Degringolade

Morning Yesterday

A nice little bit of unpleasantness yesterday.  I had to hang up on a friend. He called me and began the conversation with a nostalgic look back at baseball games of the past.  I enjoyed the conversation to this point.  I got to remember this game, which I took my father-in-law to and got to watch two hall of famer’s go at each other.  I enjoyed this conversation greatly.

But then the bottom fell out.  I look back at it now and I realized that the initial part of the conversation was just to lull me into a false sense of security.  I got jumped with the “I need you to explain to me why you don’t that Trump is the most evil person on the face of the earth”.  This was delivered with both high register and a noticeable increase in volume.  

I tried to weasel out by telling the simple truth that I didn’t care and that I thought unless something nearly magical occurred, we were looking at an election where there was no good choice, or even a mediocre choice, but only bad choices available.   That didn’t wash.  I got the lecture about how Trump was going to go after his enemies and that autocracy and dictatorship were on the menu.

I finally told him I was hanging up and did so. 

Look, there aren't any good answers.  The cold times are coming and the office of the Presidency will have no real effect on how things shake out for the vast majority.  The presidency itself has become a joke, the last five presidents have been utter failures and the legislative branch has run out of control with spending and political posturing.

Look, the country is bankrupt in many ways.  The election of a president from the paltry and sad choices that we have available isn’t going to make a bit of difference.

Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko are our choices.  That is where we are at.  Please stop trying to explain to me that one is better than the other.  They both stink. No politician or political change in the cards will take us to your happy safe space.

Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) / Bada Shanren/ Landscape (Album Leaf)

I tend not to trust a damn thing that the government says.  Bad of me.  Trouble is, now I can’t say as I particularly trust any of the organizations out there who are trying to tell me what is going on.

I have been trying to keep up with the myriad messes “over there” and have now decided that most folks out there writing about the world situation are the same as I am:  A sheltered American, sitting in a heated room with a high speed internet connection and a cup of coffee pontificating about what is happening half a world away.  In other words, masturbating.

GIGO is happening here in real time.  The information I use to try and figure out what is happening in the world is garbage.  This leads me to understand the opinions that I have are probably garbage too.  The best that I can do is try to put together a worldview built on inputs that I distrust less than the other options.

Now, I will be telling you that we don’t have a clue of why the mess that is happening currently is actually happening.  We have somehow given ourselves license to define the world on our own terms.  But I suppose that is what we do.