I STILL HAVE HOPE

The biggest source of political hope for me is to see the Republican insanity in steadily alienating the young and women. That Texan ass, Rick Perry, and the rest of the ignorant, hateful cabal, are doing inestimable damage to their party, and they don't begin to realize it. Fanatics can never see themselves as sane people see them.

There was a big demographic swing that helped put Barack back in the White House in 2012. It's only going to increase in 2014 and 2016.

I can't feature any oppressed college student saddled with ballooning interest on their student debt wanting anything to do with a Republican politician. I know some are so brainwashed, they still will, but if they're that dumb, I question what the hell they're doing wasting time in college or universtity in the first place. They can drag their knuckles somewhere less tasking.

It's also a mystery how so many women can sit still for Taliban-minded men passing decrees about their vaginas and uteruses, while many of them are busily bedding every woman they can seduce as they profess their devotion to the "sanctity of marriage."

It's such thoughts that help me avoid total despair. But, then, I'm the eternal optimist who always bounces back. Giving up just isn't a tenable thought. 

 

RIPPED OFF AGAIN!

I'm really disgusted this evening. I spent much of the day harvesting nectarines from our tree. I had thinned them out carefully so the fruit wouldn't be stunted. Guess what? It's the same deal I got when I thought I was planting Thompson Seedless grapes! I got little currant-sized, buckshot-like grapes! Oh, they're seedless all right but a pain to deal with. I quit wasting water on those ...ripoff vines. They can just die.

Same thing with this so-called nectarine tree. You can't buy the commercial grade fruit trees in Arizona and California. They are prohibited to be sold here by law and every catalog specifically tells me so, but they do sell these ripoffs in the local nurseries. It's all to kiss the asses of the commercial interests who want to hold us captive to their orchard-grown fruit! And it works!

By the time I figure in the cost of the tree, the work to promote the trees growth, and the price of the water, I'm gaining nothing! And, I'm going to have to work like hell pitting and slicing up all those little marbles! No wonderful tree-ripened decent sized nectarines for old Al. I've been ripped off royally!

Sometimes, you just can't win and it makes me so damn mad I could you know what with tacks!

WE CAN'T GIVE UP!

I was just whipping down my Facebook posts of the past few days and came across Robert Ingersoll's quote that every religion correctly labels all other religions frauds.

 

They are all right on that point!

Human self-righteous gullibility is beyond comprehension. We're so cock sure that we and ours just have to be the top of the heap and automatically right in our opinions and culture. Daddy and mommy couldn't have been mistaken in any of the things they spoonfed into our naive little minds way back there in our childhood. That nice minister couldn't be a ravening wolf in disguise, but Herbert Armstrong was and Pat Robertson and numerous others are.

I've had to realize, to my horror, that what I tried to push into my children's heads way back there was a poinsonous brew of abject ignorance. I was too deceived to realize it at the time, but I see it clearly today.

Most people are never blessed with that awareness. Generation after generation goes on with the same delusions being spoonfed into each succeeding generation.

That has to stop -- someway, somehow! If it doesn't, we are doomed!
It has been halted in some nations, but the original champion nation of free thought is now one of the most regimented and oppressed bastions of prejudice and ignorance in the whole world. We're becoming a christian edition of Saudi Arabia! A virtual Christian Taliban has taken over the state of Texas, and Rick Perry is its Ayatollah!

All I can do is raise one small voice. It's discouraging to see all the lying propaganda arrayed against reason. I refuse to give up. Someone has to do this, and it's a bit heartening to see other voices raised.

Being silent is unthinkable once you know what is at stake

I WISH YOU ENOUGH

I've been thinking about the old blessing, "I wish you enough."

I know, "enough" is subject to individual aspirations, desires and realities. Right now, Phyllis and I have "enough," barring any calamity that might come along.

So, life is good right now. We have the resources to provide our immediate needs and a few luxuries and joys. No Hawaii vacations are on the financial horizon, but we've already been there and those are joyous memories. I can still bring in extra with wedding ceremonies and floor jobs. Overall, life is good. And, our love and appreciation for each other is greater than ever.

