Celebrities' Cluelessness

I read that Myley Cyrus's house burned down in the fires sweeping California. I also read that these fires are periodic in nature, a natural feature of the landscape, and that they have been happening for hundreds of years. Perhaps the thought is not charitable, but I wonder why the hell these fancy big-time celebs did not know what time of day it was before they went investing millions of dollars on a palace destined to be incinerated? Why do human beings fail to perform due diligence? I will tell you why. Due diligence is something that highly sensitive individuals perform. Careful, cautious, detail-oriented, or quite the opposite of many of the world's celebs and needless to say, our President, Donald J. Trump, who is about as sensitive and detail-oriented as a lump of clay.

No one is glad for any disaster nor delights in the suffering of others, but I wish humans would get real. Study the earth, do not build in zones prone to earthquake, hurricane, fire, or similar natural disasters, and do not build in zones likely to be attacked by other countries. This is all self-evident, not rocket science in any way, shape, or form, and bi-partisan. I was against rebuilding New Orleans, because I believe New Orleans has a destiny that lies below the sea level, as do many of our coastal cities. We need to make peace with the fact that global warming will continue, even accelerate, unabated, and that the coastal cities will become underwater monuments to a civilization that once was. In reality, no federal or state funding should be allocated to coastal regions subject to flooding. If the locals want to waste their money, that is their own prerogative, but the money of others should not be wasted.

The Desk and Florence Farr

I dreamt I was working on a desk, trying to sort out a problem with its configuration, much as I had been out at work just yesterday. In my dream, a lady with long blondish hair tried to help, but she kept getting stuck inside the desk. It was a big desk with a complicated mechanism for adding and removing components and crawlspaces in which people were supposed to maneuver. I don't really remember much more than that, just struggling to work on sorting out a desk with a helpful lady, not too dissimilar, I might add, from the ladies I have been reading about in "Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses: Maud Gonne, Moina Bergson Mathers, Annie Horniman, Florence Farr" by Mary K. Greer.

Mary K. Greer is quite the scholar, no two ways about it, and here I had been formerly impressed by Donald Tyson. Well, Tyson's adulation of Mathers is now called into question by all sorts of revelations. Mathers does not seem like such a great character really in this book.

I think the lady in my dream may have been a thought-form of Florence Farr, who impressed me the most. She died of breast cancer in Ceylon in 1917. Mathers on the other hand died of the Flu epidemic of 1918. It would certainly seem that the practice of magic has no power against physical maladies such as cancer and other diseases. I think the evidence is overwhelming that if you want to be healed, medical science is the first stop and the last stop.

I read about Florence's troubles and travails in the above book. It seems to me she had a rather hard life, short on money much of the time, and although a successful actress, once she got into her fifties, no theatre was interested in her anymore, which is the usual case in acting. The young are what people want to go to see, the young and the beautiful, for their intensity and energy. Of course, the same is true in every profession.

I would have liked to have known Florence Farr. She had an affair with William Butler Yeats as well as Bernard Shaw, led the G.D. in London, and fought with Mathers and held her own ground. She was interesting and powerful in her own right, but also seems to me to have been gentle and kind.

Look Beyond the Human Factor

The most distressing thing about religions and other spiritual systems are what I call the human factor. Get humans involved, stuff gets messy. I just get nauseated thinking about some of the shenanigans I read about from time to time, done by erstwhile "spiritual" leaders supposedly in touch with their "Higher Selves" and/or divinity. Just a big "Hmph!" comes to mind. Self-delusion, more like, than divinity. But I imagine that Republicans must get nauseated too, if they ever examine their Republican idols up close. Trump, for instance. If I were a Republican, Trump would give me great unease.

I've suffered heartache learning all the backstory to the Golden Dawn in its various incarnations and revolutions throughout the last century and up to the present day. I wish I could read about calm, wise, mature leaders, but instead I read about petty, vindictive, selfish drama queens just striving for power and control over others. But you know, humans will be humans, and in point of fact, the early organization was composed of actual drama queens, that is, people involved in theatre. Of course they would opt for drama in every facet of their lives. That is their bread and butter, their chosen mode of living. So, those that followed appear to have been cast in the same mold, no?

I think I have to separate the system from the people espousing it. The people are often bickering, fighting among themselves, because let's face it, that's what we humans do. Maybe that's what we humans do best, is to fight among ourselves. The idea of cooperating is really strange and foreign, isn't it? Some liberal, hippy nonsense brought on by marijuana, right? So let's compete, why don't we, argue, fight and be at each other's throats all the time, because we don't really want to get along, do we?

For my own part, I think spirituality is best kept private, even secret to an extent, because it is at risk of great disillusionment and disenchantment when other people get involved. Always and forever, people strive to make a damn living out of spirituality, and that's where all the problems come in--with the money!

Racism Turns on Its Own Race

WW2 killed off more white people than the Crusades. White racism just never made any sense at all. White racism is just about hating other white people that don't believe the exact same thing.

If You Gave These Guys a Million Dollars

It is demoralizing to read about these pointless mass shootings in what is otherwise a wealthy, strong and wonderful country. Our people do not deserve to be exposed to such horror. If these amok angry white male shooters were given a million dollars and left on a deserted island with all the supplies and equipment they might ever want, they could never in all their lifetime put together anything approaching the killing power of a modern handgun. They are cavemen, stupid and desolate evil-doers that always gravitate to the tools of destruction and chaos, demonic spirits predestined to cause pain and suffering wherever they go. The best solution really would be to round them up and place a bullet through their head before they do the same to others. The trick lies in identifying them, like a needle in a haystack. For that reason, once a shooter goes amok, their parents should be seized and DNA forcibly extracted from their blood to determine genetic markers that might identify worthless murdering scum in the future. Also, it would be as well to sterilize their natural parents, and possibly extended family as well to the fifth generation, to prevent further calamities down through the generations. The human race has a problem of hygiene, in that anyone with functioning genitals procreates and then lets society nurture their offspring. Society did nurture the worthless shooters everywhere and paid the price. What needs to be done is get wise about human procreation and stop the shooters before they are even conceived. Stop them being born. Quality control. Just as we want quality control in manufacturing, so too is there desperate need for quality control in human procreation. Worthless scum cause 99% of the problems in the world.

Spirituality, Why?

One big reason, seldom mentioned, for belief in God/gods, spirits, and other entities not corporeal, and the desire to communicate with them and nurture relationships, is that our fellow human beings prove, in the long term, unsatisfactory in one way or the other. Who among us has a friend that is trustworthy in all matters? Reading the biographies of famous and not-so-famous folks from a hundred years ago, I am struck by how much treachery, deceit and backstabbing is commonplace. Confide in one's closest friend, and those confidences become marketable. Little or nothing is kept secret, people always look to what can profit them or cast them in a better light on the stage. The truth is probably closer to the observation that no one has any friends at all, only acquaintances that find one useful for one purpose or another, for a temporary period of time in the present.

Humans being faithless and fickle, the thinker turns to the nonhuman, divinity or at any rate higher emanations from the Universe that can instruct, enlighten and ennoble. One can analyze such practices ad nauseum, but in the end, if they are useful, then common sense councils practice. Perhaps a great many things that humans say and do are not based upon reason or upon anything that can stand up to the cold light of scrutiny, but we do them anyway. Humans are animals facing down approaching pain and death not far off in the future.

In regards to religious and spiritual practice, I repeat the Wiccan creed, "An' if it harm none, do wot thy will." That is a mighty and comprehensive moral code compressed into a few words. Harming none includes self, of course, and all human beings, and some Wiccans even include animals, and some extend the "franchise" further to plants and even the planet Earth, although I do not know how we can harm the planet. Harm ourselves through pollution, perhaps, but the planet cares not, I think. Even if all life perished, mighty Earth would still be around.

I think if everyone abided by the above creed, then the human species would come out of our present problems all right. I love the simplicity of it, so much better than a weighty book or complex moral code. Nine words. An excellent litmus test for any decision. I think where other religionists would dispute would be that they have additional Commandments, and want to redefine "harm" to mean more complicated forms of harm. I suppose there is a lot of room for debate over the meaning of that word. So much argument boils down to semantics. What does "harm" mean? Then, too, what is "will?" How does one know what one's will truly is, and is one competent enough and well-informed enough to make decisions? I suppose no one sentence will ever satisfy, nor any one religion, but the human race demands a buffet of religions, lots of variety to choose from at all times. Some people change religions like they change clothes.

At any rate, I feel at peace in Churches and with Christianity, but also with the Wiccan and related practices. I am more at peace with spirituality and religion than I have ever been. I think it is due to being exposed to so many good people that really believe. One judges by one's experiences, and I have known many good believers.

America's Voting Quagmire

The U.S. learned nothing from Florida's voting fiasco in 2000. Our voting process is still antiquated, inaccurate, prone to lengthy delays not just for voters but for counters, and prone to corruption. Apparently, the corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C., don't care because they profit from the corruption. I don't see much momentum from either party to fix voting, and it has been broken for decades, probably forever. The U.S. could do a lot better where voting is concerned. Every time there is an election, it seems to devolve into a finger-pointing contest with lawyers, lawsuits and protests.

