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

Not sure where to head on this Sunday and more story blogging (part 2)

 

Some of you might be aware on occasion I release a podcast, just random madness similar to this blog. Every now and then I think I should spruce it up and add music. If I ever decide to pry open that little bitty wallet of mine and find a dollar to two I would pay the copyright fee or whatever you have to do to add some. My idea would be to play Ten Years After’s “I’d love to change the world”.

And I would use some of the music and let the refrain appear: “I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to you.”

Or just might use it as the lead in, who knows, yet I have always like that song. Another song came to mine this morning was Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ “What’s so funny about peace love and understanding”. And after pulling up the lyrics were they more prescient then that we first thought or are the lyrics just timeless. Y’all can debate that amongst yourselves.

Yet I also thought it would be fun to post a link to the song on “X” and see how much it triggers MAGA. Then I became a better person and realized you cannot lump MAGA as one group of the crap that gets posted on “X”.  This is me practicing what I preach against. We cannot point fingers because that just fuels the fire of us versus them that is destroying our country right now.

MAGA isn’t the hate filled and/or lie spewing world of Catturd, Laura Loomer, Guenther Eagleman, Janice what’s her name and certain members of Trump’s administration. They are just the loud voices that fuel problems and discord. Most of MAGA are everyday Americans who for a variety of reasons supported Trump in 2016 and then doubled down on him as time went on. They are working class Americans felt left out first by the Democrats then Washington itself, they are people who watched too much Fox and became baptized by its demonization of Democrats, some mid Americans and Republicans who were fed up with Democrats demonizing them by pretentious elitism, in 2024 who were burnt by the inflation of 2020-2024 and didn’t hear a viable plan from the Democrats to solve a problem Donald Trump so easily (and falsely) attributed to them. There are more of course, yet the point is MAGA is not primarily some easily grouped together lump of people that are the hate filled monsters you see on social media.

Of course the same goes the other way also, most Democrats aren’t pompous clueless elitists, just people seeing problems facing them and looking for an alternative to the hate filled world of social media. They just prefer leftists ideas.  I am not a big fan of left wing economics, yet it is easy to see why people are swayed by them when you see the wealth gap, the diminishing education, the concerns over social security and the cost of healthcare. Democrats don’t have the answers, but they definitely have the verbiage.

All that aside I decided not to post on X that wonderful song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions at the moment, yet I still might hoping not to trigger MAGA, but to encourage people to rethink their world.

 

I am about to get to my story, but first as some of you know I am Catholic so writing about “Gods” on a Sunday feels a bit sacrilegious, yet hey God knows the truth. So to balance my brain, here is today’s first reading which also goes along with wanting to hear the song What’s so funny about peace love and understanding. Things just work sometimes:

From the Prophet Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4 “How long oh Lord? I cry for help/ but you do not listen!/ I cry out to you, Violence!/ but you do not intervene./ Why do you let me see ruin;/ why must I look at misery?/ Destruction and violence are before me;/ there is strife, and clamorous discord./ Write down the vision/  clearly upon the tablets,/ so that one can read it readily./ For the vision still has its time,/ presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint;/ if it delays, wait for it,/ it will surely come it will not be late./ The rash one has no integrity;/ but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.

And yes the song popped in my head first, then the better half showed me today’s readings. Strange but true.

 

And now to part 2 of the story. As mentioned I just post and go so now this second part is well just what comes next.

The first mortal was confused. He followed his friend home to his house. He watched as his friend placed the stone onto the growing fence. His friend had been working on this for seven cycles of the sun. Now he was proud that it was half way done. Sometimes he would bring two or three smaller stones, but mostly they were the larger ones, heavy to carry. He was very particular though on which stones he choose. Sometimes taking a whole day to find the right one. It was his fence though and it was his home so he wanted it to be just right. When he started he had invoked to Gods help him. Yet even then the Gods were not part of many people’s lives.

Once the stone was placed they ate and shared wine. His friend toasted to the Gods then laughed saying I guess I don’t need to do that anymore.

The next morning the first mortal went to the Priests. They were no longer at the temples on the dividing ground. They all had moved into the city and built temples there. Now though not much went on. The priests still celebrated on the holy days, but mostly they sold wares in the marketplace to survive. No one gave to the temples. Well a few did, the most devout of the worshippers still attended the temples, but it was a small minority of the population. The priests were left with earning money like everyone else to eat.

