Walkabout Thoughts #50

Wow. My 50th "Walkabout Thoughts" Blog today! Cheers! Slainte! I have about 1500 total blog articles on this since about 2010. I started having 2 daily blogs 7 days a week, got down to once a week, now it's kind of intermittent (thanks long covid!). But I've tried to do every other day (we all have to have something to shoot for) OK, let's get started... .

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… July 9, 2023, Sunday

Weather for the day… sunny and 57° but 71° by time I got home.

Podcast Pod Save America

Regarding the student loan issue, how do you think, since we give K-12 "free" (nothing's free but we use our taxes for this since the 1700s: "In 1790, Pennsylvania became the first state to require some form of free education for everyone regardless of whether they could afford it."), we should appropriately fund that and end this charter school bullshit nonsense. We should extend that to K-14 so everyone can afford to get a basic education before becoming an adult at 18 and potentially moving out of their parent's house. Receiving then at least two years of vocational. or community college education toward a better job. Originally it was thought 12th grade would be good for a kid to get a job. Times have changed and our education hasn't caught up, and esp., Republicans have crippled our education system for divisive reasons. K-12 should service us better toward being ready for the job market. When I graduated high school in 1973, I knew full well I wasn’t prepared. I got a very basic job in an insurance company, in the mail room. I covered all the odd jobs beyond that they would come up, with such as moving things and delivering insurance forms to all the schools in the school district, in the fall,in Tacoma, Washington. But it seems to be a viable adjunct to school loans. Forgiveness could be not requiring payment until graduates get settled and have a job they can afford to live on and pay the loan back. I also don’t think we should be paying interest. Or interest should be so low it’s reasonable. wholesale. The amount of student loans we’ve heard some people have to pay back is ridiculous. Especially for those who can’t find a job that’s paying well enough to pay the loan back and not be such a burden it breaks people. A student loan should never lead to economic devastation of the individual.

I’ve said this before, but at least half of the people I see walking this road for exercise, don’t walk against traffic, as is legal... and kind of rational. I just walked by a small family with one child walking with their back to traffic. Strikes me as odd. Which, strangely enough reminds me of the TV show "CB Strike". The lead actor on that, who I just realized is on the show I'm watching about fighting the occasional apocalypse and world ending event, through a strange form of time travel ("The Lazarus Project" on TNT). Kind of entertaining Brit show. Yeah, no idea why I thought of that... but, there it is, this is a blog on my stream of consciousness.

Jon Lovett on the podcast asks, what do you think about “Barbie Oppenheimer“? I don’t know, but the Barbie movie oddly enough looks interesting in its bizarre comical fashion. I’ve also always been interested in Oppenheimer and the bombs that ended WWII on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On that, I’ll never get it out of my head. A documentary I saw years ago where one of the top Japanese generals said, and I saw him say it (translated from Japanese), that for those who say we shouldn’t have dropped the bomb, or that we didn’t have to do that, from where he was standing with others running the war, he said had we’re not dropped the first bomb, they would’ve never believed it, and it wasn't until we dropped the second one that they began to believe the reports. That, indeed was what made them want to end the war under threat of such overwhelming power they had trouble assimilating it.

Oh my God, the cocaine found in the White House was in an area where visitors are asked to leave their cell phones and things in a cubby. A public area and conservatives are making a big deal about this specifically having to do with the Biden White House? That’s just embarrassing... for them and humiliating for America, again.

Cocaine in the White House? Remember that moniker for old Senator Mitch McConnell “cocaine Mitch”? That’s all I’m saying…

As for cocaine in the White House… Again… Seriously, who looks more like he uses cocaine? Trump and his family, especially druggie Junior? Or Joe Biden who even Trump called "Sleepy Joe", so...not a cocaine moniker. I would argue Joe’s not sleepy, but laid-back. Anything we could use from the Trump dumb cluck once POTUS45, orange clownish fat and lazy golf whore, is well...you know I’m talking about.Nothing.

I have to say, Donald Trump reminds me of a cocaine freak, like his son, Junior, but acts like a meth head, even if he is just an Adderall freak.

Podcast is over, switching not to The Beat with Ari Melber. Apparently somebody was trying to set up a military coup when Trump was president?

Let’s be clear about something regarding drugs. People can use drugs as they use alcohol …sensibly. Yes, the issue is people who get carried away and addicted or cannot handle anything sensibly. No I don’t want drugs in the White House and I grew up in the drug culture years of the 60s and 70s, and 80s. But I would rather deal with a same person, reasonably on drugs, then someone like Donald Trump, who OD'd on autocracy and oligarchy and his Russian connections Or Richard Nixon as POTUS addicted to paranoia. Somebody a little high on drugs can still make sane and rational decisions. Sometimes the drugs actually help them with the stress to do so. No, I’m not advocating people in positions of power use drugs. But let’s face it. Plenty of people are on so-called legitimate, prescribed by a doctor drugs, or “medication" if you prefer, because of the amount of stress they’re under. This' s why it’s bad to throw somebody in as president like Donald Trump, as opposed to a career professional politician like Joe Biden who has learned through decades how to acclimate, maintain and manipulate, and maneuver within a political environment. Whereas Trump in being a criminal, simply did whatever he wanted with no due respect in trying to break every law he could in order to get whatever he wanted to make himself evermore wealthy. What kind of an ignoramus or worse, idiot, would vote for Donald Trump? It boggles the mind. Or maybe you just can't see it, until you can, and then you can't NOT ever not see it again.

Yes, a couple of things about the military. They do not, and should not follow illegal orders, such as Trump wanted to give. Because of things like Posse Comitatus, they cannot and should not be used within the interior of the United States or protectorates. That’s what the state's National Guard is for. And again, mostly and only for protecting the people. Donald Trump is not and was not, never will be there to protect the People. He’s there to protect his interests and his interests alone and when that matches up with the People, well then you’re just lucky (even a broken clock is right twice a day) and he will turn on a dime to benefit himself. Something a government should never do. Except in moments of disaster. Not as the Republican Party and conservatism anymore teaches every fucking moment of every fucking day. It is not as they keep lying...disaster time. Just because someone disagrees with you or has a different orientation in life or government, does not mean it’s a disaster, or a war is necessary. In their case their orientation and ideologies are simply out of step with the country, anachronistic and essentially utterly wrong.

I’ve seen today's faux conservative ideology, and them some real conservative ideology, historical concepts of conservative ideology within the Democratic Party and I've seen it in the Republican Party for decades and invoked when necessary, as human decency and the US Constitution requires and demands. But what is going on today with faux conservative ideology as having been subverted by Trump and his minority of the Republican Party, his MAGA elements, as they try to kill the GOP and America. So like seriously people...WTF?

Two hours after the failed military coup planning meeting in the oval office that ended at 1 o’clock in the morning, on December 19, 2020, Trump sent out a tweet that Peter Navarro had reported it was statistically impossible for Donald Trump to have lost the election. Uh huh. Right... There, is the Big Lie. Yes, evidence of all this is available to Jack Smith, Special Prosecutor who has indicted Donald Trump with more to come. If you’re a Trump supporter, I’ve been telling you since 2016, get off that clown wagon, and now  sure as hell. Though I know some of you will go to your death quietly, supporting a criminal and a stochastic and real terrorist and a treasonous criminal SOB and failed businessman... Donald Trump.

I need to be sure that the work I did on my blog at murdocknations.com, has the Google ads designator properly embedded to where I’m receiving appropriate accounting for viewership. [I checked, it is] I had that originally set up back around 2010, but they recently broke it in updating and upgrading it or something.

Donald Trump loves loudmouths just like him, especially when they are criminally, ethically and morally compliant to his wishes and have a sliding scale of those things that he has been given free and open reign to update at his whim. Just sayin'...

Donald Trump got elected in 2016, something wherein had everything been running correctly, as he complains about now in the 2020 election, he would not have been elected. But he was elected, as underhanded as it was, and with help by a foreign enemy. He then hired by his own word “the best people“ and the “smartest people”, many of whom took the job because of the White House, not Donald Trump...a few because of Donald Trump, but others because they feared for America with Donald Trump as POTUS. With them there they could at least they thought, curb him, indoctrinate him, help the oval office to do what it does, which is form new presidents on the "anvil" of the importance of that office (which I question if Trump ever truly felt even one). after seeing how useless it was trying to herd the Trump "cat mentality". So some quit, some resigned, others were fired. And that began the Lazy Susan clown carousel of Trump replacing the better with the worst until he got people who are nothing but “yes men “. And women. I get men being corruptible, but it’s sad to see how women are catching up to them.

I just want to mention that as I "voice to text" transcribe, that is dictate on my iPhone 11, the software does a pretty good job. I can see it correcting what it thinks I said by context. But I wish it did that more correctly. At the very bottom of my file I am writing "2". I keep a log there that just says "mile:". At the beginning there is always a "1". After I walk a half mile, I turn around and walk it back and I add "2" until I get up to "5". I finish that 5th mile and head home. If I didn’t do that, and I’ve done this before, which is why I started doing this, exercise is one of those things that, as in life in general, as I see it, is being smart, not hard. I’ve known plenty of people who worked very hard in life and got nowhere. Because they weren’t paying attention. They were actually working dumb. Yes, work hard at exercise. Getting a good work out is important. But working out hard in the wrong ways is working out dumb and you can end up working harder to your detriment. Better to work out smart, and do the exact amount of exercise you need to achieve the goal you’re seeking. I can quickly lose track within even 100 yards on this mileage issue, wondering what mile I'm on? But I would rather walk an extra mile, then less 1 mile. You don’t scam or scrimp on exercise. Because you’re only scamming yourself and your health. Esp., with long covid which adds some import to it all. Trust me.

I switched over to the "Strict Scrutiny" podcast episode, "What else can the Supreme Court get away with?" This podcast is from Crooked Media who brings us "Pod Save America" et al, with three women knowledgeable in their areas, who decided to take a moment and do what I do in these "Walkabout Thoughts" stream of consciousness blog articles. More stream of consciousness, more what my true feelings are and covering topics I find are relevant and important. In this case, this episode, they’re discussing, SCOTUS. Oh, fun...

I didn't know these ladies but I LIKE them after listening to this podcast! Here is who they are:

Strict Scrutiny is a podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it.

Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors-- Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray-- Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down the latest headlines and biggest legal questions facing our country, emphasizing what it all means for our daily lives.

