The Appearance of Resistance

 

January started out rough.

The invasion of Venezuela. 

The ICE-engineered violence in Minneapolis.

The sabre-rattling over Greenland threatens to destabilize the entire world.

Not to mention the illegal noncompliance over releasing the Epstein files.

Our slow roll to fascism was picking up a tremendous head of steam.

But then, unexpected checks came into play.

In Venezuela, the gush of cheap oil became questionable.  The big oil companies proved reluctant to invest billions in something they were unsure would justify the results.  There is no surge of democracy or freedom, as the President seems satisfied to leave the country inthe hands of Maduro's subordinates - as long as the President gets to dip his beak into their riches.  He seems reluctant to take the next steps, so this great colonial exploitation remains frozen.

We were rescued from an invasion/takeover of Greenland, not because of a burst of conscience from Trump or MAGA, but by the reaction of Wall Street.  A slumping market reaction caused TACO to retreat. Good? Yes, I guess so.  But it is rather frightening to think the moral compass of the US is now the stock market.  The same group that rises in delirium when unemployment goes up? Boy, are we in trouble!

I don't know what's going on with the Epstein files.  But despite all the noise, people still want them to come out, even many MAGA supporters.

The hopes with the ICE invasion of Minneapolis was to rile up the citizens enough to justify a martial law takevoer of Minnesota.  It was a test to see how Trump's Gestapo could shut down a state and its elections.

They failed to achieve this.  Instead, the good people of Minneapolis took to their whistles and phones and recorded the insanity and violence that ICE was bringing. The resulting tragedies that occurred were recorded, and the lies the Trump administration tried to impose on them made it impossible for people to believe them.  All but the most MAGA-infused could see, undeniably, the federal government was lying to them.

They are not out of Minneapolis yet, but they are in retreat.  They are like a snake that has not yet realized that its head has been cut off.

The battle against fascism is far from over.  But we have gained a foothold against the avalanche of evil and suppression they have hurled at the American people and the world at large.

Resistance is not futile, but itain't easy.

God bless Renae Good. God bless Alex Pretti, and the minimum seven others who were killed by ICE so far this year. God bless the people of Minneapolis and the countless others across the world who are standing strong.

May the force of goodness, decency, and hope be with you all.

Mysterious Photograph #7: Chips Ahoy

I have not received official word on this story, but enough time has passed that I can only assume I am a loser.  Nevertheless, here it is!

Chips Ahoy

 I was beginning to regret my decision to kill Kevin so impulsively. Now I only have a photo on my phone. So many parts inside these old watches! Oy! Why don’t I think these things out?

          Living next to the Cambrinis, I knew that Grandfather Gino was a consummate watch repairman with a garage shop. He had dozens of old watches he tinkered with, still there after he died. Father Robert used his inherited talents for tiny parts, working on a revolutionary chip for the next generation of AI. Kevin thought the chip could be worth BILLIONS.

          When Kevin’s father was fired, he stole the chip and hid it in one of the old watches. Kevin made the mistake of telling me. Remember? Impulse problems? We tortured his father to get him to tell us exactly where the chip was. Unfortunately, I tortured him a little too hard.

          Kevin got angry and started beating me. Well, he did for a little while. Then I got the upper hand.

          Now I had to find the damn chip by myself, with only their cat to keep me company. I had a pile of watch gears, nothing that looked like a chip.

          I refused to give up. The cost had been way too high. Then Eureka! I found it. The cat swooped in and swallowed it whole.

          Should I gut the cat and get the chip, or should I wait for it to pass? 

          I decided to wait.

          I’m not a monster, you know.

Kaleidoscope Not Required: Saturday Political Soap Box 302

 

I admit it.

Alison and I watch and read a lot of True Crime. I'm not going to explain or justify it. That's for another post. Just accept it as a backdrop for this blog entry.

One of the bizarre cases we've read and watched is The Yogurt Shop Murders, where four teenage females were killed while closing down for the night at a TCBY (This Can't Be Yogurt) shop at a strip mall in Austin, Texas. This was in 1991.

No one has been caught. Every few years, the case is looked at again. Every time, they twist the kaleidoscope and come up with a different view. Every time we think we have it figured out, a twist of the kaleidoscope will turn up something else, and we're lost and confused as to what really happened.

This can apply to many true crime cases, including the 2005 Tifton area murder of Tara Grinstead, the assassination of JFK (many people have made a lot of money twisting the kaleidoscope on that one), just to name two examples.

