Sometimes I wonder

   what Martha Stewart's cats r thinking too.

  When I wonder about serious stuff, I also ask.

  It's a wonder that we have ICBMs and drones stalking people and news is still giving out location information.  Everyone had to stop doing that in like, the Vietnam War.  But back in the early 1990's I was able to put a similar question to some experts.  Interestingly, the censors and military and vague popular were hung up on numbers!  Yeah, because elections require the use of numerical data, we had to put a hold on a critical block on some other information.  Seriously.

  Of course we were freaking out; we were young people.  Especially as creatives we were afraid censorship would be forever.  And there were official lists of words we couldn't use.  It was a challenge to express ourselves with buzzers clamping down on all our ideas.  We had academic arguments with the living censor people.  And, heart-to-hearts with older than us professionals and loved ones.  Advertising had to be part of the phasing in of temporary restraints in communications.  That made for some "funny" ads.

  We talked through jarring issues like having full faith and confidence in our Armed Forces.  And, even, what ifs and how to carry on without the usual conveniences.  It's always intense when we have to ready for maybe swift action.  But we do so as a nation.  And not just one nation, but a nation with allies.  

  And it's always comforting to know that grown ups are always doing their work, so even while we got to do some less serious stuff, the grown ups had been on it.

  No stress.

Scary

   What I feel is close to hatred for disorder and chaos and other issues it would be easy to blame on one party or another, one gender or another.  Think I'll vote for eating lots of candy today.

  They made fun of people for recycling too!  Sometimes guys make no sense.  They made fun of a woman reporter covering a typhoon or tsunami in Japan and it became a harmless guy rally cry, "The recycling!" They'd say in a girly voice.  Totally missed the point-- that even in a disaster SOME PEOPLE CARE, especially about maintaining progress on making life's problems better.  They're so duh sometimes.

  Heck yeah I voted for Nikki Haley in the primary!  Duh wears me out. 

  It's okay, we're going to get Taiwan and U.S. chips going forward.  Better chips.

Getting dark now, watch out for trick or treaters!

Mas mejor chips.  I might even invest in that if the Spanish-speaking people where I'm doing laundry don't put me in their garbage can.  Thanks

  Ah, just candy wrappers and food truck taco empty plates in the garbage can!  I love Knoxville.

  Happy Halloween

 

   In a down home sitting area of the Hartford, Tennessee Welcome Area I had the chance to sit and tarry-a-bit in a rocking chair beneath the regal-looking and very muscled World Grand Champion Tennessee Walking Horse ~ Justified Honors.  The horse's name sort of goes with the legacy of the state of Tennessee.  It certainly seems to as I'm absorbed into some history displaying the noble role Tennessee braved in the Civil War.

  The display or installation has a profound portrait of men on battlefield.  The work of art shows The Battle of Fort Sanders (courtesy of the East Tennessee Historical Society) and in the reproduction of a painting Old Glory looms large over the fort under attack.

  The display tells of Tennessee as a strategic location crucial to both the Union and the Confederates due to the state's "location, river routes and rail paths, industries and farmlands".  The Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area together with the Department of Tourist Development and the Department of Transpirtation has a partnership program called the Tennessee Civil War Trails.  This is part of a five-state trails system that helps people explore the "places associated with America's greatest challenge from 1861-1865".

  There are over 1000 sites "that tell the epic and heartfelt stories of civilians and soldiers, both black amd white, who experienced triumph and tragedy".  There are several sites in the Hartford, TN region.  And the Welcome Center (one of 19 in Tennessee) tells us about the Longstreet Campaign of 1863.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee sent his corps commander General James Longstreet to try and capture Knoxville ~ "a vital railroad junction that had fallen in early September to a Union force under the command of General Ambrose Burnside.

  "Fighting between the armies continued throughout the winter of 1863-1864 until Longstreet returned to Virginia, leaving the North in control of the Knoxville area for the remainder of the war."

  Almost 1500 engagements took place across Tennessee and, "The war years brought misery to almost every Tennessean," the display tells us.  "Yet, out of the ashes of war, Tenneseans, black and white, built a new society where slavery was abolished and citizenship redefined."

  The numbers are staggering:

  66,000 Confederates and 58,000 Federal soldiers were killed or wounded on Tennessee battlefields.

  "The division that made Tennessee a reflection of the rift between North and South also made it a testing ground of political reform after the war.  The state's many Unionists took power during Reconstruction and proceeded to abolish slavery, ratify the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution and return Tennessee to the Union earlier than any other ex-Confederate state."

  "The sacrifices of African-American troops for the Union side strengthened the former slave's claim to a full share in postwar society.  These first steps toward emancipation and citizenship were the most hopeful legacy of the Civil War in Tennessee.  At war's end, 275,000 Tennesseans formerly enslaved were free."

  The information about the history of the U.S. including actual, physical war on homesoil amongst neighbors and families and citizens stands in stark contrast to contemporary Tennessee.  Like the glowing electric fire in the hearth here and the beautifully cared-for Welcome Center, today's Tennessee focuses more on ways people can experience the heartiness of an enduring spirit.

  From its Native American places to its other historical and peopled places; it's many trails through a diversity of commerce and craft, to its interconnectedness with real nature, Tennessee's portrait is so much more complex than even its complicated war time iterations.  

  Dozens of brochures invite to attractions ~ each its own mountain of interesting, and, proof that this state has weathered social transition and challenge to thrive locally-made and industrial-sized.  While the brochures boast of mainstays of fun and adventure each place of Tennessee, America also has its heroes and villians, humor and sorrows.

  The timberhewn Welcome Center with its wood furniture, handpainted scenery art and well-cared for vending and bathroom facilities presents that side of tourism that's about care and hospitality.  It's apt that here the wooden state-shaped "Tennessee" sign above an information desk is trimmed in gold.  Authentically valuable, Tennessee, as part of an America that is still rooted in tradition AND adaptable to such a diversity of people and purpose.  The mountains in this part of the state make for a pleasant preservation of space between states and population centers but the distances are fjorded by people well-versed in both formal and casual socializing.

  On this visit I talk with two men doing security and maintenance of the Welcome Center.  They confirm, as I've seen firsthand, that there is a lot of damage caused by Hurricane Helene.  It's posing real challenges to transportation between North Carolina and Tennessee.  Mr. Mike Washam relays news of at least four spots along I-40 that truly make the interstate impassable.  A four-lane area reduced to one lane of barely stable asphalt due to flooding, for example, is in need of repair.  The amounts of disaster relief money are up in the millions though, so there is a hopeful patience.  "And," Jesse McGaha points out, "Dolly Parton donated two million" for the fix up!  That puts monies for TN in the 32 million dollar ballpark, and NC is looking to use $100 million on disaster relief.

  The Hartford Welcome Center may see some changes in the future too, though not storm-related, there are electrical system updates and accessibility issues to be addressed.  But Jesse is proud to show me a unique feature of the Welcome Center...."It's the only one with a porch!" The rocking chairs are tucked inside so the porch can be pressure-washed.

  It's almost the start of November and up near the Martha Sundquist State Forest many of the leaves over the road are dropping hard now.  The forest road through there is temporarily closed so the TN Dept of Agriculture can repair wood bridges.  But on a clear night the starry sky and the sound of the stream there make for a perfect moment out of this year's political excitement.

