On Controversy in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Lots of thoughts swimming around,
Some of them that I’ll allow
to spread their world to these words
and allow the ‘net to be my world.

LAST 24

I left work for lunch, grabbed some DQ on the way to the hospital. I had that split moment (I have those often) where half of me thought, “Pick something up for the wife. She’ll enjoy it.” And the other half thought, “You can’t even tell her about this, she’d just yell at you.” Did not get her anything. Went to the hospital, got the 411 on the Sleep Study Test thing and went home. I noticed that our back driveway looked excellent despite the snow, and commented to Wife about it. She hadn’t done it. For the third time in a row, one of our neighbors snow blowed our driveway. I see that as an embarrassment and something that we have to try (somehow) to show appreciation and indebtedness. Wife is “just happy it is getting done.” A significant difference in opinion. I get it that shoveling sucks and is hard… that is why I suggested purchasing a snow blower as we have two walkways, a backyard concrete patio, a long front driveway, and a double back driveway. Wife agrees that we need a snowblower but says she isn’t interested in buying one until the summer months when “it will be less expensive.” OKAY… I get that. But until then could we at least have the driveway we use shoveled? Like… is it too much to ask that the woman who is consistently still asleep when I go to work and consistently watching YouTube on her phone or listening to her podcast when I return… could she, maybe, keep the smaller more often used driveway clear of snow after a storm? BAH!
As soon as I set my coat down, I set up my work station as this week and future weeks are going to require my attention. Actually sat there working from 1:30 to 4:00. Despite not a whole shitload of things coming up. But just the every day things that need to get taken care of… those have added up as I’ve tackled more cases. Wife was at the table beside me listening to her podcast… though, of course, she was listening to it on her portable speaker.

After about 4:00, she went downstairs and I heard her podcast coming through the surround sound system in the basement. I went downstairs to check on her. She was just sitting on the couch listening. I asked if she moved to keep from bothering me, or if I was bothering her. She replied that she had work she wanted to do in the basement and that’s why she came down. Internal Thought: Okay… there’s work you wanted to do. But instead you’re just sitting on the sofa. Sure. I rolled up in a blanket and listened to the podcast with her. It was equal parts a desire to be with Wife, a desire to listen to the podcast (Magnus Archives Episodes 94, 95, 96), and a desire to be down there when she left so I could update my PS4 with something. After sitting on the sofa for three episodes. She grabbed her phone and moved into a different room in the basement. This was particularly confusing so I asked if I’d done something to upset her; as she simply abruptly and with no warning or indication, grabbed her stuff and troddled off. No, she said, she was just getting to work. And she began playing her podcast again on her mobile speaker while going through some boxes in the guest room. I didn’t complain as it gave me time to update the PS4 and do some things of my own but… again… comes that nagging sense of doubt and logic. You came downstairs to do some work; you set the podcast onto the surround sound; did nothing for no less than an hour; removed the podcast BACK to your mobile speaker; and then entered the room where the work you wanted to do was located.

Around the 6 or 7 hour, it was time to do food things and other stuff. I have no idea how or why but the process of simply making a small dinner took us until 7:45 p.m. We ate, watched Jeopardy, Adam Ruins Everything: Sitcoms, Miracle Workers, and some YouTube. I did the dishes from dinner and went to put my Sleep Study Device on. I slept for about an hour, woke up, and discovered that the finger cuff checking my pulse had fallen off. Worried that the rest of the apparatus might suffer the same fate, Wife used a shitload of medical tape and taped the damned hoses to my face (using lots of tape). Before she excused herself back to the living room. Apparently, her schedule (when under he control) means she wakes up hours after I leave, then stays awake hours after I go to sleep.

