. While you learn what is going on in Death of heaven, I thought it would be interesting to experience the bizarre things happening in that larger book of mine as a character who simply experiences some of all those terrifying things in having absolutely no clue why it is happening.
Anyway, for my film I was shooting for a ten minute length but as happens, it grew beyond that.
Ten minutes is very good for film festival submissions and the director in the directing class I was in yesterday highly recommended getting it back down to ten. And so I will.
So that's it for now. I'm currently working on finishing up Anthology of Evil II, but have to finish, The Unwritten, story first. It's currently in the hands of beta readers and my editor. I'm learning a lot about my new camera equipment, trying to remember and relearn cinematography, and overall relearning filmmaking after decades of absence, and also finishing up the writing of, Mea Culpa.
More to come...stay tuned.
#JZMurdock #MeaCulpaFilm #LGNProductions
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2017!
Wishing everyone a happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2017, especially for all those that carries much meaning for. It's good to reflect on the progress made for the ideals he promoted, to realize the advances made you may not be old enough to appreciate.
Apologies also to all those who feel correctly so we have not yet made the progress we should have made by now.
Life, politics, government, and citizens in general, are frequently two steps forward, one step back, with variations. We're at a time where it appears we are going more than two steps backward. But we are a nation of many diverse people and there are many who cannot evolve that quickly. It is a nice thought to consider putting them, our weakest, in front of our progress to try to bring them along with us and in some cases, to monitor closely their progress or lack thereof.
That being said, in being behind them, we can also nudge them along. These next hopefully no longer than four years we will have to be in that role of support and being the engine of progress through a cloak of resistance and blindness. While they may avoid or resent progress, we will have to act as if they are the children we love and need to nurture, and at times with a firm hand, show them the path out of their perceived nightmare, which is only the dark bedroom of a child.
They just need to learn where the light switch is. And it may be painful. Dr. King knew that, and he kept going. And it may kill some of us. That too us humanity. Sometimes we can kill as a people, as an ill mindset, and once that happens, we make a leap forward together. Evolved, educated people can avoid that. many Republicans and conservatives do not like good and proper education, ignorance supports bad ideas. We have to work through that.
It's been said, Democrats are very bad at selling good ideas and Republicans are very good at selling bad ideas. We have seen that, time and again.
We will have to work through that. Hopefully some day we can all see the ideas we work together for are good ideas. I know it seems lost. It's not. And remember, steps forward and back when sped up, are actually a dance and we all have to learn how to dance if we wish to archive the progress we so sorely need.
#Trump #Conservatives #GOP #Republicans #Democrats
Monday, January 9, 2017
Our Modern Authoritarian Politicians
Just...an observation from what I've been seeing. I'll try to define as I go for those who are unfamiliar.
First we have to address this new intelligence report on Trump and the one that McCain gave the FBI last month.
There is much in modern politics today that is damaging to the whole (including those opposing them) but is massively self-serving of those who us it. To be sure some of these elements are being used by both sides, but as with much of what we see today, it is a false equivalency by one side against the massive action on the other. Plausible deniability is the order of the day. This single concept has filtered down to mean more than it originally was intended or used for and at the levels it was typically initiated at.
Plausible deniability is the ability for persons (typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others (usually subordinates in an organizational hierarchy) because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions. - Wikipedia
First we have to address this new intelligence report on Trump and the one that McCain gave the FBI last month.
There is much in modern politics today that is damaging to the whole (including those opposing them) but is massively self-serving of those who us it. To be sure some of these elements are being used by both sides, but as with much of what we see today, it is a false equivalency by one side against the massive action on the other. Plausible deniability is the order of the day. This single concept has filtered down to mean more than it originally was intended or used for and at the levels it was typically initiated at.
Plausible deniability is the ability for persons (typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others (usually subordinates in an organizational hierarchy) because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions. - Wikipedia
Non-attribution to the United States for covert operations was the original and principal purpose of the so-called doctrine of "plausible denial." Evidence before the Committee clearly demonstrates that this concept, designed to protect the United States and its operatives from the consequences of disclosures, has been expanded to mask decisions of the president and his senior staff members. — Church Committee (Wikipedia)
Those who have been most forcefully using it are elements of the neo fascists (even pseudo fascists, a political movement arising in Europe after World War II and characterized by policies designed to incorporate the basic principles of fascism (as nationalism and opposition to democracy) into existing political systems. Wake up on this one.
