Are the Mavericks a hot mess?.............No but what are they?

 

The Mavericks are frustrating right now for quite a few reasons.  Yet the Mavericks as stand are still a good basketball team not playing as well as they could.

Sure Nico was fired, but that doesn’t affect what is happening on the court unless there was some confusion going on that affected their play. Yet overall unless the players say it, I doubt it.

And what is interesting is Naji said the other day when he had a good game they needed to get out of their own heads. And that I believe is real. And unfortunately they couldn’t get out of their own heads in the fourth quarter against the Bucks.

The symptoms are missed wide open three pointers or weakly contested three pointers. Or when they drive to the basket and miss the layup, sure it was contested, but they are missing too many of those.

They are forcing shots over and over again. They are not in a rhythm mentally, ie they need to get out of their own heads.

The defense has been somewhat good, not great, but good and you can tell because they have lost more than a few games in this early part of the season by just a few points. If they made 1/3 of their three pointers in the fourth quarter against the Bucks, they probably win the game by 5 or 6 points, maybe more. Yet they missed too many.

And these are shots they can make. And don’t tell me they aren’t being set up well since Luka is gone. Yes he made a difference, but way too many of these shots can be made without Luka.

Would it help to have an elite point guard, of course. Yet if you really watch the game, they aren’t completely without some good point guard play. It could be better, but overall that isn’t the deep problem. A good point guard will make a difference in a close game, but making shots helps to prevent games coming down to the last minute.

I still feel good about this team with or without Nico. I just hope no rash decisions are made to try and undo the Luka debacle. They may need to give the players a chance to get out of their heads, win a few games in a row and see what is really needed on the court because yes, some improvement can always help.

For the time being though, the fans need the players to play, just play. Naji understood that and did well one game. He and the rest of the team need to carry that forward.

 

Cheers

Yes, this is much worse than you thought

 

First I have to say the flip side of the coin is worse, but to begin we now have proof without a doubt that the ACA was an unmitigated disaster. If this was supposed to be a way for people to afford healthcare or insurance for healthcare then why does it take these tax subsidies to make it close to affordable. Yes folks riddle me this question, because it doesn’t make sense to me.

Originally this was to be affordable hence the name, but what happened between now and then that we are in the middle of a shutdown debacle so people can afford their premiums because they are so high they need tax subsidies to be affordable. I don’t know, I probably missed something or I hope I missed something, but this is ridiculous.

Yet for how bad this is or became the Republicans are just sitting on their incompetent asses and have no clue what to do. So they are stuck having to do something with these subsidies or God only does what is going to happen next year. Realistically they have to approve some version of them or people will be in a world of hurt. So both parties let this problem become larger year over year because neither can govern.

Both parties cannot pass a budget, cannot talk to each other, cannot think, cannot come up with anything resembling a decent proposal, elected a Speaker who is so morbidly incompetent or so morbidly up the President’s ass nothing can get done.

This duopoly needs to pass this stupid CR with some relief on the ACA premiums, then get to work and I mean real work, not talk and come up with a better plan. And I don’t care which party, but something concrete that works. And do this while finally passing an actual budget not two years of continuing resolutions.

I know the Democrats keep saying we need universal healthcare, well tell me how because we have $38 trillion in debt to pay, social security and Medicare struggling and need a solution and again no one can pass the budget. We cannot figure out problems so yes you think we can have universal healthcare, then come up with the plan. Right now I see no path towards that without busting the budget even more.

So off the top of my head, and I mean the top of my head as I watch the Mavericks lay a colossal egg on the basketball court this evening.

And there are a multitude of problems with this plan, but for now it is a start and neither party has anything else to offer especially the Republicans. And yes I am a believer in the free market, but these are drastic times.

First we need to find a way to encourage people to have primary health care providers. And if your primary healthcare provider is one of the doc in a box varieties then so be it, but one central location to start managing your healthcare. Maybe require all PCPs to only charge the exact same price for initial visits say $25.00 and this visit needs no insurance validation. This is the price you pay to go to the same doctor regularly. And so this $25 visit includes an initial diagnosis and any necessary prescriptions. Basically everyone pays $25 to see the doctor of their choice as long as they become their primary provider for things like infections, colds, flu, covid tests, initial exams where there may be a follow up needed such as testing, yet not including an annual physical, to determine what might be wrong or to refer to a specialist.

