Taking another swing at the melon

Hello All. I recently managed to completely confuse everyone with a post titled “I differ from Belle a bit on This”. It may help to put the rest of this post into context…Scottie insisted that I take my medication before I try to express myself a bit better with this second swing. I’ll have you know that my doctor says I’m feeling much better now, so… here goes; strap up buttercup!

I would like to preface this attempt at face-saving with the reminder that just because something sounds incredibly insane does not mean that it isn’t in fact, uh, fact. Let’s face it, America just voted back in a guy who… well, you know who he is. I don’t think I need to explain more there.

For those of you brave (crazy?) enough to have gone back and read that previous post, I begged for help with an eventuality that I see in our future. I told Scottie that it is like seeing something horrifying coming towards you on a fog covered road; too indistinct to quite make out, to loathsome to articulate. And for those of you keeping score, I still don’t want to say it because I don’t want to speak it into existance and I’m truly afraid of the outcome. Nonetheless…

Despite drumpf’s denials, he is plugging right down the perditious road of project 2025. We have seen him bring on banana-nut musk and his flying monkeys as they take a reaping scythe to a functioning government, mostly to the rabid applause of the far right.

For those of you who know people who work in the government, they are typically non-political. Why? Because politicians come, politicians go, and these folks have to be to work on Monday morning to do the work that needs to be done. But, drumpf and his crew of merry men fired thousands for being “unfit”.

They said that this was to “save money”, “to be more efficient” and to “root out corruption”. They told you they were going to do this in their project 2025. They also told you that they would replace them with right minded compatriots. That was such batshit craziness that no one believed them, including the now fired government workers who voted for them.

Now, for some things that they didn’t tell you that I alluded to in the previous post:

I believe that the project 2025 is a grass-roots restructuring of the American Government. The replacement of the top people every four years is expected, and has a limited effect. The rank and file ignore them and do their job around them.

The replacement of the rank and file in relevant positions will change the structure of the government in the same way that the take over of the school boards drove home the confusion and dismantling of personal freedom for young people… who grow to be the upcoming generation. The removal of DEI and reasonable minded government workers, is only the pretext for replacement of those people who mirror the very American population with compatriots who demonstrate their “fitness” by being willing to violate any law, any policy, any moral code upon direction of their Dear Leader.

In short: I believe that the drumpf administration is seeking to create the very deep state they accused the democrats of having.

I believe this grass roots movement will mirror the change in the top, but will be around for 20-30 years, long after we would presume, hope!, drumpf to be gone.

I believe this movement will not only facilitate the end goals of project 2025, but normalize it.

I believe this is designed to not just dismantle the normalcy of the government, not just open the very institution to pillaging by the powerful, but to bring about a future that would not be recognizable pre-maga.

And, the ramifications of this terrify me.

A bit of Love

I used to have a small lawn care business, just me and two lawnmowers, weed wackers, a couple of brooms putzing around the neighborhood in my old pick-up truck and Dad’s old snowmobile trailer. I couldn’t do much about the customer’s dandelions, but I let them grow in my own yard. I liked them. My neighbor’s were pissed. -randy

Priorities

One of the strangest arguments I have ever had and will ever have, I sincerely hope, is that we should make sure we are feeding our children. On the face of things, you would rarely hear someone argue differently, but when people talk about discontinuing food stamps and school lunch programs, that is the real argument: feeding kids isn’t an important enough use for my money. In this country, we throw away food because our leadership is unable/unwilling to prioritize taking care of our people at a basic level of food, housing, education, health. Hugs all. randy

In fiscal year 2023, the federal government spent $112.8 billion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the largest nutrition assistance program in the United States. This was about 1.84% of the federal budget.

According to research, childhood hunger can significantly impact adulthood by increasing the risk of chronic health conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease, as well as contributing to mental health issues like depression, lower cognitive function, and reduced life satisfaction, even when adjusting for socioeconomic factors in adulthood; this is largely due to the developmental disruptions caused by malnutrition during critical growth periods in childhood.