I weighed myself the other day in the high 220 pounds. That has to stop. So I’m cutting out the sweets again, completely this time. Thought I could do at least a little bit but not now until I get a downward trend going. Also diet, it’s going to become a little more spartan. Onward and downward!
Yay! I finished my 4th mile and I’m starting my 5th. It’s starting to warm up, it’s 10:10 AM on Sunday now. But it feels so good to be outside in nice weather getting some exercise. This last winter has really made me appreciate this even more. I do miss my younger decades where I could go out and be more physical in  duration and intensity. But I have to say, of all the times I missed getting to do that because of my job, my family, etc., lack of time and so on, just as I took time to spend with my kids, regardless of my busy schedule and career, I’m glad I took time for both. Where I’m sad is I wish I could’ve taken my kids more trips to the mountains and into places I had gone when I was younger. But we did get some interesting vacations. My wife back in the 90s was a professional horse trainer and riding instructor and horse show rider and we would take working vacations. She’d work and see us when she could and I'd take the kids and we'd do things. Reno, Nevada was like that. That was a great time. Except for one incident. I was helping her with a horse to give her female hormones because of the nearby studs, as they’re all grouped together too closely. I asked for gloves got cloth gloves. Stunned, as I tended to be with these horse show people, because they only seem to have half a brain half the time, but then a lot of the time they were exhausted. In hoping for surgical gloves of some sort, I got white cloth. Then I accidentally spilled the hormone all over my hand. For reference, which I suddenly realized in the moment, a cloth glove does nothing more than hold something spilled on them, longer against your skin. It took a moment because I had to do something with the open bottle of horse horror, I mean horse hormone so that I didn’t spill or waste any and had to do something with the hypodermic. I was pouring it a big one just to easily squirt into the horses mouth. It took a moment to get the damn glove off because it was wet and then there was nowhere to wash my hands off right away. And so over the next three days I experienced the worst of what a woman’s worst monthly menstrual cycle (Yes, yes, minus cramps) must be like, only literally on steroids. Or hormones anyway. For three days, I thought I was going insane. On the second night I lied in bed next to my wife, contemplating suicide. I could hear a train going by, half a block away and considered walking in front of a train. This was at The Sands hotel in Reno, Nevada. But instead, I went inside the casino at 2AM (so weird how 24 hours that town is) while my wife and two kids slept. I sat at a bar having drinks and playing some game at the counter until I could calm down enough to go back to bed, hopefully, to sleep. It wasn’t until days later I realized what had happened. Every toxically masculine guy should have to go through that. It’s a real fucking eye-opener. I’ve told this story before in more detail. But I think it enlightening to mention it every once in a while as I’ll never forget the experience. So when you get on the subject of trans people who say they feel like they’ve been insane all their lives until they got the healthcare they needed where at least some of their situation could be alleviated (like hormone blockers or hormones), when they start to feel sane for the first time in their lives? I can at least somewhat comprehend what they must go through, only from birth. For me... it was only three days. Three days of madness.

As far as weight loss goes and exercise, I know it takes two or three weeks to see results. It’s going on the third week maybe of doing 5 miles about every other day. As it's warmer than I’m used to, this is a hard 4th and 5th mile. But it’s not long Covid hard. It’s just old guy hard who’s trying to get into shape again. And that's... a joy.

SCOTUS Justice Sam Alito, or “scamAlito”? Or Sam "ALeak-o", about an alleged action of tipping off the "Right" about the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS ruling and how he has a too cozier relationship with the Wall Street Journal, who seems to know things at times that they just shouldn’t.Who told them? Huh, Sam?

Kudos to most prepared and educated Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Who has these women on the podcast indicating how she hit the ground running rather than join SCOTUS and then just sit back for a while to read the room and see how things are before incorporating her participation. The woman is a force to reckon with!

I’ve heard people in my life say that as you walk through life keep your head up. OK, well that’s a metaphor, or an allegory? Something like that. It’s not literal. All my life since I was a child, I’ve kept my head down while being fully aware of my surroundings in a martial arts, Zen kind of "Zenshen" (or “total awareness“), or at least attempting that. And my life has been all the richer for it. Back in the 70s you could things on the ground as you walk along a sidewalk or someplace, finding spare change, random joints (cannabis cigarettes) on the ground (do I really have to define that to anyone in 2023?). I found money and all kinds of things on the ground over the decades. Since moving here I found two ancient hand tools which I’ve detailed in a blog elsewhere. I have not detailed the latest one I found a couple of weeks ago. Within a city... I found rock tools... that could be from hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago. The first one I wrote an entire blog about. I actually had a archaeologist verify it as an ancient tool. You can tell because if it fits your hand. Rocks don’t usually just show up that way, they have to be formed. And you can often see, maybe using a magnifying glass if nothing else, chip marks that helped form it that way. Type of rock also has something to do with it. So keep your awareness of your environment, metaphorically and literally, but also keep your eyes on your next step. I wonder how many people who stepped into so-called quicksand wouldn’t have if they were just paying attention? There’s a lot of different kinds of "quicksand" in life. And there’s a lot of people out there trying to scam us and some of our trusted leaders. Some of whom should never be trusted. One in particular comes to mind...

A moment to respond to the situation of black culture in America. I believe that 13.6% of the American population is Black. I have long agree that should be reflected nearly everywhere which is what affirmative action was about. Rather than zero Black people in a university, or 5% where some colleges had 9%. It should’ve been 13%. However, for those who say they seem to see Black people everywhere nowadays, I would just like to mention that when you’re 13% of a population, but your culture has had such an impact that it in part spawned a Civil War which almost tore this country apart and did for a while, your relevant  impact on this culture and society, this nation, is actually greater than 13% and should so be reflected.

So my left ankle is acting up again as I’ve detailed in the past. I had surgery on that arch in 10th grade in 1970. I had an interesting history in the Air Force because of my flat feet. A doctor told me as a child, I had “loose joints“ that would cause me problems when I got older. I’ve had knee surgery on both knees, not replacements, I’m too young for that 67. Or so I’m told by the VA. But it feels like there’s not much in my ankle. The doctors claim without I think appropriate imagery, that it’s normal wear and tear. Uh huh. Right. That seems ludicrous. But there it is. America’s marvelous healthcare. Which for too many of us is priced right out of our using it. Then, let’s talk about how dangerous childbirth is in America for women and more so for minorities, and blacks…what the hell is THAT about?

See Judge Reeves on second amendment, putting that issue in its place.

I agree with one of the women on the podcast that Justice Clarence Thomas is someone who should not be anywhere near a life long term on SCOTUS, but should be in some serious therapy for the truly serious damage he received as a child, and the trauma that he is now serving up to America, because of his own pain from HIS childhood. I can't stand people who take their pain and share it to others and shove it into their lives. Deal with it, pal. Suck it up. Maybe hanging with all those wealth people compromising your career can help, have helped?


Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #49

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… July 7, 2023, Friday

Weather for the day… overcast with 1 to 3% rain. Starting out before 8 AM slight breeze we’re still in this would be preferred as it’s just a skosh cooler than I’d like at this time but I assume I’ll warm up to it.

Podcast "The Beat with Ari Melber", and the reading of SCOTUS dissent: "BONUS: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Affirmative Action Dissent Read by Actress Alfre Woodard"
Then, from the New York Times “The Daily“ podcast episode, Russia After the Rebellion.
Finally, the Smartless podcast, with Idris Elba.


Had we done better during the pandemic, if we’d had our shit together, especially if Donald Trump hadn’t been POTUS45, we would’ve saved at least half of the people that died. It’s interesting, and should be obvious that we must’ve lost more conservatives, more of those listening to conservative media, more of those who were Trump supporters, and those who became MAGA. I haven’t found any statistics on it, but I don’t see how that’s not reasonable And realistic. The good news about natural selection, and the Darwin Awards, are that stupidity... that is, "selective ignorance", for those who lazily believe in disinformation, who don’t vet out their information, were trying to be the ones through history who die. The Darwin Award for the pandemic has got to go to Donald Trump and his MAGA. But not Putin's Russian disinformation campaign in America for Trump. As that was in its intended purpose, a big a success to evoke chaos, even unto the death of American citizens.

To clear up a few things, in case there’s still fools out there who believe whatever they wanna believe… Masking up appropriately does work and with overwhelming evidence. Vaccines do work. Any downside touted about them is countered by how well they work. With any vaccine, if one or two people, are even directly killed by the vaccine, when you have 10 million surviving because of it, explain to me how that's bad. It's sad, to be sure! But it's not bad. If we do things as conservative Republicans, like worry only about the current moment, only about profit, and make a point about not worrying about individual's dying. They worry about the corporation, they don’t worry about the community. They worry about profits. So they are have gone against vaccines and masks, and such things.

Someone said, “We’re too worried about the fire alarm and not the fire."

It’s not so much that too many conservatives, especially those in power today, are unabashedly forcing into being, issues and formats that are massively built upon revisionist history and selective ignorance, but that they’re utter lack of shame is ever more so more frequently in occurrence and on exhibition.

On the daily podcast about Russia after the Insurrection… I don’t think Putin is a coward. Not like America’s own despot Donald Trump who is. But I do think in his own way Putin is terrified, not like his predecessor he took over Russia for in December, 1999, in order to protect him. Yeltsin and his family that is, for his crimes against Russia. What is so sad is the connection between Trump and Nixon. Putin took on similar crimes like Yeltsin committed and has given us an over 20 year master class in how to skew democracy to a dictator’s rule, and rob the coffers of that once great nation. A greatness he seeks to achieve again in all the wrong ways, which have led him to invade other countries, earning him the reward of being indicted by the World Court as a war criminal.

This is interesting. I’m walking along and I walked by a garbage can. There’s light trash scattered around and I see these little disks about an inch across, thin cardboard, with a hole in the center. When I was in the Air Force in late 70s, my wife worked at an arts and crafts warehouse. She got me a deal on the Dremel drill set. These disks look very much like the little sanding disks you screw onto a Dremel with a hole in the center for the screw. So I just assumed these must be what these were. Someone tossed some out from a project they were working on. About a block later I see more. My first thought is the wind blew them from down the street. I mention this because it’s a good allegory for politics and the conservative inability to update their facts. Were I MAGA, for instance, and the disks were a liberal factoid or incidence, when I was faced with something incongruous, I would not have updated but selectively chosen to remain ignorant, cherry picking the information I have available to me and continuing to believe what I initially believed. Not wanting to disturb my preferred belief. In this case, I was confused and curious. And curious is the key element there. I searched my mind and continued to take in information from things I saw on the street and I came to the conclusion. these are separators within fireworks. But as we’ve seen with the Republican Party anymore, even when they're face with true facts and reality, they continue to believe their original belief. Because that assuages their simplified notion of reality which supports their irritation of their liberal opponents. And so when I run into those things myself and find something that shows toxic conservatives in a bad light, I always try to update that, to be correct over pleasuring my feelings, because they are after all, human beings first, as are we all. Something many seem to forget, especially from the conservative side about the non-conservative side. Or all too often the theistic side, against all others.

