Taking Inventory Of My Life… Before It’s Too Late (Intro)

While journeying down life’s road most of us take an occasional, over the shoulder glance. However, as of late, my peering into my “rearview mirror” can best be described as excessive and obsessive. Try as I may, it has not been easy to ignore my vivid reveries, dreams and nightmares… as well as the oft accompanying intensely felt emotions.

On the up side… so far… this has not morphed me into a 24/7 basket case. These incidents have only been occurring during my idle daytime hours and nightly REM sleep phases.

On the down side… especially re those abovementioned nightmares… I’m seeing that ominous warning:

“Objects in this mirror are closer than they appear.”

I’ve tried to literally write off these occurrences by typing them into a word document… in hopes that actually seeing the words appear on my computer screen would help put everything into proper perspective? No dice.

I’ve also tried to figuratively write off all of this stuff as something someone merely starts to experience once one’s cake gets set ablaze with sixty plus birthday candles… you know… once one realizes the “road” ahead has far fewer miles than the “road” behind? Again… no dice.

You see… there seems to be… correction… there IS far more happening here than my casually strolling down Memory Lane. I think I’ve been watching my life pass before my eyes. And whether this has involved pleasant experiences or not… I cannot help but wonder if this has been akin to a NDE (Near Death Experience)?

Which begs the follow up question…

Just how, pray tell, does a man (supposedly) “mens sana in corpore sano”… who hasn’t chosen a dangerous occupation… who isn’t a driver headed for an unavoidable head-on collision with an 18 wheeler… ever get to the point where he believes the final sentences within the final chapter of his life’s story are getting written?

Well, the more I think about it, the more I suspect that virtually seeing myself as a chalk-outlined lifeless body can be chalked up to the following two quotations…

“If we have nuclear weapons why can’t we use them?”

“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

Those above two sentences (death sentences) were, respectively, uttered and Tweeted by an unwise, unstable, un-American… one who now possesses… correction… one who is now possessed by the nuclear launch codes… namely… the unwisely elected “leader” of the “free” world… an entity I never voted for and have elected to keep nameless in my blogs.

Uh… let’s just refer to that YUGE nobody as #45.

That duly noted… before that nuclear saber rattler ever manages to deadpan, “You’re fired” to our Creator and then promptly incinerate His creation… time permitting… I do have much more to blog about.

In future posts, I’ll be taking an inventory of my life and times… in hopes that, if I’m lucky, someday, somehow, either surviving mutant earthlings or maybe even visiting ETs on an archeological mission, might still find fragments of the WordPress “universe” intact.

Why bother?

Well, primarily, to let everyone know that I have… uh… I guess I should say… I had absolute zero confidence in #45 and the same could be said regarding nearly all of his deplorable and/or delusional appointees and supporters.

I’d want future archeological diggers to know that I was a good man who had absolutely nothing to do with fascist 45’s destruction of Earth’s ecology, economy and society.

Of course, in posting my life’s inventory in the days to come… i.e., #45 permitting… there’ll be a slightly selfish fringe benefit, too. That’s because nothing / nobody ever really dies on the www. That’s because a blogger’s / author’s thoughts can speak from the grave and span millennia.

Indeed, my posts could be my one last shot at a form of immortality.

February Blogcast ~ “The Whole World Is Watching!”

Playback of the above video (prior to reading this blog) will set the proper mood. Now… to put this in DJ parlance…

Catch ya on the other side!

Whew! Can you believe the power and range of Ms. Cristina Ramos’ voice? WOW! The way she belted out that blow-the-roof-off-da-dump cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell amply proves she’s truly a force of nature! Considering this vid’s nearly one-year-old, YouTube posting date, her statement was purely musical… not political… totally unrelated to America’s more recent, rocky transition of power.

Even so, I’ve come to consider Ms. Ramos’ abrupt segue of musical genre… from potent operatic to kickass raunch and roll… as emblematic to my country’s regrettable transition from the sane, sober, mellifluous maturity of Constitutional scholar President Barack Obama to the chaotic, whack-a-doodle, whiny infantilism of Constitutional shredder #45.

Now… don’t misconstrue my meaning here. In no way am I maligning hard rock. To the contrary, we liberals (and I suspect even a few moderates, too)… a.k.a. the no longer represented Americans… are hankering for a new, ire inspiring National Anthem such as this… and We must make such a song the rallying cry to energize the picking up steam resistance movement.

