Month: December 2023

Cool, Daily Life

Lists And Things

Too many random thoughts buzzing around in my head this morning to think coherently. We shall purge them in an attempt to clear the mechanism.

  • I’m thinking of taking up a musical instrument. Guitar was my first thought (I very briefly played as a kid), and then I saw this clip. Stop what you’re doing and take a listen. Seriously. I am now contemplating the harmonica. Is there an electronic version of the harmonica that I can hear via headphones? I fear that Mrs Troutdog would divorce me if she had to listen to hours of amateur harmonica every day.
  • I was able to resist a donut (doughnut?) last night. It was an apple fritter, which is hands down my favorite deep fried treat. That level of discipline is hard to describe. Probably close to what it takes to get into Navy SEAL selection. Full disclosure, I did have an apple fritter the previous night. But in my defense, that was the first one in at least a year.
  • It doesn’t happen that often, but I’m back in a weird sleep cycle. I fall asleep in about 30 seconds, always have. But recently I’m waking up at 3-4am every day, regardless of what time I go to bed. Done, no chance of falling back asleep. Leaves me barely able to keep my eyes open in the afternoon. Started magnesium bisglycinate last night to see if it would help. Dr Huberman suggests magnesium threonate as it crosses the blood-brain barrier easier. May try that next.
  • Abdominal surgery went well, recovery is going ok (I think). Went for an easy bike ride the other day and probably overdid it. Don’t think I’m ready for ski season yet.
  • Speaking of ski season – we don’t have one. As in, no snow. And nothing on the horizon. Yay El Niño. Probably for the best. If we had great snow I’m not sure I’d be able to resist.
  • I caught myself getting sucked into the X/twitter morass this morning. Someone I followed for a while has been posting nonstop anti-Israel hate since Oct 7. Like at least 10 posts a day. I actually wanted to see what his latest post was this morning – specifically so I could be angry. It was a weird feeling realizing that I wanted to be angry at this guy. It’s probably a feeling that if he just reads my one brilliant comment, he’ll see I’m right and change his mind. I suspect that feeling describes 70% of X/twitter commenters. I took a deep breath and unfollowed. No need to encourage that level of negativity in my life.
  • Following up on my fashion post the other day, I am ordering a new pair of boots today. No it won’t fix the hot fashion mess that currently describes me, but it’s a start. At least it’s better than the $20 cheap Amazon shoes I wear most of the time (when I’m not wearing Crocs or flip flops). Fun side note, once upon a time in the ’90’s I had a trench coat. It was actually kind of a pain because it was so big, but I thought I looked good (narrator: he in fact, looked like a dork).
  • I learned from my nephews that there is such a thing as a professional Esports league. As in, professional gamers. AND you can get a collegiate gaming scholarship. We are finished as a society.
  • The Ukraine comedian/mafia boss is back in the US today looking for more money. Can anyone provide a plausible scenario in which Ukraine defeats the Russian army, pushes them back to the original border, and Russia just simply gives up? Anyone? Anyone? Please tell me why we need to borrow more money to give to a lost cause? Is it just to see another couple hundred thousand people die?
  • The holidays are my absolute least favorite time of the year. Always been that way. I do my best to not be a grinch, but sometimes I can’t help it. I am also not drinking right now to help the fashion/weight loss scenario. Please send prayers.
  • I’m reading a number of books right now. The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam and The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. Recommend both. They’ve spawned a huge jumble of thoughts that I want to capture, but have been unable to. It’s like I have a sense of what I want to say, but it’s just out of reach and slightly foggy. I guess I’ll just have to keep contemplating. I’m always impressed by people who can articulate complex ideas. We clearly don’t teach that any longer. We’ve moved into the University of Tik Tok phase of the empire.
  • We started watching the older series, Vikings. A few thoughts… A) I wonder if I could sport the viking haircut at my age. B) I cannot sport that haircut at this age or any previous age. C) What a brutal time to have been alive. D) Fascinating that the Romans in England were a more advanced society than the feudal/tribal times that followed them. Anyway, a good series. No spoilers please.