Switched the podcast over since the other one's done, to "SmartLess" with Idris Elba. The guy's done a lot! He is, and I didn’t know this, undefeated in kickboxing. As I am undefeated against an Olympic trap shotgun contender. Which is to say, we both beat somebody one time and in one bout.

Idris says he was in a small part of Ridley Scott’s "American Gangster" film. I’m sure I saw that, but I may have to watch it again.

Finishing up my 5 miles for the day, just starting my last half mile back home. I did not feel very well for the first couple of miles. But I feel way better now. Kind of beat, a bit sweaty, but perfect weather, though it’s starting to get a little muggy and it’s going to get warmer.

I’m on my second day of taking 180 mg aspirin because of my left forearm hurting in one spot. I’ve been getting this with long Covid because of blood clotting and aftger a day or two of aspirin it clears it up. I was watching something the other day where they were talking about how strength training is so important, so I decided to start doing some deadlifts of light weights and then advance overtime. It occurred to me today that maybe I strained my left forearm doing that and it’s not blood clotting at all. Definitely has more of that ache to it than the specific blockage in a vein.


Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #48

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… Jul 3, 2023, Monday

Weather for the day…56 degrees at beginning of walk, 67 at end

Since today is Independence Day eve, I thought this was an appropriate podcast leading into the Fourth of July… Podcast for the day, The Rachel Maddow Show's, Monday weekly podcast episode of "Deja News" and as it’s a holiday weekend, so Rachel put up a bonus episode to her excellent and (both...any?) should be required listening podcast, Bag Man.

As Rachel‘s podcast exemplifies, what’s been going on today with Donald Trump, MAGA, and conservatives in the Republican Party at large, we’ve all seen this before. As an example, outside of what Rachel’s been working on in our own US history, this past week or two I’ve been watching the "Narcos" series/franchise on Netflix. That began (my watching the show) as my trying to look into Pedro Pascal‘s comment from an interview recently, when he said he owed a lot to having been on "Narcos" when it started. So I watched it. I realized that season three really did boost him up to kinda superstar status. I continued on to "Narcos Mexico" where I’m currently on season three, a show he's not on. The massive unbelievable corruption over the decades in the Mexican government, oddly and more slightly mirrors what’s been going on in our conservative politics via one criminal and autocratic cretin, Donald Trump. It’s eerie to watch how clearly the Mexican government was corrupt and how can we not see how corrupt our own government is in certain areas? Mostly, almost completely, on the side of the Republican Party where the infection has taken them over these past few years (decades).

About my long Covid and... alcohol. Yesterday, in part to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend, I was binging "Narcos Mexico", and had lunch with some leftover steak I grilled the other day and a healthier kind of frozen Mexican TV dinner along with two glasses of wine. The wine, alcohol, has been problematic for me with long covid. But I felt great and had a good time. I took a couple hits off my vape pen, laying dormant during long Covid these past few years, but as it doesn’t affect my blood sugar as alcohol does, maybe it should be my main relaxant and entertainment option. But I've not much used it during long covid. I had a good day after lunch (the alcohol making that unsure). I know it can cause me issues at bedtime. But I wasn’t feeling anything from it which typically shows up in relation to my blood pressure. But my sleep wasn't coming and it was getting late, but had some interesting dreams. Eventually I took half of a melatonin and then I slept through the night. So no alcohol today. It’s definitely showing a form of progress however.

Rachel’s podcast got interesting very quickly at about 12 or 13 minutes in, about when those young prosecutors who had wanted to indict Richard Nixon’s vice president for his obvious crimes, which they could prove, had to argue that with the Attorney General and, lost their argument. They were finally convinced by AG Elliot Richardson who said that at that time, that even inditing the vice president could be dangerous for them, even more so than for him. And for America and our government.

With all the slamming conservatives and their version of the Republican Party that I’ve done, who certainly deserve it, MAGA really is the party of crime and a criminal populist autocratic leader. What's so sad there is that so many of those people cannot, and will not... refuse, to see Any of that. But when you support a criminal in public office, that does kind of make you culpable. Being delusional does not absolve you from the fact that you’re supporting a horrible fucking person, a criminal with indictments on record, and with  more to come. Not to mention being an obvious and admitted sexual predator.

All this talk about a president or vice president being indicted, tried, sentenced and imprisoned is ridiculous. I’ve always been against capital punishment. I’ve always been against any citizen losing their right to vote be they a criminal or not, unless... they’ve been convicted of treason. Maybe sedition. Maybe. But once a VP or POTUS is convicted of a crime while in office or after that, Secret Service protection or anything else other than them being a stripped down, ordinary citizen, should simply be tossed out the window. It should be a non-issue. And if that legally isn't possible, then we need an amendment or something to make it so. There is a wide area before you get there as POTUS/VPOTUS, these are people given great preference. So for them to get to that point, really means they have achieved a criminal status, they have earned it, they have earned being branded as such, stripped of all their special benefits. The fear in that is what if they are assassinated, or murdered, or harmed? Then America should have elected a person or persons of better quality. That is not an excuse. Not in today's world.

Because, while America's Founders set up protections against our having a king or a monarchy, where they may have missed things, are in things that people are now finding they can skew to their criminal benefit. I’m sure these Founding Fathers, Framers of our Constitution and country, would agree that this all has got to be rectified. It was a failure not just on their part, but on the part of the lack of quality of citizens who would apply such ploys, at this point in our history, and against US, and our "Great Experiment". It makes sense that someone like Trump and his Republican Party, not even his Republican Party, as this has been going on since the early 90s under the guidance and sad influence of people like low life conservative Newt Gingrich… He realized they could be plying old Soviet KGB tactics against their own citizens here in America to win when they've been losing far too much in their minds. Losing because of bad ideas. Rather than update their attitude and orientation, better to lie, cheat and steal, apparently. Down to the conservative's evolutionary point of no return when we all heard and saw Donald Trump publicly request help from an international enemy of America, and we now know, perpetrators of crimes against humanity and illegal wars, in order to supply Trump with anything to distract voters in his obfuscation of his crimes.

We keep hearing, regarding Donald Trump in his trial(s), how juries always tend to do the "right thing". What does that mean? I was on a jury once a few years ago. It was a cut and dried case, not unlike like Trump's, only at a local level about an obvious and observed assault and battery crime. What was so oddly problematic about it was how clear it was regarding what had happened and how guilty the defendant was. We knew we would have to judge him guilty before the trial ended. We heard the judge's orders to us before we began and after, as we were about to decide the defendant's guilt or innocence. But it wasn’t just about doing what was right. It was also about a juror's fear of the law and for ourselves. It’s true that if you see an injustice you may want to speak up and rectify it. But it’s a hard thing to realize your sadness in setting someone else up to be locked away, to take their freedom away from them, for any length of time. I never found out what the sentence was in that case, as that wasn’t part of our duties and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. We judged him guilty, quickly. I was the one who suggested that we take more than 3 minutes to decide. I said, "I Know, he's so obviously guilty. But considering what our judgement means, I think we should at least take a little time to discuss it, to be sure." Sometimes when something seems to obvious about what to do, one can make a mistake that will later be regretted. They seemed uncomfortable, we all were. The crime was that despicable, we wanted to distance ourselves from it ASAP. But they agreed and we started talking. I expected we'd spend 15 minutes on this. It took an hour and we ended up with the same judgement we had when we'd walked into the jury room. We returned to the courtroom and gave our decision, it was read aloud and the defendants girlfriend, the ONLY witness in the seats that day, began crying. The judge thanked us and excused us. He said we did our job and it was on him to sentence at a later date. That wasn't our concern. I kind of didn’t want to know. But I mention this to point out that when a jury does "what is right", it's not just out of selfless duty, but out of at least some of their own and not merely respect for the law, and also somewhat put of a fear of the law, and of the judge.

One of Nixon's prosecutors in the podcast addressed if Trump would get Secret Service protection in prison. He said, paraphrasing, "Yeah, maybe. But I doubt they’d be allowed in the cell with him. Or in other words, in the cell block with him. But they could hang out at the prison and maybe he can get some gum from them once in a while, or something." Which is pretty humorous. But we’re paying for that bullshit. Trump's a criminal, certainly at that point. And he should not have presidential rights anymore. They should be stripped. One can argue maybe not if it’s a state crime conviction, but definitely if it’s a federal crime conviction. While a former POTUS should be treated no better or worse than any citizen, they also should have lost the privilege of the benefits of having formerly been a POTUS. Just as citizens now can be stripped of their right to vote. Something even Trump shouldn't lose. Unless he's convicted of Treason, or Sedition, or Insurrection.

On the topic of “making an example“ in any court case... I’ve always been against it. Because you’re taking a citizen and leaning hard on them merely as an example, not about them, but for a group, not just about what they did. However, I do see there can be times when it’s reasonable or necessary in today’s world. It can be needed to send a message to citizens, government leaders and maybe even internationally. However, I would also say if that's the case, when someone prejudicially gets a harsher sentence, they should at some point see that rectified in the future. If say, they should get 10 years but get life, when they’re eventually allowed to petition for parole, that situation should be taken into consideration for sentencing to be brought in line with what's standard for the situation. The reason for that, often such cases may well have a need at the time of sentencing, but after time passes that need may have either been worked out or becomes moot, no longer necessary. The moment of its import may have passed. At that point why should that citizen, criminal or not, suffer the full weight of the US government to such a degree merely as an ideal served, rather than an actual citizen's reasonable repercussions?

I have a similar consideration regarding capital punishment. While overall, I agree it's cruel and unusual punishment, much as our prisons tend to be today overall, in the case of judging someone like Donald Trump as guilty and sentencing him to the death penalty, that seems eminently reasonable. Let him sit on death row and then, at the last moments, considering that could take years, perhaps then commute the death penalty to life in prison. Preferably as in Trump's case, which had acquired multiple life sentences in prison for his crimes, to be served consecutively. It’s only gonna take 10 or 20 years for him to die in prison anyway. I offer the same excuse and reasons and no more, as I do above, regarding any citizen being judged beyond the norm and simply to make a point.