Again… don’t misconstrue my meaning here. Above all else, I am a pacifist… and while there’s nothing I’d like to see more than We The People, somehow, some way, smoothing over the new régime’s rough edges through coolheaded, common sense and Constitutional channels… well…

Let’s just say that the dissent will remain orderly so long as these powers-that-be are willing to be humbled by some incontrovertible and damning statistics. Those, which prove only 25% of Americans elected #45 and only 25% of all polled Americans approve of him. Any normal man would realize he’s… uh… to be charitable here… not well liked.

Of course, since words such as “humbled” and “normal” are a bit of a stretch… well… that means there’s now a whole new connotation to those AC/DC lyrics…

“We’re on the Highway to HELL!”

In the political equation… America = We the People. That means We are in for a bumpy ride AND are going to need more music… more rallying songs.

My having come of age during the turbulent Sixties, the following tunes immediately come to mind. My generation oft literally poured into the streets to express our bipartisan outrage… first directed at Democratic Prez Lyndon B. Johnson and, soon afterward, zeroed in on political zero Republican Prez Richard M. Nixon. The societal changes we sought were to establish essential civil rights and put an end to needless war. Regrettably, the new admin is now gleefully gutting whatever modest gains were made during that era.

And that said… it’s time to let the music do the rest of the “talking”.

 

Rolling Stones ~ Street Fighting Man

Graham Nash ~ Chicago / We Can Change The World

Chicago ~ Prologue / Someday August 29, 1968 (“The Whole World Is Watching”)

Tending to some Old Biz…

My apologies for being nearly two weeks late in posting this February BlogCast… we can blame that on my feeling excessively bummed out about the new régime’s takeover overthrow of America. I’ll try not to let them drag me down again.

Onward and upward to the New Biz…

So long as I’m firing off synapses in my brain… my ten fingers are able to navigate my keyboard… and my American freedom persists… my next BlogCast will be on March 1, 2017… stay tuned…

The Not Ready For Primetime (or any other time) Régime

The good news… TV ratings for NBC’s Saturday Night Live are up… way up. Nielson reports 10.6 million have been tuning in regularly… that figure representing an increase in viewership of 2 million.

The bad(?) news… SNL primarily owes its success to Alec Baldwin lampooning a downright failure of a man.

The worst(?) part… the butt of their jokes is paying far more attention to what’s happening within SNL’s studio 8H in Manhattan than… well… pretty much whatever else is going on in the rest of the world.

Is that totally bad?

No. Each and every time #45 is overreacting / going berserk on Twitter he’s also frittering away his four year term… meaning less time for him to FUBAR our global economy, ecology and society.

Of course, what those key problem areas do need the most is the positive, proactive attention and actions of a real leader… an empathetic, ethical, focused, genuine intellect… such as former President Barack Obama.

Of course, #45 is not such a man. NOPE, he could never live up to those presidential qualifications. Ergo, it’s just as well that he’s got his eyes glued to his TV every Saturday at 11:30 p.m.… is obsessing over and bouncing off the walls whenever SNL’s brilliant political satirists effortlessly get under his thin skin.

Yet, one cannot help but wonder…

If SNL elected to never lampoon #45 / his régime again, would that upset him even more?

An Out Of Step Stepford Wives ‘Tude (99 Word Blog #084)

North Dakota legislator, Bernie Satrom possesses… is possessed by… an unsavory attitude. To paraphrase…

He expects wives to be subservient… to serve their husbands breakfast in bed.

Hmmm… does he also want women to…

1. Fetch hubby’s slippers?
2. Walk two steps behind men in public?
3. Never disagree with any disagreeable crap his ilk frequently utters?
4. Speak only when spoken to?

Satrom’s unpalatable, out of step, Stepford Wives, Fifties era provincialism clashes with liberated society.

What’s it gonna take to expedite this male sexist dinosaur ‘tude to extinction? Wives loading up hubbies’ breakfast trays with Fifties era, highly saturated, fatty cuisine?

Еще четыре года? (Translation: Four More Years?)

 

DISCLAIMER: Google’s online English to Russian translator is responsible for my above headline… I hope it’s correct.

Historically speaking, the GOP’s evil elite has long resorted to the gerrymandering of legislative district boundary lines to make it difficult, if not impossible, for Democrats to win elections. These Republicans also resort to vile, voter suppression tactics to disenfranchise minorities who typically vote for Democrats.

