Sunday, July 22, 2018

COMPLICATIONS ON EARTH AND IN THE UNIVERSE


Seems every day this past week my schedule required my arising earlier than I’ve wanted in recent years.    So, I was pleased to go to bed last night knowing I could sleep in the next morning if I so chose.  Now that’s what I call a real retirement benefit – arising and retiring as early or as late as I want most days, especially true with no one else in the household requiring my attention. 

My waking hours do generally include seeking news of the latest happenings in the world around me.   I’ll know I’m ready to depart this existence if the day ever comes when I cease having such interests.  While I care deeply and am committed to issues, my emotional state remains stable, unlike what some describe experiencing as a reason to reject following current events. 

Here’s my perspective, opinion, also rhetorical questions possibly injected with a sarcastic twist on a few recent events.

If you’re one of those individuals who just can’t tolerate any more reference to the current state of affairs, then you may want to skip down to where I transition into thoughts about outer space communication complications.  

Internationally, our erstwhile U.S. leader continues his efforts to disrupt positive relations with our European allies with words that seem to promote his despot idol -- if his actions at the recent Helsinki summit are any indication.    As if that isn’t enough, his recent Putin summit meeting and paltry excuse citing a supposed innocent language mistake for denigrating our country, coupled with his failure to consistently publicly condemn Russia’s admitted efforts to disrupt our elections, our leader again could be thought of as betraying the American people’s best interests.  Maybe our leader needs to review the oath and allegiance he took when assuming his elected office.  

Nationally, reuniting some children with their parents who have been seeking asylum slowly continues.  This follows what has been suggested as one of our leader’s efforts to desensitize citizens into gradually being more accepting of immoral actions, such as the inhumane treatment of others of whom he doesn’t approve -- much as autocrats or dictators do.  Amazingly, some people continue efforts to rationalize this and other of our leader’s illogical behaviors as if his motivations are genuinely intended to be in the best interests of our nation, ordinary citizens and humankind. 

Are citizens justified in asking if our leader’s conflicting words alternately disparaging then supporting our national security agencies actually exhibit treason-like behaviors? 

By kowtowing to the dictator that he admires, while subverting citizens confidence in our intelligence agencies, is our leader behaving in a traitor-like manner? 

Do we want to offer the hospitality of a White House Meeting to a dictator who has meddled and continues to interfere in our elections as our leader has proposed?      

Our Fourth Estate providing factually supported news continues to need our support to remain a bastion of power protecting our constitutional freedoms and democratic republic.  Meanwhile our leader harps on fake news, when he is the one regurgitating such most of the time, to instill confusion and undermine citizens confidence in our form of government.    He has repeatedly offered alternate facts/falsehoods so much, or claims misinterpretation,  that thinking people conclude everything that comes out of his mouth needs to be verified from other dependable sources.   

Verifying media integrity to avoid those with a history of biased reporting such as is alleged against Fox TV, for example, is wise (consider Rupert Murdoch's ownership, his agenda, association with DJT).  Differentiating between fact and opinion, and verifying the reliability of our news sources continues to be critical.  Facebook and Twitter have reportedly been found lacking and, in fact, sources of seeding much dissension adversely affecting the thinking of some of our citizens.   

California courts have ruled the measure a billionaire venture capitalist promoted to divide our state into three states will not be on our November ballot.  The justices wrote in unanimity:

"We conclude that the potential harm in permitting the measure to remain on the ballot outweighs the potential harm in delaying the proposition to a future election."

Locally, our city senior services have continued to proceed with plans to offer an interest group I proposed earlier this year.   I have unexpectedly become involved in the planning when a number of people responded favorably to the idea.   Subsequently, a survey has revealed enthusiasm for a variety of related topics for exploration.   I may well become involved in a facilitating role though I hadn’t planned to assume any group responsibilities since retiring.   I’ll share particulars later as this activity continues to develop for scheduling to begin later this summer leading into fall/winter.  

Reflecting on the divisiveness fostered and admitted by Putin to disrupt our previous election which Russia is continuing according to our National Intelligence figures, (other than the Homeland Security person who parrots our leader's mendacity), I’m hoping that many of our citizens, especially the Congress, will re-examine their support of our leader's positions and think primarily of preserving our nation’s freedoms.  Maybe they need to review the oath of office they took.  

