Walkabout Thoughts #33

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


Weather for the day… 44 degrees and light clouds lots of blue sky

Podcast for the day podcast “Pod Save America“ episode, “

Instagram post for the day

Olympic Mountains today

“Trump has reminded us that misogyny is a feature not a bug in the Republican Party”

“Pompeo hates Nikki Haley”

Paraphrasing “Nikki Haley is just a Kevin McCarthy“

So I told my adult trans kid I’d like to take them and their trans spouse out for that kid's birthday next weekend. I said pick a place and we'll go there. Thinking that’s part of a gift. And their response was, "Oh so I choose?" Yeah. Sure. In part because of their dietary requirements being hard for me to track. And thinking about that, as many do (with a roll of the eyes, and I’m not saying I’m doing that, but people do), it occurs to me...Why do so many seem so attuned to their physiology regarding diet? That’s annoying to many who are not. But here’s the thing. As we’ve become more educated and knowledgeable about diet and an awareness of things, why would we not become more attuned to ourselves, internally? And how is that a bad thing? One might argue even that it’s bullshit. But if you’re eating healthier because of it, then how is that bad? It’s annoying to others, sure. But what if it’s not imaginary? When I was a kid, and this is how I’m viewing this whole issue… I was fifth or sixth grade, my mom took me over to a friend's house. Some woman who had a couple of Siamese cats (that's another story). While I was talking to this woman when we first got there, I felt my body invaded. It was a weird kind of rush. I could see her breathing down on me, standing a few feet from my mom and I inside the front door. I couldn’t put my finger on the feeling I was having until later. But I started not feeling well later that day. The next day I felt worse and my mom said the woman was talking to her on the phone and said she thinks she came down with something. By the next day I was feeling so bad my mom took me to the doctor. And he said, "You’ve got the flu or something." I told him I knew it, and then about the woman, realizing I felt I was catching something from her, apparently a virus. I felt something invading my body while talking to her, probably my immune system over responding. Years later, a doctor told me that my allergies were my immune system overreacting too rapidly to invading elements. And if it was slower, my body could adjust and I wouldn’t have all these allergy issues. This was back in the early 70s by that time. So the doctor when I was a kid, in his office, said, "I’m sorry but it’s impossible that you’re feeling ill or could have felt her give you the flu as you stood in front of her. It takes about two weeks for you to feel the symptoms." I didn’t know what to do with that. He’s a doctor. I was a kid. But the thing was, he’s right about a week or two to feel the symptoms. But I wasn’t feeling the symptoms the day I met that woman. I was feeling an invasion and my immune system reacting. I’ve always been very tuned into my physiology. And I’ve always been discredited on that. But it’s been proven to be accurate over my 67 years. By time I hit my teens, it wasn’t quite as accurate, as you get older, it diminishes. But still seems to be more awareness than other people I've known. Getting back to my original premise… I do also believe that food is medicine, or can be. Sure, some take things to extremes. Some always do. But there is logic, and science in it. Eat healthier, you're healthier. Eat poorly, your health will suffer for it, though you may not notice it at first or until you're old, and some can handle that better than others. At least some of these people, with our better education and knowledge today than we had so long ago when I was a kid, if they're more tuned into their bodies now and trying to eat better… other than being annoying to some of us, what the hell is the problem with that? Don’t get me wrong. I like eating meat. But ethically and morally, I realized once a society gets to a place where they don’t have to hunt and kill for their food, why are we still killing other species for food? Not to mention, eating a lot of meat in a diet is unhealthy and can kill you over time. Granted not everybody, but we’re not all the same, biologically speaking. That’s why one person can smoke as much as another, yet one gets lung, cancer and dies and the other lives to 100 and is healthy. But it doesn’t mean everybody’s wrong. And that doesn’t mean we’re always correctly righteous in our annoyed beliefs.

It occurs to me that with some people, probably younger than me, who are doing what they're doing today about their diets and stuff, as I was discussing above, people traditionally did pay attention only once they had health problems. When they were told to log their health statistics, day by day. Which I’ve been doing since I got long Covid back in April, almost a year ago. So if they don’t need to log it all to figure things out, and can simple tell, more power to them. I’ve been getting a lot of migraine visuals lately. I used to get maybe a migraine every year or two, or every so many years. I would go a little blind, start to see visuals, start seeing bright colors at about a half an hour before the pain hit. Which could last for three days. I read somewhere that as you get older you don’t necessarily get the pain, but the visuals. So I counted in my log today and found I had migraine visuals, seven times in the past 30 days. Which I assume has got to be because of long Covid. It's disturbing.

Speaking of which, I read somewhere else that long Covid can thicken your vagus nerve. Is that good or bad? Probably bad, right? Which are the issues I’ve been having, vagus nerve issues. Since this is the second time, I am sure, as I had long Covid the first time lasting 8 to 14 months long, I have to wonder if repeated long Covid physically changes/damages something? And if one's vagus nerve gets thickened? Does that mean you’re not having permanent issues while things being magnified? Like when I first got it, that was really bad and I had to go into the ER with couple paramedic visits due to my pulse/BP shooting up and I became hyper sensitive to certain foods. As this has is faded, will it never go completely away because I may now have a thicker vagus nerve? Does thicker mean it's more functional or less, and if more that seems to be over reacting to things. Just great. 

Here’s a nightmare scenario. My poor son and his girlfriend have been dealing with her heart issues for a year now. Something she’s perhaps been ignoring for years, as we tend to do when it's not obvious what the problem is. She’s been having seizures and things that she didn’t recognize until the doctors figured it out and gave her meds. They couldn’t get the meds figured out. They'd get them "figured out" and then they'd fail before she could go home from the hospital stay. "Hello again, hi, bye!" Sorry. That was a like, cute one year old I just walked by with his mom… Anyway she left their city to go to Seattle and then back home and then back again and then back home but didn’t make it. Had to stop at another hospital in another city and on and on for a year. So I said to my son, at least once, did she have Covid? And he said, "Yes." I told him then that she may have had long Covid and not even known it. And if that’s the case, it magnifies things. I wrote a book about it, "Suffering Long Covid" And I published it. He gave her a copy but he doesn’t think she read it. Which may be good because there’s some hard realities in that book. Anyway, as of yesterday they finally think they’ve got things worked out and she can come home. But we’ve heard this so many times. "Hi". This time it was my postal woman delivering mail a few blocks from my house. I'm headed onto my 3rd mile now [I jumped back up from below, later on, so that explains my mileage being out of sequence, shit happens...]. So anyway, all the medication they tried on her has reacted in ways they didn’t expect and... that’s what long Covid does to you. So, as time passes, a long Covid phase for her fading, it could be that meds will start to work correctly, as they seem to be. Finally. But I don’t know. She’s got some good doctors, at some good hospitals, who know what they’re talking about, and they think Covid is definitely a factor. Now that could mean the initial week or so of Covid damaged her heart. Or that the long Covid issues were screwing with her results. There’s also a study that says it can kill off some of the muscle cells inside your heart which cannot grow back and that’s a serious concern. So you could end up with a heart transplant. But here’s hoping next week they’re both finally having dinner together and this nightmare can finally be, if not over, better controlled. I think they’re giving her a pacemaker now. Which is sad because no one needs a pacemaker in their 30s, although sometimes you do.

I think I walked a mile last walk and the time before that, or at least the last time anyway. I’m just starting my 2nd mile and at the end of that I’ll see if I can walk a third. I’d like to at least do that today. So far my right knee is holding out…

Regarding this bullshit about Medicare and Social Security with Republicans. There’s a news clip of one of them saying that those things are very important but so is military spending. But we review military spending every year. Well, dumb ass. The obvious difference there, which only a disingenuous fool couldn’t see, is that we don’t know from year to year how much military spending we will need with a current forecast. But we know that American citizens, our human beings still need to live and survive, to have healthcare and money to live on they expected, some for over 50 years. Kind of not an ever-changing thing like a military budget. That is so simple to understand and obvious that it’s offensive that a professional adult politician would speak such dumb words in public. But then, his voters probably won't notice. He's a Republican. (No, not all Republicans are dumb, but MAGA has altered the stats on that) So...

That was centered around comparing thing as "citizens need" to "military budget". Ron Johnson said that about those, I wanna call them "entitlements", because we should be entitled to them and we funded them ourselves as citizens, he says it’s a Ponzi scheme. Well, if you look at it critically, it’s not. Unless you’re a Republican, apparently. But let’s say it is. Well, then? Fix it! Something Republicans hate to do. Fix things. Because it opens them up to criticism and hard work. And compromise. They love breaking things and shutting things down and defunding things and crippling government. You know it’s a lot easier to take a sledgehammer and destroy a house then it is to build one that’s viable and functional that you can live in.

By the way, Rick Scott in Congress ,who is so against Medicare and Social Security? We need to recognize the company he used to work for, who was fined over $1 billion for fraud in those areas. Makes you wonder why he hates social security and medicare so much.

By the way, even Mitch McConnell can’t stand Rick Scott.

Thinking about this for a second. When you see news clips of some Republican, talking to a group of senior citizens about how we need to kill Medicare and Social Security, and they don’t say anything. Or maybe even applaud? Those are not people who need Social Security, or Medicare. Those are wealthy seniors who just see it as taking their tax money. First of all, fuck them. If you got that much money, you should be taxed. Get these Republicans in a room with a good deal of America who need help. The middle class, not the upper class, not the upper middle class. As I understand it, there’s wealthy people who actually use Medicare, while some refuse to rightly indicating it's kind of immoral. Yes, ethically if you paid into it, you deserve it. But if you don't need it and other do and you are after all a part of a nation, a society, yeah, like I don't know...help others? And I would bet they take Social Security, too.

