tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057942403182214892024-03-14T13:36:54.064-04:00artfulnotesPortrait of a Cranky Old Manartful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.comBlogger794125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-45064297942385773722024-03-11T13:50:00.001-04:002024-03-13T10:31:21.716-04:00Extremism<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It
seems now that every day I read something about a group within or aligned to
republicans, who are labeled as “extremist” in some way. Generally, they are
labeled as “Extreme right wing” politically, or sometimes as “Extremist
Christian-Nationalists”. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am not quite
sure what is intended by those labels, but when I read more, it seems that such
groups are autocratic in origin, and would, if given power, move to eliminate
other religious or political groups that are of more liberal origins and purpose.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Seemingly,
the concept of “Separation of Church and State” is regarded by these groups as “Libtard”
BS, and must be eliminated from our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now, these groups are also always aligned with republicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the Republican Party has become,
seemingly, a party of extremism, perhaps since Donald Trump took over the
party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, now, with Lara Trump moving
into the position of Republican Part Co-Chair, along with James Whatley. Mr.
Trump now seems fully in charge of the party. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
sit here with my mouth wide open, saying “Whaaaaaatt”? Bear in mind, I first
came to an understanding of republicans when Dwight Eisenhower ran and then
became President in 1952.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, that party
has included Ike, Reagan, two Bushes, Nixon, and now Trump. Now, whatever your
thoughts about any or all of the above prior republicans, Trump seemingly falls
into a totally different character-set than any of his predecessors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To me, he would be more easily placed within
some foreign political party, like Benito Mussolini’s party in WW II Italy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
yet, and yet, Mr. Trump is now the darling of republican voters. How is that
possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did American republicans
turn into autocratic Christian Nationalists, fully capable, we now imagine, of creating
the equivalent of Concentration Camps for immigrants, or more simply to house people
they don’t like?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We
now no longer have just two political parties. Apparently, that ceased since
2016. How did this Nation go from electing Barack Obama to electing Donald
Trump? See, I do not think that we will survive a second Donald Trump presidency.
Because, I think that Donald Trump is delusional, perhaps even now subject to
bouts of dementia, and that he actually does not believe in democracy. He seems
to be living sometime in a prior century, perhaps 1930-40s Germany or Italy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
why is it that Americans do not understand that fairly obvious truism. Donald
Trump does not really wish to become US President. He intends to become the
first Autocratic Ruler of the Americas, and there to remain until he dies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He never uses the term “King”, but clearly
that is his intent. If he is ever actually elected, he will never relinquish the
office or the controls offered thereby. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Americans
on the right wing of our politics, do you not see that? By voting for him, you
are expressing your OK with the end of the American Democracy. You are saying
it’s OK if America becomes a racist-homophobic, anti-immigrant, and maybe even
Jew-Hating Nation? That is what he stands for, and it is now what his political
party stands for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, again, how is
that possible?? I feel as though I am living in some weird Nazi-Fairy Tale, and
I desperately want to awaken to return to the America I love and respect. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
guess we will know come November, but almost every day some new news about
America sliding to the right peeks through the News. But maybe that’s just the
Foxy-News and we seem to be receiving more Foxy News hype than the civilized
outlets. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I need to just turn off
all News. But no, I could not go on without my NPR news. So, I will have to put
up with the bad news screaming from the other side of our universe, in the
hopes that this awful stuff does not actually represent the real America. Let’s
hope folks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-90632083505966681002024-03-06T14:11:00.000-05:002024-03-06T14:11:15.131-05:00Anger v. Apathy<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As
we watch the anger arising all over our country during this godforsaken thing
we call our election, I wonder about what is the cause. And then we watch an
interesting TV series on Netflix called, This Is Us. And, it is loaded with
Father anger issues.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And what are they? </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Well, apparently, many fathers go through life
unfulfilled and they toss their anger at their kids, often their male kids. So,
for whatever reasons, Daddy grows up unhappy, and has a lot of Daddy anger. And
so, the kid grows up with lots of </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">anger
tossed his way, making him also feel unfulfilled and diminished.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now, do the moms of the world grow up angry
and toss their anger at their female kids?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe, but I’m a male and possessed an unfulfilled Father, so mostly I
see the Father anger issues.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">My
own family had a Daddy who was seriously flawed for reasons known only to him
and his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Father died fairly
early, so my Father grew up in a largely female household. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, as I grew up in Manhattan, we visited my
Dad’s mom, my Grandmum, fairly frequently, along with her two daughters, my
Aunties Helen and Elsie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now Grandma and
her two daughters seem to be fine humans and certainly always treated my mom
and me and my siblings wonderfully. Sunday dinner was always a fine repast,
filled with great food and family camaraderie. Oddly, my recollections almost
always reveal our visits to be without my Father. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember him to be a Hit or Miss figure,
mostly Miss. When he lived at home (infrequently) I recall him almost without
any defining characteristics. And remember, I grew up in Manhattan during WW
II. My Uncle served in that War, but not my Dad—he was too old I guess (38??).
Actually so was my Uncle Bill, but he served in the Seabees, so maybe they had
fewer age issues than for dudes toting a gun. Mainly my memories of him were
things like this. I’m sitting at home in the kitchen with my mum, sis and bro.
Rudy the Dad is missing. Then Rudy comes to the door of our flat and he knocks
and then asks to see me. Mind you, I am about 6 or 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wants to see me. So, I go out into the
hallway and sit down on the stairs. And he doesn’t yell at me or anything. He
pleads with me to ask my mum to let him come back into our Flat to stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, after a bit, I go back inside and tell my
mum what he wants. I fail to remember the result, but I think he was allowed
back inside. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
then, see, in not too long an interval, he managed to leave again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, mostly, I grew up not so much with an
angry Father figure, but a missing person, aka my Father,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My last encounter with him was fairly
typical. During that War, my mum managed to buy and save War Bonds. When the
War ended, she made a big decision. My bro and I used to play on the street on
71<sup>st</sup> Street near Second Avenue. And we kept having “incidents”. I
broke my arm once. Then I tore a hole in my arm, requiring 12 stitches. Then my
bro was run down by a lorry, requiring hospitalization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, after the War, my mum decided that she had
to get us out of the City. So, she took her stock of War Bonds, and went across
the river into Rockland County and bought a little house in a place called New
City Park. My grandpa (the one from Scotland) was carpenter and he fixed up the
place so it was livable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mum decided
to keep on working at her company in Manhattan and send my bro and I up to the
newly acquired house, with my Father, who apparently promised to behave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would stay at Gibbs and Cox in Manhattan
and live in our Second Avenue flat with my sis. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father would get a job (bartending)
somewhere in New City or Nanuet and live in the new house, taking care of me
and my bro.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we all went about our
new lives. She even bought him a car of some sort. Now, I do not recall any
incidents with our Father during that interval. No anger, nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Then,
Winter began coming on. And sometime in November, our oil heater failed. I
awakened to a fairly cold house without heat. As I awakened, my bro and I
noticed something odd. Our Father had gone. Yep, the heater failed. It was
cold, and he apparently did not know what to do, and so he simply left with no
word to my bro or me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, of course, we
called our mom and informed her of Daddy’s latest. She fairly quickly quit her
job and packed up and moved over to New City Park. She got a new job as a
bookkeeper, got the heater fixed, and simply moved in with my sis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that was the last time I saw my dad. Once,
maybe a month later, he tried to return to the house, but my sis and my bro
refused to let him in. So he left again and we never saw or heard from him
again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But,
there was no visible anger. I guess there was a lot of retained anger, but none
of it showed, or was revealed in any way. My mum just moved on, with a new job,
and my bro and I just re-entered new schools. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now,
the purpose in talking about this is to examine how I wound up with none of the
anger issues I see on TV and all around our Country. Why do people actually support
Donald Trump? Well, they’re angry for some reason. I wound up, instead with an
emptiness—no Father. But I experienced no real anger, except maybe a kind of
intellectual anger. I had a weak Father, who doubtless produced fury within my
Mother, although neither she nor my sis ever let it show.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So,
I came away from my childhood with more of an emptiness than any serious anger.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, when I observe on TV these
almost palpable anger issues caused by Fathers who dumped their anger on their
kids, I view them from an intellectual distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can understand them, but without any
emotional attachment to them. And I remain uncertain why I never managed to
acquire the anger. Mostly, I think, it is because my Father never dumped on me.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He never yelled at me, never tried to
make me feel like a simpleton idiot. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So,
I wound up with no serious Father Figure emotions at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I think I turned out ok without these
Father anger issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I just never
learned how to be an angry Father. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing, when I
observe all the anger around us all in America.<o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-53616712655791045602024-02-29T11:25:00.000-05:002024-02-29T11:25:45.729-05:00TrumpLand v. America<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As you may
know, I am approaching my 90</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Birthday this year. And I don’t know
if it is related, but I seem more preoccupied of late with what seems to be the
rapid deterioration of the Republican Party. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I think I have been paying attention to
Presidential politics since I was in my early teens, maybe even before, since
there was that WW II thing, with FDR leading our Nation.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I voted in 1952. With Ike running away with
the National vote. Ike was our President til 1960, and he was a good one,
despite being Republican.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Republicans,
it seems to me, have been going downhill ever since. I mean, we have elected
Nixon, Reagan, Shrub and then, ugh, Trump.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Think on that. Regardless of whether you loved or hated Ronald Reagan,
how does Donald Trump make you feel? I mean, it’s like the entire Republican
Party just jumped off the Empire State Building.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But then, we
seemed to have regained our mental acuity and threw out Trump and brought in
Joe Biden. And yeah, I know, Joe is old. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s coming up on 82 this November. On the
other hand, Trump is coming up on 78, and he seems already in some early
dementiaLand. I think, had I my own way, America would be voting for someone
in, maybe his fifties or sixties for President. On the other hand, if we elect
Joe and, God forbid, something happens to disable him, we have Kamala to step
in. And she seems to me a fine replacement. But there’s another bothersome
issue. People seem appalled at the idea that Kamala might become President. But
why? Kamala Harris seems bright, thoughtful, ethical and kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She might well make a great President. Yet
Americans seem to hate her. And I cannot figure out why. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But as we
drift jerkily towards November, America seem increasingly adrift in some
rapids, in which if we shift in one direction, towards the right, we begin to
head over Niagara Falls. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then it’s
all over, and our Republic is ended. Because, we need to be clear, Donald Trump
does not really want, or even understand, to become a normal American
President. Donald Trump wants and expects to become an Absolute Monarch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, he wants to become King Donald I. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, although I imagine Republicans would deny
it, they seem actually OK with that idea. They seem to want the end of American
Democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe they are seeking an
Absolute Theocratic Monarchy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, they
are ok with King Donald, and expect that he will be seeking assistance of their
Christian God. Those who disagree, they will send off to Hell, literally. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then I
think, really folks? What would your old god, Ronald Reagan think about
that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He might just shake his head, “No,
America, come back to reality. We really are and must remain a democratic
republic.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the
Party of Reagan keeps slipping away. There used to be thoughtful Republicans in
the Land. But now we are left with Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Green, and
Lauren Boebert, and Mike Johnson, and that Abbott dude in Texas. Not a rational
soul in sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is what is
beginning to drive me to distraction. I really see us headed over the Falls at
Niagara, soon to crash on the rocks down below. Were I 30, or maybe even 40, I
would actually be planning to migrate somewhere else, abandoning the country to
which my Grandfolks came in the 1890s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah,
I don’t know, Canada?? New Zealand maybe???<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But at my
advanced age, such thoughts simply depress me, because there is nothing I can
really do, short of voting. Oh I will vote, never fear. But I don’t really have
any serious money, so I can’t use money to sway the election. I can only yak
away, and then VOTE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I have to tell
you, this period is really, really depressing. I have lived in and loved
America going onto, 90 years. And now you’re telling me it is over?? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, that is depressing. Please do not do this
America. The world needs a rational, thoughtful America, not an irrational,
soul-destroying TrumpLand. Pay attention America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PLEASE.<o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-5422447107492304472024-02-13T12:43:00.000-05:002024-02-13T12:43:09.728-05:00Aging is Not for Sissies<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I
sat once, across from my aging mum in a restaurant in Florida. As we were
getting ready to order, my mum kept confusing me with someone else—her brother,
my brother. I had flown down to Florida to see my mum, because her neighbor had
called us to say that my mum’s latest hubby had been taken into the hospital
with a serious condition, and my mom was now wandering the streets around her
trailer park. My mom was now 80ish. We had been getting more concerned about
her, since, when we spoke with her by phone, she often told us things like, she
hadn’t spoken to my brother in a long time. Yet, when we asked my brother, it turns
out he had spoken with her the day before.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It seemed that her age had caught up with her, and she was now in the
midst of something like senile dementia. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She was often somewhere other than her
present.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In discussing her condition
with my brother, we decided that I needed to fly her north. He agree to take
care of her, either in his home, or in a nursing care facility. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It turned out that she needed constant care,
because she was in an advanced stage of dementia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
had also two grannies who, as they approached that magic age of 85, suddenly
headed South physically, and both died soon thereafter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my knowledge, no one in my family lived
beyond the age of 85. Since I am now 89, I am . . . hmmm . . . cautious about
this issue of aging. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Curiously,
my wife (age 88) and I are still fully functional, living by ourselves, driving
our car to shop, or visit family, or work out several times per week. We
experience no serious age issues associated with our brain. We do have some
physical issues, as can be seen by the large number of prescription drugs we each
take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I still write, create some