  In some ways the weather and persisting clean up and repair have people doubling down on tending the homefires no matter what happens in national politics.  Word from the Welcome Center is that the major repairs will take into late next year (2025).

  The Soundtrack of America ~ Made In Tennessee movement or campaign or rally-around has made great effort to supercharge the Welcome Center with tourism and vacation ideas covering all of Tennessee.  With the Smokies and other area mountain spots involved so deeply in recovering from Hurricane Helene while getting ready for winter, it may be a good bet to plan immediate get-away time elsewhere in T'see.  All through the mountains and valleys of this region work is being done to save this land we love.  The overall tone is letting summer go, seasonal change, and we'll be here.

  Hot coffee and sausage on a biscuit at the locally owned Downtown Hartford Amoco.  The sun lights up the tops of nearby mountains revealing a patchwork of reds and browns and pine greens.  The gas station has handpainted team mascots in the windows.  Go Cosby Eagles!  Go Grassy Ravens!  And the assurance they've got The BEST pizza in town!

  On down the river road there is still a lot of debris from the storm and, sadly, peoples' soaked and ruined housewares.  The sounds of work trucks set a steady pace to morning.

  Behind the Ober Zipline and near the Moonshine Distillery the river is a tangled knot of tree and building parts.  River makes an oxbow there, a sort of "U"shape that gets waterlogged.  It's home to some rafting outfits which over the summer were quite bustling.  Some of the local eateries are badly damaged.  All along the river trees and people goods are cramming the banks.  Under a low bridge whole trees are jammed in and piled a dozen or so feet tall.  Then for several miles the landscape and peoples' homes bear the scars of raging river.  Fields of corn are battered and run over by the now-receded, mostly--but for the ponding and boggish sunken spots--flooding.  Home after home has water-debris-smashed wreckage.  In some spots vehicles were carried and smushed into poles and other structure.

  At points on the river road there is rock ledge that must've forced the flooding away from it and widened the path of destruction.  Vegetation is still hanging, dragged by the current, in some spots, fifteen feet above the riverbed.

  Over to Cosby I went hoping to get in one more night of camping before saying goodbye to summer.  To no avail.  Like most else anywhere near the Smokies, the storm eclipsed a lingering with nature as the seasons change this year.  Crickets, slow and not too loud in a not-too-hot sunshine was the parting kiss.

  All over the byways that aren't I40 the people traffic is a mix of regular day and repair.  Close-to but not directly impacted by storm is also a buzz of seasonal change and people like myself cut out of getting to North Carolina.  Trucks--asked not to travel those routes--barreling and turning around, turning around.  

  To my knowledge I81 is really the only legitimate way to go.  For me, it's compounding stress and hardship about voting this year.  The quiet but solid message from the mountains is can't go this way.  We're flummuxed.  Even miles and miles of pushing onward brings sudden Road Closed into the twists and turns of travel.  Whether it's storm-related or private property matters there is a maddening barricade between our states right now.  Probably closing normally welcoming places of the forest will alleviate the snarl.

  The shops and artisan places in Gatlinburg are welcoming leaf peepers and mountain haunt seekers!  And all through the area between Gatlinburg and Sevierville autumn hangs on regular like holiday decs.  So does a calm and steady show of support for Trump.  The signage, some handmade and vibrant red, white, and blue has definitely increased since earlier this year.  But there is an understated campaign feel.  Goes with storm-driven, let's get back to the business of being us.

  For sure the changes per Helene are forcing the hand on camping and tourism, but as people compelled to visit we're going with the flow as much as possible.

  Back in the city, Knoxville.  Our part of town is also feeling decided.  There's a welcomed relaxation of a hard-driving campaign season.  I feel proud of all of us for not being as ugly as we have been in some years.  Seems like way more determination in a mighty tide-turning...if not for assured outcome, at least in speaking out against sinking in a mysterious and lurking "socialism".  We're holding down the fort ~ the Stars and Stripes front and center.

So say

  Say a person has an accident and messes up their spine.  The way to have best chance recovery/life going forward is to re-align the spine to its original functioning position.  Politics in a Republic is not the spine.  The Republic is the spine.

  This matters even more at times when the whole world is configuring as economic markets/entities and institution (for lack of a better word).

  As if the planet is shifting its center of gravity or on its axis, the will of the people and the powers of organization sometimes require us to prioritize what's most important, right now.  In a rumbly world it is most important right now to define nation as nation.  That's a baseline.  The particular politics within the different kinds of nations are the most contentious rumbly.

  A lot of Americans are afraid that we will lose our political rights in voting for the Republican party to manage our Republic, but in terms of world politics, it is most critical right now to BE a Republic.  The world stage is forming into a more staunch version of different kinds of nation, each with economic and social structures of their own.  We have to be strong as America on that stage!

  Oh yeah.  There is some difference for us on some stuff between political rights and Constitutional rights!  That's especially important as we realign our social boundaries to stuff like property law.  Our law-scape is layers of local, State, and National.  And just existing in physical space/place makes us subject to all the laws/rules of that place!  That's why sometimes we each choose to keep our opinions and expressions to ourselves.  "Talk" is not a legal move.

  Reading?  Today I am re-reading Rand Paul's The Case Against Socialism.

  

  An example of important independent within syndicate reporting, the kind Jason Stanley talks about as redemptive, is in Senator Paul's [not sure if he's still a senator at this time, but was] book....so economic collapse happened in Venezuela and an immediate issue for everyone was food scarcity!  The newspaper USA Today ran a report of a reporter talking with an out-of-work construction worker who was standing in line with 300 other people at a grocery store.  Not only was it testament to not a normal day, but it was also letting other places know what was happening there.  When our social boundaries contract, it's even more important for us to keep in touch about our home turfs.

  In our country I was once in a grocery store line of people (2008 or 9 I think) of +1100 people wanting to work in that grocery store.  It had closed because of black mold in the building but then after a couple years was able to re-lease that property.

  I've noticed around Knoxville many stores are getting in good shape for people to buy what we need on budgets that have really reduced doing a lot of shopping.

  Even our local thrift shops are looking cool for reward and holiday gifts.

  Overall, it's going to be a hard climb back to prosperity.

  Our "popular" agrees about some stuff.  But in addition to guarding the Republic, self-care, and working on everything we have to be careful not to get knocked off balance by too far left, or, too far right.  That was the reason people came up with the word "extreme" and why us North Carolina and Tennessee people really got into a hot pepper contest.  And why we call some sports extreme and others not so much.  Some activities are sports category, but some activities are too "ultra" or "extreme" to fit neatly into the "sports" category.  At least that's what we were talking about thirty, forty years ago.

  

Ah yeah, it matters

  It matters that members of both parties welcome Trump back to the mothership of total party, so it matters to admonish the "dark humor".  His and Trump's potty-mouths only fly as campaign stunts frankly.  Oooooo tough guy talk.  Having to call the land we all love a dumping ground because it's too dangerous to say much about other countries' spies being here, other countries' operatives being here to rattle the cage we are in as a nation at the moment.

  It also matters to keep businesses open and the whole country functioning so no mysterious "they" prevents us hand-to-mouthers from being able to survive another week and afford voting!