I don’t know what the stats are on this, but if wealthy Americans are paying into Social Security all their lives? And they don’t need it at all in any way, shape or form? How about we don’t give it to them? Wouldn't that help? I mean, if I were a wealthy person, that would be my attitude about it? I have plenty, give it to those who need it. It's charity, it's partiotism.

OK, on the issue of privatizing Social Security, or for that matter, Medicare… or most things...No! Time and again we have seen Republicans push for the privatization of  things, at times even convincing Democrats, as it has so often turned out to be a complete disaster. One that they keep trying to keep alive. Ideology over reality, as usual. You don’t privatize prisons! It’s ethically and morally wrong. Just as the State, with a capital "S", should not kill its own citizens, so I'm against capital punishment (except for maybe people like Trump, who have massively harmed massive amounts of people). When the State takes away a person's, freedom, and imprisons them, that should be the government, not a for profit business picking up that responsibility. That is the government shirking ITS responsibility. That should be an alternate motto of the Republican Party: Shirk Responsibility!

OK I’m about quarter-mile into my 3rd mile (just after seeing the 1 year old and saying hi and bye), and my knee tweaked. I could maybe finish the 3rd mile, but it's safer to turn around and walk back. Let it rest and try again another day. Rehab can be painfully slow, but if you overdo it like (as with long Covid), you’ll really regret it and it can then take longer. When I get home, I need to stretch like the VA nurse said, and then ice it.

And now Adam Schiff is on the podcast…

So my blog is called murdockinations.com, and it’s about the machinations of, if not the phenomenal, the phenomenological mind of this sci-fi/horror writer and filmmaker/documentarian. Just wanted to make that clear...

Excellent! Adam Schiff just said that McConnell and Rrump stacked the courts and they need to be unstacked, and the only way to do that is to expand SCOTUS. And he’s looking at term limits. Finally, thank God. America’s been broken. It needs fixing. I don’t want to expand the SCOTUS but we have to fix things and sometimes it’s uncomfortable. He also mentioned Gerrymandering, as far too often the minority is running things or choosing the president. The minority needs a voice, obviously, but they don’t need control. Obviously.

In the end today, I got in 2.5 miles (6,115 steps) before having to turn home as my knee had finally had it for the day, even if I hadn't. Hang in there little guy.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #32

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

 

Weather for the day… 50 and light clouds lots of blue sky

Podcast for the day podcast “Pod Save America“ episode, “Evening Joe"

Instagram post for the day

Fun Tweet for the day. Another (Chelsea Handler on MTG). 


From the podcast on Biden's SOTU 2023, paraphrasing for fun: “I may be old, but they’re fucking crazy”.

Regarding the white trash response from some Republicans at SOTU 2023 embarrassing themselves, and addressing President Joe Biden, or any president... keep your mouth shut. This isn’t your place. I would like to say that I’ve watched the UK government, with their PMQ's (Prime Ministers Questions) and there is a lot of energy in that room at times. I have long wished we had something like that. I’d love to have seen Donald Trump as president showing up to that every week and being dressed down as should’ve been. Instead of so much scampering away in fear and tiny dick energy from a child as POTUS45. As so many, most especially Republicans did for four years and still some today. But this is America and the SOTU happens, not the place for autocratic toxic conservative, toxic capitalistic, full-on nutcase Republican, white trash comments.

Republicans for decades wanted to kill abortion rights, while saying they didn’t, stacking our courts until finally, it happened. They’ve long wanted to cut Medicare and Social Security, wanting those more as bargaining chips, which is like threatening to withhold air from people until they agree to do what you want. That is not bargaining. After a year of them saying they were going to cut Medicare and Social Security, and one saying he wants to have to vote on it every five years, which is ludicrous, now as they approach an election year, it's all, "Oh, no, we don’t wanna do that? Not until they get in power and just do it. More and more it’s as if Putin is their leader because this is exactly what he does. Lie, then act as he likes. GOP has been mimicking old Soviet and KGB tactics since the 90s and no... I’m not gonna stop saying it, because it’s true.

I think Dan just said on the podcast that Mitch McConnell lives to kill Social Security. Yeah, ask Mitch if he wants to help do something bipartisan like, and the first thing he’ll say is, "Sure, cut that and we can talk." Why do Republicans hate Social Security and Medicare so much? I suspect it’s because of their belief in “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps“ and their belief in "job creators" as Gods and being more important than the people that work for them. Which is an ideology and has little to do with our overall reality. As if they want to give people incentive, or force them to be wealthy enough to afford everything they'll ever need. Which just isn’t the case in a country, or in any country. Government is there to protect us, to help us become successful, to give us a platform for that. As the country and government becomes more functional, stronger and economically independent, wealthier. then they should be adding to what they can do to help citizens. Especially at this point. Most, especially those who are least able to "pull themselves up by the bootstraps". Be it because of themselves their family line, or systemic balances, or prejudices, or inherent bigotry. Government needs to level the playing field which while some would call that Socialism, isn't. It's simply making things functional. It’s not giving away everything. And just because something doesn’t work perfectly, doesn’t mean you should throw the "baby out with the bathwater". Which is always the knee jerk reaction from our toxically conservative friends.

Republicans like to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme. It's not, it doesn’t follow that model. It may look like that to ignorant people. It may work on convincing other ignorant people of it as a meme or a mob chant. But it is what I said in the previous paragraph. It’s basically there for national security purposes, to better empower a nation. What was that comment? Gandhi: “The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members.

Well? Our weakest members actually are the MAGA & their broken Republican Party. But they're not who Ghandi was talking about. Rather those they abuse.

Regarding Biden’s comment to SOTU about having a talk with your Black child about dealing with the police when they pull you over in a car. Being white, I never gave that much thought. Well, my older brother did tell me when I was young how to treat police. "Be respectful, don’t piss them off because they’re in control until they leave you alone." I’ve had a concealed weapons permit since I was 21. I didn't carry it all the time. I would carry it on car trips back when is in the Air Force, driving from Spokane to Tacoma. I called the Spokane police department once and asked them, "when you get pulled over on the highway, what should you do about that?" Their comment? You’ll have to ask the state patrol. So the next time they pulled me over for speeding at 72 in a 55... shortly after I was doing over 130 for about 50 minutes, cutting an hour off of our four hour trip... I asked him. Brief aside...

HEY! What the hell is that? This is really spooky! There is a loud tone coming from... everywhere! It just stopped! Now there’s just noise echoing all around me. Now it’s not. Wow! That was Really bizarre! Maybe somebody playing with an RV speaker system or something. but damn strange! END brief creepy aside...

Anyway, I asked the state trooper. I said, "I’m legal. I have a permit. But I’m carrying a gun. I just wanted to ask you what should you do when you get stopped in this situation, because I don’t want for some reason, you find it later and think I didn’t tell you." You could see it first, in his eyes... panic. But then he quickly relaxed. He started writing the ticket up and said, "Just don’t mention it." You've got a wonder though. If that was today or even worse, a few years ago before all this became so public, and I was black... then what? How would that have turned out?

How do you know things are really fucked up in your country? When the theme of an election is "democracy and making abortion illegal". When you’re revisiting things that were long ago established and one of them even over 200 years ago. Whoever is pushing that agenda? They’re not good people, no matter what they think of themselves, or who they’ve been before this... what they're doing is not good.

Well, I got two miles on my walk today. Double last time, but way less than what I had built up to, a while back, before my knee went out. Knee is doing good. Although I did have one weird tweak today, like my femoral artery, above and below my knee. Just a shot of pain, for no apparent reason. Weird. I need to remember to stop getting older. However, saying that years ago once to somebody, they said, "So you wanna die?" I said, "No. I don’t wanna die." They said, "Then explain to me what not getting older is?" All right, that's a valid point. But I just meant not aging anymore.
I have one option on that. And there’s that artery tweak of pain again. Well, at least it’s not my left arm…

I need to remember to do what the VA nurse told me to do after I'm down walking... stretch in various ways, especially my legs, for 60 seconds, when I’m done walking.[Later: I did, felt good, I have to expand doing that more regularly. I did hang a chart of stretches from Aikido in my kitchen last week so I'd get around to it.]

As they just said in the podcast about Gov (Governor...unbelievable) Sarah, Huckabee Sanders' rebuttal to the SOTU and her saying that we now have the choice between "normal or crazy." Wow, what a hypocrite. Yeah, that worked for Democrats against Republicans in 2022, so why wouldn’t they want to turn it around and try to throw it back at them. Because that’s what they always do. There’s a crazy they point they trip on over there and look away from themselves to say, "They're doing crazy!" Or, "They’re doing crimes!" Especially true with Trump. They do weird or criminal things, the point away and say, "Hey, it's Them! They’re doing those crimes!" It's all distractions, smoke and mirrors.

Great podcast quote:  “People who turn on Fox News think it’s a window when it’s a mirror."

Another good podcast comment: "If Republicans try to claim Joe Biden is a crazy radical leftist, it’s just not gonna work. Because it's just obviously not who he is." That'll only work on the craziest of the right wing. I mean the crazy radical leftist WISH Joe Biden was that, but he’s just not.

It’s not that Republicans sound crazy to normal people, which is the majority of Americans, but they just sound... weird.