The primary care doctor is responsible for an annual physical and they can charge up to $50 plus tests. This is where insurance can come in ie through your employer or your own private insurance and that insurance company can pay for the visit if they create that type of policy.

Insurance then covers, based on plan, all testing ordered by primary care doctor for many conditions from diabetes to autoimmune diseases for example. I am sure the experts can flesh out what conditions could be included. And with all that I speak about beyond the PCP general visit there can be a reasonable co-pay by the patient.

And now here is where I need help, but insurance companies would be limited in their premiums and their plans. Each company would follow a certain series of guidelines and they would have some control of pricing, but costs would need to be negotiated by the insurance company. So Company A can offer a full complete coverage for x amount, a high deductible plan for y amount, and a long term care plan for z amount and that is what they can do. And these plans have to meet certain guidelines of care and yes there are price controls, yep the free market is limited so to speak with these types of plans.

It is up to the insurance company to find ways for hospitals, specialists etc to reign in their costs.

Secondary items like plastic surgery that is not medically needed can be excluded from coverage if the insurance company so desires. And other types of elective procedures can be excluded. Again here is where experts need to get involved to flesh out what is elective and what is needed. I think people certainly would understand skin grafts for burn victims should be covered.

Insurance companies can set some pricing let’s say for the employer plans based on number of employees, yet still cannot exceed the government guidelines for all employer plans based on any number of people.

Insurance companies to be competitive will need to find ways to enhance services for the limited dollars to attract customers. And there is a good chance some won’t be making excessive billions year over year like they do now.

And yes the government can create guidelines for what is full care or care with high deductibles and the long term care plans are for people who are generally healthy now, but are starting to become older. These plans allow older people to transition this plan into a Medicare enhancement plan when they reach 65 or let the participants start paying a small extra premium when younger and I mean small to cover illnesses such as dementia care for when they are older. It is going to be on the individual to decide if they want to start paying extra premiums in advance of things that might happen. And if a patient becomes incapacitated then the premiums are stagnant for the rest of the patient’s life.

So basically insurance companies offer three general types of plans with some tweaking as needed for the market, everyone and I am not sure how to push this, but everyone designates someone as their PCP, and this can be changed over time as needed, but there is a designation.

Doctors can charge patients basic amounts for all general care, I haven’t mentioned this yet, but a whole list of drugs would be a generic pricing for everyone, that list again determined by experts, and specialized drugs covered by one of the three insurance plans.

So you are taking the cost of going to the doctor and basic prescriptions out of insurance coverage completely and placing restrictions on these costs. The PCP would still gather insurance information, but they can start to streamline staff hopefully since they would only need to contact insurance company when they are referring or running tests that aren’t the physical exam tests such as x rays in house or sending to a company that does radiology.

Secondary labs would also have scheduled pricing for the various tests so all insurance companies are paying the same.

Specialists would have a bit more flexibility in pricing for their work, yet it would come with some caveats such as regular routine work within the specialty would have prescribed costs for example, the cost of let’s say walking boots or casts at an orthopedic clinic or group.

And with cost controls patients should have choices on where to go. That way if one doctor does a better job and people hear about it then they could go to that doctor barring availability of course. This way good doctors and responsive doctors can do well.

I haven’t talked about emergency room visits. Now this is covered by the three types of plans, however if you go to the emergency room for a routine visit then the insurance company can limit how much they pay. If there is a limited amount of doctors in an area then for example rural hospitals can create clinics that can be designated as PCPs, but the hospital can limit clinic hours to the same hours as individual PCPs and going to the emergency room in the same hospital as the clinic after hours because you got a cold would still be more costly.

And there could be certain costs for some border line problems again experts are needed here yet for example does a broken leg that is just broken ie no bone protruding constitute an emergency. I do not know, but this can be worked out in the legislation. Or could a secondary charge be added since more tests may be needed, but those costs become split between the patient and the insurance carrier.

