Posts Tagged ‘rant’
Dear America
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Our country looks about as smart as a box of rocks right now. Has for the last umpteen years, really. Violations happen. Feathers get ruffled. Pearls clutched. Consequences unrealized. Guidelines get crossed. Rule of law, ignored. People march. Protestors and Federal Agents clash. Media flounders. President posts outrageous lies and intimidating threats. Ethics rules become a joke. Cash grabs abound. Allied countries dissed.
Oh, look! Something shiny over there. Ignore what the other hand is doing.
Just wait until the next election. That’ll show ‘em. Yeah, right.
People used to rage at the thought of pedophilia. Human trafficking was a most despicable act. Now, the most exposed ring of human trafficking pedophiles ever has been uncovered, and one of the key perpetrators gets off scot-free and is allowed to hold the highest office in the nation. Ignore the survivors.
Here’s an idea. When there is a civil war to end slavery, don’t let all the defenders of slavery go free to continue their inhumane treatment of others. And when a sitting President orchestrates an insurrection in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral college votes, formalizing the victory of his opponent, HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE.
Or, I suppose we could go through a laborious histrionics of official hearings and feigned media concern, wave our arms, and pull a giant dose of nothing out of a hat, subsequently letting the malfeasance continue at an ever-increasing rate.
How ridiculous do we appear to the rest of the world? At least the massive number of American citizens are armed with lethal weapons to defend themselves from the threat of the type of tyranny that is playing out right before the world’s eyes.
What’ll it be? An election or an armed resistance?
You know, I think there is a new movie out on Netflix, and if we place our sports bets correctly on one of the multitude of online betting sites that have achieved mainstream acceptance, we could come up with enough money to DoorDash some crappy fast food.
America, we’ll be just fine. Look how many Olympic medals the USSR was able to win under its oppressive All-Union Supreme Soviet state authority. Our new idiot leader will surely allow our professional (men’s) sports leagues to endure, especially since getting people to bet is easier than convincing them to pay a tax.
Dear America, we’ve made this bed, either by directly acting to make it happen or failing to uphold the ideals put in place to prevent it. Do not be surprised when (even more) bullets finally start to fly, or the next fair election never quite materializes. It’s all part of a long game plan that we’ve discounted at our own peril.
If you have the strength to love the inner souls of those who seek to terrorize and oppress, there is no better time to set your beams on high.
[big sigh]
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Gut Feeling
Not being inclined toward appearing alarmist, I hesitate to leap to extreme conclusions; however, there is a saying that I believe came from our government… If you see something, say something. Who am I supposed to tell when I see that it’s my country that is abusing its power?
I don’t know how we can ever apologize enough to the rest of the world for the ridiculous situation we have allowed to occur.
This morning, I am also struggling with making the wrong conclusion about the way Mia was behaving. I’m not confident in my ability to trust the accuracy of my intuitive sense of feelings triggered by what I witnessed. Since nothing I saw indicates an obvious problem or a need for immediate action, we are not doing anything more than planning to keep a closer eye on her for a while.
When I described my thoughts to Cyndie after returning to the house, she admitted having had a momentary similar thought. Could Mia be sensing her life coming to its end?
Unfortunately, our weather is expected to become more stressfully cold for a period of days, so if Mia is not interested in putting in the effort to cope, a fatal result would not be a surprise. One of the things Cyndie and I talked about triggered an insight. Mia has always been the lowest in the herd order and appears ostracized all too often. Cyndie posited the possibility that these horses are not behaving in the natural ways of a healthy herd with fully intact horse senses.
Before the abuse of severe neglect they suffered, they were forced to race in competitions against other horses. Our offerings of love and comfort since they’ve been with us haven’t necessarily undone all of the compensating behaviors they adopted to deal with all the different situations they have lived through.
I felt like Mia was showing signs of not caring about staying with the other three this morning. It could have been a passing grudge that won’t endure, and we will soon find her reengaged with one or more of the others.
Whether it’s my country or our horses, I find myself experiencing an unpleasant gut feeling.
It would be just fine with me to be wrong about Mia.
As for the country, I’m afraid things have already gone further than should ever have been allowed.