This includes those authoritarians, right wingers (including Alt Right), the neo conservatives (relating to or denoting a return to a modified form of a traditional viewpoint, in particular a political ideology characterized by an emphasis on free-market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy) and those either theistic based (even if the individual or organization is atheistic in nature) or fawning theism for purposes of acquiring power. Another thing that has got to stop along with so much concern, so much sick fascination over personal lives for that of public ones.
They skillfully utilize modern techniques in persuasion using elements of counter-intelligence, even and in some cases greatly so using counter-intellectualism, disingenuous (not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does or twisting elements about to appear the opposite of what they are, or blaming an opposing group for what the claimants are perpetrating) polemics (using a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something).
This is what we need to fight against. Big money is politics utilizes it going back to their Godhead, the Tobacco industry, which the auto and petroleum industries have taken to their bed and that unholy marriage has led to its dissemination into politics to the detriment of the citizenry it supports, is supposed to protect, and exists only for the express purpose of making their lives better. Or to prop up bad ideas, bad ideologies, or whatever ideologies get them into and keep them in, power.
Further, rationalizing various points of democracy has led to a mentality of "the ends justifies the means", and that of (and sometimes, which is the needle as it is AT TIME true but not to the degree to which it has been utilized) that the nation comes before that of the individual citizenry. Which has led, along with big money and the sometimes unholy alliance of lobbyists (but again, as lobbyists have pointed out, they sever a special need, and it is the dynamic between them and others, and the interplay of power and money that has been and should be vilified) to separate out the protection and elevation of the citizens for that of the politicians, the powerful, the leaders of industry and corporations.
We have a big job ahead of us. We'll need the right person and people at the top, the right people surrounding (honestly) her (and I'm not referring just to Hillary but not a man) and those around that person. They will need the correct and cohesive national mindset to bear us through to see this applied, accomplished and eventually, through undoubtedly much pain and strife, fixed.
I see the desires on both sides of the aisle to fix this, but only on the left does there seem to be a reasonable mindset that comes close to reality in order to find the right path.
What we see in the bulk of the conservative right is simply far too much magical thinking.
Proof?
"Trump will save us! He says only HE can fix all this!"
Uh, huh. Oh yeah, this will go just fine....
Magical thinking comes from religion. Religion seems to be the moniker by which those who come to power need to bow and feign honest subservience to, all while they have no real feeling for it, no real adherence to it considering all the things mentioned above. But as with all the other elements of the modern politician have made use of and cast aside religious adherence like a pair of socks, discarding when dysfunctional, all while still ascribing a use and belief in.
Oh yeah, I can see this is all gonna go just fine for the next four years...if he can make it that far.
Trump is really irritating. Says he knows more than our Intelligence community says he knows "a lot about hacking."
I don't have the TIME or space to explain how much he doesn't know, ESPECIALLY about hacking. I wonder if he is a hunt and pecker on his keyboard. I wonder if he calls the IT guy every time he has a glitch on his home system. I wonder if he can even USED a computer.
He's pretty much far more of an embarrassment that Bush was.
We're in for a very Chinese style "interesting times" with this character in charge. Here's hoping this next intel briefing he's going to get dresses him down in such a way his brain kicks in, begins to work in the real world and actually starts to see something based on reality and not just what his "really good brain" and his own imagination comes up with.
Remember, Trump's imagination is based on two things primarily, both directed at better HIS position in the world. One, being a businessman. Two, conning his business marks, and now, thanks to people who cast their vote and made him president, we're now (and in his conflated mind, the entire world) are his marks.
America, World at large? You are Trump's big con (large confidence game\scam\trick) "mark" and a mark is all these things to a conman:
...something that shows how someone feels about something, this refers to the mark's attitude, to be manipulated in the con.
...a sign or indication of something, which shows what the mark is to a conman, an object to be manipulated.
...a quality or trait that is typical of a particular type of person or thing, what the con learns about and manipualted for their own good and the detriment of the mark in taking something away from the mark which sometimes is simply dignity, as perhaps the mark has access to something they don't own ouright, but the con can steal anyway.
...the line or place where a race starts, the mark is the beginning, the line of the scam starting.
