Walkabout Thoughts #96

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

The Executive, the White House, the Oval Office, the President is usually pleased to get more power. Not now. It's gone too far, apparently. Pres. Biden's address to America after the SCOTUS ruling showed him very concerned. If you don't have the law restraining a POTUS, then it's about their character? For Biden, I think we're good. For Trump? Good God! 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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 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."

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!

Walkabout Thoughts #14

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

 
Weather for the day… 41° and overcast.

Podcast for the day is Rachel Maddow‘s excellent, "Ultra" podcast, episode five

Instagram post for the day

A woman on the "Ultra" podcast asked a question I've wondered about myself. What’s the difference between hatred and detesting? For myself without realizing it, I’ve seen it as hatred being an emotional, loss of control. While detesting is more cerebral. My grandmother told me when I was a child never to hate. Period. She was an amazing person, and an old country, Slovak Catholic. Such as I was raised, until about ninth grade. My point in bringing this up is, I’ve seen too many on the far right hate Nancy Pelosi. Hate Democrats. Hate "Libtards". I find the far right in their attempt to destroy our democracy and replace our country with authoritarianism to be, if not hateful, detestable. But I’m not out of control in my dislike. It’s an objective dislike of bad ideologies and attempts to inject theocracy into our democracy. So my point is… If you hate the other side, you’ve already lost, if not the war, reality. When I was in martial arts, beginning in fifth grade, I was told day after day, "There is no room for anger or hate in a fight, because then you’ve lost, even if you win. Be professional, be a martial artist. Fight tactically, objectively. Think! Because hate and anger cloud the mind." So how do I know I’ve been on the right track, politically speaking, for years now? Because years ago I started running into those on the right who, hated. It was irrational. frequently based on fantasy, conjecture, thought that should be based on fact, but was nowhere near it. Don’t hate. Act. Act based on facts and evidence. Because we are adults. I have never reacted well to authoritarianism. I’ve never reacted well to fear being pushed on me. Since childhood, I have faced my fears, because I had plenty to face. I was bullied as a kid. At a new school every year or two. Small for my age until I shot up in 10th grade to over 6'. So I don’t like bullies. Which is why I disliked Trump from his first day of campaigning to become POTUS. Anyone who tries to inject fear into you or the equation, could be your enemy. Never be fearful. Be aware and reactive. Better however, to be proactive. But that takes too much for to much of America. Trust but verify. Conquer yourself first and you’ll never need to conquer others. Then if you ever find a need to conquer others, then you know, you're “the Other“. You have become, the Enemy.

So where DOES all that hate come from on the right? It comes from popular beliefs in myths, and disinformation. It comes from Republican leadership, who saw that... just as Russia saw it...easily weaponized, easily expanded upon what already existed, in order to divide, with the eventual hope to conquer. Or very least, as Putin sees it, inject chaos. As Trump sought and still does. To inject chaos and reap the benefits as too many are distracted. So they make America chaotic, distracted, vulnerable.

How do people get into authoritarianism? How did they get into Nazism? Or neo-Nazism? Or want to be a Nazi? Or denied-Nazism, which is typically, actually Nazism? It’s because of their unrelieved anger and frustration. Anger and frustration that is given a controlled release valve. Controlled consciously and carefully, by others. First they get involved for fun, for the exhilaration, the catharsis, the release. Which is then quickly controlled by others. It is manipulated. Exploited. Subverted. At that point you have in, as in our case today in America, Trump control MAGA. Ladies and gentlemen, because these are binary people by implication in decree, through protestations (against the "Other" and ever more so for this behavior...) and for ignorant beliefs supporting authoritarian, fascism, until finally at very least "wannabe", Nazis.