That “1-2 punch” means far too many Americans no longer have any say in who will represent their best interests… while ironically… Russia’s cyberattacker, Vladimir Putin, gets to freely choose who will represent his best interests (e.g. #45).

Elections devoid of ethics and ethnic diversity are what conspired to establish last November’s one party rule… i.e., the GOP domination of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Republican legislators, now drunk with absolute power (which corrupts absolutely), have marginalized and muzzled their Democratic counterparts to the point where the latter party might as well not even show up for work anymore.

Liberal lawmakers can expect whatever valuable input they have to offer to get summarily rejected by conservatives who’ll flat-out refuse to even take sixty seconds to hear them out. If things were any more petty than they already are… well… here’s a for instance…

If a Democrat were to ever exclaim, “Wow! What a beautiful sunshiny day it is!”… even when there’d be irrefutable visual evidence that the sun was indeed out… a Republican would still snarl, “Oh shut the F up! It’s raining outside because I say it’s so!” And he’d next likely further punctuate that by sticking out his tongue, thumbing his nose and/or whipping, upward, one or both middle digits.

Hmm… hardly seems fair when we consider how liberals comprise roughly half of the electorate. In other words… no one is representing us… addressing even the tiniest of our concerns, anymore.

Since Inauguration Day, #45 and his team of coconspirators, in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution / Bill of Rights’ 1st Amendment have been skulking off in the shadows and working overtime to intimidate and muzzle liberal investigative journalists, bloggers and protestors who, after all, are “just” doing their patriotic duty.

“The Admin” has also been plotting to expand the radius of the rightwing propagandists… namely, via repeal of the Johnson Amendment to the U.S. Tax Code which prohibits all 501(c)3 non-profit organizations (e.g. churches) from endorsing or opposing political candidates. If successful, “preachers” (without losing tax exempt status for their respective churches) could legally use their pulpits as bully pulpits.

The net effect… rather than theologians lecturing on spiritually uplifting topics such as peace, love and tolerance… a.k.a. brotherhood… their Big Brother dictated “sermons”, would become the echo chambers for the FOX “News” / noise machine. Parishioners would be forced to earwitness preachers pontificators delivering seething, scathing tirades that’ll unjustly slam the more cogent, fair-minded Democratic agenda, while, simultaneously, promoting rightwing greed, environmental terrorism, racism, misogyny and intolerance towards non-Christians and the LGBTQ community. No doubt these religious charlatans will also be donating a hefty percentage of each Sunday’s collection plate… not to help the hungry and homeless… but to reward the already wallowing in wealth, Godless, GD GOP!

Oh, btw… a heads up for Americans… (in violation of the 1st Amendment) expect church attendance to become mandatory… after all… Big Brother would never permit anyone to escape hearing his “alternative facts” and other such crap.

Perhaps the most disheartening and horrifying aspect of America’s downfall is the total disconnect we’ve been hearing whenever some broadcaster shoves a microphone in front of the mouth of any of #45’s diehard supporters. Just the way they invariably gush forth their absolutely indefensible, unshakable and amoral adulation for him, it’s obvious how they’ve become oblivious to all the (perhaps) irreparable damage their “king” is doing on their behalf.

Seeing how nearly half of our electorate is aboard #45’s crazy train… and with all due respect to true Americans who’ve been protesting with words and deeds… in their attempts to derail it… it would appear that #45’s overthrow of America has far deeper, freedom choking ramifications than many liberals have even begun to suspect.

Within our near future, that is, if #45 doesn’t first Tweet the U.S. into a nuclear war, ONE of these THREE outcomes to occur…

1. He will so thoroughly muck up domestic and international affairs that he’ll tuck tail and run like hell for the nearest exit signs… after which the GOP will gladly dump the whole disgusting mess unto a Democrat’s Oval Office desk (a situation akin to how President Barack Obama wielded a pooper scoop to clean up after W’s herd of stampeding elephants).
2. He will run for reelection in 2020, at which time we can expect the cheering, “Four More Years” Putin to “vote” AGAIN! At that point, if truly patriotic American liberal dissenters have not all been rounded up and imprisoned in his concentration camps, a second American Revolutionary War may be the only way to restore the vision of America’s Founding Fathers.
3. My predictions will prove to be dead wrong. America’s Founding Fathers will have written sufficient protections into the U.S. Constitution so, in spite of the current crop of political sots, We The People will be able to sober them up, survive and “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”