Duly nauseated

   A glance at world morning news today.  My own sense of vomit-welling.  Mostly because of two things.  The first is a photograph of some women dressed to the nines and having what looks like a girl chat like, oooooooo sehsey bone, he's so hot.  Problem is they are revel rousing with complicated topics like the topics are as disconnected from reality and people as whatever.

  They look like surfer girls chatting about the Big Flip.  Which is hardly assured and at best will be or would be different this time because of the other thing.  I mean really, they look like two little pale, fragile human beings on a tray and not knowing under the tray is the fires of hell.

  Like let's just have amnesia about twenty years of warring in the Middle East, let's pretend not to know that according to some Israel and Ukraine are fighting for survival.  Let's hot poker and really get a head start on, what gets called "deportation" (they're in Italy, maybe they quip, we'll give those nasty wasties the boot).  Not sure but it's air strikes and starvation wherever "deportation" is going to magically put them.

  Just so wrong.

  The war stuff is already all around us, so really it's just wrong to be flippant and careless and pom-pomming go team.  It's hard, flying blindly into a world war, to grasp the utter seriousness of what's going on and it's hard to get into that other mode, war, but out here, not on the pastry tray beach, the war stuff is already real.  We should be more mature.  If not for ourselves, for the rest of humanity.  

  They plead the case for censorship because it's already jihad and military commanders (commanding in infiltrated areas) having to operate amongst civilian population.  Much along the way to mind-numbing new styles of warring has already happened before election.  It's way too gravity-laden everywhere to go with that kind of party-sphere election.  Duh.

  We have to be confident not cocky!

  I thought we talked about being more like hockey moms for this situation.

  This is my brain shifting gears.  We have war-routine and other.  We had not much time in the other department.  Just enough to re-focus the binoculars, oh, saw a real bird of nature, then

  Sources like NPR have caught us up on developments.  The developments chugged through what "conversations" were possible.  Through TV and social media "conversations" are really more editorials and opinion pieces and commentary than anything else.  Elections will solidify some U.S. political action.  But war transcends being just political.

  It's something that happens to people as much as it is people making it happen.  It's also something chain reaction.  And it's not a one-sided thing.  So while we are a two-party-system politically and this forges us into "sides" of the same coin, we are also pitted as one nation in war with "enemy".

  In early stages of fighting in war both the enemy and selves are not as clearcut as when the warring develops.  It is now to be careful with fellows in the foxhole.  Tending to the homeland.  Doubling-down on faith anchors.  And assessing how decisions are interconnected; what would be different if....

  I think part of what's broken is like, hiding in party politics.  Philosophically, when one party plays king of the hill it invites disengagement if one can somehow get into the fortress.  Like "owning" the hill is the same as being with the levers controlling the missiles, story done.  Or having money is a pass on being part of world experience, that's a similar mindset.

 Philosophically, if one calls for and enacts a state of elimination, say of a problem nation, that changes things fundamentally into "the other" endeavoring to eliminate back.

  That speaks to both the situation in the Middle East and in Ukraine/Russia.  I think the United States is trying to at least hold some sort of stability, or has been.  Factors, though, have been pushing people towards something other than let's stabilize and live.  Factors are influencing military actions more so than actual people are having influence on military actions.  That way of warfare has a short trajectory culminating in warfare as dictator.

  There may be no way to get along.  No paradise of co-existence, but are we really wanting just all out death and destruction?

Two choices

  When our-agers were kids there was, in the way the internet offers, a ton of "stuff" all around us and we spent a lot of life deciding whether or not to say.  We were often stumbling into serious situation like serial killers and terrorism.  That stuff was just out of sight until we stepped into a day and the seeing and experiencing of it was just happening.  Back in the 1970's those two topics weren't truly developed fields of work.

  Into the 1980's we were also all put into a shelter somewhat guarding us against the Cold War.

  All through the 1970's and 1980's there was an established and well-tended "world" of literature and journalism that had the job/duty of monitoring information.  These professions stayed separate on purpose because it was so important to keep in pace with other professions having to do with safety and law.

  For sprints of time before official warring is called there seems to be total freedom to say anything but that can be dangerous to self and to nation.  It can also help multi-talented people hone their skills, connect with the people they will need to be connected with for such work, and/or build credentials.  That can seem painstakingly slow, especially in a world where people can stick nuclear warheads on any old missile, and disguise spying and other war moves in all kinds of AI, but as the world gets into a more formal stance, the disciplined will be in better stead.

  Um.  You could learn about the controversy surrounding the book News of A Kidnapping.