My thoughts go quite far afield sometimes.  Thinking of some people division-inclined on earth, but who are open to the prospect of finding and interacting with life on other planets in space.   I wonder how they would react if life was found somewhere out there?   How intelligent would that life be?  

The idea is incredulous, I think – for example, we earthlings in the U.S.  have numbers of people who resist languages other than English being spoken here, unlike the multi-language speakers welcomed  in many other nations.   Can you imagine that divisively-inclined U.S. group encountering creatures who are possibly of different shapes, colors, and who knows how they might communicate, or what other differences might exist, expecting to establish good relations with outer space beings? 

Do you ever consider the possibility of life elsewhere and how we would react?  

I feel very magnanimous and desirous of offering friendship ..... and then I remember one of my favorite Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" episodes, "To Serve Man".  If you don't know the story an Internet search will reveal links to view the program.  Also, you can click this Wikipedia link for story specifics,  but spoiler alert if you plan to watch the show, don't read about it first.

Music sets the mood.  I just had an eerie thought, do you suppose our current leader haunts a corner of that world?





27 comments:

  1. With a pathological liar whose aim is to rule rather than to govern as our fearless leader, reality is sometimes difficult to discern.

    I got a giggle at your mention of "To Serve Man". What a play on words! Reminds me of a scifi story of many years ago whose only excuse for telling was the pun at the end that was something to the effect of, "Between a man and a woman there is a vas deferens."
    Cop Car

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    1. That’s funny! Word play is good for a laugh.

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  2. When I read a political post like some of your above, I am nowadays reluctant to share my own thoughts because I've learned (the hard way) that it's not appreciated. There is a need to rant and people should have that right when it helps them without someone coming in to offer a rebuttal of some parts of it.

    In my case, I do like hearing other opinions as long as they are thoughtful as yours are. I am like you in that I don't get upset by all this. I have strong views but they are also open to being changed and have been. I notice more and more of the 'political' blogs that I used to read are ending. I think it has gotten upsetting to them and easier to pull back for a time. In the end, if we get all upset, we can't help anybody as the next step is getting sick from it.

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    1. I appreciate your view. My perspective on most rants (which I don’t perceive this piece to be) is that they are quite different from issue discussion, rhetorical questioning, straight forward opinion expression — sometimes with humor, sarcasm or even satire in political commentary as I try to present here mostly. All too often rants I generally prefer to avoid that I’ve encountered elsewhere invoke stereotypical undefined broad labels and emotional tangential social issues into discussions rather than focusing on specific actions, events, or ideas. Perhaps some others may not experience my writing as I intend, but I do my best to make strong points to stimulate thinking in a situation I perceive as uniquely different than any other, but extremely serious, in my lifetime.

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    2. I did say yours was thoughtful. I just feel people need an outlet for their opinions and to vent. They most often don't want to hear alternative views. Most of our news is that way right now with one side and not giving alternative possibilities- and in life, there often are two ways of seeing the exact same event.

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  3. I don't know what, exactly, people are referring to when they say that the mainstream media can't be trusted, but what I think that what they mean is any media outlet that doesn't suck up to Donald Trump and his alternative facts/post truth B.S.

    As for multi-language speakers, I'm not much of a multi-culturalist myself because I see it more as a source of conflict than of enrichment, and race is the same way. When, in 1986, I left Mississippi and came to Eugene, Oregon, I didn't anticipate the relief I would feel at getting away from racial tension because it had gotten to where there were black protests over every hiring of a school teacher if a white person got the job, yet in the school at which I taught, I was the only white male out of three male teachers and a male principal, and the ration of white to black females was 50/50. While I had supported integration, it seemed to me that, in the minds of the black community, it was payback time, and this created enormous resentment among whites. It felt a bit like the whole country feels today in terms of anger and alienation. Of course, people in Eugene who had never lived with such tension bemoaned their "lily white" environment, although they themselves were lily white and could have moved to lower Michigan or anywhere in Mississippi had they valued a biracial environment as much as they claimed. Eugene, as you might know, is sometimes referred to as "the Berkley of the North," but the reason so few black people live here is that, until very recently, white people have done their best to keep them out. My house was built in what, in 1955, was called the "Englewood Addition." I have the offering agreement whereby buyers had to agree that, if they decided to sell their homes, they wouldn't sell them to black people. Oregon was also rich in "Sundown Laws," and there was even a time when it was illegal for a black to even live in Oregon. But I've strayed far from your points. I sometimes wish I could go on a "news fast," but it's a very rare day when I don't listen to NPR for hours and even catch at least one network news show in the evening. I do wonder though how many people have become so bummed by the news that they literally don't listen to it anymore, and if they really plan to push their isolationism to the point of not voting. If they do, they might as well wave a white flag.