About congressional “franking“ (check out either Rachel's "Ultra" podcast, you'll thank yourself... or perhaps this pdf free book published in 1944, "Black Mail"). That really needs to be monitored. Anything sent out by someone in Congress about things like Trump's stupidly ridiculous "big lie", that are anti-democracy, that are antigovernmental, while this one is difficult because some antigovernmental stuff is what Congress is there for. Self examination and correction.  Those things should be monitored and disallowed to be sent out, IF deemed incorrect and judged anti-American. The public should be notified. The free ride needs to be over. Free speech when Weaponized, not necessarily monetized, needs to be monitored. This is not to say, censorship, or to the break the Constitution‘s First Amendment. But it needs to be, if not controlled, made publicly aware with great clarity based in fact, evidence, and reality. Because if no one else is doing it, someone has to protect the US Constitution against unhealthy, ultra right (or destructive ultra left) wing types who weaponize free speech against America and against our US Constitution. At this time, considering what the ultra and even moderate (in their silence) right wing are doing, there ARE no corresponding left wing type actions.

I always wondered why one of my favorite directors names is, "George Roy Hill". Why the "Roy"? Apparently, there was someone in Congress named George Hill. One time secretary to Representative Hamilton Fish of New York. That alone might explain it. For some of this you’ll have to listen to Rachel Maddow‘s, “Ultra“, episode five. Ultra apparently stands for "ultra right wing". A term more ubiquitous in Europe. But saying today, "extremist are far right wing", is simply no longer descriptive of them. But "ultra" sure as hell is.

It’s past time right now, to review what "Frank" disseminated information is being sent out and which members of Congress, most especially the ultra right wing, Trump Republicans, MAGA congressionals, to see what they’ve been doing these past six years and correct, or at very least, blast that information out to America, and the entire planet, if it has been being abused. IF those in Congress have been abusing it to send out anti American propaganda. After the Trump administration, we have got to be careful and continue to review the abuses, until we know all of them. In order to protect ourselves. And our democratic Republic.

So, I have now finished and published my book, “Suffering Long Covid“. I’ve written my next book which I’m now editing on the history and format, to explain my filmic poem and award winning historical documentary “Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero“. After that I need to finish the DVD that I’ve already started creating for that film. But then what? I bought equipment to digitize my family's home films from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But I also have some of my grandfather's films from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He used to travel the world. Much of the time, for the US Army, setting up diesel engine shops around the world, training locals, and then moving on and doing it elsewhere, and in another country. He spent time in India, I think Cambodia, definitely Vietnam and then came home in the 60s to retire. I have his passport. He also traveled Europe during a very interesting time, around World War II. So I’m thinking about doing a documentary on him. Very interesting guy, who my older brother, seven years my senior, and myself both tried, but neither of us could get much information out of our grandfather. He would just say, "You don’t wanna hear about that, it’s not that interesting." Now, I’ve been fascinated about investigative work since I was as young as I can remember. I loved those detective and espionage shows from the 1950s and 60s, and so on

My mother first introduced me to James Bond films with his first, "Doctor No", when it came out. She took me to the Community Theater on 50th St. and M St., in Tacoma, Washington. She had grown up half a block away, after being relocated from Brooklyn, New York, where she was born. When her and her older sister our mother, were transplanted by my grandfather. So I have to wonder. With my father having been a construction electrician. My mother having been a housewife, with some kind of ADHD, or something, because I grew up with it. I have to wonder if I got my interest in investigative work and espionage from my grandfather? I always assumed it was from ingesting so much of that kind of TV in my formative years. But why did I take the test for the Tacoma police department at 19? Why did I join the OSI in the USAF? Why did I enter the USAF as law enforcement? This could just be a very interesting documentary. But I have a lot of work yet to do, to get to that point.

Back to the loser seditionist Donald Trump. He needs to lose his Secret Service protection. That may be premature at this point, until it’s proven that it should be yanked from him. But what can be and should be proven about the man, needs to have nothing to do with our US government in having American citizens paying someone who so overtly tried to damage our country, and kill US citizens. The man has hundreds of thousands of American deaths on his hand from having on purpose or misused his office and purposely fumbled the COVID-19 pandemic medical ramp up.

My second podcast for the day is from a Pod Save America episode, “Between Barack and A Hard Place.”

Today’s walk it seems will be only four miles. I know I said on my last walk that it’s good to achieve your goal, which is five miles for me. But we also need to listen to our body. And my body today is telling me five miles is going to be too much and I’ll regret it. Sure I could push myself. But I’m not gonna be stupid about it. Be smart.

