Dismal Times

This weather begins to make me wonder about my non-belief in a greater being up above us. It really begins to look like someone just got fed up with Humankind, and then tossed a switch to change everything about the weather, and then sat back to enjoy the resulting chaos.  We here in North Carolina have been lucky so far, having missed out on California’s Atmospheric Rivers falling from the sky. But, we used to live in downtown San Francisco, and so we feel their pain.  And then there’s Texas. They cancelled, what, 6000 flights into or out of Texas airports?  How awful is that? Especially for folks trying to leave Texas.  

And then, right in the middle of this weather chaos, we have republicans beginning to gain speed in their zeal to become the Evil Overlords of America. They’re busily banning books that make them uncomfortable. They are threatening teachers with felony convictions should they dare to reveal to their students how the world actually works.  But then republicans really do so hate educated people. They ask so many embarrassing questions.   And then those same educated people seem to insist on voting, and we know how that works out for republicans.  All in all, the chaos here in America makes me think about moving, except for two things. One, I’m 88 and have no serious wherewithal to pick up and leave to some other country.

But then I also have this other issue. Even if I were able to move, where would I go?  I used to imagine New Zealand. But then Jacinda Ahern left as their political leader, and the weather Frankenstein moved over their country, creating chaos there. I mean, Britain seems totally screwed up politically, Australia isn’t any saner than America. So I guess I am going to have to look around a bit more cautiously.  Politics does seem kind of screwed up so many places.

And then, and then, our police started thinking it was ok to kill people, just to demonstrate who’s really in charge.  And that is never a good thing. We need our police. Really, we do. But we really do not need police acting out their worst instincts.  First, five Black cops, belonging to some elite unit, decide it’s ok to beat some other (Black) dude to death. And here I thought we learned something from the George Floyd disaster.  And then, some other White police dudes decide it’s ok to chase after a guy with no legs and then shoot him. Wouldn’t want him getting away, would we?  Makes me think maybe the Brits have the right idea by denying arms to their beat officers.

So, now, as I gaze outside at the dismal weather, I have to resist the urge to watch any TV news, or even to follow any Newsie outlets in my computer, since we seem to have all bad news all the time. Remember that Ukraine place? Yeah, it’s still there, and Vlad the Impaler continues to sit in his comfortable Moscow office and issue orders to kill and maim as many Ukrainians as possible. He is so bad that even Russians have begun fleeing their country to escape the possibility of being drafted into Vlad’s Evil Army.  Begins to bring back memories of both the Cold War and that war in Southeast Asia. Remember that? Such fun.

When did it used to be fun living in America?  Remind me, please. I’m really old and have begun to forget when those good times were a’rolling.

Waiting for God

I guess this is a function of turning 88 last December.  And what is the “This”? Well, “This” is noticing that folks are dying all around you.  Now, maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. I mean, folks die every day, and famous folks seem to appear in my social media outlets with some frequency. Seems at least a few times every week, I note a posting in some newsie outlet that someone has just died.  Mostly, they are folks in their 70’s or 80’s. , but some times they are just in their 50s. Sad, very sad.  Well, it’s sad whenever someone dies, but to die in your 50s or 60s seems truly sad. The husband of a friend who is one of our favorite Farmers’ Market folks just died and we think he was in his 60s. The truly sad part of that passing is that when folks arrive in their mid-60s, they begin to imagine life without a daily truck’n off to work. Yeah, Retirement.  And assuming you have been reasonably careful, you can even imagine retiring with enough money on which to live.  So, dying right at that stage just seems like you were cheated by Life.  Takes the smile right off your face.

And then, of course, because we are old, many of our friends are old also.  So, seeing as how we are now in our 80’s, so are our friends.  And that’s really when folks begin to leave.

But then we have this term we always use—“Leave”. Sometimes we say that folks have “passed on”, or they have “departed”.  And then many folks engage in the fantasy whereby they envision the departed as sitting up above us, on a cloud somewhere watching us.

In short, they imagine that Life continues, but in a different form.  They can observe us, but they are no longer able to interact with us. But does everyone believe that Life After Tale?  Well, No. I, for one, have a different view of what happens “After”.  And what is that view?

