Weather forecasts say rain, but rain, not even the hint of rain, comes. I think I have made the mistake of thinking that water is an infinite resource when factually I know it is not. April has been a dry month. My yard looks like the dog days of August have come and stayed.
John has meanings from toilet to client of sex worker to the perfect guy. Shaft…come on…penis. See, I was listening to the song Son of Shaft by the Bar-Kays when this little demon whispered to me that Shaft’s name was intended to subliminally evoke images of the super sexed Black male. And it does! When I saw the movie when I was a teenager…all of that went over my head. I think I was of the rescuer of damsel mind-set and I hadn’t read Mandingo which might have opened my mind to the subliminals.
I remember a conversation, don’t remember who with, regarding a certain government agency and how it couldn’t carry out a successful regime change even if the targeted person stood in front of them and bared his chest. These so-called attempts on this administration reminds me of that conversation. Were these persons trained by that particular agency?
A 2026 US executive order directed federal agencies to accelerate review of ibogaine. In that executive order is what is called Right to Try. This executive order is a grift for one of this regime’s supporters. Seems like one of the regime’s supporters will make a lot of money on a drug that he must have monetary rights to–ibogaine–a psychedelic drug, derived from the root of an African shrub, that in the articles I read has deadly side effects if not used sparingly. (“Rogan later revealed on his podcast that he had been texting with the president prior to the event, saying that he brought up the issue to Trump himself. “The text message came back: ‘Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it…” Excerpt from article by Russell Payne Salon.com) What you have is another drug on the streets that will probably devastate poor white people–but, hey, they’ll be that much easier to control and they did it to themselves–they have a ‘right to try’ drugs that they think will help them. All the while the grifters will be enriching themselves and hypocritically talking about the sins of drug use.
And the Congo which has been abused for its resources will be yet again abused as the land is stripped of this shrub. And the ones who would control keep searching for the drug that in fiction (e.g., soma–Brave New World; victory gin–1984) facilitated their control of the masses and make that fictional drugged population a reality. Also–can’t forget the use of religion and holographic fantasies in some of the dystopian novels I have read.
Mind Doodle–last night, storm cells moved through this area. These cells–high winds, lashing rain, thunder, lightning. Usually storms do not awaken me, but last night the gusting wind awakened me. The house didn’t so much shake as shiver. I thought to myself–Hold my hand; I’ll hold yours. For some reason, that comforted me while listening to the howling wind and the lashing rain. Every so often, thunder boomed. But I held on to that comforting thought as that storm cell moved through. Lately, Mother Earth has been so angry. But, I realized that Mother Earth has a right to be angry.
We have not been kind to Mother Earth, especially males and females who are complicit in the hegemony of the patriarchy. The patriarchy is exploitive and extractive. Mother Earth realizes that we who should care for her are using her up to feed their present greed. They will use her up and leave a husk, just like many males do to the females who are so unfortunate as to deal with them. Aquarius, a water sign–maybe Mother Earth is saying…the age of Aquarius is here. Water…nature’s acid…will be used by Mother Earth to say no more to the incubus male hegemony. End Mind Doodle.
The last week of April is making up for the April’s lack of showers. So far, it has rined for the past three days!
Finding some more flowering weeds! This is Carolina Horsenettle (Solanum Carolinense) It’s poisonous, but the flower is pretty. Has the potential to be invasive. In the same family Nightshade as are potatoes and tomatoes.
I finished Howard Zinn’s A People’s History Of The United States (published 1980 and updated in 2003). I bought this book in 2013 and again in 2017, so I’ve had it for some time. I must have read some of it as some of what I read was familiar. But I must have skimmed through it. This time I read it. I know Zinn did not mean for this book to be depressing, but reading it in 2026…it was depressing. Only change is the name of the actors perpetrating evil, pursuing greed, and othering whatever group(s) is most available. This is a country built on lies. George Carlin, in 2005, was right–It’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.
