Walking Day is Sunday, June 30, 2024
Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 61° with no wind, overcast and I feel like I’m walking through a mist. I can’t see, 64° back at home.
Podcast is Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show podcast episode Jon Stewart and Michael Kosta Cover the First Presidential Debate | ICYMI
I tried to listen to the podcast, but he said it was being released just before the debate Thursday night so I’m skipping it for a live version on stage of,,,
Pod Save America, an episode from one day ago, a day after the debate:
I wanted to listen to Jon Stewart, but lately, the news seems to age by the minute, and while I want to hear from him, what I am most concerned about is the most up to date discussions.
So yes, I hear what they’re saying on the podcast about how MAGA wanted a Trumpy candidate who will bluster and play like he’s fighting for them. Now people are sick of them and long now of so very sick of Trump. I too want someone who will beat the crap out of Trump in a debate, or anywhere.
"Brave enough to live the lies you want to." That explains what MAGA Is doing.
I think the issue in the differences between those who support Trump and those who don’t isn’t about specific issues. It’s about a selective paradigm of the cohesive hole in how each individual Trump supporter finds kinship with him. And it’s similar on the other side with Joe Biden.
It’s kind of a "forest for the trees" thing. But if you step back and take a look at the forest the Biden supporters or more realistically the supporters of America and democracy,we see and push a fairly healthy forest.
While the Trump supporters pick out the available individual green trees, in a forest that is dying. Which they cannot see overall and they refuse to see what is there because they are selectively choosing what to see. Everyone does that. They just do it to a degree that is unbelievable. Unreasonable.
About that democracy issue…
I posted a couple of tweets, seems stupid to call them X’s just to satiate the emotionally adolescent Elon Musk… and those tweets about democracy seemed to do well today.
About that democracy issue…
I posted a couple of tweets, seems stupid to call them X’s just to satiate the emotionally adolescent Elon Musk… and those tweets about democracy seemed to do well today.
In 2000 we had "hanging chands". In 2020 we had "hanging Pence". Time has changed. Both issues were Republican-based troubles.
We live in a democratic constitutional republic.
When you hear someone say, "We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a constitutional republic" or "We live in a republic." That is the right-wing whistle-calling to those who understand it from their info-bubble where they believe that democracy is bad. like everything else they do or say, they’re conflating and inflating things for purpose.
Yes, a full (absolute) democracy is arguably bad. It's too specific but too wide open.
A republic is a subset of democracy. To claim it’s not a democracy at all though is delusional, and in this case, it's pushing extreme right-wing authoritarian fascism or fascist authoritarianism if you will.
A whistle call is a placeholder, a shorthand for a concept where it doesn’t do well to mention it openly and. So you use a kind of mnemonic to positively trigger those who understand your meaning and are supportive of what you’re saying.
What’s interesting about that? It's similar to what a mob boss does to his underlings. He orders a crime to be committed but uses code. Which is what we’re referring to here, to protect himself from accountability or responsibility for his actions. Actions he is delegating to others to commit.
You may notice if you’ve ever seen a police procedural or a mafia/mob/organized crime film, when a hitman is contracted to execute someone by order, the police want to take to trial those who ordered it, at times giving amnesty to the actual murderer, the hitman.
If you want to understand Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, you merely have to study, or at least familiarize yourself with organized crime functionality. Once you do that, it becomes crystal clear what’s going on with those people. Donald Trump is the most despicable person ever to become or run for POTUS. Hillary Clinton was 100% correct about how despicable he is, as is his agenda. In saying that in public speeches, she misspoke by labeling all of his supporters as that.
Indirectly, it is true, she was correct. But in trying to do what Trump does in speaking to his base and gathering to him those fervent believers in what he believes in, or wants them to believe in...while it may work for Trump, it's a specialized case. It's not something that works well in a socially healthy group, in a liberal democratic republic.
Isn’t the problem on either side? Everyone else.? Not Trump? There may be a moment where the left thought they could do what the right was doing with Donald Trump, just serviced the base. That’s not how democracy works.
A whistle call is a placeholder, a shorthand for a concept where it doesn’t do well to mention it openly and. So you use a kind of mnemonic to positively trigger those who understand your meaning and are supportive of what you’re saying.
What’s interesting about that? It's similar to what a mob boss does to his underlings. He orders a crime to be committed but uses code. Which is what we’re referring to here, to protect himself from accountability or responsibility for his actions. Actions he is delegating to others to commit.
You may notice if you’ve ever seen a police procedural or a mafia/mob/organized crime film, when a hitman is contracted to execute someone by order, the police want to take to trial those who ordered it, at times giving amnesty to the actual murderer, the hitman.
If you want to understand Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, you merely have to study, or at least familiarize yourself with organized crime functionality. Once you do that, it becomes crystal clear what’s going on with those people. Donald Trump is the most despicable person ever to become or run for POTUS. Hillary Clinton was 100% correct about how despicable he is, as is his agenda. In saying that in public speeches, she misspoke by labeling all of his supporters as that.