artsy stuff and engage with other humans. My wife, teaches literacy, creates
quilts for donation to a children’s hospital, and she cooks like a restaurant
gourmet chef. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
raise these issues because we have two aging contenders for our 2024
Presidential campaign. President Biden is 81. Candidate Trump is 77. Joe will
turn 82 this coming November. Trump will turn 78 this June. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now much of the aging fuss seems directed at
Biden, as well it might be. But to be fair, Trump at 77-78 is arguably way less
capable mentally than Joe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the same
might have been said when Trump was only 37. But Trump’s mental acuity is less
associated strictly with advanced age than more simply a diminished brain
capacity from birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, his daddy was
a literal Nazi, and we do not know how much of Trump’s limited brain capacity
stems from too heavy a dose of Nazi rhetoric when he was very young. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lately
Joe has mixed up some names of foreign leaders, suggesting some “forgetting”, a
not uncommon trait in all humans. But Trump reveals more strictly a lack of
intelligence in any and all encounters with other humans. And some of his
declarations go way beyond simply forgetting, and wander into terminal
ignorance, or perhaps actual stupidity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently he revealed a profound lack of understanding
of how NATO functions when he declared at a rally:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“
. . .</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #363636; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">in South Carolina
that not only would he not defend European countries he deemed to be in arrears
from an attack by Russia, but that he would go so far as to </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/trump-nato-russia.html" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: var(--color-signal-editorial,#326891); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: var(--color-signal-editorial,#326891); text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" title=""><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">“encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they
want”</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #363636;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> against them. Never before has a president of the
United States — even a former one aspiring to reclaim the office — suggested
that he would incite an enemy to attack American allies.</span>” (from the New
York Times).<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">See those
are vastly different mental issues, especially from the perspective of an
American President. We really do want/need our presidents to understand basic
issues like the basics of our alliances with friendly powers (NATO). Should
they make decisions that run counter to our best interests regarding our
allies, then America may be at risk of wars with other powers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is
where the journalistic encounters of a President must be treated with the
relative seriousness they deserve. Trump’s comments vis-à-vis NATO do not fall
into the “forgetful” category and should be treated differently than Biden’s
mixing up of foreign leaders’ names. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So, how do
I view Biden and Trump regarding their relative ages? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Well, I
regard Trump as mentally deficient, and mentally warped, but I think those are
not age-related.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps like my Mother,
Trump’s mind may well begin to falter as he ages, making his current mental deficiencies
even more concerning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump’s mind is,
in my view, seriously deficient given the needs of our Nation, and the seriousness
of the policy issues that are always facing the Nation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump may be an adequate TV –Apprentice performer,
but in my view, he is not even close to that mind we need to oversee and manage
our National affairs. And his mind will become worse over time, should he serve
as President, both as a result of increased aging issues, and the enormous stresses
placed on all humans in that job. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump
is not even close to the kind of mental acuity we need in a President. Not
even close. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now Joe
Biden. President Biden has, I think, demonstrated his ability to function effectively
as President. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the Nation has
done remarkably well. Our economy is in good shape, unemployment is reasonable,
interest rates are stable, even falling a bit. I know people are complaining
about the cost of living, but I surmise that Biden is not the main cause. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now, Biden
is heading on toward 82. At the end of his full term, he will be 86. Will he
have more serious mental issues associated with aging?? Well, he may well, but
that is not necessarily true. Again, I am 89, headed on towards that 90 thing
in December. We have a good friend, a woman who lives by herself in her own
home in Rhode Island who is pushing onto 102. She lives alone. She writes a
monthly column for a local newspaper. When we engage her mentally, she seems
remarkably well, and her mind continues to function as though she were much
younger. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, there was my mum, just
past 80 and totally out of it mentally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am not a neuroscientist so I have no idea about the odds of Biden
heading in one direction or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
his age concerning?? Well sure it is. Were he 45, we would not be having this discussion,
unless of course, “he” was Donald Trump, because Trump’s mind is always
concerning. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now with
Joe, right now, to me, he seems perfectly ok. But we do not know how long that
may last. I would prefer it were Joe 60 or even 70. But he isn’t. I take some
relief in knowing that, should his mind begin to diminish, we have Kamala
waiting in the wings. I treat her as a serious replacement for Joe, although I
understand not everyone feels the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it is Joe running for President, not Kamala. Now, to be fair it is
Joe AND Kamala running as a pair. Should he falter, she steps in. To me, that
is ok. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So, is Joe’s
brain an issue in this election? Well, yes, it surely is. But I take some
offense at the notion that it is only Joe’s brain that is at issue. Surely
folks, you are or should be even more concerned with Trump’s brain. Cuz we are
certain that his brain is seriously deficient in every way that it counts for
the Presidency. So, Folks, just be very careful what you wish for here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-45097121618042671922024-02-07T11:21:00.001-05:002024-02-07T11:21:31.203-05:00Smiling<p> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">OK,
so I recently finished a piece on Life’s ending—how when Life is over, it
simply stops, with nothing following. That of course eliminated any floating
around on clouds, or chatting it up with the Dude upstairs—you know the God
Dude. Yeah, I concluded there likely is no God Dude, so really nothing follows
life’s termination.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
then, it made me wonder. OK, so if nothing follows something, then why are we
here? I mean, do we arrive here with some mission? But it seems obvious that if
there is no God, who directed us to be here, then it is likely that we have no
serious purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, to be fair, even
if you assume there is a God, then what are we to make of the fact that none of
us has a clue to why God placed us here on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now again, to be fair, even if there is a God
Dude, it could well be that she did not “Place” us here on Earth. Maybe the
Goddess simply set up the conditions for Life and then let it all happen
naturally, without any serious purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So
then, the butterflies, the cockroaches, the tigers, the bumblebees, and we
humans are just here cuz the conditions are right for us all to emerge and then
survive. That some critters survive and prosper better than others (multiply in
greater numbers) could just be an accident of random creation forces.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">OK,
so suppose that’s true—that no one placed us here “on purpose”. So what?
Especially “so what” if we now assume that nothing follows something, which was
the central point in my previous article on Life and Death. So what then?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Well
maybe, even if there is no “then what”, we human dudes could interject
something, whether God so intended or not. See, just because we exist at all,
that simple fact causes me to ask whether it matters how we perform during this
pointless stage we call life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
would say, Yes, it does matter how we carry out this thing we call Life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it matters, because we can make life
on Earth more pleasant, or less pleasant for both ourselves, and for the other
critters who occupy this thing we call Life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
think, for example, of Hitler. During his approximately 56 years on this
planet, he managed to make life quite miserable for several million
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some he killed outright, but
many others he managed to change their lives such that they suffered greatly.
And then we might look at a doctor, or a nurse and see that, through their
actions, many people’s lives are rendered happier. Or think of a teacher in a
public school. Hundreds, thousands even, of children pass by those souls and
are made somehow smarter, or at least more informed, better able to get through
their own lives more successfully. Or think of a farmer who works daily so that
we other humans can obtain life-sustaining substances (food) that allows us to
lead happier lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
then think of the thousands of humans who live their lives by decrying others,
or by making others feel less valued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They exist by making believe they are more valuable than others. And we
have whole human professions that seem to exist such that one group of humans
can feel superior to another group of humans. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
yet, so far as we know, bumblebees, or butterflies do not exist so as to make
other similar critters feel less valuable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So,
maybe our life lesson is that, while we are here, we should try to live our
lives in such a way that we either enhance others’ lives in some way, or at the
least act so as not to diminish others’ lives. Try to make others smile rather
than cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that should be our
life purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And act every day so as to
increase the smiles of other humans. Our Daily Mission – Make Someone Smile
Today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try it folks. You might even like it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Oh,
and then go out to vote when it’s your turn. And try to vote for humans likely
to make the world a happier place in which to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, try for smiles folks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-55928272705324092202024-01-30T15:21:00.000-05:002024-01-30T15:21:40.321-05:00Death, Near and After<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
older I become. The greater is my interest in this issue of Death, Near, and Thereafter. Not long ago, I read a piece on what they called after-death
experiences. The trouble is that they defined “after-death” as a period after a
person’s heart had stopped beating. That was their definition of “death”—the heart
had stopped beating. Now to be fair, should the heart cease, never to return,
death seems a likely event. Yet, I think of death slightly differently. However
necessary is the heart, which causes blood to flow throughout the body, it is
the brain that for me defines Life and Death. That is, should the brain cease
to function, that event signals Death.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I
am not informed or perhaps intelligent enough to know whether the brain might
cease, but other organs, the heart say, could continue. I assume they work
together as integrated mechanisms. I take it the brain needs routine flow of
blood which brings oxygen, keeping the brain operational.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I
understand that some people actually have had their hearts cease for some time,
but then they come back. Often they report on their thoughts during that time
of heart cessation, sometimes referred to as a death or after-death experience,
using the heart as the defining point of life or death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, there are many “after-death” tales told
by folks who underwent this awful experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now
we seem to have two kinds of “after-death” experiences. The first is that
relatively brief stage where the person’s heart ceases to operate, but then
comes back around and begins beating anew. During that shaky period, the brain
may continue operating, even if it ceases what we might call “normal”
operation. And those folks might or might not remember anything during the heart
shut-down stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that many
people experience thoughts during this heart shutdown, which signals to me that
the brain has never completely shut down, and so, technically, the person is
not “dead”, regardless of the heart malfunction. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">See,
I regard brain-death as the real definition of “death”. Should the brain literally
cease operating, the person is (in my limited viewpoint) technically dead. And
if the brain does not recover and begin operating again, the person will become
permanently dead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That makes me wonder
whether there has ever been a case in which a person’s heart stopped, causing
the brain to cease, and then the heart began beating again, but the brain would
not begin operating? But then, I guess, how would one know the brain was not
operating? Oh via electronic monitoring, huh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Apparently, once the heart ceases to flood the body with blood, carrying
oxygen, the lack of blood flow may begin causing problems, damage to various
parts of the body. So, restoring blood flow as quickly as possible is key to a
healthy restart of the body’s various functions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the real key is restoring blood flow to
the brain, because the brain is the key to life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
now we come to perhaps the main point—once the brain ceases to operate
permanently, we enter that state known as “death”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the period in which the person loses
all awareness of life, and the rest of the body’s organs begin
deteriorating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, the brain, is
what defines LIFE in my view. So, without any brain, there is no LIFE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now we encounter this other strange
phenomenon. Remember, there is no brain, ergo no awareness of anything. And
that is perhaps the awful truth. Being DEAD, means you no longer are aware of
anything. And, because you have no brain, you do not even know that simple
fact. YOU are now gone. But, excuse me, not, you are not “GONE”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You simple no longer exist. You, that physical
entity, remains in place, but now that physical entity is as a piece of wood
from a tree, a branch perhaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">See
we adopt this fairy tale of humans taking a trip, after that brain cessation.
Yeah, we move on up into the hills of heavenly clouds, so we can look down and
observe our earthly friends and relatives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But have we any evidence of such a conversion?
Hmmm, well no. To my knowledge, there has never been any evidence of a person
returning to life with an awareness of having looked down from the heavenly
regions of outer space. So far as we know, once the brain ceases, and we cease
living, there is nothing further that occurs. And we do not know that, because
we no longer exist. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
because that phenomenon is so disturbing, we humans created an entire after-life
existence called Heaven, oh and Hell (for the naughty amongst us). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we created God(s) that rule over that
place called Heaven (oh and let’s not forget Satan ruling over his Hell). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now,
I have always wondered about this amazing place we invented. Just think; it
gave rise to actual humans who theoretically act as the Earthly representatives
of the Gods above (I guess Satan has no Earthly Buds representing him).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, popes, priests, nuns, et al were all
invented by relatively ignorant humans to provide a control system on Earth for
the humans who continue to reside here as living, breathing creatures. Now, however
ignorant were those folks who invented that Earthly representative system known
as RELIGION, I have to admit its ultimate cleverness. I mean they invented an
entire global employment system that had its own financial system (humans give
them money so that they can live in peace) and a very large measure of control
over those humans who continue remaining alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>See, they retain the power to bless you, or to threaten you with that
Hell place. In olden times, they could do you even more damage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But
think of it. Even now, in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, humans all over the globe
pay respect and obeisance to the religious hierarchy of the world, as those
folks continue to pretend that they KNOW God and KNOW what happens to you after
you die. That afterlife thingie, you know. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now,
suppose (however unlikely) the world of humans slowly began to understand the
actual likelihood of NO AFTERLIFE. That is, you die because your brain ceases
operation and then it is over. NOTHING FOLLOWS. NOTHING.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we were to actually and finally,
understand that simple fact, would we simply walk away from Organized
Religion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There really would be no point
any longer. And then, what would we do, having understood that simple fact of
Life and Death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Morality itself would
need to be re-examined, because it would no longer have any relationship to the
likelihood of an afterlife, good or bad. If we decided to be good to other
humans, that decision would have to be based on simply making us feel better
about ourselves. So many concepts would have to be re-examined because we would
need to decide how to live based on what was good for us, while we are here.