Ok, that’s enough purging. Time to move on to something more productive. Like arguing with people on X.

Government

How Do You Stop A Riot?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or gender studies doctoral candidate to see that the 2024 election season has the potential to become… spicy. Let’s be real – the left likes to demonstrate and riot. There’s a certain level of irony in realizing that the vast majority of modern day violence comes from the left. For an ideology that professes peace, love, understanding, and granola, they sure do like to burn shit down. So knowing that this is already festering in MSNBC chat rooms, how do you stop a demonstration/riot?

The law and order side of me says that there should be a zero tolerance policy. Deploy the national guard, make liberal use of pepper balls, water cannons, and batons. Mass arrests, large fines and actual prison time. If you want to tear down statues, deface public property, or smash and burn, you’re going to pay a heavy price. Not going to allow it to happen in my town.

But is that the right approach? Is a heavy handed police action going to spark more outrage and protest? We’ve already seen it with Antifa. They thrive on creating clashes with the police and then using that as further propaganda. When things go south, it’s inevitable that some amped up police officer, tired of being spit on and pelted with bottles, is going to go too far. It’ll get caught on camera and you have an instant martyr. Cue the non-stop CNN coverage and riots that spread to other cities.

I also don’t want to live in an oppressive police state. I want to freely walk down the street and not have to navigate police checkpoints or be frisked if I want to enter the downtown area. I should be able to freely express my ideas. As the old saying goes, “I may hate what you have to say, but I defend your right to say it”. Even if your opinion is retarded. Cracking down on violent, subversive speech is all well and good – as long as it’s the other guys opinion. The next guy in charge may not like your speech.

So where do we draw the line? How do we let free speech happen, yet not fall victim to the tyranny of the mob?

Right now, the mob controls the narrative. The media and the establishment is afraid of the mob and its ability to label you as a far-right extremist. Just look at the pro-palestinian marches. It’s suddenly ok to call for wiping out Israel and to tear down posters of kidnaped kids. We’ve already seen multiple cities cancel their Hanukkah/menorah lighting ceremonies due to fears of an “incident” happening. Just yesterday CA governor Newsom canceled the public lighting of the state Christmas tree to avoid any potential conflict. The mob won.

How do you stop this madness when district attorneys won’t file charges even if we do arrest rioters? A police officers career is over if he gets caught on camera pepper spraying a poor innocent blue haired Antifa chick whose pronouns are ze/zir/zim. Florida governor DeSantis passed a number of anti-riot measures and was instantly tied up in legal actions. It feels like a losing battle.

The next year is shaping up to be contentious. As Israel continues to dismantle Hamas, the pro Palestinian/Islamist marches are going to get more violent. Regardless of who the GOP nominee is, expect significant demonstrations leading up to the election. And if by some miracle the bad orange man is actually the nominee… whoo boy, get ready.

Interesting times. While it scares me, I’m currently in favor of managing riots with a heavy hand. The mob currently knows they can operate with near impunity. Significant consequences are about the only thing that will make people think twice about their actions.

How about you? What do you want to see when the mob is marching down your street smashing windows and setting things on fire?

Solving the wrong problem

The Drone Wars

I first noticed it in the early days of the Russia/Ukraine war. Both sides were using basic drones to fly over troops or tanks and drop grenades or bombs. Now both sides are using FPV kamikaze drones to take out targets. A $400 drone built with parts sourced from China and the internet is now capable of taking out a $2 million dollar tank. The scariest part I noticed? There doesn’t seem to be any effective defense against them. They’re too fast, have no heat signature, and realistically too small and nimble for a missile to shoot them down.

The next time I thought about it was when the Oct 7 massacre happened. Hamas used drones to knock out Israeli sensors, which enabled them to cross the border walls. When the IDF launched their counteroffensive, I noticed all their tanks and vehicles now have cope cages installed. These are cages that sit above the vehicle to prevent a drone-born explosive from detonating directly on the vehicle, lessening its potential damage.

