I have been writing about a hurricane and the Texas Gulf coast over the course of the past three weeks, and I turn on the news yesterday to find Hurricane Harvey is barreling toward the central Texas Gulf coast as we speak, due to make landfall early Saturday morning. How weird is that?
Makes me wonder if the things I write will actually come to pass? Like the movie by the title name of this post, "Stranger Than Fiction." Perhaps I can write myself winning the lottery? ; )
In any event, my heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the people of Texas as they brace for impact. Be smart, safe and May God Bless and keep you!
8/29/2017 Thoughts and prayers are still with everyone in Texas. Have a friend who has been deployed to help with search and rescue. Praying especially for him. The ability of Texans --and those coming in to assist from other states, like Louisiana-- to band together in order to get critical things done, in the absence of the division which seem to be gripping the nation at large --in the aftermath of Donald J. Trump's unexpected win-- is truly remarkable. This type of responsiveness, working together to help fellow citizens regardless of political affiliation, should serve as the bar for the rest of the nation to strive toward moving forward. We are stronger together than we can ever be while attempting to function independently as ongoing, isolated splinter- identity groups.
9/3/2017 Saw on the news, Friday, another hurricane, Irma is now headed potentially for Florida. I also had a storm headed for Florida in my writing, but this storm --in my writing-- gets diverted back out to sea where it eventually dissipates, missing major landfall altogether. Need to finish that part of the writing up? ... Have written that the hurricane will make an abrupt right turn just prior to making landfall on Florida mainland. The storm will then head north, into cooler waters, where it will lose momentum and begin to dissipate, such that if it does make landfall further up the coast it will be greatly lessened in severity.
9/11/2017 Praying for ALL impacted by hurricane Irma, and so very thankful the storm did not make a major landfall as a category 5, as initially anticipated. Anxious to hear news of how those in Cuba are fairing? Have heard nothing thus far.
9/22/2017 Yet another hurricane strikes in U.S. waters, with Maria devastating Puerto Rico. Nature heeds no fencing in? Praying for Puerto Rico and for those who will oversee the complicated logistics of organizing and implementing relief for this U.S. island territory. God Bless one and all!!
10/13/2017 My sincere thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by devastating wildfires in the Northern part of California. May cooler weather bring much needed rain, in aid to firefighting efforts, that lives and homes may be spared. I had not realized the fires were so bad in that area.
10/28/2017 Had the strangest dream about Nogales on Saturday night???
Friday, August 25, 2017
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Time to VENT!!!
"The Boy who cried Wolf" & Term Limits .....
8/24/17 A.M. To those who claim that President Trump's speech on Afghanistan was little more than a diversionary tactic, meant to refocus attention away from Charlottesville, I have to say --quite frankly-- Are you completely NUTS???? Is your perspective, where President Trump is concerned, so clouded that you have completely lost the ability to think logically and reason altogether? All things being equal, the terror attack in Barcelona, last Thursday -- just days before the President's speech-- is logically the most likely driver for the President's "get tough on terror" speech given the following day. While the deaths of Heather Heyer and two police officers, in Charlottesville, were tragic and wholly unnecessary, White Supremacists account for less than 1% of the U.S. population, and their views do not in anyway represent the views espoused by the majority in this nation: Witness the thousands of people who came out in support of mainstream views in the city of Boston over the weekend. Bottom line, one crazy individual aside, White Supremacists do not pose an immediate threat to our very way of life here in our Western society. On the other hand, as evidenced by yet another terror attack in Barcelona Spain, Islamist extremist terrorists do happen to pose an immediate threat to our very way of life here, in our Western society, especially if we continue to do nothing concrete towards the end of preventing a terror attack here on our streets. Bringing the fight to the terrorists, with the mission directive being to "hunt down and kill terrorists", goes a long, long way towards preventing a terror attack from happening here, in the United States. That gives most reasonable citizens hope that prevention is actually possible. Unlike, the previous administration, the Trump Administration is willing to take decisive offensive actions that would work to prevent terrorism from striking here in America. If that's "crazy and unhinged": then give me crazy and unhinged every single day of the week.