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Actually Happening
Our politicians, all of them, have failed all of us by not holding each other accountable to the oaths of office they took to carry out the duties outlined in the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, bad people will take advantage of opportunities to do wrong when they get the chance. Groups of bad people playing a long game appear to have figured out a strategy to get around the guidelines of ethical behavior that our democracy assumed would govern the intended protections of having three separate branches of power.
One might surmise that money is the root cause of the mess we now find ourselves in under the current suspiciously elected administration, taking overt steps to achieve a fascist and highly profitable control of this country.
There was a time when a multitude of the actions currently playing out in plain sight would have led to arrest. Behaviors that once resulted in universal condemnation started being overlooked until it now seems as though no level of shameful words or actions will result in rational consequences.
It doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
To counter that, I offer a few pretty pictures I’ve taken and a thrilling distraction depicting an example that not everyone gives in to the lure of money over ethics or laws.
First, the distraction: Cyndie and I enjoyed the latest movie with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck together again, “The Rip,” for its crafty hold on maintaining an enduring tension throughout (it’s a crime thriller!), the great performances of all the actors, and the intelligent script. Pay attention and keep up. For added depth to this cinematic adventure, it is based on a real-life police raid in Miami. If you are up for a break from the tension of today’s news, this movie will let you vent some of that energy in the safe confines of home (it’s on Netflix) and get you to a rewarding (pun acknowledged) resolution after just 2 hours and 13 minutes. Don’t hold your breath the whole time.
Looking down, here is one scene from the start of falling snow yesterday, and two from this morning:
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Horses Munching
And another thing. I loathe that it’s Russia that has played such a significant role in the collapse of our democracy through its command over our Kleptocrat-in-Chief, using kompromat, disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, and social media manipulation to sow discord among the American public.
Even more, I am miserable over the fact that so many were gullible enough to be duped by it all and/or so racist as to support all the despicable things that have occurred in the time since you-know-who first rallied the MAGA hordes.
And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
For much of my life, I have been aware of being triggered by the sound of someone eating in an otherwise silent environment. My body responds with an incredible blast of intolerance that can be a challenge to control. Misophonia is the term for the disorder. (Siblings: remember how our sister Linda reacted to teeth scraping on our forks?) Anyway, in a curious contrast, the sound of our horses eating is almost magical in the way it soothes me. How does that work?
Listening to them all munching away is one of my favorite experiences. I captured a shot of each of them last night.
I had to include the shot of Mix looking to see what the heck I was up to before she went back to eating because it makes me smile. Maybe she was asking me why she was the last one to be photographed. Can you hear them in your minds, happily chomping away?
These photos give you a good view of how our “placemats” serve to keep their spillage up off the dust and dirt for smacking up after the buckets are empty. Mia is eating some of what she drops in the snow. She tends to step out and scan the surroundings while chewing.
The other day, while they were eating and I was still scooping up manure around them, I noticed Mia had planted one of her back feet on top of a pile. I scraped up everything around that one hoof and kept watching for her to change her stance so I could scoop up that last bit she mashed.
Every time she turned to look away as she chewed, she only moved her front feet. I’d never paid that close of attention to her feet for that long before, so this was surprising to me. I bet she did that about ten times while I was cleaning the rest of the immediate area. It wasn’t until she finished eating and walked away that she finally picked up that back foot.
I’m pretty certain there is a high probability she was just messing with me.
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Our Comeuppance
There isn’t a vast amount of international perspective that I can refer to from my limited travels to other countries of the world, but I believe it’s been enough for me to understand that my home country doesn’t deserve to boast about our democracy as if it is the beacon of greatness above all others.
In fact, I have come to believe that our form of government is proving to be a failure. Our democracy isn’t working. Voting for individuals to represent us is supposed to give power to THE PEOPLE. If the majority of people in this country don’t want our government to bomb boats or commandeer oil tankers from Venezuela, our representatives should have sway in the actions of the current administration.
If we don’t want ICE agents to wear masks and travel in packs, driving in unmarked vehicles to nab citizens off the streets without legitimate charges or warrants, THE PEOPLE should be able to persuade our elected officials to adhere to our laws.
Judges on the Supreme Court should be ethical and unbiased. When it becomes obvious they are not, THE PEOPLE should have a way to ensure that our government officials in each branch are being held accountable.
I admit that I once thought our democracy was better than most of the governments in the world. I’m embarrassed that I thought poorly of populations that allowed atrocities to occur by their leaders, or corruption to run rampant in their systems of governance.