A last few interesting things:

U.S. downs "car-sized" object

The “Dissident Homeschoolers” of Upper Sandusky: Katja and Logan Lawrence

The True Origin of the US Marine Corps' 'Oorah' Call

 

That's it. Stay well! Be Healthy! Go out now, be brilliant, be productive!

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #31

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

Weather for the day… 47 degrees and lightly overcast, and I can see blue here and there.

Podcast for the day podcast “Pod Save America“ episode, “After Balloon Delight" with a visit by Ron Klain

Instagram post for the day

Damn. It took me months after the worst of this bout of long Covid to get up to a mile and eventually five miles. Then winter hit and back down to 3 mile walks. But without my lack of conditioning overall and my lungs and long Covid exacerbated vagus nerve issues of blood pressure and heart rate. And then, my right knee went out. I asked the VA for x-rays and they said, "Go for it." But I said, "Well, I’m gonna wait and see how it heals." The Nurse said it might just be as bad as I thought and suggested stretching after walking (Hold 30 seconds before it releases, then another 30 seconds, something she learned working in the pain clinic). But I was sure it was leading to surgery. Because when I felt like this before in 1989 and 2000 in my left and right knee operations, respectively, this was how I felt. This time I was barely able to walk without a cane at first. But the last week or so it’s been good and I’m not needing a cane at all. And in this walk now, I'm past the half mile mark and feeling good. But I don’t wanna overdo it. So maybe next walk I’ll try two miles. It’s just so annoying. I’m used to most of my life be able to push it. In that sense I certainly miss my 20s and 30s, to be sure. But...you take what you have and make it the best it can be.

Olympic Mountains behind cloud cover

Ron Klain on the podcast has a good point regarding “Biden’s swagger“ if you will, at theSOTU last night. Because when Joe Biden come into office two years ago, the country was in the shit. We were still suffering from the Trump infection and Trump insurrection, the failed coup, the two trump impeachments and now we’re seeing how all the crimes he committed (actually most of his life) are in the courts and headed to the courst, while the DOJ finally get around to himeand why there’s a question about this, why there was ever, I  (we) don’t know. It’s somewhat because he was POTUS, but let’s face it, people were reticent to hold him accountable before that. It’s ridiculous. Indict him, try him and let justice go forward as it should. As it would with any of US. But anyway, things are so much better now after 2 years and in so many ways. The whole time Biden had to put up with mouthy MAGA types in Republican disingenuous, if not outright disinformation. And these new childish Republican congressional types, last night, utterly no class whatsoever, some of them. Remember when a miserable Joe Wilson yelled "You Lie!" at President Obama? Not the good Joe Wilson, because most Joe Wilson’s I know we’re good guys. I remember watching that thinking, "This is only gonna get worse on the Republican side." And here we are. The kangaroo Court Republican Congressionals are in session.

We currently have one political party in America. The Democratic Party. About a third of the Republican Party has lost its fucking mind, a third of it is, I think stunned, and a third of it is trying really hard to be the old Republican party, but they’re like Russian tanks in the mud.

We’ve had one Chinese balloon this POTUS46 term at least three we know of, under POUTS45. So I really don’t know what all this noise is about. Trump didn’t do a damn thing, at least Biden shot it down at some point. Not to mention Chinese spy satellites cann't see a lot anyway more than beyond what they already know, with a balloon that went over what everybody knows about mostly anyway. and the missile silos are where? Underground. Do we know if we signal jammed signals from the balloon gathering intelligence back to China? Because if no data was gathered over American soil, WTF is all the noise about? As for not shooting it down sooner, let’s see… say Biden shoots it down, and a piece of it kills an American citizen. So rather than dealing with all this crap from Republicans now, we'd be dealing with a dead American from an action Biden took? You do the math. Republicans would have lost their minds. "Why couldn't you wait until it hit the Atlantic and THEN shoot it down?" On the other hand, had Biden shot it down over American soil and it landed on a Drag story hour? As mentioned in the podcast, that would really screw up the Republican speaking points. Maybe they'd implode?

If the balloon wasn’t getting all that much information, our counter-intelligence certainly was. We had a chance to study it’s capabilities, and we can now pick up pieces of it to potentially learn a hell of a lot more. Apparently they gamed out trying to safeuly capture it, but there isn't the technology for that.

Just to say, milestones for Democrats these past two years are quite a few, actually. Milestones for Republicans outside of the negative MAGA insanity? Was working bipartisan with Democrats to get things passsed. Which I think pretty much says it all...

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #30

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…(2/2/23 Thursday)


Weather for the day… 45 and lightly overcast, and I can see blue here and there.

Podcast for the day pod, “Havana syndrome“ episode two

Instagram post for the day

I swear this podcast is a lot about Cuba, but also about the inside scoop on that country related to Obama opening up relations. Also, our government employees. And the CIA and Cuban intelligence. Also, that has to include Russian and Chinese intelligence. Also the Russians who trained Cuban intelligent services, who then got better, reportedly, than the KGB.

It was a career I was leaning towards (espionage) beforeI went into the USAF as law-enforcement. And still considered towards the end of that service when I interviewed with and got accepted into the OSI. Which the USAF's FBI. I was literally reading "FBI" magazine sitting in the waiting room (should have kept a copy), waiting to see the CO in our base OSI office. Didn’t even know the FBI had a magazine before that. But apparently they are only in offices like the FBI, the OSI, CID, and so on. But that’s another story. And so this is a very interesting podcast, for me.

Once I was accepted, after couple months of interviews and testing with the OSI, I requested to be stationed in Berlin as there had been a year long opening there (CO said no one wanted that position). I would have preferred Berlin over Cuba. But then we weren’t doing that in Cuba, at the time. Berlin was the place to be, to become a seasoned agent of any kind. I still wanted CIA, but I was going to go with USAF at the time. I would replace the OSI Officer the KGB blew up when getting into his car one day. Which was why no one else seemed to want that replacement position. It wasn’t unreasonable to think back then that I might’ve run into Vladimir Putin. I said this before, back then I might’ve even liked the guy. But I never thought a KGB agent being the "Czar" of Russia was a good idea. And then some years ago he changed, and eventually, inevitably, became fucking evil. But then I voted for George HW Bush as president, because I thought it might actually be good to have a president who had been had head of CIA. Who actually knew the inner workings of intelligence. So paint me crazy and call me a hypocrite. But then again in that, you can’t equate the USA with Russia, or the Soviet Union.

I’ve been setting up a streaming movie network for a niche audience that involves us independent film and filmmaker types. Allow me to qualify that… a set up for them, but not involving them directly. Although we three primaries the two founders, those who brought me on, all of us are indie filmmakers. We’ve all directed and/or produced somethings. I’ve learned a lot about this segment of the movie industry the OTT (over the top) providers (Services like Netflix, Hulu or Disney+ are video OTT services). I’ve actually been in the movie audience industry since childhood.

When I was in grade school, my stepdad got a job as assistant manager and box office cashier at a drive-in theater in Tacoma Washington. No longer in existence. It's now a plot of hundreds of apartments. Not having a lot of money in the 1960s, and him having a day job at a warehouse, every Friday night my family my two siblings and mom and I, would be at the drive-in, in our station wagon to watch whatever film was shown, eating employee discounted snack bar food. It was a good time and I learned a lot about things. I probably shouldn’t have learned some of those things. There is no rating system for films back then. My older brother had a job there, working in the field during the day. My olders sister had a job at the snack bar, in high school. After she left high school, I immediately entered it. Then I had a snack bar job there as cashier, as she did. Eventually, I became a snack bar manager, then also worked in the box office. That all  after my stepdad and his boss, our manager, moved to a brand new shiney Drive-in Theater in south Tacoma.

So that’s the viewer experience end of the movie business. Catering to moviegoers. Now I’m on the back end of that, for movie viewers, viewing from their home or a variety of electronic devices. We’re doing a lot of research in building and learning about film aggregators, and CMS (content management system) platforms. Dealing with investors and bringing on people to support us, as we’re almost immediately having too much work to do for just the three of us. I'm the IT department. I just brought someone on to train up. We had one failure in dropping the first CMS company we tried. A turnkey operation in India. From the start, I liked the platform but there were too many problems, and for us, they were too slow to fix things and be flexible as partners.

Half a mile walked now, taking it very easy on my knee. I’m doing well. Maybe. The VA nurse had told me when this happened on my last walk, how I should always stretch afterwards. I said, "Well, I’ve been on the board of an Aikido nonprofit school for years over a couple decades. I know stretching." I had to quit years ago because of my knees. Five minutes in class, my knees would swell up and I could hardly bend them. So I had to quit. They kindly offered I could just stand all through class and I did that for a class. It’s just not functional. You’re just an apple in a class of oranges. You really need to be able to go down and up and down a whole bunch of times. I do miss it. I started martial arts in 1965, then fighting tournaments beginning that next year. Isshinryu Karate. Aikido and Karate are very different. Aikido is Japanese for one. Karate is Okinawan, invented by unarmed farmers to deal with armed and amored Samurai who had taken over their island. I’ve taken various forms of martial arts over my lifetime until I discovered Aikido in college, in 1980. I’ve never been in a dojo where there is so much smiling and positive energy as an Aikido dojo. Kids just love the classes. More so than I’ve ever seen in Karate classes. My own kids took a form of Karate, we lacked in an Aikido dojo in the vicinity, I put my own kids in a karate dojo just so they would have some of that experience. Even though by then, I was not fully invested in their being in a Karate dojo. It’s better than nothing, but I would prefer Aikido for kids.