My reason for capital punishment for someone like Donald Trump with his crimes as POTUS, consider how we let Nixon off with a pardon. We can’t do that with Trump. He cannot avoid prison. Yet he needs, has earned, capital punishment. But we could, as we progress in time, do as I said above. Sentence him with capital punishment, then before executed, commute it. That being said, the next time this ever happens, if the country doesn’t fall due to such as him in the future, obviously… then that next person definitely Should receive capital punishment. The problem is since we let Nixon off, we eventually got Donald Trump. And if we let Trump off, are we going to see this happen again? Commute his case and yes, we’ll definitely see this again. If we don’t make a statement NOW to put a stop to that kind of thinking, IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN, more successfully.

As far as indicting or judging Trump guilty, or serving him up to capital punishment, which really needs to be done (I don't know how that isn't clear to all by now), even though we won’t do that, and regarding potentially invoking a Civil War… I would argue if ever is the time it is now. Sooner than later if we're stuck with this crap. If this is going to cause an insurrection, as it did in the one we’re still cleaning up from, or a war, cleanup being part of the solution...if doing what is right will lead into this kind of nonsense to require a Civil War eventually anyway as it had during our actual Civil War. then so be it. But we’re either an America going forward, or we're some kind of bullshit banana republic autocracy with a despotic monarchy ruling us into the ground to become a land of grifters and crime run by Trump, imitating one of his despotic heroes like Putin, only to empty the coffers of America into his and his greedy friend's pockets.

As discussed on the podcast, as to what keeps one up at night… what keeps me up at night is definitely not that Donald Trump exists. Or any of his buddies around the world like Kim Jong-un, or war criminal's like Vladimir Putin, or China’s autocratic president Xi. What keeps me up at night is that anyone ever supported Donald Trump, or certainly, anyone who supported him before and is STILL supporting him now (WTF?), so that there’s any considered potential for him to not just achieve POTUS again, but any public office whatsoever, or even be head of any company in the world. He should also be banned from leading any private company, even one of his own. And serious look needs to be given to his family regarding that. That is, regarding how Trump does business. Regarding Putin, his having had supported Trump. The rule of their day is plain and simple… Chaos. Chaos makes Trump rich. Chaos destabilizes American  and western democracies. Chaos keeps Russia under Putin's thumb, along with his disinformation and propaganda.

One of the comments of the Nixon prosecutors on Rachel’s podcast: "When I asked about the danger or necessity of charging Donald Trump, he said, I don’t think American has any choice." That single point of failure is dangerous. It’s been manipulated into this situation. I don’t mean a conspiracy. I mean that’s the functional output of what's been done. So many, especially right wing conservative bullshit conspiracies, are just that. A misinterpretation in hindsight of what actually took place. Of believing one is smarter than history, and that one knows more than those who do know. That all that is read on the Internet that agrees with one, is not suspect. For America’s only choice to be that we have to chance illiberal outrage by an ignorant minority who support an autocrat such as Trump, is ridiculous. We allowed ourselves, through sleeping at the wheel, and not being proactive...for this to happen. In that way, it can happen again.

We have become an autocrat's playground. And that has to stop. Now!

If the political left were MAGA, we would spread disinformation as such, saying if you vote for Donald Trump, even in the primary, his people will get your name and information and you will be charged to support him every month, while some of you will be charged every week and for the entire duration of his next presidency. Then if he loses, he can run again and you will be charged until 2028 and THEN if he wins (if he's still alive or finds a way to pass it on to one of his kids to be elected), then you will be charged monthly. or some of you weekly, filling his coffers for his personal and family’s benefit. THAT is the kind of things to be done if were liberals of a MAGA orientation of operation. To release that information in such a way in that it was from say, a whistleblower in the Trump campaign, or something like that. Or from some senator who is pro-Trump and planned to get a law passed about that or some such nonsensical bullshit that MAGA would suck up like a sweet nitrous oxide delicious milkshake of disinformation and propaganda. And then turn on Donald Trump, MAGA and the once GOP.

I think I already mentioned in a previous blog that we should regulate combustion engines, leaf blowers, and grass trimmers out of existence. But more so when they’re in audible reach of a certain number of other citizens. Another words, you can’t use it in a dense urban neighborhood, but you can use it on a farm. Some of the problems we have in today’s world are from audio pollution. Many articles have been written about this and yes, it is a thing and is important. One of the problems of populated areas and overpopulation is a feeling of isolation within the masses. and of a kind of social claustrophobia. Sound levels, sound pollution, add to that. If you’ve ever lived someplace like New York City/Manhattan, which I have, you can be 10, 20 or 30 floors up or more and still hear so much from street levels, making one wonder at times if you’re much closer to street level. Sirens all the time, horns honking, even in the distance. Not to mention things like gunshots. But if we can decrease that sound level, the quality of life for everyone would increase, exponentially. in such environments.

It’s sad that Donald Trump hast to be indicted under a Democratic administration when it could’ve been and should’ve been done under a Republican one. With the lack of decency and ethics on that side of the aisle, Mitch McConnell really fucked up. When he could have saved America from Trump ever running again by allowing him to be impeached.

We are long past the point that we need to look at a quarter of our country, as I believe it hos now decreased to, with MAGA, with Trump supporters, as they have got to be re-indoctrinated back into America. Free speech, for-profit new,s 24 hour news cycles, and so much of Republican underhanded old KGB tactics have led us here. I’m not sure going by the book is how we get out of this situation. It has to be though, or we become yikes..."them". Or we become the full-blown example of George Orwell's warnings in his book, "1984". Which we're seeing more clearly today in things like, "The Handmaid’s Tale, or from the Republican Party, anymore. We really should have better tuned our attention to those like Orwell, Atwood, and Shirley Jackson. Read, “The Lottery" again sometimes and therein, one can clearly see, MAGA and today's GOP.
You know what, about all this book banning nonsense from conservatives? I had to read Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery", in grade school. It was shocking. It shocked me as a child. I never forgot it. Yes, that was an important lesson to learn. And in protecting our children, such as these Christians, conservatives, Republicans, MAGA are in over-protecting, and "helicopter parenting", and not allowing their kids to get hurt, or fail, or to fall off their bike to learn how life really is, they are many of the ones damaging us. We got ourselves a MAGA in this country leaning into autocrats, threatening to dissolve our democracy and so, destroy our country. Again, WTF?

Sacrifice. I get our more enlightened attitudes today in wanting "to protect". But we seem to have forgotten the second half of that, which is "to serve". Protect and serve. Protect THOSE YOU SERVE, not just protect yourselves. At times you have to sacrifice your safety to protect others. It's part of the job. Part of what we pay our police for. Our soldiers get that. They get the concept and they get the flak and the bullets. Some come home after military service, become police, remember the militant orientation, but forget this s civil, NOT military. Odd you can be safer in war than on our city streets but hey, "2nd Amendment", right? We’ve not seen that so much from our police in recent years, who are so triggered out of fear and self protection (some, not all certainly) that they’ve killed innocent people. Some have not gone in up against active shooters...when they should have. We seem to find that too much anymore. That has to do with our political lives, too. The Republican Party exemplifies this to a staggeringly disgusting degree. Fear of Trump being voted out of office has crippled these people and enabled Trump into the presidency and into crime, and now, potentially into far worse. America needs a stand up, look around, see what the fuck they’re actually doing and, fight for this country. As we all should have less concern in our professional careers for our own ideology or our own personal beliefs, or grievances, and more about what we are actually being paid for and to do in our jobs. sometimes as Liz Cheny and Adam Kinzinger realized, you have to stand and do what is right, and lose your job or career. Heroes, not autocratic minions (morons). Such all as Trump and the Republican Party (MAGA) have weaponized so well against... everyone.

The Republican Party at large, the RNC needs to turn on Donald Trump, ASAP. And they can do it in such a way that they protect themselves, believe it or not. It’s all in plausible deniability and surprise. Simply pointing to things and demanding that they're true and being shocked about those things people like Trump have and are doing. Stand for your country, stop standing only for yourself, your party, your ideology because that is being American. Stand for others, not just yourself. Work to make the country work well, rather than work only for your typically anachronistic beliefs.

During the 2016 election, what IF Director of the FBI James Comey had truly been apolitical (or a Democrat) with the FBI and had not put them in the position he put them in by purposely, or inadvertently, helping Donald Trump to win against Hillary Clinton? If many of these Republicans, who have enabled and supported Donald Trump and his illiberal presidency, and inevitably, his crimes, if they had just put their heads down, stopped listening to the noise and merely done their job… that’s all it would’ve taken for us not to be in this position today. If Mitch McConnell had done his job, not as a partisan but as a member of Congress, and as an American, Donald Trump would’ve been impeached and he would not now be running for POTUS again, and maybe not be the nightmare leader of the Republican Party. Which is so much at  issue with the quality of candidates now of the GOP which there is no longer anything “grand “ about, in that once great and “grand old party “. Seek your roots. Seek the best you can be and see that what you're currently judging as "best" is the worst you can come up with. See THAT. See reality.

Consider this: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith who indicted Donald Trump now has real and serious armed security surrounding him because of Trump and his supporters. America needs to really think about that and react appropriately to it and so...against it. And Trump. Because that's our only choice now.

Americans, MAGA and otherwise, need to appreciate the fact that all these Trump crimes are not now being just swept under the carpet as they would be in a Republican or Trump administration. And were in the Trump administration. And will be again in another Trump administration. You can see quite clearly the evidence on these crimes is real. And if you cannot “see” that, then you are either stupid or selectively ignorant, which is essentially just being stupid. Don’t be stupid. Be Better: Don’t be a Trump supporter.

We need to start writing PSA‘s now for after the Trump nightmare is over. Show an ad with a MAGA person who looks sad, maybe. Who regrets having been duped by a conman like Trump. Who regrets what happened to their Republican Party. Who regrets and resents being conservative now as their values had been weaponized against America and absconded with, twisted into illiberality. We need to saturate America with reality. We need to do something to neutralize the disinformation. We need to do something to neutralize this no longer dormant thread going through America of bringing on a Christian apocalypse, or whatever nonsense is out there, such as "let's destroy the government and rebuild from scratch and things will be better!" What kind of a fucking moron thinks that’s true? Yes, there's people out there thinking that, actually working toward that. When all it would do is bring on horrors.

Donald Trump and MAGA have praised the idea of bringing politics into the Justice Department and places where it doesn’t belong, where it doesn't belong because of all our citizens, not just the Trump/MAGA/GOP core. We have a secular, blind justice system and government in order to protect ALL citizens. This autocratic notion of rallying people around the concept of not our Constitution, but a minority's ideas, ideals, and ideologies which are anathema to a democracy and will indeed lead to an autocracy. Christians who have brought religion into our government, who want to push the concept of America is only a Christian nation, when in reality we have so many other religions (and atheists and others), all of whom deserve their pursuit of happiness, and do not deserve being pursued by those who are happy to make your life miserable because you see the world differently than them, while you are still clearly patriotic American citizens.

