Sinking Into the Sunset

 The blog slowly goes the way of the dinosaur.

It's not a popular way of correspondence anymore. At least for getting social media attention.

I see my view numbers plummeting. I might get a few more by linking to different social media sites.  
But it's not significant.

Does having a picture help? Marginally, but often not worth the time to find and add it to the post.

How about a family connection? Oh, it might boost it a bit.

The only things that seem to matter are accidentally using a commonly Googled phrase and having the post shared on more frequently visited sites. The blog story Authentic Frontier Gibberesh has received 114,000 views, over 100,000 more than its closest rival.

I'm beginning to understand that I might get a larger response if I posted directly on Facebook and other sites. Even if long, they might get more responses.

It's also a factor that many who are pro-conman either have been algorithmed out, or just scroll past. The people who often need to see them the most...don't. And in our divided media world, nothing I say or do would move them even if they accidentally saw it.

Look at the most recent scandal, Signalgate. The dictator-supporters are STILL, to this day, answering with...BUT HER EMAILS! Anything to not have to deal with the truth of what they have wrought.

It's hard to be optimistic. I'm not sure how we get out of this. Part of me (perhaps the largest part) feels like it's too late. So what if they wake up now? Elections are over in this country. They will either not exist, or be shams like they are in other dictatorial countries, like Hungary and Russia.

And yet...

...as we sink into the sunset, I an not ready to completely surrender. I see Independent Progressives on the horizon, like AOC and Jasmine Crockett, led by our modern day John the Baptist, Bernie Sanders, and I can only hope that when the sun finally rises again, they will be there to lead us to the promised land, a world of hope and freedom, a world where children do not starve, where minorites are not presecuted, where healthcare is a right and a living wage is sacred, where empathy and kindness dominate over intolrance and hate.

To the one or two dozen that actually read this, thank you. And I will try to do better by you with stronger themes and more cogent arguments.

The sun continues to set on democracy, but I will not go quietly into the night. I will continue to speak out through these dark and dangerous times. My voice may be diminished, my communication methods may not be hep and modern enough. But I will not stop.

Even if all I can do is scratch out a warning on a Guantanamo cell, I will do that rather than surrender.

I am not optimistic, but I am not silenced.

The sun sets.

But it also rises.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28.

Hello, USA! Welcome to (drumroll) ... the Axis of Evil!

 At least since World War II, the Axis of Evil has been used to identify a particular type of opposition. They represented the challenge of world powers, primarily democracies (of one stripe or another), standing up to authoritarian fascists who intended to subsume the world under their dictatorships. And, yes, it included a questionable alignment with an authoritarian communist power, Stalin. That alignment would not last long after the conclusion of the war.

Bushy Jr. revived the term during his administration to represent a new axis of evil centered around three countries that were promoting terrorism around the world - Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. All three represented brutal dictatorships of one kind or another - the theocratic madness of Iran, the despotic corruption of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the autocratic perversion of communism in North Korea. But all three represented authoritarian governments; whether they described themselves that way, they all had elements of fascism.

In more recent times many have talked about the Axis of Evil being China, Russia, and North Korea. Whatever the players composing it, it all runs to one thing - countries controlled by brutal dictators.

America has certainly not been perfect throughout its history. Often, it has joined in conflicts not just to defend democracy, but to acquire new territory, and sometimes to protect the interests of American corporate power. It's a complex history that would require many posts and much research.

Another significant thread of American military and diplomatic history has been the defense of democracy and the rights of the oppressed. In major conflicts, we have always sided against fascist and authoritarian dictators.

Until now.

We have clearly switched teams. We no longer speak out for the world's democracies. We no longer even pretend to stand up for people who are subject to tyranny.

We are withdrawing our support of Ukraine. We are even pretending that Russia did not invade Ukraine and is not at fault in the conflict. We want Ukraine to end the contest by surrendering everything to Putin. We opposed a resolution at the UN condemning Russia for its actions in Ukraine, alongside Russia and North Korea.

Trump speaks out about his love of dictators almost every day. He also condemns and ridicules democracies every day. He talks about subsuming and controlling his neighbors. These include the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Canada. He wants to turn Gaza into a playland for billionaires. His treatment of Mexico is barbaric.

He does this not to forward democracy but to take over the resources of those countries and to use them to benefit himself and his billionaire buddies. It is a return to 19th-century colonialism, stripped of pretense of any moral basis.

At any given time, it's a real grab bag to see which dystopian novel whose path we are following most closely. The Handmaid's Tale was even money, but now 1984 is pulling into sight. In 1984, the world was divided among three dictatorial superpowers, constantly rewriting their history to keep their citizens in line, centering them on lotteries and entertainments, false cultural issues, and spying on each other.

Trump has decided that the Americas are HIS, to use and abuse however he wants. The tradeoff is to let the other big players have their own spheres of dominance - Russia dominating an increasing portion of Europe, and China taking back Taiwan and dominating Asia.