This isn’t much different from the current situation except for the general visits to a PCP. By taking the insurance completely out of simple visits and allowing PCPs to know their patients hopefully better care can be administered which helps in the long term health of the patient which should slow down more extensive care later on.

Is this the answer, I do not know, is it a start, maybe, but I can tell you just sitting here late on a Friday night this puts more decisions in the hands of doctors, controls the cost of insurance premiums which should force these companies and patients to find realistic care instead of abusing the system and we are already at least one step in the right direction.

And is much further along than anything the Democrats or Republicans are talking about or planning while they are yelling at each other in the media.

Fund the subsidies, open the government and get to work, or hopefully if this morass is still going on in two months people will realize we just need to change. The government itself is still great, it is the people we keep putting into office that is failing us. Let’s not wait until November 2026 to realize what we know now. Or otherwise we will wait until 2028 and each time we wait it only gets harder to fix.

And if you don’t like my plan, fine, put a better one on paper because if you complain about it without offering alternatives etc.. then you are part of the current problem, and nowhere near the solution.

What happened to the conservative movement?

 

Oops I accidentally overheard someone say this question, yet it is worth discussing from my point of view. And for the people who are concerned about this, my answer isn’t going to be liked by them.

And to answer this question, I am going to have to back up some. 

When I was young I considered myself a liberal. My first vote for President was Jimmy Carter. We had just finished up the Nixon disaster and being young with all my friends we thought that was the correct vote. But but but by the late 70’s I found myself at odds with much of what the Democrats were doing and saying. I didn’t consider myself a conservative yet, but there was conflict. It hadn’t manifested very strong yet so in 1980 I voted for Carter again.

Soon after 1980 my life changed some and I had a new best friend. He was a demonstrative Reagan conservative. He loved Reagan and I heard about him night and day. This did not change me. Like I mentioned my life had changed and I realized some aspects of conservatism appealed to me, yet others that the Republican Party hung much of their hat on, didn’t.

So my friend and I argued late into many nights what was really conservatism and I made the conscious decision I was an independent conservative and would not vote for either of the two parties. I felt even at that time they were losing touch with the realities on the ground about what this country needed. It wasn’t as obvious to many, yet as the Reagan years went on, I started seeing it more and more. In the 1982 midterms I voted for a few libertarian candidates. If there wasn’t a libertarian on the ballot I didn’t vote for that office. I was mocked to say the least because I had decided to be just as demonstrative about being an independent as my friend was being a Reaganite. We had an extended group of friends, some liberal some conservative, and they all mocked me.

1984 came around and after two years of hearing how my vote was wasted in 1982, I went real rogue and said y’all are wasting your vote and found the most crazy conservative candidate and voted for him. I told all my friends and since we all lived in the same precinct we voted together. And everyone in that line knew who I was voting for. I didn’t care, I was proud to “stick it to the man”.

And 1984 is just about the end of the conservative movement. After this year the one thing that benefits the Republicans and the worst instinct of conservatives began to dominate their thinking. And it is the same thing. Conservatives are conformists by nature. It helps them develop a culture, helps them to rally around their causes, but it also destroys creativity, creates groupthink even for policies that are not good, causes others to look over their shoulders to make sure they still belong.

To me the first sign of Republicans weakening as conservatives was when Grover Norquist had all Republicans in office sign his no new tax pledge and created a lock step environment that began the weakening of the party. They all did for some made up fear that they were not Republican enough if they didn’t. The long slow march to less than mediocrity began.

If you are a real conservative you would know how to manage the government in conservative fashion and would not need to proof it to anyone. This conformity was counter productive and today we see the results of that in the complete acquiesce to Trump. Grover being the little mini dictator of policy wannabe to be relevant hurt the party tremendously in my eyes.  I saw this and vowed never to support the Republican party. I might have made the switch if he hadn’t shown to me such a weakness dominating the party environment.