At 3/4 of a mile now left to make up my 5 miles for the day. 

I finished Rachel’s podcast and switched over to Marc Maron's WTF podcast.

You know, Marc has a good point about radicalization. For years during our stupid war on drugs (which of course, led to an eventual war on terror around the world after 9/11, we do love "warring" on things and people), we heard about Muslims self radicalizing on the Internet. Some of that was true and led to some horrific scenes. Some of that was bullshit and good people got caught up in bad things and prosecuted incorrectly. That led to some federal stings, which were proven entrapment. We need to face the fact that a lot of those terrorist elements that were once international, are now in our nation. We’ve seen Islamic terrorist individuals who domestically self-radicalized on the Internet, but radicalized through international and even domestic websites and social media. We have to recognize that this has been absconded with by white Christian nationalists and white supremacists, and just some moronic MAGA types out there who wanna enjoy their negative feelings, push them out to others and even get away with killing people. We need to educate our citizens to self-actualize and not self-radicalize. We don’t need extremists. Extremism like conservatism is only for dire times, or for times of war. And Conservatism weaponizing itself, stepped into convincing people to get worked up into being in a constant state of war or “war”, basically being anti-democracy/democratic elements or liberal democratic citizens. Remember that we are a liberal democratic republic. As I’ve said before, when you hear a citizen say "we’re not a democracy, but a republic"... there’s your dog whistle call to white nationalism and a criminal mentality and ideologies.These are absolutest statements. It's all certainly more nuanced than just that. But therein lay the core of exactly what is happening.

As Marc is saying, this radicalization typically seems to be based in Christianity. What are Islamic terrorists? Muslim? Where does Christianity and Islam come from? Exactly. These are two religions that came from Judaism. The older of the three major desert religions that have caused trouble around the world, or been focus of trouble for many decades. In some cases for thousands of year, in some cases, as victim (see, Holocaust, See Uyghurs in China, etc.). These religions came out of a harsh environment and in harsh times. One can take any good idea and subvert it. Religion after all requires cherry picking the best of us and when you do the opposite, there's your problem. It’s about ideas, if you’re just cherry picking and being selectively ignorant, yes, you can produce a stupid religion and little cults. Yes, you can weaponize that religion, or sections of a religion and radicalize some to go out and harm others who disagree with the majority. Who even within that same/your own religion, will think you’re/they're nuts. I would say it’s interesting that some still seem to be going around slaughtering people, while a vast minority of Muslims and Christians don't. But then there’s the state of Israel. And all that has entailed.

When your radicalization is based on basic intolerance and bigotry, well… There’s your fucking sign that you've gone the wrong direction, "jumped the shark", "moved to the edge of the cliff"…

Marc had another good point about Christian, Muslims, and Jews. Jews have been through so much for so long that they don’t have the thin skin of the younger religions. And again it’s not just the younger religions but a very small minority within damaged individuals who want to turn that internal pain out against others, or turned against others. Why? Because it’s fun and it feels good? It’s a weird fucking definition of fun and “feel good “, but then... there it is.

Marc is saying righteous intolerance cannot exist in this country because it’s just not good for it. It’s not good for democracy to be sure. He also asked, "What bubble are you in?" I would ask, "How big is your bubble?" I’ve been in multiple bubbles throughout my life, as a trained researcher, that happens. In my job in IT as a technical writer, that happens, it's required, I had to research to find reality, then submit that to people who would judge my work, apply it, and it had better been accurate. Years before that, since high school, before college, before the Air Force, I was applying that in personal research I did with things that later turned out to be pretty accurate. My professional training only helped that up to far better levels of accuracy. And so when this whole Trump nonsense started up and MAGA types would childishly accuse others of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (when they were obviously exhibiting it themselves in blindly believe in a fucking moron, criminal and a traitor)… that never carried much weight with me as my whole life has been based on facts and reality and accuracy.
I have a friend I’ve had for decades, a very smart guy. Big Trump supporter, though. Which saddened and shocked me. At one point after we were having drinks together with another friend and we were about to leave. He stopped me and asked me, "Come on, you don’t think Trump's a really good guy?" I looked at him disappointed, and I said: "Trump's a criminal, and that will be born out. You'll see." That was years ago. And here we are today. Who was more correct? Without being self-serving I have to say, I was correct. And you know what? Those loud mouthed Trump supporters for years... are awfully quiet anymore…

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #35

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… March 26, 2023, Sunday

Weather for the day… 60 and haze and very light clouds lots of blue sky

Podcast for the day podcast “Pod Save world “ episode, “Is prosecuting presidents a good idea?"


The podcast for the day is having a very good discussion on prosecuting presidency next president and they said there’s two kinds of countries who do prosecute. Like France or South Korea. Who is the healthy form of democracy and holding power accountable. Maybe had we held previous presidents accountable, Nixon, or like Reagan screwing Jimmy Carter on the 1980 election over hostages in Iran, and so on, maybe we wouldn’t be here today.

Now they’re talking about when you have a president that has so many charges against them... I’ve seen this before. It’s the old adage about, "Kill one person it's murder. Kill 1000 you get a medal." Perhaps because ""The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." But as they say, support for Trump, as in the pro-Trump protest this past week were in the 10s of people. I think we have our ad. We're certainly approaching the point I said we'd get to years ago, that Trump supporters would stop supporting him in action and elections, but might still support him in their words...simply because they cannot face who they truly have become, and what they have done. I never expected to hear an apology from MAGA supporters because that’s who they are. And that’s how they got to where they got to. Because if they weren’t like that, Trump wouldn't be an issue. Myself, I admit when I'm wrong, I come out about it and try to be correct. When I’m wrong, I will admit it because as a culture we need that. As a person once needs that for one's own character. My character to me, is far more important than other's image of me. If everyone was like that, Trump would’ve never happened and this ridiculously bizzrre MAGA Republican Party would never have evolved into the insanity they have evolved into.

Now they’re talking about China and Russia and a Ukraine and Russia 12 point peace plan. How about they just end the damn war? Russia leaves and China and other countries agree to help Russia. And Ukraine, obviously. But Putin has to leave power. He could even have amnesty. Even though he really needs to die by polonium poisoning. Within a year would be reasonable. Though I'm sure we wouldn’t put that in a peace plan.

President Xi of China and Putin have met 39 times over their career?

Apparently in 2021, when the Indians and the Chinese were going at it, they're saying on the podcast, apparently they went at it with bats with nails driving int them. America gave India intelligence on Chinese troop movement, which pissed off the Chinese. Which isn’t apparently helping our current situation.

Maybe we need to find a way to cripple Chinese and Iranian (and obviously, Russian) economies, and then offer to help them? Or maybe not.

Cheers! Slainte!

Walkabout Thoughts #47

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…June 2, 2023, Sunday

Weather for the day…NICE! 56 degrees starting out, high 60s by end of walk

Podcast for the day: “Matice Founder Jessica Whited on Harnessing Regenerative Species for Medical Breakthroughs - Ep. 198"

In the podcast they're talking about biological regeneration. If you lose an arm, can you regrow it? Because some creatures can. Apparently a fetus can regenerate without scar tissue up to a certain point and then it stops. Why? I would assume it has something to do with a trade off for something else as to why that stopped working. Salamanders can regenerate, and studies are being done on that particular species by the person in this podcast.

We may have lost the capability for regeneration due to tumor suppression, but that’s just conjecture. But can we stimulate that somehow?

When I graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in psychology, a concentration in phenomenology, one of the main things I recognized about America at the time was in our priorities being out of whack. Considering that today they’re far more out of whack than ever, how do we define that? If I ask anyone, considering humanity and in reality, how do America’s priorities add up?

As I’ve been healing from long Covid over these past three years (I believe I healed from it and it ended at least once or twice already, this last time being the worst iteration of it), and having it this time now over a year, it seems to be healing in a two steps forward one step back pattern. Or in various modulations of a sine wave in coming and going. Couple of months ago it felt like I was over it. And then at raised its ugly head a little bit yet again. One of the things I noticed in my research was how sugar would irritate the vagus nerve, which is part of the issue of problems I’m having, mostly now exhibiting in issues of blood pressure. Which oddly enough, I can typically counter using an antihistamine like Benadryl. I also read something that mentioned how you can get a craving for sugar. Which has happened. Lovely. So you can get a sugar craving, but sugar exacerbates the condition. This truly is in so many ways a nasty insidious disease. Considering other things it does like merging cells and spawning "pillars" within or on veins and vesicles (It's in my book, "Suffering Long Covid".

After a year of having to be very careful about what I eat on a strict diet, my weight had gone down like 15 pounds to where I was feeling pretty good. But now it’s back up to where it had been, for years because how how hard this past winter was to get through. At 6'1" and 225 pounds, I’d much more prefer to be about or just under 200 pounds. I had been down as low as 213 pounds some months back. And then these sugar cravings started, which I didn’t recognize because of a feeling that I could enlarge my diet. Thinking I was getting over long covid, it was a treat to eat more varied foods. After so long being miserable and being able again to get back to a more normal diet was a joy. But I may have gotten carried away. So I’ve cut back. And I’ve been trying to supplement sweets with fruits. I know you have to be careful when you include fruits in the diet, as they are generally full of fructose, which is still a sugar. But if you continue to replace not as good things with better things, it's gonna be a process but in the end, very useful and healthier.

I’ve been finding AI very useful this past year. Chat OpenAI and Bing (where you need to use MS Edge browser). It cannot write as well as I can, but it can produce really good content that I can then massage into readable format. As at one time I was a senior technical writer, one of the things I did professionally was research, writing and massaging content to fit various requested subject matter and formats. For years, I found Wikipedia immensely useful. Not as a subject matter expert source, but as a reference...with sources. So, when I use Wikipedia, it reminds me of things I ad forgotten and it offers things I didn’t know about, hopefully referencing the source(s) which I then use to vet my information before utilizing it to send out to the public. AI is similar. Until they get this “hallucinations“ issue under control and eliminated, where it will say things that have no bearing on reality simply because it doesn’t know what else to say. It will have to remain a reference for now. But the thing I find I’ve been using it for a lot lately, is for things I might query a search engine on. There’s times where I ask "what does this phrase sentence or word mean?" And it will give me the information I’m looking for. Whereas the search engine may offer me a definition, initially, and then many links to things that most are totally irrelevant to what I'm seeking. AI though tends to give me exactly what I want to know. It’s like querying an encyclopedia, only it seems to be more understandable and it’s results are more relevant. And more frequently.

