Weather for the day… 42 overcast nice cool day for a walkabout
Podcast for the day Janes episode on "Using OSINT to understand geoeconomic statecraft." With Brigadier General, USAF (retired) Gwyn Armfield.
Instagram post for the day
So today I don’t feel like walking at all. But I am. Finally received the new magnets that I put on my new front gate to hold it shut in the wind. Hope it works because when trying to locate them on the gate, where they should go, they snapped together and pinched my little finger, painfully cracking the skin open. They did come with a warning, saying be careful, and I was but… Be careful.
So today I don’t feel like walking at all. But I am. Finally received the new magnets that I put on my new front gate to hold it shut in the wind. Hope it works because when trying to locate them on the gate, where they should go, they snapped together and pinched my little finger, painfully cracking the skin open. They did come with a warning, saying be careful, and I was but… Be careful.
Before I left home, I was watching Amanpour and Company and they had on Sharon Horgan (known for the show, "Catastrophe") the creator of the Irish comedy drama “Bad Sisters“. I do like my Irish comedies/shows. Like the old restaurant series “Raw“. Or Love/Hate, the crime drama. Oh, and I don’t know if this counts but, "Black Books" (Dylan Moran), a kind of funny dark sitcom. Love that show. I actually watched it in Dublin and maybe in Belfast when I was there in 2015, killing some time at my Airbnb one night, when I wasn’t off doing something. But I highly recommend “Bad Sisters“. I also just started “Katla“ on Netflix about creepy mysterious things happening around a spewing volcano. Three episodes in so far and it’s pretty entertaining.
Here’s a thing about exercising with long Covid, obviously when you can and you’re capable of it. I know that once I started exercising the long Covid was less prevalent and when I don’t exercise, it's more. But on days like today when I really don’t feel like getting any exercise, I think because of the long Covid, then I really need to do it. Because if I can make it through, I know I will feel so much better the rest of the day and days. It’s worth struggling through the misery of getting out there to do it, and doing it. And I’ve seen before that usually by mile three, I guess endorphins kick in and I start feeling better anyway.
Add Trump trading cards to blog
From Tweet of Guy Inchair:
"In this festive season, please enjoy this curated assortment of MAGA outraged responses to the Major Announcement." MAGA be pissed...hit his Twitter link above for more.
Sure, maybe not this, but it would be right on Trump's brand of crime things
So currently Trump is giving away as he has before a chance for dinner with... Donald Trump. He has never followed through with that before. But this time he should have said Nick Fuentes was one of those "winners". Lost opportunities.
Finally, on Trump, this... "MAGA rioter 'can't believe' he's going to jail for Trump after watching trading card stunt."
What if all of this extremism today, especially this MAGA bullshit, all has to do with our not raising our kids to have enough patience in life and desire to put it in the hard effort, to do the hard jobs, to change things? Instead of just switching the dial, or wasting time and taxpayers' money to build (poor concepts) from scratch? Rather than fix our democracy they prefer to trash it to get rid of our Constitution and our democracy (which aren't just THEIRS) and replace it with an autocracy. All because they weren't taught as kids to have grown into having mature patience to take the time to put in some sweat and effort to make things better, rather than just blame others for how bad it all is. When many times it's not even bad or that bad, but they've been indoctrinated to believe it is. That's Republicanism today.
Republican methodology is make an enemy out of what was nothing, or a mere slight into a fright. Attack them, attempt to pass a law, or executive order to end or cripple, whomever, or whatever the selected perceived enemy may be. Even if courts knock it down as unconstitutional, or illegal. Or not within your executive or legislative powers you have chosen...you are showing that you are an enemy of your electorate's manufactured (by you) enemy.
Now in the Janes podcast they’re talking about where there used to be a few professional sources, and maybe some journalists, even in newspapers, or later radio and TV, now we’ve got like 5 billion people who are sharing information. Like the woman in Ukraine, who shot video of Russians, moving to a certain location, outing what they were trying to be quiet about. But Armfield's talking about triangulating information and selecting good sources from bad, and disinformation and misinformation from Actual information. And so in that sense. This is a good episode for... good grief, especially MAGA type to listen to. If only we could get out of this mindset of how information and truth seem to be for sale profit and instead, see people to raise our kids with ethics, and be willing to sacrifice for reality, for truth, decency and honesty. Rather than warp those things to fit your ideology or for profit. Let’s face it, if your religion is bullshit, stop working reality so it will make your beliefs work. If something doesn't, it doesn't. Just be honest about it.