That's it for the day! Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #10

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

First podcast today is Rachel Maddow‘s, seriously amazing and disturbing, "Ultra", Season 1 Episode 3 that just came out today.

This podcast, or Rachel... and I am very serious, need to win some awards for the Ultra podcast.

Rachel details in the episode the explosion of the Hercules gun powder plant who supplied in the US military back in the 40s. And how months before that, a citizen had put together an agent cell to infiltrate American fascists and Nazis planning to overthrow the government. Who then notified Congress about it. Who turned it over to the FBI. But the government did not follow through with due diligence. This is another fascinating episode in this tale of how Donald Trump was not the first fascist to try to take over America, just the first president. And how the FBI dropped the ball back in the 1940s and with the Jan. 6th, 2021 insurrection

Next podcast I listened to is, John Heilemann‘s "Hell and Highwater" podcast part 2 finishing up with Maggie Haberman. Something people need to think about in voting for Trump ever again as president...if he were to get elected again, what makes anyone think he would leave office at the end of the second term? When he’s not allowed a third? And how would that stop him from trying? It wouldn't. That's the point.

Third podcast is Political Gabfest, Bonus Edition, Michigan and Arizona Midterms

Weather today is overcast, the air quality is good in the 40s for AQI. First day I’ve been able to go for a walkabout in a while. Air quality doesn’t seem to be affecting my heart or blood pressure, yet. Today there was a change in airflow coming off the ocean in the west, pushing the smoke east. It’s a little moist today. But nice overall.

My Instagram post for the day.

The thing about MAGA, other than being ridiculous and easily debunked if you really wanted to do that… is that it’s not about intellectual level or critical thinking to sink into it. I mean, it is as far as vetting information. But it’s really about holes in one's mental concepts and paradigm of reality. In one’s desires, politically speaking Also religiously speaking. Do note that many atheists have a very religious structural orientation to reality, because so many were raised as theists and grew into being atheist. It’s not about how smart or educated you are, it’s about those blindspots in the hierarchy of one's thinking. If you push certain buttons in the mind, as Trump did and is doing, as MAGA and QAnon types are doing, it lights up certain pleasure zones in the brain. And when we lighten up those pleasure zones, we become kind of stupid. Which explains adultery, libertine orientations, and various disabilities like pedophilia and even, serial killers.

America’s wannabe fascist leader in the 1940s said Hitler had the brown shirts, Mussolini had the black shirts, so why can’t I have the silver shirts? And so he started that organization of silver shirts. Much like silverfish insects who are disgusting to all who fully examine them running about their bare feet, at the most vulnerable of times.

About all this...I keep saying to read Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny”, for how tyranny, through Fascism, comes to power as we're seeing in America now, and as we’ve seen before. And yet, for some reason none of us learn about this in our history classes. We're going to need to change that. Or all this will happen again, and again. Until this country crashes. This is our second time. That we know of so far.

This thing about the American Nazi "silver shirts" is interesting. In 1978 when I lived in Spokane, Washington, I was in the Air Force at Fairchild Air Force Base. 15 miles outside of Spokane. I met a guy that seemed nice, at the gym, who with his wife took my wife and I across the border to the hills of Idaho, where we met his friends. At "The Church of Our American Christian Heritage". Who basically look like the Silver Shirts. It was a day that scared the hell out of my wife and I. Little old ladies in a fascist church spewing the most vile anti-somatic and anti-non-white and minority bullshit. I listened in their church with a sermon from their national leader up from Georgia that day, who didn’t know there were newbies in the crowd. I wasn’t really buying what he was saying anyway, until he started talking about his visit to Vancouver BC, in Canada. A city I love, dearly. Both Victoria on Vancouver Island and Vancouver on the mainland, north of Seattle. He started talking about what a vile cesspool Vancouver is because basically, it’s just such an international city. Which is part of what makes it so cool. I had to cool my rising blood pressure and anger has he vociferously, furiously denigrated one of the most beloved cities in my life.

