Month: November 2023

Cool, Daily Life

Do You Believe In UFOs?

I was listening to a podcast the other day and the subject of UFOs came up. The first thing I learned is that it’s no longer UFO, it’s UAP – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Knowing the government they probably spent $28 million dollars to focus test the new name. Anyway, turns out there was a UAP hearing in front of congress this summer and a number of credible people testified that the government has way more info about sightings than they let on. Which got me thinking. Do I believe in UFOs?

I’d say I tend to be in the “no” camp, but I’m not willing to entirely rule them out. Here’s the way I think it breaks down:

Option One They don’t exist, or at least if they do they’ve never visited earth. I find it odd that the only “sightings” tend to be over the ocean and involve primarily the United States. Why don’t we ever hear about encounters and/or investigations in other countries? Wouldn’t aliens be equally interested in, say Japan, Saudi Arabia, or Sweden as they are the US? Also, similar to Bigfoot, for years now we’ve had the entire population of the earth walking around with cameras and video recorders 24×7 (cell phone). How come the only footage we ever see is from military pilots and airplane gun cameras? If we’re being visited I’m pretty sure we’d have captured more video/pics by now.

Option Two Why wouldn’t they exist? It’s pretty unrealistic to think we know everything about everything. For gods sake, we’re still discovering creatures in the ocean we didn’t know existed. To use a size comparison, imagine our Milky Way galaxy as the size of a tiny crumb. The known universe would then be the size of the Empire State Building. It’s estimated the observable universe contains between 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies. To think we’re the only life form in something that vast is pretty naive. It seems reasonable that there are more advanced beings out there somewhere.

Option Three Not only have we been visited, but the government has an actual UAP crash recovery team and has biologic samples (bodies?) This was asserted during the UAP hearing. There are claims that many of the “sightings” are actually US (or other countries) objects from secret test facilities. I don’t buy this idea at all. I don’t think our government is competent enough to keep that sort of secret. Someone would talk. But then again, there are people who know the truth about the JFK assassination and that’s been kept secret for 60+ years. I will admit that it is odd how secretive the government is about sharing what it knows about UAPs. We have radar tracks and other data collected on sightings by military pilots. Why not share it?

Option Four I find it odd that almost all of the sightings are over the ocean. Many of the video footage we have show the objects rising from or diving into the ocean at speeds that would kill a human. Is there something going on in the ocean that we don’t know about? Maybe China or Russia has some sort of sub based hypersonic drone program? Maybe we do? There has to be a reason most encounters seem to be over the ocean. But… I’m still a skeptic about any government being able to keep that sort of secret.

Bottom line, I’m not sure what I think. I do think life exists out there somewhere. The universe is too vast for only one planet out of billions to have spawned biologics. Do I think life out there has evolved to the point that faster than light travel has been mastered? Doubtful.

How about you? Do you believe in UFOs? Do you think we’ve been visited?

Bonus points if you’ve been abducted and lived to tell the tale!

Daily Life

Are Dark Forces At Work?

My entire life I’ve been a good sleeper. As in I lay down, close my eyes, open them and it’s the next morning. I rarely remember dreams (if I do, they tend to be disturbing in some way). I’ve never worried about sleeping… it just works for me. Until recently. For some reason lately I’ve been waking up at 3-3:30 am every morning. It’s weird. It’s instantaneous. Suddenly my eyes are open and I’m wondering if maybe I heard something? I often have the feeling that I was in the middle of a dream, but I don’t remember what it was. At this point I’m wide awake. Going back to sleep is not an option.

I don’t understand why this is happening. I’m not stressed. It doesn’t matter what time I went to bed. It makes no difference how tired I am. It just keeps happening. While annoying, I haven’t really thought much about it. Then today, a writer I follow on Twitter/X posted this:

“There is definitely a strange energy in the air. “Dread” isn’t really my emotional struggle. Mostly it’s being flat or too intense. Been feeling those demonic emotions tho and others are noticing same, as well as 3 am waking up feeling weird. Zeitgeist change. Not a good one… Some really dark shifts occurring / stuff is at work. If you’re tuned into the fields, unmistakable sense of something being or about to be ‘off.'”

There was a flood of replies to that post all saying, “me too; started waking up at 3am a month ago; I never woke at 3am in my life, now have every day for weeks…”

I’m not a religious person, nor do I subscribe to the idea of the supernatural. But I will admit, this made me wonder. What if there is an alternate plane of energy or reality out there? Could there be forces of evil or good that exist in an alternate dimension that most of us aren’t tuned into?