Getting back to Aikido, and espionage… Our dojo years ago had a big bear of a guy, who is I believe is Ukrainian. We got talking one day, might’ve been over drinks, out of the dojo, obviously. We both revealed something about our pasts that I’ve just revealed to you here. Him, not knowing any better, he wanted to go into the KGB. And I would argue now, maybe my not knowing any better, I wanted to go into the CIA, or something like it. I never had a desire to wear a uniform, even though I did (USAF). At 19 I took the Tacoma police department exams. I didn’t get it. I was mid-level on the test, not knowing you’re supposed to study for it. But I was way above everybody else on the obstacle course, in my running time. Fastest one that day to be sure by, 10 seconds. I was in the 40's next closest to me was in the 50s. Women were in the 60s (seconds). We were running the Fire Dept.'s obstacle course. I literally flew over it. Ran over the zigzag beams, the raised table, under the table in the sand, up and down the building stairs of several flights. And that was after being slowed down by one of the monitors there, accidentally. She said, "Run up the three flights carrying this 70lb rolled up rug to similate a person, across the top of the building outside, back in, down the stairs, come to me and wait for me to indicate what's next. I did all that, was standing before her again with her clipboard and she just stared at me. I said, "Well? Now what?" She got a shocked look on her face (maybe 5 seconds wasted looking down at her rather attractive face) and she said, "Oh!" Go out that window, back in that one, back out and hit the beginning of the field obstacles." I gave her a disconcerting look so she'd read I was not happy and she'd wasted me time and I took off.

Anyway, my friend at the dojo and I worked out in Akido together, the Ukrainian guy and I, we enjoyed working out together. Both respected each other in that. I said once that we could’ve one night met up accidentally, or on purpose, in a back alley in Berlin, us in the KGB and CIA (or for me maybe as OSI), And probably we would’ve ended up being more friendly. But in considering if we had to oppose one another, we both grimaced. I said, with him being bigger than me, I’d really not want to tangle with you in a dark alley like that. And he, perhaps, kindly said, "Hey, I feel the same way about you." Which I thought was a high compliment. And I said so. But he said, "No I’m serious. I wouldn't want to take you on." Perhaps he knew about my other martial arts history. I don't remember. There were one or two others in our dojo who thought they were pretty hot shit. Especially as I was learning and coming up to speed. They perhaps assuming incorrectly I was new to martial arts, after decades being in it since childhood. And I knew they were better than me, at Aikido, until I got equal to them. What they didn’t realize and I knew back in 2000 when I started at that dojo, I had already had 35 years of experience in other martial arts, which I kept too myself for a while. Aikido is a very different animal. So I was very much a white belt when I took my first college quarter class in 1980. Then returned to it in 1999 or 2000, maybe 2001? When I first heard of a local dojo, my wife read about it actually. She said, "Hey, you said if there’s ever a dojo nearby, you would go to it." She was taunting me some. I said, "You’re right." So I went down to check them out. They received me with friendly, open arms, and the rest is history. Our Sensei always said, "If someone cames into the dojo, welcome them right a way and asnswer any questions. Make them feel at home. Postive energy." And so, anyway, if you go to Hombu dojo in Tokyo, you can look my name registered in their records.

Now about my comments on my orientation, wanting to get into espionage. That came up sometime after high school. I never read spy novels. I read my first spy novel around the time my first born's birth in 1988. Somewhere I had aquired the entire collection of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Old black cover hardback additions. 

My pregnant wife read of them first, after I'd had them for years. I can't remember now where I got them from. I want to say from someone in my family. Perhaps one of my grandparents after they had passed. My wife said they were pretty good. I assumed. She said I should try reading them because I loved the movies. Yes, I loved spy movies. I have to admit to that. I saw "Dr. No" when it first came out, with my mother at the walk-in Community Theater on the corner of 56th & M St. a few houses down and across the street from where she had for a while, grown up, in a house across the street. Later my sister would have her first apartment in that very location, where an apartment building had been constructed replacing a few of the old houses there.

I love the tension and the espionage elements in those movies. Then I saw "Thunderball" with mom, at that theater again, when it came out. Then we saw my favorite, "Goldfinger". And so I read the books. For decades I hadn't wanted to fill up my mind with specifics, that were all fiction. Instead, I had read a lot of books by ex-agents and heads of the CIA and the KGB. Those who had retired and wrote a book, especially after the Soviet Union fell. So finally, I read those James Bond books and was stunned to find how different they were from the movies. And I liked them. By some time in the early 90s, I started to realize, "Hey, you’re not going into espionage, pal." So I started reading that fiction genre and really enjoyed some of them. Like, John le Carré. Who had friends who were spies, so he was good to read. And my favorite author, Len Deighton, who wrote novels that my favorite movie spy, next James Bond, "Harry Palmer" was in, played by Michael Caine in the films. Loved his characterization of that character.

So my point in saying all that, I spent decades, familiarizing myself with espionage and its culture and tactics, and especially the Soviet Union's, and their KGB and I would key into any news about either of them. "Know your enemy well. Better than they do." Which was why, as I’ve said many times, that back in the 1990s, when the still Republican Party started getting so weird and polluted, I started to notice they were using old tried and true Soviet disinformation tactics which only got worse until today. When even traditional Republicans don’t recognize the GOP anymore as an American political party.

So, in this episode of the podcast, they’re interviewing an ex CIA officer who was in Cuba after Pres. Obama nomalized relations, long overdue, greatly because of old Florida Cubans hating their old government, after abandoning Cuba. This CIA officer was talking about his day. He was a new CIA officer back then and he said, "I come home, maybe watch a show on TV and then go to the gym. So people ask anymore, 'What show did you watch?' He laughed, and said, "It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia". Everybody laughs on the podcast. I like this podcast, a lot.

That's it for the day. Got my lame 1 mile in. Headed home. Knee is doing well. This getting old thing, ain't for the young (or the old), to be sure. I remember all the wild things I did when I was younger and thought or someone said, "You'll regret this when you get old." "I'll deal with it then," I'd say, or think. Yeah, thanks younger self, much appreciated. But then, I did have some good times, I do have some great memories.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #29

 Writing notes My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…(1/14/23)

Weather for the day… 45 and some cool, looking ground fog and broken clouds in the sky or a blue moon. Looks cool.

Podcast for the day Pod Save America, "The House that MAGA Built", episode

Instagram post for the day

So I’m getting busy starting a new company with a couple of others. And I am listening to politics right now and again? It’s a mess (politics) and I’m getting really bored with it. And I got other things to worry about that are more specific to me and right now more important. There’s nothing fun or funny about starting up a company, but it can be rewarding. There’s a lot of growing pains we’re working through. It’s also reminding me why I left the corporate IT life. On the other hand, it means I have a lot of experience for doing this, and I had learned more than I ever realized. Because thinking of the three of us, I’m the one with the most big corporation experience at (near) the top level, in both IT and business. I’ve worked on some top-tier IT teams around the Pacific Northwest including US West Technologies (a fascinating place to work at their Bellevue offices), and some other companies. Companies that were no nonsense and you could lose your position if you didn't live up to standards, and rightly so.

So, on politics, since the podcast I'm listening to is referring to it… Republicans ran on a ticket of no platform other than hating Democrats and blaming Joe Biden for inflation. So their first order of business would be to do something about inflation. Right? What do they do? They voted down the desperately needed, greater funding for the IRS to reclaim more taxes for us, basically from the wealthy who find too many loopholes or outright fraud. Which means the IRS the burden again falls on us, the citizens, who don’t make that much to be so overtaxed and depended upon. GET the taxes from the wealthy and corporate who have the extra money to PAY taxes and PAY those taxes. Stop ripping US off! Look, I don’t make $1 million a year, do you? Or $10 million, or $1 billion? Those guys are now going to continue to get away with Screwing with their tax returns and unpatriotically, basically, steal our tax money. Their fair share. But House Republicans can now run around saying they defunded the IRS. Which apparently a few are. No, seriously. They are. Here’s the thing. It’s stupid. It’ll never pass the Senate. The president will never sign it into law. So what are they doing? Again, obstructing, subverting, twisting our government into being more dysfunctional. Why do they always want to throttle the government from what it’s supposed to be doing? They’re also against big government and yet they do things that requires bigger government. Like the whole thing about going against women’s rights. Stripping away civil rights. Things that requires more government. Unbelievable. And stupid.

As far as my not paying so much attention to politics now, hopefully. Whereas before I was watching news daily, hour by hour. When Trump was criminal POTUS45 and watching for very good reason. At any moment, he could have ended this country. Which he tried to do, failed in a coup and insurrection. Now it’s gonna take forever for justice to finally crack down on him and his. Republicans in the House in power now are going to have a bunch more of their famous, infamouse, kangaroo court "investigations" as they’ve done before with "Hillary‘s emails" and Benghazi and whatever other bullshit they could and can dream up. So no, these things were something that had to be watched moment by moment. Although now Ukraine, requires observation. Taiwan. But this is good timing for me, because I feel I can really devote my time to building this company. For now.

Something on the arts: I watched the latest episode of "Echo 3" on Apple plus. Man, I was not pleased with that ending, if that’s the ending episode. I don’t remember. I’m not sure how many episodes it has. My thoughts on the last episode? Not the ending I was hoping for. I don’t want to say much about it. But in a way a pretty realistic show. Things don’t turn out the way you expect in reality. War is very realistic when you get in the middle of it. You simply can’t foretell what will come, once you throw certain things in the process. And in that sense, I do like the show.