Now surely that would cause some humans to act badly to other humans (think
Donald Trump) just because it might enhance their own power over other humans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I wonder whether we earthlings might
decide to treat people well. Just because we might all like to be treated well.
Who knows? I suppose there might be a slow movement of human thinking and
acting in one direction or another—either towards Peace and Love and Decency,
or towards the opposite. I suppose we need to think hard about that shift.
Which way are humans inclined if there are no Gods and no afterlife of any
kind? Hmmm, think hard and long on that proposition, folks. Our World awaits
your decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-50718597060075083872024-01-28T15:37:00.000-05:002024-01-28T15:37:31.595-05:00Anger in America<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I guess the
central issue about Trump supporters is now resolved. I have been scratching my
head, in wonderment, trying to understand why, in view of his mounting legal
issues, they continue to support him. And not merely support him. They are
adamant. No one else will do. As awful as he is, I thought maybe they would
cotton to the Floridian, DeSantis. But no, so long as Trump is openly running
for their love and adoration, they will continue heaping it upon him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And
apparently, policy issues do not enter into this equation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until, that is, you convert the policy issue
into a Rage Factory. For example, one could understand immigration being a
contentious issue, with Republicans and Democrats taking at least modestly
different positions. I mean, all Americans are a product of immigrants entering
America, right? So, we might all understand that immigration is a desirable
fact of life in our world, but that it needs to be controlled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, No, it isn’t that simple. Turns out, if
you talk to a Trumpie, Immigrants from the South (you know, different
languages, maybe even different skin color) are invading our poor country,
raping our young women, and committing most of the violent crime we experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, you didn’t know that did you? So the
Trumpies are pissed and want us to install razor wire at our border, shove them
all back into the water, and shoot them if they insist on trying to come in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s all the fault of the Dems and their
senile old leader, you know, Joe the Elder. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then
there is that nasty inflation thingie. We apparently had no inflation until
Biden came into office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, the
price of beer doubled. And gasoline??? Well, who can afford to drive their car
any longer? And we know, it’s all those stupid Dems. Prices are always stable
under republicans and Trump simply refuses to let those cranky businessmen
raise their prices. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, then the
Dems rigged the last election, using fake ballots, and stole the Presidency from
The Donald. I mean, everyone knows Trump actually won, RIGHT??? But those GD
Dems subverted the entire election to get Trump out of office. But then, even
worse, they “siced” all their legal lapdogs on him, and began bringing fake
charges against him, to keep him from regaining his rightful office claims. So, now he faces dozens of fake indictments,
and tons of financial charges by women who made up stories about him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that
January 6<sup>th</sup> Thingie at the Capitol?? Well, we had a bunch of
innocent folks who came to Washington to applaud Trump and to encourage him to
stay on. They visited the Capitol quite peacefully, like good tourists, but
again the Dems turned it into a small War, by using their own rioters to pretend
to be Trumpies. That whole thing was like a fake movie plot made up by the
Dems. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the crap
goes on. We good, honest, republican supporters just want to get on with our
lives and go to work to support our families. But those Dems don’t work like that.
They are trying to steal yet another election. Only this time, we will not let
that happen. Trump is our MAN and we want him to regain authority and return
this Nation back into its rightful status as a home for good
Christian-Republican values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, there it
is folks. Yep, that’s why they’re angry, and they ain’t gonna take it any
longer. And we (the rest of America) need to understand that America is going
to change, one way or another after this next election. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we need to think about how it should
change. So ready yourselves folks. There’s an election coming up soon. Prepare
yourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And remember, You the People
are the ones who determine what will happen. And kindly remember also, that
however much we blame Trump for awful things, he could do none of those things
if the American People were not supporting him. HE is a reflection of the
America people. So, vote your consciences, but always be aware of who you are
supporting. <o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-23884937996686963652024-01-16T13:50:00.001-05:002024-01-16T14:20:02.120-05:00The Games Begin<p> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">And so, Let
the Games Begin. Ahhh Iowa, we hardly knew ye.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But How . .
. Why???<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I know, I
know, they don’t like Joe Biden. He’s too old. They hate current inflation
rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, they will vote for Donald
Trump??? Not Ron DeSantis??? Not Nikki Haley???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know, I know, I really do not like either of them either. What about Christie???
Oh, he dropped out, huh? Still, Donald Trump??? And it wasn’t even very close.
I mean, he got 51% of the vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
91 indictments?? You hate inflation, but you don’t mind a dude who has been criminally
indicted??? So, if he took out a gun, walked onto Fifth Avenue, and shot and
killed someone, you would still prefer Donald Trump??? Really??<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I do not any
longer understand Americans. I mean, is this really just Stupidity??? Can it be
that simple? Nah, there must be other explanations. Religion??? But how could a
belief in God affect anyone’s thinking about voting for someone as bizarre as
Donald Trump? I mean, he is as far from Jesus as it is possible to get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More likely, Trump would have been one of the
dudes stringing him up to that cross, and then banging in the nails, before
heading off to the local pub for a couple of brews. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What is
there to like about the man? Oh, he hates people trying to cross into our
country, especially if they are of a slightly different color, and maybe speak
a different language. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, I assume
every racist in America prefers Donald Trump to almost anyone else. And he
makes fun of women every chance he gets. “Grab’m by the pussy . . .they love it”.
Really? And so, ladies, tell me again why you prefer Donald Trump? You mean,
you really do love it when someone like him grabs you by the pussy?? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And they
seem not to mind the fact that he fails at almost everything he tries? I mean,
six bankruptcies??? And three failed marriages??? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, he’s lousy in business, and worse at the
marriage thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really, has there ever
been anyone as bad at so many things as Donald Trump? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But, you
say, he was a great president! Really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, they loved his hawkish foreign affairs talk. And, more, they loved
his gibberish about our Border policies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, he’s a flaming racist at our borders,
and they love that. He’s going to build a Wall, and they love that, even though
he failed at that when he was President. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They claim that the economy was better under Trump.
Well, yeah, inflation has been nasty, but Biden has brought it under control—note
that none of the Trumpies are paying attention to Biden’s successes. Well, he
is a Democrat, after all. And, actually, our economy is doing well. Low
unemployment, investments in public sector, sort of like Ike. Remember him? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, Trump is obviously preferred to Ike,
right??? Well, not to anyone with a functional brain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So, I think
it doesn’t matter what Biden does. He’s an old dude (as is their Dude,
actually) who refuses to gun down migrants at our Southern border. I imagine
also that Biden gets hit because of Bibi’s killing ways in Gaza. I mean, Trump
was a fairly strong Israeli supporter, but the mess being created by Bibi at
the moment, is blamed by MAGAHeads on Biden. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And so, the
Republican games have now moved onto New Hampshire, where the MAGAheads hope to
repeat Iowa and maybe kick both DeSantis and Haley out of the race altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, how much losing can their financial
backers continue to support?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are
going to continue forking out bribe money to POLs to back their candidacy, they
better show themselves to be winners. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, let’s see whether New Hampshire
MAGAHeads rule up there. So, New Hampshire, what will you be saying to America?
Do you too want America to be over??? Tune in folks. The best is yet to come. <o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-57985630221021189572023-12-31T13:31:00.000-05:002023-12-31T13:31:03.951-05:00Welcome to 2024<p>So another year has passed us by. And the more I
(thankfully) continue to age, the greater are the numbers of folks, whose names
I recognize, who have passed into that Netherland called Death. Yeah, that’s one of the real bummers of
remaining alive—all the folks who don’t. I mean, Sandra Day O'Connor, Rosalyn Carter, Diane Feinstein, Jimmy Buffett, Tony Bennett, Alan Arkin . . . and the list goes on and on.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then we have what used to be known as Politics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, 2023 was quite a year for demonstrating
the Decline and Fall of American Politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have been at least aware of American politics and our government since
maybe WW II, say the 1940s. FDR dominated that scene, but after Roosevelt, we
had Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy (Ahhhhh), Johnson, and Nixon. And good old Ricardo,
began a parade of characters, some good, some awful, but it was like we hit
some rocky road of politicians. I mean, Ford was ok, and Jimmy Carter was
briefly fine, but then he was abbreviated by that rascal Reagan (ugh). And then
that idiot-malenfant George Bush, happily interrupted by Bill Clinton, and
Barack Obama (a really, really smart Prez). But then the bottom dropped out and
the republican party seemingly collapsed into a heap, replaced by some gangrenous,
braindead political party, vaguely designated MAGAHeads. Happily Joe Biden
kicked them out of the White House, but they have remained the official Party
in Opposition (PIO). And ever since they lost, Fox News decided that the
MAGAHeads deserved total wall-to-Wall “News” coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, they never actually went away, and
2023 was filled from top to bottom with their news. Now, to be fair, a lot of
the news about MAGAHeads was really news about new criminal indictments of their
pseudo-leader, Donald J. Trump. He seemingly loves violating our criminal
statutes. He rarely, if ever, pays his bills. He fails at all of his
businesses. He fails at all of his personal adventures (marriages). His
children practically shriek awfulness. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And yet, Americans take his make believe political
candidacies seriously. Others who align themselves with politics on the Radical
right side of the tracks—DeSantis, Haley, Christie, et al have to work really
hard simply to continue trailing him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seemingly normal Americans declare they would vote for no one but the
Trump. Really folks??? You’re not just pulling our chain, are you? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And many Americans think that Biden is just too old, and so
they may not vote for him. Really folks??? You won’t vote for Joe cuz he’s old?
But he actually still has a functioning brain, unlike his main opposition—the MAGAHead
himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if one examines America
during 2023, it was not a bad year. There had been some inflation early on, but
that seemed under control. Employment levels are good. Public investments that
benefit the Middle Class are being made. He has been dealing with some pretty
dicey foreign affairs, with Russia and Vlad the Impaler acting like Nazi Germany
towards Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas killing one another with abandon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seemingly is no “Good side” in that
region. Perhaps were we to ship off all of Hamas maybe to somewhere in the
middle of the Saudi Desert, it might improve, but that ain’t gonna happen. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, folks, if you think not voting is an option, then you
are deciding to vote implicitly for Donald Trump. So, remember, in 2024, Not
Voting is casting a vote for Trump.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so we welcome our coming New Year. 2024 seems filled
with promises of all kinds. But mainly I look on those promises as of the “Be
Careful What You Wish For” kind. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Take care. Love your loved one. Be kind to strangers and,
generally, to folks who seem in need. The world needs Kindness, Love, and
Peace. Practice all. And Work Hard at whatever you do. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Welcome to our New Year, 2024.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE1vDco1QaT3iyNAs9L66ENPkfp1cHQmstTpoV9cHV0VH3qSG4YgMUjoiE1NvGJ-sz6alb68wbq_avnaE7j1bL6Xw4mFcbmipyTY5wmxK4D_ycshquRRvFFSNPfIGv42tQ70bZzEd9r8M0MFYj-c-6ohsgGZgEanzOFjFqqyUPYGsR62scfs3Rl4yy0w/s772/8605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="517" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE1vDco1QaT3iyNAs9L66ENPkfp1cHQmstTpoV9cHV0VH3qSG4YgMUjoiE1NvGJ-sz6alb68wbq_avnaE7j1bL6Xw4mFcbmipyTY5wmxK4D_ycshquRRvFFSNPfIGv42tQ70bZzEd9r8M0MFYj-c-6ohsgGZgEanzOFjFqqyUPYGsR62scfs3Rl4yy0w/s320/8605.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-51329247987287430892023-12-07T09:02:00.001-05:002023-12-07T09:02:57.330-05:00Life and Life<p> With all the highly publicized killings going on in
Gaza/Israel and in the Ukraine, I wondered about some recent talks officialdom
has been holding about victim compensation. Like, if we kill 500 innocent
civilians, including children, how much should we compensate the country?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, what is human life worth? Is each life worth the cost of
a case of beer? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmmm, tough one.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then, after I arise early each morning, I trod
downstairs and go outside to take a picture of the morning sunrise. And I accompany
my picture, being posted on Facebook with, “Morning lovely. Be kind. Peace bro.”