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About the magnets I got and put on my gate… I don’t understand why they don’t have a paired couple instead of just cheaply, throwing them all onto the brackets the same way. So when you want to use two together, as one has to go to one way as it’s meant to be screwed down, the other has to go the opposite way...as you can see in the photo. It’s really annoying.
So off the Janes topic, I was thinking about this toxic MAGA conservative anti-democracy NONSENSE we’re going through and how, I would argue, it goes back to Newt Gingrich in the early 90s and his shenanigans on C-SPAN. But at least it goes back to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. I was wondering, this is going to pass, so how long is it gonna take? When you go back to the last time this stuff happened in the 30s and 40s and you can reference Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra“ podcast. And so we’re probably looking at this... although times have changed and it could go faster, cause everything does now… you could figure 10 or 15 years. The first time we went through this insurrection and working with a foreign country, Russia this time, Germany last time, you could figure we're now more than halfway, or approaching halfway to this being over. We don’t just have to hold accountable and punish Trump and all his enablers and helpers and those involved. And we should purge Congress and the courts of those people. But the mindset and ill philosophy of the toxic capitalist, toxic conservative also needs to be washed out enough to be ineffective, and then that and those looked upon, as many of those types now... look at their worst consideration of minorities.
So I went outside this morning and broke down some cardboard boxes and put them in the recycling bin. I came back inside and sat down. My heart was pounding like I’d run a quarter mile. OK maybe not even that far, but at least a block. And that’s the long Covid. I sat there thinking about going for my walk today, and was thinking, naw... But it calmed down. I took half a Benadryl which helps, especially if it’s a histamine related issue, or some kind of allergy reaction. Other than that, I thought, maybe. And I got to a point where I felt normal, so here I am just rounding my first mile and a half. Do. Not do. But do more.
The general on the Janes podcast is saying when he was still active service and they were using open source, he was asking the guys that work on that if they can put a trust meter on it... like green, yellow red... or, one through five. He said that was a very nascent thing. It’s kind of what we need nowadays. Although I did get threatened by Facebook the other day when I posted a screenshot of what Trump had said on his social media site, which was utter nonsense. I was discussing that on my Facebook post. And they tagged me and said "this is incorrect information." No kidding! They said if I kept doing that they'd rate my posts lower so others would see them less. Good grief. They meant the screenshot of Trump's ignorant comments of disinformation. Not paying any attention to the fact that I was using the Trump statement to verify what I was saying. So yeah, this is pretty problematic. We really have to get this under control. Think about it. If starting right this second, everything that went out was 100% true, this country would change on a dime. I know it would be messy and there'd be a lot of pissed off people. And it would probably wipe religions off the face of the nation. But hey, I’m willing to sacrifice for the others. At least it might make religions, more honest, and functional. I mean, if we could just get greed and profit out of mega churches alone? Big step forward.
I should direct you with that last comment to my newest sci fi novel: “Anthology of Evil II Volume II The Unwritten“ where one universe in the book go through the "Religion Wars". Followed by the "Science Wars". Where science wins out. And yes, I do lean bit on the problems about science in that book. But really, it’s not so much about science but it’s application that's problematic at times. How humans affect it through politics, profit and tribalism. That’s a problem with humans. You can’t get away from some of our foibles. Because the things that protect us most within us, that are inherent in us, also can takes us to the extremes. Which we find pleasant to do and it leads us to things like this MAGA nonsense we're ensconced with today and this ridiculous surge of autocracy around the world. Because when democracies have issues with economy, people look elsewhere rather than looking inward and fixing what they have. Because the lazy and conservative and immature prefer to break things, then start all over again. Rather than do the long, hard work of fixing things. Kind of why we have so much divorce, too.
