Maybe? Maybe we need compulsory service? Wouldn't that change things in this country, in various ways? My family wasn't rich. There was no consideration or drive for me to go to college. When I graduated high school, I had no plans, other than to get out of school as K-12 sucked for me.
Though I kind of liked the social aspects of high school. Once I shot up a few inches to 6'2", having been rather short, lost a few pounds and suddenly in 10th grade wasn't sure what was going on when girls started to pay me a lot of attention.
Doesn't every country need to know where their young men are (and possibly women) in case of national war or disaster, to call upon our strongest citizens in case of ultimate need? And let's not forget war is a young person, especially male's situation. Women aren't so testosterone based and older males are smarter and less testosterone based. So young men are the mainstream of wars.
I've always hated the draft because I grew up as a child with the Vietnam war. I watched older guys go through it. Friends of the family, eighteen, nineteen years old. Maybe going away to the war and never coming back. How that affected their other male friends and family and the country at large.
I finally went into the military at twenty, because I couldn't get a decent job. Full disclosure... I discovered my heritage late in junior high. I'd grown up knowing I was Czechloslovakian, Slovak really because I lived with my mother and step-father and mom and her mom and dad were Slovak (not Slavic as one is a people, the other is a language that includes various nationalities and not just Slovaks).
However, my father was Irish and I took to that like I was full blooded Irish for some reason. Perhaps because familiarity breeding contempt and all that and Slovak was boring to me, Irish was fresh and new. And, it's Irish, so...not to mention, I idealized a father I never saw or seldom so. So, I was Irish with a touch of Czech (Slovak but I thought of myself as Czech until I was an adult).
I can remember in high school in 10th grade going around to friends at lunch in the school cafeteria and educating them on the Irish "Troubles" that were going on (this was 1970). I wanted to go fight for the IRA and tried to recruit for them. My friends looked at me like I was nuts.
But I had been in martial arts (Okinawan Isshinryu Karate) starting in fifth grade and fought in tournaments. Then I was a Flight Commander in Civil Air Patrol (auxiliary of the US Air Force mostly doing training on search and rescue for small downed local aircraft); I was on a private kid's rifle team in eighth grade sanctioned by Tacoma Police Department and I "lettered" in riflery on the HS rifle team for three years.
I was primed for the military from childhood. Or something more covert. But that's another story and in part leads into my screenplay I'm prepping hopefully for production, "The Teenage Bodyguard". I'm scheduled to begin working with screenplay consultant Jen Grisanti in November 2018. That after I keep hearing it has to see production. From those at The Blacklist, the Bluecat Screenplay Contest and even a famous entertainment lawyer in Hollywood says it's time for my story. So hopefully, at a screen near you someday soon.
Considering all this, I wasn't very happy in the military in having to live the redundant lifestyle day in and day our, follow sometimes stupid orders, put up with some ridiculous (not all) officers, to hear every single day in the morning how we were all there to be cannon fodder, to die for our country and citizens, if and whenever we are called to. Personally, I found that a little disturbing. Not the fighting and dying part, the being cannon fodder part. I just believed that I had more value than that.
After a year or so of it, I finally asked my shop supervisor and Tech Sgt. one day why he had to do that every damn morning, to remind us of our as I saw it, lack of value. He said it was: "because we all have to remember what we're doing here as it's a time of peace and it's easy to forget. It's important, especially for you younger guys, to remember that."
A lot of those older Sgt.s (not even that old really, remember I was in my early twenties) had been in the Vietnam war. So I heard a lot of war stories that were still fresh in their minds. In the end I came out with a much greater respect of the military and for our country. And I thought I had that going in. But I was a sign of the times, of the 1960s and 70s, hippies, punk rock, individuality, and rebellion
I hated it, the military. But I also appreciated it. The whole thing was a pain in the ass but I later realized that I appreciated what they tried to teach me in basic training (in order to keep us alive in war) and just how much benefit I got out of tightening up myself and my attitude toward life.
Which wasn't that bad to begin with really, but I hadn't fully gotten the whole world out there clearly till then. It hasn't been perfect by a long shot, but I'm not now living under a bridge somewhere and I have achieved a decent and respectable position in life. And I made more money than I ever foresaw happening. In part because the military made me realize I could actually do anything I wanted to.
Still, I'd had a lot of that when I was younger, too. Which was probably why I excelled over others when I was in the military. So I later got through college when previously it had never been a desire or a consideration. Not to mention, I doubt I could have done it if I hadn't first gone into the military.
As for the draft, one thing a draft does is maintain a real connection between certainly male citizens and the existence of the government and an awareness of the rest of the world. When you consider how few young voters don't get it or care enough to even vote, the military makes a visceral connection that forces you to realize there is a government and a real world out there. And that you really need to pay attention to both.
To be sure there are other forms available to young people to serve in nonviolent and productive ways and are carried out in other countries. Peace Corps and other NGOs (non-government organizations). So perhaps a war draft isn't so much needed as a requirement to do SOME thing. Something to make us all as citizens more cohesive, to see what's out there and to have a real-world connection with it.
There is too much delusion in this country's citizens about what the real world is and in what they tend to believe in. Which especially of late, leads too many to vote in ridiculous ways that are up against the reality of the world as it really is and not just as political diatribe and partisan politices. Some that are simply delusional in practice. Living in the world is not about political beliefs and ideologies, but about what is actually happening all around us and not just what some say is happening.
The "me" from those younger years would never have believed that I would even hesitate at ending draft registration entirely. But I can say only one thing about it at this point.
Maybe? Maybe everyone, male and female SHOULD be required to do something for others and not just for themselves. It would quash the ridiculous political nonsense we hear so much of lately. And we need that bridge again to reality.
I would suggest we do not need such a massive military. A functionl and productive one, to be sure. But we've gotten addicted to easy answers that all too often really are not answers to anything. We do need a more educated population, however.
Free education was decided upon around the turn of the 20th century and instituted. K-12 was offered free and it was a boon to this nation. And now conservatives seem to think that's a waste of money as they block and damage our educational system time and again. When we really now need to open up education to be free beyond into higher education.