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    1. Exercising critical thinking and judgment, making trial and error mistakes while seeking the truth by checking numerous sources with various points of view — discerning the difference between fact and opinion — does help finding trustworthy media sources. Condemnation of all mainstream media is the Kool Aid our leader is selling and too many people are drinking it.

      Perhaps it follows when there have been inequities the pendulum will swing from one extreme to another before settling in a more moderate range.

      My experience living in various parts of these United States, broadly speaking, revealed racism was overtly displayed in the South (late ‘40s, early ‘50s) and covertly evidenced in the North and elsewhere — not limited to just those with differences in skin color.

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    2. Here in Oregon, I was told by a black person who lived in Louisiana until she was an adult that she found Southern racism psychologically preferable because, in the South, she knew where she stood. Here in Eugene, many white people are so seemingly desperate to convey that they are free of prejudice that they seem stilted. It probably doesn't help there are so few black people here.

      Another thought I had about listening to the news is that it can easily occupy a person for hours a day because reporting from all over the world is unremitting and comes from so many sources. By comparison, think of someone from a hundred years ago whose only news source was a daily newspaper. While I agree with you about blanket condemnations of the maintstream media (which in my case, means the evening news on CBS, ABC, and NBC), I still have serious problems with it, not because it supposedly reports as Trump claims, but for various other reason. For example, on a relatively slow news day, up to half of a broadcast will be devoted to celebrity "news" and other human interest stories, and even when it comes to arguably more relevant news, it's not enough that the media reports it (the duck boat sinking for example), they have to include interviews with victims and witnesses who, however interesting and touching their accounts are, contribute little that is factual to the event. Another problem I have is that ten people dying tragically in America gets as much attention as fifty people dying tragically in England or a thousand dying tragically in Africa or the Middle East, and if the person who died is a doctor in Houston or a white female teenager from a wealthy family, that person is going to get many times the coverage of someone who is poor, old, and/or black. The emphasis is clearly on reporting that which will attract viewers and hence sells ads. This means that what we get from the mainstream media is exactly what we deserve.

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    3. You bring up a lot of involved issues regarding commercial TV news content that I’ve written about beginning decades ago, but I won’t try to get into it in this post. Being selective in our news sources is important especially since there are so many. What attracts viewers to so-called “news” can vary just as is the amount of time each person spends on news absorption each day. Sifting the wheat from the chaff is the challenge. Ideally we have a variety of sources whose reports to which we can refer and I would include the traditional TV networks for some content in preference to some distributors.

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  4. It is hard for some to control the emotions of shock, anger, fear. But the facts show that the Trump family has made many deals with Russian mob leaders. He does deals with the New York Italian mob ( I am Italian so not denigrating a whole culture)> They say he likes strong men. He likes cruel and powerful men.

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    1. I agree that we cannot always, and probably shouldn’t, control our emotions. Also, we all react differently in life for many reasons which I respect. Your observation of our leader’s preferences ring true, regrettably.

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  5. Just when I think the man has beaten me down, he finds new ways to stir up the anger juices. Helps to keep apathy at bay.
    I remember that show. Was a bit of a shocker at the time.

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    1. He surely does go out of his way to trigger anger in a lot of people — seems not to know how to accomplish change any other way — or maybe he’s simply deliberately tapping into what gets him the results he desires.

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  6. I admit I am one of those who wish they could cut off the permanent stream of current ‘current affairs’, they are just too depressing. Still, my first action upon waking and last before turning off the light is to consult the oracle of digital media as to the latest horror news. There are so many more pleasant things I could do, or so I tell myself, without much success.

    The feelings voiced in your first paragraph are very familiar to me.

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    1. We each need to take care of ourselves and know what our limits are. There’s only so much negativity we can handle which can vary depending on what else is going on in our lives I think.

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  7. He thrives on Chaos, knowing that the more he stirs up mud and smoke, the less of a clear target he/his actions will be. He is operating on his business model theory of being as abrasive and outrageous as he can be until he simply wears everyone out, then he swoops in and grabs the spoils he wants.

