#IWSG #ROW80 #A-TO-Z-CHALLENGE PRE-POST SOAPBOX “TO MY DEAR FRIEND, ****”

Well, now. What could all of this be about? And why am I addressing everyone in any writing group that I've ever participated (or hovered on the outskirts of) in? There's a simple reason for that and it has to do with MAGNIFICATION, which just means that I want the broadest audience possible for this post. Normally, I don't give a good goddamn who reads what, unless I think I've written something truly fine or more likely, hysterically funny, but there isn't a whole lot to laugh about these days, is there?

So, this is to my Dear Friend, ****. I'm not using any names, but there are plenty of you out there that I count as my dear friends and I care about you, and this post is mainly directed AT you and it is meant in as loving a way as I can possibly state. ARE YOU ALL FUCKING NUTS?

courtesy:thedailybeast.com        

No, I take that back, Dear Friend, ****, because surely your rationale for making the decision and choices that you are clearly making now, make some sense to you, although the rest of the world is scratching it's head over this. I am talking about the decision to back Donald Trump as our next Republican Presidential Candidate in the 2016 General Election.

You know what is odd about this? I see your point; I truly do. However, you, I, and the rest of the nation have been sold this bill of goods for so long, it's hard to know what is the truth anymore and what is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. So, let me see if I can clear it up for all of us, Dear Friend, ****. We've been fed a lot of guff for a long time, all of us and it's time we all put an end to the long con.

courtesy:content.time.com                                

You see, back in the days of true Conservative Republican-type politics, we had very good candidates like Barry Goldwater, who made a run for President in 1964, only to be undone by one Lyndon Baines Johnson, who while a terrific Senator and Speaker of the House was a truly shitty president, was already lying to the American public about the truth of things about the Tonkin Gulf. He could hardly help that however, since he was being lied to by Robert McNamara and later, General William Westmoreland, regarding body counts in Vietnam. However, it was the beginning of what would become a period of deceit in American Politics that would continue to haunt us until this day.

Goldwater would have made a good President, my Dear Friend, ****, but he made one statement that made him sound war-like and LBJ jumped on it in his campaigning (not that mud-slinging was anything new, but LBJ raised the bar on that) and so he buried Goldwater.

But, LBJ botched Vietnam, and decided at the 11^th hour not to run in '68, leaving the door open for pacifist George McGovern as the Democratic Candidate, facing off against Richard Nixon, who won in a landslide, declaring “We want no wider war”, all the while bombing into Cambodia and creating one of the most horrific scenes of genocide by de-stabilizing that country.

And so it goes, Dear Friend, ****. America has invested in her share of Acts of Folly, up to and including the invasion of Iraq and the destabilization of the entire Middle East. Because, we think we know better than everyone else. Because we believe that our way is better and that we are going to ram democracy and freedom down the entire 3^rd world's throats, if it kills 'em. Our hubris, arrogance and base stupidity know no bounds. As reference, I point again to Vietnam.

We built “hamlets” and moved all of the agrarian farmers from the outlying villages into them. What we never understood and what the Vietnamese revere more than anything is ancestor worship and by taking them forcefully from their homes and moving them to a new place forced them to leave behind generations of their dead, which they cherished highly. It was no way to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese and it only served to drive more and more of these villagers into the hands of the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, who was a Patriot first and a Communist, second. 

courtesy:www.invert-the-future.org

Ho Chi Minh

But, we NEVER could get that fine distinction into our thick heads and we STILL have a hide-bound government determined to follow the Truman Doctrine right straight to Hell. The Truman Doctrine, roughly paraphrased, means that by allowing one country to be “coerced” into becoming a Communist country, other countries in the region will fall to the same type of political and economical regime; a “Domino Effect” as it were.

My screed is going to take a different tack now, because there are other parallels in history that resemble what is going on now and they are quite simply, terrifying, Dear Friend, ****.

If we go back into the 20^th century and look at post WW I Germany, and the Weimar Republic, we can see that this was a time that was fraught with great economic upheaval in the entire world, not just Germany. The Russian Revolution had been fought and won, and if Lenin had lived longer, the USSR would not have become this monolithic enigma that it turned into under Stalin. With good reason, the Soviets feared the West. They were invaded five times after the initial Revolution, by various countries and factions, but the Bolsheviks always won and were becoming suspicious and wary of the west.