Don't Know Much

I read, see and hear, sometimes with envy, other times with admiration, folk that are doing much better than I, in the sense of achieving. More eloquent, more beautiful, more intense, stronger, smarter, or more skilled, or perhaps (Heaven forbid!) all of the above. Well, there's a ranking system everywhere, and no one is exempt. Even the strong must, in time, compare themselves to the stronger and come up short. There are comparisons to be made, not just among the current cohort, but with the dead greats (not to be confused with the Grateful Dead) such as Shakespeare and so on. There are comparisons to be made, finally, with computers, with other animals and finally, with the Divine, besides which no mortal can truly compare. This, then, is a meditation on Humility. 'Tis well to be humble, because even the finest form among us pales before the Divine. Then, too, there is the annoying fact we are dust, most of us, before we reach triple digits in years. I expect to be joining the boneyard in about the next thirty years or so, if I'm lucky.

Avoid Local Stores

At this time, quality can be found online. Local stores stock garbage, price it exorbitantly, and hope against hope that clueless know-nothings will buy the garbage. When, on rare occasion, by accident, an item of quality somehow finds it way onto the racks, then the local store charges twice the price of the online venue. That is why all purchasing must be done online by anyone with sense. If you want to stock your life with junk, then sure, buy from one of the retail chains. Watch your money go bye-bye as the cheap trash reveals itself for what it is in time. The retail chains hope to prolong their unnecessary survival by cheating the most vulnerable consumers out of their money. They have no plan at all for long-term survival, and it is only a matter of time before they all suffer the fate of Sears and K-mart.

Best Dream of 2018

I had my best dream of 2018 last night, best because it was vivid. I was at a party, and by that I mean a pleasant social gathering with good and gentle folk, and I was seated beside a large and talkative, crafty woman with many ideas and much wit, who was talking to me about things I no longer remember upon waking. It is often the case, that I dream of being talked to, even at great length, and when I awake, can remember naught but the faintest outline, or possibly a single phrase. I do recall one of her friends bringing me a good drink (non-alcoholic, quite naturally, as I no longer indulge in intoxicants), and then she turned to me and with some charming witticism, induced me to rise and fetch her a drink. She said she liked a soda called "The Bossman," which I recognized as a sweet citrus carbonated soda.

Upon waking, probably due to allergies, this being ragweed season, I thought she might be my boss, for one, a natural enough assumption, or else a thought-form based upon the detritus floating through my mind, and possibly an amalgam combining my boss with a charming personality I watched on YouTube not long ago, a young, black woman talking about her religion, Wicca, in mild, gentle and reasonable language. I liked her and thought she was smart.

I don't recall anything of deep or profound meaning in the dream, but I did enjoy a rather nice conversation with an interesting entity in my dream, even if I remember little more than a dozen words of what was said! (And of those words, some permutation of "fetch me a drink" was the gist!)

I do think one of the most potent attractions in the practice of Wicca and other minority religions is quite simple and based in psychology. The mere fact that a religion does not have many millions of pushy advocates on its behalf is the attraction. That it can be practiced in solitary is quite useful. That it is adaptable and open to a certain degree of experimentation and improvisation is almost unique. Christianity and Islam have both become rather stodgy by comparison, full of rules and group-think and group-activities. The room for personal revelation and personal relationships to the Divine seems limited and dismal in those religions, which surrender spiritual power from the individual to the shaman. Where power and politics get involved, spirituality flees. Also there is the fact that, being new, Wicca has not accumulated, yet, such a large number of terrible scandals, and may it never do so, but I fear, in time, it too will succumb to human frailty, as humans do what humans sometimes do, which is to fail. Yes, everyone and everything suffers a setback once in a while, that is the nature of things.

I am more an admirer of Wicca than a practitioner. The ambivalence I feel for Nature is the main reason. Wicca is really tied to Nature, to the observance of days on a calendar and a rather sentimental and emotional regard for things living and dead. The great outdoors and to a lesser extent, environmentalism, both political and personal, are both key to understanding and participating in the faith. I have never cared a fig for the phase of the Moon and doubt I could start now. To me, the Moon and indeed the planets are abstract notions. I admire them rather vaguely and am aware they are there, and like to learn about them, but don't really see them as influencing me that much. After all, they are material. If the Moon could influence me, then how much more so could the floor beneath my feet, and perhaps I should study the phases of the floor, and learn what angle it lies at, and the composition thereof. No, I dwell in the realm of thoughts and really always have and never liked camping or spending too much time in the rough. I hated going camping in Scouts. I like all of the conveniences of civilization and the wondrous artificial comfort zones we have created with our science. Science is the magic of the material plane we dwell in, whereas magic is of the spirit.

Of course, another big attraction to Wicca for many women is simply that there are many female Wiccans, and the relatively smaller number (I imagine) of male Wiccans tend to be feminists or at least open to the notion of equality between the sexes. I do not know what qualifies a man to be termed a feminist in the eyes of a female feminist; perhaps no man could qualify. It is true that some feminists really are down on men, but this is probably because of the misbehavior of so many men, the brutish louts, who behave with reckless criminality and abuse and outrage the gentle sex. There must be some reason that all the wars have been waged by mostly men, and mostly men inhabit the prisons of the world and do the violent crimes of the world. That reason has to do with testosterone and the negative aspects to it that are reinforced by culture and upbringing. I am not sure what the solutions may be, but the best, it seems to me, is to evolve a sexless mortal, with neither gender, for what need have we of gender, if a laboratory offers a better option. But that is far into the future, when I have already checked out, I think.

Republican Hypocrisy

Every little thing that the long-aggrieved, much-complaining Republicans griped about the Clintons and Obama, Trump does a thousandfold worse. The list of his corruptions could fill this blog. Basically, when one wants to know the ideal Republican, study Trump, that is what the Republican strives to become. It is their very highest spiritual ideal, what they strive for in their fondest prayers, the summit of their aspirations. To become Trump: to cheat, lie and swindle on a grand scale, is what every Republican wants to do, in the secret truth of their soul. Failing that, they reach for the gun, go out and kill the innocent, acting out their fondest fantasies of murder, much-repeated fantasies that represent the summit of their desolate imaginations.

Stark Choice in 2018

Trump's victory in 2016 was the ringing of the bell of Hell, summoning up the infernal legions and gathering all evil unto him, awakening the criminals, murderers and all men harboring evil in their hearts, followed by the hand-wringing of angels. In 2018, the American people have been presented two stark choices for the November election:

-hatred, racism, murder, and political violence in the Republicans
-compassion, reason, ethics and moderation in the Democrats

It may well be that America choices the former, madness and violence. After all, Germany did once, and so did Russia. Is America better? That remains to be seen. Those who possess even a tiny ounce of goodness in their souls will vote Democrat. Those that have sworn in the darkness to an indifferent Master will vote Republican. Although, others may opt not to vote at all, which just means they are lazy in addition to being evil, perhaps a less virulent form of wickedness. Such people would abandon their country when their country needs them.

New problems? No, old.

With so many negative headlines about crimes, violence, corruption, cheating, lying, stealing, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, police brutality, incivility, and so on, one might be tempted to despair about the world, society, or the age we live in. Let me be clear, that is a temptation sent by none other than the Devil, if you will. Not that I really believe in a Devil, but he certainly is a convenient chap by way of conversation.

Resist the temptation! Our age is no worse than any other. Our society, rather better, I would think. Our nation, we have a right to be proud of, next to the likes of ugly China or rotting Russia. Be proud! I do not endorse the "bended knee" thing among NFL players for the reason that it just seems too trendy and not thoughtful enough.

Think back to forty years ago, to 1978, please. Back then, police did not wear body cameras, nor did their dashboards host cameras, nor did any of the rooms in the police department or even the courtroom. Judges, police and civil servants largely did as they liked, and sometimes got away with it. Criminals of all stripes got away with a great many things in 1978. Bullies could beat the crap out of weaker kids. I know, I saw it happen. Teachers could say whatever nasty thing popped into their little head and get away with it, and often they could slap, hit or fondle a student and get away with it. Folks got away with stealing, lying, cheating, even killing, and there are headlines and news articles about such things.

There is not more crime now, there is less. Crime has gotten to be far more difficult to get away with. Criminals tend to be apprehended far more often than in 1978. There is less racism, less homophobia, less xenophobia, less ignorance and stupidity in the public arena. Of course there are going to be exceptions, but one must remember, these exceptions used to be the norm.

You have to admit, things are getting better. They are getting better all the time.

Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly has had an interesting career, to say the least, and is an interesting celebrity. Long was she derided as a "dumb blonde" by leftists, but Jon Stewart was one of the first to acknowledge that she is actually bright, a violinist in fact. First she was at Fox News, then when the sex scandal blew up over there, she moved to Fox's nemesis, NBC, which has been a bit of a culture shock for her to say the least. Comments that would barely raise eyebrows on Fox are grounds for dismissal on NBC. It is true, there is intolerance on the left for certain words and phrases. I guess it is because the assumption is that highly privileged, wealthy, highly educated and well-informed celebrities should know better than to behave in any sexist or racist manner and that everything they do is calculated. Megyn Kelly earns enough money, she could hire a sociologist full-time to keep her informed about history, culture and society. I think, however, that celebrities remain like us--human beings. Generally, I would say, give the benefit of the doubt, and at least impose a three-strikes rule. Strike one, warning. Strike two, suspension. Only on strike three, dismissal. Something like that. However, in the celebrity world (as in the world of us little people!) enemies are always on the lookout for any sign of weakness, the slightest faltering, and ready to swoop in and replace you at a moment's notice. Ruthlessness and cuthroatery! There are plenty of aspiring young actresses that would love to earn twenty-three million dollars a year talking on the television. Wow, work for a year, you're set for life!