We in these modern times require at least a free two year community college or vocational-technical education. And I would push beyond that to where a four-year degree is the new end of the K-12 educational years. We would benefit greatly from it. Instead of giving all our money through tax breaks to corporations and funding the military even when they don't want it as a jobs programs for the military industrial/corporate complex, we need to enhance our thinking capabilities.
In the end and before it's too late we need to bring America back to Americans. And at his point with social media and so many avenues for Americans to wander off from the primary orientation that has made us so great, we need to pull that all back in and become one again. One in our great diversity. That diversity that has made us so great and so strong.
Because anyone educated in animal husbandry will tell you, diversity is strength. Purity is a path to inbred monstrosities. Just as we are now turning into one in thinking we don't need minorities.
America has changed. We need to change with it, to maintain just who we are, have been and want to be. Education and cohesion in all our vast differences is the way. Celebrate your history, your ancestry, your "tribe" to be sure.
Just remember what tribe you are in as an American citizen and ask yourself, how can we make that our new and even better reality?
Monday, October 22, 2018
Monday, October 15, 2018
Magazines Are Not The Only Thing Today Lacking Substance
I was at the store a while back, before the 2016 election. I was standing in line for the register and there was a bank of magazines nearby so I glanced over them and something came to be obvious to me. They were all small. Smaller than traditionally standard sized magazines. This didn't so much surprise me but was a sign of the times.
Scientific American used to be a big magazine. Thick too. One I was addicted to. As a young male I also liked Playboy, though I was never addicted to it quite like I was SA. Yet it too used to be a bigger magazine. But no longer. It just was not the mag I used to know and love so much and it was sad. The articles in comparison to its older version, I found a bit lame. I took a look at Psychology Today and wondered, "When did it turn into a glossary pop psychology form of Cosmo?"
Not unlike Popular Mechanics magazine. The quality just wasn't there anymore. These may still be good magazines, but they simply aren't great any longer. Not what they once were.
It was depressing. I learned my style of writing from SA and once years ago nearly got a software manual published world wide with Digital Press using that style of starting simple and then going deeper than anyone might want to go, or even know about. It was an amazing format I became addicted to back in the late 70s.
That manual was still being used at two of our biggest Seattle medical centers many years later, at University of Washington Medical Center and our regional Which I found humorous not just because of its earned moniker due to receiving all kinds of trauma patients, but because when I was in the military we called our on base barracks, "The Zoo".
I can understand cutting down the size of these magazines but... the quality? SA had always stood for quality and excellence. Now I guess it may be just pretty, and pretty small. I haven't read a recent copy so maybe they've gotten some of it back. Though I doubt it because that's just not the climate of the times. Today it is all about the superficial. the easy to grasp, the outrageous, the click bait.
We even have a superficial definitely non-SA type", clickbait president" in Donald Trump. Our first in that manner and our worst. Elected by a click bait electorate while all the rest stood by in shock, wondering how that could happen.
Click bat does damage. It gathers superficial attention, but it wastes time and resources and even angers some once anyone of intellectual substance finds they have once again been conned. But it gathers wealth for the click baiter because that is all they care about. Substance anymore, is irrelevant.
All those things are something those superficial Trump followers and supporters are about to find out about. Once he is abandoned and out of the public limelight that he is so very much addicted to... and pleasured by. All at our expense. Always, at our expense. One has to wonder in considering how the Republican party has devolved from George HW Bush, to George W Bush to Trump...just what the hell is next in that ever declining succession of qualitatively ever decreasing and ever more questionable "politicians".
Still, I'm open minded, believe it or not. I will have to open the cover of one of those diminished magazines the next time I am at the store. Just to check out the direction they are now headed in.
Now that being superficial is our nationalistic pastime.
Scientific American used to be a big magazine. Thick too. One I was addicted to. As a young male I also liked Playboy, though I was never addicted to it quite like I was SA. Yet it too used to be a bigger magazine. But no longer. It just was not the mag I used to know and love so much and it was sad. The articles in comparison to its older version, I found a bit lame. I took a look at Psychology Today and wondered, "When did it turn into a glossary pop psychology form of Cosmo?"
Not unlike Popular Mechanics magazine. The quality just wasn't there anymore. These may still be good magazines, but they simply aren't great any longer. Not what they once were.
It was depressing. I learned my style of writing from SA and once years ago nearly got a software manual published world wide with Digital Press using that style of starting simple and then going deeper than anyone might want to go, or even know about. It was an amazing format I became addicted to back in the late 70s.
That manual was still being used at two of our biggest Seattle medical centers many years later, at University of Washington Medical Center and our regional Which I found humorous not just because of its earned moniker due to receiving all kinds of trauma patients, but because when I was in the military we called our on base barracks, "The Zoo".
I can understand cutting down the size of these magazines but... the quality? SA had always stood for quality and excellence. Now I guess it may be just pretty, and pretty small. I haven't read a recent copy so maybe they've gotten some of it back. Though I doubt it because that's just not the climate of the times. Today it is all about the superficial. the easy to grasp, the outrageous, the click bait.
We even have a superficial definitely non-SA type", clickbait president" in Donald Trump. Our first in that manner and our worst. Elected by a click bait electorate while all the rest stood by in shock, wondering how that could happen.
Click bat does damage. It gathers superficial attention, but it wastes time and resources and even angers some once anyone of intellectual substance finds they have once again been conned. But it gathers wealth for the click baiter because that is all they care about. Substance anymore, is irrelevant.
All those things are something those superficial Trump followers and supporters are about to find out about. Once he is abandoned and out of the public limelight that he is so very much addicted to... and pleasured by. All at our expense. Always, at our expense. One has to wonder in considering how the Republican party has devolved from George HW Bush, to George W Bush to Trump...just what the hell is next in that ever declining succession of qualitatively ever decreasing and ever more questionable "politicians".
Still, I'm open minded, believe it or not. I will have to open the cover of one of those diminished magazines the next time I am at the store. Just to check out the direction they are now headed in.
