Friday, June 28, 2024

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!

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