On a personal level, I am willing to overlook comments and phrases, in the first place because we all have to, as they are commonplace. I can't begin to count the number of non-PC comments I have heard in the workplace and everywhere else. Everyone is just muddling through this strange and complicated experience we call life. The people grope for simple answers, and what is simpler than black and white? A charming simplicity, as though skin color meant anything at all. For the same reason, people buy one brand of cereal over another, because the box is green instead of red, and they don't like the color red. On a similar level, many Jamaicans, who are black, discriminate against, even hate (!), LGBT individuals, even though they may not know any on a personal level. I read an article the other day written by a Jamaican lesbian who said she was scared to death to come out to her family, because she is certain they would disown her, as they disowned her lesbian cousin. So, all kinds of ignorance and prejudice are commonplace, and certainly white folk don't have a monopoly on it. What we all do have is a responsibility, as human beings, to strive toward the light, to try and get ourselves better, to understand more fully. Some people just don't make the effort, don't feel like it is worth bothering with.

Is it so, as often repeated, that "Love is the answer?" Or as is sometimes put, "Love is the law, the only law?"

No, I think love is overrated, myself. A lot of people don't want any love. They just want to be left alone. Perhaps there is a better word to choose, if one is crafting a law describing moral conduct. Noninterference? A Libertarian law.

Election Predictions

In the past, the formula has always held true that if the economy is good, then the ruling party remains in power. If the economy is bad, the ruling party is voted out. The American people are just like any other people in that they want to do well for themselves. If only nations could come together and realize that greater prosperity can be had through cooperation than competition--but leaders like Xi and Putin will never accept that, in a million years, because it is contrary to the place where their souls reside.

By the above formula, the Republicans should do well. They are giving themselves credit for the Obama recovery, and perhaps many people do believe that the Republicans, late on the scene, are responsible all of a-sudden for the booming economy. Certainly, tax cuts on business never hurts! Common sense tells as much. The deficit, which the Republicans worried about so much under Clinton and Obama, is abruptly a nonissue now that the Republicans are in power. Look at charts--spending always goes up under Republicans. They have not the discipline to keep their hands out of the cookie jar. One day, the bill will come due, and it may present a huge problem, and retirees are likely to bear the brunt, because in the end, retirees are expendable. The pattern for local governments has always been, screw the retirees out of their pensions.

I predict that the Democrats will do moderately well, making a strong showing, but not a landslide. Certainly, Democrats and independents have been given enough motivation and presented with a stark difference in every kind of policy under the Sun. There is no reason for voter apathy. The irony is, Trump has some good ideas along with the bad, but anytime one unscrews a huge jar of marbles and pours them on the floor, sure, somebody is bound to trip and fall into Truth, and that is what Trump did. A lot of marbles also went and tripped up the poor, the sick, transgendered, and immigrants. Trump to me represents meanness, cruelty. He has resurrected racism and given the demon a powerful new lease on life. He has also resurrected fascism around the world. He is no different than his predecessors in spending entirely too much money on the military, fooling around too much in the Middle East, and not paying enough attention to the threat posed by global warming. It is not popular nowadays to talk about global warming, but it hasn't gone away, and in the end, poses a greater threat to the United States than these sock-puppet regimes in the Middle East. Losing the cities of our coasts may secretly please cynical Republicans, who see them as liberal meccas full of minorities, but it will also waste away the bulk of the nation's wealth, for without the coastal cities, we are Canada. If the U.S. does not lead on global warming, no one will.

I don't really see a monumental regime change underway in the upcoming election, but I could well be wrong. I don't feel inspired. The economy is really the main thing for most people. It is difficult for the average person to grapple with big issues like global warming, foreign policy or even national policy. What people want is a safe job, a way to make a good living. The rest is kind of icing on the cake. Republicans opted to borrow from tomorrow in order to throw themselves a nice big party today. Perhaps that will work out for them in the short-term. Not yet have they told the old people, no Social Security for you.

We Need an American President

I am voting American in the next election. All we have now is some guy that represents his own tribe all the time. Basically gives the middle finger to the rest of us. Everything has to go his way all the time, and the only problem he ever sees is Democrats. Well, he hasn't killed us all yet, we still have plenty of fight left. I think he is not an American and hates America with every fiber of his being. What he wants is for America to be like Russia. That's his fondest hope and dream. Either Russia, North Korea, or China. Sometimes he gets a little disloyal with Russia, likes to flirt with the other two dictatorships. Too bad, in 2020, he will discover, he does not live in North Korea. He lives in a place where there is an election. He never won an election before and just got in because of the Electoral College. He wouldn't have even won that without a lot of help from the media. Time to vote American instead of party.

Thieves, crooks, and liars. That's the kind of litmus test Trump set out as requirements for all his appointees. The reason turnover has been so high in the White House is that a lot of people have morals. That's a huge problem for the servant of evil. How can he fulfill his Master's dictates, when there are people following their conscience? It's a big problem for poor old Trump. Another Stormy Daniels he has to weather.

Stephen Hawking's Predictions

He predicts superhumans will take over. I agree 100% with the gentleman. Tough luck for all those folks fixated on pumping out babies. You will need a genius I.Q. to compete in the future. Otherwise, only occupation? Organ donor.

Thought I'd Seen It All

On YouTube tonight, I learned that the couple behind the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is for Trump (and even watch InfoWars/Fox News pretty regular). They went over the top, dressing as the Prez and the First Lady, although they didn't go to the trouble of putting wigs on. Political theater in a series of videos supposedly about the occult.

I guess they want to be timely and relevant and reach out to a market niche, right-wing, American occultists. I wonder how big that market niche is and how lucrative. I wonder if they are the occult's Diamond and Silk. Maybe that is how their prosperity spell really works.

I haven't heard them say anything I disagree with on magic, yet. I actually like them on a personal level. Charismatic, after a fashion. I don't like the emphasis on "war" though. Conflict sells, of course. They have launched a magical war to counteract some clown that practices black magic against Trump voters. Why give the turkey more attention, is my reaction. First I ever heard of the clown, and this couple are jumping up and down getting excited and angry about the absurdity. Just relax, such a poseur could not possibly muster the power of a mustard seed. Absurd, the whole thing. I also don't like their use of the term "war". It seems every other headline on Fox News has "war" in the title. You know, these United States have had about enough wars as it is. We could use peace to rebuild the country, with all these failing roads and bridges and poor Internet service. Certainly the last couple of wars we had have been total wastes. Even Trump himself agrees on that score. I certainly do agree with Trump that we would have been better off not getting involved in Afghanistan or Iraq. Another of Hillary's little failings, her support of these expensive wars. Siding with the Republicans brought her no benefits, no Republican votes. Bad move politically. Might as well have gone full Progressive and opposed the wars. No war would have placed the country in a better position to pay for health care.

Certainly, no one can fault their little ritual desiring freedom for all of humanity. They seem pretty open-minded. Certainly more appealing than the politician they support. I have to question their judgment in following Alex Jones though. I couldn't imagine quoting that guy in any context. I also find their histrionics tedious. Channeling emotion doesn't make one seem either sincere or powerful. More like, TV preacher. Calm down, Jethro.

I think they suffer from a case of overreaction. A constant diet of right-wing media, coupled with their lifelong focus on magic and their messianic desire to save the world, results in this street theater where they are "saving" Trump from bad witches and, I imagine, bad Hollywood. I'm not sure why Hollywood is so bad, or appreciably worse than other industries, I guess because Hollywood is a liberal power center that donates to Democrats, is why Hollywood is bad. Certainly a lot of television shows are not worth watching, but when has that not been true? Most books are not worth reading, for that matter. I suppose in their view, academia must be bad too, and of course unions and minorities--anyone that donates to the baddies, the Dems.

They do take great pains to differentiate "bad" witches from "good" witches. Well, to the average American, it's all nonsense or else dangerous self-delusion. You know what, Trump can protect himself, he doesn't need that much help, he is a pretty skilled magician in his own right, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I can think of a lot of other causes that are worthy besides helping someone rich and powerful. Which brings to mind the distinct possibility that all their theatrics might be serving their little prosperity spell. Nothing is ever spoken about the corruption and dishonesty so apparent in Trump himself. If you want to present yourself as fair and balanced, it helps to admit that which is true, and concede that your support of this or that politician is nuanced. Instead, they just play partisan politics, no objectivity other than a token objectivity, thin and dubious. Come on, you are Republican shills, trying to reach out to New Agers and flip them red.

In the end, everybody has to be taken with a grain of salt, even the supposed teachers.

On other levels, besides the political--which, I don't know why they had to go there in the first place, quite bizarre, as though they want to get on TV and are looking after their pet ambitions--I dislike their tendency to muster fake emotion. At any rate, it just rings false. They are mimicking these guys on TV. I guess that is the whole point of going on YouTube, because TV is where the money is. They get on Fox News, they get a lot of money.

Also, there is a tendency they have to repeat themselves. The broken record syndrome. Make your point, move on, don't keep harping on it again and again like Fox News. I really think they learned all their presentation techniques from Fox News. Same point, regurgitated fifty times over in fifty different ways.

The other thing that grates is a new tendency I have observed to employ profanity, like bulls--. O.K., that is not the worst profanity ever, but it is sloppy and brings to mind drinking and belching. I know everyone does it these days on both the left and the right. Everyone is wrong. I am like a lone voice crying out in the wilderness, few people hold to the old standard anymore, but I believe in a certain level of decorum, but this holds even more so when discussing the holy.