Now that being superficial is our nationalistic pastime.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Return America's Motto: E Pluribus Unum
E Pluribus Unum... Out of many, one.
This IS our guiding light, our ORIGINAL motto. When we wrongly, even delusionally changed it in 1956, out of fear, we began this, our long decay into today. We need to change it back. There is a petition for just that now at WhiteHouse.gov. Feel free to sign it and get America back on track!
Do not trust in a deity for they reside in the ether, if anywhere. They too much reside in our imaginations. And we need to reside in our reality. That is why we are in this morass of poor decisions today.
It has led to liars being our leaders. To lies being our governing method. Odd it is that belief in what should be great, has been made to be so petty and weaponized. Against those it was meant to protect, but those who were once so oppressed in such an ancient and forbidding environment for all but those in power.
Trust instead in oneself, in one's neighbors, in one's fellow citizens to do what is right. Under the umbrella of our nation, together. Inclusively, not as we are now, divisive, partisan, with leaders who work to separate us for their own benefit. Even using our current motto, In God We Trust, to polarize us.
Something oddly enough our enemies greatly desire, and our current #POTUS is doing to us with great aplomb and satisfaction.
WE are America. Not, We ARE America.
For in the alteration of a single word's emphasis, we are unbecoming who we have for so long...been.
We need to be a country together, once again. We need to be a country once and for all, now, as we never have been before.
To that effect there is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking to turn SCOTUS, our highest court, to be the trim tab on the rudder of America. Go there, sign it. It is a step toward a court once again representing us all who would never support something like Citizens United, curbing American's freedom for the wont of the few.
"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States of America and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as a replacement or alternative to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782.[1][2] Wikipedia
#gop #Trump #Republican #conservative #Democrat #Dems #Liberty #Justice #ForAll #Democracy #Freedom from tyranny for all
This IS our guiding light, our ORIGINAL motto. When we wrongly, even delusionally changed it in 1956, out of fear, we began this, our long decay into today. We need to change it back. There is a petition for just that now at WhiteHouse.gov. Feel free to sign it and get America back on track!
Do not trust in a deity for they reside in the ether, if anywhere. They too much reside in our imaginations. And we need to reside in our reality. That is why we are in this morass of poor decisions today.
It has led to liars being our leaders. To lies being our governing method. Odd it is that belief in what should be great, has been made to be so petty and weaponized. Against those it was meant to protect, but those who were once so oppressed in such an ancient and forbidding environment for all but those in power.
Trust instead in oneself, in one's neighbors, in one's fellow citizens to do what is right. Under the umbrella of our nation, together. Inclusively, not as we are now, divisive, partisan, with leaders who work to separate us for their own benefit. Even using our current motto, In God We Trust, to polarize us.
Something oddly enough our enemies greatly desire, and our current #POTUS is doing to us with great aplomb and satisfaction.
WE are America. Not, We ARE America.
For in the alteration of a single word's emphasis, we are unbecoming who we have for so long...been.
We need to be a country together, once again. We need to be a country once and for all, now, as we never have been before.
To that effect there is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking to turn SCOTUS, our highest court, to be the trim tab on the rudder of America. Go there, sign it. It is a step toward a court once again representing us all who would never support something like Citizens United, curbing American's freedom for the wont of the few.
"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States of America and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as a replacement or alternative to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782.[1][2] Wikipedia
#gop #Trump #Republican #conservative #Democrat #Dems #Liberty #Justice #ForAll #Democracy #Freedom from tyranny for all
Monday, October 8, 2018
Knowing vs Thinking We Know
After what we've just been through with the SCOTUS (sign the petition?) nominations, partisan politics, America being torn apart with help from Russia, with help from Republicans, both for decades now when no one seemed to notice except for a few, we need to re-evaluate what the hell we are doing. To America.
But perhaps more importantly, to ourselves.
None of us really knows what the hell we're doing. Even when we do, sometimes that falls by the wayside because things change, and we do not notice. Or things change and we do not noticed because that is how it was planned out, laid upon us, covertly undermining our reality. Some of us seem to do better than others. Why? How? Luck? Intellect? Acting like a bully? Underhanded means? Good Karma? Yes, and no.
Some of us have more rules in our head than other. Or some react better to situations than other. Or some of us just seem luckier than others and so just seem to "know" what they're doing.
But then suddenly the market changes and they're broke. Or their spouse has an affair, and they're single. Or their company downsizes and they can't find a new job, even though they may be generally overqualified. Or one day their kid simply gives up, totally and completely, and yet, no one saw it coming.
Someone said that the three most important things in life are timing, speed, and distance. Those are things you can practice and perfect. But they are not... everything.
What matters most is that we care, that we go on. That we have the right amounts of compassion and perseverance.
Because if you don't care, you won't go on. If you don't go on, you won't be there anymore for anyone to care about. And those you cared about won't have you anymore to care about them.
Just be sure to care about the right things. Try hard to always have them in the right order. Maintain the right priorities in your life. But be careful. Because too often, when viewed from outside of ourselves, outside of our lives, even outside of our country, we aren't doing what we think we are.
Why?
Because you know what? Most of us don't. Most of us really don't know what we're doing, we're just faking it so others think we know what we're doing. But give it some time and effort, some serious consideration.
In maintaining the right priorities in your own life, you affect many others. Because it helps others to find the right priorities in their life, too. And sometimes, what is right for you, isn't for them. So then what?
Exactly. Pay better attention. Because from what we're seeing, too many simply aren't.
But perhaps more importantly, to ourselves.
None of us really knows what the hell we're doing. Even when we do, sometimes that falls by the wayside because things change, and we do not notice. Or things change and we do not noticed because that is how it was planned out, laid upon us, covertly undermining our reality. Some of us seem to do better than others. Why? How? Luck? Intellect? Acting like a bully? Underhanded means? Good Karma? Yes, and no.
Some of us have more rules in our head than other. Or some react better to situations than other. Or some of us just seem luckier than others and so just seem to "know" what they're doing.
