Seems like a long time ago… I promised myself that I would travel to somewhere at least once a year. Since the COVID lockdown, travel doesn’t seem as important.
I hadn’t been outside at night in a while. I think this is the three-quarter moon in a mostly clear sky and I couldn’t resist taking a picture with my camera which is really not up to the task. There has been a lot of rain at night this summer, with the accompanying cloud cover. Usually, I try to glimpse the Perseid Meteor Shower, but not this year. Too cloudy.
Texas Rangers versus the Arizona Diamondbacks played in the World Series. I have no interest in baseball, but I thought I had heard of most of the teams. I have never heard of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Really out of that loop! The Rangers won.
I am listening to the Trucker Mixtapes #14 on You Tube as I write this. The driver is filming the interstate as they drive. The interstate is so generic. The driver could be on the interstate around N’ville. Same signs, same hilly, treed terrain, same cars, same trucks. It’s like driving into towns along a highway and the same shops greet you…in every town. One wonders where one is and sometimes there is no readily visible sign to inform you of the town’s name.
When we were traveling to Kentucky on a regular basis, I could tell when we left Tennessee. There was a noticeable difference in the road noise. Kentucky’s roads were smoother and better maintained, or so it seemed, than Tennessee’s roads. Probably just a difference in paving material.
My father always watched the Huntley-Brinkley Report. He never watched Walter Cronkite or whoever was the anchor on ABC. Back in those days, there were only the big three. PBS came later in 1969 and it never came in clearly on our black and white TV.
Have you read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond? I have read a couple of his book and always find something in them that makes me think. In this book, one of my takeaways was that the greatest of the three is guns and the will to use them to further the white aggressor/colonizer’s agenda. I would have added religion to the title because the priests/evangelizers were always sent after the traders made contact to brainwash the natives. (I read this book when it came out in 2017 and did not reread it for this Post.
I did read a blurb and the author does talk about religion. When I read this book, I didn’t realize how the fear of death will cause us to act against our own best interests. And that is what the white man’s religions sells…life after death in a paradise. So being treated badly in this life just makes this false promise more appealing, especially to the uneducated.
Nice doesn’t win against evil. Good doesn’t win against evil. Love does not conquer all. When one is fighting for survival, either physically, culturally, etc., humans haven’t yet found the depths to which they will descend.
I’ve always said that the Star Trek monologue at the beginning was a paeon to misogyny. I’ve always wanted it to say where no Earthling has gone before. Because how many planets in the Star Trek universe has been inhabited or visited by other beings? Rhetorical question.
So much of everything on this Earth is based in misogyny. Recently, I read an article that said that the temperature we all use as the norm for our bodies is based on the temperature of a number of adult white males back in the 1800s. That tells me that there is no study, therefore, no idea what a normal temperature is for a Black female or, for that matter, any female. And, if you do a bit of research, most of the norms for our bodies are based on white males in the age range of 18-40 something. That is the reason I have issues with my doctor when they tell me I am low or high in some range.
Daylight Saving Time has ended. I and some others agree that the quality of darkness this time of year is different. We feel it in our bodies and in our psyches. We can’t explain it, but this darkness is weighty and impenetrable, oppressive and laden with shadows, in a way that DST darkness is not. And we feel the difference of those incremental few seconds of day that occur after Winter Solstice.
Trump’s support has surged among Black men. Overall, about 20 percent of Black voters say they would back him over Biden. Blurb from on line NY TImes November 6, 2023. I don’t understand a people who would vote for someone who has denigrated and demonized their very existence. I’ve heard that he gave out free money. Really? I didn’t receive any of note. They say he lowered taxes. Mine went up with the taking away of itemized deductions. Hate crimes against Black people increased and have continued to increase with the validation he provided for white supremacists to not only vocalize their hate, but to act on it. And old age versus evil? Really people–you would not vote or vote for worst because of age? Especially when the leading candidate on the other side is also old and spews hate?
Hasn’t anyone read about Project 2025? I wrote about it in a previous Post. Do you really want to go back to the early 1800s when you were considered 3/5ths of a person? Do you want to go back to a time when there is no social safety net? (Not that there’s much of one now.) Do you want to go back to a time when corporations could act with impunity in their greed? Do you want to go back when there is no protection for the environment? Do you want to go back to a time where you are restricted in your movement? Do you want to go back to a time when there were no jobs for which you were qualified because of the color of your skin? Do you want to go back when banks failed and there was no recourse? That’s Project 2025 in a nutshell. We are considered the masses who will support the tyranny of the few. The few who will have no rules that apply to them, but who will pay a barbaric force to harshly enforce restrictive and burdensome rules on the masses. (USSR/Iron Curtain, China, South/Central America, Nazi Germany…anyone know their history? There are others, but those come to mind.)
Is being entertained by someone spewing hate at you worth it? Where is your self-respect? Where is your care for not only your future, but the future of your children?
I know it’s difficult to be future oriented when you believe that the present holds little benefit. We’ve lost so much and we will lose much more if we fail to understand that we don’t have to be our own worst enemy. In the past, some of us prospered in this country. We built towns, we governed ourselves, we built businesses. We were not only consumers, but also producers of goods and services. We have the template. We need to retrieve it from the cesspool where we emptied the bathwater. It’s there waiting to be rinsed and reclaimed.
We must understand that a paycheck is not wealth. We must understand that we are concentrated in the lowest tier of jobs, not because of inability, but because of a society that has deemed our educational, health, and housing needs to be of no importance and the need of a capitalistic society to foster an underclass to do the bidding of the few in control. A capitalistic society needs low wage workers who are consumers. If not, stagnation occurs, profits decrease, and workers are fired or euphemistically–downsized. We are the last hired and the first fired. That was true fifty years ago and it is true today.
No teeth and proud of it! That’s a riff off what a friend said about a southern state (her home state) that just elected a white supremacist governor. Did you know in this state and many more that the hospitals are closing, if they haven’t already, in the rural areas? Obstetrics wards are closing in the few that are left. Why are there no grocery stores in certain rural and urban areas? Why is the food that is available often contaminated and let’s not talk about the chemicals our foods contain. What does this say about the society in which we live?
Why aren’t you worthy of medical and dental care? Why aren’t you worthy of decent infrastructure? Why aren’t you worthy of a decent job? Why aren’t you worthy of a decent education? Why aren’t you worthy to be treated humanely? Why? Why? Why? Why?
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