We need to stop electing sociopaths to high office. We also need to stop ascribing that condition to those who aren’t, so they can be removed and replaced them with… Fucking sociopaths. I tell ya.
Interesting. The general in the podcast is saying here he once gave a threat assessment to a steel eyed killer commando type who was going to go on a mission and he wanted him to basically dumb the threat level down because he just wanted to hear it’s good so he could go. But he told him, "I’m gonna give you the actual threat level assessment as detailed as it is, and you’re gonna have to make up your own mind what to do about it. And if you want to lose an aircraft or whatever on this, that’s on you. But you need to hear the actual assessment." And how true that is with our government and voters today. He is said that they worked it out, and after that, they had a really good relationship. But he didn’t cave to power. He stood up to it speaking truth to power and power accepted it. As often they will. It’s the really sick bastards like the Donald Trump's of the world who are the problem. And the Vladimir Putin’s of the world.
General has a good point about reality and accuracy. Special ops have got to be able to depend on their Intel. Their lives depend on it. It’s the same thing with our politics as voters and citizens. The problem is too many don’t see it that way. They think they’re putting in the effort and they’re not at all. If everyone who voted for Donald Trump had put in the actual effort about him before voting in 2016, he would’ve never gotten a vote. Or at least he would’ve gotten third-party level votes. There’s always gonna be some mentally deranged, social, psycho, political, deranged types out there and those who just want to spew chaos. Which is very much the Trump and Putin playbook as well as most autocrats. At least in trying to gain total control.
So I get it, America voted in Trump because they want change, because they thought they were fighting corruption. How do you fight corruption by putting somebody corrupt in place, well, that’s another issue. And if you look, you could see how corrupt Trump was, like forever. Which doesn’t make sense in the hypocrisy running rampant and the logic that's lacking in it. That’s MAGA's contention about Trump in 2016, 2020. How did they justify voting for those they voted for now? Like Herschel Walker? You don’t vote for bad candidates. PERIOD. You don’t blindly vote for your party or your tribe when they’re doing bad, when they’re offering you bad candidates. I swear, young grade school kids can do better in voting for classmates in class "office". I guess because they have a better sense of right and wrong.
I know one could pick apart a lot of what I said above about politics, etc. But that would be getting into nuances. MAGA doesn’t do nuance. And so when they delve into the nuances, they try and pick apart Democrats, liberals, progressives, it’s disingenuous, and leaping forms of logic. It’s going from whatever pole they can, sweeping as far out as they can to prove their point only to be right. To win. So dumb. You only want to win when you're right. We don’t do that just to be right. We settle on a solid foundation based in a solid foundation and verified facts and make logical decisions from that, bringing in needed human elements and considerations. Don't forget the humans. We don’t just say... this is my ideology so this is what we’re gonna do. If you die, meh.
So off the Janes topic, I was thinking about this toxic MAGA conservative anti-democracy NONSENSE we’re going through and how, I would argue, it goes back to Newt Gingrich in the early 90s and his shenanigans on C-SPAN. But at least it goes back to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. I was wondering, this is going to pass, so how long is it gonna take? When you go back to the last time this stuff happened in the 30s and 40s and you can reference Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra“ podcast. And so we’re probably looking at this... although times have changed and it could go faster, cause everything does now… you could figure 10 or 15 years. The first time we went through this insurrection and working with a foreign country, Russia this time, Germany last time, you could figure we're now more than halfway, or approaching halfway to this being over. We don’t just have to hold accountable and punish Trump and all his enablers and helpers and those involved. And we should purge Congress and the courts of those people. But the mindset and ill philosophy of the toxic capitalist, toxic conservative also needs to be washed out enough to be ineffective, and then that and those looked upon, as many of those types now... look at their worst consideration of minorities.
So I went outside this morning and broke down some cardboard boxes and put them in the recycling bin. I came back inside and sat down. My heart was pounding like I’d run a quarter mile. OK maybe not even that far, but at least a block. And that’s the long Covid. I sat there thinking about going for my walk today, and was thinking, naw... But it calmed down. I took half a Benadryl which helps, especially if it’s a histamine related issue, or some kind of allergy reaction. Other than that, I thought, maybe. And I got to a point where I felt normal, so here I am just rounding my first mile and a half. Do. Not do. But do more.