To the west, a young Adolf Hitler was busily putting together some kind of rag-tag base of political ill-repute. A chicken farmer, (Rudolph Hess), a flying ace from WW I and some-time heroin addict (Hermann Goering) and the SA, the precursor to the SS. What Hitler did after he was arrested for the 1923 beer-hall putsch, was to sit himself down and write “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) which should be REQUIRED reading for anyone who wants to think critically. 

courtesy:furtherglory.wordpress.com                          

Once Hitler was out of jail, he began to get this thing published and distributed and went to Union Meetings, Town Halls and distributed the thing. It won him all of the disaffected Germans who were suffering; suffering loss of status, loss of income, loss of their own sense of self within what they “knew” to be true as “Germanic”, or as Hitler would feed them, the term “Aryan”. He started out by descrying the Treaty of Versailles, which was a punitive treaty, the Allies rammed down Germany's throat, at the end of WW I. We, as part of the Allies in WW II would not make that mistake again. But gradually, he talked about “Pan-Germanism”, anti-communism and only later, began to sneak in anti-semitism. His growing supporters lapped this up like pigs at a trough. At last! Someone who understands us! Someone who is for us!

Boy, howdy, Dear Friend, ****, did they buy into it. They began to rally around this little failure of a man and listen to his hours-long screeds, which consisted mainly at the time of the equivalent of “there, there, papa is here to make it all better”. As Hitler began to gain strength, he began his onslaught on the Reichstag, the legal government of Germany, being presided over by President von Hindenburg. He first was able to establish the NAZI (Nationalist-Socialist Party) from the defunct NSDAP party and gain a majority in the Reichstag. In 1934, the NAZIs successfully passed the “Enabling Act”, which began the process of turning Germany into a one-party dictatorship based on totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism.

Well, Dear Friend, ****, this is where we start seeing that the will of the people don't mean anything. Hitler had already been secretly rebuilding an army called the Wehrmacht, to augment and eventually replace the Reichswehr, which was but a rump of an army, in the event Germany had to defend herself.

While Hitler was gangbusters at drumming up war fever and babbling about lebensraum, easily interpreted as “what's yours is now mine” or is a type of colonialism mind-set left over from the 19^th century, Hitler went at it with a fury. His first acquisition was Austria, which was practically German, because the Austrians spoke German. Then, came the Sudetenland, which was a rump state that had belonged to Germany, or Germans had walked across, or looked at.

courtesy:history.com

Winston Churchill. Neville has apparently evaporated from the internet (just kidding), but would you want to face this bulldog across a negotiating table, squabbling about the fate of the free world? Neither would I and I'm a BITCH!

Up until this point, Dear Friend ****, the west had rattled a couple of sticks, not even sabers, and had conceded everything that Der Füehrer asked for. In Great Britain, The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, gave into every single demand, while a back-bencher, by the name of Winston Churchill sat and fumed. But appeasement NEVER pays off, as Herr Chamberlain would find out on September 1, 1939.

Ultimatums flew back and forth, and Hitler was certain that the West would not attack, but they did. Although ultimately victorious, the Allies took heavy, heavy losses. But, what of the Germans who had followed this nameless gorm so blindly into the cataclysm? Their 1000-year Reich lasted exactly 12 years and when the German Army was in retreat and after it was apparent they could not stand and hold, Hitler ordered them to “raze the countryside” because, “these people, these sheep I have led do not deserve to live”, or words to that effect.

Dear Friend, ****, Hitler's Arkitektminister, Albert Speer ran, drove, rode horses, all over the countryside, countermanding that order. He knew the war was lost, but he still cared enough about his country and his fellow Germans that he didn't want them to starve during the wintertime. War is a bitter, bitter thing. But even more bitter, is finding out that your leader doesn't give one good goddamned about you.

So, what have I just told you, Dear Friend, ****? I have just described a scenario we are currently in the midst of. Through no fault of yours or mine, we have become disenfranchised in a way. Big deal. I once had a fine house out in the country, then I tried to buy a house during the Banking Crisis and I fought off eviction for two years. I can no longer drive, due to the fact that I am legally blind. Big Deal.

What we have is a man who is trying to steam-roll his way into being President and he is preying on the likes of people who have the mindset that they have in fact, lost something. Yes, you have. I have. But, it's part of social change and electing a person like this who is also now got the GOP endorsing him and groveling at his feet and appeasing him, is very much like a scenario that existed back in Germany in the 30s. This does not make Trump eminently fit to become one of the most powerful men in the world. To put it bluntly, the guy is a schlemiel and one of the reasons Vladimir Putin loves him so much, is because Putin will eat him for breakfast.

