The Bad Place

We are in The Bad Place.

We thought we were in the land of the free. We thought we were in the home of the brave. We thought, although not perfect, we bent towards social justice and equality. We were a good place, working hard to improve life for the future. A better economy with less concentration of wealth and power, an environment where climate change was mitigated and maybe even reversed, where more and more people would get their healthcare protected, where educational opportunities would improve and be made available to all, where housing solutions would be found, where wages would not stagnant, where politicians would work together for the benefit of all instead of the wealthy and large corporations.  

But we were wrong.

We live in The Bad Place.

A bad place chosen by a plurality of the people who even bothered to vote. Chosen by some people who are actively cheering on the racism and hatred. Chosen by some people who were so naive they didn't fully understand the consequences of their decision.

Maybe the election was rigged. I don't know. We're not really allowed to even say that. They can gripe and bey-otch like they did in 2020, but we can't say a word. There was no testing. There were no recounts or lawsuits. Democrats behaved like the good little soldiers they are. And their reward for that? To continue to be trampled on and vilified.

It's making me sick. It's touching closer and closer to home. Loving couples have their very relationships questioned and challenged. The Supreme Court destroyed women's reproductive rights. You don't think they'll reverse gay marriage?

The removal of DEI doesn't mean what you think it means. Instead of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, we will get Discrimination, Exclusion, and Intolerance. Raplh's idiot cousin Bofert will get the job instead of a qualified person. Wealthy Ronald will get to put his son, who barely graduated from high school, into Princeton, and a superstar graduate from a poor family can get left in the cold. This isn't merit-based. It's NEPO based. It's who you know based.  

Every Federal job is threatened. Take a buyout that may or may not happen (Trump's record of paying employees and contractors is one of the most abysmal on the planet). Is this to save money? Hell, no. It's to replace those workers with people who are more loyal to the Orange Conman than they are to the United States.

We've revived colonialism, not for the benefit of other countries but to exploit their resources. He wants to take over Greenland and Canada to strip them for parts (pirate capitalism). He wants to take over the Panama Canal to profit from controlling a major shipping lane. He's doing this to benefit himself and his rich pals - NOT YOU.

I was baffled by what it's going to do to the economy when we deport our agricultural and other labor, and stuff is rotting in the fields? Then, it dawned on me what he was going to do. PRISON LABOR. This is why so much of what he wants to be budgeted will go to private prisons. There will be an uptick in convictions for all kinds of things and "detention camps"  for those undocumented who are not immediately deported. And they'll use that labor for pennies in all types of jobs. This is what he meant by saying the undocumented were taking black jobs. People of color have been and will be disproportionally incarcerated and then used this way. Make no mistake. It is a return to SLAVERY.

All public entities are threatened with being consumed by pirating privateers. Public school funding will increasingly be directed to private entrepreneurs primarily concerned with enriching themselves. These entrepreneurs will be free to discriminate to their hearts' content. Public libraries will be closed or turned into Christian Nationalist reading rooms.

You may think you are safe from deportation because you are a US citizen. You think wrong. They are demands to deport Bishop Budde and Selena Gomez, both who are US CITIZENS. You're not safe. None of us are.

This is just the tip of the drool cup we're living in. There's so much more. I want to return to puppies, home fun, my grandchild, sports, movies, fiction, and fun, but how can I?

I cannot sit back and try to explain to my children and grandchildren that I did nothing when fascism came to America.

There will be more. There is always more.

Because we live in the bad place.

T. M. Strat

AOC '28

 

Blackshear On Ice

 

Obligatory pictures of a Blackshear snowfall. This one is not much more than a couple inches, but it's extra dangerous because it's coated with ice.

Yep. I grew up in Michigan. I am not a stranger to driving on snow. But ice? That terrifies me. So Alison and I will stay home until the ice melts off.

Some might occur today. But with highs in the mid-thirties, it may not melt off enough to make Thursday morning drivable.

Dogs on ice! They can't break through the snow due to the layer of ice. There are two dogs out there. What? You can't see Pixie, our little white-haired dog?

Yeah.  Not going anywhere with icy snow on the car.

So, is this climate change?

Two things you can attribute to climate change -

1) Average global temperatures are rising. 2024 set new records. Each year is topping itself.

2) As climate changes, more and more extreme weather events will occur. Some would happen anyway. Some are not caused by it but are definitely juiced up by it.

I can tell you who does believe in climate change.

The Orange Conman.

Whaat? Are you kidding me, Tom?

Think about it. Why do you think he's lusting so hard over Greenland and Canada?

Because he knows as they melt off, he can access more fossil fuels and other natural resources!

Is he doing that for the benefit of the people that live there? No, no, no, NO!

Is he doing that for the benefit of the average American? No, no, no, NO!

Is he doing it to enrich himself and his billionaire buddies? Yes, yes, YES!

He wants to dismantle those places and strip them for parts.