Indirectly, it is true, she was correct. But in trying to do what Trump does in speaking to his base and gathering to him those fervent believers in what he believes in, or wants them to believe in...while it may work for Trump, it's a specialized case. It's not something that works well in a socially healthy group, in a liberal democratic republic.
Isn’t the problem on either side? Everyone else.? Not Trump? There may be a moment where the left thought they could do what the right was doing with Donald Trump, just serviced the base. That’s not how democracy works.
That’s South African apartheid. That’s minority rule. Which is where we’re at with the Right, with the Republicans, with the MAGA, with Donald Trump and him wanting to be titular head of a fascist authoritarian government. Moving us from perhaps oligarchy to kleptocracy, where the criminals truly do run the government.
We have long talked about criminals and how shady politicians are, etc. etc. Which explains MAGA falling in line and buying into the propaganda from the right and Donald Trump, from his disinformation, from Republican disinformation.
But if you actually have any reality-based common sense, you’d realize that the decades of diatribe I too heard against our government throughout my entire life, it’s just been something to complain about. Lay blame where you don’t understand things. Blame for things that are making you miserable, even if it’s your fault, even if 100% your fault. Or your party's fault in the case of the GOP.
Pretty much 100%. So whatever negativity the GOP is comfortable spreading around there’s enough to spread around at least some to everyone, except for the right, for them, who are trying to blame everything on the left, in trying to claim that is equal to what the left does, simply makes for a false equivalency.
Today’s left is not equal to the right.
We have long talked about criminals and how shady politicians are, etc. etc. Which explains MAGA falling in line and buying into the propaganda from the right and Donald Trump, from his disinformation, from Republican disinformation.
But if you actually have any reality-based common sense, you’d realize that the decades of diatribe I too heard against our government throughout my entire life, it’s just been something to complain about. Lay blame where you don’t understand things. Blame for things that are making you miserable, even if it’s your fault, even if 100% your fault. Or your party's fault in the case of the GOP.
Pretty much 100%. So whatever negativity the GOP is comfortable spreading around there’s enough to spread around at least some to everyone, except for the right, for them, who are trying to blame everything on the left, in trying to claim that is equal to what the left does, simply makes for a false equivalency.
Today’s left is not equal to the right.
BLM does not equal Christian nationalism or white supremacists.
When you’re in the wrong and you’re demanding to be treated as well as or better than those in the right, even when they act inappropriately at times, you're building a false equivalency for your own benefit and of one against the whole of the nation.
Over the decades, we allowed too many things to just go unbidden. When those unconstitutional little militias started up, we didn’t take them to task. We let them go thinking they were either harmless or would fizzle out... and many dead.
When the 2nd amendment was latched onto and forced into meaning something, it was never intended to mean, we didn’t push back enough. Even Supreme Justices have said it’s bullshit, all this conflation regarding the 2nd Amendment meaning all should have guns and little or not restrictions. It has led us to a kind of madness.
What is that adage about a lie? if you repeat it often and loud enough people will believe it? If something lasts long enough without countering it, it becomes true to some. I remember my old property where I lived in the woods, if you had use of a part of a neighbor's land for seven years and they didn’t do anything about it, you then had permanent access to that.
It’s similar to some concepts in society. Only in the case of ideas they can be recuperated.
When you have the situation we have now, with a vein of authoritarianism and fascism, bigotry and racism, which has been festering since the South lost the Civil War and the abuse they suffered by carpetbaggers and scalawags, and others, con men, and bad politicians, especially when the North, when you have people exhibiting and Confederate flags, the flag of treasonous losers who tried to secede from the United States, we should’ve taken example from Germany after World War II and protected our future. Swastikas and Nazism and the Nazis salute and all that bullshit was made illegal. They addressed issues regarding: Denazification, Prohibition of Nazi Symbols and Propaganda, Holocaust Denial, Banning of Nazi Organizations, Regulation of Public Memory. I suspect America didn't do enough. But then that was the 1800s and Nazis were the 1900s.
I know we’re America and freedom and all that. But it’s come back to bite us now. Hopefully, in being the country we are, it will just mean we will have a dark period and eventually come back to reality as a nation.
The problem is that in some other countries that are not a mix of cultures like we are, who are more greatly one people, the British, the Irish, the French, or whatever. It makes more sense. But even in those countries others have become citizens and been there for generations. But we’re not those countries. We’re not Iran. We’re not a theocracy.
We have to find a way to agree to disagree and remain a cohesive hole because that’s how we’re powerful. Right now we’re perceived as weak and fractured and Russia is doing everything it can to apply pressure to our found pressure points to exploit that. And don’t think China and North Korea aren’t doing the same. Or possibly Iran or others.
We are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot for no apparent reason other than bigotry or a search for power over the majority. This ridiculous hatred of “the other “who just doesn’t exist. While the Republican party feeds off of the fear of that in their attempts to acquire power.
Starting my 2nd mile…
Medhi Hasan is on the podcast with some the Apple TV show Dark Matter from the novel. Love that show. It takes physics as we understand it and shows you how bad it could get.