But then suddenly the market changes and they're broke. Or their spouse has an affair, and they're single. Or their company downsizes and they can't find a new job, even though they may be generally overqualified. Or one day their kid simply gives up, totally and completely, and yet, no one saw it coming.
Someone said that the three most important things in life are timing, speed, and distance. Those are things you can practice and perfect. But they are not... everything.
What matters most is that we care, that we go on. That we have the right amounts of compassion and perseverance.
Because if you don't care, you won't go on. If you don't go on, you won't be there anymore for anyone to care about. And those you cared about won't have you anymore to care about them.
Just be sure to care about the right things. Try hard to always have them in the right order. Maintain the right priorities in your life. But be careful. Because too often, when viewed from outside of ourselves, outside of our lives, even outside of our country, we aren't doing what we think we are.
Why?
Because you know what? Most of us don't. Most of us really don't know what we're doing, we're just faking it so others think we know what we're doing. But give it some time and effort, some serious consideration.
In maintaining the right priorities in your own life, you affect many others. Because it helps others to find the right priorities in their life, too. And sometimes, what is right for you, isn't for them. So then what?
Exactly. Pay better attention. Because from what we're seeing, too many simply aren't.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Sanity in TV Shows
I love progressive shows like The West Wing (which may come back!). It makes you wonder why conservatives shows aren't popular. Or all that useful other than for conservative to feel all touchy feely kind of theistic goodness. Fine. But we live in a harsh world where we need to be feeling bad when we should, not feeling good and ignoring reality.
Being conservatives doesn't push us boldly prepared into the future. It walks us slowly sometimes backward, tentatively into a perceived frightening future instead. It's interesting to note what conservatives and liberals like to watch on TV. From the article:
Carlson said there wasn't much of an overlap when it came to liberal and conservative television preferences. There were only three shows that liberals and conservatives both seemed to enjoy equally: "Dancing with the Stars," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "The Orville."
Carlson pointed out that these shows "don't necessarily have a political flavor," and suggested that probably had a lot to do with why liberals and conservatives both enjoyed them.
"Dancing and space — these are the things that unite our country," Carlson said.
Pure Genius (originally, Bunker Hill) was another show proposing change in a new and positive way. Of course it didn't last long,
We need shows that no matter how ridiculous they seem to some, at least try to tell us, to show us, how we can do things better. Proposing change in positive directions, technologies we don't yet know about, considerations of a future not devoid of happiness that gives us hope. Even if only for an hour or a half hour at a time.
We need shows that rail against a broken status quo, delve into possibility, suggest new realities. This isn't about any one show, just about a type of show in general who offer us hope, and possibilities.
That being said, a new show, New Amsterdam is in just that vein and I look forward to it. Give us more. Its preview this week was perfect in that way, pleasantly cathartic. No matter how ridiculous it may be it raises one's hope.
Until... reality once again seeps too quickly back in as one to think again of our current world, our broken Congress, Supreme Court and presidency. As ongoing efforts from within and without continue to further cripple our government, our broken political parties, and ourselves.
Our new reality is the world at large staring back in shock at us with frightened curiosity for where our lost and supposed protectors will take us next in their dismantling our governmental protections, befriending our enemies against us, all merely for their own profit, power and self benefit, all while trying to convince us it is all for our protection. But we're really not that stupid. Yes, some see disaster and conspiracy at every turn, but it has to be based in reality and information. Trust. Real Truth.
And now we have Murphy Brown back. A once top popular comedy from the 90s steeped in politics and reality, they are back at a time when we most need a severe and constant dose of reality, and some decent sense of humor. Maybe they will fail, but I hope not. Because we could really use some biting satire, some not always so gentle humor to help us plough through the day, much like Stephen Colbert does for me now on a nightly basis. Perhaps they should consult with Colbert or Jon Stewart?
Our broken status quo is only getting worse as confused and lost supporters of this feigned American conservative regime continues to dissemble and damage all they can before we take them out to the back forty and lose them there...hopefully forever.
After this week with the Judge Kavanaugh disastrous hearing (for Republicans) we could use a break. But Pres. Trump seldom lets up, trying to exhaust us so we will simply stop paying attention and let him do anything he wants.
Luckily, the US government legal system is not forgetting about Pres Trump,
And neither it would seem (finally) are progressive TV shows.
Being conservatives doesn't push us boldly prepared into the future. It walks us slowly sometimes backward, tentatively into a perceived frightening future instead. It's interesting to note what conservatives and liberals like to watch on TV. From the article:
Carlson said there wasn't much of an overlap when it came to liberal and conservative television preferences. There were only three shows that liberals and conservatives both seemed to enjoy equally: "Dancing with the Stars," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "The Orville."
Carlson pointed out that these shows "don't necessarily have a political flavor," and suggested that probably had a lot to do with why liberals and conservatives both enjoyed them.
"Dancing and space — these are the things that unite our country," Carlson said.
Pure Genius (originally, Bunker Hill) was another show proposing change in a new and positive way. Of course it didn't last long,
We need shows that no matter how ridiculous they seem to some, at least try to tell us, to show us, how we can do things better. Proposing change in positive directions, technologies we don't yet know about, considerations of a future not devoid of happiness that gives us hope. Even if only for an hour or a half hour at a time.
We need shows that rail against a broken status quo, delve into possibility, suggest new realities. This isn't about any one show, just about a type of show in general who offer us hope, and possibilities.
That being said, a new show, New Amsterdam is in just that vein and I look forward to it. Give us more. Its preview this week was perfect in that way, pleasantly cathartic. No matter how ridiculous it may be it raises one's hope.
Until... reality once again seeps too quickly back in as one to think again of our current world, our broken Congress, Supreme Court and presidency. As ongoing efforts from within and without continue to further cripple our government, our broken political parties, and ourselves.
Our new reality is the world at large staring back in shock at us with frightened curiosity for where our lost and supposed protectors will take us next in their dismantling our governmental protections, befriending our enemies against us, all merely for their own profit, power and self benefit, all while trying to convince us it is all for our protection. But we're really not that stupid. Yes, some see disaster and conspiracy at every turn, but it has to be based in reality and information. Trust. Real Truth.