Seriously, those of you on the Left who are unhappy with a President Trump, and have therefore embarked upon this scorched-earth campaign, you REALLY need to take a long and hard, serious embracing reality-check as to your motives for this course of action, because quite frankly your arguments don't stand up to the scrutiny of logic and reason. This reality-check applies most especially to those of you in the media who claim to be objective journalists. Perhaps this is the era which has come to an end: the era of objective journalism? You're like the "Boy Who Cried Wolf": you truly believe EVERYTHING Trump does of is of catastrophic proportions, and soon reasonable people are just going to tune you out altogether. I know, I have.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum, even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate." ~Noam Chomsky (via Tucker Carleson)
Granted, Donald Trump is not your typical, polished politician, but that's part of the reason the American people sent him to Washington. They wanted a President who would shake-up the establishment and actually get meaningful things done for the average citizen. Stoking the fires of our division --e.g., by focusing on removing Confederate statues from government buildings, where they have stood for decades without comment or concern-- feeding upon hatred and distrust, does absolutely nothing to help the country heal. It doesn't put people back to work or help them to put food on the table. It doesn't help to make healthcare effective and affordable. It doesn't bring economic relief in the form of long-term tax reform. These are the things we all have in common, the things that truly matter, and if you and your party aren't focused on these things, then I find it hard to believe you when you say that you "truly care about the American people and the nation as whole." Your actions speak volumes louder than your words. Obstructionism and sowing division do nothing meaningful to advance the cause of the American citizen. The party of the Left still doesn't get this -- or they simply don't care, which should be of even greater concern. THIS IS WHY YOUR PARTY LOST THE ELECTION! If you had an ounce of common sense, you would come to terms with the latter and then learn from your past mistakes. Otherwise, you and your party won't stand any chance in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections either. Now is the time for critical thought, thinking outside the feel-good box of 'belonging'. Now is the time for good men to stop being pawns in the establishment's over-arching agenda. Obstructionist, establishment Republicans would do well to heed this advice as well. You ran on a platform of healthcare repeal, immigration reform and tax reform and thus far you haven't accomplished any of the above. You have the majority, what in the heck are you waiting for????? Can you say: "Term-limits"????? .............
10/10/2017 VIP UPDATE: Victory is at long last in sight. The dreams of a caliphate have finally come to an end, with the falling of the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq. " BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces have driven Islamic State fighters from the northern city of Hawija, the militants’ final urban stronghold in Iraq" this according to "The New York Times." Surprised me to see them reporting honestly on this? Apparently, according to other sources, ISIS fighters are dropping their weapons and fleeing by the thousands, while still others are surrendering to Iraqi and coalition forces. This sure sounds like a victory --albeit a long awaited one-- for the entire world, indeed: " Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in a televised appearance in Paris, where he is on a state visit, that Hawija had been “liberated,” calling it a “victory not just for Iraq but for the whole world.”" ~The Washington Times, Middle East, October 5, 2017
8/24/17 A.M. To those who claim that President Trump's speech on Afghanistan was little more than a diversionary tactic, meant to refocus attention away from Charlottesville, I have to say --quite frankly-- Are you completely NUTS???? Is your perspective, where President Trump is concerned, so clouded that you have completely lost the ability to think logically and reason altogether? All things being equal, the terror attack in Barcelona, last Thursday -- just days before the President's speech-- is logically the most likely driver for the President's "get tough on terror" speech given the following day. While the deaths of Heather Heyer and two police officers, in Charlottesville, were tragic and wholly unnecessary, White Supremacists account for less than 1% of the U.S. population, and their views do not in anyway represent the views espoused by the majority in this nation: Witness the thousands of people who came out in support of mainstream views in the city of Boston over the weekend. Bottom line, one crazy individual aside, White Supremacists do not pose an immediate threat to our very way of life here in our Western society. On the other hand, as evidenced by yet another terror attack in Barcelona Spain, Islamist extremist terrorists do happen to pose an immediate threat to our very way of life here, in our Western society, especially if we continue to do nothing concrete towards the end of preventing a terror attack here on our streets. Bringing the fight to the terrorists, with the mission directive being to "hunt down and kill terrorists", goes a long, long way towards preventing a terror attack from happening here, in the United States. That gives most reasonable citizens hope that prevention is actually possible. Unlike, the previous administration, the Trump Administration is willing to take decisive offensive actions that would work to prevent terrorism from striking here in America. If that's "crazy and unhinged": then give me crazy and unhinged every single day of the week.