The podcast is making fun of Biden’s comment in the debate about Immoral Alley Cat Trump. They’re not at all getting what the reference was about. It was about Trump having sex with the porn star and all of Trump's criminality, convictions, and denials involved therein.
I don’t know, I liked Biden's comment it seemed off the cuff funny. Maybe it was planned, but I find that hard to believe. They could’ve come up with something better had they planned it.
But it’s not as they joke in the podcast, about homelessness and it’s really not about slut shaming because Trump is one of the biggest sluts in America, at least as a well-known individual. But it’s about the lack of ethics and morals involved in Trump’s behavior with sex. That was what the comment was about and I would say it was spot on.
They mention Biden being very proud of his comment that Trump is a lot like Herbert Hoover, who was 1929 to 1933 as POTUS. I get that doesn’t spark up the youth vote. But when you have to reach that far back in history of American Presidents to find that kind of corruption Trump involves himself in, damn, go look in up when you hear a reference like that. Think about it. THINK.
When you’re in the wrong and you’re demanding to be treated as well as or better than those in the right, even when they act inappropriately at times, you're building a false equivalency for your own benefit and of one against the whole of the nation.
Over the decades, we allowed too many things to just go unbidden. When those unconstitutional little militias started up, we didn’t take them to task. We let them go thinking they were either harmless or would fizzle out... and many dead.
When the 2nd amendment was latched onto and forced into meaning something, it was never intended to mean, we didn’t push back enough. Even Supreme Justices have said it’s bullshit, all this conflation regarding the 2nd Amendment meaning all should have guns and little or not restrictions. It has led us to a kind of madness.
What is that adage about a lie? if you repeat it often and loud enough people will believe it? If something lasts long enough without countering it, it becomes true to some. I remember my old property where I lived in the woods, if you had use of a part of a neighbor's land for seven years and they didn’t do anything about it, you then had permanent access to that.
It’s similar to some concepts in society. Only in the case of ideas they can be recuperated.
When you have the situation we have now, with a vein of authoritarianism and fascism, bigotry and racism, which has been festering since the South lost the Civil War and the abuse they suffered by carpetbaggers and scalawags, and others, con men, and bad politicians, especially when the North, when you have people exhibiting and Confederate flags, the flag of treasonous losers who tried to secede from the United States, we should’ve taken example from Germany after World War II and protected our future. Swastikas and Nazism and the Nazis salute and all that bullshit was made illegal. They addressed issues regarding: Denazification, Prohibition of Nazi Symbols and Propaganda, Holocaust Denial, Banning of Nazi Organizations, Regulation of Public Memory. I suspect America didn't do enough. But then that was the 1800s and Nazis were the 1900s.
I know we’re America and freedom and all that. But it’s come back to bite us now. Hopefully, in being the country we are, it will just mean we will have a dark period and eventually come back to reality as a nation.
The problem is that in some other countries that are not a mix of cultures like we are, who are more greatly one people, the British, the Irish, the French, or whatever. It makes more sense. But even in those countries others have become citizens and been there for generations. But we’re not those countries. We’re not Iran. We’re not a theocracy.
We have to find a way to agree to disagree and remain a cohesive hole because that’s how we’re powerful. Right now we’re perceived as weak and fractured and Russia is doing everything it can to apply pressure to our found pressure points to exploit that. And don’t think China and North Korea aren’t doing the same. Or possibly Iran or others.
We are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot for no apparent reason other than bigotry or a search for power over the majority. This ridiculous hatred of “the other “who just doesn’t exist. While the Republican party feeds off of the fear of that in their attempts to acquire power.
Starting my 2nd mile…
Medhi Hasan is on the podcast with some the Apple TV show Dark Matter from the novel. Love that show. It takes physics as we understand it and shows you how bad it could get.
The podcast is making fun of Biden’s comment in the debate about Immoral Alley Cat Trump. They’re not at all getting what the reference was about. It was about Trump having sex with the porn star and all of Trump's criminality, convictions, and denials involved therein.
I don’t know, I liked Biden's comment it seemed off the cuff funny. Maybe it was planned, but I find that hard to believe. They could’ve come up with something better had they planned it.
But it’s not as they joke in the podcast, about homelessness and it’s really not about slut shaming because Trump is one of the biggest sluts in America, at least as a well-known individual. But it’s about the lack of ethics and morals involved in Trump’s behavior with sex. That was what the comment was about and I would say it was spot on.
They mention Biden being very proud of his comment that Trump is a lot like Herbert Hoover, who was 1929 to 1933 as POTUS. I get that doesn’t spark up the youth vote. But when you have to reach that far back in history of American Presidents to find that kind of corruption Trump involves himself in, damn, go look in up when you hear a reference like that. Think about it. THINK.
I remember when people used to have posters of that hanging up back in the 70s. Just a single word, "THINK" on a blank background. Used to see them everywhere. It would do good for MAGA to start thinking nowadays because I don’t know what they’re doing at times, but thinking seems not to be part of it.
