Walkabout Thoughts #93

Thoughts in Streams of Consciousness, Rough & Ready, and Lightly Edited from an Award-Winning Filmmaker/Author you’ve never heard of while walking off Reality and hopefully the last half-life vestiges of Long Covid while listening to podcasts.
Walking Day is Friday, June 28, 2024.


Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 56° no wind, and overcast 60° back at home.

My podcast today is Pod Save America, episode A Brutally Honest Debate Recap

OK, this one is mostly all politics and...the presidential debate. Tomorrow will be more creator/arts-oriented. I thought that was was too much of that, but with this so much not of that...good to go!

This was a great podcast about the debate. I agree with them. We need to be honest and open about how it went. Look at reality and move forward. Biden may pull a positive change, so it's not just about getting someone else to run. But we cannot tell people freaking out that what happened did not actually happen. That's the MAGA mind, authoritarianism, Fascism. That's Trumpism. 

First up today as this is more important than a debate and I assume will be before State Supreme Courts and/or SCOTUS shortly. Not that I trust SCOTUS to make a valid decision much anymore, but...

Oklahoma Schools Are Now Required to Teach the Bible and Ten Commandments
"The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone," said Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters, adding that he expects schools' "strict" adherence to the mandate.

Well, that tanked fast. 

And if that, then this...

As no one religion is above another in America... to guarantee freedom of religion (or none) for all as they see fit for themselves and their family:

Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national membership organization with State Representatives selected by members and a governing Executive Board of Directors selected by the State Representatives.

The debate moderators were dysfunctional, or lazy. On purpose.

NO, not their job to fact-check everything.

But it's their job to disallow delusion & obvious, massive lies told by either side:

Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash should watch this.

My university degree is in psychology. My personal studies since high school in considering a life in clandestine arts, were to a degree in international relations/world problems, but more so in espionage focusing on USSR, then as Russia, and their counters in the UK (MI5/MI6), and America (OSS/CIA).

I've been using the term "Mesmerizing" which I learned about at university and in our current national case regarding Trump and his "MAGA mind" of fascism and authoritarianism, for some years now. And for good reason...

"Mesmerizing" a crowd refers to captivating and holding the attention of an audience in such a way that they are fully engrossed and spellbound by the speaker or performer. This term derives from the name of Franz Mesmer, who believed he could induce a trance-like state in people, a concept that later contributed to the development of hypnosis. When someone is said to be mesmerizing a crowd, they are engaging the audience so effectively that people are almost hypnotized by the performance. Here's how this might be achieved:
Charismatic Presence: The speaker or performer exudes confidence and charisma, often through body language, eye contact, and a strong, clear voice.
Compelling Content: The material being presented is interesting, relevant, and emotionally engaging. Stories, anecdotes, and vivid imagery can be particularly powerful.
Dynamic Delivery: The use of varied intonation, pacing, and volume to maintain interest. The speaker might use pauses for dramatic effect and ensure their delivery is not monotonous.
Connection with the Audience: Establishing a personal connection by addressing the audience’s interests, asking rhetorical questions, and responding to their reactions. This might include acknowledging their responses, making them feel seen and heard.
Visual and Physical Engagement: The use of visual aids, gestures, and movements that complement the spoken words and help to illustrate points more vividly.
Emotional Appeal: Tapping into the emotions of the audience, whether through humor, passion, or empathy, to create a memorable and impactful experience.
When all these elements come together, the audience is often so captivated that they lose track of time and are fully absorbed in the moment, which is the essence of being mesmerized.


Moving on...

I watched the convicted felon exPOTUS Trump debating a sitting and real POTUS. What a debacle?

I said this online earlier, but I would vote for Joe Biden‘s dog Commander, or his coffin over Donald Trump. If Trump dies in office, we just get another authoritarian who kissed up to clown show prima donna Donald Trump. If Biden dies in office, we get VP Harris and finally a female president. If we have to sneak one in this way in our overly bigoted and too misogynistic country, then so be it.

 The fact that we haven’t had a female president yet is humiliating. We do not need some toxic binary conservative female as president either. But come on, when did the UK have a female leader (1979)? Kind of a long time ago. We need to catch up to modern times and western democracies. Although granted, some of our Western democracies have gone autocratic, and our Christian nationalist MAGA Republican party is trying to go theocratic.

Weird times.

One thing, Trump bragging about his golf game? WTF? Biden had a good comeback but why, WHY didn't he say the one obvious repeatedly reported thing about Trump? 

"YOU CHEAT! So many who played with you say so. People play golf with you just so they have their own 'Trump cheated" story!"

But you do what you can.

Oh my evaluation on the debate Thursday night? No matter how bad Biden did, and we heard he had a cold, and two European trips during the week… why Trump couldn’t be the one who was under the weather, who was ill, as he’s actually mentally ill, is quite beyond me… but it’s like "only the good die young", kind of thing I suppose.

I would say no matter how bad Biden did he still won because Trump lied all the way through it. Someone should do a re-edit and silence any incorrect statements. Biden made a few gaffs, I'm betting they weren't lies. While Trump knew he was lying most of the time and may have not even known he was full of shit other times. Anyway, it would be a debate with Trump silent nearly the entire duration of the debate.

Therefore, if you take all the correct truth Biden told, and he did slip up a few times, and put those up against the nearly 100% of lies that Trump told, the way this works is the one who told the truth most wins. Which is an old story with Trump. He is seen to "win" debates by some, but lies all though it to get there.

I’m so disappointed in the moderators. Functional, but essentially useless. CNN did a fact check after the fact but that’s useless during the debate when people are watching, since most people won't see the info about Trump yet again lying all the way through something.

I found at least several times the moderators could’ve immediately come back on Trump because he'd lied so obviously they should’ve at least said, "Well. We know that’s an opinion and not a fact, Mr. Trump. Now President Biden...", and then moved on.

I’m sure they didn’t want to seem like they were inflaming Trump but since anything reality-based inflames Trump, well?

Regarding some of the verbal mistakes, Biden made, this is why I don’t like debates. Plenty of people could be excellent administrators and great presidents. But my not be good at debating or open discourse. While I have said I do like how the Brits do it, where their Prime Minister has to address the Commons once a week on Wednesdays for their "Question Time", a Q&A. It would be nice to have people with that level of ability being seen weekly. 

At the same time, we’ve also seen people who can do that job but are horrible administrators. Where they're good at being bullies like Trump, supporting things like Brexit, now seen as a huge fucking mistake in a very autocratic leaning campaign. Along with a lot of anti-democracy stuff that what? ISN'T somehow coming out of Russia?

I’m not generating conspiracy theories here. Russia has been trying to do this kind of thing for decades. So when it starts to happen? You have to wonder if something is going on behind the scenes. We know for a fact, they’re actively trying to do this kind of stuff. So when it happens, how are they involved and how not are they involved?

We also know, and the Russians have admitted it. That one of the things they do in our media and social media is to find our weak points and magnify them. Then sit back and let us hurt ourselves. We’re still lacking media savvy, especially social media. But we're slowly coming to terms. Europe being quite far ahead of us on that.

Partly because they are physically located much closer to the disinformation capital of the world, that being Russia. While the Internet has removed distances and borders, except maybe in China and some in Russia, certainly in North Korea, Europe has physically had to deal with the nonsense from Russia for a long, long time. During and before Nazi Germany. So Britain is far more exercised and knowledgeable about Russia, encountering subversive enemies much more than we've had to.

America needs to come to terms and get a grip to deal with this kind of thing. Bt it’s tough to do when you have an entire Republican Party infected with MAGA and authoritarianism to get anything proper done.