I'm pleased to note, however, that they seem to be O.K. with gays, which hasn't always been the case with these occult orders. Specifically on their web site, they state they do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. That is a relief, because gays get enough heat from the various right-wing religions. They are also not racist, needless to say. That all sounds good to me. About damn time, too. Although, it may be that they just don't want to turn off potential customers. There is probably less money to be had in homophobia these days than in tolerance.

What's off-putting is that they are hardcore conspiracy theorists, joined at the hip, it would seem, with Alex Jones of InfoWars. Making a lot of outrageous claims without much in the way of evidence. You know, evidence is important. Without evidence, everybody can be guilty. I suppose astral, psychic thinkadees informed them of such things--well, one can be mistaken. It is important to retain the critical faculties when evaluating messages and information gathered from the astral. Our senses and reasoning are not lesser in value. We were gifted with reason ... for a reason.

Every show, besides the obligatory -New Age- -Magic- Golden Dawn- -Spiritual Work- -Witchcraft- ...there's this recurrent theme of, oh, how put-upon poor little old Trump is, the innocent one, can't the media lay off of all his lies, deceit and corruption? Let the goodly Saint Trump lie, cheat and steal all he wants, because after all, he is a Saint. The Golden Dawn has sanctified his horns. Oh yeah, Trump rides a Unicorn and farts perfume. Disgusting. They take the Holy, put it in the toilet and mingle it with Trump. Must be nice, finding a way to make magic pay in real cold hard cash.

Hopefully, one day these two will confess their relationship with politics and quit using New Age beliefs as a ploy to get attention. Religion is not your whore. If you are about spiritual advancement, then be about that. Sounds to me like they are just about padding their own pocketbooks by talking all the time about how put upon poor billionaire Trump is. They prostitute their knowledge in the service of darkness. They are not the first and by no means will be the last. This is exactly why many masters of old insisted upon secrecy and did not wish to share knowledge with everyone. Eventually some bright fellow figures out a way to commercialize, cheapen, use for base and tawdry ends. It always happens.

In the beginning, when I watched the two, I thought, ah, they believe what I believe, maybe I will learn something from them. Now, I think, these two buffoons believe otherwise, my beliefs are not at all like theirs, they wish to talk only about Trump and about Republican politics, that is their religion. They do not have any spiritual thoughts in their bodies. So in my mind they are no different than the televangelists and others that seem to make a business out of spirit. I suppose it beats working for a living, eh?

Butterfly

A butterfly shows the difference between human beings.

Some encounter a butterfly and admire its beauty.

Others rip the wings off to watch it suffer.

Prayer

I have come to the conclusion that a prayer-less world is not necessarily a desirable one for human beings. There is comfort and consolation to be had in prayer that cannot be gotten from other human beings so well and certainly not on the Internet!

If one is atheist and places great value on being consistent, logical, and rational, and yet, has a habit of drinking or of using drugs, then an accusation presents itself. J'accuse! You are already engaged in an irrational habit, these twelve-ounce curls you do every day with a can of beer, detrimental to body and/or mind. Why, then, should you avoid prayer, which is equally irrational, yet not in any way detrimental to health? Indeed, there have been numerous studies indicating that prayer has measurable benefits to body and mind. That, to me, was quite persuasive when I read it, and I have found through direct experience that genuine, unforced, sincere prayer is extremely satisfying, wholesome and beneficial. The trouble with prayer and with religion when growing up was it was forced. Church was compulsion, Sundays were forced attendance, and even one of my high school teachers forced us to pray. Religion can become drudgery, tedium, an object of contempt. Some people take that which is beautiful and precious and twist it until it is horrible beyond recognition. They present God as a projection of their dark self, a Punisher, a Tormenter, a Torturer, vindicative, vengeful and ruthless. That reflects their own nature only, not the nature of the most high. Such lies and distortions get in the way of spirituality and must be discarded.

China is crazy, radical atheist, and seems bent on realizing the dystopia of "1984", with state surveillance of everyone and thought control. It is difficult to see the charm in a completely atheistic viewpoint. The fact remains, gods are fun, and not believing is just negation, it doesn't offer half the fun of believing or at least, suspending disbelief.

Spirituality evolved to help an intelligent, thinking mind adapt to the pressures and the stresses brought on by knowledge. Of course, knowledge is not all good. There is a huge downside. We know, for instance, quite well that we will grow old and die. That is a terrible knowledge to have. We know that we are bound to worry and fear from cradle to grave. We worry about health, first of all, our own and our loved ones. We worry about losing money, losing friends, losing loved ones. All of these fears, doubts and stresses are really brought on by knowledge and intelligence. If we were only stupider! It sounds funny, but if we were stupid like the animals, our blessed stupidity would make us perfectly immune to worrying about death or indeed, worrying about tomorrow at all.

Prayer allows one the luxury of working as a team, that is, in conjunction with that which is good, with God or the gods, whichever one prefers. No, I do not believe there is only one way, one correct doctrine or theology. I have my opinion, other people have theirs, but in the end, we are fallible, and may both be right somehow. That is not a very satisfying answer to rigid binary thinkers that want to know exact answers to everything. Learn to deal with ambiguity! The mysteries are all about ambiguity. That is why they are named such. The first and best virtue is to be humble. Every day, we are reminded, each of us in our own way, of our essential humanity, when we go to the bathroom to perform the necessary. So, live and let live, is the guiding principle, and I think God or the gods, howsoever one wishes to approach the Divine, both understand and endorse tolerance in religion, provided, of course, that YE HARM NONE.

The only real doctrine I think is mandatory is harm none, which seems to me quite a reasonable law to apply to all belief systems under the Sun. Nor harm thyself. Now when we see the radical Islamists go off and torture some poor wretch, for instance, that leads me to condemn radical Islam, and in general I don't like the punitive and oppressive laws that are found in many Muslim countries. I think sometimes religion gets a big head and wants to intrude into public and private affairs too much, and that is inappropriate. Each thing in its proper place, is the way to go. If the Muslims wish to worship a certain way, fine and dandy, but don't stop the selling of pork in the marketplace, or cut off people's hands if they shoplift a pack of gum. I would not wish to live in Iran or Saudi Arabia.

High School was a Low Point

Regular beatings and humiliation were a fact of daily life my freshman year at high school. It was just an ordinary high school, not a military one, but I think in many ways it was run like a military school, with strict rules and regimens. The main instigator was a twisted sociopath in P.E., and he was encouraged and enabled by the teacher. The drill-sergeant approach to education is claimed to work for some, perhaps, more or less, but didn't work out so well in my case. Does that mean that I was "weak" and another, ideal specimen was "strong" to thrive in a violent, abusive environment? Are regular beatings good for people? Some do think so, whether they will admit it or not, but perhaps they should try it out for themselves sometime, on the receiving end, that is. Then poll their opinion after they have received a good dose. I imagine that "boot camp" is meant to prepare one for war by lowering ones threshold for pain, lowering ones morality and reducing inhibitions. If we are at war, fine, maybe that is a necessary evil indeed, but if not, is it necessary? How much violence is really needed in the world?

I am reminded of what I endured by what some people are dredging up into the news media ten, twenty, thirty years after the fact, or longer. It seems to me that the only difference between these ancient cases and mine is that I was never confronted with someone else's genitals. That seems like a minor point next to a year's worth of physical and psychological abuse. Basically, abuse was a part of the system in school, it was normal and accepted everyday life for a lot of students. Survival of the fittest was the philosophy. No one really cared, the atmosphere was highly competitive and no one would pick you up if you fell--more likely, kick you in the ribs. The result, well, I think I have done about as well as I could with this life, given the sort of start I had. If I had to do things over, I would have set my mind to figuring out a way to avoid the dreadful high school I went to. It was a waste of time, not helpful in any way, and not educational in the slightest. I would have been much better off simply being locked in a library for eight hours a day. In a library, I would have absorbed the knowledge of the world and emerged in four years knowing a lot about a lot. School taught nothing, except people are morons, brutes and liars. That was the basic lesson, drilled daily, with tests all the time, and God help you if you forgot. Although, God wasn't around, because the Church just sold a whole load of generalities and called it spirituality. Whatever. Church never seemed satisfying to me and never made me feel even slightly closer to divinity.

Now, I finally know what education really is. Education is learning on your own, by yourself, at your own pace, fast or slow. I finally know what spirituality is. Spirituality is having a personal relationship with the greater powers, free of nonsense and window-dressing, just plain, straight-up communion, guided by common sense and a desire for that which is good.

The two criminals, that violent sociopath and the P.E. teacher that always turned a blind eye or, when he noticed, opted to blame the victim, succeeded in their objective, if their goal was to cost me a lot of suffering and lost time, lost future wages and lost prospects. They achieved their dark victory. If there is justice in the Universe, if Karma is real, as Donald Michael Kraig fervently believes, judging by his opinions in "Modern Magick," then their payback for their sins would be great. I myself rather doubt the existence of karma, based on what we know about various historical figures. Good does not always prosper, not is evil always vanquished or punished in any way. Sometimes good people are harmed with impunity, and evil-doers enjoy their lives to the very end of their days. I think rather that Karma is a useful construct, make-believe, that Kraig and many other would-be philosophers like to indoctrinate their students with in the hope and the prayer of spreading goodness and light through the world. But I don't really believe in Policeman Karma watching and weighing rights and wrongs and sanctioning wrong-doers. Would it were so, but alas, the Universe does seem oblivious to the cries of humble folk. I think we are regarded by divinity, if at all, in the same light as ants and bees, as pixels in a greater picture, and that what happens to us in this lifetime is not really evaluated, but kind of left up to chance.