And then again, in the evening, as the sun commits itself to setting, I post
another picture and write, “OK, It’s Time to Wine On. So Do It.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But in between, an entire day of personal steps and events
occurs. I look out the window and observe a bird at one of our feeders. Or our
mailman stops by to drop off our daily mail and we chat briefly about his day
and the events of that day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And at some stage, I shove a toothbrush into my mouth and
clean my teeth. But only after consuming some freshly brewed espresso, and a
sliced mango. Or I go out into the garden with some clippers and snip off some
unwanted plants in the garden. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or I sit with a glass of wine, as we munch on some dinner
while watching a British mystery, or comedy on our TV. And then, at some stage,
we take off our night dress and climb into bed, and turn off the lights, as we
both try to engage in that thing called Sleep. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">See these are all little signs that we are not a case of
beer, or some other commodity one may purchase at the corner store. We are
living creatures. We breathe, we laugh, and sometimes we cry. And we think. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, that thinking thing. Something comes
across your consciousness that today is December 7<sup>th</sup>, and that
springs a memory of that fateful day, December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. Yeah,
we’re really old, so we have an actual memory locked inside our heads.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Life is really a series of large and small memory snippets.
We do things, or observe things and they are then tucked away into our
brains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See that doesn’t happen to a
case of beer. Humans and really all other living creatures are memory banks.
So, when we decide to kill off a bunch of humans of varying ages, we are
eliminating those memory banks. And the young ones especially are deprived of
all those creative acts and that slowly building memory bank filled with good
and bad images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we, the world at
large are also deprived of the acts those living creatures might have created.
As we shoot or bomb that 3-year old, maybe we are killing the next Van Gogh, or
Shakespeare, and we will never get to understand what our act of killing
actually accomplished. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Killing is a truly mindless act, because if we thought about
the act, it would become near to impossible to carry out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Gaza, folks who identify with Hamas seem
not to mind killing folks, as long as those folks are Israeli. See, they don’t
care that they are stealing future life events from people who identify as
Israeli. And so, they also, without proper understanding, create within those
same Israelis the same sense of armor around the brains that will allow
Israelis to do the same thing to Hamas humans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it isn’t just in Gaza. Some idiot in Nevada, followed on
the heels of another idiot in Texas, or was it somewhere else in America (so many
shootings, so little time), managed to shoot innocent humans who had done
nothing except wander into the wrong place at the wrong time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, with guns at their easy disposal, angry
humans continue to cut off the future lives of other humans, who will then no
longer experience watching a sunrise or a glorious sunset. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Killing is so final and eliminates hundreds, even thousands
of gestures of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life is really
quite amazing. I am now in my 88<sup>th</sup> year of that thing we call
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I have thousands of tiny events
registered within my brain. Event images embedded within me that might have
gone unnoticed had I died earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may
die, any day now. Who knows? But I also may live another set of days and weeks
and even years, creating and observing small and large things that others in
the world may also observe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why can we not commit to peace and love? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why can we ban books but not guns? Amazing
really. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well friends, continue to think and try to observe life all
around you. Think about what happens to you today, and think, “I am grateful
for the good things in my life”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try to
be happy. But at least, try to BE. And do your best to allow that person next to you also BE.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-83016969135307913502023-11-14T14:18:00.000-05:002023-11-14T14:18:21.756-05:00Why Are We Here?<p> The older I become and the more I read, the more I wonder
about origins and the why’s and wherefores’ of Life. Specifically, I keep wondering why humans are
here at all. The most likely
explanation, I know, is that we are all accidents of evolution. That is, we began as sponges in some ocean
and then began acquiring the genes that eventually gave rise to life forms,
which in turn led to humans over millions of years.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But, more to the point, what, if anything is our purpose in
being here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know the God seekers think
that a spirit who seems to be in charge of all life, created humans especially as
some kind of tribute, although a tribute to what I keep wondering. Does God in
some way resemble humans, so that humans were created in God’s image?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe so, but, if so, what might we make of
such a trivial pursuit? God felt so inadequate that she had to create a
human-form resembling her? And then, what, she created humans in all possible
states of adequacy and behavioral patterns? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And now, we are left with Humans, many of whom seem to
prefer killing as a hobby, or even a career choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I look around me at our current world and
what do I see? Russia under that braindead human Vlad the Impaler, continuing
to spend its money and its human resources trying to kill as many Ukrainians as
possible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, then after a couple of
years of that debacle, Hamas in Israeli-Land decides to move into action and
kills 1400 Israeli innocents. But, really, everywhere I turn to see humans
killing other humans. I need only turn around almost anywhere in America to
find one or more Humans gunning down fellow American Humans, mostly all of the
Innocent variety. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It seems almost anywhere you go (and there are exceptions I
know) Humans appear to spend a lot of their time and energy trying to figure
out ways to kill other humans. So am I to conclude that Humans are placed here
explicitly to kill off other Humans?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
imagine that, eventually the Humans of the Killing variant will eventually
graduate to the really big killing machines. I mean, think back to the mid 1940’s
and Japan in that World War II killing game. Yeah, we were all getting really
good at killing large numbers. But then we decided that rifles and bombs were
mere playthings. So, we invented a really big killing device—the Atomic Bomb.
And we tried them out in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We apparently don’t really know, but
estimates range between 100,000 and 200,000 Japanese Humans died as a result of
the two bombings. So, two bombs and BANG, a hundred thousand or two are dead.
That was so large that it actually caused the ending of that particular War. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But did it end all wars? Hahahahaha . . . no not even close.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some estimates suggest that somewhere close
to a half million Humans have died in the Middle East since the creation of
Israel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And remember, the killing
machines associated with the Israeli-Middle East conflicts, also in turn
produced the 911 attacks, which led in turn to more killing sprees all over the
Middle East. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And we should never forget those World Wars, both I and II,
where it is estimated that in the tens of millions of Humans died as a
result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, I was born in the 1930s,
and Humans have continued killing other Humans ever since, in non-stop killing
sprees. And it wasn’t as though something happened to trigger those killing
sprees. Nope, they have been going on ever since man acquired an understanding
of how to kill other Humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes me
wonder whether more sophisticated killing machines are the true end result of
Human evolution, maybe even the true purpose of human evolution. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, as I begin aging out (I am pushing on toward 89 after
all) I have begun concluding that the main purpose of Humans and Human
development is killing other Humans. Now, exactly why any God would choose that
objective for its creatures is way beyond my Pay Grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does sort of suggest to me, though, that a
God is a pretty unlikely development instrument for Humans and other of our
world creatures. More likely, way more likely, I would conclude that Human
development is mostly accidental and is an example of evolution going seriously
off course. And you know all this great fear about AI that has been growing of
late? That AI might begin moving out of our control, and begin simply taking
over from Humans? Well, maybe that is exactly what is going on, and that this
disastrous developmental path on which Humans are proceeding, where we continue
to improve our ability to kill off other Humans, may in fact be brought to an
end finally by AI interventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think
of that. What a concept huh? Who knows, maybe AI will curtail Human Murder
instincts and cause Humans to develop in some slightly more “civilized” manner.
Wouldn’t that be nice? And would God be pleased, huh? She might be smiling down
on us as we consider how to end AI. Funny, Huh?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tata Humans . . . think hard about all this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s time for a change.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-43747814526823454982023-11-06T14:59:00.001-05:002023-11-06T14:59:15.600-05:00 Beginnings and Endings<p>The older I become, the more interesting is the question of
Beginnings, or Beginning. I realize that we know a lot about both beginnings
and endings. We see humans being born and then dying. And we see plant beginnings
and endings all around us. And then there are all the other animals that come
into our lives and then leave us, a bit sadder, even after a fairly full life.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And I have speculated fairly repeatedly about my view of
human endings. That is, although we use language that implies a journey (they “left
us” . . . “they are gone”) the only evidence we have suggests only cessation.
When humans die, they simply cease to function. Their brains cease operating
and thus nothing follows. And it would seem that is the only sensible
description for all “life forms”, i.e. all animals, and all plant life, which
really means all life forms. Material
forms, rocks, mountains, even planets, stars, seem to come into existence and
then cease to exist in that form. Whether a star, or a mountain can be said to experience
“life” would be questionable, since we currently have no way to communicate
with such seemingly inanimate entities. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But back to beginnings. Yes, we see them all the time. So,
we understand that humans are created, exist in a known form and function
according to certain rules. We can even
trace animal life back to fairly early beginnings, say a billion years. Oddly,
sponges are listed as among the early life developers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But this complex life development is but one tracing within
our overall universe of life forms and other creatures, like planets and
suns. The universe is an amazing place,
and unbelievably complex. And it always brings me back to origin questions.
Folks like Neil DeGrasse Tyson spend their lives investigating and then
describing the early development of our universe. And others, those of a religious persuasion,
employ other less rigorous descriptive
approaches. See Neil and his BFFs spend their time trying to move us back in
time so as to better understand the actual origins of life. Our religious folks I
guess gave up on that game fairly early.
From their perspective, a God decided to, I don’t know, wave a wand and
thereby create life. They have some
pretty silly stories, like Adam and Eve that can’t withstand too many questions.
Still, at some stage, according to them there was no life, and then life was
formed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, whatever one thinks of the religious origins' tale, when
compared with Tyson’s, my mind continues to wander back in time and always
arrives at the question, “If there is/was a God, Who/What created that God? Even if I follow Tyson back further into the
origin story, I arrive at the same question. How did anything develop? Go back
to before the Big Bang. Something existed then and led to The Big Bang.
Who/What created that something? Was it
God? But, if so, Who/What created God? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">See, if God always existed, why not the universe? And if so,
How/Why? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And if humans had decided on a God, and simply left it at
that, then good. Why Not? But then humans had to decide how best to use that
story. And so, humans invented the Tale. You know, God created everything, and,
especially, created humans so as to . . . to what? So as to worship God? How
vain a God would that be? And then came the tales about Death leading to human
forms sitting up on clouds looking down on we still-living critters. So,
apparently, we have billions of entities (no bodies, just disembodied “souls”
wandering about up above us, watching our foolishness play out daily. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And we humans actually have built whole stories and vast,
complex entities called churches and interpreters called priests, who tell us
what to do. How crazy is that? Folks who have no clue are allowed to tell us
how to live nicely. Now, mostly, we ignore all those rules, because we seem to
prefer creating our own rules of living and control. We even seem to prefer
killing other humans, as a form of either sport or simply a way of expressing
our disgust with how life actually turned out. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And largely, we seem to have moved beyond the God-tales, and
have settled on Money-Tales. Oh we still pretend to the God-thingie. Because it
remains a really useful way to maintain control over other humans. See, we create priests who pretend to know
about origins and the God thing. And then other humans place themselves into
positions of control over the priests, so that they can retain total control over
the humans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oddly, this system that might have led to peace and kindness
over all of humankind, instead seems to have led to destruction and inhumane
controls. Could we change that? Sure,
but first we would have to decide that we did not need a God, or those folks
who pretend to know/understand God. Humans are perfectly capable of organizing
peacefully and humanely, should we ever decide that was a preferable course to
inhumane methods. Of course, that might
suggest that we stop killing one another. And that would be really hard for
humans. We do so seem to like killing.
It’s almost as though our Gods are watching us play out a sort of Godly TV
game. Peace might just be too boring to Gods. <o:p></o:p></p>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ah well, back to daydreaming about origins, I
guess. It’s easier than the alternatives. How about, just be nice to your neighbors. </span>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-32184890931549731512023-11-01T14:41:00.000-04:002023-11-01T14:41:38.506-04:00America At Its End<p>Apparently there are no longer any consequences for
political actions. We note this
especially when we view republicans . And it is not that Democrats are without
fault. No, but something different has occurred since Trump became their glory
leader. Somehow, it is as though he erased all normal standards of human
behavior, and, as a result, a different class of republicans emerged. I mean,
look at the list – Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, George
Santos, Matt Gaetz. And now this total cretin Mike Johnson, newly christened
Speaker of the House. How is he even possible? He seems to violate every
principle of ordinary citizenry. Mainly, I guess, it is his devotion to
Christian Autocracy that stands out. But it is almost as though he has no
functioning brain.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And now, when we need intelligent leadership at all levels,
it has evaporated among republicans. And they continue to make light of Joe
Biden. Yet Joe Biden keeps on trying to maintain a course of decency. He
continues to make every effort to promote democracy at home, and has managed to
create an economy that exceeds anything we have seen in years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Biden continues to support Ukraine against an
ongoing murderous Russian invasion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
with the Hamas killings against Israel, Biden continues to support Israel,
however difficult Bibi makes such support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As awful as it seems, the Arab militants seem to have created a
Nazi-like figure in Bibi. I know, I know, that is an awful thing to say, but
Bibi seems to be a different kind of Israeli—way more manic in his zeal to
destroy his Arab opposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, to be
fair, the Arabs seem to relish in their own zeal to deal stupidly and
murderously with Israel. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But Joe Biden, has continued to perform reasonably in the
face of this increasingly global insanity.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He could use some help from his republican colleagues.