But not all crime looks different in the kaleidoscope. Some answers remain the same no matter how you taste.

No matter how you twist the kaleidoscope, the answer always remains the same -

Ice Agent Jonathan Ross murdered a young mother in cold blood.

IN. ICE. COLD. BLOOD.

We're Running Out of Time

 

For the first time, I am doing the reverse of what I usually do - instead of first posting this as a blog entry, I wrote directly on Facebook. Yes, it received much more reaction than when I try to post my blog directly onto Facebook.

I am putting it here now for my handful of readers who go directly to the blog. You will always be first in my heart!

We're running out of time.

We may have a week to ten days, and it will be too late by then.

We're not going to make it three years. We may not even make it this month.

Things are accelerating far too fast.

Minneapolis is under attack RIGHT NOW. People are dying RIGHT NOW. What happened to Renae Good is, tragically, just the beginning.

The Venezuelan takeover was not just horrible; it made no sense whatsoever. The oil is not wanted, not at the cost of developing it. It is the beginning of an evil dream to dominate and exploit ALL the people in the Western hemisphere, not for the benefit of the American people, but for Trump and a handful of his billionaire buddies.

The biggest nightmare right now is Greenland, and how Trump wants to take it over. For the same reasons as Venezuela, for the exploitation of resources to benefit the few. If he does this, it will trigger World War III. And this time, we'll be the bad guys. We'll be fighting our own alliance - NATO.

He is marching towards this. I wish it were a joke, just his usual bluster. But we can't count on that. Too much is at stake. I have already read that many children in Greenland are terrified and have trouble sleeping at night. Trump supporters - THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE LED US TO.

We may have a week or two before we are on a course that we cannot reverse.

Impeachment is too slow. The 25th Amendment is not likely. And JD Vance waits in the wings.

We need Republicans to pass a measure that makes it clear he can't invade any NATO country or ally. We need it NOW.

Most importantly, we need someone to make the ultimate sacrifice. Someone who knows and can do so to release the unredacted Epstein Files.

I'm open to other ideas, but it has to happen FAST.

We're running out of time.

Flash Fiction: I Read the News Today

 

I read the news today.

Well. I read some headlines on my phone. I had a choice between several sources.  Which one you picked depended mostly on which billionaire you liked best. 

They all pretty much said the same thing.  Explaining in great detail why Greenland should be a part of the United States.

One billionaire said it should be for national security.  He had many military contracts with the United States.

Another billionaire said it should be to gain the oil resources under the permafrost.  The implication was that Greenland would become more valuable as global warming melted its glaciers.

Yet another was a tech bro, and coveted the abundance of rare earth elements - once again, under the melting permafrost.

Finally, one was a real estate mogul who saw it as an opportunity for development.  It helped that he was also the son of a former President of the United States.

I wondered who lived there and what they thought.

For that, I would have to read deeper.  I wasn't going to do that. Too much time.  I had other stuff to do. I had to get to my second job. Help earn enough to keep the family afloat amid our rising bills.

I thought about stopping at Chick-fil-A for a morning biscuit.  But I didn't want to spend $12.99 to get that.  I could eat after work.  Esmerelda, my beautiful partner, was a whiz with PB & J.  If she had any time between her three jobs.

I arrived at Hobby Lobby at 6 AM, just in time for my morning shift: stocking, cleaning, and preparing sales merchandise for the store's 9 AM opening.  Today was going to feature a special on the Twin figurines - Jesus blessing his representative on Earth, President Vance.

There was also a display honoring our dedicated immigration enforcement agency, ICE.  Last year, this day was declared National ICE Recognition Day, where we celebrated their vigilant protection of our borders and saving us from the wrath of the evil and illegal aliens.

Not all the aliens were deported, of course.  Many remained in camps, and as prisoners, supplying their labor to farmers and hotel owners, and maintaining the yards and homes of our beneficiaries of the Prosperity Gospel. I had a friend tell me this was just a modern form of slavery.  We had no follow-up conversations.  He was sent to a re-education camp.  We had a lot of camps.  None that I would want to go to, though.

My two workmates, Marvin and Matilda, and I worked hard and got the store in order with fifteen minutes to spare.  We thought we could take a few minutes to relax, but the manager told us to re-clean the windows.  Again.  For the third time this morning.

The doors opened.