Questioning some of the US military/diplomatic decisions is one thing. It's another to see the US clearly and consistently aligning with evil, which authoritarian brutality is.

It breaks my heart.

We are no longer the good guys.

We are a primary player in the Axis of Evil.

Morgan in the Delayed Dawn

It is time for Morgan

For a walk through the Ley

It should be Dawn again

But it has been thrown into delay

What has transpired

Who has maligned

Where is the sky afired

How is the Dawn unfind

Who messed with time

The dark is pitch

No one can see her dress with lime

Morgan is ready to glitch

Time of daylight savings

It's a curse

The road's now invisible pavings

Whatever could be worse

The thing that's most foul

With the extension of dark

The monster's still on the prowl

And to Morgan it will hark

Because it wants her beating heart

In the palm of it's claw

To twist it apart

And chomp it in its maw

So Morgan will wait an hour

We're Flying!

 

Come fly to the world of pure imagination!

I did not intend to be in this show. But here I am. I got a text in mid-Febrauary asking if I could fill in as Grandpa Joe. I wasn't sure, but they sold me when they said I didn't have to dance.

Joining the cast? One of the best decisions of my theater career!

I highly encourage you to come out and see this big, fantastic, enjoyable show!

It may be the biggest cast I've performed in, with close to fifty performers! Community theater fills many vital functions, but one of its best is large productions where many people can experience what theater is like, and whole families can get involved! Like the amazing Mr. Salt and his Oompa Loopa daughter, Ross Bedford and Alary Bedford! Or the accomplished Mrs. Bucket, her son playing Charlie, and another son playing an Oompa Loompa, Angi Helms, and her two boys, Noah and Micah!

I'd love to brag on every member of this cast and crew - it really takes a village to make a production as outstanding as this one.

I do have to mention Taylor Hereford as the perfectly quintessential Willy Wonka. His performance is Broadway quality and is the second time he's played the character at WACT. 

And it's been hard for me to stay in character with Liv McConney and Gabrielle Walker playing Augusta Gloop and Mrs. Gloop. They are brilliantly funny!

Charlie, played by Noah Helms, proves that the W.C. Fields quote - "Never work with children or animals," is absolutely wrong*. Noah has been a joy to work with and a true star performer (in his first performance with lines!). I also want to thank those who have helped me onstage so much, including Cole Hendley and Angi Helms, Mr. & Mrs. Bucket, and the Choral Director, Kathy Cox, for helping keep this "man without rhythm" on track!

The director, Jenny Varnadore, has been very supportive and kind to me and everyone else. It's hard to keep a ship this big on course, but she has done so in first-rate fashion.

Please come out! This is not just to support one of the longest-running theater groups in Georgia but also because this is a darn fine show, and you will have a blast watching it!

The wonderful world of Willy Wonka awaits you!

*well, I'm still not sure about the animal part!

Speaking Out

 I know. I'm shallow.

I'm not speaking up much right now. Maybe a few memes here and there.  

I haven't given up. I need to prioritize the musical I'm in right now.

I'm not afraid to speak out. I need to keep my head as clear as possible when I'm performing. Otherwise, I'll go onstage too fired up about a political discussion and fail to concentrate on my part.

The good news is that I'm not the only one speaking out.

Thre are people I know, who've been on the right side, but have in the past not spoken up much, who are now speaking out. My Facebook feeds are full of people who are tired of keeping quiet.

Unfortunately, I don't know of many converts—people who were with the orange conman, at least for voting purposes, but who are now willing to speak out against him.

At any rate, this is just a personal note to tell my most dedicated blog readers I haven't surrendered. Come March 17th, I will be speaking out again.

Hopefully, we'll still have a country left!

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

For Love of Boss-A-Man

 On February 21st, we had to make one of the hardest decisions of our lives. Boss-A-Man had severely declined, suffering from kidney failure. Quality of life was gone, and there was no hope for improvement.  

Over the last few months, Boss-A-Man had become more and more selective over what he would eat. We switched to Farmer's Dog, which at first he loved. Then he dropped one meat after another until he was only eating pork. Then, even that became a struggle.

We were concerned that his heart murmur was coming back, so we took him for that and started a treatment to help like it had done before. But his lack of appetite increased. We came back to the vet to see what was going on, and that is when we received the blood test that showed his advanced kidney failure.

We rescued Boss-A-Man in August 2017. This sounds made up, but he lived in a van down by the river with two elderly ladies and maybe as many a dozen other dogs. We adopted him about the same time I was cutting back to part-time at my CPA job, so I called him my retirement dog. I was very, very close to him and loved him very much.

He had a lot of physical problems when we got him, including heartworms, but we nursed him back to health. The vet thought he was 10 when we adopted him. I don't know if that's true, but that would have made him about 17.

