Walkabout Thoughts #11

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… When I started out I was hoping I could get my walk in before the rain started. Air quality index was 50, rated "good". During my walk I checked it and it was 33. Last time I checked it was 30. I felt a slight drizzle begin and then immediately stop. Could be a few degrees warmer though and it’s supposed to be 53° today. It was 51 when I left home. Wearing a fleece and shell. I got my jacket shell when I purchased it on the way to the airport in 2015, headed to Ireland. I wore that walking all over Ireland, literally its four corners. It still looks brand new. That day that I left home, where I had a couple acres in the woods and had raised my kids who had  moved out by then... I walked a mile to the park-and-ride, caught the bus to the ferry, and rode the Bainbridge ferry over to Seattle. Then on the way to the underground light rail station to Seattle airport at SeaTac, I stopped at the North Face store on the corner. I looked at a lot of stuff with the salesperson and finally settled on this $99 coat shell. At the time I thought it was expensive and buying a "shell" was weird. She was looking at me like I was crazy there in the store. But I bit the bullet and I bought it. And I grew to love it all the way around Ireland. It was perfect for layering, because the weather there was so much like here in the Pacific Northwest. I was cool when it needed to be and kept me warmer than I'd expected. I felt very at home. And today, almost eight years later well, I went in August so just over seven years... it looks like it’s never been worn! Plus you can roll it up and it fits in its own pocket. I love the hood too, and the inner pockets.

Podcast for the day is from Pod Save America.

Second podcast for the day is John Heilemann's Hell and Highwater. With Michael Dowd and Jennifer Palmieri.

Instagram post for the day is getting a lot of attention...

For those complaining that the MSM lies (for rational people unaware what that indicates, "Mainstream Media", how it's three letters not two is curious), have a fundamental misunderstanding and limited comprehension of how journalism functional (outside of right wing disinfo/propaganda entities). When investigating a report and stumbling on a misperception or incorrect facts, in it getting reported, it will typically later be corrected. But with the right wing MSM )which there is)… they’re reporting lies upfront, not misperceptions, but intended, outright lies...that don’t change. Because... they’re lies. The only time those change is when they find a more effective lie, or their lies are shown to be such obvious lies that even the right questions them. At which point they shift to a better lie and encapsulate the first lie. Or rationalizing or explaining it off to their right wing believers, who will just see it as something they merely had to make more clear in what they were intending to say. Trump was an expert at that. To the point that people still think he’s a great guy and someone to vote for, rather than demand for him, justice, prison and execution.

People have got to stop knocking people who complain about the arising the cost of milk, or gas to get to work, or to transport their kids. These are real issues. While the rich and wealthy in complaining about costs, we are indeed looking at greed, for the most part. But when you can’t afford to take care of your kids, or your loved ones, that’s a whole different paradigm you’re dealing with. People need to realize that Republicans aren't going to save them and that their whole method of operation has nothing to do with helping them. Other than what they say to get votes, to get more power and money. Money by the way, that is greatly coming from those people in dire need, and the rest of us doing at least a little better. Look, I’m not rich. I’m retired and just getting by on a pension I luckily earned, and Social Security that Republicans want to take away. Which would essentially put me out on the street. So thanks for that! After spending years in the Air Force and a lifetime paying taxes and into Social Security, they want to punish me/us? WTF? And so, fuck them! Thank you, very much! Please sir, can I NOT have another?

President Biden this week gave a speech where he said, if Democrats retain and gain power in this election, he will First Thing, sign into law protections for abortion. If you’re against that, well you got to admit then you’re a misogynist and this isn't about pre-birth children at all. Because it sure as hell isn’t about protecting them once they're born, as we’ve seen time and again. The second thing he said was that he’s releasing more gas to lower the cost of gas nationwide. Which has already been going back down. Regardless what Republicans are claiming. And we're still working on Saudi Arabia and that whole nightmare jackasses contingency, related to OPEC.

The AQI was 50 today when I left home. It’s overcast. The winds have blown the forest fire smoke away and it’s supposed to rain soon. Rained a little bit yesterday. It’s a nice day for a hike, or a walkabout. Now to be accurate, I do believe a “walkabout“ is a walk about and not a standard closed course like I’m doing, walking up and down the same street. My "walkabout" part of my walkabout is metaphorical, in my taking in new information from podcasts and ruminating on things and sharing those thoughts. That is definitely a walkabout. So maybe my title it should be in quotes, but… it’s not.

From the podcast: “Voting for Republicans will not fix inflation. It’s voting for abortion bans and guaranteeing that inflation will continue.” I would also add it will throw Ukraine to Putin. After all we’ve done. After all NATO and others have done to protect and save them against an illegal and genocidal war by an autocrat (who Trump loves) who hasn’t been fairly elected in 20 years. Guaranteeing that you will be elected, as Putin has (nooo... he’s not afraid of open elections at all...), is not an open and free election.

To be clear when Republicans call liberals “extremist“ what they’re actually saying is they’re leaning too far into progress which makes conservative and those with a more backward orientation to social evolution, uncomfortable. When liberals, Democrats and many independents, say Republicans are extremist, they’re actually being extremist, in having enabled, ignored, supported and acted upon sedition and insurrection. That’s something no one should ignore. I don’t care who you are or what side you're on. 

Replacing the government is not in the US Constitution. Regardless of what the framers, a few of them, may have said. If you’re claiming the Constitution as the foundation of your rights to an insurrection, you’re not reading the American Constitution at all. You’re just listening to Republicans, Trump, conspiracy theories on the Internet, and our enemies across the world who full heartedly are supporting you.

So MAGA types are recording people dropping off ballots at drop boxes, some even following those people after that (i.e., Intimidation). Voters should drop ballots while friends surround them with an opaque curtain. That will drive MAGA nuts. This recording people voting is immature intimidation tactics. What are they, in 2nd grade? This wouldn't intimidate me in the least, though it might some. It's the level of irritating like: "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!" Good grief. They're devolving. It's just setting up for later actions and gumming up the entire election process, both now and later.

This is more foolish. Even MAGA know Republican's support business, especially big business. And most of them know corporations are price gouging us right now, when they shouldn’t be. Corporations have been set up to help America, by the American government but right now, all they’re doing is reaping profits. Every time in my life that I’ve heard America was an economic trouble, corporations price gouge. Sometimes maintaining a price, is price gouging. And they’re raising prices. But we need all Americans to connect those two things and realize that Republicans aren’t your friend in this. I don’t care who you are. Because even the corporations and wealthy they’re supporting. are based in this country. Damaging the country is not good for anybody. Except for short term profits. But what Republicans don’t get is there’s more to life than numbers, money, and enrichening oneself with wealth and power. I know, sounds stupid saying it, why wouldn't they ignore ethics and reap rewards, right? That's kind of sick though. Those people, people like that, should never of been allowed in politics. Seeing the left as the same, is just incorrect and factually delusional.

It was the Democrats that went after big Pharma recently, and why many, when it kicks in, will be doing better. Republicans didn’t do that, they have been fighting that kind of thing, all the way. Returning Democrats to power after this election means they will go after big Pharma again, as well as corporations. And no, Republicans don't like that. But you're not, we're not, corporations. Not sure how that is so hard for some to see.