There is so much more at stake here than just what's sitting in your driveway. Have a motorcycle? You're doing better than I am. Gotta a car? Good for you! I have to take public transportation and sit next to Drunky McStinkly. This does not give me cause to lose all reason and vote for a jackleg.

I will leave you with this, Dear Friend, ****. Whatever happens in this election, whomever wins, we are liable to see bloodshed in the streets and Donald Trump is responsible for this. He has whipped up hatred and fervor to a pitch not seen since the days of Reconstruction or the riots of the 60s. This used to be a country of beautiful ideals. We used to be able to engage in discourse and disagree on subjects without resorting to violence and this has gone the way of the sabre-toothed tiger. We used to be the “melting pot” not only of different cultures, faiths and people, but also ideas. We are so far off that path now, I wonder if we can get that back.

courtesy:covenantpeoplesministry.org

This is becoming more and more the norm. The organization is supposedly a religious one and is under the protection of a non-profit.

This was the original picture I wanted to use that I had found for another post. This more properly conveys, I think, the true nature of what a fascist regime represents, unlike the little ragtag, make-do pretend army of the previous picture. If you have never visited a country that exists under a Military or One-man Dictatorship, you should. Your eyes will be opened. Visiting Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R., and as much as I love the Russians, their way of life did nothing to enamor me of their governance; just because they were Communists at the time (and still REALLY are), means nothing. It's the flip side of the same coin.

I hear rhetoric now about doing away with certain parts of the Constitution and parts of some of the Amendments that don't sit well with some politicians. So be it. The Great American Experiment lasted about 240 years. The Ottoman Empire lasted longer. Maybe Khrushchev was right and we will be tossed onto the ash heap of history; a fitting place for the country I see around me right now. Good luck, my Dear Friend, ****. I will never forget you. I'll be the one on the OTHER side of the barricades, or like Leon Trotsky (sans Stalin), will be writing policy for a new world. For what it's worth, I vote Independent and vote the principle, NOT the platform!

TECH TUESDAY INTERRUPTED FOR GENERAL MUSINGS ON THE EVE OF A-TO-Z AND THE LACK OF #ROW80 PARTICIPATION

Firstly, it's been so long since I did anything with #ROW80, they probably think I don't care, or I've died, although I know Cateartios knows I'm still floating around, as does Alberta Ross, (I hope) as I do try to give shout-outs to my #ROW80 peeps on the #FF when I remember to do them. It has been frantical around here, in some good ways and in some not so good ways. I guess what God giveth with one hand, he taketh with the other. Rather heavy-handed sounding that; let's just go with 4 steps forward, 2 1/2 steps back. . .

To begin with, JC had a heart attack, and not one of these sudden, stop-you-in-your-tracks-fall-down kind of myocardial infarctions, but the kind that are more like a slow-moving decrepitude, with mild distress, that seems like tummy ills, pneumonia, and a few hospital stays. The fact that he is less than compliant with his meds makes it even more difficult to work with him, but he is 67 years old, and at this juncture, my main focus is his comfort and for him to know that he is loved beyond reason -- something he has never had, and which everyone is entitled to -- so, writing has taken a back seat to this; surely understandable. We do what we can and and getting him to walk and take his meds and laugh at stupid stuff like "World's Dumbest ____________ " and play with Mama is good enough. He's a peach and I get to hear his stories.

Like about the time JC and Mr. Cantrell were a' settin' on the porch of the General Store in Snyder, Texas and Mr. Cantrell happened to mention that he'd bought himself a new huntin' dog. "How'd she do?" JC asked, in that Sam Elliott drawl of his. "Waahll, it went lahk this. . ." Mr. Cantrell said. "We ahll got aout inta tha clearin' and let them dawgs outta the back a' thet truck. . ." He paused for a bit, and looked off into the distance as if remembering a long-lost wife, or the sinking of the Titanic, and then went on, "All o' them dawgs went one way, 'cept thet thar new dawg, she went a' high-tailin' it t'other way. . ." He paused, and gazed off again, then shook his head and grinned. "Thet thar hound jus' kep' on a-goin'. . . I could still hear her a-bayin' in tha distance, after sunset, and tha next mornin', when I went back ta callin' her. Stupidest hound I ever bought. . . " JC said she never did come home, but once in a while, it was rumored that she could be heard yapping in the distance in far and sundry places.

