Walkabout Thoughts #29

 Writing notes My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…(1/14/23)

Weather for the day… 45 and some cool, looking ground fog and broken clouds in the sky or a blue moon. Looks cool.

Podcast for the day Pod Save America, "The House that MAGA Built", episode

Instagram post for the day

So I’m getting busy starting a new company with a couple of others. And I am listening to politics right now and again? It’s a mess (politics) and I’m getting really bored with it. And I got other things to worry about that are more specific to me and right now more important. There’s nothing fun or funny about starting up a company, but it can be rewarding. There’s a lot of growing pains we’re working through. It’s also reminding me why I left the corporate IT life. On the other hand, it means I have a lot of experience for doing this, and I had learned more than I ever realized. Because thinking of the three of us, I’m the one with the most big corporation experience at (near) the top level, in both IT and business. I’ve worked on some top-tier IT teams around the Pacific Northwest including US West Technologies (a fascinating place to work at their Bellevue offices), and some other companies. Companies that were no nonsense and you could lose your position if you didn't live up to standards, and rightly so.

So, on politics, since the podcast I'm listening to is referring to it… Republicans ran on a ticket of no platform other than hating Democrats and blaming Joe Biden for inflation. So their first order of business would be to do something about inflation. Right? What do they do? They voted down the desperately needed, greater funding for the IRS to reclaim more taxes for us, basically from the wealthy who find too many loopholes or outright fraud. Which means the IRS the burden again falls on us, the citizens, who don’t make that much to be so overtaxed and depended upon. GET the taxes from the wealthy and corporate who have the extra money to PAY taxes and PAY those taxes. Stop ripping US off! Look, I don’t make $1 million a year, do you? Or $10 million, or $1 billion? Those guys are now going to continue to get away with Screwing with their tax returns and unpatriotically, basically, steal our tax money. Their fair share. But House Republicans can now run around saying they defunded the IRS. Which apparently a few are. No, seriously. They are. Here’s the thing. It’s stupid. It’ll never pass the Senate. The president will never sign it into law. So what are they doing? Again, obstructing, subverting, twisting our government into being more dysfunctional. Why do they always want to throttle the government from what it’s supposed to be doing? They’re also against big government and yet they do things that requires bigger government. Like the whole thing about going against women’s rights. Stripping away civil rights. Things that requires more government. Unbelievable. And stupid.

As far as my not paying so much attention to politics now, hopefully. Whereas before I was watching news daily, hour by hour. When Trump was criminal POTUS45 and watching for very good reason. At any moment, he could have ended this country. Which he tried to do, failed in a coup and insurrection. Now it’s gonna take forever for justice to finally crack down on him and his. Republicans in the House in power now are going to have a bunch more of their famous, infamouse, kangaroo court "investigations" as they’ve done before with "Hillary‘s emails" and Benghazi and whatever other bullshit they could and can dream up. So no, these things were something that had to be watched moment by moment. Although now Ukraine, requires observation. Taiwan. But this is good timing for me, because I feel I can really devote my time to building this company. For now.

Something on the arts: I watched the latest episode of "Echo 3" on Apple plus. Man, I was not pleased with that ending, if that’s the ending episode. I don’t remember. I’m not sure how many episodes it has. My thoughts on the last episode? Not the ending I was hoping for. I don’t want to say much about it. But in a way a pretty realistic show. Things don’t turn out the way you expect in reality. War is very realistic when you get in the middle of it. You simply can’t foretell what will come, once you throw certain things in the process. And in that sense, I do like the show.

Since the Republicans seem to be following a MAGA agenda and extreme toxic right wing agenda, we desperately need truth and media laws again. We’ve got to get a handle on media lies in all or any media. In social media. It’s mostly on the right where the damage is being done to democracy in this country. But we also have to get a handle, as Europe has been trying to do, on social media and citizens as citizen journalists and reporters. There’s free speech, and then there’s misinformation that becomes misinformation to citizens when they do not vet that information, which journalists do (as best they can but at least they try). When citizens repeat it, parrot it in a force multiply of deploying it. That shit has got to stop. At least it needs to be reigned in and I would argue... ASAP. Sooner!

I think we’ve been discovering that massive media companies shouldn’t be owned by one person. They need to be accountable to truth, if not to government to the people through regulation. Somebody like Elon Musk shouldn’t be able to affect such a vast platform as his Twitter does. Rupert Murdoch shouldn’t have been able over decades to finally bring America to its knees and nearly find it destroyed through an insurrection by a criminal, POTUS45. Empower humankind, not forces against it. Technology is just a sophisticated machine. We’ve gotten to a point in this post information age (I would argue) that machines have gone beyond simple mechanisms, to multiplying criminal efforts to effectuate social concerns in directions most of us just don’t want to go.

Let’s remember, Marjorie Taylor Greene said if her and Steve Bannon were actually running the insurrection, they would’ve had guns and won. That’s an actual member of Congress, who was cut off from any power by House Dems, that is now under Republican House control and who will now be given power, as a member of Congress, having espoused sedition, insurrection, and in doing so offering aide and comfort to our domestic enemies, which is treason. And she’s still a member of Congress. And she’s not the only one…

POTUS45: over 30,000 lies told during his presidency.
US Representative and Republican Party mascot, George Santos: “Hold my beer.”