Since the Republicans seem to be following a MAGA agenda and extreme toxic right wing agenda, we desperately need truth and media laws again. We’ve got to get a handle on media lies in all or any media. In social media. It’s mostly on the right where the damage is being done to democracy in this country. But we also have to get a handle, as Europe has been trying to do, on social media and citizens as citizen journalists and reporters. There’s free speech, and then there’s misinformation that becomes misinformation to citizens when they do not vet that information, which journalists do (as best they can but at least they try). When citizens repeat it, parrot it in a force multiply of deploying it. That shit has got to stop. At least it needs to be reigned in and I would argue... ASAP. Sooner!

I think we’ve been discovering that massive media companies shouldn’t be owned by one person. They need to be accountable to truth, if not to government to the people through regulation. Somebody like Elon Musk shouldn’t be able to affect such a vast platform as his Twitter does. Rupert Murdoch shouldn’t have been able over decades to finally bring America to its knees and nearly find it destroyed through an insurrection by a criminal, POTUS45. Empower humankind, not forces against it. Technology is just a sophisticated machine. We’ve gotten to a point in this post information age (I would argue) that machines have gone beyond simple mechanisms, to multiplying criminal efforts to effectuate social concerns in directions most of us just don’t want to go.

Let’s remember, Marjorie Taylor Greene said if her and Steve Bannon were actually running the insurrection, they would’ve had guns and won. That’s an actual member of Congress, who was cut off from any power by House Dems, that is now under Republican House control and who will now be given power, as a member of Congress, having espoused sedition, insurrection, and in doing so offering aide and comfort to our domestic enemies, which is treason. And she’s still a member of Congress. And she’s not the only one…

POTUS45: over 30,000 lies told during his presidency.
US Representative and Republican Party mascot, George Santos: “Hold my beer.”

Why aren't they getting rid of George Santos? Who should not be in Congress. Even Republicans are complaining and refusing to work with him from his home district and state. Consider this and this is important. If Republicans had full control of the House and didn’t need George Santos? He’d be out of there in a second. But because they need his vote so desperately, they’re hanging onto him with tooth and nail. Tells you everything you need to know about the situation. He should be gone. But the Republicans in the House are ethically corrupt, and it’s all about them. Somewhat about their Party but has nothing to do with American citizens. Except for their base and they are MAGA. Yes, be afraid. But apparently no one can hear you scream… In the House of Representatives or in this Republican Congress.

President Biden: "Compare me to the alternative not the Almighty." And so of course Republicans compare him to the Almighty and then what are they comparing people like Trump to? The Alternative. Double standard? You judge.

The majority of the Republican base, the majority of the MAGA base, are uneducated white males who are against breaking Social Security and Medicare. While Republican leadership simply doesn’t give a shit. Because they just think it's a good idea.

Podcast: "Navigator" poll from last Thursday morning: ranked the least popular items of the Republican Party agenda at this point, and at the top of that their wanting to end Medicare & Social Security. Only 11% of their voters support it. NO one wants that!

Apparently, Kevin McCarthy conceded to the insurrection caucus. I mean the freedom caucus of ending federal taxing, for instead a huge sales tax increase. Oh, and abolishing the IRS. Which no one needs.

Apparently, Chris Murphy told Punchbowl this week, that because of the last week's debacle, Kevin McCarthy has to manufacture some new wins. And that’s never good.

Remember how in 2012 Kevin McCarthy said that Obamacare failed and Republicans are going to give us a very accessible healthcare system? We’ll? Still waiting. Like we’re waiting for Trump to give up his tax returns. Which we finally had to take.

I haven’t done anything but sit around and over the holidays, eat kind of incorrectly for fun. Haven’t been drinking alcohol because of long Covid and now working on starting this new company. Weather is been really crummy. So while I needed to be walking 5 miles every other day to counteract somewhat my long Covid, I haven't been. Today I only will do 3 miles. Because I've been so inactive. I could do four but, whenever I push it, which I would be doing in this case, it’s then harder to concentrate and work until like the next day. Today I need to go home and work on the company.

OK, this podcast from last Thursday. They’re mentioning Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel about the docs found at Pres. Biden's office and home. Since this is obviously not about the  same thing as Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago debacle, no special council was needed here...except for because of whiny insurrectionist types and MAGA. Merrick Garland would’ve made a great SCOTUS Justice, but we needed somebody more bold as Attorney General. That being said, he may well do a good job in the end of this, but we need bold moves, and we need this Trump/Republican divisiveness to end. Like bad children who need to be corrected, for this to stop. All we’re doing in going a bout things in this way is egging it all on. I don’t think Trump needed a special counsel either, but I could grant that. Garland has got to protect the DOJ and the FBI. Sure. But sometimes when you protect something you allow other things to fester and or coddle that bad mindset and position. So I really think Garland should’ve been on SCOTUS and we needed somebody a little more savvy, while there’s few who are in the kind of crap that Trump and Steve Bannon, in these massive lies and MAGA/QAnon issues and all this "tail wagging the dog" version of thus vastly broken Republican Party.

New conservative conspiracy theory: Obama setting up Biden to allow Gavin Newsom to become president. First of all the degree of disloyalty that invokes is mere projection by Republicans used to the disloyalty of their own and their own greed guiding them. I’m sorry, but it's just more projection from Republican's unethical behaviors, onto people who just aren’t their kind of people. Not that you could ever convince them of that.

Here’s what I would say about this whole classified documents and personal residences issue. What it says to me is we need better examination/monitoring as people leave office and maybe they need to be going through their things more completely, so this doesn’t happen again. Seems to me that checking in and out docs, needs to be worked out better. When you take your classified document and then you’re going to leave office, a month before you’re leaving alarms need to go off. And everything made accountable before you leave office. This is all just bullshit. Trump's a special case because those are criminal actions overtly, and quite very obviously.

Classified documents at Biden's places: Docs found by Biden's people. Docs were turned over to a national archives who didn’t even know they were missing and that’s another issue.

Biden's actions: His people offered any further help necessary, needed, required or requested.
Trump's actions:

• Intentionally took a "shitload" of documents
• He was given multiple requests to return them
• At one point purposely moved them to avoid them being found
• Had attorney's falsely testify there were no more docs & had all been returned when he knew they weren't
• Trump was so obstinate about returning docs the FBI had to show up unannounced to get them
• After the FBI did that Trump lied and said the FBI planted docs on him
• He then claims he declassified the docs, with his mind, something so dishonest no attorney of his would testify about under oath or in court
• And then he repeatedly attacked the FBI and all the people investigating him

So, which of those things did Biden also do? NONE. So in that sense they are not similar at ALL! If Trump had simply turn them all over and offered any others feel being handled just as gentle as MAGA thinks Biden is being handled now. And that’s really the issue. Trump didn't do anything like that. He acted as he always has... like a mob boss.

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walking Thoughts #28

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

 
Weather for the day… 35°, and foggy.

Podcast for the day is In The Bubble with Andy Slavitt, episode: "Presenting: This Day In Esoteric Political History"

Second podcast (see below) Lovett or Leave It! with Jon Lovett, episode "Holiday Grift Guide":

Lovett Or Leave cozies up in front of the roaring fire we’ve hurled 2022’s desiccated hull into during this, our last show of 2022. Mike Lindell (James Adomian) stops by with pillows for all the good little boys and girls of the RNC. Jena Friedman and Atsuko Okatsuka pull up a chair to your family’s holiday drama. Elon Musk (James Adomian) tries his hand at stand-up and spoiler alert: the audience is wrong. Lovett provides a personalized gift guy for the right-wing whack jobs in your life, and we end by putting our grateful well-wishes in the Thank Bank. Happy Holidays, everybody, and see you in 2023!Instagram post for the day

Comment from the podcast, "Twitter is now the circular firing party for things that don’t go your way."

I'd just like to mention that I think I’ve always been a “liberal“. I’m also, oddly enough, against things like Fascism. So if you wanna call me, "Antifa", then what the fuck? It strikes me as bizarre, anti-patriotic, anti-American and anti-democratic, those who rail against Antifa, who want to attack “Black Lives Matter“ types, at any cost. First, they can't seem to understand that Antifa is against Fascism. Although MAGA seems to be pretty pro-autocratic with Trump is their leader. Though I think he’s starting to dissolve in his own spit and mire. Also, liberal doesn’t seem to mean what people think as it’s defined as:

"Willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas. Also, relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise."

So of course, MAGA hates liberals and always wants to "own the libs" as idiotic as that is.

Liberal like entitlement doesn’t mean "overly" or "too much" or "give me free stuff". Liberal means democratic. Entitlement refers to things you’re absolutely entitled to... because they’re yours. Like Social Security which you paid into. There’s no freebies involved. It’s like, if you go to a store and buy some groceries. You’re fucking entitled to those groceries. You paid for them. But if you got tax breaks, if you’re wealthy or a multinational corporation who Republicans always strive for tax breaks for, which you haven’t earned or paid for... those are the entitlements MAGA in talking about by there definitions which are 180° of reversed from reality. It's strange. Upside down. Backward. Stupid.

I got to say walking in the fog, see you Instagram post for the day at the beginning of my walk, feels like at 35°, and flash frozen or something.

