Published by Scottie
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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Scottie's Playtime 
When I saw that yesterday my first thought was it’s getting to them. Playin’ eight-ball, call the pocket, call it like it is, they’re NAZIs and they don’t like it. It’s getting under their skin
I’m counting it as a win …
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Hi Ten Bears. So correct. They hate the truth and facts pushed in front of them as they try to deny it. Hugs
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This is not going to end well.Not in a nation with so many guns and an administration which is not making any attempt to reach out to anyone other than their followers.It happened to us in Northern Ireland.Take care guys🙏🌈Roger
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Hi Roger. I have missed conversing with you. I hope to be able to go back and see your older comments. I hope your wife is doing well as I hope you are. I have to tell you great news. I can walk again. I had surgery on Tuesday that the surgeon went into my spine and shaved my spinal cord and increased the nerve channel space so I can walk. I am so happy. It is not without pain, but still the ability to walk is one far too many people take for granted.
Here all the protestors are being told to stay peaceful as any protestors that are part of a group that one person does something illegal they all get long prison sentences. That has played out now in the lower courts with protestors getting sentenced to 50 or 100 years because one protestor threw rocks, damaged ICE cars, or in one case shot back at an ICE agent who was shooting at him. We are in a dangerous place my friend.
The government just removed rules preventing one person from owning all the media news outlets in an area. Opening the way to even less reliable news reporting and more propaganda. The US is going the way of far too many authoritarian states. We have two competing factions pushing this.
The religious faction that wants a Christian white nationlist theocracy and the wealthy oligarchy that wants the government to be subservient to the whims of capitalism and to never interfere with more profit. Which side wins means less rights for the people. Hugs
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Hello Scottie.
Please accept my apologies for the long delay on absence, which I can’t really explain adequately, basically dropping off most of the WP grid and struggling to get back on, for no good reason.
To quote from an old King Crimson song:
‘Where have you been?
I’ve been here
I’ve been there
And I’ve been in between’.
Possible cause might have been the effort to get the right narrative going on a book which fogged up my ability to write, clearly and consistently.
Anyway. It is great news Scottie that you can walk again, we are so very pleased for you. To know one of my friends’ health has improved and increased their quality of life is joy indeed. And blanks out some of the bad news which inhabits our days.
Yes Scottie I agree, The USA is in a very dangerous place. It only needs a very, very few to decide that a violent response is justifiable and everyone loses straight away. Whereas a nation with the size and the resources of the USA can get away with defeating a racial minority sponsored violence, if such a mood tips into the majority population then the numbers proportionally increase and spread out of minority areas.
Rational governments realise this, which is why even folk such as Nixon knew when the game was up.
If anyone in this current court thinks they are impose even workable control in the long term they are very much deluded.
Thankfully the majority of folk in opposition will have nothing to do with violence and amongst their ranks there can a number of creative minds who can and will circumvent the clumsy mean spirited attempts by this wretched crew.
You and yours take care now.
All our best wishes
Roger and Sheila
🌈🙏
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Hi Roger. Never apologize for not getting back to the blog or adding comments. Each time you do it is a treat but I understand the role life plays in being able to deal with online stuff. I see so badly now that it is mostly all I can do to get the cartoon / memes / news posts out and I have not been to other blogs in months. I want to but as you may understand he spirit is willing but the body is far too weak.
Yes Roger the ability to walk again is so grand. However I saw my doctor who did the surgery last week and my pain provider this week and both told me to back off and not push so hard to get back on my feet and doing things. They are worried I will do more damage if I keep pushing, so they want me to go slower.
But the grand joy is the fact that I can cook breakfast that Ron loves and we can work together on other meals. When we redisgned the house we knocked out some walls and built a very large kitchen that we both can work together in. It is something we really enjoy and Ron has missed when I couldn’t stand or walk.
To the US being a dangerous place. The government has come down hard on a group of protestors and gotten long prison sentences when an ICE agent fired on a group of protestors and a protestor fired back. That was a line the government was hoping would be crossed and they got sentences of 20 and 40 years for people just standing there protesting by claiming they were the same as the return shooter. It was what the government wanted to show how they could screw regular peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to stop protests.
I am worried about this development and that the courts went along with it. Now I learned that the ICE leadership is now targeting podcasters / social media people like me. Their goal is to put so much pressure on the anti-ICE people that they quit posting anything negative about ICE. They have shown up at the bloggers homes demanding they sign papers saying they are violating the law and can be charged along with being prosecuted.
It is a real issue for those of us with small assets and not a lot of money to fight this attack from the US government. But I wonder if we can still call the US the land of the free? Do we still have constitutional rights? Or did we suddenly overnight become Russia or North Korea ruled over by a cult leader whose only goal is self-enrichment and his cult members who follow him blindly? Hugs
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Hi Scottie.
There never seem to be enough hours in the day or energies to get things done. Perhaps it’s ago or maybe the heat waves we in the UK are not used to.
Global climate change has caught the UK on the hop. For many years there has been a diligent effort to make houses insulated. Now we all find our houses are too warm and the term ‘Air Conditioning’ is being used a lot. It is strange to get out of the house and find the outdoors pleasantly cooler.
