Walking Day is Monday, July 1, 2024.
Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 64° with little wind, semi-overcast, a bit humid. 67° once back at home.
Oh, this just went live yesterday...
Interview with indie author/filmmaker JZ Murdock (NO Politics!)
Podcast is WTF? With Marc Maron.
Nope, turned out it's Rachel Maddow's latest ep. of Ultra, Bonus Ep: Rachel Maddow w/Tony Kushner , it's Monday! It's good for MAGA to listen to at least the 1st 15 minutes or so about our history of what we're seeing today, from a century ago with Henry Ford, and Italy. And other stuff. IF you can STILL vote for Trump after THIS, you're support involves authoritarianism, not Trump.
I'd said I wouldn't vote for Trump back in 2016 merely because of his character, not his politics. Which I never needed to get anywhere near. Now I am and his "politics" IS... authoritarianism. However we live in a democratic Constitutional Republic, let's keep it... as Ben Franklin once challenged US.
And if you think we don't live in a democracy but a "constitutional Republic" (my MAGA older brother has said that for years and I never got what he was getting at until he supported Trump)? That's ignorant autocratSpeak for sedition if not moving toward insurrection.
You literally CANNOT HAVE a "constitutional Republic" WITHOUT being IN a democracy. Dumbass. Yes. We see you. You're going to take power and come for us? Well? Americans' response to things like that from foreign OR domestic enemies has typically been... "Here I am!" And did I say, "Dumbass"?
Dumbass.
So today, SCOTUS finally ruled on something, pushing it to the very end of their term, seeing the Trump immunity crap mostly all back down to the lower courts. I think they’ve been ruling lately in ways telling Congress to finally do their damn job. Relying on Roe v Wade for 50 years? It was idiotic. Do your job. Leave it not up to SCOTUS in their toxic conservative slant on things lately.
I’m glad it’s not easy to indict a POTUS for actions in office for official actions but the government needs to protect us, needs to have the capability of self-awareness, when it’s being attacked, especially internally, especially by single points of failure like POTUS as in the case of convicted felon and failed exPOTUS Donald Trump. Come on I mean, catch a clue?
Or those like him so very ready to imitate him? We're screwed. Trump's CHARACTER was what worried me about him becoming POTUS back in 2016 to begin with! This isn't good if he gets elected. He can't. Justice needs to be seen for America in his going through his earned indictments and trials, conviction and imprisonment. I still think he's earned, if not by law then by morality, to receive Capital Punishment. Our body politic is not protecting itself well enough, yet, and it has to update how it handles things like this.
For decades BOTH Republicans AND Democrats said POTUS had too much power, more vocally whenever their opponent is in the WH. Today, SCOTUS gave POTUS even more power. Pres. Biden said he will not abuse his powers. He's not who I'm worried about. One almost wishes he would make some abuses just to get this all under control. But when the cops start acting like the criminals, it's not good.
All America need to drop what they're doing & educate themselves on authoritarians. Read, "Strongmen". IF that were to happen, support for Donald Trump would rapidly drop off.
He would steadily lose the ability to receive enough votes to even BE on the ticket he has no right being anywhere near.
Pay attention to our future. Perhaps by reading, On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder.
People need to learn about authoritarians...before it's too late (and before November 2024).
When you understand the Authoritarian Playbook, the format of the authoritarian, you see clearly in Donald Trump what's going on. MAGA may never see it because they are lost deep in their (his) delusions and desires. But many of them will and eventually all of them can.
Yikes...
Now Marc is talking about some documentary he watched that was too much recreation. He said it should’ve just been a cheap movie but he did learn some things. For one, he asks if Hitler actually ever did personally kill anyone? Someone said he could think of one person.
Possibly not because this is in the area of ideologues who get other people to do their killing due to their position of power and lack of accountability, they tend to get carried away and in their "yes men" they surround themselves with. They become ever more toxic and ever more delusional until you end up with something like World War II and the Holocaust, which wasn’t just Jews being slaughtered, but they were the more aggressively mechanized murdered, not to mention the whole, "you gotta wear a star" for purposes of humiliation and designation, and all that crap.
That reminds me that it’s Monday and Rachel Maddow's new Ultra episode is out.
Great, so no Ultra this week because of the Fourth of July, which is not today, so what the hell? But instead, a bonus episode interviewing playwright Tony Kushner whoever that is. Turns out, pretty cool episode.
Ah. He is working with someone else on a screenplay for Steven Spielberg of the first season of Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast. Well, good for her!
As Rachel points out if you want to get benefits and no ads on her podcast, you can subscribe to the MSNBC something.