Two other reasons I do not support the Republicans. First is that Republicans tie supporting big business as a conservative principle. Yes, supporting free markets is a conservative principle, but there is a difference between supporting markets and trade versus giving breaks and developing policy that enhances big business. The Republicans can say they are the party of big business if they want, but they cannot say this is conservatism. True conservatives would support the free market which means it is up to the business to survive not give tax breaks and other benefits to prop them up or prop up their profits especially when they couch this in false facts and lies. Now I do believe in economic hard times the government can help in certain ways, as with helping the average Joe so to speak just as much. The government’s job is to protect the people, all the people, including during economic calamities. 

The second reason is why I thought I was a liberal when I was young and that is I am against pollution in all its forms. And as mentioned it is the government’s responsibility to protect the people so when a business is poisoning us, it is the government’s job to protect us and this is done through the EPA. I do not know if this is best way to do it, but something needs to be done on a regular basis when companies show disregard for our health to make more money. I never understood poisoning your workers or customers was a great business model. Anyway this goes against the Republican (not conservative) grain so I decided in the 80’s not to be a Republican.

And so the conservative movement reached it’s zenith with Reagan and began it’s descent with Reagan. Ever since then it has been hijacked by too much conformity, big business through lobbying (democrats suffer from this also) and absolutely no new ideas. Conservatives became good at pointing fingers and then first with Gingrich and then Fox News, the hate machine developed and started the slow march to Trumpism. Sure the Democrats aren’t better and if you don’t believe me you need to read the book Hate, Inc. by Matt Taibbi. He really takes the deep dive as to why the media became obsessed with picking sides, how far this has devolved, and why both sides are equally to blame. It is a great read for modern history.

So that is a quick hit as to what happened to the conservative movement. Not at all the full exploration that is needed, yet I hope it gives you an idea why I continue to say I am an independent conservative even though my public policy ideas lean slightly center right populism which is hard to explain what that means. Internally I am very conservative, yet I also know for our government to succeed it needs to look at the needs of the whole and as per our Constitution without taking away the rights and needs of the minority (and that could be any minority, but they meant politically when they framed it). That is one tall task which we currently are failing at religiously.

So the Republicans aren’t conservative, they are I do not know what right now, but it ain’t good and the Democrats are clueless on how to help the very people they keep saying they are helping.

So quit wasting your vote and start recruiting people you respect to run as an independent, liberal or conservative, because if you want to conserve our Constitution we need to get to work.

Cheers

Next time a Republican tells you they have a healthcare plan….

 

Laugh,

Just laugh out loud, roll over laughing because it is one big joke. They don’t have a clue, not just Trump, but most of the Republicans. And if they pull a Trump and say they are working on it, etc… laugh louder and then cry because no one has a healthcare plan.

Obamacare or the ACA was never healthcare reform. It was a convoluted mess disguised as healthcare reform to allow insurance companies to make more money and a few people to get a bit of health insurance. A thousand pages of nothing burger except more insurance.

And honestly healthcare reform is a monster. If you are a regular reader you know I offer ideas for public policy since I say the Democrats and Republicans fail us. I feel I need to offer other ideas. Mainly I do this under the guise of a fictional third party, yet if any independent candidates want to use my ideas, please do so.

And I have thought about healthcare and I struggle.

I know some democrats propose universal healthcare, but I do not see it. And yes I know there are some countries where they have some type of universal healthcare. Yet for this country to make the transition it would take quite a bit of work. You can’t just throw a switch.

Social Security and Medicare are running out of money as it is, we have a horrendous tax code that punishes people that work for a living, the rich don’t pay taxes so creating a universal healthcare plan from scratch against these obstacles would be disastrous. So many changes need to be implemented to even start.

And if anyone thinks our current two parties can do it? I say laugh again. They cannot even pass a basic budget for the year, much less determine public policy priorities. The Republicans are letting Trump run amuck and the Democrats are clueless to stop him, mainly because they were so clueless for years they let him in in the first place.

I always say business people shouldn’t be in charge of government because they are two different animals, but if you were running a business you would fire half or more Republicans in office for failure to get anything done. And yes I know I am finger pointing when I say this, but it is true.

We need new parties. I have presented ideas for public policy that isn’t radically different from how our government operates now. Just some center to center right ideas to support the working and middle class better, nothing revolutionary. Yet common sense is absent from Washington D. C. so it is absent from the national discussion on what our country needs.