I learned in high school, the villains seize fun and pleasure and get away with it, and those that harm none can suffer for a long time. It was kind of a reverse morality lesson, learning evil in school. My moral instructors were the bully and the P.E. teacher. It took years to unlearn those lessons. That is about the summit of what happened in high school. Not, in my opinion, a judicious use of taxpayer dollars. Did the P.E. teacher earn his salary? No. Where was karma? Missing in action. I did not even think about karma in those days, because I had a more traditional view of the Universe. I thought, where is God? I did not observe any hints of true Christianity in school. Maybe a number of students professed Christianity, that is, if you asked them, oh sure, even been born again and all that jazz, but it was like brand-name clothing they wore to boast and brag about their piety. Now P.E. was a pretty big class, over thirty of my peers, and they knew exactly what was going on, every one of them, they witnessed him and me. Not a word nor an action. Their indifference did not pass unmarked by me. Indeed it was taken into consideration in order to form a worldview. That is what happens in youth, forming of the worldview. Now, my worldview has evolved since then, for sure, for the better, I think. But then I thought, this world is evil, all are evil. In darkness man dwells. And many a time, I thought to open my veins.

What stayed my hand? Why did I choose to remain in this world? I think memories of happier times, a vague notion that "This, too, shall pass," and my inner optimism. Certainly I am pleased that my younger self did not take any drastic action. It was true, life did get better. I got out of that hell-hole school, did much better in college where I was freer and more independent and not forced to sit in assigned seating in some stupid P.E. class with a stupid know-nothing instructor. I was able to make a living and be independent, and that is good enough for me.

The concept of Karma does interest me. I really want to believe in it, a just Universe, but you know, setting my own personal hell-story aside, along with all my own personal experiences, just crack open a history book. What the hell kind of karma did the victors of every war receive for all their killing and destruction? Certainly plenty of generals and dictators have gone on to enjoy a cushy retirement. Look at Napoleon, for one. You can say Russia was karma, and I would reply, karma for his troops, while Napoleon himself went on to stir up trouble the next ten years and eventually idle his remaining days in exile.

Scanning the Headlines

On a daily basis, there is nothing to do but scan the headlines each day, just to check whether WW3 is breaking out.

There is nothing a poor, humble ordinary citizen can do until election-time rolls around. Then, I feel, it is one's duty to vote. The country does not ask terribly much in the way of duty. To vote is a small thing, denied only by the petty. I think personally it is a sin not to vote, to not have any engagement at all with representative democracy. That way opens the door to dictatorship. People do not realize, voting is new. We are one of the very few generations to have the privilege. Some people simply never paid attention in history class.

I try to avoid getting too wrapped up in the headlines, the news buzz of the day. Much gets blown all out of proportion. Every politician gets criticized more than is their due, merely for acting in ways that would ensure they get reelected. It is human nature to want to succeed at what one does, to not want to fail, so it is human nature for a politician to want to get reelected.

Really, many disagreements over policy boil down to tribe A vs. tribe B, the two tribes simply not getting along, one desiring power over the other. In the United States, the whites fear ceding power to the browns, which really goes far in explaining the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. The differences between the parties are complicated and numerous, but the similarities are greater than the differences. In reality, the Democrats and Republicans agree on far more than they disagree upon. Republicans favor a strong class system, rewarding both birthright and merit. An aristocracy is favored. Meanwhile, the poor are kept so, by and large, kept in their place and their numbers reduced through attrition. I think it is fair to say the Republicans believe government can't solve problems, and that evolution should be allowed to take its course among the poorer classes. Those that get an unlucky roll of the dice in health or birth should endure it or die, so that the rich may enjoy a better cake, with more gold and silver ornaments. I can't think why else there would be such opposition to health care, which is extremely expensive, there is no doubt. Perhaps they may even be right, that vast numbers should sacrifice and stop reproducing. If eugenics really took hold, then perhaps the result would be a healthier population, in the end. Getting to that end, there would be unhappiness. Does the end justify the means? At any rate, the national debt increases with no end in sight, so eventually, more sacrifices will arise. More than likely, if history repeats itself, the working class will have to pay all the national debt by sacrificing its Social Security, and all the aged and infirm will be told, "Go back to work. Become a Wal-Mart greeter or work in the Amazon warehouse," even at seventy-five.

I was hoping that the Republicans could really make health care better, which is to say more efficient, but they seem to work for the health care industry. I am afraid that the Democrats do, too. Both parties are sold out, unfortunately. I wonder who is representing the poor working American? Everything these days seems to be based upon how much money can be raised. I know that health care stocks in general have been rising by double digits every year. I think that if the Federal government took a strong hand, then much fraud and waste could be eliminated. That was my half-hope when Trump took office, that he would bully the industry into making needed reforms, but instead, he just sought to eliminate the government's involvement in health care altogether. I suppose if one is sick, that is not the problem of the government, but of the individual, and there is always an option to open an artery, rejoin the Earth and be replaced, like a malfunctioning robot. One day, perhaps there will be no need for workers at all, and the whims of the rich can be served by an army of robots, who need no health care or retirement benefits, and don't vote Democrat, let alone vote or express any opinion at all. Paradise?

Sing a Song of Sobriety

I am proud of being sober.

True, it is a modest accomplishment. People like my mother thought nothing of it. To her, sobriety came naturally, was a done deal, always active. Sobriety is not a positive good, per se. It is merely the absence of a vice.

H. Sapiens, including many people I know and many people we read about in the media, has a huge problem with drinking in particular and also other drugs. That is why I am proud to be sober, because other folks aren't. I can look at them and think, well, I'm better off, wiser, stronger, etc. In reality, perhaps, just a modicum. It is a small thing. Perhaps I have grown ambitious. I want to find more in this life, see more meaning, and I see no meaning in a bottle, none at all. I see the desire for death in the bottle, and it seems to me, so many people are weary of this mortal coil, and in their hearts wish to fade and disappear, to which end, drinking serves like rocket fuel. For the thinking mind gets retarded by the progress of alcohol, and base animals we become under its influence.

To drink is irrational. Upon accepting that drinking is harmful, the mind must solve a riddle, why drink at all? Everywhere, at many social functions, drinks are offered, and booze is easy to come by, plentiful. Temptation is everywhere. Yet to a mind armored in the magic of NO, there is no temptation. This enchanted armor protects me. My gratitude and love increase every time I emerge from a store without clutching cans of poison. I know that I am no longer contributing to my own demise. I am not actively working to harm the self. Indeed this is what drinking is, or any drug use really, and also many other activities engaged in by humans. I hate to say it, but folks like to self-harm. I don't know of a better word for it. The mystical term I borrowed from Freud is Thanatos. Human beings are in thrall to Thanatos, the inverse, perhaps, to Apollo.

One must accept a certain level of boredom. Coping with boredom is one of the first skills a newly sober person must master. How to deal with bouts of boredom, anxiety, mild depression, and worry. Finding new coping methods is a big challenge. For me, I found that in abandoning one irrational practice--drinking--it helped to embrace another irrational practice--spirituality. There is no logical reason to believe in X, Y, or Z, but I feel that belief is unnecessary, even irrelevant. How can such an insignificant, temporary accumulation of cells suppose that it has gathered enough data to actually believe in something? No, working hypothesises are quite acceptable, as we grope our way through this dark and misty veil of the world, where so much is unknown and unseen, and our sensory apparatus so limited, and our knowledge so small. Belief, bah!

If necessary, make-believe. Nothing wrong with pretending, really, either consciously or unconsciously. The main thing is to be positive, to be aligned with that which is good and wholesome. Kindness, gentleness. As far as theology or theory or doctrine goes, that sort of things gets rewritten and revised every Aeon, and who knows, really? Perhaps some things are quite beyond full comprehension by the mortal mind, but is comprehension really necessary in the first place?

I would rather spend time contemplating Light than digesting alcohol sugars (and getting fatter and slower). Simple as that. I think being a touch anti-social actually helps, because so many self-congratulating, very self-satisfied social people I see require the drinking of alcohol in order to be social. If alcohol is the only way to be social, then perhaps it is not worth being social with such individuals. Sober people offer better company, in general.

Climate Change

Doomsy Day, as I call it, has been a popular subject since before our day, going back thousands of years.

The Atom Bomb is the most popular and prevalent catalyst supposed to bring about Doomsy Day. Prior to the advent of the Atom Bomb, people had to deal with diseases such as the Bubonic Plague that threatened to wipe out, if not everybody, a whole lot of people. Then the Christians were always fretting about God's Apocalypse, wherein anyone that wasn't right with Jesus had to pay the price--or be forgiven all their sins, depending on one's spin of religion. Plenty of religions have apocalyptic themes, because our ancestors had a rough life, and wrestled with diseases, warfare (often incessant), starvation and malnutrition, oppression, and even meteor strikes, hurricanes, floods and other calamities.