About that. Paying. Yes we should support our creatives and things we support and enjoy and listen to and watch or read so they continue. But nowadays, my DVR /Internet and cable through Comcast/Xfinity is around $250 take or leave $10 every month. Then there is any additional like Paramount+ or Apple TV or Disney+ where "plus" stands for, "you’re gonna pay more money out and in the end you’ll be "nickel & $10'ed" into poverty."
I find I have to get one streaming service, which is for a month, use whatever free trial weeks or whatever I can get, and try to squish a month's viewing into as soon as I can before the free trial runs out. Then cancel and join another streaming channel to see what you enjoy on their offerings.
If you make a shit load of money, just subscribe to everything all year around, annually being cheaper. But you can’t help but notice that in total, maybe you only watch any streaming channel for a month (or two or so) out of every year, but you pay for an annual subscription.
Well, that’s fine if you’ve got a lot of money, who cares I guess, and you want to support things not going away if you like them, so...
But as most of us, or a majority of us (or a lot of us anyway) view it, people on a fixed income, people in retirement or at a low economic level, those who don’t have that kind of money, it turns out that an enjoyment factor can become a burden
And it’s not even something like online sports gambling addiction. If I were married, or in a living together relationship, or was more active and out and about all the time, I wouldn’t need so much news and entertainment. But they keep my sanity so I pay the fees and try to keep it at a minimum.
When the Internet started up, we all loved it. Free information for everyone! That was the 80s and 90s.
Possibly not because this is in the area of ideologues who get other people to do their killing due to their position of power and lack of accountability, they tend to get carried away and in their "yes men" they surround themselves with. They become ever more toxic and ever more delusional until you end up with something like World War II and the Holocaust, which wasn’t just Jews being slaughtered, but they were the more aggressively mechanized murdered, not to mention the whole, "you gotta wear a star" for purposes of humiliation and designation, and all that crap.
That reminds me that it’s Monday and Rachel Maddow's new Ultra episode is out.
Great, so no Ultra this week because of the Fourth of July, which is not today, so what the hell? But instead, a bonus episode interviewing playwright Tony Kushner whoever that is. Turns out, pretty cool episode.
Ah. He is working with someone else on a screenplay for Steven Spielberg of the first season of Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast. Well, good for her!
As Rachel points out if you want to get benefits and no ads on her podcast, you can subscribe to the MSNBC something.
About that. Paying. Yes we should support our creatives and things we support and enjoy and listen to and watch or read so they continue. But nowadays, my DVR /Internet and cable through Comcast/Xfinity is around $250 take or leave $10 every month. Then there is any additional like Paramount+ or Apple TV or Disney+ where "plus" stands for, "you’re gonna pay more money out and in the end you’ll be "nickel & $10'ed" into poverty."
I find I have to get one streaming service, which is for a month, use whatever free trial weeks or whatever I can get, and try to squish a month's viewing into as soon as I can before the free trial runs out. Then cancel and join another streaming channel to see what you enjoy on their offerings.
If you make a shit load of money, just subscribe to everything all year around, annually being cheaper. But you can’t help but notice that in total, maybe you only watch any streaming channel for a month (or two or so) out of every year, but you pay for an annual subscription.
Well, that’s fine if you’ve got a lot of money, who cares I guess, and you want to support things not going away if you like them, so...
But as most of us, or a majority of us (or a lot of us anyway) view it, people on a fixed income, people in retirement or at a low economic level, those who don’t have that kind of money, it turns out that an enjoyment factor can become a burden
And it’s not even something like online sports gambling addiction. If I were married, or in a living together relationship, or was more active and out and about all the time, I wouldn’t need so much news and entertainment. But they keep my sanity so I pay the fees and try to keep it at a minimum.
When the Internet started up, we all loved it. Free information for everyone! That was the 80s and 90s.
Then at some point in the 90s and early 2000s everything started getting locked down and monetized. Service got better in many ways, to be sure. But at some point I started to realize I was being nickel and dimed to death financially. And some things had disappeared completely.
I found things I had been subscribed to for months that I only used for one week and I’d been paying for almost a year and in one case for a couple years. It wasn’t much back then, but I never used the service. And I had a job and was making a hell of a lot more than I do now.
I’ve always checked my checking account, but I got more adamant about monitoring what was going on with the advent of the internet and paid services. Understand, while some paid for AOL, or some service or other in the early days, I struggled and learned and tried to go free. You learned a lot more. You saved a lot of money.
I found things I had been subscribed to for months that I only used for one week and I’d been paying for almost a year and in one case for a couple years. It wasn’t much back then, but I never used the service. And I had a job and was making a hell of a lot more than I do now.
I’ve always checked my checking account, but I got more adamant about monitoring what was going on with the advent of the internet and paid services. Understand, while some paid for AOL, or some service or other in the early days, I struggled and learned and tried to go free. You learned a lot more. You saved a lot of money.
