Schrodinger’s End Times

Radio

^        When I was growing up the folks had this truly magical, as far as I was concerned, radio. It was kind of a creamy white with a gold colored dial. The top half of the dial was AM radio. The bottom half—the world! It could not have been an expensive radio if the folks had it.

^        The bottom half of the dial was a wonderland. We could get stuff from all over the world especially late at night or under certain atmospheric conditions that we knew nothing about. It required a delicate touch on the bottom half of that dial that foreign voices would speak out from along with conversations from Ham radio operators. The slightest twitch and the carefully tuned in station was lost.

Panic in the streets.

^        It was on one of those searches of the radio cosmos that I tuned in a preacher talking about the “END TIMES” that we were living in and that very soon life as we knew it would be over. Other than going to church with my grandma when I stayed with them in Missouri sans parents we were not religious folks then. I was scared enough to ask my dad about it the next day. Dad said, “They’ve been scaring people with that crap since I was a kid. Don’t worry about it!”

^        As far as I was concerned then Dad was the final authority. Case closed.

Kill the white man!

^        My last duty station is the Army was in Giessen, Germany. We were housed in old German barracks. The Germans were housed in the new barracks. That’s where I spent the last 5 months of my four year hitch. The Army would send people close to getting out overseas to a better duty assignment. Guys would like what they saw of Europe and reenlist. Then the Army would send them to Viet Nam. I passed on reenlisting. I’d had enough fun.

^        I was in our four man room late one night writing a letter home. All the other guys were either out on leave or at their duty station. It was quiet. One of their radios had been playing all day. I didn’t bother turning it off. One of the brothers had it set on a pirate radio station. This station was transmitting from somewhere off the coast if I remember correctly.

^        Anyway a program came on where some guy was saying over and over, “We must kill the white man. We must rise up and kill the white man. We must kill the white man. Kill the white man. Kill the white man.” Over and over and over. Non-stop. It was just playing in the background and I just ignored it and kept writing. I should mention here that there were some racial tensions in the Army during the time I served. As I was writing along I remember thinking yes we must rise up and kill the white man. I had to stop and look down to make sure that I hadn’t actually written that. I was and in fact am white. That’s when I realized that perhaps I should get up off my ass and turn the radio off.

^        A couple of my room mates were brothers and good friends. I would listen to the sermons that Will’s church sent him via audio recordings. They were great. I mean foot stompin’ “Yes, Jesus” great. Will was also a loan shark. I was also their barber. I couldn’t cut a white guy’s hair to save my life but I could cut a modified (short) afro easy peasy.

^        There weren’t any uprisings of mass killings while I was there. The point is in case you’re wondering if there is one is that having the same message delivered over and over can have an effect. It does. That’s what we’re living today.

Not an expert.

^        When I first started to read the bible in earnest it seemed obvious to me that the people of the time thought that Jesus was coming back sooner rather than later. Some thought that he would come back in their lifetime. I had explained to me later that this was not in fact the case. Obviously. Two thousand years have passed. Men that had a much deeper understanding of the bible than regular people have figured out a way to explain the discrepancy of a few thousand years.

^        So if somebody just finds a bible and tries to figure it out or apply what they have learned on their own they will more than likely get it wrong unless they have an expert or at least someone more knowledgeable on hand to explain things to them.

 Experts needed. Apply within.

^        In other words when I read that God had a plan for that one guy and thought that God just had a plan for that one guy I didn’t know that I was wrong about that. God in spite of our free will has a plan for all of us. So when I a guy steps out and gets hit by a bus God planned that. Miscarriages? God’s plan.

^        Where I might read a verse and think that it’s okay to kill a disrespectful kid an expert can explain that this is not the case and perhaps just a good talking to and grounding might be more appropriate. Or if you’re a Southern Baptist just give the unrepentant tot the thrashing of their life.

^        I’m just going to leave that whole the proper way of sacrificing of animals alone other than to say that they must have had very sharp knives back then. What a mess! Interestingly no one ever talks about who is going to clean that mess up afterwards. I’m going to guess a woman or women depending upon the size of the sacrifice.