...a cross made in place of a signature by someone who cannot read and write, the attitude of the con toward the mark in their being stupid, not as smart as the con artist. And Trump is an artist in many ways when it comes to taking things from people. This is common knowledge and if you don't know about it, you're a... then you're a prime mark.
...something that is aimed at or shot at, self-explanatory.
...a person who is tricked into losing money or property...America.
Happy New Year!
#GOP #Trump #NewtGingrich #Putin
This includes those authoritarians, right wingers (including Alt Right), the neo conservatives (relating to or denoting a return to a modified form of a traditional viewpoint, in particular a political ideology characterized by an emphasis on free-market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy) and those either theistic based (even if the individual or organization is atheistic in nature) or fawning theism for purposes of acquiring power. Another thing that has got to stop along with so much concern, so much sick fascination over personal lives for that of public ones.
They skillfully utilize modern techniques in persuasion using elements of counter-intelligence, even and in some cases greatly so using counter-intellectualism, disingenuous (not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does or twisting elements about to appear the opposite of what they are, or blaming an opposing group for what the claimants are perpetrating) polemics (using a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something).
This is what we need to fight against. Big money is politics utilizes it going back to their Godhead, the Tobacco industry, which the auto and petroleum industries have taken to their bed and that unholy marriage has led to its dissemination into politics to the detriment of the citizenry it supports, is supposed to protect, and exists only for the express purpose of making their lives better. Or to prop up bad ideas, bad ideologies, or whatever ideologies get them into and keep them in, power.
Further, rationalizing various points of democracy has led to a mentality of "the ends justifies the means", and that of (and sometimes, which is the needle as it is AT TIME true but not to the degree to which it has been utilized) that the nation comes before that of the individual citizenry. Which has led, along with big money and the sometimes unholy alliance of lobbyists (but again, as lobbyists have pointed out, they sever a special need, and it is the dynamic between them and others, and the interplay of power and money that has been and should be vilified) to separate out the protection and elevation of the citizens for that of the politicians, the powerful, the leaders of industry and corporations.
We have a big job ahead of us. We'll need the right person and people at the top, the right people surrounding (honestly) her (and I'm not referring just to Hillary but not a man) and those around that person. They will need the correct and cohesive national mindset to bear us through to see this applied, accomplished and eventually, through undoubtedly much pain and strife, fixed.
I see the desires on both sides of the aisle to fix this, but only on the left does there seem to be a reasonable mindset that comes close to reality in order to find the right path.
What we see in the bulk of the conservative right is simply far too much magical thinking.
Proof?
"Trump will save us! He says only HE can fix all this!"
Uh, huh. Oh yeah, this will go just fine....
Magical thinking comes from religion. Religion seems to be the moniker by which those who come to power need to bow and feign honest subservience to, all while they have no real feeling for it, no real adherence to it considering all the things mentioned above. But as with all the other elements of the modern politician have made use of and cast aside religious adherence like a pair of socks, discarding when dysfunctional, all while still ascribing a use and belief in.
Oh yeah, I can see this is all gonna go just fine for the next four years...if he can make it that far.
Trump is really irritating. Says he knows more than our Intelligence community says he knows "a lot about hacking."
I don't have the TIME or space to explain how much he doesn't know, ESPECIALLY about hacking. I wonder if he is a hunt and pecker on his keyboard. I wonder if he calls the IT guy every time he has a glitch on his home system. I wonder if he can even USED a computer.
He's pretty much far more of an embarrassment that Bush was.
We're in for a very Chinese style "interesting times" with this character in charge. Here's hoping this next intel briefing he's going to get dresses him down in such a way his brain kicks in, begins to work in the real world and actually starts to see something based on reality and not just what his "really good brain" and his own imagination comes up with.
Remember, Trump's imagination is based on two things primarily, both directed at better HIS position in the world. One, being a businessman. Two, conning his business marks, and now, thanks to people who cast their vote and made him president, we're now (and in his conflated mind, the entire world) are his marks.
America, World at large? You are Trump's big con (large confidence game\scam\trick) "mark" and a mark is all these things to a conman:
...something that shows how someone feels about something, this refers to the mark's attitude, to be manipulated in the con.
...a sign or indication of something, which shows what the mark is to a conman, an object to be manipulated.