I awoke in the morning hoping that the machine was able to collect all the information it needed. I started to remove the device… the medical tape hurt when removing. Not surprisingly, Wife was not in bed. I assumed that having shit in my nose would have increased the likelihood of snoring. I collected everything into the plastic bag the Hospital had given me and got dressed. I went to the cabinet to get some cereal and… was surprised as hell. We had just bought a new Family Sized Box of Cereal on Monday. I hadn’t had any cereal all week. And yet the 1/6th of a bowl I poured was the end of the box of cereal. What? How is that even possible? Is Wife having cereal for every breakfast, every lunch, and every “snack opportunity?” What!?! I genuinely looked around to see if I’d just missed the new box somewhere in the pantry but… nope. Weird. Then I jumped in my car to leave and… promptly got STUCK in a snow drift. IN MY OWN driveway. I tried to fix it for 20 minutes. It was obvious what had happened. The city plow created large drifts on half of my driveway. My front-wheel drive car was able to reverse my car almost entirely into the road; but stuck at the front tires. I tried every driving move I knew and even spent significant time with the shovel trying to fix my dilemma. Nothing. Just… stuck. Stuck stuckity stuck stuck. So, begrudgingly, I went to wake up wife to ask her assistance. I went back to the car as she dressed and tried to shovel some more. As I was doing this, some neighbors came over offering to winch me out. I was thankful for the help and we got things squared away. I thanked them (feeling again embarrassed and indebted to my neighbors) and Wife came outside. She shot me a look with daggers and said in a brusque manner, “So why did you need to wake me up?” Thanks, babe… love you, too. I explained that the neighbors that helped weren’t out there when I came inside… and that shoveling is mostly supposed to be her job. She wasn’t pleased with these responses but I was already 20 minutes behind schedule and needed to book it.

I dropped off my apparatus at the Hospital, hopped on 65 and… found myself behind a 4x4 going 40.... on a highway… that had zero snow on it. FUCK YOU, FRIEND. It took me maybe 10 minutes to get past him, but pass him I did. Got into work about 8:20. Threw myself into work since I had 7 hearings scheduled for 9 a.m. BUT of course… I’m government. I see 7 hearings that I really need to take care of… everyone else sees.... something else. Only 1 attorney even showed up. So… that means no hearings despite my rush but a lot of paperwork! So, I got back to the office and started filing paperwork left, right, and center. In the midst of the Sheriff’s office updating us on weather trends.... and those trends suuuuuuck. More, much more, heavy snow scheduled for this weekend. :(

Rest of my day I hope to get some more paperwork done, some office cleaning done, and some scheduling resolved for next week.

On one of the liberal pages I see (equally likely to make me think or just piss me off; agree or disagree) I saw another “break down” of why “centrists are bad” and “why working together undermines racial identity.” As a White Guy, there isn’t a whole lot I can say on that without getting into trouble. BUT, unlike how Conservatives are claiming to feel, I also acknowledge that I have an opinion and that I am allowed to share my opinion, even if it doesn’t ring true for others. In that spirit, this Liberal disdain for the Center is fucking stupid and destructive. NO political party can simply “write off” the center and expect to win anything. Sure, you’re hoping that enough Far Left people come out in support, but that’s a big IF. How about instead of “Solar Powered Everything” versus “Coal Powered Everything”… we actually have people that discuss the center? I’m sorry if you’re push for a Government Sponsored 6 month vacation time for every working woman is seen as sexist and “too far.” Sometimes that is how life works. You really want something, but you don’t have the support, so you find a way to do something that works. AND WHAT GETS ME is that when I say that, Liberals who hate Trump are saying, “Yeah but Trump doesn’t have support and he’s doing what he wants.” Ugh. REALLY? You despise the guy, think he’s a representative for evil in the modern world but “He’s doing something that is immoral so I can to!” is your response?!

Working together, though? I do get that. I do understand their perspective, even if I don’t share it. MAGA GOP is out there saying “Democrats need to work with us, blah, blah, blah.” But their version of “work with us” is “let us do whatever we want.” Someone on the forum said, “When you say work together, I say no. When you say Don’t Unfriend Someone Over Politics.... I say that I can’t be friends with someone who supports my extinction.” In the middle of this a whole big “You can’t be friends with people who disagree with your politics” argument exploded. This, for what it may be worth, is my response:

“Here’s a complicated truth:
I am and can be friends with people who disagree with me politically IN SOME AREAS. If you think Government shouldn’t sponsor ways of taking care of the homeless… I disagree, but I won’t unfriend you. If you think Mental Health shouldn’t be a concern of our government… I will EXTREMELY DISAGREE and you’ll never hear the end of it… but I won’t unfriend you.