Things could change drastically overnight. It would only take one catastrophic illness or accident to completely reverse everything, but it's self-defeating to dwell on such. Worry only takes away the joy that should be a part of every day.

So, I'm going to go get dressed and amble outside to see what the day offers. The nectarines are rapidly ripening now and I'm looking forward to nectarine cobbler. That's another of the simple joys I treasure.

THE EVIL OF DOGMA

Certainty and dogma. They are the enemies of progress and the favorite tools of oppressors. Give something a prejudicial label and get people to believe in the certainty of that label and reason gets sabotaged and shut down.

I was talking with a new member of our free thought group yesterday and toward the end of our conversation, some comments drifted toward politics. He stated that what he feared was "marxism." That's another hate-filled label guaranteed to shut down constructive thought.

Communism, a perverted version of socialism imposed by Joseph Stalin, was a horrible system, but it was a perversion of the teachings and intent of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, etc. A sociopath ruthlessly gained control and precipitated a reign of terror and oppression that has enabled champions of unfettered capitalism to demonize every aspect of progressive thinking by simply attaching a prejudicial label to it -- Socialism.

Unfettered socialism, especially in the hands of a sociopath like Stalin, leads to tyranny. So does unfettered capitalism. Both soon become basically the law of the jungle where those in power mercilously devour anyone and everything too weak to resist them.

Unrestrained capitalism is just as bad, or perhaps even worse than, unrestrained socialism. Both lead to a master class which enslaves everyone under the ruling elite.

The most progressive and happiest forward moving nations today are nations like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc. where Capitalism has been blended with sensible aspects of socialism.

In this country, reason has been replaced by prejudicial labeling that shuts down reason and replaces it with mindless dogma. It's the attitude that drives that insane "tea party" bunch of mindless "slogan mongers."

Adopting slogans of certainty is the path to ruin. It leads to mental ossification and a ruinous drive to tear down and destroy every vestige of sanity and benevolence that led our country forward for several decades. Now, we're retrogressing back to the age of the robber barons at breakneck speed.

IT'S WEARYING

I'm not quite as depressed as I was yesterday after I saw the bigots of this country given a Supreme Court green light to continue their efforts to didsenfranchise every non-conservative voter they possibly can so that damnable tea party and rest of the Republican fascists can continue to ride rough shod over the American people.

The wicked witch of the west, Arizona's governor, was positively gl...eeful about that abortion of jurisprudence. I wouldn't expect anything else from a hateful bitch like her.

I have no illusions that things have really changed in the old south and other retrogressive areas of the US. "States rights" is as much a code word for hate and suppression as it was in the mid-eighteen hundreds. It fills me with revulsion every time I hear it. It's the chant of hate filled bigots who want to enslave everyone they can by any and all subterfuges possible.

So, I'll just keep hammering away and seeking any outlet open to do what little I can do.

 

I'm weary, but that's nothing new.

HOUR OF DESPAIR

It's a day of despair for me.

For decades, I've watched as the fascist-minded GOP steadily loaded the Supreme Court with right wing, equally fascist-minded so called "Justices." What a misnomer!

We sacrificed mightily to defeat fascism seven decades ago. Ever since elitist Ronald Reagan entered the White House, we've witnessed an ever increasing insane rush to impose fascism on the American people.

It's pretty well succeeded.

We only have the facade of a democracy today. I fully expect racist murderer Zimmerman will probably be acquited by our addled "justice system." I expect every vestige of true civilization, true knowledge, true benevolence to be stripped away and replaced by a faith based hell hole of hateful oppression unless something unforeseen stops it. I see only a nation of the elite and powerful imposing their opinions, their hate and their corrupt system on a mass of serfs whose complaints will be made a criminal offesnse as their rights all disappear.

We are slaves to a fascist elite of millionaires, billionaires and religion-befuddled ignoramuses. I'm sorry, grandkids.  I had no idea this kind of world was coming.  I'm sorry about what you will quite possibly see as the end result.

To all the fascists out there. FUCK YOU! Fuck your fascist Republican party! Fuck your stolen millions and billions! Fuck your ignorant religions! And, FUCK THE FASCIST SUPREME COURT!