Instead, the republican party has simply gone off the deep end into some new
kind of political craziness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
understand when sanity will return to Republican Land, but maybe never, and
that could begin to define the end of America. Seriously, were I 30 rather than
88, I might well now be preparing to move with my family to another Land—anyone
for New Zealand? Only if the republican party begins to regain its sanity by
removing Johnson and bringing back a new core of civil intelligence would I
change my mind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And removing Johnson is
but the first step. Greene, Boebert, Santos, et al need to be removed also. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that might require the assistance of the
American voting public. And perhaps that is a feat beyond American capability.
Anyone for New Zealand???<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-66814662553218071502023-10-07T14:17:00.000-04:002023-10-07T14:17:15.306-04:00America the Forlorn<p> Many folks in America are becoming outraged, or worse,
because of the actions of the various “leaders” in our political system, but
especially the republicans. The list of corrupt, or ignorant politicos is long
and seems to grow daily. Kevin McCarthy was near the top of the idiot-list,
until bigger idiots decided to toss him aside. Gaetz, McConnell, Green, Boebert,
Hawley, Jordan, the list goes on and on and grows daily. Their latest faux pas was tossing McCarthy
aside after it took them 15 tries to elevate him to the Speaker position. Oddly, although they all seem to want to be
elevated to high political positions within Congress, they don’t seem to have
anything they want to do, in the way of legislative actions that might benefit
the American people.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ever since Trump was tossed aside by the American people,
republicans seem to be diving into some canyon of darkness, in which they are
either to just die, or to vote on some bill that will help to destroy the lives
of ordinary Americans. And every time Biden does something to benefit America,
the republicans become catatonic. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And the reporting on all this chaos keeps pointing out the
foibles of various pseudoleaders within the party, or the latest corrupt
actions by that dude, The Donald of Trumpland. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do not see much in the way of reporting
on the people of America. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We seem not to
want to recognize the role of ordinary Americans in elevating the idiot-malenfants
of our country into positions in which they can bring chaos into our lives. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The very fact that, after all he has said and done, there
remain Americans who still support Donald Trump and . . . . and, wish to
re-elevate him into that position called President of the United States, is to
me both amazing and sad. We have begun to talk about the final destruction of
that American dream, our Nation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That we
seem headed into a canyon of despair seems obvious. But we need to stop blaming
simply our corrupt, inept leaders. That the American people, having heard everything
The Donald is and does, still want him as President, tells me more about our
people than perhaps I ever wanted to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is now the case that, were I 30, or maybe even 40, I would be
searching the globe for some other Nation to which I might migrate. I think I
now understand fully why so many people, including my own grandparents, decided
that their own countries were inadequate and so they had to leave for another
Land<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . in this case America, the
America of the 19<sup>th</sup> century. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But that America has now slipped away. It is a Land no
longer in existence. America has become some other failed state. I keep
thinking we are in some version of 1930s Germany. The Germans surely knew who
Hitler was, but they elevated him anyway. Nazi Germany wasn’t created by some
gods up in heaven. It was created by the German people, and just as surely, the
American people are busily creating this America of TrumpLand, a place where
corruption, ineptitude, and immorality flourish. Yes, I know it is not all
Americans, but there are enough of them, and enough who vote, that they are
elevating the criminal segment of our society into positions whereby they can
lead our Nation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe the good folks of
America, and there are still good folks, cannot be bothered to go to the polls
and vote—too much trouble. And so those folks are being blessed with criminal
leaders.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, you may blame Donald Trump and his minions all you wish
for the increasing mess in which we find ourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the major blame must be laid right at the
feet of the American people who, knowing exactly who Donald is, continue to
applaud him and his gang of thieves. If America falters and finally converts
into some Land of ne’er-do-wells, it will be the American people who created
that disaster.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, America, unless you wish to destroy America, get off your
asses, vote out the idiot-malenfants, and allow decency back into our Land. Only then can you look again at that Lady Liberty in the Harbor of New York and feel blessed to be an American.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-89401313902186867242023-09-25T10:31:00.000-04:002023-09-25T10:31:18.133-04:00Poised at the Edge<p> It’s getting hard to write. I no longer know what to say
about life in America.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the one hand, as we are aging in place, Carol and I remain in
reasonable health and are constantly surrounded by loving wishes from friends
and family.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, there exists in full charge, a world of
America I know longer recognize as American. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I never lived there, I keep thinking
of Germany during the 1930s, when ordinary Germans elected Adolph Hitler. Did
they understand what they were doing? Were they really that angry?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And are Americans so angry that they will elect somehow the
likes of Donald Trump? I mean he is under dozens of criminal indictments and,
if we allow the courts to proceed, he will likely be convicted and then
sentenced to live in prison for the rest of his natural life. But then we have
his republican supporters, who have begun throwing out threats to life and limb
to those participating in these various pursuits of justice. Rep Jordan
threatening the Georgia prosecutors, and he is but one of many. That January 6<sup>th</sup>
violence did not spring from nowhere. Republican abound in violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are apparently no “normal”
republicans any longer. And what do I mean by “normal”? Well, I mean people who
understand and believe in the rule of law and the American Constitution. They
used to be people who were opposed to fascism/Nazism. Remember, Dwight
Eisenhower, that dude who was a general during WW II and then served honorably
as US President? Yeah, him. Well, turns out, he was a republican. Yep, I know,
it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think, for heaven’s sake, as awful as he might have been in my eyes, even Ronald Reagan would
not understand this crew of today’s republicans. Imagine Reagan trying to
understand Donald Trump. Or, worse yet, imagine a dinner party with Ronald
Reagan, at one end of the table, Dwight Eisenhower at the other hand, and in
the middle, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Green, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Josh
Hawley, and a half dozen other GOP Federal wannabees, like DeSantis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine that. I imagine the two at the table
heads baffled, stunned even to listen to the idiot-malenfants at the table. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, yeah, me, a mere libtard, I’m baffled. I don’t
understand what I am witnessing. At this magic age of 88, I am actually
contemplating in my head, where I should consider migrating. America seems actually
headed towards oblivion, in the Germany-1936 sense. I think we may be at a
not-so-early stage of national destruction. And then I think of grandchildren
and even great grandchildren. What are we leaving to them? I still remember
sitting in our front room during the 1940s, listening to the radio, and even
hearing FDR occasionally on that radio telling us about the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things seems grim, but my faith in America
stayed strong. We would defeat those Nazi’s, I knew. Today, I am no longer so
certain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I listen still, but now I hear
idiots like Jim Jordan threaten people because they are trying to maintain law
and order in a country wherein Donald Trump is trying just as hard to move us
back to 1930s Germany. And then Marjorie Taylor Green tells us all about Jewish
space lasers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, David Brooks, where are you when we need you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where are all the republican intellectuals,
telling their “conservative” followers to oppose GOP fascism?
Where are you guys?? We need you. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
hordes of American pseudo-fascists need you to help them recover and return to
sanity and to a civilized life. America is waiting, poised at the edge of a
nearby cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we head over, or will
we turn around and return to civilized life? I think it may be in your hands.
So do not fail us. <o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-41063890284525024642023-09-05T13:34:00.001-04:002023-09-05T13:34:35.910-04:00Endings 101<p>Recently, three of my friends have departed, and by that I
mean they have died. But see our language and our imagination prevent us from
saying simply “they died”. Instead, we
have invented this massive tale about what happens after we die. I guess,
depending on how far away from reality we live in our minds, we believe
different things. Many, many folks say, after someone dies, that they are now
watching us from up above, that is, the person is now sitting on a cloud somewhere
up above us and observing us. Now that
is just too weird, but it remains fairly common.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have now reached a magic age—88+. In December, I will
reach 89 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, I climbed aboard
this thing we call life on December 17<sup>th</sup>, in the year 1934. Until
recently, I was just cruising along like everyone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then one day I realized that I had already
surpassed in life years everyone of whom I am aware in my immediate family.
That is, no one known to me as family has ever made it this many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few came close, i.e., 85 years, but none, to
my knowledge hit the upper 80s, or even 90. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so, I am now looking at “life” a little differently. I
understand that I may make it til 90, or, hopefully, even higher in years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also understand that each day is
special, a gift if you will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when a
friend passes on, ceases to exist, I am saddened and sometimes shocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, an especially close friend, George
Stiles, died—bang out of the blue. We had just been trying to call him because
we had not seen him in a while and he often stayed with us a day or two enroute
to one of his kids. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we failed to
make contact by phone. So we thought maybe we just had an old telephone number,
so I looked him up on the Internet, and what to my wondering eyes did appear
but, “An Obituary for George Stiles”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, I thought, “no, it’s someone else”. But then I looked at the
picture and, Yep, it was our dear friend George. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was a shock. We could no longer speak with George. And
then another reality came into my brain. George no longer exists. That is, his
brain has ceased functioning, and so he no longer exists. And we can’t use
these terms like, “he is gone”, or “George has departed”, or “oh my George has
left us”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why can I not think those
thoughts? Well, because, the reality of death is that the person who dies
actually ceases to exist, because his brain stops functioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is “dead” but he does not know he is dead,
because he does not any longer “know” anything. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And, although I knew that, suddenly, with George, that
reality set into my brain. Yeah, when I die, I will no longer know anything, including
that I am dead. I will simply go dark, but I will not even know that everything
just went dark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, but what will that
be like? Well, nothing. Yeah, when life ceases, we do not know that life has
just ceased. And that isn’t like anything that we have known throughout our
long lives. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, now, daily, I am aware of life and life things
differently. When I look at a lantana flower or an hibiscus flower and then
observe some critter on that flower, I watch it carefully. That life form is
special because I am observing it. And it isn’t that I am now depressed
thinking about life terminating. Oh I know it will and I have at least a dim
understanding about cessation, but one can only dimly understand this end of
life thing. Mainly, because there is nothing to understand. You are aware one
second and the next you are not aware. And that is it. There is nothing else to
understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we could, I assume argue
about whether my conclusion is accurate, but such arguments are pointless,
because we can never shed any light through evidence on the subject. So, you are
free to believe the cloud thing, and I am free to believe the ending
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why anyone argues about such
things is quite beyond my comprehension, unless one belief gives someone
control over another by that belief. Oh and that would be called religion, huh?
OK, believe on folks. It’s all up to you. Whatever turns you on.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-16022841878876352612023-08-31T15:06:00.000-04:002023-08-31T15:06:40.664-04:00Life Goes On<p> Ahhh, the weather just shifted to humane. Suddenly, it’s ok
to open the windows, instead of sitting inside in fear that the heavy rain will
flood the basement. It has not done so
in quite a while, But worry I will. Maybe it’s my age. I am getting on there—approaching
89 in December.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But more than the weather, was recent news of two friends
and colleagues who just passed on, both a bit younger than me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And both passed peacefully, but suddenly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Stiles was a colleague who became a
friend, then practically a member of our family. I met George during the 1970s
in the course of my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he was
more than helpful to our daughter’s quest to gain entry into the world of UNC-Chapel
Hill. And then George became a friend of long-standing. We saw him with some
frequency as he rotated from his family home in Yarmouth, Maine to Philadelphia
and South Carolina where his kids lived. George became part of our family.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then, without warning, he died, peacefully we are told.
But it is a shock nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then, my old boss and colleague Joe Wholey died. I was
in a bit of a mess career-wise in the early 1970s, having left a secure job at
Peat, Marwick, Livingston for a small firm that then collapsed. Through Joe, I
managed to get a secure position at The Urban Institute, where I worked in the
field of evaluation of health care programs. After five years, Joe left to join
the Carter Administration, running an evaluation office in the Department of
Health Education and Welfare. Joe asked me to join him, which I did. But then,
Ronald Reagan took the presidency and we all had to cope with his
administration. I managed for five years, but then grew fearful that I might
become brain-dead working under Reagan. So, I left, as did Joe Wholey before me.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And now Joe has left this world. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And I remain behind to continue thinking about these truly
good humans. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it all brings to mind aging, and watching people drop
all around me. Not just people with whom I am friends, but people of whom I am
aware. We watch a lot of British TV, and especially one program that brings us
to laughter even now. It is a show called “Are You Being Served?” It was on From
1972 to 1985.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I discovered recently that
all of the acting cast had now died and they varied in age during that
show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, now we find ourselves watching
and loving a TV comedy series in which none of the acting cast remains alive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know, I know, it’s a TV show. Time passes,
people age and then they die. And meanwhile I sit here, aging in place. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But then, look, our President is 81. And that
idiot-malenfant Donald Trump is in his 70s, and poised to die. So, everyone is “aging
in place.” But hey, they’re running our country. Well, technically, Joe Biden
is running our country while Donald Trump is trying desperately to destroy our
country. Two sides of the same coin I guess. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, I guess I will just have to suck it up and keep on
truck’n. It ain’t my time yet, even if it is Mitch’s. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, my wonderful wife of 68 years tolerates me and
loves and feeds me daily. And my kids, grandkids and Great grandkids continue
to embrace life and to being me joy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So,
there you have it. Keep out of trouble and get on with this thing called LIFE.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s really all we have, isn’t it? <o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-21024218080916543632023-07-30T14:08:00.000-04:002023-07-30T14:08:29.426-04:00The Beginning of The End<p> I titled a journal of 2020 blog postings, “The Beginning of
the End, or The End of the Beginning”.
