Whoops!

  Seems I got so fired up yesterday that I forgot to add links to this week's news. Well, let me do that now.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Monday and Wednesday were your basic news round-ups, focusing on the Mississippi flag and the whole "Russians paying Taliban to kill American soldiers, Trump knew and didn't care" thing that seems to not be making a dent in the GOP. Friday was actually a lead-in to yesterday's lament about the state of the world today and the continuing purification of the American Dream, turns out.

 For those that don't know, I do something similar to this at the WordPress site for the weekend. Links to stuff here and a more opinion-oriented piece than the regular News. So now I'm about to head over and stare at the screen until something pops out for that. Salute.

Don't give me no plastic saddle.

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Look how far I had to come to get back where I started from.

 Feeling lazy and disconnected again. We'll just get something down and maybe come back later. In any event, first off, here's what made for the News this week.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Actual Paying Work bit into things this week, so it was all sort of rushed. Still, Monday and Wednesday were solid. Monday was about some significant Supreme Court decisions, another bunch of murdering cops, and black men being found hanging outside where nobody believes it's suicide. Wednesday was a little closer look at the tussle going on in Mississippi about changing the flag, highlighting some dickbag in Columbus who's going to find his ass in the street. Friday I was lazy, so it's mostly a wrap-up with some more stuff about the flag. Specifically, the SEC telling the state to straighten up or lose out. If nothing else, that might get Mississippi to jump.

 I talked to the Therapist yesterday. Someone's hacked her email. She already knew but was glad I told her. The hack asked me to buy her "niece with cancer" $200 worth of Amazon Gift Cards because I have an Amazon account. I got to thinking, though. One, you don't have to have an Amazon Account to buy Amazon Gift Cards. Two, this lady and her husband got them a little bread and she certainly knows more people than me if she needs a favor that bad. And finally, I really can't see her being that wildly unprofessional. Turns out she doesn't even have a niece. Some people.

I find myself wistful for Gainesville today for some reason. I lived there for about five years to go to the University of Florida to study journalism, and basically all I learned is that I never, ever wanted to get a straight gig or live a normal life. I lived in a trailer for $100 a month, drank too much, did all sorts of drugs, delved into life's left-handed path, went to see all sorts of bands, played in a couple, played video games for three days straight, broke a couple hearts, had mine broken once or twice, and as likely as not didn't bother learning her last name the next morning. And write. God-a-mighty, did I write.

 Somewhere between Gainesville and Athens a tomato box full of composition notebooks fell out of the truck I was using to move that had five years worth of short stories, essays, aborted books, poems, songs, biographical sketches and just general nonsense that I had scribbled down while in Florida. Losing that broke something in me, because I've never done that since. This is as close as I've come,

 Ye gods, it's only 9:50 a.m. Anyhow, as weird as it may sound, I'm in that same head space right now. Apart from the sex, drugs and rock & roll, of course, but I'm having a good time. I'm writing, playing games, learning new things, not stressing bills, blowing on the harp and picking guitar, and just basically enjoying life as it comes. Weird how that works. I wonder if I should have stayed in Gainesville. I haven't been back in over 20 years and haven't talked to anyone I knew there in almost 10. I don't know if I was happy or content there, but I did have me a real good time.

 Hey, while I got you here, I have a Patreon page now. I don't know if throwing me a few bucks would do anything besides encourage my behavior, but why not. No one's actually pledged yet, so be the first kid on your block to do so. I've also got my first two paychecks from my APW, a nice, fat $500. I was kicking around the idea of buying a PlayStation or some other console - mainly because I sort of want to play the new Spider-Man game - but I think I'll save for a new laptop. One I can write and game on.

 Anyhow, that should be enough. Maybe I'll come back after my nap or before the night's alien killing begins. We'll see. Either way, have a pleasant weekend.

I feel a storm, all wet and warm, not ten miles away approaching my Mexican home.

 Getting a late start on this tonight. Or a normal one, depending on how you look at it. In any event, it's 9 p.m. and I need to get something in the can for today. Before we get on with the business, links to this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I'm particularly pleased with Friday's effort. As a part of the general thing the country finds itself, in re: dealing with systematic racism, there's a serious movement in the Mississippi Legislature to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. I went into a little detail of why this is a big deal and why we're waiting until 2020 to make anything happen. A little history and a little background, that's what I'm here for.

 Wednesday was pretty good, too, as a look at the mess that was the Georgia primary vote and what it bodes for November. In short: nothing good as the GOP will use all at its means to decide the election. Monday was a fairly bog-standard wrap up of the weekend's events concerning the protests across the country in reaction to the murder of George Floyd, the growing discontent among some higher ranking Republicans with Trump's chances come November, and a little bit about Tropical Storm Cristobel, which thankfully turned out to be not much of nothing. A good piece for what it was, though.

 I've been keeping my eye on what's going on in Seattle, the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" or "CHAZ". In all things, I recommend eschewing the national press and paying attention to the folks who actually live in a place that's in the news. I've long been a fan of indie magazines, having written for several, and The Stranger is considered one of the very best. Plus, they're keeping a solid look on what's going on without the bias and ignorance of some of the national publications.

 It seems folks in Nashville are trying to kick up a similar "autonomous zone" type thing, as well, despite dire warnings from Gov. Bill Lee. I don't know what he thinks he's going to do. I do believe that apart from the hard-core authoritarian types, any sort of government heavy handedness, from state or federal forces, doesn't go down as well as they think. It's interesting that a lot of the voices that have been screaming about government tyranny or Second Amendment rights - from the Bundy-types to the NRA - have been pretty quiet when the rubber is hitting the road. Undoubtedly, since this is happening mostly to black folks and left-leaning types, they're all of the sudden down to the ground with an authoritarian government ignoring basic civil rights.

 Anyhow, The Nashville Scene is a pretty good magazine, as well. Full disclosure, they paid me less than $50 for a story about someone, I think either Slobberbone or The Drive-By Truckers, nearly 20 years ago. As I said, I've always preferred those sort of magazines and have worked for a couple in the past. They never pay well or, indeed, enough to live on - this is indie journalism, after all - but it's always much more fun.

 Me and Momma had a fairly heavy conversation about all this and what it implies the other night. My mother is a very intelligent woman, but she is - by her own admittance - happily provincial and a bit naive about how the world outside Itawamba County actually is. She's also old fashioned and conservative. What I'm saying is she will listen but you have to take a hammer to her if you ever want to get anything through.

 Plus, while she understands what I mean when I tell her about being an atheist who leans towards far-left anarchism, she really doesn't like those stances. I think I got it through to her why this autonomous zone business wasn't the popular perception of anarchy but rather the political connotation of anarchism. That is, a rejection of unearned authoritarian groups as someone automatically obeyed. If your "leadership" fails to the extent that it did the folks in Capitol Hill, or so they consider, feel they're justified in telling them to piss off and taking it over on their own.

 If I get Sarah Thompson to understand that anarchism is a viable political ideology, I'll consider this a life well lived. Anyhow, that's plenty. I intend to keep the weekly stuff done in the morning (or as close to morning as I get) but anything goes for the weekend. In the meantime, keep safe, wash your hands, maintain social distancing, and don't let the bastards grind you down.

If the wife and I are fussin', brother, that's our right. 'Cause me and that sweet woman bought a license to fight.

 I'm really not into this. Today's one of those days where everything shut down. I'm not sure why. I let Otis out for his morning ablutions and had to go lay back down. Next thing I knew it was two in the afternoon. I didn't even stay up late (for me) last night.

 I really don't understand it. While the rest of the world's going crazier, it's been a pretty chill week for me. Speaking of which, we might as well get the links to this week's News in place.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Most of this revolves around the murder by Minneapolis police officers of George Floyd and the resulting protests that have spread to all 50 states in the nation, as well as several countries. Friday we look into Mississippi's own legal outrage, as the case against the cop that killed Columbus resident Ricky Ball under extremely suspicious circumstances - po-po, when you cut your body cameras off, it never looks good - was dropped by newly elected State Attorney General Lynn Fitch. The story's pretty bad, mainly in that Fitch dismissed the case with a two-sentence statement like it was barely worth her attention. Something to keep an eye on for sure.