Maybe "calculating" but I doubt it. Seems too complex. For me thinking involves a Buddhist sense of total awareness. Enlightenment. Zanshin. What is that? Look it up. When you hear something you don’t know about, when your mind snags at you and asks, "What is that? We should know about that?" Listen to that voice.
I know, I know, some people, very few don’t have an inner voice. Some refuse to listen to it. Somehow some hear it telling him that they should worship Trump.
When you have a Heritage Foundation leader who says he wants to turn the GOP into Trumpism, that’s a problem.
I get how the Right tries to claim the Left are fascists because of their hardline refusal to accept uh, fascism? Yes, back in World War II Germany, Nazis did get their feelings hurt when anyone spoke out against them because they were pretty horrific. They would just kill whoever bothered them and then go have a drink. Except where there were sadomasochistic tendencies. But there are good people on both sides, right?
Not too fetish shame their S&M but there’s S&M and then there's S&M. When you’re doing it for pleasure and say applying pressure rather than damage, I don’t have a problem with that. When you’re drawing blood and physically damaging people permanently for your sexual pleasure with your sex fetish whip with razor blades on it? I do have a problem with that. You need help. Or we need to be aware of that and force you to get help, if not lock you up.
Had they done that with the Nazis, how much better the world would have been.
Germany gave the world a fascist, a bigot, a racist, and a toxic authoritarian for those damaged people in succeeding generations to look to for a model of how to abuse humanity.
I may have mentioned this in previous days about the Phoenix, Arizona Republican focus group who watched the debate and when asked about ii, had little to say about Biden’s performance, but were very angry at Trump for telling the lies that they thought he just didn’t need to tell.
I’ve been saying this for a while, that we won’t know until after the election, in hindsight if we see then that Trump never had a chance of winning this election. But that’s not how you treat it at this point, at this stage of the game. As we had two in 2020, as we should’ve done in 2016, we need to pull out all stops and keep this SOB from ever having public office again. Give him a chance to go through his court trials, to be convicted, to go to prison for the rest of his life. As one can only hope.
And if his MAGA doesn’t like it, we will deal with it. Because that’s the only choice we have as a democratic constitutional republic!
I realized yesterday in editing my blog for this morning that doing this blog is not just mental exercise for me, but I’m also picking up speed and getting through the blog faster to get it online.
Maybe "calculating" but I doubt it. Seems too complex. For me thinking involves a Buddhist sense of total awareness. Enlightenment. Zanshin. What is that? Look it up. When you hear something you don’t know about, when your mind snags at you and asks, "What is that? We should know about that?" Listen to that voice.
I know, I know, some people, very few don’t have an inner voice. Some refuse to listen to it. Somehow some hear it telling him that they should worship Trump.
When you have a Heritage Foundation leader who says he wants to turn the GOP into Trumpism, that’s a problem.
I get how the Right tries to claim the Left are fascists because of their hardline refusal to accept uh, fascism? Yes, back in World War II Germany, Nazis did get their feelings hurt when anyone spoke out against them because they were pretty horrific. They would just kill whoever bothered them and then go have a drink. Except where there were sadomasochistic tendencies. But there are good people on both sides, right?
Not too fetish shame their S&M but there’s S&M and then there's S&M. When you’re doing it for pleasure and say applying pressure rather than damage, I don’t have a problem with that. When you’re drawing blood and physically damaging people permanently for your sexual pleasure with your sex fetish whip with razor blades on it? I do have a problem with that. You need help. Or we need to be aware of that and force you to get help, if not lock you up.
Had they done that with the Nazis, how much better the world would have been.
Germany gave the world a fascist, a bigot, a racist, and a toxic authoritarian for those damaged people in succeeding generations to look to for a model of how to abuse humanity.
I may have mentioned this in previous days about the Phoenix, Arizona Republican focus group who watched the debate and when asked about ii, had little to say about Biden’s performance, but were very angry at Trump for telling the lies that they thought he just didn’t need to tell.
I’ve been saying this for a while, that we won’t know until after the election, in hindsight if we see then that Trump never had a chance of winning this election. But that’s not how you treat it at this point, at this stage of the game. As we had two in 2020, as we should’ve done in 2016, we need to pull out all stops and keep this SOB from ever having public office again. Give him a chance to go through his court trials, to be convicted, to go to prison for the rest of his life. As one can only hope.
And if his MAGA doesn’t like it, we will deal with it. Because that’s the only choice we have as a democratic constitutional republic!
I realized yesterday in editing my blog for this morning that doing this blog is not just mental exercise for me, but I’m also picking up speed and getting through the blog faster to get it online.
Yes, I know. It’s only getting one draft before being published. But that’s the format of this blog. I’m not giving a lot of thought to it to change things to make it perfect, to protect myself, or things I say. Kind of laying myself open and bare there. But I think there’s something positive to be said for that sometimes.
Hasan says on the podcast that the debate missed two words in the entire event:
"Project 2025".