In recent years, I started realizing at times that I was paying for a streaming service I forgot I even had. So I monitor it all closely and I’m not getting what is essentially getting scammed. Like legitimate scamming. Like when you get on a website or get a new service and have to sign their customer agreement that's either 50 pages or one page that you can’t understand what the hell it says.
I know we passed a law that says it has to be readable and understandable. But a lot of people still don’t understand. So you tend to just click, "Yes, I accept whatever..." and move on.
Be careful about that though.
A lot of artists have signed contracts and found out years (or decades) later, when they knew they had to be making millions that they weren’t making much of anything. Or they needed something and asked for it and got the fancy car and in being young and inexperience and maybe previously poor, were quite happy not giving it all much though. In this case, I'm thinking about record companies. You can refer a couple episodes back on Marc Maron WTF? With Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath or read his published book that details all of this kind of thing.
I learned many years ago, back in. I don’t know, the 80s or 90s, never sign any contract without at least reading the entire thing. I’ve been sitting in the office of a company and they handed me a contract they said was "boilerplate" and maybe it was. Typically it is.
I still read it, sitting there in the office wasting their time. Unless they said I can take it home in which case I’ll probably have a lawyer look at it.
But the very least we can do is vote and pay taxes we owe, and read our damn contracts before you sign them!
Because if you don’t understand something or you do notice something where it sounds like in the future you could be getting screwed? Don’t sign it. Negotiate, a lot of times they’re happy to negotiate. Sometimes it’s just a matter of if they can get something, great if not, they'll give you a fair deal. That's business. That's what I call "corporate thought". Get what you can at a minimum, see what you can get. No thought of I don't want to rip someone off. Just take what you can get. At some point it is just reasonable, logical, but it can also be kind of sleazy and slimy.
I mean in business, it’s not always criminal or unethical. It’s just "ask for the moon and take what you can get." That is sensible, with a company, but with people, I think we have a responsibility to not ruin their lives. And you know be kind of fair. But it goes both ways. So there are times when I asked for the ridiculous, and... was easily given it. I walked out of there Happy. Happier.
Until I realized, once I thought about it (see it pays to take time to read, absorb, consider, which offered the "moon", really? IS that what's happening?). If they were that happy to sign the ridiculous thing I asked for, could I have asked for more? But don’t go down that path if that happens. You'll drive yourself mad.
I know we passed a law that says it has to be readable and understandable. But a lot of people still don’t understand. So you tend to just click, "Yes, I accept whatever..." and move on.
Be careful about that though.
A lot of artists have signed contracts and found out years (or decades) later, when they knew they had to be making millions that they weren’t making much of anything. Or they needed something and asked for it and got the fancy car and in being young and inexperience and maybe previously poor, were quite happy not giving it all much though. In this case, I'm thinking about record companies. You can refer a couple episodes back on Marc Maron WTF? With Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath or read his published book that details all of this kind of thing.
I learned many years ago, back in. I don’t know, the 80s or 90s, never sign any contract without at least reading the entire thing. I’ve been sitting in the office of a company and they handed me a contract they said was "boilerplate" and maybe it was. Typically it is.
I still read it, sitting there in the office wasting their time. Unless they said I can take it home in which case I’ll probably have a lawyer look at it.
But the very least we can do is vote and pay taxes we owe, and read our damn contracts before you sign them!
Because if you don’t understand something or you do notice something where it sounds like in the future you could be getting screwed? Don’t sign it. Negotiate, a lot of times they’re happy to negotiate. Sometimes it’s just a matter of if they can get something, great if not, they'll give you a fair deal. That's business. That's what I call "corporate thought". Get what you can at a minimum, see what you can get. No thought of I don't want to rip someone off. Just take what you can get. At some point it is just reasonable, logical, but it can also be kind of sleazy and slimy.
I mean in business, it’s not always criminal or unethical. It’s just "ask for the moon and take what you can get." That is sensible, with a company, but with people, I think we have a responsibility to not ruin their lives. And you know be kind of fair. But it goes both ways. So there are times when I asked for the ridiculous, and... was easily given it. I walked out of there Happy. Happier.
Until I realized, once I thought about it (see it pays to take time to read, absorb, consider, which offered the "moon", really? IS that what's happening?). If they were that happy to sign the ridiculous thing I asked for, could I have asked for more? But don’t go down that path if that happens. You'll drive yourself mad.
Enjoy your great deal for the time being. Just tuck it in the back of your mind that the next time you negotiate ask for what you didn’t get and then ask for the ridiculous. The reasonably ridiculous. Don’t ask to be president United States if you’re signing a record deal. But maybe listen to what artists like Jewel did. Getting from the record company what the company thought was a ridiculously a good deal for them but turned out to make her a whole shit load of money in the end. She just seems to have a natural ability many of us don’t have. That’s what lawyers are for and CPAs. If you’re in that kind of business or industry? Use them.