We are so pleased that you are feeling the benefit of the surgery Scottie, and the medical advice is wise, build up slowly. But it is heart warming to know that you and Ron can now share the cooking together in that kitchen. May you have many happy times there and produce great meals.😀
Every once in a while I try not to repeat messages, and yet, the more news coming out of the USA has me thinking that a Northern Ireland situation is close at hand. The ICE are stoking up a fire of resentment in a land polarised and with far too many guns.
And believe me when I say, no one wins in a situation where civil strife becomes a norm- aside from criminal elements who thrive whenever there is a crisis.
What these silly and vain people who crowd around Trump and take advantage of his egotistical delusions do not realise are the bare facts.
1. The USA is big. 5 time zones wide and with a heritage of independence in states regions and communities.
2. The population of some 300 million is not something you can suddenly contain. Russia and China have histories of authoritarian governments. Yet down the centuries they experienced rebellions, very violent discontent with local lords running things their own way. The communists imposed some sorts of cohesive governments but at a fearful cost in lives, and eventually one toppled and the other morphed. Their holds seem strong, but the veneer is not that deep, and they are lucky they have a fool like Trump to bamboozle. (North Korea is small enough to impose that singular regime- unique).
The current US regime seems to have a nationwide hold, but there is no bedrock of authoritarian rule and you don’t build it unless you make an effort to convince the vast majority of the population it is necessary, not to try and do the opposite.
In short Scottie, the Republican attempt is folly, not with only at best one-third of the voter population. It will not work.
You guys take care. And enjoying the cooking.
All our best wishes
Roger & Sheila
🙏🌈
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Sigh. Where does it all end, my dear friend? I don’t see a good ending at all for this. Hugs
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Hi Jill. I am not really sure where or how. The optimist in me wants to think it starts to get better with the change of party running the house. But then I remember how hard the establishment corporate Democrats are fighting against the will of the people and the progressive members simply to stay tight with the donor class. That same donor class that would like to return to the 1920s gilded age where businesses ran everything and the people were desperate with nothing. The other place could be a spiral down into Russia under Putin, Hungary under Orban, and other autocracies where again the people have no rights and those connected to the government get ever wealthy, rigging the system to stay in power as the people struggle to stay alive. Hugs
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Sigh. Frankly, the optimist in me either died or left home for good, for it hasn’t been seen lately. I honestly think the human species is on the path to self-extinction by their greed and arrogance. But … on a more cheerful note … how’ve you been, my dear friend. Sorry I haven’t checked in lately … I’m short of energy for anything these days, and time seems to fly and before I know it the day is gone. But I do think of you often and hope you’re hanging in there. Love ‘n hugs, dear Scottie! 🥰
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Hi Jill. Sorry my response is so late. How am I doing? I just had back surgery to help me walk again; my cataract surgery got pushed back, so I am very close to being blind, making doing things on the computer hard to get done. I have to have two more surgeries. Ron is now 71 and working on rebuilding our home from the damage done by hurricane Ian but he also had to spend nearly half a year last year helping his sister in Texas and now may need to make another trip to New Hampshire as she wants to sell her place there and he did so much work to help her sell her place in Texas. She had two places in our development. Against all advice she bought a park model we told her would be too small and the second day she was in it she agreed and bought a small double wide. So Ron now has both those properties to take care of. He is 71 this year and we are scheduling his cataract surgery as soon as he gets back from New Hampshire.
I was on the gurney ready to have my cataract surgery but when the anesthesiologist came in they said they couldn’t even sadate me because of the amount of home pain medications I take. So I have to go to a college surgical center in Naples where they can put me totally under. The funny thing was the anesthesiologist said if it would help she would hold my hand as they operated on my eyes. I declined.
But the good news is other than health issues we are doing very well. We paid off all our bills and are building our savings again. We are more in love and happier every day. Now that I can walk again I am cooking together with Ron something we really enjoy. When Ron built the new kitchen in 2017 we made it big enough for two of us to cook meals and bake stuff together. We are starting to rejoin the community we withdrew from due to all our illnesses and the damage to the home.
I feel so lucky for all we have and to some it may seem like not much. But we have been together for 36 years and more in love than ever. We can afford our bills and we can afford our medications and doctor visits. Our bellies are full of food and we have a safe comfortable home to live in and sleep at night. I still struggle with the memories of my abuse and still have the nightmares and times I need Ron to help me come out of the terrories I am in. But we deal with the issue better than we ever had before as I have confided more of the truth of my tortured trafficked childhood to Ron. I feel now that every day we are together is a gift.
Jill I know things have not been easy for you. Please let me know how you and the family are doing. As soon as I can see well enough to deal with reading blogs I will be back to reading you daily. Right now it is all I can do to do the cartoons / memes / and what news clips I can read as it doesn’t take a lot of reading to post a cartoon. But you and your family have been through so much and I admit I worry one day I will go to your blog and read very horrific news that you won’t be doing it anymore. Remember even if I am not there I really do still care. Hugs
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