Hybrid terms

   A term like "Christo-facism" is like a description of a compound.  To me, I intellectually understand why we come up with ways to describe even not fully formed happenings, like warnings.  But Christianity is actually opposite of facism.

  I'll write more after work.  It's terrifying to hear people telling us that Christianity and wealth/prosperity/success is Nazi-ism.  Makes a cloudy day spooky.

  Day was not spooky here.  Bunch of professionals getting work done.

  So, we heard the hybrid term "Christo-fascism" on the program "On the Media".  And I am so grateful to author of Erasing History Jason Stanley for writing up some description and warning about what can happen when very complicated political theory (largely revolving around "hate") is being brought to life by popular movements.

  He points out the many comparisons between factors in the world today and stuff that happened back in history.  In the United States we have not fully erased our history of freedom and liberty for all citizens, but elsewhere in the world that is happening.  People erase or omit parts of history and often replace the vacancy with a one-sided version or what is called "propaganda".  He also made the point that being aware of history is a really positive way of not letting it be erased.

  There is fear that we can't go back in time and correct mistakes and horrors, or even truly compensate for history.  Some people have come to settlement--legally, financially, through learning and growing, and through commemoration and memorial.  And some have had to come to terms inwardly and privately.  Sometimes people can forgive.  Sometimes forgiveness is not possible.  Sometimes not forgetting though forgiving is what has been forged.  And even when people forgive and forget (move on) there is cause to put the event or actions/feelings into a state of remembrance about, so we're not forgetting pain caused, pain felt.

  Historical happenings are collective re-experience, so it's difficult to pin one perspective onto time periods and social/political experience.

  The "On the Media" program introduced us to a baseline wondering in thinking about fascism as "ideology", or,  "a way of doing politics".  There are examples in history of nations, groups, leaders whose "politics" did evolve from idea into mechanized or systematic.  The classic examples are Hitler and Stalin whose political ways dragged the world into phases of warring.  And whose dictatorships sculpted generations of people into "like-minded" and without choice (survival wise) about "supporting" what came across as the "popular" or majority-driven, overall way of their nations.

  Some countries adopted political structuring according to dictators' plans.  Other places became a mix of tendencies and trajectory.  Still other territories were designated in the orbits and spheres of dominate rule.  Some places have developed along world religion lines.  Some have developed with a decaying religious rule propped up by secular solution.  And many have declared to be democracies or not under authoritarian rule.  That doesn't mean there aren't rules and dominating trends.  And it doesn't mean there's clearcut paths to solutions.  A secular solution in the West has been rule of Law.  But almost everything about laws and even the legal systems has also come under scrutiny and had contentious debate surrounding it.

  Jason Stanley's book discussion on the program is sort of a messenger about some major turbulence in the world resurfacing in our own times.  He looks at how the United States has "often used fascist solutions to national problems" and so clarifies some of the friction that exists in calling ourselves both a democracy and a Republic.  A grave danger is that such a potentially "great" nation can be co-opted or used by forces and people who make the effort to strip America of it's unique properties (found in our Constitution) or who endeavor to get hold of our nation and use us to power their group's thing.

  Stanley also argues that degrading any human as not human, or worse, vermin, beasts, trash...villifying or monsterizing some lends itself to making some of the people targets and others the targeting.  When hate gets political, in other words, we all lose ways to transcend the outcome which is destruction and death.

  Historical research and analysis of philosophy and social movements, law, and civilization shows that people and places can change into something different from principle.  History gives us a lot of samples.  And current events display national differences.  Fundamental shifts in world politics and warring have brought us into having to have critical awareness of ourselves first and how we as a nation-- that is not a fascism-- can survive and thrive.

  One way I'm processing "the fascism debate" is thinking about the issue of "abortion".  The political "left" of center is saying it's proof of "fascism" for the political "right" of center to have made abortion (a medical procedure) a State rather than a Federal issue.  Un-federalizing the medical procedure is as much about how tax dollars get spent as it is a moral issue on the whole.  So while the left side is saying, that's them (the right side) taking away a woman's control of her own body...the right side is not out to control a woman's body so much as not being forced to pay for abortion as a national chore.  Also, it's a move to demechanize abortion as a federal tool.  Putting it back to State puts the medical procedure back to a more local level.  It deflates the federal power regarding the procedure which is more in line with a goverment not being authoritarian.

The tank?

  That year was hairpin turn on the road to getting politically settled.  And like every year all of life was/is ongoing.  In some ways before people do things wrong or incorrectly or not as best as we might there's a lot of build up and a co-measurate "abundance of caution" so for people entrenched in life-saving and safety-tending there's ready for anything.  There was also a lot of proving going on.

  Between proving ourselves worthy of investment, proving we had done the work--even in a largely chaotic to form environment, proving I'm NOT him, proving potential, proving self to self, proving I CAN...and fighting poverty, storm damage, a  falling short of the myth of things (like we're "great") us individuals were being torn apart.  Torn apart wasn't helping anything.  It compounded hungry, sick, and tired!

  I guess it was time and God that unfurled as Old Glory or unfurled us all, from immigrant to soldier, as a living Old Glory because as we made way through each day and night the chaotic feelings and acts per impossible cleared.  Lists, missions, objectives, some sorting of tasks to talent and duty...and people explaining why.

  Still for all the facts clarifying there were versions.  And there was something else, harder to name but why we came up with "hometown hero".  The National Guard was on the move--even before anybody could/would say so.  How do you know? I asked a guy I trusted because he's also a realist, especially on a rollercoaster of optimism/pessimism.  He and I were making a generator gas run.  All along the roads there were T'see tree markers of where a National Guard person had forged way and made it to mustered.  While he was showing me something evidentiary, and the facts of things getting better were matching up to all of us making things better, I saw those pieces of tree like poetry or music, or something so much more profound than just storm-destroyed tree.

  It had taken some time.  And every person who came as one person had a tale involving sometimes a lot of others, identifiable and unknown, all kinds of people.  No ordinary communications possible.  At camp people were able to restore somewhat--sleep, a little bit of food, maybe some water.  Internationals, non-Guard citizens, soldiers in other branches of the Armed Forces and other armies of the world...all proving resiliance and moving forward despite trashed finances, ruined homes, hadn't been sures about direction...moving into the next day and the next day.  Moving in grief and shock and uncertainty by being selves and those selves aligning with others (and keeping to self) to achieve.  Little things, big things....

  Like getting that tank to its mountain resting spot.  Like showing a person with extreme political views "where the turkies walk" so the person wouldn't get hurt by people with different extreme political views--a sort of back door for safety's sake.  Like moving a field hospital halfway round the world.  Like mitigating: I won't take that person's chainsaw, family guy, even though I could.  A grandmother eating for the first time in ten days.  Letting someone borrow a fishing pole and not belittling in asking, You do know how to use this particular kind?

  We were part of a Tennessee spirit forged by people part of State and Country.  As other state Americans we were impressed.  Some of the visiting foreigners and in-process im/migrants were blown away impressed.  No better diplomacy than being part of function!

Been the worst kind of year

  for that sort of thing.  We're ALL crazy, we're ALL homeless criminals, we're all a burden on the businesses we power, we're all trash.

  I recommend getting uplifted by someone else who is not a fellow human trying to find the floor and clear the covered in all American citizens.