Well, I now can understand it when people around the world feel the citizens of the United States are responsible for the inappropriate actions of our government. We thought we could rely on the checks and balances of our form of democracy to keep the wishes of THE PEOPLE in place. I’m afraid it’s not working.
We, the people, have made this mess. It appears we are getting some comeuppance.
At least my ATV and plow are working well again. We probably gained 6 or 7 inches of new snow from the last system. There was no evidence of my boot tracks from Tuesday night on the driveway yesterday morning.
That’s my path through the new snow upon returning from the barn after feeding the horses. After plowing the driveway, I moved to pulling snow off the roof in the two problem spots. While shoveling away the mess that had been created on our front steps, Cyndie texted that we would be receiving feed for the horses in around half an hour.
That meant I needed to switch focus and get down to the barn to dig out the big doors and slide them open. One of the doors wouldn’t budge. It took some creative persuasion to eventually bust it free, and I got it done just in time to see the huge red Gertens Garden Center truck coming up the driveway.
I had tried to plow that circle around the hay shed extra wide in advance of a hay delivery sometime in the near future. I wasn’t thinking of the feed delivery. The last few times, the driver parked on the road and drove his forklift up the driveway. The driver yesterday had never been here before. He decided to back out to the road and bring it up on the forklift.
He wasn’t confident that the big truck wouldn’t slide sideways. I’m happy he chose the safer option.
I’m feeling a lot less cocky about everything these days.
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A Struggle
Reconciling the precious and serene beauty of our little sanctuary property with the unsettling reports of the US Supreme Court decisions and White House announcements of a threatening nature is simply crazy-making. Even as I attempt to limit my exposure to the awful news of the calculated steps to erode our Constitutional guarantees, the reports get mixed in with popular culture.
My email inbox receives a constant flow of sensational clickbait subject lines that do nothing to alter the slide towards destroying our democracy. It all feels like, “Republicans Hate This One Trick That Will Stop T@#mp!” Yeah, me pledging $5 a month to “the cause.” That’s the trick they are alluding to. That’ll stop him!
Yet, life at Wintervale is as embarrassingly pleasant as ever. Cyndie and I are both retired and can pick and choose whatever we want to do each day. As caretakers of the fabulous property and the animals residing with us, we put care for both as a top priority. When that is under control, we get to put our energy toward each of our creative art hobbies.
Cyndie is currently taking a class on watercolor painting. I am sanding wood into enticing, silky smooth shapes. Asher is settling into a sweet companion with a much-reduced urge to run off without us. The horses are a dream to feed now that we have switched their offering to processed “Senior” nutrition for the morning and afternoon servings.
Cyndie got the deck sealed yesterday. I filled a couple more cracks I found in the driveway.
My brain struggles to process the great goodness we are able to enjoy while the government of this country is behaving in both petty and important ways towards destroying our rights and anyone it deems unfavorable.
If there is any possibility of confusion about my opinion on the subject, let me emphatically state that I OBJECT to everything and anything being said or done by the current administration, its advisors, and its puppet majority in the Supreme Court.
I wish to be included on any lists of enemies the government is compiling. If you succeed in taking away our rights of free speech, please arrest me without delay. My hunger strike will commence soon after.
To citizens of the rest of the world, I offer an apology for whatever ways my country has done you wrong, past or present. I’m sorry that the country that fought to stop the fascist Nazi regime has inexplicably flipped and is now acting in the very same manner as what we previously rejected.
Reconciling this is nothing but a struggle for my little brain. I try to avoid beating on this zombie of a subject, but it builds up sometimes to a level that I need to release. Also, I never want my silence on the topic to get misconstrued as acceptance.
If I somehow avoid incarceration for my objections to this administration, be assured I will sign up for the underground resistance to support whatever alliance forms to free the world from a new version of autocratic fascism led by a grifting narcissistic racist xenophobic misogynistic homophobic convicted rapist pedophile.
Such a struggle.
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Democracy Burning
It’s strange, actually. On the surface, it’s as if nothing is wrong. The calendar indicated yesterday was July 4, a national holiday in the US.