We’re up against the wall. And about a quarter of us are working, if not for the enemy, then along parallel lines. Which has happened before. See Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra. Very good history lessons that draw some very dark parallels between Nazis from the past to today's MAGA. It's also just plain entertaining.

On the debate regarding Biden, to be honest, it wasn’t my worst nightmare, but it was the worst of my expectations. Apparently, Biden didn’t feel well and especially when you’re older that does take a toll. They should have announced he had been under the weather and beaten down from two European trips. But maybe you don't do that to look weak. Stupid, really. Not his advisors as much us us, as human beings. 

I’m still amazed at how physical things affect me at my age. I’ll be 69 in August. Things that I would’ve never noticed when I was younger can .now slow me down for a few days, or a week.

I’m still pretty fast mentally, certainly when I’m in “the zone “. If I were back in my IT work that I did for much of my life, I might not be as fast. Up against some younger coworkers, but I certainly can be better in seeing more of the history and experience of why some of their solutions would be short-term, or limited in consideration. Problem with that is Republicans are generally short-term thinkers, cheap, fast, now...so often costing the nation vast sums later, after they are in either no longer in office, or life. It's sleazy. It's toxic capitalism. 

The actual real life of a POTUS is not at the speed of a debate, and certainly not against someone who lies like Trump does. You can’t act functionally in an environment of unreality such as Trump spins, and the Republican Party, to be honest, has been spinning for decades to the point of breaking things and ever submerging themselves in lies.

The actual day-to-day of a POTUS is not in-the-second rapid fire. There’s time to think and consider things, 98% of the time during the slow times. The fast times, you have experts around you who either can take up the slack and/or follow your orders. The trouble with Trump is he chooses sycophants, and "yes men" who are not good at that at all. I my book having "yes men" around you is reason alone for you never to be POTUS. It's massively dangerous, to the entire planet in the case of America.

So we see Trump is as bad and in many cases worse than Biden, as far as age. Trump is also living in a fantasy world. He’s trying to force things into existence that shouldn’t exist. According to reports during the pandemic, the reason we heard him say such inane and stupid bullshit and offering dangerous advice was because he was trying to force into reality, the nonexistence of an actual and very scary pandemic.

That is not a national leader, but it is what I warned about in electing Donald Trump in 2016. As I said, if you elect him and something big goes wrong, some disaster, or worse international disaster (like a PANDEMIC!), he is NOT the man to have as president. And then we then had a pandemic and other bad things that he couldn’t handle.

It’s good that at that time he had good minds and people around him. But he was cutting them loose as they saw exactly what and who Trump is and they tried to force reality on him so he would deal with the American people and involve reality in the mix.

Now he’s caught a clue about that, how good people intervened against Trump as POTUS, insane (or just stupid) and he’s eliminated the good and brilliant minds who would turn on him for our protection. Those from his first term are gone and now refusing to endorse him. It’s not a good sign with any leader when they first claim they have good people and they obviously do, but then those people turn on them because they see what a fool he is. While he starts saying they were not good people.

So which is it? He’s either got the worst hiring judgment on people or he did select good people on purpose and then they decided to remain good people and stand with the US Constitution and the American people over a buffoon merely playing something functional on TV and then was trying to play that character for real in the White House. Only to discover when you're POTUS you have to really BE POTUS.

That’s a Plan for disaster. Now they want to elected him to do it all over again only worse.

I was for Bernie Sanders when he ran for president. We wouldn’t be in that situation had he been president. I’ll give you that. But I am impressed with what Biden has done in four years and he’s turned around the disaster America was in and that Trump handed him.

I think to be honest that Bernie would’ve run into problems trying to push too hard.In trying to do what he was elected for Republicans would likely have fought him tooth and nail. then again, Bernie's been in Congress a long time, like Biden, so I'm not counting him out. Apparently, we pushed too hard in having elected a black man into the White House and then doing it again a second time somehow sparking the innate southern slavers in the minds of many MAGA.

The spirit of the slavers in the South reared up inside those conservatives who hate Democrats and love Donald Trump. To be fair, we fell asleep at the wheel protecting democracy in being unable to counter Trump's massive lies and vociferous disinformation, by such a horrible personality and pathological narcissist Donald Trump stumped us.

I’ve dealt with mental health issues with people close to me in my life. My late mother having been one. Add into that her use of painkillers. And a touch of narcissism. That’s much like dealing with someone like Donald Trump (with massive narcissism). It’s dealing with insanity. It’s trying to explain to others that they have a seriously skewed reality...sadly when they talk to them, they can remain normal for a few minutes, and people can come away from them thinking they seem just fine.

When they are absolutely not.

I would go over to see my mother decades ago and listen to her for even 15 minutes, complaining and whining and playing the victim and my trying to be be compassionate empathetic, and trying to support her. But then I would walk out of there, get my car and drive away, and within 10 or 15 minutes realize most of what she said, I knew clearly wasn’t true, wasn't reality, and recognize that nearly all of her pain was based on fantasy and self-imposed. 

I see those same behaviors in Donald Trump. Recognized them almost immediately.

Starting my 2nd mile…

It does appear that the advice Biden is getting from his political experts, is not going well. Having a debate this early was a good idea, maybe, and so far as having a better debate later, then work out into something much better, then any mistakes made now can be forgotten by then. Though as I'll note later on, below, apparently Biden's advisers are giving him good advise, he's just not taking it sometimes.

Unless Trump decides this is the only debate he’s going to do. He's not going to get better than this debate. 

I was at a party once at college at an architect's house, out on his property in the woods. He had been like an Olympic skeet shooter. I went outside with him and a friend of his, and shot some skeet. On the first round the other guy missed, the architect just barely clipped his clay pigeon (we'd had a few beers), and I blasted mine into dust. That was the first time I ever shot a shotgun. I'd shot many handguns and rifles in my life. I'd been on the high school rifle team for three years, a private kid's gun club in junior high.

I handed it back and said, "Thanks!" He asked if I wanted to go again but I said, "No. Consider that I just beat one shorter and the other who is a former Olympic shooter. I can now  for the rest of my life say I outshot an Olympic skeet shooter!" He seemed a bit dismayed, his pride perhaps tinged a bit. I was teasing them both. But then, I didn’t take another shot. And what I said, is still true today. I outshot an Olympic skeet shooter. Funny. Not a big deal though. Obviously. I just find humor in things in life like that.

That could be Trump with the debate. It’s just a massive bad social media clip extravaganza for him and against Biden. Biden couldn’t seem to control the looks on his face and he had to know better. I knew what those looks were. Trump would lie and Biden would look at him in shock because it’s hard to tell such blatant lies for most normal, mentally healthy individuals. 

That's been my worry with Biden and Trump. Trump is so far outside of normal it's shocking. But you can't let him or anyone see it affects you. You have to counter it, break the back of his technique of lies and butchering reality.

This is what I have believed for decades is what true evil is. I first noticed it with my mother skewing reality in her need to be a victim. People who skew reality, and twist it to their desires, either out of mental illness or criminality is truly evil to all who experience it.

I had hoped his debate preppers would’ve prepared him for that. Expect everything that Trump said to be an unbelievably ridiculous lie.

What I’ll never understand is why the moderators didn’t counter at least the most blatant lies and just say, "Well that’s not true," and maybe throw something up on the screen to prove it. They let America down because of brand fears and laziness. 

If MAGA supporters claim that the debate is rigged, it doesn’t matter what they say if the debate is firmly based in reality.