Oh, brief aside… When I was 11, I had a Huffy Stingray bicycle, with a hand brake but no gear shifter. I loved that bike. It took me everywhere and my parents never knew where I was, even if I was miles away. They would’ve freaked out. I used to jump it. I loved the broken concrete sidewalk on our block from tree roots pushing up underneath the concrete. I would use those as ramps to jump my bike. Or jump big dirt mounds around housing construction sites. Get some serious air.
Oh, brief aside… When I was 11, I had a Huffy Stingray bicycle, with a hand brake but no gear shifter. I loved that bike. It took me everywhere and my parents never knew where I was, even if I was miles away. They would’ve freaked out. I used to jump it. I loved the broken concrete sidewalk on our block from tree roots pushing up underneath the concrete. I would use those as ramps to jump my bike. Or jump big dirt mounds around housing construction sites. Get some serious air.
Bike below is a photo off the internet, not my bike, but a little similar to it.
One day I had gotten so good on my bike I thought I could put my feet up on the handlebars in the center, which makes it harder to steer actually, and took my hands off the handlebars.
I went about 8 feet before I crashed. My right leg dropped down, the handlebars spun to the right trapping my leg against the center bar and with forward movement I fell on top of my leg, sissoring a crushing motion on my inner leg below the knee.
Hurt like a son of a bitch. But nothing came of it. I didn’t go to the doctor and probably should’ve. It swelled up in that spot and over the next days and weeks, it turned interesting colors settling into a yellow, down to flesh tones again after a couple of months.
But the bump got harder and never went away. Which kind of freaked me out. Still going to karate every day back then. Still having five fights a night at the dojo, still fighting tournaments. Still getting bruises upon bruises, before they would heal. Which had me worried at one point as a kid that I might get cancer from it someday. This is in the late 1960s.
About the time I think I was 20 or 22, after 10 years, it finally faded away.
In that same spot for months now, I’ve been having a weird little pain off and on. I thought it was just long Covid blood clotting.
Starting my 3rd mile…
But at the doctor one day they said there’s no vein there so it’s probably just muscle strain. So I went with that. I had noticed that taking an 80 mg aspirin could make the pain go away for a few days or a week. Maybe that was helping with muscle strain from pushing my limits. That also worked for minor blood clots. I write about that at length in my Long covid book.
I’ve noticed recently that it seems to be bigger of a pain, more like a muscle strain in that location. Unnerving that it’s in the same location as that childhood trauma.
I thought I'd treat it like a strain. So I’ve been putting ice on it. Especially after a walk and then add heat. So the day before yesterday I put an ice pack on it and I realized that I had left it on too long.
That night, I noticed there was a sort of oblong redness, not a rash, but in that area where the ice had been. Yesterday morning it was just patchy like it was going away. So I thought be careful about applying cold for too long.
Later yesterday I put just heat on it. I have this elongated bag filled with some kind of seeds or beans or something and you throw it in the microwave and it works great. I put it on my leg and it felt a little hot, especially in one area, about the size of a quarter. I lifted it up let it cool down and put it back on. Last night I noticed there was a blister there. At first, it freaked me out.
The last time that happened was a crush wound, last year. And a blister but one that had dead flesh under it. I tried to take care of it, but I ended up at a Wound Clinic that finally got it to heal up over a month. After a couple of months trying to heal it myself.
So yesterday was an unnerving flashback. Then I applied critical thinking and realized it was a surface wound issue probably not an underlying issue as there was no crush event. There was no fall or intense impact as before and the more I thought about it I came to realize in at first thinking it was frostbite, instead (“Occam’s razor "), I probably put the heat on it and it was too hot, which usually happens. I had put it in the microwave for a minute and a half and usually then I either wait till it cools down just a bit or I put it on but I’m very careful.
It’s easy because your skin tells you, "Hey, this is too hot!" That was when I remembered that wound from when I was a kid had a certain area where I don’t have any feeling in an area the size of a silver dollar.
That was when I realized I apparently had scolded myself and got a blister from it. My Id wanted to freak out. I forced my superego to stick with critical thinking. If it was worse today, I’d go to the doctor tomorrow. I put a Band-Aid on it to keep it from breaking the blister. Because the doctor said when you have a blister keep it as long as possible as it’s natural protection.
The problem with my crush wound had been with that kind of wound you need to go to the doctor immediately to debride the dead flesh. All I did was protect the blister and flesh under the blister so that when it broke, it got infected. What I didn't know, or the ER doctor, was that as soo as the impact occurred, the underlying flesh was dead and decaying. Good Times.
Especially as you get older, take care of your wounds. You’re not a teenager anymore. As it was it took a month to heal. The wound doctor at the specialized Wound Clinic said he was surprised it healed in a month. He'd expected at least two, maybe three months.
I said, "I told you I’ve always healed pretty fast. Just not as fast nowadays as I used to."
So hang in there. Be aware. Be careful. Take care of yourself. And as you get older recognize that.
The podcast is talking about why Biden didn’t bring up Trump being a convicted felon earlier in the debate.I fully agree. I kept waiting for him to say something. Finally, he did. But I would’ve started the debate with: "I really shouldn’t be here debating a convicted felon running for POTUS. But in a peace offering to Americans who support him still for some reason, here I am. Now to answer the question…"
I went about 8 feet before I crashed. My right leg dropped down, the handlebars spun to the right trapping my leg against the center bar and with forward movement I fell on top of my leg, sissoring a crushing motion on my inner leg below the knee.