The crowd came in.

They were very white.

As usual.

It's another great day in the Kingdom!

All hail President Vance and his lovely spouse, Vice-President Kirk-Vance!

Taking the Wrong Fork

 

Global warming/climate change is real.  It's not a debate.  It's a reality. Even Trump knows this.  He won't tell you this.  But you can see from his behavior and actions.

With climate change advancing faster than scientists anticipated, we are at a fork in the road.  Which fork, which path will we take?

One fork leads to greater conservation efforts, a move away from the damage done by fossil fuels and towards alternative fuel sources that are less harmful to the planet. It requires science and international cooperation.  It may result in energy sources that are more universal but less profitable to the multinational corporations.

Some nations are striving that way.  But, clearly, the United States is not.

They have chosen a different fork.  This fork leads to...

Resource Wars!

In that scenario, we do not change or evolve.  We do not develop (or prioritize) energy alternatives.  We double down on the fossil fuels that are destroying us.  We use our strength and power to take what we want.  

It is not to benefit the nations we are robbing.  It really does not even benefit us.  What it does is enrich the multinational oil companies.  What it does is increase the wealth and power of the billionaire class.  It enriches the Trump family.

The damage it does to the planet is not their concern.  They see it as a problem for another generation.  Their plan is to take advantage of the planetary changes to enrich themselves.

It will take a lot of moolah to survive what's coming, and they will have it in spades.

Stripping Venezuela of its terrible dictator is one thing.  Running Venezuela is another.  The trump administration has made it clear that the priority is resource exploitation, not the democratic liberation of the Venezuelan people.  The Nobel Prize winner, Machado, whose opposition candidate won the last election (but was denied victory), has been deemed "too unpopular" to be allowed to take control.  This is by the man whose popularity in this country is hovering around 35%, and will most likely rocket further downward.

It's not just the oil; it will take a lot of time and investment to have any impact on world oil supply or price.  It's the rare-earth elements that the billionaire tech bros drool over. This AI revolution comes at a high cost, in its incredible consumption of water and electricity, and rare earth elements.

Speaking of water, the resource wars over fuel will seem minuscule compared to the fight over dwindling supplies of fresh water.  Oh, Lord, I would not want to be living in Phoenix, Arizona.

A super reveal of how much the Trump administration accepts climate change is the incredible lust for Greenland.  As the glaciers and permafrost melt, more and more resources will be discovered.  Greenland will be a vast treasure trove for the wealthy elite.

There can be no doubt that we have taken the wrong fork in the climate change road.  In a contest between a dangerously altered Earth and an all-out cooperative mitigation effort, it is incredible how much the scent of money can steer people away from decency.

Nothing is going to get the US off this path for the next three years.  Even if Trump is replaced, they'll still control everything.  Vance is a billionaire bro B-boy.  Midterms won't matter.  They don't need Congress to do what they want.

I'm sorry, this isn't a feel-good post.  Even if Americans wake up, it is much too late. At some point, we can reverse course, back up, and get on the right fork in the road, one that leads to conservation and science-based solutions.

I'm not optimistic.

Year of the Scout!

 

It’s the Year of the Scout!

Yes, the year that this dog lover discovered there was still enough love left over in his heart to include at least one cat – Scout!

Adopted as a kitten of about eight weeks, Scout came to us after his own WILD adventure!  He took a ride under his caretaker's car and ended up a few miles away at the local college's parking lot!  How he wasn’t damaged in transit, I have no idea!

I am not a cat person, but I quickly discovered I am a cat person.  This active, playful kitten became our first pet who was more attached to me than Alison (who is the ultimate animal magnet, almost like a Disney Princess).  He spends most of his day where I am at.  He loves to sit on my lap, and we have playtime every evening.  The miracle for me is I no longer do my nighttime snacking – instead, I get exercise with Scout!  It’s part of why my health improved this year.

He is now considerably bigger.  He has outgrown Pixie, our 13+ year-old chihuahua mix. At seven months, he may still get bigger.  He can parkour all around the house, jumping from chair to cat tree.  From table to countertop.

The year was pretty good for my family.  I know it was less so for the country and world at large.

My spirits are often down, but it is amazing how much playful, loving Scout can lift me up!

Scout sleeping beside me.

Scout in my work bag.  I think he wants to come to work with me.

Scout and I watching Cat TV.

Scout waiting for me to come back home.

Sccout in his cat tree.