 I finished the first three books of the Expanse series the Lee County library had to offer online readers. I liked them but I doubt I'll get back into it anytime soon. While the hard sci-fi aspect and non-military setting appealed, every story was some sort of solar system-wide big deal and that gets tedious for me after a while. It's sort of like the new Doctor Who where each season ended with some massive universe-spanning to-do that only the Doctor could fix or, actually, like the never ending "Secret Crisis War" that seems to be the go to for mainstream comic books these days.

 I'd still like to find some science fiction books that are sort of like Blake's 7, small outlaw groups just trying to get through the universe but not having to save it. Probably means I should be writing those stories, if you consider things that way. Like I've said, I still can't get my head in that space and really don't understand how to get there. I write and this is what I do. News and Gibberish, and I think I'm better than okay at it. Other people are good at ripping science fiction swashbuckling yarns, that's what I want.

 I have been reading Engraved On The Eye, a collection of short stories by Saladin Ahmed. Very enjoyable, and all told from what I gather is a Muslim or at least Middle Eastern perspective. Fighters of monsters using holy magic. Muslim cowboy wizards. Renegade female Dervishes fighting against small minds. Good stuff. In fact, I'm enjoying the tales so much that my only real complaint is they're all too short. His 2012 book Throne of the Crescent Moon won a Hugo and appears to be the same universe as the first short story (monster fighting Muslim doctor who uses holy magic and has a young Dervish as a partner), so I'll check that out eventually.

 He came across my radar because the nerds who get upset about such things were mad that a Muslim person of color was writing a Spider-Man book. That piqued my interest, in that anything that pisses those choads off has to have something going for it. So, good job, buttholes, you're racist gatekeeping wankery turned me on to an excellent writer I was henceforth unaware of and encouraged me, a middle-age middle-class white dude, to give him some money and, indeed, encourage others to do so as well as post multiple links to facilitate that. Well done, indeed, you miserable little fart stains.

 I don't know what else. My uncle's in the hospital getting a new stint put in his heart and his oldest grandson got married today. Because of him in the hospital and the whole COVID-19 business, they did it via Zoom. My uncle's doing well and the grandson is happier than he has been lately. He's had a string of bad breaks of late, bless his heart, and even a good kid like him will get frustrated. But his new bride is a jewel and, like I said, he's a good kid, so hopefully things will start to shine a bit for him.

 We could all use a break these days, I think. Just a little good news or a world-wide equivalent to winning 50 bucks in an office football pool. Something that doesn't involve killing someone.

Nobody understood it when the great Joe Bob went bad.

 I woke up in a foulish mood today and haven't really been able to shake it. Granted, I haven't tried much but what are you gonna do. Anyhow, before we get started, let's see what kind of foolishness I got into with the News this week.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Nothing particularly spectacular but a nevertheless solid week of work. Good blogger journalism, old school style, no Deep Dives but a good whack of information on how the week was going. Frankly, between the Actual Paying work and internet connectivity issues earlier in the week, it went better than I'd figured it would.

 I've come to accept that this, whatever it is, is What I Do, even if I'm not happy the fiction isn't going anywhere. I've always had a problem focusing on one thing. It's one of the reasons I got into journalism, specifically, in the first place.

 I guess the problem is when I read all these books on writing and actual writers giving advice on how writers act, see the world, etc., it doesn't ring true to me. I have no doubt that's how it works for most writers - they can't help but write, they pay attention more, what have you - but it's not my reality. This is just the only thing I've ever been good at and one of the few things I really enjoy beyond passively watching the world go by and waiting around to die. I promise it's not as drastic as it sounds, but you must remember I spend most of my time fighting off the worst nihilistic thoughts.

 It's sort of like how I feel about relationships, particularly marriage. I know plenty of people who do it right and get a lot out of it. I ain't the one, though, and I really don't understand it. And while I'm fine with my monastic existence, particularly since I'm so bad at romantic relationships of any stripe beyond just the physical, I can't lie and say it doesn't sit well with me that I cannot wrap my head around what apparently everyone else on the planet seems to have figured out.

 Or at the very least why I'm not filled with bitter resentment and misogynistic rage most single dudes my age seem to be, whether they were ever hooked to someone or not. I really don't understand that, either. I mean, I've had spotty luck with women all my life, but I know what's been my fault and what's just not meant to be. Some dickhead shot up a mall in Arizona because he's an "incel" and for some reason that gives him the right to decide who lives and who dies painfully.

 I confess, I do not get that a'tall. For one, the whole concept of "involuntary celibacy" was thought up by a queer sociology student and meant to describe people who were unable to have sex because of physical or mental disabilities. That shit's sad. Whether it's due to depression (which I have experience with) or just being physically inadvisable for whatever reason, sex is as much a part of the Human Condition as eating or taking a dump. I haven't had sex in going on five years now, but that's voluntary celibacy, or at least "not being interested in sex enough to try to get laid" celibacy.

 But the guys who can't get laid because they can't talk about anything but video games they think women shouldn't play and smell funny because of their diet and lack of hygiene? Half of them can't get their heads around girls who don't like anime characters and the other half think porn is how human sexuality actually works. I got sympathy at all, especially when they started talking mass shootings. I may not do much now, but I got laid plenty in my 20s, and, frankly, whenever I put my mind to it. Clean up, dress a little sharper, find something other than cartoons to discuss, and actually pay attention to women when they talk. You'll make out like a bandit, I promise.

 All right, I've wandered too deep into this. Let's back it up and claw our way back out. In short, like I don't understand why my brother and my friends got married and stayed married, I don't get writing as an artistic endeavor. I can enjoy it, but what I do is journeyman's work. It's like when I was a cook. I wasn't crazy about food like most cooks are, I just wanted to feed hungry people something that was worth eating. I just want to write something worth reading to people who want to know.

 Okay. I think that's plenty. I was going to delve a little more into the thoughts that spurred this Twitter thread, but I think I'll wait. American's love for authoritarianism isn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, I'll save it for later and tie this one off.

I can't do what ten people tell me.

 Okay, well. It seems we've got the internet fixed up. Guy came by today and did some rewiring. Of course, the dad-blame internet stayed connected all day today. Typical.

 Anyhow, we're back in business, such as it is. Took Otis and Fuzzy to the vet today so Fuzzy could get his haircut and Otis his check-up. The result is quite satisfying. Fuzzy's half the dog he was and is probably much more comfortable without all that hair. As for Otis, he's got hookworms but otherwise is still healthy as a horse, if a horse was a Jack Russell Terrier. He is getting older, bless his little heart, turns out his hearing and eyesight is going. He's changed a lot over the past year. I still can't wrap my head around him completely ignoring the cats rather than trying to tear them to shreds.

 All right, then, what else is there? Yesterday's News didn't get posted until this morning. I need to re-write one of last week's Actual Paying Work. Little things, just getting into the groove of how it's done. Hell, I don't know what else. I finished The Dispossessed, and I don't think I'd read it before. Regardless, I do like how it presented an anarchistic society as possible but still flawed. Way too many writers would and do take the easy way out and present their utopias as flawless and perfect. This one actually feels more real, and sort of rung true to me with my own problems with the overall "anarchism cultural," whatever the hell that is.

 Like the cyberpunk thing, I really don't feel like I belong there despite my affection for and interest in it. Granted, the nice thing, the appealing thing, about anarchist thought and theory is that there's no real set rules apart from a general dislike of unearned authority and rules for the sake of having rules. Working within the system to change it or even just be able survive without betraying your conscience. Working with what works and discarding what doesn't, with the dual purpose of surviving with your values intact while maybe making the world a slightly less shitty place.