Hurt like a son of a bitch. But nothing came of it. I didn’t go to the doctor and probably should’ve. It swelled up in that spot and over the next days and weeks, it turned interesting colors settling into a yellow, down to flesh tones again after a couple of months.
But the bump got harder and never went away. Which kind of freaked me out. Still going to karate every day back then. Still having five fights a night at the dojo, still fighting tournaments. Still getting bruises upon bruises, before they would heal. Which had me worried at one point as a kid that I might get cancer from it someday. This is in the late 1960s.
About the time I think I was 20 or 22, after 10 years, it finally faded away.
In that same spot for months now, I’ve been having a weird little pain off and on. I thought it was just long Covid blood clotting.
Starting my 3rd mile…
But at the doctor one day they said there’s no vein there so it’s probably just muscle strain. So I went with that. I had noticed that taking an 80 mg aspirin could make the pain go away for a few days or a week. Maybe that was helping with muscle strain from pushing my limits. That also worked for minor blood clots. I write about that at length in my Long covid book.
I’ve noticed recently that it seems to be bigger of a pain, more like a muscle strain in that location. Unnerving that it’s in the same location as that childhood trauma.
I thought I'd treat it like a strain. So I’ve been putting ice on it. Especially after a walk and then add heat. So the day before yesterday I put an ice pack on it and I realized that I had left it on too long.
That night, I noticed there was a sort of oblong redness, not a rash, but in that area where the ice had been. Yesterday morning it was just patchy like it was going away. So I thought be careful about applying cold for too long.
Later yesterday I put just heat on it. I have this elongated bag filled with some kind of seeds or beans or something and you throw it in the microwave and it works great. I put it on my leg and it felt a little hot, especially in one area, about the size of a quarter. I lifted it up let it cool down and put it back on. Last night I noticed there was a blister there. At first, it freaked me out.
The last time that happened was a crush wound, last year. And a blister but one that had dead flesh under it. I tried to take care of it, but I ended up at a Wound Clinic that finally got it to heal up over a month. After a couple of months trying to heal it myself.
So yesterday was an unnerving flashback. Then I applied critical thinking and realized it was a surface wound issue probably not an underlying issue as there was no crush event. There was no fall or intense impact as before and the more I thought about it I came to realize in at first thinking it was frostbite, instead (“Occam’s razor "), I probably put the heat on it and it was too hot, which usually happens. I had put it in the microwave for a minute and a half and usually then I either wait till it cools down just a bit or I put it on but I’m very careful.
It’s easy because your skin tells you, "Hey, this is too hot!" That was when I remembered that wound from when I was a kid had a certain area where I don’t have any feeling in an area the size of a silver dollar.
That was when I realized I apparently had scolded myself and got a blister from it. My Id wanted to freak out. I forced my superego to stick with critical thinking. If it was worse today, I’d go to the doctor tomorrow. I put a Band-Aid on it to keep it from breaking the blister. Because the doctor said when you have a blister keep it as long as possible as it’s natural protection.
The problem with my crush wound had been with that kind of wound you need to go to the doctor immediately to debride the dead flesh. All I did was protect the blister and flesh under the blister so that when it broke, it got infected. What I didn't know, or the ER doctor, was that as soo as the impact occurred, the underlying flesh was dead and decaying. Good Times.
Especially as you get older, take care of your wounds. You’re not a teenager anymore. As it was it took a month to heal. The wound doctor at the specialized Wound Clinic said he was surprised it healed in a month. He'd expected at least two, maybe three months.
I said, "I told you I’ve always healed pretty fast. Just not as fast nowadays as I used to."
So hang in there. Be aware. Be careful. Take care of yourself. And as you get older recognize that.
The podcast is talking about why Biden didn’t bring up Trump being a convicted felon earlier in the debate.I fully agree. I kept waiting for him to say something. Finally, he did. But I would’ve started the debate with: "I really shouldn’t be here debating a convicted felon running for POTUS. But in a peace offering to Americans who support him still for some reason, here I am. Now to answer the question…"
I feel they must have "debate prepped" Joe and he was just exhausted. I’ve been exhausted in recent years and you don’t just feel too tired. You can feel like you’re dying.
One person on the news yesterday said they think he may have been over-prepped for the debate. Which is a mistake every time. Because with so much stuff swimming around in your head, you have trouble accessing it within the time allotted.
And that’s kind of what a lot of it looked like in the debate where the rest of it was just Joe with a look of disbelief on his face in Trump being the asshole that he is, the despicable SOB that he plays on TV, and in politics. No ethics, no morals only the end justifies the means, and fuck America.
I truly don’t know why MAGA cannot see that is what is going on with him.