Seriously, those of you on the Left who are unhappy with a President Trump, and have therefore embarked upon this scorched-earth campaign, you REALLY need to take a long and hard, serious embracing reality-check as to your motives for this course of action, because quite frankly your arguments don't stand up to the scrutiny of logic and reason. This reality-check applies most especially to those of you in the media who claim to be objective journalists. Perhaps this is the era which has come to an end: the era of objective journalism? You're like the "Boy Who Cried Wolf": you truly believe EVERYTHING Trump does of is of catastrophic proportions, and soon reasonable people are just going to tune you out altogether. I know, I have.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum, even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate." ~Noam Chomsky (via Tucker Carleson)
Granted, Donald Trump is not your typical, polished politician, but that's part of the reason the American people sent him to Washington. They wanted a President who would shake-up the establishment and actually get meaningful things done for the average citizen. Stoking the fires of our division --e.g., by focusing on removing Confederate statues from government buildings, where they have stood for decades without comment or concern-- feeding upon hatred and distrust, does absolutely nothing to help the country heal. It doesn't put people back to work or help them to put food on the table. It doesn't help to make healthcare effective and affordable. It doesn't bring economic relief in the form of long-term tax reform. These are the things we all have in common, the things that truly matter, and if you and your party aren't focused on these things, then I find it hard to believe you when you say that you "truly care about the American people and the nation as whole." Your actions speak volumes louder than your words. Obstructionism and sowing division do nothing meaningful to advance the cause of the American citizen. The party of the Left still doesn't get this -- or they simply don't care, which should be of even greater concern. THIS IS WHY YOUR PARTY LOST THE ELECTION! If you had an ounce of common sense, you would come to terms with the latter and then learn from your past mistakes. Otherwise, you and your party won't stand any chance in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections either. Now is the time for critical thought, thinking outside the feel-good box of 'belonging'. Now is the time for good men to stop being pawns in the establishment's over-arching agenda. Obstructionist, establishment Republicans would do well to heed this advice as well. You ran on a platform of healthcare repeal, immigration reform and tax reform and thus far you haven't accomplished any of the above. You have the majority, what in the heck are you waiting for????? Can you say: "Term-limits"????? .............
10/10/2017 VIP UPDATE: Victory is at long last in sight. The dreams of a caliphate have finally come to an end, with the falling of the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq. " BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces have driven Islamic State fighters from the northern city of Hawija, the militants’ final urban stronghold in Iraq" this according to "The New York Times." Surprised me to see them reporting honestly on this? Apparently, according to other sources, ISIS fighters are dropping their weapons and fleeing by the thousands, while still others are surrendering to Iraqi and coalition forces. This sure sounds like a victory --albeit a long awaited one-- for the entire world, indeed: " Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in a televised appearance in Paris, where he is on a state visit, that Hawija had been “liberated,” calling it a “victory not just for Iraq but for the whole world.”" ~The Washington Times, Middle East, October 5, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Now is the time for all good men to stand up for what they truly believe in ....
Now is the time for all good men and women to stand up for what they truly believe in .... The future of our world may well depend upon your voice and your action.
It's late and I've yet to sleep, but as I lie in 'bed' and contemplate the notion of sleep I find my head is pounding and my heart is heavy. Another, in a long procession of terror attacks --over the course of the past two years-- has most recently struck on the streets of Barcelona, with a rented vehicle being used to run down innocent pedestrians enjoying a warm summer day on the streets of beautiful Barcelona.
