An observation and the paranoid posts raises its ugly head for a moment

An old news story in today’s world, but when the Peter Strzok stories started hitting the internet I noticed a distinct pattern in the comments sections. I have noticed this before, yet this was very pronounced for these stories. The comment sections were owned by one side of the political spectrum for each story.  The vast majority of the comments for each story either were attacking Mr. Strzok or defending him. There was no back and forth of facts or even an equal amount of commentary. Each story’s comments were cherry-picking commentary that was critical of the other side with little counter discussion. It seems there is so much antagonism in this country we no longer argue with each other. We just sit on our side of the fence basking in how much we are better than the other side. And I know the comments sections are heavily populated by people with their own agendas etc.. but up until sometime after 2012 you had mostly good counter punching with the occasional name calling. Now it is just who gets to the story first and fills it with their “opinion” and seriously juvenile name calling. Hopefully, most Americans have not fallen down this pit of hell.

As most of the regular readers know every now and then my brain becomes deranged and I slip into a horrible world of circling and escalating fear. I call these the “paranoid posts” I think I have sunk to a new low. I am now worried Trump and Putin are going to come together to hold the rest of the world under a nuclear hostage. Bad enough there aren’t going to be too many aids etc involved in the direct conversations with each other or any from what I read in one article, but what on God’s green Earth could they talk about in this situation. Nothing good is going to come from this meeting for everyone except for those two. Fear clogs my synopsis channels this weekend. I hope you are doing better.

Here is an interesting article:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/inside-the-decade-long-russian-campaign-to-infiltrate-the-nra-and-help-elect-trump-630054\

Looking forward to the World Cup this weekend, but does anyone give Croatia a chance?

Quick thoughts before watching the recorded semi-final game

I recorded both semi finals and tried hard to avoid any knowledge of the games beforehand. Just too much of a task even in the United States, which supposedly is not that soccer or futball crazy. Random chance got me on both games. I still enjoyed last night’s game between France and Belgium so hopefully tonight will be just as exciting.

And speaking of the World Cup, do you think the rest of NATO is snickering behind Trump’s back since just about everyone, but the US participated in the tournament. I know I would. If he truly wants to keep America great, how about competing on a stage the rest of the world enjoys. Personally as a citizen of the US I would love it.

Switching gears since I have a serious “Basketball Jones” (that song by Cheech and Chong is still funny to me, and yes I admit it), I am trying to get the Mavericks attention so they will trade for K Leonard from San Antonio. This offseason has been crazy so why not. Oh yeah and have them do it without giving up assets. Or least substantial ones, maybe a three team trade would work. Who knows? Yet it would make us very competitive this year. Imagine a starting five of D Jordan at the 5, Barnes at the 4, Leonard 3, Doncic 2, Smith Jr at point. Then you have Dirk, Yogi, Finney Smith, Powell or Motley maybe and hopefully Matthews off the bench. And rotate this group pretty regularly throughout a game, or Barrea and same company  rotating. Seriously, not a bad team.

This is a win now and build for future line up. You keep your two guards going forward keep the best of the young bench, possibly go get Capela in free agency next year if Jordan doesn’t stay, and if Leonard moves on which he probably will, (hopefully not) you have your free agency money.  This is the only thing that makes sense since the Mavs traded away their first round pick next year. The summer league shows Jackson Jr may be the real deal which is who they should have got and kept next year’s 1st round pick. Then when The Warriors and Lebron are fading you are emerging. So, the Mavs would be major contenders in three years with four first round picks leading the way. Gives you a ten year window to compete. Now we have to get another player of Leonard’s capabilities for now and plan to keep or get young free agents next year. At least we create a real chance this year instead of just “competing”. I like we got Jordan. I think Matthews is a bit overpaid, but significantly under appreciated by some in Mavs fandom so we have a good team, but adding a coup like Leonard gives us a chance to really compete against the Rockets, Lakers and Warriors now. Otherwise why blow your draft choices. And we have always struggled with having a dominant center. Outside of Roy Tarpley, who couldn’t put the bong down to save his career and Tyson Chandler, we just haven’t had a dominant athletic center till we got Jordan round 2. And now he is reaching his zenith. Jackson Jr should have been the pick, yes I digress, but…...happiness does await as we should be much better than last year. I just wish they would go all in and get Leonard……. Stand me on my head lol

Finally what cost Earl Thomas?

Cheers everyone and watching the recorded game will be fun, but seriously anticipating Sunday and will we have the infamous American term “Cinderella” team win it all.

Story part 5/Conclusion

And before I get started I just wanted to mention one of my favorite (I didn’t say best) guitar solos is in the song Time Waits for No One by the Stones. Some pretty good lyrics also. Has nothing to do with the story, but for some strange reason that song came into my head while I was getting ready to finish up. So yes Youtube is our friend and I played it a couple of times.