All the ancient peoples, from the Norse up to the native Americans believed in good and bad forces that occasionally entered our world to attempt to influence us. All religions have some elements of this in their writings. In our recent “modern” era, it’s easy to dismiss the idea of the supernatural as rantings of hard core religious folks or primitive peoples who were uneducated and believed in witchcraft and magic to explain the world around them. But maybe those pre-modern era folks were simply more tuned in to their environment than we are?

It certainly would be easy to look around at the world today and feel that dark forces have become more powerful. The level of evil that permeates modern politics is disturbing. The lust for power, money, and war truly frightens me. The near daily videos on the internet showing unchecked looting, violence, and complete disregard for any sort of societal norms is depressing. I watch our young people, university indoctrinated in a vapid left leaning ideology, eager to demonstrate in the streets in support of murdering and kidnapping innocent civilians and wonder who’s influencing them? What sort of demon convinces someone to tear down a poster of a kidnapped child?

Again, I am not a religious person but I do wonder if our move away from more traditional Judeo-Christian family/societal values, and towards a more secular society, have invited in dark forces? The United States and Western Europe have lost their national identities. In the name of multiculturalism and globalism, the sense of community you once held is gone. It’s blasphemy to be a proud American, Swede, Englishman, etc…

By destroying the tribe, we’ve become collections of individuals. And individuals are easier to corrupt and influence as they have no allegiance to their neighbors. Lacking that common bond of familial and tribal norms that help regulate behaviors – the individual is easy prey for external and dark influences. Has traditional society collapsed enough that demons are crossing over to find easy prey and further spread dark energy?

I’m starting to think our large tech overlords may be the dark force that corrupts us all. Tech and AI is influencing everything we read, it suppresses truth, and strives to keep us enslaved to our devices. I was traveling the last few days and got a data usage warning on my phone since I wasn’t connected to wifi. I investigated and discovered I’d consumed an ungodly amount of data on Instagram. Why? I’ve gotten hooked on those stupid 30 second reels. Car crashes, funny animal videos, etc… the system is designed to keep you mindlessly scrolling for hours. I thought about it and realized I’ve been sucked into it. Every 15 or 30 minutes or so, all day long, I catch myself scrolling for a quick five minutes (or so I tell myself).

If I was a demon and wanted to drive a wedge between human interaction and create sloth, greed, and envy… what a perfect way to do it. The tech influencers are creating a dopamine dependency that makes going out and experiencing the real world seem exhausting and not worth the effort. Now that they have your zombie-like attention span, what other messaging can they begin to push?

Then again, maybe there is no demonic force that’s preying upon people. Perhaps it is just human nature in an environment of excess and no natural predators. When your day is no longer filled with physical work and you have the availability of instant information – and no need to put the effort in to study to understand the world around you, it may be that the dark forces are simply the byproduct of weak and lazy minds. Fat, bored, and fueled by easy dopamine hits, we exist in a globalist world that celebrates a lack of identity. It does seem like the perfect recipe for succumbing to the worst of human behavior. The traditional guardrails of society seem to be disappearing.

I’m not sure what to think. What I do know is that something seems “off” in the world right now. Drifting around the edges, there’s a sense that something doesn’t seem right. This worries me and I don’t know what to do about it.

All I can do is hope that when I do run into the Wendigo in the forest… I recognize it for what it is.

Government, Politics

The Rumors Are True

I know the rumor and gossip mill have been abuzz lately. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more public about this before, but certain preparations had to be in place first. Everything is now set – today is an exciting day! I’m proud to announce that that the rumors are true. I am declaring myself as a candidate for President of the United States. I will be running my campaign through the newly formed Contrarian Party.

I don’t take this responsibility lightly and I’m not doing this by choice. The feckless meat puppets who are currently running for office have left little choice. There is no single candidate who has both a vision for a future prosperous nation, AND the ability to win. Therefore I am willing to step in and fill the void.

Because I am not doing this by choice, and I am not a politician, I affirm that I will serve one term and one term only. The goal is to prime the pump and set the stage for future, more qualified leaders.