In my youth, we only really worried about the Atom Bomb, and it's still a worry, and isn't going away but is actually getting worse. The likelihood that some fool or group of fools is going to blast his enemies away with nuclear fission has increased, if anything. At least with the Cold War, you had a restricted number of nations in the "Nuclear Club," and the technology was all so new, that the foolish leaders were quite in awe of the weapons and reluctant to experiment with them. Nowadays every two-bit ignorant-as-hell regime on earth is hell-bent on getting nukes, and that scenario isn't going away anytime soon. Part of the problem is that the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, alarming all the other two-bit, ignorant-as-hell regimes, to where they reckon they need nukes to protect against U.S. invasion. But you know, China is no walk in the park either, and may well start invading other countries too, one day soon.

Nowadays, climate change is the big boogie man, and just like nukes, I foresee NO SOLUTION, only pain and suffering for the world's population, not only of humans but all living creatures. Drastic, rapid change is going to result in a whole lot of death and poverty, and the poor people are not going to be taking it sitting down either, they are going to rise up, but they will face armies of drones hired by the rich to protect property. That is my sober (and sad) prediction. When times get tough, instead of pulling together, people often pull apart.

Of course, Republicans are extremely concerned about climate change. Not.

China doesn't seem too bothered, either, nor India, nor many other countries outside of Western Europe, and Western Europe has been enjoying a free ride on America's back for the past fifty years. They get to tariff us, and we don't tariff them back, and they get free military defense, while the U.S. taxpayer bears the whole cost. Nice, I'm sure they can fret over global warming under such a great situation.

Anyone living on the coast has to be asleep at the switch at some level. Every year is a roll of the dice. Although, I suppose for people over fifty, the thought may arise, not much time left anyway, and the good years are in the rear-view mirror anyway.

I think that environmentalists are too harsh on their fellow humans about climate change. Really, climate change is not something that H. Sapiens evolved to cope with. We do not have such high capacity. We are indeed fools. "What fools these mortals be!" as Shakespeare put it. Asking people to sacrifice thousands of dollars for a payoff in the distant future, when all these foreigners are not committed to sacrificing anything, is too much. Should Americans pay, yet again, to save the world, when we already saved the world from Nazism and Communism? Christ, we're not Christ. Can't somebody else step up? How about China? Well, China's a greedy, ruthless fascist state that cares nothing for anyone or anything save the enrichment of Communist Party leaders. Russia's a mafia state. What else is there? Europe is a Tower of Babel, too many different languages, cultures and petty little regional governments, they could never come together over the smallest thing, and they make foolish decisions anyway, like letting in the Islamist terrorists and forcing member states to accept knife attacks and bombs blowing up in coffee shops. The general man on the street does not particularly want to watch his body parts blast across the street, just because some politician wants to score points at an international conference.

So, the world can't do anything, because there's no leadership, and the only thing H. Sapiens is interested in is individual wealth and power. The good of all is a foreign concept, kind of a liberal, hippy notion.

At any rate, the world is a-changing, and there's no stopping change. Even the strong and the wise will be impacted. There is a great deal of random on the way. The best one can do is get prepared. Abandon the coast, first of all. That is rather obvious. Other than that, move North, because North is cooler, at least in these United States. Living in a tropical environment has not seemed to be a good thing economically, if we survey the countries of the world.

Trump the Grump

Trump the Grump earns a nickname, "The Father of Racism," for the ways he has divided the country between black and white. Such a base and low buffoon that tracks toilet paper into Air Force One.

As for Kavanothing (Kavanaught), who places so little value on honesty, he had better steer clear of the bottle. That was his downfall all along, and it shows how little he understands himself that he still swallows the old poison. He must really despise himself, to get up there and say what he said, just to get that office he wanted so badly. Keep on drinking, Kavanaught, you may be useful to us yet. Everything you do is now tied to the Republican Party.

Republicans just do whatever they want without any regard for ethics. Zero aspiration for the spiritual, zero value on truth, no affection for the country whatsoever. The only thing that can be said about them is they insist upon loyalty to party, which means lying and cheating all the time. Tell the truth for once, and you get kicked out.

What We Need

If Trump were sincere about making America great again, I'd vote Republican, sure as day. Sounds like he just wants to grind personal axes. Always with the partisan politics.

What we need in this country is pretty simple, nothing complicated about it, and I think this should be the Democratic Platform for 2020:

1. Better roads, highways, railroads, trains, trucks, and airports. Better transportation with fewer accidents; faster, efficient transportation.
2. Better Internet. High-speed (1G) Internet to *every* house in the U.S. of A. Yes, this should be a priority.
3. Better water. Everyone in the U.S.A. should feel confident that their tap water is safe to drink. Mothers should not have to buy bottled water to wash their babies.
4. Legal marijuana. The drug war needs to be significantly narrowed in scope. That does not mean, marijuana while driving. Only, legal marijuana, where you can buy it, in a sealed package, from a local store.
5. Continued tariffs against China, on into perpetuity. We need to shift all production away from China and to the U.S., or at least the next-best option, Mexico or Canada, our friends. China is certainly not our friend.
6. Immigrants should be allowed in a temporary visa, only on condition that they pay into Social Security and pay taxes. They should not qualify for any Social Security benefits. This would be a compromise to keep Social Security solvent for our nation's retirees. Yes, it is for them, but also for the nation's farmers. Mexican immigrants are just plain better at agriculture, period. Time to accept that. A little bit of honest work for the Mexicans would help both sides.

How to pay for all the above? Well, #4, #5, and #6 are income-producing plans, so actually we are talking about a net positive for the U.S. Treasury. More tax money being paid by immigrants, more money coming in from tariffs, and taxation on marijuana.

ACDSee SPAM

The worst thing you can do for a software company like ACDSee is buy their software. They don't know what to do with the money. They use it to churn out meaningless, unwanted spam emails, which they send to me from the point of purchase to Doomsday, making me regret ever coming into contact with ACDSee. In addition to the spam, ACDSee sees fit to advertise on the user's desktop, as well, turning the home computer into a billboard for their products. Nice way to screw the customer, eh?

You can forget about ACDSee making meaningful improvements to their product, too. The most they will ever do is add a special effect or make a 64-bit version, ten years after 64-bit become the standard. Buying ACDSee entitles the customer to zero updates. Instead, each year, you have to cough up more money, if you ever want the product to be updated again. More money, with no end in sight, malware loaded on to your desktop, and getting spammed to death is the ACDSee way.

One has to wonder how the spammers at ACDSee would feel if their email accounts were spammed on a daily basis.

The scam artists over at ACDSEE do nothing but SPAM their customers. Unsubscribe, you say? Sure, they will IGNORE your unsubscribing and KEEP SPAMMING YOU until the day you die, except they keep spamming that email address whether you are dead or not, because it is automatic. There is no one monitoring the unsubscribe, no real, functioning process for unsubscribing, only a fake process to assume the appearance of legality. Once you buy, you get spammed 'til you die--and beyond. ACDSee has one purpose: SPAM in order to make money. Today, I just noticed I am getting a pop-up everytime I open ACDSee. "Your license has been used too often. Purchase a new license." Too often, eh? I installed ACDSee on 2 machines, and my license entitles me to 3 installs. ACDSee does not know how to count. This fits with their general level of stupidity. Giving money to that outfit is just money down the drain, they keep wanting more, more, MORE. Harass and annoy the customer until he or she forks over more cash is the ACDSee way.

ACDSee Stinks!

The Deep, Deep Desire of Republicans

The government on Republicans is like the brain on drugs. Here's a case example. There are thousands of examples like this. Government is abandoned, neutralized, as big business screws the consumer any which way to Friday. Workers have no rights, the country's infrastructure crumbles, and the educational system gets to be a joke. In Europe, meanwhile, people enjoy 1 Gigabyte internet speeds, while the people voting to "Make America Great Again," lag behind at 1.5mb -- if they're lucky.

Which brings me to my point. Republicans vote against their own self-interests. It is as if they have a strange deep, deep desire to let all the big businesses to do the nasty from behind. They want to lose money; they want to be poor, and they want their children to be poor, too. It is an odd sort of desire, but that's Republicans for you. Don't like themselves, don't like their families, want to fail, want to suffer. Slow internet? Great! Poor education? Super! Crumbling roads and traffic accidents? Heaven! Make America like 1850 again!

Capitalism is fine and dandy, but there needs to be some kind of sheriff around to make sure big business doesn't just set all the rules. Ever heard of the term, "monopoly power?" That's when a big business can just set prices and service levels any which way it chooses. That is the situation with Internet in this country, which is coming to look like a Third-World country. Trump has done zip, in fact he has made the situation far worse for people by gutting the FCC and all the other federal agencies. He is making America look like 1850, whereas the Chinese are light-years ahead of us already. The truth is that businesses will want to relocate to China to enjoy better roads, better transportation, better Internet, more advanced everything. America will resemble Africa. Thanks a lot, Trump. I guess he and his tribe plan to relocate to China after they've finished their hack job on America.

The Mighty "P"

Really we have a phallic-phobic society on our hands.

I remember back in the day all kinds of horrible traumatic things at high school, condoned and in some cases instigated by school teachers and administration. These things will never be investigated, publicized or lawsuits filed, and no one will have their career ended over them. They just happened and warped minds and altered lives. Oh, well! So, we had a sorrier generation as a result, because the elders were screwballs that did not know what time of day it was and did not really care to do their duty and do right by the young ones.

What is getting publicized, investigated, lawsuits filed and millions collected? Why, anything at all involving an active penis! Oh, my! If such an organ is involved, stop the presses! Suddenly it becomes a crucial problem of enormous significance.