And then today I saw this brief video. It’s worth the ten second watch and then scroll through some of the comments. It’s mind blowing. I wasn’t aware of racing drones and how freaking fast they are. Turns out there’s an actual drone racing league that’s televised. The main point though is that a drone like this equipped with a small explosive charge would be near impossible to defend against.

Which makes me wonder, while we spent twenty years in the desert conducting conventional warfare against goat herders… what were we doing to develop drone offensive/defensive strategies? I suspect we’ve been caught with our pants down. I sure hope we have some secret project in the works, although I doubt it. If we had something I’m sure we would have seen it in action in Ukraine.

So here’s the future of warfare – spotter drones flying over the battlefield reporting back enemy action and providing GPS coordinates. Autonomous kamikaze drones flying at nearly 200 mph to take out targets marked by the spotter drones. Or, giant swarms of automated drones to take out targets. And don’t forget, these swarms of drones could be underwater as well to take out ships.

How are we going to defend our troops against that? Signal jamming? Fry everything in area with directed radiation/energy blasts? Lasers? I don’t think we’re ready. I pray I’m wrong.

The robot wars may be coming sooner than we thought. Might want to buy stock in Cyberdyne Systems while you can.

Government

The Madness Of Fences

It’s not a new concept. The idea of fences and walls has been around since the beginning of modern human history. They kept wild animals out, defined property, borders, and generally helped you defend what’s yours. As the poet Robert Frost wrote in 1914, “Good fences make good neighbors”. The sentiment of the time was expressed as, “…the need to have clear boundaries between properties, as well as the need for neighbours to respect these boundaries, if relations between neighbours are to remain amicable and ‘good’.”

Of course fences haven’t always led to harmony. For example, the invention of barbed wire led to the range/fence cutting wars of the 1880’s. Wealthy cattle barons would fence off public land to protect water and grazing acreage from other ranchers. Fences were cut and disputes often turned violent. Generally speaking If someone wants what you have, it’s much easier to take if there isn’t a fence.

Fences aren’t just for property owners. Currently 65 countries have, or are building, border fences/walls. Why would they do that? In some cases it’s for physical security. Take Israel for example. Without its security walls the country would cease to exist. They’d be instantly overrun by crazed jihadists, bent on driving them into the sea. The Great Wall of China was built to keep out the mongol horde of Genghis Khan.

More common today, fences are in place to restrict immigration. The world has a migrant problem. Millions upon millions of people are fleeing failed, third world countries and looking for anyplace they can make a better life for themselves. You can’t blame them. The problem is that sort of mass migration will destroy the host country if it’s not kept in check.

Millions of people flooding into Europe and the US who don’t speak the language, have limited education and job skills, quickly become a drain of public resources. Resources that many countries/cities don’t have. And further, when those new migrants don’t share the same culture and aren’t interested in assimilating… it creates resentment and destroys the fabric that holds a society together. Never, in all of human history, has a mass migration been a net positive for the host country.

Which brings us to our southern border. This may come as a shock to you, but it’s open. The current administration has decided not to enforce border security. We’re now averaging 200,000 border crossings per month. 2.4 million migrants to date for just this year. This does not include the “got aways” which the border patrol didn’t detect.

200,000 people a month who need food, shelter, medical care, schooling, etc… Month in and month out, year after year, all coming to a city near you. It defies description that anyone could defend this policy as beneficial to the United States. It’s criminal. And it’s not going to stop. For reasons that I cannot fathom, the deep state wants this invasion to continue. For example, just a few days ago the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that Texas must take down the floating border barrier it had installed.

It’s hard to imagine that this is what it’s come to. A state tries to protect its border from a literal invasion by another country, and the US department of justice immediately takes them to court to remove the barrier. Why? Can someone explain this to me?

Last month representative Marjorie Taylor Green forced a vote to impeach the DHS secretary for failing to control the border. Every single democrat and eight republicans voted against it, with a further eleven republicans abstaining. It’s clear that the establishment wants the border open. Why?