It is time for change, let’s just make it a positive one. The fundamental ideas of our Constitution and government are good. The practice of it by Democrats and Republicans is dismal.

I wonder if you ever say the truth long and loud enough will people start to believe it. I am trying.

 

And oh yeah, I do need to finish that story

When your children start asking difficult questions and still no continuation of the story.

 

Yes, I am going to finish the story and I know it will take at least 2 or 3 posts to finish it based on where it stands now. And I am not thinking ahead just guessing based on where I left off. The story will still remain honest to write in the moment theory.

 

Anyway for all you people who are looking for parental advice you have come to the wrong place. I am talking about the difficult questions.

My youngest (full adult) asked me what was my favorite record. The fact she knew record lets you know she knows how old I am.

She wanted favorite all time and I couldn’t even begin to say. So I said how about top ten, nope she says, favorite.

I still do not have an answer, but stumbling through my top ten or so here we go. Greatest hits albums and compilation albums are off limits. She didn’t nix live albums when I mentioned that, but still not sure if those count. And finally I added the caveat only one album per artist. I felt that to be fair because yes I could name multiple albums from various artists. I will let you know if it was close.

 

This is in no particular order and I do mean that.

Beatles Abbey Road, but Revolver was hard to put aside.

Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers, but Exile on Main Street is up there

Yessongs by yes

Four way street by Crosby Stills Nash and Young, not because it is a great live album, it isn’t but has all the right songs

(and the caveat goes no greatest hits so the two above may be taken away anyway)

Goodbye the Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, yet Madman against the Water is driving me crazy

Come On Come on by Mary Chapin Carpenter

Joshua Tree by U2

Reba McEntira’s Rumor has it

Any album with Beethoven’s 7^th Symphony mainly because of the 4^th movement (strange but true, I cannot immediately recognize it when it is played)

Dwight Yokam’s This time

Aqualung by Jethro Tull

Who’s next by the Who

Led Zepplin 4, yet Physical Graffiti is pounding in my head

okay this is 13 but I am still struggling with which albums and if we lose the live albums then I am back to almost ten

 

Well this is it for the moment, yet I keep thinking.

Greatest Hits honorable mention

Cream, America, Merle Haggard, compilation of Frank Sinatra, compilation of Willie Nelson, Jefferson Airplane, Gershwin, compilation of Beethoven and Mozart, Beatles 62-66 and 67-70 same for the Rolling Stones same timeframes, U2 also has a double set of greatest hits, Joe Ely has a greatest hit album that is great, multiple different Rod Stewart collections

And I know there is no Pink Floyd because I can only put them in a top twenty or twenty five and it will probably be Welcome to Machine or Animals which would also include Emerson Lake and Palmer’s Welcome back my Friends and King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King, David Bowie’s Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust or his first album, Jeff Beck’s Truth, Rod Stewart’s Never a Dull Moment and ugh

And I am sure more will come to mind when I quit thinking about it.

And if you have comments or other favorites don’t hesitate to leave them below, you may refresh this fading brain. And one other caveat, some of these albums were because of the time in my life they were released so I do not consider any of these technically the greatest albums because usually technically great albums are boring

Classical pieces can be hard to categorize, where do you put Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite? Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker?

And one song I have to mention because it is the type of song that just deserves to be mentioned in an honorable mention list somewhere is:

He Drinks Tequila by Lorrie Morgan and Sammy Kershaw and if you live in the American Southwest and don’t bust a gut listening then to quote a recent Judge, you can go pound sand.

Cheers

Another example of how the duopoly fails us, and sorry no continuation of the story today

I have been writing quite a bit lately, however none of the fun projects I want to work on. So I am not in the mood to expend creative power. Or is it just because I am lazy? You know the seven deadly sins such as sloth, throw in some pride and a sprinkling of greed and that is what the last couple weeks have been like. And does it matter if the greed is incremental and not exponential. You may have seen an X post where I addressed greed or sideways confessed it.  So if you see me in the confession line, please just say hi.