...a quality or trait that is typical of a particular type of person or thing, what the con learns about and manipualted for their own good and the detriment of the mark in taking something away from the mark which sometimes is simply dignity, as perhaps the mark has access to something they don't own ouright, but the con can steal anyway.
...the line or place where a race starts, the mark is the beginning, the line of the scam starting.
...a cross made in place of a signature by someone who cannot read and write, the attitude of the con toward the mark in their being stupid, not as smart as the con artist. And Trump is an artist in many ways when it comes to taking things from people. This is common knowledge and if you don't know about it, you're a... then you're a prime mark.
...something that is aimed at or shot at, self-explanatory.
...a person who is tricked into losing money or property...America.
Happy New Year!
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Trump vs Kim Jong Un and his North Korean Nukes
Would you stand between two gunslingers in a showdown where you can't tell, you can't be sure what they will do? Standing there between two narcissists who think they are the great one while they are unpredictable if not outright unstable?
Okay now think of Trump as POTUS on the east coast of the US and North Korea just uh, north, of South Korea.
Even if NK can launch a nuke at the US, it's Alaska, maybe Hawaii, perhaps more so Guam, or at some point, possibly Seattle who is going to get it, not the east coast, not Trump. So effectively we also have two gunslingers where one can't even be hit. As we've seen, Trump is real brave, until he is actually in danger. Then he tends to run like a little girl. And not a beautiful one.
Now consider... I live in Bremerton, a navy town near Seattle, just across the Puget Sound. But I've lived in the PNW all my life mostly, born in Tacoma, WA. I've grown up through the cold war, with threat of nuclear annihilation and only the apparently highly effective program and theory of MAD protecting us. Just up the road a little way from my house is Nuclear Sub Base Bangor. As a kid I lived near McChord MAC AF Base and Ft. Lewis Army Training Base, now both JBLM (Joint Base Lewis -McChord).
 |
| 1962 Soviet Nuke Strike radius, line to my elementary school then. |
You can use NukeMap to detail your own home town strike. Or more quickly, here is a US Nuclear Strike map.
Washington has always been a target for nuclear missile strikes. Lot of bomb shelters around here when I was a kid and missile bases. You learn to live with it. In second grade during a nuclear attack drill when we were ordered to get under our desks, I had to ask our teacher why? She asked why I asked and I said because in a real attack the nukes blow sideways.
She gave me a look that said, "shut up, you're scaring the other kids." It didn't make me feel any better and I saw the scared looks from the other second graders, but I shut up and did the ridiculous drill anyway. Basically it was for an attack that happened a long way off. Except, my grade school, and you can look it up, James Sales Elementary School, is about a half of a mile away. A nuke's strike diameter at that time was
She gave me a look that said, "shut up, you're scaring the other kids." It didn't make me feel any better and I saw the scared looks from the other second graders, but I shut up and did the ridiculous drill anyway. Basically it was for an attack that happened a long way off. Except, my grade school, and you can look it up, James Sales Elementary School, is about a half of a mile away. A nuke's strike diameter at that time was
If you live elsewhere than the west coast consider this. NK is trying to build nuclear missiles on subs. The long term concern for America for many years has not even been a missile, but a briefcase nuke. Not even a full blown nuke but a dirty bomb of conventional explosives wrapped in nuclear material.
A study showed that if one were delivered downtown Seattle, it could render many square blocks of the downtown district uninhabitable for many, many years. Not so much a devastating blow (other than to those citizens who died from it) but surely one economically speaking.
Feel any better now?
No. Me either.
Maybe Trump will be to North Korea, what Richard Nixon was to China and bring them into the world.
Here's hoping.
Maybe Trump will be to North Korea, what Richard Nixon was to China and bring them into the world.
Here's hoping.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Special: End of the Trump \ Pence Administration - 2040
From a standard history book in 2040:
"Donald J Trump, a quickly forgotten businessman turned politician for profit, was America's last Republican president. A narcissistic and authoritarian style politician he had been a reality TV star (see, "The Apprentice") and businessman of questionable ethics. Trump ran for President of the United States of America in the election of 2016 and much to everyone's amazement (including his own and that of his campaign staff), he won.