Four years is a very short time to make change on a national scale. I will not promise pithy feel-good platitudes that will never be achieved. My platform is very simple:

  1. The border is closed. Period. The United States will employ as many troops, walls, concertina wire, and surveillance methods as required to stop all illegal entry into the country. Force will be authorized, including deadly force, to arrest any individuals who manage to cross the border illegally. Individuals arrested will be immediately flow back to their country of origin.
  2. A five year moratorium on all work and student visas. The country needs time to figure out who’s here and what, if any, foreign skill sets are needed to enhance the American economy. Current, valid visas/green cards will be honored for the term of the visa.
  3. Current visa/green card holders who are caught demonstrating, protesting, or publishing anti-American statements will have their visas immediately canceled and will be deported. Immigrating to this country is a privilege, not a right. Citizens have the right to criticize their government, not guests.
  4. All cabinet agencies will reduce their budgets by 10% from a 2023 baseline in year one. Each successive year, an additional 5% reduction will be mandated, for a total reduction of 25% by the end of the term. The Department of Defense is excluded from this and will be reviewed individually.
  5. The federal student aid program will be canceled except for students attending local community colleges. The department of education’s budget will be further reduced by the equivalent amount. Individual States and Universities will have to fund student aid, if desired.
  6. The United States shall withhold all payments to the UN for the duration of my term.
  7. The United States will no longer be the largest funding source for NATO. The US contribution will be the average of all other contributors.
  8. All funding bills delivered to the Presidents desk will be vetoed unless they are single subject/item bills. The Executive branch will no longer support omnibus spending.
  9. A panel of primary non-commissioned military veterans will be formed to vet the current armed forces command structure and recommend changes in personnel and mission. Members of the panel must have served in a combat deployment. Former officers will be considered only with unanimous consent of the panel.
  10. The FBI Director, Deputy Director, and all department heads reporting to the Deputy or Associate Deputy directors will be terminated. All department heads below that level must re-interview for their jobs. A complete review of the departments mission will be conducted by an appropriate civilian panel, unaffiliated with the Justice Department.
  11. A panel of appropriate military, intelligence, and civilian experts will be formed to provide recommendations on disbanding the Department of Homeland Security. Those recommendations will be sent to congress.
  12. The Department of Energy will be tasked with creating a “moon-shot” program to implement nuclear energy facilities nationwide.
  13. Across all cabinet departments and agencies, any budgetary item associated with climate change or DEI will be canceled.
  14. In anticipation of future global disruption of trade routes, manufacturing, and supply, the Departments of Commerce, State, and Transportation shall submit a joint recommendation to protect and improve these areas to further strengthen our national economy and security.
  15. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in partnership with the US border patrol shall be tasked with implementing a plan to deport persons in the country illegally and those who crossed illegally under asylum assertions. Asylum claims must be made from the country nearest to the refugee’s country of origin. Asylum seekers will not be granted entry into the US unless their claim is approved. The former funding contribution to the UN will be used to provide deported/displaced persons aid and shelter in their countries of origin or asylum.

I have no illusions – this will be difficult. The deep state will fight this with every tool they can find. There is a very real possibility that these changes will spark further division and chaos in this country. It is an unfortunate fact that we need to face this chaos if we hope to see a resurgence of the post-WWII American exceptionalism that built the economy that got us here. If we fail… well, I don’t think you’ll like where we’re headed.

So that’s it – that’s my campaign pitch. I’ll be putting together a GiveSendGo account if you’d like to contribute to my campaign.

A vote for Troutdog is a vote for a more prosperous future! (ok, I admit I need a better campaign slogan)

Cool, Daily Life

An Empty EDC Bag

A couple years ago I wrote a post about EDC and what I carried in my pockets as a nurse. I commented how much I like the idea of all the cool EDC gadgets that are out there, but I never actually buy anything because I hate carrying stuff in my pockets. My EDC is still a tiny minimalist wallet, three keys, a small pocketknife, a handkerchief, and my phone. I closed out that previous post by wondering if maybe I should start wearing a fanny pack. Fast forward to today and the past has become reality.

No, not a fanny pack. That I don’t think I’m ready for. What I did buy was a sling bag. Sort of a mini messenger-type bag. This came about after a discussion on carrying a weapon in today’s crazy times. I have been unwilling to so far for a number of reasons, one of them being weight. I suppose I could manage it during the winter with jeans and long coats and jackets, but summer would never work. I wear shorts every day and that’s not conducive to being strapped… if you don’t want your shorts to end up around your ankles. Although, I suppose I could always go the cargo shorts and suspenders route. Hmmm no, not ready for that yet. (wait, I’m now wearing Crocs and I swore that would never happen either)

Anyway, the discussion about summer carry evolved into carrying a bag of some sort, which is how we ended up with the sling bag. Me being me, I watched approximately 2,730 hours of YouTube videos on the best EDC sling bag. Decision finally made, I clicked the purchase button, and eagerly waited for my bag to arrive.