He's already, through executive order, doing that to Alaska. He's opened to full exploitation - no environmental protections whatsoever.

No, I won't let this go.

I will keep bringing up the horrid decision made by 49.8% of the voting population.

Anyhoo...

Enjoy the weather as best you can! Stay safe out there!

AOC '28!

On the Brink of Madness

 

We stand on the brink of madness.

For many who read this, the foul deed has already been done, and the four-year nightmare has begun.

That photo, which I guess is an official inaugural photo, is ominous as hell. Its creepy look puts Dr. Evil to shame.

I don't know how we got here, but we can't avoid it now. The fact that so many who have brought us here are now on a journey that many on our side of social media refer to as "ef around and find out" is of little consolation.

The first thing that those who recognize this for the horror it is, is that it is no longer sensible to mince words. This is fascism, pure and simple. It meets every definition of the word. If you want to further refine it, it's fascist oligarchy. We have handed the keys to the kingdom to a billionaire oligarchy, and as time marches on, it will become more apparent and more evident that everyone else was used.

The Orange Conman does not care about anyone but himself. The only reason that he lets the billionaire bros into his circle is because THEY CAN MAKE HIM MONEY.

He had no trouble ditching his MAGA Orangeistas when the weather got too cold for Baby Donnie. He left them and the money they spent to get there completely in the lurch. It didn't matter. He had his close knit ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda, surrounded by his billionaire buddies.

He had no trouble keeping the 200 million he had been given for inauguration ceremonies. He got what he wanted with a Crypto Ball, where he put up an imaginary Memecoin that somehow netted him billions and billions of dollars. Some of the money was inevitably from foreign governments. And to think - we were at one time worried about Jimmy Carter and his peanut farm.

That foreign money? You don't think that will lead to corrupt influence? You've been paying no attention to your adjudicated sexual assaulter and fraudster if you don't think so. What did he learn from his first term? No one has the stones to enforce the emoluments clause of the Constitution. And now that he knows this, he's going to go big or go home! (Spoiler Alert - he's not going home.)

President Biden has looked at the conduct of the incoming administration and their plans for revenge and vindictiveness and has to do the unthinkable. He has had to pardon people who are 100% innocent of ANY CRIME. Doctor Fauci, who is a freaking hero. General Milley's only crime was defending the Constitution instead of the dictatorial ravings of a madman. The January 6th Committee, using REPUBLICAN WITNESSES, was only trying to bring the truth to light.

Tomorrow, the ICE raids will start in blue cities across the country. Families will be shattered. Innocents will be swept up, people whose only crime is seeking a better life for their family, who have obeyed the law, and who have taken jobs MAGATs don't even want to do. The potential for horrific violence will be ever-present with these raids. You can't control the forces of hate and bigotry once it is unleashed.

Civil servants who have devoted their lives to serving and bettering their country will be fired. Tax loopholes that benefit the middle class and working poor will be closed, while the super-rich will not even have to worry about a tax system.

And what an excellent strategy it was to constantly whine about the 2020 election, claiming the classified documents in the Mar-A-Lago bathroom guy was actually the winner! The Democrats, being the party of wussies that many of them are*, are now too afraid to challenge the validity of the strangest election since 1960.

This is what Trump said at his pre-inauguration rally - 

Trump on Elon Musk: "He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide."

Those aren't MY words. Those are Trump's words.

But we can't call it conspiracy. We might look like them. I wish somebody somewhere had had the stones to demand a hand recount. I mean, good lord, how many recounts did Georgia and Arizona have to suffer through in 2020?

There are 200 executive orders coming tomorrow. I predict that every single one will damage this country's future.

If you voted for this, God forgive you, you have not known what you have done.

But you should have.

YOU. SHOULD. HAVE.

*exceptions include many progressive Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jasmine Crockett, and my favorite for 2028 - AOC!

It's a Mystery Man

 Here I am, in Books-A-Million, holding a treasured prize!

What's special about this issue of Alfred's Mystery Magazine?

Why, my name is in it!

Sounds impressive, don't it?

Well, there are some caveats. 

First, it's just my name. I am an honorable mention in a story contest. Only the winning entry is published.

So, this is part of my big dream, but not all of it.

I have not yet had a story published in a pulp fiction magazine (currently, the big four are Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and Analog Science Fiction). That part of the dream has not yet been realized.

Also, please note that I am hardly the only honorable mention. There are ten; for all I know, that may be everybody who entered.  

To further dampen things, they release the magazine's circulation figures on the next page. Many numbers are listed, but the bottom line is that the total circulation is around 10,000 (about 40% being mail subscriptions). With a US population of around 335 million, about .003%* of the population gets this magazine.

Well, ok. Nevertheless, I am proud. It's a big step for me in the right direction.

I am writing a story for the next contest.

I am editing a story I wrote a decade or two ago.

And I am creating a new story centered on an 1880s gothic girl!

As my pal Superman says, "Never give up! Never Surrender!"

Something like that. That could be Winston Churchill.