The other things of note that have occurred are helping my co-host, the great DamyantiG with the A-to-Z Challenge 2014, that starts on April 1. For those not in the know, it is a challenge that starts on April 1, with the letter A and ends on April 30 with the letter Z. Sundays are exempt, so every letter of the alphabet is covered in 26 days. There are themes and non-themes and all sorts of ways to participate. If you've never done it and you are a blogger, I highly recommend it. You'll get a chance to get in the groove of writing daily posts; short and snappy and eye-catching! You'll also get a chance to visit other blogs and make new friends. Leaving comments is important! Interaction within this thriving community can only help you and you'll not find a better, more generous and giving group of people than writers!

I should mention that I have an actual THEME this year! Last year, I came up with some kind of half-baked idea that I needed to make a spreadsheet -- I'm shocked that I didn't write a relational database! -- with all of the letters in a row and the topics I had already picked out, listed in the columns. I believe my intention was to fill out all this bullshit and hand it in to Arlee Bird who started the A-to-Z Challenge for a grade, or something. But that all became moot, when I hit the letter "B". The reason is, I had chosen "Bravery" or something equally blah, so I wrote on "Beethoven" and his 3rd symphony, which turned out to be a big hit. It was something I had analyzed in college and it's a masterpiece and a bridge between the Classical era and the Romantic era in about 16 measures; with a bit of near-syncopation close to the finale. To say Ludwig was way ahead of his time, is an understatement. His string quartets and piano etudes boggle the mind in their forward-thinking approach to composition.

Anyway, my theme this year is HUMOR AND HUMORISTS. This idea came to me while I was hanging out in the ER with a massive eye infection. Just another one of those things that my body likes to do; stand up and say "YOU'RE NOT 25 ANYMORE!" More of a nuisance than anything and one of these stubborn things that required medicine that makes me sicker than hell, but hey! At least I don't look like something out of a Lon Chaney movie, any more. But last night, I got into one of those "Red Zone" laughter modes, the kind were you just know if you go up to that next level, it's apoplexy and hysteria and probably a burst blood vessel in your head.

The subject matter started with a bunch of Unintentially Hilarious Propaganda Posters from Cracked.com. Written by Jacopo Della Quercia, it starts off mildly, but gets cranked up by around poster #6, and I start that kind of wheezing laugh. I'm feeling pretty helpless and like jelly. JC has been asleep, but he wakes up to find out just what is so damned funny. So, I read the commentary and we crack-wise over this nonsense. I go from here to "Lost in Translation: 20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters" and the "Red Zone" revs up again. It's not just that the pictures are so mystifyingly bizarre; it's that most of them have almost nothing to do with the original movie. So the writer, Jay Thomas, helpfully interprets what he thinks went on when the posters were created. What Jay thinks went on is damn funny indeed.

I have spent my life being the world's Straight Man. I am at my best riffing off stuff other people say. For example, I think I won Andi-Roo over when she tweeted something about "loving the idea of elevensies" and I responded with "I do twelvesies, onesies, all the way to sleepsies. . ." My brand of humor is reactive, not proactive. This probably has more to do with the fact that my parents were both hysterically funny and I am very, very literal and logical. I am whimsical, but only in my own head; in short, a mess. Now, I have to run to the grocery store and some food. 

#ROW80, #IWSG THURSDAY, BECAUSE I SLEPT THROUGH WEDNESDAY. . .

Poor #ROW80; they probably wonder if I'm still alive. #IWSG is more than likely under the assumption that I'm some mass hallucination. I wonder myself. At least Damyanti of #teamDamyanti is aware that I am a real person; sort of. . .

I honestly meant to be on-the-ball this month; really. But once again, life happened, and as is my wont I tend to be secretive, when I most likely shouldn't be. Blame it on Asperger syndrome, being an only child, hating most of the human race, being shy, having low self-esteem, high self-esteen or knowing that interaction with most of the hoi-polloi ends in tears, regret, shattered dreams and on occasion, spilt blood; not mine, but theirs and one begins to understand why I am rather comfortable with my own company and ill at ease with people I do not know. 

Thanks to Mr. Jesse Libecap and theworld4realz.com and the entire Roo family for my wake-up call today!

So, what does this have to do with missing my #IWSG check in? JC had to be put into the hospital again, and this time it was for his heart. What should have been done months ago, and was ignored by his primary care physician, finally caught up to him. It was discovered by his Gastroenterologist, who flat-out told him that he would not perform and endoscopy on him until his heart issue had cleared up. My railing at JC over the phone whilst in the G.E. doctor's office did nothing, because he is a stubborn man. Alex's hollering did nothing. So, we let him come home. This was February 24, 2014.