^        Suffice it to say that the bible isn’t really a standalone book unless an expert happens to have left a really really good set of Cliff Notes with it.

^        We need guidance! Case in point right here.

 Back to the End.

^        I talked about the End back at the beginning of this. Technically people that didn’t know any better have thought that they were living in the End Times since the time of Jesus. So we are both living in the End Times and Not living in the End Times until we are actually in the End Times whether we know it or not. So the people that are always predicting the End Times are both right and not right unless there’s a cutoff point at some point in the past that I haven’t had explained to me yet by a person that knows.

^        There could be a cutoff date say a few hundred or thousand years back where those that predicted the End Times were actually deemed to be wrong. Expiration date exceeded. Out of warranty. Sorry buddy or budette take that class over.

^        This is how guys like Copeland end up making $300 million dollars off of rubes. He knows. Or at least he says he knows. Try and prove him wrong. Can’t be done. Can’t prove him right either. Well there is a way.

Jesus.

^        He either has to show his face or he doesn’t. Depends upon the time frame. We’re either deep into the End Times or just starting. Depends upon what expert you’re dealing with. If you like scary apocalyptic movies go with that expert. They know. Or they don’t. Could be that they’re just a fake prophet or smoking a little too much of the good stuff. Depends upon what their Godometer is forecasting at the time.

Who’s to know?

^        Here’s what I do know.

^        Don’t drink the Koolaid!

^        If your pastor is telling you that you need to all get close together in the middle of a pandemic they are bat shit crazy and endangering people including all the innocent bystanders that come into contact with the flock. LEAVE. Jesus doesn’t want you dead! Jesus doesn’t want other people to die because of you.

^        Team Trump jesus may not care if you’re dead but the real Jesus doesn’t want you dead. Jesus doesn’t need the Constitution to be believed in. Not a part of the Good News.

^        Holy Spirit is with you wherever you are. Jesus is not confined to four walls. Pray to God wherever you are. God is there.

Go with God.

 

Being thankful [RELIGIOUS]

        ^ I was up early this morning. As I headed down the hall towards the front of the house I noticed that the outside light that’s hooked up to a motion detector was on. I went to the front door and flicked on a section of porch lights as I looked out the window.

        ^ We have a LOT of porch lights since our porch goes around the entire house. Seriously, small planes could land in the field to the north of us we throw out so much light. There wasn’t anything on the porch, down the steps or in front of the house. Miss Winnie, a neighbor’s Beagle, will sometimes sit on the front porch steps until I come out and give her a treat. That would have been way early for Miss Winnie though. She doesn’t usually show up until the afternoon or at dusk. Her people don’t want me giving her too many treats since she has a bit of a weight problem.

        ^ There wasn’t anything there. The wind was blowing hard enough to be moving our wind chime and shade curtains that I was supposed to take down at the end of summer so much that the motion detector was responding. It was a cold wind too.

        ^ I was keeping a low profile so as not to disturb Kyra and Gadget.

        ^ If it’s technically morning and they’re up then they want to be fed and their feed time was still a couple of hours off. If we feed them early then that becomes their new feed time and they reset their little internal clocks. If I don’t feed them then I spend the next couple of hours avoiding eye contact with them as they try and use their doggie mind powers on me to guilt me into going ahead and feeding them since they haven’t eaten in days.

        ^ So I just sat down in my leather easy chair, got out the lapboard that I made for Dad when we were taking care of him and got my laptop from the table to do a little important work. After logging onto Facebook I read in a post where some friends lost a beloved pet. Immediately sad. Made me think of losing Old Fella and of course that made me tear up. Hey, I know combat veterans that cry when they lose a beloved pet like that. Shelley and I had just been talking about Old Fella last night before bed.

        ^ What I also noticed was that they gave thanks for the mercy extended by a stranger, knowing that their girl wasn’t suffering and that they didn’t have to always wonder what happened to her. Good times with their friend were also mentioned.