He was a playful, spirited, friendly dog. He liked to bounce and bound and followed his companion, Pixie, everywhere. He loved people and was the ultimate lap dog. He had a myriad of nicknames - Sir Barks-A-Lot, Bossy, Turd Burglar, and many more.

I wish this was fancier. I wish this was a better tribute. But even after a week, I'm still in shock.

I love Boss-A-Man, and I wish he was still with us.

Sorry, MAGA! Everything You Thought Was Wrong

 

You thought you were electing Donald Trump President of the United States.

Surprise!

Instead, you got a foreign-born billionaire, one whose very citizenship is questionable, controlling what gets funded and what doesn't, using a small squad of barely adult hackers to break into secure systems and pillage all our data. And you were worried about unelected bureaucrats? HA!

Nothing he is doing is to combat fraud and abuse. Like  Trump, all Musk is doing is petty grievances. FAA had fined Space X for safety violations! FIRE HIM! Fire all those in aviation safety!  Offer buyouts to stressed, overworked air traffic controllers. If planes collide and go down, who cares.

USAID dared to investigate some of his StarLink sales to Russia?  Destroy their agency!  If people in other countries starve because of it, or farmers lose some $2 billion in sales, so what?  LET THEM STARVE!

You thought Trump was going to root out corruption.

In addition to the actions of President Musk, Trump has eliminated all the inspector generals who monitor such things, leaving us more open to government corruption.  He's fired other government-efficiency people. He is determined to weed out people from the Federal government not to save money but to replace them with people loyal to him over the Constitution.

Private corruption will soar now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our only protection against bank and corporate overcharges, has been dismantled and kneecapped. Executive orders have eliminated many climate change regulations and others designed to protect us from corporate greed.  

Think that's a good thing?  You may be less enthused when you get tainted meat, when you find your workplace unsafe (they want to eliminate OSHA), when you find there is an outbreak you can't get information about because the CDC and NIH have been censored and we have left the WHO, when you no longer get weather notification because the National Weather Service and NOAA have been destroyed.

You thought he would mass deport all those undocumented aliens you rail against.

So far, even with all the noise and thunder, the rate of actual deportations is not much different from what it was under Biden.

But have no fear!  He still may pull ahead.  Of course, the economic consequences of this will be catastrophic.  But do not despair!  Those jobs may be replaced by PRISON LABOR.  Some may come from the undocumented held in concentration camps.

Isn't that a pretty picture for the United States?

You thought he was going to lower prices, specifically mentioning eggs and gas.

Psych!

Fooled you, didn't he?

You can't entirely blame the President.  Economic events are not always under their control.   I mean,  you sure cut Biden some slack for the Pandemic-caused global inflation that he got under control quicker than virtually every other country on Earth, didn't you?  No, things weren't perfect. However, the fact remains that Biden generated the best economy in decades.

Trump promised he would lower prices from day one.  When he was elected, he immediately switched course and said that would be hard for him to do.

Of course, he may still impose more tariffs, but only those who have never studied economic history would believe that this is a good thing.

You thought he was going to get rid of DEI and we would return to a merit-based system.

Yeah, he's succeeded in dismantling DEI (including a lot of cooperation from a pathetically weak business community), but he is galloping as far away from merit-based as you can get.  Think Not?  Look at the qualifications of his cabinet nominees compared to those in the past. 

This cartoon sums up best what DEI is really all about -

DEI means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Anti-DEI means Discrimination, Exclusion, and Intolerance.

I know what side I'm on.  How about you?

You thought he would end our endless wars and bring our troops home. No more foreign adventures for us!

This may be the thing you were most wrong about.

One of the ways we knew Hitler was such a danger was when he wanted to invade and annex his neighbors. Whether it was an excuse or not, he tried to bring any nation with any German population back into the fold of the Germanic Empire.  Putin wants to do something similar to restore the Soviet Union.

What Trump wants to do is worse. He makes no pretense of wanting to reunite with countries that have roots in us. He doesn't want to improve the lives of those places' citizens, and he doesn't even really care about the benefits to the American people.

He wants to exploit and consume their resources, and he wants himself and his billionaire buddies to profit big time.

He wants the Panama Canal back so he can control the shipping lane and profit from the traffic that passes through it.

He wants Greenland and Canada because he knows GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, and underneath the ice, tons of natural resources, fuels, and rare earth minerals await.

He wants Gaza because he wants to turn it into a real estate development, Trump Hotels, and a place for the ultra-rich to party.  The Palestinians?  He doesn't give one whit about them as long as they are GONE.

Even in Ukraine, he's dangling the carrot of getting the rights to the country's rare earth minerals to provide them any aid whatsoever.

I have no qualms about my next statement - everything he does is monstrous.  Everything he is doing is unrepentantly evil. Many will die. Many will suffer.

Yes, MAGA. You've been had. Everything you thought was wrong.

And we will suffer for many years because of it.  

The least you can do is admit your error and join us in resisting it.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28