The general on the Janes podcast is saying when he was still active service and they were using open source, he was asking the guys that work on that if they can put a trust meter on it... like green, yellow red... or, one through five. He said that was a very nascent thing. It’s kind of what we need nowadays. Although I did get threatened by Facebook the other day when I posted a screenshot of what Trump had said on his social media site, which was utter nonsense. I was discussing that on my Facebook post. And they tagged me and said "this is incorrect information." No kidding! They said if I kept doing that they'd rate my posts lower so others would see them less. Good grief. They meant the screenshot of Trump's ignorant comments of disinformation. Not paying any attention to the fact that I was using the Trump statement to verify what I was saying. So yeah, this is pretty problematic. We really have to get this under control. Think about it. If starting right this second, everything that went out was 100% true, this country would change on a dime. I know it would be messy and there'd be a lot of pissed off people. And it would probably wipe religions off the face of the nation. But hey, I’m willing to sacrifice for the others. At least it might make religions, more honest, and functional. I mean, if we could just get greed and profit out of mega churches alone? Big step forward.
I should direct you with that last comment to my newest sci fi novel: “Anthology of Evil II Volume II The Unwritten“ where one universe in the book go through the "Religion Wars". Followed by the "Science Wars". Where science wins out. And yes, I do lean bit on the problems about science in that book. But really, it’s not so much about science but it’s application that's problematic at times. How humans affect it through politics, profit and tribalism. That’s a problem with humans. You can’t get away from some of our foibles. Because the things that protect us most within us, that are inherent in us, also can takes us to the extremes. Which we find pleasant to do and it leads us to things like this MAGA nonsense we're ensconced with today and this ridiculous surge of autocracy around the world. Because when democracies have issues with economy, people look elsewhere rather than looking inward and fixing what they have. Because the lazy and conservative and immature prefer to break things, then start all over again. Rather than do the long, hard work of fixing things. Kind of why we have so much divorce, too.
We need to stop electing sociopaths to high office. We also need to stop ascribing that condition to those who aren’t, so they can be removed and replaced them with… Fucking sociopaths. I tell ya.
Interesting. The general in the podcast is saying here he once gave a threat assessment to a steel eyed killer commando type who was going to go on a mission and he wanted him to basically dumb the threat level down because he just wanted to hear it’s good so he could go. But he told him, "I’m gonna give you the actual threat level assessment as detailed as it is, and you’re gonna have to make up your own mind what to do about it. And if you want to lose an aircraft or whatever on this, that’s on you. But you need to hear the actual assessment." And how true that is with our government and voters today. He is said that they worked it out, and after that, they had a really good relationship. But he didn’t cave to power. He stood up to it speaking truth to power and power accepted it. As often they will. It’s the really sick bastards like the Donald Trump's of the world who are the problem. And the Vladimir Putin’s of the world.
General has a good point about reality and accuracy. Special ops have got to be able to depend on their Intel. Their lives depend on it. It’s the same thing with our politics as voters and citizens. The problem is too many don’t see it that way. They think they’re putting in the effort and they’re not at all. If everyone who voted for Donald Trump had put in the actual effort about him before voting in 2016, he would’ve never gotten a vote. Or at least he would’ve gotten third-party level votes. There’s always gonna be some mentally deranged, social, psycho, political, deranged types out there and those who just want to spew chaos. Which is very much the Trump and Putin playbook as well as most autocrats. At least in trying to gain total control.
So I get it, America voted in Trump because they want change, because they thought they were fighting corruption. How do you fight corruption by putting somebody corrupt in place, well, that’s another issue. And if you look, you could see how corrupt Trump was, like forever. Which doesn’t make sense in the hypocrisy running rampant and the logic that's lacking in it. That’s MAGA's contention about Trump in 2016, 2020. How did they justify voting for those they voted for now? Like Herschel Walker? You don’t vote for bad candidates. PERIOD. You don’t blindly vote for your party or your tribe when they’re doing bad, when they’re offering you bad candidates. I swear, young grade school kids can do better in voting for classmates in class "office". I guess because they have a better sense of right and wrong.