Well, I imagine that we suddenly lose awareness and we do not even realize we are dead, because we no longer realize anything.  That is, our mind stops functioning altogether. It isn’t that it stops being capable of yelling at other people. No, it stops being capable of seeing/knowing/sensing. It goes blank, AND, it remains blank.  Further, it (the mind) does not suddenly allow us to see other dead folks, or to watch our trials and tribulations down here on Earth. Nope. We no longer sense anything.

Now, I suppose that scenario is both a plus and a minus. The plus side is that, we are not going to Hell, because there is no Hell. But on the minus side, we are not going to Heaven for the same reason. There is no Heaven.  And that’s the part that keeps my attention. I can’t decide whether that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.  We will simply shut down . . . Forever. We will never become born again. We will never be aware again. But then we won’t even know we are “not aware”.  To be honest, I have never really understood that Hindu reincarnation thing about being “born again”.  If you have no memory of your prior life, you also have no awareness. How is that different from what I imagine?

I realize that our population of “Believers”—generally churchgoers of any persuasion—will take serious exception to what I think and believe. And surely they are entitled to that viewpoint, since, to be fair, I have no more actual data than they do. Again, to my knowledge, no one has come back from Death.  Now, some folks get brought back to Life after they have technically died, i.e., their heart stopped beating and they seemed technically dead. Then through CPR or some other shock, they regain Life. I think that doesn’t count for much, since most have no cloud-like memories. They stop breathing, everything goes blank, then they return to breathing and Life again.  But none, to my limited knowledge, have anything to contribute to the debate about what happens after we croak.

And so, when I am told of a friend who “passes on”, or I read something, I feel a bit of a sadness, or even a shock. And it adds to my own awareness of the nearness of that event to me.  But I still do not know what to do with those feelings. I can prepare for the folks who I will leave behind, e.g., that Will thing. And I can even write notes (no this is not such a note) But I can’t do much else.

What I can do, more importantly, is to try to spread some more love and some more good feelings. I can try to make people around me happy.  Smile Richard. Make believe you’re on TV. Quit Hating things and people, even Trump MAGAHeads. They’re idiots, yes. But they don’t even know they’re idiots, and that is important to them.

So, maybe I should apologize for writing my tale here.  

And, when it’s time, Have another glass of some nice wine, look at your Love One and Say, To Us.

World War End

I have been alive a long time by almost any count. I still remember the beginning of that first war I remember. No, not World War I. That was my granfolks war.  Yeah, they watched it, although to my knowledge, none of them were ever engaged within it.  No, it was World War II, beginning with that Pearl Harbor thing, you know, when our enemies dropped all those bombs all over our bases in Hawaii. Yeah, I remember that one.

And then we entered what became World War III, the war without endings.  Yeah, it began in 1950, soon after WW II ended. Koreans started shooting at one another and, of course, we had to take Sides. Then, vaguely after that seemed to want to end, The Vietnamese began shooting at one another, and, again, of course we had to take sides. And that one went on for years. But then, relatively unnoticed it would seem, people had been shooting at one another in that place called The Middle East, for years. And that has never really stopped. As soon as one group stops shooting there is a waiting line for the next group to begin shooting.  Yeah, turns out that Humans just really like killing one another. Think on that six-year old who went to school recently and just shot his teacher. Yeah, humans learn really early. Apparently, the Bible tells us that “Thou Shalt Kill” in any way we can.

And so, folks have been shooting up the planet almost ever since I came into being in 1934.

And now, we are beginning to notice, when we turn our attention away from people killing people that is, that we collectively have introduced what we might call the War that ends all Wars – Global Climate Change. Only, now it is US against The World. Yeah, we are now engaged in a war being waged by our planet, because we have been too stupid to take action to prevent it.  Apparently, at least 70 years ago, our scientists have been telling us that, unless we reduce our carbon emissions, our global climate will change and may well begin killing us all.  But they were predicting potential disaster many years in our future, and, whenever we do that, humans say, “yeah sure, but just not now”. And, so, predictably, we have been ignoring their advice to reduce carbon emissions.

So, now we are approaching that 2-degree temperature rise that predicts a cataclysmic climate change. Global warming will give rise to more extremes in all kinds of weather—droughts, catastrophic rainstorms, ice-free arctic zones, giving us even more wildass weather.  They are now coming up with new terms—Bomb Cyclones, atmospheric rivers. And many of the folks who produce our food are beginning to experience the worst of their predictions. California has been hit by both serious droughts leading to wildfires, followed by rainstorms leaving behind rivers overflowing everywhere.