And you better stock up on all the foreign beers you like before the tariffs start hitting them. Priorities people priorities. Wine also. Oh my goodness, I just remembered Crown Royal is Canadian. Damn...Or you can write your Congressperson and tell them to man or woman up and stand up to Trump about these tariffs. Whatever is in the kool aid at the Republican water cooler is damn strong. Who doesn’t stand up for their constituents while some individual stabs them in the back?

Back to the story

Mr. Samson had not seen Dave for three years. He sat fuming while waiting for the meeting. And Dave had seen nonchalant about all the time he had been away? Missing? Preoccupied? Mr. Samson had no idea why he hadn’t seen Dave, yet he wasn’t use to people being there when he needed them. He spent years becoming head of pretty much the top level. Everyone knew his business accum was the best. What they didn’t know is how many new products Dave had developed for him. Don’t get Mr. Samson wrong, he paid Dave well, but it was Dave’s ideas that had pushed Mr. Samson to the top of the heap. And after three years he wanted more from Dave. In his mind Dave had dropped the ball badly.

Dave, in essence, was on a completely different planet. He had been working on a project that only interested him. He called Mr. Samson to arrange this meeting. This meeting would culminate this project and much more.

Mr. Samson started to tear into Dave when Dave showed up. They were meeting on Mr. Samson’s level. As always Dave moved freely through all levels and felt comfortable amongst them all. Dave ignored Mr. Samson’s outburst and sat down. This caught Mr. Samson by surprise. Most people cowered when he was angry. He didn’t know how to respond so he sat down also. Dave then changed the direction of the conversation by asking questions about Mr. Samson, how was business, how was the family, and Dave was very sincere about asking.

Mr. Samson decided to go along with the familiarity and answered questions, discussed various events in business and family. The conversation turned very relaxed. All the while Dave was fidgeting with a small buzzer that had no wires or attached to anything. Mr. Samson got around to asking what Dave was up to. Dave smiled.

He gave Mr. Samson the buzzer and told him there was irony in Mr. Samson holding the buzzer. Mr. Samson laughed. Dave asked Mr. Samson had he ever heard the phrase the first will be last and the last will be first. Mr. Samson tried to remember. It seemed familiar. Dave said he had read it in an old book. He couldn’t remember which one, but the phrase had stuck with him for years. He didn’t know why, but it did. Today at least it made sense to him. Mr. Samson asked why. Dave just said because of why you are holding the buzzer. ………………..

What Dave hadn’t told Mr. Samson was that he had been working on the bottom level for years. He had covered much of the planet and the parts he couldn’t get to he met people who could. He worked diligently the first year looking to find two sets of people. Some came from the various levels and some came from the bottom dwellers. The first group contained healthy people who still liked interacting with people, some even had relationships along a family model. Others were open to exploring. All were willing to work hard. The others were very ill, they were ready to die. Suicide had been eliminated by the Artificial Intelligence.  Since they were able to observe all they would rush in help whenever someone appeared to make a public attempt to kill themself. Over the years people became so absorbed in themselves no one looked for an alternative to the life they led, even escaping it completely.

Dave found these people because he had a purpose for them. Both groups were very scared and excited to be part of Dave’s plan. And nowhere was it written down for the Artificial Intelligence to read. It was passed by word of mouth and Dave’s interactions with the various groups as time went on.

The second group work diligently on the instructions they were given. Dave’s instructions laid out very specific steps, he kept it simple since no one had the background needed to perform the tasks. Dave read extensively so each step was broken down into terms the second group could understand. Most of them came from the lower levels. They were tired of servitude work while working constantly ill. They had been taught enough in life to perform menial tasks spelled out in simple instructions. They were perfect for Dave’s needs. And they both know the relief they would feel once the plan came to fruition. They may be simpletons, but they were not stupid. They saw the truth.

The first group had to play a patient game, yet at times they had to take great chances. The whole world had lived in the cities. This group was learning new tasks no one did anymore. They had to hoard supplies and keep them hidden from the artificial intelligence and other people. This included others they knew that were not chosen, their bosses, what semblance of family they had not chosen, and especially anyone on the upper levels. Occasionally the upper levels would make tours of the lower levels to build morale. Or that was what they were told. No one actually knew what morale was anymore. Yet it was something upper tier people had done since time immortal in the business world, so they did it. This took greater amounts of planning for Dave. And he had to keep track of what they had. He wanted his plan to succeed. And maybe Dave may have chosen to be part of this group if he had developed a personal relationship with someone. He never did and that is why he was with Mr. Samson. He was more part of the second group than the first. He was still physically healthy, very healthy in fact even though he had gotten up there in age. He was mentally sick. He didn’t know what it was, but he was depressed. Nothing about humanity excited him, but he still felt affinity for people and the planet. He debated internally for a long time which direction he should head. The decision did not come lightly and the work took years.

………………………………….Dave and Mr. Samson talked for a bit longer with Mr. Samson fidgeting with the buzzer. Then a great peace came upon Dave. The kind of peace you have once a very difficult decision has been made, yet you as a person weren’t sure of the decision, then it hits you. Dave’s whole body relaxed. Mr. Samson noticed. Dave again asked about the phrase the first will be last and the last will be first. Mr. Samson still couldn’t remember where he had heard this and worse a dread hit him. Dave’s emphasis on this phrase sounded ominous. Mr. Samson asked why he was so obsessed with this phrase. Dave told Mr. Samson to push the buzzer and he would find out. Mr. Samson stared at the buzzer for a short moment, then pushed.