What are citizens to do when their government fails to do the most basic thing the government is empowered to do as defined by the constitution? This should make you angry. This should be your litmus test for elected officials. If they’re not going to uphold the oath they swore, they don’t deserve to be in office. I’d go so far as to suggest bringing back tar and feathers, but that practice seems to be frowned upon.

If nothing else, at the very minimum send them some mean tweets. Ask them to build a damn fence.

Article IV Relationships Between the States
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Cool, Daily Life

Am I A Slob?

Somehow I went down the rabbit hole of watching James Bond clips on YouTube. Sean Connery was the man. The definition of cool and toxic masculinity. Daniel Craig was also a damn good Bond. Anyway, my point was not a film review of Bond films or how embarrassing Rodger Moore was. What got me thinking was fashion. I know, weird.

What I realized watching those clips was two things. First, very low body fat. In the Daniel Craig films it’s easy to watch and think (in an odd man-crush sort of way), wow he looks good for a short guy. Someone who’s trim and fit today stands out. And then you watch the original Bond films and realize that back then everyone was trim. It was odd to see a fat person. What the hell happened to us? Seed oils? Gluten? Microplastics in the food? Sitting in a chair for 16 hours a day? It’s a mystery.

Anyway. The second thing you notice is the fashion. Mr. Bond is always put together. He looks damn good in a tux at the casino, in a suit while out and about, or even his beach attire. James Bond is never scruffy looking. He does not wear sweatpants or baggy shirts. If you are a bad guy about to get capped by Bond, at least you were offed by someone who took the time to put on a tie in the morning.

I do not have the James Bond fashion drive. I wear baggy shorts half the year, and old jeans the rest of the time. XXL is the general theme, for both comfort and hiding an ever expanding belly. A baseball cap is standard issue since I’m always in-between haircuts. I shave once or twice a week. Let’s just say I’m never going to make the cover of vogue.

I wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time I wore a tie to work every day. I had expensive leather shoes. My slide into frumpiness started with working at the evil empire (Microsoft). I showed up to my interview in a suit and tie and quickly realized the standard software engineer uniform in California was flip flops with a t-shirt and shorts. Later, as an RN, I wore scrubs which is basically like wearing pajamas every day. I’ve never recovered.

Watching those Bond film clips got me thinking. Maybe I should put effort into dressing well every day? Analogous to Admiral McRaven’s speech about making your bed every day, I know that if you look good, you’ll feel good. And if you feel good about yourself you’ll be more likely to go to the gym, eat better, and be productive with your day.

Nobody wears a suit anymore except politicians and Wall Street financiers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be well put together. Could I wake up every day and put on nice slacks and a sweater rather than lounging in sweatpants until 10am? Morning shower, shave, and no more baseball hats unless fishing or playing golf? Fashionable shoes rather than Crocs or flip flops? I don’t know…

Part of the problem (excuse) is weight. I’d hate to buy clothes for my current stature because I’ll be losing at least twenty pounds any day now. It’d be a waste to buy stuff that won’t fit in a few months, right?

There’s also the public image I need to maintain. What would people think if I suddenly showed up looking like a GQ model? I’m afraid folks might think I’d won the lottery and ask to borrow money. Older men just don’t radically change their appearance unless they only have a few months to live, received a large inheritance, or are newly divorced. I’m not in any of those scenarios and would hate for people to start gossiping.

But then again, it might be fun to see if I could change my public persona. Maybe I should start dressing up every day? I’m never going to look like Daniel Craig (I’m much taller), but I could still look pretty spiffy if I tried. I’d probably start getting a level of respect more fitting of my age, rather than looking like a frumpy college student buying clothes from the Costco discount bins . (full disclosure, 95% of my current wardrobe comes from Costco)

Ok, I’ve convinced myself. I am going to become a fashionable older gentleman. Maybe grow a handlebar mustache. If I wear a hat it will be a fedora. Vests and sport coats. Women will swoon.