He went up to the largest temple and asked the guard to speak to the priest. The guard looked at him quizzically. No one really wanted to talk to the priests anymore. He had been a guard for as long as he could remember. A long time ago, he would receive tribute to make an appointment to see the priests, now he went with the priests to help them sell in the marketplace.

The guard asked the mortal what he wanted. He said it was of dire importance and the priests needed to know immediately. The guard brushed him off. He tried persuasion, yelling, guilt all to no avail. The guard couldn’t care less.

He went to the next temple and encountered the same scenario. A guard who didn’t want to give him an inch. The third temple was just the same.

He was tired and frustrated. How could no one care about the Gods anymore? They were the creators, the power over all, the dispensers of justice, blessings, riches, and punished the wicked.

Then a strange thought hit him. If the Gods are dead, who is doing all that now? He looked around. He decided he really needed to speak to a priest. He had many questions about the Gods. It was late so he went home to sleep. It was now two full days since the Gods had died and nothing really changed.

The next morning he headed to the marketplace hoping to run into a priest. And he did. He did not recognize the priest at first, mainly because he was dressed in clothes like himself, not the usual robes. It was only because the priest was arguing with someone about the price of something that the customer yelled I don’t care if you are a priest, I will only give you so much. The priest eventually acquiesced and took what he could get. The mortal approached the priest.

I beg to have a word with you he said. The priest looked at him incredulously. It was bad enough to have to sell in the marketplace, but to be hounded by someone who was not going to buy anything was worse. The priest looked at him waiting for him to go on.

He told the priest what had happened. Well he left out many of the details, but said all the Gods are dead. The priest laughed. That cannot be true. I am still a priest of the Gods so they are alive.

I beg to differ said the mortal. The priest said, well if you think you are so special to go to the land of the Gods, which I doubt you did, then bring proof of their demise. The man remembering the fear he felt when he first went thought about letting it go. If the priests didn’t care, why should he? And was he sure. He was lucky not to get caught the first time. And even though he felt sure the Gods were all dead, it was frightening to think about going again. Not only that it was a long climb up the mountain to get there.

The priest was angry this mortal just stood there thinking. He barked at him. Either go bring proof or leave me be. I have things to do, meaning he needed to sell more so he could eat. The priest then asked for donation to the temple. The mortal looked at him. He had no money. He barely had food at home. His work was sporadic like most people’s. Everyone in the city struggled except for a very few.

The mortal knew he had the time to go since he wasn’t going to work for three more days. He asked the priest what proof do you need? This made the priest pause. What proof would be needed? It actually occurred to him that if the Gods were dead this changed everything including his position in society. Sure no one had money, but he still could command certain favors and attention in the temple, on the holy days, at weddings, funerals, his place in society would be put in great jeopardy. He realized he needed to know if the Gods were dead or was this person mad.

He asked for one of the swords of the Gods. The priest figured that if a mortal could get a sword then the Gods were truly dead. The mortal blinked. He saw the two Gods kill each other with their swords. The Gods were huge so were their swords. He wasn’t sure he could bring them down the mountain.

He asked is there anything else. The priest thought for a moment. No, it must be the swords. Now the priest wasn’t thinking about the size, but did say do not bring them into the city. Just bring them down to the bottom of the mountain and not on the holy grounds. The priest had immediately realized he wouldn’t want anyone else including the other priests to know just yet.

The man went home and ate a small dinner. He packed the rest of the food he had into his old torn knapsack to journey with tomorrow and slept.

To be continued

It’s been a long time since I rocked and rolled, well sort of…

 

Never hurts to have a little Led for the head every now and then, but this isn’t about rock and roll.

For years I would occasionally write a story within my posts. This wasn’t very often, but I created a few short stories that basically went nowhere except they had a start and finish and were fun. Basically I would take any wild idea that hit my head write a few paragraphs on what I felt at the moment and then in the next blog post would add to it, not necessarily with a plan. I would reread what I wrote previously and just pick up where I left off creating the story as I went. So over four or more posts some semblance of a story existed. There were even a couple I liked and if I ever want to spend some time I could go back and edit them and see what I have. Actually somewhere in lost computers over time I think there is one story I tried to polish up so to speak.