You know, this is something that never gets addressed. Considering all the good Joe Biden has done since he took office, for anyone, especially a former president and especially a convicted felon such as Trump, to be disrespectful, to outright lie about Biden's achievements, has nothing at all whatsoever to do with supporting America, the UC Constitution or the office of president. It's presidential. Whiel MAGA salavates over it. It's a new turn in the direction of American citizens, offering themselves as our "ugliest of Americans".

You just don’t do that. The fact that he has started a consortium of breaking decorum in the worst ways possible has done nothing but damage America, tarnished our reputation, and skewed our self-respect to the point of being a truly miserable people and conspiracy theorists of the worst kind, inflated self-respect. When they should just feel guilty, selfish, and criminal.One can't see it as other than mental and social, psychosocial ill health.

Remember the rule we need to enforce. In politics opinion and spin are mostly acceptable. Lies are not. Disinformation absolutely is not, because it has a destructive agenda (for all but the one(s) abusing it) that you can learn about in George Orwell’s book “1984 “.

The problem in the debate Thursday night in Joe Biden's demeanor. He is essentially a very nice guy. Trump’s a bully whose whole life existence is geared toward easily recognizing someone's weak points and then attacking them and attacking the reality of their's and anyone viewing that. To be clear and honest, it’s how Hitler rose to power.

Titillating those who were angry. Satiating their worst desires and impulses. Giving them enemies to hate for their perceived discomforts. Spinning a reality that didn’t exist through lies, disinformation, and propaganda and evoking the worst in people.

The reality of the presidency. The president is fed information. He assimilates, digests, understands, and regurgitates it, then with input from his advisors, develops a plan of action that is carried out by others hopefully with as little mission creep as possible.

Bear with me here...what if POTUS is not up to par for a question asked, VPOTUS is brought in to respond. When Joe stumbled, have VP Harris kick in. Maybe involve the advisors. This would have to be an edited show to show the world later. The problem with that is allowing Trump to do the same thing by bringing in his advisors like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and whatever other sorry advisors he’s gotten into his stable of fools now.

The problem with that is, Trump's people aren't even "Spin Doctors" they’re disinformation propagators, and Bannon said his entire agenda going forward is to bring authoritarianism to the world.

My point being that Biden and VP and advisors are based in reality and offering realistic solutions. In that scenario, Biden would come back with competent answers, solutions and responses. 

Trump and advisors (remember he doesn’t have a VP… Yet… And his FVPOTS refuses to endorse him because let’s face it. Trump tried to have Pence killed on January 6 during a Trump insurrection which he's been indicted for. And Trump is a convicted felon who will be sentenced next month), but when you bring in Trump and his people, who are not basing much in reality, just whatever feels good to their base and whatever makes them sound good, but only in that moment (Biden has to say things that will last going forward and be based in history going rearward), it’s the same old thing with criminals v government… criminals have an easier time than the government and going up against each other the government has to follow rules laws and regulations. Criminals like Trump and friends are free to do just about anything they want. Say anything they want. They’re also breaking the law or confusing things enough where in they can’t be held accountable.

We’re in a bad place right now and it’s only gonna get better if we eviscerate Donald Trump and his MAGA mindset and turn his MAGALoons against him.

Just remembering Trump’s comments about Biden's reasons for running for POTUS, in  his claiming they were not for the actual reasons Biden claims were his reasons, that no one could debunk, Trump claimed they had been debunked. No one can debunk the motivations that you felt, internally. 

Trump trying to claim that Biden ran for the presidency out of pure self-interest rather than patriotism is typical of how narcissists think. They project their own motivations onto others, assuming everyone acts out of self-interest because that's what they would do.

Trump then tried to claim he had no self-interest in running for POTUS, rather it was out of pure patriotism. When he’s obviously running to save his ass to be able to eliminate the indictments against him once POTUS again. That’s not even a questionable argument. It’s a fact. And it’s the same thing Putin’s been doing. It’s the same thing that Yeltsin before him was doing and why he handed the presidency to Putin in 1999. To protect Yeltsin and his family so they wouldn’t end up in prison for their crimes.

Yelton was an alcoholic. That may have been to the benefit of the Russian people. As with Trump, who is a pathological, narcissist and a liar and a career criminal. If you put in someone who is like Trump, but weirdly mentally more healthy, what he could do to us then would be terrifying. A clear and stable mind doing evil is more dangerous than an unstable mind doing it for reasons of instability and psychosocial illness.

Put another way, a clear and stable mind committing evil is more dangerous than an unstable mind doing so due to instability and psychosocial illness.

Trump’s dysfunctional and he’s still tearing America apart and pitting Americans against one another. He wants a Civil War. He wants to end the Department of Education because he loves the uneducated who he sees as more easily manipulated.

He wants to tear down the EPA. He stumbled into the Republican Party at a time when it’s very anti-institution and very pro-toxic capitalism. It is professing a form of conservatism that has long been subverted from its origins and is itself quite toxic as well anymore.

Here’s the thing about Biden. Should he step down and someone replace him to run for POTUS? Possibly. But who do we have that could beat Trump because the only thing that matters as they just said on the podcast, the most important thing is, that Biden has to do right now, is to beat Trump. To beat the Republican nominee for POTUS.

The Republican party is doing this to us. 

We have things that should be far more important than our knowledge that if we don’t beat the Republican candidate for POTUS, we'll be into an existential crisis that could bring America down. The world is nervous about America and the world thinks Trump is going to win because you tend to believe the worst things will happen if it’s gonna be bad for you and you have no control over it.

All my life I’ve been warned about a "1984" type world to come about and well? Here we are.

Starting mile three…

You know just struck me funny… it’s quite obvious Trump wants a second term as POTUS and while he cannot have a third term he wants to dissolve the whole issue of terms and end elections so he will be POTUS until he dies. Then he can select the asshole to replace him. This is all so much about wealth and power, legacy and control. But within that control, damage.

So in that fantasy world of his, sadly I don’t know the way things could possibly turn out. There is potential for success in the way Trump’s gone about things and how inept we’ve been in countering him. Here's a fun fantasy...

If we had Barack Obama run for a third term. Yeah, that’s not allowed in the Constitution. But so what? Tthe other side in this double standard is doing all kinds of stuff and they don’t want the Constitution. Oh, they’ll bow and salute it. But you give them the power and the opportunity? They will either end the Constitution or rewrite it so that they are never out of power again.

In case you haven’t noticed, that’s what the hell has been going on with them for decades.

Conservative minority rule.

With people who don’t like history, who want to create a Revisionist American History where they look good and they feel good all the time. The perfect little criminal nationalists who wish everyone to believe one day that either slavery didn’t exist or it was just on-the-job training for slaves who had great lives.

I don’t care how good your life is, if somebody owns you? Your life suck!

And there it is. They wanna own us.

While it might be better to choose someone else than Biden for president, who? Normally, we would put up the VPOTUS, Kamala Harris in this scenario. But too many people don’t like her. It’s the same Hillary thing all over again: "I don’t know, a woman who is knowledgeable and assertive? Well. She has to be a witch, burn her burn her!"

I’m sorry, I don’t care how bad Harris is compared to Trump. She’s a godsend compared to the blotus exPOTUS.

Let me just mention again that Phoenix, AZ focus group of Republicans, who every one of them said very little about Biden, but we’re pissed off about Trump and all his lies he was telling and avoiding answering questions, even after repeated several times, re-offering the same question by the moderator.

That isn’t nothing. Democrats are freaking out over Biden’s performance. While many Republicans are furious with Trump's.