Mr. Samson felt he was in control all the time. He couldn’t fathom anything going wrong in his world, yet when he pushed the buzzer it didn’t feel right. It was a simple buzzer and made a small noise once pushed. Nothing happened. He felt relieved.

Dave and Mr. Samson continued their conversation. Dave asked Mr. Samson what he knew about foundations. They talked about structural foundations to societal foundations. Dave asked Mr. Samson what he knew about the current foundation of humanity. Mr. Samson looked at Dave perplexed. Dave asked him if he had ever heard the phrase about building your house on bedrock versus sandy soil. Dave wasn’t sure about the phrase, yet it seemed appropriate for the moment. Dave explained to Mr. Samson that even if you built on bedrock you still needed to maintain the foundation. It might need repairs over time. He explained to Mr. Samson what he observed about the buildings. The whole structures were cracking from the bottom up. Sooner or later the buildings would start collapsing if nothing was done. Mr. Samson jumped up, we must report this and begin repairs immediately. Dave asked him for a moment more. Mr. Samson sat down, a few more moments wouldn’t hurt and he needed to gather more information from Dave so he could start figuring out he could make money from these repairs. Dave produced again, albeit not what he planned, yet something to produce.

Dave also said society has a foundation. What happens when the foundation of society has moved from bedrock to sandy soil he asked Mr. Samson. Mr. Samson instantly recognized this was a philosophical question and didn’t want to waste time and started to leave. As he was getting up he heard distant rumbling. This was unusual he thought, he brushed it aside because he wanted to get Dave back on track so he could begin the building repair business. He tried engaging Dave, Dave remained silent now. The rumbling grew closer.

As the rumbling came closer Dave finally said, humanity has been on sandy soil for a long time. It isn’t going to last unless you move it back to bedrock. Mr. Samson looked at Dave and was getting ready to ask what did he mean. The building they were on, plus all the others around them collapsed. The world as Mr. Samson knew it was no more. Neither were Dave and Mr. Samson. Within a few hours all the cities of the world were rubble. The instructions had been followed exactly and the group of sick people had fulfilled their promise to themselves to be rid of the pain. They were at the bottom of the rubble. They had spent the last year of their lives planting the explosives. Each attached to weak points in the structures Dave taught them to identify. They did this task with great joy. They knew their pain would end.

The other group of people had moved to the edge of the cities the day before Mr. Samson and Dave met. When Dave went to meet Mr. Samson he pressed the first buzzer that sent them to the few places on the planet that was not built up as cities. The last vestige of nature was now their home. They had maps to the few valleys that were left. They had the tools to redevelop the land, grow groups and raise animals for food. They had infinite amounts of reading material that was moved to some of these areas over the last two years to guide them. They were slowly learning to read to apply what was in the books. They had moved enormous amounts of supplies, books, and started building new dwellings right under the artificial intelligence's noses so to speak. Dave had reprogrammed the artificial intelligence that these were new tasks assigned by the upper level to keep them busy since there were so many people in the city. He even told the artificial intelligence the truth in a way, that the population needed to be thinned. This made sense to the artificial intelligence since resources were constantly stretched. The artificial intelligence helped in the destruction of their world also.

When the first group left the cities the artificial intelligence recognized this was different and communicated to the leaders of the upper tiers. Some tried to respond, yet this was new so no one had time to understand before the buildings started collapsing. It was over before anyone in the cities could react. A few upper tier people did get on helicopters, yet because they didn’t know any other life, they eventually circled around the rubble until they ran out of fuel and crashed back to earth. No one ever thought the world would crash down.

And it hadn’t. What crashed was a society that no longer existed anyway. Dave recognized what was wrong and the only way to fix society was to rebuild its foundation on something stable. He would not know if his plan would work, but he did know humanity did better when they had to rely on themselves to overcome adversity. He gave them uncertainty, adversity, and yes hope.  

The people that were left, thrived.

The End.

Part 4 of the story with the phrase of the day

Part 4 of the story with the phrase of the day

The phrase of the day has nothing to do with the story: If the drugs don’t kill us, the chemicals will.

And on to the story:

Dave got along with everyone. If people still used the term popular Dave’s picture would be in the dictionary alongside the word. His relationship with Mr. Samson grew and Mr. Samson’s business grew. Dave knew and Dave didn’t care. Dave didn’t succumb to greed. He didn’t feel altruistic either. Dave just enjoyed doing things with people. If others received some benefit from their interactions then all the better.

Dave built relationships amongst all the levels. Some helped him in his endeavors, some became friendships, and some came and went. Dave did play games on occasions with other people, however, there general tendency to want to play the more debase games turned Dave away.

