Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Walkabout Thoughts #21

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…
 

Weather for the day… 41 degrees, broken clouds, sunny, nice cool day for a walkabout

Podcast for the day Pod Save America, "Dicks Seek Pics."

Instagram post for the day

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve gone for a walk. Past couple of days it’s been really hard to write. And I haven’t felt that good since a few days after my last walk (first it was my pneumonia shot, then weather issues). So it occurred to me... I need to walk. I need to get used to going the basement using the elliptical and not let bad weather stop me one way or another as we're into the PNW winter season. So here I am today, and walking feels very good!

So, my “Suffering Long Covid“ book has been out for a month or so. Doing well, well... OK. An actual professional virologist read it, loved it, and tweeted it on Facebook and Twitter  and said they’d post a review on its Amazon page. That made me feel pretty good. She said it was well researched. Nice to have a competent reader comment, not to mention an actual scientist/medical type.

So now I am deep into writing the companion book to my filmic poem / historical documentary “Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero“. Actually having a good time writing. As I was writing, I was researching the name of the author recorded from his 1916 book on World War 1, "Le Jeu" (1916) Henri Barbusse. Or, “Under Fire: The Story of a Squad“. A popular book at the time. It turns out that random quote I found that I use at the end of my film, right after my list of all "Wars on Earth, I couldn't have chosen a better quote, or a more well related novelist about exactly my topic and a novel oriented exactly as my film is, as far as being antiwar and humanitarian. Which I discovered by reading a page by Prof. Susan R. Grayzel at the University of Mississippi, who is teaching this book. So I contacted her to make her aware of my documentary on WWI, and I’m giving her her note in my book.

Anyway, writing a book about a film on WWI is much easier on the psyche, then actually editing a WWI documentary, or writing a book on long Covid, when you have had it. And still do. Regarding that, I'm at the tail end of long Covid, but it’s really obnoxious. It just won’t just go completely away. I fear it may last another year or year and a half. But hoping for next week.

I haven't heard this called out in a while, but someone being interviewed yesterday called out as reasons for some of our civil unrest,
"Information Overload".
Worldwide, not just in America.
And there may be something to that.
As he put it, in our "Information Age", which some argue we've passed, now living in a post-info age, people are having trouble responding appropriately to info they're faced with.
Some, which they're not actually faced with as it's misinfo, disinfo & propaganda.
First. we need to recognize how some of us are well trained in handling being bombarded with massive amounts of information.
University educated, working for decades in high tech environments, and so on.
Though some of them, too many, also fall down these info rabbit holes of utter nonsense.
Still, too many of us are well...not educated, well enough anyway, to properly handle the vast amounts of info we're deluged with on a daily basis.
Or how to separate gold standard accurate info, from the chaff.
Honestly, I have known some self-admitted, very uneducated people, who handle all this vastly better than some of those very highly educated & trained people, who are completely lost in sheer stupidity.
We don't normally see or recognize this in that way, with all the disparities of education, training & awareness we see among our populations & nations.
Which could explain much of our unrest...over nothing.
QAnon, MAGA, toxic conservativism...even toxic capitalism...spewing lies for profit.
We really need to better educate our humans.
Or at least face this situation straight on, much better.
A hell of a lot better. Critical thinking, thinking outside one's own beliefs or tribe, is a very big problem today.

Man, I put my phone away after transcribing notes and put my gloves on... my fingertips are really cold. 

They’re talking on the podcast about how some conservatives were ranting at them about how these guys in the podcast, tried to rig an election. And they laughed about it because it’s so stupid and nonsensical. But I’ve noticed that about conspiracy types. Generally silly people. They always ascribe far too much functionality to people and a government that they find so severely lacking. You’ll notice that with conspiracies or such nonsense if you look into it. They often do what Trump does in throwing up complaints about both sides of something, cherry picking what and when they say these things. While they may seem to make sense at times, on reflection, or evaluation, you'll notice exactly that about what they say. Confusion. Because all they’re saying are things to spark conflict and outrage. So when you hear a "debate" involving someone like that. And I say "debate" with quotes, because one side is being irrational, leaping around different forms of logic, saying conflicting things,. Then you look at the other side, who isn't doing all that and... it doesn’t matter what the context or the topic is...it’s just obvious who's wrong between them. It’s interesting how that seems to be found mostly on the conservative side, anymore. And there’s more conservatives in things like law-enforcement. Where we find things like evidence tampering and getting somebody into prison, when they can’t prove their case and have to use underhanded means. The same mentality. The, “I am right! Therefore, the ends justifies the means.“ That’s what jihadists say, isn't it? Don’t be those jihadist types in American politics. Or at least please, move where you can live your confused reality where theocrat’s rule and abuse.

