Tagged: love

A Little Time Means A Lot Of Focus and Politics is Personal

As election day draws near, I cannot deny that my resolve not to vote for Trump began to waiver. Colorado is solidly blue, so a Trump vote would certainly be a wasted vote. Still, I was starting to feel like it would be fun to tell the grandkids that I was part of the unforeseen popular majority.

As I voted today, I just couldn’t do it. And with time running out, the underlying reason finally surfaced. (I don’t know why I didn’t see this happening; it always does. We veterans prefer working under pressure for the clarity it brings.)

The reason I can’t vote for Trump is because I can’t vote for Republicans. The Republicans were in power during 9/11. They had a chance to accomplish what no humans have yet accomplished, and they blew it—including wasting my time and energy by sending me to Iraq in response.

9/11 should have been used to relegate the false god Allah to the myths and legends section of libraries and bookstores. And the only way to do that is make supporting him deadly—which can be done directly or indirectly, but with intention, nonetheless. So many gods have perished. This shouldn’t be controversial. Instead, and unconscionably, the supposedly great Republican party* decided to lie and wage irrelevant (and illegal) wars under the guise of satisfying all interested players and offending no one.

So, no, I won’t buy into the same system that made that category mistake. Nations are okay, but gods are where the action is at.

Anyhow, I know my opinion is unpopular. So it’s not like I expected to find some candidate who wanted to lead and win the coming Holy War. But I also can’t vote for people who have had the opportunity to do so and dropped the ball. So I found the rules for write-in votes (you can’t just vote for anyone) and there is some random unaffiliated and normal looking citizen that satisfied the requirements for Colorado’s ballot and I voted for him. In other words, literally any average citizen is better than Trump/Harris and the major (and minor) parties. His name is Chris Garrity. Best of luck, man.

In short, with time drawing to a close, I have just now realized that, for me, politics is personal.

*To be clear, the Dems would have done no different.

The Preacher Said, “Joy Cometh in the Morning” in Today’s Service. Was It Code Today?

This morning was my last morning with the Black Baptists before the election. (I work next Sunday.) Going in, I was curious what kind of political talk we’d hear. For the past several Sundays, the gist was always “Trump bad,” but never quite “Kamala good.” And Baptist preachers wouldn’t be Baptist preachers if they didn’t say, “Vote!”

Today’s service had two political moments. The first occurred way before the sermon, during a fairly random reading of a Black History Experience. I don’t recall the exact words, but I remember smiling as the lady said something about how important this election was.

I thought, “Hype!! It’s all hype. She’s a sucker. No different than at this Super Bowl or during these playoffs ‘we are witnessing something never before seen!’ It’s all hype. Don’t fall for it.”

The second moment requires a brief reminder. There are many sayings or scriptures or proverbs which the Black Baptists all around the country utter at least once during each Sunday service. “But early, EARLY Sunday morning…” is one. Another is, “God loves…a cheerful giver.” A third is, “You can’t out-give God.” Another is, “He woke you up this morning!” Another is, “As the old saints used to say…”

The one in question, and behind this post is, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Seriously. If a woman who has seen five or more decades and survived at least one round of cancer doesn’t say this into a microphone, with perfect timing and emphasis on “But Joy!!…comes in the morning,” then you weren’t at a Baptist church.

Today, however, the sermon was essentially a Stephen-esque recounting of all it took for Moses to strike the rock rather than speak to it. Then, as the capstone, she delivered the somehow never-tired, “Remember, weeping may endure for a night,” (wait for it) “But JOY comes in the morning.”

It was code. It was so clearly code. “Vote Kamala—the candidate of JOY. And stop worrying. The LORD won’t let him win.” Had she said it at any other time in the story, I wouldn’t have even noticed it. But it was delivered with an ever-so-slightly-out-of-place force, an ever-so-slight amount of “indulge me, Saints” that I am certain it was meant as a Gilead-made balm to the community.

My aforementioned Ethiopian wife didn’t see it that way.

What do you think?


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Trump’s Not A Horse in A Building; He’s James Bond

My brother was the first to share with me the humorous analysis that watching Trump was like watching a horse inside a building—it’s off-putting, but everything is probably gonna be okay.

But the more I watch Trump, the more I am sure that the creature he is most similar to is James Bond.

If you haven’t watched one of the films recently, please do so before reacting argumentatively to this idea.

The general highlights of the two characters’ similarities are the neat suit, and the humor—often some kind of sexual innuendo, as was on display yesterday. There is also, at this point, on full display for the entire nation and world, a remarkable ability to land on their feet.

And if you haven’t watched the McDonald’s clips, you owe it to yourself to track some down. A beautiful lady pulls up to the window, and Trump says aloud, “You’re a beautiful woman.” A tough looking large man pulls up to the window, and Trump says aloud, “Wow, I wouldn’t want to mess with you.”