Nevertheless, the sentiment stands!

*math could change depending on if I did it wrong

Dreaming of an Alternate Path

 

Last night, I had a dream.

A dream that the world was a beautiful and diverse place with love and tolerance for all. A place, while diverse, was also united in our common humanity, ready to tackle the biggest problems, including saving our globe from the devasting effects of climate change.  

Pooling our resources and knowledge to mitigate and reverse its horrible ravaging of our planet. Not in becoming hoarders and exploiting those who possess what we feel we want. Screw the others. Just take what we want, and damn the long-term consequences.

I dreamed that all the cautionary tales about the coming of the Kingdom would not occur because we made patriotic choices not to follow the Christian Reich path.

I dreamed of universal healthcare, affordable schooling, libraries free of extremist pressure, billionaires being a thing of the past, and woke becoming a symbol of virtue rather than derision.

Then my dream ended, and I awoke with a start.

The world is burning, and morons are blaming DEI.  

The Convicted Felon is not a Christian, but that is not stopping him from aligning himself with them to get what he wants. And that's anything and everything he wants for himself and his billionaire buddies. He is a soulless person, without caring or conscious. He really doesn't even like his billionaire buddies - they are just tools to acquire more for himself.

The Kingdom stories envision a splintering of the United States, with the bulk of the conservative states forming their own nation, The Kingdom. Another country from America's West Coast is identified in the stories as Pacifica. Consider what is happening now, with the possibility that western Canada and the same western states could form Cascadia.

The Kingdom lives as a potential projection. And it terrifies me.

Why does Donny Diaper want Canada and Greenland? Some call it a distraction. But what if it's not?

What if he is lying to us (surprise!) and knows global warming is real? There are vast resources under the ice in Greenland and Northern Canada - minerals and metals, oil and natural gas, tons of riches. What if he's decided that as these area's ice covering melts, he wants him and his buddies to control those resources?

He doesn't want to take over those lands because he wants to benefit the natives in any way, nor does he really care about national security. No. He wants to possess them and strip them for parts, just like a private equity pirate.

Just like his grandfather wanted to do, coming over from Germany and trying to make his fortune in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Of course, Friedrich (Drumpf) Trump did not accomplish a fortune in gold, but he did establish taverns with gambling and whores. Yes, that is where the Trump fortune started.

I can still dream. I only wish I could make it so.

For the sake of my children and granddaughter, as dim as the future looks, I pray that we can emerge from this dark time.

Welcome to the New Year

 

Welcome to the New Year.

Do I have resolutions?

Not many. Love my family. Love being a Christian Progressive. Embrace and support those who are daring to stand up to the political morass we have descended into, and defend those who are going to be prosecuted by the Christian Reich who are in control.

Strive to prioritize my health so that I can stay active and contribute.

Make this the year that I am a published author. Yes, I have some self-published books and this blog, but nothing where someone has paid me for a story or book.  

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He's not President yet, and it's already horrifying. Much worse than I even imagined, and that's hard to do, believe me.

He's told you he was lying about lowering grocery prices. He likes the type of visa that brings foreigners over to do skilled jobs, such as computer programming, and do it at lower pay than Americans. He is not going to stop the desire of Republicans to slash and even eliminate Social Security. Medicare and other programs to help the indigent and working poor. 

He's mouthing off about taking over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even Canada. He's mumbled about a "soft invasion" of Mexico. And all of y'all Orangeteers are okay with that?  

You know who else started his leadership with talks of taking over neighboring countries? Hitler. I don't give a damn whether you think the comparison is offensive or not. If the jackboots fit...

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It's getting harder and harder to find social media (and mainstream media) that hasn't been subsumed by billionaire supporters of the Orange conman. Twitter/X has been taken over by an egomaniac who is walking proof of why wealth consolidation is evil. Jeff Bezos is ruining Amazon and The Washington Post trying to make come to life the Post's slogan - Democracy Dies in Darkness - as he slowly turns out the lights. Mark Zuckerberg is eliminating fact checkers, ready to let the MAGATs run roughshod over Facebook, Threads, and Instagram. TikTok is set to be shuttered in about 10 days unless it is saved by being purchased by yet another Trump-loving billionaire.

The same thing is happening on our broadcasters and streamers. One by one, they are showing fealty to the one true moron.  

The biggest lunacy I hear is when my reich-wing friends talk about the liberal media.

HA!

On social media, we are left with Bluesky. On cable, MSNBC has a few liberal hosts, particularly in primetime, but they may soon change. Streamers comprise of Media Touch and a few other smaller organizations.

Liberal media domination, my sweet petunia!

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I hope to post when I can in 2025. Most of my writing efforts will be off-blog as I try to tempt the markets with my incredible prose.

For those who want light and fluffy, who don't want to see political rants - too bad, so sad.  

I have no intent on staying silent in the face of fascism.

Until next time, if I'm permitted to still speak out,

T. M. Strait