But the more I read about the two subjects, the more convinced I become that
we are truly at the Beginning of the End. The End of What you might ask? Well,
the Beginning of the End of the World, I might reply.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Every day now, I read about some new Climate Change fact. A
scientist is predicting that the Southwest US might hit 150 degrees in the near
future. And another doctor was speaking of treating someone who fell on a
sidewalk, and the sidewalk temperature was so hot that he was actually Burned,
and required burn treatment. And that made me even wonder about doing something
simple, like taking your dog for a walk, and the dog’s feet becoming burned or
the dog simply ran away from the walkway because it was simply too hot. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then the waterways around the Florida coastline rose
above 100 degrees. So, what does that do to the sea life?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And all of the predictions suggest that these seemingly
drastic daily temperatures were actually cooler than we may ever see again
during this season. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the New York
Times:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">“<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Last month, the
planet experienced its <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/climate/hottest-june-in-history-noaa.html">hottest
June</a></span></span> since records began in 1850. July 6 was its <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/climate/climate-change-record-heat.html">hottest
day</a></span></span>. And the odds are rising that 2023 will end up displacing
2016 as the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/science/earth/2016-hottest-year-on-record.html">hottest
year</a></span></span>. At the moment, the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/climate/earth-hottest-years.html">eight
warmest years</a></span></span> on the books are the past eight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The extreme weather
which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh
reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,” Petteri Taalas, the
secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, said in a
statement. “The need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is more urgent than
ever before.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="css-at9mc1" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The world has entered what forecasters warn could be a
multiyear period of exceptional warmth, one in which the warming effects of
humankind’s continuing emissions of heat-trapping gases are compounded by El
Niño, the recurring climate pattern typically associated with hotter conditions
in many regions</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, Climate Change is here. The Climate HAS CHANGED. It is
no longer arguable.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But then what do I read? Well, the Republican Party is not
so sure. Yep, that’s right. In the middle of a catastrophic global climate
crisis, the republicans seem to be imagining that Biden’s Impeachment would
easily Trump Climate Change. Yeah, why would we wish to actually do anything to
defer the worst effects of climate change? Well, for one thing, then we would
have to acknowledge we were wrong and Climate Change is real. And republicans no
longer do that—acknowledge errors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No,
but my next guess is that, for their next move, they will acknowledge Climate
Change, but blame it all on Biden and the Dems. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, if only Joe had been paying attention
when the scientists told him that industrial carbon emissions were a major
cause of Climate Change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But instead,
Joe was going full time on Trump, and inventing stories about him, and so was
way too busy to devote any energy to Climate Change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, it’s all Joe Biden’s fault. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And I sit here watching this growing crisis as I continue
aging out of existence. Yeah, at 88, I watch all this with even more sense of
terror than were I only thinking of my own age-related demise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of stuff goes on in your head when you
suddenly enter your late 80s, 88 in my case. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seems as though every time I open a news
article, it begins telling me about someone I know who has just passed into the
Netherland. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it’s even broader.
Carol and I watch routinely reruns of a British show called “Are You Being
Served?” It ran many years ago and the series was on the air between 1972 and
1985. Turns out everyone on the show has now passed away. And at least some on
the show were “young” (now to be fair, they were “young” sometime in the
1972-1985 period). Still, we continue to watch this program, where everyone has
now passed on. Hmmm, that’s weird. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So this Death thing seems all around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was young, people periodically passed
on. But then after a period of sadness, that was over and we went back to
normal life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, we seem surrounded.
And added to that perception, this Climate thing has begun weighing in. It’s
now a new element. And storms
are more ominous, because they bring more destruction, real or imagined with
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A whole new era seems upon us, and
that new era is not promising, for our entire globe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, republican stupidity is just one added element in this
new doomsland era we seem to have entered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To be fair, given my mindset about the Climate Doomsday, republicans
seem almost irrelevant. Like they really have passed on and are merely one more
poisonous element in our threatened globe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I wish I could break out of this messy thinking process. But
instead, daily, it grows worse. Mainly because I’m old and will likely soon die
anyway. But also, even if I escape for a while, it merely gives me more time to
watch the gradual disintegration of our entire planet. And republicans are
simply bit players in their own doomsday play, a charade of life’s evil playmakers. So play on all you idiot republicans. You are playing to an audience of idiot-malenfants, who will soon disappear from the planet anyway. <o:p></o:p></p>
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</div>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-76214255128663184142023-07-04T15:15:00.000-04:002023-07-04T15:15:23.342-04:00Traveling is Good<p>Ahhh, the 4<sup>th</sup>, the 4<sup>th</sup>. Thinking back,
on July 4<sup>th</sup>, 1955, we had been married for two days, and we were now
aboard a flight on an airline now extinct. I thought it was World Airways, but
I can no longer find a reference to such a name. At any rate, it was a prop
passenger plane that flew us from LaGuardia Airport in New York to San
Francisco in 14 hours. I think it stopped 6 times. We left New York around
Midnight, arriving in San Francisco in midafternoon. Say 1-2 PM California
time. Ah, those were the days. There were of course no jet planes in that
era. So most flights were longish. This
flight was Carol and my first time aboard an airline. Oh I had traveled from coast
to coast several times. For my first, I
took a Greyhound bus that took me 4 days. But I traveled several times
thereafter. But we students devised a slightly different method of traveling
from coast to coast. We would find someone who wanted a car driven across the
country. Sometimes it was another student who wanted some help driving and we
would drive with two people in the front seats and one snoozing on the back
seat. Once, we drove the whole way (3000 odd miles) in 79 hours.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So that plane trip was a bit of a stunner. Imagine being
aboard a vehicle that left the ground and moved in the open air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow, what a concept. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But just when you imagine that a 14 hour
flight was really long, I have to remember our flight from LA to Sydney in
2001, which was just over 15 hours, not counting the six hours it took to get
to LA from the East Coast.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oh, traveling has been such fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I need to remember my childhood, where,
until I was 18, I had never traveled more than about ten miles from my home
base in New York City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t even
own a car, nor did so many of our New York City counterparts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who needed a car when you never went anywhere
beyond a couple of miles away from home base, and buses and subways were so
readily available? Our standard Sunday afternoon travels were a subway from
Second Avenue Manhattan to Jerome Avenue, the Bronx.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cars?? I think not.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But that flight with the two of us from LaGuardia to San
Francisco began our life pattern of serious traveling by car, plane or train. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am always a bit surprised at how we turned
into world travelers, given our stunted early travel days, where neither of us
had ever traveled more than maybe ten miles from our home base. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the end of our first year of marriage, we were faced with
the chore of moving to the LA region, since my first job out of Stanford was as
a flight test engineer with the Firestone Guided Missile Division in downtown
LA. We moved to Garden Grove, a little place 26 miles away from my work in
LA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And during that first year, we didn’t
move about much, as we explored the smoggy world of the LA region. Oddly, we
lived there six months before we discovered that, when the smog cleared a bit,
you could actually see mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think that might be when we decided that perhaps the LA region was not really
where we would choose to work and play for our new married lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so we moved back up to the San Francisco
Bay Area, where I began working with Lockheed on the Polaris missile.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now there, we had some family. My mom lived there and my sis
and her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we only traveled a
bit in California, mainly to places like Lake Tahoe. But then, after six years
at Lockheed, I joined a consulting firm doing planning work for the Air Force
to help plan and control the development of the Minuteman Missile. In that job
I traveled extensively, while my wife and kids enjoyed life in downtown San
Francisco. So, I got to see much of the country, while my family stayed home.
But then my boss called to ask me whether I would be interested in moving to a
new gig in New Delhi, India. We had just received a contract to send four
consultants to India, to work with the Planning Commission on planning new
large public sector projects. I asked my wife and she said, “sure, why not?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so our serious traveling began in earnest. Through that
opening, we traveled to India, but it was as though the world of global travel
was now open. We visited over 30 countries. After we returned four years later,
we traveled more about America. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so what, right? Well, one of the things we have learned
with all this traveling, is that folks are different everywhere you go, but
also, they are the same. Human beings react in similar ways. Whether you are
white or black, or any of the other colors we humans don, we remain humans.
Depending on how we are raised and with whom we interact, we may react to
stimuli differently. I guess that’s how racists arrive at that dreadful status.
But not everyone is a racist as it turns out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all need certain stimuli, we all need to
eat and we all need to consume water. We also, all need love and friendship. It
all depends on what we focus on and when that determines how we look to other
folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But key here is that the people
who live in China, or Bolivia, or Thailand or Wyoming all have similar needs.
Arguably, they could all be great friends, if they would only let that happen. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So try folks. Try love before hate. It works better for all
of us. <o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-15686287165717144232023-06-18T13:58:00.000-04:002023-06-18T13:58:21.047-04:00Organized Fakery<p> The world in which we live is chockerblock filled with Fake
News. Surely, Fox, The Faux News Network leads the parade, although they are
not alone, as the right wing in America (what used to be known as the
Republican Party) is filling up our Land with Fake News outlets, for example
One America News, an extreme right wing news outlet founded by Robert Herring
of Herring Network, Inc. And the list goes on and on.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But, to be fair, if you aren’t extreme right wing and still
want news that is unbiased, you need not listen to/watch Fox and the other dregs
like OAN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can listen to your news on
PBS, or even MSNBC or the other main network news outlets. They may lean one
way or another depending on which host they are using at the moment, but still
they are not bouncing off the walls of right wing lies, like Fox. I still have
difficulty understanding why any thinking person listens to/watches Fox
News.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of whether you voted
for Trump or Biden, would you not prefer gaining facts through your news outlets,
rather than flat-out lies? Rupert Murdoch has so corrupted our landscape that
he really should be forever banished from our Land, and from the Lands of any
Nation that wishes to lead a relatively normal National viewpoint. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean,
Oz, how can you stand that cretin? And he pretends to Australian Nationhood.