I mean, we may have a chance. I don’t have a problem with Biden being president again. I have a problem with his performance and potential for getting elected. I don’t want the man to die. I don’t want anybody to die. Some people should die. Donald Trump should have died at birth. And there we are back at the reasonable Hitler reference again.

I think possibly the best thing that could happen in this scenario were Biden to die and I mean, and Biden‘s gonna die, we all do... up to now anyway. However, in science, there is a potential that I may never die. But if he dies a year after leaving office, I think I’d prefer his having died in office. Man, it's gotta suck Biden knowing people are so worried about when he'll die. I look forward to this about Trump with this MAGA.

America has needed a female president for decades. I do think we would have less problems with Putin had Hillary become president. I suspect similar issues with Harris becoming POTUS, especially with Hillary as advisor. if not in her administration, just somewhere out in the world as a friend and advisor.

Well, so may freak out over that... grow up and learn something. study some history and some world problems. Because most of the people that didn’t like Hillary, so often didn't really know what they were talking about. I've quizzed a few and many times they were talking about Russian disinformation as to why they didn't like her to the point they would eventually just stop and say, "Well I just don't like her." That's not a reason. That's Russian (and let's be honest, Republican) disinformation success!

I’m not saying she’s all wonderful and perfect, but she’s a hard worker by all accounts, and knows her job. especially internationally.

OK, there’s a bunch of pundits and Democrats spewing things about: "Should we go public about Biden?" "Should we get rid of Biden." Etc. etc.

First of all calm the fuck down.

You never make decisions when you’re emotional. You’re thinking of Donald Trump.

And here’s another consideration about Biden‘s poor performance Thursday night (should have seen him Friday, he was fired up and I wonder, did he just get a good night's sleep? If ever you've been exhausted, it's Tough to act energetic). 

If you’ve ever seen a live stageplay, you can be unlucky and show up on a bad performance night. Shit happens. It’s one event, one iteration. Go back and see it on another night and maybe choose a better evening for it. Did you choose the worst night of the week to go see it? One of the lead actors lose a loved one, or something?

That’s why I think it was a mistake to have only two debates. Should have another one in a couple of weeks and then the last one when they’re gonna in September.

The performance is kind of insane.

The trouble is, evil always seems to perform well somehow. It must be easier. I mean, I can get on stage and be a complete asshole no matter how I feel. But if I’m trying to have some decorum, and act presidential, and regurgitate data and policy issues rather than what Trump did in just spewing any bullshit he wants to make up in the moment, yeah evil has an easier time of it.

Well, I don’t like that term never did “axis of evil “which I believe when Bush used it caused us some issues with the people he was referring to that we didn’t need. And much if it was for domestic use, which is always a consideration in transliterating what a national leader is trying to convey and to whom, domestic consumption or international?

Typically, when we’re dealing with people, evil is a concept. It’s a construct. A judgment in hindsight. In countries like Russia and Iran, you have people who wouldn't agree with their leaders but may not (or ever) know it because they’ve been deluded, propagandized and disinformed and in the case of some countries like North Korea, been fed a generationally imbued delusional (dis)understanding of reality and their leadership.

It’s the old saying of hate the sin, not the sinner.

But when you come across somebody like Donald Trump, when you’re dealing with either drug addiction or mental illness, or both, it’s more the evil he does and the evil he fetishizes that is at issue.

There’s no need to hate the man, but there’s an existential necessity to get the man help and never give him power over others.

I’m not quite sure what Republicans', Independents', or especially Democrats' problems are with electing someone they think isn’t quite 100% competent as long as he’s not a criminal like Donald Trump. In this case Biden isn't a criminal (have to state that for the ignorant MAGA among us) and vastly more competent than his detractors wish to beleive.

Consider those who regarded Reagan as the patron saint of conservatism. The Republican party now, many of whom think that's Donald Trump. Those who praised Reagan all through his two terms and for decades after, by many reports he was senile, and Nancy was running a lot of things towards the end of his second term. You know about her astrologers, right? Though they claim they weren't used for officials purposes. 

So if they could get through two terms, I think Joe Biden could do it. And I’m not seeing any signs of dementia. I’m seeing an old guy slowing down, which is fine. There have actually been many governments run by very old people until they died, all throughout human history who did a good job. People tend to focus on the mistakes and the bad ones, and forget that history is written by "the winners".

God help us if Republicans write our history going forward. They’re already trying to eliminate the fact that we had slaves.

As vapid as some people are about their reasons to not want somebody to be president, thinking here about Robert Kennedy Jr. I do not want him as POTUS and have to listen to that voice. I mean nothing bad toward him, other than we need a voice we can listen to and be inspired by. Joe’s voice could’ve been better at the debate or ever, in having s speech problem, but it's workable to listen to. He has been and can be inspirational. 

But I really can’t stand listening to Trump’s petulant little manchild voice. The voice of a narcissist who’s saying something self-serving that's usually pretty easy to see behind in how it’s self-serving.

It’s true according to the podcast that Barack Obama’s first debate against Mitt Romney was horrible. And he didn’t know it until he was told. That’s the way it is with many in that situation. But then he went out and fixed it.

So we need to give Joe time to fix this. He may come up with something. There’s not much time left. The next day he gave a speech at a rally and got everyone really fired up. An entirely different Joe. Maybe the poor man just needed a good night's sleep. I know exhaustion and jat lag can leave you feeling like your dying, which he was doing in that debate.

It may have been a problem in the debate that many tuned out and turned off the TV after the first 15 minutes. Joe did better after he warmed up, but then it was still problematic. I would argue if you’re in for something, stay to the end. It was painful to watch, suer. I really wanted to have a drink, but I don’t do well-having alcohol in the evening anymore. It’s funny how they say don’t be a day drinker or drink alone. But if I’m gonna drink at all anymore, it’s lunchtime. That gives me the rest of the day and evening to hydrate before bedtime and life is good.

Donald Trump is facing 88 felony counts? What a loser. That’s not a president.

The main thing I wanted to have done in the debate was for Donald Trump to be shown to be unacceptable and what I saw was MAGA walked away not having their talking points shattered.

And that was unacceptable.

While Trump was relentlessly on his pathetic message, and the moderators had said they weren’t there to fact check… but excuse me? I don’t have a problem with them not checking every little thing.

But there were three or five things Trump said that were so against reality, they should have put him on the spot because they knew better. It’s things everybody should know.

If he were to say, "the sky is always red", they’d have let that slide? Because it used to be you could let something slide and common sense would win out. But MAGA is not involved in common sense. They’re delusional. At least they believe in Trump’s delusions, and if he says "the sky is always red"? They’re going to figure out how they can accept that or rationalize it as true in some way.

But if the moderator say, "No, I’m sorry it’s a fact the sky is not red', and then just move on to Biden. They're not doing their job as I see it. They really weren’t doing their job regardless what they claimed they were there to do.

OK. On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #92

Thoughts in Streams of Consciousness, Rough & Ready, and Lightly Edited from an Award-Winning Filmmaker/Author you’ve never heard of while walking off Reality and hopefully the last half-life vestiges of Long Covid while listening to podcasts.
Walking Day is Wednesday, 6/26/2024.

Weather for the day… nice day, starting out 61° with a little wind and overcast.

62° once back at home.

Podcast is Prosecuting Donald Trump, episode  ‘A Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax’



[OK the Presidential debate was last night. Sigh...Look. Here's the thing. Biden allegedly had a cold, why couldn't it have been Trump feeling unwell he feels unwell to me constantly. But the thing in this election is this, I'd vote for Joe's dog Commander over Trump. Better an honest old guy, a bit slow, who has decent people around him to keep things on track, than Donald Trump, a convicted felon who wants an autocracy or theocracy, to kill democracy, who lies constantly. End of that story. 