        ^ The train of life thought reminded me of when my dad passed away at a young age. I said then that we could be sorry at every future holiday that he would miss or be thankful for the holidays and time that we did have with him. We could remember his laugh. We could do what we’re supposed to do and keep on going the best we can.

        ^ We’re believers so we give thanks several times a day in our prayers. But you don’t have to be a believer to give thanks. And when I say believer I mean believer of any faith.

        ^ I usually start my prayer off with “heavenly Father”. It’s a habit of assigning gender to God from my Southern Baptist days. (I’m still in recovery.) Creator or Creator God works just as well. It’s immaterial to me if you use heavenly Mother. I’m starting to wander again. Anyway, a typical prayer for me goes:

        ^ “Heavenly Father, thank you for the many blessings that you have given us. Thank you for this day. Forgive us/my/our sins. Guide us and watch over us as we continue on our journey. Help us make the right decisions. (Shelley will often say “illuminate our path”. I really like that.) Thank you for this food before us. Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies. Let us be ever mindful of the needs of others. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

        ^ When I’m praying for myself I will usually ask to be a better husband, friend, father, to make the right decisions in life, to listen better, to act better, to be more understanding and tolerant. When I pray for the President, any President, I pray for the same things that I pray for myself.

        ^ There are all sorts of variations and things that we add in our prayers. We will often give thanks for friends and family, specific events or people as well as ask for something for a particular person or group in need.

        ^ I believe that the important thing it to look every day for things to be positive about and thankful for even if it’s just having a roof over your head, food to eat or water to drink. I remember being taught to be thankful even when we were poor and living in three rooms. I remember being thankful that my older brother passed quickly and without suffering too much. Being thankful just isn’t about the material things that surround us. Being thankful should start with the basics of life and working from there.

        ^ You don’t have to be religious to be thankful during the day. Set aside times to think about where you are and where you need to go to get to place where you can be thankful if you aren’t. If you’re with beloveds then be thankful with them. Take the time to tell someone that you’re thankful that they’re in your life.

        ^ Since I am a believer I am thankful for the love I’ve known and for the life I’ve lived that brought me to this good place. I’m thankful for Shelley, friends and family. I’m thankful for a God whose son taught us that Love is what is most important.

Pounding Earworms, Part 2 [FASCISM]

        As a society we’ve been conditioned for quick gratification and sound bites. Digging deeper requires effort. Reading requires effort. At approximately 100 words I will have lost 50 % of the average American that voluntarily decided to read this. By 600 words 75% will have thrown in the towel. Back in the day when I campaigned for office with words written on paper, a.k.a. pamphlets, door knockers, cards, etc. the statistic was that the handout would last long enough to make it to the first trash the person passed unless the person that had it in their hand was a litterer. (I just made up that part about littering.)

        So here we go. (113 words.) If you want to know what’s going on and do something about it you’re going to have to start reading more than a 100 words or watch something for more than 5 minutes. Getting involved is going to involve a lot more paying attention.

        When I was stationed in Germany back in 1970 there was a pirate radio station playing in another guy’s area. Over and over again some guy was saying “Kill the white man! Kill the white man! We must rise up and kill the white man! Kill the white man!” I was writing letters home at the time and no one else was in the room for me to holler at “Turn that crap off!” So I just kept writing. After a while I found myself thinking that, “yes we must kill the white man.” That’s when I decided enough of that, got up off my butt and went and turned the radio down. Not being mentally disturbed, I never acted on killing the white man.

        I probably didn’t listen to that for more than an hour and it was just background noise to what I was doing and then that earworm crept into my thoughts. The Leader pounds out his message every day. Usually I try and avoid saying “every” or “all” this or that but he manages to do it every day. He’s been at the helm of the hate message for three years now and people are starting to act on it.

        Hate the immigrants! Shoot the immigrants! The press is the enemy of the people, rich Jews are behind it, etc. Every chance he gets. Pounding the message. Pounding the message.

