Monthly Archives: December 2023

Political, Random Thoughts and Stories, Shared on Social Media

The Wire

If you’re looking for a trusted news source. Not cable news. Not sensationalized media, but actual unbiased current event facts, it’s the Associated Press.

Most of my childhood I would go see my dad inside radio stations across the southwest and somewhere stuffed in a closet or back room was a Teletype Machine constantly autonomously typing away like a futuristic robot. It was simply called “the AP”, “the Feed”, or the “Wire”.

I was always fascinated by the idea of the entire news of the world being constantly pumped and pushed through the airwaves and phone lines across the country and translated onto neverending rolls of non perforated paper, folding and rolling itself into gigantic piles on the floor. The off-white colored smooth paper had strange markings along the edges that lined up with mechanical gears to feed it through.

At some point, a frantic DJ would bolt into the room, read some headlines, and tear off a piece of paper- then run back into the control room to broadcast the typed words onto the local air, informing all that could hear it through a single speaker, rattling in the center of the dashboard, or a small radio sitting on a shelf.

The noise of the constant, sometimes sporadic typing was mostly ignored by the inhabitants of the media workplace. It was the background soundtrack of their daily lives. White noise.

You might remember it (as someone in a prominent network TV station had the thought to put a microphone on it) starting a news program with the sound of fervent typing. It was the sound of serious business. Your fate. The sound of News.

For me, it was a comfort zone in a tiny building somewhere in a small town, knowing the machine kept us all safely informed. It was a responsible super-power hidden inside a back room in my dad’s office building that I knew was the complete authorized voice of humanity. The opposition of anarchy and corruption housed in a marvel of technology, disguised as a simple ugly, boring, paper vomiting, grey metal typewriter machine sitting on a small wooden table in a closet.

At the time, the AP was only available to radio and TV stations authorized by the FCC to relay the information to the public. It was up to the discretion of the owners and deejays (who were an accurate diverse representation of all humankind) to decide what was important enough to convey to the village citizens and strategically use the precious seconds of time to attract and monetize their audience.

But now, it’s available on your phone – in your hand right now. The voice of humanity. Untainted by biased opinion. It’s directly up to you to interpret.

Stop listening to hyperbolic, overwhelming, opinionated cable and radio news. It’s bad for you. It’s bad for America.

Associated Press

Political, Random Thoughts and Stories

Intellect is the Enemy

It wasn’t until the recent last few years that I have been trying to understand our American culture. Unique to the world, our own brand of patriotism, pride, and power, all deeply connected to the Constitution and the beginnings of our nation.

It has been most recently presented that if you acknowledge the horrors and murderous behavior of our predecessors, you hate America.

It’s coming from the Right Wing of persuasive conservative minds in an attempt to discredit any liberal thinking voter. It’s intentional and purposeful to sway votes in their favor.

It’s nothing new, to manipulate people for votes. It’s even bi-partisan. Every politician in history has learned the practice of bending truth and reality in order to excite their constituents and gain or remain in power. But never like this. Never with the awesome power of social media and the lack of consequences for telling half truths and all out lies to the American public.

For those that are unaware, there used to be a law enforced by the FCC that required truth in news programs. That law was revoked by Ronald Reagan and gave birth to political opinion “news” programs such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. I can only assume that The Gipper was convinced by puppeteers that a law that limits what you can spew out of your insane fucking mouth is an infringement on free speech, and ol’ Ronny fell for it.

And here we are today with a whole plethora of bullshit to wade through that no one can find the actual truth about anything without digging deep into trusted, but always still biased, independent news sources. You have to do focused research on who you can trust. You need to have the ability to recognize when you are being targeted and manipulated. And most people don’t.

We don’t have the time, education, or instinct to decipher the coded news. We don’t have the ability to see the manipulation if we are not manipulators ourselves. We have been trained, conditioned, educated, and indoctrinated into believing what the officials on TV are telling us. And now everyone looks official. That’s how they got us.It’s not our fault. We were taught to trust them. They look like the News. They talk like the News. Why aren’t they the News?

If you study the smallest amount of history about nations where democracy has failed and about the takeover of fascism. It’s almost always the same playbook. You’ll see the tools of manipulation, like using Law and Order, Free Speech ,and Patriotism to convince hard working, good people that they’re being duped. You’ll see the Right Wing accuse the Left of exactly what the Right is doing as a way to confuse people. It’s a way of pointing the finger as a distraction to get away with something and it works. It creates doubt and places blame on their enemy so no one gets suspicious of them. They appear to have seen it coming, so they must be smarter. They are protecting us and calling them out. Well, no. They are manipulating you.

One strange thing we do is despise intelligent people. ‘Know it alls’, arrogant and pompous educated people. We don’t like anyone who is smarter than us and we are offended when we are wrong. We call our own kids ‘smarty pants’ when they know something we don’t. We stomp our feet and throw tantrums and become absolutely defiant when smart people tell us what to do.