I find myself perplexed by the response among people here, in the United States, to this most recent terror attack in Barcelona. Perhaps a lack of proximity to the the devastation and carnage, being an entire ocean away, helps to explain the lack of a sense of outrage, concern and a determination to do something –anything tangible-- towards the end of preventing another such attack. The response I mainly seem to be getting from people I've encountered is –and I'm paraphrasing here-- “Yes, it's a horrible tragedy. But it happened [thank God it didn't happen here] and its going to happen again; it's just a question of where and when.” Call me crazy, but I'm not okay with that, the notion that this type of violence is somehow inevitable and part of our new way of life in these modern times … violence being unleashed upon defenseless, innocent bystanders merely going about the business of their daily lives, while trying to find pockets of happiness in a world that seems to have gone blanking mad. I stop and ponder the vehicular tragedy we experienced here, in the USA, in Charlottesville, VA over the weekend, when a white supremacists plowed into a crowd of anti-supremacist protesters which wound up taking the life of a young woman and two police officers. It too was a terrible tragedy. Most people you ask will say the two events, the one in Barcelona and the one in Charlottesville, have no connections whatsoever, but I wholeheartedly disagree. When I think on the events in Charlottesville, VA, it occurs to me that while the things that white supremacists believe in and stand for run counter to the very notion of the things I believe America stands for, the rights of these supremacists to march and to say these things they supposedly believe in is protected by our constitution. Moreover, while the white supremacists have the right to speak their hateful and divisive rhetoric, in America, we have hundreds --perhaps even thousands of people-- who found the courage within themselves to meet these hateful supremacists on equal ground in order to speak out against their evil way of thinking. While I do not condone the violence, on either side of this equation, I am somehow comforted by the notion that in America we have a strong voice advocating for truth, reason and the values we as a majority in this society espouse.
When I think on the radical beliefs being inculcated in so many of the youth practicing the faith of Islam these days –followers of radical Islamism advocating the use of terrorism and violence in order to advance their agenda of hatred, intolerance and oppression-- however, I do not see this same counterbalancing force we witnessed in Charlottesville, VA, over the weekend. That is to say, I see no counterbalance within the larger faith of Islam that would –or has-- organize(d), in large, meaningful numbers, speaking from positions of truth and power, in order to courageously speak out loudly against the evil being unleashed by radical Islamist extremism. I truly believe if these young men, so susceptible to being recruited by the extremists, actually had another voice to turn to for a check and balance upon the radical beliefs --by way of an examination of the radical beliefs within the context of the mainstream interpretations of the Quran and its teachings-- that so many of these men would find their way free from the grasp of extremism. And quite frankly, until this counterbalancing voice from within the faith of Islam emerges with strength, numbers and the courage of their convictions, I truly believe the violence we have seen in terrorist attacks like Barcelona will continue to be sown upon our streets, both here and abroad, wreaking havoc upon the innocent and the defenseless.
“The thing to be feared most, above all, is that good men will choose to do nothing in the face of true evil.”
Late a.m. ... Thinking further on the above, in the light of day, it occurs to me that the one thing the alt-right, alt-left and Islamism (radical Islamist extremism) all have in common is a driving force to shut-down open dialogue, thereby eliminating any possibility for meaningful, multi-way discussions to occur. In the absence of dialogue, things tend to escalate rather quickly towards the end of violence.
[I also have some early detection and technology driven prevention/disabling ideas to thwart terrorism, but I'm too tired to share them here tonight. Perhaps, I'll share tomorrow after a night with at least a few hours sleep.]
8/23/2013 Then there is that … That the leader of the Free World might actually assume a leadership role in addressing the elephant in the room by putting an end to the era of appeasement and cowering,where terrorist are concerned. After nearly a decade of speaking softly, Trump, in his role as Commander in Chief, is finally dusting off America's Big Stick … “Speak softly, but carry a big stick”, ever heard that one before? Well, thankfully, President Trump has. On Monday, President Trump stood in front of the rest of the free world, addressing his troops, and announced to them and to the nation at large that America, along with its allies in the Middle East, was finally going to get about the business of bringing the fight to the terrorists.
