My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:
Today’s podcast is from Politics War Room, with James Carville, Al Hunt, about Ron DeSantis, etc.
How much is what ridiculous Republican Gov.s Abbott and DeSantis are doing has nothing to do with immigration, per se, or state resources they have had to utilize to care for them, so... they shipped people off to blue states? How much does it actually have to do with even one more blue voter potentially taking up residence in their self -perceived, wanna be only red states? Very little.
Note for self: Add links on my jzmurdock.com website about the Ash Black and maybe update it about the Kelly Hughes stuff regarding Gorst Underground Film Festival, Slash Nights, etc., to its Films & Stage page. [Done]
Regarding Mike Lindel‘s whining this past week about the FBI serving a warrant on his cell phone (maybe other things, I don’t know), if he runs several companies from that phone as he claimed, and if he’s a professional (LOL), does he seriously not back his digital work up, so if he needs a new cell phone (due to breakage, loss, theft, FBI warrant) then he'd be good to go? Unbelievable. And people trust this man? Why? And why, if he supports Trump, would anyone trust that his "business practices" are a good thing?
I’m a phenomenologist with a university degree in psychology from WWU. As I get older, I’ve been having thoughts about how one remembers things and how our memory works. I know that the things we remember best are things we repeatedly remember over the years. But I've wondered about our thoughts on things we haven’t thought about for decades. So I’ve tried to drum up some of those things but I can’t remember random things I try to call up. For instance. I know my girlfriend (whom I lived with through college) and I went and saw Ghostbusters, when it came out, up in Bellingham Washington. I remember that night clearly. But when I try to remember all movies we saw together over that five years or so (including time before and after we started college), I can’t remember all or most of them. I do remember the Ghostbusters night, because three guys who were in my year-long team script writing series of classes, worked there. They said we could come down and see a movie free sometime. We were all broke all the time, so we went for it one night and they did let us in free. After Ghostbuster at the multiplex, they said we could stay for another if we liked. While we wanted to go home, we thought we should take the opportunity. One of them said he was off shift and would sit with us to watch the movie. This was the late great actor/writer, Dave Skibinna (Mike Rainey was one of the others), Both of them were founding members of the Annex Theater in Seattle, which originated on Bainbridge Island, a fifty minute ferry ride away. Dave watched the second film with us while loudly commenting how bad he thought it was, irritated all the way through and pissing off everybody around us, making my girlfriend and I uncomfortable. I tried to laugh it off, while I tried to get him to stop. I wanted to watch the movie too and, it wasn't that bad. But I have to say that now years later, it's pretty funny. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about B-52 bombers lately. I was in the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the USAF, in the 92nd Field Maintenance Squadron (92nd FMS). I’ve been reading about B-52s in a Facebook group dedicated to them. One of the guys in the group mentioned using the facilities to go to the bathroom inside the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fucker, or "fellow" when around civilians), while in flight. So there was one! A memory I haven’t thought about in decades. Where WAS the “bathroom“ in a B 52? Just now as I'm walking I'm thinking, "OK, so try to remember that." And I couldn’t. But I kept at it and finally, vaguely, I do remember being on the flight deck in the BUFF and asking the crew chief about it. Because of course I would ask about that as a new Airman standing on the lower deck, of a B-52 bomber I was there to work on as it was parked on the flightline being readied to either go to the Alert Facility after being uploaded with nukes, or to take off soon. So... there is an example of something I haven’t thought about in years but was actually able to drum it up in memory. Maybe there’s hope for me after all?
A fixed up, semi low-rider truck just went by me with its pipes rumbling, at about 15 miles an hour. I've see this guy before on my walks sometimes in the morning. Loud pipes are just no respect for other people. As it was with my Harley, though my pipes weren’t really really loud, but I did try to quietly get out of the neighborhood before making any real noise. Same thing with my Camaro back in the 70s which I had set up to do 130+mph, or so. That on my trips from Spokane to Tacoma (Fairchild AFB is just outside Spokane where I was stationed). I make that drive in an hour less than everybody else I knew. I had carefully selected my pipes for that car (and drive). When I left or returned home, the car was pretty quiet. But when you’re doing over 100 for a sustained period of time, it can kind get to your ears a bit. Though it wasn’t really loud, there was a kind of beautiful humming sound. Once I was at home with my best friend and my wife borrowed the car. So she gets to the stop sign three blocks away, turns left onto the main neighborhood road, and we both looked at each other because we could hear her punch it as the pipes opened up and we both had to crack up.