I was truly disappointed in America, not mad, not offended, but sad when the election results confirmed Donald Trump as our President. I honestly didn’t think it could happen. That an obviously child-like, wannabe dictator, city slicker, whiny, cry baby convinced rednecks and country folks that he was better than a woman to run the free world.

I was continually surprised that those followers appeared more like cult believers and would do anything he told them to. I’m still amazed that after all he has said and done, and crimes he has committed, he is still the front runner for the Republican Party.

We are being warned about the loss of our democracy. Some of us have been very vocal about it for a long time. But we play nice. We try to have respect for those that don’t agree with us. All the while, the Right Wing is taking down our freedoms. Our civil rights. Our country.

I see the future of America as a fascist nation. My kids will live to see a different America. Ironically one that goes against the very thing that made us. The Constitution.

It’ll function. America will convince the masses that they are free and have unalienable God given rights. They’ll be convinced to die for it just as it is now. But the homeless, the poor, and the working class will hurt. There will be a lack of empathy and more despair. Violence and illness will run rampant and the gaps in our society will grow. It will be a worse world to live in. Even if you’re rich, there will be futility and guilt. And history will look back and wonder why we didn’t see it coming or stop it from taking over. Again.

Movie Plots and Ideas, Random Thoughts and Stories, Songs and poems

The Cascades of Blood and Roses

It was The Cascades of Blood and Roses

Blood flowing into the streets

A sign from the wealthy

Living in the castles on the mountains

A massive art project reminding the Peasants

Who was in control of their lives

The blood covered flowers

Rolled through the dirt paths

And cobblestone sidewalks of the little town

Filling the thresholds of bakery’s and tailor shops

A child bent down to pick one up and was briskly washed away

As the mother broke down

It was a decadent display

Meant to demean the people of the little town

To belittle their very existence

To keep them suffering for the basic needs they required

Scrambling and fighting to the death at times

While the rich looked down from their towers, amused

It was the same every year

The exact opposite messaging of Christmas

This was a holiday with no hope or gifts

No spreading of cheer or love

It was yet another mess for the poor to clean up after the wealthy had their fun

It was a statement, to signify what would become of them if they ever revolted

To rise against them would be certain death

Their suffering would be ten fold

Starving and screaming children

Mothers with no arms to hold their babies

And the Peasants believed this

Living in fear as to not upset the Rich

Doing every task and chore thrust upon them

It was reverent and willing

It was survival

What the Peasants didn’t know or care to know is that the Monsters on the hilltops were never real

The threats were an illusion, told by generations of storytellers and passed down through time

Their fear and compliance was based on lies written in a so called ‘sacred’ book authored by Peasants themselves, with a desire to live above, in comfort, without the brutal pain of labor

The folklore that had shaped their world and seemingly offered safety and sustenance was actually abuse, perpetuated by the greedy rich, obsessed with power

It was taught to Peasants when they were children

Babies with tiny brains, incapable of forming reasonable beliefs on their own

The fear grew into adulthood

The complacency was endearment, part of life

Shame and guilt were tools used to keep any opposing thoughts from otherwise capable brains

The ruse continually carried out by brainwashed Peasants themselves 

And this for centuries, solar millenniums

Galaxies form and wither in the time of this betrayal

And yet no peasant rises

Afraid to question, afraid to change

In living fear of The Cascades of Blood and Roses

Random Thoughts and Stories

Study

I’m a lousy student. I have a very limited ability to remember names, places, and dates, but still, I study.

I’ve always studied. For as long as I can remember. Before I was aware of it. Every moment, every shadow, every light, and every breeze. Part of me is looking for myself and another is just taking it all in. I’m a young soul, a child, ignorant and confused, but thoughtful and somehow instinctively wise. I easily can see the world as new and I try to figure it all out. I see patterns in our behavior, our upbringing, and personalities and I see them manifest into what we all become. Psychology mixed with anthropology from an uneducated loser. I’m naturally naive but have learned to trust and distrust people against my instincts, often to my own demise. I’m an adventurer, an explorer, and searcher.

I’m appalled at certain behaviors of certain people, but then do my best to understand their perspective. I try to empathize with people I don’t agree with. That outlook allows me to open the doors I choose and close others when I realize I have nothing to learn.

Nothing to learn from someone is a false statement. I should say, when I’ve grown tired of the conversation. There’s always something to learn if you stay engaged long enough.

I’m often surprised at what I learn from someone I didn’t expect to have anything to teach. Sometimes it’s subtle and unsubstantial, but it’s always a treat. Everyone has a hidden treasure within them. You just have to have patience. You can’t force a conversation and have anything worthwhile to gain.

My favorite thing to witness is an old person who has run out of patience. They have the ability to say something cutting and just walk away. There’s no consequence. They’ve missed out on nothing. They don’t have time in their lives to waste on a conversation that they want no part of. They have nothing to gain and no reason to learn any more about anything. It’s a beautiful thing.

Uncategorized

Thanks America , You Ruined Christmas

After watching the latest Ken Burns documentary on The American Buffalo, I’ve realized again that America was mostly built on greed.