I think this might get expensive.

PS. Do you think I need to get rid of my Crocs? I really like my Crocs.

Politics

Attack Of The Lizard People

Unless you’re a weird political junkie like me, it’s doubtful you watched last nights DeSantis/Newsom debate. I’ll save you the hassle of finding a replay of it and give you the TLDR; Newsom won. Not in the traditional sense. DeSantis won on facts and substance. He probably won the likability factor too… not because he’s especially charismatic, but because Newsom is so smarmy and loathsome. Newsom won because he gave a masterclass on how to lie, deflect, and give a non-answer to everything.

Why is this important? On paper Newsom has nothing he can run on. California is a dumpster fire. San Francisco (he was the former mayor) is a dumpster fire surrounded by human poop. And Newsom is doubling down on everything that destroyed California. Normally this would be a recipe for election disaster. But last night Newsom showed that he can duck, dodge, and weave his way through every negative fact thrown at him and come out smelling like a rose. If you knew nothing about the current state of California you’d think it was a bastion of freedom, safety, and a low cost of living after listening to the governor.

The man lied, twisted facts, deflected, and turned everything into an attack on his opponent like nothing I’ve seen before. It was impressive. And his liberal base will eat it up.

Make no mistake, this was nothing more than a probing action against an enemy to look for weakness. Newsom needed to see if he could deflect the reality of the dystopian state of California. He needed to see how DeSantis would react to abortion, LGBTQ+ hate, book banning, and environmental questions. Mission accomplished.

Remember, Newsoms audience isn’t the right. It’s the left. It’s the legions of lefties who suffer from massive Trump derangement syndrome. It’s minorities. It’s the vapid, empty headed college students. It’s Antifa. It’s BLM. These folks are the majority of every major population center in the country. And they all think Trump and DeSantis are fascist, book burning, Hitlers who will destroy the country and return us to the horrible 1950’s (Newsom even brought this up in the debate).

How good is Newsom? Even the residents of California who see the crime, skyrocketing prices, taxes, drugs, and human feces every day, voted not to recall him by an absolutely massive margin. He managed to create some weird Stockholm syndrome and convince the citizens of that state that they really weren’t seeing what they thought were seeing on a daily basis. Now, imagine what he’ll be able to do with the liberal base and wine sipping soccer moms in the rest of the country.

You will see a campaign of 24×7 shouting from the rooftops: women’s reproductive rights; hate and discrimination; paying your fair share; common sense gun safety. And the left will eat it up because nothing scares them more than a Trump-like figure returning to the Whitehouse. You thought it was impressive that Biden got 81 million votes? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

So to recap:

Biden will drop out and Newsom will be the candidate. (I admit, I thought for sure it would have already happened)

It’s doubtful Trump will be the candidate. The man has 92 felony counts pending against him. Regardless of what you think of the validity of those charges, he’s not beating all of them. Will the Republican Party re-nominate an egotistic, 78 year old convicted felon? Maybe, but remember half the Right are die-hard never Trumpers. Plus, Trump is a one man voter turnout machine for the left. The left hates him with the power of a thousand suns. No, DeSantis will be the nominee.

So a damaged DeSantis plagued by scores of butt-hurt Trump fans who won’t support him, against the slick car salesman Newsom? Say hello to President Newsom. The lizard-man wins hands down.

I think the only chance the right has in ’24, and I mean the ONLY chance, is if Biden actually does run. This is why the Republican house doesn’t want to actually impeach him. Investigate, investigate, investigate, and damage him as much as possible. Keep the base angry and frustrated to spark turnout. A frail, cognitively damaged Biden with legitimate corruption allegations around his neck, MIGHT be beatable.

I just don’t see the Democratic Party wanting to take that chance.

Either way, buckle up buttercup. This isn’t going to be pretty.

“Hard times create strong men; strong men create good times; good times create weak men; and weak men create hard times.” <– P.S you are here