Independence Day. We had won the Revolutionary War and freed our country from the rule of a king some 249 years ago. Families gathered to celebrate on a particularly hot day in the northland of Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, media reports continue to announce that politicians in the House and Senate have passed legislation that appears unfavorable to the vast majority of common people of modest means. A picture of the future is slowly being painted that dashes hope for everyone except the least deserving. It is bizarre to hear that many of those who risk being harmed by the harsh decrees of the current administration are lapping it all up with mindless acceptance and even glee.
I wonder how these throngs of supporters all reconcile the discord between the words and actions of the law enforcement employees and the politicians representing districts back home, who are spinelessly carrying out the bidding of the wannabe-king and his court as it contrasts with their ancestors who fought and died defending the US and other countries in the world against the very types of things that are unfolding before our eyes again.
No one that I have heard from in my circle of friends and family has expressed approval of the reports about masked agents arresting citizens and detaining them without cause. No one I know has voiced support for the holding facility built with a moat of alligators surrounding it. As far as my eyes and ears have seen and heard, the prevailing concern is that our democracy is getting systematically dismantled.
It’s hard to enjoy a celebratory holiday feast while breathing the smoke from our democracy in flames.
Stopping a runaway train usually involves crashing. Personally, I’m growing weary of witnessing the slow slide toward whatever level of control this current administration is intent on achieving. I wish it would work to simply send my $5 or $9 a month to the multiple organizations flooding my email inbox every day with their promised solutions for stopping the madness.
Standing alone with a protest sign on a corner for over 8 hours, like I read someone did yesterday, seems about as effective as sending money to greedy opposition email campaigns.
Maybe I’ve been away from the horses and our nature sanctuary too long. Somehow, the bliss of the lake place isn’t doing it for me like it usually does. At least, here I still have the precious company of happy, healthy people to enjoy while we are here.
That part of the adventure is feeling a little more precious this year, given the doom and gloom so pervasive out in the greater reaches of the country and beyond.
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Stupid Bots
Based on the first-hand evidence of my direct experience, I can confidently proclaim that the bots programmed to spam cell phones with calls and texts are missing a key morsel of intelligence. Especially the ones trying to mine votes for the candidate Musk and Trump so desperately seek in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
“Help elect… and get rewarded for it. Earn $20 for each Wisconsin voter you recruit – they get $20 too.”
The messages have been relentless. We may have received one or two for Judge Crawford –I delete all of them, regardless of the candidate– but the flood that has been begging (and bribing) for votes for Schimel to serve the power grab by Elon and his pal, Donald, has come non-stop by the quarter hour.
The brilliant technology doesn’t take into account that the campaigners are targeting a person (me) who objects to their message and methods. Smart tech would recognize where the message gets deleted before being read, especially after three, four, or even five tries, and stop trying that number. Move on to a fresh target.
If there is any mercy left in the world, I hope it will bring an end to the relentless annoyance of campaign calls today now that election day has arrived for us. I would dearly love to return to my expedition in a political-news-free wilderness.
April Fool’s Day. Well played, Universe.
Cyndie and I will do our part to save the country by our votes. I’m sure we will be key to swaying the election away from the fascist billionaires who seek to rule the world with their buddy, Putin, by eliminating any obstructions still hanging by a thread in the U.S.
According to the Associated Press, Wisconsin’s “high-stakes race has become a proxy battle over the nation’s politics.” It reports that more than $90 million has been spent on the race. If I would just sign Musk’s petition and recruit others to join me, I could earn my own chunk of that heavy spending.
Damn, I miss the days when politicians needed to hide their bribery schemes.
Even though I have been avoiding news media, I am well aware that on Saturday, April 5, people who object to the attack on the citizens of this country by the current administration will be protesting across the land. Like the rallies recently held by AOC and Bernie, like-minded conscientious political objectors can gather and assure each other we are not alone.
I wish it would have more power to actually stop what is going on since nobody else seems to be able to do anything. When do we get to the part of the script where the hero shows up and once and for all dispatches the villain? I mean, at least until the next sequel gets released.
Ethan Hunt? Is this an impossible mission? Jason Bourne? Reacher? Bond? Rambo? Harry Potter? Beuller? Anyone? Someone?
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Just Imagine
Imagine if we didn’t hear news the instant things happen. What would it be like if we could put the genie back in the bottle? Can we just download an app for that?