    My dismay comes because the rest of the republicans are happy to sacrifice everything to A)remain in power; and B)install conservative, right-wing judges to lifetime appointments. If they can accomplish these far-reaching changes to the American judiciary and legal system, they are willing to scrap so much else. A bonus for them is that lots of consumer and environmental regulations are getting tossed in favor of corporations and big banks.

    Women, especially, need to stand up and vote in November across the board.

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    1. You’ve summed it up well. What really concerns me is the control his supporters think they have with him is a delusion — the mistake made in other nations that ended up with dictators who haven’t been so benevolent. In fact, most have been brutal toward anyone differing with them and vicious toward discriminated groups — true today in countries we can readily name and in the not so distant past in my lifetime.

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  8. I'm selective in what I read having a BP problem which doesn't seem to want to go away.

    I like your analysis of what's going down. I believe we're all confused as to where this is all going. Here in Canada, his tariff regulations may destroy our economy. I have always believed it would be in Canada's best interests to ally ourselves with the EU rather than the US. Then again our former PM, extreme right, was meeting with Trump, flying in the face of diplomacy and further humiliating our current PM.

    I imagine, as I don the tinfoil hat, that there are far underpinnings and back room deals as to what is currently playing on the world stage.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. You are wise to care for your health and being selective in what news you follow. The rabid hate-filled rhetoric I don’t waste time reading. I do read thoughtful material or listen to select others whose ideas differ from my own. I feel no compunction to present some of those arguments here regarding this situation if I’ve assessed them and concluded they are invalid. I haven’t always had this attitude toward previous administrations, but I believe this one to be attempting to undermine the democratic republic of our constitution. They’ve said as much in different words and their actions bear that out.

      I agree major under the table deals are likely taking place with highest level individuals feathering their personal nests. As I’ve said before the swamp being cleared by instead creating a cesspool.

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  9. Trump's antics are more and more incomprehensible. The worst thing is that he creates this constant sense of insecurity and instability which is very unnerving for many people.

    Here in the UK, equally bizarre things are going on. Despite an official finding that the VoteLeave campaign massively and illegally overspent its Brexit referendum budget, which to any sensible person means the referendum was invalid and should be rerun, the government ploughs on with its Brexit agenda.

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    1. These antics you refer to can be comprehended within the context of how democratic nations are turned into autocratic or dictator-led governments. In my lifetime this has been written about and described as a step-by-step gradual process of whittling away little-by-little at freedoms, moral behavior degraded often in a trade-off for promised security, and much more individuals far more knowledgeable than I am have lived through and described. This occurred in many European countries and is happening now in others there. I naively believed it could never occur in the U.S. but this leader has proved me mistaken. Freedom is fragile and we the people can lose it if we are not vigilant by intelligently exercising ourr governing responsibilities by who we put in office and keep there.

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  10. You touched on outer space and I wonder if you saw the amazing segment on "60 Minutes" Sunday. It was all about the Hubble Telescope and it certainly put things into perspective for me. What a mystery is out there !!!

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    1. Unfortunately, I missed much of that segment but have seen some previous videos with Hubble and we certainly do see where our earth fits in the big picture, don’t we!

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  11. Trump has recently organized a SPACE FORCE and the chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in charge of it. Space Force is different from the Air Force because it deals with aliens from outer space. Yes, how would we Americans deal with aliens with their different shapes, colors, and language?

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    1. Our track record isn’t too good with far too many of our citizens and the prevailing actions of our current leaders hardly setting a promising model.

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  12. Unfortunately I am a political junkie by choice - my BA is in Political SCience - specifically International Relations. I am drawn to the stories like a moth to a flame, even though it may not be a good thing for my health much as the flame to the moth.

    I have always enjoyed learning about the food and culture of others - it is why I love shows like the late Anthony Bourdaib and the still with us Anxrew Zimmern - a man one of my granddaughters has called "nasty food guy" for years. She has never forgotten the first time she saw him eat bugs - LOL. She considers Taco Bell and fried rice to be the extent of her multicultural experiences. One can onlu hope.

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    1. Can sometimes be difficult to avoid feeling so strongly about some political issues that our health is adversely affected — time to catch your breath.

      Loss to the culinary world with Bourdaib so young. Zimmern has me pausing with some of his food offerings. Maybe your granddaughter will become a-bit more adventurous as she gets older.

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