LOCK DOWN CHRISTMAS - WEARING A MASK

My earlier post - LOCK DOWN CHRISTMAS - had a video that was evidently restricted from copy by Blogger.   So here is the link to: LOCK DOWN CHRISTMSS, sixteen-century with Upstart Crow

LOCKDOWN CHRISTMAS

Hold the fuckith on

the Ol'Buzzard

NOTHING IS NEW: WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND: WEARING A MASK DURING PANDEMIC.

 

 

The Bubonic Plague reoccurred in Europe for centuries.   The plague killed hundreds of millions of people in recurring global pandemics.

 

 

 

During the 17^th century, doctors that treated the plague covered themselves with a coat covered in wax, leather hat and leather gloves, and a mask with beak nose and glasses.   The beak was filled with aromatic herbs believed to offer some protection from infection.   

 

So, wearing a mask is not new.   The concept is the same; though actual research has gone into the design and benefit of today’s mask.  

Wear a mask stupid, it is not about your freedom, but about your IQ.

the Ol'Buzzard 

 

LOCKDOWN CHRISTMAS

 

Christmas 1603.   There is nothing new.  History simply circles back on itself and replays in a different time. 

Hold the fuckith on!   This is familiar.  

The Ol'Buzzard

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

 

My young wife says I am difficult to shop for.  Every year at this time she asks me what I would like for Christmas, and every year I tell her the same thein

and no shipping and handling charge.

the Ol'Buzzard

A CHRISTMAS STORY

 

 

We are not Christmas people.  Every year, at this time, we celebrate the seasonal change at Solstice.   We love the Christmas season, if only you could remove the ridiculous religious connotation.      

 

Along with exchanging Solstice presents and a special meal, we always watch A Christmas Story

 

 

 

and Muppet Christmas Carol.  

 

 

 

the Ol'Buzzard

 

We are four days from Solstice

The shortest day of the year

The beginning of winter.

the Ol'Buzzard

EQUAL JUSTACE FOR ALL

 

After the Electoral College ratified Biden's win, Trump supporters demonstrated in the streets of Washington D.C.  They were met with sporadic opposition from police.

When Black Lives Matter demonstrated in Washington D.C. they were met with rubber bullets, shock grenades and tear gas.  

Riot, arson and violence should never be condoned, regardless of the grievance being protested; but the force shown by police against the BLM protestors in D.C. was proportionally larger and more aggressive than against the MAGA demonstrators.  

In America we have  numerous platitudes like: 

Equal Justice for All.

And they are meaningless.

the Ol'Buzzard

A CHRISTMAS STORY

 

When a person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity.

When many people suffer from delusion it is called religion.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

Robert Pirsig

 

Like most Americans, I was introduced to Christianity as a child; and being a child never thought to question what parents and society told me was correct.   At Christmas time we had a tree, we listened to Christmas music and I attended church services.   After all, it was about the birth of Jesus; and everyone knew if you didn’t believe in Jesus you weren’t going to heaven.

 

Without the promise of everlasting life and a Heaven, there is no reason to adhere to a religion. 

 

I never thought to question what happened to all the people born before the birth of Jesus.   And what happens to all the people in India that are Hindu, the Buddhist in China, Tibet and South East Asia?   What about the other two monotheistic religions, Islam and Judaism; they believe in the same Original God as good Christians, but not Jesus. 

 

Then there is the idea of a human soul, which leaves open a  basic question.    Exactly when was this immortal soul inseminated into the human lineage.   I am sure the monkeys didn’t have a soul, so we can probably leave out Ramapithecus – a small ape that walked mostly upright. 

 

 But then, Australopithecus strolled across the plains of Africa on two legs, lived and hunted in bands.   But they looked more ape like than human so maybe we should leave them out of Heaven.  

 

 Homo Habilis constructed shelters and made tools – exactly what is the criteria for receiving a soul?

 

  Homo Erectus had language and was the first hominid to leave Africa, so perhaps he was soulful.   I am sure Christians of the Bible probably don’t want souls originating in Africa, so Homo Erectus might be it.

 

 Then we have Neanderthal, a close cousin that our ancestors mated with. There is Neanderthal DNA in most people of European descent. Surely Neanderthal must have had a souls.  

 

Cro-Magnon was barely distinguishable from Homo-Sapien (our kind.) so he definitely deserves a soul. 

 

But of course, they were all before Jesus.