Why aren't they getting rid of George Santos? Who should not be in Congress. Even Republicans are complaining and refusing to work with him from his home district and state. Consider this and this is important. If Republicans had full control of the House and didn’t need George Santos? He’d be out of there in a second. But because they need his vote so desperately, they’re hanging onto him with tooth and nail. Tells you everything you need to know about the situation. He should be gone. But the Republicans in the House are ethically corrupt, and it’s all about them. Somewhat about their Party but has nothing to do with American citizens. Except for their base and they are MAGA. Yes, be afraid. But apparently no one can hear you scream… In the House of Representatives or in this Republican Congress.

President Biden: "Compare me to the alternative not the Almighty." And so of course Republicans compare him to the Almighty and then what are they comparing people like Trump to? The Alternative. Double standard? You judge.

The majority of the Republican base, the majority of the MAGA base, are uneducated white males who are against breaking Social Security and Medicare. While Republican leadership simply doesn’t give a shit. Because they just think it's a good idea.

Podcast: "Navigator" poll from last Thursday morning: ranked the least popular items of the Republican Party agenda at this point, and at the top of that their wanting to end Medicare & Social Security. Only 11% of their voters support it. NO one wants that!

Apparently, Kevin McCarthy conceded to the insurrection caucus. I mean the freedom caucus of ending federal taxing, for instead a huge sales tax increase. Oh, and abolishing the IRS. Which no one needs.

Apparently, Chris Murphy told Punchbowl this week, that because of the last week's debacle, Kevin McCarthy has to manufacture some new wins. And that’s never good.

Remember how in 2012 Kevin McCarthy said that Obamacare failed and Republicans are going to give us a very accessible healthcare system? We’ll? Still waiting. Like we’re waiting for Trump to give up his tax returns. Which we finally had to take.

I haven’t done anything but sit around and over the holidays, eat kind of incorrectly for fun. Haven’t been drinking alcohol because of long Covid and now working on starting this new company. Weather is been really crummy. So while I needed to be walking 5 miles every other day to counteract somewhat my long Covid, I haven't been. Today I only will do 3 miles. Because I've been so inactive. I could do four but, whenever I push it, which I would be doing in this case, it’s then harder to concentrate and work until like the next day. Today I need to go home and work on the company.

OK, this podcast from last Thursday. They’re mentioning Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel about the docs found at Pres. Biden's office and home. Since this is obviously not about the  same thing as Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago debacle, no special council was needed here...except for because of whiny insurrectionist types and MAGA. Merrick Garland would’ve made a great SCOTUS Justice, but we needed somebody more bold as Attorney General. That being said, he may well do a good job in the end of this, but we need bold moves, and we need this Trump/Republican divisiveness to end. Like bad children who need to be corrected, for this to stop. All we’re doing in going a bout things in this way is egging it all on. I don’t think Trump needed a special counsel either, but I could grant that. Garland has got to protect the DOJ and the FBI. Sure. But sometimes when you protect something you allow other things to fester and or coddle that bad mindset and position. So I really think Garland should’ve been on SCOTUS and we needed somebody a little more savvy, while there’s few who are in the kind of crap that Trump and Steve Bannon, in these massive lies and MAGA/QAnon issues and all this "tail wagging the dog" version of thus vastly broken Republican Party.

New conservative conspiracy theory: Obama setting up Biden to allow Gavin Newsom to become president. First of all the degree of disloyalty that invokes is mere projection by Republicans used to the disloyalty of their own and their own greed guiding them. I’m sorry, but it's just more projection from Republican's unethical behaviors, onto people who just aren’t their kind of people. Not that you could ever convince them of that.

Here’s what I would say about this whole classified documents and personal residences issue. What it says to me is we need better examination/monitoring as people leave office and maybe they need to be going through their things more completely, so this doesn’t happen again. Seems to me that checking in and out docs, needs to be worked out better. When you take your classified document and then you’re going to leave office, a month before you’re leaving alarms need to go off. And everything made accountable before you leave office. This is all just bullshit. Trump's a special case because those are criminal actions overtly, and quite very obviously.

Classified documents at Biden's places: Docs found by Biden's people. Docs were turned over to a national archives who didn’t even know they were missing and that’s another issue.

Biden's actions: His people offered any further help necessary, needed, required or requested.
Trump's actions:

• Intentionally took a "shitload" of documents
• He was given multiple requests to return them
• At one point purposely moved them to avoid them being found
• Had attorney's falsely testify there were no more docs & had all been returned when he knew they weren't
• Trump was so obstinate about returning docs the FBI had to show up unannounced to get them
• After the FBI did that Trump lied and said the FBI planted docs on him
• He then claims he declassified the docs, with his mind, something so dishonest no attorney of his would testify about under oath or in court
• And then he repeatedly attacked the FBI and all the people investigating him

So, which of those things did Biden also do? NONE. So in that sense they are not similar at ALL! If Trump had simply turn them all over and offered any others feel being handled just as gentle as MAGA thinks Biden is being handled now. And that’s really the issue. Trump didn't do anything like that. He acted as he always has... like a mob boss.

Cheers! Sláinte!