The story Rachel is telling in this episode of her Ultra podcast, is essentially what is a small group, compared to the population of America, who were trained well enough to make specific attacks on our infrastructure, to truly damage America. Reminds me of a "60 Minutes" piece ("How safe is America's Electric Grid?") they did not long ago. Someone in, I think Southern California, who took pot shots at a power station in the middle of nowhere. That seemed to experts as obviously a practice run targeting Americas infrastructure where a bullet could do massive damage to a region of the power grid. While it would be perhaps too expensive to secure all those locations with proper armed guards and dogs etc. They can be outfitted with enough electronic surveillance equipment to be remotely monitored if anyone coming up was acting suspiciously. We should have a rapid response team who can go check it out before damage is done. Are we doing that good enough? Probably not. Again we’ve been forewarned and did little or nothing. Examples? The Hercules gun powder plant in the 1940s mentioned in the "Ultra" podcast. Or, 9/11 in the 2000s. January 6 insurrection in 2021. We need to wake up! And as painful as it as it is for America, we need to begin to be proactive. Even though toxic conservatism professes otherwise in that it’s progressiveness which is socialism, or communism, or even Satan. Pretty childish really. It’s ridiculous if that is what stops us from acting protectively and we get hit with yet another actual and real fascist attack... ever again.

If you don’t listen to Rachel Maddow's "Ultra" podcast, if you don’t listen to podcasts, you really should listen to Season 1 Episode 3 that came out today (Mondays) about the American fascist Nazi attempt to overthrow the government in the 1940s and how the government stumbled so that it took a citizen to build an undercover cell to get the info. Eventually forewarning Congress in a public hearing, telling them there was going to be a massive explosion at the Hercules gunpowder plant, which serviced a lot, including America’s military. And yet, nine months later, it happened just as he said it would. Sounds familiar. We were also warned about the Jan. 6th insurrection. And yet, things were not set up to protect us, but rather hindrances were put in place to allow it to happen. History, repeating itself, or just rhyming?

I don’t believe in theology, I don’t buy into the metaphysical, like demons and evil and such. I do however love it in storytelling, has I grew up Catholic. And I’ve certainly written about it in my fiction. My most extreme example being my last book Anthology of Evil II Part II The Unwritten, where I literally describe Hell as it interacts with two other real universes. Still, if anyone were to be evil, it would be Donald Trump. Why? Because he has spawned ignorance and abuse, misinformation, and has supported and been supported by, our worst actors on the planet. Including Putin. And now his interplay with Herschel Walker, who he fully supports because he wants somebody that’s stupid to follow the Trump paradigm and succeed. Someone to just do what he's told by the Republlcian Party. He’s trying to bring about that movie… and you know which movie ("Idiocracy"). A film story we're headed further and further into, day by day, election by election.

Apparently in Maggie Haberman‘s book, she details how Trump, in the 1990s, told his biracial girlfriend she got her brains from her dad's side of the family, who is a white guy. What a nice racist boyfriend, right? Said she had brains.

Trump has been the most powerful force in the Republican Party and America's lower intestines. He’s moved on up past the bigger intestine, now. He’s in the stomach, approaching the esophagus, and pretty soon all that dripping shit that’s been coming out of some (too many) Republican mouths, will soon become a fire hose, should he ever get reelected.

China committed a kind of genocide in Tibet through Chinese Settler colonialism, overpopulating another country with the children of the invading Chinese. With many bullshit disingenuous arguments as to why they were (rationalizing) doing “good“ there. We’re seeing the same thing with Republicans now here, only in a political sense. While they fine tune an ancient racist Jewish conspiracy, where they’re over populating lower official government positions with MAGA nut cases, so that eventually they’ll take over. If we don’t do something about it.

It is definitely a problem in binary thinking in being full theist or atheist. Being agnostic can also has it’s dangerous. I would call it "bilious logic" or "encapsulated cloud logic" or "fuzzy logic". Not to be confused with actual fuzzy logic. Which is actually something. [fuzzy logic: Fuzzy logic is an approach to variable processing that allows for multiple possible truth values to be processed through the same variable.]  There are some topics/subjects where, if you don’t take a hardline stance against it, you’re asking to slide into a binary understanding, eventually in the opposite direction than had initially been intended. It can evolve into an "infection". We're seeing that in its toxicity today. It’s overcome our conservatism and republicanism as it evolved into things like the "Tea Party", and MAGA, and Trumpism. It’s self-destructive but begins by fueling itself through the destruction of others, until the pleasure received from being inhumane takes root, and it's too late to see it's gotten out of control.