Fact check: Biden and Trump trade falsehoods and context-free claims at 1st presidential debate of 2024. Moving on...]

By the way, yesterday I posted a blog on the challenge coins I earned in the USAF. Mostly I wanted something for my adult kids to refer to about this as they sit on my home office desk. They know about them, but not the specifics surrounding them. I also thought I could share with those who are unfamiliar with military challenge coins.

So...It says it’s not supposed to rain today, but it sure feels like it but if I look at the clouds that are headed over this way, they’re not as dark as the ones that are moving away from me.

It's garbage day and also this week is recycling. This is ever so wonderful because all the trash bins are right out on the street where you walk next to them.

First up, one of the filmmaking podcasts I listen to is The Filmmaking Stuff Podcast.

'The Bear' Season 3 is chewy, delicious and overindulgent: Review

‘Here’ Trailer: Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Are De-Aged for Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Risky’ AI Epic

The risky decades-spanning drama is a “Forrest Gump” reunion with a "de-aged" Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.

HBO ‘Harry Potter’ series hires ‘Succession’, ‘Killing Eve’ writer Francesca Gardiner as showrunner; Mark Mylod to direct

I saw a new documentary called The Grab coming out. Looks like an interesting subject. Basically, I think it’s about countries grabbing water from other countries and it’s even happening here. But I think it’s more than just that.

I’ve written many times about the issue of war being fought over oil and oil doing dastardly things, especially in developing countries. Lots of movies and news and stories about that.

But I also warned about fighting and wars and toxic capitalism over issues of clean potable water. I think it was 60 Minutes who did a piece about big oil in a country in Africa where there is oil everywhere in the countryside. And it’s poisoned theor water.

The answer was a company coming in and selling bottled water to people who'd previously had natural clean water available for free. So we’re seeing for some time now the concept of selling a life necessity to people that should be free, worldwide. At least enough to survive on.

I would argue that in America, where we pay for our water via PUDs, though I used to have a well and just had to pay for the electricity for the pump, we should have an amount of water deducted every month and paid for by our government, to allow our and our family to exist with the water one needs to drink to sustain life. And maybe a basic subsistence of additional water for basic needs. Then, when you use more, you can pay for that extra, like watering a lawn, washing your car, etc. Washing dishes is a gray area, but cleanliness does sustain health, so...

When we started seeing bottled water sales grow exponentially, I found it worrisome. While there’s been bottled water for a long time, especially in countries with not the greatest water..like Perrier (from 1863), which has been around seemingly forever over my lifetime.

Perrier: The French brand of sparkling water Perrier was founded in 1863, and the source of its water dates back over 100 million years. Dr. Perrier, the medical director of a spring near Les Bouillens, was involved with the brand's origins, which were part of the spa craze at the time. In 1894, Dr. Perrier began selling the water with the help of his business partner, St. John Harmsworth. Harmsworth is said to have come up with the unique shape of the Perrier bottle after seeing Indian clubs he used to regain strength following a paralyzing car accident.

I don’t have a problem with that... in general. Though bottled water as an industry is problematic and kind of weird.

But, when you’re selling water to people where it’s not a luxury to purchase bottled water because of another company, especially big oil, or when they own the bottled water company, I think it's a crime against humanity. Just more toxic capitalism at the very least.

But my point in all this is that we’ve had wars over petroleum and wars over water. Well, we one day have war over clean fresh air. Will they start charging us for air one day? Will they start taxing our breathable air?

I remember decades ago I got an album California 99. A concept album about dystopia. I believe there was a photo in the album that showed a toilet with a meter and a hand with a handheld meter where they were checking how much waste you were putting through your toilet so they could tax you.

We need more good Science Fiction. Part of its reason for it to exist has gotten lost a bit in using futurism to warn us about where we’re headed or could be.

I think back to when Blade Runner (1982) came out, and people were commenting about the director's choice of it seeming to be raining all the time. Decades later, now look around. It may not be raining all the time but how do you show extreme weather in a film like that? Just have it rain all the time.

Look at how Donald Trump has been abusing our court system. It looks like we need to revamp it. Judge Canon almost appears like a judge who Trump put in place to protect him. While he did appoint her, her inexperience and seemingly evidentiarily obvious leaning toward benefiting Trump, shouldn’t be able to happen. She was asked by at least one judge above her to recuse herself, but she refused.

As the attorney on the podcast I’m listening to today said, people don’t realize that in the court system when a higher judge suggests you recuse yourself from a case, if that were him, he indicated, he would’ve immediately recused himself. But Judge Cannon refused. either out of her desire to help Trump, or her ever obviously inexperience.

I would argue regardless of the court system and how it normally works in a case like this with Trump, we should never put an inexperienced judge in charge of the case. It's just simple logic. Simple protection of the US Constitution and the American citizen.

Donald Trump has shown us in our government what career criminals tend to show us, the weak points and single points of failure in a system where their whole life goal is to find and apply pressure to their benefit in the denigration of the American system and the American citizens. This is not debatable. It’s just the way it is.

When you see that’s happening, you fix it. You pass new laws, you change the system. You add regulations.

Saying we’re doing any of that is not trying to bring Trump down. Which I would argue he has earned. He's such a pathetic victim all the time. So manipulative So pathetically, obviously pathologically narcissistic. But it’s just about fixing a system when we see obvious flaws and discrepancies.

If Biden or Obama were going through this, doing all the stuff Trump's been doing, and I’ve said this since Trump came on the scene as PO TUS, I would not support either of them. I would’ve turned my back on them. For some reason MAGA continues on supporting who they should know by all sense of rationality and reality, is a criminal.

How do you not hear his words? How do you not understand his meaning and intent? I understand that criminal leaders, mob leaders like Trump, speak in obtuse ways. Consider any child who gets in trouble and is being reprimanded by their parent. They often lie out right. But if they have the orientation to never lie, they will stumble and mumble around and obfuscate and essentially do exactly what we see Trump, constantly doing.

Like when Trump was asked what his favorite Bible verse was. He doesn’t have any! That’s obvious. But what does he say? "It’s private." You ask any Christian what their favorite Bible verse and they are happy to tell you. It’s not private, they want to share it.

The only reason it’s “private“ to Trump is he doesn’t know what to say. It’s either a lie or a kind of lie of omission. Yes, I would prefer him refusing to answer than lie. Just don’t be disingenuous about it. Be direct. Like an adult. Like an exPOTUS. What happened to the concept of Gentlemen or Gentlewomen? Class. Ethics. Decorum. Decency. Manners?

Of course, in Trump’s case, it's obvious to everyone (it should be) that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about so he disassembles. I’m sorry, the man is just like a lot of his now-convicted administration officials, and campaign officials.

By the way, all that crap about Trump as POTUS45 increasing the debt having been about COVID-19 pandemic? Nope. That was some of it, but the minority of it.

Healthwise I think I’ll mention this. You know those little bottles of water you can get? Little stubby plastic bottles? I had been using one for a while to carry with me on my walks. In the beginning, I hadn't carried one. But I got really dehydrated and felt ill sometimes from it so I started carrying water. Because of Covid over the past few years, I’d wake up in the middle of the night sometimes feeling dehydrated. Especially if I was taking any antivirals or certain medications. I’d have to get up to get a drink of water. So I just started keeping one of those little bottles, on my bedside table.