It seems to me with Republicans and MAGA doing all they can to end elections, to curb elections, to make it more difficult to vote, we’re on a path to eliminate in-person poll booth voting and we need to immediately go to mail-in ballots. That eliminates all this nonsense about polling booths MAGA types are trying to pull. To gum things up, question everything, intimidate ...that's not AMERICAN. There may be a few problems for some regarding all mail in ballots, but we'll just have to work that out. It may take a year or two if we start now, but it solves a lot of problems Republicans keep drumming up. We’ve been rapidly moving into remote work in recent years, saving our infrastructure and our roads. Considering pandemics and right wing abuses of our citizens in relation to elections, this seems like a pretty obvious fix.

Have you heard that some counties/states are going to hand counted of election ballots? Even though we know for a fact it’s less accurate because of human error then machines? This whole movement by Republicans in the far right, against machine counting is unbelievably divisive. Anyone that knows anything about people and computers should know that hand counting is a bad idea. It's WHY WE DON'T DO IT!

Early Georgia election numbers are in and voting is up 85% from the last midterm election there. Doesn’t mean anybody’s winning, it just means it’s good that we have more people getting involved in voting. Because I really believe if everybody in America voted there would be no MAGA, and there would be no Republican party such as we have. There wouldn't have been an insurrection. Or fear now that Republicans will end democracy here.

Democrats need to be focused on working class people without a college degree and Latinos. Because that seems to be where the leaking votes are going away. That’s from Democratic candidate Tim Ryan. I added the part about Latinos though. Ryan’s opponent is JD Vance who has two mega donors. That, is never good for any candidate's voters.

I need to call Comcast and ask them if there’s a way I can save money while keeping what I’ve got in my current package. This is something you should do every so often for phone and cable and maybe some other things. At least half the time I've called about that, they’ve had some way I can save at least some money and sometimes, a lot.

I have to say, people like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, JD Vance, after having Trump slam them really hard, especially if I was about to get up on stage after Trump said how much I kiss his ass… I would definitely have a come back, You've got to punch back. Those like Trump and Putin, either appreciate that or respond appropriately and not how you might think. I would definitely punch back at Trump when I got to the mic, in a way (if I were MAGA like JD Vance and Trump), where I would get in a comment where the audience would go, "oh I don’t believe he said that" followed by some laughter and applause. Otherwise, why am I up there? Something that would resonate. But I would never let anyone racially slur my wife like McConnell allowed from Trump. Or to attack me like that and I don’t give a damn who they are, I’m coming back at them. And frankly, there’s some integrity involved. Because if you lose your candidacy over something like that, you deserve it. Find another career. That’s the problem with these MAGA Republicans. They have no boundaries. Their ethics are in the Trump cesspool/swamp he created. Their ambition has completely eviscerated their ethics. Do anything to win? The only place that makes sense is in war and it often doesn’t even make sense then. Which is why we have the military governed by civilian authority. When war gets to a point like Putin is in where Russia has been consistently defeated, someone hast to take the reins and say, "OK STOP! ENOUGH ALREADY!" But that's the problem with autocracies. Single point of failure.

JD Vance has invested in companies with foreign workers. Deflating his self promoted image of himself. Looking at his stance on China, there's no there, there.

Tim Ryan had a good point about paying off college tuition loans in that we should at least let some of these people, with high interest-rates, be able to get lower interest rates as that alone would help a lot. And, we need to fix the problem that is the high cost of college tuition. I stand by what I've said, that we get a K-12 for free since over 100 years ago, because we knew that would raise the entire country up. And it did. It was massively cost effective. But everything has advance so far that we need to make that now, K-14. So people can get out of that in a level where there are more jobs open to them. When I graduated high school in 1973 I knew at the time I wasn’t prepared for any decent job. It made me angry. Which was why after three years of trying (to get a really good job, I did have one), I went in the Air Force. I got out, then got a couple of degrees which the VA paid for. But, tuition wasn’t ridiculous. I got a high tech job eventually and made a decent amount of money. Which allowed me an mostly reasonable retirement. I didn't get to a job with a retirement plan until late, or I’d be even better off.

I worked at University of Washington for 7 1/2 years and when I talked to them years later about being vested for retirement, they said I was a few months short. I had thought for years I was vested when I left. I asked them a few years ago about that and they said, "Yep, you're a few months short." But after I left the UDub where I worked at University bookstore, the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center and the UW Personnel office, I was asked to come back and work for Harborview Medical Center again. I wasn’t salaried, though. But I’m just curious if that added that few months on, that I needed? Maybe I was invested there for retirement. But you know how things go right? Probably not.

I mentioned in previous walkabout blogs about tightening your core as you walk and counting your steps. So I’ve been doing that since I first... actually before I first mentioned it, and today I’m doing 100 steps counts. What’s interesting is that it’s gotten easier I can do it for longer now and noticed today that when I tightened up my stomach muscles, sucking in my belly button toward my spine, it also tightens up the muscles above it in my chest, I’ve to my shoulders. Which was not my conscious intention. But that’s where the muscle tone has moved up to. Cool. This, after two years of Covid and long Covid, which kept me extremely sedentary all through 2021, and then again from March 2022, until not that long ago.

Speaking of which, it’s been a few days since my last walk because of the smoke and poor air quality from forest fires. It was over a week before that walk, since my previous one. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it today, but it looks like I am gonna make my standard 5 miles. Took a lot out of me, but it feels good.

Also, I had been complaining about my left ankle which was really painful and problematic since I began walking months ago. I can say now that I believe it’s been healed, at least since my last walk. Though I continue to wear an ankle brace sleeve.

The other day I tried drinking a glass of wine with lunch. Because of my long Covid, it would make my blood pressure go crazy when I did that. So being able to drink any alcohol is a sign of healing. And it went great! I had bought a little four pack of individual, inexpensive wine bottles. Tasted pretty good. I decided yesterday that today would be a good day for a steak. It’s been a couple weeks or so since I had a steak. I'll take the frozen steak out of my freezer, toss it in my air fryer and a little bit later, not very long, I'll be eating steak and win. I can even throw some shrimp on there I keep in the freezer. A class act lunch as a reward for getting my 5 miles down. And for dessert, I have a very tasty (and not very big) sugarless ice cream bar on a stick. Very creamy. Doesn’t taste sugar-free like what I grew up with that tasted nasty and bitter. And it doesn’t affect my blood sugar level at all. Which is good for long covid. Which seems to be fading.

I mentioned this before, but when I walk I use speech to text for my transcription. Especially when you get tired walking, you don’t always enunciate clearly when you get into thought and talking. So I will get back home and remember I had some really insightful things to say but I don’t have a clue what I was saying for a sentence or so in a paragraph because it makes no sense. It’s both comical and frustrating. Sometimes a bit angrifying. But, I’ve learned it’s better than nothing. So I do my best. I get home, I transfer the file to my laptop, put it into my blog, read through it once, cleaning it up as best I can and post it. It’s a bit rough and my thoughts sometimes are a bit jumbled. But I’m not trying to write the great American blog here. Just sharing some ideas. And besides, I want to finish up my book on long Covid. Which is done and the cover graphics are now with my cover artist. I made up the cover but he’s going to take the concept and make it look better than I’ll ever be able to make it look.

Back to this nonsense... it’s truly odd how Republicans don’t give a wit about them being our threat to democracy and only being focused mostly right now on inflation. Because that’s the best selling point they’ve got. Whatever you do, don’t look at who they are, or what they’ve done. Certainly not as judged by any neutral observers.

This is a progressive country and always has been or we would never have been founded. We just have an infatuation every so many years with fascism, autocracy, and conservatism. When you take a group like that, who is a frustrated minority and are consistently out of power...when they get back in power (and then fail so often) it frustrates them to the degree that they become toxic unto themselves. That’s why in part, we had a January 6 insurrection.

