Category: Randy, Author

Ugh! Monday :( Funnies

Here are some pics to help you prepare for Tomorrow. Good Luck!

The Cost of Religion in Politics

Hello All. I was going to comment on a post by Scottie (here) of Pastor Ed Trevors, but I runneth off at the mouth. So, I made a post of it. If you have not listened to that 8-minute video yet, it would help to understand this comment post. I apologize if it comes off a bit preachy, that is not my intent.

A good portion of that video is Pastor Ed speaking on how they have taken steps to protect their parishioners but also spoke on how Jesus spoke on hypocrisy quite often. What I know he also knows but didn’t speak on yet struck me as central to the argument is the understanding of judgement and sin in opposition to love and respect.

Scottie and I have had great conversations about belief and faith, and it has taught me that there is a huge variance of people. I believe we very well may find ourselves up for Judgement one day, and so many will be surprised to find someone being told “Well Done” who never went to church but did their very best to be good loving people. But, so many others who claim that they are righteous because they go to church, that they are good people because they are Christians, are so godly because they tithe and demand the Ten Commandments be posted in the schools, are so holy because they shame the sinners – will be disappointed when He says He doesn’t know them.

In recent times, we have seen people laying hands upon Trump and speaking of him as some prophet or good man sent by god. And, while this is not a dump on drumpf post, it very much is a post about Christian Values and how the boundaries are so situationally elastic for far too many.

I recognize that it is human nature to look upon others and judge them harsher than ourselves. The saying “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit” has more value in the Christian Church than it has any right. I guess it could be said that if we were to look upon our sins honestly we would either become indifferent out of the need to be sane or suicidal in the need to be accountable.

Jesus reportedly spoke on this very thing. He didn’t think we were to be perfect. If you consider the woman accused of adultery that was to be stoned, he didn’t excuse her of what she had done, in fact he told the crowd to throw their stones, but only if they were perfect. When none could, he told her he didn’t condemn her either but to sin no more.

But that huge difference shown in that example is the defining point that I believe is the root cause for so many of our problems in this world; Some believe that “your sin is so very much worse than my sin” and not only should you be ashamed of it but made lesser for it is destroying what we could be for the ability of others to control who we are and what we do. My readings of the Gospels are not about seeking some sort of ‘get out of jail’ card for myself by offering up another for sacrifice, but being honest and seeking to improve.

To say that ‘the sin another committed is proof for judgement while my sin is not’ goes above and beyond any scope of what Jesus reportedly came to teach and modeled for us to follow.

Franklin Graham famously showed his hypocrisy in this, but he did far more: He showed his willingness to publicly judge and shame one sin while all but condoning the same sin from another – and for political purposes at best and personal gain perhaps as well.

THIS is what religion into politics has brought us: This notion that someone is “approved by God” despite what they do, and others should be chastised no matter what they do.

To conclude: I believe “Love your Neighbor as Yourself” means we all will fail, we all will come short, but we all deserve to find love, to find meaning, to be free and whole, to find our way. And just as I have no right to abuse others or force my neighbor to conform his actions to my beliefs, he has no right to force himself upon me or others, for that violation of another’s identity or freedom of personhood is the very worst abuse we can do.

Hugs.

Randy

Some Laughs

Hi All. Like many of you out there, I very much need some things to laugh about. I hope you find something in the following that makes you smile. 🙂

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.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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?

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.

The DeLegitimitizing of America; “fake news”, fake reality, and the dismantling of the Judicial System.

Delegitimization: To remove the authority, the very veracity of a thing, an idea, a process or a person.

We saw it become more and more used as a word in the 1990’s, raising to a regularly seen word in the modern era.

The idea of a politician lying to the people is as axiomatic and expected as to be enfolded within the very image of the word “politician”. The sad part is not the lie, it is the full purchase of the lie by those who prefer the lie to the reality that they might be wrong.

Nonetheless, the very invention of the modern internet created an unexpected leveling of information sources where the respected scientists and journalists somehow were delegitimized to become equal footing with the internet troll and conspiracy theorist.

My grandfather used the term “talking out both sides of your mouth”. Certain “news” pundits used the politicization of reality to unashamedly become very rich. They sold themselves and whatever morals they once held for this idea that the public doesn’t have the right nor the need for the actual truth.

From a very good 2018 article in the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320 In the future, the term “fake news” might come to be seen as a relic of febrile 2017 (if we’re lucky). But the fight against misinformation won’t go away. Companies and governments are now starting to take concrete action… Google and Facebook have both said that they are going to be hiring a lot of people to review content and enforce their terms of service…” we have instead seen Zuckerberg first accused by the republicans of violation of the 1st Amendment only to then bend the knee to Trump, and the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk to remove such standards and accuracy oversights. We witnessed live the overthrow of journalistic integrity by the very people journalists are meant to hold accountable.

Musk went on to purchase both president trump outright and the “mandate” to purge the government similar to his destruction of Twitter all the while publicly declaring fascism alive and well.

In the midst of this, we have seen the republicans refuse to allow evidence that trump attempted to bribe a desperate foreign head of state to implicate Joe Biden in a conspiracy of fraud, only to then fire and oust the people who did their job in reporting that problem to the government.

The very same republicans who were once cowering under their chairs as the Jan.6th insurrectionists smashed their way in an attempt to keep trump in power and hang Mike Pence, again – if a bit late – for doing his job. They later called it a “tour”, then cheered when the very person responsible for their crimes came back into power and pardoned each and every one of them.

And refused to do their jobs when it was found that trump had stolen boxes upon boxes of national secrets.

Trump violated the law and was – shockingly – expected to account for his actions, garnering sexual abuse convictions, fraud convictions, rico election fraud accusations… and they were ignored. The government employees charged with the thankless task of holding a president to the very laws of the country he once headed were fired, ostracized, threatened. The supreme court was packed with the questionable… yeah, we’ll leave it at that. The Justice Department was put into the hands of his former personal attorney, the one who was refusing to allow him to be held accountable for his crimes, foregoing the very notion that the Justice Department is the “People’s Attorney”.

I’m absolutely out of breath! I’m no where near a complete description and I’m out of breath. I can only wonder if there will ever be a history book describing this, or if we are witnessing the final acts in the decimation of the education of our youth and the idea of facts, reality, justice. What will be left that made America what it is? The Constitution? Already disrespected. The People? They are cowed into hysterical sycophantic abasement on the one hand and bewildered incredulity on the other. I just don’t know what is left and I seriously question what will we become now.