Especially in politics, if concern of something should evolve into fears of other things. Unless there’s actually something there to fear. So often, not. As well when we do fear something real, we need to be sure we’re not simply concerned about some thing else, as that can evolve into a fear that evokes binary fight or flight. And yes I know there’s also, freezing, with fight or flight. Don’t be a rabbit just run or freeze up, or flight. Fighting for what we should believe in and not just what we do believe in. [Fight, flight or freeze are the three most basic stress responses. They reflect how your body will react to danger. Fawn is the fourth stress response that was identified later.] Fawn by the way, is what we se from those close to someone like Donald Trump. Or Vladimir Putin.

I should add a side note in my long Covid book on my personal history about the OSI and the Berlin incident with the KGB in 1977. Something like, "Here’s a story you’ll never hear anywhere else." And true enough. I already did a FOIA request For my medical records and my mental health records which they didn’t send. But I should do one about me and the OSI see what it shows. It's sometimes surprising what those show, and what they don't.

Regarding new political candidate Kari Lake who for decades Phoenix trusted as a news anchor. That’s fine. She walked away from a media career, giving her some weight, because MAGA types don’t trust media. Unless it says what they like to hear, obviously. Like Fox News, etc. Problem there is, they trust the wrong media when they do. But look, don’t trust either her politics or her ambition. Because she’s bought into the Trump Disinformation loop paradigm that's destroying this country. Literally do not trust those supposed "leaders". Remember as always, if you do want or like to trust them? Trust but verify. The thing is, if you verify these people they fail verification all the time. Still, if you’re MAGA, they won’t fail it. Because of whatever rationalization is being put into play so one can believe that due diligence was accomplished. The only due diligence they’re doing however, is of an allowance to continue to believe the disinformation.

Somewhere above I referred to “this information”. But we have to understand that’s a bigger subject and it seems the current MAGA political disinformation campaign that's been going on now for years, is more than just a piece of information. It’s efforts, dynamics and processes that they're putting into play and that have been put into place to support all that. The big lie is just one more of all that. We really need to pay attention. And act, and act accordingly.

Cheers!

Walkabout Thoughts #9

My thoughts, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts...a blog designed and meant to be freely associating, on the run, and not perfectly edited:

Today’s podcast is from Rachel Maddow's "Ultra", an excellent 8 part podcast, episode 2. Reasonably the most important podcast in America today, because it details fascism and insurrection in America. And how it turns out, back in the 1940s, that was the last time it was tried. The parallels with Trump's insurrection today, with his MAGA and the Republican Party today, and with Christianity, evoke a painful similarity.

BTW... How to watch Thursday's House Jan. 6 committee public hearing.

My second podcast is with John Heilemann‘s "Hell and High Water" podcast, part 2 with Maggie Haberman. In case you missed part 1, best to listen to it first. It's another good podcast that America needs to hear. Especially the mentioned, George Stephanopoulos interview with Trump from 2016 where he asks Trump about Russia and his comments about Putin over the years. Disturbing, abrasively irritating, more lies and such Trump bullshit. Denying what he had said for years, how he was good friends with Putin, trying to make it seem more than it was, then back peddling, intensively. Trump tried to complain to George after the interview that Russia was mentioned too many (3) times but George got his say in first, in saying that he know what Trump was going to say, that George's people were annoyed with him too, in not pushing it even more than he had. Pretty funny, really.

I’ll be detailing bits and pieces from today’s podcast with Rachel about the first time religion and government power through conservatives generated, initiated, and propped up America’s first insurrection after the Civil War in the 1940s.

Today’s Instagram post

Today’s weather is good, cool, perfect for a hike, or a walkabout.