My next walk may be Sunday, but if not, probably Monday, in two days. All depending on weather and air quality (that I think may be good at least for a bit).  I'll be able to listen to the next "Ultra" podcast episode! So looking forward to the rest of its' entire season!

Have a great weekend.

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!

Walkabout Thoughts #8

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:

Yes, some of this is smart, some is dumb. But all is recorded as I'm walking and listening to podcasts and I'm responding to the content of those, and my walking environment, and my thoughts in general. It's not a well designed set of thoughts. And therein lay some of it's usefulness, humor, or insight (or not)...

Today’s Instagram post is a view of my nearly finished new fence. Here's the before video.

Today’s podcast is from Pod Save America and Mary Trump's Podcast. I listened to Pod Save America for a while, but my curiosity about Mary Trump‘s podcast got the better of me and I switched over.

Weather today is overcast, cool, humid. OK, here we go...

The Trump Dead Brain Trust (TDBT) has now called for the murder of Mitch McConnell. Frankly, humanity wouldn’t even miss him, America wouldn’t miss him. Congress wouldn’t miss him. But Senate Republicans and the once Republican Party kind of would.

I've said this for a while now. Four years under POTUS45 was four years living in Donald Trump's mind. What we get for that now is that Republicans have turned even more narcisissistic (partly why they liked Trump). How else do you explain loving doing anything you want no matter how offensive or hurtful to others while laughing at the demise of democracy? Which after all, really is about people coming together safely and productively, who are all very different.

Wouldn't it be interesting if it was the radical radical white, right wingnut, toxic conservative, fake Republican, Trump dead brain trust... so rapidly developed by Donald Trump and on such very fertile ground, prepped by the GOP for years, which led to exactly what they've been railing against? A big brother state we had to create to protect the country from THEM? What if it’s because of people like them that actual Big Brother (or Deep State if you enjoy your fantasy name) that is built to protect all of us, because of them as they become increasingly ever out of control? Weird, right? I think they call that a self fulfilling prophesy.

You know, that WOULD make sense because MAGA are trying to destroy America as we know it. A country set up to be as protective as possible against royal power, the power-hungry and toxically autocratic. Republicans have done their best to bend toward these power-hungry toxically capitalistic & conservatives who may very well Evoke a new kind of Patriot Act to act in ways we never would’ve allowed or conceived before. All because of this Republican Party, because they allowed someone like Donald Trump to be elected, become a POTUS and now an FPOTUS, who is allowed respect he never gave the office of president, as well as a variety of protections he fully doesn’t deserve. Trump needs to be treated like the toxic conservative and #1 criminal citizen that he is, so we can eventually correct this massive American misstep as our second darkest blotch on our history, after the Civil War and slavery.

“Christians for Trump“ should be an ever growing organization to take down Donald Trump and the foul stench he’s evolved and amplified. Just as the Russians and Chinese have done to us. Trump really is our greatest threat as a domestic terrorist and leader of an actively operating disinformation machine.

We should find a way to start charging Donald Trump and the Republican Party for all the millions of dollars they have been cost America to protect people Trump has targeted. Even former FVPOTUS Pence who had Secret Service protection that cost more while he was in office, because of Donald Trump and his enablers and his MAGA dead brain trust wanted to kill him. This decades long zombie Republican Party has got to be purged, as well as those who Trump seated within our government. Not to mention those in our military, long before Trump even hit the scene, and in our local law-enforcement. We have ignored this festering ideology thinking it was about free speech, when it was really about sedition.. 

When I was in the SAC in the USAF, with a secret clearance for nuclear weapons, I met a nice guy who I eventually discovered, in a rather uncomfortable way. when I was taken with my wife to a compound he belonged to in the back hills of Idaho. We visited his friends at a white Christian nationalist compound. Had I known, I wouldn't have gone and it made me nervous and somewhat terrified my wife. Some of those there were dressed in Nazi like uniforms. They dissembled on that point, saying their Nazi-like uniforms were NOT Nazi uniforms. THEY were NOT Nazis. If you were to compared their uniforms, that was true. But they were definitely Nazi-like uniforms. They also saluted like Nazis, and in their church. Which, knowing history, was chilling. I considered notifying the Air Force that next work day, but my best friend talked me out of it. He said, they know where you live, they picked you up from home, right? Your wife is  alone when you're at work, 15 miles away at the airbase. I eventually later went through the process to join the OSI and I was accepted. I should’ve told them. But then, nothing would’ve happened. Because of all our rights. Because they knew how to lay low, below the "radar". And back then our not knowing what would come all these decades later. Or how it would end up in a "Donald Trump" fascist wannabe, Nazi type as president, with his invoking sedition and insurrection. But there’s been a kernel of this toxically conservative Christian white nationalism in our military for decades. As well as in our law-enforcement. None of this is new. It boils up every so often and we (the Feds, the FBI, etc.) take it back down every so many years, maybe once every decade or so. This has to be properly addressed and quashed with our greatest rationales and reasonable prejudices for our own protections. For our democratic Republic. For the survival of this country whose shining light across the world has been tarnished and dimmed in its actively being worked towards putting that light out. By the Republican Party of all people. And then desiring to ignite a new and darkly disturbing light under the auspices of autocracy, or kleptocracy, or oligarchy, or literally anything they can get to replace democracy with. Things those people will support in MAGA, or QAnon, or whatever  stupid side of the Republican Party that they can get to "click", until one day they will realized, when it is too late, that they called for their own demise along with the rest of us. They may hope they will have time, that there will be time for them to make their dark revolution permanent. But inevitably, eventually, as we see worldwide all through history, it always happens and they will fail. But first the amount of damage, degradation and destruction they will invoke will be monumental. And THAT is if they do not act like Donald Trump and try to take all down with him as he falls. 

So, Dr. Oz has done medical experimentation on dogs where they were terribly mistreated. Apparently this came out recently. I never paid any attention to him or his "snake oil" marketing. But apparently Columbia University ended up cutting ties with him. I mistakenly thought Oz was a nice guy. Much like I believed for years that Donald Trump was. But only because I saw him on the Letterman Show when Dave would call some billionaire up in New York City who was always there to talk. Of course I'm sure that was prearranged. He seemed like a nice guy. So by time The Apprentice started, I had read his book and it seemed good. I didn’t know it was bullshit and written by a ghost writer. But I should’ve known. I had bought into The Apprentice phantom-Trump, fake TV "titan of industry" manufactured by a production company company and his producer, Mark Burnette. Who owes America for never releasing those tapes he has of Trump showing who he really is. Mark, your Karma has got to be some of the most foul on this planet right up there with Trump's. Here’s hoping we'll get to hear when it strikes. Same as with Trump. Same with his family. Except, Mary Trump. Same as it should be with Trump's MAGA/ Russian/ Republican/ QAnon/ conservative toxic individuals and associated groups.

Regardless what anyone says, COVID-19 is still alive and thriving. Not like it was to be sure. Things are indeed better. We do have vaccines now. But, you can still get it. President Biden said the pandemic is over. I think he misspoke. In a certain sense or form of the pandemic, that is over and that is what I think he was referring to as things are better now. But it’s over when it’s over and it ain’t over yet.

I had two vaccines, two boosters and I still got a really bad form of CiVuD that left me with long CoViD for the second time. I got the updated booster about three weeks ago in September 2022 when it became available. So... Be careful. Be healthy.