And now we have Murphy Brown back. A once top popular comedy from the 90s steeped in politics and reality, they are back at a time when we most need a severe and constant dose of reality, and some decent sense of humor. Maybe they will fail, but I hope not. Because we could really use some biting satire, some not always so gentle humor to help us plough through the day, much like Stephen Colbert does for me now on a nightly basis. Perhaps they should consult with Colbert or Jon Stewart?
Our broken status quo is only getting worse as confused and lost supporters of this feigned American conservative regime continues to dissemble and damage all they can before we take them out to the back forty and lose them there...hopefully forever.
After this week with the Judge Kavanaugh disastrous hearing (for Republicans) we could use a break. But Pres. Trump seldom lets up, trying to exhaust us so we will simply stop paying attention and let him do anything he wants.
Luckily, the US government legal system is not forgetting about Pres Trump,
And neither it would seem (finally) are progressive TV shows.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Special Post - Kavanaugh vs Dr. Ford
What have we learned about the #Kavanaugh situation today? Accepting Dr. Ford is telling the truth as her testimony lends itself easily to that being the case. Considering therein Kavanaugh's own testimony today....
How can you explain this juxtaposition of testimonies if she is telling the truth?
Schools such as Kavanaugh attended during the time of his alleged attack can hold some of the wildest types of students. My own experience from being at a Catholic school was I couldn't wait to get back to a public schools.
I was told they only had the best kids at that private Catholic school and I had to be one to go there. I agreed. I looked forward to it. A school with kids who were good, decent? Awesome! Then I got in and found I was one of the best of those kids in a moral or ethical sense and I was STUNNED to find the behaviors they partook of.
There were several other kids who weren't Catholic, and I liked them far better than the career Catholic school kids we had to suffer though. I had thought public school kids were the lowlifes. I'm sure many of those private school kids graduated and got positions of importance and power and trust. As eventually I had myself.
But they were some of the wildest and most crass kids I had ever attended school with up to that time. They knew they were highly scrutinized, morally kept to an annoyingly higher standard and consideration and so they tended to be smart about hiding things. They were well educated and very good at hiding their looked down upon activities Even over years. And how they loved to party.
At 17 Kavanaugh was approaching the height of his sexual intensity in his life, his libido undoubtedly high as it was for many of the male gender at that age. Male libido during these formative years can be unwieldy, almost impossible at times to control and so you seek out accepted behaviors. With a girlfriend, or through sports or exercise. He said he had a full schedule, worked hard to be #1 in his class.
These require hard work and a good degree of stress. Those who party, as he admits he did, do tend to party hard as the old saying goes, "work hard, play hard". It can also as we've seen repeatedly with high stress hard working people under pressure, to get weird. If not at times, even criminals. That is a well known stereotype proved out with many well known as well as high pressure jobs. Nothing we've seen so far precludes Dr. Ford's allegations to be patently untenable.
Or as some especially rich and privileged kids do, like Kavanaugh (and we've all seen those teen movies about these types), exercising their libidos through taking advantage of any situation where they can get sex.
I never understood sex with your male friends on one woman. But those I knew who liked it, found it an intense bonding experience with the guys. One where they might in the future give their lives for you, or lie to Congress about things you all once did together. Especially if it was sick or sadistic. And those activities objectified and denigrated women, those girls of their focus, in living those experiences in those ways with those very special male friends.
Sometimes the bad behaviors of those formative years alone are enough for many to get onto a good path in later learning of one's mistakes and how bad they may really have been. They may, push one to be an advocate for women, as Kavanaugh claimed, which actually supports the contentions here and not his allusions.
Thus governing future actions. Perhaps even with a future orientation of hoping your past never surfaces and your future will take a new and better path. And never getting caught for things you'd never today attempt.
During high school and college you are living the years of freedom! Hiding your behaviors, living your fantasies as you can get away with them during a publicly sanctioned period of exploration and even of "sowing one's wild oats" as the "old saw" goes.
After Kavanaugh got into the work force and began to work in highly scrutinized legal professions and positions, his libidao was on the decline after his peak years. Perhaps he wisely controlled himself as he could more easily by then as he aged out of his teenage testosterone insanity, and from then on he COULD be investigated and vetted with a clean bill of health.
IF this is the situation, if he was a predator during high school and college and for some reason stopped, it simply indicates that minus his system being flooded with testosterone as happens to all of us guys, as happens more intensely to some of us more than others and then levels off at some point, that Kavanaugh is actually a decent person, who felt guilty, adjusted, and at some point after college got his act together. And in the process, he is denying what Dr. Ford is sharing, and what is that doing to her, in Kavanaugh trying to salvage his life, his career and his family? At the expense of a woman he accosted and altered the course of her life for her, forever.
As long as they stayed out of his high school and college years. Or started looking into his sexual activities more closely, with an eye for those types of activities. Even the FBI could miss all that, if they were not clued into a need to consider them. Especially when vetting such a well respected, well documented and high profile type such as a Kavanaugh. Or even perhaps, a Bill Cosby. or Justice Clarence Thomas.
Is Kavanaugh guilty? It sure and reasonably looks like it. What about his comments today about being a virgin till later? It may be true. I doesn't change what Dr. Ford went through or who accurately believing he was sexually assaulting her.
The question then is, should we punish these people for bad behaviors in their formative years when they have cleaned up their lives and made a decent life and career from that point on?
Because many would fall if that were the case. But that isn't the point here.
The point here and now is that he would have lied to Congress. For a position on our highest court in the nation. And that being the situation, Kavanagh has then condemned himself to being barred from the position as a Justice of the #SCOTUS, himself. Or worse. As he lied under oath. To Congress. And the FBI. Which some Republicans have gone on record recently saying, was not a crime. Really? They do have an odd sense of who they are and what is real, or criminal.
After all, doesn't it always seem to be the cover up, not the crime, that brings an end to these people and their careers?
Let me just end with this clever little video response.
#gop #pOTUS #vpOTUS #Republican #conservative #Congress
 |
| Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh |
Schools such as Kavanaugh attended during the time of his alleged attack can hold some of the wildest types of students. My own experience from being at a Catholic school was I couldn't wait to get back to a public schools.