You know, I don’t say the mean or bad things about Donald Trump just because I don’t like him. Don’t get me wrong. I do not like the man. He makes my skin crawl. I get vibes off of him that aren't good. I get along with almost anyone, I can interface, and blend with anyone. But. I get liar vibes from Trump. I get no ethics from him and "I'll fuck anybody if I get a chance to profit off of their pain."
I have a pretty reality-based, analytical mind. Based on being trained in emergency services at a young age, and being a researcher. I have only wanted the truth since I was a child. I think ADHD made me a bit OCD about that. Plenty of times in my life I have gone against myself and suffered for it because I knew I was wrong or because I couldn’t do to another person in. If I'm wrong, I'll 'fess up. Especially when we both know I was wrong.
Trump would just smile and fuck the person. Because he's all that is important.
That’s why I say things about Trump like I do because he’s earned it. That’s who he is. That’s what he is. And as I said in 2016, Trump is the type of person you never allow near any public office and you certainly don’t ever give him power.
That’s the problem in business where sociopaths tend to do well and when they own the company or they're CEO, there’s not a lot you can do. If they’re producing profits, the company board of overseers is usually just happy with that and happy to take their bonus home.
Which I think is where the mission statements comes in. "We’re not just about profit, especially where it damages people or the environment." Pretty much all you need. And then stick to it. Have a department that monitors you with some "teeth" to make you do what's right.
That’s the thing about toxic capitalism that we’re so stuck in today and why there’s such a disparity between the economic classes that's just been getting worse and worse as the GOP and conservatives push the capitalist agenda to their breaking points.
I assume it'll happen to swing back around one of these days. We just have to hope it’s before America is not America anymore.
Medhi Hassan has a great mind and is a great debater. He says the debate last Thursday night was not a debate because in a debate you have to moderate it and they did not moderate it. So there's that.
I guess the positive thing about that debate, which was miserable on both sides, is what the gentleman has to say about it who has been correct in selecting the winner of every presidential election for some time, Allen Lichtman: This debate will have zero impact.
Well, that’s good to know.
Here’s another issue about Trump being POTUS. For those people who said will Trump did this and that which was good or that he did something while president and that was good and gee I liked that… You don’t need Trump for that. All the man did was play golf and get on TV to glorify himself. All you need is whomever he chooses as advisors and there you go, because he didn’t make the great decisions. Those were made for him. Sure he must have done something, but what? Everyone who worked for him, good minds all, whom he fired, now all lay it out. The man is a moron. Not really, but in so much as being a real POTUS, anyway.
Trump played golf as president. It’s why he didn’t age like other presidents because he didn’t put in the work. He didn’t worry because he didn’t care. And as far as golf, he cheats constantly. Ask anyone who’s golfed with him except Lindsey Graham. because his head is so far up Trump‘s ass he can’t even think anymore. The story is, the reason famous people play golf with him anymore is so they get their own ludicrous "Trump cheated me while playing golf with him", story
What the hell is that? I don’t blame them for that. I might’ve done it myself except I don’t think I could stay in the room with the guy for a few minutes. Or on a golf course for very long. I’ve been in the room with CEOs like him. And I just leave the room as soon as I can.
We once met our new CEO a couple decades ago when I worked in IT at a 4 state Blue Shield company and everyone gathered around him to meet him. Some shook hands, while I just edged my way to the back and completely avoided him. Turned out a year later it I was correct. But I won't go into it here. I have elsewhere before.
Somebody asked me what was going on with that. I said the dude gives me vibes like a shady used car salesman. I just have a sixth sense for that. My second wife would do catering. She kept trying to make deals with people that fell through or the people turned out to be lowlifes. I kept telling her to just let me meet them before she ever made a deal with them. I could tell her if she could trust them. Eventually, she said absolutely from now on she would as she was tied of getting screwed over. After that, she never had another one turn bad.
I was in a martial arts newsgroup on the internet back in the late '80s. I remember a guy talking about "predator sense". Sounded bad, it wasn't. His explanation was when you’re at a certain level of martial arts, and martial means war, so if you’re a very good soldier, or very well trained, or you’ve actually done the work out in the field, some get a sixth sense for people. You can walk into a room and just know who is the dangerous person. Even if they seem not to be to others.
I’ve always been able to walk into a room full of people and immediately know who the person of concern could be. He addressed that in saying, if we’re both in a room together with a lot of people, we’re quickly going to know each other. From across the room we'll lock and just know.
That’s why I say things about Trump like I do because he’s earned it. That’s who he is. That’s what he is. And as I said in 2016, Trump is the type of person you never allow near any public office and you certainly don’t ever give him power.
That’s the problem in business where sociopaths tend to do well and when they own the company or they're CEO, there’s not a lot you can do. If they’re producing profits, the company board of overseers is usually just happy with that and happy to take their bonus home.
Which I think is where the mission statements comes in. "We’re not just about profit, especially where it damages people or the environment." Pretty much all you need. And then stick to it. Have a department that monitors you with some "teeth" to make you do what's right.
That’s the thing about toxic capitalism that we’re so stuck in today and why there’s such a disparity between the economic classes that's just been getting worse and worse as the GOP and conservatives push the capitalist agenda to their breaking points.