To be clear about those who say, "Hey, I never got it!" Look. A lot of people did get it and never showed symptoms and were never tested. Some of those who were tested came out negative and yet, they had it. That’s just the way it is. I have a friend who is showed no CoViD symptoms, but may well have had COVID-19 and now seems to have long CoViD. I told her she very well may have had COVID-19 but just didn’t know it and you can still get long Covid. So protect yourself, and don’t be ashamed, embarrassed, or cowed by friends or especially, by ignorant strangers

Anyone wonder why retired criminal millionaire Donald Trump doesn’t have a podcast? There’s a good reason.

COVID-19 has only been around for 2 1/2 years at this point. We still don’t know much about it. Maybe another 2 1/2 or five years from now, we will. Probably, we will. But that’s not now. The biggest things we need to protect ourselves now, is from ignorant information spread as science or fact, and the virus itself. Though one other element is definitely our own ignorance. Especially, if we don't realize just how ignorant we are. 

For the record, being anti-abortion is not being pro-life. But is being anti-science. Does you’re anti-abortion stance make you a good person? Well, if you're a five year old, maybe. If you’re an atheist, and anti-abortion? Do know that you’re supporting a religious belief. Way to go to fight for the other side. The separation of church and state is being broken down on purpose. Why a shattered Republican Party with their criminal, autocratic leader, supported by a ridiculous belief system of toxic conservatism, of QAnon, of a far right extremist MAGA cult of their Lord Trump who is doing his best to play antichrist. As we’ve seen, even the church of Satan, which isn't quite what you might think it is, are actually fighting more for what is right, against those fake righteous right wingnut toxic conservative types, delusionally thinking they are the "good people." There’s your sign. Don't you think there’s something seriously wrong with the Republican Party, when even the Church of Satan has the moral higher ground over them?

Blaming Pres. Biden for the gas prices in a world economic crisis in part initiated by Donald Trump, yeah I’m just not seeing how much of it is actually Joe Biden's fault. Though from an illegal war by Trump's buddy Putin, who has gaslighted Russia into genocide in Ukraine, a country historically very close to Russia and their people, blaming Biden is like blaming FDR for World War II. It takes a real incompetent person or conservative party, stupidly historically unaware of current world problems and civics, in a MAGA dumb mindset to be pushing this kind of agenda at this time. Stop embarrassing America. Just, stop it!

It’s ironic how many entitled Republican Party attacks lack any moral or legal common sense about actual American entitlements that we're entitled to as a right in being American, from those people acting criminally entitled. Being "American" should carry weight and benefit. This "logic" involved in the Republican Party selling their disingenuous wares to a subset of Americans who've been following toxic conservatism for decades, truly boggles the mind

From Mary Trump‘s podcast... in 2016 most white women voted for Trump... in 2020 even more voted for Trump... after years of misogyny and crime and bullshit. However their husbands voted more for Biden in 2o20. all which has something to do with white women historically leaning into segregation. - Wajahat Ali

Remember on these podcasts you listen to, the "skip forward 30 seconds" button, is your button friend. Also be aware, when commercial time comes up and you go to skip it, sometimes you don’t need to because it will go right back into the show. I guess maybe they got enough money from their ads or it's a rerun or something

Herschel Walker is a misogynistic violent person not to be elected to public office. I’ll never understand why the facts and information are actually out there and yet people won’t do their due diligence to be sure they aren’t voting for a criminal. I mean they actually elected one as POTUS45. How stupid was that? I don’t know what comes after stupid, but that would be it in still supporting him. Yeah, the world and all of history will definitely see you.

Why are people so attracted to Autocrats and Fascists and this Republican Party and Donald Trump? I don't see the attraction. Is it because we work hard, and we’re bored, and some of us seek entertainment for entertainment's value? Never registering one iota that it actually affects us, our lives, and others, and the world, negatively? The Apprentice wasn’t real! As many “reality“ TV shows are not real. "Unscripted" does not mean real. It means produced. "Donald Trump" is not real. Not the one people are attracted to and vote for. "Donald Trump" is a manufactured brand. I suspect if you put people individually into a room with him for some length of time and he had to be completely himself and exhibit who he truly is, maybe one percent of one percent of his supporters would walk out of that room still a supporter. While those remaining loyal to him we need a serious mental health evaluation. Just as Trump does.

Trans kids' situation being referred to as a “culture war“ is as much a culture war as when science says something is a bacteria instead of a virus. MAGA of course would argue that it would be a culture war. And they’ll deny that. But if we put it into action, 100% they'd start arguing how science doesn’t know what they’re talking about. This referring to culture war stuff, when it’s actually science, is abusive, ignorant, and truly only for the self-destructive who wish to push that out to the rest of our country. It’s not our fault that some people are so entrenched in their little bubble of unreality that they can’t move forward and would instead prefer to elect criminals. But it is up to us to stop it.

Look. I've said this time and time again. I don’t hate Republicans or conservatives or MAGA people. I don’t hate Russians. I don’t hate Chinese. I don’t hate North Koreans. It makes me angry that their beliefs are so delusional, sure. And detached from reality. It makes me pity them and the rest of us, for them. But not really for them so much as for their foolish beliefs. Many of which are founded on thousands of years of ridiculous religious belief. Beliefs which have been weaponized by those seeking power and wealth. I just don’t believe in hating people. I don't believe in hating other Americans. But I do despise stupidity in those purposely sowing disinformation, and cramming it down other people's throats. I also don’t hate ignorance. I think it’s something we’re supposed to help others be brought up out of. I have a saying that I’ve been saying for decades now, that "ignorance is noble" because we all begin ignorant. But it is our job to farm and plant in our mind, to sow good and useful thoughts, so we can eventually harvest wisdom and share that with others. Benefiting all, and not just ourselves. Which seems anymore to be the only thing the Republican Party is based upon. Let's leave that for petty dictators (who Trump; loves so much) in Putin, North Korean leaders, and so on. Let's not bring it anymore into America. Because that's not what we were founded to do.

Anyone, who you’re arguing with about the bullshit that’s going on, who devolves into "whataboutisms" is just trying to distract or pivot, like saying "not all white people are like that" or "not all Republicans are...", or whatever… Those people are energy vampires so stop talking to them and get out and do something useful.

Our Republic, our democracy, is about humanity. Not about politics. Politics is a means to an end. We’ve seen time and again hardliners who, one put with people they hated, who spend time with them end up walking away, saying, "Wow, I was so wrong about them. I was so wrong about their problems. Now I see the abuse they live through every day. I wanted to fight against the abuse I saw they were experiencing while I was walking with them, nd I found myself wanting to punch out people, who are just like me and abusing them in public and in private. Who are harassing, terrorizing these people, who don’t deserve it. All because of politics that says they hate us, they want to end us, or they want to replace us. Well? They don’t. They just want to live and experience life as everyone else does and can."

Republicans, Congress in general...do NOT pass new laws to protect FPOTUS' like Donald Trump. Pass new laws, as you just did, that even Mitch McConnell signed onto, to protect America and our democratic republic...from THEM. We're who is important. Not THEM.