How did you allow that to happen?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But we go on, day by day. And we listen to Donald Trump and
his Fascist political Party, promoted by the likes of Fox News.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we laugh when Stephen Colbert uses some
element of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make believe that Donald Trump is
even more outrageously stupid (but funny) than we might have imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But his AI fakeries are promoted simply as
laugh pieces, known to be only partly true (he really did say that he could go
out on 5<sup>th</sup> Avenue, shoot someone and his poll numbers would rise). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But in conversations with a number of people, who are more
steeped in the world of AI than me (because they use it to create AI pieces for
TV) I am beginning to wonder, in dismay, just when it will be when we (I) can
no longer tell when some news piece produced using AI is real or a fake. And
when we can no longer tell, what will we do then?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Just imagine a Donald
Trump (or a Marjorie Taylor Greene) who has a fully competent AI system at
their disposal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they then begin
producing fake news elements and finding ways to slip them into all the various
news outlets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now if such things came
into real news outlets like PBS, or CBS, or MSNBC, would we be able to tell
whether what we were watching was real or fake?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now, to be fair, if the source were known to be Donald, or MTG, then we
would likely dismiss it. But supposing the source was unknown? And the item
showed a Democratic President, Kamala Harris for instance, saying or doing
something awful or simply compromising to our future? What then?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am told that this kind of dystopian future is now within
our grasp. It is not off 50-100 years in the future, but more like 5 years. And
are we ready for such a future? Hmmm, No. See, in olden days, before our
government was made by the right wing to seem completely unreliable, we might
have actually asked our government to help, maybe to weigh in on such Fake News
events and declare them Fake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now,
with Fox News and others of that ilk working daily to destroy our government’s
credibility, what will we do? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This possibility has me truly baffled, mainly because then,
we mighty simply not know any longer whether something we were watching was
real or a fake. So maybe, we will need to produce some substitute for video
news. But, right now, I cannot imagine what that might be. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything is LIVE? Seems extreme, but might
be necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could we trust anyone any
longer? If not, how do we operate a Nation-State? See, sometimes it seems as
though the right wing does not want to operate a Nation State, but I think that
is not the case. I think they only wish to operate a Nation-State if it is their
own Nation-State, i.e., one operated by Donald Trump, or others of his ilk. But
the rest of us would obviously not trust such a State. So, what then? Two
states??? A Red State of TrumpLand and a Blue state of ordinary, mostly honest
people. To be preceded by a Civil War? Well, we hope not, but that is the
direction in which we are being dragged by our right wing citizenry. So, let us
hope for a saner, more civilized solution. Voting?? Well, will voting somehow
avoid/correct the AI nightmare future scenarios?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knows? Not even the Shadow knows.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-79096480644031702142023-05-29T11:15:00.002-04:002023-05-29T11:15:49.558-04:00Memorial<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">So, today, we celebrate Memorial Day, a Day to honor our men
and women who have died in the service of protecting our Nation. Being a bit
older than most of you, I still remember that Day as Decoration Day, its original
name because it was a Day when people would honor our War dead by decorating
their graves with flowers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The origins of that Day are greatly mixed with America’s
Race arguments. One of the earliest celebrations involved freed Black men and
women honoring the War dead who had been responsible for freeing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Nation moved from that more limited
memorial to one that honors all of our War dead, those men and women who died
serving the Nation, especially in our many times of War. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And think of that. Just since I have been
alive, we have experienced World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and those seemingly
never-ending Middle East conflicts, even if they are not properly called Wars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Apparently, Humans of all kinds prefer resolving their
conflicts by shooting at the “Other Side”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And again, apparently, that has transferred in
America into a Love of Guns and just shooting people generally, even if we don’t
know those people. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our World today seems to sit on the edge of a precipice, as
we sit pointing guns and hating people generally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So many people, so little time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, in my now long life, I still
remember living on the edge of oblivion. America and the Soviet Union, both
armed with nuclear weapons pointed at the other, were practically drooling at
the prospect of letting loose those thousands of Death missiles. The world’s
problem, and our problem more specifically, was that, should we loosen those
weapons and send them on their way, the Russians would do the same, and then we would all disappear into a nuclear
emptiness, where no humans continued to exist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was working at Lockheed at the time. The
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company was hard at work, as was I, on designing
and building the Polaris, submarine-launched ballistic missile. It was a
fearsome thing. Each submarine could hold 16 missiles, each of which could
deliver, in turn, three independently targetable nuclear delivery
vehicles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The missiles could be fired
while the submarine was submerged. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it was a while in development. In 1957, when the
Russians launched SPUTNIK successfully, we were still in the early development
stages of designing and building Polaris. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And our anxiety leaped up after the Soviets
were successful. Now, to be fair, SPUTNIK was a satellite, not an ICBM. But it
made very clear that Soviet technology had suddenly leaped ahead of ours. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I still remember in that dark, cold
period, beginning to feel actually threatened. Our President, Dwight Eisenhower,
told the American people that we had entered a new era. The level of threat I
perceived was sufficiently real that I experienced serious fears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our work went on, even if not without glitches.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among the glitches, were our experiences
blowing up our missile over Cape Canaveral. We nicknamed our Polaris
developmental missile as “The Snake Killer”, because of its unfortunate habit
of blowing up soon after launch, thereby spewing flaming solid propellant all over
the Cape’s grassy launch area, thereby killing all snakes and other mammals in
that area. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so, we went on developing our horror machines, while the
Soviets were doing the same. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that “Cold
War” continued with Hate spewing at each of the contestants, mainly America and
Russia. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eventually, of course, both of us acquired the technical
capability of totally destroying the other side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And each crisis seemed to generate its own
anxiety level. I vividly remember that nasty Cuban Missile Crisis.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From a reference text:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 16-28 marks the anniversary of the Cuban Missile
Crisis, an anxious period during the Cold War in which the two superpowers—The United
States and the Soviet Union—stood on the brink of a nuclear war. Just 17 years
after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a stark warning of the
devastating consequences of launching a nuclear warhead, fear of nuclear
conflict was at America’s doorstep. Over the course of 13 days, the world avoided
nuclear catastrophe through shrewd diplomacy and sheer luck.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 16, 1962: US National Security Adviser McGeorge
Bundy briefed President John F. Kennedy on evidence that the Soviets were
constructing nuclear missile sites in Cuba, just 90 miles from US territory.
Earlier that year, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had reached a secret
agreement with Cuban leader Fidel Castro after the island experienced a failed
US attempt to overthrow his government.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>President Kennedy met with a group of trusted advisers to
discuss options. This group would meet daily during the crisis and later be
named the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two main options emerged: destroying the
Soviet missile sites with air strikes, or establishing a naval blockade to cut
off Soviet shipments of additional materials to Cuba.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 20, 1962: Following days of meetings, including one
with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko, Kennedy decided on a naval blockade.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 22, 1962: Kennedy addressed the American public,
revealing the news of Soviet moves in Cuba and announcing the US establishment
of naval quarantine until the Soviets dismantled the missile sites. He also sent
a letter to Khruschev, warning him of deliberately plunging the world into war,
which it is crystal clear no country could win and which could only result in
catastrophic consequences to the whole world, including the aggressor.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 23, 1962: US ships moved into place around Cuba.
Soviet freighters bringing supplies to the island moved into the area, but
ultimately altered course, or stopped in their place. <o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 25, 1962: Soviet freighters turned back toward
Europe, but a commercial oil tanker—The Bucharest-- continued towards Cuba. The
US allowed the Bucharest to pass through the blockade, without search, after
the Navy was satisfied it was carrying petroleum. <o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>October 26, 1962: As work on the missile sites continued,
Castro requested Khrushchev to launch a nuclear first strike against the US. This never happened. Instead, then Soviet leader sent a letter to President
Kennedy suggesting a way to resolve the conflict: the Soviets would remove the
missiles in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Kennedy’s brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, played a
crucial role in diplomatic efforts, meeting with Russian Ambassador Anatoly
Dobrynin who likened the Soviet buildup in Cuba to the US nuclear missiles
stationed in Turkey. AG Kennedy informed Dobrynin that the United States was ready
to discuss the issue as part of a potential agreement to end the crisis.</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And talk about nervous mind-blowing. Yes, we were all biting
our nails, because this one could be “The One”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Happily, everyone backed off. Perhaps visions of Hiroshima danced in
their heads, as they did mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
know if I have ever been that frightened. But we all kept on truck’n, designing
and building our Polaris.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And now we fast forward to our present 2023. What we have
now is a new way to reconsider WAR. Only now, we are simply and collectively
trying to think of new ways to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>live our
lives as we move towards the next Presidential election. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on one side we have the Democratic party
trying to figure out how best to support our President, Joe Biden. On the other
side, we have a new Republican Party—“new” because republicans broadly have
killed of that party of Eisenhower. I personally am no longer sure what this
newly incarnated political party wants, aside from, obviously, political power.
They wish to be in charge, apparently so they can cut taxes of their wealthy
supporters, reduce all benefits to middle and lower class citizens (including,
apparently, Social Security) and take action against Women, people of color, the
LGBTQ folks, and any and all migrants here or wishing to be here. They most now
remind me of those folks in 1936 Germany, working with and supporting Adolph
Hitler.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Seemingly each day brings us some new form of anti-democracy
movement by the current pseudo-Republicans. And their continued siege against
America makes me want to throw up, and returns me to those nervous days of the
1960s. America may not survive this constant barrage of fascist attacks from
our right wing. They may succeed in doing what the Soviet Sputnik crowd could
not. Indeed, I find myself thinking seriously about where I might be
considering migrating, were I much younger. New Zealand anyone?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But I am old now. In under two years, I shall be 90, and
married for 70 years. Those are good things I know, to be celebrated. But
simultaneously, our Nation seems to be fracturing into a new form of Civil War.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But in the meantime, happily we still continue to find some
way to honor our War dead. So, YES, Decoration Day continues and we should all
find some way to honor those men and women who died trying to help our Nation
survive the threats from within and Without. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, Thank you Veterans, Men and Women alike. You, at least
continue to make our Nation proud. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, THANK YOU.<o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-52282357411149769522023-05-08T12:59:00.000-04:002023-05-08T12:59:57.920-04:00 May 8, VE Day, 1945<p>It was a Tuesday. And
as the day was ending, the Unconditional Surrender was announced.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From Wiki:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">“</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler" title="Adolf Hitler"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Adolf Hitler</span></a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrer" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Führer"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Nazi leader</span></a>, had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Death of Adolf Hitler"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">committed suicide on 30 April</span></a> during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Battle of Berlin"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Battle of Berlin</span></a>, and
Germany's surrender was authorised by his successor, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichspr%C3%A4sident" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Reichspräsident"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Reichspräsident</span></a></span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_D%C3%B6nitz" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Karl Dönitz"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Karl Dönitz</span></a>. The
administration headed by Dönitz was known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flensburg_Government" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Flensburg Government"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Flensburg Government</span></a>. The act of military surrender was first
signed at 02:41 on 7 May in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHAEF" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="SHAEF"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">SHAEF</span></a> HQ
at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Reims"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Reims</span></a>,</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup id="cite_ref-2" style="unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day#cite_note-2" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">[2]</span></a></span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text1;"> and a slightly modified document,
considered the definitive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Instrument_of_Surrender" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="German Instrument of Surrender"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">German Instrument of Surrender</span></a>, was signed on 8 May 1945 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlshorst" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Karlshorst"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Karlshorst</span></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" title="Berlin"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Berlin</span></a> at 22:43 local time (that’s 5:45 PM Washington
Time).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text1;">The German
High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air
authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations
at 23.01 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">I had gone to school that day,
PS-82 in Manhattan, knowing nothing of this momentous event. We were at home,
beginning to eat our dinner at our Manhattan apartment. The announcement came
on the radio shortly thereafter. We all smiled, I remember. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">That War had changed many lives,
including ending the lives of more than 80 million people worldwide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I remember, several months later, smiling
when I saw my Uncle Bill walking toward our apartment on Second Avenue, having
just returned from his Seabee duties in the South Pacific. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The War had engulfed us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Daisy, my mum, had no college
training, but she had acquired some skills with numbers. Specifically, she went
to work during the War as a Bookkeeper at a company called Gibbs and Cox, a
Naval Architecture firm that designed marine vehicles, specifically boats meant
for wartime duty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to Daisy,
my sister Ruth dropped out of high school at Julia Richman in Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was 16 and a junior in high school, but
the War beckoned and she went to work alongside my mother, but as a typist. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">The War had changed so many
lives. Daisy worked and earned a decent living, but the War caused the introduction
of many changes, not the least being food rationing. We could still buy food,
unlike many Europeans, but it was rationed, so that food could be diverted to
our troops. Folks were issued Food Stamps that would be needed in order to buy
many items of food, as well as other commodities (automobile tires were
rationed, and autos themselves became a casualty, with production lines being
diverted to producing military vehicles, including tanks, jeeps, etc).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">One casualty of the rationing
system was our dog. We owned a little white dog we named Cleo. Daisy had bought
food for our dinner one day, and, before she got around to preparing our
dinner, Cleo had somehow gotten into the meat she had purchased—Rationed Meat!.
When it was discovered that Cleo had eaten into the rationed beef, Cleo became
history. He was sent to a doggy hostelry and never again darkened our door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">And then there were the
Blackouts. When a signal came down, all lights in Manhattan had to be turned
off. Think of that. Manhattan went dark. And should we ignore that order, we
had an air raid warden banging on our apartment door. They thought maybe New
York would be a target for German bombers (although how Germans could have gotten
bombers within reach of Manhattan seemed dubious at best. But Blackouts we had
aplenty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">I was ten when that war ended, a
young lad with many memories of scary days. To be fair, unlike, say, London, we
had no bombers dropping those wicked bombs on us in Manhattan. Still, we did
not know that then, so we remained apprehensive. Most of us also knew someone
actively engaged, and a few friends actually lost someone in conflict. So, when
the conflict actually ceased, via that Unconditional Surrender, soon after
Adolph committed suicide, there was much shouting and singing and dancing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">Somehow, nothing that followed
ever compared to that Great event. 911 comes close to producing great shock,
and massive anger. In that crazed act, someone did something that even the Germans
could not do during that Great War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So,
if our reaction to 911 is viewed as somehow excessive, we think it was not.