I was just talking to my son about this. He said that Chat OpenAI can now analyze photos you send it. And I said, "Great. It won’t be long before it’ll analyze videos." I’m really looking forward to sending it a video of length, or a text file or link, to have it analyzed it in various ways. I would love to be able to send it one of my films or one of my novels or non-fiction books and have it analyze them in different ways. I would lost to see the result of that. I look forward to one day pointing it to all of my films, or all of my writings and have them analyzed. At this time, I can only send it several pages. Which in a book like my “Death of heaven” book has so many different parts of the book that analyzing one part tells you nothing about another or the book overall. To analyze it overall would be very interesting.

One of the things I would like to see regarding my writings is what we’ve seen done before where someone will read all of an author's writings, and produce a paper or a book sharing “the central theme, or core of an author's writings… “ because, I would find it interesting to see what my writings boiled down to. Or, as someone pointed out years ago, I have written more than once in my fiction about young children in horrific situations. The story I wrote for my first fiction writing class at University was, “Andrew“ about a five year old who experienced a horrific event. Years later, that short story that had grown into a novella, grew into my book “Death in heaven“. That novella at the end of my very first published work, “Anthology of Evil“ (first in the series) is a story about a young boy whose parents were geniuses and had raised him as an intellectual experiment. In a more recent story of mine, a sci-fi tale on another planet, “Jaonny’s Apple Tree”, seems to imply some perhaps emotional evolution on my part, in that again it’s about a young (this time a slightly older) child, with highly talented and intelligent parents whose child (and by the way, neither story being my childhood experience... although my mother was admittedly very clever), became empowered and makes some questionable choices. At the end of the story, you really have to rethink and question if this child, "Jaonny", is evil, or perhaps, justice incarnate?

Podcast is over, I switched to "AI trends: a Latent Space crossover"

Speaking of which, for those who have a fear of AI, do instead have a fear of Donald Trump and his anti-democracy, autocratic toxically capitalistic endeavors. That’s really something to fear. Because it’s happening, it's BEEN happening now for years, decades before he so ludicrously became POTUS45. Realized fears about AI are indeed on the horizon but we still have a chance to be proactive. Something we didn’t take advantage of with the bulbous ignorant one (Trump).

The podcast is talking about Prediction Guard, a company who offers more than something like Chat OpenAI.

As I mentioned above, about sugar… wchich has to do with blood, sugar levels, and insulin. Years ago I started looking at things from an insulin point of view. If I drink, and some alcoholics may not feel hunger, some of us will get hungry... we well may all have gotten "the munchies" at 2 AM after drinking at a bar all night. Or crave sweets. Whenever I have even a glass of wine, or something, it kicks my sweet tooth within an hour or two. It seems to now with long covid, affect my vagus nerve. I found months ago that I could once again eat sweets or have at least one glass of alcohol and so I knew my lung Covid was healing. Recently I’ve had the experience that only two glasses of wine will make things uncomfortable for me at bedtime. I thought I would try to introduce alcohol on a regular basis and see how that affects things. Will  it lengthen this duration of long Covid? Will it help me acclimate and heal faster? The thing about long Covid is… what is normally common sense, may no longer have a bearing. Obviously there’s common sense involved in long Covid, but we’re only now learning a bit of how it works in this new paradigm of viral activity against humanity and biological organisms. Not knowing in the beginning that it was affecting the vagus nerve, really made the thing seem a bit crazy, back when long Covid first hit (me certainly in February) of 2020.

At 67 now, I’m still learning to be proactive about things in life, though I've always been proactive on many things. ADHD I found forced that on me. America is over 200 years old and we still haven’t learned to be proactive. We tend to be too reactive. Waiting till bad happens, then reacting. When we need to prognosticate and set up an environment to alleviate or avoid. Problem in that are conservatives who always go overboard when fear or concerns are involved (Probably why we're not proactive as it "triggers" conservatives into their weird forms of insanity). Our laws, our prison system, etc., could be so much better if we were fundamentally proactive. The more conservative one is, apparently the more being pro activity is anathema to your paradigm of ideology. Thus Republicans have been the longest hold out on climate change issues. And now I’m supporting what conservatives will label "authoritarian", at least in part, because their own toxic capitalism ("corporate thought") makes it ever more invisible to them. It's a mad world, surely, for some.

By the way, I learned years ago before Covid hit, that if I was going to have any alcohol, it should be as early in the day as possible. No not for breakfast (though as Sheryl Crow sang, "I like a good beer buzz early in the mornin'..."). But if I was going to have a drink? Lunch is better than dinner. There was a time in life, when I could drink, go out for a night, come home drunk, crash and wake up the next day little hung over, but pretty much feeling great, as long as I didn’t overdo and especially if I drank enough water the night before, before and during drinking. Long Covid magnifies things. So if there’s anything about your system, you know or don’t know about, it could end up exhibiting itself worse under lung Covid. Which is why when I first caught it the last time, maybe the third time since February 2020 (back in May 2022), anything I ate seemed to give me an allergic reaction of sorts. Initially, my pulse would go nuts. A week later my blood pressure issues started. I've never had heart issues. Quite the contrary and my DNA indicates I am above average on absorbing oxygen and muscles able to continue more quickly than normal but I'm more of a sprinter than a marathon runner (I'm more anaerobic than aerobic, basically more oriented toward weight lifting than running). This is detailed in my book, “Suffering Long Covid“. The first week on this last infection, within that first two weeks I had paramedics at my house twice, at 2AM. The first visit led to an emergency room stay of four hours. I dropped my diet down to nothing that first day, but hard boiled eggs that first day and then six hours later had another egg when I didn’t experience a reaction. If I had too much salt or sugar...life was hell.

What is “stable diffusion“? Is it this?

I am so sick of jingles for drugs in ads on TV.

See the podcast episode from the books to production. On this Practical AI podcast: "AI trends: a Latent Space crossover" and "From notebooks to Netflix scale with Metaflow".

My phone just got an "AirTag" notification. WTF? It says, "AirTag found moving in with you." Good to know, and something to track down if it happens to you.

I used to think…well? I believed. And people have told me this, that at least in certain specific areas, I'm kind of "genius". I've been in many situations where people were taken aback from me and exhibited amazement at something I did or said. My advising professor at university did say I was in the top 10% of the top 10% of psych students in universities across America, for what it's worth. I questioned him about that, disbelieving him (he is very smart, Prof. Rod Rees, is). He thought about it and then said he stands by his contention. He was also referring to my girlfriend whom I lived with through our college years and she was very smart. But we were smart in different ways so that we made an incredible team. I've written about that (substantiating it) elsewhere. Rod did not say we were "geniuses", just that we stood out. The term as typically used on social situations of "Genius" is a pop term just meaning remarkably smarter than others.

 I grew up thinking I was stupid (step-dad used to tell me that but I later realized he just didn't know what I was talking about most of the time. I had a friend in high school tell me that, saying he and our friends liked me, but didn't know what I was talking about half the time, so I started to "dumb down" my talking and got along way better with everyone, which helped me socially, but not academically). I used to think, "that can’t just be me", but that maybe everyone has something discovered. or not yet, that they are indeed genius about. But I no longer ow believe that. The whole Donald Trump phenomenon has aided that disbelief of mine in humanity. What I will say is that many, maybe even most people, are or can be genius in some way or another. But many will also die without ever finding it. A true genius to me is a jack of all trades and genius about anything, able to synthesize data and information form one thing to any other. Otherwise, one is merely genius in a single field or area. Many more of those than a "true genius", which may indeed be a myth.

Moving on... since this whole transition became more prominent, and since my own and youngest child came out as trans male, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this. First off, do not embarrass oneself with others, do not act in the extreme, just be humane. If I understand this correctly, one would say a trans male was born female. And I just thought of this myself… that doesn’t really seem accurate, does it. Well, those who are toxically binary, that is lacking ethics and compassion and morality, sometimes through religion and being anti-trans and/or anti-LGBTQ+, I think a more accurate way of putting it would be that if they’re trans by definition, then a "trans male" was one simply not born female, so born "non-female" not, "born female and transitioned to male". Well, many wish to use external biological references to define another person, who themself disagrees with that. But one really need look into things such as the DNA, which you cannot easily see and we may not be able yet to define it. So rather than history showing us how ignorant and stupid we are… far better to err on the side of caution and human decency. Trans males using a female bathroom are not perverts seeking titillation. You're thinking of anti-Trans types. Any incidents of CIS gendered males who are actual perverts utilizing this excuse in practice is minuscule to the point of not being bothered with it. It’s just another form of bigotry to throw a tiff over such things and to be so emotionally week and frightened, triggered, in order to deny evolving along with the rest of humanity on such a thing. Yes it’s uncomfortable, but it surely is for trans people. Some of them are being murdered just for being who they are, or who they’re trying to be. because when they try to be themselves, they feel more sane and the quality of their life. which America guarantees in the US Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence directly, should be supported and not scurried away from like frightened little, religious fools. Myself I prefer not to suffer fools, but we now have an entire political party (conservatives of course) where a quarter of America are proud to be in their Party of Fools, their political "ship of fools" where they can satiate and saute in their own stupid soup of bigotry and ignorance.

I’m finishing up my last half mile of my 5 miles today and I feel great. It was pretty easy today. As I detailed in my previous walk, two days ago, in that blog, at around mile four it was very difficult, but I pushed through it. I believe I’ve plateaued now and 5 miles, if I keep it up, will help with my long Covid a great deal as it had before winter hit. I kept telling myself that if I could just stay in shape over the winter, then winter will go much easier on me. The trouble is something always happens in late fall/early winter. It knocks me down and makes it very difficult to exercise during the winter time, meaning I really need to either be a "snowbird" or live someplace with an annual fairly even climate.

I find myself looking forward to going home and kicking back, hydrating and putting those ice packs made for the knees, on my knees. to reduce swelling from this walk. I am noticing, that now I almost don’t need it. But I think it help with something. I don’t need it for the pain now (progress). I might need it for helping  the muscles to heal/grow properly after these walks. Something to think about that we often don't and also is relevant in our balance of mental and emotional (IQ/EQ) processes.

What I really need to do is get the last five blogs or so updated and online. I have one about my screenplay and true crime biopic “The Teenager Bodyguard“ [I got it updated and it's online as of the 4th of July 2023]. It’s set for July 4th, 6 AM and "a happy Fourth of July. Independence Day publish!" I apologize for these delays, but to just read through these blogs from top to bottom takes me a long time. I wish I could just hire someone to do that. It’s just basic editing to clean up the "speech to text" transcription. Maybe add some links to make it easier for people to "see" what I’m talking about at times or for reference purposes.