 Man, that book took a lot out of me. That hasn't happened in quite a while, so consider The Dispossessed highly recommended. I admit to being a man of habit and any deviation from my routine gets up my nose. So not being able to use the internet like I prefer - to write, to blog, to research, to listen to music, to work - made me a bit distracted. So I haven't done much the last couple of days besides read that book.

 Beyond that, I don't know. It's been a pretty active day and I'm a bit worn out. I'm half tempted to tie this off here and come back to it after a nap. I'm hitting bottom and can't even come up with a clever folksy colloquialism to describe how slow my brain is right now. I will say I don't care for the new Blogger writing layout, if that means anything.

 Been on a big Otis Redding kick lately. I still think it's one of American Pop Music's biggest tragedies that he didn't get to record more or build on what he started with "(Sittin' On The) Dock of the Bay". I would've liked to think he stuck with Booker T. & The MG's as his band for recording. His touring band was solid enough, but nothing compares. Also, in case it's ever asked, I think he'd have done a killer bee cover of "Highway To Hell".

 Okay, that's word count and my head's killing me. I am tying it off right here. Might come back after a little lie down or if anything clever comes up. Otherwise, we're back to normal business tomorrow. I do have some Actual Paying Work due Thursday, but things are a bit squirrelly there because a client's being a pain. And let me take this opportunity to offer my services to anyone who needs something written or edited. Cheaper than you'll find elsewhere, if nothing else.

All is not lost, it is only mistaken. That's small consolation, but I know just how you feel.

 The internet's dropping in and out again. Hasn't done this all week after Momma got the new modem from the telephone company. She thinks it's due to the heat, and hell, I don't know, it might be. It's in the high 80s outside and fairly humid.

 Anyhow, I got the screen open, so we can do what we do. I can always add links or look up stuff later. Since I'm remembering it this weekend, let's take a lot at what we saw with the News this week.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I'm particularly proud of Friday's offering, a fairly deep dive into the Breeona Taylor execution. Another black person murdered because white shooters had to kill someone, another cover-up by local law, and another killing that went unknown for months until social media raised hell about it. This time, however, the killing was done by the local police in the most murderously Barney Fife way possible. They thought they were hitting a drug den which was actually 10 miles away, searching for a suspect who was already in custody.

 Check out the piece and keep your eye on this one. Wingnuts may raise Cain about how their First Amendment rights are being trampled because they can't post Nazi propaganda on Facebook or gun losers think it's perfectly natural and sane to go to Starbucks loaded for bear, but if the Fourth Amendment gets anymore tattered, none of that will matter. There is definitely a racist element, sure, and the American people as a whole are far too generous to cops who kill the wrong black person when killing anyone wasn't necessary. But if we as a culture keep giving authoritarians more and more leeway, we're going to wake one day wondering how that boot got on our neck.

 Governmental authoritarianism is nothing new. Once nations started actually becoming nations rather than kingdoms, their governments felt the need to keep a close eye on the populace, for good or ill. It is what it is. Read your Roman history. Read about John Dee. Read about the development of the Chinese Empire. I don't know how much we'd fight it, either, as we all carry locator beacons in our pockets as a part of the super computers and Hitchhiker's Guides. Hell, I'm using Google to look up some of this stuff, and they've long since given up on the whole "don't be evil" thing.

 As an aside, I don't fret too much about the "surveillance state", either from the government or Corporate America. I don't like it and know it can be abused, and it is, but I don't have to worry about it. I'm a straight white male, I'm good. I hope the System comes crashing down, but figure since it will do it to itself anyway, there's nothing I can really do to help. But the main reason is I don't think I should have to hide what I say or think from anyone. There's nothing I do that needs to be hidden, I feel. Not my love of mind-altering substances or flirtations with anarchism, I don't see any of that as anything to be ashamed of. The law changes, as the Good Doctor said, but I don't feel I have to.

 Well. I've reached word count. During my constitutional, I thought about writing about the corporate press, the mainstream media, and why most people who complain about it really don't know what they're talking about. I don't really feel like doing a deep dive now, but in a nutshell, the mainstream, big corporate press - CNN, the networks, The New York Times, even the big-time websites like Slate or Politico - are all owned by rich people or groups of rich people who incorporate themselves. Most of them are worth ridiculous amounts of money themselves. CNN is worth about five billion dollars, and Fox recently sold assets to Disney for $71 billion.

 These companies and people have a vested interest in keeping the Status Quo. That is, whatever societal changes (you think) they promote, the cold, hard economics of things aren't meant to change. That's how they got rich and how they get richer; they're not going to change that. If you honestly think CNN or the Times wants to destroy capitalism, you are a goddamn moron. Ted Turner might have wanted to change the world for (what he thinks is) the better, but he doesn't own CNN anymore.

 This is reality, but people don't want to acknowledge it and that's where the problem comes. Everything about it makes much more sense if you can recognize that little bit of wisdom and keep it in mind when using the media. It's easy to rage at Maggie Haberman and her limp approach to the Trump Administration, but her job and The New York Times' mission isn't shaking up the Status Quo. They are the Status Quo, just as Trump is, and both of them have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train going. The mainstream press is still useful, just keep that in mind.

 So, one of these days I'll get deeper into it. I keep saying that about a number of things but I haven't yet. That being said, I would totally do it if someone wants to pay me. I'm getting pretty good at deep dives to explain things, especially when I'm getting paid. Just something to think about. Just putting it out there.

The meek, they ain't inherited nothing. Their leaders are falling behind.

 Before we get too deep in the big muddy, as always, some links from this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday - This actually turned out to be a big mouthful, so I broke it up into two parts.

• Part One: The Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery
• Part Two: Defrauding Mississippi's Welfare Service

Friday

 I'm pretty proud of Wednesday's big monster, as well as the two shorter pieces from it. I'm also glad both topics are getting the national press. Even The New York Times has written about the mess going on in Mississippi, so that's something. And the Arbery killing and resulting cover-up by the local law is just too egregious to pretend it's business as usual.

 Other than that, I've been ignoring a white screen for the past 45 minutes. Let's just start typing and see if we can't knock the word count out sooner than later. This sentence is just to satisfy the "a paragraph must have three sentences" rule that I quite possibly made up.

 The internet's been less spotty today. Matter of fact, it's run pretty good all day. Far as I know, anyway, I spent most of the day napping. Just one of those days I didn't feel like engaging with the rest of the world. The whole COVID-19 business continues to get stupider as more and more people have decided, "Fuck it, YOLO" and since they've never needed a helmet riding a motorcycle or a seat belt when they were driving, this "killer pandemic" is all a bunch of hoo-hah. Probably the entire world secretly plotting together solely to make Father Trump look like a pea-brained jackass.

 I live in the boonies, work from home and am self-employed. I rarely leave the house for any reason besides going to the gym, seeing doctors I have to see, or the odd bit of shopping for stuff I can't buy online. The only time I'm around large groups of people is when we have family gatherings four or five times a year, and I only stay as long as I can handle it after getting a plate.

 So, knock yourself out. Maybe it'll be a big bunch of nothing. Maybe it'll thin the herd. Maybe it will be what finally shows the irreparable cracks and flaws in the American capitalistic system. I don't have to worry about it, you're not interested in what I have to say, so I'm not bothering. I will keep writing about it, sure. Partly because that's how I earn my salt and partly because I enjoy writing the News as much as I enjoy this gibberish.

 But as I get older I find myself less inclined to be a part of society and this is just another excuse/example of why I shouldn't bother. I don't want to insinuate that I suggest this as a proper lifestyle for anybody else. But with nothing invested in the future and just waiting around to die, I don't see any reason to fight to save people who don't want to be saved. Same thing with getting leftists to understand that they don't have to vote for Joe Biden, but they really ought to vote against Donald Trump. People all across the political spectrum have a fantastic, naive perception of what politics is, how it's designed to work and just what all can be done. Stop waiting on people to come save you, neighbors.