Of course once you have a bag, you’ve got to fill it with stuff! While I waited for my shipment, me being me, I watched approximately 5,280 hours of YouTube videos on EDC carry gadgets. Flashlights and knives, and carabiners. Key holders, water bottles, organizers, power bricks, and thumb drives. The amount of time people spend finding clever ways to carry stuff around is impressive. So many gadgets and doohickies! Oh my, I was in heaven.

Finally the day arrived. Yesterday my sling bag showed up. It looks to be everything I hoped it would be. I cut off the tags and explored all the pockets. I put it on, adjusted it, and practiced getting in and out of the pockets quickly. It’s a perfect holder for stuff that doesn’t look too much like a purse. But let’s be honest – it really is just a purse for men who don’t want to carry a backpack everywhere. We just say sling bag to avoid the murse label. It’s ok. I’m confident enough in my manhood to call it what it is. It’s a purse.

So there I am, admiring my new bag. I set it out on the floor and started thinking about what I wanted to put in it. And I drew a blank. I guess I could put some chapstick in there. And some breath mints. A pen maybe? I checked to see if my Kindle would fit. It does, but where am I going to go that I’d need that?

I sat there and stared at the bag for the longest time. All those hours of watching YouTube videos and I couldn’t come up with a single thing to put in there. I’ve managed to survive all of my adult life without carrying a bag of stuff around with me. How do you suddenly go from carrying a house key and wallet to becoming MacGyver with a Bat Belt full of equipment?

I promised myself that I’d at least commit to trying to carry the bag every day. We’re a week out from Thanksgiving travel. I’ll carry it every day this week, and then bring it for the holiday airline travel. That should be enough to figure out if an every day carry bag is for me.

I still don’t know what to put in it. Maybe some saltine crackers and my sunglasses? If you use one, what’s in your EDC bag?

Government, Motivation, Politics

My Dog Hates Squirrels

Well, hate may be a strong word. Let’s just say he has a passion for trying to catch them. And technically it’s chipmunks, not squirrels. Here’s the thing – the odds of him actually getting one are extraordinarily low… but not zero. There’s always a chance that one chipmunk might be a little hung over from a huge chipmunk party the night before and be a little slow in making his escape. It is possible the hound might get one given the perfect circumstances. But what then? I don’t think the hound really knows why he chases them and he certainly doesn’t know what he’d do with it if he caught it.

And that is my weird roundabout way of describing what the Trump presidency was. Trump was a First Gen Disrupter. He had great instincts for stirring the pot and calling out the swamp. But I don’t think he actually thought he’d win. And just like the hound… when he caught that chipmunk he had no idea what to actually do with it.

And the results were predictable. Horrible personnel and hiring. He failed to implement most of his campaign promises. And very quickly he descended into pointless fighting with the swamp, the media, his own staff, etc… He started his campaign with the right ideas and a vision to be a Disrupter, then devolved into three years of petty name calling and personal grievances at the slings and arrows launched his way. He wasn’t ready when he actually caught the squirrel.

But that’s the nature of First Gen Disrupters. The system will resist at all costs. The system wants equilibrium. It takes that first Disrupter to start making waves. To his credit, Trump did that in a way that probably nobody else could.

Next came Elon Musk and Twitter/X. He’s a true Disrupter who severely shook up the status quo. I don’t think people appreciate yet the magnitude of what he did for free speech. How he exposed the massive governmental and corporate attempts at censorship. He’s a Disrupter who was willing to risk his personal fortune to unmask the swamp.

You’re now starting to see more mini-Disrupters appear. Matt Gatez and his unseating of the Speaker of the House. Vivek Ramasawmy at last nights debate calling out the GOP Chairwomen, GOP party as a whole, and the corrupt media. Will it make a difference? Doubtful. But it was the first time seeing bold alternative thoughts being expressed on a national stage. We need more mini-Disrupters questioning the swamp.

But what we really need is a Next-Gen Disrupter. Someone who will overturn the tables and start attacking the swamp in earnest. But most importantly, we need someone with the political experience and smarts to do it right. Someone who can’t be cancelled. Someone who doesn’t give a fuck and is willing to go full honey badger despite the personal attacks that will come.

I don’t know who that is. I don’t see it in any of our current batch of politicians. There doesn’t appear to be anyone sitting in the wings who can be that Disrupter.

If we don’t find that person soon… I fear for our republic. The swamp is doing everything possible to get back to equilibrium. The military industrial complex is in full swing and does not want to be interrupted. We no longer have a middle class. The elite ruling class is doing everything possible to rig the game.