And we no longer just get rainstorms—you know, those cloudy days when rain falls for a few hours, leaving behind an inch of water. No, now, it rains for a few hours and leaves behind 3-5 inches of water, which floods many areas, accompanied by wildass winds. Yeah, much of our weather now seems intent on destruction.  

Now you might imagine that all this catastrophic weather might provoke our industrial and our government leaders to sit down and prescribe some serious changes to prevent even more destruction. But instead, we have industrial leaders mounting serious charade campaigns to misinform the public. And then, just to follow suit, the America people voted to elect even more republicans into office. How does that change things? Well, republicans are now opposed to government. Yeah, folks elect republicans explicitly so that our government will cease functioning.  And that Kevin McCarthy charade just illustrated the point beautifully.  Yeah, Kevin basically gave away the candy store in order to head up the group that hates government. So what you say? Well, what that means is that, while our industrial leaders continue lying to us, in order that they can continue doing nothing, now our government will be too dysfunctional to do anything either. And so, global climate change will continue unhindered, and even accelerated by humans.  Yeah, aren’t we proud folks? And I was just reading about Norway which is achieving zero carbon emissions, while we piss away any chance of emulating their responsible behavior.

And so, our war with ourselves continues unabated. Aren’t we proud? But, just remember, there is no bogeyman enemy in this war, folks. We are our own enemies. And that is why this is perhaps our last war. So play on. It may not be long.

2022 Ends

And so that year, 2022, now draws to a close. Huh! And who may we blame for bringing that one into existence?  Was that a Trump joke on all of us?

And what did we learn?

Oh that Trump is a total fraud and will always be a crook. Maybe he learned that from his daddy.  I mean, ending the year by selling dumbass cards with his picture on them for hundreds of dollars each seems worse even than selling fake currency tokens. And folks are actually sending out real money to purchase these fake things. Isn’t that a definition of terminally STUPID?

And we know now that Trump will never actually be brought to justice by anyone. I mean, he seems to have some varnish finish on him that prevents any law enforcement agent from actually touching him.  They do keep trying but it’s like some game he plays with other humans, when he isn’t conning them out of their money that is.

And then there is his BFF, Vlad the Impaler, who seems to be similar. I mean, he actually caused the invasion of a sovereign nation, The Ukraine, with no ostensible reason, and has continued bombing them and killing their citizens and nobody is willing to stop them. Just cuz stopping him would mean nuclear annihilation I guess. Silly huh?  And so the world now understands that any really big country can invade any other, neighboring country for any reason, and nobody will step in to say NO.  I wonder whether Xi Jinping is paying proper attention.  I know, I know, we keep threatening them that, should they attack Taiwan, we will step in. But what would we actually do? Bomb China??? Seems unlikely. So, Vlad has set a standard for the behavior of tyrants everywhere. Oh 2022, you have been so awful.

And back to here, we have had the final destruction of the Republican Party. Gads, remember republicans under Dwight Eisenhower, or even that idiot Ronald Reagan? I mean, they weren’t great then, but they weren’t Nazi’s either. Now they seem to have moved into Nazi’s of the 1936 Germany kind. Yeah, and the only real question is who will they choose to be their Adolph?  Trump sort of fills the bill, but then we also have Ronnie DeSantis, and a whole host of other minor, would-be Adolph’s. So, what ever happened to the old Republican Party, the one that at least pretended to have some ethical dimension?

And the American people no longer seem to care, and therein lies the real problem. We should be screaming at the rooftops, but I hear no serious screaming.  People of the Right persuasion seem to have totally surrendered to the charade of Republican language about Left-Wing ideology. All Democrats are apparently Soviets Commies of the old school according to the Repubs. And the American people, well almost half of them anyway, seem to have bought into that crap.  So, how can we run a civilized nation, when almost half the people no longer believe in civilization, or ethics, or morality any longer? Isn’t that how Nazi Germany came into existence?  All we need is a group they can label as “The Enemy”, like Adolph did to the Jews during the 1930s.