 

So, at this Christmas time, perhaps Christians should pray to Jesus for all the souls that don’t have a ticket to join them in the magical wonder land of Heaven, but instead are burning in the everlasting fires of Hell.

 

I know which afterlife I would choose.

the Ol’Buzzard

Getting into the Christmas spirit

 

 

  Sleigh bells ring are you listening, in the lane snow is glistening

 

What a beautiful sight....

 This morning my wife and I watched KRAMPUS in order to get into the true the holiday mood.

 

What could be better than the original Pegan roots for Christmas to add joy to the holidays?

God bless us each and every one.

"I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year"

Bah humbug

the Ol'Buzzard

 

TRYING TO GET BACK TO NORMAL

 

 

Can you remember way back when every day was not about Trump?  There was a time when we had a normal life.   A time when we didn’t wear mask and idiots did not scream and rant about their freedoms.

 

Last week my thirteen-year-old bread machine (Breadman Ultra) finally gave up the ghost.   Yesterday I purchased a new Cuisinart bread maker

 

 

I would have gone with another Breadman, but they now have such bad reviews I changed brands.   The paddle system in the new Breadman machines is a bad design and a real headache, and the machine quality is not the same. 

 

Last night I made my first loaf of basic white bread and the Cuisinart works great.

 

  The machine beeps at the end of the second knead to remind you to remove the paddle, or allow you to reshape the dough for oven baking. 

 

Just like any other endeavor, baking bread in a bread machine takes practice.  The machines are fool proof; but to consistently turn out good loafs you have to learn to adjust the water and flower during the first kneed to reach the right dough consistency.  After that, the world of homemade breads is unlimited.  

 

Like planting a garden and heating with firewood, there is something about making homemade bread that is comforting: tying us back to another time before technology took over our lives – a time of stability and calm.    And home made bread taste better and is healthier than the ‘bakers fog’ they sell at the supermarkets. 

the Ol'Buzzard  

Trump Fatigue

 

I published this in the local e-paper:

I am so looking forward to getting back to some form of normality; to a day I can turn the television on and don’t have to hear Trump bragging about how smart he is, or how great a job he is doing, or attacking some imaginary enemy; a time when Trump isn’t grabbing the headlines with some outrageous action, or his desecration of some democratic norm; a time when every day, all day long, it is not about Trump - Trump - Trump.

Those of you in the Trump cult can build a shrine to your Glorious Leader in your home; hang his picture on the wall and surround it with Confederate flags, Russian Flags, white supremacy and Neo-Nazi memorabilia.  Build an alter for your red hat or have MAGA tattooed on your forehead; but please, give the rest of us a break, don’t make the next four years about Trump – Trump – Trump and how he was cheated out of reelection, even though he lost the popular vote by seven million votes. 

 

 I don't agree that we need to give the Trump Cult Loyalist a pass.   Trump is a racist, supported by the KKK and neo-Nazi, he has colluded with Russia where he has financial interest, he has used his office to enrich himself and his family, he is personally responsible for an out of control pandemic that has killed a quarter of a million Americans, he has tried to overthrow the results of a legitimate election, he has made our country weaker by placing unqualified loyalist in major positions of government, he has vilified the free press, he has encouraged anarchy and even violence from his rabid supporters, he has threatened to jail political rivals, he has destroyed the United States standing over seas with our allies...

I know that his supporters live in the alternate reality of Fox News and other far right propaganda networks, but the damage and destruction to the norms of our democracy perpetrated by Trump will be a problem for our democratic system of government for decades to come.   Trump has taken a wrecking ball to a democracy that has taken two-hundred-and-fifty years to build.  Trump supporters who have blindly followed the Glorious Leader are, in the end, responsible.   

the Ol'Buzzard 

JUST WATCHED ROCKY HORROR FOR THE UMPTH-TEEN TIME

 

Enlarge for best viewing

Perhaps this is how Trump sees himself leaving the White House. 

Every once in a while I have to recycle through my favorites.

the Ol'Buzzard

I AM NOT A STRANGER TO DIY PROJECTS

 

 

Most of my life I have been in the financial position that if I needed something done, I had to learn to do it myself.    I have learned carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, gardening, masonry and automobile mechanics through books and manuals. 

 

My work is not professional quality, but I have always been self-sufficient.  

 

Yesterday I installed an Andersen Storm Door that I purchased from our local lumber company.  There are three versions of this door; Rapid Install which takes 45 minutes, the Rapid 2 Install that takes two hours and the Professional Install that is not DIY recommended.   I purchased the Rapid Install – 45-minute door, that comes mostly assembled.  