I also think about this from time to time though… how when I was a kid at eighteen, when I had my first Camaro (a convertible), 1967 SS/RS (the first model Z28 before it had that title), I always tried to be a good citizen and a good driver. Mom always said, if you guys drink, just don’t drive, or call and I'll come get you. So we were very good about that. Friday nights, we always had a designated driver. Who was miserable until the next Friday night, when they could party. But it also gave one a good perspective on what you looked like drunk, in viewing your friends drunk. Maybe it also tempered you a little. We are street racers in the early 70s. But we were as careful as we could be. We had a strip on the opposite side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a good quarter-mile race strip when around midnight or so with no one was around, we could drag each other. We also had select streets around town that we’re good for that. One especially that we loved. Called, Golden Givens Road. We'd show up there, stop at the end of the road by the stop sign, and do the quarter-mil. At 2 AM or something when no one was around. I liked to think I was pretty good in being a good citizen (again, as a street racer). The last time I went there back then, it was during the day and I realized that it really was a neighborhood. When we were there at 2 AM, squealing our tires, racking our pipes and racing in a quarter mile through that length of pure neighborhood, on that really nice, broad street...what the hell were we thinking? Well, obviously we weren’t very enlightened. We were young and dumb…and all that.
But...Be a good citizen. Be a good human. And be a good American. Be aware of others beyond yourself. Don’t attack other Americans, because they should have the right merely in being in America, or surely in being an American (assume they are, err on the side of caution and decency), and no citizen should be getting attacked by another citizen. Think about that, as a model for our country.
I save my coffee grounds for one of my kid's farm and they compost it. I have my Costco mixed nut containers and when they’re empty I use them to put my expended coffee grounds in every day. Takes a while to fill. If I notice mold, because normally the grounds dry out overnight before I dump them in the bin but sometimes, depending on time of year, they won't, I just toss the bin in my freezer for a hard freeze. If I leave it in long enough, the mold doesn’t seem to continue growing.
So I’ve heard before when you're working out, if you don’t sweat, you’re not working out yet. I’ve noticed the more in shape I get, the longer and harder it takes to get to that sweat. Just saying…cuz I was just noticing...
On a Donald Trump pardon… Here’s my thought, get him to promise to tell everything truthfully and he can have a pardon. Because... he won’t. Then you can get everything out of him you can and when you find a lie, that’s the end of the pardon...do not stop at Go and go directly to jail! Look, the guy's a pathological liar. And they will still be State investigations for laws he's broken and that he’s going to go to prison for (if there's any sanity left at all). I did hear a good argument for a pardon. To keep less informed and more childish MAGA types from self harm (harming themselves, others and America that is).
Two things about Trump being a FPOTUS. First, no one is above the law and that has to be the law. Former president or not. Second, Trump did not respect the presidency, the oval office, the White House, the US government, or our citizens. So as far as respecting him as a former president? Bullshit. He abdicated that right. As far as all other presidents before and after him and respecting the office? Once again we need to make it clear he, HE, did not respect the office. Turnabout's fair play. Trump needs to be broken and trashed for what he did so it never happens again. Otherwise this was all just practice for much much worse. and like James Carville said... If you left him having done what he did, flagrantly breaking the law in front of everyone, abusing the office of the president, why are you worried about dividing the country, something which he’s already done anyway. What does that say to our young people? To future Trump wanabees? Not to mention internationally, what damage has that and will that do with other countries, both ally and enemy? No matter how you shake this, Trump must be prosecuted. But not just punished. His actions have demanded he must have our most severe punishment. Of the capital type. Sure, as humanly possible, of course, but with all due and deserved prejudice.
Read Merrick Garland's speech from the other day. Which wasn’t political, but certainly was passion, because unlike MAGA or Trump, who faux-love America based on fantasies and ugly ones at that, Garland is a true patriot and the real Attorney General of the United States of America. Not a play wanna one be one like Bill Barr who acted as Trump’s puppet, for the most part.
As of today, since I caught CoViD in February 2020, and since I caught long CoViD again after my last infection back in March 28, 2022, today marks my first time walking 5 miles on two consecutive walks, the last one being last Thursday and today being Sunday. Progress after a long miserable bout of long CoViD I'm still trying to get over.