"Trump's campaign, which started merely as a joke and a way to enhance the "Trump" brand under the guise of "cleaning up the swamp" (referring to Washington DC politics) and "Making America Great Again" (a slogan that had little substance or meaning to it, but resonated a great deal with faux conservatives who had little or nothing better to do). The campaign was propped up by a rag tag ad hoc supporter base of the disenfranchised, the poor, the uneducated (see, "I love the uneducated"), many who should have simply known better, oddly enough a Christian evangelical base and those we now know as the Faux Freedom Believers (FFB) mindset in America at that time.
"This was a group who pushed for freedom of public lands (so individual Republicans profiting from it didn't have to pay to use public lands), a desire for "a gun in every hand", and essentially a desire for anarchy in wanting little or better yet, no government, all along with a faux conservative electorate and the rapidly dissolving Republican Party (see, "Zombie Republican Party") who saw in Trump, simply a way to regain power no matter how crazy he sounded or how ignorant is grasp of civics and world politics was during a very dangerous time in the world.
"Trump's election was also the last time Christian Americans lost the path of their religion and elected someone like Trump for reasons of, "just because". Even though he had exhibited a lifetime of a lifestyle that was the antithesis to what Christianity espoused. But then most Christians had little clue about what their leader, Jesus, really wanted or said or meant. Christianity lost many believers after Trump's short lived administration because it was taken over by Mike Pence who was his short lived Vice President (See, "Downfall of Pres. Mike Pence") and it began the American decline of the Christian Evangelical movement.
"Russia also saw opportunity in this election and helped from afar through electronic connections and elsewhere including direct interactions through Russian espionage operatives, in order to enhance and assure the Trump election. This included a branch of the FSB in Wikileaks and it's founder, Julian Assange (see, "2019 Assange Execution by FSB"). Thus assuring Russia a place at the negotiating table in being closer to the head of the table along with American interests. Russian interests which over time were found to overwhelm American desires for Russian ones through the cult of personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin (much like Trump's). This Ex-KGB trained operative ruled Russia for many years and was an authoritarian nationalist (see the article, "Be Extremely Wary of Nationalism") who abused international borders, killed his dissenters and reporters he did not like, and had ex patriots killed in their new home countries (see, "Alexander Litvinenko").
"Trump did not last through his first 100 days as president before uncovered illegal activities came to light, an ever increasing instability and a Nixon like breakdown in office (see, "Pres. Richard Nixon Barked Like a Dog Under Pressure and Other Stories of Mental Illness"). It is difficult now for critical thinkers to consider how it could have been possible for something so obvious and happening in the open wasn't realized and put down. But that is how a well run operation is executed on a foreign power. Again it is very hard to understand, though Russian activities in American politics is understandable, how an American Republican party would work against its own country and citizens.
"Among other things It was also found over time and finally accepted that:
"1) Trump had attained the election during a period of duress by the America people in lying to them publicly and openly and getting away with it, and other questionable activities (see, "Backdoor Manipulations of the Electorate");
"2) Trump had the help of long term detrimental workings through Soviet Union style disinformation and misinformation by both the Russian intelligence community (as directed by their leader, Vladimir Putin), as well as oddly enough by the now defunct American Republican Party. Also and in general by American faux conservatives (true followers of the conservative mindset were wary of all this) through right wing media (see, "Wingnut Media") and citizen groups against the Democratic nominee running against him for President in that of Hillary Clinton. One time First Lady during the 1990s Clinton Administration of her husband Bill Clinton, as well as having served as a Senator and Secretary of State in the Barack Obama Administration it was later found that nearly all of the negative beliefs about her were false and had been managed by Russian intelligence and again, and oddly enough (again), the American Republican Party.
"3) This section is so extensive it is here simply labeled, Money (see, "Illegal Actions by Pres. Donald J Trump)."
"America learned a great deal from the Trump/Pence administration even though in total it only lasted a mere two years and brought down with it many Republican Congressional leaders such as Mitch McConnell who was jailed and later murdered in prison for crimes against America. It was only a two year term of office that took nearly twenty years for America to recoup from both inside America and with their damaged international prestige. The American legacy was quickly resurrected and enhanced once a Democratic president took over in 2018 (see, "Emergency Presidential Election of 2018"). It was an election that was also supported even by the soon to be dissolved (by the FBI) Republican party (See, "New Party of the Republic" (NPR)) which grew more to be far more functional than it's precursor in the old GOP (Grand Old Party). American politics after the election of 2018 began to be more functional from then on for the first time in over twenty years (see, "Arrest and incarceration of Newt Gingrich").