I always told my kids, if you’re in business or if you’re making a lot of money, use reasonable caution as I pointed out above. Get an accountant and a CPA. But also, depending on how much you’re making, get an accountant or a CPA or a lawyer to audit your accountant or CPA or lawyer, and on a six-month if not annual basis.
You may still get ripped off, but at least you’ll minimize it and won’t go on for years or decades before you realize you’re old and have no money and are in debt with maybe tax evasion charges.
Starting my 2nd mile and now finally shutting up and listening to Rachel‘s podcast on stage and live but recorded.
Rachel says the single smartest person she ever interviewed is this playwright Tony Kushner.
Which, for some reason, makes me think I need to get back to submitting my screenplay to agents again and managers. This is something I started doing about 1984 when I graduated WWU. And while I made some progress, as I’ve detailed in previous blogs certainly with “The Teenage Bodyguard' (True crime drama screenplay), I still have never actually sold anything .
What I’ve learned about that over the years is it doesn’t matter how qualified or great you are in your discipline or art. My younger brother's art is amazing and yet, he's not rich (should be). It matters if you have enough networking and business sense or simply a capability of either brute force or cleverness in positioning yourself to where luck is gonna happen to SOMEBODY and it might as well be YOU because you got yourself to be standing there when it hit.
I’ve been on the receiving end of that several times in my life and almost did hit it big, at least by my definition. Which isn’t very grandiose. Since where and how I grew up I never thought I would make it to $10 an hour. And I went way the hell over that. I never thought I’d have any kind of retirement and I ended up with three, one of them now fully depleted with what life threw this way, but not by any misadventures on my part. Just as I said… Life.
I do dislike promoting myself. You have no idea… The me of 20 or 40 years ago, would be completely blown away by the me of today in that arena. And I assume the me of 20 years from now or certainly the me of having found success and financial reward in the future, would look back on me now and just shake his head. Fool.
Whatever...
We do the best we can in life. Be happy with knowing that. It’s like raising your kids. Most of us are going to screw up, make mistakes. Maybe our kids will grow up troubled. But if you did the best you could with what you had and you showed them love and made them know they are loved, it not only makes up for a lot with them, but I think you can mostly forgive yourself. Maybe…
From Rachel's book, she’s reading a passage on stage live: "Ford accused Jews, or Jew Jewish capitalists of all evils in the world.“
If you can’t see how stupid that is, how ignorant that is, how bigoted that is, how racist that is, then you probably agree with Ford and we can see you for what you are. Bigoted, binary, vapidly ignorant.
It’s simple to avoid being that way. Always strive to be better than who you were yesterday and are today.
Henry Ford called the metal brass, a "Jew metal". Weird. Therefore, you found no brass in the cars he manufactured. Give me a break.
Reminds me, hopefully for a completely different reason, of the Smith Tower in Seattle Washington. As I understood it because of some kind of action or strike by maybe lumbermen or purveyors and dealers of wood for building back in the day, he refused to put any wood in his building and used, massive amount of steel and marble and I think brass, but I’d have to check. If you’re in Seattle and you got some spare time over and take a look inside the tower. Go up to the top have a drink. It’s truly a marvel to behold just to walk in on the ground floor.
I always told my kids, if you’re in business or if you’re making a lot of money, use reasonable caution as I pointed out above. Get an accountant and a CPA. But also, depending on how much you’re making, get an accountant or a CPA or a lawyer to audit your accountant or CPA or lawyer, and on a six-month if not annual basis.
You may still get ripped off, but at least you’ll minimize it and won’t go on for years or decades before you realize you’re old and have no money and are in debt with maybe tax evasion charges.
Starting my 2nd mile and now finally shutting up and listening to Rachel‘s podcast on stage and live but recorded.
Rachel says the single smartest person she ever interviewed is this playwright Tony Kushner.
Which, for some reason, makes me think I need to get back to submitting my screenplay to agents again and managers. This is something I started doing about 1984 when I graduated WWU. And while I made some progress, as I’ve detailed in previous blogs certainly with “The Teenage Bodyguard' (True crime drama screenplay), I still have never actually sold anything .
What I’ve learned about that over the years is it doesn’t matter how qualified or great you are in your discipline or art. My younger brother's art is amazing and yet, he's not rich (should be). It matters if you have enough networking and business sense or simply a capability of either brute force or cleverness in positioning yourself to where luck is gonna happen to SOMEBODY and it might as well be YOU because you got yourself to be standing there when it hit.