Finally after a week of air quality so poor was triggering my long CoViD that I had to wear a mask day and night, finally realizing I just needed to move my HEPA air cleaner from just outside my bedroom, into my bedroom and close the door, which going forward will require a space heater. Air quality is good enough today finally, that I can do my 5 mile walk again. Hopefully I’ll be able to achieve that today. So far I’m, out here and walking. And that’s better than what I’ve been able to do this past week because of these damn forest fires (thanks again global warming and our inaction and denials for decades). This is slowing down my being able to finish my book on long CoViD and publishing it, ASAP. Frankly, this was a scary week past. And poor air quality is supposed to return Friday. I don't want to go through this again having my blood pressure and pulse affected, because I'm breathing.

So Putin and his Duma welcome any states in the United States to secede who want to secede to Russia. This is ridiculous. This whole concept of seceding from America has been ridiculous for a very long time. We fought a Civil War over it, they lost, so...STFU.

It’s good to note that the satellite we smashed into an asteroid actually hit the asteroid and moved it off its course. Finally, we have something. Now they want to build a space telescope just for finding those objects. We're long past the time for this.

So before the Trump insurrection, which led to the largest investigation in FBI history, if not for main justice, too, a 1940s insurrection was the FBI’s third largest file, bigger even than Martin Luther King‘s. This is the subject of Ultra, the podcast I'm listening to.

For a couple of decades or so, conservative/Republicans have thought that some of the worst words they could use against their opponents, those who believe in a free democratic America, who are not toxically conservative, thought using words like "cuck" (attacking sexuality), "snowflake" (attacking apparently, masculinity), "fag" (attacking both sexuality and masculinity of heterosexuals, those they deem "normal", but are just the majority), and the actual word that fits them best, while worse than all those words, in a manner of how you view it, is "fascist", or "insurrectionist", "seditionist", "anti-democracy", "anti-American". All the things MAGA are doing, while claiming otherwise.

What’s bad about religion? Why's it so dangerous in a society? Because it sets you up for things like fascism. A belief of faith in having a need for a solid foundation, regardless of facts, and simply ideology. When you get "power" (i.e., Congress people, governors, leaders), and political ideologies that align with fundamentals of religion, especially in American Christianity, as it also is in Iran with Islam in a theocracy, those ideologies begin to invoke and stage the tenets for fascism in that democracy. We sought in America’s 1940's insurrection, paralleled with the Nazi insurrection in Germany, as is now, this current fascist fascination with the Trump MAGA insurrection.

How do you know when to be worried about fascism in your country? First off, read Timothy Snyder‘s book  "On Tyranny". Second, when a political group joins a religious group. or adds religion into their arguments, and then start demonizing some “other“, like immigrants, liberals, BLM, Democrats, etc., there’s your sign. As for the reverse argument that they claim they're being demonized, when you start doing illiberal, harmful, seditionist things, well, your labeling yourself, your demonizing yourself. All that other people are doing is simply reacting and making observations of your ill behaviors. 

Maybe we should allow citizens to have military weapons. Bear with me a moment. At least weapons they’re allowed now. But they have to instead store them on military bases or something similar. They want a gun at home for self protection? Fine, but a shotgun, best home device there is. An AR-15 is a stupid home defense weapon. Then say they’re only allowed to shoot their military weapons, on those bases, at a range there, monitored and protected. That way we’re not “taking their guns“, but we ARE "well regulating" them. Have a national database of the guns, the owners, who uses them and when (Yes, this is scaring the hell out of a certain minority of mostly white people). THEN, if a militia decides to commit an insurrection, we'll know if suddenly a bunch of guns are being taken and tried to steal them off the base. Anyway, something on that order. Because we absolutely should not have military weapons, assault weapons, in the hands of civilians. That was always a stupid idea. As we’ve seen clearly in the facts. It's why we never did that before. Until we did. Realized our mistake, ended it, then ridiculously started it again. Why do any of that? There’s something to be said during an invasion by a foreign country, to be able to call up civilians who have knowledge of and accuracy in their training on weapons. But to allow them as we're seeing today, to keep them at home, sets us up for an insurrection of delusional nutcases lead by a delusional autocrat. ?Well regulated"! That’s the key term. Not to mention the 1886 SCOTUS decision, that militias that are not the national guard, and they are not constitutional. This whole private ownership indicator about the second amendment, is nonsense. We do have to consider that we’re already starting at an uneven keel, with even this kind of a program. Because seditionists do tend to be either active military, veterans of military, National Guard, or police. So how do you well regulate that, in regard to these concerns? How? Well, you DO something! NOT nothing.

