Non-Conquerable Non-Negotiable Fears

Bloganuary writing prompt

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

View all responses

`

For starters, how carefree... correction… naïve can the prompt’s author(s) be? Consider the wording, “scared to do”, which implies that once properly conditioned… strike that… duly brainwashed into that “try it, you’ll like it” ‘tude, anyone can be conned into doing anything. Well, damn it, we’re talking about life, itself, not Life breakfast cereal, here. And, most assuredly, I am NOT Mikey…

Damn it, not everything in life can be an acquired taste under all circumstances. Especially not when lowest bidder voters, near and far, will all become the owners… strike that, too… will all become instantly owned by a fascist pig, such as Donald Dolf Trump.

THAT is THE THING I’m the most scared of… strike that, too… the most scared to death of; hence…

My “A” to today’s prompt follow-up Q,
What would it take to get you to do it?

There’s not one damned thing anyone could ever do to get me to “do it”; do something so horrifically, uniquely UNAMERICAN!

I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT EXIST within America under siege; discourtesy of a small-minded, small-handed, asswipe authoritarian, who gets off on iron fist / choke hold domination!

I’d much rather stand in flat-out defiance as his rolled out tanks head-on approach me.

Not to worry, Tom, all will be fine; that is, once I’m instantaneously transformed into a freedom-hugger speed bump; feel those steel plated / rubber padded treads smashing every last damned one of my atoms into the asphalt; experience that fleeting rush of sweet liberation as I merge with the multiverse; destination unknown…

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Welcome to the Complaint Dept.

Bloganuary writing prompt

What do you complain about the most?

View all responses

`

That’d boil down to my boiling mad complaint re non-critical thinkers, who can so thoughtlessly throw their undying support behind an autocratic bastard, such as Donald Dolf Trump.

`

Worst of all, Trumpers do so for no other reason than his total validation of their cancerous, fugly bigotry; his granting these Klansmen / Nazi wannabees total freedom to frolic in the fetid cesspool of abject hatred.

They’d even empower him at all costs when that cost means…

Floundering Father Trump’s fascism absolutely trumping America’s Founding Father’s freedom.

Hell, some of the most cultish, Kool-Aid swilling, slurping, chug-a-luggers have even gone so far as to roar, aloud, their willingness to die for their fascist daddy Donny.

Well, if the all too real prospect of Trump trumping Joe Biden does see the dark of day, such Trumpers’ death wishes will come true. After all, undying support for any autocrat automatically devolves into literal death; e.g. death by starvation, homelessness / exposure to bitter cold, gun violence, etc.

Truth be told, Trump does wish such horrific death upon the masses, mainly because he pleasures himself to images of human suffering. And then there are the economic issues, too. When circumstances, oft beyond poor folk’s control, force us to rely on government social safety nets, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Obamacare and Social Security, that “eats up” the very tax dollars that he intends to morph into utterly undeserved welfare for the wealthy.

Yep, tax breaks that’ll benefit ONLY his already obscenely rich, big biz billionaire piggy pals.

Now, compare that outcome to the “worst” that could happen if gentleman Joe Biden gets reelected…

America survives; strives to fully attain the very greatness, that’s best summed up within the following preamble…

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

America’s Founders
`

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Wrestling with restless nights…

Calling ALL Videographers! ALL War is Hell, however, a battlefield footage update of war torn Ukraine and the Middle East is sorely needed and overdue. One can only hope that We the Peaceable might be able to shame the otherwise shameless war hawks into ending their utterly needless carnage. Had Lennon, himself, not been a gun violence victim; was still alive and well in the here and now, sans any doubt, he’d be updating and restating his own cogent and impassioned “Give Peace a Chance” pleas.

`

Considering…

• the insufferable instability of international, national, state and local relations; mostly discourtesy of “our” moneygrubbing, power grabbing, self-serving, (mostly MAGA) (mis)leaders and (f)lawmakers…
• how these radical righties are aka the mentally and emotionally unstable members (tools) of the very society they plot to dissolve and devolve…
• how the fate of humanity’s future… all 8 Billion of us… hangs in the balance; is all inexorably linked to what these unbalanced entities WILL or FAIL to do next… well…

I’ve been experiencing restless nights. Perhaps you, too?

The good news? Rather than tossing and turning, I’ve been putting my Z-Free Spells to good use; a couple of obvious wee hours time fillers / killers instantly come to mind…

• blogging – writing – composing – journaling
• re-experiencing the Soundtrack of My Life

By rolling both of those bullet points into one post (this one), hopefully, in some small way, it’ll start rocking our world into a state of heightened awareness.