I’ve been on the receiving end of that several times in my life and almost did hit it big, at least by my definition. Which isn’t very grandiose. Since where and how I grew up I never thought I would make it to $10 an hour. And I went way the hell over that. I never thought I’d have any kind of retirement and I ended up with three, one of them now fully depleted with what life threw this way, but not by any misadventures on my part. Just as I said… Life.
I do dislike promoting myself. You have no idea… The me of 20 or 40 years ago, would be completely blown away by the me of today in that arena. And I assume the me of 20 years from now or certainly the me of having found success and financial reward in the future, would look back on me now and just shake his head. Fool.
Whatever...
We do the best we can in life. Be happy with knowing that. It’s like raising your kids. Most of us are going to screw up, make mistakes. Maybe our kids will grow up troubled. But if you did the best you could with what you had and you showed them love and made them know they are loved, it not only makes up for a lot with them, but I think you can mostly forgive yourself. Maybe…
From Rachel's book, she’s reading a passage on stage live: "Ford accused Jews, or Jew Jewish capitalists of all evils in the world.“
If you can’t see how stupid that is, how ignorant that is, how bigoted that is, how racist that is, then you probably agree with Ford and we can see you for what you are. Bigoted, binary, vapidly ignorant.
It’s simple to avoid being that way. Always strive to be better than who you were yesterday and are today.
Henry Ford called the metal brass, a "Jew metal". Weird. Therefore, you found no brass in the cars he manufactured. Give me a break.
Reminds me, hopefully for a completely different reason, of the Smith Tower in Seattle Washington. As I understood it because of some kind of action or strike by maybe lumbermen or purveyors and dealers of wood for building back in the day, he refused to put any wood in his building and used, massive amount of steel and marble and I think brass, but I’d have to check. If you’re in Seattle and you got some spare time over and take a look inside the tower. Go up to the top have a drink. It’s truly a marvel to behold just to walk in on the ground floor.
Regarding wooden Seattle skyscrapers.
Ford: if you ever look around the country where there’s trouble you will find Jews. OK, but I would assume there’s also Catholics and Christians and atheist protestants and maybe Mormons Muslims… What a douchebag.
Just to mention, since medieval times and before, Christians weren’t allowed to do certain things, and when you see a market where you can jump into it and others wouldn't allow you to do much else, you jump into it. Jews fulfilled those roles for maybe thousands of years, certainly in Christian nations. So when the only people you have to blame are those who are the only people you would allow to do certain jobs, is that on them or you, or your people?
Sure anybody who has a monopoly can get carried away or abusive. I’m not arguing that. But to lay that blame not on toxic capitalism or the awareness of a paradigm forced into being, not by the people you are blaming for it, and to blame their race or culture as you may perceive them, just seems ignorant and racist.
This is why Buddhists believe in enlightenment. If you are aware enough of any situation, you focused out of, especially in a binary manner, being more aware of the situation and all its aspects which will help you course correct and decrease or eliminate your own cognitive biases: Be more aware, it's better for everyone.
Ford's radical anti-Semitism isn’t something we should be against because of Jews, but because of the bigotry, ignorance, and single-minded focus on laying vast amounts of blame and situations upon any people, not just Jews.
There’s so much bigotry involved in racism against blacks or Jews, or you name them, that when you pull back, we should be against, not just the racism alone, but we should be against the overall condition. We should be against the mindset that leads us to lay blame or hate any one group of people, when that’s not at all that’s going on.
This is interesting, what Rachel is reading because I didn’t know Ford got involved in politics, or tried to. Though I did know he bought a newspaper (I've listened to all Rachel's podcasts) and poured his hatred of the Jews into it. I didn’t know it was losing money until somebody sent him a letter saying to pick an enemy and stick to it. Then let’s make sensationalism!
Ford: if you ever look around the country where there’s trouble you will find Jews. OK, but I would assume there’s also Catholics and Christians and atheist protestants and maybe Mormons Muslims… What a douchebag.
Just to mention, since medieval times and before, Christians weren’t allowed to do certain things, and when you see a market where you can jump into it and others wouldn't allow you to do much else, you jump into it. Jews fulfilled those roles for maybe thousands of years, certainly in Christian nations. So when the only people you have to blame are those who are the only people you would allow to do certain jobs, is that on them or you, or your people?
Sure anybody who has a monopoly can get carried away or abusive. I’m not arguing that. But to lay that blame not on toxic capitalism or the awareness of a paradigm forced into being, not by the people you are blaming for it, and to blame their race or culture as you may perceive them, just seems ignorant and racist.
This is why Buddhists believe in enlightenment. If you are aware enough of any situation, you focused out of, especially in a binary manner, being more aware of the situation and all its aspects which will help you course correct and decrease or eliminate your own cognitive biases: Be more aware, it's better for everyone.
Ford's radical anti-Semitism isn’t something we should be against because of Jews, but because of the bigotry, ignorance, and single-minded focus on laying vast amounts of blame and situations upon any people, not just Jews.