If we don’t disrupt soon, the empire will fall. The elites will ride out the crash just fine. It’s the middle that will suffer. No chance at buying a home. Wages won’t remotely keep up with inflation. Skyrocketing fuel and food prices. Unchecked crime. Zero cohesion as Americans – just islands of tribal allegiances, divided on race and ethnicity. Scarcity of goods. A failed empire made up of kings and peasants.

Disruption isn’t fun. It’s messy. But as the saying goes, you need to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

If anyone knows of a Benevolent Disrupter, now is the time to give ’em a call. We don’t have much time left.

Solving the wrong problem, woke

Something Seems… Off

I’ve been thinking. I’ve had a lot of time to do that the last few days as I’m recovering from surgery. Not much to do but watch documentaries and endlessly scroll Twitter/X. And what I’m seeing is just, depressing. It makes me sad. It makes me question what in the hell is happening to the world at the moment?

I’ve been reading quite a bit, mostly about subjects I never explored before. In addition, I’ve been searching out talks and interviews from scholars who are more well read in history than I am (not hard to do). And then I stumbled upon an interview with an ex-CIA officer who went into great detail about our governments handling of the Middle East generally, and specifically Afghanistan and Libya/Benghazi. What shocked me the most was learning about the sheer size and complexity of Al-Qaeda. In a simplistic nutshell, Al-Qaeda is still the controlling entity for terror across all of the Islamic world.

Like many Americans, I had a picture of them being some group in Afghanistan who were formed by OBL, that we spent twenty years fighting, then something something ISIS, Taliban, and we then left and so I don’t pay attention any more. Uh, no. They are a massive corporate-like entity with hundreds of sub-terrorist cells underneath them. And they are embedded in virtually every country, including the US.

And here was the parting words from the CIA targeting officer – Al-Qaeda is back, bigger than ever, and Afghanistan is now the terror training hub for the world.

“Well, isn’t that special” to quote the church lady on SNL (for those of you old enough to remember).

Watching the unrest unfold across the world following the horrors of Oct 7, I wonder… was this simply the first step in a larger plan? Was the purpose all along to provoke Israel into doing exactly what they knew the response would be? Hezbollah, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Iran – all are now saber rattling or outright conducting operations against Israel and the US. Did Al-Qaeda send Hamas into Israel as a first strike in a much larger movement? Were they intentionally baiting Israel, and ultimately the US, into action that can be used as a rallying cry across the Muslim World?

Is this Al-Qaeda’s official re-establishment of the Caliphate? The new Islamic State? After all, OBL’s mentor Ayman al-Zawahiri once wrote that once the Caliphate is re-established, “Egypt would become a rallying point for the rest of the Islamic world, leading the jihad against the West. Then history would make a new turn, God willing, in the opposite direction against the empire of the United States and the world’s Jewish government”. Maybe the only thing he got wrong was which country would become the centerpiece of jihad.

The US is already in the process of tearing itself apart. The division in this country is like I’ve never seen before. With previous BLM and Antifa riots and protests, the idiocracy of the woke left, and now Hamas supporters marching and ripping down posters of Israeli hostages… it’s clear we’re no longer a united country.

One of the historians I recently listened to, Stephen Kotkin, made an interesting point. The country has been divided in the past. There was tremendous disagreement and unrest just prior to WWII for example. But when events dictated, and a strong leader inspired… the country came together. Could we do that today? Do we have a leader who could rally the country to come together for the common good?

At the moment, I’m in a pessimistic mood so my answer is – no. We have weak, uninspiring leaders who care only about personal power and that sweet lobbyist money. Years of unchecked migration have fundamentally changed the demographics in the country. Demographics that do not assimilate. Unlike previous generations, people are coming here do not want to be “Americans”. They simply want what America provides. The woke movement has further created a generation that is weak, spoiled, and entitled.

In short, I think we’re screwed. Every major empire lasted roughly about 250 years before they fell. I’m guessing it’s our time to start that slow decline. But who knows? A few 9/11 type attacks on the homeland and we might once again see a rise of nationalism that sparks a return to the values that made this country. But even with that, could we resist falling into another twenty year GWOT? Can we prevent WWIII?

Sigh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think. Maybe it’s just the pain meds talking?

Regardless, it’s probably time to step away from Twitter/X for a while. I think I’ll go find a comedy or a baseball movie to watch. I don’t think it’s supposed to rain tomorrow… the dog hasn’t had a hike in a bit.

A slow walk in the woods with the hound sounds like a good day.