Category: Things that make you say hmmm?

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The Democrat Party has shit the bed!

After the Mar a Largo raid, (discounting all the Democrat mouthpieces,) it looks like even moderate Democrats are rethinking their party affiliation.

There have been articles scattered around the media talking about Democrats bailing to the Republican side of the party divide for months. On Tuesday, I read one from Philadelphia where a life long Democrat said she could no longer support the party.

Her comment was telling, “The Party left me…”

I felt the same way about the Republican Party several years ago. I truly understand what she’s feeling and how strangely disconnected she feels.

For me leaving the Republican Party, the party of my Father, was difficult. The Democrat Party was equally unappealing. They claimed to be two sides of the coin but as I read and observed their stated positions versus their behavior they weren’t at the time all that different from each other.

So I found a party that at least on the surface appeared to hold beliefs in common with my own. Registering with them ensured that I’d be voting in primaries.

For better or worse, I stand by that decision.

I mentioned to my brother the other day that for the first time in my life I really feared for our Republic…

Yes, boys and girls… We live in a Constitutional Republic.

In this age of almost total functional illiteracy the difference is almost always lost or obfuscated. When politicians are screaming about a threat to our Democracy, they’re talking through their hat. We don’t actually live in a Democracy so there’s nothing to fear losing.

Politicians saying that we have to protect our Democracy are either lying or incompetent. Either way they don’t deserve to be in office.

DEMOCRACY REPUBLIC
Ruled by a majority that enjoys unlimited power. Minority groups have no protection. Follows a written Constitution that protects the rights of the minority from being infringed upon by the majority.
Individuals can make their own decisions except in those situations that the majority has limited. Generally, individuals can make their own decisions, especially in situations where the Constitution protects their “unalienable rights.”
While all citizens supposedly have a say in government and are to be treated as equals, the majority often ends up tyrannically ruling the minority. Generally, all citizens are supposed to have an equal say and be treated equally, especially as protected under the Constitution.
The United States is commonly confused for a democracy. However, the will of the people should not, and does not, change the rules that limit the government’s power. Article 4, Section 4 defines the United States as a Republic.
Freedom of religion is permitted to the extent that the majority does not limit religious freedom for the minority. Generally, religious freedom is permitted, especially as protected under the Constitution
Private property is permitted, though the majority may place limits on the property rights of the minority. Generally, private property is permitted, especially as protected under the Constitution.
Great Thanks to Legaldictionary.net

I’m an ignorant Redneck with a diploma from a fly-over state. But, I can read! I also know that any words I don’t understand are defined in a dictionary somewhere and how to look up those words.

…My Brother agreed. He’s more of the history buff in the family and is much better versed in law as a former LEO.

He was raised in a different household than I, and attended school in a completely different State. However, he wasn’t surprised that I knew the difference between a Constitutional Republic and a straight Democracy.

Reading in our family is very important.

His reply was people demanding “Democracy” wouldn’t be happy if they got it. The table above from legaldictionary.net provides insight into why that would be.

In fact the whole article linked above is a short but interesting read. I recommend it.

The behavior of the Current Administration and their minions in Congress have frankly scared the hell out of me. Apparently this is true of a lot of other Americans.

Now that moderate Democrats are also waking up to the threat, the question is what will be done about it.

We’ve seen multiple examples of Two Tiered Justice. Examples of actions that look a lot more like a police state than a country governed by laws equally applied to everyone. We’ve seen what ungoverned “Majority Rule” looks like when mobs of people don’t like something.

And all the while we’ve heard Politicians and Media making excuses about why this ungoverned majority should get a pass and the other ungoverned majority shouldn’t.

It’s possible large swaths of the American people are functionally illiterate and perhaps didn’t attend civics or government classes. That does not mean that they can’t see where unequal justice is leading.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist.

At the most absurd of extremities Democracy without constitutional limitations evolves into tyranny & tribalism. If the majority in one area chooses to ostracize minority members of that area. Then the minority members will leave the area in search of others where they will be a majority.

The likely outcome is city-states, potentially governed by tyrannical leaders.

What happens then, we can observe through the lens of historical fact. Or just through the lens of our Televisions because it’s happening today in various places around the world.