I was told they only had the best kids at that private Catholic school and I had to be one to go there. I agreed. I looked forward to it. A school with kids who were good, decent? Awesome! Then I got in and found I was one of the best of those kids in a moral or ethical sense and I was STUNNED to find the behaviors they partook of.
There were several other kids who weren't Catholic, and I liked them far better than the career Catholic school kids we had to suffer though. I had thought public school kids were the lowlifes. I'm sure many of those private school kids graduated and got positions of importance and power and trust. As eventually I had myself.
But they were some of the wildest and most crass kids I had ever attended school with up to that time. They knew they were highly scrutinized, morally kept to an annoyingly higher standard and consideration and so they tended to be smart about hiding things. They were well educated and very good at hiding their looked down upon activities Even over years. And how they loved to party.
At 17 Kavanaugh was approaching the height of his sexual intensity in his life, his libido undoubtedly high as it was for many of the male gender at that age. Male libido during these formative years can be unwieldy, almost impossible at times to control and so you seek out accepted behaviors. With a girlfriend, or through sports or exercise. He said he had a full schedule, worked hard to be #1 in his class.
These require hard work and a good degree of stress. Those who party, as he admits he did, do tend to party hard as the old saying goes, "work hard, play hard". It can also as we've seen repeatedly with high stress hard working people under pressure, to get weird. If not at times, even criminals. That is a well known stereotype proved out with many well known as well as high pressure jobs. Nothing we've seen so far precludes Dr. Ford's allegations to be patently untenable.
Or as some especially rich and privileged kids do, like Kavanaugh (and we've all seen those teen movies about these types), exercising their libidos through taking advantage of any situation where they can get sex.
I never understood sex with your male friends on one woman. But those I knew who liked it, found it an intense bonding experience with the guys. One where they might in the future give their lives for you, or lie to Congress about things you all once did together. Especially if it was sick or sadistic. And those activities objectified and denigrated women, those girls of their focus, in living those experiences in those ways with those very special male friends.
Sometimes the bad behaviors of those formative years alone are enough for many to get onto a good path in later learning of one's mistakes and how bad they may really have been. They may, push one to be an advocate for women, as Kavanaugh claimed, which actually supports the contentions here and not his allusions.
Thus governing future actions. Perhaps even with a future orientation of hoping your past never surfaces and your future will take a new and better path. And never getting caught for things you'd never today attempt.
During high school and college you are living the years of freedom! Hiding your behaviors, living your fantasies as you can get away with them during a publicly sanctioned period of exploration and even of "sowing one's wild oats" as the "old saw" goes.
After Kavanaugh got into the work force and began to work in highly scrutinized legal professions and positions, his libidao was on the decline after his peak years. Perhaps he wisely controlled himself as he could more easily by then as he aged out of his teenage testosterone insanity, and from then on he COULD be investigated and vetted with a clean bill of health.
IF this is the situation, if he was a predator during high school and college and for some reason stopped, it simply indicates that minus his system being flooded with testosterone as happens to all of us guys, as happens more intensely to some of us more than others and then levels off at some point, that Kavanaugh is actually a decent person, who felt guilty, adjusted, and at some point after college got his act together. And in the process, he is denying what Dr. Ford is sharing, and what is that doing to her, in Kavanaugh trying to salvage his life, his career and his family? At the expense of a woman he accosted and altered the course of her life for her, forever.
As long as they stayed out of his high school and college years. Or started looking into his sexual activities more closely, with an eye for those types of activities. Even the FBI could miss all that, if they were not clued into a need to consider them. Especially when vetting such a well respected, well documented and high profile type such as a Kavanaugh. Or even perhaps, a Bill Cosby. or Justice Clarence Thomas.
Is Kavanaugh guilty? It sure and reasonably looks like it. What about his comments today about being a virgin till later? It may be true. I doesn't change what Dr. Ford went through or who accurately believing he was sexually assaulting her.
The question then is, should we punish these people for bad behaviors in their formative years when they have cleaned up their lives and made a decent life and career from that point on?
Because many would fall if that were the case. But that isn't the point here.
The point here and now is that he would have lied to Congress. For a position on our highest court in the nation. And that being the situation, Kavanagh has then condemned himself to being barred from the position as a Justice of the #SCOTUS, himself. Or worse. As he lied under oath. To Congress. And the FBI. Which some Republicans have gone on record recently saying, was not a crime. Really? They do have an odd sense of who they are and what is real, or criminal.
After all, doesn't it always seem to be the cover up, not the crime, that brings an end to these people and their careers?
Let me just end with this clever little video response.
#gop #pOTUS #vpOTUS #Republican #conservative #Congress
Monday, September 24, 2018
Cyber Security...CyberWar Is At Our Door
We now know (actually already a year ago in 2017) that a 757 sitting on the tarmac can be weaponized through cyber attack. Trains can be weaponized. We have a problem that needs an answer... yesterday.
This makes me sad. I was part of a cybersecurity group in the late 90s early 2000s dedicated to bringing business, police and government together on issues of cyber security. We did good work, we made advances.
We decreased the distrust between government and computer experts, "white hat" (good) hackers and law enforcement. Those efforts continue to this day. But I have retired and am onto other ventures and adventures. I did my time. I no longer have to live that frustration and yet today? I find I still am. Only now from a distance.
We tried to warn people on both sides going back twenty years and yet, we are still now in this situation when we had so long ago had warned so many! Our issue back then was in part that corporations paid too little or no attention to actual cyber security issues. Those were the days when it wasn't as big as some of us knew it would eventually be. Just as it is today.
Why didn't CEO's and government listen? Government has special issues that slow things down and for good reason for the most part. But business can and sometimes does move as they wish ,if they wish it, and yet... they mostly have not.
We argued in part back then that corporations weren't even spending 1% of their budget or even of their IT budgets, on cybersecurity issues. When it should have been closer to 10%. That may have been extreme, but in light of today, of reality, was it really? Invest and innovate, or pay later.
