It's a Mistake

I'm in one of my moods. Depressive, that is. 

While I still try to avoid news, it is just impossible. The little that comes my way is never good. And I mean, ever. 

You probably all see it too, probably more than I. Honestly, I don't know how you all cope, but none of this ever seems to roll off my back. It just saturates my insides - and it's ugly. 

I don't know if this is a throwaway post or not. It was intended to be, just so I could say I "wrote" today and kept the 17 year streak of posting daily. 

But I saw this quote from Pedro Almodóvar and clearly it's not 'up', but it oddly made me feel a little better. 

Should it even be acknowledged by the administration or MAGA, it will be tossed into the gay / foreigner / liberal bucket - decride and derided.

It still made me feel "better". Or seen. Or something. 

Song by: Men at Work

It's All Shit

As of late, I have not seen anything that encapsulates me in any manner - let alone doing it in 12 seconds. 

Song by: Iggy Pop

Down

I'm barely getting news blips and those  that do come through are just making me fucking down. Like, REALLY down. 

And most, if not all, are Musk related. 

For some reason, Tesla is getting a $400 million dollar contract from the U.S. Government. 

People at the FDA who were looking at Musk's Neurolink were all let go. 

People at the FAA were let go and replaced by Space X personnel. 

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

Ironically (not really) Musk's DOGE isn't looking into that. 

There are no longer any checks and balances. Conflict of Interest means NOTHING. 

Dismantling democracy for financial gain.....and power.   Period. 

Maybe someone in the government or the courts are really doing something about it - but if so, none of those stories are filtering down. I'm convinced they haven't because they don't exist. 

I've stupidly made calls to my sentator's offices, but they're both new GOP hires........so, if they took the messages at all, they ended up in the circular file. 

Honestly, I feel like I'm living at the end of times. It's all just so fucked up. 

Song by: Stone Temple Pilots

Massa Is a Stingy Man

Honestly, I saw Jimbo post one BLOTUS tweet and my weekend was ruined. 

Totally ruined. 

Enough so, that I'm making this a very brief post. 

First off, the chair. FUCK.  And don't tell me it doesn't reek of Kim Jong Il shit. 

Secondly: Golden Age. 

....hence my blog title* and image. I feel / fear we will be getting minstrel shows, Lawrence Welk and Up With People. 

....and probably Kanye.

This is too depressing to keep processing. 

*an actual minstrel song from 1840. 

Song by: unknown

Keep On Movin'

While yesterday's post was not really an aberration, I just sometimes hide my despair better than I did yesterday. The actual post may have seemed a departure from the norm a bit, but in my pea brain, it really wasn't. 

After the post published I was at the gym before the crack of dawn and worked out hard. Cardio. Weights. Stretching. Shower. 

Never discount the feeling of a good shower. 

Since my stress fracture, cardio and stretching have all I've been doing. I reintroduced some weights with PT, but a lot of that went to the side when I was rehabbing and just focused on recovery. 

The rest of my day was staying at home and looking after a still recovering Shep - more on that with the Saturday post, but believe me, the post from yesterday included some of that angst as well. 

710 stayed home for part of the morning but then headed to the office. I told him I would skip running last evening so he wouldn't have to rush home to keep tabs on the doggo. 

He insisted I go run. He knows me well enough to know I (and he) would be better if I continued to workout and get my endolphins. 

Honestly, I was looking for a reason to skip the 4 mile run. It was going to be in the teens and dark and as I've said before, when depression hits, it is REALLY easy to skip activities. With his correct insistence, I geared up and went. 

Eventually, I'm glad I did. The gym doesn't always get me out of my head, but running does. As I've said before, I'm not good enough of a runner not to have to think about it constantly while it is happening. 

And for as long as I've done this, I always forget one of the first truisms of running: the first mile is always a lie. 

This first mile sucked. The cold air spurred my asthma. Blech. I thought, I'll just do three miles. But at 1.5 my breathing was better (not good) but my stride really picked up. My thing is not really about catching up with and passing people in my group. I'm happy just to keep up. Yet here I was passing some really good runners. 

I'd end up in the top half of all out there and I even finished before all the folks who opted for only three miles. My time was the best it's been since I've been back and I even stopped briefly. 

As I sit here and type this, I feel better than the few days before this. I know it won't last, but it is a nice respite from what has been a constant barrage of bad news and my overall feeling of dread. 

Ok. Time to wrap up. Have to be at the gym at 05:30. 