 

I began the installation yesterday at 11-o-clock, on a damp, cold, overcast morning.   Three hours later I completed the installation.  

 

My wife always rolls her eyes when I am beginning a project and tell her how long I expect to take to complete. 

 

I don’t doubt that this door can be installed in under one hour; but I’m fucking old.  And that’s my story and I am sticking to it. 

 

the Ol’Buzzard  

DRACULA'S CHILD

 

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a classic.   Most people have seen one of the many movies; but if you haven’t read the book, you have missed a mark in literature.  

 

The way the book is written is fascinating in itself.    It is a period piece; a story told through a reproduction of letters, journal and diary entries.

 

The end of the book leaves a lot to be answered.  It is not a ‘happy ever after’.    The lives of the people involved have been altered and their future is veiled in a fog of uncertainty.

 

Dracula’s Child, by J. S. Barnes, tries to pick up the story where Stoker left off.  It is written in the same form, and is a good read; but, like all second acts, does not have the depth of the original.   

 

Still, a good read, if you like the macabre, to distract from the craziness of the final throws 2020.

 

the Ol’Buzzard

  

I WAS RAISED A RACIST

 

 

I wasn’t consciously a racist/ white supremacist; but I had been raised in the cult.

 

Racism is like Christianity – it is a cult.

 

You are born to parents that are members of the cult.   Your aunts and uncles and the adults in your orbit are members of that cult.  You are taught by adults to walk, to talk, to use the toilet, and what is considered appropriate in the cult.  You don’t question your nurture, because it is the norm of the cult.

 

My grandmother raised me.  She was born in Mississippi in the late 1800’s.  Her uncles fought for the glorious south in the Civil war.  The white racist Mississippi cult did not celebrate the fourth of July, because that is when Vicksburg fell to Yankee aggression.   As a child, my friends and I dressed up in Confederate uniforms and paraded in Vicksburg on Jefferson Davis’ birthday.   We did not hate, or even dislike black people, we had been taught that they just were not our equal.    

 

 We went to church, we said the prayers, we sang the songs and we drank the Cool-Aid, because that is what was expected of us.

 

I left Mississippi when I was eighteen and never returned.  It took me nearly two decades to realize the fallacy of my indoctrination.   

 

It is like becoming an atheist after you have been raised in the church; when you finally question the logic of your beliefs and find them lacking.

 

 

 the Ol'Buzzard

 

A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST

 

THE BROTHERS GRIMM MYSTERIES 

A light book to read is as good as meditation.   Especially in times of stress, we can take a step out of reality and walk into the world of fantasy.  

 

Paula Brackston (The Witches Daughter) has published a new series, The Brothers Grimm Mysteries, under the name of P. J. Brackston.

  

Hansel and Gretel, now grown and middle aged, are famous for having survived the witch’s house as children.   Gretel has become one of Bavaria’s most famous private investigators.

 

If, as a child, you were raised with Grimm’s Fairy Tales, you will relish the continuing story of Hansel and Gretel.

 

Brackston’s web site list the books out of order. Actually, the first book of the series is Once Upon A Crime.

 

I feel sorry for the majority of children, now days raised on Sponge Bob SquarPants, computers and Face Book.    I was raised at a time before television, when parent’s read to their children – and children read books. 

 

the Ol’Buzzard

IS POLITICAL OBSTRUCTION THAT KNOWINGLY LEADS TO DEATHS, MURDER?

 

 

GUILTY OF MURDER ?

EMILY MURPHY

 

  

Emily Murphy's actions to obstruct the certification of the incoming Presidential team will result in the delay of implementation of a federal response to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.  If her obstruction results in the unnecessary death of a number of American citizens, should she be charged with murder?

Just asking

the Ol'Buzzard

 

 

 

ONE PERSON ONE VOTE DEMOCRACY: BULLSHIT

 

There is a weakness in our democracy, and it is called the Electoral College.   This cache-22 in our constitution allows the minority to rule the majority. 

 

 It also allows the possibility for one individual to overturn the vote of the people.    In many states, the state appointed members of the Electoral College are not required to cast the state’s votes for the winner of the state’s Presidential election.   There is no recourse to prevent a state electorate from casting the states vote according to their own political preference.   This, of course, leaves the Presidential election open to manipulation from corrupt partisan state politicians who appoint the members of the Electoral College. 