Recently I thought about asking readers to give me ideas to start another one. I say this because years ago at work someone that knew I try to write gave me an idea for a story. Just a one sentence thought. I actually finished that and have made attempts to edit and publish it. As of right now, no luck, but that story is much further along in my short stories than what I wrote in this blog. Now there are other short stories where I also made effort and am trying to get published also, but looking back at them they need work. Right now, though in my hazy and lazy days I am working on four books simultaneously with two working drafts on my computer where I actually spend time putting words on a computer screen. One of these days I may get ambitious and really finish them up. Yet I thought it was always fun just to write away with absolutely no path in advance, just sit and type and see where the words take you. Again, I thought about asking readers for ideas, but while thinking about doing this again I was reading another book when an idea sort of popped in my head. The idea shocked me because it is not something I would usually entertain. And since it is not something I would usually entertain, I am going to story blog it.

Again, the rules are no set ending, no real rhyme or reason for what is about to happen and over the next few blog posts on whatever topic I write I intend to add to the story until it finds its own conclusion. I will reread the previous post then just add to it based on where my thoughts for the day lead me. So without further ado, here we go:

 

The two Gods stood face to face. Years ago they were loved as the leaders of the Gods. They were married, celebrated by both the Gods and mortals alike. This was the before times. Now the war of the Gods had boiled down to the two of them. They didn’t remember why the war started, just that they were what was left of a grand epoch where rule over the mortals was blissful, quiet, serene and entertaining. The mortals were created to serve the Gods, but also so their petty lives would be theatre. Over time and these two Gods definitely couldn’t remember why jealousy, the pettiness they enjoyed watching permeating through them, boredom maybe took over their world.  And over time these emotions grew into hate between the Gods and they destroyed each other in a brutal war that destroyed their world. Now since the mortals were given their own world it remained. The Gods so consumed by their war had forgotten about the mortals and over time left them to their own devices so the worship of the Gods had become ancient stories. Except for one mortal, who being curious had climbed up into the world of the Gods to find out what happened.

And with this backdrop the two remaining Gods faced each other with overwhelming levels of both hate and love bubbling up inside them.  They had once loved each other unconditionally, now for reasons they no longer knew they hated each other with the same level of intensity of their love. Yet for a brief moment the love came back and they made love so passionately the ground shook, the mountains felt the shudder of them together, the waves of the oceans overwhelmed the shore and at the height of their passion they stabbed each other and both feel apart dead.

The mortal wasn’t sure, but looked around and so no other Gods. Still on unsure footing, legs shaking noticeably, the smell of death in the air headed back to the world of the mortals.

As he walked along the plain that had been holy ground, the ground that separated the two worlds of mortals and Gods, where the temples were once bustling with humans bringing sacrifices to the Gods of food and wine, where the people worshipped and praised the Gods, now lay half in ruins, still standing at this point, but the finer trappings looted, the walls cracked, the doors gone, the statues either broken or toppled over he ran into a friend of his from his village.

The mortal was rummaging through the ruins looking for stones for a wall around his house he was building.  The first mortal ran up to him and exclaimed the Gods are dead, the Gods are dead. The second mortal looked at him curiously. Sir, what concern is it of yours about the Gods. The Gods have not bothered us forever.

The first mortal was ecstatic, no it is more important, they are dead, completely dead, I saw the King and Queen of the Gods kill each other. He didn’t say what they were doing when they killed each other.

The second mortal now carrying a stone he hoped would work, told his friend. Come home with me, let us drink some wine and relax. Do not worry yourself over the Gods, and whatever you do, do not alert them to the presence of us mortals anymore. It has been peaceful, no one needs to bring sacrifices, the priests are all gone. We live in peace.

The first mortal seemed disheartened. He had witnessed something well was it terrible, wonderful, unimportant or the most important news ever, yet his friend was disinterested. How can something as important as the Gods being dead not matter anymore?

To be continued

Government shutdown: are they really trying and here is a quick proposal

 Yep once again the government is shutdown and quite frankly it may be for awhile. As always I hope I am wrong, but how many of you believe they are actually working on this or are they just stuck in the mud.

Yes I hear people on the news saying they are still in DC, yet mainly it is just finger pointing to the nth degree.

They tried for a continuing resolution CR at one point and hopefully they are still working on that even if just kicking the can down the road. So let’s do something a bit different to give us a framework for a real budget.

So if we get stuck with a CR until a full budget can be worked out why not reduce current spending levels by 3 percent for all aspects of the government, yet all agencies must meet all statutory obligations. The executive branch would have to spend the money, correctly of course, already allocated by Congress. The executive branch could not make unilateral changes that affect what has already been determined. And to offer a compromise in the CR, the tax credits for the ACA be guaranteed for all of next year except they are reduced by two percent as a way along with the 3 percent reduction for the budget to show some fiscal restraint on spending.