40% of American families are one paycheck away from poverty. This means that they would be unable to cover an unexpected expense if they missed a paycheck

In 2022, 9.1 percent of U.S. households with adults aged 65 and older were food insecure at some time during the year, meaning they had difficulty providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources.

dog chuckles

Miss my Grace.

Have a great night everyone!

I Differ from Belle a bit on This

Hello All. I am stumbling over how to express my thoughts on this or even if they are accurate, so I think I need your help. I don’t know if it is best listening to Belle talk about Recisions first, but I’ll put forth her video and let you know my thoughts after that I need some help understanding.

Recision is a trackable and mostly upfront process where the congressionally approved monies are rejected by the executive branch. Where I differ from Belle on this, sort of, is that the republicans in general and more specifically whoever is the brains behind the drumpf administration would seriously consider this idea of Recision. I think this is pure smoke and I very much do not believe that is their goal for a variety of reasons:

First and foremost, that then makes those funds unavailable. Not for a moment do I believe that drumpf want to limit his access to funds.
Making the Recision process fact is time consuming. The type of governing, if I can call it that, drumpf engages in is one of misdirection and chaos. Recision is a predictable and voted process that does not allow for dictatorial maneuvering by the powers that be, which not only allows for others to opine or even stop the process, it limits the “well what’s done is done, can’t stop it now” response.
But Mostly: The goal of replacing government workers with partisan drones has not been forgotten. The game plan outlined in Project 2025 that drumpf repeatedly said he knew nothing about yet seems to be marching right along point by point was to replace government workers with partisan compatriots so that he would not be blocked from accomplishing those plans.
- In a recent interview Elon said that the rank and file government workers are a hinderance to his ability to make the “efficiency” mandates and cuts a reality.
- Of the first firings were the very people who are trained with the policies and laws associated with the departments they oversee and charged with investigating allegations of abuse and fraud.
- drumpf has used the ‘how creatively can you kiss my ass’ process for his cabinet and department meetings since his first term, expecting these grown men and women to expound on how great ‘dear leader’ is as a man and a leader. Those government workers removed – while individually agreeable perhaps – as a whole are not willing to debase themselves to perform their jobs.
- Elon required government workers to list what they did last week so to justify their job. (It did not go well)

This is what I am betting I will see soon: These displaced workers performed x-amount of work. That work, those services, will soon to be seen as necessary, but as the workers were dismissed for being “unfit“, they will need to be replaced with those “fit” for the job. And, of course, the first definition of “fit” is one who will do what they are told no matter what while publicly kissing sweet potato hitler’s ass.

Where I need input now is in consideration that the guy in the mirror isn’t giving me a lot of erudite thoughts on this issue, so I’m a bit lost in my own wanderings and I simply don’t have the time in front of the interviews and news to have better information. So far I’m not hearing the news organizations talking about this in this expected outcome. What do you think?

Thanks!!

randy

A chuckle..

Good Night everyone.

Randy

Damn…

One of the least comfortable things that having older parents is that I have to deal with the fact that they are not as quick with their memory as they once were. I may hear the same jokes I’ve heard before, the same stories I’ve already been told about this cousin or that things just weren’t like that in their day.

And, as I’m coming to get older, I’m finding a level of adaptation and a willingness to forgive those lapses. I’m telling myself that I have to be thankful that I can share in the many memories and the great times.

For instance: This year I bought myself a Brita water filter. I really like it, and feel very congratulatory for myself because I got it at a great 50% off sale price. At the same time, I bought some replacement filters – got those at a 40% off sale.

I liked it so much, I bought my parents one as well, but got them the better filter so they wouldn’t have to replace the filter so often. And they really seem to like it as well. They are down in Florida where the tap water is ~ uhm, chewy? ~ Yeah, we’ll go with that. They really like the filtered water. So, back to the whole memory thing….