I know one could pick apart a lot of what I said above about politics, etc. But that would be getting into nuances. MAGA doesn’t do nuance. And so when they delve into the nuances, they try and pick apart Democrats, liberals, progressives, it’s disingenuous, and leaping forms of logic. It’s going from whatever pole they can, sweeping as far out as they can to prove their point only to be right. To win. So dumb. You only want to win when you're right. We don’t do that just to be right. We settle on a solid foundation based in a solid foundation and verified facts and make logical decisions from that, bringing in needed human elements and considerations. Don't forget the humans. We don’t just say... this is my ideology so this is what we’re gonna do. If you die, meh.
An absence of doubt, is an absence of clarity. Absolute faith eliminates absolute clarity.
Now, the general on the podcast is referring to the 80s movie "Wargames" with their WOPR, saying that we’re finally there when we have machines making decisions. We’ve always got to have humans involved. He also references to a general they both know, who in receiving an intelligence briefing from an expert would fire him on the spot if the intel was poor, and replace them with his lower Corporals, because they just knew that shit better.
“Delegate down to the lowest competent level,” the general.
The general, again: "It’s dystopian or Orwellian that people carry around 24/7 a device which feeds unknown collectors, and pay for the opportunity." He added that, "the end doesn’t justify the means. Because it starts disestablishing your society. It's trading convenience for privacy (security)." And after all, it leads to some form of MAGA.
I just noticed this, long Covid-wise. I’m starting my 4th mile, and my heart isn't beating really hard or even noticeably. When I started this walk months ago, I could make it maybe a half mile, and I’d have to sit and let my system calm down because my heart would be beating so hard. Ha! There’s some fireplace again burning wood. I do love the smell of wood burning in a fireplace. Not when it affects my long covid though. But when I moved to Suquamish, a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island from Seattle then when you just get off Bainbridge Island there is Suquamish and the Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort, and just passed that, Kiana Lodge where David Lynch shot the corpse scene of Laura Palmer in his first Twin Peaks series. I actually got a picture of it on my Instagram. But when we moved into that house on a couple acres in the woods, there was 11 big piles of timber and waste wood. My oldest son and I, he was in seventh grade when we moved there, spent the next five years working on those piles of wood. I wanted to give him something to control in his life so I gave him control of the wood. We cut the wood together and stacked it in cords, but he owned it and he had to make sure the fireplace was always stocked with wood. And for five years we heated the house just with firewood. By the end of that five years we’d reclaimed all the lawn and moved some into the forest (there was still lots of forest). I was living there with my two kids and had been divorced for three years. But I was then making enough money where we could easily afford the electric heat, which was pretty expensive. We couldn’t afford it when we moved in. So we were pretty happy about the wood. I don’t think we burned wood anymore after that. It was such a luxury to just have the heat happen. And pay a few hundred bucks a month for it in the winter. But no more dealing with the wood, or keeping the fire going, stoking it every night, getting it going again in the morning, stoking it to last until we got home in the afternoon, or the smoke and ash issues.
Janes: you can’t take open source Intel and interpret it and expect your view through your society to be accurate to where you’re going to apply it. If you understand that, then it’s much more functional. This is much and the same as what happened with MAGA. You could look at their social media and Fox News, etc. as open source, although a lot of that is disinformation. Some of it is misinformation But the end result leans wrong. Even when it’s right, they take that and try to apply it to their opposition (most of the rest of America) and the results they get from it are as we've seen. Manufactured nightmares. It's too frequently thoroughly inadequate and inaccurate. That's then taken by conservative leaders, social media and "news" and used to inflame them even more. Then you add in a president like Trump in office and you get a January 6 insurrection. And autocratic attempts still now, to do really dumb things like end democracy in America and end our US Constitution. Unbelievable. They use the Constitution to support their beliefs until that was so dysfunctional, finally somebody said, "Screw it! Let’s just throw it out and say it was not legit to make the Constitution when they made it. Therefore, this country doesn’t exist and we’re going to remake it how we want it." It’s dangerous rhetorical lies and pretty immature. 'We keep losing because we're stupid, so we'll just take over.' Uh huh...