I still haven’t published my blogs at this walk, over the weekend past. last week, with the Russian coup. How do you say Putin is still a war criminal and still invaded Ukraine illegally. And both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump deserve the full "Ceausescu" with all due prejudice for their ongoing crimes against humanity and democracy.

To make that comment clear, Wikipedia on Ceausescu:

Execution

The Ceaușescus were executed at 4:00 p.m. local time^[30] at a military base outside Bucharest on 25 December 1989.^[10] The execution was carried out by a firing squad consisting of paratroop regiment soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cirlan, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered.^[31] Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!"^[18] The Ceaușescus' hands were tied by four soldiers before the execution.^[32] Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that, before the sentences were carried out, Elena Ceaușescu screamed, "You sons of bitches!" as she was led outside and lined up against the wall, while Nicolae Ceaușescu sang "The Internationale".^[33]

The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. The execution happened too quickly for the television crew assigned to the trial and death sentence to videotape it in full; only the last round of shots was filmed. In 2014, retired Captain Boeru told a reporter for The Guardian newspaper that he believes that the shots he fired from his rifle were solely responsible for the deaths of both of the Ceaușescus, because, of the three soldiers in the firing squad, he was the only one who remembered to switch his Kalashnikov rifle to fire fully automatic, and at least one member of the group hesitated to shoot for several seconds.^[34] In 1990, a member of the National Salvation Front reported that 120 bullets were found in the couple's bodies.^[31]

In 1989, Prime Minister Petre Roman told French television that the execution was carried out quickly due to rumors that loyalists would attempt to rescue the couple.^[30]

End Wikipedia article.

On the concept of translating Wikipedia, into every language… Apparently that’s not workable. Because some countries don’t want a Wikipedia, because that’s not how their language works for them. While some other country's cultures are very verbal and/or illiterate, it wouldn’t do them any good. I don’t know if I agree with that. That was a comment from the podcast. You can do a verbal search online and you can receive a Wikipedia page, potentially in your language, and even have it read aloud to you so you don’t have to read it. We have translators on our phones now, as if we were "Star Trek" back in the 60s. Well they weren’t in the 60s on the show, but you see what I mean. Also, there is the concept… that was rude… I just hit my home block intersection and somebody in a truck facing me, stopped at the stop sign and just stared at me. and they had their blinker on. so I didn’t know what to do. I tried to hurry across the road as well as I could at this point, after 5 miles, and as I get up alongside their truck, they takeoff heading straight down the street, not turning. WTF? Anyway… Another way to look at having something like Wikipedia in your language, while a country may not want it, what does that mean? Who doesn't want it? The country? The citizens? The government? The educated? One of the classes, upper, lower, middle? If you have something like Wikipedia, in your language, wouldn't over time, it enhance your culture and raise your standard of living, your quality of life? These are things you can't know... without trying.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #46

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…June 30, 2023 Friday


Regarding affirmative action in the SCOTUS, shot me down this week, here’s the deal about that…one University where there were 9% Blacks have been cut down to 4%, in a country that has 13% Blacks who are living and paying taxes in America. Whenever we have a situation where there’s too few voters and taxpayers ethnocentrically in a group, in a workforce, an educational system, in the military, or prisons, workers, or inmates, and the percentage is way out of whack? That’s when it needs to be addressed. And that’s what we’ve been saying. In the case of Blacks, way too many are inmates. Way too few are in institutions of education. I could get what conservative members of SCOTUS are saying, if they see affirmative action laws as unconstitutional, even if I may disagree with them. But when you look at a group and see the disparity and the injustice that should be corrected, how do you do that? Are you proactive or do you react to that, that you’re just fine with it? And so we have had affirmative action laws, hoping to correct that. But not correct it 100%. Which AGAIN evokes the question… "What the fuck are whites complaining about?" Is it that they were that week and ineffective themselves, but today they have to beg forevermore for cushions to their existence? That while Blacks and Minorities should “pull them selves up by the boot straps“ because that’s those American's quote? But they don’t wanna do that for themselves? Because when They have to do it, it’s somehow reverse racism? I grew up, middle, maybe upper lower class, and through hard work and multiple jobs my stepfather worked us into lower middle and at some point (after I moved out) middle-middle class, although they were always in debt. There was no question when they died that they'd leave any money for their kids. 

I graduated high school at 17, immediately got a job and moved the hell out. I was going nowhere in life. And so I joined the Air Force at 20. I'd given it a few years to try to do better but just saw no prospects. Between that belief and a curious nature, and ability to absorb information easily in some ways, with difficulty in others because of ADHD, I struggled all my life to get out of debt myself. In positioning myself, luckily I found some opportunities, and never turned down opportunities out of fear. Plenty of times I was fearful of taking on a newer and harder position. But I kept my mother's dad in mind, our grandfather who always excepted challenges when half the time he didn’t know what he was doing, until he started doing it, or teaching it, but kept that to himself. He forced himself to succeed, and with that model in mind, I got through life bouncing around with plenty of knocks and bruises. Eventually with a small retirement, that should’ve been much larger. But at least I had one, at least I have something.

Some colleges, after hearing about SCOTUS knocking down affirmative action laws, say they will continue trying to do what’s right, regardless. Until OUR federal judiciary and SCOTUS, toxically and conservatively stacked and weighted with conservatives, at some point finally says it’s unconstitutional, remember always what they did with abortion. They won a little and they took a lot. They just wanted to pass it back to the states they said, and then they tried to pass federal laws against it to take it away from the states and nationalize an illegal ban. These are not trustworthy people. It’s not my orientation but their actions that prove this time and time again. Conservatism leans into religion, and so you can trust religion being pro-deity and anti-human in passing more absolutist laws.

How is Black SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas not what other Blacks used to refer to as a “Uncle Tom“? An apologist for white privilege. So I asked the AI:

"The term "Uncle Tom" originated from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel titled "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was published in 1852. The novel depicted the life of a slave named Tom, who was portrayed as a submissive and loyal servant to his white master. Over time, the term "Uncle Tom" has evolved into a derogatory term used to criticize African Americans who are perceived as being overly subservient to white people or betraying the interests of their own community.

"The term "Uncle Tom" is often used as an insult to demean African Americans who are seen as acquiescing to racism or supporting policies or actions that are detrimental to their own racial or ethnic group. It suggests a lack of racial consciousness or a willingness to conform to white societal expectations at the expense of one's own identity and community.

"It's important to note that the term is considered derogatory and offensive, as it perpetuates harmful stereotypes and oversimplifies complex issues related to race and identity. It is generally discouraged to use such terms, as they can contribute to negative racial tensions and misunderstandings."

OK, so maybe calling Justice Thomas, "Uncle Tom" is offensive. Then explain what the fuck he is doing?

However I have little respect for anyone who thinks like Thomas. "I put in the sweat labor to get to where I got to, everyone else had better appreciate that and do the same!" Not realizing that equating what he went through was the same for others, regardless how he grew up. To NOT stand up for your own, for those like you (regardless of race), so also giving due consideration for any of the poor, immigrants or, Native Americans who we took these lands FROM, or many Mexicans who were in a similar situation, though perhaps not quite so murderously abusive). 

With such considerations, I must here offer this from, "The Beat with Ari Melber", podcast on a special episode:
"BONUS: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Affirmative Action Dissent Read by Actress Alfre Woodard". "Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard reads Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s entire 29-page dissent to the affirmative action ruling." Why? Because of SCOTUS poor standing of late in their excessively conservative extremist rulings. The Republican Party and its supporters have gone off the deep end, grabbing things they've long wanted, regardless the consequences. Because it's easier to take and apologize later and retain some, than do what is right and receive little of what you want. No matter who unethical, immoral or toxic it is to the nation overall.

Is it time to rid the world of internal combustion engine leaf blowers and grass trimmers, yet? For that of battery powered ones? I read this thing decades ago, while it apparently doesn’t have scientific legitimacy, it does makes sense. That is that as civilization evolves, it becomes more advanced to the point that it becomes quieter. Maybe darker? Thus earth once shouted massive amounts of signals off planet and our cities and machines are noisy. But as we get more electric cars and such, we become quieter as we make advances. It also makes sense we would utilize lighting more adeptly so we'd direct smaller amounts of lights (at night) with more efficiency in various ways. But you get it concept.

How do we know that the Bible or the Quran aren't some of the largest “telephone game“ examples in the history of humanity? That being in writing things down after telling them by word of mouth for a long time, and then by translating them so that through time and history, we've been altering them? And we’ve seen how that subvert and/or Re-orients from the original message.

So, according to SCOTUS... racial Gerrymandering exists, but that’s where it ends? WTF?

One wonders if we sent back in time, well-educated individuals, from both sides of the ticket today, to when the US Constitution was being written, how would that alter it? Because I suspect they would tighten it up and better address certain issues that the Right is now trying to make superfluous. What I'm saying is, if we went back in time to tell the Founding Fathers what the hell we're doing with their US Constitution, they'd make some re-writes. And now how today's nutcase Right wingnuts would.

I like Pablo Pascal, the actor. He signed on to the writer's strike. I liked him in "The Mandalorian". I liked him in, "The Last of Us". I heard him in an interview recently where he said he had a lot to be thankful for in having been in "Narcos" on Netflix. So I watched that this past week. It was him and his blond haired, white partner with Pablo being a Spanish speaker in Colombia where they were DEA agents. I understand he didn’t think he would be in the show very long but he lasted two seasons and then they gave him the third season, losing his partner. Interesting they never mentioned what happened to that guy. But when I saw the third season, it was obvious to my why he did so well after that. It wasn’t so much the first two seasons, but they got him to the third and final season. I really liked it. Then they came out with "Narcos Mexico". Which I just started though he’s not in it. I remember when sinsemilla cannabis hit the streets in the late 70s as the seedless version of weed. In the 70s we were so sick of having to clean out the seeds, as Cheech and Chong had so famously said, "No stems no seeds that you can see, Acapulco gold is fine... ass weed!" But I didn’t know about how that all came into being. At first we thought it was brilliant. The weed was cleaned up. Everyone had a shoe box lid or something just slid under their couch usually with their weed in it and some stems and seeds off the the side. Maybe an expired credit card or something for the sifting. Holding the lid at an angle, using the card to drag the weed up and catch it repeatedly to allow the seeds to run to the bottom. Anyway, you got what you paid for with sinsemilla, not a bunch of bulk and seed nonsense you didn’t use. When one day we we’re sitting around getting stoned and  I looked at my friends, and I said, "Hey, this is seedless." They smiled, just puffing away and said, "Yeah, I know, cool...right?" "Yeah cool… but now we can’t grow our own." And everybody looked at each other surprised and went, "Oh shit that’s right." Until someone said, "Yeah, but we're not growing it anyway, right?" "Yeah, but now we can't, even if we wanted to." And suddenly, everyone wanted to. But it was brilliant marketing in that they didn’t have to ship the stems and seeds, which kept us from growing our own, but also made the packs smaller and they could profit more and ship more. The kilo is more dense, which was an all-around win-win for everybody. Except for anyone who wanted to grow their own. At that point, we started to try and find some seeds and no one had any. And if they did, they were valuable. When they had been everywhere at one point. It was a marketing awakening, in the illegal weed market. So Narcos Mexico. Pretty entertaining. An interesting show though so far I’m only a few episodes into it

But speaking of that, I watched the latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" last night. It was a court trial, which usually I like, but not in a sci-fi show so much. But by the end of it, I liked it a lot. Actually, that was last weeks episode. And it was good by the end. Last night's episode was a time travel episode where they went back in time on earth. And again you might be like, "Hey, this isn’t space cowpoke fun romping around the universe stuff!" But by the end they tied it together, and you had to sort of smile and go, "Nice job."