Anyway, let’s deal with the actual post.

So Trump wants to give Argentina a ton of money to keep his bud’s election prospects and then on top of it throws in we should buy some Argentina beef. And yes the U.S. cattle world found a way to complain about the policy yet still say the support Trump. How these people look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.

How would this look different if there were no parties? Let’s use this beef conundrum for our example.

First most of the cattle world would still be conservative, still support the beef industry and still would elect maybe even the same individual to represent them in the House.

The difference is if the Representative was not beholden or forced to be loyal to a party machinery there might be some small differences in how the Representative votes.

Yes they would still support the agricultural industry, but maybe supporting more smaller and/or local businesses when it comes to writing tax breaks into bills. They might spend more time finding better immigration policy that strengthens our border, yet allows workers they need into the country.

They would not be required to blindly support the party leader just because they were the party leader or support other party priorities that might not benefit their constituents.

They would work on legislation that benefits their constituents, plus similar industries yet be able to compromise with other legislators to create more comprehensive budget plans and pass the full budget for example.

Their support of a president that promotes what Trump is doing in Argentina would not exist. They may still support the President, yet they would speak out more forcefully, call the President out and create legislation or work with the Executive branch to stop this decision.

The President not having the blind loyalty of the party would need to be more conscious of the various needs of the country and work with the legislators to do better for the country.

And when the majority of the country supports something then legislation would be written and passed.

For example since the majority of this country is working and middle class, that would mean most districts are primarily working and middle class and each legislator would be more reactive to those needs than party reliance on billionaire and lobbyist campaign donations. (on a side not since most see the need for campaign finance reform, we would have better campaign finance laws). Basically if each Representative relied on working in and within the community to get elected there would be less reliance on large donations and legislation would reflect the needs of the majority of the country. We would still have other problems like poverty, healthcare, the economy to address, yet it would be easier for conservatives and liberals to compromise or better yet write better legislation originally to help the poor or what else is needed because the people generally support these needs. The details would require the back and forth of compromise and planning, yet the wants and needs of the people are always front and forward.

So not having political machinery isn’t going to change much on the visible surface because we would still have conservatives and liberals and lunatics, but better on the results.

And for anyone that hasn’t paid attention the two party system is not part of the Constitution and even some of our forefathers warned us of the dangers. It seems awkward that someone that died over 200 years ago could say “I told you so”.

 

Go Mavericks, going to be an interesting year, strong interior defense and offense and yet perimeter question marks that if answered could mean a great year. If not then potentially an up and down year. And for those of you who don’t care, don’t watch. The NBA is underway.

Oligarch socialism? Socialist oligarchism? Not sure what to call it, but we sure as heck are facing it. And part three of the latest story.

 

And no I didn’t coin either moniker. Yet we seem to be facing a mashup of the two terms thanks to our infamous “tech bros” and some people trying to cram crypto down the Trump’s administration throats.

Historically we view socialism as the government running the means of production to bring fairness to all and hopefully lead to communism where we all share in each other’s labor and there is no need for government. I will pause now so you can stop laughing and catch your breath. Utopian societies abound throughout history, yet none come to fruition much less last.

Socialism from Merriam Webster dictionary: any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

So wait, isn’t oligarchy something completely different and the answer is almost yes.

Oligarchy from Wikipedia: is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Leaders of such regimes are often referred to as oligarchs, and generally are characterized by having titles of nobility or high amounts of wealth.^[4][5]   (Merriam Webster’s website let me down on this one)  It did offer examples, synonyms but no actual definition, strange?)

Look closely, some entity controlling the means of production to achieve a stated goal. For socialism it is defined as for the larger good, but in practice it created totalitarian states. Oligarchy by general definition is the concentration of wealth into a small group of individuals that in turn use that wealth to run the government.

So now all the wealth in the world is concentrating in a few tech leaders hands, and by creating all this technology they are slowly if not rapidly lately consolidating all means of production in their hands either directly or indirectly.

Just think about it a second, almost all what you do at work comes from a few technology companies, almost all you do outside of work is influenced or is obtained through a few technology companies. And what isn’t soon will be if you look at the current trajectory of growth. Add in the emergence of crypto as a way to hide money right in front of us and do you really think we have a chance of an independent life anymore.