When everything old is new again

        Fascism is on the rise. And it isn’t on the rise just here in the United States. It’s on the rise in Europe. It’s on the rise in South America. In Italy they’re giving stiff armed salutes again. Well…Italy. Home to Benito Mussolini, a.k.a. Il Duce (the leader). The pictures are on the internet if you want to see them. Crap, stiff armed salutes are being given in this country. Some of the same people that are involved with the White Nationalist agenda here, like Bannon, are also involved abroad and vice versa. The internet takes Fascists worldwide.

        The last time that Fascists had to be dealt with on a World Wide scale millions of lives were lost. We’re heading there again.

        American lives were lost for those that have a narrow view of ‘what lives’ matter. My dad was a part of the 6^th Armored Antifa Division. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and received a bronze star. Some of us feel a little stronger about Fascists, Nazis and White Nationalists, et al than others. This war was already fought once. Now they’re back claiming their rights.

        This time around they believe that President Trump and the leadership of the Republican Party have signed onto their agenda. They have good reason to believe that, given The Leader’s rhetoric and actions. So it’s as much a case of whether you believe that we’re headed as a nation towards fascism or are we headed in a good direction if White Nationalists, et al like where we’re headed. (657)

        Seriously, an actual Nazi won a Republican primary in Illinois and is on the ballot. The Republican leadership there opined that it was the media’s fault. Ah yes, the enemy-of-the-people-media made it happen. Cray.

        A free press stands in their way along with anti-fascists and others. If you oppose the White Nationalists, et al agenda then you oppose them. Ultimately even the people that want to just be left alone get involved whether it’s voluntary or as victims.

        Their Leader is still at it. President Trump tweeted a very nice statement about visiting the Tree of Life synagogue right up until the point where President Trump does what he does.

“Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburg. The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful!”

        For all intents and purposes President Trump was interrupting a funeral service (Shiva) when he went to The Tree of Life synagogue. The Secret Service locked down the neighborhood as best they could for security concerns. The Leader just can’t help himself. He’s the man with the bully platform. He was going to show up and nobody was going to stop him.

        The protestors were right outside. He was being shouted at by neighbors to the Tree of Life synagogue. There were signs across the street and media was there as well. They showed video of the solemn event. They also showed the protestors. That’s what media does. It’s what they’ve always done. They report what’s going on. That’s unacceptable to The Leader and his True Believers. He could have stopped with “We were treated so warmly.” He didn’t. (706 words.)

Where we’re at.

        President Trump is not just the President of the United States. He is also the head of the Republican Party. He is also The Leader of the Evangelical Party.

        Now, I’m not really going to try and make the case for why we’re headed towards fascism. You can look up fascism and reach your own conclusions. Trump supporters will see us going to a happy place. Others will reach different conclusions. You decide if we’re headed for a better place. Here’s where we’re at.  

        The Leader says that citizens should not be critical of the state. Only positive comments should be allowed.

        President Trump is going to continue going to hold rallies to spread his message! The Leader is running for President. His True Believers love him. He basks in their adoration. He needs their adoration. He needs supplicants. When I watch one of his rallies I watch the whole thing. If you’ve seen one you’ve pretty much seen them all. He pounds the same message over and over. The names of the supplicants change depending upon the venue. They come for the blessing of The Leader.

        The Leader says that he’s the best that has ever been as well as his administration in the history of our nation. Everything that has been done is the best that has ever been done. He should have the Nobel Prize for what he hasn’t accomplished. Yet somehow as good as things are we are on the brink of disaster that only he can save us from! Mind you for 2 years Republicans have been in complete control of our government. But, in spite of everything we are still on the brink of disaster, of chaos. While some would call this campaign hyperbole his True Believers believe this. COMPLETELY. This isn’t just politics as usual. True Believers take his dark words to heart.

        The Army called out for civilian enforcement. We are being invaded by 6,000 brown people walking to our southern border with Mexico and he is sending in the Army. If they throw rocks he wants soldiers to return fire. That’s right. The Commander in Chief is ordering soldiers to fire on unarmed civilians. (Meanwhile 300,000 people a day are crossing at our border with Canada.)