And, I do believe one of my own soundtrack’s tracks Eve of Distruction does stand a fighting chance at waking up the electorate, worldwide; reminding every critical thinking voter that we’re duty-bound to (peaceably) either reprogram or replace each and every dead head, Head of State.

This closing paragraph will set up my featured, classic protest song, popularized by recording artist Barry McGuire; will prove this composition has not lost any measure of relevancy. My gawd, composer / lyricist P. F. Sloan’s sociopolitical commentary still rings so true, these tracks could’ve been laid down 59 minutes; NOT 59 years ago.

Give ‘er a listen…

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

The Spectator / Bench Warmer

Bloganuary writing prompt

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

View all responses

`

My fave athletic event to watch is Baseball due to it (kinda-sorta) being the least violent of professional sports… well… um… aside from the occasional dugout clearing donnybrook; for the express purpose of backing up the team manager, who’s calling out an Ump’s bad call (to no avail) and/or to protest the unsportsmanlike conduct of an opponent or two… or more.

As for my own baseball “career” (during middle school P.E. class), my performance sucked. On offense, my batting average was .000; seeing how, at best, my reaching first base solely depended on a pitching ace falling from grace due to control problems (inclusive of beaning players). On defense, my left fielder, so-called skills were rarely put to the test because most batters were more apt to hit home runs than mere 1, 2, or 3 bagger base hits.

My fave sport to both play and watch is Volleyball. Whilst playing in the public school gymnasium “leagues”, I found myself quite surprised... no… strike that… I found myself shocked re my serving adeptness; i.e., in a manner that consistently cleared the net, YET, more oft than not, proved non-returnable. This was the best news possible, seeing how, for the very first time in my life, my prowess had finally, netted me my teammates’ high fives. However, the fun and games and earned goodwill did prove short-lived.

You see, Coach Joe, in the dual roles of wannabe drill-sergeant-from-Hell and the definitive, earthbound nastard (nasty bastard), neither thought much of me as a boy, nor of my otherwise poor performances during other scheduled team sports and exercise activities. I still have a sneaking suspicion that he had intentionally, prematurely and personally got a major league sized kick outta tearing down those volleyball nets; you know, just to ruin what little fame and fun I’d been enjoying.

Joe had failed to diagnose the problem; namely there can be no level playing field when mere boys’ muscles must compete with young men’s. The needless tragedy, here, is how, IF middle school P.E. students had been grouped in a way that would’ve aligned us with the stage of puberty each of us had achieved AND had suitable, body building / coordination improving regimens assigned to us, THEN we, the temporarily underdeveloped, might’ve emerged into the real world less demoralized… no strike that… less ostracized.

That brief op-ed duly noted, now visualize me executing a virtual back flip to:

• dismount my blogging soap box
• land squarely on both of my feet
• proudly declare my verbal victory

My personal victory over the vapidity of poorly run phys-ed programs, wherever they may turn up globally; tho that cannot amount to much unless / until schools enacting such changes become far more widespread.

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Word Dueling FanDuel ~ Limerick

Bloganuary writing prompt

What would you do if you won the lottery?

View all responses

`

Being mindful of the wisdom… “a fool and his money are soon parted”… it’s fair game to point out… since I’m no fool… I don’t gamble away my limited funds… hence… I’ll never know what I’d do if I won the lottery. Simple – Honest – Easy! I speak both for myself and on behalf of all like-minded souls, worldwide, as I further emphasize such sentiments, poetically…

`

We’re weary-leery of frauds! Flim-Flam!! Fakery!!!
FanDuel’s casino c’mons and cruel takery
“To hell, TOO, with the Lotto!!!!”
Instead restock yer grotto
Best bet is parlay bread for bread! At the bakery!!

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Calling All Visionary Authors!

Bloganuary writing prompt

What books do you want to read?

View all responses

`

We wee Earthlings are in desperate need of locating the truly visionary physical science / political science author(s) in full possession of the requisite know-how; i.e., the sort that’d be capable of completely heading-off our present-day, looming, dual ecological and ideological disasters.

Obviously, left unchecked, sooner or later (likely NOT the latter) human-unkind will physically and philosophically burn down our homelands and home world.

I’m speaking of covering all our bases. In other words, establishing our mastery over Fight or Flight magnitude technology.