Really, there is a lot of hypocrisy all around. People acting self-righteous and channeling their Puritan ancestors, as though they don't squat every day over the toilet.

Now in regards to our latest Supreme Court nominee, my own personal inclination, at first, was, what's the big deal. Teenagers do stupid stuff. And drinking? Well, girls going to an unchaperoned party where boys are drinking is not the best and the brightest idea in the world.

However, I also think someone aspiring to become a LIFELONG JUDGE on the SUPREME COURT, should be held to a higher standard than the other 99% of us. Like, I am not aspiring to such a high and mighty position. Think about it. A Supreme Court justice is probably more powerful than your average U.S. Senator. Because they never face elections and can do pretty much as they damn well please. What we need are impartial, non-partisan seekers of the objective Truth, and upright moral and ethical SAINTS, as well. A really tough bill to fill, no doubt, but the country has many to choose from and plenty of applicants.

So, that is my position in a nutshell. No, I don't think Kavanaugh should get arrested or be removed from whatever current job or position he has now. However, a lifelong appointment to the most prestigious court in the land seems wrong, when he has attacked the women-folk, according to sworn testimony, which he disputes. True, it's all in the distant past, and memories can be vague beasts, but that certainly has not helped the Roman Catholic Church one iota, now has it? My notion is that these women, and there are more than just one, don't like him on a personal level. They knew him as a young man, found him to be a bully, and remember certain words and deeds, and have trouble reconciling that with the notion of him sitting on the Supreme Court. Certainly, a bully is not someone anyone should want as a judge.

There is also the problem of Kavanaugh being just a total tool and complete lackey for the Republican party. Whatever happened to independent judiciary? This guy has been paying dues to politicians all his life. He is nominated, not due to his scholarship or eloquence, but for payback, and this is pretty clear to anyone with eyes to see. He sounds angry, not because the charges against him are without merit, but because he sees all he worked so hard for, just about to slip out of his grasp. My, how those who crave power do rage! Don't worry old salt, there's a keg o' beer waiting for ye when ye get home. Just drown out your sorrows, but don't throw any mixed-gender parties, is my advice.

Now all of this does not necessarily mean the right-wing doesn't get their Justice. Go get your justice, just nominate someone nicer. That is my advice. Due to Republicans being lazy as the day is long, they just don't want to put forth any effort into getting a new one. So, vote for Kavanaugh and reap what ye sow. He can always be impeached, when the Democrats get in. There will be something on him, or maybe the Democrats can just make something up, like Trump does all the time, on a daily basis. Apparently we are living in a post-Truth world with Trump, so my idea is that the Democrats can just impeach all the conservative justices, and be done with them. Just like Trump gets rid of FBI staff he doesn't like.

Brett Kavanaugh

Trump has done a real service to the country by nominating such a perfect representative of his own ideology and character.

Oh, those dastardly Democrats. How dare they scrutinize one of our wonderful President's sterling nominees? How dare they question such an unquestionable virtue and dignity? This upright gentleman should get a free pass straight to a lifetime appointment on the nation's highest court. What's with all the difficult questions? The questions are supposed to be easy, like "What is your favorite color," or, "What did you base your thesis on in college." Also, no digging into the past. The past is the past, right? What someone did before doesn't matter, right? We should just let all the criminals go without prosecution, because the past is the past. Open up the jails, release the prisoners right away. The past doesn't matter.

Donald Michael Kraig's Great Work

"Modern Magic" was Kraig's Great Work, just splendid in every way, and so far above texts that came before. I have found it of immense practical value. Every chapter is an eye-opener, packed full of exciting information and ideas. Every writer seems to have one great work, and that was his. I don't know of anything that even comes close.

Lowly

Seems one cannot escape the influence of Lackluster Lowly (my nickname for A. Crowley). That he was gay doesn't cut mustard with me. You know, just because someone belongs to the same tribe, does not mean they escape criticism. I prefer a straight guy any day of the week if he comports himself well with dignity and ethics, as opposed to a gay that does the opposite. Lackluster Lowly did some bad things that we know about, and probably a lot of worse things we don't know about and would rather not know about. Frankly, I'd prefer he were straight, so as not to besmirch the noble gay tribe. Fortunately, straight know-nothing homophobes like Donald Tyson are under the misapprehension that Lackluster Lowly was straight. Good. Keep on thinking that.

Well, turns out, Lackluster Lowly made important contributions, or at least they are widely accepted and taught by the big-time magicians that have written the best books for the reading masses. Whether you pick up with Donald Michael Kraig, Donald Tyson or anybody else, you're likely going to see them quoting Lowly not once, but a dozen times. I just deal. I will even learn and practice his stuff. Why? Because it has been adopted and accepted, that's why, and I don't see anything better available at the present time. It is passable and purported to actually work. So, the options before me are either forge my own way or adopt what the teachers have to offer. I figure, go with the teachers, at least when starting out, because it is just possible they know what works.

Iran

Iran is a country that could have been. Could have been awesome, with oil galore and a hungry people ready to embrace modernity. Except for the crazy buffoon Islamist reactionaries. Constant bickering and trouble with the U.S. seems to be the overriding goal of Iran from the 1970s to the present day, and Iran has nothing to show for its policy.

Due to Iran, there has to be war all around Israel all the time. The Palestinians have to be terrorists, killing random kids and women. For as long as the Palestinians embrace random killings, they do not deserve any concessions. The idea that somehow Israel is to blame for all of the trouble is pretty cute, when all the Israeli man on the street wants is peace and security. The reason for the so-called "repression" of the Palestinians is pure, raw fear of terrorism. There are many Westerners that put an eye mask on. They pretend not to see terrorism. They pretend it doesn't happen. Or, worse, they imagine killing is justified, because of X, Y, or Z. That is pretty unacceptable to those on the receiving end of terrorism. And in the end, you shack up with terrorists, and sooner or later the terrorists will turn on you, as the Europeans are discovering. The one thing a terrorist doesn't like is peace and calm.

If the terrorists win, guess what, welcome to a terrorist nation, where beheadings and torture and extremism become the norm. Iran and Syria are cases in point, where the world gets a glimpse of exactly where the Palestinians would go, if given half the chance. They would, of course, follow the model of their chief sponsors, Iran and Syria. They would not necessarily have a choice, because Iran is the main player over in their world. Torture, extremism, mass executions, repression. That is what a lot of Europeans want for themselves, which is why they invite in millions of Islamists as "refugees". It is a curious part of human nature that, given a reasonably good society, people want to introduce and embrace violence and atrocity, because at some level, they have an irrational need for suffering.

If anyone is wondering why Britain is having to deal with Brexit, the reason is simple, that the masses of the British people do not really want to embrace bombs blowing up in public and people getting beheaded on the street. The politicians show the world how "nice" Britain is to the poor, poor, suffering masses of the Middle East, who express their gratitude by opening the arteries of the random British subject. Well, now there's Brexit to deal with, due to the blind stupidity of the liberal politicians that wanted to butcher their own people in order to signal virtue on some level to other politicians in their immediate circle. Poor policies of the past are coming home to roost, and the economy suffers as a result.

I think Britain should turn to the Americas, Canada, the U.S., and all the other countries in the New World, and strike trade deals with its natural allies, rather than dicker around with the E.U. Let Europe turn eastward, as it seems to want to do anyway. In time, Europe will become like Turkey.

The U.S. should bring all of its troops home and let Germany pick up the tab for defense of Europe. Maybe Germany can reinstate the draft. The social programs, retirement and medical, can be abandoned to pay for the defense of Europe. The time when the American taxpayer paid for everything, well, that time is about up. Time to bring our troops back home and let Europe pick up the tab, for once. Seventy years is long enough, time to pick up the check, you moochers. Europe wants to slap the U.S. with tariffs, well, that is biting the hand the feeds it. Europe should enact negative tariffs on American products, that is, pay our businesses to import their products into Europe. Either that, or learn Russian.

Harvest in the Prisons

What we need is a good harvest-time in the prisons. Anyone who has killed should be killed, same day, same hour. Just get it done. Prior to execution, the maximum possible amount of blood should be extracted in order to help those in trauma. Following the execution, organs should be harvested to help those in need. Execution should be by hanging. Worked before, works now, and it is a symptom of chronic stupidity that the State dithers around with questionable chemicals from unreliable sources. A rope is all that is needed.

If this practice were followed, not only would the taxpayers receive mercy, but these killers would not have the opportunity to kill again. It is really atrocious when killers get paroled and kill again, or kill prison guards or even other inmates. Violence within prison is a huge problem. The idea that it is somehow better for the State to keep a killer in a cell for fifty years is just nonsense. Eventually, the killer is going to figure out a way to get back at either the guard or another inmate. And if parole ever happens, watch out.

The main reason that some people, often termed bleeding hearts, oppose the death penalty, is that on an unconscious level, they want to die themselves. They want their loved ones to die as well. They welcome death into their lives. Thanatos is the irrational impulse that moves people to want to embrace danger and death. They see in killers, not something to be avoided, but opportunity to rejoin the Void, to become annihilated. But Thanatos should not write public policy.