There is hope. There is always, hope.
#Trump #Putin #GOP
"Donald J Trump, a quickly forgotten businessman turned politician for profit, was America's last Republican president. A narcissistic and authoritarian style politician he had been a reality TV star (see, "The Apprentice") and businessman of questionable ethics. Trump ran for President of the United States of America in the election of 2016 and much to everyone's amazement (including his own and that of his campaign staff), he won.
"Trump's campaign, which started merely as a joke and a way to enhance the "Trump" brand under the guise of "cleaning up the swamp" (referring to Washington DC politics) and "Making America Great Again" (a slogan that had little substance or meaning to it, but resonated a great deal with faux conservatives who had little or nothing better to do). The campaign was propped up by a rag tag ad hoc supporter base of the disenfranchised, the poor, the uneducated (see, "I love the uneducated"), many who should have simply known better, oddly enough a Christian evangelical base and those we now know as the Faux Freedom Believers (FFB) mindset in America at that time.
"This was a group who pushed for freedom of public lands (so individual Republicans profiting from it didn't have to pay to use public lands), a desire for "a gun in every hand", and essentially a desire for anarchy in wanting little or better yet, no government, all along with a faux conservative electorate and the rapidly dissolving Republican Party (see, "Zombie Republican Party") who saw in Trump, simply a way to regain power no matter how crazy he sounded or how ignorant is grasp of civics and world politics was during a very dangerous time in the world.
"Trump's election was also the last time Christian Americans lost the path of their religion and elected someone like Trump for reasons of, "just because". Even though he had exhibited a lifetime of a lifestyle that was the antithesis to what Christianity espoused. But then most Christians had little clue about what their leader, Jesus, really wanted or said or meant. Christianity lost many believers after Trump's short lived administration because it was taken over by Mike Pence who was his short lived Vice President (See, "Downfall of Pres. Mike Pence") and it began the American decline of the Christian Evangelical movement.
"Russia also saw opportunity in this election and helped from afar through electronic connections and elsewhere including direct interactions through Russian espionage operatives, in order to enhance and assure the Trump election. This included a branch of the FSB in Wikileaks and it's founder, Julian Assange (see, "2019 Assange Execution by FSB"). Thus assuring Russia a place at the negotiating table in being closer to the head of the table along with American interests. Russian interests which over time were found to overwhelm American desires for Russian ones through the cult of personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin (much like Trump's). This Ex-KGB trained operative ruled Russia for many years and was an authoritarian nationalist (see the article, "Be Extremely Wary of Nationalism") who abused international borders, killed his dissenters and reporters he did not like, and had ex patriots killed in their new home countries (see, "Alexander Litvinenko").
"Trump did not last through his first 100 days as president before uncovered illegal activities came to light, an ever increasing instability and a Nixon like breakdown in office (see, "Pres. Richard Nixon Barked Like a Dog Under Pressure and Other Stories of Mental Illness"). It is difficult now for critical thinkers to consider how it could have been possible for something so obvious and happening in the open wasn't realized and put down. But that is how a well run operation is executed on a foreign power. Again it is very hard to understand, though Russian activities in American politics is understandable, how an American Republican party would work against its own country and citizens.
"Among other things It was also found over time and finally accepted that:
"1) Trump had attained the election during a period of duress by the America people in lying to them publicly and openly and getting away with it, and other questionable activities (see, "Backdoor Manipulations of the Electorate");
"2) Trump had the help of long term detrimental workings through Soviet Union style disinformation and misinformation by both the Russian intelligence community (as directed by their leader, Vladimir Putin), as well as oddly enough by the now defunct American Republican Party. Also and in general by American faux conservatives (true followers of the conservative mindset were wary of all this) through right wing media (see, "Wingnut Media") and citizen groups against the Democratic nominee running against him for President in that of Hillary Clinton. One time First Lady during the 1990s Clinton Administration of her husband Bill Clinton, as well as having served as a Senator and Secretary of State in the Barack Obama Administration it was later found that nearly all of the negative beliefs about her were false and had been managed by Russian intelligence and again, and oddly enough (again), the American Republican Party.
"3) This section is so extensive it is here simply labeled, Money (see, "Illegal Actions by Pres. Donald J Trump)."