All these technology companies have all our information, it gets stolen regularly by people using crypto to buy and sell it and we are left wondering what the heck is happening. And our government(s) who we rely on to protect us, are contributing or subjugated to their growth and consolidation of power.

So whatever we want to call it may not matter anymore, unless we find a way to in a last ditch effort to pull back on what they can do with our information, their influence on our government, and figure out a way to create a new market environment that reduces the influence of these select few. And oh yeah our government leaders are getting rich off of these exploits. All in all though our entire planet is moving towards control of all our lives by this select few. They may not hold any titles so to speak, but you can guarantee they are pulling the strings on what goes on.

I still think there is time to reign this in, but we need to move fast, find leaders to challenge their relentless attack on our personal lives and put the people first, not the few.

The so called facists are just a vehicle for these tech bros to consolidate power why we moan and groan about people like Trump, Putin, Orban, and more, well Xi Jinping may be in more control of China than the tech bros can overcome, but still he will be immersed in their group since he can control China so well.

Don’t believe me or think I am paranoid or a conspiracy theorist, sure think that way, but honestly you need to step back and see the whole picture. This is much further along than we want it to be.

Anyway some frightening thoughts for all you individualists and libertarians so you better get going and for the rest of us, time to catch up to the fire right in front of us.

 

And now for part three of the story:

 

So the first mortal went to bed that night a bit angry. The priests were the ones who were supposed to know the Gods, the ones that helped the people worship the Gods, the ones that facilitated life to please the Gods. And now the priest he spoke to didn’t care and worse wanted him to have the strength of a God just to prove the Gods were dead.

And he got no sleep thinking how much he didn’t want to go back. He was frightened the first time, but something had bothered him long enough to inspire the first attempt to climb the mountain to the Gods. He kept wondering what had happened. And he found out. And no one cared. His friend, the priest both seemed put off by his attempts to find out.

He wondered is this everyone. And he thought it must be if I am the only one that cares. Why would people not want to know what happened. Everything we have comes from the Gods, or at least that is what the priests told us for so long. Family after family shared this with their children, this is the way it had always been.

Finally near dawn he fell asleep tired from his thoughts so he did not get up very early. He debated if he should wait another day to go to the mountain. He had his knapsack, but there wasn’t much. Maybe he should try and get more food before going. Or was he just avoiding the whole thing?

He decided he wanted to know, but needed more food. Now there were only two days before he had to work. He thought long and hard, made no decision so had to wait until the next day to go. He did acquire a bit more food from some meager funds he had stashed. He used half his savings if you could call them that.

The next day came and went. He did not go.

He went to work for three days and now he had a whole week off. He thought about it again.

Finally on the second day off work and what seemed an eternity from when he saw the final battle he arose early and trekked off to the holy grounds that led to the mountain of the Gods. He bought rations on the way out of his village that lay on the outskirts of the city since he had eaten some of what was in the knapsack while at work.

He arrived on the plains of the Holy grounds still early enough to cross with plenty of daylight. He arrived near the base of the mountain and looked up. Did he want to climb today? Or again was he afraid? He looked around. There was one of the temples somewhat near by. He went to it. Should he pray? Should he make an offering just in case?

He decided to keep his food, said a quick prayer and headed towards the mountain. Like last time he started up the mountain at dusk and climbed a bit more. He found the small cave he slept in and laid out his sleeping blanket like before. This time feeling a bit more confidant his sleep would not be disturbed by the Gods finding him and throwing him down the mountain to die, he slept well. He was definitely very tired. It had been a long few days.

The next morning apprehension filled him again, but he gathered himself and headed up. He followed the path previously and this time it dawned on him. He was following a path. Who used this path? He examined it more thoroughly as he walked. It wasn’t overrun, but it wasn’t fresh either. How long did it take for foliage and time reclaim the land and the path disappear? He didn’t know, but thinking about it and continually observing the path’s wear helped him to past the time. Before long he reached the crest to the top. He hesitated. 