• In the event that it’s the former “F” word, we’d wind up re-terraforming our existing Earth and staying put.
• In the event it’s the latter “F” word, we’d be able to, oh, say, lead foot the warp drive engines up to factor 9.995; thereby hightailing it into deep, interstellar space ISO the literal New World.

Naturally, it’d be best if we could see either eventuality to fruition before it’s too late. Of course, to keep it all real, we must face the facts that no such know-how, yet, exists. And IF we attempt to muddle thru the already too late scenario, we will wind up with an entirely different “F” word to sum up our fate; in other words…

Regarding the survival of our species, we’re likely already ucked.

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Fond Traditions Told Fondly

Bloganuary writing prompt

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

View all responses

With the flood of fond memories of yet another year-end, festive holiday season still fresh in our human collective’s memory; additionally, with this particular daily prompt falling on a Friday, as well, what better launching point for discussing traditions; at the very least, a tad more in depth, huh?

Once upon a time, when my / our Catholicism was far more regimented, many a Christmastime involved a month long observance; all neatly, (theo) logically bookended by December 6th’s St. Nicholas Day and January 6th’s Epiphany.

Typically, Christmas Eve was the time to exchange / unwrap family gifts with one another; whilst we wee kiddies weren’t able to get into much quality playtime involving chimney shimmying Santa’s under the tree home deliveries until our nuclear family of four (Mom, Pop, Sis and Bro) returned home after Christmas morn mass.

During that same bygone era, we also observed meatless Fridays year round, which, naturally took on an extra special significance during Lent. My Mom, true to her Slavic (way too traditional) homemaker heritage, had quite the tasty, ethnic, meat-free cuisine repertoire; both courtesy of her chock full of 3×5 cards recipe box and her mother; her mother’s mother; her mother’s mother’s mother… well, I’m sure you do get my point. To name just a couple of her/their suppertime specialties, Štrukla and coleslaw; potato soup and gently fried cracker crumbed green beans, etc.

However, there were quite frequent related mealtime incidents where we all saved some room for the much later repast; where / when Mom plated her slow-baked beef pot roasts along with potatoes, carrots and green peppers; all smothered in rich brown gravy. Yep, this all played out at the 12:01am, sorta Pope flouting, whew/thank God it’s finally, officially Saturday serving time.

Wildly imaginative, extemporaneously (created / delivered mostly by Mom), bedtime stories was yet another of our traditions; a remarkable talent. Be it either ingrained / programmed deep within our DNA or a learned experience, both sis and I have fully incorporated this into our online blogging experiences; yep, to this very moment in time.

My heartfelt gratitude to you, for indulging my time-tripping down Memory Lane.

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Le Artistry / Articulation of Leisure

Bloganuary writing prompt

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

View all responses

`

In 1 Word… Wordsmithing*

`

In a few more words…

Being a being who’s truly fond of wordplay (actually, “fond” is quite the understatement)… hence, this lead paragraph redo…

Being a being who possesses a passion for wordplay, (virtually) hear my wholehearted “Viva La Difference,” when this also involves pronunciations, which particularly aid and abet my flagrant, nearly felonious magnitude violations of the International Poetic License Code [IPLC]… j/k… to the best of my knowledge, the IPLC only exists in my mind. Anyway…

In this specific instance let’s first clarify the articulation aspects… where…

“In the US, “leisure” rhymes with “seizure”, while in the UK, “leisure” rhymes with “pleasure.”

Google Search
`

Just about all I could add is how Google’s fine fer instance, here, also makes sense from the medical perspective. After all, when it comes down to seizures, well, where’s the pleasure there?

Turning to the artistic aspects, now brings us to my Haiku enhanced, daily prompt inspired response…

`

One path to pleasure
treasure tunes’ mood and measure
in times of leisure

`

* Noteworthy Aside: re the Prompt’s qualifying term “most”, my dueling dual passions for wordsmithing and music… music and wordsmithing… actually qualify as a TIE for 1st Place!

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Freedom of Expression

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com
8 years ago (21 January 2016)
Keep up the good blogging
Thanks for flying with us.

`

I originally set up my soapbox atop the WP platform to post my observations re the:

`

• political scene home and abroad
• lessons that history can teach us
• condition of the human condition                    

On this, my 8th WP blogging anniversary, I offer up my posthumous thanks to America’s Founding Fathers; the authors of the, now, nearly 2½ centuries old U.S. Constitution; to commend them, too, for their Bill of Right’s 1st Amendment’s free speech and press protections; for without ’em, I truly believe meaningful blogging would’ve never really caught on at all.