What if democracy worked without it being so easy for fascist threats to simmer in broad daylight for days that become months and now years? Maybe if we didn’t hear news every second, it wouldn’t seem so obvious.
I’m imagining what it would be like if our toes never got cold. How about if no addiction existed? While we are imagining, why not turn Thanksgiving into a gift-giving holiday? A brand new car could become the new tradition. I’ve seen the ads on TV. The car companies want us to accept that giving a new car is the universally accepted standard of holiday gift giving.
I’d sure be thankful if someone gifted me a new car. An electric one. Preferably, Subaru. Can I pick the color?
I’d be thankful if all criminals were instantly incarcerated and innocents set free. Like magic. No long drawn-out trials. The universe knows what is right and wrong and could figure out who did or didn’t do it.
I like to imagine that the stories are true that Billionaires paying a fair percentage in taxes would ease a lot of fiscal stress on government programs without great hardship to said Billionaires. Then, I imagine that all Billionaires suddenly paid that fair share they owe.
Same thing for the $900Millionaires and the $800M, $700M, et cetera.
What if tendons and ligaments never stretched or tore and bones wouldn’t break during athletic competition? That’d be great. Oh, and I’d like it if NFL receivers never dropped passes that should have been easily caught. Sure, it would benefit the competition as much as the home team, but I think it would make the game more fun to watch. It bothers me to see highly paid professional athletes not succeeding at the basic skill level they are supposed to perform.
At the same time, I am forever grateful to have chosen a career path that didn’t involve tens of thousands of screaming fans micro-analyzing my every action or decision. I dropped the ball plenty of times.
I saw a news flash about charges filed against a person running a brothel near Washington, D.C., with a mention that the customers were politicians, military, and business leaders. What if none of these guys lowered themselves to that level? I like to imagine being led by people who behave with the highest integrity at all times and also that no sex workers ever find themselves in circumstances that lead them to choose that line of work.
When I find myself returning to reality, I imagine myself reducing my news exposure long enough to forget all the things that send me into fantasies of people behaving better than their best selves.
But really, imagine that.
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Disinformation Averse
I assume that no one intends to become misinformed but it sure seems like there are a lot of people with a propensity to gobble up disinformation like it was candy. Speaking of candy, has it become universally recognized yet that early health campaigns by the sugar industry weren’t on the up and up when it came to weight gain?
Those of us (me) at Relative Something do our (my) best to avoid spreading false information and always avoid using algorithms to direct my most outrageous posts to the forefront. There are no angry emoji’s added to trigger more engagement and keep eyes on these pages for the sole purpose of gorging on profits.
While I will admit to occasionally enhancing reality when it comes to tales involving our amazing wonderdog, Delilah, I strive to describe our Wintervale adventures with utmost accuracy.
Like that giant tree that slammed to the ground across one of our trails yesterday.
It must have made an enormous crashing sound that probably worried our neighbors, if any of them were out. I love that Cyndie described the location as “cow corner” when she texted me the photo. This is near the one corner of our property where four different owners’ fence lines meet and the pasture diagonal to our land is home to a good-sized herd of cows.
I try not to get tangled in the ongoing, always see-sawing debates over whether coffee is good or bad for health, or eating eggs every day, or one glass of red wine, or reading in low light or on a lighted mobile device. Should gerrymandering be allowed or not? Is pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps really a viable fix for what ails us? Does hypocrisy in a politician reveal a flaw in their trustworthiness? Is the uncontrolled urge to scroll social media apps detrimental to our healthy productivity?
It all depends on who is financing the research, no?
If U.S. lawmakers somehow actually succeed in getting our wealthy citizens to pay a reasonable share of taxes, will it be rich people who have the greatest say in where the funds will be used?
Luckily, there is no confusion about the logic of vaccinating or the risks of uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels for decades on end.
Those topics are totally disinformation averse. Yeah, no. -_-
You can trust me to be genuine because I know how to make things up that don’t bring me political power or financial gain.
Unbelievable, I know. Like how I needed to risk my fingers prying Delilah’s jaw open to force her to give up the shard of bone she found from what was left of that deer leg as we were about to depart from the lake. Suddenly my hands –all fingers intact– were covered with a stink that triggers a gag reflex and the water had just been shut off in the cabin.
Some things I write actually happened.
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Relative Something 