This just popped in my head from the other day… I saw pictures of a Russian nuclear train, allegedly headed to Ukraine (nope, see link to article). It seems to me when you know something like that is there, any other country in the world should’ve taken that train out. We have to be (correct) more proactive as a planet. Especially, if they are known and headed for the border even if it was still in Russia. Well, maybe. If it's going to Ukraine, fine but if wasn't and  you take it out, maybe not so good? Or maybe it would make a long needed point. The point needs to be made clear by the entire world that we're tired of these despots and tyrants and genocidal assholes who act like normal respectable leaders and plying legalities that are actually illegal and even murdering their own citizens. All while the world watches doing what? Nothing? Nothing immediate, proactive and substantive? It would be nice if we could just come together as a planet (but oh no, cries of one world government and loss of autonomy from the wanna be autocrats). We are all in the same sandbox, let's just start making sure we all play nice. I'm tired of this adolescent orientation of an entire planet being abused by a few.

It’s true what someone is saying on the podcast that the 2022 midterm election could be it. Our last chance. If we succeed to keep our government out of the hands of toxic Republicans and autocrats, Trump MAGA, QAnon, and other fools of that type of poor materiel… we will still have to start it all over again for the 2024 presidential election. Aren't we tired of this yet? However, if we blow it now, we’ve probably blown it for good. We may one day look back on this and see 2022 as the seminal moment when we decided to let democracy go. I mean yes, you can go back to 2016 and say it was when Trump was elected, or back to the early 1990s with Newt Gingrich on C-SPAN play acting at midnight in pretending he’s in front of a full Congress, spewing his lies and bullshit and showing the Republican Party how to use SOVIET style disinformation and propaganda to skew America away from democracy. All for the purposes of perpetual power and wealth. There is an argument to be made that all of this began when our motto was changed from "e pluribus unum" to under the more easily weaponized, "In God We Trust". With all the patriarchy, bigotry, and toxic theology that can be loaded into that phrase, with that as a foundation. As it has been and still is being done.

If America were to split off into different small countries, I don’t see how there wouldn’t end up being a war at some point. With those believing in democracy trying to protect those in the new abusive countries. Which would then be run by the abusive states with new Republicans, with some of the worst track records around for human beings and abuses of civil rights and reasonably perhaps, name themselves the Republic of Gilead.

Walkabout Thoughts #7

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 Instagram walkabout post

Today’s podcast is from John Heilemann's Hell and Highwater #108 - Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson - This is one of the best podcasts I’ve heard explaining what’s going on in our government… Not just dissing Donald Trump or the Republican Party because this are ex-Republicans talking. NOT John Heilemann who has always been an independent. But how things work, how they’ve been done, what’s going on and, how easily it can be done for certain types to take down a country like ours. To turn it into something it’s fully against, since it’s establishment, over 200 years ago. For example, page down to the * paragraph below.

There’s a very good comment later in the podcast about The Lincoln Project. The comment was made that it’s now bigger than the RNC or the DNC and has a lot of donors. It’s not what the MAGA or RINO Trump politicians and voters think it is. It’s not about any person or party. It has members from all sides of politics and donors as well. So especially those who think they hate The Lincoln Project are the people who most need to listen to this because they are about our country and not about any one individual or entity. Just America and America being functional and fruitful as intended to be. Not a mind numbing, ridiculous autocracy. Remember, we were founded as a response against tyranny while what we’re seeing now is a move by Trump loyalists invoking a kind of tyranny because they’re rejecting the “tyranny” of democracy (which makes no sense) and is maligned redefinition of what democracy truly is. All because they don't get their way, in going against what America is and always has been. It's kind of mental defectively bizarre.

I just want to mention that since I’ve had a bad case of COVID-19 a couple times now over two years, and as I have long CoViD now, since I am recently 67 years old, should I die, and in today’s climate and with my growing toward 2,000 articles online since about 2010, with my calling out both traitors and before that international terrorists going back to9/11, as I've stood up for Egyptian people during their Arab Spring uprising as many of them were hitting my blog when cut off from social media by their government, as I've stood for Ukraine from day one, and stood against fascists and traitors in our own country since Trump began to run for POTUS in 2016 (and ridiculously won) and then again (ridiculously again) running in 2020, should I happen to die, my blog, in being titled "Murdockinations", is available online, as you may know, by using that word with a Dotcom suffix (murdockinations.com). I mention this only because if I were to die, as I pay for that domain name and  URL forwarding to the base URL, jzmurdock.blogspot.com. While the easy name to get there will eventually expire, you’ll be able to get to the base URL and hopefully for a very long time. Maybe even long after my death someday, and after Trump dies and his toxicity is pruned and painfully squeezed from our body politic and international consciousness. I hope you’ll still be able to see people like  me online who spoke out for what is right and what is correct. What is moral and ethical and what our country was founded upon, not what fools have tried to hard to subvert into being. That being in so illiberally trying to force us into being a national fascist, autocratic state. We are a Republic, and a democracy, if we can keep it. If the fascists win, if Trump or his criminal family win, people like me may be wiped off the Internet and then only those who have read me or others like me, will remember us until a they too are neutralized or eventually die off. Gladly, there are international entities who are making copies of the Internet in other countries and those will hopefully survive. Unless this entire planet goes insane and turns into a giant ant hill led by a top despotic ant. As fascist's always wish to be, in being that top single power and single point of consistent failure. As Putin has made himself into being now. As Trump tried to make himself into being. And as America was never designed to be.

The Lincoln Project documentary series debuts on Showtime on October 7.

I think John Heilemann was correct saying when Tump's Mar-a-Lago residence had a warrant served by the FBI, inside Trump's tiny self involved mind he went, “Yippee! Attention on me, me, me again!”

Back in the 80s and 90s those who knew Trump best in New York City rightly treated him like the clown that he is. As someone who worked for Giuliani said, "Trump is the guy you throw a couple of parking passes to and ignore." Well, when you let the stupid and worse, the criminal lead, you find there’s a stupid voting block that will follow. As well as those  attracted to breaking norms, destruction for fun, and crime for the sake of its entertainment value.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Trump is not a billionaire. I am a billionaire. Trumps a clown living on credit.“ From the book, By Rick Wilson, "Everything Trump Touches Dies - A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever"

There's a problem with the Republican Party? When you have a party that will vote for someone who is indicted? When an indictment would actually help his election acquiring Republican votes? When you have a Republican Party who will vote for someone who is an obvious criminal and even spawned an insurrection? Yes there is indeed a problem with the Republican Party.

When Trump was attacking the FBI for serving a legal warrant founded in fact and evidence, where were the real Republicans or even the RINO Republicans? Regardless which side you’re on, or how you see either of those terms, where were any Americans, one time Trump supporters, or Republicans of any flavor, of any note, standing up and saying, “THIS is wrong!“ And IF there WERE any incidents you can point to, where someone did speak up? There wasn’t enough of them. It wasn’t enough, obviously.

We need to understand exactly when a conspiracy actually is just a conspiracy theory. Because 99.9% of all the conspiracies we’ve heard in the past 10 or 20 years or not based on enough factual evidence to support the reality of the contentions. In science, which is the ultimate version of seeking facts in reality, a true scientist who has made it an art, which is science beyond science, actually can... let’s call it, intuiting a judgment, that is then eventually backed up with the science. That IS possible. However that is not every person who thinks they have “evidence“, who thinks they have made a correct and proper judgment. Even most professionals fail at that. Because of that, conspiracy theories have run wild and led to an actual and true mental defect and criminal morph from his lifetime as a “business“ mob boss/leader, to POTUS45. How can this happen? Decades of poor education all across the country. Mostly Republicans weaponizing our education system. Weaponizing serious issues for their own benefit toward acquiring power and profit. Even going to the point of considering themselves a Prophet...for their actual profit.