There’s so much bigotry involved in racism against blacks or Jews, or you name them, that when you pull back, we should be against, not just the racism alone, but we should be against the overall condition. We should be against the mindset that leads us to lay blame or hate any one group of people, when that’s not at all that’s going on.
This is interesting, what Rachel is reading because I didn’t know Ford got involved in politics, or tried to. Though I did know he bought a newspaper (I've listened to all Rachel's podcasts) and poured his hatred of the Jews into it. I didn’t know it was losing money until somebody sent him a letter saying to pick an enemy and stick to it. Then let’s make sensationalism!
Ford had already been laying blame on the foot of whoever he lost to in an election and blamed him in a way that evokes Donald Trump today. Trump sure as hell isn't original in anything he’s doing. He’s just original in trying to pull it in America where we are supposed to be inoculated against his kind of fascism. Ford was deep into that over 100 years ago here in America when we were less aware of fascism and such overt bigotry.
So apparently, Ford himself got into disinformation in the years around 1917. While I have said that Russians were the disinformation experts, honed to excellence by the Soviets and continued on by the Russians after the USSR fell after the CCCP no longer exists, I do believe they are the consistent experts in the world at it through recent history.
What we’ve seen elsewhere and certainly in America over the past hundred years, at least in people who from time to time, stumbled upon it, and touched on the notes of fascism and authoritarianism, every time have had their legs cut out from under them because we are after all, America.
Today we revisit this. You will note that Donald Trump is going in this direction but is also now a convicted felon. He didn’t quite get away, yet. At least we know him and we see him and we are showing him to the world.
Sadly in his running for election again, and in having as much support by his MAGALoon contingency, much of the world is shaking in fear over the prospect of America, the most powerful nation in the history of human life, might give its power to a buffoon and narcissist like our little fascist Donald Trump
Just to point this out in case you missed it, the guy who sent Ford that letter guiding him into disinformation and a greater depth of fascism would be today Trump's, Steve Bannon. Who also just surrounded himself for four months in prison for his crimes under Donald Trump. We can only hope something happens to him in prison, where he never returns to walk our free streets again. Streets that are still free unless we do not stop the people trying to put us all in "concentration camps", in our minds, and our own communities.
Starting mile three…
Wow, apparently for two years Ford ran 92 articles in his newspaper against the Jews. Like “Jewish jazz moron music becomes our new national music“ and., “The international Jew, the world’s problem “, apparently Ford distributed this newspaper across the country through his Ford dealerships.
Evidently, Ford dealers would toss the latest issue of Ford’s racist newspaper under the front seat of every brand-new sold Ford automobile.
This is really despicable behavior.
This is funny. Several people on this street I’ve walked by have smiled at me. Usually, they will nod their head, smile wave, whatever and I'll return a gesture. But this last woman had an interesting smile. I kind of thought, well that was interesting. I mean, I thought that it nice but for some reason, I looked down to see what’s on my T-shirt today. And today I’m wearing my big bold cartoon letters saying "That Metal Show" from, you may have guessed it, “That Metal Show “. The show for years who had on rock legends. Fun show with two comedians and one big brain "can’t forget anything rock ‘n’ roll historian": "Hosted by Eddie Trunk (the historian), Jim Florentine, and Don Jamieson, That Metal Show distills decades of your favorite hard rock and heavy metal into a solid 60 minutes."
So apparently, Ford himself got into disinformation in the years around 1917. While I have said that Russians were the disinformation experts, honed to excellence by the Soviets and continued on by the Russians after the USSR fell after the CCCP no longer exists, I do believe they are the consistent experts in the world at it through recent history.
What we’ve seen elsewhere and certainly in America over the past hundred years, at least in people who from time to time, stumbled upon it, and touched on the notes of fascism and authoritarianism, every time have had their legs cut out from under them because we are after all, America.
Today we revisit this. You will note that Donald Trump is going in this direction but is also now a convicted felon. He didn’t quite get away, yet. At least we know him and we see him and we are showing him to the world.
Sadly in his running for election again, and in having as much support by his MAGALoon contingency, much of the world is shaking in fear over the prospect of America, the most powerful nation in the history of human life, might give its power to a buffoon and narcissist like our little fascist Donald Trump
Just to point this out in case you missed it, the guy who sent Ford that letter guiding him into disinformation and a greater depth of fascism would be today Trump's, Steve Bannon. Who also just surrounded himself for four months in prison for his crimes under Donald Trump. We can only hope something happens to him in prison, where he never returns to walk our free streets again. Streets that are still free unless we do not stop the people trying to put us all in "concentration camps", in our minds, and our own communities.