[It's later, I'm editing this at home, after a shower. End of the movie on Apple+, "On the Rocks" is on and the husband is apparently trying to impress his wife, working too hard, leaving her to believe he's not interested in her anymore. I made a similar mistake in my last divorce (yes, last...) only in another way entirely. Screwing up the relationship. Oh, and she was crazy. No, really. Still is. ]

I have to agree with what someone said, I can’t remember who it was, but this reference to Trump's "Team normal/Team crazy" crap when he was ridiculously POTUS45, at the end there, in trying to suborn a coup and an insurrection… was actually "Team Crazy/Team Criminal". Just sayin'...

Since blatantly telling lies by a Republican seems to be their platform for election anymore (see Donald Trump, see George Santos, see too many of the insurrectionist Republicans in Congress), perhaps Democrats, for a while, going forward, should start every speech, every comment with a lie, one that people want to hear, to bring them to the party, and then immediately turn around and say none of that’s true. Then go on with the truth. I know it sounds weird. But when you’re fighting old Soviet disinformation tactics by an out-of-control, seditionist Republican Party one needs to fight dirty. If not as ethically as possible. Somebody’s gotta be the Party of Ethics and it sure as hell isn’t gonna be a conservative based party.

Has there really been no governors on Fox News lately? Is that true?

The 2012 Republican "autopsy" failed, even though it was accurate. But Republicans decided instead, "No, we Want to follow a failing course, because we can garner power in that way. It’s a short term view, but somehow we'll make it work!" So how’s it working out for you? I’ll tell you, people like Tucker Carlson, who are the extreme end of this crap, why are they so very popular on Russian State TV. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about those types, what country do you think you live in? Because it isn't, America.

Yes, I’m on Mastodon. I tried to get on Post, but they're being an asshole about it. So I’m still utilizing Twitter, which I’ve been on over a decade. Sad to see what Elon Musk has done to that, not to mention Tesla. But some of my tweets from today pretty much laid out where we should be headed and we’re not headed. Like:

Tweet:

Why is Putin still breathing?

Why is Donald Trump still walking free (still breathing)?

Why is Louis DeJoy STILL Fucking Postmaster General?

Why is SCOTUS still polluted with toxic conservatives?

Why is Xi free to Putinesque (propagandize) his people into war?

Tweet:

Xi in China is prepping his people toward war.

We've got to make them aware & against war.

Like citizen flyers/posters in Russian for "free sugar" but a QR code going to Radio Free Europe & Radio Liberty, which are mostly video news & social media, anti-Putin, & pro Reality.

Tweet:

It's time for the end of Putin, end of Trump, end of the Republican Party. End of the nightmares governing any of humanity. End of Kim Jong Un family. End of Xi in China.

End Humanity's nightmares where you find them.

Yeah, I think you get the point...

To be painfully clear about how screwed up we are… The question is not , "DID Donald Trump break the law as POTUS45." He obviously did. The question is, "How is his execution to be brought on legally and executed quickly?" Because that’s what needs to be done to begin the return of the Republican Party to American politics and end toxic conservatism in being an ignorant and self-defeating, Putin supported disinformation campaign, an active measure against America and western democracies.

Now the podcast is agreeing with me in that what Republicans are doing is not sustainable. What they’re doing is always what is better in the short term. For immediate profit. Autocratic, which should worry people. Autocracy is anti-democracy. And for those in America, who like a "strongman" character, who like autocrats, well they're (again) in the wrong fucking country. If it’s true that 60% of the world are under autocratic rule, feel free to go there. The more autocratic nations there are, the more important these fewer democracies become. How do they not see that? How do they not understand balance is important? How do they not understand that our three branches of government need to balance each other out and monitor one another? How do they not understand that currently that’s not been happening and things have been force skewed toward the undemocratic? How do they justify the people not having a say in government, after decades of their railing against government, how is that a good idea? The Republican Party doesn’t appear anymore to be a conservative party, but a party of illogic, bordering on insanity. Unless you understand, they are anti-democracy.

My, Trump talking conservative, crazy older brother, and I don’t know how he got that way... and he doesn’t know how I got this way... when we both have probably always been the way we are, still calls President Biden, "sleepy Joe". How is that not "sheep bleating"? In repeating what Trump says, how is that not parroting Trump? How is that not cultist? How do you not see Joe Biden, who rides bicycles, has more energy than fat old stupid Donald Trump? The Republican one trick pony for evil? Where is the critical thinking? Where is the accurate information on the Right? Where is the American patriotism? Why have they subverted "patriot" to mean, "patriot for our international enemies"? Remember the MAGA T-shirt that said, "I’d rather be with a Russian then with Biden"? How do you not see Trump was never a good idea? How do you not see Putin was never a good idea? I’ve been saying since the year 2000 Putin as a leader, as ex-KGB… how was that ever a good idea for the Russian people, or the world? How do so many people not see any of this?

Yes, Democrats try to be progressive because what do they say about a sitting shark dies? They’re forward-looking and sometimes too far forward, but they mean well. Republicans are generally backward looking, into too far backward. Because if standing still kills a society, what does going backward do? Well, you can follow the pattern there, right? Because if you can’t, well "concrete thinking" won’t get you anywhere useful. Although it will get you there somewhere, useful for somebody, just not you, not for US. Somebody, like corporations, anti-union, multinational corporations, international enemies of democracy and America. I mean pick your fight, but apparently a third of this country doesn’t understand who they’re fighting for and it ain't them, and it sure as hell ain't us.

I’ve heard this repeatedly, that Americans and actually humanity, tend to make their best choices just as they’re about to go over a cliff, to their death. You know, a little proactivity could avoid that necessity? Could we stop doing that and not do that anymore? When you have a scientist in 1968, who wrote a book called The Population Bomb, who warned us that at 3 1/2 billion people, we’ve hit our max with what the earth can handle, for our lifestyle, worldwide. And now it's over 8 billion and we’ve exceeded that limit, by more than double. Why can’t we react appropriately to that? In all these decades since? What is WRONG with us?

So, I guess for something positive... enough politics for a second… Today is the signing of contracts for our new movie streaming network that we’re setting up. I have to get something ironed out as far as a contract, or something, for my efforts and compensation. Which there aren’t any right now and I’ve already been doing work the past few weeks. I think that’ll be OK, but this will be the first time I started working on something, like I said, weeks ago, without a contract already in place. I spent years as a contractor at some pretty high levels in IT thoughout the 90s, until I got a permanent job that I retired from and there on a high-level IT team, on the front line. So this is right up my alley. As far as the work I’ll be doing on the platform, I was a platform administrator, a software engineer, a networking server administrator, webmaster, a senior technical writer, and a bunch of other stuff. I have high hopes for this project and it’ll be fun to be able to let you know what it is, because I’m not allowed to say yet, until we go live. Wish us luck! We’re trying really hard as Indie filmmakers to set up a fun network of movies in a niche that will hopefully address some who are not being addressed. One thing we’re interested in is with Amazon prime having dumped a bunch of indie film maker's projects. Finding a place for their films is hard. And we're as well looking to handle much higher quality films, also. People need to understand that some "B" and even some "C" movies are better in some ways than some A-list films. The production values are low because they don’t have the money. But the stories, and sometimes the acting, or the directing, or whatever, there’s can be some value in these. And giving a place for these kinds of things does help to make things better overall. "Rising tide raises all ships." But Hollywood and others, needs competition and people need to open their minds a bit. We’re gonna be offering some free stuff too, viewing wise. Anyway, just know that we really do have the best of intentions and that's it's not just all about making money as the end all be all of things.

Since I took a brief aside from the podcast here… Regarding my ongoing long Covid issue. Last night I felt like my long Covid had ratcheted down to a new lower level, maybe. My body wasn’t reacting to things I was eating as it was before. Over reacting poorly. But I’m still having trouble sleeping, taking vitamin D to counteract the lack of sun and melatonin. I don’t like taking melatonin, but I took one last night so I could get some sleep for today. And I woke up feeling a little touch of long Covid again. Which I really don’t need to feel. Ever again. Anyway, I do still feel it a bit. Though I’m at the trailing end of long Covid, going on nine months now. First time I had it in 2020 I noticed after eight months, it started trailing off and my lungs started to feel normal. Then at 14 months I felt it was over. But then I couldn’t tell, when I would feel it over that next year, if I was catching something but my body was fighting it off successfully or if it was long Covid recycling back a little again, once in a while. There’s so much we don’t know, still. But then, I covered a lot of this in my book “Suffering Long Covid”.

From podcast: remember 2016, and all the Republicans on stage and how Trump kept hanging on, like herpes? And how people kept saying it wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t, and he shouldn’t have access to votes, ever again.

Remember how we used to hear how political parties and candidates, political leadership was paying too much attention to polling? And then they started this crap about "we have to follow what our voters want", which sounds good, but as we’re seeing, it’s really fucking dangerous. I noticed something in the word, "leadership". The word "leader" is actually in there and those in leadership should look that up. And yeah, you can push it and say the word "ship" is in there too, and when it’s sinking, I don't know, DO something to keep it from doing that? But not at all or any cost, and certainly not at all or any cost to any or all others, just not you, merely to keep yourself in power and profit and in office (unofficial GOP motto). Republicans need to start respecting people like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, and those candidates who stand up for ethics in America and not just follow Trump puppets heading to the end of that "cliff". How many cliffs are involved in our politics anymore?

Why was Trump flushing documents down the toilet? Why was Mark Meadows burning documents in the fireplace after meetings which appear to have been involved with the insurrection? When you say "what’s the big deal?" The big deal is that everything in the White House belongs to the people and you can’t just burn it. If you do wanna burn it you can’t, but you have to get permission, even if it IS yours, or the president's, even if it's not the People's. But you can’t just burn stuff. Good God... review Watergate!