Interesting, back in the 1940s when Father Coughlin's Christian Front organization saw his people being arrested, he acted like Peter with Jesus, in the bible, denying he knew them. They weren't HIS Christian Front, though he knew very well they were (Sounds a lot like Donald Trump, doesn't it...). Playing as traitor to his own people, so his own armed, bomb making people could continue his sedition toward their insurrection. Again, from Ultra podcast.

I've mentioned this many times. When I was a kid, I was walking with my grandmother somewhere and I said “I hate…(something).“ She stopped me and said, "We don’t hate." We were raised old Slovak, old country Catholics. But she had self-educated herself and did her best to do, what she told me to always do, “Always try to have people around you, smarter than you, and you’ll always learn from them.“ Anyway, I said to her, thinking I was smart in elementary school, “What if I hate Satan?“ Thinking clearly, that I had gotten her on that one. She said, "No, not even Satan. Look, hate uses energy. We need all the energy we can muster to make it through life. To be good people. To spread the good around the world. So there’s no place for hate." So, I hate no one and calling me "Just a Trump hater" literally has no meaning whatsoever. IF I don't like something, there's a good reason for it.

Conservatives who have been unknowingly following toxic conservatism for decades here in America, need to stop following and believing in the bubble generated by Putin and Trump type propaganda. I’m not saying they’re working together. But there is a similarity in autocracy that aligns up, making within that bubble, it appear as real and good. And it’s not. You don’t have to listen to CNN, or MSNBC. But you do have to get accurate information outside of that bubble. Good luck.

Trump gained traction in the beginning, going back to 2011, because Republican voters wanted someone who would fight. Just as Democrats have long wanted for. And Trump would fight. The problem with that is the same problem with single issue voting. So, you vote for someone who fights… but you completely ignore and will get on board with the content of what he’s fighting against? That’s like second grade level crowd manipulation. And the GOP fell right into it. Along with a lot of independents and some Democrats. And still are, remarkably so. Although there is trending now in moving away from him. But sadly, some of that is trending toward his new wannabes and mini-me types. Those wanting power like Trump, and willing to do anything for it. That in America can be fine, but you stop at the point of trying to break America and end democracy. Otherwise, you're not part of this country, and you make yourself an enemy of this country. 

You know, I would very much prefer to be listening to podcasts on psychology, phenomenology, metaphysics, science… But those are all more long-term pursuits and considerations. When you’re in a room suffocating for lack of oxygen, that has to be your first concern. And we’re in a position where fascism and sedition are looked at longingly by conservatives and we need to eliminate that political "carbon monoxide" and replace it with clean, clear air...politically speaking.

How do you know you’re on the wrong track? When you look at things you’re saying and those you praise are saying, and you can label it as xenophobic, Protectionist, isolationist… Well, there’s your signs.

Conservatives who don’t believe in our elections, who don’t trust… Here’s how I’ve gone through life after someone once pointed this out to me. I was that way too, in my 20s. First of all, don’t worry about looking like a fool because someone tricked you. That’s on them, not you. Trust, but verify. I had trouble making and keeping close friends back then, because I couldn’t trust anyone. Because of my childhood. But once I changed my mind decided to trust everybody, but verify, and to trust myself, things got better. Life got better...and easier. So we trust our elections and if there’s questions we follow due diligence. Which in some of these 2020 elections, we’ve done. Multiple times, to the point of absurdity. But conservatives still refuse to believe it and not want our election system. Thinking that's the quick fix. Fix something NOT broken. Believe the fantasy because...that's more fun. Well? That’s immature. It’s a lack of trust in themselves, and a phobia of being held to look the fool. What that does is make you INTO a fool. Then who do you vote for? Only Fools. So Trump became president and now, they want him to be their dictator. Let's not do that!