So finishing my last 1/2 mile length, and...I’m gonna stop today at 4 miles. I believe I can do 5. But I’m gonna stop for today because of the next two days. I don’t wanna overdo it and then not feel good and not get to see my friends tomorrow, or my kid perform on Friday.
A "kid" by the way, who is my youngest and 30 years old and a great on stage performer with their spouse. And they're bright and funny and smart and talented and people that MAGA seems to want to take rights away from, and some of them, want to kill them at their performance, Friday. It’s ridiculous, that it's now important they have armed security to protect them from these dumbass fucking unConstitutional militia types and this moronic MAGA breed of idiocy. It’s internationally embarrassing. that a minority and a really pleasant group of people who some look down upon just because they’re different. And they go against anachronistic religious nonsense. Horror fantasy theistic cosplayers. How troglodyte is that? Aren’t they just.
Mao’s cultural revolution in China sought to: kill the educated, the doctors, the intellects the scientists, the elite. I get them, abusive elites, wanting to kill elites and wealthy who are abusive. But the others? That set China back 50 years.
Hitler: kill the Jews, kill the gays, kill the blacks.
Goddamn, if that doesn’t sound like MAGA today. And Trump. Who doesn't have to come out and say it. We see their actions, hear their dog whistle racism, sedition. And by we, I mean our majority decent citizens. None of this crap MAGA porn affects me directly. I’ve got all the privileges in being white, male, raised Catholic leaning atheist/ Buddhist (with my own form of it and not what you might know of it or most might think of it...Buddhism that is), I'm retired, a veteran, so I pretty much check all the boxes. Still, it embarrasses me to see others like me who are all MAGA crazy because they are so ill informed and cherry picking beliefs (as religious types also do). Especially the smart MAGA ones he should (and do) know better. But they fell down that disinformation propaganda rabbit hole.
Even if I didn’t have a kid who fits any of this, I still as an American see it affecting other Americans. That counts. MAGA holds the American citizen in contempt...if they don't fit their paradigm of the few who should be citizen. One citizen does NOT have the right to kill or abuse another citizen. That needs to stop. I guess I just have my idea of what America should be. Freedom, the pursuit of happiness, live and let live. Mind your fucking own business. Keep your religion to yourself. It should be private, personal. Separation of church and state. Productive and not toxic capitalism. Which is why we created monopoly laws so long ago. Very nice if we would use them more often. Competition to better products and services and keep prices lower. Truth, honesty, decency. All that Boy Scout stuff. What happened to all that? Look. It’s pretty easy to understand what went wrong: toxic capitalism, toxic corporate thinking... infected everything. Schools were set up for that in the 19th century. "Cooperate thought" infected our government long ago and now even our churches/religion (Thanks, mega churches & evangelicalism). Republicans wanting everything to be for profit. Some things require government not private ownership. Anyway...
Yay! OK, back on my home block now. Got my 4 miles in and I’m done for the day. Feeling pretty good. Much better anyway. Well, all the best.
Cheers! Slainte!
Even if I didn’t have a kid who fits any of this, I still as an American see it affecting other Americans. That counts. MAGA holds the American citizen in contempt...if they don't fit their paradigm of the few who should be citizen. One citizen does NOT have the right to kill or abuse another citizen. That needs to stop. I guess I just have my idea of what America should be. Freedom, the pursuit of happiness, live and let live. Mind your fucking own business. Keep your religion to yourself. It should be private, personal. Separation of church and state. Productive and not toxic capitalism. Which is why we created monopoly laws so long ago. Very nice if we would use them more often. Competition to better products and services and keep prices lower. Truth, honesty, decency. All that Boy Scout stuff. What happened to all that? Look. It’s pretty easy to understand what went wrong: toxic capitalism, toxic corporate thinking... infected everything. Schools were set up for that in the 19th century. "Cooperate thought" infected our government long ago and now even our churches/religion (Thanks, mega churches & evangelicalism). Republicans wanting everything to be for profit. Some things require government not private ownership. Anyway...
Yay! OK, back on my home block now. Got my 4 miles in and I’m done for the day. Feeling pretty good. Much better anyway. Well, all the best.
Cheers! Slainte!
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