It’s 9:26AM, closing in on walking my 2nd mile. It’s already getting warm. It won’t be long before it’s too warm for me to walk. Air quality today was 40, considered healthy and yet I can see a mist in the distance that I wonder if it’s water particles or smoke, or something else. I shouldn’t even be on this walk considering my condition. I’m just hoping the exercise outweighs the downside.

MAGA, those who thought Trump was a Bernie Madoff and they his investors supporting him, and were beating the market. Until Madoff's scheme failed and the FBI arrested him, brought him down and showed him his new permanent residence in a federal prison. Just as Trump should be. Although he has seriously earned one and only one punishment, crowding out all others for capital punishment, our nation’s most serious punishment One that we should never use, because I’m against capital punishment, EXCEPT for very few, very specific types of cases and crimes. Donald Trump has gone way above that bar which is an area he’s excelled in as he’s expert at lowering bars he the crawls beneath going ever lower until he hits the very lowest levels, that no one ever conceived possible.

^

My adult son manages a health food store and who is a local CBD expert where doctors call him to ask for comment on prescriptions for their patients, sent me an article from some research. We do that kind of thing all the time. On astrophysics, on astronomy, on whatever. Including politics, mostly because of the ongoing insanity. Trying to keep each other along the lines of the factual and real. Anyway, new research is showing people who abstain from alcohol, but drink a little once in a while, even those into moderate use, up to heavy even usage perhaps (yeah, I thought that too), are exhibiting benefits toward warding off conditions like Alzheimer’s in their later years. I started smoking weed in August 1972 just before 12th grade. And it saved my life. I drank like anyone in high school, but I had somehow gotten onto pills for a while. Though I didn’t like uppers, speed. Valium seemed to help with my ADHD. My somewhat stressful family life, landed me in the hospital during my last semester of 12th grade, for a few days. Three neurosurgeons reviewed my situation and gave me a prescription for Valium. Then said, "Here you go. Now, either move out of your parents or, take these." A few months later, at 17, I graduated and got a job and moved into an apartment. I also stopped taking Valium. But that August previous had really helped me curb my pill usage. Which honestly may have led to my hospital stay, as I didn’t have anything powerful enough to help me cope with my situation. I mention all this because in the late 90s and early 2000s I quit smoking cannabis out of fear that if I got caught, I could lose my kids. That’s abuse by the state via just bad laws. Cannabis should never have been a schedule one drug like heroin. Or illegal. After my divorce in 2002, as stressful as it was in raising two kids, I still didn’t smoke pot. But when they were about to move out as adults around 2010, I went back to it. I wasn't really worried about losing young kids to the state anymore. I bought my first vaping table device, because the goal had always been to be healthy. Which is why we switched to bongs in the med to late 1970s in being better than sucking hot smoke and ash into your lungs. My how times have changed… Cannabis is now legal in Washington state, though it desperately needs to be federally legal nationwide, and internationally. As for alcohol, I only ever drank socially, after my late teen years. By time I turned 21, I was done going to bars or parties. Once into college, after the USAF, I watched my younger college friends partying, but I was glad to be over that party of my life, so I could spend my energies on studying. It's just nice to kn0w that how my life turned out, seemed to be a lot more healthy for me in the long run, than I'd ever anticipated.

9:38 AM starting my 3rd mile and getting even warmer.

OK. As far as Donald Trump‘s right wing bubble, thinking that he can mentally declassify our most top-secret documents, this is technically what we call, bullshit, and for many reasons. If he finds a way to prove that case through a bazaar series of legal maneuvering, well... whatever. At that point, we would need to nail down these laws so this never happens again. But honestly, I’ll be surprised if he gets away with it, as he’s already gotten people killed. Yes, classified related deaths we may never hear about it.

Donald Trump again (I'm so sick of hearing about this national disaster...): "Gee golly whiz, I declassified everything, I just use my mind, I can do that because I’m the president." Uh huh. That sounds very similar to when you think you’re so famous you can just walk up to a woman and grab her by the pussy and believe they’ll just let you do it, let you do anything. The thing about these toxic personalities is they don’t even realize how many times the people they don’t seem know they’re abusing, or really they don’t care they’re abusing, keep getting away with it. While those are people they are victimizing, damaging, and potentially ruining the rest of their life. Which is why we have laws against people like that doing things like that. They're called, predators.

As John Heilemann says in today's podcast, when Trump was a reality star he thought he was omnipotent. Which I kept saying before Trump was elected, and after, that you never ever give a personality like Donald Trump power and certainly never make them the most powerful man in the world, as president of the United States. That, is utter stupidity and as we’ve seen, extremely dangerous. And may even destroy the country. That is yet to be seen. That’s how dangerous this is, completely aside from international relations he ruined, or the Ukrainian war he may well have invoked because Putin has similar thoughts. Thinking he is omnipotent. Think about the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who died because of Trump manipulating and gaining political currency by how he handled the pandemic. As I'd also said before, before Trump was elected, you don’t elect someone like him because if something bad happens, and he’s in power, very bad shit will happen. And did. And so hundreds of thousands of Americans died because of everyone who cast a vote for Trump as president.

The defect in Conservatism that I’ve always mentioned is when you get a toxic personality like Donald Trump, in part because of evangelicalism, in part because of religion in general, especially Christianity, which has been a part of a defective Republican Party for decades now, that party collapsed right into Trump's lap. AS they began to politically fluff him until today, fellating him politically and monetarily because they couldn't do it physically and sexually, apparently. That’s the Republican Party people belong to now.

After experiencing these past years with how Trump manipulated people and how they fell into praising him as "Lord" or something, if not just political Lord, I will never again ask myself how the 1930s with Hitler happened. Or how Hitler was able to manipulate people like Trump does, only until the holocaust happened and literally millions of people died all over Europe and Russia. Political actions that also allowed Putin to continue, which could allow Trump to have power again. Do not think we won’t see these things again, because it’s already beginning, and it’s already happened in Ukraine and elsewhere via Putin. We are lucky today in that Hitler was smarter than Putin or Trump. But what Putin and Trump lack in intelligence, they do their best to make up for with their other illegal illiberal actions. Don't think that Trump in power again, unrestricted that time, won't devolve into a nightmare.

Interesting, the only way Germany could stop the workers from becoming Bolsheviks and taking over, because the elites had been so out of touch and made such a dual class system, was in supporting Adolf Hitler. And that’s exactly what we’ve been seeing with McConnell and others in the Republican Party in their supporting Trump. So many laws and actions Republicans have pushed through, stacking the court, stacking in the Supreme Court. Manufacturing crises, with immigration, while refusing to work together to update immigration laws for decades, weaponizing things like abortion issues, and bizarrely, women’s health issues in general, weaponizing isseus surrounding immigrants and minorities, sexual and gender issues. Criminally using human beings like pawns as Florida Gov. DeSantis did. We’re watching the modern American version of what happened all through the 30s in Nazi Germany. And if you can’t see that, then you’re in that bubble supporting it happening. Best you pay better attention. Better we all pay better attention.