“And you are?”

“Trump. Donald Trump.”

Kamala Harris Speaks in Sentence Fragments and Believes the Sky is Flat

The “word salad” description of Kamala Harris’ utterances is just not powerful. It is accurate, but it is not powerful. So the time has come to change the description of her speech. It is time to plainly state that she does not speak in complete sentences. Instead, simply describe that she speaks in sentence fragments.

Kamala Harris speaks in sentence fragments. She does not speak in complete sentences. She also does not speak in run-on sentences. Instead, she speaks in sentence fragments.

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I also want to return to her “see the constellation” wisdom she pronounced the other day, one more time.

Forget that constellations are “not real” in the sense that Orion doesn’t really look like a warrior with a bow, nor does Orion’s Belt really look anything like a belt. I don’t care about that. What is striking to me, especially after having read through many of the great “scientists” of Western Civilization and their celestially-centered work—something Harris has clearly never read—is that constellations and Harris’s entire point are based on an incorrect model of the universe. The night sky has depth. The stars in the constellations are not lights lining the interior of a sphere, similar to a planetarium. The universe is deep.

Kamala Harris is manifestly ignorant of this and consequently passes on proverbs from antiquity which amount to little more than horoscope. This woman is a moron. And it ain’t because she is black, Indian, or a woman. It is because she speaks in sentence fragments and believes the sky is flat.

A Midwestern Take On the State of the Two Campaigns

Trump: They know they have won. At this point all that is left to do is stay in headlines. (ref: dancing, outrageous rhetoric etc.)

Harris: They know they have lost. At this point all that is left to do is prove you really tried. (ref: interview explosion)

The Answer to This Gen Xer’s Middle-School Question, “What Is the Point of Diagramming Sentences?”

Harris answered, “If you just look at where the stars are in the sky don’t look ‘em as just random things if you just look at them as points look at the constellation what does it show you?”

Before you review the provided diagram, please take a moment to consider the concept she asserted that the “stars” are “random things” and “points”.

That took about 45 min and some help from the internet. Overall, I learned that Harris used the imperative (I hate being bossed) and uncommonly deep subordinate phrasing.

Now, if only we knew what those random points in the sky when it is dark were, then we might be getting somewhere towards understanding Trump’s racism.

Harris 2024!!

Media’s Paradox

What if they start suggesting that the polls indicate Trump will win, and then Trump were to lose?

This, my fellow Americans, is why you don’t lie.

They lied for so long, that now, they cannot see a way to recover their integrity.

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Up next, I am going to answer the age old question about the task of diagramming sentences, “Why do we have to learn this?”

The Spark

I’m not saying it will ignite what seems inconceivable—a full and prolonged civil war—but I am saying it will light a proper insurrection.

The spark is going to be a widely attended and publicized funeral.

When the time comes, the funeral, and its attendant crowds, will be the event and day and time that ordinary citizens, and not-so-ordinary citizens, will violently enflame the tinderbox of MAGA vs. DNC incivility. Stay home.

Yes, I have been reading Les Misérables. Yes, I got the idea directly from it. No, I do not think the situation in America is anything like 1832 Paris. But we all can feel that more escalation and more outrageous events await.

It’s my blog. There is a thrill to making measurable predictions. Don’t steal my joy! And before you get your panties in a bunch, just admit that, sadly, you know I am right on this one.

Power Vs. Acquiring Power

Trump is about to be the man who defeated the first female nominee and the first Black female nominee. I do not come across many, if any, comments on this fact of the election cycle.

It seems to me that there is a continuum of reasons why this is not discussed. On one end, there is the noble (and therefore extremely unlikely) notion that the formerly fun “men vs. woman” schtick is so abhorrent to us woke folks that it is unworthy of our time. On the other end, there is the sober fact that leadership in Republics has never been about sex.

Leadership, I propose, is about power. And while there are many different types of power, there is only one way to gain power: you must take it.

Hillary Clinton did not take the power. Kamala Harris’ entire political career seems to be defined by accepting power.

As for Trump? His career, his notoriety, and his very real power comes solely from his constant belief that there is a power vacuum and he is the man to fill it.

We’ve all seen the clip of 30-something Trump declare he just may have to run for president. And whatever he was thinking until 2008, by the time he saw Obama’s lack of power, Trump obviously convinced himself that there was more power for the taking—and he took it. Who can forget Obama’s smug, “At least I will go down as a president”? Would a powerful man say that?

So ladies, take note. In not having been president, it has never been about you being women. People care that you are weak, just like Obama was weak. And people want power in the presidency. That’s all it is about.