The last episode of "Silo" hit for the season on an Apple+. Really like that show and it had a good cliffhanger season ending that left me with my mouth open, going, "Oh shit, hadn't seen that coming!"

Another one on that streamer is "The Crowded Room". Having a degree in psychology and always being interested in pathologies kind of like shows like that.

Another on Paramount plus is Joe about it Bureau of land management ranger. Like the character so much I haven’t read novels that it’s just a fun and at times difficult show to watch. He takes a lot of brutality in his job but keeps on pushing. And his family’s interesting his lawyer, wife, and two girls.

I also watched Mayans because I was a Sons of Anarchy fan. But there’s something missing from this series that "Sons" had. Maybe it’s 'cause I’m a white boy and not Mexican, Latino, Latinx or whatever, but I’m kind of looking forward to the end of the series. Hey, I still watch it. Though it's not meant to be some kind of sequel to "Sons", and well, it's not. Something isn't clicking for me with it.

Alaska Daily (now cancelled), how about a New York world famous journalist transplant to a tiny newspaper that’s on the edge, in Alaska. The first and only review I read of it when it premiered was not good and they shot the showdown. Screw them. I liked it. I'm sad it's cancelled (I just found out in looking for a link for this). But I think there’s elements for the show the reviewer entirely missed. We need more shows like this. Losing our small newspapers has been crippling America. Native Americans, First Nations...they're getting more attention, but still not enough. A Free Press is a necessary part of our democracy. Our toxic capitalism has worked hard to conglomerate, kill off smaller papers and allowed to monopolize, hampering a Free Press ever more so. Autocrats are doing it around the world. Our democracy and our haters of democracy on the right, especially autocrats like Trump and his MAGA infection, are using the boundaries of democracy to cripple our Free Press. 24 hour new cycles haven’t helped because then they have to always report something new even if it's nothing or worse, which is anathema to what should be loss leader news reporting. Short news cycles and shorter short term memories, news for profit rather as a loss leader for a company, or a network has been signing news death warrant now for years.

How in the hell can we have a fair and balance SCOTUS if it’s too heavily unbalanced one way or the other and why aren’t there laws to assure that NEVER happen? Obviously so that it CAN happen. And that’s got to change. I’m not asking for liberals to have a hand up. I’m asking for the entire country to have a fair and even hand up. Mitch McConnell and the GOP conservatively stacking our federal courts, as well as OUR SCOTUS, in illiberally disallowing Merrick Garland a seat on that court… If that’s not anti-American, what the hell is? Well, more "corporate thought" at work.

For those complaining that the Trump economy was better than Biden so far… First off Biden isn’t done and has he said what they have done and it is helping, it is working and it will continue to get better, such as reasonable projections all say. Let’s point out the disaster Obama took over and now he has a history of a better economy, so far better than Biden or Trump. But Biden still has time in his office before you can judge him. Especially if he gets a second term...if America has any self-esteem left whatsoever. Biden will, as opposed to say Trump getting a second term, which takes the consideration of any self-esteem whatsoever for America off the table if that happens, as he will have gone full on autocrat, giving him purchase to completely destroy our economy and our democracy. If you can’t see that, that’s a degree of ignorance so vast one don’t even know how to address it. Trump doesn't WANT to destroy our economy, just our democracy, but if he profits only by destroying our economy? It's toast.

A new Navigator poll shows that 75% of Americans are against tax cuts for the rich including Republicans. So WTF America? I remember saying when I got out of my university years in 1984 that priorities in America are fucked up. Well, thanks to conservatives they’re fucked up to a fantastical degree far beyond anything I had considered back then. And I have some pretty good "out there" fiction. Just check out, "In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear" (ebook free through July 2023). When I would have said all this now is just bad science fiction or really really poor speculative fiction writing and by a lazy writer.

This isn’t a difficult intellectual puzzle. We have to take money from somebody to run this government. I know my brother says we can run without taxes. I said explain to me how that works  but he couldn’t. But then he’s a conservative who supported Trump, so… But the point is, do we take those taxes more from people who don’t have the money or from those who do have so much money, they don’t know what to do with it? How is that an intellectual conundrum? I mean it's just common sense. The people with more pay more but also at a higher ratio. First of all nobody should have above a certain amount of money. No individual should have as much money as a country. No corporation should have more money than the largest country. Multinational corporations are dangerous. Just watch Rollerball. The original better one with James Caan. The problem as with so many other things in our society today is due to toxicity...in our conservatism and economy, leaning into autocracy, of those with autocratic desires, where common sense has been devalued, diluted and weaponized, all this against ourselves.

Inflation is down 11 months in a row, gas and groceries are down… But Biden they say is a doddering, old fool? And Trump isn’t? At the least, at very least Biden isn’t a criminal like Trump. Even if you believe Biden is, or that there actually is a "Biden crime family", which is stupid, which is fucking stupid, when you can see there is obviously is a Trump crime family, which is not mere denigration or ad hominems, which is why Trump keeps getting indicted ("criminal")… We just need to stop this juvenile fakery and get down to work.

Oh, another streamer show “From”, I like that one a lot because it’s really messed up.

I really like Kaley Cuoco, the actor from, "The Big Bang", who was in "The Flight Attendant". Another screwed up, show that I liked a lot. It was in fun and part is my older sister was a senior flight attendant all of her life. It was fun to tease her about, "Hey, did that happened to you?" No.

Oh, just saw the first few episodes of this season 3 of, "The Witcher" (last season for Henry Cavill as Geralt, replaced in upcoming seasons 4/5 by Liam Hemsworth). They just dropped on Netflix season three. Nice to see it back. I heard it’s the same actor as in "Superman and Lois" and for some reason I like that and watch it too (Emmanuelle Chriqui surely having nothing to do with it). But remind me of the Clark Kent, superman thing, where are the actors don’t look anything alike in each role. (I know, I know, see below further down).

This week I also watched Lamborghini with Frank Grillo as the elder character of the title name, and Gabriel Byrne, whom I have always liked his work. Since I first saw Ridley Scott's first film "The Duelists" with Harvey Keitel, opposing Keith Carradine through their lives, and the Napoleonic wars. Great underrated film.

Oh, and by the way, "Bidenomics" has given us the lowest unemployment rate for Blacks and Hispanics. So Hispanics really need to review this rush to the Republican Party who really doesn’t give a shit about anybody except their own leaders, donors and superPACs, lobbyists.

I se Hyperwrite as of recently and a company called Reword just pinged me with some spam. It looks interesting. But I need to make sure it’s hooked up to this blog. I don’t think it is. If I could make this stream of consciousness blog look a little more... well written without spending a lot of time on it, because I’ve got other things to do, I think we all agree... that would be awesome.

Sometimes I put things in these notes during walkabouts that are just for me to see so that when I get home and read them, I delete them from the blog and go do them. But sometimes I leave them in... like the one just above.

As I’ve spoken about in the previous two blogs, when exercising you can hit a point where you want to quit. Today that was at about mile 4 and a quarter. Usually I don’t start sweating till like the last mile or so. It’s hot today so it was by the end of the 2nd mile. But around mile 4 I started feeling I was overdoing it. So I stopped in a shady place. I looked down into a gully, or gulch, or whatever you wanna call it, that runs off downhill to the next main street below. I realized, I’ll have been in this house about five years now and in the first week, years ago, I would’ve already gone down into this thing out of curiosity. Just to search around to see what was there. I've always been like that. Going up in the mountains by myself to go hiking alone. Exploring local, wooded areas people tend to not go into. But with this time and age, it’s just not worth my effort. Or I just don’t have the motivation anymore, or my body isn’t so in shape (thanks so much Long Covid) so as to not give a thought about overdoing it in time or effort. Yeah getting old is not for the old, but it sure as hell isn’t for the young.

Damn talking about ADHD… I just posted on Twitter and social media today about it, because my son, who also has it, sent me a 20 minute comedy clip of a guy talking about his wife having ADHD. It’s pretty funny and more so if you have it. He’s exaggerating, but it’s pretty entertaining. And the reason I say this now is because above, I was gonna say something about getting to mile four, and wanting to quit today. And the reason for mentioning that, which I got distracted from… was that I had stopped to cool off And then saw something on my phone from someone who DM'd me about being a product ambassador or something. Which distracted me so I started walking again and then realized I feel fine now. So I’m now starting mile five and again I feel fine. My point is, was... that when you hit that point where you think you can’t do anymore, rest, then take your time to slowly move forward, get back up to speed and you may well find that you’re just fine.

I agree with the Biden administration consideration on if all Biden makes is a single term. They should get two. They have a strong story to tell that needs to be told to counter the bullshit from the right. This ain’t your grandfathers voodoo economics of trickle down nonsense by toxically capitalistic right wing nut cases who led us to first to the Tea Party, and then Donald Trump's MAGA and an insurrection. How you can see him being "worth his salt" is beyond all rational thought.

At what point do we make Nazism, neo or otherwise, illegal in this country? It will hopefully eventually die off, this core of the MAGA Trump personality cult, our current autocratic infection which needs to be curbed and made somewhat, somehow, illegal? Yes, yes 1st Amendment, yes, Freedom of Speech, and so on, but when it’s weaponized against our US Constitution itself, maybe it's time to act.

Want an easy element to indicate to you who not to vote for? Someone who is thin skinned like Ron DeSantis, like Donald Trump. Those are not leaders. Those are not men who can run a country. Run it into the ground, yes, sure... to be sure. But, let's not do that.


Cheers! Sláinte!