Divisions over race, religion and politics, leading to conflict and suffering. My description is simplistic and does not address all the nuance but Israel & Palestine? Russia & Ukraine? South Africa? Massacres of Christians in Muslim countries? Massacres of Muslims in Buddhist countries? No-Go Zones in Sweden or Paris?

Ringing any bells?

Absolutely no American should be willing to give up our Constitutional Republic in favor of simple Democracy.

Every American should be screaming at the top of their lungs at Congress to return to the fundamentals of our Constitution and the protection against tyranny it insures.

Simply put. If one group is treated differently, then no group is safe.

The first step is to dismiss from their post, anyone in Congress who refers to our Government as a Democracy. Those calling the United States a Democracy clearly don’t get it.

Or maybe they do get it, and hope you won’t.

Regardless, the Democratic Party has shit the bed.

They’ve made a lot more people ask WTF? That may lead to Democratic voters voting against their party candidates in November even if the voters don’t change Party.

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I had this weird dream last night…

I guess the dream was brought about by a conversation I had with my Sister. She’d mentioned that my Niece (her Daughter) was very Pro Green Energy and extremely left leaning.

My Nice is no dummy, but she is in college, I suppose I can forgive her for being leftist. I hope she grows out of it.

I’d asked my Sister how my niece justified being so Pro Green given that she’s amazing at math.

My Sister missed my meaning.

I explained that the current total energy output from “renewable” sources provides less than 20% of the current energy we use in America. That number includes Nuclear power. Some say Nuclear isn’t green, but for the sake of argument let’s include it in the discussion because it doesn’t emit carbon like those evil coal and oil burning power plants.

My Sister said my numbers must be wrong. I sent her the following chart from the Government.

My Sister rightly pointed out that the chart speaks of energy consumption, not specifically how much is generated by each source. She’s right! I countered with you can only consume what is available and cannot pick and choose what source the energy comes from.

She considered my point and grudgingly agreed.

I went on to say that we could shut down all of the coal, oil, natural gas power plants. My Sister said that’s exactly what my niece was in favor of.

Because I’m the uncle that likes to stir up trouble I suggested my sister tell my niece that I was in favor of using only green energy. My Sister knows me well enough to ask, “Buuuutttt???”

I continued, “Tell her I’m just not sure how to manage cutting my energy consumption by 80%. Do I turn off my cellphone when I’m not using it? Should I turn off the internet and my computer 80% of the time? Do I not listen to anything but live music? Do I go to bed at sundown? Turn off the air-conditioning and heat? I suggested my Niece send me the specifications on the solar panels she’s using because they must be more efficient than mine.”

My Sister laughed, “You’re so evil! I’ll ask her… Probably at dinner.” My sis also commented that my Niece had invested in a new iPhone but that she did so because her old iPhone wasn’t holding a charge anymore.

My sis said, “I wish I’d thought about the solar panel angle. That’s why you should live here! You’d have suggested she buy an external battery and solar panel to carry with her instead of buying a new phone.”

I chuckled at the thought. My Niece would have taken a very dim view of the suggestion because it wouldn’t have been convenient.

Full disclosure… My Sister likes to rattle people’s cages too.

I suppose I was still chewing over the conversation when I went to sleep.

In the dream I was living in a world where 80% of the power had been removed from the grid.

Our leaders touted this as a victory because the entire country was now using 100% renewable energy.

It was a true statement. Ignoring that the 80% we weren’t using, shut down many aspects of the country. Shipping, Manufacturing, Hospitals, etc.

In the dream, I was scheduling my day to empty the water collected in my refrigerator and wishing I’d opted for the drain tubes to send the ice melt to the plants. I had to carry the water not saved for drinking down stairs in a bucket to the yard.

I was annoyed because my solar panels had the capacity to power my refrigerator. In fact the panels could power all the electrical devices in my home during the daylight hours.

A state mandate had come out saying that in the interest of “Community Good”, all of our houses had to be connected together so that those less fortunate without solar power, could benefit from those of us with solar panels.

This resulted in my house having few operable electronic devices, and my refrigerator being nothing more than an old style Ice Box. The upper shelves now contained blocks of ice.

The melt water, I hand pumped through the reverse osmosis system for drinking and cooking, the waste water from that process was carried in a bucket down to water the plants.

But the ice blocks were free. They were delivered every 2 days courtesy of the state.