IF they had done that, back then? We would not be in the position today that we find ourselves in. And that, is a fact.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg's motto of "Move fast and break things" and his explanation of that in 2013: "We want to build our culture and our infrastructures, that we just try to move, you know, one or two clicks faster than, than other companies. And, you know, sometimes we go to fast and we mess up a bunch of stuff and then we have to fix it. And that's cool."
Really Mr. Zuckerberg? Because that actually seems to exemplify a vast misunderstanding of how the internet works. That may be how it worked back in the 90s. Maybe. When security was low and "black hat" type bad actor hackers and criminals were still gearing up, learning how to abuse a good thing. But today you really have to KNOW exactly what you're doing online. Especially when you are responsible for literally billions of people on your platform.
An article came out this week from Axios Codebook about this related to our Congress:
"Only 6 House candidates spent $1,000 on cybersecurity"
"The defining moment in the 2016 election was Russia's breach of the Democratic National Committee. Two years later, McClatchy reports that candidates for Congress are knowingly underspending on cybersecurity — with only 6 spending more than $1,000."
As we've seen, there is also the potential for very bad things to happen IF you... 1) don't know what can happen because you haven't fully planned out the potential for good AND bad things to happen, and 2) you have to fully understand that business as usual as you have planned it out, in order to make money off that platform, off those people, can indeed damage not only those individuals using your platform, but also entire countires.
Because, there are bad actors out there, predators, whose lives are devoted to finding ways, people and platforms to abuse, with no moral or ethical concerns. When you have a platform that large, you also have an oversized responsibility to be not only fully aware of how your platform and your business model can positively AND negatively affect people, but you also have to be better possibly, than you even are capable of.
And that is a serious concern.
Rather than increase their cyber security efforts and budgets smoothly, easily, over the years to more than they thought they needed it (and their cyber people knew they needed but were ignored or given miniscule, fly by night amounts to work with), they could by now have organically prepared over those past years (if not decades) to have spent less money overall. Consider what it cost Sony in their North Korean hack for the film, The Interview.
Rather than the cost now a days as well as having their reputation dragged through the mud and in losing even more money because of their lack of attention and resources and due to such bad actors as China, North Korea and Russia, just to name a few of today's major players.
Why? Capitalism run rampant? Defective corporate thinking? Yes, to be sure. But also a business as usual desire, based in greed and funneling too much money to shareholders and other such types. Rather than putting money into hyper serious concerns that merely weren't a concern to those in power at the time. Not until it was too late.
Maintaining bottom lines where the risk was considered worth it and they could not see that not only was it not worth it, but that risk was far greater than they could be made to understand, or even imagine.
Because the threat wasn't just for that year, or the year after, but in future years. It was the difference between simply installing a piece of software protection, or a method, and having a mindset that evolved over the years to come, to orient the corporation or government department in a certain way.
To see the future, then. To have build a paradigm, a mindset that would endure and evolve over time to protect and defend and protect profits and the American citizen, way of life, and national health. Both economically and emotionally.
Too often companies were saved only through the dedicated and excessive workloads of their computer IT departments. Not because they were there but because they had to make themselves overworked.
Rather than those typically overburdened, over educated, overdedicated IT workers receiving the necessary funding (which seldom happened) as well as confidence from management. The corporate attitude from on high so typically was (and still is):
"We pay them, so do your job!" Rather than "We delved into it, then give them what they needed to DO their job. We compensated them "appropriately." And we have confidence in them as they have gratitude in us for going that extra mile, for them, for us, and for our stock holders, customers, or citizens."
But that isn't the case.
It would be disingenuous for typically lucky management to point and say, "But we didn't have a devastating hack!" While they may not have known what they barely avoided, perhaps too many times. All because of the dedicated overworked efforts of their security IT people and perhaps...just good luck,
Those far too many times, they did have a successful hack against them. All too often, even. It has in fact been the point of many companies, credit card companies that the way they protected their card holders was simply to forgive their having been hacked, and absorb the cost.
Having set aside annually so much loss for fraud and hacks and yet, they still made billions of dollars overall. Simply in part, because they did not put the money and resources into handling things correctly because it seemed to frequently to those who did not understand, at the top, that it was simply money thrown away to protect themselves properly. To research and develop proactively. To overburden their IT shops rather than hire enough people and expend the money necessary to truly protect themselves.
Ignorance. It is the mainstay of business and the political party of business in this country. In all countries.
LUCK is NOT how you win wars. Be it cyber or otherwise. Nor is ignorance. Something we see as a governing body today in our current conservative Republican Trump administration.
We are now beyond that point while Russians and others have already tested our systems and have a good idea what to do if and when they choose to do it. To truly attack, on a massive scale. But again we are still protected by MAD (nuclear weapon Mutually Assured Destruction). Because a massive attack would surely need to lead to a nuclear war. It would have to. And they (Russians, North Korea, etc.) now that.
And so they attack under the wire, under the trigger point, in hitting our social media, oru elections and other things. Some of which we seldom hear about in public due to "national security issues."
And so our primary perceived protection? MAD, still. Physical war when a cyberwar is perpetrated upon us. Does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy and secure? Because, it shouldn't. Look what Russia did and what our response was and has been to cyber attacks on our 2016 and soon (and still) 2018 elections. Pathetic.
To be sure, we are more protected now than we were during the 2016 election or the previous one before it. But that does not say we are safe enough yet, and we do have a lot of work left, costly work even, to get there.
It's time already, time passed twenty years ago when we were first warned.
Stop looking only at profit. It's destroying this country in a counter intuitive paradigm anathema to the purposely ignorant conservative, corporate, capitalist mind.
Tough beans, people. This, is reality.
 |
| Boeing 757 |
We decreased the distrust between government and computer experts, "white hat" (good) hackers and law enforcement. Those efforts continue to this day. But I have retired and am onto other ventures and adventures. I did my time. I no longer have to live that frustration and yet today? I find I still am. Only now from a distance.