Well, I’m now at mile 2 1/2 miles and the podcast is over. That was a short one.

OK so second podcast for the day, "Lovett or Leave It"...

So apparently each of the guys from Pod Save America that I listen to have their own podcast. And this is apparently the gay version. One wonders why gay versions of things are so sexually oriented? When you do that as heterosexual, you’re considered immature or perverse. I don’t really care either way. I suppose some of it is just they’re willing to say things others won’t. And we need that. And there’s some really great journalists who are gay who will stand up, say things. Maybe because they’re used to having to do that in their own lives. Then once they come out, they've fucking had it with hiding. We all need to have fucking had it with hiding. The insurrection happened because police were afraid of looking bad because, although they don’t seem to have a problem with beating on Black Lives Matter protesters, they were worried about beating white MAGA protesters or something. So yeah, had all of those people been gay, and I do mean the police… What do you wanna bet the insurrection wouldn’t have happened?

I’ll say this about open sexuality. Having been born in 1955. I spent my entire life being more progressive than normal and more open about things, although quiet about some things. Personally, I pushed my limits, but I also respected the fact that it didn’t work that way for others. Because others were mostly all like that, incapable of being flexible and relaxed and open. But it appears in the past, I don’t know, 10 years or so, maybe 20, perhaps I wasn’t paying attention to this while raising two kids, it appears that the openness about sexuality and such things has surpassed me. Giving an example. Not sexual. In the 60s and 70s I did some interesting things as a kid. Things other kids didn't do. I would tell people stories about myself and would even damn them down. I would leave out things I thought were cool about things, because people wouldn’t believe me. And people still didn’t believe me. Now a lot of those things other people have done or are doing and it’s more normal and it’s on TikTok or Instagram or something. Now I’m boring, while at one time I was unique and more fascinating. So maybe the things I fought for quietly and pushed for, have finally come to be, and our society has opened up. Yeah, we still have conservatives and Republicans who react to what they think is toxic, sadly, in a toxic way, making themselves the enemy, as they fight what they think is the enemy. I tell you, we’ve been through paradigm shifts over time, every so often. The 60s was one. We’ve definitely had a few. But we usually had time to have a breather between them. What we’re seeing now, since the information age hit, after it had a few years to get itself on its feet...we’re now getting hit with multiple paradigm shifts and because of all the information worldwide that we’re getting instantly, we’re getting hit with paradigm shifts from different cultures, too. Since were multicultural, those people live here too, yeah, it’s making us a bit schizophrenic. But we also have a strong form of government, if we'd just let it exist. Breathe. I will be OK, you will be OK. I suspect will all be OK. But it’s gonna hurt. People are gonna die. All we can do? Minimize the pain and the damage and the death. Oh yeah, and we’re fighting all this on an international scale. But, there’s a way I’ve looked at things like this, all my life, and it helped me get through. And that was this. "I will either die or succeed." If we die, what’s the matter? If we don’t, we have to make it succeed. When you consider that the toxic conservatives, the MAGA, the crazy Republicans, are really only a third of us, and that is diminishing, but it’s not reality, and as I said it is diminishing. And has my "vicious dying animal syndrome".  Which is, as things are dying. Religion or conservatism (which I’ve never liked) or this version of MAGA/Republicanism, they each will lash out and bite and attack and try to harm anything around as it too slowly dies. We need to segregate it off and help it die faster, turn off the oxygen, strangle it if we have to. Problem is we have to do it legally and as some of them are criminals, they have no rules or boundaries to follow. And as "dying animals" are, they don’t care, they just want to damage because they’re hurt. You can have compassion toward them, but you also can have compassion via euthanasia when necessary, and when it’s the right thing to do.

So all Americans deserve respect and a place in America. But not MAGA if you’re working against America! Yes, that includes gay people and yes, that includes trans who all have a place. They are people who are generally more patriotic than MAGA , and from what I’ve seen, in the past three decades, Republicans, Republican leaders, while I should say I’ve met many patriotic Republican voters. I’ve also met a lot of confused MAGA types who think they’re patriotic. But functionally speaking they’re working more for Putin, not Biden. And even IF you don't like Biden, you really should be more for HIM, than Putin. Ya know? I mean, really.

I have to remember to add a new chapter for graphics in my new companion book for my film, "Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero".

So fake Santa/fake Mike Lindel pillow guy, in the Lovett podcast, just said that "the voting machines are so rigged at the next RNC chairman gonna be Hillary Clinton."

So Lovett says the TLC channel released trailers on their new show "MILF Island" with a twist. And then you year one of the mothers when they arrive wherever, say, "What the fuck?" And I thought, OK, what the fuck? So I figured, it’s got to be eight mothers and eight of their sons, as love interests, mix-and-matched. As then Lovett says, "It’s got to be eight mothers and eight other sons. Right?" Bingo. And then he says, "OK, so what else could it be?" And then says it's like a "30 Rock" skit for an episode. It’s ridiculous. It’s a stupid joke that they turned into a show.

About small dogs. Uh, No.

So "Rudy Giuliani" My Pillow company flip-flops for $79.95 actually exist. WTF? Use the code “Rudy“ for a discount at $49.95?

The old movie "The Exterminating Angel" is about people who can’t leave a party (I have to check this out...Oh! it's a Luis Buñuel film! I wonder if I saw it decades ago then?)? Here I thought he was talking about "Russian Doll "on Netflix. I love that show. And Natasha Lyonne, let’s face it.

Before I left home for my walk today I read somewhere that people who leave without saying goodbye‘s save three days a year. So does that mean the "Irish goodbye" is in now? Well, I’m part Irish, and I guess more Scottish, and a little Welsh, among other things, including a bunch of Slovak, on my mom side. I’ve done that "just sort of fadeaway" thing and then I’m not there anymore. But admittedly, in my later years, I’ve tried to be more stand up and just take time to seek people out and say goodbye. I mean I always say thank you, I’m always appreciative. But if you get to where you feel like you’re not there and people don’t seem to know you’re there, then maybe it's time to leave and if you were to say goodbye, and no one notices...well? Leave.

So don’t you sometimes want to do a DNA check of anti-Semites just to find out if they’re part Jewish? Because I sure as hell have wanted to take white Christian nationalists and check their DNA for African DNA. Which has actually happened a bunch of times now. And they did have African DNA. 

OK then. Four miles walked today. On to, I don't know, something else the rest of the day...

Cheers! Slainte!

Walking Thoughts #27

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts…(My walk was yesterday, I'm editing this and posting it today on New Years Day)

Happy New Year 2023!

I just received an email from the Indie Filmmakers Awards in California. I received an email from FilmFreeway.com yesterday indicating I'd won for my submission of my antiwar historical documentary and filmic poem, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero". But the email today from the awards festival indicated my award not for just the film, but as director! My first director award! I had submitted to a Dublin festival for best Director but only got Semi-Finalist for the film (I had a great time in Ireland in 2015, by the way). 

Weather for the day… 45° and overcast

Podcast for the day The Problem with John Stewart, episode with Mark Cuban, Maria Ressa & Julia Ioffe Join Our 2022 WrapUpFestPalooza

Instagram post for the day

Maria Ressa on the MIT study, finding that lies travel six times faster than truth on social media (Specifically, Twitter). Also, how toxic conservatives been hampered on Twitter for saying stupid shit and outright lies and hate speech as a first amendment issue until Musk bought Twitter, when it’s suddenly becomes a private company where Elon can do whatever he wants according to conservatives because now they can speak and spew their nonsense.

Zuckerberg with Facebook was Rupert Murdoch 2.0 where now Elon Musk with Twitter is Zuckerberg 2.0.

We need some new laws for social media. There’s no doubt about that. We need to protect human beings, not just America. Twitter is global, so Elon Musk has this global social media power through Twitter. That has to stop with our making Elon Musk the very last one allowed to do that. It needs to be run by some kind of a board who are accountable to someone. Like in Europe, who had seen this ahead of time has done way better than America in moderating this kind of stuff.

If Trump was President, he would be hitting on Elon Musk to be head of the FCC. What do we think the ramifications of that would be? Not good.

John Stewart: you can be good at Twitter, or you can be profitable, but you can’t be both.

Mark Cuban on podcast: I might invest in Twitter depending on its valuation but not right now. Post News, I would have invested in it but they’re evaluation of $250 million was too high. Mastodon, it was too hard to use in its too many servers and just too confusing. I like Post better. Mark also said about Elon buying Twitter, don’t give him too much credit for all the stuff he says, in the political angles. He’s just another rich guy who got a new toy he’s playing with it. How just wants to have his voice heard but he wants profits.

Maria said Twitter in the Philippines is far better than Facebook or YouTube, certainly in allowing her some protections. And in the Philippines, Facebook is essentially, their social media.

Elon is providing Internet for Ukraine, but last month he raised the prices by 25%.

Elon should be charging Russia for Internet access for Ukraine, as long as the Russian are within and attacking Ukraine.

Fatalism has somewhat taken over in America, especially for conservatives & autocrats. In Russia, the propaganda is so much that same thing, happening there. People don’t know what to believe in Russia or who to listen to so they just shut down and go "well government? Do whatever you want. I don't matter, and can't." This is not something that happens by accident.

As far as the Russians, noticing that their men dying in Ukraine, for apparently no good reasons, as Julia points out on the podcast, remember that they’re not Americans. They don't expect life to be a get better, they're Russians. who have centuries of basically being serfs, forever abused by the elites.