Starting mile three…
Wow, apparently for two years Ford ran 92 articles in his newspaper against the Jews. Like “Jewish jazz moron music becomes our new national music“ and., “The international Jew, the world’s problem “, apparently Ford distributed this newspaper across the country through his Ford dealerships.
Evidently, Ford dealers would toss the latest issue of Ford’s racist newspaper under the front seat of every brand-new sold Ford automobile.
This is really despicable behavior.
This is funny. Several people on this street I’ve walked by have smiled at me. Usually, they will nod their head, smile wave, whatever and I'll return a gesture. But this last woman had an interesting smile. I kind of thought, well that was interesting. I mean, I thought that it nice but for some reason, I looked down to see what’s on my T-shirt today. And today I’m wearing my big bold cartoon letters saying "That Metal Show" from, you may have guessed it, “That Metal Show “. The show for years who had on rock legends. Fun show with two comedians and one big brain "can’t forget anything rock ‘n’ roll historian": "Hosted by Eddie Trunk (the historian), Jim Florentine, and Don Jamieson, That Metal Show distills decades of your favorite hard rock and heavy metal into a solid 60 minutes."
Oh the best part of this reading Rachel is doing on stage is that Hitler lifted entire passages of Ford's four-volume book, raging against the Jews and used it for his own Nazi purposes
I’ve detailed this more extensively in a previous blog.
To sum this all up about Hitler and Ford? Hitler was interviewed by a journalist and he said he considers Henry Ford his mentor. Well, that pretty much wrapped that up.
How do you know you believe in a conspiracy theory? Because it can’t be proven or disproven, even with facts. It may even be able to be disproven, but the conspiracy theory adherent remains believing they know a secret and that makes them special. Who wants to give up believing to their core that they are special and they know something that most others don’t. That they could be the hero if they just do this or that? Which typically is to blame on their intellectual or physical attacks on some group. Which is how Hitler put it to the journalist, that “somebody has to take the blame."
One of the primary rules of the authoritarian playbook noted by Professor Timothy Snyder is that you have to have "an enemy" or someone put "the other ". Someone to blame. Especially someone you can get others to hate. The more ignorance involved, the more powerful your cause.
I’m all for being a patriot or dying for a cause or for your country, but we have people who are dying for their country, or ready to, or hurting or killing others for their country, entirely unaware of what they’re attacking them for, all based upon conspiracy theory and ignorance. And in the case of Donald Trump, in support of a criminal autocrat who is trying to abuse his power and position to end how the United States has run for over 200 years.
Trump wants to have power and be positioned in office forever until he dies. And then before he dies it is his hope he will choose someone to continue his evil works. And yeah, I do think this is evil. I don’t so much think Trump is evil, as much as mentally incompetent or at least mentally unhealthy Or as I like to put it, psychosocially unhealthy, as a sociopath, narcissist and pathological liar, all of which does fit together.
There is a book out worth checking out by Ramin Setoodeh, "Apprentice in Wonderland - How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass. Pretty interesting stuff. The author says Trump is living a delusion with many "enemies" as he perceives it. It's a pathology. From the book blub on Amazon:
"Here for the first time is the definitive untold story of Donald Trump’s years as a reality TV star. Trump himself admits he might not have been president without The Apprentice. Now, just as he uncovered the chaos inside the daytime favorite The View in his bestselling Ladies Who Punch, Ramin Setoodeh chronicles Trump’s dramatic tenure as New York’s ultimate boss in the boardroom, a mirage created by Survivor producer Mark Burnett and NBC boss Jeff Zucker. With unprecedented access, including hours of interviews with Trump, his boardroom advisers George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher, Eric Trump, and some of the most memorable contestants, and writing with flair and authority, Setoodeh shares all the untold tales from this legendary show that has left its mark on popular culture, shaped the legend of its star, and ultimately changed American history."
What Trump is trying to do is spread his belief system that he, and especially Steve Bannon (who is internationally trying to indoctrinate people into authoritarianism), are simply pushing out evils against humanity. Stephen Miller is a prime example of this. They are all spreading fantastic beliefs untethered in reality with just enough truth in them to confuse and obfuscate.
It all evokes the concept of “purity “or “pure blood “. Which is a nonsense concept that led to eugenics as a concept and the Nazi effort in WWII. It purports to work as a species to make yourself the best you can be. Evil? No, not per se. But when you turn it into a science with no concept of humanity, humaneness, empathy, or compassion, then it quite easily, and quite quickly becomes evil and does great evil to others, whom you do not like.
If you want proof of that, go to an actual history book or documentaries on World War II. Don’t just focus on the Holocaust because although that was specifically aimed at a group, the Nazis also slaughtered I believe 12 million Russians in their war of attrition.
The first crime for Nazis in pre-WWII is their belief in their perfection or purity, which was never true to begin with from the get-go.