Something the James Carville podcast just mentioned about Salt Lake City and skiing, and basketball... anyway, it reminded me of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in September / October of 1975. It was a very confused flight of 50 Airman (or want to be Airman, you're not an Airman until you Pass Basic training), where some of us didn’t make it to the end. I think our Technical Instructor (TI, what some branches call a DI), was a security policeman. Scary tough looking guy who was hard, but fair and we liked him. I think he was a Tech Sgt. His assistant TI, I believe was a buck sergeant, a sweet, really nice guy. Not sure how he ended up as a TI. Anyway, a couple weeks into our six week basic training, our TI got pulled out and reassigned. So our definitely not ready to be a full TI yet, Sergeant, took his place. He was much easier to deal with, I don’t want to say, to push around, but to maneuver him. I was the front right Squad leader because I was tallest at 6’2”. Plus, in Civil Air Patrol as a kid I was a flight commander and I taught drill. I knew the Civil Air Patrol manual inside and out. I was a good instructor (after years in Karate as a younger kid). So under our new sergeant, he would sometimes call a marching command out (he was only a few feet to my right), I would call out, because I liked being a smart ass if I could get away with it and calling out illegal commands was nothing if not that, I would loudly say “Sergeant, that’s not a legal command.” It took a few times, but he came to realize I really did know how to drill better than he did. So if he made a mistake he would look at me and ask, with a smirk, "Is that right?" Until finally, he just told me to say the command and I would yell out whatever it was that HE wanted called, and correctly. I think it’s because apparently command at some point didn’t like his training and so they replaced him with a hard ass Master Sergeant who was a serious fucking sergeant and TI. First thing he did was demote our dorm chief and all four of us squad leaders. Which I certainly didn’t deserve and we complained. Honestly the dorm chief was kind of screwing up but he was a nice guy, too. We came close to cruising through basic training until the MSgt showed up. So we suffered through basic training. Before we graduated and became actual Airmen, because of my flat feet kicked I got kicked out of being headed into law-enforcement. Because I couldn’t sit in the squad car all day, or something. My first choice for a new job was flight simulator technician. Second was parachute rigger, since I’d been skydiving before. BUt that first job was quickly taken because it was popular. That hurt, it sounded interesting. With after Service job potential. And so I became a parachute rigger. They had to re-cut my orders, so I went into 30 days of what they call “casual“ after graduating basic. Which is where you just stay in barracks in a certain area (aside from all the basic training areas) with other barracks and all the other airman and women (women being separate) until your new orders were cut. It was kind of miserable as there was nothing to do but wait. Every morning you lined up and got chosen by whomever needed help, and then the rest we’re free for the day, if there weren't enough jobs. But a few of us who were left from our BMTS, our basic military training squadron, would meet up with the Airman's club and typically, just get drunk. Oh that reminds me, before we got out of basic training, some of the guys went to a San Antonio professional basketball game. The home team won. So they got the game ball signed by the team and acquired it for $50. We all then chipped in when they got back to the squadron and gave that team ball to our Sgt asst. TI because he loved that team. That’s how much we liked the guy. Final story about him. One night he showed up at the Airman's club, one of the guys had run into him and said we were doing that so we expected him. He sat with I think five of us remaining on base and we were very happy to see him. So we started buying him beers. He kept saying he had to go but we kept trying to get him to stay and with each beer he was a little more amenable to staying. Until finally... his wife showed up! Pissed off. Apparently, he was supposed to be picking up his new flight of 50 basic trainees who were left standing there wondering where he was. Actually it was other TI's standing around getting pissed off taking care of his trainees. So he said sorry guys, and quite drunk, he headed out with his wife to go pick up his new flight. It’s hard to remember now, but I think we found out the next day that he was OK. He didn’t get court martialed, or fired, but we were very worried about him and it was after all, our fault. Kind of. I mean, that's what his wife told us as they were leaving. When she picked him up. Though we made it clear we had no idea he had anywhere else to go. Basic training. Six weeks, maybe not as long as other services may be, but at least we walked out of there as Airman, knowing what’s going on in the Service, having had had classes in training, and beat and pushed and browbeat beyond our limits so we could handle being in the military, if not to some degree, war. And now Putin is going to throw 300,000 guys like that, with no training at all (as Russia uses OJT, On the Job Training), on the front lines of his illegal war in Ukraine, to die most likely. What an asshole.
A guy on the podcast just mentioned the new Ken Burns documentary on The US and the Holocaust. I watched the first two hour episode I have two more parts to get through. but I agree with the podcast that it is fascinating, ugly, but amazingly informative. I posted a tweet the other day saying everyone should watch this, most especially MAGA,as well as holocaust deniers (not that it will do any good). Specially holocaust deniers, a mindset even dumber than flattearthers. One of my tweets about it was because of my own World War I, filmic poem and documentary "Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero“ which has won a bunch of awards around the world. In making it I would wonder, what would Ken Burns do? Thinking of him, made it a better documentary. When I finished it I wondered what this could be like if he redid my documentary. I even sent him a link to it, twice. Who knows, MAYBE he saw it? When I got to one thirty second piece of WWI that he did, a shot in particular exactly like one of the shots I made, of the firing of a big gun with associated sound effects. It was beautiful piece of editing/production work. So I did finally get to see what/how Ken Burns would do with the same (similar) material. Now if only he would let me know that he saw that 28 minute film of mine and... liked it, or hated it. I'd be good, either way.
Nixon's idea with China in the 70s was to bring them into the world in order to neutralize their path at that time. Some say that went wrong. But then, we hadn't changed out paths often enough along the way. Then we just caved and gave them massive IP of ours for cheap manufacturing. So how do we do this now with North Korea? Where all the typical fixes won't work? Perhaps, we begin to offer them technology that is only useful and good for their citizens' daily lives. Until one day maybe decades from now, we see happen what we are seeing now in Iran. Where the young have finally had it with all the restrictions and abuse and demand change? There IS a solution, somewhere, somehow. We just have to find it, and act on it.
At the end of the podcast, they got a listener question from Germany asking if political debates serve any purpose anymore. They agreed maybe it's run its course and isn't that useful anymore. But one of the podcasters said he once directed a debate up in the northeast in 2011 and one of the smart things they did was to have the debaters ask each other questions. As that shows a lot about them personally, and their platform in what questions they asked and just in questions that might not otherwise have been asked.
And that was the end of my second consecutive walkabout day at five miles duration! Progress! Take that Long CoViD!
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