During his address, President Trump informed his troops that unlike the previous administration the military has his full backing and support. Moreover, from this point forward America is not going to be pre-scripting their play-by- play moves for all the world to see. Trump assured his troops that they will have adequate funding, training and the resources necessary to do their job in real-time. President Trump also announced that he is going to hold our allies in the Middle East (Saudia Arabia and Pakistan in particular, Jordan seems to have been holding up their end of the bargain) accountable for the commitments they have made toward the end of actually hunting down and eliminating the radical Islamist terrorists, hell-bent on unleashing their ideology of violence, intolerance, hatred and oppression upon the innocent and defenseless.
These terrorist have now been warned that the era of inaction, whereby governments have done little to actively combat terrorism at its source, is over. We're through putting colorfully worded band-aids on the very real problem of radical extremist violence. We will mourn tragedy, but moving forward we will take decisive offensive actions. The Free World is about to shine one heck of BIG light into the deep dark holes where violent Islamist extremist ideology seems to fester and breed, and soon there will be no more safe places for these terrorists-in-the-making to hide. Perhaps the moral courage demonstrated by the President of the United States, in identifying the true evil that exists within our world today, and then putting a decisive plan of eradication into immediate action, will inspire other world leaders to finally take a definitive stand towards the end of tangibly removing the threat of terrorism from their own lands. Perhaps the leaders of the true faith of Islam will also find the moral courage to speak out against these violent extremists, using the wisdom and peaceful teachings to be found within the Quran in order to show misguided young men a better path in this life. In the face of true evil, President Donald Trump, has chosen to do something meaningful and I find, strangely enough, that his voice, his action gives me hope for this world of ours after all.
It's late and I've yet to sleep, but as I lie in 'bed' and contemplate the notion of sleep I find my head is pounding and my heart is heavy. Another, in a long procession of terror attacks --over the course of the past two years-- has most recently struck on the streets of Barcelona, with a rented vehicle being used to run down innocent pedestrians enjoying a warm summer day on the streets of beautiful Barcelona.
I find myself perplexed by the response among people here, in the United States, to this most recent terror attack in Barcelona. Perhaps a lack of proximity to the the devastation and carnage, being an entire ocean away, helps to explain the lack of a sense of outrage, concern and a determination to do something –anything tangible-- towards the end of preventing another such attack. The response I mainly seem to be getting from people I've encountered is –and I'm paraphrasing here-- “Yes, it's a horrible tragedy. But it happened [thank God it didn't happen here] and its going to happen again; it's just a question of where and when.” Call me crazy, but I'm not okay with that, the notion that this type of violence is somehow inevitable and part of our new way of life in these modern times … violence being unleashed upon defenseless, innocent bystanders merely going about the business of their daily lives, while trying to find pockets of happiness in a world that seems to have gone blanking mad. I stop and ponder the vehicular tragedy we experienced here, in the USA, in Charlottesville, VA over the weekend, when a white supremacists plowed into a crowd of anti-supremacist protesters which wound up taking the life of a young woman and two police officers. It too was a terrible tragedy. Most people you ask will say the two events, the one in Barcelona and the one in Charlottesville, have no connections whatsoever, but I wholeheartedly disagree. When I think on the events in Charlottesville, VA, it occurs to me that while the things that white supremacists believe in and stand for run counter to the very notion of the things I believe America stands for, the rights of these supremacists to march and to say these things they supposedly believe in is protected by our constitution. Moreover, while the white supremacists have the right to speak their hateful and divisive rhetoric, in America, we have hundreds --perhaps even thousands of people-- who found the courage within themselves to meet these hateful supremacists on equal ground in order to speak out against their evil way of thinking. While I do not condone the violence, on either side of this equation, I am somehow comforted by the notion that in America we have a strong voice advocating for truth, reason and the values we as a majority in this society espouse.