Mexico Should be Our China

I always felt like China was a stupid idea from the get-go. If there really are segments of the production chain that just have to be handled by very low-wage workers, then Mexico fits the bill, and cuts transportation costs by more than half. The whole problem has always been the drug war and the enormous amount of crime and corruption in Mexico. Cleaning up Mexico was never a priority for Washington, D.C. We figured, it's their problem, neglecting the fact that many of our U.S. citizens have fallen in thrall to meth, heroin or cocaine, supplied by criminals south of the Border. Both sides lose, not just Mexico, when crime lords rake in billions at the expense of human suffering through addiction. More than likely, the U.S. loses more than Mexico. Meanwhile, China gets richer, while Mexico languishes and sends its workers North to find jobs. And China has made it abundantly clear that they hate the West, want to take over Taiwan, and are interested in taking over all of Asia, actually. I imagine Alaska and Hawaii too, one day.

Why didn't Mexico become our China? The main problem with Mexican society has always been crime and corruption, fueled in large part by the long-term, continuing criminal class of the drug gangs.

As for the big drug war, I would suggest legalizing pot in all fifty states. Just blanket legalization, stop the gears spinning altogether, just drop it. The people know marijuana is not so terribly horrible, and it is preferable to alcohol by about ten to one, any day of the week. Anyone who thinks pot is worse than alcohol, they do not understand the first thing about medical science.

One thing is for sure, the people can really get behind a war on drugs that targets real, hard, horrible, addictive drugs. There won't be any sympathizers of high ethics for things like meth. Everyone knows meth = death. The only good meth dealer is a dead one. That was the best part of the show, "Breaking Bad," that all the meth dealers eventually got theirs.

Probably, hallucinogens should also be legalized. Anything like LSD, peyote, or mushrooms. These things are not subject to addiction either and most people have no interest, or very limited interest, in them. They are not party drugs.

So with a much narrower scope on the drug war, the people really can get behind a much more aggressive drug war that really pulls out all the stops. What is left on the other side are just hardened criminals, instead of foolish potheads. The drug war can be recast in patriotic terms, and young people recruited as front line soldiers and informants. If the drug war really targets truly harmful substances that without any doubt ruin people's lives, there is no longer any moral ambiguity, no room for reasonable people to disagree. Meth, heroin, fetanyl, cocaine, things like that. Now, some libertarians may balk at cocaine. They point to use of the coca leaf. Well, the coca leaf is O.K., it is a mild stimulant, unlikely or impossible to lead to overdose. Cocaine is a man-made concentrate of the active principle in the coca leaf. That is the problem with cocaine, that it can become extremely addictive.

Stupid Gadgets

Too bad, all these stupid gadgets people waste their money on will soon cost more due to tariffs on their foolishness. It is about time something was done to counter-balance this huge tax break that businesses got away with. Americans waste entirely too much money on frivolous junk from China, and meanwhile, the Chinese are building roads and factories that can easily be converted to military material. Either get used to tariffs, or get used to the idea of your future generations being slaves in Chinese labor camps and you being dead. That is pretty much the stark choice before the U.S. today, and it is pretty sad that it took a fool like Trump to see what was so blindingly obvious for the past twenty years. The Democrats, in particular, have no excuse, because they were supposed to be the party of labor.

Intellectual Rigor and the Church

The reason modern-day religion is in trouble is that modern-day man is better educated, and intellectual rigor substantially higher than the Middle Ages. Yet most religion remains mired and pretty much unchanged since the Middle Ages, with but a few concessions for say, sex and sexuality. All things must evolve with the race, religion is no exception to the rule. Our understanding has increased, yet the Church treats its adherents like children, and its priests exploit the children, not merely for sexual gratification but for money, power, and influence.

I resent the Church of my youth. They didn't teach me zip about spirituality. They were havens for bullies, really. Nothing spiritual about them, in no way, shape or form could they bring anyone closer to God by a dust mote. They just said, God is love, so pray a lot. How to pray? Just clasp your hands together, close your eyes, and talk to Jesus. Oh, and memorize all the names of the Books of the Bible. Study the Bible a lot. Well, you know what, the Bible is primarily a history and not really that great as far as spiritual instruction goes. A whole lot of Thou-Shalt-Nots and Fear-Me-For-I-Am-All-Powerful. Well, if God's such a Bad Ass, then I guess he doesn't need the likes of me to support him. The truth is that all of the truth is simply not present and accounted for in that book. It is partial. There is a lot that is missing. And much is open to misinterpretation. The Bible has opened the door to as much mischief as good.

I don't think modern Churches have much to do with spirituality. I sense only a very dim background hum in a Church. It is nothing like what can be known directly. True religion seems only possible on an individual and private level. The minute people start talking about God, there seems a dilution. Something goes wrong. Money and greed become big factors. Then people try to out-do each other in outward piety. There is a lot of posturing. Social games are played. Real growth just does not happen. Instead, once a week, lectures on rather mundane topics. Nothing to really enhance spiritual power. No real methodology, nothing that works on a personal level. All is designed simply to enhance the power of the institution. As for the individuals, screw them. Get their money, their allegiance, even their genitals, apparently.

Problem is, modern man is smarter than he used to be, so all the things that the churches got away with in the past, well, they can't get away with them anymore. The jig is up. People see. Things get reported.

Sad that churches have profaned what is really beautiful and profound. Real religion should be maintained on a personal level. Those incapable of doing that, due to stupidity or immaturity, I suppose they do need churches, as it is better than nothing. Perhaps there should be a catch-all last resort for the morons.

We May Need Trump

One thing Americans need to consider is that we may need Trump.

Alone among the Washington politicians, only Trump has awoken to the fact that the world is eating our lunch.

The trade deficit, the Federal debt, and the fact we provide free security for the whole world means that our people suffer and die. Say goodbye to Social Security, and health care in this country is just a bad joke, a chess game of multiple insurance policies. The people as a whole are in debt either for education, which the Europeans and the Chinese get for free, or health care, which those foreigners also get for free.

My views are reflected in this essay on CNBC. I think Obama and all the ones who came before him, Republican and Democrat alike, were asleep at the wheel. They did not realize that America's Sun was sinking. They got us involved in all these damn-fool foreign adventures, ballooning for Federal debt for no good reason and with zero return on investment. Meanwhile, other countries were not asleep at the wheel. They invested in infrastructure, medicine, and education.

What we need is fair trade with other countries. Zero involvement in the military conflicts of other countries. Let Europe pay for its own defense, for once. If they fail, too bad. Maybe they can fight in resistance underground movements against Russia for the next five hundred years and see how they like it. What is needed in this country are not just jobs, but really good jobs, and real manufacturing and production. Companies like Apple that betray the United States do not actually need to exist in the first place. They can move over to China, relocate and spend some time in Chinese prisons getting reeducated.

Trump is right to question why the U.S. foots the bill for security for the rest of the world. He is right to question why other countries get to take our jobs, our factories. These are questions other Presidents simply didn't bother to address at all in any meaningful and concrete way. It is almost worth putting up with the atrocious behavior of the Trump Administration in order to see some action on the trade front, and put these so-called "allies" on notice that their behavior is not without consequences.

GoFundMe

I always thought GoFundMe was a bad idea from the get-go. Sending anonymous money to anonymous strangers. What could go wrong?

Looking at the photo of the couple involved in the latest GoFundMe scam, I think that the photo alone would have been enough warning for me. Much can be deducted by the expressions on the faces, the clothes, the body language. No words needed. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, by golly, it might just be a duck.

Poaching, Of Course

A people with zero intellect certainly is going to kill all the elephants for their ivory, as we see in Africa today. Expecting those people to program computers or do any kind of brain work is precious. They know how to shoot a gun, saw off a tusk. That's it, for all time, ever. Just say goodbye to the elephants already. They had the misfortune to live in Africa, land of the know-nothing savages. Between quick money and working for a living, guess which one they choose? The only hope for the elephant is in the Western zoos, where the elephants are appreciated for what they are. I will remember the beautiful elephants in video documentaries and figurines. As for the amount of tax money we should send over to Africa, that amount is $0. Just a worthless waste of time and energy is Africa. Despite what some people think, not every problem can be solved with money.

The Only Thing Trump Hasn't Done

Trump is such a LOSER! He hasn't done the one thing he needs to do to complete the United States' transformation into a banana republic. ARREST ALL THE DEMOCRATS! Yep, every one, from both houses of Congress. Then, we will really have a civil war on our hands, and Trump will have WON!

The Next Democratic President Gets a Blank Check

Next time the Democrats are in power in Washington, D.C., they get to play by the same rules Trump does:

-just abandon any agreements signed by previous Administrations, Congress
-don't enforce any laws that aren't liked
-huge tax cuts for the middle class, 50+%
-zero concern over the deficit, spend the Treasury like it's monopoly money
-push through Supreme Court nominees any which way
-set trade policy by Executive order
-set immigration policy by Executive order
-free pass on conflicts of interest
-free pass on hiring family, friends with no experience to do official jobs
-free pass on lies/deception
-free pass on all past, present and future business dealings
-appoint department heads purely as payback for loyalty, no qualifications needed or wanted
-free pass on sexual history
-free pass on bribery/payoffs
-free pass on accepting, soliciting help from foreign governments to win elections
-OK to comment on all legal/criminal cases, influence juries/judges
-replace FBI, other department heads, gut any federal agencies not particularly liked
-fire law enforcement agents deemed friendly to "the other side" due to a text message or stray comment
-quid pro quo for foreign governments--payola=influence


So, the Democrats can enlist Russia or China. Then they can lie about it, accuse the Republicans of enlisting the foreign power, and that's all O.K. by the Trump playbook.