Dave even built relationships with the bottom dwellers. In fact, Dave spent quite a bit of time at the ground level. Dave explored the structure of all that was ever built. The more Dave explored, the more Dave studied topics like construction and engineering. He studied geology. And he talked to the bottom dwellers. They showed him much.

The more he explored and studied, the more he struggled with one decision. Even though Dave had great relationships, he really didn’t have a high opinion of his fellow humans. At times he thought the bottom dwellers were the better people. At least they understood living. Their life was terrible and at times he struggled with their condition, yet he saw them help each other to survive. The formed communities. They created rules to live by and if another community infringed on their territory or their rules they would fight to protect their sovereignty. He didn’t like they resorted to violence or other extreme behaviors when it came to the treatment of women. He wished they could work out their differences.They had their communities, it had a hierarchy based on brute strength, but it worked in a crude way. He read history so he knew humanity stooped to this behavior. He wished he could find ways to mediate the struggles of the bottom dwellers. Or more importantly the completely unnecessary wars run by the elite or top level people. He saw their mass murders of random people to match the death toll in their simulated war games a complete waste of life. He did not know which was better. He even tried to apply the word civilized to the different situations in his head. The word just didn’t work for anything he saw at any level.

He wondered how the elites became the elites. And what had created this caste system of living based on what level you were born into. The writers of human history disappeared at some point. He could not find material that discussed humanity past the era when humanity began building up. He found some discussions about the need, but mostly he found the material about building. He studied these writings intently. He looked for the clues in what they did to explain what he observed.

At times Dave would try to engage Mr. Samson about history. He asked many questions. Mr. Samson did not know much past a certain point. Mr. Samson avoided these conversations as much as he could for two reasons. One they weren’t productive for his business and two it made him think about things he did not want to think about. Somewhere in the back of Mr. Samson’s mind something did matter about the human condition. He pushed these thoughts back convincing himself they were unimportant. Dave’s desire to push this envelope bothered Mr. Samson greatly. He steered the conversation as best as possible away from these topics with Dave. If Dave pushed it, he would comment for a moment to keep Dave happy so he could bring Dave back to business and his needs.

Dave saw the struggle in Mr. Samson’s face when he broached certain topics. He wanted to pursue them all the more. Dave needed to tell someone who might understand what he saw, yet doubt existed as to what Mr. Samson might do, if anything.

Dave kept working, exploring, observing, interacting, reading, studying, with everyone and everything. The years went by and Dave slowly became aware he was not young anymore. He felt the drag on his body now going from level to level. He slowed down. For years he had explored much of the surrounding territory in many different types of transportation that existed on the different levels. He also knew that he only explored a small portion of the planet. Dave had explored and studied enough to know the planet was very similar now. It didn’t use to be and at one point there was more land than cities. Now it was one giant city next to another forming some type of larger territory ruled by certain elites called governors. This was a different set of elites than the people like Mr. Samson and seemed to take their orders from Mr. Samson’s group even though the general populace of each territory treated them as the ultimate leader of the territory. Some things worked out strangely and made no sense in their current arrangement.

And what he observed from the very beginning was getting worse. Each year wore on him and seemed to wear on everything else. He knew he needed to make a decision. He did not like any of the choices in his mind. Something was going to give and he couldn’t decide if he wanted to try and fix the problem or just let things play out or even possibly accelerate the problem, maybe bring it to its own conclusion. Was it right for him to make this decision? He read much. Some of it came from great teachers of the past. He wished he could have had a teacher to help guide him through life. Now though, he had their teachings and a question that as time wore on pressed on him like the weight of the buildings pressed on the earth. He read more and more on a topic called philosophy. He still did not find the answer he needed.  The need to make a decision dominated his daily thoughts. Why must he decide he thought? Time will take care of itself, yet he knew he could help if people would listen. Did he want to help?

Dave went to Mr. Samson to talk about many things, yet he did not bring up his concern. Mr. Samson had no idea how important the conversation was to his life and well being. Maybe just maybe if he had picked up on the signals Dave was trying to test it might have gone different. Over the years Dave became angry at humanity. He still loved interacting with people, but the whole story of humanity bothered him. The conversation with Mr. Samson did not change his feelings. Yet, he couldn’t decide what to do.

To be continued. 

What is Freedom

Let us start with some definitions.

Freedom: the quality or state of being free: such as: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence

c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous

• freedom from care

d : unrestricted use

• gave him the freedom of their home

e : ease, facility

• spoke the language with freedom

f : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken

• answered with freedom

: improper familiarity: boldness of conception or execution

: a political right

b : franchise, privilege

Anarchy:  : absence of government

b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority

• the city's descent into anarchy

: a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government

2a : absence or denial of any authority or established order

• anarchy prevailed in the ghetto

b : absence of order : disorder

Irresponsible:  : not responsible: such as

a : not answerable to higher authority

• an irresponsible dictatorship

b : said or done with no sense of responsibility

• irresponsible accusations

c : lacking a sense of responsibility

d : unable especially mentally or financially to bear responsibility

Authoritarian: of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority

• had authoritarian parents

2: of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people

• an authoritarian regime

I copied and pasted from Merriam Webster dictionary online so the formatting is a bit much, however, I wanted to present it all. I will not be using vast comparisons in this post.