When I think on the radical beliefs being inculcated in so many of the youth practicing the faith of Islam these days –followers of radical Islamism advocating the use of terrorism and violence in order to advance their agenda of hatred, intolerance and oppression-- however, I do not see this same counterbalancing force we witnessed in Charlottesville, VA, over the weekend. That is to say, I see no counterbalance within the larger faith of Islam that would –or has-- organize(d), in large, meaningful numbers, speaking from positions of truth and power, in order to courageously speak out loudly against the evil being unleashed by radical Islamist extremism. I truly believe if these young men, so susceptible to being recruited by the extremists, actually had another voice to turn to for a check and balance upon the radical beliefs --by way of an examination of the radical beliefs within the context of the mainstream interpretations of the Quran and its teachings-- that so many of these men would find their way free from the grasp of extremism. And quite frankly, until this counterbalancing voice from within the faith of Islam emerges with strength, numbers and the courage of their convictions, I truly believe the violence we have seen in terrorist attacks like Barcelona will continue to be sown upon our streets, both here and abroad, wreaking havoc upon the innocent and the defenseless.
“The thing to be feared most, above all, is that good men will choose to do nothing in the face of true evil.”
Late a.m. ... Thinking further on the above, in the light of day, it occurs to me that the one thing the alt-right, alt-left and Islamism (radical Islamist extremism) all have in common is a driving force to shut-down open dialogue, thereby eliminating any possibility for meaningful, multi-way discussions to occur. In the absence of dialogue, things tend to escalate rather quickly towards the end of violence.
[I also have some early detection and technology driven prevention/disabling ideas to thwart terrorism, but I'm too tired to share them here tonight. Perhaps, I'll share tomorrow after a night with at least a few hours sleep.]
8/23/2013 Then there is that … That the leader of the Free World might actually assume a leadership role in addressing the elephant in the room by putting an end to the era of appeasement and cowering,where terrorist are concerned. After nearly a decade of speaking softly, Trump, in his role as Commander in Chief, is finally dusting off America's Big Stick … “Speak softly, but carry a big stick”, ever heard that one before? Well, thankfully, President Trump has. On Monday, President Trump stood in front of the rest of the free world, addressing his troops, and announced to them and to the nation at large that America, along with its allies in the Middle East, was finally going to get about the business of bringing the fight to the terrorists.
During his address, President Trump informed his troops that unlike the previous administration the military has his full backing and support. Moreover, from this point forward America is not going to be pre-scripting their play-by- play moves for all the world to see. Trump assured his troops that they will have adequate funding, training and the resources necessary to do their job in real-time. President Trump also announced that he is going to hold our allies in the Middle East (Saudia Arabia and Pakistan in particular, Jordan seems to have been holding up their end of the bargain) accountable for the commitments they have made toward the end of actually hunting down and eliminating the radical Islamist terrorists, hell-bent on unleashing their ideology of violence, intolerance, hatred and oppression upon the innocent and defenseless.
These terrorist have now been warned that the era of inaction, whereby governments have done little to actively combat terrorism at its source, is over. We're through putting colorfully worded band-aids on the very real problem of radical extremist violence. We will mourn tragedy, but moving forward we will take decisive offensive actions. The Free World is about to shine one heck of BIG light into the deep dark holes where violent Islamist extremist ideology seems to fester and breed, and soon there will be no more safe places for these terrorists-in-the-making to hide. Perhaps the moral courage demonstrated by the President of the United States, in identifying the true evil that exists within our world today, and then putting a decisive plan of eradication into immediate action, will inspire other world leaders to finally take a definitive stand towards the end of tangibly removing the threat of terrorism from their own lands. Perhaps the leaders of the true faith of Islam will also find the moral courage to speak out against these violent extremists, using the wisdom and peaceful teachings to be found within the Quran in order to show misguided young men a better path in this life. In the face of true evil, President Donald Trump, has chosen to do something meaningful and I find, strangely enough, that his voice, his action gives me hope for this world of ours after all.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Dreams & Visions
"Foxglove"
NOKO
"The thing to be feared, above all else, is that good men would choose to do nothing in the face of true evil."
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