 One of today's Twitter ruffles is a column tradcath fenderhead Elizabeth Bruening - the interesting one of the couple; that husband of hers is as dull as dry white toast - wrote a column saying there's no such thing as a "Religious left". She was rightfully dragged, which isn't anything special. Every time she puts pen to paper, she says something dumb enough to deserve a dragging. She claims to be socialist but once Republicans managed to get someone who isn't a moral sinkhole in the White House, I'm sure she'll say the Democratic Party/Democratic Socialist changed, not her.

 Anyhow, while she's catching hell from liberal Jews, Liberation Theory Latino Catholics, the Black Protestant churches where the Civil Rights battled gestated, Unitarians, Sikhs, and just all the groups apart from White Protestants or Catholics, which was all she was going to count anyway, I had a thought. Now, I am neither religious nor spiritual. I've been agnostic since my teen years and pretty much since my twenties, I've considered myself a hardcore philosophical materialism.

 There's no difference in the inanimate atoms that make up my body, the chair I'm sitting in, the air that I breathe or whatever makes up Böotes Void. Consciousness is a result of a quirk of biology that arises from how the brain is structured and, at best, nothing more than an illusion. Morality is all made up and has always been made up by human beings, and generally reflects more the zeitgeist of the times rather than anything axiomatic.

 I'm fine with all that. The universe is amazing enough that I can nevertheless manage to find wonder in it, fairly easily to, without having to have some unseen, unquantifiable force behind it. Math, initiative, imagination, and elbow grease can achieve some amazing things. In other words, when it comes to how religion or spirituality should inform one's politics, I really don't have a dog in this hunt. Momma goes to church because it provides her with a sense of community and comfort. Belief in redemption and heaven help my grandmother and father pass on easier. Some people find comfort and strength in their faith. All fine. Anyone who uses religion as a weapon would be a rotten bastard as an atheist anyway, and we've seen plenty of examples of that.

 But I can't help but wonder why non-religious leftist/liberals/what have you should worry too much about the religious leftists/liberals/what have you. My question is why isn't incumbent on the religious left to put a little effort into mending any bridges to the rest of the left-wing amorphous beast. The hard right co-opted much of American Christianity and it was an established goal since at least the '60s. Again, read The Family or watch the Netflix documentary. This is just anecdotal, but left-wing religious people rarely take any responsibility for it.

 It's like "reasonable gun owners" who don't seem to think they have a responsibility to maybe worry about the dingbats bringing bazookas to Subway instead of complaining that everyone thinks they're just as nutty as the average ammosexual. It's part of the reason I'm so unforgiving when it comes to racism in the South and neo-Confederate ding dongs. I see that as partly my responsibility. Anyhow, it's not my problem, either of it. I reserve the right to treat everyone who has a gun on their hip one mockery of their dick away from unloading on a school bus. Plus, I continue to reserve the right to not really give a damn about your faith unless it breaks my leg nor picks my pocket.

 Okay. Enough of that. I've been playing a lot of Phantom Doctrine. It's pretty decent, sort of like Sid Meier's Covert Action, an old favorite, in that it takes the Len Deighton take on spies and that world. Most intelligence work, like most private investigation work or, for that matter, investigative journalism, is pretty damn dull. It requires a lot of patience and a lot of digging through bland documents and seemingly unrelated bits of information to find that nugget of gold. Phantom Doctrine does a good job replicating that without making it too boring. Plus the turn-based strategy part of the gameplay is a lot of fun. It's made by the same people who made Hard West, and that is definitely a favorite. Looks like they've got an XCOM game based on 1930s bank heists coming, so we'll keep an eye on that.

 Take it easy.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Tambourine.

 Weird. This is a new layout for the posting page. We'll see if it's just cosmetic, but I will say I don't like the left-hand side all the way up against the edge of the screen.

 Goddamn internet's still acting up. Had a guy come out and look at it, and while I hate to be mean, he was as useless as tits on a rooster. The replacement modem he gave me didn't work. Furthermore, I learned the local telephone company that provides the DSL - which, at its fastest clocks in around 12 Mbps at best - has to reuse and repair equipment. They only cover Itawamba County and only provide DSL to my area because someone with ties to the owner wanted it. They're putting in fiber-optic cable, but they're going to stop a good five miles from here. On the upside, Tombigbee Power is coming from the other direction with fiber optic, so hopefully by the end of the year, this will be a thing of the past.

 Okay. So much for that. I'd usually wait until the weekend to shine on the News at the WordPress site, but I think yesterday's monster is particularly noteworthy. Because it wound up being so long before all was said and done, I broke it up into two chunks each concentrating on one topic. First is a rundown of the frankly risible welfare scam currently afflicting Mississippi and further weakening Gov. Tate Reeves' stroke in Jackson. While poor folks in the poorest state in the union getting shafted once again by conservative politicians and crooked rich people isn't something to laugh at, this involved Christian wrestling organizers and that just cracks me up. Don't know why. Plus, it goes over all the other dirty deeds by Republicans currently befouling my fair home state.

 The second isn't much funny at all. It's concerning the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, by two white men in a predominantly white neighborhood in Georgia. I think I did a particularly good bit of journalism, so please do read for the lowdown. In a nutshell, Arbery was running down a street in this neighborhood, and Gregory McMichael and his son Travis chased him down, tried to get him to stop and "talk" to them, got involved in a physical altercation with Arbery involving Travis McMichael and a shotgun when he didn't, three shots were fired and two hit Arbery in the chest to leave him dead in the street. The McMichaels claimed he fit the profile of someone they thought had been robbing different houses in the neighborhood and claimed to have seen him look into the window, alternately using "stand you ground" and "citizen's arrest" as justification. Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper, said her son was jogging and indeed had jogged through that neighborhood before.

 This all happened Feb. 23. The original prosecutor had to recuse herself because Gregory McMichael used to work as an investigator for her office. The second prosecutor had to recuse himself because his son worked in the first prosecutor's office. The second prosecutor was ready to drop the charges, citing Arbery's high school arrests for shoplifting and having a gun on school campus and claiming he had "mental issues," though without any proof. The case only really got due attention after a video of the shooting - filmed apparently by a friend of the McMichaels - surfaced on a Georgia radio station's website and became viral on social media earlier in the week. The case is now in the hands of a third prosecutor from a county 70 miles away and he's announced he intends to fully investigate the shooting and, if necessary, bring charges against the McMichaels.

 Now.

 As with every time this sort of thing happens, legal geniuses on Twitter and Facebook who claim they're either "waiting for all the facts" or that for some reason, shooting a man dead because you think he might be someone who might be a robber is okay because he reacted poorly to two white men with guns chasing him down is perfectly reasonable. Either way, they're infuriated if you call either the shooter or them racist, and bemoan how liberals have tarnished the word because blahdy-blah-blah. Seriously, you sort of wish they'd get a new tune.

 To refresh everyone, I am a white man who was raised and currently lives in the South. Mississippi, in fact. Furthermore, I've not only lived in Georgia but I've never lived anywhere other than the South, either in a rural area, a college town or New Orleans. What I'm saying is, I feel very confident on making a judgment as to whether anti-black racism played a part in this, as well as the overall white supremacist leanings of both Georgia and the United States in general. For the "all the facts" crowd, I think there are enough for me to render judgement without fear of being unfair.

 This is nothing but racism. Aside from the judges' bullshit - and the first judge made the news last year for aggressively prosecuting a black woman who voted in the wrong district because she was given wrong info - the shooting itself was racist. The McMichaels are racist. Now, they may not be cross-burning, fully paid up Klansman. They may have black friends. They still thought a black man running down their street was not only probably the guy who they think had been robbing the area, though even that said robber's black is an assumption, he was worth going after armed and intending to shoot, if necessary, to make a citizen's arrest. Even then, a citizen's arrest is only valid if one sees someone committing a crime or has personal knowledge of a crime committed. Records show 911 was called, but all the McMichaels did was say "There's a black guy running down the street" as justification. Indeed, even the claim that Arbery looked through the window is supposition on their part.