The podcast is discussing Biden and the DNC changing up primaries? I agree, things need to be changed, updated. I also agree with them that we need to reevaluate every so often, when things change, just not every 50 years. I mean... the RNC does. They’ve changed things around to benefit themselves, to better guarantee their elections. Regardless of laws whenever they can get away with it, or in extra-political ways, even with extra-legal efforts. Such as voter suppression, gerrymandering...which needs to go away. I’m not like people who want to guarantee they’re in power at all times. All I want is a fair election process. I believe this is a liberal democratic republic. Because it is. And I believe we need a representative government, because that’s what we were based on. That’s what we were founded upon. Not seeing that so much from the Republican party anymore. Who are Americans. So represent them! And not just white people, not just white males. I'm a white male, I have no problem with us representing other than my group. Whatever is FAIR to our COUNTRY. Just do what’s right! Remember "Justice is blind"? That's what it means. Do what is right without an "eye" toward special interests that unbalance the scales.

It’s good that they, so I hear, can address this issue with Donald Trump throwing out our Constitution. In a sense, what he said in his “Truths“ (Truth Social "Tweets"), that he’s already done this,  so it’s not that big a deal. So far as things he's said and done, it does, I mean, when you try to overthrow an election, when you attempt and fail to have a coup... that’s throwing out the constitution. On the other hand, it’s kind of an American "mortal sin". In being just about the worst thing he could ever say, as an American, as a FPOTUS, because this country is founded on and guided by our US Constitution. So how is every Republican and MAGA nutcase not throwing him under several buses and a train? It truly boggles the brain. But there's that conservative selective, cherry picking reality, raising its ugly head again.

It’s a valid point that all of our lawmakers swear to our US Constitution. So they should’ve reacted to Trump's comments, rather viscerally, and from the foundation of their very "souls". Unless they don't have any.

So, as they say, it doesn’t really tell us anything new about Donald Trump. But it tells us volumes about his supporters, Republican leadership, and the rather diminished Republican Party at large.

By the way, in case you haven’t noticed… Trump's rubbing shoulders, literally, with people who are not even wannabe Nazis, but pretty much just are. Kanye, Ye, saying he has a lot of respect for Hitler? Fuck, excuse me?

By the way, Trump is not a constitutionalist. Just in case you haven’t noticed.

In the comment on the podcast just now, someone said that we’re not far away from jars of piss at Mar-a-Lago. That is, a Howard Hughes reference.

As today is December 6, 2022, and the runoff election in Georgia for Warnock v Walker is today, We're all very interested to see what Republican leadership says tomorrow, once this election is over. Because I’m pretty sure Mitch McConnel was biting his tongue, not wanting to pollute any worse what they’ve already polluted, in this particular election with a complete numb nut, dumbass, Som'naBitch in Herschel Walker.

Speaking of which, why are Republicans so enamored with people who have obvious mental health issues? There’s been quite a few of them, too. I can't see them as a serious political party any longer. Other than they get nut cases into office and that affects us. So bizarre. They're more like a joke organized crime mob, who is still restraining from outright violence, but instead, using stochastic terrorism to excrete there...desired results.

The White House said this week that the US Constitution is a document that pulls America together. While the Republican Party through their leaders is using it us to divide us. I’m not sure how much further down the rabbit hole they can go at this point. Because at some point that rabbit hole becomes a chimney stack in the ceiling of their own self made political hell.

The new, unofficial Republican motto given by others and rightfully so, through observation: "We never fail to let you down and then go lower than you ever thought we could go."

As far as conservatives, losing their mind over Elon‘s "Twitter files", about Biden’s people a while back, asking Twitter to take down his son's dick pics… These people really can’t discern the difference between family issues and political issues. Trump's nepotism in bringing his own children INTO the White House to further enrichen their family, is kind of an issue. If Trump's daughter had naked pictures online, then he asked for them to be taken down, that would be a family issue. Just not rocket science. Of course if this were Trump it WOULD have been something (probably) illegal.

I think if we could get rid of sensationalism in politics today, considering Donald Trump and his Republican Party, he'd vanish and they would fall back into being an actual and functional political party again. With no other efforts.

OK, I also agree with the podcast that Elon Musk is professing to be things he’s not. He’s into the free speech thing, until it pops up against his desires. That’s autocracy, in case he doesn’t know. Yes it’s a company and he has controlling shares of it, but it is a publicly traded company, right?

Well, onto home, working on my book, and tonight and the Georgia runoff election. Good luck Sen. Warnock! And Georgia. And America. How we'd NOT want that man in Congress is quite beyond the rational. 

Cheers! Sláinte!

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