Yeah, the drugs and other criminal stuff too.  It was/is all around.  That's why so many people consider home sanctuary.  And why our parents went to such great lengths to raise us with standards and the gumption to understand the world as it is.  Not getting destroyed was a major focus of family and friendship.  Though early in life we were also competitive and seemed like everyone could get sucked into that.

  The other morning I was remembering a fierce competition with a boy that had it's moments of drama on par with great romance and war.  He was multi-talented and had natural access to the man's world so had some advantage in that sense.  But I had a way of really taking my time with writing craft and listening to people well.  Anytime we'd get close to, well, maybe we should work together, or help each other it brought out the worst in each of us.  Someone slightly older was beneficial in helping us see that and to each push ourselves to not be afraid to stand alone.  We actually almost got supportive of each other but then word went around and even reached us ten, eleven year olds...big story!

  But you have to come with me to get it.

  We each supersluethed our way to a "top secret" rendezvous point and realized the story-holder would have to pick one of us.  There was awkward silence and sweaty hands then.  Lo and behold we heard a helicopter coming.  And soon we could see it.  Then an emergency fireladder for a building dropped out and the helicopter made a pass, then another, and another.  It was in those few moments that I saw in myself that there was a magnetism of adventure that, for me, was more compelling than even love and bioligical drives like sex and house-keeping.  That pull that I always wrestle with and work hard at to balance with sanity and discipline.  We basically mauled each other to get onto that ladder and then tried to disintegrate the other in air.

  It was not pretty.  I did not win.  And the bruising took quite a while to heal.  Our friendship and prospect of marriage never did.

  It is about choice.  And also commitment.  People who choose to abide by the Ten Commandments, for example, are not choosing to instantly become "perfect".  That choice has its share of challenge and fight.  What we found in the 70's was that opening the Pandora's Box of leeway to the Ten Commandments has people constructing webs and worlds that can seem pretty complicated.  And that banding together as unique people with the common goals of nation built on bedrock of Ten Commandments and founding principles gives people the support each needs to be really American in a full-bodied sense.

  The eat my dust people will always do their thing their way.  That's just how it is.  That doesn't devalue everything else.  And as we discovered by the end of the 20th century, bitter competition in which only one thing "wins" is a trap that flatlines thinking people into commodities.  

  I've got to get to real work.  Organizing blog is more of a hobby these days!

  It's strange for an anonymous voice to keep saying oh, so-and-so loves autocrats, loves dictators.  No one in politics has a love relationshíp with other world leaders.  It's another example of a general dumbing down and it really annoys me.  Obviously world leaders have to discuss world issues.  Obviously we can't assume anything about each others' policy, there needs to be diplomacy.  If not, what we get is what's going on.  Rumors of Russia in military alliance with Iran.  Second-hand knowledge of China being involved with taking over bases the U.S. abandoned.  And terrorist groups telling the world what they are going to do--up to the moment--to nations.

! Aaaaaargh !

  What a disgrace and undesireable way of life we are getting into--today! More than ever, although the "axis of evil" has been working on their strategies and alliances for 20-40, 50 years!

  Not sure when exactly it was that our Sec. Austin had to warn his Russian counterpart that using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would change restraints; could cause catastrophic in military field-talk; could lead to nuclear exchange, but it was back in 2005 that Rosenberg's interviews (for the book Epicenter) had people explaining that Iran is not a conventional player in the war games.  And back further in the 1990's, there was American bipartisan agreement, that this brinkmanship that has bled into threats in real time, not okay.

  At this point actions by terrorists are dictating again.  What is going on right now is no longer apocalyptic theory.  Even the U.S. has been drawn into contentions militarily.

Leave or starve

Leave or starve is what gets called rhetoric, it's not a policy.  It is similar in nature to someone who is not a dictator-in-place saying stuff like I'm gonna...

  I'm gonna make the cops beat you up!  And I'm gonna end all wars in a day!  And I'm gonna get the/a military to...

  My problem with rhetoric is that it is more fantastical than talk from a supposed leader should be.  It's also offensive because it dishonors the real people involved in a real world where law and policy must be carried out.  We don't live in a country under a dictator who orders violence at his whim!  But violence occurs because of peoples' power to use force.  January 6th got out of hand from peoples' power/right to assemble.  Most crime that occurs in our country is abuse of power/rights to.

  The rhetoric is really most like a generic mouth standing atop a fence and crying wolf plus I'm not just going to stand up here!

  I think that rhetoric in our culture has taken the place of intelligent conversation and strategy.  It certainly comes up for people before they actually have solution or have contributed to resolution.  It amounts to as useful as the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

  It indicates we got problems.