Yet, we now discover these guarantees, in all their sophistication / worldliness, at risk due to an anthropomorphized, emotional train wreck; aka the little engine that couldn’t; aka Donald Dolf Trump; the malignant narcissist who parlayed his (non-existent) charisma into what, in essence, is zero accountability / limitless corrupt political power; all of THAT gussied up with his Teflon business suit; prettied up with bottle-blonde haystack tresses; to say nothing of his troweled on, garish Day-Glo orange, Bozo the Clown magnitude make-up.

That XXX prez owes much of HIS success to hoodwinking a slew of gullible, childish, intellectually incurious, low information voters; all courtesy of their no questions asked / allowed; totally undeserved loyalty. And, all he had to do to secure THAT was wrongfully normalize their butt-ugly bigotry. So, just how subservient are they? Well, one needn’t look any further than the rampage they went on at the U.S. Capitol; how they misguidedly “had his six” throughout his January 6th attempted coup.

Focusing our attention, now, onto the upcoming 2024 Presidential Elections, its astounding yet true, that, instead of Trump already serving out year three of his 500-year (too lenient) sentence, he remains mostly unpunished and still at large, rampaging up and down the campaign trail, no less. My GAWD, come November, he could wind up easily exploiting the Electoral College map and mathematics; thereby snagging his democracy ending, second term.

We are speaking of the troublesome struggle between…

• Good v. Evil
• Cosmos v. Chaos
• Freedom v. Fascism
• Democrat v. Republican; namely:
• Joe Biden v. Donald Dolf Trump

IF the outcome does favor satanic, chaotic, fascistic Dolf, his win will be America’s irreparable loss. And IF the United States drops off our global radar screen, THEN expect eventual copycat nation toppling autocrats, everywhere; to obliterate their “blips”, too.

Under such dystopian conditions, no writer, for the moment still alive, could realistically expect any blogging platform to continue business as usual; nope, not after Donald Dolf Trump rallies his private army of sycophantic, fascist pig underlings; deploys ’em on their hog wild crusade to…

• identify / brand liberal bloggers enemies of the fascist state
• make damned sure we wind up detained, deported or dead

Tho, all things considered, I’m not presently, particularly in a partying mood, nevertheless, I now raise, skyward, my virtual glass of celebratory champers; offer up a toast to what could very well wind up as my 9th and FINAL Year as a freedom loving, living, true blue American blogger.

Last, but far, Far, FAR from least, I now thank you, my subscribers and readers for caring enough to read my stuff…

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

Do Get a ‘Round Tuit

Bloganuary writing prompt

Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

View all responses

`

I’d categorize that attraction to be one of my most wished for boyhood dreams; YET to come true.

Oh, for my family and I to have spent at least one summertime Saturday afternoon; cheering on to victory our home baseball team; all the while seated, in person, within the stadium located at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues; namely Tiger Stadium née Navin Field née Briggs Stadium.

Alas, what follows is the regrettable rewrite of this post’s lead paragraph…

I’d categorize that attraction to be one of my most wished for boyhood dreams; that can NEVER come true.

That’s because… long sigh… long, Long, LONG AGO, both Dad and Mom had “bought the farm” and the wrecking balls / bulldozers caused the stadium’s downfall.

This is not the first time roots have been torn away, against my will. Both my family’s very first home-sweet-home (rented) and my grades K thru 4 elementary school bit the dust. Granted, maybe I’m being overly sentimental, BUT, it’s my belief that City Planners and School Boards, rather than renovating, are zealously, thoughtlessly and needlessly burying iconic architecture; the oft historical landmarks; and, in the process, many of our most cherished memories are getting deep-sixed, too.

Even tho early-on poverty had prevented our nuclear family of four from doing everything extra in life; even tho my scrimping and saving every penny, stay-at-home parents had done so to excess, that didn’t mean that I had to always follow in their footsteps. And, it could be reasonably and accurately argued that when shoes get hammered down to our home’s floorboards. there are no footsteps at all! My best advice, here, is please learn from my family’s / my own mistakes and, whatever you do…

DO get around to visiting as many of those special-to-you attractions / locales as possible. After all…

With increasingly annoying predictability, we can no longer count on the very places we hold nearest and dearest, within our heads / hearts, to always outlive us.

`

`

`

Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!

HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:

Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`