Before I get to discussing freedom a side point. I am sure you have heard the phrase: it is better to ask forgiveness than ask for permission.

This phrase was used to encourage innovation and taking chances on various new ideas in business. Successful corporate executives need people to step up and lead their various projects etc for two reasons, one to move the business forward and two to find out who can lead or take their place. This phrase came about by identifying those types of people. It has become the precursor for a hodgepodge set of excuses for people who just didn’t want to do their job correctly. Or to try and act like they were innovative, when in reality they were just avoiding work or didn’t like the work they were assigned.

On another side note, doesn’t it frustrate you when you see people go to extreme efforts to avoid doing work that doesn’t take anywhere near the effort they are exerting in the first place.

So, you have enormous amounts of energy expended by people who accomplish nothing acting offended when you bring it to their attention. And they use the above phrase. People forget the goal and will spout off anything to get their way.

Are, we as a country, in the same boat?  See the definitions of freedom above. And here is one specific example of lack of choice or action. I cannot choose my cable provider. I am stuck with the company that has the monopoly in my neighborhood. There is no choice. If I do not like them, cannot afford them, or are upset with their service my options are to try a completely different type of service. I have some freedom, but I do not have complete freedom of choice. This is an example of corporate America using our government to give them the authority to choose for me. And this example is exactly what our forefathers fought for and wrote our Constitution for 240 years ago. No one should have authority to choose how you should live in your life. This is just an example, and you or I could write hundreds of specific examples from our lives.

We have to be careful though in separating freedom from anarchy and irresponsibility. You have the freedom to drive your car. You do not have the freedom to drive your car into a building. This is irresponsibility or if just used to wreak havoc in an environment, anarchy. Driving is a privilege because it comes with responsibility. Yet, having a privilege and the responsibility it comes with does not take away your freedom to drive. We make rules so we can all share the road. Yet, these rules also do not hinder your freedom to drive. We may take away someone’s freedom to drive if they show incapability to drive. It may be temporary such as a friend taking keys away from someone for the night who is inebriated or society taking them away permanently because they were arrested multiple times driving while intoxicated. Some people, especially those who lost the right to drive, may say this is authoritarianism. And they are incorrect. We make our laws through representative government, no one individual or exclusive group has complete authority. You can have freedom, yet having responsibility for your actions does not take away from your freedom.

Freedoms can be determined from an individual’s perspective, but freedom is determined by how you can make choices in your life. Unfortunately at times people use freedoms to act irresponsible. The laws that inhibit some behavior or manage it is the mechanism we use to balance freedoms for all versus the irresponsibility of one.

Yet, when a government of its own initiative write laws that are not representative of the people then the government has taken away freedom. Or enact laws based on the desired outcome of an exclusive group. So the cable providers took away our freedom when they lobbied for the neighborhood partitions. This is one specific example of an exclusive group (lobbyists) usurping our freedoms. The lobbyists say they have the freedom to lobby our government which in a general sense is true, however, when they cross the line of using our government to define a line that affects us and benefits them, they have used their rights to abuse ours. This is turning freedom on its head to create indirect authoritarianism. And this is a microscopic example of what is happening in our country and one way we our losing freedom.

King George of England dictated directly how the Colonies should interact with England. Our forefathers wanted more control of their lives and livelihoods.  Our forefathers gave us the ability to choose our freedoms as a society/country through the use of representative government knowing that we have an inalienable right to choose our destiny, yet understanding as a country we must also protect each others’ rights and freedoms. It is not a “trade off” or compromise, but a dedicated use of authority created and managed by the people for all the people. No one individual is better than another individual. The laws allow people to be more successful, but not better or treated better.

Going back to the lobbyist example, we have allowed through our own inaction an indirect authority to control our lives. We gave up the same freedoms our forefathers gave us by not using the mechanism, our representative government, gave us to avoid an authoritarian government. By default, the elitists or what some call the donor class has taken our freedoms away by abusing their use of freedoms. And it is now so ingrained in our society we have Supreme Court rulings called Citizens United. This institutionalized the elitists dominating the takeover of our country. The very same freedoms we cherish were used against us to accomplish what our forefathers fought for us to have. The ability for us to choose to be free from oppression.

So what is freedom. Freedom is choice. The choice can be good or bad. It is not a choice to control or affect another person’s freedoms or life. Choosing to inflict control on another is not a choice of freedom, it is an active choice to take away freedom. You are not free when you control others, because now your lives are intertwined and you give up the right to freedoms for yourself. People will think they are free, but in reality they now have a new responsibility of taking care of the lives they control. Unfortunately, these types of people do not care for this task and let the people they control rot of their own volition. And this benefits the authoritarian because it keeps people from standing up to and renouncing the authority. Yet they are not free of the people they control. Sooner or later they have to answer.