However… when you begin to discuss certain groups of people as “below human” or “unworthy of basic human rights”… we may have issues.
LGBTQA people are PEOPLE. However else you feel about them, dehumanizing them is unacceptable.
People seeking Asylum are following a LEGAL PRECEDENT and are obeying the law (note: Asylum Seekers seek out Border Patrol to turn themselves in in an effort to begin the process). Calling people obeying the law “criminals” because you don’t understand the law or because you don’t like the law? That’s an issue.
People of a different skin tone? Those are people. I don’t give a damn if you “grew up homogenized” or even if you “had a bad experience once.” If you refuse to treat a fellow human being LIKE A PERSON because of the color of their skin?? You have some VERY SERIOUS soul searching to do.”

I’ve decided to try something new with my format. Instead of just going to “What I Read Over Lunch” then putting the rest of my stuff after that… I’ll put the What I Read Over Lunch stuff at the end. That way; you can just skip everything after you see the Bald Eagle Pic if you want to.

Sadly, again I find myself at a loss. There is the issue of my own hypocrisy which has been weighing heavily on my mind of late but I’ve not yet found an appropriate time, place, or freedom to investigate. That is as much my fault as anything. For true introspective, genuine reflection… I need privacy and a computer which will allow me unfettered, unrestrained, and unobserved access to whatever content I wish to select and no less than an hour with which to collect my thoughts. That is the major issue, of course. I type quickly (I receive more and more comments to it daily) and in most regards, I require no moments of organization to go from thought to written word. I’ve never had issue with that. The first poem I ever got published took me approximately 7 seconds. Think it, type it, submit it… how I do most of my writing, truth told. But if I’m going to intentionally face one of my own shortcomings in any kind of meaningful way… I like to be able to dedicate some time to it.

The only other type of writing I ever truly feel a need to “sit down, plan out, truly consider” before writing would be stories. Whether fictional stories I hope do well enough to impress or sexual stories I hope do well enough to cause erections or dampness of panties.

And as the things I most wish to write are (1) Hypocrisy in CosPlay and Aesthetic, my own disappointment; (2) Aoife Ventures: One Perspective; (3) Aoife Ventures: Two Perspectives; (4) Raven As She Presented, Part 1 (5) Raven As She Presented, Part 2, (6) Raven As She Presented, Part 3, and (7) Raven As Hoped, Part 1, (8) Raven As Hoped, Part 2, (9) Raven As Hoped, Part 3.

SO.... 9 things on my brain that I want to write. But require considerable time. And alone time. And alone time on a non-work computer that functions properly.
So not the easiest conditions to meet for me these days.

MaAaAaAaAaAaAaAybe tomorrow or the weekend if I’m lucky.

Tonight… I’ll get home around 5:10. We’ll leave to go exercise. Get back around 7:00. I’ll clean the upstairs toilet (as I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time). Take a shower. Eat dinner. Do the dishes. Time will be somewhere between 8:30 and 9. Jeopardy and this week’s NCIS. Then bedtime.
Tomorrow… maybe I’ll get more time. Come home, help buy a new mattress for downstairs. Move the box spring downstairs. Then we’ll just have to see if I’ll be expected to cook or do something like that.... that would kill the Friday Evening for time available. We’ll see. As part of my RIDDLER enjoyment and to connect with some of the topics I’ve just mentioned that I want to write on… I leave you a photogroup from Geek Girls. Northern Belle Rogue (a Cosplayer I genuinely appreciate) doing her Cross-Play Riddler








I know the American Government would never do this, but BRAVO to our British Cousins across the pond! Labour and the Conservatives could face more resignations, with members of the new Independent Group saying they expect more MPs to join them. Are you in politics and sick to death of your Conservative Party Leadership absolutely fucking everything up> Are you in politics and sick to death of your Liberal Party Leadership acting like completely fucking tossers? Break away and create a third party that might represent a return to Centerist Practical Policies. Again, I know we’d never see it here but… I so wish we could!! There must be conservatives that are sick to fucking death of Trump’s incessant bullshit. Meanwhile, if the Democrats are going to push themselves to be the party of Medicare for All, Free University Education, Free Childcare for All, and more and more of these “Free Programs For All”… I can’t imagine that everyone agrees. We need a bloody American push to have people stand up and say, “Fuck Republicans, Fuck Democrats, where are the Americans?”