 Furthermore, if you're trying to find why the McMichaels were justified in chasing down and shooting a man for no discernible reason, you yourself are racist as hell, white robe in your closet or not. That's a lot of the problem with American racism. We've relegated it to toothless hillbillies and made it almost comical, when it's a real thing most People of Color deal with almost constantly. Particularly black people who, if you read your history with an honest eye, know we as a nation have royally fucked them other from the days of slavery until the days of James Byrd, and did so with vim and gusto. No, you don't have to drop n-bombs left and right and, no, you don't have to have a Rebel Flag hanging on your wall.

 But if you think it's okay that two random yo-yos shoot someone because they think he's a burglar because he's black and running, then yes, you are as racist the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Maybe even worse, because he's at least honest about it. We pretend anti-black racism ended with the Civil War or, if we're generous, Martin Luther King's work or, if we're stupid, Barack Obama's election to president. But that just ain't so. Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, John Crawfod III, Philandro Castile, and now Aumaud Arbery and Sean Reed are all dead because we're a racist culture that doesn't care if black people get killed and white people get away with it.

 Doesn't matter if they have a gun permit. Doesn't matter if they were minding their own business. Doesn't matter if they needed medical care. Doesn't matter if they were in their own home. We as a culture are fine with white people shooting black people and suffering no consequences for it. And if you try to justify the shootings, either as a natural part of police work or people who're defending themselves, you're saying you're fine with it, too. You can try to deny it and claim all the black friends/relatives/sex partners you want, it's still so.

 Some say racism, particularly anti-black racism, is America's Original Sin. That may be so, but a large part of it is the different rules we hold for white people and everyone else. Last week saw armed and masked "protesters," many kitted out in ill-fitting combat gear, demanding to be allowed in the Michigan capitol to scream in cops' faces about how unfair it was they couldn't get a haircut. The same sort of people regularly parade around with their high-powered weaponry, going to shopping centers or even gun control rallies. These same people protested a recent vote on a gun law in Virginia and were so unhinged they ran a pro-gun Libertarian state senator into protective custody because they didn't understand the bill being voted on.

 Not a one of 'em gets shot or even asked to maybe not go to Starbucks loaded for bear. Indeed, we're told to be thankful that these "protests" don't turn into violent blood baths, the implication that maybe we shouldn't push them too far. But gun control is another issue, and really doesn't concern the police nor the law enforcement system. Both are not only riddled with racists, active and passive, but both were in large part designed in such a way to keep black people "in their place". One of the largest gun bans ever passed was by Gov. Ronald Reagan in the '60s once Black Panthers started walking around strapped and loaded. Morons claim Jim Crow wouldn't have happened if black people had access to guns, conveniently ignoring the fact the reason they didn't is because the racist white power structure set the law up that way. Black people who couldn't find work were charged with vagrancy, making finding a good job to keep them occupied that much harder.

 This isn't just a conservative issue, either. Mainstream liberals regularly ignore the black female voting block that often decides elections and as often as not, soi-disant leftists dismiss the concerns of the black community as "identity politics" not as important as universal health care or American foreign policy. We say "pimp" and "ghetto" and "ratchet" and "sleep" and don't care how a black person might feel hearing us throw those words around to describe nothing important.

 When it comes to racism, especially against black people, we are all guilty, we are all culpable and we are all responsible for fixing it. Stop asking black folks to "meet you halfway" or to "understand where you're coming from". They don't owe you the benefit of the doubt. We done pissed that away, neighbors. Stop saying you don't see color or that you judge people by their merits. You do and you don't, and neither does anyone any good whatsoever.

 All right. I believe I've made my point and, no, I don't care if you disagree. You'll have to either learn to live with being wrong or maybe reassess your behavior and ideas. As for now, I think I'll take a nap and then play some Phantom Doctrine. Cold-war era spy in an XCOM-like set up. It's pretty decent and Steam is offering it for a killer price, 80% off. Otherwise, wash your hands, cover your face and stop being shitty to service industry workers who ask you to not cough on them.

Like a bird without a nest. Like a stranger in the night.

 EDIT: I completely forgot to add links to this week's News. I'm particularly fond of Monday's piece, since I got to write about UFO's instead of the epidemic. The Tumblr site was pretty quiet, so here we go.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday


Two days and two days into the coronavirus novel epidemic. A lot of states are "reopening", though Mississippi isn't, and we're all going to find out just how bad an idea that was or wasn't. Georgia and Texas have both seen spikes in cases, the very thing that caused our governor Tate Reeves to slow his roll.

 Well, life is an adventure, is it not? Maybe all those AstroTurf "protest" groups complaining they can't get haircuts or go to their favorite restaurants will take their gun nuttery and cheap Nazi cosplay somewhere else. People are wondering why gun-toting neckbeards screaming at cops don't get the same reaction as, say, Native tribes protesting unnecessary and dangerous oil pipelines across tribal lands. Simple. The "let us work" protesters aren't shaking any boats or upsetting the Natural Order.

 Ah, but I don't want to write about COVID-19. I've been writing about little else for the past six weeks. I'm making money writing about COVID-19 nowadays. We've become extremely stupid as a culture over this thing and refuse to act like adults. The same people who claim they're ready to take down a tyrannical government or the dissolution of society are losing their minds at having to be around their family for a couple of weeks.

 So stop writing about it, Matt, move on. After all, you'll have to come up with something interesting about all this hoo-hah all next week. I think I got too much sun on my afternoon constitutional with Otis and B.C. It's in the 80s and fairly warm. I've got me one of those "too much sun" headaches, I think. Probably need to look into getting some sunscreen if Otis intends to keep this up, and I've no doubt he will.

 Another problem is this isn't coming as easy this evening. I have been staying up too late playing XCOM the last couple of nights, as well as a couple other games. I picked up Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood on sale at Good Old Games for a sneeze yonks ago, and finally got around to playing it this week. It's pretty decent. Plays like Desperadoes or Shadow Tactics, strategy oriented but not turn based. Plus, I've always been keen on the Robin Hood legend. One of those days I should write about that, but today's not the day.

 Nothing is firing properly today. Maybe I should take a break, take a nap, and come back at it. Nah. Let's just get it done and if the Muse comes later, it's not like I'm getting paid for all this. I will say, just to get it down, that I've had an epiphany about my writing in the last couple of days. It's been driving my batty that I can't get any fiction going past world-building. I don't understand what other freelancers who don't do "straight journalism" are making their salt. I don't do Me Talk Pretty One Day-style gripping emotional journeys and neither do I want to. More power to 'em, but I'll probably never write that dark book of the soul about, say, my father.

 So instead of focusing on what I can't do, I decided to study on what I did do well. Two things came up. One, I'm good at making boring things that rarely change day after day interesting to read about. This is what saved my ass as a sports writer when I'm not really into sports, and the current iteration of Actual Paying Work is definitely that. The other thing I'm good at is explaining things to the common mind. That's where I was good as a music critic and when it works, that's what makes The News worth reading. I definitely need to find a better way to market the latter, because when I show it's out there, people do read it. They may not respond or react back, but what the hell.

 So, that's what I do and that's what I've always done. It's not that I need to embrace it, because I've never run from it and I do think there's a place for it. Whether there's a place for me to make money at it, well, we're still figuring that out. I'm not going to totally give up on my Weird Western or bank heist IN SPACE, but I won't sweat 'em anymore. Hopefully.

 Anyhow, that's the word count and then some, and I really am dragging. Maybe something will spring forth later or maybe I'll just take a nap and/or play more video games. Life in the fast line, indeed.