  But I don't think some people crying, wall, wall, deport, deport is gonna do it.  This realignment will start with voting and have to progress as the majority asserting, re-asserting we can't be this mob.  We have to live by Law.

  When an admin makes that impossible for the average person, other citizens have to make process and make that law.  Otherwise we're not able to stay actual citizens in an actual nation, we're ALL just whatever.

  I am glad I have at this point in my life tough enough skin to know that neither myself nor any other human is trash.  Harris running to the microphone and telling everyone, he just called us trash, kind of reverberated the notion for me and it kicked around in my head for a while but I slept it off.  What I knew for sure was that I am not deaf, I heard it from the horse's mouth; I am not in the Harris possee so I didn't feel compelled to act; and we're just not trash.

  People are really ready to switch gears I think.  Get out of the hype-mode of campaigning.  I know I am.  

  So much of life is like seventh grade.  I was a hot mess on the inside and Sister Rose kept making us classify everything under the sun as parts and pieces of wholes and named, named things.  The Latin, the American (a mix of old, middle, French, Greek), the scientific, the slang.  All that categorizing filled up my head and didn't leave much room for hot mess.  It was hard.  It was a lot to learn.  And then I went through a phase of reality not really being any of those labels!

  I guess all the two-party build up coming out of mob and loss of self to various forms of socialism-like is twanging my brain.  We're being accosted by branding at this point and have to reassert our humanity.

  Went through that process again and again as a young person.  Squishy boundaries.  Especially in regards love.  But also with stuff like drinking.  All squishy, cool, until running over a goat (just kidding, but) or falling for some punk getting me into fist-fighting.  Take things as far as they'll go in "experimenting" and then.

  Friends were always helping friends reorganize.  Find self in the remains of a mosh pit.  Lessons learned.  Move on.  Look at that guy, he'll not get that eyeball back.

  Lots of prayers.  And believing that forgiveness is forgiveness.  That was part of maturing too.

It is hard to describe, but

   it doesn't have ti be a confusing mess.  Peoples' faith holds them sway.  Routine works for a lot of people.  There's medicine.  And, persinal fave--creativity!

  Even colonials had a hard time with colonialism.  I mean that is why we birthed a new nation.

  We've never been socialist or communist and have had collective run ins, glances, heard all about its about people who have to live that way, and that has only strengthened resolve to stay American.

  There were old raging debates about rational v "feelings" that endeavored to seal gray areas shut, and yet, some people do wrestle with compassion.  Compassion in all matters is extremely challenging.  And it seems like we've only incrementally added compassion to otherwise brutal situation.  While there's accusation that human nature is brutal, even in cultures that never knew about Jesus, there is evidence and witness to something other than brutal.

  A lot of youthfulness in life is about just that.  That's not being a socialist and has not necessarily anything to do with "socialism".

  Nor is "social media" or "socializing" necessarily form of socialism.

  Just like the words liberty and freedom there is texture and contour and other characteristics to the word "socialism".  It is not a blanket or a net for the McCarthy types to use in a round up of everyone but themselves.  To discuss the concept is not contagion.  Even to compare one political way to it will not turn someone into it.

Gotta go to work.  Have a good day.

  I will tell you that as kids we were so afraid of it and so afraid of being it, we worked up the nerve to ask permission to eat "salsa".  Our mom said finally, "Okay, we can try it.  But that's pushing it." We all studied Dad's face after he got through not trying something new.  He liked it!  Even licked the little dish when we emptied the jar while describing the experience.

  As an adult I've always found the antidote to the grip of a delusional socialism as an American to be realism.  That's what motivates me to talk with all kinds of people and read and write.

  Sometimes in the midst of political transition for us we have not a tabula rosa but a deveiling of the emperor's clothes.  For example, businesses can't take the place of a doling out government; so there's a big adjustment while people see where we are realistically.  I know I can't afford to eat out much.  That's just realistic.  And survival of self doesn't work very well when what money I do manage to generate as income goes for somebody else to eat.  Just doesn't work realistically.

  The theory is the same for nation as it is for individual.  We have to be realistic about getting involved militarily for instance.  It's heavy stuff, but to be imaginary about life doesn't really survive people either.  So, here we are.

I strongly disagree

  with the notion that Trump is a would-be fascist.  I think we are, as a nation, so drenched in socialism right now, "they" that are saying that are calling their end game out.  It could be a natural progression to go from 20+yr war nation, mired in debt, and smothering in togetherness to go fascist.  Like all the factors are in place to support a dictator stepping onto a podium.  Snap a photo and call it a day.  New dictator in place and lots of dumbed-down, helpless, collateral damage, and commodity "voters" just raise a thumb.

  Maybe they're hoping he is.

  He's not.

  And we can't even truly compare his first go at president of a republic as truly that since everyone's hands were tied--we were all in war that whole time! 20 freakin' years.

  That's a whole generation in average age difference.  Young people don't even know what socialism is, or an America not as a statue of war-bound.  And the world can't wait to rope us into that even more.  Then we'll have no choice about being something unique.  We'll just be smear.  War smear.

  When I said this thirty years ago Betty White made a funny and an admission...not really understanding "socialism" either.  JimBo Hannan managed a call-in on the topic.  He also spent some of the last years of his life wishing Trump wouldn't just say random stuff or jump on the buzzword bandwagon.

  But seriously sometimes despite our desires to be well, we are not.  Likewise we can become something and not know it.  I know some jerks like that.  And they can list a hundred excuses for why, but the why is not really the point as much as not being a jerk.  We all go through time periods together and transitions too.  And it's hard to force want to be well and being well in a cycle that just beats down.  Hard, but we have to keep doing it.

  Nor can we snap fingers and magically repair all this rundown, burnt out, rusty versions of strong.  It's not that kind of election.  It's more a phase of not being exactly what we were in response to 9112001.  It's heavy.  It's a lot of life spent in that mode.  And mysterious help, maybe some calgary gonna appear to help is part of the illusion wrapped up in the word slung around lately-- socialism.

  And we've got some smart Republicans in war mode against socialism but because we're using a technical term in a vague way like it's a bucket for witch things, they are creating more ways of being offensive and alienating.  That bothers me.  Nobody who is actually smart should be acting like that.  Call everyone but yourself ugly and see how many dates you get.

  What I conveyed to Betty was that it's easy to feel overwhelmed with people flinging theoretical around; just be you.  Others agreed, she was a tried and true American, a Patriot.  She and Queen Elizabeth even had ways of communicating through "media" to reflect on their feelings about being traditional in a "mod" world.  In fact, a lot of people got in on talking about what makes America different.  Adding appropriate humor was just what face-masked permafrowns needed to perk up.

  We did, like en masse consider the notion of being deathly afraid of I don't know what.  We even had some different culture similarities.

And now...

  We kind of put campaign mode away like Christmas.

  Younger and older we all know ourselves a little bit more.  Like completing a phase of high school or college.

  It's less externalizing of principles not not being who we are.

  It can seem pretty mundane.  I try and focus on quality.  Regardless of political, business needs people to do quality.  Quality is professional caring.

   Not really "choice".  The thing is in motion, so we have to work off up-to-date, which is that there are consequences for Iran.  It's heavy duty enforcement with powerful weapons in a war.  Unfortunately, warring broke out of battlefield and "theatre" at the turn of the century, so it's all over the world caution.  And it's loved ones and fellow citizens charged with the tasks/duty.