While my lighting was generally candles and occasionally an LED lamp, the local State representative enjoyed air-conditioning, an electric vehicle, and a real refrigerator. Their holiday season lights were spectacular.

We were told this was because of the importance of the work and the burden of responsibility the local State representative shouldered.

For my part, I was anticipating being able to fire up my internet for an hour or two. By using my portable solar panel, the battery pack was finally charged.

It took two days of moving the panel around in the sun to get the pack and my computer charged. I hoped to be able to catch up on the national news and if I was lucky, I could possibly watch a show on the computer before it and the power pack died.

Unfortunately, some of my power would have to be spent logging onto the state taxation website to pay my monthly taxes. I hoped the state site would work properly this month because I was already carrying late charges from last month.

The State didn’t accept that their site was broken, or completely down, as an excuse for not paying your monthly tax. After all, “The law was The Law.”

I’d probably be okay though because it had been a very sunny month. The offset and efficiency of my solar panels was in the upper 1% of the producers in my community, so I had credit to declare and both tax months would be covered.

Every household had a single electrical socket that worked. The socket was only powered during the daylight hours.

It was a nice socket, provided by the State and wired to my Solar panels by State Technicians. The socket provided a single A/C current outlet, there were four USB ports that allowed for charging of cell phones and tablets. Usually, the A/C socket couldn’t power the coffee pot until around noon.

While I was filling the toilet tanks with some of the waste ice water, there was a knock at the door.

When I answered it. On my front porch there were several armed workmen. They presented me with a “Reallocation Order”.

The order said that 3 of my solar panels were to be removed and taken to another less fortunate person’s home. It had been determined that my offset and energy production was inequitable to the rest of the community.

Looking toward the State representative’s house, I could see workmen on his roof installing rails, cabling, and standoffs, all necessaryto accommodate additional panels…

A car alarm sounded somewhere in the neighborhood waking me up.

It was 3am. A cool breeze was blowing through the front windows of the house. Shaking my head to dispel the dream? Nightmare? I got up and peed. Realizing I wasn’t going to be able to sleep for a while, I put some ice in a glass and poured myself a stiff bourbon.

I hate having dystopian dreams! They make me cranky the next day.

The next time I’m talking to my Sister, I’m going to suggest that she and my Niece watch the movie Brazil. If I recall correctly, there was some interesting retrofitting of devices.

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I’m getting more Retro

God knows there’s a lot of convenience having our schedules on our phones and all of our contacts and “ToDo” lists in the cloud. Our online calendars make sure that no matter where we are, we can add a doctor, or car service appointment or know when our next meeting is.

I’ll admit it’s really nice and for many years now I’ve relied almost exclusively on these modern conveniences.

I’ve noticed that my handwriting has gone absolutely to hell. My handwriting was never beautiful either cursive or printed. Both looked like I’d strangled a palsy stricken chicken then dipped it’s feet in ink. My writing was so bad even doctors had a tough time reading it.

Now days, my writing is worse. Much worse! I’d bet that a future Archaeologist, upon discovering anything of mine that was handwritten, would assume they’d discovered another type of writing for which there was no Rosetta Stone.

I’d been aware of the degradation for many years. Last year it all came to a head when I’d written some notes during a phone call and found that I couldn’t read them an hour later.

At the time I was annoyed at myself. After ten or twenty minutes I was able to decode my chicken scratch and make sense of it. The problem wasn’t spelling it was formation of the characters themselves. I immediately recognized the problem as one of fine motor skills.

Without actually writing by hand, I’d begun to loose fine motor skills, not due to any malady, but due to lack of use. I proved this hypothesis by writing large on a piece of paper, then scaling the size of the characters down to fit in a single ruled line. (And yes, I was wearing my glasses!)

For those of you old enough to remember learning to write letters in grade school this is why all of us, as children started out with paper ruled in 2” lines. It wasn’t that our vision was terrible, it was that we needed the space to train the fine motor control in our hands.

I’d also noticed some other effects of the loss of fine motor control. Chief among these was soldering . I used to be able to solder the finest circuits by hand. If I made a repair on a board, you had to look really hard to see it. Cold Solder joints? Not on my work!

Now… Not so much.