 

It has not been unprecedented to have a President who lost the popular vote installed in office by the Electoral Collage

the Ol’Buzzard

 

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

 

 

THE LAST GREAT BASTIAN OF CAPITALISM SHALL FALL LIKE AN OVER RIPE FRUIT

 

Vladimir Lenin predicted the fall of the United States in a move toward dictatorship.

 

Lenin was wrong in his belief that Russian communism would encircle the world and be the inheritor, but his prediction has a historic precedency.   History has dictated that around 250 years civilizations tend to collapse. 

 

How did we get here?   

 

Capitalism creates great wealth, but the producers of that wealth do not share in the wealth.    Lenin predicted that the collapse of the United States would come from the disillusioned masses. 

 

For decades our government has governed to systematically increase the wealth of the wealthy, while the middle class has stagnated and the poor have been neglected: Trickle Down Economics. 

 

The Koch brothers lit the fuse by financing the Tea Party Revolution:   Organizing and manipulating the dissatisfied and disaffected – giving them a national voice and an enemy to focus on.   This was the beginning of the inmates taking over the asylum. 

 

 

Next a narcissistic, Machiavellian, egotistical con-man becomes the savior of the common man and achieves power and leadership.    Then a dismantling of democratic institutions leads to collapse and anarchy.

 

We have seen it before in Germany, in Italy, in Russia…  

 

We are in a dangerous place.   Trump minions are seeking to undermine the democratic process of a peaceful transfer of power after a fair and free election. 

 

I have disdain for the Trump Republican voters that live in a bubble of conspiracy theories, racism and disinformation; and seem willing to bring down the government in support of their Glorious Leader. 

But unless we begin to address the needs of this group the division will tear this country apart.  

 

We need redistribution of the wealth through a tax system that taxes the wealthy, allowing a larger percentage to go to sustainable job creation, training, education and health care.   Middle class people need to feel secure that jobs are there for them, and that as they age, they will not fall into poverty. 

 

The Republican Party has been working a con on the middle-class working people of this country for decades with Trickle-Down-Economics.   They have distracted and manipulated their voters with God, guns, abortion, gays and vilification of the ‘Other.’   All the time riding their one-trick-pony of tax cuts and wealth distribution to the wealthy and mega-businesses.    Meanwhile, the income of the middle class has stagnated, health care is a burden and our infrastructure has deteriorated.  

 

We need to break through this Republican obstructionist bubble and communicate with middle-class working people.   We need to unite the country to common cause; or as Linin predicted our great democracy will wither and die from within.  

 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

YOU CAN’T PISS ON MY HEAD AND CONVINCE ME IT’S RAINING.

 

 

I have a new blood pressure cuff at the house.  The readings with my new cuff corresponded with my old cuff, which is 13 years old.   I was concerned that my blood pressure was reading higher than normal so I made an appointment with my primary care physician for a check.   

 

I took in my new cuff for comparison.  The reading in the office was lower than my new cuff.   The doctor told me that over-the-counter blood pressure cuffs historically read higher than actual pressure as measured in the doctor’s office, and not to put too much reliance on the accuracy of readings taken from an over-the-counter purchased cuff.  

 

I could buy that if the reading in the doctor’s office was taken with an electronic monitor that is regularly calibrated, but the office reading was taken by a nurse with a stereoscope.  

 

Everybody by age forty has some significant degree of hearing loss.   We are raised listening to television with the volume turned up, we listen to music top high with headphones and ear buds, we ride motorcycles, fly in airplanes, gun fire, lawn mowers, loud cars, church bells, sporting events, concerts – the ambient noise we experience daily is eventually deafening

 

The nurse, with some level of hearing loss, was listening to my pulse through two layers of clothing and making a judgement as to when she begins to hear the pulse at the top of the compression and when she loses the pulse at the bottom of the compression.   

 

An electronic monitor would seem to be more sensitive and accurate than a blood pressure taken involving a variable human factor.    The accuracy, of course, depends on the accuracy of the calibration of the home cuff; but if over-the-counter cuffs are so unreliable why do doctors suggest we take readings at home?

 

If your blood pressure readings differ between the nurse at the doctor’s office and the cuff you have at home; which should you believe?

It is never good to be confrontational with your primary care physician, so I just said thank-you and left without really having an answer.   And maybe a concise answer is not possible.   Blood pressure readings are just a shot in the moment.  They can, and do, change within seconds according to your activity and your emotions. 

Fuck it.  At my age, as long as I have a blood pressure, I am not going to complain.  