Tell him to get his fat ass

  Tell him to get his fat ass off the sofa 

  It doesn't work that well as a headline for global news.  I feel for the journalists that have to report what our presidents say.  Can't make it up, and can't interpret as journalists, so yeah, it's a challenge.

  But it's also why journalism has historically been a type of institution where there is process and discussion about selection and presentation of information.  And why there are different kinds of journalistic writing.

  Inking the sounds of a car race back in the days of early "new journalism" was shocking and didn't neatly fit into the usual categories of how people thought about truth writing....

  I know in our family our great white father was when we were growing up like maybe 74% Homer Simpson style or personality-wise and 26% dressed in suit and tie business-person.  We voted and suggested that Mom be our spokesperson.  Even she had her fed-up moments but we didn't put those kinds of quips in a newspaper.

  I think one of my Dad's most famous gaffs was when we went on a historical trip and he pulled into town driving that old station wagon and asked the traffic cop, "Where is the rock and the boat?" I was further shocked when Plymouth Rock was covered in grafitti.  Of course my reverent-of-colonial-past sensibilities were offended.

  The world was changing fast and hard by the 1970's but our parents did an extraordinary job of letting children be children.  That in and of itself was "new world".  Even that was arguable especially to the preceding generation who were born right into earning every penny and fighting for every iota of freedom to be an individual.

Can Care

  

Confirmed deaths, not controversy 

  While rumors abound and the media persists in being a mix of personal commentary with some fact, there is also the truth on the ground.  

  Like a war taking on all the weight of attending issues, our Country just spent four years gathering the steam of barely keeping heads above water.  I am not pessimistic though because of us.  Us workers, for example, have upheld routine and baseline economic sanity the whole way through plague and an impossibility of demands on our own lives.  It's taken an enormous amount of strength and determination!  And at the heart of that power has been caring.

  Even as places were beseiged by homelessness and drugs and not enough work for all of us, forced stagnant because of the money situations, and overwashed with seeming don't have to care...government's gonna take care of everything...everyone can just do what they want...it's been us citizens battling to keep things safe--owned and cared for.

  The disasterous weather of late summer has been a bone wearying blow to our overall spirit and security, yet we've managed to calm our political clamor enough to generally express a love of nation and what makes us one of the most God Blessed group of people in the world.  We may not have more than a few bananas left to eat but we've got a lot of compassion for humanity and passion for living in a country where so much is possible.

  We are still working through the finer points of price gouging, proper compensation for acts of God versus a dangerously empty federal funding honeypot, and people using products and services to make political jabs and stabs.  There's always gray area in transition and though no one has officially deemed us in a "war economy" yet, it's like we've been par boiled.

  There's also always been gray area in reporting "truth" as nations realign around the centers of black and white.  It's never okay (or legal) to report in journalism untruths, but in a state close to but not quite totally censored because of real war there is much that is not said or stated for the record.  A lot of the quasi-legal, second-hand-to-fact "talk" that goes around may not seem dangerous but it's basically like winging it on safety issues in the height of a storm...normally people wouldn't be standing around outside but there's an earthquake, foundation like that won't hold, roof shook off...our president just sort of got worn out....

  In our area there'd been a lingering gray area zone since the pandemic was like an earthquake.  What's changing us into more orderly is not strange quips from candidates, it's us getting our shit together!  From the dirt up people have really been motivated to prove survival and are in campaign mode--caring about the Republic despite exhaustion, change of season coughs and colds, and a real uncertainty about some of the stuff going on in the world.

  Uncertainty fuels strange quips.  Our overall context is a diversity of people functioning as Americans, so when there's not a strong Republic of Individuals, it's our context that gets jumbled.  There are a lot of reasons that got us less than strong America, but what's more important is moving forward as capable and not as an uncertain thing.

  We have been here before as a nation--part of "the West" and fires on flanks.  Everyone's role is actually more simplified in supporting each other and sticking together in a mostly defensive position.  Nothing about being American is uncertain.  And just like the economy sometimes gets blanched to the point of war economy--all sinks or swims--the objectives have to be on a priority list.  In that sense our controversial issues are not very different from the days when Abraham Lincoln looked out over people in a mosh of philosophical views who were physically destroying everything.  He himself had to keep pushing himself to hold the vision of America as an ideal always being made into an America of the day.

  There are times in our lives where we must serve the purpose of the greater good.  And this is at the heart of why people sacrifice their own "lives" for their children's future and the perpetuation of Republic.  It's being patriotic and that comes before quandry and emotions regarding a nondescript humanity.  Because the way through, the way to life besides battlefield is to defend nation that is not battlefield.

"Two truths"

  The wording of a person who was born Chinese and then adopted into an American family regarding "identity"; she feels like she holds two truths.

  That is the sort of mindset most people have to strive to accomplish.  It is, I think, having a humility about being human.  It certainly comes up for some of us in being social creatures jammed into these formulas concerning "victory".

  In our early adulthood there was also fierce fighting in the world and our hearts and minds were put through the ringer at each turn in the warring.  It's not just an emotional "roller coaster" when we hold the awareness of it being real people, our loved ones, caught in the consequences of war mode.  There is a necessary solemnity.

  What we can do.  We can be supportive of people tasked with work.  Especially regarding front lines in contentious situation it takes a lot of self control to not keep expressing ourselves--outrage to co-miserating, empathy, intelligence--all of that is valid for everyone, but not helpful in undoing a bomb.  Caring behind the front lines is helpful and that's how people forge real working-solution relationship.

  There's no denying that an American democracy is not for every type of country.  We can't force our way of life on others.  That's not to say we're not caring about all of humanity.  But in real war different countries have their own ways of fighting and surviving.  It's awkward to even give out input on a foreign war.  And staying out of it while being somewhat involved is worse than awkward.  We have to stay us.  And that may have to be a modified version of ourselves as the world is sifted as resource-based and political-military alliance.

  We're in a holding pattern at the moment even as other nations and regions are being dragged along by complex warring.  What's horrifying for most people is warring getting worse, or the worsening making everything unpredictable, so holding pattern is the best we could do at such a time.  And we do have to be "together" in moving out of holding pattern as one nation.

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.

Rough weather

  Rough weather but the nation is working through everything.  The Southeast seems to be pivoting in the sense that we are many people with a lot of skills and talents and cover each other in the worst weather to wind up moving forward on best footing.  There's no finer example than North Carolina pulling through Helene.

Lighthouse AND boat

   Would've been no need for lighthouses if we weren't also all boats.

  A year after warring brought such major changes to life in the Middle East and here in the U.S. being so close to elections we're really in an overall state of, I think, repositioning.

  A lot stays anchored.  I was thinking that in my prayers this morning.  For me, what I'm doing in life has to stay anchored in working with God.  I've come unmoored sometimes and like, got pulled in too many directions.  And sometimes life happens such that there's not much time for planning and development.  A lot of orgs have gone through that in times of money change.  So people re-ascesse.  We pull with, what we can.  Let go of some stuff.  Start from scratch sometimes.  One foot in front of the other.  Stop, drop, and roll.  Sleep.  Jump up and down.  All that.  We keep on keeping on!