So much authoritarianism is based on lies, disinformation and propaganda and a belief in "I am greater than you" and you are “"the other" who we need to fear as an existential threat and eliminate you entirely and completely. Then of course move onto a new perceived and purposed "enemy", the next group whom we designate as the new, “the other “. In Soviet Union under Stalin “the other “ became your neighbor, or your cousin, your spouse, your children, or your parents.
And that’s what we’re looking forward to here under an authoritarian. As much as MAGA can rationalize, or Steve Bannon claims Trump is only speaking in metaphor… his January 6 insurrection, proved that bullshit. While their ends may justify their means, their end for us shold be obvious to us, because of logic and history. Foretelling our future if we're not careful.
How do we know the conspiracy theory bullshit we’ve been hearing is there and happening now? Listen to Trump and his MAGA officials and followers:
"You can’t trust journalists. The media is your enemy. The other party, the Democrats, are doing crimes that are exactly what we’re doing, but we’re trying to neutralize that by saying they’re doing it and denying we’re doing it. Science is faulty. Science is wrong. Science does not know more than Internet Internet “facts“. Rumors are as valid as journalism. The zeitgeist is whatever we wanted to be and whenever the establishment says it is is wrong until we become the establishment and then whatever we say is always correct and right and righteous. Theocracy gives us more authoritarianism than we can achieve in any other way."
And then eventually: "Religions are your enemy We the government or your religion. Our dear leader is your God." And suddenly we are North Korea. Think about America becoming North Korea as the most powerful country, the richest country in the history of humankind. And who then becomes "the other"?
Everybody, not the United States. But we'll always have enemies inside us to sow distrust, fear, hatred. Good grief read about how bad it got under Stalin in the USSR. If "they" (whomever, other countries) want to be safe, if "they" want us to trust and believe them, it is all about our empire. They have to be all about our empire. Our Foundation. Hoow we founded it and the truth only we can designate as, "Truth".
Remember, "No other Gods before Me"? And "Me" is our Dear Leader, or whoever is newly designated as such. Our government and our Dear Leader being one in the same.
Therefore, all representatives of our government are representatives of our Dear Leader... who is God, and they are therefore minor Gods below him, doing his bidding.
Brief Aside: I was a fan of Kate Bush nearly since she first performed, I never heard of this group before now.
Brief and Final Aside: I've often said, "Buddhism", the Buddha Dharma (including all the teachings of all Buddhas), which I would argue is not a religion.
I've met people raised in Buddhist countries who tend to treat Buddhism as a religion. I see that as the human propensity to recreate all things of duration to be a religion either directly or of a sort. I reject that and the concept of different "schools" of "Buddhism". I take any "Buddha" other than the original as interesting insights that should be considered, and incorporated or lost as one sees fit and appropriate. I was raised old-school Slovak Catholic, my mom's family is Czechoslovakian, Dad's is Irish. I spent my early adulthood surveying various forms of thought and religions. I earned a university degree in psychology.
I found it fascinating that my Buddhism merged well with my childhood Okinawan Isshinryu Karate studies, in the Asian philosophy we were introduced to in those classes which later merged well with my Aikido studies, and even later in my studies in psychology. I saw a Buddhist vein of similarity amidst them all. And in myself, a comfort and familiarity I eventually realized came from my upbringing at home and my initial familiarization in Karate of East Asian philosophy.
I started to follow Buddhism as I best understood and accepted it. I later became a Freemason and realized I was not a ritualist. But Buddhism seemed to be my best form of matching up to how I understood the world outside of science, and in avoidance of organized religions. Which seemed too problematic, lending themselves far too much to undue control and abuse.
If someone told the Buddha that they prayed to him, he might respond by gently redirecting them to focus on their own practice and understanding. He would likely emphasize that enlightenment comes from one's own efforts and realization rather than through praying to external figures. The Buddha might say something akin to:
"Do not pray to me, but rather, seek to understand my teachings and apply them in your life. True liberation comes from your own effort and insight, not from external supplication."
This response would align with the core Buddhist principle that individuals must take responsibility for their own spiritual development.
Western Christianity saw this as barbarianism for hundreds of years. Maybe thousands.
The original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, emphasized self-reliance, personal experience, and understanding in the pursuit of enlightenment. He did not advocate for the worship or prayer to deities, including himself.
His teachings, encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, were designed to guide individuals toward their own enlightenment through ethical living, meditation, and wisdom. I have had great respect for the Dalai Lama Lhamo Thondupand, and for the late Thích Nhất Hạnh, among others.
These are all things that if helpful, can be utilized, shaped and formed to aid us in our travels from birth to at least, death.
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and leave you with that.
It’s 10:39AM and not time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
Cheers! Sláinte!
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