It's easy pickins, ain't nobody here but us chickens.

 Otis threw up again. This is Momma's first experience with an inside dog in over 40 years, so it's difficult to get her to understand that if he eats cat poop just before he eats assigned food, bad things may happen. It is a journey, however, and not a destination.

 Got a programming note before we get too into it. I have some Actual Paying Work due Thursday morning. How this will affect the News or even this Gibberish, I don't know yet. I may skip a day or I may swap Wednesday out for Thursday. Or since this Actual Paying News is supposed to be a COVID-19 update, I may just re-purpose it. We'll see.

 Whichever it is, I'm going to try to make sure it's the one with the least amount of labor required. Since getting XCOM: Chimera Squad I've had turn-based strategy games on the brain. The previous XCOM's, Hard West, Rebel Cops, Phantom Doctrine, Invisible Inc., Distrust, and the Desperadoes series. I couldn't tell you what I find so attractive about them. Maybe it's how the game plays out after you make your choices. You're going to get from Point A to Point B, but the path always changes thanks to the Random Number Generator.

 I don't quite get the appeal of speed runs, or more specifically, playing one game to the point you can do a fair-to-middlin' speed run. Once I beat a game I'm done, especially if it's more linear than wide-open. That goes back to the Nintendo days. I don't get the appeal of Let's Plays, either, so it's probably not for me and that's okay.

 Moving on, I had sort of an interesting experience in what I can only call marketing. The Pentagon released videos yesterday of actual flying objects they couldn't identify or, more officially "unidentified aerial phenomena". I wrote about it, how although it was indeed a thing, it wasn't anything close to an admission of aliens from the deepest space coming by for a visit. Furthermore, the videos have been acknowledged as legit since 2017 and had been released to a private agency in 2018. The Pentagon just released them yesterday, probably trying to get the "truth is out there" ding dongs to settle down.

 All over Twitter, people are cracking that 2020 is so screwy the government owned up to UFO's and no one blinked. Well, I'd respond, I blinked and gave a link to my News. Then I went to bed and didn't think more about it. I woke up to over 30 hits and currently am sitting on 67. No comments, positive or negative. I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from all that, but I'm sure there's something there. I do wish I couldn't figure out a way to promote what I do - third-rate Will Rogers shtick that it is - and feel comfortable about it, but hey ho.

 If nothing else, I didn't get an earful "you're so arrogant if you don't believe in aliens" booshwah I usually get when I express the least bit of skepticism about aliens visiting Earth. To put it in a nutshell, I'm sure the infinite universe is teeming with life and I'm sure that given the space given for lightning to strike twice there is something we would recognize as "sentient life". And since we're just now coming to term with the sentience, even rudimentary, of cetaceans, cephalopods, canines, felines, other primates, and not a few birds, I wouldn't be surprised is there'd be more than a few that we wouldn't recognize as sentient. At least at first, anyway.

 I've just not seen any conclusive evidence they've been here or anywhere close to us. The distances are just too great and the physics are just too restrictive best I can tell. If we ever move out into space - and I'm not sold we ever will - I doubt we'll ever get past the gas giants if we get that far. Inexplicable actions by people lost to time, like the Nazca lines, may remain inexplicable since they didn't leave notes. Doesn't mean they were pretty pictures for aliens. I've long joked that the WOW! Signal was Elvis being called home, but when it was recently concluded by them that study this sort of thing that it was little more than space static, I wasn't too disappointed.

 People have a lot invested in the idea that "the truth is out there," when the truth isn't quite what they think it is. Being a skeptic doesn't mean one dismisses the possible nor does having an open, inquisitive mind means you swallow every goofy stroke that comes along. It's like ghosts, people are more upset than anything that you doubt them when it doesn't have anything to do with them, and shouldn't.

 For the record, I don't believe in ghosts. I've done way too many hallucinogenics to accept that human senses are that infallible. Seriously, take a heroic dose of LSD and you'll spend all night talking to dead country singers. Trust me, I know.

All my friends are wearing worried smiles, living out a dream of what they was.

 Man, it's been a weird week. Don't deny it, this is just not right and keeps getting dumber. Not only did the President of the United States of America in front of God and everybody asked one of his advisors if injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 cases would cure them, but he, his office and the general wingnut collective tried to shove it off three or four different ways. That might be scariest of all.

 But before we get too deep into it, let's serve up this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I think Friday's offering is particularly worth a look, as I go into one of my deep dives on just what he said, why he said it, why it's worrisome and why, no matter how they try, is it going to change a mind one way or another. The Base is unshakable.

 This is a milestone week, though. I got zero hits for the News. I mean, not a sausage, and I usually get at least three or four. I did pick up a new follower, so I don't know how that works but there you go. Got a lot of activity at the Tumblr site, though it was all for older stuff. Check out that Otis Spann tune, though, it's pretty good.

 Ah, the damn internet is dropping in and out again. Apart from lack of access to good smoke, that's about the only downside to living out here in the boonies. Dodgy internet and even when it's running, it's sometimes slow as Christmas.

 I just got back from a two-mile walk with my buddy Otis, the Jack Russell, and he thinks he wants to go out again. He's sitting under my chair sighing loudly. Every day he does this. We go for a walk for a mile or two, just long enough for him to get wore out, and after a short rest he's ready to go back out. And he'll keep doing it until past dinner, sleep for a while, and then spend another hour being a pain in the ass before calling it a night. It's getting on my nerves.

 Okay, enough of all that. No one wants to hear me gripe and I don't particularly want to, anyway. As weird a week as it's been, it's also been an okay one for me. The Actual Paying Work is going well and keeping me busy. The Bossman is happy with what I'm doing and it's nice to have something "serious" to show potential clients apart from this gig. It's boring as hell, but what are you going to do. I do get to write up a COVID-19 update and can have a little fun with that.

 But, like I tell the Bossman, it's good to have to occasionally write to someone else's rules. One of the biggest problems with today's media world is far, far too many writers are allowed to run loose with too little editing. And, no, I never thought I'd say that 20 years ago.

 It's keeping me busy and since it's Actually Work it's wearing me out. I'm kicking around the idea of dropping a day of News or Gibberish, and both of this week's offers of the latter reflect that. Goddammit, there goes the inter... hellfire, it's back. Anyhow, I thought about dropping a day, so what'd I do? Started another blog, of course.

 I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it. Spread across three blogs on three different sites at vastly different times, what I have going now is sort of sloppy. As of right now, it's going to be a place to dump links of articles or pieces of writing I find interesting but aren't inclined to read when I first come across them. Might do it with YouTube vlogs and whatnot, I don't know. I have a fairly dark take on the COVID-19 virus that I've gone back and forth on where to post it. It occurred to me today that the new site could be the "professional" site; that is, the one where I don't cuss like a sailor and call the president a moronic dirtbag who leads a horde of complete dirtbags. I don't know yet. Anyhow, it's here if anyone's curious.

 Dammit, there goes the... shit, it's back. You know, between this and Otis's constant whining, I'm developing a headache. Bah. Sometimes he gives in and goes in his box, but he is particularly petulant tonight.

 I broke down and bought XCOM: Chimera Squad yesterday, and though I've only given it an hour, I'm pretty pleased with it. It's a fun little game with a neat premise. If the first game is Independence Day and the second is Battlefield: Earth (for lack of a better reference), this one is Alien Nation, if anyone remembers that little gem. Five years after XCOM 2, the big bads are defeated, and the Earth is full of either alien POW's or formerly enslaved soldiers now dealing with freedom.

 You run a sort of military-slash-police group that's part of the XCOM organization. At least one of the characters from the second game, Jane Kelly, works as sort of a liaison between the Chimera Squad and the larger organization. The crew tries to keep peace in a specialized city populated by humans, various aliens, hybrids, and what all where someone is trying to disrupt the fragile peace.