There is an interesting technique in podcasts I just noticed. Though it has been used all through history and broadcasting. At the beginning you play a few short clips of what’s coming in that next time frame. When you get to that in the podcast, and hear those words again, your mind is a double take. It says, "Hey I’ve heard this before." Hopefully you’ll recognize you just heard it in the beginning of the podcast, maybe 30 minutes ago. But I believe there’s a second function that kicks in. The "I have heard this before… Somewhere" recognition. Even if that lasts for a second, it adds weight and veracity to the quote. Because in the back of your mind, which keeps working on things like this for at least a few seconds or minutes, you color that thought with a color of import. Possibly that you’ve heard it from another person. Which doesn’t say to you, "plagiarism" in this format. Rather it says to your internal, lower level processing mind, that if two people said this thing, then there must be more importance, relevancy and actuality to it. This is in part what phenomenology is about, studying and recognizing things like this. It's what I studied and got my university degree in psychology in. Observing the human experience and human interactions with literally everything. It’s observations like that which I can include in this blog, that made me initially think there might be some relevancy and usefulness to my posting it in a blog for people to read and consider. I believe all the other stuff I talk about here, will eventually move over to that side of the process. So, hopefully, more to come.

*How does a strongman/autocrat come to power? First, you attack civil systems. You even attack the election system. Because once you get people to believe everything you say, once they start to believe that their democracy and their government are that dysfunctional, what they desperately will feel they need at that point is... a strong man to fix it all. And look, all along, here was a strong man who has been claiming that he and he alone can fix all of this. Which to any adult or  critical thinker would immediately recognize as utter fantasy. Especially in a country with all the specializations we have. You can’t come fix my sophisticated computer program just because you’re a good leader. Even if you ARE a good programmer, you still have to know that specific computer language or operating system. And you may even need to know that specific application well enough to fix it. So how did someone like Trump, get so many to buy into his utter and complete bullshit?

Do remember that the Republican Party walked right up to the edge of supporting Putin and his genocidal campaign against a friendly neighboring country of Ukraine. And then they saw Trump leap into it and realized finally, "Oh shit! We’re on the wrong side of this!" And they just tiptoed away... slinking back under rocks and into their dark recesses of right wingednesses. Until they were able to come back out again for other things that abuse our citizens and government, in so many other ways. Because that is what they do. And keep doing.

Donald Trump‘s way of doing things is a shotgun approach to insanity. Throw shit up against the wall and see what attracts the most flies. The flies being his MAGA supporters. The Republican Party didn’t know what the hell to do with this in the beginning and so they rebuke him, strongly. Until one by one they were brought to silence. Because they saw how effective his method was. Until finally they started doing it too. This Trump mental illness and criminality is insidious. It's infectious. It’s gone into their political party which Trump infected during his presidency and he injected it into our government. Remember, Louis DeJoy is still Postmaster General. Three Supreme Court Justices and hundreds in the Federal courts, many who were patently unprepared to be judges. This is going to take decades to fix.

10:20 AM It’s gotten even warmer and I question doing this last mile but, hey, I’m doing it.

As I mentioned above earlier, I wanted to write this blog as a phenomenologist observing everything. A lot of it is about politics because right now, considering Putin and nuclear war, it’s probably our most relevant, existential consideration, and threat. So much of my observations in this blog and in the past few, since I began, I know, they are very political. But it’s more and more been getting me oriented to try and get to the phenomenological side of things, which is what really excites me. But as with someone strangling you, regardless your orientation, your first and foremost consideration will be to be able to breathe again. So hopefully with time, I will indeed get to the phenomenological side of observing our human existence and experience.

Apparently, The Lincoln Project is the only political entity that POTUS45 (Trump, for foreigners and those comatose these past years) really tried to shut down. That and that alone should make you realize that they are the greatest pro America entity to evolve since the beginning of Trump and his curious and criminal version of politics. Hopefully they will supplant him entirely and the mindset that he infected others with and all those who have been afflicted with his terminal political and social disease.

There it is, 10:36 AM and I just finished 5 miles. That’s 80 miles in the past week, walking. That's 320 miles a month, if I can keep it up.

I just got home, and saw my voters pamphlet in the mailbox. I’ve been voting all blue all through Trump because the Republican Party lost their damn mind and needed to be reminded, we're all Americans, not citizens of Trumpland. How many Republicans wisely left the party? Some of those led to creating The Lincoln Project. Which, had some problems, but they have self corrected. They got an outside legal entity to legitimately evaluate them and they’ve now course corrected. Problem people are now gone. Aside from that, I saw some Republican official talking on the news a couple weeks ago who suggested that we please don’t use a vote all blue. And I was like, yeah right, good one. But he had a valid argument. If we vote blue for a candidate we know will lose against a MAGA candidate, they will win... unless people vote for the Republican candidate opposing him. We do really need to vote for that Republican candidate, who is for what Democrats are for, America, just a differing opinions. Who is not a hater of our country or democracy. I’ve said all along I don’t hate Republicans, I do dispose the stupidity they have embraced. We need to have an opposing party in our two party system, regardless of what you think, or want. We just don’t need an opposing Republican Party who thinks they exist nearly to oppose the Democrats. That's childish and stupid, but effective in politics and has proven to be. But it subverts democracy and may well end it. They should only be opposing Democrats when they have bad ideas, because they don’t always, and sometimes they have good ideas, just with poor executions. That's when Republicans should pick up the idea and come up with a better way to execute it. Which would get Democrats on board. I don’t know why that’s so difficult to understand anymore. Vote vote vote, but vote, wisely!

Walkabout Thoughts #6

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 Instagram 

post and another post from my walkabout in fighting off my now seven month's long, Long CoViD.Today’s podcast is from Pod Save America, “Mitch McConnell, Welcome to the Resistance.” (with John Legend and Senator Warren!)

I will say honestly, that Donald Trump won’t see the (honestly, Necessarily) righteously deserved and earned Capital Punishment he so deserves. I will also say the worst thing that could happen is for someone to assassinate him. Do not do that! Because all y’all do then is to turn a moron wannabe dictator into a MAGA Martyr. What we need is for him to be thoroughly and obviously and admittedly disgraced in the eyes of his proselytes, and his cult.

Let’s face it, Donald Trump has created himself as a film trope. Which could be interchangeable with Vladimir Putin. A cheap man's Putin. Depending on the degree of crimes against humanity we're discussing, obviously. Trump used CoViD=19 to murder 100,000s of Americans. Putin invades other countries, while abusing his own citizens and now, pushing them into a war to die he is losing.

The question is, why who (and what) Donald Trump is (and always has been) is so obvious to me and others, and yet so oblivious to those who wanted to like him, who supported him because he mirrored their really poor judgment, and in how they view the world, regardless if it’s because of how they grew up, or their history, or in they’re just being rat bastards at the heart of it.

Radical extremist Republican MAGA types calling out Democrats for being exactly those things they ARE, is disingenuous to the point of pleasurably slurping down their own political porcine excretions. Calling out others in trying to neutralize their observations and criticisms of Donald Trump as being just, “Trump haters“...is ludicrous. Democrats, liberals, progressives, simply trying to act to be decent and to have decency in their policies and actions, should not cause conservatives, toxic conservatives, to label them in the ways they do. But it does point out how indecent they are. Look, the actual number of people who truly are just "Trump haters", is probably, psychologically and statistically speaking, only in the hundreds. The vast majority of these people are simply disgusted by Trump. Reasonably disgusted. Which his supporters gleefully label as merely being hateful. Even if you “hate the sin and not the sinner“, they're still correct in being disgusted. The problem with narcissists like Donald Trump is the person himself has selected and designed themselves to be disgusting and even hateful… Hateful in their own actions against others. So what SHOULD that evoke from others who are humane, decent Americans? Toxic is the right word, because it indicates a poisoning and a path to death and destruction that is where the Republican Party has been headed now, for decades.