I don’t know why I seem to forget that from time to time. Maybe it’s the dim witted idealism that we desire to be a good and kind race above all the evils of the world.

Occasionally there’s a ray of hope. A good deed done by humans that erases some of the bad and instills the delusion of positive liberalism.

Alas, this blog is not about bison or the starvation of natives or even good and bad deeds. I only mention the documentary because it made me wonder… At which point was unchecked greed powerfully enhanced by unregulated marketing?

I graduated from an advertising design school and during my studies I was often appalled at the lack of decency and responsibility to be slightly ethical. Eventually I was excluded from group projects or decided to go it alone and abandon my unscrupulous peers. One issue I protested was an actual TV commercial airing in the Valley of the Sun where an animated piggy bank was brutally murdered with a hammer. The pink ceramic pig was portrayed in absolute terror, cornered and being slowly approached by the evil hammer. The lighting became dark with beams of light shining and flickering on the fragile cash filled pig crying in fear. It was especially gruesome and out of season for a thirty second Arby’s commercial.

A few days after a heated debate over the commercial in “Videography” class, where I was outnumbered and forced to retreat and silence my scruples, the commercial was pulled off the air due to public complaints of violence. I remained silent and deemed them all unworthy of an ‘I told you so’ from me. I wanted nothing to do with those people.

The experience made me sadly aware that my sociopathic classmates were going to be the next generation of advertisers that would greatly influence America in thirty second, commercialized mini films in the near future. 1989 was a tough year and perhaps the reason for America’s current waywardness.

So when did it happen? The thing that ruins Christmas every damn year. You know what it is. It’s only second to blaring horns and deadlocked traffic. Breathing toxic exhaust fumes and shuffling through box stores to get nonsense presents for family members or friends that wouldn’t have picked it out for themselves, because it wasn’t what they really wanted, and then contributing to even more congestion on the trip to return items after the stupid holiday.

And yes, Christmas is stupid. It’s historically and even mythically inaccurate. It excludes cultures across the globe that celebrate the changing of the season. It doesn’t mention the whole Pagan thing at all and has us believing that it’s Jesus’s birthday. A white guy hanging out in Jerusalem and Egypt until he was nailed to some boards and died. But it was cool because he came back. Back from the dead, for reals, y’all. But that’s another holiday. This one in December is mostly about presents and stress until it’s over and we can all finally relax and aggressively watch grown men play with a ball on TV.

It’s culturally divisive by religious beliefs. Even the name suggests that it is strictly Roman Catholic – which is like christian-zilla. The name is Christ-Mass. Nobody has a problem with that? Really? In this cancel culture generation?

Or maybe Christmas could be interpreted scientifically as the amount of matter that makes up the Jesus.

Christmas is horribly disruptive to nature and the environment. Birds are now subject to pointless decorative light pollution in tall trees – all freakin’ night! Fake plastic snow never decomposes and of course eventually winds up in the ocean, and a massive amount of conifer type trees are murdered, degraded, publicly shamed, and displayed in the living rooms of countless homes. Tinsel is eaten by cats and slowly digested into shiny, pretty trailing cat turds. Dogs eat boxes of seizure inducing chocolate and devour peanut brittle leaving diarrhea remains that resemble… peanut brittle. The only thing worse for wild and domestic animals are explicitly loud fireworks in the new calendar year and on the fourth of July.

But the worst thing,…the worst thing…is advertising. Visual and auditory pollution. Lazy ad-copy writing reliant upon christmatism (a cross between Christmas and patriotism). Appropriating the holiday icons, such as Rudolph, rosy cheeked caucasian children, snowmen (..and where are the snow women? Trump might ask. We love the snow women, don’t we), Mrs. Claus, and Santa Clause and having them represent rampant greed and commercialism.

But why not Jesus? Why isn’t he included in the hocking of material items? Why’s he so special? After all, it’s his own name in the holiday. He should be the spokesperson. It’s not Santamas or Saint Nickmas. They could have him on the cross pitching ads for Goldman-Sachs or Chick-Fil-A, on or off the cross. Either way works, as long as it’s not on a Sunday.

But the absolute worst, worse than everything, is the theft and desecration of music. Holiday songs repurposed for profit. The laziest form of art is to take what has already been created by someone else and change the lyrics to suit your evil capitalistic purpose. Don’t make it funny-I say sarcastically. Don’t be clever or creative. Don’t be a wordsmith or intelligent. Just keep it as bland and boring as your God damned soul. Go ahead, use the world’s most famous and popular, heart filled, sincerely written songs to sell your manufactured concoctions, elixirs, and snake oil. Feel free to obtain your massive wealth built on the backs of the impoverished and oppressed. It’s the American way, after all.

There’s a special room in Hell for Christmas music marketing planners and it’s filled with perpetually screaming children, tinsel turds, epileptic dogs having seizures, and peanut brittle diarrhea on white carpet everywhere. And there will be music. Their own stolen auditory abominations pumping out at a consistently creepy volume, chipping away at their souls for all eternity.

So, anyway…Merry Christmas!