We finally got him to the hospital on February 26, 2014, when I refused to speak to him for 2 days. I turned my back. Every other gambit had failed, but this. JC has had little love or interaction in his life, but I knew this was one thing he could not bear. I stopped interacting with him at all. He would walk into a room; I would walk out. It tore me up inside, and yes, it was cruel, but it worked. He gave in and went to the hospital. Alex and I visited him and made him laugh; JC and I are never angry with one another for long; there is too much love and we have cared for one another through so much, but I am not ready to let him go. As I told him, "I'm not through making you miserable in my attempts to make you experience happiness!"

The amazing thing is, the human body is hard to kill. The heart catheterization did not have the desired results, so for now, the doctors are using a combination of medicines to break up the calcified stent and the surrounding plaque. If this does not work, then, they will be forced to do a surgical bypass. Good thing I remembered all of that crap from the good doctors at the University of Michigan hospital, almost 40 years ago. 

JC seems to have weathered it well, better than his princess of a cat, Mama, and myself. Mama, of course looked for him constantly, and with him gone, she was forced by me to remain inside the entire time. No half-ajar doors, where she has the run of in-and-out; it is far too dangerous a neighborhood, with me here by myself to leave any door open. So, for about five days, I chased her around, with a spray bottle and picked up the stuff she knocked down. I didn't sleep well, and wouldn't have anyway, with JC gone. My Parkinsonism, requires lots and lots of sleep, and when I don't get it, I find that the Primodone, while helpful, still leaves me fatigued. The muscles on the right side of my body seem to have been weakened and my right eye-lid starts to droop. A lovely sight, I'm sure. 

Before my 2nd eye surgery, I could sorta do this. If this came in blue, I'd totally own it.

So, after JC was home, and we had settled in, I took off up to our favorite Sweetbay/WinnDixie to get his medicines. In spite of what I said, I am amazingly strong and a good 2-mile walk was what I needed to blow out some of the tension and anxiety. The muggers have learned to leave me alone after their last botched attempt, so I am safe. I grabbed the meds and a few items and stuffed them into my backpack in the front of the store.

Whilst doing so, I knocked over this poor gent's bike with my cane. I felt terrible and hoped I hadn't hurt it. I was trying to pick it up and I heard "Hey! That's my bike! Don't be takin' my stuff!" I whirled around and said, "I'm so sorry mister! I knocked it down! I hope I didn't hurt it!" He saw my cane and pack and bags, and asked "Could you wait here while I get my stuff?" I said "Sure! I'd be happy to!" He went back inside and got his things and came back, saying "Lawdy, lawdy, they put the grapes on the bottom, then the eggs and the canned goods on top!" He got it all arranged, as I was arranging my stuff.

Where I live, the bicycle is the primo method of transportation, unless you're a drug dealer or a pimp. The gent's bike didn't have quite this much stuff, but he had several 6-packs of water, a dozen eggs, grapes and canned goods on his handlebars. I've seen some contraptions in my time, running up and down Nebraska Ave., 33602, 33605, and some really, really fine looking rolling iron that is not owned by the upstanding citizens or V. M. Ybor.

Then he looked at me and said, "Can I help you to your car?" Then, he looked again, at my cane and glasses, and said, "Oh." This isn't the first time I've been asked this. "Nah, I'm taking the bus," I said. "Okay, well have a great day, and thanks!" He started to peddle away, and stopped and started laughing. "I forgot to unlock my bike!" I looked at him. "I have that effect on people. I sow confusion, wherever I go. It's my confuse-a-what™ and I'm really good at it." He said, "I can see that. Goodbye" Off he went.

I just made it to my bus and got home. I showed JC all of the items that he could make for himself that were easily fixed and heart-healthy. I gave him his meds and realized that I was so tired I could hardly move. Alex and I had made egg salad with 35 eggs that the church had provided on Sunday, so I had a sandwich and laid down for a nap at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, March 5, 2014. I woke up, today, at 2:10 pm. Yep, I was tired and that was some nap. JC is comfortable and seems willing to do what the doctors are asking of him; I hope he complies. Only he can do that; I am the most compliant patient on earth. I am non-compliant in every other aspect of my life; and oh yes, I do challenge my doctors. But, being compliant and going along and trusting everyone, got me to this point where I have nothing to retire on; after helping husbands get degrees and all. You hear me, Lithia? I will outlive JC; my health is much better now than it was 25 years ago, but my attitude is much, much worse in regards to "letting things go". I will fight for JC and I will fight for myself, as well.

A reminder! Theme Reveal for the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge is March 21, 2014. The Sign up is here. I am part of #teamDamyanti and our goal is to assist you in choosing a "theme" for your A-to-Z Challenge, 2014!