We tried to warn people on both sides going back twenty years and yet, we are still now in this situation when we had so long ago had warned so many! Our issue back then was in part that corporations paid too little or no attention to actual cyber security issues. Those were the days when it wasn't as big as some of us knew it would eventually be. Just as it is today.
Why didn't CEO's and government listen? Government has special issues that slow things down and for good reason for the most part. But business can and sometimes does move as they wish ,if they wish it, and yet... they mostly have not.
We argued in part back then that corporations weren't even spending 1% of their budget or even of their IT budgets, on cybersecurity issues. When it should have been closer to 10%. That may have been extreme, but in light of today, of reality, was it really? Invest and innovate, or pay later.
IF they had done that, back then? We would not be in the position today that we find ourselves in. And that, is a fact.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg's motto of "Move fast and break things" and his explanation of that in 2013: "We want to build our culture and our infrastructures, that we just try to move, you know, one or two clicks faster than, than other companies. And, you know, sometimes we go to fast and we mess up a bunch of stuff and then we have to fix it. And that's cool."
Really Mr. Zuckerberg? Because that actually seems to exemplify a vast misunderstanding of how the internet works. That may be how it worked back in the 90s. Maybe. When security was low and "black hat" type bad actor hackers and criminals were still gearing up, learning how to abuse a good thing. But today you really have to KNOW exactly what you're doing online. Especially when you are responsible for literally billions of people on your platform.
An article came out this week from Axios Codebook about this related to our Congress:
"Only 6 House candidates spent $1,000 on cybersecurity"
"The defining moment in the 2016 election was Russia's breach of the Democratic National Committee. Two years later, McClatchy reports that candidates for Congress are knowingly underspending on cybersecurity — with only 6 spending more than $1,000."
As we've seen, there is also the potential for very bad things to happen IF you... 1) don't know what can happen because you haven't fully planned out the potential for good AND bad things to happen, and 2) you have to fully understand that business as usual as you have planned it out, in order to make money off that platform, off those people, can indeed damage not only those individuals using your platform, but also entire countires.
Because, there are bad actors out there, predators, whose lives are devoted to finding ways, people and platforms to abuse, with no moral or ethical concerns. When you have a platform that large, you also have an oversized responsibility to be not only fully aware of how your platform and your business model can positively AND negatively affect people, but you also have to be better possibly, than you even are capable of.
And that is a serious concern.
Rather than increase their cyber security efforts and budgets smoothly, easily, over the years to more than they thought they needed it (and their cyber people knew they needed but were ignored or given miniscule, fly by night amounts to work with), they could by now have organically prepared over those past years (if not decades) to have spent less money overall. Consider what it cost Sony in their North Korean hack for the film, The Interview.
Rather than the cost now a days as well as having their reputation dragged through the mud and in losing even more money because of their lack of attention and resources and due to such bad actors as China, North Korea and Russia, just to name a few of today's major players.
Why? Capitalism run rampant? Defective corporate thinking? Yes, to be sure. But also a business as usual desire, based in greed and funneling too much money to shareholders and other such types. Rather than putting money into hyper serious concerns that merely weren't a concern to those in power at the time. Not until it was too late.
Maintaining bottom lines where the risk was considered worth it and they could not see that not only was it not worth it, but that risk was far greater than they could be made to understand, or even imagine.
Because the threat wasn't just for that year, or the year after, but in future years. It was the difference between simply installing a piece of software protection, or a method, and having a mindset that evolved over the years to come, to orient the corporation or government department in a certain way.
To see the future, then. To have build a paradigm, a mindset that would endure and evolve over time to protect and defend and protect profits and the American citizen, way of life, and national health. Both economically and emotionally.
Too often companies were saved only through the dedicated and excessive workloads of their computer IT departments. Not because they were there but because they had to make themselves overworked.
Rather than those typically overburdened, over educated, overdedicated IT workers receiving the necessary funding (which seldom happened) as well as confidence from management. The corporate attitude from on high so typically was (and still is):
"We pay them, so do your job!" Rather than "We delved into it, then give them what they needed to DO their job. We compensated them "appropriately." And we have confidence in them as they have gratitude in us for going that extra mile, for them, for us, and for our stock holders, customers, or citizens."
But that isn't the case.
It would be disingenuous for typically lucky management to point and say, "But we didn't have a devastating hack!" While they may not have known what they barely avoided, perhaps too many times. All because of the dedicated overworked efforts of their security IT people and perhaps...just good luck,
Having set aside annually so much loss for fraud and hacks and yet, they still made billions of dollars overall. Simply in part, because they did not put the money and resources into handling things correctly because it seemed to frequently to those who did not understand, at the top, that it was simply money thrown away to protect themselves properly. To research and develop proactively. To overburden their IT shops rather than hire enough people and expend the money necessary to truly protect themselves.
Ignorance. It is the mainstay of business and the political party of business in this country. In all countries.
LUCK is NOT how you win wars. Be it cyber or otherwise. Nor is ignorance. Something we see as a governing body today in our current conservative Republican Trump administration.
We are now beyond that point while Russians and others have already tested our systems and have a good idea what to do if and when they choose to do it. To truly attack, on a massive scale. But again we are still protected by MAD (nuclear weapon Mutually Assured Destruction). Because a massive attack would surely need to lead to a nuclear war. It would have to. And they (Russians, North Korea, etc.) now that.
And so they attack under the wire, under the trigger point, in hitting our social media, oru elections and other things. Some of which we seldom hear about in public due to "national security issues."
And so our primary perceived protection? MAD, still. Physical war when a cyberwar is perpetrated upon us. Does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy and secure? Because, it shouldn't. Look what Russia did and what our response was and has been to cyber attacks on our 2016 and soon (and still) 2018 elections. Pathetic.
To be sure, we are more protected now than we were during the 2016 election or the previous one before it. But that does not say we are safe enough yet, and we do have a lot of work left, costly work even, to get there.
It's time already, time passed twenty years ago when we were first warned.
Stop looking only at profit. It's destroying this country in a counter intuitive paradigm anathema to the purposely ignorant conservative, corporate, capitalist mind.
Tough beans, people. This, is reality.
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