  At certain points in our-agers' lives we've realized we are a different size than "baby boomers".  So often when people come together in response and as support we touch base as small world and have you added skills and experience to your running lists?  Especially for our-agers when we've dealt with crisis and war there's a breath hold while the nation gets older kids into the ranks of service and the younger kids into groups and tracks.  It's like our whole population is merging into better and great.

  I remember at one of the talks people were giving post9112001 it was a lot about finding place.  A multi-discipline person started by saying, as professionals we "stand on the shoulders of giants" as they say.  In the military especially people are always "falling in line".  And it's the same with food service!  On frontlines people are fighting for every inch; progress in disaster is the same way.

  Be deliberate; be this, be that, the older people tell...probably what you should do.  That's a challenge to balance with fresh youthfulness.  One of my mentors suggested: work with your long-term in mind.  That helps apply short-term focus.  And then apply experience to opportunity down the road.  It's a risk to be/do what someone's told us, but it's also a risk to be doing things on our own.  And nation in America is always a blend of both!

 Psalm 103 is one of my favorites.  Read it a few times today since we can't get to TN from NC.

  Came through Gatlinburg last night, now enjoying the last of summer in WNC where there was hurricane damage but there's been a lot of clean up and get back to work spirit.  Over 500 miles of road traveled TN/NC and only had to turn around once at still-down wires.  That's amazing when you realize that most everything's been made passable by people very busy with back-to-school and otherwise keeping things normal even as the rumor mill has the world ending.

  It's also amazing that the people in both TN and NC are dealing with each other kindly and mellow as everyone is working with so many moving parts to reach total restoration!  All along rural routes and in interchanges people are full function-ahead.  And no shortage of red, white, and blue as support for fellow Country people.  It's been an amazing silver lining to shortage, in need of repair, and otherwise different because of the storm and because each state and department has a rigorous set of To Do.

  And we're America so everything has to do with money!  Or we'd be something else.  As a place like Gatlinburg proves, places are built around making money.  Place accommodates or doesn't or can't.  Place is our Country so we're all working on tending place especially where us public is involved.  I've been told before how exceptional the mountains are here because they have been tourist areas for so long!  That the summer season is not quite over may be beneficial really.  Definitely in a networking way.

Stay American about all of this and we can do this!

"They think they are!"

  For a while my parents had a red rotary phone.  They had it because of the chaos that was going on politically and spiritually.  They had it so that my Dad would be able to distinguish what type of phone call was waking him up.  They had it because over a couple years citizens had to play a more vital role in defending the United States of America.

  One night it rang and the person calling asked for Mrs. Lane.  Sherry shook her head, noooo.  "You won't take the call?" Mom shook head again and said, "Absolutely not." She left the room.  The phone rang again and again person calling asked for her.  It sounded like a child.  My Dad motioned for me to take the call but be Mom.  I can't BE Mom Dad that's crazy.  I need you to do it.  That is not normal!  He shoved the phone at me.  Make us proud.  I really hate you right now.

  "Hello this is Mrs. Lane

  Listen.

  Dogs barking, screaming, a dog barking, screaming, phone falling on floor

  "Keep holding the phone and talk to whoever gets on there next!!!!!" My parents were snatching up clothing in the dark putting things on over their pajamas.

  "We have to get to the church

  "Will you come back?

  At the church was a special visitor.  Advertised as better than a ghostbuster.  What's that? We'd wondered.

  By the time our parents got to the church there were people walking from everywhere with lanterns and flashlights and gasoline torches.  Some of the altar boys ran up and hug-surrounded Sherry.  "Go ahead," my mother told my father.  He gave her the car keys.  As soon as he stepped into the church the boys all tried to chatter their stories, their versions of the story, at the same time.  Mama Sherry said, "One at a time."  And she blessed each child with ashes and holy water and listened to every story.  She was putting the lid on the holy water when people came out of the church and asked, "Why are you stopping?"

  "There are no more children."

"It's like Armawhatever

  you call it in there." The lady's heel was in her hand, her hair was coming out of it's bun, and she pulled at the bottom of her short lopsided dress.  Our parents kind of laughed.  They were with other parents and guardians taking a walking tour of our proving ground.  An older kid came running out of the vinestick-fenced opening, an old trailhead.  "Did we scare you?"  he yelled after the woman.  Then when she waved his question off, he asked the group of parents, "Who was she?"

  "The social worker," a mom said to the others' dunnos.  "The good one." 

  "Well.  I'd go to my room, but, come on in, I'll show you around."

  A man in a suit and tie uncrossed his arms, handed a purse back to a woman.  "And you think every kid in the neighborhood is here?"

  "Prolly."

  My father caught up pushing the wheelbarrow.  One of the other dads gave the kid a five dollar bill.  My mother turned and rushed to my Dad.  "You okay Carrie?" She fussed over the girl in the wheelbarrow covered head to toe in a custom-sized baseball catcher's gear.  "She's getting heavier," Dad said, "Making me stronger."  He flexed his muscles like the hot dog on his tee-shirt.  "You're turn." He walked over closer to the other men.  "You didn't tell me you were wearing a tie, jerk."

  "Whaddaya talking to me for jerk?" The man in the tie stepped away a few steps.  Dad took a few steps closer.  "You were s'posed to tell me what you were going to wear jerk." 

  "Like you're my wife or something?" He stepped behind a woman.  Sherry called out.  She couldn't remember the guy's name, so she came towards him, with a scarf in her hand, "Here you go jerk." She shoved the scarf at him. 

  He shoved his hands in his pockets.  "I'm not taking that." The woman in front of him, standing back to back, ventriloquist-talked yes you are.  "No I am not."

  "Don't be a real jerk," a guy in a fishing hat said.

  "Is that what all this is about?!" 

  People looked at the ground.  "You're all trying to tell me I'm a jerk??" Only one person nodded. 

  "Okay, say I'm a jerk; a real jerk, I kind of am so that shouldn't be too hard for a bunch of other jerks to pretend." 

  "We're not the pretenders."

  The man took his hands out of his pockets in a dramatic lift to the sky move, "Ooooh, I get it."

  Sherry threw the scarf at his belly.  Hands reflexively caught the throw.  "Good thing you're not a jerk," she said.  And, looking at her antique watch, also said, "We better get going, Carrie's getting sweaty in all that equipment." Dad darted back to the wheelbarrow, "Is my favorite daughter all right in there?" She tried to give the A-okay sign but raised her whole arm and a special brace in the armpit of the get up got stuck.  Mom tried to press it back down and it got locked into stuck open mode which makes you look like your pointing at something.  Dad dug some of the facemasks off my sister enough to hear if she was hurting in anyway.  Just sweaty.  Dad repositioned the masks but Carrie said, Oh Dad!  He leaned real close and as he did an Indian's arrow hit him in the butt, there was a rustling in the tree area behind him, and Carrie said, "I could be looking at a bird." Dad didn't move a muscle.  Beckoned Sherry to see what had hit him.  

  She picked up the suction cup tipped arrow.  "This," she smelled grape flavor as she was passing it, and she realized, "It smells like grape and something else," resmelled it.  And she'd passed it to Dad but saw it had fallen on the ground.  "Honey, why'd you

  She was frozen in place.  Dad too.  I turned to see if the other people saw, understood.  The guy Dad had called a jerk was swatting at his neck like a mosquito was stinging him.  Someone else was gagging and eyes rolling.