I keep awaiting the New Enlightenment to arrive. You know, that day, when Americans of all stripes say, OK, this is all bullshit and we ain’t gonna take it any longer. We want decent, civilized people as our Leaders in Government. You know, people who seem to actually know right from wrong.

Hmmm, maybe we should bring back Jon Stewart, only this time as US President. And let’s see, hey how about Samantha Bee as VEEP? Yeah, two comedians to run America.  First, comedians seem smarter than your average Joe (or Josephine). Second, most of them seem to hold an actual ethical dimension. Yeah, they actually seem to know right and wrong.  And then, who could we get as Secretary of State . . . oh I know, Trevor Noah. And then maybe John Oliver as Secretary of Defence?? And Larry Wilmore as Secretary of Education. Oh such fun.  So take it from there folks. Get your thinking gear operational and begin to reconceive the American Government. That will make such fun in, oh, how about 2023???

Yeah, take it away 2023!!!

Ending

I was reading about a lawsuit the other day—a lawsuit in which our energy companies, the oil giants who produce much of our usable energy were being sued because they are massively contributing to Climate Change, AND because they have begun acting together in a sort of collective aimed at destroying the opposition. By denying that Climate Change is occurring and, certainly, that it has anything to do with them, they are contributing heavily to its worst effects.  Places like Puerto Rico are reaping the results of their actions:

(see recent Guardian article -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/20/big-oil-is-behind-conspiracy-to-deceive-public-first-climate-racketeering-lawsuit-says)

It seems obvious that Climate Change is real and that the extraordinary weather we can observe almost daily is its result. And that such an ending could be the result of MONEY?? Yep, big companies care only about their money. If seeking money leads to an end to the world we have always known, that’s Life. You know, in the best tradition of: “Life’s a bitch, but then you die”.

Now that makes me want to find some method of ending these big companies.

And then I read a quizzical article called: The End of Us, by Adam Kirsch, in The Atlantic: January-February 2023. Mainly, the article talks about what they see as the Future in which The Reign of Human Beings on Earth is At An End. Now, to be fair, they don’t talk about The Ending in any specifics. That is, they are not referring to an Apocalypse, of the kind we might have envisioned during the Cold War, when the US and the Soviet Union kept waving nuclear Armageddon at each other—Behave or Else!

No, as best I can understand, they are speaking about perhaps some combination of Climate Change and a gradual diminishment of Humankind on our planet.  And, curiously, they speak of the term almost fondly.  They adopt a term, TransHumanism to describe a coming world in which Humanity gradually disappears. Oddly perhaps, both Anti and Trans Humanists see a world without humans as a matter of time. It will happen. It is only when and the manner.

Now, to be fair, I read through this article, coming away without any serious understanding of how “The Ending” might occur. It is either induced by humankind itself—through Climate Change, or some other human-induced catastrophe, or it will happen slowly (in dozens-hundreds of years rather than thousands).

So, our planet, eventually, without humans, that is, without human intelligence—just in case you’re thinking, “well, bears, and lions and mice have intelligence, so it would not be a Planet without intelligence”.  True, but I still come away from this prediction with a “Why”, or maybe a “so what”?  A planet without humans worrying about it all, seems a singularly empty gesture.  Each day, I observe the sun rising, or setting, maybe even taking its picture, and I wonder, suppose I were not here. What then? Well, then someone else will be observing and marveling at the glories of nature. Smile Richard. It’s OK.

But I continue to wonder, even as I may be smiling at something that exists in our glorious world, what after all is the point? Suppose, no one (human) was here to observe, and the “observers” were reduced to lady bugs. What then? What would be the point?  And if there is no real point, then how did this all happen? I mean, is it, are we, simply accidents of an evolutionary path? But then why is there an “evolutionary path”?  If there really was a “Big Bang”, to what end? And if there is no “End” then what are we all about? Is there a God? And, if so, why would she invent such a silly system of gestures and paradoxes?  If some idiot armed with a big gun, walks into a school and begins shooting kids and teachers, did she tell him to do that? And if not, then what the hell?  Is shooting kids in a school room the same as me taking a picture of a ladybug, i.e., equally insignificant?