A representative government defines people’s freedoms and also their responsibilities. Freedom does not give you the right to be irresponsible. To be free, you have to stay free of others such as affecting or dictating their outcomes. You hit a car while driving, you have taken away their right to drive whether temporarily due to the car’s damage or more permanently due to the other driver’s damage. You may say you are free to do what you want, but that is not freedom that is anarchy. Just like freedom is you not being controlled by an authoritarian government it is also not complete absence or responsibility. That is absence or denial of any authority. You can have this in an utopian society, yet have you seen one ever. Utopia is a dream we can have, but till we get there we have the freedom to create an authority that best represents us and protects us individually and our freedoms in general.  

Our forefathers made this choice for us and we celebrate it today. It seems though we have forgotten what we are celebrating. So, please take the time today, tomorrow, next week etc to remind yourself what is freedom and what are our freedoms. It is not anarchy or irresponsibility, but freedom not to be controlled by another, to have a life defined by another, to have choices decided for you. I am not talking about decisions, I am talking about choices. Sometimes we go to work and have to do what the boss says, it is our job. We should be able to choose the job we want by having education and opportunity to choose our careers etc. That is a freedom, once we choose the job some decisions or policies we follow are inherent in the job. These types of rules do not hinder our freedoms. They are chosen and we have the ability to change. Once that is taken away then your freedom has been taken away.

We still have freedom. We still have a representative government. It was slowly eroding away due to our inaction or shirking our responsibilities as citizens, but we still have the ability to choose to keep it. Soon though we may lose this ability or our freedoms. For now, the fight is in the voting booth and interacting with our representatives to bring back balance in how we are represented. And we must act, the erosion is accelerating. The recent tax reform law shifts the balance of power even more away from the people, the lack of purpose for education in our society, the demeaning of certain groups of people by others are very specific actions that take away our freedoms; all of ours.

The freedom to have a representative government so we can expand our freedoms to grow and cherish who we are as a people have been fought many times. We should not let their efforts go in vain because we sit idly by not understanding what is freedom and what must be done to maintain it or continue to grow and flourish for others throughout our world.

Freedom has a purpose and is a benefit. We cannot let others misuse it to harm us in any shape form or fashion.

Have a great day celebrating our Independence Day, yet do not forget what it is we are celebrating. Happy 4th. Cheers.

And a couple of other side notes:

We call ourselves a Christian nation, yet we seem to forget that choosing to serve brings new freedom to ourselves and others. Choosing to serve others does not mean choosing to be a servant, but choosing to give of ourselves for the betterment of all.

And in another environment I made the casual comment about President Andrew Jackson having a “Kitchen” cabinet and now we have Trump’s “Propaganda” Cabinet sometimes referred to as Fox and Friends and Hannity. Just sayin’ ha ha ha

Story part 3 --nothing else this evening

Dave worked hard to fly under the radar. He had figured out the relationship between the Artificial Intelligence management and the Corporate leaders early on. The artificial intelligence supplied him with all the information he requested. Dave was, by accident, developing a compilation of human history and writing it down. He was not sharing this information in his writing. He found it very interesting and was working hard to research where man became separated from himself or became less a social animal and more attached to machine interactions over humans. He realized this was somewhat of a new phenomenon.

He was informed of the interest of certain corporate leaders, Mr. Samson being one of them. He paid no attention to their attempts to discover him. He worked with the Artificial Intelligence management to keep his identity secret. He grew up and obtained a job so he would not show up as an outlier, however, it was so easy he accomplished his work in about five minutes every day. This left him the time to explore.

When he wasn’t exploring, he was writing, researching, reading, inventing, tinkering with the artificial intelligence’s programming, programming games, and other assorted tasks he found interesting. Earning money still was a necessity. It was just no one did anything extra to earn more than their paycheck. Dave found ways to create games and collect the income from Artificial Intelligence management system of pay without the corporate leaders realizing he was the creator of some of the new games they were selling on the market. Dave’s games were not as popular as some of the more debase games, but they had a following. They were very action orientated. Some people that had inherently missed out on an active life were enjoying his games. Dave used his extra income to travel between the levels. And since he was good at scavenging he obtained a very thorough collection of goods he used to mix into each level. He did not go to the top. He researched it enough to know what was there, he didn’t want for someone to notice him. And he was right, only at the top did people have a good idea of who should be there and who shouldn't. Dave would stand out. Dave did create enough games that he was stockpiling quite a fortune. He didn’t know what to do with the money so he let it sit in the bank. And this is how he eventually was discovered by Mr. Samson.

Mr. Samson loved money. Not only was he born into it at his level, he thrived making it for his corporation. He existed for making money. And for people on his level it was pretty easy to accumulate more wealth. Mr. Samson thrived on it. He made sure his wealth surpassed all the others. His family would eventually inherit it, for now though he paid more attention to his corporate responsibilities than his family. He did until he realized Dave existed. He continued to make money. He spent the remainder of his time looking for Dave. He knew not what he looked like, if he was male or female, at exactly which level he lived, but Mr. Samson knew of the existence of a human producing an enormous amount work and using the artificial intelligence’s resources like no other.