It occurred to me that while those bottles may be fine for a single use they’re not really designed for months or years of use. I worried about things leaching into the water I’m drinking out of them because of the plastic. Then there was that article about forever chems. Sigh... 

I decided to get a couple of replacement glass bottles, certainly for the bedside. One for walking is problematic because if you fall on it, could be ugly. I carry it in my leg pocket on my cargo shorts when I’m walking so if somehow you got hit by a car and it squished that bottle it could add to your damage.

I went to Winco and not one little glass bottle like that. I was thinking of just buying one of those little glass bottles like a pint or whatever, of apple juice, or something. Drink the juice. clean the bottle, and there I am. Good to go. So I tried Safeway. They have a little higher priced items and they might have those. But nope. So I got a POM pomegranate bottle of juice. Still plastic but hard plastic so maybe better? Weird double bubble bottle but, whatever. I'll keep an eye out for something better, but this is a step up. Sideways? Whatever...

Beginning mile two…

Wow, The clouds that are moving away from me, I can see to my south and southeast are pretty dark. I think somebody might get rained on today, maybe somewhere between Seattle and Tacoma?

Wind picked up a little bit and it’s a little bit cool but perfectly acceptable for a walk. Not quite cool, actually. I much prefer it a little cool for walking or hiking. When I break into a sweat I prefer it to be out of effort and not just the sun beating down on me.

Tomorrow is the presidential debate between Mr. failed exPOTUS Clown Show and President Biden. I can’t understand people's attraction to Trump, maybe in an entertainment sense (but for POTUS?). I just don’t get it regarding being president or in the White House. Or even driving by the White House or allowing him to look at it.

I saw a meme today about the last three Democratic presidents lowering the deficit and the last three Republicans having raised it. A Liberal’s feel-good meme I thought. So before I shared it, I looked it up. Sure enough, it’s true. There are hems and haws and nuance and whatever involved but basically, it’s factual.

Then there was that graph the other day about Trump versus Biden on the deficit. MAGA kept saying yeah, but Trump had to deal with the pandemic. He got the brunt of it in the beginning, but Biden also had to deal with it, thus the incentive pay out which you could argue all kinds of things about it, but it really helped.

Anyway, there’s that breakout (resharing above) that shows how much of the deficit Trump cost us that was the pandemic and had nothing to do with the pandemic and the biggest bulk of his debt things that had nothing to do with the pandemic. So there.

Oh, and if you’re curious if Judge Cannon is inexperienced or manipulating her Trump trial in favor of the defendant then listen to this podcast because they lay it out for you in one section. They’re very good about being neutral even though they’re pro-American and anti-Trump.

They make it clear and explain about using a magistrate judge. If she were actually being a judge and being neutral, she would’ve been utilizing one of those. She keeps saying she’s swamped so she has to slow things down and have all these hearings while some of them are utterly nonsensical, the Trump lawyers having thrown them up just to delay and obfuscate.

Many judges would’ve brushed those off or passed them on to a magistrate to speed things up. But she doesn’t want to and that's painfully obvious and in technical and legal ways, not just in a hearsay or populist way.

Oh, in my attempt to evolve these walkabout thoughts blogs from politics, more into the creative, the arts, filmmaking, etc., I was watching The Daily Show this morning and they had an ad by Jon Stewart about a new The Daily Show podcast he’s doing. 

He’s returned to the show, just on Mondays, and pissed me off this last Monday because he wasn't on. What pissed me off was not so much he wasn’t on. I was disappointed, but it was that there was absolutely no mention of it as if, if we don’t mention it, no one will notice... or get pissed off. [OK, I should have realized this, Jon saved his one day a week for live after the Presidential Debate Thursday night. Still my complaint, they said nothing on the Monday show about it? Why?]

Sorry. A lot of us wait to see Jon on his Monday shows. I mean, we we’re told months ago he was coming back to the show and then we find out it’s just on Mondays. Then a few weeks ago he changed it to Thursdays. Then the next week he was back on Monday. Stop screwing us around!

Anyway, Jon’s got like five episodes up and new ones weekly, so it’s on my list.

The good thing about that is Jon is funny and he is actually fair. He has very good arguments on things. One of the few people I’ve seen addressing a person he’s interviewing who is feeding him bullshit and he faces them down about it and rationally counters them down with facts, reality, and humanity. So many journalists or reporters I see who interview, even the same person Jon interviews but they just let stuff slip by. Some less than others. Problem is I know, when people being interviewed throw so much nonsense out there, it's hard at times to either know what they're talking about, or how to know everything they could come up with. Disinformation and breaking debate tactics. 

I don’t understand why, when these people on news shows and op-ed shows who are interviewing, especially MAGA people spewing lies and utter fantasies, have an earpiece in their ear but don't seem to utilize it to its full potential!

They should have fact-checkers in real-time working with producers in the control room, telling them how to counter some SOB's crap, and maybe display it on their screen at their table on camera. AI will be able to do this much better and faster and very soon.

This debate Thursday needs to be real, and Trump called out on his bullshit. Of course they’d end up fact-checking Biden too. Because yes, he’s old and I know my memory is not what it used to be. But due to my age and experience, I could still administrate better than a lot of younger people. Biden may say something he believes is true or he may spin something they could correct. Fair is fair. The thing is with Trump, if you ARE fair in something like that, it appears as unfair to Trump. Because he's so far off the rails.

The difference between Biden and Trump is Trump is utterly and completely full of shit so if we check him in real-time, it would at least force him to get back into spin rather than his usual outright lies and disinformation

We need to do something about this. 

We cannot let these lies continue to spread and fester. This whole MAGA new-"1984" Trump bullshit like what came from a guy from the Heritage Foundation when he said on TV he wants to turn the Republican Party into full on Trumpism and drop Reaganism… Not that Reaganism was ever that great, but I think even Reagan would lean towards shooting Donald Trump rather than making him POTUS. Yet Republicans today would call Ronald Reagan from the '80s a RINO. When it’s pretty clear that Republicans are the RINOs. We don’t need Republicans In Name Only. We need Republicans in name and purpose, orientation, and functionality.

Doing these blogs daily is really wearing me down. I don’t doubt it’s wearing down any readers if anybody’s reading them daily which I kind of doubt. I assume it’s different people every day, or a mix. I’m hoping if I suddenly stop doing these blogs for a bit it will be because I’m finishing up my "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero film companion book".

Since I’m stalled on making any money off of that film because of legal music rights issues, I need to get some aspect of it to be economically productive.

Oh, and on these walks lately. I’ve been pretty sore after them. But I noticed today that seems to be wearing off. Must be acclimating to the new level of activity.

Some app on my phone said that I’m burning more calories in recent weeks. No kidding. It just popped up on my screen today. I didn’t even know I had that function on my iPhone 11.

My oldest son called me last night from his town. We text every day but he’s been kinda quiet lately and I haven’t talked to him in a week or so. We spoke for about two hours and that was nice. I was dying to get to the new episode of Dark Matter on Apple+ though I do prefer talking to him. We talked about just about everything. Past relationships and what’s going on with his girlfriend who has been in and out of hospitals for over a year and never able to come home. The new day to come home is Friday and neither of us believes that will happen. Hopefully. That poor woman.

Starting my 3rd mile…

It occurs to me that reading these blogs might give someone insight into how my mind works in it jumping around and playing its ADHD card. One might wonder how I ever get anything done. And yet throughout my work history, I’ve been known as the guy who doesn’t seem to be doing anything most of the time but does two or three times the amount of work of anybody else, and very high-quality work, by the way.