"America learned a great deal from the Trump/Pence administration even though in total it only lasted a mere two years and brought down with it many Republican Congressional leaders such as Mitch McConnell who was jailed and later murdered in prison for crimes against America. It was only a two year term of office that took nearly twenty years for America to recoup from both inside America and with their damaged international prestige. The American legacy was quickly resurrected and enhanced once a Democratic president took over in 2018 (see, "Emergency Presidential Election of 2018"). It was an election that was also supported even by the soon to be dissolved (by the FBI) Republican party (See, "New Party of the Republic" (NPR)) which grew more to be far more functional than it's precursor in the old GOP (Grand Old Party). American politics after the election of 2018 began to be more functional from then on for the first time in over twenty years (see, "Arrest and incarceration of Newt Gingrich").
There is hope. There is always, hope.
#Trump #Putin #GOP
Monday, January 2, 2017
I miss the Intellectual Conservative
Conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.
Conservatism as we've known it from the beginning, is dead.
Conservatism as we've known it from the beginning, is dead.
- I miss the true intellectual conservative.
- I miss William F Buckley, Jr.
- I miss the non theological conservative, the ones who could differentiate between personal beliefs and the American way. One would could see that the American way wasn't based on religion, but based on protection of citizens allowing them the freedoms to practice religion, or more sanely as our Founding Fathers preferred but had trouble in their society much as we do now, in exemplifying no religion at all.
- I miss the conservative who understands what true freedom is and not just the current conservative understanding of what they want it to be.
- I miss the conservative who understands what has been sacrificed for them to have the right to believe and say utter nonsense, and yet these new wannabe conservatives don't get that just because one has a right doesn't mean one should exercise it unduly or inappropriately and certainly not just to exercise your desire for satiation against reason.
- I miss the conservative with a brain.
- I miss conservatism that believed in conserving our conservation lands.
- I miss the conservative that wasn't overtly and destructively religious.
- I miss the rational conservative, the educated conservative, the conservative who knows how to debate, use facts, become educated, who can acknowledge reality as defined by experts who actually know what reality is in any one or more areas.
I miss the Intellectual Conservative
Willam F. Buckley wrote something about Donald Trump when he was talking about running for President — in 2000. Buckley, in an essay he wrote for Cigar Aficionado and said the following about Trump:
Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America. But whatever the depths of self-enchantment, the demagogue has to say something. So what does Trump say? That he is a successful businessman and that that is what America needs in the Oval Office. There is some plausibility in this, though not much. The greatest deeds of American Presidents — midwifing the new republic; freeing the slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War — had little to do with a bottom line.
In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. Actual facts do tend to feel unfamiliar to those unknowledgeable. And it gives incorrect information a familiar feel to it, especially when it already matches their agenda, their desires and their beliefs.
That behavior of calling out others when you have done something wrong, is a mainstay of the Republican party.
A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, not out of ignorance, but so often out of a desire for power and money.
Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but they cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed others to build around them. Out of a desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise. In this way they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies.
And so, other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America.
No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.
I miss the Intellectual Conservative Four Pillars of Conservatism
The first pillar of conservatism is liberty, or freedom. [But one can push anything too far, and they certainly strive to do that]
The second pillar of conservative philosophy is tradition and order. [as we've seen tradition can stifle growth when, as conservatives tend to do, you go too far, exaggerate thinking more is better. But a bowl of ice cream is delicious, a bowl for each meal without other sustenance, day in and day out brings on diabetes and potentially death]
The third pillar is the rule of law. [Fascists love this pillar and again, overdoing anything is too much]
The fourth pillar is belief in God. Belief in God means adherence to the broad concepts of religious faith—such things as justice, virtue, fairness, charity, community, and duty. These are the concepts on which conservatives base their philosophy.[there truly, with all that is going on today, no reason to further extrapolate on this very dangerous one]
I miss the Intellectual Conservative
#conservative
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Happy New Year 2017!
Wishing you all world wide, all the happiness and conform, safety and prosperity possible...and then some!
If 2016 is any sign of what we're going to be up against, it looks like we're gonna need it!
We'll make it. We'll rise to the occasion, no matter what it is or who is at odds with us!
Peace!
Sláinte
If 2016 is any sign of what we're going to be up against, it looks like we're gonna need it!
We'll make it. We'll rise to the occasion, no matter what it is or who is at odds with us!
Peace!
Sláinte
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