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