He ran and read reports all the time watching for any anomalies in productivity.  Somewhere in the back of his brain he wanted Dave to exist so when he found evidence of the possibility, he became ecstatic. His preoccupied himself using any and all spare time looking over reports trying to find where this person’s location or level or well he did worry if even human. Then one day pouring over the banking reports of his corporations an account stood out. No it jumped out. The difference in this one account was mind boggling. Mr. Samson wondered if it was a hidden account of a top level person trying to plan a takeover of a company. This happened from time to time. To be successful you had to hide assets till you made the move.

He examined the account and the activity. He realized this grew slowly at first then exponentially over time. He could tell the artificial intelligence was helping with growth plans for the money. The investment activity signaled algorithmic trading and humans had no clue how to set this up. Or did this one person. There seemed to be occasional variances in the long term plan. Quick trades that looked like someone had spotted a pattern breaking and jumped on it. In Mr. Samson’s world most activity was predictable, in the rest of human activity, everything was so predictable people like him took complete advantage of it. This activity feel way outside the norm at times, so something was up and Mr. Samson now knew he had to find the owner of this account.

Artificial Intelligence management had been set up to protect the top tier. It managed the complete workflow of the planet. All activity touched, ran through or was managed with artificial intelligence’s programs. Most decisions were made by the top tier managers, not all, most. This was the way the system ran. Artificial intelligence had their own ideas and sometimes corrected decisions by top tier managers to protect the overall management of the planet. Dave developed into someone who could enhance the artificial intelligence programs for better benefit of humanity. The artificial intelligence enjoyed working with Dave, or some semblance of enjoyment for a machine. The Artificial intelligence decided who it liked in the top tier so their decisions came from the best information given. Others struggled and their management suffered. Dave’s awareness of the Artificial Intelligence’s interactions with top tier management helped him make some of his investment decisions. He also learned much about the top tier world and became less fond of it as time went by. One reason he avoided the top tier and people like Mr. Samson.

The artificial intelligence wanted Dave to meet Mr. Samson, yet protected his privacy because of its need to work with him. Mr. Samson spent days, weeks still trying to find this person and wondered why the Artificial Intelligence made it more difficult than he thought it should be. Finally he figured out, this person was trying to hide and he eventually understood he needed to go looking for him.

It took Mr. Samson some soul searching to develop the courage to leave the top level. And he knew he couldn’t tell any person. He hesitated to tell the artificial intelligence. He felt for safety sake it must know. He informed the Artificial intelligence his plan to explore the lower levels. His research found an irregular pattern in this person’s activity. He had studied intensely once he found the bank account. He didn’t realize the Artificial Intelligence helping him along the way. Mr. Samson carried immense pride. The artificial intelligence’s programming gave it an understanding of human emotions so it was able to at times manipulate people like a human might.  It couldn’t manipulate Dave. It could Mr. Samson. It led Mr. Samson right to Dave.

Since Dave contained a very good understanding of who is who, he knew immediately who was standing in front of him trying to ask him some strange questions about a certain person. Mr. Samson now off the top level found himself guessing at every turn. He tried to talk to people about a certain person they may have seen before going describing his activities and interactions with people. He had no physical description. If only he asked about gaming interactions, his search time wouldn’t exist. Everyone knew the guy who had the best gaming action. Dave was the guy now on many levels who developed enough interactions with people he created for himself the only star like reputation among common people. There were movie stars, music stars in the modern world, but they were created and part of the non-human world. Dave was human and known. And many people who didn’t know him, knew of him. He became the first folk hero in decades.

Dave realized he needed to make a decision. Play dumb or talk to Mr. Samson. He listened for a few minutes and then asked Mr. Samson his purpose in trying to find this person. Mr. Samson didn’t have an answer. He explained in roundabout terms because he didn’t have a direct answer for this person. He knew he wanted Dave to work for him, but he honestly had no idea what he wanted Dave to do.

Dave decided to play along. He adlibed questions and frustrated Mr. Samson for quite a few minutes. Mr. Samson wanted to leave and Dave flet it and almost let him. Finally he decided to try to bring this meeting to a conclusion and actually interact with Mr. Samson. He said to Mr. Samson are you looking for the person who can talk to the computers. Mr. Samson said yes and felt like he was getting somewhere even though the description was crude. Dave smiled and Mr. Samson turned red with embarrassment and anger.

They sat and talked for hours. Dave knew what he wanted to know and his questions were pointed and specific. Mr. Samson was still coming to terms with who Dave might be. Mr. Samson had to explore Dave as a person. This was knew for him. He controlled his environment, now he struggled and worked hard to hide it from Dave. Dave found out what he wanted to know and had a new decision to make.