Julia tell the Russian joke to explain the Russian mentality: A bunch of Russians are standing in a pool sewage with it up to their noses. One of them raises his head up looks around and says, Hey let’s organize and get out of this shit. Someone else says, Hey stop making waves!

Considering how much faster, lies travel, and how companies can make money off of it on social media, look at the Republican party with people like Trump or George Santos ...lies aren’t sticking anymore. They can say whatever they want, getting what they want (elected), profit from it and yet, still stay in office? Again. Who is STILL Postmaster General right now? Louis DeJoy. How many Supreme Court Justices do we have who should never have been allowed on the Supreme Court? At least four conservatives. That, is not good.

I'd just like to mention yet again that I started telling everyone I knew back in the 90s that I was seeing the Republican Party using old Soviet KGB disinformation tactics and techniques. It was blaringly obvious to me. I was attuned to noticing whenever the Russians did something like that. Then suddenly I started to notice a change in the GOP and realized, they were doing the same things. They’ve only gotten better at it over the years and expanded it. I would almost argue now that it’s coming back around to beginning to destroy them. Because it’s never been a last forever this kind of thing. KGN only used it for short term efforts that were then supported by other things or actions executed in the short term. The GOP has been relying on it now for decades. Just as autocracies sooner or later cave in on themselves, so too will the GOP. And should they take over America? That version just won't last.

As Maria’s pointing out now, why are some of us now in America electing a illiberal leaders? That makes absolutely no sense at all. But that’s not just America, as she points out 60% of the world is under autocratic rule. And if this keeps happening…well?

Corporations and governments are now doing exactly what we’ve been doing for decades to our earth. We take the wealth out, and we let the worst happen, we allow parts of the world to die for it, because of it. We now seek politicians, who are taking wealth out for themselves and their kind, and their supporters... and I don’t mean citizens or voters. I mean, lobbyists and corporations, dark money and letting their/our citizenry die, sometimes, literally. It can’t be avoided to say that Donald Trump allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans die because of his purposeful befuddled COVID-19 Response. There is no making excuses and saying that he got the vaccine out. That’s absurd. Just because the vaccine got out under Trump has nothing to do with what he did before, or after that point.

We have to ask ourselves as Americans how much responsibility do we bear for the war on drugs destroying families and citizens, for decades. And then a two decade plus war on terror help spin up some of the autocracies in the world, adding to an autocratic movement around the world.

Julia said in 2015 Putin helped in Syria by bombing the shit out of them to generate in part all the many refugees to flee the country, which help lead to Brexit and other issues in Europe. A force multiplier situation.

To my VA doctor. I want to thank you as I’ve said before, for helping me through this year. Especially from the end of March when I caught COVID the last time, until our last email, for all the support and sometimes just listening or not reacting poorly to my emails. I did want to mention one thing, that my dentist noticed a dark spot on my lip which in researching it, I’m assuming could be nothing. And also, although 2022 wasn’t the worst year of my life, it was certainly the scariest from this last bout of Covid and long Covid. Which I’m at the trailing end of and which could drag on for more months or (I’m hoping not), beyond to March of 2023. Since I’ve read some doctors saying it seems to last about two years for many and the last time I caught it, it lasted about 14 months. I felt because I can, I should, and so I did write a book on long covid and the experience. I just wanted you to know that and share that with you. I titled it, “Suffering, Long Covid“ and published it end of October. Anyway, happy new year and here’s hoping the VA has all the funding it needs so you guys aren’t so overworked anymore, and that Covid or whatever the next pandemic might be, won’t be.
Also, to help me get through the end of my last long Covid in early 2022 I had created/produced out a filmic poem, antiwar historical documentary titled, “Pvt. Ravel's Bolero“. It’s been winning a lot of awards and I just won another one in California today, for best director of an experimental short film. Anyway…
Cheers! Sláinte!

Maria says here that Russian military doctrine, according to KGB head, Yuri Andropov said disnformation is like cocaine, it's OK to consume once or twice, but if you taken in a steady diet of it you become a changed person. Welcome to Russia. Welcome to America.

Mark Cuban: And it’s all gonna get worse.

Mark also says those who control what goes into AI's like ChatGBT, or DaVinci version 3.5, they will control a lot as it can be Weaponized.

The first murder in history put us on the path to "Godhead", but it took social constructs of government and laws to reign that in. We can now design babies using CRISPR, but government regulations worldwide won't allow it.

The first murder was supposed to be when Cain killed Abel. He got kicked out of town because God didn’t like a human broaching the realm of Godness. Except that wasn’t the first murder. Because Cain then went to the land of Nod, married some woman whose brother had killed somebody (my personal Biblical history) and so they felt an affinity over that and that’s how they got together.

Mark Cuban pointin st where there’s no transparency there’s crime. So how about if you run for public office your tax returns are immediately examined. Yes, we'll have to pay more for the IRS. Get over yourself. I was thinking, do that with the president and whoever is a candidate. And then I thought, Congress, too. And then I thought, governors too, because they’re the "presidents" of their state. And then it occurred to me, if transparency helps to illuminate crime and abuse, then if you want into public office you'd better be honest and we'd better see your tax returns.

Paraphrasing Donald Trump: "Yes, I gave politicians money because they would do what I say." That’s proving both politicians he paid and Trump himself, are corrupt. He went on to say because he knew how corrupt they are, voters should elect him to fix all this. And so MAGA, elected a corrupt person. Or as we used to put it, a fox/wolf was set to oversee the chicken coop/flock of sheep. Dumb.

Regarding Congress and insider trading? I've said this many times. If you’re gonna be in Congress, you have to eliminate your portfolio or convert it to like an IRA/401(k) set up just for Congress. Or maybe better, set one up for all government employees which helps to demystify it. And make it more egalitarian.

Mark: it takes a few frauds to burst a bubble. Financially speaking. So now that a few of these things have rolled over in crypto, that’ll get looked at and probably fixed. But we don’t have the same thing for government. 

How many of those frauds have happened? Because it’s been happening all through history, so it's become normalized. No one ever really thinks about it. Just fix it. But instead, it’s more like, "Oh look he’s having a massive heart attack and a compound fracture. He’s bleeding all over the place. Here’s a Band-Aid."

Word for the day from Mark Cuban: duopoly. Referring to our two-party system in America. Which he said is why he likes the ranked choice voting. Which I’ve been liking a lot too since I first heard of it only a year or two back.

I know people get confused between sociopath and psychopath. The way I view it is there are many sociopaths. A lot of them are drawn to leadership and a lot of them are actually harmless. But they don’t have the same need to follow the rules as most of us. When you add narcissism into that (see, Donald Trump), it’s like adding an octane booster into the crazy cocktail. A psychopath is within the group of sociopath and more acute/dangerous. He went to sociopath university and became a graduate Summa Cum Laude. And that’s amongst their cohort, their group of their peers. And that could be people in their social circle, there physical location, or economic/ political stratum, worldwide.

There are people who can’t differentiate faces. In some cases, it’s a pathology. For most of us who have that issue at all, we’re just not that good at like picking people out of a lineup, say. Artists are much better at it than most people. We’re seeing that today with too many people who can’t differentiate fact from fiction. That’s achieved through many routes. The problem today is that some of that is achieved through selective ignorance, and choosing what pleasures them. Until they finally can’t see fact because they're so estranged from it. Maybe the primary way to explain Donald Trump getting elected. Obviously that’s also all been magnified through foreign entities, who are our enemies (and domestic enemies) who are simply profiteers, toxic capitalists and toxic politicos.

Many of the people who seem to get the furthest in America, merely say American patriotic things, and then do the opposite. Thank you for that comment, Julia.

Sometimes I feel like I got fucked, family-wise. On the other hand, I had two dad’s, my birth father, who didn’t seem to want anything to do with me, and my stepfather, who really didn’t seem to like me, who made my childhood kind of a hell. Who when mom told us she was marrying him, I was five years old and said, "NO, I don't like him!" And rightly so. But she was pregnant so... And I had half a mother, who in the last half of her life, my life, made life hell her my siblings and I (and her). But in the first half of my life, she was almost like two mothers worth of mother. Who loved us a lot. My own two grown kids I dearly love and they love me very much. I made sure of that. I didn't want my kids growing up disliking their parents as I had. It didn't work out so well for either of their mothers however, who didn't pay that kind of attention to raising them. So maybe that makes up for all of it, having kids who love me. What I mean about feeling like I got screwed, family-wise, was that I grew up watching those early 60s family TV shows where everything was perfect and mom worked around the house wearing a nice dress and pearls and nobody got divorced. while I grew up in a family where my siblings were all half siblings, we all had different dads and my parent's relationship sucked. Life. Can't live with it sometimes, surely can't live with out it.

Somehow, I ended up with a bunch of 10% off coupons from Safeway for getting my vaccinations this year. I’ve gotten a few between Covid shots/boosters and other things and so today was the last day of the year. I finally used one of those coupons for 10% off for fun stuff for New Year’s weekend. I was standing there looking at a couple of those coupons at the self checkout, so...I just left them there for whomever else comes by after me... so here, have 10% off!

Here’s a question, asking for a friend… Is murder justified if you buy through the mail a signed author copy of a book and it has one of those fucking stickers on it that says "author signed" copy that you can’t get off the front cover? I mean that’s justified... right? May this new year have no "author signed" book stickers on them!

Cheers! Sláinte!