Also some executive orders may need to be backed out or legislation enacted to prevent executive orders from overriding a real budget. Which would mean certain members in Congress would need to acquire some intestinal fortitude to do what is required of them. Sad that they have so relinquished their responsibilities that doing their job is not foreseeable.

This opens the government again, puts some restraint on spending since this is only a CR and hopefully if the members of Congress find that intestinal fortitude they might be able to work out the full budget.

Just a quick proposal to reopen the government and hopefully show certain members of Congress they can do their job with a bit of effort. It would be nice of course if they can actually accomplish all this in the current environment. I doubt it. The hate machine is more important than the people of this country right now. 

Does Democracy die today? And the pretentious clueless “left” is still clueless.

 

So where do we go from here?

Is this meeting with all the military brass just show and show? Or something that gives Pete Hegseth’s ego an arousal and now he has to share it with his boss?

Or is it worse as some fear? A complete capitulation of our military to the most inconsistent tyrant on the planet. Well he is consistent about greed and hate, but what exactly is he looking for in trying to take over this country? Millions of conspiracies out there, yet is any of it true. I fear some of his minions aren’t minions and they have definite plans.

Something will happen today, but what? Hopefully this just turns out to be a very large nothing burger, but that is nowhere guaranteed.

And oh, by the way the government may shut down tonight. Another nothing burger or more in the disaster Trump is leading this country? Or more opportunity to further destroy our country our constitution, our values and us? Again, the most inconsistent tyrant running.

 

Have you noticed the plethora of podcasts coming from a variety of left wing podcasters espousing all sorts of Trump is bad verbiage? There are quite a few now, all begging for subscribers wanting to get to so many hundreds of thousands or even a million and to hit that like button. And all saying more or less the same thing; Trump is bad, Trump does bad stuff, we need to get rid of Trump. Yet do they even have a clue what happens next?

Tons of perceived scandal after perceived scandal, quoting the mainstream news, screaming they have the receipts filling our streaming channels and wherever else we get our podcasts with massive hyperbole that Trump has to go. Well he does, yet do they even know what they want afterwards. Are they still thinking America will buy whatever drivel the national democratic party will cook up or really rehash?

Our government is about to shut down for the umpteenth time in the last fifteen years because the duopoly is failing us. And the Democrats keep thinking they have an answer for our future. No they don’t. They have a word salad of pandering comments and a paragraph of public policy. Don’t believe me or better do not want to believe me, just go back and look at their campaign promises for the last four elections. They say the same thing, we are here to protect you from the boogeyman Republicans, we need to have universal healthcare (affordable, how?), we need to raise the minimum wage (cause we are fighting the wealth gap?) we need to fix social security (saying for years, but no concrete idea on how and I have put more ideas in a couple of previous posts then they have in forty years) and a couple of other items. And for some reason they think this will win votes.

The failure to enact any of these promises has been bleeding votes away from them since Obama. Unfortunately because we are stuck with the duopoly it sent those votes gift wrapped to Trump. Even when they do well, they cannot get out of their own with way how they present themselves. The people they needed to win the 2024 election had no idea that post covid inflationary was transitory so when they started bringing it down they failed to communicate exactly how things were working. They spent so much time telling us how bad is Trump that they didn’t communicate well how the economy works. And so Trump in his one talent (bragging) convinced millions he knew what to do. And because the duopoly has failed us for so long it didn’t take much for Trump to do this because Americans have been wanting for someone to tell us the answers for a long time. Everything they heard from Democrats and Republicans has never come to fruition except tax breaks and for some god awful reason, too many of the middle class think tax breaks for business are good for them without an iota of proof except the economy hadn’t collapsed yet.

So if the midterms occur, will the Democrats finally learn they need to move forward, get creative and present new leadership? Or will we even have midterms? Or will we be stuck with the same self serving aggrandizement in 2026 and instead of Trump destroying this country, democracy dies the death of a thousand cuts and it looks like we have had about 500 so far.

Or will by some wild chance or the grace of God, people realize we need new leadership, new ideas and elect either a revamped current party or new parties emerge that actually think about and enact public policy for the vast majority of this country and the United States continues to thrive.

And for those few remaining country club Republicans who don’t support Trump and who think we must put business first, sorry to say, but nope. A thriving working and middle class will do better for business than tax breaks and wealth hoarding. It is time to conserve our values and our people, not our mindsets.

It is just about 8:30 central time. What will the next 24 hours bring us? Let’s hope tyranny isn’t smiling by then.

No cheers today

 

And I haven't watched or heard the news yet today so this could be moot or too late. lol