Can someone remind me where I put my extra filters???

By the way: I’m 23 of 24 on the list. Never had a MySpace. How did you do?

What’s Going On…

The wealthy and powerful want us to kick down, the liberals want us to kick up, and the sheep go where they are told without thought or reason. Chaos, divisiveness. “Don’t trust the main stream media”. “Don’t trust the courts”. “Don’t trust your very eyes, they only lie to you”. But who are we to trust? It’s a fevered dream screaming out What’s Going On?

Do The Right Thing, Pt.2

If I were to ask 1000 people what they value the most in a partner, I would likely get near to 1000 similar answers, that would likely consist of variants of someone being a horny boy scout: Cleanliness, commitment, common sense, communication, compassion, confidence, consistency, courage, creativity, harmony…. You get my point.

If I were to ask the same questions of employees, I would get, again, similar answers.

We want to work for an employer who is creative, confident, inspiring, loyal and successful, among other attributes. Most of middle class workers want to be paid every payday, have a confidence that we will have a job the next week rather than living in fear of what is just around the corner, and know that our hard work is valued and appreciated.

But we have found that when we want a national leader, we find those staid truths boring. Carter was one of the smartest and kindest presidents we have ever had, but he was thrown over for someone who spoke well at celebrity shows and told good stories. That man went on to convince the country that if they only gave the rich man more money they would prosper by the scraps falling to them from on high. The die was cast: oratory skills of a story teller hold precedence over other attributes such as trustworthiness, competence and consistency. Somehow being bombastic and entertaining gained the highest priorities for way too many.

When I was going to school, I remember a dream of man that he was a warrior so that his son could live a life of peace and be a farmer, putting food on his table and raising his family in safety and security. And the farmer wanted his son to be a businessman so he didn’t have to live a life of broken hands and aching back.

And the businessman wanted his son to be a scholar and an artist so he could bring innovation, understanding and beauty to his world. This was to be the guide for man living a life of peace and confidence in the wonderful things that life could bring.

Some of my proudest moments in life were to see equality in marriage made fact, to see the government of the people begin to value the health of the country rather than just the martial stance of our army, and to see our youth feel free to be themselves no matter how that was expressed. Conversely, some of my saddest moments have come with the avowed destruction of those points of authenticity and growth of our people because some found it so profoundly threatening that they preferred fake entertainment, avarice and chaos. My enduring hope is that people want to be genuine, they want to be free, they want peace and security and a reality that does not change whenever the powers that be find it inconvenient.

Do the Right Thing

Good Morning. Yesterday I ran head long into a problem I’ve been putting off. In fairness, we all weigh our priorities and sometimes put off one thing for another. Welcome to a busy life. The problem, of course, is that issue is still waiting resolution.

As happened yesterday, my forklift driver had let his area get messy. He was angry because the person who is to be doing the trash disposal hasn’t been doing very good. He has a point – one that he expressed quite loudly when I asked him to clean things up a bit. Yet, I came to appreciate that outburst.

I’m finding it difficult to get all the things I physically need to have hands-on to get done while at the same time going about and pushing people to do the things that they are supposed to do. I have a tendency to expect people to be adults, to do what they are supposed to do. And, while I don’t have a problem coming along behind and catching the occasional fallen task, I’ve come to see that I am spending too much on catching other’s fallen tasks and not enough on attending to my own.

My rough draft of this post began to talk about how the forklift driver had allowed his area to be so messy, then got angry when I asked him to tighten it up. I’ve had to re-examine this and realize that I’ve ALSO not been doing what is right. I’ve not been holding people to account well enough. I’ve allowed things to become a problem unresolved and stacking up.

The hard part about integrity is that there is always one person who is watching, or at least should be watching: that guy in the mirror. He is the only one we are accountable to, the only one we can’t fully evade, fully lie to, fully deny has the right to the truth – no matter how uncomfortable. Gotta tell you, that guy is a real pain in the ass.