So yeah, I don’t know how that works. I just know what has happened and what I have produced.

I do know ADHD people have the superpower of being incapable of focusing, paying attention or staying on track. But they also have the other side of that coin. Superhuman ability to focus, pay attention and stay on track.

Apparently, there’s gonna be a Scott Pilgrim animated spinoff. When I heard the name, I was interested. When I saw "Animated", kind of lost interest. Much to the dismay of my kids since they were children. I’m not really into anime or animation. Though I do like some.

OK, the podcast is over. I looked through my podcast for the newest one and landed on Pod Save America, about the debate.

I saw a video of Trump saying if he took his shirt off you’d see a very good… And I’m like OK asshole what are you gonna say now? And he said, “person“. Not really. Almost like he was going to brag a lie, then realized it was going too far and caught his narcissism in its tracks.

He also was talking about the 10 Commandments at some event because of that nonsense going on and started to name them. He got as far as Thou Shall Not Kill, which I think just about everybody knows. He moved on to State another, and it seemed pretty clear it was going to be Thou Shall Not Committed Adultery, which also a lot of people know (and don’t follow, and he never followed), and it stopped him abruptly and then he moved on hoping no one noticed.

I keep saying that in months or years to come we may well find out that Trump has broken every single one of the commandments, except for murder, though we actually may find out that he was also involved in that.

You know me and just about everybody has said they don’t believe he has been involved in murder or assassination or ordered it. But whenever I find myself saying something like that, a little bell goes off in my head and I have to rethink it.

Who’s Trump's hero? Putin. Who else? Kim Jong-un. What are those guys known for among other things? Assassinations and murders. Good grief, Un murdered his own uncle. He’s had generals executed. You know you really can just fire them and put them into retirement... dumbass.

So my assumption about Trump is either he’s been involved in murder or he tried to be and failed or whoever he chose to do the "wet work" screwed it up. Or he’s looking forward to doing it at some point in his future but hopefully not as POTUS ever again.

As far as Trump leaning into (voice to text translated that as "trampolining") the Christian nationalists, and the whole Jesus comparison with him...my assumption about the antichrist had always been...well, somebody very different than Donald Trump. Better looking, more charismatic in a more cohesive way, not obviously a criminal but apparently, that’s not the case.

Five presidents have apparently been shot in US history and Ulysses S Grant had a horse fall on him. I’m not sure what kind of big deal that is though. My ex-wife was a horse trainer. Had it happen several times in her life. She said anyone who works horses all their life probably had it happen. Our youngest had it happen once as a kid shortly after we divorced but luckily they were fine. I was freaking out waiting for the doctor because I was not in the area, able to get to the hospital. He said kids were pliable at that age and there was no damage. 

All of this reinforced my feelings that I don't want an animal later than a dog or one that can fit in my car. However, I did see a photo once of a guy who cut the roof of his car so a horse could sit in the passenger side.

The podcast has a good point about two of the 10 Commandments not to commit adultery and don’t lust after your neighbor's wife. I guess women are free to lust after their neighbor's husband? Also, shouldn’t those two be the same because one does lead to the other. If you don’t do one, you don’t get to the other? So like, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's spouse or commit adultery? I mean from any writer's perspective that seems pretty obvious.

Apparently, the Faith and Freedom Conference was going to be canceled, but Trump said he was too afraid to not go to it so they rescheduled it so he could attend. Seems it’s something he does annually. Whatever...

Seems like the Faith and Freedom Conferences should be liberal's (faith, and democracy, and the freedom from tyranny and toxic conservatives). They should be trying to figure out how to get rid of Donald Trump, but hey whatever…

Trump and the Heritage Foundation Project 2025: If you don’t know what it is, you’d better find out.

Trump says he’s going to end the Department of Education and turn education back over to the states. Which may sound like a great idea with the whole American great experiment of having states trying things and other states selecting the best of what’s been working? But I don’t know if you’ve been noticing, we have some states seemingly under Republican leadership who are really fucked up. Which is why we have federal laws to protect citizens from stupidity in the states. You know, it shouldn’t be federal heavy, but it can’t be State abusive heavy either.

Trump said as POTUS he would not give any money to any schools that have a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate. So Polio we're welcoming you back with open arms! This man is so stupid as to boggled the mind of anyone how any would think he's someone to follow or be led by.

On Trump claiming Biden takes drugs before debates. First off any one who he gets a B12 shot, so what? The podcast had a good idea that Biden should tell Trump, "You know what drug I’m taking before the debate? I find a quiet place with Jill and she tells me how much she loves me and that’s all the drug I need. You know what that’s like, right Donald?"

One of the guys in the podcast said Biden should just say to Trump: “Narc.“ What’s interesting about that is it’s that personal freedom thing that MAGA is so into and in say ing that it makes Trump and his administration the police, the authority.

From yesterday:

Below is from yesterday's podcast and blog. I finished my walk and was out shopping and played out the rest of the Jewel podcast with Marc Maron on WTF?. Now one of my favorites of his podcasts. I guess along with the Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath episode on his last episode. Marc, you’re kicking them out of the park!

This podcast with Jewel is fascinating. I’ve heard her be interviewed before. She has had an interesting life, but beyond what we know about in the music industry.

This past week I talked on the blog about facing our fears. She mentions facing one's pain. She said she wonce read that the buffalo is the only animal that goes into the storm and she realized she has to go into her pain to deal with it.

And that’s a very good point.

Jewel Is Co-Founder of a New Mental Health Platform in the Metaverse: 'We Cannot Let Happiness Be Elitist'

"Accessibility is critical," singer-songwriter writer tells PEOPLE about why she's partnering with the virtual reality platform Innerworld

On that note, I’ll bid you adieu… and leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.

Cheers! Sláinte!

My USAF (Cold War) Challenge Coins - 1975-82

I just finished watching The Blue Angels documentary (2024). Great film. It made me think about doing this blog here. Guess I got inspired. I thought I would make a blog detailing my earned challenge coin collection, just to document my service. I'll be updating this over time I just found I did not have an actual Fairchild AFB coin and found one and just purchased it. When it arrives, I'll add it in.

On challenge coins, they've been around for a long time. When I was in the service they weren't giving them out like they do now. I never saw one challenge coin the entire time I was in the service or after. They were far more selective and closely held. The history of challenge coins in the United States military is unclear, but some say they originated during World War I. I think every service person deserves one for what they have earned, so I prefer how it is today. 

What is a Challenge Coin?

From Fork Union Military Academy:
"Challenge coins are small, medallion-like tokens, often adorned with the emblem or insignia of the presenting organization. Challenge coins serve as a symbol of membership, belonging, and camaraderie, forging a strong bond among those who possess them. Additionally, they are used to acknowledge an individual's achievements, dedication, or exemplary service, and serve as a tangible reminder of the appreciation and respect of their peers and superiors.

"Receiving a challenge coin is a great honor, as it signifies that the recipient has played a special role, making a significant impact on their peers and the organization as a whole."

How do you acquire challenge coins?

Though Recognition of Achievement, Commemoration of Events, Unit Affiliation, Visits and Inspections, Personal Gifts, Competitions and Contests, Graduation from Training.

This blog will be around, should my adult kids ever want to know what the deal is with the challenge coins on my home office desk. They know what they are in general, but not so much the story behind each one details or its history which I've included below. I didn't get too much into things, it's just a brief. I've written more in detail about specifics in many other places.