Remember the things Republicans are best at are screaming at Democrats, lying, blaming others, and destroying things, not the least of which is through the regulation. It’s harder to strive to fix things, to better things. Which lays those types open for criticism and even failure. You try. When you try, it's messy, it's hard, and you CAN fail. But you learn, you try again. While Republicans have not had much of a platform for many decades other than selling fear and their own fears they would be removed from power, making them useless, for the most part. Because they thrive on negativities. Which is not how America is or should ever be. We’ve been and should be a shining light across the world. While Republicans keep trying to put that light out because... it’s “too expensive“, or, it's just too hard for them (and might cost them power or wealth). And that money, for that "light" after all, they'd prefer go to Republicans, to their lobbyists, their corporations, and the richest and wealthiest who support those Republicans in a never ending loop and cycle of grifting, conning and as we’ve seen through the last Republican administration, actual criminal activities.

I’m gonna update something I said on my last walkabout, about sucking your gut in while you’re walking, pulling your belly button back to the front of your spine to build your core muscle tone. I had said to hold it for a count of seconds. But I just realize what I’ve been doing wasn’t that at all. Instead, it's easier to just count your steps while trying to hold it. Then the next time, in a few minutes, trying to hold it for one more step. Then maybe don’t even do it for the rest of the day, but keep trying until you can eventually just walk and hold it in and you won’t even think about it. At some point it’ll just feel normal.
I went through something like that when I was a kid. My mom at some point started telling me to, "Stop slouching, stand up straight! Put your shoulders back." She kept at me that one year until I was so sick of hearing it, I did it. Until finally one day she just said, "Hey, you’re not slouching anymore. Good! Keep it up. I'll remind you if you back slide."
There’s times in my life when I find I'm slouching, are leaning forward, or hunched down as I walk. As if I’m beaten down by life, or some situation. Whenever I notice that? I stand the hell up straight and I look right into the future, facing it down. I progressively deal with it.
America isn’t really very progressive or proactive. It’s too often protectionist, and in bad times it’s isolationist. Mostly because of the Republican Party who seems to base itself upon that kind of thing in promoting fear, intimidation, and invoking anger over literally anything they can manufacture.
But nothing survives long by standing still. Or going backwards. Conservatism is for emergencies and short term use. And yet we have a political party devoted to just that, forever and always, Amen.
That’s got to be managed. Except during emergencies. Which toxic conservatives and Republicans seem to think is every minute of every day, no matter what. We're constantly always in an emergency so long as we give them power and money, power and money, power and money…

Why are republican states the most dangerous for gun violence? It's a statistic, look it up. It’s like what I heard on vice news about Japan and pedophilia in manga mags and anime (animations) which they appear to be unable to control. Their politicians comment on it that is there’s no proof that it has a link to child sexual abuse. Same thing is going on in America with guns and Republicans, when they made it illegal to even study, to research guns, or gun violence...for decades. As with what happened with Pres. Richard Nixon who set up a commission to study what’s going on in the 1960s with drugs. They gave him a studied response, and educated action items, such as legalizing drugs or at least, cannabis. But he hated their considered and rational opinion as it went against his ideology and he got so angry that he started the War on Drugs which immediately morphed into a war on American citizens, destroying lives and families for decades. And leading to a mindset that many grew up with who continue (esp., with conservatives) to continue to push his ignorant agenda. Conservatism is just not healthy for flowers and children and any living things. There’s no more proof needed it on that now. Look it up. If you can find a history book Republicans haven’t yet burned, that is.

I love dogs and I love children. I grew up with them after all. I’ve had them myself as an adult. But one thing I don’t like are parents who let their kids obnoxiously run around in public making noise and be bothering others. Or the same thing in some people with their pets. As I'm doing laps along the street, it always is the same two houses, with the same two dogs, who bark constantly until they can’t see me anymore. They always seem to be outside, they always seem to be annoying. They look like nice. sweet dogs, but I’m a stranger to them. Maybe they just leave them outside when they’re gone at work. Well, in my first house, that I bought, living there with my wife and two kids, back in the mid-90s, next-door was a young couple who moved in with a great Dane. A big but sweet dog. But they would all leave it alone all day and go to work. The dog would bark continuously until they returned home. It was hard to believe a dog could literally bark all day long, but it did. You ever heard a great Dane bark? In a house only10 feet away from your house? All day long? It gets on your nerves. We mentioned it and they were nice about it, but said there was nothing they could do. While we could think of a lot of things we could do...we all have our own ways of dealing with stress.

Yes, we do need better and free mental health, so we could have less mass shootings. But we also need mental health for conservatives and Republicans whose ideals and ideology are so far up there backside, it’s strangling the base of their top vertebra.

I'd just like to say, again, COVID-19 sucks. Long Covid sucks more. Considering if you have long Covid then you didn’t die from COVID-19. I got up this morning feeling the virus, as I like to say. I forced myself to get up and go out and try to do my 5 mile walk. And did. Because when I don’t do that, when I’m not exercising. long CoViD is much worse. Before I left home could feel my heart pounding. not fast. just a little too hard and. uncomfortable. I took half a Benadryl. Got ready to leave, thought. OK, taking another half a Benadryl. After my 1st mile I started feeling better. I'm getting close to being done with my book about my personal long CoVid experiences. It's tentatively titled. "Suffering Long CoViD". I just sent a copy to my editor who I worked on my book, "DEATH OF HEAVEN" with, who offered to be a better reader on my current book. So I’m waiting for that to come back while I’m finishing up the editing on it. After I get that submitted, I need to finish my other book, a companion piece to my multi award wining, filmic poem and historical documentary, “Pvt. Ravel‘s Bolero“. Then concurrently, I need to finish the DVD for the film. Which I'd started, then started not feeling well from long CoViD, and stopped working on it. Until finally I felt at least well enough to start this book on long CoViD. Which I now I can’t wait to be done with, to move on. Because it was trying. Reading daily logs about how miserable I had been, how I felt for the first time in my life, even considering all the dangerous things I’ve done, dangerous things that I've done safely and professionally, by the way, but not knowing if I would be alive the next day, or in the next hour. But at least it showed me how far I’ve come and how I may be closer to the end of this now than the beginning. One can truly only hope, as all of this was way long overdue.

I should also mention long CoVid-wise, when I walked my 5 miles the other day I didn’t feel very good because of it the next day. I couldn’t at first figure out why until I realized it was because I had walked that 5 miles. I know if I keep doing it, that eventually won’t happen unless I were to do 6 miles. But I’m gonna stay with just 5 miles. It took months to get up to 5 miles, from my first 10 minute walk. But I’m there now. The thing about long CoViD is, you’ve gotta know when to push it. And take time to recuperate from it your pushing efforts (that's important). When you do push things take time to rest. That could be a few hours, or a few days, or a week. But don’t wait too long because then you’ll backslide without meaning to. And that really sucks.

John Legend was on the podcast. He mentioned how we are one of the only countries in the world who still has cash bail. I agree, That's really gotta go. And because our Congress is so often useless to move on so many important things, more and more we're seeing local district attorney‘s around the country refusing to use bail. Progress, comes with great effort. Sad as that is. And sad as those who fight so hard against so many good things because they view it as bad. Because their ideology is bad and they can't seem to adjust to reality, or humanity, against their beliefs in rules and antiquated thinking.

Interesting piece regarding Long CoViD.

Maybe we need an Exigent Circumstances (political) Party...

Oh, one last thing. On the core muscle toning and counting your steps while holding your belly to your spine issue... try to count in fives or tens and you’ll get further, faster, and find it’s easier to remember what your last count was, the next time you up the number.

Cheers! Sláinte!