Song by: Soul II Soul

Neutron Star Collision

I have to stop reading the news and my Facebook feed. It is DEPRESSING. 

I am passed the ability to figure out what is real, what is fear-based, or where on that venn diagram does it overlap. 

Mind you - those fear-based items comes from both the BLOTUS and Pappy Joe camps and followers. 

BLOTUS going on about he deserves a THIRD term because the first one was unfair to him. Yes, we call that dictatorship - but then, I've been calling that for about 2.5 years, if not longer. 

You've got BLOTUS insinuating that if not-reelected, we will see the greatest depression we've ever seen. 

DUDE! You might want to take a look at anything related to economics that isn't the stock market. You have already incurred the greatest debt and had the worst quarter in HISTORY. More people out of jobs and miles long lines for food banks.  But yeah - glad to hear amazon stock is up. 

Of course, 'depression' could mean lots of things, and as it is, I'm already depressed due to the last four years. 

I think that kid in Kenosha just showed us all what it will be like if BLOTUS loses. That is his base. That is his base's mentality. 

Now on top of it all, an asteroid named 11 ES 4 is headed towards earth* around election day. 

Honest to g-d, right now, I'm rooting for the asteroid. 

*121,000 km away (though the moon is 384,400 km away)

Song by: Muse

Don't Get So Down On Yourself

"Ride out the Apocalypse with me?" asked 710 as we lay in bed at 05:00 yesterday morning.

Clearly he had looked at his phone sometime during the night and saw the results. Something I wasn't willing - or able - to do.

All night I had dreams. The subconscious never strayed too far from the conscious.

Every vignette was me seeing or hearing news teasers that could put the final election victor in either candidates corner. I remember feeling a sense of calm, that even with the results I was seeing a few hours before, that there was still no way Trump could win.

I guess that's why they call them "dreams".  They are unobtainable visions that border on fantasy.

After walking the dog and eating breakfast, I found that I couldn't - and didn't - open one news link. I didn't open my laptop or sneak a peek at my phone. 710 and I sat in silence for an hour - the only words exchanged being about Shep and that I was leaving for the office.

710 made me hug him goodbye. He needed it. I probably did too.

I avoided Facebook and its comments. I didn't read texts people had sent me. Did not look at my email. I drove to work with my iPhone playing - - no radio.

We, as a country, get what we deserve.

We are not educated enough to select a leader of the free world.

Overall, we read at a 6th grade level. Math comprehension is even lower. Worse yet, we as a nation are ok with this. We're not only ok with this, we encourage it: for eons the GOP is first in line to cut education spending. It pays for them to keep people stupid. Well, it keeps them in a job.

The downstream effect is that all those outsourced jobs that Trump claims will return, won't. First off, companies cannot afford to hire them stateside (well they can, but that cuts into profits - so they won't). Secondly, most people here are not qualified to do them. They don't have the education.

New usually breaks down the race and gender of the voters. Two nights ago, CNN (?) did it by education level. It is no surprise how that went, right?

But as Trump said, he loves the poorly educated. And they just got him elected. Now they'll find he will do nothing for them.

Yesterday - and today? - I was profoundly....something. Sad? Upset? Queasy?  I can't quite put my finger on the feeling.

It will sound over the top, it will sound wrong to most - but the only feeling to which I can equate the outcome of this election is 9/11.

Yes, I know it's very Rudy Guliani of me to bring it up, but maybe it's some kind of PTSD. The evening of 9/11, sitting and watching the news, I had a similar, hard to define feeling in my gut.

Yesterday, I went through the day without one laugh and it is doubtful I even smiled.

I honestly don't know what the next four years will be like. I mean, I get the general gist of the horror and ineffectiveness that is to come.

And while I'm not advocating it (Secret Service), nor would I do it myself, but let's not be toooo hasty to rule out assassination. Of course, that would leave Pence in the Oval, so........

Ok. Maybe I smiled a little at that one.

One of my other thoughts was that letter that the outgoing President leaves the incoming one. I mean - can you imagine what that one is going to be like?    I'm guessing it's going to be:

Fuck Off

-B.H. Obama


Ok - that one did make me smile too.....but just a little.




Oh - and on the title image? What I am guessing is now a seemingly ill-thought out ad campaign for the Netflix show: the Crown.

Yes, that full page ad was wrapped around each and every New York Times yesterday morning - and I'm guessing the marketers were trying to tie it in to what seemed to be an inevitable Clinton win.

Fail.


Song by: Chris Isaak