A year ago, recognizing the problem and its cause, I dusted off my old Franklin Planner. I cleaned out the 10 year old notes and calendar, then wondered if Franklin Planners could still be purchased.

A quick web search reassured me that Franklins were in fact, still a thing. There wasn’t nearly as wide an array of page designs as there once was, but Monticello, (an old favorite) was still available. I placed an order and was pleasantly surprised when the package arrived two days later.

So I began writing by hand again. My penmanship has improved over time as a result. (I’m still not going to win any awards!)

I still receive digital Calendar invites and my household still uses common shared ToDo lists. But I transcribe the Calendar invites into my Franklin. Yes, this is redundant but it keeps pushing the ball forward on improving my penmanship.

Now when I’m on the phone scheduling something I’m noting it in my Franklin daily notes. I’ll add the event to the Franklin first, then move it to the Online Calendar if needed.

Admittedly, it’s hard to switch back to Paper and Pen. Digital services are cloyingly seductive. I’m willing to eschew the ease and convenience in trade for penmanship.

Another benefit of the trade is that my soldering ability is coming back. It’s not the quality it used to be, that’s something you acquire by doing it 8 hours a day 5 days a week. But it’s improved to the point that I’m not ashamed of anyone seeing my work.

This year’s Franklin refill arrived Monday. It’s not the old standby “Monticello” this one is something new. It’s clean and elegant with a bit less visual “weight” on the page. I noticed when I placed my order that there was a larger number of design variations on the Franklin web site.

I wonder if more people like myself are going “Retro” as a way to keep old skills?

As I mulled this over, an article notification popped up on the phone about a sitting congressman being served a warrant by the FBI for his phone.

According to the article, The congressman was traveling with his family and all the FBI wanted was his phone, this struck me as odd. Then I recalled that almost every “High Profile” FBI search and seizure over the past few years has also included seizing the person’s phone.

Thinking about it, I realized of course they’d want his phone. His phone would have a log of all his calls and their duration. The FBI would have access to all of his private text messages including those between him and his wife or children. His entire Calendar would be available as would his contact list. The phone would even have a GPS log of places that he’d been recently.

That single device provided the FBI with anything and everything the FBI could want and it’s 1000 times better than the old McCarthy era tactics which required your friends or colleagues to serve you up. Your contact list could provide the FBI with 100 or more additional people to investigate due to “guilt by association”.

I rarely have more than 100 contacts in my phone. I just don’t interact with that many people. Folks I haven’t heard from in a year or so… I delete. My Calendar, Text Messages, Photos, and ToDo list are another matter. There are literally years of data in those systems. The GPS issue isn’t much of a problem because I delete that log whenever I think about it.

I wondered, “Why don’t people execute a remote wipe of their phones when the FBI seizes them?” (I would just for spite!)

All of this got me to thinking. Will the handwritten word and perhaps day planners experience a renaissance?

I find myself wondering if it is time to move my data out of the cloud. Is it time to memorize important phone numbers and addresses again? Does Thomas Brothers still make their excellent Thomas Guides?

I’m not guilty of anything, I’m not likely to have my phone seized by the FBI. It’s a matter of privacy and principal. Why make it easy for them, or for any other 3 letter department of whatever?

It occurs to me that true protection of privacy is only possible if everything is in your brain. Anything and everything put on the ‘net lives forever. Has it come to the point that the only way to ensure our privacy is to disconnect?

The FBI these days looks more like an enemy of the people and the enforcement arm of a socialist/communist government than law enforcement.

That is a chilling thought. Perhaps my switching back to writing on actual paper in my day planner is a good thing.

I can burn the day planner. I can write notes that only mean something to me in it. I can refuse to decode those cryptic notes. I can choose to not clearly recall details, I can invoke the fifth amendment.

My digital devices, not so much. They can only do as they’re commanded. My devices have no concept of Constitutional Rights and no ability to determine if they should obey valid commands or not. (I’m not even sure that I’d want them to have that ability) There are some things only a human mind can, or should do.

Have the powerful little bricks in our pockets become a liability? I was reminded of Blade Runner.

Will someone in the near future be visiting Apple and having an exchange like this:

Rachael: It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.
Deckard: Replicants are like any other machine – they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem

I’m going to be thinking about stuff like this for a while. In the meantime, I’m going to be using my Franklin a lot more.