After reading Zinn’s book, I am revising the length of the interregnum. The interregnum of the ruling powers in this country ended in the year 2000. This is when the Supreme Court decided that it could blatantly ignore the rule of law and rule in favor of their favored political party. (The Supreme Court has done this many times in the past. However, during the interregnum the Court showed some respect for the rule of law.) For the next twenty odd years we were on the inevitable seesaw as the toxic power took firm hold, so they could be public with their agenda. The majority of the legislation passed in the 1960s has been overturned and gutted, and what is left is being used against us.
You know how you know something, but never really think about it? Zinn talked about how few citizens actually voted. Here is my crude example–There are 1, 000 citizens; 100 of those citizens are eligible to vote; 50 citizens exercise the right and privilege to vote; there are two candidates; the candidate who gets 26 votes wins. 26 citizens have decided the manner in which the country is run. 974 citizens are bound by that election. One can say that the 50 citizens who did not vote have acquiesced by their decision not to vote. But as Zinn says what if neither candidate spoke to the needs of those 50 citizens? Their failure to vote could also be a protest…a protest that is of no importance and will be given no credence. The policies of the candidate with the 26 votes determines the present path of country. Note: if there are more than two candidates then the number of votes required to win would be fewer.
That’s where we are today. A toxic minority has elected a toxic regime and the rest of us are along for the ride.
Zinn makes it clear that whenever a group considered “Other” demands rights and inclusion pursuant to the Constitution, such is met with lethal violence by the government and by private enforcers hired by the oligarchs. Eventually a stripped and gnawed bone is tossed to the group when the Oligarchs perceive the loss of and/or actually lose money because of the group’s demand.
Another conclusion from the book–War is used to normalize and jumpstart the economy. The United States economy is based on war and incarceration of others–Military and Penal Industrial Complex. That’s really what the Oligarchs want as the basis of the economy.
If there is a future, will that future realize that greed has no boundaries, hate has no limits, hierarchy will always be toxic. Any group of people that does not deal with the soulless ones who walk invisibly among them is doomed. Any group that does not recognize the sacredness of life…all life…will not prosper. The patriarchy has never admitted to the finiteness of water, air, resources. The patriarchy has never understood the value of future-think. At some point, the band-aid will be insufficient for the wound.
The Supreme Court has rendered a decision that has silenced the voice of members of the group who want the aspirational country that was never meant to be to become a reality. As I’ve said before, the collective antipathy to a system that treats its citizens with empathy and humaneness is baked into this United States. Everything is in place for a return to Jim Crow. History rhymes, but does not repeat may be true in an analytical sense, but when the same playbook is used over and over again there is a repetition of outcomes that certainly look like a repeat.
Zinn want us to be hopeful of future where the aspirational United States is actually birthed. However, this is 2026–the hoi polloi is engaged in gambling and gaming; outlandish conspiracy theories which are easily debunked; a disembodied voice that turns on music, heat, air conditioning; unlocks doors and listens to your every sound; a legacy news media in the hands of oligarchs in whose interest lies and propaganda make up the daily news; and social media that promotes and incentivizes the worse of the human character. That, along with the chronic debt that this society has made a “norm”. The hoi polloi that must rise in massive numbers to begin the long journey to make the aspiration a reality–most are too comfortable with the status quo. They do not care that they do not prosper or that the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness is not their current state of existence. They are apathetic and would rather passively wait for the “Rapture” than do anything to make their life better now. That is a pessimistic view of the current state of affairs, but it is also pragmatic. We have to know what we are working with if there is to be change.
A note–anything that the corporate oligarchs cannot monetize and control will either be destroyed or demonized. And we will be directed toward a product or service that they control and monetize.
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I thought this was a different variety of daisy. Not exactly! It’s weird…scrolling through You Tube and there is a guy talking about and holding a weed by the name of fleabane. Most people call it some type of daisy and it is known as daisy fleabane. That’s my daisy! It gets its name from its use as an insect repellent because of its pungent odor. The yard guy came and mowed. So, I’ll see if any comes back.
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When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses. Shirley Chisholm
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