Some headlines create an instant “Bullshit… maybe… looks interesting” kind of reaction. The following was one for me: How we got here: Republicans spent decades indoctrinating their supporters to ignore scandal and corruption Because my initial reaction to that is to think Iran-Contra under Reagan, arming and training Osama Bin Ladden under Reagan, Chinese Funding of the Clinton Run, Lincoln Bedroom Scandal under Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Perjury, Enron and Haliburton connections to Chenney, False Evidence Submitted to justify Iraq Invasion under Bush.... what could this article really prove?

This accurately describes the world we see around us: “Stories about Trump’s corruption and criminality that should shock everyone but won’t, Trump voters blithely dismissing the overwhelming evidence against him as “fake news” and people who see the truth standing by, helpless to change things.”................................ “The key to Trump’s defense with his base, I would argue, is not that he tries to convince them he’s innocent, at least not in the traditional sense of “someone who didn’t do the crimes he’s suspected of.” Instead, the strategy is to suggest that all politicians are corrupt, everyone is complicit and therefore all investigations are just bad-faith power grabs conducted for purely partisan reasons.”

And that right there is what I’ve been seeing in spades. “Trump colluded with Russia!” So did Hillary. “Where’s your proof?” The uranium deal… which is more proof than you have about Trump!

I’ve been discussing this as the most fatal part of our current situation: “The real problem is that they don’t believe it matters whether Trump is a criminal, and even the proverbial “smoking gun” wouldn’t shake them from that belief.”

NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT WARNS THERE’S ‘A CHANCE THAT VLADIMIR PUTIN IS CONTROLLING’ TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE (sarcasm) YOU DON’T SAY?!

People too often call me a partisan hack these days but, folks? I’m in a job predominantly held by Conservatives. The idea that criminals should be punished and that our legal system should be the arm of that punishment has, until recently, been considered a Conservative thing. But that is the fucking ridiculousness of the Trump shit! The Law & Order Party is saying, “Foreign interference? Corruption? Illegal activity? Who cares, we won!” Sickening. Immature, disastrous, and sickening. If you need to destroy the Kingdom to become King; you should never have started in the first place.

In this article? The reminder of how fucked up our country has gotten. Trump fired the acting director of the FBI and Trump even said it was about “the Russia thing.” The FBI opened an investigation into Trump because his own admission suggested obstruction of justice. Now that such an investigation has been made public, Lindsay Graham has demanded an investigation into the FBI. ::head:desk:: This cartoonish bullshit can only be explained thusly:
Mr. Burns fires Homer Simpson, stating that Mr. Simpson can get his job back if Mr. Burns can sex Marge Simpson. Human Resources launches an investigation to determine if Mr. Burns committed a wrongful act in his firing of Homer. Mr. Smithers demands that HR be investigated for being mean to Mr. Smithers. That’s where we are as a country right now! ARGH!

One of the reasons why changing Thanos’ motivations caused more plotholes and dumassery than needed. In the comics, Thanos wanted to get inside Lady Death’s panties and figured giving her shittons of new dead things would impress her. Stupid of him; but logical from a “This powerful dude has a weird crush and is acting weird” kind of way. The “kill half, save half” doesn’t work on any level of intelligence which is how you know THIS ADDITION WAS MADE BY A SCRIPTWRITER NOT A COMIC BOOK WRITER.