What had happened before? What gave him the courage to go over the crest and see what he saw. He stood there listening. Was he hearing something. Strange it sounded like horses running on the plains. He froze. Was the battle still going on and not all the Gods have died?

He slowly peered over the crest, just sticking his head up high enough to see with his eyes. He relaxed. It was horses running. There was a few running back and forth near the crest. He breathed.

They were larger than the ones he knew from down below so he figured they must belong to the Gods. He wondered were they left to their own devices. Or were they being taken care of? But by who?

He climbed over the crest and sat on the edge staying low and next to some bushes to stay concealed until he got a better handle on things.

More than a few moments passed. He finally stood up. The horses were still running around, but they had slowly distanced themselves from the crest. He headed in their direction. And this time since the Gods were not battling he had time to look around. Last time as soon as he crossed the crest he witnessed the fight, then the lovemaking then the simultaneous murder o the last two Gods. He knew from the temples it was the King and Queen of the Gods and heard the words they spoke to each other as they fought. Once the lovemaking started there were no more words, just moans of pleasure, then the yell from each as they shook from their pleasure and then the stabbing with the swords.

Now all of a sudden it dawned on him the bodies were missing. Where did they go? If there were no other Gods shouldn’t they be lying there on the plain rotting like a mortal body would. Well maybe not since they were Gods. Maybe their bodies magically disappeared or something and would not rot like a mortals.

He stood still. Finally with the horses getting further and further away he headed to where the two Gods last lay. He stood there. The distant rumbling of the horses and a slight breeze whispering in his ear was all he heard. He continued to listen. Nothing changed. It was still day which made him look around. The daylight was the same as in his village and on the plains of the Holy Grounds. In fact most everything was similar.

There was the rocky crest with scraggly bushes he sat by. There was this large field or plain he was now standing in with grass growing throughout. And like the plain below grew to his mid calf. He never understood why it never grew taller, but it didn’t and now the grass here on the mountain was somewhat similar, not the same but similar in color and texture.

And far off was another mountain or mountains coming out of this plain. He stared hard to determine if it was more mountains or just part of the same line of mountains he was standing on.

And then, his memory kicked in. He needed the sword. And now with the bodies of the Gods gone, were their swords gone. He looked around the plain near him. Nothing. Now the ground felt softer and the grass was flattened in the area where he remembered the Gods to have fallen, yet there were no signs of the struggle, no torn clothes, no swords, nothing that would suggest that recently a great struggle had occurred. He tried to remember how large the Gods actually stood. Maybe twice his height, maybe a little less. He couldn’t put his finger on it since he watched in shock.

Now in the full daylight and nothing to see for quite a distance he wondered did he actually witness their deaths?  And he thought, what if they aren’t dead. That would explain why they weren’t here. He got scared and ran back to the crest to sit amongst the bushes hoping to be hidden.

He stared from his perch for quite a bit. Finally hunger took over so he ate a bit, all the while watching.

It was the scream that came first, or was it a screech. He froze watching intently as best he could without even moving his head, hoping not to be noticed. Then he saw the bird. It was huge, as big as the Gods circling over where they had lay. It flew down and landed and like an animal not a bird starting sniffing the ground. It stopped and looked around. It spotted him. He could tell because the bird looked at him intently, yet not moving towards him either.

Finally the bird raised its head and screeched again. He stood still hoping that maybe he was wrong and the bird was not seeing him. That screech was horrifying and he did not want to find out what this was all about. He did not know how fast the bird could fly. He was at the bottom of the crest and it would probably take him a moment to get back over. His fear kept him still.

The bird still looking at him, tilted its head and screeched again, but this time less menacing. The bird started walking towards the mortal. Did he have time to get over? And what happens next? Would the bird follow him and attack him on the way down the mountain. There wasn’t much to hide in. The mountain was mostly rocky terrain with vegetation clinging to the rocks. That was the path, the rocks with little vegetation covering it. He knew he would be exposed.

He knew the trees on one side of the plain, but was too far at this point he figured to make a run for it. The bird kept walking.

Finally the bird stopped tilted its head again and this time spoke. Mortal it asked why are you here?

To be continued