                     

the Ol’Buzzard

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE DRONE FIREWORKS DISPLAY AT BIDEN - HARRIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

 

Turn up the volume, enlarge the video full screen, and marvel.    This was done with drones!

the Ol'Buzzard

I AM ELATED WITH THE BIDEN HARRIS WIN; BUT I AM ALSO REALISTIC.

 

  

 

We may soon be rid of having to watch and listen to the outrages of a deranged President vying for dictatorship; but Trump’s minions have not gone into that good night.  They are still here and just as dangerous as ever. 

 

Seventy million people were willing to cast their vote alongside the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.   They were willing to support removing nursing babies from their mothers, and place children in detention camps run by the same for-profit companies that run our prisons.    

 

The outrages of Donald Trump are too long to list; but the same seventy million that voted for him are still here and are still his followers – including a majority of Republican Senators that remain afraid of a Trump tweet. 

 

At least, after January 20^th. we won’t have to look at his face every time we turn on the TV.

 

The Ol’Buzzard

 

 

AUTOPSY OF AMERICA 2020

 

  

I am not sure if 2020 is an acid dream that I can’t wake up from.   It started when we began hearing of Donald Trump back in 2008.   After that the world went out of sync. 

 

Donald Trump came on the political scene in 2008, but few paid attentions to him.   . 

  

Trump, the spoiled son of a multi millionaire, received five deferments from military service during the Vietnam war.  He inherited millions from his father upon graduating from college and his bad investments resulted in five bankruptcies.  He made his name as a TV reality star host.  His election as President was a shock to everyone, including himself. 

 

As President he has denigrated John McCain and all POW’ and MIA’s saying he “prefers people who weren’t captured.”  He called the service men that died during the battle of Dunkirk losers.  He has taken children away from their parents at the southern border and placed them in internment camps.  He has used the office of the president for personal enrichment.     He has ruined the standing of the United States among Allied nations.   And, his subservience to Vladimir Putin raises many questions.  Trump is one of only three presidents that have been impeached while in office.

Trump is a womanizer, a racist, a habitual liar a conman and quite possibly a traitor.  His mental stability is easily questioned.  He displays narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and egotism.   Yet, he has become the Glorious Leader of the Republican party.

 

So here we are in 2020, during a virus pandemic infecting one-hundred-thousand-plus people daily with over one-hundred-thirty-five thousand dead and half of the country denying the seriousness of the of the illness. 

 

We have a totally unqualified President running for reelection and half of the population of the United States considers him a cult savior.

 

Trump will eventually go; but half of the U.S. population, members of the Trump cult, will influence our democracy for decades to come and make the United States of the past unrecognizable in the future.

 

Something has happened and I don’t know what it is.   

 

 I wish I could wake up

the Ol'Buzzard

 

 

 

 

 

Machiavellianism  psychopathy

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

THE ELECTION WILL BE CLOSE!

TRUMP COULD WIN!

 I DON'T LIKE THIS NEWS.   BRING ME GOOD NESW.

/the Ol'Buzzard

 

This cover says it all.  

Hopefully the people he has killed

with his botched virus response 

will be able to bring him down. 

THE BUDDHIST ANSWER TO DONALD TRUMP

 

 

Five hundred years before the birth of Christianity, the Buddha was preaching that dissatisfaction in our daily existence would cause our life to be like a wheel out of balance: Dukkha.

 

The basic premise of Buddhism is known as the Four Truths.   

1.      There will always be conditions in life that we have no control over.

2.     If we obsess on these conditions, we will be despondent.

3.     We must acknowledge to ourselves that these conditions are beyond our control.

4.      We must move on to focus on the beauty in the present day, the present life, and live it to the fullest in the NOW.

 

These Truths can be molded to fit many concerns in our Western society.   They are particularly relevant in the age of Trump and the coming election.  

 

Every voter, except the few morons seeking attention, have already made up their mind who they will vote for – it is in stone.   Nothing we can say, nothing Biden and Harris can say, nothing Trump can say is going to change anyone’s mind at this point.  We can only wait until November 3^rd. and cast our vote.  The outcome will be what it will be.  What Trump does if he loses is beyond out control.   

 

So, it is time to turn off the daily, 24/7 outrageous Trump, Trump, Trump TV news programs.  We can stay abreast with news papers and online news without the saturation of TV, and move on to other activities more healthful.

 

Constant mental dishevel affects the physical body negatively.    A constant, daily diet of Trump is not good for any of us. 

the Ol’Buzzard