Senate investigators pursue Moscow-based former Trump associate
Granted, Trump lies more than he breathes… but remember in the Campaign where he routinely said he has no dealings in Russia, was not connected to Russia, the whole Russia thing was fakenews, Hillary was working with Russia..... except now we know that he was following up on business leads in Russia up until October 2016. Well, that is why Mr. David Geovanis is so important. “Geovanis helped organize a 1996 trip to Moscow by Trump, who was in the early stages of pursuing what would become a long-held goal of building a Trump Tower in the Russian capital, according to multiple media reports at the time.” But remember… despite a flight to Moscow in order to secure business dealings Trump had no dealings with Russia? I mean… I can understand people not caring… I work in an industry where I get to see people being told “If you don’t stop injecting meth, you will die” and they keep doing it… apathy, for any reason, I get. But it is the stupidity, the intentional ignorance, the decision to believe Trump’s ever changing, ever inconsistent, lies… that I can’t understand.

I then read multiple reports from multiple sources that… Mueller’s report may never be released to the public in full. Looking at that decision from a historical lens… do you know what that means?
NO END TO CONSPIRACY THEORY BULLSHIT SURROUNDING THESE ISSUES!

If Trump is impeached based on the report (almost certain to NOT happen); then his supporters will say it was done for political reasons and not evidence-based reasons.
If nothing happens (tragically more likely no matter what is in the report); then his detractors will say the Report was never made public because the American People would have demanded action.

HERE’S THE GAME, FRIENDS.... release the damned report. If it exonerates, MAGA can use it as a Golden Gun. If it excoriates, MAGA can use his based-hypnotism to continue to not give a shit.

How Team Trump keeps changing its story in the Russia investigation
“Over the past two years, President Donald Trump and his team have offered changing accounts regarding key matters in the Russia investigation. Their denials have been debunked, Trump has contradicted his senior aides and sometimes his team has completely flipped its position.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election along with potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. So far, six Trump associates have been charged, but nobody has been implicated in collusion. Trump adamantly denies collusion.

Public contradictions, walkbacks and flip-flops have become a hallmark of how Trump’s team has responded to the Russia probe, which was launched in 2016 and is now in its third year.

Here are the most consequential examples of Team Trump changing its story.”

Fox News Legal Analyst Says Trump Implicated In 2 Specific Crimes In New Report
Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said that if a bombshell new report in The New York Times is accurate, President Donald Trump could be implicated in two crimes.

The newspaper reported Tuesday that the president called Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to ask if a federal prosecutor perceived as an ally could be put in charge of the investigation into Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney.

5 Reasons You Should Totally Hate Unboxing Videos
5: People Will Film Themselves Unboxing Anything. Anything
4: These Videos Are Being Used As Shameless Marketing Tools
3: There’s A Whole Genre Of Unboxing Videos Targeting Toddlers
2: Unboxing Videos Are Basically Materialist Porn
1: Unboxing Videos Say A Lot Of Weird Things About Where Society’s At

5 New Ways Businesses Are Screwing Their Customers
5: Uber Drivers Can Charge You For Vomit (That Isn’t Yours)
4: Wireless Providers Are Jacking Up Their Mysterious, Arbitrary Fees
3: Some Phones Now Make It Impossible To Delete Facebook
2: It’s Super Easy To Get Scammed On Any Kind Of Online Rental
1: Apple Makes It Ridiculously Hard To Repair Its Phones

30 Medical Facts You’ll Swear Are B.S. (But Aren’t) PHOTOPLASTY

I forgot to mention… or perhaps intentionally left out due to the information making me look like a stalker… I’ve lost track of Aoife again.

I wasn’t stalking her but knowing that she had a successful career in her chosen field and knowing that she was (1) safe, (2) alive, (3) and still in the mid-west were comforting things to me.
The website where I found her, the law firm that employed her, has removed her name from their staff roster, staff webpages, and attorney expertise areas. She likely left the job (by her decision or theirs) or simply asked that she be removed from the website (as that is something she would do… she was NOT found of receiving credit for anything). I’m not worried about her necessarily. She’s clever and if she chose to leave the firm, I would assume it is for something better suited to her. But… obviously in the Age of Information where we can find almost anything about almost anyone… I worry when someone important to me disappears into the Ether again. Just hoping that she’s safe and happy wherever she is.

Last updated February 21, 2019