I joined the US Air Force at 20 years of age, and was in Service from 1975-1982. My last two years being inactive and completed while I was attending Western Washington University, finishing up my degree in psychology. My degree concentrated in phenomenology (if you want to know more read M. Merleau-Ponty's book, Phenomenology of Perception which we had to read at university), with a minor in creative writing for play, screen, and team script writing. 

Most of the guys in our flight of 50 were 18 or 19. They called me the "old guy". I could never figure that out because there was a guy who was 24 and had left his high school teaching career to teach in the USAF. 

But I was the "old guy".  But that wasn't my worst nickname. When I got to my main base at Fairchild AFB, they hadn't had a new guy in a long time. The shop chief, a TSgt. Pettina (Technical Sergeant) started calling me "Jeep". It took a while to realize it was a term of affection. They all started calling me that. I asked one day why, what's with the "Jeep" crap. Pete said, "You know what a jeep is. A utility vehicle. You get all the grunt work here So you're the Jeep." 

Good grief. It wasn't until we got a few more new guys about 18 months later they dropped the name. Especially once I became the parachute chop supervisor under Pete. Drag chute tower above the back parachute shop is seen on the top right of photo below.

That was in the "back shop" of the building that was (inside 4 connected gigantic WWII airplane hangers) where the 40' parachute packing tables were and the room with the B-52 drag chute packing table, the B-52 pick up room, and the tall drag chute drying tower with the giant warm air blowers. 

You never wanted to dry B-52 drag chutes even when they were drenched from weather, because once dry the nylon got fluffy making them very hard to get into their deployment bag. and the static charge they would give off, hurt! 

Looking up inside the drag chute drying tower with one chute hanging up, a nylon 48' yellow split-ribbon B-52 drag chute:

The other thing I can mention about this base was standing within feet of nuclear weapons or being in a B-52 fully loaded with nukes while guarded by armed Security police in a secured Alert Facility area where you could actually get shot by stepping over the wrong line. 

There was a large foot-wide diamond-shaped yellow line all the way around uploaded B-52's with armed SPs monitoring it and a tower with armed guards watching everything and some SPs walking around with guard dogs Fun place But great food in the alert facility building and tv and games for the air crew on standby, with trailers next to the uploaded planes in standby mode. Three bombers and a tanker get already ready to taking off within minutes, before an enemy missle would take us out.

So we get the planes in the air, and then run into the massive bunker system beneath the base before the nukes hit. Or melt while you were trying to get other planes quickly into the air before they hit (more likely). Even IF we made it into the bunkers in time, designed to handle everyone on base, our families (my wife at the time lived in our house 15 miles away near downtown Spokane) simply wouldn't make it.

I ended my Air Force service as a Staff Sergeant (SSgt).

As I figure it I have 14. In order of service, this is what they are. Before I get to that I'd like to mention that attended and worked at my first air show in 1968.  It was at Paine Field north of Seattle, Washington where Boeing flies its manufactured planes from. The USAF Thunderbirds Demonstration Squadron was there. 

As Civil Air Patrol cadets we were tasked with helping to wrangle the public. Parking cars, helping citizens find things and at one point, forming a barrier line between the public and the Thunderbird jets being refuled. I got to talk with one of the Thunderbird's pilots while I was guarding the jets being refuled. Something I described  in more detail the other day in a blog.

 This is the only photo I have from that day of the pilot I was talking to:

I was in Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the USAF in 1968-69. I was a Flight Comnander for most of it in our Tacoma Squadron, then got promoted to Squadron 1st Sgt. I had my first small plane flight piloted by a former CAP cadet in a T-34 trainer where you sit behind the pilot, with a sliding canopy for ingress and egress (entering and exiting the plane.

I flew my first plane in 1969 and performed a 2 point landing at Tacoma International Airport by the Narrows Bridge. The pilot who owned the plane said for that airport I had landed as good as most adult pilots could expect.

While in CAP myself and some cadets, in uniforms as required for an Air Force even, got to take an incentive flight on a C-141 Starlifter cargo ject out of McChord AFB (not a joint base then yet with Ft. Lewis Army Training Base). My uncle also worked as a civilian at that base so I got to see him that day.

The first flight I ever took was in 1958 when we took a train from Tacoma, Washington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After a few days with family, we then boarded a commercial flight from there to New York City during a storm that scared the hell out of my mother and sister. I was having the time of my life until I saw that my older sister was scared because she could tell our mother was scared. We then flew from NYC to Madrid, Spain. We returned to "Philly" that same year, then returned to Tacoma in 1960.

That all being explained I can start with my USAF challenge coins.

The first is for being in the CAP.

Civil Air Patrol's motto is:

Semper Vigilans

(Always Vigilant/Always Ready)

The second is from that incentive flight as a CAP cadet in an auxiliary of the USAF. Between the air show I was at once at McChord as a kid, my uncle retiring as a civilian there. His family as my mom's sister's husband and my cousin, and my mom's mom, Granma lived a few houses from one another, just down the road from the runway at McChord I used to play on the roadside in front of my Grandmother's house and I would watch the jets take off down the road. 

So I'm claiming this coin for McChord AFB - Military Airlift Command (MAC) even though I was a CAP Cadet, a kid in 8th grade. But one who did some very adult things in search and rescue and 1st responder training for locating downed small civilian aircraft:

I entered the USAF as Law Enforcement, Vietnam Era, delayed enlistment, waiting 9 months for my slot to open for basic training. At the AFEES station in Seattle, Washington I had to take an oath with a bunch of other inductees:

During that training, I was canceled due to having flat feet and changed to parachute rigger as I'd been skydiving before the military. 

Training was at Lackland AFB/BMTS in San Antonio, Texas:

I graduated at Lackland Basic Military Training Squadron:

And I became a USAF Airman:

I was sent to tech school in Rantoul, Illinois at the now-closed Chanute AFB over their entire intense winter (I tried to find a USAF Parachute Rigger's coin but they didn't seem to exist, when I was in active service they also refused to allow us to wear a rigger's insignia of some sort and I pushed for that pretty hard...but then I also pushed to have long hair because hey, women did, and...I'd seen a photo of a Danish active military parachute rigger with long hair, so..yeah, I got nowhere... on both points):

There I became a certified parachute rigger trained on all USAF parachutes, drogues, and drag chutes at rigger school:

From there I was assigned to my main base at Fairchild AFB, Strategic Air Command (SAC):

I was assigned to 92 Field Maintenance Squadron (FMS) I could only find a rather old coin for this, but it's very cool:

While at Fairchild I worked on KC-135 Stratortankers and B-52 nuclear bombers. Asie from emergency parachutes and B-52 drag chues, we were responsible for sealing all windows inside the planes with "thermal nuclear flash barrier curtains". Which on the KC-135 meant a lot of windows compared to a B-52. I don't' believe we had to seal the rear refueler's window where two people could lie down to guide the fuel boom to connect with aircraft being refueled.

A shot I took from that "boom operator's station" or "boom pod" area, looking directly down through the bottom of the aircraft window onto the top of mountains in Utah:

I had to work in the cockpit of B-52 bombers on a 2 man-team protocol of the HRP/PRP program:

While there for a few years, I earned some other coins. Like a Good Conduct Medal, the only of my friends to receive one while I was there. 

At the end of my USAF service I had earned my stripes as a SSgt (Staff Sergeant):

My service was during the Cold War and I received a certificate I have hanging on my wall stating this clearly:

And now after my service, I became a USAF Veteran:

And that is my challenge coin history for my USAF service.

USAF motto (from 1942 to 1992):

Prosequor Alis

(I Pursue with Wings)

Moto as of 2010:

Aim High ... Fly-Fight-Win

Cheers!