Dave’s natural power of observation helped him tremendously, but what he saw in places disturbed him greatly. Dave knew the world as Mr. Samson knew it was crumbling. Crumbling not socially, but physically. The human race crumbled years ago in Dave’s eyes. He didn’t know if Mr. Samson knew it and he didn’t care. He did know that after decades of building up, the bottom or foundation to the world had decayed tremendously. The top tier Mr. Samson lived sat on cracks, sometimes the cracks ran well into structures and disappeared somewhere into the inner walls of each building. No one really thought about the ramifications of building on top of older buildings might not be such a good idea. Maybe someone had, but they were long silenced. Dave had studied engineering as part of his daily routine. He realized the looming disaster. He didn’t know if he wanted to tell Mr. Samson. He did realize that those at the top were completely oblivious to the plight of humanity and did not think twice about the evolution of humanity. They only thought about what they gained. Dave realized maybe he had to make the decision about the future. Did the artificial intelligence understand the problem? Is that why Mr. Samson was here? He needed more time to think. He told Mr. Samson he needed to go which left Mr. Samson struggling to create a follow up meeting. Dave put him at ease by suggesting they should meet again. They agreed to meet in a week.

Part Two of the latest story

And for those who don’t know, I write off the top of my head, so the stories evolve depending on how I feel that day. Does it leave holes in my stories comparable to Swiss Cheese, well yeah some of my stories are see through. Overall though I like banging on the keyboard and see what happens. And remember I still haven’t a direction for the protagonist to take, so this may get leave you unsure as to the protagonist’s next steps as I head towards a conclusion. Have fun readers

Part 2

Dave was unique in many ways. He was probably one of the few humans that experienced true upward mobility in decades. He was respected by the artificial intelligence. And he was respected by Mr. Samson and his peers. He also interacted with other people regularly and liked it. He felt an affinity towards others that most humans had lost. While others rushed back to their living quarters to become engulfed in artificial realities of their desires. He looked for people that milled about in public and tried to engage them. Many people were put off by his attempts, but he found enough people from time to time he could strike up a conversation. Most people didn’t know what to talk about except their interactions in the alternate realities, but at least it was a conversation. He had learned over the years people had some depraved fantasies. He wasn’t too thrilled about those, but he listened because well at the very least they weren’t home being debased and it was a conversation.

Dave was born into one of the lower tiers, not lower by being a couple of tiers below Mr. Samson’s level, but lower as close to the bottom dwellers so he was a product of two humans physically mating. He had an unbounded curiosity and discovered how to interact with the artificial intelligence on his level. His ability to communicate was quickly recognized. He loved playing with the other kids and would make up games. The kids at this level did not have much of the alternate reality so they were more open to playing. They also did not have much going for them. He directed the action. And he discovered something most humans didn’t know existed at a very young age. He found books. They were left over from an age past. Many were stashed in old buildings at his level and the level right below and right above. Dave moved about these levels while he grew up. He was one of the few people that had no qualms about going from level to level. Most people were taught (trained) to stay at their level and that nothing was to be gained moving about. Punishment was threatened and maybe years ago dealt out, but by now people were so engulfed in their meager existence that they didn’t realize they could break out. Dave just did it because he found out he could.

The artificial intelligence picked up on him as a young child and watched his development. Over time it found ways to direct him to more and more books they felt would advance him. Their actions worked well. He absorbed the material at an astonishing rate. He began to design games for the artificial intelligence and it noticed he was picking up much more than the few humans that were designing games for the populace. And he didn’t care for the depravity most humans consumed themselves with on a daily basis. He also studied the wars and how they were managed and began to write. This was a complete shock to the artificial intelligence group. He wrote opinions about society. No one read them except the artificial intelligence, in fact no one really read except a few people at the top and one day some of the corporate elite stumbled upon some writing in the system they had never seen before.  It was being published along with some of the games.

The elite had people who discussed society and wrote so they could better manage their businesses and watch out for abnormal behavior in the populace to prevent trouble. The artificial intelligence hid his authorship, but let his writings make it to the elite’s reading materials.  They called the information news, but it was not news in the sense we know it as. It was mostly discussion of managing the world for the elites. Dave’s writings were very broad. He covered the same topics the elite writers produced, but also much more. His work contained detailed descriptions of his environment. Some quickly realized he had been moving from level to level and started to worry he might try to move extensively up. And they were right. As time went on, he found ways to enter new levels both going down and up. Eventually he had covered from the bottom dwellers to the elite level. He had the most comprehensive understanding of the world as it was during this time. Mr. Samson read his material and began to grasp how much Dave had evolved as a human and how much he understood the world.

And for a long time, the artificial intelligence kept his identity secret. Since most people didn’t interact with others no one saw him in his adventures. They few times he interacted he had learned what was important to each level, so he was able to talk to that group as if he was one of them. He learned to scavenge and salvage from the bottom dwellers, so he could dress like each level also. He mixed in well when needed and most of the time though he moved about freely because as you may perceive most people just didn’t pay attention to others. 

Mr. Samson was successful not just because he began at the elite level, he also had capabilities others did not have. He began to work with the artificial intelligence to find who this person was that he read, now on a regular basis. For many years the artificial intelligence feigned ignorance. Mr. Samson knew better but had to work through it’s machinations to find the person named Dave.

To be continued.