 Most of the game mechanics are the same, though the turn-based part of it is less like the original games and more like something found in Divinity: Original Sin. You do a little door kicking, a la a SWAT team, called "Breaching" that's a fun little new addition to the game. Rather than trying to keep countries or continents from panicking, you're trying to keep neighborhoods from falling into anarchy. It's less than ten bucks until May 1 and well worth that price. It bumps up to $20 after that, and is still worth a buy.

 Because Fanatical was having a sale, I also picked up Breach & Clear, an XCOM-esque game that uses real world military groups, and The Long Journey Home, a space sim rougelike that has sort of the same backstory as Star Trek: Voyager. The player controls a spaceship made up of four crew members with different skills trying to get back to Earth from the other side of the galaxy. I'm not really familiar with either game, but since I'm a complete sucker for turn-based strategy games and off-the-wall outer space science fiction that aren't military based. I can add that to the backlog of games I haven't finished or need to give another shot. Good thing I've got nothing better to do.

I ain't trying to get into, I was just swingin' on your gate.

 Before we get too deep in the big muddy today, I want to post a link to this superlative piece of journalism from Caleb Bedillion, Tina Campbell Meadows and Blake Alsup of the North Mississippi Daily Journal. Less than a month after Gov. Tate Reeves initially pooh-poohed the very real threat of COVID-19, especially to the people of Mississippi who're more poor and less healthy than the rest of the nation, Tippah County finds itself going under and sinking fast.

 Long story short, this county of 22,000 on the Tennessee line has the among the highest per capita infections in the state with 14.1 known cases for every 10,000 people. There have been three deaths so far, as well, and I know that doesn't sound a lot to y'all what live in the civilized world, but you have to understand what kind of place Tippah County is. Small, rural, close-knit and known for one helluva Labor Day party.

 As of last night, the only county in Mississippi that doesn't have any recorded cases is Issaquena in the Delta. However that county has barely 1,400 people - down from the 2,700 noted on the 2000 Census - a per capita income of just over 10,000. Furthermore, it's mostly African American, and we're learning that of everything that's being shut down, racism in America is still going strong. I've no doubt when the state gets around to it, they will find sufficient.

 So, read that piece. It's pretty good. Also check out this New Yorker interview with Fran Lebowitz. She's a hoot.

 Another link I want to share is this piece I wrote for the News yesterday evening concerning Bernie Sanders dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America, how it affects the upcoming election as well as the legions of soi-disant leftists left out in the cold, and Just What It All Means. It's not quite as good, but I think it's a pretty solid slice of uncut journalism, but check it out yourself.

 I will say this. Since yesterday, a large number of those aforementioned "soi-disant leftists" have been gnashing their teeth and rending their garments that Sanders wasn't just given the nomination by the party he's been telling to suck his dick for the past five years. For his part, Sanders isn't being obnoxious about all this and hopes to use the delegates he has won (and could continue to win, since he'll be on the ballot for a while) as leverage to get more of his ideas into the party's platform for the election come November. As we say back in the Hills, "that's politics, baby."

 But because not running the risk of being slapped 'cause you're an asshole brings out the worst in people, Twitter's been full of The Faithful - both random dickheads and people whose opinions are supposed to matter - being tedious bores about the whole thing. If they're not demanding Joe Biden personally get down on his knees and perform fellatio on them for their vote, they're declaring their intention to take their ball & just note vote, which will certainly show the Democratic Party, since it worked so well in 1972, 1984 and 2004.

 Hold on, I want to show you something.

 See that? That's my brother, the tail-end of a very good thread of his as to why this whole "I can't in good conscious vote for Biden and another four years of Trump wouldn't be so bad (for me)" is just so irrevocably, undeniably stupid a stance to take. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer - two of the four leftist voices on the Supreme Court - are both getting on in years and will probably have to retire before 2024 comes around. If you don't think a 7-2 Supreme Court with four Trump judges all in the same vein of Brett Kavanaugh but worse if he could get away wouldn't put give a death blow to any hope of any even slightly liberal rulings for the next two generations - as well as active attacks on contientious things like abortion, privacy laws and right to sue corporations - you are far, far too stupid and myopic to pay any attention whatsoever when it comes to politics.

 Now, I posted that picture of Baby Brother's gracious admission for a little context. For a good two decades, I was the guy that gave you shit and mocked you if you didn't vote. I was the guy who called you small minded when you said things like "politics doesn't matter" or "both parties are the same". I was the guy that worked registration booths and irritated you at work because of your bullshit reason why you didn't bother to take any sort of active participation in deciding who gets to tell you what goes and what doesn't, and why you were a ninny for giving that.

 That was then and this is now, though. I still think voting is important, even necessary, and I firmly believe that not voting as a protest is one of the dumber aspects of American culture. I do think that if we could get more than just maybe 40%, if we're lucky, of the voting age populace to actually take part in the process we wouldn't have to be dealing with, for example, a half-bright effete fancy lad who's never accomplished anything on his own except trading on his name and stirring up the worst aspects of the American psyche. This is your life. You have a say in how things go. You should take it.

 Except I really don't give a shit what you (the royal "you") do anymore. Vote or don't vote, I could give less of a damn but I'd have to be dead. This may be a facet of middle age, cynicism and nihilism taking over, or merely an aspect of my chronic depression, but I don't feel this is my world anymore. I will be 45 come Sunday and I doubt I'll see past than 30 more years on this, the third rock from the sun. I don't have kids. Indeed, I have nothing really invested in the future. I cherish my cousin's little ones, but I am not taking responsibility for them. I'm one of those sorts who has little sympathy if you decided to bring another human being into this veil of tears and it turns out to be a tough row to hoe.

 Much as I hate to say it, I'll be okay. For one, I'm a middle-class straight white guy and it's going to be a long time before we start feeling the cold and hearing the wolves howl. Furthermore, I have a good bit of land in my name and enough investment in such that so long as nothing drastic happens, I'll have plenty to keep me fed for the next 30 years. Even if that falls through, my extended family really likes me and would probably let me put a trailer in their backyard. Plus, I have guns in case shit really goes south.

 But this is your world. You're the one with kids. You're the one who has something invested in the future. You're the one who's choosing to live in this cold, cruel world and sharing the ride with 300 million of your nearest and dearest. You're the one who has to make a decision to boil that frog or do the very least to pull everything back from the Abyss. Read a little history and you'd be amazed at what human beings can pull off once they put their minds to it.

 Finally, I got to say it again. If all it takes for you to throw in the towel and give into pigs and bastards of the world is that the guy, the only guy, you put all your hopes and dreams onto didn't win the race he agreed to run, I have to be frank. I really don't think you really care beyond your ego and I certainly don't think you've got it in you to do the actual work it would take to move this world to what it should be for everyone.

 Prove me wrong or piss off.

They say that murder ain't the cause of the weapon

 I had to shut it down today. Woke up from yesterday's nap in a foul mood that only got worse as I knocked out last night's News. Woke up this morning even gloomier, as bad as I've been in a while. Just one of those days, you know?

 Thankfully, today's nap seems to have shaken things loose. I'm not exactly dancing on the ceiling but at the very least I don't have that black cloud sitting on my face. Every little bit helps, I suppose. Part of the reason I'm in such a squirrelly mood is because I am, at best, a neurotic mess. I may have mentioned it here, but I've got a possible job opportunity I'm working on. Long story short, I haven't heard back whether I have the gig or not and I cannot stand having to wait to hear back from people.

 It's perfectly natural I haven't heard back after a day, as they no doubt have more important things to worry about than my mood. The one thing I have learned from this whole big nothing is how much of my own mental well being I have wrapped up in being able to consider myself a writer. Whether that right there is healthy or not, well, that's the issue.

 For what it's worth, this whole blogging thing and all the different types of things I do, from this Gibberish to the News to whatever I wind up calling the Tumblr stuff, ain't really giving the rush I need. Back when I was a working journalist, I got a little buzz out of seeing my name in a byline or even when I wrote something anonymously. Knowing people seeing it was enough.