  In leave or starve we are actually hearing people put forth the notion that we can't live this way.  Americans felt the same way about the mafia.  The world proved it felt the same way about Hitler.  Neither goal of denying the mafia or letting Hitler compromise the principles of the West was achieved by rhetoric.  And this is why we see now the West's leaders strengthening position against its enemies.

  That Iran shot ballistic missiles, more than once, at Israel escalated the contentions to nation level.  On that level of offense and defense nobody can afford to play "whack-a-mole".  We have to have a unified response.  And we have to let the military strategists defend our country.

  It's not a rally to all-out chaos and violence.  Defense doesn't negate the belief that violence is not right.  Defense protects because to be killed/destroyed is not right either.

Part of the point

  Part of the point, the largest part, was not to be destroyed.  By the time our-agers were born it was already the age of terrorism.  A lot of the dark side of WWII and Vietnam and Korea wasn't staying neatly contained in some old memory box.

  It was character building not to crumble when they lashed out.  And becoming stoic as they clung to each other in a necessary toughness about a mysterious violence that wasn't hatred, at least not for you.

  While some people chose to go ahead and be hateful others didn't go that route but settled on bitterness.  A roomful of stiff, cross-armed, boulder men who'd rarely had a "day off" let alone caught the virus of free love and "alternative" only in a top secret way and a head nod as agreement admitted to having feelings.

  At school some kids couldn't really get free of the complicated.  It's in our DNA, some said when they found each other and found in each other a kind of ability to hack through any jungle.  Some had a tougher time with lazy assholes being "authority" and navigating growing up for them included some run ins where they awkwardly realized there was no army behind them in individual rebelliousness.  A few were always walking a chain link fence watching for opportunity to escape somehow.

  The somehow though, on escaping, an Americanism not separable from service, has always been elusive.  Most people in the Country have wrestled with duty and honor and service to nation even if not involved directly with the military.  Just as we've all wrestled with, for example, how much money should be spent on "social programs".  And, yes, there are feelings about feeding others at the expense of self not eating.  But especially when there's been dramatic imbalance in favor of one group or another kind of profession in America our Nation rallies to level playing ground through capitalism.  And that's been a saving grace.

The can't make butter with a toothpick phase

   Reorganizing my blog

  Was sorry to hear overworked but not making it youth on the radio the other day.  I've always had to work myself and while I love working it can seem futile economically.  I think our-agers have really been through hard times a lot.  And pandemic plus teetering on the brink of more socialism than we've ever had in our nation has sunk us again.  The amount of debt that the nation has plus it's socialistic commitments including foreign wars really cancels the possibility of gain.  I know we try and stay positive, be content with what we do have, and are grateful that, in theory, there's opportunity to make money as private citizens.  We also criticize management of nation regarding the money stuff.  But there are moments when no personal thinking can tackle the awfulness of feeling like prisoners to work, feeling bad about the costs of living never met by work earnings, feeling like it's unfair.  Everybody goes through that process with something...maybe not money, but something.  It's challenging.  And confronting and working through challenge takes a lot of a person.  But when we try (even if not successful) there is the glory that is in the American flag.  The Country too is challenged.  And we all have the chance to help it hold on.

That's not a scam

  While it can seem weird and scary that there are so many road closures between Tennessee and North Carolina, it's not fake.  I drove all over in the mountains and on the highways and byways--for about three days, over 900 miles.  Everything is as normal as it can be given the extent of the damages caused by Hurricane Helene.

  There are a ton of people working on America and it's not about politics.  North Care-o-lina has long been expert, or developing expertise, on functioning as a diversity of private and public, volunteer and dedicated, support and lead groups.  And each trouble spot has attending processes.

  Over the course of re-opening for business, for example, State and Federal and Insurance people have to eyeball and document everything.  Like restoring the grids, each clean up and repair is part of a puzzle.  Procedures are dictating because in SAFETY that forms the equivalent of chain of command.  And there aren't squirmishes between commanders of groups, "regional" work-throughs are worked through.

  There's pressure on all of us to hurry up but that creates more danger!  A lot of mountain roads, for instance, are both curvy and steep grade, and bucket trucks can only cone so far out from themselves so driving fast can cause serious accident.

  Passable roads does not indicate the "all clear".  And on many of the miles I traveled I was driving through tree trunks.  Up higher in a lot of spots is sliding down.  And at water level much has been swept away.  There really is debris everywhere.  But like preparing for wildfire, people in place have spent the past two weeks focused on clearing immediate areas.