        The country and police forces are being militarized. (1344)

        Under the direction of The Leader, families are being separated and incarcerated. Children are being separated from their parents. They are brown.

        Muslims are banned. (At least from ones that The Leader doesn’t have business interests in.)

        Jews are being targeted again. (It’s a White Nationalist, et al kind of thing.)

        LGBTQ citizens are being attacked. (BTW the love the sinner hate the sin isn’t flying. Its bullshit and people know it.)

        At the direction of the leader, brown people that have already been naturalized will be having their citizenship revoked if possible.

        The President is talking about invalidating the 14^th Amendment that provides for citizenship for babies born here. He says that he has the authority to do so regardless of the Constitution. The Constitution is what he says it is.

        The Leader continually says that news uncomplimentary to him is fake. If he can undermine the 14^th Amendment with the stroke of a pen what will he do with the 1^st Amendment protection of the free press? He should get that pen out again and order than no one can say anything bad about him.

        Defend The Leader. The Leader now calls himself a Nationalist as he lays the groundwork for civil war.

        Surveillance of everything we say and do was already in place along with secret courts for enemies of the state. How long before journalists start disappearing.

        The religious right is supporting the leader.

        The Leader is also calling opposition to Republicans in other states criminals.

        Constitutional checks and balances are not working.   

It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

        In regards to the “blue wave” every vote does matter.

        It’s just that in the polls the races are tight often with the Democrat closing the gap from BEHIND and still behind though within the margin of error. At least the Electoral College isn’t involved. The Senate likely will remain in control of the Party of The Leader. The Supreme Court is also beholden to The Leader just like the courts of the Middle East.

        Say everything in the election goes perfectly and everything falls into place and the Democrats gain both houses. Things still aren’t going to change overnight. There’s still The President and veto power.

        The damage done on the world stage is not going to be quickly undone. World leaders have now observed firsthand how quickly treaties can be undone and that the Republican Party with The Leader at the head prefers Russians and the North Koreans. The President admires their leaders along with those of the Chinese government. They have the model of government that he likes where The Leader has the absolute power, where dissent is crushed and opposition is not allowed.

        The trillion dollar plus that The Leader gave to rich people is NOT coming back. That’s unfunded deficit.

        The trade war that The Leader started will have impacts that will last years past its resolution. (Seriously, He inherited a good economy. All he had to do was leave it alone. Instead he started a trade war!) Small farms will go under during this trade war. Corporate or large farming enterprises will gain their land since their deeper pockets will better allow them to whether the storm.

        If the Democratic Party wins they will probably screw it up. (It’s hard to believe that Nancy Pelosi is still in charge of the House.) The Democratic Party needs to be completely restructured and if they undertake that it will take years.

What to do? What to do?

        Vote by all means! Just don’t harbor unrealistic expectations. We have to get over the idea of waiting for an election cycle to do something.

        Doing something in the physical world, like voting, also requires effort. Show up in person to talk with an elected official. Make them see you.

        Do not enable violence.

        At some point churches will have to get involved. They waited until it was too late in axis countries during WW2 and some ended up losing their lives over it.

        Call racists out! Call liars out. Call misogyny out. Call bigotry out! Call discrimination out! Shine the light on injustice! Stand up for your fellow human beings.

        Be more aware in social media. Stop passing around stupid memes without checking them out simply because you like the message. We need the truth. Truth is power.

        Support a free press. The real press. Press that has workers and newsrooms. Press that is more than an instrument of the state. The First Amendment is as important as the Second Amendment.

        It’s easier to stop a despot in the beginning than at the end AND their reign always ends. History measures the damage and suffering caused.

        Meet with people and decide how you can make a difference; where you can make a difference.

        There isn’t any one answer. There aren’t any easy answers. There are a thousand answers. There are ten thousand answers. Be one of them.

        But most of all…

        Be heard.