 Ego is one of the greatest reasons any sort of artist (writer, musician, dancer, etc.) does what they do where someone else can see it. It's not the sole reason but if anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying. Sure, people see this, or so the viewer counts tell me. I still haven't managed to garner more than 10 readers a day apart from once or twice. I don't know if I even have any regular readers. I'm not sure how to get them. By nature, I am not comfortable advertising myself.

 There's no reason to be blogging, really. I could just bang out some stuff on Google Docs or a writing app I've downloaded. Since getting back into writing, I've read a lot of stuff on the mindset of being a writer, how you're supposed to think of yourself to be one. Frankly, the best advice I've ever seen still comes from Billy Crystal's character in Throw Mama From The Train: "A writer writes. Always."

 I used to think - and still pretty much do - that three things define a writer: a need to tell a story, having a story that needs to be told, and just being enamored of the physical, mechanical process of writing. Somewhere in there, it becomes a way to make a living, and you become either a newspaper reporter (or content creator or medical transcription writer or what have you) or Philip K.Dick. When I got burnt on writing back years ago, I lost the third aspect. It got painful and caused much misery. I like telling stories, but I've always dug putting words together to make something coherent.

 And, as it turns out, when I stopped writing, I lost sight of what it meant to be me. I just drifted through the world. This all ties together, because once I quit writing and once my last relationship ended, all I did pretty much was work, sleep, smoke pot and start it all over again. The last four years in New Orleans are a serious blur and all I remember is working jobs I hated.

 So, now I'm thinking of myself as a writer but the total lack of success or feedback is an issue I need to figure out how to crawl over. I don't have to do this to make a living anymore. It's just for fun, and it has been a lot of fun. I keep telling anyone who pretends to care that this right here is the best part of my day. It occupies my entire interest for the day, what to let out for the Gibberish or what to pay attention to for the News. I'm having a good time, it'd just be nice if I was helping someone else have a good time. Ah, well.

 That's enough bellyaching. The lovely weather we've been having turned to rain this afternoon and it's supposed to get cooler, with more rain peeking in once in a while. I'm still working on the goddamn From Eternity To Here because it asks a whole hell of a lot. Last couple of days I've been revisiting Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen and it is a barrel of monkeys. Your standard high fantasy hack-and-slash third-person RPG, it's got some weird aspects that set it apart from the pack as well as a really fun combat system. It's a couple years old and starting to show it, but if you're into games like Skyrim or The Witcher, it might be worth checking out. I'd wait until it's on sale, though.

 Okay for now. I think that's enough. Sorry for the bellyaching, but sometimes it's necessary. Thanks for putting up with it.

I can't call her "sugar", sugar never was so sweet.

 I'm just posting a quick round of links. I have some actual paying work I'm going to try to get done tonight and don't want to tap myself out. Long story short, all three WordPress links are about the United States' continuing struggle with the COVID-19 virus, how bad the federal government is handling things and how the states are having to pick up the slack, with varying results.

 Monday.

 Wednesday.

 Friday.

 I was fairly active over at the Tumblr site, as the Jukebox In My Mind did a lot of work. Here's something about Dallas band The Old 97's and here's something about John Prine. He's currently battling the COVID-19 and we wish him a lot of luck. I'm a fan. I haven't yet wrote about Bill Withers yet, but I'm a huge fan of his and want to remember his passing.

 A couple of times I got clever about the vocation and, if you will, art of journalism. It's super easy to hate on the "mainstream media" but most folks do it in a way that manages to blind them to not only the good and necessary journalism brings to the party but obscures the actual real flaws that mustard up the whole affair. So here's a riff on a Twitter thought and a pair of quotes, one from Kolchak: The Night Stalker by Jeff Rice and the other by Hunter Thompson's second book of letters Fear & Loathing In American: The Brutal Journey of an Outlaw Journalist. For the record, both books are recommended.

 Maybe more tomorrow, we'll see. Wish me luck.

Summer of Roses.

 Before we get started, here's this week's News:

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Check it out. Most of it's concerning the COVID-19 business that's turning out to be a much bigger deal than people figured, how badly the federal government and my state's government is handling it, and the utter rat-bastardry of the billionaire class and Corporate America. None of that comes as a surprise, granted, but I've been taken aback at what kind of craven boob Tate Reeves is turning out to be. Admittedly, I was giving him a low bar from the get-go but this is ridiculous.

 The internet's been blinking on and off since Thursday night, and it's driving me up the wall. It's never that long, mind. Just long enough to disrupt any downloading or uploading I might be doing. Plus, every time her country classics internet drops, Momma hollers to ask me if it's down again. First world problems, I know.

 The issue is, one, no radio reaches out here. Two, we're too far out to get cable and digital television is spotty. Me, I can read or play video games or, do like I did today, nap all day. Momma reads a good deal, too, but she goes through periods. Furthermore, she gets all her books from the library and hasn't been since this whole COVID-19 business started. She's big into the self-distancing and my sister-in-law (who works in the health industry) is freaking out a bit over it, which makes Momma freak out even more. Me, I just want quiet since I can't get any weed.

 It's 81 degrees at 7 p.m. near the end of March. That's too damn hot. We had a very mild winter and I imagine we're going to have one mother of a summer. We're supposed to get some rain tonight and possible bad weather, so it's muggy as well, too Apparently they had a pretty nasty tornado up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, because the weather trying to wipe us all out is all we need.

 Dammit, there it goes again. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't being throttled down due to heavy use or because the telephone company that provides it is a bunch of bastards. Whoops, now it's back. Momma ran into an old buddy of mine from way back who works for the area power company says we'll be getting broadband by the end of the year, and we might get it before the end of the summer. This was, of course, before the Plague settled in, so who the hell knows.

 For the record, I'm digging the new format and think it's working well. More than once, because of the frame of mind I'm in, I've been able to knock out the Daily Peace before my nap and spend the evening just adding little touches. I think tomorrow I'll do a short post over at the WordPress site bringing it all back home tomorrow, linking everything there, here and the Tumblr site in one place, if I wrote anything at the Tumblr site, I don't remember if I did and I'm not in the mood to go looking anything up.

 Speaking of writing, I got some good news. I'm not going to go into detail until I get it nailed down. Not because I'm worried about jinxing it so much as things usually just don't work out for me. If there's two bowls of chili left, I'm the third guy in line, that sort of thing. It's nothing major but if it does come across, it'll not only be a good step in my mental health but will also bring a bit loose change in, and that ain't bad a'tall.

 Otherwise, that's about it, I guess. Watching the federal government and 150 years of competent central government, at least (and at best), fall completely to pieces because of the truculent, petty dickhead in the White House is something else. He's basically gone in front of the entire country and said if the states want federal help, their governors need to be nicer to him. That's just goddamn crazy, and what's crazier is he's talking about actively punishing governors who're mean to him or have been a thorn in his private side.

 There is a discussion to be had about how powerful the federal government should be and how much power it should have. That's pretty much been at the heart of the American Question, one way or another. I vacillate, admittedly, and my problem is that the federal government can be a force for good and help people get by with gettin' by, but ours is more concerned with a twisted version of Jefferson's Agrarian society, where the rich are rich and the poor can get bent. I can actually understand the libertarian argument against a strong centralized government, I just don't trust corporations to be any better and, indeed, have shown themselves to be worse by miles with what regulation they have now.

 Still, I don't think anyone can argue that this is the way to approach it and if they're fine with it, they're much too garbage a person to deserve anymore of your attention. People are getting hurt and are increasingly finding themselves up against the wall as Big Business doesn't even pretend to care about anything beyond increasing their profits and just being dicks. I am seeing a lot libertarians crawling out from under their rocks to cheer for this collapse because they think they'll come out on top rather than as mulch for someone's garden.

 Anyhow.