  Fast running kids came crashing through the woods towards and just avoided crashing in to our group.  Then I saw other children, some pulling each other, some tripping and falling, then others running up from out of where we were supposed to go see the shows, like it's a TV.  Behind them the motley and mangy zombie types with weapons.  I also stood like a statue.

  "AND STAY THE FUCK OUT OF OUR TERRITORY

  My Dad's hand started to twitch.  I caught his eye as soon as he started to move his eyeballs around like coming to when hit in the back of the head.  I carefully mouthed "DON'T MOVE, DON'T MOVE" and he managed to still his hand.

  The wildest-looking bunch of people wearing furs and leathers and billowy fabrics came forward of the motleys, then these parted like the Red Sea, and indescribable warrior types came through and single-filed dead center.  One manperson held up an arm and beings rushed from the woods and surrounded those.  Grunts and roars were some kind of orders and suddenly the trail was cleared by everyone getting off to one side or another.  Boot sounds, maybe six people carrying something between two horizontal poles.

  "Bring it!  Like this is the bonfire!"

  They came forward and started to make a u-turn around "the bonfire" while the obvious commander pulled the man's hair so face, a hot mess, would be seeing as the last thing you'll ever see in this life.  "LOWER" and the arms carrying the poles lowered all at once so that the body hog tied hands and feet DID A FACE PLANT.

  He whirled and pointed a hand gun right at me.  YOU SAW IT, THAT, DID A FACE PLANT.  I nodded curtly up and down, yes Sir.

  The warrior man raised both hands up and the gun slid down into his sleeve.  He clapped twice and snapped his fingers.  Two peasant people brought forth a slop bucket.  The man snapped again and they doused the face planted man.  He shook his head lethargically but rousing.  His hair was grabbed again and face brought to face.  "Have I made myself clear?!" The man passed out again.

  Warrior man turned towards me again.  "Young lady."

  I pointed at myself, "Me?"

  "Yes, you.  Not those behind you in the trees."

  "Sir?"

  "Why are these people just standing here?"

  "I'm not sure exactly."

  "Good.  You're admitting you are unsure."

  "They're frozen or something."

  "Frozen?"

  He checked kneck pulses of the frozen stiff people.

  "An arrow, may I show you Sir?"

  "You may step forward, but don't come too close.  I stink."

  I inched forward enough to spy the suction cup arrow.  And pointed.  "Came from the woods."

  "From which direction."

  I pointed again.  He put the handcuffs onto the wheelbarrow handle.  Sort of turned my Dad by the hips, and pulled a metal arrow out of a butt cheek.  My Dad took a big breath in and his hand started rubbing that muscle spot.  Then he pulled the face masks of a sweaty, crying little sister.  "This is different," he said of our mom with a pulse but barely breathing and stiff like a board.  "Get that stuff off that child and the two of you sit," he indicated with his head, "over there."

"Were you Maxwell Smart that day?"

  "I can explain

  "Shut it

  "Dance like that again and I'll

  Dancing like that the church lady's words of sanity fell from her and she showed holding tongue.

  On the monitor was a wild display of that's some dance the nazi-person, male top, female bottom was wrastling a bar crowd.

  The man put a gigantic be quiet finger up to stay hushed.

  "But that's the supposed antique dealer Sir." He changed his hand signal to a hold that thought.

  Waiting on

  Here it is

  Then there will be sound

  "Like a mechanical bull

  "Trance my arse, huh

  A woman with mama's kind of eyes poked her leg out from behind the warm up stage curtain.  Assume your positions.

  So we did.  While people in black hood were brought through the training-laboratory, we were "free" to at least think our own thoughts.  I was always making mental notes on news not news and interesting tidbits for my own collection of someday writing.

  "Is the labyrinth secure?" A voice asked over the system.

  "I don't think our facilities

  "The labyrinth may or may not be a secure enough facility

  "Quiet please."

  Looks like the Jim Morrison crowd to me.

  First wrangle, bar fight, or 

  This is the fifth on this

  Dimension.

  A sculptor measured the heads.  

   "Space suits?"

  "Naw mohn, fencing, bettra dan cricket."

  "Who invited the Alley Cats?"

  "GUESTS

  "THAT IS CORRECT for now, we are the guests." She whapped the audition script across my chest.  Somewhere around page nine or so, a postal person butt-walked across a tarmac.  "Did the person have legs?" 

  "Hey Babes, time to up the antee," dressed in a fireman's gear the person shook a metal gardening pail of coins at us.

  "Fresh out

  "Gave at the office

  What do they think, this is the movies or something?

  Technically it is very much not so, so please, behave.

  Like a what?!  Pah-lease like you have to tell me.  You.

  Thanks.

  "Whaddayah think 'em meant by

  "Butt walked?"

  "Jusht tryin' to vizh-u-awl-ize

  "Be nice to clear the airport before we work.  Can you make that happen?"

  "Moi?  Not a chance."

  That old thing stunk.  The man stood up from leaning on a desk.  

  "Hope we're not interrupting Gentlemen."

  "Darling, what brings you

  "Us

  "Us who?"

  "These other visitors with me wanted to meet the master behind the bark at the moon script or whatever this is," she handed him the stack of papers.  "Feels," he hand-weighed it, "more like a manuscript."

  She put her glasses on and looked at a list of questions and issues.  "Looks like we can't use that word, nor mummy." She kind of jammed down on the word mummy like shifting gears.  "Who said anything about a mummy?"

  "I'm assuming that's what stunk on this cargo list."

  He grabbed her elbow and turned her in a 180°.  "It's not called a cargo list," they both eye'd me to stay.  "We'll get the movie people set up across the hallway."

  "We'll get this fleshed out," he beckoned with a finger to the desk.

  I was reluctant.

  "Not sure I can be editorial if'n I don't know the real truth."

  "If'n?"

  "Is this place, this room, technically east or west of the hypothetical place in these cribnotes?"

  "I can't figure you."

  "Cowboy style editing or, you know

  "No.  I don't know.  Do you know where I've been?

  "Do you know we are at war Sir?"

  He sunk his tired head to his chest, chin skin press and stretch.  Glands still sore.  Yes, I am aware that some of the hot wars as your people call them,

  I have no people

  Are about to bleed out a sort of, he lifted his head, "That's why.  You're more of an academic!"

  "These days, yeah," I put my briefcase on the desk.

  "We'll make a pendulum of our brain."

  "Sir?"

  "Not into Poe?"

  "I've read a lot of a lot of authors Sir, but

  "Don't catch the references quickly?"

  "Like me?!"

  "I've been called intense because I'm a concentrator."

  "Me too.  I'll call for dinner and some encyclopedia."

  "Only Brittanica is what the censorship lady said."

  "Good.  Then you'll help me with my manuscript?"

  "It's not one yet.  I'm not writing anything for anyone.  And, you may need more than one, uh, editing."

  "Excellent."

  It's like a dance with disciplines working with grown up professionals, so Academia needed to accomodate.  As other professions had developed licensing, Academia needed to, at that time, leave enough space for, like, Humanities specialists.  Degrees and Doctorates couldn't be put on hold, so people had to keep pace with fluid.  And, unlike the military, taking on rank and file isn't a chain of command.