I assume it'll happen to swing back around one of these days. We just have to hope it’s before America is not America anymore.
Medhi Hassan has a great mind and is a great debater. He says the debate last Thursday night was not a debate because in a debate you have to moderate it and they did not moderate it. So there's that.
I guess the positive thing about that debate, which was miserable on both sides, is what the gentleman has to say about it who has been correct in selecting the winner of every presidential election for some time, Allen Lichtman: This debate will have zero impact.
Well, that’s good to know.
Here’s another issue about Trump being POTUS. For those people who said will Trump did this and that which was good or that he did something while president and that was good and gee I liked that… You don’t need Trump for that. All the man did was play golf and get on TV to glorify himself. All you need is whomever he chooses as advisors and there you go, because he didn’t make the great decisions. Those were made for him. Sure he must have done something, but what? Everyone who worked for him, good minds all, whom he fired, now all lay it out. The man is a moron. Not really, but in so much as being a real POTUS, anyway.
Trump played golf as president. It’s why he didn’t age like other presidents because he didn’t put in the work. He didn’t worry because he didn’t care. And as far as golf, he cheats constantly. Ask anyone who’s golfed with him except Lindsey Graham. because his head is so far up Trump‘s ass he can’t even think anymore. The story is, the reason famous people play golf with him anymore is so they get their own ludicrous "Trump cheated me while playing golf with him", story
What the hell is that? I don’t blame them for that. I might’ve done it myself except I don’t think I could stay in the room with the guy for a few minutes. Or on a golf course for very long. I’ve been in the room with CEOs like him. And I just leave the room as soon as I can.
We once met our new CEO a couple decades ago when I worked in IT at a 4 state Blue Shield company and everyone gathered around him to meet him. Some shook hands, while I just edged my way to the back and completely avoided him. Turned out a year later it I was correct. But I won't go into it here. I have elsewhere before.
Somebody asked me what was going on with that. I said the dude gives me vibes like a shady used car salesman. I just have a sixth sense for that. My second wife would do catering. She kept trying to make deals with people that fell through or the people turned out to be lowlifes. I kept telling her to just let me meet them before she ever made a deal with them. I could tell her if she could trust them. Eventually, she said absolutely from now on she would as she was tied of getting screwed over. After that, she never had another one turn bad.
I was in a martial arts newsgroup on the internet back in the late '80s. I remember a guy talking about "predator sense". Sounded bad, it wasn't. His explanation was when you’re at a certain level of martial arts, and martial means war, so if you’re a very good soldier, or very well trained, or you’ve actually done the work out in the field, some get a sixth sense for people. You can walk into a room and just know who is the dangerous person. Even if they seem not to be to others.
I’ve always been able to walk into a room full of people and immediately know who the person of concern could be. He addressed that in saying, if we’re both in a room together with a lot of people, we’re quickly going to know each other. From across the room we'll lock and just know.
He said, "Typically, I’ll just nod and they will nod and everything is fine." I've had that happen. It's weird. Everyone seems so oblivious, having fun. In such a case you may just recognize not that someone is to be concerned about, but they're just another "predator". Anymore that term just has negative connotations. But one with those skills is a predator. It's how you utilize those skills that make you good, or bad.
Here I could go into the different levels, and different types of predators. Guys like him are straightforward. They're easy to pick out when on the job, or if they don't have the skillset of subterfuge. It's the others that really bother me. Ones you have to exchange a word or two with before they are visible to you. Or worse, a sentence. Or the one's who have the skills but not the control or maturity. They're dangerous in another way entirely. Anyway...
If you could ask the producer of The Apprentice, Mark Burnett, he would tell you that Trump didn’t fire anybody on the show. We told him who to fire. We told him how to fire them. Trump was horrible at firing people. Trump says he’s fired people? As I understand it, he’s never fired a person in his life. He's always gotten somebody else to do the dirty work for him. He is emotionally, incapable of firing someone.
Obviously, he could do it on TV. It wasn’t real. It was a reality TV show. And he was told to do it. He acted. He’s a TV personality. He’s a failed TV actor. Somebody made him president of the President of the United States of America, and put him in the most powerful office in the history of humanity?
WTHF? What the holy fuck?
And on that happy note, I’ll bid you adieu…and I’ll leave you with that.
If you could ask the producer of The Apprentice, Mark Burnett, he would tell you that Trump didn’t fire anybody on the show. We told him who to fire. We told him how to fire them. Trump was horrible at firing people. Trump says he’s fired people? As I understand it, he’s never fired a person in his life. He's always gotten somebody else to do the dirty work for him. He is emotionally, incapable of firing someone.
Obviously, he could do it on TV. It wasn’t real. It was a reality TV show. And he was told to do it. He acted. He’s a TV personality. He’s a failed TV actor. Somebody made him president of the President of the United States of America, and put him in the most powerful office in the history of humanity?
WTHF? What the holy fuck?
And on that happy note, I’ll bid you adieu…and I’ll leave you with that.
It’s noon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