See, questions, but unfortunately I am not smart enough to follow through with intelligent answers. Maybe cuz there are no actual answers that would matter.  So, God, what do you have to say about all that? “ Well I choose to say nothing, because that is the best and most honest answer”. Oh, OK God. Gotcha.

And so the game continues. And when the sun rises tomorrow, go outside and observe. Because there is no other point to our existence. Be aware. Oh, and try to Be Kind, just cuz someone else may notice and smile. And that is also the point.

Happy Holidays folks. Be safe. Stay warm, Smile, and have a glass of wine

 Coming up soon – 2023!.

America

I find myself wondering/worrying almost daily now on what has happened to America. I know, I know, I am now old by any definition. Still, what I observe simply isn’t normal by, again, any definition.

And what do I mean?  Well, for example, the idiots who shot up that power system, thereby removing all power being used by ordinary folks to heat their homes, provide lighting, refrigeration, etc.  Now what the hell is that supposed to signify? That they are opposed to elected governments? And how does taking away heating in the wintertime demonstrate that you don’t like governments? Oh, it’s that you don’t like Liberal Democratic governments. I see. Of course, Benito Mussolini, or Adolph Hitler would certainly have punished the ordinary people. Except, they didn’t. Yeah, those dudes were out to punish/eliminate specific people—Jews mainly. They would not have even considered destroying the power systems of otherwise ordinary folks.

So, all I see coming from the right wing are threats against ordinary humans who simply disagree with them. And all I can conclude is that the Right Wing is now all intent on returning us all to maybe the 5^th century, when there was no law, no governments, and even no jobs, no proper homes, no schools, no libraries.  Yeah, it would seem that our right wing wants to return us all to cave-dwelling and hunting rabbits for our dinner.

Now how the hell did that happen? Remember, the right wing used to be led by folks like Dwight Eisenhower.  Now the right wing is led by people who make Adolph Hitler look like a Liberal.

They don’t want you to be able to vote. They think it’s better to just leave that stuff to them. They will appoint your leaders.  And who do they have in mind? Why, Donald Trump, and Kari Lake, and Herschel Walker, and Marjorie Taylor Green, and the list of brainless, ethics-free pseudo-humans goes on.  Now mind you, the ones who are still in power, like Marjorie Taylor Green, were actually elected by American citizens to their roles.  Donald Trump, et al was not so elected, but he is still regarded as the leader by a very large group of Americans.  And we know this group seems to be ok with Nazi’s, so the citizens who support them must also be ok with Nazi’s.  And I now have to assume that same group of citizens is also ok with destroying the American electric power system throughout the country. Yeah, why would they want power systems? They’re so . . . 20^th century.

Now it turns out that a lot of our so-called civilized lifestyle is fragile. Yeah, idiots armed with guns can actually destroy it. And it’s not merely our power systems. With guns and lack of restraint, they could destroy public schools—yeah, they really hate educated people.  Oh and libraries. Awful things right? They actually will loan you books at no cost. You might actually be able to enlighten yourself. Well, we wouldn’t want people to become enlightened, would we?

But what is wrong here? Why does this group of citizens to our political right want ethics-free cretins to lead us?  They actually prefer an Adolph Hitler to, say Joe Biden?  See that’s where my brain gets all muddled. I simply do not understand what these folks want. And it is becoming increasingly clear that what they want might be some form of “anarchy”.  And what exactly is “anarchy”? Well, as defined in Wikipedia, “Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. Anarchy was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted anarchy and anarchist in his 1840 treatise What Is Property? to refer to anarchism, a new political philosophy and social movement that advocates stateless societies based on free and voluntary associations. Anarchists seek a system based on the abolition of all coercive hierarchy, in particular the state, and many advocate for the creation of a system of direct democracy, worker cooperatives or privatization.

In practical terms, anarchy can refer to the curtailment or abolition of traditional forms of government and institutions. It can also designate a nation or any inhabited place that has no system of government or central rule. Anarchy is primarily advocated by individual anarchists who propose replacing government with voluntary institutions.”

So, no government at all. No one to tell them what to do, or not to do. So, if they want to harm someone with whom they disagree, that’s ok. No one can tell them otherwise.

Now perhaps that is too harsh, since anarchies tend to be pretty brutal. Still, if the brutality does not affect you personally, maybe that’s ok with the Trumpies. I think though, that the group supporting Trump and MTG just really want to get rid of those Libs. If there were no Libs left in Government, apparently that might then be ok.