  "So.  Butt walking.  What was that about?"

  He grounded his memories.  Had a touchstone, some sort of trinket he'd take out of pocket instead of smoking.  Napped on the desk.  Would wake up and pick up where he left off.

  "The Uboat.  May be a poem instead of a song."

  "The butt walk was across a hotter than hell tarmac under an, under a, under skies shimmering with

  "The heat of battle?

  "More like a pack of skunks following a camel."

  "I interrupted.

  "It's ongoing our wars.  Going back to Biblical times."

  "Shimmering with?"

  "Chemicals that day."

  Planes had made it past last lines of defense.  But precious cargo, the most

The most precious cargo

  Prevented crash landing.  Those got tumbled up with something else.  Something that couldn't land.

  "And the oozing black from the eye sockets?"

  It was "an Egyptian thing".

  "Thing?"

  They'd fallen asleep.  That way.

  "So, like, some people got sick of tourists and duct taped them into the seats of planes and

  "Sick of the drugs."

  "Okay?"

  "Okay.  Next editor."

  I gathered my things and left the room, walked about ten feet, and passed out.  In the arms of the next editor, surrounded by a team of experts.  The writer was trying to get out one of the other doors in the room.  We all went back inside.

  The lead on the team put what I'd gathered up into my briefcase back on the desk.  All OF IT.  I WANT THE WHOLE STORY.

  Is it important?

  You tell me.  Us.

  My exit interview left a blank space where we couldn't fill in, cross out, and otherwise mar a perfect "document" -- would've been "internship".  But it was quite the learning ecperience.

  So far it's been announcements and tweets.  Rhetoric and wasting weaponry.  But as things move into a more "regional" conflict other realms are absorbed into the bigger picture forming.

  In that bigger picture civilians are in conflict with "official" and it's difficult, if not impossible to not be damage/damaged.  Israel, having a different way of being military is also on the front lines of the world organizing militarily.  And a challenge for people not belonging as citizens to the Middle East is to keep things clarified.  That is why modern "isolationism" is different than years and years ago when world politics were less nation-state than they became in between world wars.

  For now or at this time the world is seeing commonality and overlap in what the aggressors are doing--like suggesting to go after nuclear facilities, and each nation is firming up what could be just absorbed into vague concepts like regional warring and tribal leadership.

 

Bbc reporting, Iran says "retaliation for attacks on its allies"

A nation can't "say" first of all.  Not even a good lead to article that then cited rev guard as saying.

Technically no "allies", another word perhaps, but

Way back,

It was determined that Iran, then, is a religion.  And they can burn all the good books in the world but we ain't trusting Allah as God.

  Houses of cards, every "political" org but for the King.

  That kind of sovereignty diff from traitors who inhibit their militaries through miles of policy all tangled up with bills/money.  The Supreme Court was not happy about that stuff entangling the entire court system.

  The Allied were like holding things for each other until solvency; another reason Trump was strongly suggesting pay up.  Ongoing war debts mount and suffocate prospects of anything different.  That's why Trump says, end it, our involvement in that way.

  Plus, world wars are different in the way things must be organized or structured.  Until the military "piece" is in place, command is more like a quilt and not properly top-down.  And in times of hot warring a quilt of defense is more like a pillow fort.  Which causes more emphasis on protecting self and property.  Like protecting State Law in lieu of swamped fed law.  Not, in lieu of, but as equally strong as it can be in flux.

  Other nations can take advantage of in flux, so

  Allied becomes crucial.

  A lot of times, just as people can be in transition, so can Nation.

  There are regular transitions that occur in conjunction with any election, for example, and there are other kinds of transitions a Country can be in.

  Because the Korean War, for example, had all kinds of lingering or attending issues related to the second world war, it needed it's own language when it came time to transition in American politics.  There are times and reasons why wars don't stop on a dime.  Some of those have to do with "warlords" and Constitution.

  And that was why some debates were more legal prep-case than popular rally.

  "No we can't dance together; no we can't dance at all," went the songs lyrics.  The more the merrier in terms of flag parties and ribbon-cuttings on properties was cut with a healthy dose of vitamins, clean drinking water, and the sobriety due situation.  VPs and even other world leaders could not supercede "the order of things".  And in America, we

  Instead of crossword puzzle some of those nights, all citizens had to "shut up" so world censors could distinguish sounds of gavel from other sounds on all MA Bell's wires and waves.

  Could be shallow earthquakes, the NWS had explained.  We all went outside and perched a television on the windowledge.  Even the ice was being kept as the morning's drinkmelt.  And we had eggs so Daddy didn't need to run out.  To keep his worrier's brain from fretting she shoved the dozen or so into his hands like it was a football and told him to put these up.  He almost dropped the eggs for wanting to pat her bottom or kiss her lips or, mama Sherry got real close and tickled his ear, "I'll settle for a hug."

  The little kids had sent a relay for sodas and pops, and to check on the older parents.  "Mom's fine and no lap dancing," the middle kid level of reporting reported back.  "And us girls need some real men to lug the sodas." All the boys volunteered.  A few of the older guys crushed cans in hardworked hands and took turns listening to the one music box.  

  "It's not "attitude" to not "donate", a woman was explaining about being on the dole and so-called "bonuses"--monies which had escaped the axe in beyond budget cuts.  "In a sea of yellow, black is what to wear," another was in "creative" category for work and had upped her game from designing tees and ties to bigger stages.  "Stop fretting, over tax time dear, dears, I just met an accountant."

  A dressed to the nines hand reached out first for the bottle of licquor to add to the tonic water so Sherry snatched it up to break the tie, and so would be a fight.  She plunked it in one of her purses.

tROUT

   Tee-rout and tee-ball is Tennessee's pace this time of year!  

  At the English Mountain Trout Farm on a sunny side of the mountain to recent flooding, they are doing chicken tenders, catfish, and of course, trout!  Owner, Charlie Ford, says, fried green tomatoes too.

  I ask him if it's a slow day, and he tells me it's an average day for this time of year, for the time of season we're in.  Customers mill about, fishing for supper.  Right now it's mostly back to school and "fall's in the air except for the fact that they've had some of the heaviest flooding in the area."

  When the leaves start to change things pick up and hum until Christmas.  Like most mountain people I've met, Charlie is looking forward to winter holiday time.  Stresses the importance of focusing on the season and not losing the value of visitors and customers.

  "Customers love the vibe of the mountains here as told through the stories of the Trout Farm," Mr. Ford explains of his business finesse.  A sample of blackened trout, freshly caught, brings delicious.

  Fish jumpin' and a waterfall sound like a creek keep the fish tamed but happy until it's time to dip in a Huck Finn style pole and short line.  A campfire rounds the outdoor scents into appreciative appetite's craving....

  Sounds of cows too, beef and milk the farmers' way.  A tart tartar sauce to an onion ball makes a meal sweet perfection.  Life continues onward up in the hills from severe flooding.  Excavating equipment is mud spattered and garbage stranded from creek wash is most everywhere being picked up.  Local radio WLIK hosts and presenters give updates on game place status and the Academic-community news .  The Virginia Humanities people treated students and teachers alike to program newscaps they might be missing on account of the weather that has brought death and destruction to the Southeast's regions.