Attack America at your peril. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">And so it goes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-13429547344756384662023-05-02T14:13:00.000-04:002023-05-02T14:13:07.427-04:00To Old to Run?<p>Increasingly, I find myself reading about someone or
something that has quit working, or just croaked. And then, upon checking, it turns out they/it
was younger than me. For example, Gordon
Lightfoot, the amazing singer-songwriter, just died at the age of 84 of “natural
causes”. To be fair, some folks have
been croaking at well past my age of 88. But, many/most are younger.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We attended a party the other day, and, as we were sitting
and chatting, someone asked, “So, how long have you been married?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I replied. “Coming up on 68 years this
July.” And she looked baffled and said, while laughing, “So, what, you were 3
when you got married?” And then we all laughed. See, nobody else in the group
was past maybe their mid-50s. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">88?? Who in the hell is 88 and still wandering around,
drinking wine and still driving home? It doesn’t even seem right to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, I don’t feel like I’m in my 30’s or
40’s, but 88? Nah!.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now we do know folks who are older. We have a friend, Sidney
Tynan, who lives in Rhode Island by herself at the tender age of (almost) 102. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she still writes a monthly paper called
her “Country Newsletter”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew Sidney
from our days spent in India during the mid-1960s. And we have remained
friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we have another friend from
India, now in his 90s, who lives in Florida and still works with his artist
wife. And then, we have our friend who lives in Australia and who worked in
India with us. He is just 4 months older, but he always makes believe he is
younger. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So what does it feel like to be 88? Well, it really is just
one day at a time. Mostly, one day resembles the other. Oh we have some
variation. We both go to work out three days a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we go out to shop on Fridays and
Saturdays (the latter to a local Farmers Market). And Carol works with our
local Literacy Council teaching folks to speak better English. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then Carol spends a lot of her time making
quilts for sick kids at our local children’s hospital. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me?? I don’t do too much. I write this piece
occasionally and I play around with vaguely artsy creations. I used to appear
at local Art Walks, but they kind of died out during COVID. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, COVID killed off some nice affairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I find myself reading a bit more and
playing on Facebook and Instagram. No, I don’t do Twitter—too mindless, even
for me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One thing I am finding increasingly, is my impatience with
Republicans. I cannot believe that I actually voted for a republican for my
first vote—Dwight Eisenhower instead of Adlai Stevenson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now, I look at almost all republicans and
think, Oh God, they are stuck in their minds in 1936 Germany, looking for their
very own Adolph Hitler. And who is they wish to kill? Well, anyone trying to
gatecrash their way into America from South America—really any people of color,
though. And they seem to despise women, but they have to be a bit more careful
there, since they tend to marry women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oh, and they really hate anyone in the LGBTQ community. They will do
almost anything to make their lives miserable. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, being 88, I have difficulty with all this hatred. I
realize I’m supposed to be far rightwing, hating along with the worst of them.
But I’m just not like that, and I am having increasing difficulty with all
these hatreds. I guess Donald Trump triggered all this awful stuff and, well he
is old, just not as old as me, or even as Joe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so I now have to come to grips with this old people
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would seem that the two main
characters planning on running for President in 2024 are Donald Trump, age 76,
and Joe Biden, age 80. Yeah, yeah, I know that Ron DeSantis is planning a run,
and he is only 44. So, maybe I ought to be reconsidering. But no, DeSantis is
young, but he is a young Idiot-Malenfant. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to have joined the weird world of Republican
Hate groups. So, No, he is not a candidate I might take seriously. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But How about Joe? Well, he would be 82 on taking office,
and 86 on finally retiring from Office, assuming he remains alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK, so I’m 88, and I will be way older than
Joe, assuming I continue to remain alive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I am hearing a lot of jokes about Joe’s
age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sometimes seems to stumble a bit
in speaking and is not exactly agile physically. Still, he is pretty good for
his age. And I am familiar with folks who succumb to things like dementia—my Mother
for example. So, how can I continue to consider voting for Joe? Well, first, any
prediction you might have for Joe, would be hovering above Donald Trump. Yeah,
he’s a few years younger, but he begins as an idiot, whereas Joe still has a
functional brain. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But suppose Joe begins to slip partway through his term of
Office? Well, for one thing, he has a wife who would be positioned to rein him
in. But even more importantly, he would have a Vice President (Kamala maybe?) capable
of slipping into the position smoothly. Plus, we have all these highly paid
folks who would be working for him who would also likely notice should Joe
begin to slip. See, that’s the thing about an American Presidency, as distinct
from Russia’s Dictator, Vlad. Over there, I assume someone would have to step
in and shoot Vlad. See, we have less drastic ways of “retiring” our leaders. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now I, at the tender age of 88, still function pretty much
the same as I did in my 60s or 70s. I think there has not been much deterioration
in my brain functioning. And so, although I am well aware of the aging
problems, I don’t yet see that as a major deterrent to Joe running for office. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would I be happier were Joe only 70, rather
than 80, well maybe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, do I think
maybe he should not run? Well, no I do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It still comes down to Joe Biden vs. whoever the republicans select to
run against him. And they seem to have no leaders who are not of the Fascist
mindset. I am not sure how or why the republican party as a whole has slipped
into the world of 1936 Germany, but there it is. If we want to continue living
in a democracy, then folks, we are stuck with the Democrats and likely, with
Joe Biden. It is so split that I think we dare not vote for a republican for
major national office. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know any
longer what happened to those thinking people, of ethical/moral character who
were/are republican, but they all seem to have gone into their respective
closets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are no longer available as
aides and counselors helping to keep the American ship afloat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe someday, they will return and kick out
the Trumps, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, Kevin McCarthys and Ron DeSantis’ of this
world. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ahh, that would be a wonderful world indeed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fond Hope Springs Eternal. And maybe I will still be alive
to see that happening. Who knows??? The Shadow Knows. <o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-17598318221125006422023-04-27T16:00:00.002-04:002023-04-27T16:00:34.185-04:00The Beginning of the End?<p>I wonder how one knows that one’s country has begun to fail.
And also, what happens to a country that fails? I assume that some financial
things would begin happening, maybe banks beginning to move their assets to
another country, or an increase in the number of industrial or commercial companies
that begin failing. Maybe larger numbers
of people would be taking steps to move to a different country, although there
are only a few countries that seem logical places to move. I
assume it is still possible that we might “fail” as we did in the 1920s, when
the stock markets collapsed and people were forced out of their jobs and
millions went looking for work and money.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We normally just assume that all of our safeguards will
always remain in place. The various levels of government will remain and
continue to do things like fix roads, keep electricity flowing, catch bad guys
who are out robbing and killing folks, and protect us against insurrectionists
(like Trump) or foreign powers (like Russia). Yet, all of those various levels
of protective government require both financial and spoken support. Folks still
need to believe in the various institutions of government. And that is what
seems to be somehow wearing thin these days. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ever since Trump was elected and all the right wing racists,
misogynists, anti-everything crowd emerged from their respective closets,
America has been on a downhill slide. I find it very difficult to understand
how anyone could have voted for idiots the like of Marjorie Taylor Greene, and
now Ron DeSantis. DeSantis???? He is regarded as a serious candidate for
President of America??? Seriously? Whatever happened to the Republican Party of
old?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that, Yes, Republicans have
long toyed at the edges of Fascism. Reagan perhaps began this long trek to
failure, but he has had lots of help along the way. But whatever one thinks of,
say Ronald Reagan, or George Bush (aka Shrub)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>. . . Trump??? How could anyone in their right mind waste their vote on
Donald Trump? And then the movement continues downhill. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And consider if you will, all of the legislative battles
fought by Republicans to not only ban abortion (thank you Trump SCOTUS), but
ban books for God’s sake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have
banned abortion pills, and then went on to try to ban contraception.
Seriously?? You want to ban contraceptive measures so that . . . what? You would
have more unwanted pregnancies??? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And now their ongoing battles against Gays, Transgender
folks, anyone associated with the LGBTQ people. Why? Why would you care about
such folks, who have enough problems in life without Republicans stepping in to
make their lives even more unhappy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then, think Ethics. We have a Supreme Court Justice,
Clarence by name, who seems to imagine that he is immune to ethical
considerations of any kind. He imagines it is really ok to accept bribes from
super-rich associates without any consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A Justice of the Supreme Court?? And these are the folks we rely on to
make final decisions on any and all matters of legal, social and ethical concerns?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> N</span>ote please that SCOTUS as a whole has been
entirely silent on Clarence’s trials and tribulations. Not a word from the holy
ones. So, Kavenaugh, Barrett, et al, nothing??? You think that crap is none of
our business? Amazing. Truly, and a very large sign that our Nation is failing
and nobody seems to care, certainly not any of the Republican “holier-than-thou”
crew. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And that is what I find most disturbing. That a very large
percentage of our Nation’s population can continue to go on as though nothing
has happened. Donald Trump? No, he’s a great candidate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s those nasty books on racism that is the
problem. We need to ban more books, maybe take our public education and get rid
of it, replaced by a private system. We know they’re better, right? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oh, and let’s get rid of those damned students who are
voting in elections. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, so let’s take
away their rights to vote, unless they show up at the voting places at home.
And even then we should make it more difficult. Can’t have those kids voting.
They tend to vote for Democrats for God’s sake. Can’t have that. Maybe Adolph
was right in 1936. We need supreme leaders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the ticket. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And so we continue on this downward slide into oblivion. Is this why those folks like Washington created America out of a British Colony? So that Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis could complete our slide into 1936 Germany? I don't know folks. We really need to do some hard thinking. And Yes, we need to vote them out of office. So get on with it folks. Or the End really is Near.</p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405794240318221489.post-37919867129675058392023-04-20T14:32:00.000-04:002023-04-20T14:32:27.088-04:00Still Aging In Place<p> Increasingly, I have begun feeling like I am somehow “outside”
of wherever it is I am in. Even if I am sitting within a family group, with,
say, kids and/or grandkids I have begun feeling as though I am sitting
somewhere else, but still observing them. Sometimes, I am almost startled when one of them
actually addresses me directly by asking me a question, or commenting on
something about me. And then that state
of being (or maybe non-being) is enhanced when I am reading the news, or a news
e-mail, or listening/watching the news on TV or radio. Why? Well, inevitably the reporter or the
article begins discussing one of our republican friends, and then I feel like I
have just arrived from outer space, and they are discussing something I simply
do not understand. The other day, for example, I sat and watched the Governor
of North Dakota address the NRA at their convention. And she told us that she
had made sure to arm her two-year old grandchild with both a rifle and a
shotgun. I mean, you just never know when another two-year old brat is going to
do something threatening, and her grandkid might have to shoot that other kid.
Well, sort of like that dude who answered his door, gun in hand (don’t we all
answer our doorbell with a gun in hand?) and then when he saw a young Black kid,
he began firing his gun. I mean, clearly
that young Black kid was going to harm him, so he was simply protecting
himself. Right?? Or that other dude who saw three young ladies enter his
driveway in their car, and then began to back away, but he of course had to open
fire on them. Obviously, the girls meant
him harm, even if they were backing away.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then there is that whole set of characters who profess
to represent the Republican Party. Take Marjory Taylor Greene. She actually said
that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish Space Lasers. And then she
failed to back away and laugh. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oh and that January 6<sup>th</sup> thing at the Capitol?
They are now portrayed of course as simple tourists who wanted to visit the
Capitol, but were being denied their proper tourist rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, as you watch that event taking place,
don’t you begin to feel as though you have just arrived from Mars and you
really don’t understand what you are witnessing? I sometimes think I am
actually in 1936 Germany and I am wondering when Adolph is going to show up
(Oh, that’s Ron DeSantis, not Adolph Hitler approaching the podium?)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">See, it isn’t a specific person, oh like Donald Trump. It’s
that there seem to be so many of them. An entire political party has actually
entered the realm of 1936 Nazi Germany, or maybe just 2023 Crazy America. But
how did that happen, and will it (and I) ever return to something approaching
normalcy? I’m 88 for Christ sake, and I can’t take much more of this. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And worse, it seems to be the case that Americans in very
large numbers have joined this Crazy Party, yet how could that have happened.
See, I still remember voting for Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican candidate
for President in 1952. Can you even imagine what Ike would be thinking were he
present at some rally where Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis were rambling on about
one of their latest thoughts concerning America? Would that Ike not also begin
wondering whether he had somehow been transmitted to a Foreign Land on Mars?
Surely this could not be Florida within the US of A. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And I listen to/watch the commentary and they tear that
bunch apart, but nothing actually happens to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Americans, actual Americans keep on listening
to them and, whenever they can, still voting for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the part I fail to understand and why
I feel like I am floating somewhere in outer space. How could this be? How is it possible that
Americans in any number beyond a few hundred (ok even a few thousand) could
possibly go to a polling place and mark the ballots to elect such people—Trump,
DeSantis, Greene, Hawley, Cawthorne, McConnell, McCarthy? Really, America . . .
you actually approve of such manic pseudohumans?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you are going to refuse to control guns,
while facing the largest collection of mass shootings in our history? And you
also refuse to allow people to have medical abortions, or even to buy and
consume abortion pills, regardless of the later effects on the lives of the
women involved. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, you’re not actually “Pro-Life”
as much as you are Anti-sex, or maybe “Pro-Foetus”. Yeah, once those foetuses become
actual humans, it’s ok to shoot them, right?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And so, I have begun drifting off into some outer space
existence. I am no longer a full-time resident of America, maybe even of Earth,
I am still technically alive, I know, cuz I can still watch Stephen Colbert or
John Oliver, but I no longer recognize what I observe going on around me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Maybe I am actually in a dream-state and I will awaken to
re-enter our world and it will still be 1975, or maybe even 2010 and that dude
Barack Obama is still president. Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice? Oh shit, go back
to sleep Richard. That ain’t gonna happen. <o:p></o:p></p>artful noteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688242364521243994noreply@blogger.com0