But that gross oversimplification of what the Trumpies want may yet miss the boat.  I would love it were the Trumpies to get on stage and tell us all the things they want to see and do in the form of government. Stop telling us about the people you no longer want to see in charge. Stop inventing stories about Hunter Biden, or his dad. Stop trying to send Dr. Fauci to prison. Instead, get up on a stage and begin telling the world the things you actually want to see happen after you succeed in electing your chosen leaders. What would your world look like? We desperately need you to tell us about your vision, so that we no longer need to invent fairy tales about you. Tell us your Home Truths Right Wing. Please. Now.

The Beginning of the End

Or is this the End of the Beginning? And if the latter, which “Beginning”—the Defunct Republican or the moribund Democrats? There is a current case before the Supremes now that may decide whether we all need into go into our closets and hibernate. It is a case involving States’ Rights to decide Federal election laws and standards. More specifically, it concerns the right of state legislatures to decide voting boundaries. It is my understanding that the case concerns a state gerrymandered districting plan that essentially guts the voting rights of democrats. SCOTUS will decide whether it’s ok for states alone to determine voting districts and how electors are chosen, and the Federal government or the Court system would not be allowed to intervene. Should SCOTUS agree, and there is a good chance they will, given the Trump justices, then American democracy may be at an end, along with America itself.

I am not sure how we got here. “Here” being a nation in which one of the most ignorant, corrupt humans on the planet seemingly rules over that political party that used to be controlled by thinking conservatives and ethically minded humans like Dwight Eisenhower.  Can you imagine Eisenhower belonging to this Republican Party? Hoover maybe, but Eisenhower?? Never.

And what ever happened to conservatives in America? You support people like Trump? Really? Or Herschel Walker . . . or Marjorie Taylor Green??? How pathetic you have become.  But this is where we find ourselves today. And we will know soon enough whether SCOTUS will validate this pathetic creature still known as Republicans.  If they do and uphold the right of republican state legislators to determines how the votes are cast and counted, then America will be at its end, in a way very similar to Germany in 1936.

Remember Adolph Hitler??? Yeah, that Hitler. Well, Donald Trump now leans in that direction. He actually befriended a true Neo-Nazi and invited that Nazi to dinner at MaraLago. I wonder whether Melania was there, or is she now permanently in hiding from her Neo-Nazi husband. Of course, we don’t know which way Melania leans politically, but she hasn’t divorced him . . .  yet.

Actually, I still keep waiting for some sign of awakening intelligence within republicans. But I see no signs yet. I guess, because I’m really old –87 and counting—I have great difficulty understanding how far our Nation has fallen.  I mean I don’t really remember Herbert Hoover. I was not yet onboard in 1932 while Herbert Hoover was managing the Great Crash and the seemingly endless massive Great Depression.  That Depression was so bad it continued well into Roosevelt’s first term.  And by 1936, I was only two, so no political understanding had arrived in my brain.  But by 1940, I was six and was actually beginning to understand that our world was heavily influenced by politicians, not to mention bankers.

Somehow, as awful as was that period, with the Second World War seemingly being the necessary ingredient that finally ended the Depression, America came together as a people. Partly the coming together was in response to the Depression, and partly it was a response to Nazism. See, during the 1940s, we actually rejected the Nazi’s and fought with arms to end their regime in the World.  Whereas in today’s world, we have an ex-President inviting them to dinner.  How far have the mighty fallen (with “Mighty” meaning republicans).  See, I cannot even imagine the likes of Herbert Hoover inviting a Nazi—any Nazi—to dinner at his home.

And Americans still support this Nazi-loving ex-President?? You betcha.  Oh, and they seem to like Vlad the Impaler and his war against Ukraine. Maybe that explains the recent shoot-em-up in Moore County, NC, in which Amurricans shot up a power system, emulating the Russians in Ukraine, thereby depriving American citizens of all power to their homes in the middle of the Winter.  Yep, and I’ll bet the shooters were good republicans. That’s how far the republican party has fallen. That without any data, we can imagine the perps were good republican supporters of Donald Trump.

Oh my, the Mighty really have fallen.

Wonder what’s next republicans?